stubborn thief

Chapter 381 Mawang Temple

Going down from Juer Bay along the Yaoshui River, passing through Yingoubao, Xincheng Gun Factory, and Riyueshan Iron Factory, you can reach sixty miles away in just one day. It is called Yingpan City.

The terrain of Yingpan City is dangerous, backed by Riyue Mountain, facing Bison Mountain to the south, facing the Dividing Ridge to the east, and facing Shibao City to the north.

It's just that the current camp is far from being called a city. Its solid earth walls have been eroded by the years and collapsed. On the huge mountain platform, there are only wild grasses everywhere, a beacon tower full of ruins, and a lonely Mawang Temple.

The history of the construction of the Mawang Temple was not earlier than the Wanli period. It was built by the merchants who smuggled tea and horses after the migration of the Tumote tribe to protect the horses from dying on the way home. , but Jin Ridun, Prince of the Western Han Dynasty and Prince Xiutu of the Huns.

Cigarettes are lingering, the altar of the Mawang Temple is gloomy and majestic, and the three-eyed and six-armed Ma Wangye is wide-eyed, with an astonishing appearance.

Under the altar, Wu Bian, his attendant, offered a tribute plate. With a solemn expression, Liu Shizi fetched a bowl of clear water and a bunch of clean grass, and respectfully offered them to the altar of the gods.

After doing this, he took two steps back, straightened his back, changed from a pious and superstitious fool to a military commander, and said, "Come in."

As soon as the words fell, the tiger battalion soldiers lined up neatly in the courtyard of the Mawang Temple entered and carried a few new statues of gods into the main hall with a width of five rooms.

What people carried up was the statue of Chu Xu, who was once the deputy general of Huangfu Weiming, the governor of Longyou in the Tang Dynasty. He was killed in the battle against Shibao City. It is here to attract the souls of the dead.

And in the corridors on the east and west sides of the Mawang Temple, soldiers from the Huben Battalion holding cloth bags are entering it, neatly stacking the skulls that have been washed from the dirt in the corridors, and pulling them out for another Once dialed in, it seems that it will never stop.

There are too many remains here.

From Xincheng to Yingpan City, and even [-] miles to the southeast and southwest, the entire [-]-mile deep land was once an ancient battlefield of the Tang Dynasty.

In the past, the people living here were sparsely populated, and no one noticed any problems. Until Tianhou was in charge of building an iron factory, Shi Chengwo built a new gun factory, and a large number of craftsmen, soldiers and civilians entered the valley. town.

The military and civilian families are not satisfied with building terraced fields in the mountains, but focus on reclaiming wasteland in the flat and fertile valleys. The ancient warriors buried underground for 900 years finally saw the light of day.

Ordinary people have never seen such a scene, digging out seven or eight heads from two acres of land, repairing a house foundation and smashing three or five tibias.

The corpses were all buried extremely shallow, no one knew what was going on here, even the people from the Seven Divisions of Riyue Mountain who used to live in the mountains did not know where the corpses buried in the valley came from.

It can only be deduced from the place names passed down by word of mouth in the vicinity, some places are called dead people's ditch, and some places are called mass graves, and it can be deduced that a terrible war broke out here.

The new market towns that developed naturally were interrupted by the war 900 years ago. People returned to the mountains to find wasteland suitable for reclamation, and no longer set foot in the mountains.

It wasn't until Liu Chengzong led his army to the south that when the soldiers dug the camp trenches in Yingpan City and dug out the skulls of 900 years ago, he knew the ins and outs of all this, and people knew that the Tang army was buried underneath.

In fact, it is not all the Tang army. Longyou, Hexi, Shuofang, Turkic, and Tubo have repeatedly seen and seen this long and narrow Yaoshui River Valley for decades, and fought wars for decades. The soldiers were buried in the soil. Can't figure out who is who.

But to Liu Shizi, it doesn't matter who belonged to those corpses whose ribs and legs were shattered at the touch of a touch, leaving only the head.

