During the second meeting, Sun Chuanting made a military order in front of the Son of Heaven, promising that he would be able to command the Qin army to attack the camp again in three months, and he would definitely be able to successfully relieve Kaifeng from the siege. Chongzhen Tianzi was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately promoted Sun Chuanting to the governor of the three sides, asked him to rush to Shaanxi to take office, and gave him the sword of Shangfang, and gave him all the military power of the Qin army.

With Sun Chuanting was the governor Yang Wenyue, Yang Wenyue's Zhili Ming army has always been responsible for guarding the Beijing Division, before the Beili army has entered the Kou, although the Zhili army did not dare to fight with the Beiyu, but the existence of more than 100,000 Ming troops after all allowed the big cities of Hebei to be guarded, and it was also a guarantee that the Ming court could drag the Qin army to the king of Qin. This time, the Son of Heaven of Chongzhen in order to complete his work in a battle, let the Zhili army mobilize south to relieve the siege of Kaifeng, Chongzhen Prince's wishful thinking is: Now Xu Ping's department has not recovered from the hard battle, if Li Zicheng returns to the division and fights with Yang Wenyue, then Sun Chuanting can take the opportunity to make trouble; If Li Zicheng did not return to the division, the Zhili army could further consume the strength of Xu Ping's department. Previously, the imperial court had not used Yang Wenyue's Zhili army to defend the Beijing division, that is, when Shandong was in an emergency in the 20th year, they still stayed near the Beijing division, and when the new army was in urgent need of reinforcements in Shandong, the imperial court still did not put them into Shandong to participate in the suppression of bandits. It's just that now there are really no soldiers available, and Sun Chuanting described the army as very unbearable, and Chongzhen Tianzi simply believed him to the end.

However, the prospect of letting the Zhili army attack the army is not optimistic about the generals of the new army, Zhao Slowxiong and Jin Qiude all think that this is a meat bun beating a dog - there is no return. It's just that Zhendonghou failed to dissuade Chongzhen Tianzi, due to the continuous defeat of the new army, Chongzhen Tianzi was very disappointed in Zhendonghou, and since Zhendonghou also said that Xu Ping suffered great losses, then Chongzhen felt that this plan was more likely to succeed. Since Zhendonghou couldn't come up with any plan to relieve Kaifeng in the short term, he could only watch Yang Wenyue take the Zhili army to Henan, and in exchange, Chongzhen agreed to expand the new army again, and let the cabinet discuss the plan to increase the new army to fifteen battalions.

Li Yunrui looked at the worried Jin Qiude and comforted him: "Yang Wenyue, this guy has a fiasco, but in front of the cunning Xu Ping, I estimate that he is not a general at all." And that braggart king Sun Chuanting, when he arrived in Shaanxi and saw that the thief was no longer the hungry person he dealt with a few years ago, I guess he himself had to go to the book to ask the Son of Heaven to break his promise. ”

"I'm not worried about Yang Wenyue or Sun Chuanting. It's just that the Son of Heaven has high hopes for them, so he has cut the expenses of our new army, so that the pace of rebuilding the new army will be even slower. "Since the expansion plan of the new army is still under discussion in the cabinet, then the military department allocated some ordnance to the Zhili army, and Sun Chuanting of course could not leave the Beijing division empty-handed, so the household department poured everything and pieced together a million taels of silver for him to take away. Jin Qiude glanced at Li Yunrui unhappily: "There is also information about the invasion of the army, why has there been no progress for a long time." ”

"I know that the General Staff is in a hurry, but the Military Intelligence Department has the regulations of the Military Intelligence Department, so you can't mess around just because you are in a hurry." Li Yunrui smiled and picked up the teacup, not ashamed of Jin Qiude's reproach: "Most of the people in Henan hate the government to the core, Xu Ping's subordinates are all disaster victims, his officers are more difficult to buy, and it is difficult for Zhili people to break into their high-level. However, we are not without progress, the Ministry of Military Intelligence has carefully analyzed Xu Ping's actions, and their military intelligence system is very poor, after all, they are people who have never studied military intelligence regulations. So far, Xu Ping's main source of information has been the imperial court's official newspaper, plus some news from merchants. ”

"Do you know which merchants are helping them find out?"

