Ming Dynasty's situation on the northern border quickly consolidated.
A pattern was formed in which Zhu Han led the Northern Pingdusi to guard the east, and Xu Da guarded the northwest.
All the Mongolian tribes on the Monan grassland surrendered to the military might of the Ming Dynasty, and Wang Baobao, the last pillar of the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasty, was powerless against the solid defense of the Ming army.
Only the leader of Mongolia in Mongolia is out of touch, and he still doesn't know the true combat effectiveness of the Ming army.
He also wanted to find an opportunity to test the strength of the Ming army.
However, it was precisely because of the large-scale attack by the Ming army on the Monan grassland that Wang Baobao did not dare to easily leave the Meng Yuan center on the banks of the Onan River.
Mongolia, led by Wala, had no way to sneak attack the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasty.
There was a peaceful silence on the grassland that surprised everyone.
The person who broke this peaceful situation was none other than the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, which had just formed an alliance with the Ming Dynasty.
In March, the fourth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.
The Khan of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, Turhei Timur, led an army of 20,000 to attack the Mongolian and Yuan forces in Turpan.
After capturing Turpan, he continued to attack the Tianshan area occupied by Oara to the north.
On the vast sea, the fleet led by Hu Dahai finally saw a piece of land when it was exhausted.
"There is land!"
"Look! There's land!"
Several crew members watching on the mast gave trembling cheers!
Many Ming crew members had already fallen asleep on the plywood due to hunger and thirst, and they were also very slow to respond to these cheers.
After Hu Dahai and the others had been drifting for more than a month, they encountered an island and took a rest there. They had lost their way and didn't know where they were going. In order to save energy, Hu Dahai decided to go with it despite all opinions. Continue eastward following the waves.
Because according to what Zhu Han told him before, the theory that heaven and earth are all spherical.
As long as you can keep moving forward, you will always return to the original starting point.
"Quick, get ready to go ashore!" Hu Dahai ordered excitedly.
These people have been wandering at sea for a long time, and their bodies have long reached their limits.
Now they saw a flat beach. Even if they walked on it, they would collapse on the ground halfway.
Seeing this situation, Hu Dahai shook his head helplessly and said: "Brothers, we must land quickly now. If we delay here for too long, I'm afraid we will be swept away by the retreating waves!"
After hearing Hu Dahai's words, many people stood up again.
After everyone got ashore, Hu Dahai and others found a piece of fresh water and drank frantically.
At this time, Hu Dahai and others began to observe this strange land.
Unlike the Central Plains or the Japanese islands, many of the wild grasses, birds and beasts on the ground are very unfamiliar.
"Is this a new continent?" Hu Dahai couldn't help but get excited.
Although Hu Dahai has also considered this issue, he has never really confirmed it. After all, this place is really far away from the Ming Dynasty.
"Boss, what should we do next?" asked a man in military uniform.
This man is called Wang Hu, an officer under Hu Dahai.
"Wang Hu, you take fifty people and be responsible for searching the surroundings. The rest of the people will follow me to find food. We haven't eaten for a long time." Hu Dahai said.
"Yes!"
This Wang Hu is obviously better at fighting. After hearing Hu Dahai's instructions, he immediately arranged for his men to carry out the task.
Hu Dahai led more than 300 people to search nearby and caught several big fish next to a creek.
"Damn, I'm starving to death, I can finally eat something hot!"
"Yeah, there's nothing here, not even farmland!"
...
As soon as these people caught the fish, they sat down by the stream and grilled the fish on the fire.
"Let's first figure out what this place is." Hu Dahai said.
"Well, what you said makes sense, sir. This place looks very evil. We must find out."
"yes!"
Hu Dahai nodded, then cut the grilled fish with a dagger and took a bite.
After some exploration, Hu Dahai and others found that although it was close to the sea, it was not a small island, but a very vast land.
Hu Dahai and others discovered that there were many birds and animals on this land, and the terrain in many places was flat. It should have been fertile land. Planting food would definitely yield a bumper harvest, but there were no traces of human habitation.
Clearly this is a very desolate land!
After two or three days of inspection, Hu Dahai and the others discovered a group of very strong cattle on the hill on the other side. There were hundreds of these bison herds, all of them were unusually tall, like walking meat. Like a mountain, grazing leisurely on the grass.
