"Crackling ......"

At the same time, compared with the vitality of Jilin City, the Songhua River, which was more than 400 miles away from them, was red by firelight.

On the bank of the river, a walled fort is being burned, and the buildings inside the fort are constantly bursting.

In the light of the fire, many charred corpses could be vaguely seen, and all of them had their heads cut off without exception.

Their heads were stacked on the road, and the 'mounds' made of the heads were planted with broken Bohai flags, which was full of irony.

Looking at his masterpiece, a fifty-year-old man in a cloth shirt with a Jurchen's signature hairstyle was eating meat, and in front of him sat seven or eight men in their thirties, who looked like heads.

On their table was a roasted deer, and everyone was eating the venison of the deer with knives.

Behind them stood stunkered soldiers in shoddy thick iron armor, and beyond them were the rudimentary leather-armored soldiers who escorted the tribe's captured women on the road.

At a glance, there were only more than a thousand such soldiers, and there were only about a hundred women in this burned fort.

"Last year I asked Balhan to submit, and he said he had his pride, and now he has the flag of the king from the south."

"I'm not greedy for his livestock and food, I just don't look down on him for doing so."

Sitting in the first place, Xiyang Ha, who was over fifty years old, said the reason why he attacked this walled fort, he was not very tall, only five feet tall, but his body was strong.

"Amma, the two Udihars in the south and in the depths have also hung the banner of the king in the south, should we kill them together?"

Sitting at the top, a man with a beard asked Xiyangha, to which Xiyangha shook his head:

"There are one or two thousand men in the warmth and depths of the fire, it is not easy to beat them, and the autumn harvest will be coming soon, and I don't want the dolls in the sweat tent to leave too much."

"Just burn the seven walled forts on the Songhua River in the west, otherwise they will provide our news to the Ming people in the south in the future."

Xiyang Ha said, and at the same time ate a piece of meat, looked at the mound composed of heads and the fluttering Bohai Sea flag and smiled:

"That Bohai King in the south thinks that if he appeases these small tribes, he will be able to fight against me, this year we will first burn the tribes close to us, and next year we will go south to fight grass valley with him."

"Hahahaha......"

Xiyangha joked, and his sons laughed too, and one of the goatee men said, "I prefer the women of the Ming people, they are very docile and do not resist like the women of other tribes." ”

"Yes, like roe deer in the mountains, and they are very soft, but they are too poor to serve one or twenty people, and they will die."

Talking about the Han family's daughters, Xiyangha and his sons were excited, as if they were eager to go south next year......

"Donkey ball, don't say it twice, this time it's just to find a way to stab Lone all the way to this old slave's lair, and the rest is the same!"

In the Jilin City Carrier Palace, when discussing the Han family girl in Xiyangha, more than 50 officers above the general flag gathered together, and they looked at the angry Zhu Gaoxu scolding, but they did not laugh at his thoughts, but felt relieved by the scolding.

Xiyang Ha and Jilin Shipyard have been old enemies for many years, even if you don't mention the death of Zhang Chun's father, in the past six years, this guy went south to fight the grass valley for three years, killed hundreds of military households, and captured more than 100 people.

Without him, it would be easier for Jilin Shipyard to develop.

At the moment, they and Xiyang Ha are counted together with new hatred and old hatred, there is revenge and revenge, and there is revenge and revenge.

They laughed loudly, and at this moment a heavy footstep sounded behind them.

Hearing the footsteps, everyone looked back, and sure enough, they saw the tall Fu Rang.

Seeing Fu Rang, everyone except Zhu Gaoxu was stunned.

Since Fu Rang came to Jilin City, it was as if he had no sense of existence, and it seemed that he couldn't be seen anywhere.

The reason for this is that Fu Rang is the most experienced of them all, and Zhu Gaoxu has also entrusted him with the most important tasks.

"How?" Zhu Gaoxu stared at Fu Rang with blazing eyes, and Fu Rang also spoke confidently: "I've been waiting for you to say this for too long, and this road has been explored over and over again, and I can be regarded as finding a road that can directly lead to his lair and pass through horses." ”

Fu Rang said, and behind him appeared four soldiers carrying heavy sand tables.

