Chapter 61 The sound of drums is strong
Facing the aggressive offensive of the Southern Army, the three fronts totaled more than half a million troops, and the number of civilians mobilized was even greater than this number.
Ye Chen didn't lose his cool and didn't even fight back. Instead, they gradually took back the troops and horses deployed in the area south of Hejian Mansion, and even brought back some more troops. Without him, the local forces that had previously relied on the Northern Army were not forgiven after the Northern Army withdrew.
The reason why.
On the one hand, from Zhu Yunwen onwards, there was no careful thought of this generation’s occupation policy. Because they take it for granted that they are suppressing rebellion and taunting the people to fight crimes, and they have natural justice. Is there still a need to formulate an acceptance policy?
Just do what you have to do?
so what should I do now?
Please look at the Ming Code, which contains entries related to treason. From Nanjing's point of view, Zhu Xiongying was a definite rebel, so the local people who had cooperated with the Northern Army were a definite rebel. What better end could they want?
Just dream.
On the other hand, soldiers are also weapons. The saint has no choice but to use it. This sentence is very reasonable when used to summarize the ancient army.
This sentence not only talks about the cruelty of ancient wars, but also can be understood as the army itself is the murder weapon.
The ancient understanding of military discipline is completely different from the modern understanding of military discipline.
In He Xi's opinion, the military discipline of the Northern Army was poor enough. Even under He Xi's rectification, he didn't dare to do anything serious, but he didn't give money when he went out to eat, and he didn't pay the bill when he bought things. Verbal teasing of women has always happened. But the people of the Ming Dynasty seemed to be doing pretty well.
In the view of Fu Youde and other generals, as long as they can win the battle, what kind of military discipline is needed?
Especially Fu Youde, he was very honest under Zhu Yuanzhang, but don’t forget that he was a veteran who followed Liu Futong in the Northern Expedition. Who killed Hebei and Shandong into a white field, the Red Turban Army and the Yuan Army, this does not mean the Red Turban Army Military discipline is not good, but the military discipline of most of the Red Scarf Army is very poor compared to the military discipline of the Yuan Army.
Of course, the military discipline of the Ming army today is not so bad that it would lead to large-scale plunder. After all, they are members of the imperial court. But if everyone sends troops and horses, there must be gains. After all, there is going to be a war. The salary and money given to him by the court were enough to support his family. But it still leaves a lot to be desired. Something extra must be given.
Conquer the city. As usual, let the following make a fortune.
How to get it? The gentry in each city were asked to pay for labor and the rebels were liquidated. What's not to be rebelled against? Only those who endure humiliation and heavy burdens for the sake of the imperial court?
Is this a waste of time for us?
Naturally, there must be people who are disobedient.
As a result, those who originally cooperated with the Northern Army in various prefectures and counties naturally knew what would happen if they stayed, and took their whole families to leave with the Northern Army. As a result, tens of thousands of people fled into the north, and at the same time, more than 10,000 strong men fled , also withdrew to the north.
Tie Hyun was overjoyed about this situation.
He immediately discussed with Ye Chen to select officers from the army and organize these more than 10,000 people into two guard posts, one called Henan Guard and the other Shandong Guard. If we attack the south in the future, these two guard posts can be arranged to become local garrison, which is absolutely the most suitable.
Ye Chen had no objection to this.
But Ye Chen also had a problem. He said: "I have seen the Hejian Defense Line recently. The castle is integrated with the river. The army is placed behind as a general reserve, and there are reinforcements from Beijing. Even if the Southern Army has millions of people, I will be beaten to death in front of this iron wall. I am not worried about this battle. It’s just that I found that there are too few people who can use firearms. There are all kinds of gunpowder, firecrackers, and artillery in the rear. And the hundreds of households below prefer Holding a knife and rushing up. As for the people among Qianhu who can take advantage of firepower, there are not many. According to me, if there are qualified talents. Why these fortified cities are enough to block the Southern Army? This problem may have to be solved. fixed."
Tie Xuan scratched his head after hearing this.
The military issue is the most sensitive. Therefore, before the war started, even He Xi did not dare to perform major surgery on the army. I just made some preparations from other aspects, such as hoarding some gunpowder and so on.
