Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 76 Marching
Huang Degong thought about it for a while, and said: "My lord, the people recruited this time don't know when they will return to their hometowns after they join the army. They still have to give the money to their families in the end. I think this is the case. I will pay in advance to the recruits this time." Three months' wages for the common people, so that the family has some spare money to buy some food, I can only do this, as a general, I must not interfere in civil affairs, please forgive me!"

Ren Minyu was stunned for a moment, and then his heart became hot, and he bowed his hands to Huang Degong: "General Huang's actions are like the ancients! The money left this time may save many lives! On behalf of the people of Shan County Thank you General!"

Two days later, Huang De's power department set off, dozens of rented carriages and wheelbarrows were added to the team of the supply battalion, and more young and strong people used baskets as a means of transportation.

Without the burden of armor and weapons, the marching speed of the troops has been greatly accelerated. In the past, soldiers with armor and weapons could cover more than forty miles a day, but now they can reach more than sixty miles a day. After more than ten days of marching, At this time, it was not far from Fengyang.

Although he knew that there were no large groups of thieves appearing along the way, for the sake of caution, Huang Degong still divided dozens of scouting horses into two teams, and let them out for about ten miles back and forth to prevent accidents.

A scouting horse came running from the front road. Huang Degong, who was in the middle of the army, rode his horse and stopped by the side of the road. The knight clasped his fists and saluted and said: "General, Huaiyuan County is five miles ahead. I have asked the guards guarding the gate of the county. After passing Huaiyuan, Fengyang is more than fifty miles to the east!"

Huang Degong narrowed his eyes and glanced at the hot sun above his head, and ordered: "Tell Mr. Wu Qian, the whole army will rest after finding a water source ahead, and set off after a quarter of an hour of lunch!"

After visiting the horse and saluting, he turned the horse's head and galloped towards the way he came, and conveyed the general order to Wu Qun's department in the front team.

Huang Degong then ordered: "Zhang Dabiao! You take five people to Fengyang Fucheng, call on the governor, and say that our department is ordered to help Lu Dushuai, and see if Lu Dushuai has any military information to convey to our department! Send someone to contact the governor. If the military situation is urgent, immediately send someone back to convey it! If there is nothing wrong, just stay there and wait for the arrival of the brigade!"

After receiving the order, Zhang Dabiao of the Personal Guard ordered five cavalry, and galloped away, with a distance of forty or fifty li. If the horses maintained a medium speed, they would be able to reach them in about two hours, and if they galloped at full speed, it would take less than an hour.

The river network in the South Zhili area is densely covered, but the continuous drought and no rain have completely dried up many ponds and inlets. Wu Qun led his soldiers to the Wohe River hundreds of steps away from the official road. This tributary of the Huaihe River is close to A few years have lost its previous style. The formerly fast-flowing Guohe River has become a clear and shallow stream. The fields on both sides of the river have not been effectively irrigated for a long time due to the reduction of the water volume of the Guohe River. The wheat ears in the field are very small. , The wheat grains are shriveled, the wheat stalks are low and thin, and they look sickly. Large-scale production reduction has become a fact.

Standing on the bank, Wu Qun looked around and found that the open and flat river beach was suitable for the army to rest and eat. He was a farmer and knew that it was not the rainy season and large-scale floods were impossible, so he decided to use the river beach as a resting place for the entire army. After sending his own soldiers to report to Huang Degong, Wu Qun greeted his subordinates, some of them went to look for firewood, and some of them dug a hole two hundred paces away from the selected camp.

After Chongzhen roughly drew the style of the engineering shovels of later generations, because the craftsmanship was not complicated, the craftsmen of the Military Weapons Supervision quickly made thousands of them. It was the first to start using it. Due to the long distance between Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting and other departments, they were still in transit. Lu Xiangsheng's department was fighting on the move due to mobile operations. In addition, bandits were rampant in the Central Plains. They would send troops to escort him, and several times the Yongwei Battalion sent cavalry guards.

Hundreds of people started to dig the soil together. The engineer shovel is a sharp tool for digging pits. In less than half an hour, more than 2000 pits of similar size were dug. The depth of the pits was about two feet. Pile it aside, and then fill it up when the army sets off.

That's right, these are cesspit, nearly 6000 officers and soldiers, and 1 heavy-duty battalions are young and strong, and a team of nearly [-] people excrete a lot when they rest.

In the past, the officers and soldiers did not have the habit of digging pits for excretion. When the army marched, the rear team walked forward with excrement all over the ground. Disgusting and unhygienic, and even lead to the occurrence of epidemics.

