I

After spring plowing, the school field outside Ji'an City.

More than 13,000 peasants and soldiers, taking the town as a unit, lined up for drills.

Only four thousand people are selected!

Li Banghua said to select three thousand regular soldiers, but after Zhao Han thought carefully, he decided to select four thousand regular soldiers.

Fei Yinggong and the bandits under his command were also standing nearby at this moment, watching the peasants and soldiers go on stage one by one.

"Are these fucking peasants and soldiers? They are nothing more than the model governors of various provinces!" Yan Jiu was dumbfounded.

Fei Yinggong was also extremely shocked. The peasants and soldiers in front of him were not only neatly arranged and orderly changing formations, but also full of discipline and vitality.

Fei Yinggong's bandits are all skilled in martial arts. If you are one-on-one with peasants and soldiers, the bandits will definitely win. If they were ten against ten with peasants and soldiers, the bandits would probably be killed to pieces.

"There are more than 13,000 such soldiers?" Tian Younian was shocked and inexplicable.

Fei Ruhe explained: "The teams in front of me are all veterans from Luling County, so they are naturally very capable. The recruits from Jishui County and Anfu County have only had a short training period, so their performance will definitely be much worse."

Tian Younian asked: "How many veterans are there in Luling?"

"About six thousand." Fei Ruhe replied.

"How many days do you have sex?" Tian Younian asked again.

Fei Ruhe explained: "We don't practice when the farming is busy. We practice every day when the farming is slack. We practice in our respective villages. Each village has an officer."

The training habits of the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were basically that after the recruits were recruited, they would spend one or two months rigorously practicing to become familiar with the orders and military formations. After that, I started to stretch my hips. Once on the fifth day, it’s considered an elite soldier. Once on the 10th, it’s normal. Once a month, it’s okay. It’s okay to do it once every six months!

Tian Younian said regretfully: "Alas, there are six thousand such elite soldiers. It's a pity that we can only choose one thousand."

"It will be fine after the army is expanded." Fei Ruhe also felt distressed.

This time the recruitment of full-time regular soldiers should not only be based on the quality of the soldiers, but also recruited by region: one thousand in Luling, one thousand in Jishui, one thousand in Anfu, and one thousand Yuanzhou soldiers (all archers).

The peasant soldiers in Anfu County were finally organized and trained for only two or three months in total. They were no different from ordinary rural soldiers, but they had to recruit a thousand soldiers.

If only the elite peasants and soldiers from Luling County are recruited, firstly, it will be easy to form a mountain top in the army, and secondly, it will seriously reduce the strong labor force in the rural areas of Luling County.

Next, it was the turn of the farmers and soldiers from Jishui County to appear. Sure enough, their hips were stretched a lot, but they were still able to crush the local warriors from the government.

When the peasants and soldiers of Anfu County went out for exercise, the scene was horrific. The formations were relatively neat, but once the formations changed, situations frequently occurred.

Li Banghua sighed: "We can only recruit generals from within. The troops sent out this time are mainly Luling veterans, supplemented by Jishui soldiers. Anfu soldiers should be used to defend the city."

Finally, the soldiers were selected on a village basis, and only some of the best performers were selected.

When the peasant soldiers are converted into regular soldiers, the peasant soldiers officers are converted into formal military positions, and the military pay is promoted according to the military rank. If there are peasant and soldier officers who are not selected, they will still retain their military positions, but this military position is not formal.

The Luling veteran who was not selected was very unhappy. He thought he was a hundred times more powerful than Anfu's scumbag soldiers. Zhao Han could only ask the missionary officer to appease the soldiers' morale.

After three days of selection, four thousand regular soldiers were finally selected.

The military flag has been slightly changed. It is still made of indigo blue cotton, but the four words "天下大同" are embroidered on the flag.

Fei Yinggon and his bandits were disrupted and organized into various ministries.

If Zhao Han's personal soldiers, the "Slave Army", as well as military judges, missionary officers, navy officers and soldiers, etc. are added to the total, the number of regular soldiers actually exceeds 5,000.

In the land of three counties, more than 5,000 regular soldiers are supported, and military expenditures are simply exploding!

Wu Yong, who is always able to capture high-ranking officials, was promoted to captain of the "Slave Army" this time because of his meritorious service in the previous period, and was in charge of three ten-man teams.

