Fang Kongzhen and Fang Ziling chose to stay in the capital temporarily as spies, and also joined Zhou Yanru's line.
Zhou Yanru would naturally regard them as Shen Shuren's allies, and would occasionally ask them about the progress of the military situation on the Henan and Huguang fronts, as well as the stalemate between Shen Shuren and Li Zicheng.
Of course, the Fang family is also very measured and cannot tell military secrets. After all, who knows what kind of sieve the powerful people in the capital have been infiltrated into. If the tactical strategies are leaked to Li Zicheng, something serious will happen.
However, we can still talk about the parts that do not involve military aircraft strategy. And some words can reassure Zhou Yanru and Chen Xinjia that they firmly believe that Kaifeng City can still hold on, so as not to induce Chongzhen to force the frontline governor to seek help.
Quick decisive battle.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the most embarrassing thing for the governor at the front was to force you to fight quickly. Whether it was Yang Sichang, Zuo Liang, Yu Sun, Chuan Ting, or Hong Chengchou, it can be said that they all suffered greatly.
Before the Battle of Songshan, Hong Chengchou was forced to fight quickly by the logistical pressure of the Ministry of War. There are many other examples like this.
It seems that Chongzhen is just turning the beads in his abacus every day to figure out how to fight on the front line. Why did he fight for one more day and spend an extra day of money on me? Is he trying to support the troops and support the invaders to respect themselves? Can you finish the battle quickly and let me?
No more money?
In the end, Hong Chengchou's more than 100,000 people were left in vain, so Chongzhen no longer had to pay wages or transport military rations, which fundamentally saved money.
After Zhou Yanru and Chen Xinjia stabilized their situation, Shen Shuren on the front line could finally solve the problem of Kaifeng's siege relief at his own pace without being forced.
…
The words are divided into two parts.
While the capital was raising rewards, acquitting, and mediating, in the past month, the front lines in Huguang and Xinyang Prefecture in Henan were also reorganized by Shen Shuren, and gradually prepared for the battle with Li Zicheng.
Don't blame Shen Shuren for dragging his feet. When it comes to fighting hundreds of thousands of enemy troops, it is entirely appropriate to spend a month preparing. Especially a considerable part of his army's main force had just returned from the Hengzhou front line in the south.
When fighting in subtropical jungle areas like Hengzhou in June and July, the troops were already in poor condition and the number of infections was extremely high. When they returned to the Central Plains in August, it was time for them to take a good rest and recuperate.
It would be great if the soldiers can re-adapt to the climate, water, soil and environment of northern Hubei and southern Henan in one month. If they rush into battle, they will definitely lose a lot of combat effectiveness because the weather environment changes too quickly.
Therefore, Chen Shuren set the schedule for the decisive battle in mid-September after full investigation and understanding of the enemy's movements.
During the preparation period from mid-August to mid-September, he was not idle. First, he further rectified and inventoried the military production capacity during this period.
After all, when he fought Zhang Xianzhong before, the firearms he equipped were all produced by the Daye Military Factory as of the end of April. Now, of course, the production capacity inventory of 5, 6, 7, 8, and 4 months can be cleared out and allocated to the combat troops in categories.
.
After more than a year of upgrading and construction, the production capacity of Daye Military Factory has been further expanded.
When he was in Huangzhou, Shen Jiajun could only produce more than 300 firearms per month. When he first arrived in Daye, the number suddenly increased to 800 to 1,000. Now that Daye has been under construction for a year, this number has further increased.
It expanded to about two thousand——
Of course, these 2,000 are for the production of Luminous muskets and high-precision bird muskets. If you switch to the production of other heavy-duty firearms, the quantity will be reduced in proportion.
For example, you can only make 400 or 500 turtledove guns, and you can make about 800 full-length double-barreled breech-loading guns. The revolver gun is the most complicated, and if you use all your production capacity to make revolvers, you can't make 400 guns per month.
Of course, it is actually impossible to switch all production, because the skills of a considerable number of low-end craftsmen are simply not up to the level of producing runner blades. The ones they make either get stuck when rotating, or the gaps are too large to leak and cause serious fires.
Only the 20 to 30% of craftsmen with the best skills can reach the level of making wheels. This is already the result of Song Yingxing, Song Mingde's uncle and nephew repeatedly helping to improve the technology, break down the processes, train craftsmen, and improve the standardization of measuring tools, but this matter
It is very long and cannot be done in a year and a half.
In a nutshell, after equipping Shen Shuren's troops with newly produced muskets from May to August, the number of high-quality firearms in the official army has increased from just over 10,000 to 15,000 to 15,600——
The main reason is that the fierce battle with Zhang Xianzhong for more than two months was also very intense, and the firearms were also damaged. A considerable number of the weapon barrels were ground and scrapped, so the newly produced six or seven thousand muskets were not a net increase, but a considerable part.
