Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 144 The triumphant return south
At dusk, as the sun sets, the originally autumn yellow grass is dyed red with blood. Scattered arrows and abandoned weapons can be seen everywhere.

Fire smoke flew up, and naked corpses were pushed into the fire. The corpses reacted instantly when they encountered the high temperature.

Under the high temperature of several hundred degrees, the skin of all the corpses was instantly carbonized and turned into a black mass.

As the temperature of the furnace gets higher and higher, the fat in their bodies begins to burn and makes a "sizzling" sound, like a piece of fat being pressed on a red-hot iron plate.

Under the gaze of the Ming army, the bellies of all the corpses continued to expand like inflating balloons.

Some corpses' limbs began to twitch, and some corpses sat up directly, making a sound similar to calling for help!

"Save me... save me..."

"Ghost! It's a ghost! A ghost!"

Looking at the various reactions after the corpse was burned, some of the prisoners in charge of the burning ran away.

In the distance, nearly [-] Jurchen women and children and nearly [-] defeated soldiers huddled together, watching this scene with heart-breaking emotions.

Not only them, but also the soldiers of the Bohai Navy who had just fought in front of these corpses were also frightened.

But in this situation, Zhu Gaoxu came out and beat the sitting corpses to pieces with his six-foot-long iron gun. A large amount of gas gushes out from the carbonized gaps, causing a pungent and unpleasant smell.

Faced with this pungent smell, Zhu Gaoxu turned around calmly, ignored Fu Rang's frightened eyes, walked up to them and began to give instructions:
"Collect all the iron items and take them back to Boyan City."

"When we return, we will make a list of the brothers who died in the battle, and note down the horses that were lost or disabled, the number and names of the brothers, and the situation at home."

After a brief explanation, Zhu Gaoxu took off his armor. Seeing this, Yi Shiha returned to normal and quickly stepped forward to take off Zhu Gaoxu's armor.

Looking at the armor full of arrows, Yi Shiha was extremely worried, but when all the armor was removed, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he was shot into a hedgehog, Zhu Gaoxu did not have any scars on his body. The only scar was probably the soles of his feet stained with blood.

The dozens of miles of primitive mountain road are not easy to walk, and even Zhu Gaoxu paid a heavy price.

Even for a person like him, he couldn't help but wince in pain when he took off the socks with the leather straps and flesh on them.

"Your Highness..."

Looking at Zhu Gaoxu's bloody soles, Yi Shiha felt a little distressed, even his feet were in unbearable pain.

Not only him, but also Fu Rang and Zhang Chun could not conceal their surprise and heartache.

Just shaking it off casually, no less than twenty arrows fell from Zhu Gaoxu's armor, and more were still stuck in the gaps.

With a groan, Zhu Gaoxu washed the soles of his feet with the wine he brought with him, and then wrapped the soles of his feet with spare cotton and coarse cloth.

He had asked everyone to prepare these things before the war, and almost everyone had a copy.

"After we go back this time, we have to start getting medical soldiers."

Putting on his shoes, Zhu Gaoxu endured the discomfort and stood up, walking to Chi Huan, who had just taken off his vest.

Tears flowed from its eyes. Although the vest blocked most of the arrows, seven or eight arrows still hit places without the protection of the vest.

"Let me do it."

Zhu Gaoxu comforted Chi Huan with his hands, and then asked the soldiers who were trying to apply medicine to Chi Huan to take care of other horses first. He used wine and cotton cloth to carefully pull out the arrows for Chi Huan, disinfected and applied medicine.

After he finished these things, Fu Rang, who was next to him, also stepped forward and glanced at the tens of thousands of Jurchens.

"What are you going to do with these tens of thousands of Jurchen women and children and thousands of men?"

According to Fu Rang's opinion, it would be best to bury them here with a knife.

But this is just his idea, not Zhu Gaoxu's.

After plugging the distilled grain alcohol, Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the group of people Fu Rang was talking about and asked without thinking: "How many prisoners are there in Buyanzhai Fort?"

"I came in such a hurry that I didn't rush to count, but there are about two to three thousand old and weak women and children and four to five hundred men." Fu Rang responded in a deep voice. Zhu Gaoxu nodded slightly after hearing this:
"Send people back to Jilin City and ask them to send ships to take the Jurchen women and children to Jilin City and tell the people of Jilin City that from now on they are also our people."

