Daming: I help my wife be the empress

According to the situation gathered by Zhu Wei from various sources, the old Ming army in Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang, and Sifu in the east of Nanzhili can be divided into two parts.

One is the official army appointed by the imperial court to guard the local area, and the other is the official army who retreated from Huai'an, Yangzhou and other places in Jiangbei when the Qing army went south.

In addition, there are a small number of volunteers temporarily recruited by civil and military officials.

Aimee Zhu still doesn't know exactly how many soldiers and horses there are in this area, which is nominally the Ming army.

It's just because the military leaders and officials don't know how many soldiers and horses there are, and even if they know it, it's only a rough idea-officials and soldiers flee from the bottom at any time, and "new recruits" join at any time, it's strange to be able to tell a clear number.

Fortunately, Auntie Zhu has a rough understanding of the situation in this area through the historical materials of later generations that Hao Guangming found, combined with some information obtained before.

Therefore, after she took control of Nanjing City in May, she sent people there to give orders to military leaders and civilian officials who had endorsed their loyalty and ability by later historical materials, ordering them to gather scattered troops and eliminate them according to the standards of the new army. Choose, rectify.

As for the reorganization, she needs to wait until she understands the real situation of these soldiers and related generals before making another order.

In mid-June, Zhu Yu sent Chen Jian to escort Lu Jiude, the Ming History Case and the "treasures of later generations" to Suzhou, so that he could learn about the rectification of the soldiers and horses in the four prefectures and inspect them.

Among them, Jiang Yuntai, the commander-in-chief of Zhenjiang, had nearly [-] officers and soldiers, and [-] remained after selection and rectification.

Zhenjiang is right next to Yingtian Mansion, not far from Nanjing City, Jiang Yuntai obviously has some understanding of the new army's military system, so he deliberately kept [-] troops.

However, according to Chen Jian’s report, he observed Jiang Yuntai’s army and found that the number of people who actually met the requirements of the new army might be only 5000, or even less than [-].

In addition, Jiang Yuntai also tried to bribe him——Chen Jian knew that there were dark men in Jinyiwei in the army, so how could he dare to accept bribes?Not only refused, but also made it clear in the memorial.

Seeing this, Auntie Zhu shook her head.

This Jiang Yuntai was already on her blacklist - in the history of later generations, after the Qing army went down to Yangzhou, they crossed the river and had a water battle with Zheng Hongkui. After the battle, Zheng Hongkui found that he was slightly at a disadvantage and ran away. Jiang Yuntai didn't take a single shot. , led the whole army to surrender.

Now she is making small moves in the whole army, trying to maintain her strength and status, no wonder she is being rude.

"Jiang Yuntai, the commander-in-chief of Zhenjiang, did not do enough to organize the army. He bribed the military envoys and planned to dismiss him from his post in the Military Law Department of the Military Affairs Academy." Zhu Yu said to Liu Shuying, who was working at a small table next to him.

"Yes."

Liu Shuying hastily recorded it, and was going to let Zhang Jiayu of the Imperial Academy or other Hanlins draft an imperial decree later, and then use it as a seal for Zhu Yuxi.

Changzhou, Suzhou, and Songjiang are in charge of the whole army. They are Jing Benche, Wu Zhikui, and Lu Zhiyu.

Jing Benche, styled Taihui, was born in Danyang, Zhenjiang Prefecture, and was a Jinshi in the fourth year of Chongzhen.

At the beginning, he was the Secretary of the Ministry of War (from the ninth rank), but he was hated by Wen Tiren and dismissed from office.In the 17th year of Chongzhen, he was used as a former official again. In the Hongguang Dynasty, he was a doctor of the Ministry of War and supervised the army in Huaihai Town.

When the Qing army marched south, all the soldiers and horses in Huai'an Mansion collapsed at the touch of a finger, and even fled in anticipation of the wind, and what's more, they surrendered directly.

Jing Benche had no influence on the soldiers and horses of Huaihai Town at all, so he retreated to Chongming Island under such circumstances.

Zhang Pengyi and Zhang Shiyi of Huaihai Town under his supervision withdrew directly from the sea to Zhejiang where they were originally located.

Jing Benche gathers the defeated troops on Chongming Island and waits and sees the situation.

In the history of later generations, Jing Benche scattered all his wealth, recruited soldiers, contacted other anti-Qing generals, officials, and people with lofty ideals, and established the first anti-Qing base after the collapse of the Hongguang Dynasty on Chongming Island.

Later, he joined the court of King Lu and supervised the country, and was killed by Zhoushan warlord Huang Binqing.

Aunt Zhu transferred her to be a doctor of the recruiting department of the Military Affairs Academy, and was temporarily in charge of selecting the defeated soldiers and local officers and soldiers gathered there on Chongming Island.

Jing Benche had the right to submit a memorial. According to his memorial, more than 400 soldiers were originally assembled, but after selection, [-] soldiers were obtained, which was less than a battalion.

According to Chen Jian's report after he went to observe, the soldiers selected by Jing Benche were not only qualified, but even higher than the standards given by the Military Affairs Academy.

Aimee Zhu asked Jing Benche to work in the recruiting department, originally to try, but now she can't help nodding, thinking that this person can still be used.

