Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 468 Mobei Incident
"Beep beep beep——"

In the cold winter, as harsh whistles continued to sound, unlike the peace expected in the south, the north of the Ming Dynasty also encountered unimagined war.

"Hurry into the city!!"

Tangqi raced on the dirt road, and they kept calling out to the ordinary people who were walking back and forth in the fields, inspecting their fields.

When the ordinary people heard this, they quickly ran to the dirt road, mounted their draft horses, and ran into the city like a fool.

In just two quarters of an hour, the people around the city ran into Hailaer City one after another.

After a long time, a large group of cavalry appeared on the western horizon.

They rushed towards Hailar City in a hurry. Under the watchful eyes of the defenders, hundreds of sentries and cavalry rushed to the city gate. Wang Rong, who was the commander of Yan Randu, also put on his military uniform amidst the whistles in the city and walked out. Went to the top of Hailaer City.

"what happened?"

Wang Rong did not open the city gate rashly, but asked the hundreds of anxious riders outside the city.

Besides, let alone confrontation, even self-protection is a problem now.

"Having said that, the details also depend on Mahamu's attitude towards the court."

"Idiot!" Wang Rong couldn't help but cursed Alitai when he heard the words of the Sentinel Qianhu.

Now it seems that it is just a matter of giving pillows when you are sleepy. The war between Mahamu and Alitai forced Daming to end, and the person who ended up naturally had to be himself.

"Let's do this. I'll order 20,000 cavalry, 40,000 horse infantry, 20,000 auxiliary troops, and 40,000 draft horses."

The Tangqi team outside the city heard this and immediately turned back to the grassland.

Originally, he wanted to wait until the Northeast Railway was built to reach Songyuan, and then start the northern expedition himself.

In Wuying Palace, Zhu Di was a little angry as he held the memorial in his hand.

Although Zhu Di was indeed angry, he couldn't help but feel a little happy.

After arranging for Alitai to rest, Wang Rong sent the news to the capital and waited for Mahamu's arrival.

"This time it is likely to be in vain, but it will undoubtedly play a role in weakening Mahamu by keeping him busy escaping and delaying their grazing in the coming year."

Zhu Di's thinking was still very clear, and he also anticipated that Mahamu might run away, so he expressed his thoughts:

"Let them migrate here!"

The 40,000 cavalry in his hands were all the result of the support of the imperial court. Now that he has reimbursed nearly half of them, what else can he use to fight Mahamu.

"It's really irritating to have something like this happen at this juncture."

No wonder this Alitai, as the elder brother, is not well-known in the Tatar tribe. Compared with Alitai, his ability is indeed far behind.

Wang Rong could only let Alitai migrate here to protect them from being annexed.

Among the team, the familiar sentry rider Qian Hu rode out and looked up and bowed:
"In an incident, the Tatar Grand Master Alitai led 20,000 cavalry to attack Taiping of the Oara tribe. They were defeated by Mahamu and Baltu Polo in conjunction with Taiping to set up an ambush and encircle them."

Standing in the hall, Zhu Gaoxu also felt a little uncomfortable.

Wang Rong put on his armor and led more than 3,000 cavalry out of the city, joining the 4,000 cavalry with hundreds of Tangqi cavalry.

He asked Alitai what happened in detail and learned that it was indeed Alitai who took the initiative to attack Taiping. Even he felt it was a bit tricky.

He couldn't even imagine with his toes how 20,000 people fighting against 40,000 people could achieve the result of annihilating the entire army. Even if they were defeated, they would lose more than 10,000 people at most.

"Besides, Mahamu was severely damaged by our army before. Even if he goes out of the fortress this time, he will probably avoid fighting and not fight with our army."

He glanced at the embarrassed Alitai, and then arranged for them to rest in the grassland to the north.

"Let's settle the matter of succession first. If Alitai is really defeated, then my old man will have to go north to deal with this old dog Mahamu."

Thinking of this, Zhu Di couldn't help but feel a little happy, and Zhu Gaoxu also saw the old man's happiness and couldn't help but say:

It’s just that after the last battle, the Oara people completely lost the confidence to start a war with the Ming army in a short time. Therefore, if they learn that Zhu Di is preparing to march north this time, Mahamu will definitely run away in advance, just like Arutai in history. Same.

