stubborn thief

The first day of the twelfth lunar month.

The plaque of the Prince of Qin's Palace was removed and replaced with a new plaque of the Grand Marshal's Military Office.

The plaque of Chengyun Hall was also replaced with the main hall of the military government office.

Zhao Jifang, a palace official, sat in a side hall of the main hall, his head buried in his desk, writing furiously.

He was the younger brother of Zhao Jichang, the magistrate of Xianyang, and was previously a student studying in the county school.

Liu Shizi once told him that he lacked talent and virtue, and when he needed someone, he wanted to recruit him to be his staff.

But to Zhao Jifang, these words sounded like a threat that she would not refuse the opportunity.

You have deployed a large army in Guanzhong, with cavalry filling the fields, and have surrounded my brother's Xianyang County. You are now claiming to be the only one in power. So you can do whatever you want. What can I say?

I'm just a student.

Then just be a Langguan.

However, his duties as a palace attendant underwent tremendous changes after Liu Chengzong completely took control of Shaanxi.

Not only did he receive two young attendants from the children's camp, but he also received a Cabinet Grand Secretary experience card, responsible for approving documents for the military government.

Of course, it’s just a trial card.

What he was actually responsible for was to expand the manuscript approved by Liu Chengzong in the official script to turn it into an official document suitable for distribution to local areas.

For example, the manuscript that Zhao Jifang is currently reviewing was sent by his brother Zhao Jichang.

Zhao Jichang of Xianyang was the first person to be promoted after Liu Chengzong entered Xi'an. He was appointed as the prefect of Xi'an on the spot.

Several other county magistrates who transported tax grain and did not raise troops to resist were also promoted based on their wartime performance and official reputation.

For example, Fan Zhimao of Heyang was active in transporting grain, but he did not submit his surrender until the city fell. However, he did a good job in Heyang and was promoted to the position of Tongzhi of Xi'an.

Zhang Jinyan of Sanyuan also did a good job, but he did not transport grain during the war and only reported the actual amount of grain collected to the Marshal's Army, so he was only promoted to the position of Shaanxi Provincial Administration Secretary.

His rank was raised by one level, but in fact, the Shaanxi Provincial Administration Office of the Marshal's Office had no chief officer. With his experience in charge of the transfer of documents, he was basically a document receiver and sender of the sixth rank.

Of course, Zuo Maodi of Hancheng did not move and remained the magistrate of Hancheng.

The handwritten copy sent by the prefect Zhao Jichang was a report on the suicide of Zhu Yitong, the magistrate of Pucheng, Huazhou.

After the fall of Xi'an, the news of Chen Qiuyu's surrender spread to all parts of the country, and all counties surrendered upon hearing the news.

In order to save the face of the local officials and to facilitate their work in the future, Liu Chengzong considerately ordered two cavalrymen to go to each county in groups to persuade them to surrender again, to show that they did not surrender voluntarily.

But there are those who would rather die than surrender.

For example, Zhu Yitong is a defeatist who would rather die than surrender.

  According to the gentry in the county, people had long seen that Shaanxi could not be defended. How could my family, which has been in official service for seven generations, join the enemy?

As early as when the Shaanxi Corps was destroyed, Zhu Yitong attempted to hang himself, but because he was fat, he broke the tree branch he fell on. He was dissuaded by the county magistrate Yao Qicong who arrived shortly afterwards and asked him to take another look. In this way, he did not die.

When the city fell, the cavalry sent by Liu Chengzong to persuade Zhu Yitong to surrender rushed to Pucheng. Zhu Yitong was unaware of this, and the city gate opened by itself. The cavalry were welcomed into the city and headed straight for the county government office.

The yamen runners clamored to snatch Zhu Yitong's official seal as the county magistrate, but he said that as long as he was alive, no one could take the seal away.

Someone advised him that the governor had surrendered, as had all the Jinshi candidates from the surrounding counties, and that he was only a Juren, so it was good enough for him to surrender at this time.

