Liu Chengzong entered Lanzhou and spent three whole days and nights reviewing the issues left over from the Marshal's Mansion since the Northern Expedition. box
After doing this, he had a full sleep. When he woke up again, he sent out messengers in an energetic state to Cao Yao, the governor of Gansu, and Zhang Tianlin, who was stationed in the Zhuanglang River Basin. Contact the Qinling rebel kings - he wants to catch all the Hexi Ming army before next spring.
With Lanzhou as the hub, he obviously felt that the issuance and reporting of orders and intelligence were smoother. This was mainly due to the two express delivery shops established by his father Liu Xiangyu in Hehuang during his northern expedition.
Originally, when Liu Chengzong arrived in Lanzhou, Liu Xiangyu planned to close these two temporary express delivery routes. From the establishment to the present, he has spent more than 4,700 taels in three months, and only delivered six letters in total. The input and output are indeed insufficient. Proportional.
If Liu Chengzong is in Gansu, this is a guarantee for Liu Xiangyu. The urgent delivery route does not need to be used, but if there is any news that can turn the tide of the war, he can deliver it to his second son as soon as possible, even if it is only a letter, no matter how hard he invests, he can It doesn't matter for the most part, it's worth it.
But Liu Shizi was back, and he was in Lanzhou where his own army was gathered. These two express routes were no longer necessary for Liu Xiangyu.
But Liu Chengzong refused to give in, because Liangzhou had not yet surrendered, the territory of the Marshal's Mansion was still missing and was not connected together, and the urgent report from the Gansu Governor's Mansion still had to cross the Qilian Mountains to be sent to Hehuang.
Precisely because of the existence of this high-cost express delivery route, Feng Yu's car camp was stationed at the entrance of Gulang Gorge on the front line of Lanzhou, five hundred miles away from Lanzhou. It would take two days and one night to deliver the letter even if it was urgent. box
Because there are winding mountain roads there, horses can't run, and there are sections of the road that can only be transported by soldiers running alternately; on the contrary, Cao Yao traveled a thousand miles from Ganzhou to Lanzhou, passing through the five Huangfan control The Qilian Mountain Pass can lead directly to Shannan. Through the Hehuang express route, it only takes one day and night to deliver letters to Lanzhou.
Although this thing costs thousands more taels a month, Liu Chengzong thinks it is worth it. At least before Liangzhou surrenders, the express route will continue to operate.
Feng Shuangli led his troops across the Yellow River in panic all day long. After entering Xigu, he met Li Laojiao who was reorganizing his army. He then entered Lanzhou City to meet Liu Chengzong and learned that he was about to go to Uzang as a reserve battalion.
For Feng Shuangli, it didn't matter where he went. Generally speaking, all the generals in Xiying naturally accepted Liu Chengzong's leadership... They used to be Wang Jiayin's army, then became Zhang Xianzhong's army, and now they have become Liu Chengzong's army.
As people go higher, Zhang Xianzhong can give them more wealth than Wang Jiayin, while Liu Chengzong can give them more power than Zhang Xianzhong.
Of course, more important than the power brought by official position is the sense of calm and unhurried security. There is nothing in this world that is more reassuring than the 800,000 acres of grain fields in the Hehuang Valley and the 300,000 stone grain storage in Xining.
If so, there are still millions of acres of irrigated fields in Jin County, Lanzhou. box
On the day Feng Shuangli entered the city, Zhang Xianzhong also knew the news. He was the only person in Xiying who was dissatisfied with the current situation. After all, it was better to have the final say by following others. But Lao Zhang had no choice at the moment. His army had been defeated by Liu Chengzong's military office. Messed up.
There are a total of 6,000 people in the Western Camp, and Liu Shizi has awarded four battalion generals. Feng Shuangli, the Western Brigade Right Camp General, has 1,200 men, 500 of whom were soldiers selected by General Bai Wen in the past. Bai Wenxuan is now the general of Zuoying.
Everyone knows that this is a means for the Marshal's Mansion to divide and disintegrate them, but what's the use of knowing it?
With this organizational structure, even building a Guandi Temple will test the general's communication skills. If a war breaks out, the four battalions of the Western Brigade will definitely be as fierce as tigers if they attack in the form of a thousand headquarters. A joint attack will definitely turn the war into chaos.
But Zhang Xianzhong supported Feng Shuangli's entry into Tibet with both hands, and he would even lift his feet if necessary.
There are two main reasons for this. The first is that Liu Chengzong would not tell him that letting Feng Shuangli enter Tibet was to explore the way for him.
Liu Shizi's argument was that the Fourth Battalion of the Western Brigade was dissatisfied with the troops. The Commander-in-Chief's current armor production capacity was limited and the manpower was insufficient. There was not such a big manpower gap in Hehuang. However, as a newly attached army, the Western Brigade should
Manpower is being replenished one after another. box
Therefore, Feng Shuangli was first sent to lead his army into Kangning Prefecture, and Liu Guoneng, the prefect of Kangning, was ordered to cooperate, replenish troops and train them, and at the same time stationed them in Qamdo as a reserve force after Li Laoji entered Tibet.
