Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 646
"Kill these white-skinned ghosts!"

"Kill them!"

On June 23, Apocalypse 27, accompanied by shouts, a group of black men with short stature, short head and thighs, dark skin, wide nose and thick lips, curly hair, sparse body hair, and white painted tattoos came out of the jungle with stone spears. rush out.

Their target was a group of Ming farmers who were using tractors on the wasteland outside the jungle.

"The Kunlun slave is here!"

As a farmer holding an iron plow yelled, a farmer next to him immediately blew the wooden whistle around his neck.

"Beep--"

The ear-piercing wooden whistle stopped the tractors in the distance, and some horsemen and infantrymen of the Ming army who were cruising on the farm road also began to drive their horses and galloped towards the place where the wooden whistle sounded.

The peasants ran away in a panic, and the short black men chasing them kept throwing spears, which occasionally injured some slow-running peasants.

Their size was around several hundred people, and facing them launching a sneak attack, a group of 17 Ming army horse infantry chose to raise their guns and pull the trigger.

"Bang bang bang-"

A muffled gunshot rang out, and a dozen short black men were knocked to the ground. Seeing this, the other short black men did not run away, but threw stone spears one after another in an attempt to throw the Ming army off their horses.

However, their stone spears hadn't been thrown yet, and there was another gunshot from a distance, but this time more bullets were fired.

In an instant, hundreds of short black men were shot and fell down, and the other short black men scattered and tried to escape into the jungle.

Afterwards, the Ming army continued to raise their guns and shoot, and more than a hundred horse and infantry soldiers in the distance also shot one after another. For a while, the short blacks suffered heavy casualties.

But even so, they dragged and carried away everything that could be used.

The coal next to the tractor, the iron plow in the field and the iron farm tools beside it are all things they robbed.

When they escaped successfully, the two groups of horse and infantry joined together, and some farmers who were injured by the stone spear were also sent to the rear for treatment.

After about a quarter of an hour, hundreds of cavalry came rushing from a distance. They rushed from the dirt road, and the team was very long.

Seeing this, the chief banner officer of the Ming army who was at the same place also rode forward, stopped on the road and bowed on the horse's back:
"Chief soldier!"

"Where's the Kunlun slave?!"

When the familiar voice sounded, Wu Sangui rode his horse and came to the front of the team, while the bowing chief flag officer pointed to the jungle in the distance:
"Same as before, I hid in the woods again."

"The common people injured seven people, and were robbed of hundreds of catties of iron and hundreds of catties of coal."

"Looking at their direction, they should come from Jiuzhen County in the north."

The chief banner officer's words made Wu Sangui grit his teeth, and turned his head to directly explain to the quartermaster:

"Thirty thousand catties of kerosene were transferred from Cangwu County, and people burned all the forests here!"

"Yes!"

Wu Sangui's military orders were quickly responded to, and in just one day, Cangwu, two hundred miles away, mobilized enough kerosene.

In the middle of the night, with the emergence of a fire, a line of fire swept towards the depths of the jungle, as if it wanted to burn everything that existed.

Slash-and-burn farming is almost the most frequently used land reclamation method by the people and yamen in Nanzhou.

As long as there is enough kerosene, a fire in summer can create tens of thousands of acres of white land.

For the immigrants, the next thing they have to do is to clean up the stones, charred trees and buried roots.

In at most three months, the 10,000+ mu of land will be cleared, and the canals and reservoirs will be arranged.

Afterwards, these lands will be reclaimed as arable land by the people using tractors.

Such means have been used in Nanzhou for more than ten years.

Anyway, as long as the rainy season comes, the land hundreds of miles inland along the coast will be moistened. Therefore, every year, the Nanzhou Chief Envoy organizes a team to cut down available trees in spring, and then burns millions of acres of forest land in summer.

For immigrants, the result is that they can obtain more or less arable land, which can make their lives more nourishing.

But for the dwarf black people who live on hunting and gathering and are in a relatively primitive state, such an approach is undoubtedly destroying the environment they depend on for survival.

However, the dwarf black people are not stupid, they will follow the example of the Ming people in farming, and even in order to farm, they will attack the immigrants of the Ming Dynasty and rob grain, iron and coal.

Their approach is the reason for the intensification of the conflict between the two sides.

Since they basically do not have a fixed place of residence in Nanzhou and are basically scattered throughout Nanzhou, it is very difficult for Wu Sangui to encircle and suppress them.

