A few days later, at noon on July 16, 1794, Zhao Xin and Deng Fei arrived in Kaiyuan County together, accompanied by the entire Eastern Front Command headquarters.
At present, two regiments of the Northern Navy have crossed Tieling and are building fortifications on the north bank of Pu River, more than 30 miles north of Shengjing.
There were also three regiments heading west along the north bank of the Liaohe River, and they uprooted many fortresses and castles established by the Qing army on the north bank of the Liaohe River one by one.
Their ultimate goal was to occupy Juliuhe Station, a hundred miles west of Fengtian, and to set up defenses on the west bank of the Liao River to prevent Shengjing's Qing army from escaping toward Guangning, and to prevent the 20,000 cavalry composed of Horqin and Karaqin from the north from supporting Fengtian.
When a group of people arrived at Anyuan Gate in the north of Kaiyuan City on horseback, Zhao Xin, who was very interested, proposed to walk around the city wall, and Deng Fei readily agreed.
Before the Ming Dynasty, Kaiyuan was actually called
"Kaiyuan", in the Jin Dynasty it was affiliated to Xianzhou Road, and in the Yuan Dynasty it was affiliated to Tokyo Xingzhongshu Province, with a very high administrative level.
In the 21st year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, after the Ming Dynasty unified the Northeastern region, this place became the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty. In order to avoid the taboo of Zhu Yuanzhang's name, it was changed to
The word "Yuan" is
"Original", hence the name. At that time, Kaiyuan City was the garrison city of Liaodong Dusi North Road General. It had a particularly important position. It governed the five cities of Kaiyuan, Zhonggu, Tieling, Fanhe, Yilu and the 21st Fort. It was also responsible for guarding the northernmost end of the Ming Great Wall. of six levels.
that famous
The "Thirty Thousand Guards" have been located in Kaiyuan since the 26th year of Hongwu. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Liaodong region suffered from repeated wars. Many cities were seriously damaged and dilapidated, including Kaiyuan City.
In the forty-third year of Qianlong's reign, when Qianlong visited the east, he saw that the city wall was in such dilapidated condition, so he allocated hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to rebuild the city, which took three years to complete.
The new city generally follows the old site of the Ming Dynasty, and the city gates also retain their previous names. After Beihai Town laid down Ninggu Pagoda, Shengjing, in order to prepare for early defense, raised the city wall from 2 feet to 3 feet, reinforced three corner towers and 24 forts; at the same time, the original 4-foot-wide moat was extended outwards. It widened to five feet and the water depth exceeded three meters.
Unfortunately, the fortress, which the Qing court considered impregnable, was of no use when facing the Northern Navy's artillery fire on the city walls.
Zhao Xin walked up to the top of the city and looked at the hills in the north from Weiyuan Fort to Ying'emen, rolling up and down like a giant snake.
To the southeast lies the remnants of the Changbai Mountains, which are thousands of miles away, with lush forests; to the west is the rolling Liao River, like a silver dragon, flowing southward.
He couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Gu Yanwu once said that this place is the most dangerous place in the eastern frontier, with a wing belt town, located in the upper reaches of Liao Dynasty. When I saw it today, it really lived up to its reputation." Deng Fei nodded and said: "Yes. Ah! The north gate of Liaodong. This place is a treasure. It needs mines and minerals, and it needs food and grain. Lao Chen and the others are very busy. By the way, do you think it is necessary to build a canal to connect the Liaohe River system and the Songhua River system? Connect it?" Zhao Xin thought for a while, shook his head decisively and said: "Don't bother, it's more serious to build the road first, and then just connect the railway. And the Liaohe River is not easy to deal with, it will have to come every few years. If you don't spend great efforts to rectify a flood, you will have to provide endless relief in the future. The Qing Dynasty is gone, and we can only bear this burden." Deng Fei laughed and said: "This is not good. Capture Shengjing and let those Tens of thousands of prisoners went to build roads and river embankments!" During the Qing Dynasty, the most important natural disaster in the entire Liaoning region was floods.
Historically, in the 175 years from the first year of Qianlong to the end of the Qing Dynasty, a total of 294 floods occurred in the Liaohe River Basin, commonly known as
"Nine rivers are flooded at the bottom, and nine in ten years are flooded." Similar to the problem of the Yellow River, the rivers in the Northeast generally have relatively high sediment content, especially the lower reaches of the Liaohe River and Xiaoling River. flood.
When floods come, food crises and epidemics follow. Bandits were rampant in the Northeast in the late Qing Dynasty. Although there were other social backgrounds and economic factors, frequent floods were also the main catalyst for the emergence of banditry.
At present, Beihai Town is extremely short of water conservancy talents, and Zhao Xin has already planned to recruit some from another time and space. In addition, people from the Intelligence Bureau also contacted a water control expert named Guo Dachang in Huai'an, but unfortunately he was rejected.
Think about it, people are very familiar with the situation in Huanghuai, and when they arrive in the Northeast, they are completely blind, not to mention that not everyone can bear the cold outside the customs.
