Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1202 Arrival at the Frontier
"General Wei!" A familiar voice sounded. Wei Xuliang looked carefully and tried to get up hurriedly, but the man took two steps forward and held him down.

"Why are you here, Marshal?"

The person who came was none other than Xie Jikai, the Marquis of Yongping. Xie Jikai squatted down and touched Wei Xuliang's forehead with his hand, and immediately frowned.

"When did you catch a cold? Why didn't you report it to me?"

"I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Marshal. It should have been last night. I felt dizzy when I set out today. But don't worry, Marshal. I'm in good health. A mere cold is nothing..." Wei Xuliang replied with a smile.

"Stupid!" As soon as Wei Xuliang finished speaking, Xie Jikai could not help but blame him: "How can a cold be a small matter? You have never been to Yunnan and Guizhou before, and you are not used to the climate there, and now you are careless and have caught a cold. This is no joke!"

"Marshal..."

"That's enough, stop talking." Xie Jikai waved his hand to interrupt Wei Xuliang and turned around to say, "Give it to me!"

The personal soldier behind him responded and brought a bowl of medicine. Xie Jikai took it and said to Wei Xuliang, "I learned that General Wei had caught a cold, so I had someone cook a bowl of medicine. Our army is on the march and has no other conditions, so this is the only way."

"Your cold must be treated, but it's too late to find a doctor right now, and the longer you delay, the more likely it is to cause problems. This soup medicine is not prescribed by a doctor, but don't worry, this is a folk remedy that my Xie family has often used in Guizhou for many years. It is also commonly used by local natives. If you catch a cold, drinking one dose will make you feel much better. Generally, two or three doses will be enough to cure the disease. Come on, drink this medicine quickly, don't force yourself to march later, let the soldiers carry you, and have a good rest. If nothing unexpected happens, you will be basically cured after the fever subsides later."

Wei Xuliang was stunned, and said with a moved look: "Thank you for your concern, Marshal. I didn't expect that I only caught a cold and actually alarmed you, and... "

"Let's not talk about other things for now. Drink the medicine first. It will only be effective if you drink it while it's hot. By the way, this medicine tastes a bit bad. When you drink it, be sure not to vomit. Drink it all in big gulps so it will be effective."

Wei Xuliang nodded, sat up and took a look at the bowl. The medicine soup in the bowl was dark and exuded a strong medicinal smell. Wei Xuliang didn't care. He raised the bowl and drank it. Although he had prepared it, he almost vomited it when the medicine soup entered his mouth. It was not just unpalatable! It was really too unpalatable.

This medicine soup was not only bitter, but also spicy and irritating. Wei Xuliang almost spit it out when it entered his mouth. However, Wei Xuliang still forced himself to drink it. After a few gulps, he drank the whole bowl of medicine soup. When the medicine entered his stomach, he felt the churning in his stomach. Wei Xuliang resisted this feeling and handed the empty bowl back, saying with a smile: "This medicine is quite strong. This is the first time I have tasted such a medicine."

"Hahaha! Good medicine tastes bitter." Xie Jiekai patted his shoulder with a smile, then gave him a few instructions before leaving.

After drinking the medicine, Wei Xuliang endured it for a while, and finally the feeling in his stomach gradually subsided, but soon he felt waves of fatigue and exhaustion coming again. He told his personal soldiers to make a stretcher and carry him to continue the march. After a while, Wei Xuliang couldn't help but fall asleep. He didn't know how long he slept. He only felt that he was being carried on the march in a daze. When Wei Xuliang woke up, it was already the early morning of the next day. He didn't expect that he had slept for nearly seven or eight hours. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the tent above his head. After turning over, he found that his strength had returned and he felt much more comfortable. When he touched his forehead, the temperature returned to normal. The previous cold was actually gone, which made Wei Xuliang overjoyed.

I didn't expect this medicine to be so effective. It only took one day to cure the cold. Wei Xuliang was very happy and grateful to Xie Jikai. He went to thank the commander in chief in person. Seeing Wei Xuliang's recovery, Xie Jikai was relieved and told him not to overwork in the next two days. He would be fine after taking two more doses of the decoction. Wei Xuliang agreed. In the next two days, his health improved day by day. When the army arrived at Pingyi, Wei Xuliang's cold was completely cured and he was completely healthy again.

Now they are very close to Yunnan. Pingyi is a garrison located in western Guizhou. It is not large in scale and is just a garrison of a hundred households.

Less than fifty miles west of this guard post is the border of Yunnan. After entering Yunnan, continuing west from here is Fuyuan. In Fuyuan there is a Pingyi Guard post. From a military perspective, although the names of Pingyi Guard post in Guizhou and Pingyi Guard post in Yunnan are similar, the two places are located in Yunnan and Guizhou respectively, but do not belong to the same guard post. Pingyi Guard post belongs to Pu'an Guard post in Guizhou. People who are not familiar with this place often make mistakes.

Pingyi Suo was only a 100-household unit, so its jurisdiction was not large, just the size of a village. Guizhou was also remote, not as remote as other places in the Ming Dynasty, with many mountains and few places for farming. Pingyi Suo was supposed to be a 100-household unit, but in reality, there were not many people. Apart from the old and weak, there were only less than 30 young and strong people, including the 100 households in Pingyi Suo.

