"Then I will wait for the good news. You can choose some followers. They must be reliable and obedient and will not inform other thieves. Otherwise, you will definitely be in danger!"
Although the traitors begging for surrender are all under Xue Chengcai, it is hard to say whether they will betray him in the face of such a big responsibility. If they are moved by Yao, they may escape halfway, or even directly switch to other traitor armies. ▲-八▲-八▲-Read ▲-Book,.◇.o≧
"The sinner is known, please rest assured, Mr. Shaobao!"
Xue Chengcai also understood that this job was extremely dangerous. He could only choose personal soldiers and subordinates whose families were detained by the army. Otherwise, without the leverage to check and balance them, it would be difficult to control the other party's mind.
In his lifetime, he does not want to be sold by his subordinates. If he really wants to sell, he will sell them by himself. Who dares to show such signs, even if there is only the slightest trace, he must take advantage first and eliminate them quickly.
After some careful consideration, Xue Chengcai finally selected nearly 400 subordinates. They were either those who had followed him for many years and were determined to die, or those who had family members here. The rest could only be temporarily used as hostages in the hands of the army. .
However, Sun Chuanting would not embarrass them. Before the bait caught a big fish, he would not add insult to injury. He would send people to give these family members and soldiers enough meals every day, and he would never let them go hungry.
This "fishing" was not without a time limit. Sun Chuanting gave Xue Chengcai ten days. After the expiration, he would ask his subordinates to send these hostages to the capital. He had no way of knowing how the court would punish them.
In order to save their families, those who surrendered, led by Xue Chengcai, will work hard. So far, the opportunity to get promoted and make a fortune, and the power to save the lives of their family members are still in their hands.
Xue Chengcai also told everything he knew, especially about the leaders who participated in the rebellion and the strength of their respective troops, as well as the division of troops discussed by Luo Rucai and everyone.
Whether this content is useful and whether it is true or false depends on Sun Shaobao's decision, especially whether it is consistent with the intelligence held by the government and the army. Xue Chengcai can only do so for the time being.
"Master Shaobao, is this person really trustworthy?"
After Xue Chengcai took the order and left, Niu Chenghu approached Sun Chuanting and asked in a low voice. He completely distrusted the leader of the bandit who surrendered after revolting, but he had to obey Sun Chuanting's order.
"After Na Luo Rucai and others were defeated in this battle, they will definitely run away desperately. If our army cannot catch up, they will lose the opportunity to fight. When they regroup elsewhere, they will definitely become a serious problem for the imperial court, and our army will march to suppress it again. Instead of that So, why not place a chess piece in its lineup and continuously send information, so that you can grasp its movements. Whether it succeeds or fails, you will know in ten days."
Sun Chuanting also had doubts about whether Xue Chengcai was faking his surrender, but fortunately he still had family members to check and balance him, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince authorized him to act in this way, so he did not need to worry about anyone in the court criticizing him.
If the rogues insist on running away, and a large army of officers and soldiers go to pursue them, they will definitely not be able to catch up with them. If a small group advances instead, they may be ambushed by the bandits, which is not worth the gain.
After all considerations, this method of "inviting thieves into the urn" is actually the safest. Promising the position of chief military officer will allow Xue Chengcai to bring the main force of the thieves into the ambush circle of the official army. It is indeed a good strategy to get twice the result with half the effort.
Sun Chuanting knew that Luo Rucai still had many old troops in Zhushan, Fangxian, Baokang, and Nanzhang. If he tried to confront the army again, he would have to gather them together, so he speculated that this bandit would not quickly withdraw from the Yunxi area yet.
"Best regards, sir!"
Niu Chenghu had never thought about these things, and it was not something he should worry about. After listening to Sun Shaobao's analysis, he suddenly became enlightened. 【≤八【≤八【≤Read【≤书,.▽.o√As long as you obey orders, your troops can win battles repeatedly, and it is easy to achieve military exploits.
