"Appeal ......"

At the end of Huaibei, Zhu Youzhen also took more than 50 Jinyi guards and Wang Chengen to the Yanshan camp when the Anding Gate of the capital was opened.

After galloping for an hour, they reached the Red Bridge, and the horses under their crotches reached their limits.

"Dismount! Get back to horsepower. ”

Zhu Youzhen gave an order to the left and right, then turned over and dismounted, placed a horse stool next to the grass by the river, and sat on it to rest.

The rest of the brocade guards were on guard, and only five or six unsaddled all the horses, and grazed them on the banks of the river, leaving them to drink water or eat grass.

After sitting for half an hour, seeing that the horses no longer graze, Zhu Youzhen got up and said, "Let's go." ”

As soon as he spoke, someone began to saddle the horse, and then led the horse to his side.

When he turned over and got on the horse, the others also turned over on the horse, and with a "drive", the group continued to embark on the road to the north.

The horse's hooves were slow in winter, but fortunately, the weather was good today, and there was no heavy snow, so after hurrying for half an hour, they finally saw the outer checkpoint of the Yanshan camp.

Although the soldier in charge of setting up the card knew that the person who came was Zhu Youzhen, he still had no choice but to stop him, and then said: "Your Highness......"

"Look." Zhu Youzhen was not angry, and took the initiative to hand his token from his waist to the chief flag officer in charge of setting up the card, and then after the other party let him go, the people who acted on behalf of the Jinyi guard rushed all the way to the Yanshan camp.

I didn't come back for twenty days, and I have to say that the Yanshan camp has changed a lot.

First of all, the flat land around the barracks has been turned over and low ridges have been set up.

In the distance, some people wearing winter clothes to work can be vaguely seen, and they who have been given their own ploughland, even in the cold winter in the north, can not hold back and come to work.

This is the portrayal of the people at the bottom, even if there are only a few acres of land, the men who are the pillars of the land still come to cultivate their land with hard work.

One person and one acre of land, according to the head, this does not matter men and women, adults and children.

Therefore, some families have only two or three men, but there are five or six women and children, and basically they are divided into seven or eight acres of land, and it is still relatively hard for two men and adult women to cultivate together.

Zhu Youzhen looked at them and sighed in his heart.

If you want to change the life of the people in the late Ming Dynasty, the easiest thing is to send a place.

Although Daming has 700 million mu of cultivated land on paper, the population does not exceed 200 million at most, and the per capita is 3 mu.

But in fact, the two capitals and thirteen provinces have been quite involuted, and most of the people at the bottom are landless, and can only be tenants of squires and landlords.

If he wants to move the squires and landlords, Zhu Youzhen will have to spend a lifetime fighting against them, because they can't kill them all.

Compared to this, it is easier and easier to open up to the south and northeast.

Although the Northeast Plain is currently swamps, waterholes, and dense forests, as long as the imperial court provides a large amount of grain for the people to reclaim, with the number of people at the bottom, it will definitely be able to open up most of the Northeast Plain in ten or twenty years.

Not to mention the Northeast Plain, it is the front and back sets at the foot of the Yin Mountain, Annam, the Great Ryukyu, and the Western Regions.

These places were enough to allocate a large amount of land to the people, and the only problem was the grain that was cultivated.

This path is easier for Zhu Youzhen, who has soldiers, but it can only slow down the speed of the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

If he wants to completely change the law, it is only possible if he and the strength of the good imperial brother can easily deal with all interest groups.

"Your Highness!"

Just as Zhu Youzhen was thinking this, Cao Huachun rode out of the barracks to greet him.

However, when Cao Huachun saw Wang Chengen, he was obviously stunned.

Generally speaking, it is enough for the Imperial Horse Supervisor to leave only one person, so if His Royal Highness brings Wang Chengen here, is it possible to transfer himself back to the capital?

Cao Huachun was stunned for a moment, and Zhu Youzhen also stepped forward immediately, and after taking a face to face with Cao Huachun, he directly told him about Wang An.

Wang An is Cao Huachun's stepfather, so when he learned that he was transferred to Nanchang because of his father-in-law, Cao Huachun did not have any resentment in his heart, but nodded and said:

"Your Highness has arranged that the slave maid will leave tomorrow, but before leaving, you need to tell Your Highness about the good news of the Imperial Horse Supervisor."

