Chapter 136: Clouds of chaos rising from all directions (Part 1)
April of the sixth year of Chongzhen, Huguang, suburbs of Wuchang
"...Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"...Raise the barrel of the gun higher! Are you stabbing a mouse?"
"...Cheer up! Have you not eaten for a few days?"
Accompanied by roars and shouts of death, on a dusty school field outside Wuchang, hundreds of soldiers of the Ming Army were wearing red battle coats, practicing sweating profusely under the scoldings of several veterans of the Tianxiong Army. Spear thrust.
Now Emperor Chongzhen's trusted generals, Lu Xiangsheng, the commander of the Tianxiong Army, and Wang Dou, a young general from the Xuanfu who had been promoted because of his rescue, were standing on horseback, looking at these seemingly still people with unsatisfied expressions. A relatively strong soldier from Huguang, his eyebrows were always furrowed.
On the other side, those Tianxiong Army and Xuanfu Border Army soldiers who had fled to Wuchang from the north had completed their regular training and were squatting or sitting on the side of the school field, sweating and munching brown rice. rice, or a few mouthfuls of clear soup with rice - the hot soup served in the Ming military camp, It is indeed as pure as water, at least it has never been contaminated by any grease. Only a few pickles occasionally fished out of the soup bucket prove its slight difference from salt water... But even with such a diet, because Because rice was enough, the Ming Dynasty at this time was already considered a luxury!
Ever since the time-travel version of Emperor Chongzhen completely disregarded the dignity of the Tian family and family ties, and confiscated Prince Fu's Mansion in Luoyang, the exiled court who escaped from Beijing finally had a huge military expenditure - although this money from Prince Fu's Mansion , was also enriched by the officials who were exiled from the imperial court. However, because the size of the imperial court shrunk by nearly 90%, and the number of people who were qualified to embezzle it was also reduced by a lot, the money that finally fell into the hands of the emperor was still considerable, with as much as three million taels of cash in cash alone, and rice Wheat has 150,000 dan, and there are countless real estates such as fields and manors.
However, the treasures and grains copied from Prince Fu's Mansion in Luoyang gave the exiled court a breath of relief. But Luoyang, the hub of the Central Plains, is not an ideal place to settle down like Taiyuan - Luoyang during the Han and Tang Dynasties was once an imperial city with a population of hundreds of thousands. But Luoyang in the late Ming Dynasty was just a medium-sized city with a population of tens of thousands. Its properties and wealth were not enough to support a large army for long-term operations.
What's even more terrible is that Emperor Chongzhen had just moved the court from Taiyuan to Luoyang in February. The Guan Ning Army led by the rebel general Zu Dashou and the rebel Ming Army crossed the Taihang Mountains and invaded Shanxi in a large scale. At the end of February, they captured Taiyuan, the provincial capital. They also defeated the important town of Datong and saw the fall of Shanxi Province imminent. The Tartar bandit chief Huang Taiji (Huang Taiji) moved south from the capital in a large scale, defeated Daming and Dezhou, and is now besieging Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province.
In addition, the Wenxiang Cult demons and wandering bandits are also rampant in the plains of eastern Henan. Wherever the rebel army passes, thousands of hungry people who have been forced to die by drought will eagerly defect to them. The Henan Ming Army had almost no reliable control areas east of Hulao Pass (except for the isolated city of Kaifeng, the rest of the place was full of guerrilla zones for the rebels), and behind Luoyang, Shaanxi was the birthplace of rogue bandits, and its chaos was only It will be more serious than Henan!
What's worse is that until now, the Shaanxi government still takes a vague position on the dispute between the two emperors of the Ming Dynasty and has no clear allegiance to Emperor Chongzhen.
Under such circumstances, how could the time-traveling Emperor Chongzhen, who had become a frightened bird, dare to stay in Luoyang, a place of death?
So, in March, after initially accepting the inheritance of King Fu, on the one hand, in order to avoid the war in the north, and on the other hand, he was eager to invade Nanjing and regain his throne. This time-traveling version of Emperor Chongzhen went south to Huguang non-stop and founded Wuchang We set up camp and raised the flag of war against rebellion.
Fortunately, whether out of true loyalty to the direct lineage of the royal family or out of years of official inertia, the local officials in Huguang Province obeyed Emperor Chongzhen's edict very cooperatively, unlike the Donglin Party in Nanjing. There is an anti-bone in the back of the head. Moreover, compared with Henan, which was plagued by wars, suffered from droughts for many years, and had no harvests, Huguang Province was the world's granary, and it was much easier to raise military rations.
But the problem is that when Lu Xiangsheng was worshiped as the commander-in-chief by Emperor Chongzhen and led Wang Dou to inspect the various guard posts in Huguang, preparing to mobilize the troops of Huguang Province to attack the Nanjing rebels, he was shocked to find that such a huge Huguang Province The province has almost no available troops! ! !
