stubborn thief

Chapter 552
Lanzhou, Marshal's Mansion.

Liu Chengzong asked Yu Linqi beside him: "Zhang Yichuan, have you arrived in Ningyuan County?"

"Yes, Commander, this is Yi Yong's reward."

After Liu Yiren presented the letter, he stood by his side and waited for Liu Chengzong's next order.

Liu Chengzong unfolded the letter, read it for a while, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, then he became serious, and finally fell into confusion. After thinking for a while, he wrote a letter, saying: "Yiren, send this letter to General Wei who is stationed in Jin County Zhang Yichuan's [-] old and weak moved to Jin County in a few days, so that he could be properly resettled; then someone would write back to Yi Yong, and let their group of people learn and train in Ningyuan."

"In addition, send someone back to tell me the details of Zhang Yichuan's department."

After Liu Yiren took the order to step down, Liu Chengzong leaned on the back of his seat and began to think carefully.

He attaches great importance to Zhang Yichuan, who defected to him, even more than Li Hongsi. After all, Li Hongsi, the deputy commander, is an empty frame without a headquarters. There is no threat at all after the breakup.

But Zhang Yichuan was different. He tried his best to recruit troops in the southeast of the Marshal's Mansion, and then turned around and voted for him. It took no effort to get three battalions of [-] troops.

The meeting between Liu Chengzong and Zhang Yichuan came suddenly, but the matter of the inclusion was not affected and the discussion went very smoothly. Although there were some disagreements between the two sides, Zhang Yichuan finally accepted everything: Liu Chengzong gave too much.

The Marshal's Mansion didn't want much. First, he was required to be restrained, and second, he was required to prove himself. The way to prove himself was to enter Henan.

To a certain extent, He Renlong's claim to the Marshal's Mansion is not nonsense. One has to be capable to get Liu Chengzong's high-ranking official and rich salary, but the difference is that Liu Chengzong is very kind and he is willing to give out resources To build a platform for people to prove themselves.

Zhang Yichuan is a fan of officials. The biggest ideological difference between him and Liu Chengzong is that Liu Chengzong wants him to be a military general who expands the territory, while Zhang Yichuan wants to be a minister.

Liu Shizixin said that this is not crazy?
Holding the military power in this troubled world is the greatest respect we can give you as a partner. You tell me that you want to be a minister?Do you think that is reuse?That's the treatment of Emperor Daxi, that's called jealousy, do you understand it?

In fact, this is Liu Chengzong's lack of understanding. In another time and space, Zhang Yichuan proclaimed himself emperor earlier than Zhang Xianzhong.

Fortunately, Liu Chengzong is an expert in pancakes. He described to Zhang Yichuan a beautiful blueprint for the general officer in Henan, and mentioned the huge battle situation on the Central Plains battlefield in the future. It's important, so I accepted it with my nose pinched.

As for going into Henan and fighting on the front line between the Marshal's Mansion and the imperial court, it doesn't matter to Zhang Yichuan. Anyway, there is no food, and he will be on the front line wherever he goes. If he goes to Henan, he will have the support of the Marshal, at least It is better than going to other places to fight alone.

The only problem was that Zhang Yichuan's troops were indeed too weak.

Zhang Yichuan was quite frank, saying that he originally had a battalion of troops, and the combat effectiveness of this battalion was not bad. In a fight, he had a chance to defeat a thousand headquarters of the government army, and a high probability of annihilating a general commander. Kind of proud and proud.

Liu Chengzong doesn't quite understand. Is he proud of his frank behavior of exposing his shortcomings?

A battalion has a high probability of annihilating a commander in chief. What kind of combat power is this?
Liu Shizi remembers that during the Battle of Ganzhou, under Zhang Tianlin's camp, there was a general named Yingshanhong who lost contact with the general on the battlefield. He was panicked when he lost his chief, and he encountered the same panic-stricken general general Wang Huaizhong of the Ming army. The two armies met at the same time. Running away, Ying Shanhong, who reacted first, turned back and rushed into the battle, and was captured in one battle, and he had captured an officer for himself and came back, so he didn't panic.

That is to say, a battalion of Zhang Yichuan is about equal to a brigade of [-] generals in Yingshanhong?

That said, it must be modest.

Liu Chengzong felt that the teams like Liu Guoneng, Li Wanqing, and Liu Jiusi were not as strong as him before, and now they can still stand on their own. With the help of the Marshal's Office, Zhang Yichuan's combat effectiveness should be improved quickly. After all, after so many years of rogue career, he can survive Old pawns are definitely not easy.

Now Zhang Yichuan has expanded his army to three battalions after a winter in southern Shaanxi, with a population of more than 5000, more than half of whom are the burdens of women, children and the elderly. joint venture.

