Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 242 I will definitely not pay it back

"boom!"

"boom!"

In mid-August, when the imperial court had decided to recruit more soldiers and horses to fight Zhu Di and his son, Zhu Gaoxu did not continue to stay in western Liaoning. Instead, after leaving Chen Heng, Chen Mao, Meng Zhang, Xu Sheng and others, he took more than a hundred He rode towards Liaonan.

After several days of running around, he finally arrived in Jinzhou on August [-]th.

Jinzhou, which was once filled with chills, became prosperous after experiencing the war.

Thousands of craftsmen from Jilin arrived in Jinzhou to expand the shipyard here and process trees brought from the northern mountains by the Bohai Navy.

Unlike the Jilin Shipyard, which can easily obtain wood by cutting down trees and rolling them into the Songhua River, the wood at the Jinzhou Shipyard needs to be pulled from a mountainous area more than [-] miles away and then baked in a baking field at the foot of the mountain. concocted.

When the water content is almost roasted, it will be pulled by a sixteen-wheeled carriage, pulled by eight draft horses, and slowly arrive at the Jinzhou Shipyard.

Since it had been a month and a half since he captured Jinzhou, when Zhu Gaoxu arrived at the Jinzhou Shipyard, he could already see hundreds of logs that could be hugged by one person.

"How many warships and horse ships can be made from these wood?"

Standing in the bustling shipyard, Zhu Gaoxu asked Liu Shipeng and Wang Shipeng who were in charge of this place.

Regarding this issue, the more experienced boatman Liu touched the wood in the wood bin with his hands, and then said:

"There is no problem in making horse boats from these wood. It is enough to make five horse boats with [-] materials, which can transport [-] shi of grain or [-] soldiers at a time."

"It's just that if it is to be used to build warships, it will have to be dried in the dark for about three months. Fortunately, the temperature in Jinzhou is higher than that in Jilin, and the sea will not freeze and make it impossible to leave the port, so the test of the ship will not be delayed."

"If these wood are dried in the shade for three months, it can be used to make five warships with [-] materials."

"The northern barbecue field is on track. Now the commander of the royal capital can bring his brothers to transport thirty logs of wood to the shipyard every day, which is almost the wood needed for a two-thousand-horsepower ship and a warship. "

When Liu boatman said all this, Zhu Gaoxu also asked: "Can this boat be built larger?"

Zhu Gaoxu remembered clearly that although the treasure ship was not as large as the so-called Wanliang, it was still as large as five thousand and had a displacement of more than [-] tons.

Although this is the result of Zhu Di's research for several years, the shipwrights at Jilin Shipyard have also worked hard for several years and cannot always stay at [-] materials.

"You can try three thousand ingredients." Liu Boateng said cautiously, obviously this was a conservative attitude.

However, in response to his words, Zhu Gaoxu shook his head: "You are all my subjects, and I will not punish you at will."

"You said three thousand materials, then let's try building horse boats and warships with three thousand materials. If we can make four thousand or five thousand materials, I will be very happy, and I will reward the boatmen who participated in the design and construction. The master will reward you ten thousand yuan, and the boatman will reward you ten thousand yuan."

"Please keep this in mind." Liu Shipeng and Wang Shipworkers bowed in agreement. Zhu Gaoxu also took one last look at the timber warehouse and then walked out of the Jinzhou Shipyard.

Not long after, he rode to the commander's office in Jinzhou City. Along the way, he could see that the people of Jinzhou were beaming with joy.

The people outside the city are busy clearing wasteland, while the people inside the city are doing small businesses such as food and handicrafts.

Although the Bohai Navy is a multi-ethnic army, there is nothing to say about the military discipline of the Bohai Navy.

In Zhu Gaoxu's "Records of Military Training", the first sentence at the beginning is: "Most of you at home are ordinary people farming. As long as you recall the pain and hardship of paying money and food when farming at home, you can understand that today the people support you with money and food. How difficult it is!”

