Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 196
In October, with the onset of cold winter, ice floes began to appear on various rivers in the north, which also meant that water transportation outside the customs was about to be suspended.

Before the ice completely froze, Yi Shiha personally led the navy to deliver more than [-] shi of food. Meng Zhang received everything as usual and took Yi Shiha to the Ordnance Bureau.

When they entered the Ordnance Department, they could clearly hear the lively sound of forging iron.

Due to the need to continuously smelt scrap iron and then continue to forge cannons, the temperature inside the Ordnance Bureau is much warmer than outside the wall.

"How many people are there in the Ordnance Bureau now?"

Yi Shiha walked on the concrete road of the Ordnance Bureau, looked at the Ordnance Bureau built of concrete, and curiously asked Meng Zhang.

"The 120 six craftsmen we brought before, plus the 270 second apprentices you sent later, make a total of 390 eight people."

"Is it enough?" Meng Zhang was explaining, and Yi Shiha also asked him.

"There are enough craftsmen, but what is lacking now is manpower." Meng Zhang said while leading the way:
"The roads in this northern mountain are rugged and narrow, and it is not easy to recruit Jurchens. From the time His Highness came back to now, it has only taken more than half a month to recruit more than 300 Jurchens."

"Among them, the men still have to join the army and the children study. Only the healthy women and the old and the weak can take advantage of the winter to engage in light work making clay molds."

The production methods of Heishui City are different from those of Jilin City. Jilin City mainly focuses on distributing grain and reclaiming farmland, but Heishui City mainly focuses on handicraft industry.

In Blackwater City, the men who join the army are called reserve forces by Zhu Gaoxu. Their training is the same as that of the Bohai Navy. They study culture every morning and do professional training in the afternoon.

Their military pay is not as good as that of the Bohai Navy. They only have three guan of money, twelve stones, a piece of cloth, and three pounds of salt every year.

But even so, they trained with all their heart, after all, their military salary was enough to keep a whole family from starving to death.

This kind of life, where they don't have to worry about food problems in the cold winter and go hunting in the forest, is simply the life they dream of.

What's more, their families were also assigned corresponding jobs by the palace, and received corresponding rations as wages.

Children are given one kilogram of rice every day to study, and strong women are given two kilograms of rice every day to farm in summer and autumn, drill gun barrels and make clay molds in winter.

Even if you are old and weak, just doing light work, you can still get one and a half pounds of food.

As for the men, their rations are provided in the military camp, so there is nothing to worry about.

Therefore, as long as the whole family accepts the work arranged by the officials of the palace, every household can eat well. Occasionally when the men go out for training, they can bring back some meat and share it equally. It is much more comfortable than when they were in the tribe. too much.

Meng Zhang believed that as winter continued, many tribes would flee due to lack of food and be fully taken over by Blackwater City.

Even if it only maintains a scale of more than 1000 people for a month, when winter passes, the number of Jurchens in Heishui City will increase to 9000.

In Meng Zhang's opinion, this is already very good, at least two thousand soldiers can be trained.

However, this speed was obviously not up to what Zhu Gaoxu wanted, so Yi Shiha brought many Jurchen men this time.

Their families were placed in Jilin City, while they joined the army and came to Heishui City to serve as reserves.

"I brought more than 600 people this time. If nothing else happens, His Highness should put them all into reserve forces."

Yi Shiha talked about the people he brought here. After hearing this, Meng Zhang was also surprised and said: "Really?"

"It's almost the same." Yi Shiha smiled and turned around, only to realize that they had arrived at the place where the muskets were made.

They walked in and soon saw craftsmen producing guns, matchlocks, and gun stocks like an assembly line.

They have the largest number of people, 60 people, and can make and assemble about [-] matchlock guns every day.

"Is His Highness here?"

Meng Zhang asked a craftsman. The craftsman pointed at the shooting range without raising his head. He looked very rude, but Yishiha and Meng Zhang were not angry.

Once a craftsman goes to work, unless there is a safety hazard, the rest of the time he only needs to do his own thing, regardless of who he wants to cater to. This is the rule set by Zhu Gaoxu.

The phrase "scholars, farmers, industry and commerce" does not exist in the Bohai Sea. Every profession is respected and uses labor to obtain results.

