Throughout April, the main focus of the Zhao camp was on the establishment of a new battalion. The three new battalions were established, and the establishment was all attributed to Changping Town, and the report and submission of documents from the imperial court were handled by Chen Hongfan himself. In Zhao Ying's private establishment, the word "Chang" in "Changping Town" and the word "Hong" in "Chen Hongfan" were combined into one, and the three battalion numbers of "Changhong Qianying", "Changhong Left Battalion" and "Changhong Right Battalion" were respectively used to show their relationship with Chen Hongfan. Although it has no practical effect, it can be regarded as a manifestation of Zhao Dangshi's respect for Chen Hongfan.

Chen Hongfan originally had more than 2,000 soldiers, all of whom were under the Changhong front camp, in order to make Chen Hongfan have a sense of security, Zhao Dangshi did not interfere in the personnel arrangements of the Changhong front camp, and all of them were from Chen Hongfan's old system. The Changhong Left Battalion and the Changhong Right Battalion each had a quota of 2,000 troops, and officers were sent to Huguang, Henan, and other places to recruit new recruits to replenish them.

According to common sense, when the battalions and units of the Ming army were stationed in the flood areas, the actual strength on duty was only half or even less of the rated strength, and only before they were really ordered to prepare for war, they would temporarily recruit new soldiers and fill the vacancies. Not only in order to save the cost of raising soldiers, but also to think that when it comes to the real battle, facing the opponents of the rogue level, the proportion of new and old soldiers will not have much impact on the combat effectiveness. However, Zhao Dangshi abandoned this tradition of the Ming army, except for the Tuntian army, which can have two or three vacancies in idle time, the strength of all combat battalions must be full from time to time, and fill the vacancy. On the one hand, this is the result of Zhao Ying's meticulous planning of logistics and supply, and on the other hand, it is also due to Zhao Dangshi's firm belief in governing the army - Zhao Ying's soldiers can only be professional elite soldiers who have been tempered and grown in the flames of war.

Under the requirements of this policy, the Changhong Third Battalion, which also belongs to the field army system, also requires a full staff, and the commanders of the Changhong Left Battalion and the Changhong Right Battalion are respectively appointed by Chen Hongfan's confidant generals Ma Tingshi and Xu Qizuo according to the agreement agreed in the morning, but from these two people onwards, all the rest of the personnel are arranged by the Zhao Battalion. The officers of the Changhong Left Battalion were transferred to the post of Li Yanlang, the outpost officer of the Wuqi Battalion, and the original post was concurrently served by Hou Dagui, the commander of the battalion; The officers in the right battalion of Changhong were transferred to the post of Qin Jinxiao, the outpost officer of the Xiaojie battalion, and Xu Hui, the commander of the battalion, was concurrently appointed in the original post. Clear-sighted people, including Ma Tingshi and Xu Qizuo, know in their hearts that the actual rulers of these two battalions are actually Chinese officers.

At the beginning of this year, there was a huge hidden danger for thieves to invade northern Chu. With this background, coupled with the fact that Yang Sichang no longer sits in Xiangyang, and the money and food required for the new camp are planned by the town itself and does not rely on the imperial court to increase salaries, it is generally permissive of Chen Hongfan's request to expand troops and horses to "fill in the omissions and consolidate the defense of Xiangfu" regardless of whether it is the superintendent or the imperial court. Chen Hongfan will drill the camp again, up and down a dot, the process of instructing the establishment of the camp is basically smooth, and by the end of the month, the three camps of Changhong will be established in northern Chu.

Under the guise of being ordered by the military commander and the responsibility of the general army to protect the territory, Zhao Dangshi was able to confidently begin to redeploy his troops in Xiangyang Mansion. Xiangyang Prefecture has six counties and one prefecture, namely Xiangyang County, Yicheng County, Nanzhang County, Zaoyang County, Gucheng County, Guanghua County and Junzhou. Zhao Dangshi transferred the three battle battalions of the Wuqi Battalion, the Feijie Left Battalion and the Feijie Right Battalion, with a total of 4,000 horse infantry troops sitting in Xiangyang Fucheng Chengguan; 2,000 horse infantry troops of the First World War Battalion of the Xiaojie Battalion were stationed in Zaoyang County; Qihun Battalion, First World War Barracks, 2,000 Ma Bu Army, guarding the north of Zaoyang County, although it belongs to Tang County, but Huyang Town under the control of Zhao Ying; 12,000 battalions of the four battalions of the Tuntian Army were stationed in Fanhe City; More than 2,000 Ma Bu troops of the First World War Battalion of the Changhong Front Battalion were stationed in Gucheng County; 2,000 Ma Bu troops of the First World War Battalion of the Changhong Left Battalion were stationed in Guanghua County; The first war battalion of the right battalion of Changhong was stationed in Junzhou with 2,000 horse infantry troops. The total strength of 26,000 troops was controlled by the Zhao battalion. If you add the two departments of Dumen Lu Zhenguo and Li Anmin, who are responsible for defending the city, the total number of officers and soldiers guarding Xiangyang Mansion at present is about 30,000.