"Then you can say it." Zhu Youzhen smiled, rode his horse and Cao Huachun to the command post of the Imperial Horse Supervisor.

Wang Chengen also came up, after all, if he wants to manage the north field, he needs to know everything.

In this regard, Cao Huachun also bluntly explained the changes in the north field of the Imperial Horse Prison in the past 20 days:

"Your Highness, thirty officialdoms have been set up, and one hundred thousand taels of silver have also been spent."

"Miyun and Huairou together allocated a total of 14,000 acres of land and set aside 87 low mountains for poultry farms."

"Officialdom bought 2,000 breeding pigs, 5 taels and 1 head, which cost 10,000 taels, 14,000 sows, 42 taels a head, and 63,000 taels of silver, 30,000 piglets, 7 yuan a head, and cost 21,000 taels."

"A water chicken is 15 wen, and 200,000 are purchased, and a live duck is 40 wen, and more than 70,000 are purchased, and 100,000 taels of silver are spent."

"The other officialdom construction, as well as the fence surrounding the mountain, were all built by the people who came to reclaim the new fields, and the wood was taken from Yanshan and taken from the local materials."

"At present, the Seven Guards and One Battalion are fully staffed, counting the Zhejiang soldiers and Sichuan soldiers, a total of 52,200 people, and more than 42,000 taels of silver have been consumed in the past month."

"But tomorrow General Qi and General Qin will set off, and after they leave, the food expenditure of the Seven Guards and One Battalion will fluctuate around 30,000 taels to 31,000 taels."

"Every month, about 200,000 catties of pork, 800,000 catties of water chicken, and 200,000 catties of duck meat are consumed."

"24,600 stones of rice, 11,400 stones of noodles, 1,266,000 eggs, 30,000 catties of soybean oil, 2 million catties of green vegetables, 12,000 catties of salt, and 6,000 catties of other kinds of ginger and garlic."

"The price of that dish is too expensive, and at present, in the Changping area, some sun-dried vegetables cost four yuan a catty, which is almost the same as the price of an egg."

"The price of oil is also expensive, at the moment a pound of oil is forty wen, and the salt is fine, but it is unbearable to eat like this."

"Therefore, the slaves and maids made their own opinions, leaving 32 places in the Huairou area, a total of 10,000 acres of military tun fields, 7,000 acres of beans for planting, and 3,000 acres for spring planting."

"The fields will be handed over to the tenants to take care of, and after the beginning of spring, there will be 1.3 million catties of vegetables every month, and the bean fields can harvest more than 6,000 stone beans a year, and 120,000 catties of soybean oil can be produced every year, and the residues can be used to feed livestock."

Cao Huachun's sprinkling introduction made Wang Chengen too late to record, but Zhu Youzhen was very satisfied with it, and he explained:

"That pork, buy it from the outside first, wait for the piglets behind the officialdom to grow up, and then expand the officialdom, and then have a field for us to expand."

Speaking of pig raising, Zhu Youzhen became interested and remembered a friend who went to join the army with him in his previous life.

Zhu Youzhen is an ordinary infantryman, and that guy was directly assigned to the cooking class because he had a chef's certificate, and studied how to raise pigs and cook vegetables every day.

At present, the pigs of Daming are all local pigs, and there are few varieties that can grow to 300 catties, and the Huanghaihuai pig is the easiest breed to fatten at present, and it is at most about 250 catties to 80 catties.

Therefore, raising pigs is not a simple matter, and raising them is even more difficult to bear.

Zhu Youzhen specially explained to Wang Chengen and said: "The matter of raising pigs and poultry, you will hand it over to the group of people who raised pigs and chickens before the Imperial Horse Supervisor, you don't need to interfere more, as long as no one secretly sells it." ”

"The slave knows." Wang Chengen felt a little ridiculous, he didn't expect that he would still need to take care of pigs one day.

It was only after he nodded that Cao Huachun continued:

"In addition, more than 9,000 students from Yanshan Institute have been enrolled, and only 800 students have been sent by Guozijian as teachers, and they are still teaching students to read and write."

"So many ......" Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen felt pressured, after all, he needed to make out teaching materials for the students to learn.

There is only one year left at the moment, and it is estimated that he will be busy this year, especially in mathematics.

"Anything else? What happened to honeycomb coal? ”

When he said this, Zhu Youzhen and the others came to the back door of the Yamen of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, Zhu Youzhen turned over and dismounted, and Cao Huachun also said:

"I was about to say this to Your Highness."

