Which side am I on?

That's a hard question to answer!

With infinite melancholy, Yang Qing left Xuzhou like this.

Gao Yigong did not give him a clear answer......

Lao Gao also has no right to decide.

This kind of thing must be reported to Li Zicheng by Lao Li to decide whether to do it or not, and even if it is done, it is not so simple, it must be all the Shun troops along the Huai line to act together, Yuan Zongdi feinted to attack Fengyang, the Guanning army that guarded Cao Youyi upstream, Tian Jianxiu of Nanyang feints to attack Fancheng and Zaoyang, contain Zuo Liangyu's Huguang army, and drag all the other Ming troops on the entire front before they can move, and it is impossible for Gao Yigong to really go deep alone.

What if this is a trap for them?

If they attack along the Huai Line, they are not afraid of trapping them.

Liu Liangzuo's kind of goods will definitely not be able to stop Yuan Zongdi, and the Huai River will not be able to stop the cavalry of the Shun army, if Chongzhen dares to pit them, then Yuan Zongdi should enter Fengyang, and then don't care about anything and go straight to Hefei. It is said that Tang Ruowang helped Li Zicheng cast a lot of cannons during this time, and almost all of the copper that Li Zicheng copied in various places was invested in the casting of cannons, and the proportion of cannons in the Shun army at this time even exceeded that of the Ming army. In particular, the heavy artillery of the Hongyi cannon level is said to have as many as hundreds, more than half of which are in the hands of the armies along the Huai, and Yuan Zongdi has twenty in his hands, and there is no pressure to open the city of Luzhou, as long as they take Hefei, Chongzhen will be unlucky, and the shipbuilding on the edge of Chaohu Lake will go down the river to Nanjing, and the north and the south will do this before the opening of the Grand Canal.

The Battle of Hefei between Sun Quan and Cao Cao, the Battle of Weishui, the Battle of Zhongli......

Countless bloody battles were all fought for this route of march, but after the opening of the Grand Canal, there were better options.

Li Zicheng also had to deploy troops just in case.

They must be fully prepared, it is impossible to kill the Huai River stupidly just with that pitiful mutual trust, as for Chongzhen, he is not trapping them......

What's the big deal about that?

It's nothing more than a live military exercise!

Since this is the case, there is no need for Yang Qing to stay here and wait for news, and there is no need to reply to this kind of thing, when Gao Yigong kills Xiang Xuyi, it will be a reply. However, he did not return to Nanjing, at this time there was nothing to do in Nanjing, his main duty was to copy Chongzhen's home, Chongzhen has no new goals in the short term, and His Majesty the Emperor is not hungry in the short term, after all, Yangzhou Jin Shang can still hold it for a while. As for those little things, there is no need for him to personally take action at this level, and his brocade guards who arrest people or something are not Wang Chengen who can't be mobilized, and Chongzhen's safety also has a high level of Guanning Iron Cavalry, as long as he doesn't leave the palace, he doesn't need to protect him.

He then ran to Luzhou.

Then in Luzhou, he and Cao Youyi, who was stationed here, and Li Yutian, who came from Anqing, ran to Xinyang together.

Those Liao people are scattered and resettled, but the vast majority of them are actually in Xinyang Prefecture, mainly because this area is close to the frontier, and the Shun army has occupied it before, and those landlords have fled south and have not dared to come back, or they have simply been killed by the Shun army, basically it can be said that it is a thousand miles of red land, and there is a large amount of wasteland that can be cultivated. In fact, it is not only caused by the war, but a large part of it is still discarded by the people who have fled because they cannot be oppressed, and the people who have fled are ......

Hiding in the mountains, of course.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the problem of shantytowns was quite serious.

Those common people would rather abandon the fertile land of the plains and run to the mountains to be with wild beasts, rather than endure the oppression of corrupt officials and local tyrants and inferior gentry outside......

But there must also be a suitable place for land reclamation.

Don't think that Huainan is a happy land, in fact, the Huaihe River is frozen in the most ruthless winter, not to mention Huainan in this tragic era, that is, there is a record of Taihu Lake freezing in the south of the Yangtze River, so even if it is best to open up the wasteland, you have to open up the wasteland on those abandoned farmlands, and you can only starve to death if you really go to the barren mountains and mountains to open up the wasteland, so that only this area is the most suitable.

Otherwise, you have to go to Huguang.

But this is also convenient for him to be his nest, and then he plans to plant corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes here, in short, plant these future main crops, especially use this place as a corn breeding base, and let those Liao people act as the seed giants of this era. Then the corn seeds they cultivated can be sold to the Li Zicheng-controlled area in the north, after all, the north needs this more, but these are all things after the spring next year, and the wasteland is still being cleared, and it is about to enter winter. Since this happens to take advantage of the fact that there are more idlers in winter, I am here to do a big project that can make money......

He's going to burn cement.

But he doesn't burn cement.

