Author: Use your soul to aim

Chapter 188 Controlling Liaodong

After visiting and riding on the Dafu Ship, Zhang Zongxian was very disappointed with the largest ship in the Ming Dynasty. The load of the Fu Ship was too low, and it could only carry two hundred people at most, which was completely unable to meet the requirements of future immigrants.

As for the legendary treasure ship, Zhang Zongxian has arranged for people to go to Nanzhili to search for the descendants of the original shipbuilders to see if they can replicate the treasure ship.

If you want to immigrate to North America on a large scale, you must have an ocean-going transport ship that can carry more than a thousand people at a time.

If you want to build an ocean-going transport ship that can carry a thousand people, you can't rely on wooden sailing ships. You have to build a steam engine ship.

The problem is that the steam engines and steam locomotives built by Zhang Zongxian and others are basically hand-made and have not yet been fully industrialized.

The only thing we can do is to try to build a few small steamships first, and then gradually build larger ones. When it doesn't work, we will build tens of thousands of Fuzhou ships to serve as immigration ships.

Shipbuilding cannot be completed overnight. After arranging naval training in Dengzhou, Zhang Zongxian took a boat to Jinzhou, Liaodong, which was Lushun in his previous life.

Zhang Zongxian wants to build a real naval base here. Dengzhou is only used as a construction base for civilian ships, and steam engine ships will be developed and manufactured here.

After arriving in Jinzhou, Zhang Zongxian first asked the disciples of the school to take over the local defense, designated the entire Jinzhou as a naval base, and planned to build a large-scale construction project in Jinzhou and build a naval fortress in Jinzhou.

After leaving his disciple Liu Jiansheng in charge of establishing the shipyard and fort in Jinzhou, Zhang Zongxian took a battalion of personal guards to Shenyang to take over the defense of the entire Liaodong.

Although he is now the governor of Hebei and Liaoning, he does not plan to receive the soldiers and horses from Jizhen. After all, Jizhen defends the capital, which is more troublesome than Xuanzhen. He can slowly transfer the soldiers and horses from Jizhen to Liaodong.

After arriving in Shenyang, Zhang Zongxian first visited the outgoing Xiong Tingzhou. However, Xiong Tingzhou closed the door and only handed over his seal. Presumably he did not want to have any contact with Zhang Zongxian, an eunuch.

At this time, due to the persistence of Kaiyuan and Tieling in Liaodong, the Tatars were unable to attack Shenyang as they did in previous lives.

However, the original five million people in Liaodong were afraid of being sacrificed by wild boar skin blood because of the "All Living Beings Should Be Tribulated". The rich and capable people all ran to the pass, leaving only more than three million poor people struggling to support themselves.

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Although the Tatars could not capture the fortified city, the Ming army was afraid of fighting in the field, which made the Tatars in the city like the wind. The people could not go out of the city to farm, so they could only hide in the city and rely on the support from the pass to survive.

Fortunately, due to supply problems, Jiannu only dared to go to Shenyang City, Liaoyang City, and Phoenix City, which were still safe.

Today, there are about 200,000 Ming troops from all walks of life in Liaodong. Among them, the two sworn brothers with the largest number of troops are naturally Zhang Zongxian. One leads 20,000 troops in Kaiyuan, and the other leads 30,000 troops in Tieling.

There are 20,000 troops in Fushun, 30,000 in Shenyang, 30,000 in Liaoyang, and the rest are distributed in fortresses elsewhere.

For these Ming troops who had been frightened by the slave-building, after Xiong Tingzhou left, Zhang Zongxian mobilized ten cavalry brigades and five infantry brigades from outside the border wall, and detoured to Quaning to reach Shenyang.

Then three infantry brigades were sent to take over Shanhaiguan, Jinzhou and Guangning, and all the troops and horses from these three places were mobilized to Shenyang. Then the remaining two infantry brigades were mobilized to Fushun and Liaoyang, and the troops and horses from Fushun and Liaoyang were mobilized.

