Chapter 301
Today, the size of Yining's navy has exceeded 300,000 men, including four major fleets, with a total of more than 200 warships of 4,000-level or above, and the number of naval guns alone is between 5,000 and 6,000.
For a mere corner of Liaodong to support such a large number of troops with such well-equipped equipment, the responsibility will definitely be heavy. In fact, if Ning Haijun relies exclusively on Liaodong's agricultural support, even if the size of the army is reduced ten times, Liaodong will still be the same. I can't take responsibility either.
Thanks to Liaodong's industry and commerce, especially industry, the price of steel has now been suppressed by Liaodong's steel production capacity, from the original two hundred yuan per catty to the current fifty or sixty yuan per catty. Sea salt, in particular, is priced at six cents per catty, making it affordable for almost all people.
Cheng Shijie has a salt certificate issued by the imperial court, and the salt merchants have no choice but to sue and win. If they can't win, they can only sulk. More importantly, Cheng Shijie never suffers losses in battles, and his troops become stronger and stronger as they fight.
Fighting bandits, the money and food accumulated by the bandits over the years have become Cheng Shijie's trophies. Even fighting Jian Nu, the gains are good, and the biggest gain is fighting Zheng Zhilong, who has been squeezed dry by Cheng Shijie. When fighting against the Dutch and Spanish, Cheng Shijie wanted both face and dignity.
After learning that Cheng Shijie was going to live a small life, not only the reform-through-labor prisoners in Liaodong were excited, but even the Ning navy officers also signed up to participate in the battle across the sea to attack Japan. In just a few days, Cheng Shijie received tens of thousands of blood letters in Jinzhou.
The Ming Dynasty is still a little different from the later generations. How come there are still a group of people who don't eat food in the later generations, such as Hari, Jingri, and Sun-loving elements, but it is different in the Ming Dynasty. Although some people think that Xiaoli was one of the emperors of Taizu Hongwu. It is the consensus of the whole people to fight for a small country, or to eliminate Japanese pirates.
"Commander, someone wants to see you!"
Cheng Shijie took the name tattoo and looked at the four characters "Er Zhu Guangqi" on it. He was slightly startled. He was now sure that he had no friendship with this Er Zhu family. In fact, the surname Er Zhu originated from the surname Hu in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, a large number of talents emerged, such as Er Zhurong, Er Zhuyanbo and so on.
However, this surname has disappeared in later generations, and most of them were changed to Zhu, Er, Rong, Hu, Zhao, Zhao, Zhao, Long, etc.
Cheng Shijie said: "Did you ask him what he wanted to see me?"
"Er Zhu Guangqi is a businessman from Zhejiang. He has not yet been naturalized in Liaodong, but he owns many assets in Liaodong..."
"Have someone wait in the front hall!"
Cheng Shijie found that the current attendant was not as flexible as Sun Kewang. If Sun Kewang had dealt with similar problems, he would have found out the eighteenth generation of his ancestors.
"Common people, Er Zhu Guangqi pays homage to the commander-in-chief!"
When Cheng Shijie came to the front hall, there was a middle-aged man wearing a blue gown. He was fair and clean. There was a smell of books between his eyebrows. The unique copper odor of the businessman left no trace on his body. , which makes people feel good.
"Are you Er Zhu Guangqi?"
"It's the grass people!"
"What do you want from me?"
"I heard that the commander is going to attack Xiaoli?"
"That's right!"
Er Zhu Guangqi said: "Commander, the common people are willing to donate fifteen thousand taels of silver to the commander!"
"what you up to?"
"The grass-roots people have a beloved son. Nine years ago, he followed his mother back to Quanzhou to visit relatives. Unexpectedly, he encountered Japanese pirates on the road. The Japanese pirates extorted 60,000 taels of silver from the grass-roots people. The grass-roots people went bankrupt and sold their goods to collect 60,000 taels of silver. However, , those beasts..."
Although Erzhu Guangqi was a maritime merchant, compared with the merchants who were worth millions and tens of millions, he was just a small businessman with seven or eight old and broken ships to his name, nothing more.
Ever since Erzhu Guangqi's wife and children were brutally killed by Japanese pirates, Erzhu Guangqi began to prepare a revenge plan. It was a pity that although the country was closed off in his childhood, they could not be dealt with by one person. Erzhu Guangqi had been planning for several years. The more absolute it is, the more desperate it is.
Until now, Cheng Shijie raised his troops to attack Xiaoli, which gave Er Zhu Guangqi hope.
