The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 353 Operations
The fall of Luoyang enabled the Wanmin Army to obtain a large amount of armaments and firearms.

During the siege of Kaifeng, the siege artillery used by the Wanmin Army was captured from Luoyang City. Those artillery were originally used by Luoyang City to defend the city, but now they have become the basis for the Wanmin Army to siege the city.

With the help of artillery, nearly half of the prefectures and counties in Luoyang Prefecture collapsed under the offensive of the Wanmin Army, and Wubao Dazhai in many places was also breached.

Whether it is Luoyang or various prefectures and counties, there is a lot of wealth and food in the city.

Henan indeed suffered from famine, but for the rich, the famine was not only not a torture, but also a way to get rich.

It is precisely because of the impact of famine that they can hoard, take advantage of the opportunity, and annex land.

But this time, they met Li Yan and the Wan Min Army.

All the wealth they had accumulated was confiscated by the Ten Thousand People's Army, their carefully built mansions were burned to the ground by the Ten Thousand People's Army, and even their whole families were massacred by the Ten Thousand People's Army.

The army of thousands of people marched across Luoyang Mansion, and the amount of gold, silver, treasures, grain and grass they harvested was undoubtedly an astronomical figure.

The officers and soldiers were watching eagerly from the side, and all eyes were focused on Luoyang at that time.

If you can return to Luoyang in the future, you can use it again.

"There are gold dots hidden in three places, a total of 68,654 taels of silver, 324 utensils and treasures, and more than 20,000 dan of grain and grass."

"It doesn't matter, it's not too late to make amends."

There was relatively less food and grass, but more than 40,000 stones were also seized.

Then he started looking for excuses, and now through various names and means, he has legally occupied a lot of fields and mines.

Therefore, the Wanmin Army could only temporarily seal most of the captured items that could be moved away in the mountains and valleys of Luoyang Mansion.

In gold and silver alone, more than 200,000 taels have been harvested. The total value of a set of utensils and jewelry is estimated to be more than 300,000 taels.

Chen Wang slowly closed the booklet in his hand.

"There are too many eyes staring at Luoyang Mansion."

Chen Wang put down the booklet in his hand.

Chen Wang is not in a hurry to find the hidden gold spot. Now that Luoyang Mansion is under his control, no one can take away the treasures and food from the hidden gold spot.

"The Ten Thousand People's Army broke through Luoyang and evacuated the entire Prince Fu's Mansion. The surrounding prefectures and counties were looted. The three gold hiding spots you found are just a drop in the bucket."

Of course, in addition to this, Hu Zhiyi also cleared many Wubao Dazhai that survived the wave of the Ten Thousand People's Army.

Chen Wang stood up and said in a deep voice.

Hu Zhiyi nodded solemnly and realized that his order was somewhat inappropriate.

"You sent a team of a thousand people into the mountains to find the gold. Although it was in the name of chasing down the remaining bandits of the Ten Thousand People's Army, a smart person would know at a glance that something was wrong."

Hu Zhiyi wrote down all the seizures in Luoyang Mansion in the book.

The easy-to-find gold hiding spots on the periphery are probably the fat meat that Li Yan sent out deliberately as a bait to hide his true intentions.

"Half of the gold, silver, utensils and jewelry obtained from Luoyang Mansion will be reported and seized. I will arrange for people from the Supervision Office to transport the remaining 95% to Hanzhong Mansion."

It may be impossible to find all the hidden gold spots.

Chen Wang's eyes were slightly focused. Although he had never seen him before, from his observations over the past few days, he could tell that Li Yan was an extremely thoughtful person.

Although the building of Ming Dynasty is riddled with holes, it is not something Chen Wang can shake now.

"The officials of the imperial court have now taken over the Luoyang Mansion again. The plan to find the gold hiding place has been put on hold for the time being. Let all the people you sent come back."

The real main force of the Ten Thousand People's Army was no more than 20,000 to 30,000 people, and they simply did not have the ability to take away all the captures.

"Don't touch the things where the gold is hidden. All the grain and grass you get will be used as military rations."

When Hu Zhiyi led his troops into Luoyang Mansion, it happened to be that Luoyang Mansion was in ruins by the tens of thousands of people's army, and most places were in a state of anarchy.

Even Chen Wang has no way to take away the gold-hidden thing now.

"As for finding other gold hiding places, I will let the supervisors in Luoyang Mansion look for them. Anyway, the things are always there and will not be moved."

People talk a lot, and if a little bit of news leaks out during transportation, it may cause a lot of unnecessary trouble.

It has to be said that the savings accumulated by those aristocratic families for hundreds of years are indeed quite rich.

It was precisely because of this news that Chen Wang divided his troops in Ruzhou and asked Hu Zhiyi to lead the troops into Luoyang Mansion first.

