On August 15, Cao Bianjiao rode on horseback on the school field outside Taiyuan City, inspecting the Shanxi soldiers and horses. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The 60,000 new army alone may not be able to defeat Li Zicheng, who has hundreds of thousands. Cao Bianjiao wanted to select a few combatable units from the Shanxi soldiers and horses and cooperate with him to fight in Shaanxi.

However, the situation of Shanxi's soldiers and horses made Cao Bianjiao extremely disappointed.

Most of these soldiers and horses from Xuan, Da, Shanxi and Jizhen were in tatters, and compared with the Beijing camp with bright armor, they looked like beggars. I don't know where the money for the equipment transferred to the border towns from all over the country has gone, and the equipment of the border soldiers on the front line has been damaged to such an extent.

Unlike the new army raised by the Son of Heaven with the silver from the Tai Warehouse and the Inner Treasury, the soldiers in the border towns basically relied on the silver "transferred" by the local government. These financial funds are directly transferred from local tax revenues and transported directly to the border towns without going through the central government. In the military towns, although the governor and the governor were directly appointed by the Son of Heaven, there were civil officials in the military towns such as the household department and the general judge to manage the food and salary transported to the border towns, and these civil officials were appointed by the ministry and the cabinet.

Because of such a relationship, in fact, the border army of the Ming Dynasty is highly dependent on civilian officials, and it is completely dependent on the face of civilian officials. Military attachés had to eat empty salaries, drink the blood of soldiers, and even deduct the silver taels of artisans who made equipment, and squeeze out the silver to bribe the civil officials in the various yamen.

Of course, the military attaches themselves also have to fill their own pockets.

Corruption is the unspoken rule of Ming officialdom, and Cao Bianjiao also understands this. But these officers of the border army are too ugly to eat.

It's just the simplest standing queue, and the soldiers and horses in Shanxi are all scattered. On the school grounds, tens of thousands of people stood in crooked lines. It's like a group of kings being forcibly placed in a queue.

If Li Zicheng attacked Shanxi, with such 80,000 people, would he be able to defend the entire territory of Shanxi? I'm afraid it won't be a few months before the end of the rout.

Cao Bianjiao was riding in the ranks, and he couldn't help but sigh when he couldn't see a strong team.

The bottom line of the Ming bureaucracy has not improved with the rise of Li Zhi in recent years. On the contrary, because of Li Zhi's efforts to turn the tide, the bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty had more room to work on their own and acted more unscrupulously.

The original border army often had to be requisitioned and transferred to the battlefield to carry the Qing army, and once they lost the battle, they would be responsible. But now it's different, the Ming Dynasty has Li Zhi to support it, and the Tartars have been wiped out by Li Zhi, as long as the Son of Heaven says a word, the thieves can't stop the Tiger Ben Army in Tianjin at all. The so-called border army is simply dispensable.

The current Daming border army has no external pressure at all.

Li Zhi's influence was limited to one town and six provinces, and the rest of the Ming Dynasty continued to corrupt. If the regular soldiers of the border army in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen can still fight head-on with the Qing army in Jinzhou, by the twenty-first year of Chongzhen, the border army of the Ming Dynasty has been reduced to inferior to the thief soldiers.

Cao Bianjiao frowned and turned his head to look at the general soldiers behind him.

Those general soldiers didn't dare to look at Cao Bianjiao, their eyes flashed and hidden.

These military attaches were all promoted to positions by the Donglin Party when the Donglin Party was in power. Speaking of which, these military attaches are inextricably linked with the Donglin Party. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that these border troops are civilian armies.

The military attachés knew this fact, and so did the Son of Heaven. Therefore, if today's son controls the imperial court, the purge of military attaches is bound to be carried out. The reason why this purge has not started until now is probably because the Son of Heaven has no cronies who have brought soldiers at all. If the generals promoted by the Donglin Party are replaced, the Son of Heaven will have no one available at all.

If someone with no actual combat experience is used to run the army, I am afraid that not only other officers will not be convinced, but even the Son of Heaven himself will doubt whether he will bring down the army.

