Winter is coming, the northern line is quiet, but Liaoyang is lively. As a military town, this city has a permanent population of 5,000, and about 1,200 relegated guards, plus soldiers.
There are a total of 20,000 officers and soldiers of the Central Five Guards and Dongning Guards on the left, right, and six guards, plus the arresting houses and guards under the Zizai Prefecture and the Capital Commandery Division.
In addition, there are more than 1,000 Yuanmajun and Tuntian troops under the Taipu Temple Branch and the Tuntian Division in Liaodong Town. There are more than 600 craftsmen under the Taichang Temple Branch.
Liaodong is located on the border and is dominated by military towns. The first person in charge is the capital commander, followed by the Xuanfu envoy.
The Capital Command and Envoys Department is responsible for the military, while the Xuanfu Department of Liaoning is responsible for civil affairs and criminal affairs (this is different from the previous Ming Dynasty, which placed the civil affairs of Liaodong under the jurisdiction of the Shandong Chief Envoys Department). There are three divisions of Liaodong, Liaoxi and Liaonan in Liao. A branch (equivalent to the specifications of the government).
At this point, Li Dan felt that the Zhao family was much clearer than the old Zhu family, who thought they were smart. At least he didn't have to worry too much about overlapping agencies and redundant officials.
Although Liaoyang City has institutions such as Wei, Dusi, Prefecture, Fu, and Xuanfu, and there are thousands of officials and family members, everyone performs their own duties, and it is rare that there is no phenomenon of differentiation between civil and military officials like other places.
Mr. Shen said that everyone knew there were wolves in the surrounding woods, so who would have the thought to fight among themselves? Li Dan felt very vivid after hearing this. The wolves he mentioned should refer to the surrounding tribes, right?
Mr. Du, the Xuanfu envoy, was from Jingzhao, Shaanxi, and claimed to be a descendant of Du Zimei (Du Fu). Li Dan smiled and did not expose him, but this man was very kind, but he was not in good health and often coughed.
Li Dan thought he had bronchitis and prescribed a prescription for him. Du Changling took the medicine for seven or eight days and it was effective, so he lost his politeness and became very enthusiastic towards Li Dan.
This time, tens of thousands of people were to be immigrated all at once. He was surprised because the court had not mentioned this topic for many years. Only when he saw the businessmen flocking to the place did he gradually understand that this was a real joke and not a joke.
"I dare to ask Zhongshu, there is a war now, why does the imperial court want to immigrate at this time? Aren't you afraid of something unexpected?" Du Changling asked privately.
Li Dan smiled: "This is your Majesty's brilliance, showing your confidence in Liao affairs." He pointed to the three settlements marked on the map:
"Du Xuanfu, please see, these three forts are very close to Liaoyang. The purpose is to add three acropolis to Liaoyang and enhance Liaoyang's peripheral defense. This is actually to create a new line of defense and make Liaoyang a strong It means fortress."
"Oh!" Du Changling nodded, but he was puzzled: "Why not build the castle more neatly? It is built like this with five corners and six corners, but what is the special purpose?"
"There are protruding horse faces on each corner, allowing defenders to respond to each other and cross fire, increasing the difficulty of siege. In addition, it is combined with the steep slope of the city corner under the city, the wide green brick city hall, etc.
It is very difficult to siege the city, and it is not even easy to build a ladder. This setting can double the difficulty of siege. For example, it might have cost 3,000 people to capture this castle, but now I'm afraid it will cost 6,000 or more! "
After Li Dan finished speaking, he took him to a section of wall that had been plastered with cement. The wall was next to the fort gate. The outer wall was tilted at more than sixty degrees and looked smooth and smooth. Du Changling patted the wall and exclaimed:
"I never thought that a city could be built so quickly and so beautifully. You can't even see the cracks in the bricks! It is said that businessmen are very profitable, but Zhongshu used his strength wisely.
It not only allows them to make money, but also achieves our goals, which is really eye-opening. "
"Actually, there's no secret. It's a matter of benefit to both the family and the country. You can make money and keep your reputation. Who wouldn't want that?
What's more, he also helped the government. In the future, there will be many things to build cities, temples, and houses in various places. Those who can catch the eyes of adults first will definitely have business in the future. Businessmen are thinking about how to make money for their children and grandchildren, so we give them such an opportunity.
