Just when You Shilu, He Renlong, and Zuo Liangyu launched a frantic attack on the tens of thousands of horses and horses of Lao Huihui, Ge Liyan, Living Grass, and Township People, who occupied Yueyang County, Long 13 was not idle.

After sending He Jin and Ma Chao away, he continued to discuss with Li Xin, Long Xiaoshi, and Li Zhanchun.

"How many households can we control, or are willing to act with us?"

Li Xin replied, "Big boss, this is divided into several parts."

"The first part is the rebels and their families, and at the moment there are 7,100 members of our regular army, half of whom have family members, and the average of each family is about three people, which is more than 12,000 people."

"There are nearly 2,000 miners and craftsmen of all kinds, with a total of nearly 10,000 people."

"There are about one person in the households who follow us."

"The families of the rebels are all farming near Lingshi County, and the miners and craftsmen are also assigned to work in various mines and smelting fields, and the female dependents have also set up workshops to specialize in making paper shells, cotton armor, military uniforms, etc."

"The above is a total of 37,000 people, and this will definitely follow our army."

"Then there are the poor households in the two places, including farmers, artisan households, and slave households, yes, Lingshi County and Huozhou City are relatively wealthy places, and there are more wealthy gentry and giants, and some poor households cannot support their families by farming or working alone, so they simply send all their children to large families as slaves."

"After our army became the master, we not only opened warehouses to release grain, but also repaid all the craftsmen who owed the food and silver they owed for nearly three years, and our army would definitely not stay in these two places for long, so we destroyed all the yellow books and fish scale books."

"So, in the next estimate, once our army sets off again, most of these poor households will follow us, among which Lingshi County used to be the upper county of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, there are only more than 4,000 households, about one person."

"Huozhou and we also occupy the state city, and there are about 4,000 households, but there are more Dingkou here, about 20,000 people."

"There is also one artisan household and slave household in Huozhou, about 7,000 dingkou."

"So, the two places together are more than 22,000 people."

"Including our descendants, it adds up to nearly 60,000 people."

"Sixty thousand people, according to the need for one pound of grain a day, a day is sixty thousand catties, six hundred stone of grain, a year is 240,000 stone; The total number of regular soldiers and craftsmen who need to be paid by our department is about 10,000 taels, and the average is 1 tael of silver a month, 10,000 taels a month, and 120,000 taels a year."

"Once the action starts, in addition to the regular soldiers, 10,000 young and strong people can be transferred."

"After we have confiscated the property, food and other materials of the Fan family in Jiexiu County, the Wang family in Lingshi County, the Huang family in Huozhou, and other large households, as of now, we will have to store nearly 200,000 stones, which can meet the needs of the current personnel for more than half a year."

"After the autumn harvest, it is estimated that we can collect tens of thousands of stones, which can add up to meet my needs for a year."

"There are also 10,000 taels of silver, a total of catties, and the expenses in this regard are safe."

"Tens of thousands of carts have been collected in Lingshi County and Huozhou Prefecture, as well as the same number of livestock, and each cart can be loaded with one catty of materials, that is."

"All of them add up to stones, and each cart can carry ten stones of grain and other materials such as silver taels, and after the following calculations, if you set off at the end of the year, you can just load all the grain, silver taels, and materials."

"According to the orders of the great boss, the army was also equipped with a cart of 1,000 taels, escorted by 1,000 quasi-young men and 1,000 pikemen, mainly carrying military supplies such as armor, ammunition, ordnance, tents, etc., as well as forage and bean feed for feeding war horses."

Long Thirteen nodded, Li Xin is really a talent who has gone through business, although he has only accepted the old camp for a few months, but this mind is not worse than Long Xiaoshi. qδ.o

"Where's the ordnance?"

"Big boss, because our army has captured a large number of officers and soldiers, and at this time the imperial court has already distributed part of the armor to the merchants to make, and Jiaokoubao, Wucheng, Jiexiu County, Lingshi County, and Huozhou are important towns with developed industry and mining, we have captured a large number of armor."

"Specifically, the 2,000 cavalry had 2,200 horses, 2,000 sets of winter and summer battle robes, and 2,000 sets of iron armor, of which cotton armor accounted for half."

"Four thousand pikemen, according to the idea of the great boss, the first one is iron armor, the specific number is a thousand, they already have the same equipment as the cavalry, and among the remaining three thousand, about a thousand have leather armor, and the rest have no armor."

"Neither the musketeers nor the artillerymen have any armor."

"As for bows and arrows, knives and guns, javelins, ammunition, earth-shaking thunder, etc., there is a considerable backup, and the gunpowder is prepared according to the re-drying every three months, that is to say, our department will load the newly dried gunpowder three months before departure, and these gunpowder can be used for three months, and the same is true for the earth-shaking thunder and cannonballs."

"Also," Li Xin paused, "Big Master, if your guess is correct, do you want to go to Henan while the Yellow River is freezing in winter, if that's the case, we must hurry south after the autumn harvest, there is an Anyi County in the southernmost part of Pingyang Prefecture, and there is also a Jiezhou."

(Anyi County, Later Shiyun City, Jiezhou, Later Jiezhou Town)

"There are two big lakes here, the one in the east is close to Anyi County, which is the largest salt-producing area in the interior of the Ming Dynasty, and the one in the west is a nitrate pond, which is a natural nitrate-producing land."

