Zhu Cijiong said: "I don't know how long the naturalization battle will last."
Xu Yingwei said: "If the naturalization war can last for half a year, Khalkha Mongolia, Chahar Mongolia and even Junggar Mongolia will definitely not sit idly by and will definitely intervene in the war."
"I believe this," Chongzhen said, "but it's hard to say who will help whom."
Xu Yingwei said: "The Holy Spirit means that the Khalkha Mongolia, Chahar Mongolia and Junggar Mongolia may not necessarily be in the hypocritical camp? But they may turn to the slave camp?"
Chongzhen said: "The Khalkha Mongols are expected to be in the pseudo-submissive camp, but it is difficult to say for Chahar Mongolia and Junggar Mongolia. After all, Junggar Mongolia is now bordering the pseudo-submissive camp, but Jiannu and Junggar are separated by the pseudo-submissive and Kazakhstan
Erkha Mongolia, if we follow the diplomatic principle of distant relations and close attacks, the Junggars should stand as slaves."
Although this is just a guess by Chongzhen, it is based on countless historical facts.
In fact, the envoys who established the slaves have indeed found the Khalkha Mongolian tribes and the Junggar Mongolian tribes, and are engaged in a fierce diplomatic war with the hypocritical envoys.
As for Chahar Mongolia, hypocrisy is out of the question.
Dorgon has greatly strengthened his control over the Chahar tribes.
After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "To be honest, I can't see the future of the naturalization war clearly, but one thing is certain, that is, it will definitely not end in a short time."
Xu Yingwei said: "In other words, we have enough time to use troops against the southwest."
Yan Yingyuan said: "Since ancient times, the Central Plains dynasties have been extremely cautious in using troops in the southwest because the roads in the southwest are dangerous, the transportation of grain and grass is extremely difficult, and the local climate is also extremely harsh, so they must be fully prepared."
Xu Yingwei said: "What brother Jianheng said is absolutely true. We must be fully prepared for the use of troops in the southwest. First, we need to recruit a sufficient number of troops. Second, we need to transport food and fodder that is enough to sustain the army for a year.
The third is strategy. It is necessary to determine the chieftain policy after pacifying the Shadingzhou Rebellion in advance. Otherwise, the chieftains of Yunnan will easily revolt, the court will fall into the predicament of unproductive work, and the southwest will become a burden."
Xu Yingwei's words hit home.
Zhu Cijiong said: "The chieftain of Yunnan must change his position and return to his hometown."
Yan Yingyuan said: "Not only the chieftains of Yunnan, but also the chieftains of western Hunan and Hubei and the chieftains of Sichuan and Guizhou must be reformed. However, I believe that the reform of the local chieftains is a long-term process, and we must not rush it."
Chongzhen said: "Jian Heng's words are the words of a mature man who plans to seek the country."
Xu Yingwei said: "There is no problem with the strength of the troops in the southwest. The new army alone is enough. What's more, the Holy One is also planning to recruit the chieftain troops from western Hunan, Hubei and eastern Sichuan, so there is no problem. The only thing I am worried about is logistics.
The road from Wuchang to Yunnan is long, with high mountains and water barriers, and there are large and small toasts along the way."
"These chieftains may not have the courage to raise troops to rebel, but there is no guarantee that they will not attack the imperial convoy."
"Especially the chieftains in Yunnan, because of the Shadingzhou Rebellion, they will always have dissent, which makes it extremely difficult to ensure logistical supply channels."
Zhu Cijiong said with deep understanding: "The army has not yet been transported, and food and grass go first. If the safety of the logistics supply channels cannot be guaranteed, the more troops gathered on the front line, the more dangerous it will be."
Yan Yingyuan said: "So we need an elite army to ensure the safety of the food road."
Chongzhen said: "As long as there are five thousand flintlock muskets, it is enough to ensure the safety of the supply line."
After a pause, he continued: "Speaking of flintlock guns, the iron smelting factory in Hanyang has been built. It is said that the first furnace of molten iron was smelted three days ago. Let's go to the factory now to have a look."
Zhu Cijiong, Xu Yingwei and Yan Yingyuan happily accepted the order.
At that time, Chongzhen crossed the river to Hanyang under the escort of Yiding.
After Wu Jinxi received the news, he brought people to the riverside to meet him in advance.
He also took Chongzhen and his party to the Hanyang Iron Smelting Factory at the northern foot of Guishan Mountain.
I saw that rows of mud houses, at least thousands, had been built between the northern foot of Guishan Mountain and the Han River.
The entire iron smelting factory is surrounded by a five-foot-high wall, and there is a watchtower every fifty steps. New Army troops are already standing guard on the watchtower, and there are New Army patrols patrolling inside and outside the wall.
Therefore, this is not only an iron smelting factory, but also a large barracks, and even more, a large prison.
"Your Majesty, this area is a detention area. After work ends in the evening, all laborers will be escorted back here to facilitate centralized supervision." Wu Jinxi first pointed to the rows of dirt houses, and then pointed to the Guishan Mountain in front of him.
Beilu said, "The smelting factory is at the foot of the mountain in front, covering an area of tens of thousands of acres."
After walking for almost half an hour, we finally arrived at the foot of Guishan Mountain.
Chongzhen saw two earth mountains at a glance, one earth mountain was brown and the other was black.