"In addition, all the men were placed in Buyanzhai Fort. We also left 300 men from Nanjing's soldiers in Buyanzhai Fort. From now on, Buyanzhai Fort will be renamed Andong City,"

Just after Zhu Gaoxu finished speaking, Fu Rang frowned: "Are you planning to station troops here?"

"Well..." Zhu Gaoxu did not hide his thoughts, but Fu Rang was worried after hearing this:
"I've seen some of the cultivated land here, but to be honest, it's not very familiar. There are no canals and roads, and the defense of the castle is not good either."

"These tens of thousands of acres of land can only produce five or six thousand shi of grain at most, which can feed more than a thousand people. If you want to station troops here, you will have to transport grain here in the future, and there are no fortresses along our way. , it is extremely easy for the waterway to be cut off.”

"Besides, if you want to keep these tens of thousands of people, Jilin City will have tens of thousands more mouths. If the imperial court does not send more food, how long can Jilin City survive?"

Fu Rang has his own reasons. After all, the current Jilin Shipyard cannot even be self-sufficient. It basically depends on the salary transfusions of Liaodong Dusi and Zhu Gaoxu.

Now that there are tens of thousands more people, it is unreasonable to maintain a fort across thousands of miles of waterway.

"I have my plans."

Faced with his doubts, Zhu Gaoxu smiled and appeased him, and pointed to the group of women and children and said: "Move the women and children to Jilin City and let the women make cement and mine. This way we can save many men."

"Leaving these thousands of Jurchen men to farm and open up wasteland in Anton City can at least reduce half of the pressure on Anton City."

"Besides, I plan to use Anton City to appease the Jurchens in the north. Some small tribes that cannot survive can join."

Zhu Gaoxu expressed his thoughts, and Fu Rang understood what he meant, but he was still worried: "If you deal with them like this, how will you control them?"

"What's more, the military households in Jilin City didn't become enemies with them for a day or two. They went to Jilin City. What if they were squeezed out and resented?"

Fu Rang expressed his concerns, to which Zhu Gaoxu also explained:
"All the wasteland they have reclaimed within three years will be distributed to the people of Jilin City to atone for their sins."

"In addition, on the military side, as long as we do a good job in ideological work among our brothers, they will not discriminate against these Jurchens too much."

"As for how to control this group of men and women, I want their children to enter academies and learn Chinese language and Chinese characters, so that in more than ten years they will be no different from Han people."

Pull one faction to fight another faction. The pull faction here is to pull the enslaved Jurchens at the grassroots level, and to attack the Jurchen leaders and nobles who hate the Ming Dynasty.

There are hundreds of thousands of Jurchens outside the Pass, while there are only [-] Han people.

If Zhu Gaoxu hates all Jurchens, he will only have countless enemies.

On the contrary, if he could win over ordinary Jurchens and let them live a good life, Zhu Gaoxu did not believe that they would resist.

Let all Jurchen dolls have books to read, just to attract Jurchen talents from them.

Why did the Qing Dynasty always have uprisings, especially in the later period when it was difficult to control the Han people?

In the final analysis, the exclusion of Han people has gone too far, so that a large number of outstanding Han talents are not taken seriously.

99 people who keep their own rules are no match for one restless person.

Only by unified management of the Jurchen dolls, selecting their elites to the Bohai Palace, sending the restless ones to the army, and giving them room to climb up, will the remaining Jurchens be easy to manage.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu also continued to say to Fu Rang:

"Everyone outside the customs knows how deep our hatred is with the Xiyang Ha tribe. By doing this, we can also show the generosity and tolerance of the Han people."

"We didn't kill the Xiyang Ha tribe, and we let their children read and write. Do you think those tribes who have no hatred against us will worry about us?"

"Now that I have come to the outside of the pass, what I have to do is not just deal with a Xiyangha, but to integrate all the people outside the pass and make the land outside the pass become a new Han Dynasty like Yunnan."

Zhu Gaoxu's words made Fu Rang understand him better. He admired Zhu Gaoxu's courage and heroism, but he also understood how difficult it was to do so, so he sighed:

"You are the King of Bohai. I can't stop you, but I want to remind you that this blood feud is not that easy to resolve."

"Don't worry, I know what to do." Seeing that Fu Rang no longer objected, Zhu Gaoxu responded with a smile, and at the same time looked at the Dahei Mountain in the distance:

"How about counting all the casualties brothers?"

