"The mountain thieves are out of Hunan and Jiangxi, and most of them use donkeys, mules, and ponies to drive back and forth, and the local government can't chase them and can't control them. . . Breaking the county into the state has repeatedly become a big disaster, and the people of the time thought that the mule thief who was bitter was called the story of the Huaixi Army for a while. ”

"Qianfu Danger Record" by Zheng Bi, secretary and young eunuch

。。。。。。

When he got the news of Tortoise Meng's arrival in Guangzhou, Zhou Huai'an was also inspecting the army at the foot of Luofu Mountain. To be honest, although he is also a well-known contemporary "Pi Lu", compared to Pi Rixiu, who is a little reluctant to pinch his nose and use it, he pays more attention to and values Tortoise Meng, who has the attributes of several rare agronomists in this era.

Because in this troubled world, poetry and songs can't save anyone, but excellent agronomic knowledge is possible to let more people survive; For this reason, the few old literati who were able to retain under his command were all technocrats or candidates with expertise in people's livelihood affairs.

For example, Fan Xuan, who wrote the "Book of the Southern Barbarians" but still held a certain old-style literati idealism; wrote "Lingbiao Lu Different", with the twilight of the old bureaucratic former Guangzhou Sima Liu Sui; Even now, this tortoise Meng who is in the future generations with "The Book of Rake" and "Kazawa Series".

While each of them has its own problems and limitations; But at least they are willing to settle down to do learning, and they can have enough patience and persistence to visit the lower classes of the people to obtain first-hand information. This is much more important than the achievements of any article and poetry.

Therefore, the follow-up additional condition of negotiating with Dong Chang, a powerful faction occupying Hangzhou, was to find a way to get out the tortoise Meng who was in prison for himself and deliver it to himself. In this way, after Liu Xun, the person in charge of another agricultural college is in place.

As the saying goes, once the number of people exceeds 10,000, it is boundless, and now the mobilized people and horses are extremely narrow for the large campus field in the suburbs of Guangzhou, and can only be divided into several standby and rest camps to assemble here;

After all, in Guangzhou, which is highly developed and relatively densely populated, it is not easy to find a suitable and contiguous large-scale training ground without destroying farmland and not caring about being close to the village.

The veterans in the reading look quite determined, and the newcomers are also relatively full of morale and confidence. Although the color and style of their clothing are uniform gray and blue (old pawn) or lead gray (new pawn) crotch shirts, specific clues can still be distinguished from the armor.

Ordinary soldiers wore light brown half-length leather armor with bubble nails or patches, while auxiliary soldiers wore no armor and only small round leather helmets with no ornaments; The old pawns and the senior pawns wore patchy armor or broad-leaf armor, and the round iron helmets were decorated with single or several colored ribbons to distinguish them by rank;

The jumping team and the first sequence should be equipped with shoulder pads, arms and knee covers; The cavalry and infantry cavalry were uniformly iron-scaled, and the iron helmets with cheek guards were topped with black horsehair; The regiment and the teaching brigade have added a grass green cloak as a logo.

The military academy and generals have more sleeves and shin guards on these foundations, and a few people have a complete pair of armor or the upper half of the bright light; As for the helmet or luan pocket worn, it is from the sky, flat top, flying wings, and everything.

As for the weapons, they are still mainly bows/crossbows, cards/shields, and knife/spear three-piece sets; In the jumping and first ascending sequences, there are also heavy weapons such as long axes, clubs, and nails. The same is true for the firethrower, which is a special weave, and only changes to the corresponding equipment when it enters the combat state.

In addition, there are arrays of remote equipment, and in order to reduce the burden and save energy, they only have horizontal knives for self-defense, and thick cloth shirts that are easy to move and wear-resistant.

But in any case, compared to the situation when under the banner of the Angry Wind Battalion, a large number of bamboo and wood armor and paper armor, leather pockets and hats could only be used to make up the numbers, it is no longer a matter of time; Now the equipment that has a very short service life has been handed over to the local garrison sequence.

