Chapter 314
Emperor Chongzhen looked at Cheng Shijie and said, "I can't tell whether you are loyal to the imperial court, but everyone knows that you are bold!"
Cheng Shijie said with an aggrieved look: "Your Majesty, I can see my loyalty from the sun and the moon. If your Majesty doesn't believe in my sincerity, I will commit suicide immediately!"
Having said this, Cheng Shijie rushed towards the big pillar in front of the imperial court.
Emperor Chongzhen sighed and said: "Cheng Qing, you'd better plan to clear the boundary with Song Xian... You are a rare talent. I really don't want you to make a wrong move and become a sinner for the ages!"
Hearing Emperor Chongzhen's words, Cheng Shijie breathed a sigh of relief, and he passed this level.
As the deputy director of the office of Hansteel Group, Cheng Shijie has a very wide scope of work. He needs to assist leaders and coordinate the work of the agency, as well as the agency’s foreign affairs activities and related reception work. If an enterprise is compared to a small country, then the agency office is basically the Government Affairs Council. functions.
Cheng Shijie has many mothers-in-law, so he has rich experience in dealing with leaders. As a cadre of a government office, he must not be too upright. An upright person will never be able to do the work of a government office well.
In fact, Cheng Shijie performed more skillfully than the cabinet ministers in front of Emperor Chongzhen. He had to show his work performance while leaving some shortcomings that the leader could see at a glance. Only under the wise leadership of the leader Complete the work well under the guidance of others.
In this way, the leader has face and a sufficient sense of accomplishment.
Just like now, Emperor Chongzhen is very satisfied. According to his intelligence, Cheng Shijie and Song Xiance actually have a certain connection. At least Cheng Shijie gave Song Xiance some help at the beginning of Song Xiance's uprising.
As for not wanting to wipe out the Dashun army prematurely, in the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, Cheng Shijie was actually preparing to support the bandits to respect themselves. Cheng Shijie dealt a terrible blow to Jian Nu. In the past two years, Jian Nu was very honest, and the rogue bandits, who were so powerful, Among them, the most famous Zhang Xianzhong, with hundreds of thousands of troops under his command, was wiped out by Cheng Shijie in less than two days.
This time, Emperor Chongzhen asked Cheng Shijie, who had been away from attacking in his childhood, to lead his army back. Cheng Shijie dropped the fat on his lips, which shows that Cheng Shijie still attaches great importance to the emperor Chongzhen.
In Emperor Chongzhen's mind, he had been on the throne for more than eight years, and the various policies he proposed could not be implemented at all. He was actually not satisfied with the gentry officials. As Cheng Shijie said, if the imperial court postpones the counter-insurgency plan, then there will be consequences Benefit the country and society.
However, Emperor Chongzhen could not do this because it was the face of the court.
What's more, we are now facing an urgent problem. Because of the rebellion of the Dashun Army, water transportation was cut off. It was originally expected to have 3.6 million dan of grain, but there is still a shortfall of more than 1 million dan. The key is that without this food, the Gyeonggi region will There will be big chaos.
Emperor Chongzhen said: "There is a serious shortage of grain in the capital and there is no need to delay!"
Emperor Chongzhen explained the matter of water transportation to Cheng Shijie.
Cheng Shijie frowned slightly when he heard this: "Your Majesty means..."
“It’s impossible for the grain to arrive in Gyeonggi Province before early April!”
Emperor Chongzhen continued: "Last year, the Yellow River released a flood, bringing mud and water, destroying and silting up the Cao Canal in the floodplain area. It was originally planned to repair and dredge the canal this spring. However, Zhang Xianzhong ravaged the Fengyang and Jianghuai areas. After four months of delay in dredging the river, the key point is that Jinan Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture have been completely destroyed. Hundreds of officials were either captured or killed, and almost all were wiped out. How can we organize the manpower?"
Cheng Shijie could only smile bitterly.
Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty is divided into parties, factions within the party, and factions within the factions. This is the norm in the officialdom. However, these people only have selfish interests in their eyes and have no regard for the country and the country. If you support me, I oppose it. I oppose it because I oppose it. You Oppose my support, support it because you support it, without any question of right or wrong.
