Chapter 111
"Rob? Rob who?"
Cheng Shijie turned around and followed the sound.
I saw Huang Long, the commander-in-chief of the Dongjiang Army, and his generals such as Mao Chenglu, Shang Keyi, Xiang Zuolin, Fan Hualong, Zhang Dalu, Li Weiluan, He Yongsheng, Du Jincai, etc. coming together.
When Cheng Shijie saw Huang Long arriving, he knew that something big might happen.
The generals of the Dongjiang Army, including Huang Long, were very respectful: "General, I will pay my respects to Marshal Cheng!"
Cheng Shijie nodded and said, "Go back to the military headquarters first!"
Huang Long was a little strange.
Right here, listening to the voices of Huang Long and others, the surrounding military households rushed toward Cheng Shijie's direction. Thousands of people crowded together, which could easily cause a stampede.
"Commander Cheng is here!"
"The common people come to see Marshal Cheng!"
"The handsome prince Wandai!"
At this time, the soldiers and civilians of Liaonan present kowtowed to Cheng Shijie.
Even though Cheng Shijie had gone away, the soldiers and civilians still did not get up. Even though there were mountains of supplies next to these people, no one came to grab them.
Huang Long looked at Cheng Shijie's back with great envy.
He is also the chief military officer. He, the chief military officer, had his nose cut off by a mutinous soldier under his command, but Cheng Shijie has supreme prestige among the soldiers and civilians.
Of course, Cheng Shijie didn't know what Huang Long was thinking.
If Cheng Shijie knew about it, he would only smile lightly. If Huanglong could get 20 to 30 million acres of reclaimable wasteland for the Dongjiang Army, 6.7 million shi of grain, and 7.8 million taels of silver, Huanglong's prestige would also be So high.
It's just that Cheng Shijie's today, including everything about Ning Haijun, has an irreproducible chance. If Cheng Shijie hadn't accidentally killed Zhang Huairen, who was stamped as "Zhen Sanshan" when he was suppressing bandits, he would not have offended the giant Zhang family in Laiyang.
If Cheng Shijie had not offended this behemoth, he would not have been arrested. If Cheng Shijie had not been arrested by Zhang Shigang, Ning Haijun soldiers would not have launched a mutiny in Dengzhou. With a new army that had been in force for more than a month, they launched a mutiny and attacked the important military town of Dengzhou defended by more than 20,000 elite troops. , the key is, it succeeded without any effort.
Ning Haijun seized Sun Yuanhua's hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to feed the Dengzhou Army, Dengzhou Navy and Denglai New Army, as well as two to three hundred thousand shi of grain. Ning Haijun even surrounded them in one fell swoop and robbed the wealth and food that had been managed by the Laiyang Zhang family for generations. Only then did they have the capital to initially develop Liaonan.
More importantly, during Kong Youde's Rebellion, Ning Haijun accidentally killed Kong Youde's deceased brother and defeated Kong Youde's fighting will. Only then could Kong Youde's rebellion be easily quelled. What's even more surprising is that Kong Youde wanted to bring peace to the people of Liaodong. Seeking a way out, all the money robbed from the wealthy gentry families was given to Cheng Shijie.
In all of this, even if there are all kinds of calculations, it is impossible to calculate so accurately. If there is a flaw in any link, the success will fall short.
Of course, Cheng Shijie's luck is so good.
It is impossible for Huang Long to replicate such success, and it is impossible for anyone to replicate such success. Even if Cheng Shijie were to do it again, he would not have such ability.
Huang Long asked Cheng Shijie to come here because he had no other choice.
Originally, Cheng Shijie summoned more than 24,000 elite members of the Dongjiang Army to prevent the Jian slaves from attacking southern Liaoning. To the north of the Gaizhou Acropolis, there were two passes, Shi Castle and Tieshan Castle.
Ning Haijun defended Tieshan Castle with all his strength, while Dongjiang Army defended Shi Castle to the west. Of course, Cheng Shijie was still a little uneasy about Shi Castle, but Stone Castle was close to the Liaodong Bay in the west. Once there was a crisis in Stone Castle, Ning Haijun's The navy's large-caliber naval gun can carry out shelling near the stone castle.
The problem is, the plan is wrong.
Although Jiannu suffered a heavy loss and lost thousands of troops, Huang Taiji did not send troops to retaliate. This was because Huang Taiji considered that even if Ning Haijun could easily defeat the attack of three thousand troops with white flags, it would mean that he had certain With the strength of the army, it is useless to send too few troops. If there are too many troops, the logistics cannot support them.
