Chapter 1,192 The cunning Prince of Nan'an County demands an army of 300,000 men
The military system of the Daqing Dynasty followed that of the late Ming Dynasty, with both the guard system and the recruitment system.
During normal seasons, local and border areas are suppressed and defended by military households at the garrison.
If there is a military emergency, the general is allowed to recruit troops, or the private landlords and gentry are allowed to organize rural regiments.
This time, the border was in a hurry.
Emperor Longqing knew that the capital only had an army of 100,000 and could not resist, so he allowed his commander-in-chief, Prince Nan'an, to recruit troops.
Naturally, the Prince of Nan'an County would not pay for everything out of his own pocket, so he assigned this task to the generals below.
The eighth day of October.
Su Mingzhe spent 200,000 taels of silver to recruit 8,000 Buqu.
The average settlement fee per person is twenty-five taels of silver.
Of course, if everyone is given the same resettlement allowance, it will only attract mediocre people.
Therefore, Su Mingzhe divided the recruitment conditions into three levels.
For example, those who come to the army empty-handed will be given five taels of silver, food, weapons, armor, horses, etc. Su Mingzhe will help arrange them.
If you bring your own weapons, armor, and horses, they will all be charged fifty taels of silver, and Su Mingzhe will help provide food.
There were more than 600 people, all of whom were given 500 taels of silver.
The reason why these people can achieve such a high score is because these people are skilled in bow and horse, and have strong martial arts. Each of them can achieve the level of one to ten in cavalry combat.
In addition to these three classes of people, plus the farmers of Rongning's second farm, the total number is 10,000.
The tenth day of October is the day the army sets out.
When the Prince of Nan'an County inspected the army, he saw the ten thousand troops led by Su Mingzhe and the troops were in good order. He couldn't help but admired:
"My good nephew is not only knowledgeable, but also capable of running an army. If there is a successor for the Second Duke Rongning, he will definitely be able to restore his honor to the family lintel!"
"Thank you for the compliment, Uncle Shi. My nephew will certainly live up to Uncle Shi's expectations!"
As the second-class cavalry general, Su Mingzhe was ranked second only to the commander-in-chief Nan'an County Prince and the Shenwu general Wei Hui in the list of generals for this expedition.
Wei is the surname of Daqing.
Wei Hui's ancestor was from the same clan as Taizu of Daqing. Although his merits were not outstanding, he was also awarded the title of Marquis.
It was passed down to Wei Hui's generation, and he is now a first-class divine general.
Except for three people, the top ones are five third-class generals and more than twenty commanders.
At this moment, when everyone saw Su Mingzhe and Prince Nan'an talking and laughing, no one dared to come forward to argue with them.
Only Wei Hui smiled and said:
"I heard that my nephew has brought out 200,000 taels of silver for this recruitment of troops. It is very rare to be able to recruit such elite troops with 200,000 taels of silver!"
After hearing this, Su Mingzhe bowed his hands and said with a wry smile:
"Shibo, I'm kidding. How can I get such an elite together with 200,000 taels of silver? Just for the settlement expenses, I spent 200,000 taels of silver. In addition, I also spent 400,000 taels to equip them with armor." , weapons, horses, and spent 100,000 taels of silver to purchase food and grass. A total of 700,000 taels of silver were spent!"
After hearing this, Prince Nan'an and Wei Hui laughed and refused to comment.
Among them, the prince of Nan'an County spent a total of 500,000 taels of silver in order to raise 50,000 troops.
In order to raise 30,000 soldiers and horses, Wei Hui spent a total of 300,000 taels of silver.
However, Su Mingzhe spent 700,000 taels of silver and only gathered 10,000 people.
This is really a prodigal!
Afterwards, the Prince of Nan'an County completed his inspection and gave the order to set off.
The total strength of this expedition reached more than 300,000.
Among them, 50,000 people are the Beijing camp, 50,000 people are the private soldiers raised by the Nan'an County Prince, and the 100,000 people are the Chinese army, which will march at normal speed.
In addition, there were more than 30 generals who raised more than 200,000 troops on their own and rushed to the border with their own dry food.
This means that it is not too far from Chang'an City to Lanzhou.
It's a thousand miles, and if you ride a horse, you can reach it in less than ten days.
If he rushes to Guandong to fight against the Jurchens, Su Mingzhe will need to provide at least another hundred thousand taels of silver to his budget.
October 18th.
