Chapter 202 201 Set Out to Patrol the Border

Early the next morning, Wei Guangde rubbed his sleepy eyes and got up to wash.

After coming out, he felt a headache when he thought about going to Beijing Camp to meet Weng Pu in a while.

When he went out to eat breakfast, Wei Guangde whispered to Zhang Ji, "Take all our armor. You go find Li San later and ask him to go to Beijing Camp with you. Find a few good war horses. Each person needs two horses. He should take good care of the horses."

Well, after thinking about it all night, Wei Guangde could only make these preparations. If he really ran into the Tartars during this border patrol, he just had to make sure he ran faster than others. One person with two horses should be enough.

The carriage could only be left in the guild hall. If he was greedy for comfort and went to the border patrol in a carriage, it would be a bit risky.

After a quick meal, Wei Guangde said goodbye to Lao Kan, Zhang Ke and others who saw him off, and took Zhang Ji and Li San on a hired carriage to Beijing Camp.

After the Hongwu Emperor conquered the country in the early years, the Beijing Camp was set up to train soldiers to defend the capital.

The Ming Dynasty initially established its capital in Nanjing, so two large and small drill grounds were built inside and outside Nanjing to train 48 guards respectively, which were affiliated to the Marshal's Office. Soon, Zhu Yuanzhang reorganized the trained soldiers and called them the Five Army Camps.

After Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di succeeded to the throne, while following the old system of Hongwu, he expanded the Beijing Camp, increasing the original 48 guards to 72 guards. After that, he gradually established three major camps: the Five Army Camp, the Three Thousand Camp, and the Shenji Camp. These three camps are collectively called the Beijing Army or the Beijing Camp.

Among them, the Five Army Camp was the original main force of the Beijing Camp, the Three Thousand Camp was a cavalry unit composed of Mongolian surrendered soldiers accepted by Emperor Chengzu, and the Shenji Camp was easier to understand, which was reorganized from the firearms unit of the Beijing Camp.

In the capital, in addition to the three major camps, there are also the emperor's personal guards, Jinyiwei and the twelve personal guards. The strongest of them are naturally the Wuxiang Left Guard, Wuxiang Right Guard, Tengxiang Left Guard and Tengxiang Right Guard under the Imperial Horse Administration, known as the "Four Guards".

After the Tumubao Incident, the main force of the Beijing Camp was lost, and the three major camps became history. The remaining soldiers and the troops drawn from the surrounding areas formed a new Beijing Camp. Since then, the armed forces of the capital have entered the "Tuanying" era.

From the initial ten Tuanyings to the twelve Tuanyings, it lasted until a few years ago, that is, in the 29th year of Jiajing, with the "Gengxu Incident", the twelve Tuanyings became history. Emperor Jiajing abolished the Tuanying system and restored the three major camps during the Chengzu period: Wujunying, Shenshuying and Shenjiying.

The only change was the change of the Three Thousand Camps to the Shenshu Camp, which was one of the few fully-organized pure cavalry units in the Ming Dynasty. This was also because there were no longer so many Mongolian surrendered soldiers in this era, but most of them were elites selected from the border troops, and their riding skills were extraordinary.

Although some adjustments were made in the system, the current Beijing Camp did not seem to have changed much from the previous Twelve Regiment Camps. At least Wei Guangde had not seen any decent exercises in the Beijing Camp during his time in the capital, and he heard about the same thing after entering the officialdom. No one thought that there was any change after the Regiment Camp was changed to the Beijing Camp.

Most of the Beijing Camps were stationed in the north of Beijing, that is, on the vast plains outside Deshengmen and Andingmen, with their backs against the city walls. Wei Guangde and his men also entered Chongwenmen after coming out of the guild hall, walked along the avenue, crossed the entire inner city and went out from Andingmen.

In fact, their location was quite far from the Beijing Camp. Fortunately, they left early. When they left Anding Gate, they saw a carriage in front of them. There were several guards around the carriage and they were escorting it out of the city. They saw the mark on the carriage and knew it was the carriage of the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War.

Wei Guangde did not let the driver overtake them, but followed them at a distance and did not meet up with them immediately.

Although the guards around the carriage also noticed that a civilian carriage had followed behind, they did not take any action because the distance was not close. They just paid more attention to the carriage behind.

The two carriages left Anding Gate one after the other and stopped in front of the gate of the Beijing Camp not far away.

Wei Guangde jumped off the carriage very flexibly and walked towards the carriage. Zhang Ji and guard Li San could only follow him.

However, Wei Guangde was stopped by the guards around the carriage before he approached. "Who are you? Leave immediately and don't bump into the master."

A guard closest to them shouted and stretched out his hand to block Wei Guangde's way.

"Is it Master Weng Pu Weng in the carriage?"

Wei Guangde didn't care. His reaction to the approach of an unknown person was reasonable.

