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For Chen Yue to take the initiative to send troops to the Northern Expedition, Shi Kefa, the first assistant of the cabinet, felt comforted in his heart. This shows that Chen Yue, the king of Qi, is not blindly vying for power, and in his heart Chinese affairs are more important.

However, the foundation of the Nanjing court is really thin, and in the past few years since Chongzhen arrived in the south, there has not been a year without fighting. Although the burden of the north has been thrown away, the income of the treasury has not increased, and there are still many places to spend money.

Therefore, although Jianghuai and Jiangdong Zhejiang have a good harvest this year, the grain and salary that the imperial court can draw can only support more than 100,000 troops, which is true.

100,000 troops sent to the Northern Expedition, can it be victorious? It must be known that there are more than 100,000 Qing soldiers in Shandong, and Beijing is the nest of the Eight Banners.

"Yuanfu rest assured, there are still more than 80,000 troops in Dengzhou Wuping, plus the army led by me, the total strength is nearly 200,000, so many troops are more than enough to deal with the Qing army." Chen Yue had to show confidence, so that the court officials and the princess of the prison would be reassured.

Before deciding to send troops to the Northern Expedition, Chen Yue had already ordered Jin Xin to take Jiangxi's most elite 100,000 new troops by land and water and march to Nanjing. These 100,000 troops were selected from hundreds of thousands of surrendered troops, local soldiers in Jiangxi, and strong soldiers in Jiangxi, and they were trained for more than four months.

Coupled with the elite veterans of Li Yi and Yu Feng in Nanjing, Chen Yuegong planned to bring a total of 120,000 troops to the Northern Expedition. Counting the people who transported the grain baggage, it was known as an army of 300,000!

For this Northern Expedition, Chen Yue actively prepared after entering Nanjing, and the Ordnance Department worked overtime, a large number of weapons and ammunition were produced, the inventory of the Nanjing arsenal was looted, and the baggage weapons carried filled 100 large ships.

Chen Yue knew that in terms of combat experience and combat skills, most of the recruits except for the 20,000 veterans were inferior to the Qing army, and he only relied on the cooperation between the soldiers and the powerful weapons equipped.

The 120,000 army, there were more than 30,000 musketeers, 20,000 archers and crossbowmen, more than 40 red-coated cannons, more than 200 Franco-machine artillery, nearly 1,000 tiger squat cannons, and the long-range troops accounted for almost half of the entire army. The remaining half are pikemen, swords, and shields, and sailors who operate ships, and baggage soldiers and logistics soldiers.

In terms of firepower, Chen Yue is confident that the firepower of his army is much stronger than that of the Eight Banners, because the Qing army that invaded the south on the two routes was almost wiped out, and their firearms and artillery fell into the hands of the Ming army.

The firepower is strong, the military discipline is strict, the training is well-trained, and these soldiers are well fed, and their families have their own fields for distribution. Those who fight bravely will be rewarded, those who fear the enemy will be punished, and everything they have will disappear, and they will not be willing to fight with their lives.

And these are the reasons why Chen Yue has the confidence to send troops. The combat power of this army built by him is definitely far above most of the Ming army!

"Although the law is not talented, as long as there is a law, the court can be guaranteed to have no worries, please rest assured that King Qi is here." Shi Kefa assured Chen Yue.

Chen Yue smiled and nodded, but he was moved but didn't care too much, because although he left with his troops, he still left a strong force in Nanjing, the cabinet had Lu Zhenfei Wang Yin, and the Jinyi guard commanded Liu Neng to monitor the entire Nanjing, not to mention that most of the defenders of Nanjing were people from the family of King Qi, and Yang Zhengping was in charge of the defenders of Nanjing with the official position of the governor of Zuodu. Those who were estranged were all taken out of Nanjing by Chen Yue in the name of exterminating the thieves, and Chang Yanling, the Marquis of Huaiyuan, was now in Quzhou, and would soon enter the territory of Fujian. In Jiangxi, not far from Nanjing, Chen Yue still had more than 100,000 troops, which was enough to deter the Ming Dynasty and make people dare not move.

Regarding Chen Yue's departure, Princess Kunxing was reluctant to maintain a greater sense at the same time, she knew that the lover sent troops to fight for her, and it was the country of the Ming Dynasty.

"King Qi rest assured, with his subordinates, the affairs of the Martial Arts Academy can be guaranteed." Qian Fenglin assured Chen Yue that he knew that Chen Yue valued the Martial Arts Academy very much.

"Brother Qian has worked hard, after the establishment of the Armed Forces Academy, he has continuously trained a large number of grassroots officers, and with the implementation of the military service system in Huguang, Jiangxi, etc., the future Ming Dynasty will no longer lack the risk of elite soldiers."

Chen Yue casually instructed, and then looked at Yang Zhengping, "In addition to participating in the preparation of the Martial Arts Academy, Brother Zhengping also has to shoulder the responsibility of guarding Nanjing, and he has a great responsibility. ”

Yang Zhengping sighed, following Chen Yue for all these years, he has been in charge of guarding the rear, recruiting troops, training soldiers, and guarding the rear, which has always been his task. In fact, Yang Zhengping would rather lead the troops to a decisive battle, but he also knew that the reason why Chen Yue put himself in charge of the rear was because of his trust in himself.

"The subordinates will live up to the trust of the prince." Yang Zhengping said resolutely.

On the third day of November in the 19th year of Chongzhen, with the Cabinet University Scholar Gao Hongtu as the main examiner, the officials who participated in Enke have been isolated for several days, and they are normal and nervous to prepare for the Enke exam.

The first enrollment of the Martial Arts College has attracted strong men from Jianghuai, Jiangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Huguang and other areas to come one after another, including teenagers from generations of military families and men from ordinary farmers.

Chen Yue, the king of Qi, served as the dean, and after passing the exam, he had the status of a seven-rank military attaché, which was enough to drive aspiring teenagers to come to Nanjing thousands of miles away. Up to now, there have been as many as 2,000 people who have signed up, and the first enrollment of the Martial Arts Academy, the enrollment quota is only 500 people, that is to say, only one of the four applicants can be admitted, which shows the fierce competition, and this is because it is only two months from the construction of the Armed Forces Academy to the approval of the imperial court to the enrollment registration, and many people in the distant provinces and even the nearby provinces have no time to know. If we wait until next year, I am afraid that the number of applicants will double.

However, Chen Yue, the king of Qi, could no longer wait for the day when the Martial Arts Academy opened, because he was going to set off with the army today.

The soldiers from Jiangxi had already arrived in Nanjing, and under the planning of the staff of the Dadu Governor's Office, the first batch of pioneers had already arrived in Yangzhou, and the second and third batches of troops had also crossed Nanjing, so Chen Yue did not dare to wait any longer.

It's already November, and it's already cold. Although he had made sufficient preparations for this battle, he had purchased cotton from Songjiang several months ago to make winter clothes, which was enough to ensure that every soldier could survive the cold winter.

However, once it snowed, it would be particularly troublesome to march and fight, so it was necessary to set out as soon as possible, and attack Shandong at least before December.

Shi Kefa personally took the Manchu Dynasty civil and military forces to the outside of Nanjing, and after toasting and practicing wine, he watched Chen Yue get on the big boat on the river. There were tens of thousands of people outside the city, and Zhang Huangyan in the crowd looked at the distant sail shadow in the river and sighed slightly.