The mysterious world: Start working hard from the beggar camp!

Chapter 495: The Ming Dynasty's counterattack, Chongzhen went from one extreme to another

In the western part of Jinling, next to the large wharf on the Yangtze River, a huge military camp was recently built.

Chongzhen, wearing the royal inherited suit of top-grade spiritual weapons, was reviewing the troops on the large parade ground covering tens of thousands of acres in the military camp.

"My emperor is mighty!"

"The Ming Dynasty is bright and the sun and moon never set!"...

A total of three million Ming officers and soldiers who had completed the reorganization, lined up in military formations and marched in front of the rostrum one after another with high morale.

These were Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting and Huang Degong, each of whom commanded a million new troops of the imperial court.

Two months ago, the three of them led their respective soldiers to retreat from Jiangbei to Jiangnan in a timely manner, and then carried out a strategic reorganization of the elite troops in accordance with the emperor's orders.

There was no way. Although Emperor Chongzhen had been carrying out a campaign of confiscating property and exterminating clans recently, he had obtained a huge amount of money, food and supplies.

However, the military supplies consumption of millions of soldiers over the years and the cost of money, food and supplies are astronomical figures!
This is something that needs to be supplied over a long period of time, not just consumed once.

Even though Li Dingguo occupied the entire northern land, had almost endless resources, and a well-coordinated military, and could maximize efficiency, he was still unable to support tens of millions of conventional main combat troops.

Even Li Dingguo's Fuxing Army can only adopt the elite soldier mode now, and the maximum number of regular troops that can be supported is 7.5 million in total.

Among them, there are twelve major army corps, each with 500,000 people, a total of 6 million warriors.

The navy, which had just completed its reorganization, had a total of five fleets, each with 300,000 soldiers.

The territory occupied by the Fuxing Army now is more than ten times the territory actually controlled by Chongzhen.
Moreover, the Renaissance Army has a stable political environment and harmonious people, and nearly 100 billion people are united as one. In all aspects, no other force can compare with it.

Even so, Li Dingguo could not afford to support tens of millions of soldiers and warriors, and the total number of regular troops was only 7.5 million.

The troops of Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting and Huang Degong retreated back to the Jiangnan region, each bringing back about two million warriors and millions of military dependents.

Together with the millions of warriors and soldiers who were integrated after the Jinling City was cleaned up by Chongzhen, the number of troops under his command reached seven million!

With only half a province of land, it was impossible for Emperor Chongzhen to feed seven million soldiers for a long time, not to mention Li Dingguo.

disarmament.

This becomes a top priority.

This is also in line with the strategy of elite troops adopted by all forces in the current environment.

The Fuxing Army has proven through countless practices that the strategy of elite troops is the key to victory.

Since the rapid rise of the Restoration Army after its formation, it has won almost all battles with fewer troops.

And it's not just about winning, every time it's a big win.

Including the arrogant Later Jin clan, they always suffered disastrous defeats against the Fuxing Army and even lost their old nest in Liaodong, which led to the disintegration of the Qing Dynasty and the destruction of the Black Dragon of national destiny!

With the example of the Renaissance Army, as long as all parties are not blind, they will clearly know what the key to the Renaissance Army's victory is.

There is no doubt that these seemingly incredible things can only be accomplished with sophisticated armaments and disciplined elite soldiers as the foundation.

Whether it was imitating the ugly duckling or imitating the Fuxing Army, under tremendous pressure, even Emperor Chongzhen, who had a huge amount of money and materials at his disposal, could only carry out large-scale disarmament and reorganization to form an elite army that met the requirements of the current war model.

After the joint efforts of Emperor Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, Huang Degong, Zhou Yuji and others, which took three months, this massive round of disarmament and reorganization was finally completed.

Of the original seven million soldiers, three million were laid off, leaving only four million today.

The three million warriors who were laid off have been relegated to second-line troops and have become city guards in towns across Jiangnan, responsible for suppressing local affairs and stabilizing people's livelihood.

Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, Huang Degong and Zhou Yuji now each command a new army corps of one million people.

"His Majesty."

Standing next to Chongzhen on the reviewing stand, Wang Chengen looked at the three million soldiers marching in high spirits in front of him, and said with excitement, his face flushed, "Although the number of soldiers in the reorganized new army has been reduced by nearly half, their combat effectiveness is estimated to be doubled compared to before!"

"Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, and Huang Degong are indeed the talented generals that Your Majesty highly values. Their military management skills are much better than those of Zhu Chunchen, Xu Hongji, and others in the past!"

He did not mention Zhou Yuji because the million brave guards commanded by Zhou Yuji were not in Jinling at this time.

The Brave Guard Battalion, also known as the Royal Guards, was the first elite army to complete its expansion and reorganization.

