Dashun Yongchang

Sang Kaidi only shook his head and said in denial: "Of course not. Loyalty, filial piety and righteousness are the great festivals of scholars. It is the behavior of beasts to abandon the emperor and ancestors and turn to the barbarians."

Li Zicheng then asked him: "Then what are those who are in the same boat as beasts?"

Although Sang Kaidi was very flustered, he still gritted his teeth and replied: "Anyone who sleeps with a beast must also be a beast."

Li Zicheng clapped his hands and praised: "Okay, I like the position of Sang Zhifu who distinguishes between love and hate. Scholars talk about integrity, but some people don't know what integrity is. Fortunately, you are not one of them. Quan so shamelessly serving the Manchus and slaughtering our Chinese people, isn’t it better than a pig or a dog? Tell me, what should we do with those who cover for the beasts?”

Sang Kaidi was silent for a long time, and then he replied expectantly: "Dang, you should punish severely, and think that the world is a warning."

Li Zicheng turned his gaze to Chengxuan, the inspector, and Tixue censor, who were beside him, and asked them, "Tell me, the three of you, is there any truth to what Magistrate Sang said?"

Changing from a military position to a civilian position, Xiao Shiheng is still very grateful to Li Zicheng. As a military officer of the Ming Dynasty, he still envies the status of a civil official. There is no difference, when you go to the Ministry of War to collect documents, you have to roll your name and enter the court to attend the ceremony, and the object of the salute is not the Minister of the Ministry of War, or even the Minister of the Ministry of War, but the ordinary head of the Ministry of War.

According to the "criminal name" of the procuratorial envoy in charge of a province, it is the third rank, a position that Xiao Shiheng in the past could not even have imagined.It's just that although he changed from a military position to a civil position, he is still an outlier in the tradition of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom, because he has no teacher, nor is he of the same age, and his past friends are not helpful to his current position, so Xiao Shiheng has been in office. He is extremely cautious, and he hardly offends others among civil servants, so he can be regarded as a middleman.

However, now that Li Zicheng has expressed his attitude, he, as a centrist, naturally cannot continue to be a centrist, so without waiting for the two civil servants around him to express their views, he said to Li Zicheng first: "What your majesty said is very true. This is indeed the behavior of beasts. How can one treat beasts with compassion? Prefect Sang is right. Those who work as tigers should be severely punished to let them know His Majesty's majesty."

Now that the chief justice has expressed his attitude, and with the magistrate's proposal, Dong Ting and Cai Feng know that there is no room for the two of them to talk about this matter. If they echo Ding Kuichu's words, they may still be able to muster up their courage, but If they were to stand up against Li Zicheng, they would not have the guts.

Besides, the incident happened suddenly, and they didn't know whether the other person would follow after they stood up. If they didn't, they would have to fight against Li Zicheng themselves. In such an atmosphere, it was obviously the worst option.Dong Ting and Cai Feng finally agreed to severely punish traitors.

Only then did Li Zicheng turn his gaze back to Sang Kaidi and asked, "Then how do you plan to find out those scum who are covering for Song Quan? I want to listen to the method, not your determination."

After surrendering to Li Zicheng, Sang Kaidi put everything aside, and his mind became flexible. After hearing this question, he quickly figured out what Li Zicheng wanted to hear, so he said: "Qingzhang If you change the title deed, the land under Song Quan’s name will be exposed, even if it is not exposed, it doesn’t matter, we can take it back to the government in the name of land without owner, which is equivalent to confiscating the land under Song Quan’s name. Family property. However, I still have something to report."

Seeing that the proposal given by Sang Kaidi was exactly what he wanted, of course he didn't lose his temper with these officials because of the confiscation of Song Quan's family property. Powerful officials and gentry.After all, handling Song Quan's case will not make the gentry unite against him, but if the gentry are held accountable for their crimes against Qingzhang Tianmu, it will only force these gentry to go completely against themselves.

Now that Sang Kaidi has the consciousness of becoming an eagle dog, Li Zicheng's attitude towards him is naturally a little more relaxed, so he nodded and replied: "Success, if you want to make love, just report it."

Although Sang Kaidi knew that he had to offend those gentry this time, he didn't want to offend them to death, so he said to Li Zicheng: "I don't want to excuse some people who made mistakes, but there are some people who also It's not that they are willing to protect Song Quan. They just accepted Song Quan's request as Song family members or friends. If these people are regarded as accomplices because of this, I think it will hurt your majesty's sage. I dare to ask your majesty Those who know their mistakes and can correct them will be given leniency."

