Inspection of Dengzhou Prefecture

"One thousand four hundred and fifty-eight war horses..."

"Two thousand nine hundred and seventy-six stones..."

"A total of thirty-five merchant ships of all sizes..."

"One and three million arrows..."

"Four thousand pieces of silk..."

Zhu Chengtai didn't know much about his words, so he handed the record book to Lu Yidian and asked him to report it. Lu Yidian took the record book and read it one by one. Zhang Zhun listened quietly next to him. Until Lu Yidian finished reading it all, he nodded thoughtfully and finally said with emotion: "Myongshan, our country is suffering a lot!"

Mr. Miaoshan was naturally Zhang Shenyan. He and Liu Hang happened to inspect Weihai Satellite, arrange internal affairs production, and deal with the materials allocated by the Hu Ben Army. After Zhang Zhun arrived, the two naturally followed Zhang Zhun around and exchanged some questions. When Zhang Shenyan heard Zhang Zhun's feelings, he couldn't help but shake his head, and finally sighed helplessly: "Oh!"

The materials that Lu Yidian read were all counted by Zhang Shenyan himself. Because he was a little worried that the people below would falsely report the numbers. Falsely reporting military achievements was a stubborn disease in the Ming army and could not be cured at all. It is common to double the numbers by several times. Some people even dared to increase the numbers ten times or even dozens of times.

It seems that Wang Pu, the general of Datong, was one of the very excessive representatives. When the Tartars invaded for the second time, he killed four or five Tartars and dared to report to kill five or six hundred Tartars. The other heads were all pretending to be killed by killing nearby people. But the court actually accepted such numbers and ordered public commendation.

The consequences of doing this are naturally self-evident. All officers are boasting about the trend. If you don’t increase your future military achievements ten or twenty times, you will be embarrassed to say hello to others. According to statistics from the Ministry of War, the Tartars were killed by at least 500,000. The problem is that after killing so many Tartars, there are still so many Tartars who continue to invade and continue to threaten the capital.

Anyone with discerning eyes knows what's going on, but no one will say it out loud. Even Zhang Shenyan will not rashly provoke the tricks. Because the one who needs this number the most is not others, but the respected Emperor. Since the Tartars cannot be eliminated in real battles, he has to spend the time on the memorials. Those who serve as cabinet and minister of the Ministry of War will not understand this, they will definitely die very miserably.

However, in the Hu Ben Army, what Zhang Shenyan saw was a real seizure and a real number of killing enemies. The seized materials in the warehouse were definitely consistent with the numbers in the account book. It is precisely because of this that Zhang Shenyan's inner feelings were deeper. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would not believe that someone in the Ming Dynasty could actually snatch supplies from the Tatars. The cruelty of the Tatars is known to everyone. How easy is it to snatch things from the Tatars?

Liu Hang said coldly: "Apart from war horses and arrows, everything else is ours. It is natural for the Tartars to snatch it away and we snatch it back. Duke Miaoshan, I, Liu Zihao, speaks more straightforwardly. I am not afraid of saying that such an imperial court and such an army are still necessary? We can snatch the lost materials and recover the dignity of the country. But what about those killed? What about those burned houses? What about those flattened towns? Who can make up for such losses?"

Zhang Shenyan felt deeper when he heard Liu Hang's words. He sighed helplessly again and said bitterly: "Zihao, I know this. I am also very disappointed with the imperial cabinet and the six ministries...but, the emperor was blinded...ah... it's hard to describe it!"

Liu Hang said bluntly: "I don't think so! The numbers on Wang Pubao are obviously fake, and anyone with a discerning eye can see them. Can't the emperor see them? Does he have no ability to tell the truth? If he sees the tricks but believes in this number, he is clearly doing things. If he does not have the ability to tell the truth, it means that his emperor has limited ability. If he wants to save this country, he can only be the emperor!"

Among Zhang Zhun's interest group, Liu Hang's thoughts were the most radical, and he was very disgusted with the court, the cabinet, the six ministries, and the emperor. He unconcealedly supported Zhang Zhun to overthrow the court, overthrow the emperor, and re-establish a dynasty. Zhang Shenyan is still a little bit in Cao's camp and indulge in the Han Dynasty at the moment, so Liu Hang had to point it out bluntly.

Zhang Shenyan knew Liu Hang's meaning very well, so he seemed very painful. His thoughts and the education he had received told him that he should be a loyal minister and swear to be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor. If the king wants his minister to die, his ministers have to die. However, the facts in front of him and his reason tell him that the current court is no longer worthy of hope. Emperor Chongzhen seems to be heading towards the edge of destruction step by step.

