Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 338: Expanding the Army Again
Danchu looked around at the generals and said, "Governing East Guangdong is a complicated matter. We need to send troops to occupy the prefectures, counties, and township governments below the prefectures and counties. We need to integrate the Dongxun, Qing army captives, community soldiers, Tanka soldiers, and local soldiers. What exactly is the point?"

All the generals held their breath and listened to Danchu's own questions and answers. He said, "The key is still the Red Army. As long as we grasp the army, all problems will be solved. The Red Army is the foundation of our clan and the basis for Nanyue's conquest of the world. To be honest, our clan has decided to expand the Red Army. Before you move out, I will give you a general idea."

The expansion of the army was something that was expected. Most of those present were veterans who had worked hard and made great contributions. They would also take this opportunity to be promoted, and they were all very excited.

In terms of combat troops, it was decided to add a third infantry regiment, which was composed of the seventh, eighth and ninth infantry brigades. The troops were mainly drawn from new recruits in western Guangdong, old troops of Dongxun, local armed forces in eastern Guangdong, and Qing prisoners of war.

The commander of the Seventh Brigade was Du Yonghe, who also served as the deputy commander of the town. Du Yonghe knew that he was not capable enough, so he handed over the seal of the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi to Cen Danchu. Danchu also reciprocated the favor and appointed him as the deputy commander of the town to command Dongxun's old subordinates.

The leader of the Eighth Brigade was Ma Jiaolin. Ma Jiaolin was originally a general soldier of the Dingnan Clan, but he was directly under the Dingnan Clan and had a delicate relationship with the Dingnan Clan. After his adopted son Ma Xiong surrendered to the Red Army, the Clan troops under the control of the father and son were close to 10,000 people. The Ma family was also a Hui people. Danchu used Ma Jiaolin to win over both the Clan troops and the Hui people.

The commander of the Ninth Brigade is Zhou Yiming, originally a small soldier of the Red Army, who was promoted by Dan Chu and is Dan Chu's trusted descendant.

The cavalry battalion directly under the Third Town was led by Li Jianjie, a deputy general of Dongxun. Li Jianjie was Li Yuanyin's younger brother, and was brave and good at fighting. Li Yuanyin had a special status, so Danchu was not convenient to let him take charge of the military power, so he was appointed as a counselor of the Military Advisory Office. Li Jianjie was appointed as the commander of the cavalry battalion to appease Li Yuanyin and his brothers, which was a painstaking effort.

If we only consider military merit, Ma Bao should be the commander of the Third Town. However, Ma Bao was too inexperienced and was once a general of the Eastern Army, so it was inconvenient for him to be above Du Yonghe. Therefore, Danchu ordered his trusted general Wu Jie to be the commander of the town.

When the generals heard that Wu Jie was promoted to the position of Zhenchong, they cheered. He was an old man from Yuancong and had a close relationship with them.

"I will never forget the kindness of my lord. From now on, I will devote myself to the service of my lord and follow him till death."

Wu Jie stood up and saluted Danchu. He was originally the deputy commander of the Second Town and was supposed to follow Kuangshi to manage northern Guangdong. Because of the expansion of the army, Danchu deliberately kept him in Guangzhou.

"Wu Jie, get up. This clan has handed over the Third Town to you. You must live up to everyone's expectations and train the Third Town into a powerful force as soon as possible."

"promise."

The Huben Town was Danchu's personal army and had always been led by Danchu himself. After conquering eastern Guangdong, Danchu was too busy to take care of town affairs. He boldly promoted Ma Bao to be the commander of the Huben Town, which was a big surprise.

This is because Ma Bao is not an old man from Yuancong. He was born in the Shaanxi border army. He joined the peasant army in his early years, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in the later period, and transferred to Dongxun. He has only been in the Red Army for more than a year.

Danchu admired him very much and promoted Ma Bao many times, raising his rank to deputy commander of the town. The army had already complained about this. Unexpectedly, this time, Danchu went even further and even gave Huben Town to Ma Bao.

The generals smiled, but there was no lack of jealousy, and their reaction was far less enthusiastic than before. Although Ma Bao's military achievements were illustrious and obvious to all, the generals felt very embarrassed and bored to let an outsider serve as the commander of Huben Town.

Could this be the king's method of controlling his generals?
Danchu knew, however, that Ma Bao was absolutely a loyal and brave man, and there would be no problem in letting him lead the imperial army.

"I am deeply grateful for your kindness, my lord. But I am not talented enough to lead the Tiger Guards. I beg you to revoke your order."

Ma Bao spoke very sincerely and was very self-aware, not wanting to offend the generals over this matter.

"No." Danchu said resolutely: "There is a reason why this vassal uses you as the commander. You don't have to be humble, just take up the post."

