Zheng Kaicheng also arched his hand and said: "Grandpa Guo, the lower officials think that when the Tartars are torn apart now, it is an opportunity for us to eliminate harm for the people of the Ming Dynasty." Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Li Zhi looked at the eager generals in the hall, nodded, and said, "The Tartars have poisoned the Ming Dynasty for a long time, and they have killed countless Han people. Now that there is a chance to regain the Northeast, we cannot afford to be relentless. ”

After thinking about it, Li Zhi said: "The Tartars have more than 100,000 troops, and we can't recruit enough soldiers and horses. The commanders of the four divisions all led their officers to Shandong, and we recruited 20,000 new recruits in Shandong, and they were assigned to the four divisions to strengthen training and strive to become an army at an early date. ”

"At the same time, the equipment workshop recruits new craftsmen and works at full speed to produce new equipment for new recruits."

"Strive to gather enough troops and horses next spring to go north to conquer Dongnu and erase Dongnu from the map."

The generals in the palace received the order and went down to prepare for the recruitment of new soldiers.

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In the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youzhen, the Son of Heaven, grabbed Li Zhi's recital and was silent.

Wang Chengen secretly finished reading the recital on Zhu Youzhen's hand, and said: "Holy Lord, Li Zhi is really amazing. With the power of a town in Tianjin, we will conquer Dongnu! ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said: "Dongnu has poisoned my Ming Dynasty for decades, and hundreds of thousands of border troops have no way to take Dongnu, but Li Zhi boasted that Haikou wanted to level Dongnu alone, which is really surprising." After a pause, Zhu Youzhen said: "It seems that Li Zhi has gained a lot in Japan, otherwise he would not have the confidence to attack Dongnu alone." ”

Wang Chengen thought for a while and said, "Holy Lord, we have 70,000 Guanning soldiers and horses in western Liaoning. However, Li Zhi claimed to attack Dongnu alone by sea. What does that mean? ”

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while, and then said slowly: "This is the land that Li Zhi has taken a fancy to the Northeast, and wants to monopolize the entire Liaodong and Nuergan." ”

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had the Liaodong Metropolitan Division and the Nuer Gandu Division in the northeast, and the jurisdiction of the Liaodong Metropolitan Division was probably Liaoning Province in later generations. Nuer Gandu Division was set up in the Yongle period, the territory was more vast, and the territory has spread to the outer Xing'an Mountains, far exceeding the Chinese territory of later generations.

However, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Jianzhou Jurchens rose and took away the land of the Liaodong Dusi. Nuer Gandusi was even more distant, and was also ruled by the Jurchens, and the Ming lost its influence. The land of Manchuria, now known as Manchuria, was basically known as the Liaodong Dusi and the Nuer Gandu Si in the Ming Dynasty.

Li Zhi demanded to conquer the Manchus alone, not to coordinate with friendly forces, apparently preparing to monopolize the spoils of war. This first trophy is the land of the Northeast.

Zhu Youzhen thought about it, threw Li Zhi's recital on the table, and said: "If the Duke of Jinguo can pacify Dongnu, it will remove a big harm for my Ming Dynasty." If Dongnu is destroyed, the 70,000 border troops under Hong Chengchou can also go south to suppress the thieves, and I believe that the thieves and Li Dingguo will be easily exterminated. ”

Wang Chengen said: "Kejin Guogong said that his food and salary were insufficient, and he asked the imperial court to transfer 300,000 stone grain and grass and 900,000 taels of silver to him every year." ”

"When the lion opens his mouth, he should not pay attention to him." Zhu Youzhen tapped his fingers on the table and said lightly: "Give him my will, just say that he has the heart to please Ping Dongnu, and I am very happy." However, the imperial court had no money, and if he wanted to expand the army, he needed to raise his own food. ”

Wang Chengen said: "If you reject the Duke of Jinguo like this, won't the Jinguo Guild be disappointed and not crusade against Dongnu?" ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said: "Then make Li Zhi the commander of the Liaodong Metropolitan Division and the Nuer Gandu Division, and let him know that as long as he can conquer the Northeast, I will give him this place." ”

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On the fifth day of July, Li Zhi inspected the production of ordnance in Fanjiazhuang.

