The issue of armaments is first of all a question of military salaries, and the nine sides need military salaries, and Yang Sichang's bandit suppression army needs 3 million a year, plus the expenses of the new army, the imperial court has been overwhelmed.

The second is the issue of military rations, the grain and grass stored by the imperial court had already been exhausted when the 100,000 troops were dispatched to attack Shandong last year, and because various localities had to supply Yang Sichang's bandit suppression army and local security forces, they had to throttle their expenditures, so the household department had made it clear that it was difficult to support the new army to make another large-scale mobilization, and they thought that it might be better to wait until after the harvest in the autumn of this year, and the military department believed that the troops could be allowed to collect military rations on their own in the war zone.

The Marquis of Zhendong resolutely opposed the plan of collecting troops on the spot, and he put forward a grand plan for training and combat: that is, to cut off the Lu army, which had been proved to be ineffective and had suffered heavy losses, and to send troops to aid Shandong, concentrate on supplying the new army, expand it to 50,000 people, and give the new army half a year for further training and equipment, and wait until after the autumn harvest to dispatch 50,000 new troops to attack Shandong at a time. Zhen Donghou said he was confident that he could solve the Shandong problem within half a year, and he believed that this was also the most cost-effective way.

However, this plan was unanimously opposed by the courtiers, who believed that the new army was already very large, and it was very dangerous to have 50,000 fighting troops under the name of one person. The generals of the Lu army were not without lobbyists in the imperial court, and these military towns had already mutinied many times after hearing that the imperial court was likely to dismiss them, for which the imperial court severely criticized the irresponsible remarks of the marquis of Zhendong and appeased those generals.

As for the third piece of good news, it made Xu Ping's mood very complicated - another big incident broke out in the new army, and Zhendong Hou asked his henchman Yang Zhiyuan to secretly find four outstanding young officers and set up a new team. These four team members lived in the Hou Mansion and were personally taught by the Hou of Zhendong. Soon there were rumors that this was Zhendonghou training a new generation of battalion officers, and except for Zhendonghou's son-in-law, all of them were outstanding students of the teaching team from a poor family.

For the first time, eight battalion officers of the new army jointly wrote to Zhendonghou, requesting that outstanding stamina be treated equally. When the Marquis of Zhendong refused to expand the size of the team, resentment boiled in the new army, and a large number of veterans complained indignantly: "But when I see the newcomers laughing, I don't hear the old people crying." ”

And the climax of the matter was that Han Dake, a member of the team, was killed when he went out, and of course Zhendonghou was very angry, but several of the generals who participated in this incident insisted that the other party was the first to provoke, boasting about their future while insulting their mother.

This news is absolutely true and reliable, because it was Xu Ping who was told by a team member himself, and now this person is sitting in Xu Ping's camp: "General Xu, those who killed Brother Han have been suspended from their posts and punished, but it won't be long before they can climb back to their original positions." ”

Chen Zhe carefully asked the other students of the teaching team who were eating in the cafeteria that day, and figured out the content of the quarrel: "Brother Han is full of spirit and daring, and he was called 'the second Xu Ping' by those rabbit cubs when he was selecting the front camp, but Brother Han told me privately that he was proud of it, and it was his honor to be on the same level as General Xu." ”

Xu Ping was silent, and after listening to Chen Zhe carefully describe the reason for the incident, he no longer knew if this could be regarded as good news.

"General Xu, there is no reason in the new army, please take me in."

"Have you really made up your mind to turn your back on Zhendonghou?"

"Master Hou...... I don't want to rely on the protection of the Hou Ye for the rest of my life, I used to want to win the world position and glorify my ancestors, but now I am dead, and there will never be my place in the new army, because I am not from a general's background. Chen Zhe shook his head, he didn't know what else he could do except be a soldier: "Besides, I can't work with the person who killed Brother Han, I want to get justice for him." ”

Now in the guard camp, except for a small number of Xu Ping's old troops, there are only a few old people who break into the camp, and Xu Ping secretly admires Li Zicheng's open-mindedness, and the other party let him go out of the army alone, and there is no one to arrange for constraints. Although Xu Ping can pull the team away, Xu Ping has no intention of joining the official army again, and he has no intention of going it alone. Since Xu Ping felt that Chen Zhe was good, he could immediately appoint this person as the commander of the Guards Battalion Teaching Team.

