Great time travel

Chapter 78. Undercurrent in Fujian
After thinking about it for a long time, Zou Weilian, who had a complicated mind, finally lost his sleepiness, so he yawned and stretched, and slowly got up from the reclining chair. , Turned out a volume of "Research on the History of War" and read it with relish.

——Although Zou Weilian has always been very resentful of the atrocities committed by the Australian Kun thieves colluding with the military generals of the country and endangering the Ming Dynasty, and he always put on a posture of being at odds with the Australian Kun thieves on the surface, but for these overseas Kun people Zou Weilian, the governor, was very interested in these new gadgets, so he often asked his servants to go to the market to collect all kinds of exquisite books and newspapers printed by Kunren, and then read them carefully in private.

In particular, the journal "Research on War History", which focuses on military affairs in the world, has won Zou Weilian's attention.There are quite a lot of military and state anecdotes and current situation criticisms. There are not only the analysis of various classic battle cases in ancient times, but also the quick reports and related comments of today's wars.Although the words and sentences in the articles are easy to understand and are mostly in vernacular, the analysis is from the shallower to the deeper. It made Zou Weilian read it with great admiration, and he felt sorry for it. After reading it several times, he was still amazed.

"...It is said that during the reign of Tianqi, the Minister of the Ministry of War, Wang presided over the battle of Liaodong in Jin Dynasty. At that time, Guangning was defeated. The Liaodong army had collapsed across the board, and everyone was terrified. After the king surveyed the front line in Jin, he thought that the court's frontier army was unbearable. Even if he was lucky enough to recover Guangning is also unable to hold on. Moreover, the country's financial resources are exhausted, and it is impossible to confront Jiannu for a long time. Therefore, it is advocated to abandon Liaodong and Liaoxi, use the Great Wall as a border, rebuild Shanhaiguan as the last line of defense, and only use naval forces to harass Jiannu's hinterland. The military expenditure can be greatly reduced, and the total construction cost is only 100 million taels of silver.

However, all the princes of the current dynasty thought that it was cowardly and useless for the king to abandon the lost land in Liaodong instead of planning to restore the lost land in Liaodong in the Jin Dynasty.Mr. Sun Ge wanted to fight back to Liaoyang and Shenyang, and regain Liaodong, but the court officials and soldiers couldn't beat the Jurchen slaves in the field, so they came up with a fortress plan, building a large number of forts outside Shanhaiguan, and continued to build fortresses eastward.When Jiannu came, the soldiers and civilians retreated into the fort and stood firm. When Jiannu retreated, they continued to build new forts, advancing and constructing, and finally built the fort as far as Shenyang.

If this policy is used in the Yongle and Jiajing years, when the country's financial resources are abundant, it may be feasible.However, since the reign of Tianqi, there have been frequent famines in the world, and it is difficult to collect taxes, and the treasury of the household department has long been unable to make ends meet.In order to implement fort tactics, Sun Dushi assembled more than [-] troops in western Liaoning. He also had to repair forts, cast artillery, and hoard food and fodder, but he was still unable to take the initiative to attack. Naturally, the military expenditure could not be reduced, and a large amount of food, weapons, horses and salary were given to Jiannu for nothing.Moreover, every time the Jurchen soldiers attacked and destroyed the fortresses along the way, the officers and soldiers had to rebuild them again, so the court had to spend a large amount of engineering expenses.

As a result, the imperial court spent as much as 600 million taels of silver on the Guanning army in western Liaoning every year, while the previous annual revenue of the imperial household department was only about 400 million taels a year, and the household department soon began to cry. .Sun Ge didn't seem to be able to do it, so he wanted to be self-reliant and farmed in western Liaoning, but the grain and fodder that could be harvested in western Liaoning was only 15 taels of silver.And if you are farming outside the pass, if the Guan Ning army can't defeat Jiannu in the field and prevent the enemy from looting, then the crops in your field are planted for the Jurchens.

With such a deficit, the imperial court had to raise Liao's salary again and again, which made the people in the world panic, but it still couldn't make up for this bottomless pit.Because so many fortresses had to be built in Liaodong, the cost of the project was too high, and the imperial court had to tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall. As a result, the towns in the northwest were short of food and salaries for a long time, which led to the mutiny of the Shanshan frontier army, and the rampant trend of the Northwest bandits was unstoppable. .The Central Plains and Shandong were also overwhelmed, and civil upheavals arose.Regardless of the outcome of the battle of Daling River, as long as Mr. Sun Ge's costly and costly fortress plan is not changed, the court's financial difficulties will sooner or later be dragged down..."

sex

"... Sigh, even if you are an important cabinet minister, your knowledge of Liao affairs is probably limited to this. Unexpectedly, this Kun thief is so caring!"

