Chapter 2 The changing situation

In 1642, the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty suffered from internal and external troubles.

At the beginning of the year, the Qing army captured Songshan, killed all the elite Ming troops, captured Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, and then conquered Jinzhou. All land outside the Ming Pass was lost except for Ningyuan. The last bit of self-confidence of the entire government and the public in fighting against the Qing Dynasty was completely wiped out.

In March, the peasant army Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai joined forces with millions of troops to besiege Kaifeng, sweeping the Central Plains.

Kaifeng, Ming Dynasty really cannot afford to lose it.

"South of the capital, Henan is one of the most popular cities in the world, and Kaifeng is also the capital..." This is the evaluation of Kaifeng at that time written by Zhang Han of the Ming Dynasty in "Dreams in the Pine Window".

If Kaifeng is lost, the Central Plains will be lost;

If the Central Plains is not protected, there will really be big problems in the world.

On May 14, several Ming armies totaling 180,000 from the south met at Zhuxian Town under the strict orders of Emperor Chongzhen, and started a fierce battle with Li Zicheng's 200,000 troops who came south to block the attack.

Although this was an unprecedentedly large force assembled by the Ming Dynasty since its suppression of bandits, the Ming army's war progress was very unsatisfactory, with no achievements made for many days in a row.

Not only that, the huge Ming army also began to suffer from severe water and food shortages.

The peasant army first cut off the flow of the river by occupying the upper reaches of the Jialu River, and then cut off the Ming army's food route.

With lack of water and food, this battle has become very difficult to fight.

But the Ming army persisted, showing no signs of giving up or preparing to retreat.

At noon on May 20th, in an open land behind the Ming army's lines, a young man was hiding under a small tree to rest alone.

Occasionally, he would raise his head to take a look at the blazing sun above his head.

In recent years, the Ming Dynasty has been plagued by disasters one after another, and the climate has been extremely abnormal. Summer often comes extremely early and is extremely hot, while winter is extremely cold.

No one knows what's going on. Maybe Ming's strength is really coming to an end!

Because of the heat, the young man sat against a tree with his clothes open, fiddling with a wild goose feather waist knife in his hand.

There was a knife in the fighting area and it was supposed to be a soldier, but the young man looked at the knife with a strange look, and his clothes also made it impossible to tell whether he was a soldier or a civilian.

He was dressed in a coarse Tsing Yi with a few patches, and there was an obvious color difference between his top and trousers. However, his hair was neatly arranged, and the bun on the top of his head was firmly tied with a brown strip of coarse cloth.

The small tree is not big, and its branches and leaves are not prosperous. Sitting under the tree does not bring much coolness to the young man. At most, it can only block part of the sun. The young man's bare feet are always exposed in the shade of the tree.

outside.

The young man was about eighteen or nineteen years old, of average appearance, dark skin, tall, and broad-shouldered.

He must be very thirsty and his lips are already chapped.

After touching the shriveled cowhide water bag on his waist, the young man hesitated and took one of the two thick bamboo tubes placed beside him.

After finding it empty, I went to get another one, which was still full of muddy water.

But holding the bamboo tube and putting it to his mouth, the young man reluctantly put it down, and in the end he just touched his lips with his sticky tongue.

Glancing at the huge shadow of Zhuxian Town in the west, and then at a forest in the distance, the young man sighed helplessly and said to himself: "They must think I'm just stupid! That's why I'm here.

Let’s ride horses in the weather.”

Indeed, anyone who practices horse riding in this extremely hot weather is either a fool or a lunatic, but the young man does not appear to be crazy or stupid.

"Pu Chi, Pu Chi"

At this time, the mule under another slightly larger tree suddenly snorted a few times, expressing its dissatisfaction with the young man's pretentiousness.

Well! It's not a horse, it's a mule.

The young man glanced at the mule, which had grass to eat but still refused to be left alone, and subconsciously rubbed the inner sides of his thighs. His grinning expression revealed his unfamiliarity in riding skills and the pain he had suffered.

"Be happy! There is actually green grass in that depression there. Brother Mule! If you are not affected, who will be?" the young man complained.

Boom… boom…

At this time, sparse gunfire suddenly came from the northwest.

The young man frowned and immediately sat up straight to listen.

Hundreds of thousands of troops from both sides of the enemy and ours are coming and going here, and any disturbance must arouse vigilance.

But after a while, the young man decided not to pay attention to the sound of gunfire.

He stepped on the leather thin-soled fast boots with difficulty, fastened the shoes on the side to his waist, then struggled to hold the knife and stood up.

After stretching his arms and legs a few times, the young man picked up the bamboo tube with water on the side, put on the bamboo hat to protect him from the sun, and walked toward the mule sluggishly.

After generously feeding the mule half a bottle of water, the young man hung the knife on the side of the mule's body, then turned over.

