Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 25 Continue South
Having a new force of 15 undoubtedly increased the confidence of Zhu Youjian and his followers to go south.

At least during the subsequent southward retreat, they will no longer face various warlords single-handedly.

Although the 15 new force can only be regarded as a temporary army and not a powerful army, it can still serve as a deterrent to the miscellaneous armies of various warlords.

Not only can it act as a deterrent to all warlords, but at least after hearing that Liu Fangliang's troops surrendered to Ming Dynasty, Tian Jianxiu, the Chuangjun Army, did not dare to underestimate the enemy, but stopped at Luoyan, [-] miles away from Bazhou City. town.

Tian Jianxiu's department only had [-] trespassing troops, so naturally he dared not rebel against Zhu Youjian, who could force Liu Fangliang's [-] trespassing troops to surrender.

As a general who was born as a refugee who only focused on immediate interests but had no political foresight.

Tian Jianxiu is now lingering in Luoyan Town on the grounds that the army is short of food and grass, and has been reluctant to attack Baoding for a long time. His purpose is to wait for Zhu Youjian to leave by himself, so that he can enter Baoding again and confess to Li Zi.

Zhu Youjian guessed what Tian Jianxiu was thinking, so he stayed in Baoding City for another five days.

It was precisely because of these five days that the screening of the [-] Chuangjun was completed.

As mentioned earlier, it took three days to screen out [-] invaders and leave [-].

In the remaining two days, Zhu Youjian reorganized the 15 new force.

For the 15 freshmen, it is impossible for Zhu Youjian to let them exist as they are.

He had to disrupt and re-rank all the previously chaotic officers at all levels, so as to achieve orderly command during wartime without the phenomenon that the generals did not know the soldiers, and also to prevent the armies from becoming the private soldiers of the generals.

Therefore, for the remaining [-] Chuangjun, Zhu Youjian did not form an army alone and let Liu Fangliang lead it alone, but first established the three guards.

Then the 15 troops were reorganized into the first guard army, the second guard army, and the third guard army.

Ningwu Bo Zhou Yuji led the first guard army, He Xin, the imperial horse supervisor, led the second guard army, and Liu Fangliang was named the governor of the army, commanding the third guard army.

He Xin's headquarters is the Chinese Army, which is responsible for the security of Zhu Youjian, his concubines in the palace and all officials.

Zhou Yuji's department was in charge of adjourning and monitoring the pursuers behind him; while Liu Fangliang's department was in the vanguard, guiding the way forward.

The reason why Zhou Yuji's troops were postponed was naturally because most of Zhou Yuji's troops were veterans of the First Guards Army, who were powerful, loyal and reliable.

Although most of Liu Fangliang's guards are elite former soldiers with rich experience in actual combat, Zhu Youjian still can't guarantee whether Liu Fangliang will suddenly turn against the water.

After all, Liu Fangliang's department has just joined him now, and now he is not too far away from the Chuangjun's control, so it's better to be careful.

There is not much difference in the number of the three armies, but they are not completely equal. According to different strategic tasks, the ratio of combatants is naturally different.

But the overall gap in personnel is about [-].

But these 15 guards can be regarded as Zhu Youjian's emperor's pro-army, so in order to show his favor, Zhu Youjian raised the ring silver of the guards from a minimum of one tael to a minimum of three taels.

Prior to this, even the strongest soldiers of the frontier army in Ming Dynasty only had 36 taels of ring silver a year, that is, [-] taels a month.

But now even the auxiliary soldiers have a monthly salary of three taels, the main battle infantry Xiangyin has been increased to four taels, and the cavalry has been increased to five taels, which is not unreasonable.

What's more, it is still paid in real amount, because it is fighting with the emperor, so the Ministry of War naturally dare not deduct it.

However, in this way, Zhu Youjian's own financial pressure was a little bit greater, and he had to bear the monthly military expenditure of more than 60 taels of silver.

Fortunately, when he was in the capital, he obtained more than 400 million taels of cash by confiscating the chief assistant Wei Zaode and others, plus the silver taels left by Tongzhou Taicang and the silver left by Li Jiantai, a total of more than 500 million taels, even if he spent a lot on the way and Now the travel expenses have been paid out, but there are still 400 million taels left, which can be supported for six or seven months.

But what should we do in six or seven months, and not only the army spends money, but also a large group of officials and craftsmen like himself, and even logistical supplies, so Zhu Youjian is facing the biggest problem now. The difficulty is still an economic one.

However, he cannot deduct the military salary. In this era, officers and soldiers have no religious beliefs. You only need to give him real money so that he can eat enough, and he can work for you. Zhu Youjian does not have it now. It is time to brainwash 15 officers and soldiers and let them work together for their Zhu family royal family. They can only use money to maintain their loyalty.

After the reorganization work was completed, Zhu Youjian officially left Baoding City and prepared to go south to Cangzhou.

Before that, he left [-] stones of food and grass and [-] officers and soldiers to Zhu Zhaoming, Ni Yuanlu, Wang Chengen, etc. who were in charge of defending the city. Zhou Yuji's wife is naturally easier to direct.

Zhu Zhaoming's own Women's Army did not stay in Baoding City, but was still organized in the He Xin Department of the Second Guard Army, responsible for protecting Zhu Youjian's royal family members.

As soon as Zhu Youjian's army left Baoding City, Tian Jianxiu, the Chuangjun army, immediately occupied Bazhou and approached Baoding.

There is no need to elaborate on how Zhu Zhaoming defended Dingcheng.

Now it is only mentioned that Zhu Youjian has received two pieces of news as soon as he arrived in Cangzhou.

One is that Li Zicheng’s general Liu Zongmin began to torture and search the gentry officials staying in Beijing in order to raise military expenses, forcing them to pay money as military pay. There are countless silver, gold, jade and jewelry.

Regarding this news, Zhu Youjian felt angry and excited at the same time. He was angry that these officials in Beijing were so rich. You must know that the current annual income of Daming's treasury is only 200 million taels. It is conceivable that the entire Daming Kingdom Most of the wealth flowed into whose pockets.

What excited Zhu Youjian was that Li Zicheng finally offended the entire gentry group with this behavior, and thus drove himself to a dead end.

However, this is something that Li Zicheng can't help. The slogan he put forward at the beginning was that the King Chuang would not pay the food. In order to fight for the world, he gave up taking benefits from the people of Li.

The gentry have always been stingy, so if they want to seize the benefits in their mouths, it will naturally require stronger violence than dealing with the common people. Therefore, Li Zicheng's general Liu Zongmin adopted torture, but in this way, he will inevitably push himself. The opposite of the gentry group.

In this way, most of the officials and gentry who wanted to join Li Zicheng and establish a new dynasty began to miss the good old days of their own king.

Zhu Youxiao will not refuse these gentry's willingness to return to Daming's embrace. He will take the money from them in a slightly gentler way, but if any gentry chooses to cooperate with Jiannu, Zhu Youjian feels that It is necessary for him to take thunderous measures. He has zero tolerance for this kind of traitorous behavior.

　It is said in history that Li Zicheng extorted more than 7000 million taels in Beijing. Who knows if it was 800 million taels or 300 million taels, so even if Zhu Youjian went south with 400 million taels, it would still be 7000 million taels. Book friends, don't be too obsessive-compulsive, too textual, you feel uncomfortable when you look at it, and I feel uncomfortable when I write it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)