Kaifeng to Beijing more than 2,000 miles, is a fast horse departure, this comes and goes also takes a long time. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info plus the court discussed and debated for several days, Wang Dou stayed in Henan as a guest soldier, and it was not until mid-November that the official official document of the Ministry of War arrived in Kaifeng Mansion.

These days, Chen Yongfu visits Wang Dou's military camp from time to time, and the scenery inside and outside the military camp is quite detailed. His eyes, when Wang Dou was on the East Road that day, were often seen in the eyes of Yang Guozhu, Hu Dawei and others.

During the time that Wang Dou stayed in Henan, the war situation in western Henan became more and more urgent, and Li Zicheng not only became more and more obvious in his offensive against Luoyang, but he also vigorously cleaned up the cities around Luoyang. A few days ago, Qian Zuozheng, the governor of Ruzhou, sent an urgent report for help, tens of thousands of thieves stormed Ruzhou, and the military situation was urgent, hoping that Kaifeng Mansion would immediately send troops and horses to rescue.

That Ruzhou is the traffic Henan Mansion, Kaifeng Mansion, Runing Mansion important land, to the peasant army to come and go through the passage, since Li Zicheng rose from Funiu Mountain, Lushan, Jiaxian, Yiyang counties in the state have fallen one after another, only Ruzhou City is lonely and a key point.

For Ruzhou City, Li Zicheng is a thorn in his eye, a thorn in the flesh, and he is eager to pull it out quickly. At the beginning of the month, Li Zicheng's army had begun to besiege Ruzhou, and the men and horses in the state city for help were pulled out one after another.

The provinces of Henan are on fire everywhere, and if Li Xianfeng, the governor of Henan, has abundant soldiers and horses in his hands, he will not sit idly by and watch the cities of Henan Province fall one after another. It was not that he did not send reinforcements, but after the rescue soldiers and horses were defeated by Li Zicheng several times under the city of Ruzhou, he did not dare to send troops again.

Therefore, Governor Li Xianfeng started the idea of Wang Dou's department, the official document of the Ministry of War finally arrived, and Wang Dou had been in Kaifeng Mansion for a long time, so it was time to come in handy, and he couldn't eat and not work every day.

At present, the military situation, the matter of Luoyang can be slowed down, and the crisis in Ruzhou is imminent, so it is just right to send Wang Dou to go, and by the way, to see the combat effectiveness of the Shunxiang army. If Wang Doujun is really as powerful as rumored, Li Xianfeng will be more sure of the rescue of Luoyang in the future.

"General Wang, this general has automatically asked Ying, go to defend against the enemy, the battle of Ruzhou in Japan, the battle of Luoyang, you and I will kill the enemy side by side, and fight together."

Chen Yongfu had a generous attitude of going to death, and before he left the city today, he took the initiative to ask Li Xianfeng, the governor of Henan, to fight, and was willing to go to Ruzhou with Wang Doujun to relieve the siege. Sure enough, Li Xianfeng was very happy and praised Chen Yongfu's loyalty and patriotism.

The governor solemnly promised the deputy commander-in-chief that if the siege of Ruzhou and Luoyang was relieved, he would be recommended as the commander-in-chief of Henan in the coming day. Although the general soldiers and deputy general soldiers in various places must be recommended by the imperial court, it is obvious that the nomination of local officials is also very important.

"It would be an honor to be able to kill thieves with Chen Junmen."

Wang Dou agreed very simply, received money and grain from Henan officials, and naturally wanted to fight for them. And Chen Yongfu is willing to go out with himself, just in the heart of Wang Dou's arms, Chen Yongfu is the head snake of Henan, with him to go with him, there will be a lot less trouble.

Another important point is that Wang Dou also wanted to see how the local officers and soldiers fought and what their combat strength and tactics were.

The decision to go on the expedition was made, and while eating dried spiced tofu from Zhuxian Town, the two looked at the local map of Henan brought by Chen Yongfu to discuss military affairs. Wang Dou always felt that the map at this time was very impressionistic style, and ordinary people couldn't understand it, if they really fought according to the map, there was a chance that they would go to the wrong place, but it was better to have a map than no map.