"Your artillery regiment performed well in assisting in the battle between the two armies. According to the captured wounded soldiers of the bandit army, you just killed the bandit general 'Yizhangqing' on the spot. Your performance is not bad. I hereby reward you with ten thousand yuan." Two taels of silver, and the artillery regiment will be rewarded with 15,000 taels of silver!"
The former is for Niu Chenghu, and the latter is for the entire mortar regiment. How to divide it up is a matter for Meng He and others.
"Last General, thank you for your humble position, Mr. Shaobao!"
Niu Chenghu and Meng He clasped their fists in gratitude at the same time. This campaign was different from the past. Sun Shaobao had money in his hands. As long as his soldiers fought bravely and obeyed the orders and prohibitions, they would not return empty-handed.
The two people who received the reward were naturally smiling and elated. Niu Chenghu had not made any military exploits, but the mortar regiment was under his command. Now that they were victorious, it was naturally because of his good command, so Shaobao rewarded him.
The reward of fifteen thousand taels of silver was distributed to Meng He, an artillery regiment with more than a thousand people, and the average was only ten taels per person. Meng He would definitely not distribute it equally, and the captains would not be satisfied.
Ordinary soldiers only have five taels, which should be fine by the people below. It is enough to drink and eat meat for ten days. This is the benchmark. The higher the military rank, the more money you will receive. There is nothing wrong with this arrangement.
As long as the soldiers can win the battle and receive money, they don't dare to have any objections to how the superiors divide the bulk. Those who should eat meat should eat meat, and those who should drink soup should drink soup. This is an established rule in this industry.
"Bai Liangbi!"
"The general is here!"
"The previous forced landing on Xue Chengcai was considered a great achievement. In addition to your bravery in fighting and killing the thieves with your life, I will reward you with twenty thousand taels of silver!"
"Thank you so much, Mr. Shaobao!"
Many generals felt that calling him "Dushuai" was a bit awkward, so they called Sun Chuanting "Shaobao". This was also a title granted by His Royal Highness, but both titles could be used within the commander's tent, and there were no hard and fast rules.
Bai Liangbi was overjoyed when he heard this. Ever since he followed his father on the battlefield, he had never received so much silver from the court at one time. This time he was considered to have good fortune.
Sun Chuanting rewarded Bai Guangen with another 20,000 taels of silver, so that the two men together had as much as 40,000 taels. This was also considering that the Bai family and his son had too many people under their control. If the reward was less, it would not be enough.
Eight general military officers including He Renlong, Li Guoqi, Zuo Guangxian, and Zheng Jiadong on the left wing and Li Shourong, Sun Xianzu, Xue Minzhong, and Zu Dabi on the right wing all received 11,000 to 20,000 taels of silver. award.
The specifics depend on the number of troops under the jurisdiction of each general. One soldier is worth four taels of silver, including the cost of dispatching troops and the cost of killing thieves. If he has 3,000 soldiers and horses under his jurisdiction, he can receive 12,000 taels of silver after the war.
A certain prince ordered that the number of thieves be used as a reward standard. This could reduce the chance of the officers and soldiers killing good men and taking credit for their merits. However, this method of reward cannot be completely cut off, otherwise it will easily dampen the enthusiasm of the general officers of the army to carry out the campaign. .
On the surface, Sun Chuanting could not say in public that the more he killed, the greater the reward would be. But when rewarding subordinates, they should actually work according to this standard. As long as they restrain the subordinates and prevent them from killing people easily.
It may not be possible to completely avoid it, but Sun Chuanting alone has the final say on when to take action and the size of the reward. Even if a general leads someone to kill someone and take credit for it, and Sun Chuanting doesn't nod, he won't get any money.
To receive the silver, Sun Chuanting's warrant, which was a handwritten letter, was required. The general receiving the reward could receive a huge reward by showing it to the officer in charge of escorting the rear.
