The Ming Dynasty: Starting with bandits, it swept across the land.

Chapter 34 Observation

Zhang Shixiong rubbed his right eye several times before the twitching stopped. He had a vague feeling that something bad might happen today.

He looked back at the long, sluggish line that stretched for about two miles, thought for a moment, and then shouted, "Stop! Take a break!"

A cheer erupted from the crowd.

Upon hearing the order to rest, a middle-aged officer wearing tan-colored studded cloth armor and a lance with three brown feathers stuck in it quickly walked from the middle of the ranks to Zhang Shixiong's side.

"Why did Commander Zhang stop?"

"It's too hot. Let's take a break and let the soldiers have some water."

"But we've only been gone for less than an hour." The middle-aged man was clearly dissatisfied with Zhang Shixiong's explanation, his tone skeptical. "We need to get to Yijun City quickly. If the internal strife among the bandits subsides, this battle will be much more difficult."

"Commander Lu, the situation in Yijun City is ultimately just the words of a scholar. We need solid evidence to fight a war, and we can't just believe everything we hear," Zhang Shixiong waved his hand. "I've already sent some cavalry to investigate the situation in Yijun City. It won't cause any problems."

Seeing that he couldn't get Zhang Shixiong to change the order, this centurion Lu went straight back to his own troops without even saluting Zhang Shixiong as he left.

At this moment, someone approached Zhang Shixiong and said, "Commander Zhang, this Lu Bingzhong is so disrespectful. Should I teach him a lesson when we march later?"

Zhang Shixiong narrowed his eyes, but ultimately shook his head.

"Lu Bingzhong's uncle is a deputy commander; he shouldn't be a villain."

"Yes, sir."

"By the way, Jiang Jing, go ahead and see what's going on. Tang Qi has been gone for so long and hasn't replied yet. I'm not at ease."

"Yes, sir, I'll go right away."

Zhang Shixiong actually had no intention of fighting this battle.

He was a commander of the Huazhou Thousand-Household Office. Chengcheng, where Wang Er rebelled, belonged to Tongzhou and should have been suppressed by the Tongzhou Thousand-Household Office.

The Tongzhou Thousand Household Office is now empty.

In April of this year, when he learned that someone had rebelled in Chengcheng, killing officials and distributing grain, Sun Daqi, the commander of a thousand households in Tongzhou, was overjoyed.

The severe drought in northern Shaanxi also affected Tongzhou, resulting in a meager harvest in the fields of Qianhusuo Litun.

Although military households were usually the tenants of the commanders, they were different from the tenants of gentry who could be left to fend for themselves when disaster struck.

The military households in the garrison still had military service obligations, so they couldn't all be allowed to starve to death.

So Sun Daqi tried to find a way to get grain, but the grain brought from Guanzhong during the drought was exorbitantly expensive, and he was reluctant to spend money to buy grain.

He knew that these military households would never be able to repay the money he spent on grain, even in eight lifetimes.

Just as he was feeling troubled, he received news that Wang Er had rebelled in Chengcheng.

Sun Daqi pondered, "It's just a group of starving people rising up, what's so difficult about dealing with it?"

He had dealt with similar situations before. As long as he went there, these starving people were pitifully weak and could be dealt with on the spot.

The famine riots became an opportunity in his eyes: take a few hundred bannermen, collect grain and pay from wealthy households along the way under the pretext of suppressing bandits, and then swallow up the stolen goods after the bandits are wiped out. Wouldn't that be killing two birds with one stone?

perfect.

So Sun Daqi led four or five hundred bannermen who had just put down their hoes toward Chengcheng.

Then he was trampled to death by the overwhelming number of refugees behind Wang Er.

Huazhou Thousand-Household Garrison and Tongzhou Thousand-Household Garrison both belonged to Tongguan Guard. After the Tongzhou Thousand-Household Garrison was wiped out, the pressure immediately shifted to Huazhou.

Han Chengju, the commander of Tongguan Garrison, gave Zhang Shixiong an order.

Let him lead troops to encircle and suppress them.

But Zhang Shixiong said that the garrison was incomplete in terms of equipment and supplies, and therefore could not go into battle.

More than ten days passed without him making a move.

Han Chengju personally led a group of men, including Lu Bingzhong, the centurion, to the garrison office in Huazhou to make things clear.

