Many officials began to be busy preparing to proclaim themselves king, and normal military and political work could not be delayed.
The Jianghuai area has been occupied, and only three battles have been fought.
One fight was against Sun Kewang, another was against Luo Rucai, and another was against the White Lotus Sect. The rest of the prefectures and counties were all resigned to the wind, and the rest of the time was busy suppressing bandits. There were too many bandits in a mess.
Jianghuai, the land south of the Yangtze River, was cut vertically by Zhao Han and the administrative divisions were reorganized.
That is, Jiangnan Province was abolished and divided into Anhui and Jiangsu.
Anhui, the collective name of Anqing and Huizhou, the provincial capital was set in Luzhou by Zhao Han.
Jiangsu, the collective name of Jiangning and Suzhou, the provincial capital was set in Yangzhou by Zhao Han.
Redrawing provinces is necessary and involves political, economic, military and other considerations.
The names of the two provinces were purely capricious by Zhao Han and he directly chose the ones he was familiar with.
However, the provincial government made the decision after repeated discussions and based on the geographical location and transportation conditions. For example, in Anhui, if the provincial capital was located in Anqing, it would be extremely unfriendly to the northern Anhui region. After much deliberation, Luzhou was more suitable.
This setting will inevitably have far-reaching consequences.
Chaoxian County will definitely become more prosperous. The money and grain taxes from southern Anhui are transported to Chaohu via the Yangtze River, and then transported to Luzhou via the Yangtze River. Chaoxian County is a must-go place.
In addition to setting up these two provinces, Yingtian Prefecture was renamed Jinling Prefecture, which was regarded as a municipality directly under the Central Government, and Nanjing was completely separated from Jiangsu Province.
The chief envoys on the left and right sides of Jiangsu Province are: Liu Anfeng and Chen Wenkui.
The left and right chief envoys of Anhui Province are: Zhang Bingwen and Fang Shengchang.
The land in Henan occupied by the army is temporarily under the jurisdiction of Anhui; the land in Shandong occupied by the army is temporarily under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu.
…
"General Fei and General Zhang can continue to advance. Anyway, we have already crossed the Huaihe River," Xu Nianzu pointed at the map and said: "Due to the need to resettle refugees and migrate, our army is somewhat short of food, so we can take a boat all the way north to minimize the number of civilians.
Food consumption. The area along the Grand Canal has been occupied by Zuo Liangyu, so don’t conflict with him for the time being."
Mao Yuanyi also pointed to the map and said: "General Fei can go to Yishui and occupy Yizhou, Feixian and Yishui along the river. General Zhang can go to Shushui and occupy Tancheng and Juzhou along the river. Send a partial division and fight troops
If you have five hundred, you can win An Weidong and Rizhao!"
Xu Nianzu added: "As for the suppression of bandits in the Jiangsu area, after the land is divided, the peasant soldiers are organized and trained, and the county magistrates are asked to lead the peasant soldiers to suppress the bandits."
"Okay, let's do it!" Zhao Han made a final decision.
Even if these counties in Shandong were conquered, they would still be unplanned gains.
Zhao Han was temporarily unable to divide the fields or provide disaster relief because there were not enough officials and grain and grass. However, Zhao Han sent troops to occupy the city, which was better than bandits and the government occupying it. Although he could not provide relief to the people, it would not cause harm to the people.
common people.
As for the further areas, I'm very sorry, I really don't have the energy to capture them, the battle line is really stretched too long.
The rogue bandits and the Manchus could definitely advance in a furious way, they just had to rob along the way.
Historically, the Manchus and Qing Dynasties moved south very quickly, and only attacked the big cities along the way. They almost ignored the small towns and villages. There were uprisings all over the occupied areas. So they appointed Han people as governors, specifically to recruit rebels and bandits, and recognized the occupation by the leaders of these armies.
A large number of rebels and bandits became the accomplices of the Manchu and Qing dynasties and followed the Manchu and Qing army to seize the land all the way south.
The process of the Manchu Qing Dynasty moving south was a history of a group of big bandits, leading countless small bandits, causing harm to the people everywhere.
