Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 256 The Smuggling Evidence Left by the Third Lady
"Your Highness! Found it!"

In the snowstorm and on the Gobi, accompanied by a thousand households shouting loudly, Zhu Youjian also wiped off the blood on the long knife with a coarse cloth, put the long knife back into its sheath, and walked towards the place where the sound came from.

At this time, the Gobi is full of corpses, some from the Ming army, some from horses, but more of them are from the three major departments.

Thousands of corpses lay in disorder, while the corpses of the Ming army were carried off from the battlefield, and the medical officers accompanying the army began to sort out the remains.

Stepping over the corpses, Zhu Youjian came to the place where the man was shouting, and looked down to see an old man in armor in his seventies lying on the ground with a bloodless face.

"Your Highness, this is Huo Luochi. There is no knife wound on his body. He probably knocked down the horse when our army charged, and was trampled to death by the horse."

Qianhu of Xiaoqiwei spoke happily, but Zhu Youjian looked down and said, "Where are the other lords?"

"They all died cleanly, and no one was left alive. Didn't your Highness say that they were all wiped out..." Qianhu scratched his face in embarrassment.

Hearing this, Zhu Youjian was hesitant to say anything, he did say total annihilation, and he also said that he captured the three great fortune-tellers alive...

It's all right now, the three great auspicious figures have turned into three corpses, and he can only take the heads of these three people back to show his merits.

"Forget it, I grabbed Su Nang anyway." After that, Zhu Youjian sat directly on the battlefield, feeling the soreness in his hands.

This was a sequelae caused by holding short soldiers for a long time. Although he didn't foolishly rush to the first row, after all, as the coach, he couldn't hide behind the army, so he was still in the front of the charging team.

In this way, it is inevitable to fight against the enemy.

On the contrary, the front army is the safest place. After all, just rush through, and the middle army and rear army may be held back instead.

"Your Highness, the battle damage statistics are ready. We killed [-] brothers in battle, and [-] captives were wiped out."

When Zhu Youjian was resting, the commander of the Xiao cavalry guards also came with the military situation after cleaning the battlefield, and Zhu Youjian also took a look.

In general, the Ming army had a one-to-eleven battle loss and victory. No matter from any angle, this battle is worth boasting.

"Brothers who died in battle, in addition to the normal pension process, their heirs will still be sent to Yanshan Academy, and the family will be exempted from tax for five years."

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Zhu Youjian explained the compensation arrangements for the soldiers who died in battle, and when the surrounding Ming army soldiers heard such words, everyone couldn't help swallowing.

As blood lickers, they are not afraid of death, what they are afraid of is that their family members will not be treated fairly and justly after their death.

Even though the battle of double sets is basically over now, but this battle is over, there will always be another battle.

The pension known from the notice and the pension heard from Zhu Youjian have completely different meanings.

Therefore, after getting the answer, everyone was relieved a lot, and Zhu Youjian also asked:

"How's the water and food collection going?"

"Return to Your Highness." The commander replied:
"Yin Shanbo has taken people to the oasis in the northwest to exchange food and fresh water with the tribes there."

"Food and fresh water should be fine."

"Well... prepare to set up camp here, collect and bury all the corpses with severed heads, so as not to cause a plague." After getting the answer, Zhu Youjian was not nervous, and immediately ordered the army to clean up the aftermath and set up camp.

"Yes!" The cavalry commander Cao Meng responded, and then began to order the whole army to harvest and collect the corpses, and chose to camp on the south side of the battlefield.

But it is said that they are camping, but in fact there is nothing for them to camp.

Because their leather blankets and other things were lost, the so-called camping was to chop the dead Populus euphratica on the Gobi Desert into firewood, and then start to light it to provide a warm sleeping environment for the soldiers.

Forget about tents...

In short, as the time passed and until the afternoon, Saihan, who was headed to the northwest, returned to the camp with a full team and brought some news at the same time.

"Your Highness, I'm back."

He got off his horse and walked to the side of Zhu Youjian who was sitting on the Gobi Desert. After bowing and saluting, he said to the others:

"Don't delay, hurry up and deal with the packed mutton."

"Yes!" Hearing Taiji's words, the Ulut Mongols began to lead people to remove the wrapped things from the horse's back.

