Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 559 Hong Xi’s Dragon
"Woo-"

On April 20th, with shrill whistles, trainloads of soldiers and troops arrived at a desert.

Although it is a Gobi Desert, it is now more lively than some cities.

Tens of thousands of laborers were working hard in front of the train, clearing the road, digging and laying foundations, gravel, sleepers and rails so that the train could keep moving forward.

Around them, thousands of cavalrymen wearing red battle jackets and holding muskets were ready for battle.

After the train stopped, soldiers got off the train one after another and carried the tents, ammunition boxes and barricades that were carried on the train off the train.

"The auxiliary troops have arrived. Now we must advance westwards steadily."

On horseback, Zhu Neng, wearing a mandarin duck battle jacket, gave instructions to Chen Mao beside him. Chen Mao nodded and said:
"I heard that the emperor has arrived in Hami. This war must be pushed forward and must not affect Hami City."

"The Supreme Emperor." Zhu Neng felt a toothache when he heard these three words.

Although he was already 73 years old, Zhu Di still went to the front line.

The understanding between the two sides made Zhu Neng somewhat unconvinced that Zhu Di was here to see the scenery, but when he thought about his age, he seemed to feel that he was overthinking.

"I hope the Emperor is just here to see the scenery..."

Zhu Neng could only pray secretly in his heart, and at the same time he sent people to receive these auxiliary troops.

This place is less than 200 miles away from Turpan. Although there was serious internal strife in Yilibali, when the Ming army continued to increase its troops and approached Turpan, both sides chose to resolve the current crisis first.

Even Yesenbuhua, who was close to the Ming Dynasty, was not naive enough to think that the Ming army sent so many people just to build railways. Yunusi, who was competing with the Ming Dynasty, was even more tough. He believed that the Ming army was invading, so he demanded to send troops to drive away the Ming army and even take back Hami.

The fact that both sides were able to put aside their prejudices and face the Ming army was enough to show that both of them were extremely capable people who could endure previous grudges, both new and old.

However, the Eastern Chagatai Khanate was too large, and most of its troops were scattered throughout the Western Regions and isolated by the Tianshan Mountains, so it was not easy to mobilize the troops.

When the Ming army mobilized 20,000 cavalry and 10,000 horse infantry by train, and transported 30,000 civilians and 40,000 armed auxiliary troops to the front line, they barely assembled 6,000 cavalry to fight the enemy in Turpan.

This amount of troops was not enough to fill the gap in the Ming army's teeth, so Zhu Neng and his men did not advance in a hurry. Instead, they waited for subsequent supplies to arrive at the front line and moved forward steadily westward.

At present, there are only 5,000 cavalry, 40,000 auxiliary troops, and 30,000 civilian laborers building the railway in this Gobi Desert.

But in Hami, there were still 15,000 cavalry and 10,000 horse infantry, as well as 110,000 civilians and 150,000 draft horses.

They did not rush westward, but instead reclaimed wasteland in Hami, planted trees, and transported supplies to the front line by train to ensure daily supplies for the frontline troops.

The advantage of doing this is that it is safe enough, but the disadvantage is that it is very costly.

"Grandpa, I'm back!"

In Hami City, Zhu Qiyue's voice was heard in a temporary palace covering dozens of acres.

He was wearing a mandarin duck battle jacket, with a goose feather knife and a flintlock pistol hanging from his waist, and he trotted into the main hall of the temporary palace.

Zhu Di was sitting on a chair wearing a plain blue round-necked robe, crossing his legs and sipping tea leisurely.

Seeing Zhu Qiyue coming, he said calmly: "How is the investigation going?"

"Good!" Zhu Qiyue grinned and said, "The Western Tartars' troops have not yet assembled. Duke Chengguo and Earl Ningyang only brought 40,000 auxiliary troops and 5,000 cavalry, and 30,000 civilians are building the railway on the front line."

"According to this progress, we should be able to reach Hami before the end of the year."

"Okay!" Zhu Di happily put down the teacup, stood up and put his hands on his hips. Although he was old, he was still strong. He was much stronger than Xia Yuanji, who caught a cold and was recuperating as soon as he arrived in Hami.

"I just read the document. Although this way of fighting is safe, it will still cost more money and food."

"Two hundred thousand people are staying in Hami. Even though there are trains, they consume more than 100,000 shi of grain and fodder every month."

"To make it to the end of the year, we will have to consume at least one million grains."

"Send someone to call Zhu Neng and Chen Mao. I have something to tell them."