So since coming to Nanzhou, what Wu Sangui has used is to directly set fire to the forest, so as to reduce the habitat of the dwarf blacks.

Under his method, all the dwarfs were fleeing inland.

However, as the number of woodlands burned by the Ming army continued to increase, many short blacks had no choice but to take risks and fight against the Ming army.

It's just that most of their fate is in the major mining areas and railways in Nanzhou.

"bump……"

When the saber representing his identity was thrown on the table, Wu Sangui also sat in a stone house in this reclaimed land.

He kneaded between his brows, and there were two generals standing in front of him.

"These Kunlun slaves are very uneasy. Let's explain to Nanzhou Chief Envoy. Together, we will ask Guochao to send a million kerosene here. I will burn tens of thousands of forest farms at once."

Wu Sangui wanted to do it once and for all, but his generals reminded:

"General soldier, the king of Qi is imminent, and the country is in turmoil. I'm afraid he won't agree to burn down tens of thousands of forest farms."

Forest farms in Daming can generate tax revenue, especially forest farms like Nanzhou with thousands of years of forests, which are the biggest source of tax revenue.

Nanzhou chief envoy Si Yamen earns 10,000+ tax silver every year by cutting down forest farms. Wu Sangui's idea is probably not recognized by Nanzhou chief envoy Si Yamen, and neither is the Forestry Department of the Ministry of Industry.

"That's not okay, then it's not okay, if this cat and mouse game continues, when can I wipe out all the Kunlun slaves and transfer them back to the Central Plains?!"

It has been several years since Wu Sangui was thrown to Nanzhou, and the accumulated resentment is also increasing.

He is currently the most important middle-aged moment for an upright general. If he can't accumulate a lot of credit at this age, then when he gets old, he will be ready to let a group of juniors ride on his head.

"If I participated in this Western Expedition, I'm afraid I've already found a title!"

Wu Sangui clenched his fists, but the general and staff in front of him comforted him:

"Don't worry, Chief Soldier. I heard that the capital governors will leave a large number of people with King Qi. At that time, with the achievements of the Chief Soldier, it will be easy to transfer back to the Central Plains!"

"Hmm..." Wu Sangui also understands this truth, but facing the current situation, he still feels that life is like years.

But no matter how uncomfortable he is, it's useless, as long as King Qi doesn't leave, he will have to spend his whole life in this remote place in Nanzhou, dealing with those four-foot-seven-eight Kunlun slaves for the rest of his life...

"His Highness is coming!"

"Great!"

Almost when Wu Sangui was complaining about forbearance, Xia Yunyi, who was thousands of miles away, let out an excited voice.

Excited with him, there were several other officials walking together.

"We have to return to Xijing City as soon as possible. Your Majesty and the others will arrive in a month at most."

Xia Yunyi spoke, and at the same time raised her head to look at the scene in front of her.

At the moment, he is inspecting Tokyo City in Gyeonggi Prefecture with several servants from the Sixth Ministry. Compared with Xijing City, which has been built for 12 years, Tokyo City is more primitive.

The real development of Tokyo City took place in the 20th year of the Apocalypse. Only in the new year did the two capitals communicate with each other, and the communication routes are mainly by train, waterway and then land.

After Jin Xuan went to Daming, Xia Yunyi took over as Qi Guochang Shi, and while his plan continued the two-Beijing railway, he also tried his best to develop the shipping of Qishui (Mississippi River) and its various waterways.

For now, the railway from Xijing City to Chengshan Prefecture in Qi State has been completed, so you can directly take a boat to Chengshan Prefecture upstream of Qishui and take a steam ship to the east.

It only takes ten days for the ship to reach Gyeonggi Province. At this time, it only needs to transfer to the railway of Gyeonggi Province, and it takes less than six hours to reach Tokyo City.

Of course, this line was only completed by Qi State at the beginning of this year, which also caused the resources in Xijing City to be transported to Tokyo City until now.

Therefore, Xia Yunyi and the others came to Tokyo City mainly to make plans for the urban construction of Gyeonggi Province and Tokyo City.

After more than a month of visits, Xia Yunyi and the others got a general understanding of the situation in Gyeonggi Prefecture, and also had a long-term plan for the planning of Xijing City.