At first, there were still gentry in places such as Junzhou and Guanghua County who resisted Zhao Ying's troops, but since Zhao Ying was in charge of the garrison of the government, he also had water and land transportation under control. These prefectures and counties have been in the army for many years, unable to make ends meet, and are in urgent need of money and grain relief in Xiangyang Prefecture, Zhao Dangshi could not control the documents for the allocation of money and grain, but he was able to use his actual authority to use soldiers and horses to obstruct the transportation of money and grain in various places. With reasons such as "thieves wantonly plundering and needing martial law to restrict transportation", the transportation of Xiangyang Prefecture by land and water was choked for just a few days, and the state and county officials basically could not support it, and gave up their move to resist Zhao Ying because of prejudices.

Under the strict orders of Zhao Dangshi and the strict supervision of the inspection and disposal envoys, it was strictly forbidden to disturb the people and cause trouble in the camps stationed in various places. Military discipline is a long-term emphasis and maintenance work of the Zhao battalion, so even if the soldiers and horses go elsewhere, they can still operate normally. Zhao Ying's innocence and orderliness left a deep impression on the officials and people in various places, and as time went by, the resistance in various places gradually weakened.

During the period when the soldiers and horses were settled, Zhao Dangshi asked Wang Laixing to organize people to disguise themselves as people from all walks of life to secretly investigate the unclaimed land and abandoned land in various states and counties, and record the number of acres of land that can be obtained by normal means such as claiming and purchasing. Because in Zhao Ying's future planning, it is not enough for these prefectures and counties in Xiangyang Prefecture to rely on soldiers and horses to settle in, and in order to completely turn them into Zhao Ying's sphere of influence, it is necessary to further send troops to the designated tuntian, that is, to "guard their doors and insert their households", and use land relations to tie Zhao Ying and these prefectures and counties together. The cultivated land around Fanhe City is limited, and since there are 30,000 people attached to settle down, the work of the 12,000-scale Tuntian Army has begun to be in an unsaturated state, and it is imperative to open up new Tuntian sites.

In addition to the expansion of the army and the change of deployment, progress was also made in three other areas of work in April and May.

First, the establishment of the Xiangyang Firearms Bureau has been suspended.

According to the original plan, Zhao Dangshi obtained the approval of the new three firearms manufacturing bureaus in Xiangyang Prefecture through the supervision gate, and while starting to build the site, he opened up the upstream and downstream links of various raw material suppliers in central Sichuan. However, it backfired, Zhang Xianzhong and other thieves made waves in Sichuan, and in the past few months they had fierce confrontations with the official army, and the central Sichuan was eroded, the roads were difficult to pass, and the situation was in great danger. In this case, Kong Qingnian even hoped that Zhao Dangshi would send a force of soldiers and horses into Sichuan to protect Yankou Town, and the normal operation of the trade route could be described as a fool's dream. Zhao Dangshi was not a person who was eager for quick success and quick profit, and he would not take such a big risk, so before the Sichuan disaster was settled, the work of the Firearms Bureau came to a standstill for the time being.

Second, Guangdong's purchase of artillery has yielded results.

At the beginning, the details that Lu Qiqing thought were listed as the key targets by Zhao Dangshi, and it was difficult for the firearms control bureau to open for a while, so Lu Qiqing turned his focus to the purchase of guns. After preliminary preparations, after the first month, he set off to rush to Guangdong in person, and after meeting with Zhao Hudao, who came from Haojingao, he went to Zhaoqing Mansion, Leizhou Mansion and other places to buy Hongyi cannons.

According to his careful investigation with Zhao Hudao, there are about more than 10 Hongyi cannons of high quality placed in the prefectures and counties in Guangdong, of which 4,000 or 5,000 jin account for the majority, and a few weigh 7,800,000 jin or even 10,000 catties. Local officials hoarded these iron lumps uselessly, and most were willing to sell. Lu Qiqing used some tricks again, and did not reveal Zhao Ying's identity as Party A, but falsely claimed to purchase wrought iron for the Weapons and Powder Bureau under the Governor of Xiangyang Prefecture. He often walked around the various ordnance and gunpowder bureaus set up in Xiangyang Prefecture, and was familiar with the situation, and as far as the artillery situation was concerned, there was also an official document from Xiangyang Prefecture that approved the establishment of a new firearms bureau. Lu Qiqing took advantage of his tongue to purchase wrought iron raw materials instead of finished artillery products, saving Zhao Ying a lot of expenses. But even so, the price of each cannon is really not cheap. Lu Qiqing, in accordance with the amount of purchase preparations agreed with Zhao Dangshi before departure, set an order of four or five thousand catties of Hongyi cannons from Zhaoqing Mansion first, and immediately hired a man to escort them to Chu by inland waterways. The rest will be decided by Zhao Ying's side at that time, and then entrusted to Zhao Hudao to buy it slowly in batches.

