Zhang Qiang toured the provinces along the Yangtze River, inspecting the defense and preparation for war.

The equipment of the Qing army is getting better and better, the new army trained by the Qing army is becoming more and more combat-effective, and the 28 towns of the Qing army are gradually becoming an army, each army has 11,000 people, and the size and military system of the guards brigade of the Huaxia Army.

Zhang Qiang has to say, Hong Chengchou is really a good student.

However, what is ironic is that the first three armies trained by Hong Chengchou, Tian Bin's first army, as well as the more elite second army and third army, were actually transferred to Yanjing by Dolgon and went to defend the capital.

So there were only 25 towns left in front of the Huaxia Army, and according to the report of the intelligence officers of the Military Intelligence Department who stayed there, 10 towns had already completed their rearmament, and they were as elite as the First Army, and the 10 towns were almost 80% completed, and the remaining five towns were newly formed Manchu troops, all led by Manchus, and the Portuguese soldiers who were stranded there and had no home to return served as officers, and some Dutch officers who could not leave served as artillery officers.

Although the strength of these five towns is a little less, about 8,500 people, they have more cavalry, they are all full of elite infantry cavalry, can draw full of longbows, and their combat effectiveness is still very powerful when fighting against cold weapon troops, and these elite soldiers are very brave and not afraid of death.

According to intelligence, these Manchu towns were controlled by the cronies of Emperor Shunzhi, two towns were controlled by Aobai, and the other two towns were controlled by the cronies of Zierharang and Mang Gurtai.

How do you look at the Shunzhi Emperor and his allies seem to control the situation here, in fact, those twenty towns are controlled by Hong Chengchou, Hong Chengchou is loyal to Dolgon, and Hong Chengchou also controls some Mongolian cavalry and Manchu Qing troops who have not joined the new army, and there are more than 100,000 people.

Therefore, the power of Emperor Shunzhi is still very small here, and there is nothing to be afraid of.

Through this information, Zhang Qiang can deduce that Emperor Shunzhi is getting older and older, already has his own opinions, and already wants to regain his imperial rights, he has reached out to the front-line army and began to develop his own power.

Zhang Qiang could only be happy, the Qing army began to make internal strife, and Dolgon transferred back the new army of the three armies, knowing that he was afraid that he would lose his control of the Manchu court, so he first transferred the cronies cultivated by Hong Chengchou from here to consolidate his rights and suppress the princes and ministers who opposed him.

Mess up, the more chaotic the better, the more chaotic it is for the Han people, and the more beneficial it is for the Huaxia army.

Zhang Qiang inspected one by one field brigades, one garrison regiment after another, and one militia brigade after another.

Starting from the capital city of Jinling Mansion, where Wei Wuji was sitting, and Wei Wuji returned the information and opinions, both of them believed that the Qing army was not completely ready, and there was no need to make more preparations, with the current ten field brigades, ten garrison regiments, ten militia brigades, three cavalry brigades, about 250,000 troops, to defend the river bank, plus the newly formed river fleet to monitor the enemy, it could completely reduce the burden of the Huaxia army and prevent the enemy's surprise attack.

Whether the Huaxia Army or the Qing Army wanted to attack each other, they needed to land on the other side, and there were ten militia brigades, each militia brigade with 10,000 people patrolling and surveillance, no matter which ferry port or place could be covered.

When the enemy landed in the early stage, when the strength was not very large, the garrison regiment stationed in the garrison could lead the militia brigade to block it in time, and then hand over the task of annihilating the enemy's landing force to the nearby field brigade, which was completely comparable to the enemy's ability to fight and firmly defend various sections in the early stage, even if it was broken through, the field brigade in the rear could make up the defense in echelons, and the guards brigade could quickly lead the troops defending the center of Jinhua Mansion to form a main force to repel the enemy's attack.

Therefore, there is no need to transfer the field brigades in the rear and the field brigades stationed in the rear to form the main battle group and fight a decisive battle with the enemy.

Why do you say ten field brigades?

Didn't the Huaxia Army have twenty-three field brigades?

That's because in the direction of Nanmingguo, in Jiangxi Prefecture, which faces Huguang, a total of six field brigades are stationed, one cavalry brigade is stationed in which direction to prevent the enemy from breaking through, the other one field brigade is stationed in Tingzhou Mansion, one cavalry brigade goes to Nanming Kingdom, three field brigades are in Ningbo Mansion, Shaoxing Mansion, Hangzhou Mansion, three prefectures are guarded in echelons, two field brigades are stationed on Baodao by He Jin and Jin Qi to guard Zheng Chenggong, and one field brigade, that is, a field brigade composed of Portuguese, Dutch, and Spanish prisoners is stationed in Zhangzhou Mansion for training, At the same time, it was also a defensive reinforcement for the southwestern direction and the enemy coming from the sea.

The 2nd Guards Brigade was stationed at the garrison factory in Xianju County, the 3rd Guards Brigade had just been formed and was stationed in the Chuzhou Capital, the 1st Guards Brigade was stationed in the center, and the 1st Cavalry Brigade was stationed in Dongyang Town, Jinhua Prefecture.

The external border is heavily guarded, and the internal is defended and suppressed from point to point, so at present, the strength of the Huaxia Army is still enough.

There are garrison regiments in each prefecture and city, garrison battalions in each county, and 100 garrison households in each town, which is equivalent to a company, and it can be said that there are a lot of mobile troops, and the militia in the original core area has been abolished from time to time, that is, it has been transferred to the newly beaten state capital and county seat on the border, and there is no militia and village guards in the core area, only the government service and arrest of each official government.

