When Liu Xin came to Jingang this time, she did not come alone. She was accompanied by several generals of the Liu family and as many as a thousand of the Liu family's servants who moved the world - the Japanese descendants.
After the Yunnan-Burma War, the number of the Liu family's servants increased to just over 4,000. This time Liu Wei handed over a quarter of the Liu family's wealth to his sister and asked her to bring her to Jingang.
When making this decision, Liu Wei didn't even know what conditions Huang Zhiting offered his sister. The only thing he knew was that his sister had been smart since she was a child, and she would not squander the Liu family's wealth.
It wasn't until the Thousand Japanese War Yiding arrived in Dingnan that Liu Xin wrote back to Liu Wei. Although the letter did not directly explain it, it also hinted at something.
For example, Huang Zhiting once said that Beijing has always had a tradition of rewarding based on merit. Generally speaking, wherever meritorious services are performed, rewards will be given there.
For example, Gao Silian, who was a colonial envoy to Huaying, once made great contributions to the opening up of Huaying territory. Therefore, although he is currently serving in southern Myanmar, he has 3,000 acres of fertile land and about 500 acres of homestead in Huaying with high pragmatic rewards.
.After he made meritorious service in Myanmar, he was rewarded with a large warehouse land in Daguang Port (later Yangon) in southern Myanmar (only the land was given, and he needed to build it according to Beijing standards), as well as a building in Bago City.
The Marquis's mansion confiscated from the Burmese royal family.
At that time, Gao Silian was only a general in the field, and his status was no more than a high-level and pragmatic servant. His rewards were already so generous. But this time Liu Xin was used as a "commander in the field", and he was going to fight a "battle to destroy the country."
As long as the battle is won smoothly, the reward the Liu family will receive will definitely not be a small amount, which will only be beneficial to the strengthening of the Liu family's strength.
After all, whether the general is strong depends on the servant, and whether the servant is strong depends on how much money he can spend.
A powerful general like the Tieling Li family could produce 40,000 servants. An even more powerful general like Gao Pingjing, Liu Wei didn't even know how many servants he had.
Anyway, if all the members of the Gao family from all over the world were included together, Liu Wei felt that even if Gao Pragmatic wanted to gather a hundred thousand troops, it would not be difficult.
Fortunately, most of the Gao family's servants who actually operate according to the "Jingzhi Army" are in the countries of southern Xinjiang. In the Ming Dynasty, except for a small number of servant escorts stationed in Jianxinzhai and Sanshenyuan in the capital, they are basically used to protect the people in other areas.
There are factory teams and mine protection teams, and there are also cavalry who run outside the entrance all year round. Generally speaking, they are not that conspicuous.
However, the "Navy Master" of the Gao family is very strong and barely conceals it, which is different from the style of the "Land Master". Everyone in the court, whether they are relatives, nobles or civil servants, know that Gao is pragmatic.
The "fleet" is very powerful. Not only does it "cross the northern and southern oceans", but even the main inland rivers in the country are almost within the sphere of influence of the Gao family fleet.
The navy... In the eyes of ordinary people, "no matter how strong you are, you can't get ashore." Therefore, no one in the Ming Dynasty thinks that someone can rebel with the navy. It doesn't matter how powerful the Gao family's fleet is - your hometown in Xinzheng is still in the Ming Dynasty.
Well, how dare you not want to do with your ancestral graves?
But Liu Xin's current feelings are probably completely different from those of the Dukes in the imperial court.
In her opinion, Gao Pragmatic's strength in Southern Xinjiang, just from what she saw with her own eyes, was already terrifying.
Liu Xin, who had stayed with Huang Zhiting for several months, knew that after the "big military expansion in southern Xinjiang" a year ago, Gao Jinggong's strength in southern Xinjiang had reached a new peak.
As for the Army Division, Beijing currently has five main garrison forces in southern Xinjiang, namely Thanglong Garrison, Jingang Garrison, Vientiane Garrison, Dingnan Garrison, and Bago Garrison.
Among them, the establishment of each garrison is somewhat different. According to Huang Zhiting's suggestion, Gao Jinggong readjusted the establishment and strength of the five major garrison in early October last year.
According to the latest establishment, the most powerful garrison has now become the Dingnan garrison, with a total force of 50,000 people. The defense area it is responsible for is the "largest territory in Siam" including Angkor and Chiang Mai. And this
The garrison is not fighting alone. It is also supported by the "Annan Assisted Defense Force" including Huang Zhiting's wolf soldiers and Burmese surrender troops. This "Assisted Defense Army" also has nearly 30,000 people.
The second strongest one is the Thang Long Garrison, which still maintains a heavy force of 50,000. The reason why it is ranked behind the Dingnan Garrison is because this army has been in power since the outbreak of the Yunnan-Burma War.
