"Your Excellency, Marshal, our scouts discovered that the British troops were evacuating the fort, and they were preparing to flee!" Just when Washington was about to order the army to attack the fort, a scout captain hurriedly rode up to Washington and shouted loudly. Hearing the news, Washington's face showed a look of astonishment and then ecstasy. It was a blessing from God that the British army actually chose this time to evacuate the fortress. You must know that the Continental Army has a lot of war horses, which means that at least in terms of mobility, the Continental Army surpasses the British Army and loses the protection of the fortress. On the plains, there are only more than a thousand British troops. It is obviously very difficult for the army to resist the attack of more than five times the Continental Army. "Order the army to turn around immediately, and also order the cavalry to attack immediately and hold back the British!" After Washington's order was issued, the Continental Army, which had been neatly lined up, suddenly seemed a little messy and began to turn towards the other side of the fort. One side rushed over. "General, we have discovered Continental Army scouts on our perimeter. It seems that our actions cannot be hidden from the Continental Army. What do you think we should do?" A British officer said to Monroe with an ugly face. At present, the British army led by Monroe to break through has more than 1,400 people, and among these more than 1,400 people, there are only more than 200 horses. This means that except for the cavalry on horseback, the rest of the British army They can only move forward on their own two feet. Although the British did not know how many horses the Continental Army owned, they thought about it. The Continental Army will certainly not have fewer horses than the British, and may even have more horses. After all, there are many places in North America to breed war horses. When the Continental Army attacked Dayton before, the British troops on the city wall looked from a distance and saw a lot of cavalry behind the Continental Army. "Don't panic, order the cavalry to rear up, and fight back immediately after discovering the Continental Army's attack. You must delay the enemy for an hour, and order the rest of the troops to speed up their march. You must leave before the Continental Army arrives, and move all unnecessary supplies Throw them all away!" Monroe said with a serious face. After that, the Continental Army and the British Army started a chase on the plains west of Dayton. Fortunately. Although Washington ordered the cavalry in the Continental Army to attack, there were not many cavalry in the Continental Army. The 800 Continental Army cavalry and the blocking 200 British cavalry were actually on par for a while. This situation also made Washington look very ugly. "Don't worry about the British cavalry. All the cavalry will continue to attack. Hold back the British infantry! Don't worry about any casualties. As long as the British army can be held back, the cavalry will be the first contributor!" "Your Excellency the Governor, as the news of the British army's unfavorable situation in the war spread, many people have People from the British colonies began to pour into our territory. In response, the government hopes to allocate 300,000 gold marks to provide necessary living security for these refugees. "In Bruneck's office, a representative of the Prussian colonial government! Officials are debriefing Bruneker. After the Continental Army resurrected and captured Indiana. Some people in the British Governorate of Pittsburgh began to flee to the Prussian colony, and this situation intensified after the news of the Continental Army's capture of Dayton spread. Colonial states adjacent to the Prussian colonies, such as Virginia and North Carolina, saw a large number of refugees bringing their families with them. certainly. To this end, the British colonial government also made a lot of efforts. They set up a large number of sentries in the areas bordering the Prussian territory to intercept these refugees. Originally, a Continental Army would not cause such a panic in the entire British colony of the Governor-General of Pittsburgh, but those so-called well-informed people took the lead in fleeing after learning that the strength of the Continental Army exceeded 20,000. This move caused quite a storm among these colonies. Fortunately, because the British colonial government is pretty good, Prussia has only received less than 6,000 refugees so far. However, except for some of the 6,000 people who are wealthy people with assets, the rest All of them were poor people, and the handling of these poor people was the key to embarrassment for the Prussian colonial government. Each of these refugees needs to be carefully screened. This is mainly to prevent the Continental Army or British spies from being hidden among them. Secondly, after these poor refugees fled to the Prussian colonies, it became a big problem for them to make a living. , and it is foreseeable that if these refugees feel that they cannot survive, they will inevitably create a series ofriots, which the Prussian colonial government did not want to see in any case. "Three hundred thousand gold marks is too much. Now we need money in many places. In this case, we simply can't afford three hundred thousand gold marks!" With that, Bruneck picked up the money on the table. The quill pen changed the number three on the document into one. Seeing Bruneker's actions, the Prussian official standing opposite him looked a little embarrassed and said: "Isn't one hundred thousand gold marks too little? If