A mere five hundred people were able to overcome the momentum of thousands of people, which greatly surprised Chongzhen. If the soldiers and horses in the North were like this, they would no longer have to fear the Donglu cavalry entering the pass to plunder.
However, Chongzhen then thought again. These soldiers in front of him had become so strong after three months of training. How could the way to become an elite soldier be so simple? Just get some facilities and walk in some queues, can it be done in one go?
With this traitor’s scheming attitude, he must be hiding something secret from himself!
Determination is correct!
It must be so and so!
Otherwise, if this traitor comes back from the fairy world, implements the military strategies he has learned, and trains a hundred thousand elite soldiers, he will be able to keep pace with Qi Shaobao back then.
"How much silver do you need per year to train like this?"
If it was cheaper, Chongzhen would also want Huang Degong to copy it. In his eyes, those who can march in a row are undoubtedly elite.
"Reporting to my father, in the first year due to the need to purchase weapons, ammunition, armor, and other combat items, a lot of money was spent. Each soldier required about one hundred and twenty taels of silver. In the next two years, the cost will decrease, and it will cost seventy taels per year. About two hundred and sixty taels of silver in three years."
Training the 30,000 men of the East Palace Guard would cost nearly eight million taels of silver in three years, not counting the related investment in purchasing a large number of airships and tanks.
The navy is a swallowing monster, and so are the elites of the army. All equipment must be of high quality and sufficient in quantity. Otherwise, the main force will definitely be immovable with only superficial weapons and punches and kicks.
"...It's actually so high? Seven to eight million taels of silver is enough to support other tribes that are twice that number!"
Chongzhen believed that such training was too expensive. It was still unclear whether these soldiers and horses could play the expected role when sent to the battlefield. If they were also beaten by Donglu and lost their armor, it would seem to be too much. .
"What my father said makes sense, but the main force of the King's Division is now in the south to suppress the rogue bandits. When they return in triumph one day, they will participate in the Northern Expedition. At present, there have been severe droughts in the north for many years, and the crops have not been harvested. We only rely on the support from the south. If you are a minister There are too many new troops here, and I’m afraid that within three years, we won’t even be able to get enough food for the Northern Expedition!”
The East Palace Guards here in the capital have 30,000 troops, and the Sixth Brigade training in the Yulin area of Shaanxi Province also has about 30,000 troops. These are the troops prepared for Zuo Maodi and Sun Chuanting.
Once Lao Suntou loses his troops in the Huguang area, this new army will march from northern Shaanxi to Huguang to fight.
Optimistically speaking, even if Sun Chuanting can win many battles and there is no need for reserve troops for the time being, the new army will still be handed over to the governor of Shaanxi, Zuo Maodi, to command, so that he can go to Ginsu to exterminate those who are like Wang Pu, resisting and disrespecting the decree. Chai Shihua.
All these 60,000 additional people must be supported by food shipped from the south, and the same situation will apply to Huang Degong's Yongwei Battalion after its expansion.
Qin Liangyu, the commander of the Baigan Army, one of the five main forces of the Ming Dynasty, also carried out a large-scale expansion in Sichuan with the permission of a certain prince, which would also consume local food.
This suddenly resulted in at least 80,000 more troops, and at the same time, they had to accumulate food for the Northern Expedition. Not counting the war horses, just for human food, you need to save at least two million stones. This is too difficult...
At the same time, the nearly 200,000 troops led by Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting also needed to obtain food nearby, which would directly consume a large amount of food from the nearby Chief Secretary.
It is impossible for a certain prince to put the cart before the horse and starve the fighting troops in the south in exchange for rations for the various departments of the New Army and the troops stationed around Jifu.
With the annual advance payment of up to 7 million silver from "Overseas Jinshan", a certain prince can train 30,000 elites every year.
But the problem is that there is not so much food to feed his lackeys, and even if he has money, he cannot buy food immediately. Moreover, the key is that Huang Taiji does not allow a certain prince to prepare for war on such a large scale. He may enter the customs before autumn. .
There is no contradiction between money and food at all. It can be said that as long as Old Fart Zheng agrees to help, a certain prince can buy as much food as he has.
However, the Emperor's Chicken was very inconsistent with food. Not only did he not allow a certain prince to save it, he also led his braided army into the pass to grab food, which made a certain prince very depressed.
To feed the disaster min around Jifu, the work-for-relief method is not bad, but when the disaster min earns money, they will buy grain, which will also quickly consume the grain transported by water.
Therefore, the current military preparations for war can only be carried out according to the ability. First, train 30,000 troops and horses, and then wait for the surplus food in hand to expand the number.
After becoming the regent, the burden on a certain prince became even heavier.
There are so many mouths down there that need to be fed. If you feed them, those mouths will flatter you.
