After such a so-called "dismounting," the newly recruited recruits no longer dared to underestimate the veterans of the "Ming Wu Army," and their attitudes suddenly became humble -- they all knew in their hearts that their group of people looked like five big and three thick, with a tiger's back and a bear's waist, but if they confronted the Ming Wu Army now, there was a chance that the entire army would be wiped out.

Under such a premise, Yang Zhan was finally able to exert his strength and concentrate all his attention on training this group of recruits.

This Yang Zhan turned out to be the general of Jinling City, who offended Liu Kongzhao, the noble of the Nanjing garrison, and almost hung by a thread, thanks to Ji Qingwen's timely appearance, he barely saved his life.

Since then, Yang Zhanbai has been under Ji Qingwen's door and has devoted himself to training the soldiers of the Ming Wu Army for him.

In fact, in history, Yang Zhan is also a famous general of Yunwen Yunwu, although the ability to lead the army is not as good as Li Dingguo, Sun Chuanting and other super-first-class generals, but he is good at management and training, when he was in charge of Sichuan, not only defeated the people's army and the Qing army who intended to enter Sichuan several times, but also managed Sichuan with a sound and impressive, which can be described as both civil and military.

(This brings Yang forward by 10 years.) ）

However, in the troubled times at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Yang Zhan finally offended his villains because of his excessive power and was assassinated to death, which was a strong stroke among the many tragedies in the late Ming Dynasty. But now that he is under Ji Qingwen, he has avoided such a tragedy and will become one of the most important generals under Ji Qingwen.

Yang Zhan's military training, even for laymen, seems to be quite effective.

Therefore, Ji Qingwen saw it in his eyes and was proud in his heart, so he deliberately took Yuan Chonghuan to watch the training drill together, and asked him: "Can such a 'Ming Wu Army' compete with the elite of the Eight Banners of Manchuria?" ”

Yuan Chonghuan, who has the pseudonym Yuan Si, is now Ji Qingwen's guest general, and he speaks much more politely than when he was the Jiliao Governor, and he says a lot of flattering and praise words with one mouth.

Ji Qingwen didn't want to listen to these lies against his will, so he said: "Inspector Yuan, I took such a big risk to rescue you and bring you here in Jiangnan, not to listen to your flattering words. I might as well say it bluntly, I am not afraid to listen to bad words, but I am afraid to listen to lies. As long as the superintendent expresses his heart directly, I, Ji Qingwen, will definitely not be surprised. ”

Yuan Chonghuan hurriedly bowed his hand and said, "How dare you." Yuan's words were not half-true. Lord Ji, the combat effectiveness of the Ming Wu Army under your command has actually far surpassed the elite of the Eight Banners, and it is even higher than the Liaodong Iron Cavalry. It can be said that with the same force of troops, whether it is the Eight Banners Light Cavalry or the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, there will never be much chance of victory. But ......"

"But what?" Ji Qingwen asked.

Yuan Chonghuan frowned and said, "But...... Yuan has not been here for a long time, but he also knows that this Ming military army has cost the capital of Lord Ji. These two thousand people and horses, without 200,000 taels of expenses a year, will definitely not be able to support them. Sir, is Yuan right? ”

"200,000 is just a military salary, and if you want to send troops to fight, this number must be at least doubled." Ji Qingwen said truthfully.

"That's it." Yuan Chonghuan said, "Yuan said a big thing, if there are hundreds or thousands of small groups of Tartars, Yuan has a way to deal with them." But if the Eight Banners of Manchuria poured out, then if our Ming Dynasty did not have a strong city and no artillery to cheer up, then the field confrontation would definitely not be the opponent of the Manchurian Tartars......"

Speaking of this, Yuan Chonghuan suddenly fell into deep thought, and his thoughts seemed to fly to the Liaodong battlefield.

Ji Qingwen hurriedly said: "Go on, Inspector Yuan will continue to say!" ”

Yuan Chonghuan said: "There is a saying that 'the Jurchen is not satisfied with ten thousand, and it is invincible'. The Manchurian Tartars divided all the men and horses, regardless of men, women, and children into the 'Eight Banners', and the enemy chieftain Taiji was able to summon all the forces of Manchuria and launch an attack on our Ming Dynasty as soon as he gave the order. When the dynasty encountered a police on the frontier, the border generals could often only mobilize their headquarters to resist first. If you want to use the army, you need to go through three or four procedures before you can notify the military department; If the military department is undecided, it will have to go through three or four procedures before it can go directly to the Holy Hearing. Wait for the emperor to make a decision and send it to the front line...... Hehe, the daylilies are cold......"

Ji Qingwen listened very seriously, and suddenly asked, "What if you give the border general the right to be cheap?" This will allow them to adapt on the spot. ”

Yuan Chonghuan smiled bitterly and said, "Sir, the right to be cheap is not so easy to use. You see that my Yuan is the best example. ”

It is true that Yuan Chonghuan was not granted the authority second only to the emperor by Emperor Chongzhen because of the superintendent Ji Liao, and finally ended up in a different place. Of course, Yuan Chonghuan is not a good person, and in the process of using such full strength, he is not flawless.

In this regard, Yuan Chonghuan, who has changed his name to Yuan Si, still has a clear understanding, and only heard him say: "In fact, Yuan is not without fault. It's just that the authority of the military generals is too great, and the emperor will always have a mustard in his heart, and the civil officials have always looked down on and looked down on the military generals. In this way, how can the generals on the front line lead good soldiers? ”

After saying that, Yuan Chonghuan lowered his head and was silent.

