Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 360 Nine Years of Apocalypse
When the flame meets fierce fire oil, and it is facing a building with a pure wooden structure.

This kind of scene is like throwing a match into a pile of old newspapers, and it will ignite when touched.

To the north of Kusatsu Castle, under the witness of the beautiful Lake Biwa, the fire of Kusatsu Castle illuminated everything, and the raging fire quickly swept through the entire Kusatsu Castle with the help of the wind.

"Quick, quick, get out first!"

Zheng Zhilong didn't expect Huo Gong to be so easy to use. The fire spread to more than half of Kusatsu City in the time it took to ignite a cup of tea.

The Ming army standing at the top of the city felt breathless, and the heat wave hit them one after another.

They withdrew from Kusatsu City one after another, together with artillery and prisoners of war.

As far as the naked eye could see, almost everything was set on fire, and the [-] Japanese soldiers who were stubbornly resisting in the city let out a ghostly wail.

A big fire ignited on them, and the flame oil attached to the surface of the armor stubbornly did not recede on them. The people who were set on fire ran around and rubbed the flame oil on other people.

Howling, they often run for hundreds of meters and then fall down. The flames on their bodies will continue to burn until the fire oil is burned out or people are reduced to ashes.

Water can't extinguish it at all, only the air can be extinguished by foam.

It's just that the Japanese army in this era didn't understand how to insulate them at all.

The temperature in Kusatsu City soared to thousands of degrees in an instant, and some metals could melt in an instant. Even if people quickly jumped into the well, the extremely high temperature turned the river into a boiling pot, and those who jumped in were scalded to death.

The heat wave caused by the flames and the cold air above formed a strong "chimney effect", and even a "fire tornado" appeared. Even some banners of the retreating Ming army were constantly pulled by the airflow.

At this moment, the entire Kusatsu City became a purgatory on earth. The [-] Japanese soldiers in the city tried to escape, but found that the Ming army blocked the city gate.

"Bagaya!"

The desperate Matsudaira Tadaaki cursed, and some unbearable warriors even chose to commit seppuku.

"Bam—"

I don't know what was ignited by the flame, and there was an explosion. The heat wave rushed to Matsudaira Tadaaki at the city gate. In his pupils, a sea of ​​flames rushed towards his face. In the end, only fear remained in his pupils.

Deafening explosions and a sea of ​​red flames spread all around, and the retreating Ming army retreated three miles away before they felt that the surrounding temperature returned to normal.

Everyone turned to look at Kusatsu City, the entire city had turned into a sea of ​​flames, lighting up the entire sky red...

"Report!"

Tang Qi came on horseback, Zheng Zhilong looked at him, and the man bowed and said:

"Participant, Masamune Date quickly retreated after seeing the fire in Kusatsu Castle at the beginning of the fight with our army. Our army chased after him. After beheading more than [-] levels, Masamune Date fled to Toyosato Town."

"Okay, tell the two generals to withdraw, and the poor should not chase after them."

Zheng Zhilong nodded, then looked at Kusatsu Castle.

The effect of the fire exceeded his expectations, but facing the fire, he didn't feel guilty, but turned to Zheng Zhifeng and said:
"Tell Yan Jinglue the effect of this fire attack. If possible, please ask the court to support a sufficient amount of fire oil."

"Yes!" Zheng Zhifeng agreed.

Obviously, Zheng Zhilong had tasted the sweetness of Huo Gong, and when Zheng Zhifeng left to give orders, he also said to the surrounding people:

"When the fire subsides, enter the city to judge and decapitate according to the armor, and report to His Highness."

"Yes!" All the participating generals responded one after another.

Since Zhu Youjian abolished the system of rewarding silver only after seeing the head, the Ming army's head system has become more flexible.

The armor of the enemy army is also a kind of reward. Although the fire in Kusatsu City is very large, some armors are at most slightly melted and deformed, and it is impossible to melt into molten iron.

Even if there are only 1 sets of iron armor among the [-] Japanese troops in the city, they can still exchange for [-] taels of silver rewards, which is hundreds of dollars for everyone.

The generals of the Ming army smiled happily, and the army began to set up camp to rest.

The fire in Caojin City burned for a whole day and night. When Zheng Zhilong led people into the city, all he saw were charred charcoal, some blackened iron armor, and charred corpses under the iron armor.

