After the Zhoushan army had eaten enough, Deng Ming let them train.

The daily calorie consumption of a laborer is about 3,000 kcal, which is about the energy that two catties of rice can provide, and if you want to carry out high-intensity training, you need to feed the soldiers. In the past, Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi couldn't let the soldiers open their stomachs to eat enough, so they couldn't ask the soldiers to train with confidence, and that was not to train the troops but to murder the soldiers.

The 1,000 standing troops brought by Deng Ming had all learned how to train recruits, and these standing armies were mainly based on the former Zhejiang army, so it was only fitting to use them to train Zhoushan soldiers. When the Ming army was conducting drills, Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi were also accompanied by Deng Ming, because Deng Ming was famous, so Ma Fengzhi also wanted to take the opportunity to steal some training skills - he didn't know that Deng Ming only came into contact with the army after crossing over.

Compared with the future hot weapon army, the current army has higher requirements for formation, and the Sichuan army has already popularized left and right rotation training, and the content of the first day of exercise starts from this.

In the past, when he was training troops in Sichuan, Deng Ming found that most people in this era were left and right, at least unable to respond quickly to orders. At first, Deng Ming took great pains to help the soldiers identify the left and right, but the progress was very slow, and it took a long time for the soldiers of the standing army to master this password.

When the standing army went deep into the pavilions on the training day to conduct military training for the Tongxiucai of Chengdu Prefecture, it also encountered the same problem, and in practice, the Sichuan army gradually explored a set of effective methods. This method works quickly and does not require a lot of time to help the trained soldier identify the left and right before conducting formation training.

"To the left—barefoot—turn."

"To the right - put on your shoes - turn."

The instructors sent by the Sichuan army shouted the password loudly, and the Zhoushan soldiers in charge of them changed formations, and these trained soldiers only wore one shoe on their right foot, and the other foot was bare. This is the method used by the Sichuan Standing Army, and it is obvious that the soldiers can easily feel that they are wearing shoes on one foot, so they do not have to think hard about which side is left and which side is right.

"Admiral Deng's method is really good." After this novel way of training, Ma Fengzhi couldn't help but show admiration on his face, as a veteran military officer, of course he understood the role of quickly completing the formation change on the battlefield. In fact, Ma Fengzhi's understanding of this is still above Deng Ming, but of course he didn't realize this, but mistakenly thought that this was Deng Ming's whimsy.

"This is an improved version, and in the future, the words 'barefoot' and 'wearing shoes' will be removed, and the soldiers will be given orders simply to the left and right." Deng Ming did not intend to hide his secrets from Zhang Huangyan and Ma Feng, under the general trend of the Qing Dynasty being strong and weak, Deng Ming not only had to try to reach an agreement with the Qing court officials, but also did his best to strengthen the alliance. The methods used by Deng Ming to train the Zhoushan Army this time were the most advanced versions: "At the beginning, we did not add the words left and right in front of 'bare feet' and 'wearing shoes', but after the training, although the soldiers turned very skillfully, they still couldn't distinguish the left and right. ”

The previous version of the training left Deng Ming with many painful memories, and the first batch of fellow trainees to respond to "barefoot" and "shoeed" - even if they were wearing shoes on both feet, they could quickly carry out orders - so that some voices were even drawn to turn these two words into the military language unique to the Sichuan army. But different instructors have different habits, some have the trained soldier to wear a shoe on his left foot, while others do the opposite, and the result is that the same order causes different reflexes. Zhao Tianba pointed out that if such a misunderstanding occurred on the battlefield, it would cause terrible consequences, and worse, it also increased the burden on the officers, because in addition to observing the enemy army and making a decision on the direction of the formation change, the officers also needed to translate the left and right into "the military language unique to the Sichuan army" in their hearts, and if the translation was wrong in a hurry, it would be a joke.

And now this kind of training method can finally eliminate the kind of "transitional military language" in the middle, and achieve Deng Ming's training purpose.

The standing army basically has the experience of serving as a soldier in Zhoushan, and a considerable number of conscripts brought out are the original Zhejiang army, so wherever Zhang Huangyan goes, he can enjoy the attention of the soldiers, and the officers also rush up to say hello to the military department. In addition to the previous relationship, there is also the joy of reunion. Before these Zhejiang troops followed Deng Ming into Sichuan, Zhang Huangyan had personally done their work, but many people thought that this was a breakup with Zhang Shangshu. In this era, the distance between Sichuan and Zhejiang is almost the same as goodbye, at that time, neither Zhang Huangyan nor these Zhejiang soldiers thought that they could meet here so soon, and the officers of the standing army were all excited.

