Dominate the Country

[Thanks to ‘kuaifengxing’ for giving 1888 rewards]

[5400+ chapters, the longest chapter so far. ]

Fengyang Prefecture Wuhe County.

Early in the morning, a team of carriages and horses slowly drove out of the city gate outside the east gate. Yue Wenhai sat in a carriage led by the foreman, lifted the curtain and took a last look at his hometown. "I wonder if I will ever return home..." He is almost fifty years old, about to reach the age of knowing his destiny, but he is forced to live in Lingnan, traveling thousands of miles, how miserable he is.

Mrs. Yue, who was standing by, felt very uncomfortable when she saw the bitter expression on her master's face. Since the Chen family rebelled in Lushan, as the general's mansion became more and more noisy, Yue Wenhai's life became more and more difficult. Who made him serve as the magistrate of Lushan for two terms? Last winter, Yue Wenhai was directly imprisoned in the Shandong Provincial Surveillance Office. Fortunately, the official was a good one, and the Yue family and the Chen family really had no close private connection. Yue Wenhai lost his official position, but saved his life and property. The family then returned to Wuhe County, Anhui, their hometown. As a result, after only two or three months of peace, the Hunyuan Sect started an uprising at the junction of eastern Henan and northern Anhui, and northern Anhui could not be at peace anymore.

The Yue family was just a fish in the pond that was affected!

Yue Wenhai subconsciously felt that northern Anhui was not safe. He looked around and found that Henan and Anhui were full of troubles, and Huguang could not stay for long. Jiangnan had become a den of tigers and wolves. Only Hebei and Shandong were considered stable, but Yue Wenhai had been an official in Shandong, and he knew that Shandong was only calm on the surface. Now the momentum of the anti-army is getting stronger and stronger, and he is not optimistic about the long-term peace in Shandong. And Hebei, haha, is better to stay away from troubles.

Yue Wenhai set his sights on Guangdong. He had a good friend from the same hometown and the same subject who was serving as an official in Guangdong. His official career was smoother than his, and he was already a prefectural judge. The family went to Guangdong, not seeking anything, just for peace. The sign of Tongpan is enough!

Yue Wenhai's destination to the east is Haizhou [Lianyungang], where there are sea ships to Songjiang. It is very simple to change ships to go south after arriving in Songjiang.

As an old man in his fifties, as a pure insider, a northerner who has not crossed the Yangtze River for decades in his previous life, Yue Wenhai, who can't even swim, is extremely afraid of the sea and the climate of Lingnan. Although Lingnan is no longer the malaria land in the Tang and Song Dynasties [Northern Song Dynasty].

In fact, there are many official and gentry families in Wuhe County and the Yue family who have begun to migrate, but most of them went to Fengyang Prefecture. Even if there are a few who want to move to other places, there are very few who go thousands of miles like Yue Wenhai.

Since the Hunyuan Sect's rebel army broke through the Yingzhou Prefecture City, the bandit leader Fan Mingde joined the two bandits Liu Song and Yang Ji, and his followers have reached 5,000 people. They also used food to attract poor farmers who were hungry, and in just a few days, the army exceeded 10,000 people. Now their troops are attacking Suzhou, Fengyang is shaken, and the people are in panic. How can this world still have the prosperous and peaceful scene of three or five years ago?

Yue Wenhai was a Jinshi, and he had read books. He knew about the Anshi Rebellion, which was the decline of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. That scene in history is too similar to the world now. Both dynasties entered their heyday, and both emperors were ambitious, favored relatives, spent money and were extravagant, and frequently used troops abroad...

Yue Wenhai compared Li Longji with Qianlong in this way. In fact, the situation of the Tang Dynasty during the Anshi Rebellion and the current situation of the Qing Dynasty were absolutely different. But when people are "forced" to a certain extent, they tend to "ignore" many small details and only arrange and compare things in a big rhythm.

Yue Wenhai still does not believe that the Fu Han Army can successfully reverse the Qing Dynasty and restore the Han Dynasty, but he believes that this "uprising" is the "Anshi Rebellion" of the Qing Dynasty, and it is the dividing point of the Qing Dynasty's decline from prosperity.

"Who would have thought that the father and son who were respectful in front of me two years ago would now become the chieftains of the country?" Yue Wenhai can still remember the figures of Chen Hui and Chen Ming in his mind. The latter is still a young man under 20 years old, but he has won many battles and destroyed many admirals, generals, and frontier officials of the Qing Dynasty...

"Famous generals in the world? Absurd, really absurd!"

...

At the same time in Lushan.