The Huaxia Army is transferring all its wartime troops to the border areas, and the central areas are still in charge of the people, which can reduce the local tax pressure and financial pressure, and they do not need to spend a lot of money to support the militia and village guards, so that the economy of the core area and the central area will recover, and the people will live and work in peace and contentment, and return to the living conditions of the Ming people under the Huaxia military system.

In the core area, you won't even see the prisoners of the punishment camp now, maybe some difficult places, such as mines, mountain quarries, and some felons in the hard labor camp, but they are also very few, and the strength of the garrison force in the garrison can completely see them to death, and nothing will happen, at least so far, there have been no criminals who have escaped from prison and caused any attacks on the local area.

After seeing that the situation of the Huaxia Army had improved, Zhang Qiang abolished the so-called green, yellow, and red zone systems of the US military in other countries on the battlefield, and instead divided the entire territory of the Huaxia Army into the core area according to the degree of stability and economic prosperity, and the core areas included the original Jinhua Mansion, Quzhou Mansion, Taizhou Prefecture, Chuzhou Prefecture, Jianning Prefecture, and Anguo Mansion; Central area: including Fuzhou, Huizhou, Shaoxing, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Tingzhou, Raozhou, and other areas, other areas close to the border are classified as marginal areas, that is, areas where the enemy may break through and become battlefields.

Although it is a marginal area, these areas have been stabilized, a large number of militias and village guards have been formed, basically there are no bandits, crimes and the like, about 1.2 million prisoners of the punishment camp, hard labor is being built in that area, they are not for the Huaxia army and the people of Huaxia to have a better tomorrow, but for tomorrow's food and their own heads, the punishment camp is quite a cruel place.

After Zhang Qiang and Wei Wuji discussed, Wei Wuji proposed that the Southern Ming Kingdom launch a campaign aimed at annihilating or depleting the enemy's forces in the southwest.

Zhang Qiang was a little undecided, because the performance of Nan Mingguo in the battle with the Portuguese coalition army, although it was better than before, more resilient, and 100,000 dead cannon fodder soldiers were still fighting with the enemy, and finally collapsed, but he still felt that Nan Mingguo could not face the Qing army's nearly 200,000 troops, and it was attacked by the Qing army's hero, the great traitor Kong Youde.

"My lord, we can't let the Qing army prepare anymore, we should take the initiative to attack, at least let our allies, they are more anxious than us, and they want to attack the enemy more to gain a greater advantage and recover the Daming rivers and mountains as soon as possible.

I think Longwu Zhu Yujian should be anxious now, and he should be restless every day, because Kong Youde's forces are getting stronger and stronger, and there are two princes and generals of the Qing army, Zierharang and Mang Gurtai, who are around us, and if we can provide them with a little help, I believe they will launch an attack and consume the enemy's strength. ”

Wei Wuji, as a soldier, always thinks about fighting, Zhang Qiang can understand, but his troops are now more than defensive, but the attack is insufficient, the enemy's millions of troops are on the opposite side, he has to pay a lot of casualties if he wants to attack, and the enemy today is the Qing army that used to carry a big blade, ride a war horse and bend a bow and arrow towards your artillery and musket.

The offensive is a difficult problem for the Huaxia Army, and perhaps after the attack, the current stable situation of the Huaxia Army will become a mess, ruining its hard work in the past few years.

Fang Yizhi, now in Huizhou Mansion to be a small county, is doing a good job, he has been the head of the military department, has been in the cabinet, so his prestige and his talent, the county is governed quite well, so when Zhang Qiang discussed things, he called him here.

Fang Yizhi looked like he was holding a Zhizhu in his hand, touching the beard on his chin, "The metropolitan governor can strengthen the support for the Southern Ming Kingdom while contacting the Lu State, Zhang Huangyan is still operating well on Chongming Island, Zheng Chenggong's sailors are also pressing the Qing army when they are fighting with the Qing army's sailors, the Qing army's sailors have retreated to Dengzhou Mansion and Laizhou Mansion, with the help of their sailors on the sea, there is our newly formed river fleet on the river, which can divide a large part of the Qing army's strength, at least those Qing troops who are not new armies have to be attracted by these two sides, In fact, we only need to deal with about 800,000 Qing troops. ”

Zhang Qiang knew that he was right, nodded and listened to him continue to finish speaking, Fang Yizhi continued: "If we can send one or two field brigades plus a cavalry brigade to help the Southern Ming Kingdom fight, then even if it is not victorious, the Qing army will be consumed a lot of troops, and the Qing army will definitely transfer troops from the Han Army Banner and the Green Battalion troops here, and when the time comes, there will be almost 100,000, and we will be able to deal with 100,000 fewer enemies." ”

"Yes, Metropolitan Governor, let's fight, let's mobilize another 100,000 militia, plus ten garrisons to form a reserve force, transport grain and grass, stabilize the place, and then transfer a few field brigades over, and three guards brigades to attack together, even if we can't win the enemy, we can occupy some places, at least recover all of Jiangsu Prefecture and Anhui Prefecture, so that we can hold the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the enemy can no longer use the Yangtze River."

Zhang Qiang thought about the suggestions of the two people, and suddenly a flash of inspiration occurred in his mind, and he found a way to defeat the enemy, but thinking about it, he felt that it was better to do what the two people said first, step by step, and when the time came, he could annihilate all or most of the Qing troops facing the enemy and the Huaxia army.

(End of chapter)