Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 298 Urgent report!

If we have to move, then we all have to move.

Originally, Li Yongmao thought that His Majesty's arrangements would only consist of a few words, but who would have thought that when Zhu Cilang said a little here, it would involve a lot of things there, and by the time the last word fell, nearly two hours had passed.

"Your Majesty, what is a machine tool?"

"To make an object, you need a variety of parts, but these parts may vary depending on the craftsmanship of the craftsmen. Machine tools are used to make standardized parts."

"Your Majesty, what is standardization?"

"Standardization, at the smallest level, means that the same parts must be made almost exactly the same. At the largest level, it means that all workshops must be similar, so that they can be easily copied and made like an assembly line."

"Your Majesty, what is an assembly line?"

"The assembly line is similar to the ones in Yingtian Workshop, but it is more detailed. Basically, one person specializes in one job, and when it is completed, it will be passed on to the next person."

"His Majesty."

"Okay, go ahead and do it. If there's anything you don't understand, compile it into a book and I'll explain it to you when I have time."

To be honest, during his long time working in the Ministry of Industry, Li Yongmao spent most of his time recruiting craftsmen and building workshops.

After putting so much thought into it, he didn't know everything about the workshop, but he did have some opinions on some aspects.

However, as those words that he had never heard of came out of His Majesty's mouth, he felt an unprecedented sense of frustration in his heart. In the end, the questions that came one after another even made His Majesty lose his patience. However, he only knew a little bit and still didn't quite understand what these things meant.

Zhu Cilang was not really impatient with the performance of this minister.

In the final analysis, that's all he knew. If he really let Li Yongmao get to the bottom of it, it wouldn't matter if he revealed something. The key point was that it might cause the industrial development of the Ming Dynasty to go astray.

Zhu Cilang has always been very self-aware.

In his time, all kinds of technology had developed to a fairly high level. Ordinary people like him probably only knew that machine tools were needed to make machines, and the main sources of power were water, wind, boiling water and oil.

As for how many types of machine tools there are and what the differences are among them, the detailed methods of converting water into wind and heating water and oil into power are only known one way but not the other.

But this is not a big deal. Over such a period of time, Li Yongmao has gathered thousands of craftsmen in the outer city of Yingtian. As long as they are given a general direction, Zhu Cilang believes that under the deterrence of the Nine Clans Selection, it will not take long to see some results.

"Your Majesty, have a drink of water."

Taking the cup of water from Zhou Quan, he tried to drink it down in one gulp as it was neither too cold nor too hot.

Zhu Cilang talked in bits and pieces for a long time. What he said not only involved some guiding things, but also a lot about the identity and treatment of craftsmen and the operation and management of the workshop.

After all this chatter, not to mention whether Li Yongmao's mind was a mess when he left, Zhu Cilang's mouth was also a little dry.

But since he wanted to do a good job in this position, he didn't have much time to rest. As soon as Li Yongmao left, he put all the thoughts about the Ministry of Works in his mind to an end, and then focused on the issues he had thrown to the cabinet ministers earlier.

Does Hong Chengchou have no other plans?
The most difficult thing in the world is to guess other people's thoughts. Even though Zhu Cilang was certain that Jiang Bei had spent so much effort, his plans were definitely more than just these two.

But after thinking for a long time, he still had no clue. From the side, it seemed that he was just staring at the huge map in a daze.

Could it be Jiangnan?
It shouldn't happen. Not to mention that the Tartars just suffered a great loss here, both the soldiers and generals have already developed a fear of the Ming navy.

The fact that four of the five imperial guards were now stationed in the surrounding area and most of the inland navy were also patrolling the river was enough to make Hong Chengchou give up this idea.

Could that be Hunan?

At first glance, it seems possible. Although in the original history, the Qing army directly attacked Zhang Xianzhong after cleaning up the remnants of the Chuang army entrenched at the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi, the situation now is very different from that time. It is a advisable strategy for the Tartars to concentrate their attention on targeting him first.

Moreover, although Hunan at that time was out of the radiation range of the Ming army's navy due to its isolation from Jiangxi, even if there were still many newly surrendered troops stationed here, the Tartars would not be deterred.

However, Hunan at this time was no longer the same as it used to be after suffering several wars. If the Tartars really set their sights here, they would certainly not be able to replenish food and grass locally like they could in the south of the Yangtze River.

