Shen Mingyu was considered a child of an abandoned family. He had been away from home for more than seven years. It was not until Shen Mingyu became one of the generals of the Ning Navy that he became famous all over the world. Only then did Shen Mingyu's mother, Shen Rong, know that Shen Mingyu was there. In Liaodong, no matter how many grievances Shen Ming encountered, after seeing his mother, he could not say a word.
After Shen Rong found Shen Mingyu, she discovered that Shen Mingyu was still alone after so many years. Shen Rong immediately became anxious. How could this child not get married? Of course, Shen Rong was also worried about Shen Mingyu's marriage. Considering Shen Mingyu's age, even in future generations, he would still be considered an older leftover man.
Fortunately, Shen Mingyu is powerful now, and of course he also has money. Because of the land rewarded by military merit, Shen Mingyu has 7,800 acres, including houses in Jinzhou, Haizhou, and Liaoyang. In later generations, Shen Mingyu will be a diamond king.
In the Ming Dynasty, it was actually similar to that of later generations. Men only had land and a house, so they didn't have to worry about marrying a wife. However, in a place like Liaodong that lacked heritage, Shen Rong believed that no one was worthy of her family. son.
Later, Shen Rong found out that Xie Zongze's daughter, Xie Susu, was unmarried. Xie Susu's family background made her worthy of Shen Mingyu. After all, Xie Susu's father, Xie Zongze, was a member of the Liao Management Committee, responsible for education and culture, and was placed in the Central Plains. , at least an official at the level of Ti Xue.
As for Xie Susu's brother Xie Jinglin, he is even more powerful. He is also a member of the management committee and the person in charge of business and diplomacy. His family background is not bad.
However, when Shen Rong wanted to find someone to propose marriage to Xie Zongze, she learned about Xie Susu's principles: "First, the other party must be from Liaonan and must not leave Liaonan for life. Second, after the other party gets married, they must not Taking a concubine. Third, the other party must serve Xie Zongze and Xie Zongze for life together with Xie Susu."
For Shen Rong, both the first and third items are acceptable. After all, it is normal to be filial to your parents and parents-in-law. But what Shen Rong cannot accept the most is that Xie Susu actually refused to let Shen Ming take a concubine. If Xie Susu fails to give birth to a child, won't the Shen family become extinct?
Shen Rong tried every means to find a wife for her son. There was no suitable partner in Liaodong, so she returned to Guide Prefecture. In August last year, Shen Mingyu married Yuan of Guide Prefecture. After the marriage, Shen Mingyu and his seventeen-year-old wife Yuan also spent less time together and separated more. Seeing that her daughter-in-law's stomach was not moving, Rong discussed with Yuan about giving Shen Mingyu a concubine.
Just because Shen Mingyu didn't like him, Yuan barely touched her. Naturally, she couldn't be pregnant. She was full of grievances and had no way to tell her mother-in-law. Of course, Yuan was also a ruthless person. The old lady didn't let Na. Concubine?
As Shen Mingyu's first wife, she took in fourteen concubines for Shen Mingyu, five of whom were widows who had given birth to sons. In this way, Shen Mingyu had to face fifteen concubines when he returned home. Although Yuan was a young woman and couldn't let go of her dignity, Shen Mingyu's concubines did not have such worries. They had to rely on their children and heirs.
Soon, Shen Mingyu now tasted Chen Dayong's endless pain.
Shen Mingyu, who is over forty years old, has begun to decline. How can he cope with fifteen women who are like wolves and tigers? He wanted to hide in the military camp like Chen Dayong, but it was a pity that at Shen Mingyu's level, he could take care of his family.
From now on, Shen Mingyu has no choice but to hide and live in pain and happiness.
At the beginning of the year, Shen Mingyu still weighed 180 kilograms. Just eleven months later, he still weighed less than 140 kilograms, having lost more than 40 kilograms.
Cheng Shijie was actually very surprised as to what kind of weight loss pill Shen Mingyu took. If he got the prescription, he could make a lot of money in future generations. However, Cheng Shijie had no way to copy this prescription.
Later, after Cheng Shijie learned about Shen Mingyu, he joked: "Mingyu, you are so lucky!"
"Commander, stop making fun of me and don't even look at how many people are around you!"
Cheng Shijie shrugged, feeling really embarrassed to tease Shen Mingyu about this issue again.
Shen Mingyu had one concubine and fourteen concubines, which was good for him, but he had eight wives and twelve concubines. Although he was not as good as Chen Dayong, he had five more than Shen Mingyu. How could he have the nerve to say that he was very lucky?
