It was the twenty-sixth day of the first month of the ninth year of Chongzhen in the second year of Chengshun of the Great Chu Empire.
Even though spring has officially begun, Changsha is still in the midst of severe cold.
Yang Sichang's mood was as cold as the weather in Changsha.
The reason why Yang Sichang was in a bad mood was that he had just received a reply from the court.
At the end of last year, he wrote to the imperial court and once again asked for additional pay for thieves to raise military supplies to organize and train 100,000 new troops to fight thieves.
In order to increase his persuasiveness, he also reported on the results of his recent training of the new standard army.
It is said that after many efforts, even under extremely difficult conditions, he, Yang Sichang, has compiled and trained a new standard army of 5,000 people.
It was also said that this new standard army had high military morale, and was equipped with a new type of thieves-killing blunderbuss, as well as a number of two-and-a-half-pound thieves-killing cannons.
It is said that the thieves-killing gun is so powerful that even thick armor cannot stop it within thirty feet.
In addition, the thieves-killing blunderbuss is equipped with a sleeve and a spike, which can be used directly as a short spear after the potion is used. It is many times stronger than the previous bird blunderbuss.
He also said that the created thief-killing cannon weighed no more than 600 kilograms. It can operate freely after being equipped with a two-wheeled lightweight gun mount. It is lighter than the previous attack cannons that weighed dozens of kilograms. It can also reach a distance of more than 100 feet, and can annihilate the thief at a distance of more than 100 kilograms. A hundred feet away.
Equipped with new guns and cannons, the new standard army has extremely high combat power and can serve as three times the old army.
It has to be said that Yang Sichang worked very hard to train this new standard army. Basically, he collected all the craftsmen he could to build new guns and armor.
In order to meet various military needs, Yang Sichang made many apportionments in the nearby Chunan area, that is, Changsha, Yuezhou Prefecture, Changde Prefecture, and Hengyang Prefecture. He even shamelessly held banquets in person to invite the gentry to participate in exercises and discuss 'A matter of apportionment.
Although the gentry all hesitantly said that they had no money, for Yang Sichang's sake, they gave some money, and finally collected about 100,000 taels of food.
After solving the problem of logistical supply and demand, Yang Sichang personally recruited key personnel from various guard posts and recruited soldiers, and also personally watched the training of the new standard army.
Up to now, among the 5,000 new standard troops, three infantry battalions have been formed, and three more battalions are being trained.
At the same time, there was a cavalry team of 500 riders, an artillery battalion of 500 people, and even the baggage troops set up a special baggage camp following the example of the Baoxiang Army.
It can be said that this new standard army of the Prime Minister's five provinces is a replica of the Hometown Protection Army, or a replica of the main force. Looking at the establishment, you can tell that when placed on the Hometown Protection Army, it is basically the size of a mixed brigade.
From equipment to organization, and even tactics and tactics, the Baoxiang Army has learned everything.
After Yang Sichang put in so much effort to train the new standard army, and then treated it as a typical example of how to control thieves by mastering them, what did the superiors say?
After discussions between the cabinet bosses and His Majesty, the unified reply was: No money!
It is said that there is no silver in the household department, the internal treasury is also empty, Ji Liao has been in arrears with wages for many years, and the thieves in Ping and Shaanxi have spent a lot...
Then he said that although the new standard army had acceptable combat power and was much better than the old army, it had already cost more than 100,000 yuan to build 5,000 new standard army troops in just a few months. In one year, it would cost 70,000 to 800,000 yuan.
Five thousand is more than hundreds of thousands. Isn’t this fifty thousand more than several million?
Come on, Yang Sichang, where can the court get so much money?
After saying a lot of moneyless words, he also said that the Ming Dynasty has millions of officers and soldiers, and the thieves we protect are just a small group of bandits. They took advantage of my unpreparedness to seize Chubei. When my king's army sends millions of troops to attack it, it will be inevitable. Sweeping across Chubei.
Furthermore, it is said that the method of protecting thieves is to emphasize weapons and neglect soldiers, which is actually an inferior method.
Guns and artillery are no better than Xiao Daoer, and the most important thing in military affairs is people. As long as the soldiers fight bravely and unite as one, millions of kings' troops can still be unarmed, and they can destroy thieves.
As for the new model, it seems to be of some use. If you, Yang Sichang, can get money, just practice. We won't stop you anyway, but don't expect the court to give you a dime...
Not only is there no money, but there are also no policies...
It's a good idea to want to increase the amount of money for thieves, but the taxes are already heavy enough. Officials and gentry are shouting all day long that the taxes are too heavy and they can't live anymore. At this time, they want to increase the amount of money for thieves. You, Yang Sichang, are shameless and we still want to be shameless.
After Yang Sichang read the reply, his face turned dark.
The meaning of the big shots in the imperial court and His Majesty is simply this: You don’t need money, and you are not allowed to pay the thieves, but you, Yang Sichang, who protects the thieves, still have to be eliminated. Even if you bring a group of unarmed civilians to fight, you still have to protect the thieves. Kill the thief.
Faced with such an extreme situation, it's strange that Yang Sichang was in a good mood. If he hadn't been in the officialdom for many years and had good self-cultivation, he would probably have cursed on the spot.
But the superiors don’t provide money or policies, but the thief still has to be eliminated.
Yang Sichang couldn't just watch the anti-thief army fight all the way to Changsha.
By then, he, Yang Sichang, will be no better.
In the end, Yang Sichang had no choice but to do it himself!
The New Standard Army still had to train. The New Standard Army in front of him, with only half of its strength, gave him hope of defeating the Bao Thief Army.
