Daming kill

Chapter 189 A Pot of Cold Water

On the morning of the 16th day of the first month in the 25th year of Chongzhen, that is, the third day after Li Ping arrived in Fuchi, the weather in Fuchi began to be gloomy and terrible, accompanied by black winds.

Everyone has to work hard in the early morning, the weather is too cold, they must prepare enough firewood and try to give everyone a shelter from the wind and cold.

All the reconnaissance cavalry who had been on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to learn about the situation in Wuchang have also withdrawn and will no longer be dispatched.

After wandering around anxiously and observing the clouds for a long time, Li Ping ordered to send someone to discuss with the residents who had recovered from the mountain search, hoping to allow his soldiers and horses who did not have a house to squeeze with them.

This is the coldest weather Li Ping has felt since he came to this world, and he can no longer stick to formalities.

At the same time, Li Ping ordered to send more troops to take the local people who had been searched before to the mountains to look for the people who were still hiding. He didn't want them to freeze to death, and he didn't want the reputation he had built with great difficulty to be destroyed.

Li Ping's judgment on the weather was not wrong.

Sure enough, it snowed heavily soon.

As the snow fell more and more, more and more people who had taken refuge in the mountains were found or chose to come out.

At night, it is estimated that most of the people hiding in the nearby mountains have left the mountain, and Fuchi Town, Wujiaba and all the nearby former dwellings quickly became crowded with people.

No one was surprised by this.

Since no fire could be made to avoid the officers and soldiers, I am afraid that if I continue to hide in the mountains, I will only die.I don't trust officers and soldiers anymore, but there is always a possibility of survival when I go out of the mountain.

Daxue unexpectedly helped Li Ping a lot.

Although Li Ping was even busier at this time, he had to personally and constantly check the latest occupancy and warmth conditions of each subordinate, and meet with each group of newly returned common people to appease their anxious hearts.

But his heart was full of joy.

He has been familiar with the traditional method of asking for warmth, which is very rewarding, and he is used to it. He doesn't feel tired and meaningless.

The return of the common people means that he has quickly obtained a large number of human resources, and he no longer has to search very hard in the unfamiliar mountains.

Especially according to continuous statistics, the total number of miners who have gone down the mountain alone has exceeded 1000, and a predictable army is beckoning to Li Ping happily.

In the night, when Li Ping returned to a common people's house where he lived, Song Baolai was chatting excitedly with Gao Lei and Zhao Lanyue while warming the fire by the brazier in a room.

He should have just come back, and his body and hair are not completely dry yet.

Seeing Li Ping enter the room, Song Baolai immediately turned around with a smile on his face and yelled: "Brother Li, we can now think about making open hearth furnaces. A big drill of steel."

Li Ping shook the snow on his body at the door first, and then squeezed his buttocks to the brazier and stretched out ten stiff fingers to warm the fire. At the same time, he said with a smile: "I think so too! But practicing copper is still the first. It's time for us to make cannons."

"Drink the ginger soup first, don't catch a cold!"

Gao Lei, who got up immediately when Li Ping entered the room, took down the small copper diào zi (diào zi) hanging above the brazier and poured out a bowl of steaming ginger soup.

Chozi is a container for boiling water in the Ming Dynasty, which is very similar to today's kettle, and it is also the predecessor of today's kettle.However, it comes in many different materials.

"It's too hot!" Li Ping muttered immediately after carefully holding the ginger soup bowl.

"Oh, it's hot! Here, I'll blow it for you." Gao Lei naturally took the bowl from Li Ping's hand.

"No, I'll do it myself." Li Ping said nonchalantly.

In the end, he didn't intend to send Jiang Tang back, and Gao Lei took it with both hands, and the two hands inevitably touched each other tightly.

When the two of them were embarrassed, Song Baolai, who was staring at Jiangtang with empty hands and dumbfounded suddenly, turned his gaze to Chozi, who had been hung back on the brazier, and asked, "This is ginger soup inside! What is it?" No one told me?"

Song Baolai's words made Li Ping and Gao Lei stunned for a moment, and they forgot to separate their touching hands, and then Gao Lei's face turned red immediately.

"Didn't you ask? You're the only one who has trouble! Come on, I'll pour you a bowl." Zhao Lanyue hurriedly rescued the situation a little angrily.

After finishing speaking, she found another bowl from Gao Lei's side, then stood up and made great movements to pour ginger soup with a small copper choshi.

