Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 507 Flying across the chaotic clouds
"Uuuuuu——"

In July, there were anxious calls. When trains hauled carloads of supplies to Hailaer City, more than 100,000 tents almost occupied all the grassland visible to the naked eye.

The auxiliary soldiers wearing breastplates drove the carriages to carry the supplies onto the carriages, while the armored cavalry beside them were watching the surroundings, although they did not think that anyone would dare to attack the Ming army at this time.

"Drive! Drive!"

Hundreds of cavalrymen rushed up a low hill and had a panoramic view of the vast camp.

On horseback, Zhu Di stroked his beard quite proudly: "This time... I will complete this battle!"

Behind him, Zhu Zhanhe shook his horse's reins and stepped forward: "Grandpa, it is enough for you to take charge of the central army this time. Leave the front army to Duke Liao and Duke Cheng."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Hearing this, Meng Zhang and Zhu Neng behind him bowed and spoke, but Zhu Di turned his horse's head, glanced at the crowd, and ordered:

"Zhu Neng in the front army, Meng Zhang in the middle army, Zhang Fu in the rear army, Chen Mao on the left, Meng Ying on the right, are there any questions?!"

"I will accept the order!" Everyone had no choice but to agree.

Whether it is coal, grain, or various spices, everything is available.

With a sigh in his heart, Zhu Di shook his horse's reins and walked towards Hailar City.

"This time one hundred thousand cavalry gathered in Mobei, not because these barbarians are strong, but because they are worried that they will run away and will be difficult to search."

Speaking of Alitai's behavior of escaping, Zhu Di touched his beard disdainfully: "This guy is not as good as his younger brother Alitai. He is so guilty of setting up an ambush."

In addition, there are enough local generals, and Zhang Fu and Chen Mao can be mobilized from the army at will, so he will naturally live a comfortable life.

Hundreds of cavalry and generals escorted him there, and Hailar City, which was once only used for military purposes, now has hundreds of thousands of acres of cultivated land, tens of thousands of people, and tens of thousands of houses.

Of course, excluding the nobles, there are still many outstanding young and strong factions in the local area, such as Mao Zhong, Sun Boring, Jiao Li, Cao Yi and others.

A team of more than ten imperial doctors examined Zhu Di for half an hour, and then left safely after confirming that there were no problems.

As the eldest son of Wang Yi, Wang Rong has been guarding Mobei for more than ten years and has rich experience. None of the tribes in Mobei dare to despise him.

"Well, let them in." Zhu Di nodded, and upon seeing this, Zhu Zhanhe summoned the imperial doctor.

Compared with the descendants of Bohai Xunchen who abandoned the army and devoted themselves to writing, Wang Rong can definitely be regarded as the mainstay of the second generation of Bohai. The only ones who can compare with him are Meng Zhang's eldest son Meng Mao and Zhu Neng's eldest son Zhu Yong.

"Although it is impossible to reach Yu'erhai in September, it is only three hundred miles away from Yu'erhai, which can alleviate a lot of logistical pressure."

"Hey! I'll go in two days." Zhu Di held Zhu Qiyue in his arms and said in a coaxing tone.

After they left, Zhu Qiyue, who had slept all afternoon, also jumped from the Yamen backyard to the front yard and saw Zhu Di who had just finished the inspection.

"I accept your order!" Zhu Zhanji immediately bowed and said in a deep tone.

Seeing his agreement, Zhu Di turned his attention to Zhu Zhanhe: "Just control the three thousand Xiaodazi camp and protect me."

But as far as his mental state is concerned, there is nothing wrong with him yet.

"I don't need to explain how to deal with the details. I'm quite relieved about you."

He turned around and walked out of the yamen, and at the same time motioned to the Yanshan Guard soldiers to strengthen their patrols.

Obviously, he was deeply impressed by the strength of the Ming army, and Zhu Di knew this well.

"Your Majesty, please retire!" The generals bowed and left one after another. Zhu Zhanhe stepped forward and said, "Grandpa, it's time for an inspection."

For generals, their thirties and forties are their peak years, and the second oldest one in their family...

The opening of the train allowed them to continuously obtain resources transported from the south in summer and autumn.

As long as there is enough water and the continuous transportation of coal from the rear, the Ming Dynasty's railways can completely squeeze the Mongols out of Mobei, and this battle is the battle to drive them out of Mobei.