"The common people don't ask you to farm and support you for a year, but they only expect you to win a few battles. You don't try your best to kill the thieves to protect them, but instead raise your knife to plunder them, so what's the use of raising you!" "

In addition to this opening sentence, the "Military Discipline" used by later generations is something that the Bohai Navy must recite daily.

Zhu Gaoxu taught them literacy and reasoning in order to train an army that could not only win battles, but also require them to "defeat battles."

Throughout the ages, many elite soldiers have won battles, so they often abide by moral discipline while marching forward triumphantly.

But once they lose the battle, they will slowly become thieves who plunder the people.

The saying that officers and soldiers are more ruthless than bandit soldiers is not just a joke, but a bloody reality.

Therefore, even if he is defeated, Zhu Gaoxu will never allow anyone to take the people's things with bare hands. If there is such a person, Zhu Gaoxu will execute him.

On the way south from Jilin, Zhu Gaoxu executed several soldiers for petty theft in order to improve military discipline and let them know what they could and could not touch.

So when they arrived at Jinzhou City, the soldiers who could make it here were already soldiers who had gone through many tests.

The military pay Zhu Gaoxu gave them was high enough. They had nothing they couldn't afford, and they all behaved in strict accordance with the "Military Discipline".

Their arrival did not bring disaster to Jinzhou, but brought prosperity.

Although Shandong has cut off the waterway to Jinzhou, merchants are all seeking profits. When Zhu Gaoxu came to Jinzhou City, he saw many merchants.

"These businessmen, are they all from Shandong?"

Zhu Gaoxu was riding on horseback, looking at the merchants on the road and asking Cui Jun on the side. Behind them were Zheng Jun and more than ten cavalrymen from Bohai.

"There are also people from North Korea. There are frequent wars now, and there are also a lot of smuggling merchants."

Cui Jun explained, and also said: "In the past month, Jinzhou has bought more than [-] shi of grain just from doing business. Although it is not much, it is enough to feed the soldiers and civilians of Jinzhou for a few days."

"Not bad." Zhu Gaoxu nodded in approval, and then followed the road to the Jinzhou Commandery Office.

He got off his horse and walked in with Cui Jun. While sitting on the main seat, he also looked at Zheng Jun.

"Fu Rang mentioned you in his letter. Cui Jun said that you are the commander of Jinzhou. I agree with this. I know that your ability is more than that, but whether you can continue to climb up depends on your own performance on the battlefield. Performance."

Zheng Jun did not expect that Zhu Gaoxu would give him such a high evaluation. You must know that three months ago, he was just a small official of hundreds of households. Now, only three months have passed, and he has gone from being a sixth-grade official of hundreds of households to Jumped to the third level of the guard commander.

The number of people under his command has also grown from a hundred people to three thousand now.

He was still adapting and learning how to lead three thousand troops in the past few months, but now that the King of Bohai County praised him so much, Zheng Jun felt encouraged.

"Don't worry, Your Highness, I will eventually respond to you with military exploits!"

Zheng Jun has never read a book, because he does not have the qualifications and family background, so his speech is a bit vulgar.

Cui Jun was worried that what he said would make Zhu Gaoxu unhappy, so he stood up to smooth things over and said: "Commander Zheng is very good. He just hasn't studied since he was a child and has some problems with his speech. Don't worry about it, Your Highness."

"What's there to care about?" Zhu Gaoxu smiled heartily, signaled Zheng Jun to get up, and said solemnly:

"The children of Weisuo are not educated. This is the failure of our Ming Dynasty."

"Currently, [-] people and [-] children in Jilin City have been able to attend health education and acquire knowledge. This is what I am most happy about."

"You didn't have the opportunity to study before. When the children in Jilin City grow up, I will let them go south to teach children everywhere to read and write, so that your regrets will not appear in the next generation."

"It's just that there will be no health schools in the mainland from now on, there will only be schools."

Zhu Gaoxu inadvertently revealed a piece of information, and at the same time said to Cui Jun and others: "Call Wang Yi over in a moment,"

"Yes!" Cui Jun nodded, and then left the Yamen with Zheng Jun.

