There are millions of volumes of books, let alone reading them all. Even simple classification is a big project, mobilizing hundreds of people, and it will take more than a month to sort it out. And in the face of this situation where there are piles of books everywhere , Wan Lei had to discuss with Tie Xuan and others, squeeze out some money from administrative funds, and raise some money from private individuals to expand the Peking Library to preserve this overwhelming number of books.
While sorting out books and arguing with envoys from the Ming Dynasty, the time soon entered July. At this time, good news came from the north. The Peiping Army's troops entering Mongolia fought a battle with the Tatar tribe in the area of Nanan River, annihilating both enemy armies. Wan Lei captured 10,000 people and captured countless cattle and sheep. Wan Lei ordered that these cattle and horses be distributed directly to the soldiers as rewards, and another 50,000 silver dollars were taken out as rewards.
After this major defeat, coupled with several previous minor defeats, the Tatar tribe suffered more than 70,000 casualties and was severely weakened. They had to retreat to the northwest. The Peiping Army took the opportunity to occupy most of the Mongolian plateau and began to enclose the land and raise sheep. The Oara tribe entrenched in the western part of the Mongolian Plateau also took the opportunity to move eastward, seizing many pastures, and had several minor frictions with the Peking Army on border issues.
Although there have been some agreements between the Peiping Army and the Oara Army, it is only a small-scale friction now. Both sides are still relatively restrained and there is no major war yet. However, the situation is also very tense. It is precisely because the battle situation is unclear and the main force of the Northern Expeditionary Army still needs to be Whether to stay and garrison on the Mongolian plateau, whether for war or peace, can only be decided after talks between the two sides.
Mahamu, the leader of the Oara tribe, is also a sensible person. He and the Tatar tribe have been fighting for control of the Mongolian Plateau for many years. He knows that the Tatar tribe is difficult to deal with, and the Tatar tribe, which is difficult to deal with, was actually defeated by the Peking Army. If he had to flee, he would certainly not foolishly touch the hard rock of the Peking Army, lest he end up like Gui Lichi.
In order to avoid a head-on confrontation with the Peiping Army, and at the same time to spy on the Peiping Army's strength, Mahamu sent an envoy to Peiping City via the Mongolian Plateau. Not only did Wan Lei receive him in person, the two sides also demarcated the boundary, and Wan Lei also communicated with to discuss the opening of additional mutual markets on the Mongolian Plateau.
In fact, the reason why Wan Lei negotiated peace with the Oara tribe was mainly because the Beiping Army's front line was stretched too long and its troops were obviously insufficient. The peace talks could temporarily relieve the situation, and they could also use trade to make up for the tight financial situation.
Although the Oara tribe is located in a wild land in the northwest corner, it is connected to the Western Regions to the west and to the south. The market is still very large. As long as a trade route is opened, the goods can be resold to West Asia and even Europe. That market It's even broader.
Wan Lei publicly received the Wala envoy. When the Ming Dynasty learned of this, they naturally protested. However, Wan Lei ignored it completely and continued to treat the Wala envoy courteously. In the end, they even negotiated a mutual trade agreement: to establish a settlement in the middle of the Mongolian Plateau. The mutual market in Shuning City allows people from the two "countries" to trade freely.
Wan Lei's open trade with Walakai stung the nerves of the Ming court. The Ming court had always been hostile to all Mongolian tribes, especially those Mongolians on the northern plateau who refused to surrender. A severe policy of military strikes and economic blockade was adopted. Now that the North Parallel Province was openly "colluding" with Oara, the Ming court was furious, but it was also afraid that the North Parallel Province would unite with the Mongols and attack the Ming Dynasty together.
For this reason, the Ming court began to mobilize troops to the north in early July, always preparing for war. Wan Lei was not in a hurry when he learned of this information. He just asked Li Guobao, commander of the Third Army in charge of training, to Recruited 20,000 civilian troops and immediately conducted training. At the same time, the main force of the navy was ordered to go south and assemble on the coast of Shandong, ready to go south at any time.
In fact, Wan Lei also knew that the Ming army's concentration in the north was mainly for deterrence. It was not afraid to take the initiative to use troops against the Peiping army, not because they didn't want to, but because they couldn't. Because the previous use of troops against the Peiping army was due to lack of preparation. If they fail, they will definitely learn a lesson this time. They will not move unless they are completely sure.
Moreover, the Ming court also saw how strong the defense of Beiping City was. If there were no large artillery and a crowd of people alone, the towering brick wall would not be able to be captured even by 30 to 400 thousand people. Now they are introducing technology. Until they can successfully make steel and cast cannons, they can only hold back.
Wan Lei saw this clearly, so he continued to make a fuss about the transfer of technology, delaying the transfer of key technologies to the Ming Dynasty. He only gave a little bit of less critical technology as a "temptation" from time to time, so that the Ming court had the desire to The fantasy and dream of "rich country and strong military" will not be broken now.
Boiling a frog in warm water is a psychological tactic.
On July 18, the Ming court finally raised enough funds and technology and built an ironworks outside Jinling City. This ironworks was built along the river and was modeled on the Peking Ironworks. It was smaller in scale and had an estimated annual output of It was only a few thousand tons of pig iron, but this also made the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty very excited. After all, they had been frustrated for too long.
