Zhu Youzhen inquired for more than half an hour, and although he had not yet opened the battle plan sent by the General Staff Headquarters, he basically had a basic idea of the entire battle plan. So he just flipped through the plan in a very short time and said to Sun Chuanting.

"Except for the details just now, this battle plan can be implemented. However, the Battle of Yingkou is not only a problem of the army, but also involves the cooperation of the navy. Naval operations are more constrained by weather, high tides, and port water conditions, so this part of the operational plan must be endorsed by the Naval Staff Headquarters.

This is the first time that the new army has taken the initiative since its establishment, and the success or failure of this battle will determine the change in the strategic posture between the Ming and the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the future, so I will not allow any possibility of defeat. I don't want this to turn into a second battle of the Willow River, which will not only fuel the Manchu ambitions for the Ming dynasty, but also divide the imperial court.

Not everyone in our court supports the investment of so many resources into the military every year. If the new army still ends in failure in the past ten years of army reorganization and training, I will not be able to account for it to the people. Therefore, I have to say the ugly words in front first, and I will ask you for credit if I win this battle, and I can still accept it if I make peace. But if you lose your army and humiliate the country like the Battle of Liuhe, starting with your Sun Chuanting, to the commander who led the troops to attack, I will deal with them one by one..."

Sun Chuanting and Li Yan involuntarily straightened their backs at this moment, at this moment the two of them had a deep understanding of what Sun Chengzong said on weekdays, although Chongzhen was not as smart as his brother and grandfather, but his understanding of the world was much deeper than that of the two emperors.

For Wanli and Tianqi, the importance of a certain thing is about assigning someone close to him to supervise it. But for this Emperor Chongzhen, for the affairs that he really attaches importance to, he takes the trouble to discuss the process of handling things and the prediction and response of various emergencies.

In front of such a division, it is useless to talk big and pat your chest, only prudent thinking and a detailed plan can win the trust of the other party. Sun Chuanting understood a little at this time, why the emperor didn't have much interest in Yuan Chonghuan. Because although this disciple of Sun Chengzong is quite bold and very affinable (for scholars), he often does things imaginatively and never likes to follow the plan.

To put it nicely, Yuan Chonghuan is a talented person who adapts to the situation; To put it mildly, it is that this person is too self-absorbed and free. Although Chongzhen can tolerate his subordinates to modify their plans when the situation is not good, he will never agree with a subordinate who wants to overthrow the plan with the emperor every time.

The establishment of the General Staff, at the root, was also aimed at further strengthening the emperor's control over the army and preventing the local army leaders from doing their own business and deviating from the policy plans formulated by the central government. Sun Chuanting thought to himself as he sent a statement to the emperor that he would give a guarantee for the war.

Zhu Youzhen was extremely satisfied with Sun Chuanting's attitude, so he continued: "In order to ensure the success of this operation, I allow you to select the First Guards as the main force of this operation, and the Ordnance Supervision and the Naval Staff Headquarters will also fully assist you. But I have one more request for you. ”

Sun Chuanting's heart tightened, and he looked at the emperor and replied briefly: "Please make it clear to Your Majesty." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked into his eyes and said, "The Battle of Yingkou was the first landing operation of our army to attack from the sea, and no one had fought such a battle before. This is not a land operation, the front and rear can communicate in a timely manner, and then adjust the deployment of the army on the battlefield.

Therefore, I ask you to appear in the first line of attack, command the army to attack closely, and make timely judgments according to the situation on the battlefield. I want you to remember that the Guards are the Son of Heaven's own army, and I don't want this army to be wasted and sacrificed needlessly. The battle of Yingkou was, after all, just a test for our army, not a decisive winner. Can Sun Qing understand? ”

Of course, Sun Chuanting can understand that if the treatment of the field army is more than three times that of the old Ming army, then the treatment of the Guards, which is only one army size, is three times that of the field army. Moreover, after the expansion of enrollment in the Army Military Academy, the grassroots commanders of the Guards were all non-commissioned officers.

In the previous military exercises, the Guards Army has won the championship for two consecutive years, and it can be said that Gyeonggi is the strongest fighting force. Of course, although this army was stationed in Fengdae, it was not under the command of the Gyeonggi Governor's Office and the General Staff, but was directly under the orders of the emperor himself, just like the imperial guards guarding the imperial city.

The fact that the emperor was able to give him this force at his disposal was enough to prove how much he attached importance to this Yingkou battle. And the nature and status of the Guards, naturally, did not allow the General Staff to consume them in vain. After all, the backbone of this army is the orphan of the martyrs of the Ming army, the orphan of Yulin of the Han Dynasty, and the army that is the most loyal to the emperor.

When Sun Chuanting assured the emperor that he would definitely appear on the front line of attacking troops, Xia Yunyi, the prefect of Henan Prefecture, Niu Jinxing, the prefect of Luoyang, and a group of officials were standing on the train platform outside the east gate of Luoyang, waiting for the arrival of the first batch of autumn grain in the south this year.

With the construction of the three main train roads from Luoyang to Xiangyang, Zhengzhou to Hankou and Luoyang to Xuzhou, the north and south ends of Henan and the east and west sides have been freed from the capacity restrictions of the canal and have a faster and more convenient mode of transportation. This also makes it unnecessary for this year's autumn grain in Hubei and Hunan to enter Henan through the Yangtze River and canal waterways.

