The task of expanding the army in Huguang was completed very quickly. The day before Li Guo left, Gu Junen had sent the list of new numbers for the Huguang army to the new commander's mansion in Xiangyang City. The new commander's mansion was a remodeled part of the former Xiangwang Palace.

The garden was used as the office of Chen Xin, the military envoy of Jingxiang Province, but in fact Li Laiheng also worked in this commander's mansion in the name of former camp general and Jianghuai economic envoy.

The Chuang Army implemented the right-wing system, and the generals could control the civilian military envoys stationed in the garrison. Therefore, even if Li Laiheng did not have the official position of Huguang Military Envoy, he could still control the Jingxiang Military Envoy Chen Xin in terms of power and responsibilities.

Li Laiheng and Chen Xin worked together. Gu Junen's marching commander was originally a shogunate official in the commander-in-chief of Huguang Jiedushi. Now that Huguang Jiedushi no longer exists, Li Laiheng changed these shogunate officials to the name of the former camp system general.

.

This was a very unreasonable move, but Chen Xin had deep trust in Li Laiheng's Huguang New Deal, and Li Guo had no doubts about his adopted son, whom he trusted so much. Therefore, although Li Laiheng's approach was unreasonable and unreasonable, it was

It didn't cause any disturbance in Xiangyang.

"Brother Wang Chen, this is the new army organization submitted by Gu Sima. You are now the military governor of Jingxiang, so you should take a look at it. After you take a look, I will also send the documents on the strength and supplies of Huguang to Yi.

A share from the Father.”

Chen Xin had always had a good impression of Li Laiheng and said with a smile: "How dare I call him brother in front of Marshal Shao Hu? Marshal Shao Hu's rural administration is so innovative that it really makes me feel like I'm just a student."

Li Laiheng laughed and quickly asked Gu Junen to put the new army establishment documents on the table. In the new establishment, the three troops from the fifth battalion of Ge Zuo who had defected to Li Laiheng were digested first. Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng were both incorporated into the navy.

He Jin, who had neither good fortune nor fame, was difficult to arrange, so Li Laiheng sent him to Li Guo and asked him to take him with him to the Central Plains.

He Jin performed poorly in the Battle of Suizhou and knew that his future in Huguang was not promising. He had an old friendship with Li Zicheng, so he was naturally willing to go to Kaifeng.

The Chuang Army Navy now has a total strength of 11,000 troops, which accounts for about one-sixth of Huguang's existing troops. The remaining 50,000 troops were divided by Li Laiheng into two parts: the local guard and the field army.

The local guards are under the jurisdiction of the Jiedushi, with a total strength of about 20,000. They are mainly recruits with low training levels, and their generals are slightly lower than the equivalent generals of the field troops:

The Xiangyang Guard has 7,000 soldiers, divided into several units such as Xiangyang City Defense Biao and Yangwuzhou City Defense Biao. They are jointly controlled by Xiangyang Yin Niuquan and Xiangyang Wei Guoyi General Ye Yunlin1. Each state and county under their command has one team to one brigade.

They are controlled jointly by the powerful generals and local pastoral orders; the rest are deployed in prefectures and important passes within the territory and are under the sole jurisdiction of the powerful generals.

The same is generally true in other places. Jingzhou has a Jingzhou Guard with 6,000 soldiers. Although the Jingzhou Guard is located in Jingzhou, according to Li Laiheng's deployment, as soon as the invaders occupy Wuchang and Yuezhou, the Jingzhou Guard will be transferred to Wuchang to garrison.

Therefore, General Wei Guoyi of Jingzhou was appointed by Lu Yingbiao, a subordinate of Gao Yigong.

Dehuang has De'an Guard, with a strength of 8,000. It is responsible for defending De'an, Huangzhou, and even Hanyang, Hankou and other places. His position is the most important. Li Laiheng ordered Miao Lichen, the most calm and determined man, to serve as De'an Guard.

General Guo Yi.

In addition to the local guards of more than 20,000 people, there are also 30,000 field troops, including six infantry units totaling 18,000 people, four cavalry units totaling 8,000 people, and two artillery units totaling 4,000 people.

Of course, people still have an unshakable pro-military standard.

Because the strength of the field troops increased sharply, Li Laiheng changed the original two left and right Guoyi generals, Gao Yigong and Gu Kecheng, to four Guoyi generals in the front, back, left and right:

Gao Yigong has been transferred to Wuyue Jiedushi and no longer serves as Guo Yi. The four field army generals Guo Yi are appointed by Guo Junzhen, Gu Kecheng, Hao Yaoqi and Zhang Pili.

