golden scales

Because Zhu Cihong stayed in Luoyang for an unexpectedly long time, Bai Guangen did not detour to Shanxi to escape back to Tongguan, but detoured back to Luoyang to report under Sun Chuanting's tent. He also brought news of Chen Yongfu, the general soldier from Henan who had fled to Kaifeng on the day of his defeat. Not to mention that he was fine, not even a few of the servants who accompanied him were damaged.

When Bai Guangen said this, he felt so much pain in his heart.His subordinates are full of trains, so how can he care about other things once the soldiers flee?Throw it all to Li Zicheng.Among all the generals, although Gao Jie was injured, he fought head-to-head; Niu Chenghu had a good reputation, and His Highness the Crown Prince compensated for his losses.Only he, Bai Guang'en, came back with a group of remnants who had lost their weapons. No matter how they looked, they looked like beggars fleeing famine and begging for food.

Zhu Cihong did not discriminate against him, and ordered Bai Guangen and Gao Jie to take the disabled soldiers back to Xi'an first.The soldiers of this era are not the iron army armed with ideological weapons in later generations. Once they are defeated in a battle, they immediately become frightened.If you don't fight a few times to restore morale, you will definitely collapse at the first touch.Some don't even need to "touch", and just run away.Keeping these soldiers around is like shoveling gunpowder with a shovel—for fear that death will be too small.

Without the containment of these broken troops, Zhu Cihong ordered Li Zhensheng and Zhang Shiqi to organize a party in the name of officials to attract poor students in the Luoyang area.These people are not good at Chinese in the exam, but they are the best at using it as a book office.The prince himself put all his heart into the army, expanded the establishment, and built the Donggong guard battalion into a large battalion with [-] soldiers, and built an engineering battalion with auxiliary soldiers and civilian husbands as the main body.

The engineer battalion needs people who are familiar with all kinds of camping and construction work, and this important task naturally falls on Chen De.He was originally an acting guerrilla, so there was no problem in taking charge of the first battalion.Moreover, he followed his father as a trainee in the army since he was a child, and he was far more experienced in these military trifles than the military officers of the Eastern Palace Department.

The most important thing is that all the officers of the Eastern Palace Faction want to make a name for themselves, so who would be willing to be a foreman in the engineering battalion?Although Xiao Donglou and Niu Chenghu were also from a collateral lineage, they were all veterans who fought in battle, so the engineer battalion could only be handed over to the young Chen De.

Chen De was very sad about this, and he hoped to be able to serve as a military officer at Zuo Junqian headquarters.It is really a great pity for the general that such a powerful army, which is rare in the world, cannot be commanded.Especially Chen De thought that the crown prince favored him a lot, but he didn't expect the gap to be so big.This blow made him not even want to speak during the military discussion.

Until the prince roll call and ask questions.

"Defend Tongguan?" Chen De didn't take Xiao Donglou's suggestion seriously.It was also because of his desperation that he didn't even want to maintain his decent politeness. "The rout doesn't count. Our battalion has five thousand soldiers in total. How can we fight to defend Tongguan? Even if we exchange [-] for [-], Li Zicheng can kill us!" Chen De said bluntly.

Xiao Donglou blushed with anger, and said angrily, "You don't even need the whole battalion to guard! Just 2000 troops from our Zuojun Qian headquarters is enough! If I let Li Zicheng pass the test, I will take your surname from now on!"

"Ha," Chen De sneered, "Then ask me, who will guard the county seat? Do you want to guard the pass alone?" Tongguan is divided into related cities and counties. They depend on each other and support each other.

"Tongguan is still 250 miles away from Xi'an. Even if you guard Tongguan, who will guard Shangzhou? Could it be that His Highness personally guards Shangluo?" Chen De was quite aggressive.

Xiao Donglou was dumbfounded for a moment.

At the beginning of the Republic of China, Shangzhou rose and fell repeatedly between prefectures and counties. It was an unprosperous area in southern Shaanxi and belonged to Xi'an Prefecture.However, this area is an important place for military strategists, and it was an important town to defend Chang'an in the Western Han Dynasty.From Nanyang to Shangluo Road, there are three roads leading to Xi'an, which are shorter than the distance from Luoyang to Xi'an through Tongguan.

Cao Ning glared at Xiao Donglou, and thought to himself: You deserve to be choked by a brat, right?I told you earlier that Tongguan cannot be guarded, you must fight to the death!Let's call!See how you step down now.

He looked at Chen De again, and said with a sneer, "Is it so strange to know that Thief Li sent troops from Nanyang to Shangluo Road? He hid in that deep mountain and survived back then. The key is his body." As a general, he doesn't even have the courage to fight a battle, he is worthy of being the head of the engineering battalion."

