Chapter 519: Inspecting Dengzhou Mansion

"1,458 War Horses......"

"Two thousand nine hundred and seventy-six stone ...... of grain"

"A total of thirty-five merchant ships, large and small......"

"1,300,000 arrows ......"

"Four Thousand Horses of Silk ......"

Zhu Chengtai didn't know much about words, so he handed the record book to Lu Yidian, who took the record book and read it out one by one. Zhang Zhun listened quietly beside him, and it wasn't until Lu Yidian finished reading it all that he nodded thoughtfully, and finally said with emotion: "Gong Shan, our country is in a deep disaster!" ”

Despising the mountain is naturally Zhang Shenyan. He and Liu Hang happened to inspect Weihaiwei, arrange internal production, and at the same time deal with the materials distributed by the Tiger Army. After Zhang Zhun arrived, the two naturally followed Zhang Zhun around and exchanged some questions by the way. When Zhang Shenyan heard Zhang Zhun's emotion, he couldn't help but shake his head, and finally sighed helplessly: "Alas! ”

The materials that Lu Yidian read were all counted by Zhang Shenyan himself. Because he was a little worried that the people below would not overstate the numbers. False reporting of military exploits was a stubborn disease in the Ming army, and it was impossible to cure it. Multiplying the numbers is commonplace. Even, some people go too far, and even dare to increase the number tenfold or even dozens of times.

It seems that Wang Pu, the chief military officer of Datong, is one of the very excessive representatives. When the Tartars entered the Kou for the second time, he only killed four or five Tartars, and he dared to report that five or six hundred Tartars had been killed. The rest of the heads were all killed by the people in the vicinity and pretended. However, the imperial court actually accepted such a figure and ordered a public commendation.

The consequences of this are naturally self-evident. All the officers are exaggerated. In the future, if you don't increase your combat exploits tenfold or twenty times, you will be embarrassed to greet others. According to the statistics of the Ministry of War, at least more than half a million Tartars were killed. The problem is that after killing so many Tartars, there are still so many Tartars who continue to enter the Kou and continue to threaten the Jingshi.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows what's going on, but no one can tell the truth. Even Zhang Shenyan will not rashly pick on the cats. Because, the person who needs this figure the most is not someone else, but the respected Emperor His Majesty. Since you can't destroy the Tartars in a real battle, you have to have a good time with the cantata. Those who serve in the cabinet and those who serve as the secretary of the military department, if they do not understand this, will definitely die a very miserable death.

However, here in the Tiger Army, what Zhang Shenyan saw was a real capture and a real number of kills. The seized materials in the warehouse, and the numbers in the account books, absolutely match. It is precisely because of this that Zhang Shenyan's heart is more deeply touched. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed that someone in the Ming Kingdom would be able to snatch supplies from the hands of the Tartars. The ferocity of the Tartars is known to the whole world. How easy is it to snatch something from the hands of a Tartar?

Liu Hang said coldly: "Except for the war horses and arrows, everything else is ours. The Tartars snatched it, and we snatched it back, rightfully so. Gong Shan, I, Liu Zihao, speak more straightforwardly, I'm not afraid to say, is it still necessary for such a court and such an army to exist? We can get back what we lost, we can restore the dignity of the country, but what about those who were killed? What about the houses that were burned down? What about the razed towns? Who can make up for such losses? ”

When Zhang Shenyan heard Liu Hang's words, his heart felt deeper, he sighed helplessly again, and said bitterly: "Zihao, I know this, I am also very disappointed in the imperial cabinet and the six ministries...... It's just that the emperor is hoodwinked...... Alas...... It's hard to put into words! ”

Liu Hang said bluntly: "I don't think so!" The figures reported by Wang Pu are obviously fake, and anyone with a discerning eye can see it. Can't the emperor see it? Doesn't he have the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood? If he saw the trickiness in it, but believed the number, he was clearly nonsense. If he doesn't have the ability to identify the authenticity of numbers, it means that he, as an emperor, has a really limited level of ability. If you want to save this country, you can only change someone to be the emperor! ”

Among Zhang Zhun's interest groups, Liu Hang's ideas were the most radical, and he was very disgusted with the imperial court, the cabinet, the six ministries, and the emperor. He unabashedly supported Zhang Zhun in overthrowing the imperial court, overthrowing the emperor, and re-establishing a dynasty. Zhang Shenyan still has a bit of a sense of being in Cao Ying's heart in Han at the moment, and Liu Hang certainly has to point it out bluntly.

