My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 235: Marching South

Although he was angry, Liu Chengde, the Yunnan envoy, had immediately assembled the officers and troops of the garrisons to suppress the rebellion, so Zhu Yuanzhang did not have to worry too much.

Yunnan was too far away from the core of the empire and transportation was inconvenient, so only about 20% of the garrison troops were equipped with needle-fired rifles. However, the total number was over 10,000. They were not afraid of the chieftains' private soldiers who were still using cold weapons.

Moreover, the chieftains' private soldiers had never received any systematic training. Their concept of large-scale military operations was still that they would swarm together when the wind was favorable and scatter like birds and beasts when the wind was unfavorable. It is not an exaggeration to describe them as a mob.

The garrison troops equipped with hot weapons are completely the product of two different eras!

Fu Youde and Mu Ying had encountered this situation when they were on an expedition to Yunnan. When the Yuan army encountered the Ming army marching south, they were still able to resist a bit, sometimes even fighting like trapped beasts, but the Tusi's troops...

In the words of Fu Youde, these guys are good at bullying the locals in normal times, but once they are on the battlefield, they run faster than dogs and cannot be caught up. Sometimes the Yuan army was not even defeated by the Ming army, but was dragged to death by the chieftains.

As for Li Cang and Ruan Chengping, Zhu Yuanzhang was a little amused and helpless. One was the eldest son of the prime minister and the General of Cavalry of Annan, and the other was a grand scholar, but they were beaten to death by Dai people with farm tools.

It sounds ridiculous, but these two people deserved to die. The only pity is that we can't pry more useful information out of their mouths.

Then he issued two imperial edicts, one to Fu Youde, ordering him to rush to Yunnan immediately, as the commander-in-chief, to command the officers and troops of various garrisons in Yunnan to suppress the rebellious chieftains.

The other one was to Liu Chengde, the Yunnan Xuanwei Envoy. In the imperial edict, he first praised Liu Chengde, and at the same time commended Zhao Hanzhong and Sun Er and others. He also promoted Sun Er to the general flag, and his soldiers were also promoted to small flags.

Then, the Dai people who killed Li Cang and Ruan Chengping were rewarded with 100 taels of silver each as an encouragement.

In addition, he summoned Xu Da and Li Wenzhong to discuss the southern expedition.

Zhu Yuanzhang still planned to continue sending troops to Yunnan, not only to assist Fu Youde in quickly wiping out the rebellious chieftains, but also to make full preparations for the next battle into Laos and Annan.

As for how many troops to send as the southern expedition force, several people unanimously felt that the quality of the soldiers was more important than the quantity, and sending a musket battalion of 100,000 people was just right.

It's not just because they believe that the soldiers of the Musket Battalion are well-trained and can defeat a hundred enemies alone, but more importantly, among these 100,000 soldiers, more than 20,000 soldiers are equipped with the latest Type 56 semi-automatic rifles.

Although the weapons have become more complex, the logistical work has actually been further reduced.

Because the things we need to carry are much less than when we went on the Northern Expedition.

The army during the Northern Expedition included infantry, cavalry, musketeers, archers, etc., but the army going out now only has musketeers. This simplified the previously diverse baggage to only armor-clad bullets and paper-wrapped bullets, food, medicine, alcohol, etc., and of course, what Zhu Yuanzhang had longed for - sugar!
Nowadays, the Ming army can also use sugar as a strategic resource like England.

Moreover, once the sugarcane planting in the Southeast Asian countries is under control, the output of white sugar will increase further and the price will continue to fall.

Using white sugar as military supplies is, on the one hand, to adjust the soldiers' taste. Being able to eat something sweet on the battlefield is more important than anything else. And as Lao Li said, white sugar is high in calories. Once food is cut off, white sugar is an excellent food to replenish physical strength.

Moreover, white sugar can be used as medicine. It can effectively stop bleeding and kill bacteria. As for Lao Li, white sugar can also be used as explosives. Zhu Yuanzhang thinks it is a bit too extravagant. There is no need for it now. The Ming Dynasty has no shortage of explosives.

After determining the battle plan, Xu Da and Li Wenzhong began to organize the musket battalion and baggage and logistics troops, prepared sufficient supplies, and then marched towards Yunnan.

As usual, Zhu Di and Xu Huizu were in the southern expedition team. Although they were still captains of the sniper battalion, the role of the sniper battalion was further enhanced after being equipped with new guns, and the two of them never thought about promotion.

In Xu Huizu's opinion, it is more refreshing to kill the enemy on the front line than to stay in the military camp with his father. This is what a real man should do. Zhu Di just likes to shoot from behind and hang out with his brothers in the camp. Only in the military camp can he completely get rid of his identity as the fourth prince and be free.

Of course, in addition to these two, there was one more person in the southern expedition team, that was Li Jinglong among the trio.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, although Li Jinglong had the "halo" of "Military God of the Ming Dynasty", he also felt sorry for his nephew. After much thought, he thought that as long as he was not allowed to serve as the commander-in-chief to command the battle, nothing big would happen.

Although Li Jinglong was also a centurion, he was incorporated into Zhu Di's sniper camp. With Zhu Di's care, this guy couldn't cause any trouble.

Along the way, Xu Huizu and Zhu Di were talking and laughing, looking relaxed. It looked like they were going for an outing rather than a war.

Li Jinglong, on the other hand, spoke much less and looked very serious, as if he was facing a powerful enemy. From time to time, he would take out his Type 56 semi-automatic rifle to wipe it.

Xu Huizu and Zhu Di saw it and smiled at each other. They looked at Li Jinglong as if he was a newcomer or junior.

New recruits will always feel nervous when they go to the battlefield for the first time. This is normal. They will feel much better after they kill someone.

"Nephew, you don't have to clean the gun so diligently. Relax and don't have a tense face all day long. Smile, just smile." Zhu Di said to Li Jinglong with a smile.

Li Jinglong grinned, the flesh on his face twitching, but his smile was uglier than crying.

"Well, you'd better not laugh. It looks scary." Xu Huizu quickly stopped Li Jinglong.

"Don't be nervous, just relax. Wars nowadays are not like before, where you have to fight the enemy in close combat with a knife."

Xu Huizu comforted him, "Now that we use guns, most of the time, the enemy can't even touch us. Besides, the effective range of the new gun is 400 meters. The battle may be over before you even see the enemy."

"Yes, yes, my brother-in-law is right, nephew. When the time comes, you just follow me and do whatever I do. You just hit whoever I tell you to hit." Zhu Di also said with a smile.

"But, but what if the bullets are used up but the enemy has not been eliminated?" Li Jinglong asked worriedly.

Zhu Di and Xu Huizu looked at each other and burst into laughter.

"You're just a rookie with no experience, nephew. I tell you, we can fire a hundred bullets at most in one battle.

Not to mention the musket battalion, in our sniper battalion, each person is basically equipped with 150 rounds of ammunition for each mission. In case of special circumstances, the number of bullets carried will be further increased, and this does not include the spare ammunition brought by the logistics team.

So the bullets can never be used up, they can never be used up, and besides..."

Zhu Di leaned close to Li Jinglong's ear and said mysteriously, "Do you know how much ammunition we brought with us on this southern expedition?"

"How much?" Li Jinglong was stunned, then asked curiously.

"Not to mention the paper-wrapped bullets, we brought a total of 30 million rounds of ammunition for our new rifles!"

(End of this chapter)