Dragon Sea Empire

Before the signing of the peace agreement, there were not many remaining problems between the central government of the Ming Dynasty and the Chinese army, and Liaodong was the most important one.

The most important tax in Ming Dynasty is the land tax. As for Hainan and Quanzhang in southern Fujian, it has never been an important place for wealth. The tax paid on the entire Hainan Island is no more than 10,000+ taels of silver every year, and every ten years has to come to the Limin Great rebellion; the two prefectures of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou were originally mountainous areas lacking land, and they had always been rich in pirates. After the sea ban, the Ming government could not receive much wealth here.Therefore, these two places were all leased to the Chinese Army to "raise soldiers and prevent Japanese wars".These two places only need to pay a total of 10 taels of silver every year, and Sheng Yihong and other Ming Dynasty officials still feel that they have made a lot of money. You know, there are thousands of officials in these two places who need to be supported by the Ming government. To garrison troops to suppress bandits, all these expenses can be saved now.

The Liaodong capital area is different from Jiangnan, Hainan Island, and southern Fujian. It is the northeast barrier of the capital of the Ming Dynasty.Liaodong Dusi leads 25 guards and two prefectures.Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Liaodong has always been an important military area, but because it has always been an important border defense area, it has not been well developed. Later generations, the Liaohe Plain area, which became the country's most heavy industry, was just an underdeveloped agricultural area.Throughout the ages, Liaodong has established prefectures and counties, but the Taizu of this dynasty has completely changed the establishment of guards. Only Liaoyang and Kaiyuan have Anle and Zizai prefectures. Both the military and civilians are under the jurisdiction of the guards, which is a typical frontier military area.

After the Battle of Sarhu, the original Houjin Eight Banners basically occupied the Hetao area of ​​Liaohe River, leaving only the long and narrow Liaoxi Corridor and the west bank of Liaohe River in the area controlled by the Ming army.

The Chinese Army launched the Northern Expedition to the Houjin War in the first year of Tianqi. After the Battle of Hetuala, the Houjin Eight Banners fell apart.As a result, the Chinese Army basically took over and controlled the Liaodong area previously occupied by the Eight Banners soldiers.

During the Jiajing period, there were 316 million mu of farmland in Liaodong Town, and in addition to the farmland, there were about 300 million mu of Minke farmland.In good years, Liaodong Town had more than self-sufficiency in food (military pay and civilian food), and it was often imported into Shandong in the form of commodity grain.Liaodong Town collects 36.49 shi of grain, 377.04 jin of grass, and 635 taels of fish tax silver every year.

"Forehead Grass" is the product of the thousands of miles of reeds in Liaodong.Although these taxes are not much, not comparable to the production of a wealthy state capital in the south of the Yangtze River, the Ming court, including the imperial envoys in the peace talks, have always insisted on taking back Liaodong, not for tax revenue, but for military geography, strategic the needs of the situation.

Yin Feng valued Liaodong because of the iron and coal there.At present, thanks to the efforts of Chinese and Western exploration experts, many large coal and iron deposits have been discovered in the Dongningwei and Liaozhongwei areas of Liaodong.Although Yin Feng is still not sure that these newly discovered mineral deposits are Anshan and Benxi in another time and space, but looking at the location on the map, it should be in this area.A lot of pre-development work has already started. Numerous Jurchen prisoners of war have been consumed in mines in Dongningwei, Liaozhongwei and other places as expendable labor force. Now Korean laborers and Mongolian prisoners of war are being recruited.At the same time, the first batch of steel has already started to be baked... No matter what, Yin Feng will not give up this place.

"Order, the Sixth Division will assemble in Yazhou, Hainan, and the assembly will be completed within a month. Then the Nanyang Fleet and the Taiwan Fleet will provide ships in coordination with Liaodong in the north."

Yin Feng issued another order in the old camp of the Chinese Army.Yu Zihao, the staff officer on duty today, wrote the order, hesitated for a moment, and then asked a question: "President, in order to quell the Nanyang rebellion last year, the Sixth Division scattered troops throughout the Nanyang islands, so far away from Hainan Island. Thousands of miles away, the whole army gathers and gathers after receiving orders, and it is impossible to do it in less than three months."

Yin Feng glanced at Yu Zihao, smiled and said: "Yes, you are right. In this way, ordering the Sixth Division to assemble in Yazhou, this will not change. The Taiwanese fleet and other places in Hainan recruit sea ships to Yazhou in advance Concentrate, the troops of the Sixth Division that arrive at Yazhou only need to reach the regiment level, and immediately go north as soon as possible. After arriving in Liaodong, the troops of the Sixth Division will be under the command of Colonel Huang Lue, the general manager of the Lushun Fortress.”

Yu Zihao still had doubts in his heart, but he still held back and did not continue to ask questions.

While writing the military order, he sighed for the brothers of the Sixth Division.Of the six infantry divisions of the Chinese Army, only the sixth division has not had a fixed old camp since its establishment. It was used as a mobile force and was deployed from south to north. It went north to Liaodong to fight the Jurchen Eight Banners, and went south to Nanyang to quell the indigenous rebellion. Lu, the brothers of the Sixth Division are probably the units of the Chinese Army that have been on the march for the longest time.

"Huang Lue?" Yu Zihao turned his head in doubt, and took a sneak look at Yin Feng, the leader of the president who was writing something at his desk.

