The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 142 Harvest
In the battle of Hanzhong, Chen Wang pursued all the way to the city of Xixiang before stopping the pursuit.

After statistics, it was found that a total of 230 heads were obtained, and more than [-] civilians were gathered along the way.

A total of 37 people were captured and killed in military academies at all levels in the bandit army.

However, the reported military merits only recorded 930 level two. The thirteen rogue generals who were captured alive were all counted as meritorious service, but only 24 of the other 19 people who were killed were recorded.

Regarding this situation, Chen Wang didn't say anything.

Everything that should be done has been done, the money has been spent, and the relationship has gone.

It is not bad to be able to report so many first-level merits.

If there is no such relationship with Cao Wenzhao, more than 1000 two hundred heads can be reported, whether it can actually be counted as half is two things.

The imperial court is currently in financial difficulties, and everything can be saved, especially the collection of military merits.

In fact, a considerable part of the reason why Hong Chengchou was able to withstand tremendous pressure to prevent Cao Wenzhao from reporting his first-level merit was because the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households were also happy to see such a situation.

Because the head has been reported up, what needs to be dialed down is real money.

These rewards to those who have been handed over by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of War can't get much. The only ones who can be greedy and get benefits are generals and schools at all levels.

The military merit system in the early Ming Dynasty is actually different from the military merit system in the late Ming Dynasty.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the military merit system has actually become a military merit leader system, with the leader as the main and the rest as supplementary.

The reason for all this is not because the first-level military merit system is better, but because the first-level military merit system is not too bad under all the military merit systems.

The rest of the military merit system, such as the military merit system implemented in the early Ming Dynasty, was abandoned precisely because of the excessive and unscrupulous reporting of military merit.

The advantage of the first-level military merit system is that it is simple and clear at a glance, and it is difficult to make false reports.

You can only report as many achievements as there are heads, so that you don't need to issue a large amount of unnecessary silver rewards, which greatly reduces the expenditure.

But no matter how good the system is, there will always be loopholes. The first-level military merit system induces an extreme evil behavior-killing good men and pretending to be meritorious.

Although the Ministry of War has means of inspection, there are countermeasures under the policy.

Not only will some people specially decorate the head of the murderer, but the inspectors will sometimes collude with the general and the school, as long as there is a head that can handle the matter.

The disadvantages of the first-level skills are not only that, the first-level skills greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the Ming army in the early days.

But as time went by, the first-level merit made the Ming army's combat power begin to decrease.

The implementation of head-level merits made the imperial court mainly rely on the number of heads when discussing meritorious deeds.

Without a head or if the harvest is rare, even if the troops fought bravely on the battlefield and suffered heavy casualties, they still had no success, or even had.

This led to the fact that when multiple troops of the Ming army converged to fight together, most of the generals would not fight with power but observe the situation.

The first-level military merit system did improve the military exploits of the Ming army in the early stage, but it became a major factor in the weakening of the Ming army's combat power in the later stage.

Such a passage is recorded in "The Practice of Military Training Volume [-] Corruption Governance".

"Since the northern army is in battle, they specialize in fighting for merit. They kill one thief, and three to fifty people compete with each other, but they chase and kill the defeated thief."

"Every time the thief uses several people as bait to lure you to fight for merit, but he is surrounded by the crowd and kills him, not even a single head. I don't know how many people he killed.

"By taking advantage of the numbers, breaking through the camp, the entire army is gone, and you are deluded and don't realize it."

Qi Jiguang's attitude towards the "leader" has always been abhorrent.

As early as the 45th year of Jiajing, "regardless of the head, kill without precedent, in order to achieve complete victory" as the first rule of "Military Morality".

One of the reasons why Qi's army is invincible in the world is that they don't care about their leaders.

Almost all the rules and regulations and military rules and regulations implemented by Chen Wang in the army are directly applied from the two books "Records of Military Training" and "New Book of Ji Xiao".

Of course, Chen Wang also made some changes, and didn't completely copy them mechanically.

Regarding the first-level merit, Chen Wang and Qi Jiguang adopted similar methods and set the same military regulations.

Military Law: Facing the enemy before the battle, charge and kill the thief after the battle, and not beheaded until after the battle.

If there is a reason to take the head, it will be cut immediately.

There are three full-time meritorious soldiers who harvest the heads of the flags. The clothes of the meritorious soldiers are sewn with white cloth on both arms, and the word "deriving merit" is embroidered on it. The helmets are also tied with cloth strips for identification.

After they rushed to kill the officers and soldiers in the banner, they cut off the heads of the fallen enemies after the front line advanced.

After the troops are withdrawn, according to the harvested heads, the whole flag will share the merits equally.

When the head is cut off, it will be supervised by the supervisor and the soldiers of Baizong.