When Zhu Gaoxu saw them leaving, he also studied ink and picked up a pen by himself, and took out a blank book to write.

Liaodong now has a population of one million, [-]% of whom are Han people and [-]% are Jurchen people.

With the current population, it can fully support a chief envoy. Except for food, there is no need to rely on Shandong for other places.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu planned to change the Twenty-Five Guards of Liaodong into prefectures and counties, and many of the place names that were too long and complicated had to be changed.

For example, the names of the area in western Liaoning were complicated, so Zhu Gaoxu changed the names of the Guangning Zhongwei, Guangning Zhongtunwei, Guangning Qiantunwei, Guangning Qianwei and other guards based on his memory from his previous life.

He didn't continue to change things that didn't need to be changed.

After the end, the entire Liaodong was set up as six prefectures including Dingliao Prefecture, Jinzhou Prefecture, Liaoyang Prefecture, Shenyang Prefecture, Guangning Prefecture, and Ningyuan Prefecture.

Ningyuan County, the administrative seat of Ningyuan Prefecture, has jurisdiction over Shanhai County, Suizhong County and Songshan County.

Guangning County, the administrative seat of Guangning Prefecture, has jurisdiction over Jinzhou County and Yizhou County.

Shenyang County, the seat of Shenyang Prefecture, governs Tieling County, Kaiyuan County ([-] Guards), Hanzhou County, Fushun County, and Puhe County.

Liaoyang County, the administrative seat of Liaoyang Prefecture, governs Anshan, Liaozhong and Haizhou counties.

Jinzhou Prefecture is the administrative seat of Jinzhou, which governs Fuzhou County, Gaizhou County and Lushun County.

These five prefectures total [-] counties. Among them, Anshan, Liaozhong, Lushun, and Hanzhou are either inns or thousands of households. They are all newly established and expanded counties. Zhu Gaoxu will arrange Daning immigration In these places, new counties were established.

Of course, in addition to these five mansions, Zhu Gaoxu is also concerned about Dingliao mansion.

He planned to place the seat of Dingliao Prefecture in Jiuliancheng, where Liu Zhen was located, and change Jiuliancheng into Dingliao County. Then he planned to set up about two counties on the road from Jinzhou to Jiuliancheng, and then built it in the future. A county was set up in the prefecture to recruit Jurchens.

According to the overall plan, there are six prefectures and [-] counties in Liaodong.

In order to facilitate the setting, Zhu Gaoxu also hand-drawn a map of Liaodong, marked the location of each county, and wrote down its positioning and development.

For example, Anshan, which is just a post station at the moment, its main economic direction is nothing more than mining iron ore and making iron ingots.

Of course, except for this kind of county with obvious resources, the other counties are still developing their agricultural economy normally, but they will build cement plants to ensure that there is enough cement to build the county's water conservancy facilities.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's plan, as long as he is willing to invest and promote seedling fields, Liaodong will become a small granary in Beiping in about seven years.

However, the prerequisite for this willingness to invest is that it must bear an annual investment of four million shi, which is almost equivalent to 7% of the fiscal revenue at the peak of the Ming Dynasty.

But as long as this goal is achieved, Peiping can be used as the capital, and the Northeast will become a self-sufficient small granary, becoming the bridgehead for the Ming army to march from the Northeast to Mobei.

All this is worthwhile for Zhu Gaoxu, but before that, he must win the Battle of Jingnan and use the Battle of Jingnan to clean up a group of gentry and obtain resources from them to develop Liaodong.

As he was thinking this, a Baihu official also walked into the yamen.

He is different from many soldiers. He does not have the sturdy appearance of the Bohai soldiers. Instead, he is very thin, but this is very suitable for the mission he is performing. “Your Highness, Commander Hu has already established himself in Deng and Lai Prefectures.”

When this Baihu official bowed and opened his mouth, there was no need to elaborate on his identity.

