Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 356 Yongle’s Second Campaign

"Woooooooo..."

In mid-March, amid the anxious calls, Jiangdongmen Pier was once again busy.

Standing on the pier, a dragon boat representing the emperor and a yellow umbrella are moored in one place, and the other is standing on the shore.

The dock was filled with scenes of horses boarding ships and soldiers boarding ships. There were more than 20,000 soldiers and thousands of civilian officials on the entire dock.

On Zhu Di's northern expedition, as always, he would not lack the company of civil servants. Whether he was reluctant to give up power or wanted these civil servants from the south of the Yangtze River to see the harsh environment in the north, in short, for the emperor, his approach was not inappropriate.

However, the first thing to ensure with this approach is that one's own strength can surpass the opponent's, and even defeat the opponent with ease. Otherwise, he will be like a certain overseas student. Not only will he be captured, but also the two ministers of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs, as well as the cabinet bachelor and Most of the six ministers were served in one pot.

If the foreign students hadn't taken away the veterans of the Five Dynasties, Hu Hui, the Minister of Rites, and Wang Zhi, the Minister of Household Affairs, Beijing would have been in danger. Yu Qian, the minister of the Ministry of War, could not control the situation at all.

"I will leave the Six Ministers to you. I will take the Six Minister Zuo Shilang and the Grand Master of the Imperial Palace to the north."

"While you stay in the south to supervise the country, don't forget to take good care of your mother."

Under the Huang Luogai umbrella, Zhu Di, wearing a yellow uniform, explained everything to Zhu Gaoxu in detail, and Zhu Gaoxu also responded to every sentence.

Historically, since the Tatars and Oara tribes were beaten twice by Zhu Di respectively, the Tatars immediately ran away every time they heard about Zhu Di's northern expedition. The Oara tribes directly professed their vassalship and became the pawns of the Ming Dynasty's northern expedition to the Tatars.

When Zhu Di died of illness during the Northern Expedition, Mahamu's son Tuohuan killed Taiping on his way back from paying tribute to Beijing, and Tuboloshu was also killed by Tuohuan at the end of the same year.

Counting back from the boss's lineage, except for Zhu Jianshen and Zhu Houzhao who did well, and Zhu Qiyu and Zhu Zaijing who were mediocre, the others were simply mediocre.

Once upon a time, when he patrolled the north with an army of more than 200,000 men, he only had seven or eight thousand cavalry.

Less than three years after Zhu Qizhen came to power, Atai Khan was attacked and killed. Under the unification of all Mongolia, Zhu Zhanji successfully established a Mongolian regime that was no less powerful than that of Wang Baobao.

Regarding this external strategic arrangement, Zhu Gaoxu really didn't know how to boast about the so-called "rule of benevolence and Xuan".

Although when the Yongle Dynasty started, Zhu Di was worried about leaving Ma Zheng to Zhu Gaoxu alone, so he divided Ma Zheng into two. However, as the past seven years passed, Zhu Di was very satisfied with Zhu Gaoxu, so almost everything in the court was handled. Leave it to him.

Now twelve or three years later, he can easily pull out more than 30,000 cavalry.

Thinking of this, Zhu Di couldn't help but look in the direction of Purple Mountain, as if he was reporting to Lao Zhu in Xiaoling.

However, precisely because Wala directly professed his vassalship, Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Zhanji did not take them seriously after they came to the throne.

Zhu Di stroked his beard, the joy on his face could not be concealed.

Zhu Di came back to his senses and asked about Ma Zheng.

"It's nothing, just government affairs." Zhu Gaoxu came to his senses and could only tell a lie. After all, he couldn't tell the good things that the boss's family had done.

"In addition, I think it is best for you to eliminate Arutai directly in this battle. Otherwise, given the character of the Mongols, Arutai will definitely avoid you in the future as long as he suffers a heavy blow."

"At present, the imperial court's Taipusi Temple has more than 70,000 horses that have not been gelded, and about 220,000 horses that have been gelded."

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but complain about his eldest nephew every day.

"Thirty-four thousand cavalry and twenty-two thousand horse infantry, hehe..."

"In addition, there are 150,000 ungeared horses and 260,000 gelding horses."

Until he discovered that Zhu Zhanji didn't care about his conquest of the Torgut tribe, he immediately realized that the opportunity had come and began the war to unify Mongolia in the next ten years.

