Brother Zhu Youxiao

"Fixed shot reloading, the direction is three quarters and five minutes from the unitary hour, twelve rounds of pre-shooting... Let it go!"

"Bump--"

On the ninth day of May, when the cannons sounded in the Wakhan Corridor, Jumi City, which was the key point guarding the Wakhan Corridor, was suddenly bombarded indiscriminately.

"Damn! How dare the southern captives come to rob the city! Don't you think they were beaten hard enough in the south?!"

When Li Zicheng's cursing voice sounded, he also told in disguise which team was in Jumi City at the moment.

As the fortress guarding the Wakhan Corridor, the entire city of Jumi City is made of stone. The scale is not large, but it is enough to block the narrowest passage of the Wakhan Corridor.

Taking this place can basically stop the Ming army for a long time, so when Lin Dan Khan withdrew, the Mughal governor of Kandahar immediately sent troops to occupy the place, and wanted to further rule the Fergana Basin, so as to restore the Ming army. Take away the national power of Bangladesh.

The governor of Kandahar sent 2 people, 7000 went north to try to capture Fergana, and 3000 were stationed in Jumi.

3000 people may not seem like a lot, but it is enough to defend Jumi City, which is only three miles in circumference.

Looking down from the sky, Jumi City is sandwiched between the high mountains of the Pamirs, and in front of it is a narrow valley that is less than half a mile wide.

The trough goes outward from Jumi City, gets wider and wider, and gets narrower towards Jumi City.

Li Zicheng led the fourth battalion of more than 1 Ming troops and the follow-up [-] civilians squeezed outside the valley, and was able to enter the trough. Only less than one battalion faced Jumi City directly, which made it much more difficult to attack Jumi City. .

Putting down the binoculars, Li Zicheng on horseback looked back at his younger brother Li Zijing:
"Sanlang, how much drinking water is there in the army?"

"It's still half a month away, brother, don't worry, the snow mountains around here haven't melted yet, you can dig snow and filter it to make water for drinking."

Li Zijing can be regarded as Li Zicheng's right-hand man. When the two brothers marched and fought, Li Zijing usually took care of the logistics, so that Li Zicheng had no worries, and this time was no exception.

The Wakhan Corridor, known as Congling in ancient times, was once part of the ancient Silk Road in the Eurasian continent and an important channel for exchanges between Chinese civilization, Indian civilization, Central Asian civilization, Persian civilization and European civilization.

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a monk named Fa Xian who traveled westward from Chang’an along the ancient Silk Road to seek Buddhism.

From this point of view, this road seems to have been walked by many sages, and it seems that it is not difficult to walk.

However, whether it is Fa Xian or Gao Xianzhi, their descriptions of Congling's journey are: "There are no birds above, no animals below, looking around the vast, unpredictable, and only looking at the sun to guide things, and human bones to guide the road."

It can be said that such a place is a great test for how to guarantee the logistics of the army.

Even though Li Zijing and the others have reclaimed hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land in Shule, the food consumption on the road is still astonishing.

A team of 10,000 soldiers and civilians, including horses, eats [-]+ catties of grain, fodder, and fresh water every day.

Every day, hundreds of horse-drawn carts transporting supplies arrive at the camp, and hundreds of horse-drawn carts leave empty.

Although it is already May, there will still be heavy snowfall in the Pamirs from time to time.

If the heavy snow is too heavy, then Li Zicheng and the more than 2 soldiers and civilians can only be buried here.

Therefore, it is normal for Li Zicheng to be anxious. Not only him, but Li Zijing is also very anxious.

Due to the dangerous and rugged roads, Li Zicheng and his team only brought less than a hundred Yanshan five-jin cannons.

Because of this, they couldn't capture Jumi City quickly.

"Bump--"

"The cannons of the Ming army are firing! Hide well!!"

The artillery position, which had been resting for 3 minutes, broke out again, and a hundred five-jin iron shells roared and smashed on the head of Jumi City, beating the [-] Mughal troops stationed here to the point of crying.

Because Jumi City is too small, two thousand Mughal Persian mercenaries were stationed in it, and the remaining [-] Mongols were guarding the rear of Jumi City in the form of a supervisory team.

Although Jumi City is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it cannot withstand the rapid fire of the Ming army's artillery.

In every round of shelling, there are always a few unlucky ones who will be shot and killed.