Li Zicheng was silent for a moment, then said to Sang Kaidi: "What I value is not punishing a few people, but whether the decree of the Marshal's Mansion can be implemented, and whether the people have been educated from this matter. If you can do this Two points, just let go and do it, if you can’t even do these two points, then don’t think about others, think about yourself first.”

Sang Kaidi didn't dare to make a sound, so Li Zicheng said to Dong Ting, Xiao Shiheng, and Cai Feng next to him: "Although I have given this matter to the prefect of Sang, you should do your best to help him. Once the case of the Mansion is completed, we will sum up the experience and promote it to the whole province. There is not only one Guide Mansion in Henan, do you know?"

While responding to Li Zicheng, the three of them glanced at Sang Kaidi sympathetically. Li Zicheng shifted the responsibility to Sang Kaidi, which means that this man will become the enemy of Guide gentry no matter what, and they don't know what will happen to him in the future. , but for the three of them, they escaped a catastrophe, after all, they were unwilling to offend the Guide Song family and other gentry.

After the training in the courtyard, Li Zicheng asked the civil servants to retreat first, and then he really wanted to study the offensive situation of the Qing army on the East Road with the generals.Dong Ting and Cai Feng walked out of the Song residence, bid farewell to other civil servants, and prepared to go back to their government offices, but they walked side by side for a while after getting on their horses.

Dong Ting and Cai Feng walked side by side, in fact, they were communicating about today's events. They were not from local gentry backgrounds, so they didn't feel much panic when Li Zicheng suppressed the local gentry.However, they knew quite well about Ding Kuichu's protection of the local gentry against the decree of the Marshal's government, and they were even entrusted by Ding Kuichu.

In order not to be involved in the struggle between the Marshal's Mansion and the local gentry, it was necessary for the two of them to communicate together.Cai Feng felt less pressure than Dong Ting, because he was mainly in charge of education, so he didn't have such deep interest entanglement with these local gentry. It was nothing more than missing some questions for these gentry during the exam, which was not a big problem.

But Dong Ting was still a little worried, because he was promoted from the prefect of Guide, and the entanglement with the gentry of Guide was much deeper than that between Cai Feng and them, so he was very worried that this storm would blow on him.However, Cai Feng said to him disapprovingly: "We are just assisting

Sang Kaidi, if Sang Kaidi doesn't listen to us, there's nothing we can do, right?They are still thinking of slandering me at this moment, so will His Majesty listen to them?I can't see it. "

Dong Ting was stunned for a moment before he came to his senses. Indeed, what Li Zicheng wanted was not to clean up the officials who colluded with the gentry in Guide, but to clean up those gentry who refused to cooperate with the Marshal's Mansion. These gentry went to uphold justice, thus disrupting their own arrangement.

However, he still said worriedly: "Maybe we don't have to worry about being implicated this time, but after subduing these gentry, will His Majesty turn his hand to deal with us?"

After thinking for a while, Cai Feng said: "So we have to make a break with the past. In the past, we regarded ourselves as officials of Da Ming, but in the future, it seems that we will regard ourselves as officials of Da Shun. That's the only way, Your Majesty." There is no excuse to deal with us. He can't be punished by the Dashun Dynasty for the mistakes we made in the Ming Dynasty, right? In that case, there will still be an official in the world who dares to serve in the Dashun Dynasty..."

Cai Feng's words reassured Dong Ting a lot, and now he felt the bumps on the horse's back, so he couldn't help complaining: "Why do we civil servants have to ride horses? It's really disgraceful and uncomfortable. gone."

Cai Feng also felt that what Dong Ting said was very reasonable, but he didn't agree with the other party, because Li Zicheng hated sitting in a sedan chair, and thought that except for the elderly and sick, healthy people should not travel in a sedan chair.Because of Li Zicheng's habit, the civil servants who were accustomed to sitting in sedan chairs had to learn to ride horses and mules, because everyone didn't want to be regarded as old and useless by Li Zicheng.

Cai Feng felt that it was quite dangerous to go along with this issue. If it got to Li Zicheng's ears, he didn't think Dong Ting would cover him.The two broke up after talking. On the way back to his yamen, Cai Feng looked at the orderly flow of people on the street, and felt that the world might be a success, because the people of this city no longer feared in the contact. Shunjun, this is really a miracle.

Chapter 469 Guide Five

As a newcomer who joined the army for less than a few months, although he was repeatedly praised and promoted by his superiors, Chen Junyue was still a little nervous when facing Li Zicheng and other generals of the Shun Army to express their opinions.

