Chapter 138 War Accounts (4 updates exceeding 10,000)

Style: Historical Author: Yun WufengWords: 2426Update Time: 24/01/18 11:16:21
When the emperor's imperial edict was urgently issued to Guangxi, Gao Pangshi had just had a serious talk with Zhang Ren, the governor of Guangxi.

Zhang Ren's poison has been basically eliminated, but he was too poisoned before and almost died of illness, so he is still weak until now. He should not have left Guilin so easily.

However, Gao Jingshi's plan to conquer Annan still made him break out in a cold sweat. He ignored Miss Ali's warning that he should not work too hard and rushed to Nanning to meet Gao Jingshi in person.

Gao pragmatically was surprised by his visit. After talking with him, he found out that Zhang Ren came because he was worried.

He was not very worried that Mo Chao would be able to invade Guangxi, but he was worried that Gao Pragmatic was "raising an army out of anger" and underestimated Annan's complexity, resulting in heavy losses.

Zhang Ren asked Gao Pragmatic if he knew the request made by Zhang Jing, a famous official during the Jiajing period and the former governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, when he received the request from Emperor Jiajing to conquer Annan southward.

Of course Gao pragmatic knew that although his plan for Annan only lasted a few months, he still did a lot of homework in these few months and did not change his usual "over-calculating" style.

Zhang Jing’s report to Jiajing at that time said that attacking Annan was very troublesome. “There are six ways to advance troops in Annan. Three hundred thousand soldiers should be used, one-year salary should be used one million six hundred thousand, build boats, market horses, make utensils, and reward.” The military expenses will be more than 700,000 yuan. If I mobilize the masses and cross the sea of ​​fire, I will not be able to work and relax with them, so I must not fail to deal with them."

What does it mean? There are six ways to reach Annan, but it requires mobilizing an army of 300,000 people. The annual military expenditure is 1.6 million taels, plus shipbuilding, buying horses, forging weapons and rewarding the army, which costs an additional 700,000 yuan. Two, added together, it would cost 2.3 million taels of silver a year.

Moreover, when fighting Annan, the opponent is waiting for work. We are at a huge disadvantage and must pay attention to it.

The last one can be ignored for the time being, because during the time between the memorial and the imperial edict, the Mo Dynasty had mobilized its army to the south, and the war with the Li Dynasty was about to start. The idea of ​​leisure waiting for work no longer exists. At most, there are host and guest soldiers. difference.

However, Gao Pragmatic has different opinions on the previous ones, especially the various figures mentioned by Zhang Jing.

First of all, it is said that three hundred thousand troops are needed to defeat Annan. This is a typical style of fighting with the mentality of a celestial dynasty. It is just like when Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty conquered Goryeo. Did he really need a million troops to fight Goryeo? Did Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, send a million troops when he destroyed Goryeo?

It is not necessary at all. In fact, whether it is an army of one million or an army of 300,000, it is largely for the sake of style - the style of the Celestial Kingdom.

Look at our country, it's awesome. We can easily have an army of hundreds of thousands, overwhelming the sky and overwhelming momentum. Isn't it just a joke to deal with these small countries like you? So this is actually more of a face need than an actual need.

Of course, the troops that Zhang Jing could mobilize at that time were mainly guard soldiers. The combat effectiveness of the guard soldiers... was probably mainly to gather the number of people to make the army look more unstoppable. When the real war started, he still relied on his servants and his squad. The army relies on chieftains three times.

However, according to the proportion, the total number of servants of each general did not exceed 20,000, the squad army was about 20,000 to 30,000, and the chieftain could mobilize only 20,000 to 30,000 for Zhang Jing at that time.

Calculated in this way, the number of the 300,000 troops mentioned by Zhang Jing that can be truly considered as combat effective is only 70,000 to 80,000 people. The rest of the troops are nothing more than a waste of food, pay, and transportation capacity. practical significance.

Now that Gao Wuchen has obtained the absolute support of the Cen and Huang families, and promised them heavy profits, generous remuneration, and logistical support, the chieftains of western and southern Guangxi can attack with all their strength, and it is not a problem to mobilize 50,000 elite wolf soldiers.

The five thousand servants mobilized by Gao Jingshi are also in place. To some extent, these five thousand servants are the "test troops" created by Qi Jiguang, Liu Xian and others with Gao Jingshi's money and efforts - the main test direction is A higher degree of weaponization than Qi Jiajun.

