[In this battle, seventeen forts north of the Taizi River were pulled out, more than 17,800 soldiers were killed, 720,000 shi of grain, more than 300,000 taels of silver, countless armor and baggage were taken away, and eight were burned. More than 100,000 acres of cultivated land were harvested, and more than 400,000 acres of green crops were harvested in Fengji and other places.]

[The Zhejiang Army Corps beheaded 1,247 real prisoners and injured 897 people.]

[Shenyang went out of the city and beheaded 942 real prisoners, and killed 621 people.]

[Commander Sun Yingyuan’s troops attacked Gushan Fort and Xianchang Fort, beheading 727 real prisoners and injuring 1,621 people. 】

[Mangui's troops at Qinghe Pass beheaded 142 real captives and killed 381 people.]

[A total of 3,016 real prisoners were beheaded, and the three troops and horses lost a total of 3,520 people. No one was beheaded in Guangning...]

On June 12, the first year of Tianqi, as the siege of Shenyang was lifted, the Ming army also stopped attacking.

This memorial was written by Xiong Tingbi to the emperor after he arrived in Shenyang and confirmed Nurhaci's retreat. Now, it was handed to Zhu Youjian by Zhu Youxiao.

"The siege of the Liao Dynasty has been temporarily lifted. How will my brother prepare to deal with the subsequent arrangements for the Liao Dynasty?"

In the Yangxin Hall, Zhu Youxiao looked at his younger brother who had grown a lot taller, and felt a little relieved.

The difficult siege of Shenyang was lifted, and although the Seventeenth Fort in Taizi River was burned down and more than 17,000 people were killed in total, the situation in Liaodong was finally stabilized for the time being.

Now Zhu Youxiao wants to know how his brother can stabilize the situation in Liaodong.

Facing the inquiry, Zhu Youjian, who was sitting next to Zhu Youxiao, looked at the memorial and thought carefully about the changes in the past few days.

First of all, after Nurhachi retreated, Sun Yingyuan's troops on the east route did not continue to advance. Instead, they left more than 500 people to garrison and repair Xianchang Fort and Gushan Fort. They also left 6,000 kilograms of gunpowder and 3,000 shi of grain to guard Gushan Fort and Xianbao. Changbao became Kuandian's first line of defense.

After the evacuation, he set up three more forts on the sixty-mile road from Gushan Fort to Kuandian, leaving troops ranging from 300 to 1,000.

After he completely evacuated and returned to Kuandian, he handed over the soldiers and horses of Kuandian Third Battalion and Phoenix City Third Battalion, and led the Seventh Guards Army to withdraw to Zhenjiang.

Qi Jin and Xiong Tingbi both arrived in Shenyang, especially Xiong Tingbi who transported 130,000 shi of grain, which greatly alleviated the crisis in Shenyang.

At present, there are about 300,000 people in Shenyang City and less than 50,000 soldiers and horses. The grain harvested in the autumn outside the city has been burned, and the same has happened in Fengji Fort and other places.

As a result, the more than 300,000 people north of the Taizi River will need help from the court this year.

If the imperial government fails to provide relief, they may turn to Jianlu and Beilu.

As for Mangui, after Manggultai returned to defend Tieling, he took the initiative to withdraw to Daning and continued to prepare to build a city in the third guard of Daning.

Therefore, what is in front of him now is, first of all, to replenish troops and horses for the ministries that lost troops and generals in this battle, and secondly, to rescue the people of Shenyang and find a way for them to survive.

Finally, I want to think about how to trap Nurhachi and prevent him from invading Liaodong next year, or prevent him from getting such rich loot from this battle after invading next year.

After thinking for a while, Zhu Youjian said:

"It's already June now. Xiong Tingbi, Qi Jin, and Sun Yingyuan's three troops only need to be stationed until September, and the old slaves will not harass us again."

"Even if we go out to attack again, it will be February or March next year. Therefore, what needs to be done now is to supplement the strength of the Shenyang, Sichuan and Zhejiang troops."

"According to my brother's opinion, Qin Liangyu can be promoted to Shizhu, and the two divisions of Youyang will announce the comfort of the envoy. He will be given 300,000 taels of silver, 150,000 dan of grain, 10,000 armors, and order him to recruit 10,000 more troops."