Li Yunrui laughed and said, "If I don't notice it, then the Military Intelligence Department is really eating for nothing." I've already reported this to you. Well, let me think about it, according to the secret level, Brother Jin, what can you know. Li Yunrui thought for a while and said, "For example, there is a businessman named Zhong Guinian among these people, and the Military Intelligence Department has noticed him for a long time. This man is very active, and now we are sure that he is a high-ranking figure in the army, a disciple of Niu Jinxing, and the merchant is just his cover identity. After the MI noticed him, I instructed the people below to cover him and not let him be noticed by the people of the court. He has been trying his best to develop his work in our army, and in the past six months, he has developed a total of more than 20 people, half of whom are those I have sent. ”

"What about the rest? Are they all in the New Army? ”

"The rest are the little people who don't matter."

Since Li Yunrui said that it was irrelevant, then Jin Qiude believed that it was irrelevant. He asked, "Do you need our staff to help you with anything?" ”

"Not yet, I'll tell you if I need to."

Jin Qiude thought for a while: "In other words, we can interfere with Xu Ping's judgment?" ”

"Not yet. Most of the information I have given to Xu Ping is true information, which is similar to what was revealed in the imperial palace newspaper, at most let him know a few days earlier. At present, the military intelligence department is still probing, and I am curious to know how Xu Ping collects and processes military intelligence, and how he will make trade-offs in the face of conflicting intelligence. Li Yunrui's smile gradually narrowed, and his expression became serious: "It will take at least another year before I can start to interfere with Xu Ping's judgment." As for the investigation of the high-level military intelligence of the intruding army, it will take two more years. If the General Staff wanted to know everything about the invasion in the short term, this would be impossible. ”

……

"Five battalions, five battalions." Liu Yixuan lowered his voice and said to his two friends: "The ten battalions of the new army plus the direct guard, this is half annihilated. ”

Compared with the cautious Liu Yixuan, Xu Yuanjie is more presumptuous in front of his friends: "Adults are mighty!" ”

Another person named Jin Mancang, an officer of the fire battalion, also echoed when he heard this: "Lord Xu is mighty. ”

"Why didn't Brother Yu call me when he left?" Xu Yuanjie sighed: "Could it be that you can't believe me?" ”

Liu Yixuan's eyes flashed: "It's not too late, right?" ”

"Of course it's not too late," Xu Yuanjie exclaimed excitedly: "But Brother Liu, you have a family." ”

"If the two brothers can help, I'll take my wife and children with me." Liu Yixuan snorted: "No matter how capable you are, can you compare to an adult?" They can't even tolerate adults, and they have to drive out the new army, anyway, I don't want to stay. ”

"Of course, no problem, I plan to go to the teaching team to find a few more people, I know that they have long been dissatisfied, after Chen Zhe went to the adult, all battalions treated people with no background as half traitors, and they didn't want to be officials." Xu Yuanjie agreed, and then turned his head to look at Jin Mancang: "What did Brother Jin say?" ”

"I said you'd be arrested." Jin Mancang shook his head and said, "You two are too imprudent. ”

"What are you afraid of, I'm looking for people I can trust." Yu Yuanjie still looked like he didn't care.

"It's hard to say who can trust it and who can't trust it." Jin Mancang sneered: "Do you two know that Li Yunrui came to call me when I returned to Beijing this time and asked me to monitor you, and I guess Lord Xu's old department is very strict." ”

"You? Spying on us? ”

"yes." Jin Mancang nodded: "Li Yunrui promised that if I monitor well and make meritorious contributions, I will be promoted." ”

Jin Mancang's two friends were silent for a moment, and then hugged their fists at him together: "Brother Jin's life-saving grace is not forgotten." ”

"Don't say that." Jin Mancang sneered again: "The two brothers know that I am from Shandong, I fled from home, joined the New Army, studied hard and finally became an officer, last time I wanted to go home to see my relatives, I didn't expect that the whole village was slaughtered!" And it turned out to be a poisoner under the fire camp. If I work for the Forces nouvelles again, am I still human? I am a child of a poor family, and so is Lord Xu, and on this basis, I also look forward to Lord Xu. ”

"Then what are Brother Jin's plans?"

