(Congratulations to reader Little Soldier for a happy wedding!) ）

Seven years of prosperity!

This year, from March, the whole country spent day by day in the restlessness of war.

In the past two months, there have been daily reports from the front, and the overall situation of the war has been smooth, although after leaving the Guanzhong Plain, the Ming army in the mountains west of Xi'an has been stubbornly blocked by the Qing army, but that kind of obstruction cannot stop the overall situation.

This year was really an unforgettable year for the Ming Dynasty, and the ultimate goal of the Western Expedition was to defeat the Manchus and make them disappear from this world. Although the war was still going on, although the Manchus were still resisting, in the newspapers, there had been a discussion about how to deal with the Manchus for two months, and in the past two months, it was like a debate competition in the Qinghe Academy, where the pros and cons were debating, some of them advocated a tooth for a tooth, some of them advocated revenge with virtue, and although the war was not over, the newspapers were still as chaotic as ever, and the discussion about how to deal with the Manchus was being debated in the newspapers, churning in people's hearts.

Everyone has their point of view, and each one cannot convince each other, in short...... There are too many controversies.

When the outside world was arguing, in the imperial garden of the palace, in the pavilion near the lake, Zhu Mingzhong, who was wearing a Taoist robe, was playing chess there, holding black in his hand, staring at the chessboard, his brows furrowed from time to time. In the 17th century, entertainment was limited, although in the past few years, through exchanges with the West, playing cards originating from "leaf play" were introduced to the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Mingzhong also "created" ghost cards and introduced the gameplay of later generations, but in the end, he was still obsessed with Go. As long as he has free time, he will play against concubines or ministers.

However, most of the time, when playing against each other, they often talk about government affairs with the minister.

“…… Yan Yan came into contact with more than a dozen farming experts known as "Tian Xiucai" in Xuzhou and other places this time, but most of them were reluctant to pass on their farming skills, Gu Aiqing knows, why is this? ”

Although he was playing chess, he still couldn't get rid of government affairs, and the Ministry of Industry gave Yan Yan a piece of paper in the matter, which made Zhu Mingzhong's originally seemingly beautiful plan encounter some problems.

"Your Majesty, to collect agricultural technology from the people of the whole world, to encourage them to innovate agricultural technology, the most important thing is how to collect, how to encourage, just according to the practice of the local government to give a few taels of silver is certainly not enough, after all, all the people who have outstanding agricultural technology, their family business is not a rich family, but also a well-off family, they naturally do not care about those few taels of silver. In the minister's opinion, the reason why they are reluctant to contribute skills is probably because of the small reward, and there are a few taels, or even a dozen taels or dozens of taels of silver, which is nothing to them, so the minister thinks that if you want to collect agricultural skills, you might as well start with two points. ”

After Gu Yanwu fell, Zhu Mingzhong motioned for him to continue.

"One is to increase the bonus of collecting agricultural technology, which can be doubled on the basis of 5 taels, 10 taels, and 15 taels, of course, the reward is only secondary, the most important thing is reputation, compared to money, those people care most about the reputation, in the opinion of the minister, you might as well give them a reputation, such as "Dr. Tian" and other titles, anyway, that kind of title is not valuable, but just a piece of paper. ”

When mentioning that reputation is not valuable, Gu Yanwu thought that when His Majesty built the royal library to collect books from the world, he had rewarded the people for donating books in response to the shortage of books, and in addition to printing the name of the donor on the reprinted booklet, he would also give a reward, of course, the reward was only for reputation. But even so, it has made folk book collectors donate books one after another.

"But all people always love reputation, and a family with a good reputation can benefit several generations, well......"

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Mingzhong nodded in agreement.

However, this "Dr. Tian" is a bit excessive, there are generally professors in the academy, only a few professors are called doctors, the cabinet looks at the proposed method, formulate a reward method, as long as they are willing to contribute agricultural technology, I will not spare a piece of paper, and, if adopted, you can mention the names of the people who contributed to the technology in the book. ”

Don't skimp on paper...... Honors are the cheapest, but they are also the most popular rewards, especially in this day and age, when many people care more about honors than money, especially for those who are not bad for money.

Later, Zhu Mingzhong had a deep talk with Gu Yanwu on how to encourage the people to contribute agricultural technology, and seeing that His Majesty seemed to be in a good mood, Gu Yanwu took the opportunity to mention another matter.