"Understood!" Zhu Qiyue turned around excitedly and ran out, while Zhu Di stroked his beard quite complacently.

"Second brother, although I am old, my heart is not old..."

Zhu Di teased Zhu Gaoxu for releasing him, and paced back and forth, in a happy mood.

At his summons, Zhu Neng returned to Hami City the next morning with a bad feeling and mixed emotions.

He was brought to the main hall by Zhu Qiyue and met the 73-year-old Zhu Di.

Zhu Di had a long white beard. Although he was old, he looked young.

Having retired so many years early, the old man’s health is even better than Zhu Neng’s now.

"Shihong, we have known each other for almost fifty years, right?"

Zhu Di started playing the emotional card, and Zhu Neng was a little overwhelmed and could only bow and say, "Your Majesty, it should be forty-four years."

"Forty-four years..." Zhu Di sighed, and then said: "Don't be timid. I have a name but no power now, and I can't deal with you. You don't have to be afraid of me."

"Your Majesty, since I followed Your Majesty to fight against Nairbuhua in the 23rd year of Hongwu, I have always regarded Your Majesty as a benefactor, so it doesn't matter whether I am afraid or not."

Zhu Neng roughly guessed what Zhu Di was going to say, and Zhu Di did not disappoint him.

Seeing Zhu Neng's loyalty, Zhu Di smiled and stepped forward to hug the respectful Zhu Neng, saying with a smile:

"This time, the imperial court came here under the slogan of revenge for the border residents, but in reality it was just a western expedition, as you know."

"My body is old, and I can't go to the battlefield anymore, but I still want to see what's ahead."

"Your military newspaper..."

Before Zhu Di finished speaking, Zhu Neng knew what he was going to say, and bowed quickly and said, "After I return, I will have a backup copy sent to the palace."

"Hey...that's what you said. If I didn't ask for it, you can't submit it." Zhu Di immediately distanced himself from the matter and put the blame on Zhu Neng.

Seeing this, Zhu Neng was like a dumb person eating bitter herbs, unable to express his pain.

"minister……"

"Okay, you can withdraw now. There is no need to rush this battle. Just fight slowly. When they gather their troops together, I will send out my army and decide the outcome in one battle."

Zhu Di waved his hand to signal Zhu Neng to leave. Seeing this, Zhu Neng could only sigh in his heart and leave.

After he left, Zhu Qiyue immediately came forward and asked, "Grandfather, are we really not going to the front line?"

Seeing him ask this, Zhu Di looked at his grandson.

Although he was only thirteen years old, Zhu Qiyue was already five feet three or four inches tall, which was considered above average in the army.

In addition, he had followed Zhu Di in hunting, riding and shooting over the years, and his skills were no worse than those of some cavalry generals.

Facing this grandson, Zhu Di did not have so many tricks, and just whispered:

"Let them lure the Western Tartars' troops here first, and then we can go to the front line."

"Oh, okay!" Zhu Qiyue nodded with a big mouth, and Zhu Di also hugged him and said:

"You have to keep an eye on this matter and don't let anyone leak the news in advance."

"If your grandfather knew about this, we would have no fun together."

"Don't worry, I know!" Zhu Qiyue nodded repeatedly, and Zhu Di let go and said to him:
"Be on guard against Xia Yuanji. If he sees military reports in the palace, he will definitely report it."

"Don't worry, Xia Xianlai can't come here." Zhu Qiyue responded with a smile. Seeing this, Zhu Di hummed a tune and walked towards the study.

Zhu Qiyue followed in his footsteps, but Zhu Gaoxu could not hide what the grandfather and grandson did.

Zhu Gaoxu had already received the information about the things the two discussed on April 21st on May 1st.

"As I expected..."

Inside the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Gaoxu looked at the information in front of him with a headache, and in front of him stood Zhu Zhanhe with mixed emotions.

"Father, why don't you bring grandpa back?"

Zhu Zhanhe was also worried about Zhu Di's health, but Zhu Gaoxu asked in return: "Who can you send to bring him back?"

"This..." Zhu Zhanhe didn't know who to recommend. It seemed that except for his own father, no one else could bring them back.

But the problem was that Zhu Zhanhe didn't dare to ask his father to bring his grandfather back. After all, his identity was sensitive, and if he asked others to do so, it would inevitably make others think too much.

"Wait a minute. This war won't start for a while. If they want to stay in Hami, let them stay there."

"Remember to tell Brother Yue not to drop out of school. I'll be doing a random check at the end of the year."