His words revealed the most heart-wrenching aspect of the battle, and Fu Rang also lowered his voice: "There are 37 people missing, 24 missing, and 120 people with minor or serious injuries, but they can all be rescued."

As if he thought it was not good to just talk about bad things, Fu Rang raised his voice again: "However, the results of the battle are also worthy of joy. At least tens of thousands of people were captured, more than a thousand enemies were killed, thousands of stones of grain were seized, and nearly [-] cattle, sheep, and horses were captured. Ten thousand."

"The exact number can only be known by taking them back to Boyanzhai Fort and calculating the days when the warship goes south."

However, the 37 casualties were already very impressive for the outcome of this battle.

The battle losses of both sides were basically one to thirty, which was even more exaggerated than what Zhu Gaoxu said before the battle: one to ten.

But neither Zhu Gaoxu nor Fu Rang found it strange.

The combat strength of Xiyang Ha's command was actually only those [-] armored soldiers, and most of the Bohai Navy's casualties were caused by those [-] armored soldiers.

If Zhu Gaoxu hadn't shot Xiyang Ha in time and Fu Rang had arrived in time, the three hundred armored soldiers might have caused greater casualties to the Bohai Navy.

"Leave a few brothers to continue searching for the missing brothers in the mountains, and prepare the rest to go south."

Seeing that the cattle carriage whose rope had been cut off was repaired, Zhu Gaoxu also issued a military order to return to Buyanzhai Fort.

Fu Rang Zuo bowed in agreement, and then their group of troops embarked on their way back to the current Buyanzhai Fort and the future Anton City.

On the way back, the joy of victory in the war was like the blazing sun, engraved in the hearts of every Bohai soldier.

In contrast, the nearly [-] Jurchen captives were worried about their fate. Even though Yi Shiha had sent someone to tell them that he would not do anything to them, they could not help but be worried and afraid.

Because of this, people kept trying to escape along the way, but without exception, they were caught by the Bohai Navy's cavalry with lassoes.

For Zhu Gaoxu, they are important productive forces, something Jilin City is in urgent need of right now.

Zhu Gaoxu and the others spent the whole night on the fifty-mile return journey, and finally arrived at Buyanzhai Fort at dawn.

Tens of thousands of Jurchens were driven into the fortress, while Zhu Gaoxu looked at the simple fortress at close range.

Beside him, Yi Shiha captured a centurion from Xiyang Ha's army, and he introduced Xiyang Ha's power to Zhu Gaoxu.

To put it simply, although Buyanzhai Fort has a good foundation, it cannot be regarded as the only territory of the Xiyang Ha family.Before the war, Xiyang Ha's eldest son Atai Wailan returned to Hulawen City with more than 1000 men and thousands of tribesmen, which was more than a thousand miles away from here.

Atai Wailan and more than 2000 men, as well as nearly [-] tribesmen, are still entrenched there. It can be said that Xiyang Ha's power is greater than the intelligence previously mastered by Zhu Gaoxu and others.

The fact that Xiyang Ha was able to be killed this time was purely due to his good grasp of the opportunity.

Because of this, Zhu Gaoxu could not give up Buyanzhai Fort, so he began to do ideological work for the entire army starting at noon.

After five hundred elite soldiers stationed in the south of the Yangtze River guarded the prisoners, Zhu Gaoxu called more than 400 brothers from Jilin City who were accompanying the army on this expedition to Buyan Stone Castle where nobles such as Xiyang Ha lived during their lifetimes.

Boyan Stone Castle is not very spacious, only 180 steps from east to west, and only [-] steps from north to south.

But even so, its open space can still gather more than 400 people.

In front of more than 400 people gathered, Zhu Gaoxu also walked onto the stone castle wall where Xiyang Ha loved to command his people during his lifetime.

The city wall was only a foot high. Zhu Gaoxu stood on it and looked down at more than 400 brothers.

Some of them were injured, and some were safe and sound, but no matter what their situation was, at this moment their faces were filled with smiles after the victory.

Facing such a smile, Zhu Gaoxu also bowed to them.

"Your Highness is a thousand years old!"

His performance immediately won everyone's response. Everyone sang a thousand-year-old salute and stretched out their hands to bow.

