The news from Jianzhou is still a bit appalling, more than 200,000 North Korean Baoyi were slaughtered by them and made into jerky.

Recent trade shows that the amount of salt imported into Jianzhou through the Korqin Ministry has doubled.

The number of the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled who died of starvation in Jianju must have exceeded 100,000, and together with the more than 200,000 Korean cloths who were slaughtered, the population has decreased by at least 300,000 or 400,000.

Instead, they increased the demand for salt, which must have been used to marinate salted meat.

In fact, compared with the direct damage of war, the famine and plague of this era had a greater impact on the population.

Of course, the biggest constraint on the population is the production of food.

Theoretically, as much food as there is to feed as many people.

The population of China has not been able to exceed 100 million, also because of the limitation of grain production.

This is the reason why Chinese civilization has always emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce.

For any dynasty, the reasons for its demise are varied.

But the lack of food for the people was an important reason why they rose up and overthrew the original dynasty.

In this food crisis in eastern Liaodong, Li Xianzhong undoubtedly made a lot of money.

Just sold 100,000 stone sweet potatoes to Jianzhou, and earned 500,000 taels of silver.

Most of the silver that Nurhachi had painstakingly squeezed from Korea went to the silver treasury of Pyongyubao.

Fan Wencheng said: "It's a pity, they now have a lot of jerky, and it is estimated that there will be no shortage of food in a few months." ”

Li Xianzhong said with a smile: "It's okay, don't they have to enter the silver treasury of Pingyu Fort sooner or later?" ”

"By the way, how much silver and grain do we have now?"

Fan Wencheng said with a smile: "At present, we already have 1.5 million taels of silver. However, the recent food expenditure has been a bit much, and now there are only 700,000 stone corn and rice left, and there are still a lot of sweet potatoes, still 1 million stone. ”

Li Xianzhong said: "The storage time of sweet potatoes is short, not as good as corn and rice, just leave a little ration and seeds." Try to shoot or eat first. ”

"Now sweet potatoes are no longer a secret, and it is estimated that sweet potatoes will be planted in many places in eastern Liaoning next year, and this thing has a large output, and it will be worthless next year."

Fan Wencheng sighed and said: "This weather is really abnormal, this year's drought, if it weren't for the large number of reservoirs prepared by Pingyu Fort in advance, even this drought-tolerant sweet potato may have a greatly reduced yield." ”

The growth cycle of sweet potatoes is about 100 days, which is much faster than grain.

The Intelligence Division is in the Grange in Fujian and can mature three times a year.

The highest yield per mu is 15 stones, and the average is basically 10-12 stones.

However, the yield per mu in Liaodong is only 7-10 stones, which is still in the case of no shortage of water.

In some places where the drought is severe, the yield per mu is less than 2 stones.

Where there is no irrigation at all, sweet potatoes cannot be grown.

However, the good thing about sweet potatoes is that the fragmented land between the mountains can also be used very well.

At present, the land around Pingyu Fort has been developed.

Therefore, Li Xianzhong built a new extermination fort in the Fushun area to reclaim the surrounding wasteland, and 100,000 acres of wasteland have been developed near the exterminating fort.

The silver in the hands of the people of Liaodong is limited, even if it is a sweet potato of 5 yuan of silver and a stone, many people cannot afford it.

Therefore, Li Xianzhong directly used sweet potatoes and corn in exchange for a large amount of fertile land near Shenyang and Liaoyang, the core of eastern Liaodong.

Usually 8-10 taels of one acre of fertile land, now 1 stone of corn or four or five stones of sweet potatoes can be exchanged for one acre.

After all, the crops in the fields were not harvested in these years, and they had to starve to death if they guarded the land.

Liaodong is not as tight as Jiangnan, the land here is not so tight, and the price is naturally much cheaper.

If you really can't do it, you can still be a tenant for Li Xianzhong.

Li Xianzhong also looked down on ordinary fields, after all, there was a large amount of ownerless wasteland in the Fushun area under his jurisdiction that needed to be reclaimed.

He will definitely not do it in exchange for precious grain for ordinary fields.

Therefore, they only used grain to replace the more fertile fertile land in Shenyang and Liaoyang.

About 400,000 acres were acquired.

The loss of corn in Pingyu Fort was mainly used to replace the land.

These lands were now turned into the granges of Ning Yuanbo Li Xianzhong, and the people who lost their land became his tenants.