It is always in a state of "supplying blood" to other friendly forces. The veterans in the army have been transferred one after another. Now there are nearly 40,000 recruits in the army - there are only about 10,000 veterans left, and the strength is worse than at its peak.
A lot.
Moreover, after Gao Pragmatic planned Dingnan City as the core of southern Xinjiang in the future, Gao Pragmatic was also the most generous in replenishing the Dingnan Garrison. New types of muskets and artillery were first equipped with the Dingnan Garrison after they were finalized and mass-produced.
It is said that the status and strength of the Thang Long Garrison have declined accordingly.
Ranked third is the Golden Port Garrison. The situation of the Golden Port Garrison is opposite to that of the Thang Long Garrison. Since Gao Pragmatic has long had plans to conquer the Mekong Delta, its importance is on the rise, and its military strength has also increased from earlier.
The 30,000 has been increased to 40,000, and the priority of equipment is also relatively high.
Ranked fourth is the Bago Garrison. In addition to guarding the re-"restored" "Bago Kingdom", this garrison also has the remaining territories of the Toungoo Dynasty under its surveillance. However, due to
The "Kingdom of Bago" itself still has a part of the Mon local army (which was reorganized from the former rebel army and was temporarily dismantled), so the number of this garrison is only maintained at 30,000 people.
However, the strength of the 30,000 Bago garrison is not bad, because most of them are from the expeditionary force, that is, veterans account for the majority, so their combat effectiveness is relatively reliable.
The last one among the five major garrison forces is the Vientiane Garrison Force. This garrison force was newly established recently. The core part only has 3,000 people. They are all drawn from the Thang Long Garrison Army, and the total strength is only 20,000 people.
——Mainly because the Nanzhang Kingdom is really poor, and Jinghua's garrison is usually paid by the local kingdom, and Jinghua itself is only responsible for armaments.
The Nanzhang Kingdom is not only poor, but also has a small population. Gao Pragmatic estimates that it has a population of three million, and transportation in their area is inconvenient. Although two minerals have been discovered, Gao Pragmatic has no interest in developing them-unless it is
What's the use of a large gold mine, otherwise it can't be transported? The price of gold mines is high because the quantity is small, and the unit transportation cost is low.
Therefore, at present, the Nanzhang Kingdom can only maintain 20,000 garrison troops at most. If there is any more, Gao Pragmatic will have to pay military salaries in reverse. In fact, it is already paying in reverse, but not much, because Princess Biajue
In response to Gao Pragmatic's request, some of the Imperial Guards of the Nanzhang Kingdom were abolished, and the military salary was saved for the garrison. She went to Annan to get married.
Huang Yinglei is quite satisfied with marrying a princess. Although she is just a princess from a small country, Nanzhang is still a kingdom no matter how small it is, and its land area is actually not small, it is larger than the entire Guangxi. (Note: Laos at this time
Larger than later generations because the southwest part was not occupied by Siam)
This incident was the most satisfactory Huang Yinglei had felt with his sister in many years, but he might have made a mistake: he thought that Princess Bijue had served as the regent of Nanzhang, and that he would also have the opportunity to regent of Nanzhang in the future.
This was actually because he was overthinking. Gao Jingshi had never considered letting him serve as regent of Nanzhang Kingdom. Gao Jingshi asked him to marry Biajue just to stabilize Nanzhang, and by the way, it would also improve the Huang family's reputation.
As a result, the five major garrison armies have a total formal establishment of up to 190,000 people, plus the highly pragmatic and mobilizable Cen Huang Lang soldiers, the Annan old army and the three colonial armies (Huaying, Champa, Nanpan,
The number of troops is small, and the establishment is affiliated with the Jingang Guard Army). Gao Pragmatic can mobilize at least 250,000 troops in southern Xinjiang!
Liu Xin even sometimes couldn't help but think that if the overall situation in southern Xinjiang was completely stabilized now, and Gao Pragmatic managed things well, there would be a chance to send 200,000 elite troops to the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains.
Based on Liu Xin's understanding of the current strength of the Ming Dynasty, she felt that if Gao Pragmatic used an elite force of 200,000 garrison troops in the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, not to mention turning the world around in one fell swoop, but at least by crossing the river to conquer it, there would be no problem.
With his high background and scholarly reputation, it is very likely that he will not be completely resisted by scholars. At least he will definitely be a hundred times stronger than the later bandits such as Li Zicheng, and it will be easy to win over a group of people who hope to become "Conglong Heroes"
Landowners and wealthy businessmen, the possibility of a successful rebellion is not low.
It's just... I don't know if Gao Pragmatic has such an idea.
At this point, Liu Xin is still not sure, because in her opinion, Gao Pragmatic's performance is quite contradictory. While he is working hard to expand his strength in southern Xinjiang, he is also serving as an official in the Ming Dynasty.
The direct generals of the Ming army that he inherited from the three former chief assistants were also used by him on the front line of northern Xinjiang. They seemed to be completely prepared for foreign wars, and he had no intention of taking action against the Ming court.
