The issue of armaments is first the issue of military pay. The Nine Borders need military pay. Yang Sichang's bandit-suppressing army needs three million a year. Coupled with the expenses of the new army, the imperial court is already overwhelmed.

Secondly, there is the issue of military rations. The imperial court's reserves of grain and grass were all used up when it dispatched 100,000 troops to attack Shandong last year. Since various localities have to reduce expenditures to supply Yang Sichang's bandit suppressing troops and local security forces, the Ministry of Revenue has made it clear that it is difficult to support them.

The New Army once again mobilized in large numbers. They thought it might be better to wait until after this autumn harvest, and the Ministry of War thought that the troops could collect rations on their own in the combat zone.

Zhendong Hou firmly opposed the plan of collecting on the spot. He proposed a grand military training and combat plan: that is, to lay off the Lu army and the various departments that assisted Lu, which had been proven to have no combat effectiveness and suffered heavy losses, and to concentrate on supplying the new army and expand it.

to 50,000 people, and gave the new army half a year to further train and equip them. After the autumn harvest, 50,000 new troops were dispatched at once to attack Shandong. The Marquis of Zhendong expressed that he was confident that the Shandong problem could be solved within half a year. He believed that this was also the most economical solution.

Money method.

However, this plan was unanimously opposed by the courtiers. They believed that the scale of the new army was already very large, and it was very dangerous for 50,000 combat-effective troops to be controlled by one person. The Lu army generals were not without lobbyists in the court, and

These military towns had mutinied many times after hearing that the imperial court might abolish them. The imperial court severely criticized Zhendong Hou for his irresponsible remarks and tried to appease those generals.

As for the third piece of good news, Xu Ping felt very complicated - another big incident broke out in the New Army. The Marquis of Zhendong asked his confidant Yang Zhiyuan to secretly find four outstanding young officers and set up a new team. These four

The team members lived in the Hou Mansion and were taught by Zhendong Hou himself. Soon there were rumors that Zhendong Hou was training a new generation of battalion officers, and except for Zhendong Hou’s son-in-law, all of them were from poor family backgrounds.

Outstanding students.

Countless people rushed to tell the news, and there was an uproar in the New Army. For the first time, eight battalion officers of the New Army jointly wrote to Zhendong Marquis, requesting that outstanding stamina be treated equally. When Zhendong Marquis refused to expand the size of the team,

, resentment boiled among the new army, and a large number of veteran generals complained angrily: "I only see the new people smiling, but I don't hear the old people crying."

The truth of the matter was that Han Dake, a member of the team, was killed when he went out. Of course, Zhendong Hou was very angry, but several of the generals who participated in the incident insisted that the other party was provocative first, and they insulted them while boasting about their future.

's mother.

This news is absolutely true and reliable, because it was told to Xu Ping personally by a team member, who is now sitting in Xu Ping's camp: "General Xu, those who killed Brother Han have been punished with suspension, but

It won't be long before they can crawl back to their original position."

Chen Zhe carefully asked the other teaching team students who were eating in the cafeteria that day and found out the content of the quarrel: "Brother Han is very energetic and daring to speak out. During the selection of the front camp, he was called 'the second Xu Ping' by those bastards.

', but Brother Han told me privately that he was proud of it and it was his honor to be as famous as General Xu."

Xu Ping remained silent. After listening to Chen Zhe carefully describe what happened, he no longer knew whether this could be considered good news.

"General Xu, there is no room for justice in the new army. Please take me in."

"Have you really made up your mind to betray Marquis Zhendong?"

"Master Hou... I don't want to rely on the protection of Master Hou all my life. I once wanted to gain a worldly position and honor my ancestors, but now I have given up. There will never be a place for me in the new army because I am not a general." Chen Zhe shook his head.

He didn't know what else he could do besides being a soldier: "Besides, I can't work with the person who killed Brother Han. I want to seek justice for him."

Now, except for a small number of Xu Ping's old troops, there are only a few old men in the Guards camp. Xu Ping secretly admires Li Zicheng's broad-mindedness. The other party allowed him to go out alone and did not arrange anyone to restrain him. Of course,

Xu Ping can pull the team away, but Xu Ping has no intention of joining the army again and has no plans to work alone. Now Li Zicheng's arrangement allows Xu Ping to be very independent and able to fully express what he has learned and what he thinks. Since Xu Ping feels that Chen

Zhe is right, he can immediately appoint this person as the captain of the Guards Battalion Teaching Team.

"Brother Chen, from now on you are a thief, not a soldier." Xu Ping said apologetically: "The people of Henan have completely different reactions when they hear the soldiers are coming, and when they hear the thieves are coming, the people in Henan have completely different reactions.

Among thieves, only break-ins can make people feel at ease the most."