After all, there was no food. Li Zicheng was the leader of the Fifth Battalion of the Chuangjun Army. Even if others asked him for food, he couldn't change it.

The key is because the Marshal's Mansion is lying on the ground in the northwest, causing the officers and soldiers to get stuck on the road to Guanzhong. At this time, no one wants to be the first to jump out and be beaten. that's it.

Liu Chengzong did not have high demands on Zhang Yichuan. He placed five or six thousand old and weak women and children in Jin County, Lanzhou. Well, the remaining [-] troops will be pulled to Ningyuan County in Gongchang Prefecture to receive reorganization and training.

The method proposed was to organize five small battalions of 2000 people. The Marshal's Mansion provided him with training officers, officer regiments, and a long list of supplies. Two months, and then dragged to the east to start the war, advanced to Guanzhong and then talked about the rest.

The reason for this is that Zhang Yichuan originally had three battalions, each with [-] battalions. He led one of his own battalions and had two leaders, nicknamed Ketianhu and Chongtianzhu.

Ke Tianhu is an old name. As early as when Liu Chengzong's Yan'an mansion started an incident, Ke Tianhu was already Wang Zuohang's right-hand man in the war in northern Shaanxi. At that time, Zhang Yichuan and Ke Tianhu couldn't talk about who was with each other. Anyway, the former had a large number of troops, and the latter had few but elite soldiers, so they lived together.

However, when a large group of peasant troops were besieged in Shanxi and Taihang Mountains, Ke Tianhu was wounded by the officers and soldiers with cannons. The army's last words to Zhang Yichuan were to wait for the officers and soldiers to report meritorious service with his head, and continue to make people use the name of Ke Tianhu to make trouble, resulting in the effect of falsely reporting military merits.

Today's Ke Tianhu is the second generation, born in Shaanxi, he can be regarded as Zhang Yichuan's confidant.

Chongtianzhu was born in Shanxi's Lvliang Bandit, who had been entrenched in Xiaoyi for many years. When the bandits went south to Henan, they didn't want to leave their hometown, but they were wrapped up by Zhang Yichuan and went south. Shanxi is definitely dead.

Both of them have experienced the difficult years of being besieged by the Ming army in Shanxi, and they have been tested in the team for a long time and have a solid prestige foundation.

But Liu Chengzong has to consider, I gave you sufficient supplies, armored weapons and staff, what should you do if you took the things and ran away?So it has to be rearranged.

Therefore, after Liu Shizi had seen the resumes of the small leaders under Zhang Yichuan, he retained the generals of Ketianhu and Chongtianzhu, and promoted three generals of Yidougu, Santiaolong and Song Jiang from his army.

These three people have very shallow foundations in the team, and their resumes are very complicated. Yidougu and Song Jiang are from Henan. The peasant army broke out from Shanxi and entered Henan in a large scale.

The former broke up the county and responded to the peasant army; the latter formed a village to defend itself and responded to the official army.

Both Yidougu and Song Jiang opened the county and responded to the peasant army. Both of them were violent, and they were chased and beaten by the army. They could only leave their hometowns with the peasant army. A bucket of millet is given to anyone who follows him; Song Jiang is timely, and he will help anyone who wants to help.

As for the three dragons, they were the landlords and scholars who were born in the southern part of Beizhili.

That year, the peasant army rushed out of the Taihang Mountains and fought with the government army in Guangping Mansion, Zhangde Mansion and other places.

When the Jingying army came to help, there was a small battalion of more than 800 Liao soldiers, all of whom were veterans. They were overly squeezed by Wang Wei, and they were transferred to Zhangde Mansion to mutiny on the spot.

This matter is not worth mentioning in the context of the melee, but the whole family of the three dragons was almost wiped out by the chaos army, and they were so angry that they led the father, son and brothers who survived the chaos to form a volunteer army to avenge the chaos army. A scholar who had studied in Nanjing Guozijian and had a bad experience, he was elected as the leader of the rebel army.

In the end, I don’t know what happened. Maybe the officers and soldiers looked too much like their enemies, or maybe they looked too much like the peasant army. In short, they were beaten into Taihang Mountain by the officers and soldiers, picked up by Zhang Yichuan, and followed to Shaanxi. .

Liu Chengzong's eyes are very sharp, and he saw this person at a glance in the resumes of a bunch of small leaders. He thought that this person, the leader of the peasant army in Shaanxi, would definitely not be able to urinate in a pot, and he could not be reused as a confidant. It is also difficult for slaves to recruit soldiers and buy horses in Shaanxi to become a major event.

He can focus on training, as the confidant of the Marshal's Mansion in the Henan General Military Administration.

