Ming Zuo

Chapter 61 Planning
The capital, the Ministry of War, and the servant are on duty.

Hou Xun has already taken office, working hard on the papers and working conscientiously.

There are countless documents piled on the table, and he needs to look over each one.

Soon, a pond newspaper caught his attention.

The person who wrote the letter was Zhang Jimeng, Linqing Bingbei Daoist.

In the Tang newspaper, Zhang Jimeng expounded the situation of local military equipment in Linqing, focusing on the lack of weapons for the local army after the change of Chaoguan Wharf.

Hou Xun took the document and thought about it before he commented on it.

Immediately, he found another document.

The second document was sent earlier by Li Xuewei, the magistrate of Mengyin County, Shandong Province.

In October this autumn, a group of thieves in the Yimeng Mountains was dispatched to loot Mengyin.Thirty-five villages in ten villages were broken, the county seat was besieged, thousands of people were massacred, and more than twenty households of large and small landlords were exterminated.

Li Xuewei was so frightened that he hurriedly sent letters to the Qingzhou Prefecture, the Shandong Governor, and the Ministry of War, asking the imperial court to send troops to suppress the bandits.

The Qingzhou Prefecture and the Shandong Governor received the report...and pretended not to receive it.

It's not that they neglected their duties, it's just that there are no soldiers and horses to send in Shandong.

At that time, in order to prevent the rebellion of the Jifu people, the army in Shandong was basically transferred to the front line of Dezhou, and the interior was very empty.

Even without this mobilization, Shandong's local soldiers and horses would be very insufficient.

In addition, the Yimeng Mountains are remote and impoverished. If a large army is dispatched, it is impossible to say whether the bandits can be suppressed or not. Even the local army cannot guarantee the supply of food.

So they had to open one eye, close one eye, and pretend they didn't see it.

When the book arrived at the Ministry of War, Hou Xun read it and planned to deal with it later.Seeing Zhang Jimeng's petition, Hou Xun had an idea.

He put the two memorials together, Li Xuewei's on top and Zhang Jimeng's on the bottom.Then I called the clerk and gave me careful instructions.

"Send it up well."

Although the literati working in the ministry were inconspicuous, they were all talented people.

The waiter said so, how could he not understand?
So the clerk kept the order of the two memorials unchanged and presented them to the supervisor of li.

A day later, Chongzhen summoned Wang Qia, the minister of the Ministry of War, and Hou Xun, the minister of the Ministry of War, to inquire about the matter.

Chongzhen's focus was really on the first thing.

"Is the bandits in Mengyin so serious?"

Wang Qia was a little confused.

He has just replaced Wang Zaijin, and he is familiar with the headquarters. How can he know the specific affairs?

Only Hou Xun came forward.

"Your Majesty, Mengyin is close to the Yimeng Mountains, and the terrain is dangerous and complicated. The land is barren, the people have no food or clothing, and many bandits follow. The former Qin Shilang once said: There are seventy-two Gus in Yimeng, and there are fierce tigers in Gugu."

Qin Shiwen, the former servant of the Ministry of War, was from Mengyin County and passed away in May this year.

Chongzhen was very angry.

"If that's the case, why didn't Shandong Yousi wipe out the matter?"

Hou Xun had done his homework, and Chongzhen was helpless when he talked about the actual situation.

"In such a large Shandong, there are no soldiers available?"

Hou Xun naturally couldn't make the emperor embarrassed, and excused him: "Shandong is divided into Denglai, and takes care of Liaodong. Since then, the center of gravity of military equipment has been skewed, and it has been a long time ago."

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the situation in Liaodong became increasingly difficult. In order to support the Liaodong battlefield, the Ming court divided Dengzhou and Laizhou from Shandong, and established Denglai governor. At the same time, it also gathered heavy troops in Denglai, making Shandong empty.

Hearing what he said, Chongzhen became concerned.

Later, the first martial arts examination of the Ming Dynasty was held, and the first martial arts champion Wang Laipin was specially dispatched to Shandong to serve as a deputy general.

But Chongzhen had to deal with the current situation.

"Then do it as it is, and order Linqing's troops to prepare the road. When the army is completed, the camera can dispatch troops to help Mengyin suppress the bandits."

The plan passed, Hou Xun's face was calm.

"The minister obeys the order."

Zhuangzishang has now become a lively large construction site, with more than [-] people working here, and the progress is quite fast.

Today's top priority is the construction of military camps.

Zuo Menggeng did not entrust others, but took charge and designed it himself.

Because the weather is cold, if you make mud billets to build a house, the mud billets will not dry at all.So Zuo Menggeng paid the capital and directly paid for the blue bricks and built the brick house.

This alone cost more than [-] taels.

"The dormitories of officers and soldiers are built like this, with long rows in series, and the kang in Datong. Note that the flue under the kang must be built like this. If something goes wrong, I will ask you for trouble."

Zhang Yan led a few masons around Zuo Menggeng, listening to his instructions, he did not dare to neglect at all.

I just didn't expect that this rich young master actually knew how to build a kang.

The big guy was quite suspicious before, but after a section of the house was built, everyone tried it on the kang, and everyone was convinced.

