Chapter 144 Cheng Shijie wants to imitate Liu Jinu

Chapter 143

Ning Haijun's strategic deployment is actually not a secret.

Because this involves the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of people and a massive amount of materials, it is easy for a non-blind person to judge the intelligence. What's more, the territory of southern Liaoning is too small and is surrounded by sea on three sides, so it can only develop to the north and northeast.

Even if you engage in strategic deception, it doesn't make much sense. If you say there is no strategic doubt at all, it is impossible. The strategic layout of the Twin Cities Guards is an act of doubt.

If Huang Taiji adopts a proactive strategy, then the two city guards can only be the two city guards, that is, they occupy the Meituo Lake and build five cities along the Meituo Lake. If the slaves do not pay attention to it, then the Meituo Lake Plain,

It may become Ning Haijun's new granary and fur production base.

At least so far, Ning Haijun's main development focus is in the direction of Guangningwei and Liaozhongwei, which will later be developed in Beizhen City and Anshan City.

Even if it is any one of the Hundred Household Officers in the field or the Hundred Households Officer in the project, now Ning Haijun has canceled the official position of the Hundred Household Officer and changed it to a member of the Working Committee.

At this level, they have all learned about Cheng Shijie's true intentions through the meeting of the working committee. In the current development strategy of Ning Haijun, build high walls and accumulate grain widely. As long as the cities they built are connected together, they can build slaves.

I don't dare to go south easily.

All fools know that Nurhachi and Huang Taiji have repeatedly been defeated by the Ming army's fortified city artillery. As long as they are united and the city walls are built more solidly, they can hold on.

Once it is defended, all the fertile soil in central and southern Liaoning will be owned by Ning Haijun. These lands are fertile, moist, and easily irrigated, enough to cultivate tens of millions of acres of fertile land. Anyone who doesn't do such a cost-effective deal would be a fool.

Therefore, Ning Haijun made great efforts this time. Just to increase the number of immigrants from Henan, unprepared to say that there were more than 96,000 young people who crossed over from Mengjin, and the number was still increasing.

Ning Haijun now has a mature fortification engineering team, and the fortification work is progressing very quickly. They are looking for good sites. Either transportation thoroughfares, or with the help of rivers, as long as they arrive at the nearest fortification site, a large amount of materials will be transported along the river.

, construction will begin immediately.

While excavating the foundation, start stocking up on building materials, either masonry, cement, or lime, especially when mixing mortar and soil. This is originally a very labor-intensive job, but with the animal-powered mixer, it is faster.

a lot of.

When building the reinforced concrete city wall, especially the foundation stage, a prefabricated method was adopted, just like building blocks. The project progressed very quickly. Due to the reinforced concrete construction, the city wall did not adopt the original physical structure, but

Take the approach of building a building.

Since then, the city wall is no longer two walls filled with soil or sand and gravel. Instead, the city wall has been built into a five-story building with doors and windows facing the city. The outermost wall adopts a ring-beam structure and is painted with cement.

, and then imagine Li Su entering Caizhou at night, using the rammed earth holes on the city wall to climb up the wall, it is almost impossible.

In order to ensure that the construction process would not be interfered by the slave construction, the Ning Navy dispatched more than 28,000 combat troops alone. The Ning Navy's Left Dusi and Right Dusi included the Guards Dusi, three reorganized infantry, and one Dusi's cavalry.

Basically all the navy's capable generals and capable troops were dispatched.

Cheng Shijie still felt that the troops were insufficient, so he recruited another 8,000 Dongjiang Army. In view of Cheng Shijie's dark history, Huanglong did not send out the elite of the Dongjiang Army this time. Instead, he sent a group of old, weak, sick and disabled, gathered 8,000 heads, and gave them to

Cheng Shijie.

Cheng Shijie also knew that even if he tried to pluck the sheep, he could not catch the Dongjiang Army. But if he tried harder, if he continued to pluck, the Dongjiang Army would be bald by Cheng Shijie.

Of course, Cheng Shijie also looked down upon the old, weak, sick and disabled in the Dongjiang Army. This time Cheng Shijie asked Chen Guodong to announce to the Dongjiang Army officers and men that it was forbidden to use mutiny to coerce the generals to join the Ning Navy. Even if they launched another mutiny and surrendered all their weapons,

Then give it to Huang Long.

Under such circumstances, some soldiers of the Dongjiang Army thought Cheng Shijie was sarcastic, so a guerrilla general of the Dongjiang Army led more than 600 soldiers under his command and voluntarily surrendered to Cheng Shijie.

