Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 239 Indebtedness

“Don’t miss it if you’re passing by, you’ll find everything you need for tea and food...”

"Master, come and take a look!"

"I'm busy, let's talk next time."

At noon, under the sunlight, a newly renovated city appeared bustling.

The city is not small in size, and it should be very prosperous in theory. But if you take a closer look, you will see that this city that should be prosperous is now very deserted. Stores that used to have no shortage of business have sent their clerks to attract customers, but tourists are all in a hurry. After walking by, no one wanted to stay outside for too long at this time.

"You soldiers can't buy things without paying for them!"

"What did I do with your chickens and ducks? Didn't you know that I was going to suppress the rebellion?"

On the deserted street, there was a sudden noise.

This kind of noise not only attracted the clerks and stewards of the surrounding shops, but also attracted a team of generals who had just returned to the city from outside the city.

"What's going on over there?"

Among the generals, when Geng Bingwen's voice sounded, he was followed by Wu Jie, the Marquis of Anlu, and Ning Zhong, who served as the commander-in-chief of the Chinese army.

Everyone followed Geng Bingwen's gaze, and at a glance, they saw several soldiers wearing Ming army armor and looking like ordinary people holding chickens and ducks as they were about to leave, but were stopped by vendors at the stalls.

"What are you making a fuss about?!"

Ning Zhongce immediately stepped forward. He thought he would drive away the group of soldiers, but he never thought that the soldier looked at Ning Zhong's armor. He raised his chin in fear for just a moment and said: "We will go to the battlefield in a few days. The army will If we don’t have enough food, let’s get some meat to eat, but this businessman is still asking for money from us.”

"..." Ning Zhong frowned. He seemed to have heard some joke and asked directly: "It is only natural to give money to buy things. You guys don't want to give money and you still want to rob them. Where is the military discipline?"

"General, we are not under your control." The soldiers confronted Ning Zhong with cold faces. Geng Bingwen and others in the rear also rode their horses to the front of the formation with dark faces.

"Whose soldiers are you?"

"Well, we are the people of Commander Yang and Commander Pan!"

Faced with Geng Bingwen's questioning, the group of soldiers had a tougher attitude. This attitude made Geng Bingwen, Ning Zhong and others who were strict in running the army feel angry for no reason.

"How presumptuous! Who taught you to talk to Marquis Changxing like this!"

A man rushed out from the team and cursed fiercely. When the soldiers saw this man, they were so frightened that they let go of their hands and knelt on the ground.

"Commander Yang, teach your soldiers well."

Geng Bingwen glanced at Yang Song who was walking out of the team. His skin was dark and his cheeks were a little plateau red, which was left over from long-term battles in Songpan.

So what if they are brave in battle? Such obvious bullying and domination will only make the army lose the support of the people.

Even if he wins the battle afterwards, he will inevitably be impeached by the officials.

"Go, go."

After giving the instructions, Geng Bingwen continued to lead people back to the county government office.

After a while, they walked through the empty streets and finally dismounted at the gate of a county government office.

They walked into the county government office, and the high-hanging plaque was engraved with several large characters...

【Zhending County Government】

"When will the troops from Sichuan Dusi and Huguang Dusi arrive?"

"It will arrive around July [-]th."

Entering the county government office, Geng Bingwen began to arrange for people to carry out the sand table in an orderly manner. A sand table with carved plates from Hebei, Shanxi and half of Daning and Liaodong appeared in front of everyone.

On the sand table, Xu Kai, who led [-] cavalry, was stationing troops in the river. There was a red flag the size of a finger and carved wooden cavalry.

Zhending, which is three hundred miles away, simply displays fourteen flags and carved thirteen wooden sculptures of infantry and one wooden sculpture of cavalry.

South of Zhending, on the south bank of the Yellow River, there are still four wooden sculptures of infantry that have not crossed the river, representing the [-] soldiers and horses of Sichuan Dusi and Huguang Dusi.

Looking to the northwest of Shanxi, northeast of Datong and northwest of Huailai City, there are two wooden sculptures with the flag of "Fang Zhao".

The three prefectures of Beiping, Yongping and Baoding have different yellow flags, including seven wooden carvings with one horse and six steps.

In the direction of Daning, they returned to their flag colors, with Bu Wan's flag on the Yanshan defense line and Chen Heng's flag on Daning City.

In the direction of western Liaoning, three flags of Liu Song, Wu Sheng, and Wu Shouan were planted outside the pass. Facing them was Bohai, which was planting a flag.

Together, this group of people has a total of five wood carvings, while Bohai has six wood carvings.

