Zhang Xianzhong has been in the world for more than ten years, once burned Fengyang, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, attacked Xiangyang, and the king of Chu in Shenjiang, how majestic, how could he have been so defeated in the case of absolute superiority (150,000 troops, advancing by land and water, facing only a part of the Southern Ming Sichuan Army)?

Just like too many conceited people don't look for their own problems, in the face of such a fiasco, Zhang Xianzhong also put all the responsibility on his subordinates, and on his subordinates who did not listen to orders.

Since entering Sichuan, he has been benevolent to the people of Sichuan, slaughtering the relatives of the Shu kings who eat the marrow of the people, corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and exempting them from taxes for three years, but the Sichuan people are not grateful, and they are actually under the agitation of the scholars and the leadership of the gentry to resist the rule.

The surrendered guards were extremely disappointing, they had been raised for more than two years, they were undisciplined on the battlefield, and they were defeated at the first blow, which not only delayed their military affairs, but also caused them to lose millions of taels of silver and hundreds of thousands of tons of grain.

Zhang Xianzhong decided to rectify military discipline and slaughtered those generals who usually did not like him, and his subordinates with poor military discipline.

In less than a month, more than 10 general soldiers, including Guo Jiahuan, the chief soldier of the Longxing Battalion, Song Guan, the chief soldier of the Sanqi Battalion, and Wang Wanxiang, the chief soldier of the Gancai Battalion, were executed, and the number of troops involved was nearly 10,000.

The generals who have been implicated and may be implicated are even more panicked.

To add insult to injury, Zhang Xianzhong's wanton purge of military discipline not only failed to save the fate of defeat, but also made the contradictions in the internal rule of the Great Western Army superficial and intensified.

was purged of generals, and his colleagues released rumors to the outside that Zhang Xianzhong would slaughter the Sichuan people.

Because the Volunteers seized Tongchuan Prefecture in early June and approached the Chengdu Plain, many generals of the Great Western Army led their troops to surrender, and some even went alone, among them, the more famous ones include

The chief soldier of the Zhenwu battalion, Hong Zhenglong, a native of Hubei

The chief soldier of the Sancai Battalion, a native of Shandong

The chief soldier of the decisive battalion, a native of Yanzhou, Shaanxi, Wen Zirang

Yongding Battalion Chief Soldier, Huguang Wusheng, Guo Shangyi.

…….

For the generals of the Great Western Army, Yang Lin greeted them with open arms on the surface, and secretly asked people to screen them to prevent them from getting involved.

For those who sincerely vote, according to their personal ability and the size of the department, they will be awarded the positions of general general, regimental counselor, or senior staff member of the Volunteer Army.

For the various departments of Guishun, select the young and strong to be incorporated into the army, and the old, weak, sick and disabled are placed in the hinterland; now the army is in chaos, and the abandonment of famine in various places is very serious, as long as seeds are provided and a small amount of food is provided for disaster relief, it will not take a few months to have food and clothing after the harvest in the field.

If he was cautious a few days ago, after late June, Yang Lin felt more and more that the conditions were ripe for another expedition to the west.

In addition to replenishing equipment and replenishing food and baggage, more than 10 civil and military talents were sent to assist the supervisor in handling military affairs.

In just ten days, more than 5,000 people were subordinated, and 1,000 of them were incorporated into the army, but because they came from different places, had different experiences, and spoke different languages, there were many contradictions between them.

In order to reduce suspicion, Wang Zhibang, Wang Fuchen and other generals came in handy, and under the instruction, they postponed the meals of the generals in batches.

After a few glasses of wine, thinking of what happened in the past few years, everyone sympathized with each other, and they were in pain one by one.

It was also at this time that Wang Zhibang and Wang Fuchen talked about the many uses of assistants and secretaries.

Since the establishment of the Volunteer Army, the military chief officer has been responsible for military training, marching and fighting, and the secretary general and assistant supervising the army are responsible for money, grain, oil and rice, responsible for encouraging the morale of the soldiers, and responsible for maintaining military discipline.

