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

Chapter 70 Return to Yong'an
When I returned to Yong'an Prefecture, it was already December 25th. The end of the year was approaching, and every family was putting up Spring Festival couplets and welcoming the Kitchen God. The whole city was bathed in joy.

Wars were still frequent, but Yong'an Prefecture changed its owner and maintained a rare peace. No matter how chaotic the situation was, life had to go on and the New Year had to be celebrated.

Over the past thousands of years, China has had few peaceful and prosperous times, but many wars and chaos. Most people have been submissive and have always been struggling on the line of hunger. This year, Yong'an Prefecture reduced rents and taxes, and the people collected an extra three or five bushels of rice, which allowed them to have a good New Year and have some hope for next year.

The families of the soldiers entered the city one after another, the gentry lined up to welcome them, and the common people welcomed them with food and drink. When Dan saw this, he felt relieved.

After returning to the state government, Danchu did not have time to rest, and immediately called a meeting of his staff. The situation was chaotic, and there were several things that had to be deployed immediately.

He Yun and Kuang Shi stayed in Yong'an and gave brief reports respectively.

He Yun mainly reported on government affairs, saying, "In the past few months, Yong'an Prefecture has been generally stable. Local tyrants such as the Mo family support the government, and officials in the prefecture are relatively law-abiding. Zhu Minru, the garrison commander of Zhaoping, is on good terms with the governor, and is at peace with our army."

"Yes," Danchu nodded and asked, "How much money and grain do we have now?"

"Summer grain and autumn taxes have been paid, with a total of 20,400 dan of grain and 19,200 taels of silver. We delivered 4,000 dan of grain and 4,000 taels of silver to Marshal Jiao. According to the Marshal's secret order, we spent 3,500 taels of silver on building military equipment and weapons. Adding various expenses, we currently have 14,200 dan of grain and 11,600 taels of silver in stock, 2,000 dan of beans, and countless other supplies."

"Is Wei Shizhong honest?" Wei Shizhong was the prefect, a veteran official. Danchu took away his official seal and was not confident in him.

"Honest," He Yun said with certainty, "This man is very aware of current affairs, very capable in handling affairs, and has some ambitions to clarify the administration of officials. When the governor was not in office, Wei Shizhong did things to curry favor with him."

He Yun is a sincere person and he can make such an evaluation, which shows that there should be no problem with Wei Shizhong.

Kuang Shi reported on military affairs: "After the Qing invaders occupied Wuzhou, they did not move westward. Zhu Minru defended Zhaoping and could serve as a barrier for our army. The learning situation of the Boy Scouts has improved greatly, and most of them can already write 500 commonly used characters proficiently.

"The Third Squadron is the backbone of our army. They have been recuperating for three months and the morale of the officers and soldiers is very high. Morzhen led more than a hundred militias to help defend the city and has expressed his intention to join us. This man is a talent that can be cultivated. The governor may wish to recruit him into his fold."

Danchu did not comment, and said, "You two have worked hard. I have been away from Yong'an for so long, and you have managed the military and political affairs in an orderly manner."

In terms of hardship, Danchu led his troops to migrate thousands of miles, which was much more difficult than theirs.

He Yun said quickly: "We have done nothing, so why should we sit in Anzhou City?"

Everyone looked at each other and smiled.

Returning to the topic, Danchu said: "Several things must be implemented immediately. The first is recruiting soldiers. Soldiers are more valuable than quantity. I have already made plans. First, we need to recruit three battalions of infantry and one battalion of garrison soldiers, each of which will be a small battalion of 500 people..."

Dan Chu was the commander-in-chief, and he only had three teams of soldiers under his command: the first team, the third team, and the musketeer team, with less than 400 soldiers. It was really shabby when you think about it, and he should expand the army.

However, military expansion cannot be blind, otherwise, combat effectiveness will decrease instead of increase.

Danchu decided to change the first team into a cavalry team and the third team into a personal guard team, and together with the musket team, they formed a standard camp, with himself as the battalion commander. In addition, the standard camp also added a teaching team and an artillery team.

