Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 496: Stay prepared
"kill!!"

In the winter of October, while the Ming Dynasty was still experiencing the aftermath of the Guimao case, the Beizhou Xuanwei Division on the other side of the ocean was suppressing the rebellion.

Tens of thousands of natives armed with iron farm tools burned down Han Chinese houses, and they were met with counterattack by the Han Chinese.

Thousands of Han men wearing cotton armor and armed with spears, bows and arrows formed a formation to fight back. Although they could not defeat the natives for a while, they only needed to fight for a while.

"Beep--"

"Bah bang bang!!"

When the battle situation was tense, the sound of horse hooves and whistles were heard in the distance, followed by a steady stream of gunshots.

Hundreds of cavalry rushed into the battlefield. They divided the battlefield and countless natives who tried to rebel died under their guns.

After they joined the battle, the battle turned overwhelmingly in favor of the Han people.

In just half an hour, tens of thousands of natives were killed and thousands more were killed. Most of the natives squatted down and surrendered.

Everyone seemed to have experienced this kind of rebellion countless times, so they quickly pulled out and beheaded those who incited the rebellion, and put most of the natives back within the walls where they lived.

"This is the third rebellion this month. If you don't care, just let it go and don't create trouble for us!"

On the horseback, Zhang Chun scolded Shi Heng, Huang Jing and others in front with a dark face. Shi Heng's face was gloomy, but Huang Jing's face was flattering.

After scolding, Zhang Chun shook his horse's reins and returned with hundreds of cavalry and thousands of Ming troops towards Beizhou City in the distance.

After they left, Shi Heng immediately grabbed Huang Jing's collar:

"Huang Jing, are you going to fucking kill me to satisfy yourself!"

"I, I, I...I didn't...I didn't expect them to rebel..."

Huang Jing replied in a panic, but Shi Heng grabbed his collar with one hand and lifted him up: "Fuck you, the rebellion in our town has never stopped since you became the mayor."

"I'm telling you now, you can't do this as mayor, I'll do it!"

"What do you want to do?" Huang Jing broke into a cold sweat because of nervousness. Shi Heng threw him to the ground and said with a cold face: "I will do it myself!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he left with thousands of his brothers, leaving only Huang Jing with an ugly face.

"Shi Heng, wait for me!"

He got up in embarrassment and looked at Shi Heng's retreating back fiercely.

People say that wherever there are people, there will be fights, even in Beizhou Xuanwei Division.

Zhang Chun led a large army back to Beizhou City. Tang Min, who had been waiting for him early, came forward to bow. Zhang Chun also got off his horse and walked into the Beizhou Xuanwei Si Yamen with Tang Min. As he walked, he said angrily:

"This group of homeless guys are dishonest all the time. In my opinion, we still need to let the imperial court station them in the county and government offices!"

Zhang Chun's words made Tang Min's heart skip a beat, and he quickly said: "If the government and county government come, then we will be subject to greater restrictions in the future."

"It is better to have big restrictions than to suppress a rebellion every few days. There are now more than ten towns outside Beizhou City, with hundreds of thousands of natives and nearly 150,000 exiles. It is not easy to manage at all."

Zhang Chun walked into the main hall and sat in the main seat as he spoke. Tang Min felt a little uncomfortable after hearing this, but in the Ming Dynasty, the chief officer was the head of the same yamen, not to mention that his chief officer was one of the emperor's brothers.

"The imperial edict came down half a month ago. Jiang Gui and I have to stay for another three years."

"Your term of office has also come. In the twelfth lunar month, you can take a boat south and return to the Ming Dynasty with the gold and silver from Dongzhou Xuanwei Division in the south."

Zhang Chun's words left Tang Min speechless and could only raise his hands and bow.

"Now the Beizhou Xuanwei Department is developing very fast. It will be good for the court to establish the government and county offices as soon as possible."

"Have you sorted out the documents I asked you to sort out?"

He asked Tang Min, who nodded when he heard this and said, "It's ready. I'll get it now."

After he finished speaking, he walked to the side hall on the side of the main hall. After a while, he walked out of the side hall with a book of documents and placed it next to Zhang Chun.

Seeing Zhang Chun take out one of the books and flip through it, Tang Min also said:

"Beizhou Xuanwei Division currently has more than 364,000 natives, and more than 158,000 exiles in Hankou, of which more than 80,000 are native women they married locally."