Putting down the "Research on the History of War" in his hand, Fujian governor Zou Weilian couldn't help but sighed, "...But even if you can see it through, so what can you do?"

——As one of the rare capable ministers in the court at the end of Ming Dynasty, Zou Weilian certainly knew the disadvantages of Sun Chengzong's fortress tactics, and some people of insight in the court had also criticized it for a long time-in fact, there was no need What kind of foresight and sagacity, as long as you look at the millions of taels of silver swallowed up by the fortresses in western Liaoning and the Guanning Army every year, as well as the account books of the household department that have been in deficit for years, all officials and officials will know: the country really cannot afford such expenses up.

However, since the finances have been so overwhelmed, why didn't the court change course and restore the former supervisor Wang Zaijin, using his strategy of sticking to Shanhaiguan to save money?Could it be that no cabinet official is willing to bear the responsibility of abandoning the cities of Jinzhou and Ningyuan outside the pass?

Well, there are some reasons for this aspect, but it is by no means the main reason.The real key issue is that there are many people who can't see the court saving money!
To give an even more obvious similar example, since the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing, Beijing's food supply has relied on water transport on the Grand Canal.But the problem is that a canal runs from south to north, from the local area to the center, from Cao Ding transporting troops to household ministers and cabinet bosses. I don’t know how many people divide the fat on it. According to regulations, 800 million shi of grain are transported from Jiangnan to Beijing every year. However, all kinds of inexplicable costs along the way were nearly 3000 million shi, as well as the cost of repairing the canal and maintaining the sluices. It is true that gold and silver like the sky are poured out every year, and the people in the south of the Yangtze River are overwhelmed.

Therefore, the people of insight in the south of the Yangtze River thought to themselves, since the water transportation is thousands of miles from south to north, and the water boats, water Ding, government offices along the way, and various fees are peeled off layer by layer, the expenses cannot be saved, and all have to be paid. Spread on the heads of Jiangnan people.So why not take the bottom line and simply not take the canal, but go by sea instead?You must know that the transport volume of sea ships is much larger than that of water ships, and the speed of sailboats is much faster than that of human-pulled water transport. If water transport can be changed to sea transport, then the transportation cost and the consumption along the way will definitely be greatly reduced, and the burden on the people in the south of the Yangtze River will also be reduced. Greatly reduced, benefiting the people's livelihood, there is nothing good about it.

Therefore, ever since Qi Jiguang pacified the Japanese pirates and the sea area returned to calm, there have been constant proposals in court to change water transportation to sea transportation to reduce the burden on the entire south of the Yangtze River.But all these proposals ultimately came to nothing—the thousands of miles of canal and water transportation involved nearly a million people, and tens of millions of stones of grain were available for distribution every year, which was tens of millions of taels of silver.Faced with such a huge and stable income, who is willing to change?Who dares to touch it?
Even though the Donglin Party in the south of the Yangtze River controlled the government of the late Ming Dynasty, the benefactors behind them were the gentry and wealthy merchant groups in the south of the Yangtze River, not the small peasant households in the south of the Yangtze River. It has little impact, and naturally there is no motivation to change.

As a result, from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, even though steam ships and railway trains appeared, because too many people's interests were involved, water transport remained the same.Finally, at the beginning of the 5000th century, because the northern section of the Grand Canal was so silted up that it was impossible to sail at all, and the Qing government, which had just had the Boxer Rebellion and signed the Xin Chou Treaty and paid the powers [-] million taels of silver, no matter what There was no way to get the funds for river control, so I had to ignore the resentful eyes of all the officials and resolutely abolished the water transportation. Sun Yat-sen became a revolutionary party.In the subsequent Revolution of [-], these laid-off trackers also played a significant role in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty.

In the same way, Sun Chengzong's old fortress tactics not only cost 500 million taels of silver every year, which is not enough for the national taxes to invest in, but once a fight really starts, it will be impossible to attack and defend.The so-called Great Victory of Ningyuan and Great Victory of Ningjin are nothing more than all 20 fortresses, which were wiped out by the Hou Jin army to a maximum of four or five. A large amount of money, food, materials and personnel were taken away by the enemy, but there are a few particularly strong ones. The fortress has not been breached.

