stubborn thief

In the side room of the military government office.

Zhang Yuanheng put down the rolled-up map, and Zhao Jifang brought out a volume of atlases, showing the grain route of the Marshal's Mansion to everyone.

Ever since Liu Chengzong made the request to prepare for the Northern Expedition last year, the prefectures in the three provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai under the Marshal's Office have been preparing for the preparation of military supplies.

In this regard, thanks to the warlord-style high in-kind taxes imposed by the Marshal's Office in Qinghai, it was easy to collect materials but extremely difficult to transport military supplies.

Because their logistics had to start with rebuilding the post roads.

The post station is a military station. It can serve as a transportation node for food and wages before the war, and can also gather and regroup stragglers during the march.

But the Marshal's Office is in most parts of Shaanxi and there is no post station.

This cannot be blamed on anyone else. Although Emperor Chongzhen laid off a part of the post soldiers in Shaanxi and released some paramilitary personnel with military power into society, the post roads still operated well.

The Shaanxi Post Road was destroyed, but Liu Chengzong cannot be described as the initiator. He was the one who caused it all and basically left no chance for others to imitate him.

He marched from east to west and demolished the post stations in Yan'an, Qingyang and Pingliang; when he marched from west to east, his troops destroyed the post stations in Lintao and Gongchang.

There are a few that were missed, such as Huichuan Horse Posthouse in Jinglu and Weizhou Horse Posthouse in Weizhou, which were demolished by Cao Yao; and Chencang Horse Posthouse in Baoji, Fengxiang Prefecture, which was built by Luo Rucai.

Only the post stations in Xi'an Prefecture escaped from the danger of Shikou.

However, although the post station was not destroyed, the postmaster and the postmen almost all ran away when the war came.

As a result, the Shaanxi Post Road of the Marshal's Mansion was almost blank and had to be rebuilt.

This brings up a new problem, as the Marshal's Office does not have a superior unit for the post station.

Post stations have been used for military purposes since ancient times. In the Han Dynasty, they were under the jurisdiction of the Grand Marshal, and in the Yuan Dynasty, they were under the jurisdiction of the Khan. Today, it is no exception. It is directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, the central government, without going through the provincial government.

The administrative structure of the Marshal's Office was always restricted by Liu Chengzong's needs.

He needed to manufacture military weapons, so he set up the Gong Ya (Working Office), he needed to select officials, so he set up the Li Ya (Official Personnel Office), he needed to manage vassal states, so he set up the Li Ya (Rites Office), he needed to spend money and grain, so he set up the Hu Ya (Household Office).

But he did not need the legal system to restrain him, so there was no Criminal Court; nor did he need anyone to interfere in military affairs, so the Military Court was a disabled department in charge of the promotions of junior officers and soldiers.

The Marshal's Office has never been a centralized empire, but an army that controls one or even three provinces.

In the past, their communications were entirely carried out by the Tangqi within the army.

Until now, some post stations have been restored under the jurisdiction of the generals of the garrisons in various regions. However, except for the two prefectures of Xikang, there are no post station officers and unified management in other places. There is only a small team of soldiers stationed in those dilapidated post towns to complete the work of postmen.

Of course, there are also three stations in Gansu from Wuwei Post Station to Sancha, Heishan and Ningbian. Because the road is not easy to travel and there are no people along the way, Cao Yao restored the Yuan Dynasty tradition and used sheep posts instead of horse posts, using domesticated antelopes, also called Huangtan sheep.

In fact, it cannot be said to be domesticated. Animals that require a large amount of open land are not easy to domesticate. But it is not a problem for the postmen who run around every day.

Just tie bells on them and let them go back and forth between two stations to find food. After they become skilled, they can be used to deliver some unimportant messages. When they arrive, they just lick them with a salt brick and run faster than horses.

But when war comes, it becomes particularly important to unify the management of the post stations across the entire territory.

In order to manage the delivery of post stations, Liu Chengzong set up the Bingya Chariot and Vehicle Division. The doctor of the Chariot and Vehicle Division was his groom Guo Ruqi, also known as Guo Zhashi.

The Chariot and Imperial Vehicle Department had five departments under its jurisdiction: the Clerks, the Delivery, the Horse Administration, the Strongmen, and the Fodder.

