Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 266 The delaying tactic was successful

Although the price set by Lu Jin was indeed a bit high, Li Er and his companions had no choice but to accept it, since Lu Jin was the only one willing to sell the armor.

After finalizing the transaction time and location, they watched Qin Li and his men leave.

As soon as Qin Li led his men away, Zhao Junyong asked in confusion, "We in Xuzhou are also rich in coal and iron, and we have many blacksmiths who are constantly making armor. But how did Lu Jin make so many armors? Luzhou doesn't produce iron, so are there as many blacksmiths there as here?"

Peng Da also shook his head, indicating that he couldn't understand.

Actually, this matter is very simple. Xuzhou was indeed smelting iron and making weapons and armor, but their transportation was not as convenient as Lu Jin's. The ore had to be transported by land and by horse-drawn carriages, while Lu Jin's iron smelting base mainly relied on water transportation.

There are coal mines to the north of Chaohu Lake, iron mines to the south, and an iron factory to the west of Chaohu Lake. All ores and materials can be transported via Chaohu Lake, a natural highway, and can be transported by boat. Even the smallest boat can carry more than a horse-drawn carriage.

Secondly, the armor forging in Xuzhou mainly relied on the hand hammering of blacksmiths, and they were making armor plates. Those leaf-sized gadgets had more than a dozen holes on them, and some of them were scratched, which was extremely time-consuming.

Lu Jin, relying on its abundant water resources, makes extensive use of hydraulic automatic equipment, hydraulic blowers, hydraulic rolling mills, hydraulic spring automatic forging hammers, hydraulic boring machines, and hydraulic ball mills.

There are also differences in the shapes of the armor of the two armies. Lu Jin chose cotton armor inlaid with large armor plates, and matched it with a hydraulic rolling mill. A red-hot thick steel plate was thrown in and rolled repeatedly to directly roll out a half-square-meter thin plate, which was then cut and trimmed into square armor plates. After grinding and drilling holes, it was heat treated. A maximum of four holes were opened on an armor plate, and it could be fastened to the cloth armor surface with rivets, saving labor and effort.

Third, there is the issue of distribution of productivity. In Xuzhou, blacksmiths rely solely on manual forging, and a large number of blacksmiths have to be assigned to forge iron arrowheads. Although Zhima Li and his team did not produce much iron armor, they produced a lot of iron arrowheads and iron feather arrows.

Since the uprising, all the arrows Lu Jin used were captured arrows. Arrows could be reused anyway, and he had never made a single arrow. All the long-range weapons he made were muskets and cannons. The ammunition for muskets and cannons was ground by a hydraulic ball-turning machine, which did not require a blacksmith to hammer out arrowheads. So he could use all these blacksmiths for other things.

Fourth, it was purely a matter of technology and organizational strength. Lu Jin not only used the assembly line production model, he also invented calcium carbide lamps and lime lamps, solved the problem of night lighting, and came up with the evil three-shift system in the factory. The iron factory worked day and night, people could take turns to rest, but the machines never stopped. Who could surpass him in productivity?
Li Er shook his head. It was meaningless to consider how Lu Jin could make so many pieces of armor. It was not something that could be learned in a short time. According to the information provided by Lu Jin, Tuotuo would be here in September, so they should prepare for war at this time.

He stood in front of the door with his hands behind his back, with Zhao Junyong and Peng Da behind him, and suddenly he asked, "What do you think of this Lu Jin?"

Zhao Junyong thought for a moment and said, "His letter mentioned so many ways to repel the enemy, including launching a surprise attack while the enemy is not firmly established, clearing the fields and using artillery to counter artillery, sending elite troops to burn the enemy's artillery vehicles, abandoning Xuzhou to lure the enemy deep into our territory, outflanking from both wings, and sending people to attack the enemy's food supply route.

"It can be seen that this man is indeed a good fighter. It is no coincidence that he can occupy the entire Luzhou Road and so many territories. I just don't know if these ideas are his own. Maybe he has a powerful military advisor."

Upon hearing this, Peng Da shook his head and said, "He must have come up with it himself. I heard that Lu Jin later joined the army in Chaohu. Before he went to the Chaohu navy, the group of people could only hide in the lake and dared not go ashore. After he went there, he captured so many cities one after another. And I heard that he used a trick to capture Luzhou."

Li Er nodded, "I thought so too. This man is good at using strategies. Didn't the envoy just say that they used a delaying tactic on Tuotuo? So why did Lu Jin help us? Could this also be part of his delaying tactic?"

"Ok?"

"This..." Peng Da and Zhao Junyong looked at each other and both frowned.

Li Er said again, "Don't worry about how nice his words are. We are all brothers in the righteous army. Even brothers have to settle accounts clearly, let alone fake brothers. Would you sell 10,000 sets of armor to others?"

Zhao Junyong and the other two shook their heads in unison, "No, we're not stupid."

"That's right, so we shouldn't treat Lu Jin as a fool. Then why did he send us armor?" Li Er paced in the room, thought for a while and said again.