The whole army, including the adult guard regiment, Yang Wei and Yang Cheng's department are no exception.

It is often said that fathers and sons go into battle, and tigers and brothers, but adults repeatedly demand that the army is a family.

The commander of the army is equivalent to his father, presiding over all internal and external affairs, and presiding over the march and war.

The secretary of the department is responsible for eating, drinking, and sleeping in the army, maintaining military discipline and regulations, and being responsible for logistics support.

As the saying goes, drunk people know clearly, not to mention these men who add blood to the knife edge, everyone holds the rough Zhang Fei who wants to probe each other, although he is rude on the surface, in fact, he has his own little Jiujiu in his heart, and now he listens to Wang Zhibang and Wang Fuchen say this, and the inner vigilance is less eighty percent.

After this day, when talking about future operations, Yang Lin suddenly felt something, stood up and asked everyone: "Generals, let's talk about the things in the army, what is the most important?" ”

Everyone was happy when they heard it, raising soldiers for a thousand days was used for a while, leading troops to fight, and of course, the most important thing was in the army.

After everyone spoke, Yang Lin shook his head and said, "Generals, what you say or what I said is too far-fetched, but if you think about it carefully, do you think it makes sense?"

As the saying goes, the soldiers and horses go first before the grain and grass are moved, and the matter of the army, although the final result is that the two armies face each other on the battlefield, but everyone thinks about how to improve the morale of the army, how to make the soldiers healthy and healthy to the battlefield, and how to heal the wounded soldiers.

These trivial things in the eyes of some people are actually the things that really determine the battlefield. ”

Wen Zirang was puzzled, and arched his hand: "My lord, in any case, the battlefield is killed by the real swords and guns of the two armies, and it is really incomprehensible that my lord put these on top of the confrontation between the two armies." ”

Yin Chengqi next to him took over the conversation and said: "General Wen, don't say that you don't understand, at first, I was also skeptical, and I suddenly realized it after listening to the adult's explanation."

The adults classify the death and wounded of the army as non-combat casualties if they die of illness on the road after a long battle, or if they die in a long way.

Everyone is a veteran, and those who died in combat are those who died in battle and those who died on the battlefield, how do the two compare? ”

Thinking of the more than ten years of fighting, Wen Zirang really didn't know how to answer for a while.

Due to the tortuous and difficult roads in the past, coupled with malnutrition, even if there is no large-scale plague epidemic, the number of people who die of illness or injuries often reaches two or three percent of the soldiers who die in battle. (During the Russo-Japanese War, more than 50% of Japan was born)

If non-combat attrition can be avoided, the morale of the whole army will be high, not only will the casualties of the troops be reduced, but the enemy will be defeated on the battlefield.

In the past few years, the life of the Great Western Army has been extremely difficult, and everyone has experienced it, and after thinking about this, everyone's resistance has greatly decreased.

Taking this opportunity, Yang Lin once again reiterated the rules.

The military commander is responsible for all internal and external affairs

The assistant secretary of the division is responsible for eating, drinking, and sleeping in the army, and is responsible for the army's grain and grass baggage, and is responsible for maintaining military discipline.

If the military fails to train and the battle is not fought well, the military director bears the primary responsibility and the administrative director bears the secondary responsibility.

If the army's food and wages are insufficient, discipline is corrupted, and the officers and men do not eat, drink, and sleep well, the chief officer of political affairs bears the first responsibility, and the chief military officer bears the responsibility of leadership.

Wen Zirang, Hong Wenlong and others were desperate to join the volunteers, originally they wanted to seek a way to live, but now although their power is restricted, they don't have to worry about eating and drinking, although everyone is not used to it, they have nothing to say.

After some mediation, the morale of the surrendered soldiers gradually stabilized, and Yang Lin was planning how to enter the city capital this day.

