Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 146
"I have already felt your thoughts, and I have dealt with Xiyang Ha, the worm outside the pass, for you..."

In the Bohai Palace, as Zhu Gaoxu put down his wine glass, he, who was wearing a golden sword, also looked at Yi Shiha.

At his signal, Yishiha walked out of the Carrying Hall, and soon walked into the Carrying Hall carrying a tray.

Zhang Chun ordered someone to bring a table and place it between the 69 envoys on the left and right sides.

Seeing this, Yi Shiha placed the tray on the table and then lifted the white cloth on it.

In an instant, everyone's breath froze and they all looked away from the tray.

On the tray, the heads of Xiyang Ha and Shuer Ha were placed.

The lime-pickled head has no decay and no odor, only a strong smell of lime.

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the 69 envoys who avoided their heads with satisfaction, and raised the corners of his mouth:

"Although this great harm has been eliminated, there are still seven tribes of Azhemei who are with him in the upper reaches, as well as the tribes of Uliangha in the Suwen River, Nawen River, and Uliangha."

"Although Xiyang Ha has been eliminated now, once the news spreads to the Ulliang Ha tribes, I am afraid they will also seek opportunities to take revenge."

"Sitting alone in Jilin City, I have a fortified city and powerful cannons. I have the Liaodong capital behind me, the King of Yan, and His Majesty... Of course there is no need to worry, but what about you?"

Everyone here didn't understand what Zhu Gaoxu's words meant.

Although the relationship between the Ulyanha tribes and them is not very good, it is not too bad either.

The tribes of Wuliangha needed them to transport sea salt, firewood, and farming grain, and they needed Wuliangha's cattle, sheep, and horses. It can be said that the two are interdependent and not as dangerous as Zhu Gaoxu said.

However, the tribal diplomacy outside the customs is not strong. A white disaster can make two tribes who have been friends for generations draw swords against each other, not to mention the hundreds of years of grievances between the Mongols and the Jurchens.

Xiyang Ha is a target of support from the Uuliang Ha tribes in order to prevent the Ming Dynasty from completely controlling the outside world.

Now that Xiyang Ha has been killed, Wu Liang Ha has no spokesperson outside the customs. On the other hand, Zhu Gaoxu's strong rise has completely broken the situation.

No one can predict what Wu Liangha will do in the coming year.

Of course they can bet that Wu Liangha will support the new Jurchen tribe, but there is Zhu Gaoxu outside the pass, and Zhu Gaoxu can use the Songhua River water transportation to attack the Jurchen tribes wantonly.

I'm afraid that if the front leg took refuge with Wu Liangha, the back leg would be destroyed by Zhu Gaoxu's troops.

Although Wu Liangha is stronger than Zhu Gaoxu, as Zhu Gaoxu said, behind him are Liaodong Dusi and Zhu Di, as well as the entire Ming Dynasty. But what about Wu Liangha?
Although the news from the Haixi tribes was blocked, they were not isolated from the world. Everyone knew that the Northern Yuan Dynasty was in internal strife and was unable to interfere outside the customs.

Without the support of Beiyuan, the Ulangha tribes would be nothing more than a group of bandits.

The distance from Wuliangha Tucheng to Jilin City is nearly [-] miles, but from Kaiyuan, Liaodong to Jilin City is only [-] miles. Fighting Jilin City is completely outweighed by the gains and losses for Wuliangha, and it is also easy to be recovered by the Liaodong Ming Army. They I haven't figured it out yet.

Therefore, in the current situation, as long as Beiyuan does not interfere, Zhu Gaoxu's title of Lord Outside the Pass can almost be secured. Occasionally, some Wudiha and rebels will not be able to pose a threat to him.

After years of attacks by the Mongols, the Jurchen tribes were already weak and paid tribute to North Korea, let alone the Ming Dynasty, which was more than ten times more powerful than North Korea.

The reason why I didn't dare to make it too obvious before was because Ming Dynasty was weak outside the pass and Xiyang Ha was powerful.

Now that Xiyang Ha is dead, Zhu Gaoxu's words have become an iron rule outside the pass. Even if he only has more than 1000 soldiers and horses, his more than 1000 soldiers and horses are enough to defeat tens of thousands of people from all the Haixi tribes.

Facing Zhu Gaoxu, the Haixi tribes could not unite as one. Even the leaders of the six cities could only pull out three or four thousand men alone, which was no match for Zhu Gaoxu.

