I want to be emperor

Chapter 263 Thief-killing Cannon and Thief-killing Gun
Zhao Chisong, relying on his own rich experience in intelligence work, coupled with his background in Dongchang, is very familiar with the methods and habits of the Ming court espionage systems such as Dongchang and Jinyiwei, and he is very good at countering espionage. excellent.

In just a few months, several batches of Ming army spies were arrested, but this still could not stop many Ming army spies from rushing towards Wuchang like moths.

There are not only the official spies of the Ming army, but also many people sent by the surrounding Ming court officials or gentry and dignitaries to inquire about the news.

The strong rise of the Township Protection Army in the past six months can be said to have frightened a large number of people. They couldn't understand why such a powerful bandit army suddenly appeared in the Huguang area.

Moreover, this thief army is completely different from the ordinary thief army.

Ordinary thieves are all playing mobile warfare, and they rarely or have no way to stay firmly in a certain area, and they are constantly fleeing.

The Township Protection Army is different. Since their rise in the Funiu Mountain period, they have been following a more difficult and more dreaded mode of being a bandit by the Ming court.

Rogue bandits and sitting bandits have completely different harms to the rule of the Ming court.

Rogues, at most, destroy the place and bring difficulties to the local people's livelihood, but it is actually very difficult to shake the rule of the Ming court
But Zuo Kou is different. Once Zuo Kou has a firm foothold, it will be a local separatist regime and an existence that can directly shake the rule of the Ming court.

Everyone knows the benefits of being a bandit, and Li Zicheng and the others know it better, but why didn’t Li Zicheng and the others play the bandit mode before, occupying a place and continuing to develop and expand?
Because they couldn't withstand the Ming army's attack!
The thieves led by Gao Yingxiang ran around because of helplessness!

As long as there is a territory and the territory can be defended, they will also guard the territory to live in order to develop.

But why was the Township Protection Army able to resist the counterattack of the Ming army and win consecutive battles?

This is the direct reason why the Ming court and many dignitaries sent so many spies into the area controlled by the Great Chu Empire and into the area around Wuchang City to collect information.

They don't understand, they have doubts.

At the same time, they were even more curious about how the Township Protection Army did it.

Everyone in the world said that the guns of the thieves were sharp, and the reason why they were able to win consecutive battles and defeat the main force of the officers and soldiers several times was due to the sharpness of the guns.

But what kind of sharp method?

How did the security thief get so many guns?
These are of interest to the high-ranking officials of the Ming court as well as the surrounding Ming court officials and gentry.

Of course, many of them are also curious about other things about the Great Chu Empire, and they need to understand clearly so that they can make more favorable choices when they should make choices in the future.

For example, when the security thief hit him that day, should he resist or run away, or surrender or even revolt on the spot anyway.

These choices are related to their own wealth and life, and even their family's wealth. They must be more cautious before making a choice.

And when so many people infiltrated into the area controlled by the Great Chu Empire one after another to spy on various news, many things about the Great Chu Empire would inevitably become known to the outside world.

In Changsha, Yang Sichang just looked at a summary of the protection of thieves and thieves compiled by his staff.

This summary covers all aspects, from the military system of the thieves to the official system of the thieves and even some policies implemented by the thieves.

Basically, there are some public information that can be collected, and there are also some confidential important information that spies secretly inquire about.

At the top of the list is the summary of the high-level figures of the security thief and puppet Luo Chu.

Pseudo-Chu Luo bandit, Ming Zhixue, sixteen years old, from Gongxian County, Luoyang, Tongsheng, his father Luo Zhide, a student; his ancestor Luo Kaihong, a student.

Luo Bandit set up troops in Funiu Mountain. He was named General of the Township Protection Army. At the beginning, he had no more than a thousand soldiers under his command. When he invaded Luyang County at the beginning of the year, he had [-] soldiers.

In April, Luo thieves marched south to Nanyang Mansion with tens of thousands of soldiers, defeated Chen Yongfu, and captured Nanyang. The number of thieves has expanded to [-].

In May, the three prefectures of Xiangyang, Junzhou and Xunyang fell, and the governor of Yunyang, Lu Xiangsheng, was defeated and died for his country.

In June, [-] rebel soldiers went north to Yuzhou. He Renlong joined the rebels, and Zuo Liangyu retreated to Ye County.

In July, Luo Bandit led his troops south to Chengtian Mansion, Hanyang Mansion, De'an Mansion, Jingzhou Mansion, and Huangzhou Mansion. The north of Chu mourned, and Huguang Governor Tang Hui and Yu Zhongxiang were defeated and fled.

In September, Luo Zei proclaimed himself emperor in Hanyang City, established a false country name 'Chu' and awarded a false year name 'Chengshun'.

In October, the Bao bandits crossed the south of the Yangtze River and conquered Wuchang. The officers and soldiers of Wuchang died or were captured.

From now on, there are 20 soldiers under the command of Luo Bandit to protect the Bandit.

Under Luo thief's command was Guo Quanshu, the leader of the thief, who was 26 years old. He was a native of Lushan County.

There is also Chen Xingkai, the leader of the thief, whose origin and age are unknown, and who is a pseudo-tax minister. The House of Kindness, Huguang is a place where there are not many people who break their homes.

It is also said that Huang Dingquan, the leader of the bandit, whose origin and age are unknown, was the commander of the North Route Army of the bandit army, and the pseudo-Chu Yuezhong General. According to Zuo Liangyu's report, the thief will be cautious by nature and never fight.

