Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 13: The Defeat of the Beijing Camp
After the recent intimidation by force, the villagers, who had originally had a tough attitude, had become very kind, even a little restrained. In the end, only a wounded man with an arrow piercing his thigh, lying on a cart, was transported out along with the food and fodder requested by Zhu Cilang.

Zhu Cilang asked Zhou Shixian to come forward to count the food and examine the injuries, and then, as agreed, he gave the village leader silver to buy food and twenty taels of silver for treating the injuries.

Naturally, these villagers did not have the best bean feed for war horses at home, but for such a large village to survive to this day, it was more than enough to supply the salt and food needed for more than 20 people and more than 40 war horses for two days.

After successfully obtaining the much-needed food and supplies, Zhu Cilang did not linger near the village, but continued to move south. Before it got completely dark, he found a deserted village to spend the night.

Marching under the cover of night is certainly concealed, but it is also more dangerous. The temperature is extremely low and the cold wind is howling. Not only are people and horses prone to frostbite, but if the starlight is dim and it is pitch black, the road cannot be seen at all. Galloping on a dirt road in the countryside means that you have too many horses and are too unlucky.

Moreover, in the flat plains, as long as the torches were lit, they could be seen from a long distance, making them very easy to be discovered. There were quite a few chaotic soldiers from the Beijing camp around them.

Most importantly, Zhu Cilang was unwilling to risk delaying. Although they were now nearly 200 miles away from Beijing, Li Zicheng seemed to have not noticed anything unusual and had not sent a large group of pursuers.

You know, one hundred miles is just the distance that the main elite troops of the Shun army can march for one day. If the cavalry spares no effort and pursues at full speed, they can probably catch up to one hundred and fifty miles in one day.

They are now located between Baoding and Jinghai, where many Shun troops are stationed, and the situation remains very serious.

At the same time, the three scouts sent by Chang Denggui were still on guard within a ten-mile radius around the team, and there were also night patrols in the rear keeping early warning fifteen miles away. The twenty riders were divided into five teams, taking turns on guard to ensure that nothing went wrong.

After a peaceful night, the men and horses had a good rest and recovered their strength. The next morning, just after dawn, Zhu Cilang set out under the escort of a group of soldiers, continuing his journey south while looking for post stations along the way.

Although he now realized that traveling south by land was far less feasible than taking the canal, it was still quite necessary to replenish horses along the way.

During the Eastern Expedition, although the Dashun Army had sent troops to take over the prefectures along the way, it had not yet had time to formally take over the post stations along the official road. It only sent a small number of troops to supervise the Ming court's surrendered troops originally stationed there, and their strength was not strong.

However, Zhu Cilang never expected that when Liu Fangliang led his army north, he would actually plunder all the post stations along the way. Almost all the remaining horses were taken away.

This made his plan of picking up some leftovers and adding a dozen or so horses along the way fail completely.

However, on second thought, Liu Fangliang had surrendered soldiers serving as guides in the area, so how could he not plunder them all?
You know, horses were as important to the army at that time as armor. Even if they were not good horses, they could be used for transportation and improve the army's mobility.

In the evening of that day, after turning a small hill, Zhu Cilang finally saw a large post station located on the side of the official road.

And on the corner tower of the post station, the flag of the Shun army was hanging at this time.

However, according to the report from the scouts under Chang Denggui's command, this post station seemed to have been looted by the Shun army, just like other places along the way. There were no elite troops stationed there. In front of the post station gate, there were only a dozen Ming army soldiers who had not yet changed their armor and uniforms.

In this case, there were probably no horses left in the post station, but there should still be some food and fodder. According to Ming Dynasty rules, each post station would have a rice warehouse and a fodder warehouse specifically for the food and fodder of officials and messengers.

Zhu Cilang was riding on his horse, calculating the distance to Qing County in his mind.

This place is more than a hundred miles away from Qing County, and it will take at least a day to get there. He originally had two days' worth of food and fodder, and he had previously bought two days' worth of food and fodder from the villagers. Now it doesn't matter whether he replenishes his food or not.

