"Add Sun Chuanting to pass through the Hetao and Ningxia, control the Northern Army Governor's Mansion, and prepare for the sweeping of the set."

On the thirteenth day of the first month of the fourth year of the Apocalypse, when the Tianxia Guard Office was being renovated, the Xi'an Trilateral Governor's Mansion and Sun Chuanting also received their new official positions.

The Hetao is strategic, and the Northern Military Governor's Mansion is controlled, obviously, this will be the afterglow of the civilian control of the military generals.

"Sun Chuanting, take the ......"

Sun Chuanting stretched out his hands to receive the holy decree, looking at the will in the holy decree, his heart was full of pride.

Fuhetao......

The simple three words will represent the determination of the Ming Dynasty to completely recover the Hetao.

Once the Hetao is recovered, Ningxia, Yansui, Guyuan, and the entire Guanzhong Plain will be far away from the iron hooves of the Beiyu, and they can engage in production with peace of mind.

Thinking of this, Sun Chuanting also walked back and forth in the study room of the mansion for a few steps, and then asked the Jinyi Wei who sent the letter:

"Where is Mandu at the moment?"

"Back to Jingluo, the Mandu Governor just arrived in Yanshan yesterday with the Daning Sanwei, and His Royal Highness is ready to let the Governor lead the Daning Sanwei to come to Shaanxi to start the dismantling of the Shaanxi Guard, as well as the reorganization of the four towns in the northwest."

The Beizhen Fu Si Xi'an Qianhu who delivered the letter replied, and at the same time said:

"This time, His Royal Highness has also explained, although it is a repetition, but it is not in a hurry, all that needs to be done is to cooperate with the Mandu Governor to rectify the military affairs and military tuntian of Shaanxi and Hexi."

"After the autumn harvest of next year, if the materials are sufficient, wait for His Royal Highness's military order to start the sweeping set immediately, and if it is insufficient, it will be reissued by the Imperial Horse Supervisor."

Qianhu brought Zhu Youzhen's words to Sun Chuanting intact, and when Sun Chuanting heard this, he also bowed his head slightly:

"At present, the four towns in the northwest should be rectified, and the first to bear the brunt is Yansui, and General Li of Guyuan and the other two places did not make much of a reaction."

"Please send someone to tell Your Highness that only with the three guards of Daning, the 30,000 soldiers in the hands of the following officials, I am afraid that there are some shortcomings, please transfer the three guards to be fully sure."

"Xia Guan remembered." Qianhu responded, and at the same time saw that Sun Chuanting didn't have much to say, so he took the initiative to speak:

"Jing Liu, His Royal Highness also sent officials to ask Jing Liu, dare to ask if the land west of the river can be reclaimed?"

Whether Hexi can be reclaimed represents whether the Ming Dynasty can send troops to the Western Regions, which Zhu Youzhen is very concerned about, and Sun Chuanting also knows.

Therefore, as soon as he arrived in Shaanxi, he asked the soldiers and horses to renovate the guard station, and at the same time, he also sent people to Hexi to take a look, but the situation in Hexi was complicated, and it would be unclear for a while, so Sun Chuanting could only speak:

"I will tell Your Highness about the situation in the land west of the river in the future."

"In that case, then the official will retire." Hearing Sun Chuanting say this, Qianhu withdrew from the trilateral governor's palace after making a move.

It's just that after he withdrew, Sun Chuanting walked to the desk, picked up a document and read it.

This is the situation of the innovation of the Shaanxi Health Institute, and the 30,000 soldiers under the command of Sun Chuanting did not contact the four towns in the northwest for the first time, but carried out innovation in the southern Shaanxi area.

Shaanxi and Shaanxi Xingdu Division have a total of 28 guards, involving nearly 160,000 households, millions of people, and nearly 8 million acres of fields.

This is still a guard, and there are tens of millions of acres of herding fields on the side of Taifu Temple.

If the more than 18 million mu of land can be recovered and then distributed, at least one person and three acres can feed 6 million people.

"Shaanxi is suffering, if you can rely on these acres to feed millions of small families, the merit is immeasurable......"

With a sigh, Sun Chuanting put down the paperwork, sorted out the table, spread the letter paper, and began to write.

He first focused on the military geography of Hexi, because for the Ming Dynasty, it was not an easy thing to defend Hexi.

First of all, the geographical location of Hexi is very unfavorable to the defense of the Ming Dynasty, and the north of Hexi is the Ningxia Ordos Department, which has been hostile to the Ming Dynasty for a long time, and it is also the focus of the Ming defense.

