The west wind was blowing, the flag was fluttering, Li Wenzhong was sitting on the horse, covered with a thick war coat, and the outer edges of the dog skin hanging down from the helmet protected his ears and neck.
Like him, the soldiers of the Ming army were wrapped tightly from head to toe, holding swords and guns in their hands. There were muskets and field artillery in the team, which could be said to be extremely armed.
This is also the reason why Li Wenzhong and others dared to sweep across Liaodong.
From the seventh year of Hongwu to the autumn of the ninth year of Hongwu, a period of almost two and a half years, the Ming Dynasty was relatively stable and there was no major movement.
But this is just from Yingtian. If you look at the whole country, it is no exaggeration to say that changes have never stopped.
Hu Dahai, the Duke of Yue, supervised the construction of five thousand miles of beacon towers, extending from Shanhaiguan to Datong, which was equivalent to adding an early warning line to the northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty.
Every autumn and winter, beacon fires burn and smoke rises everywhere.
The soldiers and horses of the Northern Yuan Dynasty went south to plunder from time to time. They attacked the beacon tower, plundered the people, and plundered the population. They were like a swarm of locusts, doing all kinds of evil and robbing everything.
Similarly, Zhu Wenzheng, Li Wenzhong, and many other generals decisively led their troops and fought back.
They even followed Lan Yu's example and sent elite cavalry directly into the grassland, setting fire to Bei Yuan's tents and resolutely expelled the Bei Yuan tribe, forcing them to retreat northward.
After more than two years of fighting, Zhu Wenzheng and Li Wenzhong had more than 30,000 elite cavalry.
You must know that when the Ming army first regained Peiping, they could only muster more than 10,000 cavalry, and the rest could only be regarded as mounted infantry.
Now there are more than 30,000 elite professional iron cavalry alone!
Behind the surge in cavalry, a large number of infantry and veterans left the military camp... However, only a small number of these people disarmed and returned to the countryside.
Tens of thousands of veterans were arranged in the land of Yanyun.
There are beacon towers, fortresses and piers, villages and towns, and even military villages and farms...there are veterans there.
The person who is busy with these things is none other than Prince Zhu Biao.
In this huge country, the most important thing is never the court's shrewd decision-making, but the down-to-earth implementation at the local level.
But these things are not so eye-catching, and many people are too lazy to write about them.
For example, when Zhang Ximeng was in Peking, he set the requirements for building a beacon tower. Then he returned to Beijing and the beacon tower was completed? What were you thinking?
It's thousands of miles away, requiring location inspections, building materials transportation, and manpower arrangements.
Hu Dahai worked day and night, and it was just beginning to take shape.
Another example is the division of provinces, which seems to have been successfully completed with just one order. Of course this is not the case. It would take several months to walk around the boundaries of each province.
Moreover, once the boundaries have been clearly drawn, the Yellow Register must be re-established, the households must be registered and the people must be registered, and the Fish Scale Register for taxation must be re-arranged, and the grain chiefs must be re-arranged, and routes must be planned.
Then in the newly designated provinces, government offices must be built and personnel assigned. They must establish management order for the population, land, taxation, criminal names, and...
All of this is simply trivial to the extreme.
The imperial decrees need to be communicated level by level, and the following matters need to be reported layer by layer... In the past two years or so, the Zhongshu Province has been extremely busy.
Li Shanchang, such a capable person, was a little overwhelmed.
He had to ask Zhu Yuanzhang to give Hu Weiyong the title of political participation, and then divided more than half of the official duties between Wang Guangyang and Hu Weiyong. But even so, the old man's wrinkles were getting deeper day by day.
Zhang Ximeng's side is not easy either. He has gained huge power for his subordinates.
But just setting up files for hundreds of officials has been busy until now, and it is only 80%.
It's not that the people below are lazy, it's just that they are too busy.
The files that originally existed in the Ministry of Personnel only included the ninth and eighteenth grades, and informal officials were not included at all. Military generals were not under their control, let alone yamen such as the Gongwei Division.
When they arrived at Zhang Ximeng's place, they had to take them all back, and at the same time, ten times the number of scribes had to be included. Military generals also had to take care of them. Even outstanding students in schools at all levels had to be included in the files of the lower provinces.
Liu Bowen and Yao Guangxiao, these are very capable people. Facing such a huge project, they can only do nothing. Apart from using the energy of Foolish Old Man to move mountains, there is no other way.
Don’t forget, Zhang Ximeng is also responsible for compiling history.
There is a voluminous historical material with extremely complex content.
Although there are a lot of famous scholars below, Zhang Ximeng is still very busy.
And that's not even the most troublesome thing. Zhang Ximeng got millions of taels of gold and silver from Zhu Yuanzhang, and wanted to invest in shipyards, go sailing, and explore overseas situations.
It would take several months for the fleet to go out, even to the nearest Ryukyu and Japanese countries.
Without enough preliminary work, everything is empty talk.
Therefore, these two years have been basically spent in complicated and trivial busyness.
Zhang Ximeng was like this, Zhu Yuanzhang was like this, and the Ming Dynasty was like this.
Fortunately, today, the harvest has almost begun.
After Zhu Biao returned to Beijing, in addition to going to Zhu Yuanzhang in the morning and evening to say hello, most of the time he went to Zhang Ximeng to see the revision of books in the National History Museum and to learn about the compilation of files in the provinces.
In addition, there are evaluations for hundreds of officials. From this year to the first half of next year, that is, ten years before Zhu Yuanzhang becomes emperor, a large-scale examination will be completed.
