This guess is really unspeakable. Even if he is highly pragmatic, he would not dare to hint at Zhu Yijun or ask anything in a roundabout way.
After all, no one dares to ask the emperor whether your skills are insufficient in that area.
Isn’t this seeking death?
Seeing that Gao Jingshi frowned deeply for a long time but still did not speak. Instead, his face became more and more cautious. Only then did Zhu Yijun realize that what he just said was really unacceptable from Gao Jingshi's standpoint.
You can't expect a civil servant to teach the emperor how to make the queen happy? Only eunuchs can do this.
"Uh...seeking the truth." Zhu Yijun quickly changed the subject: "The statements of the commander-in-chief of each town should have been sent to the Ministry of War by now, right?"
Gao Pangshi secretly breathed a sigh of relief, nodded and said, "We're here."
Zhu Yijun asked without saying anything: "Who are they and is there anything special about them?"
Um?
Gao pragmatically said: This matter is not my business.
The Ministry of War now has a system of four ministers, and the status of the minister of Rongzheng is not low. However, the annual self-reports of the generals and deputy commanders of various regions are not managed by Gao Pragmatic, the minister of Rongzheng. Instead, they are reviewed personally by Liang Menglong, the Minister of War, and Zhu Yijun.
It stands to reason that you are asking the wrong person.
Fortunately, there was a meeting about this matter at the Ministry of War, and Gao Pragmatic was not unaware of it, so he replied: "So far, the plans include Li Chengliang, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, Yang Siwei, the commander-in-chief of Jizhen, and Zhang Zhang, the commander-in-chief of Changzhen.
Chen: Dong Yiyuan, the commander of Baoding, Wang Guoxun, the commander of Xuanfu, Ma Gui, the commander of Datong, Li Rusong, the commander of Shanxi, Jia Guozhong, the commander of Yansui, Zhang Weizhong, the commander of Ningxia, Li Zhen, the commander of Guyuan, Liu Chengsi, the commander of Gansu,
Sichuan Corps Commander Li Yingxiang, Zhejiang Corps Corpsman Wang Huaxi, Fujian Corps Corpsman Yu Song, Guangdong Corps Corpsman Liu Fengxiang, Guangxi Corps Corpsman Hu Liangpeng, Guizhou Corps Corpsman Zhang Zao and Deputy Corps Commander Zhang Jie, etc., all resigned from their posts in accordance with the regulations.
"
"What's the Ministry of War's opinion?" Zhu Yijun asked.
Gao Pingshi said: "Grand Sima has summoned several colleagues to discuss this matter. It is likely that only Wang Guoxun, the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu, should retire due to his old age, and several other deputy commander-in-chiefs should be rotated."
Zhu Yijun then asked: "Xuanfu is one of the gates of the capital. Now that Wang Guoxun has retired, who can succeed him?"
Gao pragmatically said: "Ma Chengen can succeed."
Zhu Yijun was stunned and asked: "Isn't Ma Chengen in Kaiyuan? He was just asked to inspect Northern Liaoning a few days ago. If he is transferred back to Xuanfu now, who will be replaced by Kaiyuan Ginseng?"
Gao pragmatically replied: "Instead of Ma Chengxun, they are cousins, and the main forces under their control are all Ma family's top soldiers. Since Ma Cheng'en can control Kaiyuan, Ma Chengxun will not be bad. Even according to the ministers
You know, there is a huge difference in the number of troops between the two of them, so when they are transferred, they may only need to change generals instead of troops, and can also save some money for deployment."
Zhu Yijun thought for a while and asked: "Ma Chengxun also had meritorious service in the last battle of Monan, right?"
"Yes." Gao Pragmatic nodded.
"Okay, let's do it like this." Zhu Yijun nodded and said: "The Ma family has been holding Xuanda for a long time, and Ma Chengen went to Xuanfu. When I, the Ming Dynasty, go to attack Tumen in the future, my flanks will not be unstable."
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty." After Gao Pingshi said this, he paused for a moment and said, "By the way, Your Majesty, there is something we need to pay attention to."
"What's up?"
"The leader of Tumut in Qinghai focused on the rabbit, and the two chiefs of Huoluochi were jealous that King Shunyi had given Hannaji a generous reward from our Ming Dynasty. Now he no longer obeys the orders of the Tumote headquarters. King Shunyi wanted to send troops to conquer Hannaji. But it happened that all the households in Ordos, Hetao, Huangtai Ji suddenly suffered from an emergency, and there was an undercurrent in Ordos. King Shunyi was afraid that there would be changes in Hetao after the western expedition of the army, so he could only hold back his troops for the time being, and at the same time, he wrote a letter to the Ministry of War to remind the court to pay attention."
Zhu Yijun frowned and said, "Such a thing happened? Is there any inside story involved?"
Of course he knew how deeply the highly pragmatic Jinghua had penetrated into Mongolia, so he directly asked about the inside story.