, about one or two thousand, will be used to offset previous losses.
However, in addition to newly-made firearms, the Shen Army also has another source of equipment, which is to directly receive equipment from newly attached friendly forces.
As mentioned before, before Shen Shuren fought against Zhang Xianzhong, he already claimed to have 80,000 troops, and his subordinates nominally included Liu Guoneng and Huang Degong.
But at that time, he was only the governor of Anhui, so the armies of other prefectures in Huguang were not under his control.
Now in early September, Chongzhen finally received Yang Sichang's will. After discussion, he officially appointed Shen Shuren as governor of Huguang. Then, of course, all the officers and soldiers in the Huguang area belonged to him.
Shen Shuren spent about ten days visiting and taking stock, meeting with new subordinates from various places, wooing them, and hearing about the situation. He was very busy. He was able to recognize everyone and established basic mutual trust.
During this process, Fang Kongzhen's 10,000 to 20,000 troops originally left in Jiangling, Yiling and other places were most thoroughly accepted by the Chenshu people. They were given a little money and benefits, and their loyalty was immediately guaranteed after military supplies.
Already.
After all, these troops were originally more loyal to Fang Kong Zhen. After Fang Kong Zhen was kicked off, Fang Kong Zhen left a message. Of course, the relevant generals directly switched to the new master without any cognitive barriers.
Moreover, there are quite a few civil servants and military generals under Chen Shuren who have good personal relations with the old Jiangling Army and are very familiar with them.
For example, Fang Yizhi, he was originally the eldest son of the original leader of the Jiangling Army. After the old Futai left, it was appropriate for him to work for the eldest son's new boss.
Jin Shenghuan, Wang Deren and others from Jiangling were all originally borrowed from Shenshu from Fang Kongzhen. Now, of course, they were asked to bring back the backbone of the Shen army with a battalion each. These two battalions were used to take the lead and bring nearly 20,000 soldiers back.
The Jiangling Army will be fully mastered, and no matter how hard it is to train and run in, we will strive to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible and keep up with the training pace of the Shen Family Army.
As a meeting gift, or as evidence that Xinfutai valued them, Chen Shuren, through Fang Yizhi, gave these 20,000 people a thousand Lumi guns newly produced by the Daye Military Factory, plus some armor stomachs.
The morale of these officers and soldiers immediately improved, and they became more confident that Futai would treat them equally and reuse them in the future.
In addition to the nearly 20,000 people left behind by Fang Kongzhen, Shen Shuren recruited a larger force, which came from the original official troops in southern Hunan and the prisoners collected after the annihilation of Zhang Xianzhong's new annexed army.
In the previous decisive battles, basically all the young men Zhang Xianzhong had captured in the Huguang area in the past few years were wiped out, but only about half of them were killed or seriously injured and disabled, and another 20,000 to 30,000 were captured alive.
Of course, not all of these people can be used. They have to be screened, and those who are particularly stubborn and have bad records should be put to death.
Of course, only a small number of people were executed, generally not more than 10% of the prisoners. It was basically the same as the Romans' "Eleventh Killing Rule", which served as a deterrent to rectify military discipline and make the remaining people mend their ways.
After the fight with Zhang Xianzhong, Shen Shuren stayed in southern Hunan with Jiang Shoude, Lu Datou and others continuing to screen and capture the fleeing troops and killed about 3,000 in total, whose crimes were obvious and conclusive.
Of the remaining more than 26,000 people, about 6,000 were organized into hard labor camps, and the remaining 20,000 with no obvious bad deeds, who were born innocent but were coerced, were gradually incorporated into the army.
However, for better control, these troops will now be left behind and mixed with sand. They will be led by reliable veterans and will not be immediately deployed to participate in the Kaifeng rescue battle with Li Zicheng.
In addition to these people, the original Ming officers and soldiers in Changsha, Hengzhou and other places temporarily surrendered to Zhang Xianzhong and finally kidnapped Yin Xianmin. He Yide, who once again abandoned the secrets and joined the Ming, must of course be included.
However, this kind of recruitment also required the screening and elimination of a few particularly slick veterans and capricious people. In the end, nearly ten thousand people were collected reluctantly.
Together with the reformed prisoners of Zhang Xianzhong's new annexed army, this group totaled 26,700, and they were all incorporated into the Huguang official army.
After Shen Shuren became the governor of Huguang, the last force he received was the soldiers left behind after the death of Ge Lao Yang Sichang. After Yang Sichang and Zuo Liangyu defeated Zhuxian Town, they fled south and returned to Xiangyang respectively.
