After the recovery of Nanjing, thousands of Qing troops in Zhenjiang had become turtles in the urn.

In order to reduce casualties, the Chu army temporarily besieged Zhenjiang and did not fight, but used various ways to carry out psychological warfare, sending prisoners to shout every day, displaying various captures, shooting books into the city with bows and arrows, and erecting a death-free flag in the open space outside the city to rebel against the soldiers of the green battalion.

Knowing that Nanjing had been occupied by the Ming army, Tan Tai's main force also ran away, the morale of the Qing army in Zhenjiang City was exhausted, and the hearts of the troops of the Green Battalion were in turmoil. In order to prevent the overall mutiny of the Green Battalion, the commander of the Eight Banners had to break up their establishment and mix with the Eight Banners to defend the city in order to directly monitor it, but in this way, the combat effectiveness of the troops plummeted.

The besieging Chu army unhurriedly built siege equipment, and dug two huge trenches inside and outside, with fortifications such as chest walls and fortifications, to besiege Zhenjiang. Zheng's naval division transferred several huge ships with 24-pounder guns to bombard the city wall on the north side of the Zhenjiang River from the Yangtze River, and the Qing army also returned fire with artillery, and the artillery battles between the two sides continued back and forth.

In this era, they were all wooden warships, and a cannonball was seriously injured, and the warships of the Zheng family sailors did not dare to get too close to the city wall, but fortunately, their cannon range was far enough, and the target of the Zhenjiang city wall was also large enough, and the artillery that hid far away also had a hit rate of about 30%, but the shells of the Qing army were difficult to hit them, and they were the first to be invincible in this artillery battle...... However, there must be advantages and disadvantages in everything, because the battleships of the Zheng family naval division were too far away, the damage to the city wall was relatively limited, the twenty-four-pounder cannon weighed thousands of catties, and the largest warship of the Zheng family naval division only installed one such main gun in the bow. The overall number is too small, and it is impossible to collapse the Zhenjiang city wall at once.

Zheng Chenggong is not in a hurry. Just use these twenty-four-pounder cannons to fight slowly, because Zhenjiang can be down sooner or later. Most of the shells that were fired out could be recovered, and the Zheng Jiashui Division had a handful, shelling non-stop from morning to night every day, but most of the shells of the Qing army fell into the Yangtze River, and after a few days of continuous shooting, they gradually could not withstand the consumption, and in order to save ammunition, they no longer fired artillery...... Zheng's naval division seized the initiative, and the accuracy of the shelling was significantly improved, and under the continuous shelling that seemed to be slow and fast, the city wall near the river on the north side of the Zhenjiang River was beaten to tatters. There were many holes, and the city gate was also hit by two shells, and from the holes, you could see the urn city inside. The Qing army had no other way but to keep repairing it, patching the broken and strict places of the city wall, gritting its teeth and persevering.

Such a battle was boring and monotonous, and the Qing army in the city was under tremendous pressure, but the Chu army and the Zheng Jiashui division were calm and comfortable, and were not in a hurry to launch a general attack. Zhenjiang is now like a ripe fruit. It could fall at any time, and it was impossible to risk the warship and soldiers.

……

Among the senior generals of the Chu army, the discussion on the reform of the military system gradually came to an end, although some people had such and such opinions. However, under the general trend, he also expressed his resolute support for the plan proposed by Wang Kefan.

The key to the difficulty of this military reform lies in breaking the feudal warlord model in which soldiers are the generals. It will definitely touch the interests of some people, so Wang Kefan is very cautious. The layout began after the end of the Battle of Huguang, and it took a year to prepare. After winning the Battle of Ningzhen, his prestige reached an unprecedented peak, and the cohesion within the Chu army was also the strongest, and it was the best time to use the knife for surgery.

The most direct symbol of changing the mode of turning soldiers into generals can prevent the Chu army from becoming warlords and strengthen Wang Kefan's ability to control this army, and the most direct symbol is to realize the transfer of middle and senior officers, and Wang Kefan will completely control the appointment and dismissal of middle and senior officers, and the old Eighth Battalion can be led by the general of the Chuang Battalion, and the Chuang Battalion can also have officers of the Old Eighth Battalion, this army only belongs to Wang Kefan and the entire Chu Xun group, and no general can control a force for a long time...... Of course, this is a gradual process, and a major move will cause chaos all at once, Wang Kefan basically did not move the chief generals of the various departments this time, and only planned to adjust some of the deputy and middle-level generals, and reorganize the camp again, so that they can fully integrate into the Chu army.

