Chapter 143
Ning Haijun's strategic deployment is actually not a secret.
Because this involves the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of people and massive supplies, it is easy for a person who is not blind to judge the intelligence. What's more, the territory of southern Liaoning is too small and is surrounded by sea on three sides, so it can only develop to the north and northeast.
Even if you engage in strategic deception, it doesn't make much sense. It would be impossible to avoid strategic doubts at all. The strategic layout of the Twin Cities Guards is an act of doubt.
If Huang Taiji adopts a proactive strategy, then the two city guards can only be the two city guards, that is, they occupy the Meituo Lake and build five cities along the Meituo Lake. If the slaves do not pay attention to it, then the Meituo Lake Plain, It may become Ning Haijun's new granary and fur production base.
At least so far, Ning Haijun's main development focus is in the direction of Guangningwei and Liaozhongwei, which will later be developed in Beizhen City and Anshan City.
Even if it is any one of the hundreds of households in the field or the hundreds of households in the project, now Ning Haijun has canceled the official position of the hundred households and has been renamed as a member of the working committee.
At this level, they have all learned about Cheng Shijie's true intentions through the meeting of the working committee. In the current development strategy of Ning Haijun, build high walls and accumulate grain widely. As long as the cities they built are connected together, they can build slaves. I don’t dare to go south easily.
All fools know that Nurhachi and Huang Taiji have repeatedly been defeated by the Ming army's fortified city artillery. As long as they are united and the city walls are built stronger, they can hold on.
Once it is defended, all the fertile soil in central and southern Liaoning will be owned by Ning Haijun. These lands are fertile, moist, and easily irrigated, enough to cultivate tens of millions of acres of fertile land. Anyone who doesn't do such a cost-effective deal would be a fool.
Therefore, Ning Haijun made great efforts this time. Just to attract immigrants from Henan, unprepared to say that there were more than 96,000 young people who crossed over from Mengjin, and the number was still increasing.
Ning Haijun now has a mature city construction engineering team, and the city construction work is progressing very quickly. He is looking for a good site. Either through traffic arteries or with the help of rivers, as long as they arrive at the nearest fortification site, a large amount of materials will be transported along the rivers and construction will begin immediately.
While excavating the foundation, start stocking up on building materials, either masonry, cement, or lime, especially when mixing mortar and soil. This is originally a very labor-intensive job, but with the animal-powered mixer, it is much faster. a lot of.
When building the reinforced concrete city wall, especially the foundation stage, a prefabricated method was adopted, just like building blocks. The project progressed very quickly. Due to the reinforced concrete construction, the city wall did not adopt the original physical structure, but Take the approach of building a building.
Since then, the city wall is no longer two walls filled with soil or sand and gravel. Instead, the city wall has been built into a five-story building with doors and windows facing the city. The outermost wall adopts a ring-beam structure and is painted with cement. , and then imagine Li Su entering Caizhou at night, using the rammed earth holes on the city wall to climb up the wall, it is almost impossible.
In order to ensure that the construction process would not be interfered by the slaves, the Ning Navy dispatched more than 28,000 combat troops. The Ning Navy's left and right commanders included the guards, three reorganized infantry, and one cavalry. Basically all the naval generals and troops who can fight have been dispatched.
Cheng Shijie still felt that the troops were insufficient, so he recruited another 8,000 Dongjiang Army. In view of Cheng Shijie's dark history, Huanglong did not send out the elite of the Dongjiang Army this time. Instead, he sent a group of old, weak, sick and disabled to collect 8,000 heads and gave them to Cheng Shijie.
Cheng Shijie also knew that even if he plucked the wool, he could not catch the Dongjiang Army sheep. But if he plucked hard, if he continued to pluck, the Dongjiang Army would be bald by Cheng Shijie.
Of course, Cheng Shijie also looked down upon the old, weak, sick and disabled members of the Dongjiang Army. This time Cheng Shijie asked Chen Guodong to announce to the Dongjiang Army officers and men that any coercion of generals to join the Ning Navy through mutiny was prohibited. Even if they launched another mutiny and disarmed all, Then give it to Huang Long.
