Although the road between Chongming and Chengdu is long, there is not much difference between the army under Zhang Huangyan and the Sichuan Army. Zhang Huangyan has been trying his best to promote the integration of the Eastern Zhejiang Army and the Sichuan Army. Three years ago, with Zhang Huangyan's promotion, the Imperial Council was unified to be responsible for the salaries and pensions of officers in eastern Zhejiang. From the same moment, newly recruited officers and soldiers in the eastern Zhejiang Army must also be approved by officials sent from Sichuan.
Whether it is Ma Fengzhi or Zheng Zanxu's army, every new officer promoted now must be a Sichuan military academy student. Of course, the status of the older generation of generals like Ma Fengzhi will not be questioned, but if their children want to join the army and inherit their father and brother's career, , then you still need to go to military school.
After an ordinary soldier has made enough achievements to be promoted to an officer, he will receive a ship ticket to Sichuan. After graduation, he can return to the army and become an officer. Moreover, the ranks of the Eastern Zhejiang Army are now completely unified with those of the Sichuan Army, because the highest rank in the Sichuan Army besides Deng Ming is Major General Zhao Tianba, so Ma Fengzhi and Zheng Zanxu are embarrassed to set themselves too high, and they are both brigadier generals - which is okay anyway. General. Although the military rank does not sound high, Ma Fengzhi and the others are quite satisfied. Privately, the Eastern Zhejiang Army feels that this is the atmosphere of the new dynasty. If the princes were granted casual titles like Emperor Yongli, Li Laiheng, the Duke of Linguo, had seven or more under his command. The eight general soldiers who bear the seal of general look like they are not far away from the destruction of the country.
Because of Zhang Huangyan's reforms, Deng Ming now basically treated the Sichuan Army and the Eastern Zhejiang Army equally. This time, a large number of Eastern Zhejiang Army followed Deng Ming to the sea; and precisely because tens of thousands of soldiers participated in the expedition to Luzon, so after hearing about Southern Zhejiang After the war broke out, Zhang Huangyan did not react immediately.
At the end of July, Zhao Tianba rushed to Chongming and met with Zhang Huangyan, Minister of War. Zhang Huangyan was nominally the Minister of Defense of the Ming Dynasty, but he had not commanded the army for many years and always delegated military power to senior officers during wartime.
"Now you are the highest-ranking general in the southeast region." As someone who knew the inside story of the Sichuan Army, Zhang Huangyan was very confident in Zhao Tianba's ability, so he handed over the command to him: "What are you going to do?"
"The last general has asked Liang Huafeng to organize the 'Rebel Army'. This is a name given from the standpoint of the Qing court. Isn't Geng Jingzhong a rebel of the Qing court? Dong Weiguo will soon send troops to join the 'Rebel Army', and the Jiangxi army All their food and salary come from Liangjiang, and the two of them have just become governors with our support, so they have to show their loyalty no matter what."
In addition to the support of Chengdu, there was also the support of Beijing. The Beijing court felt that a considerable part of this riot was instigated by the emperor and the royalists.
Jieshu and Suo'etu were full of resentment for the emperor's instigation of San Francisco's rebellion. They felt that San Francisco was not a good person. If they were used to make trouble, they would not listen to the emperor or the court. In that case, even if Deng Ming's group suddenly fell apart, San Francisco would still be able to compete with the Qing Dynasty; if such changes had not happened in Sichuan, it would not be of any benefit to the imperial court if San Francisco was separated from the imperial control. Therefore, Beijing also asked Liang Huafeng and Dong Weiguo to assist Zhejiang and suppress Geng Jingzhong as soon as possible.
"However, the Eastern Zhejiang Army will also participate in the war," Zhao Tianba was worried and asked the Manchu Governor to fight Geng Jingzhong himself. It is necessary to give these people some benefits, but the right to distribute the spoils is still in the hands of our own people: "Geng Jingzhong is the first person in more than ten years to lead an army anyway, although we do not welcome it and have no request. He did this, but he couldn't completely lose face - the last general's idea was to organize an "army to aid Fujian" in eastern Zhejiang. Since Geng Jingzhong fought bitterly with the Qing army in Liangjiang and Zhejiang under the banner of the Ming army, then the Ming army in eastern Zhejiang should go It is always appropriate to provide aid to Fujian."
"Aid the Fujian Army?" Zhang Huangyan thought for a moment and nodded: "Has General Zhao determined that the battlefield of this battle will be in Fujian?"
"Sooner or later." Zhao Tianba replied confidently.
Both Ma Fengzhi and Zheng Zanxu said they would obey Zhao Tianba's orders unconditionally. They were both like lost dogs at first, but things changed after they climbed onto Zhang Huangyan's high branches. Over the years, Ma Fengzhi and Zheng Zanxu have lived a good life, and their territories in Zhejiang have grown larger and larger. They have become loyal to the empire because of their continuous victories.
There were many young military students assigned to Zhao Tianba in the staff department who had just graduated a few years ago. He also recognized two acquaintances among them. Gu Jin and Chen Dake were both Zhao Tianba's family friends - their fathers. They are all old friends of Xiying, and like Zhao Tianba's father, they have served Li Dingguo throughout his life. Since Li Siye, the prince of Jin Dynasty, took charge of Jianchang, a large number of children of the Yunnan Army went to Chengdu to study. Both Li Siye and Zhao Tianba believed that this was a good way to unite Chengdu and Kunming; while some Jin king generals who had doubts about Chengdu, They thought this was a good opportunity to penetrate Sichuan.