Zhang Shenyan knew very well what Liu Hang meant, so he seemed very painful. His thoughts, as well as the education he had received, told him that he should be a loyal servant and swear allegiance to His Majesty the Emperor. The king wants his ministers to die, and the ministers have to die. However, the facts in front of him, as well as his reason, told him that the current court had no hope at all. And Emperor Chongzhen seems to be on the verge of extinction step by step.

Chen Qiyu obviously did not need to go to prison. Even, he deserves to be reused. Chen Qiyu is definitely a capable person. His proposition of suppressing bandits is completely correct from a strategic point of view. In fact, he did succeed in forcing the Shaanxi rebels into Chezhou Gorge. Only one last step is missing, and he can completely extinguish this group of Shaanxi rebels. The main reason for the failure was that Chen Qiyu underestimated the cunning of the Shaanxi rebels and did not realize the complexity of human nature.

As a literati, Chen Qiyu is capable, but he didn't expect human nature to be so ugly. In other words, he was too naïve. If Emperor Chongzhen could forgive Chen Qiyu's temporary mistakes and continue to reuse. Then, after Chen Qiyu accepts the lesson of Chezhou Gorge, he will inevitably redouble his efforts and continue to encircle and suppress the rebellious army in Shaanxi. With his talent, it is not difficult to come to the Trunk Gorge again. At that time, Chen Qiyu, who has had a previous lesson, will definitely not fall for the Shaanxi rebellion again. Therefore, it is entirely possible to exterminate the rebellious army in Shaanxi.

It's a pity that Emperor Chongzhen is too impatient, has too high requirements for his courtiers, is mean and unkind, and does not miss the friendship between monarchs and ministers. He only saw Chen Qiyu's fault in Chezhou Gorge, but he consciously forgot Chen Qiyu's ability to besiege the Shaanxi rebel army in Chezhou Gorge. As a result, an edict came down and sent Chen Qiyu to prison. As a result, the other front-line generals suddenly felt cold. The tired and tired emperor couldn't see it, and dying on the front line was just a pension of a few hundred taels of silver, and he was found out for a little bit of fault. With such an emperor, how can he have any intention of fighting?

There is an example of Wang Pu, it is better for everyone to learn from Wang Pu. Anyway, as long as you keep playing, saying that it is a great victory of so-and-so, and how many thousands, tens of thousands of Shaanxi rebels have been exterminated, just wait for the reward from above. Even if you don't have the last time, you don't have a loss. In short, until the last moment, we must never fight hard with the Shaanxi rebels. Because, if you fight hard, you will not benefit anything, and it will be difficult to end up in disrepute.

Why bother?

Why bother?

Liu Hang was emotional, couldn't help but feel a little excited, and said sharply: "Gong Shan, you look at these materials, how many people have to be looted, and how big of a place you have to loot to collect." Inside and outside the Great Wall, there is not much food, not much silk! Every pound of supplies here may carry a pound of blood! ”

Zhang Shenyan could only sigh silently and did not refute. He knew that he was not capable of refuting, and he was not in the mood to refute. All that Liu Hang mentioned is true. If he turns a blind eye, he will become an official like Wen Tiren. Without conscience and insensitiveness, this is Zhang Shenyan's overall evaluation of the cabinet and the senior officials of the six ministries.

It is impossible for the Tartars themselves to have so many supplies, especially grain and silk, all of which of course were looted from the gates. As a former waiter of the Criminal Department, Zhang Shenyan was deeply impressed by the robbery when Chongzhen's Tatars entered the Kou in the second year. He knew very well how many people and how many materials the Ming Kingdom had lost. This actual loss is at least thirty times different from the figure announced by the imperial court.

