Please ask me to be the emperor

Zhang Shun looked at the reality of Shaanxi and couldn't help laughing: "I wonder if Hengjiu can elaborate for me, who are the military and political figures in Shaanxi?"

Hong Chengchou was so shrewd that he immediately knew Zhang Shun's plan after hearing this.

He couldn't help but hesitate for a moment, and then took the lead in making a statement: "I have been away from Shaanxi for several months. I don't know everything about the changes. I can only let King Shun know about it based on my memories of the past."

"The land of Shaanxi is the land of the old Qin Dynasty, and it is divided into four towns: Ningxia, Gansu, Yansui and Guyuan."

"Among them, Wang Ji, the governor of Ningxia, whose surname was Jichuan, was from Tai'an, Shandong. He was an honest and upright man. He served successively as magistrate of Zhecheng and Anyi counties, and was later promoted to head of the household department and manager of military pay."

"Later he moved to Guyuan County to be the magistrate, and eventually he was the governor of Ningxia and was in charge of military affairs. He is good at governance but not good at military affairs, so there is nothing to fear."

"Zu Dabi, the commander-in-chief of Ningxia's garrison, is the younger brother of Liaodong's ancestral general, Zu Dashou, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong."

"He is an extremely brave man. When fighting, he likes to shout and shout. He is nicknamed 'Zu Er Madman'. Unfortunately, if he is brave and has no strategy, he will be captured by the general sooner or later!"

"Governor of Gansu Zhang Yingchen, whose name is Huanbei, is from the Weiren family in Henan, Henan. He was a Jinshi in the 44th year of Wanli."

"He successively promoted officials, censors and other positions in the Economic Nanfu. At the end of Tianqi, when he was patrolling Guangdong, he almost suffered disaster because he refused to establish a new word for Wei Zhongxian, the eunuch."

"In the seventh year, he was promoted to the censor of Youqian Capital and served as the governor of Gansu Province on behalf of his predecessor Bai Yiqing. He is an upright man and has won many battles, so he is somewhat capable."

"Ha, I didn't expect to be a fellow countryman!" Zhang Shun commented with a smile, not letting Hong Chengchou explain it all in one breath.

This time I found a treasure. No matter what Hong Chengchou was as a person, his personal understanding of Shaanxi's military situation, human relations and geography was worth the price of a chief of staff.

No, the two sides haven't fought yet, and Zhang Shun has almost stripped off the underwear of the Shaanxi officials.

Hong Chengchou was a little proud when he heard this, but as a surrender minister, he couldn't show it on his face.

Hong Chengchou took a sip of tea, covered it up, and then continued: "Originally, the commander-in-chief of Gansu Province was the powerful general Yang Jiamo. Six years ago, he was transferred to Jizhen as the commander-in-chief. After several rotations, now the commander-in-chief is Liu Shaozong."

"Although Liu Shaozong was not a general, he fought bravely and was experienced in using troops, no less than Yang Jiamo."

"Zhang Bojing, governor of Yansui, whose courtesy name is Shenghai, is from Jiangdu, Yangzhou. He was a Jinshi in the 44th year of Wanli."

"He successively informed the three counties of Kuaiji, Gui'an and Yin. In the middle of Tianqi, he transferred the Lu family. In the second year of Chongzhen, he was slightly moved to be the head of the household department and was appointed to supervise the military reserve of Yan and Ning towns, which was quite meritorious."

"After stealing Yansui, the imperial court promoted Bo Jingbing to prepare for Qianshi, and took charge of Yulin Middle Road. He defeated He Sixian one after another, beheaded a city, Jin-winged Peng and others."

"In the spring of the seventh year, Qi Yu moved to the governorship, and promoted Bo Jingyou to be the censor of Qiandu in his place. The governor's general, Wang Chengen, and others divided their lanes and defeated the Han Minister and the Tao bandits at Shuangshan and Yuhe Forts, beheading three hundred people."

"If King Shun wants to use troops in Shaanxi, among the three governors, this person is both civil and military, which will be a big trouble!"

Zhang Shun couldn't help but touch his chin after hearing this.

Among the three governors known so far, the governor of Ningxia is good at government affairs but not good at military affairs, so he is not fearful. The governor of Gansu, Zhang Yingchen, has some abilities, but he is quite satisfactory and cannot be considered a rival. Only Zhang Bojing has both civil and military skills, so he should be cautious. treat.

He nodded and said: "I know, who is Commander Yansui now?"

"That's Yu Chongxiao, he is also a strong general. Shaanxi is located on three sides and has been fighting against the 'three major bandits' all year round, so there is no mediocre general." Hong Chengchou responded quickly.

