Li Jiaozheng said: "In this way, there will be no more problems." ”

Chongzhen stared at Li Jiaozheng and began to fall into deep thought, and said in his heart, should you give him a chance?

Li Jiaozheng mistakenly thought that Chongzhen was worried about the silver, and immediately said: "Shengshang, in fact, the construction of lake embankments and river embankments is a huge investment in the early stage, but once the lake embankment and river embankment are completed, the huge expenditure in the early stage can be offset by selling the lake fields and river fields, and there can even be a surplus after the payment." ”

"Koda and Eda?" Chongzhen's eyes lit up when he heard this.

Only then did Chongzhen remember that Pan Ji also sold polders when he tamed the Yellow River.

"Holy Lord, look over there." Li Jiaozheng stretched out his hand and pointed to a large beach not far away, and said, "This beach is as much as 10,000 acres, but because it is too close to the lake, the seepage water is serious and becomes a mudflat, and it will be flooded by the rising lake water every flood season, so it is impossible to cultivate normally." ”

"But if the embankment is built, this piece of land will be fertile land if it is slightly renovated."

After saying this, he said: "How many places like this tidal flat are on the shore of Dongting Lake? After the lake embankment is repaired, at least one million acres of fertile land will be at your fingertips. ”

Chongzhen couldn't help but feel a little emotional when he heard this.

This is the difference between a capable official and a mediocre official, who will only take a step forward with a whip, but a capable official can carry out his work creatively, not only to do his job as well as possible, but also to find ways to reduce expenditure and increase income.

"Okay, I remember what you said." Chongzhen said happily, "Go back and listen to the letter." ”

After sending Li Jiaozheng and a group of subordinate officials away, Chongzhen immediately wrote a letter and arranged for a special person to send it to Nanjing to be handed over to the cabinet.

Of course, Chongzhen was only a "suggestion", suggesting that the cabinet should let Li Jiaozheng, the prefect of Yuezhou, be the right governor of the imperial history and control the water imperial history, and be responsible for all water conservancy projects in Huguang.

At the same time, he also wrote a letter to Ma Mingluo.

Let Ma Mingluo prepare for the construction of the water conservancy grain silver number, raising a total of 20 million taels of silver.

The 20 million taels of silver need to be earmarked for special use, and will only be used for water conservancy in Huguang.

However, the construction of water conservancy projects will not directly generate profits, and if there are no benefits, it will certainly be impossible for the gentry and merchants in Jiangnan to raise funds, so they have to be linked to the grain trading in Huguang Province.

In other words, in the future, Huguang's grain will be purchased and sold by the water conservancy grain silver number.

In this way, the water conservancy grain silver will become profitable, and someone will subscribe to it.

Moreover, there is another advantage of the unified purchase and marketing of grain in Huguang by the water conservancy grain silver number, that is, to prevent black-hearted grain merchants from maliciously lowering grain prices.

In fact, Chongzhen's current layout is actually falling in this direction.

For example, the industrial and commercial silver account is a powerful grip used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to control industry and commerce.

For example, the shipping shipbuilding silver is a powerful grip used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to control the shipping industry.

Another example is the water conservancy grain silver number, which is a powerful lever used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to control the purchase and sale of grain throughout the country.

As for the millions of acres of lakes and rivers that were added after Li Jiaozheng repaired the lake embankment and the river embankment, these were first-class fertile fields, which were specially used to settle the town soldiers in Wuchang.

Wuchang Zhentai will become a demonstration project that Chongzhen strives to build.

The Tusi of Guangxi, Xiangxi, and Yunguichuan can be successfully changed and returned to the river depends on Wuchang Zhentai.

Chongzhen is now becoming more and more proficient in the use of financial tools, and without spending a tael of silver, the white wolf with empty gloves can get 20 million silver from the pocket of the Jiangnan gentry, which is specially used to build water conservancy projects in Huguang.

After the major task of building and repairing water conservancy was completed, the renovation work of the vast granary of the lake was basically completed.

Chongzhen believes that at least before the population of Daming has ushered in explosive growth, there should be no more food crisis, after all, in addition to the Huguang granary, Xuzhou, Guide and Kaifeng will also start large-scale planting of sweet potatoes, baogu and potatoes this year, so the food crisis is unlikely to break out again.

After there is no agricultural instability and food security is guaranteed, at least the Ming Dynasty will not riot again.

Once the territory of the Ming Dynasty is settled, the common people will only think about living a peaceful life, and at this time, they can concentrate the strength of the whole country to launch the Northern Expedition against Jiannu.

……

In mid-March, Chongzhen returned to Wuchang.

At this time, 270,000 new troops had already marched to Wuchang and were stationed in Hanyang, Wuchang and Huangzhou respectively to continue their arduous training.

Among them, 20,000 new troops were stationed in the newly built iron-smelting workshop at the northern foot of Guishan.

As soon as he returned to Wuchang, Chongzhen heard the good news that the first iron-making furnace of the Hanyang Iron Smelting Factory had been completed, and the first furnace of molten iron had been smelted three days ago.

Chongzhen was overjoyed and was about to cross the river to Hanyang Mansion to have a look, but received a secret letter from Zuo Maodi from Xi'an.

When the letter was opened, Jiannu actually launched a surprise attack on naturalization before the beginning of spring, which caught Pseudo-Shun off guard, because Pseudo-Shun and Khalkha, Chahar and Junggar tribes agreed on the time to gather troops in the autumn of this year, and as a result, Jiannu started before the beginning of spring.

Dorgon is said to have conscripted more than 200,000 troops and surrounded the city of Naturalization.

Li Yan, who was stationed in the naturalized area, organized several counterattacks, but they were all defeated by Jiannu.