The north of the Ming Kingdom was originally relatively poor, and the output of grain and silk was very low, and the Tartars wanted to loot these materials, and they didn't know how many places they had to loot and how many people they would kill. It is no exaggeration to say that every pound of material is soaked in a pound of blood. As a waiter in the Criminal Department, Zhang Shenyan has been exposed to a lot of insiders, some of which are insiders, and the ugly faces of some officials, and he feels ashamed to even mention them.

Now, the Tiger Ben army has snatched these materials back from the hands of the Tartars, which is tantamount to making the fruits of the Tartars' looting completely come to naught. Indirectly, it can be regarded as recovering losses for the Ming Kingdom. To a certain extent, it also restored the long-lost dignity for the Ming Kingdom. Don't say anything else, just this point, Zhang Shenyan has a deep feeling.

The difference between the Ming army and the tiger army, one is robbed and the other is snatched back, do you need any language to describe the difference between this? When the Tartars entered the Kou, the Ming army had hundreds of thousands of people, but they still couldn't stop the Tartars from looting, so they only dared to hide in the towns, watching the Tartars wreak havoc and return with a full load. And the Tiger Ben army, full of battles, is less than 20,000 people. The strength of the army is less than 10% of the Ming army.

However, the Tiger Ben army not only killed so many Tartars in Huang County, but also besieged two slave chieftains and a group of Tartars in Dengzhou City. Now, through the navy, a large amount of supplies were looted directly from the hands of the Tartars. How many Ming troops do it take to achieve such a feat? Million? Million? Zhang Shenyan can't estimate. Perhaps, even a five-million-strong Ming army would not be able to do this.

Rao is Zhang Shenyan's position is firm, and he can't help but waver at this time. Is it really necessary for a court like the Ming State and such an army to continue to be loyal? Thinking about the people who suffered from the poison of the Tartars, and thinking about the civil and military officials who only knew how to fight for power and profit, Zhang Shenyan felt as if he was getting farther and farther away from the imperial court.

"Do you need anything else?" Zhang Zhun asked softly.

"No, that's enough." Zhang Shenyan said softly.

"Okay, if there are similar materials in the future, they will be allocated to you Dengzhou Mansion first. Zihao, this matter will be handed over to you in the future. Zhang Zhun said.

"Understood!" Liu Hang said briefly.

"The old man is on behalf of the people of Dengzhou Mansion, thank you Yulin." Zhang Shenyan said sincerely.

Zhang Zhun nodded and didn't say anything more.

He could perceive that Zhang Shenyan's mentality was slowly changing, and everything that happened to the Tiger Benjun and Dengzhou Mansion was slowly changing Zhang Shenyan's thinking. For Zhang Zhun, Zhang Shenyan's change is of course a good thing.

In addition to the war horse, Zhang Zhun allocated other materials to Zhang Shenyan for processing. Anyway, these materials can't be used by the Tiger Army itself. As for the materials that neither the Tiger Army nor Zhang Shenyan could use, such as those arrows, bowstrings, cow tendons, etc., they were handed over to Liu Hang to deal with. How did Liu Hang deal with it? Of course, it is to store it and prepare it for when it will be sold again.

Now the situation between Laiyang's Smelling Fragrance Sect and Qixia's Smelling Fragrance Sect is becoming more and more tense, and I don't know when these arrows can come in handy again. Even if the Wenxiang Sect doesn't want it for the time being, if the territory expands in the future and contacts the Shaanxi rebel army, maybe the Shaanxi rebel army will pay for it. Speaking of which, the Tiger Ben Army and the Shaanxi Rebellion Army are still allied forces, and they are the 37th Battalion of the Rebel Army!

In the evening of the same day, Zhang Zhun convened a meeting of the responsible persons of the various branches of the Tiger Ben Army in Weihaiwei. The focus of the meeting was, of course, the construction of Weihai Weijun Port. Of course, Zhang Zhun will not ask about specific matters. He just briefly explained a problem, to build Weihai Weijun Port into a super-large military port, and become the strongest existence of the Tiger Army Navy.