Zhang Xianzhong believed that this was Liu Chengzong's recognition of his strategy of Fengyang and Xiangyang, and he was preparing troops for his action.
Otherwise, the Marshal's Mansion now has a large army gathered on both sides of the Yellow River in Lanzhou. Brigade Commander Wang Wenxiu has four battalions under his command: Luo Rucai, Li Wanqing, Yang Chengzu, and Li Laozhen; Lintao Brigade Commander Shi Xiang also has three battalions: Zhongjun Ying, Zhang Yunqi, and Li Zude.
The two Mongolian brigades of Basang and Xie Erhu in Hehuang, not to mention the two camps of Wei Qian'er in Lanzhou and Zhang Tianlin in Huangyangchuan under the command of brigade commander Yang Yao.
Coupled with the Feng Yubu camp at Gulangkou under the direct jurisdiction of Liu Chengzong, and the four small camps of more than 2,000 people in Huben, Gan, Su, and Liang led by Liu Chengzong, in Zhang Xianzhong's eyes, the Marshal's Mansion had no need to expand the army at all.
But Liu Chengzong really wanted to add troops to the Western Brigade, so what else could he be willing to do? His strategic suggestions must have been adopted.
We, Lao Zhang, think Dashuai is quite arrogant. I accepted your suggestion, but I didn’t say anything. box
He didn't feel that Liu Chengzong had lied to him, because the Xining Prefecture moved very quickly. Liu Chengzong sent a letter, and the next day they prepared enough uniforms, quilts, tools, felt tents, livestock, gunpowder, and more for a camp. The vehicles are all ready-made.
While arming the right battalion of the Western Brigade, the Xining Mansion was also replenishing military supplies for the Liangsan Battalion of Gansu Province. Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong was able to see the military equipment that the Marshal's Mansion was preparing to replenish Feng Shuangli's Ministry, which was really unsaid.
The standard Yanling knife is very good at fighting. The soldier's uniform is a cotton coat with leather armor. Although the boots are a bit heavy, they are made of solid materials and are very warm. Officers at all levels are also equipped with cashmere hoods, and the quilts and felts are also used. Fine workmanship.
Only the felt tent and the vehicle were old, but for that matter, I really couldn't complain.
Because the Marshal's Mansion has no military tent industry at all, Liu Chengzong is a rag king. The tents he uses are all picked up, and the Marshal's Army has picked up tens of thousands of military tents over the years, and there is no way to use them all.
Zhang Xianzhong was very satisfied with everything provided by the Marshal's Mansion, but Feng Shuangli's right battalion of the Western Brigade failed to receive armor. The armor produced by the arsenal was rushed to replenish the three battalions of Gansu Liang, and a batch was specially set aside to supply Oirat. Therefore, in the plan, all the new soldiers recruited by Feng Shuangli in Kangning Mansion would serve as musketeers.
Therefore, their equipment only consisted of a waist knife, two hundred lead pellets and gunpowder, and ten sets of match ropes. box
Feng Shuangli came to Lanzhou just to go through the motions, meet Liu Chengzong, review their military camp drills, and read out the military regulations and rewards and punishments of the Marshal's Mansion.
Then they set off for the new city. They went there to recruit thirty-six instructors who were familiar with the Mongolian language. They collected the equipment and drove to Kangning Mansion. They recruited another 2,400 people there, put on military uniforms, and received the weapons made by Kangning. For muskets, just jump right into training.
Everything is arranged.
Feng Shuangli was a little distrustful of the muskets manufactured by Kangning Mansion at first, and still hoped to get the muskets from Xining Mansion, but Liu Chengzong trusted the Arsenal Ordnance Bureau of Kangning Mansion.
Because as early as when Yang Dingrui and Cao Yao worked together in Kangning, they had discussed the tax issue of Kangning Mansion.
At that time, Kangning Prefecture was not yet self-sufficient, so this was barely a plan for a rainy day. Between the two prefectures was a vast and sparsely populated pastoral area and an alpine zone, which brought great resistance to the transportation of materials. The highland barley and dry food collected from Kangning could only be eaten by Kangning. It can't be delivered to Xining Mansion at all.
There is not a lot of local gold and silver output. Although there are rich mineral deposits in the vast land, the difficulty of mining is different. The output of easy mining is generally not large, and the reserves of large reserves are difficult to mine. box
The amount of luck was small, and it was of little significance to Liu Chengzong.
Therefore, for a long time, the taxes of the Corning Mansion were weapons and armor. Later, after the arsenal in Xincheng was divided into workshops and assembly line production, the taxes of the Corning Mansion were directly connected to the work office of the Marshal's Mansion.
My requirement for the master is to forge the gun tube and the armor plates. The armor plates need to be polished and bright. After the gun tube is hammered, there is no need to drill or tap the barrel. It can be transported directly to the Xincheng Arsenal. It can be shipped in one year. Less than two hundred cars.
This bore
It is not drilling holes into solid steel pipes, because in this era, to make a gun tube, you need to use an iron rod to roll the iron material and beat it into a tube, roughly keeping the gun barrel in the middle, and then pull out the iron rod after knocking it out.
