Retaking Zunhua and Shanhaiguan is of great significance to Hongtang, but the biggest benefit is in the long-term future.

At that time, no matter whether the Beijing division is in the hands of the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, for Hong Tang, the certainty of occupying the capital when he really wants to send troops will be extremely high, but it will greatly boost morale.

Moreover, in terms of current development, the steel and coal mines found on the front line of Gongchangling alone are enough to impress Hongmen's future development center of gravity to move north.

After all, if you want to embark on the chess game of dominating the world, in addition to population and money, there is another important factor, that is, resource base, which needs to be considered.

Especially for Hongmen, their characteristics and advantages are in firearms and advanced technology, but no matter which is the demand for steel and coal mines, this is also a major obstacle to the development of Hongmen so far.

The Shilu mine's annual output of nearly 100,000 catties of pig iron resources is a drop in the bucket for Hongmen, whether it is to make guns or steam engines, not to mention the big railways and trains that devour steel, so that Hongmen has always suffered from iron shortage.

Therefore, after the discovery of a huge iron ore vein in Gongchangling, northeast of Guanwai, Hongmen was ready to move its industrial base to the northeast. Among them, it comes from the influence of Li Tianyang's memory that the Northeast has always been a heavy industry base, and it is also a long-term plan to turn against the Ming Court in the future.

Today's Shilu mine, after the negotiation between Hongmen and Mingting, is not in danger for the time being, but it can also allow Hongmen to still have a source of steel resources, and even as Sun invests material and financial resources to expand the mine, it will provide more iron ore resources to Hongmen in the future, so as to solve Hongmen's urgent needs.

But in the long run, Qiongzhou is not Hongmen's territory after all, now the Ming Dynasty and Hongmen are in the honeymoon period, there is the enemy of the Qing Dynasty, and there are two henchmen of Daxi and Dashun inside, as long as the Ming Dynasty cabinet and Emperor Chongzhen are not fools, they will naturally not break with Hongmen at this time, and let the Ming Dynasty suffer enemies everywhere.

But Daxi and Dashun seem to be powerful, in fact, they have always been the defeated generals of the Ming Dynasty army, if it were not for the Qing Dynasty to contain them outside these years, these two groups of peasant rebels, I don't know how many times they have been cleaned up by the Ming Dynasty.

Now it seems that the Ming Dynasty has lost a large part of the northern territory, but as I said before, although the Qing Dynasty's entry into the customs brought bloody disasters to all parts of the north, but it also made the refugees and gentry in the north have more losses, even if Sun Chuanting has recaptured the northern Yellow River now, the displaced people he needs to take care of are less than half of the previous ones.

What is even more happy or sad is that many of the local landowners and gentry of the northern backbone class are reluctant to build a business in the local area, thinking that the Qing people still need famous local people to consolidate their power and win the hearts of the people, but they have some confidence to stay in the local area.

But he didn't want to think that when the main force of the Qing Dynasty learned that the base camp outside the Guanxi was attacked by Hongtang, and Prince Dorgon decided to turn back, his headquarters could no longer restrain his hands and feet, and only thought that he could make a fortune and left.

At that time, Dolgon and the others had already anticipated the situation that might occur now, so they gave up the original desire to occupy the Ming Realm as the foundation of development, but because the large army needed to rush to the aid of the country, and the nearest way back was blocked by Hong Tang, they were forced to take a detour, so this action was much smaller.

However, the remaining presiding generals such as Ao Bai and Suo Etu did not restrain their actions, and these days before Sun Chuanting did not cross the river, in addition to suppressing rebellions in various places, they spent more time on the task of raiding the four realms.

Countless landlords and gentry who originally thought they were sitting firmly in Diaoyutai were looted and slaughtered by the ruthless Qing army soldiers, and there were countless cases of the family name being directly exterminated. In the eyes of the Qing people, those displaced people who were originally displaced by natural disasters and wars were like the livestock in the grassland, or even less valuable than livestock.

Therefore, in the north now, not only is the land vast and sparsely populated, but also the family power has been swept away, even if there are many northern clans who follow the Ming court to the south, even if these northern gentry regain the lost land in the Ming Dynasty, after returning to the north, they will once again take back the lost land, and even profit a lot of land into the family, but compared to the huge ownerless land base in the north, it is enough for the people who survived in the north of the Ming Dynasty.

When the time comes, the re-classification and redistribution of the ownerless land to resettle the displaced people will not only allow the land to be reused, but also allow the displaced people to be bound by the land and no longer endanger national security. Within two years, these people who had acquired the land would be able to pay their taxes and contribute again.

Judging from the current scale of ownerless land, the taxes in the north of the Ming Dynasty will be several times higher than before, after all, there is no gentry and nobles to hide land, no need to pay taxes due to policy reasons, etc., but it can also revitalize the northern finances of the Ming Dynasty.

In this way, for the ministers in the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, they are actually like a mirror in their hearts, which is also an important factor for them to urge Sun Chuanting to return to the north and recapture the capital.

For Hongtang, when the time comes to recapture the Ming Dynasty in the north, because Hongtang, a member of the Northeast who has been sent out of the northeast, is separated between the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, they have too little trouble, and they can free up their hands to reclean up the two rebel rebel armies of Daxi Zhang Xianzhong and Dashun Li Zicheng.

After cleaning up the two rebel armies, there is no other burden on the Ming Dynasty, and then it is time to deal with Hongmen, the last henchman.

Of course, if you really have to wait until the Ming Dynasty recovers the lost land in the country and cleans up the two peasant rebel armies, then I don't know if it is the Year of the Monkey and the month of the horse. As far as Hongmen is concerned, it is unknown how the situation will develop and how strong Hongmen will be.

But in the end, as a leader, the foresight that should be needed is needed, and the government on the land of Qiongzhou is at least under the orders of the Ming Dynasty.

Rather than this, then it is better to control the situation in their own hands, the more careful the exploration of Gongchangling mineral deposits, the more surprises will be given to Hongmen, not only there is this iron ore vein on Gongchangling, but also in the hills within a radius of dozens of ranges, there is also a very high quality iron ore, which is simply a piece of steel treasure land on the land of China that has always lacked iron.

(End of chapter)