Chapter 426 All the way to the north If you open the map of the Ming Dynasty, it is not difficult to find that the whole family army and the industrial party led by Quan Xu are like a giant with a bloody mouth, ready to choose people to eat at any time.Just when Quanxu was busy expanding to Taiwan, the Sixth Brigade of the Quanjia Army in Huaiyuan Town also spent two years to sharpen its minions after more than two years of development and completed the consolidation of the class.Chen Ying, Luo Shiming, Cui Chengyou, and Xu Biao, the four-person group, did not use overly exaggerated equipment and weapons, but relied on the foundation established by Quan Xu to develop and strengthen themselves.After more than two years of development, the Sixth Brigade of Huaiyuan Town has 12 infantry regiments, 4 cavalry regiments, 3 artillery regiments, a total of 19 regiments with a total of more than 16,000 infantry cavalry elites, in addition to the soldiers, Huaiyuan Town also has a militia of more than 40,000 people.Yes, Huaiyuan Town now has a population of more than 200,000, nearly half of which are exiled soldiers captured by Hong Chengchou.The Ming Dynasty did not control the Hetao, but controlled half of the Yinchuan Plain in the southern part of the Hetao.It's not that the Ming doesn't want to control the fat Hetao Plain, but can't, the Ordos Plateau is actually a commanding height of the Mongolian Plateau facing Shaanxi and Ningxia, and the Mongols have formed Mount Tai on the Northern Shaanxi Plateau and the Yinchuan Plain.At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army maintained strong enough combat effectiveness, and it could also maintain the Hetao, and after the change of Tumubao, it was basically abandoned for this piece.In the past two years, the fair army of Huaiyuan Town, which developed to the Hetao Plain, was actually plundered and harassed by the Mongols.However, the problem is that although the Mongols are not good at fighting, they are more flexible, take advantage of the cold, and flee immediately, as long as they flee into Ordos, Huaiyuan Town has no way to take them.It's not how strong the Mongols are, but because Ordos is an out-and-out devil's triangle, the biggest problem in this ghost place is the lack of water resources, there are almost no rivers on the surface, only some lakes are dotted among the grasslands and deserts, but because there is no water source replenishment, there is no estuary flood lake water discharge, nine out of ten of these lakes are saltwater lakes, whoever is thirsty and crazy to run there to fill two mouthfuls, the taste is absolutely unforgettable.The volatile climate of the Ordos Plateau is also a very serious challenge, in such an extreme climate, farming is impossible, crops are not viable, and grazing is also extremely challenging, because it is not easy to grow grass.In the 2,000-year-long repeated game between the Han people and the nomads, no side has ever really occupied the Ordos Plateau, the extremely scarce water resources, the harsh and changeable climate, here can neither farming nor grazing, whether it is an agricultural civilization or a nomadic civilization to occupy it, and it is extremely difficult to gain a firm foothold on it.The fair army of Huaiyuan Town occupied the Hetao Plain and successfully cultivated more than 2.6 million mu of fields and planted more than 6 million mu of artificial grassland on the Hetao Plain.Through continuous migration to the Hetao Plain, it has a population of 160,000 and more than 100 new towns have been established.Under such circumstances, the Fair Army must occupy the Ordos Plateau, must build a barrier on the Hetao Plain, and attack Ordos, the most difficult thing is not the military attack, but how to stay in the harsh climate environment.The development of Ordos is actually Quanxu's development strategy.For Monan Mobei, as long as the Central Plains Dynasty is strong, let alone conquer Monan, even if it is Mobei, there is no problem on the shore of Lake Belga, but if you want to stay, it will be very difficult.On the second day of the second month of February in the fifth year of Chongzhen, a small team of 15 people successfully arrived in Huaiyuan Town, they took the radio station, and equipment, and built a 45-meter-high fixed antenna in Huaiyuan Town, after nearly an hour of debugging, they successfully got in touch with Quanxu, who was far away in Taiwan at that time."
Ordos is a treasure land, although the surface is very barren, drought and little rain, and the climate is harsh, but under the surface of Ordos, there are rich resources, there are a large number of gypsum, coal, alkali, miscanthus salt, clay, kaolin, limestone!"
