Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 236 Conquests from the South to the North
In the same mid-July, when the Ryukyu Mansion was preparing to recover Nanyang, the governors and generals of Shaanxi and Shanxi also arrived in Guyuan Town.

Compared with the troublesome matter of abolishing the guards in the provinces south of the Yellow River, the reorganization and abolition of the four towns and their twenty-eight guards in Shaanxi can be said to be extremely easy.

Zhu Youjian has personally agreed to the towns, and the vacancy will not be pursued. Therefore, in the first month of the new year, the chief soldiers of the towns directly handed over their soldiers and horses.

Yansui Town originally had [-] people, Guyuan Town had [-] people, Ningxia Town had [-] people, Gansu Town had [-] people...

The four northwest towns with nearly [-] troops on paper, under investigation by Sun Chuanting and Man Gui, ended up with only [-] people.

After weeding out the old and the weak, as well as those who steal, rape and play tricks, there are only more than [-] people left in the four towns, and Man Gui reorganized them into twelve battalions.

Counting the troops mobilized by Mangui, Sun Chuanting, and Shanxi, there are three guards and thirty-two battalions in Shaanxi, with a total of [-] soldiers...

This is just a reorganization, and the corresponding important equipment such as rifles, armor, weapons, and horses have not yet been issued.

In order to equip the unequipped people in the [-]nd Battalion of the Three Guards, it is necessary to invest more than [-] taels of silver.

But the only good news, I am afraid, is that Man Gui and Sun Chuanting successfully cleared up the Taipu Temple and the military farmland in Shaanxi after elimination and reorganization.

The total number of fields occupied by the military in Shaanxi is more than [-] million mu, and the population of military households that used to be more than [-] has reached [-] million after more than [-] years of reproduction.

The population of these military households accounts for one-third of the population of Shaanxi, and according to Sun Chuanting's deduction, the population of Shaanxi should be around [-] million.

Of course, the Shaanxi in his mouth includes the three places of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia...

In other words, the vast Northwest only supports a population of more than nine million people.

Such a population naturally represented the difficulty of the Ming army's recovery.

Because of this, after clarifying the military settlements and military households, Sun Chuanting summoned the generals and governors of the various ministries who needed to participate in the battle of re-entry to Guyuan.

When everyone was present, the meeting hall of the General Army Mansion in Guyuan Town was already full of generals and officials, and the three sitting at the top were Futao Jinglue Sun Chuanting, Shaanxi Chief Envoy Xu Guangqi, and Northern Army Governor Man Gui.

The generals at the head are Li Rubai, the commander-in-chief of Guyuan, Wang Chengen, the commander-in-chief of Yansui, Yang Zhaoji, the commander-in-chief of Hexi, Lu Qin, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi, and the generals, large and small.

The General Soldier of Ningxia and the General Soldier of Gansu have already submitted their resignations and been approved. The main reason is that they are afraid that Zhu Youjian will settle their accounts after the autumn.

As for the civil officials, Sun Yuanhua, who was promoted to governor of Ningxia only last month, Zhu Tongmeng, governor of Yansui, and Mei Zhihuan, governor of Gansu.

Judging from the number of civil and military personnel, it is not difficult to see that civil servants are slowly withdrawing from side affairs.

Sun Chuanting, who was a repeat manager, glanced at the meeting hall, and then said:

"The main purpose of summoning you this time is to convey His Highness's military order and Long Live's will."

"Long live decree, the military farms in various parts of Shaanxi will be distributed according to the standard of five acres for each member of the military family, and ten acres for each local soldier who joins the army."

"After the farmlands of military family members and soldiers are all distributed, people will be distributed at the rate of four acres per person, and all taxes will be paid at [-]%, which will be reduced to [-]% next year."

At the beginning, Sun Chuanting talked about the military garrison. Seeing that many civil servants and generals listened in, he continued:

"This time, Wansui has distributed [-] million taels of cash, and the grain has been transferred to Guyuan, and there are still more than [-] million shi."

"His Royal Highness also ordered that the taxes and taxes collected by the army this year will be transferred to the five major gates."

"In this way, after the autumn harvest this year, the Northern Army Governor's Mansion should have at least [-] million shi in grain."

Having said that, Sun Chuanting glanced at the crowd, and continued after making sure that no one asked a question:

"Everyone should have seen the marching map of the five major fortresses. Now that you have seen it, it is time to deploy troops and horses."

"At the first pass, Lu Qinti, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi, led the Sixth Battalion of Horse Infantry, and went out along the Yellow River to sweep up the northern captives of the Hetao tribe on the south bank of the Yellow River."