Seeing this, the surrounding officers stepped forward to help, and finally carried the three-zhang long and wide sand table into the carrying hall.

As soon as he put it down, everyone gathered around.

Fu Rang leaned out and gestured on the sand table with the knife in his hand.

"We crossed the Songhua River from here and went all the way north, and we didn't mark it on the way, so only me and the twenty people who had been there knew how to go."

"There are a lot of trees and grass on this road, and it's easy to get lost, but we have walked it hundreds of times in more than three months, and we can pass through it with our eyes closed."

"This road is an invisible beast path, at least it can be passed slowly."

"Hu'er Ha and I have tried, if we are wearing Ming armor, carrying ten days of military rations, vinegar cloth and salt crystals, and pulling a horse to carry about 200 catties, we can carry sixty miles a day, and at most five and a half days can reach Buyan Mountain."

Fu Rangbi drew a path that avoided all the Jurchen forts, basically all the way to flat land, but all of them went around the forest.

As long as they don't meet some hunting Jurchens, then they will definitely be able to pass through smoothly.

"There is a difficult problem in front of us, that is, the wooden fence of Nabuyan Fort is two feet high and five feet thick, and it is difficult to break through unless we bring Hongwu iron cannons."

"There are more people in Xiyang than we expected, the number is about 20,000, there are no less than 7,000 men, 300 people in iron armor, and 2,000 people in leather armor......"

Yi Shuha said this, but Zhu Gaoxu was not worried, but just looked at Buyanbao and asked: "Is the fence outside the fort built of stone and wood, or is it directly inserted into the soil." ”

"Insert it directly into the soil, at a depth of no less than five feet, I have led people to try, but I can't dig it out." Fu Rang said, and then said to Zhu Gaoxu: "I remember that there was gunpowder in the fort, but you took it to open the mine, and now there is any left?" ”

Fu Rang was apprehensive, after all, he had been out for more than three months, and he had just come back yesterday, so he was really not sure if he had run out of gunpowder.

His question made everyone's hearts hang in their throats, and Zhu Gaoxu also glanced at everyone vaguely.

"In this group of people, I'm afraid there is my grandfather's brocade guard......"

Between thoughts, Zhu Gaoxu frowned slightly: "There is too much use for mining, and there is not much at the moment." ”

He said this, his eyes looking at Yisha.

Zhu Gaoxu believes that Yisha is not a Jinyiwei, because Yisha has invested a lot in himself, and of course, the more important thing is intuition.

"There are more than eighty catties, just blowing up a gap, maybe it's enough."

"Enough!"

As soon as he opened his mouth, Fu Rang was determined first.

It has not been a day or two since the Ming army used gunpowder, and it was easy to storm the wooden village with gunpowder, even if it was black powder, but as long as the quantity was sufficient, it could still blow up a big gap.

"That being said, the odds are still not high, and we have to find a way to divide them."

Zhu Gaoxu clasped his hands to his chest and glanced at the sand table as if he was confident.

His eyes finally fell on the shipyard in Jilin, and everyone followed suit.

"In order to prevent this old slave from knowing the land route we are taking, he still has to make a false shot, so that he thinks that we can take the water route."

Zhu Gaoxu raised his head and looked at everyone, and finally glanced around before explaining to Lin Su:

"Lin Su, Zhang Chun and Xiyang Ha have a grudge against their father, this time Ping Xiyang Ha asked him to go with me, and you stay in Jilin City."

"Yes!" Lin Su did not complain that he failed to go to the front line to fight, after all, the revenge of killing his father was indeed too great.

Although Zhang Chun was still in the south at the moment, he knew that Zhang Chun would be able to return to the north in a month or two, and he could not fight with him for a merit.

Lin Su didn't complain, which made Zhu Gaoxu very pleased, and he looked sideways at Yishuha: "Send a message to the six cities and tribes along the Songhua River, saying that we will build ferries to park boats along the rivers in each city. ”

"Yes......" Yishu Ha responded first, and then hesitated: "Will this scare Xiyang Ha away?" ”

"No" Before Zhu Gaoxu could speak, Fu Rang shook his head and said: "The autumn harvest is imminent, it is impossible for Xiyangha to run at this juncture, the nearly 10,000 acres of land outside Buyanbao are about to be harvested, and he is reluctant to leave so much grain." ”

In this land, food is more important than human life, let alone cultivated land that can produce thousands of stone of grain.

