Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 534: Working overseas

"put!"

Crack, crackle——

In August, when snow had begun to fall in some areas in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty, a major turmoil broke out in the mountainous area of ​​northwest Dongzhou, thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty.

Tens of thousands of miners armed with various mining tools attacked a camp. Facing the attack, nearly a thousand Ming troops in the camp formed a formation and fired.

Faced with the standardized production of flintlock guns, tens of thousands of shirtless miners were killed by hundreds in just one encounter, and this was just the beginning.

"put!"

"Boom boom boom——"

The artillery fired, and the barrels filled with shotgun shot out thousands of lead bullets in an instant, and there were more than twenty such artillery pieces.

Just in an instant, nearly a thousand natives fell down one after another, and the gate of the camp was opened wide.

He opened his mouth to ask, and the cavalryman also bowed and said: "Let's make it clear. It was the manager and officials of the mine who embezzled the miners' wages. The miners surrounded the manager's yard, but the manager shot several people with guns. Therefore, The mines were in chaos.”

"Yes!" the cavalry responded, and the general returned to the camp.

He changed into a white robe and sat at the entrance of the camp. He had a very noble temperament, which was very inconsistent with the brave image he had just led a hundred cavalry into the battle.

The cavalryman turned over and dismounted, and the young general also combed his hair, revealing his appearance in his mid-twenties with delicate features.

"Absurd..." the general snorted coldly, and the cavalryman also lamented:
"Indeed, based on the wages paid by the imperial court to the miners, the wages of these more than 13,000 miners for three months is only 7,800 guan."

"General, take your orders!" The young military officer bowed in salute, and the general turned to the cavalry and said:

"..." After hearing this, the young general frowned and said:
"I don't care what we did in the past, but now that the imperial court requires that Dongzhou be governed by virtue, we must arrange for people to treat their illnesses."

"The laws of Dongzhou Xuanwei Division must be popularized again. I will report to the imperial court about today's matter."

"After lunch, the whole army will follow me back to Xiqiu City!"

Nearly half of the native miners were killed or injured. Faced with this scene, a cavalryman rode up to the young general who was washing himself with a water bag.

This food is enough to ensure that the workers themselves can live a good life, and at the same time, it can also feed some of the family members.

"For seven thousand eight hundred guan, not only did I kill myself and five officials, but I also killed fifty brothers in the mine. Counting our casualties just now, a total of sixty-seven brothers were killed. It costs seven or eight thousand strings."

"The principals and officials were all beaten to death by the miners, and the principal criminal also died in the battle just now."

"Yes!" The cavalry bowed and left after hearing this, and the young general wiped the blood off his face and sat on a low stool nearby.

The more than 100 miles of cement road provided better conditions for the army to travel, but even so, it still took two days to get from the mining area to Xiqiu City.

After the cavalry said that, the general also said coldly: "It seems that we have to take action against the officials of the Xuanwei Division, otherwise they may cause a lot of trouble to the Xuanwei Division."

The cement road was not wide, only two feet, so the army's queue was very long.

"Also, find out why there was a rebellion this time. I was fine when I came here a few days ago. What happened?"

Xiqiu City is surrounded by mountains on all sides. The city is two feet high and one foot six feet thick. It is surrounded by a concrete wall with a perimeter of four miles. There are a thousand soldiers and horses living in it, and there are more than 2,000 people from Hankou who were exiled. More than 3,000 naturalized people were included as common people.

More than 160 city-states under the rule of the Eastern Kingdom were mining gold, silver and copper mines for Xuanwei Si, and the materials exchanged by Xuanwei Si were also very rich.

There are copper mines, gold mines and other resources needed by the Ming Dynasty around Xiqiu City. In addition, there are tin, tungsten and other rare metal veins that the Ming Dynasty is not in short supply for the time being.

"Xu..."

The young general stood up, and then said to a military officer not far away: "Chen Jun, you personally lead a hundred brothers to sit here, and I will ask someone to send 8,000 coins to pay the miners here."

"In addition, these natives are unreasonable. They don't even know that something like this happened."

The so-called Xichu City is a city built less than four years ago. In later generations, its name was La Paz, the capital of Bolivia.

Among the troops, the flag with the word "Yang" was ringing, and the young general who ended this farce was Yang Shuo, the eldest son of Yang Zhanzhi, the Duke of Yue.