Zhu Youjian glanced at it. After opening the package, it was a sheep that had been processed. It could be eaten after roasting on the bonfire.

Saihan brought back about two or three hundred sheep, as well as numerous water sacs.

"Can that oasis provide so many things?" Zhu Youjian looked at the supplies and couldn't help but wonder.

"I'm going to tell His Highness about this matter." Saihan sat not far from Zhu Youjian, and then said:
"The oasis used to be controlled by the Oirat Alliance, that is, Oala, but after I went there this time, I found that it was replaced by the tribe of Mobei Khalkha Zhasaktuhan."

"I inquired about the news, and it seems that the national teacher Khan of Moxiwara assigned this place to them."

"National Teacher Khan?" Zhu Youjian was stunned for a moment, and then realized that this so-called National Teacher Khan was the Borjijin Turubaihu who was called Gushi Khan in later generations.

If this person Zhu Youjian remembers correctly, he is now jointly appointed as the national teacher by Qinghai Mongolia, Mobei Mongolia, and Moxi Mongolia, and his elder brother is the current leader of Wala.

Afterwards, this guy's brother would be assassinated to death, and the Junggar tribe in the Oirat Alliance rose up. Gushi Khan knew that he could not control the opponent, so he borrowed troops and entered Qinghai.

Afterwards, this guy took advantage of the Ming Dynasty's inability to govern Qinghai-Tibet, took advantage of Qinghai-Tibet sectarian struggles to succeed in taking over Lhasa, and established the Heshuote Khanate on Qinghai-Tibet.

It's a pity that this country only passed down four generations before it perished in the struggle between Junggar and the Qing Dynasty.

Recalling everything about Gushi Khan, Zhu Youjian had to admit that this person still had some political means, but not many.

If Zhu Youjian was in his position now, he might have pressed Junggar to death before he got up.

Even if you can't be killed, you will recuperate after entering Qinghai-Tibet, and resolve the internal conflicts in Qinghai-Tibet, instead of blindly advocating sects.

Finally, after Li Zicheng invaded the capital, Zhu Youjian would definitely seek to capture the land of Hexi.

As long as there is Hexi, a replica of the Tubo Dynasty will reappear before the eyes of the world.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian said to Saihan: "In your opinion, will the Mongols in Khalkha and Wala in Mobei, Qinghai and other places invade my Ming Dynasty?"

"It's hard to say." Saihan said hesitantly:

"The three tribes in Mobei have always coveted the land of Qinghai-Tibet. If we let them go to Qinghai-Tibet, after they have a foundation, they will inevitably attack my Ming's Hexi land from north to south."

"As for Oirats, they should not invade our Ming Dynasty for the time being. According to the information I have inquired about, although Oirats and the three major tribes of Mobei have not fought, they have continued to fight with the small tribes under the three major tribes."

"Batuer Huntaiji of Junggar also attacked the Hetuo Huite Department under the Zasak Tuhan Department together with the other three major departments the year before last."

"Until now, the two sides are still fighting in the Tangnu Wulianghai area of ​​Tangluling (Tangnu Ancient Mountain)."

"In a short period of time, they should have no spare power to invade my Great Ming's Western Territory."

"As for the other people active in Qinghai, I'm afraid that after witnessing His Highness's feat of sweeping the north, they will not dare to join the bandits for a while."

Saihan used very simple words to sort out all the forces except the East Chagatai Khanate, Zhu Youjian also stretched his brows after listening.

Generally speaking, after the Hetao is cleared, there will be no forces to invade Shaanxi and Hexi in a short time.

In this way, Hexi and Shaanxi can seize the remaining few years to develop agriculture and animal husbandry.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian and Saihan chatted about other things, and finally wrapped themselves in the sheepskin brought by Saihan and fell asleep.

The experience of the past few days may be the most exhausting period of time since Zhu Youjian came to this world.

He fell into a drowsy sleep, until the next day when black and white alternated, the cold wind woke him up, and he slowly woke up.

Seeing him wake up, Cao Meng, the Commander of Xiao cavalry guards who woke up early, also stepped forward and bowed:

"Your Highness, our Tangqi has already met the rear Tangqi. Sun Jinglue and Cao Zongbing are rushing here with [-] cavalry, less than a hundred miles away from our army."