"Brother Chen, from now on, you are a thief, not a soldier." Xu Ping said with some apologies: "The people of Henan, when they hear that the soldiers are coming, and when they hear that the thieves are coming, it is a completely different reaction, and among the thieves, only the thieves can make the people feel at ease the most." ”

Chen Zhe laughed and said: "Since I left the Beijing Division, I know that this body is already a thief, anyway, since ancient times, I have become a king and a defeated thief, I just hope that together with General Xu, one day we will change ourselves from thieves to officers and soldiers." ”

"Speaking of Brother Chen's enemies," Xu Ping asked, "how is General Yang doing?" Jin Qiude is so aggressive, is General Yang okay? ”

"Lord Yang......" Chen Zhe sighed and nodded slowly: "General Yang should be okay, General Yang is the person that Brother Han admires the most, saying that General Yang is righteousness and hope, and he was also mine." Now, I am also General Yang's enemy. ”

At present, the new army is still arguing with the imperial court, and many people suggest that the new army send one or two reequipped battalions as soon as possible to begin to encroach on the territory of the Shandong rebels, and the part of the insufficient troops can be supplemented with other Ming troops. Previously, the main force of the new army stayed near the Beijing division to guard against the invasion of Lin Dan Khan, and after compressing the Shandong rebels into a small enough territory, the main force of the new army was transferred to capture Ji Weisi in one fell swoop. Of course, this idea was fiercely opposed by the Marquis of Zhendong, who pointed out that even if the army was outside, there would be a lot of personnel consumption even if it did not fight, and this way of fighting would also be very expensive and food-consuming, after all, the troops participating in the war needed more military pay and rewards.

Judging from the noisy heat of the imperial court, Xu Ping estimated that the new army might not be able to be dispatched within a few months. Since the battle plan cannot be decided, there will naturally be no corresponding reserve plan, and it is likely that a few months later, when the imperial court finally agrees to Zhendonghou's plan, it will find that the reserves have been spent again.

Although he was full of expectations for such a situation, Xu Ping still knew that he couldn't completely pin his hopes on his opponent, so he was happiest when he saw Lu Yufan.

"General Xu, this time it's a thousand guns and, of course, bayonets."

After inspecting the goods, Xu Ping was very satisfied, they were all brand-new and high-quality guns, and the bayonets were all well-made. After he ordered the weapon to be sent, he asked Lu Yufan to return to the camp to talk in detail, and at the same time gave him the silver. In addition to the military expenses given to Xu Ping by King Chuang, he also collected 30,000 taels of silver in the treasury of several counties, plus the confiscated official property, after paying for the gun, Xu Ping still had a reserve of 70,000 taels of silver.

"The last seven hundred guns for General Xu have been bought, and they have been arranged before I left, and they should be on the way now." Lu Yufan is obviously in a good mood, this gun deal has allowed him to earn a lot of money that he may not be able to earn in ten years.

"Oh, how could it be so smooth, isn't it Boss Lu who bought off a Fujian merchant who made guns?"

"I have already bought a warehouse manager and several supervisors from the Fujian merchants, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get those hundreds of guns." In a good mood and after drinking a little wine, Lu Yufan was already so excited that his face was flushed: "But this time, thanks to the Ministry of Industry, they sent people to Fujian to strictly inspect the weapons, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get so many goods." ”

Xu Ping was quite puzzled by this, he poured another glass of wine for Lu Yufan, and then waited quietly, and the other party lived up to Xu Ping's expectations, and talked and laughed loudly: "The last time the three hundred were all counted as scrapped, and the Fujian merchant who sold my musket also set fire to a warehouse to make excuses." But this storehouse can't be burned every day, so I thought I wouldn't be able to get the remaining 1,700 sticks. ”

In the past, the ordnance of the Ming army was allocated to the Ministry of Industry by the Ministry of Households, and then manufactured by the Ministry of Industry and supplied to the troops. Huangshi purchased weapons and armor from Fujian merchants, which made the Ministry of Industry very dissatisfied. But at that time, it was a matter of urgency. After a long period of activity, the imperial court finally intervened in the purchase of foreign arms. This year, the Ministry of Industry put forward very fair and honest reasons: first, it is necessary to supervise the manufacturing of Fujian merchants to prevent arms from flowing into the civilian population; Second, it is necessary to send special personnel to inspect the munitions so that black-hearted businessmen and scum in the military will not collude to cut corners.