The Chinese pay attention to the friendship of adversity, and when they were locked up in the prison of the city capital, although Liu Zhibo was repeatedly troubled by the inspector, Changshi Ye Dabin provided various conveniences.

Now that he came to vote, Yang Lin was overjoyed, and immediately led the crowd out of the gate.

Wearing a shabby Confucian robe, the whole person lost a lot of weight, and he didn't expect the door to be wide open, which was beyond everyone's expectations.

Yang Lin grabbed Ye Dabin's hand and said: "Brother Ye came just in time, since the city capital escaped, he has always been concerned about the safety of Brother Tai, and now he is really happy to see that Brother Tai is safe." ”

Thinking of what happened in the past two years, Ye Dabin couldn't cry, and he knelt down in court, thinking that his poor rescue had caused Yang Lin to suffer a catastrophe.

Yang Lin didn't care, and said to everyone with a smile: "Brother Ye is a kind family, Liu Zhibo sincerely hurt me back then, even if you want to protect a long history, can you keep it?"

Brother Ye is very high-spirited, which is really admirable. I heard that Brother Ye lived in seclusion in the deep mountains and old forests, Zhang Xianzhong sent many messengers to ask the brother to come out of the mountain, but the brother did not come out.

Today's brother came to vote, which really flattered the younger brother. ”

Talking about business again, Ye Dabin analyzed the current situation of the Great Western Army to everyone.

In 1644 (the seventeenth year of Chongzhen), Zhang Xianzhong led 300,000 people into Sichuan, including about 200,000 soldiers and horses, and 100,000 strong families.

However, because there were too many people and horses in Sichuan, and the CD Plain was flooded, many farmers were abandoned, and local displaced people were everywhere, and local production was limited.

Daming is an agricultural society, CD Plain has always been the country of abundance, in the first year of CD Treasury, Shu Wangfu There is a lot of food, everyone can eat a lot, but just like the Great Leap Forward People's Commune in the previous life, everyone eats until the summer of the second year, everyone feels the seriousness of the problem.

Dujiangyan has been destroyed, the CD plain is still flooding, and many low-lying areas have become ponds in the event of heavy rains.

Due to the floods, the local animal power has been reduced, and although some people continue to farm, most of them have been abandoned, and the land has limited production, and even if you have money, it is difficult to sell food.

There are few people who sell grain in the locality, and there are many people who sell grain, and the price of grain has soared all the way, and in the peaceful and prosperous times, the price of grain is generally 5-8 yuan a load, and now 2 taels of silver and 3 taels of silver cannot be bought.

Seeing that the government yamen inventory of grain is decreasing day by day, the Ming Dynasty has accumulated for more than 200 years, during which although the army is in chaos, but in rich places like the CD Plain, the government has a lot of grain, and it stands to reason that it can also be eaten for a year or two, but now there is very little grain sales in the market.

Of course, the cunning Zhang Xianzhong knows that many large families hoard grain at home, and now that the price of grain is so high, he does not take it out to buy it, which is more than his own.

In this way, soldiers and horses were sent to various places, arrested large families, and forced them to hand over money and food.

But the news that Zhang Xianzhong was going to slaughter the Sichuan people had already spread, and now seeing Zhang Xianzhong like this, everyone believed in the fact of slaughtering Sichuan.

Zhang Xianzhong complained bitterly, the Ming army was pressing forward step by step, and the granary grain was decreasing day by day, while the Great Western Army still had 200,000 troops, plus family members and military dependents, and more than 300,000 people were eating.

Since last summer, everyone has reduced their rations, just like eating a big pot of rice in the previous life, like the Cultural Revolution, first the families of the army, the displaced people, followed by ordinary soldiers and horses, and in the end, even the four major governors and the pro-army of the four generals are not very full.

In order to have a full stomach, the Onishi Army was mixed, and many people went out to collect food, so that military discipline deteriorated day by day, and the local economy was even more dilapidated.

Now, Zhang Xianzhong's new defeat at Pengjiangkou is a good time for the westward expedition.