Ping An Biography

After learning some information from Chen Maocai, Zhang Ning initially planned to send someone to discuss alliances with the Miao envoys, but the next day he temporarily decided to meet in person.Probably because he knew that the other party was a woman... His subconscious could not help but carry some eclectic expectations.

For a woman who has never met, a man can always imagine a beautiful woman.Unexpectedly, Zhang Ning was greatly disappointed after the meeting. The Miao girl's complexion was darkened by the sun, and she had freckles on her cheeks. Fortunately, her skin was darker, otherwise the freckles would have been more conspicuous.Fortunately, the round face and regular facial features are not ugly, and they are quite "handsome" under closer inspection, probably because he hasn't touched a woman for a long time.

He sighed in his heart, there is always a little distance between imagination and reality.

Miao girl's name is Bai Yu, and there are two male attendants beside her, who are said to be deputy envoys.They can't speak Mandarin, and their accents are very similar to those of Sichuanese. Fortunately, they are Chinese, so they can probably understand them.They quickly put forward the idea of ​​the Miao rebels, hoping that Zhang Ning's troops could go south and capture Gaodu County, so as to contain the Changde guards in Longtou Temple.

Zhang Ning is probably already familiar with the terrain in the west of Dongting Lake, and he also participated in the drawing of the map before.Changde Mansion is in the south of Shimen County, with a distance of about 160 miles; Chenzhou Mansion is in the southwest of Changde Mansion, and between the two prefectures are Gaodu County and Longtousi Temple from east to west.Among the three counties controlled by Zhang Ningjun, Cili County is the closest to Gaodu County, about 100 miles away, but the road is not easy to walk. [

The Miao people's request was very pragmatic. They didn't want Zhang Ning to directly attack Changde Mansion, or the main force of the Changde Guards to attack Longtou Temple.It is of course unreliable to attack Changde Mansion with the current strength of Zhang Ning. As a big city, Changde City is not only strong, but there are also four towns nearby, such as Wuling and Taoyuan. If you want to besiege, if you go in, you may be surrounded by enemies on all sides.But Longtou Temple is too far away, and there are at least 1 guards, so it is not easy to fight.

Only Gaodu County in the middle is relatively empty and fragile. Once it is attacked, it may cut off the food supply of the Longtousi official army.

Of course, the Miao people had a good plan, but Zhang Ning was obviously unwilling to help them at this time.At this time, the "nail" Yongdingwei stuck in the middle has not been removed, so that the guard cities such as Jiuxiwei in the northern mountainous area have not moved. The three counties occupied by Zhang Ning are not really safe. In case of loss, once the main force It is difficult to say whether the land in the three counties can be kept if they are transferred out.It is impossible for him to transfer the only 1000 troops to a place more than 100 miles away at this time to fight desperately with the officers and soldiers.

Since the relationship between them is mutual use, it is impossible for Zhang Ning to sacrifice himself for the needs of the Miao rebels.He took the initiative to contact the Miao people to express his friendship, and his purpose was not two: first, he did not want to make enemies with the Miao people, and there was no need to make enemies;It is believed that the Miao people sent envoys to respond because of this consideration.

"I have to discuss with my subordinates before I can give you a reply." Zhang Ning replied, and he didn't want to directly refuse in person. "After we have discussed the results, we must inform your envoy of the specific deployment details as soon as possible." Having said that, he plans to send someone to explain the difficulties in two days.

Although there were no real results in the negotiations, Miao Envoy Bai Yu seemed to be satisfied with her performance, because Zhang Ning always used titles such as "Your Envoy" and "Madam" during conversations. As a woman who came from a maid, she was respected Maybe it's a very useful thing.

……

It didn't take long for two more important news to come to Zhang Ning.First of all, Fan Laosi and Ma Dapeng approached the west of Yongdingwei from Fengxia Mountain, and more than 100 craftsmen from the Weapons Bureau came in batches. Zhang Ning ordered two teams of soldiers to respond.Then came the news from the Shuidang'ao stronghold in Changde Prefecture that Yuezhou Prefecture was summoning guards and horses to recover Shimen and other three prefectures and counties.

The officers and soldiers once again showed the characteristics of no secrecy at all. The Yuezhou government had difficulty gathering troops and horses, the mobilization efficiency was low, and its intention to march was known to everyone.It was quickly inquired by the intelligence base of the Jianwen Party.

Zhang Ning didn't panic when he knew it. With the mobilization speed of the officers and troops, the time to sort out the complicated local situation and gather troops to send troops is not yet clear; it will not be too late to prepare when they actually send troops.Yuezhou Prefecture is located in the east of Dongting Lake, and the distance between them is quite far. The road to come here is complicated, the main water network is criss-crossed, and the army's advance speed must be slow.He just sent a few spies to look for news near Yuezhou Mansion.

Zhang Ning could only find out about the uproar in Yuezhou Mansion this time through the Jianwen Party stronghold in Changde Mansion, and he realized the problem.Zhang Ning has more than 20 soldiers and horses, but because this force has been established for a relatively short period of time, the foundation is still not deep; and the foundational advantages of the Jianwen Party for more than [-] years have once again been reflected. Fortunately, the relationship between them has not yet broken down. .

