Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 378 The dialectical relationship between fighting and fighting
Chang'an, Taiji Hall - the Secretariat near the entrance - all the most important ministers of the Tang Dynasty gathered here.

Because several owners of the palace - Emperor Retired Emperor Li Shimin, Regent Li Ming, Emperor Yongqing Li Chengqian, and Crown Prince Li Zhi - were not at home.

It was impossible for the loyal ministers of the Tang Dynasty to step into the palace and sit in the Taiji Hall to hold a court meeting.

However, state affairs are busy and it is impossible for everyone not to meet and hold meetings.

Therefore, all the ministers unanimously agreed that officials of the fifth rank and above should meet in the Secretariat every three days as a substitute for court meetings.

Anyway, the Secretariat was outside the palace and within the imperial city, and in a broad sense it also fell within the scope of the "Tai Chi Palace".

"Are there any movements of the Ming army in the Central Plains?"

Chief bureaucrat Liu Li asked straight to the point, which had become a routine during this period.

"There is no special news." Everyone shook their heads.

Minister of Civil Affairs Tang Jian thought for a moment, presented an envelope and said:

"However, Li Yifu, who is in Luoyang, did send a letter."

Laughing Cat Li Yifu?
Liu Li curled his lips subconsciously.

To be honest, neither Old Liu nor other important ministers wanted to deal with Li Yifu.

That guy is so bad. Every time he writes to me, he's either reporting his superiors or his subordinates.

To the extent that every person handling the matter had to wonder in their hearts whether they had also been reported by that guy behind the scenes.

Therefore, it was at such a "small court meeting" that the ministers unanimously decided to kick that guy to the Luoyang front line to show his teeth to the Ming army every day.

"Is Li Yifu accusing Pei Biejia of forming a clique for personal gain or colluding with the enemy country? Or is he being disrespectful to Your Majesty?" Gao Shilian sneered.

Tang Jian shook his head and said:
"Tang has just received this letter. I dare not read it privately, so I am sharing it with you all."

When colleagues say bad things about you behind your back, it's best to speak out openly, otherwise it will be difficult to sort it out and get yourself into trouble.

Old Tang is a very upright person and doesn't want his good reputation to be tarnished by Li Yifu.

Alas... Liu Li sighed helplessly, and finally said something fair:

"No matter what, General Li is also the general of Luozhou Governor's Office. News from the front line cannot be ignored. What if there is something important to report?"

With great disgust, Liu Li pinched two fingers and opened the wax seal on the letter.

"What? Who is Xiaomao going to sue this time?" Gao Shilian chuckled.

"Wait a minute, let me take a look."

Liu Li's eyes were a little blurry due to his old age, so he squinted his eyes.

After reading only the first line, his pupils suddenly trembled.

The crowd, who were originally quite relaxed, suddenly tensed up:

"what happened?"

Liu Li's face turned pale, his lips trembled slightly, and a dry sound came from deep in his throat:
"The Ming... fleet... is innumerable..."

On the same day, the gates of Chang'an were opened.

For some unknown reason, all the officials above the fifth rank in the Tang Dynasty chose to go out of the city to hunt on the same day.

…………

Just when Chang'an was leaderless and in chaos.

At the same time, on the bank of the Fen River, the Ming army built a temporary port.

It is bustling with people, even more lively than the most popular downtown areas.

Li Ming's helpers from all over the Ming Dynasty gathered here after scaring the officials of the Tang Dynasty.

Of course, these helpers were certainly not real soldiers - no matter how rich and powerful the Ming Dynasty was, it was impossible to gather a million-strong army overnight.

They are all ordinary laborers who obeyed the call of His Majesty Li Ming and came to participate in the "big project" near Jinyang.

This massive project is closely related to the capture of Jinyang.

At the edge of the temporary river port, in the Ming army camp.

Li Ming stood on the top of the hill, overlooking the port.

The porters were busy loading and unloading goods, while the laborers who had just disembarked from the ship lined up and left the port in an orderly manner, leaving space for the busy port to operate.

Everything is busy but not chaotic, and in order.

Fortunately, the general he brought with him to the Northern Expedition was none other than Xue Wanche.

During the early Tang Dynasty, there were many generals who were capable of fighting.

But the only ones who can do the dust are Lao Xue's family, no one else.

"How many people have arrived?"

Li Ming asked with his hands behind his back.

The rough Hu "book boy" Qibi Heli bowed and replied:

"Your Majesty, the first batch of civilians, about 100,000 people, have arrived safely and in good condition."