It is obvious that there is no need for Chen Qiyu to be imprisoned. He should even be reused. Chen Qiyu is definitely a capable person. His proposal to suppress the bandits was completely correct in terms of strategic importance. In fact, he did succeed in forcing the Shaanxi chaos army into the charcoal gorge. Only one last step away from being able to completely exterminate this group of Shaanxi chaos army. The reason for the failure was mainly because Chen Qiyu underestimated the cunning of the Shaanxi chaos army and did not realize the complexity of human nature.

As a literati, Chen Qiyu is capable, but he didn't expect that human nature is so ugly. In other words, he is too naive. If Emperor Chongzhen could forgive Chen Qiyu's temporary mistakes and continue to use them, then after Chen Qiyu received the lessons from the Carbox Gorge, he would definitely work harder to continue to encircle and suppress the Shaanxi chaos army. With his talent, it would not be difficult to come to the Carbox Gorge again. By then, Chen Qiyu, who had learned the lessons before, would definitely not be the Shaanxi chaos army again. Therefore, it is entirely possible to wipe out the Shaanxi chaos army.

Unfortunately, Emperor Chongzhen was too impatient, had too high demands on his ministers, was mean and polite, and did not care about the friendship between the king and the ministers. He only saw Chen Qiyu's fault in the chariot, but consciously forgot Chen Qiyu's ability to encircle the Shaanxi riots in the chariot. As a result, an edict came down and Chen Qiyu was put into prison. As a result, other front-line generals were suddenly disappointed. The emperor could not see it when he died, and it was only a few hundred taels of silver to die on the front line. He had a little fault, but he was found guilty. With such an emperor, how could he have any intention to fight?

With Wang Pu's example, it is better for everyone to learn from Wang Pu. Anyway, as long as you keep reporting, saying that a certain victory was a great victory, you wiped out thousands or tens of thousands of Shaanxi chaos troops, just wait for the rewards from the superiors. Even if the superiors did not last time, you would not lose any losses. In short, you should never fight against the Shaanxi chaos troops until the last moment. Because if you fight to the death, you will have no benefits and you will still be in trouble.

Why bother?

Why bother?

Liu Hang was in a state of emotion and couldn't help feeling a little excited. He said to the point: "Myongshan Gong, look at how many people need to be plundered and how big the place needs to be plundered to collect. There is not much food or silk inside and outside the Great Wall! Every pound of materials here may carry a pound of blood!"

Zhang Shenyan could only sigh silently without refuting. He knew that he had no ability to refute, nor was he indulging in refuting. All Liu Hang mentioned was facts. If he turned a blind eye, he would become an official like Wen Tiren. Without conscience and insensitive, this is Zhang Shenyan's overall evaluation of the cabinet and the senior officials of the six ministries.

The Tartars themselves could not have so much material, especially food and silk. Of course, all of these materials were looted from the pass. As a former minister of the Ministry of Justice, Zhang Shenyan was very impressed by the plunder when the Tartars invaded in the second year of Chongzhen. He knew very well how much people the Ming Dynasty had lost and how much material they had lost. This actual loss was at least thirty times different from the figures announced by the court.

The north of Ming Dynasty was relatively poor, with low yields of grain and silk. The Tartars wanted to loot these materials, but they didn't know how many places they had to plunder and how many people they killed. Each kilogram of blood was soaked in each kilogram of blood. As the Minister of Justice, Zhang Shenyan came into contact with many inside stories, some of which were inside stories, and some officials' ugly faces, and even he felt ashamed of mentioning them.

Now, the Hu Ben Army snatched these materials from the Tatars, which was equivalent to completely vanishing the results of the Tatars' looting. Indirectly, it could also be regarded as repaying the losses for the Ming Dynasty. To a certain extent, it also regained the long-lost dignity for the Ming Dynasty. Nothing else was said, Zhang Shenyan had a deep feeling for this simple point.

The Ming army and the Hu Ben army were robbed and the other was robbed back. Does the difference between this need any language to describe? When the Tatars invaded, there were hundreds of thousands of Ming army, but they still could not stop the Tartars from plundering. They only dared to hide in the town and watch the Tartars rage and return with a full load. The Hu Ben army, with a full plan, had less than 20,000 people. The troops were less than 10% of the Ming army.

