I

Zhang Guowei, Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, finally agreed to surrender.

His hometown is in Dongyang, Zhejiang, and he would give him a sentence: Either surrender and do things, or investigate Zhang's severely!

The answer is obvious.

The official position given by Zhao Han was very interesting, and Zhang Guowei was appointed as "Jiangnan Water Conservancy Envoy". There is no grade, and the salary is equivalent to that of a magistrate, and all counties in the south of the Yangtze River must fully cooperate with their work.

This person once served as the governor of the ten prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty, dredging rivers, building bridges and paving roads, building cities and digging ponds, and digging canals. He has made remarkable achievements.

He also wrote a "Wuzhong Water Conservancy Complete Book", which is very familiar with the water conservancy situation in the south of the Yangtze River.

This kind of person is used to fight and defend the city?

What a waste!

It's not easy for Zhao Han to do it directly for high officials, so let him be a non-ranked water conservancy envoy. After a few years, he can be promoted, and he will be in charge of water conservancy in various places in the future.

In addition, there is Wu Yingji, who successfully recruited and surrendered the Taihu water bandits.

Moreover, Wu Yingji has a very deep understanding of the industry, agriculture and commerce in the south of the Yangtze River. The No. 3 figure in the Fushe was appointed as a senator of the Chief Secretary of Jiangnan. He also has no rank.

Jiangnan Province was formally established. If it is divided according to the administrative regions of later generations, its jurisdiction is temporarily: Anhui and Jiangsu provinces south of the Yangtze River, plus Shanghai, a municipality directly under the Central Government.

The provincial capital is Nanjing!

Jiangnan Province, like Hunan Province, has a temporary jurisdiction and will change the division again after reaching the north of the Yangtze River.

Zhejiang Province: Li Rixuan, the chief minister of the left, and Fei Yuanjian, the chief minister of the right.

Jiangnan Province: Liu Anfeng, the chief minister of the left, and Chen Wenkui, the chief minister of the right.

Li Rixuan is Li Banghua's nephew. He fled back to Jiangxi three years ago and worked his way up step by step. In another time and space, he should have served as Minister of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty.

Chen Wenkui was the one who punished Fei Chun's parents, and his methods were extremely tough. Zhao Han transferred him to Jiangnan Province to suppress big landlords and big merchants.

Fei Yuanjian was similar, with the same tough tactics, and was transferred to Zhejiang to suppress the big clan.

"General Town, a letter from Ji'an." Li Yu came in holding a stack of letters.

Zhao Han opened the family letters first, there were three in total.

One was written by Fei Rulan, saying that everything was fine at home, and told Zhao Han not to worry. He also said that Zhao Zhenlan had been in Ji'an for a long time, bought a house in the city, and often came to the General Military Mansion to chat.

The second was written by Zhao Zhenfang, saying that she was very happy to finally see her eldest sister, and she also talked about many things about the girls' school.

The third was written by Pan Qimei, with crooked handwriting and simple content: "My husband is well, I can write letters, and the baby is about to be born. I eat eggs every day, and the chickens raised at home are already able to lay eggs."

The three letters made Zhao Han smile all over his face, and couldn't help but read it again.

Next, there are letters from Pang Chunlai and Li Banghua.

The content is similar, let Zhao Han consider the matter of becoming king, and move the headquarters to Nanjing.

Li Banghua also wrote an extra paragraph, saying that since ancient times, if you guard the river, you must guard the Huai River.

Luzhou Prefecture has a horse farm!

At first, Cao Cao raised horses here, and in the Yuan Dynasty, horse farms were everywhere.

Zhu Yuanzhang set up 21 horse farms in Luzhou Prefecture, such as the famous Maotanchang Middle School, "Maotanchang" is one of the horse farms.

The veterinary monograph "Yuanheng Healing Horse Collection" was also written by the Yu brothers in Lu'an Prefecture, Luzhou Prefecture during the Wanli period. The disease control of horses and cattle is recorded, and the identification and breeding of horses are also included.

