Zheng Kaicheng also raised his hand and said: "My lord, I think that when the Tatars are falling apart, it is our opportunity to do harm to the people of the Ming Dynasty."
Li Zhi looked at the eager generals in the palace, nodded, and said: "The Tatars have been poisoning the Ming Dynasty for a long time and killed countless Chinese people. Now that we have the opportunity to regain the Northeast, we cannot be soft-hearted."
After thinking for a while, Li Zhi said: "The Tatars have hundreds of thousands of troops. We cannot recruit enough soldiers and horses. The commanders of the four divisions have led their officers to Shandong. We have recruited 20,000 recruits in Shandong and organized them into the four divisions. Strengthen training and strive to form an army as soon as possible."
"At the same time, the equipment workshop recruits new craftsmen and works at full capacity to produce new equipment for the new soldiers."
"Try to gather enough troops and horses next spring to go north to conquer the Dongnu and wipe the Dongnu off the map."
The generals in the palace immediately accepted the order and went down to prepare for the recruitment of new soldiers.
####
In the Palace of Qianqing, Emperor Zhu Youjian grasped Li Zhi's memorial and was silent.
Wang Chengen secretly read the memorial in Zhu Youjian's hand, and said with his tongue: "Your Majesty, Li Zhi is really incredible. With the power of a town in Tianjin, he will conquer Dongnu!"
Zhu Youjian nodded and said: "Dongnu has been poisoning me for decades in the Ming Dynasty. Hundreds of thousands of border troops have nothing to do with Dongnu. However, Li Zhi boasted that Haikou would defeat Dongnu alone. It is really surprising." After a pause. , Zhu Youjian said: "It seems that Li Zhi has gained a lot in Japan, otherwise he would not have the confidence to attack Dongnu alone."
Wang Chengen thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, we have 70,000 Guanning troops in western Liaoning. But Li Zhi claimed that he would attack Dongnu by sea alone. What does this mean?"
Zhu Youjian was silent for a while, then slowly said: "This is because Li Zhi is interested in the land in the Northeast and wants to monopolize the entire Liaodong and Nuergan."
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had Liaodong Dusi and Nuergan Dusi in the northeast. The jurisdiction of Liaodong Dusi was probably Liaoning Province in later generations. Nuergan Dusi was established during the Yongle period, and its territory was even wider, extending to the outer Xing'an Mountains, far beyond The territory of China in later generations.
However, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Jianzhou Jurchens rose up and took away the land of the Liaodong Dusi. The Nuergandusi was even more distant and was also ruled by the Jurchens, and the Ming Dynasty lost its influence. The land now called Manchuria in the Qing Dynasty was basically in the Ming Dynasty. It was known as Liaodong Dusi and Nuergan Dusi.
Li Zhi demanded to conquer the Manchus alone and did not ask for the cooperation of friendly forces. He was obviously preparing to monopolize the spoils. The first spoil was the land in the Northeast.
Zhu Youji thought for a while, threw Li Zhi's memorial on the table, and said: "If the Duke of Jin can pacify Dongnu, it will remove a great harm to our Ming Dynasty. If Dongnu is destroyed, Hong Chengchou's 70,000 soldiers will be killed." The army can also go south to suppress the bandits, and I believe that the intruders and Li Dingguo will be easily wiped out."
Wang Chengen said: "But the Duke of Jin said that he did not have enough food and salary, and asked the court to transfer 300,000 stones of food and grass and 900,000 taels of silver to him every year."
"Don't pay attention to the lion when he opens his mouth." Zhu Youjian tapped his fingers on the table and said calmly: "Give him my order and say that he is determined to pacify Dongnu. I am very happy. However, The imperial court has no money, so if he wants to expand his army, he needs to raise his own food and salary."
Wang Chengen said: "If you reject the Duke of Jin in this way, will the Duke of Jin be disappointed and stop attacking Dongnu?"
