Wool and mutton, these two are the things that the steppe herdsmen produce the most, among which the wool for the shepherds, except for making felt, there is no other use, and they can't make all the wool into felt, most of the wool is discarded at will, as for mutton, it is their staple food, but relatively speaking, they prefer to exchange mutton for some food, especially in autumn, because the stored forage is for the sheep to eat for a winter, but the forage is often insufficient, so the herdsmen can only kill a batch of sheep, At this time, the mutton is even more lowly, and even when some can't eat it and are not salted, they can only watch the mutton spoil and throw it away.

Now Zhou Zhong sent clothes made of wool and canned food that can keep food for a long time, which is great news for the herdsmen on the grassland, Daming bought wool and mutton, then it means that he has two more channels of income, with income can be exchanged for better things from Daming, such as tea and salt urgently needed on the grassland, in addition to ironware, porcelain and other items, these are what they urgently need in life, and they all need to be exchanged from Daming.

In addition, the role of cement is even greater, the reason why the Ming Dynasty can not rule the grassland, in addition to the resistance of the grassland people, the most important thing is the natural environment of the grassland, such as the road, although the grassland looks like a flat river, as if everywhere is a road, but in fact this is not the case at all, under the dense green grass, it is also a crisis, some muddy ponds are covered with green grass, but as long as a person steps on it, it will be sucked immediately, and finally even the whole person will sink, more powerful than quicksand. If you build a road on the grassland. But a heavy rain fell. Any kind of road will be covered with mud and grass roots.

But now with cement, it's different. If you can use this kind of cement to build a road, even if it is just a road that is not very wide, the Ming can use this road to push the strength control line forward, if you build some defensive fortresses on the road, then the Ming can firmly control the area within a radius of 100 miles of this road, and it is even no exaggeration to say that where the road is built, the Ming army can control it.

Zhengde is playful. But his brain is not stupid, on the contrary, Zhengde is actually an extremely smart person, especially he is more thorough about military matters, so when he learned the effect of these three things in front of him, he immediately understood what his second brother meant, that is, to use the opportunity to buy wool and mutton, so that the herdsmen on the grassland develop the habit of relying on the Ming Dynasty, and then use cement to build roads on the grassland, and use the roads to control those herdsmen who are willing to trade with the Ming Dynasty.

Understanding Zhou Chong's intentions, Zhengde lowered his head and pondered. Intellectually speaking, Zhou Chong's plan was indeed better than his plan to build cavalry. With the trade of wool and mutton, those grassland tribes can no longer do without the Ming Dynasty, and if the scale of this trade increases, the shepherds will prefer to raise sheep, so that the number of horses will decrease, which will naturally reduce the combat effectiveness of the steppe people. Then the Ming Dynasty took the road as the bone, the fortress as the joint, and slowly eroded the grassland step by step, and waited until a few decades later, I am afraid that the entire grassland would fall into the hands of the Ming Dynasty, and then the Ming Dynasty would no longer have the border trouble in the north.

In contrast, Zhengde's idea of establishing cavalry is a bit risky, even if this cavalry is really established, and it can also defeat the cavalry of the grassland people, but such a cavalry can only be vertical and horizontal for a while, after all, Zhengde cannot rely on cavalry to occupy the grassland, and in the end it will still return to the Ming Dynasty, it may be that when they leave, the grassland people will still recover, so in the long run, his cavalry will not have much impact on the grassland at all, at most it can only satisfy Zhengde's own warlike heart.

Zhengde likes to play around, and sometimes even ignores the overall situation, but from his heart, Zhengde still wants to be a good emperor, even if his current reputation is not good, but he doesn't want his people to be slaughtered by foreign races for no reason. So Zhengde lowered his head and pondered for a long time, and finally raised his head and looked at Fugui and said: "The second brother has thought about it thoroughly, such a step-by-step erosion of the grassland is indeed much more practical than my thoughts, presumably the second brother already has a detailed plan, hurry up and take it out!" ”

"Your Majesty is wise, the prince and the military department Shangshu Wang Qiong Wang Wang, as well as the military department squire Wang Shouren, in addition to a cadre in the military academy After discussing for nearly half a month, he finally came up with a specific plan, the cabinet is also very interested in this plan, and even Yang University Scholar also expressed his appreciation, if Your Majesty has no problem here, then you can start to implement it step by step!" Fugui said, taking out a thick notebook from his arms, which was written the strategic plan for the grassland.

