Faced with the confusing situation, Zhang Qiang couldn't make up his mind.

He Tengjiao and Chen Youzheng, who ordered Xiao Fei to temporarily stop attacking Hubei Prefecture, and Li Guobu of the Dashun Army.

Then he summoned the generals back to Changsha Mansion, and at the same time summoned Wei Wuji, Jin Sheng, Zhu Dadian, Mi Lin and others to gather in Changsha Mansion to discuss the strategic arrangements for the next step of the Huaxia Army.

Changsha Mansion, a giant merchant mansion, part of the civil and military forces of the Huaxia Army gathered in the lobby and quietly listened to Zhang Qiang's explanation of the current situation in the Ming Dynasty.

After Zhang Qiang finished speaking, Wei Wuji held his chest with one hand and his chin with the other, stood in the lobby, and said to everyone: "That is to say, in the past, our main enemy was the Qing army, the Manchu Jurchens, and now our enemy is likely to be the Southern Ming Kingdom, or the Yongli Ming Dynasty, the rebel army, or even the Anyway Army, that is to say, we have changed from anti-Qing warriors to enemies of the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time enemies of the Qing army, isn't it?" ”

Zhu Dadian said: "Looking at the thoughts of the Grand Governor, he is likely to guess so. If it is really as the Metropolitan Governor guessed, we may be in an embattled situation, and maybe the territory we have been operating for several years will also be spread by some unscrupulous people, and at that time, there will be a controversy about who is the royal orthodoxy, whether the Huaxia Army is an anti-Qing warrior or a rebellion against the change of dynasty, which is not a good thing for us. ”

Zhang Qiang sat on the main seat, glanced at the several civil and military generals below, and then said to Mi Lin: "You can introduce the movements of the Nanming and Yongli Daming that have been obtained. ”

Mirin coughed, tightened his somewhat loose military uniform, and rode his horse all night in order to get the news here. Crossing the river from Raozhou Mansion, passing through Jiujiang Mansion, running all the way over, running to death fifteen stagecoaches, coming here to rest for only an hour, was dragged to the hall by Zhang Qiang, and met with the people who came to Changsha Mansion a day in advance, the original military uniform of the Huaxia Army was worn on his slightly fat body and looked dragged and dragged on, many places were changed again and again, it looked very discordant, not like a soldier at all.

Looking up and glancing at everyone, he said: "After Ao Bai left, the Ministry of Military Intelligence sent a message that Yanjing has become a huge barracks, and the two largest power groups of the Qing army in order to compete for the throne have set up a position in Baoding Mansion, and Ao Bai led the army against Haoge, under the influence of our Huaxia Army and Hong Chengchou's new army, the most elite troops led by Ao Bai are the four new armies that Hong Chengchou helped cultivate, including the first town of the new army led by Tian Bin. It is unknown who will lose and who will win. ”

Milin squinted at Zhang Qiang, who nodded and motioned for him to continue.

Mi Lin straightened up and continued: "Due to the imbalance of the situation caused by the infighting of the Qing army, after hearing the infighting of the Qing army, more rebel armies appeared in Shandong Prefecture, Henan Prefecture, Shaanxi and Gansu.

This is not good for both sides of the Qing army, the rebel army has a real rebel army against the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, some are bandits, horse bandits, and other robbers who take advantage of the fire to rob the green forest, they take this opportunity to disturb the place, causing the people to live in poverty, have fled, the prestige established by the Qing army with more than ten years of hard work is collapsing, many people think of the previous Ming Dynasty, yearning for the stability of the Southern Ming Dynasty today, merchants, landlords, and gentry have taken and fled. ”

Everyone looked at each other, they have been paying attention to the situation all these years, and they are all elites of the Huaxia Army, and they still have a certain understanding of the situation, nodding to each other, which proves that they are still mentally prepared.

Mirin continued: "This kind of internal strife in the Qing army has caused many people to bring the news to Nanming and Yongli, where are the legitimate courts of the two Ming Dynasty, and now the civil and military officials of the two courts have different ideas, each has their own ideas, each has their own interests, according to the summary of the military intelligence department lurking around these officials.

Specifically, the following ideas are predominant:

First, the hundred officials of the Yongli court thought that it was time to return to their homeland, and then re-establish the imperial court and resume the operation of the imperial court.

