In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 494: Father and son opened up territory for the Song Dynasty for thirty years
Kuye City sounds quite far away, and the land route is not easy to get there, but the sea route is still faster.

From Kuye City, you can directly enter the sea from the Wusuli River, or you can first take the land route and then enter the sea after more than 300 miles.

To directly enter the sea, you need to go north, which is about a thousand miles longer. The Song army usually takes the land route first. There are many strongholds along the way, and then goes east into the Kuye Strait in the middle of Kushuo Island (the later Tatar Strait), and then goes to the Datar Strait by ship. The Song Dynasty traveled south of the Yangtze River or Shandong.

In this way, it takes ten days by land and about half a month by sea. It can usually be reached in a little more than a month, and can be returned in about three months. It is relatively easy for the Song Dynasty to control.

Of course, in winter, when the sea freezes here, you can't go by sea and can only go by land. It takes more than a month to reach Yanjing by land.

The Song army usually visits relatives and goes home without much, so they may take the land route. If the immigrants want to mobilize troops and deliver supplies, they will take the sea route. Ships can transport a large amount of supplies.

In the third year of Yuanzhen, the Song army planted a large amount of rye locally. This is currently the only food that can survive in the Far East, and it is also the basis for the future rule of the Rus Principality here. This makes it easier for Zhao and Rui to immigrate in large numbers.

But to be honest, the conditions here are still very difficult. In addition to the rich forest and wildlife resources, other materials are scarce. Except for the three thousand Song troops who can be rotated, the people who can immigrate here are basically forced to do so.

The composition of the people is complex. There are savages caught in the mountains and forests, Jurchens who surrendered, Khitans, and a small number of Mongolians. There are still relatively few Song people who are really willing to come. Those who are willing to come can work as officials here. There are many benefits to being an employee or doing business.

In order to stabilize the people's hearts, everyone here is called Song people, and there is no distinction between Khitan and Jurchen.

Every year in spring and summer, the imperial court would use ships to transport large quantities of supplies from the sea, such as sugar, ceramics, tea, silk, and most of the supplies that could be bought in Lin'an in the shops in Kuye City were available here, and they were relatively cheap.

It can be said that in the past eight years, Zhao Yurui has been losing money every year in building Kuye City and stabilizing people's hearts, investing tens of millions of dollars.

After Kuyeye was built, the court slowly began to benefit.

First of all, the forest and animal resources here are rich and the land is vast.

The imperial court cultivated rye on a huge area, with every household having dozens or even hundreds of acres. In addition to their own use, they also received taxed grain that could be transported back to the Central Plains.

The local forest trees cannot be cut down at all, and the wild animals cannot be hunted down at all.

With countless furs of all kinds, coupled with the resources in the river and the sea, Kuye City slowly began to repay Song Ting.

In June, the sea breeze in the Kuye Strait was gusty and extremely warm, and many large ships appeared on the beach one after another.

There is a freezing period every year near the Kuye Strait and Kusu Island, which shows how severe the cold is in the area.

After March, the Song Navy and various sea vessels can enter and leave the Kuye Strait.

While the Song Army was building Kuye City, they also built Kuye Port between Kuye Strait and Kusuo Island, mainly to transport immigrants and supplies.

Now eight years have passed, and Kuye Port has developed into the largest port of the Song Dynasty in the Far East. The Song Dynasty has stationed a battalion of 500 people and their families there, and there are also 500 households of civilians, about 4,000 to 5,000 people. merchant ships and merchants, keeping the population at about 6,000 all year round.

Compared with other seaports, such as the 100,000 people at the Port of Peace in the Persian Gulf, this is a fairly small port, but it is the largest port in the Far East.

Early this morning, Zheng Youcai came to the port with his son Zheng Wei.

In the fourth year of Yuanzhen's reign, when the imperial court was building Kuye City, Zheng Youcai took the initiative to invite Ying to take his family to Kuye City to participate in land reclamation. The imperial court gave heavy rewards to the sergeants and generals who participated in land reclamation. Zheng Youcai was promoted to the capital that year.

In the sixth year of Yuanzhen, Li Liang, Zhou Yong, Chen Zhong and other brothers of his group gathered in Changchun, and then participated in a thousand-mile attack on Mongolia to attack Harahelin.

Zheng Youcai followed Li Liang and the others to Huining (Harbin) and did not participate in the battle to attack Harbin.

After the war, Li Liang and others were basically promoted, and some stayed directly in Mongolia, such as Li Liang who is now stationed in Harahelin (now Taibei City), Zhou Yong in Qianzhou, and Chen Zhong returned to Liaodong.

All his former good brothers were stationed in various places, but Chen Zhong was the only one who still followed him.

Because Zheng Youcai had participated in land reclamation, he was later given three choices. One was to continue to open up wasteland and stay in Liaodong, where his son would receive preferential treatment; the other was to return to Jiangnan or Lianghu (Hunan and Hubei) and serve as a local garrison; ) retired, and then asked his son to take over as military attache after he passed the examination.

