A few days later, at noon on July 16, 1794, Zhao Xin and Deng Fei arrived in Kaiyuan County together, accompanied by the entire Eastern Front Command.
At present, two regiments of the Northern Navy have crossed Tieling and are building fortifications on the north bank of the Pu River, more than 30 miles north of Shengjing. There are also three regiments heading west along the north bank of the Liao River, setting up many Qing troops on the north bank of the Liao River.
The fortresses and castles were demolished one by one. Their ultimate goal was to capture Juliuhe Station, a hundred miles west of Fengtian, and set up defenses on the west bank of the Liao River to prevent the Shengjing Qing army from escaping toward Guangning, and to prevent the 20,000-strong army of Horqin and Karaqin from the north.
Cavalry support for Fengtian.
When a group of people arrived at Anyuan Gate in the north of Kaiyuan City on horseback, Zhao Xin, who was very interested, proposed to walk around the city wall, and Deng Fei readily agreed.
Kaiyuan was actually called "Kaiyuan" before the Ming Dynasty. In the Jin Dynasty, it was affiliated to Xianzhou Road, and in the Yuan Dynasty, it was affiliated to Tokyo Xingzhongshu Province, with a very high level of administrative establishment. In the 21st year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, after the Ming Dynasty unified the Northeastern region, it became
In order to avoid Zhu Yuanzhang's name taboo, he changed the word "Yuan" to "Yuan", hence the name.
At that time, Kaiyuan City was the garrison city of General Dusi North Road in Liaodong. It had a particularly important position. It governed the five cities of Kaiyuan, Zhonggu, Tieling, Fanhe, Yilu and the 21st Fort. It was also responsible for guarding the northernmost end of the Ming Great Wall.
The famous "Thirty Thousand Guards" have been located in Kaiyuan since the 26th year of Hongwu.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Liaodong region suffered from repeated wars. Many cities were seriously damaged and dilapidated, including Kaiyuan City. When Qianlong visited the east in the 43rd year of Qianlong's reign, he saw that the city walls were so dilapidated, so he allocated hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to rebuild the city.
, which took three years to complete. The new city generally followed the old site of the Ming Dynasty, and the city gates also retained their previous names.
After Beihai Town laid down the Ninggu Pagoda, Shengjing, in order to prepare for early defense, raised the city wall from 2 feet to 3 feet, reinforced three corner towers and 24 forts; at the same time, the originally 4-foot-wide moat was extended outwards.
It was widened to five feet and the water depth was more than three meters. However, the fortress, which in the eyes of the Qing court was impregnable, was of no use in the face of the Northern Navy's artillery fire washing the city wall.
Zhao Xin walked up to the top of the city and looked to the north. The hills from Weiyuan Fort to Ying'emen were rolling like giant snakes. To the southeast lay the remnants of the Changbai Mountains, which were thousands of miles away, with lush forests; to the west was the rolling Liao River, like a silver dragon.
, rushing south. He couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Gu Yanwu once said that this place is the most dangerous place in the world, with a wing belt town, located in the upper reaches of Liao Dynasty, and a dangerous stronghold on the eastern frontier. When I saw it today, it is indeed well-deserved."
Deng Fei nodded and said: "Yes! The North Gate of Liaodong. This place is a treasure. It needs mines and grain. Lao Chen and the others are very busy. By the way, do you think it is necessary to build a canal?
Connect the Liao River water system and the Songhua River water system?”
Zhao Xin thought for a while, shook his head decisively and said: "Don't bother, it's more serious to build the road first, and then the railway will be connected. And the Liaohe River is not easy to deal with. There will be a flood every few years. No.
If we spend a lot of effort to rectify it, we will have to provide endless relief in the future. The Qing Dynasty is gone, and we can only bear this burden."
Deng Fei chuckled and said: "This is not good. Capture Shengjing and let the tens of thousands of prisoners build roads and river embankments!"
During the Qing Dynasty, the most important natural disaster in the entire Liaoning region was floods. Historically, in the 175 years from the first year of Qianlong to the end of the Qing Dynasty, a total of 294 floods occurred in the Liaohe River Basin. It is commonly known as "Nine rivers are flowing down the river, and nine floods occur in ten years."
Similar to the problem of the Yellow River, rivers in Northeast China generally have relatively high sediment content, especially the Liao River and the lower reaches of the Xiaoling River. The river bed is constantly rising due to sedimentation, making it extremely easy to flood.
When floods come, food crises and epidemics follow. Bandits are rampant in the Northeast in the late Qing Dynasty. Although there are other social backgrounds and economic factors, frequent floods are also the main catalyst for the emergence of banditry.
At present, Beihai Town is extremely short of water conservancy talents, and Zhao Xin has already planned to recruit a few from another time and space. In addition, people from the Intelligence Bureau also contacted a water control expert named Guo Dachang in Huai'an, but unfortunately he was rejected. Think about it, people
I am very familiar with the situation in Huanghuai. When I arrived in the Northeast, I was completely blind. What's more, not everyone can bear the cold outside the customs in these years.