You know, if a post station is garrisoned, it's no match for those earthen forts. Zhu Cilang's decision to use force to intimidate the earthen forts and force a sale was because they were weak. In times like these, he absolutely wouldn't take a risk if he could avoid it. But often, circumstances forced him to make a choice, and he had to choose the lesser of two evils.

If he had not acted decisively yesterday, he would have to take the risk of storming this post station, which he would not have had time to fully understand.

You know, along the way, there are ruins and dilapidated scenes everywhere, and most of the villages you pass by occasionally are uninhabited. Even in places close to water sources, nine out of ten houses are basically empty.

In the original history, many counties and prefectures in northern Zhili, Shandong, and Henan would not be taken over by the Dashun county officials with more than a hundred Shun soldiers until a month later. This was the limitation of the transportation and information transmission methods of that era.

But at that time, Li Zicheng had already been defeated at Shanhaiguan. After the news reached these areas, countless gentry and local tyrants immediately broke out in an uprising against the Shun army, so that in the end, the fruits of victory of the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty were mostly reaped by the Qing Dynasty in just a few months.

Therefore, Zhu Cilang does not need to worry about any major accidents happening in Qing County for the time being. It is already a county under the jurisdiction of Hejian Prefecture, and the Shun army cannot affect other places except the county seat.

"Your Highness, should we fight or not? The garrison troops in the post station are definitely not strong. Even if there are no horses, there should still be some food and grass." Zhou Shixian bowed and asked for instructions.

"If there is no horse, fighting will be useless and will only lead to accidents." Li Banghua stroked his beard and disagreed with Zhou Shixian's idea. He even stuck out his red and swollen butt while speaking.

After Chang Denggui reported the military situation, he waited for Zhu Cilang to speak. The Lin Changfeng brothers also seemed eager to try.

Zhu Cilang shook his head and immediately ordered, "Rush to Qing County as quickly as possible. What we lack now is horses, not food. If we don't have a dozen war horses here, attacking this post station will be meaningless."

As the core figure of the entire team and the crown prince with supreme power, Zhu Cilang's words were enough to seal the deal. He now had absolute prestige in the team.

So, this team of cavalry, dressed as servants of a wealthy family, bypassed the post station from a distance and continued to head south at full speed.

Zhu Cilang would order the team to stop and rest every hour, and replenish beans and water for the horses in time. With such a high-intensity march, the horses' endurance was actually far inferior to that of humans, and their speed would be fast at first and then slow down, especially since they now had less than one person and two horses.

The group hurried and finally arrived at the west side of Wen'an County when the sun was about to set. They were not far from Qing County and no accidents happened along the way.

But just as the team finished their last rest and prepared to find a village to spend the night before dark, Zhu Cilang suddenly received news from the scouts ahead that a group of soldiers and horses of unknown circumstances had been discovered ahead, about a dozen of them.

Not only that, the scouts who were originally on guard on both wings also hurried back quickly, bringing news that there were soldiers and horses with unknown situations in the surrounding areas, and there were more than a dozen of them. Even the Night Warriors in the rear quickly withdrew with an arrow stuck in their armor.

As a result, Zhu Cilang and others were surrounded on all sides, and there were many abandoned villages around them, which affected the movement of the cavalry.

"Your Highness, these troops should have been led by that old bastard Li Jiantai. Damn it, I heard they were basically routed before they even met the enemy. This old bastard has completely disgraced the Beijing camp."

Chang Denggui quickly rode back to the ranks. He had just dealt with the cavalrymen surrounding him, and after a closer observation, he had basically confirmed their identities. Having served in the Beijing camp for many years, he naturally understood the situation better. At this moment, he couldn't hold back his temper and burst into a barrage of curses.

"These four groups of defeated soldiers from the Beijing camp have a total strength of about seventy cavalrymen. They are well-equipped, and most importantly, they have a lot of horses. Basically, each man has two horses, or even three. It seems that they took advantage of our rest time to sneak up on us."

(End of this chapter)