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Chapter 159 Divide Shaanxi and seek Hetao

4329 (the fifth year of Chongzhen), mid-May.

Yang Wencai wears a steel medal of nobility on his chest and a mini steel abacus hanging on his waist.

Ding Wannian said sourly: "It's so fun for you to bring this little abacus out every day.

Everyone knows that this is a noble ritual, but look at other nobles, none of them like to show off like you."

He watched his old friend gain noble status because of his support for the army.

Although he is the lowest ninth-level Lord, he is still a noble.

He officially entered the circle of nobles and obtained many privileges that only nobles could enjoy.

Your own grain processing factory still needs to pay taxes for five or six years to reach the minimum threshold for merchant knighthood.

Ding Wannian's identity is too special. If he goes to support the army, it will send a bad signal.

His son-in-law is the prime minister of the Prince of Qin's palace. He is inferior to one person and superior to ten thousand people.

He also asked his father-in-law to support the army. Does this mean he wants to get involved in the army?

Even if the King of Qin is his son-in-law's brother-in-law, he cannot do such taboo things.

"Many of our Hanzhong merchants and Shu merchants have obtained noble titles because of their support for the army.

There are many people who still want to learn from me.

In particular, some Shu merchants were extremely envious of me. They slandered me everywhere and said I was a human trafficker.

They also went to the Ministry of Criminal Justice to report me, and I was very happy to see them gritting their teeth in anger and being helpless towards me."

Yang Wencai was very happy that other merchants supported the army and contributed a lot of grain, grass and silver coins.

He supported the army only to help soldiers find wives.

At that time, the cost of buying slaves was much lower than other people's expenses.

This time he didn't lose at all, but made a lot of money.

"Brother Ding, now our place and Daming are blocked again because of the war.

I heard that many businessmen are planning to go to Daming to buy women.

Come back to help soldiers go on blind dates, and also recruit mercenary nobles. Do you think they can succeed?"

Ding Wannian whispered: "These people will definitely succeed.

Do you know the story of Confucius’ disciples, Zilu and Zigong?”

"Brother, please tell me carefully. I only know who Confucius is. Who knows about Confucius's disciples?

Only those who are educated pay attention to this matter. It is no longer easy for me to read.

If I am good at studying, who will be a businessman?"

When Ding Wannian saw Yang Wencai asking, he spread his hands and said, "I don't know this story either.

But what my son-in-law said must have a profound meaning.

I won't show off allusions, and I don't understand these twists and turns, so I will just tell the conclusion.

His Highness the King of Qin supported merchants to purchase women from outside and let them have blind dates with soldiers.

The first reason is that people in the Ming Dynasty sold their daughters, so they would definitely not be able to survive.

Being bought by others makes these women suffer even more as slaves.

If they are sold to a brothel, their fate will be even more miserable.

It's better to let those businessmen buy her back and become the wives of soldiers, which is to save them in disguise.

The second reason is that the current population has always been more men than women, and there are many more men of the right age than women.

Even though the war has reduced the population of young and strong males, there are still more men than women.

The King of Qin promulgated a policy prohibiting infant drowning, which was only promulgated for a few years.

In the past, the vast majority of poor people in rural areas and cities could not afford to raise their baby girls, so most of them drowned.

I don’t know why most infant girls drowned. I asked my son-in-law.

When men grow up, they can become productive, whether they are farming or fighting in the village.

Families with few male sons in the village will suffer and be slowly absorbed by other families.

If you do this for a long time, the male population will be much higher than the female population."

When Yang Wencai heard what Ding Wannian said, he sighed and did not continue the topic.

This kind of social tragedy can only be reversed by the policies introduced by His Highness the King of Qin. Now there is no case of infant drowning in the countryside.

There are families who cannot afford to raise their children. If they leave their children at the door of the village chief's house, the village chief will send them to an orphanage.

"This time I became a noble, and I realized that if we businessmen want to develop greatly, we must become a noble.

The Prince of Qin followed the advice of aristocratic businessmen and simplified the process of starting a company and the transfer of patents from the patent office.

Now the Qin Palace has established two independent departments, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Patent Office.

Their status is the same as that of the tax bureau, which is independent of the six ministries and directly under the administration of the cabinet.

This time the Patent Office had just completed its restructuring and held a grand patent auction.

Only nobles are allowed to enter this special patent auction.

I will take the right to use the textile patent and build a textile factory.

I plan to recruit a few skilled workers from the textile factory of Prince Qin's Mansion.

Then go to Daming to buy many young women, so that I can keep the textile factory running.