Chen Zhe laughed and said: "Since I left the capital, I have known that I have become a thief. Anyway, we have been a king and a loser since ancient times. I only hope that we can work with General Xu to one day transform ourselves from thieves and bandits into officers and soldiers."

"Speaking of Brother Chen's enemies," Xu Ping asked, "How is General Yang doing lately? Jin Qiude is so aggressive, is General Yang okay?"

"Master Yang..." Chen Zhe sighed and nodded slowly: "General Yang should be fine. General Yang is the person that Brother Han admires the most. He said that General Yang has righteousness and hope, and he was also mine. Now, I

He is also General Yang’s enemy.”

Currently, the New Army is still arguing with the court. Many people suggest that the New Army send out one or two re-equipped battalions as soon as possible to start encroaching on the territory of the Shandong rebels. The insufficient strength can be supplemented by other Ming armies. Previously, the New Army

The main force stayed near the capital to guard against Lin Danhan's invasion. After compressing the Shandong rebels into a small enough territory, the main force of the new army was dispatched to capture Ji Tuisi in one fell swoop. This idea was of course opposed by the Marquis of Zhendong.

Fiercely objecting, he pointed out that if the army is outside, even if it does not fight, it will consume a lot of personnel, and this method of fighting will also cost a lot of money and food. After all, the troops participating in the war need more military pay and rewards.

Judging from the intensity of the court's commotion, Xu Ping estimated that the new army might not be able to move out within a few months. Since a battle plan cannot be decided, there will naturally be no corresponding reserve plan. It is likely that it will take a few months until the court finally agrees to suppress the attack.

When Donghou planned, he found that the reserves had been spent again.

Although he fully expected such a situation to occur, Xu Ping still knew that he could not place all his hopes on his opponent, so he was happiest when he saw Lu Yufan.

"General Xu, this time there are a thousand guns, and of course, bayonets."

After inspecting the goods, Xu Ping was very satisfied. They were all brand-new and high-quality guns, and the bayonets were all well-made. After he ordered the weapons to be taken down, he asked Lu Yufan to go back to the camp to discuss it in detail, and at the same time gave him the money. In addition to what King Chuang gave to Xu Ping,

In addition to military expenses, he also collected 30,000 taels of silver from warehouses in several counties. In addition to the confiscated official property, Xu Ping still had a reserve of 70,000 taels of silver after paying for the gun.

"The last seven hundred guns for General Xu have been purchased. They were arranged before I left. They should be on the way now." Lu Yufan was obviously in a good mood. He might not be able to earn as much from this firearms transaction in ten years.

of a large amount of money.

"Oh, how could it go so smoothly? Could it be that Boss Lu bribed a Fujian businessman who makes guns?"

"I have bribed a warehouse manager and several manufacturing supervisors from Fujian merchants, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get those hundreds of guns." In a good mood and after drinking a little wine, Lu Yufan was already flushed with excitement: "But

This time, thanks to the Ministry of Industry, they sent people to Fujian to strictly inspect the weapons, otherwise I would not have been able to get so much goods."

Xu Ping was quite puzzled by this. He poured Lu Yufan another glass of wine and waited quietly. The other party lived up to Xu Ping's expectations and started talking and laughing loudly: "The three hundred bottles last time were all considered scrapped.

For this reason, the Fujian merchant who sold me the muskets set fire to a warehouse to find an excuse. However, this warehouse cannot be burned every day, so I once thought that I would not be able to get the remaining 1,700 muskets."

In the past, the Ming army's ordnance was allotted by the Ministry of Household Affairs to the Ministry of Works, which was then manufactured and supplied to the troops. Huangshi purchased weapons and armor from Fujian merchants, which made the Ministry of Works very dissatisfied. But at that time, it was urgent to follow the authority.

After a long period of activities, the imperial court finally intervened in the outsourcing of arms. This year, the Ministry of Industry put forward very fair reasons: first, to supervise the manufacturing of Fujian merchants to prevent arms from flowing into the private sector; second, to send special personnel to inspect the arms to prevent unscrupulous businessmen and

The scum in the military colluded to cut corners.

When officials sent by the Ministry of Industry arrived in Fujian not long ago, they immediately gave the Fujian merchants a warning, announcing that all the 5,000 guns they handed over were unqualified and would be destroyed. Of course, they would not pay one tael of silver for the goods.

After smoothing things over, the attitude of the inspection officials from the Ministry of Industry was no longer so harsh, but about 500 of every 1,000 guns were still declared unqualified. These unqualified guns would not be returned, but would be destroyed directly.

Xu Ping suddenly realized and asked: "Then all these thousand guns were destroyed?"

"Mostly, I found an official from the Ministry of Industry who was responsible for destroying guns and bought more than a thousand 'substandard' guns." The rest was purchased from Guangdong, but Guangdong's production is still very low.