Huang Lue is an old man who has joined the Chinese Army since its founding.He is from Jinjiang, and is distantly related to Huang Cheng (Zheng Zhilong's uncle, who has been exiled), the former director of the Zhonghua Company. He is one of the thousands of Chinese that Yin Feng brought out of Balian.The commander of the Sixth Division was originally Huang Lue, and it was not until the year before last that he was transferred to be the general manager of the Lushun Fortress.The old military leaders at the level of infantry commander were basically awarded the rank of general at this award ceremony, only Huang Lue was still a colonel.

Huang Lue's rank cannot be promoted to general, is this influenced by Huang Cheng's family?

Yu Zihao suddenly thought: Huang Lue was transferred to the garrison in Lushun just before the internal cleansing of the Chinese Army and the Chinese Company.

Yu Zihao went to Yin Feng before the purge, but he was completely unaffected during the purge.Even so, Yu Zihao was still a little panicked when he saw that even several big directors were confiscated and exiled one after another.Therefore, during the Jiangnan Campaign, Yu Zihao was a little too "active" and went into battle with the white soldiers to fight bayonets, so that he was injured.

After Yu Zihao finished writing the military order, he thought of a question: Huang Lue was transferred out of the field army, could it be to prepare for the big purge?Considering that Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Zhihu and others were transferred to remote Ceylon Island and the Songhua River two years before the big purge, Yin Feng did not start cleaning the interior because of the purchase of Western cannons by the "New Army". Yes, in fact, it has long been planned to carry out a cleansing of the interior. The fact that Han Ping and his son, Huang Cheng and others colluded with the Ming court is just a reason for the cleansing.

Thinking of this, Yu Zihao quickly cut off his train of thought, sighed secretly, and then handed over the general order to Yin Feng for review and seal with both hands in a respectful manner.

……

In the evening of that day, Yu Zigao rode tiredly back to his home, and a graceful young woman greeted him at the door of the inner room: "Thank you, General, dinner is ready."

This young woman is Shi Li, the boat lady that Yu Zigao took away from the West Lake in Hangzhou, and is now Yu Zigao's concubine.Yu Zigao is over 40 years old this year. After several twists and turns in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, he had to join the pirate army. He had long since lost his previous ambitions.Now I work hard in the Chinese army, just want to keep the stable life of the whole family.He had achieved the position of deputy commander in the Ming army system, and now he is serving as a lieutenant colonel in the old battalion staff in the Chinese army. He feels pretty good about himself.

Yu Zigao's wife and children lived in his hometown in Haogetou Village, Hao City, northern suburb of Quanzhou.Because of the rebellion of the new army practiced by Yu Zigao, he has been charged and wanted by the court. In order not to be implicated by him, the patriarch of his family has come forward to divide the property of Yu Zigao's family and live separately, which is regarded as kicking Yu Zigao's family out of the family Pedigree, separate branch.

He is the old son of Yu Dayou, his parents have been gone for a long time, so his family has no status in the clan, only because Yu Zigao was a high-ranking official in the court before, the people in the clan treat him differently.

Fortunately, Quanzhou was under the occupation of the Chinese army, and the Yu family did not dare to drive out Yu Zigao's wife and children.Similarly, for the sake of Yu Zigao's face, Quanzhou garrison Wang Shuowang did not take any action against the Yu family who insisted on a non-cooperative attitude when he forcibly promoted the "gentleman and gentry pay food together".

"Ali, the military affairs are busy these days... Next time I come home late, you can eat first." Yu Zigao took the towel from Shi Li and wiped off his sweat.

Shi Li helped him take off his coat, and said in a low voice, "Master, the second grandpa from my hometown in Quanzhou has sent someone here."

"Second Grandpa? Why did he send someone here? Who is it?"

"I don't know who it is. The person who came here is over 50 years old and older than the master, but he calls you the third uncle." Shi Li smiled and said, "It took me a lot of effort to understand his Quanzhou dialect. .”

Yu Zigao frowned: "I see, this person should be Yu Mingyuan, the youngest son of my second cousin."

"The youngest son of the patriarch's family? Is it to let you recognize your ancestors?"

Yu Zigao shook his head and sneered, "Hehe, it's only been two years since my family was kicked out of the clan to divide the property. What are you going to do now? Where is this person now?"

"He said he will stay at the Nancheng Posthouse tonight, and he will visit you tomorrow."

"Come back tomorrow, just say that I am busy with military affairs these days, and it will be a holiday in three days. I will talk again then."

……

Three days later, Yu Zigao met his nephew who was more than ten years older than him.The two greeted each other seriously as uncle and nephew, and Yu Zigao let the nephew take a seat.

Yu Mingyuan looked like a typical country rich man. Not only was his clothes gorgeous, but he also had a gold-plated purse on his waist.He rushed to Yu's house early in the morning, and as soon as he sat down, he hurriedly said: "Third Uncle, there is something in the clan, you must help."

Yu Zigao said unhurriedly: "My family has established another branch, so it doesn't belong to your Yu family, does it?"

Yu Mingyuan's expression remained unchanged: "After all, we are from the same clan, and we all live in the same village right now. The pirates, oh, oh, the Chinese army is going to enter the village to implement the policy of gentry and gentry paying food together, and they have to re-measure the land. Rules, how can they change at will? Third Uncle..."

Yu Zigao had long wondered what was going on with the newcomer in this family, and as expected, he waved his hand impatiently and said, "I already know what my nephew said. The shipowner king governs for the people, even if The gentry pays grain as a whole, the tax rate is no more than one out of ten, and the share is divided into mu, without poll tax, which is much less than the rules of the Ming Dynasty."

"But my family has three scholars and one Juren, according to the rules, they are exempted from the land tax..."

"Which family are you following?" Yu Zigao cut off his words and asked sharply.