"Li Wonton, your wonton is not good for today's meat......"

"Prices have skyrocketed recently, and if you don't want to increase the price of vegetables, you can only change to cheap officialdom pork."

At a roadside wonton stall on Caishi Street in Nancheng, some diners are picky about the meaty taste of the wontons, and the stall owners who make the wontons can only explain.

"Alas...... It's the same, the price of rice has risen to three and a half pounds, and the price of your wonton noodles has not risen, which is considered a conscience. ”

"Let's eat noodles, I'll have to go to the docks to work later."

"What's the hurry, the workers in the countryside have gone home to farm, and now there are more dock stations, so it's okay to go an hour late......"

When the diners heard this, they sighed and sighed, but also revealed some news.

Zhu Youzhen and Cui Yingyuan, along with two brocade guards dressed in civilian clothes, sat at a low table in the stall.

While eating wonton noodles, Zhu Youzhen listened to the discussions of the people behind him, and also understood some information in his heart.

He visited for two hours, and he saw a lot of problems that needed to be solved, and also saw the livelihood of the people.

As far as people's livelihood is concerned, because the drought in Beizhili has receded westward this year, many farmers who have moved to the city to work because of the drought have returned to their hometowns to farm.

This has improved the employment environment a lot, which was originally more crowded and less worked, and some jobs that sell hard have been freed up.

At present, the number of jobs and labor in Beijing is barely equal, and some businessmen naturally do not dare to lower wages as they did in the previous drought, but restore wages to the time of the sixth year of the apocalypse.

Naturally, their resumption of wages was also the result of the order issued by Zhu Youzhen on the side of the imperial court and the supervision of the local yamen.

At the height of the drought, the price given by the capital was only 20 wen a day, but now it has recovered to 30 wen a day.

In fact, if the price is based on the market situation, it should take a few years to slowly rise, after all, the businessmen have grouped together to lower the price, and the workers have nothing to do with them.

However, under the supervision of the imperial court, the businessmen of Beizhili still did not dare to make trouble, and resumed their wages one after another.

For this reason, they scolded Zhu Youzhen behind their backs, because Zhu Youzhen's policy made them earn a lot of money.

Zhu Youzhen knows all these things, but he still thinks that he has to see the employment environment in the capital with his own eyes.

As for the people's livelihood of firewood, rice, oil, salt, and various prices, Zhu Youzhen also basically read it.

Due to the control of the government, and the fact that there is no drought in Fujian and Zhejiang, the price of firewood, salt and cloth has been very stable.

As for the existence of rice, oil and other crop processing, the price has risen a lot due to the drought, but the court's regular closing has continued to release grain, and the peanut production of Cochin has sprung up in recent years, so the price of rice and oil can still be controlled.

But even so, the current price of rice is relatively high during the Apocalypse.

When the situation was at its best during the Apocalypse, the price of rice in the capital was only two or seven or eight, but three and a half was considered high.

As for the grain problem, Zhu Youzhen will not be particularly worried in three years, because the drought is receding, and except for Shanxi and Shaanxi, the price of rice in Beizhili should be able to fall back to the level of two cents and seven or eight.

What he cares about is how to use these three years to allow the people to accumulate enough capital to fight the drought.

In the past four years of drought, the vast majority of the people have basically exhausted the family property accumulated after the division of land by relying on the imperial court, and everything is waiting to be raised.

In the face of the next wave of more serious drought, Zhu Youzhen has a lot of things to do in the past three years.

The construction of the captives must be destroyed, the people's assets must be accumulated, the anti-corruption must be continued, the feudal domains must gain a foothold, the official education must be promoted step by step, and the household registration system must be gradually implemented......

In short, there are too many things, and the most important thing is the first three points.

"When will the construction of the roadbed of the provincial railways start? What is the number of workers recruited by each province? Let people look it up ......"

Zhu Youzhen lowered his head and ate the wontons, but he gave an order steadily, and without Cui Yingyuan opening his mouth, the Jinyi Wei Qianhu next to him got up and went to some alleys.

The hidden Jinyiwei hurriedly went to inquire, while Zhu Youzhen stopped after eating a whole cup of tea, wiped his mouth and got up to continue to take a deliberate walk on the crowded vegetable market street.

What are the prices in the capital? What is the life of the people? Is there a problem with employment? Did the government and county government bully the people?

These things, he had to ask slowly, carefully......

