Chapter 97 Tightening

When Xiong Wencan was busy after taking office, Xiao Tianjian was also busy. After the Spring Festival, Xing Tianjun won three new counties. These three county sites were connected with the original Yongning Lu family, so that Xing Tianjun formed a north-south nearly three in the western part of Henan in less than half a year. The actual control area is nearly 400 miles long from east to west.

The Xingtian Army to the north directly threatened the safety of Luoyang in Yichuan County, which almost made Luoyang Prefecture almost become an enclave hanging in the circle of the Xingtian Army's power. To the east, it pushed straight to Ruzhou, and could leap over the Central Plain of Mayu at any time. To the south, it threatened Nanyang, Runing Prefecture, Gwangju and other state governments, and the government of Henan. It has become a great oppression.

Moreover, when the Xing Tianjun broke through Ruyang County, he obtained tens of thousands of stones of grain in Ruyang County, a considerable part of which belonged to the Fu King of Luoyang, and a considerable number of armors were captured, which was enough for the Xing Tianjun to last for a considerable period of time.

At the same time, Xing Tianjun also captured a large number of officers and soldiers. In addition, many exiles came to fight, which also made Xing Tianjun obtain a large amount of human resources, so Xiao Tianjian had to stop for a moment, digest these gains, reorganize the new army, and expand his combat effectiveness as quickly as possible.

With Xiao Tianjian's observation of the future situation, he did not dare to be flutter because of the current temporary victory. On the contrary, he had a clearer understanding of the situation under the reminder of Niu Jinxing.

Since Niu Jinxing defected to Xiao Tianjian, he has also tried his best to make suggestions for Xing Tianjun. On the one hand, he has taken over a considerable number of affairs related to civil affairs, and on the other hand, he has also recruited a lot of aspiring scholars for Xiao Tianjian in the local area.

Niu Jinxing is still relatively famous in the western part of Henan. He is familiar with civil affairs, astronomy and geography. At the same time, he is also quite familiar with Sun Wu's military tactics. He is not only a full-time talent, but also at least he is also very talented. His influence on many local scholars. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, because of the party struggle, it was difficult for Henan scholars to enter his career. Most of the official positions have been obtained by Jiangnan scholars, so that it is difficult for northern scholars to get ahead. Many scholars have also seen this. It can be said that they have long been complaining about such a situation. In addition, in troubled times, many scholars' own families have gone bankrupt, not to mention continuing to study to seek an official position, even to raise It has become a very difficult thing to make a living at home. At this time, once a scholar like Niu Jinxing takes the lead in the transformation of the civilian army like Xiao Tianjian, it will lead more scholars to join the Xing Tianjun.

What's more, after Xiao Tianjian broke through these counties, he also captured some low-level officials. For these officials who have considerable experience in managing local areas, Xiao Tianjian was not too harsh on them. He just asked them to stay in office and continue to assist Xing Tianjun to be responsible for some civil affairs. These officials don't care what they want. Unable to be unwilling, after being forced to this field, in order to save their lives, they had to compromise and continue to work under the supervision of Xing Tianjun. Many related to the handling of civil affairs can be said to be familiar in their hands, less after passing the swerving each other, it is more effective than doing things in the government before. The rate has increased by more than ten times.

And the local gentry, Xiao Tianjian, once again listened to Niu Jinxing's advice and treated them differently. He only chose some giant gentry or dignitaries who were the most powerful among them, announced their crimes, sent troops to suppress them, confiscated their property and confiscated them. In our fields, we kill people who are deeply responsible for crimes. For the relatively small gentry, as long as there are no evil people in the local area, Xing Tianjun treats them leniently and does not harm them or forcibly extort them, making Niu Jinxing and those officials to comfort them feel at ease, so that the newly acquired land will be stabilized quickly. It's also quite fast.

At this time, it is the beginning of the spring season. The newly acquired counties should not only distribute the fields seized by the Xing Tianjun at the fastest speed, but also recruit the raft for farming, resume agricultural production in the jurisdiction as soon as possible, catch up with the spring sowing season, so that the local area can restore self-sufficiency as soon as possible, and lay a good foundation for the next action. .

