Emperor Kangxi: Yuyu Chengxiang

Chapter 108
Kangxi's army marched again.It was a cold autumn, and large areas of decayed grass and dead leaves were undulating on the grassland.The white-haired wind whimpered, and they didn't feel anything when they marched during the day. At night, they were exposed to the cold, and all the sergeants sleeping in the tents were so cold that their teeth were shaking. delivered.What's even more unbearable is that the food road is getting farther and farther away, and there is no supply at all.The soldiers had to kill horses to satisfy their hunger.Kangxi sent people several times to strictly order Suo'etu to bring the grain quickly, and Suo'etu always replied that he would try his best to supply it, but the food supplied was pitifully small, almost as soon as it arrived.Fei Yanggu knew that this was the result of General Suo'etu's rations being transferred to the east during the Battle of Ulan Butong, but he was the commander in chief and did not dare to tell the truth, so he had to order the North Route Army to cut down on food and clothes and hurry on with their belts stretched.

By the beginning of September, Kangxi's central army had only three days of rations left, and it was still ten days away from Tamir. At this time, Feiyang Gujun reported that the North Route Army had run out of rations!Wu Dan and Su Lun, who were traveling, saw that Kangxi was so anxious that he looked haggard, and they all advised him to suspend the march to wait for his salary.

"Today is the ninth day of the lunar new year," Kangxi said with a wry smile, as if feeling overwhelmed, "It's the day in Beijing to climb high with pots and enjoy chrysanthemums to cool off the cold. How do they know that I am here to suffer? The papers they sent are all 'respectfully Saint Ann', who knows what's going on in their hearts!"

Axiu and Su Lun looked at each other, their hearts were also sad, but they dared not reply to Kangxi's words.But Wu Dan sighed: "This place is so close to Ganshan, but we have to allocate grain from Horqin and Longhua. I really don't know how these old men dispatched it in the first place!"

One word reminded Kangxi, thinking of the several halls he had secretly placed in Yan'an and Yulin, where there was plenty of food, why would you look far away?At this moment, Kangxi was really grateful to Zhou Peigong, and he lifted his spirits, and said: "Feiqi went to Feiyang to pass on the decree to the ancient army: order to send cadres to Yulin, Yan'an, and Yikezhao, and take out all the food to supply the North Route Army!" "Then we What should we do?" Bu Sulun asked.Kangxi said: "The North Route Army wants to cut off Geerdan's road to return to the rich eight cities, and also wants to capture the city. The journey is far away, so there must be no shortage of food. On our side—from today onwards, from me to the groom, we will only provide one person a day." Meal, waiting for Suo'etu's aid!"

How can this work?Wu Dan was stunned, opened his mouth, but couldn't speak, he kowtowed for a long time, and said with a sob: "I obey the order. I only ask you, the emperor..."

"Don't persuade me anymore." Kangxi's eyes were full of tears, and he looked at the bodyguard who had been with him for many years, "I am like everyone else, only the morale can be maintained, otherwise, I will walk more slowly..."

The emperor, like the groom, only serves one meal a day at noon!When the decree was passed down, all the soldiers wept bitterly.Kangxi didn't seem to care.On the same day, he called all the officers and assistants above the chief executive officer, ordered them to sit on the ground, and said earnestly: "Although I have never tasted the feeling of being hungry, I know it is very sad. Fortunately, we are marching on the grassland, wild sheep, deer and roe I can see you occasionally, and you can also hunt and march. From my soldiers, I have been named, and I will never forget you. We will share the difficulties today, and we will naturally share the blessings in the future. This is my present. The first thing I thought about." Kangxi looked into the distance with deep eyes, and said, "The second floor, now the country is at its most prosperous when the Qing Dynasty was founded. The south of the Yangtze River is also ripe, and the treasury has enough food for ten years! Our army is short of food, but it’s just that we can’t transport it for a while. Galdan is trapped in Tamir, and his soldiers are also exhausted, and there is no food source In just a few days, our army's food will be brought up. Why should you worry about the temporary difficulties? This campaign is for the unification of the world, and the Central Plains of the Western Regions will never suffer from military chaos. Even if there is no food, even if I eat snow, I will pursue it to the end and cut off the root of the chaos in China... I feel very sad to see you suffering and starving..." At this point, Kangxi lowered his head, and the audience was full of sighs Voice.