But the problem is that He Xi and Ye Chen have already established their advantage over Nanjing this time, and that is firearms.
Take advantage of firearms.
However, many aspects of firearms warfare are similar to the original warfare methods of the Ming Dynasty. For example, the triple formation was originally a crossbow formation. It has been used from the Song Dynasty, to the Han army in the Yuan Dynasty, and to the Ming army. Now it has been modified and used as a basic formation for organizing attacks with firearms. Although I can’t say it’s free of flaws, it’s familiar from top to bottom and easy to get started with. So it was promoted on a large scale.
Even the fire gun aspect is relatively easy to handle. Generally speaking, it is relatively intuitive. But artillery is different.
It is true that today's artillery castings have various problems. Although the problem of chamber explosion has been solved, they are bulky, slow in shooting speed and poor in accuracy. There are all such problems.
But even so, it is important to use artillery in quantity and measure the target instead of hitting randomly.
In the army, there are a lot of people who dare to fight and kill. Even like Qu Liangcai, among thousands of troops and horses, there may not be any generals who are brave enough to kill generals and seize flags. It’s just that it hasn’t been played out historically. After all, future generations have no idea how many talents have been buried in the torrent of history.
The Ming Dynasty inherited the founding glory of the country, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not conduct large-scale purges among the army. It is normal for the army to have hidden dragons and crouching tigers.
But there are very few people who are proficient in mathematics, educated, and know how to measure.
For an ordinary soldier. It is not difficult to transform from a cold weapon army to a firearms army. It is nothing more than learning to use fire blunderbuss, becoming familiar with fire blunderbuss and gunpowder, and then practicing skillfully. This is no more difficult than practicing swords and guns.
For a hundred households, it is necessary to change their thinking and shout to brothers, "Fight with me" from before. You need to get used to maintaining your formation and letting your firepower kill the enemy more than doing it yourself. Although this is somewhat difficult, it is not too difficult.
But for a thousand households, you need to be familiar with the range, frequency, and artillery shooting measurement. Look at the map, determine the killing range, etc. It is impossible to be familiar with all aspects.
Just look at Ye Chen's ambush battle in Yu County. How far away from the road the trenches are dug, which can cause maximum damage to the enemy without accidentally injuring the comrades on the opposite side. This also needs to be calculated.
Ye Chen has done nothing else in the past few months. It was by working hard on this that I deeply understood the pain of military transformation.
However, facing Ye Chen's problem, Tie Xuan had no choice. Tie Xuan said: "I think the only way is to recruit personnel from the three schools of Liaodong and the Imperial College to join the army. But now they are all just as good as minions, so how can they be willing to join the army? Why don't you ask the chief assistant to let the chief minister Please think of a way."
Ye Chen and Tie Xuan didn't take the Confederate Army seriously and were still thinking about the long-term problems in the army. But no one in Beijing was as calm as the two of them.
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In the Palace of Qianqing, a large sand table occupies quite a lot of space. Zhu Xiongying stood with his arms crossed, and Deng Zhen stood beside him, marking the Southern Army's offensive on the sand table one by one with various flags. Zhu Xiongying only felt that it was coming fiercely. He observed attentively, with a slight sweat on his forehead.
In fact, Zhu Xiongying knows many things.
For example, the defense system of the Hejian Defense Line is a combination of old and new, and a combination of water and land. There are new-style castles. Although these castles cannot be compared with Western bastions, they draw on their defense systems and are easy to defend and difficult to attack. The rivers also serve as transportation and barriers.
Enough to prevent the enemy from crossing the river easily.
And hundreds of thousands of troops were waiting behind them. He Xi had already made arrangements and even had various plans. Even if Fu Youde has some clever plan, he may not be able to capture this place. Without him, hundreds of thousands of troops were crammed into the Hebei battlefield, and the addition of firearms increased the space needed for the battlefield.
Hebei itself has many rivers and lakes. There are also canals. In this case, there is very little room for maneuver left by Fu Youde.
In fact, this is another change after firearms joined the battlefield. In the era of cold weapons, battles on the battlefield required an upright division. The brave could not advance and the timid could not retreat, which was a very dense formation. It can even be said to be a place where corpses are erected.
If you die on the battlefield, your body will not fall down.