However, following the analysis of the current battlefield situation, he finally regained his composure, and began to explain in an orderly manner, "...According to the summary of the information we collected from various aspects, my department believes that:

At present, the strength of the Qing army attacking Cao County on its right wing is about [-] or more, but it will not exceed [-].This Qing army should be the Boluo and Ashan tribes mobilized from Shandong, and it was also the army that captured Caozhou City before. The morale of this army is higher than that of the Qing army on the front line of Dingtao;

The troops attacking our Yutai County on its left flank had about 5000 troops. This Qing army was the Shi Tingzhu Department that broke through Chengwu City before; the troops attacking Shan County on the middle road were the main force of Nikan and Tong Tulai. About 7000 troops...

The strength of our army in Cao County is about [-], mainly Niu Wancai's troops who were withdrawn from Dingtao and Feng Yangzhu's troops who were stationed in Cao County; There are more than [-] people; the middle road is the main force of Lu Yingbiao's division and a part of the German army led by Liu Tichun, with a total strength of [-] people.

In addition, behind the defense line of Cao County-Shan County-Yutai County, there are about seven or eight thousand guards in Feng County and Dangshan County, followed by the garrisons in Xuzhou and Guide, but Xuzhou's troops mainly serve as It is almost impossible to mobilize to guard against the surprise attack of the Qing army's cavalry. It mainly depends on the three infantry divisions and several cavalry divisions currently concentrated in Guide. The total strength should be around 4.

Judging from the situation in front of us, although there is not much difference between the troops fighting on the front line, our army still has at least nearly [-] mobile troops that have not been deployed on the battlefield, so our army still has a certain advantage.However, according to our judgment after comprehensive information from all parties, we believe that the Qing army has assembled at least a reserve force of between [-] and [-] in the Dingtao and Chengwu areas, and the commander of the Qing Army East Road Duoduo also Should have reached Dingtao..."

Li Zicheng interrupted Chen Junyue suddenly and asked: "Why is it 20 to 30? How did you judge this number? According to the previous information, isn't there at least 30 to [-] horses on Qingjun East Road? Adding Dong Xueli For these surrendering troops, the number of troops that can be mobilized by the Qing army on the East Road should not be less than [-]? Even if the Shandong Peninsula and Jining front lines are removed and these troops are maintained in the rear, the Qing army can't mobilize less than [-] troops. For the [-] to [-] troops on the Caoxian-Yutai line, the Qing army should have at least [-] to [-] troops in Dingtao."

Chen Junyue immediately replied: "According to our calculations, an army of 3 people needs to consume about 130 tons of food and fodder every day, and the Qing army has more horses than our army, so it must exceed this amount. A large cart can hold up to one and a half tons. If the horses and the driver’s round-trip food and drink are deducted, the transportation capacity of a large cart is only about 1.3 tons, and a troop of 3 people needs 100 carts per day. Supplies are needed to maintain.

According to the news from the rebels in Yuyuan, Manjiadong and other places, although the Qing army transported grain from Jinan to Caozhou and Dingtao in an endless stream, the average daily number was only between 200 and 300 vehicles. It also includes consumables such as arrows.Therefore, we have calculated that it is impossible for the Qing army to exceed the upper limit of [-] troops on the front line of Dingtao, otherwise this army will not be able to maintain basic needs.

The Qing army delayed for three days after taking down Chengwu and Dingtao before continuing to launch a large-scale pursuit of our army, which also proved this point from the side.If it weren't for the Qing army's inability to meet logistical needs, it would have been impossible to slow down the attack. This is obviously not a mistake that a battle-hardened general would make.Based on the above information, we have come to a conclusion that the reserve forces of the Qing army in the Dingtao and Chengwu areas will not exceed the upper limit of [-]..."

Satisfied with the young staff officer's calm answer, Li Zicheng raised his hand to signal the other party to continue, then asked Zuo Ye beside him in a low voice, "Who is this?"

Zuo Ye lowered his voice and replied: "Chen Junyue, whose name is Muyi, is from Rugao County, Yangzhou Prefecture. Although he came from a poor family, but there are quite a few fields in the family and he doesn't worry about food and clothing, so he likes to hang out in the market since he was a child, but he has not been contaminated. What a bad habit, but he is willing to stand up and uphold justice for the weak, so he has quite a reputation in the local area.

Our army went south to Yangzhou to subdue the four towns, and after the place was settled, he signed up to join the army.Because he has read books and can memorize the regulations of the army, he was recommended to the staff department to study before the recruit training was over. After the Qing army went south, we were short of manpower, and these staff officers who had not completed their internship were also assigned to various places. It's back to the German Army..."