This is not only to accomplish what the predecessors should have done, but also because these ancient warriors were buried underground, at least [-] mu of irrigated fields in the Yaoshui River Valley could not be used.

Before the cemetery was completed, the skulls presented by the people along the Yaoshui River following his order could only be parked in Lord Ma's temple first.

This can also be regarded as Liu Chengzong's compensation to Prince Ma. With the Marshal's Mansion stationed at sea, he fought smuggling with unprecedented strength. Prince Ma's house was dilapidated and he hadn't had incense for nearly three years.

So he sent hundreds of children to Jin Riyi, and talked with Master Jin, which was lively and lively.

Liu Chengzong's tent for the Chinese army was set up in the courtyard of the Mawang Temple. He held a Kaiyuan Tongbao and looked north, towards the red mountain peak not far away, which was Shibao City.

Shibao City is not a city, but a mountain peak that can be used as a natural fortress and a lookout point. Cuishan Mountain has twelve towering peaks, the most dangerous of which is called Shicheng Mountain.

The mountain is fifty or sixty feet high, with red rock cliffs on three sides and steep peaks on one side. It looks like a city, and there is only a small path called Gagou.

The snow on the mountaintop platform never melts in spring, autumn, and winter. Several map painters from the Marshal's Mansion are on the mountain at this time, where they can draw a map of the entire open area from Yingpan City to Bison Mountain.

In addition, there is a small hill platform on the Stone Fort City. There are several houses and homesteads on the platform. It can be built to hold a team of people, wave the flag to monitor, and have a panoramic view of the information here.

After Liu Chengzong and Master Jin discussed the matter of temporarily borrowing the treasure land, the Monkey King who escorted the guns and supplies came over, and came back to order after the ammunition and food were properly arranged.

For the Marshal’s Mansion’s expedition this time, the army is divided into three routes, and there are also three food roads. The west is in charge of the Naval Yamen, and the two garrison camps of Xie Erhu’s Department are in charge; the east is in charge of Xining City, and the Basang Department is in charge of two garrison camps; Xincheng is in charge of the army's food road, and Shangtian monkey from the iron factory is in charge of supporting it.

Relatively speaking, the Shogunate of the Chinese Army, as a defensive and supporting army, has the shortest food road and the easiest work for Shangtian Monkey. Therefore, in addition to being responsible for the luggage, he also has plans for the construction of cemeteries and land reclamation in the Yaoshui River Valley.

Transporting luggage is not a problem for Shangtian Monkey, but regarding the reclamation of Yaoshui River Valley, even though the work has not yet started, Shangtian Monkey has already retreated.

He worried that even if the cemetery was built, the people would still not want to cultivate wasteland in this gloomy valley.

This kind of worry is not without reason. It boils down to a shortage of people. There are very few decent people in the Yaoshui River Valley, and they are all soldiers' families and children of craftsmen.

This kind of status in Ming Dynasty guaranteed the treatment that would be unprecedented if they were poor for only three generations, but in the Marshal's Mansion, until Liu Chengzong awarded honors to the whole army, they all represented the wealthiest group of people in the Marshal's Mansion.

Craftsmen were the first to receive money from the Marshal's Mansion. What they received was not military pay, but food money for workers. In the past, the custom of the government was to give money to workers when they had jobs, and they didn't need to support craftsmen when they were not working.

But the marshal's mansion is not like this rule, their craftsmen work every day, and the working food and silver naturally become a monthly salary, and the marshal's mansion allocates rations, they are very rich.

Moreover, the valley lacks population, and the ancient roads that have been in disrepair for a long time also make the transportation inconvenient. Without the market towns spawned by immigrants, it has become a barren land that is difficult to trade.

Craftsmen, soldiers and civilians have no place to spend their money. The nearest market is the Juerwan Market sixty miles away. People usually entrust the horse team with daily necessities, and some people simply arrange their families outside the new city.