Although Gao Pragmatic has always had doubts about his commanding ability, he has no doubt about Qi Jiguang's ability to train troops. He feels that the combat effectiveness of this retainer group is reliable. As long as he does not command blindly, there should not be any big defeats. Case.

As for the so-called blind command, Gao Qingshi believes that the biggest blind command is the love of dividing troops.

Love to divide the troops is really a chronic disease of the Ming Dynasty. In the Battle of Saarhu in history, although the Eight Banners soldiers in Jianzhou were at their peak moment, if the Ming army did not divide the troops randomly, they would actually be able to fight - Liu Wei's troops alone It almost broke the teeth of the Eight Banners, and at that time Liu Wei did not wait for the Sichuan soldiers he was used to leading, but went out with the troops allocated to him by the imperial court.

It can be seen that the division of troops is indeed a taboo that Taizu of the Red Dynasty has emphasized countless times. On the contrary, it is Nurhaci’s "No matter how many ways you come, I will only go all the way" style of play, which is different from Taizu of the Red Dynasty's "concentrate the troops, each Breakthrough" is the same idea.

Therefore, in terms of military strength, Gao Pragmatic feels that what he has now is enough, and there is no need for an army of 300,000 troops. Although he has money, he dare not say that he can support an army of 300,000 troops for an expedition.

Since money was mentioned, Gao Pragmatic discussed it carefully with Zhang Ren. Generally speaking, he believed that there were problems with the financial account calculated by Zhang Jing. At least compared with the situation he was facing now, it was Totally inconsistent.

First of all, the first point is that the 300,000 troops are gone, and there are only 50,000 or 60,000 troops left to support. This does not need to be explained.

Then, among the 50,000 to 60,000 troops, the chieftains and wolf soldiers are not paid. Only the highly pragmatic servants are paid, and the salary standards are relatively high. However, Gao Pragmatic's servants are also paid in peacetime. During wartime, they only receive a partial increase, plus rewards after victory. Even if the final total is doubled, it will not have much impact on Gao Pragmatic.

The current regular salary of the Gao family's servants is four taels a month, which is a typical high salary. If the silver reward is included, the total final expenses will be doubled, which is eight taels. How much is it a month? Forty thousand taels.

Low or not? It's definitely not low, it's quite high, close to 500,000 taels a year. But in fact, the increase was only over 200,000 taels. How could he, being so pragmatic, not be able to spare this amount of money?

Therefore, the monthly expenses calculated by Gao pragmatically amounted to a hundred thousand taels. Even if the battle was fierce and the losses were relatively large, if he had calculated an additional 50,000 taels, it would still only be 150,000. He could still support it - he was far away from It has only been more than half a year since he left office, but he never thought that this battle would last for more than a year. He wanted to fight quickly, so the military pay must be enough, and it will not even hinder Jinghua. What is great is Jinghua. Just suspend expansion during the war.

As for the other 700,000 taels in Zhang Jing's account, Gao Pragmatic simply ignored it - he had ships, horses and weapons, and the weapons were prepared in advance, and the reward...the money had just been calculated It’s in the military pay.

Zhang Ren was a little stunned after listening to Gao Jingshi's analysis. Why did the imperial court need so much expenditure to fight against Annan, but Gao Jingshi came to fight and it was so much less?

But he couldn't say that Gao's pragmatic analysis was unreasonable, because the calculation was very clear. The only question was whether the 50,000 or 60,000 people were really enough.

After all, Zhang Ren and Liu Yao's previous attack on Bazhai had been based on encirclement and suppression by a large army, rather than an onslaught of elite troops like Gao Wushi's current attack, so he was still a little doubtful for a while.

In his mind, an army of 300,000 naturally sounds more awesome...

Gao pragmatic smiled and said nothing. He knew that the ideas of Zhang Ren and others were outdated long ago. Just look at Qi Jiguang and he knew that now is not the time to engage in human wave tactics. When the human wave tactic showed its power again, it had entered the era of industrialized mass production, and now it was the era of elite combat. Just like the European colonists, a few hundred people could destroy a large country, so now it has begun to enter the era of quality.

Zhang Ren ultimately failed to convince Gao Pragmatic, and could only sigh and wish Gao Pragmatic good luck.