At this moment, the number of wood carvings represents the strength of both sides.

There are twenty-three wooden carvings already in place on the Ming army's side. Counting the four south of the Yellow River, there are twenty-seven, representing an army of [-].

On the Bohai and Yan army side, there were thirteen, representing an army of [-].

The Ming army outnumbered [-] to [-], and occupied all the geographical advantages except Juyong Pass. They were either in a commanding position or the passes were dangerous.

"It's already the tenth day of July, and in two months it will snow in the Bohai Sea, and it will also get cold in Beiping. Time cannot be delayed."

Geng Bingwen observed the battlefield. Although his troops were twice as powerful as those of Bohai and Yan, judging from the news from the south, Bohai had sharp artillery and he could not delay.

"When the [-] troops from Sichuan Dusi and Huguang Dusi arrive, we will immediately send troops northward."

He gave the time for dispatching troops, and the generals took notes after hearing the words.

In this detail, Geng Bingwen also planned in detail how the [-]-strong army would cross the river and how the [-]-strong army would deploy its defenses.

In his unhurried arrangement, Wu Jie, Ning Zhong, Li Jian and others received instructions one after another.

The three of them have been training troops all year round. Although they have never led troops to fight, they have also accumulated experience.

This time I led the troops to the north and learned a lot of experience along the way. They are no longer as immature as they were more than a month ago.

But compared to their opponents, their immaturity still exists.

Soon, the main force of the Southern Army arrived in Zhending and garrisoned in Hejian, Wuji, Anping, Mozhou, Xiongxian and other places.

News of the arrival and garrison of the Southern Army soon spread to Beiping City through messages sent by monks from various places.

When Zhu Di received the news, it was already July [-]th.

"An army of [-] people is larger than the Duke of Song and Duke Ying's crusade against Naha, and it is larger than Lan Yu's expedition to the north to fish the sea."

In the Chengyun Hall of Prince Yan's Mansion, Zhang Yu, Meng Shan, Qiu Fu and others took a breath after hearing the number of the Confederate Army.

Even Zhu Di was silent at the moment.

As a resourceful person and the person in charge of spying on information, Yao Guangxiao is still calculating his string of Buddhist beads at this moment.

Sitting next to him was the current Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi.

Zhu Gaochi didn't know how to fight, so he had been studying during this period.

It's just that he doesn't have this kind of talent. After studying for several months, he still hasn't made much progress.

"Has Shanhaiguan been captured?"

Zhu Di finally spoke after being silent for a long time. Zhang Yu also bowed after hearing this: "Not yet. The soldiers and horses under Wu Shouan are resisting tenaciously. Zhu Neng and Zhang Wu cannot take advantage."

"We have to break through western Liaoning first, and then hurry up to capture Daning. Only then can we have time and opportunity to deal with Geng Bingwen." Zhu Di said his plan, but this plan has been implemented for more than [-] days. Shanhaiguan failed to capture Guangning. There was no good news from the other side either, which made everyone hesitate.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Zhu Gaochi guessed:

"Gao Xu's side has not reported a victory for half a month. Perhaps they suffered a lot of damage during the capture of Liaonan, and they are currently reorganizing their troops."

"No." Zhu Di shook his head and rejected this possibility: "Last time Lao Er's people came, they didn't say anything about casualties, and they asked us to attack Shanhaiguan quickly. In other words, there was no big damage on Lao Er's side. Now He is probably anxious to capture Guangning."

Zhu Di's eyes have always been on Liaoxi and have not jumped out of Daning.

This is not because of his vision, but because Guangning has not been captured yet, and if he rushes to Daning, he is likely to be intercepted.

Daning is not as good as Peiping. Although Peiping is also densely covered with water networks, at least the terrain is spacious.

But Daning is not only densely covered with water networks, but also mostly unexplored water networks with many silt tidal flats, making it difficult to march and prone to ambushes.

Moreover, even if he enters Daning, what can he rely on to win over Daning?

On the other hand, if he could find an opportunity to severely injure Bu Wan, he might be able to take down Daning with Chen Heng.

Zhu Di was still planning, but he didn't know that what he thought was impossible had now become a foregone conclusion.

"drive!"

"drive!!"

"Hurry up! I have an urgent military situation!!"

In Yanshan Mountain, when the sound of horse hooves was heard from the north of a pass, only five or six Ming soldiers who were heading south in embarrassment waved their riding whips to ask the people at the gate of the pass to lift their rifles.

Upon seeing this, the city gate defenders quickly raised their rifles, and the general also led his men into the pass.

