Counting the miscellaneous things, including Liu Tichun's more than 20,000 people, there are a total of 50,000 or 60,000 people in the loyal battalion who have been converted into local troops. Unlike dismissal, they are still the official army of the Ming Dynasty, but they are not in the establishment of the Chu army, and the Longwu court will not take care of it, and the food and salary must be raised by themselves.

This was a very common thing in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, both the Manchu Qing and the Ming Dynasty could not afford to raise a large number of troops, except for the most important elites, the rest of the army had to raise their own food.

Before the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the soldiers of the Eight Banners were soldiers when they came out, and they were farmers when they entered, which was a group of part-time robbers, and everyone shared a point of what they robbed, and then went back to farm, and there was basically no food and salary. After entering the customs, the soldiers of the Eight Banners were changed to professional soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of green battalion soldiers were recruited, and the financial pressure of the Manchu Qing increased sharply, so they had to continue to delegate power to the local warlords, so that they could solve their own food and military expenses.

The situation in the Ming Dynasty is even more extreme, even if there is food in the army, it is good, and the military salary must be in arrears for many years. An army like the Chu army, which almost never owes salaries, is very, very rare.

When the Loyal Battalion joined the Chu army, only more than 30,000 people were reorganized into a Chuang battalion. Of the remaining 100,000 people, some of the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled, as well as the families of women and children, opened up the fields of the invalids and gradually changed to civilians, some of them did not want to accept the reorganization and left Huguang to go to Sichuan, Hanzhong, and Shaanxi to fend for themselves, and 50,000 or 60,000 people were organized into local troops and still maintained the structure of the army.

These fifty or sixty thousand local troops. Except for Liu Tichun, who formed a battalion by himself, most of the other more than 30,000 soldiers and horses had their own garrison flood control areas, but they never broke off contact with the camp. Li Guo's soldiers also recognized Li Guo as the main general. Yuan Zongdi's soldiers also recognized Yuan Zongdi, Li Guo and other generals who broke into the camp also tried their best to help their old subordinates, and every time they sent food and supplies, they would give them a part, in a sense, they were still a family.

Wang Kefan has known about this for a long time, but he has always acquiesced. And did not interfere. Compared with the Chu army, these more than 30,000 people are not elite soldiers, and it is impossible to raise them according to the standards of the Chu army. But the combat effectiveness of the loyal battalion is actually not bad, most of these more than 30,000 people are veterans who have been on the battlefield, although they have been eliminated by the Chu army, and the generals who broke into the camp are willing to support them themselves. Overall, the pros outweigh the cons.

It is different from the Chu army of the conscription system. The Loyal Battalion was born in the Dashun Peasant Rebel Army, and most of the soldiers did not have high requirements for military salaries as long as they could eat their stomachs. Wang Kefan distributed military salaries and supplies according to the establishment of more than 30,000 people who broke into the camp, and 60,000 or 70,000 people were distributed together, and everyone inevitably did not have enough to eat, but they were all old brothers who had shared weal and woe for many years, and there were not too many complaints in the army for the time being.

In the past six months or so, the camp has cooperated with the soldiers and horses of Gu Yinxi, Cao Zhijian and others. In addition, some local troops who originally belonged to the loyal battalion actively launched a counteroffensive against Hubei. Occupied most of the western part of Hubei, the shortage of food and salary supplies was slightly alleviated, but more than 100,000 people and horses of the Ming army were crowded into the western part of Hubei, and it was obvious that there were more monks and less porridge, and life was still tight...... Since Liu Tichun proposed to go to Jiangxi and vacated another piece of territory, Li Guo and Gao Yigong certainly would not object, in fact, there were many people in those local troops who were full of yearning for the rich Jiangnan and wanted to participate in the Eastern Expedition.

But that's just talk.

It is still possible for Liu Tichun to participate in the Eastern Crusade, and those non-staff local troops have poor combat effectiveness, and Wang Kefan will definitely not look down on them, and he will not transfer them all the way.

"Does Kwai Yu (Ma Jinzhong) also plan to fight the Eastern Crusade?" Li Guo turned around and asked Ma Jinzhong.

"Jiangnan Flower World, who doesn't want to go around?" Ma Jinzhong said with a grin: "It's a pity, I won't be let go by blocking the military gate, so I don't want to." ”

Ma Jinzhong is now under the control of Plug Yinxi, and together with Junziying, he is the two main forces under Plug Yinxi, and now they are all in Hubei.

"That's good, Kong Youde still has more than 100,000 horses, and we can't look down on him with just a few of us." Li Guo nodded, this matter is obvious, Kong Youde's threat is still very big, Chuang Ying and Ma Jinzhong's troops must stay near Wuchang, and they will definitely not be able to participate in the Eastern Expedition. He asked again, "In that case, does Aoi Woo have anything else to do with me?" “

"How many times have I told you, call me an old horse, Aoi Yu Kui Yu is too angry!" Ma Jinzhong pulled Li Guo and Gao Yigong and came to the front of the map: "I am a toad entering the door, and I have nothing to do but go to the Three Treasures Palace, I want to find you to do a deal together, this is a small profit, but there are some risks, see if you dare?" ”

Li Guo and Gao Yigong didn't speak yet, and Liu Tichun, who came over, said first: "Lao Ma and I were talking about this just now, if you are willing to do it, I will also participate in it." ”

"What kind of mess, it's going to war, what kind of business?" Gao Yigong frowned.

"It's about war." Ma Jinzhong stretched out his hand and gently stroked the map, his movements and expressions were indescribably weird, revealing a lewd feeling, like stroking the naked ketone body of a red-card kiln sister.

