The thirty-first year of Hongwu was destined to be a restless year.
After the death of the founding hero Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty was also surrounded by unrest.
Lucchuan Daogan Meng first rebelled and then surrendered. The "Prince Rebellion" also broke out in North Korea. The founding king Li Chenggui was ill in bed. Prince Li Fangyuan and his two half-brothers rebelled. The eldest son Li Fangshuo was forced to leave the palace and was killed. On the road.
After the incident, Li Fangyuan held a sword and asked Li Chenggui, who was ill in bed, to appoint his elder brother Li Fanguo as the crown prince. Li Chenggui was forced to admit the status quo and make Li Fanguo the crown prince.
This matter was reported back to the Ming Dynasty by merchants in the DPRK, but Zhu Yunwen was busy cutting down the vassals and implementing the New Deal, and had no intention of intervening in the internal strife in North Korea.
Not only North Korea, but also civil strife broke out in Annan, which was also a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. The powerful minister Hu Jisu threatened King Chen Yongchan to live in Chen'an, where he was three years old. King Chen Yong refused and was forced to become a Taoist priest at Yuqing Temple in Tamsui Village. For the Taishang Yuanjun Emperor.
Soon Hu Jiya wrote a poem and suggested that Chen Yong commit suicide, but Chen Yong refused, so Hu Jiya sent someone to hang him to death, and the power of Annan fell into the hands of Hu Jiya.
It's just that Zhu Yunwen didn't know about this. He continued to be immersed in his new policy of "university under heaven".
"I left this time. I don't know what it will be like when I come back next time..."
At the Jiangdong Gate Pier in the capital city of Yingtian Prefecture, Zhu Gaochi, who was much thinner than at the beginning of the year, looked back at the capital city with a tired heart.
Since the king of Zhou was beheaded, he had been frightened every day, so he lost a lot of weight.
Not only him, but Zhu Gaosui, who was unruly at the beginning, is now in constant panic.
The third son of Yan, who was protected by Zhu Di and Zhu Gaochi, finally understood how difficult it was for his father and his eldest and second brothers.
"Let's go, Third, I hope we don't have to come to this place again in the future."
Zhu Gaochi greeted the pale Zhu Gaosui next to him, and took him onto the northward ship.
They didn't know that Zhu Di was pretending to be crazy, so they were dejected along the way.
Perhaps only when they return to Peiping will they know what their father and Zhu Gaoxu are busy with.
However, compared to their episode, Yunnan, which is more important at the moment, is causing a lot of emotions due to the implementation of Jianwen's New Deal.
Zhu Yunwen promoted civilian officials and reduced the number of military attachés in the Fifth Army Governor's Office. The merger of guard posts into counties made many military attachés worry about their futures, fearing that they would be the target of being merged with guard posts just after the war.
Not only the southwest, but also the military attaches in the northwest, southeast, Guangdong and Guangxi and other places are all in danger.
The entire Ming Dynasty was suffering from turmoil and unrest because of Zhu Yunwen's new policy. Among them, the change of generals in the three capital divisions of Liaodong, Peiping, and Daning made many military attachés in the three divisions unable to hide their complaints.
Although the reign title was Jianwen, the military attachés did not expect that the new monarch would suppress them like this.
A large number of military attaches were transferred to Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and Huguang. Most of those transferred to the front lines were military attaches from Henan, Shandong and other places who had not been in actual combat for many years.
Due to the military attache inheritance system in the early Ming Dynasty, many of these military attaches were commendable in terms of personal abilities, but once they came to dispatch troops, they immediately fell behind.
They were the Eighth Army of World War II in the mainland, and the stations in the garrison were not filled or even exceeded like the frontier fortresses. Some guards even only had two or three stations, and the number of soldiers they could pull out was less than a thousand.
They were accustomed to commanding hundreds of people, but when they suddenly came to the frontier fortress where they had to command thousands or even thousands of people, many military attachés were in a hurry. For a while, the border fortress was in chaos, and impeachment memorials flew to the capital like pieces of paper.
However, Qi Tai had already prepared for this and advised Zhu Yunwen that there was no need to worry. As long as these military attachés were given enough time, they would be able to control their troops.
After all, Zhu Yuanzhang had long expected that the mainland military attachés would not be able to engage in actual combat for a long time and would therefore most likely not be able to participate in border patrol missions. Therefore, he had arranged for Li Jinglong, Xu Huizu, Fu Youde, Feng Sheng and others to train the mainland military attachés.
These military attaches have already received training, but they just lacked opportunities.