Gyeonggi Prefecture is located in the northeast of Qi State, with a lowland in the north and a mountain range in the northeast.

Its central and southeastern parts are lowlands, which include a river valley area.

As for its southern eastern boundary, more than half is the high country, which extends from Lake Champlain to the island of Manhattan.

From this point of view, the terrain of Gyeonggi Province is very complicated, mainly plateaus and mountains, accounting for almost half of the area of ​​the province.

However, King Qi naturally had his reasons for choosing this place as Tokyo.

Although there are many mountains in Gyeonggi Province, there are lakeside plains and valleys in the west and north, and there are sufficient Atlantic coastal plains in the east. There are many lakes in its territory and a well-developed water network, which can easily communicate with the Atlantic coast and the five great lakes in the north of Qi. Very convenient.

Such convenience allowed the Dutch to start man-made intervention when they landed on this land, and many traces of land reclamation were left behind.

The address of Tokyo City is actually the New York of the later generations. The adjacent Hudson River (West Water) allows Tokyo City to enjoy the convenience of navigation, so that it can drive the inland and coastal areas, and it can also quickly develop into a trading center.

However, due to the narrowness of the place, the habitable area is too small. For Qi, it is still necessary to improve the land by reclamation.

Therefore, there are not many residents in Tokyo City right now. Except for the 3000 people who migrated here at the beginning of this year, there are only more than [-] Qi troops stationed there.

Therefore, there is no city wall in Tokyo City, only a piece of Ming Jiangnan style buildings that have just risen for a year or two.

"Hongmaoyi's direction is correct. This area must be reclaimed from the sea by human intervention. After the Beijing-Beijing railway is completed, 30 reformed-labor workers can be transferred to artificially reclaim the land."

"Based on the speed of Hongmaoyi, if we mobilize 30 laborers, we can fill in about [-] to [-] mu of urban area every year."

"However, there are many rivers here, which will naturally help us to reclaim the land, so the specific thing to do is to level the land. Before there are too many people here, some mountainous areas that hinder development will be flattened."

"The development of Tokyo City will temporarily last for ten years. During this period, immigrants will not be accepted temporarily, and the population will continue to migrate after the land is leveled."

Xia Yunyi told the officials of the six ministries his thoughts. His idea was very simple and rude, that is, to blow up the mountain crazily while there were few people, and then let the labor camp workers clear the rocks from the blasted mountain to the coast, and fill the sea out of thin air to create dozens of land. million acres of land.

According to his plan, the plain area of ​​Tokyo City will be much larger than that of New York hundreds of years later.

Therefore, officials from the six ministries all nodded in agreement with his opinion.

Seeing this, Xia Yunyi passed the proposal, and then rushed to Xijing City with the officials.

They had to go back as soon as possible to arrange everything before the arrival of Princess Qi Yuan Xipin.

Only when they live comfortably can His Royal Highness King Qi take over the feudal domain faster, and the Qi State can have a backbone.

Therefore, Xia Yunyi and the others rushed back non-stop.

While they were on their way, a person thousands of miles away also put down the memorial in his hand, nodded and explained to the person in front of him:

"Just do what Hong Chengchou said, so Brother Ran doesn't have to worry."

When Zhu Youjian said this to Wang Chengen in the Mansion of the Commander-in-Chief of the Five Armies in Nanjing City, the appearance of Wang Chengen also showed that the handover of the officialdom was announced to be over.

"The servants take orders..."

Wang Chengen bowed in response, Zhu Youjian also leaned on the chair and said:

"Brother Jiong and the others have already arrived in Yingzhou, and according to the timetable, they will arrive in Xijing City in a month at most."

"Tell Huachun to speed up the handover of the Huangdian, otherwise he might not be able to catch up with the winter solstice boat."

"Yes, but..." Wang Chengen said helplessly:
"The scale of the imperial store is too large, and the factory behind it involves more than 400 million workers. The handover is much more difficult than the officialdom of slaves."

"Besides, right now Lu Yuangao has been taking people. No less than 3000 corrupt officials have been arrested in the imperial store and factory. This also increases the difficulty of the handover."

"My servant reckons that Huachun may not be able to go to Qi until next year."

Wang Chengen's estimate is not unreasonable, after all, Huangdian can contribute a quarter of Ming Dynasty's tax revenue every year, and its scale is no less than that of the Household Yamen in the Wanli period.

