I

  Chapter 254 252 [The sound of the wind and the cranes] (addition for the "Warm Sun 1314" of the Silver League)

  Zhang Tieniu kept his promise, and the middle and low-level officers and ordinary soldiers, as long as they have not escaped, will all distribute food and go home.

  The premise is to confiscate their weapons and armor.

  This is already benevolent enough, Zhang Tieniu even wanted to kill all those officers, regardless of their rank.

   Moreover, there is absolutely no mistake!

   These officers and soldiers have been suppressing bandits in Guangdong and Guangxi for three years, and the imperial court has not paid them food. Where did their military food come from?

   All hands are bloody, they are all executioners who slaughtered the people.

  Maybe some military officers have done things like killing good people and taking meritorious service. One kill is a village, the money and food are taken away and put into pockets, the head is cut off and used as a reward for meritorious service, and then it is said that the village was slaughtered by rebels.

  Some of the officers and soldiers who fled on the day of the capture of the city rushed to Shixing County to report, and the Shixing defenders went to Nanxiong to report.

   "With only a small amount of luggage, the whole army will evacuate!"

  Guangdong General Lu Qian was shocked and immediately withdrew from Nanxiongfu City, taking away the troops from Shixing County by the way. They had to leave early, otherwise they would be blocked there and unable to advance or retreat, because Zhang Tieniu's route of attack was to stab chrysanthemums.

  In fact, Lu Qian's main force has been blocked by Zhang Tieniu.

   When evacuating, Lu Qian couldn't walk the normal way, so he could only leave through the mountain by a small road called "Qinghua Path".

  Crossing mountains and ridges, and finally arrived at Wengyuan County, Lu Qian still didn’t dare to stay, and continued to retreat to Yingde County to garrison, and Zhang Tieniu was stuck on the main road to continue going south (Wengyuan County in Ming Dynasty was very close to Yingde County).

  The entire northern part of Guangdong was captured, leaving only Yingde City.

  South of Yingde is Guangzhou!

  Although there is Qingyuan blocking the waterway in the middle, there is a land official road between Yingde and Guangzhou.

   Only need to capture Yingde again, and they can directly attack Guangzhou City.

   This is not because Zhang Tieniu is so powerful, but because of Shen Youlong's strategic mistake, he did not send troops to guard against Huguang. As a result, once Shaozhou fell, the main force in the direction of Nanxiong and Shixing would be at risk of being blocked and encircled and wiped out, which frightened the general Lu Qian to withdraw his troops from the mountain path overnight.

  Shen Youlong himself, in fact, does not know how to fight. It is all up to his staff to come up with ideas, and the specific military affairs are left to the generals.

  When the news of the fall of northern Guangdong came, Shen Youlong's situation became even more embarrassing.

  He wanted to shrink the line of defense, voluntarily abandoned the city, and withdrew to Guangzhou to join forces with Lu Qian, but was blocked by Fei Ruhe in Longchuan and could not return.

   On that road, Fei Ruhe divided his troops and got stuck.

   In desperation, Shen Youlong could only desperately lead more than 6,000 old soldiers, the same number of civilian husbands and a large fleet. More than 13,000 people voluntarily abandoned Longchuan City and went to attack Fei Ruhe outside Heyuan City.

  Heyuan also had 3,000 defenders, equal to more than 16,000 people, who flanked Fei Ruhe's 6,000 people (including civilian husbands) on both sides.

  One hundred and thirty miles, marching along the river bank.

   Camp in the evening.

  After nightfall, there are shadows around the barracks, and a large number of grain transporters escaped at night. They were forcibly recruited, and they were not willing to fight at all. How could they not escape such a good opportunity?

  Shen Youlong was awakened by his own soldiers, and after learning about the situation, he didn't dare to stop him at all.

   If there is too much commotion in the middle of the night, it is very likely that the camp will be bombed directly, and the officers and soldiers will follow.