Without this batch of grain, even if Xiyang Ha and his troops ran to the north, they would not survive.

Both Zhu Gaoxu and Fu Rang had observed the time of Xiyangha's previous escapes, almost all of which were before the autumn harvest or spring ploughing, which also showed that he couldn't let go of the grain.

"There is also a stone fort in the lower reaches of the Huzhuwen River with the old thief in Xiyang, which is too far away, and we don't know how many people are stationed."

Fu Rang pointed to the northeast direction, because this sand table was made by Zhu Gaoxu, so the terrain of the northeast is very clear, and it is easy to compare.

The place he was referring to was the Fuyuan area of the later generations, that is, the easternmost place of the Sanjiang Plain.

Zhu Gaoxu measured it with his hand and estimated a distance of more than 2,000 miles.

"At such a long distance, it's no wonder that the officers and soldiers have searched and arrested him several times before and failed to find him."

With a sigh, Zhu Gaoxu continued to look at Fu Rang, and Fu Rang also continued:

"The best time to attack him is actually when the autumn harvest is about to be on our side."

"They are in the north, and the autumn harvest is half a month before us, so when we are about to harvest it, that is when they have already begun to harvest."

"The family of Yifu asked other small tribes in the vicinity of Buyanbao, and they all said that after the autumn harvest began halfway through, Buyanbao would let some of the people in the tribe who were good at harvesting take small boats down the river to the city of Huthorn Wencheng in the south to harvest the grain there."

"This number is usually seven or eight hundred men, and there are about three hundred soldiers and horses to escort them."

"If we wait for this group of people to leave before attacking Buyan Fort, the odds will be greater."

When the words fell, Fu Rang looked up at Zhu Gaoxu and asked him to make a decision.

Zhu Gaoxu did not answer in time, but pondered for a moment, constantly thinking in his mind.

After a few breaths, he spoke: "When Zhang Chun and the two hundred people come back, we will leave immediately." ”

"During this period, Lin Su and Yisha Ha were responsible for building the ferry from Jilin City to the mouth of the Sacha River, adding some sense of urgency to the old slaves of Xiyang Hana and relocating some people to the downstream in advance."

Although Zhu Gaoxu was eager to obtain a large number of laborers, he also knew that he could not eat or support the more than 20,000 people in Buyanbao.

After listening to Fu Rang's introduction, Zhu Gaoxu's strategic goal for this operation was to defeat Xiyang Habu and capture no less than 3,000 people from Buyanbao.

If you can go further, then it is best to occupy Buyanbao for a long time, obtain nearly 10,000 acres of land there, and kill the old slave Xiyang Ha at the same time.

"Stand down." Fu Rang seemed to have something to say to Zhu Gaoxu, so he beckoned the general banners and hundreds of household officials to retreat one after another.

After they left, Fu Rang spoke:

"Although there are 467 horses in the army, only 267 of them have vests in the original city, and the remaining 200 have no vests."

"I just went to the armory workshop yesterday when I returned to Jilin City, and I have enough armor at the moment, so I should have created two hundred sets of vests in the past two months."

"In addition, I have also watched the training of the soldiers in the army, although the original more than 400 Tuntian soldiers have also been trained as soldiers for more than four months, but after all, they are not as good as the original soldiers and the people we brought."

"My opinion is that this time, leave the original garrison and some of the soldiers to defend the city, and only bring a thousand people to ride military horses and pull horses to Buyan Fort."

"There are already six hundred and seventy-seven horses in the city, and you only need to buy some more in the mutual market, and gather a thousand horses, and then we can take all the horses and military horses to Buryan Castle, and we will arrive in five days at most."

Fu Rang wants to be a soldier and fast, which coincides with what Zhu Gaoxu thought.

At present, only him, Zhu Gaoxu, Yishiha, and Lin Su did not leave in the palace, and it is more convenient to explain things.