Gao Lei finally came to her senses at this moment, she hastily withdrew her hands that were still holding Li Ping's hands to make room, and her face became even more red.

Song Baolai probably also reacted, he shrank his neck in embarrassment when Zhao Lanyue handed him ginger soup, but his eyes still inadvertently glanced at Gao Lei.

"Why do you practice copper first? Do you want to make copper coins and then buy materials for making guns? Didn't you hear that there is also iron ore, so what else should you buy?" And illogical topics to crack the embarrassment.

"Oh! What we want to build is a copper cannon. When other metal technologies and alloy technologies have not been developed, the properties of copper make the performance of the cannons made of them the best. The cast iron cannons we got from Huangpi County are different. They all look stupid and thick, but in fact they are not useful at all." Li Ping explained while holding ginger soup.

"So that's the case!" Zhao Lanyue pretended to understand and nodded seriously from there.Then she asked again: "Do we have a strong need for artillery? I see that most people don't even have guns yet!"

……

With Zhao Lanyue's desperate distraction, Song Baolai immediately began to talk about professional issues and his various thoughts on the new foundation, and the atmosphere soon became cheerful and relaxed again.

While the four were happily thinking about the future, Ma Yong suddenly brought a soldier from the reconnaissance company to visit in a hurry.

Li Ping, a soldier of the reconnaissance company, knew all of them.This is a squad leader who was sent to accompany Zhao Dongdong yesterday to escort Yang Ming down the river to meet Zuo Liangyu.

Li Ping's heart skipped a beat.

However, what Ma Yong said exceeded Li Ping's expectations, but it was even more earth-shattering.

"Just got the accurate news that the bandit Zhang Xianzhong's troops attacked and breached Guangji County, [-] miles away from Jiangbei." Ma Yong said solemnly.

Guangji County is today's Wuxue City.

However, Guangji County in the Ming Dynasty was located in Meichuan Town, northwest of Wuxue City today, instead of relying on the north bank of the Yangtze River more than 20 miles downstream of Fuchi like Wuxue City. Wuxue Town in Ming Dynasty was still a town, called Wuxue Town.

In the Ming Dynasty, Guangji County was located at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain (Yinghuo Mountain), which was less than 50 miles (straight-line distance) from Qizhou City, but 60 miles from today's Wuxue City.

"Zhang Xianzhong! How did you get the news?" Li Ping's body trembled inadvertently. This big devil appeared when he least expected to hear his name.

Since there is no channel for foreign communication, Li Ping's understanding and grasp of long-distance external information is extremely limited. Zhang Xianzhong, a person he has always been afraid of, is still unclear about the exact location. Near the northwest (now Anhui).

"Come on! Be careful." Ma Yong directly handed over the right to speak to the monitor.

The reconnaissance squad leader immediately took out a small notebook and began to read and report clearly and sonorously.

It turned out that when Yang Ming and his party went down the river in two big boats yesterday, they happened to meet a group of gentry who had fled from the north to the river and wanted to cross the river to the south. Surprised to be scurrying along the Yangtze River by Zuo Liangyu's army all the way.

Cleverly, he immediately went to the boat to inquire, and then learned that Zhang Xianzhong was attacking from the south of Huangmei County.

Huangmei County is at the eastern foot of Yinghuo Mountain, about [-] to [-] miles away from Fuchi.

Feeling the seriousness of the situation, Zhao Dongdong did not sit idly by, but immediately took the initiative to suspend his journey down the river, and personally led his troops to land inland on the north bank of the Yangtze River for further reconnaissance.

After more than a day of continuous confirmation and inquiry, the careful Zhao Dongdong quickly got more and more detailed information, especially he had a thorough grasp of Zhang Xianzhong's recent situation from several escaped officials he found.

During the Battle of Kaifeng last year, Zhang Xianzhong took advantage of the situation and entered the Yinghuo Mountains, and met Gezuo Erhe, and soon the two sides joined forces to capture Shucheng, Lu'an, Wuwei and Luzhou.Huang Degong, the commander-in-chief of Fengyang, and Liu Liangzuo, the commander-in-chief of Fengyang, went to conquer, but they were also defeated in Jiashan, shaking Jiangnan.

Gao Douguang, governor of Fengyang, and Zheng Eryang, governor of Anqing, were also arrested and convicted, and Ma Shiying became the new governor of Fengyang.