you want these refugees to settle down, then the government needs to prepare at least some for them. Houses and supplies" Before the official finished speaking, Bruneck waved his hand and said: "One hundred thousand gold marks is already a lot. The money is mainly used for It is used to disperse these refugees to the fringes of various states and cannot allow them to gather together. As for the simple houses and food, they are just refugees. If a large amount of money is invested in these people, this is not in line with our Prussian After Bruneke finished speaking, the official opposite him was speechless. According to the government¡¯s plan, these 300,000 gold marks are used to build a town in the current border area with the British colonies to accommodate these refugees, so the cost is naturally set with the goal of building a town. After all, these refugees are only the first batch. No one knows what the next battle will look like, if the British army goes unfavorably and even loses Ohio. It is foreseeable that more refugees will flow into Prussia's territory. This number may not be a few thousand, but may be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of refugees. After the official left, Bruneck rubbed his temples. The busy government affairs during the recent period had really made him a little exhausted. Fortunately, Scharnhorst was with the army, and Bruneck It is better to leave military matters to Scharnhorst. Just when Bruneck was looking at the sky outside the window and preparing to ask someone to arrange afternoon tea, Scharnhorst hurried in. "Scharnhorst. Why are you here?" Seeing Scharnhorst's arrival, Bruynek looked a little surprised, but Scharnhorst's next words made Bruynek Necker's expression changed, "Your Majesty the Governor. According to my observation, there are a lot of problems in the Third and Fourth Colonial Divisions. Not only did these two divisions fail to conduct necessary drills as required by the Governor's Palace, , There are even problems such as underreporting the number of soldiers and empty pay! "The so-called Colonial Third Division and the Fourth Division are the products of the shadow division in Prussia. Previously, there were only two garrison divisions in the North American colonies to which Prussia belonged. Later, due to the continuous expansion of the colonies and the resurgence of the Continental Congress, Bruneck immediately began to expand the two divisions. According to previous reports, these two newly expanded divisions have initially completed their reorganization and will be able to form combat effectiveness in just one month. ¡°But what Bruneker didn¡¯t expect was that at this time, such a scandal would come out of these two newly expanded divisions. "Scharnhorst, please explain the situation in detail. In addition, do you know how many vacancies there are in the army?" Since ancient times. It is not uncommon for the army to have empty pay, after all, for the generals in the army. Unlike local officials, who can exchange their local power for a large amount of money, there are relatively fewer ways to make a fortune in the army. In this case, especially when there is currently no effective soldier identity management mechanism, taking empty pay has become a means for some unscrupulous officers in the army to make money. By concealing the number of soldiers, officers can successfully disguise the identity of some non-existent people as soldiers in the army, and then the monthly military pay of these soldiers will naturally go into the pockets of the officers, and more importantly Yes, these forged identities can be completely erased in a large-scale war or two years later using a death in action. Not only will the matter be concealed by then, but the pensions issued by the Prussian government may also be These officers were lining their pockets. "Your Majesty the Governor, the Third Colonial Division should have a total of 10,358 soldiers, but now there are only 8,421. The Fourth Colonial Division should have a total of 9,611 soldiers. Seventeen people, but currently there are only 6,329 people! The total strength of the two divisions should be 19,975 people, but now there are only 14,750 people. , the total number of forged soldiers in the two divisions is 5,225!The generals were so audacious that they actually dared to fake more than 5,000 people to defraud their troops and kill them a hundred times without any injustice! " As he said that, Scharnhorst's face was also very angry. Although it is not a rare phenomenon for officers in this era to receive empty pay, at least in Prussia, during the reign of Frederick the Great, among the army at that time, The phenomenon of empty pay was also very serious, and later Frederick the Great severely punished this situation. Several generals even had to retire sadly because of this, which stopped the bad atmosphere in the Prussian army. What people didn't expect was that this situation actually happened in the colonial army, and there was a vacancy of more than 5,000 people. What is the concept of more than 5,000 people, which is equivalent to the Prussian government's expenditure? They paid the same amount of money, but suddenly lost half a division, more than five thousand people, even the lowest-level soldiers, their monthly military pay is ten gold marks, and more than five thousand people means, Every month, at least more than 50,000 gold marks from the Prussian military fell into the pockets of those ruthless officers. "When did you discover this situation?" Compared with the angry look on Scharnhorst's face, Br¨¹hl said. Necker's face turned red and white. You must know that he gave