"Your Majesty, now in the government and the opposition, in the voice of how to deal with the remnants of slaves, one advocates cutting the grass and eradicating the roots, and the other advocates repaying grievances with virtue, and not only the people have a debate about this, even the officials are involved, the governor of the Northeast Fang Yizhi, sent a telegram to the cabinet yesterday, reiterating the attitude of eliminating evil and cutting the grass and roots, but he said that Ding Zhuang must be killed, but the female dependents can be let go, after all, those female dependents are probably slaves and slaves who were plundered in Shaanxi, and they can not be sold to the official and sold in the local area as slaves and maids......"

Looking at His Majesty who was undecided, Gu Yanwu said softly.

"It seems that Fang Yizhi is used to plundering slaves in the northeast."

Drop the chess pieces on the chessboard, Zhu Mingzhong said.

"That can't be said, when did the Northeast plunder slaves? But I just bought some slaves and maids from the Mongols, and as for the Koreans, they are willing to sell themselves to me, which is a consensual thing. ”

There was a little unhappiness in this rhetorical question, first defended the Northeast, and then Zhu Mingzhong said.

"My Han people have been civilized for too long, they have forgotten barbarism, they have forgotten what means should be used to treat others, but they are extremely harsh on their own people and compatriots, I still say that sentence, the Ming Dynasty prohibits the storage of slaves, what is forbidden is the slaves of their own clan, there are those who dare to take their compatriots as slaves, the master of the house and the slaves, the tooth people kill, and the three tribes!"

Feeling His Majesty's unhappiness, Gu Yanwu realized that he had once again offended His Majesty's rebellion, and in the government and the opposition, everyone knew His Majesty's attitude towards slavery, and even as early as the first year of Xingqian, he ordered the gentry to release domestic slaves. And this also fundamentally quelled the "slave mutiny" that occurred one after another in Jiangnan as early as the Apocalypse.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the rich gentry and wealthy families have been prevalent in slavery, and some eunuchs and wealthy families have thousands of slaves. These slaves all had contracts of sale and served as servants for generations, but as early as the Wanli period, the struggle of Jiangnan slaves to dissolve their servant status intensified. In the last years of Chongzhen, the world was actually on the verge of anomie, which also constituted the reason for the Jiangnan slave rebellion. In Songjiang, the first person asked the master for a deed of sale, and immediately responded, and the master hesitated a little, and was beaten and executed. In Suzhou, the slave Yu Boxiang initiated the popular uprising, reached an agreement with the eunuchs in Suzhou, abolished the generations of slaves, and built a stone inscription to record his events. Slaves in Jiading, Jiangsu and other places are in Sochi (deeds of sale), and tens of thousands of people are sitting in Sochi, and the momentum is huge.

Thinking that when His Majesty traveled with his master in the rivers and lakes, he must have also experienced slavery, I am afraid that this is also the reason why His Majesty forbade the people to sell themselves as slaves, and even if the people were allowed to buy "Hu Nu" and "Barbarian Maid", they were only allowed to buy women, and it was forbidden to sell men, even if it was a yellow-mouthed child, it was strictly forbidden to pawn and sell.

Not only that, but even the children born to the slaves and maids, whether or not they are the descendants of their masters, can be freed. And this is also to fundamentally avoid the possibility of generations of slavery, and of course, to fundamentally eliminate the possibility of slavery.

Of course, for the wealthy families, there was a lot of increased expenses - they needed to constantly buy slaves or hired servants, and this was a good thing for the imperial court, the former increased the court's taxes, and the latter allowed the creation of jobs. Of course, this is His Majesty's saying, which can give the people who have lost their land and less land a subsistence job.

Listening to His Majesty's defense for Fang Yizhi, Gu Yanwu sighed in his heart, whether there was a "slave plunderer", he knew it in his heart, but His Majesty turned a blind eye, and as a courtier, he naturally couldn't mention it anymore.

"Your Majesty, how should the minister reply to the Northeast?"

Gu Yanwu asked tentatively.

"Hmmm......"

Zhu Mingzhong thought for a moment and then said.

"Let's stay in the middle!"

Now is not the time to deal with these questions, and since there is no need to deal with them, there is naturally no need to answer them.

When the words fell, he dropped again, and then said.