"Your Majesty, you mean that I will put down the rebellion of the Dashun Army before the year?"
"Now it is not a matter of counterinsurgency or not. The big problem is that the canal is blocked. The canal is silted up and the weather is getting warmer. The disaster caused is extremely difficult to control. The discharge of water from the Yellow River and the eastward flow from the Huaihe River cannot be smooth. The sea, its land is marshy, and its roads are bound to be impassable.”
What troubled Emperor Chongzhen was that the treasury's financial situation, which had finally improved, was immediately turned upside down because of this canal. Dredging the canal was not a small project, but a big one. It only required the recruitment of dozens of millions of people to provide food, drink and food. There is also the supervision of the canal construction project. These are all problems.
An idea flashed in Cheng Shijie's head. It is not difficult to solve this problem. It can be solved completely by opening up sea transportation. The total length of the canal is 1,794 kilometers, which is 3,588 miles. It is so long. The canal requires a lot of waterworks and a large number of watercrafts. Now this canal has formed a huge interest group.
Just like Liao's salary, it became a long-term disadvantage, because many people benefited from the canal, and the governor of the canal who guarded the canal was even more greedy. This is like the medical reform in later generations. The more medical reforms are made, the more expensive they become, the more medicines are reimbursed, and the more people look down on medical treatment.
Everyone knows how much a stone of grain is lost. In fact, water transportation in the Ming Dynasty has reached a blatant level. During the Longqing period (1567-1572), scholar Qiu Jun pointed out: "From 1283 to 1329, the Yuan Dynasty's 46-year shipping loss The amount of grain lost each year is less than that of the Ming Dynasty’s river transport.”
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the cost of building a canal ship at Qingjiangpu Shipyard was about 105 taels of silver. If we calculate that 2,000 canal ships need to be replaced every year, the annual shipbuilding cost is about 210,000 taels of silver. The annual transportation of grain is 4 million shi, and the direct freight cost of river transport is 8 million shi.
This is no less than the imperial court's expenditure on Liao's wages. What's more, it also loses 800 to 1,500 ships every year. On average, more than 1,700 Caoding people die every year, and 300,000 shi of grain is lost. Between eight hundred thousand stones.
It’s hard to say whether there was an accident or not. To use Cheng Shijie’s own example, transporting a ship of 5,000 shi of grain from Luzon, based on the calculation of 45 people per ship, would take 12 days with the wind and 21 days with the headwind. Each person eats three liters of grain every day, and the consumption is only equivalent to 23%.
However, abolishing water transportation and replacing it with sea transportation is equivalent to allowing one million water transport workers, 120,000 cao men, and millions of water transport personnel. Anyone who dares to lift this lid will be the enemy of this interest group.
Emperor Chongzhen looked at Cheng Shijie. He naturally hoped that Cheng Shijie would lift the lid. Once it was lifted, the problem would be solved perfectly.
Cheng Shijie looked at Emperor Chongzhen and said, "Does your Majesty hope that I will accept this offer?"
In fact, Cheng Shijie didn't want to wade into this muddy water. Whoever wanted to poke the cover would remove it, and whoever wanted to cover it up would do it. He only did what he thought was right.
"How do you present the memorial?"
Cheng Shijie said: "I think that if I write to the Central Committee to tell the truth and ask the Central Committee to transfer grain from the south of the Yangtze River, temporarily open sea canals, and move the garrison to the coastal areas with ports for food, it is good for the DPRK to adopt these three strategies. There is no harm in adopting it... There is no other better way to solve the grain shortage in Gyeonggi. Time is really tight, and the grain stocks in Gyeonggi may only last until mid-April. We must fight for every moment, and we must not wait until Beijing and China reach a decision. If we take another action. If we delay for one day, I don’t know how many people will starve to death in Gyeonggi.”
The grain shortage in Gyeonggi is not just a shortage of 10,000 or 20,000 shi of grain, but a shortage of millions of shi.
