No. 1529: 500,000 Qin-Ming Combined Army

On the surface, the Jizhou Ming army seems to have unlimited scenery, and as soon as it came out of the peace, it took away the land of the three counties of Jizhou, and it did not fall behind to fight against Zhao and Han with the power of peace, but in fact, the days of Jizhou were not easy.

Qin Hao naturally knew about this, but when he was really in charge of the Ming army, he understood how difficult it was to maintain the remnants of the Ming Dynasty in such a situation with only Zhang Liang and Emperor Ming.

On the surface, the Ming court occupied the three counties of Julu, Qinghe, and Changshan in Jizhou, but in fact, they only occupied a part of it, and none of the counties were completely occupied, and the county administration and the richest city were still under the control of Han Xin and Yuan Shao.

The remnants of the Ming Dynasty also occupied the eleven counties of these three counties, with a total population of 650,000 people, plus nearly 600,000 people hidden in Taihang, a total of nearly 1.3 million people, but it supported nearly 150,000 troops, and the ratio of military and civilian even exceeded ten to one.

You must know that the 150,000 army is not a small number, it is already equivalent to a quarter of the Qin army, but the resources owned by the remnant Ming are less than one-fortieth of the Qin army.

It can be seen from this that the military burden of the Ming army in Jizhou is definitely the heaviest of all forces.

In addition, although Qin Hao provided high-yield grain seeds to Zhan Ming early, the land that can be planted in the Taihang Mountains is limited after all.

The Taihang Mountains are boundless, and the remnants of the Ming Dynasty have not been developed so far, but most of them are mountainous areas that cannot be cultivated, and there is actually very little land for the Ming army to plant, so there is naturally not much food grown.

If it weren't for Qin Hao's high-yield grain planting, it would be impossible for the remnants of the Ming to raise both soldiers and people without going out to loot.

Therefore, the burden of grain and grass of the Ming army has been very heavy, until two years ago after sending troops to Jizhou and seizing the land of eighteen counties, the Ming army completely bid farewell to the grain and grass crisis, but with it came endless conquests with Zhao and Han.

The Ming army, which had not yet walked out of Taihang Mountain, barely raised 100,000 troops because of the restrictions on food and grass, and if it was killed out of Taihang Mountain, it was very likely that Han and Zhao would attack at the same time, and it was naturally not enough to rely on 100,000 troops alone.

Therefore, after occupying three counties and eighteen counties, the Ming army expanded its army many times in order to hold the territory it had conquered.

Later, in the process of resisting Han and Zhao, although the Ming army paid a lot of casualties, the whole army still maintained the scale of 150,000 people.

Let's put it this way, although the Ming army obtained land from Taihang, although the pressure on grain and grass was greatly reduced, the expansion of the army and the war also accelerated the consumption of grain and grass.

Therefore, although the grain and grass pressure of the Ming army is better than before leaving Taihang, it is only some, and it is okay to hold the existing territory, and it does not have the strength to expand the territory at all, and it cannot withstand the consumption of large-scale battles at all.

The Ming army did not have enough grain and grass, Qin Hao did, he ordered to live for two years, in order to wait for the merger of Qin and Ming, with hundreds of thousands of Qin and Ming coalition troops, swept away Hebei with the autumn wind sweeping the leaves.

Originally, Qin Hao wanted to unify Hebei, and he needed to pry Jizhou to open the door first, and then he had to gain a firm foothold, and then he could completely let go of his hands and feet.

However, Huguan, as a gateway, is now in the hands of the Ming army, and the eighteen counties in western Hebei are also completely controlled by the Ming army, which can be used as the most solid bridgehead for the Qin army.

Therefore, as long as the Qin army sent troops to Jizhou, there was no need to consider other issues at all, the only thing that needed to be considered was grain, grass and transportation.

"Originally, this king was going to use 400,000 troops to fight in Hebei, but now it seems that since the Ming army has 150,000, then ......"

After Qin Hao pondered for a while, he said with a smile: "Only 350,000 troops, plus 150,000 Ming troops, a total of 500,000 troops, is more than enough to sweep Jizhou." ”

Qin Hao also has his own considerations, although the Qin army has 600,000 troops, it is also surrounded by enemies on all sides, and there are also many places that need to be defended.

If it was in the process of Qin Hao's conquest of Hebei, if it was only a few princes to attack, the 200,000 defenders would naturally be able to deal with it, but if the princes of the Quartet sent troops to attack at the same time, the 200,000 defense troops would not be enough.

And at this critical juncture, with an extra 50,000 troops to defend, the situation is completely different.

Hearing Qin Hao say this, Zhang Liang said: "The grain and grass needed by the 500,000 army is no longer a few. ”

"This king has been prepared for a long time, as early as half a year ago, this king has ordered to transport the grain and grass king Jinyang warehouse in Ningxia Cang, Yinchuan Cang and Yinshan Cang, and now Jinyang Cang has 15 million stone of grain storage, which is enough to support an army of 500,000 for two years."

The grain production of Hetao accounted for three-quarters of the Qin army, so regarding the battle of Hebei, Qin Hao did not need to transfer grain from other places at all, only to transport the grain and grass from Hetao to Jinyang, and then transport it from Jinyang to Jizhou.

Hearing this, Zhang Liangxin couldn't help but sigh.

I think that when the Yellow Turban advanced into Luoyang, it swept most of the families in the Central Plains, and received countless infamy, so it collected 20 million stones, grains and grass.

And with Qin Hao's public high-yield grain, it has only been more than three years, and only relying on Hetao and Bingzhou, he can easily mobilize 15 million stone grains and grass, which is like two eras.

"In this case, there should be no problem with grain and grass, but the king also needs to return to Jinyang as soon as possible and spread the news that all the 150,000 Ming troops have been paid, after all, no matter how to block and conceal it, the news on Taihang's side is destined to not be concealed for long."

"The king knows."

Qin Hao nodded and said, of course he also knows this, and there is not much time left for him to operate, so he must return to Jinyang as soon as possible to make arrangements, and then the two armies of Qin and Ming will join forces to launch a sudden attack, and seize the opportunity in the next battle as much as possible.

"Next, this king will return to Jinyang with the princess, Guo Jia and others, and during the absence of this king, all of this place will be handed over to Zhang Liang."

"Good determination lives up to the king's trust."

On the same day, Qin Hao took Ren Hongchang, Guo Jiafuxi and others to return to Jinyang under the escort of Dugu seeking defeat, leaving only a few people such as Qin Yijue and A Qing.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's factory guards were disabled in the First World War, there were still a few secret agents hidden in the Ming army, so Qin Yijue and A Qing stayed behind to be responsible for completely eliminating them.

On the way back, Qin Hao said to Emperor Ming: "Hong'er, in what capacity will you appear in the future?" Is it Zhang Sheng? Or Dongfang wins? Or return to your real name, Ren Hongchang? ”

Emperor Ming said sonorously after thinking for a while: "Although whether it is Zhang Sheng, Dongfang Sheng, or the empress, it is all me, but I want to return to my original self, so I will use the name Ren Hongchang in the future." ”

As soon as Ren Hongchang's voice fell, Qin Hao didn't say anything, but Fu Xi on the side said excitedly: "Great, sister, you have finally figured it out, for the sake of your brother, you should have resumed your original name a long time ago." ”

"Then brother, when will you revert to your original surname? You are the only man left in our family. Ren Hongchang said with a smile.

"Uh, this ......"

Fu Xi couldn't help but show a look of distress, but soon said: "When my brother has a child, he must be surnamed Ren." ”

Qin Hao and Ren Hongchang glanced at each other when they heard this, and they both laughed in unison.