Although there were no twists and turns along the way, the return trip still took a long time because it was going upstream. It was already December when the fleet arrived at Chongqing Fucheng. Yang Bangxian has never been outside the boundaries of Bozhou since he was a child, and he was very surprised by the scenery along the way. After entering the western Sichuan plain, he saw that there were broad plains along both sides of the river. The plains were crisscrossed by large and small rivers and ditches, and were covered with flat fields. The Boshu area is vast but there is not much cultivated land. Most of it is fragmented fields reclaimed from the hillside, which is really not as fertile as the plains. However, he found that although both sides of the river were green, the fields on the east bank had deep grass and sparse seedlings, and horses and sheep were grazing in the distance, while the fields on the west bank were full of green wheat seedlings, which were growing extremely gratifyingly, and he couldn't help but wonder. Find out. Ouyang Xuan stared at the sheep on the east bank and murmured: "How can I allow the Tatars to sleep soundly next to the couch? One day I will take back the land east of the river."
Now that Ouyang Xuan is married, he is no longer suitable to live with a group of soldiers. Li Shuang had already ordered someone to build a small courtyard for him and his wife in a secluded area of the river island. Considering that they would have children in the future, he built a few more rooms. Ouyang Xuan asked Yang Bangxian to move in together. On the one hand, he was preparing to let him serve as a trainee staff officer in the staff department. Xia Xiaogen has finished his studies and is also an intern at the staff department. The two are similar in age, so they can promote each other. On the other hand, Yang Yan was worried about Bang Xian and felt that living together would give her peace of mind. As for Ran Zhong, Cui'er and others, they live in Chongqingfu City on the other side of the river. On the one hand, the island in the center of the river is small, and since the Perak Army headquarters is located here, there is not much space left. On the other hand, they live in the capital, which makes it convenient for them to handle the affairs of Nanyang Company.
Yang Bangxian's 100-man guard did not stay in Chongqing Mansion, but went to Hengyuan Fort to form a garrison brigade. At present, the garrison brigade only has one guard battalion and one teaching battalion. After returning from Bozhou, upon Ouyang Xuan's suggestion, the Military and Political Joint Meeting decided to add a second teaching battalion. The Second Teaching Battalion has five companies in total, and Bang Xian's guard is the first company. In the next step, trainees sent by the Bozhou Army and various Miao tribes will form the second to fourth companies, and the fifth company will be composed of trainees from Weimao, Diaoyan, Dajianlu and other Tibetan areas.
After Yu Zhu took a thousand elites to Liuqiu Company, the Pili Army quickly replenished the personnel of each brigade according to the establishment. The current strength of Western Sichuan is still 5,500 people. If the Second Battalion of the Teaching Battalion is added, there will be 6,000 people. . Compared with the 300,000 people under the control of the Perak Army, this force may seem small, but in fact it is a very heavy burden. The Perak Army follows the route of elite soldiers. These 6,000 people are all elite soldiers, and the combat support is provided by the basic militia. What's more important is that these troops are equipped with new firearms, which cost a lot of money. According to Li Shuang's calculations, the cost of an infantry company's equipment is equivalent to that of a battalion of second-line troops, while the cost of a heavy artillery company's equipment is five times that of an ordinary infantry company. Of course, these costs are nothing compared to naval brigades. Warships are not expensive, but the artillery loaded on them is extremely expensive.
Ouyang Xuan proposed to form a second teaching battalion, and the Pili Army would be responsible for all equipment, food and clothing expenses. This cost was really not a small amount, but no one had any objections, which actually surprised him. In this regard, Huang Dagen explained that during his stay in Bozhou, small-scale military operations by the Mongolian army were discovered on the north and south lines of the Ancient Tea Horse Road. In the direction of Dajianlu, five hundred Mongolian cavalry broke into the river valley from the grassland, but they were unable to do anything against the stone forts along the way, and their forward was blocked at the foot of Lizhou City. Zelang and Qian Bao sent people to attack again, frequently dropping grenades from high places. Suffering heavy casualties, these Mongolian troops had no choice but to retreat.
In the direction of Weizhou, a group of 100 Mongolian scouts came from the western grasslands. Because they had suffered heavy losses at Widow's Cliff in the direction of Maozhou, this Mongolian army marched extremely cautiously. The Perak Army caravan and Weizhou soldiers who were ambushing here did not succeed in the attack. They only killed more than ten Mongolian soldiers and made the Weizhou soldiers curse in anger. According to the existing agreement, the horses will belong to the Pili Army, and the rest of the captured and prisoners of war will be the spoils of the Weizhou soldiers. Seeing the white money flying away made them extremely angry.
Except for two attempts to sneak attack from the Fan area, the Sichuan Army did not launch major military operations against the Perak Army because the main force was fighting the Jiading Army in the direction of Jingyan. However, they took advantage of the low water supply in autumn and winter to frequently send out rangers to harass. . Although the Jinma River has been washed away by man-made floods and has not been silted up, due to the reduction in incoming water, there are still many sections of the river that can be crossed with water. Although the navy's river patrol boats thwarted dozens of attempts by the Mongolian army to cross the river, because the river was too long and the Mongolian cavalry was highly mobile, several reconnaissance cavalry teams still managed to cross the river. However, these small groups of cavalry were quickly driven back.
The staff's judgment of the current military situation is that because the Perak Army firmly controls the river, the Sichuan Army simply does not dare to cross the river to attack. Since the Mongols often use the mobility of the cavalry to use the "Hanfu" strategy, the Perak Army should pay more attention to attacks from the Tibetan area. To prevent the Mongolian army from invading from Tibetan areas, the most economically feasible way is to support local forces and establish early warning and buffer zones. The staff department saw this problem, and other senior leaders of the joint meeting also naturally saw this problem, so they had no objection to Ouyang Xuan's proposal. In fact, Ouyang Xuan established the Second Teaching Battalion not only for the above military purposes, but also mainly from a political perspective. Most of these soldiers from Miao and Tibetan areas sent for training are grassroots officers or children of aristocratic families, and will become the backbone of the local military and government in the future. After being trained in the training camp and seeing the advancement of the Perak Army, they will naturally become a pro-Pili Army political force.
This is why Ouyang Xuan strongly advocates the training of agricultural technology, medical and educational talents for Tibetan and Miao areas for free. At present, most of these places are engaged in slash-and-burn farming. The people lack medical care and medicine, and very few people are literate. Following the same concept, in order for science and technology to take root in these places and promote the improvement of productivity levels, local seed talents need to be trained. These people also belong to the local elite and have great influence on the local people. Of course, they are worthy of the vigorous training of the Perak Army.
Of course, the Pili Army does not impart technology to everyone, but is selective or hierarchical. Knowledge related to people's livelihood, such as agricultural technology and medicine, can be chosen at will, but technologies such as mining, blast furnace steelmaking, and cement production must be distinguished. For example, Bozhou and the Perak Army are both allies and have a marriage relationship, so they can learn mining, blast furnace steelmaking, and cement production, while other tribes and Tibetan areas can only learn mining and cement production. Machinery manufacturing and the chemical industry cannot be studied for the time being. On the one hand, it requires in-depth observation and evaluation of alliance relationships. On the other hand, these technologies are very complex and require a systematic knowledge reserve. They cannot be applied without industrial foundation. Regarding the firearms manufacturing and related supporting technologies desired by all parties, the Military-Government Joint Conference has clearly decided not to disclose them to outsiders unless they voluntarily join the Perak Army system.
