I want to be emperor

Chapter 268 The Confused Chen Biqian

The second year of Chengshun of the Great Chu Empire, the 26th day of the first month of the ninth year of Chongzhen.

Even if the beginning of spring has officially begun, it is considered spring, but Changsha is still in the midst of severe cold.

Yang Sichang's mood was as cold as the weather in Changsha.

The reason why Yang Sichang was in a bad mood was that he had just received a reply from the court.

At the end of last year, he wrote to the imperial court, and once again asked for additional salaries to raise military supplies and train [-] new troops to fight bandits.

In order to increase his persuasiveness, he also reported the results of his recent training of the new standard army.

It is said that after many efforts, even under extremely difficult conditions, he, Yang Sichang, has already compiled a new standard army of [-] scale.

He also said that this new standard army has a high morale, and it is equipped with a new type of anti-thief guns, and it is also equipped with several two-and-a-half catties of anti-thief cannons.

It is said that the thief-killing gun is very powerful, within thirty feet, even thick armor can't stop it.

In addition, the thieves-killing gun is equipped with a sleeve gun, which can be used as a short spear directly after releasing the medicine, which is many times stronger than the previous bird gun.

It is also said that the built cannon weighs no more than six hundred catties, and it can operate freely after being equipped with a two-wheeled light gun mount. Hundreds of feet away.

The new standard army equipped with new guns has a very high combat power, which can be tripled as the old army.

It has to be said that Yang Sichang put in a lot of hard work in order to train this new standard army. Basically, he collected all the craftsmen he could collect to make new guns and armor.

In order to meet various military needs, Yang Sichang made apportionments in the adjacent southern Chu area, that is, Changsha, Yuezhou Prefecture, Changde Prefecture, and Hengyang Prefecture. 'Assessment.

Although the gentry all hemmed and hawed that they had no money, but for Yang Sichang's sake, they paid back some, and finally collected more than one hundred thousand taels of food.

After solving the problem of logistics supply and demand, Yang Sichang personally recruited backbones from various guards and recruits, and personally watched the formation and training of new standard troops.

Up to now, among the [-] new standard troops, three infantry battalions have formed an army, and three more battalions are in the process of training.

At the same time, there is a cavalry team of 500 riders, an artillery battalion with a size of [-] people, and even the heavy soldiers follow the example of the rural protection army and set up a special heavy battalion.

It can be said that the prime minister's new standard army in the five provinces is a replica of the rural protection army, or a replica of the main force. Looking at the organization, it is basically the size of a mixed brigade placed on the rural protection army.

From equipment to organization, even tactics and tactics are completely learned by the rural protection army.

After Yang Sichang put in so much effort to train the new standard army, and then reported it as the leader of the master thief with a typical report to control the thief, what did his superiors say?

The unified answer after discussion between the cabinet chiefs and His Majesty is: no money!
What do you mean there is no money in the household department, the internal treasury is also empty, Jiliao has been in arrears for many years, and the thieves in Pingshan have already spent a lot...

Then he said that the new standard army is of course capable of fighting, and it has defeated the old army by a lot. However, it has cost more than 80 yuan to build [-] new standard troops in just a few months.

Five thousand is worth hundreds of thousands, so wouldn't the fifty thousand have to be several million?

Come on, Yang Sichang, tell me, where can the imperial court get so much money?

After saying a lot of moneyless things, I said that my Ming Dynasty has millions of soldiers, and the thieves are just a small group of rogues. They took advantage of my unpreparedness to steal and occupy Chubei. Sweep across Chubei.

It is also said that the method of protecting the bandits is to emphasize equipment and despise soldiers, which is actually the method of the inferior vehicle.

Guns and guns are nothing more than a small Daoer, and the military and state affairs are the most important thing to deal with people. As long as the soldiers fight bravely and unite as one, millions of kings and soldiers are unarmed, and they can also destroy thieves.

As for the new standard army, it seems to be useful. If you, Yang Sichang, can get money, you can practice it. We won’t stop you anyway, but don’t expect the court to give you a dime...

Not only is there no money, but the policy is not given...

It’s a good idea to want to increase the salary of the bandit. Now the tax is heavy enough. The officials and gentry are shouting all day long that the tax is too heavy and they can’t live. At this time, they want to increase the salary of the bandit. You, Yang Sichang, are shameless and we are shameless.

After Yang Sichang read the reply, his face was all black.

The meaning of the few bigwigs in the imperial court and His Majesty is plainly: if you want money, you are not allowed to do anything to pay the thief, but you, Yang Sichang, who protect the thief, still have to be destroyed, even if you bring a group of unarmed civilians to fight. The thief was wiped out.

Faced with such an extreme situation, it was strange that Yang Sichang was in a good mood. If he hadn't been in the officialdom for many years and had a good self-cultivation, he would probably have cursed on the spot.

But the higher-ups don't give money or policies, but the thief still has to be eliminated.

Yang Sichang couldn't just watch the bandit security army fight all the way to Changsha, right?

At that time, he, Yang Sichang, will not be much better.

In the end, there was no other way, Yang Sichang could only make troubles on his own!

The new standard army still had to practice, and the new standard army with only half of its troops in front of him had already given him hope of defeating the bandit protection army.

