Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 92 Awake Yang Lian
"Wash it well, it's all for you to eat. The more you make, the less you'll be afraid of running out of food when you go to Liaodong."

On the fifth day of November in the first year of Taichang, beside a small river at the foot of Yanshan Mountain, tens of thousands of people are squatting on both sides of the river.

Beside them, there is a cart of grain consigned for the autumn harvest.

Strange to say, they are cleaning the rice at this moment, while Qi Jin and Qin Bangping, who are generals, follow behind Zhu Youjian, shouting at the troops, while explaining to Zhu Youjian:
"If the army goes out, if it is on the march, it is impossible to bring the grain that has been harvested directly, and the rice husk and wheat husk have been peeled off."

"Soldiers and horses on expeditions are easy to be attacked if the grain road is stretched."

"Therefore to reduce the size of the food, so the military food is different."

Qi Jin introduced it to Zhu Youjian, and gave an example by the way:

"Generally speaking, it is not unusual for people stationed in cities to eat soft rice and millet."

"However, if you are going for a long-distance raid, or going deep into the enemy's territory, and fighting in the wilderness, the amount of food should be small, and you must be able to eat enough."

It is not difficult for Zhu Youjian to understand Qi Jin's words. To put it bluntly, it is a portable ration, such as modern compressed biscuits.

But he was curious about how Qi Jin would use to make compressible rations.

Fortunately, within a few seconds of his curiosity, Qi Jin answered:

"For this military ration, before going out to the expedition, you need to take a stone of rice, remove the shell and wash it, cook it, bake it in the sun, remove the impurities after drying, and steam it again."

"After repeating this ten times, you can get two buckets of hard rice."

"The two buckets of rice require soldiers to march on their backs. Every time they bury the pot to make rice, each person takes three qian of hard rice and throws it into boiling water. After boiling, you can get a bowl of hard rice."

"How long can you eat two buckets of military rations like this?" Zhu Youjian understood. To put it bluntly, it is to remove the water from the rice, and compress the weight of the rice after repeated repetitions.

But even so, how long can you eat it?
Facing his question, Qi Jin smiled and said, "With two ounces of army salt and a piece of vinegar cloth, these two buckets of rice are enough to feed the army for fifty days."

"What are military salt and vinegar cloth?" Zhu Youjian was slightly taken aback when he heard that two buckets of rice could last for fifty days.

Converting two buckets of rice is only twenty-five catties, which is equivalent to eating half a catty of rice every day.

But thinking that the twenty-five catties of rice was dried and compressed from one stone of rice, Zhu Youjian didn't find it strange.

He also saw it when he was a child, if a grain of rice is cooked and refrigerated, it will be lighter than the original rice, but the taste will be worse.

Repeat this ten times, in fact, there are still so many meters, but the weight is only reduced.

When Zhu Youjian reacted, Qin Bangping next to him smiled and explained:
"Military salt needs to take three catties of salt, put it in water and boil it in a pot until it becomes firm and small. It will be about the size of three fingernails and weigh two taels. You can use a knife to cut off a little bit every time you cook. .”

"Vinegar cloth is to soak a foot of coarse cloth in a catty of vinegar. After drying, cut off an inch every time you cook, soak it in water, and pick it up after the cloth changes color."

"In addition, mulberries, wild fruits, or other things are taken, and they are also soaked in water after exposure to the sun and eaten."

"These things must not be missing. If one of them is missing, it will make it difficult for soldiers to persevere."

Qin Bangping's words, from a scientific point of view, are nothing more than supplementing salt and vitamins.

In ancient times, someone could actually come up with such a method, which shows that the ancients were not as stupid as modern people, and even surpassed them.

People of later generations just stand on their shoulders and see higher and farther.

Thinking about it this way, Zhu Youjian also said:
"In the future, if the Imperial Horse Supervisor has a chance to take over the Taipu Temple, he will definitely ask every soldier to eat dried meat."

It is very rare for ordinary soldiers to eat dried meat, especially during the march.

Zhu Youjian used a lot of energy to raise Yubayashi Sanwei and Yumajian, all he wanted was for them to be brave and good at fighting.

But if they can't even eat well, how can they be brave?How to fight well?

Right now, there is not enough pasture and arable land in the Yumajian, so naturally it cannot afford to raise enough cattle and sheep to feed the army.

But Zhu Youjian is confident that as long as he follows his plan, there will only be more and more cattle and sheep.