The flue of the new kang is very smooth, which can transfer the heat to the entire kang surface well, so that people can sleep in any position on it and feel warm. It is a fairy life.

Because the house is built with blue bricks, it is not afraid of cold weather.After building it, smoke it around with firewood, and the house will be ready soon.

As for the smoked black house, it will have to be painted later.

The original Zhuangzi has long since been completely demolished, and the fence boundary is no longer there.

The entire barracks covers an extremely wide area, including the school grounds and even almost all the arable land.

However, the cultivated land here is also unbearable to work, and if it is occupied, it will be occupied, so I don’t feel bad.

Even the wasteland around Zhuangzi was encircled after Zuo Menggeng asked Qu Shisi for instructions.

The ownerless is mine.

The rear battalion is a comprehensive army, and the training space required is very large.

According to Zuo Menggeng's plan, the whole battalion was divided into several parts.

The center is the battalion headquarters, and the front is surrounded by four infantry battalions.

The dormitory of the infantry brigade is a long row of brick buildings, exactly one brigade in one row.In the middle, washrooms, activity rooms, toilets, etc. are added to form an independent area.

The artillery brigade was the most expensive and was arranged behind the battalion headquarters.A row of soldiers' quarters, a row of warehouses.

Of course, the ammunition depot is far away, and there is nothing next to it.

Zuo Menggeng didn't want to fall asleep, so he took a dirt plane.

The cavalry brigade occupies the largest area, except for the officers and soldiers' dormitories, the stables are very extensive.In addition to the warehouse for storing fodder and the training racetrack, almost half of the entire battalion is used.

The general rear brigade was between the military camp and Xinzhuangzi.

Zuo Menggeng's vision was to make the general rear brigade into a technical arm.

Arranged here, after the weaponry is in operation, it can let the general rear team get started as soon as possible, and gradually cultivate its own technical personnel.

Xinzhuangzi was named Zuozhuang by Zuo Menggeng, which is his private property.

Now there are not only the village households of Lao Zhuangzi, but also the families of the officers and soldiers who are about to enter the camp.There are at least tens of thousands of men, women and children.

So many people cannot be supported by farming alone, and Zuozhuang does not have that much land.

Together with the more than [-] strong laborers, Zuo Menggeng's idea is to gradually arrange to each workshop in the future.

The barracks are under construction, and Zuozhuang is also under construction.

To build enough houses for the latecomers to live in.

Zuo Menggeng is also not stingy, the new house here is also built with bricks.

Of course, the requirements are definitely not comparable to the military camp.Every household is close to each other, and the land use is minimized.

To wash, you can fetch water and get it at home, but to go to the toilet, you have to go to a public toilet in the distance.

Regarding hygiene issues, Zuo Menggeng's requirements were extremely strict.In a few days, he whipped all the people who defecate anywhere.

Under the severe punishment, whether it was the original farmer or the migrants, they all obeyed honestly.

"Don't think that these people are here to steal our jobs. People are the greatest wealth. Without these people, can we be so prosperous now? Besides, we can't rely on the land just like this. Eat. So, you have to open your hearts and accept these newcomers from outside. Only when everyone gets along in harmony, life here will be more prosperous, right?"

Whenever there is a conflict between locals and outsiders, there will definitely be conflicts.

Zhuangzi is also on.

The original farmers saw that tens of thousands of people came all of a sudden, for fear that these people would rob their new fields, so they were very hostile and opposed to these outsiders overtly and secretly.

Knowing the situation, Zuo Menggeng deliberately called the villagers together and held a briefing meeting.

Hearing that outsiders would not grab the land, the farmers finally let down their guard.

"Master, how do these foreigners live without farming? You can't keep raising them all the time."

The person who spoke was called Widow Wang, but she was actually not very old, only in her early twenties.

The man went out to fight the sack at the wharf last winter, slipped and fell to his death.Only she was left with a mother-in-law, and the two made do with each other.

For those outsiders, the most vigilant is people like her.

After all, there is no man in the family, and if people are bullied, there is no way to deal with it.

Zuo Menggeng smiled.

"How much money can you make from farming? Just relying on farming is not enough. In the future, we will build a lot of workshops here. People who don't farm can work in the workshops and earn money to support their families."

A group of peasants looked at each other in dismay, a little incomprehensible.

Zuo Menggeng simply took the Widow Wang as an example.

"Sister Wang, there are only two people in your family, and they are both women. If you let you farm, how much can you grow?"

Widow Wang thought for a while and tried to say as much as possible.

"What's the matter, you can also plant five acres of land."

Zuo Menggeng couldn't believe it.

"How do you plant the land? Just sprinkle the seeds into the ground, and then watch the sky to eat? Let you turn the ground, you can't do it, right?"

Widow Wang's eyes reddened and she almost cried.

Cultivated land is generally the best to use cattle.

Where can there be cattle?

The peasants had no choice but to shoulder to shoulder, and rely on manpower to do it.

Only men can do this job, women don't have the strength.

When she thought that there was no man at home, and she couldn't even farm the land, Widow Wang was really sad.

(End of this chapter)