After a series of quarrels, the size and strength of the new army and the new training army were determined.

The newly organized army consists of 12 battalions, including two cavalry battalions, six infantry battalions, two auxiliary baggage battalions, one artillery battalion, and one pro-soldier battalion.

Among them, there were two cavalry battalions, with only eight hundred men, divided into two parts, one heavy cavalry and one light cavalry. All cavalrymen must be inspected and enlisted in the army.

This is so that after going north, when you get a war horse, you can immediately enter the battle as a cavalry, so you must have the ability to do it.

However, during training in Guangdong, the heavy cavalry was trained with spearmen, and they were also equipped with a twelve-foot spear, and the light cavalry carried bows and arrows and other equipment, and trained with the birds.

If there were not enough horses in the Northlands, the heavy cavalry were organized as spearmen, and the light cavalry were dressed in light armor and organized as archers, fighting alongside the birds, so they needed to learn infantry combat skills.

At the beginning, Chen Ping still maintained his enthusiasm for cavalry, because the military salary obtained from the loan was withheld by Shen Youlong 100,000 taels as expenses after going north. Although the officials of Guangdong Province still thought in their hearts that after going north, they could report the military expenses to the Ministry of War, but they left a reserve fund, which was prepared.

Chen Ping believed that with so much money, it was still possible to form a cavalry team.

But with the completion of the formation of the Cantonese army, large-scale training was carried out, verified by the suppression of thieves, and even went to Tamsui to adapt to the sea.

These actual combat or actual combat actions made Chen Ping feel that the importance of cavalry should be a little later.

At first, he only thought that after getting the horses and mules, only the artillery had priority over the cavalry, but after actual combat and large-scale training, Chen Ping really felt that the battalion such as baggage should also be superior to the cavalry.

What's more, even if there are war horses for the cavalry, it is the first priority to supply the pro-soldier battalion, not the cavalry battalion, because the pro-soldier battalion is not only the elite under the command of the general, but also plays the key responsibility of reconnaissance, communication, vigilance, and military law.

In the selection of artillery, the Guangdong army received the help of Li Zhaoji, but the Guangdong army was unwilling to bear the high price of copper cannons, so they used iron cannons, but as long as they saw the six-pounder field guns under Li Zhaoji in person, they could no longer accept other artillery.

In fact, in terms of power, the six-pounder field gun is not as good as the red-coated guns equipped by the Qing army, after all, the caliber of the people is larger, but because of the progress of technology, the effective range of the six-pounder field gun is longer, but it is more light enough.

Considering that iron cannons of the same caliber were heavier, Li Zhaoji suggested that the Cantonese army should use four-pounder guns.

This was accepted by the Cantonese army, but for the sake of face, Shen Youlong could not accept the use of artillery cast by the Oriental Trading Company, so he only bought a gun carriage from the Oriental Trading Company, and then bought a four-pounder iron cannon from the Macau Bugarao Artillery Factory.

But because of this, the field artillery of the Guangdong army was still heavier, which was mainly due to the limitation of the design ability of the artillery at that time.

In the seventeenth century, all artillery designs were based on empiricism, and it was instinctively believed that the longer the artillery, the farther the shells could be fired, so the double diameter of such guns as the Hongyi cannon reached twenty-two or even more, in fact, from a scientific point of view, the most suitable double diameter for the power of gunpowder was fifteen, and the excess barrel was completely dead.

It took a lot of effort to place the artillery produced by the Portuguese on the gun wagons produced by the trading companies.

Even so, the number of artillery pieces of the Cantonese army was limited, and although it was called an artillery battalion, the artillery battalion of the newly formed army had only 14 guns, and the new training army had only 12 guns.

Because the auxiliary baggage battalion and the pro-soldier battalion are both large establishments, the new army should theoretically have about 7,500 people, but in practice there are not, limited by the transportation capacity, the war horses cannot be transported, and the rest of the personnel must be reduced as much as possible.