"Ningxia Commander-in-Chief Zu Dabi, Gansu Commander-in-Chief Liu Shaozong, Yansui Commander-in-Chief Yu Chongxiao, plus Shaanxi Commander-in-Chief Zuo Guangxian, it turns out that the generals from Guanxi are indeed here!" Zhang Shun couldn't help but sigh.

He knew that conquering Shaanxi was not that simple. Fortunately, he had basically never heard of these people in his previous life, so they would not be such formidable opponents.

"I wonder what the number of troops on the three sides and four towns is?" The Art of War says: Know yourself and the enemy, and you will not be in danger in a hundred battles. Since Zhang Shun had asked the generals, it was time to ask the soldiers what was going on.

"Ningxia originally had 71,693 cavalry officers and soldiers, but in fact it only had 20,413 cavalry banner troops."

"Gansu's original cavalry infantry army had 91,571 members. In fact, it had 43,517 members."

"Yansui originally had 80,196 horse infantry officers and soldiers, but in fact there were 36,128."

"The original number of people in Guyuan Town was 71,790, but the actual number was 38,148."

"In addition, Lintao Town also has 19,275 horse infantry members. The total number of horse infantry officers and troops should be more than 157,000."

When Zhang Shun heard this, he almost peed in fear. If calculated according to the original amount, the imperial court has almost more than 300,000 troops, and the pile of heads would kill itself.

Fortunately, the number of troops in Shaanxi today is less than half that of the early Ming Dynasty, but there are still 150,000 troops, which is still a huge force for the rebel army.

When Zhang Shun was reflecting on whether his strategy of taking over Shaanxi in one fell swoop was feasible, he unexpectedly heard Hong Chengchou say again: "It is said that there are 150,000 troops, but in fact, after eliminating the old and young, and those with no pay, the number is actually less than ten That’s all!”

No, you just cut three times and cut two times, and the Ming court's army of more than 300,000 was reduced by two-thirds? Zhang Shun couldn't believe it.

"When Chen Qiyu conquered King Shun, he took away eight thousand more. When I left Tongguan, I also led 40,000 elite troops. I am afraid that the losses before and after were no less than 30,000 to 40,000. In fact, there are only 60,000 horses left in Shaanxi."

"But in front of us, the Shaanxi commander-in-chief Zuo Guangxian led 10,000 people and guarded the Empress with 20,000 or 30,000 Jin invaders. The remaining 20,000 to 30,000 people had to defend the dangerous passes of the four towns and the Ming vassal king. How could there be any spare strength? "

Zhang Shun was surprised and happy when he heard this.

After Hong Chengchou's calculations, now the entire Shaanxi Province of the Ming Dynasty, except for Zuo Guangxian's more than 10,000 elites, has no spare men. It is really the end of the Ming Dynasty!

However, after Zhang Shun thought carefully, he found that this matter was both unexpected and reasonable.

Although the Ming Dynasty has a large number of troops, in fact, as the guard system gradually deteriorated, the soldiers in the military villages almost became slaves of the officers. Where are the elite soldiers and generals from the early days of the country?

The soldiers were not well fed and clothed, and they could not sit still and wait for death. They had to either flee secretly or look for opportunities to resist.

This resulted in, on the one hand, a decline in the quality of the soldiers under the generals and a sharp reduction in their numbers, forcing them to rely on a small number of elites to fight; on the other hand, mutinies and military chaos continued, such as Wang Jiayin, "Zijin Liang", "Chuang Wang", "Chuang General", and "Eight Great Kings". ” and a series of rebel leaders, almost all of whom came from the Yansui border army.

Since then, it seems that the war between the imperial court and the rebels is a battle between officers and soldiers, but in fact it is a battle between border troops and border troops.

In addition, there will be frequent disasters and disasters tomorrow, and the people will sell their sons and daughters to earn a living.

Then wouldn’t it be true that the more Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers were “suppressed”, the fewer they were, and the more they were “suppressed”, the weaker they became.

On the one hand, there is a serious loss of military households, and on the other hand, the border generals are the richest in the world. Therefore, if it is a small-scale battle, the border generals can still rely on their servants and elites to wreak havoc in all directions.

And once the scale of the war expands, conflicts such as officers and soldiers living on empty pay, sharp conflicts between generals and soldiers, etc. will break out, and every battle will be fatal!

This is why in the historical line of Zhang Shun's previous life, the Ming Dynasty mobilized 139 elites and entrusted them all to Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao. As a result, Songjin was defeated in the battle, and the countdown to Ming Dynasty's demise began.

After thinking about this, Zhang Shun couldn't help laughing and said: "This is really the end of the world!"