To the west of the river were the two remnants of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, the two khanates of Yarkand and Turpan, and to the southwest of the river were the Duogandusi.

Although the religious leaders of the snow area in the Ming Dynasty have been attached to the Ming Dynasty, after all, this is not an area directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, and the late Ming Dynasty's control over the local area has weakened, so the Qinghai region in the south has gathered a large number of Mongol tribes in Moxi, Mobei, and Monan.

The complexity of this place is much more complicated than Zhu Youzhen imagined.

Therefore, the Hexi of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be not peaceful in the north, west and south directions, and the natural environment of the west of the river is also very unfavorable to the defense of the Ming Dynasty.

Most of Hexi is a plateau and mountainous area, and precipitation is very scarce, so most of Hexi is not conducive to agricultural production.

After some people sent by Sun Chuanting to investigate, they also said to him that the land west of the river can only rely on the narrow corridor of the Qilian Mountains and the Longyou area for agricultural production.

Therefore, not only now, but even in the future, the army deployed by the Ming Dynasty stationed in Hexi must be deployed in the Hexi Corridor area in the form of a long snake formation.

This kind of formation is very easy to be cut off by the mobile and flexible cavalry in wartime, resulting in the collapse of the entire Hexi defense line.

And that's just from a military point of view, and it's even more difficult to look at in terms of economy and population.

Since the late Tang Dynasty, most of Hexi has been ruled by Tubo and Dangxiang, and these young people occupied Hexi before the Central Plains began large-scale population migration.

After years of ethnic minority rule, Hexi presents a different culture from the Central Plains.

As a result of these cultures, a large number of local minority people in Hexi are actually biased towards the majority outside the Guan, and they are also wary of the Ming Dynasty, while the Han people in Hexi also have a lot of discrimination against the Han people east of Longshan.

If you want to relocate the people to Hexi and cultivate a large number of them, Sun Chuanting's suggestion is that with the power of the imperial court, the migration of millions of people, the consumption of tens of millions of stones of grain, and the consumption of labor for three years may be able to reclaim millions of acres of paddy fields.

However, if grain is transported by land, from Shandong, Nanzhili, and Henan to Hexi, 30 million stones may only reach 8 million stones......

"The situation in Hexi is so complicated, but it is beyond my expectations."

When Sun Chuantingxin was sent to the Yanshan camp, Zhu Youzhen only read the military annotations in it, and knew how difficult it was for the Ming Dynasty to govern Hexi.

If in Sun Chuanting's view, the predicament in Hexi is only to solve the local contradictions, to solve the problems of transporting grain and relocating the people, then in Zhu Youzhen's view, these are actually not problems.

Local contradictions can be deterred by the army, and the displaced people do not need to use violent means under the severe drought, and the grain can also be transported by railroad carriages, and there are laborers under the great drought.

In Zhu Youzhen's view, none of these three points are a problem, and the only difficulty he has after reading this letter is Sun Chuanting's description of the climate of the Hexi Corridor.

Although Zhu Youzhen did not remember the 400 mm precipitation line and the 200 mm precipitation line in later generations, he also knew that the former could reach Lanzhou in Hexi, and the latter could reach the vicinity of Jiayuguan.

However, in Sun Chuanting's description, this precipitation line has moved at least 200 kilometers eastward.

Because there is a sentence in his letter, "At the beginning of the country, Jiayuguan had more than ten rains a year, and then gradually decreased, but it increased slightly during the Zhengde and Jiajing years, and then remained the same." ”

In Sun Chuanting's sentence, during the period from Zhengde to Jiajing, Zhu Youzhen, if I am not mistaken, was the only small warm period in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, but it was far inferior to later generations.

The temperature of the whole world is plummeting, and Daming is more serious than other countries in the world because of various climate problems such as geopolitical monsoons.

Zhu Youzhen remembers correctly, during the period from 1627 to 1680, the temperature in the two capitals and fifteen provinces was three degrees lower than that of later generations.

A deviation of two or three degrees does not seem very cold, but the average temperature is a very important data, and a deviation of one or two degrees is a very huge impact.

The deviation of these two or three degrees represents the southward shift of the rainfall belt, the sharp drop in rainfall in the north, and the lack of winter snow in winter, resulting in winter wheat being frozen to death without snow cover and unable to overwinter.

The dry climate in summer has led to a sharp increase in the success rate of locust egg hatching, and locust plagues are raging.