Zhao Hudao had seen the world in Entrenchment Jingao, considering that there may be few skilled gunners in Zhao Ying's army who could handle the Hongyi cannon, so he begged Du Chunchen to talk about it, and came into contact with the Franc machine man, and negotiated to hire a total of 24 Franc machine gunners, gunsmiths, and interpreters to go north with the gunners. Because this was an unplanned expense that Lu Qiqing and Zhao Dangshi thought of earlier, Lu Qiqing also wrote this matter in a letter and sent it to Xiangyang to ask Zhao Dangshi to decide.

The cost of buying guns this time was huge, and Zhao Dangshi had already thought about borrowing money from the Confucian family in central Sichuan and the Zheng family in the southeast. Kong Qingnian was very cooperative, although the road was not smooth, he had already sent someone to send the money to Xiangyang earlier. The Zheng family has semicolons in Guangdong and Haojingao, and after agreeing with the Zheng family through Lin Wuzhang, Lu Qiqing directly withdrew the money on the spot.

If you can't use a cannon, how is it different from broken copper and iron? Zhao Hudao's proposal was naturally adopted by Zhao Dangshi. The Zheng family's money in Guangdong was paid first as a fixed amount and the final payment was advanced, and the Kong family's money in Xiangyang Mansion was directly transferred to the Zheng family branch between Lin Wuzhang and Huguang as the final payment, which also reduced the risk of transferring large amounts of silver money thousands of miles.

After paying for the purchase of guns, and then counting the transfer costs of people, cargo ships, etc., as well as the hiring money of the Francophone man, in late March, Lu Qiqing left Zhaoqing Mansion with the guns and people. Although it is still on its way, it is expected that it will be possible to reach Xiangyang in a month at most.

Third, the cooperation with the Zheng family has begun to advance.

After several months of investigation and planning, the work of finding storage points in Huguang and other places for the Zheng family presided over by Zhao Yingcheng, Xuanzhi, and Lin Wuzhang, the representative of the Zheng family, entered the construction stage. Zhao Ying's promise to open a silver account for the Zheng family branch in Huguang and other places was also on the agenda, and in advance, the Chengxuan Zhizheng Yuan and other internal affairs envoys were in charge, and borrowed a sum of money from the merchants in Huguang and other places as the initial reserve. In addition, in cooperation with the special service command and envoys under the Terracotta Metropolitan Command, the envoys of the Ministry of Internal Affairs such as the merchants and merchants carried out "rectification" in Huguang, especially in Xiangyang Prefecture, which had both black and white backgrounds, and firmly grasped more than 60 percent of the rights to cast teeth in the hands of Zhao Ying, so as to provide convenience for the Zheng family's extensive collection in Huguang. The corresponding chapters and contracts of the two families have come out like snowflakes, and everything is on the right track.

Just as the Zhao camp was flourishing in northern Chu, the war in central Sichuan was still in full swing. After Yang Sichang personally led the standard battalion into Sichuan, Shao Jiechun, the governor of Sichuan, and Zheng Chongjian, the governor of Shaanxi, all sent generals to follow the battle, but Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai were flexible and free in the mountains and mountains of Sichuan, almost like loaches, and they were always difficult to catch and annihilate. On the contrary, although Yang Sichang tried his best to unify the official army, the sources and affiliations of various departments were complicated, and it was inevitable that there would be problems of disorderly deployment, and Zhang Ling, the famous deputy general of the northern Sichuan town guard, was killed in battle in May. Under the influence of Yang Sichang, the mentality of the officials and troops who are eager to achieve results has led to an increasing number of omissions, and Xiying and Cao Ying have taken this opportunity to become more and more active.

It seems that the "old comrades-in-arms" separated from Guanshan echo each other, and the "old return" Ma Shouying and the "Geli Eye" He Yilong, who once disappeared, also began to revivenation. They took advantage of the momentum of the rise of the Henan bandits, relied on the prestige of the old days to recruit disciples, and their power was revived. Because of the fear of Zhao Dangshi, he did not dare to enter Xiangyang Mansion, and still plundered near Wuchang, and successively captured Luotian, Huangmei and other counties, and the officers and soldiers near and far could not control it. Although they were still cautious about Xiangyang Mansion, in mid-July, they unexpectedly raided Suizhou, not far from Zaoyang, to test Zhao Dangshi's reaction.