Just in the face of his singing, Zhu Gaoxu also shouted openly and honestly at the top of his voice:

"The war was won. This time we killed the old slave and one of his sons, and also killed thousands of Donglu who had gone south."

"Not only that, we also captured thousands of cattle and lambs, as well as tens of thousands of Jurchens."

His voice echoed in the castle, and everyone listened attentively. When they heard their victory, they all puffed up their chests with pride.

But this situation was quickly broken by Zhu Gaoxu.

Looking at everyone, Zhu Gaoxu continued:

"On the way back, many people asked me whether these prisoners were killed or sold to other Jurchens in the Six Cities."

"Of course, killing them can vent my hatred and make a profit after selling them, but I don't want to do that."

As soon as these words came out, many people looked at their comrades around them, probably guessing what their Highness was going to say.

"Indeed, many of them have gone south to become our enemies. Even Zhang's father, who commanded Qianshi, may have died in the hands of one of them, but I want to say..."

Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath: "If there is a peaceful life, no one will be willing to live a life of licking blood with the tip of a knife."

"They were indeed our life-and-death enemies before today, but now we have won the battle and killed thousands of them to avenge our original revenge."

"Of course, some brothers may think that the lives of these thousands of people cannot offset the hundreds of brothers who have been killed over the years."

"To these brothers, I want to say that the people who ordered the killings were Xiyang Ha and his sons. Although we have killed Xiyang Ha now, his sons still lead tens of thousands of people in Hulawen in the east. .”

"The targets we should seek revenge on are them, not the group of captured Jurchens outside..."

Zhu Gaoxu said this, but saw that some soldiers still looked unconvinced, but he continued:

"Of course, the group of people outside are not necessarily innocent. They should also make up for the mistakes they made back then. Therefore, I am here to tell you that for the Jurchens outside, they will use the next three years to atone for their sins."

"From now on, Buyanzhai Fort will be renamed Andong City. The tens of thousands of acres of cultivated land outside Andong City will be divided equally among you as the seizures of this battle."

"But if you accept the land in Andong City, you have to give up the land in Jilin City. After all, Jilin City has more people."

"The brothers participating in this battle will each receive twenty acres of land in Andong City, or fifteen acres in Jilin City."

"If you don't have enough people at home, you don't have to worry if you can't plant that much land."

"I said that people outside need to atone for their previous sins, so they will cultivate land for you in the next three years and open up wasteland for Jilin City and Andong City."

"If they want to settle in Andong City and Jilin City, they need to clear up ten acres of land within these three years. I will give all of these land to you without any reservation!"

Zhu Gaoxu finished talking about his arrangements. It was impossible for him to do any preferential treatment for prisoners in this era. Even if he did that, it was impossible for people in this era to do so.

Therefore, asking tens of thousands of Jurchens to work to eliminate hatred was a way he could think of that could not only promote the economy of Jilin City, eliminate hatred, but also involve the interests of all military households.

"Now that I have finished speaking, is there anyone who objects to me taking them to Jilin City or staying in Andong City?"

He glanced at the more than [-] Jilin City soldiers, looking at them all looking at each other, but no one stood up.

After all, everyone knows how to measure. Even if only half of the tens of thousands of Jurchens work, they can cultivate the more than 3 acres of arable land in Jilin City and still find time to open up wasteland.

No matter how hard they work, with so much animal power in Jilin City, they can still carve out [-] to [-] acres of farmland. By then, every household in Jilin City will be allocated seven or eight acres of land, and they have no reason to refuse.

"Your Highness, those Jurchens are helping us work, what about their food rations?"

"Yeah! What about the rations?"

Suddenly, someone in the crowd raised a question. After all, outside this pass, food is more important than human life.

But in response, Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand: "This is what I want to say next."

"If you accept the previous conditions, you must promise me that you will never hurt or insult them. Even if you cannot treat them as brothers, you cannot target them."

"During the three years they have been working, all rations have been provided by the palace. You do not have to pay a single grain of rice. Of course, if you volunteer, I have nothing to do with it. The palace provides them with five buckets of rice every month."

"In addition, I also said that after three years, they will be the common people of Jilin City, and their children can enjoy the same treatment as our children."

“As long as they don’t make any more mistakes and actively participate in labor to correct their mistakes, they will also become part of us, continue to cultivate wasteland with us, use their own hands to carve out land, and live a stable life, and their children will also enter the Studying in the academy.”

