Chapter 267: Again

In May of the 12th year of Chongzhen, except for the two thousand left behind, most of the remaining soldiers and horses returned to their original positions to guard.

The army led by Li Meng can be said to be getting fewer and fewer. Ma Gang, Chen Liu and Zhao Neng all went to the city they guarded halfway. Although they were marching, they were much faster on this road than in wartime in Dongchang Prefecture and Jinan Prefecture, because the supply was completely supplied by the military farms along the way, and some things that required labor levies were also recruited nearby for strong men and tenants, which was very convenient.

On the march, news within a radius of hundreds of miles will be gathered in the hands of the generals of Jiaozhou Camp at any time. This is the so-called benefit of the inside line.

There is one thing that everyone's summary of Jiaozhou Camp in the Jinan Military Discussion is similar, that is, they cannot leave the baggage and supply, and they must not advance lightly in the battle between large troops. If the baggage is sufficient and the supply is kept up, even if the marching is slow, the enemy will come to attack their own side, and Jiaozhou Camp can still win through the advantage of firearms.

The more people analyzed the encounters between the Qing cavalry in Qihe County, the more they felt that if this unit was moving slowly, and was not so hasty, the Taurus cavalry would not get any advantage in front of the combination of musket soldiers and spearmen who had loaded ammunition.

In the final analysis, Li Meng was still in a hurry. Of course, everyone did not point out this issue clearly, but Li Meng himself did self-examination.

In the explanations of the scholars and the retelling of military strategies and battlefield examples by Li Meng, it is often said that it is to fight with the barbarians, especially the Western Reich Mongolian and Eastern Reich Jurchens in the north. If the official army does not have enough cavalry and the army will fight, even if they win, they will not have too many results. Because the opponent is all cavalry, once they fail, they will immediately escape on horseback, and the large infantry of the officers and soldiers cannot pursue them. There are often cases where the opponent's cavalry is chaotic because of chasing the opponent's cavalry, and the formation is chaotic, they are counterattacked by the opponent and defeated. If the official army is defeated, it will easily become a great defeat, because the barbarian cavalry breaks in, the soldiers disperse, and the escape will soon evolve into one-sided massacre.

Therefore, those who wrote these examples suggested that the official army should also strengthen the cavalry. Moreover, anyone who has personal experience does not pay much attention to firearms. Instead, they believe that they should pay attention to hand-to-hand combat and bows and arrows.

However, this is usually judged by the public, but it was overthrown during the discussion of the Jinan military discussion. The number of infantry in the Jiaozhou camp is far greater than that of the cavalry. Even the horse team has a considerable number of dismounted infantry, but they only use the horse's maneuver to increase their speed.

In theory, such troops should suffer a great loss against the cavalry of the Tartars, but Jiaozhou Camp is very different from ordinary government troops. The firearms of Jiaozhou Camp are not the kind of fireworks that are crudely made by ordinary government troops, and they are scattered outside the range. The firearms of Jiaozhou Camp are carefully built by craftsmen and have strict training.

With the range that the bow and arrow cannot reach, muskets and cannons can already attack the enemy. Moreover, all the enemies hit by the attack will at least lose their combat effectiveness according to the treatment methods of this era. As long as the Jiaozhou Camp is calmly deploying its formation and ammunition is sufficient, then the enemy mainly cavalry will not gain any advantage.

Li Meng and officers at all levels were deeply moved by this when they returned to Jiaozhou from Jinan. As long as they were on the territory they controlled, supply, intelligence and logistics issues, there would be no problems. The more they were in such an environment, or in an environment similar to this, the more likely the Jiaozhou camp army was deploying its troops calmly and had sufficient ammunition. In other words, the above conditions were guaranteed, the Jiaozhou camp had a great chance of winning.

This is to tell military generals at all levels what to do and avoid during battle.

On the way back, the Jiaozhou Camp was also a blessing for ordinary soldiers, allowing them to accept cheers and rewards from the common people along the way. In the publicity of the government, the Jiaozhou Camp achieved an extremely brilliant victory. It was up to the self-examination, but it was still necessary to maintain a successful return to the army.

The prefectures and counties they passed by were all protected by Jiaozhou camp. The local gentry and tribes and ordinary people only felt safe when they saw a victorious army, they would have confidence in the army they supported, and they would feel awe of such an army.

Because I want to promote my own victory and show my military power, I didn’t walk fast. I arrived in Pingduzhou in almost mid-May.

