The days in Beijing are getting hotter and hotter, but the nights are still comfortable for the time being.
Wang Hongyu gave the order to set off before the hottest heat and frequent rainstorms.
From Beijing to Yunyang.
Take the fastest official road, which passes through Baoding Prefecture, Shunde Prefecture, Daming Prefecture, Kaifeng Prefecture, Nanyang Prefecture, Xiangyang Prefecture, and finally arrives at Yunyang Prefecture.
Along the way there are various prefectures, counties, towns, and inns where you can rest.
The main force of troops usually camp and rest in the wild, but some people can also go to the city to stay, live in inns or go to villages and towns to stay overnight.
There are more than 3,000 people in a group. It is impossible to crowd together and walk together, but must be arranged in order.
Wang Hongyu made a plan.
He is the leader and pretends to be in front.
Qin Ling, Zhou Yijie, Li Tiezhu and a small number of scouts, guards and others followed him to clear the way. Everyone was wearing casual clothes, familiar with the local customs, and accumulated some useful information to prepare for future connections and industry development.
Missionaries, craftsmen and mobile libraries are in the middle. Mobile libraries must play some role, and their participation is also required when it comes to preparing industries along the way.
The eldest brother Coffin and the Hunhe Army were escorted back.
This was an important matter approved by Tianqi's edict. While they were on their way, they publicized the heroic deeds of the bloody battle of Hunhe River. At the same time, they also did a small amount of recruitment and made some preparations for the subsequent expansion of the new army.
The group was ready to leave immediately.
Because the Donglin Party framed Wang Hongyu, the anti-establishment slave hero, some time ago, story briefs and narratives about the Ming army led by the Southern Army fighting against the establishment slave invasion of Liaodong can be seen everywhere, and some people even compiled these stories into scripts and put them on the stage.
At dawn on the tenth day of June, Wang Hongyu, the first group of people including Qin Ling, Zhou Yijie, Li Tiezhu and a small number of scouts and guards were about to leave, when someone came to report:
On the main street from Tongzhou to Baoding, tens of thousands of people within several miles on both sides of the road spontaneously saw off Zhou Dunji. Most of them brought white flowers, and some wore hemp and mourning, waiting for Zhou Dunji's coffin.
Emperor Tianqi and Wang Hongyu escorted Zhou Dunji's coffin back to his hometown in such a high-profile manner in order to make the people of the country not forget their country's hatred and family feud, and to arouse the people's patriotism and enthusiasm to support the hero.
Unexpectedly, the effect was so good, Wang Hongyu was almost caught off guard. At least he was prepared, otherwise the situation in front of him would be difficult to deal with.
After a while, the gate of the Hunhe Army barracks opened, and in front was a group of people holding elegiac couplets, flags, and spears.
The blue elegiac couplet is written with big white characters, the left couplet: far-sighted, endure humiliation, strategize and win a thousand miles; the right couplet: perseverance, unswervingly go forward and fight bloody battles; the horizontal couplet: the spirit of the army will last forever.
On the left and right are two teams of guardian warriors wearing white helmets and white armor, holding spears eight feet long on their shoulders; sixteen tall and strong soldiers wearing white mourning uniforms are carrying Zhou Dunji's red coffin in the center, covered with a tent.
Even after the escort team had gone away, the people still couldn't kneel down. Even after the death of Emperor Wanli and Emperor Taichang, the grief never appeared.
Someone had already prepared tea and dry food in Shili Changting, and large and small cars were parked on both sides of the official road. This was another wave of farewell teams waiting in the distance. They already knew that the streets of Tongzhou were already filled with people seeing him off.
My uncles Liu Ruoyu, Meng Biao and others came to see me off, bringing a lot of dried fruits, preserved meats and other food, as well as a small and lightweight self-ringing bell.
Meng Biao also sent a dozen trustworthy confidants with good business skills to follow Wang Hongyu.
Ai Youzhi came to see him off and told his respected master Zou Yuanbiao that the academy would always be open for him. He would protect the southwest and deal with the two chieftains in She'an. Zou Yuanbiao would give sufficient support to this matter in the court and be willing to train hard-working officials.
, to revitalize the Ming Dynasty together.
No longer lingering.
Wang Hongyu and others set off immediately, with dozens of people in civilian clothes riding horses in front, the mobile library in the middle, and the Hunhe Army carrying Zhou Dunji's coffin in the back.
Early the next morning, Wang Hongyu arrived at Baoding Mansion as scheduled.
There are plains outside Baoding City, and it is the time when wheat is about to be harvested.
At this time, rice had not yet been widely spread north of the Yellow River due to temperature, water use and breeding reasons.
Corn, sweet potatoes and other American crops were brought to Luzon by the Aceban Ya people, and then introduced to Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi. Gradual selection and adaptation would take a long time to reach Hebei.
In the central and southern parts of Northern Zhili, including Baoding, two crops are planted a year. Winter wheat is usually planted in early winter and harvested in summer. Then millet, commonly known as millet, is planted and harvested in late autumn.
At this time, in the endless fields outside the city, many hardworking farmers harvested wheat and planted millet.
This scene is rare to see north of Beijing.
Because of the coldness of the Little Ice Age, the northern part of Beizhili was too cold to plant winter wheat in winter. We had to wait until spring to plant spring wheat and harvest it in autumn.
So it can only be ripe once a year.
This is also one of the important reasons why it is not suitable to choose to open your first base outside the customs.
The economic foundation is the key.
With only one crop a year and a yield of 200 jin per mu, it is difficult to support a sufficient number of off-the-job soldiers.
Without food transported by sea and land transportation by the imperial court, the main force outside the customs could only be half-farming and half-fighting troops.
However, the soldiers and horses who were not out of work could no longer adapt to the cruel challenges from the late Ming Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty.
Nurhachi looted and supported tens of thousands of elite off-duty soldiers every year. If they were to deal with light-armored non-off-duty soldiers, one of them could kill ten.
After the loss of Liaoshen, the entire grain output north of the capital was not enough to support more than three times the Eight Banners' military strength.
Therefore, the economic foundation is the key, especially solving the problem of food first.
Once an area can achieve two crops a year, farming can often be established.
This has also been the dividing line between farming and nomadism since ancient times.
Of course, the Ming Dynasty also had its own herding and its own farming population in Northwest Africa.
That's why there are elite cavalry on three sides.
Wang Hongyu stopped and looked around. No place suitable for farming outside Baoding City was abandoned. There was no disaster here this year. The farmers' hard work can bear fruit in not starving.
When we arrived at the city gate, we saw merchants and people coming and going in an endless stream.
Although the people are dark and thin, there have not yet been terrible droughts, locust plagues, or plagues, nor have the Liao Dynasty imposed ever-increasing taxes, nor have the Manchu and Qing dynasties frequently broken through and robbed everything north of the Yellow River.
There is no peasant uprising, no apocalyptic situation...
This is the real scene in 1621, the first year of the Apocalypse.
If history continues as usual, in a few years the Manchu and Mongolian armies will break through the wall and grab whatever they go, leaving nothing but white ground wherever they go.
If you don't hide in the city, you will be captured and made into a slave.
If you hide in the city, you will lose all your livestock and tools.
The farming season was delayed and there were no seed tools.
There will be additional Liao rates in the second year...
Before I had time to think about what to do, drought, locust plagues, and plague came all at once, and exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes suddenly increased.
Many people will die in three years, but those who survive may be able to breathe a little.
The Manchus, Qing Dynasties and Mongolia broke through the wall again...
The farmers at that time will face such a tragic situation.