"The forty-two Mongolian tribes of Hetao, Beizhen Fusi needs to pay attention and find out their respective nomadic positions for me."

As soon as Zhu Youzhen spoke, Cao Huachun and Lu Wenzhao knew that the good days of the Hetao Department were numbered.

They all know their Highness, and they are obviously a lord who is unwilling to suffer.

This time, the Hetao Department plundered and killed tens of thousands of Ming people, and such a feud must be repaid with blood.

The nomadic scale is explored in order to facilitate the subsequent sweeping.

If you want to stop fighting guerrilla warfare with this group of guys and end the battle quickly, it is necessary to probe for intelligence.

Lu Wenzhao responded, while Zhu Youzhen looked sideways at Cao Huachun and said:

"How much is the ordnance of Yanshan Institute, and how much worse is the equipment of soldiers and horses?"

Seeing Zhu Youzhen's inquiry, Cao Huachun responded:

"In addition to the 230 artillery pieces transferred to Sun Yingyuan's headquarters in the south, there are 919 5-kilogram guns, 325 10-kilogram cannons, 135 20-kilogram cannons, and 95 24-kilogram cannons."

"These guns have not yet been transferred to the Sixteenth Guards, because you have not yet ordered how to distribute them."

"On the contrary, the cavalry and the short cavalry, the four cavalry guards have all been equipped with cavalry, and in the nine guards infantry army, the infantry guns have been fully equipped according to 3,000 guards per guard."

"At present, the Ninth Guards Infantry Army still lacks cavalry and artillery, and there are more than 6,000 cavalry guns in stock, more than 9,000 infantry guns, and 72,000 war horses."

Cao Huachun said the inventory of the Yanshan Ordnance Institute, and after Zhu You listened, he spoke directly:

"Allocate 6,000 cavalry guns and 9,000 infantry guns to the cavalry of Daning Sanwei, and the artillery ......"

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, and then spoke:

"Transferred 619 five-pound cannons and 200 ten-pound cannons, and transported them to the three cities of Liaoyang, Shenyang, and Kuandian respectively."

"Among the four cavalry guards, each guard allocates 600 people as gunners, and each guard has 50 artillery pieces and 5 pounds of artillery."

"The four cavalry guards only have five-pound cannons, and the other nine-foot guards are mainly five-pound and ten-pound artillery, with one hundred guards each."

"After satisfying the four cavalry guards, the remaining nineteen five-pound cannons and one hundred and twenty-five ten-catty cannons will go to Daning Sanwei."

"As for the 20 catties and 24 catties of artillery, they will be transferred to Tianjin, handed over to the three guards of the navy, and let them divide it themselves."

"Slave maid takes the order......" Hearing His Royal Highness say this, Cao Huachun received the order, and Zhu Youzhen continued to ask:

"How many clay molds are made per month in the artillery factory? How much success? Going all out to build artillery, how much does it cost two silver? ”

Several questions were asked, but for Cao Huachun, it was not difficult to answer:

"Back to Your Highness, the artillery factory manufactures 1,000 five-pound cannons, 500 ten-pound cannons, 300 20-kilogram cannons, and 100 24-kilogram cannons every month."

"The probability of success is about 30%, the monthly production of artillery is about 550~700, and the silver consumption is about 60,000 to 90,000 taels."

"As for the arsenal factory, it will cost more than twelve thousand taels of silver every month."

"But ......" Speaking of this, Cao Huachun said with embarrassment:

"The cost of artillery and gunpowder is not high, but the cost of gunpowder is a bit high, and the cost of gunpowder consumed for training every month is 100,000 catties, and it costs 3,000 taels."

"It's already good." Hearing Cao Huachun's words, Zhu Youzhen smiled.

In this era, the Central Plains Dynasty is the undisputed overlord of gunpowder.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Central Plains army had fallen behind in some firearms, such as Burma and the Qing army already had flintlock pistols, and some Japanese exquisite bird guns had surpassed the Ming army, and they also had advantages in specific use.

However, the Ming and Qing armies were the victors of the war against the surrounding countries, because the gunpowder production of the Ming and Qing dynasties was too "foul".

At present, the output of gunpowder in the Central Plains is not only crushing the surrounding areas, but even 40 times higher than that of the United States during the Revolutionary War a hundred years later.

During the War of Independence, the United States only produced 100,000 pounds of gunpowder, equivalent to more than 90,000 catties, and then relied on importing more than 900,000 catties of gunpowder from the Caribbean to barely carry out the war to the end.

