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Chapter 747 Fuyu City

"What a pity... Since there was a garrison before, it would be more convenient. Let's look through the old archives, figure out the local routes, and prepare to send troops to build a city. On the basis of Fuyuwei, we will build a strong city, which will be enough for 5,000 army troops to be stationed for a long time.

You should carefully calculate how many craftsmen, stones, lime, and iron bars are needed to build the city as quickly as possible. Also, the minimum number of army guards needed, and keep it secret so that the news does not leak out in advance. "

When Hong Tao mentioned Prince Ning, he was not really thinking about the past. He just felt that if he had not given up the Three Guards of Doyan at the beginning, or even tried to assimilate them, he might not be in such a passive situation now.

The reason why I chose Fuyuwei to build the city was because of its location. There is a relatively flat area in the mountains, which is located between the upper reaches of the Laoha River and the Daling River, Bao River, and Qinglong River.

If large troops coming from the north and east want to cross the mountains, they can only enter along the Laoha River or the Daling River, and then go south along the Qinglong River, the Bao River or the Luan River.

At this time, as long as a city is built on this small plain, a certain number of troops are stationed, and enough ammunition and supplies are stored, the Lulong Road and part of the Gubei Road can be completely cut off, shielding against threats from the north and northeast.

By the way, it can also take care of the Luan River valley about 100 miles to the west. Even if the Kharchin tribe turns against the Ming Dynasty in the future, there is no need to worry about the Mongolian cavalry going south along this route. It is a win-win situation. Defending a strong city is always easier and more economical than defending the Great Wall for hundreds of miles.

In fact, Hong Tao is no smarter than the ancients. Didn't he hear what Yuan Keli said? This place was originally the garrison of the Daning Regional Military Commission. It might be due to supply problems or other reasons that they had to give up and all retreated to the south of the Great Wall.

"Your Majesty, from Xifengkou, it is 210 miles along the north of Baohe River. There is a horse trail along the way, but it has been in disrepair for a long time. I don't know if it can still be passed by vehicles."

The old files were quickly brought in from the Ministry of War, and the rough data was also dug out one after another. Yuan Keli felt more and more relaxed as he read through them, with a slight smile on his face. If this plan worked, it would mean another naturalized city.

Don't underestimate the 5,000-man army. If they rely on the strong city and don't come out, 30,000 or 50,000 troops may not even be able to touch the city wall. As long as there is enough ammunition supply, they can defend as long as they want. Neither the Mongols nor the Jurchens can do anything to them.

But without taking this city, no one would dare to lead a large army south to attack the border wall. The retreat route could be cut off at any time, let alone baggage and food.

In other words, the emperor used a city and 5,000 soldiers to reduce the difficulty of defending the nearly 1,000-mile Great Wall by several levels, freeing up at least 30,000 to 40,000 border troops. The initial investment may be a little higher, but in the long run it is very worthwhile.

"With the Engineer Guard here, these are all trivial matters. Hurry up, I don't ask for anything else, just the word hurry up. The army went 200 miles deep into the mountains. In addition to transporting ammunition and supplies, it also had to transport craftsmen, tools, and equipment, which was very costly.

To give full play to the advantages of muskets and artillery, here, I draw a picture for your reference. Here, here, here and here, 300 meters apart, each build a three-story fort, the general structure can be imitated from the tower in Luanzhou Iron Works.

In this way, the four forts are within the range of muskets and artillery, and personnel and supplies can be placed in the middle. Then the four forts are connected by low walls to prevent harassment from outside, and construction can be done in peace.

Don't follow all of them. I just put forward an idea for your reference. Whether you want four, five or three turrets should be determined after field investigation. There is another thing that must be paid special attention to, water!

There are many rivers near the old site of Fuyuwei, so digging wells in the city should not be a problem. But we cannot just focus on the water supply for the army. We must also prepare for floods in advance when selecting a site. If the enemy builds dams in nearby rivers to store water, the city must not be affected. "

At this time, it depends on who is more cunning. Hong Tao can't build a city or construct a road, but he is cunning enough, or he has enough historical lessons in his mind. In an instant, he went through all the tricks that humans have used to attack cities over the past five thousand years, and thought of almost everything from natural to man-made.

"I think we have an 200% chance of building the city, but transporting supplies will be a big problem. With people, even if the transportation is done every other month, a large number of vehicles will be needed, and it will not be easy to escort them on a -mile mountain road."

At this moment, Yuan Keli did not sing praises, but frowned and began to find faults. With the army's capabilities, he believed that building a city would not be a big problem, but future supplies would be a little tricky.

After all, the food and drink for the 5,000 garrison troops all depend on transportation from the rear, which is not a small amount. Sending too many soldiers to escort them would be a waste, but sending too few would be unsafe.

"Li Qing, you miscalculated. It's not five thousand, but two thousand. I have calculated that 2000 permanent army is enough. The extra baggage and supplies are prepared for the future northward march. This city is not only for defense, but also used as a fulcrum for attack.

You see, if you want to attack Baicheng, you can't lack a foothold along the way. Mongolian herdsmen are good at riding, and the army can't compete with them in the mountains and grasslands, so it can only advance steadily.

