stubborn thief

Chapter 643: Three Ignorant Generalissimo

On the sixth day of the ninth lunar month, Zhao Changzong, the doctor in the military office of Hexi, entered Xi'an Mansion.

Zhao Fuhuan has been working in the military office for nearly two years, and it turns out that this job is really not a good job.

Even Liu Chengzong could see that there were a few strands of white hair growing on Zhao Feng's temples when he climbed to the Shaoling Plateau.

In the past two years, the military office was almost following behind Liu Chengzong. He Huang's military status, rewards and punishments were not yet clear. In the blink of an eye, Gansu was included in the bag, and then he ran to Gansu.

The work in Gansu has not yet been completed, and Shaanxi has become the new land of the Marshal's Office. Zhao Chang's work in the past two years has been exhausting, much harder than fighting.

Up to now, Zhao Fucheng has gone to Xi'an Fucheng not only to record merit for the Marshal's Army, but also to register the soldiers of the Marshal's Army.

Because as a military officer, he didn't even know how many brigades and battalions there were in the Marshal's Mansion.

But what Zhao Changqian never expected was that when he asked Liu Chengzong this question, his general was actually stunned by him.

Liu Chengzong looked at him and shook his head: "It's okay to keep fighting. Once the fighting stops, there will be problems everywhere."

As the Eastern Expedition to Guanzhong was basically put down, the Marshal's Army absorbed surrendered generals and troops, resulting in a large number of unreasonable establishments. In addition, it was unable to reorganize in time under the pressure of military supplies, so it had to divide the troops to feed each other.

The army at the Marshal's Mansion was in the most chaotic state in terms of organization and location.

Liu Shishi calculated under the Buddha statue for a long time before he said to Zhao Fu: "We have twenty-one battalions in Shaanxi, six battalions in Hehuang, two battalions in Kangningwusi, four to six battalions in Gansu, and two battalions in Tianshan. There are three battalions, there should be four battalions in Monan, and there are still five battalions in Henan... I hope there are still five battalions left in Henan."

With Zhang Yichuan's ability and the situation in Henan, it's hard to say whether the five battalions can be left.

Zhao Fuhuang looked at the size of this army with a look of despair: "Commander, the military status of these people...are they all going to Hexi?"

"Ha, we definitely can't all go to Hexi!"

Liu Chengzong smiled and said: "But this is indeed a problem now. The commander's military office only has one official division in Hexi, which is not enough, so you come to Guanzhong."

Zhao Feng was already happy when he heard the first half of the sentence.

But after hearing the second half of the sentence, his face immediately fell down. He slightly raised the prosthetic hand on his right arm and said, "Commander, with my hands, can I still be a civil servant?"

To be honest, when Liu Chengzong asked him to join the military office to work as a civil servant after he was recovering from his injuries after riding to assassinate the Imperial Preceptor Khan two years ago, Zhao Fenghuang really thought at the time that Liu Chengzong had found a casual job for him to support him in his old age.

But now that I have been working for two years, the military office of the Marshal's Mansion has great power, but serving the chief soldier all day long is much more tiring than being a fucking soldier.

When the soldiers are not fighting, at least they still have a place to garrison. The military yamen is simply a mobile yamen, running around all day long, from Kangning to Xining, from Xining to Liangzhou, from Liangzhou to Gansu, and now Came to Xi'an again.

The key is that Zhao Fu's biggest shortcoming is his arm. He has no right hand.

After two years of training, he can hold a knife with his left hand, but cannot hold a pen firmly.

In fact, since he has no right hand, he would definitely be more suitable to be a military attache than a civilian official.

Because document writing is an indispensable job for civil servants, and the military attache's job is to command battles, and fighting in person is not necessary.

"Didn't I send someone to take care of your daily life? You pick two smart people to be clerks, let them write the documents, and you are responsible for stamping them."

