Sweep Yuan

Chapter 109 Everything Starts from a Makeshift Stage

Haozhou, Linhuai Gate.

"Our army was able to capture the city in one fell swoop, which was certainly due to Commander Hu's exceptional bravery and the cowardly defenders who collapsed at the first touch. However, the fact that Haozhou's defenses were incomplete, despite its advantageous terrain, made it difficult to utilize its strengths, was also an important reason."

Before the government troops advance, we must promptly construct city defenses.

During the previous siege, Shishan had already discovered many weak points in its defenses.

After the city fell, Shi Shan led Fang Zhongwen and others on a tour of the city walls and discovered even more problems.

"In addition to repairing all damaged areas in a timely manner, the following measures should be taken: First, three moats should be dug under the north city wall, one every thirty steps, with bamboo spikes buried at the bottom of the moats. The moat design should be based on that of Hong County."

Secondly, all watchtowers were expanded by one floor and converted into arrow towers, with twelve arrow windows at the front and back, and four arrow windows on the left and right.
Thirdly, watchtowers were set up at the four corners of the city wall, and a rampart was added every fifty paces on each side of the city wall. Sheep and horse walls were built under the city wall.
Fourth, first clear the silted sections of the moat, then divert the water from the moat to connect directly to the Huai River, in order to increase the width of the moat;

Fifth, arrow towers were added to both sides of Tushan Gate, six hidden troop tunnels were dug, and a barbican was built outside Linhuai Gate.

Fang Zhongwen wrote swiftly, quickly memorizing Shi Shan's words. He then silently calculated the approximate amount of engineering work needed for the city's defenses. After finishing the calculation, he frowned slightly and reminded Shi Shan:

"In that case, one or two months might be too short, and there won't be enough firewood for firing bricks."

"It doesn't matter."

The large-scale reconstruction of the city immediately after its fall was not a whim of Shi Shan, but rather based on substantial intelligence.

Haozhou is the capital of the prefecture, and the imperial court issues reports there more quickly and in greater detail. Recent reports indicate that the Yuan court is in a state of utter chaos.

The Yuan court finally managed to mobilize a large army again, entrusting it to Yesen Temur, the Privy Councilor, and Kuanchebuqa, the Prince of Weishun, to attack the Ying and Qi Red Turban armies respectively. However, they suffered repeated defeats, which led to serious consequences.

First, Wang Quan, a cloth merchant from Dengzhou, Zhang Chun, from Fangcheng, and others, seeing the government troops suffer repeated defeats, responded to Liu Futong's uprising, captured Deng County, Nanyang and other places, and called themselves the "Northern Red Army".

Secondly, Deng Nan'er from Jiangxi launched an attack on Ruizhou. Although he was quickly defeated and captured and killed by the general Yu Sufu, he was not able to win the attack.

But the flames of the uprising spread from north of the Yangtze River to south of the Yangtze River, and the Yuan Dynasty, like a dilapidated house, was leaking everywhere, making everyone want to kick it.

Third, taking advantage of their great defeat of Kuanchebuhua and the countless spoils they captured, the Qizhou Red Turban Army launched a large-scale crossing of the Yangtze River and attacked Wuchang Road.

The official gazette also confirmed that the Yuan court recruited salt workers in Huai'an Road and established the Huai'an East Marshal's Office, preparing to use the newly recruited salt workers as the main force to attack and suppress the Red Turban Army in Xuzhou.

Although the Red Turban Army in Xuzhou lost the cities of Suining and Hongxian, and also lost its capable general Shishan, its rapid expansion in all directions was curbed.

However, their total military strength still numbered in the tens of thousands. After consolidating their forces, they found it difficult to take on the remaining cities with only a few thousand salt workers and a small number of government troops.

The Yuan court opened three major battlefields in succession, and its military strength was so strained that it had to lift the ban on local militias. For at least two months, no large army could be transferred from Haozhou to open up new battlefields.

But this does not mean that Haozhou can rest easy.

Leaving aside Wuhe County, which faces Huai'an Road directly, there were also armed forces in the area to suppress the uprising.

It is said that there is a rebel army in Huoqiu and Anfeng, southwest of Anfeng Road. The uprising is quite large and they have captured several cities. Recently, they are being besieged by government troops. The information needs to be further verified.

In short, the overall situation is very good, but we still cannot let our guard down. Building high walls and stockpiling grain are definitely the right things to do.

As the commander-in-chief, Shishan made all the major military and political decisions. He had to be cautious when necessary and bold when appropriate.