No one here would think that being a soldier is bad, but rather that it is an honor.

In such an atmosphere, basically no one who joins the army and is selected into the Bohai Navy would dare to escape from battle.

Simply being a deserter and the judgment his family faced was enough to make this man return to the battlefield and die.

'boom! ! '

Meng Zhang just brought Yi Shiha to the shooting range. Before he saw Zhu Gaoxu, he heard the sound of gunshots.

"This gunshot sound is different..."

Yi Shiha had never heard the sound of a matchlock gun, but he had heard the sound of Hongwu's bronze gun.

But in terms of sound, the gunfire from the shooting range is more penetrating.

"Your Highness!"

Meng Zhang found Zhu Gaoxu and walked towards him with Yishiha. Zhu Gaoxu turned around when he heard the sound. After seeing Yishiha, he immediately walked towards them with a smile and gave Yishiha a bear hug: "You This guy can hold his own."

"The south is too busy, I really don't have time to come..." Yi Shiha couldn't laugh or cry, and was very happy to be hugged.

"Look, this is Wang Yuan's new flintlock gun. Although it does not meet the standards for use on the battlefield, it is much more powerful than the matchlock gun. Wang Yuan will make improvements tomorrow. Before the end of winter, this A flintlock should complete it.”

"Flintlock gun?" Seeing His Royal Highness's excited expression, Yishiha asked curiously: "What is the difference between this flintlock gun and the Hongwu bronze musket and matchlock gun?"

"The difference is huge." Zhu Gaoxu picked up the four-foot-long flintlock gun in his hand and said: "This flintlock gun can shoot three to four times per minute. It can penetrate armor at a distance of [-] steps. It can hit at least five shots. If you hit the target once and take sixty steps, you can hit the target twice out of five times.”

"Every minute?" Yi Shiha felt that there were many things in His Highness's mouth that he did not understand. Although he had been like this before, he had never changed so much.

"A quarter of an hour is 15 minutes, and a word is 5 minutes." Zhu Gaoxu explained, while holding the flintlock gun in his hand, feeling uncontrollably proud in his heart.

Iron smelting technology determines how far Zhu Gaoxu can climb the technology tree. If he were thrown into the Qin, Han, Tang and Song dynasties, let alone a flintlock gun, with the iron smelting technology at that time, even if he could create a matchlock gun, it would probably be easy to explode. The kind that has a chamber.

In comparison, the iron smelting technology of the Ming Dynasty fully supported him in producing front-loading cannons and flintlock muskets.

With these things, he didn't even know how he could lose the battle of Jingnan. The problem now is...

"Your Highness, since this flintlock gun is better, why not let the craftsmen in the gun room make this flintlock gun?"

When Meng Zhang spoke, he not only interrupted Zhu Gaoxu's thoughts, but also interrupted his speculations.

There was an embarrassing thing before him, that is, he didn't know about the flint mine branch in the northeast. All he knew about was in the south.

Because of this, he did not dare to produce flintlock guns because he did not have enough flint.

"I'll have to ask Yang Bin to get me some high-quality flint after spring starts."

Zhu Gaoxu was thinking while fooling Meng Zhang: "This gun is not perfect yet, let's wait until Wang Yuan perfects it."

Saying this, Zhu Gaoxu also felt a little disappointed in his heart.

He promoted the advancement of firearms, but in this way, the strengths of his body were also limited.

It's just that the replacement of cold weapons by hot weapons is unstoppable. He should be happy that he has become the person who promoted the advancement of firearms, instead of remaining conservative in the era of cold weapons.

If it were really an era of cold-weapon warfare, it would be difficult for his Bohai Navy with less than 1 troops to defeat the Liaodong Dusi with [-] to [-] armored soldiers on a frontal battlefield.

Even if Zhu Di was completely at peace and the three guards of the Yan Mansion went south to defect to him, it still took four years to completely defeat the Southern Army.

Four years of civil war could not only destroy the military's external and internal discipline, but also destroy the northern economy that Zhu Yuanzhang had finally recovered.

Peiping, Henan, Jianghuai, Shandong...

These places were devastated by the civil war, and it took Lao Zhu more than 20 years to train millions of elites, but more than half of them were wiped out in this civil war.