There are few, and the quality is far from comparable to the guns scrapped by the officials of the Ministry of Industry. This part of the productivity is supplemented by Lu Yufan. For example, the quantity of bayonets he obtained from the officials of the Ministry of Industry is much smaller. The bayonets shipped this time

A considerable part of them were produced by Cantonese businessmen. He smiled and said to Xu Ping: "General Xu told me last time that the purchase price of the new army was three taels of silver a piece, right?"

"Yes." Xu Ping remembered this number very clearly. When he participated in the secret test, the training team repeated it several times to deepen everyone's impression of the high quality and low price of the flint gun.

"Old man, it's already fifteen taels a piece. Let's raise the price. In order to prevent the Ministry of Industry merchants from destroying guns, the Fujian merchants must have stuffed them with a lot of money. They can't let themselves lose money." Lu Yufan said again.

After a glass of wine, he said: "Each flintlock that passed the inspection last month was only eight taels of silver. I think when the price reaches fifteen taels, all of them will pass the inspection."

"Eight taels, but you just said it was already fifteen taels."

Seeing Xu Ping's puzzled expression, Lu Yufan felt proud that he was well-informed and that he had the upper hand on the general who broke into the camp: "In the past, three taels was the price for Fujian merchants to transport goods to the new army camp, right?

"

"Of course, the price includes shipping."

"In order to prevent arms from being lost to the people, or being damaged during transportation and causing them to become unusable, the guns of Fujian merchants are now delivered in Fujian, and then transferred to the Nanjing arsenal by the Chief Secretary of Fujian, and then transferred to the capital together with silver and grain. Each gun is sent

When we arrived in the capital, it was already fifteen taels a piece including freight." Lu Yufan smiled at Xu Ping and said, "I read from the Fujian Di newspaper that the cabinet was already complaining about the New Army's insistence on using such expensive muskets.

After the quotation from Fujian Province is raised to fifteen taels, I'm afraid it will have to be shipped to the capital for thirty taels."

Xu Ping remained silent. Since it had to be allocated by the Ministry of Industry, then when the New Army got the weapons, they had to pay another sum of money for them. That's why the New Army changed its equipment so slowly.

Lu Yufan was still chattering: "The armor, spears, and cannons needed by the new army will be the same. General Xu, do you want them? I happen to know someone from the Nanjing Arsenal."

"For now I just want the musket."

"No problem!" Lu Yufan said proudly, "How many do you want? Two thousand more?"

"I don't have that much money." Xu Ping shook his head. Now he needs money everywhere. Fifty taels a gun is too expensive, and after having two thousand guns, his request is not as urgent as it was originally.

.

"The people in the Nanjing arsenal are easier to talk to than the Fujian merchants' warehouse managers, but they are a little slower. The new army is pressing hard now, and they should loosen up after the middle of the year. As for the price, we can naturally get it cheaper because we have friends."

"How many?"

"How about forty-five taels?"

After some bargaining, Lu Yufan agreed to wait for the delivery of 500 guns, and then help Xu Ping buy 1,000 guns at a price of thirty taels for delivery in September. With the help of the Ministry of Industry, Xu Ping finally

The purchase price of weapons has been lowered to the same level as that of the New Army... Well, this is just Xu Ping's comfort, money is still a big problem.

…

The excavation work towards Xuzhou was still in progress, and the trenches were getting closer and closer to the city wall. Qin Dedong, who was in charge of covering, raised his gun and shot at the city wall. With the sound of a gunshot, Qin Dedong saw a man fall from behind the wall stacks, and then stood straight on the ground.

He fell to the ground. Qin Dedong put away his gun in a daze. He first looked left and right, looking for someone who was shooting with him. After a long time, Qin Dedong found that it was completely in vain. No one was shooting at the same time as him.

The trenches continued to be dug forward, and Qin Dedong stood blankly at the position where he fired, motionless looking at the position where the corpse fell into the city. Unknowingly, his eyes were filled with tears.

In the evening, Qin Dedong couldn't take a bite of rice, while the heartless Yue Mu stuffed his mouth full and tried to persuade him: "Qin Tou, we used to be farmers, but now we are thieves, what Master Yu said

Well, their officers and soldiers have oppressed us for many years, and now we are just trying to kill the officers and soldiers when we invade."

At the end of March, after draining the water in Xuzhou's moat, the engineering team dug three large holes under the city wall, and then transported coffins filled with gunpowder into the holes. With several loud rumblings, Xuzhou's ten soldiers

Several meters of the city wall were blown down, forming a huge steep slope. The two cannons placed at the top of the wall also rolled down to the bottom of the city together with their gunners.

"Guards Battalion, bayonets on!"
To be continued...