Within the Chu army, the camp is relatively independent, and there is a clear distinction between the old eighth battalion, which just joined the Chu army a year ago, and there is still the shadow of the previous Dashun army, which must be reorganized. Wang Kefan had just mastered Huguang Province at that time, and the old eighth battalion of the Chu army only had 40,000 or 50,000 horses, and the incorporation of the camp was actually a bit of a snake swallowing an elephant, and it could not be digested at once, and there were 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers who had been raised by Li Guo himself, and there were tens of thousands of family members who needed to be resettled, and after Wang Kefan took the three provinces south of the Yangtze River, these problems could be easily solved.

In addition, the staff officers, logistics, military law, and intelligence departments must be readjusted and strengthened, and according to the needs of the development of the Chu army, it is also necessary to set up some new units, increase a large number of civilian officers, establish a smooth internal process, and gradually transform the Chu army into an efficient and operational combat aircraft. There is more work in this, and it cannot be done overnight, Wang Kefan can only build up the general shelf first, and then enrich the content little by little.

On the seventh day after the reconquest of Nanjing, the Chu army issued a heavyweight summary report internally, sorting out the various problems that had arisen since the Eastern Crusade, and criticizing them by name. This report was written by the General Staff Department, Li Yuncong, and others, but in the end it was issued in the name of Wang Kefan, and it carried a lot of weight.

Immediately afterwards, Wang Kefan took the Deng Bin case as a breakthrough point, and began to rectify military discipline in a resolute manner, covering all units of the Ming Army of the Eastern Expedition, Jin Shenghuan, Zheng Chenggong, Fu Dingquan, Chen Bangfu, Jiao Lian and other generals did not let go, and they were not soft on the Chu army.

A dozen blockbusters!

Deng Bin is Wan Yuanji's confidant and favorite general, Wang Kefan took him to the knife, and used the Shang Fang sword awarded to him by Emperor Longwu for the first time, and beheaded Deng Bin for public display. When the news spread, ordinary people all waved their hands and applauded, but there were many gentry officials watching the jokes of Wan Yuanji, as the dignified governor of Fujian and Jiangxi, his subordinates made such a big scandal, and their faces were swollen by Wang Kefan, and they may become the second Yang Tinglin because they were implicated...... After Wan Yuan Ji heard about this, he was greatly relieved, since Wang Kefan beheaded Deng Bin, there was no proof of the case of killing Liang and taking credit, and the threat to him, the governor of Fujian and Jiangxi, naturally disappeared. Obviously, this is also a symbol of Wang Kefan's readiness to compromise. If he really tore his face with Emperor Longwu, it would not be good for him, so it would be better to accept it when he saw it.

Zheng Chenggong and Jin Shenghuan's armies are also within the scope of rectification. Wan Wan Ji was not surprised.

In this struggle to divide the fruits of victory, the Wuxun group united and won the victory, but there was also a problem of how to divide the spoils within them, because the spoils were unevenly divided, and the companions of one camp became enemies of life and death in the blink of an eye, and this kind of thing was not uncommon, it was too much...... Wang Kefan tried his best to get what he thought of from Emperor Longwu, and of course he didn't want to give a large piece to others. Rectify military discipline. It's just beating Zheng Chenggong and Jin Shenghuan.

Jin Shenghuan also held his breath because of this incident.

"Damn, Lao Tzu is desperately working hard, Wang Laosi came to me for trouble, and he fought with his head desperately, no wonder Erlang made some mistakes, if they are all so serious, how can they still live?" Jin Shenghuan snapped and slammed it on the table. After scolding Wang Kefan, he turned back and scolded Wang Deren: "Wang Zamao is also a thief, and he looks like a general with troops." It's okay now, Wang Laosi grabbed the pigtails, and people can't reason if they want to beat or punish. I can only rip off my pants and wait to be beaten! ”

"Why should the marshal be angry, it's no wonder that Wang Shuai is in this matter." Wu Zunzhou, a staff member, shook the folding fan lightly and said with a smile: "Tens of thousands of troops under the command of the marshal fought bloody battles. A few months before and after, when the two provinces were thousands of miles away. As long as Wang Junmen deliberately provokes, there will naturally be countless violations of military discipline. ”

"Ah! Sir's remark is to the point. Wang Kefan is deliberately picking and finding fault! Jin Shenghuan scolded: "His grandmother's, Wang Laosi is going to be the commander of the Northern Expedition, if it weren't for my Lao Jin's righteousness, enough friends, and desperately trying to help him, he can have such a beautiful scenery today?" Turning his head and attacking his own country, he is really an ungrateful white-eyed wolf! ”