Gyeonggi Province is responsible for solving the food problem of 100,000 frontier troops in Xuanhua, Jizhen, and the two towns, 180,000 forbidden defenders, and 30,000 to 40,000 military horses. To maintain such a large army, a year's military food plus transportation losses , which requires more than three million stone grains.
The North China Plain has always been an important grain-producing area. In the past, when the capital needed grain, Baoding Prefecture and others (later the Five Prefectures of Hebei Province, and now the Five Prefectures of North Zhili) could handle part of the problem; this year, not only can we not count on the six prefectures of Shandong Province to transfer grain, but they also have to transfer a large amount of grain. of food to help two to three million refugees.
One addition and one subtraction make the food shortage in Gyeonggi Province worse and worse.
Without water transportation, even if there were so many cattle and horses in Liaodong, they would not be able to bear such a transportation volume. Taking Liaodong's four-wheeled heavy-duty carriage as an example, a carriage can transport fifteen liters of grain. However, in the poor road conditions in Zhili, only Barely transporting ten stones, three million grains require 300,000 carts, 600,000 mules and horses, and 300,000 cartmen to transport. Such huge carts line up in a long line and walk on the post road, which will form about A long queue of five to six thousand miles.
If it is a sea ship, it will be much simpler. Ning Haijun's transport ships can transport five thousand shi per ship, and 600 ships are almost enough. Although Ning Haijun does not yet have 600 large ships of more than 5,000 shi, the problem is Yes, one trip every half a month and one round trip a month. We only need a hundred large ships of 5,000 stone, plus 30,000 boatmen and sailors, to solve the problem.
Everything is easier said than done.
Emperor Chongzhen understood what Cheng Shijie meant. His main idea was to have the capital city of 180,000 yuan be transferred to Tianjin for food. But the question was, how could there be no troops stationed in the capital city?
Without the 180,000 imperial troops, Emperor Chongzhen would not be able to sleep well, and it would be impossible to move the soldiers and horses of Xuanfu and Jizhen. If these nearly 100,000 troops were mobilized, what would happen if the Jiannu came back?
Who can guarantee that Jiannu will not invade the border again?
Who can guarantee that the Jiannu will no longer send troops?
No one can guarantee this, not even Cheng Shijie. Under rational circumstances, it is best for Jiannu not to provoke Ning Haijun. However, if a snowstorm breaks out in Liaodong in winter and Jiannu cannot survive in Liaodong, they will have no choice but to go south. .
After all, it is better to fight to death than to freeze and starve to death in Liaodong.
After Chongzhen finished chatting with Cheng Shijie, he was no longer angry this time, but his expression became bitter. Of course he knows what the problem is. Ming Dynasty is rotten to the core. He is fighting the corrupt officials of the entire Ming Dynasty alone. Even if he knows what the problem is, what can he do?
"Cheng Qing, if you are, what should you do now?"
"First of all, let's put aside the issue with the Dashun Army for the time being and let them fight..."
"You are being treasonous and I don't want to hear this anymore!"
Cheng Shijie ignored Emperor Chongzhen's furious gaze, stared at him, and asked word for word: "Your Majesty, you always think about the vassal king and the clan, have they ever thought about your Majesty? Your Majesty always thinks about the scholars and gentry, have they ever thought about it?" Your Majesty, have you ever thought about it?"
Chongzhen slapped his palm on the table, causing the cup to jump: "Shut up! I'm just talking nonsense like this to you. Even ten heads are not enough to cut off!"
Cheng Shijie stopped talking, but his expression was very stubborn, with no intention of bowing his head and admitting his mistake.
Emperor Chongzhen stared at him, his expression gloomy and his eyes flickering, probably thinking whether he should let the Jin Yiwei come over to arrest him.
The air seemed to be frozen, and even the palace maids standing far away shuddered, even though they couldn't hear clearly what the two were arguing about.
Silence, an uncomfortable silence.
After a long while, Chongzhen finally broke the silence: "You said these treasonous words to me, aren't you afraid that I will chop off your head and punish your nine tribes?"