They were responsible for the mobilization of men, horses, vehicles and ships, the issuance of certificates of entry, the inspection of the number of military horses, the registration of soldiers guarding the post stations, the management of various forage fields and financial revenue and expenditure.

With this institution, it would be much easier for the Marshal's Office to repair the post roads.

Because there are two major difficulties in building a post road, one is site selection, and the other is personnel selection, neither of these was a problem for Liu Chengzong.

The locations of the post towns in the past are all known, but some have been demolished, some have been destroyed, and some have been abandoned. Funds have been allocated to restore them.

The selection of personnel for the post stations was even simpler. There were many veteran postmen under Wei Qianer in Tongguanwei, and there were also many skilled postmen on Xikang Road, all of whom could be transferred to Shaanxi to serve as post station chiefs.

In fact, after the Marshal's Office entered Xi'an, not only the Military Office, but other offices also expanded their staff significantly because the central government was in charge of the local areas.

Each government office added departments as needed, with the Yulin, who received general education under Liu Chengzong, as the chief officer. Subsequently, each department opened various departments as needed, and veteran soldiers with work experience in various departments were selected to serve as ambassadors and deputy envoys.

Cheng Yun sorted out the documents and organized his words, then he clasped his fists and said, "Brother, this time we will use 70,000 troops in the north. Before the battle begins, we need to prepare three months' worth of food on the front line, and transport another three months' worth of food, which means 300,000 shi of grain."

"Guyuan doesn't have the capacity to handle the huge amount of food and fodder, so we have to temporarily set up a military supply bureau in Qingyang."

Liu Chengzong laughed out loud: "Fighting in the interior, transporting food is even more difficult than in the border areas."

When the Marshal's Office was fighting in the border areas, it was easy to get food and soldiers. There was horse grass everywhere, and the mounts could eat as they went. There were also herdsmen and local chieftains who supplied meat, which made it much easier.

But it is different in the mainland. We really need to transport food. We can't fight the war without transporting food.

In fact, the grain storage camp that Liu Chengzong and Cheng Yun prepared at the beginning for this battle was in Guyuan.

Because of the suitable geographical location there, transporting grain from Lanzhou and Xi'an to Guyuan requires a distance of five to six hundred miles and eleven stops.

The distance and location of the inland post stations had long been set according to established rules, which was much more scientific than the post stations on the Xikang Road established by Liu Chengzong and the Tianshan Road established by Liu Chengzu when he went north to conquer the Tianshan Mountains.

From Xining to Kangning, from Gansu to Tianshan, the rules for transmitting military intelligence were followed, with one stop roughly every hundred miles.

The post stations in the interior were well-equipped, and express stations were used to transmit military intelligence. The distance between the post stations was set based on the marching speed of infantry and cavalry.

The post station is set up on a route that can be reached in the evening if you set out in the morning.

Therefore, military supplies were divided into sections according to post stations and transported day and night. Eleven post stations meant that the supplies could arrive in six days.

Speed ​​is of the essence in war, and the food supply route must also be fast. The faster it is, the less travel time will be consumed. At the same time, the faster the food supply is, the longer the shelf life of the food will be.

But the problem with Guyuan Prefecture is that there is no one.

Like in Jingning Prefecture, Liu Chengzong did not set up a prefectural office in Guyuan Prefecture. He only sent a Tongpan to manage military and civil affairs. The Tongpan was named Yang Sanyuan, a relative of Yang Chengzu.

Guyuan had never been a civilian prefecture. There were many local troops stationed there, but very few civilians. Even the defeated peasant army was unwilling to run there, so the population that Yang Sanyuan reported to the Marshal's Mansion was very pitiful.

In the huge Guyuan Prefecture, there were more than 900 households, craftsmen and servants, and a total of more than 4,000 pitiful people.

With such a small population, there is basically no surplus population to handle military rations.

"Regarding the temporary establishment of military supply bureaus, my idea is to set up one each in Guyuan and Qingyang. It would be better to transport military supplies by multiple routes, which would be safer. Is the water route from Xi'an to Pingliang accessible?"

