"Subhuti said: No, World Honored One, why? Sotapanna is called "entering the stream, without entering, without entering the color, sound, smell, taste, touch, and method. It is called "Stopanna." In a quiet and elegant bamboo forest outside Xikou Town, Jiang Zhiqingzheng, the captain of the Southern Development Team, was concentrating on practicing calligraphy.

The brush is a Huzhou brush smuggled from the Qing Dynasty. Its quality is quite good and the price is not cheap. However, this is a slight meaning for Jiang Zhiqing, who has fallen in love with calligraphy in his recent past. No matter how expensive this brush is, can it be as expensive as the limited edition handmade fountain pen in his arms?

There were many other small commodities smuggled in with brushes, such as the Four Treasures of Study, Lacquerware and Vines, etc. Many of them were taken by mountain roads and along the Fenghua River. Then they were delivered to merchants on the east bank in Xikou Town. By the way, half of the tariffs were required to be paid at Xikou Customs. Most of the commodities were in the duty-free catalog. Therefore, Xikou Town's trade in Qing Dynasty was quite prosperous, although this kind of trade was likely illegal in the Qing Dynasty.

A second-class staff officer of the 6th Army walked into the yard lightly. Seeing that his direct subordinate Shangguan Jiang Zhiqing seemed to be still immersed in an unspeakable Buddhist realm, he quietly stood aside. After Jiang Zhiqing finished writing a passage of Diamond Sutra, he walked over and reported: "Commander, the latest news from the Second Division."

Jiang Zhiqing nodded when he heard this, put the brush on the pen holder, washed his hands, and took the letter handed over by the staff and looked at it. The full name of the Second Division is "Zhejiang New Army Second Division", abbreviated as the "Second Division". It is a new army unit under construction, similar to the Liaodong New Army First Division, which was just formed a while ago. The division was formed with the Fifth Battalion of the Stand-up Team and the 11th Division of the Servant Army as the basics. It is temporarily under the jurisdiction of three infantry regiments, cavalry regiments, engineering corps, baggage companies, artillery companies and other technical units, due to lack of talents, are still in the state of construction.

The numbers of the three infantry regiments are the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Infantry Regiments, totaling 6,000 people, including 2,000 people from the Fifth Battalion of the Stand Team, 3,000 people from the Bogdan Division of the 11th Division of the Servant Army (the defense area is Ninghai County) (the division originally had 4,000 soldiers, and temporarily eliminated 1,000 old and weak), 500 people from the 1st Division of the Servant Army (the elite troops drawn, Ding Weiyue, the commander of the division was so distressed...), and more than 500 newly recruited mountain people in Fenghua area, all broke up and reorganized and dispatched to Ninghai, Tiantai and Xikou to guard the three places. The division headquarters was located in Tiantai County, where Taoism was very prosperous, with Bogdan as the division commander.

The division is still undergoing arduous training and integration work. After all, the sources of the 6,000 soldiers of the three infantry regiments are complex and they were not affiliated with each other before, so it is difficult to form effective combat effectiveness in the short term. Moreover, adapting to new equipment, new tactics, and new organization also takes time. The above all make the Second Division of the Zhejiang New Army currently in a short period of remission. The defense in Ningbo area can basically only be responsible for the old army. Of course, these old troops are already considered new troops for the Ming and Qing countries.

The letter sent by the second-class staff just now came from the headquarters of the Second Division of Tiantai County. It is also the garrison of the Fourth Infantry Regiment. It is located at the junction of Taizhou Prefecture, Shaoxing Prefecture and Jinhua Prefecture, and its geographical location is very important. Once the Second Division is formed in the future, the main forces gather in Tiantai County, Shaoxing and Jinhua Prefectures, especially the latter's local Qing garrisons, must not be scared to the point of being frightened, although they are already shocked three times a day.

The letter submitted by the commander of the Second Division to Jiang Zhiqing was roughly divided into two parts. The first part was to ask for food, pay and equipment. Now the Second Division also has 6,000 troops. According to the salary level of the big head soldiers ranging from 2-4 yuan per month, the starting salary of officers is more than 5 yuan (this level is pitifully less than that of the local regular army), and it takes about 300,000 yuan a year, not to mention a large amount of other expenses. Basically, it is impossible to support such a division without a expenditure of more than 400,000 yuan. Moreover, these are three infantry regiments. If the Second Cavalry Regiment and some direct troops of the division headquarters will be equipped in the future, the total amount will be more. Therefore, it is normal for Bogdan to send someone to write a letter and ask for money. After all, the part of the expenses that were withdrawn before has been used for 700,000 yuan.