Under this circumstance, the 26,000 troops transferred from the Dongjiang Army to southern Liaoning, including 2,000 civilians, did not fight, but enjoyed the benefits of the Ning Haijun for training.
Now the soldiers of the Dongjiang Army who were scattered on various islands were unwilling to do it. If they were shopping with Jiannu in Stone Castle, no matter how well-fed and warmly dressed the troops transferred by the Dongjiang Army in southern Liaoning were, no one would have any objections. Because they paid for these benefits with their lives.
However, without fighting, they were like freeloaders. Various guerrillas and generals within the Dongjiang Army asked Huang Long for instructions. They also wanted to go to Liaonan to receive training from the Ning Navy, strictly enforce military discipline, and strive for greater success in the future. Good cooperation with Marshal Cheng in fighting.
Although the Dongjiang Army did not like mutiny during Mao Wendong's era, since Mao Wenlong's death, the Dongjiang Army has learned from Guan Ning's Army very well, mutinying at every turn.
People's hearts are broken and it's hard to lead the team.
In desperation, he had no choice but to come to Cheng Shijie's rescue. When he learned that Cheng Shijie was not at the Ning Haijun General Military Mansion in Jinzhou Acropolis, Huang Long led a group of Dongjiang Army generals directly to Luoshan Town.
Just when he heard Cheng Shijie say that he had no money to grab, Huang Long felt that an opportunity had come.
Arriving at the front hall of Ning Haijun's General Military Mansion, Huang Long smelled the enticing fragrance.
There is no one who doesn't like Ning Haijun's food, because the food of Ning Haijun is not only good, but also very rich in oil and water.
Ning Haijun is different from other armies of the Ming Dynasty. Ning Haijun trains every day, and the physical energy consumption of the soldiers is very huge. In order to ensure that the nutrition of Ning Haijun's soldiers can keep up, Cheng Shijie also took great pains.
In the late Ming Dynasty, unlike later generations, there were a large number of breeding factories, such as pig factories and chicken farms. In any city, if you wanted to eat pigs, sheep, mutton, and beef, you could basically open the supply.
But the problem is that the grain output in the late Ming Dynasty was so small that there was not even enough food for people to eat, let alone those poultry and livestock such as pigs and sheep?
Even if they had money, they could not purchase enough meat to feed more than 20,000 Ning navy soldiers and more than 2,600 Dongjiang army soldiers.
Even the supply of chicken, the most common and cheapest chicken in later generations, could not be guaranteed. In desperation, Cheng Shijie had to use his money to purchase large quantities in Jiangnan.
Although Shandong is closer, the problem is that Cheng Shijie's large-scale purchases in Shandong have caused prices to skyrocket in Shandong. The food in Dengzhou exceeds eight yuan of silver per stone, and the best rice from Jiangnan is not even shipped to Liaonan. to seven denarii.
In fact, the main reason for the poverty of farmers in the Ming Dynasty was closely related to the monopoly of the market by merchants. For example, after farmers worked hard for a year, they could get less than two stones of grain per acre, but the grain merchants were collecting grain from the farmers. At that time, they tried their best to lower the price, especially the good rice from the south of the Yangtze River. Only a very small part could be sold for four cents of silver per stone. Most rice prices were between three cents and five cents or three cents of silver per stone.
According to the "Records of the Ming Dynasty", Lu Rui, the imperial envoy to Xuanfu in Datong in the fourth year of Zhengtong, wrote in a memorial that the amount of grain and silver given off by Shanxi every year is one hundred thousand taels, and one tael of silver is equivalent to four shi of grain. The price of rice in Xuanfu It was tumbling, but it was only one tael of silver, two stones and five measures of grain.
Wang Zhen, a native of Zhejiang, also said in his book "Wulunshu" that "the price of rice in western Zhejiang is extremely low." "Miscellaneous Notes of Knowledge" records: In the 16th year of Wanli, there was a serious famine, and the price of one stone of rice rose to six yuan. "The price of rice at that time was no more than seven coins!"
However, Mao Yuanyi was deprived of his official position and returned to his hometown in Jiangxi only after Sun Chengzong stepped down in the fourth year of Chongzhen. It can be inferred that at this time, the rice was only seven coins of silver, so he should be further behind. (The author speculates) There is an inscription in the Shaanxi area that records "rice and millet cost two to three yuan per bushel." This price is very outrageous and fully proves the seriousness of the disaster in the Shaanxi area.
