Chapter 389 The strategy behind disarmament!
A few days of peace passed. Under Ye Mingsheng's arrangement, all the work of the Fengzhou Army was proceeding in an orderly manner. Everyone was looking forward to the arrival of the emperor's envoy. Ye Mingsheng officially succeeded as the third-rank governor of Liaoyang and commander of the Fengwu Army. The Fengzhou Army was renamed the Fengwu Army, and a grand military parade was held to celebrate.

However, Ye Mingsheng was also secretly preparing a new plan...

In the study of the Ye Mansion, He Jingyun came to Ye Mingsheng and handed him a document and said:
"Sir, this is the latest plan for our army's organization that the General Staff has come up with. Can you take a look at it and see if there are any questions?"

Taking the document from He Jingyun, Ye Mingsheng read it carefully. Although there are still some remnants of the Zhenwu Army and other armed forces such as bandits in Liaoyang, these people are just clowns and are not worth worrying about. Overall, the Fengzhou Army has already taken over the entire Liaoyang.

Therefore, the existing force structure of the Fengzhou Army is no longer suitable for the current development of the Fengzhou Army, so Ye Mingsheng intends to make certain adjustments to the force structure of the Fengzhou Army.

But unlike usual, this time Ye Mingsheng is not going to expand, but to downsize!
Because of the collective surrender of the local faction of the Zhenwu Army, coupled with the change of tactics of the Cui family's Guangning Prefecture troops, and the tens of thousands of Zhenwu Army soldiers abandoned by Wang Muzhi later, the size of the Fengzhou Army has exceeded 100,000, reaching a size close to 150,000...

You have to know that although there is no complete census of the entire Liaoyang population, the approximate size is between 1.3 million and 1.6 million. This means that if Ye Mingsheng wants to continue to retain so many people, it is equivalent to ten ordinary people supporting one soldier, which is a huge financial pressure on the already poor Liaoyang.

Moreover, these soldiers are all young and middle-aged people, and are the main labor force of the small peasant economy in feudal society. If they all go to serve in the army, the crops in the fields can only rely on women, the elderly and children. The lack of labor will bring about the problem that grain production will naturally decrease.

This is obviously a big blow to a region like Liaoyang that can barely be self-sufficient in food. Less food means people will starve to death, and social contradictions will naturally intensify. People who are unwilling to starve to death will inevitably cause impact and damage to the social order. It's like a domino effect, one ring after another, and if one ring falls, it will cause a chain reaction across the board...

Therefore, in order to show sympathy for the people and maintain peace and stability, the disarmament of the Fengzhou Army is imperative!

Of course, in the context of disputes already arising in the world and chaos approaching, all the princes are trying to recruit soldiers and horses. Ye Mingsheng, who is the only one who entered the pass to compete for the Central Plains, although considering the issue of maintaining stability, is willing to downsize the army and reduce the number of troops, sympathize with the people and reduce the pressure on the people, but this does not mean that Ye Mingsheng will give up these tens of thousands of troops in vain.

In Ye Mingsheng's expectation, the cutbacks would be transferred to reserve forces such as the militia and local militia. They would be engaged in production during normal times and undergo military training in batches during the slack season. While ensuring the people's livelihood, their combat effectiveness would be maintained as much as possible so that they could be added to the regular army to support the battle when a war comes.

In addition to considering financial and livelihood issues, this disarmament was also a political means for Ye Mingsheng to target the local faction, because the local faction's troops were basically surrendered. During the negotiations at that time, in order to defeat the Zhenwu Army and capture Liaoyang as soon as possible, Ye Mingsheng also made some promises, such as no post-war settlement, post-account settlement, etc.

In the environment at that time, Ye Mingsheng's promises won him the support of the local faction and helped the Fengzhou Army defeat the Zhenwu Army. It basically liberated the two prefectures of Dongning and Changqing peacefully. While avoiding some unnecessary casualties of the Fengzhou Army, it also reduced the suffering of the people who had already been devastated by the war.

However, everything has its pros and cons. It was because of the promises made by Ye Mingsheng that he lacked a suitable excuse when he wanted to take action against the localists and strike against their power after the war. If Ye Mingsheng broke his promise, it would not only be a huge blow to his own image and the Fengzhou Army's image, but would also cause a strong backlash from the entire localist faction.

The troops in the hands of the local faction are different from those of the Fengzhou Army. They are still in the form of warlords and vassal states. Generals like Zhu Lin and Fang Dawei hold military power in one hand and financial power in the other. The army is their private army and the source of their power. However, Ye Mingsheng is not Song Wenhui. He cannot allow the existence of such an independent faction under his rule.

