I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 185 Showing Our Worth

Chapter 184 Showing Our Worth

Cheng Shijie is definitely not the youngest general in the Ming Dynasty, but it is not surprising that in the 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, he has been promoted from a white body to a first-rank Zuodudu. Mao Wenlong also achieved this by virtue of his surprise attack on Zhenjiang Fort .

However, the official system of the Ming Dynasty is divided into three types: central, local, and military. For example, Sun Yuanhua is the censor of Youqian Capital, which is equivalent to a senior official of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. The third class is equivalent to the fourth in command of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

This is a central official position. He is also the deputy envoy of the Shandong Provincial Procuratorate. This is a local official position, which is equivalent to the deputy president of the provincial court, the deputy chief prosecutor of the provincial procuratorate, and the deputy director of the judicial department in the current provincial public, procuratorate, and judicial organs. And deputy director of the Public Security Bureau.The governor has already written that this is a military and political official position.

Although Cheng Shijie still holds the seal of the Great General Conquering Captives, this is only a representative. He has the power to start a war, and he can send troops on his own initiative to conquer one side without asking for instructions.Of course, Cheng Shijie still needs to complete the formalities ahead of time.

His current official position is Prince Shaobao, which is an honor.Minister of the Ministry of War, this is the central official position. When Sun Chengzong passed through Liaodong, he also served as this official position in order to avoid hindering the court. He himself is an honorary minister of the Ministry of War and has no real power.

Governor of Liaodong military administration, this is Cheng Shijie's actual job.However, such a thing had never happened in Daming for this real job, and Cheng Shijie's speed of promotion was really eye-opening.

Cheng Shijie just stared at the imperial envoy, this servant looked familiar, but it wasn't Cao Huachun, nor Gao Qiqian, Wang Chengen, Wang Zhixin and several other servants Cheng Shijie was familiar with.

In fact, he was wearing the official uniform of a fourth-rank servant. Obviously, he was a high-ranking servant. In the palace, besides the palm prints of the twelve eunuchs, four divisions and eight bureaus, the number of eunuchs could be counted.Of course, most of the twelve supervisors, four divisions and eight bureaus are high-ranking and light-weight.For example, among the six books, the six ministers are of the same level, and no one can deny that the official minister is the top of the six.

The eunuch who delivered the decree walked to Cheng Shijie and lowered his voice, "Our family is Lu Jiuzhen next to Eunuch Cao. Cheng Shaobao can call our family Lu Jiu!"

When Lu Jiuzheng said this, Cheng Shijie understood that he wanted to benefit from changing someone.

Cheng Shijie was not afraid of corruption by his servants. These servants were much better than civil servants. There were quite a few civil servants who received gifts but did nothing. But the servants were different. They wanted word of mouth, and worried that if their reputation was ruined, no one would give them gifts.

At least the high dives do a good job.

Cheng Shijie didn't hide it, and said openly: "The things prepared for His Majesty have been placed on the Jinzhou Port Wharf, a total of [-] ships. Lu Gonggong can count them!"

"There is no need to count. Cheng Shaobao is a smart man, and he must not dare to joke with the emperor."

"That is, that is! By the way, I also prepared a copy for my father-in-law. It is not too much, and it is worth about 2 taels. Please accept it!"

Lu Jiucheng was a little shy: "How embarrassing?"

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about. You can't let the father-in-law go for nothing, right?"

Cheng Shijie's so-called value of 2 taels of silver is of course a value, but it is actually a bunch of worthless handicrafts, which were valuable in the Ming Dynasty.

Lu Jiucheng smiled and said: "Then our family will accept it reluctantly, and it's no exception!"

The unspoken meaning of "not to be an example" is "to do it again", and everyone understands this.

Lu Jiucheng was very satisfied with the harvest of this trip. He got 2 taels of silver in one trip. Where can I find such a fat job?What made him even more satisfied was that even the little eunuch beside him got a lot of benefits from Cheng Shijie. Depending on their status, it ranged from tens of taels to hundreds of taels, which wasn't too much, but no one would feel less.

Lu Jiuzheng didn't even eat any food, and didn't drink the wind wine, so he returned to the capital directly.