At the same time, it is the construction of the Xingtian army of Xiao Tianjian. After all, with the expansion of their territory, they need more soldiers to defend, and at the same time, they also have to deal with the retaliation of the government that is likely to come in a flash like a storm, so it is the best choice to expand military strength in a short time. Choose.

In this regard, there is absolutely no problem with the source of soldiers. There are a large number of displaced displaced people in each county, and there are also many defectors and soldiers. Among these people who can survive in this troubled world, they are basically young and strong. For the placement of these people, Niu Jinxing opposes Xiao Tianjian's previous arrangement. His The opinion is that we can't directly divide the land to these exiles. If they want to get the land, it's okay, that is, to work for Xing Tianjun first and accumulate credit before they can be awarded to the land. In this way, it is avoided because someone can easily get the land and is unwilling to be a soldier for Xing Tianjun. Sell your life.

After listening to this, Xiao Tianjian thought that what Niu Jinxing said was extremely true. When he adopted his opinion, he immediately changed the previous method of distributing land, stipulating that all the land found by the Xing Tianjun will be temporarily returned to the public. If the exiled people want to get the land, they must first have a strong man to join the Xingtian Army as a soldier, and his family can temporarily obtain soil. The foster right of the land, once the soldiers have achieved success in the army, the land can be officially transferred to their families, and the greater the military merit, the more land will be obtained, so as to stimulate the fighting spirit and morale of soldiers.

In addition, Xiao Tianjian also ordered people to use four materials of gold, silver, copper and iron to recruit craftsmen in Ruyang County to cast a batch of medals in different proportions, and officially launched the medal system of the Xingtian Army. This kind of medal is called the Xingtian Medal, which is awarded to soldiers with different levels of merit to commend their army. Gong.

Anyone who gets a medal will receive different preferential treatment in the jurisdiction of the Xingtian Army in the future. It is even stipulated that officials of the non-Clinary Army system should automatically avoid and salute them when they see generals wearing medals, so as to stimulate the sense of honor and improve their status as soldiers.

In fact, there is a reason why the military discipline of the Ming Dynasty was corrupt. Many criminals were assigned to the army as soldiers, so that the army was full of all kinds of criminals. Naturally, it is impossible for an army like this to be respected by people. The low status of soldiers is naturally understandable. Call them Qiu Ba is polite. Anyone who is related to the soldiers will be embarrassed to say hello to others on the street. It is impossible to expect such an army to establish a sense of honor, so Xiao Tianjian thought of the medal system, which is to improve the status of the Xingtian military departments in the jurisdiction and make the jurisdiction The people changed their previous attitude of looking down on soldiers, which gave soldiers a sense of honor. They felt that being a soldier was a way to improve their social status, and would not be basically regarded as a thief like the Ming army.

Of course, after the medal is issued, it is not irrecoverable. Once the soldiers seriously violate military discipline, they can be deprived of their medals and return them to the medals. However, as long as there is no mistake, the soldiers of the Xing Tianjun can withdraw from the army one day in the future. Zhang is taken home for permanent preservation. As an heirloom, people who hold this kind of medal can also receive preferential treatment in terms of taxes and the appointment of a bailiff according to the different medal levels after returning home.

As soon as the news came out, there was a craze in the Xingtian Army. The soldiers and generals were full of strength. They had to work hard to get back such a medal in the future. After going back, they were so glorious and trained their soldiers. Naturally, they worked harder.

The medal system is just a small episode. After taking over the three counties, Xiao Tianjian once again announced the expansion of troops. The original two, three, four and the teaching battalions were expanded on the spot, and each of them was divided into two. The new recruits were expanded into eight new barracks, and a group of elite soldiers were selected from ordinary soldiers to serve as commanders and commanders. As the backbone of the new battalion, in order to ensure combat effectiveness, almost a veteran is responsible for leading a new recruit. Although the combat effectiveness of each battalion will be reduced in a short time, it will not take long for these battalions to return to their previous combat effectiveness.

