The Prosperous Era of Longwan

On the winding mountain road, a large group of cavalry was pulling their horses forward.

In the middle of the cavalry queue, the unique carriage was very conspicuous, and there were many cavalry guards in front and on the left and right.

This was the team of the Ming Dynasty Border Patrol Ministers where Wei Guangde belonged. They passed Pinggu in a few days, but instead of continuing to Jizhou to rest, they diverted directly to Malanyu, where they met with the troops sent by the Santun Camp. A group of cavalry gathered together and started patrolling the border.

It should be noted that Jizhou to the east of Pinggu, also known as Jixian in later generations, is not what we call Ji Town or Jizhou Town in the Ming Dynasty.

Jizhou is Jizhou and Jizhen is Jizhen.

The Ji Town of the Ming Dynasty was actually located in Qianxi County east of Zunhua. The very famous Santun Camp in history was the center of Ji Town, and the Ji Town General Military Mansion was located here.

In order to maintain the tranquility of the northern region in the Ming Dynasty, nine military towns were set up along the Great Wall starting from the Yalu River in the east and ending at Jiayuguan in the west: Liaodong, Xuanfu, Datong, Yulin, Ningxia, Gansu, Jizhen, Taiyuan and Guyuan, known in history as the "Nine Military Fortresses". side".

The General Military Mansion of Ji Town was originally located at Taolingou, which is located in the north of Yongping and adjacent to Liaodong Town in the east. It is also an important pass on the Great Wall, but after all, it is far away from the capital. Some important passes on the Great Wall such as Lengkou and Xifengkou , Panjiakou, Gubeikou and other dangerous places are all in its west. As the command center of the town, its location is obviously out of place.

So in the late Yongle period, when Chen Jing was appointed as the commander-in-chief, he moved the town to Shiziyu, which solved the problem of misplaced location and avoided the disadvantages of being on the frontier. However, Shiziyu was a small area and had no guard posts or garrison areas, so it was impossible to station heavy troops. To defend against enemies.

The location of Shiziyu Valley was not ideal, so in the second year of Tianshun reign, when Hu Yong was appointed as the commander-in-chief, he chose Santunying, built a city, built a camp, and moved the town from Shiziyu to Santunying in Qianxi County.

From then on, all Jizhen garrison generals, assistant garrison deputy generals, branch garrison generals, garrison and guerrilla officers were all stationed in Santun camp.

The importance of Ji Town lies first in its geographical location, which surrounds the capital from the east, west and north.

Juyongguan, known as the west gate of the capital, is only over fifty kilometers away from the capital, and Gubeikou, known as the iron gate of the capital, is only over a hundred kilometers away. If Ji Town is dangerous, the capital will be shocked, but if Ji Town is stable, the capital will be safe.

There are many rivers crossing the border from outside the Great Wall in the Jizhen area, forming a dense network of passes. On the two thousand-mile defense line, there are more than 190 large and small passes, and there are more than 40 important passes. It has always been a dangerous fortress that military strategists have always fought for. , at least Shanhaiguan in the east, Xifengkou and Panjiakou in the middle, and Gubeikou and Juyongguan in the west.

It has been more than ten days since he left the capital. Wei Guangde and his brigade have already seen the city defense at Malanyu Pass.

After the Xuanfu sent an urgent report to the capital, the Ministry of War not only reported and assessed the situation, but also sent a message to the General Military Office of Jizhen, asking all the passes under the jurisdiction of Jizhen to strengthen defense. So what Wei Guangde and the others saw when they arrived at Malanyu was The Ming soldiers and soldiers at the gates of the city were ready to engage in defensive operations at any time.

Wei Guangde followed Weng Pu to inspect the city defense of Malanyu. Weng Pu was very aware of the urinal nature of the generals below. He did not check and review the soldiers according to the roster, but only focused on the preparation of defense supplies.

Malanyu is also an important pass along the Great Wall. According to regulations, there should be 2,000 men and horses stationed there. Wei Guangde stood at the top of the city and made a rough estimate. The actual number of soldiers is probably only more than 1,000, which means that there are nearly 50% vacancies here. .

He sighed inwardly, shook his head and stopped thinking about other things, and followed Weng Pu to check the defense supplies.

In fact, he also knew that this might be considered a good thing. In Jiangnan, only 20% of Jiujiang Guard's troops were actual combat soldiers, and the other 80% of the registered soldiers were peasant soldiers on weekdays.

The reason why 20% of them can be considered as combat soldiers is because the Jiujiang Guards sent troops several times, which made the guards dare not relax their military.

That is to say, this place is located in a border town and may face enemies from the northern grasslands at any time, so the generals here know what to do and have 50% of the troops.

After leaving Malanyu, the border patrol team inspected more than ten large and small city passes along the way. Now they have reached the second important pass, Jiangjun Pass, which is also called Jiangjun Shiguan.

"That rock is really big."