Now Qitai has given them the opportunity to allow the mainland military attachés to participate in border affairs and prepare for the future southward movement of Hu soldiers from the north.
It has to be said that Qi Tai is still Zhu Yuanzhang's choice for the Ministry of War after all. He may not be able to lead troops in war, but he can still coordinate the training of the three armies.
Under his control, people related to Zhu Gaoxu in the Sandu Division of Peking soon went to the south one after another, and the Bohai Sea completely became an isolated island.
"Yang Wen was transferred to Guangxi as a former general to conquer the captives. He was responsible for rehabilitating the chieftains in Guilin and west of Guangzhou."
"One of Yang Zhan and Lin Su was transferred to Nanning as the commander, and the other was transferred to Chenzhou, Huguang as the commander."
"Fu Rang was transferred to Guangdong as the commander of the capital and was responsible for the Lianzhou farmland."
"There are also Wang Hui, Liu Jun and others. They have also been transferred to the local areas to serve as commanding colleagues or commanding officers."
In mid-September, when Zhu Gaoxu was overlooking the people's autumn harvest on Fortress Mountain outside Jilin City, Yishiha, who was standing behind him, also relayed the situation in the south to him.
Listening to what he said, Zhu Gaoxu could not have imagined that history would change so much because of him.
As a famous general in the late Hongwu period, Yang Wen was highly relied upon by Zhu Yuanzhang. During the Jingnan Campaign, Yang Wen also led the Liaodong troops to besiege Yongping many times, restraining the Yan army from moving south and cooperating with the actions of the southern government troops.
Although he was far behind Song Sheng and others in terms of military discipline, and had never won the three Peiping mansions where Zhu Di was based, this was also due to the lack of unified command of the various armies by the imperial court, which resulted in the repeated defeats of the Liaodong troops he commanded. .
He himself was not good at fighting in the north, but he was still able to contain Zhu Di's troops in Peiping.
Now that he has been transferred to the south for his own reasons, this can be considered a good thing.
Based on his experience in fighting in the southwest, I am afraid that the return of the Guangxi chieftain will be very smooth. After all, Yang Wen is much better than Liu Sheng during the Yongle period.
Zhu Yunwen's move can be regarded as promoting the sinicization of Guangxi.
"Fu Rang became neighbors with Zhang Chun."
Zhu Gaoxu was talking about Fu Rang and Zhang Chun, who had gone south early and was now serving as the commander of Shendian Guards in Gaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong.
There was no trace of worry on his face, which made Yishiha a little surprised: "Your Highness, aren't you worried?"
"What are you worried about? Do you think we can easily deal with the Liaodong soldiers and horses since they are in Liaodong?" Zhu Gaoxu shook his head: "Not to mention whether Yang Wen will really help me, Wu Gao alone is not that easy to deal with."
"Yang Wen and Wu Gao, and the current Liu Zhen and Wu Gao, there is no difference between these two pairs of generals to me."
"In war, you must seize the opportunity for your opponent to make mistakes, but you cannot always wait for your opponent to make mistakes."
"Only by attacking with serious force and making the opponent panic, can we seize the opportunity of the opponent's mistakes and pursue the victory."
"If we expect to win with a surprise attack, it's better to think about how we can attack with regular troops."
Zhu Gaoxu looked at the Bohai Navy camp at the foot of Fortress Mountain, where tens of thousands of Bohai soldiers were training, including three thousand households under Liu Wu's command.
"How are Liu Wu and the other two doing?"
He asked knowingly, but Yi Shiha also raised the corner of his mouth: "According to His Highness's instructions, I didn't ask people to find Liu Wu and other generals. Instead, I asked people to find those ordinary soldiers, register them in a book, and told them , will issue their enlistment fields at the winter solstice.”
"Do you think the ten acres of land for each of them to enlist in the army can be used to lure them?" Zhu Gaoxu asked Yi Shiha, and Yi Shiha also said confidently: "These soldiers are all military households whose families went north. With ten acres of land to enlist, plus On the last winter solstice, the four acres of farmland were allocated per capita. If we calculate carefully, a family of five can get thirty acres of cultivated land."
"I beg your pardon to speak frankly, the imperial court will not give out thirty acres of cultivated land to the people for free. Even if it is given out, it will still be heavily taxed."
"So this is our advantage." Zhu Gaoxu chuckled: "I can use hundreds of thousands of acres of cultivated land every year to win people's hearts, but Zhu Yunwen is reluctant."
