"This time it was dangerous. Fortunately, this boy has lived up to my expectations for him."
As spring passed and autumn came, on the sixth day of May, in the Forbidden City of Yingtian Prefecture, Zhu Yuanzhang received a memorial from the Liaodong Dusi.
This belated memorial clearly describes how Zhu Gaoxu defended Jixi Fort and how he waited for Zhu Di's reinforcements.
Although this battle seemed to Lao Zhu to be a frustrating one, when he saw that the siege of Jilin was lifted, he was still happy from the bottom of his heart.
After relieving the siege of Jilin City and severely damaging Wu Liangha, Zhu Di's approach of staying only one night and leaving Jilin City the next day was very pleasing to him.
Of course, what pleased him even more was the results of this northern patrol.
Zhu Gaoxu, King of Bohai, beheaded 7,000 Uliang Hahu soldiers and captured thousands of cattle, sheep and horses.
Zhu Di, King of Yan, pursued and beheaded more than 8,000 Uliang Hahu soldiers, and captured nearly 100,000 cattle, sheep, and horses.
Although the Ming army paid a price of nearly 2,000 men, the price paid by Wu Liangha was greater in comparison. All three tribes suffered heavy losses. At least 20% of the tribe's men died, and they were unable to go south for at least three to five years. It’s disturbing.
Zhu Yuanzhang was very satisfied with the result. At the same time, Zhu Gaochi, who was looking forward to it in the Wuying Palace, also cautiously stepped forward and handed over the memorial sent by the Bohai Palace.
"Grandpa, over 2,000 soldiers and civilians were killed or injured in Jilin City this time. Do we need to relocate some military households to make up for the shortage of military households in Jilin City..."
As soon as Zhu Gaochi spoke, Zhu Yunwen, who was sitting not far away, became a little unhappy.
As a result of this northern tour, if Zhu Yuanzhang is the happiest, no one would dare to have a second opinion, but if he is said to be the second happiest, it is probably Zhu Yunwen.
After this battle, the Jilin Guard suffered more than 1,600 casualties, of which nearly 900 were lost. It can be said that Zhu Gaoxu's strength was greatly weakened.
Although this is inconvenient for Ming to rule outside the pass, for Ming, there seems to be nothing worth ruling outside the pass.
It is enough to maintain the status quo and keep the tribes from chaos, and the number of troops in Jilin City after the damage can still complete this task.
Therefore, maintaining the present is the situation Zhu Yunwen wants.
So when Zhu Gaochi took the initiative to stand up, he was very unhappy, but he didn't stand up to refute. He just looked at his grandfather, wanting to see what he would do.
"Ji Xi, do you think I should replenish his military household?"
Contrary to everyone's expectations, Zhu Yuanzhang did not directly answer Zhu Gaochi's words, but instead asked about Zhu Jixi, another prince in the palace.
Zhu Jixi did not expect that Zhu Yuanzhang would ask him this question, but he still stood up and bowed in response:
"My grandson thinks that this year the imperial court decided to relocate more than 30,000 military households to Kaiping and Yunnan. If another 2,000 military households are to be transferred to Jilin, the move would be too big, and the Ministry of Revenue may not be able to bear it."
"However, it would not be good if not even a single troop was mobilized. After all, Jilin City was severely damaged. It is inevitable that Ataiwailan in the land of Hu Lawen would have evil intentions. If Anton City was lost again due to a shortage of troops, , then the gain outweighs the loss.”
"So Sun'er thought that it would be better to mobilize two thousand single soldiers from Shandong, Zhili and other places to Jilin City."
"In this way, we don't have to support our families, the march can be faster, and the money and food spent on maintaining troops and horses can be less. Jilin City and Andong City have also been stabilized, and Zhaozhou City can also be built."
Zhu Jixi gave a more pertinent answer, to which Zhu Gaochi breathed a sigh of relief, and although Zhu Yunwen was unhappy, he could accept it.
Although the two thousand soldiers were many, they had no family members, so after going to Jilin City, they could only rely on Jilin City for support.
