Su He had just returned from training soldiers in the recruit camp and continued to review the official documents on the table.
The large number of military households in the pass and the young men recruited from each village allowed Suhe to build a new brigade and guard regiment.
Their total strength reached more than 8,000 people.
Su He planned to remove some officers from the first brigade to form the second brigade, and Su Hu was appointed as the commander of the second brigade.
Su Xiong was promoted to brigade commander of the first brigade.
After a series of victories, Su He's position has been firmly established, and no one can shake his authority.
Coupled with personal training of soldiers and a basic system of separation of military and political affairs.
The army does not do business, does not control weapons manufacturing, cannot collect taxes, and has no room for the development of warlords.
He decided to establish a governor's office and a staff department to control officer promotion and army dispatch respectively.
Human resources, finance and other major powers were in the hands of Su He, and the army was firmly controlled by him.
The newly established Guards Regiment is responsible for protecting the safety of the center and senior generals, and also serves as the training team for new recruits.
Su He checked the official documents on the table.
Confiscated minerals from the gentry, including iron ore, copper ore, and the most important saltpeter ore to them.
With professional talents joining, the prospecting work has also made great progress.
The much-needed lime deposits in Suhe have been found and the reserves are still abundant.
Dangerous mines are mined by heavy-duty reform-through-labor prisoners under patrol inspection.
The safer mines employ villagers and light-duty reform-through-labor prisoners to mine.
There is enough labor and a lot of ore is stored in warehouses in the mining area.
Nowadays, it is mainly limited by poor transportation conditions. There are basically no roads in the mining area, and transportation is mainly carried on poles.
Suhe has asked officials to inspect key mining areas and plan to build a mountain road to transport ore.
Sujiacun factory completed relocation.
For the sake of confidentiality and greater security, the gunpowder factory, firearms factory and smelting factory were all relocated to Dasanguan.
The factory also absorbed craftsmen from Dasanguan, and its scale expanded several times compared to before.
Su Que knocked on the door, walked in and said: "Commander Su, Magistrate Li Zhisheng sent an official document, and the caravan we sent to Henan to buy cotton returned safely.
They purchased more than 100 carts of cotton in total, and the official document of Li Zhixian County stated, "This cotton is enough for all of us in the county, and each of us can make a set of cotton-padded clothes."
"You studied very well. You can even read official documents." Su He praised him as he took the official documents.
He carefully read the official documents sent by Li Zhi County. The cotton purchased by the governor's office was stored in the county government warehouse.
Merchants themselves also purchased many things.
There are daily needs of oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar, as well as a large number of cotton and linen cloth.
There was a wealthy businessman named Qian Fuwen who purchased a large amount of sulfur.
This is a businessman with a unique vision who knows that there is a shortage of sulfur here.
Henan is a sulfur producing area, and he purchases sulfur in large quantities.
Su Hejue was ready to meet this person.
Heavy footsteps came from outside the door, and Su Changsheng walked in panting.
He walked to Su He and whispered: "Commander Su, the agents I sent to the north are sending back information one after another.
They brought extremely important information, which I have just sorted out."
Su He took the intelligence document from Su Changsheng and read it carefully.
There are mainly three groups of people who brought back the information.
Su He read the first piece of intelligence first. These people were lurking in Xi'an Prefecture, mainly collecting local gossip and official and military movements.
They also occasionally intercepted official documents from the government.
Xiao Zuo found that the resistance of the rebels was getting weaker and weaker.
However, small groups of rebels in northern Shaanxi are emerging one after another.
Most areas in northern Shaanxi are hit by disasters every year, and this year it didn't rain at all, and the rivers have dried up.
The locust plague has affected most parts of the province, and all grain harvests have been wiped out. Farmers can only survive by storing grain.
The gentry took the opportunity to exploit the peasants, and the court continued to impose taxes.
Small-scale peasant uprisings continued one after another, but most of them were suppressed by local government troops.
Wang Jiayin and Wang Ziyong resolutely resisted the government troops. They gathered a large-scale rebel army and constantly fought against the government troops.