Gao Pragmatic did not hide it and replied: "The matter is basically true. The two chiefs Jilitu and Huoluochi were brothers. They were driven to Qinghai by Anda back then, and they didn't have much influence on the Tumut headquarters. Loyalty. At that time, the king of Shunyi was powerful, and Qiejin Huangtaiji of Ordos advocated consecrating Hannaji as Chechen Khan, so they had to temporarily surrender.
In the fall of this year, Qie Ji Huang Taiji fell ill, and in less than two months he was in disgrace. It was difficult to control the situation. The two chiefs, Litu and Huoluochi, seemed to be disobedient to the king's order from Fengzhoutan. At this time, It is said that an envoy from Tumen detoured to Mobei and went to Qinghai. I don’t know what the benefit of the two chiefs was. In short, after that, the two chiefs no longer obeyed the orders of Fengzhoutan and began to do their own thing."
Zhu Yijun suddenly frowned: "Is there Tumen's black hand here? It seems that Xin Ai's son is really capable and seems to be a mastermind."
Gao Pangshi said seriously: "Although Burihatu is a defeated general under my command, he does have some abilities and cannot be taken lightly. In my view, since he takes action, he will not just set up this trap."
Zhu Yijun really took it seriously and said in a deep voice: "What else do you think he will do?"
Gao pragmatically said: "I haven't had time to think about what he will do specifically, but I believe that what he will do cannot escape two main purposes: one is to isolate Tumut as much as possible, and the other is to try to delay our Ming Dynasty's war preparations. "
Zhu Yijun's small eyes flashed brightly, and he said coldly: "I think so too."
He paused for a moment and then asked: "The Chahar tribe suffered a lot of losses after the defeat in the Battle of Southern Liaoning. How is it recovering now? Do you have any news over there?"
"Slightly." Gao Pragmatic frowned and said: "Tumen still trusts Burihatu very much, and from what we can learn so far, Burihatu has at least offered two strategies to Tumen to speed up the process. Restoration of the Chahar Ministry.”
"What two strategies?" Zhu Yijun asked immediately.
"The first is to develop agriculture. Now the Chahar Ministry, like Tumut, has opened up farmland and planted food in some planting areas. It even got some cotton seeds from where and started planting cotton fields. It's just that they don't know. Have they got a loom?"
Zhu Yijun frowned slightly and asked thoughtfully: "Do you know how much farmland they have opened up?"
Gao pragmatically shook his head: "Jinghua's cavalry cannot go very far into Chahar. The specific situation is not known yet."
Zhu Yijun thought for a while and then said: "I think they should have obtained a loom - otherwise, what's the use of growing cotton? They can't just play a few quilts, right?"
Regarding cotton, many people in later generations seem to have misunderstandings, thinking that there was no cotton in ancient China. This is actually wrong.
There have been records of cotton planting in China during the Qin and Han Dynasties and before. The planting areas are mainly distributed in Hainan Island, Guangdong and Guangxi, Yunnan, Fujian, Sichuan and other places in the south. There are also cotton planting in the north, but mostly in the Western Region (Xinjiang), Hexi Corridor and other areas. Only
However, at that time, the planting area of cotton was very small, and it was rarely used to make clothes.
In the Song Dynasty, cotton began to be introduced into the Central Plains. However, cotton at this time was mainly used as an ornamental flower. No one thought of weaving cotton into cloth and making clothes. It was also from the Song Dynasty that the word "cotton" officially appeared.
They are all "cotton".
At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, a great figure appeared in the southern area where cotton was grown. She was Huang Daopo, the "ancestor of the cloth industry". Huang Daopo improved the entire set of cotton weaving equipment and spread the weaving technology to the north and south of the Yangtze River. People
They began to wear cotton clothes. The Yuan Dynasty army also began to equip cotton-padded armor.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang used coercive methods to promote cotton cultivation, and cotton cloth and cotton clothes began to become popular. Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu" of the Ming Dynasty recorded that "cotton cloth can be found in every inch of soil" and "there must be 10 looms in every room".
Yes." At this time, cotton was already very popular in the Ming Dynasty. For example, during the Wanli period, the Jiangnan area was home to two major textile industry centers: silk and cotton.
However, the cotton in the south of the Yangtze River is not very productive, so the main cotton production area in the Ming Dynasty is actually in the north.
For example, Shandong in the Ming Dynasty was an important production area for both silk and cotton. Volume 35 of "The Encyclopedia of Agricultural Affairs", "Kapok", records that "Qilu people grow cotton," and "the harvest is two or three hundred pounds per mu."
"Chang" is an area with high cotton yield per mu.
Of course, this yield is not comparable to modern yields, but in ancient times without chemical fertilizers and pesticides, this yield was still very high.
Not only Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces have cotton production. In Gao Pragmatic's hometown of Henan, the cotton planting industry is also quite prosperous. It is recorded in the "Records of Taizu" that in December Xinwei Zai of the 25th year of Hongwu, "Zhang
"The seven prefectures of De, Weihui, Guangping, Daming, Dongchang, Kaifeng, and Huaiqing" "received more than 1,803,000 catties of cotton this year" - that was still in the early Ming Dynasty, seven
There is an output of more than 10 million kilograms of cotton in the country.