The Eastern Front Command, which was moved to Kaiyuan City, set up its headquarters in the Temple of God on the north bank of the Jinxian River in the city.
Don't get me wrong, this
"God" is not that
"God" is the Taoist Zhenwu Emperor, the God of the North, also known as
"God". So the official name of the Temple of God is
"Xuanzhenguan". In the early Ming Dynasty, this place was the vassal residence of Zhu Yuanzhang's 20th son, King Zhu Song of Han. However, after it was built, it remained a vassal until his death.
Afterwards, the second generation of Han King Zhu Chongruo lived here for fifteen years, and later it was renamed Pingliang. The remaining Han Dynasty Palace was later converted into the Temple of God.
Because of Zhao Xin's lesson at the Qitai Guandi Temple, the security battalion of the headquarters simply drove most of the Taoist priests in the temple to the nearby Chenghuang Temple, leaving only the head abbot and a Taoist boy.
When Zhao Xin walked into the temple, before he could pay homage to the golden body of Emperor Zhenwu, the staff officer in charge of communications handed him a telegram and said softly: "Anping Port, Director Xu is calling." Zhao Xin took it. At first glance, my dear, the message is densely packed.
When he took a closer look, it turned out to be Xu Dayong's request for instructions on the conditions proposed by He Shen. He scanned it roughly and then handed it to Deng Fei with a smile and said, "Look, something happened with Sir and Master again." Deng Fei took it over, looked at it for a few times, and said in surprise: "What a big mouth! It's not there yet." A rabbit never lets go of an eagle." Zhao Xindao said: "Although he is not good at military affairs, he is very good at calculating economic and political accounts. He has seen that we currently have insufficient troops and cannot take care of Yunnan and Guizhou, so he wants to imitate Wu Sangui and become the king of Yunnan. "Okay, even though He Shen has made a choice in his mind, it would be too belittling to think that he would willingly take out the money.
"With adults". The day after meeting with Xu Dayong, he asked Liu Quan to send a letter detailing the previously proposed conditions.
As soon as He Shen came up, he said that he could give 50 million taels, but he could only pay half of it first, and the rest could only be given after Zhao Xin helped him gain a foothold in Yunnan.
First of all, the Northern Navy must send troops to Guangdong and Guangxi within a month, and open up waterways from Lianzhou to Nanning Prefecture, and from Nanning Prefecture to Yunnan before the end of the year.
The reason why Lianzhou was chosen instead of Qinzhou to the west was because there was a customs office there. In the first year of Qianlong's reign, the Qing government established Lianzhoukou Customs in Lianzhou Town, Hepu, which was a branch under the jurisdiction of the Guangdong Customs Haian Port.
Heshen, who is in charge of the transfer department and is well versed in economics, knows very well that the Yunnan-Guizhou Mountains have a lot of fields and a lot of dry land. Even in a good harvest year, the output is only enough for one year, and there is no surplus food left at all.
In addition, because the number of Green Camp soldiers in Yungui is very high, and there are also a large number of miners from other provinces, the annual food gap is about 16 million shi, and the shortage is even more severe in the event of war.
Take the Qing-Burmese War as an example. There were 40,000 soldiers, and they consumed 400 shi of rice every day, which amounted to 120,000 shi in ten months.
In the past, in order to make up for the food shortage in Yunnan and Guizhou, the Qing government and local governments would allocate or purchase food from other provinces every year.
Now that he has betrayed the imperial court, he can no longer even think about buying grain from neighboring provinces. But if the Northern Navy can help open up the transportation from the coast to Yunnan, then he can buy a large amount of low-priced rice from Annan or Siam, and then transport the grain to Nanning Prefecture, and then pass through the 700-mile Youjiang River system. Ship directly to Yunnan.
The problem is that if you want to buy food to feed the troops and secure the people, you must have enough money. So he immediately proposed that Beihai Town should provide him with better mining equipment and smelting technology to increase Yunnan's copper production.
Today, the annual copper output in Yunnan Province exceeds 10 million jins, and the highest in history was 14 million jins.
Although the output of copper mines in Shunning Prefecture in the west has gradually increased since the 38th year of Qianlong's reign, Dongchuan Prefecture in the north of Kunming is still the main copper producing area.
Zuo Heshen has been in charge of Shang Yu's backup office for so many years, and has sent a large number of spies to conduct all-round spying on Beihai Town.
Although there is very little intelligence on the military, there is still quite a lot of information on the economy and people's livelihood. Not to mention anything else, just the three-million-ton building in Khabarovsk
The "super large" steel plant can't hide it even if it wants to. When he figured out what happened in Beihai Town,
What is the concept of "ton"? I can't express the shock in my heart. Looking back at the court, ten million kilograms of copper per year sounds like a lot, but it can be converted into
The "ton" is only 6,000. Although He Shen did not understand the mining and smelting technology used in Beihai Town, it was certainly more efficient than the technology used by the imperial court.