Therefore, the pyromans, grooms, and miscellaneous servants in the baggage camp were not fully equipped, but were fully equipped with technicians such as blacksmiths. Carriages, horses, and miscellaneous servants, etc., all arrive at the battlefield, and then recruit, no matter how bad it is, it is okay to catch strong men.

The number of personnel in the newly formed army was finally tentatively set at 5,200 men, which is the number of people who went north. But even so, Li Zhaoji was also very dissatisfied, because the proportion of combat personnel in this army was too high, and the logistics were seriously insufficient, but considering that he could catch strong men and the like on the battlefield, Li Zhaoji could only accept it helplessly.

Unlike the newly formed army, the new training army requires more expenditure, so the scale is much smaller, but it is also more balanced, because this army is completely established under the leadership of Chen Ping, so it is more in line with Li Zhaoji's requirements.

There are a total of ten battalions of the new training army, including one cavalry battalion, one pro-soldier battalion and one artillery battalion, of which the functions of the cavalry and the pro-soldier battalion overlap relatively largely, and because Chen Ping is not credible There are many people, so they are finally combined into a pro-soldier battalion, with five infantry battalions and three baggage battalions.

Because it was the state apparatus of the Ming Dynasty, the recruitment speed of the Guangdong army was very fast, on the contrary, the Eastern Brigade, which began recruiting troops earlier than the Guangdong army, became an army ten days later than the Guangdong army.

This is still the result of Shen Youlong's covert support, Shen Youlong allowed Li Zhaoji to recruit military households to join the army in the guard, and turned a blind eye to this kind of thing, which led to the rapid formation of the Eastern Brigade.

The equipment of the Guangdong army is carefully selected, such as bird guns, Chen Ping ordered people to take the ready-made bird guns, shoot with twice the gunpowder, and only if they do not explode the bore can they be considered qualified, and a lot of inferior equipment has been eliminated, and the soldiers generally have combat experience, after all, it has only been less than a year since the eight rows of Yao Rebellion were pacified.

The only regret is the low quality of officers, it stands to reason that there is no shortage of officers in the Ming army, because the Ming army has hereditary military households, and in a guard station, seven or eight hereditary commanders can be pulled out casually, and some guards even have seventeen or eighteen, as for the hereditary thousands of households, it is even more.

But most of these people have no combat experience and will not lead troops to fight at all. When the Ming Dynasty was established, the guard system, which made a significant contribution to the expansion of the Ming Dynasty, has now become a vampire attached to the Ming Dynasty. After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, most of the guards were banned, and they were allowed to pay grain like a private household, which was equivalent to an extra income of 10 million taels of silver.

The group of people who are full of fat brains in the Guangdong Health Center can't fight.

Not only Guangdong, but also Shen Youlong, taking advantage of his authority as governor of Guangxi and Guangzhou, transferred many experienced officers from Guangxi.

The method of training the new army is also simple, recruiting a large number of mercenaries from Macao to serve as middle and low-level officers, and the northern aid is imminent, and the trivial matters cannot be taken into account.

Beijing, Qianqing Palace.

As usual, as soon as the sky was bright, Chongzhen had already gotten up, and hurried to the Qianqing Palace in obedience to Yangdezhai with the crown of the Chang Dynasty.

First of all, he burned incense to worship heaven and earth, wished the country prosperity, and directly exempted the prince in the palace from asking for peace, only to change into a yellow satin robe, and began to deal with government affairs after the imperial case.

Wang Chengen, who was standing behind him, peeked at his master's expression, and saw that he frowned and his breathing became heavier, so he glanced at the music in his hand again, which was played by Shaanxi. It is nothing more than the murder of the vassal king and the fall of Dacheng, Wang Chengen knows that Shaanxi cannot be saved, but the Son of Heaven who gets the news will definitely be furious.

But he never thought that Chongzhen did not tear off the music and roared to make chaos, but held the music and cried bitterly.