The scene of his comrade being crushed to death by an iron cannonball cast a haze on the hearts of many Persian mercenaries, and their morale plummeted.

Time passed bit by bit, and the artillery of the Ming army continued to shell.

In the first two hours, the Ming army could still bombard with iron shells, but later they could only choose stones to polish on the spot to serve as shells.

Iron cannonballs are powerful, but difficult to carry, which is why the Ming army liked to use stone bullets.

It's just that Li Zicheng never imagined that after 22 years of the Apocalypse, he would go back to the days of using stone bombs.

"Is there any news from the Central and Northern Route Army?!"

Looking at Jumi City, which could not be captured for a long time, Li Zicheng also became angry, and couldn't help questioning the situation of the Central and North Route Army.

To this, Gao Yigong, who was in charge of military affairs, bowed on horseback and replied:
"The Northern Route Army surrounded Ob City five days ago."

"The Central Route Army arrived in Julan City six days ago, and I'm afraid it will soon arrive in Talas."

"Mother land!" Hearing the speed of the other two groups marching, Li was furious since the establishment of the horse:

"Disassemble the carriage! Build a ladder to attack the city!"

"Brother!" Hearing what Li Zicheng said, Li Zijing hurriedly stopped him:
"Jumi City is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is safe to use artillery to blast it away. Attacking the city wall will cause heavy casualties. You can't joke about the lives of your brothers!"

Although Li Zijing said so, it was not his original intention.

What he actually wanted to say was that it had been seven or eight years since the last time the Ming army directly attacked the city wall.

Most of the current military are recruits who have been in the army for four or five years, or two or three years.

Let them attack the city without receiving siege training, the final effect can only be to damage their own morale.

As soon as his words came out, Li Zicheng immediately calmed down.

What Li Zijing said was right. Forcing soldiers who have not been trained to siege the city will only damage their morale.

In a ghostly place like Congling, if morale is low, it is easy to wipe out the entire army. After all, when fighting in Congling, one must beware not only of the enemy, but also of natural weather changes.

"I shouldn't have canceled the siege training back then..."

Li Zicheng sighed angrily, but Li Zijing comforted him:
"Cancellation is normal. In recent years, all armies and horses have canceled their siege training. In the past, the siege was to wash the ground with artillery, blow down the city walls and then enter the city to fight in the streets."

"All armies focus on street fighting, and we cannot stand alone."

Li Zijing mentioned the changes in the tactics of the Ming army, but Li Zicheng looked at the city of Jumi and sighed:
"It's okay to fight on plains and hills, but in this kind of plateau warfare, our army's weakness is that we can't attack cities."

"I only hope that the power of the artillery can be improved in the future, otherwise this will always be a pain point for our army."

After all, Li Zicheng turned his horse and returned to the camp, apparently not thinking that Jumi City could be captured in a short time.

Seeing him returning to the camp, Li Zijing took the initiative to supervise the front of the battle for him.

Not long after, the sound of artillery rang again...

"Bang bang bang!"

"Run!"

While Jumi was being stormed, an skirmish broke out in Samarkand.

On the vast plain, there was only an army of up to ten thousand people, which was being chased and beaten by a thousand cavalry at the moment.

Under the bright red "Li" banner, Li Dingguo in paper armor rode his horse and held a gun, leading thousands of cavalry to chase the army ahead.

That was the [-] troops Shah Jahan sent north from Kandahar to fight for the Fergana Basin.

What Shah Jahan could think of, Cao Bianjiao could think of too.

The essence of the entire river region is in the Bukhara-Samarkand-Fergana area.

If Lin Dan Khan withdraws, neither the Mughals nor the Khiva Khanate will sit idly by, and they will definitely come to snatch the most essence of the river.

Therefore, after arriving in Julan City, Cao Bianjiao immediately sent a battalion of cavalry to Li Dingguo, and asked him to lead the troops to occupy the place first.

As expected by Cao Bianjiao, Li Dingguo had just divided his troops to Bukhara and Fergana, and when he led his troops to Samarkand, the Mughal army also arrived in Samarkand not long after.

They seized five cities south of Samarkand, and left soldiers and horses to garrison them. Therefore, only 1 troops arrived in Samarkand.