Mahamu did not arrive very quickly, so before Wang Rong had time to send out the latest news, the news about Mahamu and Alitai arrived in the capital.

When the news came, it was the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, only two days before Zhu Di abdicated and Zhu Gaoxu ascended the throne.

About three days later, the embarrassed Alitai led more than 100,000 tribesmen to the outside of Hailar City.

Zhu Gaoxu's analysis was well-founded. Mahamu was not a fool. The last time he had a decisive battle with Zhu Di was because he felt that no matter how powerful the Ming army was, it would not be able to cause serious damage to the Oara tribe.

Seven years is not a long time for a tribe of more than 200,000 people. It is very difficult to recover from the serious injuries suffered last time.

After Wang Rong also ordered martial law, he returned to the city's Yamen to rest and quietly waited for the news to come.

"Without Mahamu, Mobei will have three pillars, which will be beneficial to the court's control."

But even so, Mahamu recovered from his injuries and severely injured Alitai.

"We can win over Taiping and Tupolo, which will bring them many benefits."

He didn't expect Mahamu's recovery to be so fast, considering that it had only been seven years since the last expedition to the north.

"I looked at the situation in Mobei. Without Mahamu, Taiping and Batu Polo would be on the same level as Alitai."

Alitai's incompetence exceeded Zhu Gaoxu's imagination.

"Alitai sent someone to send news that Mahamu is coming to Kuoluanhaizi. Alitai is begging to move eastward to Haila'er City!"

Moreover, it was not just Mahamu who thought this way at the time, but also Taiping, Ba Tupolo and others also thought so.

"I won't bring artillery this time. You can prepare 500,000 shi of beans and 400,000 shi of grain for me."

"I'm only going out for four months this time. By the way, you can also ask Zhan He and Zhan Ji to come with me and let me personally teach them how to fight."

The four months mentioned by Zhu Di were obviously counted from the departure from Hailaer, and the grain and beans were also counted from Hailaer.

After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu pondered for a moment and then said: "My son, I need to go back and do the math to know. I will give you an answer before lunch tomorrow."

"Okay, okay, go quickly."

Zhu Di urged Zhu Gaoxu, fearing that he would regret and disagree.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu had no choice but to walk out of Wuying Hall, and at the same time said to Yi Shiha who was waiting outside the hall:

"Over there in Zhanhe, send someone to ask how the study progress is."

"What's wrong, Your Highness?" Yi Shiha was very confused. When Zhu Gaoxu saw this, he also told him what happened in Mobei.

After hearing this, Yishiha also nodded and said: "Since the possibility of fighting is unlikely, it is indeed a good opportunity to learn."

"It seems that Your Highness is more supportive of this northern expedition to weaken Mahamu." Yi Shiha smiled and looked at Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting on the horse.

Zhu Gaoxu nodded after hearing this, but with a bit of helplessness: "You have to learn after all. Besides, this time we are dealing with Mahamu alone. With Taiping and Tu Polo's character, it is unlikely that they will help Mahamu. They I was already scared last time.”

"Therefore, even if we can't cause any casualties to Mahamu this time, it is still very good to alienate the three tribes of Wala."

"But before that, we still have to calculate how much manpower and material resources it will take to mobilize 500,000 beans and 400,000 grains to arrive at Hailar."

As Zhu Gaoxu said this, Yi Shiha also hurriedly asked people to hurry up and send him to Huichunhe Palace. At the same time, he sent people to summon Guo Zi, the Minister of Household Affairs.

In about two-quarters of an hour, Zhu Gaoxu arrived at Chunhe Hall and saw Guo Zi who had been waiting inside.

"Your Highness Chitose..."

"Stand flat!" Zhu Gaoxu responded, then walked back to his seat and sat down:
"Tell us about the situation in Daning, Bohai, and Liaodong, and see if we can mobilize enough food to go to Hailar."

"The materials are definitely sufficient, but the environment does not allow it." Guo Zi explained:

"Daning Dusi, Bohai Dusi, and Liaodong Dusi are rich in supplies. Daning Dusi alone has 200,000 shi of bean feed and 70,000 shi of wheat."

"Bohai Dusi has 360,000 shi of bean material and more than 500,000 shi of rice and wheat."

