Chapter 226 It's not bad to pick up a Hanzhong for nothing
"I will never forget the Governor-General! I cannot thank you enough for your kindness. I will never forget the Governor-General's kindness in saving you! I will definitely work together in this life and kill thieves in return!"
When Zhu Shuren arrived in Hanzhong, it was still dozens of miles away from Nanzheng County, and he saw Cao Bianjiao leading his guards out of the city to greet him. When the two sides saw each other from a distance, Cao Bianjiao dismounted his horse and stood respectfully by the roadside, waiting for Zhu Shuren to come closer, and then he became more humble. Say these words of gratitude.
Cao Bianjiao did not bring many soldiers and horses, and he obviously knew in advance how many people Zhu Shuren brought. Zhu Shuren had three thousand guards, but Cao Bianjiao only brought five hundred personal soldiers to avoid the sudden encounter with the other party.
When they first met, Zhu Shuren was indeed a little curious and carefully looked at Cao Bianjiao's appearance.
Cao Bianjiao is thirty-five years old this year. The angular lines on his face are like those carved by a knife and an axe, and he looks serious.
He has a beautiful beard, which is not as exaggerated as Guan Yu's, but it is also very thick and neat. It is trimmed into a sharp corner under his chin and looks very tough.
In history, Cao Bianjiao's life ended at the age of thirty-four. In the next year and a half, he lived a lot. Looking at this famous general in the late Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shuren was quite emotional.
He hurriedly stepped forward to help him: "Hey, General Cao is a senior in the army. Why should you be so polite? Please get on your horse and accompany me into the city."
When I was still a junior college student, I heard about General Cao's reputation, which greatly inspired me, so I decided to donate my fame and lead troops to serve the country.
As for rescuing each other, there is no need to mention it. During the battles between Tashan and Xingshan last year, my father supervised the change of water transportation to the sea and sent Zhang Junmen of the sea route and the transportation secretary Zheng to escort the grain shipments. It happened to be the right time. What credit can I have? Can it be said?
You are all loyal and loyal to the Ming Dynasty. As long as we, those of us who enjoy the salary of the Ming Dynasty, will not stand idly by when we see the opportunity to come to the rescue. We all work together, and there is no need to say thank you."
Cao Bianjiao was pulled up by Zhu Shuren, and he was moved in his heart. He did not expect that the young governor would not take credit so much. He also felt ashamed and sighed:
"On the other hand, I am so clumsy that I don't know what to say at the moment. Of course I have to thank Shen Budang for his great kindness. If this is not the case, I am afraid that I will never have the chance to visit Nanjing in my lifetime. The same goes for thanking the Governor. The Governor-General is truly a loyal man with a warm heart. It is a great honor for the general to work under the Governor-General."
Zhu Shuren smiled calmly: "Don't say that, General Cao's family is also a loyal family, and your uncle was famous for his bravery back then.
Even General Cao himself was in awe when he heard about it last year from Bai Guangen, Tang Tong and other defeated generals who had returned from the Battle of Songjin. General Cao's heroic feat in confronting Huang Taiji's army, although he fell short in the end, was enough to embolden the courage of the Han people. "
The two exchanged business blows, and soon became familiar with each other, so they were no longer so polite.
Cao Bianjiao was sincerely grateful and respected the governor. He insisted on staying one horse head behind and followed Zhu Shuren to lead the way back to Nanzheng.
And while chatting, Cao Bianjiao soon discovered that the governor was not only a man of great merit and kindness, but also very approachable, with a heartfelt respect for warriors.
There was not even a trace of Zhu Shuren's words, deeds, and expressions emphasizing civility over martial arts, which made Cao Bianjiao and the generals around him even more worried.
In particular, they all noticed that when the Governor-General introduced himself just now, he actually said, "General Cao's deeds inspired me a lot, so I decided to donate my honor and lead the army to serve the country."
This sentence sounds so natural, but it is obviously unreasonable - as we all know, Zhu Shuren was born in the second rank of Jinshi, and has a reputation for being criticized by the world!
Although his supervisory students were donated, and after the donation, the temporary official position he held during the six months between attending the Spring Festival was also bought with money, but at any rate, it only lasted for half a year, and then he obtained the official imperial examination background.
!
In the Ming Dynasty, if you were to change another civil servant, as long as he was born in the imperial examination, who would not show off that he was born in the right way? Even if he ended up in a government office or ministry and no longer needed to boast, he would inadvertently and indifferently
Mention your serious origins.
