Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 355 Ungrateful

"Uh-huh!!"

"Stop fighting! Stop fighting!"

In February, amidst the sounds of smashing and crying, an alley in Suzhou was heavily surrounded.

Outside the alley, a man wearing a black military uniform from Xichang was riding on horseback, with the Pingdu Prefecture guard beside him.

The man didn't speak, and the guard didn't dare to speak rashly.

After a while, two men in black military uniforms walked out with more than a dozen soldiers. They held the book in their hands, and the soldiers carried rubbings on their shoulders.

"Sir, the evidence is conclusive. Banned books are indeed being printed here and are being prepared to be sold."

A man in black spoke, and the man on the horse lowered his head and looked at the Suzhou City guard: "Wang Qianhu, please take action to trouble your people. Arrest and imprison all the people in this bookstore and their relatives. Wait. The imperial decree.”

"Yes, yes, yes... I will do it now!" The guard was sweating profusely, and he quickly ordered people to escort hundreds of employees from the bookstore in the alley, and arrest their families based on their addresses.

Not surprisingly, they will face deportation to remote areas such as Gansu or Daning.

"I said I haven't seen them move these days, and they already know that this case has nothing to do with them, and they are all waiting to see my joke!"

Tartar is different from Wu Liangha. Wu Liangha is not strong to begin with, but even so, he has been fighting in Modong with the father and son Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di for more than ten years.

If it were a student from other places, I'm afraid they would have already fallen into the Yi tribe, and there wouldn't even be room for negotiation.

"Recruiting 150,000 civilians from Hanzhou, Changchun, Zhaozhou, Jilin, and Andong, each with a daily salary of 20 cents, waiting for the imperial court's order to assemble."

Yi Shiha explained the situation in the north. After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu touched his mustache:

Because of this, Zhu Gaoxu wanted to ask Zhu Di to send troops to weaken Arutai first, and not wait for Benya Shili and Arutai to reunite before taking action.

"Slaves teach you"

He sold the Bohai student he trained for twenty thousand dollars, which would make anyone vomit blood if he heard this.

Zhu Gaoxu only arranged logistics. As for the army, he was not considering it. Zhu Di would handle it himself.

Not Zhu Gaoxu, Wang Ping is still an ordinary military child in Jilin Shipyard, and can only stay in Jilin farming for the rest of his life.

If Oara is included, there should be a population of more than one million and a fighting force of 120,000 or 30,000.

Yishiha tried to comfort Zhu Gaoxu, but Zhu Gaoxu laughed angrily. He walked back and forth in front of the desk, muttering:

"If Wang Ping is defeated, his descendants will not be admitted in the imperial examination for five generations!"

Originally, Zhu Gaoxu thought that officials from Jiangzuo, western Zhejiang, and Jiangdong were causing trouble behind this case. If that was the case, he would have someone to vent his anger on, but the reality gave him a slap in the face.

Zhu Gaoxu's rage came from the spread of the teaching materials, and the spread of the teaching materials came from the stupidity of the person he spoke of.

"Your Highness, do you want to use the topic to your advantage? Anyway, many students in Jiangxi and Jiangdong have bought the textbooks."

Amid the cries, all the more than a hundred people were taken away, and all the tablets and banned books in the library were burned.

Fifty-six bookstores have been raided since January alone, involving more than 5,000 people.

Yi Shiha wanted Zhu Gaoxu to kill Jiangnan's majesty, but Zhu Gaoxu raised his hand after hearing this: "Everyone who bought the textbooks is ordered to return the textbooks. The court will refund the money according to the market price. Anyone who dares to make rubbings privately, the Yi tribe!"

"Your Highness, please calm down..."

In comparison, Arutai, who can pull out 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers, can be said to be a powerful opponent, not to mention the Wala nobles such as Mahamu, Taiping, and Batu Polo.

This is still the case where the Mongols from Central Asia have not moved eastward. If the Mongols from Central Asia wait for the Mongols to move eastward, it is estimated that the Tatars and Oaras will really be able to attract a population of 1.6 million and an army of nearly 150,000 to compete with the Ming Dynasty.

