Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 108 Salt Problem
Of course, Li Jing didn't expect that the routs of the officers and soldiers would help him a lot. Because of these routs, the officers and soldiers didn't dare to fire and had to abandon the guns and flee for their lives, which saved Li Jing a lot of time.Otherwise, Li Jing would have to lead his men to entangle with the officers and soldiers for a while.

Li Jing ordered Zhou Huhu to lead some people to transport food and other supplies, and then divided some people to clean the battlefield, escort the prisoners, and treat the wounded soldiers of the officers and soldiers. He himself took some people to transport the artillery back to the mountain.

Not long after Li Jing returned to the mountain, news came from Gao Qi that Gao Qi successfully ambushed a group of officers and troops ten miles west of Tiger Ridge, and captured a lot of food, grass and supplies, but he only captured [-] artillery pieces.

Hearing the news, Li Jing smiled, and ordered people to deliver twenty tiger squatting cannons to Gao Qi's troops immediately, so that there would be forty tiger squatting cannons in Tiger Ridge.

With these forty tiger squatting cannons, there is no fear of officers and soldiers using cannons.

Both sides have artillery, but the officers and soldiers need to attack upwards, so the distance of the artillery attack is short, while Gao Qi is condescending, and the distance of the artillery attack is much higher than that of the officers and soldiers.At this time, it is only necessary to plant landmines within the range of the artillery, and the officers and soldiers will only be beaten.

To Li Jing's surprise, the officers and soldiers did not come to attack the mountain for a long time.

At first Li Jing thought that the officers and soldiers were preparing for a night attack, but through scout investigations, it was found that the officers and soldiers were not preparing for a night attack.

It wasn't until night that Sun Meng sent someone to secretly deliver a message up the mountain, and Li Jing knew why the officers and soldiers didn't come to attack the mountain.

It turned out that after Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu brought the remnant soldiers to join Sun Meng, they told the story of the attack.

According to Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu, the bandits planted a large number of landmines on the road. The power of such mines was so great that all the officers and soldiers had never seen it before.Almost all the three-kilometer ranks of the officers and soldiers were covered by these mines. If it weren't for the slow movement of the logistics troops behind and the lack of stepping on the mines, it is estimated that few people along the way would have come back alive.

The words of Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu frightened the commander of Zhangdewei, regardless of whether what they said was true or not, they hurriedly reported the news of the officers and soldiers being ambushed to Qian Chong.

Qian Zhong naturally didn't believe this lie full of loopholes, but even if he didn't believe it, there was nothing he could do.

If the generals appointed by the imperial court had changed, they would have ordered the beheading of Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu. However, Qian Zhong came here to command the war, and his reputation was not right. How could he easily order the killing of two Qianhus?Killing Qianhu, once someone stabbed him out, he would not be able to eat and walk around.

Therefore, Qian Zhong knew that Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu were lying, so he could only admit it.

Qian Zhong didn't punish Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu, but just scolded them.After scolding, Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu were ordered to take the crime and make meritorious service, and ordered them to attack Hongshanling.

But this time Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu said nothing, saying that their troops had suffered heavy losses and were no longer able to attack the mountain, so they asked Qian to find Sun Meng again. It is suitable to attack mountains.

After Qian Zhong asked, he knew that the two did not lie this time, so he had no choice but to order Sun Meng to attack the mountain, but Sun Meng refused to carry out the order after receiving the order.

The reason is that the bandits have such a powerful land mine, once they step on it when attacking the mountain, won't they let themselves die?
Sun Meng dared to disobey Qian Zhong's military order because he saw that people like Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu would not be dealt with, so it was nothing if he disobeyed the military order.

After hearing Sun Meng's reason, Qian Zhong was dumbfounded.

No wonder the officers and soldiers couldn't suppress the bandits in Hongshanling. This is simply fear of the enemy. Those two guys also said that Sun Meng's troops are elites.
It's just that since Qian Zhong had nothing to do with Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu, naturally he couldn't do anything with Sun Meng either.

Now Qian Zhong finally understood what the hole Liang Yuan dug for him was.

Because he didn't dare to deal with the officers below easily, he couldn't command the people below at all.

Qian Zhong finally knew that he was not the material to command a war at all, and he could not make decisive decisions. Liang Yuan must have seen through his character long ago, so he agreed to let him lead the army.If the officers and soldiers are going well, then naturally they have nothing to say, but as long as the officers and soldiers suffer once, as long as they dare not deal with the officers who made mistakes, then they will have to suffer a big fall.

At this time, Qian Zhong also knew that he had done something wrong. He should have ordered Zhang Qianhu and Deng Qianhu to be beheaded immediately. You can also control the army.

But it was too late for Qian Chong to regret it.

A bigger blow is yet to come.

Hearing that Zhangde was defeated and the commander Tongzhi was not punished, Wei Huiwei was no longer afraid, and came to inform Qian Zhong that a group of officers and soldiers had been ambushed by bandits.

Hearing the news, Qian Zhong really wanted to cry but had no tears.

How many bandits are there?
Didn't you say there were only five hundred people?But both officers and soldiers were ambushed. Could this be done by 500 people?

