Zhang Ruoqi came to Jinhai Town with a major mission this time, and of course he would not come empty-handed.

Although he did not bring a stone of grain, a cannon, or a musket to Yang Zhen and his subordinates, he did bring Yang Zhen what Yang Zhen longed for most.

Now Yang Zhen has in his hands three hundred letters from Emperor Chongzhen, which have been signed and sealed by the Ministry of War.

And it was almost exactly the same as when Emperor Chongzhen awarded him a reward before the last move to Jinhai. Among the three hundred air letters, there were five air letters for the assistant general, thirteen air letters for the deputy general, two each for the general, guerrilla, capital, and garrison air letters. Ten, the total number of air defenses for a battalion of one thousand soldiers is seventy-two, and the total number of air defenses for a battalion of one hundred and thirty is enough for Yang Zhen to reward meritorious soldiers.

The so-called empty letter means that the personnel appointment and removal documents are pre-stamped with the print of the Ministry of War or the Ministry of Personnel, and the specific content is filled in when needed, such as the name of the person appointed or removed, the specific duties and the specific location of the appointment.

This kind of blank document with a seal is not allowed to appear.

During the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty, there was an empty seal case in the Ming Dynasty that implicated many people and caused many people to lose their heads.

But after Hongwu, this kind of thing became common again...

The reason is that the overall administrative efficiency of the Ming Dynasty was not high, and various court and local affairs were very cumbersome.

For matters involving the appointment and dismissal of officials and the selection of generals, if they happen in the capital, everything is easier to deal with. It is also easier to go to the ministry to verify, prove your identity, and then issue imperial certificates.

However, the appointment, removal, promotion and transfer of civil servants and military officers who are in the Jiubian towns or border areas are very troublesome.

If it were a time of peace, even in border areas such as Liaodong, Yunnan-Guizhou, Gansu and Ningxia, they could reluctantly go all the way to Beijing to undergo verification and then receive the imperial seal official certificate.

However, once wartime arrives, in places such as Liaodong, Yunnan-Guizhou, Gansu and Ningxia, not only are roads blocked and difficult to travel, but the situation changes rapidly. It is no longer possible to go to the capital step by step to undergo verification, receive the imperial seal, and then turn back to continue. fight.

In such a situation, the situation of civilian officials is easier to say, since it is not that urgent after all, but the appointment, dismissal, promotion and transfer of military attachés can be very troublesome.

So the empty letters to the imperial envoys, governors, and governors gradually appeared again.

By the time of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty, this problem had become more and more serious, to the point where the general troops were everywhere and the number of lieutenants was as numerous as dogs.

For example, in Western Liaoning, a larger place, there is almost one general soldier for each place, and one general soldier for each city. After the cities are finally divided, there will be one general soldier for each battalion, and one general soldier for each fort.

Including other border towns, it is the same. In the past, there was a garrison general, followed by several assistant garrison deputy generals, and then several sub-garrison generals. This was already remarkable.

But now, the same border town is divided into several associations, and each association has a general and a deputy general.

Of course, this is also the general trend at the moment. Apart from these things as rewards for meritorious soldiers, the imperial court really has nothing else to offer.

For example, this time, Emperor Chongzhen was so cruel that he confiscated more than 100,000 taels of silver from the house of his former chief minister Xue Guoguan, but before he could even take the money, he called Ding Qirui and Yang Wenyue and asked for it.

Emperor Chongzhen, who originally planned to pay Yang Zhen's soldiers and horses some back pay and some silver rewards, found out after some distribution that they could not cash it out.

So I had no choice but to hold my nose and make a fuss about the promotion of military attachés under Yang Zhen's command.

After all, now is the time to employ people. There are many soldiers and generals in the two towns of Jinhai and Denglai, and there are continuous wars. If you don't make an exception to increase the reward and make an exception, who will continue to work for you?

Yang Zhen was eager for this, and he had this idea in the good news sent to the Shanhaiguan Military Department.