But this is just rough machining, and the inside is not smooth and regular enough. It is necessary to further use a drill machine to drill the inside of the barrel smooth. This step of the process usually uses a drill machine. However, in the past, Corning's blacksmith status was low, lathes were not popular enough, and they lacked experience in this area. , the processing speed and yield rate of purely manual processing are relatively low, so I left it to Xincheng.
But Kangning Mansion can also do it.
The same goes for tapping. The barrel of a musket is open from the front and back. In order to clean the unburned debris in the chamber when not in use, the butt is usually not welded, but sealed with a large screw, so a tap and a die are needed. For tapping, Xincheng Arsenal has craftsmen who are specifically responsible for this process. box
Therefore, Kangning Mansion has made great progress in manufacturing muskets in recent years, but some key technologies are lacking, which can fully meet the needs of Feng Shuangli's department to recruit 2,400 troops.
Liu Chengzong gave Li Laoji and Feng Shuangli seven months.
They will arrive at Kangning Mansion at the end of this year. Li Laojie's troops have experience in garrisoning in Kangning, so they should be able to go smoothly; and Feng Shuangli's 1,200 people are on the plateau for the first time and will need some time to adapt. It is a good opportunity to recruit troops. Horses should be trained.
He estimated that the three brothers Huo Luochi from Uzang should be preparing to pay New Year greetings to him at this time, and the envoys coming by then would definitely discuss borrowing troops.
By next spring and summer, the two battalions stationed in Qamdo will be able to advance into Uzang.
There is no doubt that in order for the war to go smoothly in the coming year, Kangning Mansion must now start preparing everything needed for a war. First, it must send businessmen and monks to Uzang to explore more detailed information; secondly, it must prepare what is needed for the war. Various materials were collected to build Corning into a frontline base for attacking Uzang.
These matters must be left to the generals who have the highest appearance in the various battles of the Marshal's Mansion - Prefect Kang Ning and General Liu Guoneng. box
Liu Chengzong felt that this battle was not difficult. After the integration, the Kangning Mansion had enough energy to spread its power to the surrounding areas. However, due to environmental problems, this power could only be sent to Wushidang.
At least the terrain of Kangning is as high as that of the Lhasa Valley. However, the short-distance altitude difference between Luhuo and other places to move troops to Sichuan is too great, and it is impossible to supply the army. Unless Yazhou is occupied by the Marshal's Mansion, it is possible to move troops from Luhuo, Da Arrowforge sent troops to support.
But what he was unsure about was the time span and cost of this battle, so he could only warn Li Laoji carefully.
Li Laojiao had a strong tendency to underestimate the enemy of Uzang's army. Not only him, but actually all the generals of the Southern Expedition, including Liu Chengzong, despised Zangba Khan of Uzang.
After all, what is the Sixteenth Law and the feudal system over there? They all know very well that Huoluo Chibu is showing off the level of Taiji's army. They also know very well that they cannot say that they are vulnerable, but Xie Erhu's well-armed Mongolian brigade Definitely a complete victory.
And since Baiyan has lived well since entering Tibet, it is already obvious what the level of Zangba's army is.
But Liu Chengzong was very worried about this kind of contempt. After all, the victory or defeat of a battle is actually a matter that is very dependent on local conditions and is extremely random. In war, there is no such thing as the weak defeating the strong; but in a single battle, there is a situation where the weak defeats the strong. . box
For him, the Marshal's Mansion's ability to deliver to Uzang was very limited. It wasn't that he couldn't, but that he was unwilling to do so. He could only send two battalions there, and he wouldn't be willing to send more than that.
But his numerous warnings confused Li Laojiao. He found that in the eyes of the Grand Marshal, this expedition was of extraordinary significance, as if it was a territory that must be won.
Li Laojiao felt very disappointed after receiving this mission. He wanted to attack Hexi, Ningxia, Guyuan, Guanzhong, anywhere. It would be a real big battle, and the southern expedition to Uzang... was almost meaningless.
It felt like the general sent him to march a thousand miles westward, into the barren land, to attack the mountain king on the Golmud River.
Suppressing bandits means suppressing bandits. It’s said so solemnly.
After seeing off Li Laojiao, Liu Chengzong looked at the Liangzhou intelligence sent by Cao Yao. It said that Liu Chengzong's old friend Cao Wenzhao was here.
Yongchang beat Wang Ziyong, did not go further, and returned to Liangzhou City.
Liu Chengzong looked at the map again and again, and then found a small mountain road on his way south, but he still didn't understand why Cao Wenzhao appeared there... Did he hate Wang Ziyong so much? box
In any case, Cao Wenzhao stationed in Liangzhou as reinforcements, which greatly boosted the morale of the Liangzhou defenders. However, it also brought more food and grass consumption to Liangzhou City. Soon there will be a war under Liangzhou City. A battle is bound to happen.
The grain sown by the Marshal's Army is taken care of by the Liangzhou Ming Army, and it all depends on who harvests it in the end.
However, at this juncture, Liu Chengzong was scolded.
The person who scolded him was Emperor Chongzhen in the Forbidden City thousands of miles away.
