Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 466 Everyone has their own agenda
"I said at the beginning that these people could not be let go..."

"Come on, you thought I was too involved at first."

In the Hall of Wuying in September, Zhu Di looked at the memorial handed over by the Chief Envoy of Yunnan and kept evaluating his own evaluation that did not exist before.

Facing what the old man said, Zhu Gaoxu chose to expose it without hesitation.

"How are you going to do this?"

Seeing that he had been exposed, Zhu Di asked Zhu Gaoxu without blushing or heartbeat. Zhu Gaoxu heard this and said:

"I was worried about the people migrating from the south of the Yangtze River to the car and worried that they would not be able to adapt. Now I can use this opportunity to carry out special activities in Yongchang Prefecture, Dali Prefecture, and Longchuan Prefecture."

"The Han family population in these three prefectures is more than 400,000. If 100,000 of them can be moved to Che, Zhenkang, and Zhenyuan prefectures, it will save a lot of trouble."

"However, there are nearly two million Baiyi (Dai) people in the three prefectures, so they must migrate."

"I plan to move them to Guangxi, Huguang and Guangdong, at least one million people."

"In addition, since Gansu has already established a government, I want to go one step further and set up three departments. The chief executive will govern Zhangye County in Ganzhou Prefecture."

Zhu Di ordered Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaoxu also nodded to express his understanding.

The price of these more than 80,000 horses is only a mere 600,000 guan and 8,400 tons of dry tea.

Today, Gansu has a population of over 1.7 million, of which nearly 1.16 million are Han people, mostly from Shanxi and Shaanxi.

"But for the army, if the grassland in the northern part of the East Tianshan Mountains is developed into cultivated land, it can provide almost 200,000 acres of cultivated land."

In response, Zhu Gaoxu picked up the tea cup and moistened his throat, and then said:
"Ping An has people use cement to build karez wells extending in all directions. With the karez wells and water pumps, many fragile grasslands can be irrigated with water and turned into cultivated land."

"Many countries paying tribute this time came very quickly. Have you ever thought about the reason?"

"From this point of view alone, Xifan has become the largest horse supplier to the imperial court after Liaodong, Bohai, and Daning. We must not give up."

Zhu Di pondered and stroked his beard: "There are so many people in Gua, Sha and Suzhou, but after the migration, they have to migrate from Ganzhou, Liangzhou, Wuwei and other places."

As of the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month in the 16th year of Yongle, the Ming Dynasty had more than 400,000 military horses, more than 700,000 riding horses, and one million draft horses.

Zhu Gaoxu put forward his own idea. Throughout the Ming Dynasty, because Gansu had fewer Han people than Gansu, Gansu usually existed as the capital of Shaanxi and was under military control all year round.

Facts have proven that year-round military control can only maintain stability, not development.

"Although you have mobilized a lot of troops from Uzang, you still have more than 6,000 troops stationed there. Is this too much?"

"Therefore, I plan to set up Hami County in Hami, and Yiwu County in the north of the East Tianshan Mountains, under the control of Hami, and to establish Hami Prefecture."

After seventeen years of development, the Ma Zheng of the Ming Dynasty has reached a height that has been difficult to reach in previous dynasties.

Among them, Xifan is undoubtedly one of the main sources of riding and draft horses, with more than 80,000 horses continuously transported to the interior every year.

Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di talked about the situation in Hami, and the emergence of water pumps undoubtedly eliminated the need for Ming Dynasty to worry about the scarcity of arable areas in the Western Regions.

"Thirty thousand people migrated..."

"I have studied the Uzang area these days. According to the Ming Dynasty sand table you gave, the Uzang area is indeed very important to the court, but the most important thing is the Duogan area."

"Since you think this matter is okay, then just do it as you want. As long as there is enough money and food, don't add miscellaneous things to make people's lives miserable."

He asked about Hami, and the main reason was that he didn't think there was enough water in the Gobi Desert.

Under such circumstances, and with the help of water pumps in agricultural irrigation, Zhu Gaoxu also felt that it was time to establish a third division for Gansu.

"This amount of money is enough to build several hundred miles of railway."

