Chapter 519 High Hopes

Later, when the army crossed the river, Meng Tietou went to Zhejiang and served under Chen Jin, the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian.

Since then, he has had a period of ups and downs in his life, witnessed the short-lived glory of the Qing army, and also saw the tragic appearance of tens of thousands of soldiers and wolves rushing under the blow of the Ming army......

Under the curtain of Governor Chen Jin, there are many middle-level officers like him, and the staff ministers who rely on face to recommend are even more unknown, so naturally they will not look down on him, a talented general.

Therefore, when he was in Zhejiang, Meng Tietou was not reused, and only served as an idle post in the governor's palace, which was equivalent to a senior staff, and in desperation, he was also happy to wander around and indulge in the mountains and rivers of Zhejiang.

The Ming army counterattacked, the battle of Zhejiang, Chen Jin's main force of the Han Eight Banners was almost wiped out, and after the defeat and retreat across the river, there were many soldiers and generals, and he was sent to the command of Admiral Ma Jinbao, leading a group of loose green battalion soldiers to defend the Yangzhou city near the river......

The battle in Zhejiang also caused an uproar in the DPRK and China at that time, with nearly 20,000 officers and soldiers killed and scattered, and many generals also lost.

However, the imperial court did not reprimand Chen Jin afterwards, not only did not dismiss him from his post and confiscate his family, but appointed him as the governor of Caoyun and instructed him to guard this grain and salt transportation line.

This made Meng Tietou feel that this governor was still very energetic.

However, he soon discovers that this is not the case.

The Ming thieves not only conquered Zhejiang, but actually broke through the entire left, center, and right defense line of Lord Hong, and even Lord Hong himself had to abandon Nanjing and hastily retreat north, hiding in Luzhou, where the land was barren and the people were poor.

Meng Tietou knew that unlike Chen Jin, Lord Hong was a high-ranking and powerful minister, and he was a cadre relied on by the imperial court.

Since even Lord Hong can't resist the counterattack of the Ming thief, everyone's situation is similar, and the court has to open up and not blame the public.

In this way, Chen Jin made a peace and covered up the past......

Meng Tietou traveled around to the battle of Zhejiang, as well as the witnesses of several battles with the Ming thieves at the mouth of Poyang Lake, and he realized that this group of Ming thieves was a much more dangerous opponent than any of the previous "rogue bandits".

Meng Tietou thought to himself, there was always a feeling of loyalty to the king and serving the country in his heart, so he was worried - this group of people's "thieves have become a thief", and they will become a big disaster in the future.

However, after several downfalls, he has tasted the hypocrisy of officialdom and has seen too many intrigues, he knows that he is not good at this, and if he wants to be reused, he must find opportunities to win the battle.

Now, with Admiral Ma Jinbao stationed in Yangzhou, he realized that the opportunity had come.

"If you want peace in the world, the only way to stop the war is to stop the war and extinguish the resistance of the Ming people as soon as possible,"

On the way to Yangzhou, Meng Tietou said, "Ming thieves are also people, and soldiers are also poor people, relying on nothing more than strong ships and artillery, and strict troops, as long as the imperial court can make up its mind to enforce military discipline and fine weapons, it will not worry about the immortality of this rogue ......"

Meng Tietou has no master's frame, and he does not have the condescending and noble pretentiousness when the superior people are seeking advice from others, and he is very calm when he talks about Wang Jijun about himself, the general trend of the world, and his views on the Ming thief's "captive army".

And when Wang Jijun talks about the Southern Barbarians and the matter of begging for the army, he is naturally the first to go.

Two people of very different ages and identities knew each other in this conversation along the way......

When he arrived in Deyangzhou, Wang Jijun already knew that these firearms were imitated in Luzhou.

It turned out that the imperial court spent a lot of money to get a batch of flintlock rifles and ammunition from the people of the Western Regions, and then imitated them in large quantities, preparing to equip various ministries on a large scale.