In this way, it increased Jilin City's food demand and increased Jilin City's dependence on Liaodong Dusi, which was in line with Zhu Yunwen's idea of controlling Zhu Gaoxu.
But what Zhu Yunwen was more concerned about than this matter was why his grandfather asked Zhu Jixi this question.
Zhu Jixi was originally the prince of the Jin Dynasty. Even though the Jin vassal was now weakened, Zhu Jixi still had another greatest identity, that is, he was the eldest grandson among his grandsons.
This identity made Zhu Yunwen quite afraid, and he still can't get rid of it even now.
My grandfather asked Zhu Jixi again, was he going to ask the Jin government to do something to get him back to Taiyuan from Dongsheng?
Zhu Yunwen was still guessing, but Zhu Yuanzhang had already nodded and said: "What you said is good, let's draft the decree in this way..."
"In addition, he urged Gao Xu to build a city in Zhaozhou and rewarded him with three thousand bolts of cloth, five thousand catties of cotton, and one hundred bolts of silk and satin each as a reward."
After he finished speaking, the eunuch and eunuch in charge of ceremonies at the side bowed and walked to the desk in the corner.
Not long after, he drafted an imperial edict, handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang to confirm that it was correct, and then Zhu Yuanzhang sealed it and issued it.
After the imperial edict was taken away, this small episode ended, and the four grandfathers and grandsons in the palace continued to handle the government affairs.
For them, the matter in Jilin City can only be regarded as a trivial matter. The major issue of the Ming Dynasty at the moment is whether this year's autumn taxes will be "tax offset by cash" and how the counterinsurgency in the southwest is going.
That's right, twenty-nine years after Hongwu, there were chieftain rebellions in Yunnan and Sichuan Xingdusi and other places.
The Guizhou capital commanded the envoy's Zhongping village, where four thousand barbarians gathered to rebel. The barbarians in Dongshui and other villages rebelled and killed the local official Wang Yingming.
Pu Xi, a local official in Weilong Prefecture, Sichuan, rebelled. Bandits from Nabu, Xuebu, Renchang and other villages in Songpan rebelled and killed more than 100 local officers and soldiers.
Yunnan Jinzhi Mangkuan rebelled and attacked Ming Dynasty's mine in Jinzhi.
These rebellions are just some of the many rebellions. Most of the rebellions are being put down by Zhu Chun, the king of Shu in the southwest, Xu Huizu, the Duke of Wei, and Gu Cheng, He Fu, Qu Neng and others.
Although it sounds like a situation of great chaos in the southwest, in fact the scale of these rebellions is far less serious than the previous Three Chieftains Rebellion.
However, this situation also reflects the dissatisfaction of the southwestern chieftains with the Ming Dynasty.
The best way is to allocate some of the mining rights of gold and silver mines to local chieftains, but if Zhu Yuanzhang really does this, the nobles and civil servants will definitely end up sharing a piece of the pie.
In this way, a simple situation becomes complicated.
Therefore, in the face of repeated rebellions in the southwest, Zhu Yuanzhang's chosen method was to quell them by force. Even if it cost a lot of casualties, he would never compromise with the chieftain.
The situation in the south is very complicated, but for Zhu Gaoxu who is far away in Jilin City, it cannot attract his attention at all.
Right now, he was breathing a sigh of relief because a large amount of food was arriving one after another.
"In two and a half months, more than 144,300 shi of grain, 50,000 guan of money, and more than 32,000 shi of beans have arrived."
"In addition, the Thirty Thousand Guards still have 200,000 shi of food that has not yet arrived."
"Among them, Liaodong Capital still owes 60,000 shi, and Yang Shanren still has 140,000 shi."
On the ninth day of July, with the arrival of the last grain escorted by 3,000 soldiers and civilians, the grain that had been waiting for many days finally arrived in Jilin City. Although there were still 200,000 dan that had not arrived, the current grain was enough for Jilin City to survive the winter. .