However, the Hu Ben Army not only killed so many Tartars in Huang County, but also besieged two slave chiefs and a group of Tartars in Dengzhou City. Now, through the navy, they directly plundered a large amount of supplies from the Tatars. How many Ming army would need to achieve such military achievements? One million or three million? Zhang Shenyan could not estimate. Perhaps even the Ming army could not do this.

Even if Zhang Shenyan's position was firm, he couldn't help but waver at this time. Is there really a need for such an imperial court and an army to continue to be loyal to him? Thinking about the people who were poisoned by the Tartars, and those civil and military officials who only know how to fight for power and profit, Zhang Shenyan felt that he seemed to be getting further and further away from the imperial court.

"Myongshan Gong, do you have anything else to do?" Zhang Zhun asked softly.

"No more, enough." Zhang Shenyan said in a warm voice.

"Okay, if there are similar materials in the future, all of them will be allocated to you Dengzhou Prefecture first. Zihao, this matter will be left to you to take responsibility in the future." Zhang Zhun said.

"I understand!" Liu Hang said briefly.

"I will represent the people of Dengzhou Prefecture. Thank you Yulin." Zhang Shenyan said sincerely.

Zhang Zhun nodded and said nothing.

He could sense that Zhang Shenyan's mentality was slowly changing, and everything that happened to the Hu Ben Army and Dengzhou Prefecture was slowly changing Zhang Shenyan's thoughts. For Zhang Zhun, Zhang Shenyan's change was of course a good thing.

In addition to war horses, Zhang Zhun gave all other supplies to Zhang Shenyan for processing. Anyway, the Hu Ben Army itself could not use these supplies. As for the supplies that neither the Hu Ben Army nor Zhang Shenyan, such as arrows, bowstrings, beef tendons, etc., they were handed over to Liu Hang for processing. How did Liu Hang deal with it? Of course, it was to store them and when would you prepare to sell garbage again.

Now the situation in Laiyang's fragrance smelling sect and Qixia's fragrance smelling sect is getting more and more tense. I don't know when these arrows can come in handy again. Even if the fragrance smelling sect is not allowed for the time being, the territory will expand in the future and contact with the Shaanxi chaos army, perhaps the Shaanxi chaos army will pay for it. Speaking of which, the Hu Ben Army and the Shaanxi chaos army are still the Allied Army, and they are the 37th Battalion of the chaos army!

That night, Zhang Zhun convened the heads of various branches of the Hu Ben Army in Weihaiwei to hold a meeting. The focus of the meeting was of course the construction of the Weihaiwei Military Port. Of course, Zhang Zhun would not ask about the specific matters. He just briefly explained a question, to build the Weihaiwei Military Port into a super-large military port and become the strongest existence of the Hu Ben Army Navy.

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

"The construction funds invested every year are about 360,000 taels of silver."

Zhang Zhun said calmly.

The navy has always been the most expensive. It takes money to build warships, and it also takes money to build a military port. It is absolutely not enough to pile up the navy and leave the white silver. The 360,000 taels of silver a year, which is 30,000 taels per month. This number is quite amazing. It must be noted that this is just the money for building a military port, not the military expenditure of the entire navy. Zhang Zhun must find a way to open up more sources of wealth.

Two days after the meeting, Zhang Zhun went to various places in Weihaiwei and went to check it out in person. Weihaiwei, like Tianjinwei and Andongwei, were special garrisons in the early Ming Dynasty. Weihaiwei was under the jurisdiction of five thousand households, and each thousand households had 1,600 military households, which totaled exactly 8,000 people. Together with the family members of the military households, there were 70,000 to 80,000.

According to the relevant provisions of the "Junior Field Order", Weihaiwei has fully implemented the policy of dividing land. Under heavy pressure from all aspects, the original officers at all levels of Weihaiwei had to disperse the fields in their hands to meet the requirements of the "Junior Field Order". Otherwise, they would be suppressed by the Hu Ben 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 obtained their own land. In order to preserve their own land, the young military households actively joined the Hu Ben Army. Since the Hu 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 the Weihaiwei Army Port. Every day, more than 3,000 young military households work at various construction sites in Weihaiwei, and the expenses of wages alone exceed 100 taels of silver every day.

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

The situation in Ninghai Prefecture is a bit special. The prefect who was set up here had already surrendered to the Tartars with Ruan Dacheng. When the Hu Ben Army arrived, he was arrested and sentenced and executed in the name of treason. Subsequently, the Hu Ben Army selected a new prefect.