"Let's not worry about whether his plan to use a trick on Tuotuo is true or false. Let's just assume that he is genuine. Our Xuzhou Volunteer Army is just to his north. He learned that Tuotuo would lead a large army south in September and was worried that we would not be able to stop him, so he used a delaying tactic and tried to make Tuotuo come later.

"Then he sent messengers to warn us and ask us to prepare early. He even used 10,000 sets of armor to strengthen our strength. He also helped us think of so many countermeasures to resist the enemy. Now it is clear that both Tuotuo's side and our side are actually part of his delaying tactic. This is not a delaying tactic for us, but for himself.

"Take September as the standard. If Tuotuo can come two months later, and we can hold him back for another two months, wouldn't that buy him half a year? What is he doing in this half year?
"Even if the Yuan army in Dadu is not held back, he has given us so many ideas on how to defend the city and sold us 10,000 sets of armor. If we can stop the Yuan army, we can buy him a few months. What do you think he is going to do?"

Zhao Junyong and Peng Da were stunned. After thinking for a while, Zhao Junyong said, "Hearing what you said, it seems to be true. Could it be that he is worried that he can't beat Tuotuo, so he wants us to hold the front first?"

"That's possible." Li Er nodded and shook his head. "It seems that we are not as well-informed as he is. We know too little to guess his true purpose, but one thing is very clear."

"What?" Zhao Junyong asked.

Before Li Er could explain, Peng Da next to him said, "This is an open conspiracy. Even if we guessed that he wanted to use us to help him avoid disaster, now he has told us that Tuotuo Jiuyue is coming. Do you dare not prepare?

"Knowing that we are being used, are you willing to give up his 10,000 sets of armor?"

"That's right!" Zhao Junyong clapped his hands. "Even if we figured it out, we can't just abandon the city and run away. We have to stop the Yuan army's attack whether we want to or not. We might as well prepare in advance as he said and buy more armor for self-defense. Damn it, this Lu Jin is really calculating."

Seeing that the two finally reacted, Li Er spread his hands and said.

"You see, there is no false reputation under a great reputation. It is said that Lu Jin is good at making plans. Today I saw that it is true. When we deal with him in the future, we must be careful. Otherwise, we may fall into his trap and be sold out and help others count money."

"So what should we do now?" Zhao Junyong asked again.

Peng Da said immediately, "I don't know what to do, but since Lu Jin wants to use us to avoid disaster, if we listen to him, we will definitely be able to hold out longer, and maybe we can actually win this battle."

Zhao Junyong frowned, "Then the people of Xuzhou will also listen to him and move away?"

Li Er also said, "In the past dynasties, whenever there was a war in Xuzhou at the end of the dynasty, people would be slaughtered. What Lu Jin said is not without reason. Let's move to the back. There are several cities behind Xuzhou. If we put tens of thousands of people in each city, we can move all the people. If we start an uprising in Xuzhou, it would not be good to drag the people of Xuzhou to die with us." "There are just a few months left. We can move slowly. By September, it will be almost done. We can also demolish some houses in Xuzhou to make space for the catapults and cannons he mentioned."

Although Zhima Li and others guessed Lu Jin's intention, as they said, this was an open conspiracy. Unless they abandoned the city and ran away, they had to prevent the disaster.

Another person who fell into Lu Jin's delaying tactic was the Yuan Dynasty's Prime Minister and Grand Tutor, Tuotuo.

The "Memorial on Suggestions for Military Farming" submitted by Gaoyou prefect Li Qi was delivered to Prime Minister Tuotuo's desk in less than ten days.

Tuotuo immediately thought of Li Qi. Last year, when Liu Futong started an uprising, there were also people causing chaos in Yangzhou Road. However, Li Qi, the prefect of Gaoyou, was a very alert person. Before Wang Kerou could make any move, he intercepted the news in advance and brought him to justice.

Later, some people started an uprising and wanted to break into the prison and rescue Wang Kerou, but they were also successfully persuaded by Li Qi. In this way, the 36 salt fields in Huaidong were stabilized for the court, ensuring that although the Yuan Dynasty was now full of rebels, the court still had the tax revenue from the Huaidong salt tax available.

Now this person has submitted a "Memorial on Suggestions for Military Farming", which makes him truly a loyal and capable minister of the country!
Tuotuo took the letter proposing military farming and read it over and over again. Finally, he made up his mind and decided to implement it.

Why?

Because the development of military farming around Dadu was originally an idea that Tuotuo came up with himself in history. It was not an idea forced on him by Lu Jin. Lu Jin just reminded him half a year in advance.

The strategy of establishing military farms was a hit with Tuotuo, he had vaguely had this idea for a long time, but now the Red Turban Army in the south was causing chaos, he had not made up his mind to do it. But now Li Qi had taken the initiative to bring up this matter in his memorial. It seemed that he was not the only one who thought that military farms should be established near Dadu, and there were people who shared the same idea as him. This made him consider again the possibility of establishing military farms now.

What really made Tuotuo decide to start farming now were actually two other reasons.

Firstly, he was indeed raising a large army to suppress Zhima Li in Xuzhou and open up the canal transportation channel. Raising a large army required a lot of food and fodder. Most of the people had been out of food for more than half a year, and the people had started to eat each other. Where could he get so much military rations?