Nearly a hundred cavalrymen fought hard from left to right, and the Ming troops in the camp also began to walk out of the camp and form formations to attack.

The twenty-eight-year-old Yang Shuo continued to make outstanding military exploits, but his military exploits were not many, so he became the Dongzhou Xuanzong Envoy through hard work.

About an hour later, when most of the injured natives on the battlefield had been gathered together for medical treatment, and the smell of rice was already wafting from the camp, the cavalryman finally returned.

Half an hour later, nearly a hundred cavalrymen and more than 800 horse infantrymen rode out of the mining area and walked north along the cement road.

The Ming Dynasty Yongle Tongbao was used as currency locally, but a pound of grain cost three pennies, while people in various city-states went to the mining areas to work for ten pennies a day, which meant that one day's wages could buy about three kilograms of grain.

"kill!!"

"What were the rules in the past?" The young general wiped the blood on his face, and the cavalryman also bowed:
"According to the previous rules, the injured should be dealt with on the spot to avoid wasting medicinal materials."

Although it has only been developed for less than three years, there are already 20,000 natives working in wasteland outside Xiqiu City, and there are more than 80,000 acres of cultivated land outside the city.

"how?"

"Xuan comfort envoy, seventeen of our brothers were killed in the battle, and 216 were slightly injured. The natives were killed in the battle at least 2,000, and were injured in more than 3,000."

With the cooperation of thousands of Ming troops, this massive rebellion was completely suppressed in less than one morning.

Even so, the local food is still not enough, or it can be said that the entire Dongzhou Xuanwei Division relies on the food supplied by the Beizhou Xuanwei Division.

The reason why he was sent to Dongzhou was because he had the same temperament as his father, and this temperament was the most suitable for coming to Dongzhou.

Nearly a hundred cavalrymen, led by a general, rushed out of the camp and launched a charge against the thousands of natives who had been demoralized.

The Ming Dynasty established the Dongzhou Xuanwei Division for many years, and many reward and punishment systems were later established. Although there is still a king in the Dong Kingdom today, the people are basically under the jurisdiction of the Dongzhou Xuanwei Division.

Of course, Xuanwei Division would not take the initiative to intervene in how the city-states squeezed them. Anyway, after coming to Dongzhou Xuanwei Division for so long, as far as Yang Shuo knew, each city-state would extract some wages from the miners.

If you have a conscience, you will get one penny, if you have no conscience, you will get five pence.

These city-states collect wages in order to satisfy the hedonistic psychology of the city-state nobles, because compared to the common people who only want to fill their stomachs, the nobles are more concerned about material enjoyment such as wearing silk, using porcelain, and eating brown sugar.

In Dongzhou, the price of a large blue and white porcelain vase reaches 3,000 yuan, a set of silk clothes costs 2,000 yuan, and brown sugar costs 50 yuan a pound.

The nobles continued to squeeze the miners for enjoyment, but what Ming Dynasty needed was stable production in the mining areas.

Because of this, the Ming army would occasionally help city-states suppress rebellions, but if the city-states acted in a positive and negative way, the Xuanwei Division would also take the initiative to incite the miners to rebel.

The more than 3,000 Guihua City registered in Xiqiu City were civilians from a certain city-state in this land.

They overturned the notice of the city-state nobles and handed over the land to the Ming army for management, so they were qualified to live in the city.

Some maintenance work in the city requires their efforts, but the wages for these jobs are much higher than those of miners.

Sweeping the floors in the city can earn you 20 cash a day. Cleaning canals, building and repairing some city walls and houses, or going out of the city to direct road construction can all earn you 20 to 30 cash.

Outside, they don't have to build roads themselves, because they are only responsible for instructing the natives to build roads, and the natives' wages are ten cents a day.

Inciting class conflicts between local city-state aristocrats and civilians, and taking over the city-state's land and cities after the city-state's destruction were the usual methods used by the Xuanwei Division before.

Because of this, in the past few years, thirteen city-states in Dongzhou have been destroyed, and there will be more in the future.

What Xuanweisi had to do was to promote Confucianism and Mandarin after the city-state was destroyed, and it was enough to make the local order the same as that of the cities in the interior of the Ming Dynasty.

Compared with official learning, Confucianism is more suitable to be implemented in Dongzhou, because what is needed here is education.

