Zhang Wenzhi had no ambitions, and was not even as obsessed with continuing to lead troops as Shen Yuankui was in order to gain control of the military power.
All Zhang Wenzhi wants is glory and wealth.
In the past two years, he has led troops to fight everywhere, and he has seen through a lot of things, and after seeing through them, he is no longer so obsessed with some things.
For example, asking whether to continue to lead troops after surrendering, or to continue to lead the headquarters troops, in Zhang Wenzhi's opinion, there are not many benefits, but it carries huge political risks.
Now if he asks to continue to lead his troops, the Chu army will most likely agree, but there is no guarantee that they will not settle the score later.
Although Zhang Wenzhi was a military commander, he had also read books since he was a child. Naturally, he knew that this kind of thing was taboo.
To surrender as a general, you must have the consciousness to surrender and melt wealth and honor. Some things, especially military power, should be let go, otherwise it will easily become a recipe for death.
Even if you want to continue to lead troops and make achievements, you can wait until later.
I didn’t see that Song Zushun only held false posts. Even Chen Yongfu, He Renlong and others slowly got up later. But few people like Shen Yuankui, who defected and directly led the troops, and also led the headquarters. Soldiers and horses.
Doesn’t this make it clear that you are relying on troops to show your own self-respect?
Zhang Wenzhi would not do this. He only wanted glory and wealth, not military power.
Therefore, when people from the Military Intelligence Department found him and tried to win him over, Zhang Wenzhi's words surprised everyone in the Military Intelligence Department.
This man actually took the initiative to say that after defecting, he could hand over all his soldiers and horses, but he himself wanted to disarm and return home.
This situation caught the Military Intelligence Department by surprise. The envoys they had originally recruited in the past had already been authorized. As long as Zhang Wenzhi could be recruited, the conditions could be met by Shen Yuankui's conditions, and they could continue to be added. , such as being awarded the rank of Army Major General.
However, now that Zhang Wenzhi has offered to give up military power, a lot of the conditions listed before are not suitable.
And everyone is not stupid. Zhang Wenzhi said that he could give up military power and wanted to be disarmed and return home, but the people in the Military Intelligence Department could tell at a glance that what this man wanted was glory and wealth.
To put it bluntly, on the condition of giving up military power, they want higher and better treatment of glory and wealth.
The Military Intelligence Department did not decide on this matter without authorization, but quickly flew to Yangzhou to report it.
After Luo Zhixue learned about this, he quite appreciated Zhang Wenzhi's choice. He knew how to advance and retreat, and knew the importance.
Since he is willing to give up military power, Luo Zhixue will not treat him badly.
First, give an Army Major General the rank and grant him the position of Military Advisor. Even though he has said that he will be relieved of his duties and return to work, he still can't really not give him any official position.
The title of viscount was awarded, and as for the higher title, it was earl. Even if Zhang Wenzhi voluntarily surrendered and gave up military power, he would not be able to reach the threshold of being awarded the title of earl.
Zheng Zhilong came to surrender with hundreds of warships, but he only received the title of earl.
Even within the Chu army, not every high-ranking general can be awarded the title of earl. Most of them still have the title of viscount and baron.
Luo Zhixue was very generous with the lower titles, that is, barons and viscounts, and the conditions for obtaining them were not too harsh.
But those above the earl level are very demanding. Whether it is an earl or a marquis, they all need the support of strong military achievements, or they are the few civil servants who started from the early morning and got mixed up based on their seniority.
As for the Dukes, even after the unification of China, only a handful of them will be conferred. Except for a few military elders, there is basically no hope for others.
In addition to giving Zhang Wenzhi a military rank and title, Luo Zhixue would also give him a house and a batch of cash.
In addition to these, Luo Zhixue also gave him some shares in a textile factory under the control of some royal assets, worth about 50,000 taels, and with good development prospects.
The above is Zhang Wenzhi's personal treatment arrangement. In addition, a group of officers under his command still follow the principle of voluntariness. Those who want to continue to serve in the army will continue to serve in the army, and those who are unwilling will be assigned idle posts, or they will be assigned to serve as local civil servants. They do not want to do anything. Then just give the money and go home.
In short, let them choose freely as much as possible without making it too difficult.
As for ordinary soldiers, they were paid back their salaries and reorganized into the Third Cavalry Brigade on the spot.
After Zhang Wenzhi received the report from the Military Intelligence Department, he waited until a third-class secretary of the Hanlin Academy sent by Luo Zhixue came to announce the decree.
What he paid attention to was not other things, but asking Luo Zhixue about his attitude toward him.
The third secretary immediately said: "Your Majesty has said: This person knows how to advance and retreat, and knows the importance of importance. He is very good!"
Zhang Wenzhi breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. In fact, it doesn't matter what military rank, title or even gold and silver. What matters is the attitude of Luo Zhixue, the Emperor of Chu.
Since Emperor Luo Zhixue had a good attitude toward him, Zhang Wenzhi knew that as long as he didn't mess around in the future, the prosperity and wealth of his future generations would be stable.
Reading with rice balls
There is nothing to hesitate about, just kneel down and accept the order!