"In Yansui Town, the second gate, the governor of Mandu led the three guards of Daning and the second cavalry battalion out of the fortress. The third battalion of horse infantry covered the civilians and followed them. The army went straight into the red salt pond and cut off the salt in Hetao."

"The third fortress is Zhenyuan Pass in Ningxia. The soldiers and horses were divided into two groups. Hexi General Yang Zhaojiti led the fourth battalion of cavalry and the third battalion of horse infantry. The army crossed the Yellow River and swept north and south along the Dusitu River. "

"The second branch is the third cavalry battalion led by Ben Jinglue. The army stands still, waiting for news, and observing the whereabouts of Tumote's troops in Tumochuan. Once Tumote's Su Nang leads troops south to support, immediately attack the rear."

"As for the fourth fortress, Wang Chengen, chief soldier of Yansui, and Li Rumei, deputy chief soldier, will lead the fourth battalion of cavalry, and the fourth battalion of horse infantry will go out of the fortress to attack Juyanhai and Baitinghai respectively."

"The last fifth exit, Gansu Governor Mei Zhihuan and Guyuan Town Commander Li Rubai led the Fourth Battalion of Horse and Infantry to sweep north along the Zhangye River."

"The remaining six battalions of soldiers and horses will be dispatched by Zhu Tongmeng, the governor of Yansui, to be stationed in Xiningwei to guard against the Qing captives."

Sun Chuanting made fine adjustments to Zhu Youjian's marching map, and finally formed the three guards of Daning, [-] battalions of horse infantry, and [-] battalions of cavalry with more than [-] people.

Among them, Lu Qin commanded the sixth battalion of horse infantry in Shanxi, while Shaanxi stayed behind with six battalions of soldiers and horses to guard against the Qinghai Tumote Department in Qinghai.

The reason why Shaanxi can suddenly pull out the [-]th Battalion of Horse Infantry and the [-]th Battalion of Cavalry is thanks to the powerful families who have occupied Shaanxi for more than two hundred years.

When the Taipusi racecourse was taken back, a large number of tyrants disobeyed, and Sun Chuanting's military order was simpler, that is, one word.

kill--

In just three short months, no less than a hundred powerful families were seized, and tens of thousands of military horses and poor horses were seized.

After the number of horses was reported, Zhu Youjian was not surprised, because he had known for a long time that Shaanxi Haoqiang had a large number of horses.

After all, after the uprising by Li Zicheng and others, the peasant army in Shaanxi basically never lacked horses, and horse infantry can be seen running back and forth everywhere in historical materials.

In the final analysis, these tyrants dug out the corners of Daming to raise horses, and finally led to a sad situation where there were plenty of horses in Shaanxi, but there were no horses available in the border towns.

Therefore, in Zhu Youjian's reply letter, it can be said that he praised Sun Chuanting fiercely, and also approved Sun Chuanting's marching plan, and wrote it himself, promising Sun Chuanting that before the war started, he would personally lead [-] iron cavalry troops to kill the tiger in Datong.

Once Su Nang dares to help Hetao and Ningxia, Zhu Youjian will personally set foot on Pingsheng City.

The news that Zhu Youjian led the direct [-] cavalry made Sun Chuanting more confident in the re-set, and the courage to fine-tune the strategy was also much greater.

After arranging everyone's tasks, he said:
"The troops of Taolu and Ningxia will not exceed [-], while those in armor will not exceed [-], and those with heavy armor will not exceed [-]. In a frontal battle, the Taolu will be completely defeated."

"In this battle, His Royal Highness will personally lead [-] cavalry at Shahukou to raid the formation for our army, so the set-up must be done cleanly and neatly."

"Taolu and Ningxialu should already know that I, Ming Dynasty, is about to sweep away Taolu. If there is no accident, all the ministries will unite this time, and the chieftain Huoluo Chiqin will lead the raid."

"Our army must not return without success. We only need to defeat the heavy cavalry under Huo Luochi's command, and the captives will be vulnerable."

"The scriptures offer a reward here. Those who kill the fire and turn red will be rewarded with five thousand taels of silver; those who capture and kill twenty-six Taiji and Baylor will be rewarded with one thousand taels of silver; those who beheaded and captured one level will be rewarded with twenty taels of silver." .”

Sun Chuanting issued a reward of twenty-six taiji to Hetao and Ningxia, but the silver for beheading was lowered from fifty taels to twenty taels.

The reason for the downgrade is because he knew that the Ming army had a great advantage in terms of equipment and logistics in this battle. On the contrary, the captives had no advantage except for being able to run.