In addition to high yields, the income from growing cotton is also high. For example, all six prefectures in Shandong grow cotton. According to historical records, "the benefits of grain are less than half." Therefore, many places have given up growing grain, especially in the southern areas where the cotton textile industry is developed.
, even high-yielding rice is no longer planted, and nine out of ten are used to grow cotton or raise silkworms. The reason is that the income from cotton or silkworm raising is higher. Of course, this is also the reason why the rich land of Jiangnan needs food supply from Huguang.
.
Facing Zhu Yijun's question, Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "I think this is also possible."
"You mean they only play quilts?" Zhu Yijun asked in surprise: "Why is that? In this case, they still need to find ways to get my Ming Dynasty cloth to be useful."
Gao pragmatically said: "In the winter of the Battle of Southern Liaoning, many people in Chahar probably froze to death. For them, wearing good clothes is secondary. The key thing to solve is the problem of freezing to death. Cotton cloth
In fact, the Ming Dynasty cannot help the outflow of Chahar. As long as he is willing to spend more money, he can always get it. And with cotton cloth, the cotton can be wrapped in cotton cloth, whether it is made into quilts or cotton-padded clothes. As for
Whether the clothes are ugly or not is obviously not something they care about now."
Zhu Yijun frowned: "Why can't the outflow of cotton be stopped? Does anyone still dare to trade with Chahar privately?"
I don't know if anyone dares to trade with Chahar privately. Even from his point of view, he is not opposed to trading with Chahar. After all, he has always been able to use this kind of trade to achieve his own goals.
However, he also knew that Ming Dynasty’s attitude towards Chahar was completely different from that towards Tumut, so he was too lazy to advise Zhu Yijun on this matter. He just said: "Chahar does not necessarily need to be traded directly with Ming Dynasty or privately to get Chahar."
Bubo, they can do business with various Jurchen tribes, and even some Tumut people - there may not be anyone under Chechen Khan who dares to defy the Great Khan, which is the same as the Ming Dynasty also has criminals."
After Zhu Yijun heard this, he became a little annoyed and said bitterly: "I really wish I could stop all their market rewards."
Market reward is what the Ming Dynasty calls it. The general idea is that trading with you is my reward from the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, Zhu Yijun was just saying this out of anger. Of course he knew the consequences of shutting down the mutual market. The reason why Tumote fought with the Ming Dynasty for decades during the Anda Khan period was to ask for a mutual market.
Now that Tumut is so honest, it is impossible to just be pragmatic. Ming Dynasty has given them a stable mutual market. This is the most basic and fundamental thing.
Gao Pragmatic shook his head as expected: "The mutual trade must not stop. Not only cannot it stop, but before taking Chahar, we must even increase the total volume as appropriate to stabilize all sides."
Zhu Yijun sighed and said helplessly: "Besides turning to agriculture, what else does Chahar do?"
Gao pragmatically said: "The other item has actually been mentioned just now, which is to focus on business."
Zhu Yijun was a little surprised: "Business?"
For him, the Ming emperor, he had heard a lot about valuing agriculture, but this seemed to be his first time valuing commerce.
Gao Pragmatic nodded and said: "Yes, it's a business-focused business. According to the information I have learned, Burihatu should have greatly strengthened its trade relations with the Jurchens."
"What kind of news?"
"In the past year or so, each Jurchen tribe has eaten far more beef and mutton than before, and each tribe has kept more horses than before. I believe that this must be a material flow from Chahar to the Jurchen. In other words,
It is said that the Jurchens sold other goods to the Mongols in exchange for these cattle, sheep and horses."
Zhu Yijun frowned and said: "What can the Jurchens sell to the Mongolians? Ginseng, deer antlers and various furs? But the Mongolians don't have much demand for these things, right?"
Gao pragmatic shook his head decisively and said: "Of course the Jurchens are not selling these to the Mongols. They can exchange these things with the Ming Dynasty, and then exchange them for Ming Dynasty goods and then exchange them with the Mongols. They can eat both ends and make money on both ends."
When Zhu Yijun heard this, his eyes widened: "Then don't we suffer a loss?"
Ah, this... you just realized it? It is now clear that the Jurchen tribes are making money from both sides by relying on their status as a "neutral country", just like the Mi Empire before Pearl Harbor.
"That's exactly what happened. Before we had a showdown with Can Yuan, the Jurchen tribes always had such an opportunity."
Zhu Yijun felt angry after hearing this. He walked a few steps under the big tree and said bitterly: "Okay, okay, okay, let them make money for another three years. After three years, I, the Ming Dynasty, will completely destroy Can Yuan. I will pay for this."
Sooner or later, we have to settle things with them again!"
The muscles on Gao Pingshi's face twitched slightly, and he said secretly: History books say that you are a money-obsessed emperor, but I didn't expect that you are really... I'm glad to meet you.
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
