"Your Highness, I received the exact news before I left Runing Mansion. Li Zicheng did not abandon Xi'an Mansion. Instead, he left Gao Yigong and Luo Hu with 20,000 to 30,000 men to defend the city, and also left Xi'an Mansion irrelevant. The common people and the family members of the Dashun Army were all taken to Xiangyang Prefecture. It seems that they are ready to hold on for a long time!
The Tartars have not yet invaded Xi'an on a large scale. Duduo on the east route stopped moving after capturing Tongguan, Huayin, Tongzhou, Chaoyi and other places, and did not continue to advance westward. The northern route of the Tartars It is still within Yulin Town and Yan'an Prefecture.
In addition, Wu Sangui has currently occupied two towns in Ningxia and Gansu, two prefectures in Pingliang and Lintao, Gongchang Banfu, Qingyang Banfu and Jinglu Yiwei.
Li Zicheng occupied most of Xi'an Prefecture, half of Qingyang Prefecture, half of Gongchang Prefecture, two Wei Prefectures of Taozhou and Minzhou, and two Prefectures of Fengxiang and Hanzhong.
The situation in Shaanxi is likely to see a tripartite confrontation between Li Zicheng, Wu Sangui and the Tartars. "
In the Wenhua Hall, facing a map of Shaanxi Province, I was analyzing the battlefield situation in Shaanxi to Zhu Cihong, Wei Zaode, Chen Rui, Lin Zengzhi, Qian Qianyi, Hou Xun, Ma Shiying, Wu Xiang, Wu Sanfu, Cao Youyi, Huang Binqing and others. Runing's military advisor Li Yan rushed back.
Li Yan's previous official position was the chief historian of the Tang Dynasty and the governor of Runing Mansion, and he actually held the power of Runing Mansion. With his efforts, Ming Dynasty's foundation in Runing Mansion has been solidified. The land and population of Runing Prefecture, Two Prefectures, Five Guards and Eleven Counties have been completely inventoried. The military villages and official fields were all under the control of the Four Guards of the Royal Palace, the Dabie Guards (these five guards were all newly established) and the Runing Army Corps. The civilian fields were also checked over and over again, and basically everything was clear and clear. In control.
I think that when Zhang Juzheng was in power, the investigation was not as clear as it is now - after all, Zhang Juzheng was also a member of the corrupt officials of the Ming Dynasty, and Li Yan, Feng San, and Hong Niangzi's group were rogue bandits, and Runing Mansion had been captured by Li Zicheng before. After one wash, the gentry lost a lot of power!
After a complete inventory and rectification, the Runing Five Guards alone will be able to pull out 8,000 fully armed soldiers! There are also more than 13,000 people training in the 11 counties in Runing's two prefectures. Moreover, the cities in the two prefectures and eleven counties were renovated, a considerable amount of grain and grass was stored, and a Tangwang Fort was built in the Dabie Mountains as a refuge for the Tangwang and his two brothers during wartime.
After the situation in Runing stabilized, Zhu Cixiang naturally wanted to invite his military advisers back to join the war cabinet. The situation in the north was now dangerous, and a North-South war was about to break out. In the west, there were Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Zuo Liangyu made three threats. The situation is quite serious!
Therefore, Zhu Cixiang needed a powerful "chief of staff" and a wartime cabinet that could cope with various difficult situations.
The purpose of recalling Li Yan is to let him replace the incompetent Cao Youyi as the commander of the general's military order and guard.
Cao Youyi will be transferred to the newly established Arms Guard Commander of the Generalissimo's Mansion. This Ordnance Guard was upgraded on the basis of the military industry and arsenal departments that originally belonged to the Military and Government Guards. It consists of four departments: the Artillery Manufacturing Department, the Gun Manufacturing Department, the Shipbuilding Department, the Arsenal Department, and the Purchasing Department.
The first three are in charge of government-run arsenals and shipyards. In fact, they manage some government-run and state-owned handicraft workshops. However, these workshops are not used for mass production, but for training craftsmen and trial production of weapons. Experienced master craftsmen were invited from Haao, Foshan, Shijing, and Anping at high prices, and they were asked to use Zhu Cixiang's "Yicong Craftsmen" and young apprentices to build artillery, muskets, and ships. The products are mainly imitation foreign guns, cannons and ships. Zhu Cixi would sometimes come up with some "whimsical" designs for them to create.
In addition, Zhu Cihong also asked the top ten imperial merchants to select stewards to participate in the operation and management of these government-run factories - the purpose was to familiarize them with the operations of arsenals and shipyards. In order to support the imperial merchants to open commercial arsenals and shipyards in the future!
That's right, Zhu Cixi's military-industrial line is to maintain the official business, develop the commercial business, and encourage competition. To put it simply, it is taking the evil capitalist route!
