"One-two...... Three! One or two...... Three! ”

"It's moving! Get out of the way! ”

In April, when all parties were moving and planning for themselves, the Ming Dynasty began a roaring road repair to Liaodong for the next battle.

On the road from Zhenjiang to Phoenix City and Kuandian, after the busy farming, the 20,000 troops stationed in Zhenjiang Mansion and the local 780,000 local men in the prime of life began to open up the road.

The men used long shovels to pry the stones on both sides of the road to widen the road from Zhenjiang to Kuandian, which was less than ten zhang wide.

From the beginning of April, by the middle of the year, 40 miles of the 150-mile mountain road had been widened to 20 zhang.

The soft soil was piled up on the mountain road, and then crushed by hundreds of pounds of stone grinding, and after several repetitions, it was tamped.

This road is just a microcosm of Zhenjiang Mansion, and there are only more than 10,000 people.

Compared with here, the road from Kuandian to the Yalu River is the road that Zhenjiang Prefecture is eager to widen.

This 50-mile-long road, the narrow place is only three zhang, and the width is only 15 zhang, but it is the closest road to Kuandian after the Ming Dynasty took the waterway to transport grain and grass to Kuandian to unload the ship.

If the road from Zhenjiang to Kuandian was to ensure that the mobility of the army could not be affected by the road, then the road of the Yalu River was the lifeline to ensure that the army was in a stalemate after the war.

In half a month, more than 20,000 people used gunpowder to continuously widen the mountain road, not only widening the narrowest intermittent mountain road to five zhang, but also leading people to rebuild Yongdian Fort and wharf at the mouth of the Yalu River.

And all these projects were organized by Qi Yuangong, Qi Yuanfu and Qin Minping, the three generals of Zhenjiang Prefecture.

However, for these three people, they are not satisfied with such road standards......

"After such a road is built, it is estimated that if you don't walk around often, I'm afraid that the grass will grow and be abandoned in half a year."

On the pier of Yongdian Fort, Qi Yuanfu looked at the road leading to Kuandian and sighed, and Qin Minping next to him also said:

"I really don't understand, why doesn't Your Highness let us stir-fry the soil and mix it with lime and sanhe soil, is it because we can't afford food?"

"With His Royal Highness's character, he shouldn't be ......" Qi Yuangong next to him shook his head, vetoed the idea, and said:

"I glanced at the military newspaper, and His Royal Highness basically asked all places to sprinkle stones on the first layer to make the foundation, and then fill in the soil and tamp it, and everyone's idea of stir-frying the soil and putting lime and rice milk was rejected."

"Your Highness said that Yanshan Institute is working on a kind of thing, and after getting it out, it is very easy to repair the road, and now that the war is imminent, there is no need to worry about the road being walked."

"The big war is imminent, Kuandian has hoarded 600,000 stone rice, and after the road is widened, they still need to be turned into military rations, which I am afraid will not take half a month, and there is no way to end it." Qi Yuanfu also said:

"It's April 17 now, and according to His Highness's intentions, it is estimated that when the soldiers and horses from the southwest to aid Liao arrive in Kuandian, they can start to do it."

"After three years of guarding, I can finally take the initiative to fight!" Qin Minping's heart was itching, and he was looking forward to the next big battle.

"Yes, I've been guarding it for three years...... Qi Yuangong also exhaled a breath of turbidity, looking at the green mountains stretching in the distance, and thinking of Dingyuan's hometown in the south, homesickness arose. …

"After this battle, I don't know if I can take a few months off and go home."

"If you want to go home, it's convenient for you, it will take me two months to go back this time." Qin Minping smiled heartily, but his voice was a little bitter.

At present, among the soldiers and horses in Liaodong, there are more than 30,000 Zhejiang soldiers and Sichuan soldiers, who have been out of their hometowns for three years, and it is false to say that they don't want to go home.

Therefore, everyone held their breath and thought about finishing the battle.

Because the generals all know that if Liaodong wins the first battle, then the next step is to abolish the Tianxia Guard.

Where the Zhejiang soldiers and the Sichuan soldiers are headed, everyone can roughly guess.

Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Guizhou......

Thinking that they could go home after this battle was over, everyone exhaled, but Qin Minping frowned after exhaling:

"These days, the old slaves are building stone forts every day, is it true that they want to use the stone forts to stop us until winter?"