The Eastern Front Headquarters, which moved to Kaiyuan City, set up its headquarters in the Temple of God on the north bank of the Jinxian River in the city. Don't get me wrong, this "God" is not that "God", but the Taoist Emperor Zhenwu, who is the leader of the north.
God, also known as "Xuantian God". Therefore, the official name of the God Temple is "Xuanzhenguan".
In the early Ming Dynasty, this place was the vassal residence of Zhu Yuanzhang's 20th son, King Zhu Song of Han. However, after it was built, it remained a vassal until his death. After that, the second generation of Han King Zhu Chongrong lived here for fifteen years, and later it was renamed Pingliang and left there.
The palace of the Prince of Han was later converted into the Temple of God.
Because of Zhao Xin's lesson at the Qitai Guandi Temple, the security battalion of the headquarters simply drove most of the Taoist priests in the temple to the nearby Chenghuang Temple, leaving only the head abbot and a Taoist boy.
When Zhao Xin walked into the temple, before he could pay homage to the golden body of Emperor Zhenwu, the staff officer in charge of communications handed him a telegram and said softly: "Anping Port, Director Xu is calling."
Zhao Xin took it and took a look, my dear, the message was densely written. When he looked carefully, it turned out that it was Xu Dayong's request for instructions on the conditions proposed by He Shen. He scanned it at a glance and handed it to Deng Fei with a smile.
: "Look, something happened with the Lord again."
Deng Fei took it and looked at it for a few times, and said in amazement: "What a lion! If you don't see a rabbit, you won't let go of the eagle."
Zhao Xindao: "Although he doesn't know much about military affairs, he is very good at calculating economic and political accounts. He has seen that we currently have insufficient troops and cannot take care of Yunnan and Guizhou, so he wants to imitate Wu Sangui and become the king of Yunnan."
Well, although He Shen had made a choice in his mind, if he thought that he would willingly take out the money, he would be looking down on "Master He". The day after meeting with Xu Dayong, he let
Liu Quan sent a letter detailing the previously proposed conditions.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! When He Shen first came up, he said that he could give 50 million taels, but he could only pay half of it first, and the rest could only be given after Zhao Xin helped him establish a foothold in Yunnan.
First of all, the Northern Navy will send troops to Guangdong and Guangxi within a month, and open up the waterway from Lianzhou to Nanning Prefecture, and from Nanning Prefecture to Yunnan before the end of the year. The reason why Lianzhou was chosen instead of Qinzhou in the west is because there are ships
The transportation is very convenient, and you can basically go all the way to Nanning by boat. In addition, there is a customs in Lianzhou, and sea trade is also OK. In the first year of Qianlong, the Qing government established the Lianzhoukou Customs in Lianzhou Town, Hepu, which belonged to the Guangdong Customs
A branch under the main entrance of Hai'an.
Heshen, who is in charge of the transfer department and is well versed in economics, knows very well that Yunnan and Guizhou have many fields and few fields, and there is a lot of dry land. Even in a good harvest year, the output is only enough for one year, and there is no surplus food left at all. In addition, due to the green camp in Yunnan and Guizhou
The number of soldiers is very high, and there are also a large number of miners from other provinces. The annual food gap is about 16 million shi, and the shortage is even more severe in war. Take the Qing-Burma War as an example, there were 40,000 soldiers, and they consumed 400,000 kilograms of rice every day.
One hundred stones, ten months is equivalent to 120,000 stones.
In the past, in order to make up for the shortage of food in Yunnan and Guizhou, the Qing government and local officials would allocate or purchase food from other provinces every year. Now that he has betrayed the court, he would never even think about buying food from neighboring provinces. But if the North Navy can help
In order to open up the transportation from the coast to Yunnan, he can buy a large amount of low-priced rice from Annan or Siam, then transport the grain to Nanning Prefecture, and then transport it directly into Yunnan through the 700-mile Youjiang River system.
The problem is that if you want to buy food to feed the troops and settle the people, you have to have enough money. So he immediately proposed that Beihai Town should provide him with better mining equipment and smelting technology to increase Yunnan's copper production.
Today, the annual copper output in Yunnan Province exceeds 10 million jins, and the highest in history was 14 million jins. Although since the 38th year of Qianlong's reign, the output of the Shunning Prefecture copper mine in the west has gradually increased.
, but Dongchuan Prefecture, located in the north of Kunming, is still the main copper producing area.
Heshen has been in charge of Shang Yu's backup office for so many years, and has sent a large number of spies to conduct all-round spying on Beihai Town. Although there is very little military intelligence, there is still quite a lot of economic and people's livelihood intelligence. Not to mention other things,
The three-million-ton "super-large" steel plant in Khabarovsk alone cannot be concealed even if it is wanted to.
When he figured out what "tons" in Beihai Town meant, he was shocked beyond words. Turning back to the court, ten million kilograms of copper per year sounded like a lot, but it only took a few seconds to convert it into "tons."
