Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 182 Mantis Catching Cicadas
"Moo..."

"jingle……"

In mid-June, on the vast grassland, a winding and rugged river lies across, flowing from north to south.

On both sides of the river, you can clearly see the flat land that has been cleared.

The river meander silt was cut by reeds, and then truckloads of sand were transported from the sandy land dozens of miles away and poured into it.

Excessive silt will be excavated and loaded into trucks, and transported to the sandy land dozens of miles away.

Some luxuriant reed fields will be set ablaze, and the thick meadows will be plowed into squares with iron plows tied to three oxen, and finally they will be plowed out with iron plows.

The plowed meadow will be sent to the sandy land, and water from the Laoha River has been diverted from the sandy land to the south, and more than a dozen simple canals three feet deep, one foot wide, and more than ten miles long have been dug.

With the moistening of water, and the accumulation and burning of the meadow after being transported, the soil quality of the sandy land will change within two years and become arable.

Now it is the second year since the establishment of the Three Guards of Daning in the Ming Dynasty. With the work of hundreds of thousands of people and tens of thousands of horses and cattle, the arable land of the Three Guards of Daning has expanded from more than [-] mu at the beginning to [-]. mu.

However, the extra [-] mu cannot be cultivated for the time being.

In the past year, the lazy people from the nursing home who moved here just burned the meadow, dug out stones, and filled it with silt to change the soil quality.

This year they will have to repeat the above steps, and by the way, continue to expand the area of ​​cultivated land.

This process is repeated for three years before farming can begin.

But no one complained about that.

After all, no one wants to go to a nursing home to be a lazy man. It is not because there is no land, some congenital disabilities, or no parents, and illiteracy, so they go to the nursing home.

Therefore, when Man Gui promised them that all the fields reclaimed by the Sanwei of Daning belonged to them, and when the Yumajian provided food, everyone used their milk to reclaim their own fields.

Compared with a bowl of porridge a day in the Nursing Home, which is enough to survive starvation, Sanwei in Daning is much more comfortable.

Each person can receive four catties of rice, one catty of vegetables, and half a tael of oil and salt every day, and the days are very nourishing.

Working during the day and resting at night, the comfortable life in the past year has made the lazy people in the nursing home get used to this kind of life.

"Zhao Daudao! How many acres of land has your village opened up?!"

"There are one or two thousand acres!"

"That's not yours either!"

"I've opened up four acres by myself! This year I will definitely be able to open up to six acres!"

Sitting by the Liaohe River, some men were chatting and joking while sitting on a silt-carrying carriage, while the draft horses pulling the carriage were grazing with their heads down.

Looking down from the sky, the Liaohe River was reclaimed from north to south. More than [-] horse-drawn carts ran back and forth twice a day, bringing four to five hundred catties of sand and four to five hundred catties of silt and meadow.

While reclaiming the arable land on both sides of the Liaohe River, people cultivated while restoring the ecology of the sandy land, and lived a very comfortable life.

Some ordinary native barbarian herdsmen who come and go for trade are also allowed to join the team of transporting soil. They can exchange one or two salts a day, and of course they can also exchange for their own land.

As long as you work together with the local Jianshe Village for one year, you can own three acres of your own basic land, which belongs to the collective villagers of Jianshe Village. If you want more fields, you have to wait for Jianshe Village to rest and pick up tools by yourself To reclaim.

The local barbarian Chaohua and other tribes did not come to plunder the three guards of Daning, firstly because they couldn't beat them, and secondly because the cost was too high.

The current Daning Sanwei basically rely on the Yumajian fleet to transport food and blood transfusions. Except for manpower and livestock, all oil, salt, iron and coal are in tight supply.

There are three cities, twelve castles, and sixty villages. Each village has an earthen city wall, and there are a lot of artillery on the top of the city.

These artillery were eliminated after the Ming army in Liaozhen changed their equipment, but even so, they were enough to cause damage to the Mongols who had no siege equipment.

In addition, each village has a force of one hundred households, and the things that Chaohua and others want, except for the tight supply of iron, are relatively open, so they have no reason to fight Daning Sanwei.

Even at some point, they needed to send troops to help the Ming army defend the city in order to defend this good place where they could exchange markets.

However, in the territory outside the customs, there is no force that needs the alliance of the local barbarians and the Ming army to defend the city.

