Chapter 140 Marshal Cheng is amazing

Chapter 139

Looking at the map of Liaodong, it is not difficult to find that Liaodong is surrounded by mountains on three sides in the west, north and east, and faces the sea on one side, which is conducive for moist air to enter the inland and form rainfall.

However, Liaodong is a commanding height. Once the nomads gain a foothold here, they will form a overwhelming force for the northern region, especially the Gyeonggi Province. The rolling iron cavalry pouring down like a flash flood will be enough to crush all resistance in an instant.

Noodles.

In fact, the Gyeonggi Province is blocked by the Yanshan Mountains, especially the majestic Yanshan Mountains, which can block the charge of the cavalry. However, once the capital cannot be defended, the entire north will be overwhelmed by the roaring barbarian cavalry. This is why two thousand years ago

Later, the Han people knew that the Songliao Plain was fertile, suitable for farming and animal husbandry, and that with a little management it would turn into an pastoral and pastoral place, but they never made great efforts to manage the Songliao Plain.

Including the Ming Dynasty, which owned the entire Liaodong, as early as the tenth year of Hongwu (1377), Zhu Yuanzhang deposed the prefectures and counties, leaving only the guard posts and establishing the Twenty-Five Guards of Liaodong. The presence of the Liaodong region has always been overwhelming, but the Liaodong region is administratively

In terms of units, it is not regarded as an independent province, but falls under the Shandong Chengxuan Administrative Envoys Department.

The cities under the jurisdiction of Liaodong Dusi, except for the short-term establishment of prefectures and counties in Liaoyang during the Hongwu period, all the cities in Liaodong Dusi were "guards" belonging to the military establishment. Therefore, it can be said that the entire Liaodong region in the Ming Dynasty could only be regarded as attached to

A military-controlled area under Shandong.

The reason why the Liaodong region was so out of place in the administrative divisions of the Ming Dynasty was not because this region was not taken seriously. On the contrary, the Ming Dynasty believed that the capital of Liaodong was "if the Liao Dynasty were to fall, the capital would not be able to rest in peace."

It is really related to the rise and fall of China."

But another simple, yet easily overlooked issue is that the importance of a region is not directly related to the economic conditions and social development of the region.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty chose to establish the Liaodong Dusi to manage Liaodong and Western Liaoning was precisely because it could prioritize resources over military affairs as much as possible under the condition of limited resources.

It's not that I don't want this land, it's just that it's too difficult to defend.

Surrounded by mountains on three sides, the Songliao Plain covers an area of ​​350,000 square kilometers, twice the size of Henan. As long as it loses its strategic fulcrum, it will collapse thousands of miles away.

After Shenyang fell, the entire Liaodong soon fell.

The climate in Liaodong is too cold. Different from the dry and cold conditions in the northwest, it is wet and cold here. Once winter comes, everything will be frozen. Let’s talk about agriculture first. Although Northeast China has now become an important agricultural production area. But in

In the Ming Dynasty, due to the climate and geographical conditions in the Liaodong capital area at that time, it was not suitable for agricultural production, and it was even impossible to achieve self-sufficiency in the local area alone.

For example, the Liaohe Plain, which today is an important rice producing area in Northeast China, was limited by technology and population in the Ming Dynasty. Not only was most of the area not developed into farmland, but it was even the Liaoze area that divided the Liaodong capital area into western Liaoning and eastern Liaoning at that time.

However, this Liaoze in the Ming Dynasty was not a large lake, but "there were many floods in the underground... There was no smoke in all directions, but the reeds were faint." It was similar to the meadow swamps that the Red Army passed through when they crossed the grassland. This area not only needs major

Large-scale drainage operations, and large amounts of stagnant water can also become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The shortage of arable land was only one of the agricultural problems faced by the Ming Dynasty in Dusi, Liaodong. Another bigger problem was the climate. Due to the climate of the Ming Dynasty, the types and output of various agricultural products in Liaodong at that time were far from sufficient.

Meet the needs of Liaodong Dusi.

In particular, cotton, the main raw material for textiles in the Ming Dynasty, could not be self-produced in the Liaodong capital area of ​​the Ming Dynasty due to climate and cotton planting technology. Therefore, in addition to food, local supplies such as cloth and cotton relied heavily on Shandong Deng.

Prefecture area, and Liaodong area's Dengliao Sea Road for supply.

