The back office of the Anqing Garrison Department has been transformed into a dedicated military room. All subordinate offices work in the back office, which is completely separated from the rooms in the lobby. Basically, everyone who comes and goes wears military uniforms.
A military discussion was taking place in the main hall of the Hou Yamen. Pang Yu was sitting in the upright position. A huge map hung on the wall behind him. The map covered Shaanxi, Henan, North and South Zhili and Huguang. The situation of rogue bandit activities was marked in red on the map.
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On the north bank of the Yangtze River between Chaohu and Chuzhou, there are several medium-sized red arrows, one of which is close to Jiangpu.
To the north of Anqing, there are more than a dozen small red arrows and dense red intersections, showing that there have been a lot of fighting in the Dabie Mountains in the north of Anqing recently. Although the scale is not large, it proves that the scale of the mountain bandits is not large.
Xiao, they are constantly testing.
Further north on the map, two shocking huge red arrows start from Nanyang and point to Huguang and Henan respectively.
"Received a report from Liu Liangzuotang, the deputy general stationed in Lu'an Prefecture, that Ding Ding of his department encountered thieves in the direction of Gushi. They saw fire for more than ten miles at night. There were also two groups of thieves in the mountains in the direction of Huoshan. They were defeated by his troops while looting outside the mountain. Hundreds of people were beheaded.
The rest of the ranks, the leader of the thieves is Ge Liyan..." "I received a report from Zheng Guoliangtang, the official of the Prime Minister's Department, and according to the report from Liu Yongfu's department, a large number of thieves were marching between Tang County and Biyang.
Jue, the leader of the thieves has broken into Taotian. Cao Cao and another large group of thieves are heading south via Xiangyang. The leader of the thieves is the eight kings in the west camp. Ma Shouying, each of them is guarding the place where they are strict and trustworthy, and they work together to wipe out..." "Join the Southern War Department Titang
Official Mo Yu reported to Tang that on the 13th of this month, Jiangpu County captured a bandit named Chen Pu from Fengyang.
The new thief Ziweixing joined the camp. The thief was ordered to find out the number of Jiangpu defense troops. He said that when he was in the camp, he heard Gao Zhao say "go down to Jiangpu for revenge" and other words. He said that hundreds of people sneaked to Pukou, Liuhe, Yizheng, and other places in each camp.
More than a thousand people had already crossed the river in the middle of the year, and entered Nanjing disguised as workers, beggars, monks and Taoists, with the intention of crossing the river to attack the southern capital. Hezhou and other places strictly cleared the river, and did not allow river boats to dock on the north bank. They asked me to water
The battalion will strictly inspect the river section."
Yang Xueshi, who had taken over as the secretary of the barracks, was reporting on the military situation in various places. Originally, he was only the secretary of the painting studio. The post of secretary of the barracks was concurrently held by the secretary of the Chengfafang. Mr. Hou took up three positions, both as the secretary of the Chengfafang and the secretary of the Chengfafang.
He is the chief clerical officer and the military commander.
After that, He Xianya returned to Anqing. Although he was not formally appointed, he was already working in the Chengfa Office. Now Mr. Hou basically only manages the military Chinese clerical system.
Everyone listened quietly. The situation of the invaders this year was severe. Especially the tribes such as Geliyan and Zuojinwang spent the summer in the mountains. They seemed to use the Dabie Mountains as their base. As soon as autumn came, they went out to plunder. And there were countless tunnels along the mountains in Anqing.
, officers and soldiers were restrained in large numbers.
Pang Yu said while taking rough notes, "Tell me the location of the friendly forces."
"The nearest officers and soldiers in Fengdu's jurisdiction are Liu Liangzuo's troops in Lu'an Prefecture, numbering about 4,000, Mou Wenshou's troops in Chuzhou, numbering about 3,000, Shouzhou having 1,500 Sichuan troops, and Fengyang having 3,000 Zhejiang troops.
The Feng Governor has a camp of 3,500 soldiers; Henan Province is recently under the headquarters of Zuo Liangyu, and currently in the Ruyang area, the number is about 20,000."
"Twenty thousand?"
Mr. Hou raised his head in surprise, "The total town can only hold one battalion, so how can we count 20,000?"
Others who participated in the meeting were also very surprised. Ordinary military leaders would pay empty wages and pay false wages, wishing they could only keep servants. However, Zuo Liangyu had six or seven times the number of soldiers.
"This... I don't know, this number comes from the governor's office."
Pang Yu also had some doubts about this, but it was difficult to verify for the time being, so he had to let Yang Xueshi continue to report.
The overall situation of bandits this year is not much easier than last year. The reports from the Tang officials everywhere indicate that the bandits branched off from Nanyang and went south and east around the Dabie Mountains respectively. However, the overall officers and soldiers were more scattered than last year because of the lack of Lu Xiangsheng.