Zhu Yitong said, does being loyal to the country require qualifications?

He turned around and went back to the back house of the county government office, mobilized his family and servants to widen the well mouth for him, then put on an official hat, official uniform, and official seal, faced north, bowed three times, and then jumped into the well to commit suicide.

County magistrate Yao Qi Chong was shocked and planned to follow suit, but was stopped by the yamen runners.

Liu Chengzong's comments on this manuscript were very brief. He drew a line on the names of the magistrate and the county magistrate, and wrote two words in red and black: "Appoint an official."

Zhao Jifang racked his brains but could not understand Liu Chengzong's meaning, and could only come up with two letters of appointment.

One was to promote Yao Qi Chong, the county magistrate of Pucheng, to the position of magistrate of Xianyang, and the other was to appoint Zhou Huang, a successful candidate from Longxi, as the magistrate of Pucheng.

The former was appointed because Zhao Jifang considered it best for Yao Qi Chong to be promoted to the post of magistrate of Pucheng. However, since Zhu Yitong had been appointed first, he might be looked down upon if he was made magistrate.

So he moved to Xianyang, where his brother had just been transferred.

As for Zhou Huang, a Juren from Longxi, the Marshal's Office had a list of unemployed Jinshi, Juren, and Xiucai from various counties, and he just picked one at random.

Anyway, these letters of appointment have no effect, and after they are written, they have to be sent to the next door for the eunuchs in the military government to see.

The eunuchs also thought there was no problem, so they handed it over to Liu Chengzong, who approved it and sent it to the relevant officials before it became effective.

There was only one eunuch in the Marshal's Office, Zhang Yuanheng, who was in charge of monitoring the tea and horse trade in Xining.

This kid was born a scholar, and was both civil and military. He was basically a castrated version of Liu Chengzong.

Liu Shizi once promised to make him a county magistrate, and if he performed well, he would be promoted to prefect within six years.

In return for his kindness, Zhang Yuanheng also did a lot of things for Liu Chengzong, such as inciting the Songpan Weiqi Army and helping his uncle Cai Zhongpan to establish a governance charter in Luhuo County.

So when Liu Chengzong entered Xi'an, he was given the office of the Tea Inspection Office and was appointed as the Tea and Horse Censor, in charge of tea laws and horse policies.

However, the yamen was burned down by rebels before the city was captured, and it would take until next year to repair it, so this was a good opportunity for Zhang Yuanheng to experience what it was like to be a eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department.

After all, he had handled all the procedures for changing his job by himself, so he should experience it when he gets the chance.

Originally Zhao Jifang was in a dilemma, when Liu Chengyun came in leisurely with official documents from the household office with a liguan team in his pocket, and he peeked over here.

The two brothers were of the same mind. They shook their heads and sighed, then looked at Zhao Jifang and asked, "Didn't my brother ask for an official title? Why didn't Zhu Yitong get one?"

"This, the three generals, Zhu Yitong is dead, what else is there to be awarded?"

"What's the matter with death? Just dig into the well and stop working?"

Cheng Yun's eyes widened in astonishment, and he then said to Zhao Jifang, "Give him a good coffin and bury him in the City God Temple. Confer him the title of City God of Pucheng, and then let him go to work for my brother."

When Old Master Liu was in the Prince Su's Mansion in Lanzhou, he transferred a few surrendered generals who were only there to train the guards.

Among them was the commander-in-chief Gu Huai, the head of the army who came from Lintao to Lanzhou to work.

Gu Huai's son was called Gu Tianshou. He was originally going to take the military examination. He was about the same age as Chengyun, and the two got along well. Chengyun also learned the word "go to work".

In Chengyun's mind, going to work means doing things that people don't want to do but have to do.

Zhao Jifang, who was frowning, suddenly understood the situation, expressed his gratitude immediately, and wrote a letter of authorization.

Cheng Yun waved his hand, and went to pet the cat after the task was completed, keeping his merit and fame to himself.