"The 10,000 troops previously recruited were ordered to move north to aid the Liao Dynasty in September, stationed in Shenyang, and placed under the jurisdiction of Qin Bangping."

"Then nine thousand Yongping soldiers who have been recruited for three months will be transferred from Yongping Mansion to Shenyang and handed over to He Shixian and You Shigong to take charge."

"In this way, even if the Zhejiang and Liaoxi troops withdraw, including the original troops, Shenyang will still have 31,000 troops, and they will not be in such an embarrassing situation."

"In addition, he received 300,000 taels of silver, 200,000 shi of grain, and 12,000 pieces of armor. He ordered Qi Yuanbi to go south to Zhejiang, recruit troops from all over Zhejiang, and go north to Liaoyang in November."

"In addition, Sun Yingyuan's troops from the Seventh Battalion of Shuntian Prefecture are stationed on the spot at the Third Battalion of Fenghuang City, the Third Battalion of Kuandian, and the First Battalion of Zhenjiang."

"Take Qi Yuangong as the commander-in-chief of Phoenix City, Qi Yuanfu as the commander-in-chief of Kuandian, and Qin Minping as the commander-in-chief of Zhenjiang."

"Reassign Qin Banghan as the commander-in-chief of Jinzhou, lead three thousand Sichuan troops from Shenyang to the south, and go to Jinzhou to repair Lushun and other Shuiwu at the end of June."

Zhu Youjian finished speaking about his first idea of ​​replenishing troops, but the more he spoke, the more embarrassed Zhu Youxiao looked.

After a long time, Zhu Youxiao said awkwardly: "Although this plan is good, the internal funds currently only have more than 120 taels of silver."

"Brother, don't worry." When Zhu Youjian heard that this was the reason, he comforted:

"I have asked Huachun to go to the Yanshan camp to escort one million taels to the internal money."

"Where did you get so much money?" Zhu Youxiao said in shock when he heard this.

In his opinion, his brother wanted to raise an army of one hundred thousand men, so how could he come up with one million taels of silver in one go with just the amount of taxes from the Royal Horse Prison?

Just facing his words, Zhu Youjian smiled and said: "Did brother forget that I ordered Jin Yiwei to go south to sell food?"

"Just take it with peace of mind. When the time comes, the silver will be distributed to Shenyang and Liaoyang. I will send soldiers from Wanping Camp to escort it, and my brother will send eunuchs to spread the message and spread the holy grace."

"This will make you pay for it, and then the military morale will be with me." Zhu Youxiao smiled bitterly, obviously feeling a little sorry for letting Zhu Youjian take the money.

Zhu Youjian didn't care about this. After all, his private salt farm was about to start drying salt. As long as the private salt was available, he would not be short of money.

At present, the priority is to stabilize Liaodong. If you don't have money, make money. With his status and troops, if he operates properly, there is no way he won't have money.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian continued:

"I did the math. Including the troops under Qin Liangyu's command, the new soldiers in Yongping, and the military pay for the second half of the year for the soldiers and horses in Liao and Shenyang, the total is three hundred thousand taels of silver."

"In addition, this time to behead the 3,016-level real prisoner, we need to issue 31,600 taels, for a total of 601,600 taels."

"Then the imperial court owed wages to western Liaoning and southern Liaoning, plus the salary for this year, the total is 1,368,000 taels."

"Huh!" Zhu Youxiao snorted coldly when he heard the military pay in western and southern Liaoning.

After all, the Sichuan and Zhejiang soldiers, as well as the Shenyang Liao soldiers, the Seventh Guards Army and other units combined killed more than 3,000 real prisoners.

Excluding the Seventh Guards Army, the soldiers and horses in Liaoning and Shenyang only receive military pay of 367,000 taels a year. However, the 76,000 soldiers and horses in western Liaoning and southern Liaoning only have to behead a few, but only receive military pay. It costs one million, three hundred and sixty-eight thousand taels.

If the annual supply is included, the price of the horse would be at least 2,500,000 taels of silver.

With so much money, it is inevitable that he will be angry.

In this regard, Zhu Youjian could only say helplessly:

"Now is not the opportunity to abolish Liao Town. When Shanxi's Liao reinforcements arrive in Shenyang, and when Sichuan and Zhejiang troops arrive in Liaoshen next year, and then the Five Guards Army is deployed, Liaodong should be able to be abolished."