"It should be more than just a stone castle." Qi Yuangong has experienced many wars, so he explained:

"If it's just a stone fort, then it's okay to talk about the east, but the railway and Kaiyuan in northeastern Liaoning don't have so many narrow mountain roads."

"Tieling and Kaiyuan, although there are remnants of Changbai Mountain on the left, but flat farmland on the west, and the Liao River flows."

"Tieling and Kaiyuan, which are under the merger of the three rivers, can carry thousands of ships to reduce the needs of the people, and as long as Tieling and Kaiyuan are captured, the fields that can be cultivated in the hands of the old slaves will be reduced by half."

"At that time, if the Fushun Pass is laid again, then the acres of land in the hands of the old slave will definitely not be able to support an army of 100,000."

"He must think of a perfect plan, otherwise even if the whole army withdraws, he will not survive in the mountains for two years."

Qi Yuangong's analysis is very reasonable, or it seems that after receiving more handwritten letters and opinions from Zhu Youzhen, all the generals who are regarded as the Qi Wang Party have a cognition.

Fighting a war is logistics.

No matter how Nurhachi can fight, it is impossible for him to fight with more than 200,000 Ming troops in the Great Plains.

Once he does not dare to fight, then he must maneuver in the mountains.

However, as long as the Ming army is not fooled by this kind of mobile warfare, it will slowly evolve into a protracted war.

In terms of the protracted war of stubbornness, let alone Nurhachi, there are few countries in the world that can play with the current Ming Dynasty.

After Zhu Youzhen's guard and the innovation of the vassal king, the Ming Dynasty only paid 30 million stone in taxes from six departments and five temples.

Coupled with the internal treasury and the imperial horse supervisor, the tax of the Ming Dynasty has now reached the level of the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu.

As long as the military salary and food management are enough, the Ming army can attack and defend, so it is impossible for Nurhachi to wait for the decisive battle stupidly after knowing the advantages of the Ming army.

But even if he wants to avoid the war, Zhu Youzhen will not avoid the war......

When Qi Yuangong and the three of them were discussing, the East Palace on April 17 seemed to have become a small court.

The generals of the Thirteen Guards on land rushed to the East Palace to conduct deduction and simulation of the battle in Liaodong.

In the short period of more than 20 days after Zhu Youzhen returned to Beijing, more than 30 generals conducted thousands of sand table deductions, but no matter how they deduced, the conclusion they came to was that it was impossible to lose.

In the Chunhe Hall of the main hall of the East Palace, a huge sand table with a length and width of one zhang is placed on a low table, and the height of one meter will neither make everyone's necks uncomfortable, nor will they see clearly. …

Zhu Youzhen was wearing a red round-necked robe, the other generals were wearing military attache uniforms, everyone was standing around the sand table, and there were two rows of tables next to them with pastries and cold drinks, so that they could eat something when they were tired and relieve their fatigue.

"How much grain is there in Yanshan Sancang?"

Zhu Youzhen stood in front of the sand table, with his hands behind his back, holding his pear blossom stick in his hand, and asked without looking back.

Cao Huachun, who was standing beside him, heard this, stepped forward and said, "There are still 5.6 million stones of rice." ”

"Another 600,000 stones will be transported to Kuandian, and 1 million stones will be transported to Shenyang." Zhu Youzhen stared intently at the sand table and ordered, and Cao Huachun also responded.

"Your Highness, in this way, Shenyang will have three million stones, and Kuandian will have one million stones."

Lu Wenzhao sighed a little, after all, even the current Taicang in Beijing and Taicang in Nanjing do not have three million stone rice, and Shenyang actually hoarded so much.

"Not only Shenyang and Kuandian, but also Liaoyang has 800,000 stones, while Guangning, Daning, Zhenjiang, Lushun and other places each have 500,000 stones."

The commander of Tian Cewei smiled and spoke, and Zhu Youzhen also bowed his head when he heard this:

"The soldiers and horses have not moved, and the grain and grass ...... first"

"I can't eat all this grain and grass, so I will stay in Liaodong after the war and send it to Xinmin for reclamation."

"The first step in recovering Liaodong, the second step is to build stone forts along the Liao River and the Songhua River, and go north to reclaim the fields."

Zhu Youzhen's handwriting was very big, and after saying this, Wang Chengen, who came from the Yanshan camp on the side, couldn't help but speak:

"Your Highness, if this is the case, I'm afraid the cost of reclamation will be even greater......"