He came here to deliver official documents to the household office and to look for Liu Chengzong. However, seeing that Liu Chengzong was not there, he saw no point in staying here, so he went to the study in the bamboo forest in the east of the city to read.

Since the arrival of winter, it has been difficult to see Liu Chengzong except for dinner in the palace at night.

Although Liu Shizi only needs one hour a day to finish the government affairs in the Marshal's Office, he can do so thanks to the two increasingly busy artificial intelligences, Zhao Jifang and Zhang Yuanheng.

He spent half an hour reviewing the manuscripts, and another half an hour revising the official documents submitted by Zhao Jifang and Zhang Yuanheng.

However, in addition to official documents, Liu Shizi still has a lot of things to worry about.

For more than ten days, Liu Chengzong went to the parade ground outside the city to review military exercises at dawn and returned to the palace in the evening.

It stands to reason that the fighting should be stopped in winter.

Soldiers should go home and take holidays. However, the Marshal's Office has its own national conditions. There are not many people in the army who have started families. There are also many unlucky guys who have started families but lost them.

On the contrary, those who have both old and young are a rare species in the Marshal’s Army.

Of course Liu Shizi gave those rare and exotic animals a holiday. Not only that, he also issued clear orders and formulated a set of relocation regulations.

Whenever a garrison brigade was reorganized and its soldiers got married, the officers would report it to the higher authorities, and finally the general in charge would negotiate with the local prefects, county magistrates, and arrange land near the garrison.

All the provinces under the jurisdiction of the Marshal's Office had been plowed by soldiers more than once, and the thing they had the most was unowned wasteland.

Those who have land are mainly given land, while those who don't have land are divided into pastures, grasslands, forests, and ponds, each of which is divided into different sizes according to its value. Taking land as an example, depending on the honorary rank, the land granted ranges from 50 to 200 acres.

This piece of land is a resettlement site.

After the land was divided, the brigade arranged people to build a house with four rooms and a courtyard, and then move the family there to avoid having to travel back and forth during holidays.

This order immediately made the three brigades stationed in Guanzhong excited.

But for the unmarried soldiers, Liu Chengzong also had a way to make them happy, which was training.

Of course, the drills did not make the soldiers happy, but they did not make them unhappy either.

After all, this is what soldiers do.

However, that is daily training based on the standards of a squad or brigade, and the team leader and the captain have the final say.

Any army throughout history can only manage training outlines at the most basic level.

Even if you are a captain, you can't keep training your soldiers every day.

The team leader and the general manager have the final say on this matter.

They are grassroots officers, closest to the soldiers, and are most convenient for arranging daily training.

However, this also determines that in the daily training of an army, although the same training outline and the same training subjects are used in each brigade and squad, the specific arrangements still depend on the personality and ideas of the chief officer.

In addition to daily training, there is also drill.

That is the so-called exercise once every five days, once every ten days, or even once every half a month or once a month.

Whether an army conducts drills once every five days or once every ten days actually has no direct correlation with the eliteness of the army.

Because the drill here does not mean military training, but martial arts performance.

It requires a battalion or even multiple battalions to gather together to conduct team-level formation drills and division-level battalion formation drills, as well as individual skill assessments.

Since this battalion is not stationed in a dispersed manner, it can conduct exercises every five days.

If the garrison is scattered across several checkpoints in a county, it is best to conduct exercises every ten days.

Otherwise, it would take one day to assemble, one day for drill, and another day to return to the camp, leaving only two days for daily training out of five.

On the contrary, it will affect the quality of the army.

This is called running back and forth, which only causes fatigue.

At the same time, drill is not just a drill, it is also a good opportunity for officers at all levels to teach military skills.

According to the tradition of the Nine Frontiers, there is an officer training day after the military exercises.

That is, to integrate battle-experienced border generals and household servants into each camp, and pass on their experience of running and fighting outside the border, shooting head-on, and wielding swords and riding horses to the camps that had never been in battle.

On this day, rewards of silver will be given, and each person will be given three cents of silver.