At that time, he was the deputy commander of the battalion. According to the imperial regulations, he retired at the age of 45 at his level. After his son took over, he was demoted to the rank of corps commander.

Zheng Youcai was unwilling to give up and chose to continue to open up wasteland in Kuye City. So in the seventh year of Yuanzhen, he returned to Kuye City. A few years later, he was promoted to the deputy general of Kuye Army (you can retire at the age of 50), and also served as Kuye Port. principal.

At this time, there were 2,000 troops garrisoned in Kuye Port and the opposite Kushuo Island, totaling four battalions, all under the control of Zheng Youcai.

Zheng Youcai is based in Kuye Port and is responsible for the security of the port.

After so many years, his son is now nineteen years old. When he was eighteen years old last year, he passed the horse-riding examination organized by the court, mainly in riding, archery, and flintlock. He was directly promoted to military attaché and is currently the deputy commander of the Kuye Port garrison camp. , with Zheng Youcai.

This is the preferential treatment given by the imperial court to military attachés for land reclamation. Sons who pass the examination can directly become military attaches and can stay with their father.

Because Zheng Youcai was not too young, and the place where he was stationed was an overseas wasteland. Father and son could take care of each other. There was no need to fight here, and the number of troops was small. The court did not care about the disadvantages of father and son working together in the same camp.

Zheng Youcai came to Liaodong in the second year of Yuanzhen, and stayed in Changchun City, Huining City, Vladivostok, and finally Kuye City. The longer he stayed, the farther and farther he got from his hometown.

Now in the eleventh year of Yuanzhen, he has stayed in Liaodong for nearly ten years.

Many of the military attachés and sergeants under his command were rotated every five years, and there were two groups of subordinates.

He has been staying in Liaodong just to find a birth for his son.

Now that his son has become a military attache and the deputy commander of 500 men, Zheng Youcai thinks that his son is still young and plans to take care of his son for a few more years. After his son is promoted to battalion commander, Zheng Youcai plans to return to his hometown of Henan and prepare to retire so that his son can stay in Liaodong for the rest of his life. Ten years later, I also rotated back to my hometown.

The two of them, father and son, Zheng Youcai worked for the Song Dynasty for more than ten years. His son will have to work for ten years in the future. The two of them will have nearly thirty years in total. They have contributed enough to the Song Dynasty and can return to their hometown with peace of mind.

At this time, the two father and son were standing at a watchtower by the sea, with Chen Zhong standing on Zheng Youcai's left.

Chen Zhong was a Jurchen from the Dongzhen Kingdom at that time. After the Song Dynasty, he changed his name to Chen Zhong and followed Li Liang, Zhou Yong and Zheng Youcai.

Li Liang and Zhou Yong stayed in Taibei Province one after another. Chen Zhong was transferred back to follow Zheng Youcai because he was a Jurchen and adapted to the climate of Liaodong. He is currently the commander of the Kuye Port Battalion.

"How many big trees can be produced today?" Zheng Youcai turned to ask Chen Zhong.

Chen Zhong's Chinese was already very fluent, and he immediately said: "At least two thousand."

Zheng Youcai nodded and looked at the sea first, then looked back at his son's hairline to feel the direction of the sea breeze.

This season coincides with the southerly sea breeze. They organized local people to cut down many large trees, all of which were too thick for one person to carry. Then they tied them together in groups of ten with oil-soaked hemp rope and put them on the ground. After entering the sea, the ships of the Song Navy will come and tow them away, all the way south, and finally sent to Jeju Island for shipbuilding.

The Song Navy had a smooth journey, and it took about ten days to half a month to reach Jeju Island, which was considered relatively fast.

"Go and take a look and ask them to tie it up tightly and don't let it slip." Zheng Youcai said to his son Zheng Wei at this time.

Zheng Wei immediately responded, took the two sergeants down from the guard tower, and went straight to the port. The port here is not as prosperous as the Persian Gulf. Except for the more conspicuous forts along the coast, there are not many shops.

About one mile to the south and south here is a relatively densely populated area, while more than ten miles to the east and west of the Persian Gulf are full of various shops, and they are still expanding.

There are many ships parked inside and outside the port below, most of which are Song Army or official ships of the imperial court. Only a few are merchant ships from the Song Dynasty, Goryeo, and Japan.

The furs of various animals here are relatively abundant and cheap, which the Koreans and Japanese like. Moreover, because there are relatively few supplies here, all rely on the Song army to deliver them, so the Koreans and Japanese will also bring their supplies and sell them to The local garrison and people would then go back with the furs and make a small profit every time they came and went.

It only took more than a month for the ship from Goryeo to come here, and Japan was even closer, so there were more merchant ships from the two countries, but less merchant ships from the Song Dynasty.