Under such circumstances, some Dongjiang Army soldiers still thought Cheng Shijie was sarcastic, so a guerrilla general of the Dongjiang Army led more than 600 soldiers under his command and voluntarily surrendered to Cheng Shijie.
As expected, Cheng Shijie sent Ning Haijun and other Dongjiang Army soldiers to surround them, disarm them, give each of them fifty kilograms of grain, and tell them to get out.
Although fifty kilograms of food is a lot of food, the problem is that the food they follow Ning Haijun is the same as Ning Haijun's officers. There is no limit to the food. They are all good rice or white flour steamed buns, and meat can be mixed in every three to five. If you don't have enough money, you can also eat salted fish or big bone soup.
As for the officers of Ning Haijun, the food is better. Thanks to the hunting cavalry under Hu Erqi, they are different from Ning Haijun. Their military pay is even lower. They have no money. Each person only needs two shi of food a month and five packs. Two pounds of refined salt.
Although the actual cost paid by Cheng Shijie was not high, the problem was that the capture of the Chasseurs was very generous and was divided into three and seven. Of course, the Chasseurs received three and Cheng Shijie received seven.
Hu Erqi was in front of them, frantically raiding the slave tribes, and made dried meat from the captured cattle, sheep, or killed beef or mutton. These meats became the snacks of Ning's navy officers.
"Commander, although this method of building a city is fast, it is too wasteful!"
Song Xiance felt a little pain when he saw the cast rebar being built directly into the city wall. Since Ning Haijun went north, he has advanced nearly two hundred miles to the north and northeast of Xiangzhou and built more than a dozen castles. , but since then, a lot of money has been spent. Not counting the food and drink of nearly 100,000 young men and the food and drink of nearly 38,000 soldiers of Ning Haijun and Dongjiang Army, the steel buried in the city wall alone is worth hundreds of thousands of taels. silver.
Song Xiance very much recognized Cheng Shijie's ability to make money. He had many fantastic ideas in his head, such as making a four-wheeled carriage, which only added less than 200 kilograms of steel (bridge shock-absorbing equipment and spring shock-absorbing devices and Bearings), a carriage that originally cost only twenty or thirty taels of silver has increased more than ten times. Even the simplest four-wheeled freight carriage requires more than two hundred taels of silver. As for the four-wheeled passenger carriage, it costs even more. The most luxurious carriage cost five to six hundred taels of silver, and even sold for more than a thousand taels of silver.
You know, although Ning Haijun’s carriage factory is very expensive to customize carriages, there are still many people who want to buy them. There is also salt. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, a mature salt-drying process has appeared. However, Cheng Shijie mixed plant ash with sea water. , analyze the salt water, separate and smash the quality, then add kelp powder to the salt, and finally crush it into powder. This kind of exquisite packaging has become the most popular iodized salt in the Ming Dynasty, even if it is three or four times more expensive than the salt from Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants The price is still in short supply.
Especially banks, this idea is really too high. All banks use their own money to lend money to others and earn interest, but Cheng Shijie uses other people's money to lend money.
As Liaodong Bank became more and more famous, some landowners dug out the money at home and sent it to southern Liaoning for deposit. Not only would the money not be reduced due to oxidation, but the interest would increase. The monthly interest rate of ten thousand taels of silver is as high as more than thirty taels of silver. The more you save, the higher the interest rate.
Many landlords took their money to the bank for deposits. According to the last work report of the management committee, member Yang Yunniang reported on the development of the bank. In just seven months of the fifth year of Chongzhen, the bank absorbed a total of 4.62 million in deposits. With more than 6,900 taels of silver, the interest paid every month is as much as 140,000 taels of silver, while the amount of money loaned out is as much as 6,954,300 taels of silver. Every month The interest amounted to more than 1.66 million taels of silver.
Now the number of employees in the bank has exceeded 3,000. Excluding the bank's expenses, the net profit has reached more than one million taels of silver. Making money is only one of the functions of banks, but a more important role is to prosper the economic environment in southern Liaoning.