Emperor Chongzhen had no money, and wanted to reward the army, he also needed wine, meat and food, but the prices in the capital were extremely high. Cheng Shijie prepared for Emperor Chongzhen 15 shi of wheat, [-] shi of rice, and [-] catties of meat, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Thirty boats were fully loaded.

Watching Lu Jiuzheng leave Liaoyang, Sun Chengzong looked at Cheng Shijie and sighed for a long time: "You don't follow them from now on..."

Speaking of this, Sun Chengzong felt that he had talked too much.

"Teacher, do you know a word!"

"What?"

"It's better to offend a gentleman than to offend a villain!"

Cheng Shijie looked at Lu Jiuzheng's back and said: "They are all out-and-out villains. Maybe they can't do anything, but they are capable of doing bad things. If they want to do it, they must be approved by the palace. People like them, Don't offend them if you can, and if you offend them, you will be beaten to death with a stick, and you must not give them a chance to harm others!"

Sun Chengzong smiled wryly and said, "The old man is pedantic!"

"Just like Zhou Dunyi's "Ai Lian Shuo", the mud will not be stained, and the lotus will not be demonized!"

Cheng Shijie smiled: "I have a very close relationship with Gao Qiqian, and I have a good relationship with Cao Huachun. If I bribe them, they can cover up the rumors for me. Now, I am afraid that the memorials to impeach me have piled up!"

As the Battle of Liaoyang came to an end, the families of the fallen soldiers also arrived in Baliwan City in Haizhou one after another. The families of the fallen soldiers included men, women and children.It would be better if it was the family members of Ning Haijun's officers and soldiers. Ning Haijun didn't have the problem of being unable to eat or wear clothes.But the families of Dongjiang Army and Guan Ning Army are different.

It is simply a copy of the Dengzhou Weizuo Thousand Households. The family members of these soldiers are in ragged clothes, yellow and thin, and their faces are dirty and disheveled. Men, women, old and young are waiting outside the city, with anxious expressions, and thousands of people calling for it. Noisy, with a crying voice.

"My son, my son, where are you?"

"Father, father, where are you?"

"You are heartless, you are willing to come back!"

"Brother! Brother!"

"Uncle! Uncle!"

"Third, third!"

……

Whether it was the Ning Haijun, the Guan Ning Army, or the soldiers of the Dongjiang Army, when they heard the shouts of their relatives, they ran out in unison, looking for their relatives in the crowd.

If they found them, they hugged each other and cried loudly. Those who couldn't find them ran around in a hurry, calling out the names of their relatives, and those family members were also trying to find their relatives, and the scene was extremely chaotic.

From time to time, there was a sound of wailing, and many family members were desperate to learn that the pillar of their family could not return, and what came back was just a corpse. The despair and pain can be imagined. I don’t know how many people hugged him The cold corpse was crying so hard that it was heartbreaking.

Due to the cold weather and natural refrigerators, these fallen soldiers were not cremated immediately, but returned to their roots and brought back to their ancestral home for burial.

Cheng Shijie mobilized [-] projects and [-] households to quickly build the coffin so that all the soldiers who died in battle could have a home.

Cheng Shijie silently looked at those poor people who were dying of pain. After a long time, he sighed: "I... Did I do something wrong? If I hadn't forced them to defend to the death, perhaps not so many people would have died. Their Loved ones don't have to suffer so much..."

Sun Chengzong sighed and said: "It is better to cry all the way than to cry all the way, and to cry with one surname is not as good as a family. You need to know that if you didn't force them to stick to Haizhou, once Jiannu broke through Haizhou, Gaizhou, Fuzhou, Jinding There are more than one million people who may not be able to survive, and the number of bloody and tearful people is not limited to hundreds of thousands?"

Although Cheng Shijie understands the truth, the problem is that it is very difficult to accept.

Cheng Shijie looked at those Liao people who were shivering in the cold wind, sighed, and said, "Hurry up and give them a few sets of cotton clothes, let them eat a few good meals, and let them recover a little bit of vitality."

