Chapter 298 297 Kill good and take credit

Wei Guangde only had a day off. Early the next morning, Zhang Ji bought a carriage and left the town on the grounds of sending Wei Guangde to Pinggu County for maintenance. He walked out of the town and headed westward to the south, heading straight for the Bohai Sea.

The carriage was loaded with a lot of food and camping materials, so it was naturally prepared to seize the time to travel overnight.

In order to ensure insurance, Zhang Ji went to the doctor that night to prepare some medicine soup to prevent Wei Guangde from being uncomfortable on the way.

As for what medicine the doctor gave Wei Guangde, the old doctor would not say that he would be beaten to death. Even if Zhang Ji gave a high price of 100 taels of silver to buy the prescription, or even threatened to silence him, it would be useless.

Wei Guangde planned the route to leave the Bohai Institute and first arrive in Yongning. He waited for the first two days to send the servants who contacted Ma Fang to bring back the news before considering the next trend.

The order was obtained too late, so he only learned a rough idea from Chen Ju, mainly to check Chen Lian’s affairs, so he had to first find out if there were anyone in Chen Lian’s family and contact them to obtain the most useful information.

Where was Chen Lian sent to after being convicted?

Speaking of which, Wei Guangde is quite familiar. After all, he has been there for quite a while, that is Baoanzhou.

According to Chen Ju's news to Wei Guangde, Yang Shun replaced Yang Bo as Governor of Xuanda at the end of the 35th year of Jiajing. Last year, during the battle with the Mongolian Altan Ministry, he lost the border city and more than 40 military forts, which was a heavy loss.

However, the record from Xuanda Daily was a large number of beheadings. The news that the Jinyiwei spyed was that there might be situations where killing Liang and taking advantage of their achievements. Chen Lian was killed probably because he knew the inside story and was silenced.

Emperor Jiajing in the palace didn't know that Lu Bing mentioned the word "killing good and taking credit" in the newspaper, which was actually very meaningful. After all, although the Jinyiwei was a knife in the emperor's hand and mainly used intelligence collection, he was still considered a soldier in the end, and naturally he had to be more in the border town.

In three days, the horse team went from Pinggu to Huairou and then to the outside of the Bohai Institute to make a pedestrian. It took a day to enter the Xuanfu territory through the guards here.

After passing the defense, everyone got together again. According to Wei Guangde's plan, they naturally went straight to Yongning.

Yongnian is close to Yanqing Prefecture and is also a large army town. A large number of guards are stationed here to guard the Great Wall.

In order not to reveal their identity, the guards sent by Dong Yiyuan had already changed out of military uniforms and put on the servant's service. Wei Guangde pretended to be a young master who was traveling. They were all servants sent by their families to protect the young master.

But these people are all professional soldiers, and their temperaments are different, whether they walk or speak.

If they were not allowed to dress up as armed servants, they could not hide it from the soldiers in Xuanfu.

A group of more than twenty people rode on horseback and arrived in Yongning City within two days.

But the scene he saw after approaching the city surprised Wei Guangde. When he was fighting with Altan's Ministry, he did not see so many refugees in Huailai and Baoanzhou.

You know, no war happened during this period, and outside Yongning City, he saw at least thousands of people gathering, and they were crowded under the city walls with shacks.

"I've been here and ask, where are they from and when did they get here?"

Wei Guangde ordered Zhang Ji to ask him to inquire about the situation.

When I passed the Bohai Institute, I didn’t hear the news that the Xuanfu started another war. Don’t accidentally fall into the battlefield with more than 20 people. I have no eyes on the sword and gun.

Soon, Zhang Ji came back on a horse and whispered to Wei Guangde: "Most of them are from Longmen Guards, some from last year and some from escape this year."

Upon hearing this, Wei Guangde raised his eyebrows. Although he had never been to Longmenwei, he had looked at the map and knew that it was not far from Zhangjiakou Fort, Baoanzhou and Yanqing Prefecture. The cavalry could reach it in three days. It was also an area where Altan's troops and the Ming army frequently fought.

The main areas where Xuanfu and the Mongols fought were Wanquan, which connected Datong and Longmen Guard. However, Altan's troops rarely attacked near Xuanfu Town.

Similarly, the Gaoyang Guard, which connects Xuanfu in the direction of Datong, and Tiancheng Guards, are often attacked by Altan's troops. Once they break into the Great Wall, they will be forced torture at the junction of Xuanfu and Datong.

The area where Ma Fang is now mainly fighting is Wanquan left and right guards, and Baoanzhou is not within his management scope. Wei Guangde only asked Ma Fang to add an insurance policy.