Judging from Zhu Gaoxu's punishment of Wang Ping and the Ministry of Justice and Punishment, Zhu Gaoxu did not treat Wang Pingyi's three tribes for the sake of Wang Ping's Bohai Jilin people.

Wang Ping, a teacher at Dongcheng Official School in Pingdu Prefecture, Shandong Province, a native of Jilin, Bohai Sea, disseminated the complete set of teaching materials for only fifty guan.

"Preach to me the official schools of various places, and let me publish a notice of Wang Ping's fate, so that all the teachers in the world can take a good look at how he made the imperial court spend tens of thousands of manpower and material resources just for twenty guan of money!"

At this moment, Arutai has 50,000 to 60,000 capable soldiers and 3 to 400,000 tribesmen.

Zhu Gaoxu calmed down the fire and began to care about the Northern Expedition in the north.

"How is the allocation of food and grass in the north?"

This was perhaps the day when Zhu Gaoxu mentioned the "Three Yi Tribes" the most. Even so, the only people he killed were Wang Ping, and the rest of the people involved were exiled to the Modong Three Guards of Daning Dusi.

"The current problems in the Northern Expedition are mainly the problems of the people."

What the Ming Dynasty had to deal with this time was mainly the Alutai tribe entrenched in the Hulunbuir Grassland. After repelling them, they left troops to station in the western section of the Harawen Mountains and gradually moved towards the upper reaches of the Onan River.

Zhu Gaoxu gave him a chance, but he stabbed Zhu Gaoxu directly in the back.

"Shandong transported 500,000 stones to Liaodong, and Liaodong bought 500,000 stones from the private sector and went north to Hecheng Guards."

"Issuing a teaching order to the Ministry of Punishment and asking them to add a law. Anyone who sells official textbooks privately will be barbaric to the three tribes!"

This situation is just a microcosm of the entire Jiangnan...

"Yes..." After hearing Zhu Gaoxu's words, Yishiha sighed in his heart.

As a result, due to personal stupidity, these textbooks were printed and sold, and now they have spread throughout Jiangnan.

"Modong Sanwei has opened more than 70,000 acres of farmland, with an output of about seven buckets. There are nearly 30,000 military households and civilians in the area. Bohai and Liaodong have also successively transported 600,000 stone grains to the local area, and 480,000 people have been transported. stone."

You must know that it took Zhu Gaoxu two years to write this batch of textbooks, and the manpower and material resources spent are difficult to evaluate.

In the Chunhe Hall, when Zhu Gaoxu spoke angrily, Yi Shiha quickly bowed in response.

Because of this, we can also see how embarrassed Zhu Gaoxu is.

Judging from the two largest northern expeditions in the early Ming Dynasty, they were 130,000 during Hongwu's Northern Expedition at the Battle of Yuerhai, and Zhu Di's first personal expedition to Alutai. During Benya's disappearance, the number was about 120,000.

Outside the country far away from the supply center, Ming's largest troop dispatch was 130,000.

Of course, if we were more ruthless, we might be able to collect 150,000, but there is no need, because the Mongols really have no chance of winning against the Ming army.

In the case of Zhu Di's personal expedition to Arutai, the 500,000 people combined with the 120,000 troops and 300,000 civilians were actually transported to the front line, and only the 20,000 to 30,000 people around Zhu Di were transported.

Even so, Zhu Di defeated the 50,000 or 60,000 people in Arutai and Benyasili head-on with 20,000 to 30,000 men.

This is still the Ming army in history, but the current Ming army has artillery and matchlocks, its combat power is even worse than in history, and the distance of the Northern Expedition has also been directly shortened.

From Hecheng Guard to the upper reaches of the Onan River, only 50,000 troops and 150,000 civilians are enough.

Taking advantage of Benya's loss and not moving eastward, he first beat Arutai to the point of paralysis, then rested for two years before cleaning up Oala, and maimed Mahamu, Taiping, and Tupolo.

In this way, we can at least buy more than ten years of peace for Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di made five northern expeditions. The reason why he did not gain much in the last three northern expeditions was because the first two northern expeditions severely wounded the Tatar and Oara tribes. When they saw Zhu Di, they ran for their lives, especially the Arutai Lianliang. The carts and herds were lost, causing the tribe to freeze to death and starve to death.

