Chapter 60 Manpower Gap
After leaving Chang'an Fort, it is only a few dozen miles away from Shenyang.
During the past few decades, He Xi saw scenes he rarely saw in Liaodong. Large tracts of farmland have been reclaimed. Relatively dense residential areas. Of course, this kind of relatively dense residential area depends on who you compare it with.
It's incomparable to the density of Jiangnan where boats can't squeeze in and people can't move forward. There's even a lot of barren land between villages. There are even some grazing cattle and sheep. It was the large tracts of open space here that reminded He Xi.
Liaodong was also an important horse breeding area in the Ming Dynasty.
But the situation was much better than when He Xi came from near Liaoze.
Near Liaoze, except for the post station, military fort, and some land that was barely reclaimed outside the post station and military fort, it was all deserted.
He Xi rode on the horse, holding the reins, and said, "Are all the people here migrating from the mainland?"
Ye Wang rode a horse to accompany He Xi and said: "No, although some people have migrated from the mainland in recent years, most of the people here have lived here for generations. There are Khitans, Jurchens, Koreans, etc. Etc. Most of them are Han Chinese.”
"The imperial court once wanted to set up prefectures and counties in Liaodong. But later it was decided that it was better to set up guard posts. Therefore, all these people were incorporated into the guard posts."
He Xi nodded.
This can be regarded as a special environment in Liaodong. Today's Liaodong is a multi-ethnic situation, and there are even some health centers where the vast majority of people are Koreans. And even after the Ming Dynasty, Liaodong was still a very special place, even though it was all a military base. But mount your horse to manage the army, and dismount your horse to manage the people.
He Xi asked again: "How is the situation in the north?"
The so-called north is naturally the Liaoyang Province of the residual Yuan Dynasty.
Ye Wang said: "The lost dog has lived up to his original expectations. I remember when General Mo just came to Liaodong, Naha sent out a large army to attack Niuzhuang. His subordinates gave him three houses and built a wall with soldiers. The city was built overnight, making it impossible for him to attack. Then he ambushed the troops and returned and defeated them. From the fifth year of Hongwu to the year before last, there would be a big battle every autumn and winter, but it was just a big or small battle. However, after the imperial court's victory last year, the north became peaceful. And -----" Ye Wang said lowly He said in a loud voice: "As far as I know, the Jinyi Guards are constantly coming and going to the north. Naha probably wants to surrender."
When He Xi asked about the situation in the north, it was actually a routine inquiry.
After all, Liaodong is a border area, no matter what He Xi wants. For the people of Liaodong, the biggest problem is the military situation in the north. But he never expected that he would actually find out the news, and Naha, the prime minister of Liaoyang Province in the residual Yuan Dynasty, wanted to surrender.
This is heavyweight news. News that affects the balance of power between the enemy and ourselves. News that even affected the decision-making and progress of the Ming Dynasty.
He Xi asked: "Do you think Naha will surrender?"
Ye Wang said: "No, he is in the north. He has not obeyed Emperor Yuan's orders for a long time. He is already a prince. How can he surrender so easily? He just wants to delay the attack."
Ye Wang's words were actually mostly hints at his own strength.
However, Ye Wang was not wrong.
It was very difficult for Ming Dynasty to manage Liaodong. Originally, it was to appease the local tycoons in Liaodong. Later, the local tycoons in Liaodong rebelled and rebelled, so the two generals Ma and Ye entered Liaodong. But after they entered Liaodong, the land route to Ming Dynasty was not so smooth. Just like the Niuzhuang that Ye Wang said. Where is Niuzhuang? It is where the water and land station is located, and it is the connection point between the Liaoxi Corridor and the Liaoshen area. That is to say, in the early years of Hongwu, Liaodong was isolated, and neither land nor sea routes were very smooth.
The two generals, Ma and Ye, managed Liaodong step by step and built cities one after another while fighting the Tatars.
Another hint from Ye Wang is that the Ming Dynasty court is eyeing Naha Chu as the next strategic target. In fact, his men have been defeated, and more than once. In fact, on the one hand, he showed his strength, and on the other hand, he wanted to reserve a place in the future Northern Expedition through He Xi.
He Xi is also very interested in this.
