Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 150
"drive!"

At the end of the first month of the 29th year of Hongwu, when the south was beginning to enjoy the beautiful spring weather, the grasslands of Modong were unusually covered with heavy snowfall.

The wind and snow were raging on the grassland, causing many soldiers and civilians who could not withstand the biting cold wind to hide in their houses and sit by the stove to keep warm.

In such a bad season and weather, more than a dozen Tangqi, wrapped in cloth masks and cotton armor, braved the heavy snow to patrol north of the Liaohe River in the northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty.

Even though their faces were covered with frostbite, they still gritted their teeth and patrolled in the ice and snow, without slipping or cheating.

"Boss, I feel that it has been much warmer these days. I think the snow will stop in a few days!"

In the wind and snow, a Tangqi who was wrapped up with only his eyes exposed yelled at the little flag officer in front of him. While he was yelling, the little flag officer was not distracted, but explored what he could see with his eyes. to everything.

"Boss, don't just look at it. We've been watching it for more than a year, and this northern prisoner doesn't dare to come to the south..."

The talkative Tang Qi kept talking, but the people around him were used to it, and no one talked to him.

After crossing the snow-covered hills, they appeared on an open grassland.

"East!"

Seemingly seeing something, a Tangqi shouted and rushed towards the east on horseback.

The rest of the Ming army who had reacted quickly chased after him, and soon they caught up with the Tangqi.

Na Tangqi dismounted and grabbed a broken wooden wheel from the snow.

When the wheel appeared, all the Tang riders turned their horses around without thinking, for fear of encountering an ambush.

The little flag officer turned over and dismounted and took over the incomplete wheel with only one-third left, frowning: "This is the spoke of the wheel. It seems that it was broken here not long ago. The Wuliangha in the north should be the sect." The Sentinel Cavalry went south.

"This matter must be reported to Wang Baihu immediately!"

Not daring to delay, the little flag officer got on his horse and immediately rode south with a group of Qitang riders.

A few hours later, they returned to the military fortress of Baihusuo with the spokes of the car, and the Baihu official who saw the spokes of the car immediately sent someone to send the news to the south.

The spokes and the news were passed layer by layer by the Ming army. At noon two days later, the spokes and the news were successfully delivered to Daning City.

"Your Highness, the commander of Budu is asking..."

"Your Highness, Bu Wan is offended!"

In the Cunxin Hall of Prince Ning's Mansion in Daning City, an official ran into the hall in a panic and bowed to the person sitting on the throne. Before he could finish speaking, a loud voice came from outside the hall.

After just a few breaths, a military attaché wearing a fat red coat with long knees and narrow sleeves walked in from outside the hall. He had a fleshy face and a very thick beard. He was about fifty years old.

Such a person who could be identified as a military general at a glance was Bu Wan, who was the commander of the capital of Daning at that time, and the person he came to look for was the current King of Ning, Zhu Quan.

Faced with Bu Wan's rudeness, Zhu Quan, who was sitting at the top and reading a book, did not get angry, but slowly stood up and walked down from his seat.

Zhu Quan had a handsome face, and although his figure was not as exaggerated as that of Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu, he was still [-] feet [-], and could be considered tall among ordinary people.

He was smart and studious since childhood, good at riding and shooting, and had a calm temper. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang sent him to Daning to join the feudal vassal, responsible for resisting the three tribes of Wuliangha.

"What happened?"

Zhu Quan had a calm temper. He knew that Bu Wan was not usually a reckless person, so he asked calmly.

He was not disappointed, Bu Wan also bowed and said: "Tangqi in the north of Quaning Guard found the spokes of the car, and it was broken not long ago. I am afraid that the thieves from Wuliangha came south to spy on the military situation some time ago. .”

While Bu Wan was talking, two panting soldiers walked into the Cunxin Hall holding a badly damaged car spoke.

Seeing this, Zhu Quan's pupils tightened and he stepped forward to carefully observe the broken spokes of the car.

After coming to the same conclusion as Bu Wan, he immediately looked at Bu Wan with a solemn expression: "This matter must be told to Fourth Brother and Your Majesty immediately. I will write a letter now. You should be prepared. I can help you if needed." The three guards are at your disposal."

"Thank you, Your Highness, for being enlightened!" After hearing Zhu Quan's words, Bu Wan grinned and raised his hands to bow with satisfaction.

The two exchanged a few words and then separated.

When Zhu Quan returned to his position, he wrote two copies in handwriting and sent one to Prince Yan's Mansion in Peiping and the other to Nanjing.