"It is expected to be fully completed in three years."

"The annual investment in construction funds is about 360,000 taels of silver."

Zhang Zhun said calmly.

The navy has always been the most money-burning, and it takes money to build warships, and it also needs money to build military ports. To pile up the navy and leave the silver in vain, it is absolutely not possible. Sixty thousand taels of silver per Chinese New Year's Eve, divided into thirty thousand taels per month. This number is quite staggering. It must be known that this is only the money for the construction of the military port, not the military expenditure of the entire navy. Zhang Zhun will definitely find a way to open up more financial resources.

Two days after the meeting, Zhang Zhun went to various places in Weihaiwei and personally inspected them. Weihaiwei, like Tianjin Wei and Anton Wei, was a special guard in the early years of the Ming Dynasty. Weihaiwei has jurisdiction over 5,000 households, and each 1,000 households have 1,600 military households, which adds up to just 8,000 people, plus the families of military households, adding up to 70,000 or 80,000 people.

In accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Juntian Order", Weihaiwei has fully implemented the policy of dividing land and land. Under heavy pressure from all sides, the former officers of Weihaiwei at all levels had to disperse their fields to meet the requirements of the "Juntian Order." Otherwise, it will be suppressed by the Tiger Army. Zhang Zhun then reorganized the power structure of Weihaiwei, abolished the original officer system, changed Weihaiwei to Weihai County, appointed a new magistrate, and formed a new power structure.

After a great change, the poor military households in Weihaiwei have all been given their own land. In order to keep their land, young military households are eager to join the Tiger Army. Since the Tiger Ben Army does not need so many troops for the time being, these young military households have become the main force in the construction of Weihai Weijun Port. Every day, more than 3,000 young military families work at various construction sites in Weihaiwei, and the cost of wages alone exceeds 100 taels of silver every day.

After inspecting Weihaiwei, Zhang Zhun and Zhang Shenyan went to Ninghaizhou, Fushan, Wendeng, Chengshanwei, and Jinghaiwei to inspect and go deep into the grassroots to understand the situation.

The situation in Ninghai Prefecture is a little more special, the Zhizhou that was originally set up here has already surrendered to the Tartars with Ruan Dacheng. On the arrival of the Tiger Army, he was arrested, then sentenced, and executed for treason. Subsequently, the Tiger Ben Army selected the new Zhizhou.

Fushan County is very close to Dengzhou City, and it is the key area where the Tiger Ben Army is stationed. The Tiger Army Pinzi Battalion led by Zhang Lingyun was stationed in Fushan. According to the needs of the situation, the strength of Brigadier General Zhang's Pinzi battalion was increased from the original two associations to three associations, with a total strength of about 900 people. Fukuyama also carried out land reform in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Junda Order.

Wendeng is located in the core area of the southeast of the Shandong Peninsula, and the distance from Weihaiwei, Chengshanwei and Jinghaiwei is about the same, so it has always been a military camp. If there is a war along the coast, the troops stationed in Wenden can rush to support in time. In the past, the Ming army had three major battalions in Shandong, namely the Jimo battalion, the Dengzhou battalion, and the Wendeng battalion, and the establishment of each battalion was about 4,000 people.

After the Tiger Ben Army occupied Wendeng, what was stationed here was the Dingzi battalion led by Yang Zixuan. Yang Zixuan is also the old man of the Tiger Army, he led the Dingzi battalion to be stationed here, and Zhang Zhun was very relieved. Chengshanwei and Jinghaiwei are at the forefront of the Shandong Peninsula, and the defensive tasks are the most arduous. After a short period of consideration, Zhang Zhun decided to increase the number of the Dingzi battalion to three associations, with a total strength of about 900 people.

