When the motion to send troops was made, it was extremely concealed.
The news spread throughout the streets and alleys like a passing wind.
Although Jingying was built on the basis of Shaanxi, Chu and Shu people, they have now settled in the capital one after another and have become serious Beijing residents.
Just like when the Mongols took over the capital and the Huaixi people rebuilt Beijing, there are fewer people of pure northern ancestry among the new generation of Beijing residents.
Having said that, the popular discourse in Beijing is still the unique Beijing dialect, not Shaanxi dialect or Huguang dialect.
Without him, among the dialects of various provinces, the only one that can serve as a bridge is the Mandarin dialect of the capital.
"Madam, the charcoal for spring is almost used up. Do you want to buy more?"
In Jia's residence, with the news that Jia Daihua had been awarded the title of Viscount, the whole mansion was filled with joy.
This means that the Jia family suddenly has two viscount heirlooms, which is a huge honor.
As for Jia Shi, who has just been married for more than two years, things are going up at home. With the help of her mother's family, who dares not give her face?
Mrs. Jia Chen was also happy to take some time off, and left all the sundries to her to deal with, becoming a housekeeper.
At this time, Jia Shi was wearing a red-faced peony gown with gold brocade on the outside, and a sky-blue skirt on the inside. She was swaying with a slightly swaying golden hairpin on her head, and she looked full of energy.
The personal maid on the side asked crisply, with a pair of dripping eyes wanting to know the answer as soon as possible.
Jia Shi's red lips twitched slightly: "Although the twelfth lunar month of winter has passed, we can't prevent the cold spring from coming. Looking at this happy day, we have to buy some charcoal."
"Bring back two hundred pounds of red charcoal."
Jia Shi gritted his teeth and seemed to have made up his mind.
The maid was shocked.
Hongluo charcoal is the most expensive charcoal in Beijing. It is produced in Tongzhou, Zhuozhou, Wanping, Daxing and other places. It is made from three types of wood: Qingxin wood, white jujube wood and dendrobium wood. In addition to these three kinds of trees, Except for this, nothing else can be burned into red charcoal.
Red charcoal is very popular among princes and nobles because of its strong firepower, gray-white color, and never having to worry about poisoning.
Even the palace keeps buying.
As for coal, it is what ordinary people use to keep warm.
Because of this, the price of Hongluo charcoal has been rising all the way, reaching one hundred yuan per catty. In other words, two hundred catties of charcoal cost almost twenty silver dollars.
Enough to buy a few acres of land in the suburbs of Beijing.
"Yes, madam." The maid nodded in agreement.
At this time, a servant ran over and said with joy on his face: "Madam, the two young masters are here."
The servants were brought over from the Shi family, and the young master she was talking about was naturally referring to the brothers Shi Ding and Shi Nai.
Sure enough, the two hunky brothers strode over. When they saw the slightly fatter sister, they were relieved:
"Little sister, seeing that you are staying well at Jia's house, I feel relieved."
"Jia Daihua, this kid, cruelly left my sister at home for the sake of his title." Shi Nai said angrily, "When I come back, I won't be able to beat him to death."
"Don't say stupid things." Shi Nai scolded his brother mercilessly, and then comforted his sister:
"Dai Hua's status is embarrassing at home. It is understandable that he is anxious to go out and make meritorious deeds."
"Brother, I understand." Jia Shi showed helplessness: "I understand all these principles."
"My little sister is so good, it's really cheap for Jia Daihua." Shi Ding shook his head and sighed.
At these words, the three siblings all laughed.
"Eldest brother, second brother, are you going on an expedition?"
Jia Shi was smart and immediately understood the reason why his two brothers came to visit him, and his face instantly filled with concern.
"The Beijing camp has been mobilizing for a long time and has taken several days of leave in advance." Shi Nai also did not deny it: "Your second brother and I are both cavalrymen, so there is a great chance of going north."
Shi Dingze said: "Little sister, Daihua has been promoted to us. If we don't work hard, how will your two brothers get along in the future?"
"Then don't mess around -" Jia Shi said decisively.
Seeing her two brothers dumbfounded, she chuckled again and smiled like a delicate child: "I mean, you can just follow him from now on."
"It's not shameful to hang out with my brother-in-law."
The Shi brothers were dumbfounded, and their faces instantly became angry.
"How else would you say girls are outgoing!" Shi Ding curled his lips and said, "When you have a husband, you forget about your brother."
"It's quite acceptable to want her two brothers to be her husband's guardians."
Shi Nai took a deep breath. He suspected that the sister in front of him was fake.
Is the gap between women so big after they get married?
"Okay, I'm just teasing you." Jia Shi finally stopped smiling, then took out a pair of amulets from the purse around her waist and handed them to Shi Ding and Shi Nai.
