Wu Kai, the Taizhou general, was stationed at Haimen Guard City and assisted in guarding all the way.
Haimen Guard City is adjacent to Jiaojiang River in the north and Taizhou Bay in the east. During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, in order to defend against Japanese pirates, Taizu ordered Xin Guogong Tanghe to patrol the sea and build the southeastern cities. In the 20th year of Hongwu, Haimen Guards was built, and the Huangyan city wall was demolished and moved to build Haimen Guards.
Later, Haimen Guard City was also one of the main battlefields of Qi Jiguang's anti-Japanese war.
Next to the Chenghuang Temple is the Qi Jiguang Temple.
Lao Zhu invited Wu Kai to pay homage to Qi Jiguang.
"Haimen City is also closely related to our Lu vassal. Xin Guogong Tanghe is my ninth ancestor's Mount Tai."
Tang He was the founding hero of the Ming Dynasty. Although he was not one of the six founding Dukes, he was actually the top hero. There were actually more than 20 Dukes at the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Tang He was the Duke of the Ming Dynasty. After his death, he was granted the posthumous title of Dong Ou.
king.
Zhu Yihai's ninth ancestor, Zhu Tan, was the tenth son of Taizu. He married Tang He's eldest daughter as his concubine when he was fourteen years old. The couple was granted the title of Yanzhou. Because they were too young, they left Zhu Yuanzhang's teachings and management and acted randomly and illegally.
It was so ridiculous that Zhu Yuanzhang later shaved off Zhu Tan's hair in a rage and had Princess Lu executed.
However, because of his relationship with Tang He and his old brother, Zhu Yuanzhang later issued a decree to canonize Tang He and his second daughter as Princess Lu.
Haimen City was built by Tang He on orders to patrol the sea. Many years later, his son-in-law, the ninth grandson of King Lu Huang, chose this place as a place to raise troops.
"My ancestor, the last general, was one of the first generals who was ordered to guard the Taiwan Strait Gate after following Duke Xin on his southeast patrol. My Wu family has lived in Haimen for eleven generations," Wu Kai said.
"Hahaha, let's put it this way, we are really related to each other. No wonder we feel like old friends at first sight." Lao Zhu laughed loudly.
At this time, Wu Kai was no longer as shocked as he was at the beginning. This bear-like Fatty Wu once again showed off his extremely good flattery skills. It didn't matter, he had to find a way to establish a relationship, not to mention the existing relationship.
Both of them wanted to get close, and for a while they seemed extremely warm.
"Taizhou is a good place. When Qi Jiguang trained troops to fight against the Japanese, he established a Qi family army that was victorious in all battles. Now that the country is in danger, the court is at the right time to recruit people. The country is in need of good generals, and General Wu is alone.
I have to rely on you."
"The Haimen Guards Association has three thousand troops. How many can be used? Tell me the truth."
After chatting for a while and paying homage to Qi Jiguang, Lao Zhu got straight to the point and asked the question he was most concerned about.
Isn't running for hundreds of miles just to increase your strength in the hope of changing your destiny?
Qi Jiguang Temple is next to the Chenghuang Temple in the east of the city, with Dongyue Temple on one side and Wenchang Temple on the other. After several temples and temples is Dongshan, which extends all the way east to the river, forming the cow's head and neck in the northeast corner of the city, like an old cow probing its neck into the Jiaojiang River.
Drink water.
In addition to the Jiaojiang River to the north and Taizhou Bay to the east, the Haimen Acropolis has three moats on the other two sides. This Acropolis, which has been built for nearly three hundred years, was originally a military base to prevent Japanese pirates. But now, Lao Zhu feels it here
What we arrived was more like an ordinary county town.
Although there are three moats and five city gates, you can't feel much of a military stronghold. Even after entering the city, you didn't see many real soldiers.
Even the general Wu Kai wears silk robes, just like the officials and gentry.
Haimen City is smaller than the prefecture capital Linhai, the streets are not that wide, and the city is not that big, but it has a strong sense of life, especially since it is close to Taizhou Bay, so there are more ships and more cargo at the dock.
Despite the ups and downs and the turmoil of the current situation, the people here are still living a habitual life. Although some Jin gentleman merchants have left early, the remaining people are still repeating their lives.