In order to fill a large number of new general vacancies after the expansion of the army, Li Laiheng promoted many old brothers from northern Shaanxi, people from Mizhi Township, and local officers from Huguang who had completed the crash training in Suiying School to the ranks of mighty generals, captains, and

In the position of the captain.

Among them, most of Li Furong, Gao Lingyun, He Hongqi, and Liu Wenbing, who were quickly promoted to the rank of powerful generals, had a particularly close relationship with Li Laiheng.

Li Laiheng estimated that after getting rid of Yunyang Fuzhi Gao Doushu and the traitor "Hua Guansuo" Wang Guangen who were guarding Yunyang, and then taking back Wuchang and Yuezhou from Zhang Xianzhong, the garrison of Huguang could be increased by about 10,000 people.

In this way, the local garrison strength is sufficient. As the Jianghuai military envoy, he can march eastward and take away 20,000 field troops without any problem.

Although Li Laiheng has been delaying again and again, he is still very concerned about the Eastern Expedition. After all, Li Zicheng cannot sit back and watch him hide in Xiangyang forever to develop his strength. What's more, if Yuan Shizhong's Xiaoyuan Camp can be successfully annexed, then Li Laiheng can also take advantage of this opportunity

Continue to improve your strength.

But the most critical thing is that after the Songjin Battle, the Qing army will take advantage of the weakness of Guan Ning's army to enter the Pass again and plunder, and go south to wreak havoc in the Huaixu area. Li Laiheng had a premonition that this time, as the Jianghuai envoy to the east, he would probably not only

It is not only necessary to deal with Yuan Shizhong, nor is it only necessary to deal with the Xuzhou Suppressant General, there is also a great possibility that it will be necessary to deal with the Manchu army that destroyed the border wall and marched south to Huaixu.

He felt discouraged for a while, but Li Laiheng also felt that he had to experience and feel for himself how powerful the Qing army was.

Although the Huguang Chuang Army had completely wiped out Zuo Liangyu's military group with overwhelming force, it was easy for Li Zicheng in later generations to defeat Zuo Liangyu and even Sun Chuanting, but he still suffered a huge loss when he encountered the Qing army.

The Donglu troops were strong, and the artillery unit was even more powerful than Li Laiheng. Although Li Laiheng in Suizhou could already cast medium-sized Hongyi cannons capable of firing five or six kilograms of lead bullets, in comparison, the Qing army's Hongyi cannons could

It can fire shells weighing more than ten kilograms or even twelve kilograms, which can be called a super-heavy artillery.

So no matter what, Li Laiheng decided that he had to go out in person. This time the Qing army broke through the pass to plunder. The force size should not be large, tens of thousands at most. The force that could reach Huaixu might be even less. He brought

It shouldn't be a problem for 20,000 people to engage in some small-scale battles with the Qing army to understand the Qing army's strength and tactics.

"Huh... Hao Zhi did a great job." Li Laiheng thought a lot but said less, "Brother Wang Chen, can you take a look?"

Chen Xin just looked at it briefly and nodded repeatedly to express his approval. Although Niu Jinxing asked Li Zicheng to send generals south to Huguang in order to split and check Li Laiheng's power, Li Guo and Chen Xin were both chosen by Li Zicheng.

Li Laiheng had a great connection. Needless to say, Li Guo was one of the people who loved Li Laiheng the most in the army; and because of Chen Kexin's relationship with De'an, Yin and Chen Kexin, they frequently exchanged letters with Li Laiheng, and the two of them also

Considered a friend.

Chen Xin quickly closed the documents on the military establishment and said to Li Laiheng: "The replacement commander is about to go north, and all Chu affairs are entrusted to the commander. But after Yunyang, Wuchang, and Yuezhou were pacified, the commander will march eastward again.

Who will be in charge of the overall situation in Huguang?"

After listening to Chen Xin's words, Li Laiheng nodded secretly, feeling that Chen Xin's thoughts were indeed based on public sentiment. Niu Jinxing persuaded Li Zicheng to split Huguang into three towns. Although it checked Li Laiheng's power, it also made Huguang a political bully.

, a situation of inconsistent military orders.

It was okay when Li Guo and Li Laiheng were able to control the three governors in the name of general control. But now that they are marching northward and marching eastward, what will happen to the relationship between Chen Xin, Bai Wang and Gao Yigong?

How about getting along and cooperating?

If something happens, the whole situation will be affected!