Before and after the Battle of Baoanzhou, Wei Guangde heard more than one person saying that anything could happen here.

He has been here before, and it is hard to guarantee that he will not be recognized.

Their group came to investigate the matter secretly. If the other party chooses to jump over the wall because of fear, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Wei Guangde didn't want to lose his life here in order to fulfill Emperor Jiajing's will.

Now it seems that Altan's troops did not do their best in the battle between Bao'anzhou. They only recovered their combat power after resting for half a year, and started to cause trouble on the border of the Ming Dynasty. And you can tell that these refugees seem to be even more fun than before.

Seeing this, Wei Guangde already knew that Yang Shun's so-called record reported last year was mostly untrue. If it were true as he said, the Tartars would have been beaten away long ago, so where did these refugees come from?

Wei Guangde also heard that the so-called victory reported by Yang Shun last year was nearly 300,000 taels of silver issued by the capital Taicang, and thousands of Tartar heads could make up for this amount. Altan's army was determined not to bear such a huge loss.

Thinking of what Ma Fang said before, there were only more than 20,000 elite troops in Altan's army, and less than 30,000 soldiers, and 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers. Even if the old and weak were pulled together, they could only gather 100,000 troops. Wei Guangde shook his head unconsciously, and Yang Shun was so bragging.

Wei Guangde had no time to fight the horse into the city, and he had no ability to manage these people. Let's do the things that the emperor had assigned first.

I found an inn in the city, and there was a servant who asked Zhang Ji to arrange someone to go to the city gate to wait for the letter. Wei Guangde called the captain of the servant who was left by Dong Yiyuan, with the purpose of naturally knowing whether there were people from Baoanzhou among his subordinates.

Shen Lian had something happened in Baoanzhou, so it is naturally more convenient for people from Baoanzhou to go back and inquire, and it is not easy to be exposed.

I was looking for Ma Fang to find someone to find out on the official side. Others from the Shen family were locked up there to see if there was any chance to get in touch and learn more information.

I can't stop looking for Ma Fang's family in private, especially in Baoanzhou, who have been staying with Shen Lian.

"Sir, there are really two people under the little man who are military households in Baoanzhou. You can ask them to go back and find out the news."

The team leader knew what Wei Guangde meant and immediately said.

"Are you smart enough?"

To inquire about news, people need to be smart, otherwise it is easy to cause bad things.

"It's okay. If you just ask for information and find someone, you shouldn't make any mistakes. They should still have a lot of acquaintances in their hometown, especially their brothers and neighbors. Many of them work in the army and many of them work in the city.

The adults are from a military family and know that except for carrying guns and getting military pay, our military family can only make a living by themselves on weekdays, and they can do everything they want to eat."

The team leader smiled and said, although he didn't say enough, he also showed a little confidence.

"Call the person and I'll give you another order."

After the team leader called the two servants from Baoanzhou as Wei Guangde ordered, Wei Guangde secretly explained to them the task of returning to Baoanzhou this time, to inquire about a man named Chen Lian, and whether he still has his family in Baoanzhou and his possible whereabouts.

"Sir, if the Shen family is outside, we can ask people about these people from all walks of life, but if the government is detained, we will have no choice. Most of the family and neighbors are soldiers in the army, but it doesn't have that much to do with it."

One of the servants thought about it and reported it.

"I just ask you to inquire about the news. It is best to find someone who is wandering outside. Bring the person over here. If you can't find it, forget it. If you are locked in jail, there is no need to contact it inside. Just ask about the situation."

Wei Guangde didn't expect the two servants to do anything, just rob the prison, just think about it.

"That's fine, but this time I go back"

When the soldier said this, he looked worried and looked like he was indescribable.

Wei Guangde was smart and naturally knew what it was for. What else could he do when he went back, so he naturally could not go back empty-handed.

"Zhang Ji, give each person twenty. Forget it, give them thirty taels of silver. It should be enough for you to get some."

Wei Guangde said to the two.

The person who spoke before had dispersed his sorrow and became happy in an instant. He nodded and bowed repeatedly to show that he would ensure that Wei Guangde's explanation was completed.

If someone asks for information, he will definitely spend money. Although he is helping the emperor with his affairs, there is no place to reimburse the money in the end, but the problem is not big. What he wants is to get things done and have an explanation from the emperor. This is beneficial to his career. What is some money?

Now Wei Guangde's expenses in the capital are not only the living expenses of the family, but also the movements between colleagues and the exchanges between them, and the only gifts of money are Gao Zhong and Chen Ju in the palace.

However, in addition to his own money, his wife and brother Xu Bangrui promised to send 5,000 taels of silver to the capital every year in the future. The purpose is naturally to manage the relationship between the palace and make preliminary preparations for taking over the Duke of Wei's Mansion in the future.

