"Can General Chen help the old man train soldiers?"

Hearing this, Chen Wen's first reaction was that Yu Guowang wanted to recruit him, but after thinking about it, it was impossible to do so.

Earlier, Chen Wen had heard Wang Yi, Wang Jiang and others mention Yu Guowang on Dalan Mountain, Yu Guowang is generous, magnificent, and tolerant. When Liu Yi was stationed in Dongkeng at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Yu Guowang's subordinates "sent a certain ruler to Wang Yijun, and did not wait for orders; Liu Yiming sent him with a cane. Zhu Dan, the country is looking to thank you. It is so polite and polite. [Note 1]

Although Wang Yi was captured at the moment, Wang Jiang was still there, and with Yu Guowang's character, it was impossible for him to ask Chen Wen for an extension. Even if he had this thought, it was impossible not to know what the great victory in the battle behind the Siming Mountain Palace meant, so Chen Wen could only be an ally to him, and it was impossible for him to solicit his subordinates.

Since it is impossible for Yu Guowang to make a statement to solicit, then this statement is to hope that Chen Wen will train the army. So, do you want to say yes?

If he agreed, he could facilitate this deal, and with Yu Guowang's character, Chen Wen would definitely be rewarded for helping him train the army, which was also urgently needed by the Ming army of Dalanshan in the predicament; On the other hand, in the process of training the army, Chen Wen could exert influence on Yu Guowang's army, and at the same time bring them closer to each other, thus forming a stronger alliance.

The benefits seem to be many, but on this day of March of the fifth year of the Yongli calendar, does it really make sense to act like this?

On June 12 of the fifth year of Yongli, Tian Xiong, the governor of Zhejiang, set out from Hangzhou to meet Zhang Jie, the commander of Dinghai, and once again encircled and suppressed Siming Mountain, and at the same time prepared ships for crossing the sea to attack Zhoushan.

On July 13 of the fifth year of Yongli, Hangzhou garrisoned the Eight Banners of Gushan Ezhen Pingnan General Jin Li and Gushan Ezhen Liu Zhiyuan from Hangzhou and went to Dinghai via Shaoxing and Ningbo. On the 19th of the same month, Chen Jin, the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, set out from Quzhou and arrived in Dinghai via Taizhou and Ningbo.

In addition, the Qing court took Jinhua General Soldier Ma Jinbao as the president of the South Road, and led the water route soldiers to the north from Taizhou; The army of Wang Xian, the commander-in-chief of Wu Song's water division, moved south, and was scheduled to attack Zhoushan on 20 August......

Although the Ming army of Siming Mountain was not broken as in history, but in the battle on the shore of Siming Lake, the Ming army was annihilated, and the captured people were probably not spared, and those who escaped may not be able to escape the encirclement and suppression of the Qing army.

Even with Chen Wen's great victory in the south of Siming Mountain, and even the standard battalion was completely disabled, there was not much left of the Ming army in Siming Mountain, and the Qing army's strength advantage was still obvious. After the Battle of Zhoushan, this advantage will be more obvious for the Ming army in eastern Zhejiang......

The key to the battle of Zhoushan was the battle of Hengshuiyang, and Chen Wen, who only had a few hundred landlubbers under his command, asked himself that he could not do anything. Since this is the case, then for him, or for the overall situation of Zhejiang's resistance to the Qing Dynasty, if Chen Wen can't take one or two prefectures as a base before the Qing army captures Zhoushan, then there will be no future.

There was not much time left, at least three months, and at most six months, Chen Wen had to occupy a base area that was enough to support 5,000 to 10,000 soldiers, as well as a number of auxiliaries, and now the expansion of the Nantang battalion had only just begun......

Since time was already so short, how could he find time to train the army for Yu Guowang?

Just when Chen Wen hesitated how to tactfully reject Yu Guowang, Yu Guowang also seemed to see Chen Wen's hesitation, if it was something else, with his temperament, he would never embarrass others, but the Ming army of Siming Mountain was wiped out, and the pressure of the Ming army of Tiantai Mountain suddenly increased today, he could not tolerate anything more humble.

"If General Chen is willing to agree, I don't want these two hundred old men in cloth armor, plus a hundred bird guns and some gunpowder as a reward, I hope General Chen can agree." As he spoke, Yu Guowang stood up and saluted.

Don't want any armor?

Give three hundred bird guns for nothing, plus gunpowder?

This is a local tyrant!

Chen Wen didn't know that with the brilliant victory in the battle behind the Siming Mountain Palace, he already had the shadow of a generation of famous generals in the eyes of the Ming army who knew about this great victory.

After all, even if they have defeated the elite of the Qing army's green battalion such as the Tibiao battalion over the years, they have won the battle against the small units of the Qing army with superior forces, and they can resist the Qing army five times their own like Chen Wen, and they can still beat the opponent to a loss, even if they dream of it, they can't imagine it.

But Chen Wen and his Nantang battalion did it, not only did they do it, but even the commander of the Qing army, Li Rong, was captured alive, that was the deputy general of the standard battalion, second only to the commander and the general of the general in the green battalion, and was caught by Chen Wen in this way, and they didn't even have time to escape, which made them have a more terrifying impression of the strength of the Nantang battalion.