In this situation, it is no longer possible to distinguish who is who, but Zheng Zhilong and the others are sure that Matsudaira Tadaaki and all the famous names from the southern country died in the city.

Zheng Zhilong asked people to count the battle losses of both sides, and then hurriedly sent people to send the military report to Osaka Castle.

After seeing the military report, Yan Siqi did not let Zheng Zhilong continue to go north, but ordered them to station in Caojin City, and ordered someone to send the battle report to the capital.

For the Ming army, this was just a small victory, not worth celebrating, but for Tokugawa Hidetada and Tokugawa Iemitsu, the loss of Kusatsu Castle undoubtedly exposed Nagoya to the Ming army.

"I see, Zhongming has done a good job, but the difference in strength between our two sides is too great."

In Edo Castle, accompanied by a voice, Tokugawa Iemitsu in the castle tower looked up at the person sitting in the upper seat.

The man was nearly fifty years old, and his stature was not considered tall, but he was still very calm in the face of the situation where most of the shogunate's land was lost.

This person is the heir of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the current "big palace" of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Hidetada...

After all, he was a person who participated in the war to destroy the Toyotomi clan. Although he knew that the current situation was very bad, Tokugawa Hidetada did not show any worry in order to give confidence to the people below.

He looked at Tokugawa Iemitsu who was kneeling below, and after pondering for a moment, he asked:

"How did you deal with the peasants fleeing south?"

"All escorted to the north to mine iron ore!" Hearing his father's question, Tokugawa Iemitsu answered honestly, and Tokugawa Hidetada nodded slightly when he heard the words, obviously quite satisfied with his approach.

After nodding his head, he thought about the situation before he spoke:

"The Ming Dynasty's invasion this time is obviously not for money, but for the complete conquest of Japan."

"Probably because Toyotomi Hideyoshi's attack on North Korea gave them a little vigilance, so there is no possibility of peace in this war."

"You have to urge the workers to build enough iron cannons. Date Masamune and Tadacho will train the army."

"Our coalition forces were defeated, and now Zhongming is leading another 8 elite soldiers in Yusui, Caojin City. There are only less than [-] old soldiers in the shogunate, and the old soldiers of other feudal lords are only [-]."

"I have already ordered Tadacho to train [-] ashigaru, Date Masamune to train [-] ashigaru, and Edo needs you to train another [-] ashigaru."

"Lords from all over the country are also recruiting troops, and the Owari area in Nagoya will be the place where we will have a decisive battle with the Ming army."

"The Ming army won't give us too much time. We must gather 15 troops and attack from multiple directions to disperse the strength of the Ming army."

"The strength of the Ming army should be less than 4. They will not launch another northward invasion in a short period of time. The purpose of attacking Kusatsu Castle is to let Kyoto have a gate."

"Then when will they invade the north?" Tokugawa Iemitsu asked worriedly, and Tokugawa Hidetada thought for a while before saying:
"We need to pay attention to whether the Ming Dynasty will support the army. If the Ming Dynasty supports it, it will not exceed three months at most, and Yan Siqi will invade the north. We have to face them in Owari."

"I see..." Hearing this, Tokugawa Iemitsu nodded, and then turned his head to Tokugawa Hidetada before exiting the castle tower.

Although the current shogunate still controls three-fifths of Japan's land and two-thirds of its population, the situation is indeed not optimistic.

Tokugawa Iemitsu conveyed Tokugawa Hidetada's instructions with full of thoughts, and the remnants of the shogunate began to recruit troops to prepare for resisting the Ming army.

Yan Siqi's handwriting and military newspaper, after half a month of ups and downs, rushed to the capital on the first day of the first lunar month, and were delivered to the capital at an expedited speed of [-] miles by Jin Yiwei in the Busan area of ​​North Korea.

Just before the grand court meeting on the Zhengdan Festival, this handwriting was delivered to Zhu Youjian.

"Entry-"

In the Forbidden City with red walls and white snow, when the minister of Honglu Temple sang the salute, the ministers outside the Huangji Hall poured in one after another, and Zhu Youjian raised his hand to signal to Gu Bingqian and others: "You guys go in first."

"Yes……"

Seeing this, Gu Bingqian and the others also knew that there was a rush from Japan, so they led them into the Hall of the Emperor without delay.

It's just that the big Han general at the door looked at Zhu Youjian who hadn't entered the hall, and hesitated for a while, wondering whether he should be whipped or not.