Now in southern Liaoning, supplies are no longer in short supply. Of course, the people who were assigned cotton clothes kowtowed to Cheng Shijie to thank him.

Cheng Shijie looked at the faces with tears of gratitude and reluctance, and he was very emotional, and said loudly to everyone: "Live well, the worst moment is over, and everything will be fine!"

A Liao citizen with white beard and hair shouted tremblingly: "Cheng Shuai, I have long wanted to come back...just!"

"Just what?"

"If Jiannu comes to beat us again, will you come to rescue us?"

"Yes! Where did Jiannu come from, I will fight there! If they dare to follow our territory to play wild, the tens of thousands of corpses lying outside Baliwan and Liaozhongwei City are their role models!"

Zu Dabi, Zu Dale, Zu Kefa, Wu Sangui and others bid farewell to Cheng Shijie.

Cheng Shijie looked at Zu Dabi and said, "Thank you Zu Shuai for my support. Without Guan Ningjun's help, our battle would be difficult!"

Zu Dabi laughed and said, "I won't thank you for you, let's go to Beijing right away, thank you in person!"

"As the saying goes, if you borrow and repay, it's not difficult to borrow again!"

Cheng Shijie said with a faint smile: "This time, the brothers of the Guan Ning Army have given their full support. If the commander-in-chief doesn't show it, it's not justified, Second General Zu!"

"The end is here!"

"You have lost a lot. I will give you 50 crossbows, [-] crossbow arrows, [-] pairs of armor, [-] saber handles, [-] shi of grain and beans, and [-] shi of horse supplies!"

Zu Dabi looked surprised: "Is this too much?"

"Compared to the lives of my brothers, what are these things worth?"

Cheng Shijie then said to Wu Sangui: "Uncle Chang, I will give you a thousand crossbow machines, 20 crossbow arrows, and [-] pairs of iron armor..."

The loss of the Wu family army is also an objective fact. Although he doesn't like Wu Sangui's character, the more generous Cheng Shijie is, the soldiers of the Guan Ning army, especially the wounded soldiers due to injuries, they will not go back.

In addition to the soldiers who died in battle under Wu Sangui's command, there are six to seven thousand family members of soldiers who migrated from Ningyuan, and there will be follow-up people. These people are all surnamed Cheng.

Wu Sangui and Zu Dabi understood that Cheng Shijie gave them these equipments just to silence them. They suffered heavy casualties this time, and all those wounded soldiers were treasures. But the problem is that they themselves do not have the medical conditions. Instead, the navy can get better treatment.

"Cheng Shuai, see you in Beijing!"

"Good talk!"

"Why do you have to spend so much money on them?" Looking at the soldiers of the Guan Ning Army who were sweating profusely as they carried the goods with their upper bodies bare against the cold wind.

Sun Zhichen asked with a smile: "Aren't you afraid that they won't return once they leave?"

Cheng Shijie shrugged his shoulders disapprovingly: "If they never come back, it means that they are really stupid and beyond cure!"

Sun Zhichen smiled wryly and said, "Commander, I still don't understand why you spent so much money on Guan Ningjun. You know, Guan Ningjun's record has not been very good..."

"I asked you to take a group of soldiers who have been hungry all year round to fight. Can you give me a good record?"

"How can it be possible to let the horse run without letting the horse eat grass?"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "Guan Ning's army got a lot of military expenses from the imperial court, but the problem is that these military expenses were spent on the generals' debauchery, and did not fall on ordinary soldiers. Let's not talk about anything else, let's talk about Cao Wen Uncle and nephew Zhao, the rank is not low, right? How are they treated? What is the level of equipment? This battle, you have also seen that Zu Dabi and Wu Sangui led their descendants, and their equipment is no worse than that of the Ning Navy. , do you know how much they spend a year?"

Sun Zhichen shook his head: "I really don't know!"

"This is actually only a part of the money, and the biggest part is in the hands of Wu Xiang of Zu Dashou!"

Cheng Shijie sighed and said, "Guess how many lands Wu Xiang owns?"

"One hundred thousand mu of fertile land?"

"Guess again!"

"100 million acres!"

