Because Zhu Cihong stayed in Luoyang for an unexpectedly long time, Bai Guangen did not make a detour to Shanxi and fled back to Tongguan, but went back to Luoyang and went to report under Sun Chuanting's tent. At the same time, he also brought the news of Chen Yongfu, the Henan general soldier fled to Kaifeng on the day of the defeat, not to mention that he was fine, and even the accompanying family members did not lose a few.

Bai Guangen didn't know how much pain he felt in his heart when he said this. He has all the trains under his command, and where can the soldiers take care of anything else when they flee? All of them were thrown to Li Zicheng. Among all the general soldiers, although Gao Jie was injured, he had a hard fight; Niu Chenghu has a good reputation, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has added to him the loss under his command. Only he, Bai Guangen, led a group of remnants of soldiers who had lost their weapons back, no matter how he looked at it, he looked like a beggar who fled the famine and begged for food.

Zhu Cihong did not discriminate against him, and ordered Bai Guangen and Gao Jie to return to Xi'an with the remnants of the army first. The soldiers of this era are not the iron army armed with ideological weapons in later generations, once they have been defeated once, they will immediately become frightened birds. If you don't fight a few tailwind battles to replenish your morale, you will definitely collapse at the first touch. Some don't even need to "touch" it, they just run away from the wind. Keeping these soldiers with you is like shoveling gunpowder with a shovel - for fear that the movement will be too small.

Without these routs to contain them, Zhu Cihong ordered Li Zhensheng and Zhang Shiqi to organize a gathering in the name of officials to recruit poor students in Luoyang. These people are not good at the exam, but they are the most effective when they are used as a bookseller. The prince himself devoted himself to the army, expanded the organization, built the Donggong guard battalion into a large battalion with 5,000 soldiers, and built an independent engineer battalion with auxiliary soldiers and civilian men as the main body.

The engineer battalion needs people who are familiar with all kinds of camping and building fortifications, and this heavy responsibility naturally falls on Chen De. Originally, he was a acting guerrilla, and there was no problem in taking charge of a battalion. Moreover, he has followed his father to apprentice in the military since he was a child, and he is far more experienced than the drill officers of the East Palace Department in these marching trivialities.

Most importantly. The officers of the East Palace Department all want to make meritorious contributions, who is willing to go to the engineer battalion to be a foreman? Although Xiao Donglou and Niu Chenghu are also from the side lineage, they are all veterans who fought in battle, so this engineer battalion can only be handed over to the young Chen De.

Chen De was very sad about this, and he hoped to go to the headquarters of Zuo Junqian to take up a military position. It is really a big pity for the general to have such a strong army as the East Palace Guard Battalion, which is rare in the world, not being able to lead it. In particular, Chen De thought that the prince favored him. I didn't expect the gap to be so big. This blow made him not even want to open his mouth during the military discussion.

Until the prince asked questions by name.

"Defend Tongguan?" Chen De was unimpressed by Xiao Donglou's suggestion. is also because of the desperate relationship, he doesn't even want to maintain the passable politeness on his face. "The rout is not counted, my battalion has a total of 5,000 soldiers, and they can afford to defend Tongguan? Even if twenty for one, Li Zicheng can consume us to death! Chen De said politely.

Xiao Donglou's face was so angry that his face turned red, and he said angrily: "You don't have to guard the whole battalion!" Just 2,000 men and horses from the headquarters of our left army are enough! If I let Li Zicheng pass the test, I will have your surname in the future! ”

"Ha," Chen De sneered: "Then may I ask, who will guard the county seat?" Do you want to be alone? "Tongguan is divided into cities and counties. Rely on each other, support each other, and never stand alone.

"Tongguan is still two hundred and fifty miles away from Xi'an, even if you defend Tongguan, who will guard Shangzhou? Do you want His Highness to personally guard Shang Luo? "Chen De is quite aggressive.

Xiao Donglou was dumbfounded for a while.

At the beginning of the country, Shangzhou rose and fell repeatedly between states and counties, and it was a not prosperous area in southern Shaanxi, which belonged to Xi'an Prefecture. However, this area was an important place for soldiers, and it was an important town to defend Chang'an in the Western Han Dynasty. There are three roads leading to Xi'an by taking Shangluo Road from Nanyang. It is closer than Luoyang to Xi'an through Tongguan.

Cao Ning glared at Xiao Donglou and said secretly: You deserve to be choked by a hairy boy, right? Lao Tzu told you that Tongguan can't be guarded. You have to fight to the death! Let's go! Look at how you step down now.

In the end, it was the Tianxiong Army that hated the same enemy, he looked at Chen De again, and sneered: "What's so strange about knowing that Li Thief sent troops from Nanyang to Shangluo Road?" He survived hiding in the mountains back then. The key is that as a general, he doesn't even have the courage to fight a battle, and he is worthy of being the head of the engineer battalion. ”

This time, it was Chen De's turn to swell into a pig's liver color.