Therefore, if the rainfall belt in Hexi moves hundreds of kilometers eastward, it means that it is absolutely impossible for Hexi during this period to reclaim 40 million mu of paddy fields like later generations.

The eastward movement of hundreds of kilometers may mean that tens of millions of acres of land are not suitable for cultivation.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen's face was a little unpleasant, after all, the gap between 40 million mu and 30 million mu represents nearly 10 million stone grain that can support 30,000 iron horsemen and 150,000 people to go out of the fortress for six months and run rampant in the Western Regions for 1,200 miles.

Even if the food wasn't used to support the expedition, it would be enough to feed millions of people.

"We have to find out how many people are ...... in the land west of the river."

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen, who was in the study of the imperial horse supervisor of Yanshan Daying, put down Sun Chuanting's handwritten letter, and greeted the Jinyi guard at the door:

"Spread the word to Gui coming!"

"Yes......" Hearing Zhu Youzhen's words, the Jinyi guard at the door immediately sent someone to inform Man Gui, who was still resting in the Yanshan camp.

After a quarter of an hour, Man Gui came to the door of the backyard of the Imperial Horse Supervisor's Yamen, then turned over and dismounted, and walked into the courtyard wearing a round-necked robe.

"Your Highness......"

The first thing Man Gui did when he entered the door was to salute, and Zhu Youzhen said to him through the screen:

"Come in the study and sit down, there are some things that need to be explained to you."

"The last general commands." Man Guiying walked into the study after getting down, and then sat down on the chair that had been placed.

It has been two and a half years since Man Gui defeated the Bayobu tribe, and although the last time they met was a few months ago, it is not difficult to see that he was very tired during this time.

"It's been four days since you returned to the Yanshan camp, and I heard from the commander of the Daning Sanwei that you didn't rest well some time ago, so I didn't summon you."

"Now it seems that you should rest for a while, otherwise I am afraid that before you go to Shaanxi, you will be tired and fall halfway through."

Zhu Youzhen ridiculed with concern, and Man Gui also pulled a smile when he heard this:

"After all, we have to hand over the defense of the three guards of Daning, and now that the three guards are transferred, there will only be 34 battalions in Liaodong, and there will be three battalions in Zhejiang and Shandong that cannot be mobilized, and the Governor's Mansion of the Eastern Army will only have 70,000 foot soldiers and 30,000 iron cavalry in Liaodong."

"Isn't it enough?" Zhu Youzhen is not worried about the affairs of Liaodong, not to mention the defense of Liaodong, it is enough for the thirty-four battalions to attack the temporary capital of Wulacheng, which is currently being built.

"Naturally, it's enough." Man Gui smiled heartily and talked about the exploits of the Eastern Army Governor's Mansion:

"The 10th battalion of the iron cavalry in Liaodong, since the end of the resumption of Liao, has attacked and harassed Jianjiao in five months, harvesting more than 1,200 levels of real captives and more than 2,700 levels of fake captives."

"In the face of the iron cavalry offensive of the Governor's Mansion of our Eastern Army, there is only a continuous northward retreat, if it is not for the fact that the internal displacement and reclamation of Liaodong has not ended, I am afraid that as long as His Royal Highness allocates money and food, he will be able to plow the court and sweep the cave again with an order."

The situation in Liaodong was very good, and Nurhachi was killed by nearly 30,000 horse infantry in the battle of Fuliao, which almost halved the mobility of the Jin army.

Even if the iron cavalry of the 10th battalion of Liaodong is one person and one horse, after cooperating with the horses, they can still continue to go out of the fortress for more than 300 miles to attack and harass the prisoners.

According to the news that Zhu Youzhen received from the Fusi of Beizhen, Jianyu has now shrunk north to 400 miles north of the Great Wall of the Ming Army.

As far as the battle line is concerned, the Ming army can fully guarantee peace for 400 miles outside the Great Wall of Liaodong.

Not only that, but the Jian, who was in dire need of supplies, also increased the treatment of Korean merchants, thus allowing the peripheral members of the North Town Fusi to obtain more information.

"I've already told Ying Yuan about this information, but I haven't told you, and now it can be used as an after-dinner chat."

Zhu Youzhen leaned back in the chair with a smile and said to Man Gui:

"After the heavy losses of the First Battle of Fuliao, Jianlu is currently in turmoil in the internal army, and has ordered Amin to lead the two blue flags to Beishan to continue to attack and harass the Beishan Jurchens, so as to obtain acres of land, food, and materials."

