The purpose of Shen Shuren's provocation and anger strategy is clear:

Find a way to humiliate Li Zicheng, and if you can, try to make him suspicious of some of the subordinates who have just been subdued. Then he proclaimed generously:

"Yang Sichang doesn't have to be afraid of Li Zicheng, and he doesn't need to rush to attack. As long as he sticks to the tired enemy and waits for Li Zicheng to take the initiative to attack first, whether he takes the initiative to attack Nanyang in the south, or continues to advance eastward to open the seal, with the current cohesion of Li Zicheng's waste dim sum, it is impossible to take any strong city in three or five months.

At that time, it will be too late to rescue the attacked target and seek a decisive battle from Li Zicheng."

After spreading humiliation through civil channels, as long as it can provoke the other party, the end is nothing more than two:

First of all, Li Zicheng's small universe exploded, and his offensive power skyrocketed at any cost, and even changed history to capture Kaifeng. If that's the case, Li Zicheng's loss will definitely not be small, and when the time comes, he can take advantage of his fatigue to fight a decisive battle.

And because these provocations and irritations are not from the writings of Shen Shuren himself, but from the people's behavior, whether it is the Ming Dynasty or the emperor, there is no way to attribute the blame for Kaifeng or the fall elsewhere to the head of the Shen Shuren, and the Shen Shuren is not a loss.

Secondly, that is, Li Zicheng's combat power failed to explode, and he really couldn't beat Kaifeng for several months. But he will at least be dragged by Kaifeng City, which will be more beneficial to Shen Shuren and Yang Sichang. The time difference that the Shen Shuren wanted could also be completely obtained.

However, this kind of rendering and anger will take time to ferment, so for the rest of April, Shen Shuren can't see the curative effect of this chess piece for the time being.

At present, he still has to reorganize his armaments and prepare his troops first, and be busy with other aspects of work.

Opportunities are only given to those who are prepared, and the time before the opportunity comes is for you to be prepared, and the same cannot be wasted.

……

On April 20, just a few days after the start of the propaganda war, Daye County, Wuchang.

In the two months since returning to Wuchang, Shen Shuren finally visited Daye for the first time, taking time and energy to pay attention to the latest progress in the armament industry, as well as the troops sent to fight in Liaodong before, and the rest and recuperation after returning.

Daye County's terrain is mountainous and hilly, because of more than 1,000 years of mining history, a lot of land is not suitable for farming, and there are many swamps and wetlands near Liangzi Lake in the west of the city.

Since the beginning of the rectification of the mining and metallurgy in Daye County last autumn, the county's land has also been replanned and rectified.

Those who can build water conservancy and build polders will build polders, and those dredged will raise fish and lotus roots.

The rest of the higher ground and cannot be irrigated, after a little leveling, the factory should be built to build a factory, the military camp should be built to build a military camp, and some of the land is even transformed from the abandoned mine pit left after the ore has been dug for thousands of years.

For more than half a year, Daye County has become the military industry and garrison center of Wuchang Prefecture. After Zheng Chenggong's troops came back at the beginning of the month, they had been resting and stationing here for half a month, and they had basically recovered their vitality.

Shen Shuren has always been lenient and strict in governing the army, and he is very generous. He knew that the troops who went to Liaodong to fight were hard, and many of them still escaped death. So when I came back to rest, I had to give a good meal of wine and meat every few days, and I said that I would take a vacation for half a month without practice, so I had to do it.

For those with the slightest minor injury or illness, it is generally extended to a month's rest without exercise, and there is no strict verification of whether the soldiers are pretending to be sick - what is needed after the war is tolerance, and the promised benefits must be fulfilled. In this way, the next time there is a battle, when the troops are to be remobilized, the morale will be high.

Early in the morning, the Shenshu people rode to Daye, and before they entered the city, they went straight to the military camp located in the abandoned mine in the west of the city, near Liangzi Lake.

Zheng Chenggong also came out to greet him as soon as possible, respectfully greeting Brother Shen, who had carried him all the way: "Big brother, you are finally here, I heard that you have been recently sent by the old Yang Ge, and you are busy."