There was no war mobilization and no heightened alert and defense.
It is said that merchant girls do not know the hatred of their country's subjugation, and they still sing songs in the backyard across the river.
The situation here at Haimen Guard has greatly reduced Lao Zhujue's expectations for this battalion.
Wu Kai was a bit confused and said, "The last general will assist in guarding Haimen all the way, and his subordinates will assist in the camp with 3,000 troops. They are divided into five battalions, front, rear, left, middle and right..."
Lao Zhu was not interested in these words.
Directly interrupting his nonsense, "Wu Qing, Gu now regards you as my confidant, so you don't need to tell Gu those scenes, just tell me the most real situation."
Wu Kai secretly looked at Lao Zhu. This young King Lu gave him a very unusual feeling. When the Ming Dynasty collapsed and perished, such a young vassal prince not only refused to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, but also refused to escape. Instead, he stood bravely
He came out and ascended the throne to supervise the country and fight against the Qing Dynasty.
He had been observing carefully for a long time, and basically confirmed the fact that this Lu Jianguo was not the kind of fool who wanted to sit on the supreme position for fun, nor was he a lunatic who didn't care about anything.
He acts in a logical and orderly manner and is definitely a smart man.
Thinking of this, Wu Kai revealed the truth in a shameless manner.
Haimen Guard City was built to prevent Japanese pirates. After the city was built, Haimen Guards were set up to garrison military households and guarded them for generations. The Haimen Guards originally numbered 5,600 people and were divided into several stations. They were commanded by the Commander-in-Chief of Zhejiang Province.
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Later, due to Japanese pirate attacks, six new generals were added to the coastal areas of Zhejiang to prevent Japanese pirates. The six generals were equivalent to the Xingdusi level and were responsible for the coastal guards.
However, after the mid-Ming Dynasty, the guard system had basically collapsed and decayed.
The garrison system designed by Taizu in the early years, where the court did not have to spend money to raise troops but had millions of troops, was completely broken. Most of the garrison military fields were occupied by officers, and the garrison sergeants became tenants of the officers.
Life was miserable, and the guardsmen neglected their training and could not fight at all.
During the Jiajing period, the Japanese rebellion was serious and the southeastern guard post was unable to fight, so the imperial court had no choice but to recruit troops as it did in the north.
Zhejiang established a general military officer for the suppression of Japanese invaders, and then established several groups of generals. For example, Qi Jiguang was the first military officer of the Taiwan and Jin Dynasties.
Soldiers even directly recruited miners and farmers as soldiers.
So from the garrison army, we became the camp soldiers.
The troops commanded by General Qi Jiguang were the co-defensive soldiers, which were already two different systems from the Haimen guards and other original guard soldiers.
Most of the battalion officers came from the guards. For example, Qi Jiguang was also a hereditary guard officer, and so was Wu Kai.
Wu Kai's Haimen General is the successor of Qi Jiguang's Taijin Yan General, but now he does not have as large a defense area as the three prefectures that he used to assist in guarding. Only Taizhou Prefecture is left and is stationed at Haimen.
The 3,000 men and horses under his command were also drawn and recruited from the Haimen Guard and other guards. These soldiers were seconded and more recruited. They were not hereditary military households but had civilian registration, and they were paid.
However, in the past few years, the imperial court has been fighting everywhere, suppressing bandits in the interior and guarding captives from nine sides. Although it has repeatedly imposed additional levies, it is still not enough to spend on military expenditures, let alone non-critical places such as the southeast.
It costs money to raise an army, and it is difficult for a concubine to make a living without rice.
Wu Kai was originally a hereditary commander of the Haimen Guards, and later he became a general in Taizhou. He was somewhat capable, but he could not make money for nothing to raise troops. What's more, these days, military generals drink the blood of soldiers and make a fortune from it.
The officers of the guard station exploited the military households, and the military attachés of the camp deducted military pay, etc.
Anyway, it was rotten from top to bottom. Even before the military pay was distributed, it had to be deducted layer by layer. When it reached the hands of the generals below, there was not much left.