the order to form the two new divisions, and the main generals of the two new divisions were also appointed by Bruneck. Who could have known that these generals who had been recruited by Bruneck as generals would actually do this! Don¡¯t mention the situation in the division, even if these chief officers were really aware of the situation. If you don¡¯t know, it can only mean that these generals are all incompetent people. After all, they don¡¯t know anything about the troops under their command, so why should they dispatch the troops on the battlefield? ¡°Your Excellency, I also happened to be in this situation by chance! What Yue discovered was just to avoid alerting others. I didn't mention it to outsiders. I just ordered a few trustworthy people to conduct a secret investigation in the army. But who knew that the results would be so shocking! " Scharnhorst found that this matter was just as full of chance as he said. After Scharnhorst came to the North American colonies, Bruneck, in addition to appointing him as the commander of the First Colonial Division, At the same time, Scharnhorst was given the right to take charge of the formation of new divisions. Last month, Scharnhorst saw the army expansion document on his desk, which showed that it would take less than two months. , the two newly formed divisions had actually been reorganized by more than 70%. At that time, Scharnhorst went to inspect the army on a whim, but who knew that he was just inspecting the army. One of the companies discovered something was wrong when they were counting the roster. There should be about a hundred people in a company, and there were indeed 121 people on the roster, but it turned out that Scharnhorst was present. But there were only sixty-three of them, and the rest were not there at all. The reason given by the officer who accompanied Scharnhorst on his inspection tour was that these people were taking turns to rest and were temporarily out of the military camp because they had no combat missions. Scharnhorst knew the rules in the army. Soldiers who rested should rest, but there would definitely be a leave note. But at that time, Scharnhorst asked everywhere and did not see the existence of the leave note. He didn't make any announcement. In his opinion, if it was just a lack of fake notes, it could only mean that there were loopholes in management. For the newly formed army, this problem was not unforgivable, but who knew what the conclusion of the investigation would be. It¡¯s so shocking. ¡°Scharnhorst, I give you full authority over this matter. We must investigate it to the end. No matter who is involved, we will never tolerate it! I will immediately send someone to deliver Fred and Arbery to the Governor's Mansion, and then I will put them under house arrest for a week. Within a week, I want you to find out the truth of the matter! " Bruneck could no longer suppress the anger in his heart despite his heartache. He slammed the table in front of Scharnhorst and roared. " Fred and Albery were Bruneck's two generals. He was also the division commander of the newly formed Colonial Third Division and the Fourth Division. Seeing Bruneke's statement, Scharnhorst immediately agreed loudly and left Bruneke's office. . And just after Scharnhorst left, Bruneck lay down on the sofa with an ugly expression. When Scharnhorst arrived, Bruneck received a message from William. In this letter, William not only expressed his condolences to Bruneck, but also hinted that Brandenburg would not forget a hero who made great contributions to Prussia, and BruneckThere was no chance of becoming Minister of the Prussian Military Ministry. Bruneck understood that with the arrival of Scharnhorst, his time in the North American colonies had entered a countdown. After staying in North America for more than ten years, Bruneck did develop feelings, but this did not mean that Bruneck then hoped to stay in North America as his native emperor. What is the concept of Prussian Minister of Military Affairs? That was the position of the second person in the Prussian military besides His Majesty the King. It would be a complete lie to say that Bruneck was not tempted. It was precisely because he understood this that Bruneck not only fully delegated power to Scharnhorst in the colonial army, but also allowed him to participate in colonial government affairs, because Bruneck understood that after he left, he would take over. It's definitely Scharnhorst. Under this situation, Bruneck naturally also needs to consider those who have been following him. It is under such circumstances that Bruneck took advantage of the opportunity to form two new divisions. He will promote two of his cronies to become division commanders. But who would have thought that these two guys would actually create such a big hole for themselves! ¡°If this matter reached Brandenburg, Bruneck would simply not dare to continue imagining it. ¡°Obviously if Brandenburg learned this bad news, would Bruneck still want to become Minister of Military Affairs? It¡¯s just a dream! Who doesn¡¯t know that there are still many people vying for the position of Minister of the Ministry of Military Affairs. I am afraid that if these people know this, they will definitely take the opportunity to suppress Bruneck! For a moment, Bruneck suddenly had the idea of ????silencing Scharnhorst to hide this matter. However, this thought only appeared for a moment and was driven away from Bruneck's mind. Just kidding, no one can see William's intention to cultivate Scharnhorst. If Scharnhorst had an accident, , can William let him go? Thinking of this, Bruneck had a wry smile on his face. (To be continued)