We have been waiting for you to hand over and review these people withdrawn from Liaodong, and after the handover, I will officially go to Jiujiang to take office as the prefect. ”

Jiujiang is adjacent to Wuchang, from Daye County down the Yangtze River, across a Xingguo County, to Jiujiang, first to Ruichang County, and then to Jiujiang Prefecture Zhidehua County at the mouth of Poyang Lake.

Therefore, Zheng Chenggong's current station is two counties away from the station where he will take office in the future.

After the appointment of the magistrates of the Ming Dynasty, they all had a three-month handover period. On the part of the Ministry of Officials, Zheng Chenggong was promoted in early March, and theoretically it would be no problem to be able to take office in May, but now there are forty days left, which is definitely enough.

And Zhang Mingzhen, who was sent to Liaodong with Zheng Chenggong before, did not return to Wuchang this time. Because he was already the chief guard of the Nanjing Household Department, responsible for coastal defense, he now needed to be stationed in Zhoushan to inspect the defense of the Yangtze River estuary.

When the sea transport fleet with Nanzhili went north, Zhang Mingzhen also sent warships to escort the troops.

However, Shen Shuren was not worried that Zhang Mingzhen would get out of his control. Even if he is not an official in Huguang, Zhang Mingzhen is still determined to follow the Shen family and be a die-hard general of the Shen family-

What's more, Zhang Mingzhen's theoretical direct boss now is Shen Tingyang, who has added the title of Household Secretary. Is there a difference between being a general for a dad and being a general for a son?

Shen Shuren exchanged a few words with Zheng Chenggong, and then walked side by side, casually asking about the current situation in the army, and inspecting the state of the soldiers with his own eyes.

"Jiujiang is not far from here, and it is too late to take office. By the way, I've had a lot of things lately, how many people have you brought back? I don't remember exactly. ”

Zheng Chenggong: "In the original battle of Liaodong, a total of 23,400 friendly troops were rescued, and Cao Bianjiao and Li Fuming left 6,000 people, and the lake made the imperial court.

After removing the thousands of battle losses and the 1,500 Korean soldiers who came to surrender in formation, our army finally actually increased its strength by 17,000 men.

When they went, they were 5,000 guards and 5,000 sailors, and when they returned, most of the sailors and guards still had to stay in Nanzhili and Zhoushan, so they actually brought back 18,000 people.

Zhang Junmen actually left 4,000 soldiers to protect Cao, but only 1,500 people were old family soldiers, and 2,500 people were Liaodong soldiers. As you said, we should bring the old with the new, but if the army is expanded, at least one-third of the die-hard veterans will be left behind, and two-thirds of the new ones will be added. ”

Shen Shuren nodded, quite satisfied with this number.

In the end of the battle of Liaodong, 17,000 people were actually earned, but not all of them were brought back. Because the 5,000 people who were the capital at the beginning were all elite soldiers selected from Huangzhou, the shipping escort stall became bigger and bigger, leaving 4,000 people not to come back.

Last year, when the Shen Shuren finished fighting Erhe, the total number of troops expanded to more than 20,000. Later, he designed to force Zuo Liangyu to move to the town, and he could not take away the military establishment of the guards in Wuchang and Hanyang.

Shen Shuren also accepted the miscellaneous armies in these places, went to the turnips and sifted and trained, and replenished new blood, and finally by the beginning of this year, he actually had more than 30,000 soldiers, and the theoretical full strength was 35,000.

Now 4,000 people have been sent to Zhoushan to take charge of coastal protection and navigation, and Liaodong has brought back 17,000 people, and the actual net increase is 13,000 after the increase and decrease are offset.

Therefore, the army under the command of Shen Shuren is currently full of 35,000 plus 13,000, 48,000 people, and if you recruit a little new soldiers, it will be rounded up to almost 50,000.

Of course, the 50,000 Shen Shuren are 50,000 real people, they don't eat empty salaries, they don't play false, and their drills and morale are not comparable to other Ming armies in the same period.

At most, only the Ning army can be stronger than the Shen family army in terms of bloodthirsty ferocity and ferocity in battle. Compared with weapons and equipment, even Guan Ning's army has no advantage in front of the Shen family's army.

