Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 363 Guangdong Customs

"Li Zicheng, a bandit in northern Shaanxi, replaced Gao Yingxiang as the new Chuang Wang, and annexed the rest of the bandits in northern Shaanxi. Now Li Zicheng has defeated Hong Chengchou, Cao Wenzhao and others in northern Shaanxi in a row. , and then retreated to defend Heluo and Qinchuan, lost and regained, gained and lost again..."

"Cao Wenzhao, the deputy commander of Yansui East Road, was unfortunately hit by the artillery of the thief Li Zicheng during the battle, and was seriously injured. His life and death are still uncertain..."

The minister of the Ministry of War reported the latest battle report on northern Shaanxi, and all the civil and military officials of the court were generally silent.

However, in the past few months, the battle situation outside Tongguan has changed repeatedly, which is shocking.

Emperor Chongzhen was even more complicated.Chongzhen was furious when he lost the city of Xi'an earlier.Then reinforcements from Liaodong, Xuanda and other places arrived and regained the lost ground, and Chongzhen Longyan was very happy.Seeing that the Northern Shaanxi Peasant Army was splitting up internally, Gao Yingxiang and others were about to be wiped out. Unexpectedly, Li Zicheng, who had been silent all this time, would have done nothing if he didn't make a move.

The ups and downs of life are nothing more than this.

"Dear dear friends, the war in northern Shaanxi is rotten, and the flames of war are spreading to Heluo, Shaanxi and other places. However, my empire has very few soldiers and horses to dispatch. What should I do?" Chongzhen looked down at the officials, but found that civil and military All the officials looked down at their feet, probably unable to come up with any good ideas.

"In this battle in Shaanxi, the Liao army also participated in it. The Liao army even secretly supported Li Zicheng's artillery. Our army was bombarded by the bandit general Li Zicheng, and the situation was chaotic. Only then did the bandits take advantage of it." Minister of the Ministry of War Said.

"The Fu-Liao Army is another Fu-Liao Army!" Chongzhen said angrily, "Why does the Fu-Liao Army support the bandits in northern Shaanxi like this, and this Fu-Liao Army has repeatedly disobeyed the imperial court and successively invaded Yizhou, Fujian, Guangdong, and even Guangzhou? The government’s forts are all forcibly plundered! I also recognize this, but this time they secretly funded the rebels, intending to overthrow my Ming Dynasty, it is really deceiving!"

Chongzhen was very angry at the top, but the civil and military officials still just looked at each other, unable to think of any good ideas.

Even if it is known that the Fuliao Army is secretly funding the Northern Shaanxi Peasant Army, so what?The most critical problem is that Ming Dynasty was unable to impose effective sanctions on the Liao Army.Regardless of force or economy, Daming was unable to make the Liao Army surrender. On the contrary, when it wanted to force the Liao army through the sea ban, the Liao army threatened it back with force.

Near the Thirteenth Bank of Guangzhou, a building is under construction.It's just that this building is not a temple or pagoda, but it looks towering.It's just that the outside is surrounded by green yarn and bamboo, so passers-by can't see the construction inside clearly.

"Be careful, idlers don't get close, if the stones on it fall, it will kill people." Around the building, several soldiers of the Liao Army stood guard with muskets on their backs, and drove away pedestrians who approached.

It's just that what they did in this way aroused the curiosity of pedestrians even more.However, they did not dare to approach because of the patrolling soldiers of the Liao Army.It was not until the construction workers took a break at noon that pedestrians asked these construction workers.Because in order to save expenses, the Fu Liao Army recruited many refugees who lost their land due to floods to serve as construction workers.

"Brother, what kind of building are you building? Why is it so tall, it should be ten feet high?" A passer-by leaned over and asked.

"I don't know. We just moved stones according to the orders of the Liao army. The technical work was done by craftsmen from southern Liaoning and Western countries. But their buildings are all made of stone. Not very useful." The local construction worker replied.

"Stone building, I saw that the stone they used was too big, and there were iron bars. I was really curious how they would build a house that was ten feet high and occupied such a wide area. How much glutinous rice paste would they need to use? Ah." The passer-by wondered, "Our Guangzhou mansion belongs to the Six Banyan Pagodas. These pagodas can only exceed ten feet, but these pagodas are rarely inhabited."

"Maybe we can make a small profit by preparing glutinous rice paste and selling it to the Liao Army." Some passers-by who were doing business saw the business opportunities.

But the construction worker shook his head: "You should stop thinking about such a beautiful thing. The Liao army doesn't use glutinous rice paste to build walls."

"Huh? Don't use glutinous rice paste? Then what else can they use to build walls? You know that such a tall stone building is easy to collapse!" Passers-by who gathered to discuss it expressed their disbelief.

"You don't know this. The Liao army used something called cement instead of glutinous rice paste. It is said that it is much stronger than a wall made of glutinous rice paste." The construction worker said.

"Impossible, is there anything in this world that is more suitable for building walls than glutinous rice paste?" Some people asked with questioning eyes, "Tell me, how is this cement made?"

"The cement was transported directly from the south of Liaoning by a large ship. How could I, a poor man, know the secret formula of the Liao army?"

"You must be bragging, what kind of cement, water and mud ginseng are better than expensive glutinous rice paste? We have been plagued by disasters, and there is not enough food. Few people use glutinous rice as a material for building walls. .”

"I'm a puppy for lying to you! That's all, I don't care about you, I'd better save my strength to work. Thanks to the restoration of this stone building by the Liao army, I have enough to eat, and I won't die of hunger." Construction worker sighed.

"I said boy, how much does the Liao Army give you a day's wages? Are you afraid of falling to your death when you build such a tall building?"

"Go away, don't say anything unlucky. The Liao Army provides three meals a day, and they can eat meat for lunch every day. Although the meat is not too much, there are two taels of silver a month. We are farmers in Panyu. The farmland was destroyed, so we came to the government office in Guangzhou to seek relief from the government. We happened to meet the governor of Guangdong and recommended us to work here, so we had a bite to eat, and this year we don’t need to go hungry.” The construction worker said own story.

"It seems that after the Liao army came to our Guangzhou mansion, they did a lot of good deeds to help the people." A passer-by praised.

"I think this stone building can be completed in a year or two at most. What should you do afterward?"

"At that time, I will go back to my hometown and have a look. With this little savings, life will be much better in the future. Maybe I will work with the Liao army in the future. They said that if they do a good job, they will have the opportunity to be a foreman. It seems that the complex The Liao army seems to want to stay here for a long time, and there will be a lot of work in the future." said the construction worker.

(End of this chapter)