   Those officers and soldiers are also unwilling to fight!

  The advantage of Shen Youlong is that he knows how to delegate power. He can't fight, so he trusts his generals very much. However, this also led to the corruption of military discipline. It took three years to suppress the bandits in Guangdong and Guangxi, and many times they deliberately let the bandits go.

  For those generals, instead of fighting tough battles with the rebels, one can support the bandits' self-respect, two can preserve their strength, and three can take the opportunity to make a fortune.

  The generals got rich by robbing, but the big soldiers didn't get much.

   Even the military pay is not enough, and the food is also very poor. This is the normal state of the army in the late Ming Dynasty, which army can feed the soldiers, but it belongs to the heterogeneous among the heterogeneous.

  Shen Youlong can defend the city with a large army. Once he leaves the city and the Datong Army is nearby, the soldiers and civilians will make up their minds to flee.

  The march continued on the second day. As a large number of civilians fled and scattered, soldiers were required to transport food, resulting in a slower march.

   Camp in the evening.

  This time, Shen Youlong learned his lesson and put the civilians in the middle and the soldiers on the periphery, so that the civilians could be prevented from escaping at night.

  The civilian husband did not have a chance to escape, but the soldiers started to run. The outermost troops lost as much as 60% during the night, and more than 800 people fled overnight.

  In the morning, when the number of people was counted, Shen Youlong and the generals all looked ugly.

  The deputy chief soldier is called Shi Wangzheng, a very good name. He invited Shen Youlong aside, and said quietly: "Master, you can't march like this anymore, otherwise when you arrive at Heyuan to fight the bandits, our army may be defeated before the fight begins."

   "What can I do for it?" Shen Youlong sighed.

  Shi Wangzheng suggested: "Pay the soldiers and civilian husbands immediately, and make up for the military salary of the previous month. The supervisor must pay the salary himself!"

   "Okay!" Shen Youlong followed suit.

  Because he doesn't know how to fight, and in order to make generals obey him, Shen Youlong has never interfered in specific military affairs.

  This brings about two results. The military general likes Shen Youlong very much, and thinks that the governor is a good official, and he is usually willing to work for the governor. However, military discipline has been seriously corrupted, and deduction of military pay has become commonplace. The low-level soldiers could not get paid, and they all relied on stealthily hiding some money to compensate for the loss when they robbed the village.

  Such officers and soldiers have been suppressing bandits for three years, and they are all old soldiers. They are not only afraid of Zhao Han, but also other traitors.

   In a word, I don’t want to work hard!

  Shen Youlong called all the generals and announced: "The march is suspended today, you call the soldiers, and the governor will pay the salary himself!"

  At this critical time, the generals also understand the governor, as long as they don’t ask them to pay, the governor will pay the salary himself.

  The soldiers lined up to receive their pay one by one, and finally there was some joy on their faces.

  The effect was immediate, and there were only more than 300 deserters that night.

   On the third day, continue to march.

  Not far away, the mountain search team in front of the road came back in a panic and reported: "Master, there are bandits ambushing in the mountains ahead, and we saw a lot of rebel flags!"

   "How many bandit soldiers are there?" Shen Youlong asked.

  The spy replied: "I don't know, I don't dare to get too close."

  Shen Youlong was afraid of being ambushed, so he stopped advancing immediately, and sent 300 more soldiers to find out the truth about the bandits in the mountains.

   After tossing like this for an hour, the soldiers came back and reported that the ambush in the mountains was fake, and they just planted some flags indiscriminately.

  Shen Youlong became more careful, and his marching speed became slower and slower.

   Within a few miles, I found the anti-thief flag in the mountains. I had to stop and check carefully again. After repeated tossing, I only walked more than ten miles in a day.

   And morale plummeted, both generals and soldiers felt that rebels might appear in front of them at any time.

  After the camp was set up that day, Shen Youlong told the generals: "It's good to be on guard tonight. The whole army sleeps in clothes, and the weapons can't leave their hands. Set up more sentries, and we must guard against night attacks by bandits."