Inside the pass, nearly ten thousand soldiers and horses were stationed in the city. Not even the merchants were seen, only soldiers coming and going.

The general was familiar with the terrain and quickly led his people to the Yamen of Qianhu Office in the pass.

He anxiously showed his waist card and broke into the yamen.

Faced with his sudden visit and his embarrassed appearance, Bu Wan, who was discussing how to defend Yanshan's defense line in the middle hall, frowned.

"Li Yuan, if you are not staying in Huizhou City, why did you come to Songtingguan?"

Bu Wan questioned the embarrassed Li Yuan, but when Li Yuan heard this, he suddenly knelt down and said with a cry: "General, Daning has been lost, Chen Du's commanding comrades have been captured, and all the [-] guards of Daning have been captured by the Bohai Sea. Broken by common people!"

When Li Yuan finished speaking, everyone in the central hall stopped breathing. Although they knew that the military information could not be false, at this moment they hoped that Li Yuan was joking with them.

"General! It's absolutely true. Now the common people of Bohai have led the army southward, and they are only thirty miles away from here!"

Li Yuan knocked his head heavily. The dull sound meant that he was not lying. But the more he did it, the more panicked everyone became.

Songting Pass has [-] defenders, and the other passes have [-] defenders each. Although the numbers are different, they all have one thing in common, that is, their families are in various cities of Daning's [-] Guards.

Bu Wan took them out to guard against the Yan army, but when they came back, their home was gone.

If this news spreads, all the more than [-] people in Yanshan may rebel.

"How did you get out?"

Bu Wan helped Li Yuan up. Li Yuan cried and said: "I was stationed in Huizhou City. I heard shouts of killing early in the morning. The Bohai common people led troops to raid the city and killed Zhang Ming, Li Hang and other officials from thousands of households. The family was brought from Daning to Huizhou City." "When Zhang Ming and others saw this, they simply opened the city gate, so that the general fled from the south gate on horseback before he even climbed onto the city wall."

"Bohai common people!" Bu Wan and the generals gritted their teeth after hearing this.

Their family members are still in the Twenty-Two Guards City of Daning.

Zhu Gaoxu used this method to deal with Huizhou. Will he use this method to deal with all the passes?

For a moment, everyone turned their attention to Bu Wan.

Although they were angry, no one wanted to see the bodies of their family members.

Moreover, the Yanshan defense line already had Hu soldiers in the north, Yan troops in the south, and Bohai navy in the east.

Now that the north and south were captured by the Yan Army and the Bohai Navy, they were completely alone.

Although there is still enough food and grass in Songting Pass for three months, how long can this last?

The idea of ​​surrender appeared in everyone's mind, not only them, but also Bu Wan was shaken.

Bu Wan was different from Wu Gao. He was not from Huaixi, nor was he from a big family. Therefore, he was only related to a dozen or so people in Daning City.

Now that Daning has been captured, if he continues to resist, God knows how Zhu Gaoxu will deal with him.

Moreover, Bu Wan did not think that he could defeat Zhu Gaoxu with more than [-] men in his hands.

"The whole army will leave Beiguan and send a message to the King of Bohai County..."

After a long time, Bu Wan closed his eyes and spoke with difficulty.

"Yes." After receiving Bu Wan's answer, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Bu Wan finally surrendered, so that their family could be saved.

It's just that being defeated like this makes everyone feel uncomfortable.

"Woooooooo..."

Not long after, with the sound of horns, all the Ming troops in Songting Pass left the city. Li Yuan, who had fled back earlier, was also ordered to go north with a worried look on his face to bring the news that Songting Pass was willing to surrender to Zhu Gaoxu.

After traveling north for an hour, he finally saw the red-backed and black-edged Suzaku flag that covered the sky. He also saw many women, teenagers, and children who were being carried away by the army and riding on carts.

Upon seeing this, Li Yuan quickly dismounted, took off his saber, took off his helmet and carried it to the front of his own formation to show that he had no intention of being an enemy.

At just one word, more than a hundred cavalry rushed out from the team and surrounded Li Yuan and others.

"I am here to surrender on the orders of the commander of Budu. I ask the King of Bohai County not to embarrass our family."

Li Yuan forced himself to speak, and the Bohai Jingqi who surrounded them heard the words and quickly brought the news to the rear.

Soon, Zhu Gaoxu, riding a yellow gelding, appeared in front of Li Yuan with his men.

Li Yuan met Zhu Gaoxu during his last northern tour, and he is still deeply impressed. After all, the scene like when he hugged and threw the wild horse was so shocking.

"Li Yuan, Commander of the Huizhou Guards, comes to see His Highness..."

