The arrival of the Russians did not cause any waves in Fengjing, but it gave the Manchus a great sense of security.
Without him, the Russian caravan brought 30,000 kilograms of gunpowder, which is about 500 barrels of gunpowder.
For the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, what restricted their combat effectiveness was gunpowder and armor. The abundance of gunpowder was enough for them to take advantage of the large and small.
After the colonial strongholds such as Barguzin were occupied, the Russians actually wanted to fight back, but geographical factors and financial constraints forced them to give in.
The Russians needed mink skins to resell and ease their finances; the Manchus needed iron tools and gunpowder to finance the war.
The relationship between the two quickly heated up.
After the Ming Dynasty took over the Western Regions, the Russians became the active party. They were eager to check and balance the Ming army, and the Manchus were an important part of it.
It is conceivable that as Ming Dynasty becomes more and more powerful, the relationship between the two will continue to develop, and even form an alliance.
In the dead of night, Fan Wencheng met Hong Chengchou.
"Yanyan, do you think we can take down the tribes in Mobei?"
Fan Wencheng poured a cup of tea.
"Yes." Hong Chengchou raised his head and said decisively: "The tribes in Mobei are already in the bag."
"However, the Ming army will not give up."
Fan Wencheng's face was filled with sadness: "You and I both know that Mobei is barren and there are almost no iron ores. It is extremely difficult to maintain the city of Fengjing."
"Now that once Mobei is captured, the Ming Dynasty will definitely not let it go, and it will definitely be difficult for the imperial court to settle down and build a city."
"In the end, like those Mongolians, they were nomadic, drinking blood from their hair, wanting tea but not getting it, and being bullied by merchants——"
Fan Wencheng sighed: "Although the porcelain in my hands is rough, it is difficult to find a complete set of tea sets even in my home. My grandchildren can only drink tea from pottery."
Hong Chengchou fell silent.
The poverty of Mobei is not just talk.
In the past, porcelain fired in private kilns was thrown away by servants, but now it is worth thousands of gold on the grassland.
Merchants are unwilling to transport fragile porcelain, and it is often broken, not to mention that it is across Mobei, so the price is naturally extremely high.
Without iron ore, farm tools, and weapons cannot be forged; without tea, greasy meat and dairy products can kill people and make them sick.
Food was highly prized and could not make wine; cloth was scarce, so the nobles could only wear felts and look unkempt.
Although Fengjing City is maintained well now, it is just lingering on. If it continues, it is not far away that the Manchu Qing court will become completely nomadic.
Just like the Yuan Dynasty back then, after decades of returning the grasslands, the centralization of power soon degenerated. Even Genghis Khan's thousand-household system could not be maintained, and it became a complete feudal lord.
Nowadays, this trend in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties is very obvious.
"A few years ago, in order to replenish their strength, those Eight Banners nobles advocated carving up Buryat Mongolia. The pastures and herdsmen were all divided up. Although the court occupied the majority, the Eight Banners took a big share."
Fan Wencheng recounted, with worry on his face: "Over the past few years, these nobles have their own tribesmen. Although they are still very obedient now, what about the future?"
"As you think, if we annex the entire Zasak Tribe and the Tuxie Tuhan Tribe, then the imperial court will not be able to directly control such a vast grassland—"
Hong Chengchou suddenly realized and was startled: "You mean, this will be another enfeoffment?"
"That's right." Fan Wencheng squinted: "The nobles will definitely demand to divide the tribes, and the emperor and the court cannot go against the will of the people, and they are beyond their reach..."
Hong Chengchou went on to say: "In order to reward the merits and completely swallow up the Mobei tribes, rather than letting the original nobles occupy it, it is better to let the Eight Banners rule -"
At this point, he completely understood: "If we do this, we will follow the old path of the Mongol Empire."
"That's right." Fan Wencheng said concisely and concisely: "There is still nothing happening in the contemporary era. In three to five years, ten years or more, after the next generation, the nobles of the Eight Banners will inevitably become disloyal and the imperial court will collapse without a fight -"
"Then, don't send troops?" Hong Chengchou asked tentatively.
"If we don't send troops, wouldn't the Chechen Khan's annexation be in vain? After training the Eight Banners nobles for many years, wouldn't it be that resentment is everywhere?"
Fan Wencheng chuckled and said: "Now the arrow is on the string and I have to shoot it."
Good guy, Hong Chengchou is completely clear.
The entire Mobei has been annexed. Unless they can quickly consolidate their strength and move south to the Central Plains again, the Qing Dynasty will be over sooner or later.
In other words, when Shunzhi returns to the west, the court will be finished.
Even before that time, after annexing the tribes in Mobei, the strength of the Eight Banners nobles and the Mongolian nobles will skyrocket. Once they unite, it will be easy to overthrow the imperial court.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but lose interest, and he seemed to have no strength left in his body.