If there are those who hide and do not report, and if the harvest is endless, the personal soldiers, supervisors, banners, teams, and corps leaders will all be beheaded.

Because the first merit system is a typical result-oriented system, the acceptor only looks at the first level and not the person.

Some people value property, while others value official position, so the phenomenon of trading credit is logically derived, which makes the chaos even more chaotic.

Moreover, in order to prevent the killing of good deeds, the inspection of the head is also quite strict.

Although the heads of the rogue bandits are not as easy to identify as the Beilu and Jiannu, there are still some ways to identify them.

The head of a woman cannot be reported, nor can the head of an elderly person, let alone a child.

Men's heads should also be subdivided. Although the more than 1000 people who were beheaded were real rogue men, only more than 900 levels could be reported according to various regulations.

What's more, the heads of rogue bandits are worthless now, and one can only be exchanged for about one or two taels of silver, and there is no way to increase officials and ranks.

The head of a general school is still worth money, ranging from five taels to a hundred taels according to the original level.

For this result, Chen Wang didn't argue, because his goal had been achieved.

The Battle of Hanzhong made Hong Chengchou no longer suspicious of him, and he also began to value him.

The title of a general in Hanzhong is more valuable than ten thousand taels of gold.

With the name of the general, he can make a lot of arrangements later.

Now the historical line has undergone a lot of changes. He entered the Hanzhong Mansion by himself, defeated Zhang Yuan in World War I, and was successfully promoted to a general with his previous military exploits.

The crisis in Hanzhong Mansion also made the imperial court prepare to upgrade the military organization of Hanzhong Mansion again and set up a general.

In history, the military organization of Hanzhong Mansion first changed from a guard to a guerrilla, and then it was directly upgraded from a guerrilla to a town, with a deputy commander-in-chief directly set up, and then changed to a commander-in-chief.

Although there are only generals now, the original Hanzhong guerrilla has the power to mobilize the Hanzhong guards, and the power of generals will only be greater.

The generals in the border town have the power to control the entire army. They serve as generals in Hanzhong Mansion, and there is no deputy commander-in-chief or commander-in-chief above them. In fact, it can be regarded as an independent military town.

Apart from the fact that the defenses at two fixed places could not be mobilized, what Chen Wang could mobilize was a guerrilla battalion, plus the guards of Hanzhongwei.

I just don't know how much authority will be at that time, and whether there will be an opportunity to intervene in local military affairs.

If the power is strong enough, then Chen Wang's backhands planted in Mian County can also play their due role.

At that time, use Mianxian County as the entry point, and you can slowly plan for the Hanzhong Guards.

Although the imperial court still has a lot of control over the local area, in another four years, it will be the 13th year of Chongzhen.

The whole world will be completely thrown into chaos, the situation in the frontier and inland will continue to deteriorate, and the prestige of the imperial court will collapse.

At that time, generals from all over the country formed hilltops and began to embrace their own strength. Governors from all over the place were less and less restraint on leading generals and schools. Even if someone noticed their arrangement in Hanzhong, it was already too late.

Chen Wang knew very well that what he did now had to be done slowly, and he must not be in a hurry.

Chen Wang did not forget the past in Gongchang Mansion.

At that time, he was too eager for quick success and wanted to chase Li Guo all the way into Hanzhong Mansion, which aroused Hong Chengchou's suspicion.

If it weren't for Cao Wenzhao's suggestion, Chen Wang himself would not have noticed anything wrong.

In the past few months, the biggest truth that Chen Wang has understood is never to underestimate anyone who can occupy a high position. Self-righteous people are the most stupid people.

Chen Wang closed the document in his hand and rubbed his swollen temples.

Leading troops to fight, charging into battle, now Chen Wang actually doesn't have much fear.

However, these official exchanges and official greetings gave Chen Wang a headache. These were all extremely exhausting things.

Although there was no big mistake with Zhao Huailiang's assistance, this feeling of walking on thin ice is not easy.

As soon as the officials sent by the prefect of Hanzhong Prefecture were sent away, the envoys sent by King Rui came to the army again.

It was not until dusk that the envoy sent by King Rui was sent away.

While Chen Wang was thinking, Chen Gong also came in from outside the tent, and he said with a smile on his brows and eyes.

"His Royal Highness King Rui is generous, this time he sent a lot of wine and pig sheep."

Before the Battle of Hanzhong, King Rui sent a lot of live pigs and sheep to the barracks, and rewarded them with silver, wine and rice.

This time, although the military rewards were not given away, more than 300 pigs and sheep were given away, as well as a lot of wine and food.

If so many pigs and sheep were all slaughtered, everyone in the army would be able to share about seven or eight catties of meat, which is considered a very good treatment.

Now that the famine is so serious, where can ordinary people see any meat, it is not bad to have a full meal.

