The eldest grandson of the Ming Emperor: Zhu Yuanzhang begged me to proclaim himself emperor Chapter 202: The Central Plains Nation is the Real Fighting Nation
Chapter 202: The Central Plains Nation is the Real Fighting Nation
Zhu Ying explained the track in great detail, including the difficulty and requirements of production.
How much benefit will it bring to Ming Dynasty in the future.
There is no doubt that if the Ming Dynasty now has rail lines throughout the country, then the overall combat power of the entire Ming Dynasty will be qualitatively improved.
Zhu Yuanzhang listened very carefully, but under Zhu Ying's impassioned explanation, his brows furrowed deeper and deeper.
"Dasun, have you ever thought about how much manpower and material resources the people of Ming Dynasty need to mobilize to reach this level?" After Zhu Ying finished explaining, Zhu Yuanzhang asked in a deep voice.
Zhu Ying didn't think much and said directly: "If all the paving is completed, the scale will be very large. Sun'er estimates that millions of people will be needed."
Zhu Ying obviously did not realize the key point of the old man's words and directly talked about the population required for planning all the tracks.
Of course, a project as big as a track cannot be completed with just a little money, and corvee labor is inevitable.
To the country, corvee means free labor.
However, with Zhu Ying's character, of course he would not let these laborers work in vain. Wherever the railway passes, the people who participated in the construction of the railway will be given tax concessions.
The raising of horses at rail stations and the maintenance of wooden rails can all be long-term sources of income for nearby people.
It can also be regarded as driving the local economy, similar to the road project contracting in later generations.
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "Since the grandson knows that millions of people need to be mobilized, and it will take a long time without delaying the busy farm work, we estimate that there may be 20 million people involved.
"
"Now in our Ming Dynasty, there are only a few people registered in the household."
"The household size is 1,652,789, and the population size is 6,545,812."
"This also means that the production of such tracks will involve 30% of the Ming Dynasty's population, and among them, how many will obey the corvee."
When Zhu Ying heard this, he explained: "There can't be so many people. Grandpa must have misunderstood. What the grandson meant is that this is a long-term matter, and it is not necessary to exhaust the power of the whole country within a few years."
Finish."
"Of course, there are not many lines needed to lay the track. It only needs a few trunks."
Wooden rails were just a transition. When the industrial capacity of the entire Ming Dynasty increased in the later period, the emergence of railway rails and even rigid rails was the time when the national rails of the Ming Dynasty were truly made.
In Zhu Ying's vision, the current wooden rails mainly serve the war, transporting baggage and even soldiers.
Even if he said this, Zhu Yuanzhang did not relax his brows.
Although Da Sun had put forward many ideas earlier, he felt that he wanted to expand his territory, and even Zhu Yuanzhang was a little tempted.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang was still a little repelled in his heart when building tracks, which were purely for war.
Conquer the Japanese country and take control of Annan.
On these two points, this was Zhu Yuanzhang's biggest concession to his great grandson.
This is also because it is related to the food and money of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang really doesn't have much interest in places like grasslands now.
The main reason is that it is difficult to build city defenses on the grassland. If you defeat it, you will have to send a large number of soldiers to guard it. There is no natural danger in the grassland to defend, it is a vast area.
It is impossible to say that if it is captured this year, it will be captured again next year.
"Da Sun's method is indeed good. If it is really made, it will be extremely beneficial to our Ming Dynasty. We can also think of it."
"However, the Ming Dynasty seems to be peaceful now, but in fact there are internal and external troubles, and there are constant natural disasters. The people's life is not very good, and most people have difficulty eating enough."
"From what we see, let's just leave this matter aside for now. After a few years, when crops like sweet potatoes have been promoted, it won't be too late to talk about the track."
Zhu Yuanzhang's tone was already a little impatient, but facing Da Sun, he still suppressed his emotions.
The eunuch and eunuch Liu He, who was sitting next to him, had his hands trembling slightly at this moment, and even the guard Jiang Ping had cold sweat on his back.