"There are sixteen towns under the rule of Xuanwei Division, with 163,600 acres of paddy fields and more than 560,000 acres of irrigated fields. Each year, they produce nearly 300,000 shi of rice and 200,000 shi of wheat. In addition to In addition, corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes cost more than 1.3 million shi.”

“Right now, rice and wheat are basically eaten by us and the Hankou people in Liupei. Occasionally, some are distributed to the natives. Corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes are basically eaten by the natives.”

"Thirty-seven gold and silver mines produce more than 30,000 taels of gold and more than 150,000 taels of silver each year, with more gold being produced."

After Tang Min finished speaking, the situation of the entire Beizhou Xuanwei Division became clear at a glance.

In ten years, Beizhou Xuanwei Division has developed very rapidly.

At present, they can not only solve their own food ration problem, but also transport food to the Dongzhou Xuanwei Division in the south, and this delivery volume is increasing every year.

"When you go south this time, remember to bring 100,000 shi of rice south to Jiang Gui. Also, judging from the current situation, next year we should be able to transport 150,000 shi of rice south. You also need to make this clear to him."

"Your Majesty said before that controlling food is equivalent to controlling the entire world, and what we have to do is to use the Beizhou Plain (Central Valley) where Beizhou Xuanwei Division is located to plant food and crops in a large area here to control "Three Kingdoms of Dongzhou."

Zhang Chun's thinking was very clear. When he learned that the three countries of Dongzhou were mainly concentrated in the tropical rainforest in the south, he immediately thought of the idea of ​​using food to control these countries.

He personally led a team to inspect the Beizhou Plain, which is thousands of miles long from north to south and hundreds of miles wide from east to west. Although some places are not suitable for growing grains, they can grow fruits and vegetables.

After the entire plain is developed, at least tens of millions of acres of arable land will be available.

Relying on this plain, it was easy for the Ming Dynasty to control the three countries of Dongzhou in the south.

Thinking of this, Zhang Chun said: "Let Shi Heng and the others continue to arrest the natives who attacked us. Next year, at least 200,000 acres of cultivated land will be reclaimed."

"Yes!" After hearing this, Tang Min could only bow in agreement and exited the main hall.

After sending someone to tell Shi Heng and the others, he returned to his house.

His house covers an area of ​​nearly ten acres and contains a warehouse and a darkroom.

When he learned that he was going to be transferred back to the Ming Dynasty, the first thing he did when he got home was to go to the darkroom in his study.

When he lit the torch in the dark room, there were three full boxes of rough gold bars stored inside.

"I'm actually leaving..."

Picking up a thumb-sized gold bar, Tang Min was reluctant to part with it.

There are thousands of thumb-sized gold bars here, with a total value of nearly ten thousand taels.

This was because Zhang Chun came too quickly and Tang Min couldn't get more gold bars.

If Zhang Chun had not come to Beizhou Xuanwei Division, Tang Min would have accumulated at least tens of thousands of taels of gold in those two years.

It's a pity that he has no time to save money now. He only hopes that these nearly ten thousand taels of gold can help him smoothen his relationship.

Even if you can't get your own duke back, you must at least get an earl and a marquis.

With this in mind, Tang Min also closed the box, extinguished all the torches and walked out of the dark room.

Time passed, and two months passed quickly.

The Beizhou City Pier welcomed a guard of soldiers and horses who were replaced, and the soldiers who were replaced happily took their wives, daughters and children in Beizhou on their way home.

They returned to the Ming Dynasty in batches by fleet, but before that they had to go to Dongzhou Xuanwei Division.

Another guard transferred from the country took them south on horseback. In just over half a month, they arrived at the Dongzhou Xuanwei Division.

They changed the defense of a group of soldiers in Dongzhou City, and then went south to Ximen Port to change the defense.

It was already the middle of the twelfth lunar month when he arrived at Ximen Port. This was Tang Min's first time coming to Ximen Port, but the prosperity of Ximen Port was no worse than that of Beizhou City and Dongzhou City.

In the distance, they saw Ximen Port, which was built entirely of concrete.

The port, which was large enough to accommodate dozens of large ships, easily accommodated them. The cement road on the pier and the brick and wood houses in the distance were eye-catching.

Of course, compared with these, what is more eye-catching is the carloads of boxes on the dock.

"Beizhou Xuanwei Division also knew Tang Min, and met Jiang Xuanwei Envoy."