Since this lone loyal member of the Tang Dynasty is unwilling to fight against the Tang army, it would be better to make good use of him and let him switch to secretarial work.

Although this rough guy is a little worse than the chief secretary general Sun Yan, his choice of words and sentences often fail to express his ideas clearly.

But as the old saying goes - it's not like it can't be used.

Li Ming nodded and ordered:
"Yes, we didn't miss the time.

"Let the laborers rest for a while at the foot of the hill, and then we will head to Yuci County."

Yuci County is adjacent to Jinyang County from north to south, and is the county closest to Jinyang City among the territories actually controlled by the Ming Army's Southern Route Army.

The fact that Yuci was able to be established as a county shows that the terrain there is flat, there is water and food, and it is suitable for human survival.

In the early stage, under the leadership of the contractor Xue Wanche, the Tang army first built a temporary residence in Yuci County that could accommodate 100,000 people.

In other words, a temporary shed.

According to the plan, the first batch of 100,000 newly arrived laborers will first rest in Yuci County for a few days to familiarize themselves with the local conditions and environment of Shanxi and relieve the fatigue of the long journey.

They will then travel to other neighboring counties, where they will build new sheds to house the next 900,000 colleagues.

After all, one million civilians is not just a number in the game.

They also need to eat, drink, defecate and urinate, so they need a place to stay.

If they were all piled up in Yuci County, and the county suddenly had a million more people, it would explode in a minute, and the mountain of shit (literally) alone would be enough to bury Li Ming.

Therefore, before starting work, Li Ming had to gradually build a large number of temporary residences in several counties and cities under his actual control and adjacent to Jinyang to accommodate these new laborers.

If you want a horse to run fast, you must feed it first. This is Li Ming's strategy for governing the country.

By the way, in order to completely eliminate the worries of the civilians about fighting in the battlefield, Li Ming also specially sent a detachment to occupy the entire Puzhou.

Thus, the "isolated island" that was skipped by the leapfrog strategy was annexed, and the southern part of Bingzhou where Li Ming's army was located was completely connected with the actual control area of ​​Ming Dynasty.

This did not take much effort. After Li Shiji led the remaining Tang army to support Jinyang, this empty city readily opened the gates and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty soldiers.

“Although Yuci County is a first-class county, it cannot accommodate too many people for a long time.

"Have the other residence sites been chosen?"

Li Ming asked with concern.

In a sense, one million people can actually be regarded as an abstract number.

Because the number is really too large.

A high school holds a morning meeting every week. The playground is crowded with people, but there are no more than a thousand people at most.

One million people is a thousand times this size, which is beyond human intuitive understanding.

If Li Ming were to personally arrange for the one million migrant workers, he wouldn't have to do anything else. "Have they all been selected and marked on the map?"

Qibi Heli slowly unfolded a map with densely packed dots and circles drawn on it.

Li Ming nodded pretentiously:

"Very good."

can't read.

Fortunately, Li Ming still has a group of brothers he can rely on.

It’s just building a shed and doing some construction work. The contractor Xue Wanche has the most experience, so just leave it to him.

Qibi Heli added:
"Your Majesty, as for the oil you requested, it may take some time to prepare..."

Li Ming waved his hand and said:
"There is no need to rush. People should be in place first to complete the preliminary 'projects'. Materials can be prepared later.

"By extending the purchase period, prices won't soar in a short period of time."

Oh, so that's how it is. It turns out that purchasing in batches can reduce purchasing costs. Your Majesty is really good at budgeting... Qibi Heli, the emperor's bootlicker, secretly admired him in his heart.

But he thought about it again.

Alas, that's not right!
"Your Majesty, have we spent too much on the battle of Jinyang?" Qibi Heli reminded.

Li Ming blinked innocently:
"Why do you say that, my dear minister? Although Li Shiji's march north left us with an empty city of Puzhou, it also made the already consolidated Jinyang defense line even more difficult to attack.

"Nearly 100,000 elite Tang troops retreated to a city, which was like an indestructible copper pea.

"If we attack rashly without making full preparations, our army will suffer heavy casualties."

Facing His Majesty Xiao Li's evasion of the question, Qibi Heli argued with reason:

"Your Majesty, no matter how 'perfect' the preparations are, they cannot be endless. There must be a limit!

"Jinyang is just a city. We own the whole world. To take down this city, is it necessary to gather millions of people and collect all the blood and sweat of the people in the world (literally)?
"Please cherish the national strength and the people's strength, Your Majesty!"

