The words are divided into two parts. Chongzhen's imperial edict will not be delivered to Wuchang until the end of November, but Shen Shuren and his party returned to Wuchang as early as late November.
Therefore, before the decree arrived, Chen Shuren had more than ten days to deal with the government affairs and military affairs that he had accumulated over so long.
Let’s simply celebrate the previous victory, reward and provide benefits to the troops as soon as possible, adjust their status, rotate defenses, and prepare for the next attack.
After all, the troops were not infallible. They had just finished the bloody battle with Li Zicheng. After several months of fighting, the cumulative losses from casualties, infections, and diseases had reached nearly 20,000 people.
Chen Shuren's troops are already elite enough, and their logistical support and medical conditions are good enough to suppress the losses to this level. If any other Ming army had been used to fight, the losses would have been at least doubled, or even
Multiple times.
There are more than 90,000 troops with a total of 20,000 casualties. This loss rate is close to a quarter. If these casualties did not occur in batches and over a relatively long period of time, but occurred in a concentrated manner, I am afraid that the troops would have lost their lives early.
It collapsed.
Therefore, what the troops who participated in the Henan Campaign need most now is rest and recuperation. Seeing that the twelfth lunar month of winter is approaching, this army must not be used easily during the two months of the twelfth lunar month and the first lunar month, otherwise the soldiers will become disloyal. Shen Shuren
The hearts of the troops who have been won over by kindness and power will gradually begin to complain.
Fortunately, before the Battle of Henan, the Chenshu people had a Huguang Army of 140,000 people, 90,000 people were brought in, and 50,000 people were guarding the place.
The most important force was in the hands of Zhang Huangyan, with a total of about 20,000 people. They intercepted Sun Kewang and others in the Yiling and Jingzhou area, and later took the initiative to pursue Xiao Li.
In addition to Zhang Huangyan, Chen Shuren left more than 30,000 people behind, belonging to the defense areas of Fang Yizhi, Shi Dun and others, as well as Jiang Shoude and Jin Shenghuan's troops in Changsha and Hengzhou.
As for Zheng Chenggong's tax enforcement and local self-protection rural militia group in Jiujiang, they are not included in Shen Shuren's establishment of 50,000 people. This is also considering that Jiujiang is already relatively close to the rear area, and there is no need to arrange too elite troops.
The army. As the eldest son of the Zheng family, Zheng Chenggong will definitely get subsidies from his family when he is an official, so Zheng Chenggong can help share some costs on his own. There is nothing he can do in these troubled times.
After all, the 50,000 troops left behind by Shen Shuren had driven away Zhang Xianzhong from Hunan in July. Even if more than a month of suppressing bandits and cleaning up the remnants were added, they would be busy until the end of August at most. So starting from September
, until the end of November, these 50,000 people were in a state of leisure and rest.
After three months of leave, these troops are now in good condition and their morale is high. If Chen Shuren really has to send troops in the twelfth lunar month, then he should first pull out these 50,000 people and transfer the nearly 80,000 people who have retreated from the front line.
Entering defensive leave.
In addition, there are about 20,000 peasant troops who have abandoned the dark side and turned to the bright side, including Yuan Shizhong who was conquered by Shen Shuren on the battlefield in Henan, and the remnants of Yuan Shi's army that were incorporated and reformed after Li Jiyu was killed.
After a period of ideological transformation, with the influence of Liu Guoneng's personal experience, kindness and power, and the leadership of Yuan Shizhong, although these 20,000 people also contributed a little and suffered a little in the Henan Campaign, they can definitely invest immediately
A new round of battle against Zhang Xianzhong.
First of all, these people are all natives of Henan, and they have suffered enough from the bandits from Shaanxi. After the Battle of Kaifeng, the Henan soldiers who were able to surrender to the Shenshu people already have a certain hatred for the Shaanxi bandits. Then Yuan Shizhong led them
, when Zhang Xianzhong is beaten, he will probably take his life to get a certificate of surrender.
They really need to fight hard to prove their sincerity. They have been used as a death camp a few times. As long as the protection is sufficient, the military pay is sufficient, the food is excellent, and the battle is strictly supervised, they can definitely produce good results.
After such calculation, Shen Shuren's plan became very clear: only use these five plus two 70,000 people, at least within the first three months, to enter Sichuan to deal with Zhang Xianzhong.
If the problem has not been solved after three months, then in February next year the two dragons will raise their heads, and after the busy spring plowing and farming is over, the main force in the previous Henan campaign will have almost rested, and then new troops will be drawn from the 80,000 people as appropriate to continue to invest.
