With the advanced thunderbolts, the Red Shirt Army's hot weapon level has risen to a higher level. The continuous increase in firepower has greatly reduced the chance of using the bayonet. It does not require face-to-face hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. This is an advantage for the Red Shirt Army who lack experience in hand-to-hand combat.
The great advantage is that as long as the soldiers shoot at enemies far away, everything will be fine.
In this battle, the Xixia army was defeated, all the infantry collapsed, and the cavalry had to retreat from Jiayuguan. The siege of Zhangye was lifted. However, Liu Ziguang did not enter Zhangye and still camped outside the city. He only ordered the generals of the Western army in the city to come to pay homage to the commander-in-chief.
Liu Ziguang wrested the command of the Western Army from Yuan Chonghuan and now became the real general of the Western Conquest. Liu Zongmin was unhappy and feared that Liu Ziguang would bear the grudge against him. He excused his injury and did not go to see the general, and instead appointed his subordinate Hao Yaoqi and others.
A group of officers went to listen to the order.
However, Liu Ziguang ignored the past grievances and ordered people to distribute grain to the Western Army. However, the grain and grass officer had a preoccupation and sent the worst grain to Hao Yaoqi and others. Hao Yaoqi and others took dozens of carts of white flour and canned food back.
After that, we will immediately light a fire to cook, make white flour pancakes and eat them from canned food.
This kind of can is not produced by the Shanghai Meilin Can Factory, but by some small factories in the south of the Yangtze River. They were put on the purchase list through some unknown relationship with the officials in charge of the Ministry of War. The cans are made from the meat of wild dogs and pigs that died of the plague in the countryside, and are added to the purchase list.
After steaming the peppercorns and aniseed at high temperature, they put them into earthen jars, sealed them with iron lids, and then loaded them grandly to the Western Regions. Many of the earthen jars that had been bumped along the way could not be kept sealed, and the taste was extremely bad, so
Not even the red shirts like to eat this.
But Hao Yaoqi and the others were not so picky. They had eaten all kinds of garbage during the siege of Zhangye for several months. Now eating such spoiled cans was like a delicacy in the Qiong Palace. Huotoujun even opened a few cans of meat and poured them out.
He went into the big pot, boiled a big pot of hot broth, and put sliced noodles in it. Everyone shed tears while eating, and they all lamented that Mr. Liu Ziguang had a lot of food, and regardless of previous suspicions, Liu Zongmin snatched his wife, and the Western Army
At one time, he gave the red-shirted soldiers little shoes to wear, but now they brought out such delicacies to support themselves. People's hearts are full of flesh, and people are so repaying evil with kindness. What else can I say? From then on, Liu Zongmin's troops in the Western Army no longer
He hated the Red Shirt Army, but Liu Zongmin himself could not let go of his grudge. He suspected that Liu Ziguang was deliberately trying to buy people's hearts and alienate his relationship with his subordinates. From then on, he hated this man even more.
After the defeat of Danzila, a large number of soldiers surrendered to the Ming army, and Liu Ziguang took them all. Wu Sangui and others were worried that too many prisoners would cause instability in the rear and insufficient supply of military rations, so they suggested following the example of their predecessors and killing the prisoners, but Liu Ziguang disagreed.
, building the railway from Chang'an to Jiayuguan requires no less than hundreds of thousands of workers, and these prisoners come in handy. As for logistical problems, there is no need to worry at all. They have no idea how strong the financial and material resources of the Ming Dynasty are now. It is only a quarter of Huguang.
The grain in the country is enough to feed everyone in the world. Coupled with the cheap rice shipped from Siam, Annan, Taiwan and other places, granaries everywhere are full. There is too much old grain and there is no place to put it, so it can only be used to feed livestock.
