Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 141 Planting Three Treasures of Sweet Potato
The news of the great victory outside the Great Wall quickly spread throughout the capital, and gradually spread to the whole world under the dissemination of Jin Yiwei, Fusi, Nanzhen.

For a while, everyone knew one thing, that is, the situation in Liaodong was not that bad, and the imperial court could still expand the territory while defending the territory.

Therefore, rich rich peasants and small and medium landlords all celebrated, and even poor peasants gritted their teeth and killed chickens, celebrating happily.

The only ones who might be unhappy are those big merchants and landlords, gentry, and...

"Is this the news you brought me?"

"It's a death sentence for the last general! But the last general brought back Engedel and his two thousand cavalry!"

On April [-], with the news of the defeat, Shuotuo returned to Shenyang.

Along the way, dozens of soldiers and horses under his command died due to injuries suffered in the Bayeux Division. In this way, almost one of the troops of Niulu was buried in the Bayeux Division.

Fortunately, Shuotuo brought back Engedel, who had no way out, and two thousand Mongolian armored cavalry. Otherwise, Nurhachi would not care whether he was his own grandson or not, and would act in accordance with military law.

For him, all heirs are nothing more than tools he uses to maintain his rule.

Whether it is Daishan or Huang Taiji, they are just tools. Once they affect their own rule, no one can not be killed!

From this point of view, Nurhachi has the characteristics of a hero.

Thinking of Engedel and the two thousand Mongolian armored cavalry, Nurhachi calmed down, then opened his eyes again, looked at Shuo Tuo who was kneeling in the military tent, and said:

"Tell me, that Ming army..."

"They are different from other Ming armies!" Shuo Tuo knew that he didn't have to die when he heard this, so he quickly explained the difference of Habayashi Guard.

"The short guns in their hands are very similar to the Wansheng Frang machine used by the Ming army in the Korean War, but the difference is that the bullets they fire are extremely powerful and extremely accurate."

"When the Liaodong cavalry used bird guns and three-eyed guns, even if there were more than [-] people, they could only kill [-] or [-] people in our army at close range. Engdel's men fell from their horses, no less than two hundred men."

"I saw it when I fell off the horse. Some armored soldiers were even pierced through two layers of armor, and the distance between them and us should have been about five steps."

"And they have three horses per person, and each of them is wearing triple armor. Although they are not as flexible as the Liaodong cavalry, it prevents our blunt soldiers from causing fatal damage to them in an instant."

"So it was only two rounds of confrontation and one round of short-handed soldiers, so I ordered to retreat!"

Shuo Tuo finished his understanding of Habayashi Guard, but Nurhachi was sombre and didn't speak for a long time.

Amid Shuo Tuo's apprehensive voice, Nurhachi said:

"I see, you get out and get all Baylor and generals accounted for!"

"Yes!" Hearing this, Shuotuo immediately breathed a sigh of relief, exited the big tent, and saw Daishan who looked worried.

"Huh..." Seeing Shuo Tuo coming out, Dai Shan, who was a father, breathed a sigh of relief, and Shuo Tuo also said:

"Ama, Mafa (grandpa) told you to go in..."

"Hmm..." Daishan patted Shuotuo's shoulder as a sign of comfort, and then walked into the big tent.

The other Baylor and generals in the crowd also nodded to him, and then walked into the big tent one by one.

After all of them entered the big tent, Shuotuo left. In the big tent, Nurhaci told everyone what Shuotuo had seen, and finally said:

"There are better firecrackers in the Ming army. When you fight against them, you must remember and take precautions."

After Nurhachi finished speaking, Huang Taiji immediately said: "It's not difficult to block this thing. The "soft wall" and "hard and soft cards" of the Ming army can resist it, but the cost is very expensive."

Where there is a spear, there is a shield. The Ming army groped a way to defend against bird guns and firearms in the long-term war very early, but suffered from lack of money to manufacture them.

For example, the "soft wall" in Huang Taiji's mouth is made by using wood as a frame, seven feet high and six feet wide. Live the lead bullet"

In addition, it is the hard and soft shield recorded in "Ji Xiao New Book" compiled by Qi Jiguang.

