The mountains and rivers on both sides of the Grand Canal are now shrouded in a layer of late autumn colors. The sky is high and the clouds are light, and there is a slaughter.

The autumn harvest has ended, the world is open, and the autumn day in the northern great plains is the time when the soldiers are conquering and the heroes are crisscrossing.

On the road from Liaocheng, the capital county of Dongchang Prefecture, to Anping Town, where the Daqing River and the Grand Canal meet, hundreds of knights guarding the pro-army are surrounding Emperor Hongxing of the Ming Dynasty and several other people, rushing back to Anping Town, where the Son of Heaven is stationed, from the front of Liaocheng. Prepare to gather a large number of generals there to discuss the plan for a decisive battle with Dongyu Liaocheng.

At this moment, Hong Xingtianzi's heart is really unpleasant.

After more than a month of steady and steady fighting, by the end of September of the twentieth year of Chongzhen, both sides of the canal between the north of Weishan Lake and Liaocheng in Dongchangfu City were already the world of the Ming Dynasty. They came all the way to the south, and all they saw were the Ming army fleets rushing to Liaocheng in an endless stream, in addition to replenishing supplies for the Ming army on the periphery of Liaocheng, there were also soldiers and horses of the Shandong army, and one team after another drove to the front line of Liaocheng by boat or on foot.

The armies of Shandong were all "heavily armed troops", equipped with a large number of side vans, and at the same time there were not enough mules and horses - it was not that mules and horses were pulled, but that there were not several classes of mules and horses to replace them, so it was necessary to save the strength of mules and horses. Therefore, Gao Hongtu, Zuo Maodi, and Shi Kefa all preferred to use river boats to transport troops and baggage.

In the past two years, the Shandong army has spent a lot of effort to build ships, and now they finally have enough water transportation capacity.

On the canal, either from the south or along the Daqing River from the direction of Jinanfu, the fleet slowly headed north. The ship was full of military rations, food, equipment, and vehicles, and the draft was very deep. Because the canal has been undermaintained for the past two years, and now it is the time of shallow water in autumn, a boatman on every boat carefully measures the depth of the water at the bow. Now there is no south wind to borrow, so these boats have to rely on human and animal power in addition to poles. The soldiers on foot on both sides of the bank acted as slender men, taking turns dragging these flat-bottomed pointed sand river boats slowly forward.

In addition to the lively scene of thousands of miles on the canal, there is a busy and noisy construction site every 20 miles on the west bank of the canal. The people who were requisitioned from all over Shandong worked like worker ants, digging soil for moats, ramming earth for walls, and then using sandbags to pile up an inclined plane for artillery defense, and finally using sandbags to pile up anti-artillery breastwork at the top of the city wall less than one zhang high.

This is steady and steady, step by step!

The army marched along the waterway, and the hard village was built along the river.

Although I dare not say that this style of play will win, it can always be undefeated, right?

Zhu Cihong rode on the way, only feeling a little proud.

Looking back, standing out from the crisis in Beijing, shouldering heavy responsibilities, risking death to break through, fighting Tianjin, going to Dagu, and going all the way south, it seems to be a bit like a dream...... It's only been a few years? has gathered more than 100,000 troops of the Northern Expedition, and the soldiers are pointing northward, and they are invincible.

He, the emperor, went out on patrol today, without playing the banner of the Son of Heaven, nor wearing a dragon robe, but a red arrow suit and a collar of plate armor made by Anping.

Under the joint promotion of Zhu Cihong, Zheng Zhilong, Shen Tingyang and others, Daming's military industry has made rapid progress in recent years. In Shanghai, Nanjing, Anping (Fujian), Foshan and other places, iron workshops using hydraulic hammers appeared, so it was possible to create plate armor using large pieces of iron.

However, the number of hydraulic hammers is still very small, and the production of plate armor is also very small, and there are not necessarily thousands of them a year.

But it has already completed the progress from scratch, and it is not easy!

At the same time, the production capacity of artillery and guns was gradually formed. Not only the iron workshops in Foshan and Anping are increasing production. In Shanghai, Nanjing, Dengzhou and other places, there were also iron mills gathered into pieces, most of which served the military industry. Although the quantity of firearms, plate armor, and slatted armor produced by these iron workshops was still insufficient to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding new army of overcoming difficulties, so it was impossible to completely realize "import substitution", but as long as time passed, there will always be a day when complete localization will be realized.