At the very least, Wala and Luchuan should not want to rise while they are alive. They must not be destroyed but must be severely damaged, leaving their children and grandchildren ten or twenty years of peace.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's report, the number of herds directly controlled by Taipu Temple and the army was nearly 1 million horses and more than 300,000 cattle.

"The civilians and food supplies in the north have been fully mobilized. As long as you don't think about attacking Mahamu and Taiping after defeating Arutai."

"Once they are hit hard by you, you will never want to find their main force again in the future."

When he thought of this, Zhu Gaoxu felt that it was his destiny to replace the boss of the whole family.

"what are you thinking?"

"Wuliangha has no choice. They cannot escape from Modong back to Mobei with a large number of livestock, but the Tatars and Oara are different."

When Zhu Zhanji died, the situation left to Zhu Qizhen was that all Mongolian tribes except Atai Khan were vassals of Oara.

"By the way, second brother, Ma Zheng, how are you doing?"

"Um……"

So far, the Tuohuan family is the only one among the three major departments of Wala.

In the north, there was a Wala that could pull out 90,000 soldiers and horses, and in the south there was a Luchuan that could pull out hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. The Xuanwei Division in the old port on the sea was also declining day by day. Indochina was being used against the will of both worlds, and Hami in the west was still held hostage by Wala. …

Zhu Zhanji did not support the other two tribes. He only nominally conferred the title of King of Xianyi on the son of Taiping, Nerlie Husuijue. As a result, Tuohuan directly sent troops to conquer the Turgut tribe and waited anxiously for several months.

Zhu Gaoxu's words were analyzed based on his understanding of the Mongols and his clear understanding of history.

"This time I took the three guards of Yulin and the two guards on the left and right of Zhaozhou to go north, including the two guards of Zhaozhou and Jilin under Meng Zhang's jurisdiction, the Yanshan guards and Yuzhou guards of Zhu Neng and Qiu Fu, and Wang Yi's big guards. Ning Wei, there are ten guards in total, fifty-six thousand people."

The population did not increase much, the scale of the people's rebellion was even greater than during the Yongle period, and the external situation was corrupt.

Because of this, Zhu Gaoxu could handle many things very well without Zhu Di having to worry about them, even exceeding Zhu Di's expectations.

Seeing that Zhu Gaoxu clearly had something but didn't want to say anything, Zhu Di responded suspiciously, and then looked at the civil servants, generals, soldiers and horses who were boarding the ship.

If you include the border cavalry from the northwest, southwest, and west fan, then the Ming Dynasty also has nearly 70,000 cavalry.

"In addition to military horses and riding horses, the ranch also has nearly 300,000 draft horses and more than 300,000 cattle."

Regarding what they had done, Zhu Gaoxu was afraid that after he told Zhu Di, Zhu Di would suffer from high blood pressure and be sent back to Qianqing Palace to be with Queen Xu.

Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaoxu without speaking, looking suspicious.

This data was historically accomplished by Zhu Di in the 19th year of Yongle. However, due to Zhu Gaoxu's intrusion, the Ming Dynasty destroyed Wuliangha early and obtained a large number of herds. In addition, there were sufficient pastures and bean feed in the Bohai Sea, so it was obtained Such results.

These draft horses and cattle in the hands of the imperial court are real productivity. If they are invested in a certain province, they can quickly add a lot of cultivated land to the province.

Of course, the prerequisite is to ration enough beans and grain to the people so that they can open up wasteland without any scruples.

"Who are you going to allocate these draft horses and oxen to?"

Zhu Di naturally understood the importance of draft horses and cattle to agriculture, so he asked Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu replied without hesitation: "Although there are more than 600,000 cattle and horses, there are only more than 100,000 people who can be put into slaughter and engaged in agricultural production."

"These cattle and horses will be raised in Sanwei, Modong, and distributed to local people on the spot. We strive to allow local people to own more than ten acres of land each in three years."

"As for the rest, I plan to transfer them to Beizhili, Shandong and Henan."

North Zhili, Shandong and Henan, these three provinces were major agricultural provinces in any period. However, due to the Huihe River in the Song Dynasty, Liao Jin, Three Yis and the Yellow River breach since the Yuan Dynasty, the people living in these three provinces at this time However, with more than 9 million people, the cultivated land is less than 80 million acres.