Therefore, Yang Zhen does not want to pretend to be arrogant or stubbornly go against the general trend. For him, since this is the case, then let nature take its course.

Of course, it should be said that the treatment that Emperor Chongzhen gave him, or that Chen Xinjia, the Ministry of War, was willing to delegate so much of the power originally belonging to the Military Selection Department to him, allowing him to directly select and appoint such high-level generals, is also very rare.

is a special case.

If it weren't for Chen Xinjia, Minister of War, who also hoped that Yang Zhen could send troops to the pass as soon as possible to help him suppress the bandits and save the situation that was on the verge of collapse and about to get out of control, Yang Zhen would never have been able to obtain this privilege.

But no matter what, the current situation is beneficial to Yang Zhen.

Let us say that on the morning of April 21, after bidding farewell to the newly appointed governor of Denglai Fang Yizao and Zhang Ruoqi, the official of the Imperial Military Department, Yang Zhen convened a meeting in the lobby of the front yard of the main town hall in the afternoon of April 21st.

The generals held a meeting at Lushunkou, and in the presence of the eunuch Chu Xianzhang, the eunuch sent by the emperor, they announced the reward for the soldiers who had made meritorious service in the battle of Zhenjiang Fort.

In fact, to put it bluntly, it is a letter of appointment.

However, Yang Zhen would not do what the imperial court did and only give him a letter of appointment without paying him or her.

The seal of General Zhengdong stamped by Yang Zhen on the air letter sent by the Military Selection Department of the Ministry of War definitely counts.

Even if Yang Zhen doesn't allocate troops and horses to you for a while, he will definitely choose an opportunity to let you expand your troops on your own.

Corresponding to the expanded soldiers, it is either land or salary, which must be one of the two.

Therefore, the imperial letters are not valuable, but when they arrive in Jinhai Town and are stamped with Yang Zhen's seal of General Zhengdong, it is different.

On the afternoon of that day, Yang Zhen officially issued the official certificate of the Ministry of War——

Qiu Zhenhai was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Andong Forward, and he led the troops of the Andong regiment to garrison Zhenjiang Castle and guard the area east of the Yajiang River to Anzhou, and assisted in the defense of the General Military Mansion in Andong City.

Yu Liangtai was appointed as the general military officer of the Denglai East Road Assistant Defense Force, leading the main force of the Jinhai East Road Naval Battalion to guard the eastern coastal area of ​​Dengzhou Prefecture and the large and small islands, and the Assistant Defense General Military Office was stationed on Liugong Island.

Wu Chaozuo was appointed as the general military officer of the Denglai West Road Assistance Guard. He led his troops from the prison battalion to disembark from Huangcheng Island, Daqin Island, Tuoji Island and other places, and moved to the area under the jurisdiction of Laizhou Prefecture.

county seat.

Among the three assisting generals, Qiu Zhenhai was the one who had been decided long ago, and was officially reported in the victory report. No one was surprised by this.

Including the letter from the Ministry of War issued by Yang Zhen, that is, the letter of appointment, the city of Andong was mentioned in the victory report sent to the court as early as February.

Yang Zhen asked the Ministry of War, the Ministry of War and Emperor Chongzhen for instructions on such trivial matters in detail. It may seem unnecessary, but in fact this is exactly his intention.

For truly important matters, he would not readily ask for instructions from the Shanhaiguan Military Department. Such matters would usually be done as soon as he was told.

However, the more trivial and insignificant the matter was, the more he had to mobilize troops to report it to the Military Department of Shanhaiguan, and then report it to the Ministry of War and then to Emperor Chongzhen.

For example, the renaming of Zhenjiang Castle to Andong City and the construction of a new castle on Zhenjiang Mountain took up a considerable amount of space in Yang Zhen's report, detailing the need to rename Anton City from all aspects.

Yang Zhen did this, of course, not to ask the Shanhaiguan Military Department or the imperial court for money to build the city.

In fact, his purpose was to leave a cautious impression on Fang Yizao of the Ministry of War Department, and also to leave an impression on Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, and especially Emperor Chongzhen, of being law-abiding.