But in order to defend these fortresses, there is still a piece of land the size of a palm, but the price is that the world is in turmoil, the Central Plains are in chaos, the people are overwhelmed, and they rise up. , Henan provinces, stirring up turmoil throughout the country.

As long as you compare the gains and losses a little, you should understand that the national power of the imperial court in the late Ming Dynasty could no longer support this kind of fortress tactics.

Since this kind of fortress tactic is so bad, a waste of money, ineffective, and has huge sequelae, why does Ming Ting insist on holding on to it?
Because it, like water transportation, has one of the biggest benefits, that is, it is convenient for everyone to reach out for corruption!

Obviously, spending huge sums of money on so many untenable projects is really suitable for the relevant departments to embezzle the project funds-the enemy attacked, the fortress fell, and then was looted and demolished, causing a lot of property In addition to losses and casualties, all traces of embezzlement of project funds by relevant personnel will be wiped out.

Therefore, as long as the fortress is built, corruption will extend there.Those unscrupulous officials who built the fortress into a tofu project are still light, and it is common to directly make up some non-existent strongholds on the bills, and use them to cheat the court!Anyway, when the Jurchen soldiers arrive, they will be destroyed, and there will be ruins. Even if the court wants to send people to check the accounts afterwards, there is nowhere to check... In addition, the 10,000+ Guan Ning troops on the court roster are scattered in more than [-] They are in the fortress, and they cannot support each other. Once the Jurchen army comes to sweep it, the Ming army will naturally be defeated, and the death will be defeated. After a defeat, all traces of the empty quota will be eliminated. The saying: "There is food, but there is no enemy!"

Therefore, the fortress group established by Sun Chengzong in western Liaoning not only became a fixed supply station for the Jurchens to regularly form teams to kill monsters and burst out food, grass and weapons, but also became a cornucopia for generals in western Liaoning to blackmail the court every year.What's more terrible is that the generals in western Liaoning are also veterans in the officialdom. They all get their hands on the money from here - almost all the financial revenue of the imperial court is here, and anyone with a bit of ability will find a way to make money from here!

As a result, the Ming Empire poured five or six million taels of silver into western Liaoning every year. For this reason, the people all over the world rose up and rebelled. In the end, they fattened a large group of vampires and gold-swallowing beasts from the central civil servants to the generals of western Liaoning. Jiangmen has grown into a feudal town that is not controlled by the imperial court. He is only willing to take a lot of food and salaries, and is unwilling to fight hard.

Therefore, although the Liaoxi Fortress Group dragged the court finances to a basic collapse, the cabinet ministers, the six court ministries, all parties involved in the construction of the Liaoxi Fortress Group, and of course the Liaoxi generals who were directly involved were unwilling to switch to Wang Zaijin’s strategy. , Withdrew to Shanhaiguan to save money and let the court take a breather.Because once the imperial court spends less, the benefits they, corrupt officials, will get will be less.And those who dare to forcibly implement this strategy will not only bear the infamy of "abandoning the land of their ancestors", but also offend a lot of people, and most of them may not even be able to save their lives!
In this way, for the gray income of so many people, the Ming court could only bite the bullet and continue to insist on the Liaoxi fortress tactics until the whole country collapsed-in fact, even Sun Chengzong himself vaguely felt that this set The seemingly good and powerful fortress tactics have become a thing that harms the people like water transportation.But things have come to this point, even the founder himself has no way to change course.

——Any wrong strategic move, as long as it is convenient for the bureaucratic group to embezzle and distribute fat, then don’t try to change it.

sex

"...Hey, although I haven't been able to come up with a real solution, but this generation is far away from the rivers and lakes, and I can see the way. It can be seen that the Australian scribe who wrote this article must be well-informed and knowledgeable. If it can be said that he abandons the dark and turns to the bright, and serves the court..."

Zou Weilian muttered to this point, but suddenly burst out laughing—although this article has sharp eyes and sophisticated comments, the words and sentences are all in vernacular, which is quite vulgar, and there are not many allusions throughout the article.With this level of literary talent, at most he can be a child student, and he may not even be admitted as a scholar, let alone a Jinshi.For a person like this, in the imperial court of the Ming Dynasty, being able to serve as an aide to those lowly warriors is probably the best good fortune!