The Mutual Market of Chahar and Waikalka is also here, the only one not allowed to come to Daning Sanwei Mutual Market is the Horqin Tribe which is allied with Houjin.

For the Mongols, they have been fighting with the Han people for hundreds of years. When their power is weak, it is not surprising that they are soft.

It is not the first time for the Mongolian tribes in Mobei, Monan, and Moxi to become the younger brothers of the Ming Dynasty. When Yongle swept the north, a large group of people accepted the canonization.

Even Moxiwara, who captured the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, did not accept the canonization obediently afterwards.

So if you think about it carefully, there is nothing wrong with subduing the weak Han people, just wait until the strength is strong and then fight.

On the contrary, compared to the Han people, the Jurchen tribe who serve soft women will be ridiculed, just like the current Horqin tribe, everyone is laughing at them.

But even though he said that, whenever Baylor from the Five Major Divisions of the Tuman saw the gradually prosperous Daning Sanwei, he still felt a little itchy in his heart.

Especially after Mangui took away six thousand cavalry a few days ago, this thought became more active.

Fortunately, Chaohua held a meeting in time to restrain them.

Chaohua is not a fool, he can see that if the five native tribes dare to attack the three guards of Daning, then the five native tribes will not survive for three months.

Tuman and Hetao are different. Hetao is beyond the reach of the Ming court, but Tuman is close at hand.

Defeating the barbarians and occupying all the land south of the Laoha River is beneficial to Daming but not harmful.

Therefore, Chaohua has always been quite honest, because he knows that the current Ming army's ability to go out of the fortress has been greatly improved.

However, although Chaohua doesn't want to invade Daning Sanwei, it doesn't mean that others don't want to.

On June [-]th of the second year of Tianqi, when Mangui was still gathering soldiers and horses of the Sixth Battalion of Yongping Prefecture, accompanied by several Mongols rushing into Qinghe Pass, Mangui led troops southward, and the news that the three guards of Daning were empty also spread. It reached Nurhachi's ears.

In summer, Hetuala is in the mountains, and it is cool and pleasant, but what makes people cool is the anxious situation.

Nurhachi had someone call the owner of the Eight Banners and many Han generals. They sat in the palace renovated this year, quietly waiting for Nurhachi to speak.

Nurhachi looked at the people in the hall, and then said:

"Engdel's herdsmen scattered in other tribes sent news to Qingheguan that Man Gui, the guard of the Sanwei of Daning, took away the [-] cavalry of the Sanwei and went south."

"The only ones who can mobilize him are the little King Qi and the little emperor of the Ming court. Judging from the previous behavior of these two boys, I am afraid they are going to attack Liaozhen."

"Khan Ama, why do you say that?" Mangurtai was a little puzzled, while Daishan explained:

"Since the beginning of the year, some people within the Ming court have advocated the use of troops against Liaodong. If they want to use troops against Liaodong, then the Liaoxi soldiers and horses that are seriously underpaid must be reorganized and abolished."

"If the Ming court is really planning to abolish the troops in Liaoxi, it means that they are really planning to use troops against Liaodong."

Those words made everyone in the hall feel heavy.

The strength of the Ming army in Liaodong is particularly terrifying. If the troops in Liaoxi are abolished, the strength will obviously be even higher.

The key is the quality of the soldiers and horses in western Liaoning. Everyone knows it. Keeping them alive is absolutely beneficial and harmless in terms of the current situation.

If the soldiers and horses in western Liaoning are abolished and rectified, then the entire eastern Liaoning will be monolithic.

It is definitely not a wise move to fight against the monolithic Liaodong.

"Khan Ama..."

Suddenly, under the heavy atmosphere, someone spoke, and everyone also looked at it.

Huang Taiji said to Nurhachi:

"Whether the Ming army wants to abolish the troops in Liaozhen or not, we should have people send letters to Zhu Wanliang, Jiang Bi and others."

"Don't ask them to cause chaos, but just ask them to hold the attention of the Ming army."

"At the same time, you can send troops to fight against the three guards of Daning, as well as the barbaric Zaisai Department!"

"Even if we can't break through the three guards of Daning, as long as we loot the Han people and grab a lot of food, it will benefit me, Dajin."

"And Zai Sai is now the pawn of the three guards of Daning. The last time Qinghe Pass was attacked, he was the vanguard and led [-] people to attack the pass."

