In front of the sand table at the military headquarters of Xiaoniangpi Station, Yang Fan's subordinate military and civilian officials were all around him. The chaos in Jizhou was a rare opportunity to practice general mobilization.
Xiao Niangpi decided to seize this opportunity to test whether the master's plan of integrating the army with the people, hiding wealth among the people, a small standing army, and a large militia organization was feasible.
Now, the population in Yang Fan's territory has exceeded two million. Among them, there are 500,000 people on the grassland. There are a full 1.5 million people in this territory.
According to this era, the average family of five people has one strong man, which can arm 300,000 people.
However, in fact it is impossible because production cannot be stopped. The main people who can really use it are farmers.
The factory cannot stop for a moment. It is not easy to train workers, and they cannot be consumed on the battlefield. Now, the Xincheng steam power factory and the hydraulic machinery factory near the dam both work in three shifts every twelve hours, with people taking breaks and machines constantly
Production.
Because industries such as steel, steel products, textiles, food processing, leather and fur, traditional Chinese medicine and proprietary Chinese medicines, mining and mineral processing, machinery manufacturing and shipbuilding are all in great demand and cannot be shut down.
In particular, steel and textiles are in short supply. Countless merchants are waiting in Xincheng to pick up their goods.
Marine fish and canned beef and mutton are also basically out of stock. Especially in the past two years, drought has intensified, grain output has dropped sharply, and grain prices have soared.
Urban residents cannot make ends meet. Now that Yang Fan provides low-priced cornmeal in Beizhili and Beijing, they can still maintain their original lives.
The situation in other cities is already very serious. Nowadays, trawlers can catch thousands of tons of marine fish in one boat.
Then the food processing base in Beitangkou made tinplate cans weighing 50 pounds each. These fish meats were added with a lot of spices and fried, and the texture was simply delicious for this era.
The price is still cheap. Because there are too many fish in the sea in this era. Compared with the 50 to 60 million tons of catch per year in later generations, it is equivalent to no development at all.
The sea fish is peeled and cleaned, then put directly into a huge iron pot and fried together with spices. In this era, sea fish are very fat, and the more oil they will fry, the more oil will be added.
These have a lot of salt added and taste a bit salty. They are almost crispy fish soaked in oil, which immediately conquered the taste buds of everyone in the Ming Dynasty.
These fried fish are a perfect match when eaten with porridge and rice porridge. The salt, fat, and protein simply meet all the needs of the people of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, as many of these cans as are produced will be taken away by merchants who queue up all night to pick up the goods.
These cans have even appeared in the Yunnan and Guizhou regions. This shows how powerful the merchants are. This kind of thing has a shelf life of three years and is easy to transport.
Grocery stores in many cities and towns in the Ming Dynasty sold canned fried sea fish. They opened a whole barrel of cans and sold them by the pound.
In this way, many poor people can afford it. The Yang family deliberately set the price very low, with a profit of only 10%.
The main purpose was to alleviate the food crisis. As a result, strange phenomena occurred in Beizhili during the Ming Dynasty.
Fish and meat are cheaper than cereals. The price of meat is actually upside down. Of course, as the transportation distance becomes longer, the price will gradually rise.
In the Yunnan-Guizhou region, it is estimated that only the rich can afford it. However, the taste of heavy oil, heavy salt and heavy spices is liked by everyone, and they are also very active in buying it.
This kind of canned food has even been trafficked to North Korea and Japan. In Mrs. Taozi's letter to Yang Fan, she mentioned that she eats some crispy canned sea fish for breakfast every day.
Textiles are mainly cotton cloth woven by hydraulic looms. North Zhili, Shandong and Henan are cotton production areas.
Therefore, Yang Fan focused on the development of the cotton textile industry. The main industries on the grassland were wool textiles, cotton-wool blends, leather and fur processing, etc.
As for silk, only the textile workshops of arsenals produce the lowest-grade and cheapest Baijuan, which is used as wrapping material for ammunition.
The quality of the products produced by Yangfu's textile factories far exceeded the coarse cloth produced by handlooms of this era.
Yang's cotton cloth is thin and strong because Yang Fan's spinning machine can spin high-count cotton yarn.
The higher the cotton yarn count, the stronger, thinner, softer and smoother the woven cotton fabric is. High-count cotton fabrics can even achieve a silk-like effect.
The best-selling item is white gray cloth, which merchants buy and dye themselves. Because the territory promotes long-staple cotton, Yang Fan's cotton mainly focuses on 40s cotton.