As people close to Zhu Yuanzhang, they were of course very familiar with His Majesty's character, and it was completely unprecedented for them to be able to allow His Majesty to talk about this.
Even the former Crown Prince or the Queen, upon hearing His Majesty's words, understood that this matter must come to an end.
And the reason why they behave like this is because the current His Highness Changsun has no intention of stopping at all.
Sure enough, Zhu Ying seemed not to be aware of Zhu Yuanzhang's state at all, and said to herself: "Grandpa, the impact of the orbit on the Ming Dynasty is far beyond grandpa's imagination."
"The mobilization of soldiers is only one aspect. It is more about the rapid transportation of goods from various places. Although it cannot be started at once, Sun'er feels that we can already start preparing in advance."
"The route of the track and the need for lumber cannot be completed in a few days. It may not be possible to complete it by next year."
"Grandpa's worries are naturally known to his grandson, but the promotion of sweet potatoes and other crops means that they will be able to travel throughout the Ming Dynasty almost next year. Just in time for the conquest of the Japanese country next year, the criminals of the Japanese country will also be useful in the track matter."
In fact, what Zhu Ying wanted was not to immediately mobilize a large number of civilians to start casting tracks, but to ensure the accuracy of the tracks.
Zhu Ying is very clear about the difficulty of track construction. Even a high-speed rail in the province in the future will take three to five years if there are sufficient equipment and machinery.
Although the track envisioned by Zhu Ying is different from the high-speed rail, it will definitely take longer due to manpower constraints.
Just a survey can only be measured with two feet, and it may not be possible to produce results in a year or two.
Even if it took three to five years to prepare, Zhu Ying would not find it strange.
However, in Zhu Ying's plan, within five years, the danger to the frontier on the grassland must be eliminated on a large scale.
Near the grassland border, there are rail carriages to assist, and the efficiency of the baggage mobilized is enough to crush the threats in the border grassland area.
After Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his breathing became rough, which was a sign that he was about to become angry.
Liu He and Jiang Yu next to them were too frightened to raise their heads. They were preparing to face the coming storm.
However, Zhu Ying, facing the old man's oppressive gaze, looked at him calmly.
This expresses the persistence and stubbornness in Zhu Ying's heart.
Just when everyone thought that Zhu Yuanzhang was about to get angry, he took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed it.
After a long time, he said: "My grandson knows that the First Emperor built the Great Wall and Afang Palace, which made the people of the pre-Qin Dynasty miserable, and the second generation died as a result."
"The Sui Dynasty was so powerful. Together with China, they forcibly opened the Grand Canal. How much money and manpower was spent. Under such a waste of people and money, it was just like the pre-Qin Dynasty and the death of the Sui Dynasty."
"It has been twenty-five years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Over the years, we have implemented light corvees and low taxes, allowing the people to recuperate and recuperate. But now, only more than twenty years have passed since the chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The people have not yet recovered, and the Ming Dynasty is in a tight situation."
"Under such circumstances, why would Da Sun be so impatient? Admittedly, we also know that both the Great Wall of the First Emperor and the Grand Canal of the Sui Dynasty are extremely important to China."
"But, they died. Why can't my grandson take a lesson from them?"
Zhu Yuanzhang quoted scriptures and said earnestly. This was the first time he had tried to persuade like this since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
When Liu He and Jiang Wei heard this, they secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At least His Majesty was not so angry as Long Yan. His Highness Changsun here should be restrained.
However, Zhu Ying's gaze remained unwavering.
He knew very well that whether it was now or in the future, this collision of thoughts with the old man would never stop.
Zhu Ying also knew very well what the old man wanted to express. In the old man's heart, Daming belonged to his family.
What he hopes more for is not any achievements that will go down in history. He just hopes that future generations can take good care of the family and maintain the family well to prevent any major problems from arising.
This is the truest thought in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.
One is for defense and the other is for offense.
Naturally, when Zhu Ying and Zhu Yuanzhang are together, they can't talk to each other.