"It would be better to dismantle this kind of troops as early as possible. I don't know how many vacancies Xiong Tingbi has allowed his subordinates to eat up." Zhu Youxiao frowned and reprimanded.

However, he also knew that Xiong Tingbi could not condone this kind of thing alone, and he was also one of the victims.

In this regard, Zhu Youjian also explained:

"With the addition of Sichuan troops, Zhejiang troops, He Shixian's troops in Shenyang, and the seven battalions from the three cities of Zhenjiang, there will be 75,000 guest troops in Liaodong. Adding the reinforcement troops and horses from the three towns of Shanxi to Liao, the total is ten Twelve thousand people.”

"When the time comes and we send some of the guards to western Liaoning, we can find out the vacancies in one fell swoop, eliminate them, and trace the vacancies."

"By then, the number of soldiers and horses in Liaodong should be stable at around 140,000 people. The military salary is 2.1 million taels per year, and the silver consumption for food and grass is 1.2 million taels. The total will not exceed 3.5 million taels. "

The original annual Liao salary of more than 4.8 million taels was reduced to 3.5 million taels. This is the most important thing for Zhu Youjian in the next three years, besides the rectification of the three towns in Shanxi.

"Three and a half million...just in Liaodong..."

Zhu Youxiao frowned, obviously very dissatisfied with the fact that Liaodong had to raise an army of 140,000.

Zhu Youjian also understood what he was thinking, so he comforted him:

"Brother, don't worry. Not all of these 140,000 troops are stationed in Liaodong. What's more important is to expand northward."

"As long as there are 140,000 soldiers and horses in Liaodong, plus the mobilization of the Sixteenth Guards Army, we can first recover the Great Wall in Liaodong, then go north to Tieling to open up the plains, and capture the Horqin tribe!"

"Horqin tribe?" Zhu Youxiao asked puzzledly: "That place is covered with snow for four or five months a year. What's so good about it?"

"Smoothness is better!" Zhu Youjian responded with a smile:

"Since the abolition of the guard post, didn't the emperor realize that we have too many hidden houses in the Ming Dynasty?"

"This is indeed true, but there are more acres of land in the imperial court, and even the common people can support them twice as much." Zhu Youxiao was very optimistic, but Zhu Youjian was not.

Perhaps as Zhu Youxiao said, the paper population of the two capitals and thirteen provinces could be supported even if it was twice that, or even three times could still barely support it.

But the premise of all this is that there are no natural or man-made disasters.

But the problem is that the Ming Dynasty not only had to face natural disasters, but also had to face more than ten years of natural disasters!

Under such a natural disaster, the technology and production of this era alone would not be able to feed the more than 100 million people in the Ming Dynasty.

What we have to do is to open up from the south to the north, go in from the west and go out from the east!

The eastward expansion was for maritime trade, and the southward expansion was for the recovery of Cochin and Myanmar.

To advance westward, we will focus on the Western Regions and Wusi Zang, and to advance northward, we will focus on the northeast and the northern part of the Great Wall as a supplement.

It has to be said that the Qiuye Begonia territory developed by the Qing Dynasty can be said to be very perfect. If you add the Ming Dynasty's Sanxuan, Liuwei and Jiaozhi in the southwest, as well as the old port of Malacca, it can be said to be the most perfect territory. .

In this current era, Ming Dynasty’s population is definitely the largest in the world.

The current population of Europe is only 60 to 70 million people, and in the Ming Dynasty, there are 60 million men alone. It is not surprising that the population is between 100 million and 160 million.

With such a large population, in this era of low productivity, once the population density is too high, it will be a dead end if we encounter natural or man-made disasters.

There is still a glimmer of hope for development. Even if it costs countless money and food, Zhu Youjian must be determined.

Therefore, he explained the advantages and disadvantages of Northeast China to the emperor's brother.

Generally speaking, the advantage of the Northeast at present is that the land is fertile, very flat, and does not have too much miasma like the Southwest.

The disadvantage is that the meadows are thick and densely forested, and it takes time and a lot of money to cultivate them.

For example, in the middle and lower reaches of the Liaohe River plains reclaimed by Mangui, it takes three years to start harvesting grain, and it takes five years for the land output to be comparable to that in southern Liaoning.
To be continued...