Today is the day to transport logs. The ground near the port is lined with logs. Japanese and Korean businessmen on the shore are watching, secretly amazed.

From the port to the nearby forest, the Song Army used wood to make a ground track like a train track, with thin iron rods embedded in the middle. It looked like a very long staircase laid on the ground.

The iron rod can roll. After the Song army cut down the big trees, they put them on the track. As the iron rod rolled, the big trees rolled towards the seaside from a distance.

The whole process does not require many people. It only requires someone to shake the iron rod by hand.

This method of transporting wood still shocked the Japanese and Koreans.

Because the trees here are really tall and thick, it would take a lot of manpower to lift a large tree the way the Koreans did.

The people of Song Dynasty obviously did it very effortlessly, but they spent a lot of time and money on building the track in the early stage.

When Zheng Wei came to the beach, he saw people tying up big logs.

Each big tree is more than 20 meters long, as thin as a human waist, and cannot be hugged by a thick person.

The Koreans had not yet seen the Song army cutting down the trees. When the big trees were cut down, there were two different steel carriages waiting below.

Because after such a big tree falls to the ground, it is difficult to lift it manually in this era without cranes. It usually takes more than ten or twenty people to carry it.

Song Jun made two large frames like wheels made of all steel. After the big tree fell, he first repaired the branches and leaves, and then used more than 20 people to lift it and put it on the frame, so that a few people could push the big tree forward.

The big logs followed the track and rolled to the shore first. Before entering the sea, someone drove nails into it, then pushed it into the sea, and tied groups of ten tightly with hemp ropes.

Finally, connect a long line to the back of the navy or official ship.

Zheng Wei jumped directly from the shore to a row of large logs. The logs had been tied up like logs, and the workers were continuing to strengthen them. Zheng Wei pulled them everywhere and told them to tie them tightly.

After a wave of bundling is completed, someone will wave to the navy ship behind him and say a few words.

The navy's ship quickly moved forward.

After a while, with a thud, a big log rolled from the shore into the sea.

There were pallets built on both sides. Someone used a long stick equipped with nails to knock it hard, nail it to the big wood, and pull it to the side.

After a while, another big log rolled from the shore into the sea.

The workers gathered them in turn, tying two pieces together first, and then the third piece.

The last ten pieces were tied together, some more nails were driven in, and then they were connected to the first row of ten pieces of wood just in front.

When the navy ship finally sailed away, ten rows of a hundred large trees were pulled behind it. The long queue was very spectacular.

There are countless forest resources not far away in the Far East. Zhao Yurui prioritized cutting them down and then sent them to Jeju Island to make various warships and equipment.

Except for the severe cold winter when the sea is closed here, as long as there is no freezing season, Zheng Youcai has been organizing local people to do this.

However, in addition to participating in logging, their garrison must train every three days.

Either shoot flintlock, practice riding, go hunting, or learn to swim in the sea.

According to the regulations of the imperial court, you have to run ten miles every morning when you get up, and ten miles before going to bed at night. Twenty miles a day, except in heavy rain and snow, it is unbeatable, and there is a lot of physical training.

In addition to sending Jin Yiwei to conduct secret inspections every year, the imperial court also conducts assessments at the end of every year.

There are time requirements for running ten miles, physical fitness requirements such as push-ups, and other shooting requirements.

Although it was a bit frustrating, Zheng Youcai knew that this was to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army.

For officers and generals like him who are over forty years old, the requirements are slightly lower, especially the physical requirements.

Song Jun's efficiency was still good that day. He removed 500 large trees in the morning. Then it was time to rest and continue tomorrow.

After the Song Army's warships left, the merchant ships waiting outside came in.

Zheng Youcai quickly approached Kim Zhizhong, a businessman from Goryeo.

This guy has been doing business with Song Jun all the year round, and he has a good relationship with Zheng Youcai and is familiar with them.

"General Zheng." In front of all the generals, Jin Zhizhong waved to the boys behind him to push up several carts of wine.

The rules of the Song army were relatively strict, and gifts had to be given in front of everyone. Zheng Youcai could accept it, but afterward, he had to report it to the court by joining the army.

Back then, Zhao and Rui added staff generals to the army, additional military officers to the generals, staff officers to the battalions, and guidance to the first level. The addition of these deputy positions had the function of supervising records, and they were rotated every two years.

Shi Liming, one of Zheng Youcai's generals who joined the army, was also there.

He immediately took out a pamphlet from his sleeve seriously and asked, "How many altars?"

"There are three carts and twelve altars in total, to comfort the army, to comfort the army." Jin Zhizhong said with a smile.

Shi Liming wrote while writing: "Korean businessman Jin Zhizhong brought three carts and twelve jars of fine wine to the army. On the scene were deputy general Zheng Youcai, who joined the army Shi Liming, battalion commander Chen Zhong, deputy commander Zheng Wei, and staff officer Du Zaishan--"

Everyone looked calm and seemed to be used to this scene.

(End of this chapter)