Xi Zuo learned from official correspondence that in September, heavy snow had already begun to fall in Ganzhou, Yulin and other places in northern Shaanxi.
It was the end of September when they sent back the information, and the temperature in Xi'an dropped significantly.
The second group went deep into the Mongolian tribes to do business.
They took rhubarb, tea leaves and iron pots and crossed the Great Wall to the Mongolian tribes.
The local Mongolian tribes were in very miserable condition, and it was snowing heavily when they arrived there.
Many calves and lambs froze to death, and many adult cattle and sheep also died in droves without cow dung to keep them warm.
They did business with the tribe and easily exchanged hundreds of cattle.
The third group worked closely and discovered that Shanxi merchants were harvesting grain on a large scale in Xi'an Prefecture.
They joined the grain transport team and rushed to Shanxi, where they found that the gentry headed by the Fan family in Shanxi were collecting grain in various places.
These grains passed through the Datong border and were smuggled out of the border.
"Ergou, is the second team of fine designers back?"
Su He saw the information saying that they were driving cattle back, and he asked.
"Commander Su, according to your teachings, our team has special secret contacts to send back intelligence.
But the second group worked carefully and they exchanged more than 500 cows, which they could only send back in person.
The adult cattle were extorted by the gentry along the way. They could not resist and tried their best to bring back more than 200 calves."
"They did something right and I have time to reward them myself.
These cows are very important and must be raised.”
Su He called Li Fengming, and the weather in the north was almost as he predicted.
Su He handed the information to Li Fengming.
Li Fengming picked up the information and read it carefully. He thought for a while and said, "I predict three major events from this information."
"The first major event is that the rebel armies such as the Second Kings cannot withstand the encirclement and suppression by the government troops and will inevitably accept recruitment or flee.
There was a shortage of food and water in northern Shaanxi, and the government troops were encircling and suppressing the people at all levels.
The most important thing is that their hearts are not united, and some people are constantly accepting bribes from the court. They must always be on guard against friendly forces giving them a fatal blow.
There is no leader within the rebel army who can calm the situation. The various armies are not integrated and only obey their own leaders.
With all kinds of disadvantages stacked up, the rebels like the two kings have no chance of winning."
Su He saw that Li Fengming's analysis was correct. Shaanxi Governor Yang He's suppression of bandits was not strong and focused on siege.
The two kings and others can only hold on until March or April next year, and then they will flee to Shanxi one after another.
"The second big thing is that in a month or two, the slave establishment will definitely start a large-scale war, and the Shanhaiguan war will resume.
Whenever the weather changes drastically, large numbers of cattle and sheep freeze to death on the grasslands, making it impossible for the nomads to survive.
They can only invade the Central Plains on a large scale, plunder supplies, and at the same time consume a large amount of cannon fodder to relieve population pressure.
The Mongolian tribes are now very weak in battle, and they cannot defeat the heavily defended Guancheng.
Only Jiannu is extremely powerful now, but he cannot defeat Shanhaiguan and can only consume his own population.
I read the intelligence and found that most of the gentry in Jin were complicit in the captives.
They purchased grain in large quantities. It must be because there was a big disaster in Jiannu's place and there was not enough food to eat."
Su He listened to Li Fengming's prediction about whether the slaves would become invaders. The accuracy rate was as high as 90%. He was a strategist.
Li Fengming’s predictions were also somewhat wrong.
Now who would have thought that Jiannu would bypass the Horqin Grassland and enter from Da'ankou in the north of the important town of Dunhua.
"The third major thing is related to ourselves.
Based on my summary of weather in past dynasties, this abnormal weather in the north will affect a large area in the north.
There is a high probability that we will have a blizzard, and I predict it will happen within a month.
We must prepare in advance, otherwise many people will freeze to death, and the army will also suffer a large number of non-combat casualties."
Su He looked solemn after listening. Li Fengming's first two predictions were basically correct. He must now pay attention to the third prediction.
"Mr. Li, I suddenly became enlightened after hearing what you said.
I will make corresponding arrangements based on your predictions."
Su He's serious expression made Li Fengming realize that he was taken seriously and that he had met the Ming Master.
