Chen Qiyu, who was suddenly appointed at home, felt a lot of pressure. This was not a good job. Fortunately, His Majesty gave him enough support, otherwise he would not have dared to accept the order.
If you want a horse to run, you have to feed it. Zhu Youxiao knows this very well.
In the environment of the late Ming Dynasty, it was really difficult to move without food and money.
Zhu Youxiao was very generous this time. He directly allocated 500,000 taels of silver and 100,000 shi of grain from the internal funds, and also took 50,000 shi of grain from the national treasury, all of which were used for Chen Qiyu's funds to support the people.
It was approaching August in the capital, and the weather was already very hot. Zhu Youxiao was already sweating profusely when he rode his horse all the way to the military camp.
In such scorching hot weather, it is impossible to go out in broad daylight, let alone the sergeants who train every day in the military camp.
Now he could understand why there was talk of sending troops after autumn. This kind of weather was not suitable for fighting. If we had to carry out an expedition all the way, we might have been defeated without a fight before we even reached the destination and fought the enemy.
In order to ensure the health and condition of the sergeants, Zhu Youxiao's first military order when he arrived at the military camp was to stop drills and then changed the daily drill time.
Then he carefully selected two thousand sergeants from the four major battalions to form a multi-service unit.
Due to the improvement of food, there are now very few people in the army suffering from night blindness. Although their eyesight is not as good as Zhu Youxiao's, it is much better than before. At least their eyes are not dark at night.
This is a huge change and effect on an army. The most terrifying thing about an army is not defeat or lack of combat effectiveness, but the restless hearts of the sergeants at night.
People in this era have a natural fear of the dark night, which is one of the reasons for the implementation of the curfew. In addition to stealing and poking, they are afraid that someone will take the opportunity to cause trouble.
The army is even more serious. Once darkness falls, they are not even allowed to leave their tents. Anyone who dares to wander around the military camp at night is likely to be shot on the spot.
Especially in war, this kind of fear will be infinitely amplified. When it reaches a critical point, the army will blow up the camp and erupt into a roar.
The main reason for all this is that most sergeants suffer from night blindness. As long as there is a slight disturbance, they will explode and spread quickly like a powder keg with a fuse lit.
There are too many armies that collapsed because of the roar of the camp. It happened in every dynasty, and it seems to have no solution, and it continues to this day.
When the two armies are fighting, night attack is also one of the ways to win. Compared with strategy and head-on confrontation, night attack has the biggest impact, but its risks are naturally not low.
In ancient army operations, night attacks were a double-edged sword. If used properly, they could quickly defeat the enemy. In the Battle of Guandu during the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao laid the cornerstone of victory because of his night attack on Wuchao.
The defeat of Yuan Shao's army was not entirely caused by the burning of food and grass. In fact, Yuan Shao still had hope of making a comeback at that time, but he made extremely wrong judgments and decisions because of panic.
The reason why he formed this mixed army was to prepare for night battles.
The southwest region is mountainous and forested, especially Sichuan. The mountains are really too big, and Yongning has such a terrain.
The Yulin Army is mostly from the northern plains and is not familiar with the mountain jungles. It is extremely disadvantageous to fight with the local indigenous people.
Moreover, September and October are the hottest months in the southwest. The army travels long distances to fight, and its combat effectiveness will significantly decline.
The scorching sun during the day was a cruel test for wearing armor and fighting in battle. He did not want the elite soldiers he had trained so hard to suffer heavy losses due to acclimatization or disease.
At this time, the advantages of night fighting became apparent. A night fighting army of two thousand people launched a surprise attack when the enemy was unprepared, and the effect was needless to say.
He equipped this night fighting army with all the only 500 flintlock muskets in the entire army, and then equipped them with light bronze artillery. Even in the mountains, only two sergeants were needed to pull them all over the mountain.
Then all their armors were changed. The night warriors all gave up their defensive iron armor and chainmail armor and wore carefully crafted breastplates.
Although the safety has been reduced, the speed of marching operations has also been increased a lot.
As for a night attack, you don't need to fight the enemy head-on. As long as you create a big enough momentum and overwhelm the enemy's camp, you can basically win without a fight.
I hope they can give themselves a big surprise in this southern expedition.
The training content of this army has also been completely changed. Zhu Youxiao handed them over to the command of Ma Xianglin. From today on, Ma Xianglin will take them into the mountains and conduct complete training in the dark forests.
Although the time is a little rushed, Zhu Youxiao believes that Ma Xianglin will not let him down.
Zhu Youxiao spent most of a day just selecting and training this night fighting army of two thousand people, because he had to personally customize the standards and then test them one by one.
After the night fighting army was organized and trained, he then inspected the basic conditions of each battalion and only returned to the main tent after confirming that everything was correct.
This trip made him extremely hot. Compared to the palace, the military camp was no different from purgatory.
"Old Duke, you are my most trusted confidant. Only by leaving the army to you can I be able to go on a personal expedition with peace of mind. You don't have to refuse!"
"Back then, the King of Hejian was able to save the Yongle Emperor with his life on the battlefield. I believe that, descendants of the King of Hejian, your loyalty to the emperor will not change or diminish over time." (Zhang Yu was posthumously named the Emperor during the Hongxi period.
King of the Rivers!)
"The British Duke and his family have been trusted by successive emperors for generations. Naturally, they will not change when they come to me. Therefore, the important task of commanding the entire army to defend the capital belongs to none other than the old Duke."
Zhu Youxiao originally wanted to hand over all military power to Zhang Weixian, but who knew that he actually refused directly on the grounds that he was unable to bear the heavy responsibility.
This made him quite helpless. Isn't this too cautious? Even if I don't believe anyone, I won't disbelieve you, the Zhang family.
Zhu Youxiao guessed Zhang Weixian's thoughts wrongly at this point. He didn't think the emperor was testing caution, he was really afraid.
The British Duke's family was already the top family in the Ming Dynasty, and there was no shortage of power. Ever since they were granted the title of Duke, their Zhang family had dominated the limelight in the past two hundred years and made many people jealous.
Especially the first-generation British Duke Zhang Fu was in charge of the most powerful army in the Beijing camp. His military power was even greater than that of Xu Da and Lan Yu.
In the end, the entire army was wiped out in a single battle by Wala in Tumubao, and Zhang Fu himself even died on the battlefield.
So sometimes, when you should be low-key, you have to be low-key. What goes up must come down.