Liao soldiers led by Zu Kuan and Li Chongzhen were in the northeast of Nanyang, more like guarding Kaifeng.
"Premier Wang has been in Kaifeng?"
"It is said that he is not far away."
Pang Yu was also a little worried. He didn't understand Wang Jiazhen's ability, but it was obviously very different from Lu Xiangsheng's style of taking the lead. In view of the characteristics of rogue bandits coming and going like the wind, Pang Yu felt that Lu Xiangsheng's approach to the front line was more effective.
The military system of the Ming Dynasty was like this. The largest military position was the General Soldier, and the number of troops under his direct leadership was three to four thousand. There was no subordinate relationship between the various branches of troops. It was difficult to unify orders during battles. Military orders were all in the hands of civilian officials.
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Without Lu Xiangsheng personally leading the troops, Chuzhou would not have been able to achieve such a great victory.
Wang Jiazhen was stationed in Kaifeng, and the five provinces were vast. It took half a month for intelligence and military orders to come back and forth. The movements of the bandits were changing at any time. After half a month, they were no longer where they were. Wang Jiazhen's dispatch was meaningless. Five
The provincial premier was originally set up to coordinate the dispatch of officers and soldiers. Without a high-ranking official like Lu Xiangsheng to lead the troops nearby, the officers and soldiers of each branch would fight independently, leading to a messy battle with the rogue bandits.
At present, the total strength of the five provinces is about 100,000, and less than half of them can be used for mobile operations. In terms of the current distribution of officers and soldiers, Henan is the strongest, followed by Fengyang District, and the entire northern Huguang has about 15,000 officers and soldiers, mainly in
Among the Hubei Fubiao Camp and the Sichuan and Mao soldiers who came to the rescue, the weakest was Anqing under the jurisdiction of Governor Yingtian.
What Pang Yu is most worried about now is that the two major streams of bandits from Nanyang are intercepted by officers and soldiers from various places and finally converge on Anqing. With the mobility of the bandits, the officers and soldiers cannot mobilize in time, and they may become rogue bandits to encircle and suppress the officers and soldiers of Anqing.
"Yang Sili talks about Anqing's latest deployment."
"Zhu Jiaxian, the magistrate of Qianshan County, has led the officials and people to move into Tianning Village. All the money and food have been transported, and construction of trenches for Tianning Village has begun. Yang Zhuoran, the magistrate of Taihu County, is still leading the people to build the city. Many townships along the Taihu Lake Mountains have regiments training rural soldiers.
We fought for dozens of times with scattered bandits at various mountain passes. Our troops mounted camp sentries to explore the Jifei Beach, and got a lot of help from the local soldiers. Susong city construction had stopped, and the people prepared boats to anchor along the bank of Leichi. Susong was empty at night.
One person; Wangjiang city head is fully prepared, and thirty people from Tongcheng Zhuangban have arrived in the city to provide full-time guidance to the social troops in city defense preparations and operations."
Yang Xueshi took a drink of water and took a sip. He was seriously injured in Jiangpu at the beginning of the year, especially the wounds on his face, which still affect his ability to eat. Compared with when he first met Pang Yu last year, Yang Xueshi had lost a lot of weight.
"According to Master Daotai's deployment, there are currently 2,100 soldiers and horses from Liuhe's battalion in Jiangnan to assist in the suppression of the Yangtze River. They are stationed in Beixiaguan, Kongcheng Town, Songyang, Taihu County, Tonglingzhai and other places in Tongcheng. Pan Guerrilla Division has one
Thousands and five hundred people were stationed in Tongcheng County, Xinyong Camp, Daobiao Camp, and Junyong Camp were stationed in Wangjiang, Fengxiangyi and other places.
The rest are our garrison headquarters. The first division is still stationed in Tongcheng, and the second division has..." Yang Xueshi paused and continued, "has returned to Tianning Village in Qianshan. Because the cavalry division detected a swarm of bandits from Longjing Pass, we were on the left.
The Second Division of King Jin's headquarters will not be transferred to other places in the near future..." The Longjing Pass he mentioned is an important pass near Taihu Lake. The road conditions are much better than other small passes. If thieves in the mountains want to come out of the mountains, Qianshan Taihu will bear the brunt.
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Pang Yu raised his hand and interrupted Yang Xueshi, "Since Yang Sili mentioned the second division, I will continue to say a few words.
The garrison camp is the military force of the imperial court, but the imperial court appoints its own officers to conduct training and dispatch. All officers and soldiers in the garrison camp can only take orders from their own officers. Military law makes it clear that all battalion-level military orders only come from the studio, and military orders must be executed.
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He glanced at the officers attending the meeting and finally landed on Mr. Hou, "As for which lord I take orders from, that is my business. I don't just listen to a certain lord. There are more than just Daotai Yamen."