Zhu Di was quite complacent about this battle. After all, he had many more people at his disposal than in history.

Although the two of them are already relatively outstanding, for Zhu Di, who is used to seeing his second brother engage in mobile battles with tens of thousands of people at every turn, it is really a pity that he cannot go to the battlefield with his second brother this time.

In comparison, Meng Zhang and Wang Yi lightened his burden, and Zhu Neng's survival also made him feel more assured about his own safety.

In history, when Zhu Di went to the north, it can be said that he, the god of learning, led dozens of scumbag students to the north. Some generals even had problems with arranging troops and setting up camps. Zhu Di was like a nanny.

On the way north, Zhu Di had already tested his two grandchildren. Zhu Zhanji would have no problem commanding tens of thousands of soldiers, and Zhu Zhanhe could command thousands of soldiers and horses.

According to the intelligence obtained by the Ming army, this guy clearly communicated with the ministries to attack the Ming army at the critical moment. However, when one hundred thousand Ming army cavalry gathered in Mobei, this guy led his troops without looking back. Everyone ran away, showing their cowardice before the fight started.

"How is the railway construction ahead?"

"Hahahaha!" Hearing this, the generals laughed at Alitai's actions.

"Okay, everyone, please retreat and inspect the camp!" Zhu Di ordered, and at the same time looked at Zhu Zhanji: "Okay, you guys can go too."

Wang Rong bowed in return and said: "Your Majesty, we are currently building a railway while moving westward. Now the railway has been built more than fifty miles westward. It can advance at least twenty miles every month. According to the climate in Mobei, it can be built By late September.”

Zhu Di returned to Yanran Dusi Yamen and sat in the main seat, asking Wang Rong who was responsible for the matter.

Zhu Di looked at Zhu Zhanhe, and after thinking for a while, he turned his attention to Zhu Zhanji: "Boy, are you brave enough to lead the front army of five thousand Tangqi?"

"Because of this, the distance between the five armies should be increased to make it easier to hunt them."

The generals participating in the Northern Expedition this time were basically generals between the ages of twenty and sixty. The oldest was probably the sixty-six-year-old Zhu Di.

Zhu Zhanhe chuckled when he saw this, but didn't say much.

"Boy, take your ex-juntangqi to search for traces of Alitai. I guess this old dog ran in the direction of Hulanhuwenwen."

"Grandpa, when are we going to march westward?"

When he walked outside the Yamen, a familiar figure appeared in front of him.

"Your Highness, this is news from the south. I think you should read it."

The one-armed Wang Huan is very conspicuous. He is now transferred to the East Palace, and this is naturally Zhu Gaoxu's handiwork. Otherwise, with Zhu Gaoxu's control over the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanhe would never be able to transfer such a frontier official.

"Three copies?" After receiving the letter from Wang Huan, Zhu Zhanhe opened it one by one and read it.

The first one was the news from Gao Guan. Although he failed to get the Jinshi status in this year's imperial examination, he did get the Juren status.

As long as he made some arrangements, he could still enter the Zhanshi Mansion in the East Palace as a Juren.

"Find a way to ask the Ministry of Civil Affairs to transfer him to Zhan Shifu as the school secretary."

Zhu Zhanhe spoke, and Wang Huan nodded.

Although Xia Yuanji would not help Zhu Zhanhe, Zhan Shifu's school clerkship was just a ninth-grade official position, and it was not Xia Yuanji's turn to handle it.

As long as it is not handled by Xia Yuanji, there is a possibility of manipulation.

He opened the next letter, which contained the places where Jiang Huai, Zhang Bohai, and Lu Yu were promoted and assigned.

Jiang Huai was promoted to the fourth rank of Yunnan Chief Envoy, Zuo Counselor and Supervisor of Grain Road, and Zhang Bohai was promoted to the fifth rank of Yunnan Inspector.

Although Lu Yu's achievements in the car were not as good as those of Jiang Huai and Zhang Bohai, he was still transferred to Henan to serve as an inspector.

Although it is a flat tone, the weight of Henan's investigation and inspection is much heavier than that of the prefect of Cheche.

"The reason why Xia Yuanji rejected us is probably because the local government really needs them."

Wang Huan said solemnly, and Zhu Zhanhe also nodded and said: "Everyone wants talents. Have you sent someone to communicate with Lu Yu?"

He looked sideways at Wang Huan, who nodded: "We have already talked, and Lu Yu has promised to follow His Highness's lead."