"That's one more day..." Hearing the distance, Zhu Youjian rubbed his eyes, not willing to wash his face with water, but got up and stretched before asking:
"Did they bring the baggage cart and the folks?"

"I have, but the distance between the baggage truck and the civilian husband is a bit far. They are three hundred miles away from us." As soon as Cao Meng opened his mouth, Zhu Youjian understood everything.

The co-author was that Cao Wenzhao didn't listen to his honesty to come to help, but himself and Sun Chuanting first chased him with a small amount of supplies.

It is estimated that Cao Wenzhao was afraid that something would happen to him. Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian rubbed his cold face.

"The temperature is much more comfortable than yesterday. It seems that the weather will get warmer soon. Is it still snowing in Shaanxi and Hetao?"

Zhu Youjian looked at Cao Meng optimistically, but the other party nodded and said, "It's still snowing. The officials of Qin Tianjian said that the snowstorm in Shaanxi this year may last longer than in previous years."

"..." Hearing this news, Zhu Youjian's expression froze, but soon recovered, and asked calmly:

"Has all the military rations for killing the tiger's mouth been sent to the front and back sets?"

"Because of the blizzard, not all of them have been delivered. Right now, the back set has arrived with [-] stone grains, the front set has more than [-] stone grains, and there are still more than [-] million stone grains that have not been sent to the mouth of the tiger."

Zhu Youjian was relieved by Cao Meng's words, but then he also started his own arrangements.

"Order Xu Guangqi, the governor of Shaanxi, to wait for the blizzard to stop and move the people of Yulin and Yan'an to the front and back."

"Dingxiang Prefecture was established in Qiantao, Bansheng City was changed to Dingxiang County, Fengzhou County was established in Fengzhoutan, and Jiuyuan County was established in the original Jiuyuan area. These three counties are Dingxiang Prefecture."

"In addition, Houtao was merged into Ningxia, Ningxia was established as Ningxia Prefecture, Wuyuan County was established in Houtao, and Lingwu River Valley was established as Lingzhou County."

"Then Ningxia Weiwei and Yulinwei will be grouped into Shuofang Mansion, Yulin will be governed by the mansion, and Shuofang County will be established in Hongyanchi."

"Finally, order Mei Zhihuan, Li Rubai, Wang Chengen, and Li Rumei to take down Juyanhai and Xitaohaizi, and leave [-] troops there to build Juyan and Xihai counties."

"Let's go to the imperial court to show our merits, and ask the emperor to divide Hexi and Shaanxi."

"Ningxia Mansion, Shuofang Mansion, and Dingxiang Mansion are under the jurisdiction of Shaanxi, while Xihai and Juyan are under the jurisdiction of Hexi."

"Hexi is governed by Liangzhou, which consists of Liangzhou Prefecture, Xining Prefecture, Ganzhou Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture. Hexi Province has four prefectures and twelve counties under its jurisdiction."

With a simple order from Zhu Youjian, Hexi, which has been under the management of Shaanxi for more than two hundred years, finally managed to establish a province on its own.

However, this does not mean that he will allow Hexi to manage himself in the future.

On the contrary, the purpose of the Hexi Province he established was not to turn the Hexi Province into a place where Hu, Han and barbarians intermingled.

Migrating a large number of Han people to Ningxia, Hexi, Qiantao, and Houtao is what Zhu Youjian has to do.

Hexi must be completely Sinicized, otherwise how can we seek to recover the Western Regions?

Thinking of the importance of the Western Regions, Zhu Youjian raised his head and said to Cao Meng, the Commander of Xiao Cavalry Guards:
"Send someone to Ju Yanhai to confirm whether Ju Yanhai has been captured."

"If Ju Yanhai wins, we will go to Ju Yanhai to meet Mei Zhihuan and Li Rubai, and then go south to Jiayuguan."

"Jiayuguan?" Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, Cao Meng asked puzzledly:

"Your Highness, you didn't plan to go to Hexi in your previous plan."

"If we want to go to Hexi, we will have to delay our return to Beijing for at least another month."

"Well... not before, but now." Zhu Youjian was talking, and Saihan also put the roast lamb on the bonfire.

Looking at the roasted whole lamb, Zhu Youjian only saw the flames floating in the bonfire.

He seemed to be talking to Cao Meng, and he seemed to be talking to himself.