As a result, Zhang Wenzhi's unit, the largest and most powerful of the three frontier cavalry in the Jiangbei region, officially surrendered to Chu and was reorganized into the Third Cavalry Brigade of the Dachu Empire Army.
Zhang Wenzhi himself no longer served as the brigade commander, but went to Yangzhou to take up the position of his cavalry military advisor. Not long after, this man went directly to Jinling City to enjoy his blessings... As for his family certificate, there is no need to worry about it. Zhang Wenzhi's hometown is in the north of Chu. It is under the control of the Chu army and is very safe.
In order to appease the many soldiers of the Army's 3rd Cavalry Brigade who had just surrendered, Luo Zhixue did not arrange for another person to be the brigade commander. Instead, he directly replaced Zhang Wenzhi's deputy Dai Yongshan and awarded him the rank of Army Brigadier General.
Of course, the brigade commander did not send anyone over, but he sent a deputy brigade commander and chief of staff. In addition, he also arranged a group of deputy commanders, commanders and other officers and dozens of backbone cavalry in each regiment's posts. .
Anyway, Zhang Wenzhi voluntarily gave up his military power. Naturally, the Chu army wanted to take the opportunity to directly control this cavalry unit.
In fact, not only the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, but also the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, the Chu army also sent a large number of people to take over the deputy brigade commander, chief of staff and other deputy positions, sentry officers and other positions, but the scale was not so large.
The Chu army agreed to let Shen Yuankui continue to be the brigade commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, but they did not promise that no one would be assigned to him.
If no one is allowed to intervene, Shen Yuankui himself would not be able to sleep peacefully, let alone anything else.
He's not stupid... If he really refuses to send someone over, he will die in a minute.
He just wants to continue to lead troops and hold power, and he only wants to continue to climb up and gain greater glory and wealth, rather than really wanting to be an independent warlord leader...
He has the heart but also the courage!
After Zhang Wenzhi and Shen Yuankui defected to Chu one after another, the third remaining frontier cavalry in the Jiangbei area suddenly became embarrassed...
Zhu Dadian had almost concluded that they were going to surrender to the thieves, but in fact this cavalry had never had such an idea before.
The commander of this cavalry, Yu Shi, the deputy general of Jiangbei Zuoying, felt that his life was quite good now. He could do whatever he wanted with a thousand cavalry, and Zhu Dadian couldn't care about him.
He also didn't want to go over to the Chu army and be his little brother, being constrained by a bunch of rules.
But, when things have reached this point, many things are no longer what he wants.
Especially since Zhu Dadian had determined that he would turn into a traitor, in order to prevent the situation from deteriorating further, Zhu Dadian directly attracted one of Yu Shi's confidants, and after promising a high-ranking official a generous salary, he asked him to directly assassinate Yu Shi...
Zhu Dadian wanted to nip it in the bud, kill Yu Shi directly, and then take over the frontier cavalry.
In the end, Yu Shi was killed, but several other cavalry generals under Yu Shi were frightened...
Zhu Dadian can kill Yu Shi today, and he can kill them tomorrow!
How long will it take if you don’t run away now?
As a result, they each took their cavalry and ran away in a puff of smoke. Several hundred of them went directly to the Chu army. When they arrived, they announced that they would surrender...
There were hundreds more riding all the way north, directly to Henan, and it seemed that they were defecting to Zuo Liangyu.
Then Zhu Dadian looked at the remaining cavalry that could not be ridden and sighed.
This is not done well!
But he just sighed for a while. In his opinion, even if there were only a hundred cavalry left, hundreds of cavalry would defect to the Chu thieves, which was better than letting Yu Shi take thousands of cavalry to defect to the Chu thieves.
Rounding it off, it can be regarded as killing hundreds of Chu army cavalry first.
Under the operation of both the Chu army and Zhu Dadian, most of the more than 4,000 Ming frontier army cavalry, which had been active in the Jiangbei area for several months and once posed a huge threat to the Chu army, became part of the Chu army's cavalry. member.
As a result, the independent cavalry unit of the Da Chu Empire Army was directly expanded from the previous one cavalry brigade to three cavalry brigades.
And this also had a dramatic impact!
The first was the Battle of Fengyang City. When the 10th Division first started marching westward, they were worried about attacks by Ming cavalry, so they walked very carefully along the way. The marching speed was only more than ten kilometers a day.
The marching speed of more than ten kilometers is very slow for a main force like the 10th Division, especially when walking on flat terrain and well-formed official roads.
Under normal circumstances, that is, when there are no huge external threats, the 10th Division's marching speed in the Fengyang Mansion area can reach more than 25 kilometers per day.
And this loss of ten kilometers of marching speed is due to the threat of the Ming Army's cavalry. The 10th Division is not allowed to advance cautiously and slowly. At the same time, it has to accompany and cover the huge logistics transport fleet advancing in the Huaihe River, and every distance it advances will Stop and rest, re-deploy tactics, build safe logistics transportation channels, and also need to leave troops to garrison various logistics transportation nodes along the way. In this case, the overall westward advance will be slower.
But when Shen Yuankui and Zhang Wenzhi's troops surrendered one after another, and Yu Shi's division split, there was no big external threat to the Tenth Division.
So they speeded up and reached Fengyang City in just a few days.
