Ping An Biography

Zhang Ning sat in the room of the Weapons Bureau for a whole half a day, trying to figure out what the organization had done recently from the information and accounts in the newspaper.The winter moon has arrived, and it is not pleasant to sit for half a day in such a season, mainly because of the cold.

Zhang Ning couldn't remember the geography knowledge he had learned for a long time, and Zhang Ning didn't know what kind of climate the southwestern region belonged to. Anyway, it's not so easy to experience winter personally.During the day, the outdoor water does not freeze, and the temperature should not be below zero, but the humidity is abnormal. As long as the body is inactive, you will find that the heat on your body is constantly losing, and you will shiver with cold.Everyone does not burn charcoal during the day. It is said that the more you burn, the more you will be afraid of the cold.

However, the generals who were also chatting in the room were all in high spirits and didn't feel that they were uncomfortable.Zhang Ning also felt that he was used to the "external" good life, and it was hard to bear in comparison.Not long ago, these military generals were half-agricultural and half-military farmers. Even Wei Bin, who had a prestige in the village, had to work in the fields before.

Zhang Ning has seen the farming situation of the people in the Southwest. Obviously, there are no agricultural tools derived from mechanization and chemistry in this era. All rely on manpower, and animal power is only most useful when plowing the ground.Especially when harvesting rice, the grain on the ears of rice is beaten into a container called a "half bucket" by manpower. When transported back to the village, a load of wet millet was about two hundred catties, and it was all carried back from the mountain path by people, and even livestock could not be used.In such a living environment, Zhang Ning believes that these people are upper-class soldiers who are accustomed to hard work.

With food and meat, it is not difficult for soldiers to walk hundreds of miles to fight with such treatment, and it is not difficult to train every day, because the food provided by the government is provided for training.

"Every day, the branch altar masters send people to ask to join us, but there is not enough food." Zhang Ning said casually, "This barren land can't support many troops, and there is no way to mobilize troops without food."

Monk Yao, who was drinking tea, said, "You can exchange silk and satin and the nearby Tujia villages for food, but you can't exchange much. They also want to keep rations. Why don't you tell Mrs. Yao about this? I remember Jiao Nei and Yong Shunsi's chieftain officials have contacts, and it seems that some chieftains have joined the religion, so if you can buy food from Yongshunsi, you don't have to worry about it."

Zhang Ning hurriedly nodded and said: "If we can get a large amount of grain from Yongshunsi, it will be easy to handle, but the transportation is a bit difficult... and weapons and armor are even more problematic, and everything is missing." He poked with his finger Poking the dossier in front of him, "The firearms are only enough to equip two brigades, and the number of soldiers that can be equipped is less than 300. There is a lack of iron, and the guns are hopeless; if the army is expanded, each person can get a spear and a single sword. Not bad. Iron armor is definitely not equipped, one is the lack of iron, and the other is that forging consumes manpower, and people need to get fuel... Paper armor and cotton armor are also very difficult, there are not so many raw materials and manpower; For the regular armed forces of the officers and soldiers, the bow and crossbow can't stand the long-range damage."

He muttered a bit, and he understood that in the final analysis, it was the limitation of productivity. Without land and population, there would be no productivity, and he would not be able to support soldiers.

At this moment, the voice of someone from outside came in, "There are officials here, go ask, maybe His Highness is also inside." After a while, a man wearing a long robe and a square scarf appeared in the room. the door.

I saw that the man was about 30 years old, with regular features and a tall and tall figure, and his demeanor was somewhat refined.He came in, took a look around, and bowed to Monk Yao: "Master Yao is safe and well." Then he greeted everyone in the room one by one.

Zhang Ning pointed to the stranger who came in and asked, "Do you know each other?"

Monk Yao said: "He's from Dayong's side. I've met him a few times. His name is Chen Maocai, everyone calls him that. Chen Maocai, isn't this the third prince you were looking for just now?"

Chen Maocai turned his head to look at Zhang Ning, and was taken aback, making a gesture to kneel.Zhang Ning hurriedly said: "No." But he knelt down and bowed three times, then stood up and clasped his fists and said, "The leader sent a letter, saying that His Highness lacks an envoy, so my father ordered the minister to come to Fengxia Mountain. , waiting for His Royal Highness to dispatch."

"It turns out that the person we want is Mr. Chen." Zhang Ning changed his address immediately, and stood up enthusiastically, because it is not a good job to find someone to go to Miaojiang, and he doesn't know how the Miao people will treat them to negotiate. The Han Chinese are a bit dangerous anyway.

Seeing this, Chen Maocai was a little flattered, and hurriedly said, "Don't dare."

Zhang Ning hurriedly asked him to sit down and talk, checked the letter he handed over, and said straight to the point: "Mr. Chen should understand the situation? The Miao people are now active in Chenzhou, and we need to send people to discuss the alliance...Of course, Those Miao people may not be interested in forming an alliance all at once. Your task this time is mainly to express our goodwill to the Miao people leader and then establish contact with them; I will prepare some property gifts for Mr. Chen. You have to find a way to get along with the Miao people. Make friends at the top."