At the same time, in the Battle of Jinchuan, the Qing army used a total of more than 4.27 million catties of gunpowder, and the reason for the poor production of gunpowder in the North American continent was that there was too little saltpeter.

This contradiction also often appeared around the Central Plains Dynasty, and some people concluded in the Ming and Qing dynasties that Japan and other countries had more sulfur and less saltpeter, and the northwest provinces had more saltpeter and less sulfur, and only the Central Plains had more saltpeter and sulfur, which was a treasure of feng shui for the production of gunpowder.

It is precisely because there are so many raw materials for gunpowder that there is a basis for the invention of gunpowder.

At present, under the annual limit of the armor factory, the output of gunpowder is 500,000 catties, while the Yanshan Institute is 200,000 catties.

These are just two ordnance institutes, if you add the Ministry of Industry, there are places, and the output of gunpowder in the Ming Dynasty is undoubtedly terrifying.

A year's production of gunpowder was enough for the European countries to fight a big war that lasted for several years.

Cao Huachun is complaining about suffering, but they don't know that Europeans in the West are complaining.

Zhu Youzhen is relatively optimistic, as far as gunpowder is concerned, there are many things about his operability.

But those things are all later, and the current thing is to plan for the reconquest of Liaodong.

At today's court meeting, Zhu Youzhen didn't just talk about it, but he was thinking about recovering the lost territory.

After all, there will be problems in the defense, which will drag down the Ming Dynasty's finances, and it is necessary to defeat the remnants of the Jianjiao, reduce the troops in Liaodong, and transfer them to the Central Plains to prepare for the dismantling of the Central Plains' guard and the opening of the imperial store.

The castles within the Great Wall of Kaiyuan, Tieling, and Fushun are still in Nurhachi's hands, so the food of the Jurchens will only be a crisis, and will not develop into a famine.

What he has to do is to regain the lost ground.

Of course, in this reconquest, it is impossible for him to send troops as soon as his head is hot, but it takes time to prepare.

First of all, judging from the battle between Qi Jin and the old slave last year, even Qi Jin and the large army are very weak in battle.

He himself admitted in a later letter to Zhu Youzhen that after the number of soldiers and horses exceeded 4,000, his ability to respond to commanding soldiers and horses decreased a lot.

Although Zhu Youzhen comforted him afterwards, it was regarded as experience.

But Zhu Youzhen also knows that the human brain also has a peak, and fighting a war is just a matter that consumes brain power.

At Qi Jin's age, it is unlikely that he will make much progress, so he still wants to cultivate the second and third generations of the Qin, Ma, and Qi families.

Qi Yuangong, Qi Yuanfu, Qi Yuanbi, Qin Minping, Qin Banghan, Qin Bangping, Qin Gongming, Qin Yiming, Ma Xianglin......

These are the second and third generations of children that can be cultivated.

Zhu Youzhen did not require them to become commanders who could command tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, but as long as they could command two battalions, or even three battalions, four battalions of soldiers and horses alone, it was enough.

In other words, to become the commander of the left and right armies under the commander.

Therefore, from this point of reality, it can be seen that the generals under Liaodong at present do not have generals who can command tens of thousands of soldiers and horses.

Maybe Xiong Tingbi can coordinate the armies, but the coordination needs to be limited.

The terrain of Liaodong is complex, and if the Eastern Great Wall wants to recover, it needs to enter the branch of Changbai Mountain and march from Gushan Fort.

Secondly, Tieling, Kaiyuan, Fushun and other places also have complex terrain, and each part of the soldiers and horses must ensure that there are at least 20,000 or 30,000 people.

Less than this number, there is a possibility of being surrounded and annihilated.

Zhu Youzhen couldn't afford to lose, even if he transferred enough artillery to Liaodong, but as long as one was annihilated and the artillery was damaged, then Nurhachi, who had the artillery of the Yanshan Artillery Factory, would become very terrifying.

Now the Ming army relies on the sharpness of the artillery, and the firing range is longer than the artillery cast by Nurhachi, so that it can have an advantage in the defense of the city.

Once Nurhachi captured hundreds of artillery pieces, the situation became a little more delicate.

If there are four generals in Liaodong who can command 30,000 soldiers and horses without chaos among the generals in Liaodong at present, Zhu Youzhen can definitely trust Xiong Tingbi with confidence.

But the problem at the moment is that he can't even find four generals who command 30,000 soldiers and horses, and he can't even find four people who command 10,000 soldiers and horses without chaos.

This is the aftermath of the battle of Sarhu, the veteran is dead, and the recruits are not yet successful.