Ji Qingwen also fell silent.

He knew that with Yuan Chonghuan's understanding, he actually did not have insight into the congenital drawbacks of feudal centralized rule, but his few words had clearly touched on the most sensitive and fundamental core issues of the Ming Dynasty's ruling system, which could be regarded as extremely insightful.

At present, Ji Qingwen is also relying on unparalleled financial strength to gradually expand the strength of his army, and Chongzhen, the impatient and hot-tempered emperor, can feel Ji Qingwen's distrust of Ji Qingwen more and more obviously.

"If the emperor really turns his face, do I have any strategy for dealing with it?" Ji Qingwen asked himself.

But now, in Chongzhen's eyes, Ji Qingwen is still a loyal minister, not to mention that when the imperial court is using money now, Ji Qingwen, a weaving admiral who can make money, is indispensable for a moment, and he can't leave the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver supplied by the Suzhou Weaving Yamen.

Therefore, the time to turn the other cheek has not yet arrived!

Thinking of this, Ji Qingwen Fang breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Inspector Yuan is really insightful. You see, although my current Ming military army is powerful, it is not yet fully equipped. When I follow the old General Qi Jiguang's art of war, I will gather a full number of 3,000 people, and then match it with cavalry, guns, and even sailors, I don't know if I can resist the impact of the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry for a while at a critical time. At least resist the arrival of a large group of people, right? ”

Yuan Chonghuan's eyes suddenly flashed, and he said, "Sir, don't blame Yuan for speaking wildly. Whoever leads the army to fight and only seeks a small defeat, there is no one who is not defeated; There is no one who only seeks to shake hands and make peace, and there is no one who does not retreat from the army; Those who only seek a small victory are safe, and there is no one who can take advantage; Those who are bent on winning big may only win by margin. With the strength of the Ming Wu Army under the lord, once it clashed with the Manchurian Eight Banners, there was nothing else to think about except to quickly and completely eliminate one of its main forces, otherwise the patrol hesitated, but would be seized by the Manchurian cavalry. Yuan's two words of advice against the ear, and asked the lord to adopt them. ”

These few sentences can be said to be Yuan Chonghuan's heartfelt words summarized after so many years of fighting in Liaodong.

Looking at Yuan Chonghuan's sincere expression, Ji Qingwen couldn't help but be moved, and hurriedly said, "Of course, of course." Inspector Yuan's opinion can be said to be the most reasonable words of the soldiers, I have written it down, I have written it down, I have written it down, I have written it down, I ......have written it down, I have written it down, I have written it down."

Although Ji Qingwen said this, he didn't realize the importance of these words after all, and only lingered in his mind for a few days before he left them behind. It wasn't until the final joint that Ji Qingwen remembered Yuan Chonghuan's words, and finally made a desperate gamble and completed the feat of changing his life.

And at this moment, Ji Qingwen is training so hard, but he is making down-to-earth preparations for his last effort, and only by accumulating strength in advance can he burst out at the moment when he needs it most.

The training of soldiers is only one of several measures taken by Ji Qingwen to change the direction of history, and the other measure is to quell the vigorous peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty as much as possible.

Regarding this point, Ji Qingwen himself is actually very conflicted in his heart.

First of all, Ji Qingwen, as a "newcomer with four haves" who was deeply educated by the socialist proletariat, still has some class feelings for the peasant brothers. This determined that in the process of quelling the peasant uprising, it was difficult for him to die and be ruthless.

For example, in the previous confrontation with Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others, Ji Qingwen was very cautious and cautious in the use of troops, and it can even be said that he was a little too cautious - in addition to those who were the culprits who did evil, for those peasants who were forced by life to embark on the road of rebellion against the imperial court, he always opened his net, and even traveled thousands of miles to bring two or three thousand captives from Shaanxi to Jiangnan to work, which can be regarded as giving them a bite to eat.

However, from a logical point of view, the popular uprising had to be quelled, and the reasons for this were also very profound and extensive-

First, although the Ming Dynasty has decayed from top to bottom, from the inside to the outside, it is like a rotten apple. But he is now the orthodox dynasty of the Han people after all, especially with the heavy responsibility of resisting the Manchurian Emperor Taiji. In fact, when the orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty still existed, the Manchurians, although arrogant, were never able to break through the Guanning defense line from the front. With the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the seemingly tenacious Li Zicheng Dashun army was defeated by Manchuria Dolgon in a stone, and finally under the counterattack of Wu Sangui, the Qing army entered the customs.

Second, although the peasant uprising was able to overthrow the Ming Dynasty, history has proved that even if this old-style peasant uprising succeeded, it would only eventually establish a new feudal dynasty and start a new, boring, and numb historical cycle again. This cycle continued for nearly 2,000 years, but it was never able to bring China's history to a new stage, and finally in the wave of Western capitalism and the industrial revolution, China's former wave was almost slapped to death on the beach.

Third, because the people's army is still fundamentally a rabble, its combat effectiveness is much worse than that of the serious officers and troops, and even if they can defeat the officers and troops in every major battle, they will often pay sacrifices and losses several times greater than those of the officers and troops. Even Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who were heroes of the late Ming Dynasty, generally lost more than they won against the Ming army, and they were beaten several times only to save themselves. Therefore, the peasant revolt was nothing less than a tragedy for ordinary peasants.

So why did the seemingly honest Chinese peasants always take the road of rebellion against feudal rule?

There is only one reason, I can't eat anymore - rebellion is death, starvation is death, horizontal and vertical are death, even death is death!