Liu Chengzong spoke categorically on this matter, leaving no room for doubt: "The military government is closely related, so I wouldn't trust it if it were left to someone else."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Fu knew that the Generalissimo had started farting again.

There are more than 100,000 people in the Marshal's Army, and more than half of them are close associates of the Grand Marshal. Among these people, he, Zhao Fangfang, does not rank high.

The only reason Liu Chengzong wanted to keep him in the military office was that as an example of success in the First World War, he could not die.

But there is no need to argue with Liu Chengzong about this matter. Zhao Changzong has worked in the military office for two years and is no longer the stupid young man he used to be. He knows that he cannot change Liu Chengzong's mind.

So he simply asked: "If I come to Shaanxi, what should I do in Hexi and Gansu?"

"The military bureau office was moved here, and in Xining, Ganzhou, and Xi'an, each had a chief officer and a secretary to take charge of the military registration and affairs of each province."

"Let Song Shouzhen continue to handle matters in Qinghai in the old way; Jing Xiaoliu will be transferred to Gansu to set up a show. As for the person in charge of Shaanxi, Wu Panlong, who was born as a scholar, is idle, so use him."

After Liu Chengzong finished speaking, he looked at Zhao Fan and said: "As for you, whichever you feel comfortable with, if you want to be in Lanzhou, go to Lanzhou first; if you want to be in Xi'an, just stay here to avoid having to run away in the future."

Zhao Beng didn't even have to think about the stationing issue, and said, "Marshal, I'd better stay in Xi'an. I'm tired of running around."

Liu Chengzong was happy to see the success and readily agreed.

As soon as the two of them discussed the matter, Zhao Fushu took out the letter from his arms and handed it over, saying: "Commander, this is the letter that the master craftsman asked Beizhi to bring to the Marshal when he passed through Lanzhou."

"Teach me?"

Liu Chengzong nodded and took the letter, motioning for Zhao Chang to rest aside first, beckoning Mr. Yu Lin who was standing in front of the Buddhist temple to serve tea, and then opened the letter and read it.

It's funny. Seeing that this letter was sent personally by Zhao Changzong, he thought there was something wrong with Shicheng and me.

Unexpectedly, when he opened the letter worried about gains and losses, what he saw was a prospect plan for the development of the military industry of the Marshal's Office.

Shicheng I suggested that the Marshal's Office should concentrate its efforts on establishing a large weapons bureau in Lanzhou and not move it to the pass for the time being.

As soon as Liu Chengzong read the beginning, his brows wrinkled slightly involuntarily.

With the pacification of Guanzhong, the Marshal's Army had a huge shortage of firearms, and a large number of surrendered troops were absorbed, resulting in insufficient weapons and equipment for the thirty or so battalions currently stationed in Shaanxi and Gansu.

Even for individual soldier equipment, the supply line from Hehuang to the front line is too long.

Not to mention Guannei and Longxi are divided into two geographical units by Liupan Mountain, and the transportation of large amounts of military equipment depends on the Wei River.

It's not complicated to transport materials by land and then transfer them to the Wei River for shipping. It's just that the Wei River... it has seasonal drying.

There is no need to consider the current drought situation. Even if the weather is good, the Weihe River will have artificial seasonal flow cuts from March to May every year.

Because there are too many fields and too many irrigation canals on both sides of the Wei River, water is used in various places during the season, and the downstream is cut off. The flood peak will not occur until June.

Now it is a drought period again, and no one can tell how long the water transport on the Wei River can continue.

In critical wars, the most common thing is accidents.

There's a war going on at the front, but the water transportation behind is cut off, and the troops and equipment cannot be replenished, then it won't just collapse?

But Shi Chengmei has his reasons.

There are two reasons.

First, Guanzhong is still the front line. It is not necessarily appropriate to vigorously develop mines and iron smelting and spend money to build arsenals. They should be more prepared.

This means that Guanzhong might have it in hand this year, but lose it next year?

