"He withdrew?" Zhu Cihong hurriedly asked, "Where to retreat?" ”

Yan Yingyuan was confused by Zhu Cihong's question, where can he go after retreating? The southeast, north, and south sides of Qufu were under the control of the Ming army, and Dolgon could only retreat to the west.

"Withdrawn to the west!" Yan Yingyuan said, "With the goods stolen from Qufu, I also captured many children of the Confucian family and the dependents of the Qufu army, and retreated westward...... Your Majesty, should we chase it? ”

Pursue? What to chase?

Zhu Cihong said: The reorganization of the Shandong armies has not yet been completed! Moreover, in order to reorganize the Shandong armies, Zhu Cihong also dismantled the eight model infantry regiments on hand - thirty-two copies of the eight regiments, each of which was the foundation of a newly formed infantry regiment to absorb the generals of the Shandong army.

After the reorganization was completed, Zhu Cihong had 32 infantry regiments under the jurisdiction of the Generalissimo's Mansion here in Shandong that could be used, and there were 80,000 people in these regiments alone! Coupled with the troops of Huang Degong and Li Chengdong (the reorganization of Huang Degong, Gao Jie, and Li Chengdong's units had to be slowed down) and the cavalry regiment and artillery regiment brought by Zhu Cihong to Shandong, there were more than 90,000 people......

But isn't the reorganization still complete?

Reorganization is not a matter of breaking up and reorganizing, it is necessary to organize and train, and to re-equip. I have to toss it until summer...... If Dolgon hadn't rolled out at that time, Zhu Cihong would have been able to launch the Battle of Zhili or the Battle of Liaoxi.

But now, he's not that bold!

"Let him go!" Zhu Cihong sighed, "Go and give Huang Degong an order and let his people go to occupy the territory first." ”

"Whoa."

The purpose of Zhu Cihong's retained troops of Huang Degong, Gao Jie, and Li Chengdong is not reorganized, which is to use them as an emergency - the combat effectiveness of the troops in the reorganization is relatively weak, and if Dolgon goes crazy and fights over, someone has to guard the critical place!

Now that Dolgon is gone, Zhu Cihong can use them to regain lost territory.

Seeing Yan Yingyuan leaving, Chen Rui also said to Zhu Cihong with a relaxed face: "Your Majesty, don't worry about the southeast rice being expensive this time." ”

Zhu Cihong smiled bitterly: "This time it was Dolgon's miscalculation...... Who knows next time? That's not an option! ”

"Your Majesty," Chen Rui said, "the minister thinks that in order to stabilize the price of rice in the southeast, he must find a new source of rice grain...... If we can get an extra 10 million stone every year, then we can gradually save a little rice grain. ”

Zhu Cihong's territory now has a population of about 125 million, and according to the calculation of three and a half stones per person, 437.5 million stone rice noodles are needed, and if you are rich, it is 450 million stones. But in the southeast, it is not only these people who need to be fed, but also a large number of livestock and poultry also need to eat - the gap between the rich and the poor in the southeast is large, there are frozen bones on the road, Zhumen wine and meat stink, there is a lot of consumption of meat, poultry and eggs, and a lot of wine is brewed.

In addition, there are many buffaloes, donkeys, mules and horses (there are not many good horses) to be fed.

Therefore, the consumption of grain will not be less than 700 million stones!

At the same time, many cash crops have been planted in the southeast, Fujian, and Guangdong, and a lot of fertile land has been occupied, thus reducing the grain supply.

Although sweet potatoes have begun to be planted, the sowing area is not very large, but it is more common in the mountainous areas of the southeast, and it will take time to popularize it...... Historically, until 1957, the planting area of sweet potatoes and corn accounted for less than 20% of the total grain planting area in the country.

Moreover, during the Qianlong Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, the output of these two crops accounted for only a few percentage points of the country's total grain output......

"Mr. Chen means to use troops against Annan?" Zhu Cihong didn't know why, after listening to Chen Rui's words, he thought of launching a war of aggression!

"Annan?" Chen Rui was stunned, "Your Majesty...... Even if we get 10 million stones in Annam, there won't be so many ships to transport! ”

In fact, Annammi, Siamese, Champa and even Javanese rice have already begun to be shipped to Shanghai!

Because of the collection of customs grain tax, Chinese and foreign maritime merchants who import trade will bring half a shipload of rice, which adds up to a lot, and there can be two or three million stones a year.

