Zhao Dangshi, who was honored by the governor of Huguang as he wished, concentrated his main energy on a series of adjustments within the Zhao camp during the period from November of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen to February of the following year.

The situation is changing rapidly, and the waves are about to rise, and Zhao Ying also has to keep up with the pace and respond in time.

First of all, reform the tuntian.

Previously, because Zhao Ying's territory and Zhao Dangshi's authority were small, Zhao Ying could only divide his troops into agriculture and be self-sufficient. Now Zhao Dangshi's Admiral Yamen can justifiably intervene in the military and political affairs of Huguang, using both soft and hard measures to control the wealth and endowment of the army, and the importance of the military tun is no longer what it used to be. Considering the predictable future war, the army is still focusing on conquest, so Zhao Dangshi decided to reorganize the original Tuntian Army into a field army.

The specific measures are embodied in the establishment of the armed forces and the appointment and dismissal of personnel.

In terms of the establishment of the army, the original posts of the envoy of the tuntian and the chief secretary of the tuntian were abolished, and the existing sequence of field generals was introduced. The battalion is set up to command the military positions of battalion officers, mid-term officers, counselors, supervisors, and sentinels. The left battalion of Tuntian, the right battalion of Tuntian, and the rear battalion of Tuntian were respectively renamed Jinghe Front Battalion, Jinghe Middle Battalion, and Jinghe Rear Battalion, while the training battalion remained unchanged in name.

In terms of personnel appointments and dismissals, Wang Laixing, the commander-in-chief of the army, concurrently served as the commander of the training battalion, and promoted Zhang Kangxian, who was widely praised and had made a pioneering contribution in the battle of Jiuliguan, to be a Chinese officer, and Lu Zhongheng to be a counselor and superintendent of the army. The three sentinels of the original training camp were all promoted to the commander of the battalion, and they were divided into three battalions-

Guang Wenlu's Jinghe former battalion, the original Tuntian Zuoying Tuntian made Zhang Guangcui and Tuntian chief secretary Huang Fan turned into a central officer and counselor to supervise the army, and Guang Wenlu also served as the deputy army commander of Wang Laixing's army. Zheng Shixin's Jinghe Middle Battalion and Wang Guangtai's Jinghe Hou Battalion were the same, Zhang Jingchun and Shi Meng were appointed as lieutenant officers, and Wang Yifu and Guo Mingtao were appointed as counselors and overseers.

The combined strength of these four battalions is 12,000 people, which is the largest among the armies of the Zhao battalion. No matter who is replaced as the commander of this army, it will inevitably attract the worries and concerns of other generals in the Zhao camp, and only Wang Laixing can avoid criticism. He and Zhao Dangshi are brothers and sisters, and it can be seen from the previous long-term control of Zhao Ying's Tuntian Army that Zhao Dangshi has absolute trust in him.

The work of Tuntian, Zhao Dangshi, was all entrusted to the Chengxuan Governor's Yuan. In order to save costs, Zhao Dangshi discussed with Chang Zeyu and believed that the tuntian method of paying equal attention to military and civilian tun was suitable for Zhao Ying at this stage.

The main work is coordinated by the Yamen appointed by the Chengxuan Governor to the various prefectures and local officials to recruit displaced people, ownerless tenants or ordinary people to cultivate the land, and make a contract, which is a lease relationship, allowing the land transfer and population movement of the Tuntian households. This provision partly takes into account the interests of the squires in various places. Because a large amount of land is still in the hands of these people, Zhao Dangshi is not Li Zicheng, it is not good to forcibly confiscate the land, let alone cause unnecessary turmoil because of land disputes and squires from all over the country, after all, the riots of the squires in Xiangyang Mansion are vivid, and Zhao Yingshi has no need to touch this sensitive line. In this way, although the new system of Tuntian does not mention the squires and heroes on the surface, considering that the land and farmers are still mostly local tycoons, it actually leaves a gap for them. They will also have room to operate under the new system and continue to maintain their own interests, so as to maintain local stability.