Shen Mingyu looked at Cheng Shijie without saying a word, so he gossiped to Cheng Shijie: "Commander, do you know that Chang Yu is really lucky now?"
"oh?"
Cheng Shijie asked: "What's going on?"
"A while ago, weren't there several ships of small-scale prisoners of war sent to Liaodong?"
"yes!"
"Chang Yu found two pretty and elegant Japanese concubines from the prisoner of war camp!"
To be fair, the number of young women in prisoner-of-war camps is actually very small. Only women with a certain status can keep their innocence and save their lives. The two women Zhang Yu found were said to be the daughters of the feudal lord, and they were twins. They looked almost exactly the same. What was even more rare was that the two women were nearly 1.7 meters tall. They were also considered tall women in the Central Plains. In Xiaoriguo, he is simply a giant.
After chatting, let’s get to the topic.
Zhou Ning said: "Since the commander-in-chief wants to attack Annan, we are going to send people to contact the Champa Kingdom first. The most ideal situation is to unite with the Champa Kingdom. They are in the south and we are in the north. Our navy can land behind Annan at any time..."
Before Zhou Ning could speak, Cheng Shijie asked in confusion: "Is the country of Champa still there?"
"Of course it still exists, and it was even more powerful two hundred years ago. Their heroic monarch made Peng'a a strong force, organized and trained the army, and captured Thang Long City several times, leaving the Annamites unable to fight back. If it hadn't been for Peng'e being ambushed and killed later, Annan still wouldn't have known how he would have been ravaged by him."
Zhou Ning smiled and said: "However, after the death of Zhi Peng'e in the battle, the power of the Champa Kingdom plummeted. Now there is only one capital left, which is no different from its demise. However, after all, the Champa Kingdom has lasted for thousands of years. In this area It has a deep influence on the land. As long as we form an alliance with Champa, the Cham people in various parts of Annan will definitely rise up and attack Annan, which will save us a lot of energy."
Cheng Shijie nodded and said: "Well, there are indeed many benefits to forming an alliance with the Champa State, but you have to be careful not to be used as a weapon."
Zhou Ning smiled and said: "I feel pity that it is not easy for them to continue their national destiny for thousands of years. They have been bullied and invaded by the Annan people for hundreds of years before we formed an alliance with them and allowed them to continue to exist as a vassal state after we occupied the entire Annan, continuing their Civilization, if they are still greedy, don’t blame me for being cruel!”
Later, Ning's General Staff put the plan for the reorganization of the Annan Army on Cheng Shijie's desk. More than two-thirds of the original Death Army were tired of killing and wanted to return to peace. For the more than 6,000 soldiers of the Death Army, For resettlement, Cheng Shijie planned to set up eight towns for these more than 6,000 people, with one hundred households as a guarantee and ten guarantees as a town, and resettled in Luzon.
In order to accommodate these soldiers, Luzon set aside 600,000 acres of paddy fields, including 1.2 million acres of dry land, including sugar cane forests and grasslands.
For Luzon, taking out a mere 1.8 million acres of land is trivial.
These more than 6,000 households would not even spend the Chinese New Year in Liaodong. They immediately started packing their luggage and preparing to move.
Without the soldiers of the desperate legion, as long as the Ning Navy's normal military units are mobilized, but not entirely from Liaodong, but seven regiments from Luzon. Now that Luzon has been cleared by the Ning Navy, more than half of it has been cleared. There is no urgent pressure. Naturally, It doesn’t require that many troops.
There are 35,000 troops in the seven regiments of the Luzon Army, together with more than 9,600 troops from the Zuodu Division of the Ning Navy, plus a field medical unit, plus three artillery chiefs from the independent artillery division, and two cavalry divisions. Commander-in-Chief, if you gather fifty thousand men and horses, you don't have to worry about playing tricks in Annan at a one-to-one ratio.
The Annan Army is headed by Shen Mingyu and is divided into ten combat divisions. For the Annan Army, there is another reference function, which is to truly test Ning Haijun's new musket. In fact, the Chongzhen 8th-year-old musket currently equipped by Ning Haijun is somewhat similar to Desire rifle.
But unlike later generations of rifles, it is essentially just an old rifle that uses paper shells for fixed-loading ammunition. Rifle bullets are composed of lead slugs, detonating powder and black powder, which are sealed together by paper. The detonating powder is not at the end of the bullet, but at the end of the projectile, which is in the middle of the bullet.
