Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 376 The outbreak of war
Li Jiao said rightly: "There will be no more problems in this way."

Chongzhen stared at Li Jiaozheng and began to fall into deep thought, wondering if he should give him a chance?

However, Li Jiaozheng mistakenly thought that Chongzhen was worried about money, and immediately said: "My lord, in fact, the construction of the lake embankment and the river embankment is a huge investment in the early stage, but once the lake embankment and river embankment are built, the huge initial investment will be reduced." It can be offset by selling Hutian and Jiangtian, and there may even be a surplus after the offset.”

"Hutian and Jiangtian?" Chongzhen's eyes lit up when he heard the words.

Only then did Chongzhen remember that Pan Jixun also sold polders when he ruled the Yellow River.

"Your Majesty, look over there." Li Jiao pointed to a large beach not far away, and said, "This beach is at least tens of thousands of acres, but because it is too close to the lake, the water seepage is serious. There are silt flats, and every flood season will be submerged by the rising lake water, so it is impossible to cultivate normally."

"But if the lake embankment is built, this piece of land will be fertile land with a little improvement."

After a pause, he continued: "There are more than a hundred tidal flats like this beside Dongting Lake? So after the lake embankment is repaired, at least one million mu of fertile land will be available at your fingertips."

Chongzhen couldn't help feeling a little emotional when he heard the words.

This is the difference between a competent official and a mediocre official. A mediocre official can only take a step forward with a whip, but a competent official can carry out work creatively. Not only can he do his job as well as possible, but he can also find ways to reduce expenditure and increase income.

"Okay, I remember what you said." Chongzhen said happily, "Go back and listen."

After sending away Li Jiaozheng and other officials, Chongzhen immediately wrote a letter and arranged for someone to send it to Nanjing to hand it over to the cabinet.

Of course, Chongzhen was only a "suggestion", suggesting that the cabinet should let Li Jiaozheng, the prefect of Yuezhou, and the censor of Youqian capital, and the censor of water control, be responsible for all water conservancy projects in Huguang.

At the same time, he wrote a letter to Ma Mingpao.

Ask Ma Mingju to prepare for the construction of the Water Conservancy and Grain Bank, raising a total of [-] million taels of silver.

The two million taels of silver need to be earmarked for special use, and are only used for water conservancy in Huguang.

However, the construction of water conservancy projects will not directly generate profits. If there is no benefit, the gentry and merchants in the south of the Yangtze River will definitely not be able to raise funds, so they have to be linked to the grain trading in Huguang Province.

In other words, the food in Huguang will be purchased and sold by the water conservancy and grain bank in the future.

In this way, the water conservancy and food bank will become profitable, and someone will recognize it.

Moreover, there is another advantage of having the water conservancy and grain bank conduct unified purchase and sales of grain in Huguang, that is, to prevent unscrupulous grain merchants from maliciously lowering grain prices.

In fact, Chongzhen's current layout is already moving in this direction.

For example, industrial and commercial banks are a powerful tool used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to control industry and commerce.

For example, the shipping shipbuilding silver number is a powerful tool used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to control the shipping industry.

Another example is the water conservancy and grain bank, which is a powerful tool used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to control the purchase and sale of grain across the country.

As for the millions of acres of lake and river fields that Li Jiao is repairing the lake embankment and river embankment, these are first-class fertile land, and they are specially used to settle the town soldiers in Wuchang.

Wuchang Zhentai will become a demonstration project that Chongzhen strives to build.

Whether the chieftains in Guangxi, Xiangxi, and Yunguichuan can be successfully reformed depends on Wuchang Township.

Chongzhen is now becoming more and more proficient in the use of financial tools. Without spending a tael of silver, the white wolf can get [-] million silver from the pockets of Jiangnan Jinshen, which is specially used for the construction of water conservancy projects in Huguang.

After finishing the major project of building water conservancy, the renovation work of Huguangda granary is basically completed.

Chongzhen believes that at least until the population of Daming has not ushered in explosive growth, there should be no more food crises. After all, in addition to Huguang Granary, Xuzhou, Guide and Kaifeng Prefecture will also start large-scale food production this year. Sweet potatoes, bracts, and potatoes are grown, so the food crisis is unlikely to break out again.

With no agricultural instability and food security guaranteed, Daming would at least have no more riots.

Once the territory of Daming was stabilized, the common people would only think about living a peaceful life. At this time, they could concentrate the power of the whole country to launch the Northern Expedition against Jiannu.

……

In mid-March, Chongzhen returned to Wuchang.

At this time, 27 new troops had arrived in Wuchang and were stationed in Hanyang Mansion, Wuchang Mansion, and Huangzhou Mansion to continue their arduous training.

Among them, 2 new troops were stationed at the newly built iron smelting workshop at the northern foot of Guishan Mountain.

As soon as he returned to Wuchang, Chongzhen heard the good news that the first ironmaking furnace in Hanyang Iron Smelting Works had been built, and the first furnace of molten iron had been smelted three days ago.

Chongzhen was overjoyed, and was about to cross the river to visit Hanyang Mansion, but received a secret letter from Xi'an from Zuo Maodi.

When I opened the letter, I found that Jiannu actually launched a surprise attack on Guihua before the beginning of spring. This time, Puppet Shun was caught off guard, because Puppet Shun had agreed with Khalkha, Chahar and Junggar tribes to gather troops It was in the autumn of this year, but Jiannu rushed to do it before the spring.

It is said that Dorgon conscripted more than [-] troops and surrounded Guihua City.

