Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 151 Wind and Rain Prefix
"Everything must be done according to the standards. It can't be dense or sparse. This is about our jobs, so don't be careless!"

"I know..."

Time flies, and more than a month passes quickly. When it comes to early March, although the snow has not completely melted, the fifty acres of nursery fields prepared by Zhu Gaoxu are already in full swing.

On such an important day, Zhu Gaoxu naturally came to the scene and mentioned many precautions to a director who managed the seedling field.

For example, how to manage the seedbed, how to control the temperature and light, how to prevent and control diseases and pests, etc., he told the director without reservation the limited knowledge he could about raising seedlings.

"Don't worry, Your Highness, I know this is related to the livelihood of everyone in the city, and I will never be careless."

In front of Zhu Gaoxu, the farm director patted his chest and assured him that although Zhu Gaoxu was also worried, he couldn't stay in the seedling field all the time.

He could only give up his position after a brief explanation and watch with his own eyes the hundreds of skilled seedlings raising seedlings in the fields.

Under his gaze, the skills of those skilled seedling growers were even better than Zhu Gaoxu imagined.

"It's true that my worries are unfounded," Zhu Gaoxu laughed at himself softly, and it was the same when he thought about it carefully.

When it comes to greenhouse seedlings, air humidity, sunshine, etc., he can indeed speak clearly.

It's just that these people also understand what he said, but they call it experience and they just summarize it.

Thinking like this, Zhu Gaoxu felt a lot more relieved.

It happened that Lin Su came on horseback at this time, stopped beside him, and handed over the letter in his hand: "Your Highness, His Majesty from the south has sent you an urgent request."

From the end of the first lunar month to the beginning of March, the military orders issued by Zhu Yuanzhang were hampered by heavy snow outside the Pass, and were delayed for more than a month before being delivered to Zhu Gaoxu.

In response, Zhu Gaoxu frowned and took it, slowly opened the urgent letter, and read the ten lines at a glance.

Although Zhu Gaoxu was a little uncomfortable with Lao Zhu's quota of Jilin Guards being set at six thousand-household stations, he had already been prepared.

If Lao Zhu doesn't let him raise soldiers, then he will raise them secretly, or he will raise them under a different name.

It was just that in the letter, Lao Zhu actually knew that he had recruited two thousand Jurchen followers, which made Zhu Gaoxu a little hesitant.

Fortunately, Lao Zhu's information was not accurate, otherwise Lao Zhu would not have included them among the Bohai Guards.

"Wuliangha was patrolling the border. Grandpa asked us to make preparations early and build Zhaozhou City as soon as possible after the spring. He also asked me to station troops in Zhaozhou in order to detect the enemy's situation."

Zhu Gaoxu read out the second thing in the letter, for which he had been preparing for a long time.

After all, Zhaozhou is located at the mouth of the Sacha River, which is the intersection of the Songhua River and the Nen River.

Building a city here will immediately connect Jilin and Andong City, so Zhu Gaoxu began preparations last year.

Now that a whole winter has passed, he has enough raw materials in his hands. It is not difficult to build a smaller stone fort to garrison troops first.

What concerned him was the mention in the letter that Zhu Di restrained the soldiers and horses of the three capitals from patrolling the border, and Zhou Shizi Zhu Youdun patrolled the fortress.

Zhu Gaoxu had been planning this matter since last year, but he didn't expect that Lao Zhu didn't let himself participate, but...

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the letter and quickly saw the clues.

Lao Zhu did not let him participate in Sandusi's border patrol, but he gave him the task of "monitoring the movements of the Ulliangha tribes."

The Ulyanha tribes have been in the forest farms and grasslands to the east of the Halawen Mountains all year round. If I wanted to monitor them, if nothing else, I would have to walk at least two to three hundred miles north along the Nen River.

This distance of two to three hundred miles is almost entering the hinterland of their herding, and further north is the Qiqihar area in later generations.

"Your Highness, shall we wait for the river to melt before we start building Zhaozhou City?"

Lin Su didn't know what Zhu Gaoxu was thinking. He just asked based on the information he obtained.

Zhu Gaoxu nodded slightly at this: "At that time, you will first take two hundred armored cavalry and one thousand Jurchen men to escort two thousand stones of cement down the river, and choose a suitable place for settlement at the address of Zhaozhou City that I originally decided to build the city."

"With cement, it only takes three or four months to build a small city."