Li Yuan lowered his head and knelt down to bow, but saw Zhu Gaoxu dismounting and helping him up: "When you left before, I thought you looked down on me. Now it seems that you are here to persuade Bu Wan and the others."

Zhu Gaoxu himself opened his mouth to help Li Yuan, which made Li Yuan blush and was speechless for a long time.

Seeing his appearance, Zhu Gaoxu also smiled and said: "I have brought your family with me, go and reunite with them."

Patting Li Yuan on the back, Zhu Gaoxu asked someone to step out of the way and signaled Li Yuan to help himself.

Li Yuan was ashamed of the situation and said: "Commander Budu has led the entire army out of the city and is waiting for His Highness to surrender."

"Okay, I understand. You should be credited with this matter." Zhu Gaoxu patted Li Yuan again, and Li Yuan turned around and mounted his horse in shame.

Instead of visiting his family, he went south to report the news.

Seeing this situation, Zhu Gaoxu also said to the Qianhu official next to him: "Take Qian brothers south and take over the army with him."

"Yes!" Officer Qianhu agreed, and without hesitation he led his people to follow Li Yuan, and sent people to the rear to continue recruiting people.

After they left, Zhu Gaoxu also got on his horse and led the team leisurely to the south.

He was not worried that Bu Wan would ambush him. After all, Li Yuan had seen that he had brought the generals' families with him. Unless Bu Wan dared to lead troops to kill all his relatives, he would not have the courage to attack him.

Feeling relieved, Zhu Gaoxu began to lead his team to march south.

After killing thousands of Harawu's men and capturing more than [-] heads of Hu soldiers, he did not rush north to pursue the remnant soldiers of Wulangha's tribes. Instead, he went south and returned to Daning. At the same time, he divided [-] troops and gave them to Zhu. Quan, Zhao Mu and Chen Heng.

Four troops and horses, along with the family members of the guard, surrendered the twenty-two guards of Daning in less than half a month. Now as long as Bu Wan and the [-] men on hand are captured, only Daning will be left. He was captured by Chen Song, who didn't know the news yet.

As long as he is captured, the southern troops in western Liaoning will be reduced to [-].

At that time, Wu Sheng and Wu Shouan will either surrender or escape in a small boat. No matter what they do, they will be unable to defend western Liaoning.

The biggest obstacle between the Yan army and the Bohai Sea will soon disappear, and then he can prepare warships with peace of mind.

He dared to imagine crossing the sea to attack Denglai, so he was absolutely sure.

First of all, the Han soldiers in Liaodong and Bohai were mostly coastal disciples transferred from the Jianghuai and Shandong areas. They were familiar with the sea and rivers. As long as the warships were stable enough and the artillery powerful enough, the navy of the Southern Army could not deal with them at all.

As for the route to cross the sea and go south, Lao Zhu had already planned this for Zhu Gaoxu.

In the fourth year of Hongwu, Lao Zhu sent people to personally plan the route from Dengzhou, Shandong to land in Jinzhou. He appointed Ma Yun and Ye Wang as commanders and led [-] Ming troops to cross the sea from Dengzhou and Lai in Shandong and land in Jinzhou in southern Liaoning. State landing.

Since they can do it, there’s no reason why they can’t do it themselves.

Now all he has to do is follow the original route and capture the Imperial City Islands between Jinzhou and Dengzhou in the meantime.

However, with the distance of one hundred and fifty miles, there were still Imperial City Islands to rely on during the construction of forts, so Zhu Gaoxu had nothing to worry about.

But he could think of crossing the sea from Jinzhou and knew the route, which meant that the Confederate army knew better.

Therefore, he must speed up the construction of warships and seize the Imperial City Islands in advance to build forts before the Confederate Army transfers the navy that was encircling and suppressing Japanese pirates from the south to the north.

Thinking like this, Zhu Gaoxu also gradually saw the Bu Wan army waiting to surrender in the mountains and river valleys.

Tens of thousands of people almost filled the valley less than a mile wide, and Bu Wan and others also took off their armor and waited in front of the formation to accept surrender.

Zhu Gaoxu rode his horse forward, and when he met Bu Wan's eyes, he smiled and said: "Commander Bu Du, you are well."

Facing Zhu Gaoxu's greetings, Bu Wan lowered his head. He didn't know what to say to Zhu Gaoxu at all. Could it be that he was shameless and talked about the two people's northern tour?

"With your family members behind the formation, all the armies can start heading north. After entering Daning, you will know our Bohai policy towards Daning."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't say much about his policy. First of all, the army had just surrendered. If someone instigated it, the [-] army would probably mutiny.