Not as safe as Lanzhou. Second, with Lanzhou as the center, it has all the resources to establish a large arms bureau system.

Iron, silver, and lead from Longxi in Huizhou, saltpetre from Huining County, cloth from Liangdang in Wenxian County, oil from Taozhou, paint from Xigu, paper and wax from Chengxian County, and wood and wood from everywhere. The skins can fully meet the needs of the Marshal's Mansion for manufacturing weapons and uniforms.

Relying on Hehuang's rail carriages and Huangshui shipping, raw materials such as saltpetre, iron, and copper from Qinghai and other places can also be transported to Lanzhou conveniently.

The completion of a military industry system with stronger production capacity in Lanzhou will not only bring the output of various equipment to a higher level, but also supplement the military needs of Qinghai, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces, and make foreign trade with the vassal more convenient.

For example, the livestock and skin trade in Oirat, and the corundum, gemstones and livestock fur trade in Uzang.

To be honest, other Liu Shishis don't pay much attention to it, but this livestock trade is indeed the economic lifeline for him.

Exchanging weapons and equipment for Oirat's livestock can be said to be the economic lifeline of the Marshal's Mansion - last year, he relied on Oirat to transport 50,000 sheep, solving the most difficult food and grass problem in the Gansu Campaign.

In fact, to be fair, 50,000 sheep are not many.

Except for those places where there are no people, what county can't have tens of thousands of sheep?

But it was too much money.

The few weapons and equipment he sold cost only 12,000 taels of silver per piece, and they could only buy 16,000 sheep.

However, the 50,000 sheep rushed over from Oirat could only be a fraction of the goods. There were also 150,000 various skins, 5,000 Tianshan horses, 1,000 cattle and various sundries.

The most important thing is that to the Marshal's Mansion, the sheep in Oirat belong to pastures off the map, as if they were conjured.

The sheep at home cannot be eaten as they are eaten, and they will no longer be planted; the sheep transformed outside are different, even if they are all made into military rations, it does not matter, and it will not affect the normal reproduction of your own livestock.

Thinking from this direction, Oirat trade is very important.

The letter from Master Chengmei reminded Liu Chengzong that the three brothers Huo Luochi from Uzang should also drive the livestock team back to visit their relatives every year.

We can't stay in the snow-capped mountains forever. Otherwise, if Xining Mansion makes so many mink furs, who would they sell them to?

Liu Chengzong took the letter and thought, if as Shi Chengwo said, building a large arsenal in Lanzhou and integrating the resources of Lintao, Gongchang, Xining, and Kangning could greatly increase output, it would not be impossible.

He took up a pen and wrote a reply to Shi Chengmei.

I didn't fully agree, but just asked Shicheng and I to first try to make arrangements with Chengyun to establish an arsenal in Lanzhou.

In addition, Lanzhou must be asked to send people to go through the water transportation and land channels from Lanzhou to Xi'an to calculate the time cost and transportation road consumption.

After waiting for the reply and asking Yu Linqi to send someone to deliver it, Liu Shizi then looked at Zhao Fuhuan who was drinking tea in the palace and said: "I will assign people to you from Huben Camp and Yulin Camp first. You can send people to each camp as soon as possible." Complete the statistics of military status, as well as their consumption of food, armor, and ammunition, as well as how much food, armor, ammunition, and arrows the station can provide them.”

This was a serious matter for the military office, so Zhao Fuhuang immediately accepted the order, had a scribbled meal in the kitchen of Huben Camp in Huayan Temple, and then led a group of people to work.

Liu Chengzong was very anxious to find out how many soldiers there were and how much supplies the various Shaanxi government garrison stations could provide.

Because he planned to complete the reorganization of the military garrisons in Shaanxi, Qinghai, and Gansu provinces before opening the city of Xi'an.

Logically speaking, rewards based on merit should be left after the city of Xi'an was destroyed, but with the unprecedented expansion of his territory, he could no longer control the army.