In addition to salt factories, carriage factories, banks, and textile factories, who would have thought that free wool could be used to weave cloth? Moreover, the woven cloth is breathable, cold-proof and warm, and you can earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every month.
It would be fine for others to earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver with the hard work of several generations, but the question is, how long did it take Cheng Shijie?
Song Xiance disliked Cheng Shijie for being a prodigal.
Cheng Shijie just smiled bitterly and said: "Wenwen, do you know how much steel we have in stock now?"
Song Xiance shook his head: "I don't know!"
Cheng Shijie casually asked for a shovel from a Ning Haijun engineering soldier.
Song Xiance took the shovel. It was only three feet long and felt heavier than an ordinary sword. Its weight was already a bit close to the two-handed heavy sword used by the Jinbai armored soldiers. This is a typical sharp-nosed shovel, with a blue metal color, one side is edged, the other is serrated, and there are two small holes on each side, which looks a bit weird. Strip away the fancy appearance, and it's just a shovel with no special purpose.
"This is……"
Cheng Shijie said: "This shovel is made of high-quality steel. It is extremely sharp. It can cut through a steel bar as thick as a little finger in one go. It can be said to cut iron like mud. Whether it is an arm or a thigh, it can be cut with just one swing. It has to be broken in two!”
The engineering soldiers of Ning Haijun are not like the field soldiers. The field soldiers are equipped with a dog-leg knife anyway, but the engineering soldiers are only equipped with this shovel. This kind of shovel has many uses, such as digging holes, chopping firewood, sawing wood, chopping vegetables, and even It can be used as a pot for frying a side dish. It is very popular among engineering soldiers. Many people also love it and buy it at a high price.
Song Xiance flicked the bullet to produce the shovel blade. Hearing the sound of golden sound, he looked horrified: "Such good steel is actually used to make shovels. Do we have this much steel?"
Cheng Shijie nodded and said, "Yes, there are so many!"
From the Han Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, steel has been a strategic material for two thousand years, firmly controlled by the central government, and smuggling iron materials is a serious crime. The reason is that steel production is scarce and extremely expensive.
If you don’t have an intuitive understanding of how valuable steel was in ancient times, you can ask your ancestors. Many of their generation were still using wooden plows until 20 or 30 years after the founding of New China.
Steel is hard to find, and steel with superior performance is even more expensive to buy. The better ones are used to make weapons, and the inferior ones are used to make farm tools, and not a single bit is wasted.
Now Cheng Shijie actually uses such good steel to make shovels, and he still has one hand. This only shows that Cheng Shijie has more steel resources than everyone imagined, and he does not regard steel as a rare commodity at all.
Cheng Shijie smiled bitterly and said: "We have a total of seven steel plants in operation now, and four more are under construction. We are making steel around the clock and can produce more than 1.6 million kilograms of steel in a month."
"More than 1.6 million catties?"
“This is just one month’s production!”
"Isn't that year..."
"Yes, nearly 20 million kilograms. The eighth steel plant will be put into operation by the end of next month at the latest, and the ninth steel plant will be officially put into operation in early November!"
Cheng Shijie said: "It is estimated that by the end of the year, our monthly steel production capacity will be 25 million jins!"
Song Xiance took a deep breath and said, "Twenty-five million catties?"
In recent years, it has been almost as much as the Ming Dynasty's annual steel production. If it were one year, then this number would have to be multiplied ten times. Even if it was multiplied by ten times, it was not a small amount for the Ming Dynasty, but when it was spread out that one team owned one A population of 150 million is still far from enough.
The problem is that Cheng Shijie is only a small warlord, which is an astronomical figure. However, considering that the performance of those steels is very superior, no one dares to underestimate him.
Cheng Shijie said: "The low price of grain hurts the farmers, and the low price of iron will also hurt the factory. So I can only consume the steel. Otherwise, what should I do? Sell it to the slaves?"
Song Xiance shook his head: "That won't work!"
Cheng Shijie is also very distressed now. As the steel production capacity is getting higher and higher, the steel inventory has piled up like a mountain, but steel is a strategic material. Unlike in later generations, tens of tons of steel were used to build even a residential building.
