The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 89

The recruitment of soldiers in the prisoner camp has also ended. A total of 700 people have been recruited, rounded up to an integer.

Two thousand seven hundred new recruits were moved to the camp in the north of the city.

With the settlement of the Northern Auxiliary Barracks, there are now four battalions in the Quartet of Chunhua City.

The north camp is the auxiliary army, the west camp is Gao Jie, the east camp is Liu Chenggong, and the south camp is the camp for prisoners and Liao cavalry.

On the Beiying campus, [-] newly recruited auxiliary soldiers stood in line.

Sitting on the general platform, Chen Wang looked down at the group of recruits on the school field from a high position, his mind was full of thoughts.

During the two battles in Qiutou Town and Chunhua City, he served successively as Bai Zong, Ba Zong, and even Qian Zong.

It took a lot of time to approve the military merits, but the reward documents came quickly.

The officials who approved military merits almost left with Zuo Liangyu.

Zuo Liangyu stayed in Chunhua for a total of four days.

When he came, he took more than two hundred riders with him, and when he left, he took away a total of 2000 people, not counting the relatives he brought.

Chen Wang gave all the elite cavalry left after Gao Jie picked them to Zuo Liangyu, and Zuo Liangyu sent someone to pick the remaining cavalry at will.

When Chen Wang finished his last sentence that day, Zuo Liangyu fell into a long silence.

Chen Wang didn't have mind reading skills, so he didn't know what Zuo Liangyu was thinking, but Zuo Liangyu was indeed touched.

It's just that Chen Wang didn't know how much Zuo Liangyu could be affected or changed by just a few words.

But all of this is not what Chen Wang needs to worry about, because no matter what kind of impact it causes, it will be something later.

Just four days later, that is, on August [-]th, the envoy had already arrived in Chunhua City.

Naturally, it was not an angel, but an envoy sent by Hong Chengchou.

The two seals and appointed documents brought by the messenger.

As the governor of the three sides, Hong Chengchou was the governor of military affairs. When he was appointed, Chongzhen gave him the right to be promoted to general.

Hong Chengchou still has the power to promote a guerrilla or general.

The first letter was naturally to Chen Wang, and the title of acting battalion general was directly removed, and he was directly promoted from Mr. Qian to guerrilla.

As for the military position, that is, the official position with rank, it still needs to wait for a while, which is outside Hong Chengchou's authority.

In the first battle of Chunhua, hundreds of thousands of people were defeated, one of the three armies of rogue bandits was eliminated, and the last worries in the Guanzhong battlefield were relieved.

This achievement is enough to confer a camp general.

From the very beginning, Chen Wang knew that it was probably just a guerrilla attack, and it was basically impossible to join the general.

Cao Bianjiao has made so many meritorious deeds, and now he is only a general, so he probably will not be awarded the general.

Moreover, there were leapfrog promotions in the Ming army, but there were very few cases.

Before becoming the chief soldier, most generals served as guerrillas, generals, deputy generals, and finally chief soldiers.

Relying on the continuous accumulation of military merits, they will be promoted one by one.

Chen Wang was very satisfied with his status as a guerrilla, and the number of soldiers in the new battalion was planned to be 2000.

This number of troops is already quite a lot, and the number of soldiers that a general guerrilla can lead is only about a thousand.

Because except for the original Liao cavalry quota, the rest of the troops are issued according to the infantry standard.

Hong Chengchou's meaning is very clear, that is, he hopes that Chen Wang will recruit infantry in the future.

The number of soldiers is 2000, which means that Chen Wang can still recruit more than [-] people.

Hong Chengchou has also given the right to recruit troops, allowing public recruitment among the states and counties in Xi'an Prefecture.

Since he has the right to recruit soldiers, since Chen Wang will not recruit soldiers from the prisoner camps.

Now many places are dilapidated, and a large number of refugees gather around the capital of Xi'an Prefecture in order to avoid the chaos of war. These people are the best source of soldiers.

It is an unspoken rule to recruit soldiers to supplement their strength, and it is the same for everyone.

But without an order, recruiting soldiers privately is undoubtedly absolutely intolerable.

It was only after Hong Chengchou authorized Cao Wenzhao to recruit troops under the city of Binzhou that Cao Wenzhao dared to let Chen Wang recruit troops publicly.

Chen Wang glanced at the recruits standing upright on the school field.

The other seal letter was to Gao Jie, discussing his merits anyway, and conferring him a sitting camp.

The so-called "sitting battalion" is also a battalion general, which is different from battalion generals such as chief soldier, deputy general, participating general, and guerrilla.

Although he led the army alone, he was directly under the jurisdiction of the governor, and the soldiers in the battalion were called "model soldiers".