"The court is currently focused on the Red Turban Army in Ying, Qi, and Xu, and is unable to attend to other directions. Even if it manages to gather some troops to come to Haozhou, their fighting strength will not be very strong. If our army can defend against the enemy outside the borders, it will not let them in to fight."

There are many displaced people in the city. Although our army needs to expand, it cannot absorb so many people at once. Taking advantage of the winter off-season and dry water, we can recruit displaced people to do work relief, which will also help stabilize the people's hearts under our rule.

Once Haozhou is somewhat pacified, I will send troops to capture Huaiyuan, expanding our defensive depth. We will also cut down trees to smelt iron, and the excess firewood will be carried downstream along the Huai River, enough to make bricks.

Furthermore, these city defenses don't need to be completed all at once. You should first draft a plan, dividing the defense project into three phases, detailing what needs to be done in each phase, and the required labor, costs, and supplies.

Fang Zhongwen nodded secretly. Although the task of repairing the city was heavy, the amount of work was far less than building a new city. As long as he was not forced to shorten the construction period and use human lives to make up for it, it would be fine. All that was left was to ensure the supply of money and food and to supervise the construction.

"Your subordinate will do his utmost to live up to the Marshal's trust."

Prejudice in people's hearts is like mountains and rivers.

Even though Fang Zhongwen has sincerely pledged allegiance to Shishan, he had previously acted rashly and dared to test the Marshal's abilities, which ruined his impression. If he wants to gain the Marshal's trust, he can only work twice as hard to do everything well.

Yesterday, Shishan ordered Fang Zhongwen to polish the draft of the new proclamation for the people's peace (making some modifications to the original "Six Articles for the Peace of the People" and adding two articles on recruiting talented people and exempting taxes).

In the past, Fang Zhongwen would have finished such a short essay in one go, but with the psychological burden on him, he carefully considered each word and spent a full hour writing it, thinking that he would win Marshal Shi's favor.

Shi Shan, however, said that "piling up flowery language makes no sense," emphasizing that official documents should be read to illiterate people. He also demanded that future drafts be read aloud to orphans like Tong Si'er who were learning to read, so that they could understand before being presented to the emperor, which greatly embarrassed Fang Zhongwen. Fortunately, this was not directed at Fang Zhongwen alone. Shi Shan made the same demands on Liu Xingge, Chen Cheng, Xia Mao, and others, requiring them not only to use vernacular language but also to use common characters as much as possible.

While it may seem uncivilized, it must be admitted that administrative efficiency has indeed improved considerably.

After explaining the requirements for city defense construction, Shi Shan returned to the military camp located in the northwest of the city to preside over the post-war summary. Although Tang He and others had just joined the Red Flag Battalion, they also attended the summary meeting to adapt to the Red Flag Battalion's operating rules, which were different from those of the times.

In this battle, the defenders were defeated so suddenly that the credit for the first victory undoubtedly went to Hu Dahai, who was the first to breach the city. There was little controversy among the other units as well. The generals were more concerned about the promotion of their battle battalions.

The distinction between Class A and Class B battalions is not merely a matter of name; their equipment and personnel are on completely different levels. After the garrison commander was promoted to marshal, he would inevitably continue to conquer cities and territories, and the one who could lead the army independently would certainly be the commander of a Class A battalion.

During the reorganization of Wuhe, due to insufficient equipment, only five first-class battalions (including cavalry battalions and training battalions) were formed and trained. This time, the spoils are plentiful, enough to reorganize several battalions at the same time, so the commanders of each battalion naturally want to compete for the position.

Internal competition is a good thing, and Shishan will not suppress it. He simply further improved the rules for promotion in the battle camp: in addition to the accumulation of battle merits, the effect of daily training is also an important reference.

After all, the crude organization of six teams into one battalion during the initial reorganization of Chulan was not only due to a severe lack of equipment, but also because officers at all levels did not know how to use flags and drums for command. With more people, they could only make a show of force, but it was difficult to command them effectively.

When Sesame Li captured Xuzhou, everyone knew to train troops before attacking cities and seizing territory.

Since the troops were formed in Shishan, they have been either fighting or preparing for war, and have never had the opportunity to systematically train the troops.

Although the sieges were quickly resolved each time, the main reason was that the Yuan court destroyed its own defenses, the morale of the defending troops was low, and they were either persuaded to surrender or easily defeated by internal collaborators.

