Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty
Chapter 32 Palace Army
Chapter 32 Palace Army
On the top of Jining City, Zhu Cilang felt a cool breeze on his face. He looked at the heavy rain falling outside and couldn't help frowning.
On the way from Linqing to Xuzhou in the south, the fleet had been delayed for several days due to rain. In order to avoid the rain and accommodate the trackers and the families of Linjiazhai, he had to order Li Banghua and Zhou Shixian to lead troops to temporarily take over three cities on the way.
Under the fierce wind and rain, although the water level of the canal rose rapidly, it was impossible to sail normally, especially since these ships were carrying too much food, fodder, women and children, which could easily lead to danger.
Moreover, most of the boats that Zhu Cilang collected from various prefectures along the way were already old, and some were even badly damaged. If the women and children inside were not moved into the city to avoid the rain, I am afraid that a large number of them would have fallen ill from the rain before they even headed south.
After recruiting more than 1,300 boatmen in Linqing, Zhu Cilang recruited more than 600 boatmen locally when he went south to Dongchang Prefecture. The selection criteria this time were much stricter than before, and half of the people were eliminated.
However, starting from Dongchang Prefecture City, heavy rain began to fall from the sky, and it was raining within dozens of miles from north to south. Zhu Cilang had to order the army to temporarily take over the two city gates of the prefecture city and let Li Banghua move into the government office.
At this time, the prefect and officials of Dongchang Prefecture had basically fled south. Even among the gentry in the city, only some remained. This allowed some of the young hooligans in the city to lose their restraints and act recklessly.
Li Banghua and Zhou Shixian, with a dozen armored soldiers and five flag bearers, and with the cooperation of the gentry in the city, quickly took care of these young thugs and confiscated all the swords and guns they had looted from the armory. The whole takeover process went very smoothly.
In this weather, Zhu Cilang could not leave, and the Shun army pursuing him could not march either, especially since the latter had no boats and could only walk.
However, every day of delay and every day of late arrival in Nanjing would increase the possibility of something unexpected happening along the way, and this was what he was worried about.
But things had come to this point, and Zhu Cilang naturally would not complain. During the one and a half days he stayed in Dongchang Prefecture, he quickly deployed Chen Fu and Chang Denggui to continue training the troops, while Li Banghua and Zhou Shixian were responsible for settling the thousands of families.
Chen Fu and Chang Denggui continued to train their new recruits in the empty rooms of the government office and the city wall.
Chen Fu was in charge of training the nearly one hundred elite trackers he had selected. These were the main force of the tracker team in daily fights. After wearing armor, they had great explosive power. Moreover, because they already had an organizational foundation from towing, their formation and command training also progressed very quickly.
After arriving in Nanzhili in a few days, these newly trained soldiers may not be able to take the initiative to attack, but they will be more than capable of forming a battle formation to scare the military leaders and civil officials in Jiangbei, or follow the cavalry to pursue the defeated enemy troops.
Chang Denggui continued to instruct his soldiers to demonstrate to the trackers the movements of thrusting with guns, slashing with swords, and the simplest military calls. Zhu Cilang had lower requirements for them, they only needed to be able to march normally and understand basic commands.
It is almost impossible to make the army combat-ready in such a short time, but these trackers already have the foundation of fighting and organization, and if they pretend, they can be 70% similar to combat soldiers.
At the same time, Zhu Cilang also sent people to search the armory in Dongchang Prefecture, but they only found some broken swords and guns. There was not even a bow or a set of armor, and the musket was just a three-barreled gun.
Zhu Cilang distributed all the swords and guns to the sergeants, but he did not want the three-barreled gun. If this thing exploded on the battlefield, the true face of this pretentious army would be exposed.
In order to equip the army, Zhu Cilang directly asked Li Banghua to seek help from the gentry in the city to collect kitchen knives and even scissors. These sharp weapons were tied to sticks and could be used to fight with some power.
Not only that, Zhu Cilang also directly requisitioned the treasury of Dongchang Prefecture and the cloth shops in the city. He also had to make the uniforms of his new recruits as uniform as possible.
Otherwise, with a group of refugees accompanying him, the momentum of the Ming Dynasty Crown Prince Nan Xing would be greatly reduced!