As expected, Cheng Shijie sent Ning Haijun and other Dongjiang Army soldiers to surround them, disarm them, give each of them fifty kilograms of grain, and tell them to get out.

Although fifty kilograms of food is a lot of food, the problem is that the food they follow Ning Haijun is the same as that of Ning Haijun's officers. There is no limit to the food. They are all good rice or white flour steamed buns, and meat can be mixed in every three to five.

If you don't have enough money, you can also eat salted fish or big bone soup.

As for the officers of Ning Haijun, the food is better. Thanks to the hunting cavalry under Hu Erqi, they are different from Ning Haijun. Their military pay is even lower. They have no money. Each person only needs two shi of food a month and five packs.

Two pounds of refined salt.

Although the actual cost paid by Cheng Shijie was not high, the problem was that the capture of the Chasseurs was very generous and was divided into three and seven. Of course, the Chasseurs received three and Cheng Shijie received seven.

Hu Erqi was in front of them, frantically raiding the slave tribes, and made dried meat from the captured cattle, sheep, or killed beef or mutton. These meats became the snacks of Ning's navy officers.

"Commander, although this method of building a city is fast, it is too wasteful!"

Song Xiance felt a little pain when he saw the cast rebar being built directly into the city wall. Since Ning Haijun went north, he has advanced nearly two hundred miles to the north and northeast of Xiangzhou and built more than a dozen castles.

, but since then, a lot of money has been spent, not counting the food and drink of nearly 100,000 young men and Ning Haijun, and the food and drink of nearly 38,000 soldiers of the Dongjiang Army. Just the steel buried in the city wall is worth hundreds of thousands of taels.

silver.

Song Xiance very much recognized Cheng Shijie's ability to make money. He had many fantastic ideas in his head, such as making a four-wheeled carriage, which only added less than 200 kilograms of steel (bridge shock absorbing equipment and spring shock absorbing devices).

Bearings), a carriage that originally only cost twenty or thirty taels of silver has increased more than ten times. Even the simplest four-wheeled freight carriage requires more than two hundred taels of silver. As for a four-wheeled passenger carriage, it costs even more.

The tallest and most luxurious carriage cost five to six hundred taels of silver, and even sold for more than a thousand taels of silver.

You know, although Ning Haijun’s carriage factory customized carriages is very expensive, there are still many people who want to buy them. There is also salt. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, a mature salt-drying process has appeared. However, Cheng Shijie mixed plant ash with sea water.

, analyze the salt water, separate the quality, then add kelp powder to the salt, and finally crush it into powder. This kind of exquisite packaging has become the most popular iodized salt in the Ming Dynasty, even though it is three or four times more expensive than the salt from Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants.

The price is still in short supply.

Especially for banks, this idea is too high. All banks use their own money to lend money to others and earn interest, but Cheng Shijie used other people's money to lend money.

As the reputation of Liaodong Bank grows, some landowners dig out the money at home and send it to southern Liaoning for deposit. Not only will the money not be reduced due to oxidation, but the interest will rise. Ten thousand taels of silver earn monthly interest.

It's as high as more than thirty taels of silver. The more you save, the higher the interest.

Many landlords came to the bank to deposit their money. According to the last work report of the management committee, member Yang Yunniang reported on the development of the bank. In just seven months of the fifth year of Chongzhen, the bank absorbed a total of 4.62 million in deposits.

With more than 6,900 taels of silver, the interest paid every month is as much as 140,000 taels of silver, and the amount of money loaned out is as much as 6,954,300 taels of silver. Every month

The interest amounted to more than 1.66 million taels of silver.

Now the number of employees in the bank has exceeded 3,000. Excluding the bank's expenses, the net profit has reached more than one million taels of silver. Making money is only one of the functions of the bank, and a more important role is to prosper the economic environment of southern Liaoning.

In addition to salt factories, carriage factories, banks, and textile factories, who would have thought that wool can be used to weave cloth for free? Moreover, the cloth produced has good air permeability, is cold-proof and warm, and can earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every month.

It would be good for others to earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver with the hard work of several generations, but the question is, how long did it take Cheng Shijie?

Song Xiance disliked Cheng Shijie for being a prodigal.

Cheng Shijie just smiled bitterly and said: "Wenwen, do you know how much steel we have in stock now?"

Song Xiance shook his head: "I don't know!"

Cheng Shijie casually asked for a shovel from a Ning Haijun engineering soldier.

Song Xiance took the shovel. It was only three feet long. It felt heavier than an ordinary sword. The weight was already a bit close to the two-handed heavy sword used by the Jinbai Armor Soldiers. This was a typical sharp-mouthed sword.

