In addition to these two incomparably expensive cuirassier regiments, three other dragoon regiments were formed, namely the Mounted Infantry Regiment, each with a rated strength of 2,000 men, all of which were equipped with Mongolian horses obtained from trade, and the soldiers were equipped with muskets and sapper shovels.

To put it simply, the dragoon regiment is more like a rapid reaction force, the horses are just their means of transport, usually using the horses to quickly move to the combat site, and then dismount for formation operations, if there is an urgent defensive mission, you can quickly move to the target area, using the sapper shovel to build a defensive position to fight.

Because of this, the requirements for horses in the dragoon regiment are not high, ordinary Mongolian horses are enough to use, and its cost is relatively less than half of the dragoon regiment, which will become the main cavalry composition of Ningchu in the future, and it is expected to train thirty mounted infantry regiments.

At the point of cavalry, the current Ning Chu can only do so much, after all, whether it is horse cultivation or cavalry talent training, it will be an extremely long thing, and in terms of long-term planning, it will take at least five to ten years to form a large-scale cavalry combat force.

Fortunately, on the battlefield of the Northern Expedition this time, there were not many opportunities to really realize the cavalry duel, and it mainly depended on the contest between the infantry, so Ning Yu was not particularly worried.

What really worries Ning Yu is the second problem is the logistics supply, which is not a simple matter to ensure the operation of 200,000 people in this Northern Expedition.

Although Ning Chu had experienced some large-scale battles before, after all, the battle was not particularly far from the base camp, and the army was not particularly large, coupled with the help of the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, the logistics were quite organized, and there were no major mistakes.

But this time is different, the Northern Expedition can only rely on canals and sea transportation to achieve transshipment, but the problem comes again - Ning Yu has canceled Cao Yun before, and all the Cao Gang children are now changing jobs, those who participate in the Navy join the Navy, and those who run sea ships run the sea boats, and the Cao Yun system is basically abolished, leaving only a magnificent Grand Canal.

This is not to say that Ningchu will not be able to use the canal at all, but at least for a period of time, it will definitely not be able to restore the carrying capacity of Caoyun in the past, and this is also contrary to Ningyu's current plan, so most of it has to rely on sea transportation.

In order to determine this problem, Ning Yu directly called Admiral Qiu Ze and Ning Chengzu, director of the General Logistics Department, after the meeting, and expressed their concerns.

Responsible for the logistics of the Northern Expedition is naturally not only the General Staff of the Privy Council, but the General Logistics Department is also basically in a central and coordinating position, so the people who sit in this position are not simple, the current head of the General Logistics Department, Ning Chengzu, is also a child of the Ning family who was born in the army, and has deep qualifications, so he is fortunate to serve as the head of the General Logistics Department.

"Back to Your Majesty, the 600,000 people who have been recruited from the provinces have been basically completed, and they will belong to the three major transshipment divisions of Kaifeng, Hefei and Shanghai, of which the Kaifeng and Hefei transshipment divisions are each assigned 250,000 people as land transshipment personnel, and the Shanghai transshipment division is assigned to 100,000 people and is responsible for sea transshipment."

Ning Yu nodded lightly, the matter of transfer was very important, and he had to care a little more, and specially advised: "All the materials needed by the front-line soldiers need to be transferred by the people, so we must effectively ensure their safety, and there is no shortage of relevant treatment." ”

Ning Chengzu nodded, and said in a condensed voice: "Since the exercise of the relevant civil service bill, whenever there is a war in our army, it will serve the people according to the law, and all the people who are called will enjoy the corresponding treatment, the daily salary during the service period is ten copper yuan, and during the wartime period, it is twenty copper yuan per day, and as for the people on the front-line battlefield, they enjoy an income of fifty copper yuan per day. According to the estimates of the General Logistics Department, the budget spent on the people is about three million silver dollars."

Speaking of this, Ning Chengzu also sighed a little, he is not the kind of person who does not know the suffering of the people, when fighting in the past, usually the people did not get much money, they were not only in danger, but also had to bear the service period at their own expense, so they were often called broken and killed.

But now Ning Chu took the initiative to pay the people for their servants, although it was not a lot, but it was at least ten copper yuan a day, which was not much different from the wages of the workers on the docks, so it could not be regarded as a light treatment.

