Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 859
When the motion to send troops was made, it was extremely concealed.

The news, like a passing wind, blows all over the streets and alleys.

Although Jingying was built on the basis of Shaanxi, Chu, and Shu people, but now they have settled in the capital one after another, and have become serious people in the capital.

Just like when the Mongols ruled Dadu and the Huaixi people rebuilt Beijing, the new generation of people in Beijing has fewer pure northern bloodlines.

Having said that, the popular discourse in Beijing is still the unique Beijing dialect, not Shaanxi dialect or Huguang dialect.

Without him, among the dialects of the provinces, only the official dialect of the capital can serve as a bridge.

"Ma'am, the spring charcoal is almost used up, do you want to buy some more?"

In Jia's mansion, with the news that Jia Daihua had won the title of Viscount, the whole mansion was full of joy.

It also means that Jia's mansion suddenly has two heirs of viscounts, which is a great honor.

And Jia Shishi, who has just been married for more than two years, is also getting better at home. With the strength of her natal family, who would dare to give her face?

Jia Chenshi was also happy to sneak in, and handed over all the sundries to her for disposal, becoming a housekeeper.

At this moment, Jia Shishi was wearing a red-faced peony gown woven with golden brocade on the outside, and a sky blue skirt on the inside, with a slightly dangling golden hairpin on his head, making him look full of energy.

The maid next to her asked crisply, with beady eyes wanting to know the answer as soon as possible.

Jia Shishi twitched her red lips slightly: "Although the twelfth lunar month of winter has passed, it's unlikely that the cold spring will come. Looking at this happy day, I have to go and buy some charcoal."

"Buy two hundred catties of red charcoal and come back."

Jia Shishi gritted his teeth, as if he had made up his mind.

The maid was taken aback.

Hongluo charcoal is the most expensive charcoal in the capital. It is produced in Tongzhou, Zhuozhou, Wanping, Daxing and other places. Except, others cannot be fired into carrot charcoal.

Because of its strong firepower and off-white appearance, and never worrying about poisoning, red Luo charcoal is very popular among princes and nobles.

Even the imperial palace keeps buying.

As for coal, it is what ordinary people use to keep warm.

Because of this, the price of Hongluo charcoal has been rising all the way, reaching a hundred coins per catty. In other words, two hundred catties of charcoal cost almost 20 silver dollars.

Enough to buy a few acres of land in the suburbs of Beijing.

"Yes, ma'am." The servant girl nodded in agreement.

At this time, a servant ran over from a small trot, and said with joy on his face: "Ma'am, it's the two young masters."

The servant was brought over by her from the Shi family, and the young master she spoke of naturally refers to brothers Shi Ding and Shi Nai.

Sure enough, the two big brothers came with big strides, and when they saw the slightly fatter sister, they felt relieved:
"Little sister, seeing that you are doing well in Jia's house, I feel at ease."

"Jia Daihua, for the sake of his title, cruelly left my sister at home." Shi Nai said angrily, "When I come back, I can't beat him to death."

"Don't talk stupid things." Shi Nai mercilessly reprimanded his younger brother, and then comforted his younger sister:
"Dai Hua's identity is embarrassing at home, and it is understandable for him to rush out to make contributions."

"Brother, I understand." Jia Shishi showed helplessness: "I understand all these principles."

"My little sister is so good, Jia Daihua is really cheap." Shi Ding shook his head and sighed.

At these words, the three brothers and sisters all laughed.

"Big Brother, Second Brother, are you going to fight?"

Jia Shishi was smart, and immediately understood the reason why the two elder brothers came to visit him, and concern immediately piled up on his face.

"The Beijing camp has been mobilizing for a long time, and they have been on vacation for several days in advance." Shi Nai did not deny it: "Your second brother and I are both cavalry soldiers, so there is a great opportunity to go north."

Shi Ding said: "Little sister, Dai Hua has been promoted to our heads, if you don't work hard, what will happen to your two brothers in the future?"

"Then don't mess around—" Jia Shishi said decisively.

Seeing the stunned eyes of the two elder brothers, she let out another snort, and smiled like a crunchy voice: "I mean, you can hang out with him from now on."

"It's not ashamed to hang out with my brother-in-law."

The Shi family brothers were dumbfounded by what they said, and their faces instantly crooked with anger.

"Why don't you say girls are extroverted!" Shi Ding pouted and said, "If you have a husband, forget about your brother."

"I still want the two elder brothers to be her husband's protectors. It's quite possible."

Shi Nai took a deep breath, he suspected that the younger sister in front of him was a fake.

Is the gap that big after a woman gets married?
"Okay, just to tease you." Jia Shishi then restrained his smile, then took out a pair of amulets from his waist pouch, and handed them to Shi Ding and Shi Nai.