This kind of shield weighs fifteen catties. It is framed with balsa wood, covered with raw cowhide on both sides, and nailed firmly. The surface of the cowhide is painted with gray paint and oil for waterproofing. There is a layer of thick paper crumpled with tissue paper.

Such a structure is equivalent to a simple composite shield.

According to the records, this kind of rigid and soft card weighs fifteen catties and can withstand the shooting of muskets at a distance of about [-] meters. However, when the distance is shortened to forty or fifty meters, it cannot withstand the shooting of muskets. , then about [-] meters can block lead bullets.

However, although the bulletproof effect of this shield is not bad, there is a huge problem that makes it impossible to equip it on a large scale, that is, it is too expensive, and it costs more than five taels to make one side.

With the finances of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to equip soldiers with such good shields, but for Hou Jin, this is not impossible to study.

Therefore, after Huang Taiji explained, Nurhachi said:

"If this kind of gun does not appear on the battlefield this time, just ignore it for the time being. After this battle is over, we will collect cotton and hardwood to make it after the autumn harvest."

"As long as we can defend against this new bird gun, the cavalry of the Ming army still cannot be compared with my big gold."

"Yes!" Hearing this, everyone nodded.

At this time, Nurhachi also continued:
"Shenyang continues to be besieged. Fengji, Wujingying, Wang Daren's village and other forts and some forts, find a chance to take down with iron cannons!"

"Yes!" The generals responded, but they also knew that with the passage of time and the destruction of the Bayo Department, Daikin's food would be in crisis.

Once the food runs out, they will starve to death in the remnants of Changbai Mountain without Ming Ting taking action...

The best thing to do now is, as Nurhachi said, to lay down all the stone fortresses between Liaoning and Shenyang, obtain food from them, and let Dajin persist until next spring.

But after talking about the deployment against Liaoshen, Daishan said again:

"Khan Ama, is it possible that the cavalry of the Ming army outside the Great Wall will invade Kaiyuan and Tieling?"

"Maybe it's a feint." Huang Taiji hit the nail on the head, but Nurhachi frowned and said:
"The method they used was to encircle Wei and save Zhao."

"If I don't send reinforcements to Tieling and Kaiyuan, they will storm the two places. If we send reinforcements, they will flee and attack other parts of the Great Wall."

"The strategy this time is not like Xiong Tingbi's style." Huang Taiji explained:
"Xiong Tingbi's style still prefers to fight steadily and move troops to aid Liao, instead of directly choosing to go outside the pass and cut off my big gold arm."

"It's really not Xiong Tingbi's style..." Nurhachi stared calmly, and then said:

"At present, Liaoshen is the most important thing. As for Kaiyuan and Tieling, Jierhalang will lead two Jiala troops to support Qingheguan. It only needs to be stationed."

"Wait until the autumn harvest, even if Shenyang cannot be conquered at that time, a batch of grain and grass can be harvested, and Shenyang will be besieged in winter."

"Winter is not good for us, especially for the Ming army!"

After finishing his sentence, Nurhachi dismissed everyone, and the situation in Liaodong also began to change, and Shenyang City was the first to be among them.

"Jianlu has retreated..."

On the top of Shenyang City, He Shixian hammered on the female wall with his hands excitedly, but Qin Bangping said calmly:

"It's not retreating, they are mobilizing troops..."

"The direction is to the south. It should be to besiege Fengji and other stone forts." You Shigong's face was ugly, obviously understanding how bad the situation in Shenyang would be if Fengji and other forts were breached.

"There must be a change in the situation, otherwise the old slave would be absolutely reluctant to use Jianlu to attack the city!" He Shixian was still very optimistic, and his words made everyone nod their heads slightly.

Seeing this, Qin Minping also said to Qin Bangping: "There is still enough food in the city for half a year, so the old slave probably won't be able to survive."

"If you can't fight it, you can't fight it, but if Fengji and other places are breached, our generals and people in Liaodong will be killed or injured by tens of thousands." Qin Bangping frowned.