These bison have a bad temper and are not afraid of people at all. When they saw Hu Dahai and the others, they ran towards Hu Dahai and the others.
At first, Hu Dahai and the others were frightened by these bisons and fled, but when they figured out the habits of these bisons, they set up traps around them and captured dozens of fat bisons in one fell swoop. From then on, they Beef free was achieved.
Hu Dahai and the others used the beef to quickly replenish their physical strength.
Then some big trees were cut down on the land and the ships were repaired.
This is a vast, desolate and unfamiliar continent.
After Hu Dahai and others discussed, they decided to continue their exploration into the inland areas. After leaving more than a hundred people to guard the ship, the rest of them all went to explore in three different directions.
They used wolf smoke to communicate with each other, and there were several surviving horses on the ship, so that they would not have to rely only on their legs during the expedition.
Hu Dahai, Hu Guanzhu and Wang Hu each led three teams in different directions.
Hu Dahai led hundreds of his men to explore along the wilderness. The more they walked, the more surprised they became, because the place was full of fertile land and strong herds of bison.
"What a pity that there is no such a good piece of land?" After Hu Dahai and the others walked for two days, they saw only some bison herds.
There were other strange-looking beasts, but not a single person was seen.
Hu Dahai rode a horse from Liaodong and galloped forward along the vast grassland. There was still no sign of human habitation.
He and his men prepared to return to the place where the ship was anchored.
Although this continent has fertile land.
But it was deserted, not even a shadow of a ghost, and it would just be the same desolation if we walked further.
When Hu Dahai led his men back along the original road.
Suddenly, they saw a faint blue smoke rising over the wilderness in the distance.
Hu Dahai and others were immediately surprised.
At first, they thought it was Hu Guanzhu or Wang Hu's men.
But after getting closer, they saw a few savages wearing wild beast skins making a fire to barbecue the prey, not Hu Guanzhu and Wang Hu.
In this vast and desolate continent, there is actually such a group of savages.
Hu Dahai and the others immediately became alert.
After approaching quietly, Hu Dahai took out his sword and got ready to fight with a group of his men.
But when they saw clearly the weapons in the hands of those savages, their vigilance relaxed greatly.
Because those savages didn't have any decent weapons in their hands.
It's just a few thick wooden sticks with some sharp stones inlaid on them.
With such crude weapons, even the old farmers in the Central Plains may not be able to defeat them, let alone the elite soldiers and generals like Hu Dahai.
After all, when the peasants rioted, some of them still had a manure fork in their hands, which could stab their enemies to death.
This group of savages also discovered Hu Dahai and the others with their hunter's alertness.
There were about seven or eight savages. When they saw hundreds of people in Hu Dahai, they immediately turned pale with fright when they approached them, and began to scream wildly.
After seeing Hu Dahai and the others approaching them, these savages immediately raised the wooden sticks in their hands and made a gesture of wanting to fight Hu Dahai and the others. There was a savage behind them, sneaking back. , obviously wanting to report news to his own tribe.
How could Hu Dahai let this savage go back to report the news? He immediately jumped on his horse and galloped towards the escaping savage. In just one breath, the horse caught up with the galloping savage. Hu Dahai grabbed the handle with one hand. The savage was caught on the horse's back.
These savages seemed to have never seen horses. After seeing the galloping horses, they were all scared to death. Some even threw away the wooden sticks in their hands, knelt on the ground and prayed to the horses non-stop.
Facing the approaching Hu Dahai and others, these savages completely gave up resistance and crawled to the ground one by one.
It was as if I had met the gods in the sky, I was scared and pious at the same time.
Only then did Hu Dahai realize that the savage he had caught on horseback was a child, no more than ten years old. He was as thin and weak as a little monkey.
After Hu Dahai saw the face of this savage child clearly, he was even more surprised, because he found that the appearance of these savages was eighty-nine points similar to those of the Ming Dynasty. In other words, apart from the difference in clothing and appearance, superior. There's not much of a difference at all.
Hu Dahai was suddenly surprised. Could it be that he had arrived on an island in Haidong?
After all, these savages look very similar to those Jurchen tribes.
It's just that they are further behind than the Jurchens.
Beipingdusi.
Zhu Han was holding a military meeting with a group of generals such as Zhou Dexing, Guo Ying, Qi Xiang, and Luo Guanzhong. The main content was the progress of setting up fortresses on the Monan grassland.