Ning Yu nodded slightly, although three million silver dollars is a huge amount of money, but it cannot be regarded as money spent in vain, the reason is very simple, this cost is to make up for the loss of the people's service, if the imperial court does not produce these three million silver dollars, then the loss is on the people, causing millions of people to be angry with the imperial court, which can be said to outweigh the losses.

"Well, this policy must be adhered to, the people's trust in Da Chu is reflected in these little things, if we can't do these little things well, let alone talk about other big things."

Ning Chengzu nodded hurriedly and said: "What Your Majesty said is that the matter of the Northern Expedition will be planned by the General Logistics Department, and there will never be any problems. ”

Ning Yu nodded, then looked at Qiu Ze, who was the admiral of the navy, and muttered: "In this Northern Expedition, the Central Army needs to attack Tianjin by sea, and there are also related logistics and shipping matters, can the navy be sure?" ”

Speaking of which, Ning Chu is also reluctant to hand over all the shipping to the navy, because this is really too much pressure for the newly grown navy, but at the moment, whether it is the ocean company under the royal consortium or the ocean shipping group under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the imperial court, they are still in their infancy and cannot play any role.

Qiu Ze's expression was indifferent, and he didn't seem to have much nervousness, and said softly: "Back to Your Majesty, after the previous transformation, the navy has eliminated some of the old small ships, and also accepted the six three-masted warships in the shipyard, and currently has seventeen main warships and seventy-seven small and medium-sized warships of all kinds. ”

Speaking of this, Qiu Ze frowned slightly. He said softly: "Only the new type of transport ships is not many, the navy can currently gather about two hundred, and I am afraid that it will need the support of other major chambers of commerce at that time." ”

"This matter should not be a problem, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has moved to the major chambers of commerce, temporarily requisitioning merchant ships and sailors from various chambers of commerce, and the expenses during the levy period will be fed back through tax deductions in the future, and now the participation of the chamber of commerce is very high, and there are too many to say when the time comes, and it should not be difficult to requisition seven or eight hundred ships."

Hearing Ning Yu say this, Qiu Ze nodded, "If there are seven or eight hundred ships, it shouldn't be a big problem." ”

If others look at it, they think that this matter is simple, but in fact, only those who have personally participated in it know that wanting to requisition seven or eight hundred merchant ships in a short period of time reflects not only the administrative ability of the imperial court, but also the support of the chamber of commerce for the imperial court.

It can be said that the First Battle of the Northern Expedition was not just fought by the Han Army, but the result of the support of thousands of ordinary people in Dachu, who hoped to end the war and live a good life, so they supported this battle with all their might.

After determining the big strategy, Ning Yu did not rest for a moment, but directly summoned Ning Qianqiu, who was waiting outside, although the expectations for this righteous army report were not high, but Ning Yu still wanted to hear Ning Qianqiu's report, and at the same time, the ministers of the Privy Council also came to attend the meeting.

"Your Majesty, this time the envoy to the Great Righteous Army is quite smooth, at present, Chen Daoxian has promised to send troops to contain Nian Qianyao at that time, but he then claimed that there are too few firearms in his hands at present, especially the lack of artillery, there is no way to affect Nian Qianyao, so he needs some weapons from my Dachu."

Ning Qianqiu said respectfully, he had been in Xi'an for two months this time, and his whole person looked a lot darker and thinner.

Ning Yu did not rush to express his position, but looked at the privy envoy Ning Zhongyi, and said with a smile: "The Northern Expedition and the Northern Expedition are naturally not only in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Zhili and other places, this matter should be remembered in the heart of the privy envoy for a long time." ”

Ning Zhongyi nodded calmly and said calmly: "According to the original plan, after the Second Army captures Shanxi, it will go straight to Guanzhong from Shanxi, bypass the natural danger of Tongguan, and force the Great Righteous Army to go further west, and then Gansu will be further taken, so let them go to Qinghai or Tibet." ”

Ning Yu nodded, in this era, the ethnic groups in Qinghai-Tibet and other places are complex, and it is not easy to completely assimilate Tibet, which is also the reason why Ning Yu has not allowed the Fu Han army in Sichuan to enter Tibet.

