The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 394 Secession
"Hanzhong Guardian reported that although the disaster last year was serious, fortunately the general town had foresight and built water conservancy projects and dug deep wells. Most of the fields can still produce, so the impact of the disaster was not serious."

"According to the general's previous order, each town has stored food and grass in advance. From the beginning of spring to winter, the people and soldiers in the town can still have enough food and clothing."

In Wupingwei, in the main hall, Chen Wang sat in the first seat, listening to Chen Gong's report.

In the hall, Zhao Huailiang, Huang Long, Zhang Er, Chen Ming, Chen Heng and other officers of the Hanzhong army sat on both sides.

"Since last summer, the number of victims fleeing to Hanzhong Prefecture from the northern prefectures of Xi'an, Fengxiang, and Gongchang is too numerous to count."

Chen Gong stood in the hall and read out the report from Hanzhong in detail without any reservations.

Everyone present, Zhao Huailiang, Huang Long, and Zhang Er, all knew Chen Wang's purpose.

Zhao Huailiang had followed Chen Wang when he first arrived in Shaanxi.

After Huang Long and Zhang Er rebelled against Gao Yingxiang, they were not tolerated by the rebel army and were ostracized by officers and soldiers. Finally, Chen Wang accepted them.

Moreover, at this point, after all the things they have done over the years, they have no way out and can only follow Chen Wang till the end.

Chen Ming, Chen De and others are relatives of the same clan as Chen Wang, so there is naturally no need to be shy about it.

Nowadays, in Hanzhong Town, including the guards, basically those who can reach the level of Qianzong are either surnamed Chen or Hu.

Only a few people were promoted to the rank of Qianzong because of their outstanding military achievements.

Chen Wang naturally knew the disadvantages of nepotism.

But in the current situation, Chen Wang needs to rely entirely on others to control the powerful army of Hanzhong Town.

"According to statistics compiled by the guards at each checkpoint, as of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month this year, the total number of refugees has reached 100,000."

Chen Wang lowered his eyebrows and said nothing.

Shaanxi can be said to be the most difficult province in the late Ming Dynasty.

The disasters were the worst, the unrest was the most severe, and the war was the most intense.

There is an inscription:

Throughout the dynasties, in years of famine, only three cents of rice were seen on cattle.

The amount doubled to seven cents, which made us feel very sad, and we considered it a rare thing to encounter.

Unexpectedly, in the eighth and ninth years of Chongzhen's reign, there were both locusts and droughts.

In the thirteenth or fourteenth year, there was a great famine, but Shangluo and other places were somewhat better off.

Countless men and women were running around to get food, carrying things, shouldering things, and dying on the road.

There are so many sufferings and pains, it is impossible to describe them in detail.

The rest of us had to eat vegetable bags and bran, and luckily we managed to survive.

After surviving this great disaster, thinking back on the suffering I endured, I feel so sad and horrified that I can’t forget it day or night.

Therefore, we gathered the people together and erected a stone tablet with the same mind to record our memory, so that future archaeologists can read it.

"The epidemic in Shaanxi is still going on, and the price of wheat has reached 2 liang 45 qian per dou."

"The price of wheat and rice was controlled by merchants from Shaanxi and Shanxi. Tongxinhang sent 13,000 dan of grain and rice to Shaanxi, but it was difficult to sell it on the market. It could only be sold to merchants from Shaanxi and Shanxi. After deducting the loss, it earned 237,000 taels of silver."

Tongxinxing was the trading company opened by Chen Wang after he arrived in Yunyang Prefecture.

Except for the grassroots staff except for the porters, all the management personnel in the company are the officers of the Supervisory Office.

When the business was first established, it was only responsible for trading with the mountain people who gathered in the Yunyang Mountain area.

After quite a while of development, we are beginning to transform continuously in order to cope with the growing gap and needs.

The current Tongxinhang mainly deals in grain and rice trade, and secondarily in minerals and general merchandise to supply the needs of the Hanzhong Town Military Equipment Bureau.

"The Supervisory Office reported that there was no food supply in the towns and villages, and seven or eight out of ten people died."

"There is a man in the west gate of the city who is buying young women. The price is less than a thousand coins."

"There are those who exchange one meal of rice for one wife, and one liter of rice for one maid."

Chen Gong looked at the document in his hand and sighed.

At the end of the reading, he found it difficult to continue speaking.

The generals in the hall were also silent. Most of them came from poor backgrounds and had struggled to survive during the disaster years.

Although the Chen and Hu families were once powerful local clans in Liaodong, after the defeat at Guangning they retreated into Shanhaiguan, where they lost almost all their land and property, and the two clans struggled for their livelihoods.

The reason why so many young and strong people from the two families joined the army at that time was because they needed money to settle down and support their families.

Although he never sold his children, he had to bow down and struggle to make ends meet.

I can relate to that to some extent.

"Shanxi merchants..."

Chen Wang's eyes were sinister and his pupils were as cold as ice.

The reason why the Qing Dynasty was able to rule the Central Plains was inseparable from the support of Shanxi merchants.