It can also allow female workers and soldiers to get married, achieve the goal of supporting the army, and allow my son to become a noble.

Is it taboo to go to the Qin Prince's Textile Factory to poach workers?

I had a brief chat with you last time, but I kept mumbling in my heart."

Ding Wannian knew that this was what his old friend was asking about today.

"Don't worry, I asked my son-in-law and it's not a taboo.

If you really want to poach people, the last thing you have to do is give them to the factory to poach people.

The people poached are not the most elite talents.

The factories in Prince Qin's Mansion enjoy a lot of welfare policies.

That's a golden rice bowl. If you become a worker, you won't have to worry about it for the rest of your life.

Among them, the elite talents can go one step further and become officials."

"That's good, that's good.

I have nothing else but money.

I believe that if you have enough money, you can definitely impress some people."

While Yang Wencai and Ding Wannian were chatting, they saw many workers coming outside the city.

Each worker was carrying a sack of things. They looked around with vigilant eyes, fearing that others would snatch their belongings.

"Brother Ding, what's going on with these people? They're acting so strangely."

Ding Wannian said excitedly: "This is the seed of winter wheat.

This month, the winter wheat grown at Qinwangfu Farm has a bumper harvest.

A large part of the winter wheat has been shipped away as military rations.

When the farmers heard about the situation of winter wheat, they were afraid that the winter wheat would be used as military ration, so they asked someone to help them buy some winter wheat.

As seed, plant winter wheat this winter.

Fortunately, there are very few places to grow wheat in Sichuan, otherwise there would have been a bigger rush to buy."

Yang Wencai also said with emotion: "I have read about winter wheat in the newspaper.

I was shocked at that time. Who would have thought that wheat could be harvested in summer.

This is His Highness the King of Qin, who brings us the greatest auspiciousness.

His Highness King Qin is truly a saint descended from heaven, leading us to a prosperous age."

They were talking about winter wheat-related topics.

There was a speeding carriage running on the cement road at the city gate.

There are two big characters of post office printed on it.

There is a military flag on the car, which means that the car transports military-related things.

A circle of big red flowers surrounded the car, proving that this was good news for transportation.

When the policeman patrolling the street saw this situation, he immediately cleared the way for the car to clear the way for the car.

…………………………

Su He summoned civil and military officials at Lingyun Palace.

"Su Hu, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Front, sent good news. The Third Army, the Fourth Army and the Guards Army have completely annihilated the Ming army in Shaanxi and occupied the entire Shaanxi Province.

The entire Shaanxi Ming Great Wall, as well as the city passes bordering Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan, are all under our control."

After Su He finished speaking about the content of the victory report, warm cheers erupted in Lingyun Hall.

All civil and military officials knew that Su Hu achieved victory along the way.

The Ming Dynasty's heavy encirclement and suppression of their four armies was declared a failure.

By occupying Shaanxi, their strategic space will become broader.

Su He also announced several happy events, praised some dedicated officials, and reported the handling of several corrupt officials.

This Lingyun Palace meeting ended, and Su He left behind Wang Zhongce, Li Fengming and others.

All other officials withdrew from Lingyun Palace.

Su He asked his secretary to bring him a large sand table, which showed the terrain beyond Shaanxi and the Great Wall.

He used a small wooden stick to draw a line along the territory controlled by the Third Army and the Fourth Army.

"I plan to divide part of Shaanxi and establish Shaanxi Province and Gansu Province respectively.

The capital of Gansu Province is designated as Lanzhou, and we will discuss the candidates for the governors of Shaanxi and Gansu."

One of the reasons why Suhe sealed off Shaanxi Province was that Shaanxi was too big and had complex terrain, making it difficult to govern.

Sichuan is larger than Shaanxi, but it has a complete water system and convenient transportation, which is more conducive to governance.

The future positioning of Gansu and Shaanxi will also be different.

Gansu Province guards the Hexi Corridor area and its geographical location is very important.

When Su He has enough troops, he will definitely reopen the Silk Road.

The Hexi Corridor area is not only an important passage for nomads heading south.

It is also the starting point of the Overland Silk Road.

Through the brilliant military power of the Han Dynasty, the Han army achieved a record of one Han serving as the five barbarians.

The Han cavalry killed many people in the Western Regions and opened up the Silk Road.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty declined and there was no way to maintain the Silk Road through force.

As a result, the Eastern Han Dynasty court was short of money, the emperor was so poor that he sold his official position, and the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out.

The Tang Dynasty also relied on the Iron Army of the Tang Dynasty to conquer the Western Regions. They fought against the cannibals in the Western Regions.

