For the current general of the Baoxiang Army, the most important thing now is one thing: fighting!

Everything the Baoxiang Army General’s Mansion is doing now is in service of fighting the war.

And war requires money, food, and ordnance.

Therefore, in addition to the military, there are currently two administrative agencies that receive the most attention: the Ministry of Industry, which is responsible for the production of various types of ordnance, and the Department of Taxation, which is responsible for collecting money and grain.

Relatively speaking, the Ministry of Taxation receives more attention than the Ministry of Industry.

After all, only when you have money and food can you make ordnance!

In addition to these, the General's Office of the Home Guard Army does not have the energy or personnel to pay attention to other matters for the time being, so it can only do a little symbolic work.

This also results in the tax department having huge funds and huge personnel!

After all, if you want to collect taxes, you must have enough people and funds. Those wealthy gentry are not honest people. If you don't investigate the situation clearly, you don't even know how much land they have. Don't expect them to pay hidden taxes.

tax.

Even if someone evades taxes, the tax officials of the Baoxiang Army don’t even know about it...

The matter of tax collection is a process of battle of wits and courage between tax officials and the wealthy gentry.

After all, the Hometown Protection Army is now transforming into a regular dynasty, and they will not treat themselves as rogue bandits and just come to collect money and food indiscriminately, or even ransack homes.

Today's rural protection army follows rules. Even if the rules they set are stricter, they still follow rules.

Since we have followed the rules, if you want to collect taxes, you must investigate clearly and put the matter on the record, and you cannot collect taxes randomly.

Even if the gentry wants to evade taxes, they must abide by the rules of the rural protection army. For example, if they evade taxes through unknown methods, at least they cannot openly evade taxes or even resist taxes.

If they directly refuse to follow the rules, for example, directly refuse to pay taxes, or still refuse to pay taxes after being discovered for tax evasion, then the rural protection army will not bother to talk to you about the rules, and will directly send troops to your home to confiscate your home and exterminate the clan...

Many times, tax officials actually wish that those wealthy gentry families would not follow the rules and would better come to arms to resist taxation. In that case, they would not have to spend time conducting various investigations. They would just let the army come and ransack their homes, which would be more convenient and the harvest would be even greater!

But those gentry are not stupid. For the sake of their lives, they would rather spend money to eliminate disasters. It’s just that most gentry hope to spend less money to eliminate disasters. Except for a few stubborn or stupid gentry, there are still not many gentry.

I dare to openly resist the tax.

Therefore, this makes the tax department even busier. In order to collect taxes better, they even dispatch tax officials to uncontrolled areas in advance, join the county yamen that are engaged in underground activities, and collect various tax materials in advance.

Intelligence.

————

Tang County, northeast of Xinye City.

This small county town by the Tang River has welcomed a gray bandit army many days ago, and today it has welcomed a larger gray bandit army.

This gray bandit army is the main force such as the 1st Infantry Brigade led by Luo Zhixue himself.

Luo Zhixue led the army all the way north, successfully crossing a distance of more than 50 kilometers and arriving in Tang County in just two days.

This time heading north, the army led by Luo Zhixue did not go along the Baihe River, arriving at Nanyang City first and then turning eastward. Instead, it marched directly along the northeast direction and quickly marched along the Tang River in order to shorten the distance, and at the same time in order to get along with Li

The 7th Infantry Battalion and other troops led by Duo met on the way.

Chief of Staff Xu Zhixian said: "Li Duo has sent a message. He has ended the Biyang War and will officially lead his army north tomorrow. It is expected to arrive in Dama Town two days later, where he will join our main force.

Meet!"

After hearing this, Luo Zhixue said: "It's good if we can merge smoothly. I didn't expect that guy Li Duo moved so fast. It didn't take long and he even captured Biyang."

"I originally thought I could meet him in Tang County, but it's good this way. At least Biyang won and I'll have one less thing to worry about."

"However, Biyang Xinke lacks the main garrison. It is still risky to rely on the 18th Infantry Battalion that has just been reorganized for two days. You can go back and discuss with the Logistics Department and the Military and Political Department to allocate an additional batch of light artillery to the battalion.

and armor,

Send a few capable and reliable people to serve."

Xu Zhixian said: "I obey my orders!"

Luo Zhixue originally expected that he would be able to reunite Li Duo in Tang County, but he did not expect that Li Duo would move very quickly with his troops. At the same time, the Ming army in Tang County did not have many soldiers, let alone the will to resist. Four days ago, Li Duo

After Duo led his army to this place, they gave it a casual fight and the city's defenders surrendered directly.

Obviously, the officials and ordinary guardsmen in Tang County have known for a long time that Nanyang City, Xinye City and even Xiangyang were captured by the Baoxiang Army, and Tang County is not a strategic location.

There is no main Ming army garrison, not even many ordinary guardsmen.

Under such circumstances, facing the menacing thieves under Li Duo's command, they simply chose to surrender after a symbolic resistance.

Subsequently, Li Duo led his army eastward to attack Biyang, but the defenders of Biyang were not much better, and were even worse than the defenders of Tang County.

After all, the defenders in Tang County still had dozens of guardsmen, and they carried out a symbolic resistance with hundreds of ordinary guardsmen and a group of young men.

As for Biyang, there are only about a hundred ordinary guards and only a few combat soldiers.

So they didn't even resist. Before Li Duo led his army close to Biyang City, several officials in the city had already fled without knowing where they were. Seeing this, the hundreds of guardsmen and government officials simply fled.

Disperse.

Li Duo's troops captured Biyang without even a fight.

Li Duo's action goes smoothly, and he will naturally be able to join the main army led by Luo Zhixue himself and go north together.

However, after Li Duo led his army northward, the garrison of Biyang and Tang counties became a problem.