"When it was reported that Jingzhong Madness sent troops, I knew that our family would definitely send out. How could my two older brothers endure loneliness?"

"This is the amulet I asked for you two days ago, wear it well, and return safely..."

There are 20 people in the Beijing camp, and the consumption power of them is comparable to that of 20 small and medium-sized landlords.

Even stronger than the landlord.

Landlords rely on the land for eating, drinking, and laying waste, so their purchasing power is not strong, but the Beijing camp is different. They are basically full-time soldiers, and all daily necessities have to be purchased with money.

At the same time, nearly 20% of the soldiers in the Beijing camp have Xuntian, which is more or less subsidized every year. Coupled with the monthly salary of two silver dollars, the life of the [-] children in the Beijing camp is better than that of most people in Ming Dynasty.

It can be said that during the reign of Shaowu, the children of Jingying were happy and prosperous.

It is precisely because of this that Jingying is considered the most loyal part of Daming at this moment.

The expedition is imminent, and even though the military supplies and supplies are relatively complete, the family members of the Beijing camp still purchased a large amount of sundries to ensure their safety on the way.

Sore medicine and shoes are two of the most popular items.

Needless to say, medicine for sores, medical resources are always tight on the battlefield, and no matter how much there is, there will never be too little.

And shoes are the most inconspicuous but most important thing on the battlefield.

When everyone treats war, the first thing they always look at is the armor rate, and then the food supply, but in fact, the wear and tear of shoes is huge.

During the [-]-mile journey every day, the straw sandals can only last for three days, and the walking boots will be worn out after only ten days.

Therefore, once the ancient army marched south, the barefoot army would suffer heavy losses immediately, and the grasslands in the south were full of crises.

Naturally, it is impossible for the army to supply an unlimited amount of shoes, so the soldiers can only bring a few more pairs so as not to affect the combat.

Beijing continued to brew, but a rare scene appeared on the grassland.

This, on the contrary, confirms one thing: this spring, the two armies will not fight.

Livestock that have been hungry for a winter are in urgent need of forage supplies, and horses have lost weight. Now is not a good time to fight.

Obviously, Man Qing also understood that at this time, even if the battle was won, it would be a miserable victory, and the lost horses might not be able to be raised in a year.

It's really going to be cheap as hell.

As a result, the dispatch of troops from the Beijing camp was not in a hurry, and began to proceed in an orderly manner.

It was so noisy for more than a month, until the tenth day of March, [-] cavalry and [-] infantry marched northwestward in leisure.

They will cross the Inner Great Wall, cross Zhangjiakou, and arrive at Guihua.

From the scattered villages to the yurts and the white cattle and sheep, this is a strategic move.

And following it is the transfer of 30 civilian husbands.

Frankly speaking, 20 civilians cannot cope with 150 troops, so the cabinet had to expeditiously recruit [-] people, and directly paid [-] million yuan in housing expenses.

It was extremely expensive.

In the real sense, it is the cattle that bear the heavy burden of transportation.

That's right, it's a cow.

Migration on the grasslands, living by water and grass, in fact, the main force has never been horses, but cattle.

Cattle are the lifeblood of farmers, and they are also the lifeblood of nomads, because the yurt is on the back of the cattle.

This time, [-] cattle and [-] herdsmen were recruited from Chahar and Suiyuan.

It is no exaggeration to say that one cow can carry five shi of grain, and 25 cows are [-] shi. After deducting some food and drink losses on the way, after arriving at naturalization, there will be at least [-] shi left.

The 30 civilians will travel in sections and relays, so as not to be exhausted on the road, but also to save some food consumption.

It is conservatively estimated that 100 shi of grain was transported from Beijing, and after arriving at naturalization, there would be a maximum of 20 shi left over a thousand miles away.

A loss of one to four.

The cabinet made an estimate: If the war continues until the end of the year, the imperial court will support nearly ten million stones just for food.

Good guy, if there is no inventory, it will be empty.

It's no wonder that during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, after the Battle of Mobei, the whole country was empty and the people fled.

……

While the people in Beijing were anxious about the grassland war, the Huaihe region fell into a state of tension.

Since the beginning of winter last year, the weather in Henan, Anhui and other places has been extremely abnormal, with either no rain for ten and a half months, or heavy rain pouring down.

March, logically speaking, should be the time when spring rain is as expensive as oil, but in the eyes of Jiangsu people, this oil is really too much.

The entire Yellow River was in danger.

Everyone in the world knows the tragedy of Kaifeng digging dikes and flooding Kaifeng, but few know that the Southern Song Dynasty was the chief culprit that caused the corruption of Huaihai.