, Nanyang. Of course Zuo Liangyu's troops, Shen Shuren, could not control them, but Yang Sichang also brought the final force of nearly 15,000 people and fled directly into Xiangyang City in defeat.
Yang Sichang's suicide note was sent to the capital in early September. He was not dead when Chongzhen issued the reply.
But just a few days later, on September 12th, Yang Sichang's life finally came to an end. The messenger from the capital city walked quite fast, traveling almost three to four hundred miles a day to deliver the message.
On this day, the decree arrived in Xiangyang. Yang Sichang learned that he himself was not held accountable by Chongzhen, and that Chongzhen did not blame his family for the defeat of Zhuxian Town. Yang Sichang finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then his energy and spirit became completely unbearable.
, and passed away in the middle of the night that day.
After Yang Sichang's death, there was no longer a "supervisor" in the Huguang area, and Shen Shuren was ordered to assist Sun Chuanting in trying to rescue Kaifeng again. Of course, the thirteen or four thousand personal troops left by Yang Sichang belonged to him.
Although this unit has the smallest number among the three groups recruited by Chen Shuren, its combat effectiveness and equipment are actually the strongest.
After all, they were the direct descendants of Yang Sichang who had fought with Yang Sichang for several years. They were protected by Mr. Ge, and they were not treated badly in terms of military pay, food, weapons, and armor. Moreover, they had repeatedly fought bloody battles with Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, and they had all survived after years of fighting.
came down.
As a result, Shen Shuren's total military strength expanded from the 80,000 before dealing with Zhang Xianzhong to 140,000.
Moreover, the quality of the newly added troops is also good. There are almost no new recruits. They have all been in the army for more than two or three years. The troops who followed Yang Sichang have more than five years of combat experience and have experienced many battles. They are definitely more elite than Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng.
The old camp in Henan is still higher and can almost trace the old camp in Shaanxi.
The troops left behind by Fang Kongzheng and Yang Sichang provided the Chenshu people with a total of about three to four thousand firearms that were reasonably usable, but they were basically bird guns, and their accuracy and reliability were not as good as those made by Chenshu.
, can be regarded as barely usable. The other old-fashioned firecrackers that can only defend the city are not included.
The number of firearms of Zhang Xianzhong's troops that were annihilated and captured was much smaller. Although the number of prisoners was as high as 30,000, and there were no less than this number of annihilations and casualties, the officers and soldiers were able to clean up the battlefield after the war. However, the cumulative seizures from the battle with Zhang Xianzhong were also
There are only one or two thousand firearms.
These numbers, added to the original 15,000 to 15,000 of the Shen family's army, bring the total number of firearms soldiers to 20,000.
After destroying Zhang Xianzhong's troops, the only thing that greatly improved the Chenshu people was the size of the cavalry.
Before the final decisive battle in Hengzhou, Shen Shuren's cavalry numbered about 3,500, all led by Zhu Wenzhen who had returned from Liaodong. After the final decisive battle, Zhang Xianzhong's Huguang army was completely wiped out, and thousands more horses were obtained, which were eliminated
Damaged and disabled in the battle, the total number of Shen Shuren's cavalry finally reached five to six thousand.
140,000 soldiers, 6,000 cavalry, and 20,000 muskets. This was the total strength Shen Shuren had before the battle with Li Zicheng.
Of course, it is impossible for all this power to be invested in one point. In that case, Zhang Xianzhong, Sun Kewang, and Liu Wenxiu may bite back at any time and come back to get another vote when Huguang is empty.
Therefore, Jiang Shoude's troops, which suffered the heaviest losses in the decisive battle of Hengzhou, will remain in Changsha, Hengzhou and other south areas this year to carry out security clearance operations and garrison operations. Some prisoners of Zhang Xianzhong's army and Changsha's official troops will also stay there.
The entire Hunan region in later generations will occupy more than 10,000 Shenshu people's veterans and 20,000 new auxiliary troops, responsible for comprehensively dealing with Zhang Xianzhong.
Fang Kongzheng's troops in Jiangling, Yiling and other places can actually mobilize about half, leaving only 10,000 people. Because Sun Kewang is also gradually moving to the southwest, the pressure in the direction of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River is getting smaller and smaller.
In addition, the Hunan army has established a garrison support point at Baling at the mouth of Dongting Lake. They can mobilize to support Changsha or Yiling at any time, so there is no need to deploy so many front-line troops.
It is enough to leave 10,000 troops in Xiangyang and Suizhou areas to monitor whether Li Zicheng may penetrate Zuo Liangyu's defense area.
