The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 231: Prisoners returned, army expanded and divisions deployed!
Liu Sheng shook his head, "These Ming army prisoners have to work for three months, which is already three times that of the rogue prisoners, and it cannot be extended any longer.

If Mr. Liu is worried about the shortage of manpower, he can only farm in places that are not prone to drought. The fields in other places can be cultivated by the people, and there will always be some harvest. "

The mid-level and senior generals captured by the Ming army have all been selected by the Ministry of Agriculture and will be sent to North America to serve for at least one year.

The grassroots officers and soldiers at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty may have some talent, but most of them are not much different from the captives of the bandits, so a three-month labor period is enough.

If the set time is too long, firstly, it will not be conducive to the Wei tribe's ability to absorb these prisoners, and secondly, it will easily form barriers and opposition.

Finally, Liu Sheng added: "Even if the labor service period expires, not all of these prisoners will be absorbed into the army. Some of them should stay and settle down to become Nanyang citizens."

After hearing this, Liu Huan didn't say anything more.

In fact, in his opinion, even with [-] old, weak, women and children, it would be easier to govern Nanyang (County) than in the past.

In the past, he was in Dengzhou and had a population of tens of thousands under his rule. However, the government, superiors, local gentry, and corrupt officials below were all constraints.If you want to implement a good policy, you must first spend a lot of time and energy to smooth out the relationships between various aspects.

Nowadays, although Nanyang has been almost destroyed by the war, the gentry, landlords, and wealthy businessmen have also been wiped out. Corrupt officials, even if they are still alive, dare not show up under the rule of the Yibu.

Liu Sheng also gave him great power and a lot of support in civil affairs, which made him feel much more comfortable than when he was the governor of Dengzhou.

He proposed to extend the labor service period of Ming army prisoners, purely because he hoped to have more young and strong laborers under his command.

After talking about the prisoners of the Ming army, Liu Sheng discussed farming with Liu Huan.

Li Zicheng came to Nanyang Prefecture in mid-May, and he and Luo Rucai captured Nanyang City in mid-June. Therefore, the wheat harvest in most places in Nanyang Prefecture was not greatly disturbed by military disasters.

In addition, the drought in Henan this year started only after summer, and the impact on wheat was not as great as last year, so Nanyang wheat has been harvested this year.

The problem is that most of the grain collected by the people was taken away by Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai!
In addition, summer millets in various places in Nanyang Prefecture were planted before the war, but they were already suffering from drought, and because of the month of war there was no one to take care of them. Now the weeds in many fields have grown one foot high!

"Therefore, my subordinates believe that there are two most important things in Nanyang's farming at present: one is to open ditches, and the other is to get rid of weeds. Only by doing these two things well can we save more summer millet."

Millet is the most drought-resistant staple food, but it does not require water at all, especially in the seedling stage, so ditches are needed to facilitate irrigation and watering.

Henan summer millet is usually planted in April and May of the lunar calendar and harvested in September and October. After harvesting, winter wheat can be planted.

In other words, during the intervening four or five months, the refugees in Nanyang Fucheng would need food rations from the Weibu.

This is why Liu Sheng insisted on relocating some of the refugees from Nanyang Fucheng.

As for planting sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn and other North American crops in Nanyang, Liu Sheng has naturally considered it.

At this point in time, there is no need to consider corn, and potatoes will have to wait until autumn to be planted.

Sweet potatoes can be used for seeding - the problem is that there are not enough sweet potato seeds in North America and Runing. Even if they are harvested, they are mainly used to save seeds for promotion in the coming year.

Therefore, Liu Sheng at most asked people to send a small amount of sweet potato seeds and let Nanyang plant them as sweet potato seeds for promotion in the coming year.

In other words, the food shortage problem in Nanyang cannot be solved for a while, and we can only rely on food transportation from other places.

Fortunately, [-] refugees are not too many.

After thinking about it, Liu Sheng said: "In addition to preserving summer millet, the people can also be allowed to grow more seasonal fruits and vegetables. If there are more, they can be transported along the river to Xinye, Xiangyang and other places in exchange for food."

Liu Huan nodded, "This is natural."