"Kaifeng to Ruzhou five hundred miles, now thieves surround Ruzhou, for the sake of prudence, our army first to Jiaxian, grain and grass can be hoarded there. Kaifeng to Jiaxian 400 miles of land, if the rapid march, the forward can arrive in five or six days, most of our division, grain and grass baggage, the next few days can also reach Jiaxian. ”

"When the whole army arrived, the food and grass were worry-free, and our division launched a thunderous attack on the thieves of Ruzhou. Ruzhou Zhijia County is only a hundred miles, such a short distance, not afraid of thieves cutting off the grain road, even if the forward soldiers and horses are attacked by thieves, it should also be convenient to rescue. ”

Wang Dou pondered for a long time and smiled slightly: "It's just as Chen Junmen said." ”

……

On the same day, Wang Dou followed Chen Yongfu into Kaifeng Mansion to meet with Li Xianfeng, the governor of Henan, and listened to his face-to-face teaching, and received the relevant official procedures. Two days later, Wang Dou went out with Chen Yongfu, the deputy chief soldier of Henan, and before leaving, Governor Li Xianfeng led the officials of Kaifeng Mansion to see him off, and the local gentry rewarded him, and the scene was full of results.

Except for the total number of troops left by Sun Sanjie to stay in Zhuxian Town and take care of the grain, rice and silver in the camp, the rest of the Shunxiang army was all dispatched. Chen Yongfu also led his forward battalion out of the nest, including sergeants and family members, about 2,500 people, in addition to some people who transported heavy baggage. ,

The two sides combined more than 10,000 troops, which can be regarded as a huge momentum.

The march is the route of Kaifeng-Weishi-Changga-Yuzhou-Jiaxian.

On November 15, the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Yuzhou territory.

The cold wind splits the face and degrades the muscles and bones, November of the year of Chongzhen, which is the beginning of December of the later generations, the land of eastern Henan of the Ming Dynasty, the cold will not be worse than that of the Gyeonggi area. Under the severe cold, many of the heads and faces of this walking army were tightly wrapped.

Looking around the four fields, there seems to be a feeling of thousands of miles of uninhabited, ruins everywhere, depression everywhere, only the repeated white bones on the road, and the corpses are skull. Along the way, Kaifeng and Weishi were fine, and after entering the Changga realm, Wang Dou had the feeling of walking in Zhangde Mansion and Weihui Mansion that day.

All kinds of droughts and locust plagues are one of them, not to mention Jiaxian, which has not yet arrived, it has already been destroyed by the rogues. It is the area of Changga and Yuzhou, which is already an important area where the bandits are raging, and after the repeated sweeps of the soldiers and bandits, it is really difficult for the local people to find a complete village.

What can survive is the state and county towns in various places, and the second is those large villages that gather together, or large villages near mountains and rivers, and several or more than a dozen villages are merged together. Whether it is these big villages or big villages, all of them are surrounded by deep hao, densely packed with baskets, and high cattle and horse walls. Some of the walls are so deep that they will not be worse than the local county and state towns, and it seems that there is a Linfeng village in Jiaxian, and even the elite troops of the Japanese army could not attack it for a long time during the Anti-Japanese War, so they had to take a detour in the dust.

These large villages and villages are generally built by local heroes or families with high surnames. They formed a village to protect themselves, swayed in the troubled times, swayed among the rogues, officers and soldiers, and the Qing army, and everything proceeded from the interests of their own families.

The land in eastern Henan is flat, except for the plain or the plain, except for the yellow earth or the yellow earth, there is silence and no one around, and there are even few trees. The cold wind carried the snow particles in the face, adding to the desolation and silence of the four places.

"General Wang, according to the footsteps, our army can reach Jiaxian today, let the soldiers rest well, march for a few days, the soldiers can be tired and panic."

Wang Douce was on the horse, looking and thinking, and Chen Yongfu beside him suddenly spoke.

