Great time travel

136 Chapter [-]

In April of the sixth year of Chongzhen, Huguang, the outskirts of Wuchang City

"...Kill! Kill! Kill!"

"...Raise the gun barrel higher! Are you stabbing a mouse?"

"... Be more energetic! Have you not eaten for a few days?"

Accompanied by roars and shouts of killing, on a dusty school field outside Wuchang, hundreds of soldiers of the Ming army were wearing red jackets, sweating profusely while being scolded by a few veterans of the Tianxiong Army. Long spear stabbing.

And now Emperor Chongzhen's most trusted and trusted general, Lu Xiangsheng, commander of the Tianxiong Army, and Wang Dou, a young general of the Xuanfu who was exceptionally promoted because of his rescue, were standing by the side, looking at these seemingly innocent people with uneasy expressions. Considered a strong Huguang military household, his two pairs of sword eyebrows are always locked.

On the other side, those soldiers from the Tianxiong Army and the Xuanfu Frontier Army who fled to Wuchang from the north all the way have completed their regular training and are squatting or sitting on the side of the school field one by one, sweating and munching on brown rice rice, or a few sips of clear soup for dinner—the hot soup served in the Daming military camp is indeed as pure as water, at least it has never been polluted by any grease, only a few pickles that can occasionally be fished out of the soup bucket are the most pure. It proves the slight difference between it and salt water... But even with this kind of diet, because the rice is full, it can be considered a luxury in Daming at this time!

Ever since the time-traveling version of Emperor Chongzhen completely disregarded the decency and kinship of the Tian family and copied the Fuwang Mansion in Luoyang, the imperial court in exile who escaped from Beijing finally had a huge amount of military expenses—although the money from the Fuwang Mansion , was also fattened by the officials in exile, but because the size of the imperial court has shrunk by nearly 300%, the number of people who are qualified to embezzle it has also decreased a lot, so the money that finally fell into the hands of the emperor It is still very impressive, as much as 15 million taels of silver in cash alone, and [-] shi in Mimai. As for real estate such as fields and manors, there are countless.

However, although the hidden treasures and grains copied from Luoyang Fuwang's Mansion gave the imperial court in exile a sigh of relief.But Luoyang, the hub of the Central Plains, is not an ideal place to settle down just like Taiyuan—Luoyang in 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, and its products and wealth were not enough to support a large army for long-term operations.

What's more terrible is that Emperor Chongzhen had just moved the court from Taiyuan to Luoyang in February. The Guanning Army and the Ming Army led by the traitor Zu Dashou crossed the Taihang Mountains and invaded Shanxi. At the end of February, Taiyuan, the provincial capital, was captured. Datong, an important town, was broken again, and the entire province of Shanxi was about to fall.And the Tartar thief chief Huang Taiji (Huang Taiji) went south from the capital in a big way, even breaking through Daming and Dezhou, and is now besieging Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province.

In addition, the demons and bandits of Wenxiangjiao also ran rampant on the Great Plains in Eastern Henan. Wherever the rebellious army passed by, thousands of hungry people who were forced to die by the drought eagerly defected.The Ming army in Henan had almost no reliable control area east of Hulaoguan (except for the isolated city of Kaifeng, the rest of the place was full of guerrilla areas of the insurgents), and behind Luoyang, Shaanxi was the birthplace of bandits, and the chaos was only It will be more serious than Henan!

To make matters worse, until now, the Shaanxi government still has a vague position on the dispute between the two emperors of the Ming Dynasty, and has not expressed allegiance to Emperor Chongzhen.

Under such circumstances, how dare the time-traveling Emperor Chongzhen, who has become a frightened bird, continue to stay in this dead place of Luoyang?

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, eager to invade Nanjing to regain the throne, this time-traveling version of the Chongzhen Emperor went south to Huguang non-stop, and established in Wuchang. The camp was set up, and the battle flag of rebellion was raised.

Fortunately, I don't know whether it is out of sincere loyalty to the royal family or out of the inertia of officialdom over the years, the local government in Huguang province has obeyed the imperial edict of Emperor Chongzhen very cooperatively, not like the gang of Donglin Party in Nanjing. Back bone.Moreover, compared to Henan, which was displaced by war, suffered years of severe drought, and had no crops, Huguang Province was the world's granary, and it was much easier to raise military rations.

