The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 472: Reform and Strengthening the Country Determines the Future
Wanli actually came to the home of an ordinary garrison soldier.

What is this for?

Zhu Changxu was a little confused.

Zhang Yuande didn't understand why either.

The families of the military households were even more confused and at a loss.

Wanli smiled and asked the old man, "Old man, what's your name?"

The man wearing chain mail must be a general.

The old man quickly bowed and said, "I, Li Shisi, greet the general."

I don’t know if this Fourteenth was born on the fourteenth day or was the fourteenth in the order of birth.

Most people are illiterate, so naming is just that simple.

After all, this old man came from a garrison and knew some etiquette.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "Old man, could you take us inside to have a look?"

Li Shisi quickly stepped aside and bowed, saying, "Generals, please come in, please come in."

Wanli was really not polite. He not only took a careful look at the main hall, but also walked into the side rooms to observe.

He even went to the kitchen at the back, the place where the kang was heated, and even took a look around the toilet.

This bungalow is well built, at least it is spacious enough. There are warm kangs and coal stoves in the rooms on both sides, so you shouldn't be cold in winter.

The good thing about Liaodong and even Nurgandusi is that there is no shortage of space, and as long as there are enough warm-keeping measures, life is actually quite easy.

Wanli looked at the vegetable garden in the backyard and asked, "Why don't you feed the pigs? Your family probably can't finish all the vegetables, right?

Also, I just saw that there are a lot of sacks piled up in your lobby and the left and right wing rooms. That must be at least hundreds of stones of grain, right?
You shouldn't be short of food. I see you don't feed the chickens in your front yard much either. Why is that?"

This is not a food issue.

Li Shisi sighed slightly and said, "General, we also want to feed the pigs, and we also want to feed more chickens.

The problem is that it is too cold here in the winter, so the pigpen has to be built airtight, and a coal stove has to be added, otherwise the pigs will not be able to survive the winter.

If the pigs cannot survive the winter, they can only be fed for about half a year. During this half year, the pigs have not started to gain weight and do not have much meat, so it is not cost-effective to feed them.

Moreover, pigs need to be fed every day, and it is quite troublesome to prepare pig food in winter.

The same goes for chickens. If they don't find a way to keep warm in the winter, they won't survive. The chicken coop in the back where we burn the kang is only so big, so we can barely keep so many chickens through the winter, so that's why we only raise so many."

Oh, it turns out it’s still a matter of keeping warm.

This is really a bit difficult to deal with.

He knew from the time he ordered people to build a greenhouse that no matter whether it was livestock or poultry, they could not be kept outside directly in the winter.

It is easier to raise cattle, sheep and horses in winter. After the greenhouse is built, you just need to feed them grass and clean water every day, and there is no need to cook pig food.

Pigs can't do that. They can't eat grass or lettuce.

Perhaps, you can consider making it into pig feed.

This way of feeding is easier and the pigs grow faster. As long as they are fed enough feed, it is not impossible for them to grow up in half a year.

Wanli pondered for a while, then asked: "Don't you have cattle? Without cattle, can your family turn over fifty acres of land?"

What exactly does this general want to do?
Why do you only ask these questions?

Li Shisi was really puzzled, but he still explained in detail: "We do have cattle, but they are not distributed to each household for individual raising.

Because cows need a warm shed to survive the winter, we built several large cow sheds near the fields and raised the cows together.

This makes it convenient to raise the cattle and also convenient for breeding and giving birth.

In winter, each household only needs to take turns to light the coal stove and feed the grass."

This is a good idea. Let’s raise them together!

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "We have waterwheels next to the fields in the Beijing camp. You don't have waterwheels here. Is it convenient to irrigate the fields? Also, is pounding rice tiring?"

Are you asking all these?
Can we compare with your Beijing Camp?

People must be content.

Our lives are much better now than before.

Li Shisi said with some envy, "It would be great if we had a waterwheel, but it wouldn't be a big problem if we didn't have one.

This place is close to the river, so it would be convenient for us to dig more ditches to irrigate the fields.

As for pounding rice, we don't have much to do in the winter anyway, so we can just pound it slowly while the whole family eats and chats, and we don't feel tired at all."

That's good.

It would be troublesome if all the hundred households were to be equipped with water wheels.

There are a lot of centurions here, more than ten thousand in total, and there are even more in Nurgandusi.

Wanli nodded slightly, and then went to the big cowshed next to the field with interest to take a look, and then took a group of people back to the camp.

By this time, the memorials from the day before had already been delivered.

He simply brought Zhang Yuande and the emperor's second son Zhu Changxu to the big tent used as a study, asked them to sit down at the coffee table for guests, and then started to deal with the memorials.

There were not many memorials for him to deal with at the moment. The key was that he wanted to see the memorials submitted by the Five Military Commanderies.

He hurriedly finished dealing with the memorial, and ordered someone to send it to the navy's express ship. Then he said solemnly: "Yuan De, I plan to transfer you to the Nurgan Regional Command to help Xu'er." Huh?
Zhang Yuande was stunned when he heard this.

