Su He had just returned from training soldiers in the recruit camp and continued to review the official documents on the table.
The large number of military households in the pass and the young men recruited from each village allowed Suhe to build a new brigade and guard regiment.
Their total strength reached more than 8,000 people.
Su He planned to remove some officers from the First Brigade to form the Second Brigade, and Su Hu was appointed as the commander of the Second Brigade.
Su Xiong was promoted to commander of the first brigade.
After a series of victories, Su He's position has been firmly established, and no one can shake his authority.
Coupled with personal training of soldiers and a basic system of separation of military and political affairs.
The army does not do business, does not control weapons manufacturing, cannot collect taxes, and has no room for development of warlords.
He decided to establish a governor's office and a staff department to control officer promotion and army dispatch respectively.
Human resources, finance and other major powers were all in the hands of Su He, and the army was firmly controlled by him.
The newly established Guards Regiment is responsible for protecting the safety of the center and senior generals, and also serves as the training team for new recruits.
Su He checked the official documents on the table.
The gentry's minerals were confiscated, including iron ore, copper ore, and the most important saltpeter mine to them.
Professional talents have joined and the prospecting work has also made great progress.
The much-needed lime deposits in Suhe have been found and the reserves are still abundant.
Dangerous mines are mined by heavy-duty reform-through-labor prisoners under patrol inspection.
The safer mines employ villagers and light-duty labor prisoners to mine.
There is enough labor and a lot of ore is stored in warehouses in the mining areas.
Nowadays, the main limitation is the poor transportation conditions. There are basically no roads in the mining area, and the main transportation relies on poles.
Suhe has asked officials to inspect key mining areas and plan to build a mountain road to transport ore.
Sujiacun factory completed relocation.
For confidentiality and greater security, the gunpowder factory, firearms factory and smelting factory were relocated to Dasanguan.
The factory also absorbed craftsmen from Dasanguan, and its scale expanded several times compared to before.
Su Que knocked on the door, walked in and said: "Commander Su, Magistrate Li Zhisheng sent an official document, and the caravan we sent to Henan to buy cotton returned safely.
They purchased more than a hundred carts of cotton in total. Official documents from Li Zhixian County stated that this cotton was enough for everyone in the county to make a set of cotton-padded clothes for each of us. "
"You studied very well. You can even read official documents." Su He praised him as he took the official documents.
He carefully read the official documents sent by Li Zhixian. The cotton purchased by the governor's office was stored in the county government warehouse.
The merchants themselves also purchased many things.
There are daily needs of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, as well as a large number of cotton and linen cloth.
There was a wealthy businessman named Qian Fuwen who purchased a large amount of sulfur.
This is a discerning businessman who knows that there is a shortage of sulfur here.
Henan is a sulfur producing area, and he purchases sulfur in large quantities.
Su Hejue was ready to meet this person.
Heavy footsteps came from outside the door, and Su Changsheng walked in panting.
He walked to Su He and whispered: "Commander Su, the agents I sent to the north are sending back information one after another.
They brought extremely important information, which I just sorted out. "
Su He took the intelligence document from Su Changsheng and read it carefully.
There are mainly three groups of people who brought back the intelligence.
Su He read the first intelligence first. These people were lurking in Xi'an Mansion, mainly collecting local gossip and official and military movements.
They also occasionally intercepted official documents from the government.
Hosaku found that the resistance against the thieves was getting weaker and weaker.
However, small groups of rebels in northern Shaanxi are emerging one after another.
Most areas in northern Shaanxi are hit by disasters every year, and this year it didn't rain at all, and the rivers have stopped flowing.
The locust plague has affected most parts of the province, and all grain harvests have been wiped out. Farmers can only survive by storing grain.
The gentry took the opportunity to exploit the peasants, and the court continued to collect taxes.
Small-scale peasant uprisings continued one after another, but most of them were suppressed by local government troops.
Wang Jiayin and Wang Ziyong resolutely resisted the government troops. They gathered a large-scale rebel army and continued to deal with the government troops.
Xizuo learned from official correspondence that in September, heavy snow had begun to fall in Ganzhou, Yulin and other places in northern Shaanxi.