"You do what you do." Zhu Youjian showed a kind smile, comforted the two big Han generals, and then walked aside and opened the handwriting.

"Mum... bang!"

The sound of cleaning whips sounded, and the congratulatory sound of "Long live, long live, long live" also sounded in the Huangji Hall.

The melodious bell rang, representing the past eight years of the apocalypse, and the arrival of the ninth year of the apocalypse.

Zhu Youjian didn't go in in a hurry, but took the handwritten book and read it at a glance.

In the letter, Yan Siqi mainly mentioned three issues. The first one is that most of them are good at naval warfare. He hoped that Zhu Youjian would send someone who is good at land warfare to Japan to coordinate the army.

The second is about Japanese farmers. Yan Siqi asked Zhu Youjian if he could recruit soldiers from the local area to make up for the loss of the Ming army.

As for the third point, Zheng Zhilong captured Kusatsu, Liu Xiang and others captured most of the area south of Nagoya, and the Ming army is now pointing directly at Nagoya.

From June of the eighth year of Tianqi to the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Ming army killed 670 people, disabled and retired 940 five people, and beheaded 230 Japanese pirates.

At first glance, it seems that the Ming army can still maintain a battle loss of one to ten, but the actual casualties have begun to increase.

Counting from the sixth year of Apocalypse, the Ming army has killed nearly 4000 people in Japan, and nearly 3000 people have been disabled and retired.

Although the Ming army beheaded nearly [-] Japanese troops back and forth, such a battle ratio was not enough to satisfy Zhu Youjian.

He thought about the current situation. After the Ming army expanded its recruitment, the strength of the imperial court once again reached 28 guards and 240 battalions, a total of 88 people.

The ratio of the army is nearly 12 cavalry, 36 artillery, 30 infantry gunners and [-] hand-to-hand swordsmen.

The overall firearm deployment rate of the army is 60.00%, which is not low in this era.

However, the development of mercury fulminate and manganese steel may support the Ming army to become a modern army in the nineteenth century in the next ten years.

As long as the firing gun and bayonet can be handled, the Ming army can become an invincible army that can reduce dimensionality and strike all countries in the world.

In addition, among the 28 battalions of the 240th Guards, 32 battalions are currently being transferred to the Xiaoxiyang area, and a total of [-] battalions are being transferred to or stationed in the Japanese area.

Fortunately, in the Japanese area, war can be supported by war. The army's salary can be met by the silver mines in the Iwami area, and it can also feed back to the court.

However, there are some troubles in the Xiaoxiyang area. The army will probably not be deployed until the end of February, and then they need to adapt and rest locally.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, where the Western Army and the Southern Army are located, have a very different climate from Tianzhu. The army must first adapt to the local climate before they can fight.

Those who really can't adapt can only withdraw to the mainland of Daming.

Zhu Youjian was thinking about this, but he didn't know that Huanglong was already preparing to attack the five states in southern Tianzhu.

This is a problem of information transmission of the times, and the general will not accept the orders of the emperor. If Huanglong has been waiting for Zhu Youjian to command remotely, I am afraid that the 32 battalions of twelve guards, more than [-] soldiers and horses will have to wait for news for half a year.

This person eats horse chews, and everyone is paid 15 taels of military salary plus 15 taels of subsidy, which is an investment of more than 200 million taels of silver in half a year.

Even if Zhu Youjian knew what Huanglong had done, he probably wouldn't be angry.

"Your Highness, Long Live, let you go in and summarize..."

When Zhu Youjian put away the handwriting, Wang An walked out of the Huangji Hall and carefully reminded Zhu Youjian, and Zhu Youjian who was wearing a crown suit turned around and nodded.

He led Wang An into the Huangji Hall, and everyone lowered their heads and dared not look at him.

On this court, the officials of the various parties that once occupied two-thirds of the temple, now only two-fifths have been suppressed, and the remaining three-fifths are Qi Wang's party.

As for the square of Huangji Hall, among the officials below the fifth grade, Yanshan faction officials accounted for one-third, the Qi royal party accounted for one-third, and all parties and non-party parties accounted for one-third.

The court as a whole is dominated by one party, and such a one-party dominance not only did not reduce the administrative efficiency of the court, but instead improved the efficiency of the court in the center.

Zhu Youjian walked to his place, and the courtiers were all waiting for him to speak.

He was not in a hurry, but bowed respectfully to Zhu Youxiao on the high platform, and then turned to look at the officials.

