With the precedent of Zhu Dadian's defeat in Huguang and Gao Dou's repeated defeat in Shuguan, Wen'an's plan to manage the five provinces of Sichuan and Shaanxi must not follow the old path again.
The emperor repeatedly stressed the importance of tolerance for the sake of the country, unity and a united front.
But there must be a bottom line.
"As a father, I won't see you off. You should be more careful along the way."
In the Fenghuang Mountain camp, in Wen Anzhi's tent, Wen Anzhi turned his back to his three sons who came to say goodbye, holding a roster in his hand and saying in a calm voice.
The three brothers Wen Fengji all have great achievements, one is a scholar and two are scholars. After being granted official positions by the emperor, they stayed with Wen Anzhi to help with military affairs. From Yunyang to Pianyuan, and now to Sichuan, they have accumulated some experience.
, but it is not easy to go to Chaotianguan this time.
Although Zhang Xianzhong has not openly raised the flag of rebellion yet, his rebellion has already appeared. They have to pass through their occupied area and may be attacked at any time, not to mention they have to pass through the territory of the Yaohuang Thirteen Family, which is a cannibalistic soil violence.
son.
"A son is unfilial and can no longer serve his father. He must be worshiped by his sons!"
The three Fengji brothers kowtowed and said goodbye to their father.
Wen Anzhi never turned his head. When the sound of his sons' footsteps faded away, he slowly turned around, but his face was filled with tears.
"Son, loyalty and filial piety cannot have both ends. When the country is in trouble, my father can only let you rush to the front." He also knew that this time was difficult, but the Shaanxi-Gansu camp had to be set up, Zhang Dapeng had to reinforce, and Liu Jinzhong had to support him.
Just go with someone reliable.
If we only rely on those military leaders, we will still be in chaos.
Tang Zhenbang also came to say goodbye. This tough chieftain was brave and confident, "Please rest assured, Mr. Ge, the general will be able to reach Chaotian Pass in the end."
"Well, during the Chongzhen period, the world was in chaos and Huguang was in turmoil. Only you, Shui Jinyuan, were the most stable. I know your abilities very well. I'll beg you for this trip.
When you arrive at Chaotian Pass, help Zhang Dapeng. Although he is of low rank, he represents a saint and is also loyal and capable. Liu Jinzhong is trustworthy, but you must be careful. Explain the situation to him and let them evacuate first.
Reorganize the camp in Jiezhou, and then wait for the imperial decree to fight again."
"The general will finally understand." Tang Zhenbang knew very well that in terms of ability, reputation, and rank, it was never the turn of Zhang Dapeng, a new garrison officer, to be the admiral of the Shaanxi-Gansu camp. But as Wen Anzhi said, he was a close confidant of the emperor.
He came from Nanjing and was a former battalion officer of the Sichuan-Shaanxi camp. He represented the emperor and the central government.
No matter how capable Tang Zhenbang was, he was just a local official. No matter how brave Liu Jinzhong was, he was just a new subordinate general. Others, such as He Hongqi, were all from Xiying.
Therefore, since the imperial camp is to be established, Zhang Dapeng must be elected as the leader. This is also an expedient measure, after all, he is there now.
After Tang Zhenbang left, Wen Anzhi thought for a long time.
He reached an agreement with Qin Liangyu to let Zhang Shipeng take over as the new commander-in-chief of the Sichuan-Guixing camp and remove all the former officers, leaving only the soldiers, weapons, money and food, in order to completely change the status quo.
And this change may mean civil strife.
This requires a lot of courage. There are foreign enemies, but now he has to deal with the interior first. But he finally decided that in order to fight the foreign, he must first settle the interior. Otherwise, even if Zhang Xianzhong and the Tatars both lose, the remaining one will be defeated.
Still able to sweep through the Ming army.
Even if the Ming army in central Sichuan continues like this, sooner or later there will still be internal strife and attacks.
Even if they don't attack each other, if the current situation continues, Sichuan will continue to rot, the population will decrease sharply, the fields will be barren, then there will be a great famine, and then the chieftains will rebel. This is inevitable.
Although the previous reorganization was ordered to create a large framework, in fact it was still the same as before. Even after most of the military leaders were promoted, they were recruiting troops more unscrupulously.
The so-called economic system of the imperial court, the so-called grain and wages all come from the Liangtai, and the governors and governors are divided into patrol responsibilities, etc., are still empty words.
The military leaders are busy dividing the territory.
Zeng Ying occupied Shunqing Prefecture, Qin Liangyu occupied Chongqing, Wang Xiang occupied Zunyi, Yang Zhan occupied Jiading, etc. They all regarded these places as their own forbidden areas.
