Chapter 1192: The cunning Prince of Nan'an demands troops

The military system of the Daqing Dynasty followed that of the late Ming Dynasty, with the Wei Suo system and the conscription system operating in parallel.

In normal times, local areas and border posts were suppressed and defended by military households of the garrisons.

If there is a military emergency, the commander is allowed to recruit soldiers, or the landlords and gentry are allowed to organize militias.

This time, the border is in crisis.

Emperor Longqing knew that the capital had only 100,000 troops and could not resist, so he allowed the commander, Prince Nan'an, to recruit soldiers.

The Prince of Nan'an naturally would not pay for it all out of his own pocket, so he distributed this task to the generals below.

The eighth day of October.

Su Mingzhe spent two hundred thousand taels of silver and recruited eight thousand soldiers.

The average resettlement allowance per person was 25 taels of silver.

Of course, if the resettlement allowance is given to everyone in the same way, it will only attract mediocre people.

Therefore, Su Mingzhe divided the recruitment conditions into three levels.

For example, those who come to join the army empty-handed will be given five taels of silver, and Su Mingzhe will help them with food, weapons, armor, horses, etc.

If you bring your own weapons, armor, or horses, you will be charged fifty taels of silver, and Su Mingzhe will help provide food.

There were more than 600 people, and all of them were given 500 taels of silver.

The reason why these people were able to get such high scores is because they are skilled in archery and horse riding and have strong martial arts skills. Each of them can fight ten people on horseback.

In addition to these three groups of people, there are also farmers on the farms of Rongning and Ning prefectures, totaling 10,000 people.

The tenth day of October is the day when the army sets out.

When the Prince of Nan'an inspected the army, he saw the 10,000 troops led by Su Mingzhe, who were in neat order, and could not help but admire:
"My dear nephew is not only knowledgeable, but also capable of commanding an army. The successors of Lords Rong and Ning will surely bring glory to the family again!"

"Thank you for your praise, uncle. I will definitely live up to your expectations!"

As a second-class cavalry general, Su Mingzhe's status in the list of generals going on the expedition is second only to the Marshal Nan'an Prince and the Divine Martial General Wei Hui.

Wei is the surname of the Daqing nation.

Wei Hui's ancestors were of the same clan as Daqing Taizu. Although his achievements were not outstanding, he was still granted the title of marquis.

By the time it was passed down to Wei Hui's generation, he was now a first-class divine general.

Apart from these three people, the highest-ranking ones are five third-class generals and more than twenty commanders.

At this moment, everyone saw Su Mingzhe and the Prince of Nan'an talking and laughing, and no one dared to step forward to confront them.

Only Wei Hui smiled and said:

"I heard that my nephew has put out 200,000 taels of silver to recruit soldiers this time. It is very rare to be able to recruit such elite troops with 200,000 taels of silver!"

After hearing this, Su Mingzhe bowed and smiled bitterly:

"Uncle, don't be ridiculous. How can you gather such an elite army with 200,000 taels of silver? I spent 200,000 taels of silver just for the settlement expenses. In addition, I spent 400,000 taels of silver to equip them with armor, weapons, and horses, and another 100,000 taels of silver to purchase food and fodder. All in all, I spent 700,000 taels of silver!"

After hearing this, Prince Nan'an and Wei Hui all laughed and made no comment.

Among them, the Prince of Nan'an spent a total of 500,000 taels of silver to recruit 50,000 soldiers.

In order to recruit 30,000 soldiers, Wei Hui spent a total of 300,000 taels of silver.

Su Mingzhe spent 700,000 taels of silver but only managed to gather 10,000 people.

What a prodigal son!

Afterwards, Prince Nan'an finished his inspection and ordered his departure.

The total number of troops on this expedition reached more than 300,000.

Among them, 50,000 are from the Beijing camp, 50,000 are private soldiers recruited by the Prince of Nan'an, and the 100,000 are the central army, which will march at a normal speed.

In addition, there were more than 30 generals who recruited more than 200,000 troops on their own and rushed to the border with their own dry food.

This means that it is not far from Chang'an City to Lanzhou.

A thousand miles away can be reached in less than ten days on horseback.

If he rushed to Guandong to fight the Jurchens, the food and fodder that Su Mingzhe would need to provide would require at least an additional 100,000 taels of silver. October 18th.

