Chapter 203 202 Faraway Guard Reports Beacon Fire

On the winding mountain road, a large group of cavalrymen were pulling their horses forward.

In the middle of the cavalry formation, the only carriage was very conspicuous, with many cavalry guards in front, behind, and on the left and right.

This was the team of the Ming Dynasty border patrol ministers where Wei Guangde was. They passed Pinggu in a few days, but did not continue to Jizhou for rest, but turned directly to Malanyu, where they joined a group of cavalry sent by Santunying and began their border patrol journey.

It should be noted that Jizhou to the east of Pinggu, which is Jixian in later generations, is not what we call Jizhen or Jizhou Town in the Ming Dynasty.

Jizhou is Jizhou, and Jizhen is Jizhen.

Jizhen in the Ming Dynasty was actually in Qianxi County east of Zunhua. The Santunying, which was very famous in history, was the center of Jizhen, and the Jizhen General's Mansion was located here.

In order to maintain peace in the northern region, the Ming Dynasty set up nine military towns along the Great Wall from the Yalu River in the east to Jiayuguan in the west, namely Liaodong, Xuanfu, Datong, Yulin, Ningxia, Gansu, Jizhen, Taiyuan and Guyuan, which were historically known as the "Nine Frontiers".

The Jizhen General's Mansion was originally located in Taolinkou, which is located in the north of Yongping and connected to Liaodong Town in the east. It is also an important pass of the Great Wall, but after all, it is far away from the capital. Some important passes on the Great Wall such as Lengkou, Xifengkou, Panjiakou and Gubeikou are all in its west. As the command center of the whole town, it is obviously out of place.

So in the late Yongle period, when Chen Jing was the general, he moved the town to Shiziyu, which solved the problem of out of place and avoided the disadvantages of being located at the forefront. However, Shiziyu was narrow in area and had no guards and garrisons, so it was impossible to station heavy troops to defend against the enemy.

The location of Shiziyu was not ideal, so in the second year of Tianshun, when Hu Yong was appointed as the general, he chose Santunying, built a city, built a camp office, and moved the town from Shiziyu to Santunying, Qianxi County.

From then on, all the generals, assistant generals, lieutenants, garrisons, guerrillas and other officials stationed in Santunying in Jizhen.

The importance of Jizhen lies first in its geographical location, which surrounds the capital from the east, west and north.

Juyongguan, known as the western gate of the capital, is only more than 50 kilometers away from the capital, and Gubeikou, known as the iron gate of the capital, is only more than 100 kilometers away. If Jizhen is dangerous, the capital will be shocked, and if Jizhen is stable, the capital will be safe.

There are many rivers flowing into the Jizhen area from the outside of the Great Wall, forming dense passes. On the 2,000-mile defense line, there are more than 190 passes of various sizes, and more than 40 important passes. The dangerous passes and fortresses that have always been fought for by military strategists include at least Shanhaiguan in the east, Xifengkou and Panjiakou in the middle, and Gubeikou and Juyongguan in the west.

It has been more than ten days since leaving the capital, and Wei Guangde has already seen the defense of the Malanyu Pass with the team.

After Xuanfu sent an urgent report to the capital, the Ministry of War reported and judged the situation while sending a message to the Jizhen General's Mansion, asking Jizhen to strengthen the defense of the passes under its jurisdiction. So when Wei Guangde and his team arrived at Malanyu, they saw that the Ming army soldiers at the city gates were ready and ready to engage in defensive operations at any time.

Wei Guangde followed Weng Pu to inspect the defense of Malanyu. Weng Pu knew the nature of the generals below, and did not check and review the soldiers according to the roster, but only focused on the preparation of defense materials.

Malanyu is also an important pass along the Great Wall. According to the system, there should be 2,000 soldiers stationed there. Wei Guangde stood on the top of the city and roughly estimated that there were only about 1,000 soldiers, which means there were nearly 50% vacancies here.

He sighed in his heart, shook his head and stopped thinking about other things, and followed Weng Pu to check the defense supplies.

In fact, he also knew that this might be considered good. In Jiangnan, for example, the soldiers of Jiujiang Guard, only 20% of them were actually combat soldiers, and the other 80% of the registered soldiers were farmers on weekdays.

The 20% that can be counted as combat soldiers is because Jiujiang Guard has sent troops several times, so the guard has never dared to relax its military.

That is to say, this place is located in a border town, and it may face enemies from the northern grassland at any time, so the military generals here still know what is good and bad, and got 50% of the soldiers.

After leaving Malanyu, the border patrol team checked more than ten large and small city gates along the way, and now they have reached the second important pass, Jiangjun Pass, which is also called Jiangjun Stone Pass.

"That stone is really big."

From a distance, Wei Guangde saw the huge stone next to the pass and the pass in front of him, as if it was a complete stone.