For someone as magnanimous as Zhu Shuren, just because he bought his official position in the first six months of his career, he would openly say "I, Zhu, bought this official position" all his life, which is absolutely unique!
It has to be said that Zhu Shuren used this trick to bribe many generals who had a heart-to-heart sympathy with him and felt that he was "one of his own" and it worked repeatedly.
Cao Bianjiao had never seen this before, so he was tricked again without any surprise, and his level of despair suddenly increased.
…
Entering Nanzheng County, in the Yamen of the Hanzhong Prefecture, Cao Bianjiao simply placed a cup of wine to welcome the wind, accompanied by Chen Junchong, the official prefect of Hanzhong, who also came up one by one to present to Zhu Shuren.
Zhu Shuren just dealt with it casually and didn't take it seriously. These civil servants were not the focus of his win over, and there were no talented people among them.
This Chen Junchong was not well-known in history, so Zhu Shuren did not know much about his life, and did not know that this man had a good character. Historically, he clung to his integrity during Li Zicheng's invasion.
Because the year was not good and Cao Bianjiao had just arrived, the local task of raising military rations was already heavy. As the local chief official, Chen Junchong's reception banquet was relatively shabby, consisting of nothing more than some game, fish and shrimp.
Zhu Shuren didn't mind either. He ate whatever he had and wasn't a big drinker. His words and deeds made these new subordinates look at him highly.
Everyone has heard that the Governor's family has been the richest man in Suzhou for generations. It is really rare for such a top-notch dandy to be able to endure hardships.
While eating and drinking, Zhu Shuren asked about the defense deployment, armament intensity, and people's livelihood and taxes around Hanzhong.
Cao Bianjiao was the first to report the situation of the armaments department. He was seen cutting wild boar meat with a short knife while telling:
"The Hanzhong Prefecture originally had a garrison of 4,000 men, and the Gongchang Prefecture next door and the Minzhou Guard also had 3,000 men each. However, after the general arrived, we conducted strict inspections and found that at least two-thirds of the vacancies were vacant!
The remaining one-third was mostly brought in casually to fill up the numbers.
There hasn't been much fighting around Hanzhong in the past three or four years, but it was wiped out by repeated military disasters. Six years ago, Gao Yingxiang entered Hanzhong from Yunyang. When he finally wanted to break out and leave Hanzhong, he was defeated and captured in Ziwu Valley.
I remember that the last general also participated in that battle with Governor Sun. I didn’t expect that Governor Sun would already be... Sigh.
A few years after Gao Yingxiang's death, wars continued in Yunyang, so he often followed Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, etc. to separate armies and go to Hanzhong to clean up the army. The imperial troops were scattered and new recruits were recruited, and there was no fighting power at all.
Twelve years after Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong surrendered and then rebelled. After that, the thieves gradually moved to other wealthy places. In the past two years, there has been peace here, but it is impossible to recruit elite soldiers.
Now the local garrison mainly relies on the 10,000 veterans brought from Taiyuan in the end, and the other is the 5,000 elite soldiers of Fengxiang Mansion - the garrison of Fengxiang Mansion, originally should be the subordinates of Governor Sun,
However, after Governor Sun died in Xi'an, the entire army was not wiped out. The remaining Fengxiang soldiers fled back to Baoji, Xixian, and Dashanguan areas. They could barely hold on relying on the support of Hanzhong. In order to stabilize people's hearts, the general did not hesitate to ask for instructions. The matter was urgent.
Congquan allocated them some food and grass."
After Zhu Shuren heard this, he probably knew in his heart that the existence of Cao Bianjiao's group of forces could provide him with at least 15,000 elite soldiers, plus thousands of strong men who were forced to the local guard posts. The full number would be 20,000 people.
For a long time in the future, we will have to rely on this force to ensure that the western and northern lines of Zhu Shuren's territory are not disturbed, and to block the spread of treason from Guanzhong to Hanzhong.
The Taiyuan soldiers brought out by Cao Bianjiao are definitely capable of fighting.
Although during the Songjin Battle the winter before last, when the Huangtai Ji Banner formation was attacked, many key elites were killed.
Nowadays, a considerable part of these 10,000 people were only second-line troops when they were stationed at Shanhaiguan, and some were recruited by Cao Bianjiao after he returned to Shanxi. But no matter what, even among these 10,000 people, three or four thousand were with Cao Bianjiao.
