Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 218 New Division

The Russian state has just received news that King Sigmund III of Poland has passed away, and the whole country of Poland is in mourning. This is a good opportunity for the Russian state to attack the Kingdom of Poland. Naturally, Filaret is not willing to let it go, and he can no longer take care of it. Pay attention to the Ming army in the Ural Mountains, and recall all the Russian troops to Moscow, preparing to send troops to attack the Kingdom of Poland.

The Russian State and the Kingdom of Poland have a long history of grievances. When the Russian State was oppressed by the Golden Horde, the neighboring Kingdom of Poland took advantage of the situation, invaded the Russian State, and encroached on the land of the Russian State.

Afterwards, agents were sent to the Russian state many times to inherit the throne in an attempt to control the political power of the Russian state. Naturally, the Russian state would not give up power to Poland. The two countries then fought fiercely, with major and minor wars continuing.

In addition, at the beginning of the establishment of the Romanov dynasty, Filaret was imprisoned by the Kingdom of Poland. With the combination of national and private hatred, it is not surprising that Filaret prioritized dealing with the Kingdom of Poland.

Furthermore, the Russian army and the Ming army had been in confrontation in the Ural Mountains for several months without gaining any advantage. On the contrary, it was a waste of money and food, which made the already poor Romanov dynasty even worse. After one winter, the Ming army They have survived, so after spring starts and the weather gets warmer, the Rus will be even more helpless against the Ming army.

Since the Russian state cannot expel the Ming army and recapture Siberia for the time being, Filaret can only think about it in the long term and find a way to withdraw the Russian army first. The consumption of the army outside the country cannot be provided by the Russian state.

In addition, with the changes taking place in the Kingdom of Poland, Filaret no longer has the time to think about anything else. He just wants to cover up all the assets of the Russian Kingdom and defeat the Kingdom of Poland.

Subsequently, the Russian state started a war with the Kingdom of Poland, and the two sides fought fiercely. Although the Russian army could not defeat the Ming army, it still had an advantage in fighting the Polish army, especially because the enemy of the country hated the country, and the Russian army shared the same hatred. The soldiers were very motivated to fight and had high morale. The Russian army was unstoppable and conquered several cities.

However, the offensive of the Russian army was quickly blocked by the city of Smolensk. After the Polish Prince Vladislav succeeded to the throne, he immediately led his army to aid Smolensk. The Russian army instantly fell into a bitter battle. Not only Smolensk The city could not be attacked for a long time, and under the desperate resistance of the Polish army, the casualties of the Ross army were also very heavy.

In the end, the Ross army ran out of rations and had to return without success.

Mangui didn't know why the Russian army suddenly transferred all its troops, nor did he know where the Russian army went after leaving the Ural Mountains. After occupying the bastion at the foot of the mountain, he sent people to explore the surrounding area. After finding no trace of the Ross army, they felt relieved and continued to build and strengthen the defense line in the Ural Mountains.

At the same time, Mangui also began to send troops to sweep away the Russian troops in central Siberia. They found the Russian troops that had invaded Siberia before and had not withdrawn to the Russian country one by one, either annihilated or captured, and eliminated the Ming Dynasty's future rule of the Siberian region. Hidden danger.

Yuan Chonghuan's troops in the east have also entered the Eastern Siberia region and began to gradually advance northward to occupy Eastern Siberia. However, because there are many mountainous and plateaus in Eastern Siberia and Central Siberia, the progress is not very smooth.

By consulting historical records, Zhu Tianqi knew that the Russian army suddenly withdrew to attack the Kingdom of Poland, so he was not worried about any conspiracy or tactics behind the withdrawal of the Russian army from the Ural Mountains. He just felt that the Russian army was a little too careless. The Ming Dynasty took it seriously. The battle with the Ming army was not over yet, and there was no definite explanation between the two sides. They actually left the Ming army and turned around to attack Poland.

Zhu Tianqi originally had no intention of letting the Ming army continue to advance westward and attack the Russian mainland. He just wanted to draw a line with the Russian state in the Ural Mountains and occupy Siberia. But now it seems that it is not very appropriate not to fight.

First of all, for the sake of Ming's national reputation, since the Rus Kingdom has already spoken harsh words to Ming and declared war on Ming, then Ming naturally has to show them how powerful they are. This battle cannot be so hasty without a winner or loser. Ending.