Not long ago, after the officials sent by the Ministry of Industry arrived in Fujian, they immediately gave the Fujian merchants a dismissal, announcing that all the 5,000 guns they had handed over were not up to standard and that they would be destroyed.

After dredging, the attitude of the inspection officials of the Ministry of Industry was no longer so severe, but about 500 guns for every 1,000 guns were declared unqualified, and these unqualified guns were not returned, but directly destroyed.

Xu Ping suddenly realized and asked, "Then all these thousand guns were destroyed?" ”

"Mostly, I found a Ministry of Works official who was responsible for destroying guns and bought more than 1,000 'substandard' guns." The rest of the deficiency was purchased from Guangdong, but now there is still very little production in Guangdong, and the quality is far from being comparable to the guns scrapped by the Ministry of Industry officials. This part of the productive forces is Lu Yufan's supplement, for example, the number of bayonets he got from the officials of the Ministry of Industry is much smaller, and a considerable part of the bayonets shipped this time are produced by Cantonese merchants, he said to Xu Ping with a smile: "General Xu told me last time that the purchase price of the new army is three taels of silver, right?" ”

"yes." Xu Ping remembers this number very clearly, and when he participated in that secret test, the teaching team repeated it several times to deepen everyone's impression of the high quality and low price of flintlock pistols.

"The old yellow calendar is now fifteen taels. Raise the price, in order to let the merchants of the Ministry of Industry destroy fewer guns, the Fujian merchants must have stuffed them with a lot of money, and they can't let themselves lose money. Lu Yufan dropped another glass of wine: "Last month, each flintlock pistol that passed the inspection was only eight taels of silver. I think when the price is raised to fifteen taels, the inspection will be passed. ”

"Eight taels, but you just said it's fifteen taels."

Seeing Xu Ping's puzzled expression, Lu Yufan was well-informed and proud that he could take advantage of this camp general: "In the past, three taels was the price for Fujian merchants to transport goods to the camp of the new army, right?" ”

"Of course, the price includes shipping."

"In order to prevent the arms from being dispersed to the civilian population, or from being damaged during transportation and becoming unusable, the guns of the Fujian merchants are now delivered in Fujian, and then transferred by the Fujian Buzheng Department to the Nanjing arsenal, and then transferred to the Beijing division together with the silver grain, and each gun is already 15 taels when it is sent to the Beijing division together with the freight." Lu Yufan smiled at Xu Ping and said: "I read from the Fujian Di newspaper that the cabinet has already complained that the new army has to use this kind of expensive firearms, and after the price of Fujian Province is raised to fifteen taels, I am afraid that it will have to go to thirty taels after it is transported to Beijing." ”

Xu Ping was silent. Since it has to be allocated by the Ministry of Industry, it is no wonder that the new army is so slow to change its outfit when it gets this weapon.

Lu Yufan was still chattering: "The armor, spears, and cannons needed by the new army will also be the same, do you want General Xu?" I happen to know a guy from the Nanjing Arsenal. ”

"For the time being, all I need is a musket."

"No problem!" Lu Yufan was full of pride: "How much, more than 2,000?" ”

"I don't have that much money." Xu Ping shook his head and said, now he has to use money everywhere, fifty taels of guns is too expensive, and after having these two thousand, his request is not as urgent as it was at the beginning.

"The people in the Nanjing arsenal are better at talking than the treasury management of the Fujian merchants, but they will be slower. Now the new army is urging very urgently, and it should be loosened after the middle of the year, at this price, we can naturally be cheaper if we have a friendship. ”

"How much?"

"How about forty-five taels?"