.
This made Liu Xin hesitate, because if Gao Pragmatic wanted to turn things around, these direct generals should be used as close to the capital as possible. Once he decided to take action in the future, Yanjing would be able to take it directly, and the army in southern Xinjiang would also
You can reach Songhu directly by sea, and then capture Nanjing by lightning.
When the two capitals changed hands and the army became dominant in the world, wouldn't it mean that the Ming Dynasty was acquired?
But now it seems that Gao Pragmatic had no such plan. He not only left all his direct descendants in the frontier areas, but also helped the imperial court organize the Beijing camp and asked Qi Jiguang to organize and train 60,000 imperial guards... Huh?
?
Could it be that the Imperial Guard was a hidden move, apparently to strengthen the "Central Army" directly under the imperial court, but in fact this army was privately controlled by Gao Pragmatic?
Liu Xin is not sure about these things now. She just wants to finish the battle in Cambodia quickly, and then find an opportunity to go to Yanjing to meet Gao Pangshi in person and ask him what he wants to do.
As for why she wanted to intervene in this matter... Liu Xin told herself: I just look at the face of "the same people in the world", so I can help him - besides, if I don't help him, I will always
There is no way to solve the problem of my father writing letters every now and then to urge me to get married.
If Gao Pragmatic wants to start a rebellion and become emperor, then if I help him fight the war and make meritorious deeds, and if I change my "golden words" and never marry for the rest of my life, won't it mean that no one will dare to say more?
As for whether this reason is reliable or not, Liu Xin convinced herself in this way anyway.
Except for the approximately 10,000 people with clear garrison duties who could not be mobilized, the remaining 30,000 people of the Jinggang garrison gathered in Jinggang and held a "non-routine" competition. According to Huang Zhiting's authorization, General Liu Xin
Twenty thousand of them were selected as the lineup for this expedition.
Twenty thousand people may not seem like a large number of troops, but it depends on who you compare with.
When they first invaded Burma, the Toungoo Dynasty of Burma was basically still at its peak, and Huang Zhiting's troops had only a little more than this. Although there was Liu Wei in northern Burma at that time, Deng Zilong's troops were watching eagerly as a check, but
In fact, Huang Zhiting defeated the arrogant Mang Yingli by relying on the few people she had.
But now, the only thing she has to deal with is Cambodia, and the 20,000 garrison troops are fully capable of taking it down - Cambodia is defeated by Siam, Siam is defeated by Myanmar, and Myanmar is defeated by Beijing.
Can this be defeated?
It took five days to watch the entire competition carefully. Liu Xin felt that although this newly expanded Jinggang Guard Army had a lot of recruits and did look worse than the previous expeditionary force, 20,000 people had to be drawn out.
When visiting Cambodia, you should still ask if he is big enough.
This idea is not completely "paper talk", because not only Jinghua has been investigating the strength of the Phnom Penh Dynasty for several years, but also the envoy sent by Jita I to the Ming Dynasty has confessed a lot. With these two facts confirmed, Liu Xin felt that
My judgment on Cambodia's strength should be pretty accurate.
If we talk about military strength alone, Cambodia does have a lot of them now.
Perhaps due to its control of the fertile soil in the Mekong Delta, Cambodia's population is almost the same as that of Siam, and may be slightly better than Annam's current population, about six million. And the key is that it has no shortage of food, so in
After Huang Zhiting sent troops to "reinforce" Angkor, Gita I released more than 40,000 troops on the northwest border alone. There were at least more than 10,000 troops around Phnom Penh. Although the eastern parts were relatively empty, there should be more than 10,000 troops.
Calculating this, Cambodia has at least 60,000 to 70,000 troops.
However, although the number of people was large, in Liu Xin's eyes, they were just chickens and dogs. According to the account of King Gita I's envoy, Cambodia's domestic productivity was low. These troops could not even get together a sword for each person, and many people had weapons.
It's just a bamboo spear.
Bamboo spears are not incapable of fighting. For example, the wolf soldiers like to use bamboo spears. But the wolf soldiers' bamboo spears are not only a special product soaked in tung oil, but also the spearheads are made of refined iron.
However, the bamboo spears in Cambodia are really just bamboo spears. The so-called spearheads are made by sharpening the bamboo.
If you want to say that this thing can kill people, that would be true. However, the equipment is poor. Facing the latest Wanli II-type bayonet muskets equipped by the garrison, as well as more than a hundred guns equipped for these 20,000 people,
Light and heavy artillery...
With such rubbish weapons, Liu Xin felt that even if the Cambodian army was replaced by Cen Huang Lang soldiers to help them fight, she would not be able to lose this battle, but the casualties would probably be higher.
She now believes that Huang Zhiting's overly pragmatic words to her were no longer a joke.
"Actually, pushing flat all the way is my favorite way of playing, because you can use less brain."
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