Gogo is endless, what a crime for the people.

Behind every war are countless stories of broken families, life and death, and as the battle of Jiangxi intensified, refugees began to appear in Chongyang again.

Most of them came from the Jiujiang Prefecture and Nanchang Prefecture, and there were wars everywhere in Jiangxi and Nanjing, but Huguang was relatively safe. (Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty often referred to the entire Nanzhili region, not just the current city of Nanjing, but Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai, two provinces and one city, with a large territory.) ）

Among these refugees, Wang Kefan unexpectedly met an acquaintance -- Quan Xi, Jinyi Wei Qianhu.

Quan Xi was ordered to detain Huang Shu, Huang Shu had Zuo Liangyu's protection, but Quan Xi was an indomitable character, so he stayed in Wuchang Mansion and Huang Shu, and vowed not to give up until he was caught. Although Huang Shu hates him so much, he can only afford to hide and hide in Zuo Liangyu's army.

When Zuo Liangyu led the army eastward on the "Qingjun side", Huang Shu also followed him to Jiujiang, Quan Xi hurriedly chased after knowing it, but encountered a big battle between Azig and Li Zicheng, several of his subordinates died in the chaos, and he himself was seriously injured and taken to Chongyang by several kind-hearted refugees.

A man who was shrewd and capable at the beginning, but at the moment he had a haggard and sick face, still holding a cane in his hand, and walked with a limp, Wang Kefan gave those refugees a few taels of silver, and returned to Gongyi Camp with Quan Xi, and went to the hospital to find Hua Xiaoyue for treatment.

Next to the barracks of the Gongyi camp was a large open space, where hundreds of auxiliaries were digging ditches and building walls, sweating profusely, and behind them hung a banner with a wooden table under which two large vasks of mung bean soup were placed.

"Pickaxe and shovel, the cavalry of the Tartars stares!"

Quan Xi looked at the big words on the banner, and his face was inexplicable: "What are they doing?" ”

"Training." Wang Kefan's answer was very succinct.

"Training? How can anyone train with a shovel? Quan Xi was even more puzzled, he had never seen such a training of soldiers, neither practiced marching and arranging, nor practiced offensive and defensive fighting, only desperately digging ditches and picking soil, could he win the battle?

"My subordinates are all from the village, and the shovel and pickaxe are more easily used." Wang Kefan smiled slightly and didn't explain much.

The southerners rode boats, the northerners rode horses, and there were no strong cavalry in the south of the Yangtze River since ancient times, such as the troops of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, with the most elite sailors. Because the southern provinces do not produce horses, there are no conditions to form large-scale cavalry units, and they can only find another way to deal with the Eight Banners, which are known as unparalleled in cavalry and archery.

The reason why the Eight Banners were able to sweep through North China was not only because of their cavalry and archery skills, but more importantly, because of the organizational characteristics of the Eight Banners. "If you go out, you will be a soldier, and if you enter, you will be a citizen, and there will be no operation of food and weapons during the war, and the soldiers can prepare their own troops." This is an important reason why the Eight Banners Traveling Army fought bravely and quickly.

In other words, the greatest advantage of the Manchu cavalry was its mobility.

The so-called cavalry and archery are unequaled, which refers to horseback riding and archery, but other kung fu may not be good at it, and the Manchu cavalry is not suitable for charging heavy cavalry, but more like an infantry on horseback. They wore cotton armor, armed with bows and arrows, rode horses on the northern plains and galloped at will, and the Ming army when the battle was won, the Ming army could not run, if defeated and turned around and retreated, the Ming army could not catch up, and the battle was naturally free to advance and retreat, and there was no defeat.

However, due to the limitations of geographical conditions, the power of cavalry in Jiangnan was not great.

Completely different from the great plains in the north, the Jiangnan region is mountainous and watery, and the water network in the Yangtze River basin is crisscrossed, and the importance of the naval division is much higher than that of the cavalry. When the cavalry arrived in the south of the Yangtze River, they would encounter big rivers and rivers within a hundred miles, and they all needed to be transferred by boat, and after going ashore, there were hills and dense forests everywhere, and they could only march along the official roads, which not only greatly reduced the speed of maneuver, but also lost the most important flexibility.

The expensive cavalry loses its flexibility, and the cheap infantry has a chance, and the civil engineering operation of the pickaxe and shovel will become a rope to tie up the Zuihou of the Eight Banners!

"Boom ......"

There was a sudden loud bang behind the barracks, followed by a huge puff of smoke and dust, and the ground under his feet shook twice, and Quan Xi looked at all this blankly, not knowing what was going on.

"It's okay, this is a test of explosives, and you will get used to it after listening to it a few more times." Wang Kefan comforted him, walked over quickly, and took a look at the twist that came out of the smoke and dust.

"How's it going?" Wang Kefan asked.

"Much better than last time...... "Twister replied hurriedly, and he couldn't see his figure in the smoke again.

Wang Kefan knew the power of hot weapons best, and after he got a large amount of gunpowder from Ma Jinzhong, he was studying how to apply it to actual combat. However, this era is all black powder, although it has been granulated, the power of the explosion is still insufficient, and the effect is unsatisfactory several times.