When I came to Xiqiu City, perhaps it was because there were too many opportunities and there was no pressure from the nobles. Therefore, even the natives outside the city could wear cloth to cover their bodies.

There are several courtyards outside the city, and those courtyards are Confucianism.

Children over the age of seven come to study and are provided with one lunch every day. This is the biggest motivation for local people to send their children to study Confucianism.

Facing the return of the troops led by Yang Shuo, the people who were farming looked at the team with envy.

The soldiers of Xuanwei Division are paid 20 guan basic military pay per year and 30 guan overseas subsidy, totaling 50 guan.

For the local natives, fifty guan is enough for them to live half a life without worrying about food and drink.

It's a pity that the Xuanwei Division does not recruit troops locally, otherwise many men would enthusiastically sign up.

"When these natives can speak Mandarin, they will become my people in the Ming Dynasty."

On horseback, Yang Shuo glanced at the natives in the field and gave a casual comment, but it was only one comment.

He led his troops back to Xiqiu City, and then sent more than fifty cavalry to escort Ba Qian Guan to the mining area. He himself wrote some things about Dongzhou into a memorial and sent it to Ximen Port.

The cavalry took the memorial to Ximen Port, traveling two hundred miles every day, and it took three days to reach Ximen Port.

Compared with Xiqiu City, Ximen Port, which has been under construction for a long time, is much more prosperous.

Thirty thousand Han people and more than 70,000 naturalized people have opened up hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in Ximen Port, barely able to be self-sufficient.

Ships enter and exit the port very frequently, mostly grain ships.

Because the distance is too far, these grain ships will be replaced by other grains in the North and East countries and transported to the south. When they arrive here, except for a small amount of rice and wheat, the rest are basically corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

The memorial was taken to the mainland of the Ming Dynasty by a fleet of large treasure ships. It flew across the sea for more than a month and arrived at Sandalwood Senhusho (Hawaii).

After a short rest here, they continued to sail southwest along the island chain, so that they could reach Luzon Port in a month.

As for traveling to Beijing, it will take another two months. In other words, it normally takes a full four months for a fleet to cross the Great Ming Ocean from Dongzhou and return to Beijing.

If there is a storm, it may even take five or even six months.

Because of this, every time the Dabao Ship Fleet arrives at Tianjin Port, it will undoubtedly attract the attention of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Some brave young people will ask the soldiers about everything in Dongzhou, and the soldiers will be happy to return home, so they will chat with the young people about interesting things about Dongzhou and Beizhou.

While they were chatting, the memorial and boxes of gold, silver, and copper ingots were sent to the rail train connecting the port.

Amidst the sound of the whistle, they were sent to Beijing East Railway Station, and Yang Shuo's memorial was also sent with them.

"This year, Dongzhou's fleet of treasure ships delivered 234,632 taels of gold, 5,592,400 taels of silver, and more than 6,654,000 jins of copper ingots. , the gold is now deposited in the treasury, and the silver and copper ingots can be minted for about 8 million coins. "

"This account obviously cannot be reconciled with previous years..."

In the Wuying Hall, Zhu Gaoxu sat on the golden platform with his eyes closed and meditated. In front of him stood Zhu Zhanhe and Yi Shiha.

There were more than 20 officials from the Six Ministers of the Ministry of Finance and the Sixth Military Governor's Office, Diange University Scholars, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Yang Rong opened his mouth to mention Dongzhou's accounts, and everyone knew what he wanted to say. It was just that the amount of gold, silver, and copper mines exported to Beijing suddenly increased so much. Does this mean that the previous officials of Dongzhou's Xuanwei Department had been embezzling?

"This is a memorial written by Yang Shuo, the ambassador to Dongzhou. Yang Shuo mentioned that officials embezzled miners' wages, which led to riots."

"The officials in the mining area are all sent by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and there have never been any problems when military officials manage the mining area. Does this mean that Dongzhou still needs to rely on military control?"

Although he is unwilling to join the cabinet, since he has joined the cabinet, he must do what he should do.

Chen Chang took Yang Shuo's memorial and mentioned the riot in the mining area, but Yang Rong said flexibly:
"What the Marquis of Zhaozhou means is, is there something wrong with Xia Shangshu?"

Yang Rong asked knowingly, and Yang Shuo's memorial had been read by everyone before the court, and the name of the director of the mining area was clearly mentioned in the memorial.

