Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 628 Preparation
The land of China in July ushered in the harvest season.In the area controlled by the new army in Heluo, after harvesting wheat, rice, and potatoes, flax will be harvested again.Seeing the prospect of flax, the planting area of ​​flax this year has increased by more than ten times compared to last year. There are large-scale plantings in Nanyang, Jingzhou, and Wuhan, and the growth is also very good. The fertility is sufficient, and there are not many pests. It's all right.That is, farmers have to work harder. The fatigue from harvesting potatoes has not yet dissipated, and it is time to harvest flax and retting. There is no rest all year round!

In the areas controlled by the New Army of Denglai, the scale of seafood processing factories and salt factories has expanded a lot. A large number of fishing boats go out to sea every day to catch fish and obtain the gifts of the sea. The fishing port has become the busiest place.Of course, the wheat harvest is also good. Some people planted a lot of cotton this year and also got a bumper harvest.

On Daming Road, the rush to harvest cotton has entered the peak period. Cotton farmers get up early and stay late, focusing on their own cotton fields. Horse-drawn carriages full of cotton come and go on the road. From time to time, some small cotton bridges are blown to the side of the road, and the road is white all the way.

In the Yinchuan Plain, farmers began harvesting sunflowers after harvesting rice and potatoes.Once the sunflowers are mature, they must be harvested immediately, otherwise the sunflower seeds will fall to the ground, and some of them will be lost every day they are harvested. Of course, the farmers who have worked hard for half a year are not willing to lose their harvest just like that. They race against time. He waved his sickle to the sunflowers.Sunflower seeds are piled up into small hills on the grain-drying fields in various towns in Yinchuan. After drying, some of these sunflower seeds will be fried with a little salt and sold in the customs as snacks, while most of them will be sent to squeeze. In the oil factory, the golden-yellow sunflower oil appeared in the kitchens of thousands of households. As for the oil residue left over from oil extraction, it would not be wasted. It was used to feed cows and chickens. They are all first-class feed. After several years The poor Tianxiong Army has no habit of wasting resources.

During this period of time, Ezhe's army stayed in Yinchuan to receive reorganization and training from the Tianxiong Army, and he only sent people back to Qinghai to symbolically report to Lin Dan Khan, while he stayed and seriously studied the etiquette and customs of the Han people. ,culture.After just staying in Yinchuan City for more than half a month, he found that he fell in love with this comfortable city life. He really didn't want to go back to the grassland to live in a bowl of rice and half a bowl of sand, and fall asleep with the smell of cow dung. day.Yes, he wants to stay in Yinchuan so that his descendants can live as comfortably as the Han people, without having to worry about the next meal all day long.Of course, he also witnessed the great harvest. More than once, he was stunned and envious of the mountains of rice, potatoes, and sunflower seeds.He said with emotion to his entourage: "The Han people are so smart. Give them a little bit of land and they can support themselves and live very well. However, even if we have a thousand acres of grassland, we will still have an extremely difficult life... If we If you want to grow stronger, you must learn farming from the Han people. If you rely solely on herding, you will only starve!"

This is the truth, the life of herdsmen is too hard.Thousand mu of grassland sounds scary, but in fact, it is thankful to be able to feed a hundred cattle and sheep. There are too many examples, but in the customs, those who own a thousand acres of land... are all fucking landowners, okay?
If the Mongols don’t want to live the hard life where even iron pots are regarded as family heirlooms, they can no longer blindly herd as before. They must learn farming from the Han people and get more gifts from the land.

The ability of the Han people to extract wealth from the land also opened Ezhe's eyes.Needless to say about planting, the Mongols have occupied the Hetao area for nearly 200 years, and they only know that the Hetao area is suitable for grazing. However, after the Tianxiong Army recaptured the Yinchuan Plain, they immediately drilled a dozen mines on the Shizuishan side. Now A large amount of coal is continuously transported out of these mines every day, supplying the whole of Yinchuan, and even radiating to the whole of Ningxia. This alone has created a lot of wealth!Coal is a good thing. With it, you don’t have to worry about burning out the firewood in winter and everyone will die of cold. Why didn’t you find such a good thing when the Mongolian tribes controlled the Yinchuan Plain before?In addition, they also found copper ore and iron ore from the exchanged land, which is being mined in large quantities. The tribe who traded the land for food has already passed out in the toilet... What is the most lacking on the grassland?The most iron deficiency ah!Fortunately, they walked on the iron mine every day without knowing it, and sold the entire mining area to the Tianxiong Army!The Mongolian tribes around Yinchuan sighed and looked at those tribes who thought they had taken advantage of it before, all with contempt on their faces.Then the Tianxiong Army discovered a large coal mine in the Alxa Grassland. Needless to say, everyone looked at the tribe that used to graze in the Alxa Grassland: Oh, there is another idiot among us!The tribes have agreed: don't make any exchanges with the Tianxiong Army easily in the future. If the Tianxiong Army wants to exchange something for their territory, don't rush to agree. Go back and find out what treasures there are on this land. Say it again!
Ezhe just smiled lightly at this.Even if the Tianxiong Army tells you that there are treasures on that land, so what?Do you have the ability to survey?Do you have enough technology and manpower to develop it?It's really naive.