With funds provided by the Silk Road, the handicraft industry in the Tang Dynasty was extremely developed, and the people lived very happily.

Wu Zhou came to the stage, which was stronger than internal fighting but weaker than external fighting.

This led to a reversal of the situation in the Western Region.

The Tang Dynasty lost the Silk Road, and the handicraft industry in Luoyang and Chang'an gradually withered.

Luoyang, Chang'an and other northwest regions also lost their status as economic centers.

The only economic center left in the Tang Dynasty was the southeast region.

The Huangchao Uprising broke out, disrupting the last economic center of the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty could only perish.

Gansu is located in the Hexi Corridor, connecting the Central Plains and the Western Regions.

The Western Regions have been China's territory since ancient times and must not be given up.

Gansu will continue to strengthen its armaments and become a war-focused province.

After taking over the Hetao area, Shaanxi will become an inland province that can serve as the rear area of ​​the northwest and develop its economy with peace of mind.

Wang Zhongce is the Prime Minister of the Cabinet. He is the only one here who has the power to recommend governors everywhere.

"His Royal Highness the King of Qin, I recommend Kou Baige to the governor of Gansu.

He did well in his position as the prefect of Hanzhong County.

I am from a military background in Shandong and know the military very well.

I recommend Li Zhisheng as the governor of Shaanxi. Sichuan is now stabilized and he has made great contributions.

Now Shaanxi needs stability and needs this kind of talent."

Su He recalled Kou Baige in his mind. He was the former chief envoy of Sichuan and was very capable.

But he is better at traditional government affairs and knows nothing about industry.

The honeysuckle industry of the prefecture of Rongcheng is flourishing.

He is a new type of official trained by Suhe, who is ready to take over as the prefect of Hanzhong County.

Kou Baige was also a good choice as governor of Gansu.

In Gansu, there is no need to develop industry yet.

"The governor of Gansu appointed Kou Baige, and the prefect of Rongcheng Jinyinhua was transferred to the prefect of Hanzhong County.

Zhongce, you choose candidates suitable for the prefecture of Rongcheng and the prefectures and counties of Gansu and Shaanxi, and make a simple summary of the experiences of these people.

Li Zhisheng worked very well in Sichuan and he continued to stabilize Sichuan.

I think the former Third Army Zhu Shi Qu Xiangyang is very good.

He is a second-grade officer. After being injured and retired, he needs to be assigned an official position that matches his status.

He led the troops to conquer Shaanxi, and he knew the relevant situation in Shaanxi very well, so he was appointed governor of Shaanxi.

After Qu Xiangyang's injury is relieved, let him go to the Imperial College to study for a period of time before taking office."

Su He chose Qu Xiangyang for three purposes.

The first purpose is to tell other officers that as long as they perform well on the battlefield, they don't have to worry about the rest of their lives.

The pension of the Qin army far exceeded that of the Ming Dynasty, which basically allowed the soldiers and their families to have no worries.

Previously injured soldiers and junior officers.

Su He's arrangement is very good, and they all have relatively good jobs.

Qu Xiangyang was the first officer at the corps level. His retirement arrangements were watched by senior generals.

Su He arranged for him to be the governor of Shaanxi.

He believed that this arrangement was surprising enough and would allow other senior officers to put aside their concerns.

The second purpose is that the civil servants under the Qin Palace are now divided into several factions.

According to the region, it is divided into Shaanxi sect, Shu sect and other sects.

According to the imperial examination system, they are divided into imperial examination schools and non-imperial examination schools.

The imperial examination school also includes the imperial examination school of the Ming Dynasty and the imperial examination school of the Qin Dynasty.

No matter how these civil servants fight, they all belong to the civil servants.

Su He asked the generals to transfer their posts to civilian officials, which directly gave the Prince of Qin's palace an extra civilian force out of thin air.

Civil servants are naturally xenophobic, and those who come from a Jinshi background will despise Juren.

What's more, they looked down upon the warriors even more.

Qu Xiangyang is like a catfish, breaking into the ranks of civil servants and stirring up trouble.

Let these civil servants have a sense of crisis. They are by no means irreplaceable.

Civil officials are bound to take action, and Su He promotes talents among them and eliminates some bad apples.

Su He found that he had not yet secured his position in the world, and some officials had begun to slack off.

Do not think about the common interests of everyone, but only serve the interests of individuals and families.

The number of corrupt officials investigated and punished by the Metropolitan Procuratorate during this period has been increasing month by month.

Regardless of whether official corruption is not terrible, it is terrible if the mechanism to eliminate corruption is paralyzed.

