I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 498: The Eighteenth Year of Zhengde

In recent years, the military industry department of the Royal Group has found high-quality flint mines in Huguang and has also improved the flint's firing device, increasing the firing success rate of flintlock guns to over 90%.

The new flintlock infantry musket was named the Zhengde Sixteen-Type Infantry Gun after its design, and the cavalry model was named the Zhengde Sixteen-Type Cavalry Gun.

The newly-standardized rifle had a faster rate of fire and was simpler to operate. After a year of production, the rifles and cavalry muskets produced were sufficient for the Guards to replace their equipment, and the firearms equipment rate of the Guards infantry also increased by more than 60%.

In fact, the climatic conditions in the Western Regions are also very suitable for using firearms in combat.

As for the equipment replaced by the Guards, it was given to the garrisons on the front line of development.

After the affairs in the capital came to an end, Zhu Houzhao soon felt bored staying in the capital, so he ran to Liaodong to oversee the reform of the garrisons.

Because Liaodong was the first Dusi to carry out the Wei Suo reform, the Wei Suo reform caused widespread dissatisfaction among the hereditary officials in Liaodong, because in this Wei Suo reform, basically all the 25 Weis in Liaodong had to move northward.

This was a good thing for ordinary military households because they could be redistributed land and the court also provided them with a lot of financial subsidies.

But it was difficult for the hereditary officials of the Wei Suo because they received no subsidies from the imperial court. This meant that they had to give up the Wei land they had managed for decades or even hundreds of years and start over in a place further north.

This made them complain, and it was under such circumstances that Zhu Houzhao led his troops to Liaodong.
As soon as Zhu Houzhao appeared, the military generals of various garrisons in Liaodong suddenly became as quiet as chickens. Based on the reports of some military households, Zhu Houzhao killed and dismissed dozens of military generals. The military generals in Liaodong immediately expressed their unconditional support for the migration to the north.

Zhu Houzhao's prestige in the army was so high that the generals had no intention of disobeying him and obeyed him obediently.
The desertion situation in Liaodong garrisons was also very serious, with many garrisons having less than half of their staff left.
The only options were mergers and reorganizations, and finally twelve guards were reorganized, which were reorganized as the Northeast Production and Construction Corps, with a total of 300,000 people including their families.

The focus of the Northeast Production and Construction Corps' work also became the management and development of the northeastern border areas of the Ming Dynasty, and it only undertook relatively few military tasks. Under the promotion of Zhu Houxun and Zhu Houzhao, the Ming official army was also constantly carrying out military reforms and began to shift to a policy of elite troops.

Only a relatively small number of elite field troops will be maintained on a daily basis, and these elite field troops will undertake most of the military combat tasks.

These twelve guard posts were to be relocated to the former Nurgandusi jurisdiction, specifically to Jilin, Heilongjiang Province and the northern bank of the Heilongjiang River in later generations. After all, it was almost the Little Ice Age, and it was not realistic to move further north.
Each garrison was located in a place with convenient water transportation and good natural conditions. For example, a thousand-household unit was stationed in Vladivostok.

The Royal Group will then be able to use cheap water transportation to continuously transport goods from the mainland, thus reducing the pain of development here.

In fact, the Heilongjiang River Basin at this time is not as harsh as imagined. It is really cold, but the natural resources are extremely abundant.

Take Ningguta, which is familiar to many people, as an example. Ningguta is located in Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province today.

Wu Zhaoqian of the Qing Dynasty was exiled to Ningguta for 22 years because of a corruption case in the imperial examination. His son Wu Zhuchen was born in Ningguta and returned to Jiangnan at the age of 17. In his later years, he wrote a memoir, "Ningguta Chronicle", which described his family's life in Ningguta. His account is as follows:

"There are fish in the river, very fresh, fat and abundant. Some are shaped like breams with narrow necks, which the Manchus like to eat. They are most abundant in summer. When I was young, I liked fishing. Every evening, I would hold a fishing rod and go fishing. In a short time, I would catch several fish."

"In winter, the river freezes completely, and becomes four or five feet thick. At night, dig a hole like a well, light it with a fire, and the fish will gather under it. Use an iron fork to fork them, and you will definitely catch a big fish."

The difficulty of fishing is simply a fisherman’s paradise!
"Although pears are small, they taste very good. Pears and grapes are used to make wine, which is both delicious and colorful. These two kinds of fruits are not found in the mainland. Hawthorns are large and red, and are also used to make cakes. My family often eats hazelnut tofu and pine nut cakes, but we don't think they are precious. Ginseng was produced, but it was very cheap at that time, just like peaches and plums in my hometown."

Hunting was organized in winter: "When the hunting was completed, no one was allowed to shoot without permission. The hunters returned after more than 20 days. The animals they caught included tigers, leopards, pigs, bears, deer roe, foxes, deer, rabbits, pheasants, eagle feathers, etc. The hunting dogs were the most powerful, and some were able to catch tigers and leopards. Tigers and leopards were quite afraid of people. But bears were extremely fierce, and were able to uproot trees and throw people. Pheasants were the fattest, with fat about an inch thick. The Liaodong pheasants were quite famous, but they were far inferior to the pheasants of the Liaodong area. Every time they hunted, we carried carts, horses, and camels, and I don't know how many there were."

"The land is extremely fertile, and all kinds of grains grow, except rice. Plantings are made in early April, and harvests are made in August. During the farming off-season, people go into the mountains to collect firewood, which they bring back in carts, enough for the whole of the next year."

"All the mountains, rivers and land in Ninggu are extremely fertile, so the products are excellent. In addition to fresh food, even mountain vegetables and wild vegetables are all excellent. They are all owned by no one and can be taken by anyone."

This shows the abundance of natural resources in the Northeast region at that time.

The biggest problem with Ningguta was that the journey was too long, 3000 miles away from the capital, and two-thirds of the prisoners exiled there died on the way.

Therefore, when the Royal Group conducts immigration, it will use water transportation when conditions permit, in order to avoid this situation.

At this time in the capital, Zhu Houxuan was presiding over the first naturalization level examination.

This naturalization level examination was specially established by Zhu Houxuan for newly converted non-Han people. In addition to Chinese reading and writing, the examination content also included relevant theories about Ming nationalism.

After naturalized Mongolians passed the corresponding level examinations, they were qualified to serve as officials in the Yanran Protectorate.

Yanran Protectorate was a ruling organization established by Zhu Houxuan in the newly conquered Mongolian Plateau. It inherited the Tang system and was directly managed by the central government.

The jurisdiction of the Yanran Protectorate was very large, and more than a dozen new states were established. Because most of the people ruled by the Yanran Protectorate were naturalized Mongols, a dual system of chief officials was adopted. The chief officials were divided into Han officials and naturalized officials, with Han officials as the main ones and naturalized officials as the auxiliary ones. The existence of naturalized officials was to better rule the naturalized Mongols.

The civil servants did not oppose the naturalization level examination. In their view, those who came out of this examination were naturalized officials with no future, and they simply looked down on them.

The 8th year of Zhengde passed like this. After the first month of the th year of Zhengde, Zhu Houzhao arrived at Chang'an with guards, including cavalry and infantry. In addition, there were naturalized Mongolian cavalry who responded to the call of the Heavenly Khan and crossed the Mongolian Plateau to Jiayuguan to gather.
The expedition to the Western Regions will soon begin
(End of this chapter)