It was at the end of September when they sent back the information, and the temperature in Xi'an Prefecture dropped significantly.
The second group went deep into the Mongolian tribes to do business.
Carrying rhubarb, tea leaves and iron pots, they climbed over the Great Wall to reach the Mongolian tribes.
The local Mongolian tribes were very miserable, and it was snowing heavily when they arrived there.
Many calves and lambs froze to death, and many adult cattle and sheep also died in droves without cow dung to keep them warm.
They did business with the tribe and easily exchanged hundreds of cattle.
The third group worked closely and found that Shanxi businessmen were harvesting grain on a large scale in Xi'an Prefecture.
They joined the grain transport team and rushed to Shanxi, and found that the gentry headed by the Fan family in Shanxi were collecting grain in various places.
These grains passed through the Datong border and were smuggled out of the border.
"Ergou, is the second team of fine craftsmen back?"
Su He asked after seeing the intelligence report that they were driving cattle back.
"Commander Su, according to your teachings, our team has special secret connections to send back intelligence.
But the second group worked carefully and they exchanged more than 500 cattle, which they could only send back in person.
The adult cattle were blackmailed by the gentry along the way. They could not resist and tried their best to bring back only more than 200 calves. "
“They did it right and I had time to reward them myself.
These cattle are very important and must be raised. "
Su He called Li Fengming, and the weather in the north was almost as he predicted.
Su He handed the information to Li Fengming.
Li Fengming picked up the information and read it carefully. He thought for a while and said, "I predict three major events from this information."
"The first major thing is that the rebel forces such as the Second Kings cannot withstand the encirclement and suppression by the government troops and will inevitably accept recruitment or flee.
There is a shortage of food and water in northern Shaanxi, and the government troops are encircling and suppressing them at all levels.
The most important thing is that they are not united in their hearts. Some people are constantly being persuaded by the court, and they must always beware of friendly forces giving them a fatal blow.
There is no leader within the rebel army who can calm the situation. The various armies are not integrated and only obey their own leaders.
With all kinds of disadvantages stacked up, the rebels such as the two kings had no chance of winning. "
Su He saw that Li Fengming's analysis was right. Shaanxi Governor Yang He's suppression of bandits was not strong and he mainly focused on siege.
The second king and others can only hold on until March or April next year, and they will flee to Shanxi one after another.
"The second big thing is that in a month or two, the Jiannu slaves will definitely start a large-scale war, and the Shanhaiguan war will resume.
Whenever the weather changes drastically, large numbers of cattle and sheep freeze to death on the grasslands, and the nomads cannot survive.
They can only invade the Central Plains on a large scale, plunder supplies, and at the same time consume a lot of cannon fodder to relieve population pressure.
Now the Mongolian tribes are very weak, and they cannot defeat the heavily defended Guancheng.
Only Jiannu is extremely powerful now, but he cannot defeat Shanhaiguan and can only consume his own population.
I read the intelligence and found that most of the gentry in Jin were complicit.
They purchased a large amount of food. It must be because there was a big disaster in Jiannu's place and there was not enough food to eat. "
Su He listened to Li Fengming's prediction about whether the slaves would become invaders. The accuracy rate was as high as 90%. He was a strategist.
Li Fengming's predictions were also wrong.
Now who would have thought that Jiannu would bypass the Horqin Grassland and enter from Da'ankou in the north of the important town of Dunhua.
“The third big thing is related to ourselves.
Based on my summary of weather in past dynasties, this abnormal weather in the north will affect a large area in the north.
We have a high chance of a blizzard, and I predict it will happen within a month.
Preparations must be made in advance, otherwise many people will freeze to death, and the army will also suffer a large number of non-combat attrition. "
Su He looked solemn after listening. Li Fengming's first two predictions were basically correct. He must now pay attention to the third prediction.
"Mr. Li, I suddenly became enlightened after hearing what you said.
I will make corresponding arrangements based on your predictions. "
Su He's serious response made Li Fengming realize that he was being taken seriously and that he had met the Ming Master.