Cheng Shijie said: "The king is worried about the humiliation of his ministers, and the king will humiliate his ministers to death. Your Majesty has been working on state affairs all day long, wandering around day and night, and asking ministers for advice. Naturally, the ministers have to make suggestions. This is the minister's duty. As for whether your majesty will adopt the minister's suggestions? To what extent he adopts it is up to His Majesty."
Emperor Chongzhen's expression was a bit complicated: "You are so bold!"
Cheng Shijie saw that Emperor Chongzhen was fierce in appearance and soft in heart, so he said very calmly: "If a person doesn't have the courage to speak out his innermost thoughts, what's the point of living?"
Emperor Chongzhen took a deep breath and changed the subject: "Are the rebels really only killing local tyrants and evil gentry and not harming the common people?"
"The evil deeds of massacring people are still there and cannot be avoided, but they dare not go too far. Until now, no atrocities such as massacres have occurred because they are closest to Ning Haijun and know that what Ning Haijun hates most is massacring people and raping women. !”
Chongzhen nodded slightly and said: "If the rebels really clean up all the officials, gentry and vassal kings in Shandong, can the amount of food paid by Shandong and Henan really be increased tenfold?"
"It depends on who is in charge of governance. If it were someone else, it might be less than it is now, but if someone else were to govern it, it would be absolutely no problem to increase it ten times."
Cheng Shijie said in his heart: "Just kidding, in later generations, the annual grain output of Shangqiu alone will reach more than 20 million tons! Of course it cannot be compared to what it will be in a few hundred years, but phosphate fertilizers, pesticides and other industries are also getting better and better, so it will not be the same. The output of modern agriculture cannot even reach one-tenth, right?”
In the Ming Dynasty, the two capitals and 13 provinces in the country paid 4 million shi a year in grain. Basically, only 6 provinces could contribute more grain to the country! Among them, South Zhili paid 1.8 million shi a year, Zhejiang 63 Wanshi, Jiangxi 570,000 shi, Henan and Shandong 380,000 shi each, and Huguang 250,000 shi.
If Henan and Shandong were really handed over to Cheng Shijie and doubled ten times, it would only be 7.6 million shi, about 1.19 billion kilograms. When converted into tons, it would be less than 600,000 tons.
In Shandong and Henan, there was sufficient supply of fertilizers and pesticides, but he could not hand over 600,000 tons of grain, so he simply hung himself with noodles.
"You can not!"
Emperor Chongzhen cannot touch Cheng Shijie now, but it does not mean that he will give Cheng Shijie more power and territory. Now that Liaodong is managed by Cheng Shijie, and Shandong and Henan are handed over to Cheng Shijie, even if Cheng Shijie has no dissent in his heart, it does not mean that the civil and military forces under Cheng Shijie Officials had no other ideas.
"Then, I have nothing to do!"
"You recommend a minister to govern Shandong and Henan!"
"I really do have a candidate!"
"who is it?"
"Sun Chengzong, Mr. Sun Ge!"
"No, Mr. Sun Ge is too old..."
Cheng Shijie said: "Old Sun Ge has enough prestige, I'm afraid there won't be much criticism in the court!"
In Cheng Shijie's opinion, Wen Tiren opposed Sun Chengzong because he was afraid that Sun Chengzong would steal his position. However, the governor of Henan and Shandong, or the governor, were only local officials and could not threaten Wen Tiren's position.
"Although Mr. Sun Ge is a great talent, he is qualified enough to be the governor of Henan and Shandong. However, at present, the bandits in the northwest are getting more and more violent, and Jiannu is ready to make a move in Hetao. Cheng Qing, according to the memorial sent by Sun Chuanting, the governor of the three sides, Jiannu The slaves are frequently mobilized in Hetao and may attack Ningxia Mansion at any time, what do you think?"
…
The ancient city of Fengzhou in the Hetao area was established in 618 AD by the Tang Dynasty. The county in the Sui Dynasty was changed into a prefecture and Fengzhou was established. Fengzhou City is located in the Kubuqi Desert (called Kujie Sand at the time) in Sumu, Gegenzhao. It was a transportation hub in the north of the country at that time.