Since the Liaodong turmoil, the Ming court has repeatedly tried to restrict the development of the Later Jin through economic blockade.

However, because the Shanxi merchants continued to secretly transport food and other military supplies to the Later Jin, all their efforts ended in failure.

Even Shanxi merchants were secretly transmitting military intelligence to assist the Later Jin invasion.

"When the Chamber of Commerce transported grain to Xi'an Prefecture, they encountered robbers many times along the way. Many of the robbers were well-trained and were obviously not ordinary bandits."

Chen Gong held the document in his hand, looked at Chen Wang and said.

"After being transported to Xi'an, the grain was seized several times. In the end, we used the name of Hanzhong Town and the help of the Shaanxi Command, and finally compromised and let the merchants in the city buy it."

Chen Wang's eyes narrowed slightly. He could be the only one in power in Hanzhong Prefecture, but the situation would change after leaving Hanzhong Prefecture.

The commander of Xi'an Wei was Luo Guizhong, the same Luo Guizhong who had led troops to assist him in Chunhua.

After the Battle of Chunhua, Chen Wang was directly promoted to guerrilla due to his merits.

Luo Guizhong was also promoted to a higher level due to his military merits. Later, Sun Chuanting reorganized the garrisons and promoted Luo Guizhong to become the commander of the Xi'an vanguard.

When the Hanzhongwei Military Equipment Bureau was first established, a group of military craftsmen were moved in with the help of Luo Guizhong.

Several years have passed, and now Luo Guizhong has become the commander-in-chief of the Shaanxi Military Command because of his military achievements and business management.

Of course, Chen Wang also supported this.

"Luo Guizhong should know the details of those merchants, right?"

Chen Wang picked up the teacup, lifted the lid, took a sip, and asked in a flat tone.

"The Supervisory Office has already found out the details of the merchants who put pressure on us at the time, and the documents have been collected in the Supervisory Office."

"Send a message to Zhili, point out the two families, arrange for good people in the army, transfer a group of people from the Supervisory Office, and then ask Luo Guizhong for another group of people."

Chen Wang did not hide the murderous intent in his tone.

Shaanxi is in a mess now. Li Zicheng is stirring up trouble in the northwest. With troops from the three borders gathering in the northwest, how can they control Xi'an Prefecture?
In troubled times, storms are brewing everywhere. Did you still think that it was the time for civil officials to take power?
These people still think that this is the original era, the time of the old almanac.

"Since they don't know how high the heavens are and how deep the earth is, then let's teach them a lesson that they will never forget!"

Chen Wang's tone was cold and merciless.

"What if they go to Beijing to file a complaint?" Chen Gong paused for a moment and asked.

"Then kill again."

"Kill them until they bow their heads, kill them until they surrender."

"Let's see who is tougher, or who is more powerful."

"Allow the Supervisory Office to receive another 5,000 taels of silver every year, and have it recruit martial arts experts from the local bandits, the market, and the escort agencies to specialize in assassination and murder."

Chen Wang's eyes were cold, and he had already decided the life and death of thousands of people with just a few words.

During years of famine, unscrupulous merchants who maliciously hoarded grain deserved to be put to death.

"This matter has been exposed. All future actions will be handled in accordance with this example. There is no need to worry about the impact."

Chen Wang put down the teacup in his hand. Now that he has grown stronger, he no longer needs to follow the rules in many cases.

"Hanzhong Military Equipment Bureau reported that hydraulic forging hammers have been fully used in military manufacturing."

"A group of craftsmen selected from the Military Equipment Bureau of Jiuwei Sansuo in Henan and the Miscellaneous Manufacturing Bureau in Kaifeng have been sent over through the Tongxinxing trade route."

"At present, the Hanzhong Military Equipment Bureau has a total of 2,367 craftsmen, and can produce 600 sets of Ming armor and 3,300 sea oath guns every month. The monthly production of qualified gun spikes has exceeded 1,000."

"In the town, the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th regular battalions, and the Yunyang community soldiers, totaling 17,311 people, have completed their basic equipment changes and are currently undergoing their fourth large-scale training."

Officially, Hanzhong Town still used the terms "regular battalion", "reinforcement battalion" and "special battalion" in the garrison military system.

However, the new system has been adopted within Hanzhong Town.

The original five battalions of troops under Hanzhong Town included the regular battalion led by Chen Wangzhi, the two reinforcement battalions led by two lieutenant generals Chen Gong and Zhou Yumao, and the two mobile battalions led by Huang Long and Zhang Er.

In the reformed new military system, Chen Wang abolished the naming method of regular, special, auxiliary and mobile battalions, and directly used numbers to name them. At the same time, he collectively referred to the infantry battalions as regular battalions.

The current second and third regular battalions were the reinforcement battalions formerly under the command of Chen Gong and Zhou Yumao.

These two troops have been in the Hanzhong Prefecture and Yunyang Prefecture areas without frequent transfers.

Today, Chen Wang has handed over the leadership of Hanzhong Town to Hu Zhili.