Needless to say, the potential of cultivated land in these three provinces is huge. If there are supporting cattle and draft horses, then one family can cultivate nearly a hundred acres of cultivated land extensively.

Based on the calculation of more than 1.5 million households in the three provinces, even if they do not immigrate, these people can subsequently reclaim and extensively cultivate 156 million acres of cultivated land.

If the arable land potential of these three provinces is calculated according to future generations, it will be a full 300 million acres. Even if the Yellow River does not change its course and fails to impact the large area in Dongying, it will not be much less.

Zhu Gaoxu actually wanted to establish a large farm-style production method in the north, that is, an economic form in which more than two million households in the north would reclaim and cultivate hundreds of millions of acres of farmland, but productivity did not allow him to do so.

Before industrialization, a farmer could cultivate no more than five acres with pure manpower, and a family of five could cultivate no more than thirty acres. Even if it was more extensive, it would only be fifty acres.

The result of extensive farming is that the yield per mu is not as high as that of intensive farming. This has been tested in Taixue's experimental fields.

Intensive farming in the south of the Yangtze River can produce two and a half or even three stones from one acre of land. Extensive farming can only produce two stones at most, and even some can only produce one stone and seven or eight buckets.

Therefore, even if the north engages in extensive farming, it will not exceed the current output.

If we want to break through the current output, we need to increase productivity. In addition to scientific and technological progress, the only way to increase productivity is to distribute cattle and draft horses as productivity.

If more than 100,000 cattle and horses are invested in a province, it can directly increase the number of millions of acres of cultivated land in the province without any inflow of people while ensuring food rations.

Therefore, these more than 100,000 cattle and horses are the icing on the cake for Jiangnan, but they are a timely help to the northern provinces.

Zhu Di was very satisfied with Zhu Gaoxu's arrangement, but still suggested: "It is better to arrange it for Beizhili. In the future, it will be closer to North Zhili for grain distribution than to Henan."

Since Zhu Di built the Tianjin Guard east of Beizhili on his return from the last Northern Expedition, the grain from Beizhili can also be transported to Liaohe River in Liaodong via Tianjin. After reaching Kaiping all the way, it can be transported four hundred miles north to Songyuan in the north of Changchun. Crane City Guard.

Following this route will not take more than twenty days, and the loss will not exceed 40%.

"Then first meet the needs of the people who have moved to Henan, and then give them all to the people of Shuntian Prefecture, Yongping Prefecture and Hejian Prefecture."

Zhu Gaoxu made arrangements, and Zhu Di nodded and looked at the team getting on the boat.

After confirming that it would take some time, Zhu Di also told Zhu Gaoxu: "Don't investigate the affairs of Prince Ouning's Mansion."

"My son, I didn't check." Hearing Zhu Di talk about the affairs of Prince Ouning's Mansion, Zhu Gaoxu lowered his eyes and nodded. Seeing this, Zhu Di breathed a sigh of relief: "I have already solved this matter. You don't need to interfere. This time, no one will cause trouble for you in the supervision of the country."

"Yes..." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, and at the same time he did not forget to explain to Zhu Di:

"If my father can seize a lot of cattle and horses during this northern expedition and go south, he can directly entrust them to Meng Zhang and Wang Yi to herd and domesticate these cattle and draft horses in Daning and Bohai respectively."

Mongolian cattle cannot farm. If you want them to learn to farm, you must intervene and tame them manually.

This time can be as short as a few months or as long as a few years. If it cannot be domesticated, then it can be kept as a herd. After the calf is born, the calf can be manually tamed for farming.

Zhu Gaoxu asked Zhu Di to hand over the herds to Meng Zhang because Bohai, Daning, Liaodong and other places already have a mature domestication system.

Zhu Di naturally knew that, so he did not bargain as before, but nodded in agreement and repeated the instructions: "Remember to take good care of your mother, I want to see her well when I come back."

"Don't worry..." Zhu Gaoxu bowed. Upon seeing this, Zhu Di also called Wang Yan to prepare to board the boat with him.

Watching them walk away and get on the boat, Zhu Gaoxu had mixed feelings in his heart.

The river wind blew at him for a long time before he sighed and turned away.

After returning to the vicinity of the golden chariot, Zhu Gaoxu saw Yi Shiha waiting anxiously at the same place.