After Li Laiheng thought about it carefully, he glanced at Gu Junen. Gu Junen obviously hoped to stay in Huguang and command the overall military in the name of Marching Sima after Li Laiheng's Eastern Expedition.

However, Li Laiheng had doubts about Gu Junen's character and reliability, so he replied: "I will keep Guo Jun in Xiangyang or Wuchang during my eastern expedition. He knows military affairs, and the overall military situation will be left to him. In terms of political affairs, Bai Wang

In addition to Dehuang Jiedushi, he also serves as the capital's field envoy. The field field department system is the key to Huguang's political affairs. If Wang Chenhe and Yigong can listen more to Bai Wang's request, Huguang will be able to stabilize."

Chen Xin understood that Li Laiheng's arrangement was not only to stabilize the situation in Huguang, but also to maintain his personal power and influence. However, Chen Xin had a good relationship with Li Laiheng, and he had always admired Li Laiheng's new policies in Chu, so Li Laiheng

Although asking him to take orders from Bai Wang violated Li Zicheng's arrangements, Chen Xin did not express any objection.

After the two of them agreed on the future political arrangements for Huguang, they left the commander's mansion together and went to Li Guo's temporary carriage to prepare to bid farewell to the commander-in-chief. However, it probably won't be long before everyone has to say goodbye to Li Laiheng again in Xiangyang.

After all, although Yunyang is easy to defend and difficult to attack, Gao Doushu and Wang Guangen do not have many bargaining chips. Li Laiheng estimates that even if the Yun soldiers are temporarily recruited and expanded, they will only have nearly 10,000 troops at most, and it will be difficult to withstand the land and water attack of the intruders.

As for Wuchang and Yuezhou, Zhang Xianzhong himself already had the intention to evacuate without Li Laiheng taking action.

According to the red team's report: After the Ghost Festival, Zhang Xianzhong left only more than a thousand troops in Wuchang, and took the main force of the Western Battalion southward to Xianning and Puqi. After joining He Yilong and Ma Shouying, they headed for Yuezhou, Hunan.

Li Gande, the governor of Pianyuan, and Kong Xigui, the commander-in-chief, led 20,000 troops to defend Lingji, but they were defeated by Xiying's offensive and soon retreated to Yuezhou, intending to rely on the city to resist.

However, according to Yan Xin's estimation, the Yuan soldiers were all newly recruited soldiers and were definitely no match for Xiying. It was estimated that it would not take long for Yuezhou to be captured by Zhang Xianzhong. However, the red team observed the situation in Wuchang and found that Zhang Xianzhong had almost no troops left behind.

Instead, he took all the important generals, civil servants, counselors and valuables to the vicinity of Yuezhou. He probably did not want to be too close to the Chuang army and intended to enter Hunan from Yuezhou to develop.

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1 Ye Yunlin, a native of Jiaxian County, Henan, was born in the Ming Dynasty. In February of the 15th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai conquered Jiaxian County. As a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, Ye Yunlin joined the army. In March of the 16th year, after Li Zicheng established the regime in Xiangyang, he

Eighth-level military ranks were assigned to generals at all levels. Although Ye Yunlin was a scholar, he was appointed captain and ordered to defend Jingmen.

In this story, Ye Yunlin belongs to the direct lineage of Niu Jinxing. He went south with Niu Quan and also served as General Wei Guoyi of Xiangyang as a scholar.

2 Li Furong, a Shaanxi native, has unknown early activity experience. After Li Zicheng's death, he followed Li Guo and Nanming to reach an agreement to jointly resist the Qing Dynasty, and was awarded the post of General Soldier. Later he became one of the founders of the Thirteen Kuidong Families, and was granted the title of "Yongli Shi".

The Marquis of Weiyuan died of illness before the thirteen families were defeated.

Gao Lingyun was General Xianghuai, the right commander of the rear army under Li Laiheng during the Kuidong Thirteen Clan period, or a relative of Gao Yigong, who died in the Battle of Maolu Mountain.

He Hongqi, after the fall of Shaanxi after the Tongguan War, He Hongqi stayed in the northwest and continued to fight against the Qing Dynasty. He persuaded his cousin who surrendered to the Qing army to Kaicheng and captured Ningzhou. He "does not kill people and does not send troops into people's homes." He has very good military discipline.

Jia later joined forces with Wang Laohu and other rebels, and defeated the famous Qing general Zhang Yong several times, who later pacified the Three Feudatories. Later, he died in battle due to being outnumbered.
Chapter completed!