Tang Min got off the boat and bowed to Jiang Gui. When Jiang Gui saw this, he saluted politely and said: "Here are the gold, silver and copper ingots produced by Dongzhou Xuanwei Division this year. Here are the accounts..."

Tang Min took the booklet, flipped through it briefly and couldn't help but became speechless.

[Gold two hundred and sixty-four thousand two hundred and thirty-seven two and a half cents, silver four hundred and twenty-two thousand one hundred and seventy-two twenty-five and six cents, and copper ingots two hundred and sixty-five thousand three hundred and seven cents. Twelve pounds]

Tang Min did some calculations and found that the price of these gold and silver was basically close to 7 million guan. Counting the gold and silver on his ship, it was almost more than 7.5 million guan.

"In that case, let's change the defense. As for checking, there is no need."

Tang Min didn't want to delay for too long, and neither did Jiang Gui, so after hearing what Tang Min said, Jiang Gui immediately waved to the people below to move the gold and silver.

After about two hours of busy work, all the gold, silver and copper ingots were on board. However, since it was getting late, Tang Min decided to set off the next day.

Early the next morning, under Jiang Gui's watchful eye, Tang Min sailed to the Ming Dynasty with dozens of large ships loaded with gold, silver and copper ingots.

"call……"

Seeing them disappear, Jiang Gui breathed a sigh of relief.

He walked home and soon returned to his house.

But instead of going to rest, he came to a warehouse.

In this warehouse, which is made of concrete and is seven feet thick, several boxes of gold are placed on the ground safely.

Looking at them, Jiang Gui felt very uneasy.

He had also firmed up his mind, but...

Jiang Gui put his hand on a box. After opening the box, he took out several golden gold bars. The gold bars he cast were heavier than Tang Min's, and the box was several times larger.

Such a box of gold would be no less than 10,000 taels, and the gold here would be no less than 50,000 taels.

Although his savings over the past three years were nothing compared to Wang Ren, for him who had never embezzled before, having this money in his hands made him very tormented.

Without knowing what kind of emotion he had, he closed and locked the warehouse door.

At the same time, the Ming Dynasty, far away on the other side of the ocean, also completed the construction of the Sichuan Railway and the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway in the midst of vigorous major infrastructure construction.

It took more than three years for the 800-mile Sichuan Railway to be opened to traffic, which represents the connection between the entire Chengdu Plain and the Yangtze River.

This section of the road used to take merchants at least a month to complete, but now it only takes a day and a half.

Grain from the 800-mile plain in Chengdu will be continuously delivered to the Yangtze River through this railway. Grain that was once lost on the road will be transported to the dining tables of the people in the south of the Yangtze River.

At the same time, grain from Jiangnan will also be sent to Beijing via the Beijing-Beijing Railway, and finally to Shanxi, Shaanxi and the Hetao Plain via the Northwest Railway.

In comparison, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, which is only more than 500 miles south, seems a bit unsatisfactory.

Due to technical problems, this section of railway was only built to Lihua Horse Station in Yunnan. Even the nearest prefecture, Jianshui County, Lin'an Prefecture, is hundreds of miles away.

However, this hundred-mile journey is simply an insurmountable chasm for the current Ming Dynasty.

But in any case, the completion of the two sections of railway still made the Ministry of Households breath a sigh of relief.

"The northern section of the Northwest Railway has been repaired in Ningxia and is expected to be open to traffic in Hami in six years."

"The Zhangfeng Railway in the southern section of the Northwest Railway has now reached Wenxi County, Pingyang Prefecture. The Shanxi section will be completed in eight months and the Shaanxi section in about two years."

"The Northeast Railway has been delayed for a while. It will probably take another three months to reach Songyuan."

"The Mobei Railway in the north will probably take more than half a year to be completed, which is several months faster than expected."

"The Zhongyuan Railway in the Central Plains has now been repaired to Kaifeng, and it will be built to Jining in about a year."

"The Kaihan Railway and the Huguang Railway are built from Kaifeng to Xiangyang and Wuchang to Yueyang respectively. It is expected that they will take two and six years to complete respectively."

In the Wuying Hall, Huang Fu, the Minister of Industry, reported on everything about the current construction of the railway. Before Zhu Gaoxu could take a breath, he continued:

"Construction is just the beginning, but maintenance is actually the bulk of the work. Counting the Beijing-Beijing, Yunnan-Vietnam, Beijing-Tianjin, Sichuan and other railways, the annual maintenance of the 11 railways is no less than three million."