At the end of the military cantonment, each prefecture and local government recruited a certain number of soldiers to be stationed in the field for a long time—the number of these soldiers was naturally far less than the size of the former tuntian army—and the soldiers were not allowed to leave their posts without authorization, and they became a fixed tuntian establishment. The military power of the Tuntian Army was still under the jurisdiction of the Tuntian Envoy Yamen of Fanhecheng, and was not subordinate to the local Yamen. As for the Tuntian envoy, the Zhili Soldiers and Horses were all in the Yuan, and now the Tuntian envoy was restructured and re-empowered, and the person in charge could no longer be arbitrarily appointed, and he needed to find a trustworthy person to serve. Chen Hongfan actually couldn't be idle, but he was afraid of military affairs, and as a Tuntian envoy, the main Tuntian affairs had a place to be responsible for the yamen, and he only needed to manage the Tuntian military households. Zhang Miaoshou served as Chen Hongfan's deputy and was reappointed as the deputy envoy of Tuntian.

Although the efficiency of the new tuntian system is not as good as that of the original in terms of the efficiency of small units, the cost is low, and the stalls can be spread out quickly, which actually increases the overall income of Zhao Ying's money and grain.

Secondly, to enrich the armament.

Zhao Ying's standard artillery No. 1 Hongyi Cannon, No. 2 Hongyi Cannon and Da Folang Machine Gun performed eye-catching in the battle of Nanyang to destroy Luo Rucai, and after several rounds of adjustments, the development of gun barrels and gun carriages became more precise and appropriate. For more than a year, the lake has been calm, the supply of raw materials in Sichuan is also quite stable, and with the blessing of good external conditions, the firearms workshop in Xiangyang Fucheng has been able to cast artillery with all its might. Up to now, Chengtianfu, Hanyang Mansion and other places have established firearms workshops to share the casting pressure, and the output of each workshop has basically ensured that the artillery assembly of the old troops of the Zhao Ying, such as the Wuqi Battalion, the Xiaojie Battalion, and the Qihun Battalion, has taken on a new look. In addition, from the southeast Zhengjia and Zhao Hudao to open up channels in Liangguang and other places still continue to purchase the required birds, gunpowder, projectiles, etc. for Zhao Ying, firearms in the Zhao Ying infantry army almost generally accounted for at least fifty percent.

Of course, the tactical changes brought about by the increase in the proportion of firearms were also promoted by Zhao Dangshi himself. This aspect is mainly coordinated by He Dahua, Lao Chonghan, and Ge Haishan, the instructor of the firearms workshop.

In addition to firearms, Zhao Ying still insisted on the continuous purchase of military horses. The Zhao battalion army is not long with the horse army, after many years of operation, although there are many war horses, but now the troops that really belong to the pure horse battle are only the three battalions of the Feijie Left Battalion, the Feijie Right Battalion and the Changning Battalion with 3,000 people. Zhao Dangshi deliberately allocated more horses to the infantry, and in his opinion, mobility was a more important decisive factor than the impact of the battle. Zhao Ying vigorously developed infantry and artillery, and the advantages of positional warfare were obvious, and Zhao Dangshi himself also preferred to rely on the position for defensive counterattacks. Therefore, the necessity of infantry mobility is reflected in the ability to seize advantageous terrain formations in time to form local advantages, including the transformation of artillery artillery carts to improve the mobility of artillery and make it more convenient to provide fire support for infantry. Affected by this, blindly expanding the scale of the pure horse army was naturally not Zhao Ying's top priority.

In addition to firearms and horses, the demand for boats and boats in Zhao Ying, where the forces arrived on both sides of the river, also slowly surfaced. There were many boats and boats at the wharf and treasury of Hanyang Mansion where Bai Wang's army was stationed, and then they went to the nearby Chengtian, Jingzhou, Huangzhou and other prefectures to collect some, and the various warships that were assembled were dazzling and lively.

