Ping An Biography

After the rain, the scenery is extraordinarily clear, and the sun rises in the eastern sky, as if covering the whole world in a new stream of light.But the beautiful scenery is not necessarily a good thing. When the weather is fine, it means that the marching resistance of the officers and soldiers is less and the speed is faster.

In the signing room of Cili County, Zhang Ning's cousin Yao Erlang was slapping his chest and making an impassioned statement: "It is my lifelong wish to follow my cousin in the war. Whether it is fighting or retiring, Erlang will listen to you and never say anything."

"Although you and I are cousins, we are closer than real brothers." Zhang Ning said almost indiscriminately. Now he desperately needs the generals to support his decision. Yao Erlang was the first to express his opinion. Why didn't he be moved? But what he said was not against his will.Speaking of brothers, Crown Prince Wen Kui counts as one. Both mother and son dreamed that Zhang Ning would die unexpectedly, so there is nothing to be close to; the second prince has been imprisoned in Fengyang for more than 20 years, and he must have been imprisoned for a long time. However, there is no emotion.

The second person to speak was Zhang Chengzong, "My brothers have all read the message written by His Highness. We don't have much ink in our stomachs, so we can read the words. It doesn't make sense, but since Your Highness said so, it must be reasonable. .”

In Zhang Ning's heart, Zhang Chengzong actually thinks more than other generals. He usually doesn't show his talents, but he is still very reliable in his work... Other generals are only thinking about this battle, but Zhang Chengzong may think that this time is to determine the "position" "when. [

In any case, since Zhang Chengzong made his statement, Zhang Ning was still very satisfied.He immediately turned his attention to Wei Bin, Wei Bin is the most prestigious general in the army; because his status is not as close as Yao Erlang, Lao Xu and others, Zhang Ning actually does not want him to have too much military power, but in terms of qualifications and ability No one can compare to him, and Lao Xu is too old.

Wei Bin has a Chinese character face, with two vertical lines between his eyebrows, which makes him look very serious, and the soldiers below are a little afraid of him.Seeing Zhang Ning staring at him, he asked, "Your Highness intends to challenge Zhu Yongjun?"

Zhang Ning wrote a special speech internally, which obviously meant that.At this time, he didn't say much, and simply nodded and said: "I want to try."

Wei Bin said: "Your Highness said that he wants to fight, the last general can't disobey his orders, he should just obey."

Zhang Ning said: "Now I am not giving an order. If I have anything to say, I will forgive you."

Everyone looked sideways, and Wei Bin said: "Recently, I saw the officials of Cili County at the gate of our county yamen, and they were depressed and panicked. The general thought to himself: The officials judged that we will not defend the city, let alone that we can stop Zhuge Liang. The brave [-] soldiers and horses are afraid that the officers and soldiers will be punished after they retake Cili County, so they will be uneasy. Not only that, the generals and soldiers in the army are ready to pack up and leave when they hear the news. Not much to say."

At this moment, Old Xu said coldly: "Does General Wei mean to disapprove of His Highness?"

Wei Bin said, "That's not what I meant..."

Zhang Ning immediately said kindly: "General Wei is just discussing the facts, pointing out the unfavorable factors of this battle, and his honest words are harsh. Don't misunderstand him."

Wei Bin felt ashamed after hearing this, and said: "The last general must obey His Highness's military orders."

Looking back at Zhang Ning, none of the civil and military officials expressed obvious resistance, and middle-level generals such as Chen Gai also expressed their views.Zhang Ning's strength has grown all the way, coupled with his special status, his prestige is still convincing everyone.But he understands that if this battle suffers a setback, it will be difficult to say what will happen in the future.The hearts of a group are complicated, and there must be a person with enough weight to overwhelm everyone, or there must be a balance, otherwise there will be chaos.

Zhang Ning has been under a lot of pressure. He can only win but not lose at this point, otherwise he will lose everything; but he insists that his decision is correct, and doing so is the only answer.

"Wang Counselor, you are here to do something. Clean up the files of the prisoners in Cili, Shimen, and Lizhou Prisons, and select a group of prisoners to supplement the soldiers. You have to make a rule, what crimes can be exiled into the army, what crimes cannot, Hurry up, select people within three days, and then hand them over to General Wei, and give them weapons for crimes and meritorious deeds."

Wang Yu clasped his fists and said, "This subordinate will deal with this matter later."

Zhang Ning frowned and pondered for a while, then looked up at the people present and said: "You all go down and prepare, and strictly order the army not to talk about cowardice and flee, and not to shake the morale of the army!" Everyone bowed out, and Zhang Ning left behind Chen Maocai.

To this day, he is planning to do whatever it takes to do it.

A war of unequal strength that is almost impossible to win must be won.There was not much time to prepare, and even the release of prisoners was a helpless move. A group of untrained prisoners had little effect; he thought that the only way he could think of at present was to try to win foreign aid.

Chen Maocai followed Zhang Ning into the lounge in the signing room, clasped his fists in salute, and said, "What orders does Your Highness have?" He was still calm and did not interfere with military decisions. Anyway, he was just a literati, no matter what the enemy was outnumbered. It is impossible to go into battle to kill the enemy. Even if Zhang Ning's army is defeated, it is always easy for him to escape alone by taking some risks.

