The warm wind blows, and the grass and trees sway gently.
August is supposed to be a time for hard work, but the mountains and plains in front of us are only grazing and not farming.
"At this time in my hometown... I can eat sweet and delicious oranges~"
A trace of nostalgia flashed across Zhang Shenwu's handsome face, but it disappeared quickly with a warm breeze.
Suddenly, his eyes filled with murderous intent, he waved the cape outside his shirt, drew out his sword and pointed it at the sky.
"All soldiers! Follow me to attack! Kill the slaves! Rob the cattle and sheep!"
"The Ming Dynasty will be victorious!"
More than a hundred Ming army cavalry, whose armor was stained, roared out and launched a surprise attack on the Jian Nu in front of them.
"Zhang Shenwu! It's Zhang Shenwu!
!”
"Run! Run!
!”
When Jiannu saw the Ming army in the mountains and knew that the leader was the terrifying Zhang Shenwu, he was so frightened that he gave up everything, whipped his horses like crazy and ran away.
A few Jiannu who panicked and fell off their horses were chased and killed by Zhang Shenwu and others. The owl's head was hung on a tree to warn Jiannu.
Insert a wooden sign and write in blood "This is the Kaiyuan Mansion of the Ming Dynasty!"
As he wrote in his own hand, this is the mountainous area in the northern part of Kaiyuan, thousands of miles away from Yunyang.
Zhang Shenwu and others have been fighting behind enemy lines for the past six months.
"General Zhang, you have gained a lot this time~"
The man had a smile on his face and pointed at dozens of white goats and two big black cows that were grazing leisurely.
"Take it back." Zhang Shenwu spoke less and less outside of the battle.
His subordinates were still immersed in excitement and praised Zhang Shenwu: "General Zhang Shenwu, the slave-building army cannot find us, and a small force cannot defeat us. It has been miserable to be harassed by us in the past six months~"
Zhang Shenwu still didn't speak, but looked straight towards the direction of the former Kaiyuan Beiguan, which was now in ruins.
The subordinates were still happy and said: "After all, Jiannu couldn't bear to leave Tieling and Kaiyuan, which is such a large land. He didn't dare to farm under our supervision, but he secretly drove cattle and sheep to graze. This is just in time for the Chinese New Year~"
"Don't be too happy."
Zhang Shenwu spoke, but at this time there was no excitement as before the attack, and his tone had almost no emotion. If he had to say there was, it could only be a cold tone.
"Haha, because no one was killed or injured, we got a lot of cattle and sheep. The villain Chen Meng has never had the pleasure of eating meat since Kaiyuan was destroyed."
Seeing that Zhang Shenwu didn't speak, Chen Meng scratched his head helplessly, thinking that General Zhang Shenwu used to have a loud voice like Zhang Fei, why has his style changed now?
He was from the Kaiyuan Guards back then, was recruited in Guangning, and now holds the position of sentry officer.
At that time, Zhang Shenwu led the Sichuan soldiers into Kaiyuan of Tieling. After Zhang Shenwu's battalion joined Wang Hongyu, some of them also went to the Kaiyuan mountains of Tieling to harass the enemy from time to time.
Chen Mengmeng slapped his head. Just now Zhang Shenwu said, don't be too happy. That means that the main force of establishing slaves is likely to appear. Will there be any danger?
"General, do we need to evacuate immediately?"
The handsome and tall Zhang Shenwu still said nothing, but raised his hand and pointed at the ruins of the former Kaiyuan Beiguan.
"General, it's further north and may be flanked by Kormi and Jiannu."
"Let's go there tomorrow."
Chen Meng hesitated for a moment, but he knew that Zhang Shenwu was not only highly skilled in martial arts and had repeatedly killed enemy generals, but was also very strategic. He avoided the real situation and attacked the weak in the mountains. In the past six months, Jiannu had no chance to eliminate them.
"Yes! Now pass on the order!"
Chen Meng immediately sent an order to his comrades, and then led others to take away dozens of captured cattle and sheep.