Second, the generals of the Yongli court all thought that Yongli should go to their territory, and the main forces were the remnants of Dashun like Liu Tichun, Hao Shaoqi and others who thought that they should go to Sishan Prefecture, while Li Dingguo thought that Yongli should go to Yunnan Prefecture, and a Tusi in Yungui thought that Yongli should go to their Yunguizhou, and Bai Mang of Burma had no intention of releasing Yongli.

Third, Longwu Nanming thought that they were Ming orthodoxy, like Li Dingguo, they should be loyal to Longwu, and Zheng Chenggong's enemy, who was abandoned by Lu, officially recognized Longwu Nanming as Ming orthodoxy a month ago, and Lu Guo got the help of Hong Chengchou, and Longwu Nanming got the help of Zheng Chenggong and others, a month ago, Su Zhengqing landed on Qiongzhou Island and recovered Qiongzhou Island, Longwu Nanming obtained an overseas territory, expanding their strategic depth.

Fourth, the contradiction between Longwu Nanming and Yongli Daming is brewing, and Longwu Nanming's views mainly have three points:

1. Some of the officials represented by Su Guansheng faced the Yongli Ming Dynasty, they believed that the Longwu Nanming was the legitimate and orthodox imperial court, and advocated the use of troops against the Yongli Ming, completely expanding the strategic depth of the Longwu Ming, and obtaining the allegiance of the civil and military officials of the Yongli Ming Dynasty to fight against the Qing army, mainly the Huaxia Army that was close at hand, but they believed that there was no need to go to war with the Huaxia Army in the near future, because they were not strong enough.

2, some of the civil officials of Longwu and Nanming believed that Wu Sangui, Haoge and others, or the Qing court were the henchmen of the Ming Dynasty, and they should attack Shaanxi and Gansu first, recover Shaanxi and Gansu, and expand the influence of Longwu and Ming from the south to the northwest. The difference between them was whether to cooperate with the Dajin State to attack the Qing army on the other side, or to cooperate with the Huaxia Army to attack the Qing army. This part of the people was confused, including our people and the officials who had originally surrendered to the Qing army who had fled from the Qing army territory in the north.

3, part of the Qing army or the officials of Longwu and Nanming, who have enmity with our army, their greatest support Longwu believes that it is necessary to start a war with the Huaxia army and seize the rich areas along the southeast coast, in fact, it mainly refers to the territory of our Huaxia army, and then divide the river with the Qing army to form a situation between the Southern Ming and the Northern Qing, and then watch the Qing army infighting, and finally wait for the opportunity to recover the north and recover the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Fifth, a group of generals of the Yongli Ming Dynasty headed by Li Dingguo thought that attacking Burma and welcoming back the emperor was the right thing, and the others were not called the right thing, they had given up the attack on the Qing army, and were ready to gather troops to attack Burma, and they should have a friendly attitude towards the Huaxia army, and wanted to get the support of the Huaxia army, so that the Huaxia army could send troops to attack Burma together.

Sixth, He Tengjiao, a Ming official, was not interested in anything, he only thought about running his territory, and shouted at our Huaxia army a little, calling us a rebel, slightly conniving at the generals under his command to attack us, and there were many frictions with our army, and their strength was the weakest of the several forces, but they were the most unclear about the situation.

He Tengjiao in the name of Yongli Daming, recruiting rebel army and anyway army for his use, the current strength of 120,000 troops, the force occupies more than half of the territory of Hubei Prefecture, in addition to a Chen Youzheng ignoring him, there is an ambiguous attitude of the loyal battalion Li Guo's Dashun army troops, the tripartite troops because our army does not give the troops below a clear attitude, the troops below do not know how to deal with it, can only be passively defended. ”

Milin said this, Wei Wuji shouted: "Since you are so ignorant, beat him, kill him first, anyway, we don't care about the attitude of Yongli Daming, he is still a long way from the court of Yongli Daming or other forces, let's fight him, Yongli Daming is helpless, even if he asks Yongli Daming for help, in fact, Wen Anzhi, who presides over the territory of Daming, will not preside over justice for him, Li Dingguo's heart is to welcome back Yongli, and he is friendly with us, it is impossible to go to war with us for him." ”

Zhang Qiang also meant this, he nodded at the attendant who recorded, "Write this down, this is the first thing we have to do." ”

Zhang Qiang peeled back the cocoon here, sorted out the current situation with his civilian officials and military generals, and clarified the future strategic direction.