He had just inspected the armies of the main camp in Phoenix Mountain. There were many soldiers and horses, but the equipment was in a mess. Even now, their camp structures are still the same. Some have three thousand and one battalion, and some have one battalion.
There are one thousand and one battalions, and there are also hundreds and one battalions. Anyway, they all do their own thing.
Not only that, the entire camp was chaotic and without any discipline.
After Wen Anzhi obtained the full support of Qin Liangyu, the largest military leader in central Sichuan, he decided to take action now, hoping that he could come in time.
Otherwise, he will be the next Zhu Dadian and Gao Doushu.
······
Zhang Shipeng invited Wen Anzhi and Qin Liangyu to the imperial camp to announce the military order. In front of thousands of imperial camp generals, he read out the transfer order and transferred all the officers from the original ministries.
Then he announced the appointment list of chief officers and adjutants at all levels of the two associations of the two associations, five standards, ten battalions and forty posts. All the chief officers and adjutants were officers transferred from the imperial camp.
He announced that team-level officers and non-commissioned officers would be selected and dismissed from various ministries.
The first thing the entire army does is to reorganize it.
These five thousand local soldiers from Shizhou, Shizhu and other chieftains, from the original official troops from Zunyi and other places in Chongqing, as well as a small number of imperial soldiers transferred from Jiangnan, etc., regardless of which unit they originally came from, are now unified and reorganized.
According to the method of organizing the imperial camp, each one is selected according to his ability. Those who are strong and good at shooting will be archers, those who can ride will be scouts, those who are agile and flexible will be sword and shield bearers, those who are tall will be big shield soldiers, and the rest will be long soldiers.
Spearmen, some are fire gunmen.
In strict accordance with the imperial camp establishment, 500 people constitute the first battle camp, with 180 auxiliary battalions.
As the admiral, Zhang Shipeng personally led a bidding battalion, and the deputy admiral Zhu Wanhua also led a bidding battalion. The remaining eight battalions were divided into left and right alliances, each with two alliances, and each alliance was divided into two battalions.
Each battalion is basically a mixed battalion, that is, a mixed battalion of various weapons.
After the officers of each Xiebiao battalion were appointed, Zhang Shipeng and Zhu Wanhua asked the officers of each battalion to select their own sentry officers, and then asked the sentry officers to select the captain of the team from among the sergeants of the sentry. The captain would then choose the leader himself, and the captain would then choose the team leader.
long.
"All soldiers must obey military orders unconditionally!"
After the formation of soldiers and the appointment of officers were completed, equipment was distributed and training began. Deputy Admiral Zhu Wanhua proposed direct actual combat training and led the team to encircle and suppress the yellow bandits and small groups of mountain bandits in Shunqing Mansion.
This deputy admiral is the son of Zhu Dadian, the governor of Huguang. He has a chivalrous style, and has outstanding martial arts skills. When Xudu in Dongyang rebelled, the Baitou Army was unstoppable. Zhu Wanhua recruited brave soldiers to resist in his hometown in Jinhua, and defeated the Baitou Army.
military.
However, the county magistrate later said that Zhu Wanhua's name was in Xu Du's roster, and that Zhu Dadian's son was a traitor, and both Zhu Dadian and Zhu Wanhua were imprisoned for this.
Hongguang fled and Hangzhou surrendered. Zhu Dadian summoned his villagers to fight against the Qing Dynasty in his hometown, and Zhu Wanhua was the vanguard. Fang Guoan broke into Jinhua and attacked the city with pay. Zhu Wanhua also wore iron armor and stood firm at the top of the city, repelling Fang Guoan's army several times.
.
The sons of the two pavilion elders had served as guards for the emperor and participated in the Northern Expedition. They were very familiar with the fighting methods of the imperial camp. The imperial camp was not built through training, but through fighting.
Before they entered Shu, the camp failed to open up the situation. After all, the soldiers in the camp were transferred from various ministries. Not only soldiers were mobilized, but also officers at all levels were mobilized. Many generals were even deployed later. This resulted in the airborne troops like them.
For the officers in the imperial camp, orders were not smooth. Their orders had to be issued through those officers, but these officers had soldiers in their hands, and they were disobeying them.
These people stick together and give them a headache.
Now Qin Liangyu of Wen'an gave his full support and transferred all the officers. The two immediately disrupted all the soldiers, preventing them from having the chance to unite with each other again.
Grain plan
"What Admiral Zhu said makes sense. We don't have time to practice slowly. Let's send Ye Bushou out to gather information and then attack."
This imperial camp now needs to be equipped with equipment and soldiers, and the equipment is the best. Basically, each person has one piece of armor. Looking at the entire Sichuan, it is the most luxurious.