Naturally, the first place where these two letters arrived was the nearby Beiping Mansion. However, when the letters were delivered, Zhu Di was at Kaiping Guards, so it was the Xu family who received the letters.

The Yan government did not have the power to mobilize soldiers and horses from Peking to Daning, so Xu notified Zhu Di to return to Peiping, while writing two copies in handwriting and sending them to Daning and Nanjing respectively.

On the sixth day of February, after several days of running around, two letters from Yan Mansion and Ning Mansion arrived at Wuying Palace.

[The cavalry patrolling the fortress recently saw some pieces of radiation left on the road, and suspected that the exchange of Hu soldiers might cause danger to the border]

[In the handwriting of nearly seventeen brothers, it was said that there was a piece of radiation left on the road in the Quaning border fortress, and it was suspected that the Hu soldiers might invade the border]

The content of the two handwritten letters was not much different, which made Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help stroking his white beard after receiving the letter.

His actions touched the hearts of everyone in Wuying Palace. Whether it was Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Jixi, or Zhu Gaochi, the three of them were all learning from Zhu Yuanzhang's actions.

There was no silence for too long. Zhu Yuanzhang took these two letters and said to the military attache of the Governor's Palace who came to deliver the letters:

"The Hu people are treacherous and often show their weakness to others to lure our army deeper. It is not the right time for the army to go south at this season, so it must be an ambush and lure."

"Tell Prince Ning to ignore them for the time being."

"In addition, let the King of Yan and the King of Liao each choose the best soldiers and horses from Beiping and Liaodong to rush to Daning. After arriving in Daning, they will join forces with King Ning. King Yan will control the troops and horses of Liaodong, Daning, and Beiping, and gather troops at the Quanning Guard. Horse, patrol the north and south along the Liao River."

"If you encounter Hu soldiers, don't restrain yourself and let King Yan lead his troops to cover the attack."

"Secondly, the King of Bohai was ordered to rebuild Zhaozhou City and move a thousand households to Zhaozhou City to guard the border to monitor the movements of the Ulliangha tribes."

"In addition, I ordered Lao Wu and Prince Youdun to lead Henan Dusi's elite cavalry to the Beiping fortress to patrol the Beiping frontier fortress on behalf of King Yan."

"King Jin, let him lead troops to Dongsheng to build the city, so he doesn't have to participate in this matter..."

Zhu Yuanzhang's words made Zhu Yunwen's heart tighten.

It would be too big to ask Zhu Di to control the troops and horses of the three capital divisions. After all, the total number of troops and horses of the three capital divisions is nearly 30.

Obviously, my grandfather planned to let his fourth uncle prepare the border for the north.

In comparison, the affairs of Zhou Crown Prince Zhu Youdun and Bohai King Zhu Gaoxu do not seem so important.

"Grandpa, Gao Xu's side doesn't have enough troops. Will it be okay for him to build a city..."

Zhu Yunwen was still thinking, but Zhu Gaochi stood up and bowed worriedly.

But before he could finish his words, Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said, "I heard that he has more than a thousand horses and 2000 Jurchen retinues."

"Including the thousand military households transferred to Jilin before and the thousand military households transferred this time, he has at least 5000 people in his hands. You don't have to worry about him."

Zhu Yuanzhang told the latest information he had. Even the news that Zhu Gaoxu had a thousand soldiers and horses and two thousand Jurchen followers was known to Lao Zhu. If Zhu Gaoxu heard what Lao Zhu said, he would probably be sweating.

"Five thousand?" Zhu Yunwen's pupils shrank, obviously he did not expect that Zhu Gaoxu would be able to raise a team of 5000 people in just one year.

"Well, five thousand..." Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to be telling Zhu Yunwen intentionally, but after telling him, he smiled and said:

"After all, the Bohai County Prince's Mansion has a bodyguard. Although the Ming Dynasty's bodyguards range from thousands to tens of thousands, the strength of Bohai's Jilin Guard has grown the fastest."

"Let's do this. Let the Zongren Mansion and the Dudu Mansion regulate the bodyguards of the Bohai County King. They will stop at the remaining [-] households and no more will be allowed."

Six thousand households, that is, 6000 people. Although Zhu Gaoxu can still develop 1000 people in terms of regulations, everyone can see that Lao Zhu is limiting Zhu Gaoxu's strength.

Obviously, Zhu Gaoxu's military strength grew too fast, and even he had to rely on him to stabilize the outside of the pass while restricting it.