"Liaodong Dusi has nearly 500,000 shi of beans and nearly 700,000 shi of rice, wheat and millet."

"In terms of materials, all three places are very abundant, and in terms of manpower, the number of immigrants in Daning Dusi has gradually increased in the past few years. Now there are more than 42,000 households and more than 246,000 people."

"There are now more than 186,000 households with a population of more than 880,000 in the Bohai Dusi area."

"Liaodong has the largest population, with 730,000 households and more than 3.72 million people."

"So if you want to produce men, Daning can forcefully recruit at least 40,000 to 80,000, Bohai can recruit at least 200,000, and Liaodong is completely sufficient."

"These millions of stone beans and grains will require the dispatch of approximately 200,000 horse-drawn carriages and people."

"It's just that it's winter now, and the east of the Harawun Mountains is covered with heavy snow. It's not easy to cross. You'll have to wait at least until April next year for the snow to melt."

"But in this case, it will take at least two months to transport food, which means that the dispatch of troops is expected to be postponed until July, and winter has already entered in Mobei and Modongbei in September."

"After all, if we have to send troops next year, I'm afraid the time available for the battle will not exceed two and a half months..."

Guo Zi explained the logistics issues clearly, and Zhu Gaoxu nodded after hearing this: "I have already thought about these things, you only need to tell me, how many of the millions of beans and grains can be transported to Hailaer? "

"It can transport about 600,000 shi of beans and 800,000 shi of grain." Guo Zi replied.

"It's okay..." After hearing this result, Zhu Gaoxu breathed a sigh of relief with satisfaction.

"According to the time you said, recruit civilian men to escort the grain and grass north to Shanghai La'er. Calculate how much it will cost."

After learning that the logistics could be guaranteed, Zhu Gaoxu became concerned about the cost of the expedition.

"This..." Guo Zi glanced at Yi Shiha, and Yi Shiha also looked at a eunuch who was in charge of rituals.

Not long after, someone handed the abacus to Guo Zi. After knocking it several times, Guo Zi got the result.

"The price for civilians outside the pass is 40 guan per day. The imperial court only counts departures but not return, so the 200,000 civilians are about 480,000 guan."

"The price of beans and grain is more than 964,000 guan, totaling more than 1,444,000 guan."

Guo Zijiang calculated the account and added at the same time: "This does not include military pay and silver rewards..." "Military pay and silver rewards do not need to be counted." Zhu Gaoxu interrupted: "Military pay has to be paid anyway when stationed, and silver rewards have to be killed. Only to the enemy."

"Now that you've settled the accounts, prepare to make arrangements when you get back soon."

"Also, have you ever asked Huang Fu about how the imperial court's railway construction is going?"

A month and a half later, this is a drop in the bucket for the entire project, but it can benefit hundreds of thousands of people.

"The south side has been repaired to Renqiu, and the north side has been repaired to Fengrun."

"In addition, the northwest railway survey has basically finalized the route from Beijing east to Fengxiang, but the next step is the more difficult Longshan section and Longyou section, and the speed may be slower."

"Shang Shu Huang has estimated that it will take until the end of next year to complete the survey of the Northwest Railway route."

Guo Zi explained everything he knew, and Zhu Gaoxu also nodded and said:
"Is this year's annual income higher than last year?"

"Yes," Guo Zi said without thinking: "The domestic land tax has reached more than 72 million dan, the tax money has exceeded 14 million guan, and the overseas customs and mineral taxes have exceeded 8 million guan. This year's annual income is about 4,400 guan. More than 10,000 guan, more than 2 million guan higher than last year.”

"Okay, I understand, please step back."

After getting the information he wanted to know, Zhu Gaoxu sent Guo Zi away. After hearing this, Guo Zi did not dare to stay any longer. He stood up, bowed and left the palace.

He had just left when the eunuch on duty sang a salute again: "Song Li, the Minister of Rites, and Xia Yuanji, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, please see me!"

"Xuan!" Zhu Gaoxu rubbed his brows, feeling that there were too many things going on.

Not long after, Song Li and Xia Yuanji walked into the hall and bowed and saluted as usual. Then Song Li took the lead and said:

"Your Highness, the day of your accession to the throne is only two days away. Since the reign name has been announced, I have come to ask for your opinion on the reign name."