And the most important thing is that if they are all taken away, the marching speed will be greatly slowed down.

This was obtained from Luoyang Mansion after the Wanmin Army had already searched it.

"There are things you can do, but there are things you can't do."

Li Yan knew very well that they had no way to defend Luoyang Mansion, so naturally they would not leave many troops to defend Luoyang.

As for the trophies that could not be moved away, they were all burned by Li Yan.

Most of the officials of the Ming Dynasty were killed by the Wanmin Army, and the Wanmin Army itself did not leave many people to stabilize order.

"I didn't think carefully enough."

Hu Zhiyi led his troops from Ruzhou into Luoyang, and without much effort, he regained the fallen prefectures and counties in Luoyang Prefecture.

Chen Wang waved his hand.

The Ten Thousand People's Army seems to have a large number of people, but most of them are new soldiers without attachment, as well as family members of each army.

If no gold or silver was seized, it would be too false. Naturally, it would be impossible to write like this in the Tang newspaper, and it would still have to be written in some way.

It is safest to send the remaining gold and silver vessels to Hanzhong Mansion first.

Now that Chen Wang is leading his troops outside, there is no place where so much gold and silver can be used.

Military pay and supplies were provided by the imperial court, and the captured gold and silver vessels were so heavy that accompanying the army would only delay the journey.

"Send a message to Wang Yuankang and Tang Shiping. Don't be sorry for gold and silver. All gold and silver should be put into practice and used for development. 30% will be used for people's livelihood and the remaining 70% will be used for the military."

Now, instead of Chen Wang, the person in charge of Hanzhong Town is Chen Gong.

But Chen Gong is mainly responsible for military command.

Those in charge of the people's livelihood and military development in Hanzhong Town were still Wang Yuankang and Tang Shiping.

Wang Yuankang was in charge of the civil affairs of Hanzhong Wei, and was also in charge of matters in other lands controlled by Chen Wang through other means.

Tang Shiping was in charge of military affairs. Hanzhongwei's guard training and Hanzhongwei's weapons bureau were all under Tang Shiping's control.

Hu Zhili is in charge of the Military Justice Department and the Supervision Office, and financial aspects are also within the scope of his supervision.

Therefore, Chen Wang did not say to send the letter to Chen Gong, but directly asked someone to send the letter to Wang Yuankang and Tang Shiping.

There was a slight smile on Hu Zhiyi's face, and he grinned.

"With the words of the head of the town, the next time they see me, they won't have such sad faces." When he was in Hanzhong Town, Hu Zhiyi was in charge of finance.

At that time, the financial situation of Hanzhong Town was very difficult, so many times it was necessary to make careful calculations.

Even before the money is put into the treasury, there are already arrangements for spending it.

Wang Yuankang and Tang Shiping, one in charge of civil affairs and the other in charge of military affairs, had been looking for money from Hu Zhiyi.

Every day when we meet, we first complain, then play emotional cards, and then keep asking for money.

More than 200,000 gold and silver are enough to solve all the difficulties in the current development of Hanzhong Town.

The Hanzhong Arms Bureau can recruit more craftsmen, obtain better equipment, and make crazy guns and armor at full capacity.

One sea-sworn gun costs seven taels of silver, and 70% of the gold and silver is 140,000 taels. If all of it is used to make sea-test guns, it is enough to make 20,000 sea-sworn guns.

Twenty thousand cannons can completely change the uniforms of the entire battalion in Hanzhong Town, as well as the Hanzhong Guards.

More water conservancy measures can bring stronger disaster resistance and greater development potential to health stations and farming villages everywhere.

Hanzhong Town is now Chen Wang's foundation, and it is also the place where Chen Wang has the strongest control. Naturally, it has the highest priority in terms of development.

"Ha ha ha ha."

Chen Wang also laughed.

"Don't worry, Zhili will be responsible for the finances from now on. You can just lead the troops and fight with peace of mind."

There are specialties in the art industry, so Hu Zhiyi was originally asked to take charge of finance because there was really no one available.

Now that he has become the commander-in-chief of a town, his situation is undoubtedly much better than when he was still a general.

But overall, it's still unsatisfactory.

Chen Wang now has only four or five scholars under his command, one of whom is not doing his job properly and is unwilling to manage civil affairs in the town.

Instead, he ran to the army. The scholar was very capable and made many military exploits along the way. Now he is serving as the commander-in-chief of Qian in the army.

As for the promotion of people and Jinshi, it is naturally impossible to serve under a military minister like Chen Wang.

After all, it is still the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, not the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, let alone the Longwu and Yongli periods.

Fortunately, with the collapse of the guard system, the guards in the mainland have been in peace for a long time and have little ability to fight.

The officers of the garrison were in charge of the fields, and they spent more time selling these than training and fighting.

