Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 250 Liaodong's Great Victory and Minor Success in the Americas (Part 1)

They used siege tactics in the Battle of Liaoyang.

This siege tactic is essentially a war of attrition, and what is being consumed is not manpower but food.

To put it bluntly, as long as the city runs out of food, there's not much effort required. If the enemy fails to break out, they will inevitably surrender. No one can truly starve themselves to death.

Of course, implementing this siege tactic is not so simple. First, you need enough troops to surround the city, then you need enough troops to block the enemy's reinforcements, and finally you need to trap the enemy inside the city and prevent them from breaking out.

These three points are indispensable.

If even one element is missing, this siege tactic cannot be implemented.

Although the Ming Dynasty had not yet recovered to its peak strength, it was enough to besiege Liaoyang City. They also had a large number of chariots to block enemy reinforcements. As for the enemy breaking out of the city, they had cavalry to deal with the infantry defending the city.

Therefore, they had no problem implementing this siege tactic, and this time they implemented it quite successfully. The Jurchens in the city not only had their food supplies depleted, but they also exhausted their strength when they tried to break out.

As a result, they captured Liaoyang City without losing a single soldier and also took more than 50,000 Jurchen infantrymen prisoner.

Although this battle was not intense at all, it was still a rare and great victory.

They have plenty of money now, so after this great victory, they naturally want to reward the soldiers who participated in the battle.

Zhu Jue nodded slowly, then decisively said, "Bo Ya, hurry up and tally up the military merits this time. We'll give the 50,000 Jurchen infantrymen a military merit reward of 5 million taels. This reward must be distributed to the soldiers before the end of the year."

Furthermore, he transformed into a dragon and killed the enemy commander, rendering a great service. He deserves a substantial reward, and I hereby bestow upon him the title of Earl of Liaoyang and grant him a hereditary title.

Uh, I was just telling you about how to deal with prisoners of war, why are you suddenly bringing up military merit rewards?

Sun Chuanting was taken aback for a moment before repeatedly bowing and saying, "Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty."

The issue of these prisoners also needs to be addressed quickly.

This was because the 50,000 prisoners not only required a large amount of food, but also needed to be guarded.

They are currently recovering Liaodong. Leaving prisoners in Liaodong would not only disperse their forces but could also create hidden dangers.

The question is, where should these prisoners be taken?
These prisoners would naturally be best taken to mining, but most of the mines they are currently operating are in the capital region, and there are not many people left in the capital region.

If he were to order the prisoners to be brought to the capital region to mine, it would create further problems for the region.

How to do it?

It seems the only option is to take these prisoners to the Americas to mine.

The main reason he didn't send many people to the Americas was simply the food problem.

They now have two thousand medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships, and another four hundred will be launched after the spring. He can easily mobilize a thousand medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships to bring over fifty thousand Jiannu people, along with more than a million shi of grain.

In this way, the more than 100,000 troops there can last for at least ten months with this food, by which time they should also start producing food.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully again, and then solemnly said: "You should first order the cavalry to escort the captured Jurchen infantry to Liaohai City and keep them under guard."

You don't need to oversee it for too long. Around mid-December, the American fleet should return. Then I can send ships directly to take them to the Americas to mine."

Oh, it can be taken away before the New Year.

That would be great.

Sun Chuanting nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise, I understand."

After Liaoyang was captured, the Jurchens only had the Shenyang area and the Dingliao Right Guard as their remaining strongholds.

If Sun Chuanting recovers the south bank of the Hun River next year and removes the thorn in Dingliao Right Guard, the remaining territory of the Jurchens will probably not be enough to support more than 100,000 troops.

After Liaodong recovered so much land, not only was there no shortage of food and fodder, but they could even raise pigs for meat. With meat to eat, the soldiers would definitely become stronger and stronger.

With the balance of power shifting, the Jurchens were certainly powerless to reverse the situation, and it was only a matter of time before they recovered the entire Liaodong region.

Once they recover Liaodong, the Jurchens will lose the foundation for their growth and expansion. At that time, the Jurchens will no longer be a concern, and it will only be a matter of time before they are wiped out.

As for the rebels, once Pan Yunteng occupies the Central Plains, the rebels will lose their foundation for growth and expansion. At that time, he could even have Pan Yunteng deliberately advance north to the vicinity of the northern grasslands to lure the Jurchens to attack, playing a game of feinting and diversion with the Jurchens and the rebels.

Now that the Jurchens and rebels are no longer a concern, he should start thinking about developing the Americas.