Everyone gets what they need. Li Dan pointed at the wall: "Take this city construction as an example. We use the bamboo reinforcement method in the south because there are many bamboos in the south."
But it couldn't be done in the north, so the businessmen took the initiative to go to the construction site and experimented with them over and over again on the mixing ratio between soil and cement, shell slag, and wool, and worked with the craftsmen to improve the combination of wood reinforcement mixed mud pouring and rammed earth layer. Fortification method.
In the past, it was simply impossible for them to leave the comfort of their homes and run to the construction site to be with the workers' heads!
While improving, they also figured out the animal-powered sand mixer and a hand-operated tamping machine. The latter had four wheels and could be pushed forward and backward to complete tamping on the city.
With only four people dragging and two people shaking the wheel, eighteen people in three shifts can complete the earth-ramming work that hundreds of people did before. This is the effect brought by money and machines. It is not only fast and labor-saving, but also has better and faster results! "
He was talking about the tamping machine that Chen Sanwen invented after listening to the suggestions of workers and inspired by the trebuchet.
"I have written to the Shuntian Prefecture Iron Factory and asked them which company can convert this wooden mixer into an iron one. If it is successfully promoted in Liaoning, the construction speed will be greatly accelerated! I am afraid that half of a large residential area like this It will be completed in a month."
Du Changling was stunned: "So fast?"
"Yes!" Li Dan nodded: "Not only do we have to compete with the Egu people for victory, but we also have to compete with them for time!"
It was still late summer when he said this, but the situation has changed a lot in the past few months.
Five thousand new immigrants recruited from Hebei and Shandong have arrived. As agreed, each person received 40 acres of land (30 acres of grain fields, 5 acres of woodland, 5 acres of orchards or vegetable fields) and a 50-foot-square homestead. .
"First come, first served, first come, first served" is the principle for recruiting citizens promulgated by Li Dan. Not only will the initial 10,000 people be given the most adequate and best conditions, but they will also allow for the first selection of plots with good feng shui and good terrain.
The selected homestead land will be allowed to be put on the market for circulation (not trading, circulation means leasing, transfer of use rights or mortgage) after ten years.
The first batch of Shandong registered immigrants were recruited from the relatively densely populated Qingyan Prefecture according to the decision of the Ministry of Household Affairs. It also stipulated that new immigrants who assisted the imperial court to immigrate three households as sponsors within three years of arrival were rewarded with donkeys or three sheep and incurred five Household immigrants will be rewarded with one cow or seven sheep.
The local government didn't know where the cattle and sheep were, but Li Dan was full of confidence.
He sent Sun Qi (the third son of Sun Zongbing), who could speak the Egu language, and his attendant Gao Fei to find those frightened Seyan people on the grassland, and reached an agreement with them. They used iron arrow clusters and leather armor to steal from the leaders. In exchange for a large number of livestock, they were raised in Mold Mountain in the south.
Of course, that also serves the purpose of covering up people’s eyes.
Mold frame mountain was also called Anshan in the previous life! Li Dan had sent Sun Shu to lead the students from the School of Geology and Mineral Resources around the Dagushan Mountains in the upper reaches of Shahe River to the east of Diejia Mountain for half a month, and finally discovered iron ore in Dagushan Mountain, Dong'an Mountain, and Qida Mountain. In the coal mine discovered in Fushun, a new steelmaking plant plan is taking shape in the hands of Chen Sanwen and others.
When Liaodong has its own steel industry base, then there will be no need to transport it thousands of miles! Li Dan secretly wrote a secret note to the emperor. He wanted to change this status quo, which was extremely consuming manpower and material resources.
On the surface, the Mainland controls border towns through resources, but in reality, the border towns have become Mainland blood-drawing machines, doing things that are not worth the gain. One of the purposes of attracting immigrants is to prepare a large number of workers for these future industrial bases.
To solidify the border town, and even feed back to the mainland as Li Dan said in the future, this is something that Du Changling and other civil servants are very happy to see, because only then will they be able to take over and become the real managers of this land.
Under Li Dan's promotion, two defense lines were formed from Jinzhou to Shanhaiguan and from Liaoyang to Gaizhou.
After General Sun visited the Zhenfu Biao Barracks, the veteran general was greatly shocked and agreed to Li Dan's suggestion: full personnel, training and three meals.