It's not that they can't be controlled, but the garrison area is too scattered. Orders come and go for at least two days, and the front-line troops are basically all large generals.

In other words, the command hierarchy is too flat, and they are almost the same as the Ming army.

Therefore, the top priority now is to clearly divide the army's establishment and garrison before winter arrives, and try to replenish the troops and equipment so that the army can survive this winter safely.

Because Liu Shizi felt that the plague barriers along the Yellow River and Tongguan were suppressed in winter and would probably subside around the Chinese New Year.

Whether the Ming troops in Shanxi, Henan, and Huguang will counterattack at that time depends first on whether Li Zicheng and Zhang Yichuan can withstand it; and secondly on whether the Marshal's Mansion is well fortified along the border.

Therefore, for Liu Chengzong, the initiative to launch a campaign was still in his hands.

However, if he wants to secure the initiative, he must first do his own thing.

Specifically, in the three provinces under the jurisdiction of the Marshal's Mansion, three channels were set up in Shaanxi, two in Qinghai, and two in Gansu. A total of seven channels were set up, with one town of soldiers and horses in each channel.

In Liu Chengzong's imagination, the garrison troops in this town were the strengthened brigade headquarters, which had four battalions under its jurisdiction: Zhengqi Aidyou.

This Zhengqi reinforcement tour belongs to the old Ming Dynasty system. The chief military officer leads the main barracks, the deputy chief soldier leads the odd barracks, the guerrilla general leads the guerrilla camp, and the general leads the reinforcement camp.

However, Liu Chengzong's idea was to have each battalion have different strength to assume different tactical responsibilities.

The main camp is a large camp of 5,000 people, the odd barracks is a standard camp of 3,000 people, and the rangers and reinforcements are both small camps of 2,000 people.

Of course, the specific strength of each battalion will fluctuate slightly around this standard due to stray manpower that is not part of the establishment.

In short, the general and deputy generals were stationed in the cities of the two prefectures within the road, and the guerrilla generals were stationed in key areas, so as to achieve a strength of 12,000 to 14,000 troops in each town.

If an alarm occurs in a certain place, the general officer can mobilize the garrison troops to quickly encircle and annihilate one or two battalions of the Ming court.

Even if a large army attacks, the troops of two to three towns in a province can be deployed for defense under the leadership of the governor.

After such reorganization, their town's military strength is much smaller than that of Mingting Town, but correspondingly, the town's defense area is smaller and its maneuverability is stronger.

At the same time, it can best meet the current military needs of the Marshal's Mansion.

They don't need border guards very much. The only border defense threats now are the dilapidated Ningxia Town and Yulin Town. Those two towns don't have much mobile troops and are unable to pose a threat to the newly established town troops.

In the direction of Shanxi, the Yellow River is blocked by natural dangers, so the garrison town is sufficient.

What really needs to be strengthened is the field corps led by Liu Chengzong himself.

He planned to use Gao Yingdeng's camp and Wei Qian'er's remaining soldiers as the backbone to set up two field brigades in the Chinese army with four battalions of Zhengqi Aidyou.

It's not that he thinks two field brigades are enough, it's just that the two brigades plus the Huben and Yulin Second Battalions, a field regiment with a strength of nearly 30,000, are just within the scope of Liu Shishi's commanding ability.

Just right.

After all, Liu Shishi had tried commanding an army of 40,000, and it was a bit difficult to march through a dangerous road.

Thirty thousand is just right, neither too busy nor too busy.

The most important thing is that Guanzhong can indeed supply food and wages for 40,000 garrison troops. This is the most important prerequisite for military reorganization.

Liu Chengzong had already made a plan in his mind. The first field brigade would start to expand from Gao Yingdeng's camp to form a standard for the entire army. In the next one to two years, the entire army in the three provinces would be gradually reorganized into a new standard. garrison town.

Good morning!