The military expenditure applied for by Bogdan this time was 100,000 yuan, mainly for the salary and the purchase of grain, cloth and materials in Tiantai and other places. Although this amount was not small, Jiang Zhiqing thought about it and was ready to approve it. No matter how poor the troops were, they could not be poor. The Ming Dynasty was so poor. During the Chongzhen period, each frontier infantry could receive a minimum of five cents of silver per day, and each cavalry would pay two cents of silver per day (but he had to bear the horse material cost himself. If he converted it, the monthly salary of infantry was at least two yuan, and the monthly salary of cavalry was generally at seven or eight yuan). The prices of the East Coast people were high and they were training a little more frequently, so naturally they could not look at the level of the border troops at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Jiang Zhiqing had vaguely heard that the Second Division's regiments owed some fees for purchasing grain, vegetables, fruits and meat at their respective stations, and the military pay was only last month, which made people blush. You know, the Second Division is now a serious military unit after the military reform, and can no longer mess around like before.

The second part of the letter was to report the movements of the Qing army in Shaoxing and Jinhua prefectures, as well as the movements of the King of Lu, who was considered an alliance force. It was said that since Wu Sangui led his army south to conquer Ming Dynasty under the urging of the Qing court, the people of the East Coast immediately warned the Qing court and dispatched naval gunboats to sweep along the Yangtze River to isolate traffic. At one point, the Qing army could only transport secretly at night while the East Coast people were away, which was extremely embarrassed. But it was not surprising that they were still unmoved and continued to do their own things. They also imposed a batch of tax and silver in Jiangnan, intending to transport them to Sichuan to reward the Wu army, which was also arrogant.

Faced with such a situation, Jiang Zhiqing, the captain of the Southern Development Team, planned to take some actions to give the Qing army some eye to hit their arrogance. However, considering that most of the funds in Ningbo are currently used to purchase grain for the Denglai disaster victims, the scale of this battle is destined to be very small. In principle, it is only planned to use the three regiments of the Second Division of the New Army as the foundation to support the troops of King Lu to launch a small offensive against the central and southern regions of Zhejiang. There are no combat targets set, and there is no rigid requirement to capture any area. It is very relaxed. It can be seen that this battle is entirely for support.

The troops of King Lu were not happy to go north to attack the Qing Dynasty. Because their strength was very weak, they were worried that the Qing army would come all day long. So you asked them to raise troops to go north. How could this be done? However, there were some things that Zhu Yihai could not help but take charge. Considering that they were surviving in southern Zhejiang, they were completely ruthless of the people on the east coast, and there were also supplies and equipment on the east coast to maintain the minimum combat effectiveness of the troops of King Lu, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and go on.

In addition, Jiang Zhiqing, the captain of the Southern Development Team, also said that they would not be attacked by the Shun Army of Jiangxi during the battle with the Qing army and would be responsible for the supply of some of their combat materials. Then there would be no way out and they could only go up and kowtow. I heard that once Jinhua Prefecture is captured, the people on the east coast will not be paid, and they will be left to the King of Lu to govern. Then there is still a little trouble for this battle.

The commander of the Second Division, Bogdan, reported in the letter that the prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of the King of Lu this time, was led by his confidant minister Zhang Huangyan, and planned to attack the Qing army in Jinhua Prefecture in two groups. At the same time, the prefectures and counties bordering the Qing army also mobilized some regiments to prevent the Qing army from attacking from the flanks, so as not to be caught off guard at that time.

In addition, Bogdan also mentioned in the letter that Zhu Yihai, the King of Lu, had a strong appeal in Zhejiang. His officials were in and out of many prefectures and counties under the control of the Qing court, including Jinhua Prefecture, and were constantly colluding with local gentry. Even some officials in these prefectures and counties were not guaranteed to secretly communicate with King of Lu, and their penetration was very deep. Therefore, Bogdan optimistically estimated that Zhang Huangyan led more than 20,000 troops to march into Jinhua Prefecture this time, and there might not be any tough battles to fight. Perhaps they could surrender and rebel all the way, and then fight a few small battles, kill or expel some officials and troops who were still loyal to the Qing Dynasty, and then they were determined.