In the Chengyun Hall, as Yishiha finished speaking these words, Yang Bin, who was standing beside him, also bowed and said:
"Without Your Highness's advice, the common people have used salt into grain and beans without permission. Please forgive me for this."
In the direction the two of them were facing, Zhu Gaoxu was sitting in the main seat, holding the grain book in his hand, with a smile on his face, and he was obviously in a good mood.
Regarding Yang Bin's words, Zhu Gaoxu also raised his head and looked at him.
Yang Bin was much thinner than last year. Since he learned that Jilin City was besieged, he spent all the money and grain he received in exchange for salt from the Bohai Prince's Palace on buying grain and soybean feed, and continued to purchase grain and transport it from Shandong. Arrive at Thirty Thousand Guards and wait for Jilin City to relieve the siege.
Because of this, the amount of food that has not arrived increased by more than 20,000 dan.
Regardless of emotion or reason, Zhu Gaoxu should not criticize him harshly, but should thank him instead.
"You've done a good job in these things, thank you for your hard work."
Compared to two months ago, Zhu Gaoxu looked more mature. He raised his hand to signal Yang Bin and Yishiha to sit down, and then asked them:
"Uliangha invaded and invaded, which damaged the strength of the Jurchen tribes in Haixi. Recently, many tribes have requested to trade food with each other, and the demand is also great."
"Since the beginning of summer, twelve tribes from the Haixi Halawen area have joined our Jilin City, causing the population of Jilin City to increase. I wonder how the food rationing is in our city now. Do we still need to purchase food?"
"In addition, the tribes in Haidong have learned that our number of people has also increased. In the past two months, there have been many fur traders, and the mutual trade volume has been huge."
"I think Yang Bin has seen the furs in the treasury. Do you have the strength to eat them?"
Zhu Gaoxu described the changes outside the customs in the past two months. Among them, the changes were simply due to the invasion of invaders by the Uliang Hara, which resulted in the destruction of many tribes' grain fields, which in turn made it impossible to harvest mature grain before winter.
As a result, the yield per mu decreased. The field that could originally feed one person now requires two acres to feed one person, and there was a shortage of food in various departments.
Some tribes are still relatively strong. After selling some cattle, sheep and horses, they can still buy some food from Jilin City to survive.
However, many small and medium-sized tribes, including the six tribes that originally left Jilin City, returned to Jilin City due to lack of strength and chose to join Jilin City.
In just two months, Jilin City received twelve small and medium-sized tribes, including three savage tribes in the east.
The arrival of these tribes greatly increased the manpower of Jilin City, and the livestock they brought also made Jilin City a veritable Haidong Fancheng.
Secondly, as Jilin City's reputation for repelling the Uliangha invaders spread, the savage Jurchen tribes in the East China Sea tribes also learned about Jilin City, a place open to mutual trade, through the propaganda of Suizhen Bu Fudaha and others.
Many savage tribes carried their accumulated furs on their shoulders to Jilin City in exchange for enough food for the tribes to survive the winter before leaving.
It is true that this situation makes Jilin City stronger, but the number of furs and the population of Jilin City are also increasing.
Whether Jilin City can feed so many people depends on whether Yang Bin can eat so many furs.
In this regard, after hearing these words, Yishiha did not speak first, but looked at Yang Bin, who also said with shame:
"Your Highness, to be honest, there are indeed too many furs in the treasury this time. The furs bought by the grassroots last year have not been sold until now."
"The Cao Min and Yi Zhangyin have calculated this batch of furs and herbs. If the Cao Min's share is calculated according to the previous price, Jilin City will get at least 300,000 yuan."
"It's easy to eat it, but it takes a long time to sell it. Even if we only collect this batch this year, it will take two years to process it."
Yang Bin explained the current dilemma. To put it bluntly, the demand for furs from mainland dignitaries has begun to be saturated.
If you don’t want to lower the price, you can only sell it slowly. The sales time will have to be pushed back, and the speed of collecting money will also slow down.
Yang Bin can eat it, but getting money this time will definitely not be as fast as before.
