Leaving the Futai Yamen, Li Zicheng summoned Yang Zhaoji at night, and compared with Mei Zhihuan, it didn't take much to persuade Yang Zhaoji to surrender.

Yang Zhaoji is different from Mei Zhihuan, he is not from a person's background, but from martial arts, that is to say, he is a pure military general, and he does not have the fig leaf of Shilin's identity like Mei Zhihuan.

Shinong industrial and commercial soldiers, in the political hierarchy of the Ming Dynasty, Shilin ranks first, and the military generals are the same as the soldiers, at the bottom of the society, although the generals also have grades, but these grades are only a comparison between the generals, and the grades of civil officials are not the same thing at all, and even the first-grade military generals, as long as there is no duke, uncle, waiting and other titles, when they see the seven-grade civil officials, they must also kneel and salute like ordinary people.

The civil officials of the Ming Dynasty are ashamed to be with the military generals and relatives, if they catch up with the war, the credit is full of civilian officials, at most some of the military generals who command the battle leak from the fingernails, and all the black cauldrons are naturally carried by the military generals, who makes them born different?

Ganzhou was breached, Yang Zhaoji had no choice, if the imperial court pursued, the black cauldron would be carried by him without any accidents, the war was unfavorable, it was completely the responsibility of the general, not to mention that he was still a prisoner of war.

Even if the imperial court recovers Ganzhou in the future, Ganzhou is still the same Ganzhou, but the fact that it has changed hands cannot be changed, and the imperial court is disgraced, and Yang Zhaoji still cannot avoid the fate of dismissal and investigation.

Strict military discipline has always been a double-edged sword, which can not only create a strong army, but also make a defeated general cut off the way back.

In the Han Dynasty, in order to deal with the nomadic Xiongnu in the north, the military discipline was not strict, which did create a number of famous generals in history, Li Guang, Wei Qing, Huo Quzhi, Li Guangli......

However, Li Guangli, the uncle of the country who was deeply trusted by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Hou Li Guangli of Haixi, finally ended up with the tragic fate of surrendering to the Xiongnu, and the achievements of half his life such as the expedition to Dawan were in vain.

Why? The root cause lies in strict military discipline.

During Li Guangli's last expedition to the Xiongnu court in Mobei, there happened to be an accident in the family, and all the dependents were arrested and imprisoned by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

There is no victorious general in the world, and victory and defeat are common things in soldiers, but according to the Han law at that time, once Li Guangli returned to Chang'an, not only could his family not be released, but what was waiting for him would also be in prison.

In desperation, Li Guangli surrendered to the Xiongnu, and the elite of 100,000 Han troops were all turned into foreign forces, and the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty lost the ability to attack the Xiongnu in Mobei.

The military discipline of the Ming Dynasty is also strict, and after the Wanli period, it is even more severe to the point of deformity, only one Liaodong, because of the defeat and suicide, was killed by the imperial court, there are more than ten, more than half of the Ming general military officers of the same era.

Of course, in these incidents, officials from all walks of life have also contributed a lot.

The object of their impeachment is those military generals whose military exploits have been impersonated by civilian officials, and their mistakes and mistakes have been infinitely magnified.

Being impeached by the official is the ultimate fate of almost all generals.

In the Wanli period, military generals were impeached, often because of party disputes. If the military general belongs to a certain interest group, he will be filtered by the speech officials of another group with a magnifying glass, even if you are careful, and the alum water is washed and then cleared again, this is difficult for the speech officials, "the Ming Dynasty is not guilty of words", "rumors and rumors" are the privilege of the speech officials, and they do not have to bear any political consequences.

Even if you don't belong to any interest group, the centrists, I'm sorry, all the officials will ask you for political achievements, you have no connections, you don't have a background, you don't impeach anyone, who will impeach? Do you want to impeach your own people?

So when the army was defeated outside Ganzhou, Yang Zhaoji was so anxious that he wiped his neck, not exactly for others to see, but more likely to be his first reaction.

Now that Li Zicheng has given him a chance, at least a chance to survive, how can Yang Zhaoji not be grateful to Dade?

Even if Li Zicheng was gracious, released him, lost the responsibility of Ganzhou, and completely pressed on him, would he still be able to return to Jingshi? What the consequences of going back to Jingshi can be imagined with the head below.

The power of the thieves in Shaanxi is getting bigger and bigger, and the soldiers and officers of the guard station are involved, in fact, the situation is similar to that of Yang Zhaoji, once the army is defeated, if they do not join the gang of thieves, they will wait to be imprisoned by the imperial court and attacked by the officials, and the officers can no longer consider the future of these thieves, at least they can get away with it for a few days.

If Mei Zhihuan's surrender to the Xining Army was frightened by the Xining Army and persuaded by Li Zicheng, then Yang Zhaoji's defection to the Xining Army was due to the strict military discipline of the imperial court and the mad dogs of the officials, who pushed him to the Xining Army.

Li Zicheng remembered a question when he walked through the Dadou Tu Valley that day, "Lord Yang, the Da Dou Tu Gu is so dangerous, why don't you build a city and build a pass?" If they had been prepared, the Xining army might not have easily broken through Ganzhou, at least not being attacked by the Xining army without knowing it. ”

"My lord doesn't know," Yang Zhaoji's identity changed quickly, and he performed the etiquette of Shangguan to Li Zicheng, "The north and south of Dadou Bagu are Xining Wei and Ganzhou Wei, both of which are the guards of the Ming Dynasty. ”

"If it is the Yongle period, Xiningwei and Ganzhouwei are indeed in the hands of the imperial court, and the Dadou Pull Valley is used as a road for merchants and pedestrians, but now the Mongolian Maili cadres have gone south along the Datong River, not far from the red soil mouth at the southern end of the canyon, and it is possible to cross the canyon at any time, and the Mongolian herdsmen have entered the valley to find the alpine pastures in winter, and the Mongolian Chahar Department of Lin Dan Khan has already had herdsmen go south, and the form has changed greatly......"