"Don't sell it!" Gao Yigong is older, and he is very unaccustomed to Ma Jinzhong's appearance: "Wang Junmen has already given an order to break into the camp, and he is about to attack Jingzhou City, and he also knows how to block the military gate, where else do you want to fight?" ”

"Hehe, I'm going to stab him here!" Ma Jinzhong swiped his fingers sharply and rowed along the Han River on the map to Xiangyang.

Li Guo was slightly stunned: "Hit Xiangyang? Xiangyang is now also surrounded by our army, and if you attack it with all your might, you may be able to defeat it, but before conquering Jingzhou, you can't take care of Xiangyang. ”

There are four state capitals in the western part of Hubei, most of Chengtianfu (the area around Jingmen in Hubei) is under the control of the Qing army, Jingzhou, Yunyang and Xiangyang are basically occupied by the Ming army, and only the northern part of Yunyang Mansion and Xiangyang City and Jingzhou City are still in the hands of the Qing army...... Among them, the most difficult bone to gnaw is Xiangyang City, when the Mongolian army went south, the Southern Song Dynasty held here for many years, on the one hand, because the Southern Song Dynasty soldiers and civilians swore to fight to the death, on the other hand, Xiangyang City is indeed a male city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. (Although Guo Jing is a fictional character, sticking to Xiangyang is real history.) ）

In Li Guo's next plan, he did plan to conquer Xiangyang to defend the north of the Hubei base area and prevent the Qing army from moving south from Henan. However, before the end of the Datong War, the main force of the Qing army could not take care of Hubei for the time being, and it was not so urgent to conquer Xiangyang.

"Hehe, Xiangyang is not so easy to fight, I don't want to fight Xiangyang, but Xinye!" Ma Jinzhong's fingers slashed forward another half inch.

New Wild?! Li Guo and Gao Yigong agreed and took a breath lightly, but they didn't expect that Ma Jinzhong had such a big appetite, Hubei hadn't eaten it yet, and he was eyeing Henan again.

"If you can really lay down a new field, it would be good." Gao Yigong looked at the map and said: "Although Xinye is small, it is a place where soldiers must fight, and if our army captures Xinye, we can take advantage of the situation to march into Nanyang and threaten the Central Plains." ”

Henan is located in the Central Plains, and since ancient times, wars have continued, and many of her provincial boundaries have been fought one battle after another.

At the junction of Henan and Hubei, the east is Dabie Mountain, the middle is Tongbai Mountain, the junction of the two mountains has a narrow passage, is the throat connecting the Jianghuai Plain and the Yangtze River Basin, the famous Yiyang Sanguan is here, Wusheng Pass, Jiuli Pass, Pingjing Pass...... Go south from Lianghuai, either go to Xinye, or go to Yiyang Sanguan, if the three passes are destroyed, Hubei will lose the barrier, Zuo Liangyu was based on Wuchang, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong successively captured the three passes, Zuo Liangyu is self-defeating without a fight, and flees from the wind.

In addition to the Yiyang Sanguan, there is also an important passage between Henan and Hubei, taking the Nanyang Basin to the west of the Yiyang Sanguan, passing through Xinye and Xiangyang into Hubei.

The shape of the Nanyang Basin, like an irregular table tennis racket, the Nanyang area is surrounded by mountains, and only the Xinye opening on the south side is like a round body of the racket, which belongs to Henan. From Xinye County to the south, there is a long and narrow racket handle after Xiangyang, and the Xiangyang area is also part of the Nanyang Basin in terms of topography, but it belongs to Hubei. (The long-stemmed terrain to the south of Xiangyang is geographically called Yicheng Pass, with Jing Mountain on the west side and Dahong Mountain on the east side, like an oversized valley.) ）

The Nanyang Basin connects Henan and Hubei, and the passage from Xiangyang to Nanyang has been a battleground for soldiers since ancient times.

Two thousand six hundred years ago, the blockbuster King of Chuzhuang sent troops to Xiangyang, entered the Nanyang Basin from Xinye, Chen Bing Luoshui, and asked Zhou Wang Ding the importance of the ...... 1,800 years ago, Cao Cao entered Jingzhou from Xinye, occupied the whole of Hubei, if it was not for the defeat of the Battle of Chibi, almost unified the whole country, after a few years, Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army in Xiangyang, kicked open the door to the Central Plains, shocked China, scared Cao Cao almost moved the capital from Xuchang...... More than 800 years ago, Yue Feitun soldiers in Wuchang for seven years, avoided the dangerous three passes of Yiyang, and made three northern expeditions from Xiangyang and Xinye...... More than 700 years ago, the Mongol army besieged Xiangyang for five years, there was no food and grass in the city, there was no rescue outside the city, the defender Lü Wenhuan opened the city and surrendered, and the Mongol army entered the Yangtze River along the Han River and captured Wuchang, and the defense system of the Southern Song Dynasty collapsed immediately...... Later, it was Li Zicheng, who called the king of Xinshun in Xiangyang, led the army out of Xinye, went to the inner countryside and Shangluo on the west side of Nanyang, and captured Chang'an, so that there was a Dashun world......

The geographical location here is too important, and after years of war, a provincial border was formed between Xinye and Xiangyang.

To the north of Xinye, most of the Nanyang Basin belongs to Henan, and Hubei has Xiangyang Gate. In order for the Hubei region to become independent, the Central Plains army could enter the Nanyang Basin from several passages of Shangluo, Luoyang, and Fangcheng, and launch a steady stream of attacks on Hubei. The Henan region wants to be independent, but Xiangyang in the south is not under its control, and the troops of Suizhou, Jingzhou and even Hanzhong can attack Nanyang at any time, such as Mang's back...... No one can control the entire Nanyang Basin, let alone close all the doors. (To be continued......)