"Not only that." Qin Banghan added:
"If the old slave drives all the people from these places to Shenyang, then we can only accept the people, otherwise we will be impeached by Yushi and Liaozhen generals, and we will lose the hearts of Liaodong."

"But once the people are accepted, the food and grass in the city can't bear it until mid-August at most."

"The most important thing is to defeat the soldiers!" You Shigong clenched his fists, and said with rage in his heart:
"No one knows whether these defeated Liao soldiers have taken refuge in Jianlu. If they make trouble after entering the city, it will be difficult for me and others to defend against the attack from inside and outside!"

"Trust Your Highness Fifth! As long as you stay until July is enough!" Qin Bangping finally set the tone and put his hope on Zhu Youjian.

He still didn't know that His Royal Highness the Fifth Prince had already been granted the title of King of Qi, and he had defeated the Bayo tribe, which had hit Houjin's morale.

He set his sights outside the city, looking at the Houjin Camp in the distance, with mixed feelings in his heart.

At the same time that he was having mixed feelings, tens of thousands of people were working in full swing in Manshakou area in the south of Yongping Prefecture thousands of miles away.

On the vast plain, under the command of the students and instructors of Yanshan Institute, some people are carefully cultivating some seeds they have never seen before.

If someone in the future can see this scene, they will definitely shout corn, sweet potato and potato, pepper!
On this vast plain with tens of thousands of people, tens of thousands of cattle, and more than one million mu of cultivated land, there are many "cultural people" with fair skin in bunts standing in one place.

"My Ming Dynasty has a vast territory, and the temperature difference between the north and the south is relatively large, and the time for planting potatoes in different regions is also different..."

In the field, Zhu Youjian, wearing bunt, is leading twelve chief instructors, teaching them the habits and planting characteristics, time, place and method of potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes and other things.

Corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes were actually introduced to Daming in Wanli and earlier, but because they couldn't master the correct planting methods and species characteristics, they were not outstanding in terms of grain area.

Such a situation will not come to an end until Xu Guangqi and others study it and write the "New Book on Agricultural Politics".

However, for Zhu Youjian now, as a former poverty alleviation cadre, he can’t talk about crops such as wheat, corn, and sorghum, but he is familiar with the cultivation methods of these three crops in mountainous areas for poverty alleviation.

He followed the steps to put the cut and germinated potatoes into the soil pit that already had basal fertilizer, then filled the soil and watered the wet soil.

After finishing all this, he said to the chief teachers:

"Generally speaking, the time for planting potatoes in most areas is generally from October to December. According to the difference in cold and heat in the region throughout the year, it is also possible to plant according to the temperature at that time."

"However, in recent years, my climate has gradually become colder, so it can only be planted in April to May."

"If it is a warm place, it can be planted in January, February and September, so the time to plant potatoes is basically determined by the cold and heat. If planting, you can decide what to plant according to the local cold and heat. "

Speaking of this, Zhu Youjian said emphatically again:

"When it comes to planting potatoes, the steps must not be wrong. They must be cut into pieces and then germinated before they can be planted in the soil."

"Don't expose to the sun when you want to germinate, just make sure the environment is cool and hot."

After Zhu Youjian finished speaking, a familiar face immediately raised his hand, Zhu Youjian also smiled and said, "Yang Lu, tell me."

The one who raised his hand was Yang Lu brought back by Shen Lian, and after he was allowed to speak, he asked:
"Your Highness, you only mentioned the method of planting, but what about the disease?"

"Diseases mainly include late blight and..." Zhu Youjian explained the diseases that may be encountered in planting potatoes, and the twelve chief teachers recorded while listening.

Finally, they followed Zhu Youjian to the corn and sweet potato fields. Under Zhu Youjian's teaching and explanation, they recorded the planting methods, planting time and crop characteristics of the three crops.

But the only thing that gave Zhu Youjian a headache was the grain yield per mu of the three crops.

In fact, these three crops have been brought back by Lu Wenzhao for more than two months, but Zhu Youjian did not have the brains to promote them on a large scale. Instead, after the completion of rice planting, he used the millions of acres of arable land in the Yumajian official farm Come as a test field.