To be honest, he didn't want to leave Liaodong Regional Military Commission.

Because there are many garrisons here, more than one million households.

You can imagine how powerful he is.

Not to mention anything else, just the promotion and appointment of the garrison commander, the deputy commander, the assistant commander, and even the captain of a thousand households can earn you a lot of favors.

Although he does not have the power to directly appoint, dismiss or promote, he has the power to nominate, and his nominations are generally approved.

There are more than 200 garrisons, more than 1,000 thousand-household garrisons, and tens of thousands of hundred-household garrisons here. The hidden interests here are huge.

What's going on in Nurgandusi?
The Tatar and Jurchen tribes over there are not under their jurisdiction at all, and they don't need to nominate anyone. The commanders, deputy commanders, assistant commanders, etc. over there are all hereditary.

Moreover, the Jurchen tribes over there often rebel, and this time it seems that His Majesty is going to suppress the rebellion.

That's not an easy job.

The problem is that he has no choice but to listen to the Emperor.

It can be said that everything the Duke of Ying's Mansion has now was given by His Majesty, and His Majesty's favor is the most important thing to them.

They must not fall from grace.

He has to do whatever the Emperor asks him to do, even if it means dying!
He was stunned for just a moment before he quickly stood up, bowed, and said, "Your humble servant obeys your command."

Well, that’s good. Just be obedient.

This guy definitely has the ability. It's not easy to manage such a big business like the Liaodong Regional Military Commission so well.

However, ability is secondary, obedience is the most important.

If you are disobedient, the greater your ability, the more trouble you will get into.

Wanli nodded slightly, raised his hand to let him sit down, and then explained in detail: "You should know that the Five Military Commandery is currently recruiting garrison troops.

I asked them to recruit garrison troops in order to reclaim the wasteland in Nurgandusi.

The land there is more than twice that of Liaodong Regional Command, and the number of garrisons needed is enormous.

It just so happens that you have experience managing millions of garrison troops, and you manage them quite well, so I plan to transfer you to the Nurgan Dusi to help Xu'er."

It turns out that they also need to reclaim wasteland and cultivate land there!
That place is extremely large. If the wasteland is really converted into military farms, it will probably require more than two million households of military garrisons.

Sure enough, there are benefits to listening to His Majesty. The number of garrisons under his command has more than doubled.

Zhang Yuande nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand. I will do my best to assist His Highness the Northern King."

Wanli nodded slightly and gave a brief introduction: "I plan to develop Nurgandusi in three years.

Your main task next year will be to organize people to build houses and dig canals.

I want to dig a large canal to connect the Songhua River and the Liao River.

As for how many houses need to be built, it depends on the situation. The Five Military Governor's Office should be able to recruit most of the garrison troops before the spring next year, and then we will build as many houses as there are households.

I don’t know whether the canal can be dug through next year. If not, we will continue the year after.

The year after next we will dig canals, level the fields, and try planting various crops. The year after that we will start growing grain on a large scale.

For the next three years, Liaodong's grain and even garrison troops must fully support the development of the Nurgan Commandery. I will promote you to the position of Left Commander-in-Chief of the Five Military Commandery, and you will be fully responsible for mobilizing resources here."

Is this really the governor of Chengdu?
And he was directly promoted to the left general.

Although the Left General is just an honorary title, his rank is the first rank, the highest among all military positions. He cannot inherit the title of Duke of England, so the Left General is the pinnacle of his career.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yuande bowed repeatedly and said, "I understand. Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace."

Wanli heard this and nodded slightly, saying, "I understand. Go back and prepare.

It is estimated that at least 600 garrisons need to be established in the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, and most of the commanders, thousand-household officers, and centurions of these garrisons will have to be transferred from the Liaodong Regional Military Commission.

You should carefully select those who have experience in cultivating wasteland and cultivating land, and prepare a list. Start by preparing 600 guards, and they will be transferred there in the early spring of next year."

These are all nominated by me!
Upon hearing this, Zhang Yuande quickly stood up to express his gratitude, then bowed and took his leave.

When the emperor's second son, Zhu Changxu, saw this guy leave, he couldn't help but ask, "Father, six hundred guards mean more than three million households.

Won't there be any problems if we madly recruit farmers to join the garrison troops?"

There will definitely be problems.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said slowly: "We can't not do this just because we are afraid of problems.

The Ming Dynasty could no longer continue along its old path.

We must reform and make the Ming Dynasty stronger and stronger.

You will understand later that what matters in this world is fists. Whoever has the bigger fist gets to beat others, and whoever has the smaller fist gets beaten.

If we in the Ming Dynasty want to avoid being beaten, we must find ways to make our fists bigger.

This is a matter of success or failure. If your fist is big, you will prosper; if your fist is small, you will perish.

You may not understand it now, but you will eventually understand it."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Changxu could not help but stare at his fist in deep thought.

Now he really didn't understand.

The Ming Dynasty was already so powerful, how could it still be beaten?
(End of this chapter)