Zhang Huangyan was naturally very emotional, and he said to Deng Ming during the training: "The people who came to Zhoushan are all loyal and brave people, and it is really right for them to follow Admiral Deng into Sichuan." Zhang was incompetent, could not provide them with enough food and weapons, and wasted the will of these righteous men to serve the country, and when they came to Admiral Deng, they became a strong army so quickly. ”

Hearing this, Deng Ming naturally had to be humble, and at the same time comforted Zhang Huangyan: "After the Yangtze River channel is unimpeded, Zhang Shangshu will not be short of food and weapons, and the Zhoushan Army will also become a strong army in the world at that time." ”

Zhang Huangyan nodded slightly, but he still had some questions in his heart: "Admiral Deng has indeed had to compromise with these puppet officials appointed by the Imperial Court, but this is an expedient measure after all, I don't know when Admiral Deng plans to end the agreement with them and recover the southeast?" ”

"My idea is that we must first have the ability to restore the entire territory along the Yangtze River, and be able to capture and control the troops on the front line of Wuchang, Nanchang, and Nanjing, and then consider taking the entire Yangtze River with the power of a thunderbolt to isolate the north and south of the Imperial Court. Before that, we need to concentrate our forces and attack the puppet officials who stubbornly refuse to come to an agreement with us, so that the magistrates from Wuchang to Nanking will sign an alliance with us one after another. Although Deng Ming's strength was not enough to control a province, it was enough to deter Zhang Changgeng and Jiang Guozhu, and he could make them pay a price they could not afford: "We will use the resources of this Yangtze River to store our military strength until we can completely take it over." During this period, I felt that we should focus on the Qing army's sailors, and we must not let them build a Yangtze River sailor that could threaten us. ”

When Deng Ming and Zhang Huangyan spoke, Ma Fengzhi never said a word, just now he watched coldly, Zhang Huangyan's prestige in Deng Ming's army made Ma Fengzhi feel very shocked.

"Zhang Shangshu is called far-sighted, it seems that except for the cavalry guards of Admiral Deng, who are from the Eastern Army, all the officers under him are Zhang Shangshu's old troops." Ma Fengzhi once heard Zhang Huangyan say that he handed over 20,000 Zhoushan subordinates to Deng Ming in Anqing, and some people were reluctant to leave Zhang Huangyan and persuaded them one by one. But now Ma Fengzhi's heart is full of awe of Zhang Huangyan, and he has already thrown the initial contempt out of the clouds: "Zhang Shangshu must know that he can't afford to raise such a large number of soldiers, so he handed over his henchmen to Admiral Deng and asked Admiral Deng to help him train a troop." ”

Ma Fengzhi has also heard various rumors about Deng Ming's life experience, compared with the Yongli Heavenly Son who abandoned the country and did not return, it is obvious that this is a strong contender for the throne. Ma Fengzhi doesn't pay much attention to righteousness, as a military general in troubled times, he feels that having a soldier is a qiē. Now Deng Ming has nearly 10,000 armor soldiers, crisscrossing the Yangtze River, and Sichuan is estimated to have a group of descendants, and Yu Dong seems to support it wholeheartedly, even in these days with Zhang Huangyan, Ma Fengzhi also feels that the military department Shangshu has more respect for Deng Ming than the great tomorrow. Especially after Zhang Huangyan came back from Xiamen, Ma Fengzhi felt that he seemed to be attentive to Deng Ming, and this time when he saw Deng Ming's letter, he immediately sent troops to help without thinking, so Ma Fengzhi felt that if it was the Ming Dynasty, it must be the mysterious young clan in front of him who ascended the throne: "In the future, Admiral Deng will be surrounded by Zhang Shangshu's old department and confidants. What persuaded his subordinates to go to Sichuan so that they had a better future, most of them were thought about by Zhang Shangshu, right? It's stupid that I really believed it at the beginning. I have to take a good picture of Zhang Shangshu's sycophant, Zhang Shangshu will definitely be hot and powerful in the court in the future! ”

"Admiral."