But if you can't fight, then everything is for nothing.
Wen Anzhi's adjustment this time was also under great pressure. Zeng Ying, Wang Xiang and others had great opinions. After all, the five thousand pieces of armor given to the imperial camp were all squeezed out from various ministries.
The armor coverage of Zeng Ying's troops was not high, especially after they expanded their troops aggressively, they even lacked armor.
All eyes are fixed on this imperial camp to see if these young men from the south of the Yangtze River can do it.
The imperial camp went out at night to gather information about the yellow thief.
Soon, a lot of useful information was obtained, and the strongholds of several groups of bandits were detected. Because the Ming army was stationed in Phoenix Mountain, many nearby bandits were frightened and stayed away, but they did not run too far.
"Gather the troops!"
The rally horn sounded.
The five thousand soldiers in the marching camp gathered quickly with slogans. After Zhang Shipeng took over the marching camp, he moved the marching camp to the foot of Fenghuang Camp and set up camp as an independent camp without interference.
When the tribesmen on the mountain heard the sound, they all went down the mountain to see the excitement.
Under the leadership of the officers, the camp assembled quickly.
They had just been pulled out and lined up. Looking down from the mountain, the soldiers of the tenth battalion looked as neat as ten pieces of tofu.
suddenly,
Thunder exploded and purple lightning flashed rapidly.
The wind was strong and the rain was pouring.
Admiral Zhang Shipeng and Deputy Admiral Zhu Wanhua were still standing on the general stage, motionless.
Next to them, the supervisors, counselors, assistant generals, and guerrillas stood like clay sculptures with their swords drawn in the rain.
At the front of the ten battle camps are the garrison officers, battalion adjutants, etc. of each battalion. These officers from the south of the Yangtze River also wore iron armor and stood in the heavy rain without moving even under the heavy rain.
Although many of the five thousand soldiers wanted to take shelter from the rain, they did not dare to move because the officers did not move.
Although they have only been reorganized and trained for a few days, the most important thing in the imperial camp is military discipline and orders. Everyone must look at their superiors and obey their orders.
The soldiers stared at the non-commissioned officers, the non-commissioned officers looked at the team commander, the team commander stared at the sentry commander, the sentry commander stared at the battalion officer, and the battalion officer stared at the general's flag.
On the mountain, the spectators had already dispersed with a bang.
Wen Anzhi didn't know when he walked out of the tent, holding an umbrella and looking at the soldiers camped under the rain curtain at the bottom of the mountain.
They were as motionless as if they were frozen, making people think they were a group of stone and ice sculptures.
Qin Liangyu, who is in his seventies, also came.
It rained all the time.
The order to disband was never issued, and the five thousand soldiers who were encamped have been standing in the rain.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the water at the bottom of the mountain was getting deeper and deeper, and soon it was up to their legs, but they remained still as still as a clock.
At this time, the generals who had gone to take shelter from the rain on the mountain couldn't help but come out to watch after hearing about it. More and more people came out to watch.
At first, some people laughed and called these people really stupid.
But gradually these sounds disappeared.
The mountains became silent, and there was only the sound of rain falling between the sky and the earth.
It wasn't until more than half an hour later that the rain stopped, the dark clouds dispersed, and the golden light shone down. The five thousand soldiers of the imperial camp, soaked all over, were still standing there in order.
Wen Anzhi looked up to the sky and laughed.
"You are worthy of being a descendant of Jiangdong. It is said that eastern Zhejiang produces elite troops. These imperial camp officers are really a bit like the Qi family army in those days. Well, with such military appearance, why worry about not being able to fight in camp?"
Qin Liangyu had personally fought side by side with the Qi family's army back then. Now when he saw the drowned soldiers and horses at the foot of the mountain, he also thought of that iron army with extremely strong military discipline.
"It seems we made the right bet."
At this time, a trumpet came from the bottom of the mountain, and the soldiers and horses moved.
Instead of disbanding and returning to camp, he directly issued an order to send out troops to suppress the bandits.
So they set off, all wet, holding flags, swords and guns in hand.
“If we unite as one, the mountains can be shaken.
Only loyalty and righteousness come, and the bullfight is full of anger.
The Lord will kiss me better than a parent.
If you violate military law, you will not be free.
The orders are clear and the rewards and punishments are communicated.
Go through fire and water, dare not stay any longer!
Report to the emperor, and save the head of Guizhou.
Kill all the Japanese slaves and find a marquis..."
A "Triumph Song" composed by Qi Jiguang himself resounded passionately from the foot of the mountain and resounded through the night sky. The soldiers and horses held their chests high and raised their heads, advancing passionately!
