Wang Kefan gave the Intelligence Bureau a fund of 1,000 taels of silver and a staff of 50 people, but because the situation in Huguang was very tense, after Quan Xi had enough people, he threw himself into meticulous and trivial work without holding any ceremony.

From the end of the second year of Longwu to the beginning of the third year of Longwu, the Intelligence Bureau suddenly appeared, and no one could even tell in the future what day, or even year, this department that played a pivotal role in the power center of the empire, and undoubtedly the most mysterious and deterrent department, was established.

It's not surprising at all, around the New Year of the third year of Longwu, too many changes have taken place in the Gongyi Battalion, the establishment of the Intelligence Bureau is just a trivial matter, no one pays attention to this new department, I don't know what the Ludao Intelligence Bureau does, including Quan Xi himself did not expect that he would leave his name in the history books because he served as the first director of the Intelligence Bureau.

When Wang Kefan left Huguang, he was only a general, and when he came back, he was already the commander of Caojiang and the official of the territory, and the Gongyi Battalion also ushered in a new stage of explosive development.

With the improvement of Wang Kefan's status, the generals under him have already been promoted.

Wang Sheng was promoted to the general soldier, Zhou Guodong and others were promoted to deputy generals, Shi Wuxian and others were promoted to generals, even the young Jingliang was promoted to guerrilla generals, Zhang Jiayu was the civilian leader of the Dongguan battalion, Wang Kefan wrote to Emperor Longwu again, and promoted Wang Ding as a deputy general and Gu Zongfu as a general, which is estimated to be approved soon......

The entire military general system has been relatively complete, providing the necessary conditions for the reorganization of the whole army.

At the end of the second year of Longwu, Wang Kefan carried out a large-scale expansion of the whole army, from more than 7,000 to more than 26,000. Wang Sheng and other troops were independent into battalions, and it was inconvenient for this army to be called "Gongyi Battalion", and after Wang Kefan discussed with the generals, he renamed this army "Chu Army".

Wang Kefan's hometown is in Hubei, the Chu army started in Hubei, and the current station is also in Hubei, and it belongs to the Chu Xun group in the imperial court.

The Chu army had eight infantry battalions under its command. Two cavalry battalions, a firearms unit, a naval division, and other units.

The eight infantry battalions were the main force of the Chu army, and Wang Sheng's headquarters were organized into the Chongyang battalion. Zhou Guodong's department was organized as the Tongshan battalion, and Tan Xiao's department was organized as the Yuezhou battalion. Teng Shuanglin's department was organized as Tongcheng Battalion. Lu Renqing's department was organized into Daye Battalion, Zhang Jiayu's department was organized into Dongguan Battalion, and Wang Ding and Gu Zongfu's department was organized into Ji'an Battalion...... And the name of the Gongyi Battalion is still retained, as Wang Kefan's direct subordinate troops.

Each infantry battalion had an average of 1,700 soldiers, 700 auxiliaries, plus pro-soldier scouts, and so on. The total strength of the army is between 2,500 and 2,600 troops, which is a modest size that can ensure independent combat capability without being too bloated. Loss of flexibility.

Precision and fixation of the establishment will bring many benefits to military management. For example, when formulating a combat plan, each infantry battalion can be regarded as an independent unit and have a rough estimate of its combat effectiveness; for example, in terms of logistical support, the fixed establishment can be accurately quantified and managed, so as to facilitate the statistics of various material consumption and reduce unnecessary waste.

The two cavalry battalions are one large and one small, the big one is the Xiliang cavalry of Ti Zhaorong, with 2,000 men and horses, called the West Cavalry Battalion, and the small one is Wang Meng's cavalry troops, with a total of more than 1,000 horses, called the Jiang Cavalry Battalion.

The cavalry is very mobile, like an iron fist that can be shot at any time, for the Chu army, only Ti Zhaorong's fist is not enough, and another iron fist needs to be cast. Due to the limited number of horses, Wang Meng's cavalry was originally only a few hundred people, and the independent battalion appeared to be insufficient, so Wang Kefan personally did the work of Ti Zhaorong for this purpose, and transferred more than 500 Xiliang cavalry to the Jiang cavalry battalion.

When Ti Zhaorong first took refuge in Wang Kefan, he was just a small guerrilla general, with the rank of fourth-grade military attaché, but in less than a year, he was promoted two levels in a row and became the deputy general of the second grade, and he was summoned many times in front of Emperor Longwu in Guangzhou.

Of course, although he didn't say anything, he was a little lost in his heart, but he quickly figured it out again.

His cavalry was very important in the Chu army, and when he moved to Jiangxi and Tingzhou to save the driver, he was in the limelight, and even overpowered the old qualified Wang Sheng, Zhou Guodong and others.

Suffering is a blessing, after giving up the more than 400 cavalry, Ti Zhaorong found that his popularity had improved, and Wang Sheng and other veteran generals were more cordial to him and truly accepted him. This made Ti Zhaorong feel very lucky, the faction within the Chu army was very obvious, Wang Sheng was fair, but Zhou Guodong and others were a little xenophobic, as a miscellaneous general who was co-opted, it was worth it to join this core group and pay the price of more than 400 cavalry......

