Just as Zhao Xin talked to Cao Peng, the "Jiaodong Detachment" of the North Navy had just conquered Wendeng County. Another battalion had crossed the Muzhu River west of Wendeng and was preparing to advance towards Muping City on the Kunyu Mountain Road.

In the eyes of many people in later generations, the combat effectiveness of the Qing Dynasty's green camp was very garbage, but when it was scored, it was divided into regions. In history, the real reason for the corruption of the Qing Dynasty green camp was not only a system of poor handling, but also related to military politics.

When Fukang'an was in charge of Shandong and Henan Green Camp in the first few years, he said that the Green Camp's exercises were like monkey plays, and their combat effectiveness was too poor, but this was not unique to the Qing Dynasty. It has been like this since the Ming Dynasty and has been passed down from generation to generation.

The so-called "no difference" means that many green camps are doing the work of maintaining local public security and anti-smuggling and stealing, and also undertake military training and responsible for combat and defense tasks. This is like letting the combat troops work in urban management and police work when they are not in a mission, making the green camp soldiers become slick and lazy yamen servants. This is also the reason why the green camps were useless during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and finally they were engaged in group training themselves.

In terms of military affairs, although training in the Green Camp is like a trick in daily life, as long as the war is frequent, it can still turn virtual into real and disperse into whole. Many of the daily defects are often compensated in wars; the most obvious examples are the Sichuan Army and the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Camp, which were the most used local troops by the Qing court.

But Shandong Green Camp is really not good! Politically, Heshen was in power, bribery was carried out, corruption became popular, and military affairs were corrupt. Military, he did not fight for many years and had great combat power. Often, the North Navy broke out after firing a few shots on this side.

After the fifteenth year of Shunzhi, the Central Plains was settled, and there was nothing in Shandong, and the inland defense was tilted towards the coastal defense. At that time, the general of Yizhou Town was transferred to Jiaozhou and changed to Jiaozhou Town; the general of Linqing Town was moved to Dengzhou and changed to Dengzhou Town. In the 22nd year of Kangxi, Jiaozhou Town was removed and changed to Jiaozhou Association of Dengzhou Town.

When Beihai Town fought Rongcheng four years ago, the entire Shandong Green Camp troops included the Governor Hebiao, Dengzhou Town, Yanzhou Town, and the Donghe Army, which was affiliated with the River Governor, with a total force of 17,504 people.

Since the 54th year of Qianlong's reign, the Ministry of War felt that Shandong's lack of troops was unable to withstand the attack of the Northern Navy by Dengzhou Town alone, so he submitted a memorial to Qianlong, asking for the addition of Yizhou Town and Qingzhou Town, which had a land-based Qingzhou Town to defend Laizhou Bay and provide support to Dengzhou Town. The two towns were equipped with three battalions in the north and south, each with 5,000 troops; among which the Qingzhou Town stationed in Gaojiagang Town, Qingzhou, Linqu, and Yizhou Town stationed in Yishui, Yizhou Prefecture, and Rizhao.

As the saying goes, if the matter is settled, the army will be stored, and if the army is stored, it will require food and money. The Ministry of War has a good idea. The problem is that after fighting with the Northern Hai Army over the years, the Qing Dynasty had used the Ministry of Revenue's treasury to store silver. As of December 1998, the Qing Dynasty had only 985 million taels of silver deposited by the Ministry of Revenue, the Qing Dynasty had only 985 million taels of silver deposited by the Ministry of Revenue, the internal treasury sealed by more than 12 million taels of silver deposited by the external treasury; plus the treasury revenue receivable the following year, the treasury revenue was 41 million taels, and the treasury that could be used was 6885 million taels.

In terms of expenditure, the annual silver payments of each province are more than 36 million taels, the annual silver payments of the Ministry of War (including the Eight Banners salary) are more than 10 million taels, the annual military silver on the front line of Jilin is more than 5 million taels, and the annual wages for river management are also 4 million taels. Including the exemption and delayed levy of four million taels in various places, the end will be less than 8 million taels.

At this time, the Qing court had already had a very difficult financial situation, so they had to pay inadequate funds.

If this was the case of "donation" in the past, the Qing Dynasty would have to be more conscientious and pay great attention to methods. For example, if the wealthy families who were persuaded had savings but had little donations or were unwilling to donate, the local officials would come to persuade them in person, treat each other with courtesy, guide them in a good manner, and impress the other party with the friendship and feelings of the countryside or the yin and yang retribution. Anyway, everyone was very happy in the end.

But since the Northern Navy launched the "Outer Mongolia offensive" and the Qing court launched a large number of troops to "resist the enemy" north, everything has changed. Being tempted by one? Stop talking!

Now donations have become the performance indicators for the court to assess the governors and governors of various provinces. The whole people levy them widely and forcibly levy them. At first, they said a few nice words, and then they were threatening and intimidation. Those who were unable to repay the donation could only bribe the servants and exempt them from donations, and those who were worried about donating more were bribed to officials in order to donate less. So Ruan Yuan lamented in a secret letter to Beihai Town: "It is called persuasion to donate, but it is actually a donation. The wealthy households and families only have a well-off life, ranging from 12,000 taels to 100 and 100 dozen coins. They only know how to use their own personal interests and ignore the resentment of the country, which makes the sorrow and grief almost have no physiology!"