"what happened?"

"A civil uprising occurred in Sichuan..."

Yishiha's answer made Zhu Gaoxu frown: "Get in the car and talk."

"Yes!" Yishiha opened the door for Zhu Gaoxu, followed him after Zhu Gaoxu got into the car, and ordered the golden chariot and the guards to return to the palace.

After doing all this, Yi Shiha took out the memorial of Sichuan Chief Envoy Jian Yi from his sleeve.

After taking the memorial and reading ten lines at a glance, Zhu Gaoxu roughly figured out what happened.

It is a fact that Sichuan has a sparse population, so when Li Jinglong, Sheng Yong, Muchun and others converted their native lands and put down the rebellion of the southwestern barbarians, the captured native people were not resettled locally, but moved to Sichuan, Huguang and other places placement.

The imperial court usually chose hilly or plain areas for settlement, rather than selecting mountainous areas that were easy to separate.

From the perspective of the native people, moving from mountainous areas to hills and plains is a great joy.

Moreover, with the launch of the New Deal in Sichuan, the imperial court began to provide a certain amount of rations to the native people and the people of Sichuan so that they could open up wasteland and cultivate with confidence, which was an even better thing.

The places where the imperial court resettled the native people were the southwestern hilly and plain areas of Tongchuan, Zizhou and Shunqing Prefecture that Zhu Gaoxu personally selected.

Because of this, he never worried about local rebellion.

In the memorial in his hand at this moment, Jian Yi briefly reported the reasons and circumstances of the native people's rebellion.

To put it simply, since the chieftains from the Guizhou area in southeastern Sichuan returned to the area from Nanjing, many of them actively chose to accept the return of their native land.

For the chieftains who accepted the land reform and returned home, the court's approach was to move half of the native people into two prefectures and one state, allocate food rations, distribute farm tools, and instruct them to build their own houses and reclaim wasteland around them.

There is nothing wrong with all these practices. At least in Jian Yi's view, this is simply benevolent government in this era.

However, as the number of native people migrating to two prefectures and one state increased, it was inevitable that the ears and eyes of some other big chieftains were mixed among them.

They incited the local people on a daily basis, but under the benevolent government's policy of allocating food rations, distributing farm tools, and building houses, not many local people chose to trust this group of people.

However, even so, there were still many stubborn natives gathered around them.

At first Jian Yi didn't take it to heart, but felt that as long as the court was open and honest and helped them live and work in peace and contentment there, they would not rebel.

But it turned out that Jian Yi still underestimated the stubbornness of this group of people. The uprising occurred in Xichong County under the rule of Shunqing Prefecture. The cause was a heavy rain that delayed the food shipped by the court to the native people of Xichong County.

In fact, the delay was not long, only five days, and the magistrate of Xichong County had already investigated the situation of the local people under his control, and there was at least half a month of surplus food at home, so after a brief explanation, he did not let go In the heart.

However, after the imperial military commander and the county magistrate left, some local natives with bad intentions began to deceive the surrounding natives, saying that they had eaten too much food but had no output. The imperial court had decided to mobilize soldiers and horses to encircle and suppress them.

This kind of lie, which is full of loopholes, seems so ridiculous to the local county magistrate, even Jian Yi, and even Zhu Gaoxu. However, it is very common for the native people who have been exploited by the chieftains and hunted down by the officers and soldiers all year round.

On February 24, the native people of Xichong County rebelled. Fortunately, they were not well prepared and failed to capture Xichong County.

As Xichong County released homing pigeons to send the news, the guards at Xichong Station began to mobilize troops to quell the rebellion.

Due to the restructuring of the Sichuan Guard Station, the number of soldiers in the Qianhu Station in Xichong was at its full capacity of 1,000 men.

When these thousand people appeared in Xichong, the Tumin rebels of less than ten thousand people began to collapse between confrontations.

For the officers and soldiers of Xichong Qianhu Station, as long as the local people rebel, they are rebels, so they naturally have no mercy.

After fighting for half a day, the bodies of thousands of native rebels were separated, and less than 4,000 people remained who were appeased by the magistrate and magistrate of Xichong County who came here.

An ordinary suppression would have ended here, but with the fermentation of interested people, many native people in the two prefectures and one state believed the rumors, thinking that this was the beginning of the imperial court's massacre of the native people.