Of course, according to Zhang Zhun's meaning, if the Huben Army and Navy take the initiative to attack in the future, there will be fewer and fewer opportunities for passive defense. The two infantry battalions slowly increased their strength, helping to train new recruits. The expansion of the Tiger Ben Army is not because there is no money or food, nor is it that there is no one, but because there is not enough time to train. Recruits are not trained, and scum is not as good. Zhang Zhun would rather have a smaller number of troops than maintain a certain level of combat effectiveness.

In Wendeng County, Zhang Zhun convened the responsible persons of one prefecture, two counties, and three guards to discuss the internal affairs of various localities. Zhang Shenyan and Liu Hang, of course, attended the seminar. At the meeting, Zhang Zhun put forward some suggestions of his own.

"From now on, all regions must vigorously develop their economies. Except for Wendeng County, other places have a large ocean area. Therefore, I propose that the fishing industry be vigorously developed. Each region should build some small shipyards as much as possible, relying on its own ability, to build some fishing boats to go out to sea. On the one hand, to meet the needs of the market and make up for the lack of meat. On the one hand, it is to train more reserve sailors for the Navy. ”

Zhang Zhun said eloquently.

After several days of visits, Zhang Zhun found that military households in this area generally lacked nutrition. Because you are so poor, you may not get enough meat for a whole year. If you don't eat meat for a long time, you can't even eat rice and steamed buns, and your nutrition naturally can't keep up, resulting in poor physical fitness for many military households, and it is difficult to meet the admission requirements of the Tiger Army.

In fact, fish has a lot of nutrients. In this era, the sea was very rich in fish. Zhang Zhun can stab fish with bamboo casually, let alone drive a fishing boat out to sea. In the past, because the structure of the guard house was unreasonable, and the shackles on the military households were too many and heavy, even if they returned from fishing, they would be deprived of a lot of labor fruits, so everyone was reluctant to go fishing. Now that all the shackles have been abolished, it's a good time to vigorously develop ocean fishing.

Vigorously developing the fishing industry can also train a large number of sailors for the Tiger Army and Navy. It's impossible for a fisherman to be water-based at all. Even if you can't, you'll learn by heart. The effect of active learning is obviously much better than passively forcing to learn. Over time, fishermen become professional sailors. These fishermen can be temporarily converted into naval sailors if necessary.

More importantly, vigorously developing the fishing industry can effectively cultivate everyone's awareness of the ocean, so that more people can realize that the treasures of the sea are also very rich. In the Ming Dynasty, no one realized the importance of the sea, except for a very small number of maritime merchants. Ordinary people, in addition to knowing that there are fish in the sea, really don't know what else.

This ideological issue can be understood by looking at the island of Taiwan. The Ming Dynasty set up guerrilla generals in Penghu to govern the Penghu area. However, for the island of Taiwan, there is little interest. At that time, the island of Taiwan, also known as Dongfan Island, was completely ignored by the Ming Dynasty. Most maps of the Ming Dynasty do not include this treasure island. Therefore, the Dutch will take the opportunity to take advantage of the loophole and take control of the island of Taiwan, so that Zheng Chenggong will have to spend a lot of effort to take back the island of Taiwan.

In an area like Shandong, which is surrounded by the sea on three sides, if you do not vigorously ask for resources and wealth from the sea, it will be impossible for it to develop. In later generations, Shandong put forward the concept of developing a blue economy, and Zhang Zhun thought it was correct. When the resources on land can no longer meet the needs, they have to ask the sea for resources and living space.

From the point of view of the theory of land warfare, Shandong is indeed a place that is easy to attack and difficult to defend, with very little room for maneuver and not much strategic depth. However, if you take the initiative into account, Shandong is a good place. On land, Shandong can go north to Beijing, west to the Central Plains, and south to the Yangtze River. If necessary, the Grand Canal can also be cut with a single sword. At sea, you can go north to Liaodong, east to Korea, southeast to Japan, and due south to Taiwan. It is by no means an exaggeration to describe Shandong as the place of the four wars.

The key is that we must develop ourselves.

Be proactive in attacking, not passive in defense.

