Chapter 466: Not a Dog Tartar?

As long as you look at the map carefully, you will know what kind of important position the new Beijing division of the Ming Dynasty is in. There are a total of nine important towns in the border areas of the Ming Dynasty, Liaodong, Jizhou, Xuanfu, Datong, Yulin, Ningxia, Gansu, Taiyuan, Guyuan, almost everywhere is to guard against Mongolia, and Beijing City is only more than 100 miles away from the nearest place in Mongolia. Although there are several Great Walls built in the early Ming Dynasty, the heart of the Ming Dynasty is still in a strategic position extremely close to the front line.

And Zhang Yue personally heard Yongle Emperor Zhu Di mention one of the major intentions of moving the capital to Beijing, that is, in order to prevent future generations from being too comfortable in the south, and the generals were incompetent and unable to resist the Meng Yuan, it was inevitable that the Song Dynasty would repeatedly flee south, so the Son of Heaven was required to guard the country. For this explanation, although Zhang Yue felt that he couldn't prevent it for a while, he also had to admire Zhu Di's courage. After all, it's better to keep the alarm bell ringing than to boil a frog in warm water.

Xuanfu is only three hundred and fifty miles away from Jingshi, if it is non-stop, it can be reached in one day, but this time Zhang Yue escorted firearms, gunpowder and a large number of other military weapons, and he could not take the waterway, all of them were requisitioned donkeys and mules to be transported by the people in large carts, and they traveled one or two miles, so it was naturally difficult to get up fast on this road. Out of Juyong Pass, except for some small villages along the way, all the larger places are either guards or thousands of households, all of which are under military management, and those harvested military cantonments can be seen on both sides of the official road.

Although Lu Feng said that he was born in hardship, he has been living a happy life all these years, wandering on the road slowly, once he misses the village and town, he has to camp in the wilderness, and the exquisite dim sum brought out of Jingshi can't be eaten as a meal after all, so even if he doesn't have to eat in a big pot with those soldiers and people, but this way is too slow, and after seven or eight days, he will be impatient.

This night was camped in the wilderness again, and after Zhou Bailing arranged a garrison, he slowly walked in the direction of his military tent. When he was about to reach the ground, he saw that his own soldiers were sitting around the campfire more than ten steps away in front of the tent, and a quick soldier was barbecuing a few wild games caught during the day, so he casually ordered: "Prepare some and send some to Gonggong Lu and Master Zhang." Eating dry food along the way, I'm afraid they may not be able to afford it. Put more green salt and condiments, don't be reluctant! ”

"My lord, Gonggong Lu sent someone to say that he was not allowed to go over and disturb him, I'm afraid he would have fallen asleep in the carriage by this time! As for Lord Xiao Zhang and Lord Yu are in your tent, Lord Xiao Zhang has already ordered to share one when the time comes. This roast pheasant is very good, don't worry about the condiments, and send it to the tent immediately when you turn around! ”

"Flim tongue, I'll provoke you like this if I say a word!"

Zhou Bailing scolded with a smile and walked a few steps into the tent. Seeing that Zhang Yue and Yu Qian were counting the time on the map, he stepped forward and said with a smile: "Lord Xiao Zhang and Lord Yu, don't worry about the day, I don't know how many times I have traveled this journey from Jingshi to Xuanfu." Besides, we are all walking on the post road, and now that the weather is dry, there is absolutely no mistake. You will be able to enter Baoan Prefecture tomorrow night, and then you will be able to go to Xuanfu for two or three days at most, and there will be two days to spare before the deadline set by the emperor. ”

Zhang Yue reads a book in the car these days when he has nothing to do, and often comes to talk to Zhou Bailing after dinner, so he turned around and smiled: "With you to guarantee the ticket, we will be much more relieved." After all, this weapon and gunpowder had to be stored along the way when it arrived at Xuanfu, and it was the most important thing, and there could be no mistakes. By the way, I just talked to Brother Tingyi, I heard that there are a lot of Mengyuan spies in the Xuanfu area, I don't know if it's true or not? ”

"This is not false at all, otherwise every time food and military weapons are transported, they will not always have to be accompanied by elite soldiers in Beijing."

Zhou Bailing raised his hand to invite Zhang Yue and Yu Qian to sit down, and he also sat down, then he took off the water bag in his waist and threw his neck to drink bitterly, and then wiped his mouth and explained: "Xuanfu Datong is a rule that has been set a long time ago, there are no civilian officials, only military law is used, so almost all of them are military households here." Most of the guards are set up in a centralized manner, and the people living in those villages and towns are actually military households, so if there are spies coming in, they often avoid those places and wander around, and if they bump into a lone sergeant, or some passing officials who do not bring many guards, in addition to spying on intelligence, they will also kill people and assassinate. ”

Yu Qian was born in Jiangnan, this is the first time he has set foot in Xuanfu Town, and when he heard this, he immediately asked: "Meng Yuan is so rampant?" How is it that the DPRK rarely hears about this. ”

"It's just a little bit of what is reported, and if it's about the same, the General Military Office will often hide it." Zhou Bailing didn't laugh at Yu Qian's scholarly anger, and spread his hands indifferently, "Although Tatar and Warat have both surrendered to our dynasty, there has been no small disturbance in these years, and these spies are only a trivial matter." It's just that our current location has Chang'an in the north and Yanqing Prefecture in the west, and we are all elite soldiers here who have experienced at least one northern expedition, and no one will fight our idea. ”