Zhao Han put down the letter and began to think carefully.

There is no rush to become king or move the capital, but raising horses is on the agenda.

Ships from the south and horses from the north. In the future, cavalry will be an indispensable arm for fighting in the north. The breeding of war horses and the training of riders all take several years, and preparations must be made in advance.

"Call Zheng Eryang." Zhao Han said suddenly.

Zheng Eryang was the governor of Anlu who surrendered, and he was a Jinshi in the same discipline as Sun Chuanting, Yuan Chonghuan, Chen Zizhuang, Kong Zhenyun, Ma Shiying, and Xue Guoguan.

In that class of Jinshi, there were many celebrities, and gods and demons danced wildly.

"Meet the general town!" After Zheng Eryang surrendered, he temporarily served as Zhao Han's secretary, and just let a few out some time ago.

Zhao Han asked: "You used to be the governor of Anlu, do you know anything about Luzhou Racecourse?"

Zheng Eryang replied: "The horse administration in Luzhou used to be divided into official herdsmen and folk herdsmen. The folk herdsmen have been abolished, and there are only a few official herdsmen left. Now there is no horse."

"Why?" Zhao Han asked.

Zheng Eryang said: "For more than two hundred years, eunuchs, officials and tyrants have continuously invaded the horse farms and converted the pastures into farmland. During the Hongzhi, Zhengde, and Jiajing years, the horse farms in Luzhou had existed in name only, and Yangming had recovered a little when he managed the horse farms. In the early years of Chongzhen, there were more than 20 horse farms in Luzhou, and there might be hundreds of horses in total, and none of them could be used as war horses. Walk."

Zhao Han asked again: "Is there anyone in Luzhou who knows how to raise and groom horses?"

"Maybe, but he must be very old." Zheng Eryang replied.

Zhao Han was silent in thought.

Zheng Eryang said: "The various horse farms in Luzhou have already been reclaimed as farmland, and grass must be replanted first. And if you want to raise horses on a large scale, a single horse farm will often cost hundreds of hectares of land. I am afraid that it is quite suspected of disturbing the people."

This is too troublesome and very difficult to operate.

Zhao Han asked again: "Where did the horses of Guan Ning's cavalry come from?"

Zheng Eryang said: "Trading with Mongolian herdsmen."

Although the Mongolian ministries had already surrendered to the Manchus, they still had to do business. They often sold horses to the Ming frontier army behind the backs of the Manchus.

There are even more unexpected situations!

After the Manchu Qing strengthened the management of Mongolian war horses, the Waikalkha became the largest smuggler. Huang Taiji was furious, repelled the Waikalkha tribe, and then... did business with Daming himself, monopolizing the trade of selling war horses to Daming.

And Lu Xiangsheng, who sits in Xuanda, is the person in charge of the war horse trade with the Manchus.

Zheng Eryang had already guessed Zhao Han's plan, which was nothing more than raising horses in advance to train cavalry. He said: "General Town, there are only three points for raising horses. First, the breed of horses; second, the horse farm; Jiangxi can also raise horses, Huguang and Guizhou can also raise horses, and even Qiongzhou (Hainan Island) can raise horses.”

It is true that Raozhou in Jiangxi Province was also used as a horse farm in the Yuan Dynasty.

All you need is to be ruthless, choose a place with a suitable climate, and force the farmland to be planted with grass.

The real difficulty is getting a breed of horses, and people who are good at raising horses!

Suddenly, Zhao Han thought of a place: "Does Jeju Island in North Korea produce war horses?"

Zheng Eryang was stunned: "Decades ago, Daming occasionally bought war horses from North Korea, and horses should still be raised there. But the breed of horses is not good, and they are getting shorter and shorter. After being transported to Daming, the price is actually more expensive than Mongolian horses."

In other words, there are many people who know how to raise war horses in Jeju Island.

As for the breed of horses, let the Portuguese bring them.

