Liu Chengzong asked Yu Linqi beside him: "Zhang Yichuan, have you arrived in Ningyuan County?"
"Yes, Commander, this is the reward from Yi Yong."
Liu Yiren presented the letter and stood beside him, waiting for Liu Chengzong's next order.
Liu Chengzong opened the letter, read it for a while, and then a smile appeared on his lips, and then he became serious again. Finally, he fell into confusion. He thought for a moment and wrote a letter, saying: "Yiren, please send this letter to General Wei, who is stationed in Jin County."
, Zhang Yichuan's 6,000 old and weak troops will soon move to Jin County to allow him to be properly resettled; and then someone will send a reply to Yi Yong, asking them to learn and train soldiers in Ningyuan."
"In addition, send someone back to tell me the details of Zhang Yichuan's department."
After Liu Yiren was ordered to leave, Liu Chengzong leaned on the back of his seat and began to think carefully.
He attaches great importance to Zhang Yichuan who defected to him, even more than Li Hongsi. After all, Li Hongsi, the deputy commander, is an empty frame without his own troops. The 5,000 surrendered troops in Liangzhou can be divided into ten battalions according to their affiliation.
There is no threat at all after the dispersal.
But Zhang Yichuan was different. He tried hard to recruit troops in the southeast of the Marshal's Mansion, then turned around and defected to him. Three battalions of nine thousand troops were obtained without any effort.
The meeting between Liu Chengzong and Zhang Yichuan came suddenly, but it did not affect the smooth progress of the recruitment issue. Although the two sides had different opinions on some matters, Zhang Yichuan finally accepted it all: Liu Chengzong gave too much.
The Marshal's Office doesn't want much. Firstly, it wants him to obey the rules, and secondly, it wants him to prove himself. The way to prove himself is to break into Henan.
To a certain extent, He Renlong's statement about the Marshal's Mansion's surrender is not nonsense. One has to be capable to get Liu Chengzong's high-ranking official and generous salary, but the difference is that Liu Chengzong is very kind and he is willing to devote resources.
To build a platform for people to prove themselves.
Zhang Yichuan is a fan of officials. The biggest ideological difference between him and Liu Chengzong is that Liu Chengzong wanted him to be a military general who opened up territories and expanded his territory, while Zhang Yichuan wanted to be a minister.
Liu Shixin said, isn’t this crazy?
Holding military power in this troubled time is the greatest respect we can give you as a partner. You told me that you want to be a minister? Do you think that is re-employment? That is the treatment of Emperor Daxi, and that is called fear. Do you understand?<
/p>
In fact, this was due to Liu Chengzong's lack of understanding. In another time and space, Zhang Yichuan proclaimed himself emperor earlier than Zhang Xianzhong.
Fortunately, Liu Chengzong was an expert at pancakes. He gave Zhang Yichuan a beautiful blueprint for the Henan Commander-in-Chief, and mentioned the huge battle situation in the Central Plains battlefield in the future. Zhang Yichuan felt that the Henan Commander-in-Chief seemed to be compared to the Minister of Etiquette in the words of the Generalissimo.
It’s important, so I just pinched my nose and accepted it.
As for breaking into Henan and fighting on the front line where the Marshal's Mansion and the imperial court are at odds, this matter doesn't matter to Zhang Yichuan. Anyway, there is no food. He will be on the front line wherever he goes. When he goes to Henan, he still has the support of the Grand Marshal. At least
It’s better than going alone somewhere else.
The only problem is that Zhang Yichuan's troops are indeed too weak.
Zhang Yichuan was quite honest, saying that he originally only had one battalion, and the combat effectiveness of this battalion was not bad. In a fight, there was a chance of defeating a thousand headquarters of the army, and a high probability of annihilating a commander-in-chief. When Zhang Yichuan said this, to be honest,
He looks a bit proud.