"I want to stay in the fire camp and see what happens to Wang Qinian's thief." Jin Mancang gritted his teeth and said: "Two brothers, I will go back to Shandong to report to the camp the day after tomorrow, and you will leave after I leave, so as not to make Li Yunrui suspicious." I think that after I leave Beijing, Li Yunrui will send someone to monitor you, and none of you can believe it, so find a chance to leave. ”

Liu Yixuan and Xu Yuanjie nodded together: "Thank you Brother Jin for your kind words, we will meet later." ”

"There will be a period later," Jin Mancang clenched his fist at them: "When you arrive in Kaifeng, say hello to Lord Xu for me." ”

……

When he heard the news of Yang Wenyue's arrival, Xu Ping was busy reorganizing and replenishing several battalions under him. As with the previous treatment of the Xuanfeng Battalion, Xu Ping planned to single out the military doctors, veterinarians, engineers, and artillerymen among the New Army prisoners and make other arrangements, while the infantry and cavalry were all released.

Some of the new soldiers captured this time were former members of Xu Ping's old army. Before Pu Guanshui arrived in Henan, some of the officers and soldiers under the jurisdiction of the Changqing Battalion were incorporated into the three battalions that came this time, and some of them wanted to take refuge in Xu Ping, and some of Xu Ping's staff officers suggested that these people should be co-opted, but Xu Ping and Zhou Dongtian were very hesitant about this. The Jingshi once sent news that they had heard about an incident in which Xu Ping's old unit of the Changqing Battalion was secretly interviewed by the military intelligence officer of the new army, suggesting that he had sneaked into the invading army when the battle situation was unfavorable; However, there was no follow-up to this plan, and the Kyoshi detailed report that the Forces nouvelles military intelligence officials had canceled the proposal, apparently because the Forces nouvelles top brass did not believe that the situation could be seriously unfavorable to the Forces nouvelles.

However, no one dared to guarantee that what Xi Zuo Tan heard was all the actions of the military intelligence department of the New Army, but although Zhou Dongtian was worried that someone might really accept similar instructions, he still hoped to be able to absorb some of the New Army prisoners to replenish himself. The battle of Henan cost Xu Ping thousands of well-trained soldiers, and it would cost a lot of resources to retrain so many people, and Xuzhou's warehouses were almost at the bottom.

However, Xu Ping objected: "Don't do this, just like before, let the infantry go." ”

"Are you worried that there are spies from the New Army?" Zhou Dongtian said disapprerovingly: "It is impossible for thousands of people to be arranged to surrender by fraud, which means that no one has surrendered by fraud, as for individual people, we will carefully identify them, even if there are them, we can find them out." ”

"Although it costs a lot to train recruits, I would rather use Henan people, the first is of course reliable, and the second," Xu Ping knew that many of the New Army prisoners had relatives in Zhili, and even if they were not married, they had parents waiting for them to go home: "Engineers and artillerymen, I can't let them go back, otherwise it will greatly enhance the strength of the New Army, but these infantrymen, after they go back, they will promote the benevolence of our army, even if they are more experienced, but the pros and cons are difficult to say." In this case, I think they should go home as soon as possible, because they will not see their sons and husbands for a day, and their families in Jingshi will have trouble sleeping and eating. Seeing the look of disapproval but not easy to oppose on Zhou Dongtian's face, Xu Ping laughed self-deprecatingly: "Although it is a troubled world, we should still think about it more, after all, our goal is to end the troubled times, not to be a demon king of the mixed world." ”

……

Yang Wenyue's army went all the way south, and the county towns along the way were all like facing a great enemy, and the magistrates mobilized Ding Zhuang to patrol the city wall, and there were sentry posts to monitor the outside of the city day and night. The materials needed by the army were all transported out of the city by special personnel and handed over to Yang Wenyue, and officers and soldiers were not allowed to enter the city. At the strong request of the magistrate, Yang Wenyue did not even allow the officers and soldiers to be stationed close to the county seat. When the imperial army approached a certain city, the city would be closed with four gates, and pedestrians and traders would be strictly forbidden to enter and exit, in case the officers and soldiers looked for an opportunity to rush into the city and loot.

