Ping An Biography

The sun goes down every day, and the evening scenery on a sunny day is usually very beautiful.But the scenery that attracted Zhang Ning tonight was not the natural scenery of the Lishui River, but the scene of the prison camp.He and several generals and guards were riding around the camp when they suddenly stopped beside the prisoner camp.

Everyone followed Zhang Ning's gaze and saw that those soldiers were eating.The soldiers in the camp had already eaten, and then they borrowed pots, pans and chopsticks, and allocated military rations.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a meal that tastes so delicious. Many people hold their hands in front of their faces and lick the rice in their bowls.Zhang Ning looked very surprised. When he was an official in the past, he had seen some officials’ writings reflecting the poverty of the military households. For example, Yang Shiqi had a memorial saying that "the soldiers in the guards all over the country were hungry"... a short line of words by the court officials, Didn't expect it to be so weighty.Seeing it with his own eyes, Zhang Ning immediately understood it.

When he turned his head, he met the eyes of the personal guard Xu Wenjun, and he had nothing to say to her; then he looked at Zhou Mengxiong, hesitated to speak, and finally did not speak.He kicked the horse's belly, left the prison camp, and continued to patrol around the camp.

Since killing Wu Yong, Zhang Ning felt that his thoughts were constantly changing. He originally thought that he had become cold-blooded and ruthless, but today he found that some deep-rooted concepts are not easy to change.He thought of driving these captives to die tomorrow, and suddenly he couldn't bear it.

Forcing the soldiers to dig the wall, Liu Heju, who was guarding the city, could not sit idly by and would definitely order to attack and slaughter these people. In fact, any competent general would give such an order; if the soldiers ran back, Zhang Ning would also order the massacre. Be an example to others, otherwise you will definitely not be able to force other people to go... It's too inhumane, these military households are like serfs, they are poor poor people.

But he thought again, if he is always so merciful, how can he win?Seizing Yongdingwei is of great strategic significance, regardless of the cost!

He kept persuading himself: Although people claim to be the spirit of all things, they still follow the law of the jungle, and the strong prey on the weak, and the fish and meat are greedy;The desire for victory, the hatred for shame... He felt that he was indeed a person who could not afford to lose, fragile and easy to break.

Zhang Ning's face was cloudy and cloudy, the last rays of the sun reflected on his face, his complexion seemed to have turned orange.

"The method of digging the wall proposed by General Zhou, what are the chances of winning?" Zhang Ning turned his head again and asked indifferently.

Zhou Mengxiong pondered for a moment and said: "It's hard to say. Since Your Highness is determined to attack the city, this is the only way. You can't build ladders and ants. Six or seven hundred people are definitely not enough to consume... Yesterday, after watching the battle, I felt that the army The firing range of the firearms should be more than 700 paces, and the training should be good, and the method of taking turns shooting proposed by King Mu of Yunnan can be adopted. We can use this tactic to drive the soldiers to fill the river first, and then go to the city to dig the wall. The city is set to resist the enemy with rolling logs, kerosene and arrows. At this time, our army is covering up with firearms at a hundred paces, aiming to kill and injure the enemy. In this way, we can exchange the defenders' troops and supplies with the loss of soldiers. Waiting to surrender When the soldiers are exhausted, build bamboo rafts to cross the river, round up and forcibly pull the civilians in the nearby military households, and continue this method. In time, the defenders will not be able to sustain the loss of casualties, and they may surrender."

Zhang Ning asked: "Can you estimate the exchange ratio, how many dead men can be exchanged for the life of a defender?"

"This..." Zhou Mengxiong thought for a while, "Our army is leaning forward, and there are walls blocking it. It depends on the soldiers' marksmanship. It is estimated that ten people can kill one or two enemy soldiers. Is our army sufficient ammunition?"

"Gunpowder is enough." Zhang Ning said, he looted a lot of sulfur from Shimen County, and made enough gunpowder with the raw materials, because muskets don't consume much, "If lead bullets are not enough, it won't take too much time to make them now .”

Zhang Ning asked again: "If the soldiers are dead and they cross the river to catch Ding, will the military households and the common people hide in the mountains?"

Zhou Mengxiong replied cautiously: "It is very possible, maybe it is not easy to catch Ding."

Zhang Ning suddenly found that Zhou Mengxiong was looking at him with strange eyes, which made him feel a little uncomfortable, as if he had been seen through.For some reason, Zhang Ning was very reluctant to let others see through him, and habitually wanted to pretend.

But he asked the question just now, isn't he just looking for a reason for himself?

Maybe the answer to how to decide, he already has in his heart.Just need a reason, or an excuse.He thought of his "father", maybe regretting his original decision after failure?Maybe one day when you are fished by a human, you will hate yourself for being indecisive when you have the opportunity to fish others!

Zhang Ning's left hand held the saber at his waist, and he felt that the palm of his hand was soaked in sweat and slippery.If you don't go to the battlefield to command the battle in person, the decision-making will be much easier. The fate of the more than 400 soldiers is just a number, not a group of hungry and choking people.

"I can't do anything, I can't force it. Take a detour to take the two counties of Cili and Shimen first, get supplies and then make a long-term plan. What do you think?" He finally said.