Cheng Shijie purchased 300,000 shi of wheat from Jiangnan, and the price at Jinzhou Port was five cents and six cents per stone, and 450,000 shi for rice, and the price at the port was six cents and eight cents.
In order to provide people in southern Liaoning with dumplings to eat during the Chinese New Year, a large number of mills grind a lot of flour, but after the wheat is ground, all that is left is wheat bran, which is the outer shell of the wheat. Of course it is edible, but it is difficult to swallow. Cheng Shijie asked people to use the wheat bran to raise pigs.
Ning Haijun's breeding factory now has more than 6,000 pigs in captivity. These pigs range from more than 100 kilograms to 80 to 90 kilograms, and the largest ones weigh 200 to 300 kilograms. Of course, the piglets in the breeding factory are like piglets weighing dozens of kilograms, and they must not be killed.
Cheng Shijie pointed to the big basin in the front hall and said: "Today, I will treat you to some butchered vegetables!"
Huang Long looked at the pig-killing vegetables in the big basin. There was a layer of oil floating on the vegetables. He couldn't help but gulped: "Cheng Shuai, how can this be so embarrassing...Isn't this too...expensive..."
"It's okay. By this time next year, I can guarantee that every household in southern Liaoning will be able to eat meat!"
Cheng Shijie sat down and said, "We, Ning Haijun, raised the pigs ourselves. It doesn't cost a lot of money. You're welcome, just eat them with your belly open!"
Huang Long looked at the general of the Dongjiang Army and said, "You still have to thank Cheng Shuai. Cheng Shuai has a good way of making money. He has plenty of money and he can't live without it!"
All the generals of the Dongjiang Army sat down one after another and said with a big smile: "Thank you very much, Cheng Shuai for your generosity!"
This pig-killing dish was only regarded as a dish for common people in later generations. In the late Ming Dynasty, even the most senior generals present were fourth- and fifth-level generals, but they rarely had a bite of pork.
The generals of the Dongjiang Army were all so full that their bellies were so round that they belched fat.
He didn't drink, but after eating, everyone's eyes fell on Cheng Shijie.
Huang Long, encouraged by his generals, looked at Cheng Shijie and said, "Cheng Shuai now has a way to make a fortune. Don't forget Huang!"
The reality is so helpless. Although Cheng Shijie has accepted many people from Liaodong, which has greatly reduced the logistical pressure on the Dongjiang Army, the reduction does not mean there is none.
In fact, many members of the Dongjiang Army and the Dongjiang Army soldiers themselves are also unable to solve the food problem. They want to imitate Cheng Shijie in reclaiming wasteland. However, many of the islands along the coast of the Dongjiang Army are uninhabited islands that are not suitable for human habitation. Some don't even have fresh water, and farming is nonsense.
Most of the land that can be cultivated has been reclaimed.
If they relied on the court, they would have no choice but to starve to death. Huang Long also wanted the soldiers of the Dongjiang Army to be fed and clothed, but the problem was that his strength did not allow it.
"A way to get rich!"
Cheng Shijie pondered: "We can only wait until spring begins. We can join hands to dry salt on the beach and bring down the price of salt controlled by salt merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang!"
"What about now?"
Huang Long smiled bitterly and said: "If I don't hide it from Cheng Shuai, now the Dongjiang Army can no longer expose the pot. Some soldiers are very dissatisfied. They are about to rebel. I wonder if Cheng Shuai can..."
Huang Long wanted to give part of Cheng Shijie's territory in southern Liaoning to the Dongjiang Army, but the problem was that Huang Long still wanted to lose face, and he was really embarrassed to speak to Cheng Shijie.
No matter how good his personal relationship with Cheng Shijie was, Cheng Shijie could feed the Dongjiang Army's 2,600 troops for several months, but when it came to the fields, even if Cheng Shijie agreed, General Ning Haijun would not agree.
Cheng Shijie only controls the Dongjiang Army, but does not hold the Dongjiang Army's General Officer Seal. If Cheng Shijie is willing, Huang Long can hold the Dongjiang Army's Chief Officer Seal with both hands and give it to Cheng Shijie.
Although Huang Long only told half of the story, Cheng Shijie also knew a lot about the difficulties faced by the Dongjiang Army.
It is absolutely impossible for Cheng Shijie to allocate territory to the Dongjiang Army, unless the officers and soldiers of the Dongjiang Army send their families to Liaonan to accept the adaptation of Ning Haijun. Ning Haijun treats them as military households and Cheng Shijie will allocate wasteland to them for reclamation , and will also provide them with seeds and farming tools.