The death of this half of the elite led to the decline of the guard system, and even led to the destruction of the military camps in Peiping, Shandong, Henan, and Lianghuai.

If these elites were used to open up territory and guard the four directions, then the Ming Dynasty would be able to control at least one or two more provinces. It is a pity that they all died in the hands of their own people in the end.

Zhu Gaoxu wants Jingnan for his own sake, which he does not deny, but at the same time he also wants to narrow the scope of the Jingnan campaign.

Even if he could end the Jingnan War a year earlier, the trauma suffered by Ming Dynasty could be reduced by [-]%.

Compared with the Battle of Jingnan, hundreds of thousands of troops died in four years, and millions of people were displaced.

Zhu Gaoxu even wanted to narrow the scope of the Jingnan Campaign to less than three years, with 10,000+ casualties, so as to minimize the war's devastation to the north.

No matter whether others say that he is hypocritical, or that he has become a bitch and still wants a memorial arch, this is what he always thinks in his heart.

If the Battle of Jingnan can be ended within two years, then the three major corps in the southwest, at least Xu Huizu, Muchun, and He Fu of Yunnan will not have time to send troops.

Of course, the best time for peace is actually when Zhu Fan and Lao Zhu die one after another.

If he rises up at this time, he can definitely end the Jingnan period early. The only thing he has to bear is the infamy of rebellion in the history books, but he doesn't care.

But the key is that he can lose his face and rebel, but can Zhu Di?
If Zhu Di could do it, he would not watch helplessly as his military power to control the Sandu Division in Peking was reduced, his three guards were transferred, and he was imprisoned in the palace.Making Zhu Di shameless is what Zhu Gaoxu wants to do most at the moment, but this is difficult...

"Let's go, go to the study to rest, and tell me about the situation in Jilin City."

Zhu Gaoxu thought about Zhu Di's incident and was no longer happy about the flintlock gun. He took Yishiha and Meng Zhang to his study in the Ordnance Bureau.

After just one word, the three of them returned to the study room under the guard of the soldiers. Zhu Gaoxu sat in the main seat, and Yi Shiha sat in the left and right seats respectively.

Picking up a cup of hot water, Zhu Gaoxu smiled and said to Yi Shiha: "There is no tea here. It would be good to drink more hot water."

"Your Highness drinks hot water, how can this servant dare to expect to drink tea?" Yi Shiha responded with a smile, and at the same time took out a brochure from the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion from his arms:
"Your Highness, before talking about Jilin City, I have to show you this promotion document."

He stood up and handed the brochure to Zhu Gaoxu. Zhu Gaoxu took it and looked at it. As he expected, nearly half of the military attachés participating in this northern inspection were transferred away, and it was different from the last time Jilin City spontaneously To supplement the military attachés, this time the Fifth Army Commander's Office sent 25 military attachés, large and small, to Jilin City.

Among them, those with the lowest official positions are Baihu officials. It can be said that if they arrive in the spring of next year, a quarter of Jilin City's military power will be deprived.

However, Zhu Gaoxu was not worried about this, but said to Yishiha: "All these people will be transferred to Zhaozhou City."

"Yes!" Yi Shiha agreed decisively, because he thought so too.

Zhaozhou City can be said to be the city with the least secrets among the four cities in the Bohai Sea today, and because it is responsible for patrolling, this place is dangerous enough to scare away some of the embroidered pillows among the 25 people.

After Zhu Gaoxu finished his instructions, he continued to look back, and then he saw some transfer orders that Lao Zhu had given him a few months ago.

"Take two thousand households and let me choose a place to build a thousand-household residence."

A smile appeared on Zhu Gaoxu's face, and Yi Shiha also took the opportunity to say: "Why don't you choose that place as your highness?"

What Yi Shiha was talking about was the ruins of the former Jin Long'an Mansion that they passed when they headed north.

The Long'an Mansion ruins are [-] miles away from the Thirty Thousand Guards, which is enough for Zhu Gaoxu to respond after the Jingnan Campaign began. Moreover, when building Qianhu Residence there, some stone bricks from the Long'an Mansion ruins can also be used, which saves a lot of trouble.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu also said to Yishiha: "In this case, you go back this time and take Wu Ming with you, promote him to the official of Qianhu, and after the spring starts, let him take a thousand soldiers and horses and three thousand Jurchen husbands to the former Jin Dynasty. If we build the city of Long'an, let's call that city Changchun."