"Therefore, the imperial court set up a mine supervisor in Siyan City, in the middle of these two places, to supervise the production of fine salt from the salt pond and transport it to the capital, and second, to supervise the transportation of the nitrate powder from the nitrate pond to the Imperial Horse Prison and the Shenji Camp, where it was then made into gunpowder with sulfur and charcoal."

"If this is the case, our craftsmen will be able to make less nitrate powder and more sulfur and toner in these months......

Instead of answering him, Long Thirteen asked rhetorically, "From your point of view, where is it better for our troops to retreat?"

Li Xin replied: "It is said that at this time, it is best to retreat to the west of Gujishan, relying on the Yellow River and the mountains to deal with the enemy, but the west of Gujishan is relatively barren and cannot support the army, so the Ministry of Posts suggests that it is better to go south to Henan."

"Henan, especially near Huguang, is less affected by drought and frost, and there are many dingkou, and the grain yield is also higher."

"Specifically?"

"There are two places, both have mountains as a backing, one is Nanyang Mansion, its north and west are mountains, the east side is the Great Plains, there are many good fields, once the military situation is critical, you can also escape into the mountains, on the mountains, there are Lushi, Xichuan, Neixiang three counties, if you can occupy the three places in advance, you can slowly operate to the east."

"In the south of Anyi County, there is a Zhongtiao Mountain, there is the famous Maojin Ferry, and between Anyi County and Maojin Ferry there is a special Yuhan Ancient Road for transporting salt, opposite Maojin Ferry is Shaanzhou, where there is a guard, but the combat power is worrying, as long as you gain a firm foothold in Shaanzhou Wharf, you can break through Shaanzhou."

"After that, I took great pains to think about it, and to the north of Shaanzhou, you can reach Lushi County in the mountains through Lingbao, which is one of the largest mines in Henan set up by the Imperial Military Department and the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and there are a large number of miners, both in terms of materials and population, which can meet the needs of our army."

"Or continue eastward, pass through Kip Shiguan and Xin'an to Luoyang, and then reach Nanyang via Ruzhou."

"Or go all the way to the southeast after leaving Luoyang, also pass through Ruzhou, and then go to Runing Mansion through Ye County and Wuyang County in Nanyang Prefecture, where it is close to Dabie Mountain, and the effect is the same as that of Bear's Ears Mountain in Nanyang Prefecture, but once you arrive at Runing Mansion, in addition to facing the encirclement and suppression of the local military force in Henan, you also have to face the military power of Nanzhili."

"So you suggest going to Nanyang Mansion?"

"Yes, but it's up to the big boss."

"What is the military strength of Nanyang Mansion and Runing Mansion?"

"Nanyang Mansion has Nanyang Guard, there is the Tang Prince's Mansion Honor Guard, Runing Mansion also has Runing Guard, and Chongwang Mansion Honor Guard, the combat power is not strong."

Long 13 secretly thought: "I don't know what happened to Kong Youde, I remember that this guy has been in Dengzhou for a year or two to rebel, if the battle in Dengzhou is over, and the Guanning Iron Cavalry is killed in the Central Plains, it will be a little bad, if you go through Ruzhou and Nanyang Mansion to Runing Mansion, you will inevitably be hit by the enemy's superior cavalry, so it is too dangerous to go to Runing Mansion."

"Of course, it also depends on how Zijin Liang and the others act at that time, if they all cross the Taihang Mountain to Hebei, and then cross the river from Hebei to Henan, then they can attract most of the Guanning Iron Cavalry."

"At that time, our department can go to Nanyang Mansion or Runing Mansion according to the route Li Xin said."

"If they also crossed the river near Zhongtiao Mountain, then our department would not be able to squeeze together with them, so we could only choose the route of Lingbao and Lushi County."

He also asked, "Li Xin, you are from Henan, do you know what kind of rebels are active near Zhongtiao Mountain and Bear's Ears Mountain?"

Li Xin said, "Rebels? No, but Zhongjo Mountain has always been a place where bandits are born, and there is a bandit whose leader is called 'Mountain Patrol Tiger' near the Yuhan Ancient Road and Maojindu, and the real name of this person is unknown."

"To the east of Maojindu, there is another ferry, called Bailangdu, from Bailangdu to Mengjin, both sides of the Yellow River are lofty mountains and mountains, there is no suitable large-scale ferry, here is naturally the Yellow River bandits rampant place"

"At present, there are two brothers who have become the biggest water bandits there, one is called Lidi Tai Sui, and the other is called Living Yama, obviously both of them are taken from the nickname in "Water Margin", and their real names are unknown."

"And near Lushi County, there is a bandit composed of local miners, military households, and farmers, the leader is called Yidousu, but I know his real name, his name is Jin Shenghuan, that person roared in the area of Lushi and Lingbao, and the officials and soldiers have not been able to exterminate it for a long time."

"In addition to this bucket of millet, there is a gang of thieves called 'black-hearted wolves' in Nanzhao County, the northernmost part of Nanyang Province, which is very fierce, and near Xichuan, there is a bandit called a clay pot."

"Also, although Henan is also a place dominated by guards, in Ruzhou, that is, the key place between Nanyang Mansion and Luoyang Mansion, a sub-guard general has been set up, named Chen Yongfu, which is said to be very powerful."

"In addition, if you go to Nanyang Mansion, in addition to the local people and horses in Henan, the imperial court also set up the Yunyang Governor in the middle reaches of the Han River, and the Huguang Xingdu Division is also there.

"If something happens to Nanyang Mansion, the soldiers and horses of Yunyang Mansion can quickly cross the Han River and go north to support."