Exercising the navy, Zhao Ying had little experience, so Zhao Dangshi personally invited Lin Wuzhang, who had followed Zheng Zhilong across the sea for a long time, to visit Hanyang Mansion. As a result, Lin Wuzhang later wrote a long letter to Zhao Dangshi about his trip to Hanyang, bluntly saying that many of the boats were actually unsuitable for water warfare. Moreover, Zhao Yingbing's training in water warfare was completely disorganized, and his advance and retreat were disorderly, so he urgently needed to be taught correctly. Although the opinion was pertinent, it stumped the coach Ge Haishan. Zhao Ying started from the inland, and many talents were accustomed to land warfare, and if it was water warfare, it was indeed impossible to find a suitable candidate as a qualified water warfare instructor. Even Pan Duao, Niu Youyong and others, who have experience in leading the navy, are still not professional enough in Lin Wuzhang's opinion.

Zhao Dangshi attached great importance to the navy, and after consulting with Lin Wuzhang, he decided to send someone to Zheng's house in the southeast with Lin Wuzhang's letter of introduction to ask someone to come over for guidance. The Zheng family, who specializes in the art industry and takes the sea as their home from the wind and waves, has their own unique views on the navy. Zheng Zhilong then replied, readily agreeing to Zhao Dangshi's request, saying that he had sent a subordinate general named Shi Fu to bring some people to help, and he would arrive in Huguang in a few days to provide advice to Zhao Ying's navy in all aspects.

At the same time as the reform of Tuntian and the enrichment of armaments, at the end of the first month of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Zhao Dangshi ordered Wang Laixing's army to begin to move south through the areas south of Wuchang and Hanyang.

In the past, the scope of influence of Zhao Ying was mainly in the Huguang Prefectures north of the Great River, and rarely touched the south of the Great River. However, it can be seen from the information provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on several occasions to purchase military supplies and grain in various places that the provinces south of the vast river of Hu, which have experienced military disasters and disasters, are quite rich, especially the three prefectures of Yuezhou, Changde, and Changsha around Dongting Lake, all of which are rich and beautiful, the land of fish and rice, and the population is also quite luxuriant.

Zhao Dangshi's original intention was to control these areas before the Huguang general army was selected back to Changde Mansion. Unexpectedly, just after the New Year, in February, there was a major news in the southeast of Chu, Zhang Xianzhong, who had entered Chu, first broke through Guangji County, and then took advantage of the situation to break through Qizhou, where the Huguang governor Song Yihe, the inspector Li Zhensheng, the Huguang general Qian Zhongxuan and the Jingwang Mansion all died in the chaos, only Zhang Xianbi, the deputy general of the Dian Qi battalion, escaped by luck and defected to Bai Wang, who brought in the army to help. At this time, Zhang Xianzhong's army had fled without a trace, and the bodies of Song, Li, and Qian were nowhere to be found. The floating corpse of Zhu Cixuan, the king of Jing, was scooped up from the water and buried in a temple.

The situation in the river was uneven, and Wang Laixing waited and watched in Jiangling according to the army. However, not long after, Xing was affected by Zhang Xianzhong's rebellion, and the bandits in Changde Mansion and other places south of the river rose up one after another, and the beacons were in flames. Among them, there is Dongmiao Tukou Huang Erzhi colluded with the tenants of the Minwang Mansion to attack Wugang Prefecture, slaughter the Minwang Mansion, and terrify the mansions.

Wang Laixing immediately received a military order from Zhao Dangshi, asking him to keep Guangwenlu's Jinghe front battalion stationed in Suizhou to guard the three passes of Yiyang, and to leave Zheng Shixin's Jinghe middle battalion to garrison Chengtianfu and Wang Guangtai's Jinghe rear battalion to garrison Jingzhou Mansion. In the future, he began to take Changde Mansion, Yuezhou Mansion, and Changsha Mansion as the core, and divided troops to garrison and drive out the bandits, so as to control the richest areas in the south of Huguang. Of these three prefectures, the Yamen of Huguang also sent the commander to be responsible, Changde Mansion was promoted to Jiangling Gongshi Deng Lian, Yuezhou Mansion was promoted to Zhongxiang Zhusheng Liu Maoxian, and Changsha Mansion was promoted to Jiangling Zhusheng Fu Chaosheng.