Amidst the shouts, he rode his mule and started trotting again in the open land, kicking up pieces of dry dust.

…

When there was no more gunfire in the northwest for a long time, and when wisps of cooking smoke began to rise from the direction of the woods, the young man touched his already shriveled belly, decisively put on his shoes, and led the mule towards the north.

He must return to camp.

The team not participating in the battle received two meals a day, and his stomach couldn't stand it if he missed the meal.

The soft and fluffy cotton-soled shoes make your feet much looser and cooler.

Soon after passing through a forest crowded with soldiers enjoying the cool weather, the young man came to a huge and chaotic camp.

There are a variety of messy tents, large and small livestock carts, mottled and disorderly figures, and not even a simple defensive fence, but this is really a military camp, a large military camp that can accommodate thousands of people.

In fact, the north side of the camp also has a pointed wooden fence to defend the wall. This may be because the south side of the camp is located behind the defense line.

But this is still a bit too childish.

If you look carefully, you can easily see some women in thin clothes and skirts walking in and out of various tents and simple shacks even in the camp.

The combination of the hardships of the war ahead and the peaceful singing and dancing here is simply unbelievable, yet real.

Walking into the camp, walking through the chaos, carefully avoiding human excrement that might be stepped on at any time, the young man's face was full of helplessness and ridicule.

Soon, the young man led the mules and approached a relatively independent area. Several tents of different sizes and heights gathered there were kept at a large distance from other groups of tents and shacks.

At this time, a tall soldier wearing a black turban similar to a Chinese aunt's style, an earth-red uniform, and straw sandals trotted up to him with a silly smile.

"Captain, captain...it's time to have dinner!"

"Has the grass been cut?" the young man asked with a sullen face as he handed the reins to the big soldier.

"It's cut, it's cut. I found a forest and cut two handfuls full of it!" The big soldier replied hastily, and at the same time carefully took the reins from the young man's hand.

"That's right. Feed her well in a while. I'll go find some water and share some with you." The young man nodded with satisfaction.

Amid the joy of the big soldier, the young man took off the bamboo hat and handed it over and said, "I'll give this back to you first, and I'll get it from you next time I need it. Are the rest of the team here?"

The big, silly soldier scratched his head after taking the bamboo hat and said: "Chief Marshal, Chief Zhao is not here, everyone else is here."

The young man frowned slightly and said "Oh", then his eyes were attracted by the crowd gathering in the distance.

"What are they doing?"

"Commander, the commander is beating someone." The big soldier said in a low voice, sticking out his tongue.

After hearing this, the young man ignored the tall and silly soldier and walked straight towards the crowd, most of whom were also wearing black turbans and earth-red uniforms.

Different from the stupid soldiers, many of them had bare, black and rough feet, and they probably had no habit of wearing shoes at all.

It seems that this is not only a poorly trained army, but also a rudimentary army. It should also be a newly expanded army.

After squeezing into the crowd without thinking, the young man saw that it was the captain who was busy cleaning up people.

So he stood aside silently.

After glancing at the young man, the sentry commander continued with a straight face and asked people to whip several kneeling soldiers with whips. At the same time, he repeatedly warned the people around him: disobedience to military discipline will lead to serious consequences.

With his tall stature and straight figure, coupled with his long, dark face full of pits, the whistle commander looked very intimidating.

The young man was a little distracted for a moment, as if he vaguely saw the awe-inspiring Captain Zhao back then.

"Why is the sentry commander angry?".

When he noticed that Captain Wang from his post was also watching with cold eyes, the young man stopped sighing and instead squeezed over and asked softly.

"These boys are in trouble. They went to the soldiers to steal food and get more water, but they were caught by the soldiers. How could the captain tolerate him?" Captain Wang caught Messy.

He replied with a mouth full of yellow teeth behind his hair.

Seeing the two captains of our post talking, the soldiers who had kept some distance from each other immediately shrank aside, but some soldiers boldly turned their heads to look.

"These mud-legged people who don't know how to lift must be taught a hard lesson so that they can learn to remember!" Captain Wang sneered and glared at the ungrateful soldiers and suddenly raised his voice.

The soldiers who were stared at were startled and turned their heads back timidly.

"That's it! Let's break up and get ready for dinner." Commander Zhao, who had a fierce face, announced in a rich voice at this time.

As soon as he finished speaking, the onlookers dispersed with a crash, and even the few erring soldiers with scars on their backs hurriedly struggled to leave.

The authority of Commander Zhao is obviously beyond doubt.

But Captain Wang was obviously hesitant to leave. Maybe he felt that it would be a bit shameful to leave like this!

"Li Ping, come here." Commander Zhao suddenly shouted.

It turned out that this young man was Li Ping, and the sentry commander was Zhao Jin, but they were both a bit younger than when they were in the car accident.

It’s true that the years go back, but the youth remains the same.
Chapter completed!