"The news came from the grassland. It is said that after the plunder, King Qi of the Ming Dynasty rewarded him with a lot of things. Right now, the [-] soldiers and horses under his command are all armored cavalry."

"If you don't take this opportunity to destroy the Zai Sai Department, it's not difficult to imagine that this guy will continue to use troops against me in the future."

"Hmm..." Huang Taiji's analysis, judgment, and use of soldiers are all right. After hearing this, Nurhachi pondered for a moment, but added:

"The most important thing is to destroy the Zaisai tribe, and the other tribes of the Tuman should not attack."

"Destroying the five tribes of barbarians will only allow the Ming court to expand northward after the war, which is not good for Da Jin."

"Yes!" Everyone responded, and Nurhachi also ordered:
"Mang Gurtai, Amin, Liu Aita, Li Yongfang, Engdel, you lead the soldiers and horses of the two blue banners, the two battalions of Mongolia, and the fourth battalion of Han to go out of the fortress. You must destroy the Zaisai tribe and put them to death. Bring back your horses and oxen!"

"Obey!" The five stood up and responded, and there were a lot of soldiers and horses dispatched this time.

The two blue flags plus the servant army of the Sixth Battalion of Mongolia and Han, amounted to nearly [-] soldiers and horses. This was definitely the first large-scale use of troops by Dajin after the last Shen-Liao battle.

Although the Fourth Han Battalion was responsible for artillery and transporting luggage, it should not be underestimated.

That night, the five people began to give orders, ordering soldiers and horses from all over to go to Kaiyuan, and they also set off towards Kaiyuan with light clothes.

Nurhachi stood at the head of the city of Hetuala, watching them leave, with Daishan and Huang Taiji behind them.

"The Ming court's reforms are taking effect. The next big battle will definitely not be less than ours, or even twice ours."

"Our only advantage is the geographical advantage, but the geographical advantage is not absolute. The Ming court has endured for more than a year, and the accumulated money and food are enough to last long enough for the next battle. What do you think?"

As he said, Daishan and Huang Taiji under the setting sun thought about it for a while, and finally Daishan spoke first:

"Hui Khan Ama, you can fortify the stronghold, fight to the death, recruit enough Han soldiers, build stone forts on the mountain roads, order them to garrison, and detain their relatives at the same time, using the stone forts to consume the Ming army."

"Well..." Nurhachi responded calmly. It is not difficult to see that he is not satisfied with the method of Daishan, and can only be said to be quite satisfactory.

Compared to him, Nurhachi focused on Huang Taiji, and Huang Taiji did not live up to Nurhachi's expectations, but said:

"Leave the soldiers to defend, light soldiers to attack!"

The simple eight words made Nurhachi and Daishan's eyes shine, and Huang Taiji continued:

"Liaodong is monolithic, and there is no way to start."

"So the best thing to do is to leave the heavy soldiers to defend, while the light soldiers bypass and attack the rear!"

"But it's not so easy to attack the rear. Our artillery is not as good as the Ming army. In addition, once the war starts, the Ming army's rear must be an important supply line. For such an important thing, Xiong Tingbi will definitely send heavy troops to defend it." Dai Shan asked with a frown. , but Huang Taiji said:

"You don't need to impress them. You just need to mobilize them with cavalry, mess up their deployment, and then stir up the rear into a cloud of muddy water. It is enough to delay until winter."

"But to achieve this, the cavalry of light soldiers must change horses without changing people, and attack hundreds or even thousands of miles."

Liaodong's plate is very big, enough for a large cavalry to rush left and right, disrupting the deployment of the Ming army.

As long as the Ming army's deployment is in chaos, the Ming army's offensive will only decline and become exhausted in front of the Jin army defending the stone fort.

Huang Taiji's idea is to delay until winter. As long as it is delayed until winter, in the snow season of Changbai Mountain, if the Ming army dares to enter Changbai Mountain, it will face the situation of being divided and strangled.

This is why Zhu Youjian has been afraid and has been accumulating troops.

The terrain of the Changbai Mountains is destined to make it impossible for multiple troops to travel together, especially those who are not familiar with the roads in the mountains.

There are dozens of mountain roads leading to Hetuala, but the wide ones are no more than [-] meters, and the narrow ones are no more than ten meters.

With such a width, if a large group of soldiers and horses take a single path, they will only be easily attacked, divided, blocked from the beginning to the end, and everyone will be trapped in it.