After the trigger is pulled, the long firing pin will directly penetrate the paper packaging and penetrate the explosive at the bottom of the projectile, detonating it and igniting the nitrocellulose. The Dresser M41 rifle uses black powder.
Guncotton is a good thing. It is simple to make and powerful. There is very little residue after the explosion. It is easy to keep the chamber clean. It is a very ideal launcher. However, dry collodion is very dangerous. A spark will explode, so it must be kept slightly moist, or treated with a methanol-mixture to reduce its sensitivity, otherwise someone will definitely die.
Of course, the rotating bolt action of the Chongzhen Eight-Year-Type Rifle and the Dresser M41 are also different. The bolt action of the Dresser M41 only functions as a lock, and does not have a bolt-action rifle with a pull-back action. function. The Chongzhen 8-year-old rifle has this shell extraction function.
In the next two or three decades, flintlock guns have quietly emerged in Europe and will become the mainstream equipment of the European Army within the next twenty years. Rifled flintlock rifles would not appear until about sixty years later, and Ning Haijun's Chongzhen Eight-Year-Type Rifle was a product of more than two hundred years later.
A group of crossbowmen did not suffer any loss when they fired against the enemy armed with matchlocks or flintlock muskets. When they only had rifled flintlock muskets, they suffered in terms of range. Now Cheng Shijie is far ahead in the world. Front.
Although Cheng Shijie actually still has time, the problem is that there are still considerable difficulties in making copper bullets. At least the Guns and Artillery Bureau has not solved this problem. In fact, the principle of bullets is the same as that of cannonballs. The cannon is also an enlarged version of a gun. It's just that it's easier to make it bigger than it is to make it smaller.
Cheng Shijie is currently quite satisfied with this. After the Chongzhen Eight-year-old rifle was finalized, he went all-out production and can now produce about 2,600 to 2,900 pieces per month. This is also the result of the extensive use of hydraulic machinery, steam machinery, and assembly line operations. However, in this era, this kind of output is enough to dwarf most arsenals.
Each division of the Ning Navy of the Annan Army has four types of equipment: cavalry, infantry, artillery, guns and cold weapons. In fact, the crossbows and swords and guns of the cold weapon equipment are handled by the little days of the Mad Dog Legion, artillery and cavalry and long-range weapons. The soldiers are served by Ning Haijun soldiers.
According to this plan, the Annan Army will be reorganized within two to three months at the earliest. Of course, the Mad Dog Army can also receive further training.
Cheng Shijie took the battleship Zhili and headed for the capital. When Cheng Shijie came to Beijing, he found that the city of Beijing had hardly changed. It was far from Liaodong. Even in a few months, earth-shaking changes would occur. In fact, Beijing was not There was no change, but more and more refugees became homeless. The skinny beggars begging on the streets and the children with straw bones in their heads standing timidly on the street, waiting for buyers with their mothers, made Cheng Shijie feel heavy.
Cheng Shijie looked at the officials who came to greet him and said, "What do those officials do for food? With so many people displaced, do they just pretend they didn't see it?"
The official responsible for welcoming him had a wry smile on his face: "Gong Hai did not know that this was all caused by Dashun's army. Originally, the capital's grain storage did not exceed 2.6 million shi. During the four-month ice period, it was barely enough. However, in September In the second half of the year, the Dashun army rushed into the prefecture and the grain was robbed many times. The governor of the canal transport had to interrupt the grain transportation. Now the grain reserve is even less, and I am afraid it will not be enough to wait until the canal opens next year!"
Cheng Shijie came to stay at the palace in the capital. Cheng Shijie took a beautiful bath. Before he could take a bath, Wang Chengen came to the house and asked Cheng Shijie to enter the palace.
"My lord, Cheng Shijie pays homage to His Majesty the Emperor..."
Before Cheng Shijie could finish speaking, Emperor Chongzhen said: "There are no outsiders here, feel free!"
"Your Majesty, this courtesy is indispensable."
"How is Liaodong doing now?"
"The situation is great! In the past few months, we have easily sold more than four million stones of unsaleable old grain, as well as a large amount of iron materials and fabrics. The supply is simply in short supply!"
"How about the capture during this small expedition?"
"Your Majesty, you..."
Cheng Shijie said with a pretended reluctance: "I finally captured Nagasaki, but before I had time to fight the Tokugawa shogunate, you asked someone to inform me to return to the army. This time I only captured two to three million taels of silver!"
