Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 444 Laizhou
Zhu Yihai looked at the memorial that Chen Qianfu sent him, and shook his head.

"This Du Fenghe still has some skills, but he has a lot of old problems. It's very generous to leave him 1 taels of silver, and it's all used as gifts."

Du Fenghe did not send money to Zhu Yihai, but Zhang Luo brought six beauties. Chen Qianfu said that they were all young and of good background.Because the family was captive and rebellious, the house was ransacked, and these girls fell into the dust.

"I've seen those girls, and they are indeed fair and fair ladies, so pitiful, His Majesty can accept them."

Zhu Yihai shook his head.

Although the girls are pitiful, this is not the reason for his Na'vi people, this is a battlefield.

"In this way, ask the girls if they would like to marry the officers of our imperial camp. If they are willing, I will arrange a blind date for them, and I will give them marriages for whichever hero they fall in love with."

"Your Majesty really don't want it? There are not many such girls. It's good to be a palace servant for a while, but there is no careful and gentle palace servant around Your Majesty. They are all rough men."

"This trend can't be messed up." Zhu Yihai still shook his head, "No one accepts Du Fenghe's gift, right?"

"The military discipline of the country and France is here. Who would dare to accept his bribes? Besides, it is impossible to get a good future for that little money." Chen Qianfu said with a smile, saying that it was a gift of 1 taels of silver, but how many ministers in Dengzhou are there now, Everyone can't share much.For example, Chen Qianfu was the one who released Du Fenghe himself, and Du Fenghe only gave him 500 taels of silver and two disaster victim girls.

500 taels of silver, to such an important minister as Chen Qianfu, that is really not worth mentioning.

Since Zhu Yihai succeeded to the throne, he has not only paid generously for the army, but also supported the honesty with high salaries. Although high salaries cannot prevent corruption, if the salary is too low and he has power in his hands, it is obvious that he is forcing people to seek rent for power.This kind of self-deception is actually meaningless. In the end, it will damage the authority of the court and the interests of the people.

So Zhu Yihai would rather put these on the table.

An important minister like Chen Qianfu has a salary according to his rank, which has been greatly improved from the original standard. In addition, he is also given an additional salary, which is equivalent to a year-end bonus.

In addition, there is rice silver, which is the living allowance. For an important minister like Chen Qianfu, the rice silver needs to be 3000 to [-] taels a year. In addition, he also holds multiple jobs, and part-time jobs are also subsidized.

In addition, all officials are paid according to their rank, salary according to their duties, subsidies according to part-time jobs, and food allowances.

These are all on the bright side, not the gray income of giving gifts like ice respect charcoal respect in the past.

In addition, there are usually rewards during the New Year's Eve.

Plus various material benefits.

The salary of Beijing officials has been improved a lot. It is more than enough to support their families, and they can still have a lot of money. Even if they are not corrupt and have less gray income, they can still live comfortably.

And an important minister like Chen Qianfu, who holds several positions, earns more.

Even now that the imperial court has added some formal staff to many of the former officials' staff, and changed the salaries from the imperial court, this has also reduced the expenditure of the officials and actually increased their income.

500 taels of silver, to Chen Qianfu, that was really not in the eye.

Of course, as long as there are not many small gifts such as door bags and meeting gifts for ordinary officials, Zhu Yihai will not go too far.

"Let Du Fenghe take back all the money and put all his thoughts on how to stabilize the Dengzhou government and restore the people's livelihood and economy. There are disaster victims and hungry people everywhere. His parents and officials must let the people under their rule have enough food and houses. live, there is hope."

"Dengzhou is full of wasteland, full of hungry people, find a way to organize the hungry people to plow the land, so that there will be a harvest in the harvest season, instead of wandering and fleeing famine all the time, we have to support ourselves. Lack of seeds, we can find a way to get them come, but first a man must save himself."

The restoration of local civil affairs in Dengzhou is a top priority, and using local officials like Du Fenghe is also a more practical and expedient method.

Of course, the imperial camp will also transfer some officials to fill in the localities, and even select some rural gentry from the localities and appoint them as officials to manage the localities together.

"Is there no result yet in Laizhou?"

A few days have passed in a blink of an eye, but there is no good news.

Chen Qianfu is part-time the general staff of the imperial battalion, and he has relatively good intelligence and information. "We didn't expect Geng thief to be so cautious. The North Korean grain ship failed to deceive him this time."

"It's normal if you can't be deceived, and it's an accident if you are deceived."

Zhu Yihai was relatively indifferent to this, Jin Shangxian made suggestions and repeated the old tricks, Zhu Yihai also had expectations, and the imperial camp rushed to Laizhou by land and water, but this time it didn't go well.

The navy under the flag of the North Korean grain ship repeated the old plan to seize Dengzhou Port, but Laizhou is not a port city, but about [-] miles away from Laizhou Bay, although there is a river connecting Laizhou City and Laizhou Bay.

But after all, it is not near the sea.

Moreover, Geng Zhongming was more cautious. The North Korean ship was intercepted by Geng Bu for inspection at the mouth of the bay. They asked to board the ship for inspection.

So in the end, the fraudulent city turned into a surprise attack.

The Ming army launched a sudden attack on a battalion of Gengbu that was being inspected at the mouth of the river. Although the Ming army made a sudden move and took the lead, they used the artillery on the ship to bombard the Gengbu Qing army on the shore, and quickly defeated them and won the victory.

The fraudulent city plan also failed.