Therefore, in the Ming army's many attacks on the Jianzhou Guard, they all divided their troops. Whether it was the battle of Saerhu commanded by Chenghua Liting or Yang Gao, there was no problem in the planning of the route.

There is only one problem, and that is the coordination of various ministries.

The reason why Chenghua Liting was successful was not only that the Jianzhou Guard was not strong at that time, but more importantly, all the ministries followed the steps planned in advance and moved forward little by little.

The reason why Sarhu failed was that there was a problem with the coordination, and he misjudged the rapid marching ability of Nurhachi's soldiers and horses.

In just five days, tens of thousands of troops traveled hundreds of miles. I am afraid that only the four cavalry guards in the sixteenth guards can do this kind of haste.

Therefore, what Huang Taiji thought was to restrain the Ming army. As long as it was delayed until winter, the roads that could march into Hetuala would change from the original dozens to four.

These four, that is, the four roads that Yang Gao formulated at the beginning.

Those with more roads can march [-] to [-] troops, and those with fewer ones can march [-] to [-]. By virtue of the geographical advantages, the Ming army will be divided, and heavy troops will be encircled and suppressed.

It can be said that Huang Taiji's tactics are divided into two parts, one part disrupts the Ming army, and the other part defends until winter, waiting for an opportunity to divide and suppress the Ming army and severely damage the main force of the Ming army.

This tactic was improved from Nurhachi's tactic in the Battle of Sarhu, but to do this, you must have internal support, understand the deployment of soldiers and horses in various places of the Ming army, and then send one person to lead the light soldiers to rush along the path Enter the hinterland of Liaodong.

The difficulty of this point is no less than how to defend the attack of the Ming army, so all three of them thought of it.

But regarding this point, Nurhachi said:
"If you want to enter the hinterland of Liaodong with light troops, you must have a Liao people to lead the way."

"I'll prepare for this." Daishan volunteered, and Nurhachi also said:
"The fourth person can't know what happened today."

"Yes!" Hearing this, Huang Taiji and Daishan both agreed.

Meanwhile, some homing pigeons flew south from Hertuala.

After these pigeons flew south, they were acquired by some Han merchants, and they were blatantly sent to various places in Guangning with the help of the name of selling goods.

"I just said that the King of Qi will do it sooner or later!"

On June [-]th, in a general mansion in Houtunwei, Guangning, with the sound of hammering a table, a group of Liaozhen generals sitting in the meeting hall looked ugly.

Sitting in the main seat was a stocky general in his fifties with a three-inch black beard, and a general in his forties with a full face.

Below them, there are more than a dozen generals in Liaodong Town, large and small, basically all of whom are above the general rank.

The one with a three-foot black beard on the left is Zhu Wanliang, while the one on the right with a full face is Jiang Bi.

These two men are the generals who supported Shen Liao in history who sat idly by the soldiers of Zhejiang and Sichuan.

Right now, their faces are dark and they are constantly thinking about it.

"After all, this news came from the old slave, so it's not very credible."

Zhu Wanliang pondered for a moment, then said this sentence, and continued:
"Ask some people to secretly go to the Three Guards of Daning to inquire. If the cavalry and Man Gui of the Three Guards of Daning really disappear, then we can make some plans first."

"Planning? How to plan?" Jiang Bi next to him frowned, but Zhu Wanliang said:

"Even if the imperial court wants to abolish Liao Town, it is impossible to abolish all the people with real quota."

"Looking at the three towns in Shanxi and the previous soldiers and horses in Liaodong, almost no one was beheaded."

"According to King Qi's means, at most it is to cancel the vacancies, and then disrupt us and the servants under his command."

"Isn't that enough?" one of the generals below said dissatisfiedly:

"Without a family member, his subordinates are stuffed into the guest army. Although he doesn't lose his power, he wants to support the bandits..."

"Okay!" Zhu Wanliang was afraid that this person would say something outrageous, so he interrupted quickly:
"That's why I say plan ahead."

"If Man Gui really disappeared, then he must attack Liao Town."

"Then we can abolish the family in advance, and then recruit Liao people to join the army, waiting to be abolished."

"This... all the family members are dismissed and returned home, so how can we afford it?" Jiang Bi who was next to him hesitated, but Zhu Wanliang said:

"With Liao Town abolished, what do you think Wan Sui and King Qi will do next?"