"As long as we ration cattle and move about 30,000 people, we can slowly reclaim Hami and the northern part of the East Tianshan Mountains."

"Over in Hami, I heard that the water pump has arrived. How is the situation?"

"Last year alone, the people of Xifan moved inland several times, and there were still more than 420,000 people. According to five households and one horse, the local area could deliver more than 84,000 horses to the court every year, and the court only had to pay 8,400 horses. Hundreds of tons of dry tea.”

Because of this, Zhu Gaoxu started the method of migrating Gansu's minority people inland and inland Han people to Gansu very early.

"If you don't want to bear the child, you can't trap the wolf. Two or three million dollars will be wasted." Zhu Gaoxu chuckled, and Zhu Di could only shake his head helplessly when he saw this.

If 80,000 horses could be obtained at such a low price in the late Ming Dynasty, mobility would not be lost in every battle.

Zhu Gaoxu gave a rough explanation, and then turned his perspective overseas.

"I have thought carefully about building a city in the northern part of the Eastern Tianshan Mountains. Although the Tianshan Mountains are in the way, the two places need to take a detour of more than 300 miles to communicate."

"I will make adjustments to the local development in the future. In short, although the local area is a burden from an economic point of view, it will be of great help to the Ming Dynasty both militarily and politically."

"The grassland in Hami can be used to cultivate more than 400,000 acres of arable land. In addition, Ping An Shangshang is sparse. Please ask the court to build a city on the grassland in the northern part of the East Tianshan Mountains."

Except for the fact that the Mu family mined gold in the Qamdo area and paid more than a thousand taels to the court every year, the court received almost no gold, silver, or copper coins.

"Not much." Zhu Gaoxu said:

"There is a huge salt lake in Yiwu County. If we don't occupy this salt lake, it will be occupied by others. Holding it in our hands can reduce many problems."

Zhu Gaoxu said this, and Zhu Di nodded and said: "That's okay. Even if one million people are moved, it will probably cost no less than two to three million yuan."

Although Zhu Di also knew that horse politics was important, the cost of Xifan was not small after all, and apart from horses, there was almost no local output.

"These six thousand people can maintain the taxation and public security of the entire Xifan. Although it consumes more than 600,000 guan in military expenses every year, the stability they bring to the court far exceeds the value of 600,000 guan."

This is still the case of horse farms dedicated to the army. If you include civilian ones, the number of horses in the Ming Dynasty will be even greater.

"Naturally." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, and then continued: "Now that we have water pumps, groundwater can be used. Therefore, I want to send water pumps to Yijinai (Ejina Banner) City to develop the local area reasonably."

"Kunlun Continent?" After all, Zhu Di is a rare emperor with a maritime perspective, so as soon as Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth, he put the common interests of all countries on the table.

With Dongzhou, Beizhou, and even the entire Nanyang and Oriental trade being monopolized by the Ming Dynasty, Kunlun Island seemed to have become the last habitat of the vassal states under the Ming Dynasty, or in other words, their paradise for carnival.

"According to the documents of the Manchuria Customs last year, merchant ships from various countries paid a total of more than 224,000 guan in taxes, of which more than 60,000 guan were normal commercial taxes, and the rest were basically gold and silver and other commercial taxes."

"In other words, the amount of gold and silver they obtain from Kunlun Continent every year is about 1.8 million gold."

Zhu Gaoxu talked lightly about the situation of cakes from various countries in Kunlun Continent, and this was only what Ming Dynasty counted. If smuggled ones were included, there would probably be even more than this.

"There is so much gold and silver in Kunlun Continent?"

Zhu Di was greedy for cakes from all over the world. Looking at his appearance, Zhu Gaoxu nodded and explained:

"It's a lot, but it's not easy to develop there. Besides, most of the gold and silver they earned went into the pockets of the imperial court through trade."

"Not to mention anything else, last year's anti-malarial powder alone made a profit of more than 7,000 taels of gold, which shows how raging local malaria is."

"Maintaining the officialdom of both wood and bones is to facilitate access to Ma Linland, while the Xuanwei Division of Kunlun Continent is to ensure that businessmen from various countries will not go to Dongzhou to disrupt the imperial court's interests in Dongzhou."