The standard battalion directly led by Hong Chengchou now has a total of 600 people.

The battalion generals who lead the pacesetter battalion are called "sitting battalion", and of course they are also called "zhongjun".

The names of the pacesetter battalions under each governor's command basically changed, and the establishment of the battalions was basically different.

The garrison and garrison system in the late Ming Dynasty was extremely complicated, and in a sense, quite chaotic.

Chen Wang was not surprised that Gao Jie became the battalion general.

He also achieved the merits of anyway, another great victory, and he led his troops back to surrender. He didn't reward a battalion general, and made a move that was worth a thousand dollars.

I'm afraid that not many people will choose to surrender later.

But Chen Wang never thought that Hong Chengchou would directly put Gao Jie in the pacesetter battalion.

However, after careful consideration, Chen Wang felt that Hong Chengchou's decision was indeed deliberate.

Most of the soldiers under Gao Jie's command were from bandits, so it's best to keep them around with restraint.

Gao Jie himself had an affair with the Xing family, and since Chunhua was incompatible with the rogues anyway, he could only go one way to the dark.

Moreover, grouping them under direct control can cut them off from standing in line and relying on other people, which is easy to control.

There were nearly 4000 soldiers under Hong Chengchou's command, but they suffered a large number of casualties in several battles.
After that, the troops were continuously divided and dispatched, so the number continued to decrease, until now there are only 600 people left under his command.

Now that the battle is imminent, Hong Chengchou puts Gao Jie in the pacesetter sequence, and his purpose is also obvious.

Before long, the transfer order should come down, ordering Gao Jie to lead the troops south.

Chen Wang looked solemnly at the group of recruits on the school field.

Today is August 21st, seven days have passed since the recruitment ended.

Most of the recruits were hungry soldiers, so Chen Wang did not immediately order training.

A total of seven days, the seven days are for the general to take care of his body, and of course he also recites military regulations.

For the first three days, people were ordered to cook rice porridge so that he could eat as much as he could.

Then I spent money to buy a batch of meat and added it to the rice porridge.

On the fifth day, all the rice porridge was replaced with dry rice, and a little more meat and vegetables were added.

The recruits who were recruited into the battalion are already in much better health, and the color on their faces has also faded a little.

But to fully recover, I am afraid it will take at least half a month or so.

These hungry soldiers just ate less than usual, not because they didn't eat and were thin.

Haosheng will definitely be able to raise him back after half a month, and now Chen Wang is not short of money.

Xi'an is not far to the south. As long as you have money, you can buy all kinds of meat, eggs and milk.

For seven days, there was no disturbance in the camp, and all the recruits stayed in the barracks obediently, reciting military regulations every day.

It is the more than 300 soldiers originally recruited in Binzhou who serve as instructors to teach military discipline.

Now there are only ten days until September, which is the time for Gao Yingxiang to move eastward.

A great war is about to break out in the South.

In history, Gao Yingxiang joined the other two armies, with 40 soldiers, and fought in Sanyuan with more than ten thousand Ming troops led by Hong Chengchou.

Although there is a huge disparity in military strength, the battle situation has not formed a crushing trend, and it has been a long time since they were unable to win.

In October, Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and others were ineffective against the Ming army.

So the soldiers and horses were assembled and went out of Tongguan again eastward, and divided into thirteen battalions and marched eastward.

Now, because of my own interference, and the butterfly effect caused a chain reaction.

Most of the rogue soldiers in Pingliang Mansion and Qingyang Mansion were defeated, and now only the 25 troops led by Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong are left.

Logically speaking, Hong Chengchou should be able to win more easily.

However, the situation on the battlefield changes in an instant, and the difference is a thousand miles away.

Military battles are dangerous, and no one can determine who will win or lose before the war is over.

Chen Wang calculated the situation, and the probability of Hong Chengchou calling him to the south to help is very low.

Because on paper, Chen Wang now only has more than 800 Liao cavalry under his command, plus more than [-] battalion soldiers, a total of [-] people.

The guard army definitely cannot be counted as combat power. After the battle in Chunhua, the guard army will definitely be transferred back to Xi'an mansion.

The reason why Hong Chengchou mobilized the guards was because he had no soldiers to send and no one to use.

It can only be that Zhang Sui set up an ambush, so he sent out all the guards to guard the city under a false banner, so that the rogues would not dare to move easily.

To transfer, it should be to transfer Zuo Liangyu to the south. Zuo Liangyu's subordinates are now all elite soldiers with outstanding combat power.

The 800 people under his command are really too few, and Chen Wang feels that he will probably be transferred to Qingyang Mansion to guard Ningzhou.

