Daming kill

Chapter 47

Before dawn the next day, Li Ping left the camp with his troops.

After a rapid march and arrived outside the west gate of Xiangyang, it was still dark, the city gate was closed tightly, and the other friendly army hadn't arrived yet, Li Ping finally let go of his hanging heart.

There is no clock, the time is all based on estimation, and there is not even a clear rendezvous time. He is very worried that he will be late. It is better to be as early as possible than to be late.

Soon, it was dawn, a big cloudy day.

Suddenly, the city gate opened slowly.

Today's city gate obviously opened much earlier than usual, and it opened at dawn, which is very unreasonable, probably because it has been greeted in advance, and Zuo Menggeng's daughter-in-law's itinerary must not be delayed.

After hesitating for a while, Li Ping simply took Ma Yong and a soldier into the city to wait.Waiting outside the city gate, he always felt that something was wrong.

But as soon as he entered the city, he saw a team with many flags coming from afar on the avenue directly facing the city gate.This should be an army, and a regular army at that.

Li Ping was a little dazed, and cautiously stretched his neck to look again.

There are cavalry in front, and there is a looming carriage behind, so it should be right.

Didn't we agree to wait outside the west gate together?Aren't they also stationed outside the city?Where did they come into town?It is impossible for so many people to be Mrs. Zuo Menggeng's soldiers.

But now was not the time to think too much, Li Ping hurriedly threw the reins of the horse to the soldiers, and then led Ma Yong to trot to meet him.

At the head of the oncoming line are several cavalrymen wearing red leather hats (similar to the white felt fanyang hats worn in Li Zicheng's classic image) and short iron armor. A little chubby guy with a fish scale armor.

Cover armor is a form of Chinese armor that appeared in the Ming Dynasty.Before the Ming Dynasty, China mainly wore armor, that is, it was worn on the body and fixed with a belt tied by a beam of armor.The armor is made into clothes, worn like clothes, and covers the body.

Generally speaking, the armor will reach the knees and is the mainstream.

But there is also a big market for short hoods.As a kind of vest-like collarless and sleeveless jacket, it usually opens in the middle of the front and is fastened with buttons. It is a kind of light armor.It is very suitable for use in the hot and humid southern region, or as a long-wearing body armor.

As for the iron armor, it is the armor covered with rectangular iron plates. It began in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. It was named because the armor plate was shaped like a letter. It is also a very common iron armor in China.

As the name suggests, the fish scale armor is like a fish scale.Due to the complex manufacturing process and stronger flexibility of expansion and contraction, it is a high-level armor that can only be used by officers.

The slightly chubby guy in the short kelp armor should therefore be the leader.

Seeing Li Ping running over from a distance, the frontmost cavalrymen glanced at the chubby general in the middle unconsciously, then did not slow down, and continued to ride their horses proudly.

Li Ping had no choice but to run to one side, panting to the handsome general in the center to make a confession, and then politely introduced himself and asked: "I am Li Ping, the commander-in-chief of the guerrilla Zhao Jinying. General?"

The military commander didn't intend to stop the horse at all, he just glanced sideways at Li Ping, and said arrogantly: "So you are Li Ping, follow!" After speaking, he ignored him and hit the horse.

Li Ping was taken aback for a moment, but he still bowed his thanks to the back that the general had left for him.

Then, Li Ping looked at the carriage behind him, hesitated for a moment, and told Ma Yong behind him to go out of the city to organize troops, while he ran all the way to the carriage again.

After bowing to the moving carriage, he introduced himself again in a low voice while walking along.

As soon as Li Ping finished speaking, a soft female voice came from the carriage: "Wait a minute."

The driver of the horse pulled the carriage to a stop immediately, and then the small curtain on the window of the rear compartment was slowly lifted, and then a beautiful face was revealed.

After Li Ping was stunned, he hurriedly lowered his head, but his subconscious reaction was: Zuo Menggeng is a very lucky boy, and his wife is quite beautiful!

Soon, the soft voice sounded softly again: "It turned out to be Mr. Li, thank you for your hard work. I got up early today, thinking about the long way to go, so I went a little earlier, and I was a little worried that you were not ready. Seeing you Don't worry. Very good, Mr. Li, you have a heart."

Li Ping hurriedly bowed again and replied: "Madam, this is my duty."

Following a soft "Let's go" sound from inside the carriage, the maid who was riding beside the carriage signaled back and forth, and the slightly disorganized team moved forward again due to the sudden stop.

When Li Ping was about to rush back to the soldiers leading his horse at the gate of the city, a voice suddenly came from the carriage again: "The soap is very useful, thank you for the soap."

Li Ping didn't know how to answer for a while, so he could only say: "It should, it should."

Uneasy, he followed the carriage for another two steps, until he heard no more sound, then Li Ping felt relieved and started to run wildly.

After leaving the city, Li Ping and his subordinates tactfully followed behind the entire team, and quickly started to hurry.

Yes, the whole team started rushing shortly after leaving the city.

But Li Ping didn't have time to think about it now, his mind was full of the anomalies just now.