For example, Gu Jin is the nephew of Jin Wang General Ma Bao, and Chen Dake is He Jiuyi's son-in-law. When they and other children of the Yunnan Army left Kunming for Chengdu, they also shouldered the mission of the Jin Palace, which was to help Kunming assassinateAccording to the intelligence, if Chengdu is found to be plotting against Kunming, he must try to warn the King of Jin. When these children arrived in Chengdu, they were also prepared to be quarantined or monitored. However, Chengdu does not have any discriminatory policies. The students in the military academy include not only fellow scholars from Sichuan, but also self-funded students from Shandong and Zhejiang. When they graduate, officers come to ask them about their service aspirations. Most of the children of the Yunnan Army stayed in the imperial army. Not long ago, Li Siye helped Bai Wenxuan's son become the head of the standing regiment in Jianchang. Starting three years ago, these Yunnanese, like Sichuanese, began to serve in the eastern Zhejiang Army.
Although sons do not directly inherit their father's official positions as in the past, just like personnel in the imperial government, these generals' children with status and background can always receive more care. Ma Fengzhi also specially sent these two people to Zhao Tianba's staff. As Ma Fengzhi expected, Zhao Tianba was very happy after meeting his family friend. After the meal, the three people from Xiying got together to chat.
According to Gu Jin¡¯s description, the Self-Defense Forces in northern Zhejiang may have stronger combat effectiveness than Zhao Guozuo¡¯s Provincial Green Camp. Because Zhuang Tingyue is a graduate of the Sichuan Military Academy, he is regarded as a potential member of the academy, and the military training and weapons and equipment they receive are also modeled on the standards of allies; and although Zhao Guozuo's Zhejiang is a model province of the Qing Dynasty in the eyes of the academy, But in the final analysis, it was still a province of the Qing court. Not only could it not receive regular military training from Sichuan, but it could not directly purchase arms from Sichuan.
Although Zhou Peigong set up a number of arms factories in Anqing, it was only in name. In fact, those arms factories themselves did not produce a single rifle. Every time Sichuan's weapons were updated, or old military and civilian guns were scrapped, those weapons would be collected and sold to Zhou Peigong's arms factory after government review and approval. Zhou Peigong would then paint the rifles with new paint and regard them as his. The new guns produced were sold to the governor of the southeast; later Zhou Peigong found that it was very troublesome to paint himself, and there were always people embezzling paint money, making the cost of renovation high, so he subcontracted the painting work to a private factory in Sichuan. . Now the arms factory in Anqing just has a sign, and it houses a group of bureaucrats and accountants. Many relatives and fellow villagers of Zhou Peigong can go there to get a salary, but there are no workers. Both painting and transportation are outsourced to Sichuan. Trading firm.
By monopolizing the arms trade of the Southeast Governor, Zhou Peigong's Anqing Arms Group has always made huge profits. After the disastrous defeat in Beijing in the sixth year of Kangxi's reign, the Empress Dowager learned the hard way and ordered the production of firearms. However, the arms factory presided over by Prince Kang could not produce qualified products due to forced start-up. Prince Kang sent someone to contact Zhou Peigong and handed over the weapons given to him by the court. 70% of the funds were given to Zhou Peigong, and the Anqing Arms Group was asked to manufacture the rifles, which were then stamped with the seal of "Produced by Prince Kang" and sent to Beijing.
Zhou Peigong repeated his old tricks and invited tenders in Sichuan. He purchased old arms from Sichuan arms dealers at the lowest price, then repainted them, rubbed off the original logos, stamped them with steel, and outsourced a series of tasks to tenders In general, Thirty percent of the military expenditures provided by Beijing went into the pockets of Prince Kang and the cabinet ministers, 20% became the profits of the Anqing Arms Group, and the rest went into the pockets of Sichuan arms dealers.
In order to facilitate the receipt of goods, Prince Kang also specially set up the factory in Tianjin. After the goods are shipped by sea, they can go directly to the warehouse. Lafayette was overjoyed when he saw these rifles that were completely "made by the Qing Dynasty". Prince Kang and the ministers also boasted, saying that this kind of rifles had reached the leading level in the world, and many technological innovations were far better than those in Sichuan. The rifle was even more advanced, and it even made the Empress Dowager beam with joy.
Gu Jin and Chen Dake did not like the weapons sold by Zhou Peigong Arms Group at all. If they had no design flaws, they would not be eliminated; and the guns were not just bought back, their colleagues in Sichuan Scholars all know that when buying a gun, you also need to buy an oil can, and you need to maintain the rifle on a daily basis. But Zhou Peigong never bought any skin care products, and the arms dealers in Sichuan also tacitly agreed not to mention this matter - if the rifles in the hands of the Qing army were not scrapped as quickly as possible, how could Zhou Peigong and the Sichuan merchants continue to make money? Woolen cloth?
"Hangzhou's armaments are depleted because neither Zhao Guozuo nor Songkui thought that anyone would attack them. They didn't even buy a few of Zhou Peigong's rifles." Gu Jin said dismissively.
"If the army from Jiangnan can quickly enter Zhejiang to fight, then Geng Jingzhong should not be able to defeat Hangzhou." Chen Dake replied.
Over the years, Jiang Guozhu has been thinking about expanding his territory, unifying the two rivers, and gaining wealth for himself. Therefore, the equipment and training level of the Jiangnan army are much better than those in Zhejiang. Similar to the speculation in Taiwan, Chen Dake also believes that if there is no more external interference, the Jiangnan and Zhejiang armies have a chance to compete with Geng Jingzhong. But now Jiangnan has just ended its chaos. If Jiangxi will also participate in the war, it seems that there will be no problem in blocking Geng Jingzhong.