Chapter 477: If you don't enter the Great Wall, you're not a hero

Every three years, they receive a set of cotton jackets and a pair of thick-soled cotton shoes, and every year they receive two sets of single clothes and two pairs of thick-soled cloth shoes, which is the clothing ration of military households in addition to the regular salary, grain and rice. If it is in the ordinary Tuntian Guardhouse, although this kind of treatment is meager, at least it is okay, but for a fortress like Xinghe Fort, which hangs alone outside the Great Wall, if it encounters a cold wave, even if you wear all your clothes, you can't resist the cold. As a result, although there is a large area of lush woods in front of Xinghe Fort, in order to keep out the cold over the years, the military households have secretly cut wood to keep warm, and this dense forest has gradually become sparse.

Zheng Pingyuan accompanied Wang Zhao and Zhang Yue to stand on the high lookout platform at this time, feeling a little apprehensive. When he was first transferred here, it was strictly forbidden to cut down, but one night the military household standing guard froze to death, and he suddenly realized that he buried people with his own hands, and since then he has turned a blind eye and never cared about it again. Sure enough, after only standing for a moment, he saw Wang Zhao in front of him turn his head and glare at him fiercely.

"How did you do this thousand households, this dense forest is the biggest barrier of Xinghe Fort, how did it become such a sparse and scattered appearance! Did those soldiers under your command cut down for warmth? ”

Zheng Pingyuan gritted his teeth, but decided to take it himself: "Wang Dushuai, they are all negligent and guilty of their humble duties." ”

I had slept in the field several times before, and I deeply felt the bitter cold of this place, and at this moment, Zhang Yue saw that several of Zheng Pingyuan's pro-soldiers showed indignant expressions, and he didn't understand the reason for this. The military households of Xinghe Fort are fixed, and they can't leave this border fortress on weekdays, and the merchants in the past are more likely to take advantage of Kaiping, so it can be said that this is the place with the least oil and water to fish and the least supplies. It is impossible to farm here, it is impossible to produce, and what can be done is to prepare for the palace or prepare for the palace.

Therefore, seeing that Wang Zhao was about to get angry when he snorted coldly, he persuaded from the side: "Wang Dushuai, there is no point in pursuing this matter now, and the cut down tree will not come back." This Xinghe Fort is an earthen wall, and the city gate is also in disrepair, and the soldiers in the city are not even, I am afraid that the 500 people you brought with you are also a little less. ”

Wang Zhao is temper is short-tempered, and when he heard this, he couldn't help but snort coldly, and glared at Zheng Pingyuan fiercely, which was thoughtful: "Although Xinghe Kaiping is located outside the Erdaobian, there are dozens of large and small forts in Xuanfu, and it doesn't matter anywhere, even Xing'anbo can't divide troops repeatedly, after all, there are too many troops, and Xuanfu will be empty." Although this Xinghe is an earthen fort, there are three lines of defense from the inside to the outside, as long as the beacon fire is lit and then strictly defended, it is at least no problem to support it for a day or two. ”

Nodding in agreement, Zheng Pingyuan was thinking of something else. He has always lost twenty stones of grain transportation, and he has become accustomed to such rules, so this time the military rations are not less than anything really surprised him, and he wonders how the guys who are in charge of food and salary transfer in the eunuch's mansion have changed their temperament this time. Not only that, but even the weapons were not touched, and the six hundred sabers were newly out of the warehouse, and they were still shiny with oil. Because of this, he was very worried about his account books here.

Because no one has ever been to Xinghebao to inspect the grain reserves, and in this remote and bitter cold place, it is impossible to have any master of accounting, and the grain and account books in the grain depot have always been incompatible-both the old deficit left by the predecessor and the new deficit left by him in office - fortunately, the people on the Xuanfu side of the Xuanfu have been rubbing oil all day long, and they will not be embarrassed on this, as long as he reports the lack of grain, there will always be grain trucks to transport it, and over time, this deficit will be so big that he, a thousand households, cannot fill it at all.