When Li Zicheng was talking with Zuo Xie, Chen Junyue also began to talk about the judgment of the Guide Staff Department on the current battlefield: "...Although the Qing army broke through the Chengwu, it forced our army to abandon the Dingtao-Chengwu line of defense. Internal stimulation stimulated the morale of the Qing army to rise, but when the Qing army realized that our army had also set up the Caoxian-Shanxian-Yutai and Fengxian defense lines behind the Dingtao-Chengwu line, the morale of the Qing army began to decline up.

The reason why our department made the judgment of the morale of the Qing army was based on the following signs.In the previous series of operations that the Qing army went south, the Qing army would send a small number of capable cavalry deep behind our army's defense line. Sometimes these elite cavalry will also attack cities with no defensive force behind our army to create panic among the soldiers and civilians behind our army.

Previously, the defenders from Dezhou to Jinan kept giving up their weapons and turned to the enemy, which has already shown that the Qing army's tactics were successful. After losing contact with the surrounding friendly forces, the defenders without a firm will lost the will to fight, and then Under the panic created by the Qing army, the soldiers and civilians on the other side would lose their normal judgment, thinking that the front line had been lost, and gave up going to rescue. Therefore, even if the defenders in some places were still able to fight, they would fall into despair because of the lack of reinforcements, and were eventually eliminated by the Qing army. The army easily seized it.

However, this kind of action of sending a small number of elite cavalry deep into the enemy's rear must be based on the high morale of one's own side.If the main force cannot advance quickly, then even if these fine cavalry can fight, they will not be able to fight against the superior force, and fighting in a hostile area, the actions of these fine cavalry can be easily judged, and their supplies They are also less capable, making it impossible to remain operational behind enemy lines for long periods of time.

After the Qing army broke the Dingtao-Chengwu defense line this time, although they also sent some capable cavalry to try to penetrate into the hinterland of our army, these Qing cavalry were not as bold and active as before.According to the information gathered by our army from various places, the cavalry of the Qing army did not break through Fengxian-Dangshan County, and they realized that our army had maintained enough troops in this area, and quickly retreated, and No probing attacks.

It can be seen from this that although the Qing army broke through the Dingtao-Chengwu line, the Qing army is almost at the end of its battle. They no longer have the desire to continue to attack, so the small group of Qing cavalry did not go deep into the hinterland of our army. Determination.

It has been nearly a year since the Qing army left the customs in March last year, and the Qing army has been fighting abroad for nearly a year. Victory is more important than longevity, and the morale of the Qing army should indeed decline.And according to the confession of the Qing army prisoners we captured, the Qing army East Road has been entangled with our army in Jining since November last year. Man himself has no hope of victory in this war.

Therefore, we finally believe that although the East Route Army of the Qing Army has broken through the Dingtao-Chengwu line, its combat strategy is not to pursue the complete elimination of our army, but to hope to be able to achieve the goal between Dingtao-Chengwu and Guide-Xuzhou. This place fights a battle with us, defeats us in order to keep most of Shandong occupied by the Qing army, and end this war decently..."

Unlike the previous generals who always questioned the judgment of the general staff, after a series of victories in Henan, the generals of the Shun Army finally began to recognize the judgment of the general staff.I also began to accept the process of judging the enemy's combat intentions and establishing our army's combat objectives before the war. Reduced the command burden of generals.

Even the most talented generals are not as efficient as a staff department composed of several people, because the staff department itself is an industrial organization method of division of labor and cooperation, rather than the individual heroism model of the agricultural era.What's more, at this time, most of the generals in the Shun Army didn't even know a few big characters, and they commanded the troops entirely by their personal bravery and keen intuition on the battlefield.

So the Shun army performed better in small-scale battles, and worse in large-scale battles. In fact, only Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin were able to command an army of more than [-] people before someone's soul crossed over. , He Jin and a few others.He Jin's death was indeed an irreparable loss for Shun Jun.

After someone crossed over, Li Zicheng's ability to command the army was useless. Even if someone inherited all of Li Zicheng's memories, he would not be able to replicate this command ability, so he has always avoided directing the battle himself.The existence of a command organization like the General Staff is prepared for a commander like him who actually has little commanding ability.

On the other hand, in the Qing Dynasty, Nurhachi himself was born as Li Chengliang's servant. He has been receiving systematic combat education from the Ming army. The battle also greatly exercised the Manchu's ability to command large armies, especially the Qing army's several raids and raids, which can essentially be regarded as actual combat exercises for large armies.