After all, Wang Chengen is the treasurer of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and he knows how much his family has in his family.

With the finances of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, it is already very difficult to raise an army, and last year there was already some financial resources, if it were not for the fact that Liaodong sold grain and earned back the silver sent by the Ming Dynasty to Liaodong, then it is estimated that the imperial court began to need relief last year.

At present, although tens of millions of acres of land have been added, it is still too difficult to maintain the cultivation of millions of people.

However, in this regard, Zhu Youzhen was not nervous and uneasy, but said to Wang Chengen:

"It's normal to spend a lot, and it's worth it for tens of millions of acres in Liaodong after a momentary pain!"

Zhu Youzhen dared to say this because he knew that the number of acres of land under the Guandong in the late Qing Dynasty had increased.

For more than 50 years, without the support of the government and the provision of grain, the people of Guandong developed the northeast, which had less than 20 million mu of land, to more than 130 million mu.

In the past 17 years, once a major drought affecting hundreds of millions of people breaks out, the northeast will become the main migration place for the people in the north.

Even if at present, there are less than 70 million people in the five provinces of Beijing in the north, even if only 10 million people pour in, the vast area of the northeast will become the basic plate of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty was unable to support the influx of tens of millions of people into the reclamation, and the people did not have the desire to migrate because there were not too many catastrophes.

However, Zhu Youjian remembers very well that almost before the outbreak of the Xiaoice River drought, Daming had earthquakes, droughts, floods and other disasters every year.

He can't remember when and where the disaster occurred, but he can remedy it, which is migration.

Once the battle of Liaodong was over, he would have to start insisting on the continuous immigration plan and the plan of fiscal and tax reform. …

It is impossible for him to announce the fiscal and tax reform as soon as his head is hot, after all, even Zhang Juzheng has been a student who has accumulated more than ten years before implementing the reform.

Although Yanshan students can produce 40,000 or 50,000 students every year, most of them are just talents.

There are many kinds of taxes in the Ming Dynasty, and after three years, the students of Yanshan graduated, even if only one tax is changed every year, it can also allow the Ming Dynasty to organize the relocation of the people.

So for Zhu Youzhen, the most difficult days are still two years.

In the past two years, what Daming can mobilize is about 10 million taels of silver, plus more than 50 million stone rice and wheat.

"The money in the hands of the people of Liaodong has been spent because of last year's grain, although the military salaries we pay every year will also flow back through the families of the Liao soldiers, but after all, it is too little."

"The trade of grain is still mainly to benefit the people, and it cannot be drilled into the eyes of money."

Zhu Youzhen said to Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun, and the two also bowed their heads in approval.

"Counting this year's acres of land, if there are no disasters, will 50 million stone fields be empowered?"

Zhu Youzhen asked the two of them, and he did not shy away from many generals, and Wang Chengen also bowed slightly:

"There should be no problem, after all, sweet potatoes and potatoes are planted more, and there are about 20 million stones, and the remaining rice and wheat can have 30 million stones."

At the critical moment, the role of sweet potatoes and potatoes was revealed, and Zhu Youzhen sighed and said:

"It's a pity that these crops are easy to get sick if they are cultivated in a row, otherwise tens of millions of acres of cultivation will be able to solve the problem of reclamation in eastern Liaodong."

"Your Highness, after this crop is planted in succession, is it so sick?" Cao Huachun was a little puzzled, and Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said:

"Much more powerful than you think......"

Cao Huachun and the others don't know, but Zhu Youzhen knows how fast these crops will spread once they are infected.

Once the Great Famine of Ireland broke out in Daming, it was not as simple as killing hundreds of thousands or millions of people.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen controlled the scattered cultivation of these crops, and the planting area was far enough away, and strictly required the people to detoxify the crops.

In this era, there is no means of good genetic selection, so we can only use stupid methods.

"Sweet potatoes and potatoes can be promoted in Shandong, Liaodong and Henan, but pay attention to the region."

"In addition to leaving seeds, three million stone of sweet potatoes and potatoes can be transported to Liaodong for cultivation and grain reclamation."

"As for the rest, you can also make foods such as baked sweet potatoes and fried potatoes in the Imperial Shop according to the drawings I gave you before."

"How to eat potatoes and sweet potatoes, you should tell the guys in the imperial store below, and let them inform the people in the city."

"Only when people like to eat them can they be better promoted."