As he spoke, he sorted out his thoughts for a while, and then took out the document book in his arms, and handed it to Zhu Youzhen with both hands:

"As of yesterday, 48.215 million catties of honeycomb coal have been sold."

"In exchange for livestock, there were 1,252 medium horses, 6,004 inferior horses, 7,615 cattle, and 67,660 sheep......

"Among them, there are 4,340 inferior horses that can be left to be bred as medium horses, and the remaining 1,664 inferior horses can be sold in Jiangnan."

"Right now, most of the grass in the grass bunch warehouse has been eaten, and we are waiting for Your Highness to come back, and then decide how many sheep and horses to send to the south to sell."

Cao Huachun said a good detail, more than 48 million catties of honeycomb coal, involving at least nearly 20,000 Mongolian households.

It's a long-term deal, and even in the spring, the Mongols are likely to be willing to trade their cattle and sheep for a small amount of honeycomb coal.

It's just that more than 1,000 horses and more than 60,000 sheep can't be sold all at once if they want to go south, so they can only be sold slowly.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen explained to Cao Huachun:

"Right now, over there in the south field, Lu Wenzhao and the others are already measuring the fields, there are too many fields, after you arrive in the south field, you can recruit the people of Jiangnan and Shandong who have no fields to come and farm."

"After ploughing, the harvest will be seventy-three points, and the south field will receive three points, and he will be responsible for handing over the fields and adding them, and then leave enough land for the imperial horse supervisor himself to use to open up cattle and sheep farms in the future."

"The ships assigned by the imperial brother to the imperial horse supervisor will be used to sell livestock to the south in the future, and half of the silver sold will be transported north and half will be left in the silver treasury of Nanchang to buy grain from the tenants in Nanchang."

"Collect as much as you want, and it is enough to leave only the silver for the normal expenses of the South Field."

"You are in charge of this fleet of livestock trafficking, and you are responsible for ordering people to drive the livestock to Tianjin Wei to board the ship." Zhu Youzhen looked at Wang Chengen, and the other party also responded.

They walked into the main hall of the backyard, and Zhu Youzhen sat in the main seat and continued to talk:

"At present, the price of mutton in Nanjing and Susong is very high, and all the sheep are directly sold in the south, and when the mutton is stable, you can put all the sheep in the cattle and sheep farm in the south of the Imperial Horse Jian for grazing."

Zhu Youzhen can be said to have calculated to the bones, and how to make money is clear to him.

After all, he has Jinyiwei in his hand, not to mention anything else, it is very simple to ask Jinyiwei to figure out the prices in the north and south.

The so-called business, in addition to relying on luck and means, is more important to fight poor intelligence.

The news of ancient times is not as well-informed as later generations, and now the prices in the Jiangdong area have risen sharply, and it is estimated that many northern livestock traders do not know about it, which can become a good start for the southern field of the Imperial Horse Prison.

More than 1,000 horses and more than 60,000 sheep are enough to sell for more than 300,000 taels of silver, and this is only a winter harvest......

If this continues, Zhu Youzhen estimates that the foreign trade of honeycomb coal alone can become an important income for the Imperial Horse Supervisor.

But what matters more now is ......

"Your Highness!"

A sudden, familiar voice called Zhu Youzhen back to reality, he looked out the door, and sure enough, he saw Man Gui wearing a mountain armor and holding a helmet in his arms.

"Come in."

Seeing Man Gui, a simple man, Zhu Youzhen also greeted with a smile: "How, how can you come to me when you have time." ”

"Hehe, Your Highness......" Man Gui has a deep affection for Zhu Youzhen, especially the other party's kindness to him, which makes him a stupid man very moved.

He walked into the main hall, and then made a gesture before he smiled and said to Zhu Youzhen:

"Sun Yingyuan is helping General Qi and Qin General to prepare the military supplies, and I want to ask His Highness if he can transfer a thousand horses to help Qi General soldiers transport military supplies to Liaoshen."

"Tune!" Zhu Youzhen stood up and said, "Let's go, let's go over together to see if their military supplies are enough." ”

After that, Zhu Youzhen walked to the back door, and Man Gui followed, and then helped Zhu Youzhen when he got on the horse.

waited for Zhu Youzhen to sit down before he turned over and got on the horse, and Zhu Youzhen also looked at him and said:

"What happened to the three thousand cavalry of the Warrior Battalion?"

