Nanming Engineer

Chapter 13
At the end of April, the sun rose slowly with the time, and when a round of red sun flashed in the sky, Tuhai's personal soldiers came to count on horseback.

At this time, the supply battalion composed of tens of thousands of family members had just formed a long winding line outside the gate. The line followed the military system. name; ten teams constitute a battalion, with a commander.There are a total of fifteen commanders, directly under the control of Tu Hai.

Li Tingyu's team was alone in charge of nearly [-] carts and carts in the supply camp. The carts were full of large wooden boxes. Last night, Liu Liangzuo's army carried them onto the cart overnight and tied them tightly.The boxes were nailed firmly with iron nails and sealed with paint. Even Li Tingyu didn't know what was inside. He could only infer from the fact that the wheels sank deeply into the ground after these wooden boxes were installed. The inside should be very heavy. thing.

Tuhai asked the soldiers to count the number of people, and called all the captains and commanders for a meeting.Arrange the marching sequence of the team and announce the discipline.

The captain and commander are all soldiers in Liu Liangzuo's army. Without exception, these people are Liu Liangzuo's cronies. With no relatives and no one to coordinate up and down, it ended in a bleak end.

Li Tingyu also served as a commander, but the number of people under this command was relatively small, and it didn't matter to him that he only commanded more than 500 people of his own, since he didn't really lead troops anyway.

The really terrible thing is that Tuhai divided the five hundred and eight banner soldiers into three parts, one part of 100 people opened the way at the front, and the other part of 100 people fell to the end, leaving fifty soldiers to follow him in the middle of the brigade, and the rest of more than 200 people, They were scattered among the battalions of the team.As for Li Tingyu's team, they were arranged right in front of Tuhai's personal army, and their every move was under Tuhai's gaze.

Li Tingyu came back from the meeting, with a worried expression on his face, and discussed with Wang Huan in a low voice: "Is the general Qing's arrangement so wary of us?"

Wang Huan looked at the formation, but he understood it well, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, sir, the Qing soldiers are not guarding us, but protecting us."

When Li Tingyu heard this, he frowned and thought about it. He looked at the convoy of huge wooden boxes and said, "Could it be... because of these boxes?"

"Of course!" Wang Huan said with a smile: "My lord, can you guess what is in these boxes?"

Li Tingyu has been marching and fighting for so many years, of course he is not a fool, but he didn't think too much about it. When Wang Huan reminded him, he immediately reacted: "The wheels are so deep that even a cow can't move it. It should be extremely heavy. Apart from ordnance, what else is so heavy in the army? Could it be gold and silver?"

Wang Huan also looked at the long line of ox carts and the push carts that followed behind and it was very laborious to push. He whispered: "Indeed, Yangzhou City is rich and prosperous. After the city was broken, the Qing army closed the door and massacred the city. , I don’t know how much gold and silver property was robbed in the city. Duduo was in a hurry to attack Nanjing, and his troops were particularly insufficient. It was impossible to leave precious troops to protect the property. It was impossible to lose it, so he had no choice but to escort it. Leave. And we are the coolies who transport these belongings."

Li Tingyu looked at the passing cars and couldn't help saying: "Mother, so many! How much did Qinggou steal!"

Wang Huan smiled and said, "Sir, God is helping us."

Li Tingyu was puzzled: "How to say?"

"We were worried that there was no boat in Hongze Lake, so the Qing army sent us a boat." Wang Huan smiled and whispered in Li Tingyu's ear. After a pause, Li Tingyu nodded repeatedly and followed suit. laugh it out.

"Okay, okay, as expected of my military counselor, this idea is one set after another!" Li Tingyu raised his thumb.

"What's even better is that this map is so bold that it dares to divide the already small number of Eight Banners soldiers into several parts, which are far apart, making it easier for us to do it." Wang Huan's smile became even more joyful.

The two stood side by side, looking at the formation of the Qing army for a while, and at the convoy with large boxes for a while, laughing heartily, which made Li Yan who was standing behind them very strange and didn't understand why, but the two didn't give him any help. Ming said, of course it was even more inconvenient to inquire, which made it very depressing.

Tu Hai in the distance, after giving orders, watched his soldiers return to their positions according to the order. The soldiers waved their whips and urged them to drive away. Finally, the huge baggage camp like a giant python began to move slowly. A man on horseback stands on a dirt slope and observes the movement of the queue from a height.

"Zuo Ling, isn't it appropriate to separate our bannermen like this?" A soldier in iron armor rode close to him and said in a deep voice.

Tu Hai glanced sideways, and saw that the person who was speaking was Suijia Sule, his subordinate. This man was eighteen years old, with a broad forehead and fine features, handsome face, tall and healthy, with bear arms and waist, but fair skin. Because of his parents, he was young. At that time, I worked as an accompanying student in a Baylor mansion in Qizhong, learned from a teacher, and could read and break characters. He didn't look like a hero who came out of the white mountains and black waters, but he looked like a scholar of the Han nationality. People, often take the lead in battle, and repeatedly make outstanding achievements in battle. He doesn't like this kind of white-faced scholar.