Er Zhuguangqi said: "The common people hope that they can give the commander some money so that he can build more artillery and kill more Japanese pirates. The common people want to buy a hundred Japanese pirate heads from the commander to pay homage to the souls of his deceased wife and beloved son in heaven."
"Easy to say, easy to say!"
Cheng Shijie looked at the fifteen thousand taels of silver and smiled: "I will give you three hundred!"
After Er Zhu Guangqi left, Zhu Weiti came over.
"Ms. sir, can you take a look?"
"What's wrong?"
"This is Xu Su of Songjiang Prefecture recommended by Zhang Chen."
Zhu Weiti handed a gift list to Cheng Shijie. Cheng Shijie took it and looked at it. It read: "Eight thousand pairs of thousand-layer bottoms, eight thousand pairs of cotton socks! Three hundred fat pigs!"
Cheng Shijie has really heard of Xu Su. If Zhang Chen is the richest woman in Liaodong, then Xu Su is the owner of the largest private clothing store in Liaodong. This Xu Su family came to Liaodong with her five children. Later, after being matched, she married Xu Shipeng of Guangning.
In later generations, it would definitely not be easy for a woman to remarry with five children. But the problem is that the situation in Liaodong is not the same. As long as ordinary people are ordinary people, it is a land distribution based on head. Like Su, who has A woman with five children is actually a piece of cake.
Later, Xu Peng's legs were blown off by a Dutch artillery shell during a battle against senior officials. If it were the medical skills of later generations, he could have saved his legs. In this era, amputation was the only option. Xu Peng retired due to injury. Because he had killed seven enemies, Xu Su had the starting capital to make a fortune.
Soon Xu Su's business in Liaodong was booming. In just three years, she had a net worth of hundreds of thousands. This time she heard that Cheng Shijie was going to attack Xiaoli, so Xu Su used Zhang Chen's connections to find him. I came to Zhu Weiti and gave him a gift!
At the same time, there was also fifty thousand taels of silver donated by Zhang Chen.
"Are there many cases like this?"
"There are so many. Most of them actually don't have the chance to meet the commander-in-chief. They can only donate to our Ning Haijun through their own channels, one or two for you and five for me!"
Within half a month after Cheng Shijie decided to attack Xiaoli, Ning Haijun accepted donations from the people, totaling more than 153,000 cans of canned beef, more than 63,000 pairs of shoes, more than 155,000 shi of grain, and potatoes. Eighteen million catties and more than 40,000 bags of starch.
There were also donations of more than 1.3 million taels of silver.
Cheng Shijie lamented: "I am really expected by everyone when I am young!"
On the fifteenth day, when Ning Haijun was about to go to sea, Wang Chengen came across the sea and brought Emperor Chongzhen's imperial edict. He read out Emperor Chongzhen's imperial edict in front of Jin Shen, the official of the Liaodong Management Committee.
The imperial edict is quite beautiful in terms of words. It is composed of five and six parallels and quotes from scriptures. It is quite enjoyable to read, but the content is not beautiful at all. The core content is just one: Don’t you want to rob Japan? I agree, let’s go and grab it!
Sun Chengzong's eyes almost popped out of his sockets, and he shouted to Wang Chengen: "How is it possible? Taizu personally made Xiaozhi a country without conquests. Is the Holy One confused and actually disobeying Taizu's last edict!?"
Wang Chengen said with a smile: "Mr. Sun Ge, you don't know something. At this time and at that time, when Taizu made Xiaori a country without conquest, Xiaori did not send troops to invade the Ming Dynasty, let alone go to the south of the Yangtze River. Murder and arson! Since we were so ignorant in our childhood, of course we must retaliate!"
"Well said! I was so shameless when I was young. We classified them as a country without conquest and wanted to coexist peacefully with them. It was better for them. First they came to Jiangnan and caused enough harm to Jiangnan. After they were beaten away, they became even worse. , dispatching hundreds of thousands of troops to attack North Korea, who can swallow this tone?"
Cheng Shijie smiled lightly and said: "In the past, Ming Dynasty suffered from military disasters year after year, and Ming Dynasty's strength was greatly damaged. We couldn't do anything to them. Now, Ming Dynasty's soldiers are sophisticated and powerful. If we don't let out this bad breath, how long will it take!"
"Beiping, you are confused!"
"Teacher, the students don't understand. Why are the students confused?"
"Emperor Taizu Hongwu listed Xiaozhi as a country not subject to conquest out of multiple considerations!"