Therefore, in order to prevent Qinghai-Tibet and other places from breaking away from the control of the Central Plains, it is a good move to send the Great Righteous Army there, as long as they still want to stabilize their foundation, there will definitely be major friction with the local faction, and when the time comes, they can also raise the Great Chu to clear the way forward in advance.

Thinking of this, Ning Yu smiled slightly, "Since you have this plan, you have to give some equipment support, otherwise they will be reluctant to go, and I'm afraid it won't be of much use." ”

Ning Zhongyizai thought about it carefully, and then said slowly: "In the previous time, the Qing army captured a lot of equipment, and those things were originally equipped on the second-line troops in China, but now the output of the arsenal has skyrocketed, and many troops are changing their outfits in advance, and those rags are also the result of entering the furnace sooner or later, so give them to them." ”

In the current Ningchu army system, it is divided into multiple levels, such as the Praetorian Guard Division can be put aside first, and the remaining thirty officially numbered divisions are front-line combat troops, equipped with the current mainstream Ningchu first-generation weapons, that is, Hanyang flintlock pistols, and the training is very strict.

The next layer belongs to a local garrison brigade organized by the provinces, with only 6,000 people, and only part of the equipment is Hanyang flintlock pistol, and the other part is the previous generation of thunder-type flintlock pistol, but the number of provincial garrison brigades at this level is not large, adding up to only about 70,000 or 80,000 people.

Further down the level, there are the city guards belonging to the various important places, they themselves do not belong to the formal establishment, but belong to the jurisdiction of the general army of the provinces, and the number is not large, basically all of them are veterans and disabled veterans plus some new soldiers, and only part of the things used are thunder-type flintlock pistols, and the other part is the captured weapons. Of course, the local city guard units in Nanjing did not belong to this range, and they were basically served by the regular regiments under the regular divisions in turn.

Therefore, when the steam engine began to be used in mines, military factories and other places, it also made Ningchu's military production capacity skyrocket, which could not only meet the use of first-line combat troops, but also help the second-line garrison troops to change their equipment, and even the most inferior city guard troops began to reload flintlock pistols, so like those captured old teeth and tatters, they were all recovered into the arsenals of the provinces.

The original plan for these rags was to destroy them, and then recycle the iron in them and reforge them, but the news brought by Ning Qianqiu made everyone change their minds, if they gave these to the Great Righteous Army, if nothing else, at least it would not be too difficult to contain Nian Qianyao's offensive, after all, the number of those rags was really a lot.

Ning Yu nodded, "Since they will need to open the way in front in the future, then this time it is more or less generous, the Privy Council can make an evaluation plan, if they can give them all, then give them all." ”

Ning Zhongyi smiled: "A few days ago, some arsenals also sent letters to the Privy Council, saying that these things are useless to put in them, and they still occupy space, and then they have to take the initiative to destroy them....... Later, I asked people to do a survey, and the really usable bird guns add up to about 30,000 guns, as for the artillery, there are not a lot, only more than 100 sub-mother cannons and forty or fifty Weiyuan cannons, if they are all given to them, they can equip about 70,000 or 80,000 people, and it has no effect. ”

The reason why 30,000 poles can equip 70,000 or 80,000 people is very simple, not every army can be as fully armed as Ning Chu this year, and more are equipped with between 30% and 50%, and the rest of the people are using traditional cold weapons, even if the new army of the Qing Dynasty is currently equipped with only 70% of firearms, and 30% of them are equipped with large blades.

Of course, even though there are only seventy or eighty thousand firearms troops, it is enough for the current Great Righteous Army, after all, since Nian Qianyao fought the last defeat, he does not have many firearms in his hands now, and the army after gathering is only about 50,000 people - although the combat effectiveness of the Qing Army in the northwest is stronger than that of the Great Righteous Army, but it is not up to the bottom of this calculation.

"Well, since the Privy Council has a score, then give it to it."

Ning Yu didn't hesitate too much, if Liu Ruhan was still in charge, let alone muskets and artillery, there was no hair, but Chen Daoxian was a cheap old man in Ning Yu after all, and now he still wanted people to go to the bitter cold place in the west, and it seemed that he was kind enough to give more muskets and artillery.