Xiong Yao was forced to serve as a guide and lead Zhao Han in a surprise attack on Yuanzhou's military camp. Because he belongs to the technical branch of the archer and is an officer himself, he was promoted to sentry officer this time and was in charge of nine ten-man teams.

Fei Yinggon was also an archer sentry. He had practiced archery. He was said to be in charge of nine ten-man teams. Counting the lower-level officers, he actually commanded a hundred troops.

Commanding a hundred troops is considered a hundred generals. Fei Yinggong could only comfort himself in this way.

After the reorganization of the regular soldiers, two thousand elite peasants and soldiers who were not selected were left on standby, and the rest went home. These farmers and soldiers must also persist in training. Once they encounter a large-scale encirclement and suppression by officers and soldiers, Zhao Han may attack tens of thousands of troops at any time!

In the next half month, all the regular soldiers and two thousand peasant soldiers practiced in the school field, mainly practicing their cooperation with the archers.

At the end of April, he swore an oath to go to war.

The advance navy pretended to be a merchant ship and transported Zhao Han's soldiers to Xingan County.

A few days ago, the entire Liu family surrendered. There is a scholar named Liu Tongyu, who is now serving as a military clerk. Liu Tongyu dressed luxuriously and pretended to be a wealthy businessman, while Zhang Tieniu, Liu Zhu and others pretended to be domestic slaves. They only spent five coins to bribe the gatekeepers to enter.

"kill!"

Zhang Tieniu took out the ax from the box, and Liu Zhu took out the steel knife and hacked at the city gate.

Even the scholar Liu Tongyu drew his scribe's sword and fought.

There were only a dozen people in total, and they actually occupied the city gate. The slave army ambushed on the "merchant ship" immediately came to reinforce them.

Because Zhao Han made such a big fuss, the magistrates of the surrounding counties all recruited troops to defend the city.

All the same stuff!

Otherwise, the sweeping king in the west would not have quickly captured three counties in just two and a half months.

The same was true for the officers and soldiers of Xingan County, who were more serious at first. But after waiting and waiting for a year, Zhao Han didn't come, so he gradually relaxed his vigilance. As long as they were given money, they didn't even bother to check the goods entering the city, causing Zhang Tieniu and others to bring weapons into the city.

After the west gate on the edge of the Ganjiang River was occupied by hundreds of slave soldiers, the remaining officers and soldiers who defended the city actually chose to abandon the city and flee.

The magistrate was also running away, and he didn't forget to take the money with him. This guy ran very fast and disappeared without a trace.

Zhao Han came by boat with his army. Instead of stopping in Xingan County, he continued north to Zhangshu Town.

Of course, we can’t help but sigh because there are historical figures in Xingan County. Yue Fei and Han Shizhong both trained here!

From Jishui County to Zhangshu Town, you have to pass through Xingan and Xiajiang counties.

Xingan County is on the edge of the Gan River and must be captured. Xiajiang County is not on the riverside, so Zhao Han didn't even bother to take care of it and just ignored the officers and soldiers in this county.

Five hundred peasant soldiers were left behind to garrison Xingan County, mainly to maintain public order and not go to the countryside to allocate farmland for the time being.

Seeing a large number of ships carrying soldiers, the merchants in Zhangshu Town fled. Zhao Han immediately took people off the ships and set up camp on the other side of Zhangshu Town.

After unloading the soldiers and part of the food and grass, the navy commanded Gujianshan and led the fleet back to Ji'an to transport the subsequent food and grass. There is no way, there are too few ships, so we need to transport it several times.

The combat plan is as follows, divided into three steps:

First, take Xingan County and garrison it with 500 peasant soldiers to ensure the smooth flow of waterways.

Second, occupy Zhangshu Town, and Zhao Han personally leads 2,500 soldiers to sit in the town to deal with the large number of officers and soldiers that may appear in the north.

Third, Fei Ruhe led the remaining troops and sailed westward along the Yuan River to capture Xinyu and Fenyi counties.

…

Linjiang Fucheng).

The prefect of Linjiang is called He Tianqu. He is a serious Jinshi. He has been in a very irritable mood recently.

First, there is the Luling giant bandit Zhao Yan in the south. He Tianqu must recruit troops to defend and wait for the governor's army to go south together to conquer.

Second, He Tianqu's hometown is in Luzhou, and it is a small town outside Fucheng. News came a few days ago that Luzhou was repeatedly ravaged by Zhang Xianzhong, and it is unknown whether any of his tribesmen escaped. Even if the clan members can escape, his family's money and food will definitely be robbed!