As for those who think that they can understand the gods with money and only plan to cram the Buddha for a while, take a shower and go to bed.

A real big thing is not a big deal, but not a pre-spending money to cultivate feelings. When it comes to a critical moment, people may not necessarily help.

Whose family’s money is not money? Can’t you accept other people’s money if you don’t accept your money?

Arranged two people out and asked them to clean up and return to Baoanzhou as soon as possible to find out the news. Now they have nothing to do, "Let's go out of the city to see what the refugees say. They haven't been allowed to return at this time. Is it still fighting there?"

Wei Guangde ordered Zhang Ji and rode out of the city with a few guards.

After a few days, Wei Guangde also found out that most of the people were military households around Longmenchuan and Nanhe River. In the past two years, the Mongolian Tartars had a big fuss in Songshu Fort, Dushi Fort and other places, and would occasionally break through the side walls and rush in.

Originally, they should have built forts to defend, but now the military forts are not well built, and the city walls are not high, so they can't stop the Tartars from climbing, so they can only give up defending the military fort and flee on a large scale.

As for why they were wandering to Yongning instead of going to Xuanfu, Yanqing, security, etc., most of the refugees shook their heads and said that they were more likely to die if they escaped to those places.

Obviously, these people also knew something, but they just looked at Wei Guangde and his group dressed and spoke, and they didn't seem to dare to say too much.

In addition to military outdoors, people on the border were punished to guard the border because of crimes, so they naturally knew a lot.

Don’t say that the army was really bad at attacking its own people. In the past, when the Ming army was strong, they often went outside the Great Wall. At that time, they killed good deeds and made contributions mainly to attack small tribes of Mongolian Tartars, without leaving men, women, young and old, and then they all reported their military merits to cheat rewards.

Now I am a little bit unable to win, and I dare not go out of the Great Wall to fight, so I kill and harvest the heads. I still disguise myself as I give it to cheat the silver. It has become a tradition.

Even if the soldiers below cannot bear it, Shangguan has to obey. In the border town, life is like grass, and if they do not obey themselves, they will become military achievements.

As for how to escape, I actually know that those who are smarter are not allowed to run to several big cities in Xuanfu, either Yanqing or Yongning. It will be a little safer, and other places will not be safe.

In such a dull atmosphere, Wei Guangde waited for the news sent by Ma Fang, but the result was that he was greatly shocked and extremely angry.

The news that Chen Ju sent to Wei Guangde was that Shen Lian was beheaded and his family was exiled. However, the news sent from Ma Fang was that Shen Lian was beheaded. His second son, the third son, Shen Gun, and Shen Bao were killed in torture because they refused to admit that they had an affair with the White Lotus Sect. Shen Lian's wife was exiled to Yunzhou with her youngest son.

There is also news about Shen Lian's eldest son. Shen Lian's eldest son Shen Xiang is a scholar in Shaoxing Prefecture School. Perhaps another study seed, Yang Shun naturally would not let him grow up. He had already formed a mortal hatred in two seconds.

According to the news that Ma Fang found out, Governor Yang Shun had written to Zhejiang, and Tiqin was guilty of Shen Xiang.

After Shen Lian was beheaded on the charge of the White Lotus Sect, the crime was fulfilled and no other evidence was needed.

"This is a plan to eliminate the roots."

Wei Guangde put down the letter in his hand and reached out to rub his temples. Yang Shun was really cruel.

A few days ago, when he contacted refugees outside the city, Wei Guangde had already roughly understood why the Ming army generals wanted to kill Liang and make contributions. Although they were all hesitant and unknown, Wei Guangde was not stupid and could still guess some clues after several inquiries.

Wei Guangde was a military household in the south, so he naturally didn't know it, so he finally learned the details from the guards of Dong Yiyuan's sect.

In fact, the crux of the matter is still in the court, but it is not just these generals who are greedy for the rewards. You should know that the people who are not good at killing are relatives of their soldiers. It is difficult to be prepared for being stabbed in the back after being killed.

Behind their actions, there are often civil servants behind their backs.

Every time a major military situation is attacked by the Tartars, it is natural to report it. If there is almost no victory in his hands, the official will not be considered a person.

The Ming army was unable to fight head-on by the Tartars, so they often adopted defensive strategies, just defended the big city, and allowed the Tartars to rob and leave. Then they followed the pursuit tactics and expelled the Tartars to return to the border.

If you don’t get a chance, you can only use the strategy of killing good people and taking advantage of the situation, otherwise you will not be able to explain it to the court.

By this time, Wei Guangde knew that this was confirmed.
Chapter completed!