It was precisely because of Su Le's outstanding bravery that Tuhai changed his view and made him his reliance, and he would discuss with him when he had something to do.That's why Su Le dared to speak up at this time.

"Oh, what's wrong?" Tu Hai said lightly.

"The law of war says that the soldiers gather together. We only have 500 people in total. This way, the front, the middle, and the back are divided into each battalion. It's easy for the enemy to defeat them one by one." Seeing the question, Su Le quickly expressed his worries.

Tu Hai has always been interested in cultivating this young man, and even made an exception and asked him to bring twenty cavalry soldiers as his personal entourage. Hearing what he said clearly and in one go, he was naturally happy in his heart, and nodded approvingly: "Su Le, You have a good idea, you can see the disadvantages of my arrangement and make some progress."

When Su Le heard this, of course he understood the meaning of the words. He quickly bent down on his horse and said, "It turns out that Lord Zuoling already has a perfect plan. It's just that I was worrying too much."

"Suler, you're right. If we were just a few people among tens of thousands of people, we wouldn't be in trouble. But if we were spread out like this, we wouldn't even be able to see our shadows." Tu Hai waved. With a wave of his horsewhip, he pointed to the brigade slowly moving down the slope and said.

The confusion on Su Le's face deepened, but he knew that Tu Hai must have something to say, so he just looked at Tu Hai and didn't dare to intervene.

Sure enough, Tuhai continued: "However, this is for enemies. If there are no enemies, just relying on tens of thousands of old, weak, sick and disabled, let alone 500 of us, even if you are the only one, you will be able to successfully defeat the enemy." They escorted them to Xuzhou!"

Tu Hai looked at Su Le with a smile: "Then, tell me, where is the enemy from here to Xuzhou?"

Su Le suddenly realized, and hurriedly said: "Zuo Ling, Prince Yu's army is heading south all the way, and the momentum is like a broken bamboo. The Ming army has no generals who dare to fight, and there is no city that dares to hold on. Even Yangzhou, which can be defended by the Ministry of the Ming Dynasty, only lasted for a day. That is to say, the south of the great river is within the reach of our Qing Dynasty, and from here to the north, it is all the land of our Qing Dynasty, where can the enemy come from?"

Tu Hai laughed loudly, and said in a vibrating voice, "That's right! In the south of the great river, regardless of the tens of millions of people, in my eyes they are all local chickens and dogs! There are no enemies, so we have nothing to be afraid of!"

The Qing soldiers who followed the two heard the conversation clearly, and laughed along with Tuhai. The rough laughter floated along the slope to the surroundings, stirring up waves of echoes in the air.

Suler laughed, but he always felt something was wrong in his heart, and his laughter was involuntarily dry.

Tu Hai smiled for a while, put away his smile, and said to Su Le seriously: "It's always right to be careful, but it's not about being careful about other things, the main thing is to protect the safety of that team of luggage."

He raised his whip and pointed it at a section of the huge team. Su Le looked along his whip and saw a group of soldiers from the Ming army driving ox carts and pushing carts.

Su Le was taken aback, and couldn't help asking: "That's a group of soldiers, why should we protect them?"

Tu Haidao: "It's not protecting the cart, it's protecting the box on the cart. Inside the box is the 200 million taels of gold and silver seized by Prince Yu in Yangzhou."

Suler was shocked and said hurriedly: "Two million taels? Why so much!"

"It's because there are so many that we let us escort them." Tuhai's face gradually became serious, and he said slowly: "These gold and silver will be transferred in Xuzhou and shipped to Beijing. Our task is to ensure that they reach Xuzhou safely. As for Xuzhou If you go north, it will not be under our control."

Su Le knew the seriousness of the matter. After the Qing army entered the customs, there was a tradition that every time they went, they would scrape three feet of the ground to collect precious metals from Ming Dynasty official warehouses and folks, and transport them all outside the customs. Only Aixinjueluo hid them. The secret that only the royal family knows is well kept.It's just unexpected that in just ten days, Duoduo snatched such a large amount of property near Yangzhou.

Tuhai glanced at Su Le, and said in a deep voice: "I'm not afraid of anything else, but I'm afraid that the Ming army will surrender and steal the contents of the box while we are not paying attention. The Ming army can't do anything else but steal this business It's really tight. I took you to watch them personally, do you know why?"

A murderous look appeared in Su Le's eyes, he stood up and cupped his hands and said, "Don't worry Zuo Ling, I will keep one eye open even when I sleep, if anyone dares to try the trick with his eyes open, my Hachierlang's knife will not see blood and will not go into the sheath!"

Tu Hai laughed and said happily: "Okay! You are indeed my Qing Dynasty general. I feel relieved with you here. When we get to Xuzhou and the delivery is completed, I will definitely recommend you to the chief counselor."

Suler followed with a smile and said: "In that case, thank you in advance, sir!"

Another burst of wild laughter rang out, and the voice was rough and unscrupulous. Wang Huan, who happened to be passing by the slope, frowned, and glanced at the slope with some disgust, just in time to see a group of Qing cavalry unscrupulous on it. big laugh.

"Laugh! Laugh!" Wang Huan gritted his teeth and cursed in a low voice: "I will make you look good in a few days, and see if you can still laugh!"

(End of this chapter)