For the shortage of materials in Liaodong, we can refer to some records in the last years of Hongwu. For example, in terms of grain, the transportation volume in the 18th year of Hongwu reached "752,200 grains and rice were shipped to Liaodong by sea." And cotton

The transportation volume is even more exaggerated. In the 21st year of Hongwu, "1.34 million pounds of cotton cloth and 560,000 kilograms of cotton were shipped to Liaodong as gifts to the sergeants."

Under this situation of strong dependence, the population growth and economic development of Liaodong Dusi actually required the Ming Dynasty to conduct financial bloodletting on Liaodong, and it was also very vulnerable to climate and Japanese pirates. Therefore, compared with the mainland of the Ming Dynasty,

In the provinces of Liaodong, where wars are frequent, the economic foundation of the area under its jurisdiction is much more fragile.

The four states in southern Liaoning fell as early as the first year of Tianqi. Except for the short-term recovery of Lushun, Jiannu never paid attention to southern Liaoning because it required great efforts to govern if it wanted to develop.

However, Jiannu had neither the ability nor the inclination to develop Liaonan.

Cheng Shijie is willing to govern this ghost place because he has no other better choice. Cheng Shijie is now taking advantage of the drought, lack of rain, and cold weather in the Little Glacier climate to govern southern Liaoning and the Songliao Plain at the minimum cost.

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Just like in southern Liaoning now, although there is not too much rain, the weather is also showing a tendency of drought. However, with Cheng Shijie leading the field army and engineering military households, they have made great efforts to rectify the situation and have made gratifying progress.

In Ning Haijun's Tuntian District, in order to enrich the rice bowls of Ning Haijun's officers, Cheng Shijie did not plant all the fields with grain, but planted a large number of vegetables. Crops such as tomatoes, radishes, eggplants, beans, cabbage, cucumbers, etc.

Red and green, very attractive.

Every day, people collect vegetables and then transport them to the grassland for sale. Vegetables cannot be grown on the grassland. These vegetables can be sold at sky-high prices on the grassland. It is common for a load of cabbage to bring back several sheep.

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Who told those herdsmen not to grow vegetables?

It’s you who are being fooled!

Now Cheng Shijie has two pairs of white gloves, Hu Erqi and Xie Jinglin, who are responsible for smuggling things. They are all asymmetric transactions. For example, a briquette stove made of several kilograms of pig iron. The cost of a briquette stove is only two to three hundred yuan.

It's equivalent to two or three coins, but it's sent to the grassland.

Wrapping cast iron with a layer of tinplate, that is, tinplate, can be sold for seven to eight taels, or even ten taels of silver. In fact, most of the slave herdsmen had no money in their hands. They exchanged cows or horses, and one horse or one cow was exchanged for a white metal.

Tin stove, this is a normal transaction...

In addition to this kind of briquette stove, the most popular thing among herdsmen is the salt from southern Liaoning. The wholesale price Cheng Shijie gives to Huizhou salt merchants is 30 cents per bag of two kilograms. There are certain discounts for large quantities.

But when sold to herdsmen, the price of salt is one pack of a leg of lamb, or four eight-pound packs of salt for a whole lamb. Even the smallest lamb is more than ten times the profit.

Guangningwei, the first year of Jin Tianhui (1123), promoted Liao Xianzhou to Guangning Prefecture, which was located in today's Guangning Town, and consisted of four counties: Luyang, Wangping, Guangning, and Zhongxiu. By the Ming Dynasty, Guangning

Ningcheng became the Ming Dynasty's highest military headquarters in the Northeast.

The Governor's Office of Liaodong and the Commander's Office of Liaodong Dudu were both stationed in Guangning. It was a pity that after the Guangning Guard fell in the first year of Tianqi, it was never recaptured.

Counting Wangtai Town in the northernmost part of Haizhou Guard, the territory to the north belongs to Guangning Guard, which is also the Liaohe Plain. The vast Liaohe Plain has no danger to defend. If you want to gain a foothold in the Liaohe Plain, this is not an easy task.

An easy thing.

Of course, Cheng Shijie's first step was to send Wangtai Town to guard Hu Erqi. Hu Erqi had more than 800 slave-building soldiers under his command, forming Ning Haijun's hunting cavalry unit.

The so-called Chasseur troop is a hunting-like troop.

