Ming Empire

Chapter 51 Emergencies
"General, Vice General Zhu has something to see!"

"Let him in!" Cao Yue, who was writing plans with a candle in his tent, was stunned for a moment when he heard the report from the soldiers that the deputy general Zhu Yang asked for an interview, and then ordered the soldiers to bring Zhu Yang in.

It was already night, and it was freezing cold. Except for the sergeant who was watching the night, the other soldiers basically hid in the warm barracks or tents to sleep.Cao Yue thought, Zhu Yang came to see him at this time, is there something important?
"I've seen Mr. Chief Soldier in my humble position," Zhu Yang respectfully saluted Cao Yue after entering in the cold.

"Vice General Zhu, please sit down," Cao Yue smiled and motioned Zhu Yang to sit down opposite him, and asked politely, "I don't know if Vice General Zhu is asking to see you in the middle of the night, what's your report?"

"I have something very important to tell the chief soldier," Zhu Yang said, looking around vigilantly.

Seeing Zhu Yang's expression, combined with what he had gained during this period, Cao Yue vaguely guessed something, and immediately backed away. "Vice General Zhu, it's just you and me now, if you have anything to say, just say it!"

"Lord Chief Soldier, Deputy General Soldier Wu is going to present to the imperial court, saying that you are recruiting soldiers to prepare for rebellion. He also wanted to win over the humble official to join the petition, but was rejected by the humble official. Please be careful, Lord Chief Soldier. According to the humble official's understanding, Vice President Wu is currently collecting evidence!"

Hearing what Zhu Yang said, Cao Yue was filled with unspeakable anger. Grandma is a bear, and she worked hard to train soldiers. She just wanted to train a team capable of conquering wars, eliminate foreign captives and internal strife, and restore peace to the world. I never thought of rebellion and self-reliance at all, and I didn't show any meaning in this regard.Wu Ming, the new deputy commander, actually wanted to frame him like this, it was really too much.

Seeing the angry look on Cao Yue's face, Zhu Yang was overjoyed, knowing that Cao Yue didn't find out about this matter, and his whistleblowing today will play a decisive role in this incident.Now, he told the things he knew in more detail, of course he pushed everything to Wu Ming's head. He didn't participate in any way. After he knew the news, he reported it to Cao Yue immediately.

Cao Yue didn't say anything, but said that he would investigate the matter himself, and asked Zhu Yang to keep quiet.

After Zhu Yang bid farewell and left, another lieutenant, Gao Qing, went outside the tent to see him again.

After Gao Gao came in, he reported the same content as Zhu Yang. Cao Yue didn't have any doubts. After sending Gao Gao out of the account, he immediately arranged to monitor the deputy commander Wu Ming closely.At the same time, Cao Yue also sent Cao Neng to leave Datong early tomorrow morning for Beijing.

Cao Yue couldn't tell whether Wu Ming had reported the content of the false accusation to the court, and he had to respond in time.

He sent Cao Neng to Beijing to find Wang Cheng'en, told him about the matter, and gave him a generous gift.

Cao Yue also asked Cao Neng to find a way to find Princess Zhu Yu of Kunxing and ask her to help. If this matter really escalated, let her defend him in front of Emperor Chongzhen and Queen Zhou.Cao Yue personally wrote a letter to Aimee Zhu, and he believed that Aimee Zhu would help him.

After making the arrangements, Cao Yue continued to lead the sergeants in ski training.

The weather in the 14th year of Chongzhen was strange. Before August, there was a severe drought and many rivers stopped flowing.At the end of July and the beginning of August, there were continuous torrential rains.In winter, cold waves followed one after another, and heavy snow continued to fall.

After the first heavy snow this winter, the weather has cleared up for two days, and the snow has not yet melted, yet another heavy snow has started to fall.

Because the money and food for the winter were all prepared, and the weapon shop was running at full capacity, and the heavy snow fell continuously, Cao Yue didn't feel any disgust, but was a little lucky.On such a day, don't worry too much about foreign enemies, including Jiannu and Li Zicheng's peasant army.

He can also sneak away for a few days, don't be as busy as a spinning top like he just came to Datong, the weather has brought him some free time.However, Cao Yue is not a person who likes to be idle, and the training of recruits cannot be carried out according to the normal plan, but he also ordered the ministers to continue training if conditions permit, and not to slack off.

Cao Yue made sufficient preparations for the winter.After arriving in Datong, according to Emperor Chongzhen's suggestion, he "extorted" 50 taels of silver from the Wang Pu family, the former general of Datong, to serve as military pay, and even deceived him into asking for 20 shi of grain from the Wang family.The income from the "extortion" of the Wang family alone is enough to support a [-] army for almost two months.Coupled with his original savings from spoils of war and his family's contribution, Cao Yue's hoarding of money and food is now enough for his army to use for about half a year.

The only thing lacking in the army was winter clothes. After all, time was too short. Even if Cao Yue had money, he couldn’t buy more than [-] sets of winter clothes at once.

When the cold wave hit, although some sergeants in the army were injured because of the cold, the problem of winter clothes has basically been solved.

All of this is thanks to the strong support of the Cao family. Without the support of his own family, Cao Yue would not be able to solve these problems smoothly.

However, after the next year, some members of the Cao family will go to Nanjing, including Cao Yue's mother and elder brother. The support that the family can give will decrease in the future, and he has to find a way to solve the follow-up needs by himself.Cao Yue is not worried about this, because he has already thought of many ways to solve the military needs.

Years ago, there was no need to worry about this. Cao Yue also devoted most of his energy to training his own troops to ski and use skis to march and fight.After finishing the military affairs, he will take his family troops out of the city to practice skiing.

In addition to the guard troops, the 300 quasi-special forces personally selected by Cao Yue also began training in skiing.

However, these 300 people were not trained by Cao Yue himself, but Cao Jie was in charge.Cao Jie is a member of the first battalion, and the 300 quasi-special forces belong to the first battalion, and Cao Jie is responsible for the daily training affairs.

After Cao Yue came to Datong, he inspected all the guards in Datong, and also visited some forts and piers.When he was leading the family to practice skiing, he also took the opportunity to inspect the guards and fortresses outside Datong City.

Cao Yue also found many problems during the inspection, mainly because the sergeants were negligent in this weather and did not send troops to inspect.Today is a troubled time, Datong is a place where Jiannu and peasant armies may attack, Cao Yue doesn't want to get into trouble because of carelessness.Therefore, after he found a problem during the inspection, he issued an order that the guards should not slack off because of the weather, and he would make surprise spot checks at any time.

On this day, Cao Yue took advantage of the training of skiing with his family members and inspected several guards and forts near the Great Wall. The results were satisfactory. A certain degree of vigilance was maintained.

At the end of the inspection, Cao Yue led his troops back along the Great Wall and was about to return to Datong. When they turned over an abandoned castle, a sharp-eyed soldier suddenly pointed into the distance and shouted: "Master Chief Soldier! , there is a situation, there is a large cavalry over there!"

After hearing the reminder from the soldiers, Cao Yue immediately took out his homemade binoculars to check the situation.However, a few miles away from where they stayed, a group of at least thousands of cavalry was stepping on the snow and slowly coming in this direction.

(End of this chapter)