Seeing what Lao Zhu said, although Zhu Yunwen was still a little unsure, he did not continue to delve deeper with his grandfather.

"It's only 6000 people..." Zhu Yunwen murmured, focusing on the government affairs at hand.

For him, even if Zhu Di controlled Sandusi, it would only be temporary. As long as it was confirmed that Wu Liangha had no intention of going south, or if he drove away Wu Liangha's tribe going south, the military power that should be taken back would also have to be taken back.

He still knows the priorities clearly.

Soon, the news about the appearance of Wu Liangha's sentry cavalry in the north of Quaning Guard also began to spread after Lao Zhu announced it. Along with it, the news about Zhu Di's control of Sandusi also spread.

However, it is worth mentioning that Zhu Gaoxu's Jilin Guard is not within the scope of Zhu Di's control.

Therefore, when the news came back to Peiping, Zhu Di, who was tired of life, couldn't help but be stunned when he got the news.

"I can't control my second child?"

Zhu Di, who was wearing a burqa, looked at Yao Guangxiao, who was analyzing the situation for him. The skin color on his face was darker than last year. It was obvious that he had suffered a lot in Kaiping Wei.

"According to the imperial edict, there is indeed no news that you can control His Highness."

Yao Guangxiao showed the imperial edict in his hands with both hands. Zhu Di, who had missed the eunuch delivering the edict, grabbed the edict and read it at a glance.

He grabbed the words and pointed at Liaodong Dusi and said: "Old monk, look at this, I can control Liaodong Dusi, why can't I control the second child?"

"Your Highness..." After hearing Zhu Di's words, Zhang Yu, who was standing behind him in Cunxin Palace, couldn't help but said:

"When we went to Kaiping last year, His Majesty made a decree that the Bohai Palace is no different from the Prince's Palace, and the Jilin Guards are the guards of the Bohai Palace."

"You can control the Liaodong Capital Division, but the Bohai Palace is not under the control of the Liaodong Capital Division..." Zhang Yu lamented that Zhu Di was too forgetful, but Zhu Di scratched his beard.

Just when Zhang Yu and Yao Guangxiao thought Zhu Di was going to say something, they didn't expect him to look annoyed: "Oh no, this kid is on an equal footing with me..."

"Uh..." Zhu Di's words left the two of them speechless. In terms of the power of the palace, except for having fewer guards and less salary, the Bohai County Prince's Palace seems to be no different from the Prince's Palace in other aspects.

Logically speaking, the prince's palace should be controlled by the prince's palace, but the emperor not only did not allow the Yan prince's palace to control the Bohai county prince's palace, but also did not allow the Liaodong capital to control it.

In this way, Zhu Gaoxu is a county king in name, but in reality he is no different from a prince.

What's more, according to the letter sent by Zhu Gaochi, there are already more than 3000 guards in the Bohai County Prince's Palace. Adding in the 5000 military households that will be moved there in the spring of next year, there are more than [-] guards.

The number of these guards is more than that of some unfavored princes.

"Forget it..." Zhu Di didn't bother to pursue it. After all, the family would have to be separated when his son got older. He scratched his beard and said:
"When the spring comes, someone will send a message to him, and tell him to go to Zhaozhou City and keep an eye on Wu Liangha's Hu Bing. If he sees Hu Bing, he will send a message to his father. His father beats Hu Bing better than him, so don't attack, even if We have to wait until his father and his troops are almost here before we can launch an attack..."

Zhu Di was talking eloquently, but Zhang Yu felt something was wrong the more he listened, and couldn't help but said: "Your Highness, how is this different from giving an order?"

"Huh?" Zhu Di also reacted. His words did sound like an order, but he was too embarrassed to take back what he just said, so he coughed:

"Even if I can't control him, he is his father after all. How can a son not listen to his father?"

"Like me, I listen to my father, and he must listen too!"

Zhu Di looked like he was right. Before Yao Guangxiao could refute him, he took the imperial edict and walked quickly to the harem.

"I'll go get the imperial edict and show it to Sister Xu..."

"Princess has already seen it..." Looking at Zhu Di who had walked away, Zhang Yu shook his head and sighed.

Just when he sighed, in Jilin City, nearly two thousand miles away, Zhu Gaoxu was led by a man in white into a courtyard in the corner of Jilin City.

Just as he stepped into the courtyard, a strong smell of blood hit his face.

Yishiha, Lin Su, and Zhang Chun, who came with Zhu Gaoxu, frowned. Out of curiosity, they also walked into the main room of the courtyard with Zhu Gaoxu.