It was more like Qibi Heli was complaining than asking.

Since His Majesty Li Ming knows that costs must be saved when purchasing oil, then he should not implement this costly plan from the beginning!

Isn't this like picking up sesame seeds and losing the watermelon?

Seeing that he couldn't escape this question, Li Ming smiled mysteriously:
“I want to do a social experiment to see if it is really feasible to mobilize a million people in an agricultural society.”

"What?" Qibi Heli was stunned.

Let’s put aside the strange words that His Majesty Li Ming habitually throws out, and let’s put aside His Majesty Li Ming’s childish behavior of playing with the country’s destiny.

From the purely academic point of view of "whether it is possible to mobilize a million troops", is there any need for this experiment?
It may sound a bit exaggerated to say that a million "regular troops" are fighting, but there are examples of millions of "cannon fodder" participating in the war.

For example, Brother Fu Jian in the Battle of Feishui.

Besides, Li Ming only mobilized one million civilians this time.

It is difficult to find a million armored soldiers, but aren’t there many large-scale battles that mobilize millions of logistical laborers in history?
"Your Majesty, isn't it a joke to gamble the fate of the country for such a reason and make the people's livelihood difficult? Are you repeating the old path of the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor?"

In the Tang Dynasty, the evaluation of the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor was not so high, far from the high status of today. Confucianism admired model workers like Emperor Wen of Han.

Qibi Heli fully demonstrated the style of the early Zhenguan period and made frank suggestions.

He asked questions to almost everyone in the Ming Dynasty, from top to bottom.

No matter how big the doubts were in their hearts, they always followed the instructions of His Majesty Li Ming.

However, this does not make the doubts in my mind disappear.

Li Ming did not answer directly, but turned around and faced the busy Fenhe Port again.

Qibi Heli's expression darkened, thinking that the emperor had no intention of giving a direct answer this time, and he looked in the same direction as him with boredom.

At the foot of the mountain and along the Fen River, the huge fleet and hundreds of thousands of workers were operating smoothly like sophisticated machines.

If I had to use one word to describe this scene, it would be "grand".

“Isn’t this scene very shocking?”

Li Ming suddenly spoke up.

Qibi Heli replied awkwardly:
"Yes, if you don't consider the soaring prices and the separation of families behind it."

Li Ming ignored his old friend's exaggerated words and continued:

"My next plan will be even more shocking, more magnificent and breathtaking.

"This scene will be deeply imprinted in people's bones."

"Your Majesty, there is no need to exert so much effort. Your great achievements will be remembered forever by the people of the Ming Dynasty, and they will always be in awe of you." Qibi Heli said sarcastically.

"They are not my Ming people." Li Ming shook his head:

“I did this for my enemies to see.

"Let them see firsthand what kind of blow they will suffer if they go against me.

"It hammers fear into their bones."

Qibi Heli shuddered from the bottom of his heart.

Why do I feel that His Majesty Li Ming has surpassed the level of Qin Shi Huang and Han Wudi, and is beginning to approach a certain Guangshen who does not want to reveal his name?
Killing his father, wasting the people's strength, three expeditions to Goguryeo, etc...

"What are you thinking about?" Li Ming interrupted Qibi Heli's reverie.

"My enemy is not the Tang Dynasty."

Huh?
Not the Tang Dynasty?

So who are we fighting now?

Qibi Heli still wanted to ask.

But Li Ming did not give him a chance to ask further questions and quickly issued the next order:

“Those civilians have no fighting power, and if they are attacked by the Tang army, there will be great casualties.

"In order to prevent them from attacking us, we should attack them first.

"Don't let Li Shiji be too idle. Find him something to do."

Qibi Heli swallowed the words in his mouth and answered quickly:

"Okay, I will pass on your majesty's order right away."

Although he doesn't lead the troops directly, he has no problem passing on military orders or something.

The Ming Dynasty had no shortage of generals to lead troops, so it would not be unable to fight a war without Xue Wanche and Qibi Heli.

"And one more thing."

Li Ming stopped the big "book boy" who was about to leave and asked in a low voice:

"Have all the 'people' been sent out?"

Qibi Heli winked at him cunningly.

…………

"Fortress tactics?"

Under the city of Jinyang, in the main camp of the Tang army.

Looking down at the trembling merchant kneeling in front of him, Li Shiji frowned.

"Yes, yes, General." The merchant trembled.

"I heard that this is the Ming Dynasty's way of fighting."

(End of this chapter)