The news of the great victory soon spread throughout the capital, and gradually spread to the world under the spread of Nanzhen Fusi Jinyiwei.

For a while, everyone knew one thing, that is, the situation in Liaodong was not so bad, and the imperial court could still expand its territory while defending the territory.

Therefore, the rich rich peasants and small and medium-sized landlords celebrated, and even the poor peasants gritted their teeth and killed the chickens, and celebrated with joy.

The only people who are not happy are probably the big merchants and big landowners, the gentry, and ......

"That's the news you brought me?"

"The end will be a capital offense! But the last general brought back Engdel and his two thousand cavalry! ”

On April 27, with the news of the defeat, Shuo Zhen returned to Shenyang.

Along the way, dozens of soldiers and horses under his command died due to the wounds and illnesses of the Bayo Department in the first battle, so that almost a single Niu Lu's troops were buried in the Bayo Department.

Fortunately, Shuo Shu brought back Engdel, who had no way out, and two thousand Mongolian armored cavalry, otherwise Nurhachi would not care whether he was his own grandson or not, and would act in accordance with military law.

For him, all the children are just tools for him to maintain his rule.

Whether it is Dai Shan or Huang Taiji, they are just tools, once they affect their rule, no one can not kill!

From this point of view, Nurhachi has the characteristics of a hero.

Thinking of Engdel and the two thousand Mongol armored cavalry, Nurhachi calmed down for a moment, and then reopened his eyes and looked at Shuo Zhen who was kneeling in the military tent and said:

"Let's talk about it, the Ming army ......"

"They are different from the rest of the Ming army!" As soon as Shuo Zhen heard this, he knew that he didn't have to die, so he hurriedly explained the difference between Yu Linwei.

"The short guns in their hands are very similar to the Wansheng Franc machines used by the Ming army in the Battle of Korea, but the difference is that the bullets they fired are extremely powerful and extremely accurate."

"When the Liaodong cavalry uses bird guns and three-eyed guns, even if there are more than 5,000 people, they can only kill seventy or eighty people of our army at close range, but this group is different, just one round of face attack, I and Engdel's men and horses fell from no less than 200 people."

"I deliberately saw when I fell from my horse, and some of the armor soldiers were even pierced with double armor, and the distance between them and us should have been about five paces at that time."

"And they have one man and three horses, each wearing triple armor, although they are not as flexible as the Liaodong cavalry, but our blunt soldiers cannot inflict fatal damage on them in an instant."

"Therefore, it was only two rounds of face assault and one round of short combat, and I gave the order to retreat!"

Shuo Xuan finished talking about what he knew about Yu Linwei, but Nurhachi had a calm face and didn't speak for a long time.

In the midst of Shuo's apprehension, Nurhachi spoke:

"I see, you quit and call all the Baylors and generals into the accounts!"

"Yes!" Hearing this, Shuo Zhen immediately breathed a sigh of relief, withdrew from the big tent, and saw Dai Shan with a worried look.

"Huh ......" saw Shuo Cheng come out, Dai Shan, who was a father, breathed a sigh of relief, and Shuo Cheng also spoke:

"Amma, Marfa (grandpa) told you to go in......"

"Hmm......" Dai Shan patted Shuo Zhen's shoulder as a sign of comfort, and then walked into the big tent.

The other Baylors and generals in the crowd also bowed their heads to him, and one by one they entered the tent.

After all of them had entered the big tent, Shuo Xue left the place, and inside the big tent, Nurhachi told everyone everything that Shuo Zhen had seen, and finally did not forget to say:

"There are better guns in the Ming army, and you must remember this when you fight them, and take precautions."

"The Legend of the Fairy Tree"

After Nurhachi finished speaking, Huang Taiji immediately spoke: "It's not difficult for this thing to block it, the Ming army's "soft wall" and "rigid and soft card" can resist, but the cost is very expensive. ”

Where there is a spear, there is a shield, and the Ming army has long explored a way to defend against birds and firearms in the long war, but it is just that there is no money to make it.

For example, the "soft wall" in Huang Taiji's mouth is made of wood, seven feet high and six feet wide, mixed with water after the old cotton wool board is solidified, and hung on the wooden frame, so that the soldiers can push it away and block the lead bullets."

