A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 353 Watching Wang Dou's Troop Training
A few days after the meeting, the General's Mansion first made a move to build waterwheels in various forts and subcontract them to a dozen merchants on the East Road.

With the great prosperity of Tunpu, the number of waterwheels and other things to be built in the future may exceed [-].This is a huge demand, and the woodware factory in charge of Wu Shihuan and others cannot handle it at all.

After subcontracting to the merchants on the East Road, the construction of the waterwheel was greatly accelerated.A large amount of wood, stone and other raw materials are required for fetching water trucks and laying wells.As a result, relevant logging plants and quarries in the East Road have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

Not only that, Wang Dou's military factories, except armor factory, gun factory, gunpowder factory and other key factories, the rest such as military uniform factory, clothing factory, etc., were transferred to several merchants for production.In the end, Wang Dou looked at which factory had the best price and best quality, and focused on placing orders.

Just because Wang Dou needs to train the new army here, he needs a lot of military uniforms and bedding, as well as a lot of miscellaneous equipment, which requires a lot of cotton cloth and other things, and drives a lot of related industries.

In addition to gold, silver and other mines, many iron ore and coal mines on the East Road, which were seized from the powerful, were gradually sold to some merchants after the auction price was determined.Mining lessons are collected from them every year, and Wang Dou has preferential prices, the right of first refusal, etc.

All mines are subject to the management of commercial banks and commercial departments.Whether it can be sold outside in the future, and how to sell it, there are a series of regulations.

Many businessmen also saw the successful experience of Shunxiangbao Chicken and Duck Farm, and began to try to learn how to raise chickens and ducks in the forest on the site, and many people also started livestock farms.

In the next few months, the East Road began to be busy.Whether it is mining, making water trucks or doing anything else, a large number of craftsmen and veterinarians are needed.For a while in the land of the East Road, the status of craftsmen increased rapidly, and the talents of veterinary doctors became even more precious.

Stableherds, cowherds, swineherds, etc. became sought-after goods, and people were hired at high prices everywhere.

At this time, Zhang Gui, the ambassador of the Department of Civil Affairs, also came up with a management plan for the East Road in the next few years. Wang Dou thought it was feasible and approved the implementation.

In mid-August, the shogunate issued a decree to set up an official grain depot to buy surplus grain from the common people at market prices. If there was a shortage of grain, it would be sold at a par price to relieve the high price.Moreover, the order specifically stipulates that the amount of food stored in each military household is prohibited from exceeding one year, and those who violate the law will be punished.

In order to prevent people from maliciously snapping up food from official stores, the Secretary of Civil Affairs deliberately introduced a kind of ticket, which can only be purchased with a ticket.Wang Dou named it "food stamps". How to issue and distribute food stamps is still being considered by the Department of Civil Affairs.

Zhang Gui was actually inspired by Wang Dou, the general of Dingguo. After Wang Dou mentioned this kind of bill, he seemed to feel that this method could prevent merchants from hoarding and driving up prices.If this method is better, he may promote various types of oil tickets, cloth tickets, bean tickets, meat tickets, sugar tickets, etc. in the future.

Of course, this is based on inflation in the country, hoarding by profiteers, or natural disasters in the country and the extreme shortage of food.For example, a few days ago, when those merchants collectively went on strike, if there were government stores in the East Road, and the military households and ordinary people had food stamps in their hands, they would not be afraid of their strike.

In the case of Donglu, there is no shortage of food in Baoanzhou. The local prices are high, which is actually caused by the local military households rushing to buy grain and rice, but unwilling to sell the stored grain.If they are willing to sell grain, prices in Baoan Prefecture will drop a lot.

In fact, the residents of Baoanzhou were just hungry and frightened before. They accumulated more food and bought more food when they had money in their hands. It was just a subconscious psychological behavior.After the order of General Dingguo, they also generally supported it. If there is too much food, it will become stale and moldy, which is actually not a good thing.

General Dingguo set up an official store and issued food stamps. Even if there is a famine in the future, everyone will not be afraid. General Dingguo will not let everyone go hungry.Therefore, after the notice was issued, prices in Baoanzhou have been dropping steadily.

As for the high prices in various parts of the East Road, it is because of the lack of food and goods.

During the Ming Dynasty, the entire northern region was plagued by severe droughts and disasters. Every year, the food was decreasing. In the Jiangnan area, known as the granary, due to excessive commercialization, the people would rather grow silk, linen, cotton or tobacco than grain. In the end, they I don't even have enough food to eat, so how can I support the north?
This is the case in all parts of the East Road. The grain harvests in the Northland have not been harvested again and again, and the appearance of a large number of refugees has further affected the production of grain.It is understandable that the grain and goods are getting less and less every year, and the prices are getting higher every year.Huailai on the East Road, Yanqing Prefecture and other places, this is just a microcosm of it.

To solve the problem of the East Road, it may take a few years for the agriculture and animal husbandry in the territory to flourish.So far, apart from Wang Dou's efforts to buy grain from overseas, he can only rely on his own grain storage for support.Fortunately, Wang Dou has a lot of money, and it is not common for people to know that food is more useful than money. The money in Wang Dou's hands can still be used.