Right Assistant Army Officer Yang Yuqi was also an old member of the Red Army and had great prestige among the generals. He said, "Chengbi, the king intends to reorganize the cavalry. You are good at using cavalry, and Huben Town will rely on your talents." The generals congratulated him, and Ma Baocai accepted the appointment.

Huben Town will also expand its army, with a focus on cavalry. In the Battle of Luoding, the Red Army cavalry suffered heavy losses against the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia, which was a great defeat. In the future, the Red Army will inevitably have to fight against the Manchuria and Mongolian cavalry in the Northern Expedition, so the cavalry must be strengthened in advance.

Danchu decided to separate the cavalry battalion from the personal guard brigade and expand it into a cavalry brigade, with a tentative organization of 8,000 cavalry and 18,000 war horses.

As a result, the organization of Huben Town was changed to the Cavalry Brigade, the Personal Guard Brigade, the Navy Brigade, and the Auxiliary Guard Brigade, with a total number of about 35,000 people.

It is easy to recruit cavalry, but the key is war horses. To raise war horses, we must start to improve the horse policy.

At the beginning of the Dan Dynasty, the Imperial Household Department was established and directly under the Ministry of War, it administered the three horse stations in Si'en, Sicheng and Liuzhou. These three places were the only places in Lingnan that produced relatively many horses, but the supply of horses was still limited, so envoys had to be sent to Yunnan, or even Fujian and Jiangxi to buy horses.

The Minister of Imperial Household Department was Cen Xun, who was originally the local governor of Si'en Prefecture and later a general of the Red Army. He was injured in the Battle of Zhaoqing. The Junior Minister was Huang Heming, who was originally a horse dealer in eastern Guangdong and joined the Red Army in the Battle of Aid to Guangdong.

With Cen Xun and Huang Heming in charge of horse administration, the Red Army had hope of gathering war horses and building up a strong cavalry force soon.

The Nanyang Fleet will also be expanded. In addition to building more ships and recruiting sailors in Guangzhou and Xinhui, the two pirate groups of Suli and Xu Long will also be surrendered. It is expected that the total force will be expanded to 10,000 people and more than 200 ships.

It is expected that the expansion of the combat troops will be completed by the end of the year. The land division will be composed of the Huben Town and the Three Towns Infantry, and the navy will be composed of the Nanyang Fleet. If calculated according to the establishment, the total number of combat troops will reach 20.7.

The garrison troops will also be expanded. After conquering Guangdong, it is natural to set up the Guangdong Garrison. Guangdong is located along the coast, so coastal defense must be emphasized. The initial plan is to have 15,000 soldiers and horses for the Garrison, which is 50% more than the Guangxi Garrison.

In order to manage the defense of Lingnan, Danchu decided to establish Lingnan Town, which was under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Garrison and Guangxi Garrison. Lingnan Town was a garrison, and including the direct troops, it was planned to have 28,000 garrison troops. The commander of the town was Cao Yu, an old man from Danchu, who was mature and steady and capable of taking on the important task.

According to statistics, when the expansion is completed by the end of the year, the Red Army will have a total of 23.5 combat and garrison troops.

With the prosperity of eastern Guangdong and the national policy of requiring tenants to pay grain, it was more than enough to feed the more than 200,000 Red Army soldiers.

Dongxun had been entrenched in eastern Guangdong for many years, but had never established a stable rule in eastern Guangdong. Danchu took this as a warning and emphasized the need to expand the army as the main task, closely linking the expansion of the army with rest and recuperation, military occupation, integration of Dongxun, handling of prisoners of war, and establishment of a political power, in order to gain a firm foothold in eastern Guangdong as soon as possible.

To this end, it was decided to use Guangzhou as the base camp and move the Nanyue Palace, government, military advisory office, Council of State, Censorate, Dali Temple, etc. to Guangzhou. Emperor Yongli and his ministers moved to Zhaoqing, still isolated from the Nanyue Palace.

"In short, if the Red Army occupies Guangdong and Guangdong, it will have the capital to fight for the world. You, the First Town and the Nanyang Fleet, must put the overall situation first and fully cooperate with this military expansion and the government's establishment of a regime.

"For example, the first town should send some veterans to the third town, and also send troops eastward to Huizhou and Chaozhou. Not only should they occupy the prefectural cities of Huizhou and Chaozhou, but they should also go deep into the towns and villages, publicize the policy of tenants paying taxes, and cooperate with the prefectures and counties to establish township governments."

The generals were encouraged. Wei Guosong said, "Don't worry, my lord. Most of the brothers will be promoted if they go to the third town. They are eager to go there. As for occupying Huizhou and Chaozhou, there will be no problem. Dongxun is a foreign army. The generals are mainly from Ren and Shaanxi. They have neither backbone nor the ability to comfort the people. I called on them with the order of the lord. Huang Yingjie and Hao Shangjiu surrendered to the city."

(End of this chapter)