It's very interesting that Mrs. Zuo suddenly said "thank you"!

Zhao Jin has always handled the contact with soap as a gift, and they only said that it was made by Zhao's guerrilla camp when they took out the food. They have communicated with each other on this issue, and they have always maintained the same caliber.But Zuo Menggeng's wife actually knew that it was from Li Ping's camp, the news could have been leaked!
Fortunately, this is not a big deal, after all, they are not close to each other, so Li Ping thought about it and let it go.

However, they set off early?This Mrs. Zuo is interesting, and what she said is even more interesting.

Indeed, the city gate opened just after dawn, and they walked to the city gate within a few minutes.It should be that they set off before dawn. This is very easy for the soldiers and horses who came to join to miss it. After all, marching at night is always a taboo these days.

Is it an exam school?
Or is it really just a temporary decision to leave early, and by the way, I want to see if his new confidant is reliable?
Or are there other factors?
How did Ma Ba's troops enter the city?It is impossible to open the city gate in the dark, unless they entered the city the first night.

The more Li Ping thought about it, the more he had a headache, and he couldn't figure it out. Later, he simply stopped thinking about it.

There are two roads going west from Xiangyang, one is to walk directly along the river for tens of miles to the mountains in the west.The other is to walk along the river for a short distance and then go south along the road between Yanggu Mountain and Wanshan Mountain, which is equivalent to bypassing the long strip of Wanshan Mountain that is roughly parallel to the river and then heading west.

Mrs. Zuo Menggeng chose the second road, which means that the small temple is in the southwest of Xiangyang.

Soon after passing Wanshan, they left the official road, and the road became more and more difficult to walk, and the carriage was no longer convenient.So Madam Zuo quickly got out of the carriage and put on a horse very vigorously.

Looking at Mrs. Zuo's bright red dress, it was obvious that she had been prepared.But what shocked Li Ping even more was her ability to control horses, which was very skillful, and she really deserved to be a Jurchen.

At this time, although they had been walking for a long time, the team did not stop to rest, and continued to maintain a high marching speed. Although it might not reach the level of a rapid march, it was indeed not slow.

Li Ping was a little surprised. Although this violated the common sense of properly organizing rest during the march, the friendly troops in front were still subverting his view of the uselessness of the remnants of the Xiangyang army and his view of Fang Guoan. Observe them more and more carefully.

They do have some peculiarities, too.

This is a typical army team. Although there are only more than 200 people, there are nearly [-] flags alone.

This is an obviously elite force, not only the armor is distinctive, but the soldiers are generally more robust, the most prominent of course is that they can walk.

Their infantry are basically all red felt hats, which is obviously different from the turbans or rattan hats worn by the southern army, but judging from their faces and figures, these soldiers are obviously mostly southerners.

The leading cavalry generals also wore hats. Although they were made of leather, the iron pointed helmets that were the same as those of the other cavalry appeared abnormal again.

They seemed to be trying to show their kinship with the Northern Army.

Each of them has armor, of course all short armor, all light armor.Except for the cavalry who are all wearing short iron armor, the infantry are all wearing short cloth armor (an armor made of dozens of layers of cloth).

There is no full body armor or long armor, so it should be prepared.

Moreover, whether it is all the iron armor of the cavalry or all the cloth armor of the infantry, it is a bit extravagant, and it is really difficult to get all of them together.At least Li Ping knew that cloth armor was not cheap, it was more expensive than cotton armor anyway.

Most ancient troops marched without armor, or at most wore light armor, and basically did not wear full-body armor or heavy armor. Generally, full-body armor and heavy armor were carried by other mules or horses or carried by auxiliary soldiers. Of course, some people carried them on their own. of.

This is easy to understand. After wearing full body armor or heavy armor, the movement is naturally limited. Except for slow movement, it is impossible to march for a long distance, because basically no one can bear it in terms of heat dissipation.

Their weapons are mainly knives. Even the infantry don't have many spears, but at the same time there are not many infantry with shields, and troops like them should not lack shields, probably for the convenience and ease of marching the weight of.

However, there are many colors of military uniforms shown from the limbs outside the short armor. Although they are roughly divided into groups according to color, there are only more than 200 people in total, but there are several kinds of uniforms such as red, blue, yellow, and white. Color, very colorful feeling!
Li Ping doesn't know if it's because Ma Ba always has a special preference for colorful.

In fact, most of the time in ancient times, people had a clear preference for colorful and gaudy clothes, which may be a specific aesthetic created by the lack of abundant materials in ancient times.

In the army, it is normal to divide the army according to the color when the number of people is large, but it is not normal to divide the army into many colors when there are few people.Once a battle occurs, too many colors can easily cause difficulty in identifying friend and foe, and at the same time interfere with command judgment. This should not be done by an old general.

But no matter what, it is certain that the equipment of the friendly troops in front is very high, and the training level is probably not low, but I don't know how their combat skills are?
Compared with his friendly troops, Li Ping's troops were a bit shabby.