In Zhu Gaoxu's view, two northern expeditions were enough to ensure peace in Modong.

As long as Daning's Modong Three Guards are given ten years, the Modong Three Guards will definitely be able to serve as the granary for the Ming Army's Western Expedition in the future and continuously deliver food and grass to the Ming Army.

With the Modong Three Guards as the foundation, plus the control of Hami in the future, the Ming army can completely attack the Tatar and Oara tribes from the east and west directions.

As long as thousands of field cavalry are maintained to attack the nests of the two armies every year, within a few years the two armies will be unable to survive and move westward.

Thinking that the Mongolian problem could be solved, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but calm down when he was originally angry because of Wang Ping's incident.

"By the way, how's the Loop doing?"

Taking a deep breath to soothe his mood, Zhu Gaoxu sat back in his seat and asked about the Loop.

"The situation in the Hetao is good!" When he mentioned the Hetao, Yishuhadu became a little more energetic.

"After Linsu arrived in Hetao, more than 30,000 Huhan people migrated from Shaanxi, Shaanxi and other places to graze, cultivate and build water conservancy projects there."

"From the third year of Yongle to the present, the cultivated land in the Hetao area has increased frequently. There are now nearly 500,000 acres of cultivated land. Counting the local military households, there are more than 37,000 households with a population of nearly 180,000."

“If this continues, Loop should be able to return to being a state or prefecture.”

Yishiha's happiness is justified. The Ming Dynasty's investment in the Hetao in the past four years does not include the cost. In terms of food alone, it has allocated 4 million shi, 200 tons of gunpowder, 600 tons of cement, and 4,000 tons of coal. Every year, the surplus in Shanxi is transferred to the six health centers in Hetao.

Because of this, the Loop recovered so quickly and established its own "industry."

"How is the Jiuyuan Iron Mine that I asked Lin Su to manage?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked with a smile. After hearing this, Yishiha immediately said happily: "This is exactly what I want to say."

"Since the iron ore was excavated for four years, nearly one million kilograms of wrought iron have been produced every year. The cost is only five cents per catty, but the sales are thirty cents."

"With this income alone, Jiuyuanwei can earn more than 20,000 yuan per year. Although it is not self-sufficient yet, as time goes by, I believe that day will come soon."

"In addition, Chahan Nao'erwei (Ordos) under the rule of Jiuyuanwei has also found the coal mine you mentioned. Some coal mines are difficult to mine, but there are many coal mines that are easy to mine." "According to your instructions, Your Highness Thousands of local military households make a living by mining coal, and thousands of people can mine more than 30,000 tons of coal every year."

"Right now, the Chief Envoy of Shanxi and the Chief Envoy of Shaanxi are quarreling over this matter."

"The Chief Envoy of Shanxi Province believes that the area belongs to Shanxi Xingdu Division, so it naturally belongs to Shanxi."

"The Chief Envoy of Shaanxi Province believes that the area has been subordinate to Shaanxi since ancient times, so it naturally belongs to Shaanxi."

Yi Shiha told the story of the quarrel between officials from Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces as if telling a joke. Zhu Gaoxu also chuckled after hearing this:

"In the early years when this was still a barren land, no one of them took over it. Now that there are iron ore and coal mines here, they are fighting for it."

Zhu Gaoxu stroked his mustache: "No matter who they belong to, I have made up my mind."

"Now is not a good time to set up a government in the area. At least we have to wait until the end of the first northern expedition."

"But once the news about the iron ore and coal in this place is leaked, the Tatars and Oaras in the north may want to occupy this place."

Human beings wage wars to compete for resources. Now that the once barren Hetao can produce iron ore and coal, two necessities of the Ming Dynasty, it will naturally be coveted by others.

If Tatar and Oara can obtain the current Hetao, it will not be a problem for them to equip tens of thousands of sets of armor a year.

If these treasures buried in the earth had not been awakened by Zhu Gaoxu, it would have taken hundreds of years to see the light of day again.

Zhu Gaoxu still remembers many precious places like this, such as Luzon in the south...

“How does the situation in Luzon compare with that in Hetao?”

