"Is there a clue as to why the East City finally collapsed?"

After listening to Zhan Wenbo's report on the war in the city, Kong Youde pondered for a long time and then asked a question that made him linger.

"The Foreign Security Bureau has found out some clues."

Zhan Wenbo was also prepared, and continued to reply: "This matter should have something to do with the Kong family, a big family in Jining City. ”

"Jining Kong's family, originally a branch of the Qufu Kong's lineage, with poetry and books to cultivate and read heirlooms, when our army captured Jining, the Kong family had a lot of resistance, but after seeing our army's severe punishment of illegal means, the convenience will no longer compete with our army."

"Because the other party has a prominent background, our army and the Jining Municipal Government do not embarrass each other too much, as long as they abide by the law."

"However, we neglected that the other party had lived in Jining City for more than 200 years, but we built a secret passage in the city that led directly to the outside of the city, as a refuge for the family in case of war."

"The Kong family is pedantic, but they are stupid and loyal to the Ming Dynasty, although they have recognized me as the leader of the Hong Dynasty on the surface, but behind the scenes, they still have a lot of collusion with the Ming Dynasty government."

"After Zhang Huangyan, the governor of Shandong in the Ming Dynasty, arrived at Jining City on his northern expedition, the Kong clan sent an envoy to contact Zhang Huangyan from the secret road and informed him of the existence of this secret road."

"In the end, Zhang Huangyan used this secret passage to directly use thousands of catties of explosives to design this explosion at the junction of the Dongcheng city wall, which caused the city wall to collapse in one fell swoop."

The Jining City Foreign Security Bureau, in cooperation with the Public Security Bureau, quickly completed the investigation of the explosion on the Dongcheng city wall even when the flames of war were shrouded.

"What about the people of the Kong clan?"

When Kong Youde heard that the culprit who made him so embarrassed in the end was actually committed by the Kong family with the same surname, he felt a lot of emotion in his heart, but also a fierce murderous intent.

"Except for a few abandoned subordinates and distant relatives, the rest have already fled the city, and I am afraid that they have defected to the Ming Dynasty."

Zhan Wenbo frowned, looking calm, but his eyes were full of murderous intent and replied.

"Humph!"

Kong Youde was very dissatisfied, but he also knew that this carelessness had nothing to do with the group of officers below, their scope of authority was to fight, and such things involving people's livelihood should be the authority of the Jining Municipal Government and the Foreign Security Bureau.

"The subordinate thinks that it will take at least half a year for our Ministry of Defense to replenish the final strength between the military departments from conscription to the final replenishment of troops."

"Among them, the conscription time, the lower officials thought that it would take at least two months, although the lower officials had no words before, and said some angry words, but the lower officials did not want to cause a lack of civilian labor because of conscription, so the conscription of soldiers needs to be drawn from a wide range, so as not to cause problems with the uneven labor force in various places."

"Second, after the conscription of soldiers, our Ministry of Defense also needs time to train new recruits for three months, so that they can form a certain combat effectiveness."

When Li Tianyang finally relented and asked the Ministry of National Defense to recruit a large number of adult men into the army, Wu Jie, who had already had a plan, didn't want to give Li Tianyang a chance to regret at all, so he insisted on doing things in a down-to-earth manner, and said to Li Tianyang on the spot.

"Very good, the matter of conscription will be handed over to your Ministry of Defense, but remember, this conscription can only recruit 500,000 troops, not one more!"

Li Tianyang nodded, hearing Wu Jie's confident answer, Li Tianyang believed that the other party had indeed prepared, but soon he thought of one more thing, and immediately asked Wu Jie: "How will your Ministry of Defense respond to the counteroffensive launched by the Ming Army in Shandong Province of the Third Army?" ”

"This our Ministry of Defense has instructed Kong Youde of the Third Army to shrink the defensive line and launch a defensive offensive on the front line of Jining Mansion, at that time they will have 30,000 troops in their hands, with the advantages of Jining Mansion's city defense and firearms in their hands, it is enough to complete the blocking task."

Wu Jie had expected that Li Tianyang would ask this question, so he leaned over and replied.

"Do you need the Fifth Army to support some manpower to go over, I am afraid that the morale of the newly defeated division of the Third Army will be low, and it will be difficult to stop the huge counterattack of the Ming Dynasty army."

Li Tianyang knew a lot about the battle losses of the Third Army, and in addition to the fact that the Third Army controlled a lot of territory on the map, he made a suggestion.

Over the years, although the army of the Hong Dynasty could not be said to be invincible on the battlefield, but it was also a rare defeat, with the formation of the army's self-confidence and sense of honor, Li Tianyang was very worried that they would be unwilling to ask the court for help for the unique characteristics of the Hong Dynasty army, and finally delayed the war.

"No."

Not only did Wu Jie object, but even Gan Dabiao and others also objected.

"The area that the Fifth Army needs to guard against is also not small, especially the need to defend the safety of Beijing, and rash mobilization will bring risks to the capital."

Wu Jie hurriedly wrote a veto to reject it.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, the Third Army is not so easy to defeat, and there are still as many as 50,000 troops stationed in various parts of Shandong, that is, the more the Ming army compresses the defense line of the Third Army, the stronger its army will shrink."

"Although the Ming army has an advantage in numbers, but after so many years, which war between us and the Ming Dynasty is not fighting more with less!!"

Looking at Wu Jie's confident attitude, Li Tianyang finally gave up his suggestion, compared to a half-witted person like him, professional things are still handed over to professional people to do is the way to win.

With the cooperation of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and other departments, the working members of the Ministry of National Defense soon began to work under the huge territory of the Great Hong Dynasty.

Of course, the initial work was very difficult to do, as the so-called good men are not good soldiers, and the status of military households since the Ming Dynasty is not too high.

At this time, the Hong Dynasty still did not change the mood of the people, except for the people of Luzon and Dayuan Island.

But you can't keep recruiting new soldiers from Dayuan Island and Luzon, how can you say that it is still Li Tianyang's last retreat until now, and this is the reason why the Hong Dynasty restricted army recruitment in the first place.

However, in the end, the deadlock was broken by a policy signed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Land Bureau after consultation, so that the conscription work could be carried out, and gradually more soldiers took the initiative to enlist.

Even if the people of the Hong Dynasty can get five to six acres of land according to the first fifteen years old, the population base of the Hong Dynasty, which has been devastated by natural disasters, is no longer less than a quarter of the local people who lived in the local area.