Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 383: New Year's Day Disarmament.
AD 4050, AD 1353, the th year of Zhizheng, the first month.

At the beginning of the year, there were a series of happy events. Tuotuo was demoted, the Yuan army on the Huaibei front disbanded itself and was incorporated into Lu Jin, and the Xuzhou group surrendered the city. At once, Lu Jin added more than a dozen cities and expanded its army by 200,000. It was a double happiness.

After explaining the reorganization tasks in Xuzhou, Xia Yu and Fu Youde returned in the third grade.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Xu Jichuan, the director of the Construction Bureau, also crossed the river to Jiankang with the technical backbones of the Luzhou Iron Works.

As soon as he reported to the Marshal's Mansion, Lu Jin couldn't wait to ask, "I asked you to make a few sets of rolling mills in advance. How many have you made?"

Xu Jichuan quickly took credit, "The Marshal asked us to make two sets as backup. We made three sets, and most of the parts for the fourth set, including the rollers and cast iron frames, are ready. But we are out of copper. Now we only need eight brass roller bearings to complete the fourth set."

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin praised immediately, "You've done a good job. Don't sit idle. Take your people to Xuancheng and Jingxian on the other side of Ningguo Road to find coal mines, mine coal and make coke there, and mine and make iron in Dangtu. Put up the blast furnace for me first. The scale cannot be smaller than that of Luzhou. The factory building can be built while you work, and start construction as soon as possible.

"As for the hydraulic machinery and ore transportation, you will be in charge of all of them. First install two rolling mills at Dangtu Iron Works. I will give you some copper materials, and you can build the fourth one and install it in Xuzhou. Once you finish at Dangtu, go to Xuzhou and set up the third ironworks."

Xu Jichuan was surprised when he heard this, "Xuzhou is ours too?"

"Yes." Lu Jin nodded, "It was the Xuzhou Volunteer Army who took the initiative to surrender the city and submit to us."

Xu Jichuan immediately congratulated and said, "It is a blessing for all mankind that the Xuzhou righteous army has abandoned the dark and joined the light this time! In the past, when Emperor Guangwu wanted to conquer Long and Shu, he still needed 28 generals. Now that the lord has added another tiger wing, there is no need to worry about not being able to march north to Dadu and recover the nine provinces. I congratulate the lord!"

Seeing this, Lu Jin quickly waved his hands, "Alright, alright, no need to say those lies. I have plenty of soldiers now, but they are all beggars. Whether I can make them all wear armor and become elite soldiers depends on you. Run the ironworks well and make sure my soldiers and armor are not lacking. When the world is pacified in the future, I will grant you a title!"

Lu Jin casually drew a pancake and threw it at Xu Jichuan, who was so shocked that he saw stars, his blood rushed to his head, his face turned red, and he fell to his knees in front of Lu Jin with a plop.

"Don't worry, my lord. Even if I run until my legs break, I will never let the army be without soldiers and armor!"

Lu Jin stepped forward and helped him up, and then instructed, "The Luzhou Iron Works produces more than 8,000 sets of armor per month. When the Dangtu and Xuzhou iron works are built, the monthly output should be at least 25,000 sets. It would be best if it could be more, up to 27,000 sets. In this way, we can equip an army every month, and I will feel relieved."

Xu Jichuan immediately clasped his fists and said, "I will do my best to complete the task as soon as possible!"

"Well, go ahead. But you have to pay attention. Although the construction period is tight, we can't treat the craftsmen harshly. You have to learn the three-shift system and the assembly line that I taught you. You have to set production tasks for each shift. Those who exceed the task targets can be rewarded. Don't work the craftsmen to death." Lu Jin warned again.

"Yes, I will definitely keep it in mind. But my lord, could you please allocate some ships to me so that I can transport the ore?" Xu Jichuan also took the opportunity to ask for resources.

Lu Jin immediately asked, "How many ships do you need? Do you need ships to transport coal from Jingxuan?"

When Xu Jichuan saw a map hanging in the hall, he immediately stepped forward and explained to Lu Jin while pointing at the map.

"My lord, the Luzhou Iron Works also has craftsmen from Ningguo Road. My lord asked me to prepare the backbone of the craftsmen and build a spare steel rolling mill. I have studied the transportation routes with the craftsmen.

"We can mine coal in Jingxian and set up a coking plant. The coke produced can be directly loaded onto ships in Jingxian, and then go north along the Qingyi River, first into the Yangtze River, then along the Yangtze River to Dangtu, and along the Guxi River to the iron factory. The Dangtu Iron Factory is located on the bank of the Guxi River, so hydraulic machinery can also be installed.