Of course the route was bad, but there was nothing we could do about it. The steam engine hadn't even been invented these days, so there was no big industry. Even the military industry of the Western Kingdom of England is still a handicraft workshop. Because there is no machine industry, it is all manual work, requiring serious and responsible factory owners to personally control the quality. Therefore, competition among a large number of private factories is one of the ways to maintain efficiency and quality.
This is just one way, there is another way to maintain quality, and that is severe punishment! Use the method He Lianbobo used to build Tongwan City and the Daxia Dragon Bird Sword to rectify the craftsmen... But the question is, where can Zhu Cixi find so many good craftsmen who can take the sword?
The government-run handicraft industry in the Ming Dynasty collapsed long ago, and the craftsman household system existed in name only. Moreover, Zhu Cixiang was ready to completely abolish this household registration system that defined occupations for ordinary people. The craftsmen currently in the hands of Zhu Cixiang are just the "Yicong craftsmen" who followed from Tianjin. Their craftsmanship is very poor, and even if they are killed, they will not be able to build high-quality guns.
The skilled blacksmiths are now either in Guangdong or Fujian, and they are all private craftsmen and there are no official craftsmen. Therefore, Zhu Cixi could only set up a procurement department under the Arms Guard to be responsible for the procurement and acceptance of weapons...
While incorporating functions such as military and military production, procurement, and arsenal management into the Arms and Guards, Zhu Cixi also merged the remaining departments of the General and Political Guards into the Ministry of War under the cabinet.
This is not to expand the powers of civilian officials, but another reform of the cabinet. The purpose is to open up the connection between the military and the government and clarify the powers of the military and government so that the cabinet can participate in military affairs to a certain extent. It also opens the door for military officers to enter the cabinet and engage in politics. channel.
Because when some institutions of the Military and Government Guards were merged into the Ministry of War, Wu Xiang, the former commander of the Military and Government Guards, also entered the Ministry of War and became the Minister of the Ministry of War! Moreover, the military garrison, military registration, military attaché personnel and other departments that were originally part of the military and political bodyguards were also integrated into the Ministry of War. At the same time, the four departments of military selection, staff, vehicle driving and arsenal that were originally part of the Ministry of War were disbanded and reorganized into a new military attache. It manages the four departments of the Military Corps (responsible for farming, grain and conscription), the Military Expenditure Department, the Military Officers Department (officer personnel) and the Ma Zhengsi.
In other words, the military and political guards of the Generalissimo's Mansion actually became the Ministry of War. And the original civilian Ministry of War has been abolished...
In addition, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household Affairs under the cabinet have also made corresponding adjustments.
Among them, the departments under the Ministry of Industry were reduced from the original four to two, namely the Capital Water Department, which was in charge of water conservancy, and the Maintenance Department, which was responsible for government construction. Among them, the Camp and Repair Department was responsible for building and defending the city, so it became a half-civilian and half-military yamen. The departments and bureaus that were originally under the Ministry of Industry and were in charge of utensil manufacturing, mountain harvesting, and farmland reclamation were all abolished.
As for the household department, the changes are even bigger! The original thirteen departments of the Ministry of Household Affairs were all abolished, and six departments were established, including the Taxation Department (responsible for customs duties and commercial taxes), the Household Registration Department, the Qingtian Department, the Trade and Commerce Department (managing ports), the Duzhi Department (managing expenditures), and the Money Making Department.
In short, the pace of cabinet reform this time is not small (Zhu Cixiang's reforms are all gradual, not one step). If it were not for the wartime atmosphere where the enemy is pressing the country, it would not be so easy to implement.
"Everything is waiting for you, but the time is not waiting for me!" Zhu Cixiang crossed his arms and looked at the situation of the Qing, Shun, and Wu families in Shaanxi marked on the map, "Military advisor, can Li Zicheng be able to withstand it? Should we take action?"
"Your Highness the Crown Prince," Li Yan breathed out, "As long as Xi'an Mansion is willing to hold on, there is nothing the Tartars can do... Datong and the others have been trapped for several months and haven't recruited any more?"
"Datong is also in danger!" Wu Xiang interjected from the side, "The Tartars don't necessarily have to besiege the city. How hard is it to besiege the city? They can rob food and people outside the city and prevent the people from cultivating the land...Datong, Once Xi'an is wiped out by disaster, how long can the two isolated cities hold on?"
Li Yan nodded, "Shang Shu is right... Didn't Li Zicheng use this method to harm Zhongzhou back then? Now it's his turn! The two strong cities of Xi'an and Xiangyang cannot be defeated by the Tartars. Nanyang Fucheng can also hold on. But Guanzhong and the plains north of the Han River are afraid of being severely harmed.
This is to drive away the tiger and swallow the wolf, just to make it impossible for Li Zicheng to gain a foothold in Xi'an and Xiangyang, and then come to seize our foundation! "
Zhu Cixiang frowned: "Then we have to take action... Hundreds of thousands of bandits with nowhere to go are a headache!"
