Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 304 Never Let a Single Enemy of the Ming Dynasty Escape
In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang did not punish Zhu Cibei and the Southern Ming army, but only issued an edict reprimanding them for underestimating the enemy and advancing recklessly.

Ultimately, it was Old Zhu who gave them too much confidence, making them believe that they were invincible.

In reality, the invincible army was the Hongwu army, and it didn't have much to do with the Southern Ming army.

It was already quite an achievement to fight the Qing army in the mountains for several years; to go to the plains and fight the Manchu Tartars with bayonets was suicidal.

Old Zhu probably understood this.

However, he still chose to delegate power, giving Zhu Cibei and the Southern Ming army independent military capabilities, allowing them to act freely.

It's not that we're being lazy and don't want to continue fighting the Tartars, but rather that we want to train them and see their strength.

Although doing so would certainly result in deaths, and they had guessed that the Southern Ming army would be defeated.

There are many ways to lose.

Being defeated despite trying one's best is different from being defeated due to underestimating the enemy and being reckless.

The most typical examples are the Battle of Mopanshan and the Battle of Nanjing.

Li Dingguo did his best, but Zheng Chenggong was reckless and lost.

Moreover, how can a strong and courageous army be trained without experiencing hardships and battles and losing lives?
Therefore, failure is not terrible; what is terrible is not having the courage to fight to the death against the enemy.

It can only be said that the performance of the Thirteen Families of Kuidong disappointed him.

As for Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan, they are neither good nor bad at the moment, just average. We'll have to wait and see how they perform in the future.

They continued their slow march.

In fact, it can't be fast.

This time, they carried a large amount of artillery shells and supplies. Even if the canal was blocked and only their fleet was allowed to travel, they could still only travel 20 to 30 kilometers per day, which was very slow.

After all, the canal had no water flow to assist it; the water flow was very slow, and it could only be pulled by manpower, which is why it supported the so-called million canal workers.

In the northern front, they were still given autonomy to fight their own battles and prove themselves.

After their defeat, the thirteen families of Kuidong retreated to the Jingzhou area. After regrouping, they even retreated to Jinan Prefecture in Shandong, not far from Zhu Yuanzhang.

However, it is possible that Zhu Yuanzhang's decree reprimanded them, because Yuan Zongdi, Li Laiheng and others reorganized their troops and marched again, stationing themselves in the Hejian Prefecture and Jizhou Prefecture area with Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan's troops.

The two sides were locked in a stalemate.

Li Dingguo even took the initiative to send out cavalry units to harass the Qing army's rear transport units, which was quite effective.

Although the Qing army also resorted to its old tradition of attempting to bypass the grain transport route and launch a surprise attack from the rear.

But Old Zhu was crossing the Yellow River.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the mouth of the Yellow River was not in Shandong or Hebei, but in Jiangsu.

In 1194 AD, the Yellow River breached its banks. After flowing through Henan and Hebei, the river changed course and flowed south in Shandong, eventually emptying into the sea at Yunti Pass in Jiangsu.

In 1494 AD, the Yellow River changed its estuary again, and its waters flowed into the Huai River, a historical event known as the Yellow River's capture of the Huai River.

It wasn't until 1855, with the sixth change of course, that the route began to enter the Bohai Sea via Lijin.

Therefore, at this time the Yellow River was on the old Ming and Qing course that passed through Kaifeng, Lankao, Shangqiu, Dangshan, Xuzhou, Suqian and Huaiyin, and was connected to the Grand Canal.

More than 10,000 Hongwu soldiers, plus more than 100,000 civilian laborers and auxiliary soldiers transporting cannonballs, are slowly crossing the river.

The Qing army had sent out several scouts, each numbering several hundred, to cause trouble on the Grand Canal and harass the Ming army's rear supply lines and logistics units.

As expected, they were riddled with bullets by the vanguard troops led by Lao Zhu, who were located in the rear.

Old Zhu himself stayed in his car every day, keeping track of national affairs.

It wasn't a matter of the Southern Ming Dynasty, but a matter of the Hongwu Emperor.