"The old slave was seriously injured and paralyzed on the bed, and Daishan and Mang Gurtai in Ula City fought for power, and they made a lot of trouble."

"In order to avoid the whirlpool of power, Huang Taiji could only take his wounded body and take the remnants of Zilharang and the remnants of the two white flags to the Thorn Lu Wei to reclaim the fields, and take the surviving craftsmen of Hetuara to build an iron smelting workshop in the area of Thorn Lu Wei."

"Some of the Han soldiers were disbanded, and the northern captives were sent to assassinate Luwei."

"Judging from the means by which the old slave disbanded the Han soldiers, Jianyu should no longer be able to maintain the current size of the army."

Zhu Youzhen unhurriedly took the tea and moistened his throat, and Man Gui also smiled:

"The old slave only disbanded the Han camp, and it seems that he should still be holding on."

"Only the Han camp will be abolished, and there should be 40,000 men and 20,000 northern captives."

"However, it is simply impossible to rely on one or two million acres of arable land to feed an army of 60,000."

"Your Highness, according to the last general's opinion, the old slave really wants to forcibly maintain the size of the 60,000 army, and the only way to use troops is to Hutudun and Mobei Beiyu."

"As long as Horqin supports it, Jianyu can also be nomadic in the grassland, and then expedition to Hutudun and Mobei."

"We can take a look first, if this method of using troops can be used, we can also use the strength of Karaqin and the barbarians to go on a nomadic expedition."

"The idea of the last general is to recruit 9,000 troops from Tuman and Karaqin, and set up three battalions of Beiyu iron cavalry who are familiar with Mo Nan, Mo Bei, and Mo Dong."

"They can be nomadic for the army, they can also lead the way, and they can also fight, whether it is sweeping the set or entering the Duogan, or sweeping the north, they can be used."

Man Gui's suggestion is very good, Zhu Youzhen also thought about it a long time ago, but before that, the forces of the Ming and Jin sides were still deadlocked, and once he recruited troops from Tuman and Karaqin, it would make them feel that the Ming army was insufficient.

But now he doesn't have this concern, because Jian Yu has broken the spine, and the power of the Ming Dynasty has been completely displayed.

Now recruit troops from these two ministries, and these two ministries should not dare to have any other ideas.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen bowed his head slightly and said:

"It just so happens that you still have to stay in Yanshan for a while, you can send people to these two departments to recruit soldiers, and the recruited soldiers can move their family scrolls to the pastures of Daning Mansion for grazing."

"Yes!" Man Gui happily responded, and then cautiously probed:

"Your Highness, the ...... of these three battalions"

"It's your Northern Army Governor's Mansion." Zhu Youzhen glanced at Man Gui and said helplessly:

"At present, Shanxi has been transferred several times, and there are only 21 battalions of soldiers, although there are 20 battalions in Shaanxi, but 10 battalions are transferred from Shanxi, and the other 10 battalions are Sun Chuanting's old team."

"There are already forty-one battalions in total, and there are tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in the four towns in the northwest."

Speaking of which, Zhu Youzhen also got down to business:

"I have already ordered Qin Bangping to suspend the recruitment of troops in Sichuan, and I want you to train the soldiers of the four towns in the northwest into fifteen battalions, and then transfer them to Sichuan."

"Your Highness, I'm afraid the soldiers and horses of the Northwest are ...... in Sichuan," Man Gui said with a headache:

"I'm afraid I won't be able to run......"

"The battalion of each Governor's Mansion is quota, and the reason why your current battalion is overstaffed is because there will be war in the next few years, and there will be no more troops after the war is over." Zhu Youzhen is very rule-oriented.

"Your Highness, to be honest, I still think that the Northern Army should have more soldiers and horses than the other four armies, after all, the last general will have to deal with a large number of Northern captives......"

As soon as Man Gui heard Zhu Youzhen's words, he began to feel aggrieved, and Zhu Youzhen simply glared at him:

"The northern captives are all dealt with by your northern army, so why do you want to go straight?"

"After all, Shangzhi is an important weapon of the country, and it can't be easily dispatched, so let's do these dirty jobs for our northern army......" Man Gui's voice was much lower.

"Okay, don't cry that there are few soldiers, the reason for the lack of soldiers is that the money and food of the imperial court are not enough, and when the money and food go up in the future, the number of soldiers of the five armies will naturally go up."