"Triple times!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "For a total of 300 million mu, almost [-]% of the soldiers in the Guanning Army are actually treated similarly to the guards in the interior. They are all slaves to the general."

Cheng Shijie naturally knew that now that Jiannu and Daming had changed their offensive and defensive positions, Jiannu's next operation was to show weakness, and might beg for surrender, lower the court's vigilance against them, and delay the negotiation.

Cheng Shijie's wooing of the Guanning Army is mainly to attract the low-level soldiers of the Guanning Army and their families. The climate in western Liaoning and eastern Liaoning is similar, and it is also suitable for the living environment in eastern Liaoning. As long as there are enough people, Cheng Shijie can crush Jiannu to death .

Just like now, if Cheng Shijie attacks again and Jiannu does not fight, and continues to escape to the northeast or northwest, even if Cheng Shijie tries his best, he can only chase for one or two thousand miles. .

Since ancient times, no dynasty has ever been able to completely defeat a powerful nomad in a head-on confrontation, never!
When the Han Dynasty fought against the Xiongnu, they first divided the Xiongnu into northern and southern parts, and then gradually eliminated them.The fact that the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Turks was actually as early as the Sui Dynasty, when Changsun Sheng and Pei Ju split up the Turks.Eastern Turks are divided into East and West Turks, and nomads are all like this. If they are isolated, they will be weak, and if they are weak, they will be in civil strife.

The Xiongnu, Turks, Tubo, Jurchen...these grassland empires that once flourished for a while died in this way.

Cheng Shijie now wants to leave a retreat for the officers and men of the Guanning Army. As long as they can't survive, they can get what they want in southern Liaoning and on Cheng Shijie's territory with a slave's head. Land, food, and treatment.

Guan Ning's army is not monolithic, they will split, as long as some people support Cheng Shijie, then it will be much easier to do it again.

Sun Chengzong had to sigh that Cheng Shijie was too good at grasping people's hearts.

In fact, from the moment Cheng Shijie took over Liaonan, Jiannu's nightmare began.

With Cheng Shijie around, Jiannu had no chance for a fair decisive battle.

……

Jinzhou, Ninghai General’s Mansion’s backyard, in the warm pavilion on the left wing, because the house is burning with earth dragons and walls of fire, although the outside is bitingly cold, the house is as warm as spring.Yang Yunniang was wearing a milky white skirt at this time, flipping through the ledger.

Yang Yunniang's maidservant is also adopted by her master Feng Sanniang. Feng Cui'er pushed the door in anxiously: "Committee Yang...Committee Yang...Committee Yang!"

Yang Yunniang frowned, and said helplessly, "Tui'er, when will you get rid of your frivolous problems?"

Shen Cui'er panted heavily, leaning on the table and said: "Marshal... Marshal... you've been made Duke!?

Yang Yunniang smiled lightly and said, "If I didn't know about it until you were all yelling, there would be no room for me in this Golden State!"

Shen Cui'er opened her mouth wide and said, "Ah...you know everything?"

Yang Yunniang sighed and said, "Not only did I know that the commander-in-chief worshiped the Ministry of War and was named Hai Guogong, but I also knew that the little girl from the Xu family is gone!"

Xu Shumin Miss Xu Si left Liaonan because she knew that she had no chance.

But Yang Yunniang is also having a headache. If she is practical, she should move out of Ninghai General Military Mansion. But the problem is that although Cheng Shijie is lukewarm towards Yang Yunniang, he is very kind to Xiao Jiaxin. No matter how tired or busy he is, he will spare time Hug Xiao Jiaxin, now Xiao Jiaxin is babbling.

It is precisely because of Cheng Shijie's teaching that Xiao Jiaxin's accent is Mandarin.

Her master Feng Sanniang also advised Yang Yunniang, since Cheng Shijie has no interest in her and has no idea of ​​entering the house, why should she post it?

With Yang Yunniang's status and power today, what kind of man is she looking for and can't find?

But Yang Yunniang has her own worries and ideas. She is in Cheng's mansion. No matter how bad Xiao Jiaxin is, she is also Cheng Shijie's adopted daughter. Like Cheng Anjing and Cheng Anning, at least the household registration given to Xiaojiaxin by the Liaodong Management Committee, her surname is Cheng, his real name is Cheng Jiaxin, and his household registration is also in Cheng Shijie's name.

