Wujiazhuang is more than forty miles away from Pingdu, more than seventy miles away from Laizhou, and more than three hundred miles away from Dengzhou.
The Jinzhou Army's current marching speed is faster than that of the Wolf Cavalry and Guard Camps, but at most it can only travel less than fifty miles in a day. The remaining two battalions of the infantry on the left and right have to set off together with the baggage battalion, so the speed naturally slows down. Hurry and slow for a day.
It can only travel forty miles. Such speed is not worth mentioning in later generations, but it is also rare in this era. It relies on the elites of the Jinzhou Army. If it were replaced by any other army of the Ming Dynasty, it would have done the same.
Otherwise, traveling thirty miles a day is already the limit.
Because they were worried that Li Jiucheng's rebels under Laizhou City would divide their forces to seize Pingdu, the Wolf Cavalry and the Guards Battalion were now moving together with the infantry. Only the Scout Cavalry pushed forward to ensure that they would not be suddenly attacked by the Laizhou rebels.
After asking the women and children, I learned that although this place is called Wujiazhuang, it is actually Xiaowujiazhuang. There is another Wujiazhuang more than ten miles away, which the locals call Big Wujiazhuang. Since it is called Wujiazhuang, most of the residents are naturally named Wu.
. Places in China have always been like this, such as Xujiahui in Shanghai in later generations. As the name suggests, it was formed by people surnamed Xu who settled in the early days. It was called many times, so the place name was retained. I don’t know what Wujiazhuangzi was like hundreds of years later.
Or is it still Wujiazhuangzi?
Although more than 200 rebels and civilians were dismissed from Pingdu City, there were still more than 100 women following the army. These women were all kidnapped by the rebels from nearby villages and towns, and some of them failed to escape from the city. They all suffered a miserable life.
The women had been ravaged by the rebels until now, and their vitality was severely damaged. Shi Dayong wanted to keep them in the city or give them some food rations to send them back home, but there was nowhere to go home. In the end, Naibin stayed in the army.
Firstly, he couldn't bear the torture of these poor women by the rebels anymore, and secondly, he wanted to wait for the rebellion to be quelled to see if he could get them to be betrothed to men in the Jinzhou army, so that his subordinates who would fight with him could get married and have families.[
You must know that until the Jinzhou Army established itself, almost none of them, except for the few who were children of the military households in the garrison, have married. Some veteran soldiers are already in their forties but do not have a daughter-in-law, and they are all from Liaodong who suffered the disaster of the Eastern Bandits.
, it can be said that the whole family is destroyed. If we can establish a family for these subordinates, so that they can leave heirs and prevent the incense from being cut off, it is not a good deed, but also a part of the general's heart.
Several people have returned from the battlefields in ancient times. Since Songshan, there have been fewer and fewer familiar people. The bones can be returned, but the incense has been cut off. The thought of it is always chilling. If you can leave the incense among all your subordinates, you will be brave.
Then I take them to the battlefield and wrap their bodies in horse leather. I feel better after all. In ancient times, heirs were the most important thing and the incense was passed down. There are three kinds of unfilial piety, and the descendants are the most important. If you can make all your subordinates have families and children, I'm afraid it will be a disaster.
It would be more grateful than rewarding them with gold and silver.
Although these women are not chaste, they are all poor people, and they are also people who share the same problem. Dayong is from a later generation, so naturally he does not attach much importance to this name. Most of his subordinates are people who have lost their families. Today, I don’t know whether they will be able to live again tomorrow.
When eating this bowl of decapitated rice, women's honors and integrity are naturally taken lightly. As long as these women can leave children for them, feel at home when they return from the war, and have their mother-in-law bring them food when they are tired, this life will be like heaven.
Okay, why are there other thoughts?
After telling this idea to the generals, of course they had no objection. No matter how hard-hearted they are, seeing these poor women returning home, they will die at any time, no matter how hard-hearted they are, they can't bear it.
Nowadays, there are more than a hundred lonely women in the supply camp, including those from the two big families who were snatched away by Pingdu Guards Jiang Maoran. These women are born in a rare calamity, so they naturally have an extra closeness to the Jinzhou Army.
There was nothing much to do except starch and wash some soldiers' clothes. The counter-rebellion was not finished yet, Shi Dayong did not allow his sons to interfere with them and issued strict orders. Anyone who committed adultery in the camp would be beheaded regardless of their origin.
With the pressure of Jinzhou's old army and the power of Shahe to kill prisoners, the superiors and subordinates naturally did not dare to disobey the order. Moreover, they knew from Shangguan's mouth that these women would be promised to the army in the future. Although they did not know whether they were worthy of them, no matter who they were,
In the future, we will all be the wives of compatriots and brothers, how can we deceive them!
Now let's let those dozens of women and children stay with these lonely women. The food in the camp can barely last another day, so they can eat some. The lonely people also know that the army is short of food and grass, so this will give them a place to stay and a mouthful of food.
It is not easy to survive the day with food, so why should I complain? I just don’t know what the future will bring.
The thousands of rebel prisoners taken from Pingdu City were not treated like the women and children. They were driven out of the city and were not given a bite to eat all the way. They had to work as coolies pulling carts, which was miserable. But no one dared to cause trouble.
, but the gleaming swords and guns were not decorations, they were just killing people. The prisoners also judged from the direction of their advance that the officers and soldiers were going to Dengzhou, and they only looked forward to arriving in Dengzhou as soon as possible to end the war. The imperial court might want to
They are just thieves. Although they have done many evil things, they are not the first offenders after all, so they can be given a lighter sentence.
After setting up camp at Wujiazhuang, some soldiers brought dozens of large buckets, but the buckets were filled with soup made from rotten vegetable leaves, some of which were as dry as hay, and even some unknown wild vegetables. There were some in the soup.
Don't even think about the salt and oily soup. If you don't see the oily soup in the soup that the officers and soldiers themselves eat, how can they, the prisoners, drink the oily soup?
The night was completely dark, and piles of bonfires began to rise. Except for the neighing of the war horses, the huge camp was so quiet that it was suffocating.
In front of the bonfire, the silent Jinzhou soldiers swallowed the food in their hands without saying a word. Whether it was the old Jinzhou soldiers, the young soldiers who surrendered to Shahe, or the Sichuan soldiers, everyone knew that after tomorrow, there would be no food in the camp.
We need to run out of food.
What to do if there is no food?
Everyone had doubts in their minds, but when they saw the figure of the General, their minds calmed down a little.
Before reaching a desperate situation, the generals can always find a way.
There were sounds of quarreling in the Chinese army's tent.
"Now that things are like this, we can only take a gamble. Do we really want our brothers to eat that human flesh?!"
"Let's not talk about whether we are lucky enough to intercept the grain. Even if we intercept it, what will happen to Dengzhou? Once the grain truck is intercepted, the rebels will be alerted and our whereabouts will be exposed. By then, under the fortified city, we will
What should we use to attack the city?"
"The chances of this matter are very low. It's better to go all out and do what the beast does. As long as we capture Dengzhou, our Jinzhou Army will have a way to survive. We still have one day to return to Liaodong. But if we can't capture Dengzhou, our Jinzhou Army will
It’s over. Don’t you know which one is more important and which one is less important?”