"Brace yourselves!" Kangxi raised his voice and shouted suddenly, "The governor of Henan said that the Yellow River is clear, and this is the auspiciousness from heaven. The Yellow River is clear, and the world is unified. Zhechang, I would like to encourage you all!" Hearing this, the officers knelt down in unison, their waist knives and spurs clinking, and they agreed like a thunderous voice:
"twitter!"

... Marching on an empty stomach for eight days, the vanguard army and Geldan's army had already exchanged fire.From the looks of it, Gerdan's army was too hungry to save their lives. The two sides had a little bit of a fight, and after a tie they went back to their camps.At about four o'clock, Kangxi's rear battalion came to report that the food had arrived. Although it was only four hundred shi, at this time, it was like a long rain. Battalion, destroy this last lair.

Unexpectedly, after lunch, the enemy camp set fire in front of the formation.Due to long-term wars and turmoil, no one grazes here, the wild grass grows waist high, the autumn clouds are violent, and the withered grass is dense. In a short time, a boundless sea of ​​​​fire rolls over from south to north, and the flames rise into the sky, black smoke and burning grass leaves rush. From Laogao, riding the westerly wind to roll over.Qing Ying immediately panicked.

Kangxi had just come back from his tour of the camp, when he heard people yelling horses from outside, he thought that Galdan risked his life to kick the camp, stepped out of the tent, and was carried by Wu Dan and Su Lun one by one to help him onto the horse.Wu Dan pulled the reins, sweating profusely, and shouted: "Your Majesty, hurry up, this servant leads the middle camp to fight the fire. Even if it dies, it will take an hour to burn it back!" Su Lun pushed Wu Dan past, Said: "The emperor can't do without you, you protect the master and go. This is my errand, you hurry, hurry!" After saying that, he turned around and ordered his followers, "If you have the guts, get out of the way of fire with me!"

"Slow!" Axiu suddenly lifted the curtain and came out, her face was extremely calm, "You don't know the fire on the grassland, as long as it doesn't rain, you can still catch up to you if you run to death!"

"Stinky bitch!" Wu Dan had long forgotten etiquette, and yelled angrily, "If you weren't in the army, why did you attract this evil fire? If you don't leave, will you be burned to death here?"

Axiu smiled coldly, and said, "I don't care if you speak urgently, but what I'm telling is the truth!" As she spoke, she took out the fire coal, shook it, threw it to the ground, and immediately threw the grass under her feet. Burned.

Immediately, Kangxi was enlightened, drew his sword immediately and ordered: "Order all the battalions to light the fire immediately, burn out the empty space, and move the big camp over!" By that time, Kangxi had already moved to the camp safely.

Night fell quietly on the scorched grassland.Without the grass, there will be no rustling noises that are used to making night and night, no birds and beasts, no occasional howling of wolves and jackals, it is really quiet.When Kangxi returned from his tour of the camp, he saw Wu Dan walking around by the tent, so he asked, "Didn't I tell you to settle the food that was brought in? What are you doing here?" The grassroots said: "...the slave is rough today and scolded your master by mistake, slave..." Kangxi smiled heartily and scolded: "You stubborn donkey, who cares about you! Go do your job!" After finishing speaking, he went straight to the account and said to Axiu with a smile: "It's a good thing I brought you here, otherwise, I would have gone to see my ancestors! Wu Dan just apologized, and I sent him away."

Axiu frowned, and took a long time to let out a sigh, and said: "Master, have you thought about it? The fire we set off will block the food road behind..." Kangxi couldn't help being startled when he heard this, and after a long time, he frowned and smiled Said: "The food transporters are all Mongols, they don't matter! But... I'm afraid it will be slower." Just as he was talking, Su Lun came in from outside to observe: "Your Majesty, Nian Gengyao from the Northern Route Army is here, please see the Emperor !"