Hu Zhili is now in charge of the Military Law Department and the Supervisory Office, and has strong control over local supervision.

The Second Regular Battalion is now under the management of Hu Zhili, and the entire Hanzhong Prefecture Internal Guard is also directly under the command of Hu Zhili.

The Third Regular Battalion was under the command of Zhou Yumao, who also took charge of the Six Battalions of Huguang and besieged the city of Xiangyang.

Xiangyang City was still in the hands of Zhang Xianzhong's army. According to the original plan, Xiangyang City had become a training ground for new recruits from Hanzhong Town.

There were more than 4,000 soldiers in each camp, totaling 8,000 soldiers.

As for the Sixth Regular Battalion, it was a new battalion recruited outside the quota, with a total of 5,000 people.

The soldiers were strong and brave men selected from garrisons in various places, as well as young men recruited from ordinary people. The soldiers in the team were all around 20 years old.

The Yunyang community soldiers were recruited from mountain dwellers in various places. A total of more than 4,000 mountain dwellers were conscripted and given weapons to serve as community soldiers for joint defense.

With the help of the power vacuum and the map of Yunyang Prefecture, after opening up connections between various mountainous areas, Chen Wang finally got the fat piece of Yunyang Prefecture into his bowl.

The militia composed of these mountain people enabled Chen Wang to further strengthen his control over the Yunyang mountainous area.

A considerable number of soldiers in the Sixth Regular Battalion were recruited from the Yunyang Mountain area.

There are now six regular military battalions and one cavalry battalion in Hanzhong Town.

They are the 1st to 6th regular battalions, and the 1st Cavalry Battalion of the Guards.

The first battalion had 5,000 soldiers, and the other four battalions had 4,000 soldiers each.
There are seven battalions in total, with a total of more than 29,000 people.

This was a full 14,000 more soldiers than the number set by the imperial court, almost double the number.

With such a large number of troops, it would not be a small number even if they were deployed to the nine borders.

At a time when there is a general shortage of soldiers in all the towns and camps, having such a large surplus is undoubtedly an outlier among outliers.

However, on paper and in public, Hanzhong Town still only had more than 15,000 soldiers receiving salaries.

"What is the situation of the guards in the town?"

Chen Wang had a clearer idea of ​​the situation of the soldiers in the town.

Hu Zhili often sent information to report on the situation in the town, and the training and armament of the camp soldiers was the top priority.

"According to the current output of the Armament Bureau, by the end of this year, we will be able to complete the replacement of the equipment for the 12,000 guards in the town."

Northern and central Shaanxi were severely affected, and a large number of refugees were forced to pour into Hanzhong Prefecture.

After ensuring that they were free of disease, these refugees were allowed into the country one after another.

As a result, the garrisons in various places also recruited a lot of staff.

Today, the number of Hanzhong Wei regular troops has reached 12,000, divided into four battalions.

The numbers are directly inherited from the town, namely the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth regular barracks.

In other words, the number of troops directly under Chen Wang’s command now exceeds 45,000.

Together with the 36,000 men of the Huguang Sixth Battalion, the Henan New Army Seventh Battalion, and the Kaifeng Community Soldiers, which were indirectly controlled, the total force exceeded 80,000.

Including the Henan camp soldiers led by Gao Qian, Chen Yongfu, Chen De and others, the total strength can reach more than 90,000.

With the help of Chen Wang's tactics, a large number of mountain people in the Yunyang Mountain area were able to leave the mountain area with justification and enter Hanzhong Prefecture or Yunyang Prefecture to become farmers, cultivating the newly acquired land of Chen Wang as settlers.

Chen Wang can now be said to be a real landlord and a powerful man.

After the thirty-six battalions of bandits destroyed Hanzhong, Yunyang and Xiangyang prefectures, Chen Wang became the biggest beneficiary.

Now, more than half of the land in the three prefectures has been taken over by Chen Wang.

Either it is in the name of a private person or in the name of the garrison.

A series of official agencies such as the guards and inspection teams of the two governments were controlled by Chen Wang.

The mines, lakes, and forests were also controlled by Chen Wang.

In addition, Chen Wang also controlled a large amount of land in various prefectures in Henan.

Those fields were all controlled by Chen Wang under various names or in actual hands.

The means used are simple, but also very informative, nothing more than plundering by trickery.

The Ming Dynasty's current weak control over local areas gave Chen Wang the opportunity to develop slowly.

Chen Wang even set up a customs office between the two prefectures to collect taxes, and all businesses passing through Yunyang and Hanzhong had to pay full commercial taxes.

It is of course possible not to pay taxes, but there are dense forests and mountains along the way, and there are many "bandits", so whether you can pass safely has nothing to do with Hanzhong Town.

It is precisely with these incomes that Chen Wang can support an army of such a scale and still be wealthy.

Chen Wang knew it very well.

If one wants to sweep across the world and pacify the eight wildernesses, ninety thousand people are far from enough.

but.

Ninety thousand people.

It has allowed him to achieve de facto separatism in today's chaotic situation.