This battle was different from the first battle of the Liao Dynasty. The cavalry and horse infantry of the Ming army in the first battle of the Liao Dynasty did not add up to [-], but this battle was almost all horse infantry and cavalry.

Although the cavalry of the Ming army in Shaanxi can only meet the basic standard of one man and two horses, it is enough for one man and two horses to gallop the Hetao.

The advantage of the Ming army in this battle is more obvious than that in the battle of Liao, and in terms of terrain, unless the captives are drilled into the desert, the mobility of the Ming army cavalry will not lose them too much.

Nearly [-] to [-], Sun Chuanting can safely and boldly arrange sweeping sets.

The only thing he needs to worry about is the tens of thousands of Mongols entrenched in Qinghai, so it is a safe move for Zhu Tongmeng to command the Sixth Battalion to garrison Xiningwei.

As long as Xiningwei is not lost, then the Ming army's re-set can be said to have been half successful.

"The armies of all ministries recruit civilian husbands by themselves. All civilian husbands cannot be recruited by corvee. They can be rewarded with money, food and acres of land according to His Royal Highness's military orders."

After finishing the arrangement, Sun Chuanting finally explained about the civilian husband.

The [-] troops of the Ming army went out this time, and the battle line was [-] miles long from north to south, and they needed to mobilize at least [-] civilian men and [-] draft horses.

Although people can be recruited by corvee, they will inevitably run away on the road, so they can only understand them with emotion, move them with reason, and lure them with money, grain and fields.

In this regard, the plan given by Zhu Youjian is completely fine, but what Sun Chuanting is worried about is that there are also Han refugees fleeing north in the places where the captives and northern captives built cities and opened up land.

In this way, after laying down the land, it will not work to divide the land directly, and can only continue to cultivate new fields.

But it's useless to worry about it. What to do, we still have to wait until the Hetao is laid down first.

Thinking of this, Sun Chuanting allocated more than six million stones, fodder, and five million taels of silver to the ministries according to the number of soldiers and horses, and then announced the adjournment of the meeting.

After the meeting adjourned, he handed over his marching map of returning to Liao to the Jin Yiwei who accompanied him, and Jin Yiwei also sent this new marching map of returning to Liao to the capital and Yanshan Camp.

When the marching map was sent, Zhu Youjian, who was in the Yanshan camp, was also lying on a deck chair, soaking in the sun, and listening to the sound of the abacus.

"Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, Fengyang, Fujian, Guangdong, Shaanxi, Guizhou and other seven provinces, one capital and one capital, have completed the renovation of the guards. Except for the Xiaoling Guard, which has been retained and reorganized, the rest of the guards have been renovated."

"Gexin investigated a total of [-] mu of military farmland, [-] military households, and [-] people. "

"I have two capitals and fourteen provinces in the Ming Dynasty. Except for Guangxi, Yunnan, and Sichuan, the guards in the rest of the provinces have been reformed, and only the Xiaoling Guard is retained."

When Cao Huachun finished speaking, the sound of the abacus completely disappeared, and Zhu Youjian sat up lazily, and slowly opened his eyes to adapt to the surrounding sunlight.

"The Xiaoling Guard will continue to be retained, but a thousand soldiers and horses need to be dispatched to Fengyang Imperial Tomb to guard."

"As for the conversion of all military households to civilian registration, military farmland is distributed according to the old rules. Except for Shaanxi civilians, each person has four acres, and the rest of the provinces have three acres per person."

As soon as Zhu Youjian opened his mouth, he distributed the more than [-] million acres of land to the people, soldiers, and their families.

However, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guangxi provinces with many chieftains have not yet been thoroughly reformed, which makes Zhu Youjian somewhat dissatisfied.

"Is there any movement in the southwest? Those chieftains..."

Zhu Youjian pinched the back of his neck with his hands, and asked Lu Wenzhao who was standing next to him, and Lu Wenzhao also shook his head and said:

"After the Duke of Guizhou and Wu Bikui handed over the military power in June, a large number of chieftains in Yunnan, Guangxi, and Sichuan Xingdu were quiet."

"However, there are still [-] chieftains who have not accepted the land reform, and most of the Yi chieftains in Xingdusi of Sichuan have a very strong attitude of rejection."

Sichuan Xingdusi, that is, the area around Daliang Mountain in later generations.

It's not that Zhu Youjian didn't expect the tenacious attitude of the chieftains, but he didn't expect that these chieftains would not give up any profit.

"What is the strength of the thirty-two chieftains?"

Zhu Youjian, who took a sip of tea, was very calm, and Lu Wenzhao also replied: "About [-] people."

