After learning some information from Chen Maocai, Zhang Ning initially planned to send someone to discuss alliances with the Miao envoys, but the next day he made an impromptu decision to meet in person. Probably because he knew that the other party was a woman...his subconscious
I can't help but have some fragrant expectations.
For a woman he has never met, men can always imagine what a beautiful woman looks like. Unexpectedly, after meeting Zhang Ning, he was greatly disappointed. The skin of the young girl was a bit dark due to the sun, and she had freckles on her cheeks. Fortunately, her skin was darker.
, otherwise the spots would definitely be more conspicuous. Fortunately, the round face and straight facial features are not ugly, and upon closer inspection, he looks quite "delicate". This may be because he has not touched a woman for a long time.
He sighed in his heart that there is always a little distance between imagination and reality.
The Miao girl's name was Bai Qi, and she was accompanied by two male attendants, who were said to be deputy envoys. They did not speak Mandarin, and their accents were very similar to those of Sichuan people. Fortunately, they spoke Chinese, so they could probably understand them. They quickly proposed the idea of Miao
The rebels hoped that Zhang Ning's troops could go south and capture Gaodu County to contain the Changde Guards at Longtou Temple.
Zhang Ning is probably already familiar with the terrain in the area west of Dongting Lake, and he was involved in drawing the map before. Changde Prefecture is directly south of Shimen County, about 160 miles away; Chenzhou Prefecture is southwest of Changde Prefecture, between the two cities.
From east to west are Gaodu County and Longtou Temple. Among the three counties controlled by Zhang Ning's army, Cili County is the closest to Gaodu County, about a hundred miles away, but the road is not easy to travel.
The Miao people's requirements are still very pragmatic. They don't want Zhang Ning to attack Changde Mansion directly, or to attack the main force of the Changde Guards at Longtou Temple. Of course, it is not reliable to attack Changde Mansion with Zhang Ning's current strength. Changde City is a big city.
Not only is it strong, but there are four towns such as Wuling and Taoyuan nearby. In such a densely populated area, if there are less than 10,000 people, there is no way to besieged. If you go in, you will be surrounded by enemies on all sides, and you may be besieged. And Longtou Temple is too far away, and the guard army
At least more than two thousand, it's not easy to fight.
Only Gaodu County in the middle is relatively empty and fragile. Once attacked, the food route for the Longtou Temple official army may be cut off. The official army will most likely mobilize Longtou Temple troops to rescue, which indirectly reduces the pressure on the Miao people in Chenzhou.
Of course, the Miao people have a good plan, but Zhang Ning is obviously not willing to help them at this time. At this time, the "nail" Yongding Guard stuck in the middle has not been removed, so that the Jiuxi Guard and other guard cities in the northern mountainous area have also
By holding still, the three counties occupied by Zhang Ning are not really safe. Once the main force is transferred out, it is difficult to say whether the three counties can be saved. It is impossible for him to transfer only a thousand troops to more than a hundred miles at this time.
Far away, fight with the officers and soldiers.
Since they are mutually exploiting each other, it is impossible for Zhang Ning to sacrifice himself for the needs of the Miao rebels. He took the initiative to contact the Miao people to express his goodwill for two purposes: first, he did not want to antagonize the Miao people.
There is no need to make enemies; secondly, the Miao people have a large number of troops, which can effectively contain Zhu Yong's army. I believe that the Miao people sent envoys to respond out of this consideration.
"I have to discuss with my subordinates before I can give you a reply." Zhang Ning replied. He did not want to refuse directly in person. "After our discussion comes out, we will inform the envoy of the specific deployment details as soon as possible." Let's talk first.
With that said, he planned to send someone to explain the difficulty in two days.
Although the negotiations had no real results, Miao Ambassador Bai Qi seemed to be satisfied with her performance, because Zhang Ning always used titles such as "Your Majesty" and "Madam" during the conversation. As a woman who was born as a maid, she was respected by others.
Maybe it's a very useful thing.
…
Not long after, two more important pieces of news arrived in front of Zhang Ning. First, Fan Laosi and Ma Dapeng approached the western part of Yongding Guard from Fengxia Mountain. Also coming in batches were more than a hundred craftsmen from the Ordnance Bureau. Zhang Ning ordered to send two
A team of soldiers and horses went to respond. Then there was news from the Shuidang'ao stronghold in Changde Prefecture that Yuezhou Prefecture was summoning soldiers and horses from the garrison to recover Shimen and other three prefectures and counties.
The officers and soldiers once again showed the characteristics of having no secrets at all. Yuezhou Prefecture had difficulty gathering troops and horses, and the mobilization efficiency was low. It also made its intention to march known to passers-by. It was quickly found out by the Jianwen Party's intelligence base.
.
Zhang Ning did not panic when he found out. With the speed of mobilization of the government and army, the time to sort out the complicated local situation and gather troops to send out troops was not yet clear; it would not be too late to prepare until they actually sent out troops. Yuezhou Mansion is in the east of Dongting Lake
, far apart, with complex mountains and rivers on the way there, and intertwined major water networks, the army's advance must be slow. He just sent a few agents to stay near Yuezhou Mansion to gather information.
This time, there was a commotion in Yuezhou Prefecture. Zhang Ning could only learn about the situation through the Jianwen Party stronghold in Changde Prefecture. He realized the problem. Zhang Ning had more than a thousand soldiers and horses, but because this force had been established for a long time,
short, the foundation is still not deep; and the foundation advantage of the Jianwen Party for more than 20 years has been reflected again, but fortunately the relationship between them has not yet broken down.