Once she leaves Cheng's mansion, what will Cheng Jiaxin do?
Thus, Yang Yunniang had an excuse: "It's all for the children!"

"Win! Win!"

At this time, the military households, farmers, workers, merchants, and left-behind soldiers in Jinzhou shouted wildly, and their joy was beyond words.

For this war, the Ning Navy was dispatched in full force. They endured huge sacrifices and won a huge victory. What could be more exciting than this!
This time Ning Haijun really beat up Jiannu, Cheng Shijie's promotion is inevitable!
The bigger Cheng Shijie's official position is, the bigger the territory he manages; the bigger the territory he manages, the more opportunities for everyone to follow behind and make a fortune. Is there anything more gratifying than this?

In a short period of time, the whole of southern Liaoning fell into a carnival.

Since Nurhachi's rebellion, the Ming army has retreated steadily, lost cities and lands again and again, and there are mountains of corpses and blood outside the pass. The people of Ming have held back this tone for more than 30 years. They dreamed that the Ming army would win a big victory. Now, Their wish finally came true!
When Cheng Shijie returned to Jinzhou from Haizhou, there were already a sea of ​​people more than ten miles outside the city of Jinzhou, and there was no room to stand on the side of the road. Fortunately, the weather was cold and the ditches on the roadside had been frozen solid.

Push the cart into the ditch and stand on the roof of the carriage, you can also see Cheng Shijie on the road.

Speaking of which, carriage-style carriages are also a characteristic of southern Liaoning. In the Central Plains, there are very few carriage-type carriages with large and small carriages. Most of them are flat-bed carriages and ox carts. However, it is too cold in Liaodong, and riding in a carriage is also a pain.In particular, Cheng Shijie's horse-drawn caravan has caused a stir.

Of course, rich people buy two-wheeled or four-wheeled horse-drawn carriages directly from the carriage factory. Even if it is a cargo-type flatbed carriage, there is a small compartment in front of the carriage that can shelter from the wind and cold, just like a truck. Same as the cab.

The common people cheered loudly and rushed towards them, handing the delicious wine and food in their hands to these soldiers. Shang Keyi, the former Dongjiang soldier, saw his nose a little sore, and murmured: "This is the first time our old Shang has fought a war all his life." To be loved by the people like this! For this love, it is worth risking your life for them!"

Shang Kexi looked at the Liao people kneeling on the shore, his heart was ups and downs, and then he thought about wanting to sit still and watch the tigers fight, his face was hot, and he suddenly had the urge to find a crack in the ground.

Among the crowd, Xu Shumin looked at Catherine beside her and said, "Let's go, let's go too."

Hearing this, Catherine was almost ready to cry.

She and her fleet were forced to flee to the far east three years ago, but they never thought that when they arrived near Dengzhou, they were taken prisoner by pirates for nearly three years, first in the hands of Meng Xianhan Although Cheng Shijie didn't take them as prisoners, he didn't give them the necessary help.

They can only rely on their own two sides to work hard to make money. Some work as teachers at Golden State College, some work in factories, and some, like Catherine, become maidservants of rich ladies.

After getting along for more than half a year, Catherine finally gained Xu Shumin's trust, and Xu Shumin actually had limited trust in Catherine. This time, Xu Shumin used nearly 600 people from Xu's family, a total of five sandboats, to go to sea.

The three large ships of the Ming Dynasty were Sand Chuan, Fu Chuan (built by Jifu), and Guangzhou Ship (made in Guangdong). In fact, Sand Chuan was a kind of anti-sand flat-bottomed wooden boat used for navigation in ancient times.Appeared in the Tang Dynasty.The small ones are 250-400 tons, the medium ones are 500-800 tons, and the large sand ships are over 1200 tons.

The five large sand ships that Xu Shumin gave to Catherine were actually not large, but medium-sized ships. Each ship was [-] tons, and they were fully loaded with materials purchased from southern Liaoning, such as white sugar, blue and white porcelain, sea pearls, Wool cloth, potato wine, and plenty of steel.