According to the court system of Zhu Yuanzhang's era, under normal circumstances, the Huguang Province of the Ming Dynasty had a total of thirty-one guard posts with a total of 173,600 troops. If we include the chieftain soldiers and horses in western Hunan, there are more than 200,000 registered soldiers in the entire Huguang Province.
But the problem is that none of the current military and political systems of the Ming Empire have anything to do with the word "normal."
——During the Chongzhen period, the average escape rate of hereditary military households in the Ming Empire was about 80%. The border guards often had to fight and the officers kept a close eye on them, so the escape rate was slightly lower. The inland provinces basically did not fight. , the flight rate of military households is even higher. In other words, if there are five soldiers in the mainland provincial government on paper, it would be good to have one person actually exist. And even these soldiers who did not flee have basically turned into farmers who only know how to farm and not fight. It is impossible to expect them to be pulled out and go into battle.
According to Lu Xiangsheng's estimate, the 173,600 garrison troops that should exist on paper in Huguang Province can actually be found after deducting those who made false reports and those who fled, and those who are old, weak, sick and disabled. Three to four thousand strong men would be considered good - note, only strong men! Not soldiers! Because these so-called hereditary military households have not received any military training at all since they were born!
Not only do these 200,000 soldiers only exist on paper, the various weapons and equipment in stock in Huguang Province also only exist on paper - unlike the southeastern coast where the Anti-Japanese War was fought, there are still some Some firearms used by Qi Jiguang back then. Huguang Province has been basically peaceful since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, so Lu Xiangsheng searched the arsenals in Xiangyang and Wuchang for a long time, but failed to find a single usable cannon. He only found some rusty and rotten swords, saddle and iron spear point, As well as a number of ultra-low-quality bird guns that no one dares to use: the barrel is actually made of iron sheets. Not to mention the charge and fire, as long as it is swung in the air a few times, it will crackle like glass. ……
In general, the only troops with any real combat effectiveness in the entire Huguang Province are the chieftain soldiers in western Hunan and the Hunan-Guizhou-Sichuan border. Among them, the white pole soldiers of Qin Liangyu, the female general of Shizhu, are the most famous. But the problem is that during the previous disaster of the fall of Beijing, the imperial court abandoned a total of 9,000 white pole soldiers in Beizhili. Even the current commander of the white pole soldiers, Qin Liangyu's nephew Qin Yiming, was alive and dead in the war... …
Not to mention whether Qin Liangyu will be angry with the court because of this, even if she is still loyal, Shizhu is just a small place with barren land and limited population. After killing so many young people in the battle, how many troops can Qin Liangyu still have to offer? Where is King Laiqin? As for the other chieftains, they have always been rebellious and their loyalty to the court is questionable. They are far less reliable than Qin Liangyu's white-armed soldiers. Even if they are willing to send troops to help in the battle, Lu Xiangsheng doesn't dare to use them - just in case these unscrupulous bastards, What should I do if I secretly contact Nanjing’s rebellious ministers and then switch sides in the face of battle?
Therefore, after arriving in Wuchang, Emperor Chongzhen and Lu Xiangsheng found that they had to start everything from scratch - since there were only three to four thousand available men in the military households in Huguang Province, there were at least tens of thousands of soldiers left to recruit. and training; in order to equip this army, all military The weapons and equipment needed to be rebuilt; it was too late to build warships, so merchant ships and passenger ships could only be requisitioned for reconstruction... All the civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty knew how powerful the Nanjing capital was, with the tiger dominating the dragon, the city fortified, and Lu Xiangsheng's more than 10,000 people alone. The Tianxiong Army and Wang Dou's thousands of Xuanfu border troops will never be able to chew them down. Therefore, the exiled court also showed a rare act of generosity and invested all the treasures confiscated from Prince Fu's Mansion in Luoyang, as well as the "donations" extorted from the officials and gentry of Huguang Province, into military preparations for war. Anyway, as long as we break into Nanjing and confiscate the houses of the Donglin Party, we will have everything!
But even with such abundant military expenditures, it is not easy to train a combat-ready army. With the backward productivity in the handicraft era, it would take a long time just to make weapons and armor for an army of tens of thousands... After being busy all day long, Lu Xiangsheng and Wang Dou would occasionally feel a little lucky: it was a great loss. The reaction of the puppet emperor in Nanjing was equally slow. If they took advantage of the extreme emptiness of Huguang Province and sent an elite army from Nanjing upstream to attack Wuchang, the entire situation in Huguang Province would probably collapse!
Fortunately, the worst scenario that we expected did not happen...
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At the same time, in the palace of Emperor Chongzhen in Wuchang City, there was also spitting and swearing...
