In mid-September, there was a light rain in Xining, and then the temperature dropped sharply.
Liu Chengzong was sitting cross-legged on a tiger skin, wearing an khaki military uniform made in northern Shaanxi, but the coolness still kept rising from the ground.
It got cold here earlier than he thought, and probably much colder.
The guard removed the curtain and hung up a piece of felt. His cheeks were red from the cold. He rubbed his hands and came in to sit cross-legged. He warmed himself by the fire and said, "Brother, it's only September. The grass is covered with frost in the morning. It's much colder than at home." .”
Liu Chengzong put down the list of thousands of generals reported by the three generals, nodded to Chengyun and said: "Yes, the mountains and highlands are cold. We must reorganize quickly and go west to Juerwan to build a nest. If it is half a month later, the ground will be It’s time to freeze.”
Ju'erwan is ninety miles west of Xining City and is the westernmost end of the area under the jurisdiction of Xining Guard. If you go further west, you will enter the nominal Xihai Tumut.
"Brother, have you thought about it? It's in Juerwan?" Chengyun asked, then nodded and said: "Then let's change the defense. Let the elder brother replace the soldiers from the hundred households in Juerwan. I'll take advantage of the fact that there are many people in the camp. , first send someone to transport a batch of grain to the hundred households in Juerwan."
Now after reorganization, Liu Chengzong has six battalions, namely the central military battalion of the headquarters, the garrison battalion in Xining, three infantry and cavalry artillery training battalions, and the transport battalion.
The three training camps are all selecting soldiers. The soldiers who have not been selected yet will be classified into the baggage battalion under Cheng Yu, and the craftsmen who have become my division have also been incorporated into the baggage battalion, so Cheng Yu currently has the largest number of troops under his command.
Liu Chengzong's reorganization of the troops stemmed from the fact that the past camp and sentry system could no longer meet today's needs. The camp and sentry system was capable of fighting, easy to mobilize, and easy to maneuver.
But lacking the ability to garrison troops, train new recruits, or even improve conditions, they can only fly like a bird without legs, flying until it dies.
Everyone has developed excellent marching abilities, but the knowledge taught by literati during the march is extremely limited, the officers do not have much time to teach tactics and train soldiers, and the craftsmen do not have the opportunity to produce ordnance in batches.
Everything can only be done by grabbing and fighting until there is nothing left to rob. Either it will destroy itself from the inside with extremely strong military capabilities, or it will be defeated by the enemy in a self-collapse.
In other words they are a knife but only a knife.
War requires not just a knife, but a huge and sophisticated machine.
"It's Juerwan. In fact, Beichuan is also good, but you said that going west from Beichuan requires a ninety-mile detour and climbs two mountains."
Cheng Yu nodded and said: "Yes, within a limit of one hundred miles, a person driving a donkey cart on foot can transport 900 catties in two days, consuming 30 catties of dry materials and four catties of grain; six people pushing a wheelbarrow can transport 900 catties in two days. It consumes thirty kilograms of grain; it is inconvenient to carry a large animal cart in the northwest mountains."
"So we have to go to Juerwan. There is a lot of fodder here. It is very suitable to buy and eat in Xining. Food is real money and it affects how far we can push westward."
As he spoke, Liu Chengzong pulled up the map, pointed at Juerwan and drew a circle: "When we station in Juerwan, we can control a radius of one hundred miles. We can support Xining in time to the east, advance to Haibei to the west, and have the desert to the south. You can search for saltpeter and soil, explore the mountains to the north for minerals, and you can also find out what’s going on in the west, so you can fight against the enemy with food.”
Chengyun raised his eyebrows: "Brother, are you going to fight that Dai Qing?"
"Ha, eating against the enemy is not just about robbery. Judging from the news sent back by Chen Qindai, all the Qinghai tribes, whether Dazi or Fanzi, are not monolithic. If we attack one of them rashly, if we cannot surrender in a short time, we will Instead, it will encourage them to unite.”
Judging from the current intelligence, the Lion Army may not be the force with the largest number of troops mobilized in Qinghai, but the quality of their soldiers may be the highest in Qinghai currently.
Liu Chengzong raised his two fingers and tapped on the map: "Divide them, win over the weak, and cannibalize the strong. Don't start a war unless it is absolutely necessary. Once the war starts, some people will be completely wiped out from Qinghai."
He said: "Being harmless to humans and animals has the advantage of being harmless to humans and animals. It is frightening and has frightening effects. War fighting here is different from that in the mainland. A war is likely to be a loss. You have to be careful with your calculations."
Food is the most critical factor that restrains their behavior. Even though they robbed the Han Palace from the east and obtained a lot of food, according to his army alone, the monthly consumption of 6,000 to 10,000 dan was enough for three years.
But this is just a human being. One large animal consumes as much food as eight people. During a war, it is difficult for a soldier's mount to graze. The daily food consumption will increase with the distance of the expedition to an unbearable level.