"Does the Ministry of Rites select an era name?" Zhu Gaoxu asked Song Li. Upon hearing this, Song Li handed over the memorial in his hand. Yi Shiha stepped forward to take it and handed it to Zhu Gaoxu.

"The Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Officials selected four reign titles, namely Qiansheng, Taixing, Xianjia, and Hongxi."

After Song Li finished speaking, Zhu Gaoxu frowned slightly: "If you are a god, how dare you be a saint?"

"What about Taixing?" Song Li bowed and said, "Tai means peace and tranquility, Xing means prosperity, which means peace and prosperity."

Facing Song Li's proposal, Zhu Gaoxu mused: "It doesn't matter if the issue of the reign name is temporarily postponed. Can the enthronement be arranged the day after tomorrow?"

"Your Majesty, all arrangements have been made for returning to your highness. All the internal and external vassal officials have arrived, except Wala and Tatar."

Song Li responded respectfully. When Zhu Gaoxu saw this, he waved his hands and said, "Is there anything else?"

"I'm gone." Song Li bowed, and then left the Chunhe Hall singing.

After he left, Zhu Gaoxu turned his attention to Xia Yuanji, who bowed and said:
"News came from the Third Division of Yunnan. The Longchuan Prefecture was inspected by the Chief Secretary. It was found that there were 264 gentry and wealthy households, 727 civil servants, and 32 officials who had violated the law."

"I come to ask, Your Highness, what should be done with these people?"

"Implicated in three services, exiled to Qamdo, and moved 50,000 people inland to Dali, Menghua and other prefectures."

Zhu Gaoxu answered without thinking. This was also an arrangement he made in order to change the demographic structure of the vassal.

There are still more than 400,000 people in the land of Xifan. This time, there are thousands of officials and wealthy households involved, which can involve at least 20,000 to 30,000 people.

As for how long the people involved in the incident can survive after arriving in Qamdo, it all depends on fate.

Anyway, in Zhu Gaoxu's case, he has given this group of people many opportunities, but their bad nature makes them commit crimes again and again, and he is not prepared to forgive them.

"I accept the teaching order."

Xia Yuanji bowed in response, and Zhu Gaoxu looked at him, as if asking if there was anything else.

"My minister retire."

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu's inquiry, Xia Yuanji decisively chose to leave.

Under Zhu Gaoxu's gaze, Xia Yuanji bowed and exited the Chunhe Hall.

After he left, Zhu Gaoxu relaxed a little, and Cha Yishiha prepared lunch for them.

While he was eating lunch, the reform of the Southwest was still in full swing.

"Hurry up!"

"Screw rustle..."

Jianshui County, Lin'an Prefecture, is a place where cities have been built since the Nanzhao period. Since the Ming army captured this place and transformed it from a rammed earth city into a brick city, this place has been the southernmost gathering place of the Han people in Yunnan.

From the 20th year of Hongwu to the present, the people who migrated from the south of the Yangtze River have lived here for more than 30 years.

After integrating with the local ethnic minorities, they created Jianshui culture with Han culture as the main body and ethnic minority culture as the supplement.

The local literary style is popular, second only to Longchuan and Yongchang where Zhu Gaoxu exiled a large number of literati.

Over the past thirty years, there has been no peace here.

It is surrounded by the surrounding chieftains and is often used as a war front to transport civilians and supplies to the army, and now is no exception.

Stationed here were soldiers and horses from Jiaozhi Dusi, and the one who controlled them was the current Duke of Ying, Fu Rang.

Groups of soldiers and horses entered the city to purchase necessary supplies. At the same time, they recruited people from surrounding villages and towns as civilian husbands to deliver supplies to the army.

Fu Rang has led more than 30,000 troops to attack the valleys of Lancang River, Yuanjiang River and other places.

As a valley area with extreme climate, these hundreds of miles long valleys can maintain a high temperature of 35 to 6 degrees Celsius even in the early Ming Dynasty winter during the historically low temperature period.

Such hot weather made the soldiers and horses coming from Cochin complain endlessly, let alone the soldiers and horses from other places.

Of course, in addition to extreme weather, the ten more deadly extreme weather bring malaria and miasma.

Truckloads of anti-malarial powder arrived in Jianshui County, and were quickly taken away by the army.