Cotton count refers to the length of cotton yarn per pound. It is usually used to measure the thickness of the yarn. The larger the number, the finer the yarn.
For example, 40-count yarn is finer than 20-count yarn. 40s cotton refers to cotton that contains 40 yarns per inch of yarn.
This number represents the fineness and quality of the cotton. Yang Fan has his own dyeing factory, but it only serves the territory.
He has various dyes from later generations. However, the factory still mainly produces gray cloth. This is to stimulate downstream industries and provide more employment opportunities.
Alleviating the current severe situation of large numbers of refugees.
"Has our current business been greatly affected?" Xiao Niangpi asked, looking at the large piece of corrupted sand table map to the west of the territory.
Now the rebels have reached Tongzhou. If Tongzhou cannot be defended, the capital will be destroyed. Now the Grand Canal must be broken, and Tongzhou has become a battlefield.
"Madam, only the merchants from Shanxi can't come here at the moment. The impact is not big. Our main channel for shipping is sea transportation. Now we have mobilized the militia to keep the rebels out of the territory. The merchants are heading from Jiyun River to Beitangkou
The transportation of steel ingots and gray cloth has not been greatly affected. It is just that the war in Tongzhou means that the Grand Canal will not be able to travel," said Han Jinxi, director of the Commercial Department.
"Well, the wheat will be harvested today, and our pressure will be reduced a lot." Xiao Niangpi nodded.
"What's going on over there in Tongzhou now?" Lin Yueru picked up the wooden pole, pointed at the sand table and said: "The latest information, His Majesty has sent out a car camp, six thousand Rumi musketry troops, and a cavalry regiment trained by the Xinghe regiment.
An army of 14,000 people has arrived at Tongzhou City." Xiao Niangpi nodded, and His Majesty decided to use his trump card.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! He wants to quell the riot as soon as possible.
"Who is the general?"
"The general is General Zhou Yuji, and the eunuch overseeing the army is Wang Kun." Hearing this, everyone raised their heads in surprise.
The four words "supervising the army and eunuchs" attracted everyone's attention. Originally, Chongzhen was opposed to eunuchs interfering in government affairs.
Wei Zhongxian's exclusive power at first made him extremely disgusted. After he took charge, he directly recalled all the guard eunuchs and mining tax eunuchs sent by the Tianqi Dynasty.
Why did the eunuchs be sent out again? The young lady was so naughty that she was not surprised at all, she just glanced and curled her lips.
She had worked as an errand in the palace and knew His Majesty quite well. Ever since he established his own palace and moved out of the palace, he had taken the eunuchs to learn literacy at a young age.
Many of the eunuchs in Prince Xin's palace grew up with him. Song Yingsheng sighed and said, "Eunuchs have been causing trouble in the government for a long time. Over the past thousands of years, they have caused too many serious consequences. Unfortunately, although
The imperial courts of all dynasties have seen their danger. But their power has been rising." Lin Yueru was an out-and-out eunuch, and couldn't help but retort: "Eunuchs are just a part of the court's power structure. Civil servants, honorable officials
, eunuchs, gentry, and local wealthy families are just restricting each other. It is not as serious as what Director Song said." Song Yingsheng shook his head and said: "The eunuchs in the Han Dynasty only participated in administrative rights. At most, they interfered with the administration of the court. By the Tang Dynasty, eunuchs not only interfered with administration
Power, and also mastered military power. Commanding the army and launching a coup to dethrone the emperor were commonplace. In the Ming Dynasty, eunuchs not only interfered in administration and held military power, but also added judicial power. Dongchang became almost a place outside the law.
Even the appointment of personnel has been interfered by the eunuchs." Xiao Niangpi nodded and said: "What Director Song said is very reasonable. His Majesty sent out the eunuchs to supervise the army again, that is, the general and the eunuchs to supervise the army will jointly take charge of the military power. The civilian officials are in charge of the supplies, food, and wages.
They restrain each other. The little eunuchs who were trained in Prince Xin's palace have now grown up. Your Majesty has been planning this for a long time, and this matter has become unstoppable. In the future, we will also have to consider how to deal with the relationship with these eunuchs." "The Yang family.
He is a general, and the eunuchs who supervise the army cannot escape.
They are not only the eyes and ears of the emperor, but also the tools to decentralize power. I am afraid that the commander-in-chief and general Neng alone will not have the final say on the battlefield in the future.