"In this way, this errand is not bad." Chen Maocai pretended to smile, "We have no malicious intentions, and we also gave away property. The Miao people should not be against us."

Zhang Ning said: "Miao and Han have different customs, you should prepare more before you leave, and don't violate other people's taboos as soon as you arrive."

Chen Maocai cupped his hands and said: "Your Highness is right, I have already made preparations. There are many Miao and Tujia people near our Dayong sub-altar, and they also communicate with each other at ordinary times. When I came here, I brought an entourage with me, who was with the Miao people of Mount Laer. The Miao people of the same clan."

Zhang Ning was very satisfied and nodded.

At this time Wei Bin joked: "I heard that Miao people can use Gu, you have to be careful, don't fall for it."

Chen Maocai smiled calmly and said, "I have never had any enmity with the Miao people in Laer Mountain. Why did they use Gu to harm me? As far as I know, the Miao people who use Gu are also excluded in their own clan." What's more, the saints don't talk about strange powers. Although I have heard of that thing, I don't believe it can harm people. If the witchcraft is useful, why don't the Miao people use Gu to make the Han officials who oppress them cursed to death? If you want to fall, you want to take the risk of rebelling?"

Wei Bin glanced back at Zhang Ning, and said, "This gentleman can speak well, and his mouth is very good."

Chen Maocai smiled without saying a word, noncommittal.

Chen Gai, the chief banner officer sitting next to him, said with a smile: "Mr. Chen is a good-looking talent, so you don't need to bring any belongings. I heard that the Miao girl is passionate, so she may fall in love with you. Why don't you just marry me? Everything will be settled." Yet?"

Everyone burst into laughter after hearing this.Chen Maocai was not angry, but shook his head slightly and said, "It's a pity that I've already been married, and dogs can run all over the mountains. There is a virtue in the ancients that 'a wife of dross will not go to court', so I have no idea of ​​divorce. If that Miao girl is willing To be a concubine, to be a beauty to me, what you can't ask for, why don't you want to?"

"Haha..." Everyone laughed again.

Zhang Ning was smiling, which didn't affect everyone's good mood, but he didn't have much interest in spending time here to have fun with the generals.Immediately stood up: "Uncle sent someone to settle Mr. Chen down, I'll go to the pasture to have a look. If you don't move around, it's really cold."

Wei Bin said: "Zhang Baihu (Chengzong) and the others are training sergeants on the pasture, and my subordinates will go with you."

"Alright." Zhang Ning nodded, and said goodbye to Monk Yao, Chen Maocai and others.

There is a flat pasture outside the east entrance of the village. It used to be the place where Wei Baihu and others trained armed villagers. It is naturally a school field.It was quite lively during this time, more than 700 people were there every day, the grass in the middle had been completely trampled out, leaving only a solid wasteland.

More than 700 people were divided into five brigades, forming a complete system of the left post.Among them, the first team is the veterans who attacked Shimen County. The equipment is relatively complete, but the armor is lacking, and the blue uniforms are also very neat. The queue training barely passed the level, because the Weapons Bureau still had more than 100 matchlock guns, so they were equipped to train firearm skills on weekdays, loading, shooting, queue transformation, firearm maintenance and so on.

The other three teams were young men recruited from several villages under Monk Yao's rule, and Zhang Ning had almost maximized the potential of soldiers in several villages in Fengxia Mountain.These farmers are still practicing military discipline, and waving whips and beating and scolding are indispensable.

Hundreds of people from the three teams were divided into two sides, each with a wooden board tied to their chests, each holding a stick more than ten feet long and lined up to fight. Zhang Chengzong yelled, and the two sides lined up to hedge against each other from a hundred paces away.

"Those who retreat and run around, be tied up and given twenty lashes!" Zhang Chengzong yelled loudly as he stared at the approaching queues on both sides.After a while, the two sides bumped into each other, and most of the long wooden sticks directly stabbed into people's chests, some of them were stabbed in the stomach by bad luck, and screamed in pain;Zhang Chengzong yelled: "Make up for the rear, keep the formation, and the opponent can be defeated by a large number of people!"

Several generals on horseback rushed forward with whips, and threw them over to see who displeased them, scolding.

... Hundreds of people from Fengxia Mountain usually bring food from their own homes for training, because the food that Zhang Ning can allocate and supply is really tight, so they are asked to bring their own food and subsidize the military salary by three yuan. One, two, three dollars per person, eight dollars for everyone except the second team.The people from Dashengzhai had no choice. They had no land or food here, so Zhang Ning could only rely on Zhang Ning to find a way to supply them, and those family members from Dashengzhai also had to rely on food relief, which was really a burden.

The clothes on the school field were messy, the people in the first team were almost all wearing old blue clothes issued before, the second team was equipped with gray clothes in Shimen County, and the others were just wearing what they wore at home.Zhang Ning plans to pay for the family members of the sergeants to order uniform military uniforms... In his opinion, what kind of army does it look like if the uniforms are not neat?