After all, it was the full supply of the Nanhai County Iron Industry, the seizure of many friendly equipment, and the takeover of the remnants of the arsenal of the Guangzhou Governor's Mansion, so that he was able to piece together the relatively neat protective gear of the tens of thousands of people in front of him.

The men and horses scheduled to go on the expedition were organized into a number of special teams of the old and new 10th battalions, which carried more than three months of rations and supplies by pack animals and vehicles and boats; Another garrison of seven regiments will be used to maintain and patrol the grain routes and fortify the strongholds after the departure of the army.

So many soldiers were scattered in dozens of arrays in the suburbs under Luofu Mountain, holding the banners of swords and guns like a forest and not moving for a long time, between occasional breathing and movement, it was like a little sparkling wave set off by the gentle waves on the surface of the calm sea.

The latest batch of recruits generally had ruddy faces and bright eyes, and their mental outlook was different from that of the homeless and sluggish people and poor people in the past. They are generally physically strong, able to bear weights, have a high tolerance, grow in size, use a wider range of weapons, and because of their long participation in disciplined organizational activities, whether it is production or study, they have a fairly high tacit understanding with each other.

That is to say, obedience and psychological tolerance are better, it is not easy to roar, it is not easy to rebel in the brain, and it is not easy to collapse and run away because of fear. This is a natural source of high-quality soldiers, and compared to the weak physique, loose personality, and a little cunning created by the environment of the peasant children, these workers, even if they are only apprentices, are good talents and beautiful qualities in the army.

Now, under the rule of the rebels, even the phenomenon of starvation is almost extinct (death from overwork and death from disease are not counted); No, it would be more accurate that there are very few beggars who beg everywhere, because there are opportunities for (forced) work everywhere. Even parasites such as broken skin scoundrels who want to be lazy and lazy are desperate for nothing (they will soon be arrested and reformed through labor).

But before the re-sworn departing, there is an additional vignette to be made; It was Zhou Huai'an who personally awarded fields to those senior veterans (non-commissioned officers); That's right, it's a field award, strictly speaking, a beautifully printed field certificate; There are also detailed personal information such as name, age, origin, place of origin, etc., as well as antecedents and consequences, encouraging words of encouragement and slogans of the rebels.

This is also the long-term system and regulations predetermined by the Left-behind Division after the name change; It can be regarded as the most accustomed method for most traversers. Zhou Huai'an also specially chose this node that is about to go out again, and threw out this big killer to correct people's hearts.

After all, this is the main pursuit and lifelong goal of most people in China's traditional agricultural society for thousands of years; This was true even in the early days of New China. Therefore, this alone is enough to impress these rebel soldiers, who are mostly bankrupt and exiled because of the loss of land, and finally have no way out and embark on the road of rebellion.

Although the current grant of land is limited to senior veterans, the share of each person's name is only 10 to 15 acres, and the total number of people who have been granted land before and after is only 1,000; It only takes a small tunzhuang to settle down completely.

But for others who joined the rebel army, it was not without opportunities and hopes; Because as long as they have served in the army for more than five to eight years, they can naturally obtain the preliminary qualification to grant land; It's about ten acres to start with.

And then this is just the beginning, as a follow-up reward and punishment incentive mechanism, as long as the majority of the soldiers perform normally and do not make mistakes, the number of such grants can be added year by year; Or if they have made repeated contributions, they can also be added as appropriate.

Of course, these grants are only hung in the name, and only after the death or disability and retirement can they actually receive the specific allocated acres of land with this thing; However, the average yield of the corresponding acres of land can be converted into subsidies for money and grain according to the annual percentage.

It can be regarded as a kind of exclusive welfare and advantage for veterans, and the pressure on the current fiscal expenditure is not too great, and it can be regarded as a measure that benefits but does not cost. When more territory is conquered in the future, there will be more room for resettlement and land granting.