However, because of his previous promise, Ye Mingsheng needed to use a smarter and more obscure way to strike the power of the localists, and disarmament was the best way Ye Mingsheng could think of. He could hold high the banner of sympathizing with the people and stand on the moral high ground to strike the power of the localists. By then, he, Ye, would have the support of the people and the power, and even if these people were unwilling, they would have no choice but to submit!

On the surface, both Ye Mingsheng's original old troops and the local forces that came over would carry out disarmament and reduce their troops. In fact, compared with the local forces, Ye Mingsheng's old troops would even cut more troops.

But this is just a trick of Ye Mingsheng. In fact, all the troops cut down by various departments will flow into the reserve forces such as the militia and local militia, and these reserve forces are firmly under the control of Ye Mingsheng.

The plan proposed by He Jingyun is to reduce the existing 150,000 troops of the Fengzhou Army to about 80,000, which means that the troops are reduced by almost half. In the large structure of the Fengwu Army, there are five division-level units. The strength of each division varies according to the tasks it undertakes...

Ye Mingsheng was quite satisfied with the new organizational structure proposed by He Jingyun, so he kept the plan and prepared to carry out the most important thing based on this plan - personnel transfer!
The personnel power in Fengzhou Army was controlled by Ye Mingsheng. The transfer and appointment of commander-level officers and above required Ye Mingsheng's approval. Therefore, He Jingyun would never dare to offend him in this regard. Ye Mingsheng already had his own ideas about the personnel transfers under his command.

General Yuan Song of the First Division and Deputy General Ma Zhongjun were stationed in Changqing Prefecture with six battalions and 18,000 troops.

General Lin Huaiwu and Deputy General Fang Dawei of the Second Division were stationed in Dongning Prefecture, with a force of 15,000 men in five battalions.

The general of the Third Division, Guo Zhiping, and his deputy Cui Desheng were stationed in Fengzhou and Posuo Prefecture, with six battalions and 18,000 troops.
General Peng Ce and Deputy General Tang Kai of the Fourth Division were stationed in Guangning Prefecture with three battalions and 11,000 troops.

The Fifth Division's General Ye Tie and Deputy General Zhang Meng were stationed in Xuantu Prefecture and Lelang Prefecture, with a total of 15,000 troops in five battalions.

The transfer of these people may seem simple, but Ye Mingsheng can be said to have thought about it and spent countless efforts to make the decision! Although Ye Mingsheng believed that Yuan Song, Lin Huaiwu, Guo Zhiping and others were loyal to him, as the saying goes, "It's better to be safe than sorry", so Ye Mingsheng also prepared for a rainy day, hoping to reduce the risk of small internal groups emerging in the future and threatening his position.

This time he re-assigned the generals of the original Fengzhou Army. For example, Yuan Song's deputy general Ma Zhongjun was once a subordinate of Lin Huaiwu, and Lin Huaiwu's general Fang Dawei was a local who surrendered. Ye Tie's deputy general Zhang Meng was once a subordinate of Yuan Song...

This is only the transfer of high-level military officers. There are more transfers of middle and lower-level military officers. Doing so will certainly affect the combat effectiveness of the troops, but now the Fengzhou Army has basically pacified Liaoyang, and there should be no large-scale battles in the short term. There is time to slowly adjust and restore combat effectiveness.

There are two very special people in this personnel transfer, one is General Peng Ce of the Fourth Division, and the other is Deputy General Cui Desheng of the Third Division!

Although Peng Hai's surname was Peng, he was promoted by the Cui family in the army. In addition, he later married a daughter of the Cui family, and his son also married a daughter of the Cui family. His own daughter also married a member of the Cui family.

Therefore, Peng Hai, who was closely related to the Cui family, was highly trusted by the Cui family. With the help and support of the Cui family, he was promoted to the position of Lieutenant General of Guangning Prefecture under the rule of Song Wenhui. He used his position to secretly help the Cui family infiltrate the Liaoyang Army of Guangning Prefecture.

Later, when Song Wenhui was killed, Peng Hai became a lackey of the Cui family and assisted Cui Shao in controlling the military forces of Guangning Prefecture. As for Cui Desheng, you can tell from his surname that he is also a member of the Cui family!

Cui Desheng is Cui Shao’s nephew. He learned martial arts and joined the army since he was young. He is one of the few people in the Cui family who has military talent. He has presided over several bandit suppression operations of the Cui family in Guangning Prefecture. The military power of the Cui family in Guangning Prefecture is mainly controlled by Peng Hai and Cui Desheng...

This time, Ye Mingsheng didn’t give the positions of a general and a deputy general to the Cui family for nothing!
In fact, he had set his sights on the Cui family's armed forces in Guangning Prefecture and wanted to take this opportunity to extend his own power into Guangning Prefecture.