"Please take a look, Your Majesty." Wu Jinxi pointed to the two mountains of earth and said, "The brown ones are minerals and the black ones are coal. They are both mined from nearby mines. There are large amounts of mineral deposits underground in Wuchang Prefecture and surrounding counties.
Not only iron ore and coal, but also copper ore, etc., but the good and the bad are mixed and difficult to sort out."
Chongzhen is very aware of this situation. The grade of domestic metal mineral deposits is generally not high.
For example, for iron ore, there are almost no rich ores with more than 40% in China, while most of the iron ore in Australia has a grade of 60%.
What’s more, Australia’s iron ore deposits are almost all superficial. Unlike domestic iron deposits, which are deep underground and very difficult to mine. To be honest, such a fertile land eventually became a place of crime where criminals were exiled.
It is truly a waste, so in this world, Chongzhen will never tolerate such a thing happening again.
When I got closer, I saw teams of laborers using chicken buses to continuously transport mineral materials and coal from the docks on the Han River to the mountains.
New troops were standing guard all the way from the riverside to the factory.
After turning two mountains of earth, towering furnaces suddenly appeared in front of them, and they were smoking.
There are also teams of laborers with bare chests and backs, standing in front of the bellows in front of the furnace, blowing the wind with all their strength.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Your Majesty, please look here again." Wu Jinxi brought Chongzhen to a blast furnace, "This is the newly built iron-making furnace. Each furnace can smelt twenty thousand kilograms of ore.
It takes six hours to make a furnace, and each furnace can produce six thousand catties of iron. It is very strange that such an iron-making furnace can produce twelve thousand catties of iron in one day."
Chongzhen walked carefully around the iron-making furnace.
This thing looks no different from the earthen blast furnace of a certain era.
The earthen blast furnaces of a certain era caused great damage to the environment, especially irreparable damage to forest coverage, but in this era there is no need to consider environmental protection.
The industrial age has not even officially begun yet, so how can we talk about environmental protection?
Chongzhen carefully observed the construction craftsmanship and found that it was quite elegant.
This is enough to prove that the iron-making technology of the Ming Dynasty was actually very mature. Whether it was building a blast furnace, refining coke, or frying steel, the steel filling method already had a mature process.
What surprised Chongzhen was that the Ming Dynasty actually had a coking process.
For example, at this time, there are piles of coke piled next to the iron-making furnace.
Seeing Chongzhen staring at the coke, Wu Jinxi immediately explained: "Your Majesty, there is too much coal sludge near Wuchang, which is really not good. Even if it is refined into coke, it is not as good as the coke produced in Shanxi. Therefore, the refined iron
The quality of the materials is not good, not to mention compared to Fujian Iron, even Guangdong Iron is quite inferior."
The best iron material in the Ming Dynasty was Fujian iron, which was refined with charcoal.
After Fujian Iron, it was Guangdong Iron's turn, which was refined in Foshan, Guangdong.
Chongzhen said helplessly: "But now Shanxi is under the control of the establishment, not to mention that Shanxi's roads are far away, and it is impossible to transport coal from Shanxi to Hankou. What can be done?"
If we have entered the industrial age, we can build a railway.
But the problem is that we haven’t even built a steam engine verification machine yet, so what’s the use of building a railway?
Wu Jinxi said: "It is naturally impossible for coal from Shanxi to be transported to Hankou, but coal from Shizhouwei can be transported to Hankou via the Yishui River and the Dishui River. In addition, the iron ore in Shizhou is better than the iron ore in Wuchang."
Speaking of this meal, Wu Jinxi said again: "So I ask you to open a mine in Shizhouwei."
"That's no problem." Chongzhen agreed, "As long as you think it's necessary, you can do it."
"Including those 100,000 laborers, they are all at your disposal." Speaking of this, Chongzhen continued, "I only want you to promise one thing, which is to produce 20 million jins of iron per year! If you can't do it, I will
I’m going to ask you for it.”
"Twenty million kilograms is no problem at all." Wu Jinxi pointed at the iron-making furnace and said, "It's just that for this furnace, as long as the mineral materials and coke can be supplied in full, four million kilograms of iron can be produced in a year."
"So we only need to build five such iron-making furnaces, which can produce 20 million kilograms of iron a year!"
"That's really good." Chongzhen asked happily, "How many iron-making furnaces like this have been built?"
Speaking of this, Wu Jinxi showed an embarrassed look on his face, coughed slightly and said: "Back to the Holy Spirit, ten iron-making furnaces like this have been built, but it is rare to make one furnace in three days."
Upon hearing this, Chongzhen understood that the problem was not in the iron-making furnace.
Building a steel plant is a systematic project, it does not mean finding a place to build an iron-making furnace and then being done.
You have to have iron ore, you have to open the mine, and after you open the mine you have to transport it, and after transporting it to the iron smelting plant, it needs to be processed, and then the coal has to be mined, transported, and coked.
From nothing to building a large iron-making factory, there are too many things to do.
It was extremely difficult for Wu Jinxi to build the workshop and smelt the first furnace of iron in such a short period of time. We cannot ask more of him. It has to be said that the Ming Dynasty did not lack talents.
There is no shortage of people to lead troops, there is no shortage of people to manage politics, and there are also many talented technical officials.
But no matter how many talents there are, they still lose out to land annexation, which is really disappointing.
At that moment, Chongzhen said: "Wu Qing, don't be too anxious. This year, you only need to build the site first and then straighten out all the links. From next year, I will ask you for sufficient iron materials."
