In the yamen of the 30,000 Wei commanders, Zhu Gaoxu told Sun Cheng and everyone about his future policies.

As a later generation, he was well aware of how complicated the Ming tax system was.

There is a basic problem with this tax system, including the administrative system of the Ming Dynasty, that is, these two sets of teams require the emperor to have strong personal ability to command.

But if a person with mediocre ability becomes the emperor, then he needs to face the complicated tax system left by Lao Zhu, and such a person is often difficult to sort it out.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, as civil officials continued to increase the number of tax items and various tax methods, this system became more complicated, so that in the late Wanli period, even the household books of the imperial court could not sort out the finances of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Juzheng in the early years of Wanli and Bi Ziyan in the Chongzhen period both tried to sort out, but in the end they all failed.

Zhu Gaoxu does not think that he can create a perfect tax system, but he can learn from the tax methods of later generations.

Of course, how to formulate the specific tax system, after Zhu Gaoxu prepared to lay down the capital, he would use Yu Xin, Xia Yuanji, and Huang Fu to redesign it, and it would be better to make it simpler during the period of going south.

The five endowments sound very high, but for the military households, they have no return for cultivating the military tun fields, and they have to pay heavy land taxes for cultivating the surplus fields, and they all rely on the military salaries of the military households to live.

Therefore, the distribution of military tuntian, and then regardless of the military tuntian and the remaining field, should be paid according to the policy of five endowments and one, which can make the military households feel the joy of reaping the fruits.

In the past, dozens of acres of land were cultivated, and the whole family only harvested the military salary and the remaining fields of more than ten or twenty stone grain, but now the field is evenly divided, and the whole family can harvest more than ten stone of grain from the field in addition to the twenty stone grain and eight yuan of military salary.

The income of military households has soared from more than ten or twenty stones a year to more than thirty stones, and if you count the eight yuan of the army, it is close to fifty stones.

This income only requires them to pay four or five stone of grain from the field every year, and I am afraid that no one will refuse.

Therefore, after Zhu Gaoxu said this, Liu Zhao also hurriedly got up and said: "The last general will be for the 30,000 people, thank Your Highness for your grace!" ”

"Get up." Zhu Gaoxu looked at him with a smile, and then looked at the other fifteen guards in the hall and continued:

"We entered the customs this time, not to commit adultery and plunder and satisfy our own greed, but to clear the monarch's side and make it difficult for Yasukuni."

"Although the eight commanders of the tower are Jurchens, they are also my subjects of the Ming Dynasty, and if you capture a city in this battle, the hundred households with the greatest merit among your eight guards can move into the pass, and each brother will be granted thirty acres of land."

"Your Highness!!" Listening to Zhu Gaoxu's words, Ta Shi and the others got up one after another to salute, and Zhu Gaoxu also smiled and raised his hand to signal them to sit down.

"As for you, as well as the Han soldiers and brothers in Bohai, I can only reward them with money and food."

Zhu Gaoxu said, and then motioned to Sun Cheng and said: "Take money from the treasury, pay the military salary first, and the remaining commanders will send fifty yuan, thirty yuan for thousands of households, fifteen yuan for one hundred households, ten yuan for the general flag officer, and the same for the small flag officials and officials, and the rest will be divided equally." ”

"Yes!" Hearing Zhu Gaoxu's reward, Sun Cheng also had a smile on his face.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's formulation, as a long history, he is at the same level as the commander, that is, he also got fifty yuan.

Although it is not much, this is a beginning, which means that Zhu Gaoxu must continue like this in the future, and this Zhu Gaoxu also knows it.

In fact, his method is the method used by Zhu Yuanzhang to cultivate a sense of belonging after he set up his own door.

It's old, but it's practical.

"Let's disperse, three days later, the army will be mobilized, except for Liu Zhao's troops stationed in 30,000 guards, who need to cooperate with Sun Cheng to measure and divide the fields equally, the rest of the people will go to prepare for the pull."

