Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1451 Ambition
Originally, the Practical School did not have any basic foundation in Liaodong. The concept of "Liaodong basic disk" probably appeared only after Gao Yushi served as Jin Fuhai's military preparation.

At that time, he used both soft and hard tactics to win over a group of local guard generals, including Jiang Enyuan, Pu Yuanyi, Cao Jian and so on.It was even because of Cao Jian's relationship that Gao Wushi thought of getting Cao Yu out of the prison.

Later, during his tenure in Liaofu, Gao Wushi also recruited some local Liaodong generals who were not from Tieling, such as Zhao Yingchang, Yang Fan, etc. Now, one of them is a left general guarding Ningyuan, and the other is a guerrilla in Qiantun. Into the enemy's rear" who worked in western Liaoning.

Gao Wushi discussed with Wu Dui and Liang Menglong, and believed that Jiang Enyuan and others should be considered for promotion to ensure their advantages. Wu Dui agreed in principle and asked Liang Menglong to propose specific arrangements.

Liang Menglong pondered for a while, and said: "This is a bit difficult to handle. In recent years, the strength of Liaodong troops has gradually increased, and now there are almost no vacancies..."

"Then create a new one." Gao Yushi said decisively: "I think that the troops in western Liaoning are already abundant, but the eastern part can be strengthened. You can consider upgrading the Shenyang guerrilla to the Shenyang general, and set up another Fushun guerrilla under the Shenyang general. It may be considered to set up two new guerrillas in Liaoyang, such as the left battalion guerrillas and the right battalion guerrillas in Liaoyang.

In addition, in view of the establishment of the six forts in Kuandian, the Dingliao Youwei station seems to be tilted eastward.In my opinion, Dingliao Youwei can be moved to the vicinity of Zhenjiang Fort, and the specific location can be set on the west side of the Yalu River estuary in the southwest of Zhenjiang Fort.Our imperial court can build a new city here to form a close-range deterrent to North Korea. The city name can be called Dandong.Then based on the Dingliao Youwei, a new Dandong Guerrilla was established. "

Gao Wushi didn't seem to see the astonishment of Wu Dui and Liang Menglong, so he pondered for a while and said, "In addition, Liaohe Hetao has not been able to operate well after it was recovered. Although it has been decided to build a new side wall, if there is no city in Liaohe Hetao, Immigrants are always difficult to defend. I intend to build a new city here, called Fuxin, and set up a guerrilla.”

Wu Dui and Liang Menglong were stunned for a while, they looked at each other, and Wu Dui asked, "Rixin, do you want to create five guerrillas at a time? Even if guerrillas are easy to manage, it may not be easy to build two cities. I mean this The money... the household department has a surplus now?"

Since the implementation of the ban on the opening of feudal clans, the household department is now spending money like running water, which is known to all the world.Under such circumstances, Gao Yushi, the Minister of the Household Department, actually proposed to build two new cities. Wu Dui and Liang Menglong thought their ears were broken.

Unexpectedly, Gao Wushi shook his head and said, "As long as the location is chosen well, it doesn't have to cost money to build a city, maybe you can make money."

The two big brothers who knew the soldiers were stunned at the same time, and asked in unison: "What's the answer?"

Gao Wushi smiled and said, "Which place do you two want to listen to first?"

"Hetao!"

"Fuxin!"

Gao Wushi also estimated that the two of them must first listen to Fuxin, a new city in the Liaohe River, because the location of this place is obviously more important in their eyes: it is connected to Liao (Liaoyang) and Shenyang in the east, the sea and Gai in the south, Liaoxi in the west, and Horqin in the northeast. , and the northwest is Chahar, the so-called battleground for military strategists.

With a smile, Gao Yushi said simply: "After the end of the Liaonan War, Jinghua conducted a detailed survey of this place. Although it has been a Mongolian grassland for many years, in fact, about two or three out of ten can be cultivated, especially suitable for planting. Corn, and the rest of the mountains are mostly hills and grasslands, which can be used for planting, hunting, herding cattle and horses, and are also convenient for building side walls.

In addition, according to Jinghua's exploration, there are two important outputs here, one is coal mines, and the other is agate.Among them, the coal mines can ensure that my immigrants can survive the cold winter safely, and the agate has a huge output..."

"Agate?" Wu Dui frowned and said, "The output is huge, how big is it?"

Gao Wushi raised his eyebrows slightly, and said affirmatively, "About half of my next day."

Not only Wu Dui, but Liang Menglong was also taken aback: "Half of the world?"

Gao Wushi laughed: "To tell the truth, I was shocked when I heard the news, but Jinghua has found two large agate mines, which is enough to prove that what I said is true."

This news is of course true, but the main thing is to thank Liu Xin, who told Gao Yushi about Fuxin Agate Sheng.According to her, the agate reserves in Fuxin account for more than 50% of the country, the sales of agate handicrafts account for 70% of the country, and the sales of tourism products account for 90% of the country. Therefore, Fuxin agate carvings are listed as national intangible cultural heritage. , was also officially named "World Agate Capital" by the World Handicraft Council.

