Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 131 Sunrise over Songjiang
As time passed, the people of Jilin City became more enthusiastic about the academy than Zhu Gaoxu imagined.

The two academies, which were originally expected to be completed on March [-], were completed on March [-].

Since the project was completed ahead of schedule and the team from the south had not yet arrived at Jilin City, Zhu Gaoxu asked Zhang Chun to lead the people to renovate some roads in Jilin City.

Previously, all roads in Jilin City were dirt roads, and only river rocks were used in front of Zhu Gaoxu's Bohai Palace.

Because the workload was too heavy, Zhu Gaoxu just asked Zhang Chun to lead the people to fill and repair some potholes on the dirt road. As for the actual repairs, he planned to wait for the masons in the city to find limestone before conducting major repairs.

The current Jilin City is too crude. Although various regulations are planned according to the [-]-household military fortress, there are not that many military households to settle in later, which leads to the delay in the construction of various follow-up projects. .

Projects such as thickening of city walls and drainage within the city were only half completed, and the quality was extremely poor.

Zhu Gaoxu planned to renovate the entire Jilin City after finding limestone and iron ore so that he could build a cement field.

The drainage and city walls in the city, as well as the construction of houses for residents, widening of roads, fire walls and fire tunnels, digging of water wells and other projects are still waiting for him to take care of.

Although Zhu Gaoxu will not stay in Jilin City forever, Jilin City will definitely become the major political and military center in Northeast China in the future.

Although there is no cold-resistant rice, crops such as wheat and corn can be cultivated in Northeast China.

After arriving in Jilin City, as the snow melted, Zhu Gaoxu also observed the cultivated fields outside the city.

In his observation, although the land in Jilin Bay is very fertile, the water channels in the fields are all gullies dug out with hoes.

When the Songhua River overflows or during the rainy season, these gullies cannot be drained in time, causing crops to suffer from waterlogging.

It can be said that although Jilin Bay has been developed by the Ming army for seven years, due to the small number of military households, no complete water conservancy facilities like those in Jiangnan have been built.

You must know that during the Jurchen period of the Jin Kingdom, as the Jin Kingdom vigorously constructed water conservancy facilities in the Heilongjiang and Songhua River basins, Shangjing, Puyu and other roads could collect more than 20 shi of millet every year, and the expenditure was only more than 10,000 shi. Stones, and [-]+ stones of food can be freely deployed.

In order to transport this grain, the Kingdom of Jin established a water transportation department in Zhaozhou. In the later years of Jin Shizong, grain was continuously transported to Hebei. It can be said to be a veritable granary.

This was only taxed food. If the tax rate was reversed, Huining Road at that time could support tens of millions of people.

Water conservancy construction is a top priority in agriculture. Sichuan has been able to maintain its title of Land of Abundance for 600 years mainly because Li Bing and his son built hundreds of weirs, ponds and canals in Sichuan.

In the subsequent "Zhuge Governance of Shu", clear desilting standards and desilting times were set for every river and weir pond in Sichuan.

After Zhuge Liang, whenever Sichuan officials took office, they were required to clean up the water in time according to his standards. Only in this way could the Yantang canals from the time of Li Bing and Zhuge Liang be preserved and used for more than a thousand years.

Zhu Gaoxu did not have the ability to control water as Li Bing and his son and Zhuge Liang did, but he still learned a lot about how to drain water and how to restrain water in his previous work unit.

He visited three river bends in Jilin in this era, measured the three river bends, and then took Zhang Chun and the men in Jilin City to start planning canals and weirs.

In such a plan, the stonemason who had been away for more than ten days also came back with news.

Thirty miles southwest of Jilin City, masons discovered sufficient limestone mines, a small coal mine 26 miles east, and a small open-pit iron mine that could be mined sixty miles southeast.

These are the directions indicated by Zhu Gaoxu. Although he is not familiar with many things, he still remembers his old profession and information very clearly.

Cement uses limestone, clay, iron ore powder, and coal as its main raw materials. As for the proportion of cement raw materials, it is determined according to the actual situation and is not one-size-fits-all.

However, based on Zhu Gaoxu's current situation, the approximate ratio of 7.5:1.5:1.5:8.5 is sufficient.