After all, although He Xi was hesitant to accept Ye Wang. But it was certain that He Xi would be tempted. How is Ye Wang's combat power? He Xi is difficult to distinguish from the files. It's interesting to hear Ye Wang's fierce battles in Liaodong at this moment.
As the two parties talked, they arrived outside Shenyang City.
When He Xi looked at it from a distance, Shenyang City gave people a familiar yet unfamiliar feeling.
The familiar ones are specifications, cross streets, and square cities. This is the organizational structure of a guard station. It is almost the same in the whole world, and the guard stations and cities in all directions are like this. The strange thing is that this city is much larger than the ordinary guard city. After all, it is the residence of the Liaodong Dusi of the Ming Dynasty. Generally speaking, this city will not only have one guardhouse, but as many as five and as few as three. Generally speaking, it is Shenyang's left and right central defenders, or plus the front and rear.
This city was the strategic fulcrum of Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty.
But He Xi was very disappointed in her heart.
Because the population is too small.
He Xi estimates that there are not even 300,000 soldiers and civilians in Liaodong. Shenyang is the central city in Northeast China. He Xi visually estimated that the population does not exceed 100,000. From this perspective, it is not even comparable to ordinary small counties in the south of the Yangtze River. In this situation, it is even more impossible to undertake the idea of strategizing the Northeast, or even developing the two thousand miles of Liaoze that He Xi wants.
What He Xi didn't know was that before the Ming Dynasty entered the northeastern region, the Red Scarf Army and the Yuan Army fought for several years. The population of Liaodong has long been wiped out. Some people estimate that the population of Liaodong at that time would not exceed 100,000. The so-called local tycoons in Liaodong are all located in cottages. Rather than a city, this shows their size.
Now there are three hundred thousand people. During Zhu Yuanzhang's great migration to the north, he also sent many immigrants to Liaodong. Furthermore, Liaodong was a place of exile for criminals, such as Tielingwei, almost all of whom were resettled from the Central Plains.
This is the current situation.
This is why Ming Dynasty has always transported grain to Liaodong.
Logically speaking, Liaodong should be able to be self-sufficient. After all, Liaodong is vast and sparsely populated. A lot of land can also be farmed. It is because of the continuous immigration behavior and the almost non-stop wars since Hongwu four years ago.
A lot of food and grass were consumed.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." He Xi thought to himself, "You have to see clearly whether you will succeed or not."
As soon as He Xi arrived in Shenyang, he dug into Shenyang's official documents and files, hoping to find clues about Liaodong and what could be used.
First of all, we need to look at the current situation of Liaodong mines, especially coal and iron.
After all, He Xi has known that Northeast China is a good place to develop heavy industry since she was a child. I looked up a map of China on my mobile phone and compared the iron ore producing areas there with the maps of this era. He Xi immediately discovered that many coal and iron producing areas in the Northeast were under the jurisdiction of the current Liaodong Capital Division.
He Xi even discovered that much of the iron used by Liaodong Dusi to build weapons was sourced locally. However, what people use daily is not coal, but firewood.
There is no other reason, because Northeast China is different from other places in China.
In other parts of China, all the trees have been cut down during thousands of years of farming civilization. Taihang Mountain was already a bare mountain in the Song Dynasty. There was no wood left to burn. It was also during the Song Dynasty that coal began to be used on a large scale in the north.
And here, the vegetation is lush and lush. Most mountains have big trees, and some even require several people to hug them. Therefore, most people chop wood instead of using coal.
In this way, the situation is not bad. If the minerals are all in the Heilongjiang region of Jilin, it will be the future Nurgandusi. That's even more difficult. Even militarily and manpower-wise, there is no possibility of mining. It's just that things have returned to their source.
People, lack of people.
He didn't ask for tens of millions of people in Liaodong. If he wanted to handle all this, he would need at least several million people. Now there are hundreds of thousands of people. Almost all the people are soldiers, which can only maintain the territory of the Ming Dynasty in the northeast. Nothing else can be done.
Military needs and national defense needs have already exhausted the population. In feudal society, whether it is a micro society, villages compete for land and water. It is still a macro-society and a war between countries. In the final analysis, there is strength in numbers.
Without a sufficient population base, there is nothing.
But, where did this person come from?