Sun Chengzong said earnestly and sincerely: "The Yuan Dynasty attacked Japan twice, and the result was that the entire army was annihilated. The Ming Dynasty is currently in a difficult situation. Can it withstand such a setback? No, I want to go to Beijing to face the Holy Spirit and let His Majesty take back his orders. The Ming Dynasty cannot repeat the mistakes of the previous dynasty. The same mistake!"
"Teacher, during the time of Emperor Hongwu, there was Mongolia in the north, which was not the main opponent of the Ming Dynasty. He lived in a quiet corner, separated by the sea. Although he killed his subordinates, it was really a scabies disease, not a personal problem. At that time, the navy of the Ming Dynasty was fighting We are not strong enough and we urgently need to restore our national strength. Moreover, the Great Yuan Dynasty failed to conquer Japan and lost hundreds of thousands of troops twice. Therefore, Emperor Hongwu listed Xiaori as a country not to be conquered!"
Cheng Shijie chuckled: "The Mongols cannot survive because their shipbuilding technology is not good. Nowadays, the seven major shipyards in Liaodong can build dozens of large ships with more than 4,000 materials. In the early Ming Dynasty, it was difficult for the navy to suppress pirates. Even more Not to mention the expedition to Japan. The establishment of a navy was not a day's work and required a lot of money. It was obviously inappropriate for the Ming Dynasty. However, the Ning navy built by students was used to build slaves, attack Spain, and expedition to Batavia. I have never lost before, and this time is no exception!”
Sun Chengzong saw Cheng Shijie's firm attitude. Of course, he also knew the reasons Cheng Shijie said. He reminded Cheng Shijie that he was just asking Cheng Shijie to pay attention and not to repeat the mistakes of Dayuan.
"It's a good thing that you have confidence, don't act out of loyalty!"
Sun Chengzong looked at Cheng Shijie and said: "The land is not as good as the sea. If there is a storm on the sea, the sky will not respond, and the earth will not work. You can send a general to supervise the expedition in the small days!"
"Teacher, attacking Xiaoli has been a long-cherished wish of students. This time, students must go!"
Cheng Shijie said loudly: "If you don't reach the Great Wall, you are not a hero. If you set foot on Mount Fuji, you will have no regrets!"
Sun Chengzong looked at Cheng Shijie and said, "Beiping, this time, you must be prepared to lose money!"
"Loss money?"
Cheng Shijie said in disbelief: "How can it be possible to lose money?"
"That place was so poor when I was little, and you probably couldn't capture anything except salted fish!"
"Impossible. I have a silver mine that has not been mined for hundreds of years. Iwami Silver Mine also has a large amount of associated copper mines. There are tens of thousands of tons of copper that can be used to cast copper coins!"
"That's all..."
Sun Chengzong left the Ning Haijun General Military Mansion tremblingly. Cheng Shijie didn't believe it, but he was about to be slapped in the face.
Once Ning Haijun's war machine is started, it will not stop. In fact, Cheng Shijie launched this war to consume Liaodong's inventory. Whether it is artillery shells, armor, or weapons, they all have a shelf life. After the shelf life, they will no longer be available. No matter how safe it is, of course, there is food.
Especially in Liaodong's warehouse, there are a large number of long-shelf-life foods, such as compressed biscuits, cans, sugar cubes, glucose, salt water, etc. There is too much backlog of these materials and they need to be processed.
Some of it had already been consumed in Chibi City, but this was far from enough. Many people might say that since there are so many supplies in Liaodong, why not send them to the Central Plains.
But there is no such consumer market in the Central Plains. If it is given free of charge, the factory will suffer the loss. If the factory does not make money, it will stop production and workers will lose their jobs. It is not a big problem if there are two factories in one factory. If a large number of factories stop production, a large number of people will emerge in Liaodong. Unemployed people are very detrimental to the economic development of Liaodong.
Cheng Shijie originally wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of the Jiannu invasion to fight a large-scale war with the Jiannu, but the problem was that after the Battle of Longgang Mountain, the Jiannu immediately started to move. Ten to twenty thousand troops began to migrate. Ruoning's navy moved northward. , it is estimated that the trip will be in vain and nothing will be gained.
Of course, Cheng Shijie did not get the exact information. Huang Taiji just asked Fan Wencheng to start the westward strategy and pass through Ningxia. At this time, Xiaori unexpectedly ran into Cheng Shijie's gun. What he didn't say was done.
