"Hurry up and go. If you linger any longer, I'll kill you with one shot."
Li Dazhuang yelled at the obviously procrastinating prisoner.
He led the army and rushed to the Ming army's grain storage camp in Fengxiang Prefecture.
Just as he was preparing to burn down the granary, he received news that Commander Su had annihilated the Ming army.
His mission also changed, from burning food to grabbing food.
The process of grabbing food went smoothly, and the Ming army had no will to resist.
Li Dazhuang led the soldiers to attack. After a volley of musket fire, the soldiers surrendered.
Li Dazhuang directly captured the officers and soldiers, and together with the corvees who transported grain in the camp, formed his grain transportation team.
There were not enough grain carts to transport grain, so Li Dazhuang sent his soldiers to the gentry's homes in surrounding villages and towns to rob some mule carts and donkey carts.
There are no wheelbarrows here, and the food that cannot be transported by vehicles can only be carried by prisoners on shoulder poles.
There are more than 13,000 people in total, and these people are very difficult to manage.
Li Dazhuang was friendly at first and persuaded the prisoners to help them transport food.
These prisoners just wanted to escape, not to take good food.
This made Li Dazhuang panic and shot several of the troublemakers directly.
Only then did the prisoners become more honest. He sent soldiers to guard the prisoners, and any troublemakers were dealt with directly.
They drove the grain truck from Fengxiang Mansion to Baoji County.
Along the way, Li Dazhuang also saw some sporadic deserters from the army.
In order to safely transport the food back, he did not pursue these deserters.
Li Dazhuang led a long team transporting grain through many counties without being attacked by the Ming army.
These county towns closed their gates tightly, and they were even more afraid of Li Dazhuang's attack.
…
The war ended a few days ago, and bodies are being cremated with fierce fire oil at the Weihe defense line.
The weather has become warmer, and if the corpses are not disposed of, it is easy to cause plague.
Su He saw the mighty grain trucks coming towards them on the north bank of the Wei River.
There was a group of soldiers wearing yellow clothes and holding the Great Wall flag guarding the grain truck.
Li Dazhuang snatched all the grain stored by the officers and soldiers.
These grains can at least feed the captives until the autumn harvest.
Su He saw Li Dazhuang riding a horse and walking across the wooden bridge over the Weihe River.
"Dazhuang, you are already on the war horse. The results of this capture are very fruitful."
Li Dazhuang dismounted and held the horse's reins with his hands.
He said helplessly: "This time I only shot some guardsmen and corvees. They surrendered before I even fired a few shots.
This is a completely different experience from Commander Su's annihilation of 100,000 officers and soldiers on the Weihe River defense line.
I would rather fight on the front line than be a grain transport officer."
"As a grain transport officer, you have made great achievements.
How much grain was seized this time?" Su He asked.
He is most concerned about how much food is shipped.
Li Dazhuang took out a small notebook and read the numbers on it:
"Commander Su, this time the army has stockpiled 200,000 dan of grain, but the grain I transported was based on a simple estimate.
The amount of food stored by the officers and soldiers is a little over 100,000 dan."
"It's not half floating, which is almost normal data."
Su He was not surprised. Those officials from the Ming Dynasty did not disappear. That was abnormal.
He then issued an order to Li Dazhuang, saying: "There are too many prisoners, and your Guards Brigade is responsible for training the prisoners.
We must let the prisoners learn discipline and recruit qualified soldiers into our ranks.
For others, just make them obedient and maintain basic obedience."
Li Dazhuang responded with a smile: "This is easy, I manage the prisoners like new recruits."
…
Bang! Bang!
Two gunshots immediately woke up Li Dazhuang, who was sleeping soundly.
He put on his cotton coat and walked outside.
Li Dazhuang is in a prison camp outside Baoji County.
He is training the prisoners according to Su He's requirements.
Prisoners who are willing to serve as soldiers are selected, and other prisoners are sent to Hanzhong factories or construction sites to work after simple training.
These prisoners have not yet met the requirements and need to be trained to have minimum obedience.
Li Dazhuang led the guards and rushed towards the direction of the gunfire.
He saw Qi Gangyi, the deputy brigade commander on duty tonight, leading his soldiers to confront a group of prisoners.
"Qi Gangyi, what happened? Why did you shoot?"
Qi Gang said resolutely: "I don't know, I am preparing to control them and question them.
These prisoners wanted to run out of the camp, and the soldiers on duty fired warning shots."