Now that he is old, the only thing that can support him in continuing to do things is to go to the dark side.
But now, even if he wants to break his head, he still feels that it is impossible to continue to dominate the Central Plains.
In other words, even in the Chongzhen Dynasty, as long as the court was more careful, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties would not be able to enter the pass at all. It would only become a scabies disease, and at most it would be the second in the Northern Yuan Dynasty.
It is too difficult to enter the customs at this time...
"Mr. Fan, I finally understand Zhuge Liang's difficulty." Hong Chengchou sighed a few words, sat down on the fire bed, turned his head and said:
"God's will is hard to do, the general trend is unstoppable, and all the mechanisms are in vain -"
After saying this, Hong Chengchou said goodbye and left.
As soon as he left the house, he heard the news:
Zu Dashou died of illness...
Hong Chengchou stopped, looked back and saw Fan Wencheng hurried out, glanced at each other, and walked side by side towards the palace.
Although Zu Dashou has been under house arrest, his sons, grandsons, and nephews are all generals, generals, and generals in the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty.
As a representative figure of the Han army, he caused a lot of waves.
Fan Wencheng even felt a sense of bleak autumn wind.
The death of Zu Dashou meant the decline of Ming generals. The Manchu Qing Dynasty wanted to replenish talents as before, which would never happen again in the future.
At this time, in Liaodong Province, it is already the season when the heavy snow melts and everything revives.
Shenyang Prefecture, Chang'an County.
In the shooting range, there was a sudden "whoosh" sound, and a hardwood arrow was shot towards the target. The arrow flew about ten feet and fell into the weeds, still three or four feet away from the target.
With the bow arm in hand, Cao Xi could still feel the "buzzing" sound of the bow string, but he heard a "chi" smile behind him. Looking back, he saw the smiling face of his friend Li Shizhen.
The latter also laughed without restraint: "Wanbi, how come you haven't improved your archery skills yet?"
"This can't be accomplished in a day or two. Don't laugh at me."
Cao Xi said angrily: "How about we have a competition and I'll give you three arrows."
"That's all, I, with my thin arms and legs, will never be able to compete with you."
Li Shizhen shook his head and pretended to be cool: "To be an official, you have to carry a pen."
Cao Xi was furious and chased after him.
The two men used to be members of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, but were betrayed by Haoge and captured in Shenyang, becoming prisoners.
Later, he was incorporated into the army and was ready to return.
I thought I could only do this in this life, but who knew whether I would be able to prosper or not, but in the end I became an official because of my knowledge, and worked as a clerk in the sixth-room office of the County Bookstore today.
Under the Ming Dynasty, the county level was dominated by the county magistrate, with the seventh rank, followed by the teaching (learning), general judgment (supervision, litigation), and the county magistrate (deputy), who were in charge of the seventh rank.
Chang'an County has a total of seven offices, including officials, households, rituals, soldiers, punishments, workers, and commissions. Each office is headed by a secretary, who is a nine-rank official, and there are ten or so officials.
There is a staff of legal officials, but they are not well-established. Generally, people are promoted from among them to serve as bookkeepers.
Regardless of the number of seven houses, in Gyeonggi, in addition to the six houses, most counties also have ten houses such as grain houses, salt houses, warehouses, recruitment houses, Cambodian houses, and contracting houses, household heads, tax departments, and river channels.
Added together, it even reaches sixteen rooms.
The office of the Zhengjiupin Bookstore can be said to be an extremely important starting point for the two of them, from a guilty person to an official!
After rushing to the county government office, the county magistrate kept his words short and said bluntly: "The annual provincial examination will come soon, so you should make more preparations..."
After saying that, he left directly.
Cao Xi and Li Shizhen sighed and had no choice but to leave it at that.
Since the separation of officials and local staff, although the problems of subordinate staff have become commonplace and have become very popular between the government and the public, in fact, this thing has changed with the situation of host and guest.
The reason why state and county officials rely heavily on scribes is, to put it bluntly, they want to collect all kinds of extra-legal filial piety through them on a regular basis, so as to turn a blind eye to the troubles caused by subordinate officials.
But in fact, as long as the county magistrate is as clean and honest as Hai Rui, and the subordinate officials are like mud, they will not be able to cause trouble at all if they are manipulated.
"Shizhen, this life is getting more and more difficult."
Cao Xi sighed, the county magistrate was lazy in his administration, and they were the ones who were tired, and they were the ones who took the blame.
"Official officials always have no future."
Li Shizhen suddenly raised his head: "Wanbi, do you want to take the provincial examination?"
"Don't you think so?" Cao Xi was surprised.
"Yes, I think so, but what I want to take is the imperial examination." Li Shizhen said seriously: "Nowadays, officials are also private households and can also take the imperial examination."