"Daye's side, how many people are currently stationed? I haven't been here for a few months, and the camp has been deserted, and it's doing well. ”

Shen Shuren asked, while inspecting, he saw the military camp town rising from the ground in front of him, I am afraid that the scale has swelled to the point that it can fit tens of thousands of people.

As a matter of fact, it is impossible to fill all the barracks, and when they are built, it is necessary to leave a sufficient margin in advance to prepare for the future expansion of the army.

The barracks houses you see in front of you are at least all mud-walled houses, wooden rafters with tiled roofs, and even the walls can be covered with bricks.

As a long-term station, the Shenshu people will definitely not let the soldiers live in rag tents, which have low durability and often rot, but they can't save money.

Originally, other warlords in the late Ming Dynasty also lived in tents for a long time, mainly because they didn't want to invest too much at one time, or felt that they had to move the town often and couldn't take the house with them. And if you live in a tent, even if the durability is low, you can solve it by yourself below, whether it is robbery or looting, anyway, the burden is pushed down, and the handsome don't care.

Shen Shuren has already built Wuchang as his own core territory, and it can be seen that he has not considered the question of "whether it is possible for the imperial court to transfer him away in the future".

And his approach also made the soldiers have a greater sense of belonging to Shenfutai, and as a soldier in his place, at least the accommodation conditions exceeded more than ninety percent of the guards and military towns of the Ming Dynasty.

Zheng Chenggong had a better understanding of the nearby situation, and explained while instructing: "Wuchang Mansion is now stationed with 30,000 troops, your 50,000 horses, and 20,000 are not in Xiangyang, Hanyang, Huangzhou and other places.

On the Wuchang side, the main backbone is the local soldiers that Zuo Liangyu couldn't take away at that time, plus the 17,000 people who came back this time, and a few thousand veterans you brought from Huangzhou, and the other veterans basically didn't move.

In fact, strictly speaking, now the subordinates of General Liu Guoneng of Xinyang Mansion in Henan, as well as the troops of Huang Degong and General Huang of Anqing and Luzhou, are also considered to belong to the eldest brother, but they are not descendants, and you haven't bothered them. ”

Shen Shuren was stunned, his power has expanded too rapidly recently, and he is indeed a little confused, and he has not yet had in-depth communication with Liu Guoneng and Huang Degong, so he has to allocate some military salaries and equipment to them when he goes back, and slowly and completely subdue them.

Liu Guoneng had more than 10,000 soldiers and horses last year, and later he was assigned several thousand prisoners of war and reorganized and reorganized, but it was only because Henan was poor and the army was not rich enough that he could not expand the army more. But Liu Guoneng must have 15,000 people there.

Liu Guoneng is also very loyal to Shen Shuren, and has always been thinking of his goodness, remembering that Shen Shuren helped him arrange his son to Nanjing Guozijian, so that he can have a scholar in the future.

Huang Degong had been Shi Kefa's subordinate for six years before, and now Shi Kefa has just been transferred to the governor of Caoyun for less than half a year. Shen Shuren's original friendship with Huang Degong can only be regarded as cooperation and colleagues, and it is impossible to let Huang Degong bow to him.

But Huang Degong's soldiers and horses are also more than Liu Guoneng, after all, several prefectures in Anhui were much better than Henan's hard-pressed Henan at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and Huang Degong had at least more than 20,000 soldiers.

Shen Shuren has to put a lot of effort into this year, so that Huang Degong's loyalty to him can exceed the level of righteousness to his old boss Shi Kefa, if Shen Shuren can fight a few battles and stand up, this matter will be more certain.

When Liu Guoneng and Huang Degong can be completely controlled, Shen Shuren's soldiers and horses will further expand from 50,000 to 80,000. Even if you take into account the empty salaries on Liu and Huang's side, at least 70,000 yuan is still available.

At that time, if Zhang Xianzhong was destroyed in the west and Li Zicheng was rejected in the north, he was basically sure.

Shen Shuren couldn't help but rub his temples:

"Indeed, the army that needs to be rectified and the hearts of the people who need to be gathered are too chaotic, and they have to be slowly integrated one by one. Let's go, first take me into the camp to have a good look, how are these men and horses who have withdrawn from Liaodong, how are they doing, and whether they are suitable for the new equipment. ”