Zhu Youzhen stopped the topic, and then continued to get down to business:

"This time, after you took Daning Sanwei and the later Monan Third Battalion to Shaanxi, the direct force of the imperial court in Shaanxi reached 3 Guards and 44 Battalions, with a total of 150,000 troops."

"After that, I will keep Li Rubai and Li Rumei, Wang Chengen (Yansui General Soldier), Zhang Jixian, Yang Zhaoji and others in your Northern Army Governor's Mansion."

"As for Sun Chuanting, I have already asked the imperial brother to make him a re-set scripture strategy, and nominally you still need to obey his command."

"However, Sun Chuanting's big battle in the north, after all, there are not as many battles as you, I have already written back to Sun Chuanting, so there is no need to worry about the reset."

"What you have to do now is to renovate the herdsmen of Taifu Temple, as well as the guards in Shaanxi and Hexi."

"Especially the population of Hexi, I will find out all the people, and then I will ask the imperial brother to set up a province in Hexi and declare the political envoy."

"After Hexi is set up as a province, you are ready to move the people of Longyou to Hexi, and the people of southern Shaanxi to Longyou."

"At most, I will come to command the autumn harvest next year, and I will personally command the first battle, and then I need to move the people of northern Shaanxi to the Hetao area."

"There is a lot of money and grain needed to move the Hetao, so you need to build more granaries in northern Shaanxi, and I will ask the Imperial Horse Supervisor to transport the fields from Sichuan, Huguang, Henan, and Shanxi to northern Shaanxi after the autumn harvest next year."

"The battle of Futao will not be long, as long as the Hetao is recovered, Guanzhong will be stable."

In the last sentence, Zhu Youzhen seemed to be sighing something, and Man Gui didn't think about it so much, just nodded in response.

However, after responding, Man Gui asked Zhu Youzhen about his incomprehension:

"Your Highness, the last general has learned about Shaanxi, and now Hanzhong Mansion should be a densely populated place, why don't you relocate the people of Hanzhong Mansion?"

"The people of Hanzhong Mansion will move south in the future." Zhu Youzhen replied without thinking, because he had thought about the plan for the migration a long time ago.

The people of Hanzhong moved south to Sichuan, Fujian and Huguang moved south to Guangdong, Guangdong moved west to Guangxi, and Guizhou and Sichuan moved south to Yunnan.

In this way, the southwest was completely consolidated, and there was even the remaining strength to move south to Annam.

However, in order to organize the southward migration, it is necessary to solve all the southwest toasts.

Solving the Southwest Tusi will inevitably take a lot of energy from the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Youzhen must solve the matter of the Hetao before solving this matter.

Once the Hetao and Ningxia are resolved, the northern threat to the Hexi Corridor and the Guanzhong Plain will be completely eliminated.

Although Zhu Youjian did not dare to say that he could guarantee that Shaanxi would survive the Xiaoice River drought, at least the people could resist for a few more years, and would not be carried away by the drought in one wave as in history.

As long as the Hetao and Ningxia provinces are wiped out next year, the relocation of the people of Shaanxi can start next year, and at most end in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, and the population density in Shaanxi will be reduced to at least two-thirds of the current one.

Once the livelihood of the people in northern Shaanxi is guaranteed, it will not be a problem for Shaanxi to rely on the "transferred grain" of Shanxi, Beizhili, and Henan for two years.

In these two years, plus the sixth and seventh years of the Apocalypse, Zhu Youzhen had four years to solve the Southwest Tusi, Annan, and Nanyang.

As long as the Southwest Tusi, Annan and Nanyang are resolved, especially Annan, then the nearly 10 million mu of land in Annam can fully support millions of families to gain a firm foothold.

As for the people of Annan......

"Why do you want to think so much...... Zhu Youzhen chuckled and shook his head, and at this time, Lu Wenzhao walked in from outside the house, holding a dossier in his hand.

"Your Highness, the news of the cities in Nanyang is a little eyebrow-raising."

Lu Wenzhao presented the file with both hands, and when Zhu Youzhen heard it, he immediately got up and took the file from his hand and opened the list.

On the file, the military strength of the countries in the South Seas is clearly recorded, as well as the attitude towards the Ming Dynasty, and there is a city mark that is not too clearly drawn.

"Give it to the craftsmen, let them make a full number of sand tables, and send them to the capital and Ryukyu."

Zhu Youzhen's eyes narrowed, put the file on the table, and at the same time turned to look at the East Asian pattern map hanging high in the study behind him, and said in a brisk tone:

"Tell Huang Long that his recruitment speed has to be accelerated......"