Of course, even if the proportions are correct, if you want to achieve the cement strength of later generations, you must use various supporting machinery.

Zhu Gaoxu did not have these machines. All he had was the most primitive stone mill. Therefore, the strength of the cement he produced was definitely not as strong as the cement of later generations, and it may not even be comparable to the cement of the [-]th century.

But for this era, his cement is enough.

After discovering the location of the cement raw materials, Zhu Gaoxu took advantage of half a month before spring plowing and took the opportunity to select [-] men from the guard station and divided them into three teams to set up camps in these three places.

After the camp is established, they only need to wait for the subsequent draft horses to arrive in Jilin City, and then go to the camp to escort the raw materials before following them back.

Jilin City lacks manpower, so Zhu Gaoxu can only periodically search for raw materials and then bring the raw materials back to Jilin City to produce cement bit by bit.

After defeating Xiyang Ha, he will have enough people to use.

Amid such expectations, time has come little by little to the sixth day of April.

In Zhu Gaoxu's eager anticipation, Fu Rang finally appeared in Jixi Fort with a huge team.

"Your Highness! Commander Fu has arrived!"

Outside a mill outside Jilin City, when Yishiha came on horseback to announce the good news to Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Gaoxu, who was wearing a simple mask and spreading knowledge about pneumoconiosis to women, also turned around and took off his mask.

"Fu Rang is here?" There was surprise on his face, and Yi Shiha nodded excitedly:
"Here we come, we arrived at Jixi Fort half an hour ago, and we will probably arrive at Jilin City in another half hour!"

"Let's go! Let's pick them up." After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu put the mask into his arms, and then said to the thirty women in front of him:

"Remember, no matter how uncomfortable you are, you must wear this mask. If you can't bear it, change someone else. Don't be brave and don't risk your life."

After that, Zhu Gaoxu went to the side of the mill, untied the Chi Huan horse that was eating beans, got on his horse and galloped towards Jixi Fort with Yi Shiha.

After he left, the women also started to build a fence next to the mill with the wooden stakes that had been cut.

On the other hand, Zhu Gaoxu and Yi Shiha were galloping all the way, and within a quarter of an hour they saw the long snake-like team in front of them.

Originally both of them were very happy, but as the distance between them got closer and closer, the smiles on their faces stiffened unknowingly.

In their naked eyes, the size of the team was much smaller than when it set off from Nanjing, and their doubts were answered by Fu Rang who rode out a moment later.

Fu Rang rode a Qin horse to the two of them, and both sides reined in their horses.

Facing Zhu Gaoxu, Fu Rang showed a bit of guilt on his face: "You must have seen that when the team arrived in Dengzhou, eight households refused to leave..."

"When we were about to leave, sixteen more families were about to leave."

"According to your previous arrangement, I returned them all, and the team suddenly lost 24 households and 110 five people."

"I had no choice but to recruit 24 young men from Dengzhou to join the army. Fortunately, no one came back along the way."

Fu Rang's words made Zhu Gaoxu not sure whether he was happy or sad.

He should be happy that he removed more than 100 mouths to eat and saved nearly a thousand kilo of food.

But he should be sad that there are less than 100 people, which may delay his development of Jilin.

But when these various emotions came to my lips, they only turned into: "Thank you for your hard work."

As Zhu Gaoxu said this, Fu Rang also looked at Jilin City in the distance.

It has to be said that the appearance and scale of Jilin City are quite intimidating, and it also greatly comforted the 22 guards, 600 craftsmen, [-] officials, and more than [-] family members who followed Fu Rang to the north.

"The yard has been built, don't worry." Zhu Gaoxu comforted Fu Rang, then turned to Yishiha and said, "Take someone to arrange for the brothers to stay while Fu Rang and I have a few words."

"My slave, take your orders..." Yi Shiha agreed, then took over the team and led them to Jilin City in the distance.

Zhu Gaoxu and Fu Rang rode their horses to the roadside and looked at the passing team.

During this period, many of Zhu Gaoxu's familiar brothers from Baihu with the character "Xu" greeted him, and Zhu Gaoxu also smiled and waved in response.

After they all left, Fu Rang said: "The King of Qin passed away, Marquis Yongping was sentenced to death, and the Duke of Song also passed away..."