But he knew very well that it was more of a matter of physics and required simple knowledge of chemistry. There are many things that can be improved on how to increase the unit pressure as much as possible, how to place the gunpowder if it is fully burned as much as possible, and how to ...... the angle and distance of the explosive target.

This requires a lot of shiyan testing, and the twist is the most suitable shiyan player.

Quan Xi followed Wang Kefan to check, but in addition to the choking smoke, there were only piles of gravel and soil, and large pits and small holes of different shapes. He was as confused as if he was looking at the Western scenery, but Wang Kefan was very satisfied, and discussed the change of the sky with the twister, and what he said in his mouth were strange words such as pressure and air, and then he praised him a few words of encouragement, told him to pay attention to safety, etc., before leaving with Quan Xi and entering the barracks.

The camp gate was full of people, and it was even more lively, and there were soldiers practicing on the school ground. The pikemen practiced the gun formation, the archers practiced archery, the musketeers practiced shooting, and there were hundreds of recruits next to them who were practicing in the queue, turning around to the left, and some of them were already very skilled.

"Yuntai, are these all your soldiers?" Kwon Xi was very surprised.

There is no one in the Ming army who does not eat empty salaries, Wang Kefan is just a garrison, and it is amazing that there are hundreds of subordinates, but Quan Xi saw 2,000 people before and after, which is about the same as the strength of ordinary generals.

"I've recently accepted some new recruits, and I see more people." Wang Kefan started with only more than 800 troops, but he successively recruited additional auxiliaries, recruited miners, and recruited a group of new soldiers after defeating Hao Shaoqi, and then counted the sentry men and horses of Teng Shuanglin in Tongcheng, and there were already more than 2,500 people under his command.

Most of these recruits were young and strong people who had fled, and they were scattered and assigned to various posts by Wang Kefan, and the recruits started from the auxiliary soldiers, the original auxiliary soldiers became soldiers, and the four sentinels became eight sentinels, and a group of grassroots officers such as Shi Ah Da were promoted, and Wang Sheng, Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong and others also became the real thousand generals.

By using the old to lead the new and strengthening training, this group of recruits will soon be able to integrate into the troops.

"Aren't you a garrison, where did so much pay come from?" Quan Xi was even more puzzled, raising soldiers is like raising a son, eating, drinking, and Lazar have to be in charge, and the monthly expenses of more than 2,000 people can get four or five thousand taels of silver. Since Wang Kefan is a garrison, the army's monthly salary of more than 2,000 has reached the top, how can the remaining half be solved?

"Ah, some of the captures in the army can last a few days, and the fathers and elders of this county are well aware of the righteousness, and they will donate military salaries every month...... "Wang Kefan is guarding the front line in Tongcheng, and Changsha has never owed him food and salary in the past two months, but it is still issued according to the establishment of more than 800 people, and the remaining shortfall is made up by merit and silver.

Wang Kefan's meritorious fruit silver system has become a common practice, and all the tooth merchants in Chongyang and Tongcheng counties are gentry and strong, and they have to donate a different amount of meritorious fruit silver every month, and the most important task of the trial bureau in addition to handling cases is to urge the donation of meritorious fruit silver.

With the Dashun army and the Qing army entering Huguang one after another, especially after Wuchang Mansion fell into the hands of the Qing army, Wang Kefan increased the collection of meritorious silver, and under the great threat of military disasters and wars, the tooth merchants Jia and the gentry and Haoqiang were very cooperative, and they were basically able to hand over the money on time and in full, without too much confrontation and complaints.

The reason is very simple, the Gongyi battalion guarded Chongyang, first defeated the water bandit Song Jiang, and then defeated the thief general Hao Shaoqi, protecting everyone's life and property, worthy of this meritorious silver.

Gongguo silver? The Tribunal? Quan Xi sounded very fresh, and repeatedly asked about the details, and Wang Kefan took the trouble to explain to him carefully.

After Hua Xiaoyue checked Quan Xi's injury, she immediately arranged for him to stay and recuperate: "Your injury has been delayed, you can't go to the ground for at least two months, otherwise you will be a cripple in the future!" ”

"How's that going to work? I also have to respond to Tianfu (Nanjing)! Quan Xi was immediately anxious.

Several of his subordinates are dead, and there is no clue news of Huang Shu, it is difficult to catch him again, and the Qing army has arrived at the city of Nanjing, Quan Xi wants to rush back to protect the emperor and defend the city to kill the enemy.

"How are you going like this, are you in a hurry to die?" Hua Xiaoyue held a small stick and suddenly knocked on his injured leg, Quan Xi was caught off guard, and screamed out.

After a hundred days of injury, the recovery is very slow, let alone killing the enemy before the injury is healed, it is impossible to rush back to Nanjing for thousands of miles.

……

After placing Quan Xi, Wang Kefan said hello and went out to leave, but Hua Xiaoyue chased after him.

"General Wang, the little girl has something to say, please come with me."

When she arrived at a room where no one was around, as soon as Hua Xiaoyue entered the door, she pressed Wang Kefan in the middle and sat down, and then respectfully knelt down and kowtowed three times, tears welled up in her wonderful eyes, and she cried bitterly.

"General Wang is really powerful, and he really got rid of Zuo Liangyu's evil thief...... The little woman is broken to bones, there is no way to repay her, I am willing to follow and serve for the rest of my life, please General Wang accept me as an apprentice! ”