Chapter 309: Not Obeying Orders
Zhao Bing's general, Yu Jie of Jiangbei, was no longer obedient. After running out of money last year, he paid half of Yu Jie's military pay, and the rest had to be raised by the soldiers themselves, so they definitely couldn't play house together anymore.
As the old saying goes, an emperor has no shortage of hungry soldiers, but this fake emperor just starved the soldiers.
Yu Jie was smart and quick to react. He repeatedly urged Lin'an, but when he failed to get the military pay, he immediately sent someone to find Meng Gong for help. At this time, Meng Gong had just received the silver sent by General Cao Youwen, and it was not even warm yet. Thinking that they were all fighting against the Mongols, he suppressed his reluctance and gave 1.5 million new coins.
This is how life on Yu Street temporarily went on.
But Zhao Bing and Shi's son ran slower.
When they were getting themselves together and discussing how to raise money for the New Year, they thought of Meng Gong in Jinghu. After much discussion, they sent an imperial envoy to Lin'an to find Meng Gong, but he was already very disappointed.
Meng Gong didn't want to offend anyone, so he spread his hands to the imperial envoy from Lin'an and said that the money given by Sichuan and Shu this year was too little. Yu Jie had just come and dug up 1.5 million yuan, and he didn't have enough money to buy New Year's goods yet. He could only celebrate the New Year by eating a bowl of porridge with pickles.
The imperial envoy went back to report, and Zhao Bing was so angry that he threw the teacup in his hand.
Zhao Bing read the newly arrived "Chengdu Weekly" and saw that Chengdu was moving the entire Jinguan City to build a new imperial city, and it would take tens of thousands of people just to resettle the people.
Damn it, how much money is going to cost?
When he saw the shabby palace and thought of the happy people in Chengdu, he became furious. His eyes were red and he soon went crazy. He stood up and grabbed the maid next to him and dragged her straight into the bedroom, tearing off her clothes frantically...
Shi's son was also drinking alone in the prime minister's residence.
This year was so miserable that it was even worse than the land temple next to his mansion. Many people went to that temple to burn incense and pray for blessings.
Few people come here.
Because the salt merchants knew that his position was useless, all the officials who donated money were taken away by Zhao Bing. Who would dare to make friends with him when he had no credibility at all? Everyone was short of money, and many of his servants ran away.
His staff reported to him in secret: Qiao Xingjian became the most senior professor in the new Song Dynasty after he went to Xishu, Zhao Qier gave him the salary of the deputy envoy of the Zhizhisi and a brand new carriage. Fan Zhong and Du Fan became ministers, and even You Shi from Ga La became the official historian of the Dali Temple, and all the expenses were covered.
Shi's son was upset after hearing this. He slammed his wine glass on the table, got up and went to the study.
At the southern training ground in Chengdu, after the leading commanders of the New Song army had gathered, Zhao Yulin and Cao Youwen began to discuss the reorganization of the New Song army.
He told his brothers that there would probably be no major wars this year, so it was a good time for the Shenwei Army to reorganize.
After so many years of development, the number of Shenwei troops under the rule of the New Song Dynasty is no longer small, but the number of soldiers in each group varies, the combat effectiveness of each column is uneven, and even the equipment varies.
This seriously affects the judgment and command of the central military tent.
Now that the foreign enemy and we are in a stalemate, it is a good time to reorganize the army. He discussed with General Cao and decided to reorganize the Shenwei Army comprehensively and implement group command in the war zone.
In order to further mobilize the initiative of soldiers, the Shenwei Army will continue to strengthen the functions of soldiers' committees at all levels. In the future, the selection of generals at all levels will first look at whether they have been members of the soldiers' committee. From the grassroots level, democratic voting will be used to elect fair and upright soldiers who dare to fight to enter the soldiers' committee, so as to truly realize the unity of officers and soldiers in managing the army.
Zhao Yulin was speaking loudly on the stage while his brothers picked up their brushes and wrote quickly below. He spoke nonstop for three days in a row and even Lao Cao was amazed at his eloquence.
Five days later, under the supervision of Mr. Ding, the brothers discussed and decided to establish the Ministry of War of the new Song Dynasty. They unanimously elected Cao Youwen as the Minister of State, Zhao Yulin as the first deputy envoy, and Miao Gui as the second deputy envoy.
The Ministry of War has set up the General Staff Department, the Operations Training Department, the Logistics and Transport Department, and the Ordnance Department; the various arms units are simply divided into:
Shenwei Army: responsible for external warfare and defending the country.
Garrison Army: Responsible for maintaining national stability and preventing rebellion, and supporting the Shenwei Army in combat.
Shunfengsi: Responsible for collecting military and civilian intelligence at home and abroad and countering espionage and espionage.
Patrol Department: Responsible for catching bandits and robbers, maintaining domestic daily order, and upholding the dignity of the law. After being fully established, it will be transferred to the Ministry of Justice.
Then , Zhao Yulin announced that the Shenwei Army would cancel the columns with the word "new" in their numbers and unify all the column numbers. The Shenwei Army's major force groups were divided, with each group equipped with a battalion and three squadrons of hot air balloon air forces; each group was equipped with a corps of new troops, half of whom used fire guns, and mortars were popularized in the squadrons.
All infantry columns were streamlined to a size of 20,000 people, equipped with ten red cannons, fifty mortars, two hundred catapults and two hundred iron barrel cannons, and standard crossbows.
The Logistics Department began to adjust according to this standard starting from the East Group, and gradually equipped all the Shenwei Army with equipment.
Then, Cao Youwen announced the composition of the garrison army, which was basically deployed according to the routes. In principle, each route had 20,000 garrisons.
All garrison troops continued to use the original Song army's old weapons such as bows, arrows and swords.
