"How happy! In this world where evil and evil are in power, it is really rare for me to be able to serve the country by killing the enemy, and to be promoted upright and meritoriously."
"This remote place in Huangzhou is actually a hundred times cleaner than the bustling places like Beijing and Suzhou that harbor filth and evil! Drink! You won't come home until you get drunk tonight!"
On the night when he received the promotion order, Shen Shuren, Zhang Huangyan and Gu Yanwu drank heavily together with Zhang Huangyan and Gu Yanwu in the Huangzhou magistrate's office to celebrate.
Zhang and Gu, who had long been dissatisfied with the world, spewed out cynical remarks while drinking, and the more they spoke, the bigger the scale.
When they think about the fact that outside civil servants are now promoted by bribing officials and spending money to buy officials to smooth their connections, they actually regard a war-torn place like Huangzhou as a paradise for saving the country and the people through true skills.
At least he was able to kill the bandits with real skills! There is no point in trying to flatter the superior and give him favors! The incompetent flatterer will die when he gets here!
Shen Shuren looked much calmer than Zhang and Gu. He always drank quietly and thought about things without complaining.
Zhang Huangyan felt strange. After drinking another pot of good wine, he asked with concern: "What? Are you worried? It's such a happy day. I don't want to brag."
Chen Shuren smiled politely and picked up the cup: "I may go to Nanjing in a few days and have some things to deal with. Of course, I will also go back to Suzhou to celebrate the New Year and come back before the spring plowing in February.
The mountain roads here are remote and dangerous, and they will be blocked by snow in winter anyway. We have the advantage of the navy, and we are not afraid of He Jin, and we will take risks when we are desperate. Therefore, in the winter when there is no farming, we only need to do some water conservancy repairs, tidy up new fields, and train soldiers in a step-by-step manner. Just live well.
At that time, the laborer 'Zhang Tongpan' will act as my agent for a month and a half. Anyway, the water conservancy corvee is Tongpan's duty."
Zhang Huangyan was immediately unhappy when he heard this, and complained without hesitation: "Well, you, the new prefect, gave up your job and left the job to me just after taking office. Thank you for your kindness! You are not afraid of the court's accountability!"
Chen Shuren smiled confidently: "According to the imperial court's regulations, when a new official takes office, he has three months to take office and hand over. Although I hand over the job myself, it only takes one and a half months, so it's not excessive."
In ancient times, when transportation was inconvenient, officials would be given a time limit to take up their posts in other places. It was normal for them to arrive within three months.
If the former magistrate is eager to resign, as long as the money and food and the accounts of all parties are clearly handed over, and the general magistrate is willing to take over the management, it is perfectly fine as long as it does not exceed three months.
Chen Shuren completely took advantage of the legal loopholes this time and took a big vacation to explain to himself.
Fortunately, both parties are cousins, so they should help with work. After Zhang Huangyan complained, he became serious: "Are there any joints that need to be unblocked when I go to Nanjing?"
Chen Shuren nodded: "You saw it just this afternoon. Not only did the imperial court's decree arrive, but there was also my father's family letter. The things in the family letter were even more troublesome.
I didn't even know that I was impeached by Zuo Liangyu at a higher level, and Governor Fang Kong and Zhengfang protected me, but it ended up being so complicated.
When my father was in the capital, he heard about Zuo Liangyu's memorial. In order to find out the information and help cover it up, he told His Majesty the "Lijin" thing that I casually mentioned to him in my previous letter. It was an excuse to ask you to ask for directions. .
Unexpectedly, His Majesty became interested in "Lijin", probably because of lack of money. But there are many obstacles to implement this method.
Even if the obstacles can be removed and pushed forward by force, people with vested interests will inevitably criticize them in the future, saying, "Those who made this policy ignored the ancestral law on decentralization of power and had sinister intentions, which will inevitably lead to the separatism of vassal towns in the future."
I believe that with His Majesty's temper, as long as someone speaks with certainty, he will definitely "severely punish the officials who came up with the idea, but half-heartedly preserve the new law that can make money" in an attempt to calm the matter.
If I don't make preparations in advance, even if Likin is successfully implemented in the future, my father may be punished and used as a scapegoat. Therefore, I must go to Nanjing to make arrangements and establish some relationships before I can actually promote Lijin next year. .”
Chen Shuren was very aware of Chongzhen's style. Chongzhen was essentially willing to use reforms that could bring him practical benefits but would damage the laws of his ancestors and the principles of the imperial court.
But after using it, if the officer pointed out these points that violated the principles, he would push out and chop the person who originally proposed the reform to show that "the violation of principles is not the emperor's original intention, but because of treacherous ministers", and then The emperor only takes benefits, but does not take the blame for violating principles.
To use the most well-known analogy, in history, before Li Zicheng arrived in Beijing, Chongzhen actually tried many times to get the cabinet ministers to propose giving up Beijing and moving the capital south.
But abandoning Beijing is obviously against the ancestral principle of "the emperor guards the country", and it is also an unprincipled act of cowardice and failure to save face, so he cannot say it in person.
Someone must say that he can pretend to be deceived for a while, and wait until the real thing arrives in Nanjing, then pretend to "wake up" and kill the traitor who persuaded him to abandon Beijing - and he can survive until that day The ministers all knew him too well, so they gritted their teeth and refused to take the blame.