The news of Wang Er's killing of officials and rebellion had reached the highest levels of government; even the Tianqi Emperor knew about it. The Grand Secretariat issued a decree to the court, ordering the swift quelling of the rebellion.

On this matter, the Donglin Party, which had always fought against the eunuch faction, did not disagree, and the two sides rarely reached a consensus.

He has to fight this battle, whether he wants to or not.

There was no way to avoid it, so Zhang Shixiong had no choice but to bite the bullet and go into battle.

But he remained timid and hesitant throughout, unwilling to confront Wang Er directly.

There was nothing he could do; he felt he was in a tough spot against Wang Er.

On several occasions, he caught a glimpse of Wang Er's troops in the distance.

Although the place was dilapidated and lacked equipment, there were just too many people.

His soldiers had not practiced real combat for many years, so they were really not confident.

He's almost sixty and just wants to live a peaceful life; he doesn't want to compete for any military merits.

Besides, the military merits of the bandits are so low-value that they're hardly worth mentioning.

In the Ming Dynasty, rewards for meritorious service were clearly categorized by the number of heads taken. The heads of the Jurchens in the north were the most valuable, followed by the Japanese pirates and Mongols, and then the Miao rebels in the southwest.

Compared to the heads of these barbarian tribes, the heads of bandits within the empire were the cheapest.

Furthermore, there are differences in the redemption of rewards for heads taken. For the Jurchen Tartars, the heads are redeemed immediately, while for the Mongol Tartars, the heads are mostly recorded as merits, but the silver can still be seen at the end of the year. However, for bandits and outlaws, it depends on the situation.

Moreover, Zhang Shixiong scoffed at the military strategy devised by Commander Han Chengju, which involved advancing from both the north and south to annihilate the bandits.

Only a bookworm who has read too many military books could come up with such a plan.

Let him advance along the official road from south to north, keeping a close watch on the bandits and preventing them from escaping. Then, let Han Chengju lead a troop of Guanzhong troops to press in from the north. The two armies will then join forces and annihilate the bandits.

But Han Chengju never considered why the word "traitor" was placed before "traitor."

They chased him all the way, but Wang Er still managed to escape by the Wei River. The next news they received was that Yijun City had been captured by him.

Then, on the way to Yijun, he met a scholar carrying the official seal of the Yijun County Magistrate, who said that there was internal strife among the bandits in the city, which was a good opportunity to defeat the enemy.

Upon hearing this news, Lu Bingzhong felt like he was being scratched by a cat, and he started jumping around, urging the troops to march.

But he didn't understand that the closer you feel to victory, the more dangerous it is.

Zhang Shixiong gazed at the dust rising from the distant loess hills, then touched his right eyelid, which was beginning to twitch slightly. Something felt off.

On a mound about six or seven hundred meters away from Zhang Shixiong, several people were carefully lying on the ground, observing the every move of Zhang Shixiong's army.

When he saw them stop to rest and start drinking water, Li Chengye couldn't help but lick his lips.

Liu Ye whispered to Li Chengye, "This army should be composed of two units with different affiliations."

"How did you figure that out?" Li Chengye asked, somewhat curious.

"When the enemy stopped to rest, there was a group of people inside who did not speak to anyone on either side, but drank water on their own, and their clothing and armor were different colors."

Following the direction Liu Ye pointed, Li Chengye also observed that there were indeed about a hundred people gathered in the middle and rear part of this garrison army, with a clear boundary between them and the others. Moreover, the clothes and armor of this group were noticeably brighter than those of the others.

This is indeed a key discovery.

Then Li Chengye, Liu Ye, and Han Sanhu, who came with them, exchanged their observations to avoid missing anything.

The army they currently have is indeed a garrison banner army, with a total number of over 1,200 people. Among them, about 30% are armored, which is less than 400 people. There are 200 musketeers, and two teams each of spearmen, swordmen, and shieldmen, with about 100 people in each team. As for the cavalry, only about 20 people are seen running around in front and behind the column, which should be used as cavalry.

The remaining people were laborers, stationed around the carts carrying supplies.

Although there were some discrepancies with the information Wang Er had at the meeting, the differences were minor.

"Let's go," Li Chengye said in a low voice to Liu Ye and Han Sanhu. "Now it's up to Wang Er to decide how to deal with the enemy."