In addition, it is the rigid and soft shield recorded in the "New Book of Ji Xiao" compiled by Qi Jiguang.

This kind of shield weighs fifteen catties, is framed with balsa wood, covered with raw cowhide on both sides, nailed with nails, the surface of the cowhide is waterproof, coated with gray paint and oil, there are two layers of quilt sandwiched between the cowhide, and there is a thick paper layer kneaded with tissue paper between the two layers of quilt.

Such a structure is equivalent to a simple composite shield.

According to the records, this kind of rigid and flexible brand weighs fifteen pounds and can resist the shot of the musket at a distance of about sixty meters, but when the distance is shortened to forty or fifty meters, it can not resist the shot of the musket, but if it is thickened repeatedly, then about thirty meters can also block the lead bullet.

However, although the bulletproof effect of this shield is okay, there is a big problem that makes it impossible to equip it on a large scale, that is, it is too expensive, and the cost of making one side is more than five taels.

With the finances of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible for soldiers to be equipped with such good shields, but for the Later Jin, this is not impossible to study.

Therefore, after Huang Taiji's explanation, Nurhachi said:

"If this kind of gun doesn't appear on the battlefield this time, I will leave it alone for the time being, and when this battle is over, cotton and hardwood will be collected after the autumn harvest to make it."

"As long as you can prevent this new bird gun, the cavalry of the Ming army still can't compare with my Dajin."

"Yes!" Hearing this, everyone bowed their heads.

At this time, Nurhachi also continued:

"Shenyang continues to besiege, Fengji and Wujing Battalion, Wang Datun and other forts and some walled forts, find an opportunity to use iron cannons to knock down!"

"Yes!" The congregation responded, knowing that with the passage of time and the destruction of Bayo, Daikin's food would be in crisis.

Once the food is cut off, then without the Ming Court's action, they will have to starve to death in the remnants of Changbai Mountain......

The best thing to do now is to do what Nurhachi said, to lay down all the stone forts between Liaoshen and get food from them, so that Dajin can hold out until the beginning of spring next year.

However, after talking about the deployment for Liao Shen, Dai Shan spoke again:

"Khan Ama, is it possible that the cavalry of the Ming army outside the fortress will attack Kaiyuan and Tieling?"

"Maybe it's a sheep attack." Huang Taiji hit the nail on the head, but Nurhachi frowned and said:

"The method they used was just to encircle Wei and save Zhao."

"If I don't send reinforcements to Tieling and Kaiyuan, they will storm both places, and if we send reinforcements, then they will flee and attack the rest of the Great Wall."

"This ploy doesn't look like Xiong Tingbi's style." Huang Taiji explained:

"Xiong Tingbi's style still likes to fight steadily and steadily, sending guests to help Liao, rather than directly choosing to go to Guanwai and cut off my big gold arm."

"It's really not Xiong Tingbi's style......" Nurha's red gaze was calm, and then he spoke:

"At the moment, Liao Shen is the most important thing, as for Kaiyuan and Tieling, Ji'er Harang will support Qinghe Pass with the troops of Liangjiala, and they only need to be garrisoned."

"Hold until the autumn harvest, even if you can't defeat Shenyang, you can harvest a batch of grain and grass and besiege Shenyang in winter."

"Winter is not good for us, and even more so for the Ming army!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Nurhachi dismissed everyone, and the situation in Liaodong began to change, and Shenyang City was the first to bear it.

"Jianyu has retired from the army......"

At the head of Shenyang City, He Shixian excitedly hammered his hand on the women's wall, but Qin Bangping said with a blank face:

"It's not a retreat, they're ...... troop transfers"

"The direction is south, it should be going to besiege Fengji and other stone forts." You Shigong's face was ugly, and he obviously understood how bad the situation would be after Shenyang if Fengji and other forts were breached.

"There must be a change in the situation, otherwise the old slave is categorically reluctant to use Jianyu to attack the city!" He Shixian is still very optimistic, and his words also made everyone bow slightly.

Seeing this, Qin Minping also said to Qin Bangping: "The food in the city is still enough to eat for more than half a year, and the old slave is estimated to be unable to beat it." ”

"If you can't beat it, you can't beat it, but if Fengji and other places are breached, my generals and people in Liaodong will be killed and injured by tens of thousands." Qin Bangping frowned.