Chengyun nodded in agreement with his second brother's views on military rations, and then Liu Chengzong asked, "What brings you here?"
"Three things, one is to ask where to camp, the underground barracks should be designed; the second is the craftsmen, I have designated mine, I have not brought any craftsmen, and I want to ask how I plan to let the craftsmen do things later, the craftsmen are all Where is the arrangement?"
Chengyun waited for a while and saw that Liu Chengzong had the same idea before continuing: "The third thing is to determine the rations for the troops. Now that the garrison has camps, brother, do you think each battalion will come to receive rations every month, or will I give it to each camp? If the battalion provides rations, how much rations should the officers and sergeants at all levels receive each month?”
Liu Chengzong nodded and said with a smile: "They are all big things."
It has been decided that the camp will be located in Kulwan, but how to design the camp still needs to be investigated on the spot.
Liu Chengzong said: "Tell Dai Daozi and ask him to lead a hundred cavalry and painters to Juerwan to explore the situation there and find a suitable place to set up camp."
"The three training camps are not too far apart but not too close. To herd horses, the distance should not be more than twenty miles. The Chinese army camp and the baggage camp should be between them. The baggage camp should be closer to the river bank to facilitate the craftsmen to repair the ordnance bureau. "
Chengyun nodded: "Then the craftsmen will be incorporated into the Ordnance Bureau. What if there are local people? Local people and civilians."
"Isn't it a good thing to have people?"
Liu Chengzong smiled and said: "Ask Dai Daozi not to fight with them, and there is no need to say more. Ask Daozi if he has paid Timba, and if he has paid grain and horses to any chieftain in Xiningwei. He will come back after doing his job. .”
"Let's wait until the army pulls us over, and others will naturally talk to each other. Those who pay Timba to Dazi will not need to pay in the future; those who pay grain and horses to the court will not need to pay in the future."
Liu Chengzong said: "It doesn't matter whether you are a master or a native or a native. To me, they are all civilians. When the time comes, we will gather all the local officials in the army together and compile a set of laws and a set of tax laws. Let’s create a preferential and exemption regulation for military officers to exempt several people from having to pay for food.”
Chengyun smiled bitterly upon hearing this: "It's quite difficult."
His reaction was expected for Liu Chengzong. Most people were like him. They knew it would be cold in Xining, but they didn't expect it to get cold so early. They knew there would be chaos here, but they didn't expect it would be so chaotic due to the mixed forces from all sides.
Everyone knows that it is difficult to establish political power, but no one knows how difficult it is to establish political power in this chaotic place.
"Of course it's difficult. That's why I pulled the team into Qinghai."
He stretched out his hand and looked at his younger brother and said: "It is very simple for us to rob Wangzhuang, the big landowners, and defeat the government troops. It was difficult to gain territory in the past. To gain territory is to trap yourself. We have to face more than just war." It’s over.”
"Now we are in a corner. We need soldiers and food. On the surface, we have surrendered to the court. We have made peace with the situation. Now that we can hold the territory we have established, the more difficult question arises... What is Territory is the basis for development.”
"We have factories, pastures, villages and towns, people and businesses. With front and rear, we have time, distance and depth. The most important thing is the team."
Liu Chengzong looked at Chengyun confused and said with a smile: "You said that the people are just outsiders. They don't believe it. That's because we ourselves are not safe. Why should the people believe that we can bring them safety?"
Chengyun was so sympathetic to this sentence that he nodded and said: "Yes, people want land, money and food, and resist taxes in order to live. In the past, we gave them land, money and food, and helped them resist taxes, but we couldn't let them live. Help We are putting the cart before the horse.”
After saying that, Cheng Yun said with a joyful expression on his face: "Today is different from the past. We are safe and the people are no longer just outsiders. We are competing for the world. The world belongs to people. If we are better than Ming Dynasty, we will definitely win!"
Unexpectedly, Liu Chengzong shook his head: "You can't say that."
"Just like the native people of Juerwan, if they had been paying grain to the imperial court, we would not allow them to pay grain to the imperial court. As far as the imperial court was concerned, they would be just helpless people. Why is that?"
Chengyun felt that this problem was obvious, and he spread his hands and said: "We are close, but the imperial court is far away. It's the same as what Brother Shizi said just now. The imperial court cannot protect them, but we can make them unsafe."
Liu Chengzong said with a smile on his face, "But are we the ones closest to them?"
Cheng Yun looked puzzled at first, but then suddenly realized, he nodded solemnly and said: "I understand, do you want to take action on those tribal leaders?"
"Can't open the knife."
Liu Chengzong spoke very decisively. He raised his hand and pointed first to the east, then to the south, and then to the west: "The bureaucratic landlords in Han, the chieftains in Xining, and the tribal leaders and nobles are all the same."
