The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 130 Hanzhong Guerrilla
The turmoil in Hanzhong did not escape Hong Chengchou's eyes. The entire Shaanxi prefecture had Hong Chengchou's eyeliner in order to wipe out all the bandits as soon as possible.

On the second day after Chen Wang led the troops to Hanzhong City, an urgent military order for eight hundred miles had already been delivered to him.

"The bandits in Hanzhong have affected a lot of people this time...Hanzhong City must not be lost, and King Rui's safety should be the first priority. When the situation is stable, cooperate with the Hanzhong guerrillas to wipe out the Golden Chipeng, Black Killing Tiger, Zhuantian Harrier and others..."

Hong Chengchou, who is in command of Sanyuan, has already received news from Hanzhong Mansion, and the news he has learned is more detailed and clear than Chen Wang.

"The military gate is trustworthy..."

Chen Wang took the military order from the messenger's hand with both hands, then raised it to his forehead, and said in a solemn voice.

"It must be equal!"

Chen Wang looked solemn, holding up the military order in his hands respectfully, but he was thinking of another thing in his heart.

At this moment, Chen Wang's heart is completely settled, because now, he can finally stay in Hanzhong justifiably.

The first shackles on him have been removed, and by staying in Hanzhong Mansion, he has actually obtained the right to do things cheaply.

Chen Wang knew very well that Hong Chengchou didn't trust him at all. Hong Chengchou only thought about his official career, his status and identity.

In Hong Chengchou's eyes, these generals are just pawns that can be discarded at will to help him ascend to the throne.

In today's entire imperial court, there may not even be enough civil servants who can look up to military generals.

Even if he really has faith, then he must bear it.

"You take people to Hanzhong City to report to the prefect Lin, and say that I have received a military order from the military gate, and I will do my best to protect the safety of Hanzhong City."

Chen Wang looked at the back of the messenger going away, turned his head, and gave instructions to Chen Gong who was sitting beside him.

"But at that time, we followed the urgent order of the army and rushed all the way to Xi'an Mansion. We didn't bring much luggage. The army didn't have enough food and grass. If we fight for a long time, we have to ask Hanzhong City to prepare food and grass for us."

Although there is still half a month's worth of rations in the army, it is better to be prepared and have more rations.

"Also, in the previous battle with the bandits Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan in Ningqiang Prefecture, the loss of ordnance was quite serious. If possible, please send some more ordnance as a supplement."

Chen Gong answered cleanly, turned around and walked out of the big tent.

Ever since Chen Wang confided most of his plans and made a decision, Chen Gong never hesitated, followed Chen Wang's lead in everything, and regained his former sophistication.

Watching Chen Gong leave, only Tang Shiping was left in the tent.

Zhao Huailiang and Hu Zhiyi are reorganizing the army in the camp, and Hu Zhili is currently preparing to build a supervisory office with no time to spare.

"How much money is left in the army?"

Chen Wang's eyes moved to Tang Shiping.

In the army, Hu Zhiyi was in charge of weapons, food and grass, while Tang Shiping was in charge of money.

The internal affairs of the military must be decentralized, and no matter how important the trust is, it cannot be handed over to one person at the same time.

"I checked the accounts yesterday, and now there are 600 taels of gold and 360 taels of silver in the army."

At the beginning, more than 7000 taels of gold were seized in Chunhua, and some were exchanged in the state capital along the road. Later, a lot of silver was exchanged in Mian County, and there are not many left now.

More than 4000 taels of silver were seized at the beginning, and more than 6000 taels were later exchanged for gold, for a total of 10 taels.

Liao cavalry each needs nearly three taels of military pay per month, ordinary battalion soldiers need one and a half, and those new recruits need one or two taels, and the military salaries according to the grades of training are different.
The monthly expenditure is about 6000 taels. It has been more than three months since August. Including the preparation of military rations, the total expenditure of military salaries is nearly 2 taels.

Although ordinary battalion soldiers and Liao cavalry are all soldiers in the establishment, the imperial court is supposed to pay military salaries.

But this journey was all the way away from Xi'an Mansion, and the salary he actually received was only one month, and it was not enough. The gap was paid in advance by Chen Wang with the captured military funds.

Not to mention the first rank of the reported military merits, many merits are now unfinished, and the reward for silver is still in the foreseeable future.

Delay in arrears of payment is already the norm among the normal. When the military payment and food are allocated from the central government to the local government, they have already been exploited by [-]%.

When it was distributed from the hands of the Shangguan to the hands of the battalions, a lot went away, and half of the distribution to the hands of the battalion generals was considered conscientious.

The family system in the Ming Dynasty was a deformed product produced under such a situation of corruption.

After resettling those refugees, managing the officialdom up and down, sending some silver to Cao Wenzhao, etc., Chen Wang's treasury has lost a lot of money.

In the past few months, he has been in a state of sitting and eating.The only income was the more than 2 taels of gold and silver looted from Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan after they were wiped out.

However, the remaining money is still a huge sum of money. After all, this is the property that Li Zicheng obtained only after looting several counties.

"Only keep 1000 taels of gold, and the rest can be exchanged for silver in Hanzhong City as much as possible, but there are too few that cannot be exchanged, at least if it is the price of Xi'an Prefecture."

Chen Wang tapped the armrest of the seat lightly and said in a low voice.

In this era, silver is the common currency. Although gold is more valuable and important than silver, it seldom appears in direct transactions. Gold is mostly used as jewelry utensils, private collections, sacrificial ritual utensils, etc.