No matter how difficult the conditions were, he had to find a way to thoroughly train these five thousand new standard troops, and then find a way to train a few more new standard troops.
As for money and food, we can only use the old method.
Set up an apportionment to solve part of the problem, and then turn a blind eye to the soldiers' behavior of collecting food and grass on the spot!
Anyway, Yang Sichang had no money, and it was impossible for him to give the New Standard Army how much food they needed. If the soldiers wanted money to eat, they would have to find a way on their own.
Anyway, most of the officers and soldiers who encircled and suppressed the bandits in the Central Plains of Shaanxi solved the military supply problem in this way.
Otherwise, if more than 90% of the officers and soldiers would starve to death just by relying on the little money the imperial court gave them, why would they fight?
Yang Sichang not only did it himself, but also ordered the Sichuan governor who was already under his control to organize and train the new standard army on his own.
It is worth mentioning that some time ago, the Ming court adjusted the scope of Yang Sichang's defense area and was no longer responsible for the defense of the eastern front such as Henan and Jiangbei.
The main reason is that the northern part of Chu is occupied by the Bao bandits, even Wuchang Prefecture is occupied, and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River are controlled by the Bao bandits.
Yang Sichang, who was in Changsha, had almost no contact with Henan. He could only rely on spies to sneak through Chubei controlled by the thieves, or simply make a big circle to Henan to get in touch.
At the same time, considering that the security thieves have captured Wuchang, the next step is most likely to enter Jiujiang, Jiangxi and other places.
Therefore, at the end of last year, the Ming court had already begun preparations to establish a new governor in Henan, the southern Zhili region, and Jiangxi to be responsible for the Eastern Front war.
There are also plans to establish a new governor to oversee the affairs of Anqing Prefecture, Luzhou Prefecture and other places, that is, the Anlu Governor.
The first governor of Anlu was Shi Kefa, who previously guarded Chizhou and Taiping with the title of right counselor.
In the summer and autumn of last year, as the bandits captured Huangzhou Prefecture and troops came to the Anqing Prefecture area of South Zhili, Shi Kefa was promoted to deputy inspector, patrolling Anqing Prefecture, Luzhou Prefecture, Chizhou Prefecture, and Taiping Prefecture, and supervising the armies in the north of the Yangtze River. .
At that time, Shi Kefa's performance was pretty good. He led the troops in Jiangbei to defend the Taihu line and initially resisted the offensive of the Baoxiang Army.
Well, although at that time it was actually the Baoxiang Army who thought that the logistics line was too long, and in order to prepare forces to attack Wuchang, they stopped their offensive in the Jiangbei area and switched to a strategic defensive attitude.
However, many people still attribute this credit to Shi Kefa.
Therefore, this person decided to establish the Anlu Governor in the imperial court to better prevent and suppress the thieves. It was logical that this person became the first Anlu Governor.
The area under the jurisdiction of the Anlu Governor includes Anqing Prefecture, Luzhou Prefecture, Chizhou Prefecture, and Taiping Prefecture. In addition, it also includes Guangzhou, Guangshan, Gushi, and Luotian in Henan, Qizhou, Guangji, and Huangmei in Huguang.
Basically, the Anlu Governor's defense area covers the entire eastern battlefield in Jiangbei, as well as part of the battlefield in northern Jiangxi on the south bank of the Yangtze River.
To put it simply, it is the area along the Yangtze River on the east line.
It can be seen that when the Ming court established the governor of Anlu, its purpose was very clear, which was to prevent the security forces from advancing along the river into southern Zhili.
After Shi Kefa became the first governor of Anlu, he naturally became a member of the feudal officials. His promotion momentum was as high as that of Lu Xiangsheng in previous years.
However, Shi Kefa's rise to power was actually a small matter for the Ming court. The real big thing was that the court re-appointed Chen Biqian. In the first month of the ninth year of Chongzhen, just after the Spring Festival, the Ming court issued an order to promote Chen Biqian to the right minister of the Ministry of War, governor of water transportation and Henan, Military affairs in Fengyang, Anlu, Jiangxi and other places.
Basically, Chen Biqian was put in charge of the entire Eastern Front war.
This appointment surprised and delighted Chen Bi!
Fortunately, he was promoted. He only became the governor of Henan last year as Yan Guan Qingliu. After becoming the governor of Henan, he actually didn't do much, and he didn't even understand the situation.
To this day, he still doesn't know how many generals and troops he has under his command...
As for fighting against stray thieves and protecting thieves.
As for the traitor, he had already fled to Shaanxi before he took office, and was beaten so hard by Hong Chengchou that he had no time to come to Henan.
As for the security guards, before he took office, the security guards had already changed their strategic direction and headed south, so the Henan area was not actually attacked by the main force of the security forces.
In addition, Zuo Liangyu, who is on the front line in Ruzhou, is quite reliable. It is impossible for Zuo Liangyu to take the initiative to attack and protect the thieves. However, Zuo Liangyu worked very hard to protect himself. He took this place in Ye County Made like Tietong.
Luyang County also gathered most of the main forces on the front line in Henan, and there were more than 10,000 good men stationed there. The thousands of rebel troops at Luyang Pass on the opposite side did not take the initiative to attack, so there was no war in Luyang County for a long time.
There is no need for Chen Biqian from above to worry about frontline defense.
In this way, Chen Biqian inexplicably got the reputation of being good at suppressing thieves, good at running the army, and good at defending the city.
The conscience of heaven and earth, after he arrived in Henan, he really didn't lead any troops to fight against the bandits or the bandits... He didn't even know how many troops he had.