The defeated Geng tribe fled back to Laizhou City on horseback. When Geng Zhongming heard that the Ming army was attacking, he immediately sounded the horn and put the whole city on alert. Buqi, as well as the 2000 people he sent out, hurriedly called back to defend the city.

When the Ming army fails to swindle and report to the rear, it can only change from swindling to hard attack.

The Ming army landed at the mouth of the river and set up camp.

Gather all the ministries, and then fight towards Laizhou.

The Ming army besieged the city, but in Laizhou City Geng Zhongming had Geng Kong and his troops with [-] troops, plus thousands of local regiments, minzhuangs, etc., the force was not weak.

Facing the prepared Kong Youde, the Ming army could only carry out conventional siege warfare.

They tried to bombard the city first, but under the bombardment of the artillery, the Qing army still held on to the top of the city, lacking siege equipment, the Ming army could not enter the city with only artillery cover.

The Ming army finally had to stop the bombardment and began to dig trenches and build fortifications outside the city, and at the same time cut trees to make siege equipment.

That night, some associations secretly supported by the intelligence department of the Ming army, such as the brotherhood in the city, launched an attack, trying to respond from the city.

But Geng Zhongming had rich experience, and he was prepared to guard against the internal response in the city. Although these people in the city were brave, they still couldn't get close to the city gate.

The next day, Geng Zhongming cleaned up the whole city again, searched and captured everywhere, killed many righteous gentlemen and civilians, and the anti-Qing forces in the city were exhausted.

After losing the internal support, it completely turned into an ordinary siege battle.

"Geng Zhongming's performance is normal. The defeat of the two puppet kings Kong Youde and Shang Kexi was an accident caused by underestimating the enemy." Zhu Yihai now also knows that the battle of Laizhou will not be easy.

"Can I know how much food is left in Laizhou City?"

"According to the previous information, there is not much food in Laizhou City. Now there are tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city, and it is estimated that it will not last for a month."

Chen Qianfu believed that Laizhou was short of food, so he was not afraid of Geng Zhongming's persistence.

Zhu Yihai didn't think so. Even if there was only one month's food, it wasn't that there was no Qing army in Shandong. There were Qing troops in Jinan, Yanzhou, Xuzhou, and Huai'an.

In Xuzhou there is Boluo, Prince Duanzhong, who is the auxiliary government of the Tartars, and Tan Tai is in Huai'an. In addition, He Luohui and Tulai's Eight Banners are also in Shandong.

Among them, there were nearly 2 elites participating in the Eight Banners.

This force cannot be underestimated.

"Let Laizhou dig a trench to the bottom of the city, and use more hole attack and blasting techniques. It can't be delayed for too long."

"You still have to keep an eye on the west, and beware of the soldiers from the Tartars who come to help you at any time."

Chen Qianfu suggested, "Can we come to besiege the city and fight for aid?"

But Zhu Yihai didn't immediately agree. The key was to face the elite of the Eight Banners. It was not an easy job to besiege the city and fight for reinforcements.

"The two Northern Expeditionary armies on the middle road and the west road are alerted to keep an eye on Xu Huai and Lufeng's Qing army. If they go out of the city to the north to rescue Laizhou, then find a way to stop them and contain them."

"If you can't hold it back, let them go and fight the city."

"It's really not possible. We will retreat first, and we can still defend Dengzhou. If Dengzhou cannot be defended, we can retreat to Long Island first. We have the advantage of the navy, and we are still invincible."

Zhu Yihai had already hoarded the grain and grass of the Northern Expedition Army on Long Island before, and did not transport them to Dengzhou City, just in case, if the land was difficult to defend, he would retreat to the island first. The Ming army still always holds the initiative in war.

A city and a pool are not in a hurry to fight for the time being, the main thing is to annihilate the enemy's vital forces. Every time a Tartar soldier is killed, the Qing army loses a part of its strength.

Accumulate small victories into big victories, and fight piecemeal as before. After one battle, he will be severely injured if he kills eight thousand people.

"If this is the case, then we still have to work hard to stabilize the Denglei Peninsula, and we still have to draw out military rations to help the people?"

"We still have to relieve the disaster victims and resume farming. Even if we can't hold on now, we still have to do these things. Now we can transfer food from the sea. The food does not need to be collected on the spot, although the transfer costs a lot. It is less, but at least it can still guarantee the supply and safety of food and grass.”

Giving up Denglai is just the worst preparation, and it may not be that far.

Planting now is not for harvesting now, it is for long-term considerations, to clean up people's hearts and resume production, which is beneficial to Daming in the long run.

"Our current three-way Northern Expeditionary Army is the offensive side and takes the initiative. Although the Tartars have 5 to [-] people in Huanghuai, there are only about [-] truly elite. These people are very strong when gathered together, but if he comes In Shandong, we will attack Huaixi, if we defend Huai, we will attack all, if we defend separately, we will nibble away."

Looking at the larger battle situation, the Huanghuai area is only a corner of the entire battlefield. Here, the [-] Qing army is pinned down by the Ming army, and the pressure on the Sichuan-Shanxi battlefield on the western front will be much smaller.

Even the Huguang side can reduce the pressure.

"Stop them and look for opportunities. The Tartars will always show their weaknesses. Just like this time, don't we win the first battle, take Dengzhou directly, and kill the king of the Tartars?"

Chen Qianfu, who was still a little anxious about the battle situation, heard the emperor's analysis, and suddenly felt that the advantage was entirely with me.

(End of this chapter)