Daming Military Empire

Chapter 538
The Siberian plateau needs to be developed, and the Siberian plain needs to be contested even more. The battle for Siberia is not only for land, but also not only for resources. The reason why Zhu Cijiong tried his best to seize Siberia is mainly to play up the prestige of Ming Dynasty.

This era is a typical era of the weak and the strong. The rise of great voyages and the scramble for colonies will fundamentally change the world structure. It can be said that whoever wins the battle will control the future.

Under the leadership of Zhu Cijiong, the Ming Empire has a faint tendency to become a superpower. If it continues to develop like this, within ten years, the Ming Empire will be invincible.

Seeing this, the European powers encouraged Tsarist Russia to attack Daming, hoping to slow down the development of Ming, so as to catch up with Ming in all directions.

Under such circumstances, Ming had no choice but to fight, and if he wanted to fight, he had to hurt Tsarist Russia, scare the great powers, let them know that Ming was not easy to mess with, and make them dare not provoke troubles easily again.

How can Tsarist Russia feel the pain?Of course, it is to snatch Siberia, which they have just occupied, so that they can steal chickens without losing money.

How can the great powers feel afraid?It's very simple, catch Tsarist Russia and beat them to death, beat them to the bum, beat them to cry, the great powers will know that the Ming Empire can't afford it!
Now, Siberia has begun to thaw. The five army corps, two naval corps, and one reserve corps stationed there by Daming have survived a cold winter and are in urgent need of supplies.

In the Western Regions, there are five army corps, seven vassal state corps, and 20 captives. The consumption rate of supplies is terrifying, and they need to be replenished all the time.

Zhu Cijiong invited everyone to come here mainly to discuss the allocation of materials. The development of Siberia is only incidental.

After thinking for a while, he simply got up and took a map of the entire territory of Siberia, unfolded it, and spread it on the conference table, and then said solemnly: "Let's discuss the allocation of food, grass and supplies. In order to deal with the upcoming war against Tsarist Russia, The Ming Dynasty assembled two armies in Siberia and the Western Regions. Nearly 200 million soldiers are fighting for the country on the front line. We must do a good job in this logistics. We must let them eat well, wear warm clothes, have sufficient ammunition, and be fully equipped.”

Everyone nodded solemnly when they heard the words. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that soldiers and horses have not moved food and grass first. The most important thing for an army to fight abroad is the supply of materials. The supply of materials is not timely, especially if there is a problem with the supply of food and grass. It may cause the army to feel ashamed without fighting. This kind of thing is simply too numerous to mention in historical records.

Zhu Cijiong pointed to Tunguska City in the Yeni River Basin and continued: "This is the core of Siberia's front line. We must stockpile enough food and grass. Chuyang, how much food and grass are there in Tunguska City?"

Sun Yuanhua heard the words, and quickly cupped his hands and said: "Back to the emperor, according to Marshal Lu's report recently, the food in Tunguska City is less than 200 million shi, and it is estimated that it can only last for about two months. The consumption of fodder is not very big. There are ready-made pastures, which can basically satisfy the appetite of war horses."

Zhu Cijiong nodded and continued to ask: "How much food has the capital raised now?"

Hearing this, Sun Yuanhua said with a little shame: "Back to the emperor, the food and grass raised for Marshal Lu last year and the first three months of this year were basically transported to the Western Regions and South Asia. In the past month or so, I have only raised About 60 shi of grain."

60 shi is only enough to feed a 60 army for a month, and even Lu Xiangsheng's route cannot be guaranteed. This speed is definitely not enough. Of course, Sun Yuanhua cannot be blamed for this. Daming hastily mobilized more than 100 million troops of all kinds to provoke trouble, and it is already very good that the supply of grain and grass in the middle can be without problems.

Zhu Cijiong thought for a while, and said worriedly: "No, the front line of Siberia alone needs to allocate at least 100 million shi of food every month, and it took more than a month to mobilize 60 shi. This speed is too slow."

When Sun Yuanhua heard the words, he and Cheng Guoxiang looked at each other, and they both cupped their hands at the same time and said: "I am guilty."

Zhu Cijiong shook his head and said: "I can't blame you for this, just tell me, if you have any difficulties, I will solve them for you."

Sun Yuanhua and Cheng Guoxiang looked at each other again, and this time it was Cheng Guoxiang who answered, because the household department was mainly responsible for the mobilization of grain and grass, and Sun Yuanhua was only responsible for receiving the goods and sending them to the front line.

Cheng Guoxiang said with a little trepidation: "The emperor forgives the sin, the lack of food transfer is really the fault of my ministers, because last year the old provinces were almost all taxed and collected, and now the food collection needs to be collected from the newly opened provinces of the Ming Dynasty. The cooperation between the Ministry and the local yamen in the new province is still a bit rusty, and there are still many problems in the collection of taxes and food, personnel deployment, and deployment of transportation capacity, so the supply of military rations has been delayed.

It turned out that this was the case. Last year, the Ming Dynasty did use a huge number of troops. In Siberia alone, there were ten regular army corps, two regular navy corps, and vassal state corps, reserve corps, and garrison guards. There are more than 200 million shi of grain, and other places, such as South Asia, Nanyang, and the Eurasian Canal, all need to allocate grain and grass. The consumption of grain and grass by the Ming army has exceeded 300 million shi every month!

However, the tax and food of the original two capitals and thirteen provinces cost more than 2000 million shi, and the rest will be collected from more than 20 newly-built provinces. It's understandable if you don't cooperate well.

That is to say, Daming is not without food now, the tax and food alone can support the daily wear and tear of the two 300 million troops. However, the mobilization involves many links such as collection, transportation, and transfer. will delay things.

For example, the tax and grain of a certain province have been collected to the capital of the province, but a train must be found to transport it to the capital. When the train arrives, someone must go to carry the grain onto the train, which can be thousands of tons at every turn. How much manpower is needed, who will call this person, how to calculate the wages, and who will be responsible for paying them out, all these must be taken care of.

The old province is very familiar with the road, as long as an order is given, the relevant personnel will immediately arrange the matter properly, but in the new province, there may be no relevant person in charge, and even if there is, they may not be very familiar with the business, please do not There are no people, or not enough people are invited, these are all possible.

This is why it is said that fighting the world is easy, but defending the world is difficult. It does not mean that it is easy to conquer a piece of territory, but wars will always have results. If you win, this is yours. If you lose, get out. It is very clear , without much consideration.

It will be different after the place is established. Not to mention suppressing and resisting these things, at least you need to establish an efficient administrative system to manage the place for yourself and collect taxes for yourself; you need to formulate appropriate laws to stipulate what can be done and what What not to do, what to do, what not to do.

And these all take a lot of time, not to say that if you just transfer a bunch of officials there, there will be no problems.

Like this time, there is a problem with the collection of military rations. This problem must be solved, otherwise the supply of food and grass for the more than two million troops on the front line will not be enough, and the trouble will be serious!

(End of this chapter)