Although Wan Lei was ruthless, after the Ming court handed over the final payment of 40,000 gold, he still handed over all the design drawings of the Peiping Iron Works. It was not difficult for the Ming Dynasty to follow suit, but this From the start of construction to the completion of the factory, it takes at least half a year.
This means that in the past six months, the Ming Dynasty did not dare to talk about war easily, because once a war started, the relationship would break down. If anything went wrong in the iron factory in the future, it would be a fight. In half a year, the Peking Army Generally speaking, it is enough to build a decent army, and it is more than enough to protect yourself.
And half a year later, there is no need to worry anymore, because Wan Lei only gave the factory drawings, and the specific iron-making process, especially the most important coking process, has not yet been given to the Ming Dynasty. If they want to smelt qualified iron, they have to I begged Wan Lei eagerly, but as for the steel-making technology, it was nowhere to be seen.
In short, this iron smelting plant is still a big trap. If the Ming Dynasty does not build it, it will fall behind and be beaten. If it builds it, it will still fall behind and be slaughtered. It is said that one step behind will lead to falling behind step by step. Once this iron smelting plant is built, the Ming Dynasty will only be led by the nose. Update. Unless the Ming Dynasty gritted its teeth and worked hard for more than ten years, it would really not be able to keep up with the development progress of Peking Province.
However, with the character of Emperor Jianwen, he would never learn to take advantage of the situation. If he suffered overt and covert losses for a year or two in a row, he would definitely be furious, and Wan Leile would be happy by then. Because the Ming Dynasty had parallel provinces with the North Whoever breaks the peace treaty first will be the war criminal who started the war. This is very unpopular.
Maybe he wanted to acquire steel, or maybe he felt bad about spending money on technology and wanted to earn back the money through trade. On July 18, the Ming Dynasty sent the Minister of Rites to discuss trade matters with Wan Lei. This time What we are talking about is not book trade, but "comprehensive" open-border trade.
However, the Ming court still had a bad attitude. Although they did not dare to talk about tribute trade, the form of trade they wanted to carry out was almost the same as tribute trade. That is, the Ming court monopolized border trade and used tea, silk and other specialties to parallel the provinces of Beijing. In exchange for gold, silver, copper, iron and other metals.
Of course, Wan Lei was very dissatisfied with this unequal form of trade, especially when the envoy said that he wanted to exchange tea for steel. Wan Lei directly served the tea to see the visitor off, and secretly cursed in his heart: What a bunch of idiots. I can still make a lot of money by engaging in smuggling, and still trade in tea and steel? It’s a beautiful thought!
The tea-steel trade was not concluded, and the envoy Lai refused to leave in Beiping City. He shamelessly went to Tie Xuan, Liu Jing, Xu Huizu and others to ask them to come forward to intercede. Wan Lei was very annoyed, and finally for Xu Huizu's sake, he Promised to sell one hundred tons of steel to the Ming Dynasty.
However, when the Ming Dynasty envoys got the steel samples, they were all dumbfounded, because these steel materials were all large steel plates. With the existing processing equipment and technology of the Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to process these steel materials into weapons. Finally, they wanted to ask Wan Lei for a lathe for processing steel.
Wan Lei was completely angered by such shameless people on the other side and drove them away. In the end, it was Xu Huizu who lowered his face and begged Wan Lei, and Wan Lei agreed to process the steel into corresponding sizes according to the requirements of the Ming Dynasty. However, The price has to be raised, one pound of steel is ten pounds of tea.
The messengers were clever. They did not dare to directly say that the steel should be polished into the style of swords and armors. Instead, they requested that the steel be cut into long strips and small pieces. The long strips must be taken back and polished into war knives and small pieces. It was directly used to make armor. Wan Lei naturally knew Mingzhi's dirty thoughts, but he was just too lazy to expose them.
Anyway, it is not just weapons that determine victory or defeat on the battlefield, but more importantly, people. Wan Lei is confident that the Peking Army is much stronger than the Ming Army in terms of combat power and morale. Even with the same equipment, it can sweep through. The other side, not to mention the Peking Army, also has many secret weapons, so selling some steel to the Ming Dynasty will not affect the war situation.
While Wan Lei was arguing with the Ming Dynasty over the tea steel trade, North Korea also sent a mission. They were not here to trade, but to seek help. Just two months ago, the Japanese army stationed more than 100,000 troops in Tsushima finally lost its composure and took the lead in attacking North Korea across the sea.
However, North Korea has experienced many years of war, and the country is in a state of depression. The people are not strong enough. There is no match for the Japanese. In less than half a month, North Korea has lost three of its eight roads. Even the capital, Hanyang, is located. Gyeonggi Province was also attacked by the Japanese army. If Hanyang failed, the kingdom would have completely collapsed.
Faced with the envoys from North Korea who were begging for mercy, Wan Lei didn't even see them. He pushed them directly to the Ming embassy and threatened: "North Korea is not our vassal state and has no alliance. We have no obligation to defend North Korea." Japan and we are friendly countries, and we will not interfere in the dispute between Japan and North Korea, and we hope that North Korea will take care of itself."