In fact, the reason why Jing Benche was killed by Huang Binqing in the history of later generations was because he had trained hundreds of soldiers who were good at shooting and was afraid of Huang Binqing...
Wu Zhikui, courtesy name Shengjia, was born in Huating, Songjiang Prefecture.In the sixth year of Chongzhen's martial arts examination, he later traveled to the north. Because of his reputation for bravery, he was recommended by Zhang Guowei, governor of the south of the Yangtze River, to join the army as the general of Jinshan Dingbo Camp.

Now he has been promoted to lieutenant general, and he is actually awarded the general officer of Wusong Town.

In the history of later generations, Wu Zhikui could be said to be the protagonist of Su Songchang and northern Zhejiang during the Jiangnan Anti-Qing Uprising that broke out in June this year.

It is a pity that although there were many anti-Qing troops in the south of the Yangtze River at that time, they did not belong to each other.

Wu Zhikui first failed in his attempt to recover the state, and was forced by the Qing army to retreat to the sea with Huang Fei. Like Huang Fei, they were both captured by the Qing army and killed if they refused to surrender.

Chen Jian said in the newspaper that Wu Zhikui is indeed quite brave personally, but he has a lot of habits in the world, and most of the soldiers under his command are mobs, and his training and fighting skills are also average.

Relying on his reputation in Su Songchang's three mansions and Zhu Yu's will, he gathered more than 3 soldiers and horses, and [-] were left after the selection.

But in Chen Jian's view, only about [-] of them met the criteria for the new army.

However, there are quite a few good generals among these people, namely Yu Feixiong, the cavalry commander, Chen Hongxun, the Kunshan garrison, Xu Long, the commander of Nanxiang, and Zhu Ying, the Jiangdong guerrilla.

The third person who was ordered to reorganize the army was Lu Zhiyu, the deputy commander of the army stationed in Fushan on the Yangtze River in Suzhou Prefecture.

This person is from a family of guards in Suzhou, hereditary from thousands of households. Because the guards at the end of the Ming Dynasty were gradually confused with recruits, Lu Zhiyu was gradually promoted to deputy chief soldier.

In the history of later generations, Lu Zhiyu followed Wu Zhikui to attack Suzhou, entered the city and died in ambush.

According to Chen Jian's report, there were originally more than 1 people under Lu Zhiyu's command, but only 5000 remained after the selection.But after Chen Jian went to his army to observe, he found that there were only more than 3000 people who really met the requirements of the new army...
When Chen Jian came over, Auntie Zhu asked him about some things carefully and asked him to retreat.

She tapped the imperial case with her fingers, thinking about how to organize these soldiers and horses.

In the end, she decided to reorganize the old official army of the four prefectures, including Zhenjiang, into the two town garrisons.

It is planned that Wu Zhikui and Lu Zhiyu will serve as lieutenants respectively as the commanders-in-chief of the garrison troops of the two towns. The premise is that the two can successfully graduate from the general officer training class of the Nanjing Military Academy.

Therefore, Aimee Zhu's final order was to let the soldiers and horses from the four prefectures who had been selected and reorganized come to Nanjing to accept the reorganization, and at the same time transfer the Nanjing garrison from the two towns to guard Zhenjiang and Wusong Town respectively.

Zhenjiang is an important hub where the Grand Canal connects the north and south of the Yangtze River. It is extremely crucial. Daming has always been guarded by tens of thousands of troops. Although Zhu Wei does not think that anyone can hit Zhenjiang right now, she has to guard against it.

As for Wusong Town, it is located at the mouth of the Wusong River and later belonged to Shanghai, but now it is in the northeast corner of Suzhou Prefecture, not far from Jiading County, and it is really an important place to guard against enemies from the sea.

So it is also necessary to garrison troops here.

In fact, there are many places where Su Songchang's three mansions need to garrison troops to defend against the pirates (mainly referring to pirates), so the garrison sent there will not be stationed in one place for the entire town, but will be stationed in separate battalions.

As for the transfer of the old officers and soldiers from the four prefectures of Susong Chang Township to Nanjing, all the soldiers below the general manager will be disrupted and reorganized, and a small number of elites will be selected to fill the frontier defense army, leaving 4000 people to form the two township garrisons.

Send all generals above the general level to the Nanjing Military Academy for advanced training.

If this matter is completed, it will also achieve another important goal of Aimee Zhu - to further control the four mansions of Zhen, Su, Song and Chang.

···
In the midst of being busy, another few days passed.

During this period, the auction in Chengdu also ended, and a report was made to Aimee Zhu by telegram—a total of 205 million shimi and 800 million taels of silver were obtained.

On the whole, it is similar to Suzhou Prefecture.

The main reason is that a considerable part of the land in Chengdu Mansion belongs to the Shu Palace; and the spread of the news is limited, and there is not enough time left for Sichuan rich people and landlords to participate.

Otherwise, the income from the Chengdu auction should be much higher than that of Suzhou.

However, even if there are only more than 200 million shimi, plus the tax grain after the spring grain harvest, the military grain and official grain in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Chongqing, and Guizhou should be worry-free, and some of them can even be spared to support other provinces.

Seeing the telegram that was sent after completion, Zhu Wei was very happy when she saw the gatekeeper eunuch come in and said, "Your Majesty, Yang Tinglin has arrived."