The elite of the Huang Tai Ji Banner Formation is enough.
Today, the biggest shortcoming of the Hanzhong area's defense is civil affairs and the supply of military rations.
If we only hold on to the Hanzhong Basin, the situation will be slightly better. But if we have to hold on to the bridgehead back to Guanzhong in the future, as well as several counties such as Baoji and Fengxiang Prefecture north of the Qinling Mountains, food consumption will be much higher.
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Even those who have no knowledge of geography can only think about how difficult and dangerous the transportation conditions across the Qinling Mountains were in ancient times when Zhuge Liang transported four stones of military rations from Hanzhong during his Northern Expedition.
The Ming Dynasty was more than 1,400 years after the end of the Han Dynasty. Of course, transportation conditions and technology had greatly improved. However, Zhu Shuren estimated that transporting one stone of grain to Baoji County would cost at least two stones and five buckets of food in Hanzhong.
, in seasons with bad road conditions and bad weather, you can still reach three stones.
Zhu Shuren thought for a while and immediately came up with two ideas: "Since General Cao can still secure Baoji, Dashan Pass and other places, these bridgeheads in the future counterattack must not be lost. They must be firmly held until later.
There are changes in Guanzhong.
The biggest trouble in guarding the northern end of the Qinling Mountains through the Chencang Ancient Road is transporting food, so we must try to use as few troops as possible to ensure the defense of Baoji County and Dashan Pass - General Cao, how many troops are currently stationed in these two places?
"
Without thinking, Cao Bianjiao blurted out: "Almost all of the 5,000 remnants of the Fengxiang Army left behind by Governor Sun have stayed in Baoji County. The last general also added an additional 2,000 troops and assigned a confidant to help defend the city.
At Dashan Pass, 5,000 troops from our headquarters and half of the troops from the Hanzhong Prefectural Guard will be stationed at the Dashan Pass. Of the 20,000 troops in Hanzhong, about 15,000 are deployed at these two most important locations.
In the rest of Nanzheng City, there are only three thousand soldiers and horses stationed, and another three thousand elites occupy the Taibai Mountain at the entrance of Baoxie Road, the entrance of Ziwu Valley, etc., plus the entrance of Han River Valley adjacent to Yunyang.
Both Baoxie Road and Ziwu Valley are more steep than the main road of Chencang Road, and they are both plank roads, so they don't need too many troops to defend, especially at the entrance of Ziwu Valley. Hundreds of people guard the pass, which is enough to prevent ten thousand people from attacking."
Zhu Shuren thought for a while and realized that the defensive forces at other important roads could not be reduced any further. The Hanzhong Basin did not seem to have a large population, but it covered a vast area with too many mountainous areas, and the openings to be defended were many and scattered.
Therefore, in order to save the number of people, the most important thing is to reduce the garrison in Baoji County and Dashanguan, so that this year and next, less military supplies can be transported to the north.
So he thought about it and suggested: "In that case, reduce the garrison at Dashan Pass by half and secure 3,000 men to guard the pass. I will allocate all the old-fashioned muskets in the army to the officers guarding the pass to collect at least two
Thousands of guns, coupled with hundreds of bird muskets, Lumi muskets, a hundred turtledove muskets, and twenty new-style Folan guns.
As for gunpowder, more than 100,000 kilograms of gunpowder will be transported at one time. As for lead bullets, in addition to external transportation, you can also consider making them locally. For defending the city, precision lead bullets may not be needed. Any gravel or iron slag can be used.
It can be blocked.
With such heavy firearms and the danger of the Qinling Mountains, 3,000 men can definitely defend it. Baoji County will also provide an additional batch of firearms to reduce the number of defenders to 5,000."
Cao Bianjiao wanted to seek stability at first, but after hearing from the governor that the firearms were sufficient, he stopped stopping him.
Although older firearms fire slowly and are bulky and inefficient, it doesn't matter if you stand on the city wall. Sophisticated new weapons must of course be given priority to field troops.
On the other hand, all the armies under Zhu Shuren must be on a first-come, first-served basis. Zhu Shuren himself can give Cao Bianjiao preferential treatment because he is a famous general and has a great name in the history books. But other generals under Zhu Shuren will inevitably have ideas and feel that they have followed the governor for many years.
, not as valued as the newcomers.
