"Second, there are still many bandits in the Jinghu area that have not been cleaned up, and after the enemy's invasion last year, many troops have broken up, and many of the defeated soldiers have become bandits. If you are in normal times, you can turn a blind eye to those guys who stay honestly on your own mountain. But from now on, I am afraid that the Tartars will invade every year, and you must take advantage of this gap to exterminate all the bandits in the Jinghu area, and not let them become the scourge of the Hu people when they invade. ”

Zheng Yunming bowed down and said that the bandits in Jinghu were more than 1,000 big and more than 100 small, but they were not well-trained bandits, and it didn't take much strength to deal with them.

"Third, although we can't rebuild Xiangyang City in a big way. But at least it can be repaired a little stronger. Zhao Kui said: "Have you read the stereotyped "Guarding the City" in Shaoxing? ”

This is the military textbook that Emperor Gaozong ordered to be printed and distributed all over the world, and Zheng Yunming can simply memorize it. ”

"In the past few days, I have inspected the city defense of Xiangyang, and found that some of them are inconsistent with the dogma in the "Record of Defending the City", which may be the negligence of the local guards, or it may be that the guards have made temporary modifications according to the local conditions in Xiangyang. You take people down to make up for the negligence of the guards, and further carry forward the places that are adapted to local conditions, of course, I will not say where there are problems, and it is up to you to discover them yourself. Zhao Kui said.

This is an exam, although Zheng Yunming is a general, but in Zhao Kui's eyes, the strategy in the young general's chest still needs to be tested. It's just that the soldiers of the Jing'e army who followed Zheng Yunming were very disdainful in their hearts, did they still need to investigate the tens of thousands of elite Mongolian defenders who fought against the tens of thousands of elite defenders in Shashi Fort?

But they also know that the commander of the army has always been humble and peaceful, and even if there is a small obstruction, it can be resolved in the chest. It's easy not to show resentment.

Zheng Yunming really bowed down and responded: "Everything is subject to the arrangement of the marshal." ”

Zhao Kui looked approvingly at the young general below, as if he had seen himself more than 20 years ago. When his generation of generals grows old, the future of the country will all fall on young people like Zheng Yunming.

I hope they don't disappoint the world.

In the early morning of the next day, after the war drums erected on the west gate tower of Xiangyang City sounded three times, the people who got up early were surprised to see that the officials and soldiers who had been careless and scattered in the past were actually standing neatly in the big open space outside the west gate, and they couldn't help but show surprised expressions.

But Zheng Yunming, who was standing on the tower of the West Gate City, knew in his heart that this was far from being neat.

In addition to the necessary sentry posts and those left behind, there were about 62,000 officers and soldiers stationed in Xiangyang, accounting for about 8,000 places for military status, about 6,000 soldiers who were too old and weak to use, 1,200 musicians, craftsmen, cooks and masons of chiefs, and even hundreds of monks and Taoists who were also mixed in with the army to take money and food from the state.

Zheng Yunming knew that the actual difference in military status was even more serious than this, because the officers and men who were doing business in their original places of residence would not immediately move with the army when they moved to their original places, and if the place where the troops were transferred was not far from their original station, they would simply stay in one place and operate for a long time.

Although it is an exaggeration to say that only one-tenth of the personnel in the DPRK and Central Committee are capable of fighting, it is true that only one-third of the people in many armies are capable of fighting. In the vast majority of the armed forces, the lack of combat effectiveness caused by various factors is at least more than 30 percent. This is even more prominent in the Yugoslav army.

Gathered outside the west gate were almost all the troops in Xiangyang that could fight, but the total number was still only more than 40,000 people. Except for the subordinates of Zheng Yunming, the deputy capital of Jing'e and Hubei who were basically full of people, the amount of occupancy of the rest of the troops (the gap between the actual number of troops and the number of military members caused by various factors is called Zhanpo) is obviously very staggering.

In addition to enhancing the combat effectiveness of these 40,000 people, making up for the shortage of military combatants in Xiangyang City is what Zheng Yunming has to do at present.

This is not a simple matter, from filling the vacancies to cutting off the old and weak and non-combatants, almost every step forward is eroding the interests of the army generals, and it is not so easy for the parties concerned to spit out the fat that has fallen into their stomachs.

Fortunately, Zheng Yunming's tough policy of eliminating Zhan Po was widely known to the generals and armies of all over Jinghu from the moment he established the army, and he is currently the most powerful general in Xiangyang Prefecture, and he is like a snake in the land compared to the later southern armies. In addition, he was born in an official eunuch, and he has a system to backing him up. After a short but difficult negotiation, the commanders of the various armies more or less accepted Zheng Yunming's proposal and added all kinds of non-combatable personnel and empty compressed troops in the army to the corresponding Ding Zhuang.

Before recruiting new recruits can be completed, the existing 40,000 soldiers must also be trained from scratch.

The banners of the troops under the city were unfurled and armor were unfurled, but they were not allowed to hold weapons, but instead held a wooden stick that simulated the weight of a weapon. Tens of thousands of hedgehogs gathered near the city gate, and the momentum was very amazing.