Facing the [-] Mughal army composed of artillery, cavalry, and light infantry, Li Dingguo, who had just arrived in Samarkand, chose to go out of the city to fight, not giving the Mughal army the advantage of artillery.

Facts have proved that his approach is correct.

Before the artillery positions of the Mughal army were set up, they were attacked by the Ming army.

A thousand Ming army cavalry armed with rifles defeated the morale of the Mughal army in just an instant on this vast plain.

After two rounds of shooting, thousands of people were shot and killed. The Mughal soldiers were preparing to gather at first, but soon the Ming army's bullet rain disintegrated their defense line.

In less than 1 minute of the battle, more than 2000 people were killed or injured in the whole army. The Mughal soldiers began to flee.

"kill!"

"Kill kill kill!"

"Bang bang bang-"

Li Dingguo took the lead and arranged a pocket formation to charge, causing the Mughal army to be shot on three sides, and people fell all the time.

The Mongols, who were the supervising team, rode war horses. Seeing that there was nothing they could do, they immediately took the lead in breaking through.

Li Dingguo did not pursue them, and led his men to wipe out the more than 5000 artillery and light infantry left behind by them.

"Brother Li, there are hundreds of wounded soldiers who survived, do you want to keep a few prisoners?"

In the evening of the battle, except for the 8000 Mongolian cavalry who broke through the [-] Mughal army, the remaining [-] were basically wiped out.

Zhu Cixuan, who was cleaning the battlefield, found many wounded soldiers, so he came here to ask Li Dingguo.

Li Dingguo was dismounting his horse and sitting on the ground to rest, when he heard Zhu Cixuan's words, he replied without thinking:

"The Guochao and the Nanyu are a national war, the annihilation is the main thing, and no prisoner will be kept!"

"Yes!" Zhu Cixuan was shocked after hearing this, but he quickly and decisively bowed in response.

In terms of this performance, he is more decisive than his elder brother Zhu Ciran.

Li Dingguo had just finished his evaluation, Zhu Ciyun turned around and rode away, and went to the place where the prisoners were guarded in the distance to explain a few words.

After a while, the Ming soldiers guarding the captives stabbed out their bayonets one after another.

With this stab, the captives died one after another.

Without the encumbrance of the captives, Li Dingguo also ordered to the left and right: "Send a message to Li Zongbing, the southern captives, the barbarians are invading."

"Yes!"

The generals on the left and right bowed down, and sent Tangqi towards Talas City.

However, when Tang Qi brought the news to Talas, it was already May [-]th.

At this moment, nine thousand Ming soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians are resting in Talas, and there is no one else in the city except them. Obviously, Lin Danhan's means of relocation are very good.

Talas is close to the west of the West Tianshan Mountain and Karatau Mountain. Although the city is only an earthen city, it is said that the Zhizhi Shanyu of the Northern Huns forced the Kangju people to spend two years building it near the Talas River.

If calculated in this way, Talas has a history of at least 600 years.

It existed from the Western Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty was established by Kangju people, and then it became a subsidiary of the Tang Dynasty in the Tang Dynasty, and was called Taluosi City by the Tang people.

Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty passed by here when he went to India to learn Buddhist scriptures, and he also recorded in the first volume of his "Da Tang Western Regions":
"Suye City goes westward for more than four hundred miles to Qianquan... Qianquan goes westward for one hundred and forty to fifty miles, and arrives at Yuluosi City, where merchants and Hus from various countries live together for eight or nine miles around the city."

It can be seen from this that Talas City was considered the leading city in the river in the Tang Dynasty.

However, as it was occupied by Khwarazm, its bad luck began.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, Genghis Khan rose up the grasslands, and then sent troops to attack Kwarizm, occupied Talas, and renamed it Tarasi after massacring the city.

Although Genghis Khan later moved more than [-] people from Hezhong Prefecture to the local farmland, and ordered Yelu Chucai to manage the place, the glory of Talas has been destroyed with the massacre.

A large number of Kangju people died, which gave the conquered Persians and many barbarians an opportunity to migrate to the main area one after another.

Although such a result increased the population, the ensuing religious and ethnic struggles also began to appear. Talas was no longer the must-choice place for businessmen from east and west, and it naturally fell into disrepair.

"Some barbarians dare to grab food from my bowl?!"

On the head of Talas City, Cao Bianjiao tightly squeezed the military report sent by Tang Qi in his hand, and then turned to look at Talas City behind him.