"Now it seems that the cakes in Kunlun Continent are enough for them to eat for many years, and the local manpower is also very abundant."

"When countries come to pay tribute this time, they probably hope that the imperial court can build an official residence or a thousand-household residence in Ma Lindi, increase the transportation of materials, and reduce the price of anti-malarial powder."

Zhu Gaoxu accurately stated the three needs of various countries, and this is what countries are most eager to do now.

Although all countries have fleets, their combined fleet capacity is only a few hundred thousand shi.

Corresponding to the fleet are their hundreds of thousands of slaves and tens of thousands of troops in Central Africa.

These slaves and troops consume 700,000 to 800,000 shi of food every year. With their fleet, they can satisfy at most two-thirds of this a year, and the remaining one-third still needs to be solved by Ming Dynasty.

As Japan also joined the gold digging movement in Kunlun, the local population and the number of slaves continued to increase, and the price of food also increased.

If the Ming Dynasty could expand transportation, they could also invest more troops, drive more slaves, and obtain more gold.

As the population increases, a portion of anti-malarial powder worth one tael of gold becomes extremely valuable.

Therefore, they came here mainly for this purpose, and Daming must take countermeasures.

"Do you really want them to continue to expand their territory in Kunlun Continent?"

Zhu Di frowned slightly. He did not want to give up such a large piece of territory, not to mention that there was gold, silver and various minerals on this land.

"Anyway, these gold and silver will eventually flow into the imperial court through trade. Why should father care?"

"Besides, it is better to put their energy on Kunlun Continent than to let them put their energy on Central Continent."

"Think about it for yourself, how long have these vassal countries around the Ming Dynasty been at peace?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Zhu Di, and Zhu Di discovered that the vassal countries had been at peace for several years.

In addition to occasional frictions between Japan and North Korea, countries in the south such as Champa, Kampuschi, Siam, Dadi, Managa, Majapahit, and Aceh Sumatra have all been honest for a long time.

"As the conflicts move outward, they will naturally not be able to cause trouble. In the final analysis, the population is too small and the market is too big."

"In addition, there are also reasons why the imperial court is maintaining peace in the waterway and region."

The deterrent power of the Ming Dynasty is self-evident. It is not that Siam and Gan Bizhi did not have no friction, but every time there was friction, Jiang Gui of Luzon would lead a fleet to patrol the home waters of the two countries and restrain them from fighting among themselves.

As time goes on, Siam and Gan Bizhi put the direction of their battle on Kunlun Island.

As far as Zhu Gaoxu knew, they had fought twelve wars in Kunlun Continent. Although the scales were not large, there were many casualties.

However, as long as the Ming Dynasty exists, they will not dare to cause trouble with the mainland on the waterway.

Compared with these two, Zhu Gaoxu is more worried about North Korea and Japan.

"Japan sent more than 6,000 people to Kunlun Island and plundered prisoners from North Korea, Siam and other countries. The situation there is not good."

"Although it is not obvious now, North Korea and Japan may intensify their conflict in the future."

"But this is beneficial to the court. The more fierce they fight, the easier it is for the court to control them." Zhu Gaoxu commented on the relationship between North Korea and Japan. After hearing this, Zhu Di turned his attention to the maps of the Ming Dynasty such as Ceylon, Old Port and Luzon.

"How is the situation in Ceylon, Old Port, and Luzon?"

"There are more than 30,000 people in Hankou in Ceylon, more than 400,000 in Old Port, and nearly 300,000 in Luzon." Zhu Gaoxu explained:
"Including the local native people, there are almost more than 800,000 people in Ceylon, more than 1.1 million people in Old Port, and more than 400,000 people in Luzon."

"The development speed of these places is not slow. Although the imperial court is unlikely to be the first to use steam engines in the local area, they have already mastered technologies such as concrete, and the local buildings are no different from those in the Central Plains."

"These places are enough to accommodate millions of people, while Nanzhou further south can accommodate millions of people."

"When disasters occur along the coast in the future, people can be relocated to these places. This can not only solve the problem of insufficient overseas population, but also solve the problem of internal conflicts, killing two birds with one stone."