After the above things were arranged one after another, it was the middle of February of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen in a blink of an eye.

At the beginning of the year, the snow was not heavy, and by February, the snow on the Huguang ground had almost melted away. The grass grows and the warbler flies, and Zhao Dangshi shakes his costume and leads the flying horses to gallop out of Fanhe City.

Passing through a stone bridge in the north of the city, he rode head-on, met with Zhao Dangshi, and saluted on the horse: "I have seen the lord." But it's Qin Jinxiao.

"Lao Qin, why are you here?" Zhao Dangshi asked. Qin Jinxiao, as Xu Huijun's left deputy army commander, has been following Xu Hui to sit in Yunyang Mansion, Zhao Dangshi has not received a message from Qin Jinxiao to report on his work in the past few days, and it is naturally strange to suddenly bump into him.

Qin Jinxiao bowed his head slightly and said, "Subordinate...... The subordinates were worried about the girls at home, and they happened to be off in turn these days, so they took leave and went home to see. ”

Zhao Dangshi smiled and said: "Come to my brother's expedition, leave Ah Lu alone and lonely at home, you, as a big brother, should accompany her more." He added, "Just stay in Fanhe City for a few more days, and I'll go back to the city to find you." Hehe, it's been a long time since I've been drinking. Lao Xu, don't worry, I'll greet him. ”

Qin Jinxiao said happily: "Thank you, lord!" Then he pointed ahead and said tentatively, "Lord, then the subordinate will ......."

"Go ahead, wait for me." Zhao Dangshi said with a smile, Qin Jinxiao nodded, and patted the horse away.

On his side, Pang Jinming looked at the flying dust raised by Qin Jinxiao, and said faintly: "Lord, Lao Qin didn't tell you the truth." ”

Zhao Dangshi was stunned and said, "What do you mean?" ”

"It's not the first time Lao Qin has returned to Fanhe City this month."

"How?"

Pang Jin said clearly: "According to the rumors collected by his subordinates, Lao Qin seems to be obsessed with the daughter of the fan named He Dahua in the firearms workshop. I came back a few times, but I was looking for her. ”

"He Dahua's daughter...... I have an impression, but I forgot the name, what is it called? ”

"They are all called Lua, and the Han name should be painted."

Zhao Dangshi smiled and said, "I didn't expect Lao Qin to have this day, how old is he this year?" ”

"It's time to have forty-two-three."

"It's rare, it......'s rare," Zhao Dangshi shook his head, "It's been many years, and I've never seen him have a heart for a woman, and the little girl who didn't want to be a fan came and let him go, maybe it's really fate." ”

"Lao Qin is not Han either, and it is estimated that the taste is indeed unique." Pang Jinming said thoughtfully.

Zhao Dangshi said: "It is a rare good thing for people to find a good relationship in middle age, not to mention that if Lao Qin's matter is really done, it will also be beneficial to my Zhao Ying." Then he said, "Let's just don't know about it, just let it be." ”

Everyone hurried back and walked out of Erli, and Zhou Wenhe, who was in front, came to report that he had seen someone. Zhao Dangshi immediately dismounted and walked, turned two corners, and about ten people were waiting at the edge of the forest with horses, and Fu Xunyu, the foreign envoy who was in charge of receiving them in the early stage, was also inside. When I saw Zhao Dangshi and his entourage, a few people came up to meet first. Fu Xunyu introduced a short man with a big round head and said, "Lord, this is General Fang." ”

The man smiled all over his face, bowed down and said loudly: "Fang Guoan pays a visit to Zhao Taibao." This is Fang Guoan, who is now homeless with the title of Sichuan General Soldier.

Zhao Dangshi saw the ceremony, and in a blink of an eye, he saw that there was a big man in Angzang behind Fang Guoan, with an extraordinary appearance, and he couldn't help but look at it twice. Fang Guoan opened his mouth and smiled: "It's still Zhao Taibao's poisonous eyes, and he can see the trick at a glance." As he spoke, he pushed his big man, who was still a little hesitant, to the front, "Zhao Taibao, this time the old man will introduce someone to you." ”