However, considering the Ming army's usual urinary nature and often caused some incredible things in a good situation, the people of the East Coast planned to dispatch some of the troops from the Second Division of the New Army just in case, and to support them from the flanks, to put it bluntly, the Fifth Infantry Regiment and the Sixth Regiment stationed in Tiantai County and Xikou Town were dispatched to harass Xinchang and other prefectures and counties in the southern part of Shaoxing Prefecture. On the one hand, it could disrupt the sight of the Qing army, and on the other hand, it did play a role in protecting the flanks of the Ming army with suspicious combat power under the King of Lu.

The two regiments totaled 4,000 infantry. Although they were in a state of institutional chaos due to their reorganization, they were not the Qing army local green camps in southern Shaoxing that could be slighted. What's more, they only bear a certain degree of restraint and harassment. In the eyes of the division commander Bogdan, there is not much difference from training, so they should still be able to complete the task smoothly. The rest depends on whether Zhang Huangyan can compete for success and whether he can take over Jinhua Mansion.

After reading these, Jiang Zhiqing stuffed the letters into the faith, placed them aside, and then quietly pondered. The army of King Lu began to mobilize in mid-to-late May. It was already early June, and a considerable number of troops had already gathered in Quzhou. In order to help the King Lu's troops gather quickly, the two Taizhou prefectures even dispatched some ships to help them transport food, grass, livestock and personnel through the sea, and they also fought for the formal completion of the war preparations for about half a month.

In other words, the main force of the right wing led by Zhang Huangyan can move the offensive in about late June, and the left wing division led by the veteran Wang Chao first will not be too late. Then, it seems that the East Coast people should also take action. The New Army's Second Division and the Fifth Regiment can go out from Tiantai County to make some restraints and confusion; the Sixth Regiment can also go out from Xikou Town, go up the Fenghua River, and harass the southern part of Shaoxing Prefecture; the Fourth Regiment as a whole was departing from Ninghai County and transferred to Tiantai County as a reserve force, and this deployment almost fulfilled the obligation of harassment.

Also, the entire Ningbo prefecture will also carry out a certain level of mobilization (of course not the level of general mobilization). The divisions of the minion army, the fourth battalion of the stand-up team, and the Black Eight Banners Heavy Infantry Battalion will be changed from one day to one day per day. Overall, it is important. No approval will be given for officers and soldiers to apply for leave, and all kinds of equipment will be maintained immediately. The artillery will receive specially allocated projectiles and gunpowder for live ammunition training within three days (in order to save money on weekdays, live ammunition training can be less as low as possible).

Interns and cadres (a total of about 2,000 people) in various prefectures, counties, townships, and enterprises and institutions will also return to their old jobs and conduct military training in case they will be the last line of defense to protect Ningbo.

Thinking of this, Jiang Zhiqing no longer hesitated. He immediately took the letter paper and wrote the order book with a brush on the spot, and carried out a series of dispatches to dispatch soldiers.

On June 2, 167o, a fleet led by ten 72-ton inland/offshore general-purpose small steamer assembled in Blackwater arrived in Fenghua via Dinghai and transported a large number of war materials here. Then, the rowing boats, small boats, black-sailed boats and other long-awaited boats, immediately brought the supplies on the small steamer and headed towards Xikou Town under the command of the logistics staff of the 6th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Division of the New Army.

This batch of supplies is of various types. In addition to commonly used spare barrels, bolt parts, maintenance tools, gunpowder, projectiles (including molds for making projectiles), gun barrels, cannon cars, spears, sabers, armor and other weapons, it also includes many rare things that people have seen before, such as sugar, tobacco, spices, cured meat, salted fish, spirits, new medicines, hemostasis bandages, standard military kettles, new military leather boots, etc., and even toilet paper for rubbing butts are centrally purchased. This shows that after the military reform, the new army not only has more military pay, but this daily welfare treatment has also reached a big step, because the superiors believe that good treatment will help improve morale, improve the sense of honor, belonging of soldiers, and improve their subjective initiative. These are obviously qualities that the new army must have. Otherwise, why do you think the new army spends so much money, but everyone is trying to do it?

A large number of materials arrived at the front line. At present, the Southern Theater Command and the Taiwan Bank are still purchasing in full swing. For this reason, they have been forced to embezzle the deposits of many customers in the Taiwan Bank. After the Sixth Infantry Regiment of the New Army left Xikou Town on June 26, went upstream along the Fenghua River, passed through the valley between Siming Mountain and Tianmu Mountain, and entered Xinchang County, Shaoxing Prefecture under the control of the Qing army. He encountered no strong resistance along the way, and rushed straight to the county town in one day.
Chapter completed!