The court meeting on the Zhengdan Festival is basically a courtier's congratulatory gift, and generally they don't talk about anything. Except for the iron-headed boy like Yang Lian, only Zhu Youjian is qualified to talk about serious things on this kind of occasion.

However, Zhu Youjian would not delay too much time, he said to the officials:

"I have three points to say, but before I say these three points, I have to say one thing..."

Zhu Youjian glanced at the officials quietly, and then said:

""Officials' fixed salary" is a national policy, which cannot be shaken, and work-for-relief is also a national policy, and this is not easy to shake. The final anti-corruption and anti-corruption is still a national policy, and it still cannot be shaken."

"Whoever dares to shake these three points will punish the three clans and exile the nine clans!"

Zhu Youjian was the only one who dared to utter such harsh words at the New Year's Zhengdan Grand Court Meeting of the congratulatory ceremony.

Such ruthless words basically set the tone for the next year. Whoever dares to say otherwise has to think about how to fight Zhu Youjian.

However, among the group of stinky fish and rotten shrimps in the late Ming Dynasty, apart from the combination of Huang Taiji and Nurhachi outside the pass, there was really no other person who could compete with Zhu Youjian who had been tempered step by step.

Even if it is this combination, if they are separated, they are still not Zhu Youjian's opponent.

Therefore, after Zhu Youjian finished speaking, many people silently remembered this argument.

This is not to say that they are not corrupt anymore, but that they will be more careful and covertly corrupt.

"Starting from today, the "Officials' Fixed Salary" will be fully implemented. First, the official salaries from the first rank to the ninth rank will be satisfied, and more than one million subordinates in the second ninth rank must pass the Enke examination in October this year before they can enter the rank. .”

"The Ming Dynasty doesn't need so many officials. Among the more than 100 million subordinate officials, the imperial court only employs 50 people!"

"Every year since then, the new quota of government officials will be determined by the cabinet, the six ministries, and the Qi Palace."

As soon as Zhu Youjian opened his mouth, he would disintegrate the subordinate staff group of 130 million people. No one dared to say such words, except him.

Everyone knows that this year Yanshan Academy will graduate 15 people, and these 15 people, together with the nearly 30 scribes already invested by the local government, can completely satisfy the basic operation of the Ming Dynasty.

Not only that, the guard camps everywhere are under martial law, and everyone in the hall knows why it is martial law.

Zhu Youjian is a reprint of Zhu Yuanzhang. It can even be said that he is an enhanced version of Zhu Yuanzhang in terms of cultivating people.

Even if it is Zhu Yuanzhang, the Guozijian he trained has only 10,000 students, while Zhu Youjian's Yanshan Academy graduates [-]+ students every year.

This group of people may not be able to be officials, but they are completely sufficient to be scribes.

Zhu Youjian dares to kill anyone who dares to make trouble. Like Zhu Yuanzhang, he is a person who doesn't care what the future generations think.

Judge him a tyrant?Sorry, he's the prince.

Evaluate his ministers?That's okay, but would Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao care?
Although the group of 130 million subordinate officials is huge, how can it compare with swords and guns?
Don't you see that the landlord group is also very large, and in the end, the rich and the poor were equalized.

A person who plays with a pen will never be able to compete with a person who plays with a gun, not to mention that the person who plays with a gun is still playing with a pen, and at the same time his mouth is slipping.

Leaving aside the question of whether the 130 million members of the subordinate staff group dare to cause trouble, it is still a question of whether they have so many people.

"Officials Set Salary", on the surface, is to abolish officials' bad income and formulate a unified salary distribution.

In fact, this is also an action against civil servants.

The question of whether there were 130 million subordinate officials in the Ming Dynasty was fully implemented in "Official Officials' Dinglu", and there will never be a conclusion before the end of the subordinate staff Enke in October.

Before the reform of the Dudu Mansion of the Five Armies and the Nine Frontiers, Daming still claimed to have an army of 200 million.

As a result, after reforming statistics, there were only about 120 million people, of which more than 70 were Weisuo farmers with hoes.

The army is like this, how can civilian officials get better?
Zhu Youjian is suspicious that the current Ming Dynasty may not even have 70 subordinate officials, and there may be less than 50 people who handle affairs.

He only invested less than 30 clerks, and as a result, the execution efficiency of the middle and grassroots of Daming increased several times.

The simplest one is the taxes in the southern provinces that were in arrears every year.