"When there were crazy rumors about the dispatch of troops in Beijing, I knew that our family would definitely be dispatched. How could my two brothers endure loneliness?"
"This is the amulet I requested for you two days ago. Wear it well and come back safely..."
There are 200,000 people operating in Beijing, and their consumption power is comparable to that of 200,000 small and medium-sized landowners.
Even better than the landlord.
The landlords depended on the land for food, drink, and toilets, so their purchasing power was not strong. This was different in the Jingying camp. They were basically off-duty soldiers, and they had to spend money to buy all their firewood, rice, salt, and oil.
At the same time, nearly 70% of the soldiers in the Beijing camp owned military fields, which were benefited more or less every year. Coupled with the monthly salary of two silver coins, the life of the 200,000 soldiers in the Beijing camp was better than that of most people in the Ming Dynasty.
It can be said that during the Shaowu period, the children of Jingying were happy and wealthy.
It is precisely because of this that Jingying is considered to be some of the most loyal people in the Ming Dynasty at this moment.
The expedition was about to begin, and even though the army's supplies and baggage were relatively complete, the family members of the Beijing camp still purchased a large amount of sundries to ensure their safety on the way.
Golden sore medicine and shoes are the two most popular items.
Needless to say, there is no need to mention the golden sore medicine. Medical resources are always tight on the battlefield, so no amount of this stuff is too little.
Shoes are the most inconspicuous but most important thing on the battlefield.
When everyone looks at war, the first thing they always look at is the armor rate, and then the food and grass supplies, but in fact, the loss of shoes is huge.
During the thirty-mile journey every day, the straw sandals can only last three days, and the walking boots will be worn out after ten days.
Therefore, once the ancient army marched south, the bare-footed army would immediately suffer heavy losses, and the grasslands in the south were full of crises.
Naturally, it is impossible for the army to provide an unlimited supply of shoes, so soldiers can only be asked to bring a few more pairs to avoid affecting the battle.
The situation in Beijing continued to brew, but a rare scene appeared on the grassland.
This confirms one thing: the two armies will not start fighting this spring.
The livestock have been hungry all winter and are in urgent need of fodder supplies. The horses are also losing weight. Now is not a good time for fighting.
Obviously, the Manchus also understood that even if they won the battle at this time, it would be a miserable victory, and the fatted war horses might not be able to be raised back in a year.
This will be really cheap for everyone.
As a result, the troops from the Beijing camp were not rushed and began to proceed in an orderly manner.
It was like this for more than a month, until the tenth day of March, when 30,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry left for the northwest in a leisurely manner.
They will cross the Inner Great Wall, cross Zhangjiakou, and arrive at Guihua.
From the dotted villages and fields to the dotted yurts and white patches of cattle and sheep, this is a strategic move.
What follows closely behind is the fate of 300,000 civilians.
Frankly speaking, 100,000 civilians could not cope with an army of 50,000, so the cabinet had to rush to recruit 200,000 people and directly paid 1.5 million yuan in settlement expenses.
The price is extremely expensive.
In the real sense, it is the cattle that bear the burden of transportation.
That’s right, it’s a cow.
Migration on the grassland, chasing water and grass
However, in fact, it is never the horse that bears the main force, but the ox.
Cows are the lifeblood for farmers, and they are also the lifeblood for nomadic people, because the yurt is on the back of the cow.
This time, 50,000 cattle and 20,000 herdsmen were recruited from Chahar and Suiyuan.
It is no exaggeration to say that a cow can carry five shi of grain, and 50,000 cows are equivalent to 250,000 shi. After deducting some food and drink losses on the road, after arriving at naturalization, there will be at least 100,000 shi left.
The 300,000 civilians marched in sections and in relays to avoid being exhausted on the road and save some food consumption.
A conservative estimate is that after transporting one million shi of food from Beijing to Guihua, there would be at most 200,000 shi left over the thousand-mile journey.
One to four losses.
The cabinet made an estimate: If the war continued until the end of the year, the imperial court would support nearly 10 million dan just for food.
Good guy, if there is no inventory, it will be empty.
It’s no wonder that during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, after the Battle of Mobei, the entire country was devastated and all the people fled.
…
While the people in Beijing were anxious about the grassland war, the Huaihe River area was plunged into tension.
Since the beginning of winter last year, the weather in Henan, Anhui and other places has been extremely abnormal, with either no rain for ten days and a half, or heavy rain.
Logically speaking, March is the time when spring rain is as expensive as oil, but in the eyes of Jiangsu people, this oil is too much.
The entire Yellow River is actually in danger.
Everyone in the world knows about the tragedy of Kaifeng being flooded by dikes, but few know that the Southern Song Dynasty was the main culprit of the erosion of the Huaihai Sea.
