The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

"First, ask a few ministers to wait in Chengtian Hall, and tell them that I will go to see them after I have packed up. Also, ask them to let the students outside the Meridian Gate disperse first. How can they gather together to cause trouble? Where is my dignity?!"

After giving some instructions, Emperor Jiahua returned to the Qianqing Palace, ready to change his clothes before meeting the cabinet ministers.

About a quarter of an hour or two later, Emperor Jiahua, who had changed his clothes, appeared in Chengtian Hall.

However, his face was gloomy.

Because the students outside the Meridian Gate had not yet dispersed, it was obvious that these cabinet ministers were worried that he would not show up, so they did not take action without seeing the rabbit.

"I will see you, Your Majesty."

The three ministers saluted, and according to etiquette, Emperor Jiahua should say, "Stand up."

But he couldn't help but said sarcastically: "You elders are really capable. I just rested in the harem for a day, and I was falsely accused of favoring a seductive concubine, indulging in wine and women, and ignoring state affairs. You even called on the students to gather in front of the Meridian Gate to cause trouble."

"In this case, I would rather abdicate and let someone more capable take the throne. Who among you is willing to sit on the throne of the Great Chu? Please do so. What do you think?"

Hearing these words, Wu Mian and the other two were so shocked that they immediately knelt down.

"I don't dare!"

"Your Majesty, be careful what you say!"

"I never meant this!"

Emperor Jiahua let out a sigh of relief upon seeing this, then snorted coldly and sat on the dragon throne.

He said, "Tell me, you are so anxious to ask me to come out, but have you thought of a way to deal with the bandits?"

Xu Wei and Goldman Sachs looked at each other, and then Xu Wei spoke again.

"Your Majesty, the threat posed by the bandits to our Great Chu Empire has clearly surpassed that posed by the bandits in Shaanxi, Hebei, and Henan, and even by foreign enemies such as the Mongols."

"Therefore, we think that we should first let the bandits in the three provinces go, and then mobilize troops from the border provinces. It would be best if we could gather 100,000 troops to defeat the bandits in Runing Prefecture, and then recover the lost territories in Jiangbei and Shandong."

Emperor Jiahua was not a very decisive person. After hearing Xu Wei's words, he could not help but frown slightly and said hesitantly: "It's okay to let the three provinces' bandits go for the time being. Anyway, few of them are powerful enough."

"However, if we withdraw troops from the border provinces, will the Mongols notice this and take the opportunity to invade?"

Xu Wei said: "If the war lasts for a long time and the border provinces are left without troops for too long, the Mongols may indeed notice it."

"That's why we need to fight the bandits in Runing Prefecture and strive for a quick victory!"

Mengyuan is actually the name of the Great Chu after its early days. In fact, by now, Mengyuan has long been split into many khanates and even scattered tribes, making it difficult to form a joint force, and the threat to the Great Chu is naturally limited.

However, if the tribes on the grasslands were to notice that the border defenses of Great Chu were weak, they would certainly take the opportunity to invade and plunder.

It is even possible that after realizing the strength of the Chu State, it will develop greater ambitions - such as occupying the north like the Jin State and establishing a new nomadic dynasty.

Therefore, even though the Mongols were divided and the threat to Great Chu was greatly reduced, Great Chu still had to be on guard.

Emperor Jiahua pondered for a while, and then said: "A quick victory is certainly a good idea, but what if we lose this battle?"

Xu Wei smiled bitterly, "Your Majesty, if we fail in this battle, the bandits will surely march straight in, first taking Henan, then Hubei, and destroying Xiangjing."

"At that time, for our Great Chu, the bandits were still an imminent threat, but the Mongols and Yuan tribes could not threaten us for the time being."

"If that is the case, we can only accompany Your Majesty to the southeast or southwest to seek refuge, just like the Song Dynasty, hoping for a Southern Dynasty ending."

