When the flame meets the fire oil, and it is still facing a pure wooden structure.

This kind of scene is like a match thrown into a pile of old newspapers, which ignites at the touch of a button.

To the north of Kusatsu Castle, witnessed by the beautiful Lake Biwa, the flames of Kusatsu Castle illuminated everything, and the raging fire quickly swept through Kusatsu Castle with the help of the wind.

"Hurry up, get out first!"

Zheng Zhilong didn't expect the fire attack to be so easy to use, and the fire spread to most of Caojin City in just one cup of tea.

The Ming troops standing at the head of the city felt out of breath, and the heat wave hit one after another.

They withdrew from Kusatsu Castle one after another, along with artillery and prisoners of war.

As far as the eye could see, almost everything was set on fire, and the 7,000 Japanese troops in the corner of the city who were stubbornly resisting let out a ghostly wail.

A fire was ignited on their bodies, and the fire oil attached to the surface of the armor stomach was stubborn and did not retreat on them, and the ignited people ran around, rubbing the fire oil on their bodies against the others.

Wailing, they tend to run hundreds of meters and then fall down, and the flames on their bodies will continue to burn until the oil is burned or the person is reduced to ashes.

Water can't be extinguished at all, only the foam keeps the air out.

It's just that the Japanese army in this era didn't understand how to insulate at all.

The temperature of Kusatsu Castle soared to thousands of degrees Celsius in an instant, and some metals could melt in an instant, even if people quickly jumped into the well, but the extremely high temperature caused the river water to turn into a boiling pot, and those who jumped into it were scalded to death.

The heat wave caused by the flames and the cold air above formed a strong "chimney effect", and even a "fire tornado" appeared, and even some flags in the retreating Ming army were constantly pulled by the air current.

At this moment, the entire Caojin City became a purgatory on earth, and the 7,000 Japanese troops in the city tried to escape, but found that the Ming army had blocked the city gate.

"Yagaya!"

The desperate Matsudaira Tadaaki scolded, and some of the indestructible samurai even chose to commit suicide by seppuku.

"Peng—"

I don't know what the flames ignited and the explosion exploded, and the heat wave rushed to Matsudaira Tadaaki at the city gate, and in his child's hole, a sea of fire rushed to his face, and in the end, all that was left in the child's hole was fear.

The deafening sound of explosions and the red sea of fire spread all around, and the retreating Ming army did not feel the temperature around it return to normal until it was three miles away.

Everyone turned to look at Kusatsu Castle, and the entire city had turned into a sea of fire, illuminating the entire sky red......

"Report!"

Tang rode a horse, and after Zheng Zhilong looked at him, this man said:

"General, Yin Da Masamune quickly retreated after seeing the fire in Kusatsu City at the beginning of the battle with our army, and our army chased after him, and after beheading more than 700 levels, Yin Da Masamune fled to Fengxiang Town."

"Okay, tell the two generals to withdraw, poor Kou Mo chase."

Zheng Zhilong nodded, and then looked at Caojin City.

The effect of the fire exceeded his expectations, but in the face of this fire, he did not feel guilty, but turned his head to Zheng Zhifeng and said:

"Tell Yan Jingluo about the effect of this fire attack, and if you can, ask the imperial court to support a sufficient amount of Menghuo oil."

"Yes!" Zheng Zhifeng should go down.

Obviously, Zheng Zhilong tasted the sweetness of the fire attack, and when Zheng Zhifeng left to give orders, he also said to the people around him:

"When the fire stops, enter the city and behead according to the armor, and report to His Highness."

"Yes!" All the participants responded.

Since Zhu Youzhen abolished the system of issuing silver rewards only after seeing the head, the head-level system of the Ming army has been much more flexible.

Although the fire in Kusatsu Castle was very strong, some of the iron armor was slightly melted and deformed at most, and it was impossible to melt into molten iron.

Even if there are only 1,000 sets of iron armor among the 7,000 Japanese troops in the city, they can be exchanged for 10,000 taels of silver, and they will be divided equally among each of them for hundreds of dollars.

The generals of the Ming army smiled happily, and the army began to camp and rest.

The fire in Caojin City burned for a whole day and night, and when Zheng Zhilong led people into the city, all he saw was charred char and some blackened iron armor, as well as charred corpses under the iron armor.

In this case, it was impossible to distinguish who was who, but Zheng Zhilong and they were all sure that Matsudaira Tadaaki and the other Nankoku daimyo had died in the castle.