Thinking of this, Zou Weilian couldn't help but lose interest, and he didn't want to read any more, so he threw the "Research on War History" everywhere, got up and called for a servant to help him get dressed, and then came out of the study, stretched his waist, and moved his arms and legs , a breath of fresh air.

As soon as he walked out of the room, a steward came up to greet him, "...Master, you are up, do you want some refreshments?"

"...Oh, okay, let's eat it in the gazebo in the garden! What snacks do you have today?" Zou Weilian asked casually.

"...Australian sweet potatoes are steaming in the pot in the kitchen, and they are about to come out of the pot. There are also new Australian sweet corns on the market. I know that you are good for this, so I took a boat and ran a long way to Xiapuna Goods brought in at the side!" The manager said with a flattering smile, "...I also bought some Australian tomatoes, Australian sweet peppers and Australian cauliflower, and I am going to eat them in noodle soup for dinner!"

Hearing that there are Australian sweet corns for tea today, and sweet peppers, tomatoes and cauliflower for dinner, Zou Weilian couldn't help being very happy—although a gentleman is far away from the kitchen, it's another matter when it comes to eating.For all the gentlemen of Donglin who live in luxury and pay attention to food and clothing, of course, the more varied the ingredients, the better, and the fresher and more novel the better.Although all kinds of novel and exotic fruits and vegetables have been introduced to Daming from overseas over the years, in recent years, when Australian recipes and ingredients were introduced to the southeastern provinces, it still caused a huge sensation and sought after.

Take this Australian sweet potato as an example. Merchants who did business with overseas countries also shipped it a few years ago, but in terms of taste, it really cannot be compared with Australian sweet potato varieties.The sweet corn from the Australians tastes a hundred times better than the corn from the Flangji people of Xiyi.There are also tomatoes, cauliflower, sweet peppers, etc., all of which taste good and feel quite novel.It is said that the yield of rice in Australia is also extremely high, far better than that of middle-earth rice.

It's a pity that the Australian didn't know what secret method he used to buy Australian sweet potatoes, but he could only eat them, not grow them!Not that the sweet potatoes were pre-cooked so they couldn't germinate - after they were planted.The buds can grow, and the seedlings grow quite long, but the strange thing is that only seedlings will grow, but no potatoes!The same goes for several other Australian ingredients. Take the Australian tomatoes as an example. The fruits you buy are red, big and sweet, but if you plant them... the fruits produced are definitely small and sour, and the yield is still low. Surprisingly low, what a strange thing!

Therefore, as of now, most of the "Australian vegetables" on the market can only be provided by "Australians".I heard that in southern Fujian, these new crops have been promoted by the "work team" of the Australian thieves, but in northern Fujian where the imperial power still exists, only the Funingwei military household in Xiapu can obtain seeds and plant them... ...So the supply has been in short supply, and the vegetable vendors who go to Xiapu to buy goods have to queue up from time to time...

"...Hey, although this Australian gangster does not abide by the rules and regulations and is vulgar and illiterate, he is not only good at all kinds of crafts, but also has a lot of accomplishments in farming. It is a pity that he refuses to serve the court obediently. It's really a shame to bring harm to our country..." Zou Weilian was thinking in his heart, and was about to move to the gazebo, but another servant came running in shouting, "...Master, master!"

"...Shut up! Why are you yelling! What's the matter?" Zou Weilian frowned displeasedly.

"...Old...Master, there is a Master Zhang outside asking to see him, he seems to be from the south of the Yangtze River!" The servant hurriedly reported.

"...Oh? From Jiangnan? Is that the one who came last time?"

Hearing this, Governor Zou Weilian immediately got a black thread on his forehead—could it be that Zhang Dai from last time came again?

"...No, it's another Master Zhang who I don't know." The servant hurriedly replied, and at the same time handed over a beautiful name card with both hands.

Then, looking at the handwriting on the name post, Zou Weilian's complexion became even darker, "...Zhang Pu Zhang Gandu? Last time I finally got rid of Zhang Dai, a dude, why is this mad dog here now? Jiangnan What kind of trouble are the princes of Donglin planning?"

"...Then...Master, do you want to invite him in? Or are you not here?"

Seeing that the governor's face was not looking good, the servant cautiously asked tentatively.

"...The visitor is a guest, let's invite him in and have a look!" Governor Zou Weilian knew how difficult Zhang Pu was, but in the end he didn't dare to shut him down, "...I'll see you in the flower hall. The good refreshments are also brought over... Hey, why can't I let the old man be quiet for two days?"