Emperor Jiahua felt that this was too risky and was very dissatisfied. He asked, "Is there no better way?"

Wu Mian was speechless.

Gao Sheng said: "Your Majesty, if you don't make a decision, you will suffer the consequences! In other words, if you delay any longer, I'm afraid that my Great Chu won't even have the chance to gather a large army to fight the bandits!"

After hearing this, Emperor Jiahua finally realized that he really had no other choice.

So he sighed and said, "Then let the cabinet plan this matter, and just let me know when it's time."

In his heart, Emperor Jiahua had already begun preparing for defeat.

He did not want to be the emperor of the fallen Chu, so he remembered the outrageous actions of the Emperor of Zhao Song and the Emperor of Jin - when the country was about to be destroyed, they passed the throne to the crown prince and became the emperor emeritus.

In this way, he would not be considered a king who destroyed his country.

He is now the crown prince in his twenties, and although he looks extremely mediocre, it should be no problem for him to take the blame for the country's demise.

···
Jiangbei, Yangzhou.

Not long after the Hui army captured the city, Liu Sheng came with his guards to facilitate the command of the front-line troops.

Although Yangzhou of the Great Chu was not as prosperous as it was in the late Ming Dynasty, it is also a contemporary megacity with a population of 500,000 to 600,000 and extremely prosperous industries in all walks of life.

Because Yangzhou was short of military force, the Chu army's resistance was quite weak when the Hui army attacked the city, so the Hui army captured the city without much effort.

This actually prevented Yangzhou from suffering much damage due to the war.

In the temporary palace (Yangzhou Prefecture Yamen), Liu Sheng was discussing matters with several ministers of the Second Military Affairs Office, which had been established not long ago.

The chief among the military ministers was Zhang Kuang.

Zhang Kuang was born in the 1611th year of the Wanli reign (). According to the original history, he worked hard to fight against the Qing Dynasty in Huguang. In addition, he was in poor health, and the generals did not obey his orders and fought on their own. He lost good opportunities and died of depression and vomiting blood at the age of only .

In this time and space, Zhang Kuang was first the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, and later he was sent out to be the governor of a province, becoming a true frontier official.

Afterwards, Zhang Kuang was transferred to the Military Affairs Council and served for several years.

For important officials like him, the hospital would send doctors to check their bodies regularly, treat any illnesses they have, and help regulate their bodies if they are healthy.

In addition, Zhang Kuang was very successful in the officialdom at that time, so it was natural that he would not die of depression at a young age.

Although Zhang Kuang is fifty years old now, he is still in his golden age for a minister.

Therefore, when he learned that Liu Sheng was going to expedition to Da Chu, he volunteered to join, and later became the chief military minister of the Second Military Affairs Office, and concurrently served as the left vice minister of the Military and Political Department of the Second Military Affairs Council.

The second in command of the Grand Council was Li Changxiang, the Minister of Personnel of the Second Executive Yuan.

Although he is already 52 years old, he can be considered a rising star in the officialdom of Dalai.

He was a native of Kuizhou Prefecture in Sichuan Province. He came from a family of officials and gentry. He was a juren in the sixth year of Chongzhen. Unfortunately, he failed in subsequent examinations.

In the original history, Li Changxiang followed Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan to resist the Qing Dynasty, and he got up again and again. Later, when he was the Minister of the Ministry of War of the State of Lu, he was captured by the Qing invaders. He was admired by the talented woman Yao Shu from Nanjing, who rescued him. The two then became a fairy couple, traveled far away, and no longer cared about worldly affairs.

During this time and space, Li Changxiang entered the officialdom of Dalai and was steadily promoted.

In the early days, he was inconspicuous in the officialdom of Da'an, but later he was gradually promoted to the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel of Da'an.

After being selected by Liu Sheng, and with his own willingness, he brought his family and followed Liu Sheng to Da Chu to start a business.

