Ping An Biography

The commander of Wuchang Battalion (but in Changde Mansion) envoy Zhou Mengxiong played closely and invited troops to be used in Changsha and other places.The first reason is to open up rich areas for money and food supplies, and the second is to allow the new army to gain real combat effectiveness through actual combat.

At that time, the Suzaku Army, including the new navy army, had a total of four battalions, and the number of troops plus some logistics personnel exceeded [-].In addition to obtaining resources from the newly occupied Yuezhou and Wuchang, the army relied entirely on Changde Prefecture for rear replenishment. As for Chenzhou Prefecture, which had almost negative income, it had to rely on Changde Prefecture to deliver food after the famine broke out.Moreover, the composition of the Suzaku Army's troops is very costly.

The infantry is mainly a firearms unit. In order to meet the logistics of the soldiers, the number of people engaged in barrel drilling and grinding of arquebus guns, artillery manufacturing, maintenance supervision, mining, heaping, and equipment medicine transportation is several times that of the army.Yuezhou newly set up a firearms workshop to manufacture large-caliber field artillery. Although they used copper core iron clad hollow cooling casting technology, which is very advanced in this era, it is still impossible to manufacture long-barreled artillery with only iron, and still requires a lot of Copper; it just so happens that Huguang is not short of food but is very short of copper. To get these metal materials, it is not only hard work, but also gold and silver.

The revenue and expenditure of the budget of the Senate is full of swindling, and it has been reluctantly supported for a long time.Zhang Ning was very tempted when he heard that Zhou Mengxiong's new army could go to battle.

At this time, a staff member of the Senate Department vaguely reminded that Zhou Mengxiong had too much power in the south, and now he was in charge of attacking the city alone, and he might not be able to get rid of it... However, the problem of the general in charge of the Suzaku Army having too much power has always existed, and it didn't just happen in a day or two thing. [

Zhang Ning had no choice but to say this in front of everyone: "Employees are not suspicious. Now our Suzaku army is just getting better, and foreign enemies are looking around. It is time to unite and defeat powerful enemies." Soon he replied Zhou Mengxiong's letter, In favor of him carving out ground when the time is right.

Zhu Heng wrote to suggest that it is time to expand and reorganize the Senate.The current Senate Department is not only responsible for raising strategies and planning during the war, but also manages military affairs and logistics. The method adopted before is the individual responsibility method. specific things.However, after the number of people in the territory expands, this method often leads to a chaotic pattern of unclear duties and powers, and no distinction between priorities and secondary ones.

Zhu Heng suggested setting up six ministries, following the example of the imperial government, to expand the civil service system.In this way, the financial, political, logistics, personnel and other authority of the generals in the army can be taken back. On the one hand, the generals can be dedicated to leading troops to fight, and on the other hand, there is also a system of decentralization to prevent problems before they happen.In the future, the power can be further subdivided, the management of the army and the power of the military can be separated, the system of rules and regulations can be improved, and the situation of generals supporting their own self-respect can be completely eliminated.This set of things has been relatively sophisticated for hundreds of years since the Song Dynasty.

Zhang Ning is not quite in favor of creating a situation where soldiers don't know generals and generals don't know soldiers before they have gained an advantage on the main battlefield, but Zhu Heng's proposal of six divisions has come to an urgent time.

...But at this moment, Wuchang reported new news that the first division of the Jingying Shenji Battalion had arrived at Huangzhou Prefecture.The original report with the spies of the scout battalion is that the sky is covered with banners, thousands of people and horses, and the march lasts for several miles.But there is no exact information on the number of troops, not even an approximate one.The breath of war became stronger again, so Zhu Heng's letter's proposal to reorganize the Senate could only be shelved.

In another message from the Jianwen Party, there is more detailed information about the transfer of the imperial court.It is said that the troops from the Beijing camp coming from Yangzhou are the Central Army of the Shenji Camp and the Second Army of the Zuoye. From this, the strength of the troops can be estimated through intelligence: The Central Army is in charge of the four divisions, and the other armies are in charge of the three divisions. According to information, the second army marching westward is the seven divisions; and the Shenji Battalion has a total of about 6 soldiers (excluding the [-] lower battalion horse corps), According to a rough estimate of the proportion, the strength should be more than [-].

However, the reliability of the information from the Jianwen Party is unknown, and our own spies can only see things with their eyes without confirming the information.What is certain at present is that the Jingying has dispatched troops to Huguang and arrived at Huangzhou Prefecture.

It is unclear for the time being whether they intend to cross the river to attack the relatively weak Jiujiang Mansion in Huangzhou, or continue westward to Jingzhou to deal with the Suzaku army.The men and horses of the three major battalions of the capital had already approached Huguang, so Zhang Ning had to pay special attention.