As a last resort, the staff could only use the newly formed 18th Infantry Battalion to garrison Biyang to prevent the Ming army from Runing Mansion from crossing the mountains and hills into the Nanyang Basin.

As for Tang County, just leave a few dozen people and then recruit some local government officials to maintain basic public order. Anyway, this place has no strategic importance now, and it is located in the hinterland of the Baoxiang Army-controlled area.

It is impossible to face any large-scale Ming army attack. At most, there will be a small-scale rebellion by some local gentry. If something happens, the nearby Xinye City can quickly lead an army to attack and suppress it.

After Luo Zhixue led his army to rest for a night in Tang County, he continued northward early the next morning and walked nearly 30 kilometers this day.

That day, they directly camped temporarily in a small village for the night. By noon the next day, they successfully arrived at Dama Town and camped to rest.

It was only noon when they arrived at Dama Town. According to the routine, they could continue marching. However, on the one hand, they were waiting for Li Duo's troops who were rushing to march, and on the other hand, they were also waiting for the soldiers, mules and horses who had been marching at high intensity for several days.

It was time to recharge and rest, so I simply set up camp in Dama Town to rest.

After all, it was already the fourth day that Luo Zhixue led his army northward. During these four days, they set out from Xinye City and walked hundreds of kilometers in one breath.

Continuous high-intensity marches, even in this main force of the rural protection army, have a large number of mules and horses, which can reduce the physical energy consumption of soldiers and reduce the average physical energy consumption of mules and horses.

However, the physical energy consumption is still very high, and there is an urgent need to stop and rest.

At least give the soldiers a breath of relief.

It is also necessary to give the large number of mules and horses in the army a breath of relief.

In the past four days, at least a dozen mules and horses have died from exhaustion. In addition, dozens of mules and horses have been unable to continue advancing with the army due to overuse, and can only stay at various points along the way to recuperate.

As for the soldiers, things are better.

After all, the food supply for the Baoxiang Army is now very good, and the corresponding physical training can keep up.

Furthermore, human endurance is much stronger than that of mules and horses. It is not obvious when marching for a short distance, but it is very obvious when marching for a long distance.

In ten days, ordinary soldiers of the Baoxiang Army can easily march at least 250 kilometers, and even 300 kilometers if they walk faster.

However, the same cannot be said for the mules and horses that transport artillery and various types of baggage. Under heavy loads, if they traveled 300 kilometers without stopping for ten days, more than half of the mules and horses of the Baoxiang Army would have died from exhaustion.

This is based on the fact that the mules and horses in the rural protection army are very large, and they will use multi-horse carts or even rotations, and the average burden on a single horse is relatively small.

If there were not so many mules and horses, and all the mules and horses were exhausted, it would not be possible to pull so many artillery and baggage for 300 kilometers in ten days.

Impossible!

To a certain extent, it is no longer the physical fitness of ordinary soldiers that limits the marching speed of the Baoxiang Army, especially the long-distance marching speed, but the number of various mules and horses.

————

After Luo Zhixue led his army to rest in Dama Town for most of the day, it was not until the evening of that day that they finally arrived at Li Duo's headquarters.

Li Duo's troops set off from Biyang and headed north. Although they did not carry much baggage or heavy artillery, and it was a semi-light march, the road was more difficult and the distance was longer.

Being able to arrive at Dama Town on time today is a sign that Li Duo is managing the army well.

After Li Duo led his army to arrive, the army rested for another night and continued northward the next day. Finally, they successfully arrived at Shanghe Town, and joined the main force of the 3rd Mixed Brigade, which arrived at Shanghe Town one day in advance, and the accompanying army leaders of the 3rd Mixed Brigade.

A large number of weapons and ammunition, food, grass and baggage arrived, as well as a group of new soldiers.

On June 1, the eighth year of Chongzhen, after many days of continuous high-speed marching, Luo Zhixue finally led the main force to Shanghe Town.

It is only about ten kilometers away from Yuzhou City.

At the same time, Luo Zhixue also gradually gathered all the units of the Third Mixed Brigade, so that the Third Mixed Brigade was truly fully staffed.

However, the mixed brigade should be fully staffed. The name of the mixed brigade will be gone and it will return to the name of the Third Infantry Brigade.

Because after reuniting with the main force, the third artillery post and the third cavalry post, which were originally under the jurisdiction of the third mixed brigade, were transferred out.

The third artillery sentry was transferred to the first artillery brigade, and Zhang Malin, the artillery director, also served as the commander of the first artillery brigade.

The 3rd Cavalry Post is not part of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, because the 3rd Cavalry Post is just a half-baked mounted infantryman and is not the same thing as the elite cavalry of the 1st Cavalry Brigade.

Therefore, the cavalry post is temporarily under the direct jurisdiction of the staff headquarters, well, that is, it is under the direct command of Luo Zhixue.

After gathering all the ministries, the current forces in Shanghe Town include two fully equipped main infantry brigades; three field artillery posts; four cavalry posts, three of which are cavalry and one is mounted infantry; in addition, there are

It has a personal barracks of 1,200 people and a first supply camp of 600 people.

Not counting the camp civilians accompanying the army, Luo Zhixue now has 6,500 combatable troops, including eighteen 600-pound field artillery and 400 cavalry!

Now, Luo Zhixue will lead this army to advance towards Yuzhou City. This move is not only to rescue the fourth mixed brigade in Yuzhou City.

The purpose is to defeat the coalition forces of Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong, eliminate the threat posed by the Ming army on the northern front, and completely stabilize the northern defense line.

Luo Zhixue has never forgotten that only by stabilizing the northern defense line can he free up his hands to go south to the Jianghan Plain and completely seize the entire northern Chu land!

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