From a distance, Wei Guangde saw Guancheng in front and the huge stone next to Guancheng, which seemed to be a complete stone.

"I heard from people in Ji Town before that the stone is called Jiangjun Stone. It is said that a general ordered troops and generals there in the past, so the stone is called Jiangjun Stone, and the name of this general pass is also called Jiangjun Shiguan. "

Zhang Ji, who was next to him, hurriedly answered that Wei Guangde had given him a task these days, which was to make good friends with the people in Jizhen.

Well, what Wei Guangde actually thinks is that they are familiar with this generation, and their advance and retreat should be more organized, so that they can use this to do something at a critical moment.

Soon after arriving at General Shiguan, Wei Guangde was already familiar with the so-called border patrol process. He briefly looked at the city defense deployment, and then inspected the city defense materials.

Relatively speaking, with so many soldiers, what can be strengthened is to prepare sufficient city defense materials. At least when they are attacked by Tatars, the defenders at the city gate will have sufficient defensive materials such as rolling logs and stones. There is no need to engage directly with the Tatars.

For the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers who lacked military pay and training, they were no longer able to fight foreign enemies in close combat and hand-to-hand combat, and could only use the advantage of the defenders to defend the enemy.

After entering the city, Wei Guangde and Weng Pu acted separately with a tacit understanding, each going to check on some of the work.

Except for the first few city gates where the two of them were not familiar with each other and therefore checked together, Wei Guangde and Weng Pu had already divided the work.

Weng Pu is senior and has been transferred to the Ministry of War for several years, so he is mainly responsible for defense deployment. Wei Guangde is responsible for checking the preparation of defense supplies, inventorying the approximate quantity and storage location.

Wei Guangde still attaches great importance to the storage of defense supplies. Don't prepare a large amount of defense supplies. It will be dangerous if they are not used at critical times.

In Jiujiang Wei, my father used to have this habit. He confiscated the weapons that were supposed to be distributed to the soldiers. He was also afraid that the soldiers would go crazy and take out the things and sell them. Fortunately, they were in a good location, so it was not a problem. Worry about being surprised by the enemy.

In addition, many incidents occurred in later generations, such as September 18th, etc., all of which were tragedies that occurred after the defenders' weapons were confiscated and put into storage, and they had no weapons in their hands when facing the enemy.

Wei Guangde didn't want to lock a bunch of defense supplies in the warehouse for their review at this time. This was what the guards at several small passes had done before, and then he was scolded from head to toe by Wei Guangde, who was from the seventh rank. .

Very cool.

I remember when I heard that the head of the Ministry of War dared to catch the commander of the Jiujiang Guards and curse him, Wei Guangde now felt the advantage of being a civil servant. He could insult these soldiers at will, but they did not dare to talk back, so they could only keep talking. Bear it honestly.

But after feeling refreshed, he thought of his father and eldest brother again. God knew they would be treated the same way by that seventh-grade official.

At this time, Wei Guangde deeply realized that it was really not easy for a warrior in this era. He had to rack his brains to make money to support his family, and he had to endure the oppression of superior officials and civil servants. On the other hand, he had to fight with his head against the enemy at critical moments.

After thinking about this link, Wei Guangde didn't curse much after that. Only later when he saw the two people who were locking the supplies for the city in the warehouse, he cursed a few words, and then stared, watching them send people to deliver the supplies. It's all over once we get to the top of the city.

When we arrived at General Shiguan today, it was natural for him to check the preparations for defense supplies.

General Shiguan is well prepared here. All the city defense equipment and supplies are piled up and down the city gate, and some are in warehouses. However, this is normal. It is impossible to throw everything under the city gate. First, it must be able to put it there. The next thing will do.

The supplies were almost the same as in the books, and Wei Guangde generally turned a blind eye to some minor errors, as long as the shortage was not too severe.

After inspecting the supplies above and below the city, he walked up to the city gate to meet Master Weng Puweng, and reported on the inspection situation on his side.

When you walk up to the city wall, the first thing you see is the Great Wall that winds like a long dragon. The city wall spirals forward and backward along the mountain from your feet.

In the past few days, Wei Guangde has seen a lot of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, but every time he comes up to see it, he still feels excited. It is truly spectacular.

This is not the case that future generations can only visit a few places of the Great Wall when visiting Beijing. At that time, except for the developed scenic spots, the walls a few kilometers around and more than ten kilometers away had already collapsed.

Although there is corruption among civil and military officials now, the Great Wall has been functioning as a defensive tool, and the guards have been maintaining it, so the Great Wall is still in good condition overall.

When Wei Guangde went to the city gate, he saw Weng Pu talking to the guard at General Shiguan, looking at the finger position of the guard at the bottom of the city from time to time.

Wei Guangde knew very well that Weng Pu was still understanding the surrounding terrain and defense arrangements, and it seemed that he was not finished yet.