It is said that Li Chengtong, the leader of the bandit, whose origin is unknown...the commander of the first division of the bandit army, the false major general of Chu Yue...

Thief Huang Guangmao, a native of Fengyang in Southern Zhili, was originally the commander of our officers and soldiers. Last year, when the army was defeated, he led his troops to join the bandits. Now he is the commander of the West Route Army of the bandit army.

Thief Chen Yongfu...

Thieves congratulate Renlong...

When Yang Sichang looked at the briefing of the high-level figures of the puppet Chu bandit army above, he frowned more and more.

Because he found that there were quite a few surrendered generals in the bandit army, and several of them were relatively well-known generals in the Ming army before, such as He Renlong and Chen Yongfu.

These two people are already well-known. Chen Yongfu is better, he is just an ordinary deputy general, but He Renlong, who was born as a Wu Jinshi, was awarded the garrison officer in his early years and served under the command of Hong Chengchou, the governor of Yansui Town. .

Over the years, he has done a lot of military exploits in the battle station. He is a member of Hong Chengchou's command who can fight, dare to fight, and can win battles.

Among the many generals of the Ming army who encircled and suppressed the bandits in Shaanxi and Henan, this man was considered one of the top generals, and his reputation was basically comparable to Zuo Liangyu and others.

However, such a fierce general turned into a thief in the Battle of Yuzhou.

And He Renlong was just one of the many surrendered generals, and Yang Sichang knew better that the garrison in the bandit protection army were all surrendered soldiers, tens of thousands or even more than one hundred thousand.

Just looking at these surrendered soldiers and generals was enough to make Yang Sichang frown.

Before, there had never been such a large-scale defection of officers and soldiers. At most, it was just some deserters or small-scale military defections. To be honest, there were no officers, soldiers or even senior generals who defected on a large scale.

Well, there are quite a few people who have surrendered to the East.

The fact that this thieves can accept so many soldiers and generals is enough to prove the great harm to the Ming court.

"This security thief is really..." Yang Sichang didn't know how to describe it.

Because to be honest, the position is wrong...

He disdains telling lies!
So he simply stopped thinking and continued to look at other information about the Thief Guards, many of which he already knew in advance.

For example, in the general establishment of the bandit army, one battalion is divided into five or 600 people, three battalions are one regiment, two regiments are one brigade, and two brigades are one division.

After all, this superficial establishment is basically semi-public news, which may be unfamiliar or even secret to ordinary people, but to the Ming army officials who have spies to inquire about the news, these semi-public news are not really secrets. .

Even the composition of the battalion-level formations in the Rural Protection Army is relatively clear.

After all, the Ming army and the Baozhe army have been fighting for more than half a year. Although they have been fighting and losing, it is impossible to say that they have been fighting for so long, and they don't even know the basic situation of the opponent.

Yang Sichang knew that there were real thieves and fake thieves among the rebel army. The so-called fake thieves were actually garrison troops composed of surrendered soldiers from the Ming army. Most of these garrison troops were still the original uniforms of the Ming army... weapons and equipment It is also the original Ming army standard equipment.

The real thieves, of course, are pure bandit protection soldiers, wearing gray military uniforms, but military uniforms cannot be used to distinguish real and fake thieves, because some fake thieves also wear gray military uniforms.

The biggest feature of the real thief is the large-scale use of guns, and the guns used are very special, and can even be said to be unique in the world: light long-barreled small guns of about five or six hundred catties and relatively large-caliber firecrackers.

And this kind of artillery and firearms are also guns that Yang Sichang asked craftsmen to imitate on a large scale.

The counterfeit cannon was called the Thief-killing Cannon by Yang Sichang and the others, and the musket was called the Thief-killing Gun. Just by looking at the names, you can tell that these two counterfeit weapons are specially designed to protect against thieves.

It embodies the strength of mastering thieves to destroy thieves.

Yang Sichang was on the front line in southern Chu, and he knew quite a lot of information about the bandit protection army, even the detailed establishment was almost revealed.

And the standard army directly under him is organized in accordance with the establishment of the thief in all aspects, with the same staffing and weapons and equipment.

The only difference is that the food supply is different...

Those security thieves didn't know why they were crazy, but they fed the ordinary soldiers so well. According to the food supply standard of the security thieves, Yang Sichang would be able to support at least twice the number of troops.

Yang Sichang, who has no money or food under his command, has to save money, otherwise he wouldn't be able to produce a new standard army of 5000 people in one go.

As for not having enough food to train every day, why do you have to train every day? It would be good if you could practice every three to five days.

Anyway, a new army like the New Standard Army relies entirely on guns to fight, and an army that fires guns far away does not need a bunch of strong men, and it is entirely feasible to be thinner.

In Yang Sichang's view, it is better to have two ordinary soldiers than one strong soldier.

Because when using the thief-killing gun to fight, a strong soldier can only fire one bullet, but two ordinary soldiers can fire two bullets!

One to two!

Very simple multiple choice question!
But even if the new standard army under his command has lowered the food supply standard, the cost is very huge.

Most of the simple food expenditures are not bad. If you think of a way, you can always supply them. If you can't do it, let the soldiers solve it on the spot. Anyway, the Changsha area is a land of fish and rice, and there is a lot of food...

The real trick is the guns!

More precisely, a large number of guns!
(End of this chapter)