At this point, Zhu Gaoxu stopped talking. After hearing this, Zhu Di asked: "What is the situation in Beizhou? Is your Beizhou Xuanwei Division sure it can become a supply point?"

"It's possible, but it's not as convenient as Nanyang. Storms in the Great Ming Dynasty are much more frequent than in Nanyang. With current technology, it's very risky to relocate people."

After Zhu Gaoxu finished explaining, Zhu Di didn't have too many questions. He just let him figure it out, and then signaled him to leave.

When Zhu Gaoxu retired, the Beizhou Xuanwei Division they were talking about was also expanding rapidly.

"kill!!"

"Drive! Drive..."

Although it is already September, the west coast of Hokkaido is still slightly warm.

Amidst the shouts of killing, a group of Han people wearing armor were hunting down the indigenous people in the mountains and forests.

Among them, a young man in his early twenties rode a horse and held a bow. After shooting several natives in succession, he began to shout in dialect about surrendering.

Under his native language, many natives put down their sticks and spears and surrendered.

However, a few dozen Han Chinese in armor captured nearly 300 natives and took their tribes with them.

These dozens of Han cavalry drove them to the west. After several days, they finally passed through the mountains and forests and came to an open area.

There is a sea more than ten miles ahead, and the coastal plain is filled with a large number of indigenous people wearing simple coarse linen clothes.

They held farm tools and continued to cultivate wasteland in the fields, and there were a large number of Han cavalry wearing armor supervising them. At a glance, they numbered no less than several hundred.

"Wende, you are back!"

A voice rang out, and a thin man in his early twenties came on horseback and talked flatteringly to the young man.

"Huang Jing, guard your post well. If you let people go, you won't be able to get the land this year."

The young man glanced at him, and then led the hundreds of natives towards the south.

Huang Jing was taught a lesson by the young people and could only leave in anger.

Not long after, the young people led the team to the south and soon saw a wide river. This river was called Beizhou River (Sacramento River) by them. Beizhou City was built on this river.

Beizhou Xuanwei Division is stationed by Beizhou Guards, with a strength of 5,600. The Xuanwei Envoy was supposed to be Zhang Chun, but Zhang Chun was transferred to counter the rebellion and has not yet taken office. Therefore, all affairs in Beizhou are handled by Xuanwei Sitong knew that Tang Min was in charge.

The Beizhou Guards did not go out to fight in all directions, but were stationed within a fifty-mile radius of Beizhou City.

For the indigenous people captured by the immigrants, they would register the number, so the young people would bring these hundreds of indigenous people to Beizhou City.

A long way away, the team saw Beizhou City standing on the Beizhou River.

The city is six miles in circumference, two feet high and one foot eight thick. It is made of reclaimed stones and concrete barriers. There are 3,600 musketeers and artillery stationed in the city, and 2,000 cavalry roaming outside the city.

The Ming Dynasty's overseas troops were usually stationed for three years and changed defenses. However, if they made mistakes during the period, the time would be extended. If they made three mistakes, they would be disarmed.

Because of this, many people act cautiously and rarely interact with immigrants.

In order to manage immigration, Tang Min set up a temporary yamen outside Beizhou City to take charge of immigration matters.

The young man's name is Shi Heng. He is not a sycophant of Jianwen, but was exiled to Beizhou because his father was implicated in corruption.

There are also certain amnesties for people like them. For example, if you save one hundred strings of atonement money, you can go home.

In this land, there are not many ways to save money, other than mining gold and silver mines, or cultivating the land and selling food.

In Beizhou, the price of one stone of grain is five hundred coins, which means that as long as you save two hundred stones of grain, you can atone for your sins and go home.

It doesn't seem like a lot, but in Beizhou, which is starting from scratch, it's not easy to save two hundred stones of food.

The reason why Shi Heng dared to arrest the natives at a young age was because the natives were resources here.

As the flag officer of the capture team, he can gain one-tenth of the population for each capture.

After doing this several times, he had accumulated more than 200 slaves and cultivated hundreds of acres of farmland.

