stubborn thief

The affairs of the Kangning Mansion were assigned to Liu Guoneng, although the official chieftain and Mu Ya, an old friend, tried their best to keep him, Liu Chengzong turned around and returned to Xining.

It's not that he doesn't want to stay longer in Kangning Mansion, it's just that the weather is turning cold and winter is coming too fast. If he doesn't set off, he won't be able to go back before the year... The battle situation is changing rapidly, and any news in Kangning Mansion will be delayed by one month More than enough, it is really uneasy.

Liu Chengzong went northward on a very difficult journey. First, he encountered a windstorm at the source of the Yellow River, and the bridge was blown away by the wind. Fortunately, the post city of Huangyuan Station was built of stone. After hiding for four full days, the post Cheng found a boat from the shore to send him When we reached the north bank, we had only been on the road for two days, and when we arrived at Kuhaiyi, it was snowing again, and this time we rested for eleven days.

The weather in the whole world has been abnormal these years, and the territory controlled by Liu Shizi is the place with the most abnormal weather.

Qinghai is like a forgotten corner to God. It rains in other places, but it rains, and it rains very hard;

The key is that there is not much arable land here in Guoluo, and there is no shortage of water. What are you doing with so much rain?When a strong wind blows, the bridge is blown away, and people and animals are blown away; when there is a heavy rain, the valley is flooded and the cultivated land is soaked.

If such a disaster had been encountered on the road in the early years, Liu Chengzong would have died on the road with a high probability.

Fortunately, Liu Chengzong once set up an autonomous Wei and County parallel here. The ancient name was Duogandanwei or Duogandan County, and the commander and magistrate of the Wei was called Zoufeng.

The environment in Duogandan is harsh, and it is one of the highest altitude places under the jurisdiction of the Marshal's Mansion. Originally, it would not be possible to set up guards and county government. After all, there are only more than 3000 registered people on the land of more than [-] miles from north to south and [-] miles from east to west. Counting all people, men, women and children, there is not even one guard who is weaving the flag army.

But even though there were few people, they still had the ability to clear the way, even so it took a full ten days.

Fortunately, after leaving the border of Duo Gandan, he entered the Heka Grassland. Liu Shizi galloped his horse and let go. He ran [-] miles in just three days. Just in time for Qinghai Lake to freeze, he ran up the dragon On Koma Island, riding the red flag of the old horse, facing the wind and snow, entered the new city decorated with lanterns and festoons to welcome New Year's Eve.

It's the twelfth lunar month, and the eighth year of Chongzhen is coming.

The Generalissimo suddenly returned to Xincheng from Kangning Mansion, which not only excited the soldiers and civilians in Xincheng, but also made the family members who stayed in the Marshal's Mansion in Xincheng very happy.

In fact, Liu Shizi didn't plan to stay in the new city. The road was plagued by wind and snow, and it snowed even after entering Hehuang. The imminent locust plague was no longer a problem.

In the past, he was afraid that the winter would be too cold and freeze the crops, but now the insect eggs in the ground are like a sword hanging over his head, two evils fight each other, on the contrary, the extraordinarily cold winter makes him more happy, what he fears now is the warm winter, As long as it is cold enough, the eggs in the ground can be frozen to death.

As for the crops in winter... anyway, they were almost eaten up by locusts when they were still green crops, and the harvest in the beginning of spring was insignificant.

He just wanted to have a face-to-face meeting with his family, and then immediately rushed to the front line to Jingning Prefecture to have a look.

But just as he entered the new city, met his mother, returned to the long-lost Marshal's Mansion, and saw the long-lost three wives Fan Sanlang, Bai Liuxi, and Yun Jiaoyue, he really wanted to take a good rest—this year was too tiring.

He has always been an energetic person, whether he is the leader of the official army or the peasant army. He has the situation of each front in his head, and he stays up for days and nights. It is common for him to lead the army to march and fight just by squatting on his horseback for a while. , but this does not mean that they are gifted, most of them are acquired abilities, or are forced.

What supports them is not only their own energy, but also the huge system behind them.

Decision-making, command and execution are jobs at different levels, and making challenging decisions for one's own career is completely different from mechanically executing for other people's careers.

But even so, the entire seven years of Chongzhen was a bit too tiring for him.

From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, when he returned to the Marshal's Mansion in Xincheng, his tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and the long-lost feeling of fatigue suddenly hit him, which made him change his mind. He decided to depend on the situation on the front line. If there were no accidents, he would stay in Xincheng or Lanzhou After the new year in the mansion, go to the front line again.

However, the huge Marshal's Mansion will not let him rest.

He told the three wives how he missed him, and the next morning, just as Liu Shizi ordered Yu Linqi to summon the Mongolian lady, the guards from the house came to report, and Yang Dingrui, the magistrate of Xining, asked to see him.

The eight ladies from Chahar, although they are different from each other, Liu Shizi has never met a few of them, but after all they are wives in charge of their own armed forces.

