Griffin Commander in the Late Ming Dynasty

Volume 202: Chapter Chapter : Volunteer Army System

The volunteers won a great victory in this operation to wipe out the bandits, but the soldiers from the old camp were naturally not easy to deal with, and some of them still escaped.

When they returned to the city this time, the generals of the various volunteer armies naturally gathered together to discuss how to deal with the bandits.

This was the task Jiang Han assigned to the Volunteer Army. Now he had to focus his energy on more critical development issues, and the humanoids needed to prepare for their next move south, so Jiang Han handed over all the bandits of different sizes around Yangzhou to the Volunteer Army to deal with.

As a new army, the Volunteer Army needs the experience of war to grow, and the bandits are a good target.

Although they are called bandits, the combat skills of the old camp soldiers are quite insidious. After fighting with them many times, they will not be afraid of being at a loss when encountering an army like the Tartars that has no rice noodles.

The commander of the first regiment, Zhang Xingguo, was the main commander in this campaign to suppress the bandits. He felt very ashamed that he had not yet completely wiped out the bandits even though he had specially called in the firepower support from the gentleman. For this reason, he had specially studied the situation of the bandits, and it was most appropriate for him to start the speech now.

"The bandits' troops are now being regularized. They are constantly learning, and they are divided into military ranks like the Ming Dynasty's official army, with squad leader, platoon leader, sentry chief, department chief, flag bearer, and captain as the order. When fighting, the hungry people and hungry soldiers are the vanguard. If they are defeated, the cavalry and old camp soldiers hiding in the back will immediately escape, and the elite will not be lost. They can run to other places and quickly raise a new army. In a few months, they will have tens of thousands of troops."

Another regiment leader was obviously disgusted by the bandits: "These guys, as soon as they find that they can't win, they will immediately run away to the mountains. We have a lot of horses now, but those old soldiers all have horses. Chasing Jin'an, plus the mountain roads are rugged and difficult to travel, there are many forests and a lot of cover, it is really difficult to wipe them out."

"Can we find where they are stationed? I heard that there are as many as 200,000 bandits in Jiangnan. They must have a place to stay. They can't just wander around like this, right?"

Questions were raised.

“It’s probably difficult.”

Zhang Xingguo shook his head. "The bandits in the Jiangnan area are mainly composed of two groups. The Gezuo Fifth Battalion headed by Ma Shouying is currently stationed in Huoshan and often operates in Qianshan and Taihu areas. Zhang Xianzhong and the man surnamed Cao support them and mainly attack the area from Wuchang to Anqing."

"Huo Shan?"

Everyone looked curious, and Zhang Xingguo looked at Jiang Han, who nodded and said, "Hey, give me my map."

Ever since the function of the electronic map was unlocked, Jiang Han had commissioned the humanoids to draw electronic maps along the way while they were on the move. The conditions of mountains, hills, rivers, cities, and bridges were all clearly visible on them, including a copy of Huoshan.

Of course, it is only a part of it. After all, the humanoid is not a satellite and its movement efficiency is limited. Fortunately, Jiang Han has pulled out the small plane and let it fly everywhere to collect terrain information. This little thing is really useful in opening maps. It can be charged for five minutes and run for two months.

Small plane? Little Tangji!!

"Oh, sir, you really have a capable person under your command. You actually have such a detailed map!"

Because the Volunteer Army had just been established and lacked military command talents, and the humanoids were all used to fighting modern wars, they didn't quite understand how ancient wars were fought. So Jiang Han gave full play to the heroic spirit of fighting the enemies to death as long as they didn't die, so that these Ming soldiers had an additional job as tactical instructors in addition to their main job of fighting. In recent days, they have been learning from these Ming soldiers who were once gods of war and are now civilian workers. The generals of the Volunteer Army have long realized how important terrain conditions are for marching and fighting. It can be said that a detailed map is simply the lifeblood of the army's commander.

Now looking at such a detailed map in Jiang Han's hand, everyone's eyes were shining with desire.

"Ahem, generals, you can send someone to come and copy a copy and take it back to look at. Of course, this map page will be constantly updated..."

Being stared at by such a large group of old men with such fiery eyes, even Jiang Han found it a bit difficult to bear, and hurriedly made some promises. Only then did he feel that the atmosphere of the strong man locking up the man was slightly weakened.

Everyone turned their attention to the map again.

"Sir, what do these big and small circles mean?"

"This is a contour line, used to distinguish the height of the terrain. I will send someone to teach you how to read this new type of map. Now let's take a look at the situation in Huoshan. This place is very tricky."