What Zhu Gaoxu said meant that he wanted to recall them before the end of the year.

Zhu Zhanhe didn't know how his father called back his grandfather and others, but he still bowed respectfully and accepted the request.

As he agreed, Zhu Gaoxu also said: "I have read all the memorials you have written during your time as regent, they are very good."

"You will continue to supervise this country. Jiang Huai came to Beijing a few days ago, and you should know how he is doing in Jiangnan."

"You have many useful people under your command now. If you feel that you are still short of Jiang Huai, then summon him to Beijing. Anyway, Jian Yi has been requesting to retire as mentioned above."

Zhu Zhanhe would not feel happy about Zhu Gaoxu's decentralization, because he knew that this power could be taken away by his father at any time.

"Jiang Huai has done a good job in Nanjing, and Jiangnan's new policies also need supervision. It's good to keep him in Nanjing for the time being."

"As for the position of Minister of Personnel, I want to give it to Lu Yu in the Palace."

"Also, the Marquis of Zhaozhou has been ill for many days, and I would like to retire. Please let me know, father."

Zhu Zhanhe did not rashly recall Jiang Huai, which made Zhu Gaoxu satisfied. As for the people he recommended, Zhu Gaoxu also thought they were very good.

Lu Yu was an overseas immigrant from Luzon, so he had many overseas officials under his command.

The Ming Dynasty could not ignore the voices from overseas, otherwise the Boston Tea Party would likely turn into the Dongzhou Tea Party.

"Lu Yu is a good person. You can use him, but you need to be careful."

"As for Chen Chang's matter, since he is old, let him go home to recuperate."

"The palace still needs people, so let your brother-in-law Cui Jun join the cabinet." "Also, since the war in Majapahit is over, Cui Jun has been stationed overseas for a long time, so summon him back to Beijing to serve as the governor of the Southern Army, and Jiang Gui will serve as the commander-in-chief of Nanyang."

Zhu Gaoxu decided to dismantle Cui Jun's power in Southeast Asia with just a few words, which showed his confidence in himself.

If it were Zhu Zhanhe, he would have to use many means to recall Cui Jun, but Zhu Gaoxu did not need to do that.

Making Cui Jun's eldest son Cui Jun a cabinet minister was a move Zhu Gaoxu had planned long ago.

As long as the cabinet ministers do not concurrently serve as the ministers of the six ministries, all power comes from the emperor.

Palaces, six ministries, six military governors' offices...

Only when the three checks and balances are clear can the emperor's position be stabilized.

"Is there anything else to report?"

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Zhu Zhanhe, who whispered, "In the southwest, there is civil unrest in the Xuanwei Division of Myanmar, and some chieftains have surrendered to the imperial court and accepted the policy of changing their chieftains to officials."

"Now, there are already many people who have died from famine and war in the Burmese Xuanwei Office..."

"There's no need to report these things." Zhu Gaoxu didn't care to hear how many native Burmese people had died. All he cared about was sinicization.

"How many years do you think it will take for the imperial court to gain actual control of Myanmar today?"

He asked Zhu Zhanhe in return, and Zhu Zhanhe bowed and said, "It is better to move the people to Burma by sea than by land."

“If we move the people of Jiangnan to Myanmar, it will probably take hundreds of years to gain actual control of the area.”

Zhu Zhanhe did not mention the issue of internal migration, because there were no longer many places in the Ming Dynasty that needed to relocate local people to enrich the local area.

Zhu Gaoxu stuffed more than two million natives from Yunnan, Guizhou and U-Tsang into Sichuan, and one million natives from Huguang and Guangdong were also stuffed into Sichuan.

The ratio in Hankou, Yunnan is just right, while Guangxi still needs to be localized.

Unless a huge amount of money was spent to relocate the natives of Myanmar to the north, the Ming Dynasty would simply not be able to accommodate them south of the Yangtze River.

However, the cost of migrating to the north was too high, and even if Zhu Gaoxu asked for it, the court officials would not agree.

"The imperial court has no room to accommodate them, and the court has to continue to sinicize the local area."

"In that case, there is no such thing as migration."

Zhu Gaoxu retracted his gaze, and Zhu Zhanhe nodded after hearing this: "Your son understands."

After the words fell, Zhu Zhanhe brought up a new topic: "Old Five and Old Six returned to the palace early."

"Hmm..." Zhu Gaoxu responded, and then after thinking for a moment, he continued: "The fifth son is named the King of Liang, and the sixth son is named the King of Huai. How is the situation in Beizhou?"