Wang Chengen hurriedly came up, did not speak, but took out a copy of the mountain-like Song Shutang newspaper and placed it on the top, this is rare good news, the capital has been gradually dissipated since February, although the family wears filial piety, everyone is suffering, but it is always in the past, Wang Chengen thought, seeing this news, the emperor may be happy.

Then, the big tears fell on the song from Shaanxi, but Chongzhen cried endlessly, but he didn't make a sound, and when he was in great pain, he still had a faint restraint, and maintained the dignity of the emperor in front of the servants inside and outside the palace.

"Emperor, Emperor, you can't cry like this, the dragon body matters." Wang Chengen stepped forward and gently patted Chongzhen's back.

Chongzhen's eyes were red, and he stared at Wang Chengen and said, "Wang Daban, let me ask you, is it because I have a loss of virtue and can't afford the three hundred years of the Ming Dynasty?" ”

"It's ....... How can you talk about this, your lord, you are the Son of Heaven and the most blessed person in the world. Wang Chengen said.

Chongzhen shook his head: "How come, where do I have a little blessing." Shenzong hid in the harem and did not go to court for decades, why did the state affairs become so corrupt? The royal brother is doing carpentry work in the palace every day, how can the situation be so uncontrollable?

I have never dared to stop for my diligence, if it weren't for my virtue, how could I get to this point? ”

It is not the first time that Wang Chengen has seen Chongzhen like this, since he succeeded to the throne, the Ming Dynasty has been full of smoke, thieves and thieves have come one after another, and the state affairs are difficult, and every day is like a day. Wang Chengen, as a big companion, had already had a way, the sleeves of his robe crossed the table, but in fact, he took out a Tang newspaper from his sleeve, pretended to take it from the table, and handed it to the emperor.

He has treasured this pond for two days, and he is still thinking about the day when the emperor is not happy and makes a lot of trouble, and he can only use it today.

"Emperor, the world has come so far, it is all those ministers of the previous dynasty, if it weren't for their greed and incompetence, how could the world come here. But I have been raising soldiers for 300 years, and there are still loyal ministers and righteous soldiers, such as this Liangguang Governor, who handed the Tang newspaper to the Ministry of War, which played the good news of suppressing thieves and reassuring the people. ”

"The stability of the southwest corner is just for the sake of the imperial court to pay more money and not change the overall situation." Chongzhen was not interested.

Wang Chengen said: "Emperor, take a closer look, this Lord Shen is not ordinary, he has only been in office for three years, first pacified the eight rows of Yao Rebellion, and then suppressed the Guangdong mountain bandits and pirates, and also organized a strong army.

Not only the Liangguang Governor's Palace, but also the gentry of Guangdong strongly supported, saying that the gentry were also willing to raise funds to train the new army again, and in the future, the new army would be trained and sent north for national use to suppress thieves and captives. ”

Chongzhen saw Wang Chengen say this, nodded slightly, took the Tang newspaper and looked at it, sure enough, most of it was good news, except for the death of a general soldier, but he also fought bravely against the pirates, suffered more than ten wounds, and died.

If when he ascended the throne, the death of a general soldier was a big deal, but now it is not on the stage, the battle of Songjin, is there still a small number of total soldiers who surrendered in battle?

"It's really the blessing of the emperor and the blessing of the ancestors, we have a famous minister like Shen Youlong, and we don't rush to the court to ask for a tael of silver, and we will suppress the thieves in the territory. He also took this opportunity to train the soldiers, unite the gentry, and train the new army for the imperial court without raising taxes and salaries, which is really a blessing for the Ming Dynasty and the people. Chongzhen rarely saw such good news, and when he saw half of it, he clapped his hands and praised it.

For the awards, promotions, and opening of the sea to prohibit the establishment of customs, Chongzhen agreed, and couldn't wait to write a word on it, seeing that he finished writing, Wang Chengen said: "Emperor, this is not in accordance with the rules, there are still a few pages behind." ”

Chongzhen's face was straight, didn't he ask for money again.

But when he opened it, the content made Chongzhen a little puzzled, and asked: "Wang Daban, which vassal country is this Oriental island country?" ”

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