A row of villages to the east of Beizhou City was the residence of these immigrants. After Shi Heng registered hundreds of slaves, he took them to that village.

There, these natives will be distributed, and the result of his victory this time is that he can get thirty young adults, and more than twenty women and children.

Shi Heng didn't need women and children, and he would choose to stay unless he met a good-looking woman.

He had to save money to atone for his sins, and at the same time, he had to save money to return to Ming Dynasty to operate.

Although he was implicated, as long as he could enter the army, he would have a way to climb up.

Thinking of this, ambition showed in his eyes.

"Shi Heng arrested a lot of people this time. You see... they were divided into thirty young men. This guy..."

"There's no point in being envious. You're not as brave as him to risk your life."

Standing in the square of the village, Shi Heng took away thirty young men, and then took them back to his home with a dozen servants he selected.

In addition to Shi Heng, other teams also brought back many natives. After this trip, at least one or two thousand natives were captured, including more than half of the strong laborers.

This scene was clearly seen by Tang Min at the top of Beizhou City with a telescope, and he mainly saw this to understand the situation of the natives around him.

"Compared with the thousands of people before, the number of prisoners now is getting smaller and smaller."

Tang Min touched his short beard and asked, "How long have they been out this time?"

"About seven days." The military officer standing aside answered Tang Min's question, and Tang Min nodded:

"At this rate, they can capture at least 50,000 to 60,000 people in a year, including the more than 40,000 people now... By this time next year, the Xuanwei Division will be able to open up at least hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland."

"However, with this growth rate of indigenous people, we may need more and more food. We may not be able to supply it just by relying on the three countries of Dongzhou in the south."

Although Dongzhou and Beizhou have not experienced major droughts, droughts still exist there.

Although the Ming Dynasty helped them improve facilities such as irrigation and water conservancy, the increase in food production was not as fast as their fertility.

Tang Min must allow the Beizhou Xuanwei Envoy to be self-sufficient in the shortest possible time while supplying the Dongzhou Xuanwei Envoy to the south.

"It's a pity that the cost of transporting food from Japan is too high, otherwise we wouldn't be in such a mess."

Tang Min complained, then turned around and walked down the horse path, arriving at the neatly built Beizhou City.

The houses and courtyards inside are neatly arranged, and each courtyard represents a small flag.

Many of them have obtained women from outside the city through various methods, so there are not many women on the streets.

Tang Min himself didn't care about this. If these soldiers could stay and take root in Beizhou, he would be happy to see them.

It's a pity that these soldiers will take this group of people back to the Ming Dynasty in the end, and only a few people can stay.

Shaking his head, Tang Min got on his horse and headed to Xuanwei Si Yamen.

Not long after, when he returned to the Xuanwei Si Yamen, many military attachés who had been waiting for him also handed over a document.

"I understand, these are the "Yellow Album" and "Fish Scale Album" of the Xuanwei Department. Please read them."

"Yeah" Tang Min responded and took it, but after just one glance, he frowned.

"Tongzhi, is there anything wrong?" the military attache asked cautiously, and Tang Min said:

"It will take at least three months to transport this booklet back to the capital, so the number you need to fill in is not now, but three months from now."

"In this way, the person above will be happy to see it, do you understand?"

Tang Minruo pointed out something, and the military attaché nodded quickly: "I understand, I understand!"

"Okay, after the modification, let the fleet take it directly to Dongzhou Xuanwei Division, and they will take it back to the capital."

After giving an explanation, Tang Min turned around and walked into the depths of the yamen.

Watching him go away, the military attache wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead, turned around and left with the book in hand.

When he left, Tang Min also returned to his small courtyard.

When he opened his bedroom, there were five or six young girls lying around, enjoying themselves.

"Who sent this?"

Tang Min turned around and glanced at the military officer. Hearing the words, the military officer flattered him and said, "It's a little thought from the brothers."

"I know, I won't do it again." Tang Min did not refuse. Seeing this, the military officer quickly walked out of the bedroom and closed the door.

Not long after, a melancholy sound came from inside. Even Tang Min, who was determined to conquer the title, could not avoid this gentle countryside...

(End of this chapter)