Liu Chengzong didn't quite understand. Is he proud of his frank behavior in exposing his shortcomings?
A battalion has a high probability of annihilating a commander-in-chief. What kind of combat effectiveness is this?
Liu Shizi remembered that in the Battle of Ganzhou, there was a general named Yingshanhong under Zhang Tianlin's camp. He lost contact with the general on the battlefield. He was panicked after losing his commander. He encountered the Ming army general Wang Huaizhong who was also panicked. The two armies met at the same time.
He ran away, but Yingshanhong, who reacted first, turned back and rushed into the battle, captured him in a fight, and captured an officer for himself, so he didn't panic anymore.
That is to say, one battalion of Zhang Yichuan is roughly equal to one hundred regiments of Azalea?
To put it this way, it must be modest.
Liu Chengzong felt that teams like Liu Guoneng, Li Wanqing, and Liu Jiusi were not as strong as his before, but they could still stand alone now. With the help of the Marshal's Office, Zhang Yichuan's troops should improve their combat effectiveness very quickly. After all, they can survive so many years of being a bandit.
The old pawn is definitely not simple.
Now, after a winter of recruiting troops in southern Shaanxi, Zhang Yichuan has expanded his army to three battalions and controls a population of more than 15,000. Most of them are women, children and the elderly. It is precisely because of these burdens that Li Zicheng is not willing to follow him.
He cooperates.
After all, there was no food. Li Zicheng was the leader of the fifth battalion of the Chuang Army. Everyone asked him for food, but he couldn't produce food.
The key point is that the Marshal's Mansion is lying in the northwest, causing the army to block the road into Guanzhong. At this time, no one is willing to jump out first and get beaten. The situation is blocked, and the five battalions of the intruders start to go their own way.
Yes.
Liu Chengzong did not have high demands on Zhang Yichuan, so he settled five to six thousand old, weak, women and children in Jin County, Lanzhou. There were few people and few people there, and spring plowing began. It was the time when manpower was needed. The ground was also very safe, and all the family members of the army were resettled.
Okay, the remaining 9,000 troops were brought to Ningyuan County in Gongchang Prefecture to receive reorganization and training.
The method he came up with was to form five small battalions with a size of 2,000 people. The Marshal's Mansion provided him with training officers, a corps of officers and a long list of supplies. Ningyuan County was used as the base to train with sufficient supplies.
In a month or two, we will then move to the east to start the war. We will go to Guanzhong first and then talk about the rest.
The reason for this is that Zhang Yichuan originally had three battalions, with each battalion having 3,000 men. He led one of his own battalions and had two other leaders, nicknamed Ketianhu and Chongtianzhu.
Ke Tianhu is an old name. As early as the uprising in Yan'an Mansion of Liu Chengzong, Ke Tianhu was already Wang Zuoguan's right-hand man in the campaign in northern Shaanxi. Later, Wang Zuoguan chose to recruit troops, and Ke Tianhu followed the sweeping king who caused trouble in Suide.
At that time, Zhang Yichuan and Ke Tianhu could not tell who was following the other. Anyway, the former had a large number of troops, while the latter had few but capable soldiers, so they planned to live together as a team.
However, when a large number of peasant troops were surrounded in Shanxi and the Taihang Mountains, Ke Tianhu was wounded by the cannons of the official army. The situation was critical at that time. In order to allow Zhang Yichuan to lead other brothers to escape, he left the mission of the rear to himself, and even killed the official.
The military leader's last words to Zhang Yichuan were to wait for the officers and soldiers to take advantage of his head and continue to cause trouble in the name of Ke Tianhu, which would have the effect of lying about military merit.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Today's Ke Tianhu is the second generation, born in Shaanxi, and can be regarded as Zhang Yichuan's confidant.
Chongtianzhu was a bandit from Luliang Mountain in Shanxi. He had been entrenched in Xiaoyi for many years. When the bandit went south to Henan, he didn't want to leave his hometown, but he was dragged south by Zhang Yichuan. However, he was lucky. If he hadn't been taken away, he would have stayed behind.