Zheng Zhilong asked people to count the battle losses of both sides, and then quickly sent the military report to Osaka Castle.

After Yan Siqi saw the military report, he did not let Zheng Zhilong continue to go north, but ordered them to garrison Caojin City, and ordered someone to send the battle report to the capital.

For the Ming army, this was only a small victory and not worth celebrating, but for Tokugawa Hidetada and Tokugawa Iemitsu, the loss of Kusatsu Castle undoubtedly exposed Nagoya to the Ming army.

"I know, Zhongming did a good job, but the difference in strength between our two sides is too big."

In Edo Castle, a voice sounded, and Tokugawa Iemitsu, who was in the castle tower, looked up at the person sitting on the top seat.

The man was nearly fifty years old, and he was not tall, but he was still very calm in the face of the loss of most of the shogunate's land.

This person is the heir of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the current "Great Imperial Palace" of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Tokugawa Hidetada......

After all, he was a person who participated in the war to destroy the Toyotomi clan, and although he knew that the current situation was very bad, Tokugawa Hidetada did not show any worried look in order to give confidence to the people under him.

He looked at Tokugawa Iemitsu, who was kneeling below, and after a moment of silence, he asked:

"How did you deal with the peasants' flight south?"

"All escorted to the north to mine iron ore!" Hearing his father's inquiry, Tokugawa Iemitsu answered honestly, while Tokugawa Hidetada bowed slightly when he heard this, obviously more satisfied with his approach.

After bowing his head, he thought about the current situation for a moment before he spoke:

"This invasion of the Ming Dynasty is obviously not for money, but for the complete conquest of Japan."

"Probably it was Toyotomi Hideyoshi's attack on North Korea that brought them a little vigilance, so there is no possibility of peace in this battle."

"You have to urge the workers to build enough iron cannons, and the two of them will train the army."

"Our coalition army has been defeated, and now Tadaaki has another 20,000 elites in Kusatsu Castle, and there are less than 30,000 old soldiers in the shogunate, and only 80,000 old soldiers in other feudal lords."

"I have ordered Tadacho to train 20,000 ashigaru, Yin Da Masamune to train 10,000 ashigaru, and I still need you to train another 20,000 ashigaru here in Edo."

"The feudal lords in various places are also recruiting troops, and the Owari area of Nagoya will be the place where we will fight the Ming army in a decisive battle."

"The Ming army will not leave much time for us, we must gather 150,000 troops and attack from all sides to disperse the strength of the Ming army."

"The strength of the Ming army should be less than 40,000 people, and they will not launch another northern invasion in a short time, and the attack on Kusatsu Castle is just to give Kyoto a gateway."

"And when will they invade the north?" Tokugawa Iemitsu asked worriedly, and Tokugawa Hidetada thought about it before saying:

"This needs to pay attention to whether the Ming Dynasty will support the army, if the Ming Dynasty supports, it will not be more than three months at most, Yan Siqi will carry out a northern invasion, and we have to face them in Owari."

"I see......" Hearing this, Tokugawa Iemitsu nodded, and then looked at Tokugawa Hidetada before exiting the castle tower.

Although the shogunate still controls three-fifths of Japan's land and two-thirds of its population, the situation is indeed not optimistic.

Tokugawa Iemitsu conveyed Tokugawa Hidetada's instructions with great concern, and the remnants of the shogunate began to recruit troops and prepare for the defense of the Ming army.

Yan Siqi's handwritten letter and military newspaper were delivered to the capital on the first day of the first month by Jinyiwei in the Pusan area of North Korea at an expedited speed of 800 miles after half a month of turbulence.

Before the Zhengdan Festival Festival, this handwritten letter was delivered to Zhu Youzhen's hands.

"Entering the class—"

In the Forbidden City with red walls and white snow, when the Honglu Temple was singing, the ministers outside the Imperial Palace poured in, and Zhu Youzhen raised his hand to signal to Gu Bingqian and the others: "You go in first." ”

"Yes......"

Seeing this, Gu Bingqian and the others also knew that there was an urgent performance on the Japanese side, so they did not delay and led people into the Imperial Palace.

It's just that the Han general at the door looked at Zhu Youzhen, who had not entered the hall, and hesitated for a while, not knowing whether to whip or not.

"You do yours." Zhu Youzhen showed a kind smile, comforted the two Han generals, and then walked to the side and opened the handwriting.