Speaking of such an important grassland strategic plan, it is generally necessary to send an official of the imperial court to send it, but Zhou Chong understands Zhengde's temper, and knows that he must be very dissatisfied with the cabinet's opposition to the establishment of cavalry, and even with the officials of the imperial court, if he sends an official in the name of the cabinet, it may arouse Zhengde's rebellious psychology, in case he disagrees in anger, then Zhou Chong's hard work will be all wasted, so Zhou Chong thought of a way to let Fugui see Zhengde in the name of gifts, and then explain several new inventions in the same way, and wait until Zhengde thoroughly understands his intentions, which can calmly consider the gains and losses, and the facts have also proved that Zhouzhong's method is indeed effective, at least Zhengde has now agreed to Zhouzhong's plan.

Zhengde took the grassland strategy plan written by Zhou Chong, and immediately studied it carefully, when he just looked at the beginning, the expression on his face was stunned, as if he was a little surprised, and then studied down a little bit, and the surprise on his face slowly faded, and finally even showed a smile.

Zhou Chong's plan for Zhengde is generally divided into three steps, the first step is not to start building roads on the grassland directly, but to send troops to Liaodong, speaking of which there are two major forces in Liaodong, the first is Duoyan Sanwei, and the second is Jianzhou Wei, which is dominated by the Jurchens, although these two forces are ostensibly returned to the Ming Dynasty, and even when the Ming Dynasty became the ancestor, he also set up the Nuergan Division in Liaodong and other places, but now the Nuergan Division has long been abolished, Duoyan Sanwei and the Jurchens are also capricious to the Ming Dynasty, maybe this year they are vassals to the Ming Dynasty, Next year, there may be an army to rebel, and for this reason, it has also restrained many of the Ming Dynasty's troops.

In Zhou Chong's plan, the reason why the first step is to clean up Liaodong, in addition to Duoyan Sanwei and Jurchen to contain the Ming Dynasty's troops, in addition to the position of Liaodong is also very critical, especially Duoyan Sanwei, they are actually part of the Mongols, and they are located on the east side of the power of the little Tatar prince, if the Ming can completely control Liaodong, you can attack the little Tatar prince from the east and south of the Mongolian steppe, so the strategic location is very important.

In addition, the wall grass of Duoyan Sanwei also made the Ming very annoyed, when the Ming Dynasty was strong, Duoyan Sanwei surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and then the Ming was weak, and as a result, Duoyan Sanwei began to waver between the Ming and Tatar, and now the Mongolian steppe was unified by the little prince of Tatar again, so Duoyan Sanwei completely fell to the little prince of Tatar, but it was the posture of the wall grass of Duoyan Sanwei that made the little prince of Tatar not trust them very much, if the army of the Ming Dynasty entered Liaodong to conquer it, If the Mongols of Duoyan Sanwei are incorporated into the cavalry again, it is a good cannon fodder, after all, there is no one in the steppe who knows the Mongols better than the Mongols.

As for the Jurchens, they were originally a cancer of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong, and they were located in the east of Duoyan Sanwei, if they wanted to subdue Duoyan Sanwei, they could not help but beware of the Jurchens, so Zhou Chong felt that he would simply destroy the Jurchens, which would also save problems in the future, and Zhou Chong also specially explained that he already had a clever plan, that is, not to let Daming spend too much money, and he could also destroy the Jurchens, for this kind of thing, both Zhengde and the cabinet are very welcome.

Clearing Liaodong is the first step in invading the grassland, and the next step is the second step, which is also the happiest step for Zhengde, because Zhou Zhong named this step "Strong Army". The so-called strong army is actually to form a large cavalry, after all, if you want to rule the grassland, it is not enough to just rely on road building and trade, you must have a strong cavalry.

It's just that this cavalry is different from the cavalry that Zhengde wants, this cavalry does not need too sophisticated equipment and hard training, but only expands on the basis of the original Ming cavalry and maintains a sufficient number, and the time and money spent are much less than what Zhengde planned. In the future, if there is a war in the steppe, this cavalry will rush along the concrete road to entangle the other side, and the real decisive battle with the enemy is the infantry coming from the rear, with artillery and muskets, plus the assistance of cavalry, it is not difficult to destroy the rebellious Mongols.

In the whole plan, this cavalry will be a mixture of Mongols and Han Chinese, of which the Mongols are natural cavalry, and they do not have a unified national concept, so it is very easy to be recruited by the Ming Dynasty, and in turn deal with the Mongols on the steppe, such as the 3,000 battalions in the Beijing camp, their predecessor is the 3,000 Mongolian elite cavalry. In addition, there were not a few Mongols in the Ming border army, and most of them were concentrated in the cavalry, so it was not difficult to expand the cavalry.

At the same time as the first and second steps were implemented, the third step of the whole plan was also carried out at the same time, the beginning was that the Ming vigorously purchased wool and mutton, but the Ming would only trade with those friendly tribes, as for the tribes controlled by the little Tatar prince, it was forbidden to trade, which was also to divide the Mongols and prepare for the future invasion of the Mongolian steppe. (To be continued......)