He thought so, then got on his horse with Qi Jin and the others, and rushed towards Yanshan Camp.

On horseback, Zhu Youjian asked:

"Go to Liaodong according to this place, how much military rations do I need to stockpile?"

Qin Bangping saw that the question was simple, so he answered directly: "It takes about [-] days to travel [-] miles from here to Shenyang, and the army travels [-] miles a day."

"So when my sister brings white soldiers and civilian husbands, if there are [-] people, I should need [-] dou of military rations, but vinegar cloth is not needed."

"However, you must prepare [-] catties of salt, and at least [-] catties of dried vegetables and [-] catties of vinegar."

"If the military ration is [-] dou, about [-] shi of hulled rice will be needed."

"Okay!" Hearing Qin Bangping's words, Zhu Youjian said to the two of them:

"At that time, I will transfer two thousand horses to the Yumajian, two thousand carriages, ten thousand catties of salt, ten thousand catties of vegetables, thirty thousand catties of vinegar, and five thousand taels of silver from the Yumajian."

Logically speaking, there is no need for Zhu Youjian to pay the money.

Because logically speaking, the Ministry of War will send out, and the good emperor brother also promised to pay the military salary according to twenty-one people.

But these days, Qin Bangping and Qi Jin have taught him so many things, and they can be regarded as half of his masters, so he can't just let it go.

In addition, he also had important matters to communicate with the two of them, so after the two thanked them, Zhu Youjian said:

"Although it is good for Liao and Shen to be the horns of each other, they still need to be stationed in Zhenjiang and use the three horns to contain Nurhachi. The two of you know this better than me."

"But what I want to say is that it is very difficult to put down Nurhachi. We don't know how many of the millions of Liao people have defected to Nurhachi and how much information they have betrayed."

"So I hope that the two generals will not go out of the city to meet the enemy because of greed."

"The most important thing right now is to defend Liaodong, and then wait for the follow-up reinforcements from Shizhu and Zhejiang soldiers."

"I told Brother Huang that if you want to win, the first thing is to dismantle the Liaodong soldiers and horses, and replace them with guest troops to defend the city."

"As long as the two generals stick to Liaodong for three years, there must be tens of thousands of soldiers under their command."

"At that time, I will send Sun Yingyuan, Man Gui and others to take the seven guards and one battalion there, and Liaodong is just around the corner."

"Your Highness said, I will finally listen to it." Qi Jin and Qin Bangping returned their salutes one after another, and Zhu Youjian also confessed:

"After Mrs. Qin Liangyu comes, I'm afraid I won't be able to welcome her."

"But don't worry, when I return to the capital tomorrow, I will ask the emperor to allocate [-] taels of silver, [-] taels of silver will be used as starting silver, and the rest will be used as military pay for the next year."

"As for Mrs. Qin Liangyu, I will ask Brother Huang to allocate another amount of money, and ask her to continue recruiting troops after returning to Eastern Sichuan."

"It's so good..." Qin Bangping and Qi Jin looked at each other and smiled, and Zhu Youjian also smiled and led them to the Yanshan camp.

After the three of them returned to Yanshan Daying, since it was noon, they all returned to their residences to rest.

Zhu Youjian also returned to the backyard of Yumajian Yamen in the same way, but when he got here, he asked the little eunuchs around:

"Where's Cao Huachun?"

"Return to Your Highness..." The little eunuch saluted slightly:
"Admiral Cao has brought people to Yanshan Institute, and then he has to supervise the refining of briquettes."

"Is that so..." Hearing what the little eunuch said, Zhu Youjian frowned slightly, and then said:
"In that case, I'll take a lunch break first, and wake me up when Cao Huachun comes back."

"Your servant takes orders." Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, the little eunuch bowed obediently, and Zhu Youjian just walked into the bedroom, and took another step back to look at the little eunuch and said:
"The briquettes, hurry up to make three thousand catties tonight, and make another thirty stoves, and bring them back to the capital tomorrow."

"Your maidservant takes orders." Hearing this, seeing that Zhu Youjian didn't say anything else, the little eunuch hurriedly sent someone to notify him.

As for Zhu Youjian, under the clothes of others, he took off his outer clothes and fell asleep on the bed in his inner shirt.

Before going to bed, he was still thinking about how to use briquettes to harvest the money of Mongolians and common people. It can be said that he wants to make money and wants to go crazy.

