Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 216 Xinzhou, not allowed to enter?

Xinzhou to Dai County is 84 kilometers in total, 160 miles away. If future generations take the train, it will take half an hour to arrive, but the mighty army has walked for two full days.

In many history books of later generations, the Peasant Army was praised as an uprising army and called the pioneer of Peasant Liberation. However, in this era, Song Qingshu understood why the people of the time hated the Peasant Army so much. Are farmers poor?Pitiful!But the madness with which they destroy it is really hateful!

Passing by Chun County on the first day, we stopped in Pingyuan County. Song Qingshu snatched a handful of Xinzhou and Pingyuan County when he passed by. It was just a large army marching to the entrance of the village, with a cannon, and sent people respectfully to "borrow" food, basically They wouldn't disturb the villages, but Cao Cao still had Ge Liyan, and the old Huihui team was good. The countryside in Pingyuan County was in a mess. Several villages near the county seat were burned to the ground, and many people were taken away.

When the food is abundant, the peasant army will help the victims, but it is definitely not a minority during the time of looting. It is also common to rely on robbing people to supplement the army. It is recorded in "Huang Degong Biography" that in Lujiang, Fengyang, Huang Degong came from five provinces Prime Minister Xiong Wencan defeated Zhang Xianzhong and snatched back more than 1 looted men and women from him.

Also got Li Yan, Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance's assisted Li Zicheng's military discipline in the later period was better than that of the officers and soldiers. Even Song Qingshu's eldest brother Zhang Xianzhong was still virtuous in the end. The surrender of the Ministry of Defense to the Qing Dynasty has become a historical laughing stock.

It’s no wonder that the Ming Dynasty collapsed in the tug-of-war of bandits inside and captives outside. It was already corrupt to the extreme and was about to die. The peasant uprising army went crazy and destroyed the poor taxpayers. , It is estimated that another dynasty will collapse.

Originally, he had hoped to get some food in Pingyuan, so Song Qingshu had no choice but to stop, but Qiu Ming scolded that fat, fat, fat man in Pingyuan County. Leaning together, I am not afraid of the fat people in these places.

When they arrived at Xinzhou City the next day, it had already been turned into a huge battlefield.

The city dwellings outside the city were all burnt to a piece of wasteland, and black smoke billowed out, and half of the sharp piles at the gate of the city were burned to blackness. , Sporadic pools of blood and minced meat can be seen.

On the city wall, more than [-] cannons were all pushed onto the crenel, and the densely packed city guards looked back and forth.

To the south of Xinzhou City is the camp of the peasant army. Like all peasant armies, Cao Ying plus Gezuo Fifth Battalion is characterized by a huge crowd. Especially the recent war seems to have made this peasant army swell a lot, continuous and dilapidated The big camp is more than ten miles long. At this time, the sun has not yet set, and countless peasant troops can be seen busy cooking the cattle, sheep, and food that seem to have been robbed recently. It makes people dizzy to see .

The arrival of more than 6000 Yanmen troops has obviously brought new changes to this balanced battlefield. On the top of the city, the officers and soldiers in charge of looking out shouted some unknown words, while the peasant army on the opposite side also became commotion. , although the scouting cavalry of the Peasant Army had been encountered on the way, it was probably from Cao Ying, but a large number of Peasant Army left their food curiously and rushed out of the camp with the guys.

What was displayed in front of Song Qingshu and Qiu Ming was a dense forest of knives, mountains and spears that could not be seen.

This formation, no less than 2 people, is already several times larger than his own, and it is not the entire peasant army. Seeing this, Qiu Ming shook in a daze, and Song Qingshu's heart beat wildly. It's a trap, with [-] beggars in his hands, and less than [-] official troops, he really doesn't know whether he can resist so many people.

I am also afraid that Cao Cao will send troops to attack indiscriminately. This old bastard has a lot of cavalry, and there are also deserters from the frontier army. Half a mile away from the city, the army has already stopped and put down the army formation. The largest number of officers and troops is The gunners came, and while the two guards were shouting loudly, more than 1000 army gunners stepped forward and quickly set up the gun formation, and the more than 1000 musketeers and archers behind them also ran up quickly, forming three or four rows. He squatted in front of the gun array.After doing it, the left army has 300 swordsmen and more than [-] cavalry
The Ming army still followed the method of using firecrackers in the founding of the country. The god machine was in the front, and the army was behind. During the battle, one or two shots were fired to harass the enemy and run away. When it comes to players, the players are placed at the front, and the dozen or so general cannons are placed at the end.

The right-wing Song Qingshu's subordinates are somewhat different. Although the strength is similar, Song Qingshu's army formation is more than twice as long as that of the Yanmenguan officer army. More than 1000 spearmen are arranged in four phalanxes with 250 people and five rows, and the musketeers are also about the same The formation was placed in the gap between the phalanxes, and a rather spacious passage was left between the two phalanxes.

Liu Zongmin's big swordsmen are not so regular here. The 500 people seem to be divided into five groups scattered around the army, but each group of big swordsmen has five tiger squat cannons. This time, Song Qingshu brought a total of 25 tiger crouching guns.

