In the northern suburbs of Zhongxiang, at the frontline headquarters of the General of the Baoxiang Army, Xu Zhixian looked at Luo Zhixue in front of him as he spoke.

"After the 5th Garrison Brigade and the 4th Infantry Regiment all moved south, the defense of Nanzhang and Yicheng has been fully transferred to the Third Division in accordance with your instructions, General. However, although the Third Division has been

We have set up six battalions, but most of them are recruits who have not yet completed recruit training!"

"Of the six battalions that have been set up, three are stationed in Xiangyang, one is stationed in Nanzhang, one is stationed in Yicheng, and one is stationed in Zaoyang!"

"In addition, the seed troops of the 3rd Artillery Regiment, 3rd Cavalry Regiment and 3rd Baggage Regiment that are currently being trained are also currently stationed in Xiangyang."

"Although the various units of the Third Division are still relatively weak, the areas around Xiangyang are the hinterland of our rural defense army. As long as there are no problems on the west, north, and south lines, there will not be big problems. As for some local areas,

The third division can handle the turmoil!"

Luo Zhixue also said: "I have already instructed the tax department to have the tax patrol team actively cooperate with the military and assist the military in suppressing the local area!"

"When we were in Tang County, the tax patrol team did a good job and directly cooperated with the local garrison to suppress the local armed tax resistance."

When Xu Zhixian heard Luo Zhixue talking about the tax patrol team, Xu Zhixian couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

He really didn't expect that their regular army, which is a dignified rural protection army, would actually need a group of tax collectors to help suppress the local area...

No matter how you look at it, this is ridiculous.

And there is probably no other dynasty in the history of history that is as weird as their home-protecting army.

Not only is the tax collection agency directly classified as a ministry, its political status is equal to or even superior to that of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but the tax department of their rural protection army actually has an 'army' under them, and its combat effectiveness is better than that of the defense department.

The army is even stronger...

That's the Tax Patrol.

In order to levy various grains and collect taxes to meet the financial needs of the rural defense army, the tax department has been following the path of anger and resentment from the beginning. Every day, they are either confiscating homes and exterminating clans, or they are on the way to confiscate homes and exterminate clans.

In order to collect taxes better, they also want to arrest tax resisters. In addition to civilian tax officials, the tax department also has a group of tax patrol police with law enforcement powers.

These tax patrol police are also divided into two parts. Some tax patrol police are just ordinary law enforcement officers, investigating various tax evasion and tax evasion cases. They usually carry a waist knife and go out to enforce the law.

In addition, there are some tax patrols who are armed tax patrols. These people wear armor and use military standard cold weapons such as spears and bows. There are even some squatting tiger cannons, assault cannons and other weapons captured from the Ming army.

Firearms.

With the appropriate equipment, it is no worse than the garrison.

At first glance, it seems that it has nothing to do with the word patrol. It is a regular army. But, they are really tax patrols - ordinary tax law enforcement officers.

There is no essential difference from the local patrol police.

Patrol policemen are public security law enforcement officers under the Baoxiang Army system, also known as policemen in the past. However, the policemen in the Ming Dynasty were of low status, and the Baoxiang Army did not have such a saying. In addition, the civil servants executed by the Baoxiang Army

Unify the grade system, no matter if you are the lowest clerk or a police officer, you all have a grade, even if you are just a ninth grader.

In order to prevent people from thinking that the patrol officer is a lowly person, Luo Zhixue simply changed the title of the policeman to the patrol officer, and the patrol stations and inspection bureaus in various places were also changed to patrol police stations and patrol bureaus.

Patrol police and tax patrol police together constitute the only two types of law enforcement personnel currently employed by the Baoxiang Army.

This shows the special nature of the tax patrol.

As for the armed tax patrol police, they have to cooperate with the civilian tax police in law enforcement. If there is a big event, such as armed tax resistance, then they will crack down on the armed tax resistance.

Under the rule of the Baoxiang Army, many powerful gentry, especially in the newly occupied areas, would not obediently pay taxes, and it was impossible for the tax department to call the military over every time it took action against the gentry.

After all, the rural protection army has a small number of troops and more and more territories. Each department is very busy with their tasks. How can they have time to clean up the local tax-resisting tyrants one by one?

In desperation, the tax department simply established its own armed forces to combat armed tax resistance.

After obtaining Luo Zhixue's approval, the tax department spent its own money to directly arm some tax inspections for tax law enforcement.

In addition to their own duties, due to the limited strength of the regular troops of the Baoxiang Army, the manpower of patrol bureaus in various places has become even tighter. At the same time, there are also various types of refugees in various control areas of the Baoxiang Army, and there are numerous civil unrest.

Therefore, the armed tax policemen of the Department of Taxation have an additional duty, which is to assist local patrol police in handling major and important cases.

When necessary, it also assists the garrison to suppress local unrest. Well, it is said to be an auxiliary, but in fact, the tax police are the main force and the garrison is the auxiliary...

This does not mean that the weapons and equipment of the armed tax police are better than that of the garrison, and the quality of their personnel is higher than that of the garrison.

Their weapons are actually mainly cold weapons, supplemented by captured artillery, which is similar to the weapons and equipment of the garrison.

Anyway, the Baoxiang Army captured a large amount of Ming Army standard equipment. If they were not so particular about quality, they could easily arm an army with Ming Army standard weapons.