As soon as he opened his mouth, Zhu Gaoxu looked at him instantly, with a look of disbelief on his face.

He was not surprised that King Qin Zhu Pang passed away, but he was surprised that Feng Sheng passed away.

In an instant, Feng Sheng's face flashed through his mind, and Fu Rang continued: "I only received the news when I rushed to Tieling in the middle of the month. This is the Yamen's newspaper."

Fu Rang took out a wrinkled Di newspaper from the package beside the saddle. Zhu Gaoxu took it and read it, without saying anything for a long time.

Did he change history?
Changed, whether it was Fu Youde, Feng Sheng, Wang Bi, Xie Cheng... they all lived a few months longer than in history, but they all ended up dead without exception.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't know whether this was history being revised, or whether Lao Zhu was determined to let them die.

He believed in the latter more than the former because he didn't want to end up being cooked to death by Zhu Zhanji.

Thinking of this, he took a deep breath: "Have all the grain and iron materials from Liaodong Dusi been sent out?"

"When we arrived, the soldiers in Kaiyuan had already started to prepare food. It is estimated that they will arrive a few days after us."

As Fu Rang explained, Zhu Gaoxu also nodded and told him about the month he arrived in Jilin City and the situation around Jilin.

Fu Rang was not surprised when he heard that Zhu Gaoxu had found coal and iron mines. After all, everyone in the world knew Zhu Gaoxu's ability to "look at mountains and mines".

What surprised him was that Zhu Gaoxu actually did business with the Jurchens in order to make money.

Although this was nothing compared to his uncles, it was smuggling after all, a practice that was expressly prohibited by the imperial court.

However, Fu Rang was not a newbie who had just entered the official career. He knew very well that with the current situation, Zhu Gaoxu had no choice but to smuggle if he wanted to develop.

"When are you going to send troops to deal with Xiyang?"

Fu Rang asked Zhu Gaoxu on horseback, and Zhu Gaoxu also pondered: "I told the people in the fort after the autumn harvest, but specifically I want to take the initiative to send troops before the autumn harvest, or seize the opportunity when Xiyang Han goes south to attack Jilin City. We took a detour and made a surprise attack on his rear."

"What you want to say is the last one." Fu Rang exposed Zhu Gaoxu's mystery. He knew better than anyone else that Zhu Gaoxu's nature was actually adventurous.

It's just that this nature was suppressed by him in Nanjing, but when he entered Jilin, it was completely released by Zhu Gaoxu. "Haha..." Zhu Gaoxu chuckled: "You and the old man didn't learn from each other, but you exposed me and learned this clearly. However, how to defeat the old slave Xiyang Ha depends on how the old slave is prepared. Deal with us."

He mentioned Fu Youde again, but Fu Rang no longer felt uncomfortable when mentioning Fu Youde before. He used Zhu Gaoxu's words and said:

"My eldest brother and I wrote to my second brother and persuaded them. They have no intention of becoming officials. I hope you can use them in the future..."

Fu Rang's words had some profound meaning, but Zhu Gaoxu narrowed his eyes: "What do you mean by this?"

"My father knows better than me. He said this." Fu Rang chuckled, but his words silenced Zhu Gaoxu.

Before Zhu Gaoxu could speak, Fu Rang turned his chuckle into a bitter smile: "Although it was my father who said it, I don't think you are that stupid..."

He looked up at Jilin City, which was getting closer and closer in front of him, and sighed: "With this little capital, even if I add my second brother and the others, I'm afraid it's just a small boat in the sea, and it can sink at any time..."

Fu Rang didn't think Zhu Gaoxu could do anything with Jilin City, let alone what Zhu Gaoxu would do.

Compared with the brilliant Ming Dynasty under Zhu Yuanzhang, the current Zhu Gaoxu is too weak.

In response, Zhu Gaoxu did not refute, but changed the topic and told Fu Rang about his military training.

"I will give you a copy of "Practical Soldier Training" that I wrote. You train according to the above method. Every morning, all soldiers go to the academy to study and practice in the afternoon."

"Studying?" When Fu Rang heard that Zhu Gaoxu wanted his soldiers to study, he couldn't help but feel that the investment was too high.