Of course, Wang Dou's official store has the priority to purchase grain from military households and civilians, and as a means of stabilizing grain prices and reducing the losses of the common people, it inevitably conflicts with the interests of some grain merchants.

At this time, many merchants use the method of setting the purchase price of autumn grain very low, and when the crops are in short supply, their grain sales price is set very high.The same is true for the methods of sergeants and military households. Sergeants have to pay a high price when they buy grain from merchants.

If they need to pay taxes to the court, the food in their hands is worthless. Anyway, merchants always have their tricks.

In particular, the big grain merchants in the late Ming Dynasty were often big landlords, with huge resources in their hands. During disaster years, they hoarded and bought food for disaster relief, then sold it at a high market price, and then bought land at a low price.Often after a famine, most of the land in many places was taken away by them.

Generally speaking, the imperial court can't beat these business groups.For Wang Dou, the positive role played by ancient merchants in the society at that time was far from being able to offset their negative role.This is also the reason why the ancient times emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, and the status of merchants was low. It is impossible for any wise emperor to elevate the status of merchants.

Fortunately, the big merchants on the East Road were swept away by Wang Dou this time, and the East Road is not a source of grain now, but a "devoured object". Only merchants bring in grain from other places, and few people transport grain out.It may take a few years for such fierce conflicts to emerge, when agriculture and animal husbandry flourished under Wang Dou's rule.

Wang Dou still has time.

……

In mid-August, Donglu also set up a bank, which was controlled by the financial secretary of the shogunate. At the same time, it united with several banks in the country, mainly lending money to domestic businessmen, with generous interest rates, and encouraging them to invest in industries.

In the past, of course, this would have resulted in a fierce conflict with the loan sharks in the country, and these loan sharks were often local tyrants, big businessmen, big landlords, big warlords and the like.In the past, Wang Dou lived in Xingzhuang, and the Li family, who had a family background in the village, was at the same time the biggest landlord and the biggest loan shark in the village.

Once borrowed from them, the interest rate will come down, and an ordinary owner farmer will soon go bankrupt and become a tenant.

Fortunately, this time of suppression, Wang Dou almost wiped out the tyrants in the territory, coupled with the aftermath of the thunderous means, who dares to make irresponsible remarks on the appearance of this bank?

Wang Dou planned that in a few years, when there were enough grain and livestock in the territory, he could try to issue currency by himself with the strongest hard currency—grain as a guarantee, and of course it would appear as a military ticket.

Also in August, Wang Dou also joined forces with Ma Guoxi of the military preparation road to mobilize the entire East Road to carry out a massive sanitation cleaning campaign.Baoan Prefecture was already famous for its cleanliness, Yongning City guarded by Wang Dou, when he gave an order, the army and the people naturally obeyed.

However, considering Huailai City, Yanqing Prefecture, and Baoanwei City, the military and civilian enthusiasm may not be high, so Wang Dou came up with a solution.As long as the soldiers and civilians deliver a truckload of garbage, they will pay as much as they need, either in silver or food.

Sure enough, this aroused the great enthusiasm of the people on the East Road, and the cleaning campaign went on vigorously.But Wang Dou suddenly got the news that the garbage transported outside the city was stolen in the middle of the night, and then the garbage was sent back to be sold again, even several times.

In order to prevent someone from stealing garbage and selling it again, Wang Dou sent some Shun Township Army guards, and hired people to incinerate and bury the garbage transported outside the city, and the situation gradually disappeared.As a system of giving money for transporting garbage gradually formed, a new industry soon emerged on East Road. Specialists went door-to-door to buy garbage, and then transported it to the garbage dump for sale.

Anyway, after this big cleaning, the East Road has taken on a new look, and the cities are as clean as Baoanzhou.Even the refugees and beggars in each city were taken away by the way, and sent to the new shelters built by the Shunxiang Army in each city, and they were arranged to farm fields and mines in the future.

……

It was also in August that the riot on East Road last month also came to fruition. After the joint trial of the three divisions and after Wang Dou provided a large amount of evidence, Zhang Wanshan, Chen Enchong, Song Jiaxuan, Chen Qinluan, Ding Fangming, Guo Cairong and others regarded the crime as serious and serious. Or dismissed from office, or beheaded, family property confiscated, and family members exiled.

Zeng Fuyang and other spies of the Qing Dynasty were tortured, and Zeng Youxian, a student of Guanshan Academy in Yanqing Prefecture, committed suicide in shame and was exempted from accountability.Huang Changyi was fined with a salary of one year, and he still served as an official.Guo Shitong, the Donglu guanliangtong judge, was transferred to Datong Town.Although Zhang Guowei, the commander of Xuanfu Township, tried his best to save his uncle Zhang Wanshan, his uncle was beheaded and abandoned the market.

Zhang Guowei worked hard to avoid being implicated, but he was also reprimanded by the decree. After this series of changes, he naturally hated Wang Dou to the bone.