He asked Yishiha, and Yishiha also responded to this matter: "The Pacific Fleet sent 500 craftsmen and 7,000 migrant criminals to Luzon City just a month ago."

"The Governor of Luzon has received your order. Commander Jiang Gui will soon send Luzon local soldiers who have been trained for two years to build roads in the north and explore gold and silver mines."

"Wait a minute..." Zhu Gaoxu raised his hand to interrupt, and at the same time asked Yi Shiha: "What do you think the commander's name is?"

"Jiang Gui." After Yi Shiha answered, he thought Zhu Gaoxu knew him, so he specifically said, "He is from Yan Mansion."

"Born in the Yan Mansion?" A smile appeared on Zhu Gaoxu's face. He really didn't expect to pick up a famous general from the Zhengtong era.

"Let him work hard. As long as the gold and silver mines in Luzon can be found and mined, I will remember his merits and transfer him back to the north."

"Yes..." Yi Shiha didn't understand how a mere district guard commander could make His Highness so happy. He just thought it was because Zhu Gaoxu and Jiang Gui had an old relationship.

After briefly reporting the work, Yi Shiha ordered the eunuch on duty to pass on the meal.

Zhu Gaoxu was also happy because he discovered Jiang Gui and that Hetao and Modong were on the right track.

While he was happy, he was even happier than Zheng He who had returned to the Xuanwei Department of Old Port.

"Give way! Give way!"

"Get out of the way of those in front, don't crowd in the middle of the road!"

The Palembang Pier in Yongle's seventh year seemed cleaner, neater and more prosperous than when Zheng He first arrived.

Shi Jinqing led people to welcome Zheng He, Chen Xuan, Cui Jun and others, while Liang Daoming chose to return to his hometown after going north to Ming Dynasty to accept Zhu Di's canonization. The same choice as him was Zheng Bo.

At present, there are only two guards in the Xuanwei Division of Jiugang, and twelve princely states under the Xuanwei Division.

The chiefs of these feudal states followed Zheng He to Peiping, and accepted the canonization and became native officials under the Ming Dynasty.

"You and other guards have already discussed the commissions, and you don't have any objections. In that case, let's pay the commissions to the Xuanwei Si Yamen in September every year. Is there any problem?"

Standing on the Palembang pier, Zheng He and the twelve chieftains talked with them about the issue of dispatch.

The chieftains under the rule of the Ming Dynasty would all send dispatches, and even if they issued three announcements and six consolations, they would have to pay dispatches regularly, and the same was naturally true for the twelve feudal states on Sumatra.

According to their strength, Zheng He asked them to pay various amounts of spices as payouts. These payoffs ranged from fifty to one hundred guan for each country.

Of course, for them, the spices required for this haircut are not much, and it will not affect their lives.

Only by paying a commission to the Xuanwei Department of Old Port can they obtain shelter and avoid being annexed by Aceh in the north and Majapahit in the south.

"I'll keep this in mind..."

The twelve chieftains nodded one after another. Upon seeing this, Zheng He greeted Shi Jinqing: "Send troops to escort them back to their base."

"Yes!" Shi Jinqing, who was wearing the official robe of a guard commander, saluted respectfully. Instead of his previous unruliness, he was only submissive.

These days, he followed the Nanyang Guards stationed in Palembang to chase down many pirates. He saw with his own eyes the power of the Ming army's artillery, and naturally gave up the idea of ​​separatizing the old port.

Now, all he can think about is making meritorious service and climbing up the ranks, and it would be best to achieve the position of the Propaganda Ambassador of Old Port.

After Zheng He's explanation, he immediately led his troops to escort the twelve chieftains back to their base. When Chen Xuan, who was not far away, saw Zheng He finish speaking, he also walked over and said:

"This Palembang port is much more prosperous than I imagined. It is not inferior to the terminals in Songjiang, Yangzhou and other places."

Chen Xuan and Zheng He were talking, and at the same time their eyes were also cast on the dock.

I saw that the dock was crowded with ships of various shapes, ranging from small fishing boats to large cargo ships. The crew members were dressed in colorful costumes and were busy working hard.