Among the six prefectures of Liaoyang, Ye Mingsheng's Fengzhou army successively captured Posa, Xuantu, Lelang, Dongning, and Changqing. Because they were directly captured, Ye Mingsheng had a strong control over each prefecture and county in the five prefectures.

The only exception is Guangning Prefecture. At the beginning, with the Zhenwu Army on the side, Ye Mingsheng could temporarily make some compromises in order to stabilize the Cui family. But now that the Zhenwu Army has been defeated, Ye Mingsheng naturally cannot allow the Cui family to continue to control the government and army of Guangning Prefecture.

In addition, Guangning Prefecture's geographical location is also very special. It is the connecting area between Liaoyang and Youyan, and it is the hub for Liaoyang to enter the customs by land. When Ye Mingsheng leads his troops to enter the customs in the future, he will inevitably pass through Guangning Prefecture. Therefore, whether for political or geographical reasons, Ye Mingsheng must control Guangning Prefecture, an important hub, in his own hands...

The Cui family now has about 30,000 armed forces in Guangning Prefecture. Ye Mingsheng plans to first reduce the number of troops by 10,000 and put them into the reserve force, and then let Cui Desheng take several thousand soldiers and horses from Guangning Prefecture to Fengzhou on the pretext that Cui Desheng will be the deputy general of the third division.

In the end, only about 11,000 people of Peng Ce's Fourth Division were left in Guangning Prefecture for the Cui family, and then Tang Kai on his side was allowed to bring some generals into the Fourth Division. In this way, the strength of the Cui family in Guangning Prefecture would be weakened to a certain extent, making it easier for Ye Mingsheng to gradually penetrate into Guangning Prefecture.

Of course, Ye Mingsheng also had an excuse for the Cui family's disarmament this time, and that was a diplomatic one. The governor of Youyan, Zhao Fuqu, sent an envoy to congratulate Ye Mingsheng as soon as he captured Liaoyang. Ye Mingsheng knew exactly what Zhao Fuqu was planning to do.

As one of the most powerful vassal states in the Great Zhou Dynasty, Shangguan Hongyuan has been trying to suppress Zhao Fuqu during his years as the Prime Minister. He has repeatedly instructed the Supervisory Office to secretly plot in Youyan with the intention of subverting Zhao Fuqu's rule in Youyan.

When Ye Mingsheng plotted against Xu Zhaojie's arms case in Luoan, the arms intercepted by Xu Zhaojie were actually given by the Ministry of War to Han Changchun, a general under Zhao Fuqu, in order for Han Changchun to rebel and kill Zhao Fuqu. However, the news leaked and Han Changchun was beheaded by Zhao Fuqu before the supporting arms arrived.

Over the years, Zhao Fuqu had suffered a lot of humiliation from Shangguan Hongyuan and was almost beheaded several times...
Now that Shangguan Hongyuan has fallen and encountered such a huge obstacle, Zhao Fuqu will definitely take advantage of the situation and join forces with several other local vassal states to attack and vent his anger. In addition, like all the vassal states, Zhao Fuqu, as the governor of Youyan, is also eager to conquer more territory, expand his strength and sit on the supreme throne.

However, Youyan's geographical location is not very good. There is grassland to its north, and Zhao Fuqu naturally would not be so desperate as to compete with the Luobi people for territory. Liaoyang to the east is even poorer and there is nothing to gain from it. Therefore, Zhao Fuqu wants to expand his strength and move south to the Central Plains, or move west to seize Jinyang and Bingzhou. It is obviously more cost-effective to take over these prosperous areas.

Therefore, the reason why Zhao Fuqu wanted to have a good relationship with Ye Mingsheng was also to avoid Ye Mingsheng from doing something behind his back when he made any move.

In response to Zhao Fuqu's initiative to show goodwill, Ye Mingsheng was prepared to give a positive response by reducing the garrison in Guangning Prefecture based on his own interests and the situation in Liaoyang.

Although Ye Mingsheng was ready to enter the country, he was not ready to do so right now. He had just taken over the territory of Liaoyang and needed time to digest it and integrate the manpower and material resources of all parties in Liaoyang for his own use. So at least during this period of time, he was not prepared to have any conflict with Zhao Fuqu...

In a year at the shortest, or two years at the longest, Ye Mingsheng would be able to complete the reforms he wanted to accomplish in Liaoyang, and then concentrate the entire Liaoyang's strength to enter the pass. Under the power of firearms and institutional reforms, Ye Mingsheng believed that no one could stop him, and anyone who dared to disobey him would be swept into the garbage dump of history by Ye!

(End of this chapter)