The Yongwei Camp, which originally had only 100,000 people, has now become an elite army of one million, commanded by Zhou Yuji and his wife.

Currently, the Yongwei Army, under the leadership of Zhou Yuji and his wife, is building a defense fortress along the Yangtze River in Zhenjiang.

The Yongwei Army adopted a rotation training model and was divided into five camps, each with 200,000 soldiers. They took turns to attack continuously, capture and clear the towns around Jinling City.

It's not just that.

After today's military review, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, Huang Degong and others who have completed the reorganization of the corps will also launch a large-scale expansion and cleanup operation in Jiangnan.

Chongzhen, who was determined to break off relations with the original officials, gentry and aristocratic families of the Ming Dynasty, would certainly not tolerate those scums.

He has completely transformed into an emperor, and the methods he now adopts are almost the same as those of Li Dingguo.

The same large-scale ransacking of homes and extermination of families, the same means of plundering the enemy's money, food and supplies for their own use.

The only difference is that Emperor Chongzhen took control of the righteous cause and did not bear the label of traitor as Li Dingguo did.

From being cowardly and incompetent in the past to being ruthless and cruel now, Emperor Chongzhen has gone from one extreme to another!
Ever since he refined and integrated the blood of the witch god left by Taizu in the Witch God Temple, Chongzhen has probably been influenced by the witch god bloodline from the ancient mythological period. He has become bellicosity and is no longer afraid of killing and war.

This is also normal.

The witch tribe in the ancient mythological era was happy to hear about war, and slaughtering foreign tribes was a common occurrence.

It is not surprising that Emperor Chongzhen has undergone a radical change.

In addition, the inevitable backlash after refining and fusing the supreme level of witch god blood affected Chongzhen's character every moment. It was quite good that he did not lose his mind.

Even Emperor Taizu of the Zhu family could not avoid the backlash and influence of the witch god's bloodline, and Chongzhen was naturally no exception.

After the founding of the Zhu Dynasty, Emperor Taizu became extremely cruel and murderous in his old age, and it was not just because he could not stand corrupt officials.

The main reason was the influence of the witch god's bloodline. Fortunately, Emperor Taizu had the two top-level innate artifacts, the Haotian Tower and the Wushen Temple, to suppress the sea of ​​gods, so he remained rational and did not go crazy.

Although Chongzhen now has a top-level innate artifact, the Witch God Temple, to suppress the Divine Sea and his own luck, he still lacks an artifact of luck, the Haotian Tower. Under the backlash of the Witch God's blood, he will probably not survive past the age of a hundred.

It is estimated that it is due to the influence of the rules of heaven and earth in this magical world that Emperor Chongzhen and Zhu Taizu, who are not practitioners of a high level of cultivation, are able to miraculously refine and absorb the supreme grade blood of the witch god.

It can also enable the practitioners in the Body Refining Realm and Qi Refining Realm in this vast world to successfully refine those innate and acquired artifacts.

If it were in the ancient mythological period, it was said that even immortals at the Xuanxian level could not do such a thing.

It is estimated that this is due to this special world and the magical rules of heaven and earth.

"Well, looking at the situation of the soldiers, my efforts have finally been lived up to."

Although he had never seen the appearance and posture of the Fuxing Army soldiers in person, Chongzhen was deeply satisfied when he saw the high morale and well-organized formation of the soldiers in front of him, which was completely different from the previous court officers and soldiers.

The former imperial officials and soldiers were no match for the new army soldiers in front of them in terms of spirit and appearance.

Emperor Chongzhen was also aware of this, and it was probably because these new army soldiers received full military pay and adequate supplies of military supplies that this earth-shaking qualitative change occurred.

Facts have proved that the strategy of elite troops after disarmament and reorganization is very correct.

Even though these major combat corps have lost nearly half of their regular soldiers, in terms of combat effectiveness, the remaining four million elite soldiers are estimated to be able to crush the previous seven million soldiers.

Realizing that he was in control of such a powerful elite army, Chongzhen, like Wang Chengen, couldn't help but blush with excitement.

After the military review, Chongzhen ordered his three trusted generals, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting and Huang Degong, to be summoned to the commander's camp in the military camp.

Lu Jiude, who is in charge of the Military Intelligence Department, has been waiting for everyone here for a long time.

Since all aspects are already imitating the model of the Fusion Army, the important department of Military Intelligence is of course indispensable.

The Military Intelligence Department of the Southern Ming Dynasty was reorganized from the original Jinyiwei. A large number of the original good-for-nothings were laid off, and then qualified warriors with clean backgrounds were selected from the three million laid-off troops to reorganize the department.

Compared with the original Jinyiwei, the current Military Intelligence Department is more than twice as elite.

Although restricted by the initial supply of money, food and materials, the newly reorganized Military Intelligence Department of the Southern Ming Dynasty had only 300,000 people, far less than the one million-strong Military Intelligence Department of the Fuxing Army, but it was enough to fully launch the Southern Ming Dynasty's intelligence collection work.