Because today's Qingyang Mansion is not peaceful, and the threat from the north has not been completely lifted.

Zhenning is the southernmost gateway city of Qingyang Prefecture, while Ningzhou is the second gateway to the south of Qingyang Prefecture.

Now the army led by Li Zicheng was defeated, a few fine cavalry followed Li Zicheng into the Guanzhong Plain, and the other part was captured in Chunhua.

Most of them were intercepted by Zuo Liangyu in Sanshui and sent to Binzhou.

Sanshui and Chunhua are both under the jurisdiction of Binzhou. It is the job of the local officials of Binzhou to resettle the refugees. Their generals only need to lead troops to fight.

After Li Zicheng's nephew Li Guo received the news of the defeat, he led the Jingqi and Ma Jun under his command and fled all the way north without looking back.

Li Guo's subordinates are all cavalry, so naturally they don't have much siege ability.

Ningzhou was besieged several times before, but Ningzhou is a state city after all, the city is well built, and there are many young and strong people in the city.

After all, Qingyang Mansion was close to the border, and the guards were still capable of fighting. Relying on the city walls and the young and strong guards in the city, they managed to barely keep the city.

Moreover, Li Zicheng and Hui Dengxiang were on guard against each other, so they did not attack the city with all their strength, and Ningzhou City was preserved without falling.

But the residents outside the city of Ningzhou and the residents of the surrounding villages and towns basically suffered disasters and were swept into the tide.

After the fall of Zhenning and Sanshui, the two cities are now dilapidated, the people are withered, and the city defenses are almost destroyed, which is not suitable for defense.

In addition to Li Guo who fled to the north, there are also a large group of rogues led by Xiang Huideng to the north.

Li Zicheng and Hui Deng had split their troops before, Li Zicheng went south, and Hui Deng went north.

Prior to this, Hong Chengchou had already ordered Yansui Town to divide its troops to go south to defend Qingyang, and at the same time intercept the route of the rogues going north.

Naturally, Prime Minister Huideng was sensible and did not attack the capital city of Qingyang Mansion, but detoured towards Heshui City in the northeast and marched towards Huachi.

It seems that they want to use the southern part of Yansui Town to march towards Yan'an Mansion.

This strategy seems bold, and it turned out to be an attempt to enter the Yan'an mansion through the defense zone of the Ming army's important town.

But in real combination with reality, this strategy is actually feasible.

Because the more than [-] soldiers led by Yu Chongxiao, the chief soldier of Yansui Town, are guarding the capital of Qingyang Mansion at this time.

Yansui Town is located in northern Shaanxi, where there has been a severe drought year after year, and it is dilapidated. There are many fleeing and disorderly people, and there are many vacancies among the battalions.

Among the thirteen 36 battalions today, most of them are based on the fugitive battalions from Guyuan and Yansui towns.

Zhang Xianzhong is a battalion soldier in Yansui Town, and Li Zicheng and Wang Jiayin are also from the frontier army.

The current Yansui Town is extremely empty, and most of the troops are defending the border.

The more than [-] soldiers led by Yu Chongxiao are actually one-third of the strength of Yansui Town.

In addition, in order to rescue Pingliang Mansion, Hong Chengchou also mobilized some soldiers from Yansui Town to support.

No one knows what Hui Dengxiang thought, but he did grasp the weakest link of the Ming army.

Yu Chongxiao had already left Qingyang Mansion, evacuated back to Yansui Town, and made a detour to block Xiang Huideng's northward route.

I'm afraid that in seven or eight days, the order to move the camp will come.

There is not much time left for Chen Wang to train steadily in Chunhua, but after he arrives in Ningzhou, he should have about a month of stable time.

The wind fluttered, blowing the banners on the general platform, and also the burqas worn by the surrounding armored soldiers.

Chen Wang withdrew his thoughts and raised his eyes to look at the school field.

What came into view were insensitive and lifeless faces.

They lost their homes, they lost their families, they lost everything they had before.

Natural disasters and man-made disasters came one after another, and they struggled hard.

But they were mercilessly submerged by the torrent of the times. They had no strength to resist, and they didn't even have the thought of resisting in their hearts.

Their clothes are ragged, their bodies are thin and frail, and their lives are miserable.

They have no way or the ability to change all of this, they just simply live on, they have already done their best.

There is no murderous look in their eyes, they were just a group of farmers who planed food in the fields all day long.

Live by the sky and live by the earth.

Just like the most humble grass on the ground, it is trampled upon by others.

Their fate is not in their own hands.

Their eyes are full of fear, and many of them have already lost hope for the future.

Their lives, everything about them, and their sufferings are all unknown.

In troubled times...

People are like ants, life is like grass...

(End of this chapter)