"I'm planning to go to Jiayuguan, and then depart from Jiayuguan to Xiningwei to see the folk customs and customs of the Hexi border."

His words made Saihan and Cao Meng look at each other, and after a while, Saihan said:
"My father once passed through Hexi with my Dahan when they went to Qinghai. What he said was that there are a large number of people from the Western Regions in Hexi, as well as the seven Guanxi guards who moved inland, as well as a large number of guards and people."

Saihan's words are similar to Hexi that Zhu Youjian knows.

The land of Hexi, which is called Gansu by later generations, actually had only a few hundred thousand people in the early Ming Dynasty.

These hundreds of thousands of people are still various ethnic groups who migrated eastward, and the proportion of Han people is almost non-existent.

The reason for this must be traced back to the Anshi Rebellion. Zhu Youjian didn't want to explain more to Saihan and the others.

In short, if according to the population of more than [-] in Hexi in the early Ming Dynasty, plus Zhu Yuanzhang's relocation of the Eight Guards and Two Houses, [-] households went there.

It can be said that the population of Hexi in the last years of Hongwu was only about [-] at most.

After more than [-] years of development, and the people in Shaanxi continue to flee westward, no one can say how many people there actually are.

Originally, Mangui needed to carry out a population inventory and an inventory of military settlements in Hexi, but the battle of re-sets delayed all of this.

Now it seems that it is possible to directly use the regrouped army to conduct a new population inquiry on the land of Hexi.

It just so happens that the whole of Hexi is occupied by the army. As long as the number of military households is figured out, the population of Hexi will also be figured out together.

Zhu Youjian has already been to the front set and the back set. He is sure that the local area can be used for reclamation and can feed two to three million people.

Now what he needs to determine is how many people Hexi can support and how many people can be relocated.

With this in mind, Zhu Youjian ate the roasted whole lamb absent-mindedly, and then wandered around the camp. After finding that there was nothing to play, he found a five-strength bow and started facing a Populus euphratica stump. archery.

After that, he presided over the cremation of the soldiers who died in battle, and asked people to put the ashes in empty water bags, write everyone's name and hometown, and hand them over to their fellow villagers for safekeeping.

After returning to the capital, the columbarium and the relics, as well as the pension silver, the land deed of the pension, and the certificate of tax exemption for five years will be sent to the family of the survivor.

After doing this, the sky gradually darkened, and everyone survived the night of hunger and cold again.

It wasn't until the next day that Zhu Youjian saw Cao Wenzhao and Sun Chuanting's troops emerging from the horizon with a supporting cavalry team.

"Your Highness!"

Cao Wenzhao hurriedly rode forward, while Zhu Youjian sat firmly on the Diaoyutai without moving a step, but sat in front of the bonfire, smiling and looking at Cao Wenzhao who was running.

"It's not good for the last general to defend, let His Highness personally lead the troops to chase the enemy, please punish him!"

The first thing Cao Wenzhao did when he dismounted was to apologize, but Zhu Youjian smiled heartily:
"I asked you to clean up the captives in Langshan. If you really want to judge the crime, I'm afraid it will be judged on me."

"Okay, I see you are exhausted all night, let's rest first, we will set off for Juyanhai in the afternoon."

Zhu Youjian helped Cao Wenzhao pat the wind and sand on his body, and Cao Wenzhao could only bow in return.

After an incense stick of time, Sun Chuanting, who had arranged the soldiers and horses, also came with a cart, and then apologized:
"The supply is not in time, so His Highness suffers from the cold wind here, please punish His Highness."

"You guys..." Looking at Sun Chuanting and Cao Wenzhao, Zhu Youjian shook his head helplessly:
"Let me judge the crime one by one, I am afraid that if the truth is over, I will be alone."

"Instead of discussing the crime, it is better to think about how to get to Juyanhai, and then go south to Jiayuguan to inspect the Hexi incident."

Zhu Youjian said his next goal, which made Sun Chuanting smell something wrong, so he glanced around, and found that Saihan and the others were not there, only after the three of them, Sun Chuanting bowed carefully and said:

"Your Highness is planning to investigate the population of Hexi?"

"Of course, we not only need to check the population, but also check where people can be relocated." Zhu Youjian tightened the sheepskin blanket on his body.