"Nian Gengyao?" Kangxi couldn't think of it for a while, and he smiled after a long time, "It's that brave general in white! Tell him to come in!" As soon as he finished speaking, Nian Gengyao rushed in one step, and kowtowed to the ground: "Slave Nian Geng!" Yao, please see Long live and apologize!"

Kangxi couldn't help being surprised, and asked: "What crime did you ask for? Speak slowly, don't worry!"

"The Northern Route Army has joined forces with the Ministry of Hui, blocking Ge Erdan's escape from the west to the south. Ge Erdan's nephew, Alabatan, surrendered to the imperial court! Ge Erdan led 100 people to break through the encirclement. The tower committed suicide by swallowing gold. The slave..."

"Wait a minute!" Kangxi couldn't believe his ears, and stopped Nian Gengyao, "What did you say?!"

"The servant said that Galdan is dead." Nian Gengyao said, "The enemy army is commanded by Galdan's daughter. She originally wanted to block our army and let Galdan escape. She didn't know that our army had already returned. road……"

"Death, there must be a corpse?" Kangxi still didn't believe it.

Nian Gengyao shook his hands, took out a piece of paper from the boot leaf, held it in both hands, and said: "This is Ge Erdan's suicide note. The Feijunmen ordered the slave to transfer it, and failed to capture this beast alive. ..."

When Kangxi grabbed it and looked at it, it was written crookedly in Chinese characters:

The bow is broken, the wings are flying, relatives and friends are betrayed, the soldiers are scattered, and the sky is dead, and it is not a crime of war.Galdan's Last Word
After being stunned for a long time, Kangxi suddenly laughed and said, "Are you pleading guilty for this? When I said that Ge Erdan was captured alive, it was just a formal punishment. Since he is dead, I can't be happy in time! Do you have any wine? Get a bowl!"

"The slave killed Ge Li!" Nian Gengyao added abruptly, and after finishing speaking, he hit the ground heavily with his head.

Everyone in the tent was surprised when they heard this.Nian Gengyao is a member of the underdog, how dare he do this?All of them turned pale with fright, Axiu was weeping with joy, she couldn't help staring in astonishment, and there was a dead silence in the tent for a moment.

"Why?" Kangxi asked after a while.

"He withheld the military rations from Ganshan to the North Route Army!" Nian Gengyao replied forcefully, "The commander ordered me to supervise the rations. He said that all the rations had been distributed to the refugees, and the slaves went to the grain depots in Yulin and Yan'an to see them in the depots." There are still more than one million stone grains, and he is forced to send them out immediately, but he pushes left and right, saying that there are no horses or carts, and it is difficult to fund the army. No way. The servant beheaded him in a fit of anger!"

This person is young and young, if he didn't say it himself, no one would believe that he is so powerful and vicious.Kangxi stared at him and shifted time.He said, "Which flag are you from?"

"The Han army has a yellow flag." Nian Gengyao replied in a loud voice, "Now Siye's vassal office is on duty. The servant is good at killing ministers, please order to resist!"

"Then Ge Li is the newly-recovered Governor of Gansu and Shaanxi," Kangxi sat back and said, "You have a cloud of servants and a forest of soldiers. How could you kill him?" Nian Gengyao kowtowed and replied, "In the army Nearly a thousand soldiers starved to death, and several times the food was not available, so the servant borrowed the commander-in-chief's Tianzi sword and executed him, please punish him!" Kangxi was silent for a long time, and said noncommittally: "Let's not discuss this matter for now, you don't have to go back to the camp , just stand by in the imperial camp, let’s go!”

Kangxi screened everyone away, he wanted to think alone for a while.Before leaving Beijing, he had repeatedly issued secret edicts to the northern provinces to fully support Feiyanggu.How dare Ge Li be so bold and openly defy the order?Why are the [-] grain vehicles supplied by Horqin and Chahar not used, but horses are used to help the front line bit by bit?What is even more surprising is that no one except himself and Gao Shiqi knew about the establishment of Yulin and other offices. How did Ge Li get the real information? Did Gao Shiqi dare to leak it? ... A series of doubts made Kangxi's forehead feel hot.He stood up and took a few steps, when suddenly he heard a flute sound in the distance outside, sobbing very sadly, he tilted his head and listened for a while, thinking that he had heard this song before, so he called Jin Sulun and asked: "Yes Who's playing the dick?"