Zuo Maodi specifically mentioned Jiannu's firearms unit in the secret letter, saying that Jiannu invented a self-generated firearm, which was more convenient and lethal than the previous arquebus, and seemed to be more lethal.

Because firearms were not as sharp as Jiannu, Li Yan's several counterattacks were disintegrated.

However, Jiannu did not rush to launch a strong attack, but began to dig a trench around the Naturalization City.

Hearing that the naturalization was urgent, Gao Yigong, the puppet general of Shunquan, immediately led the main force of the rear battalion out of the Hetao and went to the rescue, but near Junzijin, he was blocked by the Jiannu army led by Dolgon, and it was difficult for a while.

Well, this has become a flip board for the Battle of Songjin, the Battle of Xuzhou is like this, and the War of Naturalization is still like this.

Jiannu can also be regarded as a taste of marrow, because he tasted the sweetness, so every time he encountered a tough battle, he would catch the medicine again according to the Songjin War.

After Chongzhen read the intensive, he handed it to Zhu Cijiong.

Zhu Cijiong read it and gave it to Xu Yingwei and Yan Yingyuan.

After the three of them finished reading, Chongzhen said, "Let's talk about it." ”

"Jiannu is sending reinforcements at the encirclement point." Zhu Cijiong said, "The attack on Guihua City is just an illusion, and its real intention is to lure the main force of the puppet Shun's rear battalion from the Hetao to the grassland and then annihilate it in the field battle. ”

Xu Yingwei said: "The minister thinks that the siege of Jiannu is true, and it is also true to send reinforcements. ”

Yan Yingyuan said: "Yes, Dolgon wants to complete the battle and eliminate the threat from the direction of the Tumut River and the Hetao through this battle. ”

After saying this, Yan Yingyuan said again: "Compared with the battle of naturalization, the minister thinks that the self-generated firearm newly equipped by Jiannu mentioned by Lord Zuo in the secret letter is more noteworthy, and this is likely to be a flintlock pistol. ”

Chongzhen said: "It's not very likely, it's a flintlock pistol at all." ”

After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "And I can guess who made it for Jiannu." ”

"John Soup." Zhu Cijiong said with a dark face, "Qin Tianjian Zheng Tang Ruowang was originally a missionary from the West, so he must have seen a flintlock pistol, and it is not surprising that he can make it. ”

Yan Yingyuan said: "Holy Lord, this person should be eliminated as soon as possible." ”

"It's not easy." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "I have already instructed Li Ruolian to eradicate Tang Ruowang when he has the opportunity, but Li Ruolian replied that the church where Tang Ruowang lives is garrisoned by hundreds of Jiannu Red Armor La, and there are white armor soldiers accompanying him when he enters and leaves, so he can't find a mobile phone at all, and he can't even get close." ”

After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "But you don't have to worry too much. ”

The flintlock pistol is not the same as the flintlock pistol, with a sharp flintlock pistol, there must be a flintlock pistol tactics, otherwise the flintlock pistol is just a strengthened version of the arquebus, and the combat effectiveness is difficult to subversively improve.

In terms of tactics, the Ming army had an incomparable advantage over Jiannu.

Chongzhen asked again: "Let's all talk about it, which one has a better chance of winning the battle of naturalization?" ”

Zhu Cijiong said: "Erchen thinks that the pseudo-shun has a greater chance of winning, and the pseudo-shun's post-camp general Gao Yigong may not be as good as Hong Chengchou, but Zhang Neng, Ma Chongxi and other generals in the rear camp are much stronger than Li Fuming, Wang Pu, and Ma Ke, and the border troops of the eight towns such as Datong, Xuanfu and Jizhen cannot be compared with the pseudo-Shun rear camp at all, so Erchen thinks that it is impossible for Jiannu to repeat the story of Songjin, and this time if it is not good, he will have to plant a big fight." ”

Yan Yingyuan said: "The minister's view is just the opposite of that of the king, the minister thinks that the victory of Jiannu in this war is greater, from Shanhaiguan to Guguan and then to Tongguan, the pseudo-shun and Jiannu have never won the frontal battle, compared to my Ming border army is not much stronger, not to mention that the naturalization war pseudo-shun does not have the slightest advantage in terms of troops. ”

After saying this, Yan Yingyuan said again: "And more importantly, the number of firearms equipped by the puppet Shun army is not large and far less sharp than that of Jiannu, so the chances of victory are slim. ”

Chongzhen's gaze turned to Xu Yingwei, who was still thinking.

"Xu Yingwei, what about you?" Chongzhen asked directly, "What do you think?" ”

Xu Yingwei said: "Holy Lord, the minister thought that it would be unpredictable to defeat this, but if it was only a big battle between the puppet Shunhou camp and Jiannu, the puppet Shunhou camp would be defeated, but if the puppet Shun poured the country's troops to naturalize and fight a decisive battle with Jiannu, and at the same time, Khalkha, Junggar and Chahar and other Mongolian tribes also rushed to help in the war, then Jiannu would definitely be defeated!" ”

Chongzhen smiled: "If you say so, only God knows if this victory is true." ”

Zhu Cijiong said: "Father, should we also step in and send troops from the direction of Henan to respond?" ”

"We're not going to join in the fun." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "While Jiannu is fighting with the puppet Shun now, we just put down the rebellion in Yunnan first, and if there is still time, we will destroy Zhang Xianzhong by the way." ”

All in all, unless the pseudo-shun is in danger of destroying the country, the Ming Dynasty will never send troops to deal with it.

Under the premise that the pseudo-shun will not destroy the country, the more ruthless and miserable the two families fight, the more beneficial it is to the Ming Dynasty.