Mao Yuanyi also said: "The armies in the north of the Yangtze River should set up additional scout troops, otherwise it will be very dangerous when encountering strong enemies."
"Officials from various ministries also have this suggestion," Zhao Han said, "I have decided that Hu Dinggui's 2,000 cavalry will be divided into several hundred people, and each division will temporarily add 100 sentry cavalry."
Of course the Datong Army has scouts, but when fighting in the south, they usually march along rivers and valleys, using sentry boats and mountain search teams.
The situation is different in the north, where scout cavalry must be used.
If there was a large-scale battle with the Manchus, each group of scouts would have to have thousands of cavalry, otherwise they would be blind and the battlefield would be completely obscured by local scouts.
Every time Zhu Di sent troops to the grassland, he was more powerful. When the scouts were sent out, there were thousands of them!
Mao Yuanyi said: "Our army currently has five divisions and will expand to six divisions next year. Except for the two divisions of Hunan and Guangdong, which will continue to maintain a scale of 7,500 people, the remaining four divisions should be expanded to 8,000 people. The increase of 500 for each division
The men all belong to the cavalry and are used exclusively for scouting and pursuit."
Zhao Han said: "The number of horses in Jeju Island is about 15,000. Two thousand have been taken away, and another two thousand will be taken away... Go ahead, these ponies are of little use anyway."
All the male horses native to Jeju Island were taken away, and the mares were kept to be bred to Marwari horses to give birth to cubs.
As for the islanders, let them raise more cattle. In the future, immigration will require a large number of cattle.
At the same time, Zhao Han would not treat the islanders harshly. If too many horses were taken away in a short period of time, he would transport more grain and cloth to compensate.
From now on, there will only be two types of horses left in Jeju Island.
One is the mixed descendant of Jeju horse and Marwari horse, and the other is the descendant of purebred Marwari horse.
Didn’t that one-armed Wu Huapu want to fight?
Ask him to help train scouts in Jeju Island. Zhao Han will send two thousand peasant soldiers there. The training should be barely available next year. Even if they are still relatively new, they will have to be recruited into the army so that they can be trained in actual combat during the war.
The future Northern Division will have 8,000 troops, of which 500 will be scouts and light cavalry.
Those Jeju Island ponies are also transitional war horses. From now on, purebred Warima horses will be used to train heavy cavalry, and mixed-breed Warima horses will be used to train light cavalry.
As for Mao Yuanyi and Xu Nianzu, they are now equivalent to Zhao Han's operational staff.
They are very familiar with the mountains and geography, and have a broad perspective on war. The disadvantage is that their actual command ability is quite limited. They can just stay with Zhao Han to make suggestions, and they are absolutely impossible to throw out to fight.
There is also Gu Yanwu, who also has a national perspective, but his main task is to compile books.
"Captain, there are a large number of scholars petitioning outside the door!"
"Ignore it!"
Feng Zhou, sent by the imperial court, had arrived in Nanjing, and the news naturally leaked out.
The prince and princess actually went south. The emperor wants to confer Zhao Han as King of Wu and marry Princess Kunxing?
The scholars in Nanjing were overjoyed, and then felt inexplicably angry because Zhao Han actually refused to receive the conferred personnel!
These scholars, headed by Chen Danzhong and Li Yiyuan, were kneeling outside the Governor's Mansion.
Moreover, they also sent a ship to inform Zhang Pu and Zhang Cai, hoping that these two leaders of the restoration society could come to Nanjing to take charge of the overall situation.
Zhang Pu had been ill for more than half a year and almost died, so he had little time to jump up and down.
Zhang Cai served as the magistrate of Fujian, performed good governance and loved the people. After ideological training, he was able to become the county magistrate. Now he has gone to Anhui to take up an official position.
"Captain Zhao, the Ming Emperor married a princess and secretly sent the prince to Nanjing. He also conferred the title of King of Wu on the governor. Why didn't the governor refuse to accept this? When the country came to this place, His Majesty repeatedly issued edicts to punish himself.