But the problem is that since then, the family members of these Dongjiang Army officers and soldiers have become Ning Haijun's own people. They are just wearing the skin of Dongjiang Army.
"It's difficult to do now!"
"Cheng Shuai, no matter how difficult it is, our Dongjiang Army will never forget Cheng Shuai's great kindness!"
"You are welcome!"
Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "Back then, in order to prevent Marshal Mao from luring the slaves to North Korea, North Korea ceded Pi Island to station Mao Shuai. If..."
Cheng Shijie walked to the map of the Korean Peninsula and punched the location of Tamluo Island: "Why doesn't Marshal Huang use Tamluo Island to farm and raise troops?"
"Borrow Tamna Island?"
Huang Long's eyes suddenly lit up, and then dimmed again: "I'm afraid North Korea won't agree!"
"No, it's so easy!"
"Simple?"
"If Japanese pirates attack North Korea, will North Korea's military power be able to resist the Japanese pirates?"
"But the Japanese pirates..."
Huang Long was not stupid, and he immediately understood what Cheng Shijie meant.
There are no Japanese pirates. In fact, it is simple. True or false, as a real Ming Dynasty person, the Japanese pirates Huang Long knew were different from the historical records of later generations.
"Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty" records that "the movement is named after Japanese pirates, but in fact there are very few Japanese pirates." At the same time, because Japanese pirates "committed suicide and dared to fight", Ming Dynasty officials were frightened. Therefore, the pirates in the Ming Dynasty used Japanese pirates as their nickname. "They only used it as a nickname, but in fact they were all from Zhongzhou." They are people from the Ming Dynasty, such as Wang Zhi, Xu Hai, Ye Qinman, Mao Haifeng, Peng Lao, etc.
In the later period, the Japanese shogunate closed the country, especially in the later stage of the Kansai War, when Samopan was defeated and a large number of Japanese ronin and forced warriors surrendered to Zheng Zhilong.
True or false Japanese pirates are not important, what is important is a clear vision.
As Cheng Shijie opened a window in front of the generals of the Dongjiang Army, the minds of these Dongjiang Army generals began to come alive. Although there were no Japanese pirates in the Dongjiang Army, it was too easy to find them.
"Thank you Cheng Shuai!"
Huang Long smiled excitedly: "Huang knows what to do!"
"That's great. If you need any help, just ask!"
Huanglong had dinner and returned to Lushun overnight to prepare for the Dongjiang Army's land reclamation plan. At this time, the Dongjiang Army's war machine began to activate. In order to help the Dongjiang Army complete the plan to borrow the east wind, Cheng Shijie generously provided the Dongjiang Army with six thousand shi of food, and Seventeen broken pirate ships captured from Meng Xianhan.
These pirate ships were originally planned to be chopped up and used as firewood, but now they are just used as waste.
…
The servants of Ning Haijun Military Mansion began to put up Spring Festival couplets and decorate red lanterns in preparation for the Spring Festival, but Cheng Shijie still had a hard life.
Located at the dock of Jinzhou Port, rows of large transport ships are unloading goods. This is rice and wheat purchased from Jiangnan, as well as some maltose and other materials.
Workers on the dock loaded sack after sack of grain onto the cart, and the cart-loaded grain and other supplies were transported to the Golden State Acropolis.
Cheng Shijie's final goal was not achieved. He originally planned to distribute 50 kilograms of flour per person to the people in southern Liaoning. Although the grain was purchased, the working efficiency of the mill was too low, so he could only settle for the second best and provide each Liaoningese with flour. The people of Nannan distributed twenty kilograms of flour. This benefit was available to everyone, even an eighty-year-old man or a newborn baby.
Ordinary people are given twenty kilograms of flour, while Ning navy officers, military family members, and martyrs are given forty kilograms per person. Rice is five dou per person for ordinary people, and they are also divided according to head.
But Ning Haijun's soldiers, their families, and martyrs each received one stone. While distributing New Year's benefits, Cheng Shijie was furious.
Now Ning Haijun has not set up an official office in southern Liaoning, and the imperial court has not appointed officials. In order to facilitate management, Cheng Shijie organized ten villages and hundreds of households together, and set up Maqiao in Jinzhou Acropolis and Gaizhou Acropolis respectively. Forty-three towns including Gushan Town, Luoshan Town, Tonggou Town, Shahe Town, Lijia Town, and Dongjia Town.