"Your Highness, it's still that problem, there are not enough military horses." When Man Gui heard that this was the problem, he immediately vomited bitterness:

"According to the elite cavalry, at least one person and four horses, one horse with armor and stomach, and three horses to change horses, in order to ensure that the day travel is 180 miles, and the northern captives relied on this configuration to hit the big food side."

"Those who can be military horses must at least have the level of medium horses, but at present, there are only less than 5,000 medium horses in the army, and even one person and two horses cannot meet the standard."

Man Gui's words offended people a little, but Zhu Youzhen just liked his eloquent character.

If Man Gui was exquisite, he would be a little uneasy, so he smiled and comforted:

"All right, hasn't trade gotten more than six thousand inferior horses lately? Feed well, and then your Warrior Camp can be expanded. ”

Speaking of this, Zhu Youzhen looked at Cao Huachun next to him and said: "How many high-class horses, medium-class horses, and low-class horses are there in the north field right now?" ”

"Back to Your Highness." Cao Huachun said on horseback:

"At present, there are 1,680 upper-class horses, 12,352 medium-class horses, and 28,160 low-class horses, totaling 40,592."

"The top horses are stallions, and 7,400 of the medium horses are mares."

"Of the inferior horses, 4,600 can be trained as medium horses and used as military horses, and the remaining 23,000 are mostly inferior horses, either pulling horses or horses."

"At best, horses are used to transport baggage, carts, and plough land, while horses are used for elite foot soldiers on the march."

The number of horses in the Imperial Horse Supervisor has expanded from more than 30,000 horses when Zhu Youzhen first took over to more than 40,000.

This is only the result of two months, and at this time next year, perhaps among the medium horses of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, 20,000 can be pulled out as military horses.

Thinking of this, he explained to Wang Chengen: "Tenants who breed horse breeds can ask the chef to send some meat from time to time. ”

"The slave takes the command." Wang Chengen nodded in response, and Zhu Youzhen also smiled at Man Gui:

"You have also heard that there are 4,600 inferior horses that can be bred into military horses, counting the original more than 4,900 horses, it is already possible to ensure that your warrior battalion can have one person and three horses."

"Well, the end will be clear." Man Gui also cracked his mouth and smiled:

"Those horses are now the last generals to ask their soldiers to follow the tenants to feed, it is estimated that after the spring of next year, they will be able to grow fat and become qualified military horses."

"By the way, Your Highness." Cao Huachun suddenly opened his mouth and added to Zhu Youzhen:

"After the beginning of spring, the horses have to graze, and they can't continue to eat beans, otherwise they will be eaten down with the scale of the northern field."

"If a military horse wants not to lose weight, it must be allocated at least 30 acres of pasture, and at least 50 acres of fat gain."

"At present, there are 40,000 horses, more than 35,000 cattle, and 90,000 sheep in the north field."

"There were also three hundred and seventy camels, thirty-four elephants from Siam, and six hundred and forty donkeys."

"Among them, 30,000 sheep for the palace have to be left, at least 40,000 acres of pasture and 30,000 stone beans and 5,000 acres of sheep are needed for cattle, so the grassland that can supply horses in the north field is only 370,000 mu."

"At least ten acres for inferior horses, at least fifty acres for superior horses, at least thirty acres for medium horses, and if the selected military horses are ridden every day, they also need fifty acres."

"Therefore, only war horses require at least 830,000 mu of grassland every year, and at present, there are only 370,000 mu of grassland that can be stocked with war horses in the north field of the Imperial Horse Prison......"

Obviously, the Imperial Horse Supervisor did not have so much pasture, so how to raise horses became a problem.

Of course, Zhu Youzhen can directly ban Jizhen in Shuntianfu and Yongping Mansion after the spring of next year, and use the horse farm in Jizhen to raise horses.

But compared to this, he has a more direct way, that is, direct hay with concentrate feeding.

"The horses and the horses of the superior are to be fed with hay and concentrate, and the horses of the inferior horses are leased to the tenants who open up the wasteland for cultivation, and the horses are to be sold for five thousand in conjunction with the other inferior horses of this trade and go to the south of the Yangtze River."

When Zhu Youzhen said this, the number of horses in the Imperial Horse Supervisor was reduced by 5,000, and these were all horses that could be used for foot soldiers.