Li Xiaomei held the little Chen Ding and fiddled with a group of small toys carved with jade, gold and silver that were lying on the bed. Among them are the spoils that Chen Ming collected along the way to the south of the Yangtze River, and the craftsmen he invited to Nanjing after he conquered the city. They are definitely worth a lot of money. I can't guarantee that a hundred thousand taels of silver will be worth just that small box, but seventy or eighty thousand taels of silver will be more than enough.

Along with this small box, there was another box delivered to Li Xiaomei, which was full of jewelry that women liked.

The rubies the size of pigeon eggs are bright and beautiful, and the strong red color gives people the senses as if they are a burning fire and flowing blood; there are also blue sapphires like a pool of sea water, and even very rare red and blue semi-life gems, which are carved into a pair of mandarin ducks by skilled craftsmen; there are also pieces of coral agate jewelry, thumb-shaped pearls, and top-quality mutton-fat white jade...

Each of them was selected by Chen Ming himself, representing Chen Ming's thoughts. And there is also a letter with hot words in this small box. He had found a concubine in Hubei, and this might have reached Li Xiaomei's ears. Chen Ming's letter was not a guarantee to Li Xiaomei, because men are the gods these days. It was to comfort her.

The two small boxes were sent back to Lushan by the secret camp. This was not the first time that Chen Ming used the secret camp to send things to Lushan. Last year, when little Chen Ding turned one year old, he asked the secret camp to send something to Lushan.

The expeditionary army led by Chen Ming and the base area seemed to be separated by a long distance, but there was always a secret communication channel between the two sides.

The Fu Han Army was essentially still a traditional army, and its mental state was not as good as the 20,000 elite Taiping Army in the Northern Expedition. It was okay for such an army to be on the expedition for three to five months, but if it was a year or two [Chen Ming had no idea], even if it won all the way, the morale of the army would not be able to maintain its peak state. So how to solve this problem?

Family letters. Communicate family letters on both sides. Most of the veterans in Chen Ming's team came from Ruzhou and Nanyang.

The war lasted for three months, and a letter from home was worth ten thousand gold. During the exhausting war, the arrival of a letter from home would bring immeasurable encouragement to the soldiers.

Chen Ming didn't dare to say that the general's mansion could take good care of all the soldiers' families, but every soldier would receive a resettlement allowance and a basic military merit field after joining the army. Some soldiers even left their military pay to their families. The base government would directly pay the military pay to the families every month. How could they live better than before?

Moreover, family letters would spread, and they would not only affect the soldiers who received the family letters, but also the veterans who did not receive the family letters, as well as the new soldiers and captured soldiers who joined along the way. Facing the "beauty" described in the family letters, would they not fantasize? This has a huge boost to the morale of the entire army.

In addition, not everyone can send family letters to the Fu Han Army at any time. Each team sends letters once a month. There is only one guaranteed quota among a hundred people in a team, and the rest depends on the performance of the team. The maximum number of quotas is five. This can also motivate soldiers to fight bravely to a certain extent.

As for how to send hundreds of letters back to the base, they were divided into groups of more than ten or twenty or thirty people. Letters were not heavy things. With the huge investment of the Fu Han Army in the secret camp, if they could not guarantee that most of the letters in each batch arrived safely at the base, Chen Guang and Chen Liang could go back to their hometown to rest.

It was very common for Chen Ming to send something to his wife and children at the base.

In 18th century China, married women were completely dependent on men. Li Xiaomei was very happy when she received the small box sent by Chen Ming. Chen Ming sent something to her mother and daughter thousands of miles away, which was the most direct expression of his concern for her mother and daughter. What made Li Xiaomei happy the most was the letter inside, and all the sourness accumulated in her heart disappeared in an instant.

Looking at little Chen Ding happily fiddling with exquisite little toys, Li Xiaomei's expression was very happy.

...

On the battlefield of Yancheng, Chen Erbao appeared in front of the Qing soldiers with the main force of the Fu Han Army. Chen Huizu was so anxious in Chenzhou that he jumped up and down. The troops on the front line of Yancheng could not retreat at all. They were under great pressure. Once they retreated, the whole army would collapse.

There would be no shortage of cannons in the base area, although gunpowder was still difficult to obtain. Most of the sulfur and saltpeter were transported in by the Deng family of the Shouyuan Sect in Yuzhou, and a small part was produced by the General's Mansion, just like the sulfur produced by burning pyrite. The General's Mansion has been doing it since it got the process flow. It's just that the output is a problem.

But the battle of Yancheng is crucial at the moment, and Chen Erbao has no shortage of ammunition. The Fu Han Army is coming fiercely.