The generals on Zhu Youzhen's side are not good, but on the old slave side, there are more people who can command tens of thousands of horses.

Huang Taiji and Dai Shan are among the representatives, although Dai Shan is worse, but Huang Taiji is not bad.

As for those who can command 10,000 people, the owners of each of the Eight Banners can do it.

They accumulated a long period of experience, and when they were teenagers, they were led by Nurhachi to conquer Mongolia in Haixi, East China Sea and other places.

In contrast, on Zhu Youzhen's side, there are not many people in the entire Ming Dynasty who can command tens of thousands of troops without chaos, on the contrary, there are many strategists and tacticians who command tens of thousands of troops.

Xiong Tingbi, Zhu Xieyuan, Yuan Keli, and even Yang Hao can formulate tactics.

But the problem is that the current embarrassing situation of the Ming Dynasty is that there are high-level and grass-roots levels, but there is a lack of middle-level generals who collude with them.

If there are these middle-level generals, the army of the Ming Dynasty can be revitalized, even if Xiong Tingbi and others are old, but the time is enough to cultivate Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng and others.

This is also the reason why the situation in the north is so dangerous, but Zhu Youzhen still transferred Sun Chuanting and others to the southwest.

The Tusi soldiers in the southwest were completely inferior to the Houjin, and even inferior to the Mongols.

In the absence of rogues, starting from there is a good workout, and a long tug-of-war is more beneficial for them to improve in all aspects.

Only by improving their capabilities, and then while An Bangyan is gradually weakening, some generals in Liaodong and Southwest China are transferred in advance, and the stronger ones are sent to Liaodong, can they carry out the operation of a large corps, and then regain the lost territory and encircle and suppress Nurhachi.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen said to Cao Huachun:

"How much cash does the Imperial Horse Supervisor have now?"

"Back to Your Highness, there are more than 3,274,000 taels of silver." Cao Huachun responded, and Zhu Youzhen said when he heard this:

"The imperial brother's inner money has been outsourced, and the imperial horse supervisor naturally can't lag behind."

"You write to Cheng'en and ask him to go back to the Yanshan camp and transfer 1.5 million taels of silver to the capital."

"After the silver arrives, I will first transfer one million taels to the south, and deliver 200,000 taels to Sun Yingyuan's department, 200,000 taels to Sun Chuanting's department, 150,000 taels to Hong Chengchou's department, and 100,000 taels each to Cao Wenzhao, Yang Wenyue, and Wu Aheng."

"In the end, Hu Yingtai, Du Wenhuan, and Mu Zeng were each transferred 50,000 taels."

"As for the 500,000 taels and 300,000 taels in the capital, they will be handed over to the armor factory, and the armor in stock will be transferred to the southwest and handed over to Cao Wenzhao and Sun Chuanting."

"The remaining 200,000 taels will be handed over to the internal payment."

With a wave of Zhu Youzhen's big hand, 1.5 million taels of silver were spent.

But he is not uncomfortable, after all, he still has the income from selling grain in Liaodong.

Therefore, after spending the money, he said to Cao Huachun:

"How much of the 16 million stone grain in Liaodong is sold now, and what is the price of grain in Liaodong?"

"Back to Your Highness, I have sold more than 8,290,000 stones, and obtained 7,876,400 taels of silver." Cao Huachun replied honestly and continued to explain:

"At present, there are still 1.07 million and 950,000 pieces of silver that have not yet been transported to the Yanshan camp."

"In the first half of this year, the salaries of the 16th Guards and the 40 battalions of Shanxi and Beizhili have been paid."

"As for the price of grain in Liaodong, at first, those grain merchants still wanted to buy our grain, but later found that there was not so much silver to collect, so they began to sell it at a reduced price."

"At present, the price of grain in Liaodong has dropped to 720 wen a stone, with an average of 5 wen a catty."

The price of grain in Liaodong has dropped, which is good news, especially in the name of Huangdian, which has a great effect on easing the relationship between the people of Liaodong and the imperial power.

"What do the people think of the court now? Can there be a merchant smuggling? Zhu Youzhen looked at Lu Wenzhao, eager to know the answers to these two questions.

The people's heart is food, and the current Huangdian price reduction to stabilize the grain is to recover the people's heart.

As for Lu Wenzhao, after he heard Zhu Youzhen's inquiry, he first said solemnly:

"The merchants of Liaodong are very secretive in selling grain, and although the three cities of Kuandian in southern Liaoning have been caught a few times, they are sure that they are sold to the stone fort on the front line."

"As for the Shenyang area, it is difficult to control, most of them use boats to transport grain, once they cross the Pu River, there will be Houjin to respond, and our people dare not approach."