But the problem is, when Lu Xiangsheng was worshiped by Emperor Chongzhen as the commander-in-chief, and led Wang Dou to inspect the various guards in Huguang, preparing to gather the troops of Huguang province to fight against the traitors in Nanjing, he was shocked to find that this huge Huguang line Save, there are almost no soldiers available! ! !
According to the court system of Zhu Yuanzhang's era, under normal circumstances, there were 31 guards in the Huguang province of the Ming Dynasty, with a rated army of 17.If you count the chieftain soldiers and horses in western Hunan, there are more than 600 registered soldiers in the entire Huguang province.

But the problem is that all the current military and political systems of the Ming Empire have nothing to do with the word "normal".

——During the reign of Chongzhen, the average escape rate of hereditary military households in the Ming Empire was about 80.00%. The border guards often fought wars and officers kept a close eye on them, so the escape rate was slightly lower. The escape rate is even higher.In other words, if the inland provincial government has five soldiers on paper, then it would be nice to have one in real existence.And even these soldiers who didn't flee have basically become farmers who can only cultivate the land but not fight. It is impossible to expect them to be pulled out and go into battle.

According to Lu Xiangsheng's estimation, there should be 17 guards in Huguang Province on paper. After deducting those false reports and fleeing guys, and eliminating those old, weak, sick and disabled, we can actually find three out of them. Four thousand strong men is not bad-note, only strong men!Instead of soldiers!Because these so-called hereditary military households have never received any military training since they were born!

Not only do these 20 soldiers only exist on paper, but the various weapons and equipment in stock in Huguang Province also only exist on paper—different from the southeast coast where the Anti-Japanese War was carried out, there are still some The firearm Qi Jiguang used back then.Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Huguang Province has basically been peaceful, so Lu Xiangsheng searched the arsenals in Xiangyang and Wuchang for a long time, but he didn't get a single cannon that could be used. He only found some rusty and rotten swords, Saddles and iron gun heads, as well as a few super-inferior birdcracks that no one dares to use: the barrel is actually made of iron pieces, not to mention the charge is fired. It shattered like glass...

In general, the only troops in Huguang Province with a little combat effectiveness are the chieftain soldiers in western Hunan and the borders of Hunan, Guizhou and Sichuan.Among them, the white pole soldiers of Qin Liangyu, a female general of stone pillars, are the most famous.But the problem is that during the previous catastrophe of the fall of Beijing, the imperial court left a total of [-] white soldiers in Beizhili. Even the current leader of the white soldiers, Qin Liangyu's nephew Qin Yiming, died in the chaos... …

Not to mention whether Qin Liangyu would be angry with the imperial court because of this, even if she was still loyal, Shizhu was only a small place with barren land and a limited population. After killing so many young men in battle, how many soldiers could Qin Liangyu produce Where is King Qin?As for the other chieftains, they have always been rebellious, and their loyalty to the court is very suspicious. They are far less reliable than Qin Liangyu's white-armed soldiers. What should I do if I secretly contacted Nanjing Nichen in private, and then defected?
Therefore, after arriving in Wuchang, Emperor Chongzhen and Lu Xiangsheng found that they had to start from scratch—since the military households in Huguang Province only had three or four thousand available strong men, there were at least tens of thousands of soldiers left to be re-recruited and training; in order to equip this army, all the ordnance needs to be rebuilt; it is too late to build warships, so merchant ships and passenger ships can only be requisitioned for transformation... All civil and military men in the Manchu Dynasty know how the capital Nanjing is like a tiger and a dragon. With a high city and strong fortifications, Lu Xiangsheng's more than 1 Tianxiong army and Wang Dou's thousands of Xuanfu frontier troops will never be able to gnaw it down.Therefore, the imperial court in exile also showed a rare generosity, investing all the treasures of Prince Fu's Mansion confiscated in Luoyang, as well as the "donations" extorted from the officials and gentry of Huguang Province, into the preparation of the army.Anyway, as long as they broke into Nanjing and copied the houses of the Donglin Party, they would have everything!

But even with such ample military expenditures, it is by no means easy to train a battle-ready soldier.With the backward productivity of the handicraft era, it would take a long time just to manufacture weapons and armor for an army of tens of thousands of people... After being so busy all day, Lu Xiangsheng and Wang Dou would occasionally feel a little lucky: thanks The reaction of the pseudo-emperor of Nanjing was also slow. If they took advantage of the extreme emptiness of Huguang Province and sent a group of elite soldiers from Nanjing to attack Wuchang, the situation of the whole Huguang Province might collapse!
Fortunately, the worst scenario that was expected did not happen...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At the same time, in the palace of Emperor Chongzhen in Wuchang City, spit was flying everywhere, shouting and cursing...