It’s just that they don’t all live in the Marshal’s Mansion in Xincheng. As a powerful support for claiming the Khan’s position at that time, they have absolute freedom and their own armed forces. They have mansions in Xincheng, Ordos outside the city, and Qinghai Lake. They have pasture land, their own army and troops, and other properties.

Although the army has indeed been mobilized a lot by Liu Shizi, all of them still look like free tribal leaders, maybe where they are right now.

Yang Dingrui came from Xining City. As early as when Liu Chengzong arrived at Longju Island, he sent a message to Xining Mansion, asking about the situation on the front line. This would allow several followers to bring documents into the mansion. Before they exchanged a few words, Liu Shizi asked In Jingning Prefecture, the conversation has entered from far away to close at hand.

"Wang Lvshuai's vanguard, Wei Qian'er, entered Jingning Prefecture, and then replaced General Wei with General Yang Chengzu. The commander-in-chief can rest assured that everything will go well in taking over the three cities of Jingning Prefecture."

"Exchange, where did Wei Qian'er go?"

"Wei Shen will still be stationed in Tongwei, Jingning Prefecture..."

Speaking of the situation in Jingning Prefecture, Yang Dingrui rummaged through the documents with a look of compassion, and slowly shook his head: "The place is as its name suggests, very quiet."

It was not Yang Dingrui who said this at first, but Wei Qian'er said it in the official document sent back to the Marshal's Mansion after he settled in Jingning Prefecture.

Most of the generals in the Marshal's Mansion have a very redundant procedure when sending troops to fight, that is, they will sort out an extra copy of frontline information and send it to Liu Chengzong in their spare time.

Sometimes, Liu Chengzong personally leads them, and this procedure is naturally not a problem; but sometimes, such as now, Wei Qian'er is assigned to Wang Wenxiu's bid, he will still pass the news to Wang Wenxiu in addition to reporting the news to Wang Wenxiu. To Liu Chengzong.

If Liu Chengzong was too far away or could not be found, Wei Qian'er would report the news to the Marshal's Mansion in Lanzhou.

Wei Qian'er was not the only one who did this, all the generals in the marshal's mansion would do it, or the ones who would do it were the generals in the direct line.

In essence, this is the same as relying on bribes to please the chief. It is a trend that is difficult to stop but very easy to form. It’s just that the method is different. After all, as long as one person gives gifts, others will also give gifts. In the end, it turns out that it doesn’t matter what kind of gift you give. Avoid situations where it's important to be the one who doesn't give the gift.

The same goes for the senior generals in the Marshal's Mansion, regardless of their affiliation, insisting on sending information to Liu Chengzong. Will others send you?
Gao Yingdeng was in Gansu, and like a traveling frog, he would send official documents to the Marshal's office in Lanzhou when he had nothing to do.

Liu Chengzong read Wei Qian'er's letter expressionlessly, put it aside and paused for a long time, then squinted his eyes angrily, let out a long breath, and then sighed again.

"Ugh."

As early as when he set off from Kangning Mansion, Liu Chengzong received Wang Wenxiu's report on Jingning Prefecture, saying that it was not the Marshal's army attacking there, but the gentry and common people spontaneously changed their flags and sought the prestige of the Marshal's Mansion for asylum.

Because of this, Liu Chengzong felt a little complacent in his heart. We, Liu Shizi, can protect tens of thousands of people in one state and two counties from the suffering of military disasters and wars by virtue of our name alone, and we are promising.

He has an impression of Jingning Prefecture, and Liu Chengzong remembers it very clearly. It was in August of the third year of Chongzhen that he led his army over Longshan Mountain and entered Guyuan for the first time. The guards retreated three houses, the inspectors fled in a hurry, the postmen opened the city to surrender, and the frontier soldiers asked for mercy one after another.

His soldiers and horses spread all over Guyuan Town, and the front of the soldiers went straight to the southernmost place, which is Longde, the Ling County of Jingning Prefecture. The small town of Sifang was built simply. Putting it out to show off its power, I opened the market with the people in the countryside to buy some clothes, hats and quilts for the winter.

The reason why Liu Shizi remembers the time clearly is because a major event happened that month. He gathered the soldiers from Guyuan, and he sent Luo Rucai and Yang Chengzu to Pingliang to create Jin Chanzi, a thing that can be reincarnated endlessly.

Breaking through Pingliang City, the Lion Camp gained a lot in that operation. Later, it was able to gain a firm foothold in Qinghai and establish the Marshal's Mansion, all thanks to the gold and silver wealth of the King Han's Mansion.

In all fairness, from what Liu Shizi saw back then, except for the hundreds of thousands of mu of Hulu River in Jingning Prefecture, which is regarded as valley land, the more than 200 million mu of other places are all mountain land, and the people in one state and two counties are only in their early [-]. A bitter place to die of exhaustion.