Hong Chengchou, who was far away in Yangzhou, welcomed back Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu, and led Zhang Huangyan, another court force of the Ming Dynasty, while Lu Zhenfei landed in Yangzhou from Chongming Island, entered Yangzhou Mansion, and became Hong Chengchou's guest.

Zhu Yihai sealed Hong Chengchou as the second assistant of the imperial court, second only to Zhang Huangyan, Feng Quan was the secretary of the imperial court, and Lu Zhenfei was the secretary of the military department.

The situation is changing at a speed that Zhang Qiang could not have imagined, and it is moving in a direction that Zhang Qiang did not expect.

Of course, the changes they have made in the past few days have been noticed by the Military Intelligence Department, and they are quick to whip up, and just as Milin continued to report the situation, the intelligence officer of the Military Intelligence Department sent this information to Changsha Mansion and handed it over to Zhang Chao, who was on duty here.

Zhang Chao didn't dare to slack off, and handed it over to Mi Lin in the court.

Mi Linlen paused for a moment, and then turned to inform everyone of the news.

So everyone began to discuss the intelligence of Lu State.

Jin Shengdao: "Governor Dadu, Hong Chengchou has a huge conflict of interest with our army, perhaps, the current Lu State has regarded us as an enemy like other Ming courts." ”

Zhang Qiang rubbed his head with a headache, the situation is getting more and more complicated, the Huaxia Army is about to be tied hand and foot, and the thugs he has cultivated are about to become his own burden.

He said to Millin, "What do you think. ”

Mirin stopped the report and thought for a while: "As it stands, we are not yet at the point where we have to tear our faces with them, maybe they don't dare to fight us at once, we are not yet at the point where we have to deal with enemies on all sides, and there is still a buffer period."

As for Li Guo, I think it's a little tiger, maybe he won't be so obedient to us, we can let him go, and then go all out to capture the rest of Hubei Prefecture, take Hubei Prefecture, complete our second-stage strategic goals, and then implement the third-stage strategic goals depending on the situation, I think we can start a war with Lu and continue to complete the third-stage strategic goals. ”

Wei Wuji continued: "I agree with Minister Mi's opinion, first fight He Tengjiao, complete the goal of the second stage, now we are not fighting for the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, but for the Huaxia Army, since we founded the country, in fact, we have erected an anti-flag, that is, anti-Ming, but also anti-Qing." ”

In fact, everyone knows this situation, but after Wei Wuji finished speaking, Zhang Qiang still saw Zhu Dadian, Jin Sheng and the others showed hesitant and sad expressions on their faces.

After all, they are Ming officials, or scholars and scholars of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and they still have deep feelings for the Ming Dynasty, and they hope that after Zhang Qiang recovers the Ming Dynasty, he will hand over the Ming Dynasty to one of the legitimate emperors.

The main responsibility of the Ministry of Civil Affairs is to monitor the ideological dynamics and psychological tendencies of officials and the people internally, and the responsibility of the Ministry of Supervision is to arrest and supervise officials, and at the same time have the duty of arresting officials, or cooperate with the Ministry of Civil Affairs to arrest enemy spies who dare to resist or make trouble, spread the enemy's ideas, or the people's duty to oppose the Chinese Army.

Here, Zhang Qiang doesn't need to worry about them, they have a feeling, which is understandable, but if they want to make the Huaxia Army oppose, they are impossible, the Huaxia Army gives them high-ranking officials Houlu, he must be reluctant to lose it, the Huaxia Army is not as loose and free as Nanming, the internal cohesion of the Huaxia Army is still very large, they are the most reliable group of people loyal to the Huaxia Army, so Zhang Qiang dared to put the power to them, let them manage the civil affairs and all aspects of the Huaxia Army.

"Since this is the case, let's take He Tengjiao first, regardless of other influences," Zhang Qiang finished speaking to everyone, and then said to Xiao Fei: "You go back to the front line immediately, Lord Jin, you cooperate with Xiao Fei to disintegrate the enemy, especially to fight for Chen Youzheng to surrender to us against the army, after Chen Youzheng surrenders to us, first enter the center as a waiter of the Ministry of Rites, let him follow Lord Qian, and then let him out of charge after his temperament is exhausted." ”

Xiao Fei and Jin Sheng stepped forward, "Yes, Metropolitan Governor, Weichen must do his best to serve the Metropolitan Governor and the Huaxia Army." ”

After the two left, Zhang Qiang said to Zhu Dadian: "You go back to the center, and Prime Minister Zhou Congee will continue to manage the civil affairs and cabinet, and maintain the stable development of the rear of the Huaxia Army." ”

"Wechen takes orders." Zhu Dadian clenched his fists and said respectfully to Zhang Qiang.

