Ping An Biography

Two months later, it has entered the end of summer. Except for the hotter weather, and the fact that the millet in the rice fields has changed from green to yellow, and the heavy ears of grain have bent the crops, the scenery in the mountains has hardly changed from when Zhang Ning first came. .Here, even in winter, the mountains are full of greenery.

The time limit for attacking bandits has come, and the fully armed men and horses who have completed training have gathered on the pasture outside the village.Many villagers gathered around the entrance of the village to watch the excitement. When Zhang Ning came out with his entourage, he also saw the results of his hard work for two months.In any case, at least this team is more ornamental.One-color military uniforms and iron helmets, neatly lined up; the cannons on the frame are filled with the unique sense of strength of steel, and the brand-new barrels of the matchlock guns in the hands of the soldiers have a metallic luster.They look as if they have leapt from the ancient hunting crowd to a new level.

Of course, the army is not for show, Zhang Ning wants to see the effect after they go into battle.

After a while, Monk Yao also came out of the village. He carried a long sword on his body, and his steps were steady and quick, and his burly figure made his image powerful and powerful.Zhang Ning went up to pay homage and said, "The time is ripe, just wait for uncle's order."

In any case, Fengxia Mountain was Monk Yao's territory, and Zhang Ning always respected his power and prestige.Although according to the rank of the evil cult, the Qiuye beside Zhang Ning is also higher than Monk Yao.

Monk Yao cupped his hands in return, but did not speak.He stood on the road and looked at the people and horses on the pasture quietly for a while, then suddenly turned around and took off his sword and handed it to Zhang Ning: "This time, you will give orders to conquer the bandits. Anyone who does not obey the military order and is afraid of the former will be killed." In front of the battle."

Zhang Ning was stunned: "I am only responsible for training everyone to use firearms, and I have never fought a war."

Monk Yao didn't say anything, took a flag from the people behind, shook his hands, and saw four words written on it: Fengtian begging for thieves.

Zhang Ning then took it and ordered people to hang it on the flagpole and set it up.He walked up to Wei Bin, looked back at the ten rows of men and horses standing beside him, and thought: Although he is a civil servant and has no battlefield experience, but with such sophisticated equipment to deal with a group of bandits, if he still can't win, it seems like It doesn't make sense.

Thinking of this, he didn't make any excuses.

Monk Yao didn't go, he was accompanied by Lao Xu, Yao Erlang, and Wei Bin, the chief of a hundred households of this team.Old Xu used to be a military officer, and now he is one of his own. Zhang Ning has some understanding in his heart. If there is any common sense mistake on the battlefield, Old Xu should remind him.As a civil servant, sometimes he would work part-time as a general, which was nothing unusual in the Ming Dynasty.

This crusade for revenge has been planned for a long time, but until now, no tricks have been obtained, and everything is routine preparation.Before setting off, Fengxia Mountain had sent agents to investigate the terrain of Bandit Mountain in detail, and sent people to watch their whereabouts.They didn't deliberately keep it secret after they set off. Although the mother-child cannon was considered a light cannon in the Ming Dynasty, it weighed three to four hundred catties, so it could only be pulled by a horse-drawn cart on the main road.After setting off on the road, Zhang Ning sent a small team of 12 people to disperse ten miles in front of the big team, in order to be safe.

Fortunately, the weather has been sunny and hot these few days, but it can better guarantee the use of firearms.

Bandit Mountain is about a hundred miles away from Fengxia Mountain. Zhang Ning's men and horses walked along the road for two days with eight car-mounted cannons and several baggage carts, and arrived near the destination near dusk the next day.In broad daylight, more than 100 people were on the main road, unable to hide their whereabouts. There was even a banner of "Fengtian Begging Thieves" hanging high in front of the team. It can be guessed that the thieves should have noticed it, but I don't know if those people are literate. of.

It was getting late that day, so Zhang Ning asked Lao Xu for his opinion, and chose a place with a relatively wide view to set up camp on the spot.

Wei Bin was in charge of taking care of the men and horses cutting down trees and camping. Zhang Ning took old Xu Yao Erlang and several others to climb up the hillside of a mountain opposite Bandit Mountain to observe the terrain on the spot.

No wonder Monk Yao was unwilling to call on the door to take revenge in the past.The mountain was shaped like a large tomb, with steep sides on three sides. Although there were shrubs growing on it, it should be possible to climb up with difficulty, but the long and steep slope without a road obviously couldn't be attacked by troops.Only on the side of the "end of the grave" there is a winding path winding upwards, which is used as a passage for the thieves to enter and exit: the simple fortifications on the rugged and steep mountain road will become a nightmare for the attackers. If it is smashed, it will also cause a large number of casualties; it is not an exaggeration to say that attacking this road will cost lives.

There is a high earth wall at the intersection on the top of the mountain, and the road outside the wall is narrow and cannot be deployed by people and horses; such a simple fortification, but relying on the terrain, it becomes a line of defense that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.There is a bamboo building and huts in the back, which are the villages of bandits.

Zhang Ning asked someone to go down and pass the order, and the range finder of the artillery was carried up the mountain.This kind of crude rangefinder is made of wood, and the error is relatively large, but it is much more accurate than visual inspection based on experience. It is very simple to use and can be used by trained gunners, but they don't understand the principle. Can't explain it.The mountainside where the rangefinder is placed is about a mile and a half away from the opposite mountain top. The error will not be too outrageous, and the base number must be correct.