, as well as the Yingtian Military Gate, the Fengdu Department, the Prime Minister's Department, the Southern War Department, and the Capital War Department. If everyone can come and issue orders to the various divisions of the garrison, then there will be no need for my own officer.
Yes, don’t you think so, Mr. Hou?”
The sound of a needle dropping could be heard in the hall. Mr. Hou was sweating on his forehead and kept responding.
Pang Yu nodded, "Since Mr. Hou thinks so, he probably teaches the clerks at all levels the same way. If there are clerks who don't agree with this, it means they lack understanding. Marching and fighting is a matter of life and death. Without understanding, people will die."
Mr. Hou stood up carefully and bowed and said, "I understand that when selecting clerks, there were too few literate people, and I was negligent for a moment..." "Clerical officers are both literary and military, and they are the key points in the army. Although
I am called a clerical officer, but the most important thing is to know the general principles and affairs, not whether I am literate or not. I feel that it is better to be deficient than to overdo it, let alone be accommodating. I will replace the unsuitable person immediately. Tomorrow morning, I will see the clerical officer
Official personnel adjustments.”
Mr. Hou wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "This subordinate understands what to do."
"I would like to remind Mr. Hou that some unsuitable people are not transferred from the clerk to the government office. Since they do not know the general situation, they will be expelled from the garrison. There are many talents in the world, so don't worry about no one available."
Jiang Guoyong, Zhuang Chaozheng and others who attended the meeting were all sitting upright. Mr. Hou was the only one standing. Pang Yu refused to let him sit down and turned to Yang Xueshi to continue his report.
At this time, the guard outside the door reported, and then He Xianya hurried in and handed over an official document, saying in a low voice, "This is the order letter just sent by Lord Daotai."
Pang Yu asked directly, "But where is the Tang newspaper?"
"A small group of bandits in Tongcheng entered Songyang from the road and burned down a warehouse. Our water camp stationed in Songyang arrived immediately and killed seven bandits, while the rest fled.
Master Daotai believes that this is the outpost of a large group of bandits in Chao County. The brigade will then attack Songyang, and he will personally lead the cavalry to Kongcheng Town."
"It was only sent now."
Pang Yu had already received the newspaper from Shuiying. He reached out to take the order and read it, "There are only dozens of bandits and bandits, but no definite traces of the enemy have been found anywhere. They will be scattered in several counties. Then there will be police from Susong."
, do you want me to rush to Susong within one day?
How will he respond to the banditry in Guangji direction?"
"Order the water camp troops to go to Chunfeng Fort at Susong Pass to fortify themselves."
"The Shuiying Army Soldiers... even Shi Daotai knew about it.
But the Chunfeng Castle is high on the top of the mountain, and the bandits have blocked the way down the mountain, and no soldiers can get out."
Pang Yu put down the order letter casually and said, "Reply to Mr. Daotai, our cavalry battalion has been transferred to Taihu Lake, and the water battalion Marine Corps is stationed in Wangjiang. It still has the responsibility of rescuing Jiangnan and we dare not take it lightly."
He Xianya didn't know the content of the meeting just now, so after listening to the low-pitched persuasion, he said, "Sir, let's see if we send some troops. I might not be able to explain if a single soldier is not sent. After all, the Military Preparation Road is in charge of the troops."
Pang Yu frowned and thought for a moment. At present, the Nanjing bank is developing well and he has enough money. The money and food of Daotai Yamen are becoming less and less important to him. The troops in Shi Kefa's hands are completely unable to suppress the garrison. Zhang Guowei can't complain about Pang Yu's situation.
, the only advantage is the official title.
What makes Pang Yu most disgusted at present is that Shi Kefa went beyond his control and mobilized the garrison camp. However, if he did not accept Shi Kefa's fault at all, it would set a bad example for his subordinates. Moreover, he was still within the imperial court system, and it would be quite inconvenient for him to break up with him.
Although He Xianya did not attend the meeting, he had heard about the affairs of the Second Division. Seeing Pang Yu's appearance, he roughly guessed what was going on. He thought about it and said, "My subordinates have an idea. The big thief in Anqing should be Su Song.
Tongcheng, there are just a lot of thieves along the mountain. We can propose to Mr. Daotai that the garrison camp defend one side alone, either in the direction of Susong or Tongcheng, and save hundreds of miles of transfers.
When a big thief emerges, Master Daotai will dispatch him to suppress him."
Several officers participating in the meeting nodded slightly. They also complained about the confusion of military orders. Anqing is a terrain that is long from east to west and short from north to south. If a dedicated defense area is clearly defined, the garrison battalion will be more easily deployed and there will be no need for constant conflicts with Daotai Yamen.
"This is a good suggestion. He Xianya will participate in military discussions in the future."
Pang Yu stood up after saying that, "I will go to Tongcheng to see Shi Daotai tomorrow, and He Xianya will accompany me."