Huoshan is part of Dabie Mountains, which is more than 700 miles long and 300 miles wide. Liu and Deng's army couldn't find anyone when they got in, let alone hundreds of thousands of bandits.

Moreover, looking at Huo Shan's position, all the generals present frowned.

“This location…”

"It's quite dangerous..."

Yes, the location of Huoshan is quite critical. The terrain in this area is dangerous and it occupies an important strategic position. From the east, you can attack Luzhou, from the south along the river you can attack Anqing or even Nanjing, and from the west you can reach Wuchang. Any direction is a strategic location.

“It’s not easy…”

Seeing the situation at a stalemate, Jiang Han knocked on the table.

"Everyone, let's put this aside for now. The first thing we need to solve is the problem of replenishing the bandits' troops."

"Every time the bandits capture a city, they will rob everything in the city and force the people to serve as hungry soldiers. With the constant natural disasters, the people who have lost their money and food will surely die if they do not follow them. But if they follow them and rob money and food from other cities, they may have a chance of survival..."

"The Ming government has no intention or ability to govern these robbed people, so they can only let them wander. That's why these refugees are forced to follow these bandits. What if there is a place where they can get enough food?"

Suppressing bandits is no longer a military issue, but a political issue. Just think about it, if all the things in your home are robbed, and you have to work for those bandits, how can these people be willing? But if they are not willing, they can only starve to death.

What the people want is just a way to survive. If there is a way out, why would they rebel?

The Ming Dynasty court won’t give it, the bandits won’t give it, and the Tartars won’t give it, so I will give it!

Most of the land in Yangzhou was taken back by Jiang Han and distributed to the farmers, asking them to plant and produce. As for those landlords who are unwilling? What does it have to do with me if you are unwilling? If you are unwilling, just hold it in. If you dare to pull your head off.

What interests of the landlord class? What going against the will of the world? Bullshit!

To put it bluntly, it is the problem of not being beaten. They control the resources of the upper class and wantonly exploit the people of the lower class. What is the general trend of the world? Why? They all have the same nose and two eyes. The children of farmers listen to the same books. Is there any difference between what they learn and what the children of landlords learn?

When Jiang Han searched the homes of these wealthy families, he not only found money and grain, but also books. A considerable number of books with rich content. These books were used by these wealthy families to provide special care for their own children. Now, all of them were given to Jiang Han, who distributed them and made rubbings of them as unified reading materials in schools.

"I'll leave this part to the stewards. Now let's discuss the organization of the Volunteer Army."

Jiang Han took a sip of water to moisten his throat.

"This battle was fought quite well. The army must verify the merits and mistakes of all soldiers one by one and make sure rewards and punishments are clear."

Seeing the generals nodding one after another, Pei Huayu next to him distributed a large stack of documents to the generals.

"The above is a list of the organization and deployment of the Volunteer Army that I have temporarily drawn up based on the current situation. You can take a look at it and raise any opinions you have. We can discuss and solve them together."

Everyone got the document and carefully flipped through it, which was filled with information about the troop organization:

The Volunteer Army is organized into squads, with each squad consisting of ten people, including a squad leader and a deputy squad leader.

Three squads form a platoon, with the platoon leader as the chief, one chief and one deputy chief. In addition, there is a cooking squad with the strongest combat power, with a total of thirty-seven people.

Three platoons form a company, with the company commander as the chief, one chief and one deputy chief. In addition, there is a reconnaissance squad of ten people and a medical squad of five people, totaling 128 people.

Three companies form a battalion, headed by the battalion commander, one chief and one deputy. In addition, there is a military court and several law enforcement officers, totaling four hundred people.

Three battalions make up a regiment, with the commander as the regiment commander, plus an artillery battalion, a group of political commissars directly under the regiment, and a regiment guard company, totaling more than 1,300 people.

There are three regiments in a brigade, and the commander is the brigade commander. In addition, there is a cavalry regiment directly under the brigade, a political commissar group directly under the brigade, a guard company, a kitchen squad, a staff department, a medical group, etc., totaling 5,000 people.

As for the divisions above the brigade...the army, etc., they will be established when the number of people is sufficient.

The reconnaissance company is responsible for gathering intelligence, conveying military orders, and collecting documents. The staff department is responsible for consulting on military affairs and providing advice to the company, battalion and regiment commanders.

Add to that some miscellaneous logistical troops. They look familiar, right? They are simply plagiarized by him. He is just a commander, so how can he know anything about troops?

