stubborn thief

Chapter 476
No one thinks too many free cities.

Just when Sunday forcefully informed Hami of the ins and outs of his return, the Chinese army staff officer He Huchen came over and interrupted the conversation between the two. He clasped his fists and said, "Commander, the horse has been changed."

"The military situation is like fire, and the order is to break out of the camp and go east." Liu Chengzong raised his eyes to look at the sun, turned his head to Sunday and said forcefully: "General Zhou didn't eat anything on the way, so go west with me first, and eat something on horseback. I have something else I want you to take back."

The soldiers assembled immediately, leaving only a small group to pack up the tents, and soon the Huben camp spread out and set foot on the long yellow sand.

Sunday Qiang followed Liu Chengzong for a long time. Although he was only [-] steps behind Liu Chengzong, he never heard Liu Chengzong's call. He could only see him up and down with the horse's back in front, staring at the desert without saying a word. The three-way brigade.

He didn't know how long it took, he felt it was four miles away before he heard the guard say: "General Zhou, the commander-in-chief invites you to come forward."

After he rode forward, the surrounding guards held banners and separated from front to back, from left to right, and opened the cordon of ten horse bodies during the march, then he heard Liu Chengzong say: "Go back and tell my brother, Babai surrendered and he surrendered. Don't treat Hami like that." Garrison, no taxes, but the best weapons, soldiers and horses must be forced to go to Tianshan as soon as possible."

Zhou Riqiang didn't understand yet, he clasped his fists in answer, "Yes!", and then asked: "I heard that Turpan is recruiting Ding Jianjun, which general will the commander transfer to Hami?"

"No one." Liu Chengzong shook his head expressionlessly and said, "I don't intend to start a war with Turpan."

"This……"

Zhou Riqiang did not expect Liu Chengzong to have such an attitude towards Hami, and hurriedly said: "That is Hami. In the past hundred years, Hami has never been as easy as it is today. I hope the commander-in-chief thinks twice!"

This is the great cause of regaining Hami that makes him feel excited. Just like the fate of Hami in Daming in the past, Sunday Qiang absolutely does not want it to become a fantasy.

In fact, in Zhou Riqiang's view, only the Marshal's Mansion has the ability to regain Hami now. He hopes to persuade Liu Chengzong to pay attention to Hami.

Liu Chengzong obviously didn't pay enough attention to his persuasion, he just took out a piece of jerky from the horse's backpack with a smile, put it in his mouth and chewed it quietly.

The brigade marched silently, and the hooves of the horses stepped rhythmically on the sand while the horses were up and down, causing the riders on the horses to collide with their armor.

After Liu Chengzong swallowed the jerky, he said in a serious manner: "I have the impression that General Zhou is far-sighted, and this time he was a little impulsive, but it's not bad."

In fact, Liu Chengzong's attitude towards Zhou Riqiang is very happy in his heart.

All he thinks about is rations, military strength, tactics and victory, so that others can think of something more important than a bite under the conditions he created.

Recovering the lost land is a more important thing, and it is even more important to complete the great unfinished business of the previous dynasty.

"Babai has surrendered, but Hami belongs to him. He is a small nobleman. Turpan will eventually take Hami back."

After all, Liu Chengzong changed the subject and his face was full of confidence: "Of course, we can take Hami back as many times as they can take it away, but..."

Hope was ignited again on Sunday Qiang's face: "Just?"

"It's just that this is not the key to the Hami problem. The key is an arithmetic problem."

Liu Chengzong looked at Zhou Riqiang, and said with a smile: "General Zhou is not familiar with military books and battle books, but he is very good at counting. Let's put it this way, I have seen Yaerqiang's blunderbuss and armor on Wala. Forged armor bows and knives are good. The melee is short on guns."

In fact, the blunderbuss were not necessarily short. He had seen Yarkand's self-made blunderbusses and purchased blunderbusses in the hands of Batur Huntaiji, and they were all quite long.

Individual firearms are the advantage of the Central Plains Dynasty, because the firearms of this era have not yet developed enough to eliminate all weapons and armor, and there is only one irreplaceable advantage. It is simple to manufacture and use, and it is the easiest to form an army quickly.

The bureaucratic centralization system of the Central Plains Dynasty, the huge handicraft industry scale, and the huge population are the biggest advantages of using firearms. In the vast majority of tribal aristocratic or feudal aristocratic societies that have no mature craftsman management system and centralized power in the world, what can they do? Talk about standardization?
Of course, this is not to say that there is no standardized firearms, and all kinds of firearms themselves are not bad.

The human body is too fragile for gunpowder weapons, and even a kicker with no purpose of killing can kill a person with a small stone.

Not to mention a special pipe and an iron ball stuffed in it, long or short, far or near, can kill people.