"Yes!" A smile appeared on Lin Su's face. He missed the crusade against Xiyang Ha last time, but now he finally caught up with an errand on the front line.

He was still smiling, but Zhu Gaoxu's eyes were looking at the urgent letter sent by Lao Zhu.

I don’t know if Lao Zhu suppressed himself and had a bad conscience. He actually transferred two thousand military households to himself. This was something Zhu Gaoxu himself did not dare to think about.

That's two thousand military households, not two thousand people. If you include family members, there can be at least 1 or even [-] people.

Thinking of this population size, Zhu Gaoxu was both happy and worried.

I am happy that so many Han people are stationed outside the customs. This means that the strength of the Han people outside the customs will be enhanced, and more people will be available to them.

The worry is that with so many Han people stationed outside the customs, they need to consume food to eat horses and chews, which will undoubtedly make Zhu Gaoxu's self-sufficiency even further away.

However... Zhu Gaoxu looked at the seedling fields in front of him. As long as these seedling fields could cultivate seedlings and achieve Zhu Gaoxu's expected yield, then these things would not be a problem.

"Your Highness!"

Suddenly, the sound of horse hoofbeats and the sound of Yishiha came at the same time. Zhu Gaoxu and Lin Su looked at each other one after another, and then they saw Yishiha riding towards them with more than ten guards.

When he was still seven or eight steps away from them, Yishu Halema stopped, then got off his horse and ran to Zhu Gaoxu's side.

"What's wrong?" Zhu Gaoxu was curious about why Yishiha was so anxious. Yishiha took a breath and said:

"It's a matter of land reclamation. There is too much silt in the swamp on the river beach. Although there are no stone tree roots, it is easy to accumulate silt and the water cannot be drained out. We have to wait until the river beach dries out in summer before we can build a canal with cement and then organize the fields."

"Therefore, before summer, this reclamation still has to go towards the west and east mountains."

Yi Shiha talked about the issue of land reclamation on the river beach, and Zhu Gaoxu didn't feel surprised after hearing this.

It is true that the black soil in the Northeast is very fertile, but the large rivers formed by the Nen River, Songhua River, and Heilongjiang made the Northeast unsuitable for agriculture before the industrial revolution.

The long winter's frozen soil and the easily formed swamps in spring and autumn have caused land siltation and poor drainage.

The environment in Jilin Bay is pretty good, but the really 'harsh' ones are the plains in the Northeast.

Several large plains in the Northeast have experienced hundreds of thousands of years of flooding by rivers. The evaporation of these flooded rivers has caused the mineral salts to deposit and become alkaline. Because of this, the Songnen Plain and the Sanjiang Plain are rarely developed.

As for the worst problem of the Liaohe Plain, it is because no water conservancy facilities have been built, so seawater from the estuary often pours into it, turning the Liaohe Plain into a large saline-alkali land.

This series of problems made it difficult for the development of agriculture in the runoff areas of large rivers in Northeast China in ancient times. Even the Bohai Kingdom, known as the prosperous country of Haidong, could only develop the floodplains near the hills of the Changbai Mountains and plant rice in these places.

Now Zhu Gaoxu and the others want to reclaim floodplain land in Jilin Bay, which is adjacent to the Songhua River. The difficulty is naturally not small.

But as long as they overcome this difficulty, it will be difficult for them to face any agricultural difficulties.

"The land reclamation matter will be done as you wish. In short, the river floodplain must be developed."

"When the canals and drainage facilities are built in summer, it will be much easier to reclaim the floodplain."

"These river floodplains are so fertile that I dare not imagine how much yield per acre we can achieve by using them for farming."

Zhu Gaoxu's usual support was also disappointing, just as he supported Lin Su, Zhang Chun and Fu Rang.

Although I have experienced this constant support from Zhu Gaoxu too many times, I feel warm in my heart every time.

"Your Highness, don't worry, I will definitely deal with this river floodplain!"

Yi Shiha made a promise, and Zhu Gaoxu nodded with a smile on his face, trusting him very much.

After seeing with their own eyes that the nursery fields were nearly planted, Zhu Gaoxu and Lin Su went to the military camp, while Yi Shiha returned to the river beach to continue preparing for land reclamation.

The Bohai Navy military camp is located on the south side of Fortress Mountain and Taoyuan Mountain. The military camp is simply surrounded by wooden fences. The perimeter of the fence is six miles, which is enough to accommodate [-] people for training in the camp.