What's more, Zhu Gaoxu was not averse to mutual trading. Instead, he actively traded with each other and gave grain to various ministries as a trade.

Outside the Pass, food is more important than gold and silver. If Zhu Gaoxu masters this, it is equivalent to mastering half of the lifeblood of the tribes outside the Pass, and the remaining half is controlled by the soldiers and horses in his hands.

Therefore, the current 69 envoys just want to know what the former Zhu Gaoxu's words mean.

"Your Highness, do you want to protect us?"

As the force with the best relationship with Jilin City, Futijin City's Ta She was the first to break the deadlock, and Zhu Gaoxu also slightly nodded and glanced:

"I want to build a military fort at the mouth of the Sach River, Zhaozhou Station in the Yuan Dynasty, and station a thousand armored cavalry there."

Zhu Gaoxu spoke slowly, but what he said made everyone take a breath.

Zhaozhou Station is an outpost facing the Ulliangha Grassland. If there is a military fort here, all the Jurchen tribes can sleep peacefully.

Needless to say, the importance of a thousand armored cavalry. If there are really a thousand armored cavalry stationed at Zhaozhou Station, even the Uliangha people will have to consider whether it is worth it.

However, it is precisely because of the heavy weight of a thousand armored cavalry that the Jurchen tribes doubted Zhu Gaoxu.

"Gu currently only has [-] armored cavalry, but Gu Ye has asked Your Majesty to mobilize troops to go north. After next spring, it will not be difficult for the Bohai Palace to gather [-] armored cavalry to garrison Zhaozhou Station, but..."

He paused, his eyes resting on Ta Shi for a moment, as if signaling Ta Shi to cooperate with him.

"However, a Jia Cavalry requires retinues. A Jia Cavalry requires at least two retinues, and I am still short of four hundred horses. Besides, if you want to be self-sufficient at Zhaozhou Station, you must at least cultivate enough land in Jilin City, and enough The land requires enough tribesmen and cattle to cultivate and cultivate it.”

Zhu Gaoxu's fox tail emerged. He wanted to collect some wool from the 69 tribes as a condition for protecting the tribes.

In this regard, the tribes were not nervous or resistant, because according to Zhu Gaoxu's words, he needed [-] military horses and [-] retinues, as well as varying numbers of tribesmen and cattle.

The first two are not a problem, and 69 parts can be cobbled together, but the problem lies in the latter.

"May I ask how many troops and cattle your Highness needs?" The loss of the tower did not disappoint Zhu Gaoxu. He followed Zhu Gaoxu's words and asked.

Although all the envoys could see the two men's tricks, no one dared to expose them.

In response, Zhu Gaoxu also chuckled and said: "The tribe does not need you to come out. I have captured a large number of tribesmen from Xiyang Ha. What I need are cattle."

"I have calculated that after Zhaozhou Station is built, it will need at least 3000 retinues, and the rations for these [-] troops are [-] dan per year. At least [-] acres of cultivated land will need to be cultivated."

"The land in Jilin City is fertile, and I still have thousands of livestock on hand, so I don't need much from you. You only need to gather [-] cattle."

"Seven hundred heads..." After hearing Zhu Gaoxu's words, the 69 envoys looked at each other.

If these seven hundred cattle are divided equally, it means that each department must produce at least ten cattle.

This number of cattle is nothing for the Six Cities and the other eleven major departments, but it is very difficult for some small departments.

In response to this, many envoys from small tribes looked embarrassed, but at this time Ta Shi stood up:
"Each tribe has its own difficulties. Small tribes cannot raise many followers and cattle, so large tribes have to raise more."

"Our city of Phutijin is the first of the six cities. We have [-] retinues, fifty oxen, and fifty military horses."

After all, Futigin City was Jilin City's largest trading partner. With Ta Shi's advice, one-tenth of what Jilin City needed was collected at once.

When he stood up like this, the envoys from other small tribes looked much better.

"Towen City can produce one hundred followers, forty cattle, and sixty military horses..."

"Forsimu City can produce 150 retinues, [-] oxen and [-] horses each..."

"It's OK to kick Xi Cheng..."

“Kaolang Ancient City…”

"City of Kiramet..."

"Mangji Tower City..."

At Ta Shi's call, the six richest cities in the Jurchen tribes each provided retinues, cattle, and horses. In just six cities, they could make up one-third of what Zhu Gaoxu needed.