"That's fine." Zhu Zhanhe looked away and opened the last letter.

The content of this letter mainly talked about Zhu Zhanqi's promotion. After hearing this, Zhu Zhanhe frowned and looked at Wang Huan angrily: "When did I ask you to check on my brother?"

After all, he is the eldest brother, and Zhu Zhanhe is five years older than Zhu Zhanqi, so Zhu Zhanqi is the brother he has carried with him since he can remember.

Although there were frictions between the brothers, Zhu Zhanhe did not regard his obedient brother as any opponent.

"I just thought that you need to master everything and understand everything, so I sent someone to inquire about the information."

Wang Huan's expression was as usual. It was obvious to him that the emperor had to know everything, even his biological brothers had to be investigated, not to mention that Zhu Zhanqi was only Zhu Zhanhe's half-brother.

"In the future, you should ask me before doing anything like this!"

Zhu Zhanhe's face was as gloomy as ink, but he also knew that Wang Huan was doing it for his own good, so he did not scold him.

"Yes..." Although Wang Huan agreed, there were some things he was not prepared to ask Zhu Zhanhe.

"Your Highness is very skilled in martial arts, and he was clean and ruthless in attacking Changshan Man. Although he has no intention of overstepping his bounds, Your Highness still needs to be on guard."

"His Majesty, I heard that he has issued an order that if His Highness can continue to be promoted next year, his time to join the army will be extended."

"This is not a good thing for you."

Wang Huan explained everything about Zhu Zhanqi's side to Zhu Zhanhe clearly, and even told Zhu Zhanhe the information in the palace, which made Zhu Zhanhe's expression change.

If Wang Huan only reported Zhu Zhanqi's affairs, Zhu Zhanhe could still understand that he was doing it for his own good, but his reporting on things in the palace showed that Wang Huan's actions were not driven by his personal will, but because other people.

The only person who can mobilize Wang Huan is his father...

"Did my father ask you to tell me these things?"

Zhu Zhanhe's eyes were complicated, Wang Huan kept silent, and his actions showed the truth of the matter.

"I understand, please step back."

Zhu Zhanhe's heart suddenly became cold. He had always felt that his father was very kind to his uncle and third uncle, but now it seemed that his father was not as simple as he seemed on the surface.

"Your Highness, Rong Chen wants to say one more thing..."

Wang Huan bowed, but Zhu Zhanhe did not respond, but Wang Huan still said: "Even if you are a brother, you still need to be alert enough." "When His Majesty regained Nanjing, His Highness did not want to ascend the throne, but It’s just that I don’t have enough strength.”

"If His Highness is strong enough, the current situation may be difficult to say."

"In my opinion, your strength is not enough to suppress His Highness. The only people you can rely on are the Duke of Guizhou and the Marquis of Wuding. But Your Majesty never wants to see you relying on the Duke of Guizhou and the Marquis of Wuding."

"May I ask, Your Highness, if there were no Wuding Marquis Mansion and the Duke of Guizhou Mansion, would you have any other Sixth Army forces supporting you?"

"I..." Zhu Zhanhe wanted to answer yes, but thinking about it carefully, he really didn't have any other military forces that supported him.

"His Majesty once said that political power comes from the barrel of a gun, but Your Highness only focuses on temples and not on winning over generals. Sooner or later, you will suffer big losses if you do this..."

Wang Huan reminded Zhu Zhanhe one thing after another, and Zhu Zhanhe also knew that his father asked Wang Huan to teach him.

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Zhanhe finally said: "Send a message to Meng Mao, Wang Rong, and the eldest brother for me, asking them to come to my courtyard for a meal."

"Yes!" Wang Huan breathed a sigh of relief. He was most worried that Zhu Zhanhe was still insisting on the pedantry he had in Longchuan.

Now that Zhu Zhanhe has figured it out, it is useless even if Zhu Zhanqi continues to promote him, he is a concubine after all, not to mention that Concubine Zhang's natal family is not as powerful as his Royal Highness.

Thinking of this, Wang Huan bowed in return, and then went to make arrangements for Zhu Zhanhe.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Zhanhe returned to the yamen, bowed to Zhu Di who was teasing his grandson, and said:
"Grandpa, my grandson has made an appointment with Brother Meng Mao and Wang Rong, so he won't have dinner with you today."