"Meng Mao has done a good job in business. He has built three cities on the east coast of Dongzhou, each of which has 500 soldiers stationed there. There are also some native tribes that are supported around them."

"More than three million mu of farmland has been reclaimed from the bottom of the Great Valley in Beizhou, producing more than 2.6 million shi of grain annually."

"In addition to supplying more than 400,000 criminals in Beizhou, there will be 800,000 stones left to be transported to Dongzhou."

Zhu Zhanhe gave his answer, and Zhu Gaoxu continued to ask: "Where is Dongzhou?"

"Envoy Yang Shuo formed alliances and alliances. Originally there were more than 200 city-states, but now there are only 57 left, and they are not very powerful."

Zhu Zhanhe replied: "The court directly controls no less than three million Dongzhou natives, and the local people are being assimilated to the Han culture very quickly. Yang Shuo has introduced many policies to attract the natives to actively accept the Han culture."

"However, with so many East Continent natives, the only places they can cultivate are valleys. If they are allowed to reproduce and develop without restraint, the food pressure on North Continent will probably be great."

"Besides, the number of Dongzhou natives is far greater than the court expected. Every year, hundreds of thousands of natives surrender to the court. It takes them four to five years to cultivate farmland to feed themselves. If the court cannot provide them with so many jobs during this period, they will cause chaos."

"In the past two years, Yang Shuo has suppressed seven rebellions involving more than 10,000 people. In addition, groups of local people also invaded Jinghai Prefecture, but they were fortunately repelled by the garrison."

"It will take another three months for my second brother to arrive in Jinghai Prefecture. I believe the situation will be much better when he arrives."

Zhu Zhanhe told all about Dongzhou in one go. Zhu Gaoxu did not respond for a long time. It was not until Zhu Gaoxu stopped writing that he let out a breath and said:
"You decide on this matter. The culture of the natives of Dongzhou is very similar to ours, but their level of civilization is lower than ours. It is not difficult to assimilate them."

"The Great Valley of North Continent can be developed into tens of millions of acres of arable land, enough to feed seven or eight million people."

"When this valley is fully developed, steamships will be available to the general public."

"We should take good care of the court's base in Zhongzhou and control Nanyang, and Beizhou and Dongzhou will not be able to escape."

Zhu Gaoxu taught Zhu Zhanhe that he did not believe that anything would happen in Beizhou and Dongzhou when the Ming Dynasty was stable internally, especially when the Ming Dynasty was the first to enter the Industrial Revolution. This was even more impossible.

Agriculture is an industry that depends 100% on the weather.

It depends entirely on accumulated temperature, sunlight, moisture, soil fertility, sufficient water, and rain and heat.

Before the Industrial Revolution, except for the Great Valley in America, the vast plains east of the Rocky Mountains were not suitable for agriculture at all.

The area west of the Rocky Mountains and east of the Appalachian Mountains in New York is affected by cold currents, and people can freeze to death every winter.

Before the Mayflower, there were colonists who sailed to the East Coast, but basically half of them would die in the first winter, such as the result in Jamestown.

In terms of temperature, the areas that are relatively stable and suitable for farming are North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, but this area is still a swamp. Without a large amount of manpower and pumps to transform it into a plain, it is not suitable for farming at all.

Even the valley bottom now occupied by the Ming army is a relatively water-scarce place, and most areas can only grow crops such as wheat, corn, and sweet potatoes.

Therefore, in terms of agriculture, Northern Europe did not have the factors to become a great power before it entered industrialization.

The establishment of the United States was mainly a byproduct of the continued struggle for hegemony between Britain and France after the Seven Years' War. It was a treasure that the French spent a lot of money to cultivate against Britain.

It’s just that Louis XVI spent too much money and destroyed the Bourbon Dynasty before he could even see the United States wreak havoc on Britain.

By the time the United States won the Second War of Independence and proposed the Monroe Doctrine, France had been completely defeated by Britain. This can be regarded as one of the reasons why the United States could truly move towards "independence."

Otherwise, given the predicament the United States faced when it was first founded, the country would have either been led by Britain to gather heavy troops to counterattack the mainland and recover the thirteen states, or become France's agent and thug. There was no third way out.

After Britain finally dealt with France, when it turned around, the United States had already clung to Europe and was blown away by the industrial westerly wind.

It was no longer easy to deal with the United States at this moment, so Britain had to give up the counterattack in America.