"Admiral Deng, please speak." Seeing that Deng's name was Dao himself, Ma Fengzhi hurriedly shook his spirits and listened attentively.

"The location of Chongming is very important, and we need to stick to this place as a key point downstream." Now that he has reached an agreement with Zhang Huangyan and intends to control the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, Deng Ming cannot but attach importance to Chongming Island, and the Qing court will definitely try to recapture it for the safety of Jiangnan. No matter what agreement there is with the Ming army, if there is a chance to get Deng Ming back, I think Jiang Guozhu will probably not care.

"Admiral Deng is right." Ma Fengzhi knew the importance of Chongming, if the Ming army could gain a foothold in Chongming, it could threaten Caoyun and a large area of territory along the river at any time, pointing to a sharp sword in the heart of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

"Although the sailor of the king of Yanping County is powerful, he has sea ships in his hands, and he looks bulky in the Yangtze River." The last battle of Nanjing also exposed a lot of deficiencies of the Fujian army, after Zheng Chenggong's sea ships entered the Yangtze River, the draft was very deep, and the action was slow, although it was enough to frighten Su Song's sailors not to fight, but the Ming army did not want to catch up with the Qing army's warships in the Yangtze River. If the wind direction is unfavorable, or the wind is insufficient, Zheng Jun's sea boats cannot rely on oars to get enough power, and need to be pulled by slender men to swim upstream: "Although the boats in Zhoushan are small and light, they are not very good at sailing in the sea. ”

In the last Battle of Nanjing, Zhang Huangyan's sailors were much more flexible and agile than Zheng Chenggong, and they could quickly swim upriver without a slender man, but these ships had poor ability to withstand the wind and waves in the sea, and they needed to choose calm weather to sail, and could not undertake the task of harassing Jiangsu, Shandong and other coastal areas on a large scale.

"My idea is to build a large naval base in Chongming, with both sea and river boats, for example, my army will be able to take a boat down the river from Sichuan, and when it arrives in Chongming, it should take a sea ship to attack the weak links along the Shandong coast. And if the king of Yanping County attacked the Yangtze River again, after his army arrived in Chongming, he could put the sea boat there safely and take the river boat to attack the Yangtze River instead. Deng Ming knew that it would take a lot of money to build a water camp or a large boat builder, but the most important thing was to consolidate Chongming's defenses: "I wonder if Admiral Ma is willing to garrison Chongming?" ”

Ma Fengzhi was originally the governor of Jiangnan in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he was very familiar with Chongming, and he still had some connections in the Qing army in Jiangnan, so he was indeed the best candidate to defend Chongming. In addition to military problems, Deng Ming also had political considerations, Ma Fengzhi was a former senior military attache of the Qing court who came over anyway, if Deng Ming and Zhang Huangyan showed enough trust in him, it could also serve as an example for the Manchu military attaché.

Zhang Huangyan had no objection to Deng Ming's suggestion, and Ma Fengzhi basically had no possibility of surrendering back to the Qing court after making a big fuss in Jiangnan, otherwise he would really feel a little uneasy about handing over such an important place to him.

After hearing Deng Ming's suggestion, Ma Fengzhi was also happy in his heart, of course, it is much more dangerous to be stationed in Chongming than to stay in Zhoushan, the latter basically only needs to face the military pressure of Zhejiang, and with Zheng Chenggong on his side, Zhejiang's energy that can be used to pay attention to Zhoushan is also limited, but Chongming will definitely have to bear the pressure of the governor of Liangjiang alone, and maybe there will be help from other provinces. However, being stationed in Chongming means being alone, not comparable to Zhang Huangyan's followers in Zhoushan. If Deng Mingzhen planned to focus on the development of Chongming as he just said, Ma Fengzhi knew that his position would become more important.

After careful consideration, Ma Fengzhi said that he swore to defend Chongming for Deng Ming, but he was still a little worried about the financial problem. The last time Zheng Chenggong attacked, Ma Fengzhi thought that he also had a chance to become a prince, but after tossing for more than half a year, Ma Fengzhi realized that he was not that material. The most important thing is that Ma Fengzhi found that he had no ability to run the territory, and he couldn't help at all in Zhoushan, so he could only lament that there were not enough supplies.