Of course, it was precisely because of this that Emperor Chongzhen felt that Yang Zhen only exchanged official documents and asked for instructions on even the most important matters, so he simply asked him in the imperial edict to temporarily decide the defense of the two towns on his own.

As for what this "temporary" means and how long it lasts, the imperial edict didn't say it, but Yang Zhen didn't care anymore.

In Yang Zhen's view, at least until Emperor Chongzhen had the energy to pay attention to whether the power of the general officers of the Jiubian towns was too great, he could take care of the defense issues of Jinhai and Denglai towns.

Unlike Qiu Zhenhai, who was widely expected, Yang Zhen's appointment of Yu Liangtai, especially the appointment of Wu Chaozuo, who had never appeared at all, still aroused a lot of discussion.

Fortunately, Yu Liangtai joined Yang Zhen relatively early, and he also made some contributions before and after the Battle of Zhenjiang Fort last year.

Including the immigration and reclamation matters that Yang Zhen has been attaching great importance to this year, Yu Liangtai and his fleet have made several trips to Yingzhou Island, Yuncong Island and other places, and they have made great contributions.

Although the generals present were a little surprised, they could understand and accept it after thinking about it.

However, Yang Zhen's appointment of Wu Chaozuo, whose job was only to be the deputy general of the Lushun prison camp, aroused many people's surprise and discussion.

Among them was Zhang Degui.

Zhang Degui, who is nearly half a century old and alone, married Wu Chaozuo's widowed sister Wu last autumn at Yang Zhen's strong suggestion. Now that Wu is pregnant, her relationship with Wu Chaozuo, a retired general, has naturally become unusual.

But even so, he never thought that his brother-in-law, who had not fought a single battle since surrendering to Shen Zhixiang and had been serving as a prison guard, could actually become the chief military officer of the Union Guard.

As for the other two surrendering generals Zhang Yanhong and Jin Guangyu who were also present, their eyes widened when they heard this.

Of course, although they were surprised, their surprise was different from others. Others were puzzled, but they were surprised.

The basic situation of Zhang Yanhong and Jin Guangyu is very similar to that of Wu Chaozuo. They were both former generals of Dongjiang Town and worked as subordinates of Shen Shikui.

After Shen Shikui's death, they followed Shen Shikui's nephew Shen Zhixiang to serve, and then followed Shen Zhixiang to surrender to the Qing captives.

After Yang Zhen entered Jinzhou City with the help of Xu Tianchong and forced Shen Zhixiang to return to the Ming Dynasty, they followed Shen Zhixiang anyway and finally served in Jinhai Town.

The behavior of changing the court repeatedly between Qin, Mu, and Chu was a big taboo for military commanders in the past.

For example, Lu Bu, the foster father and Terminator back then, was called a domestic slave with three surnames and was despised by others.

Because of this, after Zhang Yanhong, Jin Guangyu and others joined Yang Zhen, they were actually a little disheartened at first, feeling that from now on they might be idle and stand aside.

Unexpectedly, after Yang Zhen moved to the defense, he activated them not long after. Although they were doing the work of the prison camp, the work of the prison chief, and the work of the supervisor, at least Yang Zhen himself did not

Therefore I despised them.

On the contrary, it was because they worked conscientiously and uncomplainingly in their positions in the prison camp, and finally followed Yang Zhen's idea and made the new mortar three-component soil, and easily achieved the position of deputy general.

Since then, they have begun to realize that Yang Zhen did not put them in another register, nor did he treat them as surrendered generals who had no choice but to surrender.

But even so, they did not expect that people like them would have the opportunity to leave the town, lead troops independently, and become the general military officer of the side.

Although Wu Chaozuo has now become the brother-in-law of Zhang Degui, the veteran general under Yang Zhen's command, looking at the surprised look on Zhang Degui's face, it is obvious that Zhang Degui did not intercede for him.

In this case, if Wu Chaozuo has a chance, it means that the two of him also have a chance.
Chapter completed!