In addition, there are Minister of Finance Lin Jiading, Vice Minister of the General Staff Yao Qisheng, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Armaments Lu Yuanfu, etc.

At the same time, the three princes Liu Yu, Liu Heng, and Liu Jing also attended the hearing. However, in order to prevent the three princes from competing with each other and causing chaos in the family, Liu Sheng officially issued an order to make the oldest Liu Yu (the first son born to Li Xiangyun) the crown prince of this family.

As for Liu Heng and Liu Jing, they can choose to join the army or politics, accumulate experience and merit, and obtain titles according to the rules of the Liu Bei royal family.

As long as you can be crowned king, you can establish a foreign vassal state and your own kingdom in the future.

After explaining this rule, Liu Sheng originally thought that Liu Heng and Liu Jing would choose to join the army, because Dalai was expanding its territory and joining the army was the easiest way to make meritorious service.

Unexpectedly, Liu Heng and Liu Jing were both interested in civil affairs and logistics and chose to be administrative officials.

Now under the rule of Dalai here, the two of them each serve as the magistrate of a county.

On the contrary, Crown Prince Liu Yu was more interested in military affairs. He chose to join the Royal Guards as a military and political officer of a battalion. He was prepared to start from the "grassroots level" to hone himself and increase his military and political experience.

Liu Sheng signaled the guards to hang up the map and then began to talk.

"Once Yingzhou is taken, the entire Jiangbei area will be basically under the control of our army. However, it will take some time for us to digest such a large area."

"Plus, the soldiers have been fighting for several months and need to rest. Therefore, I decided to wait until after the autumn harvest before attacking Ru'ning Prefecture in Henan."

After the Hui army conquers a place in Da Chu, they usually do the same as when Da Chu was founded, looking for evil gentry, bullies, corrupt officials, and holding them for public trials and confiscating their properties.

This would not only appease the resentment of the common people, but also increase the prestige of Dalai and earn a lot of money and grain.

It can be said that it kills three birds with one stone.

The second thing was to establish a new local government based on the Dalai government model, with officials brought from North America as the backbone.

Not to mention controlling the countryside from the beginning, at least we must first ensure control over the prefecture and county levels.

Only in this way can the local money and grain be used by Dalai and soldiers can be recruited from the local area.

The third thing, naturally, is to form a local garrison, that is, to recruit soldiers.

Although the 50,000 guards Liu Sheng brought were not a small number, they were all elite troops used for field battles and sieges.

If a dynasty wants to control the world, it actually needs a large number of troops stationed in various places. For Dalai, it needs a garrison army.

Therefore, Liu Sheng recruited and trained 100,000 garrison troops in the three prefectures of Shandong.

In the five prefectures of Huai'an, Yangzhou, Sizhou, Yingzhou and Xuzhou in the north of the Yangtze River, he planned to recruit and train another 100,000 garrison troops.

Such a large number of garrison troops is naturally too many for the five prefectures in Jiangbei.

But in the future, when Liu Sheng transferred some of his personal guards to enter Henan and other places, the number of Jiangbei garrison troops would naturally decrease.

After hearing Liu Sheng's words, several military ministers nodded slightly and did not think that attacking Runing Prefecture would be difficult.

Because judging from the many previous battles, the local armies of the Chu State were vulnerable.

However, Liu Sheng continued, "Ru'ning Prefecture is the place where Xiong Chu rises. Therefore, I guess that the court of Great Chu will definitely make a big move next."

"If nothing unexpected happens, they will dispatch border troops, gather heavy troops, and stop our army outside Runing Prefecture, or even fight a decisive battle with our army!"

If the king and his ministers of Great Chu were here, they would probably be surprised to hear what Liu Sheng said.

Because what Liu Sheng speculated was almost the same as the decision of the rulers and ministers of the Chu State.

Of course, it’s not that Liu Sheng has some ability to predict the future, nor is it that Xunfengwei has discovered relevant information - even if he did, it would be impossible for it to be passed on to Liu Sheng so quickly.