In order to facilitate his memory, Zhu Gaoxu moved the city name "Changchun" to the early Ming Dynasty more than 400 years in advance.

Meng Zhang and Yi Shiha had no objections to such a trivial matter, and both nodded in agreement.

After seeing this matter completed, Zhu Gaoxu continued: "Okay, this matter is not difficult to handle. Let's talk about the situation in Jilin and other cities first."

"Yes..." Yishiha responded, and then dictated the situation in Jilin and other cities.

"This year, Your Highness, you have brought back a large amount of livestock after your northern expedition. Although it is already September, the people below have trained them to reclaim a lot of wasteland before winter. Therefore, there is more wasteland this year than originally expected. More than 32 acres were reclaimed.”

"Including the previously mature fields, there are currently more than 67 acres of cultivated land in the four cities of the Bohai Sea. This year, there are more than 35 acres of cultivated land to harvest food. The harvest of rice is more than 15 shi, and the beans are [-] shi. There are more than [-] stones of millet, wheat and other grains."

"If we calculate based on your current calculation of five dan per year for adults and six dan per year for army horses, the food produced this year can probably support more than [-] people and more than [-] army horses."

Yi Shiha brought good news, that is, Jilin City can now self-sustain food rations for more than 6000 people.

Meng Zhang showed a smile on his face and looked at His Highness, but he didn't want Zhu Gaoxu to respond calmly: "How many soldiers and civilians are there under the Royal Palace now?"

Answering his question was already very familiar to Yishiha. He already had a plan in mind, so he answered without thinking: "After passing through Fudaha in the past few months, Jilin and Andong have each recruited many real girls. .”

"Today, in the four cities of Bohai, there are 9000 military personnel, 490 six reserve personnel, 920 civilians, and nearly [-] naturalized Jurchens."

Yi Shiha said while looking at Zhu Gaoxu's expression anxiously.

After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu did not rush to react, but continued: "In this way, if we can harvest 45 stone grains in the autumn harvest, then we can be completely self-sufficient."

"Theoretically, that's the case, but we have too many herds." Yi Shiha couldn't help but have a headache:
"At present, the number of cattle and horses in Jilin City has reached a herd of more than [-] cattle and more than [-] horses."

"Because the herd was so big, when Yang Shanren came last month, my slave sold half of the more than [-] sheep in Jilin City to him in exchange for [-] yuan."

When the fur business was in decline, Zhu Gaoxu once asked Yishiha to find some ways to make money on his own, so he took advantage of this time to seize a large number of sheep and sold half of them.

In this way, it not only reduces the burden on Jilin City, but also increases income.

Ten thousand guan may not seem like much, but it is enough to pay for more than a thousand soldiers.

"How much money is there in the palace now? Is it possible to raise all the money in the coming year?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked him what he was concerned about, and Yishiha also carefully answered this question: "Right now, Yang Shanren's furs have not been completely sold. Although I bought some ginseng, deer antler and other medicinal materials this year, including the herds and Yan Yin, I still can't sell them." But I only brought more than [-] strings to the palace."

"The palace will have 11 soldiers in the spring of next year. Counting the military attachés' salaries, the palace will have to spend at least [-] guan."

"With the money and food provided by Yang Shanren and the copper coins allocated by the imperial court next spring, there is still a gap of at least [-] guan."

The gap of [-] yuan is not small, and even Zhu Gaoxu has to worry.

Of course, the more important thing is that this is only the military salary. Compared with this, food and salary account for a larger proportion.

"The food and salary is about 26 dan, and each oxen and horse is worth at least 20 dan of beans a year. Excluding the more than [-] military horses selected from the [-] horses, the remaining oxen and horses require at least [-] dan per year. Stone bean material.”

"If it is not to rely on Liaodong Dusi and is self-sufficient, then under the current circumstances, Jilin City will have to produce no less than 25 shi of beans per year, 80 shi of grain and 14 guan in salary for craftsmen and soldiers."

Yi Shiha explained one by one Jilin City's needs to maintain self-sufficiency under the current situation, which gave Zhu Gaoxu a headache.