Fushan County is very close to Dengzhou City and is the area where the Hu Ben Army is focused. The Pinzi Camp of the Hu Ben Army led by Zhang Lingyun is stationed in Fushan. According to the needs of the situation, the strength of the Pinzi Camp of the Zhang Brigadier General Zhang increased from the original two associations to three associations, with a total force of about 900. Fushan also implemented land reform in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Junior Field Order".

Wendeng is located in the core area southeast of the Shandong Peninsula. The distance to Weihaiwei, Chengshanwei and Jinghaiwei is almost the same. Therefore, it has always been a military camp. If war occurs along the coast, the troops stationed in Wendeng can go to support in time. In the past, the Ming army had three major camps in Shandong, namely Jimoying, Dengzhouying, and Wendengying. Each camp had about 4,000 people.

After the Hu Ben Army occupied Wendeng, the ones stationed here were the Dingzi Camp led by Yang Zixuan. Yang Zixuan was also an old man of the Hu Ben Army. Zhang Zhun was very relieved to lead the Dingzi Camp to station here. Chengshan Guard and Jinghai Guard were at the forefront of the Shandong Peninsula, and the defensive task was the most arduous. After a brief consideration, Zhang Zhun decided to increase the number of Dingzi Camp to three associations, with a total force of about 900.

Of course, according to Zhang Zhun's intention, if the Hu Ben Army Navy takes the initiative in the future, the chances of passive defense will be less and less. The slow increase in troops of the two infantry battalions will help train new recruits. The expansion of the Hu Ben Army is not because it has no money or food, nor because it has no people, but because it has not enough time to train. If the new recruits are not trained, it is worse than the scumbag. Zhang Zhun would rather have a smaller number of troops than keep the combat effectiveness at a certain level.

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

"From now on, all regions must vigorously develop their economy. Except for Wendeng County, other places have a large ocean area. Therefore, I suggest that the fishing industry be vigorously developed. All regions should build small shipyards as much as possible, and rely on their own capabilities to build some fishing boats to fish in the sea. On the one hand, it will meet the needs of the market and make up for the shortcomings of meat. On the other hand, it is to cultivate more reserve sailors for the navy."

Zhang Zhun said.

After several days of visits, Zhang Zhun found that the military households in this area generally lack nutrition. Because they are too poor, they may not be able to eat a meal of meat all year round. If they do not eat meat for a long time, they cannot even eat rice and steamed buns, so the nutrition will naturally not be able to keep up. As a result, many military households have poor physical fitness and it is difficult to meet the admission requirements of the Hu Ben Army.

In fact, fish have a lot of nutrition. In this era, fish were very rich in the sea. Zhang Zhun could stab the fish with bamboo, let alone drive a fishing boat to fish. In the past, it was because the structure of the garage was unreasonable and the shackles on the military households were too many and heavy. Even if they returned to fish, the fruits of labor would be deprived of a lot. Therefore, no one was willing to fish. Now, all the shackles have been abolished, which is a good time to vigorously develop marine fishing.

Vigorously developing the fishing industry can also train a large number of sailors for the Hu Ben Navy. It is impossible for fishermen to know nothing about water. Even if they don’t, they will learn carefully. The effect of actively learning is obviously much better than passively forced learning. Over time, fishermen will become professional sailors. When necessary, these fishermen can temporarily transform into naval sailors.

More importantly, vigorously developing the fishing industry can effectively cultivate everyone's awareness of the ocean and let more people realize that the treasures of the sea were also very rich. In the Ming Dynasty, except for a very small number of maritime merchants, no one realized the importance of the ocean. Ordinary people, besides knowing that there are fish in the ocean, are really not clear about what else they have.

You can tell this issue of ideas by looking at Taiwan Island. The Ming Dynasty set up a guerrilla general in Penghu, responsible for governing the Penghu area. However, he had no interest in Taiwan Island. At that time, Taiwan Island, also known as Dongfan Island, was completely ignored by the Ming Dynasty. Most of the maps of the Ming Dynasty did not include this treasure island. Therefore, the Dutch took advantage of the opportunity to take advantage of the loopholes and control Taiwan Island, which made Zheng Chenggong later spend a lot of effort to take back Taiwan Island.

In an area like Shandong that is surrounded by the sea on three sides, if you don’t make great efforts to ask for resources and wealth from the sea, it is impossible to develop. Later Shandong proposed the concept of developing a blue economy, which Zhang Zhun believed was correct. When the resources on the land could no longer meet the needs, you had to ask for resources from the sea and have space to survive.