Among them, corn is the most planted, potatoes and sweet potatoes are equally planted, and crops such as peppers and tomatoes are only planted on thousands of acres.

Due to unlawful planting in the late Ming Dynasty, the yields of various crops were impressive, and Zhu Youjian was not sure how much he could grow per mu.

However, he came here in Yongping not only for the test field, but also...

Thinking of this, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked towards the sea.

I saw tens of thousands of people working in full swing by the sea.

Some of them boiled glutinous rice, some fried the soil, some dug the soil, some mixed the fried soil with lime, pottery powder and gravel, and finally mixed with glutinous rice and fried soil and transported to the beach.

There has been a vast shoal surrounded by wooden signs, and the sand on the beach has been excavated and transported away, leaving a low land that spreads for more than ten miles.

The surrounding areas of these lowlands were rammed with three-component soil to look like a city wall, one hundred steps deep and forty-five miles long.

The low land of more than [-] mu was surrounded by rammed earth walls, and the low land was also filled and compacted by the compound soil that was continuously transported in.

The side close to the sea is almost three inches below the sea water, and it gets deeper as it gets closer to the shore, and the deepest is one foot high.

This also means that as long as the wooden sign is dismantled, seawater will pour into the slope, and after the wooden sign is inserted, the seawater will be blocked by the wooden sign and the low wall of rammed earth.

Zhu Youjian has never seen a salt farm, so he can only use this stupid method to make salt. Fortunately, with the encouragement of fifteen yuan a day, tens of thousands of people from former military households flocked around, and it only took ten days , The sun-dried salt field has begun to take shape.

"Your Highness, according to this speed, the salt will be dried in about a month, but I don't know how much salt this salt farm can produce."

Wang Chengen was wearing shorts, and accompanied Zhu Youjian, and handed him a sweat towel and herbal tea.

After Zhu Youjian took it, he took a sip and said with a smile: "No matter how much you produce, you will always make money."

"It's just a pity, there are too many things going on right now, otherwise we would be able to dry salt in Liaodong and Shandong."

"By the way..." Zhu Youjian came to his senses, and then said, "What did Lu Jianxing say?"

Wang Chengen understood that His Royal Highness was talking about money, so he bowed back and said:
"On April [-]th, Lu Jianxing asked the hundred households under his command to Shen Lian to escort [-] taels of silver to the north. According to his letter, he still has more than [-] taels of silver in his hand, but for the sake of business, he only I can keep it."

"In addition, on May [-]th, the sea ship headed for Japan will return, and it will probably receive [-] taels of silver. At that time, it will be directly shipped to Tianjin and handed over to Dagu Camp, who will send people to Yanshan Daying .”

"How much silver is left in the treasury?" Zhu Youjian nodded in satisfaction, and then asked about the silver in the treasury.

"In the past few months, the expenses of the Sixteenth Guards and the Twelfth Battalion have been too great. The monthly expenditure is nearly [-] taels of silver. Including the expenditures of the armor factory and the ordnance department, the current treasury silver is only more than [-] taels of silver. [-]. There are still more than [-] million shi in the army rations."

Wang Chengen mentioned the silver and stored grain, and then hesitated for a while before saying:

"Your Highness, with the scale of the officialdom, I'm afraid I can't support the [-]th Guards and the [-]th Battalion like before."

"Nearly [-]% of the meat needs to be purchased, and [-]% can be self-sufficient. In addition, the vegetable market can only supply more than two million catties of vegetables. Therefore, the price of Yongping in Shuntian Prefecture has risen a little due to the purchase."

"In the past, a hundred catties of green vegetables cost only thirty yuan, but now they cost thirty-five yuan, and water chickens have increased to eighteen yuan a piece. If this continues, I'm afraid there will be more..."

Wang Chengen's face was a little ugly, and Zhu Youjian also understood that going on like this is not an option.

The current Imperial Horse Supervisor uses more than [-] million mu of arable land in the North and South Fields to raise nearly [-] horses from the [-]th Guards and the [-]th Battalion.