The camp office was established as a staff agency, and the grain station was established as a logistics agency, which was affiliated with the Central Army and was headed by Yu Houji, a military officer. The Central Army added a baggage team, a medical team, and a repair team.

The weight and status of the Central Army were greatly enhanced, and subordinate units no longer had Central Army, but were referred to as "certain units". For example, the battalion level no longer had Central Army, but was replaced by Battalion Headquarters, which had the same functions as the original Central Army.

The infantry battalion was organized into three infantry squads. The battalion headquarters had a cavalry sentry, an artillery sentry, medical officers, craftsmen, stokers, flag bearers, etc., with a total of about 500 people. The battalion no longer had a central army, but was called the battalion headquarters instead. The infantry squad had three infantry sentries, an artillery squad, a flag bearer squad (cavalry), and a stoker squad, with a total of about 120 people.

The guard battalion was responsible for guarding the city, that is, the city guard soldiers in the Ming army, with a fixed number of 300 people, mainly responsible for defending Yong'an.

As a result, Danchu needed to recruit more than 2,000 people and purchase weapons. Based on the existing money and grain in Yong'an Prefecture, it was barely enough.

This matter was handed over to Yu Houji to handle. The two of them were inseparable along the way, and they had already discussed the details, and the specific personnel and organization had been roughly determined.

Danchu said, "Regarding the expansion of the army, an order will be issued tomorrow. New soldiers must be recruited before the eighth day of the first lunar month, and training must begin by the tenth day at the latest. This matter will be handled by Lao Yu, and it is the most urgent matter at the moment."

Yu Houji was brave enough to take on the responsibility and said, "Yes, there is still half a month from now to the tenth day of the lunar month, which is enough time."

The two had been planning for a long time, and He Yun had also notified various places in Yong'an in advance, so there should be no problem in recruiting soldiers.

"Have you completed the task I asked you to do?"

Kuang Shi nodded, seeming to want to say something but stopping himself.

Danchu once wrote a secret letter to Kuangshi, asking him to go to Mo's house to test the waters and see if he could find one of Mo's daughters to be a concubine.

The Mo family took an anti-Qing stance and supported Danchu's stationing in Yong'an. But for Danchu, this was not enough. In the future, he would need more money and grain to expand the army and implement the tax collection in Yong'an.

Without the full support of the Mo family, it would be difficult to expand the army and collect taxes. Marrying them was undoubtedly the most convenient and practical means.

All of the people present were his confidants, so Danchu confessed to them: "Everyone, I plan to take Mo's daughter as my concubine. In the future, we will have great resistance to implementing the land tax system. As long as Mo is willing to support us with all our strength, it will be much easier to implement the land tax system or expand the army."

The Mo family’s arable land occupies a quarter of Yong’an Prefecture, and their assets are at least 100,000 gold, making them the most powerful family in Yong’an Prefecture.

Since the commander had already pointed it out, Kuang Shi also said, "The Mo family has a girl, who is the granddaughter of the current clan leader Mo Xunshi and the legitimate daughter of the head of the family Mo Guangshu. Her name is Mo Yufen. She is sixteen years old this year and is very much favored by the Mo family.

"She has never liked red clothes since she was young. She practices martial arts and is good at using a red cherry spear. She claims that if the man is not a hero, she will not marry him even if he is the emperor. If the man is a hero, she will be willing to work like a slave for him.

"The Mo family is a big family, and there were many people who came to propose marriage to her, but she looked down on them all. When she heard that the governor wanted to take a concubine, she was very willing and had no reservations. Although the old patriarch doted on her, he was also willing to marry her to the governor."

Danchu smiled and said, "That's settled. I'll send someone to propose marriage tomorrow and we'll get married before the New Year."

He was not really greedy for women, and was not eager to take Mo Yufen as a concubine, but more to win the support of the Mo family.

"The third thing is to set up a teaching team in the central army to train officers. I will be the team leader. Don't think about enjoying yourself this New Year. I plan to conduct a training session to prepare for the training after the expansion of the army.

"The fourth thing is to improve the military equipment and weapons. Two thousand new soldiers require a large amount of military equipment and weapons. Old He and Old Kuang have made some preparations, but we still need to check the organization and make good arrangements..."

(End of this chapter)