However, although the armed tax police have mediocre equipment and mediocre combat skills, their morale is high.

Every time they go to attack the powerful gentry, the members of these armed tax policemen rush up, screaming, and why?

This is definitely not because of how loyal they are to Luo Zhixue, nor is it for the tax cause.

The reason why their morale is high is why they rush to kill.

It's just that they can make a fortune themselves after breaking through the manor.

It's too late, but there will be no benefit, nothing can be gained...

This has defeated Zhuangzi. Although most of the things need to be confiscated and returned to the public, it is not too much to secretly hide some gold and silver in the process...

Even if the senior tax police officers leading the team see this situation, they often turn a blind eye...

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!

If you want a horse to run and run with all its might, don't you have to give it benefits?

After all, tax patrol policemen don’t have the same three meals a day and three meals a day as military soldiers. It’s not easy to support a family with just that little money. It’s human nature to get some benefits when raiding homes.

If these benefits are not given, no one will come to work in the tax department... After all, even within the Baoxiang Army, the reputation of the tax police is terrible...

It’s really a shame that an organization that loots homes and exterminates families every day, smashes, smashes, and robs ordinary people’s homes in order to collect taxes, and arrests people at every turn and sends them to labor camps, has a good reputation.

Because there are no normal people willing to work in the local tax bureaus, so when the local tax bureaus recruit people, they will accept all comers. It doesn’t matter whether you were a gangster or a refugee before. As long as you dare to fight and kill and want to gain wealth, then you can

You can come.

In particular, young gangsters from various places are the first batch of key recruitment targets after the establishment of local tax bureaus.

Because they know who are the rich people in the local area, how much land they have, and whether they have hidden fields or anything like that.

With the information provided by these local gangsters, the tax officials who had just come to take office and knew nothing about the local situation did not have to worry too much. They could directly start collecting taxes or arresting people according to the list...

The joining of these people has further damaged the reputation of Baoxiangjunli's tax agency. It's just that the tax department doesn't care, and Luo Zhixue doesn't care even more.

The composition of the armed tax patrol force is extremely complex. If you let them fight with the regular Ming army, it will definitely be unreliable. They will probably all be gone before the fight begins.

But if you let them cooperate with the military to suppress local areas, it will be very useful.

To put it bluntly, they are a group of guys who bully the weak and fear the strong, are greedy for money and lust, and have no sense of right and wrong.

Commonly known as scum...

But the Baoxiang Army relied on these scum to collect a large amount of tax revenue, confiscated millions of money and grain, and then raised an army of tens of thousands.

It is precisely because of this that even though he is dissatisfied with the actions of the tax department in his heart, he will and must praise the efficiency of the tax department in any public or private situation.

To put it bluntly: Without those scumbags in the Taxation Department, tens of thousands of their soldiers would have to drink the northwest wind!

Furthermore, those scumbags are a bit scumbag, but they are quite good at dealing with local uprisings and the like, and are even more reliable than the military's own garrison.

So although he felt weird in his heart, Xu Zhixian still had to say: "This way, the surrounding areas of Xiangyang can sit back and relax."

"Now that the rear is stable, all the scheduled reinforcements have arrived, and the mortar artillery unit has also conducted training. Is Zhong Xiang ready to fight?"

Luo Zhixue said: "It's time to fight, we can't keep delaying it."

"And even if the delay continues, it is estimated that no reinforcements will arrive, and the siege and reinforcements will not be successful. It is better to capture Zhongxiang as soon as possible, and then continue to Hanyang!"

Earlier, Luo Zhixue and the others were hoping to besiege the city and bring reinforcements, and see if they could take advantage of the opportunity to besiege Zhongxiang and destroy some enemy troops coming from Hanyang and other places.

But after waiting for half a month, I didn’t see it.

This is either because the Ming army no longer has any fresh troops in the Chubei area, or it is too frightened to come

No matter which one it is, there is no Ming army coming anyway, so there is no point in besieging the city and calling for reinforcements.

"Let's start the fight tomorrow. It won't be a problem if it keeps dragging on like this. We'll call everyone for a meeting later to take a look at the situation and arrange the tasks for tomorrow."

After Luo Zhixue finalized the matter, at noon that day, the generals of the rural protection army under Zhongxiang City gathered at the temporary headquarters for a meeting.

During the meeting, Xu Zhixian, as the head of the staff department, once again introduced the offensive and defensive situation of Zhongxiang City in detail, and also made it clear that the attack would be launched tomorrow, and discussed the tasks of each unit.

In fact, we have already planned how to attack Zhong Xiang. Today's meeting is to discuss tactics, but it is better to say it is a pre-war mobilization meeting to convey the final combat order.

After all the plans were finalized, early the next morning, the sound of cannons rang out on time inside and outside Zhongxiang City.

The artillery unit of the Baoxiang Army, especially the mortar artillery unit, began to carry out a long-term covering artillery bombardment at the top of Zhongxiang City!

Amidst the rumbling sound of cannons, Zhong Xiang's offensive battle officially kicked off.

At first, the defenders in Zhongxiang City thought that this time the rebel shelling was just like the bombardment half a month ago. It seemed so powerful that it was just audible. The rebel shells could not threaten the city wall and could only hit the wall.

Entering the city, destroying some residential buildings, killing and injuring some people living close to the city wall.
Chapter completed!