This sounds like an average of more than [-] mu of land to support one person, but in fact it is still somewhat difficult because nearly [-] million soldiers can only get the harvest after the three-transaction tax.

In real terms, it should be [-] million mu of land to feed [-] people.

Compared with the difficulty of raising more than [-] people on millions of mu before, it is much more difficult.

And it is very simple to solve this problem, that is to expand the fields and mountains.

It is the cheapest and most cost-effective to open official farms in the mountains, but there are almost enough official farms at the foot of Yanshan Mountain. If you want to continue, you can only develop in Shanxi.

So after Wang Chengen complained, Zhu Youjian said:

"The upper straight guards and arch guard camps must eat well enough, and the outer arch guard camps in the future can be reduced to one meal of meat a day."

"In addition, the order to transfer troops from the three towns in Shanxi has already been issued. I estimate that they will arrive at Yanshan Daying in late May. When the money is brought in from home, stabilize them and let them go to Liaodong first."

"As long as Sun Yingyuan makes no mistakes, Nurhachi should hastily return to Hetuala afterwards."

"At that time, we will be able to attack the three towns in Shanxi..."

Zhu Youjian narrowed his eyes slightly, and Wang Chengen was also refreshed.

As far as the current situation is concerned, Zhu Youjian has figured out the strength of Harqin defended by Jizhen, which is no more than [-] cavalry.

In other words, the current [-]th Guards Army and [-]th Battalion are only defending the northern border of Beizhili, which is a bit of a waste.

In this case, it is enough to transfer troops to Shanxi, and then build a few battalions.

Zhu Youjian even thought of what soldiers to transfer and how many to transfer.

The Shanxi Great Wall is [-] miles long, and with the internal pass, at least [-] battalions are needed.

In other words, at that time, the expenditure of the Yumajian will be [-] battalions more, and the expenditure will be more than [-] million taels.

Using more than [-] million taels in exchange for tens of millions of acres of military farmland in Shanxi and more than [-] million taels of military pay is a good deal.

As long as the three towns in Shanxi are abolished successfully, Ming's military expenditure can be reduced to about 50% of the fiscal budget, and the fiscal budget can be basically balanced.

But at that time, the pressure on the Yumajian will be great, so it is necessary to open up new financial income, and this income is the model of Huangdian plus saltworks!

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian said to Wang Chengen:

"I don't care about the official farms for the time being. If the price of meat in Shuntian Prefecture and Yongping Prefecture rises too much, I will use the livestock from the official farms at that time."

"What I want you to prepare now is to raise funds to open the imperial store. The salt drying period will end in four months. When the time comes, the private salt hoarded will be sold in the imperial store."

"The market sells six, we sell five, and they sell five, we sell four."

"Shuntian Mansion, Yongping Mansion, plus the three towns in Shanxi and the remaining prefectures and counties in Beizhili that may be abolished in the future. After these places are abolished, the military households who divide the land will ask them to buy our private salt."

"Your servant takes orders!" Wang Chengen's eyes lit up when he heard Zhu Youjian's words.

That's right, their Yumajian has a natural advantage, that is, they have millions of tenants under their command.

These millions of people, even if they only eat three catties of salt a year, can consume tens of millions of catties of salt. If the people of the prefecture are included, the area covered by the imperial store of Yumajian is too wide.

It's just a pity...

Thinking of one thing, Wang Chengen regretted: "It's just a pity that the imperial store in Nanchang was opposed by officials, people, and merchants in the south of the Yangtze River. Otherwise, Nanchang alone would have earned more than [-] taels of private salt."

"Let them be rampant for a while..." Zhu Youjian also frowned slightly, feeling very uncomfortable that the Nanchang Huangdian of Yumajian could not be opened in Jiangnan.

But he also knows that he currently does not have the strength to directly deploy Jiangnan, and he does not have sufficient talents and soldiers. He still has to maintain a face-saving peace with the Jiangnan scholar-bureaucrats.

He looked up at the magnificent sea, and muttered to himself:
"When I abolish the guards in the nine borders and the five northern provinces, you will be next!"

　The cold is still not healed, today is still a new update

　　
　
(End of this chapter)