After he calmed down and frowned a little, he realized that Jilin City had also become a force with an annual expenditure of nearly 50 yuan.

The annual expenditure is nearly 50 yuan. What is the concept?
You must know that in addition to countries such as the Ming Dynasty, Tamerlane, Ottoman, and Holy Rome, the annual national income of countries such as England, North Korea, and Portugal is only 300 million yuan in fiscal revenue.

Bohai's expenditure of less than [-] soldiers and civilians is almost as much as a quarter of England's fiscal revenue, and Bohai's population is less than one-tenth of England's.

Zhu Gaoxu felt uncomfortable just hearing about such financial pressure.

The faster he develops, the deeper his dependence on Ming becomes.

Faced with such financial pressure, if Lao Zhu had not passed away in May next year, Zhu Gaoxu even had the idea that he could stop and work hard on the agricultural economy.

Now he finally knows why he wants to disarmament by millions.

If we don't stop armaments, we will have no room to develop the economy.

It's a pity that he no longer has time to develop the economy. If he insists on doing so, he will only have time next year.

"In your opinion, based on the reclamation situation last month, can the four cities in the Bohai Sea exceed one million acres of cultivated land next year?"

Zhu Gaoxu raised his forehead and asked, but he was confused. It was obvious that the huge financial pressure made him feel heavy.

"There should be no problem." Yishiha gave the answer without thinking. After all, almost everyone in the four cities of Bohai has an ox and a draft horse. Excluding the busy days of farming and harvesting, they can free up five months to work in summer and autumn. The wasteland is reclaimed in two seasons.

With the power of more than 10,000 cows and horses, it is not difficult to cultivate [-]+ acres of land in five months. It is not difficult to break through one million acres.

"That's good..." Zhu Gaoxu nodded. No one knew why he was so anxious, and he couldn't tell others.

"Your Highness, actually we don't need to be so anxious. After all, after the two thousand households transferred this time, the imperial court can pay 17 dan for the army. As long as we survive next year and wait for the autumn harvest the next year, we will be self-sufficient."

Yi Shiha comforted Zhu Gaoxu, but his words were not comforting to Zhu Gaoxu's ears.

How could he not know that he only needed to wait until the autumn harvest the year after next to achieve self-sufficiency? But the problem was where he would have the time to wait until the autumn harvest the year after next.

Next year Lao Zhu will die, and that boy Zhu Yunwen will perform on the stage and start to cut down the vassal clan.

In the year after next, Zhu Gaoxu might not even be able to see the autumn harvest, so he would have to respond to his father's peace campaign.

He was really waiting for the autumn harvest. Not long after the autumn harvest, the roads outside the pass would be buried in snow. He could not lead his troops south, so he could only let Zhu Di face the encirclement and suppression alone.

By the time he could lead his troops south, it was already April of the second year of Jianwen.

Starting from July of the first year of Jianwen to April of the second year of Jianwen, Zhu Di would experience battles such as the Battle of Hutuo River, the surprise attack on Daning, the defense of Peiping, the Battle of Zhengcunba, and the Battle of Baigou River.

Among them, if he did not appear in the Battle of Baigou River, then Qu Neng and his son might really have taken off Zhu Di's head.

In other words, it was impossible for Zhu Gaoxu to stay in Bohai for a few months. He had to take over Liaodong in just three months from July to September of the first year of Jianwen.

If he can't do it, then when the snow melts, he won't have to participate in the Jingnan War and just surrender. And the "Battle of Jingnan" in history may turn into "Jianwen's Counterrebellion".

If he wanted to participate in the Jingnan Campaign normally, Zhu Gaoxu had to produce enough food.

According to what Yi Shiha just said, if he wants to successfully participate in the Jingnan Campaign, he must at least ensure that Jilin City's food can last for two years.

"How much food do we still have in our treasury now?"

Zhu Gaoxu lowered his eyes and asked Yi Shiha, and Yi Shiha said without thinking: "Including the food sent by Yang Shanren, it will be enough to last until August next year, which means it will be enough for ten months."

"Ten months..." Zhu Gaoxu murmured. After pondering for a long time, his eyes flashed with confusion. It seemed that he already knew what to do to ensure that he could participate in the Jingnan battle in time.

(End of this chapter)