Ming Empire

Chapter 214 Preparing for the Northern Expedition
When Cao Yue left Datong and returned to Beijing to resume his duties and was about to marry Auntie Zhu, he asked Constin's few down-and-out European nobles to return to Europa to recruit young adults who were willing to come to the East to make a living as mercenaries.

Although the [-] mercenaries led by Constant were outstanding in combat power, they were small in number and did not play a huge role in several wars.Constin was very annoyed by this, and he even offered to reduce the remuneration.However, Cao Yue discovered the value of Western mercenaries in his contacts with Constantine and other foreigners, and he came up with the idea of ​​further expanding the scale of mercenaries.After discussing with Constantine several times, he finally made a decision to recruit more mercenaries to form a powerful foreign army for his own use.

Constin's many people with certain backgrounds followed Cao Yue's order to go to Europe to recruit more people who wanted to sacrifice their lives for wealth to fight for Ming Dynasty.

Years later, these people finally returned. To Cao Yue's surprise, more than [-] Westerners came to the east through the instigation of Constantine's men, wanting to join Daming's foreign mercenaries.Cao Yue was of course overjoyed to see so many new troops all of a sudden, he did not refuse to let these foreigners join the army under his control, almost all accepted them.

Cao Yue asked Constin to be responsible for the daily management and training of these people. He did not intervene in the management and training inside, but he made a request to Constin that these people must be managed well, and there must be no mistakes.After the training is completed, they will be divided into battalions and deployed to each army.As long as these people obey the management and dispatch, he will give them high salaries and generous rewards.

During his long contact with Cao Yue, Konstantin was full of admiration for this young high-ranking official of Ming Dynasty. He felt that following Cao Yue could achieve great success and make every soldier earn a lot of money.Cao Yue is a man of integrity, and he is a man of great success. For those of them who are desperate in Europe, they can get a decent status in the East, a good income, and meet a very honest and promising employer. , they have been very satisfied.He also patted his chest and assured Cao Yue that he would manage the [-] newly recruited Europeans well, train them into good soldiers, and fight for Ming Dynasty.

Cao Yue assured Konstantin in front of everyone that as long as they fought bloody for Daming, he would give the mercenaries the highest treatment.

Cao Yue not only sent people to recruit more mercenaries,

Tang Ruowang, Li Leisi, Ai Juliu, Wei Kuanguo, Nan Huairen, Luo Yagu, Bi Fangji, Pan Guoguang, etc. were already in China, or those who admired the Chinese language and wanted to visit the East were all recruited by Cao Yue.After these people came to Nanjing, Cao Yue gave them generous treatment and wanted them to be used by Ming Dynasty and contribute what they had learned to China.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, although the development of science and technology and productivity in China did not lag far behind Europe, in many aspects, especially in military industry, the West had already surpassed China.Teachers use their strengths to control barbarians. Cao Yue, a time traveler from later generations, understands the importance of learning from each other's strengths.He hoped that with the efforts of these Chinese scientists he had recruited, Daming's firearms manufacturing would develop by leaps and bounds. He also hoped that with the help of relatively advanced European science and technology, Daming's technological level would be greatly improved, especially in terms of military manufacturing.

Cao Yue hopes to manufacture more advanced, more useful, and more powerful weapons such as artillery, muskets, and explosives in the shortest time, and is far ahead of the bandits and slaves in terms of weapons and equipment.

Strict training of the army can greatly improve the overall quality of an army. If equipped with advanced weapons, the combat effectiveness of this army will be further improved, and it can gain an overwhelming advantage in the confrontation with rogues and slaves.Cao Yue didn't want to pay attention to benevolence and righteousness with his enemies. He just hoped to use advanced weapons to massacre the enemies and obtain the greatest victory at the smallest cost.

If he can defeat him with guns and artillery, he will never use bows and arrows. There is no need for equality in war, as long as he wins.

Cao Yue handed over most of the court affairs to Sun Chuanting and other officials, and he didn't interfere too much, but he didn't allow others to interfere too much in military affairs, even Sun Chuanting did the same.He believes that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and as long as he controls the army, he will be the most influential person in the world.A literati rebellion will not succeed in ten years, and a literati without a gun in his hand will not be able to make any big tricks no matter how hard they toss, as long as he has the military power of Ming Dynasty in his hands.

Years later, Cao Yue also carried out a major military reform. He announced the order to form a new army of Ming guards by order of the governor.

Based on the Nanjing New Army, ten guard divisions were formed, each of which governed three battalions of combat troops and one battalion of auxiliary arms. million people.These 5000 people, including those recruited before and after, as well as good sergeants in all aspects left behind by Liu Zeqing, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, and Gao Jie from the four Jiangbei towns after the reorganization.All the reorganized troops were mixed into the South New Army, and were divided into various guard divisions in this military reform.

All the chief officers and generals of the Guards Division were appointed by him personally, and the important deputy positions were also selected by him personally.Some people who were not originally his cronies, as long as they have a reputation in history, Cao Yue will give them the opportunity to take up important positions in the new army, and slowly cultivate and transform them.

Cao Yue's military thinking is very different from other generals. He has led the Ming army to change the way of fighting with hot weapons, and cold weapons such as bows and arrows have been placed in the general position.The first to fifth guard divisions are all based on the musketeer battalion.Two musket battalions plus a cavalry battalion, auxiliary arms include artillery, pikemen and other auxiliary personnel.The Sixth to Tenth Guards Divisions could only be equipped with one musket battalion because the production of muskets could not meet the needs of the military. There was no artillery, and the others were archers, pikemen and cavalry.

The muskets equipped by the ten Guards divisions were produced by all the musket workshops and Nanjing arsenals in Nanjing during this period of overtime, and Cao Yue obtained them through outsourcing.This also includes many old-fashioned firecrackers.There is no way, the lack of production capacity hinders the army's re-equipment, Cao Yue has more than enough energy, and there is no way to re-equip the entire 20 troops with muskets and artillery.

The issue of money and silver was also bothering Cao Yue. Although Gao Hongtu, the Minister of the Household Department, had to obey him for various reasons and worked very hard to solve many major problems for Cao Yue, but the lack of court income, Let him have the confusion that a clever woman can't cook without rice.Fortunately, the Cao family's industry has a certain scale. The Cao family's business in Nanjing can provide a lot of money every year, and also leads some industrial trades related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and the manufacture of firearms and muskets is Cao Yue himself. Fully mastered, everything can barely support it.

Cao Yue is also trying to find a way to let the Cao family unite with those famous business giants in the south of the Yangtze River to expand their business together, and strive to make the Cao family a national-level business giant and bring him more wealth.

In order to boost morale, improve his prestige, and gain further control over the military and political power, Cao Yue was also intensively preparing for the Northern Expedition while reforming the military system.To boost the morale of the soldiers and civilians in the south, improve their prestige in the ruling and opposition parties, and personally lead the new army of the Ming Dynasty Guards to fight a few victories, that is a must!
(End of this chapter)