  The generals went to do it immediately and passed on the military order, making the whole army even more panicked.

   This night, many people did not sleep well.

  In the middle of the night, a sentry suddenly shouted: "What are you doing?"

  Hearing the scolding, more than a dozen deserters speeded up and ran towards the mountain outside the barracks.

   "Stop!"

  The sentinel is very responsible, because he received a stipend of 300 Wen for guarding tonight.

   At this critical moment, you must be generous, otherwise, who would be willing to be a sentinel?

   "Is there a night attack by rebels?" An officer rushed to ask.

  Another sentry was dozing off. Hearing this, he immediately shouted in a panic: "Enemy attack, enemy attack!"

   "Dang Dang Dang Dang!"

   A sentry began to sound the gong as a warning.

  All the officers and soldiers of the army woke up suddenly, took up weapons one after another, and some of them ran away in fright, and the whole barracks became a mess for no reason.

   Finally calmed down, counting the number of people began at dawn, and there were red-eyed yawns everywhere.

  That night, more than 200 soldiers ran away, more than 700 civilian husbands ran away, and several ships transporting baggage ran away.

  One of them contained a lot of money, which was the money of the deputy general Shi Wangzheng.

  Fei Ruhe had been besieging the city of Longchuan for two months. The deputy commander had to find something to do. He extorted rich merchants in the city and got a lot of money. Then, they misappropriated the army's grain transport ship to deliver goods to themselves. This kind of private use of public equipment is very common.

  Especially during the small imperial court period of the Southern Ming Dynasty, a large number of civil servants moved south with their families. How could the countless wealth be transported away?

  The Eight Immortals cross the sea, each showing their magical powers.

  The most powerful civil servants directly use warships and civilian troops to transfer family treasures for themselves. And behind them was the Qing army chasing after them. The scene was indescribably weird.

  At this moment, Shi Wangzheng was furious. He obtained several thousand taels of silver from Longchuan, and let his confidant sleep on the boat to **** him throughout the journey.

  That **** confidant was his own nephew, but he sailed away in the middle of the night last night!

  The angry person is not only Shi Wangzheng, but there are also generals who are using public equipment for private use, and they are also using grain ships to carry goods.

  In order to stop the loss, the generals asked for the unloading of the goods, and asked the civilians to carry the goods on the shore, and move the luggage and grain back to the ship. Even if he escapes, the civilian husband can't take too much away, unlike the boat that escapes and loses everything.

Shen Youlong was so angry that he called the generals and scolded his head and face: "What time is it, you are still greedy for money. Take out your silver and donate one hundred taels per person. I will give it to the soldiers again." Pay more!"

   can only be punished in this way, the board fell gently, and the war is about to start, Shen Youlong dare not offend the general.

  A military general in the late Ming Dynasty was indeed of low status, but at the same time he was arrogant and domineering.

  A sixth-rank military officer dares to wear first-rank casual clothes and swagger past the civil servants, but the civil servants can only turn a blind eye to it.

"kill!"

  Walking and walking, there was a sudden shout of killing in the mountains ahead.

   "Stop marching!"

   "Array, array, don't panic!"

  A moment later, only a few Soushan team members were killed by five hundred Datong ambush soldiers, and more than 20 people sent out to explore the road were killed by Datong army ambush soldiers.

  Shen Youlong was about to be driven crazy. For more than a hundred miles, he had to walk along the river bank, and both sides of the Dongjiang River were full of mountains, and any part of the road might be ambushed.

  Fei Ruhe only needs to send 500 soldiers to create panic along the way.

   More officers and soldiers were sent into the mountain, and the five hundred fellow soldiers ran away immediately. Once the officers and soldiers relax, the false ambush may become a real ambush.

  These officers, soldiers and soldiers are almost being driven into neurasthenia.

  (end of this chapter)