A group of men and horses were marching on the ancient mountain road. Li Baoquan, who had been promoted to the post commander, was riding a horse and fully armed and walking in the team. His first sentry group of men and horses were also fully armed and marching.
No one dares to be careless when marching in these steep mountains. Although marching in full gear affects the speed and increases the burden, there is nothing wrong with being careful.
The sentry officer, Zhao Xiaolou, came from the front on horseback.
"Sergeant, the Dagon Ridge is ahead."
There is a Daguan Village on Daguan Ridge, which is the destination of their trip. After the Zhangqiu Battle, although Li Baoquan, Zhao Xiaolou and others were promoted, they did not encounter any battles again.
After their Shence Army was reorganized into the First Town, they were stationed in Shandong.
This time, some of the escorts were also mobilized for the Western Expedition. After the emperor moved to Luyang Pass from Luoyang, they were assigned the task of leaving Luyang Pass and entering Nanzhao County to clean up the local bandits and bandits.
"The village is surrounded by rivers on three sides, with only one road passing through it on the west side. The village is located on a mountain top that faces east and is high in the west and low in the east. It is about ten acres in size. It is surrounded by rivers on three sides. The mountain is steep and difficult to climb.
There is a stone wall about seven feet wide and eight feet high, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack."
"The owner of Daguan Village is surnamed Guo. He is a Nanyang gentry and has the title of Juren. Most of the people in the village are his clansmen and tenants. There are only a few hundred people in the village, but it is different from the nearby Erguan Village, Huanggou Village and other seven or eight villages.
Form an alliance and agree on mutual protection.”
"The Tatars attacked them before but failed to capture them. Later, they agreed to pay food and money in summer and autumn. The Tatars gave them the name of team training, and everything was fine."
Li Baoquan followed the emperor all the way from Shandong. After crossing the old Yellow River, he also saw the power of the native villages in Shandong and Henan. He also saw the depression in the Central Plains and the people's famine.
"If you reveal our identity in the past, it won't work if the emperor's imperial camp does it?"
The emperor led the imperial camp all the way. Wherever the imperial camp went, they immediately wiped out local bandits and bandits, recruited local villages, etc., and asked them to disperse and return to farming, restore local peace and restore production order.
"As I said, I also read out the emperor's imperial edict to the stronghold, but they didn't even let me in through the stronghold gate. They stood on the stronghold wall pointing their bows, arrows and muskets at me, and they couldn't listen at all."
"Since you don't listen to good words, you have no choice but to go under the knife." Li Baoquan didn't pay much attention to such a village.
The messenger was called and ordered to speed up the march.
Their post consists of three platoons, each with three teams and 12 people in each team. The post also has a team directly under it, including a cooking team, a messenger team and a firepower team.
As the troops under the banner of the first infantry of the First Association of the First Town of the Ming Dynasty, they fought gloriously in Zhangqiu and received a sentry flag inscribed by the emperor himself. There was also a firebird on it as their sentry mark. In Zhangqiu
Many men and horses were lost, but they have all been replaced long ago.
Nowadays, there are more than a hundred people in one post, all wearing armor, and the infantry are all equipped with new-style muskets. Each platoon of three teams has a fire team, with six people equipped with three heavy muskets, and six equipped with three-door tiger crouching guns.
Their outpost fire team is also equipped with two small Franc aircraft.
There are also three people and six horses in the messenger team.
Li Baoquan is the commander-in-chief of the seventh post, and Zhao Xiaolou has also been promoted to full-time and deputy deputy of the eighth post. Their post also has a civilian deputy from Qiqiao, a deputy from the eighth commander, a sergeant chief (non-officer), and three sergeants and nine-post officers.
The platoon commander and three deputy officers from the ninth platoon.
The organization is sound, well-equipped, and the soldiers are all well-trained veterans.
Compared with the bloody battle in Zhangqiu, it was a matter of replacing shotguns with cannons. There were more than a hundred soldiers on one sentry, and dozens of auxiliary soldiers.
The messenger and trumpeter blew the trumpet to speed up the march.