Chen Huizu could only watch Liu Song and Yang Ji lead the Hunyuan Sect members to walk out of Chenzhou Mansion and enter the territory of Anhui.

May is coming, and the summer harvest is coming. The patience of the people has gradually reached the critical point of explosion. In the food-deficient places in eastern Henan and northern Anhui, vicious incidents of looting and killing have occurred frequently during this period. At night, no one dared to go out alone. Every household has its door tightly shut, and someone has placed a kitchen knife by the bed. This is all caused by the word "hunger".

Now the Hunyuan Sect has raised its flag in Chenzhou and Yingzhou, gathering thousands of followers and thousands of disaster victims in a few days. Isn't that the case?

Now Liu Song and others are leading their troops to besiege Suzhou in Fengyang Prefecture. Every day, people from the surrounding areas come to surrender, and they have claimed to have 50,000 people.

The uprising of the Hunyuan Sect was unexpected for the Qing court. The local government of Chenzhou and Yingzhou did not notice it at all, and the Qing court's attention was completely focused on the Fu Han Army. As a result, Luyi and Yingzhou suffered heavy losses, and a large amount of food and fodder stored by Chenzhou for the army was burned out. This made the Qing court and local government feel ashamed and angry that the Hunyuan Sect had taken advantage of them.

After receiving the news, Chen Huizu quickly rushed to the city of Chenzhou Prefecture, but he only brought a hundred or so guards, not a large army. Because the Fu Han army on the front line of Yancheng suddenly launched a counterattack, very fierce and repeated, exerting tremendous pressure on the Qing army on the opposite side. The Qing army closest to the Hunyuan Doctrine Army could only bear the fierce attack of more than half of the Fu Han army while watching the Hunyuan Doctrine Army leave Henan. When the two armies joined in Yingzhou Prefecture, and when a large number of poor people in northern Anhui joined the army, the team led by Liu Song and the other two expanded rapidly like a balloon.

At first in Yingzhou Prefecture, it was only claimed that there were 10,000 people. After leaving Yingzhou and entering Fengyang, it became 20,000 people. When the army marched to Suzhou City, the team increased by another 10,000. When the Hunyuan Doctrine Army rested for a few days under Suzhou City, Liu Song announced that there were 50,000 people.

The general's mansion was shocked. Are there so many people in northern Anhui who join the Hunyuan Sect? The impression of the White Lotus Sect in the hearts of ordinary people is not very good, right? The Ming and Qing dynasties kept demonizing it. In the minds of many common people and gentry, the White Lotus Sect was a professional rebel, and it was always useless.

"Perhaps..., the situation in northern Anhui has really reached a point where it is about to explode." Chen Hui was delighted to see that the Hunyuan Sect's army was growing rapidly at an unexpected speed. Their presence immediately relieved a lot of pressure on the general's mansion. In the entire eastern battlefield, except for the Qing army cavalry in the Yancheng battlefield, at least 3,000 northeastern cavalry and Mongolian cavalry were withdrawn from the Xuzhou battlefield, and a part of the Green Camp, Guide, and Kaifeng garrisons were also mobilized. The target of these Qing soldiers was obviously Suzhou.

Lushan and Suzhou were separated by thousands of miles. How Liu Song, Yang Ji, and Fan Mingde would make a decision, the general's mansion could not interfere. What Chen Hui has to do now is to take advantage of this great opportunity and give the Qing army a heavy blow.

"What did the Left Deputy Governor say?"

"Didn't he say when?"

"I asked him to give me a time. When can I win the battle?"

The map hanging on the wall on Chen Hui's right hand is the map of the Yancheng battlefield. There are already 3,000 guards there, and now there are 20,000 more brought by Chen Erbao. The red arrows representing the direction of the Fu Han Army are densely packed. The Qing army represented by black has been fully turned to defense. The Fu Han Army there can be said to be the largest mobile corps under Chen Hui.

"Send another message to Chen Erbao..."

"No, no need. Don't ask." Chen Hui suddenly stopped, his face still showing anxiety, but he forced himself to suppress his impulse. Because he just remembered the several "admonitions" written in Chen Ming's letter to him, and the first one was "Do not command remotely". Chen Hui, who was sitting in the General's Mansion in Lushan, was not clear about the specific situation on the front line. The closer the war was, the more patience he had to have. Don't put too much pressure on the commanders of the front-line troops, let alone give them rigid goals and orders.