In the face of such a Manchurian Eight Banners, the biggest shortcoming of the Shun Army is not in the soldiers' individual combat ability and ordnance equipment, but in the command ability of the army.Even if the Shun army recruited many generals from the Ming army, it did not make up for this gap, because apart from Liaodong Town, the other Ming armies also lacked experience in large-scale battles.The appearance of the staff officers can be regarded as finally leveling the gap in the command ability of General Shunqing.

Chapter 470 Guide Six

After Chen Junyue introduced the current situation on the battlefield, Yuan Zongdi then got up and said to Li Zicheng: "Although our army's Dingtao-Chengwu defense line was broken by the Qing army, our army basically maintained its formation when it retreated, and it was not destroyed by the Qing army. The organization was disrupted, so the troops withdrawn to Cao County and Shan County still had a certain morale.

If there is a battle with the Qing army in this area, then our army still has certain advantages.The question now is, do we really need to fight?I have learned about the local climate, and the Yellow River will open in about half a month. Once the weather turns warmer, it will be difficult for vehicles to move as the land thaws.

Last autumn, the Xiaosongkou and Caojiazhai dams on the north bank of the Yellow River broke, and the river flooded the four counties of Cao, Shan, Jinxiang, and Yutai. The traffic in this area was unimpeded because of the cold weather and the ground freezing behind.Now that the weather is getting warmer, the water parks in these areas may become traffic-blocking again.

Therefore, as long as we confront the Qing army for about a month, this battle will not be able to continue.Because the attacking side will inevitably be choked by traffic, but the defensive side will take advantage of the location.I believe that the Qing army should not ask for trouble. "

Yuan Zongdi's judgment won the support of many generals, but Liu Zongmin disagreed and said: "I don't object to Mianhou's statement, but who is more beneficial to delay the war because of the weather?

I think it should be more beneficial to the Manchus. You must know that we defeated Azig with great difficulty and boosted morale. Right now, our army’s morale is at its highest, while the Qing army is in a state of crisis because of the defeat of the Azig army. When morale was low, even if they broke the Dingtao-Chengwu line, it would not change the fact that the Manchus were defeated head-on by our army.

I have also heard the history of the Manchus sorted out by the General Staff before. The Manchus claim to have never been defeated since they started their army, so they regard martial arts as the foundation of their country. The Ming army is also afraid of field battles with the Manchus because they admit that they cannot beat them. Manchu.After the Manchus entered the customs, a large number of old Ming soldiers surrendered. I think they were also afraid of their force, rather than sincerely loyal to the Manchus.

The defeat of Azig this time broke the myth of the Manchus being undefeated in field battles. The news spread to the ears of the Qing army on the East Road, which would inevitably make those Ming troops who surrendered doubt the fighting power of the Manchus.However, if we act hesitantly, will these surrendering Ming troops believe that we really beat the Azig army away?

In the Qing army, did the troops composed of Manchu, Mongol and Liaodong people account for half of the number?I don't think there will be any.Therefore, if we can shake those Ming troops who surrendered, we can reduce more than half of the enemies.It's the same reason that after we killed Sun Chuanting in the past, the Ming army no longer dared to confront us head-on.

So I don't think we can end this war with the mentality of procrastinating and avoiding the war. Even if half of them are defeated because of the weather, we must show an overwhelming momentum on the battlefield and let those surrendered Ming troops know, The failure of the Azig Army was not because of our luck, but because we really defeated the Manchus with our strength. "

Liu Zongmin's words sparked a discussion among the generals in the room. Seeing this scene, Li Zicheng clapped his hands lightly, and after focusing everyone's attention on himself, he said: "Ru Hou said well, indeed, we cannot Let the Ming army who surrendered to the Manchus maintain their superstition about the force of the Manchus, otherwise these people will work too hard on the battlefield, and they will cause us a lot of trouble.

Left staff officer, you lead other staff officers to make a total calculation and come up with a battle plan.Of course, I don’t mean that we must fight, but we must show the determination and posture to fight a war, and it’s hard to boost the morale of the army. We can’t passively avoid the battle and vent the soldiers’ momentum. .Isn't that just lifting a rock and shooting yourself in the foot? "

In fact, Li Zicheng's remarks did not completely agree with Liu Zongmin's main battle idea, but even Yuan Zongdi felt that what Li Zicheng said was very reasonable, although many generals present did not want to take the risk of fighting the Qing army, hoping to keep the western Lu's victory over the Azig army ended the war.However, if the Qing army can be suppressed in momentum and shake the Qing army's superstitious belief in the surrender of the Ming army towards the Manchus, then the next southern expedition of the Qing army will be even more distant, which is obviously more powerful for the Shun army.