The three major battalions of the Ming Dynasty were first established in the Hongwu period and completed in the Yongle period.At present, this army is the elite of the elite left by Emperor Yongle's Southern Expedition and Northern War. The Beijing Camp at this time is completely different from the later period. It has more fighting power than the current Nine Frontier Army, and even the Mongolian cavalry can only be feared.It can be said that it is the most skilled and elite army in the entire Ming Empire. I am afraid that it is invincible in field battles all over the world, because there is no kingdom in the world today that can afford a soldier of 20, well-equipped, and battle-tested. , An army with sufficient logistics.

The Jingying actually includes the three major battalions of the capital and the Nanjing Jingying, but the Nanjing Jingying has already revolted in response to the King of Han.Its combat effectiveness is far inferior to the three major battalions of the capital, so those who are as brave as the King of Han will lose the Jianghuai and dare not qualify by relying on the Yangtze River.

Zhang Ning decided to leave Yuezhou as soon as possible, and went to Wuchang to sit and watch the development of the situation in person, while preparing for a hard fight.Yuezhou currently has the first battalion of the navy and the Changde battalion, and they mainly train the navy on Dongting Lake.Monk Yao, commander of the First Battalion of the Navy, and Yao Erlang, commander of the Changde Battalion, are here.As soon as Zhang Ning left, it was obvious that the Yao family and his son were right here.

It wasn't long ago that the staff teased Zhou Mengxiong for being too powerful, and now the Yao family and his son have more power in Yuezhou than they do.Zhang Ning can't come up with any solution at this juncture, that's all.The only thing he did was to tell Yao's father and son to manage Yuezhou properly, and to prevent the imperial army from using Jingzhou as a base to move southward in the future; other than that, the distribution of power does not matter at all. .

A few days later, Zhang Ning arrived in Wuchang from Yuezhou. A group of cavalry rushed in from the city gate, and they were greeted without any etiquette.Because they were still nearly a hundred miles away from Wuchang City in the morning, and they arrived in Wuchang City in the afternoon, so there was no time reserved for them to prepare.

I met Zhu Heng and others in the Senate, and got some new information.Xi Zuo approached the Shenjiying camp at night, and lurked until dawn to observe nearby. He saw that Shenjiying was equipped with a large number of newly-made firearms, which were very different from the firearms of the Ming army in the past. The individual firecrackers were suspected to be matchlock guns.

More than half a year ago, some of the secrets of the Suzaku Army Weapons Bureau were leaked because someone defected from the Weapons Bureau.With the national power of the Ming Dynasty and the well-established arms manufacturing system, more than half a year is enough for mass production.Moreover, the Shenji Battalion itself is a unit that specializes in firearms. The tactics are inherited from Wang Muying in Zhennan, Yunnan. The training is also quite simple. They only need to be familiar with how to use the newly equipped firearms. The pawn who resists better weapons after the gun.

Therefore, Zhang Ning and others felt that this report was more credible.He knew that the emperor Zhu Zhanji was not a fool, and the ministers below were not stupid. After getting the matchlock gun, why didn't they imitate the equipment?The rulers of the Ming Dynasty did not believe in horseback riding and shooting at the enemy.

Zhang Ning turned back and said, "It's best to look for an opportunity to find a small-scale encounter as soon as possible. You can know the combat effectiveness of the Shenji Battalion once you try it, and you can also try out what firearms they are equipped with, so that you can know yourself and your enemy."

In contrast, Zhu Heng paid more attention to momentum, while Zhang Ning paid more attention to the equipment of weapons.

"Looking at each other across the river, it's not easy to encounter a small battle." Zhu Heng said, "It's better to try to send a wide range of spy horses to find out the details first. If you can't find out, go to the battlefield to try."

"Zhu Butang's words are reasonable." Zhang Ning quickly agreed with him, thinking of Yao Ji's new adaptation of "The Ministry of Internal Affairs". It's a matter of inquiring about the military situation. It's useless not to receive money in full.

Zhu Heng's eyes were sharp, seeing that Zhang Ning's gaze was always lingering over Lizhou, he asked: "Zhou Mengxiong transferred heavy troops to the south to attack Changsha Mansion, and the west of the lake is empty, so Jingzhou cannot be defended. Does my lord have any intention of taking it back?"

Zhang Ning said: "The Shenji Battalion has just arrived in Huangzhou, and I don't know whether to go to Jingzhou. I think what General Zhou said is somewhat reasonable. Let the new army go to the battlefield to fight a battle first, which is more effective than training in the school field."