"Mixed ...... Syllable! ”

The sound of the whip sounded, and the congratulatory sound of "Long live, long live, long live, long live" also sounded in the Imperial Palace.

The melodious bell rings, representing the passage of the eighth year of the Apocalypse and the arrival of the ninth year of the Apocalypse.

Zhu Youzhen didn't rush in, but took the handbook and looked at it at a glance.

In the letter, Yan Siqi mainly said three issues, the first is that most of their people are good at naval warfare, and he hopes that Zhu Youzhen will send a person who is good at land warfare to Japan to coordinate the army.

The second is the question of the Japanese peasants, Yan Siqi asked Zhu Youzhen if he could recruit soldiers from the local area to supplement the current losses of the Ming army.

As for the third point, Zheng Zhilong captured Kusatsu, Liu Xiang and others captured most of the area south of Nagoya, and now the Ming army is directly targeting Nagoya.

From June of the eighth year of the Apocalypse to the 17th day of the lunar month, the Ming army killed 1,672 people, disabled and retired 945 people, and beheaded 34,237 Japanese soldiers.

At first glance, it seems that the Ming army can still maintain a battle loss of 1 to 10, but in fact, the casualties have begun to increase.

Counting from the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the Ming army has killed nearly 4,000 people in Japan, and nearly 3,000 people have been disabled and retired.

Although the Ming army beheaded nearly 90,000 Japanese troops before and after, such a battle ratio was not enough to satisfy Zhu Youzhen.

He thought about the current situation, after the expansion of the Ming army, the strength of the imperial court once again reached 28 guards, 240 battalions, a total of 884,240 people.

The ratio of the army was nearly 120,000 cavalry, 100,000 artillerymen, 360,000 infantry and 300,000 hand-to-hand sword players.

The overall firearms allocation rate of the armed forces is 65 percent, which is not low in this era.

However, the development of mercury thunderate and manganese steel may support the Ming army to become a modern army in the nineteenth century in the next decade.

As long as the firing pistols and bayonets can be mastered, the Ming army can become an invincible army that can reduce the dimensionality of all countries in the world.

In addition, of the 28th and 240th Battalions, 32 battalions are currently being transferred to the Lesser Western Ocean, and a total of 20 battalions are being transferred to or stationed in the Japanese area.

In Japan, it is good to say that it is completely possible to feed the war with war, and the military salary of the army can be met by the silver mines in the Iwami area, and it can also feed back to the imperial court.

However, there are some troubles in the small western region, and the army will not be in place until the end of February, and then it will need to adapt and recuperate locally.

The three places of Liangguang and Yunnan, Guichuan where the Western Army and the Southern Army were located were very different from the climate of Tianzhu, and the army had to adapt to the local climate before they could be conquest.

People who really can't adapt can only withdraw to the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youzhen was thinking so, but he didn't know that Huanglong was already preparing to attack the five princely states in the south of Tianzhu.

This is a problem with the transmission of information of the times, and the general will not be subject to the orders of the monarch outside, Huang Long has been waiting for Zhu Youzhen's remote command, I am afraid that the 32 battalions, 12 guards, and more than 160,000 soldiers and horses will have to wait for news for half a year.

This person eats horses and chews, and everyone is 15 taels of military salary plus 15 taels of subsidies, which is more than 2 million taels of silver for half a year.

Even if Zhu Youzhen knew about Huang Long's actions, I am afraid he would not be angry.

"Your Highness, long live let you go in and summarize ......"

When Zhu Youzhen put away the handbook, Wang An walked out of the Imperial Palace and carefully reminded Zhu Youzhen, while Zhu Youzhen, who was dressed in a crown robe, turned around and bowed his head when he heard this.

He took Wang An into the Imperial Palace, and everyone lowered their heads and didn't dare to look at him.

Above this court, the party officials who once occupied two-thirds of the temple hall are now only two-fifths of those who have been suppressed, and the remaining three-fifths are the Qi Wang Party.

As for the Huangji Hall Square, among the officials below the fifth grade, the officials of the Yanshan faction also accounted for one-third, the Qi Wang Party accounted for one-third, and the parties and non-parties accounted for one-third.

The court as a whole is a one-party monopoly, and such a one-party dominance not only did not reduce the administrative efficiency of the imperial court, but improved the efficiency of the imperial court in the center.