When Weng Pu saw Wei Guangde coming up, he just nodded with a smile, and then continued to ask the guard about the defense situation in Guancheng.

Wei Guangde stood aside, listening to the introduction of this place with his ears open, while looking out to enjoy the beautiful scenery of this place.

At this time, what we saw on the Great Wall was a clear blue sky, and a picture of lush and green mountains and forests inside and outside the Great Wall. If Wei Guangde had not come here with a mission, Wei Guangde would have wanted to make a pot here. Tea, it is a pleasure to drink tea leisurely and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Wei Guangde simply stood on the wall, resting his hands on the battlements and looking north.

The Great Wall on one side of General Shiguan extends to the east, and on the other side, it makes a ninety-degree turn to the north. This is also a protruding part of the Great Wall.

There is no way. When the Great Wall was built, it was built according to the mountain topography. The mountain topography here is like this.

Wei Guangde walked along the Great Wall and looked at the city wall in the distance. In this life, his eyesight was well protected and his diet was good. He did not have the night blindness that many people suffered from in this era. Wei Guangde tried his best to look at the city wall at the end. This was also the one he was looking for recently. A way to entertain and protect your eyes.

However, not long after he stared into the distance, he felt an inexplicable shock in his heart. On the hill where the city wall could not be seen in the distance, bursts of green smoke floated up.

Look at the sky. Last night we camped in the wild more than ten miles away from Shiguan. This morning we got up and ate and rushed here. It was almost lunch time.

After Weng Pu's talk and inspection work was completed, it was time to eat. Didn't you see that cooking was already started on the other side of the mountain?

Wei Guangde thought in his heart and didn't take it seriously. Just when he was about to change his sight to look at other places, he could barely see a watchtower on the Great Wall that he could barely see. It should be a watchtower. A platform appeared, and there was light smoke.

Wei Guangde was amused in his heart. The Ming army stationed on the Great Wall was also interesting. They cooked in a very orderly manner, lighting fires one by one.

Wei Guangde did not change his gaze, but continued to stare over there, wondering when the next watchtower would open fire for cooking.

In less than half a cup of tea, as expected, green smoke rose from the next watchtower, and then gradually extended towards this side one by one.

Wei Guangde was smiling at this moment, looking at this scene very relaxedly and freely. Playing with fire on the Great Wall will not be seen in future generations.

I remember that when he went to climb the Badaling Great Wall, his lighter was taken away at the door.

Wei Guangde didn't even know that even the masonry walls could be ignited by anything.

Well, maybe it was to prevent wildfires, Wei Guangde couldn't say anything.

But thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but have a little bad taste. If the words "Wei Guangde came here for a visit" were carved on the wall of Badaling, what would happen if future generations saw it.

But now that he's here, he can't tell whether he will be there in this life or in the next.

Just gradually, his relaxed smile froze a little, his eyesight was well protected, and his hearing in this life was also good, because at this time, he had vaguely heard the rumble of cannons in the distance.

Wei Guangde was sure that this was not thunder.

Although the word "bolt from the blue" exists, Wei Guangde has never encountered it before, so he doesn't really believe it.

"Boom boom boom"

Wei Guangde had already noticed something was wrong. He put his hands behind his ears in the hope of strengthening his hearing. He recalled the sound he had just heard and counted in his mind whether it was four or five sounds.

"Master Weng, Master Weng, the situation is not good."

Well, as the green smoke gradually approached, Wei Guangde had already seen clearly where the green smoke was cooking smoke, which was the rising thick smoke. And as the fireworks pier approached, Wei Guangde also saw that It's not one firework, but three or several. It just rises up and is far apart, making it look like a thick smoke.

war.

Later generations, because of China's universal compulsory education, few of the new students are illiterate, naturally they also know the way China used to convey military information in history, that is, beacon towers.

The piers and platforms were not preparing lunch at this time, but thinking about reporting news from afar that there was enemy information.

Following Wei Guangde's shout, Weng Pu and others turned their heads and easily saw a few puffs of green smoke in the distance.

Inadvertently, Weng Pu had walked to the city wall, put his hands on the wall stacks and looked over there, and asked: "Can you see clearly? How many beeps are there?"

Wei Guangde didn't understand it before, but this time he went on a business trip and naturally gained some military knowledge. These were things Jiujiang Wei didn't have and he had never paid attention to them before.

In the second year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, there was an order: "If you see one or two enemies and more than a hundred enemies, raise one beacon and one cannon, 500 people, two beacons and two cannons, 1,000 people or more, three beacons and three cannons, five If there are more than a thousand people, four beacons and four cannons; if there are more than 10,000 people, there will be five beacons and five cannons."

After Wei Guangde reacted, he was already counting the number of cannon shots. At this time, he still couldn't see the number of beacon fires clearly.

"I can't tell clearly. It was probably four or five sounds."

Wei Guangde could only reply.