After some bargaining, Lu Yufan promised to wait for the delivery of 500 guns, and then help Xu Ping get 1,000 guns at the price of 30 taels, and strive for the delivery in September - with the help of the Ministry of Industry, Xu Ping finally lowered the purchase price of weapons to the same level as the new army...... Well, it's just Xu Ping chatting to masturbate, money is still a big issue.

……

The excavation work to Xuzhou was still ongoing, the trench was getting closer and closer to the city wall, Qin Dedong, who was in charge of covering, raised his gun to shoot at the city wall, and with a gunshot, Qin Dedong saw a person fall from behind the wall battlement, and then fell straight to the ground. Qin Dedong put away the gun blankly, he first looked left and right, looking for the one who shot with him, after a long time, Qin Dedong found that it was completely futile, no one shot at the same time as him.

The trench continued to dig forward, and Qin Dedong stood blankly where he fired the gun, motionless looking at the location where the corpse fell into the city, and unconsciously, his eyes were already full of tears.

In the evening, Qin Dedong couldn't eat a mouthful of food, and the heartless Yue Mu stuffed his mouth to the brim, and persuaded on the side: "Qin Tou, we used to be farmers, and now we are thieves, Lord Yu said well, how many years have their officers and soldiers bullied us, and now we thieves are going to kill officers and soldiers." ”

At the end of March, after draining the water from the Xuzhou moat, the engineering team dug three large holes under the city walls and transported the coffins filled with gunpowder to the holes. With a few loud bangs, the ten-meter-long city wall of Xuzhou was blown down, forming a huge steep slope, and the two cannons placed at the head of the wall also rolled down to the city with their gunners.

"Guards battalion, get on the bayonet!"

Some veterans who broke into the camp tried to encourage the recruits: "The dog officers in Henan are all jackals from other places, and we must let them pay for their blood debts; The minions of the government, who don't miss their hometown, help these outsiders bully us, and they have to settle accounts with them. ”

"Kill all the officers and soldiers!" Yue Mu shouted in response, his voice louder than all the fruits combined.

After hearing the order, the two flintlock musketeers of the first wing, who had been waiting in the distance, drew their bright bayonets from their waists and inserted them into the head of their guns, and the drums sounded, and Li Jinyong, who was standing in the first row, walked side by side with his companions towards the smoke and dust in front of them. The Ming army at the head of the city had not yet recovered from the great shock, and the breaking army had reached the front of the moat, and the surviving artillery on the city wall did not have time to fire.

The soldiers of the Guards Battalion leveled their muskets and began to walk on the steep slope formed by the rubble. The dying Ming army was buried in smoke and dust, and there were bursts of coughing and choking sounds. When Li Jinyong followed the team to the highest point of the steep slope, there was another city wall in front of him.

"This Lord Fang does have two hits." Yu Shenhe, who commanded the attack, couldn't help but exclaim when he saw this. Obviously, the defenders judged that the intruders were planning to dig a hole into the city, so they hurried to build a wall opposite the hole that the intruders might have dug in order to prevent the attack. After walking along the breach, Yu Shenhe saw the buckets and sulfur prepared by the defenders, if the camp really used cave attacks as they expected, and the quality was still at the level of the early years, there was no doubt that he would suffer heavy casualties: "It is really remarkable that the civil officials can do this. ”

Yu Shenhe recalled his knowledge before joining the army, which was much worse than that of the Xuzhou guards, and if he had not participated in the New Army teaching team, he might not be able to see the shortcomings of the other party's deployment.

On the other side of the gap, Li Jinyong was following his team along the city walls. After seeing the bayonets that broke into the camp, the regiments in the city fled in all directions, and countless people took out ropes in front of Li Jinyong and stranded themselves from the city wall to the city to flee for their lives. After the intrusive army carefully advanced for dozens of meters, a group of soldiers with sticks and swords suddenly rushed over from the opposite side, led by one of them wearing a helmet and armor, holding a long sword high and shouting and pounced.

"Ready."

After hearing the familiar drill order, Li Jinyong immediately knelt down on one knee and faced forward with one hand holding the musket.

"Aim."