When Zhu Gaoxu arrived at the military camp, since it was already afternoon, all the soldiers were training in armor piercing formation.

"Zhazazaza!"

In the military camp, the weapons training for soldiers does not have too complicated steps. All that is required is that everyone forms a formation and holds a gun, and while forming a formation, they advance or retreat step by step.

Sitting on the school platform, Zhu Gaoxu could see that there were only a few hundred people training in the huge military camp, which was very small compared to the size of the military camp.

"200 people went to the three games, 500 people went to Andong City, 100 people went to the south with Yang Shanren, and the cavalry team needs 50 more people. At present, there are only 650 people left in the city."

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu looking at the training, Lin Su told the number of soldiers and horses in the military camp at the moment, and Zhang Chun was training soldiers and horses below.

"Are the Jurchen retinues from each department sent here?" Zhu Gaoxu asked, tilting his head. Lin Su also nodded and said:
"Every ministry is on time. Although spring has not yet fully begun, the academy has already received 670 five Jurchen followers. In addition, there are 160 people from the tribes who submitted to us in the winter who want to sign up to learn to join the army. You see..."

He asked carefully, but Zhu Gaoxu said without hesitation: "If they want to join the army, let them join the army. They will also study in the academy for three months. Even if they cannot communicate smoothly after three months, at least they must be able to listen to military orders."

Outside the customs, Zhu Gaoxu could not hope to pull out an army composed entirely of Han people. Not to mention him, the current Ming army was also composed of multi-ethnic soldiers.

Zhu Gaoxu had read some memorials from the Wei Institute when he was in Wuying Hall. If we extrapolate from these memorials, then among the current 200 million military households of the Ming Dynasty, at least 50 are Semu, Miao Yao, and Mongolians.

The Bohai Navy in the future will definitely have a higher ratio than this. For now, even including the [-] military households that Lao Zhu gave himself, he only has [-] Han soldiers and [-] Jurchen soldiers.

Based on this calculation, it seems that the number of guards provided by Lao Zhu to the Bohai Palace will soon be used up...

"Your Highness, do you want to pay those Jurchen retinues military pay?" Lin Su suddenly brought up the issue of Jurchen retinues' military pay. Zhu Gaoxu had already prepared a plan for this, so he replied:
"When teaching them, tell them that they came to Jilin City to join the army. Although they were sent as followers by the tribe, we all regard them as members of the Bohai Navy."

"However, they do not meet many conditions at the moment, so the military salary is only twelve shi of rice, two kilograms of salt, and one bolt of cloth."

"When they master Chinese and go to war for the Bohai Navy, they can become real Bohai Navy. Their families can live in Jilin City, their children can read and write, and their military pay will be the same as that of a real Bohai Navy. Same."

Zhu Gaoxu told Lin Su everything about the treatment of these retinues. It was impossible for him to pay these people according to the real Bohai Navy military salary, because he could not afford that much money and food now.

Only by stabilizing them first, slowly developing a sense of belonging, and adding that the three cities of Jilin, Andong, and Zhaozhou can be self-sufficient, will they be able to join the real Bohai Navy.

While Zhu Gaoxu was thinking this, more than a hundred cavalry appeared in the military camp. They were all wearing armor and holding long bows and arrows without arrows. They rushed back and forth in front of the formation of [-] spearmen, and arrows continued to fall into the air. among the crowd.

This is to train the spearmen to be able to endure an environment where arrows are raining down, and it is also training the horse's tolerance for spears.

It was precisely because of this kind of training that during the Battle of Daheishan, the spearmen of the Bohai Navy dared to advance with their guns and collide with Shurha's cavalry.

In addition to these, the Bohai Navy also has a lot of pre-battle stress training to make soldiers accustomed to war and not to mess up their positions.

"Sorry..."

Zhu Gaoxu was observing the training, but Chi Huan was restless under the school platform and kept kicking the platform with his hoof.

"This guy is actually in heat in spring..." Zhu Gaoxu smiled, remembering the breeding matter at the same time, turned around and asked:
"Of the twenty big food horses bred with Chi Huan last year, how many were successful?"

"Sixteen were successful, and the foals were born at four months old and two months old. They were all strong and healthy." When mentioning the breeding matter, Lin Su also said with a flattering smile:

"Your Highness, can you give me one of these sixteen horses?"