"How many soldiers are there that can be drawn out to fight?" Lao Zhu saw Wu Kaiyue speaking softly and became impatient to get to the point.
"······"
Seeing that he couldn't explain why, Lao Zhu thought of the corrupt army in the late Ming Dynasty and made the worst plan, "Your Taizhou camp has 3,000 troops, can you defeat 300?"
Wu Kai still didn't speak.
This time Lao Zhu was also stunned.
Wang Chuangzi of the Yongwei camp who was still on the side knew the Ming Dynasty's army better. Even the most capable Guan Ning army had many problems, let alone these armies in the southeast.
It was because Yiwu miners were recruited instead of guard military households.
"How many people does General Wu have in his household?" Wang Chuangzi asked directly.
"Twenty people." Wu Kai answered truthfully.
"Only twenty?"
"Well, the cost of supporting the servants is high, and I can't afford to support them." When Wu Kai saw Wang Xiang directly asking about the servants, he also knew that he couldn't hide it from the old lady of the Yongwei Camp, so he simply said, "Taizhou Camp Roster
There are three thousand people, but the food and salary have been intermittent in recent years..."
In Wu Kai's words, when he was promoted to Haimen General, there was a big problem here. It was said that there were 3,000 people. In fact, after he took office, he counted the people and found that there were five battalions of people. Each battalion actually only had 120 people. The rest
They all have fake names.
If these six hundred people are real, they are not bad at all.
But the problem is that it is difficult to support 600 people without money, so in the end, Wu Kai raised 20 elite servants by himself, and 20 soldiers in each of the five battalions. Although the rest were still named in the register, they were actually
Wu Kai had already let them fend for themselves and did not require them to go to the camp for training or anything.
So some of these soldiers worked on the docks, some worked in shops, and some went out to sea to do business. Some even engaged in smuggling, and some worked as guards for others. Anyway, they made a living on their own.
Lao Zhu was really shocked now.
"Haimen Cucumber will assist you all the way. There are 3,000 people in Haimen Camp, but only 20 well-trained and well-equipped elite servants, plus a hundred battalion soldiers?"
The Haimen Camp with 3,000 people ended up with only 120 people.
Just now Lao Zhu thought that no matter how bad it was, there should be at least one-third or at least five or six hundred people.
Who would have thought that the Haimen Camp with 3,000 people actually only had 120 soldiers?
Wang Chuangzi was not surprised, "Your Highness, it's not unusual for the soldiers in the southeast camp to be like this."
Thinking that there were more than 300,000 Jinling and Hangzhou Tatars and surrendered troops, but his battalion here was only 120, Lao Zhu felt like giving up at this moment.
Wu Kai also felt embarrassed.
"If your Highness needs it, I will recruit the troops immediately. Give the general three days, no, ten days, and the general will ensure that the three thousand people are recruited."
Lao Zhu shook his head.
This temporary recruitment of 3,000 troops is of no use.
"Can you, one hundred and twenty men, really be able to fight?" Lao Zhu turned around and asked.
"The twenty servants of the last general are all equipped with armor and mounts. They are skilled in bow and horse. They are also skilled in the use of firearms. They are equipped with swords, shields, bows, arrows, and muskets. They are also skilled in water fighting and night fighting. One can fight ten, and two
Ten." Wu Kai said with some pride. He spent a lot of money to feed these twenty servants. Each servant was given two taels of silver, and they were fed three times a day and one meal of meat in two days.
The blunderbuss and musket were not just for sale, but for target practice with live ammunition every now and then. He, a sea sect general, relied on these twenty elite servants to help him control the situation.
As for the other 100 people, they are basically the servants raised by his officers at all levels, and they are guaranteed to have adequate food, pay, equipment and training.
Lao Zhu understood that these so-called one hundred and twenty elite Haimen Guards were rather the bodyguards of the Haimen Camp officers.
The Zhejiang General Military Officer has four generals under his command: General Hangjiahu, General Ningshao, General Taizhou and General Wenchu. The Taizhou General’s battalion of 3,000 men is so corrupt, and the other three generals are probably no better.
Where to go.
The Tatars have an army of 300,000 in the south of the Yangtze River. Should they ask him, Lao Zhu, to lead these two hundred men to fight?