In addition to the war barracks, all counties and townships also began to implement the long-term protection system, set up local township barracks, and build local armed forces under the jurisdiction of the Xingtian Army with the township barracks as the main force, and be responsible for defending the local responsibilities, so as not to contain the core main fighting force of the Xingtian Army.

After such a busy work, the strength of Xing Tianjun in western Henan quickly soared. The battle barracks alone expanded to eight, and the strength was close to 10,000. In addition, several new battalions temporarily affiliated with the auxiliary soldiers. Once something happens, they can mobilize nearly 20,000 generals who can participate in the war. In addition, the five soldiers actually controlled by the Xing Tian Army. Each county also quickly set up more than a dozen township barracks with the chief protection system as the core. Although these township barracks cannot be used for field warfare, they can still be used to guard the fortress.

However, the problems caused by the expansion also followed. Although after the Xingtian army entered Henan, he won several battles and seized a lot of weapons, the number of armor captured was quite limited, so that almost everyone in the original war barracks had armor, but now only nearly half of them had armor, which weakened the defense ability of the barracks a lot. Subsequently, it has affected the combat effectiveness of Xing Tianjun to a certain extent, but there is nothing we can do. After all, Xing Tianjun's foundation is still too thin. Although they have a large iron field and craftsman's camp in Yangcheng, Shanxi Province, after all, the production capacity is limited. The existing production capacity is basically concentrated on building weapons, and has been It is not possible to build armor on a large scale and use it in the equipment army. The existing armor basically relies on the acquisition. If you want to equip all the soldiers with armor, let alone the Xingtian Army, even the officers and soldiers do not have such ability.

The other is the problem of weapons. The original equipment ratio of birds or self-made fire in the four barracks has reached about 40%, and the teaching battalions even reached about 50%. However, after the expansion, the proportion of musket equipment in the eight barracks has dropped to about 20%, making the long-range lethality of the Xingtian Army. It has been greatly reduced.

After the Spring Festival, although the craftsman's camp in Shanxi has started full production capacity and continues to expand its production capacity, the number of self-fired bis, which is now unable to exceed 700, and the negative impact is that the quality of the newly built self-fired munition has begun to appear to a certain extent. The decline of the fire rate is not even as high as the fire rate of the self-fired fire made a few years ago, and there is even an accident of explosion during normal loading and launching, forcing Xiao Tianjian to send people back to Shanxi to pass the order, strictly investigate the reasons for the quality decline, and do not expand the production quantity under the premise of not ensuring quality.

At the end of February, the ice on the surface of the Yellow River in the Luoyang section began to break. Because of the melting of ice on the river, it was temporarily impossible to cross the Yellow River on foot and transfer materials to Henan. Because there was too much floating ice on the river, the water of the Yellow River soared, so that ships could not pass on the river, which basically cut off the Shanxi side to Henan. For the supply of materials, especially weapons, Xiao Tianjian can only temporarily rely on solving the problem of military equipment locally.

Fortunately, Lushi County began to produce iron a year ago, and established a new craftsman's camp and began to produce weapons, which slightly satisfied some of the army's weapons and equipment, but it was also limited to the production of various cold weapons. Because the craftsmen and molds were not in place, they could not be produced. Suddenly, With such a large number of soldiers and horses, Xiao Tianjian also had a headache.

Therefore, he can only arm the eight war battalions first, equip all the good weapons at hand into the war barracks, and the eliminated weapons can arm the new battalion and the township barracks. This can only be done in a short time.

However, the problem of equipment did not affect the morale in the army. After the reorganization, the battalions began to enter the high chao of the big training. With the old and new battalions, they all carried out large-scale training activities. Under the relatively sufficient food supply, the enthusiasm of the battalions for training was very high. At all costs, he almost took out the strength to practice. Coupled with the one-on-one old and new methods, the conversion between the marches of the array was basically completed in less than a month, so that the eight battalions of the Xing Tianjun quickly had the ability to fight.

However, Xiao Tianjian's good days are limited to this. By mid-March, all kinds of unfavorable news began to come, and the details sent to various places by the intelligence system were sent to the camp in Ruyang County, where Xiao Tianjian was temporarily stationed.

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