"Yes!"

As Zhu Gaoxu's voice fell, the generals dispersed one after another.

Soon, the news of the equal distribution of the land spread among the 30,000 guards, and many of the people were illiterate and did not know what this meant, but after the visit of Sun Cheng's 1,200 military officials, they soon became clear about the situation.

Sun Cheng's subordinates are all selected by Zhu Gaoxu from the ten academies in Jilin City, their knowledge is not high, but they have also studied in the school for three years, plus they are all over fifteen years old, there is no problem with basic arithmetic and reading and writing, and it is completely sufficient to act as officials.

The officials did not say much to the common people, but said that they would divide the land, and at the same time compared the income of the family when they were once a military household, and compared the income and taxes after the equalization of the land.

The people are not fools, they will naturally not miss the good thing of paying four or five stones of grain every year in exchange for taking more than ten stones of grain.

The next day, when the 38,000 troops of the Bohai Sea were mobilized, the elated 20,000 and 30,000 Wei people followed the officials out of the city and began to measure the acres of fields.

The engraving of the field deed has been carved last night, accompanied by the officials to measure the field, cover the engraving, and write down the situation and quantity of the field with a red pen, and cover it with the official seal, and a copy of the field deed will reach the hands of 30,000 Wei people.

Holding the pile of deeds, every household danced excitedly, and the more cheerful people began to clap their hands and dance, as if dancing like a god.

Some of the same excitement grabbed him by the belt and followed him to the song.

Looking at this scene, the people of 30,000 Wei were full of energy, and Zhu Gaoxu and them also went all the way south.

The marching speed of the Bohai Navy did not slow down, because it was backed by 30,000 guards, the more than 15,000 stone grain did not need to be made into military rations, and was directly put on a mule cart and went south with the army.

At this moment, Zhu Gaoxu realized the happiness of the nomads, and went all the way south, only the more he fought, the richer he became, and there was no saying that he was getting poorer and poorer.

The hundred-mile road was rushed by the Bohai Navy, and they arrived in the north of Tieling in the afternoon of the second day.

From north to south, the west of Tieling is leaning on the Liao River, and the north of the city is relying on the Chai River.

At the end of the 14th century, the population of Tieling was not large, but there were only more than 5,000 people, and the combined military tuntian and remaining fields were only more than 40,000 mu.

Now, because of the war, the crops north of the Chai River have been burned by Wu Gao, and the ferry has also been destroyed by Wu Gao.

He led an army of more than 36,000 troops to garrison south of the Chai River, with Tieling City at his back.

When Zhu Gaoxu led the army to the north bank of the Chai River, he let Wang Yi lead the army to camp, and he took Chen Chang and others to the north bank of the Chai River on horseback, and took out a long cylindrical thing from his arms.

Not only him, but Chen Chang and others also took out this thing one after another, and after pulling it open, they began to look at the south bank of the Chai River.

Monoculars, this is an object made by Zhu Gaoxu and others Wang Yuan, although Jilin City does not have the manpower and material resources to make glass greenhouses, but it is relatively easy to make telescopes.

Although it is not as clear as that of later generations, it can at least be used.

Under Zhu Gaoxu's observation, Wu Gao's defensive fortifications for Tieling were seen by him at a glance.

When the antlers and thistles on the river beach appeared, Zhu Gaoxu knew why Zhu Di had a headache.

"After thistle, there is staghorn wood, if you don't guess wrong, there are horse pits, horse guns, moats, cattle and horse walls, ......"

Zhu Gaoxu had to talk about these arrangements for a long time, but Wu Gao was able to get them all out in less than five days, obviously this is a plan to defend it.

The Bohai soldiers are not good at defending and are only good at attacking, but they are good at attacking on plains and mountains, and siege is not in their dictionary.

From the beginning of Jilin to the present, the Bohai Navy has not encountered siege warfare, so they look at each other and do not know how to fight this battle.