"Meet Princess Chongming, meet Princess Changping!"
Although Cheng Shijie declined, the only edict issued by Empress Zhang in the past eight years was to make the world known, and she did not give Cheng Shijie a chance to refuse.
As a result, Cheng Jiayue now became Princess Changping of the Ming Dynasty.
Cheng Shijie looked at Wang Chengen and said, "What's the situation in the capital?"
Wang Chengen said with a wry smile on his face: "What else can we do? It's all a mess. Countless officials and censors have written letters to impeach Duke Hai..."
Cheng Shijie yelled: "Those guys are crazy, right?"
Wang Chengen sighed: "Those guys were opposed purely for the sake of opposition. They still pretended not to have seen the development of Liaodong. They only focused on impeaching Duke Hai Guogong for their own talk, which made the emperor very angry. They killed several people in a row. The imperial censor finally made them smarter. But even so, the memorial to impeach Duke Hai still came like snowflakes, and our family had to order people to carry several baskets out and burn them every day."
"I didn't throw their children into the well, so why are they having trouble with me?"
Although Cheng Shijie did not throw the children into the well, but Cheng Shijie was digging up the roots of Confucianism. Of course, they, the descendants of Confucianism, would jump out and bite them.
Emperor Chongzhen was a little overwhelmed, so he risked the world and asked Cheng Shijie to lead the army to conquer Japan. On the one hand, he relieved Emperor Shenzong of the evil spirit of Korea being invaded, and on the other hand, it also diverted the attention of those crazy people and continued to let them do this. Biting like crazy is sure something will happen!
Wang Chengsi said: "In this campaign against Japan, our family is here to wish Haiguo a successful victory!"
"I love hearing this!"
Cheng Shijie lowered his voice and said to Wang Chengsi: "I'll get you tens of thousands of taels of silver as pocket money later."
Wang Chengen was startled: "Don't, don't, don't, tens of thousands taels is too much, our family doesn't dare to accept it... Ten thousand taels is enough!"
"It depends on your luck!"
Cheng Shijie said: "If I seize more, I will give you one hundred thousand taels of silver, if I seize less, I will give you thirty thousand!"
Wang Chengen thanked him repeatedly and said to himself that no wonder Gao Qiqian was willing to follow Cheng Shijie. Look at this person, this pattern...
Ning Haijun did not mobilize the troops in an organized manner, but based the commander-in-chief as a unit. Six commander-in-chiefs were transferred from the cavalry unit, three commander-in-chiefs were transferred from the artillery unit, and sixteen commander-in-chiefs were transferred from the fourteen divisions. All in all, Konoe Matsuji has never complained at all.
After half a month of preparation, the Ning Navy mobilized 352 transport ships with a level of more than 3,000 materials to undertake this transportation task. After the last Batavia naval battle, the Ning Navy’s shipbuilding plan was completed. Mainly armed merchant ships, after all, the transportation capacity of the Ning Navy is too weak.
A small Venetian city-state republic can gather thousands of armed merchant ships at one time. Although the Ning Navy has a total of more than three to four thousand ships, most of them are old and broken ships captured from Zheng Zhilong. One-third of the more than 350 ships were newly built recently, and 22 of them were of the 5,000-material class, which has a displacement of more than 1,600 tons.
On September 15th, the eighth year of Chongzhen, on the school field outside Jinzhou City, more than 30,000 Ning Haijun troops formed a huge phalanx. Their swords and guns were like a forest, their armor shone with cold light, and their soldiers were majestic and murderous.
"Greetings to the commander-in-chief, the commander-in-chief is victorious!"
Cheng Shijie rode a war horse and passed by the square formations. Ning Haijun's cavalry carried six-unit firecrackers on their backs. This kind of firecrackers had a range of more than 150 steps. Within fifty steps, they could ignore Jiannu's three-layer heavy armor. A hundred steps can break through heavy armor. As for a hundred and fifty steps away, the hit rate is not high, not because the range is insufficient.
Even with the precision rifles of later generations, it is actually not easy to hit the target within 150 steps, not to mention riding on horseback. In addition to six-pack guns, they also have sabers and spears in their hands, all relying on their legs. Control the horses, and form a team of hundreds of horses. They are arranged in rows horizontally and in columns vertically. They are extremely neat and orderly.