What Chen Wang needs now is silver to exchange for food and grass, and to distribute military pay, so gold is naturally not suitable.

Leaving 1000 taels of gold is only for future needs such as welcoming and sending, opening up joints and so on.

"correct……"

Chen Wang raised his head, looked at Tang Shiping and said.

"This month's military salary will be released in advance, and the news will be notified to all ministries..."

Tang Shiping's body trembled slightly, and his expression was startled. Although he was mentally prepared, he still felt turbulent when he heard Chen Wang talk about it.

Among the military regulations formulated by Chen Wang, military salaries are generally paid on the first day of the first month of each month.

The situation of paying military salaries in advance only occurs when the war is coming.

Chen Wang waved his hand, and didn't intend to keep Tang Shiping any longer.

Tang Shiping respectfully complied, and then slowly withdrew from the big tent.

Tang Shiping left the military tent, and the big tent became empty again, and Chen Wang did not maintain his usual expression.

Chen Wang stood up and slowly unfolded the rolled map on the desktop.

Since coming to this era, Chen Wang's memory has always been very good, and he can clearly remember all the history books he has read.

Now it is December 23, the eighth year of Chongzhen, and in less than ten days, it will be the ninth year of Chongzhen.

The first half of the ninth year of Chongzhen was not easy for the Ming Empire. The rogue bandits were so powerful that it was difficult to contain them.

Hong Chengchou will not have the energy to govern the chaos in Hanzhong at that time, and all his attention will be drawn by Li Zicheng and the bandits in Shangluo.

The map on the desktop unfolded, and Chen Wang looked at Hanzhong Mansion on the map. Combining these days of exploration and information from various channels, he has gradually sorted out the situation of Hanzhong Mansion.

In today's Hanzhong Mansion, the three largest bands of thieves are Jin Chipeng, Hei Sha Hu, and Zuan Tian Harrier. As long as the rest of the thieves are slightly stronger, they are basically subordinate to the three.

Jin Chipeng has the largest number of subordinates, more than [-] people.

The group of bandits in the northern part of Hanzhong Prefecture all joined its ranks after seeing Jin Chipeng's streak of victorious officers and soldiers. The current Jin Chipeng can be said to be the leader of the group of bandits in the northern part of Hanzhong Prefecture.

Black Killer Zhang Yuan was a little weaker, originally there were only 5 people under his command, but after successive victories, the team quickly expanded, and now the number of troops has exceeded [-].

A group of thieves from the central part of Hanzhong Mansion also flocked to serve under Zhang Yuan's command, and the bandits in the whole south were regarded as their master.

Now the number of Jin Chipeng and Zhang Yuan's two associations has exceeded [-], and these more than [-] people are now concentrated between Chenggu County and Bao County.

There are more than [-] men under the command of Zhuantian Harrier Wang Cheng, who were originally entrenched in the Ziyang area, and he has long since unified the bandits in the eastern part of Hanzhong Prefecture.

When formulating the attack plan, Hong Chengchou ordered the Hanzhong Guards to be in charge of the relatively weak Black Shahu Division, while the Hanzhong Battalion was in charge of the relatively strong Zhantian Harrier Division.

According to the information from Hong Chengchou, the soldiers of the Hanzhong battalion are currently fighting fiercely with him near Xing'an.

The name of the Hanzhong guerrilla was Zhou Yumao, a native of Denglai, Shandong. He was born as a Wu Jinshi during the reign of Emperor Tianqi.

Zhou Yumao is still fighting fiercely with Zhuantian Harrier in the area of ​​Xing'an, there is no way for Zhuantian Harrier to overtake Zhou Yumao and rush to Hanzhong, there will be no intersection between them for the time being.

Jin Chipeng, Zhang Yuan, and Wang Cheng are now leading the bandits in the north, south, and east of Hanzhong Prefecture respectively.

The three departments are now expanding in power, and the total number of bandits, big and small, has exceeded 15.

Chen Wang looked at the map on the desktop solemnly. From the historical materials he had seen in his memory, the turmoil in Hanzhong Mansion lasted a very long time. Until the 11th year of Chongzhen, most of Hanzhong was still in turmoil.

It is recorded in the fourth volume of "Hanzhong Fu Zhi":

"During the Chongzhen period, due to Ruifan, guerrillas were established."

"In the 11th year of Chongzhen, he was changed to a guerrilla and made a deputy general."

Hanzhong used to have only guards, and then set up guerrillas first, and then set up deputy generals. Finally, in the 14th year of Chongzhen, it was officially established as a town and served as the general soldier. The biggest reason for the continuous promotion is precisely because the situation in Hanzhong continued to deteriorate.

"Hanzhong Guerrilla..."

Chen Wang was thinking about his future plans. If he could become a Hanzhong guerrilla, then he could completely escape Hong Chengchou's constraints.

Hong Chengchou was wary of him before, but because of Cao Wenzhao's reminder, Hong Chengchou has much less suspicion of him now.

After meeting Hong Chengchou last time, Hong Chengchou's attitude towards him changed a lot.

Hong Chengchou is not now an obstacle preventing him from becoming a guerrilla in Hanzhong.

Chen Wang's gaze continued to move to the right, and finally stopped when it fell near Xing'an.

Now the person who hinders him from becoming a guerrilla in Hanzhong is precisely Zhou Yumao...

(End of this chapter)