"I heard from people in Jizhen before that the stone is called General Stone. It is said that a general had selected soldiers and generals there before, so the stone is called General Stone, and the name of this General Pass is also called General Stone Pass."

Zhang Ji next to him hurriedly said that Wei Guangde had given him a task these days, which was to make friends with the people in Jizhen.

Well, in fact, Wei Guangde still thought that they were familiar with this generation, and they should have a more orderly advance and retreat, so they could use it at a critical moment.

Soon, they came to General Stone Pass. Wei Guangde was already familiar with the so-called border patrol process, and simply looked at the city defense deployment, and then checked the city defense materials.

Relatively speaking, with so many soldiers, what can be strengthened is to prepare sufficient city defense materials. At least when the Tartars attacked, the defenders on the city gate had sufficient defense materials such as rolling logs and stones to use, and did not need to directly fight with the Tartars.

For the Ming army officers and soldiers who lacked military pay and training, close combat and hand-to-hand combat were no longer able to fight against foreign enemies, and they could only use the advantage of defending the city to resist the enemy.

After entering the city, Wei Guangde and Weng Pu tacitly separated their actions and each went to check a part of the work.

Except for the first few city gates that the two were not familiar with, so they checked together, Wei Guangde and Weng Pu had divided the work afterwards.

Weng Pu is a senior veteran who has been transferred to the Ministry of War for several years, so he is mainly responsible for defense deployment. Wei Guangde is responsible for checking the preparation of defense materials, checking the approximate quantity and storage location.

Wei Guangde still attaches great importance to the storage of defense materials. Don't prepare a large number of city defense materials, otherwise it will be dangerous if you can't use them at a critical moment.

In Jiujiang Guard, my father used to have this habit. He confiscated the weapons that should have been distributed to the soldiers, and he was also afraid that the soldiers would go crazy and sell the things. Fortunately, they were in a good position, so they didn't worry about being attacked by the enemy.

In addition, many events in later generations, such as the September 18th Incident, were all caused by the tragedies caused by the lack of weapons in the hands of the defenders when they faced the enemy after the weapons were confiscated and stored.

Wei Guangde didn't want to lock a bunch of defense materials in the warehouse to welcome their review at this time. The defenders of several small passes did this before, and then they were severely criticized by Wei Guangde, who was a seventh-rank official, and scolded from head to toe.

Very cool.

I remember hearing that the head of the Ministry of War dared to catch the commander of Jiujiang Guard and scold him. Wei Guangde now felt the advantage of being a civil official. He could insult these military leaders at will. They dared not talk back and could only bear it.

However, after feeling refreshed, he thought of his father and elder brother. God knows that they would be treated like this by that seventh-rank official.

At this time, Wei Guangde deeply felt that it was not easy for the warriors of this era. They had to rack their brains to make money to support their families, and they had to endure the oppression of their superiors and civil officials. On the other hand, they had to fight the enemy with their heads raised at critical moments.

After thinking of this link, Wei Guangde didn't scold people much afterwards. He only cursed a few words when he saw the two who locked the city defense supplies in the warehouse, and then stared at them until they sent people to deliver the supplies to the top of the city.

Today, when we arrived at the General Stone Pass, it was naturally him who went to check the preparations for defense supplies.

General Shiguan is well prepared. All the defense equipment and supplies are piled up above and below the city gate, and some are in the warehouse. However, this is normal. It is impossible to throw all the things under the city tower. First of all, they must be able to fit.

The supplies are similar to those in the books. Generally, Wei Guangde has turned a blind eye to some minor errors, as long as the shortage is not too severe.

After checking the supplies above and below the city, he went to the city gate to meet with Lord Weng Puweng and report the inspection situation on his side.

When walking up the city wall, the first thing that caught his eye was the long dragon-like Great Wall, which spiraled from the foot forward and backward along the mountain.

In the past few days, Wei Guangde has seen too many Ming Great Walls, but every time he came up to see it, he still felt excited. It was really spectacular.

This is not the case that in later generations, you can only visit those few places on the Great Wall when visiting Beijing. At that time, in addition to the developed scenic spots, the walls of the Great Wall several kilometers and more than ten kilometers away had already collapsed.

Although there is corruption among civil and military officials now, the Great Wall has been playing a role as a defensive tool, and the soldiers guarding the pass have been maintaining it, so the Great Wall is generally intact now.

When Wei Guangde got to the city gate, he saw Weng Pu talking to the garrison commander of the General Stone Pass, looking at the position pointed by the garrison commander from time to time.

Wei Guangde knew very well that Weng Pu was still learning about the surrounding terrain and defense deployment, and it seemed that he had not finished yet.

When Weng Pu saw Wei Guangde coming up, he just nodded with a smile, and then continued to ask the garrison commander about the defense of the city gate.