Even if you want to reclaim wasteland for yourself, the source of Huangshui in the new city to irrigate the fields is a better choice than this Burial Valley.

The Heavenly Monkey asked, "Marshal, even though the cemetery has been built, the people still don't want to cultivate it. What is the handsome man going to do?"

"The land can always be opened."

Liu Chengzong didn't take it seriously, and without raising his head, he marked the stronghold and drew the defense line on the map: "The bones everywhere are not so terrible, and the loess where there is no place to bury people."

Liu Shizi laughed, turned his head to the Heavenly Monkey and said, "Go back and ask again, craftsmen, miners, soldiers and civilians have worked hard for the military equipment of the commander's mansion, and if anyone is willing to open up the land, they will be given [-] mu of land per mouth. How much is it?" Income, neither willing nor forced."

When Shang Tianhou heard the commander-in-chief said that he would not force it, his hanging heart finally fell. He was afraid that Liu Chengzong would give him a military order to reclaim the valley. As long as it was not a military order, he would not have such a big burden on his heart.

But right after, Liu Jiusi heard Liu Chengzong's overtones: "Then what is the commander's plan?"

Liu Chengzong smiled: "If this person doesn't open it, that person will open it."

In his view, the reclamation of [-] to [-] mu of irrigated land is imperative.

Although there are not many river valleys here, for Liu Shizi, the quality of the land is not the number of the land.

Drought has always been the background of this era. Even though Hehuang was not affected by the drought at this time, Liu Chengzong was always tensed in his heart.

Because of this, he pays too much attention to the fields at the bottom of the Hehuang Valley, but pays little attention to the Hehuang Mountains... When the drought comes, all the fields on the mountains will be abandoned. Let people survive the tragic drought.

Being able to live is the greatest merit of this era.

Liu Chengzong said with a smile: "If the family members of the military and civilians are unwilling to farm, let Huang Cheng sneak across Lanzhou to pull a team of seven to eight hundred people, and only pick out those who have eaten their last meal and have not finished their next meal. Skull."

Liu Jiusi didn't remember who Huang Cheng was for a while, and he was taken aback for a moment before he asked a little uncertainly, "The leader who raised troops in Hehuang?"

"Well, the third-class Zhechong captain." Liu Chengzong nodded: "Sent to study in Xining Prefecture."

The third-class captain Zhechong is the lowest casual official in the marshal's mansion, which is equal to the deputy commander of the battalion, the deputy chief of the field army, and the deputy general of the five towns.

Huang Cheng's position made Liu Shizi scratch his head before he was awarded the honor. Such a person who defected to him should be given a similar official position, but there is really no suitable place for him right now.

The battalion deputy who assists the captain in managing 60 people needs to be literate;

Huang Cheng was born in a battalion, so he could meet the training needs of the Deputy Generals of the Minzhuang General Assembly, but there were no vacancies for the generals of the five towns of Liu Chengzong... This level was originally prepared for ordinary soldiers who had made several ranks of military exploits. of.

But then Liu Shizi figured it out.

If you don’t meet the requirements, send him to study. Learning is always useful to people. Only learning can make people go up. Learning in military affairs is learning, and studying in colleges is more efficient learning.

Send it to study and learn numbers, and if there is any vacancy in the future, just put it there. Anyway, now there are scattered officials, the third-class discount is one or two six months of silver for the captain, one stone and five buckets of monthly grain, thirty bundles of horse grass, and corresponding tea, Sauce, ghee, dried meat, and dried fish are rationed.

Not much to say, enough to read with peace of mind.

The Heavenly Monkey asked: "What if the people who can be recruited are still taboo?"

"Still taboo?" Liu Chengzong turned his head and said with a relaxed smile, "Even if it is a fierce ghost whose corpse has not been collected in 900 years, if you encounter a poor ghost, you have to run away."