Jia's army, which consisted of all cavalry, arrived in Lanzhou first, ahead of other troops.
At this moment, Lanzhou had already been captured by Choros.
Su Mingzhe's men were all cavalry, and they did not attack the city. They only sent people to search for the enemy troops who were burning, killing and looting outside. If they were found, they would immediately encircle and destroy them all.
Wait until the end of October.
When the Prince of Nan'an County arrived outside Lanzhou City, Su Mingzhe had already eliminated the enemy troops outside the city, seized grain and grass, countless baggage, killed and captured more than 30,000 people.
The Prince of Nan'an County inspected the prisoners and confirmed that Su Mingzhe had not killed anyone to take advantage of the situation. He hurriedly reported the good news and ordered people to escort him back to Beijing.
The border customs has been tense for more than a month.
We must give good news to the rear to appease the panicked people.
After handling these urgent matters, the king of Nan'an County arranged for deputy commander Wei Hui to set up camp, and he led the generals to patrol and prepare for the siege.
The city wall of Lanzhou is two feet six feet thick, two feet five feet high, and more than seven feet in circumference.
Such a tall and solid city has ample defensive supplies.
It was captured before because Zhungeer had prepared for more than a month in advance and successfully captured it in a sneak attack.
Now that Daqing wants to retake Lanzhou City, it cannot repeat its old tricks.
"My dear nephew, look, how should we conquer this city?"
After a round of inspection, he could not find any ideas for attacking the city. However, Prince Nan'an remained calm and asked Su Mingzhe who was accompanying him:
"Should we attack by force or besiege?"
"If the commander-in-chief wants to attack by force, the commander-in-chief is willing to be the first to attack. If the commander-in-chief wants to lay siege, the commander-in-chief is willing to obey his orders!"
Su Mingzhe was tactful for a moment, then smiled and said:
"However, if my uncle wants to achieve success quickly, my nephew has a plan: siege first and then attack!"
"Oh, why is that?"
Prince Nan'an was a little surprised and said:
"It is already the depth of winter and we are short of food and grass. How can we besiege this enemy who has strong soldiers and horses and no shortage of food and grass?"
Su Mingzhe suddenly wanted to roll his eyes after hearing what Prince Nan'an said:
"This old man is very evil!"
"I know that a separate siege will definitely not work, but I still have to ask myself whether it is a force attack or a siege. This is obviously because I want to say a force attack, and if the force attack fails, I will put the responsibility on myself!"
"In the original work, it is said that Wei Shibo died in battle, but the old man was defeated and captured! This shows his character!"
Almost instantly, many thoughts passed through Su Mingzhe's mind.
Before Prince Nan'an could continue to ask, Su Mingzhe said with a slight smile:
"If the commander-in-chief trusts the general, he is willing to issue a military order. As long as the commander-in-chief gives me 300,000 troops to take charge of for ten days, Lanzhou City will be destroyed after ten days."
"Just besiege Lanzhou City for ten days?"
The Prince of Nan'an County was puzzled and wanted to ask Su Mingzhe how to destroy the city.
Su Mingzhe evaded, saying that it was a matter of confidentiality. If he told it and leaked it, it would not work if the enemy detected it.
The Prince of Nan'an County glanced at Su Mingzhe and thought for a long time. He remembered that in the past few days, Su Mingzhe used 10,000 soldiers and horses to capture 30,000 enemy troops with almost no damage. He must be really capable.
As the commander-in-chief of an army, the Prince of Nan'an County wanted to know people who would be well appointed, so he immediately smiled and said:
"Okay, since my nephew has said this, I will give these 300,000 troops to my nephew for ten days!"
"It's just that if my nephew cannot break the city after ten days, he will need to lead your Jia family army to attack the camp first!"
The Prince of Nan'an County kept his promise. After returning to the military camp, he summoned the generals and handed over the command of the 300,000-strong army to Su Mingzhe.
Su Mingzhe was born in the Rongning Jia family and was the uncle of the state. Even if others were dissatisfied, they did not dare to disobey the military order, and they all immediately surrendered their hands to express their obedience.
"Since everyone is willing to obey the command, nephew, you can give the order!"
"Okay, my first order is to dig a trench outside Lanzhou City!"
As Su Mingzhe spoke, he pointed at the map hanging on the screen and began to assign tasks.
How many soldiers and horses are there, where are they, and how long and deep the trenches need to be dug.
After he finished allocating them one by one, the generals took orders and quickly cooperated to prepare to dig trenches.