Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 167: Troubled Coaches (Part 2)
"One, one, two, one, two, three, four..."
On the morning of December 22, 1611, at the gate of Shenyang, more than 5,000 soldiers of Henghaiwei, led by officers at all levels, got up on time, tidied their housework, followed the habit they had developed on Jingjiang Island, stepped out of the barracks and started their morning run.
On the tower, Zhu Youdong, Yang Hao, Yuan Keli, Xiong Tingbi, Du Song, Liu Jing and others looked down at the neatly dressed troops in white training uniforms. Each of them had a different feeling.
"Your Highness, when the Henghai Guard was rebuilt, Zhaosun told me that he would build it into the strongest army in Ming Dynasty within three years, and that he would defeat my battalion with only one thousand soldiers. At that time, I thought that the boy was ignorant. But in the past half month, it seems that the Henghai Guard, based on its military appearance, is really the strongest army."
" Haha , Commander Liu, it's more than just the military appearance. The bird guns, swords and even the horses used by each soldier of the Henghai Guard are far superior to any other troops in our Ming Dynasty. Well, in my opinion, only Lord Xiong's Kuandian Guard can compare with them."
"I am ashamed, General Du. I, Xiong Tingbi, thought that after five years of training in Kuandian, the soldiers under my command must be considered elite. But after more than ten days, I found that the Kuandian Guards are still far behind the Henghai Guards."
"Your Highness's ability in training troops is something we all admire."
"Yes, your Highness's soldiers, I feel ashamed after seeing this!"
Listening to the praises from the people around him, Zhu Youdong felt a little proud, but only a little.
An army cannot only talk about ideals without talking about material things, otherwise the ideals will not last. Zhu Youdong, adhering to this point, invested a lot of money in Henghaiwei. Whether it is equipment or logistical support, it is far beyond the level of this era.
An army cannot only talk about material things without talking about ideals, otherwise it will sooner or later degenerate into a walking corpse. Zhu Youdong, who holds this view, has spent a lot of time and effort in the barracks of this army.
Only by combining the two can we have a powerful army like today, which can far surpass other armies of the Ming Dynasty in terms of spirit and vitality.
But then the problem arises.
As a history enthusiast before traveling through time, Zhu Youdong certainly knew that the combat effectiveness of the military garrison soldiers and the garrison soldiers in the Ming Dynasty was very different. He also knew that the family servants and ordinary soldiers in the military garrison soldiers were completely different creatures. But when he gathered soldiers from multiple military garrisons and garrisons under his command, the huge disparity in combat effectiveness and training levels of these different local troops really made him feel overwhelmed.
On November 29, Ningxia Wei finally arrived at Shanhaiguan after much haste. Zhu Youdong gave them a day to rest and change clothes, and then ordered the entire army to set out on December 1.
As a result, the distance from Shanhaiguan to Liaoyang was more than 400 kilometers. Even though Zhu Youdong asked Cao Sanxi to supply food freely and all the roads in the northeast were frozen solid in that weather, making it extremely convenient for marching, this ragtag coalition army actually took 15 days to walk!
Nurhaci, who was far away in Fushun, was very familiar with the speed of the ordinary Ming army, so he thought that traveling more than 800 miles in 15 days was very fast. But in Zhu Youdong's view, it was simply too slow to accept.
It was only over 400 kilometers, and the army took such a long time to march, which means that they only walked 27 kilometers a day on average. What does this mean? In modern society, if a middle-aged woman goes out for a walk after dinner for an hour, she will probably walk nearly 5 kilometers!
Moreover, in the first three days of the fifteen days, the daily marching speed did not exceed 15 kilometers - the Ming army could only move this much a day. It was after Zhu Youdong lost his temper that he stipulated that the army should march at least 30 kilometers a day, and those who arrived first would have to rest and eat first, and those who arrived later would not only have less food, but also be responsible for dismantling and cleaning the barracks before setting off again. This was how the speed was raised.
After the speed was raised, problems arose: a large number of soldiers fell behind, fell ill, and a small number of soldiers complained about being tired. Zhu Youdong had to dismantle the entire Henghai Guard and turn it into a military police team and a medical team!
Speaking of illness, what made Zhu Youdong laugh and cry the most was that since the more than 1,000 cooks brought by Cao Sanxi took over the logistics of the entire army, many soldiers in the military towns and garrisons suffered from severe diarrhea at the beginning: their stomachs that had been malnourished for a long time were not used to such greasy meals!
All of the above, as well as the fact that the army came from all over the country, with different languages, pronunciations, living and eating habits, and religious beliefs, as well as the regional discrimination that has existed in various parts of the Chinese Empire since ancient times, all gave Zhu Youdong a headache.
These were still considered minor issues. What was more serious was that after the soldiers of Henghaiwei were transferred to various troops, they had violent conflicts with officers at all levels of the troops due to ideological issues.
Soldiers of Henghaiwei were not allowed to be punished with corporal punishment if they made mistakes. The only punishment was the military stick, and the number of sticks was adjusted according to the severity of the mistake. So when they arrived at other military camps and saw people being shot through the camp with arrows, cutting off noses, and cutting off ears, they were naturally unhappy and tried to stop it.
If this was just a problem of concept, then the distribution of equipment and military pay almost led to an internal conflict between the Henghai Guards and some military garrison troops before they encountered the Jiannu.