"Now, the slaves have not surrendered, and they may not surrender in the short term, they will withdraw to the Western Regions, and then wait for work in the Western Regions, if our army goes on an expedition, it will inevitably suffer. Therefore, the westward expedition seems to be smooth now, but after crossing the Guanzhong Plain, it will only become more and more difficult to go west, after all, the road conditions are ...... there."

Maybe the western expedition is just the beginning, but Zhu Mingzhong knows that in another time and space, the price of Zuo Zongtang's western expedition - tens of thousands of troops, spent 50 million taels of silver! Of these, only 5 per cent was spent on the purchase of arms, and the other 95 per cent was spent on food and wages.

And now, what the Ming Dynasty has to face is not Agubai in Xinjiang, but hundreds of thousands of Manchu elites, how long will the war last? How much army needs to be invested, these need to be considered, compared with whether the military supplies needed by the army of more than 100,000 or 200,000 can arrive on time, the huge military expenditure is secondary.

"Logistics, what is the most important thing about the Western Expedition? It's logistics! ”

Staring at the chessboard, Zhu Mingzhong said in a slow voice.

"Logistics is very critical, at present, from the news from the front, after the army left Xi'an to pursue to the west, the speed of the army's attack was not limited by the Qing army in the mountains with the help of the fortress to block the enemy, but the speed of logistics support, in Tongguan, we can put in 15-inch mortars, but after leaving Xi'an, the army can only use mortars and 18 pounds of mortars, their power is not enough to destroy the fortress."

The 18-kilogram mortar cannon was the most widely used mortar cannon in the Ming army. The caliber of this mortar is 4.5 inches, and the barrel is only 13 inches long, and its structure is extremely simple, that is, the barrel is fixed to a base made of thick wooden boards. The barrel is cast from bronze, and it weighs only more than 120 pounds without the base.

Originally, the mortar was inspired by this kind of light artillery, but now in the mountainous areas of the northwest, these two types of light artillery have become the main force of the Ming army, and at most a 36-kilogram mortar cannon is added.

"A 15-inch mortar is too heavy."

Gu Yanwu had witnessed the test firing of a 15-inch mortar gun, which was too big and too heavy.

"Actually, but you can't even transport a 10-inch mortar cannon!"

Zhu Mingzhong shook his head and sighed lightly.

The 10-inch mortar is a giant mortar modeled after the M1861 coastal mortar from the Civil War. With a record caliber of 330 mm (13 inches) and a body weight of 7.83 tons, it was the largest mortar in the world at the time. Due to the heavy weight of the guns, they were difficult to transport and deploy, and most of these mortars were deployed in fortified batteries.

This was the case in the 19th century, not to mention in the 17th century, as for the 15-inch mortar gun, it weighed twice as much, that is, in Tongguan, with the help of the railway, it was transported to the front line, but after passing Xi'an, let alone it, even the 10-inch mortar could not be transported by horses, and even heavy field guns such as 24-pounder field guns were difficult to transport on mountain roads.

It is precisely because of the intelligence from the front line that Zhu Mingzhong knows why in another time and space, when the Manchus attacked Dzungaria, they chose to enter Xinjiang from Mongolia instead of Shaanxi, leaving the Guanzhong Plain, and it was indeed not easy to cross the mountains and mountains to the west.

The logistics support of tens of thousands of troops is not bad, if there is an army of more than 100,000 or 200,000, for any commander, logistics support is a nightmare, after all, the mountains are high and the roads are dangerous, and it is not easy to drive!

"Unless the railway is repaired, not only there is no way to transport heavy artillery, but there are also problems with logistics support, the mountain roads in the Tianshui area are too narrow, there are problems with the passage of four-wheeled carriages, and even the passage of artillery carriages is restricted......

After saying this, Zhu Mingzhong looked at Gu Yanwu and asked rhetorically.

"In this case, isn't it too early to think about how to deal with the slaves, as for the other ......?"

"Da" put the chess pieces on the chessboard, Zhu Mingzhong sneered.

"I said that there will be no prisoners in this expedition to the west!"

After saying this, Zhu Mingzhong's expression became extremely serious, he just looked at the chessboard quietly, as if he had no intention of continuing this question, and His Majesty's answer made Gu Yanwu's heart tighten, he already knew the answer.

After that, Gu Yanwu didn't continue to talk about this topic, just sat there, playing chess with His Majesty, but his mind always drifted to the northwest intentionally or unintentionally......

.。 m.