"Here you go!" Knowing that Chi Huan suddenly had sixteen dolls, Zhu Gaoxu also nodded happily: "Not only you, but also Fu Rang, Yi Shiha, Zhang Chun, Meng Zhang, Wang Yi, they all have one each, and the rest The remaining ones will be kept for breeding after three years.”

Zhu Gaoxu was happy to arrange a place for Ma Ju. At the same time, he pointed at Zhang Chun and said, "Call Zhang Chun up and arrange an errand for him."

"Yes" Lin Su agreed and asked the guards on the side to call Zhang Chun.

Not long after, Zhang Chun ran all the way to the school platform: "Your Highness..."

He bowed and saluted, and Zhu Gaoxu also spoke to him about the fact that the imperial court asked him to go to Zhaozhou to build a city and monitor Wu Liangha.

At the end, he got down to business: "After Lin Su and I go to Zhaozhou City, you and Yi Shiha will be in charge of this Jilin City."

"Yishuha will be responsible for the land reclamation and the three battles, so you can train my troops well."

"Don't be too prejudiced against the Jurchens who came to join the army. They have no grudge against us. Don't bring your hatred of the Xiyang Ha tribe to them."

Zhu Gaoxu persuaded him earnestly. Although Zhang Chun had always pretended that he was not interested in the Jurchens joining the army, Zhu Gaoxu knew very well that Zhang Chun was very prejudiced against the Jurchens.

Lin Su was going to Zhaozhou City soon, and he would also go to Zhaozhou City after the two thousand military households from the south arrived.

As a result, only the youngest Zhang Chun can stay in Jilin City.

Zhu Gaoxu had no doubts about Zhang Chun's ability, but he was just worried about Zhang Chun's prejudice against the Jurchens.

"Don't worry, Your Highness, the general will know."

Seeing that his prejudice was seen, Zhang Chun did not refute, but simply agreed.

Zhu Gaoxu knew Zhang Chun's character and could still distinguish between right and wrong. If targeting the Jurchens caused the Bohai Navy's backyard to catch fire, it would be more of a loss than a gain.

So when he saw his promise, Zhu Gaoxu also nodded and said: "In addition to letting you train soldiers and horses, I have one more thing to tell you."

"Your Highness, it's okay to say it." Zhang Chun was curious about what Zhu Gaoxu would say to him, but Zhu Gaoxu also said calmly:

"The post road from Jilin City to Sanwanwei takes a long detour. I want to open a new post road in the mountains to the west. You can lead your troops and Jurchen laborers in the city to build this post road in your free time. It doesn't have to be too fast. , just take your time, don’t delay land reclamation.”

"The last general takes orders!" There are not too many questions. Zhang Chun knows the geographical conditions of Jilin City better than Zhu Gaoxu.

When building a post road from the mountains, the best way to go is the one Zhu Gaoxu and others took when they came.

"Okay, let's go train." Seeing that Zhang Chun obeyed all the military orders he proposed, Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand to signal him to go back to training.

Leaving behind the words "I will retire at the end", Zhang Chun returned to the training team.

Compared with Fu Rang and Zhu Gaoxu, Zhang Chun's experience in leading troops is too shallow.

Even Lin Su had three years of experience as a small flag officer. After arriving in Jilin City, he went through another year of training. Not only could he lead a thousand troops to defeat the enemy on his own, but he could at least lead a thousand troops to march in an orderly manner.

Zhang Chun can't do these things now, so he needs to learn.

Precisely because he needed time to study, Zhu Gaoxu chose to let Lin Su lead the team to Zhaozhou City first.

What Lin Su needed now was to personally lead troops against the enemy, and what Zhang Chun needed was experience in training troops.

"Let's go, you go prepare the cement, and I'm going to the shipyard to see how the shipbuilding is going."

"Yes"

Seeing Zhang Chun leaving, Zhu Gaoxu also stood up and prepared to leave. After all, he had a lot of things in his hands.

When he walked off the stage and looked at Chi Huan in heat, Zhu Gaoxu could only shake his head and ask someone to take Chi Huan to the racecourse for breeding, while he transferred to a Hequ horse and went to the Jilin Shipyard.

Compared with before winter, the Jilin Shipyard, which has been transformed for more than five months, is larger and more standardized.

As soon as he entered the shipyard, Zhu Gaoxu saw five shipyards that were much larger than before, as well as wood processing and wood processing plants such as the joinery factory, the woodworking factory, the roasting factory, the ironworks factory, the boat canopy factory, and the rope factory. A factory that maintains ships.