The shovel is a blue metal with a sharp edge on one side and a serration on the other. There are two small holes on both sides. It looks a bit weird. If you take away this fancy appearance, it is just a shovel. You can't tell.

What is the special purpose?

"This is……"

Cheng Shijie said: "This shovel is made of high-quality steel. It is extremely sharp. It can cut through a steel bar as thick as your little finger in one go. It can be said to cut iron like mud. Whether it is an arm or a thigh, it can be cut with just one swing.

It has to be broken in two!”

The engineering soldiers of Ning Haijun are not like the field soldiers. The field soldiers are equipped with a dog-leg knife anyway, but the engineering soldiers are only equipped with this shovel. This kind of shovel can be used for digging holes, chopping firewood, sawing wood, chopping vegetables, and even

It can be used as a pot to fry a side dish. It is very popular among engineering soldiers. Many people also love it so much that they do not hesitate to buy it at a high price.

Song Xiance flicked the bullet to produce the shovel blade. Hearing the golden sound, he looked horrified: "Such good steel is actually used to make shovels. Do we have this much steel?"

Cheng Shijie nodded and said: "Yes, there are so many!"

From the Han Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, steel has been a strategic material for two thousand years and is firmly controlled by the central government. Those who smuggle iron materials are guilty of serious crimes because steel production is scarce and extremely expensive.

If you don’t have an intuitive understanding of how valuable steel was in ancient times, you can ask your ancestors. Many of their generation were still using wooden plows until 20 or 30 years after the founding of New China.

Steel is hard to find, and steel with superior performance is even more expensive to buy. The better ones are used to make weapons, and the inferior ones are used to make farm tools, so not a single bit is wasted.

Now Cheng Shijie actually uses such good steel to make shovels, and he still has a handful of them. This only shows that Cheng Shijie has more steel resources than everyone imagined, and he does not regard steel as a rare commodity at all.

Cheng Shijie smiled bitterly and said: "We have a total of seven steel plants in operation now, and four more are under construction. We are making steel around the clock and can produce more than 1.6 million kilograms of steel a month."

"More than 1.6 million catties?"

“This is just one month’s production!”

"Isn't that year..."

"Yes, nearly 20 million kilograms. By the end of next month at the latest, the eighth steel plant will be put into operation, and the ninth steel plant will be officially put into operation in early November!"

Cheng Shijie said: "It is estimated that by the end of the year, our monthly steel production capacity will be 25 million jins!"

Song Xiance took a deep breath and said, "Twenty-five million catties?"

In recent years, it has been almost as much as the Ming Dynasty's steel output in one year. If it were one year, then this number would have to be multiplied ten times. Even if it is multiplied by ten times, it is not a small amount for the Ming Dynasty, but when it is spread out that one team owns one

A population of 150 million is still far from enough.

The problem is, Cheng Shijie is only a small warlord, which is an astronomical figure. However, considering that the performance of those steel materials is very superior, no one dares to underestimate him.

Cheng Shijie said: "The low price of grain hurts the farmers, and the low price of iron will also hurt the factory. So I can only consume the steel. Otherwise, what should I do? Sell it to the slaves?"

Song Xiance shook his head: "That won't work!"

Cheng Shijie is also very distressed now. As steel production capacity increases, steel inventories have piled up. Steel is a strategic material. Unlike later generations, dozens of tons of steel were used to build even a residential building.

"Now we can only use these steel and cement to build a strong castle!"

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "This is not a waste, nor is it a waste, but good steel is used on the blade!"

Cheng Shijie knew Huang Taiji's intentions very well. He was waiting for Ning Haijun's autumn grain to be put into the warehouse, and for Ning Haijun to collect the grain from the fields so that they could pick it up ready-made.

Cheng Shijie was not greedy. He stopped at the Taizi River and continued to advance north. This defense line was built eastward along the Taizi River. Starting from Sanjikou in the west, he built Baliwan, Liujiabao, Xishanbao, Shuixianbao, and Shuijiabao in sequence along the Taizi River.

Four castles were built in Yezhen, then Ximazhai, Dongmazhai and then Qianshan Town. Twelve castles were built along the Xiaotang River.

Since most of these places have no names, Cheng Shijie chose the place names quite casually.

Twelve new castles were under construction at the same time, and countless engineering and military households were busy building battlements and strengthening city walls. The Ning Navy Army successively moved into the fortresses built beside the roads and at dangerous points in the mountains to formally deploy defenses.
To be continued...