After conquering Jeju Island, you can get pastures and horse breeders, and then use the horse breeds brought by the Portuguese to breed.

Restoring the Luzhou horse farm will have a great impact on people's livelihood. It is more cost-effective to grab North Korea's territory to raise horses.

By the way, Jeju Island can also be used as a cavalry training base!

"Boom boom boom boom!"

"Come in!"

"General town, urgent military situation."

Zhao Han opened the letter from Xu Ying and frowned.

The Caomin uprising in Shandong was just suppressed by the officers and soldiers, and now they are rebelling again.

Cao Bing, Cao Gong, Cao Min, from Huai'an to Beizhili, more than a dozen insurgents appeared within half a month.

Zhao Han occupied the south of the Yangtze River, and the water transportation lost its starting point in an instant. Those who depended on the water transportation for food naturally had no food to eat.

These insurgents have conquered Xuzhou, and many cities along the Grand Canal have been besieged. Huai'an was almost defeated by the insurgents.

"Da Ming is almost finished." Zhao Han sighed.

Zheng Eryang took the military report and said anxiously: "Please send troops from the township quickly, and fight to the front line of Huaihe River as soon as possible."

"The military rations are not enough, at least we have to wait until the autumn harvest." Zhao Han expressed helplessness.

This dispatch of troops consumed a lot of food and grass, and the remaining food and grass were used to help the people in the south of the Yangtze River. Food was also needed to control the price of rice in Nanjing.

In Zhao Han's hands, there is really no food now.

Once troops are dispatched to Jianghuai, there will be a food shortage in an instant. Moreover, the drought in the north of the Yangtze River is severe, and it is a bottomless pit if you go there. A large number of hungry people are waiting for Zhao Han to save their lives with food.

If he didn't care about the life and death of the people in the provinces, and didn't care about the soaring price of rice in the areas under his jurisdiction, Zhao Han was sure to fight all the way to the city of Beijing.

Zheng Eryang said: "Food from the south can't go north. There will be a food shortage in Beijing this year. I'm afraid there will be bandits. Daming... well, it's just a matter of one or two years, and it will definitely not last for three years."

Neither Zhao Han nor Zheng Eryang knew that due to frequent uprisings along the Grand Canal, the situation in Henan has changed drastically.

Zuo Liangyu didn't dare to fight Li Zicheng, and openly violated Yang Sichang's military order, and ran to Shandong to suppress the bandits without authorization. His intention is very simple, Henan has no food to grab, so go to Shandong to grab food, otherwise the soldiers will run out of food.

Moreover, the Water Transport Rebel Army must be easier to defeat than Li Zicheng, and they can use this to make many military exploits.

Shandong, Liaocheng.

"Surrender without killing, surrender without killing!"

Zuo Liangyu galloped on his horse, slashing and killing the enemy's rout, while shouting slogans for surrender.

Tens of thousands of insurgents composed of Cao soldiers, Cao workers, and Cao people dragged their families and were killed by Zuo Liangyu and ran around the ground. These people were so hungry that they were sallow and emaciated, and many of them didn't even have the energy to run, so they just lay on the ground waiting to die. Maybe they would suffer less if they died early.

After a big victory, Zuo Liangyu selected 5,000 "young and strong" and distributed them simple weapons, so the army strength exceeded 10,000 again.

He drove away the remaining rebels (starved people), plundered the countryside along the way, and let the hungry people who were barely full go to Shen County.

When the rebel army broke through the county seat, Zuo Liangyu came after him, rushed into the city and looted property, and later blamed the crime of robbery on the rebel army.

After repeated operations like this, Zuo Liangyu soon had 30,000 soldiers, and there was still plenty of food and grass.

At the same time, he made countless military exploits, and Chongzhen bit the bullet and rewarded him, allowing Zuo Liangyu, who had been demoted to the third rank, to resume his original post.

The current situation changed so fast that Zuo Liangyu almost rebelled openly.