Hu Lun, who had chosen to surrender to Zhu Gaoxu, was appointed by Zhu Gaoxu as the commander of the West Factory. However, from the time when the troops were launched in the Bohai Sea to the present, he has basically not shown his face, and the West Factory has not given any valuable information.

All this is not that Zhu Gaoxu forgot Hu Lun, but that he inserted Hu Lun into Yang Bin's caravan early and asked him to take people south to Dengzhou to prepare for his future landing in Denglai area.

Less than half a year had passed, and Zhu Gaoxu was curious about what news Hu Lun had brought to him.

He took the information from the Baihu official, and after just a brief glance at it, his brows knitted together.

Hu Lun didn't know how he used it, but he actually got the order just issued by Nanjing.

Geng Bingwen was stationed in Zhending and Hejian, and guarded the Shanxi Pass, continuing to maintain the Southern Army's geographical advantage.

The Denglai Navy sent troops to rescue Wu Sheng, Liu Song, and Wu Shouan in western Liaoning.

The Yangtze River Navy went north, and the Guangdong and Guangxi Navy were also transferred north. The commander of the two navy was Chen Xuan.

In addition, there is also the move to mobilize troops from the southwest, and the general generals under Geng Bingwen's command.

The information was so detailed that Zhu Gaoxu just took a rough look and concluded that Hu Lun might have won over someone with a high official position in the Jinyi Guard, otherwise it would be impossible to have such accurate information.

In addition, Hu Lun also said that there are still some imperial guards in the Yan Army and the Bohai Navy. Although they have small official positions, they can pass on a lot of basic information to the court. For example, the Yan Army and the Bohai Navy currently have a total of [-] troops, and the amount of food Enough to last half a year.

In addition, some basic information about each army has also appeared. Except for the information about the Shenji Battalion and the Jurchen Eighth Guards, which has not been leaked, other information has been roughly leaked.

"grandfather……"

Seeing the information like this, Zhu Gaoxu's eyes were complicated. He knew very well that this was Lao Zhu's handiwork during his lifetime, because it was impossible for Zhu Yunwen to use Jin Yiwei to this extent.

"Have someone bring this information to my father."

Zhu Gaoxu put the information on the table, and while explaining it, he was constantly analyzing the battle situation in his mind.

Obviously, the quality of the generals in Geng Bingwen's army has dropped significantly compared with history. The reason is simply that too many outstanding generals have been restrained in the southwest.

Historically, Geng Bingwen should be paired with a fierce general like Gu Cheng who killed hundreds of people twice. After Gu Cheng was captured by Zhu Di, although he surrendered after Zhu Di's persuasion, he was only responsible for defending the city and not attacking.

The reason why Beiping City was able to withstand the fierce attack of Li Jinglong's hundreds of thousands of troops was not due to Zhu Gaochi, who was not good at military affairs, but to Gu Cheng.

Now that Gu Cheng is no longer in Geng Bingwen's army, without him, can Peking still be defended?

Zhu Gaoxu stood up and crossed the steps. At the same time, he felt a headache for the three naval divisions of Zhu Yunwen's northern faction.

Judging from the information he obtained from the imperial court's "Di Bao" and the Fifth Army Governor's "Tang Bao", Lao Zhu never ordered anyone to build a warship after the [-]th year of Hongwu.

The warships built before this were [-] warships with [-] materials, [-] warships with [-] materials, and [-] horse ships with [-] materials.

Together with the warships of the original three naval divisions, the tonnage of these warships alone exceeded [-] tons.

If all the navies and water divisions in the world were brought together, I am afraid that they would all encounter a crushing blow from the three naval divisions of the Ming Army, let alone oneself.

If he wants to cross the sea and reach the state, he must capture the Imperial City Islands in advance and then eliminate these three naval forces.

Facing them, it is difficult to win without a naval general. The only place where you can win is with artillery.

As long as there are enough naval guns, he can use ten ships to defeat the firepower of a hundred ships of the Ming army.

They knew the artillery configuration of the Ming army's warships well, but they did not understand the power and quantity of their own artillery. This was an advantage they could take advantage of.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu sat back down and turned his thoughts to land again.