Wu Zhi, the magistrate of Yanqing Prefecture, was fined one year's salary, and he was debited once, and he was still absent from the official position. However, his son Wu Lue was deprived of his fame, and his official career was over.

Xuanfu Town East Road branch guards the general Wang Dou, and the military preparation Dao Ma Guoxi captures the secret work of the Qing Dynasty.Wang Dou suppressed businessmen so unscrupulously, but was rewarded by the court. It seems that this warrior has a very special status in the eyes of the emperor.

How to get along with the newly-emerging powerful local snakes on the East Road is a question that many interested people need to consider.

After this interrogation, Wang Dou also got a message from the intelligence department that among the people who participated in the strike last month, the mastermind behind it was a very famous business family in Zhangjiakou, the Fan family.The one who came to the East Road was Fan Sanba, the eldest son of Fan Yongdou, the Patriarch of the Fan Family, who suggested the strike.

But three days after the strike, Fan Sanba hurried back to Shanxi and escaped the catastrophe.

Hearing the name of the Fan family, especially Fan Yongdou, Wang Dou felt a little familiar, he thought about it for a while, and said with a smile: "It turned out to be him."

According to some historical data, the eight imperial merchants entrusted by the Qing Dynasty in later generations transported a large amount of grain, grass and cloth from outside the Great Wall to the northeast every year, sometimes tens of thousands of shi at a time, or even 10,000+ shi.The route they traveled outside the Great Wall, of course, had to go through the outside of the East Road, which seemed to be only a few hundred miles away from Yongning City.

Wang Dou stared at the direction there for a long time.

Wang Dou unscrupulously suppressed businessmen, which of course made many of his kind feel sad. In addition, he blatantly collected business taxes afterwards, which confirmed his idea of ​​"competing with the people for profit". Their firepower was drawn by another matter.

Compared with this matter, Wang Dou's matter is considered a "small matter", which is the matter that Xue Guoguan, the chief assistant of the cabinet, minister of the Ministry of officials, and a scholar of Wuyingdian, proposed to "borrow" from all officials.As soon as the news came out, memorials to impeach Xue Guoguan flooded to Emperor Chongzhen's case.

After hearing this, Ma Guoxi, the military guard, also stamped his feet, and privately said to his staff: "Mr. Xue is so confused, this move will definitely become the enemy of all officials and the emperor's family and relatives. If one is not careful, it will end in ashes."

He also made a slip of the tongue and said: "Xue Gong, hey, he was smart for a lifetime, but he was confused for a while, he thought he was Wang Dou?"

Speaking of this, Ma Guoxi also shut up in astonishment, secretly thinking: "Why do I think it is natural for Wang Dou to do this, and Xue Gong will have trouble?"

Hearing about Xue Guoguan, Wang Dou paced around for a long time and shook his head secretly.

……

After the joint trial of the three divisions, everything on the East Road calmed down, and Wang Dou decided to devote his main energy to training the new army.

First of all, five thousand new troops will be trained, including Wang Dou's original 3000 troops. In the future, Wang Dou's army will have more than [-] regular troops.In his consideration, in the future, his own army will be divided into third-class arms, first-class army, second-class army, and reserve team.

With the original more than 8000 veterans as first-class soldiers, even many infantry soldiers also have horses.The newly trained 5000 people are the second-class army. If the number is insufficient, it will gradually become sufficient in the future.

Then, after the forts settled the fields, special instructors were set up, or retired and disabled sergeants were used as instructors to recruit the strong soldiers of each fort to practice in their spare time and cultivate in their busy hours.Based on 1000 households per fort, it is estimated that a fort can recruit [-] to [-] strong troops. Wang Dou wanted to build more than [-] new forts, and there were tens of thousands of strong troops.

These soldiers serve as reserves, and if soldiers are needed in the future, they will be drawn from them.They already have a certain training foundation, plus they have been in the new barracks for a few months, and they must be qualified soldiers after they come out.

Just as Wang Dou was preparing to do a big job, on this day, he suddenly received an urgent business request from Ma Guoxi, the military commander. He took out some official documents, and said to Wang Dou with a strange expression: "I heard that General Dingguo started training the new army. All the town officials are interested in coming to observe, as well as Mr. Yang Ge and Mr. Xue Ge from the cabinet."

Wang Dou took the official document and was secretly surprised. The crowd who came to observe was huge, including Hu Dawei, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi Town, Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of Datong Town, and Yang Guozhu, the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu Town. Deputy Commander Zhang Guowei and others.

In addition, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, came with Cao Bianjiao, the general soldier of Yutian, Wang Tingchen, the former chief soldier of the Tunwei, Jin Guofeng, the chief training officer of the Ningyuan regiment, and Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Ningyuan.Accompanying Hong Chengchou was Sun Chuanting who was doing nothing in the capital.

Yang Sichang and Xue Guoguan will also stay on the East Road for a few days in the name of patrolling. At that time, Xuanda Governor Chen Xinjia and Xuanfu Town Governor Ji Shiwei will accompany them.

(End of this chapter)