Once you are not fed enough, you are afraid that you will be eaten alive by them, and in the end there will be no bones and dregs left...
This was the reason why a certain prince asked Zuo Maodi and Yan Jizu to promote the planting of potatoes and sweet potatoes on a large scale in Shaanxi and Shandong.
Before improvement, the yield per acre of these two crops was not too high, but as long as one stone per acre could be harvested, it was a good harvest, thank God.
This is not even comparable to the half-year output of the best paddy fields in the south, but now all parts of the north are being scorched by the sun. According to the latest report sent by Zuo Maodi on a fast horse, the Yellow River in Shaanxi has stopped flowing.
Except for the Weihe River Basin, which is relatively normal in Shaanxi, there is almost no rain in other places for a month. Even if it does, it is light rain, which cannot solve the drought problem at all.
Farmers plant potatoes and sweet potatoes that are very drought-resistant. After the autumn harvest, one acre of land can yield half a stone. I am afraid everyone will burst into tears with surprise.
Shaanxi will not be threatened by the braided army for a while. The biggest enemy there is the consecutive years of drought. Southern Shaanxi is better, especially in northern Shaanxi. If a man does not serve as a soldier, he is basically dead, because the crops will not be harvested at all.
Now it's better. Coal and oil have been dug out in northern Shaanxi. After working hard, the people have at least a little money in their hands, which can be used to buy grain and roast locusts as a nutritious meal.
Zuo Maodi said in his memorial that when he arrived in Shaanxi, the first thing he did was to set up a table outside the governor's office, and then led a group of subordinates to eat fried locusts in public.
Officials from him down, as long as they have a grade, each one is counted as one. Civil and military officials each have a bowl. If anyone can't finish the meal, he can use Shang Fang's sword to terminate his official position.
Under the watchful eyes of countless fellow villagers, a group of officials who cursed Zuo Maodi in their hearts had a good meal...
A certain prince wanted to make the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty understand that when people are in desperate situations, they are actually much more terrifying than locusts!
As long as the people of Shaanxi can enjoy their feast, it won't be long before the local locusts will be extinct!
Think about it~!
That place, especially northern Shaanxi, is full of coal!
Eating locusts is not illegal, it doesn’t cost money, and it doesn’t take any effort. You can just eat them on skewers if you have nothing to do~!
In particular, locusts are rich in animal protein and taste particularly delicious after being roasted.
Anyone who has eaten it will understand that eating this stuff tastes better than eating eggs!
All disasters cannot afford eggs, but whoever says they can't afford locusts is the one who can't afford it!
After a certain prince asked the Capital Daily to publish news about eating locusts, there were many stalls selling locusts in the streets and alleys, both grilled and fried.
Many poor people who couldn't afford eggs often bought some of these to satisfy their cravings. Because a certain prince said that a bowl of locusts was equivalent to three eggs, this business was actually quite prosperous.
Many of the stalls are family businesses, where half-grown children go out into the city to catch the food, which is then handed over to their parents to cook and sell. If your family is not good at this, you can also sell it directly to the official purchasing outlet at the gate of the city for five yuan per catty, which is good for both children and adults.
If a child catches all day long, he can get at least two kilograms. After selling the money, he can buy steamed buns to eat, at least he will not starve to death.
The official purchase of locusts is not to be sold back to the disaster miners, but to be used for other purposes.
According to Huang Degong's report, not only the Yongwei camp, but also all the war horses in the Jifu area were seriously short of materials.
"Food" refers to grains and beans. A war horse must consume three stones, nine liters of salt, and at least 1,500 kilograms of grass per month.
Both salt and grass are easy to come by. The sea salt from Shandong can be harvested in autumn, and the grass can be cut nearby. But this "material" is difficult to come by.
Ten thousand war horses require 30,000 shi of grain per month, plus tens of thousands of pack horses and drafted oxen, donkeys, and mules, nearly 100,000 shi of grain will be consumed in a month!
For a certain prince, this was a disaster for foodies!
The grain transported to the capital by canal is only about three million shi a year, so the "four-legged people" eat one-third?
This is an unacceptable duel!
Since grains contain plant protein and locusts contain animal protein, both are proteins.
So...
Salty fried locusts specially cooked for horses were born!
In the initial stage, it was only a small-scale experiment, and one hundred war horses and one hundred draft horses each were selected for feeding.
After a month of observation, we found nothing unusual. They seemed to like eating. After weighing them, we found that these foodies had gained weight.
In this case, a certain prince decided to promote it on a large scale. Anyway, the grain in the warehouse was definitely not enough to feed the horses.
War horses can enjoy three kilograms of fried locusts a day, and pack horses can enjoy two kilograms. Unlike grains that can be eaten indiscriminately, these are real high-protein nutritional products.