All officials, from top to bottom, pass the test one by one!
Everyone, including Zhang Ximeng, had to write a self-analysis and then hand it over to Zhu Yuanzhang so that Lao Zhu could decide whether to stay or go.
If Zhu Yuanzhang was angry for a moment, it would be over, and Zhang Ximeng would have no choice but to get out.
The horror of this thing is several times scarier than the List of Conferred Gods.
Civil and military officials, no one can escape.
Zhu Biao felt his scalp numb and shuddered just looking at it.
"Sir, I just checked the situation of the officials in Beiping. It is said that more than 30% of them are old officials left over from the Yuan Dynasty. From my understanding, I am afraid there are more. It should be 40%. There are still many
I changed my name privately.”
Zhang Ximeng is not surprised. At present, there is neither national anti-fraud nor facial recognition. It is not difficult for those old officials of the Yuan Dynasty to change their identities and go to other counties to take a new identity test.
Also, originally the control of the Yuan Dynasty was not tight, and the files were in a mess. Now that the Ming Dynasty was established, it took so long to just establish a preliminary system.
"Previously, the evaluations conducted by my subordinates were only trivial and did not touch the vital points. Does Your Highness know why?" Zhang Ximeng asked with a smile.
Zhu Biao was startled, and he said: "Sir, what my disciple said is not necessarily correct. I think what you mean is that you must first have a national system and a framework, and then you can work hard to achieve better governance!"
Zhang Ximeng said with a smile: "Yes, it seems that His Highness has indeed learned a lot of tricks in governing the country over the years!"
Zhu Biao's face turned red, "Sir, you are so complimentary. In fact, this disciple is still confused and doesn't know where to start."
"Then you let King Yan go and let him disturb a pool of spring water!" Zhang Ximeng turned the topic to Zhu Di again. Zhu Biao became more and more embarrassed, his face burning, "Sir, don't blame me, disciple. It's really not like this for a disciple to do this."
A good brother, I am ashamed of myself!"
Zhang Ximeng smiled and said: "What are you ashamed of! Zhu Di is the vassal king, Zhu Ping and Zhu Fan are the same. You want to become the emperor and sit on the dragon throne, but you can still think about brotherhood everywhere and delay state affairs? Say
After all, everyone plays their own role, they are just bricks and mortar of the Ming Dynasty."
Zhang Ximeng said: "But according to the information I got, King Yan Zhu Di made a lot of noise this time!"
Zhu Biao was startled subconsciously, because when Zhang Ximeng said big, it must be very big, and it was boundless.
"Sir, he, did he deal with the officials or kill the powerful? Or did he cause some big trouble?" Zhu Biao's heart was pounding. He felt that he had been hasty, mainly because he underestimated Zhu Laosi's ability.
"He gave Li Wenzhong and Zhu Wenzheng strict orders to lead the troops to capture Liaoyang and recover Liaodong. If they couldn't do it, they would be beheaded!"
"What?"
Zhu Biao was stunned, "Who gave him the courage? One is a cousin, the other is a cousin, and they are both generals in the army and have made great military exploits. Zhu Biao is not even tall, but he dares to order them and shout
Beating and screaming, is this kid crazy?
"Sir, I, I will write to them now to explain this matter. Fourth brother is really ridiculous!"
Zhang Ximeng couldn't help but smile, "Your Highness, I think what you should be thinking about is, if you win the battle, how will the credit be calculated?"
Zhu Biao was stunned, how to calculate it?
How does he know how to calculate!
"Sir, in the past few years, I have been hoarding food and grass, investigating the military situation, arranging troops and horses, and even repairing beacon towers. All of them have been prepared step by step. What credit can the fourth brother deserve!"
Zhang Ximeng laughed, "But he gave the order to send troops!"
Zhu Biao was stunned for a moment and was speechless. Just when he thought about asking Zhang Ximeng for advice, Zhang Ximeng shook his head repeatedly, "This is your family matter. I can't control it. You can find a way on your own!"
Zhu Biao was really in a dilemma. He couldn't sleep well for several days. He stared at the news from the Ministry of War, looking forward to the good news ahead, but also worried that he didn't know how to deal with the aftermath.
But no matter how anxious he was, the battle ahead was not something Zhu Biao could control.
Li Wenzhong marched hastily, and it took only half a month to reach the outside of Liaoyang City. At the same time, Guan Duo's troops entrenched in Yizhou and other places also attacked.
The forward of Guan Duo's army turned out to be an old friend, General Zhang Dingbian.
This man has a long sword and is invincible. He is a warrior who can put Chang Yuchun to shame.
The Liaodong Yuan Army, despite their virtue and ability, were able to enjoy this blessing!
What happened next was simple. The Ming army marched straight in, divided into groups and attacked, and recovered cities one by one. In a month, the Ming army expanded two thousand miles of territory, surrendered Mongolia and Jurchen tribes, totaling 200,000 tents, and most of Liaodong.
put down.
On the tenth day after Zhu Di arrived in Peiping, a huge pie hit him on the head.
"Congratulations to Your Highness, Congratulations to Your Highness! Your Highness is victorious. With just one order, you captured Liaodong!"
Zhu Di blinked his eyes a few times. Is this real? Why does it look like a dream?
Hua Wei also encouraged him to report his victory to Yingtian as soon as possible!
Zhu Di subconsciously touched his buttocks. He wrote Zhu Wenzheng and Li Wenzhong on the front, signed himself third, and then stamped the seal of the Beiping Remaining Department.