"It would be too naive for him to expect that twelve dan of rations per year can buy off the soldiers."
Yi Shiha nodded in agreement and said bluntly: "As long as we control the hundreds of soldiers led by Liu Wu, their dozens of people will not be able to make any trouble."
"How long will there be enough food in the treasury to last?" Looking at the harvested food, Zhu Gaoxu asked and felt confused.
In this regard, Yishiha also calculated for Zhu Gaoxu in an orderly manner, and also mentioned Fu Rang: "Fu Rang will use some more means to transport 26,000 shi of grain to us before leaving."
"Including the batch he helped before, we can survive until at least mid-June, which is one month longer than expected."
"That's enough." After hearing Yi Shiha's words, Zhu Gaoxu nodded and walked with him down the Fortress Mountain Stone Fortress.
They walked down the mountain and saw a team of horses transporting iron ingots and cement from Sanchang.
Since the cement production increased, the cement field has been moved to the limestone field, which not only facilitates production, but also facilitates the people.
"Over at the Six Cities, I have ordered Xu Sheng to mobilize troops. You are ready to transport half a year's military pay over there by water."
"yes."
The two talked about everything that could be discussed, and finally returned to Jilin City.
Jilin City's autumn harvest grain book was also completed a few days later. More than 600,000 acres of cultivated land produced a total of 570,000 dan of grain, which was more than 30,000 dan higher than Zhu Gaoxu and the others expected.
In addition to Jilin City, Andong City and Zhaozhou City, grain rolls also arrived successively, amounting to 26,000 shi of grain and 3,400 shi of beans respectively.
Although there is still a long way to go before self-sufficiency, more than 370,000 acres of cultivated land have been opened up in the four cities of the Bohai Sea this year, bringing the Bohai Sea's cultivated land to more than one million acres.
In other words, if the next autumn harvest can maintain this year's yield per mu, the people of Bohai will basically achieve self-sufficiency.
The only thing missing was military pay and food for the 50,000-strong army, but Zhu Gaoxu did not intend to obtain these things through reclamation outside the customs, but through Liaodong.
This idea reached its peak at the end of September.
Before going south, Fu Rang learned about the reserve warehouses and military garrison conditions of the 25th Guards in Liaodong through banquets with officials at all levels of the Liaodong Dusi.
After Zhu Yuanzhang's arrangements during his lifetime, and Qi Tai's subsequent supplements, the Liaodong Dusi's reserve warehouses and military warehouses totaled more than 750,000 stones, and the number of guards in Liaodong was about 420,000.
The local military fields in Liaodong could produce about 800,000 shi, which could only meet 40% of the rations needed by the soldiers and civilians in Liaodong. The remaining 60% needed to be allocated by the court from Shandong.
Among them, the allocation time is mostly after autumn and the beginning of spring, and each allocation can range from 7 to 800,000 dan to as little as 4 to 500,000 dan.
It can be said that Fu Rang has basically figured out the background of Liaodong.
With this information, Zhu Gaoxu also knew when it was best to send troops to Liaodong.
To attack Liaodong, we cannot rely solely on regular troops to break through 30,000 guards. Therefore, in that case, Wu Gao and Liu Zhen may feel that the situation is over, and then retreat to southern Liaoning to burn grain.
Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu had to use a combination of regular and strange troops. The regular troops used 30,000 guards to contain the forces of Wu Gao and Liu Zhen. The strange troops went to the mountainous area of Dongning Prefecture in the former Yuan Dynasty, learned from the old slaves more than two hundred years later, and penetrated into southern Liaoning to cut off Wu Gao and Liu Zhen. Liu Zhen's retreat.
The good news about this method is that there is currently no Great Wall in Liaodong, so as long as you can pass through Dongning Prefecture, you can directly reach the hinterland of southern Liaoning.
For this plan, Zhu Gaoxu also began to select veteran Jilin Guard soldiers from various guards and organized them into Jilin Central Guards. They traveled between Jilin City and Jilin City three times a day to train their mountain cross-country abilities.
However, when he was planning Liaodong, Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaochi, who had been released by Zhu Yunwen, finally returned to Peiping.
When they saw the Peking City Wall after six years of absence, they had very complicated emotions in their hearts.
Xu ordered Wang Yan (dog) to pick them up and take them outside Cunxin Hall.
"Get away! Get away! You guys are killing my brother! You bastards!!"
"Bang!!"
The sound of tables and chairs hitting the doors and windows made Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaosui pale. They did not expect that their father was really suffering from a mad disease.
