Chapter 342: The Cruel Side

On April 12, Hong Chengchou held a meeting of generals in Ruzhou (now Linru, Henan) to discuss the encirclement and suppression of the peasant army in Shaanxi, and Hong Chengchou ordered Deng Xi, You Zhaiwen and others to be stationed in Fancheng to defend the Han River; Zuo Liangyu, Tang Jiuzhou control Wu Village, tile house, guarding the main road of Zhejiang water; You Shiwei, Chen Shefu, and Xu Laichao were stationed in Yongning and Lushi Mountains to strangle the danger of southern and Zhuyang. Hong Chengchou personally commanded the army and entered Tongguan with Cao Wenzhao to suppress it.

On June 28, he was surrounded by peasant troops in Zhenning Hutou Town (present-day Zhengning, Gansu) and killed himself.

Although there were many contradictions among the thieves, under the pressure of the officers and soldiers, they were divided and merged, and this year they again converged in Shaanxi.

The effect of Hong Chengchou's encirclement and suppression was not obvious, and the thieves went from hiding from the main force of the official army to fighting on the move, to daring to hit the troops to attack the official army, and completed a beautiful turn. The results of this turn are embodied in Cao Wenzhao. Once again, Hong Chengchou's encirclement and suppression strategy went bankrupt. In the face of the peasant army, which was good at guerrilla warfare, Hong Chengchou could only encircle everywhere, and did not have enough troops to destroy the peasant army. When the time came to August, the Ming court thought that Hong Chengchou could not take care of it alone, so he promoted Lu Xiangsheng to prime minister of Jiangbei, Henan, Shandong, Huguang, and Sichuan military affairs, and concurrently governor of Huguang. Governor Hong Chengchou is in charge of the northwest, and Xiangsheng is in the southeast. Soon, he was appointed as the governor of the Liberation Army, and he was the squire of the military department, and he supervised the military affairs of Shanxi and Shaanxi, gave Shang Fang the sword, acted cheaply, and encircled and suppressed the peasant army.

In the matter of the Central Plains, the Dengzhou battalion was excluded, not because the military department did not want to transfer the Dengzhou battalion, but because it was afraid of another conflict. Compared with the Dengzhou battalion's dominance in the Central Plains officialdom, it is in the officialdom south of the Yangtze River. The evaluation of the Dengzhou camp is relatively positive. In particular, Zhang Guowei, the governor of Nanzhili, repeatedly wrote to the imperial court, requesting that the Dengzhou battalion be transferred to Xuzhou and Nanzhili to ensure the safety of the southeast tax area. In response to this request, there was also a fierce quarrel within the imperial court, and there has been no clear conclusion. On the one hand, the two current ministers of encirclement and suppression, Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng, do not want Chen Xie, and on the other hand, the imperial court is facing financial exhaustion and cannot ignore the storage of the Dengzhou camp. There are even some Qingliu Beijing officials, for political purposes, who take the affairs of the Dengzhou camp to talk about things. Attack Wen Tiren. It seems that the Dengzhou battalion cannot be used correctly. It's all Wen Tiren's responsibility.

Chen Xie, who had stayed out of the matter for the time being, immediately quickened the pace of army building after returning from the DPRK. Considering the situation of large-scale chaos that may occur in the future on the domestic battlefield, the Dengzhou battalion seems to be fully armed. Once plunged into the vast battlefield. The number of troops per unit area is pitiful. The problem of the source of soldiers is easy to solve. The refugees who continue to flee from Henan can go so far to the boundary of Denglai, and most of them are young and strong people who are in good health.

These people went to Dengzhou. Among them, people with good physical conditions and between the ages of 18 and 25 were selected, and more than 15,000 people were recruited easily. The source of soldiers for the fourth and fifth battalions of the newly formed B battalion was easily solved. In a short period of time, these recruits also have to undergo recruit training, which is mainly to recuperate their bodies in the early stage. The young and strong among the refugees are also a representative of malnutrition in Denglai.

These people are thrown into boot camps, and at the beginning there is not much exercise, that is, standing in a queue under strict discipline. Develop the habit of absolute obedience and a sense of teamwork. To put it simply, it's brainwashing.

Changyi Boot Camp, a large boot camp that can accommodate 5,000 recruits. Every morning, when the bugle sounded, the torture of the day began. The instructor used a leather whip and leather boots to drive the recruits to the playground. Stand in line one after another, this occupation is an hour, and you can have breakfast only after completing this task.

Chen Xie, who attaches great importance to this army expansion, naturally wants to take a look at the actual situation. Weifu private interviews or something, Chen Xie rarely engages in it. It is difficult to solve the fundamental problem by relying on him to make a private visit to Weifu. The one who really does the dirty work and hides in a dark corner to peek at a qiē is an organization called "shadow".

Chen Xie, who arrived last night, also got up when he heard the sound of the military horn, and stood in the corridor on the second floor, watching the training on the playground from a distance. One recruit after another, a phalanx of hundreds of people, in a group of three instructors, completed the day's training volume amid the continuous cheering of instructors.