"Eighty thousand people..." Hearing this number, Zhu Youjian thought for a while, and then said:
"Wait another half a year, wait until the Battle of Hetao is over, and then deal with them. The output of the Ordnance Institute can no longer keep up with the speed of military expansion."

"The ordnance produced here will first satisfy the soldiers and horses of the Northern Army Commander's Mansion and the Navy Commander's Mansion, and the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion is currently equipped with enough equipment to defend against Jianlu."

"Yes..." Lu Wenzhao responded, and at the same time Zhu Youjian stood up and stretched himself.

"My general ordered that on the first day of October, the four cavalry guards will be transferred to Datong to kill Hukou. In addition, the cavalry of Lu Longwei, Shence Guard, Yingyang Guard, and Jinwu Guard will also be transferred to Kill Hukou."

"Shanxi, Beizhili, Henan, and Huguang harvested the army's seed grains this autumn, and transferred them to Yansui."

With that said, Zhu Youjian turned his head and glanced at Cao Huachun, and ordered:

"Another three hundred five-jin cannons, [-] horses, and [-] shi of rations will be dispatched to kill the tiger's mouth."

"The servants take orders..." Cao Huachun remembered it in his heart, and was going to tell the people below to do it later.

While he was taking orders, Zhu Youjian also asked: "How is the progress of the cement plant?"

"It will be able to operate in about the twelfth lunar month, and the four workshops are estimated to produce [-] stones of cement per year..." Cao Huachun answered honestly, and his answer also made Zhu Youxiao have mixed feelings.

A cement that can be seen everywhere in later generations, in this era, Zhu Youjian and many craftsmen in Yanshan groped for more than two years before finally groping for a suitable formula.

But even if the formula is found, with the mining power and manual speed of this era, four factories with [-] employees can only produce [-] stone cement a year, which is equivalent to only [-] to [-] tons of cement.

What is eight or nine thousand tons of cement enough for?At most, a cement road with a width of one foot, a thickness of three inches, and a length of no more than [-] kilometers will be built.

Even if Zhu Youjian promotes it all over the world and builds hundreds of factories, the cement output will only be more than a hundred thousand tons, and at most a cement road of seven to eight hundred kilometers will be built.

But if thousands of factories are built to increase the cement output to millions of tons, millions of Ming people will be required to participate in the production.

Zhu Youjian was unwilling to exchange the annual output of millions of tons of cement with the possibility of millions of Ming people suffering from pneumoconiosis.

Therefore, cement plants cannot be built in large quantities in Daming, but should be built in...

"Your Highness, I think Long Live will be very interested in this cement. Do you want to send some to the palace after it is produced?"

Cao Huachun's voice broke Zhu Youjian's thoughts, and he laughed when he heard the words:

"Build this cement factory first, try it out and then show it to my brother. If possible, it will be used in the construction of the new city in the capital."

"As for the expansion, there is no need. I heard that there are many Kunlun slaves in Nanyang. It would be good for Shen Tingyang and Huanglong to build workshops in Nanyang."

Kunlun slaves, also commonly known as short blacks, are generally between [-] and [-] meters tall. They have been widely seen in Nanyang, and their number exceeds one million.

It is a very cost-effective way to use some money and food to hire short blacks to make cement.

Zhu Youjian is very happy that it will not damage the health of the people of Ming Dynasty, but also develop the local area of ​​Ming Dynasty.

After all, the dwarf black people have no land and cannot farm to obtain money, so they have no way to enjoy the silk tea and various delicacies brought by Ming Dynasty. Zhu Youjian is also solving their employment problem, and pneumoconiosis and so on are insignificant .

"Your Highness, Ryukyu and Shaanxi have sent news."

Just as Zhu Youjian was thinking about solving the survival problem of the Nanyang short blacks, Lu Xiu walked into the inner courtyard with two documents.

Zhu Youjian took the documents and opened them one by one. He had no objection to Shanxi Sun Chuanting's fine-tuning of strategy and tactical line, but added:
"For the time being, the military garrison in Sichuan will be ignored for the time being, and other military garrison fields will be settled first. The grain after the autumn harvest will also be sent to Ningxia via the Shu Road."

"In addition, for the artillery of the Ordnance Institute, the five-jin cannon will be transferred to Shaanxi first. It is estimated that the five-jin cannon will not be needed to recover Nanyang."

Zhu Youjian quickly arranged everything new. As for the fact that Nanyang does not need five-jin cannons, it is also because most cities in Nanyang in this era are close to the sea. As long as there are roads, ten-jin cannons can disembark.