Originally, he was thinking that after gathering enough troops, he would lead the army south to rob. He did have no food, but the rebels had some.

This is also the reason why Tuotuo massacred Xuzhou in the original history. On the one hand, it was to kill people to establish his authority and warn other Red Turban armies and the people who wanted to rebel. On the other hand, he was short of food and money and could not pay the military salaries at all. What should he do? He could only let his soldiers kill and loot in Xuzhou and let the soldiers rob the people.

But if we start farming now, it is only June, the beginning of summer. If we start planting late rice now, we can harvest a crop of grain by mid-to-late September. Whether it is to solve the urgent food shortage in Dadu or to raise military rations, it can be solved by farming. Even if it cannot solve all the problems, it can at least solve the problem temporarily.

Secondly, there is the reason Li Qi put forward at the end of the memorial. Due to the Yellow River flood problem, there are now refugees everywhere in the Central Plains. If the court ignores these refugees, the Red Turban Army and ambitious people can just incite them and a steady stream of refugees will join the Red Turban Army, which will eventually be impossible to suppress.

Even if they can defeat Zhima Li this time and wipe out the rebels in Xuzhou, as long as there is one who slips through the net, they will flee to other places and raise their arms again, raising the flag of rebellion, and in an instant they will become a Red Turban Army again.

However, if we capture these refugees and set them up on farmland now, we can remove the firewood from the source. Not only can we solve the problem of food shortage in Dadu, but we can also reduce the number of soldiers for the Red Turban Army. Otherwise, it will be difficult to wipe out the Red Turban Army.

Taking all the above into consideration, Tuotuo finally made up his mind to establish military farming now, and then he issued two orders.

The first was Li Qi, the prefect of Gaoyou. He was loyal to the emperor and the country, and made meritorious contributions by offering advice. He was promoted from the prefect of Gaoyou to the envoy of the Huaidong Dao Xuanwei Office.

The second was to have local officials in the Central Plains and Shandong send refugees to Dadu to cultivate land, and each place had to send seeds, farm tools, and oxen. The court would spend money to buy seeds, farm tools, and oxen and distribute them to the refugees.

Of course, this money is the Zhizheng Tongxing Baochao printed directly by the court. Don’t worry about whether these crazy printed waste papers can buy things, anyway, the court spent money.
After the refugees headed north, they were watched over by the army he had just recruited and taken to various military farms for resettlement.

Then Tuotuo personally demarcated the military farming areas and proposed Li Qi's military farming plan, saying that if late rice was planted now, one season could be harvested this year. Even if late rice could not be planted in time, one season of winter wheat could be planted and harvested tomorrow when summer comes.

Tuotuo made this suggestion more detailed. The first batch of refugees sent to Dadu would be sent to places with abundant water sources such as rivers, lakes and swamps to plant late rice first, such as the Tianjin area, but it was still called Zhigu at this time. For the refugees sent to Dadu later, since they would not be able to catch up this year, they would be asked to plant beans and winter wheat in other dry fields.

By late June, Zhima Li of Xuzhou had just completed his first transaction with Lu Jin. Zhima Li collected 500 mares, 100 stallions, as well as cattle, donkeys, mules and other livestock, and exchanged them with Lu Jin for sets of armor.

On the other hand, two orders from Tuotuo were also passed on. Li Qi, the prefect of Gaoyou, was promoted to the envoy of the Huaidong Dao Xuanwei Office for his meritorious advice. In addition, local officials in the Henan Jiangbei Province and Shandong area were ordered to send refugees to Dadu to cultivate land, and these places were also required to collect seeds, agricultural tools, oxen, etc.

Because it was a large-scale government decree, there was no need to inquire specifically, and the news was quickly passed back to Luzhou. When Li Shanchang and Bao Yu received the news, they looked at Lu Jin with strange eyes.

Our lord is really amazing. He has Tuotuo under his control. These two delaying tactics actually worked!
Only Lu Jin himself knew that this was not actually his credit. He just took advantage of the situation and guided Tuotuo to do something that had already been done in history, half a year earlier.

Oh, by the way, in June, Lu Jin had moved to Chao County with his wife and civil and military officials of the Marshal's Mansion.

Zhu Shou's First Brigade of the Imperial Guard, which had completed the replacement of all weapons, also moved to Chao County with Lu Jin. Zhang Wen's Second Brigade was still waiting for muskets. It was expected that the replacement of all weapons and artillery camp training would be completed by July at the earliest, so they remained in Luzhou for the time being and did not follow.

However, although the main force of the Second Brigade did not follow, the generals above the battalion level followed Lu Jin to Chao County because they were going to hold a meeting there.

When they received the news that Tuotuo had really started to cultivate land in Dadu, they all looked at Lu Jin in shock, but Lu Jin didn't care.

"Why are you all looking at me? Immediately give orders to all military commanders and training officers above the battalion level of the 37th Army on the Eastern Front. Have them hand over their work to their deputies and strengthen the control and vigilance of each unit. Commanders and training officers, bring their personal soldiers, and all come to Chao County for a meeting. I need to deploy combat missions."

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)