With them taking the lead, things became much easier to handle. Some large fortresses began to get up and make up the numbers, and soon they had collected the remaining one-half.

As for the last few hundred followers and dozens of cattle and horses, they were gathered together by more than 30 small tribes.

Seeing that what he wanted was collected, Zhu Gaoxu also raised his wine glass:

"Okay, after the spring, I will open the mutual market in Jilin City and build Zhaozhou City at Zhaozhou Station."

"Anyone who holds the solitary banner will avenge him if he is bullied. If there is any difficulty, he will do his best to help."

"In the future, if the imperial court wants to recruit people outside Guan, I will definitely find a job for you and get a salary."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" After hearing Zhu Gaoxu's words, even though they knew that this was unlikely to come true, everyone still raised their glasses. After all, Bohai now has food that can enable the various tribes to expand and develop.

The matter was settled, no matter whether it could be fulfilled later, but the atmosphere was at least up. Zhu Gaoxu also established his status outside the customs. Therefore, after drinking for three rounds, he used the excuse of being too drunk to let Yishiha and Zhang Chundai greet him by themselves. 69 messengers returned to the backyard with the gift stickers.

When he returned to the study, he could still vaguely hear the bustle in the front yard, but compared to the noisy sound, he cared more about the gift sticker.

It's not that Zhu Gaoxu is greedy for petty gains, but for him now, not a penny can be wasted.

He read it at night, and after just a few breaths, Zhu Gaoxu took a look at everything on it.

After all, there were about 100 war horses, more than [-] cattle and hundreds of furs. "Not bad..." Looking at the gift card, Zhu Gaoxu had a smile on his face.

Gradually, he also felt that his eyelids were fighting. After several struggles, he gave up the idea of ​​writing textbooks. He took off his clothes and lay down on the bed to rest.

"Giggle-"

The golden rooster crowed, and Zhu Gaoxu had a very comfortable sleep. However, when he got up, the cold air that surrounded him made him reluctant to leave the bed.

After struggling for a long time, he got up from the bed and quickly put on the clean clothes placed on the table by the soldiers.

When he opened the door, he realized that the outside of the bedroom was covered with white snow. It was obvious that he had missed the first snow in Jilin City.

"No wonder it's so cold..."

Tightening his clothes with his hands, Zhu Gaoxu let out a breath of white mist. At this moment, Lin Su, who was carrying breakfast, happened to be walking from outside the hospital.

"Your Highness, why did you get up so early?"

Lin Su looked surprised and walked into the house carrying a bowl of hot noodles and a bowl of mutton.

"You eat first, and I'll get you some hot water for washing."

After giving the explanation, Lin Su turned around and left. Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu returned to the bedroom and sat down. Not long after, he saw Lin Su walking into the yard again carrying a copper basin and a towel.

Zhu Gaoxu washed himself briefly, sat back down, and asked while eating: "Is the Songhua River not frozen?"

"No, I asked specifically. It won't freeze until at least mid-October." Lin Su sat opposite Zhu Gaoxu and watched him eat.

"Accompany me to the shipyard for a while." Zhu Gaoxu explained, and Lin Su nodded to indicate that he understood.

Jilin Shipyard has three hundred boatmen there. However, since Zhu Gaoxu came to Jilin City, these boatmen have stopped building ships. Instead, like many craftsmen, they have invested in construction inside and outside Jilin City.

Now that Xiyang Ha has been solved and all the tribes in the Songhua River Basin have surrendered, Zhu Gaoxu will have to make good use of the Songhua River water transport.

Not to mention the length after confluence with Heilongjiang, the Songhua River basin alone reaches 10,000+ square kilometers. The entire basin has overlapping mountains and is covered with virgin forests. The wood accumulated in the Daxinganling, Xiaoxinanling, Changbai Mountain and other mountain ranges can pass through. It comes to complete the transportation.

In addition, Zhu Gaoxu is more concerned about the minerals in the Songhua River Basin.

In addition to the scarce coal outside the customs, the local area also has gold, copper, iron and other minerals, as well as rich fishery resources.

Of course, the Songhua River also has its own shortcomings, that is, due to its high latitude, the freezing period of the Songhua River lasts for more than five months. In the Ming Dynasty, this freezing period was even longer, lasting five and a half months.

However, the freezing period will not affect Zhu Gaoxu and Jilin City, because he has arranged manpower at the three mines. Now as long as Jianwu goes to work there, a large amount of raw materials will be transported to Jilin City by shipping every spring.