In addition, there are too many people involved in the factory behind the Huangdian, so it is difficult to speed up the handover.

If it really doesn't work, Zhu Youjian can only go first by himself, and then let Cao Huachun finish everything before heading to Qi.

"How is Li Dingguo recently?"

Zhu Youjian was noncommittal to Wang Chengen's words, but instead talked about Li Dingguo's affairs.

Hearing about Li Dingguo, Wang Chengen also had a smile on his face:
"That kid is okay with self-education, and now he is working as an errand at the top every day."

"Recently, many generals from Shangzhi have been transferred to the Qi State, and there are not many who have higher qualifications than him for a while, so his position is quite appropriate."

Wang Chengen was happy for Li Dingguo, and Zhu Youjian was also the same after listening to it. For this reason, he also said:

"Since it is safe and sound, then go up to Brother Shangzuo and resign from the position of Governor of Shangzhi on my behalf, and let Li Dingguo temporarily act as Governor of Shangzhi."

"As for the commander-in-chief of the five armies, I've thought about it, and I'll take it from afar."

After Man Gui and Sun Yingyuan were successively transferred, Zhu Youjian did not think of anyone who could replace him as the governor.

Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou were already cabinet ministers, Li Zicheng was going to Qi State again, Li Dingguo was too young to convince the public, Qin Minping and the three Qi family brothers were old, so no matter how they looked at it, they could not be elected.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian could only take the post of governor from afar, and he could not abdicate until Li Dingguo had enough qualifications or a new handsome talent emerged in Daming.

This kind of thing is also a kind of helplessness.

Throughout the ages, it is enough to be lucky to have three handsome talents in a period. The situation of enthusiastic talents like the early Tang, prosperous Tang, and early Ming is something that can be encountered but not sought after.

At present, after more than 20 years of training by Zhu Youjian, Daming has only left six or seven people including Sun Chuanting, and now there are three people who want to go far away from Qi.

If it wasn't for Xiong Tingbi's age, Zhu Youjian would have wanted to pull him out and grow stronger.

"That kid is only 23, isn't he too young? And his achievements are not enough..."

When Wang Chengen heard Zhu Youjian's words, he spoke worriedly.

Hearing what he said, Zhu Youjian was also a little helpless.

"I originally wanted Qi Yuangong to be transferred to be the governor of Shangzhi, and Qi Yuanfu to be the governor of the Southern Army."

"It's just news that Qi Yuanfu is in poor health from the south. It seems that he has to retire early, and Qi Yuangong has to replace him, so he cannot be transferred."

"In addition to the fact that the Indian servant needs Qi Yuanbi to sit in charge, it will be very difficult for the governor of Shangzhi to choose a candidate."

Zhu Youjian is also very embarrassed, the new generation has not risen, and the old generation is withering.

In addition, the political significance of the Shangzhi governor is more important than the military significance, so he is not at ease to let anyone go, only Li Dingguo is more at ease.

With Li Dingguo's current abilities, it would be difficult to command the 24 soldiers and horses of the [-]th Battalion of Shangzhi Sixteen Guards, but perhaps this would allow Li Dingguo to focus more on leading the troops, lest he always think about going back to Qi.

Moreover, allowing Li Dingguo to sit in this position is also one of Zhu Youjian's means of supporting his eldest nephew.

If my elder brother is old and fatuous in the future and wants to abolish and establish the crown prince, it will have to be weighed in Li Dingguo's face.

Although in Zhu Youjian's view, such a thing is unlikely to happen, he is still fully prepared.

"The slave will tell Long Live later..."

Wang Chengen heard Zhu Youjian's helplessness, so he could only agree, and he couldn't help but worry a little bit about Li Dingguo.

"I heard that Zheng Zhilong's eldest son Zheng Sen joined the army and joined the navy. How is he doing?"

Zhu Youjian suddenly mentioned Zheng Zhilong's son Zheng Sen, which made Wang Chengen stunned.

To be honest, with Wang Chengen's position, he wouldn't care about the son of a chief soldier at all. After all, Daming had more than 30 general soldiers.

However, since His Royal Highness asked, Wang Chengen bowed out of the study and went out to inquire about the news.

Not long after, he returned to the study and said the news:

"It is said that he is skilled in water warfare. He is currently the garrison officer of the C-class fleet and has captured many European businessmen who tried to smuggle into the Little Western Ocean."

