Chapter 92 King Yan urges the westward march
Timur's withdrawal did not mean that all was lost.
King Yan returned to the army, and the soldiers who followed King Yan to venture out suffered heavy casualties. A lot of generals have been damaged. After all, risking burning Timur's grain and grass. The biggest problem is actually not the attack, but the retreat. It was to withdraw from the encirclement of Timur's army.
Even though King Yan used his troops like a god, he could not help but suffer some damage.
After some soldiers were injured, they continued to fight and their bodies could not support themselves. In addition to the lack of medical treatment and medicine, they cannot continue to maneuver with the army. Some people commit suicide, and some people let others give them a happy life.
Needless to say, it is difficult.
After returning to Tingzhou, they found dead bodies under the city. There are nearly 100,000 corpses, among which there have been many ceasefires to collect corpses. After all, too many corpses will hinder the siege of the city. Collection of corpses on the battlefield is also a war etiquette that both sides must abide by. Unless one side is so crazy that there is no bottom line at all, otherwise They will all abide by it.
But what does the nearly 100,000 corpses mean to Northern Xinjiang?
It should be noted that the population of the Ming Dynasty was only over 100 million, and one hundred thousand men were an unbearable burden for a certain county or prefecture. The total population of the Western Region is only a few million. Almost all able-bodied men must be drafted into battle. The death of nearly 100,000 people can be said to have dealt a devastating blow to the population structure of northern Xinjiang.
This kind of blow, if we don't introduce foreign population and rely solely on natural recovery, I am afraid that two or three generations will not be able to recover.
The vitality of the entire northern Xinjiang was severely damaged.
Even if these remaining Mongols turned their allegiance to King Yan. But for King Yan, it is not very useful.
It's a mess.
This gave King Yan a headache.
However, facing this mess, King Yan's biggest idea was to first write to Beijing to report victory, and then urge Beijing to move westward again.
The reason is very simple. Of all the problems faced by King Yan, the biggest one is logistics. If we can open up the connection with Beijing, even if we cannot get some benefits from Beijing, we only need to open up the business channels in Beijing. It was enough for King Yan to gain some benefits.
After all, the Western Region is connected with the West.
Although the hostile situation between King Yan and Timur will not change for a long time. This will have a certain impact on trade routes, but it does not mean that trade routes will be cut off.
The Mongols have never cut off trade routes during wars. Even if the two sides are now hostile and the risks for merchants have greatly increased, they can still be connected no matter how much they increase. If nothing else, let’s just talk about some generals under Timur. Engaging in smuggling?
In fact, King Yan also engaged in some smuggling with the Song family in the northwest to exclusively sell goods from the Western Regions to the Central Plains. But the effect is not good.
On the one hand, there is the hostile relationship between King Yan and the Nanjing court.
There is a relationship, but not much.
After all, King Yan also had connections in Nanjing. For many people, all wars are just wars, and many years of friendship are just friendships. Smuggling is actually not that strictly controlled.
The problem is that the purchasing power of the Beijing market far exceeds that of the Nanjing market.
The Industrial Revolution was an explosion of wealth.
Due to long-distance transportation, all the items sold exclusively from the Western Regions are rare treasures. It’s not that the Western Region, Central Asia and even Europe only have rare treasures. But the traffic environment of the Silk Road. Not a rare treasure. Without excess profits, it is simply not cost-effective to ship to the East.
When it comes to rare treasures, it's not that the dignitaries in Nanjing don't have money, but that there are a group of nouveau riche in Beijing. These people suddenly have money. I don't know where to spend it, but He Xi has done experiments himself. He maintains the He family at about ten thousand taels a year, which is already very luxurious.
In this era, an annual income of 10,000 yuan is enough for them to do whatever they want. However, many companies worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars have been born in Beijing. After many people become rich, they don’t know what to do?
They are the largest consumer market for these rare treasures.
In addition, Nanjing City will definitely not be able to supply what King Yan needs. What does King Yan need? It's weapons, food, cloth, farm tools. Waiting for supplies. Can these things be obtained from Nanjing?
cannot.
Even King Yan judged that relying solely on Yan's poor hematopoietic ability, he would be in trouble with Timur in the Western Regions in the future. Even if he defeated Timur, it was unlikely that he would advance westward. Without him, logistics would not be able to keep up, just like now.