However, he is not worried that there will be not enough horses when he needs it, to put it bluntly, he has mastered the honeycomb coal, and he does not have to worry about the grassland not trading with him at all.

As long as he continued to trade, the horses would continue to pour into his hands.

Besides, he has no intention of fighting in two years, unless the situation is urgent.

Therefore, Cao Huachun also nodded after understanding his words and said that he understood.

At this time, they also rode to the northeast corner of the barracks.

This is the arsenal and granary, and at the moment there are thousands of white pole soldiers and Zhejiang soldiers gathered here.

They were constantly loading the trucks with armor, military rations, soy sauce and other things.

Not far from the loading of the car, Qi Jin, Qin Bangping, Qin Minping, Sun Yingyuan and other three people were chatting and laughing.

However, when they saw Zhu Youzhen coming, they stepped forward one after another and said to Zhu Youzhen: "Your Highness." ”

"Alright, don't be polite." Zhu Youzhen looked at the soldiers and horses who were loading the military grain, frowned and turned to Cao Huachun and said:

"How much food does the Imperial Horse Supervisor have right now?"

"Back to Your Highness, there are still 430,000 stone grain." Cao Huachun responded unhurriedly, and Zhu Youzhen waved his hand and said directly:

"Adjust 3,000 horses, and then load 16,000 stones of grain, and send 8,000 stones each to Shenyang and Liaoyang."

"Your Highness, this ......" Hearing this, Qi Jin, Qin Bangping and the others immediately stopped talking.

However, Zhu Youzhen smiled and said: "16,000 stones, it's enough for two to eat for a month and a half." ”

"If it is a month and a half after the siege of Jincheng in the coming year, a lot of things can be saved."

Zhu Youzhen is of great significance, after all, in his opinion, Nurhachi has already figured out the foundation of Liaodong, and it is very likely that he will attack again.

Even if the Zhejiang soldiers and Sichuan soldiers went to Liaodong, I am afraid they would not be able to stop Nurhachi.

If he didn't occupy Liaodong, then only a few small fields in Hetuala, Tieling, Kaiyuan, Fushun and the Northeast Guards would not be able to support more than 200,000 Houjin soldiers and civilians and hundreds of thousands of Han people.

Nurhachi must get Liaonan in order to have a chance to breathe.

"In that case, it is better for the general to be respectful than to obey his command." Hearing Zhu Youzhen say this, Qi Jin could only return the salute with his fists, and Qin Bangping and the others were too.

Instead, Zhu Youzhen looked at Qin Bangping and said, "Old lady Ma Qin, did you say anything before leaving?" ”

"She said that Banzai and His Royal Highness gave her so much silver, and she would definitely train 10,000 soldiers and horses by the end of the next year, and then take 10,000 soldiers and horses north to aid Liao."

Qin Liangyu's words made Zhu Youzhen nod secretly, which means that after the end of the next year, he will have at least 80,000 people in his hands.

At that time, if Liaozhen still can't solve the problem, he will transfer all 80,000 horses to Liaodong.

Then regain Kaiyuan, Tieling, Fushun, and drag Nurhachi directly to death in the Xiaoice River drought.

Thinking of this, he said deeply to Qi Jin, Qin Bangping and others:

"The generals will leave tomorrow, and they won't drink tonight."

"I have brought a lot of bear's paws and tribute tea from the palace, and I will invite you to go to the backyard of the yamen later, and I will practice it for you."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Qi Jin and the others raised their hands, and Zhu Youzhen glanced at the Zhejiang soldiers and Sichuan soldiers who were still busy, and couldn't help but sigh secretly in his heart:

"I don't know how many of these people will survive in a year's time......"

After the sigh ended, he and Qi Jin and others went to the Yamen of the Imperial Horse Prison, where everyone replaced the wine with tea and ate the meals cooked by the chef of the East Palace, until it was completely dark, and then they said goodbye one after another.

Early in the morning of the second day, Zhu Youzhen also got up early in the morning, took Sun Yingyuan and Man Gui, as well as the soldiers of the Qiwei and 1st Battalion, and stood on both sides of the east gate of the Yanshan camp, watching Qi Jin and others drag a long line towards Liaodong.

It was also when the Zhejiang and Sichuan soldiers marched to Liaodong, and the layout of the southwest began to slowly take effect......