Regarding the armies under Geng Bingwen, Zhu Gaoxu only had three worries. One was the Shangshiliu Guards, Tingcao Baotao Guards and Hezhou Guards in Beijing.

The children of the former Sixteenth Guards are all from Huaixi, and Zhu Gaoxu knows the strength of the Huaixi soldiers.

Needless to say, he first went north to Jilin and led a surprise attack on Xiyang Ha's soldiers. The most brave ones were Fu Rang, Lin Su, Meng Zhang and other Huaixi soldiers.

There were nearly [-] Huaixi disciples of the Sixteenth Guards. This elite regiment was the strongest regiment Zhu Di encountered when he went south in history.

The Yan Army's cavalry penetrated the Huaixi Corps three times, but the Huaixi Corps was able to regroup and beat Zhu Di to the point of falling off his horse and breaking his sword. If Zhu Gaoxu and Zhang Yu hadn't rescued him one after another, Zhu Di would have died in the formation.

In addition to the Sixteenth Guards, Zhu Gaoxu was most afraid of the Bao Tao Guards and Hezhou Guards Jingqi who were listening to Cao in Beijing.

The bravery of those seven thousand fine cavalry is no less than that of the six thousand Bohai fine cavalry. With them in the formation and the right cavalry commander, Zhu Gaoxu needs to always be alert to the two possibilities of being surprised and being cut off from the food route.

These two troops are the most capable regiments of the Ming Dynasty, followed by the Southwest Corps, which Zhu Gaoxu was worried about for the first time.

The Southwest Corps is not all Southwest soldiers born in the southwest plateau mountains, but more of them are Jiangnan soldiers who moved from Jiangnan to Yunnan.

They can attack the plateau mountains and tropical rain forests, or they can attack the ten battalions and two Huai River networks. Of course, the more important thing is that Zhu Gaoxu got a fatal news from the intelligence.

"Muchun..."

Zhu Gaoxu felt a headache when he whispered this name.

He is also a third-generation descendant, but Mu Chun is undoubtedly the first among the third-generation descendants. Even Li Jinglong cannot take his place.

Historically, Muchun died of illness in September last year, but now he is still alive and well and at the peak of his powers.

If Zhu Yunwen asked Mu Chun to replace Geng Bingwen, Zhu Gaoxu was not sure whether he could defeat Mu Chun because he was not familiar with Mu Chun, but Mu Chun could understand himself through the Bohai Tong newspaper previously stored in the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion.

Needless to say, Muchun's ability is not to be overstated. He has already demonstrated in the current Battle of Luchuan that he can lead [-] troops and can plan various troops to intersperse, encircle and annihilate. Only one person in history has been able to achieve this effect in Yunnan. Zhuge Liang, Fu Youde and Mu Ying, including him, he is the fourth.

Of course, what's more important is that the current Southwest generals and Southwest Corps under their command, such as Muchun and He Fu, are essentially Jianghuai people and are not people who grew up in the mountainous environment of the Southwest.

Typical among them, for example, Wang Xuan's father Wang Zhao was a member of Xu Dabei's recruiting regiment. Later, because Yunnan was empty, he was transferred to Yunnan by the Lao Zhu Collective to garrison.

Compared with the virgin forests in the southwest, they are actually better at fighting in the plains. For example, in history, He Fu led the Southwest Corps to fight against the Yan Army in the plains, and they ended up drawing twice.

In these two battles, Zhu Di's Yan army, which was good at plain warfare, failed to get an advantage from the Southwest Army. In the end, Zhu Di discovered that the Southwest Army lacked horses, so he took advantage of the cavalry and made four consecutive high-mobility detours to carry out tactics. deception, and finally succeeded in separating the Southwest Corps and Huaixi Corps, and seized the opportunity to defeat them in one fell swoop.

He Fu could do this, let alone Mu Chun, who had followed Fu Youde and Mu Ying to the northwest since the age of seventeen, and also accompanied the army to conquer Yunnan and Jiangxi.