"Now we can only use these steel and cement to build a strong castle!"
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "This is not a waste, nor is it a waste, but good steel is used on the blade!"
Cheng Shijie knew Huang Taiji's intentions very well. He was waiting for Ning Haijun's autumn grain to be put into the warehouse, and for Ning Haijun to collect the grain from the fields so that they could pick it up.
Cheng Shijie was not greedy and stopped at the Taizi River and continued to advance north. This defense line was built eastward along the Taizi River. Starting from the Sanchakou in the west, he built Baliwan, Liujiabao, Xishanbao, Shuijiabao, and Shuifu along the Taizi River. Four castles were built in Yezhen, and then twelve castles were built along Ximazhai, Dongmazhai, Qianshan Town and Xiaotang River.
Since most of these places have no names, Cheng Shijie chose the place names quite casually.
Twelve new castles were under construction at the same time, and countless engineering and military households were busy building battlements and strengthening city walls. The Ning Navy Army successively moved into the fortresses built beside the roads and at dangerous points in the mountains to formally deploy defenses.
The morale of the whole army is high, Jiannu is coming soon, and another great victory in Haizhou is not far away from them.
…
In the Shenyang City Palace, Huang Taiji received very bad news, one after another, that the tribe was wiped out by the entire tribe.
On the avenue outside Shenyang City, smoke and dust billowed, flags were flying, people shouted and horses neighed, it was a spectacular scene.
Zhenghongqi, Xianghongqi, Zhenghuangqi, Xianghuangqi, Zhenglanqi, Zhengbaiqi, Xianglanqi, Xiangbaiqi... The flag owners or leaders of the Eight Banners of Jiannu gathered in Shenyang City to see Huang Taiji.
They've had enough.
They have always robbed the Ming Dynasty, slaughtered the Ming Dynasty's towns, and robbed the Ming Dynasty's people.
However, I don't know when these Ming soldiers started to change their gender and dared to rob them. Especially this Ming army is actually the scum of the Jurchens.
They are very secretive. They speak Jurchen words and wear Jurchen clothes. Whether it is appearance or behavior, it is impossible to tell them apart.
Some herdsmen even led the way for them, targeting the places where they had no defense, hitting them accurately, hitting their vital parts every time.
Although it is said that the more than two thousand cavalry under Hu Erqi's command did not have the potential to kill, but this kind of blunt knife cuts the flesh, it is very painful. This account is afraid of careful calculation. Ever since Ning Haijun crossed the Haizhou Defense Line and went north, the Eight Banners of Jiannu have all Different levels of losses, incomplete statistics, they have lost six to seven thousand people, including more than 1,500 elites.
The population lost was not large, and most of them were not elites, but the problem was that this kind of attack hurt morale too much.
Some slave-building nobles were angry and had no place to express their anger, so they had to whip their own slaves. Instead, hundreds of them were beaten to death recently.
Not to mention the slaves, even those Han soldiers who surrendered to the slaves or the original Ming Dynasty generals have now become a thorn in the side of the slaves and a thorn in the flesh.
Sun Degong, who surrendered to slavery at the same time as Bao Chengxian, was whipped to death when Duduo saw Sun Degong because he was unhappy.
Now the Jiannu people are filled with resentment, almost everyone is shouting and killing, and they must take revenge on Ning Haijun, this fool who doesn't know the heights of heaven and earth, and dares to make trouble on Tai Sui's head.
Among all the belles and belles, there was a lot of excitement and curses, but the only belle, Azig, was very silent. He neither yelled to be beaten nor killed, but just looked at the nose and the heart, as if everything had nothing to do with him.
In fact, until this time, the only person who had really seen Ning Haijun's sharp firearms was Azig. Although Duduo's losses were worse than him, in fact Duduo had not seen Ning Haijun. After a storm, Duduo's subordinates The more than 10,000 elite troops were almost completely wiped out.
Huang Taiji was also disturbed and his head was as big as a fight.
