Qiming 1158

Chapter 928 The bureaucracy is ferocious
It turned out that the stuffing in the winter coat worn by the mocking soldier was real hemp and cotton wool, which was large in volume and kept warm.

In this way, he naturally won't feel cold.

The winter clothes on the other three were actually stuffed with some reeds, some rags, some old paper, and crushed reed poles.

In this way, a layer of cloth is sewn on the outside to make it look plump, no different from good-quality winter clothes.

Wu Gong and the soldiers closest to him were all wearing thick jackets they brought with them, not only cotton clothes, but also trousers, boots, hats, and even gloves. They were fully equipped, so they couldn't feel the cold.

But other soldiers were different, especially those in such poor quality winter clothes.

A gust of cold wind with water vapor blows over, and it can blow them away half of their lives. It's like an ant is biting on their bodies, and it hurts. If they stay in such an environment for a few hours, their whole life will be lost. , the soul can be blown out.

Wu Gong realized the problem, and immediately went to the barracks warehouse to look at the winter clothes that had not yet been distributed.

He ordered the personal soldiers to pick out a hundred pieces of these winter coats and tore the outer layer of cloth to see what the stuffing was inside.

In the end, it was found that 94 of them were inferior products, filled with reed poles and rags that did not have any effect on keeping warm, and only six of them were good quality winter clothes that could keep out the cold.

Wu Gong immediately realized that he was being pitted by the bureaucrats who managed the logistics at the rear.

These military uniforms are generally determined by the Privy Council according to the number of troops, and then placed in an order, which is weaved by government workshops or contracted by private textile workshops.

Without the official relationship, without the approval of the government, the general workshop will never get the order to make winter clothes for the army.

Don't think it's very secure, it's very insecure.

Wu Gong has been in the army since he was a child, and he has also participated in the management of the army's logistics. He deeply knows how deep the water is here, how rich the oil and water are, and how many people stare at a piece of fat with red eyes.

If you don't have any official relationship or you are an official person, you don't even want to reach out, but if you really do, it will definitely make a lot of money.

The money that the imperial court ordered for winter clothes for the army would have been exploited layer by layer, and officials at all levels had to take some of it to satisfy their own desires, and then they could be distributed to the next level, and finally fell into the hands of the weaving party. Few children left.

But even the remaining few children will definitely be taken away by most of them.

Only the last poor little money left will be used to weave winter clothes, barely used for errands, and it is clear what virtue the winter clothes produced from this are.

No one knows the virtues of the Southern Song bureaucrats better than Wu Gong.

These bureaucrats must have taken money from it, greedy money for weaving winter clothes, and used a batch of defective products to deal with the inspection.

Of course, you can't see the difference from the outside, but once you put it on, you will know where the difference is.

Wu Gong was furious, and while bringing this matter to the Lin'an Privy Council to let Shi Hao know, he asked the rear to send more warm clothes.

Don't force me to bring troops back to ask for it!
If the battle is lost because of your affairs, none of you can escape!
However, this kind of thing is not immediate, it takes a lot of time. During this time, even if Wu Gong sent two inferior winter clothes to the soldiers to wear on their bodies to keep out the cold, the effect would be very poor.

As the temperature continued to drop, there were more and more wounded and sick in the Song army, but the medicine and ginger from the rear had not arrived, so that soldiers began to die of illness.

From a few a day to dozens a day, the number of non-combat attritions is increasing.

On the other side of the city, the peasant army wore thick cotton clothes, thick hats, thick boots, and even gloves. There was ginger soup to drink every day, so there were only a few cases of illness. .

Since the defeat that day, Zhao Yucheng has prepared for the hard battle. While actively preparing for the battle, he asked all the instructors in the army to go down to the grassroots level to get along with the soldiers and do a good job of ideological work for them.

Instructors need to let the soldiers know that a temporary failure is not a permanent failure, and that they will usher in the ultimate victory, even if it is a long time.

And they can't fail, they can't step back, otherwise, the relatives behind them will suffer.

Song Jun is cruel and will never let go of their relatives. They should be very clear about this.

After a period of ideological mobilization, the depressing atmosphere in the army has been reduced a lot. The army has established a basic principle - for the sake of the relatives behind you, you must not retreat.

However, there are still some people in the army who think that Nanchang City will be difficult to defend after all, and the difference in combat effectiveness between the two sides is large. It is still necessary to assess the situation and prepare for retreat.

After Zhao Yucheng found out, he convened a meeting of all the officers and expressed his views. He believed that there were enough troops in the city and enough provisions, so there would be no problem even if he persisted for another three months, but the Song army on the opposite side might not, so he must persevere.

Even though he said that, Zhao Yucheng also knew how much a defeat would hit his morale, so he was always actively looking for opportunities to win the battle.

After a period of observation, Zhao Yucheng found that the frequency of the Song army's attack on the city was greatly reduced, and the number of troops dispatched was also reduced. Later, there was no attack for three consecutive days, as if the successor was powerless. .

Are they... hibernating on the battlefield?

Zhao Yucheng thought that whoever fought a war would want to end the battle as soon as possible, otherwise it would be a huge blow to the national economy. Given the fact that the Southern Song Dynasty had repeatedly launched wars and failed, their logistics would definitely not be sufficient enough to allow them to hibernate on the battlefield.

So, what happened to them?
Zhao Yucheng thought about it and felt that it was not right, and felt that there was a problem here, so he decided to send troops out of the city to take the initiative to challenge and test the specific situation of Song Jun.

Gao Meng has been blaming himself ever since he failed to win before, and when he learned that Zhao Yucheng decided to give himself another chance, he was eager to get ahead and decided to be ashamed.

"The Song army defeated our army. It should have pursued the victory and consolidated the victory. It should be more eager to attack the city, pressing our army to fight, instead of stopping and giving our army a chance to breathe. I think there is a problem inside, and there may be some inside the Song army. What emergencies happen, you can take the initiative to challenge with your troops, and I will stand behind you."

Zhao Yucheng allocated a brigade to Gao Meng, and asked him to lead the 2000-strong army to take the initiative to challenge, while he himself led three brigades of troops to suppress Gao Meng's formation behind.

A total of 8000 troops from four brigades took the initiative to attack. After forming their formations, they headed to the Song Army barracks to challenge.

Wu Gong was having a splitting headache over the increasing number of cases and dead soldiers. He was shocked when he suddenly learned that the peasant army had come to attack. He thought they already knew about the large-scale injuries and illnesses in the Song army.

But when he further learned that the Peasant Army had only about 2000 people rushing to the front, he determined that this wave of attacks by the Peasant Army was a trial, not a formal attack.

The peasant army must have been surprised that he had not launched an attack for several days, so he came to test it out.

But it should be said that this group of people has some knowledge, some ability, and some courage. They have not attacked for a few days, and they feel that something is wrong and they are coming to challenge.

Good guy, if this finds out the internal problems of Song Jun for them, that's great?
Wu Gong felt that they could not see through the problem no matter what, so he decided to send troops to fight back firmly.

(End of this chapter)