But he hadn't slept long before he heard hurried footsteps and roadblocking:

"Your Majesty is taking a lunch break during Yang's work. You..."

"Lunch break? Go away, I have something urgent to do!" Yang Lian's irritable voice appeared in Zhu Youjian's ears. Zhu Youjian could only get up tiredly, and sighed:
"Let Yang come in."

"The maidservant takes orders..." Hearing this, the little eunuch didn't dare to block the way, and Yang Lian also broke into the dormitory, holding the book in his hand to Zhu Youjian who was on the bed:
"Things in Liaodong have made progress. Zhu Tongmeng and the others brought people back to the capital early this morning. When His Highness returns to the capital tomorrow, if there is anything wrong with Xiong Feibai, he must be saved!"

Yang Lian was very nervous at the moment, it was hard to imagine that such tension would appear in a Donglin party.

As a member of the Donglin Party, now he wants to protect Xiong Tingbi from the Chu Party, which makes people want to laugh...

But right now Zhu Youjian couldn't laugh, he got up and took the letter, glanced at it to make sure that there was no reason for Xiong Tingbi to be caught by Yao Zongwen and others, then rubbed his brows and said:
"Being arrested without a reason, Xiong Tingbi's management of Liaodong, Yuan Yingtai's collocation with the governor will not have any problems."

"The current problem in Liaodong is that after the winter, Nurhachi will definitely raise a large army to invade Liaodong."

"At present, there are nearly [-] Han captives under his command. Even if the Zhejiang soldiers and Baigan soldiers are transferred to Liaodong, it will be very difficult to hold on."

His words made Yang Lian nod, and the stubborn old man found a place to sit by himself, frowned and said:

"After the Great Wall of Liaodong was lost, it was difficult to defend, so Xiong Feibai was sent there."

"Although Xiong Feibai has a weird temper, he is good at military affairs. I think he can see the old slave's ambition."

"Didn't he say that Liaodong has [-] soldiers and horses, but there are [-] to [-] fighters?"

"At that time, [-] troops will be deployed to garrison Shenyang and Liaodong respectively. At that time, the old slaves will not be able to attack."

"It's not that simple..." Zhu Youjian was speechless and Yang Lian could only explain to him the almost linear thinking in military affairs:

"The old slave used Zaisai from the barbarian (Nekalka) as a hostage to force the barbarian leader Chao Hua to submit to him."

"That is to say, once troops are transferred from western Liaoning to eastern Liaoning, then western Liaoning will be empty, and there is a danger of being cut off by Jianlu."

"So it is not feasible to deploy troops. All we can do is to strengthen the defense of Liaodong."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youjian breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Fortunately, I ordered someone to add fifty Franc cannons, and there are also many general cannons."

"These artillery were transferred to Shenyang, together with the thousands of family members in the hands of He Shixian and You Shigong, they should be able to defend Shenyang City."

"As long as Shenyang is guarded, the old slave will not dare to directly invade Liaoyang."

"At that time, Qi Yuanfu will lead his troops northward in June next year, and arrive in Liaodong in September at the most. The danger in Liaodong will be easily resolved."

"Then according to His Highness, we can only defend?" Yang Lian frowned tightly. As a member of the Donglin Party, he also suffered from a trait of the Donglin Party, that is, he frequently threatened to attack.

Therefore, after Zhu Youjian's words came out, he immediately said:
"The imperial court spent millions of Liaoxiang just to defend Liaodong?"

"It's not time to march yet!" Zhu Youjian raised his voice, seeing that Yang Lian was silent, he explained:
"The [-], [-], or even [-] soldiers and horses in Nurhachi's hands are real, but how many do I have in Liaodong?"

"To put it bluntly, Yang is in the middle of the matter. Although our court claims to have more than two million soldiers, there are only [-] people who can be drawn out to fight Nurhachi."

"The [-] people also include the Seven Guards and One Battalion in my hands."

"This is not a compliment, you should know..."

Zhu Youjian counted the Seven Guards and One Battalion, saying in disguise that the other hundreds of thousands of people are actually not as good as the Seven Guards and One Battalion who have been training for more than a month.

"This..." Yang Lian said with some discomfort:

"Jiubian, which spends tens of millions of taels of silver every year, has more than [-] horses, and can only pull out a hundred thousand people?"

"Otherwise?" Zhu Youjian sneered slightly: "I guess you have seen what Gonghua City looks like."