"...It's reversed! It's reversed! Drag this crazy creature who has no king in his eyes, quickly out of here!"

Accompanied by the time-traveling version of Emperor Chongzhen shouting again from the throne, the old pedant who was talking nonsense in the hall was immediately pushed out by two already impatient Jin Yiwei, one from the left and the other from the right, but there was still a faint sound from outside the door. Swearing like "disgraceful".

Ever since Emperor Chongzhen's imperial chariot stayed in Wuchang City, all kinds of unsatisfied poor scholars and sour masters suddenly appeared in front of the palace gate like mushrooms after the rain, including several The gentle scum who have been writing ditties in the courtyard all clamored to see the emperor.Among these people, a small number of people came to find a job sincerely, but most of them had daydreams of reaching the sky in one step.

China's court system developed to the Ming Dynasty, and the procedures for how to ask to see the emperor have been very complete. If it were placed at other times, it would be very difficult for ordinary people to see the emperor, and the risk is not small. Calculated according to the probability, this group of sour The probability of Ding being able to appear in front of the emperor is usually less than [-]%.But now the imperial court is in exile, God knows how many provinces it can manage.In order to show closeness to the people and to win over people's hearts, Emperor Chongzhen had to hold his nose to meet some people... and then almost burst into anger.

In general, the purpose of these people's interviews can basically be classified as self-recommendation, and a very small number of them are judicial appeals, that is, court petitions.As for the specific content, there are all kinds of things, most of which are very absurd in the eyes of the emperor.What's more terrible is that if this group of talkative sours can seriously put forward some reasonable suggestions on major national events such as counter-insurgency strategies and political reforms, then no matter how unscientific these suggestions are, His Majesty the Emperor will at least accept them. He won't be very angry - before he traveled through time, he had seen all kinds of stupid posts on Internet forums, so he just took it for fun.By the way, you can also learn about the average brain damage of intellectuals in the Ming Dynasty.

But the problem is that most of the time, these guys are bragging about themselves, claiming that they are "talented ministers", and at least ask for the official position of county magistrate as soon as they open their mouths.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 those who directly scolded the emperor himself—the old scholar who came to see him just now did not know what was wrong with him, but he actually scolded the emperor face to face for killing his own elder, King Fu, for being insane and violating human relations...

In short, His Majesty the Emperor really never dreamed that there were so many desperadoes among intellectuals in China in the late Ming Dynasty. In the impression of this traveler, scholars in the feudal dynasty should be all It's very well-behaved, 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?Feudalism, liberalization, ideological enlightenment?

In addition, there are some crazier guys who are full of jaw-dropping strange talks. For example, there was a crooked and sloppy scholar who mysteriously claimed that he had studied the "Book of Changes" thoroughly. Yes, and he also found the Heluo book in the creek behind his home. After long-term practice, he has reached the level of Jindan stage. If there is no accident, he will be able to pass the tribulation and ascend to the ascension when he is around 80 years old.However, out of loyalty as a subject of Ming Dynasty, he still went down the mountain to sincerely invite the emperor to join the ranks of cultivators and share longevity—in addition, at this critical moment, he encountered some difficulties in his cultivation activities. There is a problem with the supply of raw materials for alchemy and magic weapons, so if the emperor is interested in giving him the title of national teacher, he himself is willing to temporarily abandon the life of "leisure clouds and wild cranes" and follow the emperor for a long time to discuss together about "the unity of man and nature". " and "yin and yang dual cultivation" and other issues...

Regarding such a situation, His Majesty the Emperor didn't know what to say other than to suggest him to write fantasy novels to earn royalties.

After finally throwing out today’s last pretending to be a dead ghost, the exhausted 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 going out , had to rub his temples and sighed.

——The longer he stayed in Wuchang, the more he realized how arrogant and useless the officials and gentry are these days... Fortunately, there are still a few capable ministers who can do things by his side, and he decisively copied before. He entered the Fuwang Mansion and got the first start-up capital as quickly as possible.Otherwise, if it is necessary to slowly prepare military salaries and recruit troops in Huguang Province, God knows that it will take years of monkeys to pull up the army!
Hey, I don't know what the "Emperor Yonghe" in Nanjing is doing now?