When he had seen the same, he walked to the East City, and the Jinyi Guard sent out also delivered the news to him half an hour later.

According to Zhu Youzhen's policy, the construction of nine railways started at the same time, but the construction of the railways was not directly laid railways.

Because the former post road was left to the government road to build a cement road, the railway had to be replanned and the roadbed had to be rebuilt.

Zhou Yanru, who was awarded the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, is also rushing from Sichuan to the capital in a hurry, and Zhou Yanru is expected to arrive in the capital in May, and the Ministry of Industry will complete the summary of the basic railway route on the first day of June.

Due to the severe drought situation, this year's employment is not based on the needs of the Ministry of Labor, but on the needs of the victims.

Therefore, the provincial railways were basically selected and developed, and the hungry people were hired to dig at the same time.

According to the Ministry of Engineering's project, the roadbed project will occupy one-fifth of the time of each project.

Although the construction period of the nine railways was fifteen years, the completion time of each was different.

For example, the Beijing-Gate Railway, the forty-mile railway, the surveyors of the Ministry of Industry have already handed over the answer sheet.

The project started on March 20, and it is expected to recruit 50,000 people, and the construction of the roadbed will begin in early April, the roadbed will be completed on May 15, the railroad track will be laid on May 16, and the test will be completed on August 15, and it will be opened to traffic at the end of September at the latest, at a cost of 256,000 taels.

The whole construction period was six months, and due to the large number of employees, and the fact that the railway had only three stations, affecting only more than 30,000 people, the Ministry of Industry estimated that it would take 140 years to recover the cost.

It is not only that the investment and income of the Beijing-Gate Railway are not proportional, it can be said that this is the case for all railways.

Zhu Youzhen didn't look at these, only looked at the time.

Among the nine railway projects, the Beijing-Gate Railway can be put into use this year, and perhaps it will be open to traffic before the fourth version of the steam engine is produced.

The second is the Beijing-Tianjin railway from Beijing to Tianjin, which also started on the first day of April and is expected to open to traffic by the end of next year.

These two railways are not long, and together they are less than 260 miles.

Compared with them, the first of the remaining seven ultra-long railways to be completed also took seven years, that is, the Beijing-Liao Railway from Beijing to Shenyang.

As for the rest, there is no need to say more, Zhu Youzhen simply read it and folded the paper and returned it to Cui Yingyuan.

Walking to Dongcheng, it was naturally not far from the Qi Palace, and without too much hesitation, Zhu Youzhen chose to return to the palace.

The Hundred Kings Fang is unusually quiet, and normally the kings would not go out to hang out, because the palace itself is a miniature version of the town.

Of course, the reason is more because of the continuous migration of the feudal domains since last year.

For more than half a year, more than a dozen vassal kings and more than 40 county kings moved one after another, and according to the time, the earliest feudal lords should have arrived in South Asia in February.

Huanglong's side should have received a letter from the imperial court and knew about the imperial court's arrangements to support Xiao Xiyang.

However, judging by the time and previous intelligence, they should be busy defending against the Mughals at the moment......

"Put!"

"Bang bang bang-"

When Zhu Youzhen returned to the palace of the Qi king, as he had expected, heavy shelling rang out over the Deccan plateau in south-central Indian Peninsula.

The difference is that it was not the Yanshan artillery of the Ming army that fired the shelling, but the cannon of the Mughal army.

Unlike other Mongol khanates, the Mughal dynasty was not a purely nomadic state, but a very powerful gunpowder dynasty, and it was a system that was established from the very beginning.

Although the founding emperor of the Mughal dynasty, Babur, was a Turkicized Mongol, he was particularly adept at using a variety of firearms.

The upward and downward effects, Babur is like this, and the descendants of future generations are naturally not bad.

As a result, the Mughals used arquebuses on a large scale even longer than in many European countries.

Not only that, the Mughal Empire established artillery factories in Shimu and other places, and as early as the last century, it formed a heavy artillery team of 70 cannons and a light artillery team of more than 200 horse-drawn small cannons.

In addition, the Mughal Dynasty did not lack gunpowder raw materials like Japan, but was a saltpeter country comparable to the Ming Dynasty, so their use of firearms was no worse than that of the Great Ming.

In addition, in terms of finance, the financial revenue of the Mughal Empire was more than 200 million rupees, which was converted into 70 million taels of silver, which was more than double the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli period.