With the fall of Wendeng City, the news of the invasion of the North Sea pirates finally spread to Dengzhou and Laizhou. At the same time, Ninghaizhou, Fushan, Haiyang and other places issued emergency documents, saying that they had found the presence of green-clothed North Sea pirates in their jurisdiction, which made the Denglai Qing soldiers and the Qing Dao Cao Zhitian confused and could not judge the movements of the North Sea.

Cao Zhitian knew that it would be difficult to repel the Northern Navy with just the strength of the three places of Denglaiqing, so he immediately submitted a letter to Wen Jinan Governor Ji Qing, requesting to transfer Yizhou troops and Yanzhou troops to support Denglai; at the same time, the general of Wenqingzhou Town and the deputy general of Jiaozhou Assistant, ordered him to lead his troops to Dengzhou and Laiyang to assist in defense.

Although I said before that Shandong Green Camp has nearly 30,000 troops, even if the governor agrees, there will not be many troops. I have to rely on Denglai Qing to find a solution.

Here we will explain the military system and functions of the Green Camp.

The hierarchical division of military regions in the Qing Dynasty could be divided into five levels: one military region, two towns, three flags, four associations, and five battalions. In each military region, the "town" is the foundation, each town has one general, and is the chief general of a town; the general officer is appointed as the governor (sometimes the governor serves on the same level), with deputy generals, guerrillas, ministry, garrison, thousand generals, and generals.

The troops led by the general officer are called "Biao", the troops led by the deputy general are called "Xie", the generals, guerrillas, and the garrisons are called "Zhang". The model soldiers are specialized in dispatching operations, and the assisting soldiers are responsible for key areas, and the defending soldiers are only one city and one city. In other words, the troops of Jinan City Guardian, Laizhou Camp, Jimo Camp, Wuding Camp, Andong Camp, Ningfu Camp, and Shoule Camp cannot go out of their jurisdiction to fight, and can only defend the local area. What can be really mobilized in various parts of Shandong are model soldiers and assisting soldiers.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content below! In addition, the military operations in the province have never been a matter of a province, and the surrounding provinces have to send troops to assist in the suppression. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty's practice of this was to send a Grand Secretary to lead the overall situation (referring to the Qingshui teaching Wang Lun to rebel, in addition to sending a Grand Secretary, he also dispatched 2,000 imperial guards from Jianrui Camp and Firearm.)

For Cao Zhitian, who was the preparatory leader of the Denglai Qing soldiers, leading the army to fight is the matter of the subordinate general and deputy general, he can formulate a strategy to retreat to the enemy and supervise the coastal camps and counties. Once Dengzhou Prefecture is in a mistake, the first target of the court's operation is him, and he will be killed directly. If it is serious, he will have to lose his head.

Cao Zhitian arranged everything at hand overnight. Early the next morning, he took his men from Haimiaokou north of Laizhou and arrived in Dengzhou late that night. As soon as he entered the city, he did not care about his fatigue all the way and immediately went to the General Army Office to convene a meeting with Dengzhou civil and military officials to discuss countermeasures.

The Northern Hai Army was about to reach its doorstep. Who among the civil and military officials in Dengzhou still had the heart to sleep? Due to the principle of disagreement between civil and military affairs in the local area, everyone was waiting for the army to prepare for the Daoist Lord Cao.

When everyone saw the ceremony in the flower hall, Cao Zhitian sat opposite Enthemo in the west. Others, including the prefect, Tongzhi, Penglai County Magistrate, Guerrilla, Dusi, etc., all sat at the lower head (according to the Qing system, the ministers met the admiral and the admiral and the governor. If the admiral brings the first-rank rank of the governor, the governor will be in the west and the admiral and the admiral will be in the east, and the enemy will be in the same direction.)

Cao Zhitian asked as soon as he came up: "The previous report said that more than 20,000 soldiers and horses have been brought by the North Sea pirates?"

Enthemer, the general of Dengzhou Town, shook his head and said, "There are probably not 20,000 people. However, the last five days ago, the general sent his personal soldiers to Chengshanjiao to investigate. According to the information they brought back, there are now twenty-four giant ships like mountain moored in the fish pond. According to the estimated number of 300 people per boat, there are always six or seven thousand people."

Lan Jiazan, the governor of Dengzhou, said: "The staff sent by the squad of the government office have reached Ninghai Prefecture at the farthest time. According to the news sent back in the afternoon, it was previously reported that the North Sea pirates in the county were all rumored, and no one had seen it with his own eyes. Because the distance in Haiyang is too far, there is probably no definite news tomorrow."

