Chapter 386 My brother-in-law's gift

Chapter 36

With the heavy responsibility on his shoulders, Song Nan did not dare to be vague at all. He quickly formulated strategies and mobilized soldiers and horses to prepare for departure.

The thief soldiers on the west road sneaked into the Wuhui Mountain to hide their whereabouts, which is not a top priority. After the weather turns cold, they will rise, but where they will appear is a problem. For this reason, Song Nan ordered to draw two guards from Datong Prefecture to approach the southwest, so that Zhenwuwei in the northwest of Taiyuan Prefecture will meet with the Andong Zhongtunwei in Nanying Prefecture of Datong Prefecture. The soldiers and horses drove to the west of Taihang.

The four guards of Shanxi have a net of heaven and earth in the west of Taihang Mountain. Once the thieves on the west side of the road try to cross Taihang Mountain to the west and enter Shanxi, they can make a head-to-head attack.

At the same time, in order to prevent the thief soldiers from breaking out of the mountain and attacking Zhendingfu to the south, all the troops of Zhendingfu were urgently ordered to gather at the horse pass. This is the only way for the thief soldiers to go south out of the mountain. Although the strength of Zhendingfu is insufficient for a while, more than 3,000 soldiers and horses after the assembly are guarding the Xiongguan Pass. The troops of Zijing Guanwei and Maoshanwei in the east have not suffered much damage, and it is not a good idea to defend the way out in the east.

In this way, all the passages of the thieves on the West Road are cut off. If the thieves do not go out of the mountain, they will fall into the net as soon as they come out of the mountain.

But the thief soldiers on the West Road are actually not the key. After all, the number of thieves are not large. After the above arrangement, they can basically be sentenced to death. Song Nan is actually most worried about the two thieves led by Liu Liu and Yang Hu in Shandong. As many as 40,000 to 50,000 thieves have gathered in the Dongchangfu area. Obviously, after rest, they have to Directly to the south of the state government is the Jianghuai area, which is not far from Nanjing.

Song Nan also understood that the fall of Guzhou was almost irresistible, and he did not intend to defend Guzhou. The thief soldiers decided to go south from Guzhou, and his own mobilization of troops and horses had not yet been in place, which could not be stopped. However, Song Nan was actually not too worried about the safety of Nanjing, because if the thief soldiers wanted to go further south, they must first cross the Yellow River. After crossing the Yangtze River, it is unlikely to threaten the security of Nanjing in a short period of time. Before the thief soldiers succeed, Song Nan certainly needs to gather a large number of soldiers and horses as soon as possible to encircle them and try to trap the thief soldiers in the north of the Yellow River.

According to Song Nan's request, the left-behind department of Fengyang Prefecture mobilized the three guards of Yingzhouwei, Zhongduwei and Suzhou Wei to gather north into Xuzhou Prefecture, and ordered the Dahewei and Donghaiwei under the jurisdiction of Huai'an Prefecture to gather east and enter Xuzhou Prefecture.

Therefore, before the thief soldiers arrived, they were stationed on the south bank of the Yellow River to prevent the thief soldiers from crossing the Yellow River in the south and across the Jianghuai River. Six guards were gathered in Xuzhou Prefecture, with a total strength of about 40,000. Coupled with the strong walls and clear fields of ships at various ferry ports along the Yellow River, it basically blocked the thief's plan to quickly cross the Yellow River.

Of course, these soldiers and horses are still not enough. In Shandong, the number of thieves exceeds the number of officers and soldiers. Tianjin Sanwei and the soldiers and horses stationed around the defeated Shenwu Zhongwei Yingzhou in Dongchangfu can hold Jinan Prefecture and retreat to the Gozhou Prefecture, hoping to delay the fall of Gozhou and bring time to Song Nan's deployment. Hold.

On the sixth day of October, the news came that Gongzhou was lost under the fierce attack of Liu and Yang Hu. The soldiers and horses of Gongzhou retreated to Sishui, Teng County and other places in the east, and tried their best to resist the thief soldiers to flow east into the Qingzhou and Laizhou Prefecture. At this time, the guards and horses in Xuzhou had been in place one after another, and Song Nan had mobilized Xu Tai, the deputy general of Xuanfu. The three guards from the left, middle and right of the mansion arrived in the suburbs of the capital. Song Nan also completed the transfer of manpower from the Jinyiwei government offices in Beijing, and transferred 5,000 Jinyiwei from more than a dozen Jinyiwei offices in the inner and outer cities to participate in the war.

On October 8th, Song Nan vowed to go on an expedition at the South Gate University. Zhengde personally held a banquet for Song Nan and the soldiers of the whole army. All the civil and military officials went to toast to celebrate the triumph. In the morning, the army slowly started with the sound of three cannons.

Song Nan sat on the horse in brand-new armor, wearing a scarlet long cloak and bowed her hand to say goodbye to everyone. The wives and concubines of the Song family watched Song Nan flying away with tears. She was both worried and proud, and her emotions were complicated and difficult to say.

The army traveled ten miles away and found hundreds of officers and soldiers blocking the way on the road in front of them. The flag was the flag of the Shenji Camp in Beijing. Song Nan felt puzzled and ordered people to ask about the situation. He replied that Zhang Lun, the Admiral of the Shenji Camp, ordered his subordinates to wait on the road, saying that he wanted to give a gift to the governor.

Song Nan's second monk was confused. What did his brother-in-law want to give gifts when he practiced? He ran to his head to block the way to give gifts, which was really inexplicable. Song Nan took Zhang Yong of the supervisor, Wang Yong of the Qinwei camp, Xu Tailuwan, the commander of the left and right army, Hou Dabiao, the commander of the Jinyiwei army, and others rushed to the front to check, only Seeing dozens of horses on the road, the things on the car were covered with a huge black cloth, and nothing could be seen.