Naturally, he saw the three thousand sets of paper, pens and inkstones that Zhu Gaoxu bought, but he originally thought that Zhu Gaoxu was going to set up a Confucian school in Jilin City for children in the city.

But he didn't expect that Zhu Gaoxu not only wanted his children to learn, but also his soldiers to follow him.

"Every brother in the city, I treat them as my own brothers..."

Faced with Fu Rang's doubts, Zhu Gaoxu looked directly at him and said, "I don't want them to follow me to the north and be the top soldiers for the rest of their lives."

"What I want is that they will follow me to the end, and each one of them can win an official position on the battlefield and shine in the family."

Somehow, when Zhu Gaoxu said these words, Fu Rang could not see a trace of hypocrisy in his eyes, only the truth.

But it was such a sincere look that made Fu Rang think of someone.

He looked at Zhu Gaoxu with a complicated expression, and his tone was a little wrong: "You are becoming more and more like His Majesty..."

"I can't be him, just watch." Zhu Gaoxu turned his head and continued walking to Jilin City with Fu Rang.

Looking at his figure, Fu Rang seemed to be moved by his words and no longer doubted anything.

Soon, the two of them followed the Northern Return team into Jilin City.

Under Yi Shiha's arrangement, the team quickly moved into the small courtyards that Yi Shiha had built these days.

These small courtyards are actually very simple. They don't even have walls, only rows of fences, but they are more spacious.

Zhu Gaoxu gave adequate treatment to these brothers who returned to the north. Although each house in the courtyard only had a simple room, the courtyard encompassed an entire acre.

When they were arranged to move in by Yi Shiha, Zhu Gaoxu also took Fu Rang back to the palace and asked people to call Zhang Chun and Lin Su.

During this period, Fu Rang also joked that Zhu Gaoxu's palace was not as big as some of the commander's offices in the south. However, in the face of his ridicule, Zhu Gaoxu said: "I am a lonely person. Living in such a big house is enough. I don't even give up your yard." He builds, and you will live with me.”

"You guy..." Fu Rang felt angry and itched his teeth when he heard that he didn't even deserve a yard.

Fortunately, Zhang Chun and Lin Su arrived in time, and Zhu Gaoxu told Fu Rang about the renamed Lin Su, and Zhang Chun, who was small but outstanding in ability.

Regarding the two of them, Fu Rang believed in Zhu Gaoxu's vision. He did not raise any doubts, but looked through the "Practical Military Training" that Zhu Gaoxu took out with them.

Since the research on the matchlock gun had not yet started, Zhu Gaoxu focused on the war layout of cold weapons, and the training method was also selected by Feng Sheng himself.

"This method is what Song Guogong said. It is the training method of our army's spear army during the Zhizheng period. I have added some of my own opinions to it, but there will be no problem."

As Zhu Gaoxu spoke, he discussed his "Practical Military Training" with Fu Rang.

In later trainings, there are ten basic trainings including long-distance running, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, pull-ups, frog jumps, weight-bearing boxing, armed cross-country, mountain climbing, and individual soldier basic tactical movement training.

Among them, Zhu Gaoxu retained some and eliminated some.

Although long-distance running is aerobic, Zhu Gaoxu still retained it because he always remembered what Zhu Yuanzhang said to Zhu Fan.

The Ming infantry was able to drive the Mongolian cavalry back to Mobei, not by forming formations to protect themselves, but by counterattacking the Mongolian cavalry.

Only by fighting like the Battle of Luliang and the Battle of Caijiazhuang, using less to attack more and using the mobility of infantry and cavalry, can Zhu Gaoxu guarantee the defeat of Xiyang Ha with more than 500 brothers under his command.

They must achieve high-speed movement while ensuring their formation, and cannot leave any loopholes for any opponent. Therefore, training on organizational strength and endurance must be added to future military training.

"With your training method, if you don't have enough food, I'm afraid the brothers down there will roar."

Fu Rang looked at Zhu Gaoxu's harsh military training methods that he practiced almost every day, and felt that this guy was even more ruthless than his father at certain times.

"There isn't much else in the Songhua River, just enough meat tubes."

Zhu Gaoxu had a smile on his face. He had the Songhua River and more than a dozen boats. Now Fu Rang and the others had brought so much supplies. With just one net, they could catch hundreds of kilograms of fish, not to mention the amount in the forest. Plenty of prey.