Even now, after Zhu Youzhen's ten-year innovation, the Ming Dynasty is barely on par with the Mughal Dynasty in terms of finance.

As for the military, the Mughal dynasty used foreigners to manufacture and operate artillery, and regarded the hiring of foreign artillerymen as a national policy.

The main reason for the establishment of this national policy is that the core of its entire dynasty is a large number of Persian and Turkic military leaders and civil officials.

These people were not good at firearms, so the Mughals had to hire talent from Ottomans and Europe.

By the way, the Mughal army's officer salary scale is among the best in the world.

In the same command of 500 men, the Mughal officers could earn more than 300 taels of silver, and the officers who commanded 5,000 men could earn 6,000 taels of silver.

As for the more senior officers, their annual income has reached tens of thousands of taels of silver.

In comparison, the Ming garrison, which also commanded 500 people, was 500 taels, the staff of 3,000 people was 800 taels, and the total army of 10,000 people was only 1,200 taels.

In addition to the fact that the Ming Dynasty can look down on the Mughal Dynasty, in terms of the treatment of middle-level and high-level officers, the Mughal officers are simply completely crushed by the Ming officers.

Not only that, but the Mughal dynasty had a tradition of never being in arrears of wages, and musket soldiers were paid double salaries.

As for the Mughal artillerymen's salaries, they were even more expensive, in addition to the regular salary of fifty taels of silver, the Mughal artillerymen could also enjoy various benefits.

Such a Mughal dynasty was a great threat to the Ming Dynasty, but fortunately, although the kings and military leaders of the Mughal dynasty recognized the role of artillery, due to their traditions and national characteristics, they were not willing to learn, but directly spent money on people to train.

However, even if it is a substitute training, at the moment, they have made the Ming army suffer a lot of "hardships".

"! When exactly will the gunpowder in the rear arrive? The battle lines are three hundred miles back! ”

On the south bank of the Godavari River, under the civil engineering works one after another, the familiar Daming official dialect sounded in the way of "the exit becomes dirty".

In the civil and anti-artillery command house hidden underground, Li Zicheng, who had been promoted to a staff general, scolded loudly, and around him, Liu Zongmin, Li Zijing, Zhu Yujian, Zhu Changqing and others also had ugly faces.

In a year's time, the Ming army pushed north from the south of the South Asian peninsula, sweeping through the major princely states and sultanates, and the peak of the army was in the month of last year.

On the twenty-third day of the ninth year of the Apocalypse, they advanced as far north as the Narmada River in the middle of the Indian peninsula, and further north were the Vindya Mountains, and after crossing the Vindhya Mountains, there was the endless Gangetic Plain.

Although the Ming army followed the route of "blitzkrieg", using cavalry and a large number of horse infantry to raid lightly to take the major city-states of each country.

Even though many small city-states have not yet been taken by the Ming army under this tactic, in general, the Ming army has become a veritable "hegemon" south of the Narmada River.

However, before the Ming army could exterminate other small city-states, rebellions broke out in Tanjore, Mysore and other places in the south.

Under these circumstances, Lu Xiangsheng led the 30,000 Ming troops in the south to begin to encircle and suppress the rebels in various places, and the city-states of the major sultanates also took the opportunity to attack the baggage convoys of the Ming army.

After receiving the news, Huang Long left behind ten battalions of foot soldiers, three battalions of cavalry, one battalion of artillery, and 600 Yanshan five-pound guns, a total of 45,000 people to garrison the Narmada River, he personally commanded the seven battalions of soldiers and horses to go south to quell the rebellion, and by the way opened up the supply line connecting the coastal city.

Although the baggage line was broken, Huanglong did not panic, because the Ming army in the north captured a large amount of grain, enough to eat for more than half a year.

He was concerned about the gunpowder brought from the old port, after all, without gunpowder, it would be difficult for the Ming army to hold the defense line of the Narmada River.

As a result, at this juncture, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ordered an army.

Composed of 20,000 musketeers, 30,000 light infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 5,000 elephants, and 5,000 artillery, 90,000 soldiers and horses, divided into seven legions, launched an attack on the Ming army's defense line on the Narmada River in seven directions.

Because the Narmada River itself was in a river valley, and the Mughal army was attacking from a position in the Wendhya Mountains, coupled with the lack of gunpowder of the Ming army, after holding on for two months, the commander-in-chief Qi Yuanfu had no choice but to issue a military order to retreat.