"We can use a simple word to summarize thousands of people like them, but when it comes to individuals, they are both good and bad. They just have the same identity. The direct personal difference may be as big as that between me and Bai Yingzi. never mind……"
In the middle of his words, Liu Chengzong suddenly remembered that the fight against Bai Yingzi happened when they returned home from Yuhe Fort: "You don't know Bai Yingzi. To put it simply, the chieftains in Xining, if Luo Rucai is allowed to come, maybe all the chieftains in Xining will be here." If they were killed, if I were old enough, I might cooperate with them."
Cheng Yun curled his lips and said: "If you can't cooperate, even if Chen Shiwen seems to be a very good person, sitting in the chieftain's seat can only torment the people, give people wages and then use cheating to win back. Is this what humans do?"
"I think pretty much the same as you do on this point."
Liu Chengzong chuckled: "In fact, our family has some crooked ways, but we don't need to rebel. We want to uphold the order of the world and fight with the imperial court to the end to seize the world; we do not rebel to seize the world."
"If it's the latter, I can exploit the people more harshly than they do. After all, the person who returns the artifact may not be virtuous. He who has strong soldiers and horses is the emperor."
"But in order to solve the problem of the world, we must make some progress. It is our responsibility to eliminate the landlords, chieftains and nobles."
After saying that, Liu Chengzong quickly raised his hand and emphasized to his younger brother: "Chengyun, what I am talking about is the elimination of this class, not the elimination of people with this identity. It is not necessarily their fault that they are born like this, but these identities hinder the development of history." .”
Chengyun didn't quite understand what he meant, but he probably understood what he meant. For some reason, his eyes lit up when he heard the word "history" and he felt that what his second brother said made sense and was so powerful.
At the same time, I also feel that I have been given a very important historical mission by my second brother.
But then Liu Chengzong changed the subject: "But at present, we cannot eliminate the chieftains yet. We can only adopt a cooperative approach to win over some groups and suppress others."
Chengyun glared and asked, "Why?"
"Because there is no talent."
Liu Chengzong was very helpless. He said: "There are 100,000 native people in the Hehuang area. If our power is large enough, we can capture the West Sea, Huanhu and Haibei, and occupy the Hehuang Valley. We can eliminate the chieftains, but who will eliminate the chieftains?" Manage the people?"
"Take back the land of the landlords, equalize the land and exempt them from taxes. Who will directly manage the people? Ten thousand troops are dispersed to local areas, and one person manages ten people. They become the new aristocracy. Is this our original intention?"
"We need to have a professional team. Everyone is like you, who can go among the people and know what the people want. We have commanders in the army. A qualified commander can know the fate of fifty soldiers. Life is hard, and the unhealthy tendencies within the team should be corrected, and so should the people."
Liu Shizi said, spreading his hands and saying: "Otherwise, if we eliminate these classes but cannot penetrate deeply into the people, the positions lost by the people will soon be occupied by powerful villains and scoundrels. They are the real weeds on the wall. "
Chengyun deeply agreed with these words and felt that he still thought too simply, but then his face was full of sorrow: "Brother, I thought you were trying to relieve me by chatting with me, but why do I feel...this matter is even more difficult, It takes 2,000 people to manage 100,000 people. Where can we choose people? How much expense will it cost to maintain them?"
"The expenditure is not small, but the results are very great. If one hundred thousand people can pay taxes of one hundred thousand a year, and spend twenty thousand to support two thousand people to do this work, it is very worthwhile. Do you know what it means? We will be the first in history People who can completely mobilize the people since then."
Speaking of this, Liu Chengzong's expression suddenly became very serious, even with regret: "I asked Sunday Qiang a question. I asked him, after the Ming Dynasty dies, do you know where we stand in history."
"I will surrender him then," he replied. He may be in the position of a criminal in history.
Liu Chengzong looked disgusted when he said this, and then asked: "Do you know Chengyun?"
Chengyun thought for a while and shook his head: "I don't know."
"With the Ming Dynasty's righteousness of the country and strong control over local areas, it is difficult to have the situation of warlords fighting in the feudal and separatist regimes in the late Tang and Yuan Dynasties. If we lose, there will be a smell everywhere, and history will leave us The location will be behind Huangchao."
"Impossible!" Chengyun shook his head decisively: "We are much better than Huang Chao! We don't smash people to pieces and eat them."
Liu Chengzong, on the other hand, took this very lightly and spread his hands and said: "We are also fighting on the move. You know how to deal with the dead horses. You can bleed them, cut them, smoke them and dry them, so that they can be stored longer."
"My craftsmen didn't even have time to stop and cast door cannons. How could Huang Chao make hundreds of stone mortars that can damage people? If he had the time, he would have built a few cannons to kill the Jiedushi."
"So if we lose and die, how can we be cleaner than him?"
"But think about it." He laughed mockingly, and then said seriously: "If we win and take a step forward, who are we?"
Liu Chengzong looked at Chengyun and nodded slightly, the skin on his face was numb: "The two dynasties before and after raised armies because of treason against the people, there was no great division and melee, just like the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties, the powerful Central Plains Empire that lasted for six hundred years!"