After all, even in the original history, the Tartars circled around Hunan, and only entered Hunan leisurely after they had taken over Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, which had not been devastated by war.

From this, Zhu Cilang concluded that if the Tartars really had other plans, there was only a 30% to 20% chance that they would fall into Hunan.

The only thing left is Jiangxi.

"Jiangxi.Jiangxi"

After his eyes fell on Jiangxi, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but mutter a few words, but his thoughts became much more complicated.

In his impression, the position of commander of the Tatar central army had been vacant since Ajige returned north, and the war along this route was mostly presided over by Jin Shengheng.

But now, due to historical changes, Ajige does not seem to have returned to Beijing. In this situation, will there be any changes?

"comprehensive."

"His Majesty."

"Tell Wanyuanji to be careful. Although Ajige is reckless, he is a good fighter."

"Yes."

"Oh, by the way, send a letter to the various units along the Yangtze River and Hunan, asking them to pay attention to the movements in Jiangbei."

"Yes."

After he finished speaking, Zhou Quan left the warm room again, but when Zhu Cilang's eyes fell on the map again, his worries became even stronger.

His worries were not unfounded.

Don’t think that the Qing army in Jiangxi in the past few months seems to be as invincible as Duoduo before. Even its vanguard troops suffered a bloody defeat under the city of Ganzhou.

But in the final analysis, the biggest reason for such a big gap is that the two armies faced different enemies, not that Duoduo's ability to command troops was higher than Ajige's.

At this point, someone may ask: They are both Ming armies, so what is the difference? Indeed, both sides are Ming armies, and their training level and equipment allocation in Jiangnan are even higher than those in Jiangxi.

When Ke Duoduo went south, the troops of the four towns stationed in Lianghuai were caught up in fierce internal strife due to the various actions of the Southern Ming Dynasty. Apart from a few limited battles, they did not encounter any decent resistance.

When his troops arrived in the south of the Yangtze River, the local forces of the Donglin and Nanzhili factions had already been eager to eat the Hongguang emperor and his ministers alive, so how could they fight to the death with the Qing army for them?
Let’s look at Ajige again. He won eight battles in Shaanxi and all eight in Hubei. He “won great victories in thirteen battles. Those who surrendered were comforted, and those who resisted were executed.”

After chasing Li Zicheng and narrowly escaping with only "twenty infantrymen", they recruited Jin Shenghuan and other left-wing generals and successively occupied sixty-three cities in Henan, Huguang, Jiangxi and Jiangnan.

You have to know that these are the results of battles fought one after another, which are fundamentally different from Duoduo's just waiting for a letter of surrender.

If such a brave general could cooperate with Hong Chengchou.
at the same time
Jiangxi.Zhaochang Prefecture

Zhaochang Prefecture is located at the junction of Fujian and Jiangxi. It borders Fuzhou to the north and Ganzhou to the south. It is sandwiched between a narrow strip of land consisting of Wuyi Mountain and a number of scattered mountains.

In normal times, this place, which is neither a major transportation route nor a waterway hub, would seldom see outsiders. However, the endless stream of troops heading to Fuzhou from here in the past few days has caused the local people to be frightened for a long time.

"If we walk east from here for three or two days, we will reach our village."

Looking at the looming mountains in the east, Zhang An boasted to Hu Maozhen, whom he had just met: "Marshal Hu, please don't underestimate us mountain people. Although it is difficult to grow food in our area, there are many prey in the mountains. If we can peel off a well-prepared fur, we can sell it for a lot of silver."

"Well, our place does grow food, but in the end, didn't we become bandits because we couldn't survive?"

Since Zhu Cilang returned north, the generals in Ganzhou have been training their troops according to Your Majesty's orders while waiting for further military orders.

It was just that during that period, the Qing army seemed to have internal strife due to the death of Wang Ti Zhong, and they were also busy laying off the old and weak, so the southern Jiangxi area, which should have been a mess, was stable until Chang Guanlin launched an attack on Raozhou.

This had been agreed upon. Once the Ming army from Jiangsu and Zhejiang launched an attack on Jiangxi, those in Ganzhou would have to provide support.

However, Wan Yuanji and his generals discussed for a long time how to implement this support.

According to Zhang An's thinking, since Wang Deren has taken over Wang Ti's job, he should target a half-crippled person and beat him to death as if he were in a gang fight.

But the other generals thought that since it was a support, the Qing army had to take care of it.