Zhu Youdong had done his best to win the battle this time. Not only did he give Wanli two million taels of silver, he also loaded the fleet with one million taels of silver and various equipment worth nearly one million taels.
After the soldiers arrived at Shanhaiguan, Zhu Youdong's rule was to give each person one or two taels of silver as a greeting fee, and to have each soldier change clothes, cotton armor, and a sword or a spear. As a result, when the soldiers of Henghaiwei went down, they found that some generals of the military town actually instigated their own servants to ask the soldiers under their command to take back all the silver!
The most ruthless one was a battalion under Datong Town. In addition to taking back the silver, the battalion commander also took away the new cotton-padded clothes that Zhu Youdong had distributed to the soldiers!
This matter was reported to the higher authorities, and coincidentally, it was reported to the hot-tempered Man Gui. Then Man Baihu gathered his men to seek justice from the other battalion commander. The extremely low EQ Man Baihu successfully scolded the other side and both sides showed their weapons! After hearing the news, Man Gui's superior Cao Wenzhao directly led a cavalry to attack the camp!
The nature of the matter now became serious. Ma Chengzhi, the lieutenant general leading the troops in Datong Town, did not dare to conceal it and had to allow his cousin Ma Chengxun to report it along the way.
Sure enough, Zhu Youdong was furious when he learned about this. Under his roar, Man Gui and Cao Wenzhao certainly could not escape being beaten. The battalion commander of Datong Town was beheaded directly, and the dozen or so servants he sent to collect the money and clothes were also beheaded.
Then Zhu Youdong ordered: Hang all the heads out and inform the whole army about this.
With these dozen heads, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's kindness finally reached every soldier, and Zhu Youdong received cheers of "Your Royal Highness is wise" from more than 100,000 soldiers.
However, after going through so many things, Zhu Youdong, the little loser before the time travel, finally felt the horror of Han Xin: If the four words "the more the better" can be truly achieved, how amazing it would be!
In short, now that we are facing a powerful enemy, we must first seek unity. So later, after seeing the army's marching speed increase, Zhu Youdong gathered the Henghai Guards together again. However, the gathering of so many troops with such different combat capabilities really made Zhu Youdong feel terrified.
…
The Henghai Guards' morning exercise team gradually went away, and Zhu Youdong and others also walked down the city wall. After the generals returned to their own camps, Yuan Keli said, "Your Highness, I see that you have been frowning these days. Is there anything that worries you?"
"Mr. Yuan, don't you know? So many armies have gathered together, and so many shitty things have happened in more than 20 days. This... Hey, although the Jiannu are barbarians, under the leadership of Nurhaci, they are really united. As for my Ming side... But the military situation is so tense now, how can I have time to slowly organize the army!"
"Haha, so that's what's going on. Your Highness, if you don't have time to organize the army, then don't do it. When the battle starts, the more than 10,000 soldiers of Henghai Guard and Kuandian Guard will be the core, and the other units can be deployed in front, left, and right of our army according to their combat power."
"What if these miscellaneous troops can't withstand the attack of the Jiannu and are defeated? What if they are driven by the Jiannu to attack our defense line?"
"Your Highness, I have followed you for such a long time and I think you are good in every way, except that you are too kind. A merciful army cannot be commanded. If the defeated army dares to attack our army, we will kill them all!"
"... Well, Mr. Yuan, what he said makes sense." After thinking for a while, he raised his head and said, "Mr. Yuan, we have arrived in Shenyang now. The Jiannu should have retreated from Fushun, right?"
"Three days ago, Master Cheng led a team of Jinyiwei to advance. I think there will be news today. However, I think that the Jiannu spies we caught along the way are definitely not all of them. It seems that the Jiannu have been planning in Liaodong for a long time. Therefore, we must increase our counterattack efforts."
"Mr. Yuan, please speak."
"Your Highness, please give an order. From today onwards, except for our scouts and the Imperial Guards, no one is allowed to go east of Shenyang. From today onwards, anyone we see in the wild east of Shenyang will be killed!"
"Well, anyone who's still running around in the wild in this weather is definitely not a good person. But."
"Thank you, Your Highness. I have another suggestion."
"Mr. Yuan, please speak."
"Your Highness, our army's logistics now all rely on Xinghua Palace. From Tianjin, Nanjing to the mouth of the Liaohe River, the entire journey can be transported by sea. Therefore, as long as Your Highness does not mind spending money, our army does not need to rush to Fushun Pass to fight a decisive battle with the Jiannu."
"What does Mr. Yuan mean?"
"Your Highness, we can't reorganize the army at this moment, but we can influence it subtly. Henghai Guard is the best example, and Kuandian Guard is also good. As long as our logistics can keep up, what's wrong with celebrating the Lantern Festival here? Take this opportunity to make our more than 100,000 troops more harmonious with each other, and the possibility of winning in the future decisive battle will be greater. It's just that it costs some money."
"Hahaha, Mr. Yuan, any problem that can be solved with money is not a problem. This thing can be done! However, a considerable part of the troops from the nine important towns have been drawn to Liaodong. If the Mongols in the north move south in spring, it will be very troublesome. So..."
"Your Highness, let's not talk about the Mongols in the north. After , the ice and snow in Liaodong will melt, and all the roads will be in a mess. It will be impossible to advance at that time. Therefore, we must set out before March. But this month of rest is also very necessary."
"Okay, that's it. Hey, it would be even better if that old villain Nurhaci could attack us on his own initiative."