The New Year benefits were distributed on a customized basis based on the actual headcount of each town. But the problem was that despite concerns that problems would arise, problems still occurred.
The mayors of forty-three towns, headed by Ma Shilin, stood in front of Cheng Shijie and were trained like grandsons.
"Look, what are you doing?"
Cheng Shijie threw a stack of rosters on the ground: "I want you to report the number of people, names, ages, genders, place of origin, etc. in the town to me. You only need to distribute the forms to the military households and ask them to fill in their names, ages, genders, etc. And your place of origin, is it difficult? What a big deal, you guys have been working on it for half a month and a week, and it’s still a mess for me. Why is it harder for you to do something than for me to do it myself? "
According to their own understanding, the mayors of the towns should be the adults of Qianhu. The so-called town is actually the original Qianhu place.
Ma Shilin was scolded so much that he couldn't even lift his head. After a long while, he stammered: "Commander... Commander, they... they don't even know how to read..."
At this time, Ma Shilin felt aggrieved and wanted to cry. He thought he was quite capable and thought he could be a good county magistrate. But the problem was that he completed the task assigned to him by Cheng Shijie very poorly.
"If you can't read, you're still a shitty mayor!"
Cheng Shijie pointed at the mayors and said: "I will give you three months. No matter what method you use, I will teach you how to write and arithmetic. It doesn't require you to have a high level, at least you can't even do a single sentence." I can’t even fill out the form!”
These statistical tables were printed by Cheng Shijie from a printing press in later generations, and then moved to the late Ming Dynasty. It took three days to print these tables to the late Ming Dynasty.
Distributing physical objects like this is where problems are most likely to arise.
Cheng Shijie is also suffering from a headache now. Everyone who has gone to school knows that it takes at least three or four years to go from knowing nothing to being able to read and write normally. But the problem is that Cheng Shijie does not have this time.
What's more, if you can't even do a very simple household registration statistics, what else can you do?
Herding sheep directly?
Some readers commented in the book review area that the author is stupid and doesn’t know how to handle books...
But the question is, who should I show it to? Can you understand it? Let alone people from the Ming Dynasty who have not received modern education, how many readers with a junior high school degree can understand if you are given professional books on metallurgical engineering?
Cheng Shijie did not let these mayors go and began to criticize them fiercely.
"Who else is that? Liu San!"
When Liu San's name was called by Cheng Shijie, his head almost dropped to his knees.
"You have been working with me since the beginning, and you haven't learned anything from what I have done? When I asked you to be the mayor, you made the mayor a mess. After struggling for so long, you didn't even do a good job of hygiene. A good Maqiao town will turn you into a big toilet..."
Cheng Shijie's finger almost touched Liu San's forehead: "What's even more outrageous is that you don't let merchants pay taxes when they do business in Maqiao Town!"
"Commander, those merchants are too difficult to deal with. They just don't want to pay taxes, so I almost knelt down with them!"
"That's because you are incompetent!"
Cheng Shijie raised his voice an octave and said: "You are the mayor, the leader of a town. You are the biggest in Maqiao Town. Why don't you use the power given to you by this commander? Who dares not to pay taxes, close shops and arrest people? Starve them for three days and see if they pay! Also, all of you are the same, those who do business in our southern Liaoning must pay taxes."
Cheng Shijie had no good impression of Ming merchants. In the eyes of merchants, there was nothing that could not be sold, and they would rather spend tens of thousands of taels in bribes than pay thousands of taels in taxes. In the logic of businessmen, paying taxes is the most incompetent sign.
The failure to raise taxes was also the root cause of the collapse of the Ming Dynasty.
Ma Shilin opened his mouth: "Preferential treatment from the country and the court..."
Ma Shilin did not continue to say this, because the Ming Dynasty treated scholars, gentry, officials, and officials favorably, but never treated merchants favorably. In the mainland, almost all big merchants had countless powerful people behind them, so they naturally did not have to pay taxes.
"Commander, I have nothing to say about my humble position, but they just don't pay taxes!"
"Then find a few gangsters to smash up their shops, and then send a few people to sneak in and target a few shops while they are not paying attention to see if they pay taxes!"
The mayors broke out in cold sweat: "Commander, this... this is illegal!"
Cheng Shijie's eyes showed a fierce light, and his sharp gaze swept over everyone's faces: "What is the law? In Liaonan, my words are the law."
PS: I’ve written it. This chapter only has 6,000 words. I’ll continue tomorrow!
(End of chapter)