But when they entered the main house, they saw a shocking scene.

I saw two dissected corpses placed in the main room at the moment, and there were skeletons placed next to the corpses.

Inside the house, a standing human body painting catches the eye. It depicts various organs of the human body. For people of this era, it can be said to be a forbidden book.

"Your Highness, these two corpses..."

Yi Shiha suppressed the urge to vomit, and endured the discomfort to ask.

Although he has also been on the battlefield, seeing corpses on the battlefield has two different feelings than seeing corpses in life.

"The savage who was shot to death while looting the inn in the east."

Zhu Gaoxu explained the origin of the corpse, and then asked the old man in white who brought them in and the three young men beside him:
"How's the dissection going? Is there any progress?"

"Back to Your Highness..." The old man bowed and replied: "According to the medical classics of the former Song Dynasty and the manuscripts you provided, we are sure that they are correct and we have a clear understanding of the blood vessels, bones, organs and other human body structures."

"That's good." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, then walked to the corpse. Looking at the body that was already starting to stink, he frowned and said:
"After you understand it, it's best to draw it layer by layer so that it can be used when teaching military doctors in the future."

"Besides..." Zhu Gaoxu explained some of the medical knowledge he knew, and he said that all this was to help doctors and surgeons get back on their feet.

When talking about traditional Chinese medicine, most people only think of taking pulses, prescribing traditional Chinese medicine, and acupuncture. It seems that surgery has nothing to do with traditional Chinese medicine.

However, in the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, doctors who were proficient in traditional Chinese medicine not only performed surgeries, but also performed them very well, surpassing other countries in the world in terms of technology and skills.

From caesarean section to acute intestinal anastomosis, to open comminuted fractures, nasal polyp removal and lens acupuncture for the eyes...

Surgery in traditional Chinese medicine has been making progress, and by the Song Dynasty it was even possible to operate on open internal organs.

These advances in surgery have benefited the world, and the reason why surgery has advanced so rapidly is mainly due to the experience of military doctors observing the human body on the battlefield.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, anatomy began to become popular. Therefore, TCM surgery in the Northern Song Dynasty reached a small peak, and many surgical operations made corresponding progress through anatomy.

It is a pity that with the popularity of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, anatomy, which damages the body's hair and skin, began to be boycotted.

From the Northern Song Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, TCM basically made no progress in anatomy and surgery. It was not until the liberalization of the late Ming Dynasty that it was studied again. Chen Shigong's "Surgery Authentic" is a comprehensive book on ancient surgery.

During the northern expedition to Xiyangha, Zhu Gaoxu discovered that the military doctors in the army were lagging behind in many technologies. Because of this, he deliberately opened up such a courtyard and prepared to build it into the Ming Dynasty's College of Surgery in the future.

Zhu Gaoxu is not as good as Chen Shigong, but he can provide some basic medical knowledge and ideas, and then help the military doctors in Jilin City improve their medical skills.

Dissecting a corpse was the first lesson Zhu Gaoxu asked the military doctors to learn.

Now it seems that the military doctors have learned very well, far exceeding Zhu Gaoxu's expectations.

Looking at the two stinking corpses, Zhu Gaoxu also said to the four military doctors: "In the future, you will follow the army to the front lines to fight, and analyze the corpse records at any time. You can also use them to experiment with operations on some prisoners of war who are destined to die, and save them." It's best to live, and don't be burdened if you can't save him."

"Yes..." The four military doctors nodded in agreement, but their voices were low. Obviously, even though they were military doctors, Cheng Zhuli's spirit of being influenced by his parents still hindered them.

In this regard, Zhu Gaoxu also enlightened: "If you can gain experience through one operation after another, then my soldiers of the Ming Dynasty will not have any worries when they fight again in the future, because they know that you can save their lives."

"The four of you study hard, and then pass on your experience to more than 30 military doctors in the army, and then these military doctors will pass it on to new military doctors in the future. With this inheritance from generation to generation, one day many operations that cannot be completed will be performed by each generation. I’ll make it perfect until it can’t stop you from saving people in the end.”

"Yes, please rest assured, Your Highness!" Listening to Zhu Gaoxu's guidance, the interest of the four people was also aroused.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu briefly looked at the facilities of the surgical college and the surgical tools of the military doctors, and put forward some of his own opinions.

After staying like this for half an hour, until Zhu Gaoxu couldn't find any problem, he took Yi Shiha and the others out of the School of Surgery.