Zhu Youzhen walked to his place, and the courtiers were waiting for him to speak.

He was not in a hurry, but bowed respectfully to Zhu Youxiao on the high platform, and then turned to look at the officials.

The Zhengdan Festival is basically a congratulatory gift for courtiers, and generally does not talk about anything, except for Yang Lian's iron-headed baby, only Zhu Youzhen is qualified to talk about serious things in this kind of scene.

However, Zhu Youzhen would not delay too much time, he faced the hundred officials and said:

"There are three points to say, but before we can say them, we must first say one thing......

Zhu Youzhen quietly glanced at the hundred officials, and then spoke:

""Officials Dinglu" is a national policy, which cannot be shaken, and work for relief is also a national policy, which is not easy to shake, and the final anti-corruption and anti-corruption is still a national policy, which still cannot be shaken."

"Whoever dares to shake these three points will be punished by the three clans and exiled to the nine clans!"

At the New Year's Day festival to congratulate the gift, the only one who dared to release such cruel words was Zhu Youzhen.

Such cruel words are basically set the tone for the next year, and whoever dares to go against the tune has to think about how to deal with Zhu Youzhen.

However, in this group of stinky fish and rotten shrimp at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the people who can fight with Zhu Youjian, who has been sharpened step by step, except for the combination of Huang Taiji and Nurhachi outside the Guanwai, really can't find a second person.

Even if it is this combination, if they are separated, they are still not Zhu Youzhen's opponents.

Therefore, after Zhu Youzhen finished speaking, many people silently wrote down this argument.

It's not that they're not greedy, it's that they're more cautious and more subtle in their corruption.

"From today onwards, the "Official Dinglu" will be thoroughly implemented, and the first thing to satisfy is the officials from the first grade to the ninth grade, and the more than one million officials in the second nine grades must pass the Enke exam in October this year before they can enter the product."

"Daming doesn't need so many officials, among the more than one million officials, the imperial court only employs 500,000 people!"

"Every year since then, the new quota of officials in each province has been decided by the cabinet, the six ministries, and the Qi Palace."

As soon as Zhu Youzhen opened his mouth, he wanted to disintegrate the 1.3 million Xu official group, and no one dared to say such words, except for him.

Everyone knows that 150,000 people will graduate from Yanshan Academy this year, and these 150,000 people, plus nearly 300,000 local scribes, can fully meet the basic operation of the Ming Dynasty.

Not only that, the Gongwei camps in various places are under martial law, and everyone in the palace knows why martial law.

Zhu Youzhen is a copy of Zhu Yuanzhang, and it can even be said that in terms of cultivating people, he is a strengthened version of Zhu Yuanzhang.

Even if it is Zhu Yuanzhang, the Guozijian he has cultivated is only 100,000 students, and Zhu Youzhen's Yanshan Academy graduates more than 100,000 students every year.

Not all of these people can be officials, but it is completely sufficient to be scribes.

Whoever dares to make trouble, Zhu Youzhen will dare to kill whomever he wants, and he, like Zhu Yuanzhang, is a person who doesn't care what future generations will say.

Rate him a tyrant? I'm sorry, he's a prince.

Evaluate his powerful ministers? That's okay, but will Zhu Youzhen and Zhu Youxiao care?

Although the group of 1.3 million officials is huge, how can it compare with swords and guns?

You don't see that the landlord group is also very large, and in the end it is not equal to the rich and the poor.

The person who plays with the pen will never be able to fight the person who plays with the gun, not to mention that the person who plays with the gun is still playing with the pen and at the same time.

Not to mention whether the people of this 1.3 million Xu Officials Group dare to make trouble, it is still a question whether they have so many people.

The "Official Dinglu" was ostensibly to abolish the bad rules and income of officials and formulate a unified distribution of money.

In fact, this is also an action against civil servants who are paid empty salaries.

Whether there were 1.3 million officials in the Ming Dynasty or not, this question will never be concluded before the complete implementation of the "Official Dinglu" and the end of the October Xu official Enke.

Before the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies and the Nine Sides were renovated, the Ming Dynasty was still known as two million troops.

As a result, there were only about 1.2 million people, of whom more than 700,000 were farmers with hoes.

If the army is like this, how can civilian officials get any better?

Zhu Youzhen is suspicious, the current Ming may not even have 700,000 officials, and the number of people doing things is probably less than 500,000.