Even in the actual battles of Hongxian and Haozhou, only a few generals needed to take the lead and climb the city walls. If the defending troops could not drive them down the walls in a short time, their morale would drop sharply and they would soon collapse.

Throughout the entire operation, the Red Flag Battalion never experienced the field combat test that required troop deployment, and its shortcomings were quite obvious.

Now that we finally have a relatively stable territory where we can catch our breath, we should seize the time to train the team. Once the team is deployed elsewhere, we will hardly have such a good opportunity again.

In order to improve the training enthusiasm of each battalion, Shishan not only made it clear that in the future, when battalions are promoted, the commanders must pass the command ability assessment, but also decided on the spot that a large-scale competition would be held by battalion in half a month and by unit in a month.

It was also emphasized that any officer who performed poorly in the competition must undergo training in the training battalion for no less than two months, and their vacancy would be filled by soldiers from the training battalion.

That's right, Shishan wanted to take advantage of the army-wide competition to openly "rejuvenate" each battalion and further promote officer exchanges in order to ensure that the officers had effective control over the entire army.

Since it concerned personal power and future wealth, each battalion quickly took action after the meeting, arranging their own training, fearing that they would lose face and embarrass themselves in the first competition.

Before the army-wide competition, all newly recruited soldiers and prisoners of war from Haozhou who had been identified and screened were trained by the combat training battalion, except for a small number who were added to Tang He's newly established battalion and those who had been killed in battle.

As training progressed in full swing, the lax atmosphere in the army was swept away. Even tasks with higher rewards, such as arresting troublemakers and confiscating the property of Manchu officials, were no longer something that the battalions and teams fought tooth and nail for as long as before.

During this period, Chen Cheng and Fang Zhongwen submitted their respective proposals, and the Red Turban Army's Haozhou Military Command was officially established. Marshal Shi rewarded the entire army.

In addition to receiving monetary rewards and a three-day supply of wine and meat, those who made outstanding military achievements and those with special contributions were all granted titles.

Fu Youde was appointed Zhenshuo Commandant, Li Wu was appointed Xiaoqi Commandant, Sun Xun was appointed Zhongwu Commandant, Wu Liujin was appointed Fenwu Commandant, Hu Dahai was appointed Bashan Commandant, and Pu Daoren was appointed Yiyun Commandant.

Unlike the Red Turban Army in Xuzhou, these so-called captains and colonels were merely honorary titles. Those with titles did not have additional military command authority, but they could bestow titles upon their respective camp leaders.

For example, the First Battalion was named Zhenshuo Battalion, the Second Battalion was named Zhongwu Battalion, the Third Battalion was named Fenwu Battalion, and the Fourth Battalion (newly promoted) was named Bashan Battalion, etc.

The Haozhou Marshal's Office was set up as follows:
The Marshal concurrently served as the General Administrator of Haozhou, overseeing all military and political affairs.

Chief Secretary Liu Xingge was responsible for the daily administration of the Marshal's Office and managed the Experience Department. His subordinates were called Experience Department staff, and there were two of them: Chen Cheng and Xia Mao.

A separate Military Command was established to handle military orders, strategies, and other matters. The chief officer was called the Military Advisor, who was appointed by Park Dao-in and was directly responsible to the Marshal.

At the same time, the Haozhou General Administration was established, with two departments temporarily set up, and the chief official of each department was called the Prefect.

The Bingcao was in charge of tasks such as military equipment and supplies preparation, and his chief officer was Zhishi Wen Sijiu.

The Gongcao (工曹) was in charge of construction, engineering, and land reclamation, and its chief official was the Zhishi Fang Zhongwen (知事方仲文).
The organizational structure reveals that both the Haozhou Marshal's Office and the General Administration Office were very informal and their functions were quite chaotic.

But there was nothing they could do. Shi Shan only had so few men under his command, not even enough to maintain a proper facade, and he didn't want the old bureaucrats to get involved in the Marshal's Office's core military business.

He did express his sincerity in recruiting talented individuals through a public notice.

However, it has only been a short time, and his prestige and reputation have not yet been established. The truly talented people are either observing or have not yet received any news. Only two people have taken the initiative to come and join him, both of whom are somewhat literate but not familiar with practical affairs.

Shishan did not send the two away, but gave them the job of clerks. One was placed in the teaching and guard camp to teach officers and orphans accompanying the army to read and write; the other was placed in the veterans' society to teach wounded and disabled veterans to read and do arithmetic.

(End of this chapter)