In June of the 17th year of Chongzhen, the Manchu regent Dolgon, who had defeated the Dashun army and occupied Beijing, agreed with the kings, Baylor, and ministers that the capital should be built in Yanjing, and the auxiliary prince Tun Qika and others should be sent to meet him with a concert.

At this time, Li Zicheng had already led the main force to retreat across the Yellow River and arrived at Guanzhong, leaving the general Gu Ying in Hebei, and Liu Zhong and other generals in Shanxi to be responsible for the defense. In the Battle of One Stone, the Dashun army suffered heavy losses and urgently needed to return to the old nest to recuperate, and transfer back the main army sent to various places, and then fight a decisive battle with the Manchu Qing.

Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong led the army has captured Chengdu, is planning to become the emperor, he has made four righteous sons Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi as the king, the army is marching to the whole Sichuan.

In Wuchang, Zuo Liangyu received Chongzhen's holy order, but refused to lead the troops into Sichuan on the grounds of poor health. However, Chongzhen is not as good as the Hongguang Imperial Court, Zuo Liangyu still has a sense of awe in his heart, and he does not dare to be as domineering as another time and space to the Hongguang Imperial Court.

Although Zuo Liangyu himself was reluctant to enter Sichuan, he sent his general Li Guoying and ordered him to lead 20,000 troops, controlled by He Tengjiao, the governor of Huguang, to enter Sichuan to suppress thieves. And Zuo Liangyu's health is indeed poor, he looks sick and crooked, and the court has nothing to do with him.

Now, the Manchu Qing are busy moving the nest from Guanwai to Beijing, and then conquer the entire Ming Dynasty on this basis. Li Zicheng was busy licking his wounds and preparing for the upcoming big battle. Zhang Xianzhong planned to occupy the country of Tianfu in Sichuan and establish a stable rear. For the newly established Nanjing court, there was a rare period of recuperation. Most of Shandong, Henan, Jianghuai, and the entire south of the Yangtze River are still under the rule of the Ming court.

At this time, Chen Yue led the Pingnan Army across the Yangtze River and arrived in Yangzhou. Chongzhen entrusted him with a heavy task, hoping that he would be able to resist the strong enemy in the north.

Although some ministers clamored that troops should be sent to Shandong and Henan to recover the country. But Chongzhen, who has experienced a big defeat, understands in his heart that there are still a lot of territory in the Ming army now, but in terms of the strength of the army, whether it is compared with the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the thieves, it is not comparable. Although there are many troops under the Ming Dynasty, there are not many that can be fought.

The most important thing at the moment is to recruit soldiers, train the army, and accumulate strength, and he is counting on Chen Yue to be able to train an elite army. As for the ruined north, it is a burden on his back, and Chongzhen has no intention of recovering it at the moment.

I have to say that after experiencing the catastrophe of life and death, Chongzhen's character is much calmer than before.

Chen Yue's official position was the governor of Jiangbei, and he had military, political and civil powers, and his power was the same as that of later high-ranking officials and commanders of military regions. The territory under its jurisdiction is the land of Jiangbei, that is, the four prefectures of Yangzhou, Huai'an, Xuzhou, and Fengyang, and the entire land of the two Huai, that is, the Jiangbei part of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces in later generations.

The power of the army and the people on the horse can be described as very great, but Chen Yue also knew that the purpose of Chongzhen sending himself to Yangzhou was to train a strong army, establish a solid defense line in the land of Lianghuai, and defend Nanjing.

As for civil affairs, Chen Yue is not familiar with it, and he does not want to take care of it, there are already local officials in each prefecture and county, and civil affairs are naturally in charge of them, and there is no need to worry about himself as a governor.

Chen Yue's governor was located in the city of Yangzhou. Yangzhou has two cities, the old and the new, the old city is where the government is located, also known as the city, the new city is in the east of the old city facing the canal, it is the county government of Jiangdu County, also known as the county seat, Chen Yue's line is located in the new city, a four-entry house, the original courtyard of a salt merchant, the salt merchant took the initiative to dedicate the courtyard to the new governor.

The main force of more than 10,000 Pingnan Army followed Chen Yue to Yangzhou and was stationed in the city.

A few days before arriving in Yangzhou, the government and county officials, gentry and celebrities, and magnates visited the new governor one after another, washed the dust for Chen Yue, and sent a large number of gifts, gold and silver treasures, antique jewelry, strange stone and wood carvings, coral agate, and all kinds of things. Even several big salt merchants sent more than a dozen Yangzhou thin horses to Chen Yue, all of them are young debuts who are alive and fragrant and beautiful like flowers, Yangzhou thin horses are famous all over the world, and their beauty and quality are not worse than those by the Qinhuai River.

For the various gifts sent, Chen Yue did not refuse all of them, and as for the dozen or so thin horses, they were all grateful and couldn't afford it.

On the fourth day, Chen Yue ordered the door to be closed, and the gifts could be left, but he was really tired of seeing no one again. This has stopped a lot.

So, Chen Yue gathered everyone around him and began to discuss the future.

As for civil affairs, Chen Yue decided to give up, and the most important thing at the moment is to reorganize the army. The territory under the jurisdiction of the governor of Jiangbei is too huge, to defend such a large territory, at least 100,000 troops are needed, although there are many local troops, but there are not many elites who can fight, most of them are local generals such as Zhang Tianfu, Liu Zhaoji, Bu Congshan, Huang Fei, Fang Guoan, although each general has thousands or even nearly 10,000 troops under his command, and may be pulled out to fight, and there are not many who can resist the Manchu Eight Banners. Otherwise, in another time and space, when the Qing troops went south, these armies would not have surrendered one after another.

Chen Yue didn't dare to hand over the heavy responsibility of defense to these people, and in order to resist the strong enemy in the north, he had to train his elite troops.

At present, the number of Pingnan Army is less than 10,000, and the combat strength is still unsatisfactory, but the scale is too small. If we want to win the big war in a year, at least expand the core force to 50,000 people, with 50,000 elites, and with the cooperation of the local army, Chen Yuefang is sure to hold Jianghuai.

Although it is said that the more the army expands, the better, but it is too difficult to train elite soldiers, only soldiers are not enough, armor and weapons, food and salary supplies, long-term training, and tempering on the battlefield, these factors are indispensable.

And now that there is less than a year left for Chen Yue, how easy is it to train tens of thousands of troops in such a short time?

The recruitment of soldiers, rigorous training, and the formation of the army require a large number of officers, and the production of ordnance, weapons, etc., all need to be handled by specialized people.

There are so many problems that it makes me feel a headache when I think about it. It is impossible to accomplish so many tasks by Chen Yue alone, and he needs a large number of talents to assist.

At this time, Chen Yue remembered the establishment of the shogunate that his staff member Yu Fenglin had been proposing to him.

It would have been much easier if there were various institutions of the shogunate, and specialized people were in charge of specialized matters.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the military system was very chaotic, and the army had almost been reduced to the private property of the generals, and for the generals, the methods of managing the army were even more simple and crude, and there was no system at all. A general soldier can recruit soldiers at will, regardless of whether they have weapons or not, which also leads to the uneven quality of many troops, and even incomplete military uniforms.

Chen Yue didn't want his army to be like this, he was determined to build an army with a modern management mechanism!