Su He has been keeping an eye on the Metropolitan Procuratorate and other institutions, using various means to maintain the vitality of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Zhang Shengbei and Zhang Qinian, two rookies from the Metropolitan Procuratorate who are new scholars, performed the most outstandingly.

For the third purpose, he set his sights on the Hetao area north of the Great Wall.

On the north bank of the Yellow River where the Hetao is located, there is a place called Baotou.

Inside the Hetao shape, there is another area called Ordos.

In this era, transportation is not very developed, and the closer the coal and iron ore producing areas are, the better.

In my memory, there are very few places suitable for establishing large-scale coal and steel composite groups in this era.

Baotou and Ordos count as one, Anshan and Fushun count as one.

In order to develop industry, Suhe in the Loop area must take over his grounds.

In addition to iron ore, the Hetao area is also very rich in other minerals, including massive silver ore.

After the Ming Dynasty encirclement and suppression is completed this time, other areas will be able to cultivate and thrive.

The people lived too hard under the Ming Dynasty, let them recover.

Only Shaanxi is still in a state of war.

This war took place outside the Great Wall and had little impact on the interior.

But with a governor who is proficient in military affairs, everything can be done with twice the result with half the effort.

The army that captured Hetao, Su He, was expected to be the Third Army and the Guards Army.

If the battle goes smoothly in Xing'an Prefecture, the Sixth Army will also be transferred to the Hetao area.

After Su Xiong captured Yunnan and Guizhou, the areas ruled by the Qin Palace had fewer places in contact with the Ming Dynasty.

In the southwest, the First Army and the Second Army can hold it, and then the Fifth Army can be transferred to the Hanzhong and Shaanxi areas.

Qu Xiangyang became the governor of Shaanxi, and it became easier for the government and the military to communicate.

Taking these considerations into consideration, Su He believed that Qu Xiangyang was the most suitable governor of Shaanxi.

Wang Zhongce saw that Su He's tone was extremely firm, and he felt it was inappropriate, but he did not refute Su He's arrangement.

Su He held a small wooden stick and pointed at the Hetao area.

"This is the Hetao area. Our next goal is to capture this area."

Wang Zhongce heard that Su He was going to start another war.

His expression changed and he advised: "Your Highness, King Qin, do you want to consider this matter again?

Our current situation is really too much to deal with.

Facing the Ming Dynasty's encirclement and suppression this time, the soldiers on the front line fought happily, and the good news came one after another.

All these victories were achieved with silver coins. Without enough money, the war could not go on at all.

After the war stopped, we swallowed Yunnan, Guizhou and Shaanxi.

These are poor areas where township government offices, township primary schools and township health clinics have been established.

Each province needs to spend at least millions of taels of silver coins.

But the silver coins in bank vaults have bottomed out.

Without money, the entire Qin Palace would stop functioning and nothing could be done.

Due to the bumper harvest of sweet potatoes and winter wheat, we can now afford to feed the population of three more provinces.

Sichuan is originally responsible for most of the food in the Yunnan-Guizhou region.

The sweet potatoes and other grains accumulated in Hanzhong County and Baoji Prefecture are combined with this year's winter wheat harvest and the grain the military seized from the Ming Dynasty.

There will be no problem in the Shaanxi-Gansu area for a year or two until our township office is established.

He led the people to build canals and plant sweet potatoes, winter wheat and other grains. If Shaanxi did not encounter natural disasters, there would be no food shortage.

Frontline armies have a huge need for firearms and ammunition.

Since spring this year, the flow rate of the Han River has slowed down significantly.

In order to ensure irrigation of farmland upstream and downstream, many reservoirs were built to store water, which further slowed down the flow of the Han River.

As a result, the power of waterwheels in the factory area is insufficient. Now most factories have returned to traditional manual production.

Had it not been for the reduction in the intensity of the war and the increase in Sichuan factory production capacity.

None of us can guarantee the supply of firearms to the frontline troops.

Money, food and industry, two of the three pillars of war, had problems.

I don’t recommend starting another war.”

Wang Zhongce's objections were very organized, and everything he said had a fatal impact on the war.

Su He said confidently: "Zhong Ce, I have ways to solve these problems.

We don’t consider money, food and industry. Do you think we should attack the Loop area?"

When Wang Zhongce heard what Su He said, he said happily: "Money, food and industry are not problems, then I support the attack on the Hetao area.

The Hetao area and the Hexi Corridor area have been two roads for nomadic peoples to attack the hinterland of our Central Plains since ancient times.

The Hetao area is the essence of Mobei. When we take over the Hetao area, we have our own horse farm.