The Commander-in-Chief can allow His Majesty to take the Zen throne and thus continue the Ming Dynasty!"
At the gate of the Governor's Mansion, Chen Danzhong shouted with all his strength.
Li Yiyuan raised his arms and shouted: "Emperor Chongzhen's Zen throne will continue the Ming Dynasty Zuo!"
"Emperor Chongzhen's Zen throne continues the Ming Dynasty Zuo!"
About two hundred scholars followed and shouted together. In the end, they knelt down and shouted in unison.
In the nearly three hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, both officials and citizens have feelings.
Especially scholars, many are willing to die for the Ming Dynasty. Now there is the best choice, that is, Zhao Han marries a princess, is named King of Wu, accepts the Zen throne and becomes emperor, and raises troops to sweep the world.
In this way, Zuo of the Ming Dynasty can continue, Zhao Han can ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor, and the Tatars and bandits can be exterminated.
Isn’t it beautiful to cover everything?
The slogan of the Zen position was shouted, not to mention the idle scholars, even many officials were moved.
It's just that due to Zhao Han's prestige, the officials under Zhao Han don't dare to come out for the time being.
The crowd of onlookers grew larger and larger, and scholars continued to join in. The entrance to the Governor's Mansion was blocked.
Suddenly, a group of officials rushed over and persuaded: "My dear gentlemen, please disperse. If you disturb the public order and block the streets again, you can be punished according to the law."
Chen Danzhong immediately shouted: "We are planning for the world, how can it be regarded as disrupting public order?"
The official was also angry. If the matter was not handled well, he would definitely be punished. He sternly reprimanded: "You people are ignorant. If you don't drink a toast, you will be fined. Now I give you three choices; first, disperse immediately."
; Second, he will be imprisoned for half a month, he will pay for his own food, and he will also have to pay a fine; third, he will take turns cleaning the street for half a year!"
Li Yiyuan stood up: "A gentleman plans for the country, why should he be afraid of prison? Come and arrest me!"
"How can we let Brother Siwen go to jail alone? Count me in jail!" Chen Danzhong also stood up, holding his head high and glaring at the officer angrily.
"Count me in!"
"Catch me, catch me!"
More than thirty people came forward one after another.
The officer said angrily: "You think I don't dare? Take them all away!"
Just when the officials were arresting people, a large number of scholars dispersed, and in the end only twenty-six people were left waiting to be arrested.
Two days later.
Zhao Han asked: "Are you all on a hunger strike?"
Zheng Sen replied: "According to the county government, they are all on a hunger strike. They won't eat a mouthful of food or drink a mouthful of water."
"Then let them starve." Zhao Han sneered.
Li Banghua sighed: "I didn't think carefully. The governor really shouldn't accept the title of King Wu."
This is already the case without accepting the canonization. If he accepts the canonization, I don’t know how many scholars will come out and suggest that Zhao Han should succeed the Ming Emperor.
County prison.
On the third day of starvation, a scholar finally couldn't bear it anymore and shouted weakly: "I want to eat, I want to eat!"
Soon the jailer brought the food.
Anyway, during the detention period, I had to pay for my own food. This meal was very sumptuous, and it turned out to be authentic Jinling roast duck.
For a time, the prison was filled with aroma, and all the other soldiers couldn't help but swallow their saliva.
"I want to eat too!" A few more scholars compromised.
Li Yiyuan's stomach growled loudly and he said, "That guy surnamed Zhao is not really going to starve us to death, is he? We are Juren!"
Chen Danzhong was quite frustrated: "He is a rebel and he probably dares to starve to death."
The sound of chewing roast duck came from the side, and the smell was mouth-watering. Li Yiyuan swallowed his saliva and said: "Why don't you save your life first, and plan the country's plan slowly, and wait until Mr. Ximing Zhang Pu comes?"
"It should be like this," Chen Danzhong was so hungry that he almost had no energy to speak. He really didn't have the willpower to go on a hunger strike, so he shouted dizzy, "I want to eat roast duck!"