That's right, what Catherine buys the most is steel. Steel is 160 taels of silver per ton, which is equivalent to [-] yuan per catty. This price is not cheap. Of course, due to the large quantity, it is slightly lower than the market price by [-]%.

Catherine had no money, so he promised Xu Shuyuan that as long as it was shipped to Venice, he could earn ten times more in exchange.The profit is comparable to that of silk, so it's good that Catherine doesn't mention silk.

When it comes to silk, Xu Shumin asked people to buy silk in Shanghai. They collected a full 12 pieces and spent more than 100 million taels of silver. The steel part was purchased by him with a bank loan in Xu's name, which cost more than 600 taels. Ton.

Catherine's plan succeeded, and she will open the commercial trade route between Venice and Ming Dynasty.

"Which of you is the owner of the ship!"

Catherine stepped forward and said, "I am!"

"You lower your sails and you can only go to sea when you are allowed to go to sea!"

"why?"

"Don't worry, it's a military secret!"

Soon Catherine knew why they were not allowed to go to sea. Cheng Shijie's convoy arrived at the wharf of Jinzhou Port, and there were still huge crowds of people and businessmen going to see them off.

When Cheng Shijie walked towards the warship along the trestle bridge, he didn't know who was leading the way. Tens of thousands of people on the pier knelt down and hissed, "Cheng Shuai, you must have a safe journey!"

Cheng Shijie, Sun Chengzong, and Sun Zhichen didn't stay in Jinzhou. They had to go to the capital to present their victory and hold a New Year's military parade, so they had to go. After all, time was too tight.

Cheng Shijie boarded the new type of ship of the Ninghai Navy. This is the first batch of 650-material large ships produced by the Lushun Shipyard of the Ninghai Navy. The full-load displacement is equivalent to [-] tons.

This new type of warship has a slender hull and five masts. With full sails, it has a speed of [-] knots, which is two knots faster than the speed of the [-]-gun ship at [-] knots. Don't underestimate these two Knots of speed, on the battlefield, this speed advantage is enough to change the outcome of the war.

Cheng Shijie's warship is the "Golden State", and adjacent to it are the four King Kongs of the Ning Navy Navy, namely the Haizhou, Fuzhou, and Gaizhou. These four warships are all two thousand ships. , equipped with 24 three-inch smoothbore guns.

The main reason why the infantry did not have time to equip more three-inch guns was actually to prioritize the equipment of the Four King Kongs. The Four King Kongs consisted of 96 three-inch guns, which exhausted the huge production capacity of the Gun Bureau.

The three-inch guns fired open-ended ammunition. Although the smoothbore breech-loading guns were not as accurate as the breech-loading rifled guns, the problem was that the three-inch guns had a range of 2000 meters, which was much farther than the Franc machine guns.

At least six to seven hundred meters away. In naval battles, the advantages of this kind of artillery will be directly converted into combat effectiveness.

As the Jinzhou sailed to sea, the Gaizhou, Haizhou and Fuzhou followed closely behind. In addition to the four King Kongs, there were more than 200 warships from the Ningjun Navy accompanying them.

Of course, it was not because Cheng Shijie was going to the capital to pretend to be aggressive, but because there were too many heads of captives and slaves, which took up a huge carrying capacity, followed by Ning Haijun going to the capital, from left and right In addition, there are three generals of the artillery and two generals of the cavalry. The whole army has a total of nine generals and more than [-] troops.

Until there was only a little sharp sail shadow left on the sea level, the Liao people on the pier still knelt and kowtowed to it, and none of them stood up.

Seeing Cheng Shijie and his fleet leaving, Catherine said sourly: "Giovanni, as you can see, this is just a governor of Ming Dynasty, he has tens of thousands of troops (exaggeration), he just won the battle against Jin Guo The army is said to have wiped out more than [-] enemies!"

"This is more than the entire population of Venice!"

Catherine said with a faint smile: "This is an opportunity, if you have a good relationship with Duke Cheng..."

"But what shall we do?"

"It's simple, show our worth!"

(End of this chapter)