However, Zhu Gaoxu measured the positions of the two sides and the position of the city wall with a telescope, and then turned his head and explained to Meng Zhang in the crowd: "The artillery and artillery of the third battalion of the Shenji machine will go to the low hill in the southeast to line up!" ”

"Yes!" Hearing that he was the first to do it, Meng Zhang was excited and rode away.

After he left, Zhu Gaoxu also led his envoys with a puzzled look on his face to the unknown hill to the west, where he prepared to shell Wu Gao.

Except for Zhu Gaochu and Xu Sheng, everyone didn't know why Zhu Gaochu transferred the third battalion of the Shenji under Meng Zhang's department.

Only Zhu Gaoxu, Xu Sheng, and Meng Zhang knew that the third battalion of Shenji was the confidence for them to dare to go south.

"Master Hou, the rebels have moved."

On the south bank of the Chai River, when Zhu Gaoxu was observing the Southern Army, Wu Gao and others were also observing them.

When the camp was set up and the flag was raised, Wu Gao and Geng Zhen sensed that something was wrong.

The number of camps in the Bohai Navy was somewhat beyond their estimates.

In their estimates, the Bohai Navy is at most 20,000 people, which is still counting the amount of 30,000 guards who surrendered to the enemy.

But at the moment, the scale of this camp may be able to accommodate forty or fifty thousand.

For a time, the Ming army changed from an advantage in troops to an equal number of troops and even a weak force.

Fortunately, there is still the right time and place, which makes Wu Gao feel a lot more relieved.

"This Chai River is more than 40 zhang wide, and it will take a lot of time for the rebels to make boats, and with these things I have arranged, it can stop them for at least half a month."

"Has the artillery been transferred?" Wu Gao asked Geng Xuan, and Geng Zheng bowed his head: "Liaoshen's artillery is already on the way, and the fifty bowl-mouth guns and thirty cannons in Tieling have been dismantled and placed behind the cattle and horse wall. ”

"Good!" Wu Gao is confident, he has artillery in his hand to protect Tieling City, even if Zhu Gaoxu breaks through the first few fortifications, he also needs to face the artillery of the cattle and horse wall behind the moat, even if he has no choice but to retreat, it can also give the rebels a major trauma.

Wu Gao is indeed cautious, he has already thought of a way out before he fights, he doesn't care about the gains and losses of one city and one place, what he cares about is whether he has hit his opponent hard.

This is politically unflattering, but militarily it is prone to headaches.

Time passed little by little, and when the Bohai naval camp was established, the artillery of the 3,000 Shenji Battalion also led the horses and pulled the gun trucks out of the barracks.

With their appearance, Wu Gao and Geng Xuan's faces changed suddenly.

"How many guns are these?!"

Geng Zhen looked at the hundreds of artillery pieces in surprise, and his mood sank to the bottom.

"No less than two hundred, maybe three hundred or more, this is a bit tricky......

Wu Gao watched the artillery appear, he didn't have time to think about where Zhu Gaoxu got the artillery, turned around and ordered: "The whole army withdraws to the Niuma Wall!" ”

He gave the order, and at the same time rode his horse and began to withdraw from the riverbank.

At this moment, his mind was full of so many cannons from where Zhu Gaoxu got them, and the appearance of the artillery seemed to be different from the Hongwu Iron Cannon and the Wankou Cannon, and he didn't know how powerful it was.

"Your Highness, you... You... Where did you get so many guns, and why are they so cramped? ”

Chen Chang, Wang Yi and others who didn't know the existence of the artillery dropped their jaws in shock, while the Jurchen Eight Guards Commander, who didn't know the power of the firearms, was curious why this thing could surprise everyone so much.

"Picked up from the woods." Zhu Gaoxu quipped, and then instructed Meng Zhang: "Let's do it, let's play a round first." ”

"Yes!" Meng Zhang bowed, and then looked at the three thousand household officials under his command.