In addition to their radios, they also had wireless fax machines, similar to the small printers they carried.

Simply insert blank paper into the printer and turn on the signal receiving function. Similar to the principle of a shortwave radio, it is possible to send paper documents over extremely long distances.

As the Crown Prince who was in charge of the country, Zhu Biao would record the events that happened every month and then send someone to the Southern Ming to send the records from Yunnan to Zhu Biao.

Therefore, even though Lao Zhu and Zhu Biao lived in two different worlds, they were still able to keep in touch.

It was late January in the lunar calendar, and the weather in Jiangsu was still cold.

It wasn't snowing, but the north wind was howling, and you could hear the "whooshing" sound from time to time outside the car window.

The car kept making creaking noises.

Old Zhu's chariot was a modern, specially made vehicle; in ancient times, without energy, it was still pulled by horses.

It uses all lightweight materials and has lubricants and shock absorbers, making the interior extremely comfortable.

Inside the car was a bed, a recliner, and a small round table.

Zhu Yunfeng lay on the recliner next to him, legs crossed, playing a single-player game on his phone.

There are even charging ports inside the car.

The carriage was equipped with solar charging panels and batteries. Although it couldn't be fitted with an engine to make the carriage run, at least a small air conditioner could be placed inside to further maintain the comfort of the interior.

Old Zhu sat at the small round table and, seeing Zhu Yunfeng's appearance, couldn't help but sigh, saying, "My precious child is sleeping so badly, he's tearing the floor."

"hey-hey."

Zhu Yunfeng grinned, turned around, and continued playing on his phone.

Old Zhu rolled his eyes.

The way they get along now is quite similar to how rural grandparents and grandchildren interact in later generations.

Grandpa can't control his grandson.

While a grandson might not be disrespectful or impolite to his elders, he also wouldn't be so subservient and obedient to them in everything, and there might even be occasional instances of him talking back to his elders.

It can only be said that the relationship between this grandfather and grandson was one of very relaxed interactions. Zhu Yunfeng disliked being ordered around, and Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to command him, but couldn't get him to obey.

To some extent, this made Old Zhu, with his feudal patriarchal habits, very uncomfortable.

After all, he was the kind of person who meant what he said and maintained the image of a dignified elder, not an old man who doted on his children and grandchildren.

Even though I find Zhu Yunfeng's attitude repulsive after all these years, I've really just had to get used to it. After all, he's my own grandson; I can't exactly kill him, can I?

So Old Zhu could only play the role of a kind old grandfather, and he had no way to deal with Zhu Yunfeng.

"Hey, Ancestor, you seem to be in a very good mood today."

Zhu Yunfeng played for a while longer, then suddenly felt something was wrong and turned around to ask, puzzled.

How do you know I'm happy?

"If you saw me acting so carefree normally, you'd definitely want to say something, like I don't stand or sit properly, but I didn't say anything today."

"You still know how carefree and irresponsible you've always been?"

Once this was brought up, Old Zhu started rambling, cursing, "You little brat, when I was your age I was already a regional warlord, leading troops on campaigns everywhere, and look at you..."

As soon as he said that, Zhu Yunfeng started rolling his eyes.

Why are all the elders like this?

His father used to talk about him, saying things like, "At this age, you should be like this and that."

When his mother pressured him to get married, she would say things like, "So-and-so in the village had a baby at 20 and now she has three. Look at you."

When Zhu Yunfeng didn't get into a good university and only got into a second-tier university through his art major, people said he was supposed to get into Tsinghua or Peking University.

A few years later, when they were looking for jobs, they would say that the person had passed the civil service exam and gotten into some famous or big company.

Later, as I got older and still wasn't married, all I heard was the pressure to get married.

Zhu Yunfeng always thought that as long as he persevered, earned more money, and got married, his parents would have nothing to say.

No matter how much money you make or what kind of wife you marry, they will always find a reason to criticize you.

Sometimes, even without a reason, they can talk about you for half an hour while you're just sitting at home playing on your phone or playing a game.

Including Lao Zhu.