Zhang Qiang glanced at Zhu Dadian, "I heard that Zhu Panpan has done a good job in business, I think we should add some burden, let him be the minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and check the economic lifeline for the Huaxia Army, anyone who does business must be reviewed by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and then issue a license, and those who do not have a license are not allowed to do business, of course, there is no need for the small people's own stalls and hawkers' behavior, only those who dare to violate the Huaxia Army system, such as selling firearms, or illegally selling items prohibited by the Huaxia Army before ordering the local government to arrest and go to prison. ”

Zhang Qiang saw that Zhu Dadian looked very enjoyable and very happy, shook his head and no longer paid attention to this official fan, greedy guy, since the dismissal and resumption, he has more rules, has done a lot of things that are beneficial to the Huaxia Army, and is conscientious, more conscientious than those officials in later generations.

This is exactly what Zhang Qiang wants.

The stronger the Huaxia army, the higher the loyalty of these people.

At the same time, Zhang Qiang is very satisfied with the effect of this gathering together to hold a court meeting, the wisdom of these people can be displayed and brought into play, the lighter the burden on his shoulders, and now it is not that he Zhang Qiang relies on the foresight of the traverser, the foresight of the system, and the advanced nature of this era, but at the same time as bringing changes, the wheel of history automatically turns.

Tong Dawei, Wang Yuqun, Mei Linyu, and Brother Zhu all followed Xiao Fei and went to the front line, and Jin Sheng also followed.

Zhu Dadian and they didn't leave for a while, Zhang Qiang said to Wei Wuji: "The Yangtze River defense line has been silent for too long, it's time to put pressure on the enemy, after you go back, send more people to explore the crossing site, and send a small force to harass the enemy, although the enemy's camp has changed, but maybe in the near future, they are still our enemies, put pressure on them, test the direction of the wind in the Lu country, and see if they will join forces with Longwu and Nanming to deal with us, or continue to fight against the Qing army."

Maybe they think that Jinling, which is close at hand, is better as the capital, and they will fight us first, seeking to establish a country in Jinling, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties and the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and we have to guard against it, so the courage on your shoulders is very heavy.

It is necessary not only to prevent the enemy from suddenly attacking, but also to prevent the enemy from deceiving our coastal troops under the banner of our allies and suddenly attacking our center and other places, Hong Chengchou's heart is unpredictable, we better be careful, and convey orders to the troops along the coast, so that they can raise the alert level to prevent the enemy from sneaking up, and instill in them the idea that Lu will be our enemy. ”

Wei Wuji nodded, "Metropolitan Governor, I understand, I'll do it when I go back." ”

Then Zhang Qiang looked at Mi Chun, who came from Jiangxi Prefecture, "Send someone to inform the troops who are confronting Nanming and Zheng Chenggong, be careful to beware of the sneak attack of Nanmingguo, or the infiltration and reconnaissance of us, we have been a little close to them recently, and the merchants on the border have close contacts, be careful that these businessmen who have no national thinking leak the secrets of our soldiers, and make more restrictions on the businessmen, imitating them to approach us or steal our weapons and equipment." ”

Mi Lin suddenly interrupted Zhang Qiang's words and said: "Speaking of this, Xia Guan has information, some soldiers on the border between our army and Nanming have lost the most important Jingai-2 arquebus, and some six-pounder guns and nine-pounder guns, although we have been severely punished, and we have also intervened in the investigation, but the whereabouts of some weapons are still unknown." Therefore, I propose that the deployment of the Arquebus of the Jingai-2 Arquebus should be postponed to prevent the enemy from obtaining our more advanced weapons, and at the same time call for a halt to the armament of the smoothbore flintlock pistol. ”

Zhang Qiang shook his head, "No, you can't waste food because of choking, at present, most of the twenty-four regular field brigades and three guards brigades of our army are equipped with arquebuses, and the guards brigade has been fully equipped with smoothbore flintlock guns, and some of the guards brigade and elite troops are even equipped with rifled flintlock guns.

