I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 401 Sweet Potatoes and Potatoes

As Huang Degong said, it is not the government and the army that are anxious now, but the rebels.

In Guli County, General He Zhongwei listened to the stories of the escaped generals with a look of shock on his face. He also thought of many possibilities, but he just didn't expect that his elite would be so vulnerable in front of the officers and soldiers.

"These 6000 people are the elite of our army. Even if the officers and soldiers are equipped with firearms, they will not be defeated so quickly. Could you be lying to me?"

As he spoke, He Zhongwei looked at General Cai Cai who was kneeling in front of him. He handed over the elite soldiers to him with a displeased look on his face. He did not expect that he would try such a result.

"How dare I deceive you? Originally I had the same idea as you. Although this firearm is powerful, it reloads very slowly. As long as you catch a round of shots, you can take advantage of the gap in reloading ammunition to rush to its formation. If you engage the enemy in advance, you will definitely win.

I just don’t know what formation the officers and soldiers used, but the firearms fired continuously without any gaps, making it difficult for us to get close. Moreover, it was so powerful that one-third of the people were hit in just one stick of incense. He fell to the ground, his morale plummeted. Even if he was supervising the battle in a humble position, it would not help.

This matter was not only known to the subordinates, but also to the soldiers who had escaped, and the commander-in-chief knew it as soon as he asked. "

After listening to Cai Cai's detailed explanation, He Zhongwei could believe what he said.

And now he was shocked not only by the combat power of the army, but also by the reaction speed of the army.

"King Luodian has just raised the banner, and the documents only arrived yesterday. Today we took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness to capture Lu Guangcheng, less than a day apart. Could it be that the officers and soldiers knew the news in advance, otherwise how could they react so quickly? , the combat power is still so strong.”

Having said this, He Zhongwei couldn't help but stand up and pace back and forth thinking about the reason.

"Master General, I know the fighting strength of the Guizhou camp, and it will never be this powerful. I think this army is very powerful, and they are very organized in fighting. I am afraid they are not guest troops from other Chief Secretaries. I heard It is said that the Dog Court sent the Jingying Zhenwu Army to Guizhou, and basically all of them are equipped with firearms, and I am afraid it is this group."

Cai Cai's explanation revealed the reason why He Zhongwei was least willing to believe it and was also the most reasonable.

He Zhongwei also guessed that this group must be the Beijing Camp Zhenwu Army, but having arrived at Luguang County so quickly, he vaguely guessed that the court was afraid that they would attack them in advance, but he happened to encounter the vanguard force.

If you think so, it means that there are still a large number of officers and soldiers behind this team, and your situation is not optimistic.

"This time, the officers and soldiers are afraid that the visitors will be evil, so they sent an order to closely monitor the movements of the officers and soldiers across the Yachi River. If there is any change, they must notify me immediately. In addition, send envoys to Zhijin Pass and that village to report to King Luodian Explain the situation clearly and request the dispatch of troops for support.”

Seeing that the army was strong, He Zhongwei also felt a little uneasy. He was defeated for the first time, so he had to focus on defense.

At the same time, he also thought of something, stopped Cai Cai who was about to leave, and told him:
"The firearms of the official army are quite powerful. If you order people to cut down trees on the mountain and make a shield chariot, I don't believe that the firearms of the government army can break the shield chariot."
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The war in Guizhou has begun, and Zhu Xieyuan also wrote early to tell Zhu Youxiao his plan.

There is no need to doubt people, and there is no doubt in employing people. Zhu Youxiao is naturally very relieved about Zhu Xieyuan. He will give money when he wants money and soldiers when he wants soldiers.

And he only wants one result, which is to win, and he doesn't care about anything else.

"Has Zhu Xieyuan's question book arrived?"

In the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youxiao sat on a dragon-carved armchair covered with yellow cushions. He took the question book handed over by He Ning and started asking without looking back.

"I haven't reported back to Your Majesty yet. However, I have already said hello to the Supervisor of Ceremonies and the Secretary of General Administration. As long as there are inscriptions on the Southwest War, they will be sent to you as soon as possible. Please rest assured, Your Majesty."

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but have a look of disappointment in his eyes. He calculated the time and found that Zhu Xieyuan would probably take action within the next few days, but he didn't know what the effect would be.

"Well, the war in the southwest is urgent. Keep an eye on it at all times and report any news to me."

As Zhu Youxiao spoke, he picked up a cup of tea. The faint fragrance of the tea was refreshing. He took a sip and stopped caring about the affairs in the southwest. Instead, he opened the question book and started reading.

These are today's important question books, specially sent here by the Supervisor of Ceremonies.

Zhu Youxiao casually opened a question book and saw that it was written about things in Jingying.

Chen Liangbi had previously reported to Zhu Youxiao that the Wu Yi and Wu Xiong troops of the Sixth Army of the Beijing Camp had been reorganized, and the muskets and Krupp cannons had also been installed.

In addition, in June Caolanchang selected a group of people to camp in Beijing, and so far they have been getting along well.But now the other armies in the Beijing Camp are almost ready, and there are not many generals left, so Chen Liangbi wants to recruit a group of people from Licaolanchang.

When Zhu Youxiao heard this, he couldn't help but think about it. Now that the military preparation school is about to be built, there is no further recruitment in Licaolanchang, and the number of people is not large.

And now after two batches of selections in Licaolanchang, almost all the noble children selected in the first batch have entered the Beijing camp. If there is another selection, I am afraid they will have to be selected from the children of the border army at the beginning of this year.