Using the officers of these guards, Chen Wang reluctantly set up a reasonably feasible administrative organization in Hanzhong Guard.

Accompanied by the low sound of drums and trumpets, the new troops on the school grounds also disbanded and returned to their respective military camps.

"Where are Ma Yuanshan and the others now?"

Chen Wang looked at the disbanding new army on the school field and asked Hu Zhiyi.

During this time, his mind was on training the new army, rectifying military affairs, and dealing with Gao Mingheng.

The rest of the things were all for Hu Zhiyi to help pay attention to.

"The Wanmin Army has spies in various places. If Chen Yongfu is leading his troops to leave, Li Yan should know about it soon."

Hu Zhiyi recalled for a moment and quickly answered.

"According to the military order from the general town, Ma Yuanshan has led troops to march eastward from Jiaxian County, enter Kaifeng Mansion and reach the Yancheng area in the south."

"Yancheng..."

Chen Wang nodded slightly.

"Ask them to go some distance further east and station themselves in Chenzhou. They will stay a little farther at night, observe the movements of the Wanmin Army, and report to me at any time."

Li Yan's thoughts are hard to guess. By this time, the course of history has completely changed.

Chen Wang had no way of guessing where Li Yan would go next.

But he knew very well that Li Yan was not a person who would sit back and wait for death, nor was he a short-sighted person.

In terms of tactics and command, Li Yan may be much worse than Li Zicheng.

But in terms of the overall situation, Li Yan is definitely more outstanding than Li Zicheng.

Li Yan was able to decisively abandon Luoyang Mansion and immediately turn eastward after the attack was frustrated, which is enough to prove this.

Ming troops from all walks of life are constantly surrounding Guide Mansion. It is not a secret that he is training troops here vigorously, and he cannot escape the eyes and ears left by Li Yan.

Li Yan should also know that once Henan's soldiers and horses regain their combat strength, they will be trapped in a tight siege, and they will be attacked from all sides. It will be a doomed situation.

The Wanmin Army is not a bandit. Most of the people who make up the Wanmin Army are local villagers in Henan. They are not border residents of Shaanxi, and most of them cannot ride horses.

There are not many horses in the Ten Thousand People's Army, and the cavalry of the Ten Thousand People's Army cannot command more than 10,000 people.

Li Yan understood this truth, so after capturing Luoyang, he did not continue to wait in Luoyang Mansion, but immediately rushed to Kaifeng, hoping to break through Kaifeng, once again severely damage Henan's military strength, and damage the prestige of the Ming court.

Unfortunately nothing worked.

Although Chen Wang had told Chen Yongfu before, with the presence of Ming troops from Shandong, South Zhili and other places, he could be safe without any worries.

But in fact, he did not think that the Baoding soldiers led by Yang Wenyue and the soldiers from Shandong and South Zhili could deal with Li Yan.

Historically, Yang Wenyue led the Baoding troops to the south for suppression, and cooperated with the Shaanxi troops led by Fu Zonglong, who was the governor of the three sides at the time, but they were all defeated by Li Zicheng.

And the current Li Yan is more powerful than the Li Zicheng in history.

Chen Wang doesn't think Yang Wenyue can win over Li Yan now, so he must make two preparations now.

Chen Wang was worried that if he asked Chen Yongfu to lead the new army to leave, Li Yan might lead the Wanmin Army to move into Kaifeng Mansion again when the city was empty.

To be honest, with Chen Wang's current military strength, there is really no way to restrict the activities of the Wan Min Army.

In a frontal field battle, it is indeed not a problem to defeat the Ten Thousand People's Army, but Chen Wang will also have to pay a lot of casualties, which is something Chen Wang cannot accept at this stage.

Nowadays, Chen Wang only has so many direct troops under his command. In order to destroy the Wan Min Army, Chen Wang is unwilling to damage his own foundation.

Chen Wang's Huguang soldiers and horses, which had the largest number, could be used to defend the city, but they were a burden in field operations, so Chen Wang kept them in Xiangcheng and several important passes.

The most they can do is rely on passes and cities to prevent tens of thousands of people from entering Nanyang Mansion.

But if the Wanmin Army wanted to turn south from Guide Mansion and enter Runing Mansion from Kaifeng Mansion, Chen Wang didn't have many options.

To the east of Runing Prefecture is the Yinghuo Mountain Area, and the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo is now located in the Yinghuo Mountain Area.

Several campaigns by soldiers and horses from Southern Zhili ended in failure.

Now Li Yan's next move is most likely to lead the Ten Thousand People's Army to Runing Mansion and meet with the Gezuo Fifth Battalion in the Yinghuo Mountains.

If the 5th Battalion of Ge Zuo and the Wan Min Army join forces, then the whole of South China may be completely out of control.