The current situation is that whoever puts the reserve team into the battlefield first will lose the initiative power on the battlefield. Unless there is a major change on the front line, the Qing army and the Shun army will not invest follow-up forces in a short time to maintain Mobile power in your own hands.Therefore, Li Zicheng was not worried that the Qing army would launch a large-scale attack in a short period of time, which would be a good thing for the Shun army, because after Henan returned to the Shun army, the original Shun army was deployed between Henan and Anhui. All the troops are now ready to use.

In other words, the Shun army did not have the only option of fighting in the field with the Qing army. They could also continue to build a rear line of defense and implement strategies to fortify the wall and clear the field, so that the Qing army's meager morale was exhausted in the siege battle.It's just that Henan has just been regained after all, and the people's hearts have not yet fully attached to the Marshal's Mansion. Li Zicheng is unwilling to give these Henan local forces another chance to rebound, so he is unwilling to consider using this strategy.But if the Qing army took the initiative to launch an attack, then in order to obtain greater fruits of victory, he did not shy away from using this strategy.

Therefore, after making a military decision, Li Zicheng does not need to worry about the remaining details, because the staff will take over these tasks, and at this time the main force of the Shun Army that has transferred from Zhengzhou to Guide has not arrived, so the military The discussion has come to an end for now.

"Quiet, be quiet, the meeting is still too early to end." Li Zicheng clapped his hands again, focused the attention of the generals who had relaxed and started chatting, and then said under the eyes of everyone: "This time, we will discuss with the Qing army. Although many problems have been exposed in the new military system, compared with the results achieved by the new military system in actual combat, it is obviously much better than the old military system, no matter how it is compared.

Therefore, although this war is not over yet, I feel that in terms of military system reform, it is imperative to establish a new army and reform the old army.I thought that all the troops under the jurisdiction of the Marshal's Mansion would be reorganized and divided into three types of troops, soldiers, guards and cavalry.

I don’t need to explain what the soldiers and cavalry do. As the main combat force of the country, they will only be responsible for combat tasks. Except for some cavalry who have to undertake ceremonial tasks, other non-combat tasks will try to avoid fighting soldiers and cavalry. arrange.And the country will also give priority to guaranteeing the expenditure of this part of the army, so this part of the army should not be too much, otherwise the country will be unable to afford it.

Let's discuss now how many soldiers and cavalry units are appropriate to set up..."

At this time, the Shun Army has formed seven infantry divisions of the new army. Not counting the strength of Shaanxi and Shanxi, the main force of the Shun Army between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River has basically been included. Based on the calculation of 1.7 infantry divisions, So at this time, the main infantry force of the Shun Army exceeded 8, which was double the main force of the Shun Army's infantry when it went south.

However, compared with the number of surrendered Ming troops led southward by the Shun army and the number of Ming troops who surrendered on the way south, it was only one-third of the number of these Ming troops. That is to say, there were 24 troops still to be reorganized. This does not include the Ming army in the area south of the Yangtze River.Under Li Zicheng's reminder, these generals realized that at least half of the huge former Ming army would have to be disbanded before the Marshal's Mansion could support the army.

The generals who were born in the rebel army were better. Li Zicheng naturally gave priority to reorganizing the brothers of the rebel army, and then the reorganization of the Ming army. Therefore, the soldiers of the rebel army were not worried about the idea of ​​reducing the number of troops. In fact, they were more worried about the fact that the world seemed to be peaceful. Yes, some of the soldiers below have already sprouted the idea of ​​returning to the countryside to work in agriculture, which directly led to the soldiers' war weariness.

The founding heroes are at least at the rank of generals. Those soldiers who come from ordinary people will not expect extravagant rewards for heroes. Just like the emperor, Li Zicheng can only sit. Other generals can never say to Li Zicheng: "It is fair for the emperor to take turns .”

Therefore, after the world is at peace, it is already the simplest post-war wish of many soldiers from refugees to be able to return to their hometown with rewards and buy a few fields for farming.This is also the reason why the military discipline of the Shun Army once deteriorated after entering Beijing, because many people felt that the new dynasty would be established soon and they would not be able to rob them.

As for those generals of the Ming army who had just surrendered, they were naturally unwilling to be targeted by the general staff. These generals of the Ming army have led the army for generations, and it is already an instinctive habit for them to join the army. He didn't know how to be an ordinary citizen at all, so he naturally hoped that his troops could be included in the new army. This directly led to the infighting among the generals of the Ming army, and even Li Zicheng couldn't stop it for a while.