As for the issue of clothing, Songjiang Prefecture produces millions of pieces of cotton cloth a year. Even if the whole country makes two sets of new clothes every year, there is still a surplus. New textile machinery and jacquard machines have greatly improved the output and quality of cotton cloth, and Jiangnan Water
The nets are dense and the breeding industry is developed. A large amount of duck down was originally wasted. Now it has replaced cotton batting and become the filling material of military uniforms. The red shirts worn by the red shirts have an outer layer of satin, an inner layer of poplin (all cotton fabrics), and the middle layer is filled with duck down.
The light and warm military uniforms will not feel cold even in the bitter cold places of the Western Regions.
At present, all the power of the country is being used in the west. Because the emperor is very happy about his victory and hopes to be enshrined in Mount Tai after the victory, he supports the war without reservation. The big officials of the court have a lot of war bonds on hand. The victory of the west has nothing to do with their success.
The interests were closely related, so everyone gave their full support to the war. No one dared to neglect the reports from the west, and they were all completed on the same day.
The people are also very concerned about the war, because countless factories rely on the war to make a fortune. The Western Expeditionary Army is fed, clothed and consumed, the laying of the Western Region Railway, and the production of various new weapons have provided a large number of labor positions and opportunities to make a fortune. Who can
Once you get the order from the Ministry of War, it will be considered a big deal. That is a big contract worth tens of thousands of taels.
There are also those who take advantage of the troubled waters, trying to produce some fake and shoddy products to get through the customs in exchange for silver. However, these people are quickly dealt with. As long as there is a little dissatisfaction on the front line, the South Factory will investigate and deal with the suppliers, let's talk about the batch of inferior cans. Now the factory has closed
The seal of the Nanjishi Factory was affixed, the boss was arrested, and the official responsible for the review from the Ministry of War was also investigated and punished.
The war between the two countries is based on national strength. The Ming Dynasty has entered the era of imperial bureaucratic capitalism, and the army has also entered the age of firearms. The Galdan regime is a perfect feudal monarchy, and the army has reached the peak of the cold weapon age.
, if the Ming Dynasty went back twenty years, it would definitely not be the opponent of Xixia. Fortunately, in these twenty years, science and technology have undergone earth-shaking changes. The older generation Peng Jianguo and others used steam engines to drive industrial civilization, and the new generation
Liu Ziguang and others created a revolution in war technology, leaving the cold weapon era far behind. Even heroes with great talents and strategies like Kangxi and Galdan could only feel helpless in the face of overwhelming technological advantages.
The Ming Dynasty mobilized the whole country to fight this war. Countless materials were transported to Chang'an by land and water, and then transferred to Lanzhou. They were sorted according to priority and then transported to the front line of Zhangye by air or camel team. There was a constant flow of traffic on the Hexi Corridor. Those who used to travel on the Silk Road
Businessmen on the road were also recruited and contracted the army's transportation business. At one time, millions of people led their own mules, horses and camels into the torrent in front of the branch, from Chang'an to Tianshui to Lanzhou, from Lanzhou to Jinchang, Zhangye
, Jiuquan, and Jiayuguan are unprecedentedly busy. In addition to transportation teams, there are also a large number of horse and carriage shops serving transportation personnel. Restaurants and brothels have also sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. All savvy businessmen across the country have set their sights on the Western Regions.
A large-scale development of the western region in the Year of Apocalypse began with great vigor.
The laying work of the railway progressed rapidly. Liu Ziguang transferred Liu Zhijun, the former prefect of Ezhou, to serve as the fourth rank supervisor of the railway yamen. He also dispatched a large number of supervisors and technical personnel from Liguo Iron Works and Qishuyan Machinery Factory. With their full cooperation and
Thanks to the hard work of 100,000 railway soldiers and 100,000 prisoners, the railway extended westward at an astonishing speed.
After Danzila's defeat, he still had 20,000 to 30,000 cavalry, but the weather was freezing, the horses had no fodder, and the soldiers had no food. Countless people were lost due to cold and hunger every day, and the 50,000 troops previously sent to attack Jiayuguan returned without success.