Then Ge Zuo's troops went to join forces with Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong began to besiege Tongcheng at the northeast foot of Yinghuo Mountain in December last year.

Tongcheng is 300 miles north of Huangmei County.

Huang Degong, the general soldier of Fengyang, and Liu Liangzuo, the general soldier, went to fight again and defeated Zhang Xianzhong in Qianshan. Zhang Xianzhong was almost captured alive.

Subsequently, Zhang Xianzhong ran all the way south along the eastern edge of the Yinghuo Mountains, and captured Taihu County and then Huangmei County that month.

A few days ago, Zhang Xianzhong further captured Guangji County...

Zhao Dongdong, who had figured out the general military situation, did not dare to delay, and immediately sent the squad leader and several soldiers to the south bank of the Yangtze River, and then ordered them to ride back to Fuchi to report to Li Ping immediately, while Zhao Dongdong took the rest of the people and continued to guard Yang Ming. Go see Zuo Liangyu.

After listening to the report, Li Ping's head was buzzing, and he felt that the enthusiasm that had just been ignited suddenly extinguished.

Others don't know whether Zhang Xianzhong will continue to attack south, but he does.

Facing such a famous hero in history, Li Ping didn't have any confidence and was full of fear.

But at present, apart from ordering the troops to strengthen their vigilance, he has no good ideas for a while.

Like Zuo Liangyu, he ran away after hearing the news, but he couldn't do it.

Moreover, Zuo Liangyu avoids Li Zicheng, who has a strong army, but he doesn't necessarily avoid Zhang Xianzhong, the current loser. After all, Zuo Liangyu has an impressive record against Zhang Xianzhong, and has obvious psychological advantages, so he basically doesn't fear him at all.

In the 11th year of Chongzhen, Zuo Liangyu defeated Zhang Xianzhong in Nanyang, forcing Zhang Xianzhong to surrender to Prime Minister Xiong Wencan.

In February of the 13th year of Chongzhen, Zuo Liangyu severely injured Zhang Xianzhong in Manau Mountain, and even captured all Zhang Xianzhong's family members. This battle also made Zuo Liangyu famous throughout the Ming Dynasty.

In the Battle of Xinyang in August of the 14th year of Chongzhen, Zuo Liangyu defeated Zhang Xianzhong again. He only captured [-] horses and captured tens of thousands of soldiers.

Judging from such battle data, it is Zhang Xianzhong who should be afraid. Zhang Xianzhong may not dare to challenge Zuo Liangyu's huge army.

Especially since Zhang Xianzhong was defeated by Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo last month, his strength must have been severely damaged, and Li Ping should have no reason to be afraid of him.

But fear often comes from the unknown, from legends. If Zhang Xianzhong is replaced by Zuo Liangyu who knows everything, Li Ping may not be worried at all.But because he knew the history and knew the future in advance, it restricted and disturbed Li Ping's ambition, and made him worry about gains and losses.

After Ma Yong left with the squad leader, the atmosphere in the hut became very depressing, and several people did not speak for a long time.

During the past few days of getting along, they already knew that Zhang Xianzhong captured Wuchang this year and established the Daxi regime this year.

Finally, Song Baolai couldn't help but ask first: "Should we continue to mine steel and copper? Or do we have other plans?"

Li Ping sighed and said, "Not only do we have to continue, but we also have to step up. Try to make the bronze cannon first, and this thing will be the most effective if you want to guard the river."

"Yes, is there still time?" Song Baolai lacked confidence.

"Zhang Xianzhong may not do such a thing as crossing the river. Judging from the fact that he has been circling around Yinghuo Mountain these days, he should be very concerned about his own way back. We should still have time." Li Ping calmed down a lot.

"Oh! That's good, that's good, I'll hurry up."

However, just as several people began to cheer each other up, Ma Yong went back, and this time his face was full of shock.

"There were ships fleeing from the upper reaches of the river. According to investigations, tens of thousands of Zhang Xianzhong arrived at Qizhou city this afternoon, and his army is currently assembled near the north gate of Qizhou."

"So fast!"

Li Ping instantly felt that he had been completely cooled by a basin of cold water.

……

Description:

According to historical records, on the 16th day of the first lunar month in the 25th year of Chongzhen, there was indeed extreme weather such as black wind and heavy snow around Fuchi.

(End of this chapter)