Wang Chengen's words made Zhu Youjian nod in approval. Ever since Daming gained a firm foothold in Levia, Daming's restrictions on businessmen from various countries have been further increased.

Merchants from almost all countries were uniformly placed in Ceylon for business transactions, and they could not cross Ceylon to the East and West.

The main reason for this is that Daming began to use steam engines in Luchuan and Jiugang. Zhu Youjian did not want this thing to be exposed to Westerners too early, so he had to "close the country".

However, this kind of "closing the country" is not so much closing itself as closing the world.

After all, the countries that are not allowed to enter the mainland of Ming Dynasty only account for 30% of the world's area, and the remaining 70% of the countries can enter this sea area.

Zhu Youjian did this, coupled with the continuous war situation in Europe, I am afraid that the emergence of European science will be delayed for decades because of the war.

Daming, on the other hand, seems to have produced many geniuses because of the universal education.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian set his sights on the Memorial of the Armament Academy.

[On June 28, Huang Changxi, a Hanlin scholar, imitated the structure of a steam engine and adopted a new design of elastic piston rings in the internal combustion engine, which increased the thermal efficiency of the internal combustion engine to about 4%. 】

[According to Huang Changxi's design, Wang Zheng, the chief bachelor of internal combustion engine, conducted a theoretical analysis on the thermal process of internal combustion engine, and put forward the requirement of improving the efficiency of internal combustion engine. 】

This is a memorial from Sun Yuanhua. Due to his advanced age, Bi Maokang applied to be an official at the beginning of the year and at the same time applied to move to Qi State.

Therefore, Sun Yuanhua took over the post of Minister of Armament Academy.

However, this kind of position change is not important to them, and the advancement of technology is what they care about.

Zhu Youjian read what Wang Zheng proposed. If he remembers correctly, this paper by Wang Zheng is actually the earliest four-stroke working cycle of an internal combustion engine.

On the internal combustion engine, Daming did not go astray, but on the fuel of the internal combustion engine, many bachelors in the "internal combustion engine department" put forward different opinions.

Some think gas, some oil, and still others ethanol.

In fact, from Zhu Youjian's point of view, using ethanol (alcohol) is a good choice.

In later generations, ethanol fuel burns more fully than gasoline, which can solve the problem of carbon deposition well. In addition, it has a strong cleaning effect, and some fuel impurities can also be eliminated.

Compared with methanol, which is also a clean energy source, ethanol is much more powerful, reaching two-thirds of gasoline.

From this point of view, Daming's internal combustion engine is starting from scratch anyway. If ethanol is used as fuel, it seems that many things can be solved. At least it is easier to obtain than petroleum, and it is more clean.

Therefore, in his previous life, Zhu Youjian paid attention to this technology, from the introduction of this technology to its suspension, he has paid attention to it.

In later generations, the reason for the suspension of ethanol is also very simple, first of all, the source of ethanol.

The big countries that use ethanol fuel in later generations are all characterized by fertile land and sparse population.

They have a lot of arable land to cultivate, and conversion to ethanol fuel will do well to consume their surplus corn and sugar cane.

This point, in the current Daming, seems to be able to correspond. After all, Daming adds tens of millions of acres of cultivated land every year. In the future, even if there is no technology for high-yield grain, ethanol can be used as the main energy source with the vast area of ​​cultivated land.

There is no problem with the food, and the remaining problem is the temperature.

The combustion of ethanol gasoline will make the exhaust gas of the car contain a lot of water vapor, and the icicles dripping from the exhaust pipe will fall on the side of the road and be pressed, which will cause inconsistent grip of the four wheels, resulting in slippage and rollover. This is also one of the reasons why many northern countries banned the use of ethanol fuel in later generations.

However, for Zhu Youjian, Daming has a vast territory and there are many places with oil production areas, so Daming can completely promote relative fuels according to places.

It is not enough to use ethanol fuel in winter in the north, so oil is used in winter, and ethanol is sufficient at other times.

Zhu Youjian's only worry is that after ethanol is used as fuel, food will be controlled by malicious forces.

But his concern was a bit premature, and all solutions would be useless before the incident happened.

Therefore, facing this memorial, Zhu Youjian also wrote his own comments:
"You can study the direction of ethanol and petroleum as appropriate, and they will be used by the country..."

　It's a bit late to go out on location

　　
　
(End of this chapter)