When the other party called out the name of the master, the guard knew that the other party was prepared and did not dare to be careless. However, Wei Guangde was wearing a green robe, so even if he was very close, he did not dare to push him.

"Who are you? I can report to my master if you have something to do, but you can't get close."

The guard had already blocked Wei Guangde and said. Although Wei Guangde was wearing official clothes, there was no patch on his chest. He was not sure whether he was an official, not to mention that he was so young.

As for Wei Guangde, he could only stay where he was at this time. There was no point in getting angry with the guard.

But just as he was about to speak, the curtain on the side of the carriage was lifted to reveal an old face, who looked at least fifty years old, and probably close to sixty.

"You are Wei Guangde, Wei Review, please come over, Lord Wei."

Weng Pu in the carriage saw Wei Guangde and obviously knew him, so the latter sentence was addressed to the guard.

For the current Beijing officialdom, the young official, it is almost unnecessary to guess, that is, Wei Guangde, a guy under twenty years old.

Wei Guangde was also helpless. He found out very late last night that he had been awarded an official title. He had an official uniform but no patchwork. He had no time to find someone to make it, so he could only come wearing the official uniform without patchwork.

"Master Weng, the next official is Wei Guangde."

Well, I'm used to calling myself a "underachiever", so I almost didn't change my mind all of a sudden. Now I'm an official. Although it's just a review, I still have a formal official position, so naturally I have to call myself a lower official instead.

The guard had already respectfully moved out of the way after hearing his master's words. Wei Guangde walked to the carriage, and Weng Pu had already gotten off the carriage.

Wei Guangde turned around and took from Zhang Ji the waist badge left by Mr. Li last night. It was engraved with the five words "Hanlin Academy Review" and the imperial edict from last night. These should be handed over to Mr. Weng for review. That was the procedure that he had already reported to the Minister of Border Patrol.

But Weng Pu smiled and shook his head, "I learned from the official who passed the decree last night. I also saw you when the Jin Palace passed the imperial examination. It was so impressive. Haha, if I had chosen you to pass the provincial examination, we would have We’ve known each other since the Lu Ming Banquet.”

"Thank you for the compliment, sir. I feel ashamed to be the official."

Wei Guangde hurriedly bowed and said.

At this time, the guards who went to contact the Beijing camp had come out. As the gate of the Beijing camp opened, they were about to enter the Beijing camp.

"Sir, I don't know how many guards we will choose from here, and where we will choose from."

Wei Guangde watched the gate of the Beijing Camp open and asked at this time.

"Select from the Shenshu Camp. According to regulations, you can take two hundred people out to patrol the border."

Weng Pu said casually, and then pointed at the gate of the capital camp, "Let's go in."

The guards had already been handed over to the guard for dispatching troops, so there was no one to hinder their selection of troops. Even because of Weng Pu's official position as Minister of War, except for the governor of the Beijing Camp, the Fifth Army Camp, Shenshu Camp and Shenji did not come out. All the camp chiefs and generals came here to cooperate with Weng Pu in recruiting troops.

Naturally, Weng Pu or Wei Guangde would not pick those people.

Wei Guangde saw that the people who went there were all selected by the guards brought by Weng Pu. Judging from their movements, they were all powerful. It was obvious that they were all practitioners, but they were from the private sector or the military. Wei Guangde could not see this. Out.

On Wei Guangde's side, Zhang Ji talked to Li San, and when it came time to choose men and horses, he went downstairs and selected six reasonably good horses.

Although the capital camp of the Ming Dynasty is now depleted, it is still easy to gather 200 troops. What's more, after the Gengxu Revolution, the generals in the capital camp no longer dare to deduct military pay as before, and they still have to retain some fighting skills. Because of his strength, the emperor now pays more attention to the Beijing camp than before.

Although we won't do anything to them just because they are corrupt, it would not be good if they become the chicken that kills the chicken to scare the monkey.

In fact, sometimes, deterring these generals is far more effective than punishing a few bad apples.

After gathering all the men and horses, Weng Pu did not stay in the capital camp for long. He took a few days of food and grass and set off.

For Weng Pu, who is in his fifties, riding a horse is definitely out of the question. He went in the carriage. When he set off, Wei Guangde was also asked to get into the carriage. This is to talk about this border patrol. As for the specific details, there were so many people in the capital camp before that it was difficult to say more.

"Guangde should know that we are going to inspect the Great Wall Pass from Ji Town to Datong this time. I already made a plan for the route last night. Now let me tell you what Guangde has to say?"

The carriage started to move, and it felt that the team was not heading east toward Tongzhou. Wei Guangde felt a little strange. He was heading north at this time. He didn't know whether he was going directly to Changping or Shunyi.

Well, when Weng Pu asked him to get in the car, he guessed that Weng Pu would definitely talk about the itinerary in the car. Now he could only listen. After all, the first level of the official university was overwhelming. Although his rank was completely crushed by Weng Pu, he could Now we are out to perform official duties. Weng Pu is the envoy, and Wei Guangde is the deputy envoy, only one level older than him.

