Chapter 234 Yunhua's Servant Army
The battle process of the Tongan warship was extremely simple. The four thousand-jin cannons on one side sank three troop ships with one round of salvo, and at the same time, eight small cannons fired at the same time, killing the defenders on the material transport ship.

Then we just need to tow the two material transport ships back.

The water in the Jingzhou section of the Yangtze River is very calm in winter, and the river surface is relatively wide, so even if you are sailing against the current, you can still go very fast with a sail.

The sailing technology of this era was already very mature. As long as there was no headwind, the triangular sails on the Tongan warships could use the force to move forward.

One of the two ships of supplies looted contained food, and the other contained weapons, including a large number of various cold weapons, armor, muskets, several cannons, some gunpowder, lead bullets, and artillery shells.

The imperial court's military equipment is basically useless to the Huaxia Tribe. It could be used in the past, but now the Huaxia Tribe's military equipment system has been perfected.

Especially since Yunhua is the main battlefield, the troops sent here are naturally the main forces after training, so the imperial court's military equipment is useless.

But there is no point in transporting it back to Sichuan. Although it can be transported back for use by the joint defense teams in various places, transportation still costs money after all.

Yunhua thought about it and wrote a letter back to Chen Gu, intending to ask Chen Gu whether it is possible to form a vassal army in Jingzhou. Of course, Yunhua did not use the name of a vassal army, but asked whether it is possible to distribute weapons to Jingzhou's joint defense team and arm them.

After receiving Yunhua's letter, Chen Gu naturally understood what he meant. After consideration, he not only agreed to Yunhua's request, but also let him make his own decision. The number of the joint defense teams, whether the joint defense teams should cooperate in combat, etc. were all left to Yunhua to arrange.

After all, he is a leading general, so the main combat troops will naturally have many restrictions. As for the vassal troops, it doesn't matter if more are formed. After all, some things are not convenient for the main combat troops to do, but it is much more convenient to hand them over to the vassal troops.

Yunhua was overjoyed after receiving authorization from Chen Gu. He immediately distributed all the weapons he had looted and formed a vassal army of 3,000 people.

The weapons and equipment of the vassal army were very simple. They only had 300 muskets and 5 small cannons as hot weapons. The rest of the cold weapons were not enough, so Yunhua made a batch of wolf rifles for them to use.

The so-called wolf spear is actually a bamboo pole, about five meters long. After being sharpened, some bamboo branches are left and also sharpened to be used to stab the enemy's face. Because there are many bamboo branches, the threat to the face is very great. The main trunk can also stab the enemy's chest and abdomen.

The army formation composed of several wolf-armored soldiers, with sword and shield soldiers cooperating to guard the nearby, is actually very advantageous in a cold weapon confrontation.

With the addition of three hundred muskets and five small cannons, this vassal army actually has a certain combat capability.

After a brief training, Yunhua released this vassal army with the goal of sweeping the landlords' estates west of Jingzhou City.

The spoils were divided into 30% and 70% respectively, with Yunhua taking 30% and them keeping 70%. Yunhua also provided them with a small amount of high explosive packs, bombs and detonators to help them blow up the walls and gates of the landlord's manor.

This distribution method deeply moved the vassal army.

After all, if the defenders in Jingzhou City do not go out, the landlords' estates outside the city will be a piece of cake. Although the equipment of the vassal army is simple, it is only equivalent to the main combat army of the Huaxia Department. In fact, it is no worse than the Green Camp Army of the court.

With Yunhua suppressing the defenders in Jingzhou area, the vassal army swept outside the city with great force. The siege method of building bamboo frames was very useful for attacking ordinary landlords' manors. Except for those century-old families, ordinary landlords' manors could not hold on at all.

In just three days, the landlords outside Jingzhou fled the territory of Jingzhou one after another. If they didn't run away, they would have no way to survive. In a hurry, it is easy for people to run away. They can take away valuables such as cloth, gold and silver, but they cannot take away land, houses, and even cattle and sheep.

There was a landlord who was probably quite extreme. Because he couldn't take the stolen goods with him, he actually burned down his own house. This made the vassal army furious. They chased the landlord for more than 200 miles, captured the family, and then executed them outside the gate of Jingzhou City. The head of the family was beheaded in public.

This action made the fleeing landlords no longer dare to burn houses.

After the vassal army gained a lot of gains, they found Yunhua to test him, and then began to expand the army on their own initiative. They then captured Jingzhou, Jingmen, Qianjiang, and even went to Jiangling downstream.

Yunhua let them do whatever they wanted. As long as they abided by the rules of the Huaxia Ministry and did not harass ordinary people, and only targeted the landlords and officials, it would be fine.

In fact, there was nothing worth stealing in the homes of ordinary people at that time.

The vassal army's attacks made the situation of the imperial court even more difficult, because it meant stretching their supply lines.

Moreover, the supply line became dangerous because the vassal army was bold enough to attack the supply ships, and they succeeded twice.

Although the vassal army had no warships, the supply ships had to dock and rest at night, which gave the vassal army an opportunity. However, there were not many troops on the supply ships, and they were successfully captured by the vassal army in a surprise attack.

They robbed five ships twice, four of which contained food and one contained equipment.

Yunhua asked for three ships of food, and gave the rest of the things, including the ships, to the vassal army. This greatly increased the strength of the vassal army. Combined with some weapons obtained from attacking the landlords' manors, the number of people increased to 10,000, and they were already capable of attacking county towns and large family manors.

It was in such an environment that Zhu Gui came to Jingzhou. After inquiring about the current situation, Zhu Gui sent a visiting card to Yunhua.

"The Prince's Tutor!" Yun Hua was very impressed when he received Zhu Gui's visiting card. The Prince's Tutor was not only a top official of the first rank, but could also be said to be the head of all officials.

The one who is more respected than the Prince's Grand Tutor is the Prince's Grand Mentor, but the Prince's Grand Mentor is for the dead. The highest official position for a living person is the Prince's Grand Tutor.

"Hehe, I never thought that I, Yunhua, would actually receive a visiting card from the Prince's tutor one day!" Yunhua said with some self-mockery.

Last spring, Yunhua was just a vagrant who had no food to eat, had no land of his own, and lived in a small thatched hut with his family.

Yunhua still remembers it very clearly. It was a drizzling day when a man who claimed to be Tang Jiaxing's comrade-in-arms came to the Tang family, carrying a large piece of fat pork and giving the Tang family twenty taels of silver.

The Yun family and the Tang family are neighbors, and the elder generations are somewhat related, so the Yun family got a big bowl of fried pork with cowpea. There wasn't much pork, but it was very oily. It was the first time in Yun Hua's life that he had eaten a dish with so much oil.

So, of course, when that person said he wanted to recruit people, Yunhua was the first to step forward.

(End of this chapter)