Emperor Jianwen and Zhang Ning are father and son, but they are by no means intimate.As soon as Zhang Ning confirmed his parentage, he had already had a rift with Emperor Jianwen. It was difficult to make up for the consequences of the unsuccessful meeting in the teaching circle last time... When this matter is investigated, it is actually a problem with the Jianwen harem. The palace fight between the queen and Mrs. Yao.The influence of women on politics is again manifested.

But Zhang Ning didn't want to intensify the conflict. After thinking about it, he formulated the idea of ​​"unity and united front".Emperor Xuande, who is in charge of the central government of the empire, is the party with absolute strength. It is obviously extremely unwise for Zhang Ning to still care about internal fighting at this time.His general direction is to woo all the forces that can be wooed, as long as they are not your life-and-death enemies, they can cooperate and communicate with each other.

And all kinds of internal contradictions should wait until the day when the greatest enemy is defeated.For example, "Father Emperor", the father and son have never met and lack of emotional foundation, there is no way to truly trust in power; the contradiction between Yao Ji and Queen Ma is even more difficult to reconcile.In addition, after the alliance with the Miao people, the contradictions are also very obvious. The degree of national integration and assimilation in this era is completely incomparable with modern times. The Miao people and the Han people do not trust each other. In fact, the national policy of the Han regime did not give the young people anything. Benefits, the most are exclusion, discrimination, and plunder.

Zhang Ning knew that what Emperor Xuande was best at was not fighting in the South and North, but in political tactics; Zhang Ning himself was a civil servant, and it was the same.Maybe I am not qualified to be the opponent of Xuande Emperor Zhu Zhanji, so I have to show a higher strategy.

... A few days later, Ma Dapeng and others from the Weapons Bureau arrived in Cili County, and Zhang Ning led his troops to shift the focus to the west and set up the headquarters in the county government of Cili County.

The people from the Weapons Bureau only carried some portable tools and nothing else. To rebuild the workshop in Cili County, make tools, arrange raw materials, etc., will be another complicated and complicated matter.

At this time, there were many and complex personnel in Cili County, including military officers, craftsmen, stewards, local officials, and civilians. Zhang Ning realized that the previous methods alone could not cope with it, and it was easy to cause internal management chaos.

So he temporarily added two institutions, the first one is called "Senate Department", a name he thought of temporarily, anyway, it is an institution that assists in decision-making and planning to implement various affairs. .Of course Zhang Ning knew that Lao Xu's ability in this area was definitely not as good as Wang Yu and his staff, and he might not be better than Hou Mao, the leader of the cult, but as a confidant who followed Zhang Ning in the early days, Lao Xu naturally had his support. strengths. [

In addition, there is a "Secret Department", as Zhang Ning's deputy, to help him manage confidential files and documents.The current secretary is only Xu Wenjun. As the name suggests, the secretary is someone who knows the secrets. Naturally, he can't just recruit a few people to make up for it, at least someone he trusts.

After raising these two yamen, Zhang Ning accepted Wang Yu's suggestion, and the Senate Department was responsible for engraving and manufacturing the seals of the civil and military yamen, and promulgated decrees to punish forged seals, etc., to regulate the organization of official documents.

Then he ordered Fan Laosi, a Henan native of the Weapons Bureau, to raise funds to set up a weapon manufacturing workshop. Wang Yu was in charge of coordination in the Senate Department, and specifically arranged for officials in Cili County to requisition housing sites and materials.

Under Zhang Ning's frequent inquiries, the Weapons Bureau quickly found houses and sites for workshops and warehouses, and listed the full name of "Weapons Manufacturing Bureau".

But there is one more thing that only Zhang Ning can do, which is the design drawings of mortars.In the entire Ming Dynasty, he was the only one who could think of how to do this thing.He is not a professional workshop person, and the design drawing is done by one person, and a person who understands craftsmanship is necessary.Ma Dapeng was asked to meet Zhang Ning in the county government office every day, and the two discussed ways to tinker with the mortar.

However, with the experience of making long-barreled cannons, it is obviously not difficult to cast mortars. It is obviously very easy to grind the bore of large-caliber, thick and short iron cannons.When Ma Dapeng talked about casting cannons, he came up with a method of using copper as the inner and iron as the outer. The copper material as the inner can better avoid sand holes and is not easy to explode.But Zhang Ning quickly vetoed the practical use of this method. Because of the lack of copper, in their current financial situation, the mined copper is not as good as minting coins.Then Ma Dapeng said that when casting the cannon, the hollow water cooling method should be used to let the inside of the cannon cool first.

Zhang Ning asked the reason, and Ma Dapeng said: "It is inevitable that there is a lot of slag in the molten iron. After the gun is cast and polished, it is often found that there are blisters on the inner wall. I am afraid that the bore will be recast, so the casting of the gun is so slow. If the gun barrel If the middle is cooled first, the slag will easily stay outside the barrel with the molten iron, which can better avoid sand holes."

After hearing this, Zhang Ning suddenly realized, and after thinking about it, it seems that this is indeed the case. Sure enough, there is a specialization in the art industry, and the wisdom of a craftsman is needed for practical use.But Zhang Ning also has strengths in this area. He can think of things that the ancients could hardly imagine, such as a simple vise.After the weapon bureau was made according to the structural diagram, the craftsmen said it was very practical.

♂♂