I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 303 There is another Chifeng City
Ye Mengxiong replied, "All right! Five hundred and seventy tons of food and military equipment have been transported to Shilipu and will be delivered to Tongliao City tomorrow. The remaining two batches, totaling 1,300 tons, will arrive in three days."

"So fast?"

The transportation speed exceeded Li Chengliang's expectations.

This speed saves one-third of the time compared to previous transfers.

Ye Mengxiong replied: "The recent railway from Tashan Port to Guangning has been extended to Shuangtaishan Pass. The transportation of these two hundred miles is very fast, so it will be much more convenient and time-saving to transport them to Tongliao."

Li Chengcai asked in surprise, "Yushi Ye, is it the railway with stones as the roadbed, sleepers across, two rails on top, and cars running along the tracks pulled by packhorses?"

"Yes, that's it."

Li Chengliang had never seen it before, so he asked curiously, "What's so rare?"

Li Chengcai turned around and explained to him: "It is a new transport vehicle, very useful. It is said that it was first laid from Wusong Port to Shanghai City, and later connected the various mines in Kaiping, and then went directly to Hulu Port in Leting.

The last time I went to Tashan to receive a batch of new firearms, I saw it with my own eyes. Several wagons were connected together and pulled by pack horses, which was fast and labor-saving.

I heard from the people in charge of the transport agency on that road that last year, when they used troops against Jianzhou, they built a road from Tashan Port to Guangning to facilitate transportation.”

Li Chengliang's eyes lit up. "Does the imperial court want to build a railway from Guangning to Tongliao?"

Ye Mengxiong did not deny it. "The court has this idea, but the war is not over yet, the situation is not settled, and we don't know when to start construction."

Li Chengcai sighed, "Oh my goodness! If this railway line is really built from Tashan Port through Guangning to Tongliao, and then transferred to Balin to connect with Xinghua and Fengning, the entire Liaohe Hetao will really be covered with an iron chain."

But that is a matter for the future. The most urgent task now is to defeat Tumen Khan and take down the Chahar tribe.

Li Chengliang asked, "Governor Guo hasn't returned from Liaoyang yet?"

Guo Qian, the governor of Liaoxi, and Wei Xueceng, the governor of Liaodong, were different from previous governors in that they had no responsibility for military affairs and were only responsible for local construction and logistics in their jurisdictions.

They, together with the general commanders of the two towns of Liaodong and Liaoxi, were under the control of the newly established highest military and political chief of the Liangliao region, Governor-General Pingliao, Tan Lun.

While Zhu Yijun was restructuring the central institutions, he also reformed the local official system using Liaodong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu as pilot areas.

For example, the original Liaodong was divided into two provinces, Liaoxi and Liaodong, with the governor of Liaodong and the governor of Liaoxi respectively.

The Liaodong Governor was still stationed in Liaoyang, governing the area east of the Liaohe River, including the newly conquered Jianzhou and Haixi regions.

The Liaoxi Governor is stationed in Guangning and is in charge of governing the area west of the Liaohe River. His main task now is to build an iron chain castle in the Liaohe Hetao area.

Like other pilot provinces for local reform, Liaodong and Liaoxi each have a provincial administration department, a provincial law inspection department, and a provincial military preparation department.

The Provincial Governor is in charge of the government affairs of a province and is responsible for civil affairs, finance, land, household registration, money and grain, and the assessment of officials.

The Censorate was in charge of the judicial affairs of a province, hearing cases, reviewing files, adjudicating criminal charges, and redressing grievances and settling lawsuits.

The Military Preparations Department was in charge of the military preparations of a province and commanded the local troops of the agricultural reclamation army garrisons that were merged from the various garrisons - the camp guards; it was also in charge of military recruitment, demobilization and resettlement, as well as postal services at post stations.

There are three post stations in Daming Dynasty: Water Horse Post Station, Express Post Station and Delivery Office.

Zhu Yijun temporarily kept the Shuima Posthouse unchanged and changed the express delivery shop into a post office.

The post office divides mail into urgent mail and ordinary mail.

Urgent mail means expedited delivery of 600/800 miles. Ordinary mail is open to the public and you can send a letter for a few cents, but the other party will have to wait.

If you have enough money, you can also enjoy 600-mile expedited service.

Most of the delivery offices were changed into "state-owned transport agencies" which, in addition to transporting civilian and commercial goods, also specialized in transporting and escorting grain, taxes and silver.

The provincial governor collected autumn grain and summer taxes from the prefectures and counties, and transferred them from the provincial special warehouse to the Ministry of Revenue in the capital and the national treasury in six locations, which were then handled by the transportation agencies under the jurisdiction of the provincial military preparation departments.

They can also call on the camp guards to serve as guards. Since they are a unit, it is very convenient to dispatch them.

The transfer routes are divided into post routes and postal routes.

The post roads were used for transporting people and goods, and were divided into two routes: land and water, and were shared by post stations and transport agencies.

The postal route only carried light items such as letters and newspapers, and the postal routes were much more dense than the post stations.

Ye Mengxiong's official position was Right Censor of the Censorate and Chief Inspector of the Liaoxi Governor's Inspection Office.

The three officials of each province, namely the provincial governor, the provincial judge and the military commander, plus the prefect, the prefect and the county magistrate, are local permanent officials.