Chen Gong walked all the way to the tent, found a chair, sat down, and took a sip of tea.

"The magistrate of Hanzhong said it well. When the rogues were besieging the city, the army and rations were allocated very quickly. Now that the siege of Hanzhong has been resolved, the food and grass cannot be delivered in half a day."

Chen Wang shook his head, a little helpless.

The facts are indeed as Chen Gong said, but in the Battle of Hanzhong, they gathered a total of more than 4 people, and this number is still increasing.

With so many people, they all need to settle down, and the food and grass consumed every day is an astronomical figure.

Chen Wang glanced at Chen Gong who was sitting at the bottom, and exhorted.

"You don't need to take care of the issue of food and grass for the time being. Don't send someone to remind you."

Chen Xiang pondered for a moment, then said.

"In a few days, you will transport some rations to Hanzhong City..."

A trace of astonishment flashed in Chen Gong's eyes, and he said.

"The Hanzhong Mansion has not given us the military rations that should be given to us, and we still have to transport the military rations. This..."

Chen Wang raised his hand and stopped Chen Gong's words.

"When the military merit report is published, the promotion documents will come down, and most of the promoted generals will stay in Hanzhong."

"If you stay in Hanzhong, you will inevitably have to deal with the prefect of Hanzhong. Naturally, you must establish a good relationship."

"and……"

Chen Wang glanced sideways and said.

"We took most of the grain, grass and gold and silver that Zhang Yuan and Lu Shi carried, and we have to hand over some to deal with the situation."

There are two places where Zhang Yuan and Lu Shi hoard food, grass, gold and silver, one is in Chenggu and the other is in Baocheng.

Although they brought a lot of food, grass, gold and silver when they besieged Hanzhong Mansion, they were not the bulk.

But even so, after defeating Zhang Yuan and Lu Shi, more than 1 shi of grain were confiscated.

After chasing all the way, they obtained more than ten thousand shi of grain outside Chenggu City.

Zhang Yuan and Lu Shi joined forces with more than [-] soldiers, naturally they would not only have so much food, but after hearing the news of the defeat, many people started looting food.

When Lu Shi fled first, he took a lot of grain from the grain fields in Chenggu, so the seizure was limited.

As for the grain that Zhang Yuan and Lu Shi hoarded in Baocheng, it was a little late for Chen Wang to start, and basically all of them had been looted, and there was nothing left.

The sum of the gold and silver artifacts seized was only about 3 taels of silver, which was not as rich as those seized during the Chunhua War.

Zhang Yuan's original lair was in the southern mountainous area of ​​Xixiang, so the gold and silver artifacts were naturally left in the lair and not brought out.

And when Jin Chi Peng Lu went all the way south, he didn't loot many cities, and his harvest was limited, so naturally he didn't have so much gold and silver.

However, more than 3 taels was considered a lot, and Chen Wang naturally didn't mean to think it was too little.

"Brother is right."

Chen Gong also came back to his senses at this time, and nodded in agreement.

"Is there any news from Zhiyi and Zhili?"

Chen Wang lowered his head again, observing the map of Hanzhong Prefecture on the desktop.

Zhang Yuan's lair is not a hidden place, the Hanzhong army has long known it, but they are unable to attack it.

And the reason why Chen Wang stopped after chasing all the way to Xixiang was precisely because he focused on the savings left by Zhang Yuan.

At any rate, Zhang Yuan was also the head of the 24th Battalion. He fought all the way from Shaanxi to Henan, and then transferred from Henan to Hanzhong. He plundered all the way to Hanzhong.

He also broke through a lot of big cities along the way, so he gained a lot. Zhang Yuan must have accumulated a lot of gold and silver.

So after chasing all the way to the city of Xixiang, Chen Wang immediately asked Hu Zhiyi and Hu Zhili to lead troops to besiege Zhang Yuan's camp in the mountain area.

The Hanzhong Guards were also recruited temporarily, and set up guards on all sides, in order to prevent the rogues in the camp from fleeing privately with money.

"The news came at noon that they have surrounded Zhang Yuan's camp and are attacking the mountain. There are many rogues in the camp."

"The defense of the camp that Zhang Yuan set up before is average, and it shouldn't take long to break through the camp."

Hearing Chen Gong's answer, Chen Wang felt a little relieved. Since he still resisted, it proved that he didn't escape much, and he should get a lot of things.

"It's not dark yet, you lead the First Cavalry Division to rush there, and bring more shield vehicles."

"Take the camp as soon as possible, so as not to have long nights and dreams."

Chen Wang looked at the scene outside the tent and said in a deep voice.

"After breaking through the stronghold, don't let people know how much gold and silver you got, just load it into the car and escort it over..."

(End of this chapter)