"Mengyuan is hardy, even if it is snowy, it can also attack, not to mention the current weather? Now that they have to prepare food for the winter, they will inevitably have to go south to plunder, and the things we are transporting are the necessities of the army, so they cannot be taken lightly. ”

Seeing Zhang Yue talking about this, Zhou Bailing nodded with a smile: "Don't worry, Lord Zhang, I'll take care of this." I brought with me one hundred and fifty gunners, one hundred and fifty sword players, and two hundred cavalrymen, all of whom were elite of the first class, and had just set up a night patrol and vigil. I also went to inspect the people's place myself, but this time it was okay, and there was no escape. ”

"My lord, the pheasant is already roasted!"

"Come in!"

At this time, the voice of a soldier came from outside the tent, and after receiving permission, he lifted the curtain and entered, holding two roasted and browned pheasants in his hands. He expertly spread the oiled paper in his other hand on the small wooden table, and then laid the pheasant on the oiled paper. Zhou Bailing waved his hand to signal him to retreat, and smiled at Zhang Yue and Yu Qian: "This trip is before going to the army, and I can't pay attention to it if I want to, so I can't go out and bring pots and pans to eat those guys." Presumably, you have eaten dry food so much that the birds have faded out of your mouths, so you can simply taste the craftsmanship of the men in our army! ”

Yu Qian was still looking for chopsticks everywhere, but Zhang Yue had already followed Zhou Bailing, and without saying a word, he tore off the thigh of a pheasant. On weekdays, when he is at home, he is not tired of eating, and he is not afraid of being hot at this time, and when he bites down, he feels that the fragrant, fatty and fatty chicken has turned into a fire in the mouth, and when he swallows it easily, he finds that his mouth is numb.

"There's peppercorns here!"

"Haha, Lord Zhang, it turns out that you have eaten peppercorns?" Zhou Bailing was eating with a mouthful of oil at this time, and said vaguely, "One of my soldiers moved from Sichuan, so everyone fell in love with this thing." Eating this in autumn and winter can dispel the cold, so every time I go to the city, I ask them to buy more and prepare it, and now I use it, otherwise it will be light and tasteless. ”

Although Zhang Yue ate happily, Yu Qian really couldn't eat like this, so when Zhou Bailing found chopsticks, he took a chicken wing, but he was so spicy that his head was sweaty, and his tongue could barely move, so he didn't dare to try this strange taste easily, so he had to watch the two pot-bellied men opposite him eat happily, and he had no choice but to nibble on dry food. After filling his stomach, Zhang Yue was about to say goodbye, but before he could stand up, the curtain was suddenly knocked open by a personal soldier.

"My lord, the sentry has caught a Tartar!"

Catch a tartar!

This news made the originally relaxed atmosphere in the military tent suddenly become tense, and the three of them stood up almost at the same time. Zhou Bailing stepped forward quickly, asked in a low voice before waving his hand to let him out, and then turned around and explained: "I asked them to bring people in, and then make a theory after interrogation." ”

Zhang Yue thought that Zhou Bailing had been in battle for a long time, so he naturally had no objections, and Yu Qian also understood the measure, so he nodded immediately, and neither of them remembered that there was a lieutenant officer with the army over there. After a while, a few of his own soldiers escorted an unkempt man in, violently pushed him to his knees, and grabbed him by the hair to force him to raise his face.

Zhou Bailing didn't look at the man, and asked bluntly, "How did you catch the person?" How do you know it's a tartar? ”

"My lord, let's go out in groups of three to inspect the surrounding situation, and we found that he was sneaking around, and when I asked him, he opened his mouth to say a series of unintelligible Tartar words, so we brought him back. He has a lot of strength, and the three of us are on it together, so it's easy to hold him. ”

"If I hadn't eaten enough, none of you would have been able to hold me!"

Zhang Yuezheng on the side was looking at this so-called Tartar man, and when he saw him suddenly spitting Chinese, he couldn't help frowning. Although he was still fluent in Chinese, his accent was very stiff, as if he rarely spoke. Before he could open his mouth to ask, Zhou Bailing drank back the few soldiers who were holding this man's arm, and his tone immediately eased.

"Are you a Tartar or a Han?"

"I'm not a dog Tartar!" As soon as the man was loosened and coerced, he struggled to get up, but he was beaten a lot just now, and he easily stood up straight, puffed up his chest and said, "I am Han, and it took three months to run back from Hulan suddenly hypothermia!" ”

Although Zhang Yue knew that both Warat and Tatar would harass the border every year and kidnapped many people, and also knew that many young people fled back from Mengyuan every year, it was the first time he really saw it. Looking at the sturdy man's tattered padded jacket and the ill-fitting shoes, he gradually dispelled the suspicion that the other party was a spy in his heart, but he didn't speak rashly.

"Since you are Han, why didn't you go to those guards on the border?"

The sturdy man was stunned by Zhou Bailing's erect tone, but then his eyes turned red: "We have escaped a total of several people, and some of them insist on going to the border to take refuge, but now the head is still hanging on the city gate!" It's going to be a war, and there are Meng Yuan's spies everywhere, and they say that they would rather kill a thousand by mistake than let one go! ”