Moreover, in the face of the bastions of Western technology, the five-pound cannon is far less effective than the ten-pound cannon, and the light five-pound cannon can be said to be the most suitable for the high mobility of the Ming army on grasslands and deserts.

After closing the document, Zhu Youjian looked at the document from the Ryukyu Mansion, and Shen Tingyang and Huang Long also made things clear with Li Dan and others.

Zhu Youjian looked at the content, nodded slightly from time to time to express his approval, but after reading it, he still opened his mouth and said:

"The seed grains in the army station in Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong provinces will be transported to Ryukyu Prefecture after the autumn harvest, and a handwritten copy will be written to Shen Tingyang, saying that the efforts to relocate the coastal provinces to Ryukyu Prefecture will be increased."

"After the relocation of Ryukyu Mansion, some people can be selected to move to Nanyang. In the future, Ryukyu Mansion will be the bridgehead for relocating to Nanyang."

"Luzon, Batavia, Old Port and other places already have ready-made fields for reclamation, and after they are taken down, they can be used by civilians to develop the local area."

"Yes." Lu Xiu responded, and Zhu Youjian also added:

"Let Shen Tingyang and Huang Long take care of the recovery of Nanyang. If the time is right, don't ask me, just start to recover."

"In addition, the Kunlun slaves and natives captured during the war can stay in Nanyang, allowing them to reclaim fields and build cement and briquette fields."

"As for the Europa people, if someone is willing to redeem them with money, it is not impossible to let them go after the peace talks."

The corner of Zhu Youjian's mouth unconsciously drew a smile, just because he remembered the fact that there are many volcanic ash raw materials in Nanyang.

Thinking about it, if Daming succeeds in gaining a firm foothold in the local area, then the cement output should increase steadily, and the transportation of Daming will also become more convenient.

The demographic dividend can allow Daming to obtain a large amount of cement, honeycomb coal, gold and silver mines and various resources, so as to expand the territory to the northwest and northeast.

If the cement road is combined with a horse-drawn carriage, one for marching troops and the other for transporting supplies, then Ming's delivery capability will be greatly enhanced.

The cost of conquering the inland is very high, and the benefits are too low, but for the safety of the two capitals and fourteen provinces, Ming must recover the Western Regions, Mobei, Qinghai-Tibet, and even recover the Mengchi Duhufu area in the Tang Dynasty.

If you want to recover these places, maintain the number of local troops, and establish rule, you need a lot of raw materials and supplies, and Nanyang can provide just that.

The only thing to be concerned about is that the population of Nanyang is still a bit small, but Zhu Youjian has found several other suitable places.

"Japan……"

Zhu Youjian narrowed his eyes and looked at the document. At the end, Shen Tingyang said that he handed over his handwriting to Yan Siqi.

Yan Siqi will be a knife used by Zhu Youjian to bleed the shogunate. It is impossible for him to let the Ming army fight the shogunate, because the Ming army needs to fight other more important places.

On the contrary, if Yan Siqi, who has connections in Kyushu, can stir up the situation, it will be of great help to Daming.

Taungoo Myanmar, Nanzhang, Annan, Ahongmu, Qinghai-Tibet...

And after conquering Nanyang, the overseas kings will need to march into the South Asian region...

These places will be important places where Ming needs to resolve internal population conflicts, land conflicts, interest conflicts, and class conflicts.

Land merger conflicts, then expand the land outward, if the population density is too high, and the disaster resistance is not high, then the population will be relocated.

If the conflict of interest is large, then expand the market. As for class conflict, as long as the previous problems are resolved, class conflict will not be a problem.

As long as there are enough resources and they can be implemented in the hands of the people, the people don't bother to care about the royal affairs.

"Speaking of which, Ran'er and Shu'e are about to turn one year old, right?"

Zhu Youjian turned his head to look at Cao Huachun, and Cao Huachun also saluted and said, "Yes, Your Highness, the crown prince will be one year old on November [-]th, and the eldest princess will be in February next year."

"Since Ran'er turns one year old first, then as the emperor's uncle, I have to present a birthday gift." Zhu Youjian smiled:
"Tell Huanglong and Shen Tingyang to take Luzon quickly, and I will give them a map of the gold mine. After taking Luzon, I will give this gold mine to Ran'er as a birthday present..."

With a smile in his eyes, Zhu Youjian used a gold mine as his first birthday gift, and he was the only one who could do this.

Lu Wenzhao, Cao Huachun, and Lu Xiu next to him could only smile helplessly when they saw His Royal Highness's appearance.

　There is one more at four o'clock in the afternoon

　　
　
(End of this chapter)