6000. Although Heshen does not understand the mining and smelting technology used in Beihai Town, it is definitely more efficient than the technology used by the imperial court.
Copper in these days is almost equal to money. As long as the smelting is completed, money can be minted immediately. Manchu copper coins are used throughout Asia. As long as you have money, what can you not buy?
In addition to the above two requirements, He Shen also made a more important request, and it must be personally endorsed by Zhao Xin himself, and that is about his future.
What Heshen means is that as long as you give me enough arms assistance, he can help Beihai Town take over northern Myanmar. But the problem is that Zhao Xin must give him and his family a guarantee like a "gold medal to avoid death", and Yunnan has to pay
Give him twenty years to rule.
Deng Fei returned the telegram to Zhao Xin, with a joking expression on his face, and said: "He wants to build an independent kingdom! I remember you said that his son-in-law is still a clan member. With the copper mine, 50 million
You can earn it back in a blink of an eye.”
Zhao Xin shook his head and said: "My lord, I have a good idea, but do you think Yongyan and Fukang'an can spare him if he tricked Qianlong into this? The copper mines in Dongchuan Prefecture are too important to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, so that's not a good idea."
It’s all money!”
"Do you think Fukang'an will send troops from Sichuan?"
Zhao Xin walked slowly to the entrance of the main hall, looked at the statue of Emperor Zhenwu filled with cigarettes with his hands behind his back, thought for a moment, and said: "The total strength of Yungui's green camp exceeds 70,000. He Shen thought he could buy everything with money.
But he forgot that Fukang'an's prestige among the Qing army was too high."
"Seventy thousand?!" Deng Fei showed a surprised expression after hearing this number.
"Yes." Zhao Xin then gave Deng Fei a brief summary. The Beijing Intelligence Station obtained this information from the Clearance Department of the Ministry of War's Arsenal.
It is said that after the San Francisco Rebellion, although the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not station Eight Banners troops in the Yunnan-Guizhou region, due to the complex ethnic situation and its location on the border, it has always maintained a large number of green battalion troops. Especially in the Yongzheng era, the scale of the reform was unprecedented.
, in order to heavily suppress the Miao and Yi chieftains who were unwilling to reform and maintain stability on the border, the number of soldiers increased sharply to 68,000.
You must know that under the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, 11 governor-level "military regions" were established in various parts of the pass, including Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Liangjiang, Fujian and Zhejiang, Huguang, Shaanxi-Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan-Guizhou, and Guangdong and Guangxi, with a total of
There are 66 towns, 1,169 battalions, and a total of 640,000 soldiers. The military strength in the Yunnan-Guizhou region alone exceeds one-tenth, which cannot be said to be ignored.
In the early days of Qianlong's reign, the Green Battalion in Yunnan was slightly reduced due to the problem of food and salary consumption. However, with the outbreak of the Qing-Burma War in the mid-term and the subsequent emergence of Beihai Town, the military strength in the Yunnan-Guizhou region, especially in Yunnan, increased again, well over five.
Ten thousand people, and the number in Guizhou has also increased to 25,000; among them, Yunnan has three standards, six towns, five associations, and fourteen battalions, while Guizhou has four towns, one mention and one standard.
In the six years from the 53rd year of Qianlong's reign to the 58th year of Qianlong's reign, the Northern Navy annihilated nearly 60,000 Green Battalions in Ningguta, Jilin, Hunchun, Six Northern Towns, and various places in Jiaodong, and it was still the most combat-effective one.
Part; therefore, the 70,000 troops in the Yunnan-Guizhou region were definitely a very important military force for the dying Manchu Qing Dynasty.
Even though He Lin was the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had a very mature power control system for frontier officials. The governor had neither independent financial power nor civil rights, nor military power. Among the 70,000-strong army, the only one who directly obeyed his command was the governor.
The Kunming City garrison, Quxun Xiehe and Xunzhan camps totaled just over 5,000 people. Without the emperor's order, the governor and admiral could have ignored him.
By the way, when Ma Ba San led people to the front line this time, in addition to informing He Lin, he also needed to win over local officials and the general soldiers of each town.
After listening to Zhao Xin's analysis, Deng Fei frowned and said: "If this is the case, the battle plan of Guangdong and Guangxi will not only have to be advanced, but will also have to be significantly changed. Do you plan to put Lao Wang or Xiao Ding in charge?"
Zhao Xin pondered for a long time and said: "Bacheng is too important. Someone must guard it and keep an eye on Manila. Luqi started a war with the Spaniards in Kinmen, and sooner or later Manila will take action.
As for India... we still have to maintain heavy troops. We all know the virtues of the British. As long as the treaty is not signed, there are still variables. And the Danish territory has not been captured yet!
Sigh~~ I originally promised Luo Fangbai and the others that they could return to their hometown this year, but now it seems that it will be postponed. Let He Xiwen go."
At this time, one of the several staff officers following the two men suddenly said: "Chief, I have something to report to you before I have time. The Kaiyuan County Magistrate who surrendered had served as an official in Guangxi before."