The saying goes, "To get rich, build roads first." In this development phase, transportation is paramount. For land transportation, it's building roads; for maritime transportation, it's building ships. At this point, they no longer lacked rubber and copper, and timber was plentiful in the Americas. The key issue was that their shipbuilding capacity was still somewhat insufficient.

They need enough ships to transport people to the Americas for development, and they also need enough ships to bring back the resources mined there.

These all require a large number of ocean-going warships.

The problem is that the Beijing Shipyard is only so big, and it can only build this many ocean-going ships a year. It is impossible for them to build enough ocean-going ships in a short period of time.

Perhaps it's time to consider building a new shipyard.

The next morning around dawn, he quietly arrived outside Dong'an Gate with Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, Wei Zhongxian, and others, boarded a horse-drawn railcar, and headed straight for the shipyard in the outer eastern city.

The shipyard was not shut down at this time. More than 300 dock waterways were already filled with supports. Small Zhiyuan merchant ships, medium Zhiyuan merchant ships, and small Zhenyuan warships were all under construction, while medium Weiyuan warships and large Zhiyuan merchant ships were under development.

Wang Zheng also got up early and started working.

Unexpectedly, after he had been busy for a while, the emperor's father-in-law Yuan You, Lu Xiang Sheng, and Bi Mao Kang arrived together.

The reason the three of them rushed over so early was because the current emperor was coming over this morning.

They were exchanging pleasantries when Zhu Jue strode in.

The four of them immediately stepped forward and bowed in greeting.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "How is it, Liangfu? Shipbuilding is no longer affected by the ice, right?"

How do you say this?

Wang Zheng thought for a moment, then explained in detail: "Your Majesty, we can assemble the hull now that it's frozen, but we can't launch it for testing yet."

Therefore, the progress of this batch of 500 small Zhiyuan merchant ships, 400 medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships, and 80 Zhenyuan warships will still be affected to some extent, and it will take at least a month after the start of spring to complete them one by one.

However, we don't need to send all the artisans to shipbuilding during this period. Most of them can still be sawing timber and storing materials. This way, we'll have enough materials for shipbuilding next year, and we can definitely build faster then.

Yes, the Beijing Shipyard is now operating at full capacity, and its production has reached its maximum.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and then asked, "Liangfu, how is the development of the medium-sized Weiyuan warship and the large Zhiyuan merchant ship progressing?"

These two types of ships are simply enlarged versions of each other.

Wang Zheng estimated, "The medium-sized Weiyuan warship and the large Zhiyuan merchant ship are not difficult to develop. They should be completed in about a month after next spring."

That was a colossal ship weighing 3,200 liters; the Ming Dynasty hadn't built such a large ship in over two hundred years.

Zhu Jue nodded with satisfaction and then asked, "Father-in-law, have you settled in approximately how many artisans have gathered in Jizhou Town?"

Emperor's father-in-law Yuan You hurriedly explained in detail: "Your Majesty, there are nearly 800,000 artisan households gathered in Jizhou Town, with a population of more than 3 million."

The Jiyun River City, Luanhe River City, Kaiping City, and Xingzhou City that we built can all accommodate over a million people. Now all four cities are completed, and the craftsmen are living in courtyards with heating.

However, the ironworks, steelworks, and foundries over there only need about 100,000 able-bodied artisans. After deducting the 50,000 brought from the Americas, there are still over 600,000 able-bodied artisans without suitable work. Therefore, I have no choice but to send them to mines for now.”

These skilled craftsmen and able-bodied men were not recruited to work in the mines.

Zhu Jue shook his head slightly and asked again, "Are there many carpenters in the craftsmen's households?"

That's naturally a lot.

Without hesitation, Yuan You replied, “Your Majesty, carpenters are the most numerous among artisan households. There are at least 200,000 carpenter households in Jizhou Town. The problem is that they can't do the main jobs there, which are related to blacksmithing, so they can only go to mining.”

What a waste!

Now that we have enough manpower and materials, it's time to build a new shipyard.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then waved his hand and said, "Let's go, let's go take a look over the Haihe River."

what?
Everyone was stunned when they heard this.

They thought His Majesty had summoned them to discuss matters with the shipyard.

Who would have thought that after only a few words, they would be heading to the Haihe River, more than 200 miles away!
Fortunately, passenger rail transit has been installed over there; otherwise, it would have taken them at least two or three days to get there in the freezing cold.

(End of this chapter)