weaving

Chapter 1258 Dong Zhuo and his ilk

After May 25th, no major battles occurred on the three battlefields of Daguantou, Xianggongmiao and Liuzhuang.

Although there were still offensive and defensive battles between the two sides, most of them were small-scale military encounters, almost all of which were testing the strength and bottom line of the other side, and there was no sign of a decisive battle.

Across the entire front, the Yongyi Army and the Chuang Army seemed to have entered a stalemate.

The offensive momentum of the Chuang army was greatly reduced, but the siege seemed to be tighter. It seemed that they wanted to surround and kill the soldiers of the Yongyi Army in Daguantou, Xianggong Temple and Liuzhuang.

However, since May 24th, the number of scouts of the Yongyi Army has increased. Most of them came out from the headquarters of Yongning Earl in Xinchengji and patrolled in all directions.

Especially in the direction leading to the three camps besieged by the rebel army, there are the most scouts...

…………

On May 26, at a ferry in Mengjin County, north of Henan Prefecture, cargo ships were parked side by side at the dock, and people were busy loading and unloading.

River boats were docked on the bank of the Yellow River. Each of these large boats had a red triangular flag with the word "Courage and Perseverance" written in the middle, and a rectangular flag below it had the words "Yellow River Fleet" inscribed on it.

  This is exactly Zuo Zhaoyi’s fleet, and it is also the only naval force under the command of Yongning Earl Zhang Cheng!

Zuo Zhaoyi's Yellow River fleet currently has hundreds of large and small ships, more than 4,000 helmsmen and boatmen, and 3,000 sailors. It is considered the strongest water force in the entire inland of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Yellow River fleet was hastily formed after all. Its core members were the boatmen and bandits who originally roamed the Yellow River, as well as the dike guards and dike workers who could not make a living on both sides of the river, and of course the hardest-working and most tired trackers along the Yellow River.

The Ming Dynasty's navy had begun to decline since the eunuch Zheng He made seven voyages to the West. The subsequent Japanese invasion, in particular, prompted the Ming Empire to gradually adopt a closed-door policy.

  It has now come to the point where they had to recruit Zheng Zhilong in order to maintain the maritime territory of the Ming Empire. This shows to what extent the Ming navy had declined.

On the major rivers in the inland areas, the situation was even worse. Except for a navy maintained on the Grand Canal to safeguard the water transport, the lifeline of the imperial court, the rest of the areas were in name only.

Just like the pirates on the Yellow River, most of them were naval soldiers on the river. They had to do such evil things because they could not make a living.

Sometimes they are soldiers, sometimes they are bandits...even they themselves don’t know whether they are good people or bad people!

Then there are the boatmen who row the boats on the Yellow River. Every time they sail, it is like they are passing through the gates of hell. They wander between life and death all day long and cannot even have a full meal. It is no wonder that they occasionally do some evil things.

The shallow laborers and dike laborers were originally a kind of local labor service, but later they were mostly recruited from the people. The shallow laborers were responsible for dredging ditches and salvaging sunken ships, while the dike laborers were responsible for building, managing, and guarding dams.

No matter they were dike workers or river workers, they were all regular servants of the imperial court. They originally received some wages and food wages, and they made a living by living on the river. They could catch fish and sell them, harvest willow trees on the dike, and do some trafficking, so they had no worries about their livelihood.

However, the Ming Dynasty was in decline, and not only did they not receive any salary, but they also had difficulty finding jobs as cargo movers. Now they could barely make ends meet, and even eating had become a problem. It was these people who were almost unable to survive who formed the core foundation of the Yongyi Army's Yellow River Fleet. Because they were well organized, the Earl of Yongning recruited them to form his own navy.

Although they had not experienced any major wars, they had already cleared out all the bandits along the Yellow River and were able to fully take on the logistical transportation of the Yongyi Army. Therefore, they became an important guarantee for Yongning Earl's expedition to Henan.

…………

This time, Zuo Zhaoyi led almost all of the Yellow River fleet to transport the stored supplies from various places to Mengjin Ferry for Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi and Sanbian, to take to Xi'an.

On a mound next to the Mengjin Ferry, four riders were standing on their horses, watching everything at the ferry intently.

"Governor, this Earl of Yongning really should not be underestimated. He has mobilized so many supplies in just a few days. Who knows how powerful the power behind him is!"

Sun Chuanting sat on his warhorse, smiled slightly, and said softly without turning his head: "It is definitely not luck that makes Yongning Earl what he is today. His scheming and style of doing things are evident. He is far from being comparable to the likes of Wu Sangui in Liaodong and Zuo Liangyu in Hunan."

The person who spoke earlier was Sun Chuanting's trusted aide Chen Jitai. The other two were his loyal servant Sun Wang and long-time attendant Ma Weizhong. The other two accompanying aides were currently counting and registering supplies at the ferry.

The Sanbian Governor Sun Chuanting and his entourage have been escorted here for two days by the two deputy generals of the Yongyi Army Independent Battalion, Zuo Qinghe. On the one hand, they are here to inspect the unloading and loading of materials from ships, and on the other hand, they are also waiting for the arrival of Liu Shizun, the commander of the Independent Battalion.

In fact, Zhang Chengfang, the pacification officer of the independent camp, had only just arrived in Mengjin today with Ding Yukui's baggage train. The commander, Liu Shizun, had to rush back to Xinchengji to receive personal instruction from Yongning Earl Zhang Cheng before being escorted here by his deputy Huang Baozhong.

On the mound, Chen Jitai looked at the setting sun and suddenly asked softly, "Governor, in your opinion, is Earl Yongning loyal or treacherous? Will he become a powerful threat to the Ming Dynasty?"

After hearing his words, Sun Chuanting couldn't help but look back, then looked around, only to see his loyal servant Sun Wang waiting ten steps away, and his long-time attendant Ma Weizhong was patrolling on horseback with a sword in hand twenty steps away. Apart from the two of them, there was no one else around.

He then spoke, "Although Earl Yongning is not very old, he is able to keep his emotions to himself, and is very decisive in killing people. He looks like a treacherous and evil person, but he is also very loyal and kind. This shows that he is very cunning and cannot be guessed by ordinary people."

Sun Chuanting said this, looking firmly at the tense loading and unloading scene at the ferry, and said: "In my opinion, the shrewdness of Yongning Bo may not be inferior to that of my mentor, but it is still unclear what his future achievements will be.

As far as the country is concerned, having the Earl of Yongning today is better than having none at all. As for whether the future will be a blessing or a curse, whether he will be loyal or treacherous, it is not something we can predict today, but it is better than the rampage of bandits and the rampage of the Jian slaves, and it is not much worse. "

Chen Jitai suddenly asked: "Will the Earl of Yongning become a 'Dong Zhuo'?"

Sun Chuanting's brows suddenly tightened, and he stared at Chen Jitai with his eyes wide open: "From today on, you must never say such words again!"