The trio returned the salute and began to blow the whistle.

At their rhythmic whistle, three thousand artillerymen opened two ammunition boxes of the gun carriage, one for gunpowder and the other for iron balls.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, artillery was still mainly based on shooting stones, and the stone bullets made of granite were hard and easy to mine, so they were very popular with the army, which was not only in the Ming Dynasty, but also in all countries in the world.

However, Zhu Gaoxu's helplessness lies in the fact that he does not have the extra manpower and material resources to polish the stone projectile, so he can only choose the most powerful and expensive way, using the iron ball as a cannonball.

The shells used in the Bohai field artillery were five catties, and the firing of 300 field guns in one row consumed 1,500 catties of iron.

According to the current iron price, one shot is the cost of 150 yuan, and if you add gunpowder, it can reach 170 yuan.

If it weren't for the purpose of testing the power of artillery and damaging the morale of the Yugoslav army, Zhu Gaoxu would not have been willing to use it.

"Fixed Shot Loading, Target Tieling, Dispatch ......"

Because it is not an artillery made of flowing water, and it is impossible to get rifled guns and matching shells in this era, in the era of smoothbore guns, artillery can only master the performance of the artillery in their hands by constantly feeding the cannons.

Due to the different performance of each artillery, it is difficult to achieve unified command to adjust the angle, and only by letting the gunner adjust his own gun angle can he hit the city wall with the greatest accuracy.

Under the watchful eye of Zhu Gaoxu and his men, the 3,000 gunners performed their duties and quickly completed the problem of adjusting the angle of the artillery in their hands.

"Ready...... Dot! ”

As the officers of the various departments shouted behind the position with copper trumpets, the artillerymen lit the fuses of the propellants in their hands, and the long fuses hung everyone's appetites.

Finally, when it burned into the medicine room, everyone was looking forward to what kind of scene it would create.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble!! ”

"Hiss!!"

It was as if the earth dragon had turned over, and the thunder exploded, and the horses of the Jurchen Eight Guards, who had never seen the power of artillery, and some generals were frightened, and Ta Shi fell off the horse.

A large amount of gunpowder smoke obscured their vision, but they still vaguely saw the hundreds of cannonballs that crossed the Chai River and fired at Tieling City.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Tieling City was built with three-fold soil and gravel barriers, so when it encountered a five-pound heavy solid cannonball, the sound of explosion sounded on the city wall.

Dense cracks appeared, shaking off countless three-fold earth and stones.

Many soldiers behind the cow and horse wall watched this scene and were paralyzed with fright, and many soldiers were killed on the spot by the deflected solid bullets, and their deaths were miserable.

Not only were the soldiers pale with fright, but even Wu Gao, as the commander of the three armies, was pale.

"How is it possible to hit so far?"

Wu Gao couldn't believe it, and so did Geng Xuan.

There is a distance of 600 steps from the north bank of the Chai River to Tieling City, even if it is the artillery of the Ming army, it can only fight 500 steps at most, and even if it hits the city wall 500 steps away, it will not be able to create such a might.

At this moment, Wu Gao and Geng Xuan looked at each other, and there was only one question in their minds, that is, where did Zhu Gaoxu get this artillery.

"Good!!"

On the north bank of the Chai River, the recovered Jurchen Bawei and many Han generals applauded, this was the first time they saw the power of field artillery, and they fell in love with this thing.

Ta Shi, who fell off his horse, didn't care about scolding, so he ran to the artillery position, and when the artillerymen were cleaning the chamber, he stroked the cannon with his hand, but he was so hot that he hurriedly let go.

"What a baby! If there is such a thing, I'm afraid the city of Futijin won't be able to carry it. ”

Ta Shi did not hesitate to compare his own city, and Zhu Gaoxu chuckled: "There is even more powerful, a few gates can break the walls of Futijin City." ”

"Your Highness! Give me a few doors! ”

"Yes, Your Highness! Give us a few gates, and we will be able to take Tieling City in ten days! ”

"I'm seven days!"