"It's Mingzhu." Su Lun replied, "Just now when Wudan came back, it means that Zhu was wandering around the edge of the ridge with a flute..." During the conversation, Wudan had already entered the account, and Kangxi asked, "Wudan, Listen, when have you heard this song?"

Wu Dan listened carefully for a long time, and said with a smile: "The second half, I can only hear it. It was played by Mingzhu at Wei Dongting's house in Weiliao Hutong that year, but I haven't heard the first half!" He Guizhu's house, Mingzhu blows!" Kangxi listened for a while, and suddenly realized that he first met Wu Ciyou 26 years ago, and the past of gathering guards at Wei Dongting's house to plan to eliminate Oboi came to his mind.He took off the cloak hanging on the tent wall and put it on, and walked out without a word, Wu Dan and Su Lun had to follow at a distance.

These days, the most difficult thing for the whole army is Mingzhu.Since the Chinese army was short of food, he was reduced to two meals. Kangxi ordered the whole army to have one meal a day, but he was deducted, and sometimes he was randomly thrown two corn buns.Human feelings are hot and cold, the world is hot and cold, Mingzhu has experienced a lot, and she doesn't really care about it. What's terrible is that the soldiers who followed him and watched him become more and more fierce, and they would attack him every now and then: "The person who deserves to die should die by himself, why bother?" Want the emperor to speak?" This pearl is like a fallen phoenix, what can I do?Unable to rank the best, walking under the scorched autumn moon, I couldn't help thinking, so I leaned on the ridge and played the flute for a while.When she was drowsy, she heard someone say: "Mingzhu is not in a bad mood, is it you who played the flute?"

"Long live!"

Mingzhu was stunned for a moment, turned over and fell down on the ground, saying: "Long live, my slave Mingzhu, if you don't play the flute and disturb the holy driver, you will be guilty of begging!"

"Get up!" Kangxi beckoned slightly, and saw Mingzhu's skinny face under the moonlight, her face was haggard, and her hair was more than two inches long. Thinking about how a minister in the study room fell like this, he couldn't help feeling pity, "I'm afraid there will be no food these days." You have suffered even more, and it is difficult for you to bear it!"

"A mere slave is nothing!" Mingzhu swallowed hard, "This time Ge Erdan escaped and the entire army ran out of food, it was a man-made disaster!"

"What man-made disaster?"

"Someone wants to starve the emperor to death on the grassland!"

"Who?" Kangxi's heart moved, and he asked sharply, "Do you still want to harm someone?"

"How dare I!" Mingzhu was not afraid, and said loudly, "I have trapped many people in this life. Mr. Wu and Mr. Zhou Peigong were both killed by me. Now that I have repented too late, I will not frame others again. I have cut off the life that the emperor bestowed on me." Thought——Since repenting and dying, the emperor promised his ministers to say the least! Think about it, who transferred all the military rations from Hebei and Shanxi to Ulan Butong? There are tens of thousands of horses in Mongolia, why only one horse is used? A thousand horses of grain? Is there a shortage of grain? The battle of Ulan Butong was arranged like a net, why did the culprit go away?——Feiyang, a famous general of the ancient generation, how could there be such a mistake? If someone did not interfere , how could the emperor have traveled thousands of miles this time!" After finishing speaking, he howled and cried loudly, "Slave is the one who deserves to die... In the holy world, he should be a virtuous minister, but he became a sycophant...Long live, you killed me! I..."

Kangxi's face became paler and paler as he listened, and he was already prejudiced in his heart when he contacted the strange incident during the southern tour.After a long while, he said: "You...you don't have to do this. From tomorrow onwards, you can still report directly to me..." After saying that, he went back to the account without saying a word, and arranged to attack Xiaozhen's barracks with all his strength the next day.

(End of this chapter)