The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the border troops, it was overthrown and the Qing Dynasty was destro

Chapter 78 Training the Troops
Just as the elite troops of the Shaanxi government forces were dispatched in three routes southward, Jiang Han was busy reorganizing his army.

He was quite busy during this time. After seeing off the leaders of various rebel armies, Jiang Han continued to organize his troops and train his soldiers.

He remembered very clearly that Wang Jiayin could not hold Fugu, and that he would inevitably lead Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and others across the river to escape to Shanxi.

And these rebels who remained in Shaanxi will become the next key targets of the imperial court's crackdown.

Therefore, Jiang Han has been working hard for the past few months to improve the strength of his troops and collect various military supplies in order to cope with the encirclement and suppression by the government forces.

Jiang Han did not take over the teams of those minor leaders. He really looked down on those bandits; their fighting strength was too weak, and they couldn't be trained in a short time.

After the battle of Yan'an Prefecture, Jiang Han's troops had expanded to more than 3,500 men.

The original five outposts are no longer sufficient to meet the current military structure.

Following the regulations of the border army, Jiang Han changed the five outposts under his command into divisions.

Meanwhile, Dong Erzhu and his five squad leaders were transformed into battalion commanders, each leading a division with six hundred elite soldiers under their command.

Each division will have three additional sentry leaders, with two hundred men per sentry, and four additional team leaders. This will create a clear hierarchy and make command more flexible.

The remaining 500 men were selected by Jiang Han and formed into a separate reserve team, to be kept as a backup in case of emergency.

But with more soldiers, trouble also arises.

After careful review, Jiang Han discovered that the troop deployment of the various divisions was extremely unbalanced.

Most of the archers were under Shao Yong's command, while the artillery and musketeers were mainly under Zhu Zi's command. Li Laowai, on the other hand, led cavalry and infantry.
The situation was much worse for the Blackie's men, who were all infantry.

Under normal border garrison organization, apart from artillery battalions which can form an independent army, a division should be equipped with at least a dozen small cannons and no less than a hundred musketeers. When military funds are sufficient, each person should have a musket.

Of course, this refers to a time when military funds were sufficient; in the late Ming Dynasty, there were never times when military funds were sufficient.

Jiang Han didn't have that many people or time to make muskets.

Fortunately, we still have enough artillery.

Jiang Han counted the artillery battalion; he now had a total of eighty cannons of various sizes and designs.

Smaller models include the Tiger Crouching Cannon, the Pearl Surge Cannon, and the Divine Pivot Cannon, which are lightweight and agile.
Larger ones included the single-barreled annihilation cannon and the Weiyuan cannon, which were incredibly powerful.

But the best of them were the four Western heavy cannons, which he had taken from the city wall of Yan'an Prefecture, and they were also known as the Red Barbarian Cannons.

This thing is a scaled-down version of the Dutch cannon made by the imperial court. Although it is not as powerful as the original, it should not be underestimated.

Since the Later Jin entered the pass, many gentry in Jiangnan have raised money to build Hongyi cannons to donate to the court, in order to show their patriotism.

This cannon is about three feet four inches long and weighs more than four hundred catties. The cannon body is reinforced with iron hoops, the breech has a removable cover, and the front and rear sights are all complete. It can be protected from rain and corrosion, making it an extremely rare item.

When Dong Erzhu saw the four red cannons, his eyes widened, and he treated them better than his own mother.

He specially commissioned craftsmen to make four cannon carts to house his treasures, and each cannon cart was equipped with two mules and two auxiliary soldiers.

One auxiliary soldier was responsible for routine maintenance and cleaning the gun barrel during wartime, while another auxiliary soldier was responsible for loading ammunition and cooling the gun body.

Dong Erzhu gave these cannons special names and even assigned them numbers: Tianzi No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4.

He then selected several of the most experienced artillerymen in the artillery battalion to operate these four precious guns, and equipped them with large lead bullets weighing three jin and six liang each.

With these four heavy cannons, Dong Erzhu no longer cared about those smaller cannons.