Zhang Ning was still in deep thought.Far water does not save near fire. In Huguang, the only allies who can support him are the Miao people. [

Both the Miao people and the Zhang Ning army were rebels against the imperial court, and the distance between them was only more than 200 miles, but the longest distance in the world may only be more than 200 miles.Back then the Miao people wanted Zhang Ning's troops to attack Longtou Temple to help them. Although Zhang Ning hadn't had time to refuse clearly, he made up his mind that it was impossible to go there. This is a reasonable thing; now Zhu Yong came to his side I'm afraid the Miao people should help... It's reasonable for them to care only about self-protection and disregard for things. There is no chivalrous spirit among power groups.

"Mr. Chen, why don't you talk to that Bai... Bai Yu as soon as possible?" Zhang Ning said, "Hurry up and go back to the Miao people, and try your best to persuade the old man Miao Wang to send his troops north to join us in attacking Zhu Yong's army."

Chen Maocai looked embarrassed: "This..."

This is an impossible task.Chen Maocai also knew that Zhang Ning didn't intend to make things difficult for others. For example, when he was sent as an envoy last time, it was very reasonable to just say that it was reasonable to establish contact with the Miao people; but now Zhang Ning has no choice but to do so.

Zhang Ning said seriously: "Zhu Yong gathered an army at Luxi to cut off the retreat of the Miao people. It is obvious that he planned to deal with the Miao people. Why did he suddenly give up the long-term arrangement recently and march northward in a hurry? It's not very important. Strange?"

"Didn't the higher authorities inquire about the news, the court interfered with Zhu Yong's military affairs, and ordered him to do so?" Chen Maocai said.

Zhang Ning said: "No. We secretly assassinated Zhu Yong's favorite concubine and youngest son in the capital under our secret operations. He was very angry when he got the news, so he avenged his personal revenge and came to us desperately for revenge."

Chen Maocai was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly said: "This subordinate understands what you mean. By saying this, we are indeed righteous to the Miao people. Zhu Yong was attracted to withdraw from Luxi, saving tens of thousands of people. Miao people."

"That's right." Zhang Ning said, "So it's not too much for us to ask them to send troops to help. As long as they advance less than a hundred miles to the northeast, occupy Gaodu County, and threaten Zhu Yongjun's food road; if Zhu Yongjun Instead, attack Gaodu first and save its food roads, and we promise to attack from the rear flank of the army."

Chen Maocai said: "But the Miao people probably don't believe that we killed Zhu Yong's son, let alone that Zhu Yong would change the deployment of the battle because of the death of a son. This kind of argument is really... unconvincing." He originally wanted to say, "It's too It's a child's play", afraid of disobeying Zhang Ning, so he changed his mind immediately.

Zhang Ning said seriously: "The Miao people don't know much about the politics of the Ming court, and they don't understand why the central court ordered the local generals to give up suppressing the rebellion of the Miao people and deal with small-scale rebellions. It may be difficult for them to understand Zhu Yong's actions, and the explanation we gave makes sense...Of course, if Mr. Chen can think of a more convincing reason for the Miao people, he can also talk about it."

"Your Highness is right. If we tell the Miao people the truth about Zhu Yong's change of direction, they might not believe it even more. It would be better to kill Zhu Yong's youngest son." Chen Maocai said, "However, because of this, we must It may still be very difficult to persuade the Miao people to advance."

Zhang Ning said: "You have to do your best."

"Subordinates should do their best." Chen Maocai hurriedly said.

"It's not too late, you can meet with Bai Yan and go to Miaojiang with her." Zhang Ning said.

Just as Chen Maocai left, Ma Dapeng came again to sign the mortgage room.Zhang Ning sent a message to let him in, and saw that Ma Dapeng was holding a stack of Zou Baba's paper in his hand.

"When I just came from the Weapons Bureau, I heard that His Highness was going to fight with the government army. Fortunately, our Weapons Bureau made the cannon in time." Ma Dapeng said with a pleading expression, "Please take a look at it, Your Highness, as long as you are sure, you can try it this afternoon." It is estimated that there will be no problems with the guns. There are a total of twelve guns in the early stage. The bores of the guns are smooth and there are no blisters..."

Zhang Ning casually flipped through the things he handed over, and suddenly said, "No, these guns are not usable yet, they are easy to blow up."

"Why? What's the problem?" Ma Dapeng asked in shock.

Zhang Ning widened his eyes, stared at him and said: "If I say it can't be used, then it can't be used. As for what's wrong, Director Ma has to think about it, come up with a reasonable problem, and then make them unusable for ten days, understand? ?”

Ma Dapeng stood there stunned, first nodded, then shook his head, with a look of guilt.

This fellow was very active in making weapons and could often think of many ways to solve problems, but he was too slow in this kind of thing.If it was another Fan Lao Si in the Weapons Bureau, he would have understood it. [

Zhang Ning couldn't explain it to him, so he just said: "I asked you to make guns, you can't just turn a blind eye and make guns, can you?"

Ma Dapeng nodded in agreement.

Zhang Ning said again: "Then now I want you to say that those mortars can't be used for a while, and you can't disobey orders. You have to say that they can be used, right?"

"Yes, since His Highness gave such an order, I will say that the artillery can't be tested yet and needs to be checked again." Ma Dapeng's mind finally turned around.

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