Li Yan, who was stationed in Guihua, organized several counterattacks, but they were all defeated by Jiannu.

In the secret letter, Zuo Maodi specifically mentioned Jiannu's firearms unit, saying that Jiannu invented a self-generating firearm, which was more convenient than the previous matchlock gun and seemed to be more lethal.

Because the firearms were not as sharp as Jiannu, Li Yan's several counterattacks were disintegrated.

However, Jiannu did not rush to launch a strong attack, but began to dig a trench around Guihua City.

Hearing that the naturalization was in a hurry, Gao Yigong, the puppet Shunquan general, immediately led the main force of the rear battalion out of Hetao to rescue them, but they were blocked by the slave-building army led by Dorgon near Junzijin, and there was a stalemate for a while.

Well, this has become the turning point of the battle of Songjin again, the Xuzhou war is like this, and the naturalization war is still like this.

Jiannu can be regarded as eating marrow and knowing the taste, because he has tasted the sweetness, so every time he encounters a tough battle, he will follow the pine brocade war and follow the prescription again.

Chongzhen handed it to Zhu Cijiong after watching the intensive.

After reading it, Zhu Cijiong gave it to Xu Yingwei and Yan Yingyuan.

After the three of them had finished watching, Chongzhen said, "Talk about it, all of you."

"Jiannu is fighting for aid at the siege." Zhu Cijiong said, "The attack on Guihua City is just an illusion. Its real intention is to lure the main force of the pseudo-shun rear battalion from the Hetao to the grassland and annihilate them in the field."

Xu Yingwei said: "I think it's true to build slaves to besiege the city, and it's true to send aid."

Yan Yingyuan said: "That's right, Dorgon wants to complete his work in one battle, and through this battle, eliminate the threat from Tumotechuan and Hetao."

Having said this, Yan Yingyuan said again: "Compared to the battle of naturalization, I think the self-generating firecrackers that Master Zuo mentioned in his secret letter are more noteworthy. This is probably a flintlock."

Chongzhen said: "It's not very possible, it's simply a flintlock."

After a short pause, Chongzhen said again: "And I can guess who built it for Jiannu."

"Tang Ruowang." Zhu Cijiong said with a dark face, "Qin Tianjian Zheng Tang Ruowang was originally a missionary from the West, so he must have seen a flintlock gun before, and it is not surprising that he can make it."

Yan Yingyuan said: "My lord, this person should be eliminated early."

"It's not easy." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "I have already ordered Li Ruolian to eradicate Tang Ruowang if he had the opportunity, but Li Ruolian replied that the church where Tang Ruowang lived was guarded by hundreds of slaves and red armored lamas, and there were even white armored soldiers when they went in and out. Accompanying, so there is no chance to use the mobile phone, even close. "

After a short pause, Chongzhen said again: "But you don't have to worry too much."

A flintlock is also different from a flintlock. With a sharp flintlock, you must have the tactics of a flintlock. Otherwise, a flintlock is just an enhanced matchlock gun, and it is difficult to subvert the combat effectiveness.

In terms of tactics, the Ming army has an incomparable advantage over Jiannu.

Chongzhen asked again: "Let's all talk about it, which one has a better chance of winning the battle of naturalization?"

Zhu Cijiong said: "I think that the pseudo-shun has a better chance of winning. The pseudo-shun generals in the rear camp may not be as good as Hong Chengchou, but the generals in the rear camp such as Zhang Neng and Ma Chongxi are better than Li Fuming, Wang Pu, and Ma Ke. There are too many people, and the frontier troops in the eight towns of Datong, Xuanfu, and Jizhen can't compare with the Puppet Shunhouying, so I thought that it was impossible for Jiannu to repeat the story of Songjin. A big somersault."

Yan Yingyuan said: "My minister's view is exactly the opposite of that of King Ding. I think that Jiannu will win the war more. From Shanhaiguan to Guguan and then to Tongguan, Pseudo-Shun and Jiannu have never won a frontal battle. Compared with me The Ming Frontier Army is not much stronger, not to mention that the Puppet Shun did not have the slightest advantage in terms of military strength in this battle of naturalization."

After this pause, Yan Yingyuan said: "More importantly, the number of firearms equipped by the Puppet Shun Army is not many and they are far less sharp than Jiannu's firearms, so the chances of winning are slim."

Chongzhen's eyes turned to Xu Yingwei who was still thinking.

"Xu Yingwei, what about you?" Chongzhen asked directly, "What do you think?"

Xu Yingwei said: "Your Majesty, I think this victory is unpredictable, but if it is just a battle between the Puppet Shun Houying and Jiannu, then the Puppet Shunhou Battalion will be defeated, but if the Puppet Shunhou camp will lose the whole country's soldiers In the decisive battle of Jiannu, at the same time, Khalkha, Junggar, Chahar and other Mongolian tribes also rushed to help in the battle, Jiannu will undoubtedly lose!"

Chongzhen said with a smile: "If you say that, only God knows the outcome of this battle."

Zhu Cijiong said: "Father, should we also step in and send troops from the direction of Henan?"

"We won't join in the fun." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "Now that Jiannu is fighting against Puppet Shun, we happened to quell the rebellion in Yunnan first, and if there is still time, we will destroy Zhang Xianzhong along the way."

All in all, unless the pseudo-shun is in danger of destroying the country, Ming will never send troops to respond.

Under the premise that the pseudo-shun will not destroy the country, the harder the two families fight, the more beneficial it will be for Daming.

(End of this chapter)