In addition, due to Daiseon's expropriation in Korea, a large number of Korean people fled from Pyongan Province and Hamgyong Province.

North Korea was also running out of food, and the people were already starving to death, and Kong Youde selected 20,000 strong people from these hungry people and sent them to Fushun's Fortress as free labor.

At present, the total number of free North Korean laborers in Liaodong has exceeded 60,000, and they have been contracted to do heavy physical work such as mining, farming, and even ironmaking.

The liberated labor force at Pinggut was naturally trained into a reserve force, ready to be expanded into a regular army at any time.

At present, the reserve force of Pingyubao has also reached the scale of tens of thousands of people, and it can replenish the shortfall of the battalions at any time.

If it weren't for worrying about the weather in Xiaoice now, I was afraid that Liaodong would not be able to grow so much grain.

Li Xianzhong really wanted to accept hundreds of thousands of North Korean laborers in one go and develop all the wasteland in Liaodong.

It's a pity that I remember the drought in eastern Liaoning this year, and I can't remember what disasters will happen later.

Anyway, since Wanli 48, the climate of Xiaoice River has become more and more abnormal.

The risk of him buying so much land is still very great, and if he doesn't have an extreme weather, his land will be wiped out.

It's not easy to raise so many people at that time.

In the current situation, seven buckets of corn or 2 stones of sweet potatoes are enough for a laborer to eat for a month.

But food is still a serious problem.

This year, due to the severe drought in many places, the grain prices in Daming have also generally risen, and the rice in the Jiangnan area has also risen to 8 yuan and a stone.

Jingshi rose to one tael of silver and one stone.

The reason why grain prices in Liaodong have risen so high is, on the one hand, because of the severe drought; In addition, Li Xianzhong implemented the "Open China Law", and the grain transported by merchants was used in exchange for trade qualifications.

He limited the amount of grain sold by merchants in Liaodong, otherwise he carefully arranged such a bureau, and as a result, the silver was made by those profiteers, how could there be such a cheap thing in the world?

Li Xianzhong said to Fan Wencheng: "The granary has to continue to expand, and sweet potatoes can be stored in the cellar. Now 1.5 million taels of silver is enough, and all the silver of the monthly income goes to Jiangnan to exchange for grain, and when the price of grain in Jiangnan is high, it goes to the farther Huguang area to buy. ”

Fan Wencheng said: "Ning Yuanbo rest assured, our bronze workshop has created a batch of copper utensils for the Jiangnan market, and with the help of the Intelligence Department, we have also accepted orders for Buddha statues from Jiangnan temples, and the silver from the income will be directly exchanged for grain and shipped back." ”

Li Xianzhong is very satisfied with this, this is the way a profiteer should think.

Now Dai Shan has brought all the men and horses of the two red flags to North Korea, which makes the king of North Korea, Li Liang, feel restless.

He even took the initiative to increase the number of "Ming troops stationed in Korea" for the first time, considering that there are only 3,000 land divisions in the 5,000 Ming army in Korea, which is indeed too few.

So Li Xianzhong decided to send 3,000 people from the reserve troops in Pingyubao to Korea.

In this way, while holding the Hwanghae Road, he will also have a certain amount of mobile troops, and he will be able to respond in a timely manner in case of an accident in North Korea.

Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, has been very busy recently.

Liaodong was full of hungry people, and while he pacified the people, he also had to prepare to attack Kuandian and open up a second battlefield against Jianzhou, which really made him a little powerless.

To be honest, this benevolent brother's medical skills are good, his government affairs ability is really average, and he has been a Beijing official all the year round, and he still lacks some heat for controlling the place.

After coming to Liaodong, he repeatedly ran into a wall and felt that the Liao people were unavailable, so he began to promote officials who were not from Liaodong.

The officials from Liaodong complained about him.

Within three days, Liaodong officials wrote to impeach him, the governor of Liaodong, for his misdeeds, which made the people of Liaodong resentful!

Ma Yun, the supervisor of Liaodong mines, even said in front of His Majesty that Wang Huazhen was arrogant, and he actually blocked the copper ship in Liaodong without authorization and deliberately made things difficult, and was suspected of asking for bribes.

The celebrant also took advantage of this incident to put pressure on the cabinet and demanded that Wang Huazhen be punished, which made Ye Xianggao, the first assistant of the cabinet, very embarrassed.

