The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 224 Deterrence
In mid-October, the heat wave in the capital had just subsided, and the cold wind was already howling outside the Great Wall.

In the Laoha River Valley of the Xingdusi in Beijing, hundreds of thousands of people and millions of cattle, sheep and horses gathered together. It was like a huge horse market, with people and animals everywhere.

Winter is approaching and there is still a lot to prepare.

After transporting the food and city-building materials, the soldiers of the Shenji Camp began to disperse to the northern grasslands to harvest winter grass. The 40,000 craftsmen were also working hard to build the Daning City and greenhouses.

The entire Laoha River Valley was bustling with activity. Even the captured young and strong men from the three Doyan guards were taken by the soldiers of the Shenwu Camp to open mountains and quarry stones.

However, the stones they collected were not used to build the Acropolis.

The soldiers of the Shenwu Camp actually used these stones to build a stone platform on the west bank of the Laoha River.

They built not just one or two, but a densely packed whole bunch, with a stone platform several meters square every ten or so meters.

Is this stone platform used as a beacon tower?

The question is, one beacon tower every ten miles or so is enough, so what's the point of building one every ten feet or so?
After the stone platform was built, stone locks were placed on it.

The young and strong men of the three guards of Doyan were really confused. What on earth did these people want to do?
On October 14th, Yi Hai, around noon, the sun was at its highest point, and the warm sunlight shining on the body was really refreshing.

The camps surrounding Daning City were filled with smoke from cooking and the aroma of food. The craftsmen building the city had stopped their work and were preparing to have lunch.

In the imperial guards camp south of the Acropolis, Wanli and Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan were also sitting cross-legged by the campfire in the middle of the big tent, drinking pork ribs and millet soup, while Li Xuancheng was grilling pork belly and pork tenderloin skewers with great interest.

In winter, people eat millet and pork. The millet here actually refers to millet, the millet in the grain. Millet is the first of the five grains and has diuretic, anti-inflammatory and hemostatic effects.

And 彘 actually refers to pig, and pork ribs and millet soup is a kind of health-preserving delicacy that can be eaten at different times of the year.

Wanli also began to pay attention to health preservation, as he also wanted to live a long life.

Li Xuancheng likes to eat barbecue, and he also grills pork.

Of course, after they were roasted, he would still give a few skewers to Wanli, so that Wanli and Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan could enjoy them first.

Wanli ate a bunch of sizzling pork belly slices and couldn't help but praise them repeatedly: "Uncle, this roasted pork belly is absolutely amazing. If you open a barbecue stall, you will probably make a fortune."

That's not the case.

Upon hearing this, Li Xuancheng couldn't help but say with a hint of pride, "I had the imperial chef carefully prepare all these seasonings, and I've tested the heat on countless pieces of meat to get the hang of it. I'm afraid no one in the world can grill meat better than I do."

Upon hearing this, Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan couldn't help but take a piece of grilled pork tenderloin.

This taste is simply amazing.

She couldn't help but nodded and said, "Yeah, uncle, your grilled meat is indeed the most delicious."

This nephew's wife is really good at talking.

Upon hearing this, Li Xuancheng couldn't help but smile triumphantly.

At this moment, a thunderous sound of horse hooves suddenly came from the north, and the density of the sound was probably tens of thousands of horses.

Wanli and Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan just sat there motionless, as if they didn't hear anything.

Li Xuancheng just glanced towards the north and then started grilling the meat.

They were all used to the coming and going of thousands of troops, and it was impossible for tens of thousands of enemy cavalry to suddenly rush into the Laoha River Valley at this moment.

Moreover, scouts had already been arranged on the twenty-foot-high tower in the Daningwei City to observe with telescopes. If the ones coming were enemy cavalry, they would have already reported it urgently.

Sure enough, Shan Sinan quickly came over, clasped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, it's Duke Peng who has arrived."

Qi Jiguang finally arrived, and the military examination and the palace examination could begin.

If we calculate based on previous time, the palace examination should have ended by now, and the list of successful candidates for the military examination should have been posted.

However, they were busy recovering the former territory of the Beijing Xingdusi. After the recovery, they had to build the Acropolis to garrison and prepare for winter, so they were simply too busy to handle it.

Now they finally had some free time, so Wanli ordered his cavalry to go and call over Qi Jiguang and all the generals from the Beijing camp who could come.

Most of the generals in the Beijing camp were military scholars, and they were there to serve as examiners and examiners.

Upon hearing this, Wanli immediately stood up and said, "General Shan, have someone quickly bring some more wool blankets to spread around the campfire. My dear uncle, stew the whole pig we slaughtered this morning with the bones and make a big pot of soup. Roast more meat, as there will be a lot of people waiting."

Not long after, Qi Jiguang came quickly with more than ten generals.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli raised his hand and said, "Everyone, sit down and have some soup to warm yourself up. Yuanjing, come, come and sit down."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang hurriedly and carefully sat down beside him.

Wanli immediately asked the imperial concubine Qin Lan on the other side to scoop a bowl of soup and pass it over.

Qi Jiguang quickly took the bowl of soup and said flatteredly, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace." Wanli smiled slightly and said, "Yuanjing, try this pork rib and millet soup specially prepared by Doctor Wan. It's nourishing and healthy."