"Although this route is a bit roundabout, shipping is faster and can carry a larger amount of goods, which is better than using a horse-drawn carriage."

Lu Jin looked at the map and found that the transportation route he planned was really good. He immediately praised, "Your plan is very good. Let's do it this way. Study how many ships you need first. When the time comes, write me a note and I will ask the navy to allocate them to you."

"Yes!"

Xu Jichuan had just finished telling Lu Jin about asking for ships when, on the sixth day of the first lunar month, the fleet submitted by Fang Guozhen and the shipbuilding craftsmen from Taizhou arrived at Liujiagang in Kunshan (Taicang). This was the first time in three years that so many ships had appeared on the river in Liujiagang since Fang Guozhen burned it down.

There are more than 450 sea vessels in total, plus the more than 170 captured before, the number of sea vessels has reached more than 620. In addition to the 200 river ships and warships that the First Regiment of the Navy already has, the number of ships now owned by the First Regiment of the Navy is already terrifyingly large.

The fleet was led by Fang Guozhen's two nephews, Fang Mingshan and Fang Mingqian. From then on, they joined the Shengwu Army and obeyed Lu Jin's orders.

Fang Guozhen also asked his two counselors, Zhan Ding and Qiu Nan, to take their three sons and wives to Jiankang to be hostages to Lu Jin. They are now on the way.

Bai Guangtai, who was stationed in Liujiagang, also wrote to Lu Jin, asking how to deal with these ships and how to expand the navy.

Lu Jin was also thinking about this matter. He had three military advisers around him. Feng Guoyong went to Huai'an to reorganize the Yuan army, and Xia Yu went to reorganize Xuzhou. Only Bao Yu, who was in charge of intelligence, was left by his side and could help with staff.

Upon seeing this, Bao Yu immediately helped Lu Jin analyze the situation.

"My lord, you are going to attack Jiangxi this year. The Yuan army navy of the barbarian Hague is still entrenched in the Poyang Lake area. It is inevitable that Sang Shijie's Second Navy Regiment will not be able to cope with it. The navy in Jiangxi must be strengthened.

"In eastern Zhejiang, those river boats are of little use at sea. It would be better to transfer them to Jiangxi to increase the number of warships on the southern line."

Lu Jin nodded and approved of the adjustment plan, but then he said, "Ships are easy to deal with, but the key is the guns. After the First Regiment of the Navy receives the sea ships, they need to select some for modification, and modification requires guns."

Bao Yu thought for a moment and said, "Last year, the battle of Susong drove the Yuan army in Jiangxi to Jiangzhou. The five bastions around Anqing have completed their mission. It is estimated that the Yuan army will never reach Anqing again. So the five bastions are idle. Each bastion has more than 60 guns, which is enough for an artillery regiment. Five bastions have more than 30 guns. If each ship is equipped with ten guns, more than gunboats can be converted.

“But I think that Fang Guozhen is the only opponent with some strength on the sea right now, and he has secretly surrendered. We have almost no enemies on the sea.

“Even if the Marine Corps is reorganized into the Navy, their current mission should be heavy transportation, not naval warfare. It would be a waste to give them all 300 guns. It is better to use them inland first. The Navy’s guns can be continued to be manufactured by the Ironworks, and modified while they are being manufactured, so that their use will not be delayed.

"In addition, there are three tower ships of the Second Regiment of the Navy. My lord, don't forget them. Most of them are heavy artillery.

"In the future, most of the wars in the south will be fought in mountainous areas and swamps. It is inconvenient for the heavy artillery pulled by eight horses to march in the south. It is better to transfer all these heavy artillery to the Central Plains and transfer the small artillery in the bastions to the south to form three or four artillery regiments. More than 200 guns should be enough. The rest can be given to the navy. The navy can first modify a few gunboats to maintain order."

Lu Jin nodded immediately. "What you said makes sense. Why not stick with the Royal Guard Division? Two Royal Guard Divisions are assigned to each direction. They can be transferred there to reinforce during wartime and transferred back to guard the center during peacetime. Anyway, they will definitely need heavy armored advance guards, musketeers and artillery when attacking the city."

Bao Yu also agreed, "That's fine, but we'll have to form four to six more guard divisions. There are exactly five bastions and five artillery regiments. Based on these five artillery regiments, we can form five guard divisions. But it's hard to say where to get the troops from."

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin immediately took out his own roster of generals, flipped through it for a long time before saying, "Now I can't say exactly how many soldiers we have. We need to ask each unit to report their strength quickly so that we can reorganize them here."