Because there are currently seven members of the cabinet, three members of the Donglin Party, one person each from the Chu Party and the Zhejiang Party, and the rest of He Zongyan and Zhu Guozuo, although they agree with the Donglin Party's main policy, they are not Donglin Party members after all.

Regarding Ye Xianggao's proposal to hold Jingcha in advance, the two of them were still hesitant.

If the court is full of Donglin Party, it may not be a good thing.

Ye Xianggao was still doing the ideological work of the two, and as a result, Wang Huazhen happened.

The newly appointed governor of Liaodong was boiling with public resentment and took the opportunity to ask for bribes, which made the two of them have a little opinion about the Donglin Party.

In order to divert the cabinet's attention from Wang Huazhen, Ye Xianggao had to ask Wang Huazhen to send troops as soon as possible.

As long as Kuandian starts, everyone will be attracted by the war, and at least for the time being, the cabinet will not have time to discuss Wang Huazhen's handling.

With the great merit of conquering and building a state, the original criticism will naturally be ignored.

Therefore, the cabinet still attached great importance to Wang Huazhen's attack, and Ye Xianggao ordered Xiong Tingbi's military department to reformulate the strategy of attacking Jianzhou.

Although Xiong Tingbi was very clear about the purpose of Shoufu Ye Xianggao, after all, Jianzhou was a big problem for the Ming Dynasty, so in this matter, he finally focused on the overall situation, and the elite troops deployed to Liaodong were all elite troops.

A total of 10,000 border troops were mobilized from the four towns of Datong, Xuanfu, Jizhou, and Taiyuan to go to Liaodong.

Originally, Li Xianzhong also arranged for the veteran Liu Wei to lead his troops out of the Crow Falcon Pass as a feint to attract the attention of the Tartars.

Therefore, a mobile force of 10,000 men stationed near the Yahu Pass could go out of the pass at any time.

Most of these people are veterans who followed Liu Wei to fight in the southwest, and they still have considerable combat power.

Then Wang Huazhen, as the governor of Liaodong, transferred 10,000 horses from Guangning, Yizhou, Ningyuan, Shanhaiguan and other places in western Liaoning.

Now there are 30,000 Ming troops gathered near the Yahu Pass on Qinghe Road, and all of them are the elite of the Nine Sides.

Among them, Liu Ling, the general soldier of Liaoyang, Liu Qu, the general of Guangning, Luo Yiyi, the deputy general, and Zhu Wanliang, the general of Hupiyi, are also the best generals in the world.

It can be described as a strong soldier!

However, Ye Xianggao knew that Wang Huazhen was fighting for the first time in command, and he might not be able to control these arrogant generals, and at the same time, he was worried that Yan Mingtai and Li Xianzhong would stumble behind their backs.

In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Yuan Yingtai, Xiong Tingbi was asked to go to Liaodong in person as the secretary of the military department to rearrange the strategy of this expedition.

After all, nominally, Li Xianzhong, the deputy envoy of Liaodong Economic Strategy, could command Wang Huazhen militarily, and in order to avoid this embarrassment, this expedition to Jianzhou was divided into two routes: north and south.

First of all, the Northern Route Army, led by Ning Yuanbo and Li Xianzhong, continued to attack the heavily defended Mardun Village in Jianzhou from the front.

Even if it is difficult to capture for a while, it is necessary to continue the attack to ensure that the main force of the captives is contained.

Then, Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, sent troops from Yahu Pass and detoured to Kuandian Liubao, taking this place to completely cut off the connection between Jianyu and Korea.

After that, the Southern Route Army went north to attack Hetuara together with the Northern Route Army, completely exterminated Jian, and solved this big problem!

After Xiong Tingbi announced the new strategy for advancing the army, Li Sanshun, Zhao Shujiao, Mao Wenlong and other Kaiyuan generals were angry!

This plan seems to be a north-south flank attack, but in fact it is a frontal feint attack and a flank roundabout.

The Northern Route Army is responsible for pinning down the enemy's main force head-on, and then the Southern Route Army is responsible for sneak attacks and picking peaches from behind.

Liaodong can have the current situation, it all depends on Ning Yuanbo and Kaiyuan soldiers constantly attacking to weaken the Tartars, and now the Tartars are about to die.

The imperial court sent a Wang Huazhen to come over to grab the merit, which is really unfair!