After the expansion, the Chu army totaled more than 26,000 people, including more than 14,000 soldiers, more than 5,000 auxiliary soldiers, more than 3,000 cavalry, and more than 2,000 other troops.

These 14,000 soldiers came from several sources, including more than 4,000 soldiers and more than 2,000 auxiliaries from the Gongyi battalion, more than 3,000 soldiers from the Dongguan battalion and Ji'an battalion, and more than 3,000 newly recruited recruits.

The Gongyi Battalion originally had more than 4,000 soldiers, all of whom had experienced a hundred battles, all of them were elite veterans, and were the main backbone of the whole army, and hundreds of them were even promoted to grassroots officers, who were the basis for ensuring the combat effectiveness of the Gongyi Battalion and were also the most loyal to Wang Kefan.

Originally, there were 3,000 auxiliary soldiers in the Gongyi battalion, but there were still more than 2,000 people left in Pizhen after the first war, and after the test and tempering of the war, the quality of these auxiliary soldiers was greatly improved, and they were able to fight when they put on armor, and after selection, more than 90 percent of them were turned into soldiers with higher salaries.

The Dongguan battalion and the Ji'an battalion have a total of 4,000 people, because they were equipped with more than 3,000 soldiers when they built the army, so they even exceeded other departments in proportion, like the Ji'an battalion was equipped by Zhang Xianbi at the beginning, almost everyone in the army had armor, and there were more than 1,800 soldiers.

Only veterans are not enough, the army also needs more fresh blood, Wang Sheng and others returned to Huguang ahead of schedule, and the most important task is to return to their hometowns and recruit new soldiers.

Wang Sheng returned to Chongyang and recruited troops for the Gongyi Battalion and Chongyang Battalion, Zhou Guodong returned to Tongshan and recruited troops for the Tongshan Battalion, Tan Xiao returned to Yuezhou Mansion and recruited troops for the Yuezhou Battalion, Teng Shuanglin stayed in Tongcheng and recruited troops for the Tongcheng Battalion, while Lu Renqing recruited displaced people from all over the country, selected young and strong from them, and supplemented them into the Daye Battalion.

He Tengjiao was expropriated in Huguang, Chongyang, Tongcheng and Yuezhou counties were not spared, the burden of the common people was very heavy, there were many yeoman farmers and tenants on the verge of bankruptcy, they were in debt, their families had no food in stock, and in the years of chaos, it was impossible to cultivate the land honestly, and becoming a soldier became the best way out.

Wang Sheng and others returned to their hometowns to recruit soldiers, and the military salary still maintained one and a half taels of silver per month, but they were exempted from five taels of silver per person. The two armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties engaged in a long-term tug-of-war in Hubei, and wherever the war went, the people were forced to flee, and Lu Renqing's recruitment of displaced people was also very smooth.

Wang Sheng and others recruited nearly 10,000 recruits, and only saved 50,000 taels of military expenses for the Gongyi battalion by saving 50,000 taels of silver per person.

From these recruits, they selected more than 3,000 elite young men and women to directly join the battle team. In addition to the Dongguan battalion and the Ji'an battalion, more than 3,000 people were scattered into six infantry battalions, each battalion had only more than 500 recruits.

In addition to more than 3,000 soldiers, Wang Sheng and others also recruited more than 5,000 auxiliaries and hundreds of craftsmen of all kinds, and these auxiliaries and craftsmen were assigned to each battalion and managed separately. For the Chu army, each battalion is an independent combat unit, and no separate baggage troops will be organized.

Lu Renqing's Daye Battalion is mainly composed of miners, he is now a general from the second grade, and he has a certain appeal in his hometown, so he went back to recruit more than 200 fellow villagers, but these fellow villagers have no direct relationship with his family, and they are still a group of new soldiers, and it takes a certain amount of time to cultivate into backbone cronies, so at this stage, the grassroots officers of the Daye Battalion are still mainly served by miner veterans.

In order to replenish the sufficient source of soldiers, he recruited more than 1,000 young and strong people from among the displaced people, but the origins of these displaced people are more complicated, most of them come from the Qing army-occupied areas in Hubei, although after review, it is inevitable that they will be mixed with the spies of the Qing army.

In addition to the infantry battalion and cavalry battalion, Wang Kefan also set up a firearms unit.

The predecessor of the Chu army was the Gongyi battalion, the Gongyi battalion has always paid attention to the use of firearms, and all departments of the Chu army have special bird guns, in this era, the power of firearms is not enough to form an army alone, and it must be coordinated with other arms.

However, Wang Kefan's vision is more long-term, and he knows very well that the role of thermal weapons in war will become greater and greater, and in particular, artillery will play an irreplaceable role.

Of course, the Gongyi battalion does not have many artillery pieces now, only a dozen.

In addition to the two veteran Qianzi Thunder Cannons, Wang Kefan also asked for ten three-pounder cannons and two four-pounder cannons from the pirate Luo Jing. The weight of the three-pounder gun was relatively light, and it could be used in field battles with the army, and the four-pounder gun was relatively heavy, but in order to pursue range and power, he still had to bring two four-pounder guns as a backup. (To be continued......)