"Hey, now that people's hearts are not ancient, who can be as benevolent and righteous as Dashuai? Wang Junmen initially decided to go south of the Yangtze River, and he would inevitably have to deal with the marshal in the future, and his rectification of military discipline was just an excuse to play on the topic and force the marshal to bow his head to him to show weakness. Wu Zun Zhou twisted his beard with his hands, looked at a hanging scroll of the mountain tiger on the wall with deep eyes, and said leisurely: "Wang Junmen's means are strong, and today's saints must also bow to the wind, and the future is unlimited. ”

"Well, it's better to think about it in the long run." Jin Shenghuan rubbed his forehead vigorously, and said hesitantly: "Everyone is not all the way, I'm afraid there will be no good results if we work together, to be honest, I haven't served anyone over the years, but Wang Laosi is worthy of growing up drinking ink, and his mind is no less than those civil officials, I am afraid that I will suffer under his hands." ”

It's good for everyone to be allies who help each other, if you really want to join Wang Kefan's camp, Jin Shenghuan is unwilling.

"The marshal misunderstood." Wu Zunzhou said with a smile: "I just let the marshal take advantage of Wang Junmen, not to be attached to him, the marshal will be transferred to Jiangnan in a few days, and he should be controlled by it. ”

"Understand, you just let me kowtow and obey softly, okay, Wang Kefan wants to be powerful, I will be his grandson, but how should the secret decree of His Majesty be played?" Jin Shenghuan just received a decree from Emperor Longwu a few days ago, and there was no substantive content, just a lot of praise for him, a lot of encouragement and exhortation, and asked Jin Shenghuan's opinion on Jiangnan and the entire battle situation, and the taste of temptation and co-optation was very strong.

Wu Zunzhou smiled faintly: "You can go back as you want." His Majesty Xià to the great handsome saint Rilong, the great handsome should also be repaid by the liver and brain......"

In the next few days, according to Wang Kefan's orders, Jin Shenghuan, Zheng Chenggong and others began to rectify military discipline in their own troops, strict, heavy, and fast, and the military appearance and discipline of all departments of the Ming army were one of the strictest.

The Eastern Crusade has basically ended, and Wang Kefan's Eastern Crusade Admiral will step down at any time, Jin Shenghuan and Zheng Chenggong do this, which is equivalent to still recognizing Wang Kefan as the boss and will still obey his orders in the future.

Chen Bangfu also expressed Xiàn is very positive, the last time he went to Nanjing to worship the filial piety tomb, he had fifteen buckets of water in his heart, seven up and eight down, thinking that Wang Kefan would definitely not let him go, but he didn't expect that in the end, there was no danger and passed the test safely. Later, Wang Kefan had a conflict with the civil officials, Chen Bangfu stood on the side of the civil officials again, and offended Wang Kefan again.

This time to rectify military discipline, Wang Kefan asked Shang Fang to cut off Deng Bin's head with a sword, but still did not move Chen Bangfu, Chen Bangfu secretly called luck, and hurried to implement the rectification of military discipline, hoping to survive this turmoil and pass the test safely.

After Jiao Lian received the order to rectify military discipline, he did not immediately carry it out, but directly found Wang Kefan and asked to lead his troops to join the Chu army.

"The last general, as a military general, admires Master Guan and Grandpa Yue the most, and has been looking forward to killing the Tartars outside the pass, but Yangshuo is located in Guangxi, and I can't get the opportunity to contribute to the country. After a battle of Ningzhen, Jiao Lian's Yangshuo soldiers underwent a rebirth after the baptism of blood and fire, and they hoped to become a strong army like the Chu army, able to gallop across the field, make meritorious contributions, no longer do nothing, and live up to the ambitions of men.

"Okay, Guangxi has produced elite soldiers since ancient times, and the Yangshuo soldiers fought well in the Battle of Ningzhen, everyone gave a thumbs up when they mentioned it, and you joined the Chu army for the reason, of course I welcome it with both hands." Wang Kefan said with a smile: "However, the Chu army is being reorganized, and the establishment of the troops must be dispersed. ”

Jiao Lian was stunned for a moment, and asked hesitantly, "Do you have to break up?" ”

Wang Kefan nodded: "The general trend is definitely going to be dispersed." Don't be in a hurry about this matter, you can discuss it with your subordinates, and then take a look in the Chu army, what it will change to in the future, and then you can make a decision. ”

In addition to the adaptation, the Chu army must also vigorously expand, Jiao Lian himself is a rare good general, and his troops are also combatable soldiers, Wang Kefan is of course willing to incorporate them, but this military reform is very sensitive, if Jiao Lian's department takes special care of it, the work of breaking into the camp and the old eighth battalion will not be easy to do, so simply put it in place in one step and let the Yangshuo soldiers also participate in the reorganization. (To be continued......) R1292