After all, Muchun was twenty-five years old and had already accumulated meritorious service in the northwest, central plains, Jiangxi, southwest and other places, and was promoted to be a minister in the rear army governor's office.

Looking at the entire early Ming Dynasty, except for Li Wenzhong, Zhu Wenzheng, Mu Ying, and Zhu Di, no one could show such talents at such an age.

Zhu Gaoxu regretted it when he thought of Muchun's ability.

Although he didn't know why Muchun could survive until now, his subconscious told him that this matter might have something to do with Wang Xuan, because he only told Wang Xuan how to prevent the miasma in the tropical rainforest and how to rescue it. And what you need to do to avoid contracting the sequelae after leaving the tropical rainforest.

Muchun might have survived by luck because of Wang Xuan's method.

"Wang Xuan, you idiot..."

Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help complaining to Wang Xuan, and his heart gradually became anxious.

Historically, Geng Bingwen was able to be defeated by Zhu Di because of the poor quality of his generals. But if Gu Cheng and Qu Neng were transferred to him, plus the navy led by Chen Xuan, I am afraid that even Zhu Di would have a very difficult time. .

"We have to defeat Geng Bingwen in advance before they arrive..."

Zhu Gaoxu needs time now, and defeating Geng Bingwen is undoubtedly the best choice to extend the decisive battle.

He was not the only one who had this idea, but also Zhu Di who was in Peiping.

Yao Guangxiao's intelligence was more comprehensive than that collected by Hu Lun, so Zhu Di learned about the movements of the Southern Army one step ahead of Zhu Gaoxu.

Not only that, he also knew that Ping An led Yang Song, Pan Zhong and others to Xiong County.

Sitting in the Chengyun Hall of the Yan Mansion, Zhu Di silently glanced at the generals in front of him. There was no longer any hesitation about how to choose between Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu, and only the Guo Yi who belonged to King Yan was left.

His eyes scanned the generals, from Zhang Yu to Zhu Neng, then to Qiu Fu, Zhang Wu, Meng Shan... and finally focused on Fang Kuan, who came with [-] infantry to obey his control.

"The soldiers sent by the second brother are a little less, but they are enough."

"Fang Kuan, I order you to lead your troops to station in Yongping Mansion to guard against Wu Shouan from Shanhaiguan."

"The last general takes orders!"

"Meng Shan, you lead [-] troops to garrison Juyongguan. If Fang Zhao comes, don't pay attention to him. Just stick to it."

"The last general takes orders!"

"Gao Chi and Zheng Heng, I order you to lead [-] troops to garrison Beiping and support Yongping and Juyongguan at any time!"

"The last general (son and minister) takes the order!"

Zhu Di selected the garrison personnel and left [-] troops to protect the important places in Peiping. He no longer used the funny "I" to refer to himself, but used the "I" that he had not used for many years. This shows that he How much attention is paid to this battle.

"Zhang Yu, Qiu Fu, and Zhu Neng, lead your troops and go south with me to defeat Geng Bingwen."

Zhu Di stood up slowly, but facing his arrangement, Qiu Fu hesitated and said: "Your Highness, Geng Bingwen already has [-] people at the moment, and it will be [-] in a few days, but we only have [-] to mobilize. Soldiers."

"Forty thousand..." In response to his hesitation, Zhu Di raised his chin. He was not as honest as usual, but more unruly, as if he had returned to more than ten years ago, when he braved heavy snow and ran thousands of miles to make an emergency landing at Beiyuan Taiwei Nai'er. The moment you don’t spend: “Forty thousand is enough!”

"I just want to use [-] troops to defeat his [-] troops from the front before the [-] reinforcements from the south arrive."

He pulled out the sword from his waist, gritted his teeth and looked directly at the sword's edge:

"If the Confederate army is not defeated, it will definitely not return!"

　I will make another "Liaodong Chief Envoy Picture" later and send it to the easter egg stamp

　　

　

(End of this chapter)