Also transferred them all back.

After gathering these soldiers and horses in Shenyang, Zhang Zongxian began to dismantle and count all the soldiers and horses under the age of twenty. The rest were given two hundred acres of land to each of them and arranged to be sent to Shenyang City. outside.

The soldiers who were dismissed were naturally happy to get so much land. Looking at the soldiers and horses brought by the governor, they were all tall and strong, and they looked like elites. The slaves would definitely not dare to come to Shenyang again.

As for the generals and generals who led the troops, after killing a few of them who did not know how to commend themselves, they naturally had no objections and could stay in their respective mansions with peace of mind and receive sufficient military pay. Zhang Zongxian had already given them the instructions. Subsidies for official positions

After dealing with these Ming troops, Zhang Zongxian began to encourage the people to go out of the city to farm, and redivided the land outside the city to the people.

Each household was given a hundred acres of land, and the common people were given land deeds. Potato cultivation was promoted to the common people, and Taiping was allowed to lend the common people cattle farming tools. Whether it was the disbanded Ming army or the common people who left the city, the tax revenue was equal to the harvest. 10% of the grain and exempted from corvee labor.

For the people in other places in Liaodong, under the auspices of the disciples of the school, the land was re-measured, the population was checked, and the land deeds were replaced.

In the process of checking the land, Zhang Zongxian asked his disciples to check the yamen's accounts for local bureaucrats. If there were any problems, they would be dismissed from their posts and investigated. Except for a few who took refuge with Zhang Zongxian, most of them either resigned and went home or were dismissed from their posts and investigated.

Zhang Zongxian also posted a notice encouraging all people in Liaodong to reclaim wasteland. After five years of paying taxes on the reclaimed wasteland, they can receive the title deed.

In order to promote the cultivation of potatoes, the people were also told that only potatoes, not wheat, would be collected for tax collection.

During this period, Zhang Zongxian summoned his sworn brothers. At this time, facing the governor of Hebei and Liao Dynasties, Du and Wang, two generals in charge, he naturally did not dare to call him brother again and stood cautiously waiting for the lecture.

Zhang Zongxian didn't bother to chat with the two of them, and directly explained that he wanted them to hand over their military power, and he would naturally give them corresponding credit when Jiannu was eliminated.

The two of them had experienced Zhang Zongxian's ruthlessness, and now that Zhang Zongxian had the power of life and death, they naturally did not dare to resist and obediently handed over all their troops. Three months after arriving in Shenyang, Zhang Zongxian completely controlled Liaodong.

After completing control of Liaodong, 50,000 new troops were recruited from Shandong and other places. Together with the disbanded Ming army, ten cavalry brigades and ten infantry brigades were formed.

Not only did they recruit young men to serve as soldiers, they also brought back Liaodong people who had been exiled to Shandong and loaned them food to rebuild their homes.

Zhang Zongxian also treated the landless people from Shandong who were willing to come to Liaodong to cultivate land equally.

Anyway, the most indispensable thing in Liaodong is land, but there are no good cold-resistant crops. The people plant more and get less. Now with potatoes, a high-yielding and cold-resistant crop, the people can eat and clothe themselves by planting the land. In the future, they will still have enough food and clothing. Can grow soybeans.

Zhang Zongxian will not take action against the slaves this year, but he will not make things easier for them. First, he will cut off trade routes and send cavalry to block all roads to crack down on smuggling activities.

The Shanxi merchants who originally provided supplies to the Jiannu had given up the idea of ​​transporting supplies to Liaodong in the face of the blockade by the Legislative Army cavalry outside the border wall.

Now the Jiannu only had North Korea as a channel to obtain supplies. Once there were enough ships to transport troops, they would send troops to recapture North Korea and block the Jiannu in the barren mountains and rivers.

At that time, not a grain of grain, a grain of salt, or a piece of cloth will be allowed to flow into the hands of the slaves. They will only be able to wear clothes made of fish skin and starve to death.
Chapter completed!