Zhu Ying knew very well how powerful the rail carriage would be on the grassland.
In fact, the Japanese country was not taken seriously by Zhu Ying. Although he had hatred for the Japanese country that was engraved in his bones, as far as the current Japanese country was concerned, apart from being blocked by the sea.
Compared with the Ming Dynasty, he is really the younger brother among younger brothers, the younger brother among younger brothers.
As long as you have a guide and avoid the storm at sea, considering the current situation of the Japanese country, if 200,000 Ming soldiers log in, they can completely penetrate the entire Japanese country.
The force values are not on the same level.
The biggest threat to the Ming Dynasty comes from the grasslands after all.
Many people may not understand the situation on the grassland, but Zhu Ying has been living in the grassland for a long time, so how could he not be aware of it?
That was a scene that the imperial court, and even most inland officials, had never seen before.
Perhaps during the Mongol and Yuan rule, the situation in the grassland frontiers was much better. After all, they all belonged to the nomadic people and were under the rule of the Yuan Dynasty.
Since the founding of the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, the situation in the northern frontier has never been better.
Every year, villages on the northern frontier are robbed from the grasslands.
Will there be peace in the grassland if there are constant disasters?
In fact, it is much more difficult for nomads to survive on the grasslands than for the common people of the Ming Dynasty.
The nomadic production method itself is inefficient. With such a foundation, it cannot support a large population.
In the Ming Dynasty, one acre of land produced about three hundred kilograms of grain every year. The average annual ration of an infantryman was about one thousand kilograms, and three acres of land could feed him.
But for herdsmen, raising one sheep on the grassland requires 20 acres of pasture. A family of five needs three to four hundred sheep to survive, which means at least six to seven thousand acres of land.
Historically, nomadic peoples have always been attached to farming civilization. Through trade and plunder, they can obtain the metal products, daily utensils, and even the salt necessary for survival from the Central Plains Dynasty.
In many people's impressions, it seems that nomads are good at fighting and have very strong fighting power.
In fact, this is an illusion.
Most of the time, nomadic people wearing roughly sewn clothes made of animal skins could not have just passed through agricultural civilization.
Whether it is armaments, scale of mobilization, or organizational form, they are far from comparable to the civilization of the Central Plains.
The weapons used by most soldiers on the grassland are mainly made of wood or even animal bones. An iron pot is a rare item on the grassland, and only the nobles have it.
This gap is so huge that it can be said to be overwhelming in all aspects.
Border raids occurred because they could no longer survive, so they assembled a team of half soldiers and half civilians and went south into the Central Plains frontier to fight the autumn wind.
For those big cities that were heavily guarded, no one dared to go there. Instead, they plundered some small villages or small towns.
Small villages that can stay on the frontier are not good at making mistakes and will fight back.
Some small grassland tribes with small populations may be completely wiped out in these villages and towns.
The Central Plains nation is a fighting nation in the true sense.
The three large-scale nomadic invasions in history were also based on the civil strife in the Central Plains dynasties.
In the Jin Dynasty, there was the Rebellion of the Eight Kings first, and after years of war in the Central Plains, the population was depleted, and then there was the "Five Husbands Rebellion".
In fact, the Wuhu people in that incident are no longer pure nomads.
They are a semi-agricultural and semi-nomadic people, with a very high degree of Chineseization.
Then there is Meng Yuan.
Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire was so powerful, it flattened half of the Eurasian continent.
Xixia, a small semi-nomadic and semi-agricultural country, was nothing more than a separatist regime in the Central Plains civilization. The Duke of Xia in the Tang Dynasty was granted the title of Dingnan Jiedu Envoy.
It was such a small separatist country that Genghis Khan fought three times before defeating it. If the Jin Kingdom nearby had not refused to send troops to aid Xixia, Genghis Khan would not have been able to defeat it.
It was only because Wanyan Yongji of the Jin Kingdom was a semi-literate man with little education that Xixia was forced to beg for peace with Mongolia and stationed in Mongolia to attack the Jin Dynasty.