Zhao Xiaolou and the sergeant major mounted their horses and continued to explore the road ahead with a few riders.
Soon, the entire sentry arrived at the foot of Daguan Ridge.
The villagers had already mobilized, guarding the walls, closing the gates, and facing each other with swords and guns.
This time, Zhang Qilun, a civilian officer, came forward. He was also from Shandong. Unlike Li Baoquan and others, he was a son of an official. He had a reputation as a showman in the past. Later, he was recruited and selected. He was first sent to the martial arts hall for one year, and then transferred to the army.
After arriving at the first town, I went to Li Baoquan and his colleagues to serve as a sentry deputy.
His sentry deputy is one level higher than Zhao Xiaolou's, and they have different responsibilities. Zhang Qilun is mainly responsible for clerical work, merit recording, military discipline, etc. Zhao Xiaolou is mainly responsible for assisting the sentry commander and managing the daily life of his subordinates.
There is also a master sergeant as his assistant, who is responsible for training and is equivalent to a trainer.
Zhang Qilun is worthy of being a scholar. He also studied in the martial arts hall. He dismounted directly and came to the village empty-handed. Then he shouted to the village. He even called out the name of the village leader Guo Baoqing. He also said that he had admired his name for a long time and knew it.
In these years of turmoil, how did he maintain stability, rescue many people, etc.
"Master Guo once passed the imperial examination and became a scholar. Not only do I have the title of scholar, but I also have to call the master a senior. I wonder if I can be admitted to the village?"
Guo Baoqing is very old and his hair and beard are gray.
Looking at the little two hundred people arrayed in front of the stronghold, especially the scene where they were all wearing armor, standing with guns and cannons, and pulling artillery, I felt very uneasy.
After chatting with Zhang Qilun for a while, we started to treat him as a little friend.
Someone put down a willow basket and pulled Zhang Qilun into the village alone.
After entering the stronghold, Zhang Qilun explained his intention straight to the point, and also talked about the benevolence of the saints today, the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, and the various benevolent policies implemented in the areas they recovered.
The sage also greatly appreciated Guo Baoqing, a virtuous country gentleman who established a stronghold to guard the territory and bring peace to the people.
"In the past, bandits were rampant in the Central Plains, and the Tatars entered the Pass and invaded the south. The local area was not peaceful. Guo Gong and other local villagers stepped forward to build strongholds and gather people to protect themselves and their neighbors. Now that the imperial army has come, the area must restore peace, so
Your Majesty hopes that all villages can be dispersed and returned to farming.
Although this village is quite dangerous, it is surrounded by rivers on three sides and only has about ten acres of land. Everyone is crowded here and life is very inconvenient. From now on, everyone no longer has to worry about Tatars or bandits, as these are all guarded by the imperial army.
Responsible.
Everyone can return to their hometowns with peace of mind. The imperial court will also send officials to restore local government offices. The previous tax arrears will be waived. Nanyang will also be exempted from land rent this year.
The newly arrived officials, together with the local sages like Mr. Guo, worked together to clean up the fields and take back all the land that had been owned by the officials and the unclaimed land to the government, and then sold it to the people at a different price. Everyone, hurry up and plant in the autumn.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Also, His Majesty has decreed to transport grain, salt, cloth, etc. from Jiangnan and other places to come to the relief of the victims, and distribute interest-free and low-interest green crops to the victims.
Loans, etc., to help rebuild homes and resume production.”
For old country squires like Guo Baoqing, Zhang Qilun told him that the emperor would recruit them to go to the temple to meet the saints, and the officials would conduct an assessment before conferring them on the job.
If someone is old or does not want to be an official due to physical reasons, he will also be granted a casual rank.
In short, the court has not forgotten them and attaches great importance to them.
Even if we re-establish local team training in the future, we may need to rely on their reputation and so on.
There are a lot of good words, but the core one is to open a stronghold to welcome the king's master, disperse the stronghold and return to the farmers, and no longer defend the stronghold, let alone privately support the armed forces.
After the gentry dispersed from the village, the common people organized protective armor and established rural regiments. They could keep some weapons in county offices, township offices, etc. The gentry themselves could also keep some self-defense weapons such as swords, guns, bows and arrows.