"If you still think it's impossible, then I suggest that you visit Miyunwei and further places during my trip to the capital."

"After reading it, you will know why Gu wants to train soldiers and horses."

At this moment, Yang Lian only felt that he was being hit hard. After all, for a civil official like him who had experienced the three major Wanli crusades, Daming was extremely powerful right now.

This is not his idea alone, but also the idea of ​​all civil servants and common people.

Just ask any common people in the years of Wanli, Taichang, and Tianqi, and tell them that the Ming Dynasty will perish in more than ten years. No one will believe this sentence.

Even the hungry people in Huaibei just feel that there are too many corrupt officials, not that Ming Dynasty is not strong.

This kind of illusion did not reveal the real background of the Ming Dynasty's foreign powers but middle-ranking officials until the Jisi Change in the second year of Chongzhen.

Right now there are four evils in the world, vassal kings, gentry, military officers, natural disasters...

The vassal kings did not pay taxes, exploited the people, and annexed land.

The gentry and merchants colluded and did not pay taxes or grain.

The officers in the guards and the Nine Frontiers are severely underpaid, eating up 70% of the court's finances every year, but they have no effect.

The last natural disaster is a trivial matter compared with the first two.

As long as the gentry and merchants are cleaned up, and then the blood-sucking guards and officers on the nine borders are cleaned up, the Ming Dynasty will be able to rely on its national strength to resist natural disasters.

If there is not enough food, Annan will be recovered and purchased from Siam and Taungoo.

As long as it is transported by sea and actively stockpiles grain to ensure that all provinces in the country have food for three years of severe drought, then natural disasters are not to be feared.

But is this path easy?No, it's very difficult, even harder than fighting the world again.

But does Zhu Youjian have a way out?If he doesn't solve these matters, he will die, and the land of China will sink under the iron hooves of alien races.

Therefore, he has no way out...

Thinking of this, Chief Prosecutor Zhu You sighed, and then said to Yang Lian:
"In Yang's case, when I return to the capital this time, the first thing I do is to persuade the emperor to send money to the soldiers in Sichuan and Zhejiang."

"At present, the soldiers and horses in Liaodong and the Nine Sides are unreliable. If you want to revive the soldiers and horses, the first thing is to defend Liaodong first, and slowly plan."

"Only by abolishing and replacing the soldiers and horses on the nine sides, especially in Jizhen, can save money for the court, and can further train and reduce troops."

"Only when the court's silver expenditure is reduced can the land tax be reduced..."

Zhu Youjian's words are considered to be defrauding Yang Lian, an old boy.

He has never figured out which class Yang Lian belongs to, whether he is a poor peasant and a rich peasant, or a small landlord and squire.

Donglin party members come from all over the world, and everyone has different interests. Only using interests to win over people is the most simple, direct and intimate method.

Sure enough, after Zhu Youjian said this, Yang Lian sighed and said:

"It's a good thing to reduce the tax for the common people, but it's hard to do anything. What should the court do after the tax is reduced?"

When Yang Lian said this worriedly, several possibilities jumped out of Zhu Youjian's mind immediately.

First of all, he sent Jin Yiwei to check on Yang Lian's family. Yang Lian's great-grandfather, Yang Gongduo, was a rich peasant in the Huguang area in the last years of Chenghua.

Because Emperor Chenghua promoted official education, he was able to attend official education for free. After learning knowledge, he loved to fight for injustice, so he was called a ranger.

By the time his grandfather was born, it was already the Zhengde period, and the eunuchs at that time caused a heavy burden on the people. Although Zhengde cut off the eunuchs quickly, the people in Huguang still had a hard time.

Therefore, Yang Gongduo and his son Yang Wanchun helped the people in their hometown together, and they were called "Yang Erzhai Gong".

In the Jiajing period, Yang Yanao, Yang Lian's father, was born. Because of his grandfather and father's teachings, Yang Yanao was kind and generous, but also because of his father's kindness and charitable character, Yang Lian's family was between a small landlord and a rich peasant.

Even now, Yang Lian's family only has [-] mu of paddy fields and [-] mu of thin fields, and there is an elder brother in the family, and the elder brother has three sons and eight grandchildren, and Yang Lian has five sons and nine grandchildren.

Including his wife, the Yang family has thirty-seven people in Yang Lian's generation.

Although there are many scholars in the family who can exempt hundreds of acres of land tax, Yang Lian still requires the family to pay the land tax to the court every year.