The later Mongolian-Jin war lasted for twenty-four years. Seven years after the death of Genghis Khan, Mongolia did not conquer the Jin Kingdom in one fell swoop, let alone conquer the Southern Song Dynasty and unify the Central Plains.
Even when Kublai Khan took control of the Central Plains, it was because the Southern Song Dynasty lost the Yanshan barrier and the agriculturally developed Beijing-Tianjin area. Liao, Jin, and Mongolia successively inherited control of the north, so they became stronger and stronger as they conquered.
From the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty to the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.
The North was under the rule of ethnic minorities for 240 years.
A full two hundred and forty years, which can be considered as one generation, has produced twelve generations.
The difference is already huge.
This was also the origin of the contradiction between the northern and southern Han people at that time. In the eyes of the southern Han people at that time, the northern Han people could no longer be called Han people.
It was Zhu Yuanzhang who merged the northern and southern Han people again after 240 years.
However, the grassland now is very different from before.
After the Mongol Empire occupied such a large territory, it no longer lagged behind in terms of weapons and armaments. For the Ming Dynasty, the threat was completely different from what it was before.
Moreover, the grassland was of little significance to the Ming Dynasty, which was a farming civilization. It could not grow food, and it was difficult to defend the vast plains. If an army entered the grassland, it would be easily dragged to death.
Even when the Manchus and Qing Dynasties took over the Central Plains for the third time, the Ming Dynasty was not destroyed by the Manchus. It was Li Zicheng who destroyed the Ming Dynasty. The Manchus and the Qing Dynasties took advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains and made a big mistake.
Throughout history, it was more often the nomadic peoples who claimed vassalage and paid tribute to the farming peoples. If they showed signs of rising, they would send troops to attack them.
Just like the Han Dynasty against the Xiongnu, the Tang Dynasty against the Turks, Uighurs, Rouran, and Goguryeo.
Now the Ming Dynasty has the same approach to the grassland.
It's just that the literati who recorded the history books yelled and wrote about us being beaten.
When we beat others, we usually give them a pass, that is, if they don't accept Wang Hua's behavior, they will be punished.
The reason for this is that most dynasties, except for the founding period, emphasized culture over military affairs.
There is a natural conflict between literati and martial men, so it is impossible for literati to praise martial men.
From this point of view, it seems that Zhu Ying does not have much need to build tracks to target the grassland.
This depends on the goal.
The first is the large number of war horses on the grassland.
In ancient times, the speed of information dissemination was the degree of control the court had over the local area.
The faster information spreads, the stronger the court's control over local areas.
It is true that maritime trade will make the Ming Dynasty rich as a whole, but in fact, the strength of its control will be reduced as a result.
Because sea voyages often last for more than half a year, or even several years.
There will be some disobedience to foreign military orders.
This means that the imperial court's ability to restrict maritime trade will become very small.
It can easily lead to a situation where the localities are rich and the central government is weak.
In the past, grasslands were not included in the Chinese version of the map because there was no benefit.
It's different now. A large number of horses can maintain the track. A plain on the grassland makes it much easier to lay the track.
The cultivation of high-yielding crops such as sweet potatoes can also provide the Central Plains with abundant food to support the people on the grasslands.
The increase in population and territory meant that the Ming Dynasty became stronger and stronger. Starting from the grasslands, they would conquer Eurasia again.
With farming civilization at its back, plus prairie cavalry and firearms.
Incorporating all the territory that was once the peak period of Mongolia into the Ming Dynasty will not just be thought of, but actually feasible.
Therefore, after being silent for an unknown amount of time, Zhu Ying's head, which was slightly lowered, slowly raised its head.
Just like before, he looked at the old man with calm eyes and said with a firm voice: "Grandpa, my grandson wants to do something about the track."
Bang!
Zhu Yuanzhang slapped the table so hard that the whole table shook and the dishes splashed everywhere.