This time it was Chen De's turn to swell into a pig's liver.

Zhu Cihong coughed dryly in time, and got back to the main point: "If you want to divide the defense, Shangzhou, Lantian, and Lintong will all be divided. Our army is not strong enough."

"Your Highness, if Qin's soldiers practice more, they will still be able to fight a battle." Sun Chuanting is the governor of Shaanxi, since he was discussing the issue of entering Shaanxi to defend against bandits, he had to participate.Like him, there is another person who is not an officer, Wu Sheng, who is leisurely watching these people arguing endlessly at the moment.

Wu Zhen knew the real intention of the crown prince, which was to retreat all the way from Shaanxi to Shanxi, then from Shanxi to Yanjing, and finally from Yanjing to Shandong.He didn't know why the prince used this stupid method, but didn't think of a good idea to go directly to Shandong, but from the occasional words that the prince revealed, he seemed to be waiting for time.Although I don't know if I can't understand the reason, it seems that something very important will happen in March next year.

"Governor Qin, the bandit Li is powerful now, and I don't think Shaanxi can be defended." Zhu Cihong didn't speak bureaucratically, these people in the hall were all his own, so there was no need to cover it up.He said: "The reason is very simple. First, there is no military rations, and second, there is no popular support. This is a deadly place that cannot be defended."

If Sun Chuanting can't see these two points, then he is not qualified to be in the eyes of the prince.

The establishment of the Governor-General has been customized since the fifth year of Chenghua, and he is in charge of the Ming government and military affairs of one or several provinces, with great power.If the governor only concentrates on military affairs, the army will naturally give priority to everything, it will be difficult to balance the people's livelihood, and it is only natural to lose the hearts of the people.

Sun Chuanting's practical ability is not weak, but the evaluation of him by later generations is not high, mainly because he violated the rights and interests of powerful families when he was in charge of Shaanxi, and he was notorious among scholars.At the beginning, for the sake of military funds, he made a lot of noise, and piles of impeachment memorials were sent to the Ouchi every day, and because of this, he lost the hearts of the people.At that time, he decided to send troops. In addition to the pressure from the court, the fact that Shaanxi could not stay was also a factor.

"I only have three purposes for going to Shaanxi." Zhu Ci said in a loud voice, "Population! Ding Zhuang! Soldiers!"

These three can be summed up in one word - VIP.

However, these are three types of people.

A population does not mean a man is not equal to a soldier.

It can be said that the population is the foundation, the young are the labor force, and the soldiers are the combat effectiveness.These three kinds of people determine the energy level of future development.Shandong was listed as the first class of "Silver Edge" by Wu Zhen precisely because of the lack of guarded danger and abundant population.In the 11 years since Chongzhen, the Manchu and Qing plundered a large number of people from Jinan and Shandong every time they entered the customs. In 15, Dorgon led troops into the customs and directly plundered 60 people.A strong army can make up for a lack of strategic location, but without a population, the foundation for development will be lost.

A large number of troops were stationed in Shandong, and all kinds of building houses, reclamation and road repair required young men to do it.Without this group of people, Zhu Cihong might not even be able to survive the first year.

Not to mention the soldiers.In the troubled times of the late Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to hold a province with less than [-] soldiers.Even if Donggong makes up for the gap in quantity with quality, it cannot be less than [-].Because this is not a world where absolute values ​​are compared, if two soldiers who pass the physical test and a soldier with an excellent physical test score fight, the side with more people will definitely win, even if the soldier with the excellent score is twice as high as the opponent .

The key question is, are there so many people in Shaanxi?

Zhu Cihong believed that there were still some.

Although Shaanxi was the birthplace of the rogues, the areas that were really damaged by the rogues were Henan, Huguang and other neighboring provinces.Even because of the love of the country, the rogues did not massacre when they fled in Shaanxi, and there was no record of massacring the people.Although Shaanxi has also suffered from disasters year after year, it has not been ravaged by [***] like Henan, making its population resources far better than those of Henan and Hebei—Hebei was severely looted by the Qing Dynasty, and it is still possible to recruit thousands of soldiers Support, but it is impossible to really expand the army on a large scale.

"Governor Qin knows the conditions of the people of Shaanxi like the palm of his hand," Zhu Cihong said, "This time, the heavy responsibility of recruiting people, men, and soldiers will fall on Governor Qin's shoulders."

Sun Chuanting frowned into a word of Chuan, and just answered "obedience".

Wu Zhen also knew that His Royal Highness would definitely collect all strategic materials including population, but another practical problem troubled him: If such a large team was really assembled, not to mention the intruders who came after them, it would only be food How much do you get? (To be continued.)