The weather is clear and the sight line is good. Zhang Ning can see the people on the earth wall on the opposite mountain. There is a man with a shirtless upper body standing lazily with his hips on his hips. Looking around, he didn't look nervous at all.

I am afraid that the battle speculated by the thieves is like this: the armed villagers of Fengxia Mountain attack from the gentle slope of the "tomb end", and they will pay several times the price, and they will retreat due to insufficient troops; Will come down to work hard, so the villagers have to bear the burden of transporting food supplies from more than a hundred miles away, leaving more than a hundred young and strong laborers idle, laboring and delivering food to the villagers, and the food stored in the bandit village can let the bandits wait for work with ease , looking for opportunities over a long period of time.

Before the sun went down, Zhang Ning kept squinting on the mountainside to observe.At dusk, smoke billowed from the campsite at the foot of the mountain. Everyone was cooking. After driving for two days, they were all fine and wanted a hot meal.

The scene in front of me doesn't have the sense of urgency of war at all, and the atmosphere is not right, and I don't know if it is because the scale is too small.Zhang Ning stood on the mountainside for a long time, and it was the first time he experienced this kind of thing in person. He could still hear the chirping of birds, and the life at the bottom of the mountain was indistinctly noisy.

After the patrol and whistle change were arranged at night, everyone rested in the camp for the night.In the early morning of the next day, just after dawn, Zhang Ning ordered his soldiers to disassemble the eight cannons, tie them with ropes, and carry them up the mountainside to place them.

After dawn, a lot of thieves had gathered on the opposite mountain, watching from a distance to work here.But when they saw a large number of soldiers carrying things up another mountain, the thieves should know that Zhang Ning and the others did not plan to attack them, but they didn't know what they were up to.

The road up the mountain was really difficult, and it took a long time to get the eight cannons up and set them up. When the sun cleared the mist in the valley, people were still busy.But fortunately, this kind of light-weight cannon, if it is a heavy cannon that weighs a thousand catties, it is almost impossible to get up the mountain from such a road.

"I measured it with a range finder, and the distance between the two sides is one and a half miles, which is within the maximum range of the artillery." Zhang Ning said to Wei Bin, "The thieves were unprepared, and they bombarded the house above. Even if they were blown up, they could still give them some food. There is a lot of rain in the south, so let’s see how they live when it rains. I don’t believe the thieves won’t come down.”

After waiting for a long time, the artillery was finally in place and loaded, and there was a sound of drumming in the camp at the foot of the mountain.Zhang Ning then ordered the bombardment of the bandit village.After a while, the pennants on the artillery array were waved a few times, and the mountains shook with a "boom", thick smoke rose, and a visible fireball roared away from the smoke.After a short while, the yellow dust exploded on the earth wall opposite, and two people fell from the wall, causing the group of thieves to be in chaos.

After a while, the other cannons adjusted their height, and the sound of the cannons rang out again, and within a short while, the bandit village was filled with smoke and flames shot up into the sky, and a raging fire was ignited.The soldiers on the artillery array were busy changing the "sub-guns", picked up the fired ammunition chamber, and replaced them with new sub-guns, and soon there was the sound of "popping" with a hammer hammering the breech bolt.Then continue the shelling.

The sound of cannons rose and fell from time to time, the birds in the woods were frightened and flew away one after another, and the mountains suddenly became lively.A fire broke out in the stockade opposite, and the thieves were in a mess, running around on the top of the mountain.

Wei Bin was a little excited when he saw this, and suggested: "The thieves have become a mob. We can attack from the gentle slope. The musketeer can shoot a hundred paces, kill the thieves guarding the mountainside first, and attack step by step."

Zhang Ning pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "All those with horses ride around the mountain, and the others line up in front of the mountain to stand by."

The command was in Zhang Ning's hands, and the messenger next to him ran down the mountain to deliver the order.No one knew Zhang Ning's intentions.The artillery bombarded for a while, and stopped because of saving gunpowder; no nitrate ore and sulfur ore were found near Fengxia Mountain, and gunpowder was a relatively difficult thing for them to get.At noon, people rested and ate some dry food on the spot, and the thieves on the mountain seemed to be still fighting the fire.

In the afternoon, the soldiers formed an formation in front of the mountain. Zhang Ning explained to Wei Bin and others: "The bandit's stockade and fortifications have been blown up. They can't stay long. The best way is to try to escape down the mountain at night. But They also know that we won't wait until it gets dark, maybe we will go down the mountain and try our best, that would be the best. Wait another hour, and attack if the bandits don't move."

There was a strong smell of gunpowder smoke in the mountains, and the smog in the air could not be cleared for a long time, but it had calmed down, and only people running around could be seen on the opposite mountain.Zhang Ning also left the artillery array and came down, looked up at the mountain and waited.

Everyone saw that the situation was extremely favorable, and many people showed impatience.At this time, Zhang Ning somehow remembered a person: Hu Ying.This "predecessor" in the officialdom had a lot of influence on him, and what impressed Zhang Ning the most was that Hu Ying was very calm.