The leading prisoner representative immediately knelt down and cried:
"Sir, please let us out, we can't stay in this prisoner camp any longer.
Those people in the Ganzhou Guard had smallpox on them.
The Ganzhou Guard Commander asked the guard station to send cotton-armored anti-fire guns.
Someone contracted smallpox there, which caused many of the guardsmen in Ganzhou to contract smallpox, and now most of the people in the whole camp have symptoms."
Li Dazhuang was shocked. Smallpox broke out in the prisoner camp. This was really terrible.
It occurred to him then that he had been vaccinated against cowpox.
Commander Su repeatedly promoted that vaccination with cowpox vaccine could prevent smallpox.
But he still had some doubts in his heart.
Smallpox has been raging for thousands of years, but it can be controlled by this simple method.
Li Dazhuang didn't know how to deal with smallpox.
He could only give instructions first: "Qi Gangyi, you control all the prisoners and let them rest in their own camp, and no one is allowed to come out.
Arrange food for the soldiers and deliver it directly to them.
I rushed to Baoji County overnight to ask Commander Su for instructions on what to do about this matter."
…
Su He was having a chat with Su Hu and arranging the next military deployment.
"Su Hu, establish a third division, with your first brigade of the first division as the backbone.
The third division was established by absorbing elite soldiers captured by officers and soldiers.
When the training of new recruits of the Guards Brigade is completed, soldiers will be assigned immediately to complete your team.
Su Hu, your goal is to defend the Weihe defense line.
Don't take the initiative to attack the Ming court first. If there are refugees who defect to us, we can accept them.
Don't feel frustrated about defending the Weihe line.
When we prepare to attack the prefectures in northern Shaanxi, your division will definitely be the main force."
Su Hu was very excited, so he was responsible for leading the troops in the war. He didn't usually like to fight for power and gain.
His brother Su Xiong had already had a heart-to-heart talk with him. People of their status didn't have to fight for power at all.
They will definitely have a share of what others should have, and just do their part well.
"Commander Su, I won't mention any other requests. You have to send me a staff officer.
Now I only rely on myself to teach myself, and I have to teach other officers how to read, which is too difficult."
When Su He heard Su Hu's request, he also had a headache.
Li Fengming originally trained some scholars, but the war caused the training to be interrupted.
There are no qualified staff officers at all now.
The staff officer is responsible for formulating battle plans and is one of the leading generals. He must be capable and must not be fooled.
"Okay, I will return to Hanzhong soon, and I will recruit a large number of literati. I will definitely send you qualified staff officers."
Su He immediately agreed. Through this war, he had actually become a separatist force.
There will definitely be literati who are good at speculation and join their ranks.
Su He was in Weihe's room during this time and heard the soldiers at the bottom chatting.
Some soldiers said that the title of marquis had nothing to do with him. He would never be able to become a marquis in his life, so he had to work hard for anything.
When Su He heard this, he was very shocked.
He stayed up late for several days writing questionnaires, preparing to find out the true thoughts of grassroots officers and soldiers.
Just after midnight, Su He finally finished writing the questions on the questionnaire.
He immediately called Li Fengming and Su Ying.
"Make tens of thousands of copies of this questionnaire and send it to every soldier and officer.
Let the junior officers who are literate read the above content to the soldiers, and the soldiers are responsible for answering the questions.
Su Ying, please send someone to keep a close eye on this matter. If there are any deceitful officers, deal with them seriously immediately.
They can falsify questionnaires, and they can still fight seriously."
Li Fengming and Su Ying had just taken orders to go out, and Su He was getting ready to sleep.
Li Dazhuang walked in and said with a panicked look: "Commander Su is in trouble, someone in the prisoner camp has smallpox.
Now the captives are panic-stricken and want to break out of the camp.
Now Qi Gangyi, deputy commander of the Guards Brigade, is suppressing them and preventing them from leaving their camps."
"There is smallpox. Fortunately, our soldiers have all been vaccinated against cowpox."
When Su He heard about the smallpox outbreak, he was extremely lucky.
Most of the soldiers and people in Baoji County have been vaccinated against cowpox twice.
They all produce a lifelong immune barrier against smallpox.
It would be very tragic if smallpox broke out in the military camp without vaccination.
Su He thought again that there were more than 100,000 prisoners in the prison camp.
These people have not been vaccinated against cowpox. If smallpox breaks out completely, the casualties will be very heavy and must be dealt with immediately.