Xie Jikai was naturally aware of this situation. After all, he was still the commander of Guizhou. All the guards in Guizhou were his subordinates. The guards in Guizhou were not worth using overnight. As early as the Bozhou Rebellion, the guards in Guizhou were destroyed. Although the court finally quelled the rebellion and Yang Yinglong was destroyed, the guards in Guizhou did not recover in the past few decades. In addition, Guizhou has many mountains and little land, and it is impossible to support the guards, especially the hundred-household guards like Pingyi. Although the court has been gradually reorganizing the guards in recent years and changing the previous military system, the reorganization of places like Yunnan and Guizhou can only be carried out after the completion of the eastern part of the Ming Dynasty. Now, except for Zhili and Nanzhili, the military reorganization of the Central Plains provinces is almost complete, and other provinces have not officially started yet.

In view of this situation, Xie Jikai led troops to reinforce Yunnan to help suppress the rebellion, and mobilized the elite troops in Guiyang, including his personal soldiers and servants and some elite Ming troops stationed there. However, the local guards were not worth using, and it would not only be ineffective to take them out to fight, but it would be better not to take them out to avoid being dragged down in a real fight.

Just like now, not to mention that Xie Jiekai didn't want to mobilize the soldiers from Pingyi, even the soldiers from Pu'anwei were not mobilized. It would be great if these soldiers could guard a good place and collect some intelligence for himself.

Pingyi Suo was too small to accommodate a large army, so except for Xie Jiekai's central army entering Pingyi Suo, the rest of the troops were stationed in the outer area of ​​Pingyi Suo.

In the Baihu Household Office of Pingyi, which is also the best house here, Xie Jiekai sat in the main seat, and on his left and right sat Wei Xuliang, Xie Jiekai's second son Xie Guangping, Guiyang garrison commander Lin Kang, Qianhu Gu Yunjie, deputy Qianhu Zhao Guodong and others.

Xie Jikai led troops to reinforce and suppress the rebellion, but he did not bring his eldest son with him, but only his second son Xie Guangping. After all, the eldest son was the next head of the Xie family and the heir to the title of Yongping Marquis. This time, entering Yunnan to suppress the rebellion was no small matter. Even Mu Tianbo was driven out of Kunming by Sha Dingzhou and fled to western Yunnan like a stray dog.

Although Xie Jikai was a military commander and had led troops for many years, he knew himself well and knew that he was not as good as Mu Tianbo in terms of battle formations. Therefore, Xie Jikai himself was not absolutely sure about how the expedition to Yunnan would turn out. For this reason, he deliberately left his eldest son in Guiyang. If anything happened to him in Yunnan, at least his eldest son would be there, allowing the lineage of Yongping Hou to continue.

When they arrived here, Xie Jikai ordered the troops to stay here temporarily, and at the same time, he called in the centurion of Pingyi to inquire about the situation in Yunnan. He originally thought that he could get some information about Fuyuan and even Qujing from this centurion, but who would have thought that after asking for a long time, this guy only said some news about Sha Dingzhou's rebellion in Yunnan, Mu Tianbo's escape from Kunming City, and Sha Dingzhou's unsuccessful attack on Chuxiong not long ago, and he actually knew nothing else. This made Xie Jikai look extremely ugly. If he hadn't been well-mannered, he would have scolded this centurion.

Restraining his anger, Xie Jiekai waved his hand to let the centurion leave. After the centurion left, Xie Jiekai turned to everyone present and asked their opinions.

Although Xie Jikai was a hereditary general and the commander-in-chief of Guizhou, to be honest, he did not have much real combat experience. Guizhou had not fought a war since the Bozhou Rebellion was quelled during the Wanli period. During the decades of peace, Xie Jikai had never really been on the battlefield except for leading troops to suppress bandits a few times.

Not only that, even his second son and several other generals were the same, they did not have much experience in battle. Hearing Xie Jikai asking for their advice, these people looked embarrassed and subconsciously looked at Wei Xuliang.

"General Wei!"

"I'm here!" Wei Xuliang quickly stood up.

Waving his hand to signal him to sit down and talk, Xie Jikai said sincerely: "General Wei is not an outsider. Although I am the commander-in-chief, I have never fought in a major battle. The same is true for the others present. General Wei is a descendant of the Earl of Xuancheng. Many generations of the Earl of Xuancheng have produced famous generals. General Wei previously served in Xuanfu. He not only fought against the Mongols, but also against the Jiannu. He has much more experience in battle than I do. At present, my army has been ordered by the court to enter Yunnan to reinforce and quell the rebellion in Shadingzhou. Now we have reached the Yunnan-Guizhou border. I wonder if General Wei has anything to teach me?"

“This…” Wei Xuliang hesitated, clasped his fists and said, “This general is only a guerrilla general, and the commander-in-chief is the commander of an army. This general…”

"General Wei, there are no outsiders here. Just say whatever you want to say. I am not someone who cannot listen to opinions. Besides, the Yunnan incident is not a trivial matter. We are following your orders and doing our best for the country. The high or low official positions are nothing. Moreover, General Wei has received an order to serve as my deputy general. I am afraid that the court has already considered this point and used General Wei's battle experience to make up for my shortcomings. So, General Wei, just say whatever you want to say, don't worry."

Everyone nodded and agreed. Seeing this, Wei Xuliang calmed down and thought for a moment, saying, "Since the Marshal thinks so highly of me, I will tell you a few things for your reference."

"Okay!" Xie Jikai nodded with satisfaction, stroked his broken beard, and listened attentively to what Wei Xuliang continued to say.

(End of this chapter)