Qi Jiguang blew on it quickly and then tasted it carefully.

Wanli saw that he had taken a few sips, then asked, "How is it going? How long will it take for the Quanningwei City to be built?"

Qi Jiguang quickly introduced: "We have transferred 40,000 new soldiers from the Beijing Camp and 10,000 craftsmen. The construction is much faster than here. The city wall over there is already built, and they are building barracks and granaries."

Now that the city wall is built, we can rest assured. Tens of thousands of soldiers from the Beijing camp are guarding it. Even if Tumen Khan mobilizes all his troops, he will not be able to capture it.

Wanli nodded slightly, then explained in detail: "Yuan Jing, the main reason I asked you to bring them here this time is to preside over the military examination and the palace examination.

It's getting late now, so let's hold the provincial examination and the palace examination together. Today you will have questions on military strategy and formation theory, tomorrow you will have the written test, and the day after tomorrow you will start the other tests.

You will have three days to finish reviewing the military strategy and formation theory questions and rank them. In five days, the palace examination will be held to determine the ranking of the military scholars."

It is indeed getting late now. If the military examination and the palace examination are not held soon, it will snow here.

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

The military examination began like this.

There was nothing special on the first day. The written test was held on the open space in Daning City. Outsiders could not see it at all, and there was nothing to see.

However, things were different the next day. All the martial arts scholars were arranged to be tested on the arena in Laoha River Valley.

Early in the morning at about 1 a.m., just as the sky was getting light, the sounds of horse hooves and endless shouts could be heard on both sides of the Laoha River.

The soldiers of the Shenwu Camp gathered all the captured men, women, young and old, and asked them to add some winter fodder to the cattle and sheep pens, and then marched them to the banks of the Laoha River.

The young and strong men of the three guards of Doyan were so frightened that their calves were trembling.

Could it be that the stone platform they built was used for beheading?
It turned out that the leader of their tribe had said that if they were caught by the Ming army, all the young and strong men would be killed!
Is this going to be beheaded?
Unexpectedly, when they were driven to about ten steps away from the stone platform, they were ordered to stop and watch carefully.

What are you looking at?

There was actually someone on the stone platform lifting a stone lock!

At this time, the captives of the three guards of Doyan finally realized that this stone platform was used for competitions. In their opinion, a competition of strength was also a competition.

What kind of people did the Ming army choose?
These guys are too terrifying. Everyone can lift a stone lock weighing hundreds of pounds. There are only a few who can't lift 200 pounds. There are many who can lift 300 pounds. There are even some who can lift 500 or 600 pounds!

When the captives of the three guards of Doyan saw this, they exclaimed in surprise and gasped.

These people are so strong that if there were only one or two, or ten or eight of them, they would not be surprised. There are such strong men among them.

The problem is, there are so many stone platforms on the river bank that you can't see the end of them. There are several people competing on each platform. There must be at least several thousand people!

The next scene of running fast with heavy loads was also quite terrifying. These guys could run ten miles while carrying hundreds of kilograms of food, and they were running very fast while vying with each other.

The horsemanship and archery that followed were even more terrifying. This time the place was large, and the arena area stretched for hundreds of miles. A circle around the arena was more than two hundred miles.

When the equestrian competition started, the five thousand men and horses were galloping at lightning speed, and it was impossible to see the figures of people. They had to complete various required movements over a distance of more than two hundred miles, and many of them took only about an hour.

Who says our military cavalry skills are not as good as theirs?
The riding skills of these thousands of men and horses are better than theirs!
The subsequent horse archery was even more terrifying. These guys drew their bows and arrows while galloping on their horses, shooting at targets a hundred steps away. With this speed and distance, only a few of the three guards of Doyan could hit the target.

However, few of these guys could not hit the target, and many of them could hit the bull's eye as big as a fist.

What kind of archery is this!
The final duel frightened the young and strong men of the three Doyan guards so much that their faces were filled with terror.

These guys used deadly moves. Some of them were knocked off the ring in the blink of an eye. Some of them were even more powerful than them.

If they fight with these guys, they will probably be killed in the first fight!
The reason why Wanli ordered people to set up the arena by the Laoha River was to intimidate the captives of the Three Guards of Doyan.

This time they captured not only the elderly, the weak, women and children, but also tens of thousands of young and strong people.

He just wanted to let these people see how powerful the elite of the Ming army were. He wanted to let these captives understand that it would be easy for these 5,000 martial arts candidates who took part in the imperial examination to deal with tens of thousands of their young and strong men.

In this way, the young and strong captives would not dare to gather together to rebel.

He wanted to make these young and strong captives understand that gathering together to rebel would lead to death.

After this intimidation, the young and strong men of the three guards of Doyan really had no intention of resisting.

They saw with their own eyes how powerful the elite troops of the Ming army were.

It was so easy for these guys to deal with them. Not to mention anything else, just in terms of horse riding and archery, the tens of thousands of young and strong men they had were not enough for them to practice archery.

They didn't want to die, so they were lucky enough that the Ming army didn't kill them.

(End of this chapter)