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Chapter 457 Tongzhou Camp

Tongzhou Camp, located on the west side of the North Canal, was originally the headquarters of Shenji Camp. Since the three major battalions were defeated outside Chaoyang Gate and the emperor issued a decree to build a new army, this place has become an army camp.

Although it only lasted three months, Li Ruzhang had already built up the Army's airs. According to the report, the total number of soldiers and generals has exceeded 7,000, and the logistics and equipment are basically in place. It is expected that another 7,000 to 10,000 people will be recruited by the end of the year.

But the main credit cannot be attributed to Li Ruzhang. If you really want to know who is the hero of the new army, you have to go to the Forbidden City to find it. That's right, it's Emperor Jingyang.

With a steady stream of staff officers in the General Staff Headquarters, a sufficient number of orphans in the Haikou Division, and enough officers transferred from the Marine Corps, even without Li Ruzhang, the overall structure would be the same if anyone were to serve as Army Governor. off the shelf.

The source of troops is better solved. The Luanzhou Iron Works or Luanzhou Heavy Industry Base alone has more than 20,000 workers and more than 30,000 laborers, most of whom are young and strong. Tianjin Wei's various factories collectively have more than 10,000 workers. Regardless of whether they are recruited from them or deployed under the pretext of rotational training, it is not difficult to recruit a few thousand workers without affecting production.

However, Hong Tao could plan ahead and plan ahead, but he couldn't see the effects directly. In order to prevent his subordinates from having the bad habit of reporting good news but not bad news, he decided to come and take a look in person.

It's just that this time we can't dress lightly and simply, we must put on a show, because the emperor is going to the Tongzhou camp to inspect the army, and the six ministers and bachelors will also follow. Although the army is not under their jurisdiction, it is still regarded as the imperial army and is still a strong force guarding the capital. It is unreasonable to not care at all.

In addition, they may have other small ideas, such as picking out Li Ruzhang's faults and looking for opportunities to impeach him. Another example is to take advantage of the situation to evaluate the combat effectiveness of the army so that you have a good idea.

The courtiers wanted to follow him to inspect the Tongzhou camp. Hong Tao certainly couldn't stop him, and he didn't need to hide them. If Li Ruzhang couldn't handle these people, it would be best to step down as soon as possible to avoid the trouble of replacing him in the future. .

It was already noon when the holy driver arrived at the west gate of the Tongzhou camp. Apart from the guards with guns and live ammunition, there were only seven or eight people waiting at the gate of the camp, and Li Ruzhang was among them.

"Governor Li, His Majesty is here, why don't the soldiers line up to welcome him!" Faced with such a sloppy and perfunctory formation, Wang Xiangqian, the Minister of War, immediately raised a question.

"Wang Qing, don't be anxious. I sent someone in advance to tell you not to greet him deliberately. On this trip, just watch, listen, and think. Don't let anyone overstep you. Governor Li is the one who can give orders here. Come on, come with me. Go in and have a look.”

Faced with the righteous words of the Minister of War, Hong Tao immediately stood up and accepted them all. What are you thinking about? You plan to come here to show off your power, just dream. From now on, there will be no concept of superiors except the emperor and directly subordinate officers in the army. Even if the Minister of War comes, he will not have any privileges.

"Your Majesty, why do you need to use a carriage to load meals? But there is a deeper meaning?" It happened to be lunch time, and there were long queues everywhere in the camp. Soldiers carrying wooden dinner plates went to the four-wheeled carriage to get rice one by one.

Seeing the groups of soldiers who had prepared meals squatting in small circles on the school grounds and wolfing down their meals, the Chief Assistant to the Cabinet Ye Xianggao was curious. He has inspected the drills of the three major battalions more than once and has never seen such a scene.

"Governor Li, this is your territory, so don't let me show up all the time. Come and help Grand Scholar Ye clear up his doubts!" ​​If Ye asked Gaoneng some more profound questions, Hong Tao would not be stingy with his words. But this question was so low-level that even the talkative man didn't bother to answer it and threw it directly to Li Ruzhang.

"This is a method of imitating the battlefield. On weekdays, military generals should try their best to imitate the battlefield when eating, sleeping, resting, and training. Over time, they will inevitably form a habit, and it will not feel too abrupt when they go to the battlefield again."