To transport so many raw materials, ships are indispensable, and the few small ships with hundreds of materials currently in Jilin Shipyard obviously cannot meet the needs of Jilin City.

At this time, the shipwrights Zhu Gaoxu brought from Longjiang Shipyard will be useful.

They have built two thousand large ships in Nanjing and have rich shipbuilding experience.

They were busy with construction before and had no need for water transportation, so they have been idle.

But now with the rise of Zhaozhou City and Andong City, water transportation will also become the lowest-cost transportation method between the three cities.

However, the specific number of ships that can be navigable in the Songhua River will not be known until Zhu Gaoxu goes to the shipyard and asks the shipwrights in the shipyard.

Therefore, facing the noodles and mutton in front of him, Zhu Gaoxu quickly ate them all, and then took Lin Su to the shipyard outside the city.

As early as when Zhu Gaoxu said he was going to the shipyard, Lin Su notified the shipwrights to assemble, so when they arrived at the shipyard, 320 shipwrights from Jilin Shipyard had already gathered.

Jilin Shipyard is not big, its width from east to west is no more than a hundred paces, and its length from north to south is no more than 150 paces.

The shipyard is surrounded by a wooden wall of [-] feet, and there are three shipyards inside.

The dock in Jilin City conforms to the design of the dock in the early Ming Dynasty. The dock is connected to the land on three sides and faces the water on three sides. Its basic components are the dock mouth, the dock chamber and the dock head.

The dock opening is used for entering and exiting ships, and is equipped with a water-blocking dock door. The drainage and irrigation equipment of the dock are often built in the dock piers on both sides of the dock opening.

The dock room is used to place ships. The bottom plate of the dock room is provided with keel piers and side piers to support the ship.

The dock head is the end opposite to the dock mouth. Its plane shape can be rectangular, semicircular or diamond-shaped. The space at the dock head is part of the dock room, where the wooden paddle is disassembled and assembled.

The inland dock is equipped with a variety of relatively primitive machinery for lifting, rust removal, painting and boat pulling.

Normally, when a ship enters a dry dock for repairs, the dock is first filled with water using irrigation and drainage facilities. When the water level inside the dock is equal to that outside the dock, the dock door is opened and draft horses and oxen are used to slowly pull the ship in. In the dock, the water in the dock is then drained so that the ship can sit on the keel pier.

When the ship is ready to be undocking after being repaired or built, the boatmen will pour water into the dock. When the water level inside and outside the dock door is equal, they will open the dock door and lead the ship out of the dock.

This method was thought up by Zhang Ping in the Song Dynasty and has been used for more than [-] years.

With the experience of Longjiang Shipyard, Zhu Gaoxu also has a lot of experience when looking at Jilin Shipyard.

Just by looking at these three shipyards, he knew what the shipbuilding level of Jilin Shipyard was.

He returned to the place where the boatmen gathered. The Jilin [-] boatmen were headed by Wang Shipeng, the most senior person in the Jilin Shipyard, and the Longjiang [-] boatmen were headed by Liu Shipeng, who had experience in warships with [-] materials.

Zhu Gaoxu called the two of them forward, and then asked Lin Su to dismiss the other boatmen.

With the two of them, Zhu Gaoxu walked not far from the three docks, pointed at the three docks and said:

"I've seen the shipyard. The ships that can be built should be ships with less than [-] materials, right?"

"Your Highness, it's true." Boatman Wang, who has been building ships in Jilin City for several years, replied respectfully. Zhu Gaoxu nodded, but then asked:
"In your opinion, what is the largest ship that can pass on the Songhua River from Jilin City to the south?"

"This..." Boatman Wang was a little frightened and hesitated to speak. It was not until he saw Zhu Gaoxu's encouraging eyes that he said boldly:
"If we talk about April to October, the maximum number of warships that can pass is 320 materials. But building such a warship will take at least six months based on the current number of [-] shipwrights."

"In addition, the baking yard for processing wood in the shipyard also needs to be expanded. Moreover, we have never built such a large ship, so we cannot guarantee success in the first time."

"Well..." After hearing what Wang Boateng said, Zhu Gaoxu nodded in affirmation, and then looked at Liu Boateng on the side: "What do you think?"