The buildings in the rammed earth city were full of religious elements, which made Cao Bianjiao very unhappy.

"A group of ignorant people who believe in sects dare to come and offend me."

"Since the tigers and rabbits have squatted westward, then use their heads to seek rewards for the brothers... Shangshu!"

Cao Bianjiao's words surprised many generals standing beside him, followed by ecstasy.

They were ecstatic that there were wars to be fought and rewards to be won.

The main source of income for the soldiers of the Ming army was beheading silver. Although it entered the era of rifles, the rules of rewarding silver for corpses have not changed.

Even though the rule of the imperial court has been changed to five heads per head, there are hundreds of thousands of barbarians in the land of the river...

"Cao Bianjiao Shangshu wants to sweep the barbarians such as Shiva, what do you think?"

On May [-]th, when Fei Ge sent the military report to the capital, Zhu Ciran, who was the supervisor of the country, immediately raised his head and asked the person in front of him.

In front of him are the chief assistant of the cabinet, Sun Chengzong, and seven cabinet ministers, including Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, Li Changgeng, Wen Tiren, Zhou Yanru, and Yang Wenyue.

In addition, there are Sun Kewang, Du Yinxi, Lu Yuangao, Liu Shun, Zhang Xiu and others in the Chunhe Palace.

With so many famous ministers to assist him, Zhu Ciran also started the relatively labor-saving "multiple choice questions".

"The barbarians are violating the power of the country, and not killing them will not be enough to vent their anger!"

The person who spoke was Li Changgeng who seemed to love Yinzi the most, and his words were approved by Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou.

On the other hand, Sun Chengzong frowned and retorted when he heard the words:

"The subjects of the world are all the children of Long Live."

"Defeat and destroy the two countries, and accept the surrender of the people for the people, and the killing will only increase the disgust of the heavens."

"I hate it?" Li Changgeng's expression was flat, but his words were clear:
"If Heaven's Tired exists, then the country's drought for so many years, I am afraid that Heaven's Tired would have already been exhausted."

Although Li Changgeng is a traditional scholar-bureaucrat, he is in the core circle of the Qi Palace after all, and knows a lot about the Military Armament Academy.

In his opinion, His Royal Highness Qi Wang has already thought of something that can make people fly into the sky and make caravans travel hundreds of miles a day, so if God has eyes, he should punish his Highness by violating the rules of Tianwei .

Since God can't do it, it means it doesn't exist.

The 15-year drought has tempered Li Changgeng, and now he only believes that man can conquer nature, and he doesn't care about the so-called theory that the sky is tired of him.

His idea is actually the idea of ​​Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting.

So after he said it, Hong Chengchou also bowed to Zhu Ciran and said:

"Your Highness, Xilu and Nanlu are cunning and repeated. If they don't get rid of them all at once, if they repeat them again in the future, I'm afraid it will make the place uneasy."

"Guochao wants to operate Hezhong, so it is only possible to transport tractors there, but if the place is uneasy, the tractors have the risk of leaking secrets."

"Therefore, I suggest that when it is time to break it, it should be broken, and Cao Bian should be supported to sweep the acupoints in Jiaoli Court."

After Hong Chengchou finished speaking, Zhu Ciran nodded, and then subconsciously looked at Sun Chuanting.

In his heart, the three of Hong Chengchou are more important than the three of Sun Chengzong, and among the three of Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting is the most important in his heart, so Sun Chuanting's opinion is very important.

"Your Highness, what Hong Gechen said is good, I seconded it."

Sensing Zhu Ciran's gaze, Sun Chuanting immediately bowed to express his agreement with Hong Chengchou's thoughts.

Seeing this, without waiting for Sun Chengzong and others to open their mouths, Zhu Ciran was ready to report this matter.

But at this moment, Sun Kewang bowed to Zhu Ciran and said:
"Your Highness, I think that the western captives and the southern captives should be exterminated, but before they are exterminated, it is necessary to confirm whether there is any silver left in the dynasty to pay the reward."

Sun Kewang's sudden opening made the cabinet ministers who were accustomed to extravagance a little embarrassed, and then they remembered the problem of land tax exemption this year and insufficient taxation from the court.