The Northern Lion of Europe, King Gustav II of Sweden still has his last breath, preparing for the most brilliant battle in his life, the Battle of Lützen, but his military thinking has been read by Song Qingshu in later generations After that, the three key points of Gustav's reform are first to lengthen the front line and give full play to the role of firearms. The second is to cooperate with infantry and artillery. The Ming army's tiger crouching gun is much lighter than the Swedish three-pound gun. , the rate of fire is also fast, the disadvantage is that the range of power is not enough, and it needs to be improved in the future.

The third important point, to be honest, Song Qingshu hasn't achieved it yet, and that is strict military discipline.

Someone once analyzed the difference between the modern army and the feudal army, that is military discipline, the guards of the Ming army, even the border army Song Qingshu has seen it before, and has received certain military training, but relatively speaking it is still quite loose, better than peasants It can be seen from Sun Chuanting's battle of Persimmon Garden. Originally, the officers and soldiers won the battle and broke through the three army formations of the Chuang army. As a result, the Chuang army threw a lot of silver during the pursuit, which attracted the army to loot it. The army was defeated.

The biggest characteristic of the army of the Swedish King Gustav in this era is strict military discipline. Gustav's military training has reached the point of abnormality. As long as he has time, even in wartime, he will not let the army idle, but continue This kind of army has a rigorous formation and flexible flow. Compared with the knights and peasants recruited by the Habsburg dynasty from the feudal castle, it is simply much better. No wonder the Holy Roman Empire was defeated twice. emperor.

Even at the same time, the military discipline of the Qing army was stronger than that of the Ming army. Song Qingshu remembered that there was a general in Liaodong whose name he forgot. After he surrendered to the Qing army, he was invincible against the Ming army. , It was defeated within a few months. On the one hand, it is true that the Qing army is already strong, and on the other hand, it may be because of the relaxation of military discipline.

Fortunately, what they are fighting against today is the early peasant army with the worst organization, and the current training is enough for the time being.

But even so, no matter Song Qingshu or Qiu Ming, they are still unwilling to fight the peasant army outside the city. The army in the front is pushed flat, and the more than 1000 young men recruited behind are carefully following with gunpowder and food supplies, staring at the peasant army slowly. The half-enclosed camp in the shape of a crescent is close to the east gate of Xinzhou, which is plagued by typhoid fever.

After riding out of the army formation on horseback, Qiu Ming shouted at the top of his voice.

"The guards of Yanmen Pass were ordered to support Xinzhou, open the city gate quickly, and welcome the army into the city!"

He yelled three times in a row. Qiu Ming was frightened, and the defenders on the city immediately ran back to report. The peasant army on the opposite side seemed to be in a commotion, and there was a tendency to approach. Song Qingshu, who was reading, had sweaty palms. Liu Zongmin made a fool of himself.

With a roar, he led more than a dozen swordsmen to the front of the formation. Under the watchful eyes of the two armies, Liu Zongmin strode forward. At this time, the distance between the two armies was less than 300 meters, and the Yanmenguan army was 120 meters ahead. The discarded cannon was thrown there. Under the astonished eyes of the peasant army on the opposite side, Liu Zongmin took a deep breath, hugged the cannon body with both hands, hugged the heavy cannon with a hey, and roared again. The foot was thrown five or six meters away by him, and it landed on the ground with a bang. With a bang, a large cloud of smoke and dust was thrown up.

The cannon weighed a thousand pounds, and the peasant army who watched it ready to move all gasped. It was really a lot of strength between their arms, and no one dared to move forward for a while.

Then Liu Zongmin gained this little time, and the messenger ran back and forth, calling the prefect of Xinzhou.

This man is the guy who robbed Shi Tianfu's wife, the former county magistrate, not to mention, even if he is far away, at a glance, this man can be regarded as a handsome man, with a soft face and clear lines on his face. Wearing the fifth-rank official uniform of the Ming Dynasty is really similar to the little fresh meat of the later generations.

But what he said almost didn't piss people off.

"Hey, poor soldiers under the city of Wuna, listen up, Xinzhou City does not allow you to enter the army who are criminals! If you disturb the cleanliness of the whole house, you will quickly fight back the thieves in the wild, and then where did you come from?" Where are you going!"

Qiu Ming's nose is almost out of breath, six thousand against eighty thousand, you damn city won't let me in, what can I use to fight?Also quickly repel!Get out now!Have you ever spoken like that?Simply standing and talking without back pain!
"Prefect Zhao, now we are outnumbered by thieves, and our army is not strong enough. Please open the city gate quickly, let our army enter the city, rely on the city wall to resist the bandits, and keep Xin Prefecture safe! Prefect Zhao! Prefect Zhao!"

Furious again, he spoke arrogantly, before Qiu Ming finished speaking, the little prefect left without looking back, and no matter how Qiu Ming yelled, there was not even a single person in the city who agreed.

"Qu Shuai, what should we do now?"

His face turned blue with anger, and Qiu Ming came back humming. Seeing that Song Qingshu's face was also ugly, it turned pale again, and asked Song Qingshu sadly.

"Can you still do this? Push the army a mile and set up camp!"

(End of this chapter)