Lu Wenzhao's words made Zhu Youzhen nod secretly, after all, the reorganized Jinyi Guard is an espionage organization after all, and it is impossible to fight with the Houjin soldiers in armor.

In this way, if you want to blockade food, you still have to go through the sea channel, especially the blockade of the sea area to North Korea.

As for the land, after the removal of the soldiers and horses in western Liao, the eastern part of Liaodong was set up as a province, and all the materials were traded by the imperial store, so that the Liao merchants could secretly sell grain to Nurhachi.

"Now once the people of Liaodong hear about Huangdian, they are full of praise, even if they encounter injustice, they curse those officials in private, hoping that Banzai can deal with them, which is much better than before."

Lu Wenzhao's serious expression suddenly relaxed, and he smiled and said the changes in the hearts of the people in Liaodong.

In this regard, Zhu Youzhen also breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a smile:

"Food is the heart of the people, not only in Liaodong, but also in other places."

"The military camps in Shanxi and Beizhili can expand the granary, and when Lu Jianxing transports the grain from Huguang to the capital, he can also appropriately build the standing position of the imperial store, and once the price of grain rises, the emperor will immediately take action to stabilize the grain price."

"But ......" Hearing Zhu Youzhen's words, Lu Wenzhao said with a sad face:

"Although it is good to stabilize grain prices, but the grain is cheap and hurts the peasants, for example, in Liaodong, the prices are very high compared to other places, not only grain and salt, but also oil, vinegar, and cloth are very expensive."

"Now that the price of grain has fallen, the Liao people who are begging for a living in the fields cannot afford to buy some cloth......

Gu is cheap and hurts farmers, what Lu Wenzhao wants to say is these four words, and this problem is easy to solve.

Zhu Youzhen already had a way in his heart, so he said confidently:

"Cloth is expensive, so we set up a weaving factory in the south of the Imperial Horse Prison and hire tenant women to come and weave."

"Gu Bei, then hire the people of Liaodong to repair roads, build stone bridges, repair water conservancy, and mine iron during the slack time."

Zhu Youzhen said this, although he didn't know how to know the historical Jenny spinning machine, but he knew that the current Ming textile technology was world-class.

In terms of silk weaving technology, the middle of the Ming Dynasty began to generally use the two-person reeling car, and one person could reel 30 taels of silk a day.

Xu Guangqi's "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" recorded the improvement of the five-person reeling car in the late Ming Dynasty, that is, one person was in charge, two people were dedicated to silk heads, and two people were the main reelers, and five people could "reel silk thirty catties".

In terms of cotton textile industry, Zhejiang's "Haiyan County Atlas" contains "the spinner can get four or five taels of yarn a day, and the weaver can become a piece of cloth a day".

"Jiashan County Chronicle" records that "the women of Southeast Township weave three horses a day, but they are small and thick, not as far as Songjiang", "women are diligent in weaving, do morning and night rest, and often get forty-five horses in a month".

This represents the textile level of Jiangnan at that time, and such a textile level is only because of the internal market of Daming.

As long as the basic market is expanded in the future, the population continues to grow, and the state-owned government of Huangdian sells cloth, then the demand for textiles will increase, and naturally some people will study better textile machines.

All technology comes from the needs of life, and once there is a demand, someone will innovate.

It is as if the steam engine was due to the fact that the mining industry in Britain had developed to a considerable scale, and it was difficult to meet the requirements of removing groundwater from the mines by human and animal power alone, and there was abundant and cheap coal on site as fuel.

The needs of reality prompted many people to devote themselves to the exploration and experimentation of "lifting water with fire", and finally perfected the steam engine little by little.

Zhu Youzhen didn't know how to make a steam engine, but he knew the basic principles, and when the students of the Yanshan Institute slowly matured, the Academy of Sciences would be opened, and then various technologies would be studied.

Zhu Youjian wants to open a mine for this reason.

Of course, this is only a part, and the more important thing is that the future Ming Dynasty will have too much demand for steel.

If you want to lay down a large territory and control Wusizang, the Western Regions, Mobei, Northeast, Southwest and other places, you need the Ming Dynasty to have great means and capabilities for projection.

"The Legend of the Fairy Tree"

It would be good if the steam engine could be developed and then developed in the direction of trains and ships.

But if it can't be developed, then Zhu Youzhen still needs a lot of steel, because there is no train, he can also get a railcar, so that the four-wheeled railcar can carry twice as many soldiers and goods as ordinary horse-drawn carriages.