If all the troops were really sent to Wang Deren, and he retreated into the city, his family would have no other choice but to storm the city.

Not to mention how much damage would be caused by then, the mere fact that the Qing army could not be mobilized was inconsistent with the arrangements made by Your Majesty.

Zhang An did not argue with this. After all, he knew that His Majesty hated internal chaos the most, so he reluctantly agreed to this plan.

Finally, after discussing with the generals in Ganzhou, Wan Yuanji decided that Hu Maozhen and Zhang An would go through Zhaochang to approach the enemy in Fuzhou, and the rest of the troops, except those who stayed in Ganzhou, would all go north to Ji'an to contain Wang Deren's troops.

"I heard that the remnants of King Luochuan are active in this area, but I wonder if you, a local snake, have any news about them?"

Just when Zhang An was feeling homesick when he saw the mountains where he lived, Hu Maozhen's question suddenly reached his ears. Then he smiled and spoke without thinking.

"Marshal Hu thinks too highly of me. Although I have been appointed as the commander of the Yishan Guard by His Majesty, this Yishan stretches for hundreds of miles. Let alone some remnant troops sneaking in without any reason, I haven't even calculated how many villages there are."

After listening to Zhang An's explanation, Hu Maozhen was naturally stunned for a moment.

But he changed his mind and realized that the Dong tribe still had many barbarian habits after all. Unlike the Central Plains dynasty, they naturally did not understand the situation within their sphere of influence as well as His Majesty did.

So after just a moment he nodded, indicating that he agreed with Zhang An's statement, and as for King Luobuluochuan's statement, he just threw it out of the window.

"General Hu, I heard that you were in the same group as those newcomers? Why do I see that you two don't seem to be getting along well?"

It has to be said that Zhang An behaved quite shrewdly when he asked Zhu Cilang for the right to make exclusive reports, but now he rashly asked about other people's private affairs.

This kind of behavior really makes people wonder whether to say that he is truly reckless or just pretending to be reckless.

"Ah~~~, these are all old memories, it's better not to mention them, it's better not to mention them."

Although the matter had nothing to do with him in essence, it was never good to talk about his boss's mess to others, so he finally just laughed it off, but did not really tell anyone about Gao Jie abducting Li Zicheng's wife.

In fact, when Hao Yaoqi and those old acquaintances came to Ganzhou, Hu Maozhen really wanted to establish a good relationship with them.

But who would have thought that Hao Yaoqi, a person whom he had never met before, behaved particularly cordially, while those who had had a lot of dealings with him in the past all looked sullen, as if it was him, Hu Maozhen, who abducted Li Zicheng's wife.

Hu Maozhen, as the emperor's favorite general, naturally did not look favorably upon their behavior. However, those people felt the emperor's deep trust in them during their conversation that night, so they did not take this rebellious general who had betrayed again and again to heart.

In the end, during this not-too-long period of time, Hu Maozhen and the former generals of the Chuang Army except Hao Yaoqi ignored each other. If they had not kept in mind His Majesty's arrangements, who knows if something strange would really happen again.

"Report~~~~~~."

As the shouts came from afar, no matter what Hu Maozhen and Zhang An were thinking, they couldn't help but look into the distance. But when they saw clearly the knight who made the shouts, doubts arose in their hearts at the same time.

Although Zhaochang is called a prefecture, it has no strategic value. But seeing the knight galloping towards them, it seems that he has some important military intelligence to report. How can they not be suspicious?

"General, the vanguard has discovered several Qing army wooden camps thirty miles north of Zhaochang Prefecture."

Qing army’s wooden stronghold?

North of Zhaochang Prefecture?
In Hu Maozhen's opinion, the Qing army was too lazy to even take over Zhaochang Prefecture, so why would they build a wooden fort here?
But he had also seen this knight before, so it was obviously impossible for him to be fake. The doubts in his heart immediately turned into a slight vigilance.

It is said that anything unusual must be a demon.

Since the Qing army set up a wooden camp in this area even though they knew it was impossible to stop them, how could there be any other possibility except that they had other intentions?
"Marshal Hu, I will lead my troops to attack him for a while. I don't believe that a few wooden forts can really stop our tens of thousands of troops."

"Let me think about it."

In response to Zhang An's initiative to fight, Hu Maozhen just responded with a few words and then fell into his own thoughts. But before he could really think of anything, he heard a more urgent call from behind him.

"Urgent news from Ganzhou~~~!"

(End of this chapter)