"Not only that, if they are willing to join the army, we will gladly accept it and will not exclude them."

"This regulation is my iron rule for all of us, as well as the people outside the customs and future captives."

"Anyone of our soldiers and civilians who violates this order will be punished."

Zhu Gaoxu gave his bottom line, and the more than [-] people in the fort did not dare to speak loudly to refute.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also said: "After you go back this time, you must also tell your family and children these words. Once they violate this law, you will also be punished."

"Yes..." A sparse response sounded from below, but Zhu Gaoxu didn't say much. He knew that it wouldn't take long for these hatreds to gradually recede.

Looking at the more than [-] people in the fort, he also recounted various events after the battle: "Now I will tell you again how to deal with the capture of this battle..."

"All my soldiers will be rewarded with farmland in this battle. Those who are willing to move to Andong City will be rewarded with twenty acres of farmland. Those who stay in Jilin City will be rewarded with fifteen acres of farmland."

"In addition, all the cattle and horses were sent to the army to continue to reclaim wasteland in Jilin City and Andong City."

"The reclaimed wasteland, except for the horse feed fields, will be divided equally between the Jilin Guards and the people on the first day of October every year."

"have you understood?!"

Zhu Gaoxu shouted the last sentence, and what he received was a response like a roaring mountain and a tsunami: "I understand!"

"Disband!" Zhu Gaoxu said in a deep voice, and more than [-] soldiers in the fort also bowed and dismissed.

After they dispersed, Fu Rang, Yi Shiha, and Zhang Chun walked onto the fortress wall. Zhu Gaoxu's eyes fell on Zhang Chun. Zhang Chun also noticed his eyes and bowed immediately:

"Don't worry, Your Highness, the general's hatred has been dissipated since he cut off the old slave's head. If there is still any, it is all on the few descendants of the old slave. He will not care about these naturalized people."

Zhang Chun is not a fool. He will not go against Zhu Gaoxu. What's more, when he went south this year, he also met many Mongolians and Jurchens who had converted to the Ming army. There were not many of them.

We must know that after the end of the Ming Dynasty's Northern Expedition, the number of Mongolians left behind by the Yuan Dynasty and those who surrendered southward reached more than 300. Including the Semu people and Jurchens, the number of various powerful ethnic groups in the pre-Yuan period was nearly [-] million.

But even so, the Ming Dynasty still accepted them. Although there were often treacherous people among them who rebelled in Gansu, Guanzhong and Hebei, Zhu Yuanzhang did not increase the punishment, but punished everything in accordance with the "Ming Law".

After seeing the situation in the south, Zhang Chun was not surprised by today's situation.

He expressed his attitude, and Zhu Gaoxu nodded with satisfaction and turned his attention to Fu Rang.

Facing this look, Fu Rang actually felt a little pressured, but he was close to Zhu Gaoxu, so he could withstand the pressure and reported:

"We searched all over Daheishan, and most of the missing brothers were found. Most of the lost soldiers and civilians were also found. Only three brothers were unlucky and fell to their death in the mountains..."

"Falled to death..." Zhu Gaoxu felt very uncomfortable when he heard Fu Rang's words.

He knew the situation in Daheishan. The brothers who had slipped probably did not fall to death immediately, but died of their injuries while waiting for rescue.

Thinking of the loneliness they faced before they died, Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath:

"Now that we have more fields in our hands, the previous regulations have to be changed."

"Brothers who died in this battle, as well as brothers who died in future battles, will receive forty acres of land and twenty dan of grain per household. In addition, the land reward for each battle will still be paid..."

"In addition, if there are children at home, an additional five acres of pension land will be given."

If you don't want to settle in Andong City, you can still get [-] acres of cultivated land in Jilin City, and you can harvest at least [-] dan of grain every year. This food is enough to feed and clothe a family of five. .

"Your Highness is kind..."

Facing the high pension provided by Zhu Gaoxu, Zhang Chun and Yi Shiha were moved and bowed one after another. However, after hearing his words, Fu Rang couldn't help but think of what he had said to himself before...

"I won't be him, just watch."

Recalling what Zhu Gaoxu said to him when he said Zhu Gaoxu looked like him, Fu Rang also set his sights on Zhu Gaoxu.

Although Zhu Gaoxu was very tired at the moment, what he showed was indeed different from the one in the palace.

"I hope I didn't choose the wrong person this time..."

(End of this chapter)