Trapped in Jiuquan City and struggling to hold on, the cannons of the Red Shirt Army outside roared day and night. The people in the city were panicked and the morale of the soldiers was unstable. Just imagine that half a month ago they were the besiegers, and now they have become the besieged. This retribution is inevitable.
quick.
With airships and cannons, it was easy for the Red Shirt Army to break into the city. However, in order to reduce unnecessary casualties, they just surrounded but did not attack, waiting for the people in the city to die of cold and starvation. Danzila did not have the determination of Wu Sangui and others, and did not wait until
Killing horses to satisfy hunger, he decided to break out of the encirclement. He abandoned tens of thousands of infantry and led 10,000 strong cavalry out of the city, heading straight for the Qilian Mountains, intending to cross the high mountains and return to his hometown.
The Ming army knew the principle of not pursuing the enemy when they were poor, and allowed them to enter the Qilian Mountains before returning in triumph. Jiuquan City was destroyed and tens of thousands of prisoners were taken. Liu Ziguang still incorporated them into the labor force to build the railway. Now the number of workers is as high as 20
It would be a waste to spend more than 10,000 yuan on building the railway, so a wide road with eight horses walking abreast was built along the railway. Drainage ditches were dug on both sides. The road was flat and solid, and sprinkled with gravel, so it could run smoothly even on rainy days.
No hindrance.
The Ming Dynasty is carrying out the development of the west in full swing, but there is no movement at all in Xixia. I heard that the Seven Swords of Tianshan launched several assassinations against His Majesty Galdan. The imperial court was tired of dealing with the assassinations, and it was winter.
The reason was that it was inconvenient to recruit soldiers and food, so the war was temporarily suspended.
The Ming army conquered Jiayuguan and finally completed the unification from Shanhaiguan to Jiayuguan. From then on, all the land within the Great Wall belonged to the Han people. Liu Ziguang was not in a hurry to leave the pass to fight. He wanted to consolidate the occupied area and plan the next step.
.
Beyond Jiayuguan, there is the vast desert and Gobi, as well as basins, mountains, plains and river valleys, surrounded by the Altai Mountains, Karakoram Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, Altun Mountains, and across the Tianshan Mountains, Tarim River, Erqi Mountains in the middle
Si River, Ili River nourishes this land with a radius of thousands of miles.
This land was called Xinjiang in Liu Ziguang's mind, but now there is no such name. It is just called the Western Regions in general. The Central Plains regime once established the Western Regions Protectorate in the Western Han Dynasty. There were corresponding regulations in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Tang Dynasty.
The effective rule of the Western Regions was that the Ming Dynasty also established the Hami Guard, so this area should be regarded as the sacred territory of the Ming Dynasty since ancient times. Conquering it was just to regain lost territory.
The complete conquest of the Western Regions requires colonization, but the Han people do not like to migrate due to their national nature. In order to change this habit, Liu Ziguang wrote a song himself, asked Dong Xiaowan to help compose the music, and ordered people to sing it throughout the Central Plains.
To attract Han immigrants, the lyrics are as follows:
Our Western Region is a great place
Good pastures in the north and south of Tianshan Mountains
Gobi beach turns into fertile farmland
Melting snow irrigates the farm
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on
our beautiful countryside
our lovely hometown
our beautiful countryside
our lovely hometown
The golden ears of wheat and the fragrance of rice flowers
Cows and sheep are visible in windblown grass
Grape melon fruit is sweet and sweet
Coal, iron, gold and silver are hidden everywhere
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on
Great unity of people of all ethnic groups
Praise to the Holy God Tianqi
Great unity of people of all ethnic groups
Praise to the Holy God Tianqi
Bounce your dongbula
Dance and sing
Great unity of people of all ethnic groups
Praise to the Holy God Tianqi
Great unity of people of all ethnic groups
Praise to the Holy God Tianqi
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on