When he got closer, he could see that there were also seven or eight feet long logs piled on the few open spaces in the shipyard.

The wood is being peeled and transported into the roasting yard, and the sound of knocking is continuous throughout the shipyard.

Zhu Gaoxu chose a shipyard and went in. What he saw was a large ship that was almost ready to be built.

"Your Highness!"

Boatman Wang's voice sounded. He ran all the way to Zhu Gaoxu. After bowing, he panted and pointed at the big ship and said:
"Your Highness, this ship is a warship built according to your requirements. It has 820 five materials, 32 sailors, and can carry [-] guns. It is the largest warship that can pass on the Songhua River."

"Not bad..." Looking at the warship that was almost built, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but marvel at the ingenious craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty shipwrights.

Being able to build such a warship in such a short time is enough to illustrate the great potential of Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding.

"This ship is built so quickly, will there be any problems?" Zhu Gaoxu asked his question, but Wang Shipengong smiled and said:
"Your Highness, don't worry. The wood used in these ships has been treated, and the ships will be able to sail for more than ten years without any problems."

"That's good..." Zhu Gaoxu breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to ask: "Did you only build this ship for experiments?"

"Experiment?" Wang Shipeng was stunned, but he quickly realized the meaning of the word, so he answered with a smile:
"More than that, there are two warships worth [-] pieces, and three horse ships worth [-] pieces."

"The warship still needs to be launched into the water to know the situation, but the horse ship with [-] materials will basically not have any problems. It can be used as long as it is launched into the water."

With the addition of Liu Shipeng and others from Longjiang Shipyard, Jilin Shipyard's shipbuilding technology has improved several levels, and now they are extremely confident in the horse-drawn ships made of [-] materials.

Seeing what he said, Zhu Gaoxu also nodded: "When the river thaws, we need to use three horse boats and a warship. Is there enough time?"

"The horse ship should be able to come in time, it's this warship..." Boatman Wang was a little unsure:
"You still have to put the warship into the water to know. After all, this is our first time to build it."

"Okay" After getting the answer, Zhu Gaoxu did not rush, but said: "It doesn't matter, if the warship can't go, the two hundred materials of the warship before will be enough."

After saying this, Zhu Gaoxu asked Wang Shipeng to take him to visit the current shipyard. During the period, he also met Liu Shipeng and others and discussed some things about the warships with them.

"Is it feasible to make ship materials in Jilin Shipyard and then transport them to Jinzhou to build warships?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Boateng Liu, but Boateng Liu didn’t think much about it. After all, Jilin is indeed suitable for shipbuilding. He just replied:

"Yes, but to transport the wood used for shipbuilding to the south, I'm afraid the number of mules and horses required will not be small."

"That's it..." A gleam seemed to flash in Zhu Gaoxu's calm eyes, but he did not continue the discussion. Instead, he found an excuse and walked out of the shipyard and returned to the palace.

On horseback, he reflected on Liu Boateng's words and made a plan in his mind.

Crossing the sea from Liaodong to attack Dengzhou, taking Dengzhou and then heading down the coast, using horse boats to supply supplies, he quickly went south to behead Nanjing. This was one of his plans.

If this can be achieved, and Zhu Di can contain most of the southern army during this period, leaving Zhu Yunwen with no troops to defend, then the damage caused to the Ming Dynasty by the Battle of Jingnan will be greatly controlled.

However, he cannot place his hopes on this line. In history, Zhu Di severely damaged all the other corps except Song Sheng and Mu Sheng, leaving Zhu Yunwen with no troops to defend.

In addition, the sudden surrender of Chen Xuan, who commanded the navy and was responsible for guarding Nanjing's river defense, was also an important factor in the Yan army's ability to surround Nanjing before Zhu Yunwen could react.

"Navy Master..."

Zhu Gaoxu murmured the word navy, but his mind thought of Yang Zhan and Wang Xuan in the south.

After the two took office, they would write letters to Zhu Gaoxu from time to time, but their promotion was not smooth. They are still in the official positions they were originally appointed to, and they don't know when they will be promoted and reused.

Although these two secret moves have not yet shown results, Zhu Gaoxu is confident that he can successfully cross the river during future crises.

When he thought of his own arrangements, Zhu Gaoxu became more confident in ending the Jingnan Campaign early.

(End of this chapter)