After a while, Li Zhong came in and saw Li Yan playing with the newly minted silver coin. He picked up one and looked at it carefully, and said with emotion: "It's good, it can be used as a family heirloom." ”

As soon as he said this, he had an idea in his heart, and hurriedly reminded: "This silver coin is so exquisitely made, if it is hidden in the cellar by people, isn't it a waste?" Which of those big families doesn't have a cellar for silver? ”

Li Yan shook his head and replied lightly: "I'm not worried about this, after all, silver coins are a lot of money, and they don't use much." In the future, there will be various ways to keep up, and slowly let this silver coin become a reserve, and the circulating one will become paper money, and it doesn't matter how much they keep it privately. But I'm worried about copper coins right now. The people still use money the most, which is quite a huge amount. ”

"Then let the people use the existing money first, anyway, the people are very smart, and they can always set their own prices for all kinds of copper coins." Li Zhong said with a smile, as if he was in a good mood.

Li Yan glanced up at Li Zhong and asked, "What's the good news?" ”

Li Zhong nodded with a smile and said, "Niu Chenghu and others from the northwest have sent people over, and they have already decided to surrender to us." ”

"Oh?" Li Yan was a little surprised and said, "I thought they would be able to hold out until next winter." ”

Li Zhong said with a smile: "Li Zicheng has been preparing to deploy troops to counterattack Beijing since years ago, and he has not sent much food to the northwest at all. Moreover, the toasts there are all in their own way, and even a few of them have no way to elect a leader. And the Moxi Mongolia outside the border wall is also not at peace, they don't want to surrender to us now, and there is no other way. ”

"That's good." Li Yan easily ordered: "Then let them prepare, and when our troops pass, we will replace them back, and then lay off the old and weak, and retrain and distribute." As for the local officials, they will keep their original appearance for the time being, and then talk about it later. ”

Because the Tusi in the northwest is much weaker than the Tusi in the southwest, and they all started with military merits and held military positions, their control over the local area is far less tight than that of the Tusi in the southwest. And because the power is weak, he is unable to fight against the central dynasty, so he is very deferential to the central power, so Li Yan is only passing by here. As long as these toasts agree to submit, there will be basically no problem.

Li Zhong reminded: "According to them, Xin Sizhong and Dang Shousu rushed south with about 10,000 remnants, and it is estimated that they will enter Sichuan." And there was intelligence back, saying that Zhang Xianzhong had also sent a large army to prepare for the westward expedition to Sichuan. ”

Li Yan frowned and thought for a while before he said, "Let them fight first." They are all born as thieves, and they will eliminate the inherent forces in Sichuan, and when we enter again, there won't be much trouble. Look at Henan, we controlled the earliest, and there were a lot of big clans left in various places, and now there are still several heads of rats at both ends, and the two ends are sold well. I have already asked Sun Sifu to deal with it, but I just chose one or two and confiscated some of the family property, and the others had to be ignored. ”

"That," Li Zhong said hesitantly: "The handling of Xu Dingguo and the others, is it announced after Niu Chenghu and the others come back?" ”

Xu Dingguo and others have been escorted back for four days, and there is no difficulty in the case. Maybe those officers didn't think that Li Yan would do anything to them, so they admitted it to being a single person. However, the result was that they were heartbroken, and they were directly sentenced to death, and they had to be escorted to Huai'an for execution.

As for Xu Dingguo, because of the lack of strictness of the imperial majesty, he was deprived of the post of chief military officer, and he was directly hung with the rank of senator of the so-called Governor's Office, which was regarded as receiving a pension and was deprived of military power.

Li Yan said sonorously: "No need! Inform the whole army now. Although it is necessary to give some respect to the generals who may surrender, it should not be too much. Otherwise, they will feel that they are too weighty, but they will let them raise their own value and sell at the price, which is not conducive to our appeasement. ”

After Li Zhong walked away for a while, Zhang Han, the commander of the water division, was finally brought in.

In the future, if we want to march to the south of the Yangtze River, we will definitely use sailors along the coast. And he also specially learned about the sailors in the south, and now Zheng Zhilong's family is dominant, claiming to have 100,000 sailors. In the future, if this naval army cannot be subdued, there will be big trouble along the coast, and the tragic situation of the rampant Japanese bandits may be repeated.

"Knock down on the generalissimo." Zhang Han saluted immediately after he came in.

Li Yan asked him to get up and asked directly: "Zhang Han, I called you over this time to ask if our sailor can defeat Zheng Zhilong." It's the future, not the present. ”

Zhang Han hesitated for a moment before he reluctantly said: "Generalissimo, it's not that your subordinates are saying frustrating things, it's really that Zheng Zhilong's fleet is too strong. They have thousands of large and small ships, tens of thousands of sailors, and even Western gunboats are no match for them, let alone our small fleet. In the past six months, our dockyard has only built five chain boats, three two-headed boats, and a total of only twenty-five small boats. ”

"The cannon is on board, how did you try?" Li Yan asked with a grim face. He had also heard of Western gunboats, which had not only cannons in the bow and stern, but also in the side chords of the hull. And there are several layers, and when you launch at once, the firepower output is very impressive.

Zhang Han couldn't cry or laugh, hugged his fists and said: "Generalissimo, this method has been tried a long time ago, not to mention a ship of 200 materials, it is a ship of 400 materials, and the side chord is equipped with a cannon, which is also a cannon that will fall apart." It was Zheng Zhilong's fleet, which defeated the Dutch pirates back then, and it was also a method of fire attack. Their large ships also suffered heavy losses under Xiyi's cannons, so they could only rush over with small boats and set fires. ”

Li Yan was very disappointed. It is true that their warships are not strong enough, there is a problem with the construction of the entire hull, and there is not much improvement in strengthening the local strength. Moreover, the ship was turbulent, and there were not enough artillery pieces to output fire at the same time, and its role in naval warfare was just to listen to it.

"How about we build more boats and attack them with fire?" Li Yan put forward another idea.

Zhang Han still shook his head: "Generalissimo, this arson is a conventional tactic, and any one will guard against it." Before going to sea to fight, a thick layer of sludge will be smeared on the ship, which is used to prevent fire. Moreover, Zheng Zhilong's fleet is surrounded by small boats, and our arson boats may not be able to rely on it. ”

Li Yan originally wanted to install a few stone throwers on the ship, but now it seems that it is better than nothing. Interlacing is like a mountain, and Li Yan is also a little helpless at this time.

Zhang Han saw that Li Yan didn't speak for a long time, so he said carefully: "Generalissimo, I think I can use a bomb." But our ships must be fast enough for the enemy to stop. ”

"What do you mean~" Li Yan asked suspiciously.

Zhang Han only said two words: "Cars and ships." ”

Li Yan also saw the cars and boats in the book, using wheeled paddles, driving on the big lake, as fast as a galloping horse. But that head is not small, whether it can be used on a small boat still needs to be verified.

Anyway, there's nothing to be done now, so it doesn't matter if you give it a try. So he immediately agreed: "Well, this idea is worth trying." When you get back, you will discuss the trial production with the masters at the dockyard, but you should pay attention to the transportation of the boat. You can't let these boats row all the way to the battle site, can you? Where else would they have the physical strength to storm the enemy's fleet? ”

"I understand that I should work with my seniors and colleagues to come up with a proper solution." Zhang Han clenched his fists and took his life.

This is also a consistent practice in Li Yan's system, one person counts the short, and everyone counts the long, maybe anyone can really come up with a good way. It seems that the sailor has finally started to hit the road, which makes Li Yan quite pleased.

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