From these reasons, it can be seen that the emergence of the United States was very accidental, and once the Ming Dynasty existed and entered industrialization, Beizhou would have been impossible to escape from its control.

Because there is no country in this world that can compete with the Ming Dynasty, and it is unlikely that there will be a single country that can fight the Ming Dynasty for seven years without being defeated.

Once the Ming Dynasty was fully industrialized, what Zhu Gaoxu worried about was that West Asia and Europe would form an alliance to resist the Ming Dynasty.

But he was just worried, no one could predict what would happen in the future.

"Your son understands..."

Zhu Zhanhe nodded to show that he understood. Then, seeing that Zhu Gaoxu did not give any more instructions, he bowed and said, "Then I will withdraw first."

"Go." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, and Zhu Zhanhe walked out of the Qianqing Palace cautiously.

He returned to Wuying Palace, and then issued an edict in the name of regent, transferring Lu Yu out of the cabinet, agreeing to Jian Yi's retirement memorial, and transferring Lu Yu to the position of Minister of Personnel.

In addition, he allocated an additional 1 million shi of grain and 500,000 guan of military expenses to the southwest and northwest respectively.

As for Nanyang, he promoted his brother-in-law Cui Jun to be the Grand Secretary of Wenlou and the counselor of the cabinet.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's wishes, Cui Jun was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the Southern Army and sent to Beijing to discuss matters.

Jiang Gui served as the commander-in-chief of Nanyang and concurrently as the envoy to Nanzhou.

Gao Guan, who had made great contributions, was transferred to Palembang Prefecture as the prefect, and cabinet minister Wang Zhi was transferred out of the cabinet and appointed as the left governor of Nanyang.

He issued three decrees to Beizhou and Dongzhou, and increased the number of Confucian schools in Dongzhou.

In order to better govern Dongzhou, Zhu Zhanhe exiled the Confucius Mansion in Daning, which was exiled by Zhu Gaoxu, to Dongzhou for the second time.

After he implemented this series of policies, no court official dared to question it, because they all knew that if Zhu Zhanhe dared to do so, he must have obtained the emperor's permission.

As time went by, the people got a lot of job opportunities because of the economic transformation of the court, so some people called this period "Hongxi's prosperity".

Smart people followed this trend and started working in industries producing goods needed by the court, while stupid people also got high-paying job opportunities.

Under this favorable wind, it seemed that there were no poor people in the entire Ming Dynasty. However, this was just a large number of job opportunities brought about by the opening of the national treasury, but they were unsustainable job opportunities.

If we want to sustain it, we must make the economic pie bigger and improve productivity during the transformation.

In late May of the 15th year of Hongxi, news came from the Imperial College that the Agricultural College had synthesized urea using artificial methods.

At the same time, the cotton gin came into being.

The advent of the cotton gin greatly shortened the production time of clean cotton and paved the way for the large-scale production of cotton products.

In order to improve the efficacy of antimalarial powder made from cinchona bark, the medical school extracted active ingredients that fight malaria from cinchona bark, and the antimalarial powder was replaced by malaria medicine.

In early June, the fleet led by Zheng He arrived at Tianjin Port. Zhu Zhanhe, on behalf of the emperor, rewarded each soldier with ten strings of coins, and Zheng He and Yang Zhan and others with three thousand coins.

At the same time, the Korean and Japanese delegations arrived in Beijing. After learning about this, Zhu Gaoxu put down his work and ordered a meeting with them in the Huagai Hall.

"You must stay calm later. You can't make mistakes in etiquette."

"Yes……"

Outside the Huagai Hall, the Japanese and Korean delegations stood at the bottom of the steps waiting to be summoned.

It is said that enemies become particularly jealous of each other when they meet. When Yoshishinari Kajii and Li Ai exchanged glances, sparks were almost ignited.

Both sides were nervous, and their nervousness came from the fact that the emperor's summons represented the status of both countries.

Under the gaze of everyone, Yishiha walked out of the Huagai Hall, went to the front of the platform and looked down at the delegations of the two countries.

"Prince of Korea, please come into the palace to pay tribute..."

"Yes!"

Hearing that North Korea was still regarded as the first vassal state, Li Yi responded loudly and excitedly, but this voice sounded so harsh to Kajii Yoshitsugu.

Looking at Li Yi's slightly provocative gaze, Kajii Yoshishinari clenched his fists, and this scene was noticed by Yishiha, who curled up the corners of his mouth into an imperceptible smile.

(End of this chapter)