It can be said that, judging from the information obtained by Zhu Youjian, Yang Lian is simply a clean and honest official who is ashamed by others.

But Zhu Youjian still has no way to completely trust this little old man, just because he must have someone trustworthy to do what he wants to do.

Therefore, Yang Lian's words just now can only make Zhu Youjian confirm that he is a person who speaks out for the people, and he is different from most of the Donglin Party, or most of the civil officials in this era.

It's not that he didn't think that Yang Lian was a treacherous and loyal person, but when he thought of Yang Lian being killed by Wei Zhongxian after he came to power, the whole world felt sorry for him, but he couldn't imagine Yang Lian as a treacherous person.

So after confirming this point, Zhu Youjian made a confession to Yang Lian:

"If you want to reduce the agricultural tax of the common people and guarantee the tax of the imperial court, then the only way to do it is to start with the military settlements and guards."

"No!" Yang Lian immediately sternly said:

"The Weisuo system involves millions of people. If they rise up, the court..."

"So what?" Zhu Youjian said indifferently:
"Could it be that Yang thinks that these millions of people have their own fields?"

In a word, Zhu Youjian held back what Yang Lian wanted to say.

Yes, everyone knows that after the death of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, the nobles and the officers of the guards began to embezzle the army and garrison land.

The military settlement system in the early Ming Dynasty, under the supervision of Zhu Yuanzhang, effectively guaranteed the military expenditure of the Ming Dynasty.

In the first year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, the number of grains garrisoned by the guards of the whole country was more than [-] million shi, and all the taxes and grains of the Ming Dynasty were added together, which was only more than [-] million shi. more than seventy percent.

If Daming can guarantee the level of tax collection in the Hongwu and Yongle years, even if the frontier army is incompetent, it will be able to recruit a new force.

But the immediate problem is that after more than two hundred years of development, the imperial court is full of hereditary interpersonal relationships.

Talentless people are pushed to high positions without doing anything. If you want to maintain the operation of the court, you have to increase the number of officials as much as possible.

As a result, the court fell into an endless cycle of redundant officials and redundant troops.

Redundant bureaucracy refers to the vicious expansion of bureaucracy, the number of personnel far exceeds the needs of normal work, and the administrative efficiency is low.

The redundant army is mainly manifested in the large number of troops, weak combat effectiveness and uselessness.

As long as one of the redundant officials and the redundant army can be solved, Daming will be able to extend his life for another fifty years.

In the choice between officials and the army, Zhu Youjian had no choice but to deal with the redundant army, because those redundant troops had no combat power, even if there were millions of people, they would only be defeated in the face of tens of thousands of cavalry.

"What do you think His Highness..."

After all, Yang Lian couldn't help asking Zhu Youjian's thoughts, but Zhu Youjian leaned forward, and said without changing his face:

"Let's start with Beizhili, where the army is the worst."

"Northern Zhili's [-]-strong army represents not only several million taels of military pay, but also tens of millions of acres of farmland embezzled by guard officers."

As soon as he said this, Yang Lian frowned and said in a deep voice:

"The twenty-six guards of Shangzhi, the eleven guards of Tianshou Mountain, Ji Town... the guards of the northern Zhili..."

"Your Highness may not count too much. If you want to attack Beizhili, what you have to face is more than [-] soldiers and a million guard men!"

Yang Lian stared directly at Zhu Youjian, and finally his voice continued to be low and deep: "Have you thought about it yet?"

Faced with such questioning, Zhu Youjian stood up, walked slowly to the window of the house, looked at the falling white snow, and said after a while:

"Arbitration will lead to mutiny, and non-discipline will lead to subjugation of the country. There is no one to choose, and the same is true for the emperor's brother..."

When he said this, Yang Lian lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking, until a eunuch broke into the bedroom, Yang Lian raised his head to look at Zhu Youjian, bowed and said:

"So, the old man knows what to do..."

After all, Yang Lian backed out, and Zhu Youjian also watched his back walk out, and after a few seconds, he looked at the little eunuch and said:

"Tell me, what's wrong?"

"Return to Your Highness..." The little eunuch hesitated to speak, and finally couldn't help but say:
"There is news from the capital that Concubine Li Kang... Concubine Li Kang's wife... is worried and died!"

　Tomorrow is still two updates of [-] words, and the follow-up will start to speed up the plot party struggle.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)