Shanxi must be dead.
Both of them have experienced the difficult years of being surrounded by the Ming army in Shanxi. They have been tested in the team for a long time and have a deep foundation of prestige.
But Liu Chengzong had to think about it. I gave you ample supplies, armor and weapons, but what if you took the things and ran away? So it must be reorganized.
Therefore, after Liu Shizi read the resumes of various small leaders under Zhang Yichuan, he retained the generals of Ketianhu and Chongtianzhu, and promoted three generals, Yidougu, Three Dragons and Songjiang, from his army.
These three people have little foundation in the army and have complicated resumes. Yi Dougu and Song Jiang are from Henan. The peasant army broke out from Shanxi and entered Henan in large numbers. Local bandits and powerful people responded in large numbers.
The former broke out of the county and started an uprising, and the peasant army responded; the latter formed a stronghold to defend itself, and the official army responded.
Yi Dougu and Song Jiang both opened the county seat and responded to the peasant army. Both of them were very rebellious, so they were chased and beaten by the official army. They could only leave their hometowns with the peasant army. They had not yet formed their own style and name.
He would give a bucket of grain to anyone who followed him; Song Jiang was a timely helper, and he would help anyone who wanted to help.
As for the three dragons, they were landlord scholars from the southern part of Beizhili.
That year, the peasant army rushed out from the Taihang Mountains and fought with the official army in Guangping Prefecture, Zhangde Prefecture and other places.
When the Jingying Army came to help, there was a small battalion of more than 800 Liao soldiers, all of whom were veterans. They were overly exploited by Wang Wei and transferred troops to Zhangde Mansion to mutiny on the spot.
This matter is not worth mentioning in the context of the melee, but the three dragons were almost wiped out by the rebel army. They were so angry that they led the surviving father and son brothers to form a volunteer army to avenge the rebel army. Everyone knew that the three dragons were in
The scholar who had studied under the Imperial Academy in Nanjing had a miserable experience, so he elected him as the leader of the rebel army.
I don’t know how it happened. Maybe the officers and soldiers looked too much like their enemies, or maybe they looked too much like the peasant soldiers. In short, they were beaten by the officers and soldiers into the Taihang Mountains, where they were picked up by Zhang Yichuan and followed to Shaanxi.
.
Liu Chengzong's eyes were very sharp, and he saw this person at a glance among the resumes of a bunch of small leaders. He thought that this person, the leader of the peasant army in Shaanxi, would definitely not be able to urinate in a pot, and could not be used as a confidant.
It is also difficult for subordinates to recruit soldiers and horses in Shaanxi to become a big deal.
He can focus on cultivating him as a confidant of the Marshal's Mansion in the Henan General Military Administration.
Zhang Yichuan was quite disgusted with this matter. It was not that he was not willing to obey after being recruited. The main reason was that there were people from all over the country in his team. When there were more people, there were close relatives from the township party faction. He spent a lot of effort to bring the team together.
, to ensure that the participating generals will not threaten his leadership status.
What's more, according to the tradition of the peasant army, even if you want to appoint a general, people must be convinced. How could it be like now, Liu Chengzong waved his hand and wrote his name, and three little leaders who wanted ability but not ability, and prestige but not prestige ascended to heaven, and followed Ke
Big leaders like Tianhu and Chongtianzhu are on an equal footing.
Liu Chengzong's reasons were very good. Henan's general military standard was relatively weak. With only less than 10,000 soldiers in the third battalion, not to mention controlling Henan, he was afraid that he would be destroyed by the army before he even reached Tongguan. Therefore, before marching to Tongguan,
, it must be expanded to at least five full camps in Guanzhong.