Wei Guangde stood aside, listening to the introduction of the place over there, while looking out and appreciating the beautiful scenery here.

At this time, what can be seen on the Great Wall is a clear sky, a clear blue sky, and a lush and green mountain forest inside and outside the Great Wall. If Wei Guangde had not come here with a mission, he would have wanted to make a pot of tea here, and it would be a pleasure to drink tea and enjoy the beautiful scenery leisurely.

Wei Guangde simply stood on the wall, with his hands on the battlements, looking north.

The Great Wall on one side of the General Stone Pass extends eastward, while the other side turns 90 degrees here and goes northward. This is also a protruding part of the Great Wall.

There is no way. When the Great Wall was built, it was built according to the mountain terrain. The mountain terrain here is like this.

Wei Guangde looked far away along the Great Wall at the city wall in the distance. In this life, his eyesight is well protected and his diet is also good. He does not have the night blindness that many people in this era suffer from. Wei Guangde tried hard to look at the city wall at the end. This is also a way of entertainment he has found recently, and it also protects his eyes.

However, not long after he stared into the distance, he was inexplicably shocked. On the hills where the city wall could not be seen in the distance, bursts of green smoke floated.

Looking at the sky, he camped in the wild more than ten miles away from the Stone Pass last night. He got up this morning and had a meal and rushed here. It was almost time for lunch.

Weng Pu finished talking and the inspection work was completed. It was time to eat. Didn't you see that they had already started cooking on the other side of the mountain?

Wei Guangde thought to himself and didn't care. But when he was about to change his sight to look at other things, he could barely see a watchtower of the Great Wall a little closer. It should be a watchtower. After all, there was a platform on the wall, and there was light smoke.

Wei Guangde was amused. The Ming army stationed on the Great Wall was also interesting. They cooked in a very disciplined way, lighting fires one by one.

Wei Guangde did not change his sight, but continued to stare at that side, wondering when the next watchtower would start cooking.

In less than half a cup of tea, the next enemy tower started to smoke, and then one by one gradually extended to this side.

Wei Guangde was smiling at this time, looking at this scene with ease. Playing with fire on the Great Wall is something that cannot be seen in later generations.

I remember that when he went to climb the Badaling Great Wall, his lighter was taken away at the door.

Wei Guangde didn't know, it was just a brick and stone wall, is there anything that can be ignited?

Well, maybe it was to prevent forest fires, Wei Guangde couldn't say anything.

But thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but have a little bad taste. If he carved a word "Wei Guangde was here" on the wall of Badaling, what would happen if he saw it in the future.

But he came here, and he couldn't say whether it would still exist in this life and the future.

But gradually, his relaxed smile froze a little. His eyesight was well protected, and his hearing in this life was also good, because he could vaguely hear the rumbling of cannons in the distance.

Wei Guangde was sure that this was not thunder.

Although there is such a word, Wei Guangde has never encountered it, so he doesn't really believe it.

"Boom boom boom"

Wei Guangde has already found something wrong. He put his hands behind his ears in the hope of strengthening his hearing. He recalled the sound he just heard and counted in his mind whether it was four or five.

"Master Weng, Master Weng, the situation is not good."

Well, as the green smoke gradually approached, Wei Guangde had already seen clearly that the green smoke was cooking smoke, which was a stream of thick smoke rising up. And as the fireworks tower approached, Wei Guangde also saw that it was not a stream of fireworks, but three or several streams, but after rising up, it was far away and looked like a stream of thick smoke.

Beacon fire.

Because of the popular compulsory education in China, few people in the new group are illiterate, so they naturally know what method China used to transmit military intelligence in history, that is, beacon towers.

At this time, those towers were not preparing lunch, but thinking about reporting from afar, there was enemy information.

Following Wei Guangde's shout, Weng Pu and others turned their heads and easily saw a few wisps of green smoke in the distance.

Unconsciously, Weng Pu had walked to the city wall, leaned his hands on the parapet and looked over there, asking: "Can you see clearly? How many beacons and how many shots?"

Wei Guangde didn't understand it before, but this time on business, he naturally made up for some military knowledge, which were things that Jiujiang Guard didn't have, and he had never paid attention to it before.

In the second year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, there was an order: "Border guards should raise beacons and cannons. If you see one or two to more than a hundred enemies, you should raise one beacon and one cannon. If you see five hundred enemies, you should raise two beacons and two cannons. If you see more than a thousand enemies, you should raise three beacons and three cannons. If you see more than five thousand enemies, you should raise four beacons and four cannons. If you see more than ten thousand enemies, you should raise five beacons and five cannons."

After Wei Guangde reacted, he was already counting the number of shots, but he still couldn't see the number of beacons clearly.

"I can't see clearly, probably four or five shots."

Wei Guangde could only answer.