···
The next morning.

Liu Sheng personally sent the migration team off.

In addition to more than 1 virgin women and their children, there are more than 7000 refugees.

These 2 people will first go to Tang County, then to Biyang, and finally to the foot of Tianmu Mountain.

The whole journey is more than 300 miles. At the speed of these old, weak, women and children, it is estimated that it will take 20 days.

Therefore, Liu Sheng did not follow the journey back to Runing. Instead, he led the Guards and the standing armies of the two regiments to Xinye to preside over a new round of military expansion.

In addition to the Nanyang Guard Regiment, the army here in Nanyang also has a regiment led by Huang Gan (affiliated with the Fourth Brigade).

Huang Gan's regiment has one battalion stationed in Zhenping County and the other four battalions stationed in Nanyang Fucheng, which are enough to deal with various emergencies.

As for why the army was expanded in Xinye, it was because Xinye was more convenient for the transportation of grain, grass, materials and troops.

Fourth day of July.

Liu was promoted to Xinye.

He first talked with Wen You and Wang Dalu (the brigade military administrator temporarily concurrently served as the magistrate of Xinye County) to learn about the latest situation in the army, prisoners, and civil affairs.

Then they summoned Wu Ruyi, Xin Sizhong, Liu Rukui and Niu Wancai.

These four were all Li Zicheng's generals who were captured by Liu Sheng in the Battle of Jitan. They were imprisoned for nearly a month before they all figured out and were willing to surrender to the Wei tribe.

Liu Sheng chatted with these four people for a few words, and then asked them to go to the Guards camp - the training class for generals of the Yibu Department was set up in the Guards Army, and they traveled with the army, so that Liu Sheng could teach the generals anytime and anywhere.

the next morning.

Nearly [-] rogue prisoners gathered in the open space outside their camp, all with excited expressions and expectations in their eyes.

Because today Liu Sheng will personally announce the expiration of their labor service and officially release them from prisoner status!

Not all rogue prisoners can be released from prisoner status. A small number of people have to continue to serve as prisoners because they have made various mistakes.

However, there are not many such people, only about 1000.

So today most of the prisoners are in high spirits.Wu Ruyi and Xin Sizhong, along with other trainees from the General Officer Training Course, came to the venue with the Guards and watched Liu Sheng board the wooden platform that had been built in advance.

After a short but inspiring passionate speech, Liu Shengsheng said in a loud voice: "I declare that from now on, everyone present will be officially released from prisoner status and become our common people, with the rights and obligations that our common people should have." !”

The more than 2 captives present had already gained a lot of understanding of Weibu through the ideological work of the military and political officials of Weibu, and they were full of yearning to become common people of Weibu.

Now after hearing Liu Sheng's announcement, everyone immediately shouted excitedly, and then quickly gathered into one voice——

"Long live!"

"Long live!"

"Long live!!"

The excited shouts shook the sky, and hit the eardrums of Wu Ruyi and the other generals like huge waves, making the four of them look horrified, and then fell into a trance.

Among the four of them, the one who has followed Li Zicheng for the longest time has been nearly ten years. Even last year, when Li Zicheng supported hundreds of thousands of people, he had never received such support from the soldiers, and the morale among the army had never been so high.

It can be seen that Liu Sheng is more than one step ahead of Li Zicheng.

When they came back to their senses, the four of them had the same thought in their minds:

'King Chuang really lost unjustly! '

After the meeting, Liu Sheng asked the rebel military and political officials to carry out recruitment work on the spot - these rogue captives will become a major source of troops for the expansion of the army!
Liu Sheng’s plan for this military expansion mainly includes the following items:
First, expand the number of the Guards, Standing Army, and Garrison Army. Taking the Standing Army as an example, the brigade-level organic reserve will increase to more than a dozen!

Second, a division-level organization was established, with three brigades forming one division and one of the brigades serving as the division headquarters.

In other words, after this expansion of the army, one division of Weibu will have approximately 36000 troops.

In addition, the standing army is temporarily only equipped with four divisions, and other brigades other than the four divisions are counted as independent brigades.