Who would have thought that just because Arutai committed peace a month ago, the emperor would attach so much importance to it. However, he was kicked to Xinghe, and he was really unwilling to carry such a black pot to others again, and it was not that he was filling his pockets!

After watching the lookout for a while, Wang Zhao and Zhang Yue climbed down one after the other. Although one is old and the other is a civil official, one is old and strong, and the other is not a weak scholar, so his movements are quite agile. When he got to the ground, Wang Zhao smiled at Zhang Yue and said, "This time, I can still come out at a great age, thanks to your words, Lord Zhang." However, although you have a holy mandate to come, you are a civil official, so you should leave as soon as you are done with your inspection, and do not stay in this dangerous place for long. ”

"Thank you Lord Wang for your kindness, but you also said that this is a holy order, I can't just take a so-so look, otherwise how will I answer when the emperor asks? Besides, the old weapons still have to be made and brought back, and I am afraid that they will have to be delayed for two or three days. ”

"Brainless, this old weapon is also used as scrap metal to return to the furnace even if it is pulled back, no one counts it, how can it be so serious...... That's it, I know your difficulties, you are young, and there are too many people staring at you, unlike me, an old bone who can give up a few points. In short, this place is not a good place, you are ...... as soon as possible I thought that I was a hundred households under the late Rong Guogong at the beginning, and I watched him fall into the Southern Army, and this time I didn't want his descendants to fall into it. ”

There are a total of two Rong Guogongs who have been posthumously awarded in the Ming Dynasty, both of whom are Zhu Di's right-hand men when he raised his army and was in trouble. One is the Taoist monk Yao Guangxiao, and the other is Zhang Yu, the father of the British Duke Zhang Fu, and Wang Zhao is undoubtedly referring to the latter. And even Zheng Pingyuan, who was closed to news, had already woken up to where this Lord Langzhong of the military department came from, and his heart was suddenly even more uneasy.

This is really the light of the surname Zhang everywhere you go! Since Wang Zhao said such a thing, Zhang Yue Shao had to thank him, seeing that he called Zheng Pingyuan to talk about military affairs, he was not easy to disturb, and went straight to the Xinghe grain depot with a few entourages, and saw that the two household scribes who accompanied him were staring at the yellowed account books and frowned, and he hurriedly stepped forward.

"My lord, aren't we going to pretend again this time?"

The two scribes followed Zhang Yue down to the south of the Yangtze River, but they were used as a cover to check the granary account books for a long time, and now when they encounter this old trick, they can't help but think of the old things. One of them closed the account book, threw it on the table angrily, and snorted softly: "As long as you are literate, you can see that something is wrong with this account book, and the number does not match the grain in the granary at all." When the grain cart entered, we could see it clearly, and it was almost empty, only two or three stones at most, and according to the record in this account book, there were five hundred stones, isn't this nonsense? ”

Another scribe saw that Zhang Yue's face sank, and he hurriedly embarrassed his colleagues, so he whispered: "Although we don't know the situation here, just look at the pattern of this earthen fort and understand that all the supplies here are transported from the rear, and if you want to talk about embezzlement, I'm afraid the rear is more powerful than the front." My lord, the first two northern expeditions of the two of us also participated in the household supervision and preparation of the book, although Xinghe is very important, but compared to Kaiping is nothing, the army must be out of the fortress to store grain in Kaiping, as long as it can get by, it will become a ......"

"You check first, and then we'll talk about it when you have the results."

has been in the officialdom for a long time, Zhang Yue is no longer the stunned young man who distinguishes people from clean officials and corrupt officials, if he is a good clean official, it is better to be a corrupt official who can do his duty. Of course, he knew which was more important than Xingping Kaiping, but before leaving, Zhang Fu specially asked Peng Shisan to remind him that if he lost Xinghe, he would be in danger in the future, so he didn't want anything to go wrong in this place.