It would be better to arrange for them to go north. When they return to the Weizhou offices in Daning, they will naturally know what Bohai's policy is.

Hearing this, Bu Wan and others led the army and began to move northward under the supervision of two thousand Bohai Jingqi. Zhu Gaoxu also led one thousand of his men into the intact Songting Pass.

In the middle hall of the Qianhusuo, there are also sand tables of the Yanshan Defense Line, as well as "Food Album", "Fish Scale Album", "Military Registration Album" and other documents.

Zhu Gaoxu sat down and read it slowly, and sent someone south to notify the Yan army's Zunhua general who was guarding Songting Pass.

With just a glance at these documents in his hands, he constructed a plan in his mind for how to plan for Daning to be self-sufficient.

First of all, it must be based on the original provision of [-] military households and their families to garrison Daning. After calculation, the number of people is about [-] to [-].

These [-] people need to be distributed among Daning's [-] guards, three schools and eight passes, and the more than [-] acres of local cultivated land must be divided equally to be self-sufficient.

After calculation, it is almost at least three acres of cultivated land per person. In terms of output, Daning is slightly higher than Liaodong, with seven buckets of grain per mu, which means that the total output of three acres of grain is two stones and one bucket.

This amount of food can at most keep the local people from starving to death, so I must encourage them to open up wasteland.

Zhu Gaoxu also looked at the livestock situation in Daning. There were more than [-] cattle and more than [-] draft horses and mules.

The more than [-] draft horses and mules are now being taken to Yizhou in Guangning by Liu Song. By then, if Liu Song is captured, the nearly [-] draft horses and mules can be distributed to the people of Daning according to their household registration.

A farming cow and a family, as long as no taxes are charged and some grain subsidies are provided, there is no need to encourage them, they will open up wasteland on their own.

"Fifteen thousand troops and horses..."

Zhu Gaoxu leaned on his chair and calculated, then sat upright and began to study ink and write.

After all, Daning's military pay was [-] shi of military rations, [-] guan of military pay, as well as cotton, cloth, salt and other items.

As for the income of the people of Daning, based on two kilograms per person per day, it is [-] shi per year.

The total of the two is [-] shi. Taking into account Daning's output, he only needs to subsidize [-] shi. Compared with the [-] million shi during the Hongwu years, the burden is much lighter.

However, the pressure on Daning has been reduced, but the pressure on Liaodong has increased.

Before setting off from Daning, Zhu Gaoxu had made a rough calculation with Zhao Mu and the others. It was true that Jilin City could be self-sufficient, but after the population of Daning moved to Liaodong, Liaodong had a population of [-].

These [-] people are only the majority. There are no less than [-] people in western Liaoning, which adds up to the entire population of eastern Liaoning of [-].

These [-] people need to consume [-] million dan every year, but the local area can only handle [-] dan, and he has to find [-] million dan for Liaodong.

If the reduced military rations and salaries for Daning, Liaodong soldiers and the Bohai Navy are added, in addition to Daning's [-] defenders, Zhu Gaoxu would have to maintain a scale of [-] troops. The additional rations and military salaries would be It's [-] million stones and [-] strings.

Adding everything together, Bohai's expenditure was [-] troops, [-] million shi of military rations, and [-] guan of military pay.

In addition to the rations of [-] million shi for almost one million people, the total is [-] million shi, and the military pay is [-] guan.

This amount is almost equivalent to one-seventh of the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty military settlements and the Ministry of Household Affairs in the [-]th year of Hongwu.

"The bigger this plate is, the poorer I will be..."

After settling the score, Zhu Gaoxu felt like he wanted to die.

He has enriched the population of Liaodong, and with this number of people in Liaodong, the Han people may be able to develop the Northeast more than five hundred years in advance.

But I'm afraid that the financial burden of the Northeast will crush him to death before he even starts developing the Northeast.

With the money and food he has now, he can carry this burden until September at most. If he doesn't find another way, then he will wait for the financial collapse.

Rubbing his swollen temples, Zhu Gaoxu turned his attention to Peiping on the sand table.

"Let's get one million stones from my father first..."

　"Bohai Chronicles": "Wan has been on the border for a long time, and has defended the territory to serve the country. Jiashen, the leader of the army was on the verge of arriving, and Wan was unwilling to fight, so he surrendered to lead his troops."

　　"Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty": "Jia Shen led his troops to Songting. There were more than ten thousand officers and soldiers at the gate. However, Wan Su looked up to his superiors, so he opened the city and bound himself, and led his troops to surrender."

　　

　

(End of this chapter)