"His Majesty."

At Chongzhen's signal, Lu Jiude began to report the latest military situation. "On the other side of the Yangtze River from Jinling City, in Jiangpu City occupied by the Fuxing Army, the Qinglong Corps and the White Tiger Corps of the Fuxing Army are currently stationed."

"The commander-in-chief is the bandit general Cao Yongxiang, and his deputy is Tang Guangqiang."

"These two were the first core generals who followed Li Dingguo in his career and were highly valued and trusted by Li Dingguo."

"Especially Cao Yongxiang, who possesses an innate divine weapon, a spear, with extremely strong attack power. In the recent war to recover the Jiangbei region, he defeated two great commanders, Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting."

In order to demonstrate the legitimacy of the Southern Ming Dynasty, it was at least necessary to overwhelm all forces in name. The four million-strong new army commanders Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, Huang Degong and Zhou Yuji were all appointed as grand commanders by Emperor Chongzhen.

This is a general who truly controls the military and political power, and he is not comparable to the generals who were only in name only in the past.

The originally extremely suspicious Emperor Chongzhen underwent a radical change in character after refining and fusing the blood of the witch god. He no longer sent eunuchs into the army to serve as supervisors, and gave these great commanders enough trust and power.

Not surprisingly, this kind of sincere trust made the four great commanders Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, Huang Degong and Zhou Yuji not only feel the emperor's grace, but also completely win his heart.

As for those incompetent or indecisive eunuchs under Emperor Chongzhen, they had almost been completely purged.

It can be said that if it were not for bad luck, the world was in chaos, and there were threats from the Restoration Army and those entrenched aristocratic families, the Chongzhen Emperor, who had a drastic change in his temperament, might have created a new era of prosperity for the Ming Dynasty.

But no matter what, the Southern Ming Dynasty, which was reborn from the ashes, also had an opportunity to be reborn.

"Fortunately, the Fuxing Army has expanded too quickly in the past two years and has captured too much territory. In addition, the remnants of the Later Jin Dynasty, the mortal enemy Huang Taiji, are threatening to be in the rear of Liaodong. This has forced the Fuxing Army to adopt a strategy of recuperation and rest, and eliminate internal hidden dangers as soon as possible, in order to truly stabilize all the jurisdictions and restore people's livelihood order."

Lu Jiude's serious expression softened a bit when he said this, and he was relieved. "If it goes as expected, they won't be able to launch a battle to cross the river in one or two years."

"This gives our Ming Dynasty precious time and opportunity to deal with various difficult internal issues."

As the head of the Military Intelligence Department of the Southern Ming Dynasty, Lu Jiude, who was both civil and military, naturally knew very well what his side lacked most.

Without a doubt, it is the buffer time.

Emperor Chongzhen came to power too late. Although he now has an army of four million elite soldiers under his command, the only areas he fully controls are Yingtian Prefecture, Zhenjiang Prefecture and Changzhou Prefecture.

The richest prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang and Hangzhou in Southern Zhili were still under the control of the aristocratic families in Jiangnan, who had even raised a large number of troops to confront the Southern Ming court at the border.

This was the first wave of backlash after brazenly breaking off relations with the original official gentry class and the aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River.

Now Emperor Chongzhen only controls a small half of the Southern Zhili region, and what he lacks most is time.

With his own strength and the troops he controls, as long as he has a year or two to buffer, it wouldn't be a big deal to expand the territory he actually controls tenfold.

After all, the four million new army soldiers under his complete control are no longer the same as before.

Whether it's the commander or the elite level of the soldiers, although they are not as good as the Fusion Army of the same size, they are not far behind.

Grand commanders such as Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting and Zhou Yuji can be compared with talented commanders such as Hong Chengchou and Qin Liangyu in all aspects. They are not ordinary generals.

"That's good!"

Emperor Chongzhen was overjoyed and relieved when he heard this. At the same time, he thought of something and asked about the matter that he was most concerned about. "I asked you to contact Qin Liangyu in Shu. How is it going now?"

In order to win over this famous female warrior, Emperor Chongzhen made great efforts.

Not only did he promise the other party the powerful position of Grand Commander in Shu, he even specifically emphasized the need to support the other party with massive amounts of money and food supplies, and to expand the White Spear Army to a million elite soldiers.

There is only one goal, to truly and completely recapture this elite army with extremely strong combat effectiveness.

As long as Qin Liangyu, the female warrior of the Ming Dynasty, joins his camp wholeheartedly and completes the purge of Shu as planned, the help she can provide to Emperor Chongzhen in the future will be beyond imagination.

It is not impossible to double the power of the Southern Ming court even within one or two years.

(End of this chapter)