In the wilderness of Yanzhao, a team of thousands of people was heading south. It was the new imperial guard army led by Lu Xiangsheng.

There are cavalry outposts, infantry rear guards, and a large group of people in the middle. More than a hundred horse-drawn carts are walking in the middle of the official road. The carts are equipped with tiger crouching cannons, French machine guns, and a swarm of flying dragons and other firearms.

Raincloth covering.

On both sides of the convoy were infantry walking silently. Spearmen, sword and shield soldiers, and fire gun soldiers were all brightly armored and well-equipped.

Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were spent, but in terms of well-equipped equipment, few armies could compare with this imperial guard.

However, within a few months, the arsenal produced only enough guns and artillery to arm a battalion of 3,000 men.

The new army of 10,000 Imperial Guards was organized into three battalions, which were named Zhongyong, Zhongyi, and Zhongzhen by Zhu Youjian. The Zhongyong Battalion, with Cao Bianjiao as its staff general, was first equipped with weapons from the arsenal, and was then taken out by Lu Xiangsheng to go to Luoyang.

"Counterinsurgency".

To be honest, the Zhongyong Battalion has been equipped with firearms for only one month. The firecrackers and artillerymen in the camp have just become familiar with the firearms in their hands, and are far from proficient. Not to mention the loading of the firearms is extremely slow, and the accuracy is also miserable.

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The new imperial guard army is far from being able to form combat effectiveness. Not to mention compared with the elite Jiannu Eight Banners soldiers, it is also inferior to the Liaoxi frontier army outside Shanhaiguan. Of course, now it is just to "quell the rebellion"

That's all, and it's still unclear whether they can fight, so there's no need to worry too much.

In the mind of Lu Xiangsheng, the coach, there may not be a battle at all. King Fu may have a rebellious heart, but if he really dares to cause trouble, the defenders of Luoyang will take care of him without the imperial guards coming to Luoyang.

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In the Ming Dynasty, only Taizong Zhu Di was able to successfully rebel as a vassal king. However, it is far different from the time of Taizu. During the time of Taizu, the vassal kings had military power and territory, and they were real vassal states.

The king is just a captive. Even the ambitious King Ning during the period of Zhengde, his rebellion is nothing but a joke. What's more, King Fu, who is located in the Central Plains and is under strict surveillance?

Therefore, Lu Xiangsheng had no worries about counterinsurgency. He just regarded this dispatch of troops as an excellent training opportunity. He hoped that through this opportunity, the Zhongyong Battalion under his command could fully develop combat effectiveness!

Therefore, along the way, Lu Xiangsheng marched completely in combat mode.

During the march, outpost guards were assigned, infantry protected the convoy, and cavalry patrolled both sides.

They only marched for more than forty miles every day, setting off at three poles in the morning, and setting up camp before dusk. And it was not just a simple camp, but a serious camp, complete with ditches, walls, antlers, and horses. We were assigned to watch at night.

The troops took turns to keep vigil, and Lu Xiangsheng would personally patrol several times every night to check the alert status of the vigil troops.

Then the army will have dinner at nine o'clock. After breakfast, they will train on the spot for an hour. The gunners will practice loading and firing, and the gunners will also practice artillery. Taking into account the impact when they were in Xiyuan, they can now conduct live ammunition training at will.

After training until mid-morning, the team will continue to set off. After traveling forty miles, they will set up camp. This is the case every day.

At the beginning, Cao Bianjiao, the general of the Zhongyong Battalion, was very anxious and thought that he should speed up the march to Luoyang to quell the rebellion. Lu Xiangsheng just told him lightly that he should not pay too much attention to the matter of quelling the rebellion.

Slowly, Cao Bianjiao came to his senses and began to focus on marching training, no longer anxious to fight.

Along the way south, marching and camping, everything became more and more orderly, and the team's combat effectiveness increased rapidly. Everyone in the team could feel this growth rate.

For Lu Xiangsheng, traveling south brought out a lot of emotions about the decline of people's livelihood.

From the capital to the south, everything you pass is a broad plain and a densely populated place. However, although there are not many refugees along the way, the people are all in ragged clothes and have disheveled faces.

There are farmlands on both sides of the road. Men are working in the fields and weeding, while women and children are digging wild vegetables in the fields beside the fields.

When they saw the passing army, the adults all hid with fear on their faces. Only the children looked at them curiously with their innocent eyes open.

Fortunately, in the first year of Chongzhen's reign, the world was not in chaos yet, and the refugees in northern Shaanxi had just begun to show some symptoms. The land of Yanzhao was still peaceful, and the people were not very afraid of the army.

However, Lu Xiangsheng could see from the people's tattered clothes and the food on their faces that most people's lives were not easy, and they were far worse than they were ten years ago.

And all of this was caused by the increased Liao pay. It has been twenty years since Nurhachi rebelled and occupied Liaodong, and Jiannu suddenly replaced Mongolia and became the biggest enemy of the Ming Dynasty.

Liaodong was lost and Liaonan was lost. Now the imperial court only had the Ningjin front line outside the pass, and Jiannu wanted to capture Jinzhou and Ningyuan all the time, and troops were approaching Shanhaiguan. The imperial court had to station heavy troops on the western Liaoning line outside the pass to guard against Jiannu's attack.

Every year, more than 5 million taels of food are spent on the frontier army in western Liaoning alone, which exceeds the annual revenue of the national treasury.

There was no other way but to levy additional Liao wages. However, the Liao wages could not be levied on the gentry and the clan, so they could only be borne by ordinary households. Coupled with the greed of local subordinates, if the court levied a penny more, the localities would levy additional taxes.

For a penny, this has further contributed to the decline of people's livelihood.

The further south you go, the more miserable the lives of the people are. When passing by Zhangde Mansion, you can already see many refugees appearing. They don't dodge when they see the army, they just look at them with dull eyes.

Lu Xiangsheng's expression became more and more solemn. He had a hunch that the Ming Dynasty was like sitting on a powder keg, and if there was a spark, it would explode quickly.

Zhangde Mansion is located in the Central Plains. The land is relatively fertile and it is not far from the capital. If this is the case here, what will it be like in places farther away, such as Shaanxi, which has been suffering from drought for many years?

Lu Xiangsheng sighed secretly in his heart.

Along the way, they inevitably had to pass through many cities. Lu Xiangsheng restricted the army never to enter the city, but only sent people to ask for food and vegetables in advance. According to the Ming Dynasty system, if the army marches within the territory, the local government through which it passes will provide the necessary supplies.

At present, the majesty of the imperial court is still there, and no local official dares to delay not giving the army the food it needs. If there is someone who is unwilling to open his eyes, Lu Xiangsheng will not need to say anything. The Jin Yiwei who has accompanied the army will enter the city. In the next few days, the Jin Yiwei will take advantage of the official's corruption since he took office.

Check the corruption thoroughly.

When setting up camp, Lu Xiangsheng never chooses to enter villages or towns. Instead, he chooses to camp in the wilderness far away from villages and towns. It is forbidden to disturb the people in any way. This is the iron rule Lu Xiangsheng has set for his subordinates!

Setting off from the capital in mid-March, it took a full month in mid-April for the army to reach the north bank of the Yellow River. After crossing the Yellow River, it was not far from Luoyang.

By this time, the news that the imperial court had sent a large army had already reached Luoyang.

In Luoyang City, people were in panic, and King Fu was even more frightened!
Chapter completed!