Because of this, in the past half a month, more than ten native rebellions have broken out in two prefectures and one state, ranging in size from hundreds to thousands.

"A bunch of bastards!"

Zhu Gaoxu read the contents of the memorial and cursed loudly. He was not scolding the native people who were deceived, but the people who caused the deception.

He didn't even need to think about this matter to know that the four major chieftains of Guizhou in southeast Sichuan were causing trouble.

Among the three major chieftains in Yunnan, the Mu family has taken over the reincarnation of Tuguiliu. The other two chieftains are too far away from Sichuan.

The three major toasts in Guangxi do not have such long hands, so they can only be the four major toasts in Guizhou.

"Did Yang Wen enter Sichuan?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Yi Shiha, and Yi Shiha nodded: "He has already put down the rebellion in Zizhou."

"Tell him that the main thing is to recruit people, and the second is to use troops." Zhu Gaoxu reminded:

"In addition, tell the local people about this matter and let them know who the enemy is."

Having said that, Zhu Gaoxu thought about the layout of the southwest, and then continued: "After this rebellion is over, recruitment and training will begin immediately, and firearms will be sent to Sichuan as soon as possible."

"We must complete the siege of the four major chieftains before six months. The local garrison will be built high and the city will be stocked with food. We will wait for reinforcements."

"In addition, let the chieftain of Xichang stationed in the southeastern Sichuan area conduct an investigation to see what they have been doing recently."

After arranging everything, Zhu Gaoxu watched Yi Shiha write everything down in a book.

After he finished writing, Zhu Gaoxu rubbed his eyebrows, and Yi Shiha also worried: "Your Highness, are you sending troops to Mobei and Southwest at the same time? Is this too frequent?"

"When it's time to cut it off, take advantage of the fact that the court has soldiers and money, and use thunderbolt means to let them know who is the common master of the world."

Zhu Gaoxu gave the answer without hesitation. He never regarded the group of chieftains who tried to resist the imperial court as normal people. After all, they were also careerists.

If we don't deal with them at this time, it will be another battle of Bozhou and She'an in later generations.

Anyway, the imperial court now has money, food and people, and the four chieftains have just learned that the imperial court is going to start a comprehensive reform of Guizhou.

Judging from their speed and the materials they could use, they were unable to build a siege artillery that could withstand the Southwest Legion.

If that's the case, why don't you catch them off guard?

"This group of guys has been entrenched in the local area for hundreds or thousands of years. They have accumulated money, farmland, and a large population."

"Coupled with what they did in Annan before, the goods and people they plundered, and what they captured after taking them down, even if the military expenditure cannot be filled, it will not be as large as imagined."

Zhu Gaoxu made an analysis and explained to Yi Shiha: "Although I don't take them seriously, judging from their familiarity with the local area, this war should last for one or two years."

"Seize this time to let some students graduating from Shandong, Bohai, Liaodong and other places learn the dialect of the local people. This will make it easier for us to directly manage the local area in the future."

Zhu Gaoxu told Yi Shiha, but Yi Shiha smiled and bowed:

"Don't worry, Your Highness, you have arranged this matter before. Some graduates have been studying for more than two years."

"Have I arranged it before?" Zhu Gaoxu also smiled awkwardly after hearing this: "I was so busy that I forgot about it, but it can come in handy now."

"In this case, let them study quickly. It is estimated that within a year at most, the court will need to send people to some local areas to manage it."

"Yes!" Yi Shiha nodded in return, and at this moment the golden chariot also drove into the palace city and stopped at the entrance of the East Palace.

Zhu Gaoxu got out of the car with Yi Shiha's help and walked into Chunhe Palace. He seemed to have thought of something and turned back to look at Yi Shiha:

"By the way, help me check if there is any Jinshi named Wang Jibei Zhili Jinshi in the imperial examination in the past two years."

"Slave, take the instruction," Yi Shiha nodded. Although he didn't know why Zhu Gaoxu wanted to find this person, he always did what he wanted.

Seeing Yishiha walking away to do this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but look at the clear sky, covered his brows with his hands, and whispered:

"We already have Jiang Gui and Chen Mao, and now with Wang Ji together, the Ming Dynasty can prosper for another forty years..."

(End of this chapter)