In fact, what Zhu Youzhen wanted was that after making meritorious service in the Beijing camp, he promoted officers from the Beijing camp to the border towns to take charge of the army.

This point was understood by the border army officers in the border towns. Therefore, these border army generals have a feeling that time is running out, and they are even more unscrupulous in making money.

The chief soldier of Shanxi was glanced at by Cao Bianjiao, panicked, and turned his eyes to look at the soldier next to him.

He kicked a soldier in the ass and shouted, "Donkey hairball, you can't stand in a line!" ”

The creep was kicked by the general soldier, and his face was angry.

It's not that these soldiers don't stand in line well, it's that the treatment in the army is too poor. Almost all the military salaries were deducted by the officers, and it was good that the soldiers could have enough to eat. Fighting as a soldier is a matter of pinning your head to the waistband of your trousers, today it looks stable, tomorrow you may have to fight with thieves, who is willing to do it without military pay?

The chief soldier also kicked the soldier on the scene, and the soldier endured it. If the officers are beaten too much on weekdays, and if they have no pay and are still beaten, I am afraid that these border troops will mutini and make trouble.

The Chongzhen Dynasty was really troubled one after another, and from time to time, high-ranking officers and even general soldiers were killed by the troubled soldiers.

Who is afraid of whom these days?

Cao Bianjiao looked at the little soldier, then at the Shanxi general soldier, and shook his head.

He continued to ride his horse forward and walked to the front of the main barracks in Xuanfu Town, but his eyes suddenly lit up.

Like other military towns, the regular soldiers in Xuanfu Town were also in tatters. Under the reprimand of the officers, the soldiers of Xuanfu Town also lined up in a sparse line, and they didn't seem to take those officers seriously-these officers would only be greedy for ink and food, but when they were fighting, they wanted the soldiers to rush to the front, how could the soldiers listen to the officers?

But the temperament of these soldiers is a little different, and there is a rebelliousness in the eyes of these soldiers that can only be seen after seeing blood.

Cao Bianjiao glanced at Wei Dazhong, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, and secretly said that this Wei Dazhong was a coward, and he didn't do anything perfectly. At least he didn't dismiss veterans who could fight, and recruited recruits who didn't know anything -- veterans were always more demanding than recruits, and many officers dismissed veterans to recruit new recruits, which made it easier to be greedy.

Cao Bianjiao was originally the chief soldier of the Jizhen East Association, and he just looked at the Ji Town East Association, and the original veteran was not one out of ten. But here in the Xuanzhen Zheng barracks, the veterans are still there.

Yang Guozhu, who was behind Cao Bianjiao, saw Xuanzhen's soldiers and horses and jumped off the war horse excitedly.

He walked a few steps through the Xuanzhen Zheng barracks and patted some of the soldiers on the shoulder.

Before Yang Guozhu fell into the Beijing camp, he had been serving as the chief soldier in Xuanfu. When some of the junior officers in the ranks saw Yang Guozhu, their unruly eyes became serious, and they bowed to Yang Guozhu one by one.

"Military Gate!"

"Military Gate!"

Yang Guozhu has always been a pioneer in battles in the past, and his prestige in the army is extremely high. Although he was transferred to the Beijing camp, his prestige in Xuanzhen still existed. He was very happy to see that his veteran was still there, and turned his head to Cao Bianjiao and said loudly: "Jingluo! This is my Xuanfu veteran! ”

Cao Bianjiao glanced at Wei Dazhong curiously, but he didn't know why this Wei Dazhong was different from the other general soldiers. Wouldn't he have to get a lot less out of keeping these veterans?

Is he really a loyal minister who thinks about the society?

Wei Dazhong was stared at by Cao Bianjiao, his eyes flickered, and he laughed.

Cao Bianjiao nodded and said, "The 15,000 soldiers and horses of the Xuan Mansion are available. ”

Fifteen thousand soldiers and horses were not enough, Cao Bianjiao muttered for a long time on the horse, and said: "Then transfer Ji Town Xixi, and the main barracks of Datong will enter Shaanxi." ”