With the advent of firearms, the role of cavalry is no longer unique.

I see the good news among the frontline troops. In most wars, artillery plays a greater role.

But the status of cavalry is still very high, especially in grassland areas, and no other branch of arms can replace cavalry."

Li Fengming, who was standing aside, finally spoke.

"Your Highness King Qin, I think the Hetao area should also be captured.

With the Hetao area in hand, we can contain the Mongols through the Hetao area.

Make it impossible for the Mongols to go south, so that the inland areas can concentrate on farming and production and will not be trampled by war."

Li Fengming first said that he supported taking over the Hetao area.

Then the conversation changed and we talked about the tactics to capture the Hetao area.

"Your Highness King Qin, our cavalry is very weak.

I think Qin Xiangkun, Chief of Staff of the Third Army, said something good.

Nomads are like dogs when they are weak, but they are like wolves when they are strong.

Now is the time when the Mongols are weak. If Jiannu can surrender them, we can also surrender them.

But there is a prerequisite, which is to let the Mongols see our strength.

Without cavalry, we are still too passive.

I read the military report of the Third Army. Meng Zheng began to gain momentum and wiped out several Mongolian tribes while the Mongols did not understand the power of firearms.

Later, the Mongols did not contact our army at all and found traces of our army.

They left behind some bulky cattle, sheep and supplies and migrated directly with the tribe as a whole.

If we had cavalry, it would be easy to pursue these migrating tribes.

But relying only on infantry, even if the tribe migrates very slowly, we have no way to catch up.

Meng Zheng could only lead his troops back to the Great Wall, and had no way to continue to expand the results.

Before the cavalry is well trained, I suggest building a turret fortress out of reinforced concrete.

Learn from the Ming army's approach in Liaodong, using a huge fortress complex and powerful firearms to withstand the Mongolian cavalry.

The main reason why the Ming army's tactics failed was that the Ming army was too poor.

Military expenditures have been wasted layer by layer, and there is no ability to build a complete fortress group.

Our industrial development and advanced firearms allow us to build fortress groups at low cost.

There is no need to build them too densely. Each fort group should be separated from each other. It is best for the troops to march a day's journey.

I believe that with the reinforced concrete fortress, even tens of thousands of cavalry can be blocked for a day or two."

When Wang Zhongce heard what Li Fengming said, he also thought the plan was good.

The Mongols are mainly cavalry and have very weak engineering capabilities. As long as there is sufficient ammunition and food in the fortress group, they will not be able to attack the fortress at all.

The most important thing is that the cost of this tactic is not high, and the current financial situation of the Qin Palace can completely bear it.

"Your Highness King Qin, I also support Chief of Staff Li's tactics."

After Su He heard this, he nodded with satisfaction and said:

"This tactic is very safe and fully utilizes our army's advantages.

First occupy the Hetao area, show our strength, and trade war horses with Mongolian tribes willing to cooperate with us.

When our cavalry develops, it will be time to sweep across the grasslands."

Su He decided on the strategy of marching into the Hetao, and he asked Li Fengming to lead the staff to improve the strategy of the Hetao.

Don't rush to capture the Hetao area. You can slowly build forts and attack slowly.

While fighting, you also need to win over the Mongols. It is best to combine fighting Loops with training the cavalry.

After defeating the Hetao area, the Qin army also had cavalry units that could be used.

The Qin Palace announced a new policy.

Special war bonds were issued to businessmen.

The bond will repay the principal and interest together after ten years, with an interest of 5% per year.

The amount of bonds purchased by businessmen can be equal to the amount of taxes they pay. When a certain amount is reached, they can obtain a title.

After the bond matures, the principal and interest can be withdrawn from the bank, or part or all of the tax can be deducted.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Patent Office jointly held a grand auction.

Auction of glass patents, textile looms and flying shuttle looms, and a series of textile industry patents.

The agency rights for mirrors, etc. This kind of opportunity was something I didn’t even dare to think of before.

Only nobles are allowed to participate in this level of auction, and the patents or agency rights obtained are not allowed to be transferred.

This led many businessmen to actively purchase bonds issued by the Qin Palace in order to obtain noble status.

Suhe's industrial strategy is for the Qin Palace to control heavy industry and other lifeline industries.

Some light industrial technologies will definitely spread.

Su He took advantage of the opportunity to spread technology and tied the patents of key products to the issuance of bonds, thus obtaining a large amount of silver coins.

These businessmen are so rich that the money for attacking the Hetao and building Shaanxi and Yunnan-Guizhou has already been raised.


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