All he can know about this thing is the approximate ratio of limestone and clay, and then add pulverized coal and iron ore in an unknown proportion to grind the ingredients and mix with water, and then put it in the lime kiln for calcination.

All that's left is to experiment slowly!

That's how the earliest Portland cement was burned, anyway.

There's no reason he can't burn it out!

In the next whole month, he stayed in Xinyang, guarding a lime kiln repeated experiments, burning out a furnace and then replacing a furnace, grinding the cement ingredients with a stone mill, using a hammer to grind and then grinding a little bit on the stone, no machine to use livestock as power, anyway, don't care about the price, the main purpose of his burning is to replace the glutinous rice used in high-end building masonry bonding at this time, that thing to wipe the wall to catch up with people to eat?

It was when the first snow fell that winter that he finally burned the first furnace of qualified cement.

But the cost is really high.

"Who can afford this thing!"

Looking at the dozens of barrels of cement in front of him, Cao Youyi exclaimed.

This thing is not very troublesome to fire, it is nothing more than a kiln, and the kiln is not a high-tech, there is no pressure at 13400 degrees, and the kiln temperature of the porcelain is at least this number, but the grinding of the ingredients before firing and the grinding after firing are troublesome, it is obvious that the cost of this thing before the steam engine is not ordinarily high, and it can be described as a luxury. The output is not generally low, and the results of their efforts for a month are only so dozens of barrels, and the packaging of this thing in this era is also very troublesome, because in addition to the wooden barrel, there can be no other packaging that can ensure moisture-proof and sufficient strength, plastic woven bags are not, and the price of cloth bags is more terrifying.

Only casks are fully qualified!

And this is not counting the transportation cost, it is also a thousand miles to transport from here to Nanjing.

But......

"General Cao, this is an alternative method that Uncle Zhongyong came up with in order for the emperor to repair the palace as soon as possible and avoid wasting food, what is silver? Uncle Zhongyong's loyalty to His Majesty and the innocence of the people are the most important things. ”

Li Yutian patted him on the shoulder and said.

"Hey, hey!"

Next to him, Yang Qing did smile sinisterly.

This is sold to Chongzhen to repair the palace, the latter's palace has built a few barely usable palaces so far, and most of the entire palace is still in a dilapidated state, if Chongzhen can solve the problem of the gentry paying for food as an errand, it will definitely be repaired after the financial surge. But it takes a lot of food to repair this, the bonding of the bricks all depends on glutinous rice juice, and a lot of glutinous rice is consumed without cement replacement, and the modern repair of the ancient city wall of Xichang requires the consumption of 50 tons of glutinous rice for 900 meters, which is only a cladding brick, and it is only symbolic to use it, and it is indispensable to use cement in some places, and Nanjing is such a huge palace, how much do you have to use countless palace walls?

Tens of thousands of stones are possible.

His Majesty the Emperor thinks of the people, and even tobacco is not allowed to be grown, how can he waste food so much?

In this way, you can use the gimmick of saving food to fool Chongzhen into buying his sky-high price of cement, and one pound of cement can be calculated according to the price of one pound of glutinous rice.

This will allow production to be maintained.

And the palace uses this kind of good things, the rich people must have caught up with the trend, it is best to let Chongzhen make a holy decree, prohibiting the construction of houses with glutinous rice as a binder, so that people can be forced to buy cement, this grain can be saved, after all, it is also a living thing, after seeing too much of the starvation in the north, Yang Qing at this time to food is more important than anything else, and the Liao people here can be transformed into workers, although this kind of industry is a little simple, but it has also started industry after all!

And in the future, we will be able to find a way to reduce costs.

For example, if you change the mill to water power, or even wind power, in short, as long as it is profitable, you will always find a way, if it doesn't work in a year or two, then it's okay for decades, right? It would be simple to get a steam engine and a real industrial production process, and it would take a little bit for European cement to be put forward from the theory in the mid-eighteenth century to the invention of Portland cement! The invention of any new product is only the beginning, and the rest needs to be progressed little by little over a long period of time, and this process is not a long time.

In short, as long as the question of whether there is or without is solved, the rest will be taken slowly.

"Sir, Your Majesty is urgently calling!"

A brocade guard who came galloping suddenly dismounted beside him and saluted.

"What?"

Yang Qing said.

Obviously, there is movement on Li Zicheng's side.

However, the calculation time is about the same, Gao Yigong sent the report, he made a decision there, and then issued an order to the various armies along the Huai, and these armies were in place and ready, which added up to a month is already very efficient.

However......

"The Korean envoys went to Nanjing to reclaim the vassal and ask for help, the Jiannu army had captured Seoul, and crossed the river to capture Ganghwa Island, and slaughtered countless cities in Korea, and the Korean king had to flee south to Naju, and Jiannu forced his people to shave their hair and change their clothes under the threat of slaughtering the city in Korea."

The brocade guard said.

"Huh?!"

Yang Qing was stunned.