So what happens after marching into Henan? Henan is such a big place, and as the front line where the Marshal's Mansion and the imperial court are fighting, ten battalions of 30,000 troops may not be enough. With only five battalions, if they want to move around in Henan and control the place,
, they must not all be guest troops from Shaanxi, Guanzhong, and Shanxi. Only by relying on local troops can we defeat the official army according to local conditions.
Therefore, there must be at least two leaders from Henan in these five camps. This is the reason why the two small leaders Yi Dougu and Song Jiang were promoted to generals.
This is indeed his sincere thought. Liu Shizi is not trying to seize power. He just needs a guarantee when adding sand. It cannot be all sand. If it is all sand, the army will be useless. Not to mention the waste of supporting materials, the armor and equipment
If we are fully owned by the enemy, we might as well not incorporate them at all.
Liu Chengzong explained his words, saying that Santiaolong was the only leader under Zhang Yichuan who was a scholar. I am also a scholar, and I am willing to give such highly educated talents a chance.
Zhang Yichuan thought about it, but he couldn't figure out whether Liu Chengzong had the idea of adding sand to his army. At first, he thought that the three extra generals were all mixed with sand by Liu Chengzong to seize power, but after thinking about it, it seemed that it was not good for him.
No threat.
In terms of reason, he was indeed right. He convinced him that if he wanted to enter Henan, how could he not have generals from Henan? He would be promoted early or late.
Those who are far away or close are all his subordinates, which is better than being close to Liu Chengzong.
He originally thought that the Marshal's Mansion would directly parachute the two generals.
As for Liu Shishi, wouldn't it be a waste to give you two generals? Talents in the Marshal's Mansion are much more expensive than armor and equipment. Your battalion is roughly equivalent to the combat power of a hundred regiments. If you two generals are given
You can’t protect yourself well either.
Deciding on the system of dividing the troops into five battalions, Liu Chengzong assembled a hundred-man team.
The Centurion has Yu Linqi Liu Yiyong as the hundred commander, and there are also five Yu Linqi as the staff of the Henan General Military Officer, and also as the liaison officer with the Marshal's Mansion.
In addition, there are also veterans from the Marshal's Mansion who are responsible for coaching the fourth division of infantry, cavalry and artillery, soldiers who maintain ordnance, rural warriors who train the people, several professional Tangqi, and even twelve people who are responsible for the staff and guards.
The Mongolian cavalry began to reorganize and distribute ordnance in Ningyuan County.
They escorted a large number of second-hand ordnance, and gave each battalion and each hundred-level brigade ten blunderbuss, twenty three-eyed blunderbuss, twenty waist knives, twenty bows and arrows, ten collars of cloth-covered armor, and two flying cannons.
Two Pearl Cannons.
At the same time, each of the five battalions received two large Fran machine guns, 200 horses, gunpowder and artillery shells for troop training, and two months of rations.
According to Liu Chengzong's idea, after this batch of equipment was delivered and distributed to each battalion, supplemented by Zhang Yichuan's original weapons and horses, the combat effectiveness of the entire army should be greatly improved soon.
However, the information Liu Yiyong sent from Ningyuan County was completely different from what he imagined.
First of all, Zhang Yichuan's situation is very complicated. They are really weak in the confrontation. The soldiers have almost no firearms training, and there is almost no camp drill. More than 70% of the soldiers know nothing about operating guns and 90% of the soldiers have difficulty wearing armor.
In combat, I am very unfamiliar with military formations as a whole.
For Liu Chengzong, this was an unimaginable comment - it was hard for him to imagine that this was describing a peasant army that fought in several provinces.
Why are you so unfamiliar with the military formation?
But this was not enough to confuse Liu Chengzong. What really confused him was the other half of Liu Yiyong's evaluation of Zhang Yichuan in his letter:
His unit is good at defeating the enemy, and under certain conditions, Zhang Yichuan's unit is very powerful in combat. Even the Marshal's Mansion Field Battalion with the same strength may be defeated by it!