After Huang Fu finished speaking, he took a step back.

Seeing him like this, Zhu Gaoxu could only say: "In other words, the Northeast Railway will be opened to traffic in about three months, and the Mobei Railway will be opened to traffic in half a year, right?"

"Your Majesty, that's true!" Huang Fu bowed in agreement and added at the same time:
"Next year the Northeast, Mobei and Central Plains railways will be completed, and by then four more railways will continue to be constructed."

"About the 13th year of Hongxi's reign, all existing railways will be open to traffic, but by then the annual maintenance costs will be as high as 3 million yuan, not counting the military salaries of the Railway Troops and Horses Division."

"If included, the maintenance cost is about five million dollars per year."

"As for the situation of these railways, except for the Beijing-Beijing Railway, which is currently profitable, the other railways are in a state of breaking even."

Because the fares are set relatively high, these railways are unlikely to suffer losses, and at worst they will break even.

It can be seen that under the circumstances of restricting population circulation, the railway mainly relies on freight transportation to make money.

It is impossible for Zhu Gaoxu to liberalize population circulation. If he dares to liberalize population circulation, those people who were forcibly relocated in the southwest will definitely flock back to Jiangnan.

Even if they will eventually be solidified by the Jiangnan class and driven back to the southwest, it will take too long.

The signs of Jiangnan's capital are already obvious. They have tens of thousands of armed forces and more than 200,000 mining slaves in Kunlun Continent.

Of course, their little power is nothing more than an existence that Zhu Gaoxu can destroy with just a raise of his hand. What he is really worried about is the collusion between government and businessmen.

Therefore, he has always asked Liu Mian and Hu Lun to monitor the officials in the south of the Yangtze River. If there is any sign of something wrong, he will immediately uproot these people.

"I know what happened, please step back."

Zhu Gaoxu signaled Huang Fu to leave, but Huang Fu did not stay. He bowed and saluted and left.

After he left, Zhu Gaoxu ordered Yishiha beside him: "Call Guo Zi and Xia Yuanji over."

"Yes..." Yi Shiha agreed and walked out of the hall. Not long after, he led Xia Yuanji and Guo Zi into the hall.

The two sat down after Zhu Gaoxu gave them a seat, and then they were informed of the purpose of calling them.

"The railway in Mobei and the railway in Northeast China will be completed around July next year, and Alitai in Mobei has colluded with Tupolo, Taiping, and Mahamu to attack the imperial court."

"What I mean is to strike first and gather all the cavalry from Shanxi, Shaanxi, Daning, Bohai, Liaodong and Yanran to decide the outcome in one battle!"

Zhu Gaoxu told Xia Yuanji and Guo Zi what he meant, and they were shocked when they heard what he said.

After Zhu Di's four northern expeditions, they thought Mobei had stopped, but now it seems that these wolf cubs are still underdeveloped.

"Your Highness, if this is the case, then the number of cavalry dispatched this time may be..."

Xia Yuanji was still pondering, but Zhu Gaoxu directly gave the answer: "One hundred thousand cavalry."

Yes, after a total of twenty-four years of accumulation and horse administration reforms by Yongle and Hongxi, the number of cavalry in the Ming Dynasty is now very terrifying. The number of cavalry in the country has reached 160,000, and the places mentioned by Zhu Gaoxu have 100,000 cavalry.

Didn't Alitai and Mahamu just challenge the Ming Dynasty because they thought they had a hundred thousand cavalry?

In this case, the Ming Dynasty also pulled out a hundred thousand cavalry from Hailar to let them know what it meant to drill through Mobei.

"To dispatch so many cavalry, a lot of civilians and draft horses are needed."

"I believe that Mobei is vast, and if the war situation becomes anxious, then the imperial court's financial situation may not be able to afford the follow-up supplies for this expedition..."

Xia Yuanji frowned and suggested. Zhu Gaoxu frowned and looked at Guo Zi. Guo Zi also evaded his eyes, obviously not wanting to fight this battle.

Although with the Northeast Railway and Mobei Railway, materials from the south of the Yangtze River can be transported to the Mobei area, but transporting to Hailar is just the beginning. If the Ming army wants to attack, it will naturally attack westward from Hailar.