"Naturally attacking the old slave..." Jiang Bi answered subconsciously, but his eyes lit up halfway:
"You mean to take advantage of the dead and wounded soldiers and horses to re-recruit the servants into the barracks?"

"Smart!" Zhu Wanliang smiled contemptuously:
"The imperial court wants to abolish, but is abolition so easy?"

"Attack the old slave, and you all know where the old slave is."

"Tieling and Kaiyuan in the north are easy to say, and Fushun and Saerhu City can be taken if they are injured, but what about going east from Saarhu?"

"The mountains are high, the forests are dense, and the roads are rugged. Even if the entire territory of Liaodong is really recovered, many soldiers and horses will be lost."

"At that time, not only can the Liao soldiers be re-recruited in the name of losing soldiers and horses, but they can also get a pension. Why not do it?"

"That's true..." Hearing Zhu Wanliang's words, everyone nodded, and Zhu Wanliang also waved his hand and said:

"Go back and wait. I will inform you when there is news. Don't worry."

"If that's the case, then I'll take my leave..." Jiang Bi stood up to thank him when he heard this, and then led many soldiers from the Liao Town to withdraw from the General Military Mansion.

It's just that their actions have long been recorded by the Jinyiwei of the Fusi Liaodong Qianhu Office in Beizhen, and then they were sent to Manshakou in Lulong County, Yongping Prefecture at an accelerated speed of [-] miles.

When the news was delivered, it was already the afternoon of June [-], and Manshakou in the south of Lulong County was full of people and traffic.

The six battalions of soldiers and horses gathered outside the city, and the cavalry of Xiaoqiwei, Habayashiwei, Longxiangwei and Daning Sanwei set up camp at the mouth of the sea not far from the salt field.

On the sea in the distance, there are newly launched armed merchant ships. There are more than [-] ships in total, enough to transport [-] troops northward.

Zhu Youjian wanted to abolish the troops and horses in Liaozhen, so naturally he would not go overland foolishly.

It takes at least ten days for the army to arrive from Lulong County along the Liaoxi Corridor to Guangning, which is a journey of more than [-] miles.

This time is enough for Zhu Wanliang and the others to make preparations. Instead, they will take the sea route from Manshakou to the mouth of Daling River, and then put the luggage in a merchant ship of [-] materials, and travel [-] miles north of Daling River to arrive. Each village in Guangning.

It has to be said that the survival of human beings has greatly transformed nature.

In his previous life, Zhu Youjian would never have imagined that the Daling River and Linghe River could be navigable, but in Daming, the Daling River is more than [-] meters wide on average, and the Xiaoling River is also [-] to [-] meters wide.

The center of the two rivers is navigable, it just depends on the tonnage of the ships.

It is rumored that in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Daling River could carry two thousand or three thousand boats, but now it can only travel one thousand.

In a few hundred years, I am afraid that even five hundred materials will not be able to go.

Therefore, the existence of Dalinghe helped Zhu Youjian to abolish the soldiers and horses in western Liaoning.

He thought of the route of the march, the number of soldiers and horses, the number of artillery, and the resistance of Zhu Wanliang and others in the face of disbandment, but he did not expect that Nurhachi would leave the Liaoxi army based on Man Gui's departure. Ma, and sent a letter to inform Zhu Wanliang.

What general Liao talked about in Zhu Wanliang's mansion, Zhu Youjian didn't know.

However, based on the investigation of the news from the Liaodong Thousand Households Institute of Beizhen Fusi, the content of their conversation must be related to the abolition of Liaoxi.

In terms of the speed of sea ships, [-] soldiers and horses headed north, traveling a maximum of [-] miles by sea every hour, and at least [-] miles from Manshakou to the mouth of Daling River.

In other words, it only takes less than twelve hours to send soldiers and horses to western Liaoning.

"Time waits..."

Thinking of this, Zhu You summoned Man Gui from the inspector, and after Man Gui in military uniform came, he immediately asked:

"Is the food and fodder ready?"

"Return to Your Highness, I'm ready." Man Gui responded honestly.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Youjian immediately handed over the news of Beizhen Fusi to Man Gui, and then said with a serious face:
"Order the whole army to set off immediately. I want to hear the news of the abolition of Liao Town at the latest the day after tomorrow!"

　Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone
　　
　
(End of this chapter)