Zhu Qiming once again led the army to the land of Liaodong.

Different from when he first came here a few years ago, now under his calm appearance, there is a pride that swallows mountains and rivers and waves the wind and clouds.

He knew exactly what he had to do and what he had to wait for.

However, at the moment, his mind was not on state affairs.

In early spring, he wanted to concentrate his sense of smell and sight, and feel the breath of spring in the land of Liaodong. Du Fu's poem flashed in his mind, "The country is beautiful in the late days, and the spring breeze is fragrant with flowers and plants." The mud melts and flies the swallows, and the sand warms the mandarin ducks. ”

"Your Highness, will you take a break? Alas, this ghost place! ”

Ouyang Tong grinned, his body was almost on the back of the horse, and a complaint waved away Zhu Qiming's association.

Only then did Zhu Qiming realize that the ice and snow on the earth had not yet melted, and the bare land was desolate.

Different from the Central Plains, Jiangnan, and Bashu, the replacement of winter and spring in Liaodong is rarely poetic, it is simply a tragic battle between winter and spring, and a rebirth of a phoenix like nirvana in spring. Freezing rain or sleet is entangled repeatedly, and it is not until more than a month later that the plants in the field withstand the madness of the remnant of winter and stubbornly bud and emerge green, and people will appreciate the belated spring.

Fortunately, the weather is fine today, otherwise it would not have been pleasant in case of freezing rain or sleet.

Zhu Qiming waved at Tang Ji, Tang Ji gave an order, and the cavalry of more than 4,000 people responded to the call, and everyone turned over and fell to the ground one after another.

"After all, Ouyang Changshi is not a person in the army, and he has traveled thousands of miles for a long time, I am afraid he will not be able to bear it."

Ouyang Tong smiled bitterly, stretched his limbs, and moved his almost rigid muscles and bones, "Your Highness, at the moment, we are short of food and grass, and we still need to send someone to contact the Liaodong Metropolitan Division." ”

This time to Liaodong is completely different from a few years ago, the imperial court did not send an edict or a document to the local government offices and guards, so the Yuefu guards can only bring their own grain and grass, and the supplies have been exhausted.

It is not realistic to find the people along the way to buy grain, and now the entire Liaodong has a total population of less than 300,000 people except for the garrison, scattered in various castles, not to mention that the marching route deviates from the dense area of the castle, even if you meet the castle, I am afraid that the local residents will not have much surplus food in every household.

Since Hongwu and Yongle, the population of Liaodong has been increasing slowly, while grain production has been declining year by year. Only one crop can be grown here, and the water conservancy facilities are extremely incomplete, drought and flood are impermanent, so there are few good years, and the deforestation has been cultivated for a long time, and the trend of soil desertification has increased, and food production will naturally decrease. It is not enough for the local residents to make a living from farming, and in addition to farming, they also need to fish and hunt, just as they did in the past.

Most of the supplies of the Liaodong army were transported by sea from Shandong, and the reserves were sufficient, and at this time, Zhu Qiming could only ask the Liaodong Metropolitan Division for help.

"This place is less than 100 miles away from the Liaodong Dusi, Ouyang Changshi doesn't need to worry."

Zhu Qiming moved to Ouyang Tong's side and gently bumped into him, making Ouyang Tong grin. Getting along with the substitute teacher when he was a child, Zhu Qiming always has a friend-like mentality.

Only seven civil officials in the Yue Mansion were willing to follow Zhu Qiming, an unusual choice that meant sharing weal and benement. Considering that the physique of literati was not suitable for long-distance travel, Zhu Qiming placed six of them in the camp on the west bank of Longmen River, and only Ouyang Tong accompanied him.

At this time, Wang Lie came over angrily, "Your Highness, the four hundred people who came with me don't know anything about the army at all, they are messy, and they look upset!" ”

Zhu Qiming turned his head to look at a group of people not far away, these people didn't stand one by one, sat or didn't sit, and at a glance, he knew that they were usually used to being lazy at will.