Zhou Mengxiong first agreed: "That should be the case. It is reported that Zhu Yong has mobilized the main force of the army to deal with the Miao people in Luxi. The troops east of Yongdingwei are empty, and the defenses of the counties are weak. It is very easy to attack. First take the places along the Lishui River, and then take the large In Yongsuo, Jiuxiwei and other cities, Yongding’s guards are too weak to fight in the field, and they have become isolated cities, so don’t worry too much..."

Zhang Ning turned his head to look at those generals with a questioning look. Wei Bin and the others all acted dull... On a slightly larger strategic level, these generals seem to have little knowledge, and they are really helpless.

On the contrary, Zhou Mengxiong became more and more excited as he talked: "If the Miao people can hold Zhu Yong in Chenzhou, the situation will be very good; we rely on the northwestern Dongting territory to expand our army and prepare for war. After a few months, the army will reach a large scale, and we will have the capital to aspire to the Changde Mansion. If the Changde Mansion is captured, Dongting, a land of fish and rice, will be incomparable in strength... At that time, not only will Wuchang be shaken, but the capital and the world will also be moved."

Zhang Ning nodded, acting calmly.Seeing the red light on Zhou Mengxiong's face, he couldn't help thinking about this person's position...Whether Zhou Mengxiong was sent down from above had other purposes, although Zhang Ning did not find evidence to support it, it was just speculation, but he did not doubt it; But in his intuition, Zhou Mengxiong's position is not that simple. If he really followed Emperor Jianwen from Nanjing, he should miss the glory of the past, right?

"How to deal with the soldiers?" Wei Bin asked.

Zhou Mengxiong looked at Zhang Ning with interest when he heard this, but Zhang Ning actually hated such a look.His tone also became less friendly: "How can we deal with it? Could it be that more than 400 people were killed together?"

Wei Bin said: "I'm afraid that as soon as we leave, these surrendered soldiers will become soldiers of the government army again. After they are armed, they will become our enemies again in the future."

Zhang Ning said decisively this time: "You have also seen that those people have different accents and were forced to become military households from other places. They are satisfied with enough food. First register their names and tell them Those who are willing to join us will have food and military pay; those who are unwilling will be given travel expenses to get out, and they will be cut off next time they are captured."

His tone was blunt, and he didn't mean to discuss it. Wei Bin didn't say much, just clasped his fists and said, "Yes."

The next morning, after the surrendered soldiers figured out the situation, as expected, half of them were willing to "join the gang"; most of the others said they wanted to escape because they had married wives and had children in Yongding Weituntian.Even if Yongdingwei hadn't encountered such a catastrophe, he had run away a lot before, otherwise the Weicheng with five or six thousand troops would not have only such a small number of troops.The military households also had a relatively simple idea, because they saw how powerful the rebels were, and they had rice and meat to eat, and they didn't know where to shelter, so they simply joined the gang.

The soldiers cut down trees and bamboo to build many rafts, and sent those surrendered soldiers who were unwilling to rebel across the river. Each sent away with a little money and food.The remaining more than 200 people were reorganized and formed into the first and second brigades of the right post; the generals above the team selected personnel from the Suzaku army, and the newly added soldiers did not have weapons and flags for the time being.As for Zhang Ning's order, the registration and bookkeeping item was not implemented, and many generals could not even read, so it took a bit of time to do this.

Zhang Ning's men and horses expanded to about 1000 people. They crossed the river one by one on rafts, and transported the luggage and a dozen wounded soldiers to the opposite bank one after another. Because of the poor tools, they did not cross the river until the afternoon.The officers and soldiers in the Acropolis were just watching the excitement on the Internet, and had no intention of going out of the city to fight again.

The army marched swaggeringly from the north bank to the east. After walking for two days, they cut wood again to build boats and rafts to cross the river, because the mountain roads on the north bank became more and more difficult to walk.If the Acropolis of Yongding was not stuck in the middle, people would not have to cross the river twice.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, the army arrived outside Cili County.The magistrate of Cili County committed suicide two months ago. It seems that there is no chief officer. The officials figured out that it was Zhang Ning's men who came back, so they simply surrendered in Kaesong.

Zhang Ning did not disappoint the officials and people of Cili County. After leading the army into the city, he strictly ordered the soldiers not to disturb the people.However, the supply of military rations is for those officials to figure out a way.After resting for a day, Yao Erlang's fifth battalion of the left whistle was left behind to garrison, urging local officials and gentry to raise military supplies; the main force continued to march eastward along the river.

When they arrived in Shimen County, the old acquaintance Wang Dianshi saw that Zhang Ning had brought so many soldiers again, so he opened the door to greet him.Wangzhi County took the blame, but this old guy is still an official, without any changes.All the way without bloodshed, Zhou Mengxiong was dumbfounded.Zhang Ning was quite proud to talk about the benefits of military discipline to the generals, and it slowly began to bear fruit... These county towns know that they can't resist resistance, open the door and surrender without being killed, fools know how to choose; If he will bear the risk of being punished by the court afterwards, then there is no way. It is better for a hero not to suffer immediate losses than to be killed right now.