The Jia family army, which was composed entirely of cavalry, arrived in Lanzhou first, ahead of other troops.

At this moment, Lanzhou had already been captured by Choros.

Su Mingzhe's men were all cavalry, and they did not attack the city. Instead, they sent people to search for the enemy troops who were burning, killing and looting outside. Once they were found, they would be immediately surrounded and wiped out.

Wait until the end of October.

When the Prince of Nan'an arrived outside Lanzhou City, Su Mingzhe had already wiped out the enemy troops outside the city, seized countless food and supplies, and killed or captured more than 30,000 people.

The Prince of Nan'an checked the captives and confirmed that Su Mingzhe did not kill innocent people for credit. He sent a fast horse to report the good news and ordered his men to escort him back to the capital.

The border has been in crisis for more than a month.

It is necessary to give the rear some good news to calm the panicked people.

After dealing with these urgent matters, the Prince of Nan'an arranged for his deputy commander Wei Hui to set up camp, and he himself led his generals on an inspection tour to prepare for the siege.

The wall of Lanzhou city is 26 feet thick, 25 feet high, and has a circumference of more than seven miles.

Such a tall and solid city has abundant defensive supplies.

The reason why it was captured before was because Junggar had prepared for more than a month in advance and was able to successfully capture it through a surprise attack.

Now if Daqing wants to retake Lanzhou City, it cannot use the same old tricks again.

"My dear nephew, how do you think we should attack this city?"

After a round of inspection, he did not find any ideas for attacking the city, but the Prince of Nan'an was not in a hurry. He asked Su Mingzhe who was accompanying him:

"Should we storm or surround them?"

"If you want to attack, I will be the first to go. If you want to surround us, I will obey your orders!"

Su Mingzhe was smooth at first, then smiled and said:
"However, if uncle wants to achieve success quickly, I have a plan: surround first and then attack!"

"Oh, why is that?"

Prince Nan'an was somewhat surprised and said:
"It is already deep winter, and we are short of food and fodder. How can we besiege this powerful enemy army that has plenty of food and fodder?"

After Su Mingzhe heard what Prince Nan'an said, he felt like rolling his eyes:

"This old man is very evil!"

"Even though you know that the method of isolating them alone will not work, you still have to ask yourself whether to force an attack or to force them. It's obvious that you want me to say that you want to force an attack, and if the attack fails, you want to put the blame on me!"

"In the original book, it is said that Wei Shibo died in battle, but this old man was defeated and captured! This shows his character!"

Almost instantly, many thoughts flashed through Su Mingzhe's mind.

Without waiting for Prince Nan'an to continue asking, Su Mingzhe smiled slightly and said:
"If you trust me, I will issue a military warrant. As long as you give me 300,000 troops to lead for ten days, Lanzhou will fall in ten days."

"Only ten days are needed to besiege Lanzhou?"

The Prince of Nan'an was puzzled and wanted to ask Su Mingzhe about how to break into the city.

Su Mingzhe evaded the question, saying that it was a confidential matter and if it were told or leaked, and if it were discovered by the enemy, it would be useless.

The Prince of Nan'an looked at Su Mingzhe several times and thought for a long time. He remembered that in the past few days, Su Mingzhe had used 10,000 soldiers and horses to defeat 30,000 enemy troops almost without any damage. He must have real skills.

As the commander of an army, the Prince of Nan'an thought he knew how to appoint the right people to the right positions, so he smiled and said:
"Okay, since you said so, I'll let you lead the 300,000-man army for ten days!"

"But if my nephew is unable to break into the city in ten days, you will have to lead your Jia family army to attack the camp first!"

The Prince of Nan'an kept his word. After returning to the military camp, he summoned all the generals and handed over the command of the 300,000-strong army to Su Mingzhe.

Su Mingzhe was born in the Rongning Jia Mansion and was the emperor's uncle. Even if others were dissatisfied, they did not dare to disobey military orders and immediately bowed their heads to show their obedience.

"Since everyone is willing to follow my command, nephew, you can give the orders!"

"Okay, my first order is to dig a trench outside Lanzhou City!"

As Su Mingzhe spoke, he pointed to the map hanging on the screen and began to assign tasks, such as who had how many soldiers and horses, where they were located, and how long and deep the trenches should be dug.

After he finished assigning the tasks one by one, the generals took orders and quickly cooperated to prepare to dig trenches.

(End of this chapter)