Emperor Jianwen and Zhang Ning had a father-son relationship, but they were by no means close. Zhang Ning had just confirmed his life experience, and already had a rift with Emperor Jianwen. The consequences of the unsuccessful meeting in the religious forum last time were difficult to make up for.
... When this matter is investigated, it is actually a problem in Jianwen's harem, and its root lies in the palace struggle between Queen Ma and Mrs. Yao. The influence of women on politics is once again reflected.
But Zhang Ning did not want to intensify the conflict. He thought carefully and formulated the idea of "united front". Emperor Xuande, who controlled the central power of the empire, was an absolutely dominant party. If Zhang Ning still cared about internal fighting at this time, it would obviously be a mistake.
A very unwise thing. His general direction is to win over all the forces that can be won over. As long as they are not life-and-death enemies, they can cooperate and exchange benefits.
The various internal conflicts should be dealt with when the most powerful enemy is defeated. For example, the "Father Emperor", the father and son have never met each other and lack an emotional foundation, so they cannot truly trust in power; Yao Ji
The conflict with Queen Ma is even more difficult to reconcile. After forming an alliance with the Miao people, the conflict is also very obvious. The degree of national integration and assimilation in this era is completely incomparable with modern times. The Miao and Han people do not trust each other.
In fact, the national policy of the Han regime did not bring any benefits to the minority people, but mostly excluded, discriminated and plundered them.
Zhang Ning knew that what Emperor Xuande was best at was not fighting in the north or south, but political skills. Zhang Ning himself was a civil servant, but the same was true. Maybe he was not qualified to be the opponent of Emperor Xuande Zhu Zhanji, so he had to show a higher level of ambition.
Strategy.
...A few days later, Ma Dapeng and others from the Ordnance Bureau arrived in Cili County, and Zhang Ning led his troops to shift their focus westward and set up their headquarters in Cili County.
The people from the Ordnance Bureau only brought some light tools and nothing else. Rebuilding the workshop in Cili County, making tools, arranging raw materials, etc. will be another complicated matter with detailed details.
At this time, there were many and complex people in Cili County, including military officers, craftsmen and stewards, local officials, and ordinary people. Zhang Ning realized that the previous methods alone could not cope with it, and it would easily cause internal management chaos.
So he temporarily added two organizations. The first one was called the "Counseling Department", a name he came up with temporarily. Anyway, it was an organization that assisted in decision-making and planning and the specific implementation of various affairs. Lao Xu served as the "Council Envoy" and led the officials.
Of course, Zhang Ning knew that Lao Xu’s ability in this area was definitely not as good as that of Wang Yu and his staff, nor was he necessarily better than Hou Mao, the leader of the cult. But as a confidant who had followed Zhang Ning in the early days, Lao Xu naturally had him.
’s strengths.
There is also a "Secrets Department", which serves as Zhang Ning's deputy and helps him manage confidential files, documents and other items. The current secretary is only Xu Wenjun. As the name implies, a secretary is a person who knows the secrets. Naturally, he cannot just recruit a few to fill the number. At least
Someone he trusts.
After organizing these two yamen, Zhang Ning accepted Wang Yu's suggestion, and the Council Department was responsible for engraving and manufacturing the seals of the civil and military yamen, and promulgated laws to punish forgery of seals, etc., and regulate the exchange of official documents of the organization.
Then he ordered Fan Laosi, a Henan native from the Ordnance Bureau, to organize the establishment of a weapons manufacturing workshop. Wang Yu was responsible for coordinating the weapons manufacturing workshop in the Council Department, and made detailed arrangements for officials in Cili County to requisition housing, space and material costs.
Under Zhang Ning's frequent inquiries, the Ordnance Bureau quickly found the buildings and land used for the workshops and warehouses, and listed the full name "Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau".
But there is one thing that only Zhang Ning can do, which is the design drawings of mortars. In the entire Ming Dynasty, he was the only one who could think of how to make this thing. He was not a professional workshop person, and the design drawings could not be completed by himself.
It was necessary to have someone who knew craftsmanship. Ma Dapeng was asked to go to the county government office to meet with Zhang Ning every day, and the two discussed ways to tinker with mortars.
However, with experience in manufacturing long-barreled cannons, it is obviously not difficult to cast mortar cannons. It is obviously very easy to grind the barrel of large-caliber, thick and short iron cannons. When Ma Dapeng talked about casting cannons, he came up with a method
The method of using copper as the lining and iron as the outside can better avoid sand holes and is less likely to explode. However, Zhang Ning quickly rejected this method for practical use because of the lack of copper. With their current
Due to the financial situation, the mined copper material might as well be used to mint coins. Then Ma Dapeng said that when casting cannons, the hollow water cooling method should be used to let the inside of the cannons be cooled first.
When Zhang Ning asked the reason, Ma Dapeng said: "There is inevitably a lot of slag in the molten iron. After the cannon is cast and the barrel is polished, we often find sand holes on the inner wall. We have to recast it for fear of exploding the barrel. That's why the cannon is cast so slowly. If the barrel
If it is cooled first in the middle, the slag will easily stay outside the barrel with the molten iron, which can better prevent blisters."
After listening, Zhang Ning suddenly realized, and thought about it, it seemed that it was indeed the case. Sure enough, there is a specialization in the art, and the practical application requires the wisdom of the craftsman. But Zhang Ning also has strengths in this aspect. He can think of things that the ancients almost imagined.
Things that are not available, such as a simple vise. After the Weapons Bureau made it according to the structural diagram, the craftsmen said it was very practical.