Walking out of the School of Surgery, there is a snow-covered land and dirt road outside the door, and the surrounding area is very empty.

In this regard, Zhu Gaoxu also pointed to the empty land in front and said: "These lands must be used in the coming year."

"All the old houses had to be demolished and rebuilt, and fire walls and fire ducts were arranged. As I said before, the wood from the land reclamation period was stored until winter, and then the fire ducts of all the houses were connected, and boiler rooms were built in different places. .”

"In winter, the boiler room can heat houses across the city by burning fire and adding water, so that they will not be scattered and waste a lot of manpower and material resources."

Central heating is the future infrastructure prepared by Zhu Gaoxu for the experimental field and winter.

It was not to Zhu Gaoxu's surprise that almost all the rice they brought from the south of the Yangtze River was dry in early October, so they had to be harvested by force.

Because of this, the yield of the rice fields after harvesting is very impressive. Not only is the rice hard and small, but there are also signs of mildew. The yield per mu is only a meager [-] jins. It is not as good as the yield per mu of [-] jins due to the construction of water conservancy projects. Crops such as corn, milo and wheat.

Fortunately, the two acres of experimental fields in the city managed to survive from the beginning of October to the end of October because Zhu Gaoxu ordered the fire tunnels to be built and the manure burned to be buried.

Although it took less than a month, the yield of the two acres of experimental field reached [-] pounds.

This kind of yield per mu was due to Zhu Gaoxu planting a little late. The cold in Jilin at the end of October was much colder than he expected, so he had to rush to harvest.

If we follow the method of "cultivate seedlings first and then transplant them", start cultivating seedlings in March and transplant the rice seedlings in April, then at least the Jiangnan rice yield of two to three shi per mu can reach a yield of one shi per mu in this land of Jilin.

"How is the construction of the seedling field going?" Thinking of his own method, Zhu Gaoxu turned around and asked Yi Shiha.

Yishiha, who had just walked out of the School of Surgery, looked a little pale, but in order to answer Zhu Gaoxu's question, he still managed to say: "According to your arrangement, fifty acres of seedling fields have been built in the city."

"Well..." After hearing Yi Shiha's words, Zhu Gaoxu nodded with satisfaction.

Fifty acres of nursery land, although this amount sounds a bit small, is enough to meet the needs of at least two thousand acres of rice fields.

Although this method of raising seedlings is a bit luxurious, outside the current customs, as long as this year's experiment of "cultivating seedlings first and then transplanting rice seedlings" can succeed, Zhu Gaoxu only needs to create 20 acres of seedling fields to meet Jilin City's future needs of [-] acres of rice fields. .

As long as the average yield of 20 acres of rice fields is one stone per mu, Jilin City will be enough to feed more than 3 people.

Developing agriculture outside the customs is Zhu Gaoxu's most important task at the moment.

Thinking of this, he asked Yishiha to lead the way to the seedling field.

In just a quarter of an hour, he saw acres of seedling fields.

Fire tunnels and fire walls were laid around them, covering a wide area.

"If all these fire tunnels need to be heated, have you calculated how much firewood or coal is needed every day?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked about the cost, and Yishiha Yejia was familiar with the road and pointed to the fire channel and fire wall and answered:
"Based on the cost of the two acres of nursery fields, in fact, as long as the whole city is connected to the fire road and connected to the fire road here, every household that burns firewood for cooking can benefit from the nursery fields."

"Before the fire road was not connected, the cost of fifty acres was almost [-] kilograms of firewood and [-] kilograms of coal per day..."

The cost that Yi Shiha said is very high. Even if these fifty acres of nursery fields can produce two thousand acres of rice fields, the grain produced by the two thousand acres of rice fields is worth more than six hundred guan. If the coal price is based on the customs price, Calculated with those in Liaodong, raising seedlings one month in advance requires at least 15 kilograms of coal, or at least [-] kilograms.

That is to say, Jilin City's current model of eating from a big pot can only work. Ordinary people would definitely not be able to persist.

"Let's do it first, and wait until next year when all the fire tunnels in the city are opened, then we can try it again."

Zhu Gaoxu had no way to interrupt, because he knew that once the Jingnan War broke out, he would be deprived of external food.

Therefore, no matter how high the cost of "cultivating seedlings first and then transplanting rice seedlings" is, he has to pay, at least during the period from the outbreak to the end of the Jingyan Rebellion.

Thinking of Jingnan, Zhu Gaoxu also looked into the gray distance:

"This year, Wu Liangha should be facing Kou Bian..."

(End of this chapter)