Secondly, now is indeed a good opportunity to attack the Russian state. The Russian state is devoting all its strength to conquer the Kingdom of Poland. Moreover, Zhu Tianqi has also known from historical records that the Russian state will return in vain and will suffer losses as a result. It was disastrous and severely damaged their vitality, so this was a good opportunity for the Ming army to march westward into Europe.

Therefore, Zhu Tianqi gave an order to Mangui, asking him to send troops and gradually begin to march to the west and encroach on the country of Rus.

So far, the entire Liaodong and Siberia regions have been captured by the Ming Dynasty. Such a vast and fertile land must be developed and utilized as soon as possible.

Zhu Tianqi convened a cabinet meeting for this purpose and divided Siberia into ten new administrative divisions, and Liaodong into three new administrative divisions, for a total of thirteen new administrative divisions.

The first is the Liaodong region. In the past, the line from Shanhaiguan to Anlezhou north of Tieling belonged to the Shandong Chief Envoy and was the Liaodong Dusi. Now it will extend north to Changchun, Jilin, and east to the South China Sea. It was established as the Chief Envoy of Liaodong.

Then this line went north to Aihun, Fuyuan line, west to the Chechen Khan tribe, and east to the Whale Sea (Tatar Strait), and was newly established as the Chief Envoy of Jianzhou.

Then it goes north to the line of the Outer Hinggan Mountains, to the Brigadier Division in the west, to the east including Kuwu Island, to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and is newly established as the Chief Envoy of Nurgan.

Because the newly established three chief envoys in Liaodong were newly recovered territories, they still adopted the management system of military and political integration. The chief envoys of each chief envoys were still concurrently served by the previous capital commanders who had just recovered Liaodong.

That is, the Nuergan Chief Envoy in the far north is commanded by the Nuergan Du Sidu, with Zu Dashou concurrently serving as the Chief Envoy. The Jianzhou Chief Envoy in the middle is commanded by Zhao Shujiao, the former Liaodong Commander-in-Chief. In the southernmost Liaodong Chief Envoy Department, Jinzhou Bo Yuan Chonghuan served as both the Commander and the Capital Commander. At the same time, Yuan Chonghuan was also named the Governor of Liaodong, in charge of the three major Chief Envoy Departments in the Northeast.

At the same time, the imperial court also dispatched a complete team of civil servants to assist in handling government affairs and coordinate with the various envoys to manage political affairs. This was not only because military attaches like Zhao Shujiao and Zu Dashou did not have the experience and ability to manage local areas, but also because at this time, They really don't have the energy to manage local administration.

At this time, Zhao Lejiao and Zu Dashou were still conquering Eastern Siberia in the north under the leadership of Yuan Chonghuan. Even though they had fought all the way north to the East Siberian Sea, east to the Bering Strait, and westward with the Manchurian-Gui faction. The Ming army that was sweeping through Central Siberia met, but it has not yet withdrawn to Liaodong.Then there is the division of Siberia. Because there has not yet been a large country here, no specific administrative divisions have been formed, and the area is sparsely populated, and most of it is uncultivated virgin land, so the division can be relatively simple and rough.

Zhu Tianqi directly used a grid to divide it into ten equal parts, named after the heavenly stems. The five provinces of the Arctic Ocean are adjacent to the north, and the five regions are A, B, C, D, and E from east to west. The five regions are adjacent to the south. The five inland provinces in Mobei are Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui.

Although Siberia is a vast territory, it is sparsely populated. Currently, it is not necessary to set up a complete administrative agency to manage it. The key work in Siberia is not local administrative management, but land reclamation.

Therefore, the ten newly established chief envoys in Siberia are more like ten new special zones. The Ming army built a city in each region, which was used as the seat of administration and also as the place where the Ming army garrisoned. Management of the entire area.

After talking about the new administrative division arrangements, the next thing to talk about is the arrangement for land reclamation work in Siberia. Zhu Tianqi plans to introduce a large number of people to Siberia to engage in land reclamation and construction work, but the introduction method is not mandatory, but It is a voluntary registration.

Because the recent years have been bad, disasters have occurred in many places in the Ming Dynasty. Although the disasters in various places have been effectively alleviated by relying on the court's disaster relief coordination work in successive years, the people in the disaster areas are still struggling to survive on the line of food and clothing. In serious places, the victims They are only able to survive from starvation, and their goal of having enough to eat and clothing to wear is still unattainable.

Therefore, these people can go to Siberia to try their luck. Although Siberia is an extremely cold place and most crops cannot be grown, there is still no problem in making a living by fishing and hunting. Perhaps for most disaster victims, If you go to Siberia, you may be able to live on government relief than staying in the disaster area, and your quality of life will be much improved.