Hearing Liu Chengzong's question, Chengyun shook his head and said, "Shipping on the Jing River is intermittent. There are five stations that can be transported by water. From Xi'an to Pingliang, you can transport by car and boat alternately. The road is not much, but there is a lot of preparation work. Boats, vehicles, mules and horses are not yet gathered." "It is estimated that 1,800 donkeys and mules, 900 double-harnessed carts, and 7,000 driver guards will be purchased at 11 stations. In addition, 430 large and small civilian ships will be requisitioned. In addition..." Chengyun said, and asked Liu Chengzong, "Will this route be used in the future?"

Liu Chengzong frowned and asked, "How do you say whether you will use it in the future or not?"

"If we still need it in the future, we can invest more money to open up the river that is not easy to navigate. Then the cost of allocating more money to the river government will be more. The first batch of investment is estimated to be around 45,000 taels if it is not used in the future."

As he said this, Cheng Yun smiled and said, "There are plenty of military mules, and we can also requisition carts and boats. Thirty thousand taels will be enough. The post stations can also allocate nearby farmland to them, and each post station can cultivate thirty to fifty hectares of land. That's enough. After we start transporting, we can transport up to 48,000 dan of rice to Guyuan every month, but the soldiers will need another 7,000 dan of rice for travel expenses."

"About 40,000 shi arrive every month."

Liu Chengzong also laughed when he heard this: "It means that the preparations were rushed this time, so we have to be a little sloppy."

There's really no way around it. Of course we want everything to be perfect.

But more often than not, the Marshal's Office, which is short of time, can only adopt one stopgap measure after another.

After all, even if the Jingshui River channel is overhauled, they started building the waterway in the spring. The river section is uneven, and new ships for each section have to be built and the river channel has to be repaired. It is impossible to use water transportation for this year's battle.

The investment of forty to fifty thousand taels was only the first budget, and this money was used to give one tael to each soldier in the war, which could even allow people to go hungry for a day with high morale.

"This river is very important. In addition to the 30,000 post roads, an additional 10,000 are required to transport large amounts of military rations. Many mules will die and many vehicles will break down. We need to replenish them in time."

"In addition, make a budget of 50,000 taels for the river, but don't allocate it yet. Let Chen Qiyu go to inspect the Jing River first. Not only should it be navigable, but also the irrigation and hydraulic repairs of the counties along the way should be done. Wait for him to report the budget before we talk about it."

"I can't have a baby if I keep the money anyway, so let's just keep doing this for now."

When Liu Chengzong mentioned the word "fooling", he smiled and asked Cheng Yun, "What about the western route? How can we make do with it?"

“Haha, brother, you don’t have to make do with the west road.”

This brings us to something that Chengyun is quite proud of. Xining was the former base camp of the Marshal's Army. The Hehuang line has tracks with good transport capacity, which can quickly transport arms to Lanzhou.

"Lanzhou has already dispatched more than 11,000 pack horses and mules, which have been distributed to 11 stations along the way. There are also 3,000 pack mules and 1,500 pairs of carts in reserve. The mule team can deliver 900 to 1,000 loads of military supplies to Guyuan every day."

Cheng Yun explained: "If the food transported by the East Route is sufficient for military use, the West Route will be responsible for transporting military supplies. Lanzhou sent a message the day before yesterday that more than 40,000 loads of various military supplies have been prepared."

"Among them, there were 10,000 loads of salt, 5,000 loads of oil, 4,200 loads of maltose, 6,700 loads of dried meat and salted fish, 5,000 loads of pickled vegetables, sesame seeds, peanuts, etc., 1,200 loads of vinegar cloth, 2,400 loads of gunpowder, 2,000 loads of arrowheads, arrow shafts, armor pieces, 4,000 loads of rockets, and more than 10,000 loads of various sundries such as felt bowstrings."

Liu Chengzong nodded slowly. The base camp was more useful and not as troublesome as Pingliang, Qingyang and Xi'an.

He asked, "What if we need food and fodder from there?"

"Lanzhou has prepared 400,000 shi of raw grain, wheat and beans, ready for processing and shipment at any time."

Cheng Yun added: "In addition, Mr. Yang and the military yamen's Dalai Taiji also asked whether we should recruit a group of workers who are skilled in frying noodles and making dried noodles into the military and send them to Guyuan to build a factory?"

"Give as much as you can."

Liu Chengzong’s two east and west food routes were simple, but he knew very well that this was only the first route of this northern expedition.