Forty miles north of Wangtai Town, Cheng Shijie ordered the camp to camp here. After the camp left, Xintai Town was built on the original site.

Cheng Shijie's strategy is still to focus on forts, and combine ten reorganized 100-household settlements into a town. The town has a town fort, which is actually a city of the same level as a thousand-household settlement.

Because of the successful production of cement, Cheng Shijie no longer had to use precious glutinous rice to bond masonry. Using cement to build city walls was not only faster and more efficient, but also stronger.

Thirty miles east of Xintai Town, a new town fort was built called Danguan Town. When Cheng Shijie arrived here, a strong wind blew off Cheng Shijie's hat. Cheng Shijie picked up the hat and flicked it with dirt.

After the construction of this town fort, connected roads were built between Wangtai Town, Qiantai Town, and Danguan Town. At this time, heading north, the construction pattern was based on the post station pattern, every thirty miles or four.

For ten miles, a town fort was built along the road, which combined the functions of the town fort and the post station.

The army cleared the way in front, while the three hundred farming households and hundreds of engineering offices behind built castles, roads, and inns bit by bit.

You have to eat the food one bite at a time and do the things one by one.

Cheng Shijie led Ning Haijun's personal guard, and cooperated with the 300 farming households and 100 engineering offices, advancing all the way and building at the same time.

At this time, the morale of Admiral Ning was high. When they were resting, they would discuss how many good things Jiannu had and where to snatch Jiannu.

"For decades, the slaves have been robbing us, and now it's their turn to feel what it's like to be robbed."

"My sword is already thirsty!"

Hu Erqi, who was the vanguard, passed through a primitive pine forest. He saw many Jiannu herdsmen driving large groups of round sheep to graze on the grassland.

Hu Erqi looked at the cattle and sheep everywhere and drooled: "So much money, so much food!"

The Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry under Hu Erqi all had green eyes and saliva flowing from their mouths.

In their eyes, sheep are food. No, wool is quite valuable now. Didn't Ning Haijun set up a textile factory to weave wool? A large amount of wool that was originally of little use was sent in and turned into soft and exquisite woolen coats. Sheep

Exquisite fabrics such as sweaters, wool coats, and wool scarves are sold inside and outside the customs, and demand exceeds supply.

So in the eyes of these guys, those running sheep are just a bunch of walking and barking silver!

"Brothers, get ready to work!"

Fortunately, when they were in the woods, when Hu Erqi's men left the woods, Ning Haijun was wearing black military uniforms, and the enemy could see them from a long distance.

Before Hu Erqi even started to take action, the Jiannu herdsmen fell into panic. The children drove the sheep and ran desperately, taking out their horns and blowing them as they ran. A group of Jiannu men roared towards them on a horse.

Come, prepare to fight with saber and horned bow.

However, the disparity in strength is too great.

Even though Hu Erqi only has over 800 people, the other party, including their children, only has about 200 people.

About an hour later, Ning Haijun's leading troops arrived here, and what they saw was a destroyed unit with corpses lying on the ground.

Now these corpses have been collected and built into a small Beijing temple, and a stone tablet has been erected with the words: "The Ming Dynasty Liaodong Economic Envoy, Liaodong Dusi Du Sidu Commander, Zuo Dudu, General Conquering the Prisoners"

, under the command of Cheng Gong, the chief military officer of the Ning Navy, the watchtower guarded Hu Erqi, and he was forced to build slaves here..."

When Cheng Shijie arrived at the banks of the Taizi River, which was almost five hundred miles away from Jinzhou, in order to solve Ning Haijun's supply problem, Cheng Shijie's principle was that if it could be solved by water, he should consider water first.

As the Ning Navy Navy used 400 gunboats to transport grain, construction materials, and various supplies to the Taizi River temporary dock, this temporary dock has been temporarily designated as the fortress of Dock Town.

This town fort was built along the river. Groundbreaking began on 1,400 to 500 acres of open space, and it was a busy place.

Cheng Shijie looked at Chen Guodong beside him and said, "How are the emotions of the brothers?"

Chen Guodong smiled and said: "Brothers are very excited!"

Cheng Shijie said: "Tell the new brothers that the land in Jinzhou is gone. I have no way to allocate land to the new brothers. Next year we will focus on developing Gaizhou, Fuzhou and Haizhou.
To be continued...