He cursed secretly in his heart, he didn't even have a brain, was it just shit in his head?
There is still more than a month before the autumn harvest. At this time, it is also the most critical moment for cattle and sheep to gain weight. Can we easily mobilize troops?
Even if you don't want to endure it anymore, once the army goes south, what will happen to Ning Haijun's more than 5 million acres of crops?
Ning Haijun's Cheng Shijie has been initially corrupted by Fan Yongdou. He is one of their own, but not their own, and the most ideal potential friend.
No one knows Cheng Shijie's fighting skills. If he is beaten severely and Ning Haijun escapes by boat and leaves Liaonan to them, what can they do?
Without Ning Haijun's hundreds of thousands of military households to harvest these crops, would millions of acres of food be allowed to rot in the ground?
It is better to expect these Eight Banners disciples to be able to hold a sickle than to expect a sow to climb a tree.
"master!"
Fan Wencheng knelt in front of Huang Taiji and said humbly: "Master, I think this is not the way to go!"
"What do you think Fan Qing has to say?"
"I thought I could delay it!"
"drag!"
"Yes, order the troops of the Eight Banners to assemble to Shenyang, and even the Mongolian tribes to assemble to Shenyang. When the time comes, the Great Khan will personally lead an army of 100,000 to defeat Liaonan and the Ning Navy in one fell swoop."
Fan Wencheng smiled faintly: "It will take at least a month until all the Eight Banners elites are assembled, and then all the Mongolian ministries will be selected to cooperate with the Eight Banners elites in fighting. The master can secretly order those messengers not to rush to Horqin, and delay for a while on the way. Then It will be enough to delay it for two months. By then, Ning Haijun will have finished harvesting the autumn grain, and our army will go south, and the crops of more than 500 acres will be in the master's pocket!"
Huang Taiji nodded and said, "Yes, just do what Fan Qing wants!"
At this time, Huang Taiji no longer needed to pretend to be sick. He walked out of the palace and walked towards Chongzheng Hall.
Chongzheng Hall, also the Jinluan Hall of Huang Taiji, is the highest-level and most important building in the Manchu and Qing Imperial Palace in Shenyang. It is also the place where important matters are handled daily before court.
"King Khan has arrived!"
Sing and drink along with the eunuchs.
His Highness Chongzheng, who was originally as chaotic as a vegetable market, immediately became quiet.
All the civil and military ministers of the Jin Kingdom knelt down one after another and shouted: "Slave to pay homage to King Khan!"
As the ministers in the Chongzheng Hall shouted loudly, the Eight Banners elites outside the Chongzheng Hall also followed suit: "Slave to pay homage to King Khan!"
The cheers of tens of thousands of people came from far away, like a surging tsunami, drowning out all sounds.
At this time, Huang Taiji had firmly taken the throne. Even within the Jin Kingdom, some people dared to criticize Nurhachi, but they did not dare to criticize him.
Huang Taiji was a versatile man in both civil and military affairs. He was not only good at fighting, but also learned a lot. When talking to the civilian officials who surrendered in the Ming Dynasty, he was more like a knowledgeable and polite scholar than a general who killed people without blinking an eye.
Whether it was with the Jurchens, the Mongols, or the Han people, he seemed to have an innate and strong self-confidence. He could calmly argue with the captured Ming Dynasty officials and generals, and ride a horse with the Jurchen athletes. Hunting in the mountains and forests, bowing and shooting vultures on the prairie, no matter who it is, they will be conquered by his extraordinary charm and willing to be driven by him.
Huang Taiji was also a ruthless conspirator. Before Nurhaci's death, he told the four Baylors to unite and discuss anything. This man was obedient in person. After he succeeded to the throne, he immediately changed his face and began to change his tactics to deal with those people. Help brother.
In the third year of Chongzhen's reign, Amin failed to rescue the four cities in Guan Nei, and fled back with a group of defeated generals. He was immediately imprisoned and deprived of all power;
After the Battle of Daling River, he imprisoned Mang Gurtai on the grounds that Mang Gurtai was fond of hunting and had lost weight on his horses, so that many soldiers and horses could not be dispatched, which disrupted his overall plan. When he got up, these two unlucky men's cows and coated slaves naturally belonged to him...