If it were anyone else, he would definitely think that Yang Bin was being pretentious, but after all, Zhu Gaoxu knew something about market economy, so he did not criticize Yang Bin harshly and just said to Yang Bin:
"You take the furs and medicinal materials to the south. This time, of the 300,000 guan, you send someone to transport 50,000 guan to Jilin City. The rest is used to buy food. It will be delivered in April next year."
"Two hundred and fifty thousand guan buys grain?" Yang Bin was stunned. After all, according to the current price of food, 250,000 guan can buy at least 750,000 dan of grain.
It was already very difficult for him to safely transport such a large amount of food out of the mainland, let alone Liaodong Dusi, who was blocking Jilin City.
However, Zhu Gaoxu comforted him and said, "Don't worry about Liaodong Dusi. I will send Wang Yi to take five hundred brothers to follow you south this time. He will take care of Liaodong Dusi's affairs."
"But..." After hearing this, Yang Bin asked his second question: "With so much food, it would take at least 200,000 people to transport the food to Jilin City."
"You don't have to worry about this. You can transport tens of thousands of shi of grain every month. I will send Zhang Chun to lead the army and civilians to drive a horse-drawn carriage to transport 30,000 shi of grain back to Jilin City." Zhu Gaoxu reassured him again.
"In addition, when Wang Yi goes south this time, he will also bring a thousand civilians and a thousand carriages south to transport grain with you."
Although today's Jilin City was invaded by the Uliangha and many brothers were killed and injured, this time the Uliangha invaded also caused heavy casualties to the Jurchen tribes, and they had to bring cattle, sheep and horses to Jilin City in exchange for food.
The number of draft horses in Jilin City has already reached 9,000.
As long as Zhu Gaoxu thought about it, these 9,000 draft horses could be temporarily independent from the land reclamation movement in Jilin City, and it would take half a month to go to 30,000 guards to transport back 30,000 to 40,000 shi of grain.
It was precisely because of such a large team of draft horses that Zhu Gaoxu dared to ask Yang Bin to buy so much grain.
Due to insufficient animal power and manpower, although Yang Bin still had 140,000 shi of grain in Thirty Thousand Guards, if he wanted to transport all of it to Liaodong, at the current rate, it would not be completed until at least winter.
Because of this, Zhu Gaoxu asked Wang Yi to take a thousand carriages south, hoping to transport all the grain back to Jilin City early.
"If that's the case, then ordinary people can give it a try." Yang Bin breathed a sigh of relief, and Zhu Gaoxu nodded when he saw this:
"So, thank you very much."
"Working for His Highness is a blessing for ordinary people." Yang Bin was polite for a moment, and then seeing that Zhu Gaoxu wanted to see him off, he didn't stay for long. He stood up and bowed:
"The grassroots have to return to the Thirty Thousand Guards tomorrow to transport food, so I will stay here soon. I wish your highness good luck and good health."
"Go..." Zhu Gaoxu did not stay with him, but watched him walk out of the palace, and then looked at Yi Shiha:
"If all these 340,000 shi of grain are transported to Jilin City, how long can we last?"
It seemed that he had known that Zhu Gaoxu would ask this question for a long time. Yishiha did not hesitate and said subconsciously:
"The pension money and food that were owed previously have all been distributed this time. There are still more than 26,000 dan in the treasury, more than 56,000 dan of grain, and more than 21,000 dan of beans."
Fifty thousand guan of money, 140,000 shi of grain, and more than 32,000 shi of bean feed were all consumed while being transported in just two months. The expense of Jilin City is evident.
Zhu Gaoxu was still sighing, but Yishiha frowned and said: "After the Twelve Divisions joined Jilin City, the number of soldiers and civilians in the city has reached 9,432 households, with a population of 53,169 people."
"Including the military pay and horse supplies for the three thousand soldiers in the city, the annual expenditure is 29,000 guan and more than 372,000 shi for food."
"Your Highness, if we don't reduce the amount of land reclamation food, we really won't be able to survive."
Yi Shiha looked worried. After all, they had been spending money on the people of Jilin City with basically no return.