Zhu Gaoxu looked up at Yishiha: "No matter how much food there is in the city, let's take it to do business with the six cities first, but don't attract too much attention, don't let Xiyangha notice that we are going to take the land route." ”

"Yes!" Yishiha also knew that he could get a lot of captures after defeating Xiyangha, and he didn't drop the chain at a critical time when he was careful on weekdays.

Seeing that he was also missing, Zhu Gaoxu also said to Lin Su and Fu Rang: "From today onwards, more than 1,300 soldiers in the city will be handed over to them for training separately. ”

"It would be better if we could increase the speed of the march, but if it can't be done, there is no way."

"The last general commands!" Fu Rang and Lin Su responded, and then the three of them left the carrier hall one after another.

After they left, Zhu Gaoxu also continued to observe the sand table.

At the same time, Yang Bin, who had been away from Jilin City for more than two months, also returned to Jiangnan with fur, ginseng and other goods.

Like all the merchants who sold furs before, the furs brought back by Yang Bin were ordered by the nobles of Nanjing as soon as they were made into ready-to-wear, and goods such as antlers, tiger bones, and supplements from Liaodong were even looted by the nobles.

Only half a month after returning to Jiangnan, Yang Bin sold out the goods he brought, and at the same time purchased more than 30,000 stone of grain in Suhu No. 2 Mansion to prepare for transportation to the north.

Yang Bin held the seal letter of the Bohai Palace, and it was very easy to understand his background.

His background made many people who wanted to do something to him jealous, but at the same time, his background and what he did were soon introduced to the palace by those who had a heart.

"More than 36,000 stones?"

In the Qianqing Palace late at night, Lao Zhu, who was about to wash up and fall asleep, got the information brought by the military attaché.

When he learned that Zhu Gaoxu had made such a big deal in a short period of time, Lao Zhu Dang even asked the military attaché: "The people from the north have also come back with this merchant's team, what do they say?" ”

Lao Zhu is not worried about Zhu Gaoxu's big business, he only cares about whether Zhu Gaoxu's business has harmed the interests of Daming.

"His Royal Highness and the Dongyu in the north are trading with grain, tea and iron pots, except for the possibility that tea may be handed over to Uliangha by this group of Dongyu, the rest is not too prohibited."

"It's just that His Royal Highness and Dongyu have too many markets with each other, and many merchants can't buy furs and medicinal materials after going to Liaodong to sell grain, and many officials in the six ministries criticize it......"

The military attache relayed the content of the information collected from below, and when he learned this information, Lao Zhu stretched his body and mind:

"It's good that he can abide by the law, and others can do this business, and if he can protect the land and the people, let him do it."

In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, Zhu Gaoxu used his own methods to make Jilin City self-sufficient, and did not violate the "Da Ming Law", such an approach should be commended.

If all the vassal kings could be as nimble as he was and abide by his duties, then he wouldn't have to have such a headache.

"Your Majesty, there is one more thing ......"

Zhu Yuanzhang was still sighing that Zhu Gaoxu had a flexible brain, and the military attache played again.

"Say it" Zhu Yuanzhang took a sip of soothing tea, and the military attache also spoke:

"According to the brother who went down with the caravan in the north, His Royal Highness has doubled the cultivated land in Jilin City in just two months after going to Jilin City, and this is still the news in May, and I am afraid it has already doubled or tripled at the moment."

"How much?" Zhu Yuanzhang thought that he had heard it wrong, but when the military attache repeated it, Zhu Yuanzhang put down the soothing tea in his hand a little uncalmly.

As a farmer, he knows very well what foundation he needs to have and how difficult it is.

Now Zhu Gaoxu can carry out the reclamation so quickly in a short period of time, either the population of Jilin City is far more than the point recorded by the Liaodong Dusi, or Zhu Gaoxu has obtained a lot of animal power from doing business with the Jurchens.

Of the two possibilities, he prefers the latter.

For people's livelihood, more animal power can be used to reclaim wasteland faster, and the burden on the people will be reduced.

But for the army, once there is enough animal power, an army of 3,000 people can even be used as 5,000 people.

"Let the people below write down the process of clearing the wasteland in Jilin City in detail, and I want to see for myself how this kid did it."

"In addition, the group of people who are still in the north, let them send the news of Jilin City as soon as possible, and they must not be sloppy."

Zhu Yuanzhang gave orders to the military attache in a deep voice, and the military attache also responded.