Chen Shuren felt that there was no future in retaining more troops in this direction. If Li Zicheng really came, he might not be able to defend it if he occupied at least several times more troops. It would be better to think about using tactics to trick Li Zicheng into spreading his troops.
, of course, these are all things for later, I have to take a step forward and watch one.
As for places like Jiujiang and Anlu, the rear areas are now completely stable, and troops can be mobilized as much as possible.
After all calculations, Shen Shuren could mobilize 90,000 troops, 15,000 firearms, and 5,000 cavalry to the front battlefield of Xinyang Mansion. And all these preparations were completely completed and assembled in place by the middle of September.
Already.
At the same time, as the time comes to mid-September, the autumn harvest season of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen has finally come to an end. The Shen Shu Army's military rations are also very sufficient, the transportation pressure is also small, and the logistics situation is better than that of Li Zicheng's army opposite.
too much.
Due to successive years of natural disasters, it is impossible for the Huguang area to have a bumper harvest this year. However, the strong promotion and popularization of high-yielding crops such as potatoes and corn has ensured that people in every prefecture and county can have enough food and clothing.
The destruction of production in Hunan was very serious, but the massacre of the population was also extremely brutal. A lot of land became ownerless, and the rich and wealthy gentry were wiped out by Zhang Xianzhong. These ownerless properties were naturally cheap.
tree man.
From mid-August to mid-September, while the troops were not fighting, he was even able to organize military camps to temporarily help with farm work, harvesting ownerless crops, and then directly using them as military rations.
According to his preliminary estimates, Zhang Xianzhong directly massacred at least more than 500,000 people in Hunan in the past few months this year. The specific number cannot be calculated in detail, so he can only give a conservative statement.
After all, the Yang family in Changde Prefecture alone had tens of thousands of people killed, and there were other clever excuses. The total number of people killed in Changde Prefecture under these pretexts totaled hundreds of thousands.
Places like Changsha were much more densely populated than Changde. A total of four prefectures were severely massacred, and two or three remote mountainous prefectures were casually killed while crossing the border. Five hundred thousand was definitely not much more.
Even if the productivity is destroyed and the fields cultivated by 200,000 to 300,000 people are completely abandoned, the crops for 200,000 people will become ownerless food that can be eaten directly. Chenshu people will certainly not lack the space to expand the army.
The army rations are needed.
In contrast, Li Zicheng, who was on the opposite side, claimed that the more he fought, the more troops he had. Before the decisive battle with Yang Sichang and Sun Chuanting, he already had 340,000 troops.
In the first battle of Zhuxian Town, tens of thousands were killed and tens of thousands were captured. After the war, Li Zicheng's total military strength was actually said to have expanded to 370,000.
It's hard to say how much of the so-called 370,000 men and horses have water and how many of them are just a mob. We can only ensure that there are so many young and strong men.
Yawenba
Henan and Shaanxi were completely destroyed this year. The bloody battles in Henan, Kaifeng, Guide, Huaiqing, and Weihui for half a year caused agricultural production to stagnate by at least half, and it was impossible for Li Zicheng's army to obtain military rations.
To be honest, Li Zicheng has actually been using corpses to solve the food problem of the troops. At least for those newly captured cannon fodder and surrendered soldiers, a large number of unknown dried meats are eaten. Only the old battalions of direct lineage can ensure that they eat coarse grains.
Mix wild grass into porridge.
On September 17, all 90,000 Shen Shu people gathered in Xinyang Prefecture and advanced to the front line of the Huaihe River. The center was centered on Ruyin where the Huaihe River and the Ru River meet as the hub node. They could advance, attack, retreat, or defend.
Li Zicheng learned about the gathering situation of Shen's army, but he didn't take it seriously. He continued to prepare to besiege Kaifeng City and wait and see what happens.
Li Zicheng did not want his food route to be stretched too long, so he took the initiative to march hundreds of miles to fight with the Chenshu people.
If Chen Shuren really wanted to come, he would wait where he was, which would also allow the soldiers to consume less energy and eat less food. As long as Chen Shuren dared to cross Yancheng, or even approach Zhuxian Town, then Li Zicheng would come again
A great victory in Zhuxian Town!
——
PS: The comment server is still not restored, please continue to write 5,000 words a day.
It's not that I'm lazy, the main reason is that I can't see other people's comments recently. Everyone has to support me. The number of people who follow up 24 hours a day has actually dropped to more than a hundred...
I also understand that many book friends don’t like to read books without reviews. If a fat book friend comes back in the future and sees more than ten chapters in a row without comments, he may feel that the full version is boring, so he will abandon the article or even read it.
The board was stolen.
Therefore, we can only update less during the days when there are no barrage to get through this period.