"Go back to Your Highness." Although Boateng Liu was only in his early twenties, he had met many high-ranking officials in Longjiang Shipyard, and Zhu Gaoxu was easy to talk to, so he relaxed and said:
"In the humble opinion of ordinary people, if you want to build a warship, it is best to control it with about [-] materials. In this way, the shipbuilding time will only take three months. But the problem now is the wood."

Liu Shipengong explained: "The existing wood in the shipyard can only make [-] pieces of warships. Although there is enough wood everywhere outside the pass to build large ships, wooden roads need to be built to transport wood from the mountain to the bottom..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Gaoxu asked first:

"Now we are urgently repairing the wooden road, transporting wood from Longtan Mountain in the east, and building a baking yard at the same time. Can we build a ship in April next year?"

"Okay, but it's snowing now. I'm afraid..." Liu Boateng hesitated, but Wang Boateng answered quickly:
"Don't worry about it. Just wait until mid-October. Then you can pour water from the mountain to freeze it and transport the wood from the mountain to the Songhua River along the ice road."

After staying in Jilin City for many years, Wang Boateng may not be as good as Liu Boateng in shipbuilding skills, but he is much smarter than Liu Boateng in how to transport and cut wood.

After listening to his words, Zhu Gaoxu also nodded and took out a design sketch from his sleeve:
"I don't know how to design a ship. This is the ship I want. I don't know if it can be built..."

Zhu Gaoxu handed over a sketch, and Liu Boateng and Wang Boateng took it and looked at it together.

The shape of the ship in this sketch is different from the current shape of warships, but only slight adjustments have been made, and traces of Chinese sailing ships can still be seen on the whole.

This sketch was drawn by Zhu Gaoxu based on his memory of the Ming and Zheng Jung ships in the late Ming Dynasty. Compared with the ships in the Hongwu period, the Ming and Zheng Jung ships had two fixed gun rails and good gun mounts and chains.

Boatengong Liu carefully looked at the length and width of the warship on this sketch, as well as its draft, as well as the final design of the gun rails, gun mounts and chain bolts, and finally sighed:
"Although this ship only has [-] materials, it can carry seven cannons on each side, and it can also have two cannons on the bow and stern."

"If you want to build it, it can certainly be built, and it can be built with up to [-] materials, or even up to [-] or [-] materials."

"However, the cost of building such a warship will probably be a bit high, and there are no craftsmen proficient in cannon casting in Jilin City. Even if the bowl-mouth blunderbuss on the current warships is moved to this ship, it will not be able to get what it needs. artillery……"

Liu Boateng showed regret, but Zhu Gaoxu was not surprised or strange at all, but said calmly:
"I will write to the court and ask the court to send artillery and gunpowder to Jilin City. You don't have to worry about the artillery. If it doesn't work, I will have the artillery removed from the two military forts at Fortress Mountain and Taoyuan Mountain."

"From now on, I will transfer one hundred households of soldiers and five hundred male and female laborers to you each. You only need to build such a warship with eight hundred materials after the beginning of spring."

Zhu Gaoxu looked directly at Boatengong Liu. Hearing this, Boatengong Liu also looked at each other with Boatengong Wang, and finally bowed: "The common people will live up to His Highness's expectations. Please rest assured, Your Highness."

Seeing the two men agree, Zhu Gaoxu turned his head and looked at Lin Su, who was silent at the side: "You are responsible for this matter. If you two gentlemen need anything, you can do it."

"Yes." Lin Su nodded in agreement. Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu didn't say anything else and left the shipyard with Lin Su.

When they returned to Jilin City, they happened to meet the 69 envoys who were about to leave, so they greeted them at the city gate for a while, and it was not until Chen that they watched them leave with their own eyes.

Looking at their departing figures, Zhu Gaoxu turned his attention to the Jilin Shipyard in the distance.

"As long as I can control the Songhua River and Heilongjiang, I can't escape from outside the pass..."

　"Bohai Chronicles": On Dingsi, the leap month of the 28th year of Hongwu, 69 tribes in six cities heard that Shangping's slave thief Xiyang Ha had come to surrender, and the superiors lured them with benefits. The tribes heard that they offered more than [-] troops and horses, and the superiors accepted them. Of.

　　"Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty": On Dingsi, the leap month of the 28th year of Hongwu, the tribes outside the Guan Dynasty heard about his reputation and respected him. They offered more than thousands of troops and horses, but the emperor did not accept them. The tribes offered again, and the emperor accepted them.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)