The Northeast is rich in products, otherwise it would be impossible to support hundreds of thousands of Jurchens.

The Jurchens were unable to catch too many fish in the rivers due to limited technology, but Zhu Gaoxu did not have to worry.

The food is mixed with prey and fish, plus the beans sent by Liaodong Dusi can be used to extract oil. As long as there is enough oil, there is no fear that they will not be able to keep them fat and strong.

Fu Rang saw Zhu Gaoxu's confidence, but he didn't think Zhu Gaoxu was arrogant.

After all, using the supplies of one guard to raise 500 people, I am afraid that only Zhu Gaoxu could be so generous, not to mention that he emptied his own palace treasury to raise soldiers.

It would be strange if he couldn't afford it.

As the two of them talked like this, Nayishiha also finished his business and walked in from the outside.

"How many furs are there in the treasury?"

Seeing Yi Shiha coming, Zhu Gaoxu turned around and asked.

"Two pieces of 670." Yishiha answered without thinking. Zhu Gaoxu looked at Fu Rang again: "How much Lumi do I have left?"

"More than [-] stones" Fu Rang also answered subconsciously.

After learning the amount of grain in the treasury, Zhu Gaoxu immediately told Yi Shiha and Zhang Chun:

"The grain in the treasury will first be allocated to brothers in the army as monthly salary, and then to the people in the city as monthly rations. The remaining grain will be transported by water to Futijin City for trade."

"Spring plowing is about to begin. With just these [-] draft horses and the people cultivating and clearing up wasteland themselves, at most [-] acres of cultivated land will be created this year."

"Replace more fur cattle and draft horses. It is best to open up [-] acres of wasteland this year, so that we will have less pressure next year."

The departure of the more than a hundred people forced Zhu Gaoxu to speed up his pace. He had to open up as much land as possible, because after defeating Xiyang Ha this year, he would capture many prisoners from Xiyang Ha.

These prisoners will be thrown into the current lime, iron ore and coal mines. Only if these mines can produce stably can he guarantee the construction of firearms factories in the future.

Xiyang Ha and his seven allies will become the nourishment for the development and growth of Jilin City.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu felt that time was pressing.

"Your Highness, when will the academy start? Many people were asking when the servant came just now."

After Yishiha set off for Futigin City in response, he also asked Zhu Gaoxu about the academy.

After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu also asked Yishiha: "Are all the books intact?"

"Two copies were damaged, but it's not a problem." Fu Rang answered in advance, and Zhu Gaoxu nodded.

The [-] sets of books for this Northern Movement were ordered by Zhu Gaoxu and Yishiha from a bookstore in Nanjing City. Each set contains five books. The five books are "Kuiben Xiangxiang Zazai", "Nine Chinese Characters" "Zhang Shushu", "Mengqiu of the Past Dynasties", "Historical Synopsis", "Hongwu Zhengyun".

These five books include five types of elementary school textbooks including literacy, mathematics, history, and Mandarin.

Although Zhu Gaoxu wanted to write his own books to serve as teaching materials, he had no close followers in Nanjing, and printed books could easily be learned by Jin Yiwei. If a few books fell into the hands of Lao Zhu, he would never think of becoming a vassal in his lifetime.

Even now, Zhu Gaoxu has arrived in Jilin, he still dare not print books on a large scale.

"Have you brought all the engravings for movable type printing?" Zhu Gaoxu looked at Yishiha, who also nodded and said:
"My slave has checked it, and everything you told me is exactly right. Everything has been shipped."

"Okay, tomorrow you ask the craftsmen to print four copies of this "Practical Military Training", and you, Fu Rang, Zhang Chun, and Lin Su each read one copy. Your efforts will be needed for future military training."

Zhu Gaoxu said this, and at the end he did not forget to look at Fu Rang: "Have a good rest, tomorrow will not be as leisurely as before."

"Haha..." Fu Rang said with a smile: "If I want to be leisurely, why should I come here to endure hardships with you."

As soon as he said these words, everyone in the hall looked at each other and smiled.

There are a few people who can come to Jilin City with him, Zhu Gaoxu, who want to enjoy peace...

(End of this chapter)