Wu Dui and Liang Menglong have already experienced Jinghua's "turning stone into gold" prospecting skills countless times, so they naturally dare not doubt Gao Yushi's words.But there is one thing that Wu Dui found very strange, so he couldn't help asking: "In the past, Rixin didn't seem to pay much attention to the business of jade and gemstones. Why is he interested in the agate business this time?"

Gao Wushi shook his head and said: "That's not the case. The two mines that Jinghua dug are just to prove that the Fuxin agate is indeed of high quality and high yield, but Jinghua itself does not plan to expand the agate mine. These agates are reserved for others, and Jinghua itself is still the capital. Okay, we will focus on coal mines, and also plan to burn some purple sand pottery—there is also a lot of purple sand pottery in Fuxin."

What Gao Wushi said was really not a joke. Jinghua really does not plan to get involved in the agate industry, because although this industry belongs to gem mining and processing, the profits must be considerable, but it is not an industry that is related to the national economy and the people's livelihood.Jinghua still intends to take the lead in corn planting and coal mining in Fuxin.

Corn planting is first to solve the ration problem of immigrants, and second is to raise war horses. These two things are the big things in the eyes of Gao Pragmatic.Whether Fuxin can be successfully built and grown, and whether it can become a self-supplying place for the Ming army's war horses, it is definitely not the intensive cultivation of wheat that can be relied on urgently, but corn.

Besides, the grain output of Fuxin in later generations is also quite high in Liaoning Province, which is also based on corn, which proves that it is definitely appropriate to plant corn in Fuxin.

[Note: In 2019, the total grain output of Fuxin City was 277.5 million tons, of which the corn output was 248.0 million tons.Of course, the important thing about this output is the proportion, not the absolute value. Otherwise, if you are pragmatic and can grow so much corn, the entire Han people in Liaodong can only rely on Fuxin for food. ]
As for coal, Fuxin provided 8 million tons of coal to the country after the establishment of the later Hong Dynasty, and there are still about 8 million tons of mineable reserves.The recoverable reserves of almost 16 billion tons are more than enough for Jinghua's mission here. Even if the mining technology at this time is backward, even if it is only one-tenth of the later generations, it is still too much.After all, Jinghua does not intend to make iron here. The coal mine is mainly used to provide heating for the army and civilians, and to burn some purple sand pottery by the way.

But when Gao Wushi said this, Wu Dui and Liang Menglong understood, and Liang Menglong asked, "Or leave it to the nobles?"

Gao Wushi said: "This time there is no limit to the investor, anyone who wants to go is welcome, the Ministry of Household Affairs only requires a policy: any investment needs to provide [-]% of the 'priority purchase tax', this tax is earmarked for the construction of Fuxin City. If there is still a surplus, it can also be considered to be used for the construction of the side wall of the Hetao section of the Liaohe River.”

"The balance?" Wu Dui said in amazement, "Rixin is saying that this 'priority purchase tax' can exceed 30 taels?"

According to the construction investment of Daming, the construction of a new city usually costs about two to three hundred thousand taels of silver.However, in Wu Dui's view, the high-practice site selection for the construction of Fuxin City is a bit far away, and it is slightly inconvenient in terms of labor and material transportation, and the cost may be high, so he calculated it at 30 taels.

30 taels was obviously a huge sum of money in the Wanli Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, and the first payment of the military in the Burma War was only this amount.Now that Gao Yushi thinks that the tax can be so high, Wu Dui is of course surprised how he came to this conclusion.

But Gao Pragmatic's answer was very simple, saying: "Half of my agate output in Ming Dynasty will come from here in the future, how can a rich and discerning family miss it? Although the investment in this business is high, it may not be able to pay back in five years." , but what about ten years? How about a hundred years? This is a long-term business with huge profits, and it also guarantees the harvest in drought and flood.”

Liang Menglong said with a smile: "Rixin said it so well, if it wasn't for the fear of being impeached, Menglong would have wished to share some benefits."

"Then go." Gao Wushi said with a smile: "What is impeachment? The Ministry of Households will pay for the construction of the border city and the border wall from here, which means that investing in Fuxin is to support the 'real border', which is actually beneficial." It is a great plan to benefit the country and the people. With the emperor's wisdom, how can he not know the truth, and any impeachment by him will not work."

Liang Menglong laughed, and said: "If this day really comes, I will definitely ask Rixin to show you a rich mine."

Gao Wushi also smiled and said, "It's easy to say, it must be."

Liang Menglong was from Zhending, Northern Zhili, and he was not against investing in places like Fuxin, but Wu Dui was from Shanyin, Zhejiang, and he was not sensitive to investing in such a distant area, so he didn't intervene.

After this topic was over, Wu Dui asked: "There are so many agates in Fuxin, and there is such a clever strategy as Rixin in the construction of a new city. I think it is a big mistake. But what is the situation in Dandong? Is there also treasures? Pearls?"