Cao Zhitian felt so heartbroken after hearing this. The six or seven thousand Northern Navy was not the soldiers and horses in the three palaces of Denglaiqing. The most troublesome thing was that the sea was one mile away from the north of Dengzhou Prefecture. If the ship of the North Pirates came, whether it was the Water City or the City, it would be within the range of the other party's cannon. So he asked quickly: "Where are the people and horses in Zhenbiao currently stationed?"

Enthemer said: "The last general was also worried about the artillery of the North Pirates, so he asked all his horses to withdraw from the water camp. At present, the town camp's troops were camping south of Yanzhigang, which was close to the county town, which was convenient for transporting rice and grain. It was possible to mobilize troops to support at any time, and it would not disturb the people. The warships of the water camp were arranged to go to Sang Island."

"How is the situation in Chengshan Camp? Where is Wendeng?"

Lan Jiazan said: "The people from the government offices sent to Haiyang to investigate the attack. No one from Chengshan Camp saw him see him. There were more than 200 people who escaped from Wendeng. According to the people who escaped, the North Sea Pirates' cannons and quick guns were too fierce. As soon as they met, more than 100 people disappeared."

Cao Zhitian thought for a while and said to everyone here: "From you all, what is the intention of the North Sea pirates invading Shandong this time?"

Everyone immediately understood as soon as they heard it. Cao Daotai meant that the pirates of Beihai came to occupy territory or grab people? If it were the latter, then it would be safe. As for people, there are many in Dengzhou. But if it was the former...

The reply was the prefect Lan Jiazan, and he only heard him say: "From the news from Rongcheng, the Beihai Pirates directly occupied the county government this time, counted the grain in Changping Warehouse, and sent a notice of Anmin. He did not mention the recruitment of refugees like the previous time."

Cao Zhitian knew that it was a big trouble when he heard it. He sighed and told him about his literary affairs in Qingzhou Town and Jiaozhou Association. Everyone felt a little relieved. But then he thought that even the tens of thousands of troops of the imperial court were no match for the Northern Pirates. Even if all the soldiers from Shandong came, there would be only more than 20,000 people. The east-west and south of Jiaodong area were narrow, and if the Northern Pirates sent gunboats to patrol the north and south, tens of thousands of Qing troops could not be placed on the line between Kunyu Mountain and Rushan.

"We still have to recruit young and strong people and order all townships to cooperate in defense."

Lan Jiazan said: "I have sent people to send orders to all counties to recruit young and strong leaders to the mountain pass. In addition, people have taken refuge in the city these days, and Penglai County has also recruited many people and is stepping up the training. But the food and salary are not enough..."

Cao Zhitian said to Enthemer: "The previous donations from Dengzhou have not been transferred to the vassal state, right?"

"No."

"I remember there were 41,085 taels?"

"The old man has a good dog memory!" Enthemo cursed in his heart, and said with a bitter look: "It has been owed nine months since the price is raised. Lord Cao, look..."

"Let's go for two months first, everyone can work together and endure it! This official will explain to the vassal yamen."

After Cao Zhitian said that, he stood up and bowed to everyone in the hall and said, "Everyone, the most important thing at the moment is to protect Dengzhou Prefecture and never allow the North Pirates to easily seize the water camp. Once Penglai is in trouble, the North Pirates will use this as a stronghold. The North Pirates can attack Lushun, the West can reach Dagukou, and the Jiyou year will repeat the incident! Our personal life and death are small, and the safety of the Emperor and the capital is the big deal!"

"At present, the patients in the institute are not weak, but they must have the determination to unite and share the same hatred against the enemy! Moreover, although the thief attacked in large numbers, they could go deep into the mountainous areas of Jiaodong and had to collect food on the spot. Previously, the emperor issued an edict, strictly ordering coastal prefectures and counties. If the pirates in Beihai attack, they should strengthen the walls and clear the fields so that the enemy could not get food. As officials guarding the land, we should swear to live and die with the city! Those who abandon the city and flee without mercy! You should inspire soldiers and strong people and boost morale!"

Enthemer felt a little embarrassed: "Mr. Cao, you must know the military equipment of the Green Camp. The officers and soldiers of the North Sea pirates, regardless of the beads, can shoot several shots in a flash. Even if the army gathers and recruits young and strong people, how can they fight against swords, guns, bows and arrows?"

"Oh! What should General Ien have to do with his opinion?"

"Well..." Enthemo glanced at Lan Jiazan, and the other party immediately responded: "Mr. Cao, I have discussed this with General En before. I think it is feasible, but I have to ask you to make a charter."

Cao Zhitian was very unhappy when he heard him say something, and interrupted: "Mr. Lan, what do you want to say? You might as well speak out!"

Lan Jiazan made a fuss and thought that if Dengzhou Prefecture really lost, he would have to die for the lunar calendar. Let’s pass this level first!

"Folk Muskets..."

Well?! Cao Zhitian's eyes lit up and he said for a moment: "Okay, that's it! I'll send someone to book to summon the hunters tomorrow morning. As long as there are muskets at home, they will respond!"

Enthemer said: "The nitrification is probably not enough, and there are iron bullets that need to be built."
Chapter completed!