"Admiral need not worry." After listening to Ma Fengzhi's explanation, Deng Ming smiled: "As long as the governor of Liangjiang cannot rebuild the water division, we can operate a business in the Yangtze River, and in the future, local products from all over the country will be transported to Chongming, and then transferred to Zhoushan." In addition to our army, there will be a very good pair of merchants, and Admiral only needs to collect transit fees. ”

After listening to Deng Ming's general explanation, Ma Fengzhi was a lot relieved: "Isn't it just counting money, I have no problem with this." ”

……

In the afternoon, Deng Ming did not continue to inspect the training work, and in the past few days, the surrounding merchants have kept coming to visit Deng Ming, and he has purchased some local nitrate meat and eggs in Zhenjiang, which are all preparations for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. After hearing that the governor of Caoyun was about to bring in the grain requested by Deng Ming, Deng Ming recruited a pastry chef in Zhenjiang Mansion, and he had already ordered some black beans, which required a large number of people to make moon cakes.

Now Zhenjiang Mansion is basically an empty city, and Jiang Guozhu has transferred all the guards, but Deng Ming will never step into Zhenjiang, and he has specially announced this decision to the people. After the last time the Ming army left, Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu's troops plundered Zhenjiang, and the miserable fate of those captive women Deng Ming is still vivid, and now Zhenjiang finally regained a little anger, and he hoped not to give the Qing army an excuse to plunder the city again.

When Zhang Huangyan came to Deng Ming's tent, he saw Deng Ming personally meeting with several merchants from Nanjing and Suzhou.

"I need glutinous rice, it must be shipped to Zhenjiang tomorrow......"

After several businessmen left, Deng Ming explained to Zhang Huangyan: "Zhang Shangshu also knows that there are many Jiangsu and Zhejiang people in our army, and they never forget the meat dumplings, and when they were in Sichuan, they always said that Jiaxing's meat dumplings are the best in the world (Mu Tan disagreed many times). This time we don't have time to go to Jiaxing, 50,000 zongzi can't be transported, we can only do it in the barracks, I have bought pigs, chestnuts and other things, but glutinous rice is still a little worse. ”

"How much money did Admiral Deng spend?" Zhoushan has always been poor, and Zhang Huangyan couldn't help but feel a little heartache.

"Silver can always be earned again, but what if the Mid-Autumn Festival doesn't let the soldiers live well?" Deng Ming did spend a lot of money, but he thought it should be: "The soldiers are fighting on the battlefield, going out on the expedition, sometimes there is a headache and brain fever is gone, these strong men don't know when they will sacrifice their lives for the country, all I can do is let them eat better, which is the only thing I can do." ”

After sighing, Deng Ming asked, "What is the matter with Zhang Shangshu coming to me?" ”

"I heard just now that Admiral Deng made a rule that after serving in the army for three years, or after making enough contributions, he will leave the army?" Zhang Huangyan was very puzzled when he heard about Deng Ming's rules at first glance, but Deng Ming's various training methods were very novel, and he guessed that Deng Ming might have any deep meaning, so he came to ask.

"If you can be promoted to an officer during this period, then the period of service will be extended." According to Deng Ming's regulations, if you are promoted to lieutenant, the period of service in the regular army must be extended to ten years, and if you are promoted to colonel, it must be extended to twenty years, but ordinary soldiers only have three years. If the Qing army attacked Chengdu in a big way, these people would also enlist in the army in times of crisis, but if there were no special circumstances, then they would not be conscripted into the regular army again. Deng Ming gave Zhang Huangyan a brief explanation and nodded: "Yes, ordinary soldiers will leave the army after serving for three years, or after making a first-class merit or two second-class merits." ”

Zhang Huangyan was puzzled, these veterans were precious soldiers when he came, especially those soldiers who had made military achievements, they were even more rare elites, how could they be driven out of the army?

"This is not to drive them away, but to reward," Deng Ming sighed again: "As Zhang Shangshu said, these soldiers who joined the army are loyal and righteous, and those soldiers who fought bravely to kill the enemy and made outstanding achievements are even greater heroes." I just want these warriors to live. I think we should make a rule so that the bravest people have a chance to leave the army alive, or they will die on the battlefield sooner or later; And I also think that every soldier should know that bravery does not mean that he must die, and that he does not have the opportunity to leave the army to share the joy of family with his relatives, otherwise sooner or later every soldier will become slippery, and the warriors will all die, and the rest of our army will be good at saving their lives. ”