During the Ming Dynasty, Batu Mengke Dayan Khan unified all Mongolian tribes and restored the Wanhu organization in order to facilitate administration. At this time, the 10,000 households in Ordos were the backbone of the 30,000 households on the right wing, stationed in Muhetao. After the death of Lin Dan Khan, his son Ezhe surrendered to Huang Taiji, and this became the territory of the Jin Kingdom.
At the beginning of the year, Fan Wencheng brought more than 10,000 slaves, more than 20,000 Han military flags, and more than 8,000 Mongolians, a total of more than 40,000 troops, to Fengzhou Ancient City. Using the old city ruins of Fengzhou Ancient City, he rebuilt Fengzhou Ancient City. Zhoucheng.
After Fan Wencheng arrived in Fengzhou, he tried his best to recruit bankrupt farmers from Shanxi and Shaanxi, built water conservancy projects, dug wells and canals, and reclaimed wasteland for farming. He finally reclaimed 400,000 acres of land in this desolate and barren place and resettled three farmers. Thousands of refugees. Looking back at the experience of the past six months, he felt a little incredible. He couldn't believe that he had such powerful energy!
Speaking of which, Fan Wencheng was very lucky. He got a kind of millet from the refugees in southern Shaanxi. This kind of millet is called Langwei Valley. It is also known as the king of millet in later generations. It is not afraid of birds eating it; it is not afraid of insects (left insect, right insect). (full); not afraid of wind and grinding; resistant to early age; firm seeds; appropriate maturity period; high yield, 2 shi 2 liters of grain and 1,329 jins of grass per crop. The corn seeds secretly bought from Liaodong actually produced a bumper harvest, with an output of 1 stone and 5 buckets per mu.
As for Fengzhou, the climate was good during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, but in the Ming Dynasty it was already very arid, cold and dry, with frequent sandstorms and lack of water, which made people crazy. But Fan Wencheng likes this kind of life. He believes that he is participating in a great cause that can be recorded in history. If he is lucky, he can leave his name in history!
After ten years of studying hard in a cold window, isn’t it just to develop your ambitions? As an official, you should come to such a poor place and make achievements. As long as you succeed, you will be the Optimus Prime of the Great Jin Kingdom.
Thanks to these two drought-tolerant seeds, Fan Wencheng got off to a good start.
"It's time to eat!"
At this time, the gang leader came over carrying a bucket and a large bamboo basket and put the things down. The slave-building soldiers couldn't wait to open them. The tempting smell of food hit their nostrils, and everyone couldn't help but cheer.
Although the rice is steamed buns made from Langwei Valley, the tea soup is made by boiling water first and then adding cheese, salt and tea leaves. It is sweet, delicious and very nutritious.
One Niu Lu looked at Fan Wencheng happily and said, "Master Fan, let's eat together."
Fan Wencheng was really a little hungry, so he smiled and said, "Then I'm not welcome!"
Fan Wencheng rolled up his sleeves and sat on the floor, picking up a steamed bun. A Jian slave served him a bowl of broth, and everyone opened their cheeks and ate it.
Just as he was enjoying his meal, the sound of galloping horse hooves came over. Niu Lu was stunned for a moment, jumped up, and ran to the Qiao tower to take a look. Oh my god, two Jiannu cavalry were galloping towards this side on fast horses. Come on, a cloud of white foam spurts out from your mouth and nose every time you take a step, obviously your physical strength has been squeezed to the limit.
Fan Wencheng's heart sank, and an ominous premonition came over him. He knows these cavalry very well. For these super narcissistic cavalry, horses are their second life. Unless it is an emergency, they will never bear to treat their partners like this!
The Jian slave held up a scroll wrapped in a long strip of cloth and shouted: "King Khan's Golden Arrow delivers the order!"
Hearing this, Fan Wencheng let out a long sigh: "The peaceful days are over!"
(End of chapter)