After a simple and grand process, the atmosphere and morale of the array army in the suburbs were no longer the same, but from a certain high-spirited momentum and all-pervasive longing, as well as an irrepressible cheerful atmosphere that spread everywhere.

Of course, whether from the perspective of the overall situation or from a private standpoint, Gangneung is bound to rescue one or two; This node located at the hub of the Jianghan waterway is too important, and it is related to the survival and safety of many small and medium-sized rebel forces in Hunan, Jiangxi and other places directly or indirectly supported and secretly exchanged by the left-behind division led by Zhou Huai'an and the Taiping Army forces.

Although these so-called rebel forces are really a bit of a good and bad force, many of them just took the opportunity to occupy under the banner of the rebel army, and the main force of the rebel army turned to fight and left the blank local forces; But these existences themselves also destroyed and destroyed the basic pattern of the Tang court's ruling foundation and order in the Jianghan and Han dynasties, and even in the Jiangnan region.

On the one hand, their presence makes it impossible for the government to make effective use of the resources and population in these places, which is the basic principle that even if it cannot be used for its own use, it cannot be used by its opponents. On the other hand, they were the partners of the Taiping military regime's potential trade profits and resource imports for a long time, and they were also one of the important barriers and peripheral buffers for the Lingnan region to stay out of the situation and gather power.

Of course, from another aspect, this is also a disguised and shady corner of the main force of the Yellow Nest Rebel Army; It can't be easily put into words.

At least based on the information and dynamic analysis accumulated by the Gangneung side; At present, some of the rebel army headquarters have taken up a place in the name of rest and recuperation after suffering setbacks and losses, and have refused to leave again. As a result, there was still a stir in the General's Mansion to take advantage of right and wrong and disputes.

Although their motives and purposes are different, they do not have such lofty demands, perhaps only for the convenience of robbery and looting; However, it can be somewhat ensured that before the main force of Huangchao goes north to the Central Plains and suffers a final defeat in the future, there will be enough seeds and flames to continue the rebellion in the south; And the rule of the Tang court in the vast south continued to erode for a long time like a wound that could not be healed.

Of course, it would be even better if the Datang money bag and the southeast wealth where the lifeline is located can be smashed before leaving; Zhou Huai'an did not believe that in this case, the Chang'an Imperial Court, which had cut off the blood transfusion in the southeast to continue its life, could still stand up for another generation or two as tenaciously as in history.

Of course, the most direct and crucial advantage at the moment is that taking the opportunity to send troops can directly occupy Guizhou (Guilin, Guangxi), an important water and land transit hub and military node, where the Guiguan Economic and Strategic Envoy is located; The last gate to transport water through the Guling Canal into Wuling is in your hands.

Sent from Jiangling to ask for help and be a liaison, the veteran Wang Chongyin's younger brother and Zuo Fenglang general Wang Chongba, is also accompanying Zhou Huai'an at this moment, and is slightly surprised and different.

It's just that in the database accumulated by Zhou Huai'an, he vaguely remembers that in normal history, it seems that this person is more or less the number one person; However, as Wang Yanchao, who gave birth to five generations of famous generals in the later period, and had served as the Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Four Dynasties, until the founding father of the Northern Song Dynasty; But he couldn't help asking.

"From what you can see, my command is still strong."

"Although the official is elite, it is nothing more than that. The predicament of Gangneung may be worry-free. ”

The other party replied quite respectfully.

"Then let's have a good meeting, the Shannan official army with a lineup in your mouth is like a landslide. ."

Zhou Huai'an didn't have time to think about it, and then he looked at Zhang Guiba, who was holding the big flag, and Sha Dadao, who was holding the main flag.

"Wave the flag and blow the trumpet, it's time to beat the drum and march."

As the order spread, in an instant, the foot of Luofu Mountain once again became a rushing sea with drums and trumpets and marching like a tide.

(End of chapter)