"It seems that the imperial court does not intend to let Yang Wenyue's army stay outside for a long time, after all, as soon as this army leaves, the Beijing division will be empty, I estimate that Yang Wenyue will wait for the opportunity on the north bank, if there is a chance, he will relieve the siege of Kaifeng, and then quickly return to the Beijing division; If he doesn't have a chance, he will probably stand still and wait for other armies to act in his boat. Xu Ping ordered to pay close attention to the movements of the officers and soldiers, and if Yang Wenyu acted as he expected, it would be somewhat unfavorable to Xu Ping's reorganization plan: "We can't confront Yang Wenyue for a long time, so the loss is too great, if he doesn't plan to cross the river, we have to cross the river to repel him, and then we can train the recruits with peace of mind." ”

At present, Xu Ping plans to promote the new formation standard in his army, in which each battalion will have a cavalry wing with 1,000 cavalry, two infantry wings with nearly 3,000 infantry, and a staff team, a teaching team, an engineer team, an artillery team, a military medical team, a veterinary team, and a baggage team. If this ambitious standard can be achieved, each battalion will have 8,000 soldiers. There is still a long way to go to realize this plan for army building, and at present there are only 8,000 infantry and several hundred cavalry in the three battalions of the Guards, Xishou, and Panzer Battalions, and they are still 15,000 men short of achieving their goals.

Sun Kewang also began to regularize the invasion army in Guide Province, and more than 3,000 soldiers were organized into a new battalion, the Xifeng Battalion, which had the three numbers of the ninth and tenth infantry wings and the fourth cavalry wing. Sun Kewang reported that he could fill the battalion within half a year, and then began to form the Xirui Battalion, which had the 11th and 12th Infantry Battalions under its command. Li Guo's battalion was also in full swing, and although he started earlier than Sun Kewang, the progress was far behind the former, and it seemed that it would not be useful in a few months. Li Guo's adopted son Li Laiheng did not go back to help his adoptive father form a new battalion, but wanted to stay in the armored battalion to serve, Xu Ping knew that Li Laiheng was planning to learn all of Xu Ping's army, but he did not plan to hide it, and simply transferred Li Laiheng to the guard battalion.

"Yang Wenyue has a very interesting piece of information from there." On the second day of the first month of March, Zhou Dongtian came to see Xu Ping with a military report, during which he had been closely monitoring the camp of the Zhili Army, and the report found an anomaly: "There was a large-scale mutiny in the Zhili Army. ”

"Is it unusual for officers and soldiers to mutiny?" Xu Ping asked puzzledly, especially on the eve of letting the officers and soldiers attack the enemy, it was really normal for a mutiny to occur: "Now Yang Wenyue is still too far away from us, even if the mutiny can't be used, right?" ”

"It's really far away, and it's not unusual for a mutiny to occur, but it's their reasons for being strange." Zhou Dongtian introduced the details to Xu Ping, and it was precisely because this reason was too strange that the staff officers decided to report to Xu Ping: "This time, the problem of arrears of salaries for officers and soldiers is not serious, and the faint king has made a lot of money by digging three feet into the ground in Beijing. Because Sun Chuanting basically emptied the household department, Chongzhen urgently issued a new money, and some well-informed businessmen heard in advance that the imperial court was going to issue new money, so they escaped from Beijing overnight, and those merchants who unfortunately did not get the news in advance were forced by the court to subscribe to a large number of paper-thin coins with real money: "Now the merchants who have no background in the Beijing division are bankrupt, and even if the faint king does not make up all the money after getting this money, at least most of the arrears have been paid." However, there were many reasons for the mutiny of the Zhili army, such as the fact that their baggage wagons were not issued enough wood and silver, and the axles began to decay; Another example is that the powder keg does not have enough lacquered silver, in case of rain, it will spoil all the gunpowder; Also, the soldiers said that there was not enough grease and silver, and that their knives and guns would rust off in the long run......"

"Hahahaha."

Xu Ping was stunned when he heard it at first, and suddenly burst out laughing, and Zhou Dongtian looked at him inexplicably: "Why are adults laughing?" ”

"Are they still talking ......" Xu Ping asked while laughing: "The war horses are not eating well, and they are all starting to lose fat, so they need to send more forage silver to feed the horses?" ”

Zhou Dongtian flipped through the information in his hand, nodded and said, "What the adults said is also one of them, well, what do you think about this matter?" ”

"Sure enough," Xu Ping sat on the chair and leaned back comfortably: "Brother Zhou, I'll sell it first, what do you staff officers think?" ”

"It is said that these carts, gunpowder, knives and guns, etc., the soldiers of the officers and soldiers don't care much, so it's very strange, is their morale so high, they want to fight us to the death?"

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