But to increase it significantly, let's say 10 million stones, that is not something that can be achieved with the current shipping capacity.

10 million stone is equal to about 600,000 tons, and 600 galleons with a load of 1,000 tons can be transported at one time!

Zhu Cihong looked at Chen Rui: "Then Mr. Chen means ......"

"Of course it's Shandong!" Chen Rui said, "During the Wanli period, Shandong had about 61.75 million mu of land, and in a normal year, 60 million stone wheat could be harvested. Although the weather has been dry in recent years, the sweet potatoes introduced by Gaofutai are very drought-tolerant, and the yield is not low after planting in Shandong, even on the slopes, the yield per mu can reach as many as several stones! ”

In later generations, the yield of sweet potatoes was often several tons, which was indeed eye-catching. However, it was difficult to achieve such a yield in the Ming Dynasty, firstly, because the varieties of sweet potatoes had not yet been improved; The second is that the temperature is too cold.

Sweet potatoes are temperature-loving, cold-tolerant, and cold-tolerant crops, and the most suitable growth temperature is 22-30 °C. This temperature is nothing in later generations, but how many days can there be in northern China during the Xiaoice River period?

Therefore, the yield of sweet potatoes in Shandong is five to seven stones, and it can only be planted once a year, but it is also quite considerable.

If it is planted in Jiangnan, it can reach more than 10 stones...... However, the yield of rice per mu in Jiangnan is casually three or four stones, and the price of rice is much more expensive than that of sweet potatoes, so of course the peasants are reluctant to change the crop.

Chen Rui then said to Zhu Cihong: "Now east of the canal and west of Taiyi Mountain, a large area of land is abandoned and no one cultivates it. The imperial court may wish to use the method of tuntian, the army recruits the people, gives ploughing cattle, and specializes in planting sweet potatoes. If there are 3 million acres of sweet potatoes planted and 6 stones per mu, it will be 18 million stone potatoes a year. The imperial court buys 10 million stones a year, there should be no difficulty! The minister heard that some farmers in the southeast would grow a small number of sweet potatoes and then store them in preparation for a famine year. We can also do this, plant sweet potatoes in Tuntian, Shandong, and then cellar them, 10 million stones a year, and tens of millions of stones in a few years, which is enough to cope with the consumption of the Northern Expedition of the army. In case of a food shortage in the southeast, we can also call Shandong's sweet potatoes for emergency. ”

"Good!" Zhu Cihong slapped his face, "Mr. Chen's method is good!" Go back and discuss with Gao Hongtu and Zuo Maodi to see if they can implement it? ”

......

Shandong, Liaocheng.

The Qing Emperor Amadorgon didn't know how much harm he would cause if he retreated—if he didn't retreat, he still occupied so much land east of the canal, and Zhu Cihong would have no place to grow sweet potatoes.

In this way, the food supply in the southeast is always tight, and it is impossible to let go of the war!

Of course, Dorgon's retreat had his own plans. He is victorious and returns, and he receives when he sees good.

Laying down Qufu, up and down, it can be regarded as a full load. Although the books were all reporting losses, Dolgon could see from the faces of the people in the Old Eight Banners that they had all the money they had in their own ...... What you lose is the money in the flag, and what you earn is your own money. The real big loss is estimated to be the only one with the green flag.

So it's better to retreat as soon as possible, and don't come back to a few more unwinnable battles.

In addition, his retreat to the west was also to free up a buffer and buy time for the construction of the canal defense.

He is now standing at the head of the ruined Liaocheng City, looking at the people with the green flag below who are busy "building fences".

The so-called "fence" is a fence fortification that stretches along the Daqing River, the Grand Canal, all the way to Shangqiu City, and can also be regarded as a thousand-mile Great Wall (about 1,300 miles long). However, the city wall could not be repaired for a while.

The Qing Dynasty is poor, and it has lost ......

Therefore, a fence was built with wood, and then a Kela castle was built every 30 miles (it can also be rebuilt from the existing castle), for a total of 40 Kala castles. That is, the deployment of 40 positive green flags of the Jiala stationed along this thousand-mile fence - the positive green flag originally had 40 Jiala, under the jurisdiction of 200 Niulu, now no Jiala pulled out 1 Niulu to go to the outside of the customs, so there are still 160 Niulu, all of which are arranged along this long fence as cannon fodder!