The retreat of the Ming army was more than 300 miles, and the whole army withdrew to the south bank of the Godavari River.

The Godavari River is the largest river in south-central India, originating in the eastern foothills of the Western Ghats, flowing southeast through the Deccan Plateau, and finally splitting into several branches to flow into the Bay of Bengal, with a total length of nearly 2,500 li.

Due to the dense network of the Godavari River, its numerous tributaries, and the abundance of water due to the spring rains, the Ming army successfully relied on the river network to hold back the Mughal army of 90,000.

However, the lack of gunpowder is a fact, unless at a critical moment, the Ming army could not use artillery to counterattack the Mughal army, and the Mughals relied on the proximity to the homeland, and the gunpowder was continuously transported to the front line, shelling the Ming defense line every day.

Li Zicheng's angry scolding just now was also because of his helpless complaint after being shelled for more than half a month.

In the two-and-a-half-month confrontation, the Ming and Moxican armies suffered casualties, the Ming army killed more than 4,000 people on the way to defend and retreat, and the Mughal army was blocked by the Ming army in the river network and killed more than 5,000 people.

It seemed that the Ming army had the upper hand, but the Ming army in charge of defense only had 40,000 troops left.

However, after taking hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land left by the Ming army, Shah Jahan increased his army by 35,000 men, and the Mughal army on the front line reached a full 120,000.

40,000 people defended 120,000, plus the end of the spring rains, the arrival of summer......

Such a situation is not only uncomfortable for Li Zicheng, but also for all the generals of the Ming army.

"Recently, there have been many soldiers in the army who are not accustomed to the water and soil, and the non-combat attrition has reached more than 800 people, if Huang Dudu and Lu Inspector can no longer clear out the rebels, I am afraid we will ......."

Zhu Yujian frowned and spoke, and the object of his inquiry was naturally Qi Yuanfu, who was sent to assist Huang Long.

It's just that in the face of this situation, Qi Yuanfu is also very helpless.

In the rear were more than 100,000 guerrilla rebel troops and 20 to 30 million South Asian natives who tried to rebel, while the Ming army had less than 140,000 soldiers and horses on land and sea, and less than 250,000 displaced people.

However, it is not without good news, because half a month ago, the first batch of vassal kings landed in Ceylon Province under the protection of the 10 battalions and 30,000 troops of the Southern Military Governor's Mansion.

Originally, their purpose was to land directly in Tanjore, but now that the rebels in Tanjore and other places are in turmoil, Lu Xiangsheng and Huang Long are countering the rebellion in the south and north, and the feudal domains will naturally not land.

They took with them more than 60,000 people and more than 30,000 soldiers of the Gong Guard Battalion to settle down temporarily in Ceylon.

Knowing that reinforcements were coming, Lu Xiangsheng used his identity as a supervising envoy to transfer the 10th battalion of soldiers and horses to the 7th battalion, and commanded more than 50,000 people to advance from south to north to quell the rebellion.

The Yellow Dragon regained the coastal city-states and inland cities from the north to the south, from the outside in.

At this time, it would take up to two months to recover the coastal city-states, and then encircle and suppress the rebels in the interior.

"Governor Huang and Inspector Lu will be able to recover the coast in two months at most, you don't have to worry."

Qi Yuanfu comforted this group of generals of the new generation, but at the same time he was disappointed in their spirits.

For a general like him who came from the Wanli period, the temporary suppression of the war is nothing, although the Ming army is now passively beaten, but this is caused by many unexpected factors.

As long as the counterinsurgency in the south is over, and the subsequent reinforcements of the other ten battalions also land in South Asia, the Ming army will immediately be able to organize an army of 120,000 and a large advantage of more than 2,000 artillery pieces to counterattack.

The current defeat does not mean anything, and morale cannot fall.

"But it's good ......" Glancing at Li Zicheng and many other generals, Qi Yuanfu sighed in his heart:

"It's good to let them suffer hardships, otherwise they will be deflated when they encounter a strong enemy in the future, and I am afraid they will fall for thousands of miles."

"It's not a problem if you don't adapt to the water and soil like this......" Li Zijing hugged his helmet and opened his mouth with a frown.

His words resonated with many people, after all, eight hundred troops were reduced in more than half a month, and those two months were one battalion.