After the battle of Hushan, Yu Guowang considered asking Liu Yiming or Chen Tianshu to help him train the army for a period of time after the Qing army encircled and suppressed Siming Mountain, because although his army was the main force in that battle, the hero who really defeated the local Qing army and captured Hushan was Chen Tianshu's cavalry battalion and Liu Yiming's left and right battalions of the Dalanshan Ming army, which made him have a more intuitive comparison of the strength of his own soldiers and horses.

It's just that after the battle of Hushan, Chen Tianshu and Liu Yiming were ordered to rush back to Dalanshan, and the Ming army was defeated in the Battle of Siming Lake, which also shattered his hopes.

But at this time, Chen Wen and his Nantang battalion were born, the battle behind the Siming Mountain Palace, with 500 soldiers to defeat the 2,500 Qing army, capture the commander Li Rong, after a day to meet the main force of the Shaoxing Green Battalion again, but also with the majesty of the new victory of the division to scare it back. Such a capable Ming army is really rare, which makes Yu Guowang's idea of asking Chen Wen to help him train his troops even more hot.

As for the 300 birds, although it is also a lot of money, in Yu Guowang's view, if this investment can be exchanged for the improvement of the army's combat effectiveness, it is also worth it, especially when the candidate for training the army is a "well-known brand" like Chen Wen.

But at this time, Chen Wen's thoughts were completely different from Yu Guowang's. He knew very well why Yu Guowang wanted him to train his troops, it was nothing more than that the performance of the Nantang Battalion, a new battalion that had only been in the army for three months, was too impressive, but would Chen Wen help Yu Guowang train his troops to be effective?

At the beginning of the establishment of the army, he formed this army in the name of rebuilding the Qi family's army, and built a strong sense of identity through continuous brainwashing and the implementation of military laws and regulations. But he knew very well that the most important thing was not that.

When the army was formed, Chen Wen stipulated that all military salaries, military quarters, and rewards should be handed over directly to the recipients by the quartermaster, so as to prevent the officers from embezzling military salaries, military supplies, and rewards, so that they had no economic basis to eat empty salaries and drink soldiers' blood. And in this way, coupled with the existence of the pacification soldiers who directly obeyed Chen Wen's orders, even the possibility of officers bullying the soldiers was eliminated as much as possible.

When the Nantang battalion was formed, it was struggling to cut off the tail of the feudal army, in order to create a new army, a modern or even modern army in the true sense.

Until today, the work of the Nantang battalion to replicate the Qi family army has been completed quite well, this army is the sixth battalion of the Dalanshan Ming Army with strict military discipline, itself has a very good foundation, during this period of Chen Wen's high standards and strict requirements, but also made the Nantang battalion able to garrison the town and on the way south to do not offend.

If you add to this great victory in the battle of the palace for the purpose of covering the retreat of the people, a belief that even modern armies may not be able to possess has begun to take root in this new army that has only been in existence for three months, which is a good start, and Chen Wen will do his best to carry it through.

However, what kind of army Yu Guowang's army was, Chen Wen knew something about this even if he had only visited it once.

Yu Guowang's army was the main force of the battle in terms of troops, and the most important hand-to-hand infantry of this era became vassals, which was very abnormal. And what made Chen Wen feel most unhappy was that this army was still the old-style army model of eating empty salaries and drinking soldiers' blood, and such an army could not be the opponent of the modern army that used cold weapons to charge even if it was fully equipped with Mauser 1888. This made Chen Wen, who relied on the elimination of the vices of the feudal army to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the army, also felt that he was really at a loss for what to do.

It's just that Yu Guowang's apostille made Chen Wen even more hesitant - he agreed, and 300 birds were given for nothing; If he didn't agree, Chen Wen felt that he was embarrassed to talk to Yu Guowang about the deal of exchanging the armor for the bird's gun.

What to do?

At this moment, Gu Shouli's timely appearance made Chen Wen get rid of this distress for the time being.

"General, the banquet is ready, and the marshals have already taken their seats, just waiting for you and Xin Changbo."

It's been talking about it for so long, and time flies. Seeing this, Chen Wen immediately expressed to Yu Guowang that he hoped to give him a few days to think about it, and Yu Guowang also expressed his understanding of this, after all, this is a big matter, and it is also appropriate to consider it.

At the banquet, except for Yu Guowang, everyone else had already signed a contract, and these Ming generals said that they would complete the transaction in the next month. So, Chen Wen also took out the set of customers on the wine table back then, and the guests and hosts were finally happy.

At night, the banquet in the old camp had ended, and Chen Wen and those Ming army generals returned to their rooms to rest. And at this moment, a few miles away from the old camp, in the camp where the rear camp of the Ming army of Dalanshan was stationed, the camp tent of Ye Shirong, the deputy general of Mao Mingshan, was still brightly lit.

"Ye Shuai, Mao Dashuai has already left, do I really want to go to Chen Guerrilla according to what is written in that letter?"

Ye Shirong thought for a moment, beckoned everyone present to him, and whispered his thoughts.

Note 1: The words are from the "Continuation of the Ming Chronicle". In addition, I remember that there are several other books of an older age that have similar records, but I can't remember them for a while, so I'll note this paragraph first.