Because of the urgency of time and the long distance, the Hong people of Luzhou also made their own furnaces according to the drawings, however, at this level, the quality of this fire gun can be imagined......

Back in Yangzhou, Meng Tietou handed over an errand and quietly reported the matter to Admiral Ma Jinbao, which aroused Ma Jinbao's great interest.

He immediately secretly summoned Wang Jijun and praised him for "abandoning darkness and turning to light".

After some questions and answers, although he had a slight complaint about Wang Jijun's "disobedience and rudeness" in his heart, thinking that he had "been infected with the habits of the rivers and lakes for a long time", but because he was familiar with the military situation of the Ming thieves and was good at "firearms", he still praised him, rewarded him with 20 taels of silver, and gave him the military post of a Chinese army sentry officer, specializing in teaching the training of firearms battalions.

At this point, Wang Jijun officially became a green battalion officer.

In the eyes of Governor Chen Jin, Ma Jinbao was arrogant and rude, so he never treated him very much, but relied on the chief soldier Zhang Tianlu as a confidant.

Ma Jinbao's dissatisfaction with Chen Jin is an open secret, the contradiction between the two has been a long time, in fact, this is also caused by the imperial court.

Because, as a military commander, Ma Jinbao, who is from a military rank, was born in the army, and his rank and military power were fought out step by step.

Although he had to look up to others and accept the governor's restraint in all aspects such as food, salary, logistics, etc., he was not inferior at all in terms of military merits and qualifications, and he was half a level higher than Chen Jin in terms of grade.

Although Chen Jin said that he was the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, and he was a full-time governor of the military affairs of the two provinces and also took care of food and salary, but in terms of grade, he only had a civilian position.

To put it bluntly, sending governors to various places is just a means for the imperial court to clamp down on local generals with civil servants and prevent the tail from falling out, and Chen Jin has no right to kill a senior general like a commander......

This time stationed in Yangzhou, Ma Jinbao was hit by Chen Jinyin.

Under Chen Jin's calculations, he came to Yangzhou hard-headed, but after some inventory, he found that there were not many generals under his command who could fight, and almost all of the soldiers were put together, except for the 3,000 standard green battalion soldiers, most of them were Cao soldiers who could not be counted on at all.

Therefore, Ma Jinbao did not stop doing anything, simply put aside Chen Jin, who was far away in Huai'an, and decided to loot it on a large scale, relying on Yangzhou's financial and material resources to start anew.

On the one hand, he looked for another backer, frequently expressed his loyalty to Hong Chengchou, and finally won the favor of this big man, and exchanged food and salt for a batch of new firearms.

On the other hand, Ma Jinbao learned from the pain, tried to vigorously rectify military discipline, and used the batch of firearms allocated by Lord Hong to organize and train a new army.

This new army is a separate firearms battalion.

The number of people in the firearms battalion was not large, less than 600 people, but Ma Jinbao still had high hopes for this.

Previously, the low-status green battalion soldiers were not qualified to own firearms battalions, and even primitive weapons such as knives, guns, bows and crossbows were mostly replaced by others or directly captured from the Ming people's armory.

Now, with this firearms battalion, Ma Jinbao feels that he can more or less fight with the well-armed thieves - at least he will no longer be driven around like a wild dog like in Zhejiang......

Because of his ability to do things and his repeated suggestions, the status of General Meng Tietou in Ma Jinbao's mind has gradually improved significantly.

After several conversations, he found that this General Meng not only knew the soldiers, but also had a unique analysis of the Ming thief, so he had the intention of relying on it, and decided to give him the heavy responsibility of organizing and training the new army.

However, the world is unpredictable.

It's only been a month since he settled in Yangzhou, and he finally took a breather, everything has not been straightened out, and the firearms battalion has only been practicing for a few days, but the thief doesn't give him face at all, and he chases his ass and kills again......

(End of chapter)