Jiang Han also took the opportunity to transfer some lightweight cannons from the artillery battalion and distribute them to each division, leaving only the long-range and powerful heavy cannons in the artillery battalion.

After this adjustment, the firepower distribution in the army was finally more even, with both light artillery to clear the way and heavy artillery to provide cover, covering both long and short ranges.

Regarding ordnance, Jiang Han has been urging the artisans at the Ordnance Bureau to expedite production.

The craftsmen worked tirelessly, doing nothing but repairing armor and forging weapons, their feet barely touching the ground. There was no way around it; Jiang Han had given them far too much.

Li Liyuan swindled a lot of good things from a group of local gentry in Yan'an Prefecture. He got tens of thousands of taels of silver alone, not to mention grain, cloth and other supplies.

Jiang Han spent the money immediately after receiving it. To meet the deadline, he promised the craftsmen that he would be paid per piece.

Repairing a piece of cloth armor earns five coins, while forging a new one earns one tael.

These craftsmen had never seen anything like it before. They were all working with incredible energy, and in less than two months, they had restored more than two thousand pieces of armor to their original condition.

Jiang Han seized the opportunity and ordered them to rush to produce another batch of long-handled muskets and heavy bows, in preparation for training a sniper squad.

Shao Yong once suggested that elite soldiers with good eyesight and accurate aim be selected from the entire army, equipped with muskets and heavy bows, and used to target enemy junior officers.

In any era, warfare relies heavily on the rank-and-file officers.

These people not only manage and train soldiers on a daily basis, but also accurately execute orders from superiors during wartime, directing lower-ranking soldiers to change formations and conveying combat instructions.

Once we can take them down, the remaining soldiers will be like headless flies, completely unable to organize a proper attack.

Jiang Han readily agreed and had Shao Yong personally select people from across the army to form a squad of fifty, which underwent unified training.

After their training, they will be assigned to each division to carry out orders to snipe enemy officers.

Just as Jiang Han was trying his best to improve his combat power, Zhang Cunmeng, who had returned to Mizhi Mountain Village, was furious.

"boom!"

He smashed the teacup, gritting his teeth and cursing:

"This guy surnamed Jiang clearly looks down on me!"

"It's just asking him to form an alliance, but he's making all sorts of excuses and even dragging Shen Yikui into it, spouting some bullshit logic of 'not afraid of a lot of thieves'."

"If I had an army of 100,000, the first thing I'd do is besiege Yan'an Prefecture and twist his head off to use as a chamber pot!"

Zhang Cunmeng didn't believe Jiang Han's story at all, and thought that Shen Yikui was just talking nonsense.

These two border soldiers must be in cahoots, looking down on him, this roaming bandit.

Meanwhile, the fourth brother, Scorpion, Tuo Yangkun, who was standing to the side, also chimed in, not understanding what was going on:
"that is!"

"If my elder brother had an army of 100,000, let alone a small Yan'an Prefecture, he could flatten even Yulin Town with a single step!"

"What's with that Jiang guy's arrogance? How dare he show such disrespect to our elder brother? We'll teach him a lesson sooner or later!"

The two of them exchanged insults, their spittle flying everywhere.

Zhao Sheng, sitting to the left, lowered his head and remained silent, a hint of worry flashing in his eyes as he sighed inwardly.

These two are all talk; if they actually went to war, who knows who would come out on top?

Just as Zhang Cunmeng was fuming, the government troops quietly approached.

Hong Chengchou, along with garrison commander He Renlong and Shenmu military commander Ai Wannian, traveled day and night to reach Yuhebao, their troops poised to strike Mizhi.

To prevent Zhang Cunmeng from escaping to Shanxi, Yulin Councilor Zhang Fuzhen, along with Lieutenant General Liu Guozhen, Guerrilla General Guan Fumin, and Li Guoqi, had arrived near Jiazhou and blocked Zhang Cunmeng's retreat.

Everything is ready. We'll wait until noon tomorrow for both armies to march out and capture Zhang Cunmeng in one fell swoop!

　After all that, I still haven't gotten the chapter title right. Sorry for the wait.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)