The advantage of the Marshal's Mansion is that Liu Chengzong knows better than anyone that the development of firearms is inseparable from the development of handicrafts. Using the craftsmen from the Central Plains, he quickly established a relatively large and complete gun manufacturing system in Qinghai.

This determines that in the northwest, the Khanate, which is about the size of the Marshal's Mansion, cannot have more guns than him... Not to mention that the size of Yarkand is much smaller than the entire Marshal's Mansion, almost the same as the Xining Mansion.

"Turpan can mobilize [-] to [-] troops. Hami is a small city with poor terrain. Fortunately, it is a small city that is easy to defend. You need at least a battalion to defend it. You also need to be prepared for internal and external cooperation, and what will you do if the enemy does not come to attack you?"

After Liu Chengzong finished speaking, he threw the question to Zhou Riqiang: "Where does the rations for 3000 soldiers come from? You can figure it out. If you figure it out, I will send you 3000 people to guard Hami. If you can't figure it out, you can tell my brother as I said."

Sunday Qiang thought of this too simply.

It is easy for people to do extraordinary feats with enthusiasm, just like Zhou Riqiang, the first Han general to climb the top of Hami City in a century.

The general did not have many soldiers and horses. Under his call, the eighteen Mongolian Arhats, more than a hundred shipbuilders, and three hundred Mongolian Popeyes in the Navy Yamen were all wearing armor and holding weapons, and they were ready to share with the small city. Survival preparation.

He felt that with the strong military strength of the Marshal's Mansion, fighting in Hami, as long as they could defend and get a large army to help them, they would be able to easily drive away the troops assembled in Turpan.

But war is not simply two minus one,

How many troops can hold Hami, how long it will take for these troops to be stationed in Hami, how long they will stay if the enemy does not come, how many people need to transport the troops and food to maintain the garrison, and where the food comes from... all need to be carefully calculated.

Transporting rations is Zhou Zhouqiang's job; calculating military rations and road consumption is also a necessary skill for local civil servants.

He raced through his mind and quickly came up with an embarrassing number.

Hami, with a population of less than [-] under the feudal fiefdom system, did not have the ability to support [-] standing troops. Under the Weisuo system, Suzhou was already at its limit to support the Suzhou Guards. It had no manpower and capacity to transport food, but no food.

However, Chijinwei, Dunhuang, and Guazhou, which live on animal husbandry, do not have 1 people in total. They will try their best to feed themselves, and transporting food is even more nonsense.

The only place where the Marshal's Mansion has surplus food is Hehuang. Although the distance is extremely long, it is actually relatively easy to transport food here.

The rations of the soldiers depended on foreign transportation, and the ox carts carried [-] catties of rations and traveled [-] miles a day. It took three months to transport them from Xincheng to Hami. The armed escorts ate [-] catties, and at least [-] catties arrived.

The real difficulty lies in what Liu Chengzong said, if the enemy does not come, how long will the army stay?
Every day they are stationed, 5000 troops will cost [-] people food.

There is no need to guard against thieves for a thousand days, but for three hundred days, the food reserves of the Marshal's Mansion will be dragged down by Hami.

The fire in Zhou Riqiang's heart was extinguished, and Liu Chengzong smiled slyly: "It's better to listen to me, brother Zhou, don't be discouraged, I have three strategies. Garrisoning troops in Hami and fighting against Turpan is the worst strategy."

Zhou Qiang said happily: "Then dare to ask the commander-in-chief, what is the best strategy?"

He doesn't ask about the best policy, because the three strategies, up, middle and down, usually have a saying.

The worst policy is stupid and naive, and it treats the symptoms but not the root cause; the best policy is very good and perfect, but it is difficult to implement; therefore, usually counselors offer advice in the hope that the monarch will use the middle policy.

However, his reaction stunned Liu Chengzong, because he is a monarch, and he doesn't need to play these tricks. He hoped that what he asked him on Sunday was the best policy.

Therefore, Liu Chengzong's reaction was very flat: "There will be no garrison, no taxation, and Hami will remain as it is. It will negotiate peace with Turpan and open the market in exchange for nominal rule."

Sunday sighed forcefully: "What if Turpan doesn't negotiate a peace?"

Liu Chengzong was amused by this rhetorical question, let go of the reins and spread his hands on the horse's back, "Then this problem is left to Turpan? They want to garrison in Hami and transport food to Hami, and they have to guard against me leading the army to attack. By this time next year they'll be worn out."

Liu Chengzong opened his hands indifferently and said: "The cities and towns in Yarkand are all oases surrounding the desert, and the communication between the east and the west is not smooth. Turpan is also a few oases in the Gobi. It is easy for the Marshal's Mansion to send troops."