This time, the four general soldiers on the right wing received nearly 48,000 taels of silver. The four general soldiers on the left wing were all Sun Chuanting's old troops and had more troops, receiving more than 60,000 taels of silver.
In addition to the portion received by Bai Guangen and Niu Chenghu, Sun Chuanting rewarded more than 170,000 taels of silver in terms of silver reward alone.
This is also caused by the great victory, which is reasonable.
In the previous formation battle, they first killed and wounded about 2,000 people with artillery fire, and then formed a formation to resist the enemy's cavalry charge, killing and wounding nearly 4,000 more people. Then they shelled the rebel troops fleeing from the north again, and then killed the infantry. It was temporarily estimated that 8,000 enemies were wiped out.
A total of about 14,000 to 5,000 enemies were annihilated. The corpses were all placed on the battlefield. The two armies were facing each other. There would be no killing of good people and taking credit. Before sunset, the statistics could be determined.
After calculation, one bandit soldier cost about ten taels of silver. However, for the imperial court, if it could spend money to buy the lives of the bandit soldiers, it would be able to completely cure the banditry that had plagued the Ming Dynasty for many years by spending two million taels at a time. .
But it cannot be calculated like this. Only rewards can be used to motivate officers and soldiers to bravely kill the thieves, so that this long-planned rebellion can be quelled as soon as possible. At least Sun Chuanting believes that this method is feasible and is within the scope of his ability to bear. .
He currently has 900,000 taels of silver in his hand, of which 300,000 taels were brought from the capital and 600,000 taels were taken out of King Fu's pocket in Luoyang.
According to conventional calculations, it can probably support the army for more than four months. If you save some money, it can reach about half a year.
However, if there is another great victory in which a similar number of enemies are wiped out, Sun Chuanting will not be stingy with the reward. The rebel army that has suffered heavy losses may no longer be able to compete with the official army.
According to Xue Chengcai's confession, the total number of rebel troops stationed here before did not exceed 50,000. In this battle, 15,000 were directly defeated by his troops, and at most 35,000 were left.
There are still about 10,000 people in the south, and the two items add up to 45,000. This is the total number of thieves Sun Chuanting has to deal with.
Since there were still many remaining rebels, Sun Chuanting had to deal with Luo Rucai and others who might be able to recover first.
The Luo bandits' troops threw off the pursuit of the government troops, and after joining the tens of thousands of bandit soldiers from the south, their strength was only about fifteen thousand.
There is no chance of winning against more than 30,000 officers and soldiers, unless they adopt the same tactics as our own and plan to ambush the opponent.
With the help of mortars, Sun Chuanting was no longer afraid of the rebels. If the rebels dared to make another mistake, it would be their doom.
The only worry is that they will fall into the trap of the rebels. When chasing in the mountains, they will be ambushed by the rebels. The official army may be defeated.
Therefore, before the rebels ambush the official army, Sun Chuanting asked Xue Chengcai to mislead the enemy, hoping to ambush the rebels first.
Sun Chuanting's goal was to annihilate the entire army of Luo Rucai and others. Even if he could not annihilate many of the bandit leaders, he would still severely damage them.
Only when the victory is at least ten thousand people can the intensifying rebellion momentum be fundamentally curbed, otherwise the hope of the success of the invasion and suppression plan by the end of the year will be extremely slim.
"Instruct the whole army to repair on the spot, bury the pots and make rice, then rest, and break camp and march after sunset!"
In order to catch Luo Rucai, Sun Chuanting decided not to let the army follow and pursue him for the time being, and only sent a small group of light cavalry to maintain contact with Xue Chengcai.
After the pursuit and fighting in the morning, both the horsemen and the infantry were tired from running. After the bright sun was shining, everyone was covered in sweat, and it was not appropriate to march further.
In order to restore the physical strength of his soldiers and horses, Sun Chuanting decided to rest during the day and march at night. This way he could avoid the scorching sun and wait until the night was cooler, so he could spend the same time walking a longer distance.