In the winter of the second year of Jianyan (1128) in the Southern Song Dynasty, in order to prevent the Jin soldiers from advancing southward, the general of the Song Dynasty and Du Chong, who stayed behind in Tokyo, decided to open the South Embankment of the Yellow River. Huai seizes the flow of the Huai River into the sea.

Large tracts of fertile fields were buried by quicksand, fertile land was generally salinized, lakes and rivers were silted up and abandoned, and there was no way out for accumulated water. A series of new lakes were formed, which caused the originally developed agricultural economy here to plummet.

You know, the Huaihai Plain is the birthplace of the Liu Bang Group and the place where Cao Cao started. Since the Southern Song Dynasty, it has become the world of saline-alkali land.

Huaibei and Huainan have completely become two kinds of places.

The Ming Dynasty governed the Yellow River and the Huaihe River for the purpose of protecting the water. In other words, his purpose was not for the land, but to protect the water transportation.

Therefore, from the very beginning, its strategy has been biased, and it is of no benefit to the people who have suffered from the disaster of the Yellow River and Huaihe River.

For example, Suqian had [-] hectares of official and private land in the Wanli period, but only [-] hectares in the Tianqi period.

And because of the continuous raising of the embankment of Hongze Lake, most of the farmland in Wuhe, Sizhou, Qinghe, Taoxian, Hongxian, etc. sank to the bottom of the water. By 1680 in history, the city of Sizhou sank directly.

The irrigation system was destroyed, resulting in poor drainage and saline-alkali land. The land was barren and poor. In addition, frequent river repairs caused people to flee.

From the vast plains of eastern Henan, southern Shandong, northern Jiangsu, and northern Anhui, the economy continued to decline and became a burden for the provinces.

At this time, the governor of Jiangsu was standing at the head of the city of Pizhou, and the Yellow River in the distance was shocking.

The turbulent Yellow River, even in Jiangsu, still does not change its rolling yellow color. Along the way, no matter whether it is human, sheep, livestock, cattle, ghosts, snakes, it swallows them all, and then heads south.

Carrying all the dirty things, he went to the Huaihe River.

Thinking of the narrow waterway of the Huaihe River, which would be so squeezed, the governor of Jiangsu felt that he had a headache.

"Can I survive this summer?"

The governor muttered.

The chief envoy on the side sighed: "Difficult, difficult, difficult——"

"Chun Yu is so hard to bear, let alone Xia Yu?"

"If this Yellow Dragon is in chaos, our Xuzhou, Haizhou, Suzhou, and Huai'an will all be in chaos." The governor said in a deep voice.

"Anhui is not safe there. What if the Huaihe River leaks?"

"How much silver do you have left?" the governor suddenly asked.

"It's less than 200 million yuan." The chief envoy was stunned: "Last year, there were not many people affected by the disaster, and there are still a lot left."

"Call for folk men, and repair the embankment first."

The governor turned his head and said seriously: "This embankment cannot collapse during the term of both of you and me, at least it must survive until next year!"

"That's right—" the chief envoy suddenly realized that next year's term will be over, he gritted his teeth: "I'm going to prepare 50 silver dollars and recruit another [-] civilians..."

At this time, an official with mud on his legs and clothes wet by the rain came up.

Hearing the last sentence, he said with emotion: "Futai, Fantai, the most important thing now is not to build embankments, but to build small rivers and dredge waterways—"

The person who came here was a doctor from the Ministry of Industry, who was in charge of the management of the Huaihe River.

"The Huaihe River is not as important as the Yellow River." The two turned their heads and emphasized with piercing eyes.

"No, don't look at the Yellow River's turbulence, but the dams are safe, but the Huaihe River has a huge amount of water. Once it squeezes the waterway with the Yellow River, Huai'an Mansion will be in danger."

"Hongze Lake is a lake suspended above the ground—"

When the two of them heard this, they suddenly felt that it made sense. If the Huai'an Mansion was flooded, things would be a big deal.

Seeing this, Lang Zhong was relieved.

In the past few years, the imperial court allocated the Ministry of Industry to repair the Huaihe River and the Yellow River, and what the Ministry of Industry did most often was to build polder banks on both sides of the Yellow River and Huaihe River.

Drain the stagnant water and expand the polder.

Over the past few years, Dangwei, Hewei, and Huwei have taken root on both sides of the Huaihe River, a large amount of land has been reused, and the area of ​​cultivated land has increased sharply.

The economy has been restored, and the population has gradually returned, which has allowed the Ministry of Industry's governance of the Huaihe River to be praised by the local government.

People are also willing to help.

Quickly make achievements and open up the situation, so the annual financial allocation of the Ministry of Industry has never been delayed.

But now, Zhihuai has reached the point of overcoming difficulties.

(End of this chapter)