Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 271: Relocation

Qing army, Jiangbei camp.

Ever since the destruction of the Guazhou navy, Bai Yintu felt that it was useless to gather a large army in Jiangbei. The Jiangbei camp, which was unable to threaten the Jinling City, was like a chicken rib. Apart from wasting food and money, Bai Yintu could not see any benefit from stationing troops there.

The Qing court was not foolish. Looking at the Jiangnan area, the continuous transportation of grain and grass, the deployment of navy in Poyang Lake, etc., they knew that Meng Jun had already set his sights on Huguang.

As Baiyintu wrote to the regent and explained the pros and cons, Dorgon immediately ordered that, in addition to leaving 5,000 Green Camp soldiers in the Jiangbei camp to monitor Zhou's army, the entire division would be moved to Huguang, and after Bolo returned from Korea, he would also be transferred south to Huguang.

According to Dorgon's idea, by April next year, the battlefield in Huguang will be crowded with Hauge's troops, Wu Sangui's troops, Baiyintu's Jiangbei Camp troops, and Bolo's troops, and the Eight Banners of Mongolia will be mobilized. The army will be gathered with nearly 200,000 soldiers. In this battle, the Qing court will send out all its troops to fight in Huguang. If they win, the world will be unified. If they lose, the north will be difficult to protect. I'm afraid there is only one way out, which is to retreat outside the Great Wall.

………………

Over the past three years, the Military Equipment Inspectorate has grown from a small department with dozens of craftsmen to its current size. Craftsmen recruited from all over the country and gathered in Ma'anshan have now reached more than 3,000 people, and there are also many apprentices and miscellaneous workers who are not included. In order to improve the enthusiasm and creativity of the craftsmen, Meng Jun, by order of King Zhou, abolished the hundreds of years of the Ming Dynasty's artisan household system and released people's personal freedom. Not only were their salaries increased, but the rewards for craftsmen who made innovations or increased production were also unprecedented.

By October 26, when the officials of the shogunate were still worried about the king's selection of a queen, Meng Jun had almost finished the military expansion.

A new town was expanded in Jinling City, named Wuping Town. Most of the soldiers were recruited from the people living near Jinling City. As for the selection of the town commander, Meng Jun thought again and again, and then promoted Wu Tiao to be the commander of the town, and transferred Liu Ruyu, the defender of Dingyang City, as the deputy general.

The heavy armored army originally had 3,000 people, but was expanded to 5,000 by selecting brave and strong men. All of them were tall and brave soldiers who could wear heavy armor and strike hundreds of times. Meng Jun hoped that the heavy armored army could be well-armored and break the enemy's strong formation.

The original number of the Po Lu Army was 6,000, with a strength of 10,000 soldiers. The soldiers had been recruited long ago. When they attacked Jin Shenghuan at the beginning, there were not enough muskets to equip the entire army. Now the Po Lu Army has enough firearms to equip the entire army, and all kinds of small artillery have also been deployed to the entire army. This Po Lu Army is the result of Meng Jun's hard work.

Meng Jun invested a lot of money in this army. The cost of a flintlock musket alone was four taels of silver, not including the labor of craftsmen, gunpowder, bullets and other expenses. The monthly expenses of this army of 10,000 people were as high as more than 50,000 taels, including military pay, bullets and gunpowder consumed in daily training, as well as food, bedding, armor, etc.

In addition, Meng Jun's personal guards had also expanded from one thousand to two thousand people. Taking inventory of his assets, Meng Jun now had Changlin Town led by Meng Jun himself, Ningwu Town led by Lin Shiqi, Kewu Town led by Han Xiong, Wuan Town led by Zhao Yongping, Guwu Town led by Bai Yongfu, Wuxing Town led by Wang Fugui, Wuning Town led by Qian Biao, Wuwei Town led by Gao Jinku, Wusheng Town led by Liang Sanhu, plus the newly built Wuping Town, and two towns prepared by selecting surrendered Jin soldiers.

The entire army has twelve garrisons, 5,000 heavy armored troops, 10,000 enemy-breaking troops, more than 2,600 cavalry, as well as scouts, rear camps, personal guards, etc. The total number of troops is more than 140,000. Except for the Kewu Town stationed far away in Fujian, the Wuwei and Wu'an towns guarding the river defense, and the Changlin Town stationed in Nanjing, Meng Jun can use troops in Huguang, with a total of 100,000 regular troops.

Meng Jun went from being an ordinary person to joining the ranks of tens of thousands of troops. The more he participated in military affairs such as marching, camping, exploration, hydrology, geography, etc., the more he understood, but he felt more and more that he was just a half-baked person. Whenever he read history and saw the generals who had left their great names in history, he could not help but feel a little insecure and fearful.

Therefore, when Meng Jun was marching and fighting, he would always consider defeat before even thinking of victory. Unless the situation was critical, he would always use conservative tactics and never take risky moves. Whenever he fought with the enemy, he would be extremely nervous and trembling after winning, and would not dare to be complacent or look down on anyone in the world.

He was very clear about his strengths. He had knowledge that was ahead of the world and knew the context of historical development. Meng Jun knew that if he could not win and could not change the world, the Qing government would be blinding the world, closing the country to the outside world, conducting literary inquisitions, strictly prohibiting firearms and suppressing thoughts. Then the Oriental Lion would still be sleeping. Hundreds of years later, the country would be weak, and the coastal areas would be full of compradors and leases. The Japanese invaders' strong ships and powerful guns would be able to enter the Yangtze River in a show of force, and the tragic Songhu Battle would still happen. History seemed to be repeating itself, just like the Ten Days of Yangzhou in Nanjing.

Therefore, Meng Jun could never tolerate history repeating itself. Now, he could change an area with just a wave of his hand, and millions of people would listen attentively to his words.

During his time in Jinling City, in addition to handling government affairs, Meng Jun delivered six letters to Xia Wanchun, who was at the experimental base in Wuhu. The letters contained the general principles of the steam engine, the principles of the breech-loading rifle, the general shape of cement, and improvements to shrapnel shells, etc.

These things naturally could not be accomplished overnight. For example, for steam engines, Meng Jun only knew that rubber seemed to be needed for sealing, but he didn't know where the rubber trees were at the time. He could only order people to look for them everywhere and sent people to contact Zheng Chenggong. Anyway, he was casting a wide net and trying his best. These things were more important than the improvement of shrapnel bombs. They would be used in war, so Meng Jun was quite concerned about them.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were already blooming bombs, also known as explosive bombs, which were ammunition with gunpowder inside. When it was fired, it could explode in the air or when it came into contact with the target, injuring people with shrapnel. The earliest record of the application of this weapon in history also came from the Ming Dynasty.

However, today's shrapnel shells are unstable, with a dud rate of over 70%, and they are more expensive. One shrapnel shell is equivalent to at least three solid shells. In terms of cost-effectiveness, solid shells are now far superior to shrapnel shells. Anyway, these experiments are slow, and Meng Jun doesn't have the system with him, so he can't do it quickly.

It was the evening of October 28th, the second year of the Yongli reign.

Meng Jun formally issued an order to move the troops to Jiujiang. Qian Biao's Wuning Town, Bai Yongfu's Guwu Town, and the newly built Wuping Town were moved to Jiujiang in advance, and waited for the army to gather before marching towards Huguang.