Xiong Tingbi also saw the dissatisfaction of the Kaiyuan generals, so he said: "What does Ning Yuanbo think of this strategy for advancing the army? ”

Li Xianzhong said: "Such a north-south attack will definitely break Jianzhou and completely pacify Liaodong." The last general will definitely attack Mar Squatting Village with all his strength to contain the main force of the captives. ”

Wang Huazhen said with a smile: "Mardun Village is less than 30 miles away from Hetuala, and Kuandian is a hundred miles away; It seems that this work of defeating Hetuara is none other than Ning Yuanbo. ”

His villainous face is really annoying, but Li Xianzhong still replied politely: "The Tartars have deployed heavy troops in Mardun Village, and our army has been fighting hard for more than two months, and has not yet made a breakthrough. ”

"This time, we have to have the help of Governor Lao!"

It is obvious that this time the South Route Army is here to pick peaches, and the generals of the South Route are also gearing up to go out of the customs to make meritorious contributions.

Xiong Tingbi saw that everyone's morale was high, so he ended the military meeting with satisfaction.

After that, Yan Mingtai made the east and invited Xiong Tingbi to get together with Li Xianzhong.

After all, the three of them had worked together in Liaodong, and it was rare to have the opportunity to get together.

Xiong Tingbi punished himself with a glass of wine and said: "This time it was not my intention to send troops, so that Ning Yuanbo was wronged, Xiong punished himself with a glass!" ”

Li Xianzhong drank the wine in the cup and said: "This is Ye Shoufu's selfish move, why should Kumamoto Bing blame himself, so it seems that you and I are separated!" ”

Xiong Tingbi said: "For more than a year, Ning Yuanbo has forced Jianyu to this point with his own strength, Xiong admires!" ”

Li Xianzhong said to the two: "If it weren't for the Kumamoto soldiers sitting in the military department, and Brother Yan helping him in the governorship of Liaodong, it would be difficult to achieve such an achievement with the strength of Xianzhong alone, I salute the two brothers with a cup!" ”

All three of them drank the wine in their cups.

Then he sighed again and said: "Originally, Jianzhou had no food and started infighting, just wait a few more months, and then it will be easy to take Hetuala!" ”

"At this time, I'm afraid that sending troops will increase the variables again!"

Xiong Tingbi said: "Ning Yuanbo has no confidence in the Southern Route Army? ”

Li Xianzhong said: "The Southern Route Army is also the elite of the nine sides, and there is no problem with its combat effectiveness. I'm afraid that Wang Huazhen will rush forward with light troops in order to snatch the first credit for conquering Jianzhou, and finally fall on the road of Jianyu! ”

Xiong Tingbi said: "Now that there are less than 40,000 captives around Hetuala, Ning Yuanbo has to contain at least 10,000 enemy forces in Mardun Village, and the Southern Route Army will not suffer a loss in terms of troops, and it will never repeat the mistakes of He Shixian at the beginning." ”

Li Xianzhong saw that Xiong Tingbi also thought so, so he simply didn't say more, otherwise the two of them would still think that they were jealous of Wang Huazhen's merit.

However, several people expressed concern about the Donglin Party's aggressiveness in the court.

In the end, Li Xianzhong proposed: "If you are really forced by the Donglin Party, you might as well consider using the power of the celebrant to use it." Judging from the current situation, there are still many differences between the political views of the ceremonial supervisor and the Donglin Party, and the Donglin Party can be contained! ”

Xiong Tingbi really didn't look down on Wei Zhongxian, who couldn't read a few big characters, but still refused.

But this is also normal, in the eyes of civil officials, Wei Zhongxian is just a scoundrel who takes the throne with a slippery beard, who would have thought that he would be the "nine thousand years old" who will be in power in the future?

Of course, the most dangerous of the three of them is Li Xianzhong, Xiong Tingbi will lose his official position at most, and Li Xianzhong may lose his life!

Xiong Tingbi said with the strength of wine: "The so-called 'one son of heaven and one courtier', for my brother, it seems that Wang Huazhen's robbery this time is not necessarily a bad thing. ”

"Although Uncle Ning Yuan is young, he can't be too sharp, if he can retreat bravely, he won't lose his title and glory."

Li Xianzhong knew that Xiong Tingbi was kind enough to remind himself not to be a high-ranking master, so as not to attract death!

Yan Mingtai knew very well that if he and Li Xian did these things in Liaodong, if they lost power, the Donglin Party would probably not stop there.