"That's how it should be." Bao Yu also nodded in agreement.

So Lu Jin immediately issued an order, asking Feng Guoyong in Huaibei and Yang Jing in Hangzhou to quickly report the size of their respective troops.

It would not have mattered if it was not reported, but everything would have been exposed once the truth was found out. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Lu Jin was so frightened when he saw the total strength of the Shengwu Army that he had just calculated that he nearly had a myocardial infarction.

"167 regiments, 75 troops? Are you sure? We have that many soldiers?" Feng Guoyong, who had just hurried back from Huai'an to report, also nodded while wiping the sweat from his forehead. "I have counted it several times. There are indeed so many. This does not include the captured civilians. If we count the civilians, there will be even more."

Lu Jin immediately held his forehead in silence, "This won't do. There are too many soldiers. We must reduce the army. Otherwise, I can't afford to support them even if I pawn my pants."

Feng Guoyong and Bao Yu also looked under great pressure. It was really a shocking thing that one would not know until they checked.

When Yang Jing's East China Front Army set out on the expedition, it had two army groups, four armies, eight divisions, 24 regiments, plus Zhu Shou and Zhang Wen's two guard divisions with six regiments and a cavalry regiment, for a total strength of 6 regiments, 31 people.

However, Yang Jing's main force in the north, from Changzhou to Hangzhou, expanded into 9 regiments of new soldiers just by using the captured prisoners along the way.

Yu Tonghai's northern detachment, the 40th Army, originally had a strength of 6 regiments. They started from Changshu and fought all the way to Songjiang Prefecture, and also used the captured prisoners to expand into 5 new regiments.

On the southern route, Hua Yunlong and Xu Da fought in the mountainous areas, but when they reached Hangzhou, they also expanded into four regiments.

The main force from the south, led by Zhu Shou, fought from Liyang to Hangzhou and also expanded into 6 regiments.

After the four armies joined forces in Hangzhou, they continued to sweep the mountainous areas of central Zhejiang and the two routes of Shaoxing and Qingyuan, captured tens of thousands of prisoners, and expanded the army to eight more regiments.

So after Yang Jing finished fighting in eastern Zhejiang, he had expanded his army to 32 regiments, which was more than their original strength. Together with the 31 regiments they already had, the East China Front Army now had a total of 63 regiments and 28 people.

When Lu Jin first issued the expeditionary edict, he boasted that he had an army of 300,000. Now that the battle is over, he really has an army of 300,000.
Now, the East China Front Army alone accounts for almost half of the 75 people, not counting the Huaibei area.
Zhu Liangzu's 36th Army had two divisions and six regiments before the Jiangbei Campaign. After the battle, it was expanded to include eight supplementary regiments, three independent regiments, and four reserve regiments, for a total of 6 regiments. Together with the original strength, it now has 8 regiments.

Then in Xuzhou, Lu Jin promised to give Mao Gui and his 3 people a structure of three divisions and nine regiments. If we include Zhao Junyong's troops, that would also be one division, which would make a total of two armies, four divisions, and 9 regiments.

Bian Yuanheng and Li Huafu in Gaoyou also had 6 regiments of troops, and together with Xuzhou, there were a total of 18 regiments.

After Tuotuo was demoted, the Yuan army in Huaibei was disbanded on the spot, and Zhu Liangzu recruited about 14 people, in addition to 5 to 14 civilian laborers. These 5 people could be organized into 32 regiments.

Therefore, the entire military force in Jiangbei consisted of Zhu Liangzu's 21 regiments, Xuzhou and Gaoyou's 18 regiments, and the 32 recruited Yuan army regiments, totaling 71 regiments, about 31.95 people, accounting for nearly half of the total number of 75.

除此之外，还有安庆廖永安的35军6个团；庐州俞廷玉的38军6个团，和州华高的39军6个团，鲁锦的建康本部还有4个团，这些加起来有22个团。

Chang Yuchun's 43rd Army on Ningguo Road originally had 6 regiments, and 3 more regiments were expanded using captured prisoners. In addition, there were two more regiments from Deng Shunxing and his son, and Hu Dahai and his son who had just been transferred there. Ningguo Road currently has a total of 11 regiments.

All these forces add up to 167 regiments, totaling 75 troops.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang exported 600 million dan of grain every year. Assuming that each person consumed two liters of rice per day, one dan = ten dou = 100 liters, and each person consumed 7 dan of rice per year, these 600 million dan of grain were enough to feed 85 people. However, the account could not be calculated that way, as he had to set aside grain for emergencies.