Then, Lao Cao announced the strengthening of patrol constables in various places and determined the number of patrol constables in county-level and above administrative units.
Finally, Zhao Yulin asked the local chief officers to go back and supervise the collection of armor and weapons from the people in their areas. Except for the border counties, which would not be forced to do so for the time being, all weapons, armor, shields and other military equipment scattered among the people in other places must be confiscated and added to the arsenal of the garrison army. Abandoned military equipment must be destroyed in public.
Local governments must issue notices to publicly announce the time limit for the collection of weapons and the conviction of private possession of weapons. Privately kept swords and sabers must not be seen in public places, and warriors must wrap their swords in scabbards when walking in the streets.
Zhao Yulin streamlined the Shenwei Army into 25 infantry columns and six cavalry columns, and kept eleven new recruit training columns in Qinzhou, Fengxiang, Chang'an, Nanzheng, Jinzhou, Zhechuan, Xiangyang, Chongqing, Jingjiang, Chengdu and Lizhou.
Ten garrison columns were established, a new capital garrison column was formed, and the navy was expanded to two columns, all of which were directly under the control of the Ministry of War.
Ten days later, the Shenwei Army was reorganized, and Zhao Yulin accompanied Lao Cao to practice with his brothers.
The Ministry of Personnel had already prepared the third-class merit, second-class merit, first-class merit and special merit medals. He asked Du Baiyue to select thirty soldiers who had made meritorious contributions in the battles against the enemy in Liangshan and let the brothers present them with awards, thus kicking off the action of awarding meritorious medals to the New Song Army.
The brothers began to return one after another. Zhao Yulin left Lai Chuanfang and Yang Xingyun behind, and called Miao Gui to go and have a secret talk with Cao Youwen.
After the two brothers reported in detail the situation of the enemy's troops on the Xiaohan Road and the Xiangyang-Luoyang line, Zhao Yulin believed that the time had come for the New Song Kingdom to launch a local counterattack. He asked Miao Gui to send the new army trained in Chengdu and tested in actual combat to the Eastern Group to prepare for war, and asked Lai Chuanfang and Yang Xingyun to go back and make pre-war preparations for capturing Luoyang.
Cao Youwen was overjoyed when he heard this. He was defeated in Luoyang that year and retreated to Jinzhou with his remaining troops.
Now that Zhao Yulin has begun planning to seize Luoyang, if he succeeds, it will be revenge for him. How can he not be excited?
Zhao Yulin saw that his old brothers were as excited as Lao Cao, and told Miao Gui not to be careless. They still had to do a good job in the training of the army first. Only by building a good soldiers' committee and uniting the officers and soldiers could they form a strong fighting force.
After seeing off the military commanders from various places, Chengdu had already entered the early summer of April. The surroundings were lush and green, and Lao Cao was in a good mood and called Zhao Yulin to Dujiangyan to participate in the water worship activity organized by the Agricultural Affairs Department.
The Dujiangyan Water Worship is actually about cutting down horse forks to release water, in memory of Li Bing and his son, and praying for a year of good weather and a good harvest.
Looking at the flood water rushing into Neijiang, Lao Cao shouted happily, "What great water! What great water!"
This was the strategy Cao Youwen set when he regulated the Yangliu River in Wenjiang last year and reclaimed wasteland. Chengdu has been reclaiming wasteland and developing large tracts of fertile land, which requires Dujiangyan to increase the water flow.
Zhao Yulin had an idea in mind.
In recent years, Chengdu has selected and bred new high-yield varieties and reclaimed wasteland for farming. Overall, grain production will become higher and higher, and the people will have enough food and clothing.
He discussed the matter with Lao Cao, and then turned around to suggest to Mr. Ding that a Dujiangyan Water Diversion Office should be set up under the Agricultural Affairs Department to carefully plan the utilization of Dujiangyan's water resources and rationally plan the water diversion channels in Chengdu, so that Dujiangyan can benefit more people in the western Sichuan basin.
Cao Youwen readily agreed, and in a good mood, he invited everyone to go to Qingcheng Mountain for an outing and relax.
The two then headed towards Qingcheng Mountain.
When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, Tianjizi had already led the Qingcheng Sect disciples to line up at Chicheng Pavilion to welcome them. Lao Cao enthusiastically pulled him up the mountain.
In Tianshi Cave, the disciples of Qingcheng picked fresh wild fruits for them to taste. Zhao Yulin looked up and was surrounded by green mountains, feeling particularly refreshed.
After watching the Tai Chi sword formation performance by the Qingcheng disciples, Lao Cao was so ambitious that he wanted to compete with Tianjizi.
Tianjizi looked at him in embarrassment.
This martial art is hard to compare.
If they won, Lao Cao would lose face; if they lost, the Qingcheng sect would lose face. He stood up and said that it would be better for the two of them to learn from each other so that the Qingcheng disciples could learn something.
So, the logistics chief Jieba quickly handed over two wooden swords. Zhao Yulin took them and immediately attacked Lao Cao to show his respect for Lao Cao as a younger generation.
Cao Youwen laughed loudly, and the two of them started fighting back and forth in the martial arts field. After the two sides fought for nearly a hundred rounds, Zhao Yulin deliberately left the door wide open. Lao Cao used a move of immortal guidance and stabbed him in the chest with his sword. He quickly stepped back and stood firm, shook the tip of the sword, and went forward to block Lao Cao's wooden sword.
There were only two cracking sounds, and the two wooden swords broke into four pieces in an instant.
Zhao Yulin immediately dodged and shouted, "I've learned a lot from the general."
Cao Youwen laughed happily.
Although the two sides ended up in a draw in this battle, Zhao Yulin took the initiative and although it seemed that he had lost, both sides managed to save face and everyone was happy.