So now Zhu Yunfeng always treats the lectures from his father and his parents as nothing.

"Little bunny."

Old Zhu cursed and swore for a long time, but seeing that he still acted nonchalantly and didn't care, he got even angrier, but he couldn't do anything about it.

Zhu Yunfeng chuckled and said, "Ji He said that calling me a little brat would be bad for you, so you'd be a rabbit master."

"Forget it, I'm too lazy to argue with you."

Old Zhu laughed and scolded, "One day you'll drive me crazy." "How could that be?"

Zhu Yunfeng said happily, "With such advanced medical technology now, cancer has been conquered, and you're still living so long."

"Hahahahaha."

Old Zhu's anger turned to joy; in fact, he wasn't that angry to begin with, and was actually quite happy.

Seeing that he was happy, Zhu Yunfeng asked, "What happened?"

“Your great-uncle sent over last year’s summary.”

Old Zhu pointed to the official documents on the table and said, "Take a look for yourself."

"Oh?"

Zhu Yunfeng got up from the recliner, took the official document, and glanced at it.

The content inside is actually very simple.

With the help of modern targeted assistance, the productivity of the Ming Dynasty is experiencing explosive growth.

Steel production, grain production, and total economic output are not increasing by percentage points, but by doubling in quantity.

In terms of steel production alone, it is now the twenty-first year of the Hongwu reign.

In the nineteenth year of the Hongwu reign (1389), the annual steel production, relying on electric arc furnace steelmaking, was only a little over ten million tons, less than one-tenth of the annual production capacity of a prefecture-level city like Tangshan in later years.

After contacting Hyundai last year, production tripled.

Moreover, it is projected that steel production will increase tenfold in the next three years, meaning that the national steel output will reach 100 million tons in three years.

Although this level seems to be about the same as Tangshan City in later generations.

It was almost there.

After all, Tangshan City's annual output is more than 1.3 million tons.

But this was in ancient times.

During the same period, in the Hongwu era, it's probably a mystery whether global steel production capacity could have reached 200,000 tons.

Even after the first Industrial Revolution in Britain, the annual output was only one million tons.

The difference is on the order of hundreds of times, which shows how much influence the assistance from later generations had on the Hongwu Ming Dynasty.

And that's not all.

Because the Hongwu Ming Dynasty and later dynasties were complementary.

During the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, exports consisted of raw materials, primary products, and exquisite handicrafts.

After the products were processed into intermediate goods by Dongda University, they were imported back to Dongda University. At the same time, a large amount of machinery, advanced technology and industrial products from Dongda University were also imported.

While exporting these mechanical equipment and industrial products, Dongda University also sends people to repair bridges, roads, and trains.

The trade volume between the two sides reached 100%. Although it seemed that Hongwu Ming Dynasty only made money from exporting raw materials, it also suffered a large loss of various mineral resources due to imports.

However, the Ming Dynasty could obtain these resources from other places, and Dongda University was mainly for training talents for the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

For example, last year, during the 20th year of the Hongwu reign, when Dongda University was building a new Nanjing city, shipyard, railway, and factory for the Hongwu Ming Dynasty, it trained a large number of welders, electricians, concrete pourers, and other workers.

The cumulative number of workers trained during the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty reached 41.7, cultivating a large number of basic technical workers and greatly enriching the construction talent pool of the Ming Dynasty.

The Hongwu Ming Dynasty, in turn, provided modern raw materials such as rare minerals, crude oil, and gold.

Mutual benefit to both parties.

Later generations obtained a large amount of raw materials and goods for export, which brought huge employment and economic growth to the country.

During the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, industrial development, urban construction, worker skills training, as well as education, healthcare, military, science, and so on were achieved.

It's like a master giving you a sudden enlightenment, directly infusing you with inner strength.

This series of actions saved not just decades of development, but hundreds of years, directly transforming a backward agricultural society into an advanced industrial society.

It progressed much faster than the Meiji Restoration, which took several decades.

It can be said that the two sides have truly achieved a win-win situation of cooperation, mutual benefit, and common development and progress.