"And that's not all." Qin Banghan added:

"If the old slave drives the people from these places to Shenyang, then we can only accept the people, otherwise we will be impeached by the imperial history and the generals of Liaozhen, and we will lose the hearts of the people in Liaodong."

"But once the people are received, with the grain and grass in the city, they will not be able to bear it until mid-August at most."

"The most important thing is to rout!" You Shigong clenched his fists, and the anger in his heart was inextinguishable:

"No one knows whether these Liao people have taken refuge in Jianyu, if they make trouble after entering the city, then under the internal and external attacks, it will be difficult to hold on to our people and horses!"

"Believe in the Fifth Highness! It's enough to stay until July! Qin Bangping finally set the tone and put his hope on Zhu Youzhen.

He didn't know that his fifth highness had been crowned King of Qi, and he swept away the Bayo Department, which hit Houjin's morale.

He set his eyes on the outside of the city, looking at the Houjin camp in the distance, and his heart was full of mixed feelings.

At the same time as he had mixed feelings, thousands of miles away in the Manshakou area in the south of Yongping Prefecture, tens of thousands of people were working in full swing.

On the endless plain, some people, under the command of the students and teachers of the Yanshan Institute, carefully cultivated some seeds that they had never seen.

If anyone in the future could see this, they would surely cry out corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and peppers!

In this vast plain with tens of thousands of people, tens of thousands of cultivated cattle, and more than 100,000 acres of cultivated land, there are many "cultural people" wearing short and white skins standing in one of the places.

"The territory of my Ming Dynasty is vast, the temperature difference between the north and the south is relatively large, and the planting time of potatoes in different regions is also different......"

In the field, Zhu Youzhen, who was dressed in a short beat, was taking twelve chief teachers to teach them the habits and planting characteristics, time, place and methods of potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes and other things.

Corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes were actually introduced to the Ming Dynasty in Wanli and earlier, but because they could not master the correct planting methods and species characteristics, they were not outstanding in terms of grain area.

This situation will not come to an end until Xu Guangqi and others study and write the "New Book of Agricultural Administration".

However, for Zhu Youzhen now, as a former poverty alleviation cadre, he can't say anything about crops such as wheat, corn, and sorghum, but he is a poverty alleviator in the mountainous areas, and he can be said to be familiar with the planting methods of these three crops.

He followed the steps by placing the sliced and sprouted potatoes into a pit where they already had base fertilizer, then filled in the soil and watered the wet soil.

After doing all this, he said to the chief teachers:

"Generally speaking, potatoes are grown between October and December in most areas, and depending on the temperature of the region throughout the year, it is possible to plant according to the temperature at that time."

"However, in recent years, the climate has gradually become colder, so it can only be planted in April ~ May."

"If it's warm, it can be planted in January, February and September, so the time to plant potatoes is basically determined by the temperature, and if so, you can decide what to plant according to the local temperature."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youzhen said emphatically:

"When it comes to planting potatoes, you must not make a mistake, you must first cut them into pieces and then sprout them, and then you can plant them in the soil."

"Don't expose yourself to sunlight when germinating, just make sure the ambient temperature is right."

After Zhu Youzhen finished speaking, a familiar face immediately raised his hand, and Zhu Youzhen also smiled when he saw this: "Yang Lu, you can say it." ”

It was Yang Lu who raised his hand that Shen Lian brought back, and after he was allowed to speak, he asked:

"Your Highness, you only said the method of planting, but what about the disease?"

"The main diseases are late blight and ......" Zhu Youzhen explained the diseases that may be encountered in planting potatoes, and the twelve chief teachers recorded while listening.

In the end, they followed Zhu Youzhen to the corn and sweet potato fields, and under Zhu Youzhen's teaching and explanation, they recorded the planting methods, planting time and crop characteristics of the three crops.

However, the only thing that gave Zhu Youzhen some headaches was the issue of grain yields per mu of the three crops.

In fact, these three crops have been brought back by Lu Wenzhao for more than two months, but Zhu Youzhen did not promote them on a large scale as soon as his brain was hot, but used the millions of acres of cultivated land in the Imperial Horse Supervision Yard as a test field after the rice planting was completed.

