Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 175 Departure
"Have Chen Qi dispatch 5,000 joint defense teams from Jiangjin County, 2,000 of which will be deployed to the various garrisons along the Chishui River to assist the old drifters in defending Luzhou, and 1,000 will be stationed in Hejiang County to maintain public order. At the same time, a new joint defense team will be formed in Hejiang using the old to guide the new.

Two thousand people came to Luzhou and also formed a new joint defense team.

The training of the joint defense team should not be stopped, the supply of food and fodder must keep up, and the production of the required red tasseled spears and bulletproof vests must be accelerated. Our military strength is very weak and must be strengthened as soon as possible.

For a province as large as Sichuan, it is completely possible to form a million-strong joint defense team. If the elite troops are drawn out from them, at least an army of 200,000 will be needed to withstand the attack of the imperial court. Moreover, among these 200,000 troops, at least 20,000 firearms troops must be included.

The road ahead is long and arduous, but the court will not give us much time, so we must hurry up and do everything. If we fail to quickly complete the army construction, we will have to pay with lives.

Although Sichuan has a large population, it cannot withstand arbitrary consumption. If the war becomes a war of attrition, then we will definitely lose. Even if we win by chance in the end, how can we face the people of Shu?" Chen Gu said earnestly.

Zhang Haomin and Zheng Ming both fell silent.

In fact, in the eyes of the two, how can a rebellion not result in death?

They would even resort to any means to succeed. If the two were given a choice, they would definitely not engage in equal distribution of land, but would cooperate with the gentry and wealthy families. Given the current situation in Sichuan, Chen Gu could just raise his arm and take over the entire Sichuan province at the fastest speed.

The best option would be to then form an army to attack Dajianlu in the west, defend Shaanxi in the north, defend Guizhou in the south, garrison Chongqing in the east, and then close the door and slowly manage Sichuan.

But Chen Gu chose the most difficult path. He implemented the equal-field distribution policy from the very beginning and stood completely against the big families.

Moreover, Chen Gu did not have that many scholars at his disposal, and he could not even gather the necessary officials. If it were not for the support of the big families in Jiangjin County, Chen Gu would have been at a loss.

However, in this way, most of the local power fell into the hands of the ten major clans in Jiangjin County.

Fortunately, Chen Gu has firmly grasped the military power and is also a very good fighter. So far, he can still intimidate all his subordinates and keep this so-called Huaxia Department running normally.

Zheng Ming thought for a moment and asked, "How many troops do you plan to take to Chengdu?"

"Five hundred Buddha Treasures logistics troops, two thousand four hundred Green Camp troops. As for how many troops are left in the future, it is not up to me, but up to you."

Chen Gu thought for a moment, frowned and said: "There will definitely be a fierce battle in the Shaanxi direction, and these two or three thousand people are definitely not enough. After all, I can't fight the imperial army and stabilize Chengdu at the same time.

Therefore, after I leave, the joint defense team must be built up faster. When the joint defense team in Luzhou is built, I think Lao Piao and Changlin should have reached a conclusion. At that time, the 5,000 joint defense team in Jiangjin County will be sent to Chengdu to support me. "

"There are 500 new soldiers in the Buddhist treasure, and they are now capable of fighting. Why don't you take them with you?" Zhang Haomin said.

Chen Gu shook his head and said, "Not for the time being. Those 500 people are the key to stability. They can be deployed, but not to Chengdu. Instead, they can be distributed to Jiangjin County and Luzhou.

Let's put it this way. Fobao will leave 100 people behind, Jiangjin County will transfer 150 people, and Luzhou will transfer 250 people. Let them garrison in the city. In addition, we will select 1,000 people from the joint defense team of Jiangjin County to station in Fobao to train the new army!

In this way, Xing Honghai's 800 Firearms Battalion can go to Chengdu with me."

Zhang Haomin thought about it, nodded and said, "That's good."

"Don't worry, if everything goes well, the battle with Shaanxi should only be a defensive battle, and the demand for troops will not be too great. If it is really necessary, I will send a transfer order back!" Chen Gu smiled. "I hope so!"

Two days later, it was cloudy.

Because it had been raining in recent days, the roads were slippery, but Chen Gu still led his army out. The soldiers all walked barefoot, tying two straw ropes on their feet to prevent slipping.

It is impossible to wear shoes on the road with such road conditions, let alone cloth shoes, even straw sandals are not something that anyone would wear.

Chen the assassin gave each person two pairs of cloth shoes. It had been two days since they were distributed, but no one had worn them. Everyone kept them as treasures. Even indoors, everyone only wore straw sandals.

It was not an easy task to mobilize a large army, even if there were only three or four thousand people, and they all traveled lightly. It took a whole day just to transport the men and horses across the river.

The route this time was to cross the Yangtze River first, then go to Neijiang, then go to Ziyang and finally to Chengdu.

The distance is more than 700 miles, which would only take two or three hours to drive in later generations, but in this era it would take seven or eight days.

This was under the premise that all members had mules and horses for transportation. Originally, Chen Ju had thousands of mules and horses, and finally he plundered the entire Luzhou and finally gathered all the horses for the 3,700 soldiers.

Although they are just pack horses and draft horses, they can still be used as a means of transportation.

This time it was no longer Chen Gu who led the logistics in the front, but Feng Yuanqiao's 800 Sword Shield Battalion who were in the front, responsible for building roads and bridges and maintaining them. Chen Gu also specially prepared 100 engineering shovels for them.

After that came Zhou Shi's Archery Battalion and Xing Honghai's Firearms Battalion. They were responsible for gathering food and fodder, either by threatening to pass through the prefectures and counties to gather them, or by attacking the landlords' estates outside the city to collect them.

Chen Gu followed with the logistics battalion, and if a war broke out, they would naturally rush forward to help.

Jiang Zhenghai's spear battalion was left behind, purely for show. Of course, in a couple of days Chen Gu would arrange for him to take turns with Feng Yuanqiao, and let his spear battalion go to the front to build bridges and pave roads.

When Chen Gu's army left Luzhou, all the prefectures and counties along the way had already received the news.

There was another wave of escape among the officials and wealthy families in Longchang County, which was the closest to Luzhou. This made it more difficult for Chen's army to collect food and fodder.

This forced Chen Gu's army to stay in Longchang for a day before they could replenish the needed food and soybeans.

Taking advantage of this day, Chen Gu sent a fast horse back to Luzhou and asked Zhang Haomin to send people to occupy Longchang.

Anyway, this kind of land is picked up for free and it doesn't require any effort, so why not take it? It's close and easy to manage.

The second place we passed by was Neijiang County in Zizhou. Zizhou was Ziyang in later generations. At that time, like Luzhou, Zizhou was also a direct-controlled prefecture.

A state is much smaller than a prefecture in terms of administrative level. Some states are even only the size of a county, but because of their important location, they are directly governed by the province. The largest state is like Luzhou, which has four or five counties.

(End of this chapter)