The military attache thought that the matter would end here, and he could also withdraw from the Qianqing Palace, but Zhu Yuanzhang spoke again:

"Is the matter in Longzhou clear, is Chang Mao really dead, or is he ...... cheated to death?"

He opened his mouth to mention Chang Yuchun's son Chang Mao, and Chang Mao himself was not only Feng Sheng's son-in-law, but also an important figure among the nobles of the new Huaixi.

Although Chang Mao was Feng Sheng's son-in-law, Chang Mao thought that Feng Sheng was inferior to his father, so he refused to accept Feng Sheng's constraints.

When he accompanied Feng Sheng to fight against Naha, Chang Mao often did things that violated the law, and Feng Sheng condemned him many times, but Chang Mao did not care, and even treated Feng Sheng very arrogantly.

Although Feng Sheng was angry at Chang Mao's attitude towards him, he did not expose the things he had done.

After that, the two were very embarrassed because of Naha's incident, and Chang Mao was escorted back to Beijing for slashing Naha.

After returning to Beijing, Chang Mao took the opportunity to impeach Feng Sheng, and Zhu Yuanzhang immediately withdrew Feng Sheng's general military seal when he heard this, and let Lan Yu lead the Northern Expedition, and then won a great victory in fishing.

Afterwards, after determining Feng Sheng's innocence, Zhu Yuanzhang demoted Chang Mao to Longzhou, Guangxi.

Although it was said that the tiger fell in Pingyang and was bullied by dogs, in the end, the emaciated camel was bigger than the horse, and Chang Yuchun's prestige, coupled with Chang Mao's own general, made him prosperous in small Longzhou.

Zhao Tijian, a local official in Longzhou, had no sons, but had two daughters.

His eldest daughter married Li Yuantai, a local official of Taiping Prefecture, and the second daughter was given to Chang Mao by him, and was accepted as a concubine by Chang Mao.

In the twenty-first year of Hongwu, Zhao Tiejian died, because he had no son, his Zhao Zongshou inherited the position of the local official, but Zhao Tiejian's wife Huang did not recognize his status, and after he inherited the position of the local official, he relied on Chang Mao's power to dominate the affairs of Longzhou, and set Zhao Zongshou in the air.

After the death of Chang Mao in the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, Huang and Zong Shou competed for the official seal of Longzhou and reported each other.

The Huang family took the opportunity to make up rumors that Chang Mao was not actually dead, and Zhao Zongshou knew the details.

This matter reached Nanjing not long ago, and Zhu Yuanzhang was suspicious when he knew about it, so he sent officials to ask Zhao Zongshou and ordered Zhao Zongshou to ask him to hand over Chang Mao to atone for his sins if he was still alive.

At the same time as sending officials to inquire, Zhu Yuanzhang himself also sent Jinyi Wei to investigate whether Chang Mao was still alive, after all, if Chang Mao was still alive, he would inevitably have trouble in the future.

In the face of Zhu Yuanzhang's inquiry, the military attache maintained a pretentious attitude: "The brothers below have just arrived in Longzhou a few days ago, and they have not started the investigation yet, so they will be able to get the news in these few days." ”

"Well......" Zhu Yuanzhang responded: "Whether it is Longzhou or Jilin City, as long as there is news, I will immediately tell the truth." ”

After that, he seemed to think of something more important, and his expression became a little heavier: "What is the market price of Jiangnan's treasure banknotes now?" ”

"Since the news of 18,000 immigrants and the tax deduction with banknotes this year was released, it has now risen to 640 wen per year." The military attache answered truthfully, and this price also made Zhu Yuanzhang very satisfied.

Now it is only the middle of July, and there are still two and a half months before the autumn tax, and if nothing else, the treasure money will rise to 700 or even 800 wen.

I have to say that Gao Xu's kid's method is really useful, and after the treasure money is linked to the tax, it really begins to gradually rise.

If it lasts for three or five years, then you can do that thing......

Thinking of the incident in his heart, Zhu Yuanzhang was not in the mood to discuss other things, and waved his hand: "You stand down." ”

The military attache moved his stiff legs, slowly got up and left the Qianqing Palace......

(End of chapter)