Out of the grain depot, seeing Xiang Long Liu Bao and Lian Sheng Lianhu greeted him, but did not find Peng Shisan and Niu Dang, Zhang Yue couldn't help but be surprised, and only after asking did he learn that the guy was actually pulling people to follow the hunting team of Xinghe Fort out to hunt. Knowing that Peng Shisan was afraid of panicking along the way, he laughed at it and didn't take it to heart.

As a fortress standing outside the Great Wall, in addition to the barracks and houses, there are blacksmith shops, military infirmaries, tailor shops, grocery stores, etc., but except for the grocery store, which is brought by the people who transport grain every time to bring some necessary goods, the others are the livelihood of those military households, the blacksmith shop is used to repair those small damaged weapons, the military medical clinic is to treat bruises and wounds, and the tailor shop is to weave those military jackets that are too bad.

Taking advantage of the fact that he could be idle for a while now, Zhang Yue had to visit all these places. Since it was already past the time of the exercise, he ran into many military households along the way, and most of them immediately hid when they saw him. He didn't expect to mingle with the soldiers when he first arrived, after all, he didn't come to fight, so he naturally followed the principle of listening more and watching more, asking less and talking less. When he came to the northwest corner, he accidentally found a vegetable patch surrounded by a fence.

The fence around the vegetable patch is about some years old, and it is lined up in all directions, dark red. There were a number of vegetables growing on the dry soil, but all of them were wilted and looked very unvibrant, and one corner was empty. An old soldier was carefully pouring vegetables with a scoop, as if he was afraid of wasting a drop of water. Seeing this scene, Zhang Yue immediately thought of the plates of green leafy vegetables that tasted like chewing wax when he ate that meal at noon, and finally understood the origin of these dishes.

The old soldier easily finished watering the vegetable patch, and immediately stood up satisfied, and when he saw Zhang Yue, he was taken aback. Although he heard that a large number of supplies had been sent from Wanquan's side today, as well as Lord Qincha, he did not go to see the city, and he didn't know what kind of person this young man in a green robe was, so he was a little at a loss.

"You grew all these vegetables?"

"It's a villain." The old soldier nodded curtly, for fear that the other party would think that he was not respectful enough, so he hurriedly explained, "The small one has been planted for ten years, because the water is expensive, so it can only be planted in such a small area, that is, everyone fights tooth sacrifices during the New Year's holidays, and some are sent to the official office at noon today." ”

Zhang Yue pondered for a moment, and then asked, "Since water is expensive, these vegetables are also very expensive?" I just went around in a circle, as if the whole Xinghe Fort was just a vegetable patch here? ”

"That's nature, we all rely on four deep wells in the early years, and when there is a drought on weekdays, we send soldiers to the Haliutu River to get water, and occasionally see if there are any wild vegetables that can be eaten in addition to hunting, after all, we have a lot of meat here, but we can't eat vegetables."

chatted with him for a few more words, and found that Zhang Yue was kind and unscrupulous, and the old army gradually lost his vigilance, and he spoke more openly. As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and pointed to the fence, and said with a sigh: "This eating is a rule that has been set a long time ago, once a month, this fence was originally to prevent those greedy military households, but the last time the Tartar army attacked, it happened to be this side." If it weren't for the desperate protection of those young people, not to mention this vegetable patch, even the seeds that were saved at the beginning would be gone. As a result, the place was saved, but the fence became this color. After that battle, there were only more than 600 people left in Xinghe Fort, and poor young men, when they died, they were still thinking about the food they didn't eat, and they were still thinking about how many years they hadn't returned to the Great Wall to see ......."

Even Xiang Long and Liu Bao, who had never fought before, couldn't help but feel heavy in his heart when he heard these words, and Zhang Yue was naturally even worse. For these people who are stubbornly guarding this fortress, why not enter the Great Wall and not be a hero?