Copper in these days is almost equal to money. As long as the smelting is completed, money can be minted immediately. Manchu copper coins were circulated throughout Asia. As long as you had money, what could you want to buy that you couldn't buy?
In addition to the above two requirements, He Shen also made a more important request, and it must be personally endorsed by Zhao Xin himself, and that is about his future.
What Heshen means is that as long as you give me enough arms assistance, he can help Beihai Town take over northern Myanmar.
But the problem is that Zhao Xin must give him and his family a similar
Guarantee of "gold medal to avoid death", and Yunnan will be handed over to him for twenty years. Deng Fei returned the telegram to Zhao Xin, with a joking expression on his face, and said: "He wants to build an independent kingdom! I remember you said that his son-in-law is still a clan member. With the copper mine, 50 million You can earn it back in a blink of an eye." Zhao Xin shook his head and said: "It's nice to think about it, sir, but do you think Yongyan and Fukang'an can spare him if he tricked Qianlong into this? The copper mines in Dongchuan Prefecture are very important to Manchuria. Qing is so important, it’s all money!” Startled
"Do you think Fukang'an will send troops from Sichuan?" Zhao Xin walked slowly to the entrance of the main hall, looked at the statue of Emperor Zhenwu filled with cigarettes with his hands behind his back, thought about it for a moment, and said, "The total strength of Yungui's Green Camp exceeds seven Wan. He Shen thought he could buy everything with money, but he forgot that Fukang'an's prestige in the Qing army was too high."
"Seventy thousand?!" Deng Fei showed a surprised expression after hearing this number.
"Yes." Zhao Xin then gave Deng Fei a brief summary. These information were obtained by the Beijing Intelligence Station from the Clearance Department of the Ministry of War Arsenal.
It is said that after the San Francisco Rebellion, although the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not station Eight Banners troops in the Yunnan-Guizhou region, due to the complex ethnic situation and its location on the border, it has always maintained a large number of green battalion troops.
Especially during the Yongzheng era, there was an unprecedented scale of reform. In order to suppress the Miao and Yi chieftains who were unwilling to reform and maintain stability on the border, the number of soldiers increased sharply to 68,000.
You must know that under the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, 11 governor-level offices were established in various places within the pass.
The "Military Region" includes Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Liangjiang, Fujian and Zhejiang, Huguang, Shaanxi-Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan-Guizhou, and Guangxi. It has a total of 66 towns, 1,169 battalions, and a total of 640,000 soldiers.
The military strength in the Yunnan-Guizhou region alone exceeds one-tenth, which cannot be said to be ignored. In the early days of Qianlong's reign, due to the problem of food and salary consumption, the Yunnan Green Battalion was slightly reduced. However, with the outbreak of the Qing-Burma War in the mid-term and the subsequent emergence of Beihai Town, the military strength in the Yunnan-Guizhou region, especially in Yunnan, increased again, well over five. Ten thousand people, and the number in Guizhou has also increased to 25,000; among them, Yunnan has three standards, six towns, five associations, and fourteen battalions, while Guizhou has four towns, one mention and one standard.
In the six years from the 53rd year of Qianlong's reign to the 58th year of Qianlong's reign, the Northern Navy annihilated nearly 60,000 Green Battalions in Ningguta, Jilin, Hunchun, Six Northern Towns, and Jiaodong. Moreover, they were still the most effective. That part; so the 70,000 troops in the Yunnan-Guizhou region are definitely a very important military force for the dying Manchu Qing Dynasty.
Although He Lin was the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, the Manchu Qing Dynasty's power restriction system for frontier officials was quite mature. The governor had neither independent financial power nor civil rights, nor military power.
Among the 70,000 troops, the only ones directly under his command were Du Biao, Kunming City Guards Camp, Qu Xun Xie and Xun Zhan Camp, a total of only more than 5,000 people.
Without the emperor's order, the governor and admiral could ignore him. By the way, Ma Baishan led people to the front line this time. In addition to informing He Lin, he also needed to win over local officials and the general soldiers of each town.
After listening to Zhao Xin's analysis, Deng Fei frowned and said: "If this is the case, the battle plan of Guangdong and Guangxi will not only have to be advanced, but will also have to be significantly changed. Do you plan to put Lao Wang or Xiao Ding in charge?" Zhao Xin pondered for a long time and said: "Bacheng is too important. Someone must guard it and keep an eye on Manila. Lucchi starts a war with the Spaniards in Kinmen, and Manila will take action sooner or later. India... still has to maintain heavy troops. The British We all know that virtue. As long as the treaty is not signed, there are still variables. And the Danish territory has not been taken over yet! Alas~~ I originally promised Luo Fangbai and the others that they could return home this year, but now it seems that it will be postponed. Let He Xiwen go. The people in Lanhe camp should be almost trained, and then some of them will be transferred from Zheng Wenxian's fleet." At this time, one of the several staff officers following the two people suddenly said: "Chief, there is something that hasn't been done yet. I have time to report to you that the Kaiyuan County Magistrate who surrendered had served as an official in Guangxi before."
"Oh? What's that person's name?"
"Liu Daguan."