The subordinates were naturally very happy after receiving the order. After the battle, the soldiers were in urgent need of rest. Even if they did not carry swords to kill people, they would run for several miles with their helmets on to chase down the thieves, which would make them half dead from exhaustion. .
There were so many recently dead horses on the battlefield, which could be used as a meal, which was much better than eating wild vegetables and rice. There were also fish to be caught when camping near the Han River, so the officers and soldiers had nothing to do so they went fishing together.
Since it was difficult to obtain sufficient supplies from the court for a long time, the Qin army also brought fishing nets with them when fighting.
There is nothing to be ashamed of. The rebel army needs to be self-sufficient these days, and the same goes for the official army. When the officers and soldiers passed by the place where the bandits looted, the gentry's families were destitute. They didn't even have a place to rob. If they didn't fish, they could only eat wild vegetables...
For Sun Shaobao, this kind of thing is already commonplace. As long as it does not disturb the people, the soldiers can do whatever they want in order to fill their stomachs. Only when they are full can they have the strength to kill the enemy on the road.
After retaking Yun County, Sun Chuanting returned to the city to check. Due to the hasty retreat of the rebel army, there was no time to massacre the city, and most of the people in the city were not dead yet.
After the bandits captured the city, some people suggested massacring all the people here to boost the army's prestige, but Luo Rucai did not agree because he did not intend to fight and run away.
He would also lead many leaders to fight Sun Chuanting, and he would need to stay here for a while. If the city was massacred, plague would inevitably develop on the corpses under the high temperature.
By then, they would have been defeated by the epidemic before they could engage in battle with the official army. It was tantamount to setting themselves up for harm, so the rebel army did not massacre the people in the city.
However, Dai Dongmin, the governor of Yunyang, had been killed by the rebels a few days ago. He was killed and then beheaded by the owl. His head was hung on a high pole at the top of the city.
When Sun Chuanting felt sorry for his colleague who would rather die than surrender, he had no choice but to order Dai Dongmin's bones to be buried in a thick burial, and then ordered the remaining officials in the city to collect the other corpses and bury them at a distance immediately to avoid the plague.
Fortunately, His Highness the Crown Prince knew about the rebellion in advance, otherwise the rebel army would have quickly gained momentum in the Huguang area. When the tail was too big to fall, the official army would come again to suppress it. I don't know what year or month it would take to annihilate it.
Sun Chuanting didn't know what the situation was like in Gucheng, but this place was formerly Zhang Ni's defense area. If Hong Chengchou could not lead his troops to arrive in time, Zhang Ni's rebellion would inevitably spread to surrounding areas.
Xue Chengcai said that they had received news of Zhang Ni's rebellion, but Zhang Ni later did not come to join Luo Rucai and others as agreed in advance, indicating that the situation had changed.
Regarding these matters, Sun Chuanting has not yet received the information sent by the government and troops, and cannot judge whether it is true or false. The only thing that can be determined is that Zhang Ni's troops did not go north to go here.
In reverse speculation, if Zhang Ni comes, Hong Chengchou will also follow him, and will notify him in advance to lead his troops to attack him in a pincer attack.
Now there is no letter from Hong Chengchou, and no trace of Zhang Ni's soldiers has been found by the scouts. This indirectly proves that Zhang Ni has not come, and he can lead his troops to hunt down Luo Rucai and others.
What worried Sun Chuanting was that the remaining troops led by Luo Rucai and others were all horse pawns, and they were traveling much faster than his own infantry army. Such pursuit would only lead to falling further and further behind.
Unless Luo Rucai really goes south to gather his old troops as he speculated, it will be difficult for the army to catch up with and kill the thief. With thousands of horsemen chasing him, the chance of winning is really slim.
Sun Chuanting is only less than 50% sure that Xue Chengcai successfully deceived Luo Thief. The success of this plan mostly depends on luck... 11... Friends who read books, you can search "Blue Chinese Network" to get the first time Found this site.