It was manufactured according to the gauge of the train, and before the train was developed, a horse-drawn carriage was used for freight transportation.

Reorganize the post station, so that the carriage can change horses at the post station, and let the post station supervise the railroad tracks to prevent people from stealing the railroad tracks, and increase jobs.

The population of the Ming Dynasty, in the face of drought, has an average distribution model of up to five acres of land per person, so that everyone's ability to resist risks is not high.

But if other jobs can be created, they can be absorbed from agriculture, and the imperial court can expand the territory, then the land in the hands of the peasants can be increased, and the resistance of all people can be increased.

But this kind of play must ensure one point, that is, the imperial court itself must have sufficient finances.

This is why Zhu Youzhen has been emphasizing state-owned salt, iron, wine, tea, and various important materials.

To put it bluntly, he just wants to make the Ming Dynasty a strengthened version of the Song Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, the resources of the government were too heavy, resulting in a heavy burden on the peasants, so the Ming Dynasty did its best to achieve a semi-agricultural and semi-state-run tax system.

To do all this, we must first let the people of the world taste the sweetness, and this point starts from Liaodong.

Textile mills are not only aimed at China, but also overseas.

As long as Malacca is taken, and then all kinds of east and west state-run countries are carried out step by step, and finally the so-called maritime merchants have no goods, and East Asian trade is what the imperial court says.

It is okay for maritime merchants to do business, and let them do it in the vast area west of Malacca, and drive the merchants to South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, Africa, and other places.

After selling the goods, they saw what the merchants of the Western colonizers wanted to do in these places, this is their business, and the Ming only needs to stabilize the basic market in East Asia.

"Tell Wang An to build a textile factory with 3,000 people in the north and south of the Huai River in the south of the Imperial Horse Prison, and let him report it after figuring out the price and profits."

"In addition, Lu Wenzhao, your Jinyi Wei can search for some people who are exploring iron ore, let them explore iron ore in Liaodong, once they find it, they will immediately return to it, and tell Xiong Tingbi after the emperor's brother agrees, and assign the place to the Imperial Horse Supervisor to open a mine."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao and Cao Huachun responded one after another, and Zhu Youzhen was also a lot happier in his heart.

If we grasp both the economy and the military, even if politics is overturned, we will be able to use "reason" to convince people.

"Your Highness, there is one more thing I haven't told you."

Cao Huachun seemed to think of something after making a move, and said to Zhu Youzhen:

"The Manchu general soldier replied, saying that at present, the three cities and nine forts in Daning have been built, and the number of cattle has reached more than 7,000 people through the mutual market."

"As for the people of Daning Sanwei, there are also more than 67,000 people."

"But he tried, and it can't be cultivated in the first month, at least until late February, and the reclamation time is from late February to late September."

"After that, even if there are three oxen together, it will be difficult to plow the meadow."

"But there is good news, that is, according to His Highness, after building a canal in the sandy land, opening a breeding officialdom, and laying compost with manure, some weeds have indeed grown in the sandy land, and more than 100 acres of pasture have been opened."

"As for some river meanders in the northern part of Liaoze, after they are set on fire, it is much easier to reclaim them if they pile up soil ashes."

"Man Gui said that after the thaw, Daning Sanwei should be able to reclaim about 100,000 acres of cultivated land every year."

"That's just the speed of more than 60,000 people and 7,000 ploughing oxen, right?" Zhu Youzhen interrupted, and Cao Huachun also nodded to indicate that this was indeed the case.

"Since this is the case, we will increase manpower and transfer the people from the Shanxi Nursing Home to Daning Sanwei." After Zhu Youzhen finished speaking, he also looked at Lu Wenzhao and said:

"Let Nanzhen Fusi check out, how many lazy people are still in the almshouse in my Ming Dynasty, since they have eaten the Yangji rice of the imperial court for so many years, they should make a living for them and repay the favor for the imperial court."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao should go down.

"Alright, you can go and do your errands." Zhu Youzhen picked up the tribute tea next to him, and Lu Wenzhao also got up to salute when he saw this, and then left the Miaoqin Palace.

As for Cao Huachun, he asked people to compile Zhu Youzhen's arrangements into a booklet, and then went to the Heart Cultivation Hall with the booklet.

When Zhu Youxiao saw the contents of the booklet, he didn't say anything, but just complained that since Zhu Youzhen was in the court, why not help him stay in charge of the country for a day or two.

In this regard, Cao Huachun, Wei Zhongxian, and Wang Tiqian were embarrassed.

The authority of the Son of Heaven, what is the matter with these two brothers......