Luo Guanzhong has unified the various Mongolian tribes on the Monan grassland. Almost every tribe needs to set up one or two new bastions. Each bastion is equipped with two hundred to three hundred people, and there are about ten gates. of small artillery.
This scale is simply not worth mentioning for the Ming Dynasty's finances. After all, the Ming Dynasty's taxation has been increasing steadily. The commercial taxes of several municipal shipping departments alone can support all the military expenditures of a Peking parallel capital. .
"Your Highness, although there is no financial problem with the construction of this bastion, the gap in personnel is still insufficient. A lot of reserve troops and military households have been supplemented from Huaixi and Henan, but there is still a serious shortage! Many military households I heard that these fortresses set up by the Peking Division do not allocate land, and they are not willing to come here, and it is almost difficult for anyone to come for subsequent recruitment!" Guo Ying said to Zhu Han.
As a brave and resourceful example among Huaixi generals, Guo Ying is now the deputy commander of the Peking Pingdu Division, mainly assisting Zhu Han in building new fortresses on the Monan grassland.
"I remember that there were many military households in Huaixi and Henan, and they had many children. Except for the eldest son, the rest could not inherit the status of military households. Why are they unwilling to come to Peking and parallel capitals? Is it because they have no land? "Zhu Han asked, not quite understanding.
In fact, Zhu Han still underestimated the people's passionate feelings for the land in this matter.
Those military households were able to fight desperately on the battlefield without the need for officers to use military laws to restrain them, because these military households had at least a hundred acres of land in their homes.
This one hundred acres of land can provide food and clothing for the whole family of this military household, and it can be passed on to future generations.
Once they surrender or are punished on the battlefield, they will most likely be fined or have their land confiscated.
The military households were very afraid of these punishments, so they had such high morale.
This shows the importance of land to the morale of military households.
Therefore, even though Zhu Han offered a high salary of thirty silver dollars per month to the garrison personnel needed to set up these new fortresses in the Peking Capital Division, he still did not recruit enough soldiers.
A generation of military households in Henan and Huaixi all wanted land.
He is not very interested in coming to the Monan grassland to serve as a soldier and receive military pay but cannot be allocated land.
In the entire Huaixi and Henan areas, only about 10,000 soldiers have been recruited. For the fortress tactics on the Monan grassland, there is still a gap of 10,000.
The shortage of so many personnel is a big problem for the consolidation of the Monan Grassland.
If the fortress tactics cannot be perfected on the Monan grassland, then the Mongolian ministries on the Monan grassland cannot be fully controlled, which will leave a security risk for Beiping.
The top priority now is to recruit enough soldiers to complete the layout of the fortress on the Monan grassland.
"Now that the imperial court is recuperating, many people are no longer willing to serve as soldiers and fight in wars. They may still have some interest in becoming military households, but they have little interest in serving as soldiers and garrisoning fortresses on the grasslands." Zhou Dexing also said next to him. .
Several people were at a loss as to how to supplement the shortage of soldiers in the Peiping Capital Division.
After all, no arable land can be created on the grassland, and it is impossible to divide pasture for soldiers.
However, this is not a problem for Zhu Han.
After thinking for a moment, Zhu Han said.
"Since the people in the Central Plains are not willing to come to the grasslands, it means that the living conditions of the people in the Central Plains are better and they are not willing to give up their peaceful days and come here to endure hardship. In that case, we will find some people from poor places and come to Monan Wouldn’t it be enough to be a soldier on the grassland?”
Zhu Han's words immediately inspired Zhou Dexing, Guo Ying and others.
They thought about it and thought it was a good idea, but where to recruit soldiers was indeed a question worth thinking about.
"Actually, you don't have to think too much about this problem. I have a good idea ready to go, which will ensure that we can recruit more and better soldiers," Zhu Han said when they were confused.
After hearing Zhu Han's words, Guo Ying, Zhou Dexing and others all looked at him inquiringly.
The place Zhu Han was talking about was the Liaodong area that had just been captured by the Ming Dynasty.
There are many Jurchen tribes in Liaodong. They live in the deep mountains and old forests of the White Mountains and Black Waters. The living conditions are very difficult. In addition, because of the war, the Jurchens have already developed the habit of enduring hardships and standing hard work. Let them go There would definitely be no problem if the city was stationed on the Monan grassland to defend against the Mongols.