"Mom, is father really out of control?"
Zhu Gaochi looked at Xu sadly. Facing Zhu Gaochi's question, Xu couldn't bear to shake her head: "The imperial doctor also came to see her and was very frightened by your father."
"Dad! I am Gao Sui! My eldest brother and I are back!"
Zhu Gaosui lay in front of the window, calling out to Zhu Di inside, but Zhu Di kept smashing things and told Zhu Gaosui to get away.
Zhu Gaosui was so frightened that his face turned pale, and Zhu Gaochi was also very uncomfortable when he saw this.
Looking at their appearance, Lu Zhen, the escort commander of Prince Yan's Palace who was accompanying him, flashed his eyes.
Not long after, Mrs. Xu took Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaosui to the front bedroom, while Lu Zhen walked out of the palace.
He found his way to a tea shop, where he met an old farmer dressed as a farmer.
"Crazy." Lu Zhen didn't say much else, but the old farmer said calmly and firmly: "Are you sure you're not pretending to be crazy?"
"He has been crazy for more than a month. Today, when the prince and the third son returned home, they did not see that he had improved. Instead, he continued to beat him up and frightened the third son so much that he fell down. If this is just pretending to be crazy, then there will be no real madmen in the world."
Lu Zhenxin vowed, and the old farmer nodded in approval: "I will spread the news to the south, and you will continue to monitor the house."
"Don't worry." After leaving a few words, Lu Zhen stood up and left the tea shop.
Soon after, the old farmer also left the tea shop. Only the manager of the tea shop slowly looked at the direction the two left and put down the abacus in his hand.
He went to the kitchen, where an ascetic wearing a bamboo hat sat.
"As you said, Master, the person who came is indeed the person who passed by the tea shop before."
The manager said to the ascetic, who also took out a lot of money from his sleeve and put it on the table beside him: "Continue to keep an eye on them. I will come every day at noon from now on."
"Hey...good!" He happily picked up the money on the table, and the tea shop manager smiled from ear to ear.
As for the ascetic monk, he also left the tea shop after a while and walked to Qingshou Temple in Peiping.
In about two-quarters of an hour, he walked to Qingshou Temple and found Yao Guangxiao dressed in black robes in a Zen room.
"As expected, Master, Lu Zhen has indeed had private contact with His Majesty's people, more than once."
The ascetic monk took off his bamboo hat, and Yao Guangxiao also stopped thinking about the beads in his hand and slowly opened his eyes: "It's not just Lu Zhen. After going south this time, I'm afraid that Ge Cheng will also seek refuge in the south."
"Then we have no one in Prince Yan's Mansion?" The thirty-year-old ascetic had a solemn face, but Yao Guangxiao slowly said: "If you don't destroy it, you won't establish it. Let's make them happy first."
"Have there been any news from Huiming and others about things in the east?"
"King Bohai didn't have any reaction. It seems like what Meng Ying and the others said, King Bohai is very calm." The ascetic replied, and praised: "In the face of such a situation, that person can still remain as motionless as a mountain. He is really a strange person. .”
"He is indeed a strange person..." Yao Guangxiao thought of Zhu Gaoxu's face and appearance. It was really difficult for him to understand how Zhu Gaoxu's temperament changed so much after a trip to the capital.
Judging from his current performance, he is not at all like Zhu Gaoxu before, but rather has a somewhat heroic attitude.
He is not like Zhu Yuanzhang, let alone Zhu Di, and the contact time between the two is so short that Yao Guangxiao can't tell who he looks like.
But Yao Guangxiao knew very well that if the father and son really came to the day of starting an army, they would probably end up in a big fight over a position.
Thinking of this, Yao Guangxiao thought of Zhu Gaochi who had just arrived in Peiping.
"Pity……"
He was sighing, not sure whether he was sighing at Zhu Gaochi or Zhu Gaoxu.
But when he sighed, the Cunxin Palace, which had been smashed for a long time, also became quiet.
"I'm so exhausted..."
Out of breath, Zhu Di dropped the broken wood in his hand, glanced at the mess in the Cunxin Hall, and then walked to the left hall.
After he walked into the left hall, although the place was very messy, Babu's bed was very clean, and there was wine, meat and roast chicken on the coffee table next to him.
Zhu Di sat back on the bed, holding a wine bottle in one hand and a roast chicken in the other, and started eating and drinking as if in revenge.
His hair was disheveled, his clothes were dirty, and even he himself disliked the smell.