On the contrary, Zhu Gaoxu asked calmly: "How much farmland has been cleared since April?"
"More than 94,600 acres." Speaking of the amount of cultivated land opened up, Yishiha breathed a sigh of relief, obviously very proud.
Faced with his pride, Zhu Gaoxu also said calmly: "Without this expenditure, we would not be able to cultivate so many fields."
"What's more, it's only been two months now. By the time winter comes, I'm afraid 200,000 acres of farmland will be available."
Excluding 3,000 soldiers and horses and 14,000 underage children, Jilin City has a total of more than 36,000 strong laborers of both sexes. In addition, there are more than 9,000 draft horses and more than 7,400 plowing oxen.
These are the current labor force in Jilin City, and what they are doing is constantly reclaiming wasteland and turning it into cultivated land for means of production.
Currently, Jilin City already has nearly 140,000 acres of new and old cultivated land. Judging from the rate of reclaiming more than 94,000 acres in two and a half months, Jilin City's cultivated land may reach 2.34 million acres before winter. quantity.
By the coming year, it is estimated that the rate of reclamation of 200,000 acres per year can be maintained.
It is now the 29th year of Hongwu, which means that before Lao Zhu died of illness in May of the 31st year of Hongwu, Jilin City had at least 456,000 acres of arable land.
However, if the increase is only arable land, this will not be enough for Zhu Gaoxu to relax. What he has to keep a close eye on is food.
"Are the rice fields outside the city okay?" Zhu Gaoxu changed the topic and asked about the situation of the rice fields.
Hearing this, Yi Shiha nodded with joy on his face: "It's growing well. Judging from the current rice ears, as long as there are no problems, the two thousand acres of rice fields can harvest at least two thousand dan of grain."
One stone per mu is nothing to the people in the pass, but in Daning, Liaodong and Jilin cities north of Shanhaiguan, this is an output that can save countless people.
"One stone per mu..." Zhu Gaoxu also had a smile on his face. Although he did not cultivate cold-tolerant rice, the method of first cultivating seedlings and then transplanting rice seedlings did provide another way to increase grain production outside Guanhai.
Faced with Yi Shiha's words, Zhu Gaoxu gave serious instructions: "If we can really produce one stone of grain, we will stop clearing land after the autumn harvest and select one thousand acres of land from the old land to build nursery fields."
"A thousand acres?" Yishiha looked troubled: "Your Highness, with so many seedling fields, the coal and firewood consumed is probably not a small amount."
"It's better than relying on the court all the time." Zhu Gaoxu didn't know that raising seedling fields was expensive, but he had no choice.
"In the future, millet and wheat will be planted in the new fields in the first year, and rice will be planted in the following year."
Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath and ordered, and at the same time said to Yishiha: "My fifth uncle is said to have many gentlemen who are familiar with agriculture. Can you see if we can also find some such gentlemen to come to Jilin City?"
Although he was asking, his tone was unquestionable. Yishiha also understood his thoughts and immediately responded: "I will go and talk to Yang Shanren about this matter in a little while."
"Hmm..." Zhu Gaoxu nodded. Seeing this, Yi Shiha also stood up, bowed and left.
After he left, Zhu Gaoxu did not leave, but waited quietly.
After a quarter of an hour, the sound of intensive footsteps could be heard on the screen wall of the palace.
Fu Rang, Lin Su, Zhang Chun, and Wang Yi walked out from behind the screen wall one after another, and saw Zhu Gaoxu sitting in the Chengyun Hall from a distance.
The four of them were chatting and laughing. When they entered the Chengyun Hall, they bowed one after another: "Your Highness..."
"Sit down first." Zhu Gaoxu ordered, and then the four people sat on both sides according to their official positions.
When they sat down, Fu Rang was the first to speak: "I have only been back to Andong City for less than a month, and you summoned me again."
"There are a lot of things going on over there. If nothing happens to you, then I will suffer miserably from you."
Fu Rang has the most special status in Jilin City. In terms of seniority, he is one generation higher than Zhu Gaoxu. In terms of status, he is also the son of Ying Guogong Fu Youde.