"From the west gate, first go to the south gate, then turn to the east gate, and come back at the last time! All in all, a circle around the city walls! The herald shouted, "Go now!" ”

This kind of training method is not Zheng Yunming's originality, but an ancient training method, Zheng Yunming called it "Lotus Halberd Patrol City". Although this stupid method will tire these non-commissioned officers who are usually untrained, it can increase their physical reserves in a short period of time, and then they can talk about the next step of training.

"Hurry up!" Liu Quan, the newly promoted first deputy general of the Tulong Army, ran at the front of the team with the training flag and shouted: "Zheng Dutong has issued an order, in the future, whenever there is a task of patrolling the city with a lotus halberd, the supply of wine and meat will be increased at every meal!" Everyone has worked hard to finish running, and you can have a big meal at noon! ”

It's not just a small physical stimulus, it's also a protein supplement to high-intensity training.

"Anyone who can successfully run to the finish line will be rewarded with thirty mosquito dollars! Don't delay, run all! ”

The army, excited by the reward, began to set off unit by unit, and the crowd in front of the city gate gradually thinned out.

Zheng Yunming turned to the generals sitting in front of the city gate and said, "While the sons and daughters are running circles under the city, how about you and I study the plan to sweep away the thieves in Jinghu?" ”

Although he spoke in a deliberative tone, he essentially represented the order of the envoy, which the generals naturally knew in their hearts.

Meng Jing, the commander of the Huangzhou guard Ma Junsi who was wearing Xuanjia, shouted: "Please give the order of Deputy Commander Zheng, it has not been a year since these bandits in Jinghu have been entrenched in their lair, Meng Dashuai and Zhao Dashuai have already clarified the heart of Jinghu, and today there are these few months of free time, which is an opportunity to eliminate Xiaoxiao." ”

Zheng Yunming spread out a topographic map of the two roads in Jinghu on the desk and said: "This map is marked with the information collected by the subordinates of the Jinghu Establishment Envoy in various places, of course, you all have your own intelligence system, it is normal for the intelligence of the Department to make mistakes, everyone is an old man who is resident in Jinghu, if there is anything wrong with what Yunming said, please be sure to advise." ”

He pressed the map with a paperweight, pointed at Hanshui with a horsewhip and said: "There are twenty-seven major bandits in the entire Jinghu. With the Han River as the boundary, there are nine places entrenched in the west of the Han River, eleven places that occupy the east of the Han River, and ten places in the south of the Yangtze River. Many of them were small bandits with only one or two hundred people, and although they were small in number and small in scale, they were all cunning and treacherous people who had been entrenched in the local area for a long time, and it was difficult for military horses to deal with them elsewhere. Our army has not been formed long ago, and its experience is far less than that of all of you here, and these small groups of thieves are led by you to fight, and the heaviest parts of the thieves are handed over to our army to deal with. ”

He deserves to let himself take on the heaviest task, and let the friendly troops clean up the minions who are familiar with the local situation, and no one should be dissatisfied with such an arrangement.

But there are some people who are unwilling, and the first to object is Chizhou Dutong Wan Wensheng, who is a guest general, but is likely to stay in Jinghu for a long time. Wan Wensheng was praised in the report of the Governor's Mansion to the imperial court as the first person to rescue Xiangyang besides Zheng Yunming, and his enthusiasm was far from comparable to that of ordinary generals.

"Zuo Qianniu's arrangement is inevitably too small for everyone here." Wan Wensheng is old enough to be Zheng Yunming's father, and he speaks straightforwardly and unabashedly: "Others don't say it, I am the least experienced in Jinghu, and I am not as good at fighting those little thieves as you are." Pick the best opponent for me! ”

Hu Xian, a veteran sitting on the side, touched his white beard and said: "Come slowly, come slowly, everyone wants to make meritorious contributions, but I don't know that although the bandits in Jinghu are not strong, there are still a few hot characters?" ”

He has followed Zhao Kui to fight in Jinghu for many years, and he knows more about the people in the Jinghu area than all the generals.

"The so-called Southern Lai and Northern Wei, East Zhong and West Chen, are talking about the four strongest thieves in Jinghu. After the invasion of the Hu people last year, many officers and troops were defeated, and these four thieves have increased their strength a lot, but the strongest have become two original official armies. One was the utility army stationed in De'an Province, and after the breakdown, they occupied Yunmengze Lake, robbed and killed passing merchants, and sacked the villages by the lake. One was the volunteer militia originally stationed in Junzhou, originally with more than 10,000 people, after Fan Yongji rebelled against the Mongols, this militia lost its command, and now entrenched in the upper mountains of the Fushui River, often making boats down the river to rob merchant ships, and also attacking the villages of the Zhijiang and Jingmen armies in groups. These two scourges are now the most important things for Jinghu to solve. ”

"Then what kind of character is the Southern Lai and Northern Wei, Dongzhong and Xichen?" Zheng Yunming asked.

"South refers to the south of Ezhou, Yuezhou Dongting generation, there has long been a gathering place for private traders who trade tea, since Lai Wenzheng was broken by Xin Jiaxuan decades ago, the lawless people here are still gathering in the mountains and forests to openly oppose the government. Twenty years ago, when the old Zheng Xianggong was still a petty official in Jinghu, he appeased Lai Wengong, the leader of the tea merchants, and established the Tea Merchant Army. However, there are still many rebels there, and now led by the head of the bank, Lai Zongming, continue to fight against the official army and the tea trafficking, and the government has nothing to do about it. ”