In the winter of the second year of Jianyan in the Southern Song Dynasty (1128), in order to prevent the Jin soldiers from advancing southward, the Song generals and the Tokyo-based defender Du Chong opened the south embankment of the Yellow River and entered Zhusi from Si. The main stream of the Yellow River moved southward, beginning a flood that lasted for more than 700 years. The Huai River seizes the flow of the Huai River into the sea.
Large tracts of fertile fields were buried by quicksand, fertile lands were generally salinized, lakes and rivers were silted up, and water accumulated with no outlet, creating a series of new lakes, causing the originally developed agricultural economy here to plummet.
You must know that the Huaihai Plain is the birthplace of the Liu Bang Group and the place where Cao Cao started. Since the Southern Song Dynasty, it has become a world of saline-alkali land.
Huaibei and Huainan have become two completely different places.
The Ming Dynasty managed the Huang and Huaihe Rivers with the purpose of protecting the canals. In other words, his purpose was not for the land, but to protect the canal transport.
Therefore, from the beginning, his strategy was biased, which was of no benefit to the people who suffered from the Huanghuai disaster.
For example, Suqian had 8,700 hectares of official and civilian land during the Wanli period, but only 6,000 hectares during the Tianqi period.
In addition, due to the continuous raising of the Hongze Lake embankment, most of the farmland in Wuhe, Sizhou, Qinghe, Taoxian, and Hongxian counties sank to the bottom of the water. By 1680 in history, the city of Sizhou sank directly.
The irrigation system was destroyed, resulting in poor drainage and saline-alkali land, and the land was barren and impoverished. Coupled with frequent river construction projects, people fled.
From the vast plains covering thousands of miles in radius from eastern Henan, southern Shandong, northern Jiangsu, and northern Anhui, the economy continues to decline and has become a burden to each province.
At this time, the governor of Jiangsu stood at the head of Pizhou City, and the Yellow River in the distance was shocking.
The turbulent Yellow River water did not change its rolling yellow color even when it reached Jiangsu. It swallowed up everything along the way, whether it was humans, sheep, livestock, cattle, ghosts, gods, or snakes, and then headed south.
Carrying all the dirty things, he went to the Huaihe River.
Thinking of the narrow channel of the Huaihe River that would be so squeezed, the Jiangsu governor felt like he had a headache.
"Can you still live peacefully this summer?"
the governor muttered.
The chief envoy on the side sighed: "It's difficult, it's difficult, it's difficult——"
"It's so hard to bear the spring rain, let alone the summer rain?"
"If this yellow dragon is in chaos, our Xuzhou, Haizhou, Suzhou, and Huai'an will all be in chaos." The governor pondered.
"Anhui is not safe either. What if the Huaihe River leaks?"
"How much silver is left in reserve?" the governor suddenly asked.
"Less than two million yuan." The chief envoy was startled: "Not many were affected by the disaster last year, but there was still a lot saved."
"Recruit civilians to repair the river embankment first."
The governor turned his head and said with a serious face: "This embankment cannot collapse during your and my tenure. It must last until next year at least!"
"That's right -" The chief minister suddenly realized that his term of office would be over next year. He gritted his teeth and said, "I will go and prepare 500,000 silver coins and recruit 100,000 civilians..."
At this time, an official with mud on his legs and clothes soaked by the rain walked up.
Hearing the last sentence, he sighed: "Futai and Fantai, the most important thing now is not to build river embankments, but to build small rivers and dredge waterways——"
The person who came was a doctor from the Ministry of Industry, who was responsible for the management of the Huaihe River.
"The Huaihe River is not as important as the Yellow River." The two men turned their heads and emphasized with bright eyes.
"No, despite the turbulent Yellow River, the dams are safe, but the Huaihe River has a huge amount of water. Once it squeezes into the waterway with the Yellow River, Huai'an Prefecture will be in danger."
"Hongze Lake is a suspended lake on the ground——"
When the two of them heard this, they immediately felt that it made sense. If Huai'an Mansion was flooded, things would be very serious.
Seeing this, the doctor breathed a sigh of relief.
In the past few years, the imperial court assigned the Ministry of Industry to repair the Huaihe River and the Yellow River. What the Ministry of Industry most often did was to build polder banks on both sides of the Yellow and Huaihe Rivers.
Drain the stagnant water and expand the polders.
In the past few years, Dangwei, Hewei and Huwei have taken root on both sides of the Huaihe River. A large amount of land has been reused and the area of cultivated land has increased.
The economy has recovered and the population has gradually returned, allowing the Ministry of Industry to manage the Huaihe River area to be praised by the local area.
People are also happy to help.
Quickly achieve results and open up the situation, so the Ministry of Industry's annual financial allocation has never been delayed.
But now, the management of Huaihe River has reached the stage of overcoming difficulties.