"Huh?" Zhu Di looked at his eldest grandson in surprise when he heard this. He didn't expect that his eldest grandson suddenly became enlightened and actually knew how to win over people.

"Okay, you can move around the army more during this period and get familiar with the generals."

Zhu Di originally felt that the eldest grandson was too upright. It was good for ministers to be upright, but not for the emperor.

Now that he heard that his eldest grandson actually had an idea, he naturally had no reason not to support it, and even reminded him to hang out with the general more often.

When Zhu Zhanhe heard this, he immediately knew that he had indeed not done very well in the past. Even his doting grandfather chose to support him after learning about his actions. This shows that he should have done this a long time ago. But he has put it off until now.

"Then my grandson resigned..."

With a sigh in his heart, Zhu Zhanhe turned and left the main hall of the Yamen.

At the same time that he was enlightened, the tribes in Mobei had already begun to meet up at Hulan Huwenwen.

Knowing Alitai's actions, Mahamu on the road was particularly angry.

"This idiot showed his cowardice before the fight even started. He promised to cooperate internally and externally, but now he has become a powerful formation. How are we going to fight?"

At dusk, in the tent, Mahamu scolded Alitai with a gloomy face. Sitting in front of him, Ye Xian and Tuo Huan also looked ugly.

"Abu (father), can we continue to get involved in this muddy water?"

Tuohuan has a stable character. To be honest, he doesn't want to break up with Daming. He even thinks that they should seize this opportunity and betray Alitai in exchange for a certificate of surrender, so as to maintain a peaceful relationship with Daming.

Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu will always die. There is nothing wrong with being dogs for more than ten years. Continuing the tribe is what they should think about.

"What, are you scared?"

An unhappy expression appeared on Mahamu's face, Tuo Huan frowned and said: "In the last battle, the Ming army was very powerful. We are obviously no match. This time, the Ming army's cavalry is almost equal to ours. It's hard to say whether it will really be a fight."

He didn't say it was too unpleasant to have sex. In his opinion, it wasn't really hard to say that it was a one-sided massacre.

"First of all, what do you think?"

Mahamu asked his grandson, but the young man also heard the words first and didn't know what to say.

Although he had not experienced the battle that year, the fact that they were forced to go to Penlanzhou by the Ming army was enough to illustrate the strength of the Ming army.

"Hmph!" Seeing the hesitation of the father and son, Mahamu snorted coldly:
"I never thought about fighting them from the front. I just wanted to make them retreat, or use their hands to get rid of Alitai and Taiping, and to get rid of Tupolo and the others."

"As long as they take a heavy hit and we annex them, we can slowly recuperate and look for opportunities in the future."

"But the Ming army has a train..." Tuohuan wanted to persuade his father, but Mahamu laughed and said:

"Tuhuan, do you really believe their lies?"

Obviously, Mahamu did not believe in the existence of anything that could travel thousands of miles in a day and transport thousands of stones of food.

He is different from Batu Polo, Taiping, and Alitai. These people can go to the Ming Dynasty with the help of mutual trading qualifications and can see traces of the train, but Mahamu cannot.

He has stayed in Penlanzhou for so many years, and he has no idea how big the gap is between the current Ming Dynasty and the previous Ming Dynasty.

In his opinion, the train was just nonsense made by the Taiping people in order to get him to join the alliance.

"Without this, how could the Ming army transport enough grain and beans to Hailaer for fifty thousand cavalry?"

Tuo Huan questioned his father, but Mahamu waved his hand stubbornly: "It's just that we mobilized enough civilians."

"This also shows that Zhu Di spent a lot of money and food to fight this battle."

"Once they return without success this time, they will not use troops against Mobei for several years, and this is our opportunity."

"According to what I told you before, don't be anxious when encountering a war. Avoid fighting with the Ming army. The main thing is to harass their food routes."

Mahamu continued with his plan, Tuohuan could only nod helplessly when he heard the words.

While they were making plans, a new round of quarrels ushered in at Wuying Palace in Beijing, far south of the desert.

"Exports and domestic sales are two different ways. Exports are already saturated, and gold and silver mining in various countries is not as fast as the imperial court."

"Nowadays, many vassal states are reducing their trade with the imperial court because of gold and silver issues. All they can export to the imperial court are spices, and the wealth they accumulate in a year is not enough to cover a ship's worth of cloth."

"I don't agree with the idea of ​​implementing a steam textile plan under such circumstances."