"Even if you are a scholar, your future is much better than what we have now."
As he spoke, he became excited: "The literary style in Liaodong is not strong. Compared with the private schools that are only three to five miles away in Guan Nei, there may not be a teacher for hundreds of miles in Liaodong."
"A scholar can be promoted directly to a county magistrate, even if he is a scholar, he is a magistrate!"
"I understand." Cao Xi nodded: "In Jilin, as long as people are elected, they are directly awarded to the county magistrate. Who doesn't know in Liaodong?"
Although General Jilin is stationed in Jilin City, he has been working diligently to open up wasteland, farm land, immigrate, and build new cities all these years.
After saying that, after their mood calmed down, the two of them left the county town.
At this time, outside Chang'an County, the land was muddy and overgrown with weeds. Here and there, some land was plowed, exposing grass roots.
"Chang'an County has 13,000 hectares of land. This is recorded in the household records. Most of it is the land allocated by the imperial court in Liaodong."
Li Shizhen came casually: "When the imperial court was in the pass, one acre was replaced by three acres, so the soldiers had to leave the pass, but due to the lack of manpower, there were only 5,000 hectares of land for growing food."
Cao Xi on the side smiled bitterly and said: "At the end of autumn last year, corvees were recruited to repair the canals. Good guy, all the strong men together, there were only three thousand people."
"I'll give up after practicing for thirty miles."
Although Liaodong has continuously introduced measures to encourage immigration over the years, the situation of lack of manpower has never changed.
Conservative estimates put the current population of Liaodong Province at less than two million.
The average number per prefecture is only around 200,000, and even less in each county.
"I hope this Duke of Jin will be able to serve him better..."
The two looked at each other and rode eastward on horseback.
Soon, on a plain about twenty miles east of Chang'an County, several men dressed in strong clothes and exuding murderous intent were seen looking towards the river.
Behind them, several handsome horses were grazing with their heads down.
"These are all good irrigated lands—"
Cao Xi was speechless, shook his head and smiled.
"Hey, the key is this location." Li Shizhen lowered his head and said, "It's very close to Shenyang, only about fifty miles away. It's close to the official road and close to the river."
"The people in Duke Jin's Mansion really know how to choose their positions."
Seemingly seeing their soap robes, several people moved closer.
"Are you from Chang'an County?"
"I'm from the Household Secretary's Office of Chang'an County (I'm the clerk of the Lifang Office)——"
"Why are there two here?" The leader waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, I am very satisfied with this place, please save this place!"
With that said, a document from the Ministry of Accounts was called.
Li Shizhen took a quick look and saw a letter:
By the order of His Majesty, Duke Jin Guo, Li Tao, has made outstanding contributions to the rule of the country, so he has been granted fifty hectares of land, located in Liaodong Province, Shenyang Prefecture, and Chang'an County. There must be no mistake——
Obviously, the words Chang'an County and other words at the back were filled in and stamped by the Liaodong Governor's Yamen.
According to convention, these fifty hectares are within the pass, but land is no longer granted within the pass, so if it is moved outside the pass, it will be tripled.
That is one hundred and fifty hectares, or fifteen thousand acres of land, which is a huge number.
And this group of people from Duke Jin's Mansion found such an unclaimed land by relying on the four words "Chang'an County".
The terrain is flat, close to official roads and rivers, and there are no worries about floods and droughts. The vision is really good.
"Of course it is." Li Shizhen had no doubts, and he had no intention of going against the Duke of Jin.
After saying this, he filled in his own name on the land deed, and then added the name of the county magistrate.
Then, he picked up the magistrate's huge official seal from his horse and stamped it directly.
"Very good." The visitor was very satisfied with his decisiveness and threw out a bag of money: "It's a small thing, please accept it."
Li Shizhen fumbled around and found about ten silver coins, which was pretty good and the trip was not in vain.
Leaving them to enjoy the scenery, Li Shizhen took Cao Xi and left.
On the way, Cao Xi exclaimed: "How many years of hard work do you have to do to get this one hundred and fifty hectares of land?"
"Military merit is the best way for people to make a fortune."
The two of them returned the land deed and official seal and went directly to the Yamen.
Not even half-way through drinking in the house, several people broke in:
"Li Shuban, our Zhang family has been longing for this field by the Pu River for a long time, why did we give it up today?"
The big and round butler said sternly: "Are you looking down on our Earl's Mansion?"
Li Shizhen was stunned for a moment, then he laughed and said: "The ashes of the pot on the stove have darkened your heart. You just know that someone is interested in the land, but do you know whose family it belongs to?"
"Whose family? It has to be on a first-come, first-served basis, right?"
"Jin Guogong's Mansion, go find it!"
For a moment, there was silence all over the place.