"I'm five days!"

"I'm three days!"

"Okay, let's go!"

"Uh-me......"

The commanders of the Jurchen Eight Guards were talking about each other, but Zhu Gaoxu smiled and said: "The number of this artillery is too small, and you don't know how to use it, if you don't use it well, it will explode on the spot, and people who are more than ten steps nearby will die on the spot." ”

"This artillery will also be promoted in the future, but that is the ...... that you will not be able to play in the future"

"That's still it......" As soon as he heard that this thing would kill people if it didn't play well, Ta Shi and the others moved away from it.

Zhu Gaoxu looked at their appearance and laughed, and Ta lost their faces and turned red.

After he finished laughing, he asked Meng Zhang and the others behind him: "Has Wang Yuan explained everything?" ”

"Explain it, when we conquer Shenyang City, he will take the more than 1,000 finished clay molds to the south."

Meng Zhang replied, and this answer also made Zhu Gaoxu very satisfied.

With the batch of clay molds in Wang Yuan's hands, Zhu Gaoxu could quickly build a ship after taking Jinzhou, and pull up a huge naval division to crush the Southern Army's naval division.

It's just a pity that he originally had Yang Zhan as a general of the water division, but Yang Zhan was transferred to Guangxi by Zhu Yunwen.

If Yang Zhan hadn't been transferred, he wouldn't have to worry about who would command the water division.

Zhu Gaoxu was lamenting, and after a few minutes of cleaning up, the artillerymen now returned to their original positions, waiting for Zhu Gaoxu's second shelling order.

"How many rounds of shells and gunpowder are we brought with us on our trip south?"

Zhu Gaoxu did not rashly order, but asked Meng Zhang.

"If you mine granite right now and turn it into cannonballs, you can hit at least thirty rounds, and if you don't use it, you can hit fifteen rounds."

"But we also have blacksmiths in the army, and as long as we have enough iron, we can fight fifteen more rounds."

"Well......" got the details, and Zhu Gaoxu set his eyes on the noisy southern army barracks.

Obviously, the impact of the shelling just now is not over for them.

"Four more rounds, then change the target, and destroy all the fortifications on the south bank until the shells are finished."

"In addition, I will buy requisitioned iron materials from 30,000 Wei, and I will capture Tieling City as quickly as possible."

After that, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Wang Yi: "Order the brothers in the army who are proficient in shipbuilding to prepare to make boats." ”

"Yes!" Wang Yi had no doubts, because many people in the Bohai Navy had been trained by the Jilin Shipyard.

They can't build a big boat, but it's no problem to make a small boat.

"Fixed Shot Loading, Target Tieling, Reset Four Wheels, Dispatch ......"

"Point!!"

"Boom, boom—"

The dull sound of artillery sounded again, and the southern army was in a mess, only they were the ones who fired artillery at others, but they didn't want to be used by others to shoot artillery today.

"Calm down!!"

Wu Gao scolded the soldiers who were messing around outside the tent, feeling very helpless.

The soldiers of the Ming army were trained in cavalry charging formations and infantry long soldiers, but they did not train how to guard against artillery, just because the Ming army was good at hitting people with artillery and never thought that they would be bombarded by people.

"You have to figure out how to do it......"

Wu Gao risked the shelling and walked out of the tent, trying to figure out how to prepare for the shelling.

This is the case with war, and only enough conflict can promote the iteration of weaponry and tactics.

This is what the Ming Dynasty lacked, because they did not have a force next to them that was good at using firearms, and could use firearms on a large scale and be able to overwhelm the Ming army.

In such an environment, Daming has no motivation to change weapons and equipment, let alone ideas.