"...Rebellion! Rebellion! Drag this arrogant madman out of here quickly!"
Along with another loud shout from the time-travel version of Emperor Chongzhen on the throne, the old scholar who was making nonsense in the palace was immediately pushed out by two impatient guards, one on the left and the other on the right. However, there were still a few faint words coming from outside the door. A curse like "insulting to gentlemen".
Ever since Emperor Chongzhen’s imperial chariot was stationed in Wuchang City, all kinds of frustrated poor scholars and sour men suddenly appeared in front of the palace gates like mushrooms after the rain, one after another, including several The gentle scum who had been sitting in the courtyard writing ditties all clamored to meet the emperor. A small number of these people are sincerely looking for a job, but the vast majority are daydreaming about reaching the world in one step.
China's imperial system has developed into the Ming Dynasty, and the procedures for how to ask for an audience with the emperor have been very complete. At other times, it would have been very difficult for ordinary people to ask for an audience with the emperor, and the risks were not small. Calculating the odds, these thugs The probability of Ding appearing in front of the emperor is usually less than 0.1%. Unfortunately, the imperial court is now in exile, and God knows how many provinces it can manage. In order to show his closeness to the people and win over people's hearts, Emperor Chongzhen had to hold his nose when meeting some people... and then he was almost bursting with anger.
Generally speaking, the purpose of these people's visits can basically be classified as self-recommendation, and a very small number of them are judicial appeals, that is, petitions for defence. As for the specific contents, they are varied, most of which are very absurd in the emperor's opinion. What's even more terrible is that if these garrulous people can seriously put forward some rational suggestions on national affairs such as counter-insurgency strategies and political reforms, then no matter how unscientific these suggestions are, His Majesty the Emperor will at least He won't be very angry - before he traveled through time, he had seen all kinds of stupid posts on online forums, so he just thought it was fun. By the way, you can also understand the average level of brain damage among intellectuals in the Ming Dynasty.
But the problem is that in many cases, these guys brag about themselves and claim to be "talented prime ministers and assistants", and at least ask for the official position of county magistrate. Then he used the most inspiring words to criticize the ministers in the exiled court of Emperor Chongzhen. From Wen Tiren to Lu Xiangsheng to Wang Dou, all of them were accused of countless crimes. There were even people who directly criticized the emperor himself - the old scholar who just came to see him didn't know what kind of illness he had, and actually cursed the emperor to his face for killing Prince Fu, his elder, who was crazy and contrary to human ethics...
In short, His Majesty the Emperor never dreamed that there would be so many desperadoes among Chinese intellectuals in the late Ming Dynasty. In this time traveler’s impression, the scholars of the feudal dynasty should have been the most desperadoes in front of the imperial power. It's very polite, but unfortunately, a series of recent encounters have completely overturned his above-mentioned concepts, giving him the illusion of being in the House of Commons of England or even the French National Convention.
——What should this strange situation be? Feudal liberalization ideological enlightenment movement?
In addition, there are some even crazier guys who are full of jaw-dropping weird theories. For example, there was a sick and sloppy scholar who mysteriously claimed that he had thoroughly studied the "Book of Changes" , and also found Heluo Book in the creek behind his home. After long-term practice, he has now reached the level of the Golden Elixir stage. If nothing happens, he will be able to transcend the tribulation and ascend to the heaven when he is about eighty years old. . However, out of his loyalty as a subject of the Ming Dynasty, he went down the mountain to sincerely invite the emperor to join the ranks of cultivators and share eternal life. In addition, at this critical moment, he encountered some difficulties in his own cultivation activities. The main ones here are Supply of raw materials for alchemy and magic weapon refining There was a problem, so if the emperor was interested in giving him the title of national master, he himself was willing to temporarily abandon the life of "idle clouds and wild cranes" and follow the emperor for a long time to discuss the issues of "unity of man and nature" and "double cultivation of yin and yang" Questions like...
Regarding this situation, His Majesty the Emperor didn't know what to say other than suggesting that he write fantasy novels to earn royalties.
After finally getting rid of the last arrogant devil today, the tired time-travel version of Emperor Chongzhen summoned Lu Xiangsheng as usual to ask about the progress of the training. After learning that the newly recruited troops still need to train for at least three months before they can go on an expedition. , he could only rub his temples and sigh. ——The longer he stayed in Wuchang, the more he realized how arrogant and useless the officials and gentry these days were... Fortunately, there were still a few capable ministers around him who could handle things, and he had decisively copied them before. He went to Prince Fu's Mansion and obtained the first start-up capital as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if we need to slowly prepare military pay and recruit personnel in Huguang Province, then God knows it will take years and months to raise the army!
Hey, I wonder what the "Yonghe Emperor" of Nanjing is doing now?