They are the members of several noble families in the capital. That day, Zhu Qiming stayed in custody and taught Zhou Lin a lesson, which did not make him a public enemy of the sons of the capital's relatives, when Zhou Lin came out of the Forbidden City, he blew it when he met people, claiming that "the king of Yue decided that the prince of Zhou would become a generation of famous generals", so the news of his surrender soon spread throughout the capital, and some of the gentlemen who were used to being used to it on weekdays were greatly stimulated, and chased them out of the capital for dozens of miles overnight, caught up with Zhu Qiming, and planned to go to the north with him to prove their bravery and martial arts, and they were still very unconvinced.

Hmph, what is that kid Zhou Lin? Your subordinates are defeated!

How dare Zhu Qiming privately recruit these people into the army? In view of the commendable courage of the people, he patiently persuaded them to join the army through regular channels. However, several Xun Qi's children left the accompanying family Ding Shengsheng to Zhu Qiming, saying that as long as they gave them food.

There are 400 of these families in total, how can they cope with it if they are fed? Armor, standard weapons, and high-quality war horses add up to a lot of money, and the family is not familiar with battles, and they have to be trained carefully after being taken in, which costs both silver and energy.

However, the four hundred people are all martial arts practitioners, and after the training is in place, they can add a living force, and they can also use this to stabilize the hearts of Xun Qi's children. Zhu Qiming calculated the big accounts and small accounts, and finally nodded.

Thinking about the fact that after a large number of sons and daughters joined the army, the war in Japan began to start, and at the most severe moment of the situation, they fought bloody battles on the front line, which was of great benefit to stabilizing the morale of the army and the people in the capital and even the entire northern border.

"This king has handed them over to you, and if you don't train them to be real warriors, you will go back to Beijing to marry a wife and have children!"

Over there, Shi Feng let out a provocative laugh, and Wang Lie immediately bared his teeth, "Some people have married wives and had children, and they haven't followed with a dead face!" ”

Shi Feng's mouth slanted, seeing that the two of them were about to tear apart on the spot, suddenly heard a sound of hooves from the direction of the road, and after a while, a large group of people appeared in Zhu Qiming's field of vision, and after a closer look, it could be recognized that the person should be a Jurchen, and about one of them was wearing a Ming court official uniform.

At the end of last year, the Jianzhou Jurchens, Mao Lian Jurchens, Haixi Savage Jurchens, Heilongjiang Savage Jurchens, and a total of more than 100 Wei Jurchens from the four places all sent envoys to the capital to pay tribute, which was very rare in the history of the Ming Dynasty. More than 100 Wei Jurchens all came to pay tribute, not for anything else, just because Warat forced the Jurchen tribes very tightly, and the Jurchens instinctively sensed Warat's intentions, so they went to Beijing to explore the attitude of the Ming Dynasty.

The orthodox emperor and the officials of the Ministry of Rites responded with diplomatic rhetoric, and finally ordered: If the Warat people go to persecute and harass again, they may as well be escorted to the Liaodong Metropolitan Division!

Presumably, when the Jurchens heard this, they were even more puzzled in their hearts: We are a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, if we have the strength to capture the Warat people, what else do we come to the suzerain?

Zhu Qiming naturally didn't know the details, he only knew that after the Jurchens paid tribute, they would now return via Liaodong. A small question suddenly flashed through my mind.

"Eh, Ouyang Changshi, why are Haixi and Heilongjiang Jurchens called savages?"

Ouyang Tong brushed his hair, "First, they live in a wild place, and their customs are similar to those of savages. Your Highness may not know, the savage Jurchen rode in and out by deer, wore fish skin in summer, dog skin in winter, lived in the cold room, and lived in the wild in the summer. ”

The deer that the Jurchens rode was certainly not a petite sika deer, nor a ferocious moose, but a domesticated reindeer.

"In and out by deer? Interesting! Zhu Qiming said with a smile: "We might as well go to Liaodong with the Jurchens." ”

"Get on the horse!"

Tang Ji's angry order sounded in the middle of the road