This is somewhat different from Zhu Youxiao's original expectation.His original plan was to have these children of the border army return to serve in the original border army after training, so that he could greatly improve his control over the border army.But if we want to enrich the Beijing camp now, I'm afraid this matter will have to be postponed a little bit.

But he thought for a while and agreed. He still knew about the horse bones purchased for a thousand dollars.

If these children of the border army can enter the Beijing Camp, wouldn't it be possible to encourage more talents to actively participate in the selection of the Military Academy next year? This is a very profitable business.

Thinking of this, he started to review with a red pen, agreed to the request, and paid special attention to letting Cao Bianjiao and Zuo Liangyu enter the Yaowu and Wuxiong armies respectively, starting from the post commander.

Although Zhu Youxiao liked Cao Bianjiao very much, he felt that this man looked slightly younger than him, but he was extremely brave. His actions in history also proved that this man would definitely be a fierce general.

It's just that Zhu Youxiao admires him very much, but he can't keep him by his side all the time, otherwise it will be bad if it makes him feel lazy. He still needs to be put into the army for training.

After the work in the Beijing camp was completed, Zhu Youxiao opened a second, thicker booklet. This was a pamphlet jointly signed by the Governor of Gyeonggi Province and the Governor of Tianjin Prefecture. It talked about his achievements in the Gyeonggi farm.

It has been almost a year since I arranged for Zuo Guangdou and Zou Yuanbiao to go on a farm trip last year.

It's over now, and the two of them have given themselves a satisfactory answer.

Zou Yuanbiao first reused Dong Yingju's farming and recruited 12 households of refugees from Liaodong and Shandong in the Shuntian, Yongping, Hejian, and Baoding areas.Purchased more than 18 acres of private land, and together with [-] acres of idle land, recruited refugees to cultivate it. In addition to paying taxes, they could harvest [-] shi of wheat every year.

More importantly, these lands are the worst in the Gyeonggi region, but even this land can store food, which shocked Zhu Youxiao.

But Zuo Guangdou did even better. He had written to himself before and proposed the "Three Causes" and "Fourteen Meetings" for farming. After seeing this, he neatly allocated 15 taels of silver from internal funds to let him go about it.

Zuo Guangdou, who took the money, did not disappoint Zhu Youxiao. After a year of hard work, the previous petition was gradually effective.

According to what the title book says, he has been doing it himself since last year, dredging branch canals, digging ground for wells, setting up dams to block water, and building slopes downstream to solve irrigation problems.

At the same time, he personally explored wasteland and established a village school. Taking advantage of the village school's advantage in taking imperial examinations, he encouraged people to donate land for school and encouraged local farming.

Now the reclaimed wasteland, tidal flats and fields donated by the common people total more than 20 acres of land, recruit [-] refugee households, and harvest [-] shi of grain every year.

What surprised Zhu Youxiao even more was that he also cooperated with Xu Guangqi to specially select places to grow crops such as rice and sweet potatoes.

You must know that Xu Guangqi is not only a master of Western learning, but also a master of agriculture. He understands these very well. With the cooperation of the two, rice has been successfully grown in Tianjin, and the yield of sweet potatoes is also amazing, with a yield of about [-] kilograms per mu.

But Zuo Guangdou also mentioned a very serious problem in the title book, that is, he found that the north is not suitable for growing sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes like warm temperatures, and the yield of the sweet potatoes cultivated in Fujian can reach about [-] kilograms.

By comparison, the yield of sweet potatoes grown in the north is [-]% lower than in the south, which is very uneconomical.Therefore, he suggested in the title book that if sweet potatoes are to be promoted, it would be better to promote sweet potatoes in the south.

Zhu Youxiao doesn't know much about this, but sweet potatoes have just been introduced to China. Any variety has a process of optimization and improvement. Now the yield in the north is low, so just improve it slowly. Zhu Youxiao doesn't care too much. .

However, since the south is suitable for planting, people can be encouraged to grow sweet potatoes, especially in the southwest, where there are many mountains and hills and barren land, which is perfect for growing sweet potatoes.

As for the north, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but think about it. In his impression, the north, especially the northwest, eats less sweet potatoes, but more potatoes.

This potato is also an American crop. Since sweet potatoes were introduced to China, potatoes must have been introduced as well.

Not only does it have a large yield, it likes cold temperatures but is not tolerant of high temperatures, and is more tolerant of drought and waterlogging. It is indeed very suitable for planting in the north, and it is also easy to care for. If it can be promoted on a large scale in the north, it will definitely be a great blessing.

Thinking of this, he immediately picked up a red pen and described the characteristics of potatoes, asking Zuo Guangdou and others to pay attention to them and try planting them if there were any.

As for the promotion of sweet potatoes, let the cabinet and others discuss a charter, and the Chief Secretary of the South can encourage the people to try planting it first.

But Zhu Youxiao was afraid that the people below would get the wrong idea, so he repeatedly emphasized that the government should never force people to plant. If the people were willing, they could give them some support. If they didn't want to, forget it.

He didn't want to cause some stupid thing about "changing rice into mulberry" and make the people below boil with dissatisfaction.

　Sweet potatoes are sweet potatoes. They were introduced to China during the Wanli Dynasty. The yield of [-] kilograms is based on statistics from the Qing Dynasty.

　　As for rice cultivation in Tianjin, it was Zuo Guangdou who successfully experimented in Tianjin in history.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)