Today's Lijin policy can amass money, but it also has the hidden danger of causing local centrifugation and making it difficult to control. In terms of behavioral patterns, it is exactly the same as the historical persuasion to relocate two years later. If you don't leave some backup first, even if the persuasion is successful, it will be Killed by Chongzhen.
Zhang Huangyan had never met the emperor, so he was still a little dissatisfied with his cousin talking about the emperor like this.
But since his family has dirty work to deal with, he can only help with the daily work first, and don't ask about other things that he shouldn't know.
"That's all, I don't care what exactly you do when you go to Nanjing. I'll just help you for a month and a half. Remember to bring some thanks when you come back! Tell me, when are you leaving?"
Chen Shuren: "Let's go back to Suzhou in four or five days to celebrate the New Year. Anyway, there is no one in the Nanjing Yamen to do anything during the Chinese New Year. We have to wait until after the Lantern Festival to get things done."
…
After making a plan to return to his hometown for operations, the remaining few days are relatively precious. Shen Shuren must hurry up and plan the civil affairs and training work that will be arranged during the winter slack.
The crops that should be planted in the winter have already been secured, so there is nothing to do in terms of encouraging farmers. The main things to worry about are the training of recruits and the building of armaments.
Early the next morning, Shen Shuren summoned Zuo Zixiong and other military attachés to recheck the future troop establishment.
After being promoted yesterday, Chen Shuren's official and military establishment has also been improved.
In addition to the health post here in Huangzhou, Yang Sichang also assigned him the health post in Suizhou Prefecture, which is still mostly in the enemy-occupied area. In fact, the Chen Shu people have only recovered one Xiaogan County in the Suizhou area so far. , so the Suizhou Guard station will be placed in Xiaogan for the time being.
The court did not appoint the officers of Suizhou Guard, which actually gave Chen Shuren great discretion.
The establishment of a health center is 3,500 people.
Previously, the Chenshu people had 3,500 regular troops, 1,000 servants, and 5,000 to 6,000 troops recruited from Liu Xiyao.
Now for the reorganization, we will select about 3,000 people who are relatively reliable in terms of physical strength, discipline and character, and combine them with the original old troops. Then we will remove the previous battle damage, permanently retire the disabled, and train a force of 7,000 people. .
The thousand servants who were originally organized separately are now integrated into the two guard stations respectively. This can ensure the loyalty of the troops and prevent them from being half-hearted due to too many capricious veteran thieves.
Most of the officers at all levels in the new Suizhou Guard were transferred from the Huangzhou Guard, officers and soldiers who had performed meritorious service. Only a very small number of former bandit officers who had performed meritorious service when they surrendered were Position retained.
After the reorganization, the Huangzhou Guard was commanded by Zuo Zixiong, and the Suizhou Guard was commanded by Zhang Huangyan.
Under Zuo Zixiong's command were Lu Datou, Liu Sandao and several other generals, as well as some of his direct descendants.
Zhang Huangyan has several thousand generals including Shen Fu and Shen Lian under his command. Needless to mention the other junior officers at the general level.
After the establishment is completed, the remaining difficulty is the ordnance and arms.
When Shen Shuren first came here, it was just a grass-roots team. We all relied on money to buy weapons and did not build our own military production.
The number of firearms purchased through outsourcing only amounted to about 1,200, and there were no cannons. After Liu Xiyao was eliminated, two to three hundred firearms were seized, but the quality was much worse than what Chen Shuren bought. Bird blunderbuss and old-fashioned fire blunderbuss, even Lumi blunderbuss are rare, and there is not even a single Western turtle dove blunderbuss.
After inspection, it was found that there were dozens of old-fashioned fire blunderbuss that were not very reliable. The walls of the chambers were worn thin and could explode at any time. They were directly discarded by Chen Shuren and returned to the furnace for iron-making.
After some selection, the entire army collected a total of 1,400 firearms.
Compared with the troop establishment of 7,000 men, this number of igniters can only guarantee 20% of the musketeer establishment, so the creation of ordnance must be put on the agenda.
"This time when I return to Nanjing and Suzhou, I will take the opportunity to recruit a group of skilled blacksmiths. I will start by making imitation Lumi guns and turtle dove guns. As for the old-fashioned bird gun and fire gun, our army will not make them in the future.
To avoid having too many types of firearms and making ammunition supply inconvenient. In the future, for our army’s elite troops, the firearms ratio will have to be increased to one-third or even 50%.
However, during the two months of winter, before we recruit firearms craftsmen, let the local blacksmiths make some swords and guns that can be used with existing firearms. These are relatively easy and can be made by ordinary blacksmiths."
After Chen Shuren determined the size of each military branch, he first explained it to his cousin so that he could have a clear direction of efforts in the past two months to avoid wasting time.
Zhang Huangyan is very curious. Based on his traditional military thinking, he feels that the formation of firearms and melee weapons retained by Qi Jiguang and Qi Shao has been perfected. Is there any special melee weapons that ordinary musketeers should be equipped with? It is not good to use ready-made ones. What.
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PS: If nothing else happens, this book should be on the shelves on August 1st... I hope everyone will keep up with the updates in the last few days, and give me a first order after it is released. I also know that the current situation is not good, and other things are not good. Say no more.
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