Faced with this question, Li Changgeng, who is the secretary of the household department and the second assistant to the cabinet, also answered properly:

"It is true that there is not enough taxation from the court, but this year Qi purchased 200 tractors and another [-] million treasury bonds, so there should be tens of millions of taels of silver entering Taicang by the end of the year."

"In addition, the people and subjects of the state bought more than 720 million taels of national debt, and the southern provinces mined more than [-] million taels of silver ingots. This makes the total annual income of more than [-] million taels."

"It's only May right now, and the imperial court still has 900 million taels in arrears."

"Based on the current situation, it is estimated that after the autumn harvest, there will still be people buying government bonds. It is not a big problem to make up 900 million taels."

"If you really can't make up enough, you can issue another 500 million taels of banknotes. After all, Guochao still has 700 million taels of gold at the bottom of the box. Issuing half of the excess should not have much impact."

"As long as the next year's land tax and tax silver starts to be handed over, the banknotes issued in the past two years can be recycled, and it will not affect prices for too long."

Li Changgeng proposed to print banknotes to make up for the finances, among which an extra 800 million taels would be issued. This made Zhu Ciran, who didn't know much about the economy, subconsciously look at Sun Kewang.

Seeing this, Sun Kewang stood up and asked Li Changgeng:

"May I ask Li Cifu, did the country's population increase or decrease last year?"

Sun Kewang suddenly asked the population question, which confused all the cabinet ministers, but Li Changgeng showed appreciation after hearing it, and responded calmly:

"Last year, there were 92 people who died normally in the kingdom, and 170 million people who emigrated to other countries."

"However, last year, the country's new population increased by 490 million, a net increase of about 230 million."

"As far as the population is concerned, an extra 800 million taels of banknotes and an additional 700 million taels of silver are issued. Although the amount is a bit large, it should not be a problem considering the size of the country."

"The people of the country love to save. Even if these silver taels flow into the market, most of them will be saved, and it will not affect the price of goods."

Li Changgeng tried his best to explain that although his economic knowledge was not as good as Zhu Youjian's, it was at least better than most politicians of this era.

So Sun Kewang also turned around and bowed to Zhu Ciran after getting the answer: "Your Highness, I think it is possible, but it is best to ask His Highness King Qi again."

"Hmm..." Hearing Sun Kewang's words, Zhu Ciran nodded slightly to express his good opinion:
"The cabinet first issued an edict to Cao Wenzhao, and Cao Bianjiao and the two made an order, allowing them to plow the court and sweep the caves."

"As for King Uncle Qi and Emperor Father, I will naturally neglect them."

Speaking of this, Zhu Ciran asked Sun Kewang: "Where are the father and Uncle Qi Wang?"

"Return to Your Highness, Long Live and His Highness King Qi should still be in Taiyuan Mansion." Sun Kewang replied and explained:

"Although the drought has subsided in many northern provinces this year, the drought in Taiyuan and Datong Prefecture in Shanxi continues."

"Long live and His Highness are going to visit Minsheng, and they will go deep into Taiyuan Prefecture in the future, and they won't leave easily for a while."

Sun Kewang explained, and Zhu Ciran, who heard the words, couldn't help thinking of all the things he saw in Taiyuan Mansion back then.

In the adobe house with broken eaves and broken walls, there are seven or eight people who are not clothed and eating corn mush.

The host was so skinny that his ribs could be seen, and the doll at home with a swollen belly and slender limbs...

These are Zhu Ciran's memories of the remote people in Taiyuan Prefecture.

It's just that after so many years, Zhu Ciran himself didn't understand how the people there lived.

"The drought has subsided this year. How much land does the Ministry of Households estimate can be restored?"

Zhu Ciran asked about Li Changgeng, Li Changgeng was already prepared for this, he bowed unhurriedly and said:
"According to a rough survey by the local government, about [-]% of the land will be restored, with a contract of no less than [-] million mu."

Li Changgeng's words made Zhu Ciran heave a sigh of relief. The Ming Dynasty had more than one billion and fifty million mu of arable land, and now it can restore [-] million mu of land. This is good news for the Ming Dynasty and the people of the world.

The fields are back to plowing, and the world is safe. Zhu Ciran only feels that his uncle's timing is very accurate, which is admirable.

Looking at the thick memorial on the table, Zhu Ciran took a deep breath:
"This drought... let's get over it soon..."