Chen Ming could not cite Chang Kai-shen's great achievements to his father, but the defeat of Geshu Han in defending Tongguan during the An-Shi Rebellion was recorded in history books. Although there were various complex reasons, Li Longji's forced order to Geshu Han to attack was also the biggest reason.

After receiving Chen Ming's letter, Chen Hui also found the new and old versions of the Book of Tang and studied them hard for a while. Now he can suppress his anxiety and still remember the advice in his mind. It can only be said that after taking the position of general, Chen Hui's own quality has also improved.

Of course, Chen Hui held back his mouth, but in his heart he still gave Chen Erbao a big compliment on his ability. After Chen Ming divided the troops in Xiangyang, the battalion officer-level generals who stayed behind in the General's Mansion became the backbone generals in the war. After the Fu Han Army's strength expanded greatly, these people were promoted to brigade commanders one by one, and were also awarded the rank of lieutenant.

The latter was mentioned by Chen Ming very early, but at that time, the Fu Han Army had few soldiers and generals, and he himself was embarrassed to really come up with a rank. But after he left with his troops, the Fu Han Army's strength increased sharply to 50,000.

The regular organization was upgraded from the initial battalion level to the brigade level, and the military rank system was also formally established.

There are five levels in total, namely soldiers, sergeants, lieutenants, generals, and marshals.

There is no need to say much about soldiers. There are first-class soldiers, second-class soldiers, and third-class soldiers. It is easy for ordinary people in the Qing Dynasty at this time to understand this, because the Manchus themselves have first-class guards, second-class guards, third-class guards, and first-class officials and first-class waiters.

When establishing military ranks, we must combine the thinking of the common people and the current social environment, and we cannot simply eliminate certain peculiarities.

In fact, the Fu Han Army soldiers now accept the first-class and second-class privates very quickly and naturally. And they quickly promoted and expanded it. For example, the military medals were gradually given the titles of first-class merit, second-class merit, third-class merit, and fourth-class merit by the soldiers themselves, instead of gold medals and silver medals.

The word "shi" is also easy for officers and soldiers to understand. Soldiers. There are also three levels, but the title is not first-class or second-class, but "upper, middle, and lower". In the explanation, the General's Mansion used "since ancient times" to explain that the Chinese people had such a title in the Spring and Autumn Period more than 2,000 years ago. There is one lord, one minister, one doctor, one senior sergeant, one sergeant, and one corporal. And the upper, middle, and lower levels are clear and there is no doubt.

As for the "colonel", if we look at it according to the Western military rank system, it is a colonel-level officer, a middle-level officer in the army.

The General's Office is set up as: plus-numbered colonel, left colonel, and right colonel.

Chen Erbao's current rank is the highest level of colonel-level officers, plus-numbered colonel, and his "title" is Yokono, Yokono colonel. Except for him, the generals in the General's Office are all left colonels and right colonels. It is easy to understand that the left is respected.

In the entire Fu Han Army, the only one who was awarded the rank of "general" is Chen Ming. This is also the lowest level of generals.

The elders of one's family know their children best. Chen Hui swore to heaven that his precious son had never learned military books and strategies. But in the rise of the Fu Han Army, Chen Ming became the incarnation of the god of war, and he won every battle. Even Chen Hui himself used the word "born" to describe this matter. When Chen Ming was fighting in the Battle of Dagun River, the situation was more risky than the current battlefield of Yancheng, but Chen Hui felt stable in his heart. He was relieved and felt that Chen Ming would not lose the battle. Unlike these "captains" in the general's mansion now, he could still wait at ease when fighting defensive operations; when fighting field battles and offensive battles, there were always chaos. There were at least five or six, and at most ten or twenty battalions. They just couldn't sort it out. When they deployed troops, they were in a hurry, which made people tremble psychologically, and they were worried and couldn't let go.

As an aside, Chen Ming has read books for so many years, watched TV movies, and played war games. He is naturally stronger than Chen Erbao and other natives. When the battalions and teams lined up on the battlefield and raised their battle flags, Chen Ming looked at them as a combat unit. What kind of array should be arranged, how many units should be placed in the front, how many in the middle, and how many in the back, how much space should be left for the transfer between the units, so that there will be no mistakes or blockages in emergency transfers. Of course, Chen Ming in the 21st century can surpass Chen Erbao in coordination ability.

This thing can only be improved through experience. Just like those founding generals of the Red Dynasty who never went to school [there were anti-Japanese colleges during the war], didn't they fight for their education? Didn't they also make the officers of Chiang Kai-shek's professional training flee in panic on the battlefield?

In fact, Chen Erbao was also a fish in the pond who was affected by Chen Ming's glory of winning every battle.