From the perspective of land war theory, Shandong is indeed a place that is easy to attack and difficult to defend. There is little room for maneuver and not much strategic depth. However, if you take the initiative to attack, Shandong is a good place. On land, Shandong can go north to the capital, west to the Central Plains, and south to the Yangtze River. When necessary, you can cut off the Grand Canal with one stroke. On sea, you can go north to Liaodong, east to Korea, south to Japan, and south to Taiwan. It is no exaggeration to describe Shandong as the place of four wars.

The key is that one must develop oneself.

Take the initiative to attack and not defend passively.

"We must vigorously develop the fishing industry on the ocean. So, what should we do on land? I think, in addition to developing the planting industry, we must also vigorously develop industrial and mining enterprises. To vigorously develop trade, we must actively dig minerals and set up factories. Our Hu Ben Army needs a large amount of ore, iron ore, coal mine, sulfur mine, gold mine, silver mine, as long as it is a mineral, we need it."

"Everyone knows that in the central area of ​​Dengzhou Prefecture, most of them are mountainous areas. It is difficult to grow wheat and rice in mountainous areas. However, corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes can be grown to make up for the shortage of grain production. Qixia also needs to make efforts to develop apple cultivation."

Zhang Zhun continued to say with emotion.

In terms of military geography, Zhang Zhun did take a lot of advantage and obtained a good harbor like Weihaiwei. Unfortunately, most of the land in Dengzhou Prefecture is rugged mountainous land, from Laishan, Longshan, Beiqushan to the north, to the central mountain, Cuipingshan, Baidongshan, and Kunyushan to the southeast, there are basically no flat land. However, mountains have the benefits of mountainous land. The advantage is that there are relatively large types and quantities of ores.

It seems that iron ore, coal mines, sulfur, etc. are urgently needed by the Hu Ben Army. Especially sulfur is the most scarce thing at the time of the Hu Ben Army. Nitrogen can be collected manually, but sulfur cannot. However, sulfur is indispensable in the black gunpowder components. There are some sulfur mines near Baidong Mountain, and the Hu Ben Army immediately set up the mine here.

In addition, in Zhaoyuan, the Huben Army also harvested a large gold mine. Zhaoyuan's gold mine was dug in the Yuan Dynasty. The highest gold output at that time reached more than 13,000 taels per year. In the early years of Wanli, the greedy Emperor Wanli also specially dispatched a mining supervisor in Zhaoyuan to supervise the production of gold. According to the account book, the gold output at that time 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, the actual output was reported more than 9,000 taels, and the actual output was definitely more than this number. Even if it was quadrupled, it was possible. Therefore, after taking over Zhaoyuan, the Hu Ben Army also took over the gold production here. The Hu Ben Army expelled the original foreman and elected new ore heads through democratic elections, which greatly improved production enthusiasm and production efficiency.

Zhang Zhun read the Zhaoyuan gold production report in July, which was about 830 taels. Due to the influx of overseas silver in the late Ming Dynasty, the value of gold gradually increased. Now one tael of gold can be exchanged for about fifteen taels of silver. More than eight hundred taels of gold is 10,000 taels of silver.

For the Hu Ben Army, which had huge expenses, 10,000 taels of silver was indeed not very conspicuous. However, it was very beneficial to the economic development of Dengzhou Prefecture. Because Zhang Zhun did not take any money from the gold produced in Zhaoyuan, all of them were transferred to Dengzhou Prefecture's development funds and handed over to Zhang Shenyan for processing. He believed that with Zhang Shenyan's ethics, every tael of gold could be used in practice.

Zhang Zhun spent five or six days to carefully discuss the development of various regions in Wendeng and the heads of various regions. Many economic theories he knew from four hundred years later were the heads of various regions present and had never been exposed to. Perhaps some theories are not yet understood, but as long as he follows them, he will gradually understand the profound meaning.

Zhang Shenyan and Liu Hang were both very interested in this. The suggestions put forward by Zhang Zhun have been well implemented in Laizhou Prefecture. Dengzhou Prefecture follows the example and should develop quickly. As long as Dengzhou Prefecture develops, the strength of the Hu Ben Army will be even stronger.

"Sir, Yin Fengyi has emergency information!"

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

After reading the information, Zhang Zhun couldn't help but frown.
Chapter completed!