While talking, Weng Pu had already unrolled a map from a small secret door in the carriage and began to explain to Wei Guangde facing the map.

The map of Beidi is also available in the Hanlin Academy. After hearing the news yesterday, a group of people from the Hanlin Academy even found it and studied it, so they are no strangers to it.

The maps of this era were very abstract, but they were still understandable. I heard Weng Pu say slowly: "You haven't seen the memorial from the Xuanfu. Let me explain it to you now.

There were battles between the Xuanfu and Anda tribes outside Yutailing and Zhangjiakou. Afterwards, the Tatars detoured to Pine Tree Fort, Dushi Fort and Longmen Fort and continued eastward. The traces disappeared. They were still sending scouting horses to find out the news. "

While talking, Weng Pu pointed his finger to the north of Xuan Mansion, and then slid it all the way to the east, giving Wei Guangde a more intuitive impression.

The names of the three fortresses mentioned by Weng Pu in the east of Xuanfu are located on the protrusions of a Great Wall. Going further north is not within the control area of ​​the Ming Dynasty's military force.

The Anta Division was obviously marching along the Great Wall, with the very clear purpose of finding weak points to break through.

"You are from Weisuo, so you should understand the purpose of the Anda Department."

Hearing Weng Pu's words, Wei Guangde nodded.

"Although the order from above is for us to start our patrol from Ji Town, I don't expect Anda to go that far."

While he was talking, Weng Pu's fingers continued to slide along the side wall of the Great Wall to the east.

“The Sihai Institute, the Bohai Institute, the Chaohe Institute, and all the way to Gubeikou, Modaoyu, Jiangjungguan, and Malanyu are the areas where the Tatars are most likely to make a breakthrough.

Guangde may also know that the last time the Tatars broke into the Guanqiang, they broke through the Gubeikou. They went to Miyun, Huairou, Shunyi, and went straight to Tongzhou along the official road. Fortunately, they were blocked by the river and did not hit them. Go to Tongzhou. "

Weng Pu continued.

"According to your wishes, where do we start our patrol?"

Wei Guangde heard at this time that Weng Pu came out this time not to fool the errand, but to do something big, so he probably would not go east to Ji Town and start the inspection from Ji Town. After all, it would definitely be too late.

"I plan to go to Shunyi now, walk through Pinggu, and start patrolling directly from Malanyu. I hope it's not too late."

Weng Pu expressed his thoughts at this time. He really had no intention of running to Jizhen to kill time. He would wait until the Tatars broke through the wall and then ran back to Beijing.

"What about Ji Town?"

Wei Guangde hesitated to speak until he heard Weng Pu's plan before speaking.

"Over at Ji Town, I plan to ask them to send a team of troops to Zunhua, meet us at Malanyu, and follow us to patrol the border."

Well, Wei Guangde is sure that he will not go to Ji Town. Weng Pu probably judged that An Da would not be so stupid to go so far to attack the Great Wall. It is very likely that he would find a target to attack at several passes near Gubeikou and rush into the pass. .

Weng Pu was not stupid. He planned to use his privileges as a border patrol minister to transfer a team of officers and soldiers from Ji Town to follow him, which would increase the defense force and make it safer.

"It all depends on your orders."

Wei Guangde knew not to say anything. At most, he could just run faster because of his youth. Weng Pu must have made up his mind. There was no need to argue with him at this time, let alone insist on going to Ji Town, otherwise he would turn back to the capital. , he will inevitably become an official joke.

Maybe Weng Pu was waiting for Wei Guangde to say something about going to Jizhen, so that he could take the blame when the time came.

"Okay, I'll make arrangements right now."

Afterwards, Weng Pu opened the curtain and gave a few instructions to the guards outside the window. Wei Guangde also heard it, asking people to take the letter he had prepared to Ji Town. At the same time, the direction of the team's advance was also clear, which was to go first Go north to Shunyi, then turn east to Pinggu.

The carriage was driving on the uneven official road, and the wooden wheels naturally made the carriage shake very badly. Even though it was covered with thick mats, Wei Guangde felt uncomfortable after sitting for a long time.

I found an opportunity to get off the car and decided to ride a horse.

Although riding on a horse is bumpy, it's just that you're not galloping on a horse at this time, and you don't need to clamp the horse's belly with your legs, so there is no possibility of grinding your thighs, which means your buttocks will suffer a little.

Wei Guangde checked the equipment on the horse. In addition to his own armor still on Zhang Ji's horse, there was also a saber and a blunderbuss on his own horse.

There was no shortage of these weapons in the Beijing camp, especially muskets. Li San picked six horses, and all of them had sabers and muskets on their saddles. Only the battle armor was not required.

Wei Guangde still prefers the armor produced in Nanjing. After all, it has been on the battlefield with him.