In the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the situation in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty was generally stable, and a large number of unstable social factors were eliminated. A large number of people have migrated to Northeast China, which has solved the pressure of local survival and obtained new resources.

Shandong has also begun to carry out reforms, various reform measures have begun to be implemented, and the instability factors in Shandong have been sorted out even more by cracking down on organized crime.

As Shandong's reform continues, more jobs can be created, and more labor can be absorbed from neighboring provinces.

The largest explosive barrel is the military household in the natural border town, and now after continuous reduction in the nine sides, only the three towns of Gansu Town, Ningxia and Guyuan remain.

The remaining border armies of the three towns were also very stable at this time, because the imperial court directly distributed food to the military households in the border towns every month to ensure that they could be fed.

At the same time, under the vigorous propaganda of the imperial court, the military households of the border army in these three towns are very much looking forward to the abolition of the border towns, which means that they can transform into workers in state-owned enterprises, or immigrants to obtain land.

The explosive barrel on the nine sides was basically solved, and in the end, the living conditions of the border troops in the three towns were still okay, and the most important explosive barrel was Yansui Town, which was previously dismantled.

The remaining three border towns, Zhu Youxiao decided to dismantle them within two years, and the places to settle them are not easy to arrange now.

The Northeast region has been relatively saturated after some land division. It's not that there is no land, but that the further north you go, the worse the infrastructure, and the lower the output of the land because of the cold climate.

The Outer Northeast is a place where immigrants can be immigrated, but it is too cold there.

Australia can immigrate, but at present, after the rapid expansion of the Ming Dynasty in the South Seas, merchant ships began to be insufficient, and large-scale immigration to Australia will have to wait for several years.

Moreover, the way of immigration to Australia is mainly migrant workers. The main force in the development of Australia is still state-owned enterprises, and there are relatively few individuals.

Zhu Youxiao kept the border troops of these three towns. It was also mainly to emigrate these border troops to the Western Regions, that is, the Xinjiang region in later generations.

For the Western Regions occupied by the Yarkand Khanate, Zhu Youxiao has been peeping at it for a long time.

At this time, the construction of a highway to Gansu was underway, and this project had been started for two years, and by the sixth year of the Apocalypse, most of the road had been repaired. It's not that the road is very difficult to repair. After all, there was an official road in the first place, and it was enough to strengthen and widen it.

The Western Regions is an important cotton producing area, and the Ming Dynasty is now a little unable to keep up with the pace of development in terms of the source of commercial cotton.

The main reason is that the development of Beizhili is relatively rapid, and the demand for cotton has increased year after year.

No matter how much cotton there is, I am not afraid, because I can export textiles overseas, and Korea, Japan, the countries of the Indochina Peninsula, the islands of the South Seas, and the Portuguese all need textiles. Even if these markets are satisfied, textiles can be exported to India, the Middle East, and Africa.

Textiles are a very large market. With the invention of the steam engine, with the investment of national forces in research and development, and the clear research direction provided by Zhu Youxiao, the performance of the steam engine has been improved every month.

Obviously, it will not take a few years for the Industrial Revolution to begin.

If there is not enough raw material supply, it will be an awkward situation. Not only the overseas textile market is vast, but also the increase in people's income with the implementation of reforms in Daming. The demand for textiles will also increase, of which cotton textiles will be the majority. Silk and hemp are obviously not comparable to the demand for cotton.

Zhu Youxiao is now taking a multi-pronged approach to cotton supply, first of all, to increase the internal cotton planting area, and at the same time to establish a large area of cotton planting industry in Nanyang and Australia. At the same time, the export tariff on textiles will be raised, and then part of the export will be exported, and the export added value must be high enough, and it will not be possible to only be a little higher than the price in Daming.

One last step. It is to establish a cotton production area in the Western Regions.

However, the Western Regions were occupied by the Yarkand Khanate at this time and did not belong to the borders of the Ming Dynasty. With the construction of the highway to Gansu, Zhu Youxiao had already begun to prepare for the war against the Yarkand Khanate, so as to recover the Western Regions and restore the territory of the Western Regions.

Just when Zhu Youxiao was about to move the knife against the Yarkand Khanate. However, the Yarkand Khanate invaded the Yumen Pass in the winter of that year, trying to rush through the pass and plunder the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty has been conducting a trade blockade of the Yarkand Khanate for about four years, and the Yarkand Khanate has not even been able to obtain iron tools under the blockade of the Ming Dynasty. With the Ming Dynasty destroying the Houjin and defeating the Mongols, the Yarkand Khanate even more firmly banned the export of war horses to the Ming Dynasty.

However, the blockade of trade by the Ming Dynasty is indeed a troublesome matter, not to mention any silk tea, and even the iron utensils for eating can't be obtained. Of course, they can go to Usizang and the Mongols to buy it, but after all, they are second-class sellers, and the price is very high. In order to solve this problem, the Yarkand Khanate decided to attack the Ming Dynasty, hoping to make the Ming compromise through military action and reopen the border trade.

The Yarkand Khanate was menacing, entangled with seventy or eighty thousand cavalry. However, it was a tragedy when it arrived at Yumen Pass, which was not only frighteningly high on the city wall, but also replaced with heavy artillery transported from Beizhili. The heavy artillery bombardment on the city walls scared the cavalry of the Yarkand Khanate to the core.

These heavy cannons are indeed too scary, not to mention powerful, and the range is still long. And on the city walls, in addition to heavy artillery, there was also a row of medium artillery.

The Yarkand Khanate was nomadic, although not as good as the Mongols. But the people on horseback themselves are not good at attacking the city, after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the policy of building high walls, directly crushed those nomads from the productivity, no nomads can rely on the strong attack to lay down a few Ming cities, even if the Manchu Qing Dynasty later entered the pass, it was also by driving the Han army to lay down the country.

What's more, there are now so many more advanced artillery, which has crushed these nomads into scum in terms of productivity.

In the end, this invasion of the Yarkand Khanate turned into a farce. They didn't dare to bypass the Yumen Pass at all, although the Yumen Pass could still be bypassed, but what if the Ming army cut off the back road to beat the dogs?

And after seeing the sharp firearms of the Ming army, they were terrified. Even if it breaks into the territory of the Ming Dynasty, it is obvious that it will not be able to break through any city.

Every city in the Ming Dynasty has walls, but the height is different, but they are all difficult bones to gnaw. If these cities are equipped with these powerful cannons, there is no way to even get close.

Under general consideration, the Yarkand Khanate had no choice but to suspend the fighting.

However, the Yarkand Khanate took the initiative to invade the Yumen Pass of the Ming Dynasty, which was great news for Zhu Youxiao. People are calling at the doorstep, isn't that the best reason for sanctions?

In any military action, you have to find an excuse, and then hold high the banner of justice and package yourself as a representative of justice. Zhu Youxiao was worried that he couldn't find any reason to destroy the Yarkand Khanate, and originally planned to play the historical card and preach that the Western Regions had always been the territory of China. As a result, the Yarkand Khanate died by itself and took the initiative to invade the Yumen Pass of the Ming Dynasty.

It's like sleeping with a pillow.

After the Yarkand Khanate withdrew its troops and ceased fighting, they did not know that they had voluntarily bumped into the muzzle of the gun. (To be continued.) )