There are almost no gems, but Dandong itself is a gem. Its value mainly lies in its geographical location. In a highly pragmatic way, it is its location advantage.

Dandong is located on the Yalu River at the southernmost point at the junction of Liaodong and North Korea in the Ming Dynasty. The name of Zhenjiang Fort in the north means guarding the Yalu River. Opposite Zhenjiang Fort is Uiju, an important town in the north of North Korea.

The important location of Dandong has a lot to do with North Korea.However, originally North Korea’s tribute started from Yizhou, and the first stop was Zhenjiang Fort in Daming. If Dandong City was built, if the Koreans still set off from Yizhou, then the second stop should be Dandong.

It can be said that Gao Wushi must have set his sights on the trade with North Korea when he wanted to build Dandong City, or to put it more clearly, he planned to expand trade with North Korea.

However, border trade is only part of the reasons, and there are two more reasons.

One is that Dandong is located at the mouth of the Yalu River, and although the Yalu River is not fully navigable (the upper reaches of the Changbai Mountains are narrow and the water drop is relatively large, making navigation inconvenient, so later generations of Hong Dynasty simply built a bunch of hydropower stations.), but the downstream is navigable, even A large ship with a capacity of [-] tons can be navigated.In other words, at this very moment, even large ships can enter the lower reaches of the Yalu River.

Gao Wushi didn’t intend to drive the large ship into the waves, he mainly thought it would be convenient for transporting supplies—the navigable section of the Yalu River can reach Kuandian, which means that Ming can transport the military supplies needed for Kuandian by water, while There is no need to send supplies from Liaoyang or even further inland.Kuandian has sufficient supplies, but Jianzhou Jurchen dare not covet them.

In addition, Dandong itself is also suitable for the construction of a seaport. Although this seaport has a small population and its trade function is not obvious for the time being, it has an advantage that it can play a huge role in the war to aid Korea in the near future.

As I said before, North Korea is very weak now. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 20 army attacked North Korea, North Korea had no power to resist and could only rely on Daming's father to rescue him.

But Daming actually fought a sluggish war at that time. Because North Korea was almost completely lost, almost all the military supplies needed by Ming’s reinforcements had to be carried by itself (it’s better in the later period, after recovering half of North Korea, North Korea can provide more or less A little military rations, but still not enough), so Daming continued to transport supplies from Liaodong to North Korea by land.

To be honest, this operation is very stupid, because firstly, Liaodong itself is not rich in materials, and secondly, most of the transportation lines on this road are mountainous, so the transportation is quite difficult and the loss is quite high, so this kind of transportation can almost be said to be It's a typical waste.

After Zhang Tianmu in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the two most important grain-producing areas were actually Huguang and Shandong (this is not only related to grain production, but also related to the expropriation system).Therefore, according to Gao Pragmatism, the most economical way to fight this battle is definitely to transport grain from Shandong to Dandong by sea, and then decide to go from Dandong to the inland of North Korea by land, or continue to take the sea to the coast of North Korea. Regional delivery.

Based on a highly pragmatic estimate, such a transportation method can at least reduce the loss by more than half.Even if the other aspects of this battle are exactly the same as in the original history, the change of transportation method alone can ensure that Li Rusong will not dare to enter again because of insufficient supplies after he conquers Kaesong.

Just imagine, if Li Rusong in history could push the Japanese army into the sea all the way, how could there be such a thing as the second phase of aiding North Korea?That's a big deal to save a few years.

In addition, there is another point that Gao Yushi will not tell outsiders now, that is, the establishment of Dandong is actually the reason why he coveted North Korea.Although North Korea is one of Zhu Yuanzhang's non-expropriation countries, Gao Yushi has always had a way to "inherit the ancestral will and not follow the ancestral system", and he has ideas about North Korea.

Without the Korean Peninsula in hand, it would be quite troublesome for Ming Dynasty to send troops to Japan. Although Jinghua's fleet is strong enough, no matter how strong it is, it is not as strong as launching a close-range attack from North Korea.

Even if you don't mention attacking Japan, taking down North Korea will make it easier for Ming to defend against Japan.Japan's aggression route in later generations was not complicated: first Korea, then Manchuria, and finally the whole of China.In fact, not only the "Tanaka Memorial", Toyotomi Hideyoshi almost had the same idea. In short, they all wanted to win North Korea first.

That being the case, wouldn't it be good for Daming to take North Korea first?At least there is an extra buffer.Just like if the Qing army could win in North Korea during the Sino-Japanese War, obviously the whole situation would be different.

As for the country that will not be conquered... In fact, after the Wanli War to Aid Korea, some officials in the court believed that North Korea should be directly swallowed up, but the conservatives were more powerful, and this too shameless Ming felt that it was a bit embarrassing, so in the end they did not It can be done.

Now that Gao Yushi, a guy who "makes money or loses money", is here, how can he tolerate a fight for nothing?
People cannot live without ideals, and a country cannot live without ambitions.
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(End of this chapter)