Ning Haijun has a small number of heavy cavalry, only 500, all of which are Friesian horses purchased from the Venetians. This kind of war horse is tall and strong, has a strong load-bearing capacity, and is approachable and stable in character. In addition, it has good The pulling force was once active on the stage of European history as an all-powerful war horse, carrying Germany and Friesland to participate in the Crusades pragmatically, and showing good mobility in a series of wars.
Cheng Shijie sent the heavy cavalry to the battlefield of Xiaori. What he valued most was the ability of the heavy cavalry to sweep everything like a tank. This kind of heavily armored cavalry, both men and horses are covered in heavy armor, with only two eye sockets exposed on the whole body. The knight on the horse is holding a one-foot-eight-foot long horse with one hand. It is not difficult to imagine when these four-legged mecha monsters launch How terrifying it will be!
The crossbowman has disappeared from the regular combat order of the Bining Navy. However, in the small days of this expedition, there is still a dead soldier unit in the army.
They are rogue bandits from the Central Plains. You must know that these people are murderous beasts. They can kill everyone, whether they are adults or children. As the elite of Zhang Xianzhong's army, wherever they go, no chickens or dogs are left, and not a blade of grass grows. .
The equipment of these people is actually very luxurious. Yes, it can be called luxurious. There are more than 3,000 archers with bow arms as thick as a child's arm. The sharp arrows in the quiver are all thick and long. They are so heavy. If the arrow hits a cow, it will immediately fall to the ground and die.
Behind the archers are the spearmen, and after the spearmen are the heavy infantry. They are not many in number, but they are wearing double iron armor and look like a moving iron tower. The Mo Dao in their hands is shining with cold light.
Behind them are the elite soldiers of Ning Haijun. Everyone's armor is polished and their military appearance is astonishing. These are the elite divisions that Cheng Shijie has painstakingly built with resources, and they are his only capital to establish a foothold on this land.
Cheng Shijie looked at the soldiers and said, "Soldiers, you must have heard of Luzon, right?"
All Ning navy officers said in unison: "I've heard of it!"
"The weather in Liaodong has been getting colder and colder in the past few years. Although we have tried our best, God still allows us to have poor harvests every year. There is nothing I can do about this damn weather. I will give it to us in Luzon. We have a home where there is no severe cold or drought. Just sow seeds and you can get a good harvest. However, some people are jealous. The Japanese pirates attacked us in Luzon and massacred more than 500 of our people. What do you think? "
"Kill them all!"
Ning's navy officers roared like thunder: "Kill them all!!!"
"Yes, kill them all!!"
Cheng Shijie said: "I will lead you to kill all the little ones!"
Cheng Jialong, who was dressed in armor, was very excited.
As the Ning Navy officers and men began to line up to board the ship, the armed merchant ships loaded with supplies and Ning Navy soldiers began to set sail until all the warships and armed merchant ships disappeared on the sea.
Zhu Weiti also started to turn back with the crowd seeing him off.
However, at this moment, Gu Ziyi said with a panicked look: "Princess, is something serious?"
"what happened?"
"The eldest lady is missing?"
"Is she in the panda house?"
"There is no sign of the eldest lady in the panda house!"
"Have you asked the guard? When did you go out?"
"That's the bad thing. The guard has no record of the young lady leaving the mansion!"
"Where are the four companion readers?"
"They're gone too. No one knows where they are!"
Zhu Weiti was in a panic at this time: "Look for it quickly!"
If Cheng Jiayue cannot be found, Zhu Weiti doesn't know how to explain it to Cheng Shijie.
The East China Sea is windy and rough in September, and gloomy dark clouds roll up and down in the sky, covering the sky and bringing heavy rain from time to time. The howling sea breeze already brings a hint of winter chill.
The officers and soldiers of the Ning Navy stayed in the armed merchant ships rocking like drunken men. The soldiers born along the coast of Liaodong, Zhejiang, Fujian and Shandong were fine. Those rogue bandits who were sent to Liaodong to do hard labor had been defeated for eighteen lifetimes. Mold, each one of them vomited until their eyes were straight, and expressed their true feelings using the most ugly curse words.
Sun Kewang looked at the undulating wave peaks on the sea, and said to Cheng Shijie with some fear: "Human beings are too small in front of the moody sea. A storm can kill a hundred thousand troops. It’s no wonder that Meng Yuan’s two attacks on Little Japan ended in disastrous defeat!”
Cheng Shijie was about to speak when a voice came from far away: "Dad..."
Cheng Shijie stared at the cute Cheng Jiayue with his mouth open: "Why are you here?"
"I'll fight the little devil!"
(End of chapter)