It was so unlucky that He Tianqu was about to cry but had no tears.

"Master Fu, Master Fu, it's not good, Zhangshu Town has been taken over by Zhao thieves!"

"What?"

He Tianqu was suddenly struck by lightning. Zhangshu Town was only ten miles away from Linjiang Fucheng.

Seeing that the magistrate was a little confused, the master quickly suggested: "Master, please give the order quickly. First, let the soldiers immediately guard the city and collect rolling logs, fallen rocks, vegetable oil, gold juice and other materials; second, send people there immediately In Nanchang, report the situation of the thief to the Third Division and the Governor; thirdly, immediately send spies south to find out the true and false movements of the Zhao thief."

"Yes, yes, just follow what Master said." He Tianqu came back to his senses slightly.

Soon, He Tianqu received enemy information again. The Zhao thieves built a camp in Zhangshu Town and had no intention of going north to attack Fucheng for the time being.

This made He Tianqu relax a little, and he convened the government and county government officials to continue the meeting.

Discussions came and went, but there was no good solution. We could only quickly gather troops to defend the city, and then wait for the governor to bring troops to reinforce.

The gentry in Qingjiang County were very interesting. They knew that Zhao Han was here and would not run away. Zhao thief would not rob money and food anyway. While they stayed at home, they provided money and people to help the magistrates and magistrates recruit village warriors.

The officers and soldiers won the battle, and naturally everyone was happy.

The officers and soldiers have lost the battle and are just waiting to be divided into fields. It will not be too late to run away when the time comes.

A few days later, He Tianqu recruited thousands of local warriors. Together with the soldiers he had recruited before, his military strength had grown to more than 1,800.

…

Nanchang.

Wang Siren was training navy in Poyang Lake, but was urgently summoned by Governor Li Maofang.

"Commander Fu, is there anything unusual about the Zhao thieves in the south?" Wang Siren asked.

Li Maofang explained: "The prefect of Linjiang sent an urgent report that the Zhao thieves stationed troops in Zhangshu Town with the intention of attacking Linjiang City."

Wang Siren spread out the map and quickly shook his head and said: "I'm afraid the target of Thief Zhao is not Linjiang Mansion, but the two counties of Xinyu and Fenyi in the west. Thief Zhao is interested in the iron mines and iron smelting plants there. Otherwise, , they will not station troops in Zhangshu Town, but will quickly attack Linjiang Fucheng."

"Should we send troops?" Li Maofang asked.

Wang Siren sighed: "The rebels have already reached a hundred miles away from Linjiang Fucheng. How can the officers and soldiers sit back and do nothing? Zhangshu Town must be taken back!"

There were thirty-three important tax towns in the Ming Dynasty. Linjiang Fucheng and Zhangshu Town together accounted for one of them.

If Zhangshu Town is continuously occupied by the rebels, and one day they take advantage of the situation and take down Linjiang Mansion, won't the Luling Zhao thieves go to heaven?

"Oh, you shouldn't go north during the Chinese New Year." Li Maofang felt regretful.

They brought a large number of naval troops and five thousand infantry, eagerly running to rescue Fengyang. As a result, Zhang Xianzhong defeated the elite infantry combatants who had painstakingly trained them in a confused battle, and only a thousand or more people were left.

Although we have re-recruited troops and have 5,000 more infantry, these new recruits are of little use!

Wang Siren thought carefully and said: "Let's go to Linjiang Mansion first. After we find out more about the strength of the rebel army, we can then decide how to fight. We have a navy that can advance or retreat. Don't fight on foot with the rebels easily."

"That's all." Li Maofang said.

(To reply, some book friends talked about the enclosure movement and the agricultural revolution. The British agricultural revolution, before the use of large machines for production, was mainly reflected in two aspects. First, the farmers were driven away, and the landlords enclosed the land. Employing farmers for farming is the system of large landowners and tenants in the late Ming Dynasty. Second, intensive farming. After hundreds of years of agricultural revolution, the British yield per mu has finally reached the level of the southern Ming Dynasty. Is it interesting to discuss? Please don't ignore the differences between Britain and the Ming Dynasty Due to the population difference, the Ming Dynasty behaved like the British, and the peasant uprising would have exploded long ago.)