I plan to build a strong city at every 200 to 300 li. In this way, we will move north step by step. Whether it is 1000 li or 2000 li, we can reach the destination in two or three years. But in the next two or three years, Lin Dan should not think about accumulating strength steadily. I will start with the five Khalkha tribes, starting with this city, and often send three or four teams of light cavalry to harass the nearby Khalkha and Chahar herdsmen.

Capture people and take cattle and sheep with you if you can, but kill them if you can't! If you encounter a large army coming to fight, withdraw immediately, and wait for the enemy to withdraw before following and provoking them. I never fight a war at a loss, and the cost of building the city must be recouped from them!"

This is one of the qualities that Hong Tao admires about Yuan Keli. Although this ancient official who was a Jinshi also had the traditional thinking mode of the scholars of his time, he was not conservative and was rational and logical. Most importantly, his bones were not broken.

No matter whether he had just been recruited as an official or had achieved success and was in a high position, as long as he had questions in his mind, he would raise them frankly and would not change his original intention because of the growing power of the emperor.

However, his worries this time were unnecessary. The purpose of building the city was not to defend, but to attack. The goal was to strike directly at the tiger's den, Ligdan Khan's White City.

The current situation is very complicated, and if you want to break it, you have to be ruthless. Compared with Mongolia, Jurchen and Korea, Hong Tao believes that the biggest threat to the Ming Dynasty is not Jurchen, let alone Korea, but Mongolia.

Because the area it controls is so large, stretching for thousands of miles from east to west, and with no focal point, it may move south from any point at any time, making it difficult to defend against.

For this kind of ethnic group, defense is the most difficult and passive. A large amount of financial, material and human resources must be invested in the long border line. Over time, they will be crippled without a major war.

The Ming Dynasty spent most of its 200 years, from its peak to its decline, fighting against Mongolia. Eventually, its body was worn out, its energy and spirit were exhausted, and it could no longer suppress the various forces around it, and was then dealt a fatal blow by the rise of the Jurchens.

But it is not easy to completely defeat Mongolia. The northern nomadic peoples, from the Xiongnu to the Turks and then to the Mongols, have a very prominent feature, which is that they are particularly resistant to attacks. They also have a halo of thorns on their bodies, which has the effect of rebounding damage.

The Han dynasty emptied its treasury and exhausted its people in order to fight against the Xiongnu in the north. In the end, the Xiongnu were driven away and the Han dynasty was exhausted and died soon. The Tang dynasty also suffered the same fate when it fought against the Turks in the north. It killed 1,000 enemies but lost 800 of its own. The outcome was even worse than that of the Han dynasty.

Then the Xianbei, Liao, and Jin rose one after another. Anyway, there was never a shortage of herders or nomadic regimes on the Mongolian Plateau. One after another, like a revolving lantern, it was not until the Qing Dynasty that this problem was basically solved.

What trick did Huang Taiji use? It was not new. He attacked one faction and pulled another. He guaranteed the interests of the Mongolian nobles, and even gave them more, allowing them limited autonomy. Then he consumed their population through a series of internal and external wars to prevent them from becoming bigger.

Since it works, Hong Tao doesn't mind learning from it. Now he will unite with the Right Wing Mongolia to attack the Left Wing Mongolia. If they win, they will share the spoils. If they lose... since they have all lost, what else can they say? Just go to bed.

After hearing what the emperor said, Yuan Keli quickly figured out why he had been so close to the Kharchin tribe before, and then brought in the Tumed tribe to severely attack Ordos.

It was a conspiracy that killed two birds with one stone. The emperor had long been eyeing the Left Mongol Khan Lindan, and it had nothing to do with Zhang Bingzhong's rebellion. The Taiji Su Nang and the Taiji Chashak were just unlucky guys who happened to come to the door, and indirectly promoted the Kharchin and Tumed tribes to turn to the Ming Dynasty.

"...Your Majesty is wise, please give this city a name!" In that case, stop talking nonsense and continue to follow the emperor step by step.

"Uh...hiss...hmm...Fuyuwei...it sounds nice and auspicious, let's just call it Fuyu City!"

When it came to the stage of naming, Hong Tao seemed to have a harder time than formulating military and national strategies. He grinned and bared his teeth, his facial features distorted, he touched his head and rubbed his butt, stretched his arms and legs, and struggled for a long time, but in the end he couldn't come up with an answer, so he simply used his old name.

He originally wanted to say Chifeng, a city located northeast of Beijing. In Hong Tao's mind, there were only Chengde and Chifeng. But judging from the distance, it seemed to be much farther than Chengde, so it should be Chifeng.

But then I thought, forget it. Calling it Chifeng, if the staff asked where it came from, it would be hard to explain. Saying there is a red mountain there? No way, I have never been there.

In fact, both Chengde and Chifeng are wrong. The Fuyu City that is about to appear is neither Chengde nor Chifeng, but is located between them. In later generations, there was no big city in this area, which belonged to Ningcheng County. However, it was an important city in the Liao Dynasty, called Dading Prefecture, and was Zhongjing, one of the Five Capitals.

(End of this chapter)