Of course, the imperial court will also provide corresponding subsidy policies. For example, after settling in Siberia, if you are unable to support yourself through fishing or hunting, you can work in the imperial forest farms, hunting grounds or mines, and the imperial court will arrange food and accommodation, and issue In the future, the imperial court will also vigorously build Siberia, and a large number of forest farms, mines and other industries will be opened in Siberia.

After Zhu Tianqi briefly introduced the situation, he handed the detailed plan he had drawn up in advance to Xu Guangqi and said to them: "You can travel through this plan first, and then take it back for discussion. If you have any good suggestions, you can also give them Come out, and when the plan is agreed upon, it will be distributed to all the chief ministers, and all provinces, prefectures and counties across the country will issue notices to the people to encourage them to sign up to immigrate."

Xu Guangqi took over the plan, then led the cabinet ministers to retreat, and then went back to discuss the matter together.

Zhu Tianqi noticed that Xu Guangqi looked much weaker than before. He flipped through the information about Xu Guangqi recorded in his notebook and discovered that if historical records were followed, Xu Guangqi would die of illness next year.

Zhu Tianqi suddenly became a little sad. If Xu Guangqi died, he would have lost a right-hand man. In the future, the court would also lose a trustworthy and reliable person to entrust with the government affairs.

After thinking about it again, Zhu Tianqi also felt that he had been too easy to use Xu Guang during this period. Almost everything had to be done by Xu Guangqi. Since Xu Guangqi was used by him, although he was a very popular minister, His official career was smooth, but he completely lost the time and energy to explore and study Western learning. He was busy with the affairs of the court almost every day.

Xu Guangqi and Sun Chengzong are similar in age, and are even one year older than Sun Chengzong. Now that Sun Chengzong has retired and returned home to take care of his old age, it is time for him to "let go" Xu Guangqi and let him spend his old age in peace.

Therefore, Zhu Tianqi planned to let Xu Guangqi retire after he has finished his negotiations with the Japanese country and immigration to Siberia. If he wanted to stay in the capital to study, he could be given the title of honorary president of Shuntianfu University in the Ming Dynasty. Arrange to study in a university.

As for the question of who will take over as the chief minister of the cabinet after Xu Guangqi retires, it will naturally be left to Sun Yuanhua. The position of the chief minister of the cabinet must be in the hands of someone he trusts and must not be handed over to outsiders.

In addition to the position of chief minister, another person must be found to take over the position of Minister of Rites. Who to choose to take over is also a big problem.

Moreover, Zhu Tianqi felt that if he asked Xu Guangqi to retire, Lai Zongdao and Zhou Daodeng, who had long been clamoring to resign and return to their hometowns, would probably have to resign again. He could no longer force them to stay. In this case, he would have to Find two more people to fill the gap.

Zhu Tianqi couldn't help but scratch his head. He realized that it was time to retrain some cronies and select a group of talents to fill them in.

After nearly a month of discussions, the Japanese country finally gave the Ming Dynasty's answer, that is, except for canceling the title of "Emperor", the Japanese country can agree to all the conditions listed by the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Tianqi felt very puzzled and very funny after hearing this reply from the Japanese state. He was not wondering why the Japanese state was so persistent on this matter. What he was confused about was why the Japanese state could not accept this clause and sent a special order. Nobuzuna Matsudaira came all the way to tell himself.

Didn't Xu Guangqi make it clear to them before the negotiations started?The conditions offered by the Ming Dynasty to the Japanese country were non-negotiable. Either they agreed to all the conditions, or they continued to fight. Since they could not agree to all the conditions offered by the Ming Dynasty, they would just start fighting directly. What else did they say?
However, for the sake of Japan's rules, Zhu Tianqi did not directly go to war without declaring, but asked Xu Guangqi to tell Matsudaira Nobuzuna to return to China as soon as possible to report to Tokugawa Iemitsu, saying that since Japan could not accept Daming After all the negotiation terms proposed, then be ready to go to war. The Ming army will officially launch an attack on the Japanese country in ten days.

When Matsudaira Nobutsuna heard this, his scalp went numb. He said to Xu Guangqi in an almost begging tone: "Master Xu, isn't there any room for discussion on this matter?"

Xu Guangqi shook his head and said: "Before the negotiations began, I already explained the emperor's attitude towards the negotiations. Either you agree to the conditions listed by Ming Dynasty, or the two countries will continue to go to war without any room for negotiation."

(End of this chapter)