The mines only need officials, and only the management of the mining areas requires officials. The entire Dongzhou Xuanwei Division only has a few dozen officials dispatched there, and this chief was promoted and dispatched after the Yan Li case.

Judging from his place of origin and the people who recommended him, isn't he just from the old school of Jiangnan?
"I didn't say it was related to Xia Shangshu, but there was something wrong with the people recommended by some people."

Chen Chang responded loudly, and without waiting for Yang Rong to reply, Yang Pu spoke:

"The official who recommended this person is indeed responsible for negligence, but this person in charge has indeed been diligent and diligent in the past few years. Is there something fishy about this matter?"

"It should be noted that the Dongzhou Xuanwei Division is tens of thousands of miles away from the temple. If all the officials are driven away, it will really become the governor's palace."

"I don't want to drive away all the officials!" Chen Chang interrupted quickly and bowed to Zhu Gaoxu:

"Your Majesty, what I mean is that the term of office of the officials of the Xuanwei Department can be shortened from five years to three years, the same as that of the overseas garrison."

"Hmph!" Yang Rong said quickly after hearing this: "No, Marquis Zhaozhou, shouldn't this kind of thing be investigated by the Metropolitan Procuratorate?"

Yang Rong bowed to Zhu Gaoxu while looking at Chen Chang:

"Your Majesty, I think it's time to conduct a capital inspection of the Overseas Propaganda Department!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the hall frowned.

What is the situation of the Overseas Propaganda and Comfort Department, and who can stand here does not know, who does not know.

If the Overseas Propaganda Department really conducts a Beijing inspection, I am afraid that many people in the Governor's Office will be imprisoned and sentenced to exile.

Of course, hundreds of officials overseas will also suffer for this, but exchanging hundreds of eighth- and ninth-grade officials for those big shots in the Governor's Mansion is obviously a good deal.

Yang Rong was not planning to actually take action against the Overseas Propaganda Department. He just wanted to remind Chen Chang that everyone has dirty butts and don't make yourself look like a saint.

Facing his proposal, Chen Chang, a military attaché, was still speechless, but when Zhu Zhanhe saw this, he also took the initiative and said:

"Scholar Yang's remarks are too much. Just because Dongzhou Xuanwei Division is like this, it does not mean that it is like this everywhere."

After the words fell, Zhu Zhanhe turned around, bowed to Zhu Gaoxu and saluted: "Your Majesty, I thought that we could set up prefecture and county officials in the Xuanwei Department in various places, and at the same time send inspection censors to monitor overseas."

Zhu Zhanhe wanted to formalize overseas affairs and control both military and political affairs separately. However, this would increase the court's overseas expenditures.

The most difficult thing about setting up prefectures and counties is not the salaries of officials, but the fact that prefectures and counties have their own military divisions.

According to overseas conditions, once an overseas prefecture or county is established, at least 20,000 soldiers and horses will be needed to garrison the city.

Even if the salary for soldiers and horses is lower than that of the army, they still have to have at least thirty guans, which means an expenditure of 600,000 yuan.

If logistical supplies are included, it will probably not be less than one million guan.

At present, Ming's annual overseas income, excluding gold, is basically 8 million guan, while its overseas expenditure is about 2 million guan.

Now adding another one million yuan in expenditure will undoubtedly reduce the court's financial reserves.

Only Zhu Zhanhe dared to make this kind of suggestion, and others would never do it.

Nowadays, Ming Dynasty is constantly carrying out infrastructure construction, with an annual investment of about 10 million yuan.

If the imperial court loses one million yuan in annual revenue, who knows if the local government will lose another one million yuan in investment.

"That's a good statement. It's time to establish prefectures and counties overseas..."

Zhu Gaoxu suddenly spoke, and his intention was actually biased towards Zhu Zhanhe, which made the ministers unable to sit still.

"Your Majesty, when you set up a prefecture or county, you have to set up a military division. This will reduce the annual income of the imperial court, and the gain outweighs the loss."

Yang Rong took the initiative to stand up and object, but Chen Chang bowed and agreed: "Your Majesty, I think it is feasible!"

Chen Chang is from the army, and even a million yuan of local investment cannot go into their pockets, so he naturally does not have to object.

"Your Majesty, I second the proposal..."

