Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 174: Sending Troops to Chengdu
After Bian Shichun was reprimanded, no one came to bother Chen Gu anymore. Everyone tried their best to do their own job, and only went to Zhang Haomin when there was really no other way.

Zhang Haomin came to Chen Gu because he couldn't solve the problem.

There are indeed many problems, but we can always find solutions. If it doesn't work, we can postpone them or put them aside temporarily to let time solve them.

But in general, things are moving in a positive direction little by little.

With each autumn rain, the weather becomes colder. With the help of women from Fobao, Jiangjin County and Luzhou City, the soldiers have already put on thick clothes. Although each man has only two linen autumn clothes and cloth shoes, these soldiers who have been struggling for food and clothing for years are already very satisfied.

On the first day of September, there was moderate rain and strong wind, and the air was very damp and cold. Chen Gu was wearing a bearskin cloak and reading the military newspaper sent by Lao Piao.

Five days ago, Yuanbao, with the cooperation of ten cannons in Jiangjin County, captured two Flying Dragon ships. One of the two warships was burned and sank, and the other had three large holes blasted out by cannons. However, it was finally rescued and can be used again after being repaired.

Most of the more than 100 naval officers and 100 Eight Banners soldiers on the ship were killed in the battle, and a few surrendered after falling into the water.

After careful consideration, Chen Gu decided to build a prisoner camp in Jiangjin County and arrange jobs for the prisoners of war for those who surrendered. Even if they were Eight Banners soldiers, they did not have to be abused. As long as they obeyed the arrangements and were willing to undergo labor reform, their living needs would be met.

After Yuanbao captured two flying dragon boats, he excitedly set out from Jiangjin County again and wanted to return to Luzhou. However, he was stopped by Lao Piao in Chishui, and then he followed Lao Piao to fight upstream along the Chishui River.

In five days, they had been unstoppable along the way. The remaining soldiers in the garrisons along the way either fled or surrendered directly. In any case, there was no resistance.

Originally, there were only more than a thousand Green Camp soldiers in the garrisons along the Chishui River, but Le Bao had withdrawn all the elite troops. Now only some old, weak and sick people are left. Naturally, they have no power to resist. Even Luzhou was captured by Chen Gu, so they had no chance to resist.

Not only the garrisons along the Chishui River, but even Hejiang County did not resist. However, the big families in Hejiang County did not flee. Three days ago, they sent people to Luzhou to meet Chen Gu.

They were willing to distribute the land equally, but wanted to retain wealth such as real estate, workshops, and mines.

Chen Gu agreed immediately. This was similar to the treatment in Jiangjin County. Since there was a precedent, there was no reason to disagree. However, Chen Gu forcibly took back the military and political power.

There is no room for negotiation on this. It is not impossible for them to join the military or politics again, but they have to apply again before they can be assigned to various departments.

For the various departments of Hejiang County, Chen asked Jiangjin County to transfer a group of backbone personnel, Luzhou to send out some middle-level and basic personnel, and Hejiang County to recruit another group of supplementary personnel.

Of course, applicants from Hejiang County can also go to Jiangjin County or come to Luzhou to work if they wish.

Everyone understood that Chen Gu was preventing officials from taking bribes and committing crimes. Although officials from the three places had to be mixed together, fortunately the three places were not too far apart. Even if they were assigned to different places, they could still go home often, so everyone did not have much resistance.

It took Lao Piao five days to push his army into Guizhou. At the same time, he learned from merchant ships sailing downstream that Chang Lin, the governor of Guizhou, was already gathering troops and was likely preparing to send troops to Sichuan.

Chen Gu did not pay much attention to this news, because there were only 7,000 Green Camp soldiers in the whole of Guizhou, and there were many bandits and local thieves in the whole of Guizhou. In addition, the local chieftains did not obey the court. Even if Chang Lin wanted to send troops, he could not bring many people.

Unless he wants to cause chaos in the whole Guizhou.

The reason why Guizhou has such a small number of troops is that there are few big cities in Guizhou, and the tax revenue is pitifully small, only a few hundred thousand taels, which is not as much as that of Chongqing Prefecture or Luzhou.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were contributed by shipping on the Chishui River. If it weren't for the fear of the development of local forces, I'm afraid the court wouldn't want Guizhou anymore.

In fact, Guizhou is so big that it is not without good things, but no matter how good the things are, they are worthless if they cannot be transported out. Even if there are gold mines, they cannot be mined in the deep mountains and forests.

Chen Gu will station troops at the border in Lao Piao and collect taxes from the ships passing by according to previous practices. As for the possibility that Chang Lin may send troops to Sichuan, they can wait until he arrives to discuss it.

Compared with Chang Lin in Guizhou, Chen Gu was more worried about the imperial army in Shaanxi.

"I need to send troops to Chengdu!" Chen Gu put down the military newspaper in his hand and said to Zhang Haomin and Zheng Ming who were handling government affairs.

"So fast?" Zheng Ming asked in surprise.

Zhang Haomin also looked surprised.

They knew that Chen Gu would send troops to Chengdu, but they didn't expect it to be so soon. After all, the entire Luzhou had not been recovered yet, and sending troops to Chengdu was somewhat hasty.

"I am worried that the imperial court will send troops to Sichuan from Shaanxi, so we have to occupy Chengdu as soon as possible, and then go to Mianyang to arrange defenses. If there is enough time, it is actually best to set up defenses in Guangyuan.

However, judging from Changlin's movements, it is very likely that after taking Chengdu, it will be too late to arrange defenses in Guangyuan. The worst result may even be that the imperial army from Shaanxi will enter Chengdu before me.

When the enemy attacks Luzhou downstream, our army will be in a very passive position!" Chen Gu explained.

War is actually a battle of intelligence and logistics. After taking Luzhou, Chen Gu no longer has to worry about logistics. In this era, ordinary people are poor, but the reserves of officials and wealthy families are very rich.

The grain storage of the Qi family alone is enough to feed an army of 100,000 for two to three years, not to mention the treasuries of other large families and government offices.

But intelligence is Chen Gu's weak point.

At this time, Chen Gu didn't even have a professional intelligence system, and Lao Nian's more important task was to find out about the resistance organizations in Sichuan.

After all, if Chen Gou wanted to quickly sort out the details of a place, he had to have the help of local forces. Although the political strategy of equal distribution of land allowed Chen Gou to win the support of ordinary people, it also put Chen Gou completely in opposition to the big families and officials.

The only local forces Chen Gui could rely on were the resistance forces in various places.

It just so happened that Chen Gu's men were also born bandits, and Lao Nian had an easy time interacting with them.

But in this way, it would be difficult for Lao Nian's intelligence network to control the movements of the imperial court.

Take Shaanxi for example. Even if you take the Shu Road, the journey is still several hundred miles, and it is in enemy-occupied territory. Even if you get the intelligence, it will take ten days or half a month to transmit it back.

After all, that is the territory of the imperial court. You can't do the same as them and use express trains that travel hundreds of miles to quickly transmit information.

(End of this chapter)