During the Wanli period, the speed of firearms update and iteration accelerated, which was nothing more than because the two wars of Donghu Burma and the Korean War against the Japanese brought the Ming Dynasty into contact with the firearms country, so a lot of firearms were replaced, but it was limited to this, and the equipment of the Ming army still did not have a large-scale replacement, because of insufficient external pressure.

Neither Donghu nor Japan can cause great military pressure on the Ming Dynasty, and naturally there will be no iteration of weapons and equipment.

When it came to Tianqi and Chongzhen, although they came into contact with Westerners and introduced more Western artillery and flintlock guns, they could not change due to financial resources after all.

Times are like this, they don't give anything a chance, and if you miss it, it's hard to catch up.

Today's Ming Dynasty is upright, the country is rich and strong, and the generals have experienced a period of a hundred battles, and they will think about solving problems instead of running away.

Soon, according to the frequency and power of the Bohai Navy's artillery bombardment, Wu Gao formulated a series of countermeasures.

The first was to build a rammed earth wall to the north of the tents, and secondly, to add planks behind the rammed earth walls.

In this way, even if the rammed earth wall is broken, there are wooden planks as a double unloading, and when the wooden planks are broken, it will be difficult for the stone projectiles to penetrate the tent, and will only roll down the curtain of the tent to the ground after being unloaded.

At Wu Gao's call, rammed earth walls up to three feet thick were disposed of, and Wu Gao also had people constantly sprinkle water on the walls and let them build them with clay.

The sticky rammed earth wall was quickly built, and Wu Gao only left 5,000 men to garrison the cattle and horse wall, and the remaining 30,000 people all withdrew to Tieling City.

Although this method has not yet been practiced, it has at least calmed the hearts of the 36,000-strong army.

It's just that when no one is around, Wu Gao still found Geng Xuan, and his face was solemn: "What do you think of this battle?" ”

"I ......" Before Geng Xuan could speak, Wu Gao gave his own answer: "I thought that if the rebels could attack like this for three days, then I am afraid that Tieling would be lost." ”

"Hmm......" Geng Xuan's face was also very ugly, he obviously knew that Wu Gao's methods could only treat the symptoms but not the root cause.

Originally, the rebels marched faster than them, but now the artillery was farther than them.

In the face of such an opponent, the Ming army's proud infantry flanking and infantry cavalry became a joke.

The infantry flanked and was not as fast as the rebel horse infantry......

With infantry and cavalry, infantry formations could be hit by rebel artillery......

Compared with artillery fire, the Ming artillery could not reach the edge of the rebel artillery at all, and could only be beaten passively......

For a time, the offense and defense changed shape, and the tactics that the Ming army used to be invincible to deal with the enemy have now become the tactics of the rebels to deal with the Ming army.

The quality of the Bohai Navy determined that it was difficult for the Ming army to defeat the other side with the same number of people, and it was impossible to defend itself by tying the city, and it was easy to be surrounded by Zhu Gaoxu to send reinforcements.

Wu Gao and Geng Rong were in a dilemma, so Wu Gao could only sigh: "You and I will play the imperial court again, inform the Bohai Shu people of the performance of the soldiers and horses today, and ask the imperial court to transfer the Shandong garrison and the 7,000 cavalry in Beijing to Liaodong." ”

"If you can bring in reinforcements, this battle will still have to be fought, if you can't pull it, then Liaodong is in danger"

"That's all it takes......"

The two of them were very worried, but they didn't know that the reinforcements they were looking forward to had been led to Beiping......

"Bohai Chronicle":

In May, Jianwenjun took Gao as the chief military officer and stationed troops in Tieling to block the front of the army. Ding Chou, the master went to the north bank of the Chai River and bombarded it with artillery.

"Ming Shizong Record":

Jiaxu in May, stationed in Tieling, led the division to arrive at the Chai River, high cowardly and wanted to go, the bell said: "If you abandon this city, Liao Shen is in danger", Gao heard and was ashamed, so he guarded Tieling.

(End of chapter)