"Lord Zhong, now we are not outsiders, can you tell me, what kind of depth is this Nanjing Fourteen Guards? Among them, is there any other capable person? What is the strength of each guard? ”

Qin Mufeng asked.

Zhong Yue smiled bitterly: "Lord Qin, my Yulin avant-garde is not worth your attention, I'm afraid that the fourteen guards of Nanjing can enter your eyes, but it is really like a rare existence, among the fourteen guards, the feather forest avant-garde has the strongest combat power, followed by the Yulin guard, and the rest of you are not worth mentioning, just a group of rabble, with the combat power of today's Tianwei army, as long as two or three thousand cavalry come, it is enough to sweep all the guards......"

Zhu Jie frowned and replied, "To be specific." ”

Zhong Yue replied: "My lord, now it has become a very normal thing in the army to strip the military salary layer by layer, every guard is like this, from the imperial court, it is only less than sixty percent, and when you arrive in Nanjing, you have to peel the skin layer by layer, how can you feed so many soldiers?" It is that the most troops of the fourteen guards are the last general's Yulin avant-garde and Duanke's Yulin guard, both of which are in their early 4,000s, and the others are only about 3,000 people, and even one or two guards, all of which are already less than 3,000 people, and more than half of them are missing. ”

Layers of exploitation, in the hands of the soldiers, there are only four or fifty percent left! And these four or five percent are also only half of the people who are in charge, and the rest are all swallowed, Zhu Jie's eyes are full of anger, how can this special fight? Not to mention the elite of Manchuria, even if they fight against Li Zicheng's rebels, they will definitely not be able to win!

Zhong Yue continued: "In order to make as much money as possible, the training of various guards is lax, and even one training can not be carried out once a month, as for ordnance and firearms, they have not been replaced for many years, the barrels of guns have become moldy, and it is common for steel knives to have gaps, as for the guns and artillery, it is estimated that even one-third of them can be fired, and I have trained a lot of the avant-garde in this Yulin, and the damage to the ordnance and firearms in the army is even more serious. Saying that I am purely eating weapons, similar to iron-eating beasts, specially, if the Yulin avant-garde is not trained, of course the ordnance will not be broken, but if it is not trained, where will the army have combat power at all? If the ordnance is not allocated, the brothers will have to go into battle with burning sticks......"

Zhu Jie knew that the situation in various departments was not optimistic, but he did not expect that it would be so serious, half of the personnel was missing, the ordnance and firearms were seriously damaged, and the armament was lax to the extreme. No wonder, no wonder, as soon as the Qing army entered the customs and arrived in Jiangnan, the four towns in Jiangnan fell to the wind, this battle can't be fought, not to mention the confrontation with the Manchurian Eight Banners, even in the face of the army of Wu Sangui and Geng Zhongming and others, they are not opponents, what can they do if they don't surrender?

"You say the situation of the Yulin defenders is better too?"

Zhu Jie asked.

Zhong Yue nodded, and said with a wry smile: "My lord, the command of the Yulin guard makes Duan Ke back to the two mountains of Cheng'an Hou Guo Zuoyong and Chengyi Bo Liu Kongzhao, which are the most relied on by the two people, and the military salary is naturally given priority, and their equipment is also the best, however, this Duan Ke Kung Fu is really good, but it is too bad to be a person, vulgar and greedy, it is simply all evil, in addition to the front and rear guards of Yulin, it is the left and right guards of Jinwu, and the left and right guards of Jinwu are the descendants of Zhao Zhilong, the commander of Zhao Zhilong, who is the garrison of Nanjing, the head of the ministers, Naturally, you can't be too harsh on the left and right guards of Jinwu under your command......"

"Jin Wu left and right guards? What about their commanders? ”

Zhu Jie asked.

Zhong Yue smiled bitterly: "I have already been cut by you yesterday......"

I'll go!

Zhu Jie's face was helpless, indeed, as Zhao Zhilong's left and right hands, like Duan Ke, these two commanders naturally wanted to break their wrists with themselves, and now they put their lives into it.

The most terrible thing is that the current Nanjing Fourteen Guards, combined, the strength is only forty or fifty thousand people, if the old, weak, sick and disabled redundancy is removed, I am afraid that the number of troops is less than 30,000, such a small number of troops, I want to prepare the three towns from the new troops, but it is impossible!

Qin Mufeng looked at Zhu Jie and said: "My lord, just such a small number of troops, if you are streamlining the administration of the elite army, it is estimated that there will be twenty or thirty thousand people left, such a small number of troops is really pitiful enough, even more pitiful than the fourteen guards in the capital......

Zhu Jie shook his head and said: "Whatever, anyway, it's better to have a shortage than an indiscriminate force, I would rather go to Nanjing City to recruit new soldiers, and definitely don't want useless waste, the military salary of the imperial court can't be wasted!" This is even more true for officials, who don't have the ability to convince their subordinates, why do they have salaries that are several times higher than those of others, dozens of times? ”

Zhong Yue smiled bitterly: "My lord, this is the guard, not only the battalion soldiers, among the battalion soldiers, almost all the generals are promoted through military exploits, so naturally they must have real skills, but in the guard, if you command it, thousands of households and hundreds of households can be hereditary, this is an iron rice bowl, who has nothing to do and still fights hard?" According to the standard selection of the few thousand households of my Yulin avant-garde, among the fourteen guards, I am afraid that you will not be able to choose ten thousand households......"

Zhong Yue is right, Nanjing's Fourteenth Guard is different from the Qin Army and even the Tianwei Army, whether it is a thousand households or a hundred households or even a commander, it is hereditary, just like Xu Yifan, if Xu Yifan did not directly join the Tianwei Army, more than ten years later, he will still be a hereditary commander, this is undoubted, with a hereditary official position, who has nothing to do and still work hard?

Qin Mufeng's face was full of incredulity, at the level of their four thousand households, the entire fourteen guards couldn't pick out more than ten? Even if the four of them are in the Tianwei Army, they can only be regarded as ordinary existences, there are no thousand households in the Tianwei Army, but there are Dusi and guerrillas, similar to Qianhu, each of them is a guerrilla, and they are the backbone of the Tianwei Army, fighting with a knife and a gun!

Zhu Jie sneered: "The capable are up, the mediocre are down, among the thousands of households, there is no capable person, it does not mean that there are no among the hundred households, and also, what do you think I am doing with the five hundred heavenly mighty army?" These are the elites of the Tianwei Army, with outstanding abilities, and they can be used to fill the loopholes at any time, and everyone can serve as more than a hundred households in the fourteen guards, or even a thousand households! ”

As for Mu Feng and Cha Xuan, it is the chief soldier I selected for the Fourteenth Guard, you, Zhong Yue, the chief soldier of the third town may be you!

(End of chapter)