But back then, Liu Chengzong was still too young. He had never been to Qinghai or Kangning. He always felt that his hometown in northern Shaanxi was the poorest. From his current perspective, Jingning Prefecture has a low altitude, dense water network, and a high degree of development. High, suitable climate, numerous forests, and enough farmland on the mountain plateau, it is a rare paradise in Longxi!
It's a pity that in Wei Qian'er's letter, the current Jingning Prefecture is no longer the Jingning Prefecture he saw in the past.

This place name generally describes the characteristics of a place. If it is a bad character, such as Kushui, Wogou, Rentou Mountain, etc., then the name is right, and it is probably a good place, but it is not the worst. the worst case is to use some adjectives that place good wishes.

A wish is a wish because it cannot be easily fulfilled.

The quiet ones are probably particularly chaotic, and the quiet ones can walk three miles with a shovel and walk out of the ancient battlefield with a couple of casual moves.

Wei Qian'er led his troops into Jingning Prefecture and found out that it was not the simple and rude banner of the Marshal's Mansion that protected one state and two counties, but a four-legged livestock and a well that could drink clean water could not be found within a hundred miles. , There is no river that does not accumulate corpses.

His camp of nearly 5000 people drove all the way to Jingningzhou City on the banks of the Hulu River, and he didn't see a single living thing on the official road along the way.

There were no beggars from rich households, and when it was time for dinner, the wilderness was silent, and there was no smoke from cooking in a radius of [-] miles, and the wind was blowing everywhere, as if haunted.

The dirty marshal's flag hangs in the city of Jingning Prefecture, and there are only 74 defenders on the four walls. They all died outside the city, and only these 74 people were injured and escaped into the city at that time, and escaped unharmed.

Wei Qian'er collected the entire population of the city, counting the defenders, men, women and children, a total of 730 people, and more than half of the men either had no palms or no fingers.

The situation in Longde County, Zhuanglang County, and Shuiluo City is similar. There are only 97 people left in the entire Jingning Prefecture.

Wei Qian'er simply moved all the living people into Jingning Prefecture, healed the wounded and sick, and asked the soldiers to clean up the corpses and wells in the city. He and six hundred soldiers guarded the luggage, and then led the brigade to withdraw from Jingning Prefecture and return to Tongwei County.

His battalion had nearly five thousand troops, and Jingning Prefecture couldn't provide him with supplies at all, so he negotiated with General Yang Chengzu to let him enter Jingning Prefecture.

After all, Yang Chengzu's battalion only has more than 2000 people. In the past, when several wells were cleaned, at least draft was not a problem.

After doing these things, Wei Qian'er wrote a letter to Liu Chengzong, describing in detail what he had heard, and the current situation in Jingning Prefecture, which was so tragic that people like him who came out of the pile of dead people almost collapsed.

Before Gao Yingxiang entered Jingning Prefecture, the population here was only over 2. It has been four years since Liu Chengzong entered Jingning Prefecture last time. During these four years, this land has experienced three years of severe drought, Two hailstorms, three waves of locust plagues, two wars, one smallpox epidemic, and one civil upheaval.

There were two battles, one between Wang Huohu and Yang Qi, and one between Shenyi Kuiyu's Red Army friends and Li Hongsi.

In the great chaos, during the drought, tens of thousands of refugees from Pingliang, Longzhou, Huating, Wu'an, Zhuanglang, Jingning and other places plundered.

Gao Yingxiang attacked Jingningzhou City, and Lu Menglong, a rightist political officer, did not dare to defend the city in a desperate situation. The city was not safe for the Ming army, so he went out of the city to fight with the heart of death, and died in the battle; The day was broken, and Fei Yanfang, the county magistrate, died after closing his door; the people of Zhuanglang County responded, and the incident split up and plundered.

Originally, there were not many poor families left in Jingning Prefecture, and the remaining people were attached to the rich families, and they survived in groups, but the rich families were also emptied at this stage.

This Zhuanglang County is not the Zhuanglangwei County that Liu Chengzong set up in the Zhuanglang River Basin, but a county in Jingning Prefecture.

Then the army came to help, and the troops of Zuo Liangyu, Tang Jiuzhou, and Deng Qi broke out in Jingning Prefecture and Gao Yingxiang and others. Now many people in Jingning Prefecture who lost their palms and fingers are survivors of the war. All are soldiers.

Those captured by the officers and soldiers were killed if they could be killed. If those captured by the peasant army did not surrender or did not want to surrender, they chopped off their hands or fingers and let them go.

Then Deng Qi's Sichuan army mutinied again, dealing a fatal blow to the crumbling Jingning Prefecture.

Yang Dingrui watched Liu Chengzong finish reading Wei Qian'er's letter, his face was uncertain, and he asked, "Now that Jingning Prefecture has been attached, what does the Generalissimo plan to do?"

"The war can't go on any longer, we need to calm down Longxi and establish order as soon as possible." Liu Chengzong frowned and said, "Let them go on like this, and the whole of Shaanxi will be deserted by then!"

good evening!