In order to achieve peace in a bowl of water, the best thing to do is to let Cao Bianjiao fight defensively with old-fashioned firearms first. After his troops follow Zhu Shuren and perform meritorious service and withstand the test, Zhu Shuren will improve his treatment.
If you change your equipment, you won't be able to say anything.
Controlling people's hearts and ruling subordinates in the real world is not like playing the strategy game "Three Kingdoms" - your original military advisor's intelligence is 95, and when you recruit a general with an intelligence of 98, you can immediately remove the original military advisor and replace him with this one with 98 intelligence.
.
Not to mention leaving the generals such as the Great Chariot Guard empty, just wait until Lu Bu, Guan Yu, and Zhao Yun are captured to surrender, and then directly promote them to the Great Chariot Guard, and then give their old subordinates a few hundred taels of gold to replenish their loyalty.
.
In the real world, rulers who dared to do this would have been killed by their subordinates in rebellion.
After finishing the deployment of troops and saving military rations, Zhu Shuren turned to Chen Junchong: "Prefect Chen, I wonder what the people's livelihood is like in this Hanzhong prefecture now. Can the tax and grain supplies supply the rations for 20,000 soldiers?
If it's not enough, can we allocate some soldiers to work in the fields in their spare time? As long as we train for two months every year after farming, our combat effectiveness should not be significantly reduced. I just don't know if the fields in Hanzhong are enough."
Chen Junchong quickly replied: "In the past few years, Hanzhong was full of public resentment and was repeatedly ravaged by bandits. Now it has become sparsely populated. During repeated wars, 78% of the population died, and almost all the wealthy scholars were killed.
Thirteen years later, Chongzhen reluctantly began to resume production. However, taxes were still not collected very well. The people had suffered too much before, and they had just been suspended for two years. If taxes are fully paid this year, it will only be the third time since production was resumed.
Just years.
If Cao Junmen could allocate manpower to establish a military camp on his own, his subordinates would be able to clear enough land for cultivation, but the harvest would be difficult to guarantee. The local water conservancy system had also been in disrepair and had been severely damaged by wars.
After Xiaguan took office, he spent two years trying his best to persuade the people to rebuild water conservancy and not to deplete the water and fish and cultivate the land like the Shaanxi refugees did, but the improvement was not great."
After Zhu Shuren heard these words, he felt a certain sense of appreciation for Chen Junchong. These days, those who know how to persuade people to build water conservancy projects and make long-term plans are regarded as knowledgeable and good officials.
When he was in Wuchang, he always urged the people to build water conservancy projects and never engage in destructive reclamation. For those who fled from Shaanxi and worked in farming after the bandits surrendered, whoever had the bad habit of driving out good money with bad money was brought to Huguang.
Yes, and will be severely punished——
Of course, Zhu Shuren never only punished the unruly people, he also punished the evil gentry with a bowl of water. Zhu Shuren also treated the landowners who destroyed the permanent tenant rights, did not permanently rent well-protected fertile land to fixed tenants, and wanted to exchange land for higher rents.
The butcher's knife is roaring.
Under Zhu Shuren's rule, there has always been only one iron law for the rights of tenants: whoever protects the land well will have the right to farm the land permanently. The land rent cannot be increased, nor can the land rent increase be used as an excuse to force the other party to change fields.
.
If the owner of a popular shop does a good job and the landlord raises the rent or changes the store, who would do a good job!
Zhu Shuren exchanged a few words with Chen Junchong and immediately expressed his position: "You can rest assured that I will support you. When I was in Huguang, I ignored the Ming Dynasty law and severely cracked down on the trick of land exchange and rent increase.
In addition, since Hanzhong is vast and sparsely populated, and there is a temporary lack of irrigation, we can promote the planting of corn newly brought by our officials. The yield of this crop is much higher than that of wheat. Secondly, the key is to save water.
As long as 40% of the irrigation water is used for wheat planting, corn can be fed. It is said that it is best to plant wheat in winter and corn in late spring, and rotate between the two seasons a year.
But it’s not impossible to plant in late summer and early autumn. It’s just that a whole season of winter wheat is lost, and it must be harvested before the cold winter, which is a few percent less yield than corn in late spring. Since the water conservancy in Hanzhong is ruined, it’s better to support it for a while. I will bring it with the army this time.
Tens of thousands of stones of corn and potatoes can be used as seeds."
After Chen Junchong heard this, he was also amazed: "I didn't expect the governor to be so proficient in Nongsang. I really admire it, so I will go and make preparations now."