But this does not allow our enemies to quickly catch up with us, the Ming and Qing Dynasty are now too busy to take care of themselves, how can anyone have the heart to develop more advanced firearms, even if they are imitations, they will not concentrate on imitation, imitation weapons can not be compared with our regulated weapons, we still have a great advantage. ”

Zhang Qiang turned around and said to Gu Yuesheng: "Weapon change is a matter of the Ministry of War, you used to preside over the Ministry of War, understand some of it, and tell you about the specific situation." I've been planning the battle of the Qing Dynasty for a while, and I don't have time to scruple. ”

Gu Yuesheng said: "Well, I also understand the situation, these have to be accounted for in the household department, it is relatively clear, Fang Yizhi also reported to me, at present, the central garrison has been fully reloaded with smoothbore flintlock pistols, and even some nearby militia units have been reloaded with smoothbore flintlock pistols, and some rifled arquebuses are reserved for the stubborn enemy elite infiltrated by the other party." Dealing with emergencies.

The 2nd Guards Brigade stationed in the center was fully equipped with new smoothbore flintlock guns, and the elite regiment had all rifled flintlock guns, and at the same time, some important nodes, such as the garrison troops of Taizhou Mansion, Chuzhou Prefecture, and Raozhou Mansion, field brigades, and garrison regiments were also reequipped with smoothbore flintlock guns, and others, such as the Third Field Brigade in Jinling, the elite brigade led by Governor Wei Wuji, most of them were reloaded with smoothbore flintlock guns, some were reloaded with rifled flintlock guns, and some still held Jingai 2 arquebuses.

It can be said that the field brigades numbered from 1 to 17, except for the 3rd Field Brigade, the other elite regiments have been reequipped with smoothbore flintlock guns, and those that are not elite regiments still have Jingai-2 arquebuses, as well as some rifled arquebuses. The 18th Field Brigade is in the process of being reequipped and reorganized, upgraded to a first-class field brigade, and is about to be reequipped with smoothbore flintlock pistols and new Jingai-2 arquebuses to replace the Jingai-1 arquebuses in their hands.

Most of the replaced Jingai-1 arquebuses were stored in the warehouses of Raozhou and Jinhuafu, waiting to be sold. ”

Zhu Dadian said: "Governor, we should immediately reduce the sale of our elite firearms to the outside world, and limit the outflow of Jinkai arquebuses, so as not to increase the strength of our enemy, and when the time comes, it will be difficult to deal with, limit the sale of our artillery, and speed up the research and development and upgrading of our artillery, so as to maintain the superiority in firepower against the enemy." ”

Zhang Qiang thought for a while, "That's right, Lord Zhu, Minister Gu will talk to the Ministry of War after he goes back, and arrange it according to Lord Zhu's ideas, Lord Zhu, you participate in it and supervise their weapon output, our Huaxia Army is very strong and cohesive, but the forest is big and there are all kinds of birds, to prevent some of our officials from doing things that are unfavorable to us, I will ask the Ministry of Supervision and the Ministry of Civil Affairs to improve the supervision of the enemies on the territory of the Huaxia Army and our officials." ”

He glanced at everyone, "Now, let's turn our attention to the Great Qing Dynasty, that is, our previous or permanent enemy, the Great Qing Kingdom, do you think the Great Qing Kingdom is powerful or the Great Jin Kingdom is powerful?" ”

Wei Wuji said: "I think it is the Dajin Kingdom that is powerful, although Haoge can not fight in the court but those civil officials, but in the lead of the troops, in the Great Qing State after the loss of Dolgon, Zilharang, Duoduo, Bolo, Azig, these generals, it can be said that there are not many outstanding generals, and the Dajin Kingdom also has Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi, Haoge, and a large part of the Qing army's capable generals, they may not have enough troops and do not have an advantage, but when it comes to fighting, one Wu Sangui can sweep the Great Qing Kingdom, so we can't let the Dajin Kingdom sit big."

We should support Aobai, let Aobai gain a certain advantage in leading the battle between the Great Qing State and the Dajin State, maintain the balance of power between the two sides, and prevent the Dajin State from taking Yanjing at once, and we also have to deal with a Dajin State that has incorporated hundreds of thousands of troops of the Great Qing State, and at the same time have to deal with the current relatively powerful Hong Chengchou Department of the Lu State. ”

Zhu Dadian shook his head, "I don't agree, let's let them eat dog where the two countries are, our main thing to do is to defeat Hong Chengchou's dozen new armies and maintain the superiority of our firearms troops." At the same time, we can expand our territory. ”

Zhang Qiang once again had a hard time choosing.

(End of chapter)