At this moment, he really didn't know what to do next.

Fortunately, Xu Baichuan gave him an idea, asking him to gather the commanders of the two guards and the thousands of households below to discuss countermeasures together.

Qian did it again.

But the result of the negotiation made Qian Zhong even more headache.

Each of the two commanders and six or seven thousand households had different suggestions.

Some asked for more troops, some said to surrender, some said to withdraw troops, some said to ask the guards near the state capital for help, and some said to surround the mountains to trap the bandits to death. After thinking about seven or eight ways, there was no one. Proposed to take the initiative to attack the mountain.

Xu Baichuan couldn't help listening to it, and immediately interrupted and asked: "Masters of the two commanders, gentlemen of thousands of households, there is something unknown about Mr. Xu, and Mr. Xu has offered a huge reward. Why is no one willing to take the reward?" Is it? Xu’s money is still hot?”

After hearing Xu Baichuan's words, Liu Hong glanced at Sun Meng.

Liu Hong never met Sun Meng, but Liu Ming met him in Hongshanling, and when he came back, he informed Liu Hong of Sun Meng's situation.

Hearing that the thousand households of the Zhangde Guard were actually called brothers and sisters with Li Jing, Liu Hong was taken aback, and immediately sent someone to the Zhangde Guard to find out about Sun Meng's situation. Households, this position of thousands of households is bought with money.

After receiving the news, Liu Hong's heart suddenly became brighter, knowing that Li Jing must have paid the money.

Thinking of the money Liu Ming brought him when he came back and Li Jing's explanation to him, Liu Hong felt in his heart that this man is really too generous, and he has considered every aspect for him.Liu Hong immediately made up his mind that he must make friends with Li Jing.

Liu Hong believes that Sun Meng must know that he is also Li Jing's person. If Li Jing can introduce Sun Meng to Liu Ming, then he will definitely tell Sun Meng about his own situation.

Liu Hong gave Sun Meng a wink, which meant that I was with you.

After thinking about it, Liu Hong felt that this was not enough. Sun Meng must be Li Jing's diehard, but he was not. Some words are more appropriate for him.

So Liu Hong took a step forward and clasped his fists at Xu Baichuan: "Master Xu, silver is a good thing, and no one doesn't like silver. Why did the brothers fall during the day? In fact, it was because they were greedy to reward the silver and underestimate the enemy. Seeing that the brothers and troops ate it With such a big loss and so many people dying, the other brothers naturally have to carefully weigh whether it is worth it to go all out for this reward."

Xu Baichuan gave Liu Hong a cold look: "You mean it's wrong for me to offer the reward?"

Liu Hong shook his head and smiled, "That's not what I mean. What I mean is that we were ambushed twice and suffered heavy casualties. The morale of the soldiers has already plummeted. It would be unwise to attack again at this time. I think the most urgent thing is to win people's hearts. , rectify morale, and then think of countermeasures."

Sun Meng interjected: "Yes, morale is low now, if we don't rectify it, no matter how much money we reward, it will be useless."

Qian Zhong shook his head at Xu Baichuan, and looked at the two commanders: "What do you mean, my lords?"

Unexpectedly, these two commanders are now relying on Sun Meng and Liu Hong to help them back up. Hearing that they can't fight, how can they have other opinions?
"Let's take a rest first." The two commanders said.

Qian Zhong said helplessly: "Then let's take a rest, but I think we still need to keep surrounding the bandits, and we can't let them have a good time."

This was Qian Zhong's final decision, and everyone left after hearing this.

Li Jing didn't expect the officers and soldiers to suppress the bandits, and the suppression came to such a result, it was like a child's play.Is there anyone afraid of such officers and soldiers?
The siege of the mountains by officers and soldiers is a good thing and a bad thing for the bandits on the mountain.

The good thing is that the newcomers are no longer afraid of the officers and soldiers, and look at Li Jing with awe.

The bad thing is that the officers and soldiers blocked the passage down the mountain, and the supply on the mountain became a problem.It's okay to say that meat is not eaten at most, but salt must be solved.

Hearing Zhang Ao's report that there was not much salt on the mountain, Li Jing frowned slightly.He didn't expect that one day he would be stumped by salt, which can be said to be as much as you want in later generations.

Li Jing didn't ask Zhang Ao why he didn't prepare more salt and other nonsense.

Salt and iron are all under the control of the imperial court, which does not mean that you can buy as much as you want.

Zhang Ao didn't prepare so much, of course there was his reason.

What's more, there are more than 1000 people on the mountain, plus the original brothers and their families, and some folks. These people need to be supported by the cottage, including food and clothing. Naturally, salt is also included in the cottage. of an item.

"How long can the remaining salt on the mountain last?" Li Jing asked.

"At most half a month." Zhang Ao replied.

Li Jingjing nodded, as long as it is not imminent.

"You go to Gao Qi and ask him to send someone to notify Liu Ming to find a way to send a few hundred catties of salt first." Li Jing said.

"Yes!" Zhang Ao saluted and left.

After Zhang Ao left, Li Jing paced around the room, thinking slowly.

Salt may seem trivial, but it actually exposes many problems.

(End of this chapter)