Chen Xie's way of understanding the situation in various places is very simple, that is, to listen to reports. The officer in charge of reporting was cautious, in the Dengzhou battalion, only when he reached the level of garrison, would he truly feel what kind of person Master Chen was. The Chen Xie seen by the grassroots people is a kind old man, and Chen Dashan's reputation is not blown out. But these officers know that what ordinary people see is basically all illusions. Just last month, a quartermaster embezzled a hundred silver dollars and was taken by the Judge Advocate General. The family disappeared overnight, and I don't know where they went. What a sin is not as good as the family, bullshit!

When you really reach the middle and senior levels, you will understand what kind of person Master Chen is. If you get the trust of Master Chen, while getting power, you also have the corresponding income to ensure that your family can live well. But if you betray the master's trust, the punishment you will receive is absolutely unimaginable. In fact, what kind of punishment is, down to the details, Chen Xie is not very clear. Ying Niang, that woman, how ruthless she is in cleaning up, few people know.

The instructor who knocked on the door and came in said that the recruits did not obey the instructor's discipline and made trouble. Gong An, the garrison in charge of this new barracks, immediately turned pale, stood up to see Chen Xie's expressionless face, and immediately ordered loudly: "Notify the third battalion of the Jiazi battalion in Changyi to come over immediately to maintain order." ”

Deployed in Changyi is a battalion that must arrive at the scene within half an hour at the latest. Before that, Gong An had to personally come forward to negotiate with the troublesome soldiers to delay time.

Chen Xie has not made a clear statement, standing in the corridor and watching the scene of 5,000 recruits making trouble. Ten instructors were held hostage by the troublesome recruits, and there were about 1,000 recruits who participated in the trouble, while the other recruits were taken back to the barracks by the instructors and kept closed. In half an hour, things didn't make a big fuss, and a big part of the process was the role of the instructor.

The troublesome recruits occupied the playground, and several recruits led by them were negotiating with Gong An.

Chen Xie's location must be absolutely safe. The two-storey reinforced concrete building has only one entrance. This is the dormitory of the office and the instructor, and the personal guards are at the top of the stairs, not to mention guarding for half an hour, it is easy for an hour.

After about twenty minutes of negotiation, Gong An returned. went up to the second floor and reported to Chen Xie: "Master, the reason why the recruits are making trouble is that the training is too hard and the instructors are too strict. This morning, during the standing training, one of the recruits was whipped by the instructor, and his fellow villagers got into a fight with the instructor. Then the matter became very big, and now a few recruits led by him demanded that the daily exercise be changed to one exercise every three days, and also asked for a salary of one silver yuan every month. ”

"You promised them?" Chen Xie still spoke expressionlessly, and there was no meaning in his tone. Gong An, who was born in the first phase of the teaching team, of course knows that this tone of speech is not a good thing. He immediately stood up straight and replied: "The humble post did not agree, nor did he refuse immediately, but said that he would ask for instructions from above." The meaning of the humble position is to delay the time first, and wait for the third battalion of the Changyi garrison to arrive. ”

"yes, I see." Chen Xie's expression still didn't mean anything, and he couldn't hear the joy and anger at all. These are two people who are completely different from him in front of ordinary people and Zhangjiazhuang's father. Gong An, who breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, knowing that he had barely passed.

The composition of the recruits is more complex, on the surface they appear to be peasants, but in fact they include yeoman farmers, tenants, military households, large household slaves, deserters, domestic servants, and so on. When these people start out, it's hard to tell the difference between them. In Chen Xie's opinion, there is no need to distinguish at all, no matter what his background is, he has to train according to Chen Xie's requirements when he arrives in the new barracks.

The boot camp is a place with little human touch, and it is of little use to turn all kinds of people who are accustomed to casual behavior into soldiers in the army. Only the strictest discipline and the most brutal training can turn these people into qualified soldiers. As for making trouble, hehe, do you really think that Master Chen is a soft-hearted person? That's propaganda, fooling ordinary people.

When the infantry team of the Battalion A showed up at the boot camp, the recruits on the playground spotted it. After a brief commotion, the recruits pushed the instructors out and stood in the way. But it didn't have much effect, and the soldier with the bayonet still pressed forward firmly. At this time, Gong An stood in front and shouted with a loudspeaker: "Release the instructor, stop making trouble, and don't blame the past." Stubbornly resisting to the end, a dead end. Even if you lose your own life, it will drag down your family. ”

The guns had been raised, row after row, aimed at the troublesome recruits. The instructors who were pushed in front were full of determination in their eyes, and no matter how the rebels behind them fought, they didn't look at them and gritted their teeth to insist. When he saw the officer raise the command knife, he pounced neatly forward.

Bang bang The instructors lying on the ground smiled hideously and looked at the recruits who were scattering and fleeing. The recruits, who were hiding in the barracks, witnessed this scene with their own eyes, and had no other thoughts than rejoicing.

The scattered recruits could not get past the high walls, let alone the barbed wire and glass ballasts on them. When I was an hour, I was back to normal. All the recruits who participated in the troublemaking were gathered in a circle, crouched down and hugged their heads, waiting for the verdict of fate. Gong An, who was holding a loudspeaker, walked in front of the rebels again: "Listen to me, please stand up consciously if you take the lead in making trouble, don't drag everyone down." I have dozens of voices, and those who refuse to consciously stand up will bear the consequences. ”

Only three people stood up consciously, dragged out by the soldiers of the Azi battalion, and tied to a pillar where they practiced assassination. (To be continued......)