Every hour of delay may result in dozens of people dying without treatment.

"Without them, how would the world be stable..."

Standing outside the Chaoyang Gate of Jianshui, looking at the soldiers of the Ming army coming and going, running until their feet touched the ground, Lu Yu in the tea shed cast an admiring look.

Since the Ming army advanced into the Yuanjiang Valley, he took the lead in moving south to Jianshui County to rest and try to adapt to the local climate.

However, unlike what he experienced in Luzon and Fujian, the climate in Yunnan is different from most places he has visited.

He had prepared early that Jianshui would be hotter than Luzon. However, when he arrived here, he found that even in winter, the temperature here was cooler than Nanjing and Beijing in summer, and it was not muggy.

It is wetter than Beijing and cooler than Nanjing, which is very inconsistent.

Sitting in the tea shed, he couldn't believe that just two to three hundred miles away, the weather in the south would be even hotter than Cochin.

"Is it really that hot?"

Lu Yu showed a confused look, and couldn't help but worry about his appointment in the car.

Just thinking about the environment in Luzon made him calm down, and it seemed that the car was nothing.

After calming down for a while, Lu Yu continued to observe the Ming army soldiers entering and leaving Jianshui City.

Where he could not observe, Fu Rang strode into a mountain stronghold, took off his armor with the help of his entourage, and gasped: "This Yuanjiang Valley is indeed well-deserved. No wonder His Highness asked me to be careful."

"It's too hot. Many brothers can't stand it. They either suffer from heat stroke or contract malaria."

Zhang Chun, who walked into the wooden house with Fu Rang, picked up the water bag and took a sip, frowning.

"The water in the water bag is already warm, this damn place..."

Zhang Chun shouted, and at the same time said to the soldiers at the door: "Look if there is a well, I don't believe the water in the well is still so hot."

"Okay," Fu Rang interrupted: "It's better not to drink the water from the well for now, to avoid poisoning by these guys."

Fu Rang's words of poison immediately made Zhang Chunxiao stop.

"His Highness will ascend the throne in two days. Let's seize the time and kill as many chieftains as we can. This can be regarded as a gift to His Highness."

Fu Rang picked up the water bag and took a sip, wiped his mouth and said comfortably:
"After hitting these valleys, although it's still sweltering in the back, it won't be as scary as here."

"But the terrain in the south is a rainforest, so you need to prepare anti-malarial powder. You can send a message to the people behind to prepare it. Don't wait until you are infected with myrrh."

"I have informed you, don't worry." Zhang Chun responded, sat down and lowered his voice:
"Do you think His Majesty can abdicate so willingly?"

"..." Fu Rang frowned when he heard this, but after thinking about it for a moment, he nodded and said:

"His Majesty is no different from the Supreme Emperor these years. His Majesty is the one who makes the decisions on all major matters. His Majesty is only responsible for the Northern Expedition and sending Ji Gang and others to do dirty things."

"But once His Highness takes the throne, I'm afraid he will be the first to perform an operation on Ji Gang. I just don't know if the knife will see any blood."

After all, Fu Rang and Zhang Chun were old comrades for more than 20 years, and there was nothing they couldn't say.

Moreover, in his opinion, this kind of news is no longer a secret. Even Ji Gang himself seemed to smell something wrong. After solving the Jin case, he kept a low profile and seemed to disappear.

Now it depends on whether His Highness is ready to kill him or to be exiled.

"Exile, I guess."

Zhang Chun said without thinking: "If you kill Ji Gang, it will indeed please the literati in Jiangnan, but it's not like you don't know who His Highness is. Keeping Ji Gang is just giving them a knife hanging above their heads. No one knows this When will the knife fall?"

"Instead, if you kill Ji Gang, when you need someone, you will have to find someone temporarily. After all, you can't let Hu Lun do dirty things, right?"

"That's what I said, but..." Fu Rang's brows did not relax, and he finally took a sip of water before saying:

"Forget it, these things have nothing to do with us. Remember what I taught you: don't buy acres of land, don't compete with the people for land, try to keep your own one-third of an acre, and don't get married to other generals..."

"If we can do all of this, our wealth can be passed down to more than ten generations. If we can't..."

Fu Rang was silent for a moment, seeming to think of his father.

(End of this chapter)