Ten thousand pieces of individual weapons, 3,000 pieces of manzi armor (half-body plate armor), 8,000 new-style steel helmets with rims, 1,600 steel arm crossbows, and temporary Twenty thousand sets of new combat uniforms and carrying equipment produced by merchants in the Qing Dynasty were continuously replenished to Liao Town from the beginning of autumn to the year before.
If you look down from the air, you can see that the land of Shandong, Hebei, Shuntian, and Liaodong is full of road renovations, and large convoys of four-horse trucks often number dozens or hundreds of vehicles rumbling forward. They are not transporting these equipment. It is food, grass or personnel.
The Eastern Front was not going well, but the Western Front was filled with good news. summer general deng
The army finally surrounded the Kerge team led by Zhenlang, and annihilated them at Chahan Lake with the assistance of Ula and Huifa soldiers.
In the autumn, Seyan, who was trembling with fear, finally agreed to marry the Khan's niece Ekelun to King Ding as his concubine. Immediately after, Ula and Huifa formed an alliance. The two coalition forces of 70,000 people plus the official army's 8,000 cavalry went northward. The fire destroyed Seingol, the transit point established by the Kerrs.
This news strengthened the confidence of the people and merchants. The second tranche of war bonds, 4.8 million taels, was quickly subscribed.
Moreover, for the first time, Jiangnan businessmen organized a group to subscribe for one million taels. What they were interested in was the imperial court's announcement that the Hanhai Protectorate would open up livestock trading. There would be no restrictions on trading in Monan except for weapons, armor, and gunpowder, and they would be allowed to set up shops, factories, and mines. , especially the land contract rights of several Great Salt Lakes.
With enough money, Li Dan can certainly do things easily. With the emperor's consent, he decided to use 1.2 million taels as reserves to open the "Royal Liaodong Development Bank".
A new version of banknotes is issued with gold and silver as anchors. The president is Wen He (zishan), a new Jinshi last year and now promoted by the Department of Treasures and Banknotes of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Banknotes unified the units of old banknotes, such as liang, Guan, and silk, and used yuan as the unit. One yuan is equivalent to one silver coin.
Issue fifty-yuan, ten-yuan, and one-yuan banknotes printed on copper plates, as well as copper-nickel alloy coins of five cents and one dime, and aluminum-nickel alloy coins of five cents and one cent. Zhang Wenhe (also named Jinfu), who did not win the election, was appointed as the first director of the mint.
However, just ten days ago, when the first sample coin from the mint was handed to him, Shi Hao failed and a message came asking him to discuss military affairs quickly.
Li Dan had no choice but to put down everything at hand and left Yao Huang to guard the shogunate. He and Wu Mao rushed to Shi Hao's camp with the Shang Fang sword given by the emperor.
Li Dan, who was taken away from the busy construction, was full of anger and resentment and rarely spoke along the way. But when he arrived at the camp and saw Shi Hao's condition, he was shocked! Shi Hao fell ill.
Shi Hao, who was acclimatized and anxious, suffered from cold and fever. The handsome man who used to be quite tall was now shivering in his furs, his lips were blue and his face was as white as paper. Li Dan's first thought was: "It's broken!"
The morale of the entire army was low, and as a result, the coach fell ill. What should I do? Li Dan touched Shi Hao's hot forehead and frowned.
He asked Mao Zaidi to immediately call Gu Shuangcheng who was accompanying him for treatment. He winked at Wu Mao and turned around, saying in a low voice: "I didn't expect this. We have stepped into the mud. Now we are in big trouble." !」
Just beheading a bunch of generals or giving every senior officer a beating with a military stick would be easy for Li Dan to do with Shi Hao standing behind to establish his authority. That's what the supervisor of the army does! But it's different now.
Shi Hao fell ill, the soldiers complained, the senior officers were uneasy, and tens of thousands of people were leaderless... What to do in Liaodong? What's more, there is a large group of hungry wolves scratching at the door, intending to come in and bite.
Li Dan felt a small insect crawling from top to bottom on his back spine, feeling coldly. In order to stabilize his mood, he took a deep breath of the cool air on Wulong Ridge.
"Mr. Wu, we have to be careful. These tens of thousands of people are tens of thousands of firewood, and they can be used at a moment's notice!" Whether it's a mutiny, a pay riot or civil strife, no outcome can be tolerated by Li Dan!