The leader was a hundred households of Shenji Camp. Seeing Song Nan coming, he hurried forward and said, "See the governor, the villain Zhang Ning, who was ordered by my admiral Zhang to wait here for the commander to follow the army to suppress the thieves."

Song Nan said in a frenzily, "How can you go on an expedition with me? What the hell is your Admiral Zhang?

Zhang Ning smiled and said, "Just because the Shenji camp can't go out with the army, Admiral Zhang ordered a humble team to wait here. We can't appear in the south gate school yard."

Song Nan smiled and said, "This Lun is still a little careful. What's on the car? What gift did your Admiral Zhang give me? It's tightly covered.

Zhang Ning turned around and waved his hand and shouted, "Reveal the black cloth and let the governor have a look."

The soldiers of the magic machine battalion in short clothes quickly pulled the black cloth on the car, which suddenly shocked Song Nan and the accompanying generals. The car was equipped with a black cast iron cannon, which was brand-new and shiny. Every time there were more than ten large baskets on the edge of the cannon, which were full of black iron balls. It's a shell.

"What's going on?"

Zhang Ning smiled and said, "My Admiral Zhang said that the Shenji Camp and the Beijing Camp could not send troops to assist. He specially gave 22 generals of the Shenji Camp to help the commander-General's strength; the villain led 113 brothers of the 100 households of the General Camp of Zankou to wait for the deployment of the Grand Governor."

Song Nan laughed and said, "Okay, okay, my brother-in-law is good to me. I asked him to support 300 fires before, but he refused, so I scolded him a few words. It turned out that he prepared this big gift for me. Isn't this scolding in vain? He can really calm down."

Everyone rolled their eyes and said to their hearts: The little father-in-law is really unlucky. If you don't give fire to your brother-in-law, you will scold people, and turn around and silently send 22 cannons.

Naturally, everyone is extremely happy. The cannons of the Shenji Camp are not ordinary guys. They are all precious pimples. The Shenji Camp claims to have 360 general cannons, but in fact, everyone knows that there are only more than 100 cannons that can really be used, and the rest are newly painted to make appearance during the inspection. This barrel casting is extremely exquisite. Each gun alone costs thousands of taels of silver for the casting of the barrel, and it is very easy to damage. After dozens of shells are fired, basically the barrel can no longer be used, otherwise there is a risk of explosion.

The little father-in-law made a generous move, and the brand-new general cannon suddenly sent 22 guns to help the battle, which is almost one-fifth of the Shenji camp.

"No one is allowed to talk nonsense. Whoever leaks the news, I want his life; Zhang Ning, cover it with a black cloth and follow the cavalry. Whoever approaches to investigate, he will directly catch it and send it to my big account." Song Nansen ordered.

Naturally, everyone knows that the firearms of the Shenji Camp can't be given away casually. The artillery of the Shenji Camp poses a great threat to the capital. Except for the Shenji Camp, no one can equip these cannons, because it is a direct threat to the imperial city. If this matter is sent back to the court, I'm afraid that the young master will be unlucky.

Among the people present, Zhang Yong, who is in charge of the army, will naturally not say anything. Xu Tai, the deputy general of Xuanfu, was recommended by Jiang Bin to Song Nan, and Lu Wan is a servant of the Ministry of War. This time, he served as the general of the left army with the army because he was a good player in the war. The last time, he was the candidate for the three-sided chief system, and the foreign court recommended Lu. End. Now Liu Daxia, the minister of the Ministry of War, has been dismissed. Lu Wan is the actual head of the Ministry of War. Lu Wan asked for his own order to follow Song Nan on an expedition. Song Nan doesn't know much about him.

Lu Wan knew very well that in this army, only he was not Song Nan's confidant, but Lu Wan did not care about these. He had no evil feelings for Song Nan. He also understood that Song Nan's warning was actually what he said to himself. Lu Wan was also very clear, but he smiled and said to himself: Everything is proved by action, With these cannons, I won't make trouble with half the effort.

All the way, three days later, the army arrived in Jinghai County, which was the first to be conquered by the thief soldiers, which was also the most seriously harmed by the thief soldiers. At the beginning of the incident, the thief soldiers were eager to expand their troops and dug three feet of land in the county that was first captured. Naturally, the food supplies were looted, and the people were also big. The amount of coercion joined the thief soldiers. Most of these people were used as cannon fodder. After a series of battles, I'm afraid that the casualties have been exhausted, and Jinghai County has almost become an empty city.

Walking on the street of Jinghai County, the houses are almost intact, and there are almost no people in the city, just like a dead city. However, to Song Nan's relief is that a porridge shed has been set up in front of the broken county government, and the broken wall has been posted with legal notices such as the court to suspend the law of Ma Zhengshi and Wulian sitting, and there have been new county officials. This organization organized the people to rebuild their homes; seeing this, Song Nan felt a little better.

All the way to the south, south of the Jinghai, there is a depression in Dacheng, Qingxian, Cangzhou, Nanpi and other prefectures and counties. A few months ago, it was still a prosperous market, but now it is full of ruins, and the desperate eyes of yellow and thin women and children are reflected in their minds and lingering.

Wherever officers and soldiers go, Song Nan will order the soldiers to help the people build houses and give them the necessary help. At the same time, he is deeply aware that the trauma caused by this rebellion to the Ming Dynasty may be difficult to recover in a short time.