For a year like this year, the improvement of grain transportation efficiency is not only to stabilize the disaster situation in Henan as soon as possible, but also to save many people who should not have died. When the population in the disaster area began to die in large numbers, the local social order could no longer be maintained.

It's okay for the imperial army to be stationed on the main transportation routes, but don't expect to send them to the backwoods to carry out the blockade. The victims themselves have no food, how can they still support the army? And if grain can be brought in, there is no need to ask the army to enter to maintain order, as long as there is food, order can be restored.

Therefore, the time and scale of this year's autumn grain transportation to the north determine whether the people in the disaster area in Henan can successfully survive this famine year. At this time, the most critical areas for relief of the victims in Henan are Xinyang, Kaifeng, and Luoyang.

Xinyang is the main transportation route from Henan to Hubei, and the people fleeing from the famine in southern Henan must gather here. Kaifeng and Luoyang are important towns in the north of Henan, and they are also the transportation hubs of the canal and the Yellow River waterway, so the chances of the victims fleeing here to survive are higher.

Although the imperial court strictly controlled the movement of people in the disaster-stricken areas of Henan, it still established a large number of camps in these three places to accommodate those who had fled to these places. On the one hand, it can guide these displaced people to build some public works to support themselves; On the other hand, it is also to prevent these displaced people from colluding to cause chaos and disturb the locality.

In previous disaster years, the first choice of disaster victims was to go south to Hubei or to Kaifeng, which is close to the canal, and Luoyang was only considered by the victims in the surrounding areas. However, after the imperial court built a national reserve granary in Luoyang and began to invest in the construction of this important town, Luoyang's attraction suddenly surpassed that of Xinyang in the south and Kaifeng in the east, and became the first choice for the victims of Henan to escape the famine.

Although under the vigorous investment of the imperial court, Luoyang's demand for labor is almost unlimited, but half of the disaster victims in Henan Province are constantly flowing over, even if they are backed by the national reserve granary, the gentry and people of Henan Mansion can no longer bear it. After all, this Luoyang granary is not exclusively for Luoyang, and the victims are not all good citizens who are willing to keep to themselves.

Even under the deterrence of the imperial court officials and soldiers in Luoyang, the victims outside the city did not make any civil revolt, but the incidents of stealing chickens and dogs in the villages near the camp camp increased sharply. If it weren't for a group of young officials such as Xia Yunyi and Niu Jinxing who had worked hard to govern the place in the past two years and won the approval of the people of Henan Prefecture, the local people's rejection of these foreign refugees would have started a long time ago.

Although Henan Province is also within the scope of the disaster area, but with Luoyang's own development of industry and the use of windmills, steam engines to pump groundwater, as an area close to the edge of the Yellow River, Luoyang's groundwater is not scarce, so this year's drought has only made Henan Province's agriculture poor, but the people's lives have not been affected much.

Although the drought has made the cotton harvest in Henan Province poor and affected the start of the cotton textile industry, Luoyang's glass manufacturing industry, cement manufacturing industry and small hardware handicraft industry have not been affected. Even because of the arrival of a large number of displaced people, these workshops have been provided with a large amount of cheap labor, which has tripled the value of industrial output last year.

The output of industry not only compensated for the loss of agriculture, but also created a thriving market for Luoyang, where the displaced people not only brought cheap labor, but also created a huge demand for materials. As long as these displaced people can be settled, Luoyang can reduce the development time by at least 20 years.

And if you want to turn this year's disaster into a good thing for the people of Luoyang, the premise of all this is still inseparable from two words, that is, food. As long as there is food in hand, Xia Yunyi and Niu Jinxing have nothing to panic about. In the past two years in the government of Henan Province, the two have cooperated tacitly to govern the local gentry obediently, as long as the victims do not cause chaos, both of them are confident that they can completely digest these displaced people, so that they can become a help rather than a threat to the development of Luoyang.

While the two were waiting, a station manager who was standing on a high place and watching, suddenly shouted excitedly to the people on the platform: "It's coming, it's coming, the grain truck is coming..."

Hearing this shout, the officials on the platform were silent at first, and then cheered. With the arrival of the grain truck, the threat outside Luoyang City was finally eliminated. The fact that the grain trucks were able to arrive on time means that there are still no problems with the social order in Henan, and this year's drought is finally under control.

Although Xia Yunyi and Niu Jinxing had already received the news that the grain truck would arrive on time today, at this moment, the two finally relaxed the tense expressions on their faces and looked at each other and smiled. It wasn't until this moment that their hearts were completely relaxed.

Niu Jinxing couldn't help but sigh: "Fortunately, the victims of Shaanxi and Shanxi have flowed to the Western Regions and Hetao, otherwise I really don't know if Luoyang can survive to this day." ”

Xia Yunyi was also in a very good mood today, and couldn't help but echo a sentence: "Yes, without the imperial court's expansion of the northwest and southern grasslands, I'm afraid that domestic grain alone will not be able to solve the problem." ”

Niu Jinxing was silent for a moment, and suddenly said: "In this way, the battle in Beijing should be concluded soon." This time, I'm afraid those southern scholars are about to miscalculate... Brother Xia, I didn't mean you. ”

Xia Yunyi didn't care about Niu Jinxing's gaffe, but just sighed and said, "Although Your Majesty is a little mean to the gentry, Your Majesty is still right when you say something. Without the gentry, the country at least has the support of the people; But without the people, the state ceases to exist..."

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