The court's palace newspaper that had been passed on has been restored, the Tang newspaper in Shandong, and the emergency military newspaper from the Ministry of War were sent to Li Meng by the court and the messenger from Shandong.

In these reports of full of official speeches, Li Meng saw interesting news. Although the end points and nodes of the official road were all prefectures and counties, Jiaozhou Camp never entered the city except for those fortress cities. They chose the terrain outside the city to camp on their own, which was to remain alert, and secondly, they received high praise from the benevolent and righteous army in the local area.

So on a flat ground near Li Meng's military tent, Wang Hai, Tang Er and several battalions who followed Li Meng back to Jiaozhou, came to the military tent to discuss matters every day, and happened to be here to deliver the notice. Seeing Li Meng flipping through the notice pages with a smile on the top, the people below felt a little curious.

Li Meng put the pieces of paper in his hand next to him and said leisurely:

"Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai rebelled again. Xiong Wencan was also punished for being punished this time. I wonder how Yang Ge's troops explained to the emperor this time?"

There were a lot of irony in Li Meng's words, and the military generals below all laughed there with gloating. Yang Sichang, the Minister of War, advocated peace talks, sent people to the mainland to recruit Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and sent people to the border outside the pass to contact the Qing Jurchens. Although it was not spread, it was well known to everyone.

And it was during this period that civil and military officials in the northern Zhili area began to be convicted by Yang Sichang, and many people were arrested and executed. The Shandong officials and military generals were in love with the scene and felt that their necks were cold. They thought that if Li Meng, a Jiaozhou camp, had not fought a war in Qihe County, the people who lost their heads today would probably have themselves.

But the Tartars invaded that day and decided to make the decision was Yang Sichang, the Cabinet Scholar and Minister of War. Many of the people who were executed were often convicted of the crimes that were defeated by the execution of Yang Sichang's orders and plans. As for Yang Sichang's detainment of food and wages, Gao Qiqiu's army was not saved, and Lu Xiangsheng died alone in the battlefield, which was enough to be beheaded, but he was concealed by his clever words and became a meritorious minister.

All the relevant officials were extremely angry at him, but because Yang Sichang was favored by Emperor Chongzhen, he had no choice but to do anything to him.

All kinds of rumors and ridicule jokes about Yang Sichang were flying all over the sky. Even the generals of the Jiaozhou camp almost caused the Jiaozhou camp to suffer a great defeat because of Yang Sichang's random dispatch. At present, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai rebelled again after being recruited, and everyone was not panicked. It was precisely because of this reason that everyone felt gloating.

Xiong Wencan, the prime minister of the five provinces of Luo Rucai, was under Yang Sichang's disciple, and implemented the policy of recruitment. As a result, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai were surrounded and intercepted by the official army at that time, and they could no longer support the situation. Taking advantage of the reason for recruitment, they occupied one or two cities to recuperate and finally recovered.

In the magistrates in Gucheng and Fangxian, they saw that Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai were doing things to prepare for rebellion and reported several times, but they, a low-quality local official, could not even reach the news from Xiong Wencan, the prime minister of the five provinces, let alone the imperial center.

What's more, Yang Sichang, the Governor and the Governor, would suppress the report of the Governor and the Governor, as long as it was not in line with his own mind, he would directly refute it.

At this moment, it was finally an uncontrollable situation, but everyone in the world was gloating. It can be seen that Yang Sichang, as a state important minister, did what he did. But even such a state important minister, Emperor Chongzhen still had unconditional trust, which shows the ridiculousness.

Li Meng was increasingly disappointed with such a court and such ministers. In modern times, film and television media mentioned Emperor Chongzhen a lot of times. Although he was diligent and honest, the overall situation could not be reversed, and people could not defeat nature. But judging from this situation, it was not a natural disaster but a man-made disaster at all.

This time, the Qing Dynasty invaded, and the two places in northern Zhili and Shandong were indeed seriously injured, causing huge losses to the Ming Empire, but after the Qing Dynasty left the country, the court actually wanted to kill again, killing civil and military officials in places that were not guilty and even innocent.

If this continues, who will still be loyal to the work? If the Qing army invades next time, will there be someone fighting to the death?

The troops of Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, who had been fighting with officers and soldiers for many years, immediately ordered the officers and soldiers to break away from contact with them, agreed to most of their requests, tried to please them in every way, and raised tigers as a disaster. When they recovered, the cavalry rebelled again, and the officers and soldiers ordered to break away from contact were not even too late to arrive.

Such a corrupt situation can not be said to be a natural disaster, it is obviously a man-made disaster.
Chapter completed!