Even if the civil officials do not deduct, the tax often needs to be calculated in the twelfth lunar month.

However, in the eighth year of the Apocalypse, before June, Bi Ziyan dared to affirm that Daming's land endowment was less than 5000 million shi, and the harvest in October and the statistics in November also confirmed that his idea was correct.

Is this Bi Ziyan predicting things like a god?Naturally not, this is because the scribes below are roughly calculating the statistics, and finally the Ministry of Households summarizes the results.

Such a calculation would have been impossible to realize four years before the apocalypse.

There are more than 200 million subordinate officials, and even 600 million Shitian Fu can be estimated incorrectly, but Zhu Youjian can roughly calculate the output of more than 30 million mu of land Fu with only an increase of less than 8 clerks.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian is not afraid of these subordinates with low execution ability at all.

It would be better if anyone rebelled, and the people who were exiled to Nanzhou and moved to the feudal clans would come out.

100 million people, each with ten taels of silver, all the underpants of the feudal clans had to be emptied.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian glanced at Baiguan, and then said:

"The first of the three points is that the war among the vassals must start in the ninth year of the apocalypse. The vassal kings whose vassal lands have been stabilized begin to take over the vassals. The Xiaoxiyang Supervisory Commissioner is responsible for collecting the relocation money from the vassals and transferring the military pay for the guard camp. "

"Second point, all the ministers and workers must have seen the government road from the capital to Tianjin."

"On the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Xu Guangqi, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, went to the dredging. Most of the Yellow River combing has been completed, and the dykes and dams in various places have been repaired and strengthened one after another."

"At present, there is no other place to comb except for combing every year."

Zhu Youjian's words can't explain how powerful Xu Guangqi is. After all, what they have to do is actually to repair and strengthen the place where Pan Jixun governed the Yellow River, and to clean up the shallower part of the river.

What he really wants to say is that the Yellow River, which can be used for labor relief, has actually been sorted out almost, and it can guarantee no problems for at least 30 years.

The officials also understood what he meant, and Zhu Youjian continued after seeing this:
"The imperial court has already set up cement plants and iron smelting plants in various places. This year's work-for-work relief will mainly focus on the repair of provincial roads in various provinces."

"On the imperial court's side, work will be used as relief in the north-south manner."

"First of all, the five provinces in the north that need to be connected are Beizhili, Liaodong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Hexi, and Beijing."

"As for the south, there are six provinces of Guangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan, Fujian, and Cochin."

"The total mileage of the provincial roads in the [-] provinces in Beijing is [-] miles, and excluding the output of the old port, the imperial court can only guarantee a progress of [-] miles per year."

"While ensuring the continuous increase in cement production, the imperial court expects the construction period of the provincial roads in the eleven provinces in Beijing to be 15 years."

"The imperial court plans to use work to relieve 100 million hungry people. Each starving person will be paid ten coins a day. It is estimated that the annual expenditure will be 3605 million taels of silver, and the total expenditure during the construction period will be 4705 million taels of silver."

After Zhu Youjian's second point was finished, many officials looked at each other in blank dismay. Obviously, the repair of the [-]-mile provincial road is a big project.

Although this amount of money is only one and a half year's fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty, the annual fiscal balance of the Ming Dynasty is actually less than 1000 million taels. Therefore, the expenditure for this project needs to occupy one-third of the imperial court's annual fiscal balance.

If it is just using work as relief to sort out the Yellow River, then this matter is meaningless to discuss.

But the problem is that this work-for-relief project is not a project like sorting out the Yellow River, but repairing roads.

You must know that the cement road is something that the officials have seen clearly for a long time, and they have all enjoyed the comfort of the carriage driving on the cement road.

Building roads is a way to benefit the common people and earn fame, not to mention cement roads with excellent comfort.

Using this kind of thing as a substitute for work and giving it to the north, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Fujian is an extremely wasteful behavior in the eyes of many Jiangnan officials, so when Zhu Youjian finished speaking, even if someone stood up and said :

"Your Highness, I think that cement roads should be used in places in the south of the Yangtze River that need it more..."

　So far, the fever has subsided to 37.4°, and my brain is a little more comfortable, but my throat still hurts, and then my whole body is sore (like going to the next door, and then being hammered by Lao Wang.)
　　Tomorrow should be a little more comfortable. If it is not updated at noon, it will be updated around five or six in the afternoon.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)