There were also three brothers, Dorgon, who were alienated by him.
In the current Eight Banners, no one can challenge his authority. Of course, no one has the strength to compete with him. It does not mean that there is no...
There are also people who hate that Huang Taiji is immortal, but he doesn't have much strength, that's all.
Huang Taiji looked at the civil and military ministers and said: "To be honest with you, I already know what I have discovered recently. Regarding Liaonan... the general who conquered the captives who had high hopes for Chongzhen's son, the Liaodong economic envoy Cheng Shijie, this Khan I have also known for a long time that he has been provoking King Ben Khan recently, trying to anger him, hoping that he will send troops to attack Liaonan! Do you know why Cheng Shijie did this? "
The owner of the red flag, Huang Taiji's good nephew Yue Tuo, said: "I know this!"
"Tell me!"
Yue Tuo thought for a while and said: "According to the scout's report, Cheng Shijie led more than 28,000 Ning Haijun and more than 8,000 Dongjiang troops, a total of more than 36,000 troops, and stationed a permanent military camp on the south bank of the Taizi River. Form up and wait for us to attack."
Mang Gurtai smiled contemptuously and said: "Isn't that just right? How can we, the heroes of the Eight Banners, be so afraid of Mingguo?"
"It's not that we're afraid. As long as we attack Ning Haijun's camp according to Cheng Shijie's wishes, we will fall into the trap!"
"What a bullshit plan, I'll slap him to death!"
Huang Taiji raised his hand, he wanted to hear Yue Tuo's opinion.
Yue Tuo continued: "If you don't study history well, don't you know Liu Jinnu back then?"
"Who is Liu Jinu?"
Fan Wencheng hurriedly explained: "Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of Liu Song Dynasty!"
Hauge said disapprovingly: "Never heard of it!"
"you shut up!"
Huang Taiji glared at Hauge fiercely.
Hauge was very afraid of Huang Taiji. He shrank his head in fear and stopped talking.
Huang Taiji looked at Yue Tuo: "Go on!"
"According to the information we received, Cheng Shijie deployed more than forty gunboats, four to five thousand cavalry, dozens of artillery pieces, and a large number of crossbowmen on the Taizi River, because the slaves thought that Cheng Shijie wanted to imitate Liu Jinu, arrange the Queyue Formation to resist our Eight Banners elites!"
Mang Gurtai said calmly: "What Queyue Formation? Even if it is a turtle formation, I will punch you..."
Huang Taiji nodded and said: "Yue Tuo is right. King Ben Khan thinks so too. Cheng Shijie dares to raid southern Liaoning. Naturally, he is a man with some real ability. He must want to use the Que Yue Formation to defeat him on foot. However, riding on the Queyue Formation has a very big limitation, which is that it does not have to be fought with one's back against the water. We Eight Banners warriors are not used to strong water and cannot use our advantages to attack in roundabout ways. If we attack rashly, we will definitely suffer heavy losses. Yue Tuo , what do you think?"
"wait!"
"wait?"
"That's right, by mid-October at most, the Taizi River will freeze, and Cheng Shijie's navy will not be able to dispatch. However, we can use the ice to attack the critical points of Cheng Shijie's troops from the side and back!"
Yue Tuo smiled and said: "When the time comes, Cheng Shijie will only die!"
"Pass this Khan's order!"
All civil and military ministers became serious.
Huang Taiji said loudly: "Zhenghuangqi, Xianghuangqi!"
"The slave is here!"
"Two red flags!"
"The slave is here!"
"Two blue flags, two white flags, Mongolian left and right battalions (the Eight Banners of Mongolia only have two left and right battalions, with a total of more than 10,000 people.) Han military flag"
"The slave is here!"
Huang Taiji continued: "Everyone will be recorded, and one of the two will be drawn. We will gather in Shenyang at the end of September, when the troops will enter southern Liaoning. Violators will be severely punished."
"Slave, please obey your order!"
(End of chapter)