Moreover, this is an army, and it is not enough to just give them rice. Even though Lu Jin is not even paid for his military service now, and only distributes land when he joins the army, and gives him rewards and pensions after the battle, it is already overwhelming him. A pension plus rewards is 500 million taels, and he has to sell salt for half a year to earn it back. This year, wars are going on in three directions at the same time, and he dare not even imagine how much military expenditure will be spent.

"We must downsize the military. At least we have to cut the strength of one front, about 15. Leaving 60 is already a lot," Lu Jin said immediately.

Feng Guoyong also calculated, "If we deploy troops in each direction according to the scale of this Eastern Expedition, then we will need at least four fronts in the Ningguo Road direction, Anqing direction, Nanyang direction, and Shandong direction.

"Assuming that each front has two army groups, four armies, eight divisions, and 24 regiments, that's 43 people, and the four fronts have a total of 2 people.

"Once the situation in eastern Zhejiang stabilizes, we can regroup the East China Front Army and deploy it to external battles. This will be another 10 people, five front armies, a total of 8.

"If we cut the number to 60, there will still be 6 troops left. Each Royal Guards division has 9900 people, and we can form another 4 Royal Guards divisions."

Lu Jin nodded when he heard this, "That's about it. We'll reorganize them according to the five front armies first, and add more guards if they're not enough."

Bao Yu at the side asked again, "Then will the 150,000 people who are laid off be laid off directly?"

Lu Jin shook his head. "Of course we can't just dismiss them. We can lay off some of the old and weak and keep most of them. They will be more useful. They can be deployed to various places as internal guards and stationed in the rear. We can also gather them together to form agricultural reclamation divisions and production and construction corps to engage in farming.

"Or we can organize them into engineering troops, use them to build cities and houses, and quickly build bastions at the front line. We can train a team of professional bastion engineers! It's just that they won't be included in the organization of the main field army."

They could even be reorganized into a railway corps, specialized in building roads and bridges, but Lu Jin didn't say that.
The two nodded when they heard this, and Feng Guoyong asked again, "Since they are not to be included in the main force of the field battle, should they be given a new number?"

"Yes." Lu Jin nodded and said, "How about this, from now on, the Imperial Guards will start with 0, the Field Army will start with 1, the Internal Guards will start with 2, the Farmland Soldiers will start with 3, and the Engineering Corps will start with 4, to prevent confusion."

"Are the five field armies still named after their directions?" Feng Guoyong asked again.

Lu Jin thought for a moment and said, "Why not change it to a numerical designation? The East China Front Army has already finished fighting in eastern Zhejiang. If it is transferred to fight in Shandong or Liaodong in the future, it will not be appropriate to continue to call it the East China Front Army."

Both nodded.

In fact, this problem also occurred during the War of Liberation. During the strategic counter-offensive phase in 48, the field armies of various military regions established their own bases, so you couldn't still use the original military regions to name them.

For example, the predecessor of the First Field Army was the Northwest Field Army, which fought all the way from Shaanxi to Xinjiang. There is nothing wrong with the word "Northwest" in the First Field Army. However, the predecessor of the Second Field Army was the Central Plains Field Army, which fought from Henan to Sichuan. It would not be appropriate to still call it the Central Plains Field Army.

The predecessor of the Third Field Army was the East China Field Army, which had fought to Nanjing and Fujian, and it was not appropriate to continue using the original number.

As for the Fourth Field Army, it was even more powerful. It fought its way from the white mountains and black waters of the northeast to the ends of the earth on Hainan Island, and fought its way through the entire continent. It couldn't be called the Northeast Field Army anymore.

As for why the North China Field Army didn't get a number, it was their own fault, and no one can do anything about it.
Feng Guoyong quickly took out a pen and paper to write down Lu Jin's request, and then asked, "How do we allocate numbers for the five fronts?"

Lu Jin took a deep breath and thought about it. This was a question of seniority. Personnel matters had to be considered after all, so he said this.

"The 101st Division, the 102nd Division, and the 103rd Division, these were the numbers of our three divisions when we first started. We should not forget our roots, and we should still remember the old friendships.

“Let’s put it this way, Liao Yongan in the southwest, the First Front Army;
“Zhu Liangzu in North China, the Second Front Army;
“Yang Jing in East China, the Third Front Army;

"Yu Tingyu in the Central Plains, the Fourth Front Army;
"Chang Yuchun in South China, the Fifth Front Army;
“Zhu Shou and Zhang Wen continue to lead the imperial guards;

"The navy is directly under the command of the Marshal's Office and is part of the Imperial Guards!"

(End of this chapter)