Zhu Cihong coughed dryly in time, pulled back to the point, and said: "If you want to refuse at a point." Shangzhou, Lantian and Lintong all scored troops. Our army is underarmed. ”

"Your Highness, if the Qin soldiers are practiced, they will still have the strength to fight." Sun Chuanting was the governor of Shaanxi, and since he was discussing the issue of entering Shaanxi, he could not help but participate. Like him, there is another person who is not an officer. Wu Fu is leisurely looking at these people below arguing at this moment.

Wu Fu knew the true intention of the prince, which was to retreat all the way from Shaanxi to Shanxi, and then from Shanxi to Beijing, and Zuihou from Beijing to Shandong. He didn't know that the prince Weishenme used this stupid method, but he didn't think of a good idea to go directly to Shandong, but from the occasional words of the prince, he knew that the prince seemed to be staying up for time. Although I don't know if I can't understand the reason, it seems that something very important will happen in March next year.

"Governor Qin, now that the Li thief is powerful, in my opinion, Shaanxi can't hold it." Zhu Cihong is not official, these people in the hall are all his own people, there is no need to cover it up. He said: "The reason is very simple, first, there is no military rations, and second, there is no popular heart. This is a dead place that cannot be defended. ”

If Sun Chuanting can't see these two points, then he will not be qualified to enter the eyes of the prince.

The establishment of the governor was customized five years after the establishment of the government, and he was in charge of the political and military affairs of one or several provinces, and his power was great. If the governor only concentrates on military affairs, it is natural that the army will take precedence in everything, and it will be difficult to balance the people's livelihood, and it is natural to lose the support of the people.

Sun Chuanting's practical ability is not weak, but the evaluation of him by later generations is not high, mainly because he violated the rights and interests of the powerful family when he was in charge of Shaanxi, and left an infamy in Shilin. At the beginning, he was swept away by the trouble for military funds, and piles of impeachment pieces were sent to Ouchi every day, which also lost the support of the people. At that time, he decided to send troops, in addition to the too much pressure from the imperial court, Shaanxi was really unable to stay in a place was also a factor.

"I only went to Shaanxi for three purposes." Zhu Cihong said in a loud voice: "Population! Ding Zhuang! Soldier! ”

These three can be summed up in one or two words - important people.

But there are three kinds of people.

Population is not equal to Ding Zhuang, not equal to soldiers.

It can be said that population is the foundation, Ding Zhuang is the labor force, and soldiers are the combat effectiveness. These three types of people determine the energy level of future development. Shandong was listed in the first class of "silver edge" by Wu Fu, precisely because of the lack of danger and abundant population. In the eleven years of Chongzhen, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had to plunder a large number of people from Jinan and Shandong every time they entered the customs. In the fifteenth year, Dolgon led his troops into the pass and plundered 600,000 people. If there is no dangerous geographical advantage, it can be compensated by a strong army, but without a population, the foundation for development will be lost.

A large number of troops were stationed in Shandong, and all kinds of buildings, reclamation and road construction all needed to be done by Ding Zhuang. If there were no such people, Zhu Cihong might not even be able to survive the first year.

As for the soldiers, not to mention. In the troubled era of the late Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to hold a province with less than 100,000 soldiers. Even if the East Palace makes up for the quantitative gap with quality, it cannot be less than 80,000. Because this is not a shijie of absolute values, if two soldiers with qualified physical test scores and one soldier with excellent physical test scores fight, it is bound to be the side with more people to win, even if the soldier with excellent results is twice as many as the opponent.

The key question is, are there so many people in Shaanxi?

Zhu Cihong believes that there are still some.

Although Shaanxi is the birthplace of the Liukou, the areas that were really damaged by the Liukou were Henan, Huguang and other neighboring provinces. Even because of the feelings of the countryside, the rogues did not kill people when they wandered in Shaanxi, and there was no record of slaughtering the people. Although Shaanxi has also suffered disasters year after year, it has not been ravaged by man-made disasters like Henan, making its population resources far superior to those of Henan and Hebei - Hebei was seriously plundered and killed by the Manchus, and it is still possible to raise a few thousand soldiers, but it is impossible to expand the army on a large scale.

"Governor Qin knows the people of Shaanxi well," Zhu Cihong said: "This time, the heavy responsibility of collecting the population, Ding Zhuang, and soldiers will also fall on the shoulders of Governor Qin." ”

Sun Chuanting's brows furrowed into a Sichuan character, but he just responded with a "obey".

Wu Fu also knew that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would definitely collect all strategic materials, including the population, but another practical problem bothered him: if he really pulled up such a large team, not to mention the pursuing thieves, how much food would he get? (To be continued......)