"In the new organization, officers at all levels are divided into chiefs and deputy chiefs. Once a combat mission begins, if a chief dies, the deputy chief will take over. If the deputy chief dies, the chief of the first combat unit at the lower level will continue to take over!"

Everyone nodded: "In this way, our Volunteer Army can be distinguished from the Ming Army, the arms are more complete, and the combat units are more flexible, which is really good."

"Everyone"

Jiang Han put down the cup in his hand and looked around: "My Volunteer Army is officially established. I have something to explain to you. The Volunteer Army was established to protect the people, protect their homes, and protect the lives and property of thousands of people. However, nowadays, natural disasters are everywhere and man-made disasters are rampant. My Volunteer Army must follow the will of heaven, follow the will of the people, clarify the world, sympathize with the people, enforce strict military discipline, bravely take the lead, not take a single needle or thread from the people, obey orders, and share life and death! Give me back the land of China, and a bright and clear world!"

"I will not fail in my mission!!"

The generals' blood boiled after hearing this and they stood up one after another, wishing they could rush out to kill the enemy on the spot. Everyone knew in their hearts and was very excited that the master was indeed a man who could accomplish great things and would lead everyone to pacify the world!

Only Wang Dang, who was standing aside, could only sigh silently when watching this scene, "Oh... Daming, what can I do to save you?"

Volume 203: Chapter Chapter : City Inspection

On the outskirts of Yangzhou City, after the Waking of Insects, tender buds have sprouted on the willow trees by the river. Jiang Han and his party rode forward and looked around.

The area around the river bank is flat and open, it is very good land, but now it is barren.

The areas south of the Yangtze River, especially Yangzhou, have their backs on the Yangtze River and do not have to worry about water shortages. Moreover, there are many types of direct currents and the soil is quite good. However, over the years, due to the disrepair of water conservancy projects, inconvenience in irrigation, and successive years of drought, most of the land here has been abandoned and overgrown with weeds.

The area south of the Yangtze River originally had tens of millions of acres of land, but now there are at least several million less.

Drought, locust plague, banditry and other heavy blows came one after another, making it impossible for the common people to resist. They began to seek profits one after another, and the original land remained where it was. The landlords and gentry from all over the country took the opportunity to buy land at low prices, and all the good land was bought up.

Walking along the river bank, some traces of ditches are still there, but due to the severe drought, the water level has dropped, and many places are filled with silt and have been abandoned early on.

"Sir, the terrain in this area is flat. If the river bend can be repaired and maintained, this area can be turned into fertile farmland again."

The manager on the side looked at the land in front of him and reported to Jiang Han.

Jiang Han nodded. He didn't know much about land, so he decided to leave it to professionals. The purpose of their trip this time was to inspect the fields.

When Jiang Han was thoroughly checking the land deeds in the hands of these wealthy families, he found something very interesting, that is, these wealthy families actually held a lot of military land.

Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was a talented person. Although he had never been to school, he really knew how to farm!

The Ming Dynasty absorbed the military farming experience of various dynasties in history, established the military system of garrisons, and set up more than 300 garrisons across the country.

To put it simply, it means giving the army a piece of land and letting them be stationed in various places for guarding. A military household can get about 50 acres of land, and officers can get more. Let them farm the land and support themselves. The household registration of military households is private, and the land will automatically belong to his son when the father dies, so that generations will guard the Ming Dynasty.

So Zhu Yuanzhang boasted: "I can support a million soldiers without spending a single grain of rice from the people."

Not only did the military households receive land, the court also sent them cattle, farm tools, and seeds to help them farm. Of course, this help also required a return. They had to pay two dou of rent for each acre of land, which was twice as much as ordinary civilian households. However, since the land was free, the rent was not very high, and everyone did not have to worry about their lives.

However, even if the policy is a good one, the people who implement it may not be good people. Over the past few hundred years, the military fields of ordinary military households have been almost completely occupied by military officers. Even the army is engaged in land annexation. Tell me whether you can tolerate this or not.

These military households were suddenly transformed from being masters of their own household into slaves of the officers. Not only did they have to pay rent to the court, they also had to work for the officers. After working hard for a whole year, they were only able to get a small quilt to cover themselves in a bridge hole. It was difficult for them to make a living.

When a soldier of a military household was killed, the family had to add an able-bodied man to take on the responsibilities of a military household. However, as life was so difficult, many military households simply gave up and ran away with their entire family.