"My lord, my subordinates also had some ideas," Yang Zhaoji shook his head and sighed, and said in a resentful tone: "In the eyes of the imperial court, these Mongolians are just the pain of scabies, and the military generals are self-respecting and are the ...... confidants."

The pain of scabies? Li Zicheng snorted coldly, the Mongolian cavalry swept the Yellow River, the north and south of the river, it has only been a few hundred years, have the officials of the imperial court forgotten? Are there still fewer disasters caused by these scabies people to the Han nation?

As for supporting the army and self-respect, it seems that Yang Zhaoji is very taboo about these, Li Zicheng calculated in his heart, the situation of the Ming military generals supporting the army and self-respect does not seem to appear, the only one Wu Sangui, that is also when the Beijing division has been broken and the imperial court no longer exists, he has some capital from left and right, and it is not self-respect.

However, in the Tang Dynasty, the feudal towns that held both military and economic power gave birth to many examples of self-respect, especially after the Anshi Rebellion, which became more and more out of control, and the Tang Dynasty was destroyed as a result.

It seems that the Ming Dynasty implemented the strategy of "governing the military with literature", which still had a fixed-point effect on controlling the division of military generals, and the status of military generals declined, but it could effectively reduce the soil for supporting troops and self-respect.

The Xining Army is still very small, and this problem does not exist for the time being, but as the territory controlled by the Xining Army becomes larger and larger, these problems will arise sooner or later.

For Li Zicheng, the most pressing issue is how to resettle Yang Zhaoji, the seven hundred households of the Xining Army, the hundred households are relatively stable, no matter what the ability is, at least for the time being, there is no dissent, it is impossible to replace them and give way to Yang Zhaoji.

And Yang Zhaoji was originally the chief military officer of Ganzhou and the second-grade military attaché, and now in the Xining Army, he is a small Qianhu official at the helm, and he really can't place Yang Zhaoji.

Thinking about it, Li Zicheng decided to give Yang Zhaoji the post of commander of the Gansu capital, but as for the grade, he did not say it clearly, and he could not be higher than himself.

The commander of the Gansu Metropolitan did not belong to the battle sequence, but the highest military attache in the locality, which was actually the military attache of the reserve.

Yang Zhaoji's position is in the same vein as the military design of the Gansu military town.

In the future, Gansu Town does not include Xining Mansion, but depending on the situation, it is possible to accommodate Sanchuan Mansion, and the garrison and standing army of Gansu Town will be maintained at a very low level, and even the standing army will not be required, but a large number of strong men must be used as reserves to provide troops for the Xining Army at any time.

The reserve force was handed over to Yang Zhaoji to take care of, and they were both military and civilian, and they normally participated in agricultural work on weekdays and produced grain for the military town, but during the slack season, they arranged one to three months a year to receive drills and training in accordance with the training methods of the Xining Army, mastered the basic military discipline of the Xining Army, and could be supplemented as regular Xining soldiers at any time.

Since the town of Gansu was not the focus of defense, in each of the current guards, 50 soldiers were left as a standing army, and a general flag officer was in charge.

In addition to garrisoning various key points, after the end of the Northern Expedition, the seven major households of the Xining Army will enter a new period of rectification, military expansion, and training, especially the popularization of Xining rifles, although the number is insufficient and cannot be equipped in large quantities, but the soldiers must be trained first, so as not to have time to have rifles, but the soldiers will not use them.

Li Zicheng originally planned that seven hundred households would not be stationed in Gansu, but after thinking about it, he was not at ease, after all, Gansu was a newly occupied land, and the people's hearts and military hearts might not be attached for a while, so they had to station their own soldiers.

In the end, it was decided to divide the entire Gansu town into two, with the northern part being managed by the army stationed in Beichuan County, and the southern part being the key point, which was under the jurisdiction of the hundred households stationed in Sanchuan Prefecture and the direct garrison.

For the existing large number of soldiers in Gansu Town, Li Zicheng has long calculated, once the entire Gansu Town is occupied, Li Zicheng is ready to start a new round of army expansion, Gansu Town can provide a large amount of food to the Xining Army, and the territory is also greatly increased, the risk of a decisive battle with the imperial court is getting bigger and bigger, and the expansion of the army is really necessary.

In the new phase of the army expansion, Li Zicheng plans to expand the three hundred households currently participating in the war to more than 1,000 people, and the real establishment of 1,000 households, and the three hundred household officials will also be promoted to 1,000 households; In addition, the 300th household of Qin Danian, who is stationed in Beichuan County, currently has only six general banners and more than 300 soldiers, and this time it will be expanded to at least ten general banners and more than 500 people.

In addition, Li Zicheng is ready to expand his pro-soldiers to 56 people, and with the establishment of a general flag, He Xiaomi will also become a real pro-soldier chief flag officer.

After this expansion, the Xining Army's traditional seven hundred households will have three hundred households to reach more than 1,000 soldiers, four hundred households to reach more than 500 people, and a total strength of more than 5,000 troops.