Among them, corn is planted the most, potatoes and sweet potatoes are equal, and crops such as peppers and tomatoes are only planted on a few thousand acres.

Because the planting was illegal at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the yield of various crops was touching, and Zhu Youzhen was not sure how much he could plant per mu.

However, he came here in Yongping, not only for the test field, but also for ......

Thinking of this, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked out to the sea.

I saw that on the seaside, there were tens of thousands of people working in full swing.

Some of them boiled glutinous rice, some fried soil, some dug soil, and some stirred lime, pottery powder and crushed stone, and finally mixed glutinous rice and fried soil to transport it to the beach.

A vast shallow beach had been fenced off with wooden signs, and the sand of the beach had been dug and removed, leaving a low ground that spread for more than ten miles.

Around these low lands, the shape of the city wall was tamped out by the three-fold soil, and it was a hundred steps deep and forty-five miles long.

The more than 6,000 acres of lowland are surrounded by rammed earth walls, and the lowlands in it are also filled with and compacted by the three-layer soil that is constantly transported in.

The side near the sea is almost three inches below the water, and the deeper you go to the shore, the deepest being one foot high.

This means that as soon as you take apart the wooden plaque, the sea water will pour into the slope, and then when the wooden plaque is inserted, the sea water will be resisted by the wooden plaque and the rammed earth wall.

Zhu Youzhen had never seen a salt drying field, so he could only use this stupid method to make salt, but fortunately, with the encouragement of fifteen literary wages a day, tens of thousands of former military households and ordinary people flocked to it, and in just ten days, the salt drying field had begun to take shape.

"Your Highness, at this rate, you will be able to dry salt in about a month, but I don't know how much salt this salt field can produce."

Wang Chengen was wearing a short beat, accompanied Zhu Youzhen, and handed over a towel and herbal tea to wipe his sweat.

After Zhu Youzhen took it, he smiled after taking a sip: "No matter how much you produce, you always make money." ”

"It's a pity, there are too many things at the moment, otherwise you can dry salt in Liaodong and Shandong."

"By the way......" Zhu Youzhen reacted, and then said: "What did Lu Jianxing say over there?" ”

Wang Chengen understood that His Royal Highness was talking about silver, so he replied:

"On April 20, Lu Jianxing asked his 100 households to sink and escort 500,000 taels of silver to the north, according to his letter, he still has more than 800,000 taels of silver in his hand, but for business, he can only keep it for the time being."

"In addition, on May 13, the sea ship bound for Japan will return, and it will probably receive 150,000 taels of silver, which will be directly transported to Tianjin and handed over to the Dagu camp, and the Dagu camp will send people to transport the Yanshan camp."

"How much silver is left in the treasury?" Zhu Youzhen nodded with satisfaction, and then asked about the silver deposit in the silver vault.

"In the past few months, the expenses of the 16th Guards and the 12th Battalion have been too great, with a monthly expenditure of nearly 70,000 taels of silver, plus the expenses of the armor factory and the ordnance station, and now the treasury is only more than 853,000 taels of silver, and there are still more than 1,140,000 stone of military rations."

Wang Chengen said the treasury silver and grain storage, and then hesitated for a while before saying:

"Your Highness, with the scale of officialdom, I'm afraid it won't be able to feed the Sixteen Guards and the Twelve Battalions like the previous standards."

"Nearly twenty percent of meat needs to be purchased, eighty percent can be self-sufficient, and the vegetable shop can only supply more than two million catties of vegetables, so under the purchase, the price of Yongping in Shuntianfu has risen a little."

"In the past, 100 catties of vegetables were only 30 Wen, but now they need 35 Wen, and the water chicken has also risen to 18 Wen, if it continues, I am afraid it will be more ......"

Wang Chengen's face was a little ugly, and Zhu Youzhen also understood that it was not a way to go on like this.

At present, the Imperial Horse Supervisor is using more than 26 million mu of cultivated land in the north and south fields to support nearly 110,000 horses of the 16 Guards and 12 battalions.