Some grooms even enjoy delicacies with their animals, feeding the horses themselves and enjoying the feed as snacks.
It doesn't matter if all the locusts around the capital are caught. People can also be sent to the surrounding prefectures and counties to catch them. Half of the locusts in Northern Zhili can be transported to the capital.
The animals raised by the East Palace Guards were fed fried locusts. A certain prince observed them at close range and found that all of them were fat and shiny, indicating that this kind of feed was very suitable for them.
"..."
After hearing this, Chongzhen couldn't rashly agree to raise food for this rebellious son. He also knew that food was the biggest problem at the moment. The court was no longer short of money, but it was still short of food. Both shipping and water transportation were trying to find a solution, but they couldn't solve the current problem. of urgent need.
"Why are the blunderbuss equipped with daggers?"
In order to alleviate the embarrassment, Chongzhen had no choice but to start a new line and ask about something he was curious about. I guess this was also Nizi's latest invention. I had seen it before, but I still had to ask for clarification.
"Reporting to my father, the name of the dagger is 'bayonet'. It is used by musketeers to fight at close range to avoid being attacked by the opponent's infantry after firing. Moreover, the bayonet can be removed from the muzzle, making it easier for soldiers to cut food. And self-defense.”
As for the stabbing, it has been performed just now, and the actual combat effect remains to be tested. But one thing is certain, that is, the braided infantry will definitely not be able to take advantage by rushing into the Ming army's infantry formations like before.
"...Can we resist the Donglu infantry in this way?"
This is the issue that Chongzhen is most concerned about. If just a dagger can greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the King's infantry, then every soldier in the future must be equipped with such a sharp weapon to get twice the result with half the effort.
"Father, fighting against the Donglu infantry requires a series of weapons and equipment, from the latest muskets to a full set of armor, all of which need to be in place to withstand the ferocious assault of the Donglu's heavily armored infantry! "
The heavy armored infantry of pigtails, especially Bagala, are very powerful in combat. It is said that only ten people can be selected in a group of cattle. Of course, they are the most powerful group of pigtails on foot.
To deal with Bagala, one must use quantitative advantages to offset the opponent's qualitative advantages, and add more advanced weapons and equipment to repel the invading enemy.
A certain prince asked Zhou Yuji to find a well-equipped soldier and explain it to the dumper: "Father, please see, this is a fully armed soldier. The head is protected by a chicken helmet, and the torso is covered by heavy armor to prevent It was shot through by Donglu's heavy arrow. The weapon was a smoothbore flintlock gun, which could fire at more than twice the speed of a blunderbuss. There were five grenades on the side and rear, which could be thrown after being lit to injure enemy soldiers. If it's close combat, you can attach a bayonet to the muzzle of the gun and use it to fight."
In order to further increase the firepower output, a certain prince also planned to equip each person with a short gun. This thing can definitely give Braid a big surprise in close combat.
You can't hit me with heavy arrows, but I can kill you with one shot. How cool it is~!
"... So armed, how can Master Wang's soldiers have the advantage of mobility?"
Chongzhen was not completely a layman. He observed carefully and then frowned and asked. This simply turned his soldiers into turtles. How could they deal with the enemy soldiers?
"Father, our army has few horses, so the battle formation will be dominated by chariots, and all the musketeers will fight around the chariots. There is no need to chase the enemy soldiers. As long as the Donglu infantry rushes over and finds that they cannot kill our soldiers, then They will not be able to go back, so our army can win!"
A certain prince had his own logic to follow, which was derived from years of experience. Not to mention the second-rate emperor in front of him, even the emperor Taiji outside the customs was kept in the dark.
"...What's the point of this?"
Chongzhen didn't believe what the traitor said. He could win so easily, so the king's division wouldn't lose troops every time outside the pass.
"Father, just think about it. The infantry of Donglu are all wearing heavy armor. Running two to three hundred steps over here has already consumed a lot of energy. If they continue to charge and kill, I'm afraid they won't have much energy left. In the past, they charged The formation was able to win because our army lacked firepower and protection. Today our army is different from the past. With the same number of people, the firepower is more than twice that of the past. The protection ability of individual soldiers is much better than in the past. Not to mention the steel sword, it is Donglu's. Heavy arrows cannot penetrate the armor worn by our soldiers at close range, so how can they win? If they cannot win and run back from our lines, wouldn't they leave their backs to our soldiers to aim and fire at will? After running two hundred steps, our muskets would fire no less than three times. How many people would be able to escape death in the end?"
It's not easy to rush over, and it's even harder to run back.
Unless you have eyes on your back and can fire more bullets that are about to arrive in a flash.
As long as Braid rushes over, don't even think about running away.
Anyone who dares to run back from the end to the starting point will be hit by the soldiers of the Ming Army!