Having said this, Cheng Shijie took out a folder, which recorded the two million taels of silver that Cheng Shijie brought to Beijing this time, as well as the three thousand shi of rice seized from his childhood, as well as various seafood, antiques, calligraphy and paintings.
Emperor Chongzhen pointed to the basket next to the imperial case and said, "These are memorials to impeach you. They said you actually sold food to the rebels?"
"That's right!"
Emperor Chongzhen thought Cheng Shijie would quibble, but Cheng Shijie admitted directly: "Last month, Liaodong sold 100,000 shi of grain and 500,000 jins of potatoes to Shandong, earning 200,000 taels of silver!"
Emperor Chongzhen slapped the emperor's case: "You are supporting the enemy. Do you know what crime you should be guilty of?"
"When it comes to supporting the enemy, none of the officials and gentry in Shandong and South Zhili can escape. They are the ones who enjoy doing business with the rebels. They sell medicine, grain and gunpowder. Some generals who went to quell the rebellion even Military rations, cannons, swords and guns were all sold to the rebels, but we only sold a little old rations, which is already very polite."
Emperor Chongzhen was so angry that his body trembled slightly: "It's unreasonable, it's really unreasonable, it's simply lawless..."
"Your Majesty, what do you know? If I don't provide them with enough food, they will rob the people of their survival food, and eventually more people will not be able to survive, and then join the rebels; if I don't earn enough from them If I don’t have enough money, I won’t be able to spend money to reclaim wasteland, build factories, and absorb refugees. Those refugees who can’t find a way to survive will eventually join the rebels without hesitation!”
Emperor Chongzhen was extremely angry and laughed back: "Are you still reasonable? Do you know that it is precisely because of your alliance with the enemy that the rebel army has grown stronger and stronger, growing to more than 500,000 people in just a few months, killing countless officials and gentry? "
"What happened to Guan Chen? It wasn't Chen who did it!"
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "Besides, those rebels who were executed by the rebels were not good people. It would be unjust to kill them all, but if you kill eight out of ten, there must be some missing! The rebels are just Six hundred thousand taels of silver were confiscated from the house of the prefect of Yanzhou, and 1,600,000 taels of silver were confiscated from the treasury of the prefect of Dongchang. As for the silver and grain confiscated from the homes of the gentry, they are beyond counting..."
Emperor Chongzhen was silent. Those gentry talked about benevolence, justice and morality, but when trouble happened, they pretended to be deaf and dumb.
Cheng Shijie continued: "They were guarding the mountains of goods. The grain was moldy in the warehouse and they refused to take out any of it to help the hungry people. In the end, this rebellion broke out. Who can blame them? These bastards are dead. I don't care. No sympathy for them.”
This statement was so deviant to the extreme that it shocked Emperor Chongzhen so much that stars appeared in his eyes and he was speechless.
After a long time, Emperor Chongzhen put the tea cup heavily on the table and shouted: "Shut up! You are getting bolder and bolder. Just your rebellious words just now are enough to kill the whole family. Do you want to harm me?" Will the entire Liaodong become a river of blood?"
Since Queen Zhou and Queen Zhang came back from Liaodong, Emperor Chongzhen knew the true situation in Liaodong. Now the climate in Liaodong has formed, and the tail cannot be lost.
The court could not touch Cheng Shijie again unless Cheng Shijie truly rebelled.
In fact, Emperor Chongzhen was also testing Cheng Shijie. If Cheng Shijie denied selling food to the rebels, it would mean that Cheng Shijie had a disobedient heart, and Cheng Shijie would be kept in the capital and would not be allowed to leave for the rest of his life.
But the problem is, Cheng Shijie's answer is as frank as ever, which proves that Cheng Shijie has no betrayal.
Cheng Shijie said seriously: "Your Majesty, I am not wrong. Do you know why the number of refugees has increased over the past hundred years? It is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster! It is they who have taken over the people's fields, and they are the ones who have paid their dues. The taxes are pushed onto the common people, and we live a life of fine clothes and fine food while sucking the blood and tears of the common people!"
Cheng Shijie's voice became louder and louder: "The country has raised taxes time and time again, which has given these bastards an advantage. When one tael of silver enters the national treasury, it means that ten taels and twenty taels of silver have entered the pockets of these residents! Those bastards! All the unscrupulous officials and gentry should die! If they don’t die, millions of people will die. If they don’t die, the Ming Dynasty will be crushed by them!”