"On the Hami issue, both sides are actually in the same environment. There is always one side that wants to make concessions. In the past, the Ming Dynasty has made concessions for a hundred years, and now it is their time to make concessions."

Liu Shizi said it easily, but it made Sunday Qiang think deeply, and he was astonished as a heavenly man.

He knew Hami as early as when he was studying, but the Hami he knew at that time was not the lonely desert city with few people and decay, but the concrete sigh of the scholars for the weakness of the country.

In fact, the teacher who gave the compulsory enlightenment on Sunday had never seen what Hami was like.

It wasn't until Babai surrendered and forced himself to the top of the city of Hami on Sunday, relying on the Popeye of the Navy Yamen as an interpreter, and chatting with the people of Hami, that he had a general understanding of the Western Regions in this era.

Even so, he still has limited understanding of Yarkand, let alone think about the difficulties of Yarkand in mobilizing troops.

However, Liu Chengzong clearly has never been to the Western Regions, but he is very familiar with the geographical environment of Yarkand, and can even make a strategic plan for the Marshal's Mansion based on these. This is obviously very firm in his heart... But what is the source of the firmness?

This is not the first time Zhou Riqiang has doubted his life. In these years, Liu Chengzong not only predicted the decline of Ming Dynasty and the rise of Jianzhou, but also accurately described the topography of Mobei, Liaodong, Qinghai, Uzang, Sichuan, and Western Regions. He even told Batur that there is a Ural Mountain in the northwest of Huntaiji.

At the same time, Sunday Qiang was also relieved. Since Liu Chengzong had already mastered the geography of the Western Regions, he would never lack ambition for other people's land.

So he clasped his hands on the horseback and asked, "I dare to ask the commander-in-chief, what is the best policy?"

"Heh, I told you the best strategy."

Liu Chengzong laughed quite complacently, and said: "Let my brother not garrison in Hami, not collect taxes in Hami, and everything will continue as usual, but he will not negotiate peace with Turpan. He will just forcefully confiscate the best weapons, soldiers and horses in Hami. Go to Tianshan."

Sunday Qiang's mind was still filled with the huge road consumption of food, and he couldn't sort out his thoughts for a while, so he asked, "What does the commander mean to spend with them?"

"It's not wrong for you to understand so well."

Liu Chengzong said: "Jiang Wei defended Hanzhong, Deng Ai crossed Yinping Road to destroy Shu, Liu Chan surrendered in Kaicheng, Chengdu, and the Jiange in Hanzhong was not captured by Wei State; Hami is not easy to solve, so we solve the whole Yarkand. When Yarkand collapses, Hami It will work itself out.”

"But that's another story. The most important thing right now is the Tianshan Army. The people who can really decide Hami's ownership are not Babai, but Batur Huntaiji and my brother. The key to changing the situation in the northwest is in their hands. .”

Liu Chengzong said, the smile on his face gradually disappeared, and he said to Sunday in a serious tone: "Next, you must tell my brother when you go back, the impact of the Qinghai War is fermenting, and the Weila privilege will be reshuffled with the arrival of the Tianshan Army. Whether Batur can rely on his brother's Tianshan Army to stabilize the situation is the most important thing that will truly have a profound impact on the structure of the Northwest."

"Hami is not important, and shipbuilding is not important. These are all things that Batur Huntaiji has to worry about. Elder brother and Zhou brother, just exercise the power of the Great Khan in Oirat."

"The Marshal's Mansion is not the foreign aid of Junggar's annexation of the ministries, but the master of the four Oirat ministries. Do you understand?"

Sweeping the floor in a strong manner on Sunday, he blurted out a sentence of Chinese quintessence, thinking that when Batur Huntaiji was here, things didn’t say that!
"So surprised?"

Liu Chengzong asked blankly, and said: "I have never heard that Oirat would obey the Great Khan, you want to change the feudalism in Tianshan to counties, with a thousand miles northwest of Yili as the boundary, and set up prefectures within a thousand miles. "

"When you stabilize the situation in Oirat, you will tell Oirat in my name that no matter how big or small aristocrats, zasandarhans, herdsmen and slaves, even strong women, the land in the west will belong to whoever captures it. Ili is thousands of miles northwest , let them staking the land.”

"The general will lead the army to the west, and the Marshal's Mansion will provide the necessary guns and warships as support in the form of trade, lay down the land, report it to the Tianshan Yamen, and the Tianshan Yamen will return it to me, confer titles on the fief, and use the ingenuity of the Central Plains to help them Yongzhen Situ."

Liu Chengzong made a big circle around the words, and finally returned to Hami, he said: "Hami, it is the place where these wara heroes must pass through to sell furs and buy guns. Do you think we need to worry about it? You should worry about it. It should be the entire Western Region!"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)