Of course, all of these ironworks that have sprung up are commercial! Including the Nanjing Cannon Factory invested and opened by Zhu Cihong himself (the products include 12-pound Hongyi cannons, 3-pounder cannons, 24-pounder mortars, turtledove foot guns, Spanish light guns, black powder, flowering bullets, chain bullets, shotguns, etc.), it is not a so-called government-run enterprise, but a commercial workshop jointly held by employees and His Majesty the Emperor. Zhu Cihong himself is only a major shareholder, and he does not have many shares, only 30 percent.

The reason why this is like this is actually related to Zhu Cihong, Zheng Zhilong, and Shen Tingyang's vigorous promotion of the development of the military industry - a skilled blacksmith is not something that can be conjured out of thin air by smashing it with silver! The more the ironworks opened, the more the blacksmiths were of course rare, not only did they get a lot of money, but many of them also had to take shares.

And Zhu Cihong's thinking is more capitalist, and he will not use the method of sending conscription to blacksmiths to pull people to open an iron workshop - the blacksmiths who are caught by force are not willing to work hard without strict punishment and strict laws, and guns and artillery can't be fooled around, they will be blown up! Therefore, it is necessary to take Helian Bobo's method of making the Great Xia Dragon Bird Knife, and use chopping the brain case to grasp the quality!

However, in addition to quality, there is also a cost, an output, and a technical inheritance....... Chopping the brain case alone can't solve such a lot of problems! Just a technical inheritance is useless. Chop the brain case at every turn, who would dare to learn this craft? Hit the iron and knock the head away, who will come? If no one comes, do you have to go the way of a hereditary craftsman?

Then what kind of treatment did Emperor Zhu have to give to hereditary craftsmen? If you don't give you a very high salary, and you lose your head at any time, the old blacksmith can't even ask for a wife, how can anyone come to hereditary?

So after going around for a long time, I had to give silver...... Since it is also stimulated by economic interests, then capitalism!

The government-run workshop is an adopted son, all of them are treasures, and they can't be allowed to lose!

The capitalist handicraft workshop is Gu breeding, survival of the fittest, the weak eat the strong, and if you don't do a good job, you will lose money......

And now there is no big industry, and the manufacture of guns and cannons has to rely on small workshops (relative to large industries), relying on manual construction, a large number of small workshops, this quality, cost, and output are difficult to control. If there is no "Gu raising" mechanism, and you can't chop the brain shell to control the quality, is there still a reason not to blow up the chamber?

Under the "Gu raising" mechanism, not only the equipment of the new army under Zhu Cihong's command is getting better and better, but even the feudal army in the northern six towns has also gained a lot of good things.

These six towns are generals for soldiers, and the lords of the three armies are naturally more attentive and willing to invest!

Seeing that the infantry of the feudal army marching on the side of the canal were also well-armoured, Emperor Zhu's confidence was even stronger, and he turned his head to Li Yan beside him and said, "100,000 elite soldiers...... How much can Dorgon pull on hand? Fifty or sixty thousand is not bad, right? ”

Li Yan said with a smile: "It's almost this number, Luoyang also has some left, Shanxi also has to keep people, Liaocheng, Linqing, Wucheng, Dezhou, and Suizhou and Shangqiu in the south of us have a lot of garrisons." It would not be easy for Dorgon to gather 50,000 elite soldiers on hand! ”

Zhu Cihong smiled: "Where can 50,000 people fight?" Will we fight under Liaocheng? ”

"That's a must-lose!" Li Yan said, "Now is not the time for the Songjin War...... We have a lot of soldiers and can afford to consume them. ”

Zhu Cihong nodded, he didn't seek victory in this battle, and he was very satisfied with a draw...... In terms of exchange ratio, there is no one-to-one, how many people are there in Manchuria? How many Han Chinese are there? There is no need to train soldiers to the point where they can exchange lives with others on a one-to-one basis.

To fight a war like that, more than 100 million people are used to count and play?

Li Yan thought about it and said, "It is more likely that Wei Wei will save Zhao...... But that's okay. As long as we are not ambushed by them, relying on the superiority in troops, we are still nine out of ten. Even if the war is unfavorable, as long as you can kill 10,000 or 20,000 Manchurians, you will not lose money. ”