Mobei is more than 3,000 miles from east to west. With one hundred thousand cavalry and three horses, at least two stones of beans and two buckets of military rations are consumed every month.

If we go on an expedition in July, it would be good to fight until the end of October. Once October is exceeded, the difficulty of supply will immediately increase.

To transport six stones of beans and six measures of rations to a distance of three thousand miles, it would require at least two auxiliary soldiers and four draft horses to drag ten stones of beans. Two stones of rations would be enough.

In other words, a three-month campaign would require 200,000 shi of military rations and 1 million shi of beans.

Two hundred thousand shi of military rations is equivalent to 2 million shi of rice. In addition, there are vinegar cloth, salt crystals, dried vegetables and other supplies.

Over the past three months, at least 200,000 civilian men, 400,000 draft horses, and 1.8 million guan of logistics and supply expenses would have been mobilized.

Every month it is delayed is 600,000 yuan.

Now the Ming Dynasty has just repaid the people's 20 million guan construction national debt and interest. Excluding next year's expenditure, there is less than 7 million guan in the national treasury.

The key is that the imperial court still needs to pay more than 7 million guan of national debt plus interest in two years. With the expenses in two years' time, Xia Yuanji and Guo Zi's hair is almost turning gray now.

Under such circumstances, the imperial court actually wanted to go to war, and it would start with at least 1.8 million yuan.

If you include the casualties and pensions of draft horses and military horses, then three million guan is not a joke.

Xia Yuanji and Guo Zi both saw that Zhu Gaoxu wanted to complete his work, but the finances of the Ming Dynasty obviously did not allow it...

"Isn't it enough even if you include the gold and silver in Dongzhou and Beizhou?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Xia Yuanji and Guo Zi, and Xia Yuanji and Guo Zi shook their heads after hearing this.

"Your Majesty, I ask your Majesty to take back your holy will."

Xia Yuanji bowed in salute, with a solemn expression on his face, and almost knelt down in front of Zhu Gaoxu.

"If we don't fight this battle, we will still have to fight it in the future."

"It's worth taking this opportunity to fight and bring peace to the Ming Dynasty for a generation."

"But Your Majesty, the treasury..." Xia Yuanji knelt on the ground. This scene was the same as in history when he knelt down to Zhu Di to prevent Zhu Di from going to the north for the fifth time.

It’s just that Zhu Gaoxu is not Zhu Di, and Hong Xi is not Yongle.

"If the problem cannot be solved after this war, or if there are problems with the court's finances after the war, then I allow you to use the treasury!"

As soon as Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth, Xia Yuanji was speechless.

The treasury is the warehouse where Zhu Gaoxu began to accumulate gold in the 33rd year of Hongwu.

This warehouse has not been touched in the past twenty-five years, and this warehouse can store two to three hundred thousand taels of gold every year.

Not to mention taking out all the gold in the current warehouse, even taking out one-third can solve the current problems of the Ming Dynasty.

With Zhu Gaoxu's promise, Xia Yuanji no longer stubbornly resisted the Northern Expedition, but began to make plans with Guo Zi.

If there is an expedition to the north in July next year, we must accumulate supplies in various warehouses from now on and wait for the snow to melt on the Northeast Railway and Mobei Railway in April next year before launching the army.

As for the construction of the Mobei Railway and the Northeast Railway, it will not be delayed because of this, because the construction process of these railways is to dig roads and lay roadbeds in summer and autumn, and in winter all that needs to be done is to lay sleepers and rails.

The main difficulty in starting construction in Northeast China is water and hard soil, but these problems are solved by the Ministry of Industry in the summer. As long as the rails are laid in winter, it is enough to wait for inspection and reinforcement in summer.

In the final analysis, it is because the Ming Dynasty's trains were not very fast at full load, so the requirements for railways were not as high as those of later generations.

If we use the standards of future generations to measure the present, many of the current railways are undoubtedly substandard projects.

"May I ask Your Majesty, which general is leading the troops in this expedition?"

Xia Yuanji suddenly asked, and Zhu Gaoxu was slightly embarrassed when he heard this: "You six departments don't need to worry about this matter."

"Is it the Supreme Emperor?" Xia Yuanji rarely asked Zhu Gaoxu. Zhu Gaoxu wanted to hide it, but Xia Yuanji suddenly knelt down and said:

"Your Majesty, the Emperor is old, please don't torment him anymore..."

(End of this chapter)