However, war horses, armor, shields, crossbows, and cannons can no longer be owned. After being confiscated, the court will provide some discount compensation.
Depending on the situation, these stockades are either handed over to the army for garrison, or handed over to the local area as a regiment training camp, or converted into post stations, etc., or directly demolished, or converted into villages, etc.
Outside the cottage.
Li Baoquan was wearing armor and a burqa, and he was standing outside the village with a gun in his hand.
The sun was very bright and very hot, but everyone still insisted on formation.
The entire army of these two hundred men stood in awe, which put a lot of pressure on the guards on the stockade.
Guo Baoqing chatted with Zhang Qilun for a long time, and finally invited him to one side to drink tea, and then went to the other side to discuss with his descendants and clansmen.
"Do you think it's credible?"
"I have heard a lot of rumors about Emperor Shaotian in the past few years. Although they are just hearsay, it is true that Jiangnan and other places have settled down in just a few years. Not only did they not have wars, there was no famine. Emperor Shaotian's Northern Expedition
, it will be even more invincible, the Tatars will abandon Huguang, and even abandon Beijing and leave the country,"
Everyone, you say something to me.
Guo Baoqing stroked his beard, "I think the most important thing is not these, but that since Emperor Shaotian raised his army, he has indeed practiced benevolent policies. Since Chongzhen, the world has been in chaos. Now a holy king has finally emerged. In the past, thieves and others were rampant.
In the Central Plains, I have led my tribe to build a stronghold here for more than ten years. We have been attacked, harassed and even blackmailed by bandits, Tartars, and bandits. We have also suffered greatly. We have suffered from hunger these years.
Qing Zhuang died in the battle guarding the stronghold. How many people were attacked and killed while farming outside?
How many newborn children have died due to lack of medical care and food?
This is not a permanent place after all, and now Deputy Zhang’s words make me feel that it’s time to leave here and return home.”
Everyone in the Guo family is also tired of life here. Although the cottage is dangerous, the place is small and it is just a hiding place. Usually, you still have to go down to the cottage to reclaim wasteland and farm nearby. However, there is much land in the mountains, and it is not fertile and lacks water.
, the income is also limited, and for more than ten years, I have been sitting on nothing, and I am often extorted and robbed, and my life is miserable.
"Get off the mountain!"
After Zhang Qilun drank a cup of tea, Guo Baoqing finally appeared again.
"We are willing to follow the saint's will, disperse the village and return to the countryside, and obey the arrangements of the court!"
Zhang Qilun stood up happily, "How about asking the leader of the village to open the gate of the village first and let our sentry brothers come in to avoid the sun and drink water first, and then we can take a good inventory of the population, weapons, etc. in the village?"
"That's what it should be. I'll just ask people to open the door."
The village gate finally opened.
Wearing cotton armor and helmets, Li Baoquan, Zhao Xiaolou and others were a little dizzy from the sun. Song En, the platoon leader of the same team, even proposed to fire two cannons several times to remind the people in the village.
Zhang Qilun and Guo Baoqing walked out of the village together.
"Commander, the deal is settled, let's take the brothers into the stronghold."
Li Baoquan wiped the sweat from his face and gave Zhang Qilun a thumbs up, "We scholars are still capable, Xiaolou, please learn more."
Zhao Xiaolou laughed and said, "Well, Deputy Zhao's mouth is better than our two hundred soldiers."
Guo Baoqing came over and said polite words while asking people to make tea and cook food quickly.
"Kill two pigs. Today is a happy day. Let's celebrate."
Li Baoquan also quickly said to Zhao Xiaolou, "Let the auxiliary soldiers bring the dried meat, dried fish and kelp to eat together!" After that, he called platoon leader Song En again, "Platoon leader Song, take a platoon of people.
You are on duty here, and from now on, the defense of Daguanling Village will be left to you."
"Yes, Commander."
Seeing this, Guo Baoqing pondered for a moment, and then called his son.
"Remove the guarding servants and hand over to Platoon Leader Song."