It was with great difficulty that Li Zicheng suppressed the quarrel among the generals, and then said to them: "Don't worry too much about where the army will go after it is cut. Right now, although Dashun controls an area, there are many wastes in the local area, and even the management Even though some people proposed to set up the imperial examination, I also know that the imperial examination must be held, otherwise those scholars would not support us.

However, there are frequent chaos in the local area, and it may be difficult to stabilize the local area if those unarmed scholars are really to manage it.So I think that we should promote a group of talented people from the army to serve in the localities.In this way, it can not only solve the whereabouts of officers and heroes after the reduction of the army, but also send a group of talents to the local area. Isn't this the best way to achieve the best of both worlds? "

The generals who were still arguing about whose troops should be laid off before finally calmed down a lot after hearing Li Zicheng's words, but some people asked Li Zicheng: "Your Majesty's proposition is naturally supported by my ministers, but those scholars will be happy. Are we rough people going to be magistrates? What should we do if scholars resist?"

Li Zicheng thought for a while and then said: "Confucian masters all said: When things are urgent, you should follow the authority. As long as the imperial examination is held, those scholars will not pay too much attention to this issue, unless they have nowhere to go..."

Chapter 471 Guide VII

Hearing that the dismissed officers will not be driven home to become civilians, the original quarrel over the establishment has become much quieter. Ever since the Ming Empire was on the verge of collapse, various military forces have been forming all over the place. There are private ones on the Internet.

After Li Zicheng conquered Beijing, these official troops or private forces all surrendered to Dashun, making Dashun's military force close to a million people. Calculated according to the calculation of 2 to 3 soldiers per 5000 people, Dashun needs at least 6000 soldiers. Only a population of [-] can afford to support these soldiers, but until the Wanli period, the Ming Dynasty still maintained the same population as the Hongwu Dynasty, which was more than [-] million, which meant that a large number of people were hidden households who did not pay taxes.

In other words, even if Li Zicheng unified the territory and population of the Ming Dynasty, he could barely support a million troops. Now Dashun has not yet taken over the areas south of the Huaihe River and the Qinling Mountains. If the armed forces in these areas are also added, then The armed forces of the whole of China have reached at least 2 million, which is a number of troops that a unified dynasty cannot afford.

Therefore, the senior generals of the Shun Army knew before they left Beijing that disarmament was inevitable after the world was at peace, but many officers and soldiers of the Shun Army were actually unwilling to become guard soldiers like they did in the Hongwu period. It is within the establishment of the army, but after becoming a guard soldier, he almost becomes an officer and a slave of the country, and it is difficult for even his descendants to escape the fate of being a soldier.

Emperor Hongwu once proudly stated that he raised millions of troops but did not cost the people a grain of rice, but the money and food of the army cannot be born out of thin air, so if the money and food of the people are not consumed, the army has to support itself.This also means that Ming's army not only has to undertake production tasks, but also undertakes combat tasks, and has become a self-sufficient group. Then this group will not have any sympathy for the local area, because there is no intersection between the two sides. , and the army will be oppressed by the local gentry, because the land occupied by the army is regarded as an act of encroachment by the local government.

Even after the Shun Army went south, hundreds of thousands of frontier troops surrendered to the Manchus, but after the Shun Army went south to take over the officers and soldiers from Henan, Huaiyang and other places, they quickly filled the vacancy left by these frontier troops.Coupled with the new army formed to improve combat effectiveness, the size of the Shun Army is still not much smaller than when it left Beijing.

Although the Shun army went south to occupy rich places such as Huaiyang, and forced the small southern courts to provide them with some money and food, but the huge scale of the Shun army and the response to the war expenditure of the Qing army did not compare with the war expenditure of the Qing army. It cannot meet the expenditure of the Shun Army. In fact, a large part of the expenditure of the Marshal's Mansion is now borrowed from the southern businessmen through the bank.

Although the money borrowed by Shunjun was quickly returned to the merchants through orders, thereby maintaining the liquidity of the southern business, but this kind of loan obviously cannot be sustained for a long time, unless Dashun can find a new source of wealth , so as to offset the interest paid on the merchant's loan, otherwise Dashun would become a debt slave of these southern merchants.

Of course, Li Zicheng can also refer to the practice of foreign counterparts. If the Spanish king does not pay the loan interest, he will declare his debt, thus solving the problem of not being able to pay the loan.One of the more superior aspects of Li Zicheng's King of Spain is that the Italian banker has the support of the Holy See behind him, but there is no force behind the Jiangnan businessman who can wrestle with him.

