Xie Ming

Chapter 128 General Ledger
On the evening of April 23th, at the first quarter of the night (15:).

Xiao Jingchuan's troops have assembled in front of the north gate of Laishui County and will evacuate without stopping!
After leaving the north gate, the entire army headed northwest without stopping.

At three quarters past midnight, Xiao Lang's troops arrived at the foot of Shigui Mountain. Xiao Jingchuan ordered the entire army to abandon their horses and march quickly into the mountain on foot.

Another quarter of an hour later, they arrived at the meeting point agreed upon with Xu Jizu and Ma Minglu, and the two groups joined forces.

"General!"

"Haha, Ji Zu and I are really worried!"

"You guys finally made it back!"

Ma Minglu led his soldiers and hid in the pine forest halfway up the mountain. With the help of the moonlight in the evening, he saw Xiao Lang leading the troops back and showed up as soon as he could.

"Haha, the trip to Laishui City went pretty smoothly!"

"How are you doing?"

"Is everything going well along the way?" Xiao Jingchuan replied while asking about Minglu's situation.

"Well, we're fine!"

"We hurried along the way and encountered nothing."

"All the soldiers and the supplies and money they brought were taken away without any loss or omission!" Minglu replied.

"OK!"

"Oh, by the way, Minglu!"

"During our trip to Laishui City, we seized a large amount of weapons, equipment, and military uniforms."

"In addition to this, we also earned another 20,000 taels of silver and 2,000 dan of grain!"

"You go and take over all these new gains. After collecting and inspecting them, you will be in charge of their deployment." Xiao Jingchuan ordered.

"Yes!" Minglu bowed and obeyed.

"Hey! Feiyu (Qiu Zhizhong), let's go to the camp ahead to rest our feet first, and wait for Changting and the others to return to the camp before we set out again!"

"All the soldiers and officers, please rest here for a while and have something to eat. When Chang Ting comes back, we will set out tonight and rest after we enter the deep mountains!"

"Yes, yes! Yes!" The generals obeyed the order.

"Minglu, go ahead and do your work. Once everything is sorted out, come to the account and we'll discuss it!"

"Yes!"

Shigui Mountain is located about 20 miles north-west of Laishui County. The terrain on the northeastern side of the mountain is relatively flat, while the mountains on the southwest side are steep, with rugged cliffs, pine forests and dangerous peaks blending into one!
At present, the temporary assembly point of Xiao Jingchuan's troops is located halfway up the mountain in the southwest.

0:15 at midnight.

Xiao Jingchuan gathered Peizhong, Huchen and other generals with Qiu Zhizhong, and sat together by the fire in front of the tent. Due to the special terrain here and the fact that it was located in the leeward corner at the back, after placing secret sentries at the mountain pass, there was no need to use fire control here, and the enemy had no chance of discovering it.

Crack!

Everyone sat in a circle, with dry wood crackling in the fire. At this moment, Xiao Jingchuan inserted a hard cake with the tip of his knife and put it close to the fire, heating and baking it while chatting and laughing with others.

As everyone was eating, drinking and laughing, Ma Minglu soon caught up with the soldiers below.

"Haha, it smells so good!" Minglu moved closer to the fire and sniffed.

Hearing the sound, Xiao Lang saw Minglu and hurriedly threw the baked cake on the blade towards him.

Seeing this, Minglu took the pancake with his hands, but found that the freshly baked pancake was very hot. He then hurriedly switched it between his left and right hands. This action caused the generals to burst into laughter.

"Hahaha, Minglu!"

"How is it? Have all the supplies been checked?" Xiao Jingchuan asked with a smile.

"Ah? Oh, everything has been checked!"

After Ma Minglu switched the pancakes a few times, he peeled off the burnt skin bit by bit and ate them with the fragrant aroma, humming as he ate.

"The general brought us here this time and we made a lot of money!"

"Yi County seized 150,000 taels of silver, and Laishui City obtained another 20,000 taels in this battle, a total of 170,000 taels."

"Firearms, ammunition, uniforms and armor are enough to equip more than a thousand soldiers."

"Two thousand dan of grain, and nine small tiger squat cannons."

"General, with the remaining resources from our bandit suppression in Jiulong Town, we have enough reserves to form two fully staffed reinforced battalions!"

Ma Minglu couldn't hide his joy when he spoke. The generals gathered around the fire and were also very excited when they heard such words. "Hahaha, Minglu!"

"And you, look at the behavior of each of you!"

"In my opinion, your calculation is still conservative!"

"In my opinion, as long as there are enough soldiers, four battalions of soldiers can hold on!" Xiao Jingchuan added more explosive news.

"what?!"

"Four battalions? Oh my goodness!"

"Well, then we can barely form a town!"

"General, from now on, I'm afraid we will all call you General!"

"General Xiao, ah! Hahahaha!"

Li Huchen laughed heartily, and the generals also agreed with him.

"Oh, okay, okay!"

"Just have fun!"

"However, this achievement is beyond my expectation!"

"When we return to Jiulong Town, I'm sure Chuanwu and Dayong will be able to recruit a new batch of soldiers."

"We suffered some casualties this time, but this battle was worth it!"

"And Yi County brought in more than 1,100 recruits."

"Don't worry, everyone. In the future, each of you will become a general leading an army!"

After Xiao Lang finished speaking, all the generals smiled again. It was so lively here that they were so happy and excited.

"General, just tell me, where should we attack next?!"

"We now have soldiers, horses, money and food. What we lack is territory!"

"In my opinion, if it doesn't work, we shouldn't leave!"

"Let's make a name for ourselves in Northern Zhili!"

"With the Sanpojie Mountain behind us, if we advance, we can occupy Yixian, Laishui, and Baoding Prefecture. If we retreat, we can retreat into the mountains and fight guerrilla warfare with ease!"

"If there are any major changes in the situation in the future, we can fight back to Beijing. It's not impossible!"

"What do you say?!"

Li Huchen was in high spirits and made up these nonsense words in a moment of excitement.

Peizhong, Minglu and others did not think much of this and continued to chat and laugh happily. However, Liu Wenbing and Gong Yonggu, who were sitting together, did not think so.

Xiao Jingchuan heard this and felt that such a statement might be inappropriate, so he looked up and exchanged glances with Qiu Zhizhong, and began to talk back to Hu Chen's words.
[Material reserves/troop calculations! ]

【Summary of material reserves! 】

[Silver: more than 7.6 taels (earned from the original suppression of bandits in Jiulong Town) + 15 taels (earned from the robbery in Yi County) + 2 taels (earned from Qian Chuanzi's troops in Laishui City) = 24.6 taels! ]

[Food: more than 2.8 shi (originally obtained from suppressing bandits in Jiulong Town) + 0.2 shi (seized by Qian Chuanzi's troops in Laishui City) = 3 shi! ]

[Weapons and equipment: firearms (more than 2000 pieces, with various types); tiger squat cannons (two-foot small, 9 pieces); armor (150 pieces, with various types); Dashun military uniforms (1200 sets); cold weapons (more than 2000)]

【Troops and horses calculation! 】

[Sun Peizhong's team: 248 people]

[Li Huchen's troops: 178 people]

[Liu Wenbing + Gong Yonggu joint department: 77 people]

[Xu Jizu's group: 47 people]

[Wang Chuanwu's unit: 300 people]

[Yi County recruits 1100 people]

[Total number of soldiers remaining: 1950]

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(End of this chapter)