"I really don't know how long I will have to live like this..." Zhu Di was disgusted, but when he thought of Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaosui who had just returned to Peking, a smile appeared on his face: "But it's okay, at least the boss and the third child came back."
He smiled with satisfaction, and after resting for a while, he started to smash things in the main hall again.
After the sound of smashing, many slaves passing by the Cunxin Hall walked away, which shows how disgusting Zhu Di was at this time.
But while he was doing this, Zhu Gaoxu, who was in Jilin City, also received something sent by Wang Xuan at the beginning of the year.
It was a pile of ore, and it was much heavier than iron ore.
"It took me four years to find this guy. If he had been a few months later, I wouldn't have needed him."
Looking at the pile of stones on the table, Zhu Gaoxu picked up one and tested the weight, then selected the unqualified ores. Finally, he ordered Yishiha who sent the ores: "Have people give these ores to iron smelting." Field, let the craftsmen in the ironmaking field add a small amount of these ores into the ironmaking to see if they can get a drill bit with a higher hardness."
"If you can get it out, it will be much easier to drill the gun barrel in the future."
Zhu Gaoxu gave instructions to Yishiha, feeling very happy.
Perhaps Wang Xuan's move of sending ore made Zhu Gaoxu know that his heart was still on his side, so he was very happy.
Since it was already the end of September, snow had begun to fall in the sky above Jilin City, and the city began to get cold.
Looking at this scene, Zhu Gaoxu also left Yi Shiha behind and took Sun Cheng out of the palace.
He walked towards Liu Wu's residential area where three thousand households lived, and soon he heard the sound of knocking.
When he walked into this civilian house, the surrounding military households bowed to him one after another. Zhu Gaoxu smiled and waved his hands: "It's starting to snow. How is the laying of the fire kang, fire tunnels, and fire walls?"
"Your Majesty, everything has been laid out. We tried to live there for a while. It was much more comfortable than when we lived in Shandong. It wasn't cold at all."
"Yes, yes, there is plenty of firewood to use here, and you can have hot meals every day."
"Your Highness, the rations you gave us are too much, and we can't even finish them."
"Hahaha……"
In the civilian square, the military households smiled and talked to Zhu Gaoxu, which showed that this was not the first time they saw Zhu Gaoxu.
Whether it was to win people's hearts or something else, Zhu Gaoxu would visit them from time to time since they moved to Jilin City, asking if they were short of food and clothing.
Cement masonry houses, fire tunnels, fire walls, and fire pits were all things that only the rich and gentry could enjoy in Shandong, but when they came to Jilin City, not only did they have a small courtyard with two entrances without spending a penny, There are all these luxuries to enjoy.
Not long ago, the palace also allocated fields to them for enlistment, and promised that the fields would be divided according to head count during the winter solstice.
These policies make the three thousand military households who moved to Jilin City and their families extremely grateful.
"I came today to talk to you about the land division. I think you must have heard about it."
Zhu Gaoxu said to the surrounding military households and their relatives: "If you don't know, I will pass it on after you hear it."
With that said, Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath and began to say to the military households around him: "After you get these enlisted fields and equal fields, you can farm them independently, and then you will pay 20% of the regular tax every year, and there will be no miscellaneous taxes on the rest."
"Of course, you can also continue to participate in reclaiming wasteland. The fields will be cultivated as usual and handed over to the palace for coordination. Food, coal, firewood, and vegetables will be distributed to everyone as usual."
"Whenever you want to live separately, go to your village head and the officials of your village and tell them, and they will separate you."
Zhu Gaoxu talked about Bohai's big-pot policy. After hearing this, many military households gave direct answers: "Thirty acres of land is a lot, but we are still willing to live with the palace!"
"Yes! Live with the prince, have cloth and coal, and eat meat every month!"
The output of the thirty acres of land outside the customs is not great, at least twenty kilograms of grain, but for many people, all they need is stability.
Like the people of Jilin City back then, they were all worried that the palace would not help them if they encountered any difficulties after living separately from the palace, so they would rather continue to eat from the big pot.
"Okay, okay..." Zhu Gaoxu said with a smile: "Since we don't want to separate our families yet, then we will continue to live together as a team. When each of you can get more than ten acres of cultivated land, then we will live separately."
"Okay!!" After hearing Zhu Gaoxu's words, everyone cheered.
This scene of harmony between the king and the people was witnessed by Liu Wu and the other three who came over. They were filled with hatred. At the same time, they also decided to write Zhu Gaoxu's actions to win people's hearts into intelligence and sent people to the south before winter.
(End of chapter)