His face was very bad, and judging from the march of the past few days, the gap between his forward battalion and the Shunxiang army was clearly reflected.

Under the bitter cold of midwinter, the sergeants in his camp scolded and scolded, especially the people who transported the baggage, they were all miserable, and the action was procrastinated.

They also wore heavy armor when marching, on the other hand, his subordinate soldiers blatantly violated the military discipline that the Ming Dynasty must be fully armed on the march, and all the armor and weapons were handed over to the baggage team of the rear army for transportation. In this way, he still walked to the death every day, and it was all thanks to Chen Yongfu's Jiading battalion to supervise and instigate, and after he clearly relieved the siege of Ruzhou, he would definitely be rewarded heavily, so that the forward battalion could maintain a certain military spirit.

Wang Dou shook his head secretly, the officers and soldiers in the interior of the Ming Dynasty had been completely corrupted. Chen Yongfu is an outstanding figure in history, and the officers and soldiers under his command are like this, and it is obvious how Li Zicheng did not prosper vigorously in the land of Henan.

Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu sent troops to divide the front army, the middle army, and the rear army, Li Guangheng was ordered by Wang Dou to lead a cavalry as the vanguard, accompanied by Sun Sanjie's baggage, and had already arrived at the land of Jiaxian first. Then Wang Dou and his remaining infantry cavalry, as well as Chen Yongfu's infantry cavalry, followed as the Chinese army. In the end, it was Chen Yongfu's baggage team that fell last, as the rear army.

In fact, until the Ming Dynasty, there were no special auxiliaries in the army in ancient times, transporting heavy grain and grass, and the people who were responsible for the army's chores were all people, and the people generally fell behind. They moved slowly, so from the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty set up a special baggage battalion to transport grain and rice, but the officers and soldiers in the hinterland did not have this special baggage battalion.

Wang Dou's 7,000 soldiers and cavalry included more than 7,000 stones of grain and grass in a month, plus Chen Yongfu's thousands of soldiers, he needed more grain and grass. However, Wang Dou estimated that the battle of Ruzhou, of course, would not take more than a month, and when Chen Yongfu saw that Wang Dou's army had many chariots and horses, hoping to eat the grain and grass in Wang Dou's army, Wang Dou agreed.

Wang Dou's style is to generally accompany the army for a month's rations and grass, and there are 1,200 carriages in the army, most of which are with the army this time. Although Chen Yongfu greatly reduced the burden of transporting grain and grass to his army. However, the tents and baggage in his army could not use Wang Dou's chariots and horses, and he still needed a lot of people to accompany the army.

Of course, there are not so many carriages, horses and mules in his army, and they all rely on the people to use wheelbarrows or board carts to haul and transport, and the hundreds of miles of land are all on foot, and the cold winter weather is of course extremely tiring, so it is understandable that the sergeants and civilians complained all the way. ,

"Yes, when I arrived in Jiaxian, I wanted the soldiers to have a good rest."

Wang Dou glanced back and said thoughtfully.

In addition to Sun Sanjie's baggage Qianzong first, the remaining 800 carriages of the Shunxiang army transporting grain and grass, and Zhao Xuan's artillery army Qianzong accompanied the Chinese army. Only Chen Yongfu thought about the safety of the rear army, and his son Chen De led the family to escort his rear army and civilian husband.

The official road from Kaifeng Mansion to Ruzhou is not easy to walk, it is in disrepair, potholes, and the cavalry, horse infantry, and even the new army of the second class army in his army are good. It was the baggage wagons that accompanied the army, as well as Zhao Xuan's artillery army, which dragged down the trip.

This time, Wang Dou accompanied the army with ten Hongyi cannons, two Hongyi six-pounder cannons, and eight Hongyi three-pounder cannons. The Hongyi three-pounder cannon needs one or two horses to pull, and the Hongyi six-pounder gun needs two or three horses to pull, and every time there is a pothole, the gunners need to come forward to help.