"Poverty means the power to yearn for a rich life. As long as there is an opportunity to turn around, you should seize it. If you even taboo about this, leave good land that can grow food and don't open it."

Liu Chengzong shook his head: "I will send them back to Lanzhou with travel expenses, and then eat the last meal without going to the next meal. They should live like that...shaking the flag."

As he was speaking, Liu Chengzong saw Tang soldiers waving the flag on Shicheng Mountain in the distance to the north, and immediately picked up the binoculars to look at it. He saw that it was a yellow flag that was waving, and then he was relieved. It was Tang Qi who came back.

A moment later, someone in Yingpan City blew the trumpet for the arrival of the messenger.

The Tang soldiers bypassed the sergeants of the Huben battalion who were building earth walls and digging trenches, and went straight to the Chinese army holding yellow flags, and reported, "Commander, Nanshan urgent report."

As he said that, the letter was handed to Liu Chengzong by the guards of the Chinese army. When he opened it, it was a long letter from Dai Daozi.

The 25 Tang soldiers under Dai Daozi shaved their heads into the Oirat hairstyle with only a small braid, put on the Oirat people's chain armor and red tasseled helmets, and went deep into the Heka grassland full of enemy troops, and found out that the Oirat coalition forces were in the Yellow River. To the west are the livestock grazing areas and the army garrison area.

The Oirat coalition camped down the radial Chaka River, forming a T-shaped company camp on the Heka grassland. Along the way, Dai Daozi's Tang Qi found 800 troops, each of which was a small camp with [-] people, each herding hundreds of livestock .

When the information arrived at Nanshan Fort, Yang Yao speculated that even if there were enemy troops that Tangqi could not find, the enemy troops stationed in Hexi would not exceed [-]. Taking into account the strength of the enemy and ourselves, he decided to ask for a battle.

The purpose is to plunder livestock and destroy food and grass.

Liu Chengzong calculated the gains and losses. If Yang Yao's troops took the lead in attacking, it was very likely to attract the support of the eastern enemy. If Oirat was allowed to seize the ferry in the southeast of the Heka Grassland, it would only cost a little to prevent Wang Wenxiu's army from crossing the river to support.

In this way, the crisis between Bajiao City and Chahar Khan was resolved, but it was not in Liu Chengzong's interest.

Because Oirat can run very well, and there are countless valleys and hills criss-crossing between Ulan Dulan, they are likely to withdraw their main force to Golmud, Tuidan to Dulan, and form a de facto separatist regime.

To put it bluntly at that time, it will be a protracted guerrilla warfare. If Oirat retreats after a short rest, Liu Chengzong has provoked the enemy for nothing, and has not caused any damage to the enemy. Sooner or later, he will fight a second battle.

Compared with this situation, Liu Chengzong would rather trap the Oirat coalition forces in Huangnan, where the environment is better, and form a de facto blockade of the Oirat coalition forces. Even if the war will be more tragic, he will completely defeat and eat up this army.

Therefore, his first order was not to Yang Yao, but to report the current situation to Wang Wenxiu, the brigade commander of the East Road, who was stationed in Guide City, and ordered him to make a feint attack south two days later, threatening the Oirat army in Hedong. , to contain it from deploying troops to the east.

Then the second order was issued to Yang Yao, ordering him to send troops to sweep the Heka grassland four days later, first to seize the pass leading to Wulan, Dulan and other places, and then sweep all the way east, plundering livestock, destroying food and grass, and annihilating the enemy army .

In addition, Liu Chengzong also drew an offensive route for his Chinese army. His three battalions would also send troops four days later to cooperate with Yang Yao to seize the Yangqu Ferry in the southeast of the Heka Grassland, occupy the tidal flats on both banks, and cut off the Traffic on the east and west banks of the Yellow River.

In the end, he and Yang Yao successfully joined forces and crossed the river with a large army to support the east road.

　Good morning!My wife's fever is gone, and my child's jaundice is high again...the brain hurts.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)