"Are these four-wheeled carriages also items on the battlefield?" Li Ruzhang's explanation should not be difficult to understand and quite reasonable, but Zhao Shiqing felt that there was something that should not appear on the battlefield. "Back at Dasinong, the army's supplies for the expedition must be carried with the army, relying on four-wheeled carriages. In addition to loading goods, after placing stoves and other items on the carriage, they can also cook meals for the soldiers in the field."

When answering this question, Li Ruzhang couldn't help but cast his eyes on the emperor, intending to ask with his eyes if he could tell. But the emperor turned his head and muttered something to Wang Chengen in a low voice. He had no chance to make eye contact, so he had to answer truthfully.

"I'm afraid this will cost a lot!" Sure enough, the Minister of the Ministry of Finance immediately frowned.

"If you want the horses to run, feed them more grass! I have done the math. If you want the army to have the ability to travel long distances and fight immediately, it would be more appropriate to have one dining car for every 100 people and one van for every 50 people. "At this time, the emperor suddenly stopped whispering, turned his head and took the fire again.

"... Thirty thousand army, isn't it a huge number of thousands!" Zhao Shiqing is not as easy to fool as Wang Xianggan. He immediately calculated the number of four-wheeled carriages required by the army in a blink of an eye, and then his eyes widened, almost He shouted and sprayed spittle all over Li Ruzhang's face.

"Zhao Aiqing, Zhao Aiqing, don't be angry, just listen to me slowly. Do you know why the three major battalions collapsed when facing Jianlu, and why the various defense stations were defeated thousands of miles away when they encountered Japanese pirates?

I have summarized it, and the most critical core is treatment. Youdao is to serve as a soldier and eat food. If the soldiers don't have enough to eat, don't wear warm clothes, have their pay deducted, and are not treated as human beings by their superiors, do you think they will fight the enemy for the sake of the court?

I and my ministers cannot go into battle to kill the enemy, but we can prepare everything they need. Only if the soldiers are well-fed, well-drinked, well-clothed, equipped with handy weapons, and not exploited and exploited by their superiors, will they be able to fight the enemy bravely. Is this the truth?

Not to mention that it consumes a lot of money and food. The army I want must be one capable of fighting a hundred elite soldiers. Even if the cost of food and drink does not reach a hundred times, it should always be ten times. According to this calculation, as long as they really achieve one against a hundred, not only will I make a profit, but the court will also make a profit.

Whether it can be profitable or not, it is useless to say more at the moment. Let’s wait and see the results after forming an army. Come on, come on, bring it over... Who can taste it for me and see if Governor Li has deprived the soldiers of their meals and is also drinking the blood of the soldiers! "

Is an army of 30,000 men equipped with a thousand horse-drawn carriages considered too much? The six ministers and nine ministers must have felt that there was too much, not just an ordinary amount, but too much. After nearly ten years of development, although four-wheeled carriages are not as valuable as when they first appeared, they are not available to ordinary people.

A thousand carriages cost at least two hundred thousand taels of silver, not including the horses that drove the shafts. Even a three thousand battalion had never been so luxurious. And these horses and vehicles are not a one-time investment, the battlefield is changing rapidly, and more than half of them may be lost in a fierce battle, and even if they win, they cannot afford the cost.

But Hong Tao doesn't think so. Of course, the value of the four-wheeled carriage cannot be measured by market price, 80% of which is profit. As long as the blast furnaces and open hearths of the ironworks continue to operate, and the forges and machine shops continue to produce as usual, axles, spokes, metal frames and spring steel sheets will continue to be turned into four-wheeled carriages, as many as needed.

Compared with these cold steel, the price of trained soldiers is higher, and the price of soldiers who have participated in battle will also rise sharply. In order to allow as many of them to come back alive from the battlefield as possible, investing more in equipment will not only prevent losses, but can actually make a lot of money.

Of course, few people can understand this truth, and probably no one is willing to listen, so Hong Tao doesn't play the piano anymore. Just then Wang Chengen came back with two wooden trays. Let's go see how the soldiers are eating.

(End of this chapter)