The governor was a "temporary official" sent by the imperial court.

The greatest power of the governor was the power of supervision. He usually held the title of Right Vice-Censor-in-Chief and was in charge of the supervision of a province. He had the power to supervise the three ministries, prefectures, counties and other government offices to see whether they followed the rules and whether they were doing things well or poorly.

If the work was done well and in accordance with the rules, he would submit a memorial to ask for credit; if the work was done poorly and not in accordance with the rules, he would first issue an order and ask the local government to correct it. If it did not change, he would submit a memorial to impeach it. The court generally listened to his opinions and rewarded or punished local officials.

The Governor's Office, which is directly under the Governor, has few subordinate agencies and few assistant officials, and only two of them are important.

One is the Chief Secretary, who is under the Secretary-General and is responsible for all the miscellaneous affairs of the office, as well as the writing matters of the Governor, consultation with the six ministries and five temples, and communication with the three departments and prefectures and counties.

The other is the inspector general of the inspection office, who is responsible for the specific supervision power. Under the "leadership" of the governor, he takes the inspectors of the inspection office to inspect the prefectures, counties and districts of the province to perform the supervision power.

Because of the current duties of the Liaoxi Governor, Guo Qian simply moved the Governor's Office to Tongliao City. A few days ago, he was urgently summoned by the Governor's Office to Liaoyang for a meeting.

"It should be on the way."

"Tan Xiantai urgently summoned Guo Futai to Liaoyang. Did something big happen?"

“I don’t know. It may be winter. Tan Xiantai asked all camps and regions to take inventory of food and supplies, repair houses and city defenses, and make preparations for wintering.

General Li, have you not received the military order from the military station?"

"Got it." Li Chengliang nodded. So that's what it was.

This matter is indeed important. If it is not handled properly, people may starve to death or freeze to death.

Logically speaking, the two governors and two generals should be summoned to go to Liaoyang together, but now the Chahar troops are active in the Liaohe Hetao area, and the military operations in Haixi are also entering the final stage.

Therefore, Tan Lun only summoned the governor and issued military orders to the generals of the two towns, and no one had to go.

"How is the battle going in front?" Ye Mengxiong asked back.

"About 5,000 cavalrymen from the Chahar tribe attacked the city of Balin, but were repelled by Dong Yiyuan's army."

"Bahrain City. In total, the Chahar tribe attacked us in six places."

"Yes, Marshal Qi sent an urgent letter from the Command Headquarters, suspecting that the Chahar tribe was bluffing and their real purpose was to attack Chifeng City. Other places must not relax, strengthen vigilance, pay close attention to the enemy situation, and report any abnormalities immediately to the Command Headquarters."

"It's possible." Ye Mengxiong nodded, "Is Chifeng City prepared?"

"General Xiao quietly moved in with the reinforcements and is ready to fight."

"That's okay." A gust of north wind blew, and Ye Mengxiong felt cold all over and couldn't help stamping his feet.

"It's getting colder and colder, and it's going to snow soon. Fortunately, Tumen Khan has never read the Book of Han, otherwise he would have followed Li Taiwei's example and entered Caizhou on a snowy night, and also entered Chifeng on a snowy night, which would have been troublesome."

The two brothers Li Chengliang and Li Chengcai laughed out loud.

They knew Ye Mengxiong was joking.

Tumen Khan is not Li Su, and this is certainly not Caizhou.

It was winter here, and the snow was all over the place, making it difficult for people and horses to move. How could we enter Chifeng City? We had to slither around in the snow like fish.

Suddenly someone ran over and presented Ye Mengxiong with an urgent report.

After reading it, Ye Mengxiong frowned and said to brothers Li Chengliang and Li Chengcai: "I have something to trouble General Li and Deputy General Li."

"Please say."

"The Guangning grain station just sent an urgent report. Due to a temporary transfer, Chifeng City has an additional 15,000 soldiers including General Xiao. The originally prepared food is not enough.

This is a big deal. The Guangning Grain Depot has made emergency arrangements. In addition to allocating another batch of grain from Guangning, they also hope that we can transfer the batch of grain that was transported to Tongliao City to Chifeng City.

I intend to personally escort this batch of grain to Chifeng. General Li, you are the highest military commander in Tongliao City, and I need you to send troops to escort the grain for me."

Li Chengliang thought about it and immediately said, "Okay, I will send Lieutenant General Li Chengcai to lead 2,000 cavalry and infantry to escort Censor Ye to Chifeng City to transport the grain and grass."

Ye Mengxiong said without further ado, "Okay, Lieutenant General Li, we will start preparing separately. I will go to the transport company and ask them to replace the pack horses and camels, repair and inspect the vehicles, and then complete the transportation procedures.

We will meet at the South Gate in an hour."

"it is good!"

Seeing Ye Mengxiong leaving in a hurry, Li Chengcai was about to turn around and leave, but Li Chengliang grabbed him.

"Third brother, go early and come back early, and be careful on the road!"

Li Chengcai grinned, "Don't worry, brother. I have walked this road countless times. I can walk back and forth with my eyes closed."

Li Chengliang wanted to say something else, but he didn't know what to say, so he just patted Li Chengcai on the shoulder.

(End of this chapter)