One stone of raw grain is processed into flour in Lanzhou or Xi'an, and 150 kilograms becomes about 100 kilograms of finished grain, which is then transported to Guyuan as military rations and supplies. It then needs to be transported to the front line for a second time, or processed on the spot and then transported to the front line.

What was processed was naturally the famous meal of the Marshal's Mansion, the emergency military ration fried noodles.

Yang Dingrui prepared so much salt, oil, sugar, sesame, peanuts and other things in Hexi just for Liu Chengzong to process fried noodles in Guyuan.

This also means that although Yang Dingrui had reservations about Liu Chengzong's plan to use troops in the southern desert, he was already prepared to support the southern desert campaign in terms of military supplies.

Because if they were only marching north to Ningxia and Yansui, there would be no need to make so much fried noodles, as they had a complete rear food supply route and a border wall for protection.

The front-line troops can use the border wall as a boundary, enjoy sufficient military rations, carry some raw grains, and make fresh food with a short shelf life in the camp.

Like baked steamed buns, pot cakes, noodles, and even cut dough and make noodles.

Fried noodles are just a small snack and a stopgap supplement for emergency military rations.

But if they were to fight deep into the southern desert, they would need to make a large amount of fried noodles that could be preserved for a long time.

The two brothers were discussing the military rations for the expedition in the office, and Zhang Xianzhong, the Minister of Rites, was unable to get a word in for a long time.

Normally, he should have unique insights into military affairs, but the Eighth King knew nothing about logistics, post roads, military supplies and other messy things.

These things sound confusing, and we need to prepare tens of thousands of mules.

Zhang Xianzhong smacked his lips, looking bored: "General, we have recruited tens of thousands of slaves from the east and west routes. It would be a waste of time to keep them on the road for nothing."

Liu Chengzong raised his eyebrows: "Zhang Butang, do you have any way to reduce road consumption?"

"There is a fellow from Fushi Township named Wang Yinglong in the Western Brigade who was originally an archer. He used to repair weapons and manage baggage for me. All of his men are good horsemen, and one of them can lead twelve mules."

"Why don't we just use the mules as rations and let them carry their weapons and walk to the camp on their own? An army of 70,000 only needs 2,000 horsemen to drive 20,000 mules, which is enough to knock down the Ningxia garrison soldiers."

Liu Chengzong almost laughed out loud, and asked with a strange look on his face, "What about Yansui?"

"If we seize Ningxia, there may be more mules. We can drive all the soldiers from Ningxia to attack Yansui and then seize Yansui." Zhang Xianzhong's eyes lit up as he spoke. "Then we can drive the surrendered soldiers from the two towns to the south of the desert to fight the Eastern Tartars and chase them to Shenyang to seize their mules and horses, and yes, gold and silver as well."

The logic is closed.

Liu Chengzong gave a thumbs up, very good, it really shows the spirit of a desperado who travels through troubled times.

He did not ask what to do if they ran out of food or if the army was defeated due to lack of food and fodder. It would have been unnecessary to ask such questions.

There was no need to tell Zhang Xianzhong that the eastern route would repair the Jing River to irrigate the fields of several prefectures along the way; the western route's mule team would transport supplies to Guyuan and open a military grain processing plant, which would also allow the people of Guyuan, who were experiencing a shortage of food, to earn some money until the grain was ripe.

Because things related to government affairs and construction were also redundant for Zhang Xianzhong.

However, Zhang Xianzhong did remind Liu Chengzong tactically, making him think of some things, such as the best defense is offense.

At this moment, Yu Lin Lang walked into the hall quickly and handed over a letter marked with Yanqing Road: "General, urgent news."

Unfolding the letter, it was written by Zhang Zhen, the general of Yanqing. The letter said that it was discovered a few days ago that Yu Chongxiao, the general of Yansui Town, was not in the town and had gone to Ningxia, while Ding Guodong, who was stationed in Huanxian County, captured Wang Ji, the governor of Ningxia, and his son who had fled to Qingyang.

Liu Chengzong put down the letter and looked at Zhang Xianzhong and Cheng Yun. His eyes lit up unconsciously, and the hairs on his neck stood up in excitement: "Ningxia, the army has mutinied!" (End of this chapter)