Wang Ji, Lu Yu, and Jiang Huai stood up one after another and seconded the proposal. As a result, four people in the cabinet approved the proposal. Even if Xue Xuan joined Yang Rong and others, there would only be three of them.

"Your Majesty, I agree!"

At the position of the Sixth Army Commander's Mansion, Yang Zhan took the initiative to express his support. Zhu Neng also bowed when he saw this. The other four governors were a little wavering when they saw this, but they still stood up and bowed to express their support.

For a time, there were ten people supporting Zhu Zhanhe, and the new Minister of War, Zhao Yi, among the six ministries, also bowed to express his support.

Next, Huang Fu, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Xia Yuanji, Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, both seconded the proposal.

In this way, the situation was obvious and it was over before Yang Shiqi had time to show off.

"In this case, we will decree that from now on overseas, the Xuanwei Department will be established in prefectures and counties and the Military and Horse Department."

"In addition, the Nanyang Dusi has already set up prefectures and counties, and now Hankou has more than 1.4 million people. I am determined to set up the Nanyang Third Division to govern Nanyang."

After Zhu Gaoxu's words ended, the Ming Dynasty changed from two capitals and one seventeen and three divisions to two capitals and one eighteen and three divisions.

At present, except for Mobei, Uszang, Duogan, Daning and other capitals that have not yet set up the Inspectorate Department and the Chief Envoy Department, other places have already set up three departments.

If three divisions were to be set up in these four places, Daning would probably be the fastest. After all, Daning's current population has increased sharply with the completion of the Northeast Railway and the end of the Mobei Hu plague.

Especially after the Yan Li case was over and hundreds of thousands of people were sent away, the population of Daning has further reached the threshold of 800,000.

If you think about it carefully, I am afraid that the third division will be established in five or six years at most.

"Your Majesty, there have been many conflicts between Majapahit and our navy in Majapahit waters recently."

"Maja Boyi was dissatisfied with the imperial court setting up thousands-household offices in Dongshan and other places, and was even more dissatisfied with the imperial court monopolizing Nanzhou."

As the Duke of Yue and the Commander of the Navy, Yang Zhan took the initiative to speak, which shows the importance of this matter.

Regarding Majapahit, the DPRK and China have long said that they would send troops to destroy him. The main reason is that the other country is the only country in Nanyang that does not accept Sinicization and Confucianism, and it also blocks the waterway from the old port to Nanzhou.

In addition, Majapahit also owns as fertile land as Java. If he becomes ambitious in the future, he can interrupt the shipping route from Nanyang to Nanzhou at any time.

With these many problems added up, the temple authorities were naturally dissatisfied with Majapahit's existence.

What's more, for the countries in Nanyang, before the Ming Dynasty penetrated into Nanyang, Majapahit was undoubtedly the overlord of Nanyang, and many countries were invaded by him.

Srivijaya, the predecessor of the current Manchurian Kingdom, was invaded and destroyed by Majapahit, and had no choice but to flee to the Malay Peninsula to continue the kingdom.

If the Ming Dynasty wanted to use troops against Majapahit, it is estimated that Managaya would be the first to raise his hands to agree, and would even send troops to follow in revenge.

In addition, Majapahit also had a tough attitude towards Bo Ni, Sulu, Sumatra and other countries. If the Ming Dynasty had not intervened in Nanyang, I am afraid that he would have conquered all the surrounding areas.

Yang Zhan suddenly spoke, hoping that Zhu Gaoxu would agree to the navy's use of troops against Majapahit.

However, Zhu Gaoxu's attitude towards this matter is still conservative.

"The Ministry of Rites sent envoys to investigate the matter, and if Maj Boyi was at fault, he would be scolded. If Maj Boyi refused to change despite repeated teachings, the dynasty would not mind teaching him what it means to be a king."

Let the Nanyang countries see the Ming Dynasty's attitude by practicing courtesy first and then fighting. This is the process that Zhu Gaoxu wanted.

Otherwise, rashly sending troops to destroy Majapayi would only make the countries in Southeast Asia fearful and resist.

"I accept the decree..."

Yang Shiqi bowed and saluted, and accepted the matter. When Zhu Gaoxu saw this, he also said:

"The last construction treasury bond has been repaid, so I want to continue to issue a construction treasury bond. What do you think..."

(End of this chapter)