But Li Zicheng knew that he could not do this, or it was unnecessary to do so, because compared with those gentry, these businessmen who were willing to lend money to the Marshal's Mansion were Dashun's partners, and as a person with the soul of future generations, He knows how to pay the interest on these loans, as long as he can stabilize the country first.

However, after ensuring their own safety, reducing the size of the army has become an inevitable trend, and Li Zicheng's proposal is also supported by some generals who are interested in providing the army with combat power, because they also know that although the current size of the Shun army is small Large, but the combat power is very weak. In fact, a large part of the armed forces organized in various places include local hooligans. These people are good at oppressing the people, but they are defeated in one blow on the battlefield. , Keeping such an army is almost useless except to consume money and food.

After obtaining the consensus of the generals present, Li Zicheng finally made a conclusion and said: "The usual treatment we give to soldiers now is 1 liter of rice per day, 6 cents of vegetable gold, one person consumes 4 shi of rice a year, and 2.4 taels of vegetable gold. However, this does not include the cost of supporting the soldiers' families. Adding these costs, a soldier's annual expenditure will at least triple to four times.

The longer you serve in the army, the better the pay, so it's best that most soldiers don't serve more than four or five years, so we can save a lot of money.The money can be used to replace army equipment or build military fortresses, thereby improving the combat effectiveness of our army.For an army, combat effectiveness is definitely more important than quantity.

Considering this way of thinking, I think it is more appropriate to control the size of the army to less than 60, and the number of soldiers and cavalry should not exceed one-third. number…"

On this issue, Liu Zongmin strongly supported Li Zicheng. He followed Li Zicheng and said: "I think what your majesty said is very reasonable. In the past, we recruited soldiers on a large scale, because as long as we have something to eat, we are not afraid that no one will come. Henan and Shaanxi The victims of disasters are everywhere, as long as there is food, an army can be pulled out.

But can such an army fight?To be honest, except for some villages with a small population, we didn't even dare to attack the manors of the gentry. The hundreds of cavalry of the official army dared to charge tens of thousands of us, and we were defeated.The reason why the rebel army can fight stronger is because human life is worthless, as long as they fight a few battles before dying, they will learn how to fight..."

Thinking of the experience of fighting against the government and army over the past ten years, Liu Zongmin couldn't help but sigh. At this time, he began to agree in his heart that the establishment of Dashun was not only the credit of the living, but those volunteer brothers who died in obscurity in the past ten years. The biggest hero, if you want to make the deaths of these people worthwhile, then the key is to build a Dashun worthy of their sacrifices, otherwise it will be a betrayal of them.

Liu Zongmin's resentment towards officials did not come from his childhood experience. No matter how great his hatred was when he was a child, he could almost vent it after killing so many officials and gentry. Under the siege and interception of officials, these accumulated hatreds are the source of his constant dissatisfaction with officials and gentry.

Thinking of this, Liu Zongmin's voice became a little choked up, but he quickly adjusted back and continued: "Since Dashun has been established, as Your Majesty said, we need to establish a world where ordinary people can survive , then human life will become more expensive, and it is obviously inappropriate to expect an army of dead people to pile up as in the past.

Moreover, the northerners are almost dead, and we can't find so many refugees to follow us to beat up the people.As for the southerners, although they suffered a little bit of disaster in the past few years, they did not have the scene of thousands of refugees in the north like this. It is a big event that a flood in the south can kill hundreds of people. Thousands of refugees cross counties The movement, the local area has been shaken, and food has been raised to settle the refugees.

To put it simply, although southerners will die in disasters and flee as refugees, at least they can find a way to survive, and they will not be willing to take the same way as the desperate northern disaster victims.Therefore, we cannot expect to recruit a bunch of southerners and fight with the Manchus to form a strong army. Southerners will not do this.

Therefore, I agree with His Majesty's opinion on controlling the size of the army, but I still have a somewhat different opinion. On the premise of controlling the size of the army, the proportion of northern soldiers, especially the proportion of soldiers from Shaanxi and Gansu, should be increased, because only soldiers from these places can He is more hardworking and willing to fight with all his might. "

Liu Zongmin's opinion was supported by the generals present. Whether it is the Ming army or the Shun army, those who can fight are the northerners. The southerners can actually fight with two troops, one is the chieftain soldier and the other is the Qi family army. These two armies were almost killed by the northern generals of the Ming army. When the Ming Dynasty fell, there were no southern troops in the area north of the Yangtze River.