The pier was bustling with people coming and going. The traders took advantage of this busy place to carry various goods and shout to sell, attracting people to stop.

There are disheveled Nanyang women singing and singing, jugglers in colorful costumes performing acrobatics, and monkeys and tigers performing tricks, making people applaud and applaud.

In addition to the noise of people and the crowded scene, you can also see many special things. For example, among the crew and dock workers, safely at the "helm" position are a group of Malays with weathered faces.

They have been fishing on the river all their lives, and some of them have been on ships as pirates when they were young. These experiences have enriched their navigation experience and judgment and become a scenery at the dock.

They were waiting here, waiting for the fleets of Ming Dynasty and the merchant gangs from various countries to hire, but their wishful thinking was destined to be in vain.

Before the fleet went south, Zheng He had already trained the helmsmen of the merchant gangs, and equipped each merchant gang's armed horse ship with two experienced sailors for the Western Ocean.

Because of this, the entire fleet has not been stranded on the way from south to now.

They supplied supplies in Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Jiaozhi, Champa, and Manlajia until they arrived at Palembang City in the Xuanwei Division of the Old Port.

Under the sunlight, Palembang Pier looks even more vibrant. From time to time, several newly repaired ships slowly sail along the Moses River, the mother river of Palembang, and carefully raise their anchors at the pier.

Standing here, you can also see some ships ready to enter the port at any time.

They are ships that come to Palembang to sell some local products. Although the Ming Dynasty banned private private trade in Southeast Asia, this ban mainly targeted the lucky ships with more than 300 materials, not the fishing boats with dozens of materials.

"When do we leave for Little Western Ocean?"

Chen Xuan and Zheng He got on a carriage and took the carriage to the former Srivijaya Palace.

That place has been approved by Zhu Di to be used as the old port Xuanwei Si Yamen, so they can live there.

"The construction here is not good enough. At least the cement brought from Annan must be used to pave the road to smooth the roads in the city and the dock before we can leave."

Zheng He sat on the carriage and opened the window, signaling Chen Xuan to look outside.

Chen Xuan looked at it and found that although the roads on the street had been repaired, cracks had begun to appear due to poor drainage and they might collapse soon.

"I didn't expect that I would go to the West and end up having to do these people's livelihood things."

Chen Xuan smiled heartily, and Zheng He also smiled bitterly and said: "I thought so when I first went to the West, but His Highness gave it to me... Alas!"

He sighed, but Chen Xuan smiled and said: "I finally know why you delayed your last voyage to the West for two years."

"In this case, delaying it for only two years is already considered a good job."

"But..." Chen Xuan paused, and while closing the car window, he carefully asked: "Do we need to collect taxes on these merchant ships?"

"I see that they are now proficient in using the iron cannons on the ship. Although I don't think they can pose any threat to us, I am still worried that when we collect taxes from them, these guys will try to plot against us."

Ever since Yang Zhan secretly assassinated Chen Cang during the Chongming Island naval battle, Chen Xuan has looked at no one as a good person.

Zheng He smiled heartily after hearing this: "I don't blame you. You didn't see us using artillery to hit the pirate ship along the way."

"Don't worry. Once we leave the Strait of Malacca, those merchant gangs will never dare to have any other thoughts after seeing the fate of the Little Western pirates."

"So confident?" Chen Xuan stroked his short beard, but still said cheerfully: "Anyway, you are the right one, so I believe you!"

"Okay!" Zheng He also said with a smile: "I will take care of anything. Don't look down on me because you think I am a eunuch. I also followed your majesty and fought out of the mountain of corpses and sea of ​​blood!"

Chen Xuan couldn't laugh or cry when he heard this: "That won't happen, I will still be your defeated general..."

The two of them looked at each other and laughed heartily. In terms of temperament, they had quite the right temper.

Not long after, their carriage stopped in front of the Srivijaya Palace. When they got off the car, the stone plaque of the palace had been taken down, and the new one was the stone plaque of the "Xuanwei Division of Daming Old Port".

Under this stone plaque, the two walked side by side into the city that had been converted from a royal palace to a government office. In the corridor, the elongated shadow seemed to say that they would be comrades-in-arms for many years...

(End of this chapter)