In the early morning, in Wuying Palace, Xu Shuo expressed his attitude with a cold face. Yang Pu, Yang Rong and others also looked at Wang Hui with unkind expressions.

Xue Xuan was sandwiched between the two parties and couldn't help but sweat profusely, while Wang Hui's face was naturally cold when faced with the cold faces of the three people.

"If we don't promote steam weaving, the imperial court's finances will have problems in at most three years. Not to mention that this year the imperial court will send troops to the southwest, and it will have to allocate another two million guan."

"Wars in the south and north, construction projects, the minimum negative expenditure this year will be 12 million yuan."

"Tell me... how to deal with this money!"

Wang Hui stood up and slapped the table, the sound was so loud that it hurt the eardrums.

The imperial court has financial problems, and now only steam textileization can solve the problem. These people use the livelihood of millions of weavers as an excuse, but do not want to think that if the imperial court runs out of money, it will not be a matter of millions of weavers.

"Increasing revenue and reducing expenditure can completely reduce the wages of workers everywhere."

"Yes, to be honest, the wages paid by the imperial court are too high. Although it benefits the people, it harms the imperial court."

Yang Rong and Yang Pu discussed the issue of workers' wages realistically, and this issue cannot be circumvented, because in existing projects, workers' wages account for 45% of the project cost, and the remaining 55% It's the material cost.

Wang Hui naturally knew that lowering workers' wages could solve many things, but the problem was that most of the existing projects were in the north, and the north was dominated by the New Dealers.

Lowering workers' wages is equivalent to cutting out flesh to patch up sores for them.

"I don't think so?"

Wang Hui would naturally not do this kind of thing of cutting out flesh to repair sores. If he dared to do it, his position would have to be taken by someone else tomorrow, so he could only say:

"The 10 million people of the Ming Dynasty consumed at least 50 million salt every year. In recent years of salt policy reform, local salt taxes have increased every year. Last year, excluding Jiangnan, the other two capitals and thirteen places reached 288 One hundred thousand dollars.”

"The land south of the Yangtze River accounts for two-fifths of the imperial court's population. How come last year's salt tax was only 800,000 yuan?"

"I think this salt tax is being used to line the pockets of some people..."

"Wang Weizhong!" Yang Pu stood up suddenly, and Wang Hui was not afraid at all: "What! You dare to do it but don't admit it?!"

"This is just the salt policy. I haven't mentioned the tea policy in Jiangnan yet!" Wang Hui walked out of his seat and walked in front of Xu Shuo and the others, pressing forward step by step:

"In the early days of the Republic of China, private tea was strictly prohibited in Southern Zhili. Because of this, the tea tax revenue in Southern Zhili reached more than 600,000 yuan."

"More than thirty years have passed since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The population of Southern Zhili has increased by half, but how come the tea tax was only paid 740,000 guan last year?"

"This is true even in southern Zhili, let alone Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi!"

Wang replied decisively, and at the same time bowed to Zhu Gaoxu, who had been silent in the side hall:

"Your Majesty has reformed the tea policy, and the taxes collected are all used by the people. Now the court is short of money. As a minister, I have no idea what to do and instead shirk responsibility here."

"It would be fine if the tea policy in the world has not improved. But now the tea policy in various places has improved, but the tea policy in Jiangnan has yet to show results."

"Scholar Yang, I would like to ask you whether Jiangnan's tea and salt policy cannot be implemented, or whether some people simply don't want to implement it!"

Wang Hui's words were sharp, but Yang Rong was not mute. He immediately replied:

"Wang Weizhong, there is no railway in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is difficult to distribute tea even if it is available. Tell me how to sell it!"

"The waterways in the south of the Yangtze River are developed, why can't they be sold?!" Wang Hui continued:

"In the twenty-five years since Yongle to now, has the imperial court done little to dredge the waterways in the south of the Yangtze River?"

"If you can't walk by land, then take the water route and talk about this for a long time, just to cover up your incompetence!"

Wang Hui didn't give Yang Rong a chance, and walked quickly to the front of the side hall, knelt down and kowtowed:

"Your Majesty, you have heard that officials in Southern Zhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and other places have seriously neglected their duties. Please punish them!"

The dull kowtow echoed in the hall. Just hearing the sound made people take a breath and feel a dull pain in their forehead.

For a moment, the palace fell into deathly silence...

(End of this chapter)