No matter how difficult the conditions are, he has to find a way to train the five thousand new standard troops thoroughly, and then find a way to train a few more new standard troops.

As for money and food, we can only use the old method.

Set up apportionment to solve part of the problem, and then turn a blind eye to the behavior of the soldiers collecting food and grass on the spot!

Anyway, Yang Sichang had no money, and it was impossible for him to give the new standard army much food. If the soldiers wanted food and money, they had to figure out their own way.

Anyway, most of the officers and soldiers who encircled and suppressed bandits in the Central Plains and Shaanxi area solved the military supply problem in this way.

Otherwise, relying on the little silver slag given by the imperial court, more than [-]% of the officers and soldiers would starve to death, so why fight.

Yang Sichang not only did it himself, but also ordered the governor of Sichuan, which was already under his jurisdiction, to also prepare and train the new standard army on his own.

It is worth mentioning that some time ago, the Ming court adjusted the scope of Yang Sichang's defense area, and was no longer responsible for the defense of the eastern front such as Henan and Jiangbei.

The main reason is that Chubei was occupied by the bandits, and even Wuchang Mansion was occupied, and the waterway in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was controlled by the bandits.

Yang Sichang, who was in Changsha, had almost lost contact with Henan. He could only get in touch by sneaking through the Chubei controlled by security thieves by means of spies, or simply going around a large circle to Henan.

At the same time, considering that the security thieves have captured Wuchang, the next step is very likely to enter Jiujiang, Jiangxi and other places.

Therefore, at the end of last year, the Ming court had already begun preparations for the establishment of a new governor in Henan, South Zhili, and Jiangxi to be in charge of the Eastern Front.

It is also planned to set up a new governor to take charge of the affairs of Anqing Mansion, Luzhou Mansion and other places, that is, the governor of Anlu.

The first governor of this Anlu was Shi Kefa, who previously guarded Chizhou and Taiping with the title of Right Councilor.

In the summer and autumn of last year, as the thieves captured Huangzhou Mansion and marched to the Anqing Mansion District Council in South Zhili, Shi Kefa was promoted to be the deputy envoy of the inspectorate. .

At that time, Shi Kefa's performance was pretty good. He led all the troops in the north of the Yangtze River to defend the front line of Taihu Lake, and initially resisted the offensive of the Township Protection Army.

Well, even though it was the Rural Protectorate Army who thought that the logistics line was too long, and in order to prepare for the attack on Wuchang, they stopped their offensive in the Jiangbei area and turned to a strategic defensive attitude.

However, many people still put the credit on Shi Kefa.

Therefore, this person decided to set up the governor of Anlu in the imperial court, so as to better guard against and attack the thieves, this person became the first governor of Anlu as a matter of course.

The Anlu governor's jurisdiction includes Anqing, Luzhou, Chizhou, and Taiping, as well as Guangzhou, Guangshan, Gushi, and Luotian in Henan, Qizhou, Guangji, and Huangmei in Huguang.

Basically, the defense area of ​​Governor Anlu covers the entire Jiangbei Eastern Front battlefield, as well as a part of the Jiangbei battlefield on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Simply put, it is the area along the Yangtze River on the east route.

It can be seen from this that when the Ming court established the governor of Anlu, its purpose was very clear, that is to prevent the security guards from entering Nanzhili along the river.

After Shi Kefa became the first governor of Anlu, he naturally became a member of the feudal officials, and his momentum of promotion was comparable to that of Lu Xiangsheng a few years ago.

However, Shi Kefa's high position is actually a trivial matter for the Ming court. The real big thing is that the court reused Chen Biqian. Military affairs in Fengyang, Anlu, Jiangxi and other places.

Basically, Chen Biqian was responsible for the entire Eastern Front.

Chen Biran was surprised and delighted by this appointment!
The good news is that he was promoted. He only became the governor of Henan last year as a clear official. After becoming the governor of Henan, he actually didn't do much, and he didn't even figure out the situation yet.

Until now, he still doesn't know how many generals and troops he has under his command...

As for fighting with thieves and thieves.

For the thief, he had already fled to Shaanxi before he took office, and was beaten so hard by Hong Chengchou that he had no time to come to Henan.

As for the thieves, before he took office, the thieves had already changed their strategic direction and headed south with all their heart, so Henan was not actually attacked by the main force of the thieves.

In addition, Zuo Liangyu, who sits on the front line of Ruzhou, is quite reliable. It is impossible for you to let Zuo Liangyu take the initiative to attack the security thieves, but Zuo Liangyu worked very hard to protect himself, and took the place of Ye County Made the same as Tietong.

Luyang County also gathered most of the main forces on the front line of Henan, with more than [-] good people stationed there, and the thousands of security guards at Luyang Pass on the opposite side did not take the initiative to attack, so there was no war in Luyang County for a long time.

There is no need for Chen Biqian, who is above him, to worry about front-line defense.

In this way, Chen Biqian inexplicably got a reputation for being good at suppressing thieves, good at running the army, and good at defending the city.

The conscience of heaven and earth, after he arrived in Henan, he really never led troops to fight with thieves or security thieves... He didn't even know how many troops he had under his command.

(End of this chapter)