Liu Sheng made this speculation purely based on his many years of experience in handling military and national affairs.

In fact, he also realized that there were not many options left for the Chu court.

Considering the special nature of Runing Prefecture, it is not difficult to guess that the Chu court would choose to fight a decisive battle with the Hui army in Runing Prefecture.

Upon hearing this, Yao Qisheng, the assistant minister of the General Staff, said, "Your Majesty, according to the known intelligence, the only troops in the Chu State that can fight now are the northern and southwestern border troops, and the other is a border army that is encircling and suppressing the bandits."

"The Great Chu court wants to fight a decisive battle with our army. I'm afraid it won't work unless it mobilizes more than 50,000 border troops."

"In this case, I think it would be better to send messengers and envoys to contact the peasant armies in Henan, Hebei and Shaanxi provinces before the autumn harvest."

"Either provide them with weapons and equipment, or recruit them as garrison troops, and let them cause more trouble after the autumn harvest, so as to tie down some of the elite Chu troops. In this way, it should be easier for our army to capture Runing."

In Liu Sheng's mind, the tens of thousands of elite Chu troops that these peasant armies could tie down were actually not important.

Whether the Chu border troops number 50,000 or 100,000, he is confident that he can defeat them with three brigades of his personal guards!

This is not only a reflection of his confidence in the Imperial Guards, but also a reflection of his confidence developed over many years of fighting as a founding emperor.

But in military affairs, no matter how confident you are, you must still be lenient with your enemy.

Liu Sheng nodded and said, "This is feasible. I will ask Xunfengwei to send someone to contact the General Staff to discuss this matter."

Minister of Finance Lin Jiading said with concern: "Your Majesty, now that our army has occupied the land north of the Yangtze River, we must be responsible for the people here."

"Before this, there were many droughts and floods in Jiangbei, and many people fled famine, and many fields were abandoned."

"We have invested a lot in the early stages of establishing a local government. I'm afraid there will be a big gap if we only rely on the money and grain we have previously stored."

"If we must fight the Chu army after the autumn harvest, I'm afraid we won't have enough money and food. Your Majesty, please think twice."

War is not only about soldiers and horses, but also about money and food.

Not only was the Chu court worried about money and grain, but Dalai was also short of it, though the gap was not as big as that of the Chu court.

Liu Sheng frowned slightly when he heard this and said, "After we conquered Jiangbei, we found so many evil gentry, bullies, and corrupt officials from all over the country and put them on trial and confiscated their property, but the money and food we got was not enough?"

Lin Jiading said: "The proceeds from the raids are indeed not small, but compared to our military and political expenses, it is indeed not enough."

Seeing Liu Sheng's frown deepen, the Minister of Personnel Li Changxiang said, "Your Majesty was able to confiscate a lot of money and grain when you attacked the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the corrupt officials and evil gentry in the local area, several Ming vassal kings also contributed a large amount."

"Most of the vassal kings of the Great Chu were demoted from generation to generation. However, there are no vassal kings of the Great Chu in the three prefectures of Jiaodong and Jiangbei that we occupy, and there are not even many royal family members with high titles. So naturally there are fewer raids."

After Li Changxiang's reminder, Liu Sheng finally knew where the problem lay.

It seems that the Great Chu did have a role in optimizing the Ming system. At least there wouldn't be one vassal king after another using the money and grain accumulated over hundreds of years to support the enemy.

But this undoubtedly increased the gap in money and grain for Dalai.

Liu Sheng thought about it, a cold light flashed in his eyes, and said: "Since money and grain are insufficient, let's find a reason to rectify the salt merchants in Jiangbei before the autumn harvest."

Liu Sheng did not forget where he was now.

Yangzhou!

Even in the Chu State, Yangzhou is the home of the Huai Salt merchants! (End of this chapter)