Although Lao Zhu did not let anyone inherit his title after Fu Youde's death, Fu Rang's identity still remains here.
Zhu Gaoxu also tried his best to tolerate him, so after he asked, Zhu Gaoxu replied:
"News has been sent from the south. The imperial court has transferred two thousand single military households from Shandong and Nanzhili to the north. I mean to divide this batch of troops."
Without politeness, Zhu Gaoxu told the reason why they came.
Since the left army of Shenyang left thousands of households, Jilin City, which suffered losses, has inevitably entered an embarrassing period of empty strength.
There were 1,507 Jilin Guards before the war. Counting the 100 men from Anton City and Sanchang, there were only 1,131 people left.
Therefore, after the war, as the Liaodong Dusi sent the remaining military households approved by Lao Zhu last year to Jilin City, Zhu Gaoxu selected many suitable men from among them and the Jurchen retinue to join the army, totaling 3,000 men. all.
After that, Zhu Gaoxu transferred them to Andong City, stationing one thousand households in Andong City, one thousand households in Jixi Fort, and three hundred households in each of the three cities.
As a result, there were only 700 soldiers and horses left in Jilin City.
This time, Lao Zhu allocated another two thousand people to come to Jilin City. Zhu Gaoxu needed to discuss with Fu Rang and others the ownership of these two thousand people, as well as his own ideas.
In front of Fu Rang and the others, Zhu Gaoxu said: "The city in Zhaozhou must be built, otherwise Wu Liangha will invade again in the future and Jilin City will become a battlefield."
"But this time, I am going to let Lin Su go to Andong City to supervise it, and Fu will ask you to personally take these two thousand people and one thousand people from Jixi Fort to Zhaozhou to build the city."
"In addition, I am also planning to recruit a thousand soldiers from the Jurchens who joined Jilin City to make up the six thousand-household stations of Jilin Guard."
After Zhu Gaoxu finished talking about his arrangement, he immediately glanced at the four people. All four of them had no objections. Only Fu Rang nodded and asked:
"I don't have any objection to the actual six thousand troops, but how do you plan to deploy them?"
"Besides, there are so many people in the city, are you sure you can feed these 6,000 soldiers and horses?"
Fu Rang calmly asked two questions that everyone was concerned about, but Zhu Gaoxu already had plans for this.
"The seven hundred people in Jilin City will be armored cavalry, and another thousand households will be organized into the horse army. The three hundred households in the third field will not be moved, and the remaining four thousand households will be spearmen. In the future, if there are more horses, draft horses will be allocated. , serving as horse infantry."
"As for the matter of raising troops, you don't have to worry. Everything is done by myself and by myself."
Zhu Gaoxu expressed his thoughts, and Fu Rang couldn't help but was speechless: "You are willing to spend money."
Seven hundred armored cavalry and one thousand light cavalry, plus four thousand horse infantry...
If the configuration Zhu Gaoxu mentioned can be achieved, it will probably become an elite soldier second only to the Hezhou Guard and Baotao Guard in front of the palace.
Regarding Fu Rang's praise, Zhu Gaoxu was not modest. Instead, he smiled and said:
"This is what I, the Bohai Navy, should be like..."
"Records of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty": On the Xinyou day of the fifth month, I heard that the King of Yan and the King of Bohai had defeated Yuan general Harawu in Jilin. They were very happy and hosted a banquet for all the ministers at Fengtianmen.
"Fengtian Jingnan Lu": On the Xinyou day of the fifth month, I was very happy to hear that the King of Yan had defeated the general Ha Lawu of the Yuan Dynasty, and summoned all the ministers to discuss the crown prince again.
It is said that the emperor's grandson was weak and the king of Yan was in the country. He kept everyone quiet and did not disturb him. He won the hearts of the army and the people and everyone said that he had the care of a king.
Liu Sanwu, a Hanlin scholar, said, "If we establish the King of Yan, where should we place the King of Jin? And the emperor's grandson is old and can inherit."
I heard it and thought about it.
(End of chapter)