Zhu Youjian thought for a while and said: "Then make Li Zhi the commander-in-chief of Liaodong Dusi and Nuergan Dusi, and let him know that as long as he can conquer the Northeast, I will give him this place."
####
On the fifth day of July, Li Zhi inspected the production of ordnance in Fanjiazhuang.
Originally, Li Zhi ordered the recruitment of 10,000 new soldiers in Tianjin in early June, and the production of ordnance was very tight. In recent years, Li Zhi has expanded his army faster and faster, and all the rifles in the warehouse have long been taken out and equipped. Now the rifle workshop is every day
After a batch of rifles were made, they were immediately transported to the military camp to equip the new army.
However, as Shandong's plan to recruit 20,000 new soldiers was announced, the production of rifle workshops could not keep up with the pace of military expansion. Li Zhi's troops were not only equipped with rifles for everyone, but also conducted extremely intensive target training. The new recruits
It takes almost three months to break a rifle, and the consumption of the rifle is staggering.
Although Li Zhi's rifle workshop used boring machines to process gun barrels, and one craftsman could produce a rifle in seven days, it still could not keep up with Li Zhi's army expansion speed.
Li Zhi needs to recruit more gunsmiths.
Li Zhi stood in the rifle workshop, turned to Gao Ligong, the ambassador of the Overseas Affairs Department of the shogunate, and said: "Go to Shandong and recruit two thousand craftsmen who can do blacksmithing, preferably those who can make muskets. Each craftsman will be given twenty
Two yuan of moving expenses allowed them to move to Fanjiazhuang. I divided the production of rifles into forty-seven processes. After arriving in Fanjiazhuang, we let each of the blacksmiths master one process and quickly produced rifles in the form of an assembly line."
Now that there is nothing going on in the Overseas Department, Gao Ligong is quite capable, so Li Zhi asked Gao Ligong to go to Shandong to recruit blacksmiths.
Gao Ligong agreed, and then said: "Master Guo, there is no room to build new factories and workshops in Fanjiazhuang. Where will the craftsmen live when they come?"
Li Zhi nodded and said: "When the craftsmen come, they will first arrange to rent a house in Tianjin Wei City. Next, we will hire people to expand Fanjiazhuang, expand the new city to the east of Fanjiazhuang, and build new villa areas and factories."
When Li Xing heard this, he grinned and said, "Brother, how much money will it cost?"
Li Zhi looked at Cui Changwu.
Cui Changwu calculated the bill and said: "This one-time expansion of the army by 30,000 people is really expensive. Expanding Fanjiazhuang now costs a lot of money, including military pay, weapons, ammunition, clothing, bedding and other items for 30,000 new soldiers."
, it is estimated that this year's deficit will reach more than 2 million taels. If the Duke of the country hadn't plundered 10 million taels of silver from Japan, we would not have the financial resources to make the Northern Expedition."
Li Xing took a breath and said: "The deficit of more than two million yuan a year is really scary. Even if you have some wealth, you can't afford such spending!"
While everyone was talking there, they saw Han Jinxin running over on horseback.
Han Jinxin rode in front of Li Zhi, dismounted and said: "My lord, the informant in the capital said that the emperor's approval in the imperial edict of the prince has been revealed. The emperor refused to pay for the northern expedition of the prince, but granted the
The commander-in-chief of Liaodong Dusi and Nuergan Dusi gave the two official titles to the Duke of the State."
"It is estimated that the imperial edict will arrive in the next few days."
Li Xing chuckled and said: "This emperor is really smart! Now we are fighting against the Eastern slaves for the country, and the court will not give us a penny. We have to use our own money to kill the slaves for the country."
Li Zhi thought for a while and said: "It's not an option to have such a huge deficit. We must find ways to increase revenue. Since the emperor won't give us money, we will collect land taxes in Shandong!"
"The gentry in Shandong are so rich that we cannot let them continue to evade taxes!"