Originally, in early June, Li Zhi ordered the recruitment of 10,000 new soldiers in Tianjin, and the production of ordnance was very tight. Over the years, Li Zhi's expansion of the army has become faster and faster, and all the rifles in the warehouse have long been taken out and equipped. Now every batch of rifles made by the rifle workshop is immediately transported to the barracks to equip the new army.

But with the release of Shandong's plan to recruit 20,000 new soldiers, the production of rifle workshops could not keep up with the pace of army expansion in any way - Li Zhi's troops were not only equipped with rifles, but also conducted extremely intensive target training. Recruits break a rifle in almost three months, and the consumption of rifles is staggering.

Although Li Zhi's rifle workshop uses a boring machine to process gun barrels, and a single craftsman can produce a rifle in seven days, it still can't keep up with Li Zhi's army expansion.

Li Zhi needs to recruit more gunsmiths.

Li Zhi stood in the rifle workshop, turned to Gao Ligong, the ambassador of the Shogunate's Overseas Affairs Agency, and said, "You go to Shandong to recruit 2,000 craftsmen who can do blacksmith crafts, preferably craftsmen who can make birds. Each family was given twenty taels of moving money to let them move to Fanjiazhuang. I divided the production of rifles into 47 processes, and after coming to Fanjiazhuang, we let these blacksmiths each master a process to quickly produce rifles in the form of an assembly line. ”

Now that there is nothing to do in the overseas hall, Gao Ligong is quite capable of doing things, so Li Zhi asked Gao Ligong to go to Shandong to recruit blacksmiths.

Gao Ligong agreed, and said: "Grandpa Guo, there is no place to build new factories and workshops in Fanjiazhuang, where do the craftsmen live?" ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "When the craftsman comes, he will first arrange to live in the Tianjin Acropolis and rent a house." Next, we hired people to expand Fanjiazhuang, expand the new city to the east of Fanjiazhuang, and build new villas and factories. ”

When Li Xing heard this, he grinned and said, "Big brother, how much silver does it cost?" ”

Li Sik looked at Choi Chang-moo.

Cui Changwu calculated the bill and said: "This one-time expansion of 30,000 troops, the money is really spent very quickly." Counting the salaries, weapons, ammunition, clothing, bedding, and other items of 30,000 recruits, it is estimated that this year's deficit will reach more than 2 million taels. If it weren't for the 10 million taels of silver that Grandpa Guo plundered from Japan, we would not have had the financial resources to go on the Northern Expedition. ”

Li Xing took a breath and said, "The deficit of more than 2 million a year is really scary. Even some family backgrounds can't afford such expenses! ”

The crowd was talking there when they saw Han Jinxin running over on horseback.

Han Jinxin rode in front of Li Zhi, dismounted and said, "Grandpa Guo, the informant in the capital said that the Son of Heaven's approval of the Father's decree has been revealed. The Son of Heaven refused to pay for the Northern Expedition of the Duke of Guo, but he gave the two official titles of the commander of the Liaodong Metropolitan Division and the Nuer Gandu Division to the Prince. ”

"I guess the decree will come in a few days."

Li Xing snorted and said, "This son of heaven is really shrewd!" Now we are crusading against the Eastern slaves for the country, and the court will not give a penny, and we will use the money from our own pressure box to kill slaves for the country. ”

Li Zhi thought for a while and said, "It's not a way to have such a big deficit. There has to be a way to open source. Since the Son of Heaven doesn't give money, we will collect the land in Shandong! ”

"The gentry in Shandong are so rich that they can't be allowed to continue to evade taxes!"