"In addition, chili peppers can also be sent to Liaodong, which is bitter cold in winter, and having this thing can make the soldiers not so cold."

Zhu Youzhen told him one thing at a time, and Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun also wrote it down.

It was only after Zhu Youzhen finished saying everything he wanted to say that Cao Huachun said:

"Your Highness, the Huangdian has made a good profit this year, and the weaving mill in the south field, the livestock, honeycomb coal, and salt fields in the north field have all made a lot of profits." …

"The peanut oil mill has also been opened, and the oil yield is really good."

"These things made a profit of more than 817,000 taels in the first three months, and in a year, there are 3 million taels of silver."

Cao Huachun said a good news, and Zhu Youzhen also said strangely:

"Why did it suddenly go up so much? Before I led the troops to the expedition last year, didn't I only have more than 100,000 taels of silver a month? ”

It was not strange that he had questions, and Cao Huachun also explained with a smile when he heard this: "The reason why there are so many is still His Highness's high opinion. ”

"Me?" Zhu Youzhen showed a puzzled expression, while Cao Huachun continued:

"Since Shen Vice-elevated arrived in the Ryukyu Prefecture in November of last year, he has begun to control maritime trade in accordance with what His Highness said."

"At the beginning, it didn't improve because of the lack of ships."

"But after Deputy Shen went to Fujian to recruit tens of thousands of fishermen along the coast to make a living, and formed them into a maritime patrol department, things were different."

"Passing ships are required by the Coast Guard to display the flag and iron plate of the Coast Guard, and the iron plate has a number, and the number is recorded in a book along with the name, place of origin, and age of the owner of the ship."

"The weight of the ship is set according to the weight of the ship, and the annual tax is 200 taels for those below 500 materials, 500 taels for those below 500 to 1,000 materials, and 1,000 taels for more than 1,000 materials."

"At the same time, Shen Deputy Tiju sent people to Haojing to set up the imperial store, and at the beginning of the year, after Nangang began to take shape, he sent orders to merchants from countries such as Big Francophone (Spain), Francophone (Portugal), and Dark Elia (Britain)."

"Western merchants could only buy merchandise and trade at the Imperial Store in Ho Gyong and Nangang, while Japanese maritime merchants could only trade in Beigang."

"After learning that there was tea in the south field and building a weaving factory, Shen Deputy Tiju used tea to buy tea in Fujian, and asked for one-third of the cloth produced by the weaving factory in Huangdian."

"Later, in the name of His Royal Highness, a large number of porcelain from official kilns and private kilns were purchased from Jiangxi."

"In this way, Haojing, Nangang, and Beigang can completely purchase some goods needed by Western merchants at one time."

"It is precisely because of Deputy Shen's measures that the monthly income of the imperial store will be increased to more than 200,000 taels of silver per month."

"This is only the monthly income of the imperial store, and it is estimated that the monthly income of the city company is more."

Cao Huachun sincerely admired Shen Tingyang, because it only took the other party five months to increase the income of the imperial store.

And on the side of the city, it is estimated that there is also a lot of income.

It's just that there is also a Coast Guard Division under the City Shipping Division, and the Coast Guard Division has tens of thousands of sailors, so I'm afraid there will be a lot of expenditures......

"Shen Tingyang, this person is really not wrong!"

Knowing what happened, Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but praise Shen Tingyang.

However, his praise was a little early, because the next second he finished praising it, there was a sound of footsteps outside the Chunhe Palace, and then Lu Wenzhao, who was holding two books, walked into the Chunhe Hall with his crotch, and saluted while seeing Zhu Youzhen:

"Your Highness, the southern Ryukyu Prefecture and the city of Ryukyu have come with news."

"I really just praised him, and the news came." Zhu Youzhen smiled at Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen, and then took the two brochures handed by Lu Wenzhao. …

These two volumes were flipped through, and the content was really the same as what Cao Huachun said just now, but it was more comprehensive and had a lot more things.

These two volumes, one written by Huang Long and the other by Shen Tingyang, are different.

Most of what Shen Tingyang wrote was about the City Shipping Division and the Maritime Guard Division, which told about the manpower problems of the Municipal Shipping Division and the Maritime Guard Division.

At present, the staff of the city division is composed of unsuccessful students recruited by Shen Tingyang from Zhejiang, Fujian and other places, and the number is more than 1,800 people, each of whom earns 20 taels of silver per year.