However, the army's stay in Dongchang City was too brief. Just as they had finished collecting the cloth, the rain stopped. Not wanting to delay any further, Zhu Cilang immediately ordered the army to march. However, before he reached Jining Prefecture, he was caught in another downpour, ultimately forcing him to brave the rain outside the city. He waited until the rain subsided before entering the city. Meanwhile, he instructed Zhou Shixian and Lin Yongan to begin planning the final round of conscription in Jining Prefecture.
Zhou Shixian and Lin Yongan, with their well-trained armored soldiers and village guards, quickly gathered another thousand elite boatmen. This time, they only wanted 30% of the men gathered here, especially those with small families. For the rest, Zhu Cilang gave them the rations collected from Jining Prefecture for a few days and let them go south to Huai'an on their own.
Although the fleet recruited a county magistrate, more than thirty minor officials, and several hundred people from Linjiazhai for assistance along the way, the real control of the army still depended on the more than eighty cavalrymen and nearly a hundred armored soldiers who were in training.
If they were not accepted one by one, and these trackers already had an organization, they would have actual control only by controlling the leader. The few people under Zhu Cilang's command would not be able to control nearly three thousand new recruits.
The families of these 3,000 new recruits already numbered more than 6,000 people. The ships of Linjiazhai and Lujiazhai, plus the more than 130 remaining official and civilian ships from various counties and prefectures collected along the way by Zhu Cilang, could only barely transport them. Among them, nearly 1,000 women had to get off the ships and walk.
Because of the heavy rain, Zhu Cilang rested in Jining Prefecture for another two days. At this time, he was less than 300 miles away from Xuzhou.
As for Guo Sheng, Zhao Yingyuan, Dong Xueli and other troops sent by Li Zicheng to take over Shandong, they had just entered Linqing at this time. They lacked ships and were affected by heavy rain, so their marching speed was very slow.
At the same time, due to the delay on the road, Ye Bushou sent by Zhu Cilang heard rumors near Jining Prefecture that Chongzhen, the Queen, and the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty had all died for their country and were buried in the capital.
Needless to say, what this means, the news has reached Jining, which the Shun army has not yet actually controlled, and it is likely to have also reached Huai'an and even Nanjing.
In the original history, it was probably at this time that the news of Emperor Chongzhen's martyrdom reached Xuzhou. Now that Li Zicheng specially sent people to the south to spread the news, the news naturally spread faster.
Zhu Cilang noticed that rumors were also spreading in the army, and people were in panic. Finally, at the suggestion of Li Banghua, he announced his identity to the entire army in Jining Prefecture in advance. The boat track leaders had already known about it, but almost no one dared to leak the secret.
As soon as this news came out, the new recruits, who had already heard all kinds of plausible rumors from the leaky soldiers and leaders, felt as if they had taken a tranquilizer. They immediately calmed down and their morale even increased.
The one they are following now is the Crown Prince of Ming Dynasty, the future emperor!
Moreover, Jining Prefecture is very safe and not far from Nanzhili, so the mission of protecting the emperor is basically guaranteed!
Not only that, Zhu Cilang also gave this guard army a new name - "Palace Front Army", and asked more than 200 skillful women on the ship to make more than 20 large flags overnight.
Starting today, Zhu Cilang decided not to pretend anymore and he was going to reveal his cards!
On April 3rd, as soon as the weather cleared up, Zhu Cilang immediately ordered the army to set out. It had rained for two days, and the roads were muddy, making it impossible to take boats. The more than 3,000 new boatmen had no horses, so the marching speed was greatly slowed down.
However, nearly three thousand soldiers in uniform slowly moved south along the canal. The marching column on the official road stretched for several miles, with more than twenty large flags fluttering in the wind. Cavalrymen kept galloping past. It looked magnificent, orderly, and made Zhu Cilang a little surprised.
This was the personal army he had built, from the eleven riders in Wang Zhixin's residence, to the twenty-five riders who broke through the siege, to the current three thousand soldiers and horses, of which more than two hundred were armored and nearly a hundred were cavalry.
Thanks to the book friends Yueken Road Dazhuang, Shao Nian Yi Mu, 20181107124212127, 20231002222407358 for their rewards
(End of this chapter)
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