Tomorrow we will go to the Beiguan area of Kaiyuan. Today is the last night in Kaiyuan, Tieling.
Zhang Shenwu was still looking in that direction. Although he had been fighting in the southern mountains before and had never been to such a far place, the principles of fighting in the mountains were the same.
There are actually many mountains and forests in the Xiliao River Basin, and the terrain includes grasslands, forests, mountains and plains.
The terrain of Kaiyuan is high in the east and low in the west, with hilly areas in the north and south, mountains in the southeast, and is a branch of the Changbai Mountains. The terrain in the west is low and flat, and is part of the Qinghe and Liaohe alluvial plains. The soil is fertile and suitable for farming and irrigation.
The central part is a semi-hilly and semi-plain area. There are 166 large and small rivers such as Liaohe River, Qinghe River, Kou River, Chaihe River, and Shahe River. It is rich in water conservancy resources. The whole territory is divided into six mountains, half water and three fields.
The Xiliao River flows from Kaiyuan to Tieling. The terrain in Tieling County is high in the east and low in the west. There are low mountains and hills in the east and the Liaohe River alluvial plain in the west. The terrain is flat.
The Liaohe River system runs through the north and south of the territory, and the water source is relatively abundant.
Kaiyuan and Tieling were important military and trade towns in the Ming Dynasty. They were once very prosperous and became important grain-producing areas in later generations.
But at this time, the cultivated land has long been abandoned and the weeds are lush. Where can there be a lively market and good farmland?
Instead, there were dead bones scattered on the roadside, kicked to the roadside by the passing Hulu cavalry.
There are many kinds of fish in the river, which are easy to catch. It became a fish hunting ground for Zhang Shenwu's troops. Unfortunately, except for those who did not escape, the Han people were either massacred or had already become the Jurchens' enslavement.
There are only about a hundred people hiding everywhere, and now they have opened up some secluded residences deep in the mountains.
After Zhang Shenwu led his men to join them, they were divided into teams to move around in mountains, hills, and plains.
While developing in secret, they also looked for small groups of Jiannu troops to attack. When they encountered more than 100 Jiannu people, they gathered several small groups to attack.
In late spring and early summer, Nurhaci assigned Tieling and Kaiyuan to Zhenglan Banner and Xianghong Banner, because the west of these two areas is the Liaohe River Basin impact plain, which is irrigated by the river and is the granary of Liaoning.
At first, groups of packers, led by their masters, came to Tieling to open up wasteland and cultivate land in the Liaohe River Plain. They drove cattle and sheep and vehicles to cultivate land in pieces, completely carving up the entire western Liaohe River Plain.
There were several slave soldiers in each area, and many family members followed, including even more family members.
Mang Gurtai was assigned to the Kaiyuan section, and Daishan's two sons Yuetuo and Shuotuo's Xianghongqi were allocated to the Tieling section. On the surface, this was Nurhachi's deliberate neglect of Mang Gurtai, but in essence it was to control Xianghongqi.
Tieling is close to Shenyang, and the relationship between Yuetuo and Shuotuo and their father Daishan is tense. Nurhaci is determined to completely separate the Xianghongqi from Daishan's control and turn it into a flag under his own control.
In the future, it will be under the jurisdiction of Huang Taiji. Huang Taiji went to the Heilongjiang Basin to conquer the Daur people and will not be able to come back for the time being; Daishan and other banners will need more time to march eastwards.
At this time, although Zhenglan Banner and Xianghong Banner had replenished their troops after the war, each had 4,000 men, but the new recruits had not been trained well, and there were less than 3,000 men with real combat power.
In order to build their homes, half of the veterans brought their coats and their families to build houses and open up wasteland; the recruits who stayed in the army and the assigned Mongolians, who were weak in combat power, spread out to protect and build houses and open up wasteland.
Zhang Shenwu organized many attacks, and Zhenglan Banner and Xianghong Banner suffered heavy losses. Not only the slaves and Baoyi who built houses and opened up wasteland were attacked, but even the troops protecting them were severely beaten.