The Coast Guard Division was recruited from middle-aged fishermen in Fujian and other places, and each person earned 12 taels of silver a year.

Together with some other manpower, the annual expenditure of the city department is nearly 160,000 taels.

In addition, in terms of ships, there are not enough ships from the City Shipping Division and the Coast Guard Division, and there are only 30 ships of 3,000 materials manufactured by the Tianjin Shipyard.

Thirty ships want to control the Bass Strait and supervise Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Nanzhili and other places, which is simply a fantasy.

And in terms of the tonnage of the ships, it is not very suitable for the Coast Guard.

Although the North and South Ports are already preparing to build a shipyard, after all, it takes time to dry the wood, and the city is not on the right track, and the expenditure is greater than the income.

Therefore, Shen Tingyang wanted to ask Zhu Youzhen to give an order to let Tianjin Shipyard manufacture 800 coast guard ships with 500 materials and 100 coast guard ships with 1,000 materials.

These two kinds of ships, even the cost of Shen Tingyang has been written, the cost of 500 materials is 52 taels, and the cost of 1,000 materials is 120 taels.

Looking at it this way, the actual cost is not much, just tens of thousands of taels of silver.

At the end of the booklet, Shen Tingyang wrote that under the patrol of the two guards and naval forces stationed in Huanglong, there were still some maritime merchants who chose to hang their flags and obey the regulations of the city shipping department in maritime trade.

The price of the iron plates and flags on each ship is the same as Cao Huachun said, and after the past three months of inspections and warnings, the number of ships that have paid the city tax is 1,464, and the tax paid is 464,000 taels.

However, more than 100 of them were merchant ships of the Europeans in the South Seas, and their taxes were twice as high as those of the Han Chinese.

Even so, according to Shen Tingyang's observation, the number of sea vessels in the maritime trade of one Beijing and three provinces is more than that, and it will increase at least three times.

In other words, the amount of tax silver that can be obtained by one capital and three provinces every year is at least 1.4 million taels.

Therefore, Shen Tingyang wanted to ask Zhu Youzhen to quickly allocate the coast guard ship, and Zhu Youzhen's eyes were even more straight when he saw the tax money received by Shen Tingyang.

"This group of maritime merchants is really rich......"

With a sigh of relief, Zhu Youzhen sighed, but after careful calculation, this tax is actually relatively high.

After all, the maritime merchants who trade in the coastal provinces of the Ming Dynasty are about 20% to 50%, and the city tax of the city shipping company is about 15% of the profit of a ship a year.

In short, they will not do business, and they will only be squeezed out of the ranks of maritime trade because of the birth of the city.

However, for this group of people, Zhu Youzhen also felt very pity, so after reading Shen Tingyang's book, he asked Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen to bring the letterhead.

He first replied that it was okay to ship ships, and increased the number of ships to 500 and 3,000, and 1,000 ships.

In addition, in the next two years, he will successively transfer 3,000 cavalry guns, 20,000 infantry guns, 5,000 five-pound artillery, 1,000 ten-pound artillery pieces, and 20,000 sets of iron armor to him.

The artillery is mainly placed on ships with 1,000 materials as deterrent ships, while the main patrol ships are 500 materials from coast guard ships.

As for the Maritime Patrol Division, Zhu Youzhen suggested that Shen Tingyang increase the number of troops to 50,000 to prepare for the subsequent inspections of Shandong, Beizhili, Liaodong and other sea areas.

In addition, in the future, the Navy will be expanded, and troops will also be transferred from the Coast Guard, which can be said to be the reserve of the future Navy.

After the internal affairs of the city department were written, Zhu Youzhen talked about the trade again.

That is, as mentioned in the previous plan, the small maritime merchants who were squeezed out of the ranks of maritime trade could be recruited as non-staff merchants of the imperial store, and let them go to the South Seas to trade.

The navy can send a C-class fleet to escort it, which is a benefit for non-staff traders.

After joining the supernumerary merchants, they can freely go to the South Seas to enjoy the protection of the naval fleet, but they need to pay the supernumerary tax of the imperial store according to the tonnage of the ship at the same time, and then pay the supernumerary tax silver of the imperial store according to the tonnage of the ship, which can be determined according to the classification of the municipal tax, which is divided into three grades: 100 taels, 250 taels, and 50 taels.

Writing this, Zhu Youzhen read it again, and after making sure that there was no problem, he stamped his own royal seal......