Third, the titles of battalion, regiment, and brigade commanders are abolished. Like division-level generals, they are all called "chief", that is, battalion commander, regiment commander, brigade commander, and division commander.

And the position of staff officer was formally established in the division and brigade secondary structures to serve as military counselor.

Fourth, the Guards Hu Ben Guard, Sheng Jie Guard, Xiaoqi Guard, and Xun Feng Guard were all expanded to one brigade!

···
Xiangyang City.

After Helianyue received the Huangtou Army order from Xinye, he asked the guards to call all the generals of the fifth and sixth brigade for a meeting.

As for the seventh brigade (brigade headquarters) led by Zhang Ao, they have already captured Gucheng and are stationed there.

The generals hurried over and saw Helian Yue smiling on his face. They knew it was a good thing and relaxed.

He Lianyue handed the Huangtou military order to the military and political officer Wang Wei, and said with a smile: "The commander-in-chief has ordered the official expansion of the army and the establishment of a division-level establishment. A certain incompetent person was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and appointed as the commander of the third division."

When Mao Chengguo heard this, he was a little jealous, but he quickly adjusted his mentality and took the lead, cupping his fists and saying, "Congratulations to General Helian on your promotion!"

The other brigade and regiment-level generals also clasped their fists together, "Congratulations to General Helian on your promotion!"

"Hahaha!" He Lianyue was very happy. After laughing a few times, he said: "Not only am I promoted this time, but everyone is also rewarded or promoted. As for the specific details, they are all written in the military order, so I asked the king to Let’s read the military policy to everyone.”

Wang Wei smiled and read out the contents of the military order.

All the generals listened quietly.

Liu Sheng's arrangement for the army in Xiangyang was mainly to form the third division of the standing army with the former [-]th, [-]th, and [-]th brigade headquarters officers as the backbone.

He Lianyue was appointed as the division commander, Wang Wei was appointed as the division military administrator, and Zhang Ao was appointed as the deputy division commander.

At the same time, He Lianyue and Wang Wei still served as the brigade commander and brigade military officer of the [-]st Brigade (Division Headquarters) of the [-]rd Division.Zhang Ao also serves as the brigade commander of the [-]nd Brigade of the [-]rd Division.

This is equivalent to making He Lianyue officially the commander-in-chief of these three brigades, as well as the superiors of Zhang Ao and Mao Chengguo.

After Wang Wei finished reading, He Lianyue said: "Everyone must have heard that for this expansion, the commander-in-chief will transfer 1 people from Xinye to supplement our troops, and the remaining part will need to be selected from the Xiangyang garrison and civilian warriors.

Therefore, after the meeting, everyone goes back to find a few officers who know how to recruit soldiers, and prepare to recruit soldiers from the garrison and civilian bravery. "

The generals immediately performed a military salute together before leaving.

But Helianyue stopped Mao Chengguo.

He could see that Mao Chengguo felt a little uncomfortable. After all, both he and Zhang Ao had been promoted this time, but Mao Chengguo had not.

He Lianyue did not say anything comforting, but said: "Brother Mao, hurry up when you go back. This time I will let your third brigade give priority to replenishing troops.

After the third brigade is fully staffed, Brother Mao can take Zaoyang.With military merit, he will definitely be promoted to higher ranks next time the army expands. "

After hearing this and being promised practical benefits, Mao Chengguo felt much better. He cupped his fists and said, "Brother Xie He!"

After Mao Chengguo left, Helianyue stared at the map of Xiangyang Mansion with bright eyes.

Above, Zaoyang, Yicheng, Nanzhang, Guanghua and Junzhou are all marked with red dots.

Although he came from behind and was promoted to division commander in this army expansion, commanding tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, He Lianyue was not complacent. Instead, he was high-spirited and prepared to take over the entire Xiangyang Prefecture as soon as possible.

They even went south to Jingzhou and Chengtian, and to the east to take De'an and Huangzhou!
Of course, if there is a chance, Yunyang Mansion in the west will also be captured!
In this way, the commander-in-chief's strategic plan to completely occupy Jiangbei (Hubei) in Huguang can be realized!

　First more.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)