At present, there are only 14 battalions left in the Ming army on the defense line of the Godavari River, and one of them has lost most of its strength, and the whole army is only 40,000 people.

When summer arrives and the scope of the river network shrinks, the defensive pressure of the Ming army will increase rapidly.

The defense line of more than 1,500 miles is only garrisoned by 40,000 Ming troops, which is really difficult to do.

"Soldiers who are not accustomed to the water and soil, send them to Patam to rest first, which has been recovered by the Governor, and the ships of gunpowder from Ceylon will arrive in the port there."

"The team was led by Zhu Changqing, and by the way, the brothers of the Nanhai camp were taken to Patam to rest and recuperate, supervise the local natives to cultivate and collect land taxes."

Qi Yuanfu made arrangements safely, although the Ming army still had enough food to eat, but just in case, he still left a way for himself to retreat.

If the Ming army really can't hold the defense line of the Godavari River, then it is not too late to retreat to the coastal Patam and join the army after taking a boat south to join the army.

The combat effectiveness of the Mughal army is indeed good, which the Ming army underestimated them before.

Qi Yuanfu realized the mistake of the Ming army, and watched Zhu Changqing take the order to retreat, and then he said:

"There is still a month left in the summer, and according to the locals, the water network will be degraded on a large scale in April, and then we will have a hard battle."

"Save a little gunpowder, and when the Lu Inspectorate recovers Tanjor and other places and opens up the eastern coastal corridor, we will attack the "southern captives" head-on. ”

"I'll take the order—"

Qi Yuanfu's words won the approval of many generals, and they took the title of "Nanyu" for the Turkic Mongol nobles of the Mughals.

This is basically the old tradition of the Ming army, or the old tradition of the Ming Dynasty.

No matter what, here in Daming, as long as it is an enemy, then give you a few ugly nicknames first.

For example, the Mughal emperor in the mouth of Li Zicheng and others, from "Shah Jahan" to "killing the tiger".

After being comforted by Qi Yuanfu, Li Zicheng and the others walked out of the civil engineering project, and in the trench less than six feet deep and five feet wide, they saw many soldiers lying in the trench and moaning as generals.

Most of these soldiers are unaccustomed to the water and soil, and Zhu Changqing, who has now received the order, is summoning the Nanhai battalion, which has lost half of the battalion, to take these soldiers away.

They groaned uncomfortably, and then were helped away by the soldiers of the Nanhai Battalion.

Due to the tropical monsoon climate, even though it is only March, it is already very hot, and the humid environment around it makes many soldiers feel uncomfortable.

"Damn Nanyu......"

Looking at the soldiers who were constantly being helped away in the trench, Li Zicheng and the others felt uncomfortable, and could only curse in a low voice.

However, before they could scold, the artillery of the Mughal army "rumbled" again.

Lying on the edge of the trench, Li Zicheng and the others looked at the Mughal army on the other side of the river with binoculars of clairvoyance.

It seems that because the previous resistance of the Ming army made the Mughal army feel uneasy, they did not dare to force the river at the same time as the shelling, for fear that they would be defeated by the Ming army in the process of short-term attack, leaving a corpse behind.

They are now unscrupulously shelling the positions of the Ming army, and Li Zicheng can't help but feel a little aggrieved when he sees this scene:

"! Only I am a Ming bombardment, how can anyone dare to bombard my Ming. ”

"When the gunpowder from Ceylon arrives in Patam, I will give them a taste of the power of Yanshan's artillery...... Bah! ”

Li Zicheng spat at the Mughal army, and Liu Zongmin and others next to him also spat one after another.

It's just that this saliva didn't spit out for a while, and the sound of the cannon that rang out again immediately made this group of peasant children from northern Shaanxi subconsciously shrink their heads.

"! Have the ability to kill me! ”

Liu Zongmin roared in the direction of the Mughal army, but after the roar, he immediately squatted down.

Li Zicheng patted him with a smile, and the rest of the generals who were also from northern Shaanxi also looked at each other and smiled, revealing their big white teeth.

"Haha......"

Hearty laughter rang out as the shelling ended, filling the trenches, bringing a touch of color to the brutal black-and-white war......

Tonight's update is around ten o'clock, and at six or seven o'clock, it is estimated that I will update the war situation and power map of the South Asian subcontinent in the comment area or easter egg chapter.

(End of chapter)