According to Zhao Xuan, the artillery troops can not only train but not fight, but go to the battlefield to experience the atmosphere, and each person takes turns to shoot a few cannons. In order to transport these artillery, thousands of miles from Yongning City to Kaifeng Mansion, the artillery troops were also tired. This is still the convenience of Gyeonggi to Henan, and it is even more difficult to transport heavy artillery to Huguang, Jiangnan and other places.

War is all about logistics, and without modern roads and means of transportation, it is really bitter to go out on a campaign!

Regarding the battles in Ruzhou and Luoyang, Wang Dou didn't think there would be any accidents, he mainly considered the war in Shixiangyang.

If the grain and grass are hoarded in Jiaxian, the distance from Jiaxian to Xiangyang is 700 miles, according to the time of events in history, the Shunxiang army Pegasus rescued Xiangyang, and the supply of grain and grass is a problem, so we have to think of a perfect strategy.

……

In the afternoon, Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu's Chinese army arrived in Jiaxian, which was rumored to be Zhang Liang's hometown, and the transition zone from the northern remnants of Funiu Mountain to the East Henan Plain. The north is Shenwu Mountain, the south is Rushui, and along the land of this river to the west, a hundred miles to the west is Ruzhou, which is also considered to be a choke point.

When Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu arrived in Jiaxian, the local county seat had already been razed to the ground, the city walls on all sides were incomplete, most of them disappeared, and most of the houses in the interior were destroyed, leaving the streets full of broken bricks and tiles. This is the "masterpiece" of Li Zicheng's army, commonly known as "shoveling the city", Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong and others have always been like this, every time they go to a place, they will burn and slaughter all the cities, and the city walls everywhere are also destroyed, so as not to occupy the officers and soldiers again, and it is inconvenient for them to attack.

Not only Jiaxian, but also several cities that were captured in Ruzhou, such as Lushan, Yiyang, and Baofeng, are all like this, and they are clean and slippery everywhere.

Without the protection of the city wall, even if there are few residents inside, it is impossible to survive in this era when there are so many bandits, and everything that can be robbed has been robbed. Therefore, except for some old and weak people who were left to their fate, all those who could go left, some fled into the mountains, and most of them joined the army of the rogues.

In the troubled times, the people want to be content with poverty, and they can't work hard to farm, so they have to go on in a vicious circle.

However, Wang Dou still planned to camp in this dilapidated county town, and looking around, it was bare. In the cold winter season, it is better to camp in a dilapidated county town than in the wilderness. Although most of the houses in the interior were destroyed, there were always some to live in, and for the Shunxiang army, with sharp firearms in hand, those broken city walls were enough to protect the army, better than the trenches and wooden fences of the barracks.

Li Guangheng and Sun Sanjie's former army arrived in Jiaxian a few days earlier, cleaned up the county seat a little, buried some of the remaining corpses inside, cleared out the wells, tidied up the houses, and sorted out a few places where the army could camp.

When Wang Dou's army arrived, Li Guangheng and Sun Sanjie were still helping the local victims. Their army arrived a few days earlier, first to give porridge to some of the old and weak remaining in the county, and then the territory of Jiaxian County heard the wind and moved, and a stream of disaster victims came, hoping that this benevolent and righteous army would give them porridge.

When Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu arrived, the number of victims gathered outside the damaged west gate of Jiaxian County had already reached thousands, and perhaps the number of victims would continue to expand. Looking at the victims who were shivering in the cold wind, but their faces were full of longing, Wang Dou was silent, as long as the local people had a bite to eat, they would rekindle hope in life, and only sighed that their ability was not enough to save more people.

Wang Dou was in favor of Sun Sanjie's move, not to mention humanitarianism, helping the hungry people in Jiaxian and Ruzhou would also be extremely beneficial to the upcoming Battle of Ruzhou. Like the Qing soldiers, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others used the usual method of using meticulous work and starving people, and often after capturing the city, their own losses were quite small.

The hungry people in the areas where the rogue is rampant tend to run from both ends, and if the government gives them a bite to eat, they work for the government. If they are given a bite to eat, they will serve them, all in order to survive.

If the local victims use it properly, the intelligence spy, and counter-espionage will all get twice the result with half the effort.