Since the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, the military households have been receiving benefits. In the third year of the Hongwu reign, the number of deserters exceeded 40,000. Seventy years later, in the third year of the Zhengtong reign, the number of deserters reached over 1.6 million. The imperial court felt something was wrong. Why were the troops so few? In desperation, they began to recruit soldiers again.

By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court realized something was not right. The occupation of military land was really serious. In order to change the status quo, they decided to debut as idols... Ahem, no, they chose to give each military general a certain amount of land for maintaining integrity according to the size of their official positions. If you stuff meat buns into a dog's mouth, there's naturally no way back.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has been established for more than 270 years, the number of military households that have fled has become completely uncountable, the Weisuo system has become a mere formality, and most of the military households' land has become the private land of the officers.

The military officers were even more outrageous, directly registering their own land under the names of landlords and gentry, and some even went so far as to simply sell the land.

What are the benefits of doing this? It is tax-free.

The officials and gentry in the daimyo also needed to cool off, but they were exempted from land taxes. Because of this exemption, they could include all the military and civilian land they had occupied into the exemption quota. Thousands of acres of land would appear as only dozens of acres in the local tax registration book. This was a routine operation throughout the dynasties.

Some officials and gentry owned too much land, but their connections were not strong enough, so they could not be registered for preferential tax exemptions. So they simply passed all the taxes on to the tenants and increased their rent.

It is also because of this that it has been extremely difficult to survey the land in every dynasty, and even the initiators would be secretly killed. The water is too complicated and cannot be easily grasped.

But Jiang Han didn't care. He had absolute force in his hands to accomplish the task. Anyone who disobeyed would be sent to the construction site to move cement. Anyone who made a fuss would be sent to see God. The wealthy people in the city were killed by him and now they are more obedient than cats.

Of course, there are also some dishonest ones. The activeness of the bandits nowadays is naturally due to the shadow of these big families.

Now he lives under the shadow of Jiang Han. The imperial army is slow to arrive. If Jiang Han takes a fancy to his family's land, he will lose his head if he does not obey him. It is better to use his family wealth to support the bandits and let them fight each other.

Therefore, Jiang Han’s primary task at the moment is to seek development while suppressing the bandits. After completely taking control of Yangzhou, he can gradually begin the next plan.

After surveying the land, Jiang Han came to the military factory and began to check the manufacturing status of military weapons.

The shooting speed of today's muskets is still a bit too slow. First you have to load the powder, then the bullet, and after firing you have to clean it with a cleaning rod. The transportation of gunpowder is also very troublesome. Even if you use the three-stage shooting method, you can only fire a few rounds in a battle.

So is there a way to speed up the loading process?

"Commander, you're here?"

Mosin Nagant was standing at the door early, waiting for Jiang Han to arrive.

"Um"

Jiang Han nodded, and the beautiful girl in front of him extended her hand to him. Although Jiang Han didn't quite understand, he still extended his right hand.

With his hands clasped together, Jiang Han felt someone scratching his palms. He looked up and saw the political commissar winking at him mischievously.

Si————!! You witch, tonight I will definitely fill you up with the torrent of socialism!

"Sir, you are here. The paper tube gunpowder you mentioned before has been made."

A simple and honest voice interrupted Jiang Han's fantasy of regaining his marital status and brought his attention back to his current work.

"Sir, this... Miss Mo is really a genius. She has provided us with a lot of valuable suggestions for the manufacture of ammunition! If it weren't for her, many tasks would not be completed! She is really... I can't describe it, it always makes me cry..."

Although the original words are slightly different, Chinese culture is profound and extensive, and the meaning is exactly that.

The honest man's name was Sun Shehu, which sounded powerful and indicated that he was a potential military general. In fact, he loved mathematics, physics and chemistry very much, and was completely absorbed in steel casting. He was one of the few technical talents in the Yangzhou Arsenal.

At this time, he highly praised Mosin-Nagant to Jiang Han. During the time of working with Mosin-Nagant, all his questions could be answered. The ideas mentioned by the other party were beyond the imagination and reach of ordinary people, which gave Sun Shehu a sense of enlightenment.

"is it?"

Jiang Han held Mosin-Nagant's hand and smiled happily.

This subordinate has high emotional intelligence. He praised your wife in front of your superior, saying how great she is. This really made Jiang Han laugh.

"Is it really that good? Tell me more!"

Mosin-Nagant is also very happy. Please praise me more and make me proud in front of the commander.

Sun Shehu was about to speak, but his eyes suddenly stopped on Jiang Han and Mosin-Nagant's hands which were tightly held together, as if he understood something.

Outsider! I'm super! I'm a!!