The officer training day is usually the day after the military drill. If it is the cavalry, it is the day after the military drill.

Because the cavalry needed a day's rest after the drill, they would go out to let the horses go at five o'clock in the morning, and at the same time the soldiers would collect horse grass for use on the official training day.

During these days, Liu Chengzong transferred three old men, Sheng Lue, Fang Maogong and Li Changling, from Lanzhou.

These three retired old men were brought by Li Hongsi when he surrendered in Liangzhou.

They were all lieutenant generals from Gansu, and had retired only a few years ago. They originally received the salary of the second grade after the increase in rank. Liu Chengzong occupied Gansu and also cut off their pensions.

Later, at the request of Li Hongsi, he made use of his remaining energy and became a training officer in the Marshal's Office.

There’s no way, I have to eat.

Fortunately, these three old men are now nearly 60 years old and in good health, so they were appointed as militia officers of the Marshal's Office. With their experience, they supervised the formulation of the drill regulations.

Where there is assessment, there are rewards and punishments, and rewards can make people happy.

In addition, Liu Chengzong also took the opportunity of going to the camp to review the military exercises and met with generals from all over the place from morning to night.

This was the request he made when he summoned people to enter Guanzhong, in letters he wrote to the generals garrisoning in various places, asking them to hand over the defense to the deputy generals when they came, and bring more surrendered generals and newly promoted generals with them so that they could meet and get to know each other.

Especially Gansu.

When Cao Yao returned from Gansu this time, he brought with him more than ten generals, none of whom Liu Chengzong knew.

Among them were young generals who were promoted during combat in Gansu, such as Gao Dengke and Ge Yong from the Dusi, Zhao Yongbin from the Zhenyi, and Wang Wance and Deng Wanzhong from the garrison.

There were also the brothers Zhao Guangrui and Zhao Guangyuan who were defeated in Ningxia by the Yanglangzi offensive, Hua Jinzhou, a captain of the Jinglu Guard, and Li Shoukui, the captain of Lutang.

The reason why they were called over was that Liu Chengzong wanted to meet with them so that they would not be confused about who they were fighting for.

Secondly, and most importantly, it is necessary to separate them from the local troops to prevent them from gathering together and causing chaos when Cao Yao is not in Gansu.

After all, with Cao Yao coming, the defense of Gansu will be handed over to Huang Shengxiao, Hei Chengyin and Hu Zhishen.

Huang Shengxiao was the lieutenant general of Liu Chengzong's artillery camp, but Hei Chengyin was a brave general and Hu Zhishen was a useless general. The three of them had no problem defending Gansu, but they were not very capable in dealing with civil unrest.

What's more, Liu Shizi started his career as a rebel, and he knew best that suppressing a rebellion would be a net loss no matter how you looked at it.

If someone rebels, it is a loss for him; if he suppresses the rebellion, it is a second loss.

Liu Chengzong's starting point was not to give people the opportunity to rebel.

But this time, I was really surprised when I saw it.

These surrendered generals under the command of Gansu Governor Cao Yao were all mid-level officers who grew up under the Ming border army system, and they had very solid basic skills in leading troops and raising horses.

In time, it is possible that one or two generals will emerge here.

However, what Liu Chengzong received in this twelfth month was not all good news.

There was also some bad news. His Henan General Zhang Yichuan was defeated miserably by the Ming court's Henan General Zhang Renxue in Henan Prefecture.

Of course this isn’t bad news in itself, nor is it even unexpected.

Liu Chengzong had already arranged for Wei Qianer's Tongguan guards to go out of the pass to meet Zhang Yichuan.

The really bad news was that the five Henan battalions of the Marshal's Office were defeated and lost their organization and communication, and only Song Jiang, a lieutenant general, retreated to Tongguan.

The remaining four battalions, led by Zhang Yichuan, rushed towards Zhongdu Fengyang Prefecture in the midst of collapse.

Liu Chengzong had a bad feeling.

I'm afraid the tomb of Emperor Taizu can no longer be preserved. (End of this chapter)