No wonder Old Zhu was happy.

After all, he knew very well what his Ming Dynasty was like before.

In just one year, Hongwu has undergone tremendous changes, far exceeding the changes that occurred during the seven years Zhu Yunfeng brought.

Most importantly, this development is leapfrog; it doesn't mean that if it doubles this year, it will double next year.

Instead, it grows exponentially as the scale expands.

With the help of Tokyo University, perhaps in twenty years, Hongwu World will be filled with cities full of skyscrapers, airplanes, high-speed trains and cars.

Zhu Yuanzhang himself is only 60 years old now, and historically he would not die until 11 years later, in the 31st year of the Hongwu reign, at the age of 71.

But with today's advanced medical technology, you might as well live to 90.

Therefore, it is very possible that Zhu Yuanzhang will actually witness his own Ming Dynasty transform into a new era.

How could he possibly be unhappy?
"Yes, that's definitely possible."

Zhu Yunfeng finished reading the contents of the document, which mainly consisted of data.

He is a CEO himself, and although he works sporadically, he can still understand the basic data of a company.

Although companies and countries are different, countries involve far more aspects than a single company.

But some things are still the same.

He pondered for a moment and said, "The Hongwu era is developing very fast, which is a good thing. However, currently only the Nanjing metropolitan area is developing rapidly. If we want to complete the process of modern industrialization as soon as possible, the corresponding institutional changes still need to keep up."

"Ah."

Old Zhu said, "Biao'er has also discussed this with Old Qin. It is inevitable to relax local authority accordingly, but we still need to increase supervision."

Zhu Yunfeng smiled and said, "It's actually very simple. We need to establish a sound financial control system for the Great Ming Bank immediately. The various systems can be based on modern ones. The Great Ming was the first country in the world to establish an information system, which is a huge advantage. It can monitor the flow of funds throughout the country. As long as this is done well, every penny of funds in various places can be traced back to where it was used and how it was used, which can largely solve the problem of corruption."

Decentralizing local authority is an inevitable process, because you need to increase local autonomy and encourage local officials to actively attract investment and develop local industries based on local characteristics, thereby revitalizing the local economy.

Otherwise, if all those prefectures and counties across the country were to be managed and guided by Zhu Biao and the six ministries of the cabinet, they would never be able to manage it, no matter how hard they tried.

But what if local governments don't have the money to develop local industries?
First, there was financing; second, there was funding from higher authorities, and not just a little bit, but millions or even tens of millions of silver dollars from the Ming Dynasty.

The purchasing power of Hongwu silver dollars is still very high; ten million silver dollars is equivalent to billions.

With such a large amount of money being invested in local areas, it's hard to guarantee that no one will have ulterior motives.

However, the Ming Dynasty had an inherent advantage.

As the first country in the world to establish an information industry, it was able to establish a sound financial system with the help of Tokyo University in later generations.

The flow of funds will be transparent to you, and even if corruption occurs, the Censorate can easily trace it.

So why does technology drive development?

With the widespread use of surveillance, fights on the streets have decreased many times over compared to twenty or thirty years ago, not to mention the crime rate.

The money comes from and goes under strict supervision, although we cannot guarantee that corruption will be completely eliminated.

But it can be improved to a great extent, and it is also easier to catch people.

of course.

It can only improve the corruption in the allocation of funds from above.

If businessmen collude with officials to offer bribes, including by using cash such as silver dollars, gold bars, antiques, and calligraphy and paintings instead of the banking system, that's a different matter altogether.

This will test Zhu Biao's supervisory abilities.

"Well."

Old Zhu nodded repeatedly and said, "Let them do it. I trust Biao'er to handle things."

"Now."

As he spoke, he rolled up the car window, and in the distance, the surging Yellow River stretched out before him.

Old Zhu said calmly, "Let's deal with the Tartars first."

The affairs of Hongwu were entrusted to Zhu Biao.

What he had to do was not let any enemy of the Ming Dynasty escape, even if they were not from the Ming Dynasty he belonged to!

(End of this chapter)