"On the ocean, we must vigorously develop the fishing industry. So, on land, what should we strive to develop? In my view, in addition to developing the planting industry, it is also necessary to vigorously develop industrial and mining enterprises. In order to vigorously develop trade, it is necessary to actively excavate minerals and set up factories. We need a lot of ore, iron ore, coal mine, sulfur ore, gold ore, silver ore, as long as it is minerals, we need it. ”

"As we all know, in the central part of the capital of Tengju, most of it is mountainous. It is difficult to grow wheat and rice in mountainous areas. However, corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes can be grown to compensate for the lack of food production. Qixia also has to make efforts to develop apple planting. ”

Zhang Zhun continued to speak.

Controlling Dengzhou Mansion, from the military geography point of view, Zhang Zhun did occupy a great advantage and obtained a good port like Weihaiwei. It is a pity that most of the land in Dengzhou Prefecture is rugged and uneven mountainous land, from Laishan, Longshan and Beiqu Mountain in the north, to the central Mt. Cuiping, Baidong Mountain, to the southeast Kunyu Mountain, there are basically no patches of flat land. However, mountains have mountain benefits. The advantage is that there are more types and quantities of ores.

It seems that iron ore, coal mines, sulfur, etc., are all urgently needed by the Tiger Army. Sulfur, in particular, is currently the most scarce in the Tiger Army. Nitrate can be collected manually, but sulfur cannot, but sulfur is indispensable in the composition of black gunpowder. In the vicinity of Baidong Mountain, there happened to be some sulfur mines, and the Tiger Benjun immediately set up a mine here.

In addition, in Zhaoyuan, the Tiger Army also harvested a large gold mine. The gold mine in Zhaoyuan began to be excavated during the Yuan Dynasty, and the highest gold output at that time reached more than 13,000 taels per year. In the early years of Wanli, the greedy Wanli Emperor also specially stationed a mine supervisor in Zhaoyuan to supervise the production of gold. At that time, the gold production, according to the account books, was still more than 9,000 taels per year.

However, according to Zhang Zhun's understanding of the officials and eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty, more than 9,000 taels were reported, and the actual output was definitely more than this number. Even quadrupling is possible. Therefore, after the Tiger Army took over Zhaoyuan, they also took over the gold production here. The Tiger Army expelled the original foreman and elected a new mine head through democratic elections, which greatly improved production enthusiasm and production efficiency.

Zhang Zhun has read the Zhaoyuan gold production report in July, which is about 830 taels. Due to the large influx of overseas silver at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the value of gold gradually increased, and the gold of one tael can be exchanged for about fifteen taels of silver. More than eight hundred taels of gold is ten thousand taels of silver.

For the Tiger Ben Army, which had a huge amount of expenses, 10,000 taels of silver was indeed not very conspicuous. However, it is very beneficial to the economic development of Dengzhou Capital. Because, Zhang Zhun did not take a penny of the gold produced by Zhaoyuan, and all of it was allocated to the development fund of Dengzhou Mansion and handed over to Zhang Shenyan to deal with. He believes that with Zhang Shenyan's ethics, every tael of gold can be used in practice.

Zhang Zhun spent five or six days in Wendeng and the responsible persons of various regions carefully discussing the development of each region. Coming from 400 years later, he knew a lot of economic theories, which he had never been exposed to by the heads of various regions present. There may be some theories that you can't understand for the time being, but as long as you follow them, you will gradually understand the deep meaning.

For this, Zhang Shenyan and Liu Hang are very feeling. Zhang Zhun's suggestion has been well implemented in Laizhou Prefecture. Dengzhou Mansion has learned the same thing, and it should develop soon. As long as Dengzhou Mansion develops, the strength of the Tiger Ben Army will be even stronger.

"My lord, Yin Fengyi has urgent information!"

That night, Zhang Zhun was discussing some internal policies with Zhang Shenyan and Liu Hang, and Lu Yidian suddenly hurried over and sent a top-secret piece of information.

After reading the information, Zhang Zhun couldn't help frowning.

Something big happened to Anton Wei!