This sounds like an average of more than 200 acres of land to support one person, but in fact, because nearly 20 million military tuntian can only get the harvest after three transaction taxes, it is still a little difficult.

In real terms, it should be 110,000 people with 10 million acres of land.

Compared with the previous difficulty of raising more than 40,000 people on millions of acres, it is much greater.

And to solve this problem is also very simple, that is, to expand the fields, mountains.

Breeding officialdom is the cheapest and most cost-effective in the mountains, but the officialdom that can be opened at the foot of Yanshan has been almost opened, and if you want to continue, you can only develop to Shanxi.

So after Wang Chengen complained, Zhu Youzhen said:

"The upper guards and the Gongwei battalion must eat well enough, and the outer Gongwei battalion in the future can be reduced to one meal of meat a day."

"In addition, the order of the three towns in Shanxi to transfer troops has been issued, and I estimate that they will arrive at the Yanshan camp in late May, and when the time comes, after the internal money will bring in the silver, stabilize them and let them go to Liaodong first."

"As long as Sun Yingyuan doesn't make a mistake, Nurhachi should hastily return to Hetuara later."

"When the time comes, we will also be able to attack the three towns of Shanxi......

Zhu Youzhen squinted slightly, and Wang Chengen was also in good spirits.

As far as the current situation is concerned, Zhu Youzhen has figured out the strength of Karaqin defended by Jizhen, at most 30,000 horsemen.

In other words, the current 16th Guards and 12th Battalion are really a bit wasteful to only defend the northern frontier of Beizhili.

In this case, it is enough to transfer troops to Shanxi, and then build a few more battalions.

Even what soldiers to transfer and how many to transfer, Zhu Youzhen also thought of it.

The Great Wall of Shanxi is 1,500 miles, plus the internal passes, at least sixteen battalions of troops are needed.

That is to say, at that time, the expenditure of the Imperial Horse Supervisor will be more than 16 battalions of troops, and the additional expenditure will be more than 2.4 million taels.

The exchange of more than 2.4 million taels for tens of millions of acres of military tun fields in Shanxi, as well as more than 3 million taels of military salaries, is enough to be cost-effective.

As long as the three towns in Shanxi are successfully abolished, Daming's military expenditure can be reduced to about 50 percent of its finances, and its finances will be basically flat.

However, at that time, the pressure on the Imperial Horse Supervisor will be great, so it is necessary to open up new financial revenue, and this income is the Huangdian and salt farm model!

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen said to Wang Chengen:

"On the side of the breeding officialdom, don't worry about it for the time being, if the meat prices in Shuntian Mansion and Yongping Mansion rise too much, then use the livestock of the officialdom."

"What I want you to prepare now is to raise the people who will open the imperial store, and the salt drying period will end in four months, and the private salt hoarded at that time will be sold in the imperial store."

"If the market sells six wen, we will sell five wen, and if they sell five wen, we will sell four."

"Shuntianfu and Yongping Mansion, plus the three towns of Shanxi and the remaining prefectures and counties of Beizhili that may be abolished later, after the abolition of these places, the military households that divide the fields will ask them to buy our private salt."

"Slave and maid command!" Hearing Zhu Youzhen's words, Wang Chengen's eyes lit up.

Yes, they have a natural advantage in the Horse Warden, and that is that they have millions of tenants under their command.

These millions of people, even if they only eat three catties of salt a year, they can consume tens of millions of catties of salt, and if you add the people of the state capital, then the area covered by the imperial store of the Imperial Horse Supervisor is too wide.

It's just a pity......

Thinking of one thing, Wang Chengen said regretfully: "It's just a pity that the imperial store in Nanchang was resisted by Jiangnan officials, people, and businessmen, otherwise Nanchang alone would have more than 200,000 taels of private salt income." ”

"Let them run rampant for a while......" Zhu Youzhen also frowned slightly, very uncomfortable that the Imperial Horse Prison Nanchang Imperial Store could not be opened in Jiangnan.

But he also knows that he currently does not have the strength to directly lay out Jiangnan, and he does not have sufficient talents and soldiers, so he still has to maintain face-saving peace with the Jiangnan scholars.

He looked up at the great sea, and muttered to himself:

"When I abolish the guards of the Nine Sides and the five northern provinces, you will be next!"