Cheng Shijie snorted: "Instead of letting tens of millions of people cry in despair, it is better to let their families cry; instead of turning thousands of towns into hells where no one can see people and only hear the cries of ghosts, it is better to send them to hell!"
Cheng Shijie and Emperor Chongzhen discussed the rebellion of the Dashun Army in Shandong. Cheng Shijie truthfully introduced the facts of the Shandong rebellion to Emperor Chongzhen. He bluntly said that the rebels only killed the local tyrants and evil gentry and did not harm the people. It was best for the court not to send troops to annihilate them, at least until they had destroyed the entire army. Don't annihilate them until they have been washed in Nanzhili, Shandong Province.
"In fact, not only Shandong, but also the entire North China Plain, most of the land in Shandong, Henan, North Zhili, and South Zhili are in the hands of officials and gentry who do not pay taxes. Putting down the rebellion of the Dashun Army will not benefit the court at all."
Cheng Shijie said with excitement: "But if the rebels are allowed to uproot the huge bureaucratic gentry interest group, allocate their fields to the common people, and then destroy them, the court can collect taxes from the common people who have been assigned the fields." , the money and grain that Shandong and Henan can collect can easily double or twice!"
Emperor Chongzhen sighed and said: "I'm just afraid that by then the rebel forces will have stabilized and they won't be able to suppress them even if they want to."
Cheng Shijie said proudly: "There are no rebels that Ning Haijun cannot destroy!"
Cheng Shijie is telling the truth.
The current activity area of the Dashun Army is between the Yellow River and the Huaihe River. The Ning Navy can attack from the Shuihe River and attack from the north and south.
With Ning's navy's overwhelming combat power, how difficult would it be to destroy the rebels?
The problem is that the Dashun Army is different from the bandits who can only destroy but not build. They do not kill innocent people indiscriminately, do not rape women, and do not loot the countryside. Every time they conquer a land, they allocate the land to the people, organize production, and start production early. Is it really good for the court to eliminate this bandit?
Perhaps, as Cheng Shijie said, it would be better for the court to wait until they have wiped out all the official and gentry groups in Shandong, Henan, Zhili, and even Huguang before annihilating them?
Emperor Chongzhen stared at Cheng Shijie: "Does this rebellion have anything to do with you?"
Cheng Shijie was shocked and said, "How is that possible! I am loyal to the imperial court..."
"The Grand Marshal of the Dashun Army is Song Xiance. Don't say you don't know this man!"
Emperor Chongzhen stared into Cheng Shijie's eyes.
However, how could Cheng Shijie, who had been the deputy director of the office for many years, be easily seen through by Emperor Chongzhen?
His eyes were always as calm as water, and he said slowly: "Reporting to your majesty, Song Xiance once served as the minister's staff, but later, after following the minister, Song Xiance made money and married a beautiful wife named Wang. Xiance was also Lin Xunzong's benefactor. It was Song Xiance who introduced Lin Xuzong to his ministers and was reused. However, Lin Xuzong, a bastard, was ungrateful. He had an affair with Song Xiance's wife and was discovered by Song Xiance. Song Xiance wanted to kill Lin Xuzong. However, Lin Xunzong escaped from Song Xiance's house. Song Xiance took his family to Lin Xunzong's mansion and burned Lin Xunzong's mansion, causing casualties to innocent people. At that time, I asked my adopted son Cheng Hu to arrest Song Xiance... With Song Xiance How could I give him justice for what happened to him? However, Song Xiance accidentally killed his adopted son Cheng Hu and escaped from Liaodong!"
Speaking of this, Cheng Shijie said: "I am a nostalgic person. Song Xiance did a lot of things for me. He escaped from Liaodong. I did not send anyone to continue to hunt him. After all, it is a master and a servant!"
Emperor Chongzhen had actually investigated Cheng Shijie's statement and found that Cheng Shijie's statement was basically consistent with the results of his investigation. The only discrepancy was that Cheng Shijie knew about Song Xiance's uprising in Yanzhou Mansion just after he started it. Three thousand elite men under his command were dispatched to prepare to kill Song Xiance.
Song Xiance's men were beaten to pieces. As a result, Song Xiance bribed Cheng Shijie 800,000 taels of silver, and Cheng Shijie withdrew his troops and stopped fighting.
Of course, Emperor Chongzhen thought he had everything under control, but this was Cheng Shijie's plan. The highest level of lying is that there is truth and lies, and lies are true.
For Cheng Shijie, he is professional when it comes to talking about panic and dealing with leaders. (End of chapter)