Chongzhen also learned of this situation while chatting with Sun Yingyuan and others, so he added this article to the military camp regulations formulated by the Ministry of War: When camping and resting, dig holes according to the number of people, and do not defecate anywhere; Wash your hands with clean water, and fill the pit when you leave to prevent the occurrence of epidemics. Offenders will be severely punished.

Huang Degong has always been very strict about the execution of military orders. During several field marches during the training period, many soldiers who were still accustomed to excreting everywhere loved the army and had a long memory. After a few times, no one dared to Urinated everywhere.

As the rear of the Chinese army and the supply battalion arrived one after another, the entire river beach was full of laughter and laughter. Although the sun was still shining, it was better to stop and rest than to march in the scorching heat. Many soldiers took off their robes , topless, wading barefoot into the river below the calves, happily washing the sweat stains on his body.

The carriages and wheelbarrows of the supply battalion were parked on the official road. On a hot day, there were almost no pedestrians on the road, and occasionally there were a few merchants. They saw the officers and soldiers of the brigade from a distance, so they avoided the small road and took a detour, but for safety reasons However, Huang Degong still arranged dozens of soldiers to guard these supplies, and later his own soldiers who had eaten would come to take turns.

The young and strong men carried the burden, the baskets contained military rations and salted vegetables, hundreds of cauldrons had already been set up, and the dry firewood they picked up was blazing. After cleaning, they all returned to their teams, sat down on the spot with Shi as the unit, and waited for Shi Changling to bring fried noodles before starting to eat.

In addition to the scouting horses, the cavalry took off the saddles and stirrups on the horses, led the mounts into the river, and began to wash and clean the horses. Put it aside and feed the horses after the cavalry have washed their horses. Black beans have high nutritional value. In addition to eating hay, the horses need to be fed black beans every two days.

Huang Degong sat shirtless on the horse harness, exposing his solid muscles. Wu Qun and others stood on both sides of him. The warm water was handed to him in a ball. Huang Degong stretched out his thick fingers like a mallet and squeezed it to his mouth. A large ball of sweet fried noodles was stuffed into his mouth.

After chewing a few times and swallowing the dough, Huang Degong picked up the water bag and drank a few big gulps, breathed out comfortably, touched the water stains left on his mouth, and said: "This fried noodles is really hard to eat. Tell me, how did the old man figure it out? Think about the kind of dry biscuits you ate before, and half of your teeth popped off in one bite, and you were still not hungry. The taste is incomparable to this!"

Wu Qun swallowed a mouthful of fried noodles, and said with a smile: "General, we are not like you who came from the capital. It is good for us country people to have a stutter. In the past, in the army of Wu thieves, the half-starved The days are not short, the court's rations have all gone into Wu thief's pockets, which brothers don't hate it?"

Zheng Qiang of Qianhu used to be the head of the horse team in the Yongwei Camp. Because of his agility and outstanding performance, he was promoted by Huang Degong to be the head of the new army. Kill him? As long as you do it cleverly and don't leave any excuses, the court will let it go!"

Wu Qun sighed and said: "It's not that we don't have that idea, but we think that we are officers and soldiers after all, and we are paid by the court, so we can't fight with bandits right? I always think that one day the court will punish him, so I just endured it!"

Huang Degong stared, and scolded: "I said, little Zhengzi, are you itchy? You mean, if someone is like Wu Shangwen, you have to find a chance to cut off my head? You Look at Wu Qun, who came from an out-and-out peasant family, what he thinks about are the rules and the court's laws, you bastard came from the capital, why are you with a bandit?"

Zheng Qiang chuckled: "General, brothers who don't know what you are? You are generous and considerate of your subordinates. Being your subordinate is a blessing that you have cultivated in your previous life! You must abide by military discipline. , I just hate those villains who drink the blood of soldiers like Wu thieves, look how you got involved with yourself!"

Huang Degong rolled his eyes and said: "What I want is to make great contributions. In the future, I will be named a Marquis and Boss, honor my ancestors, and pass them on to future generations. Who the hell cares about that bit of money!"

Zheng Qiang said with a smile: "General, can you give a memorial to the Long Live Lord? Let's not go back to Shan County, shall we? There are no thieves in Shandong! If there are no thieves, how can you make a Marquis or Bo? If you want to make contributions with you, you should tell Lord Long Live that we will either follow Dushuai Lu, or go to Shanxi to join General Zhou, and follow Master Sun. Shaanxi is full of thieves, and there are plenty of opportunities to make contributions! "

(End of this chapter)