The eight-petal iron helmet with wide eaves on Li Ping's head (official language: Ming iron helmet. It is also called Maoer helmet in the folk, shaped like a flying saucer. It has four petals, six petals and eight petals) is their only helmet. All just wearing hoods.For the purpose of guarding this time, in order to prevent them from marching against the sun, even though Li Ping made a bamboo hat for everyone, it was not as good as other people's felt hats.

As for armor, they only had a few half-length leather armors and more than 20 low-quality cotton armors.There are more than 20 poor-quality cotton armors, and more than half of them are missing the lower leg skirts (that is, the hem of the front and rear plackets).

Of course, the advantage is that they don't have to worry about being covered.

The only thing that does not drop the price is that all of them have decent shoes, no one wears straw sandals, and no one is barefoot.At the same time, they all wear leggings, which have a more effective marching efficiency.

As Li Pingrao observed slowly with interest, the team in front finally changed from being slightly messy to somewhat chaotic, with more and more disconnections between front and back, and fewer and fewer flags being raised.

They are tired and must take a break.

Sure enough, the team stopped shortly after, and then the people in front dispersed without any order, so Li Ping had to lower his evaluation of the friendly army by one level.

The rest time was a bit long, but Li Ping didn't move forward, and Mrs. Zuo didn't call him, so Li Ping stayed with his team all the time.

Taking this opportunity, he happened to be able to observe Mrs. Zuo from a distance.

Mrs. Zuo's height is about 1 meters by visual inspection, which is taller than many men in this era. It is even more obvious in the south. The guards and horse handles around her always seem to be about the same as her.

Mrs. Zuo's bone frame should be considered slightly larger, but her figure is very delicate, with perfect proportions. She is a typical figure of a beautiful girl in the north. Coupled with a revealing strong suit, the whole person looks heroic. The group of people in front There is a feeling of standing out from the crowd.

However, the chest may have been specially treated, otherwise there would be a problem with the general sense of mediocrity, and it wouldn't be the same for the two maids!
Li Ping has a little understanding of this point.After all, Mrs. Zuo is not a modern woman like Zhao Lanyue and Gao Lei, so she can stop caring and be calm.It is very disrespectful to have a bulging chest in this era, and the movement to let go of the chest had to wait for a long time after the establishment of the Republic of China, and it also went through a long and fierce debate.

Li Ping couldn't help but think about it, Mrs. Zuo wanted to have a good figure and good looks, and it wasn't for nothing that she looked at her head.This Zuo Menggeng is not an ordinary blessing, no wonder it is said that the relationship between the two is very good, Zuo Liangyu is very satisfied with this marriage.It's no wonder Zuo Menggeng likes to play around secretly, it's not easy!
While Li Ping was observing Mrs. Zuo, Li Ping found that Mrs. Zuo seemed to be observing them as well, and she always looked this way from time to time intentionally or unintentionally.

During the following journey, Mrs. Zuo looked around and looked back more and more, especially after Li Ping's allies finally showed their true colors more and more.

As time goes by, their speed is gradually slowing down, and the interval of rest is getting shorter and shorter.As they marched, the formation of the friendly troops began to become more and more chaotic and was no longer orderly. The constant buzzing of human voices began to accompany them all the way, and the flags were also a little messy.

Li Ping's evaluation of the friendly troops began to decline continuously. He even began to suspect that they were a group of good walkers who were specially selected, rather than having better foot strength because of good training, the main reason was that they really didn't match.

On the other hand, Li Ping's army has been silently following behind the entire queue, and has always followed neatly. Even when they are resting, they drink water and eat dry food in an orderly manner. This is a trained army.

However, fortunately, the sky has been cloudy along the way, and the temperature is slightly lower, so that everyone will not suffer from the sweltering heat.

When it was getting dark, they finally stopped at the foot of a mountain. He heard that this place was not far from the small temple. Li Ping probably understood why Mrs. Zuo had to leave so early.

They didn't go any further and got closer to the small temple. It is said that Mrs. Zuo was afraid that so many soldiers would disturb the Buddha's purity. It seemed that she was really devout.

However, after such a long march, Li Ping felt a little tired, and the horse pushed the total troops to the limit, otherwise they would have dispersed like a beehive and fell to the ground to rest.

It was time to go camping, and Li Ping couldn't continue to hide behind and pretend to be timid. He hurried to Mrs. Zuo's place first and asked if there was anything he could do for him.

But Mrs. Zuo just smiled and said, "You don't have to worry about it. I have made arrangements here. Mr. Li is also tired, so let's go to rest."

So Li Ping didn't say any more, and went directly to check the camp in his headquarters. When everything was basically in order, it was completely dark.

It's definitely a long day's march.

Notes:

Factors such as geography and climate undoubtedly had a great influence on the habit of using armor.Judging from the available data, the armours of the northern and southern armies of the Ming Dynasty were quite different.

At present, there are different opinions on the classification and understanding of ancient Chinese armor on the Internet, and there are many differences of opinion. In particular, many people use Western Zhajia to apply Chinese Zhajia, but the two are very different only in definition.This article also only represents my immature understanding, and I am still learning, and the fallacies are even more inevitable.

(End of this chapter)