"In fact, there are countless mineral deposits on the prairie, such as coal, copper, iron, alkali...they are too numerous to count. If you can mine these treasures buried in the ground, you can live well without grazing." During a conversation, Lu Xiangsheng said to E Zhe with emotion, "Your development of the grasslands is really too low. You only know about grazing. The forests in the east, the mineral deposits in the west, and the wetlands suitable for farming in the south have not been utilized. Really. Violence!"

Er Zhe was quite surprised: "Master Hou, how do you know this? Do you really have a pair of sky eyes like the legends, and you can see the mines buried in the ground?"

Lu Xiangsheng laughed dumbfounded: "How can I be so clever? I was told by a person. In fact, as early as last year, he told me that there is a lot of coal in the Yinchuan Plain. I dug according to the location he circled, and sure enough, I dug coal. .”

E Zhe repeatedly asked who that person was, but Lu Xiangsheng just smiled and did not answer.But this also gave Ezhe some comfort: It turns out that our grassland is not just a barren land, it’s just that we don’t know how to use it!As long as it is developed well, our prairie can still produce large quantities of grain, steel, cotton, and salt!However, like the people he laughed at, he only knew that there were treasures on the grassland, but had no idea how to develop these treasures. He could only sigh.

In E Zhe's opinion, Lu Xiangsheng should be the most gentle and wise Han Chinese. He is personable, sensible, and handles all kinds of complicated affairs with ease. Do it, and the results will come naturally.Every time he talked with this gentle and elegant Marquis, he benefited a lot. He hoped to have a long talk with Lu Xiangsheng all night. He had countless questions to ask Lu Xiangsheng for advice.It's a pity that Lu Xiangsheng has too many things to deal with, and such opportunities are rare.Looking at the flourishing Yinchuan City, and seeing the Han and Mongolian people living together peacefully as one family in the city, he said to his followers with emotion: "Among the Han people, there are civil officials like Lord Lu, and generals like General Qian. The Mongols have no chance at all!" He made up his mind that when he returned to Qinghai, he must persuade Lin Danhan to give up his ambition of unifying the grassland and splitting the court against the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty has too many talents. With Mongolia's size , can't beat them at all.

After a period of rest, the 3000 troops brought by E Zhe have recovered their vitality. They got rid of the smelly mouse fur coats and put on the iconic fiery red uniforms of the Tianxiong Army. The scimitar that was reimbursed was replaced by a horizontal knife that cuts iron like mud and a point steel spear with strong armor-piercing ability. As for the angle bow, it was replaced by a composite pulley bow that can shoot 300 meters away. The overall combat effectiveness has already improved. a step.However, after being beaten repeatedly by the cavalry of the Tianxiong Army in the confrontation, these Mongolian men lost confidence in their riding and shooting stunts.No matter how accurate the arrow is, so what?The family and horses are all wearing armor that arrows can't pierce, and they slam into the wall like a wall, even the best arrow skills are for nothing!What's more, the Tianxiong Army also has infantry regiments equipped with long-range muskets and terrifying artillery units. When fighting the Tianxiong Army, they don't know how they died!However, if you can't defeat the Tianxiong Army, it is also a very cool thing to follow the Tianxiong Army to hang and beat those Mongolian tribes that they don't like. The little prince said that there are a lot of treasures in the Hetao Plain. If you take it down, the entire grassland The Mongols can live a good life like the Han people. They are longing for this day to come, but they don't know when the Tianxiong Army will send troops.

The Tianxiong Army is indeed preparing to conquer the Hetao area.The conquest in Lu Xiangsheng's eyes is not simply to subdue the Mongols and let them bow their heads and bow down their heads, but to completely control the entire Mongolian plateau, let the Han people gain a firm foothold in the Mongolian plateau, and make the Mongols a part of Ming Dynasty. With saber and strong bow, go to fight for Ming Dynasty!However, it is not easy to achieve this. Success cannot be achieved by fighting a few battles. He has a lot of preparatory work to do, and the development of the Yinchuan Plain and the Datong Basin is just the beginning.He must integrate the resources of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Ningxia provinces, and open up a route from the grassland to Nanyang, so that the Heluo New Army can rush to help.He has been doing the former, and officials in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Ningxia and other places are also more cooperative, while the latter is ready-made. As early as 2000 years ago, the Qin Dynasty used hundreds of thousands of civilians to build a road from Xi'an to Baotou (which was then called Baotou). The expressway called Jiuyuan County)——Qin Zhidao, this highway has been playing an important role for 2000 years, all he needs to do is to make a little modification, and Qin Zhidao can make his army infinitely useful.As for the section from Nanyang to Xi'an, Yang Menglong expanded an avenue on the basis of the post road, which can pass four carriages side by side, and it is still a cement road. At present, this project has entered the middle stage. That day is the time when the army goes out of the customs with long songs and crosses beyond the Great Wall!
In Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Ningxia, tens of thousands of civilians are building bridges and paving roads, while the arsenals of the Heluo New Army and Tianxiong Army are manufacturing a large number of the most lethal weapons at this time day and night.Everyone is waiting, waiting for the moment when the Tianxiong Army bursts out from behind the side wall like a flood and overflows the grassland.

Dark clouds wrapped in torrential rain are accumulating over the prairie, and the tribes on the prairie can also feel the pressure of the storm coming. Many people are panicked and don't know what to do.At this special moment, a fast horse traveled through the misty Hexi Corridor and headed straight to Yinchuan, bringing an explosive news:

林丹汗病逝！
(End of this chapter)