If King Yan mobilizes the whole country and summons all the strong men of Mongolia, he will have hundreds of thousands of troops or even more cavalry gathered here. But in terms of logistics, King Yan simply couldn't bear it. In the end, King Yan had no choice but to do this.
Use a small number of troops to fight Timur, while most of the troops stare at the rear.
It is not the King of Yan himself who decides whether King Yan can defeat Timur or how far west he can advance. But in Beijing, to be precise, it is the railway from Beijing to the Western Regions.
Therefore, King Yan once again wrote to urge Beijing to build the railway as soon as possible and launch a northwest offensive.
We even hope that Beijing will plan a railway from Beijing to Hami.
If this railway is repaired. This is the biggest benefit to King Yan.
Of course, there are some threats.
After all, central authority would also extend along the railway lines. But that depends on who is in power. At least King Yan is confident that Beijing will not dare to do anything to him.
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It was already the end of the second year of Longwu when the news of King Yan's victory reached He Xi.
Since the Denglai attack, the war between Beijing and Nanjing has reached a stalemate.
Fu Youde saved the situation in Shandong as soon as he took action. Don't talk about it, it's useless. Even if Ha Ci doesn't have his father, Naha Chu is no match for Fu Youde. But Ha Cibuhua knew exactly what he wanted. He decisively acted like a turtle. The army was huddled in several ports.
With the support of the navy and several ports, it is a well-run water city. Fu Youde couldn't capture it either.
But no matter what, the area controlled by the Northern Army has almost reached southern Zhili along the Shandong coastline.
After all, the emergence of Fu Youde, coupled with the reconstruction of the navy by the Southern Army, ruined Haci's strategic plan to advance into Southern Zhili without spending any money.
After this battle, both sides became calm.
After all, the current situation is obvious. If Shandong did not fight a battle of Jinan and capture Jinan, Shandong and the mountainous areas in central Shandong, it would be impossible for the army to go south. But even if we win Jinan. And Xuzhou. ..
The most worrying thing in Xuzhou has never been Xuzhou City, but the Yellow River.
As mentioned earlier, the Yellow River in the Yuan Dynasty entered the sea in multiple streams. This is the legacy left by Song and Jin Dynasties. Although the Yellow River was repaired after the Ming Dynasty, the water control project in the middle and late Ming Dynasty only classified the Yellow River into one river.
Therefore, the Yellow River in Xuzhou is the most dangerous place. The city of Xuzhou was flooded several times.
This is the most worrying part.
At this time, Beijing's manpower and material resources were focused on the westward expansion strategy, and the railways were being extended every day. He Xi did not have the energy to fight a battle in Jinan, because if it were fought, this battle would be a bigger battle than the Battle of Hejian.
He Xi doesn't have this determination yet.
Because the decisive battle itself represents not only the issues on the front line, but also the issues on the rear.
However, many people are already a little anxious.
He urged He Xi to fight repeatedly. Without him, they saw Ding Xian's achievements.
What will Ding Xian do during this time?
It is to issue new Nanjing coins and use the new Nanjing banknotes to pay the soldiers below. It seems that Nanjing suddenly discovered an inexhaustible cornucopia of resources.
Thanks to the joint efforts of all parties, Nanjing's finances have been improving. With financial incentives, a lot of things started running immediately.
First of all, it is Xuzhou Iron Works. The Xuzhou Iron Works was established with a team that was almost copied from the Taiping Iron Works, using corvees from several counties. The Xuzhou Iron Works has already started producing. It can even supply some of the muskets and artillery on the front line.
The Xuzhou Iron Works represents that after a year of adjustments, Ding Xian's policy of following Beijing step by step has achieved certain results.
At least Nanjing's firearms production has begun to climb. Although in terms of quality and cost, there is still a big gap between Nanjing firearms and Beijing firearms. But Nanjing has begun to expand production in terms of quantity.
Even Nanjing's overall plan to prepare a million-strong army has been put on the agenda. However, whether it can be achieved is still a long-term plan, but it is very possible to organize an army of 300,000 people.
It may even be completed this year or next.
Therefore. Many people below want He Xi to launch a decisive battle in advance and win Nanjing when Nanjing is not ready.