So they have no way to retreat for a long time, and they can only fight to the end with the Donglin Party.

So he said: "It's rare for us to get together once, don't talk about these unpleasant topics, and don't get drunk tonight!" ”

It was still unusually cold in Liaodong in November, and a gust of north wind blew, freezing the soldiers patrolling the walls of Mardun Zhai to shiver.

On the distant horizon, a black oppressive ground suddenly emerged, and they were like a swarm of foraging ants, mighty, full of intimidation and oppression.

The soldier rubbed his eyes, he was afraid that he had lost sight.

But as the distance got closer, he saw more and more clearly, and the spears and armor in the hands of these cavalrymen kept flashing this cold light!

It was the Liaodong Iron Cavalry of the Ming Army.

So the soldiers shouted in horror: "The Ming army has come to attack the city!" ”

With the sound of a low trumpet, Gushan Ezhen Dudu, who was inlaid with white flags, soon led thousands of inlaid white flags to the top of the city!

In the past two months, the Ming army has nothing to do and put a few cannons, that is, the Imperial Association Army feinted a few times at the beginning stage, and this cold sudden attack really startled him.

Du Du, who was still a little sleepy, soon woke up completely.

The cavalry of the Ming army was neatly arranged under the city, and there were tens of thousands of people.

Behind them was a piece of artillery of the Ming army, which seemed to be dozens of them.

But before he could take a closer look, the artillery of the Ming army roared!

Shells swept towards the city like a violent wind, and with the sound of a huge explosion, the city instantly became a mess.

The masonry and dust flew, and the towers were crumbling in the shock wave of the explosion, and many soldiers were even shaken directly to the city by the huge air wave generated by the cannonballs.

Since the Ming artillery used solid bullets before, Du Du was not prepared.

In just one round of shelling, more than 200 people were lost under the white flag.

Taking advantage of the chaos in the city, the Ming army's firecrackers had already arrived at a place a hundred steps away from the city at this time.

"Bang, bang, bang"

With a puff of white smoke, the Ming army's Lu Mi Gong also began to harvest the targets in the city.

Du Du shouted: "Hurry up and ask for help from Hetuala, the main force of the Ming army is attacking the city!" ”

Almost at the same time, the Ming army on the southern front also opened the Yahu Pass.

However, because the road in front of the Raven Pass was extremely narrow, the Ming army could not be used at all, so the marching speed was very slow.

The vanguard troops had already walked several miles, and the team behind the palace had not yet reached the Raven Pass.

This made Wang Huazhen, who was eager for meritorious service, very anxious.

Pointing to the mountain road to the north, he asked, "Where does this road lead?" ”

The sentry in the army said: "This road is called 'Yawu Road', ten miles away is Wuji Pass, and Wuji Pass is twenty miles away from Hetuala. ”

Wang Huazhen said in surprise: "It's only thirty miles away from Hetuala? ”

The sentinel said: "The distance in a straight line is indeed only thirty miles, but there is a black chicken pass blocking it, so it is difficult for us to threaten Hetuara directly from here!"

"It's better to recover the six forts of Kuandian first according to the original plan, and then go north to Hetuara to be safer."

Wang Huazhen thought about it, and took a detour to Kuandian Fort and then to Hetuala, and had to delay more than 100 miles on the way.

Why don't you divide your troops into the Wuji Pass, if you win the Wuji Pass, wouldn't you be able to go straight to Hetuala?

Liu Wei heard that Wang Huazhen was going to divide his troops at Wuji Pass, so he hurriedly stepped forward to stop him: "Governor Qiqi, the road to Wuji Pass is narrow and difficult to overcome, so don't waste time by dividing your troops." ”

Wang Huazhen said: "No, I've read the previous battle report, a few months ago, Ning Yuanbo led the army all the way from Wuji Pass to Hetuala, and He Shixian also won Wuji Pass last year?" ”

"And this black chicken pass has been demolished several times, so it must not be strong. Now that the road is narrow, I will send thousands of soldiers and horses to attack Wuji Pass, and it will not delay us from taking Kuandian Fort. ”

Seeing that Wang Huazhen could not be persuaded by Liu Wei, he first led 10,000 main forces to attack Kuandian.

Wang Huazhen sent Luo Yiyi, the deputy general of Guangning, to lead 3,000 soldiers and horses to seize the pass.

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(End of chapter)