Li Jinyong hurriedly pinned his musket forward, closed one eye and aimed at the enemy, and there was a clattering sound of flattening the musket behind his ears, two rows of spears were lowered from his sides, and the shaking bayonet forest flashed with a terrifying cold light.

Looking at the enemy who was getting closer and closer, Li Jinyong's fingers couldn't help but buckle down several times, and the squad officer beside him held his sword high in the air, estimating the timing of the fire.

"Bang."

I don't know who fired a shot recklessly, the squad officer looked sideways in annoyance, and at the same time the sword in his hand had been swung down heavily: "Fire!" ”

A large cloud of gunpowder smoke erupted from the muzzle of the gun, and Li Jinyong's body was also knocked backwards, and he nervously clenched his musket, waiting for further orders from the commander.

"Stand up."

The squad officer's vision was blocked by the large amount of gunpowder smoke in front of him at the moment of shooting, and he could only hear the cries of countless people in pain. He pointed his sword straight ahead and waited for the enemy to rush out from behind the smoke.

The smoke was quickly blown away by the wind, and the armored officer fell to the ground on all fours like a "big" character, and there was a group of Ming soldiers lying sideways around him. The enemies who had just rushed over were fleeing at a faster pace. Under the watchful eye of the squad officer, the two Ming soldiers were squeezed down from the city wall by their partners, and the mournful shouts continued until the sound of two heavy bodies falling to the ground was heard.

"Reload." The squad officer's nervousness suddenly relaxed, and he muttered an order, and the sword hung to the ground.

The Ming army in front of them fled farther, and the soldiers were loading the muskets with their hands and feet, and the squad officer suddenly saw that the Ming troops on the opposite side were separated, and a small cannon appeared in the crowd of the Ming army, and two gunners were holding the cannon to aim, and there was a person holding a torch behind.

"Charge!"

A shout sounded in his ears, Li Jinyong lowered his head and was busy pressing the gunpowder with a rifle, he raised his head a little dazed when he heard the sound, and saw the muzzle of the black hole, and the ensuing fire. The huge impact knocked Li Jinyong into the air, and before he lost consciousness, he could hear the screams of his companions behind him.

The shell that hit Li Jinyong also killed three other soldiers of the Guards Battalion, and was the fiercest resistance in Xuzhou.

At the same time as the smoke cleared, Yue Mu rushed forward with a musket, and the deafening sound of the cannon just now made Yue Mu dizzy, and when he saw the Ming gunners close in front of him, he stabbed the bayonet at the enemy without thinking.

As the sharp bayonet plunged into his body, the enemy let out a scream of pain, which seemed to pour a bucket of cold water on Yue Mu's cannon-shaken head. The enemy's blood, bright red and brilliant, splattered on Yue Mu's arms, chest, and face.

Yue Mu did not skillfully withdraw the bayonet as he did in practice, but looked at the enemy writhing in pain in front of him in a daze, and as soon as he let go of his hands, the musket came out of his hand, and the dying Ming soldier held the long musket stuck in his body, rolling on the ground, blood flowing all over the ground.

"One person, how can he shed so much blood......" Yue Mu stood helplessly in front of the enemy who was choking...... Several times in a row, the murderer wanted to come forward to help the victim, and he took steps several times, but in the end he did not bend down, but shrank back.

Before the previous battles, the Black Wing Officer always asked Yue Mu and them to recall the sins they suffered in their hometown, as well as the officers and soldiers who were like wolves and tigers, but today when he saw an officer and soldier die alive in front of his eyes, Yue Mu did not feel happy, as if he saw the scene when his biological eldest brother was broken by the government and struggled to swallow his last breath at home.

The enemy on the opposite side had already become stiff, and the fruit chief Qin Dedong came over and urged Yue Mu twice, but he turned a deaf ear, because their team was ordered to hold the gap and not have to move, so Qin Dedong didn't say anything more and walked away quietly. Yue Mu looked at the corpse at his feet and remembered his previous life, although it was hard, he was always carefree in his heart, until the whole family died: "I never thought that one day I would kill someone." Yue Mu suddenly felt tears flowing out of his eyes: "I am an honest person, I am a farmer who has never had bad thoughts, why would I become a murderous thief?" ”

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