He only invested less than 300,000 scribes, and as a result, the execution efficiency of the middle and grassroots levels of the Ming Dynasty increased several times.

The simplest one is the tax arrears of the southern provinces every year.

Even if the civil officials do not withhold it, this tax often needs to be calculated in the lunar month.

However, in the eighth year of the Apocalypse, before June had passed, Bi Ziyan dared to be sure that Daming Tianfu was less than 50 million stones, and the harvest in October and the statistics in November also confirmed that his idea was correct.

Is this self-disciplined and like a god? Naturally not, this is because the following scribe is roughly calculating the statistics, and finally the household department summarizes the results.

Such a projection, four years before the Apocalypse, would have been impossible to realize.

Of the more than 2 million Xu officials, even the 26 million Shitian Fu can be misestimated, and Zhu Youzhen only added less than 300,000 scribes, and he can roughly calculate the output of more than 800 million mu of Tianfu.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen is not afraid of this group of officials with low execution ability at all.

Whoever rebels is better, exiled to Nanzhou, and the population that has been relocated to the feudal domains will come out.

A million people, ten taels of silver each, all the vassal bottoms had to be hollowed out.

Thinking so, Zhu Youzhen glanced at the hundred officials, and then spoke:

"The first of the three points is that the war of the feudal domains must be fought in the ninth year of the Apocalypse, and the feudal kings whose territories have been stabilized will start to take up the feudal domains, and the Xiaoxiyang Supervision Envoy is responsible for collecting the relocation silver from the feudal domains and transferring the military salaries of the Gongwei battalions."

"The second point, the road from the capital to Tianjin, I think all the ministers have seen it."

"On the seventeenth day of the lunar month, Xu Guangqi, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, went up and sparse, and most of the combing of the Yellow River has been completed, and the embankments in various places have been repaired and strengthened one after another."

"At the moment, there is no place to groom except to keep grooming every year."

Zhu Youzhen's words do not show how powerful Xu Guangqi is, after all, what they want to do is actually just repair and strengthen the place where Pan Jitao governed the Yellow River back then, and clean up the shallower part of the river by the way.

What he really wants to say is that the Yellow River, which can be used for work-for-relief, has actually been almost sorted out, and it can be guaranteed for at least 30 years without problems.

The officials also understood what he meant, and Zhu Youzhen continued when he saw this:

"The imperial court has already arranged cement yards and iron-making yards in various places, and this year's cash-for-work will mainly repair the provincial roads in various provinces."

"On the imperial court's side, work for relief is carried out in accordance with the way of simultaneous progress from north to south."

"First of all, the north should be repaired in Beizhili, Liaodong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, as well as Henan, Hexi, and the five provinces of Beijing."

"As for the south, there are six provinces: Guangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan, Fujian, and Jiaozhi."

"The total mileage of the provincial highway in the eleven provinces of Beijing is 40,000 li, and excluding the output of the old port, the imperial court can only guarantee the progress of 1,500 miles every year."

"While ensuring the continuous increase of cement production, the imperial court is expected to build the provincial highway in 11 provinces in Beijing for 15 years."

"The imperial court is ready to provide relief to one million hungry people in lieu of work, and each hungry person is paid ten wen a day, and it is estimated that three million six hundred thousand taels of silver will be spent per year, and a total expenditure of five hundred and seventy thousand two taels of silver will be spent during the construction period."

After Zhu Youzhen's second point was finished, many officials looked at each other, and it was obvious that the repair of the 40,000-li provincial highway was a major project.

Although this silver is only a year and a half of the financial income of the Ming court, the annual financial balance of the Ming Dynasty is actually less than 10 million taels, so the expenditure of this project needs to account for one-third of the annual financial balance of the imperial court.

If it is just a cash-for-work combing the Yellow River, then there is no point in discussing this matter.

But the problem lies in the fact that this cash-for-work project is not a project to comb the Yellow River, but to repair roads.

You must know that the concrete road is a thing, and the officials have long seen it clearly, and they have all enjoyed the comfort of the carriage driving on the cement road.

Building roads is a means to earn fame for the people, not to mention the cement roads with excellent comfort.

Using this kind of thing for work relief and giving it to the north, Liangguang, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Fujian is an extremely wasteful behavior in the eyes of many Jiangnan officials, so at the moment when Zhu Youzhen finished speaking, even someone stood up and said:

"Your Highness and the lower officials think that the cement road should be used in the south of the Yangtze River where it is more needed......"