Zhang Yichuan was quite disgusted with this matter. It wasn't that he was recruited but he didn't want to be obedient. The main reason was that his team had people everywhere. If there were too many people, there would be close friends from the township party and faction. It took him a lot of effort to bring the team together. , to ensure that the general will not pose a threat to his leadership.

What's more, according to the tradition of the Peasant Army, even if you want to appoint a general, you have to be convinced. How could it be like this now? Big leaders like Tianhu and Chongtianzhu are on an equal footing.

Liu Chengzong's reason is very good. The army under the command of Henan's general army is relatively weak. The soldiers of the third battalion with less than [-] people, not to mention controlling Henan, may be wiped out by the army before they reach Tongguan. Therefore, before entering Tongguan, , At least five full battalions must be expanded in Guanzhong.

So what about after entering Henan?In such a huge Henan province, as the front line of the battle between the Marshal's Mansion and the imperial court, ten battalions of [-] soldiers may not be enough. With only five battalions, if you want to move around and control places in Henan, you must not be all from Shaanxi. The guest armies in Guanzhong, Shanxi, and Shanxi can only defeat the official army by relying on local soldiers and horses according to local conditions.

Therefore, in these five battalions, there must be at least two leaders from Henan. This is the reason why the two small leaders Yidougu and Song Jiang were promoted as generals.

This is indeed his sincere thought. Liu Shizi didn't want to seize power. The mixing of sand just needs a guarantee. It can't be all sand. Whole-owned enemy, might as well not include it at all.

Liu Chengzong explained what he said, saying that the three dragons are the only leader of Zhang Yichuan's subordinates who was born as a scholar, and I am also a scholar, and I am willing to give such highly educated talents a chance.

Zhang Yichuan thought about it, but couldn't figure out whether Liu Chengzong had the idea of ​​mixing sand with his army. At first, he felt that the three extra generals were all sand mixed with Liu Chengzong's plan to seize power, but after thinking about it, it seemed that he was also interested in him. No threat.

In terms of reason, he was indeed quite right. He convinced him that if he wanted to enter Henan, how could there be no generals from Henan. Early promotion and late promotion are all promotions.

Those who are far and near are all his subordinates, which is better than being closer to Liu Chengzong.

He originally thought that the Marshal's Mansion would directly parachute the two generals.

As far as Liu Shizi is concerned, isn't it just a fart for you two generals?The talents of the Marshal's Mansion are much more valuable than the armor and equipment, and your battalion is equal to the combat effectiveness of a hundred brigades, and you two generals can't protect you well.

After establishing the system of dividing the army into five battalions, Liu Chengzong assembled a centurion.

The hundred-man team has Liu Yiyong as the head of the hundred-man team, and there are also five Yubayashi cavalry as the staff and staff of the Henan Chief of Staff, and they are also liaison officers with the Marshal's Mansion.

In addition, there are veterans of the Marshal's Mansion who are in charge of teaching the fourth division of infantry, cavalry and gun engineering, soldiers who maintain ordnance, village braves who practice the strength of the people, several professional pond riders, and even twelve soldiers who are in charge of the staff. A Mongolian cavalry soldier started the work of reorganizing and distributing ordnance in Ningyuan County.

They escorted a large number of second-hand ordnance, and gave each battalion each of the [-]th brigade ten bird guns, twenty three-eyed guns, twenty waist knives, twenty bows and arrows, ten cloth face armor collars, two flying cannons, There are two pearl guns.

At the same time, each of the fifth battalion received two large Frang machine guns, two hundred horses, as well as gunpowder and shells for military training and two months of military rations.

According to Liu Chengzong's idea, after this batch of equipment is delivered and distributed to the battalions, supplemented by Zhang Yichuan's original ordnance and horses, the combat effectiveness of the entire army should be greatly improved soon.

However, the information Liu Yiyong sent from Ningyuan County was completely different from what he had imagined.

First of all, the situation of Zhang Yichuan’s troops is very complicated. They are really weak in the confrontation. The soldiers have almost no firearms training, and there is almost no camp drill. More than [-]% of the soldiers know nothing about operating guns, and [-]% of the soldiers are difficult to wear armor. Combat, as a whole, is extremely unfamiliar to the military formation.

For Liu Chengzong, this was an unimaginable comment—it was hard for him to imagine that it described a peasant army that had fought in several provinces.

How can you be so unfamiliar with the military formation?

But this is not enough to confuse Liu Chengzong. What really confuses him is the other half of Liu Yiyong's evaluation of Zhang Yichuan in his letter:
His department is good at defeating Fans. Under certain conditions, Zhang Yichuan's department is very powerful. Even the Field Battalion of the Marshal's Mansion with the same strength may be defeated by him!
　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)