As for the weapons and equipment of the troops, of course, they also need to be rotated for ten days and a half. After all, people need to rest, but guns do not need rest. As long as the quality inspection and maintenance can keep up, two groups of soldiers can rotate and use the same batch of guns to fight.
.
This will involve 10,000 to 20,000 people changing their firearms and getting used to them. Half a month is definitely not a long time.
Since July and August, the iron-making factory and military workshop behind Wuchang Prefecture have obviously been busy with production and research for four months. During this period, many new firearms, supplies, and new ammunition and ordnance must have been created.
When it comes out, there may be some technological advancements, and Shenshu people also need to take time to review them one by one and adjust the deployment.
…
Therefore, the day after returning to Wuchang Mansion, Chen Shuren did not miss the gentle hometown of Chen Yuanyuan, Li Xiangjun and Dong Xiaowan, so he dragged his tired and weak legs to Daye County.
Of course, the road to Daye County is just 60 miles down the Yangtze River from Jiangxia County, so it was the same way to send King Lu and King Fu to Hefei via Anqing, Jiujiang.
Chen Shuren sent everyone from Prince Lu's Mansion for sixty miles, and after having lunch together that day, they parted ways in Daye and landed for inspection.
Of course Fang Yizhi, the prefect of Wuchang and Shen Shuren's friend of the same age, also went with him.
Fang Yizhi is also considered a rare science and engineering talent in this era. One is more theoretical and the other more engineering. With Song Yingxing, they have been collaborating with each other for more than a year. Therefore, Shen Shuren comes every time to inspect the progress of metallurgical and military technology and engineering breakthroughs.
, he is happy to discuss together.
Along the way on the ship, Shen Shuren found every opportunity to ask about armaments, industry and civil affairs in the past few months, and Fang Yizhi also answered all questions.
Considering the matter of weapons and armaments, after the ship arrives in Daye, we can watch and chat together. Therefore, during this time on the ship, Chen Shuren gave priority to understanding preparations such as military rations.
"How have I been doing in preparing for the autumn grain levy during the days I've been in Henan? Over in Hunan, after Zhang Xianzhong's troops were defeated, have the grains taken back from the slaughtered innocent people been calculated?
Can we support 70,000 people to enter Sichuan immediately next month to fight? Will we have to send additional grain levies to the people to suffer? I remember that potatoes can be planted one season before winter and harvested before next summer. Then corn will be planted in autumn.
Plowing and planting in winter cannot be delayed.
This time Kaifeng is rescued, Zhang Mingzhen estimates that he will rescue hundreds of thousands of Henan's able-bodied people one after another, and they will also be resettled. If there is time, let them arrange to plant potatoes as soon as possible. Don't be idle in the winter, so that they can support themselves as soon as possible. What's going on these days?
There isn’t much food.”
Fang Yizhi got very upset when he heard this: "Stop looking for jobs and arranging farming for these people from Henan and Shaanxi. Wouldn't it be better to stay in Henan? There is land and water, and there are people there. If we let people from the south manage it, we can't manage it well."
Not long ago, you were besieged in Chen County. Something happened here. Thousands of surrendered soldiers from Changsha Prefecture who had been sent to cultivate government land revolted against taxes and rent, and refused to obey the government's management to build supporting water conservancy projects.
Especially when I heard that Zhang Xianzhong seemed to be on the rise again in Sichuan. Some die-hards even tried to kill the officials overseeing the settlement and fled to join Zhang Xianzhong. I mobilized the Wuchang soldiers stationed in Yueyang to suppress him. At that time, the front line was in an emergency, and I was not one of them.
Deliberately not reporting it.”
After hearing this, Chen Shuren couldn't help but be alert: "What's going on? Is the rent we set too high? The surrendered soldiers asked them to farm a piece of land, and they can still be so unruly? It's because they have been thieves for a long time and refuse to do so.
Farming?"
Fang Yizhi sighed: "It's not that simple. Only after doing some things in depth do you realize that the differences in the management of reclamation between the north and the south are too great. A few years ago, when I read Sun Chuanting's notes lamenting the reclamation in Shaanxi, I still didn't believe it. Now
If you have experienced it yourself, then you truly believe it.”
——
ps: I changed the map to deal with Zhang Xianzhong, but it was a bit stuck. It takes time to figure out the strategy and deployment.
Today I have a few hundred words less than usual. Let’s work on it.
I feel like writing this kind of plot is really tiring for me. Others don’t have to think about strategies when writing books. Why do I always have to think about so many strategies? It’s like I’m replaying the battle myself.
It would be really easy to write a book that directly copies ready-made strategies without changing the general trend of history. I also want to do that, but unfortunately I can't do it.