"Although the population of Hexi has been checked last time, many people tried to evade it by means. If His Highness personally leads troops to check it now, I am afraid they will not dare to make small moves." Sun Chuanting said his opinion.

"In your opinion, what should be done?" Zhu Youjian looked at Sun Chuanting, and Sun Chuanting pondered for a long time before saying:
"You can refer to the practices of Han Wu, Sui Wen, Tang Zong and Song Zu, and move the powerful forces in Hexi to Hetao."

"There are three advantages to doing this. The first point is to remove Haoqiang's connections in Hexi, so that the local officials and subordinates will have no backing, and it will be easier to deal with them."

"The second point is that after moving the strong guards to Hetao, we can use them to stabilize my Ming Dynasty's rule in Hetao."

"The third point is even simpler. When the tyrants leave, a large area of ​​land will be vacated, and these lands can be exchanged with them with the land in the Hetao."

"Of course, this is for some conscientious tyrants. If it is for some stubborn tyrants, you can seize this opportunity and eradicate them in one fell swoop."

"If you think about it, they also secretly hid a lot of army farms that even the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion didn't know about."

Sun Chuanting's suggestion was put forward, and Zhu Youjian nodded slightly when he heard the words. These methods were actually similar to what he thought, but he was more extreme.

In Zhu Youjian's original idea, he was going to confiscate all these guys' homes and exile them across the board.

But after listening to Sun Chuanting's words, he also found that this group of trash actually had some residual value.

First of all, in the land of Hetao, if there are powerful people to help maintain order in the local area, it will be of great help to the government team that has not yet been established.

Secondly, there is a thriving population of tyrants, especially the group of powerful military households in Hexi who migrated here since the Hongwu period.

By relocating them, tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of people can be added to Hetao in one breath.

More importantly, the powerful background will allow them to promote the local economy with their own needs after going to the local area.

In fact, a powerful mansion represents a small village.

It is a good thing for the court to relocate them.

As for whether they will annex the fields?Zhu Youjian is not worried about this at all.

Anyone who likes to occupy the fields will occupy them. After the land is concentrated, they will pull out their past affairs at one time to judge their crimes. At that time, a large amount of land can be recovered instead.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian felt a lot more at ease.

But when you feel at ease, you are doomed to have troublesome things, and this thing happened to Sun Chuanting...

"Your Highness, someone got these things from the nobles of Bansheng City. I think you need to take a look."

When Zhu Youjian was comfortable, Sun Chuanting took out a booklet, and Zhu Youjian took it with doubts, then opened it and read it.

Just looking at it, his face became ugly.

This booklet not only contains the long-term smuggling records of Wu Weihua from Gongshunhou's mansion to the Tumote Department.

The document not only records the gold, silver, cattle and horses traded, but also records the types and quantities of commodities used in the trade...

Of course, if Wu Weihua was alone, Zhu Youjian would definitely not be so angry.

The reason why he was angry was because he saw many familiar names in this document.

Some of these names are nobles, some are officials, and some are businessmen. Among them, the most eye-catching ones are the big imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty that Zhu Youjian is very familiar with.

At this moment, they haven't got online with Manqing yet, but it's not a day or two since they smuggled contraband with Tumote, Hetao and other captives...

"Who left this document? How reliable is it?"

Zhu Youjian picked up the file and asked with a gloomy face, while Sun Chuanting bowed when he heard the words:
"It is said that it was written by the third lady back then. The purpose was to catch the nobles and officials, and then use them in the court to continue to maintain the peaceful relationship between Tumed and Daming..."

Sun Chuanting's words made Zhu Youjian tightly hold the document in his hand, his eyes gradually turned cold: "Only this copy?"

"There is still a whole box, all in the carriage accompanying the officials." Sun Chuanting understood that Zhu Youjian was angry, but also happy.

The documents left by San Niangzi may be an opportunity for Zhu Youjian to completely pull out many corrupt people in North China, and it is also a good opportunity to search their homes.

"Cao Wenzhao..."

"The end is here!"

Zhu Youjian spoke with a flat face, and Cao Wenzhao was also terrified, and quickly responded.

Zhu Youjian did not rush to order, but looked down at the document in his hand, squinted his eyes and said:
"Send the things to Lu Wenzhao urgently, and he will know what to do..."

　Four o'clock and one more

　　
　
(End of this chapter)