When Quan Xu's voice came from the radio, the attack of the fair army in Huaiyuan Town on Ordos became an imperative strategic action: "The Hetao Plain needs a safe barrier, it is necessary to get Ordos, none of us want it, there is a sharp sword hanging above our heads, and this sharp sword may be chopped down at any time." ”Huaishuo Town, like Huaiyuan Town, one south and one north, guards the north gate under the jurisdiction of the Fair Army, and is also the starting point of this northern expedition.On February 17, the fifth year of Chongzhen, after more than half a month of preparation, the Fair Army officially attacked Ordos.This northern expedition was not aimed at defeating how many enemies there were, nor was it aimed at how many territories were occupied, but mainly for stability.The first goal is to recapture the city of Zhongjiang outside the Saiwai.This is one of the three surrendered cities established by the Tang Dynasty, and it is also the station of the Anbei Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty.However, it has long been abandoned, in the Song Dynasty, it belonged to the territory of Yunnei Prefecture in Liaodong, and in the Ming Dynasty, it was restored in the late Hongwu Dynasty, but it was abandoned more than 100 years ago.At this time, the cold wind howled, like a knife cutting, with the fair army as the superficial title, in fact, the sixth brigade of the whole family army sent four regiments of infantry, three cavalry regiments and an artillery regiment, a total of eight regiments, plus more than 20,000 young people, forming nearly 30,000 people to go north.This is a large-scale expansion that Quanxu did not interfere with, and adopted the principle of non-military and carried out encroachment step by step.For this northward journey, the Fair Army invested their greatest savings, more than 9,000 heavy wagons, and carried a large amount of equipment.The elite infantry soldiers of the Fair Army, so it is said that they are here to fight, but it is better to take care of these young men, these young men are all sold from Hong Chengchou, with the steel, food and other precious resources produced by the Fair Army, they are not their own people now.The process we are experiencing now is called labor reform, atoning for the crimes they have committed, instead of directly changing their clothes like other generals who accept and surrender to the army.In the system of the Fair Army, or the Whole Family Army, there is no such treatment at all.As the saying goes, if you want to get rich, you must first build roads.This time, the Fair Army went north, and the first goal was to build roads.From Huaishuo Town to Zhongjiang City, the whole journey is about more than 160 miles, this road, the same as the road of later generations, this kind of road, the middle is high, the two sides are slightly lower, the width is about 16 meters, of course, this kind of official road, in the later generations can only be regarded as a semi-finished product, both lime and clay, mixed and tamped.Two ditches were dug on the left and right sides, not only to dig the soil, but also to facilitate drainage during the rainstorm season, the Ordos Plateau has a harsh climate, most of the weather is dry and rainless, but it does not mean that it will not rain.On both sides of the official road, there is a green belt of about five or six meters, on which trees and alfalfa grass are planted, also to prevent water loss, and at the same time, a post station is built every fifty miles.The post station covers an area of ten acres, with warehouses, guest rooms, wells, stables, and barracks, which can also be regarded as a town.This is actually a very huge project, more than 20,000 young people, divided into dozens of sections, each section of hundreds of people, their work is very simple, just dawn, in the fair army's wake-up whistle, began to get up, as long as the movement is a little slow, it is a whip or stick.Therefore, these people are very honest and very cooperative, and even more cooperative than the Zheng army, and the main task of the army going north is to build roads.Although it is said that road construction is also a process of development, digging ditches, burning lime, burning cement, drilling wells, and exploring resources in various places.The speed of construction is not very fast, mainly because among these labor camp subjects, they are not real slaves, they work until noon every day, and they can eat on time.Then they rest for an hour, and then continue to work until the sun goes down in the afternoon, and then they finish work on time, and then go to dinner, and the next time they will be given an ideological education class.Of course, the work here is very tiring, but if you are full, you don't expect to eat very well, at least you can be full, and you can still drink a bowl of broth every three or five days.In the hearts of these prisoners of the exile army, where is this hard labor, it is clearly a blessing, at least it is much better than when they were in the peasant rebels!
Soon, someone went to Chen Ying or the foreman, saying that he still had many brothers, and they were willing to volunteer to bring those brothers who were still hiding in the mountains and gnawing the bark of trees to enjoy the blessings......
Uh, no, it's hard labor.For this kind of request, Chen Ying naturally readily agreed.Huaiyuan Town's needs for population are far from endless.Dozens of large and small coal mines, a dozen iron mines, and five blast furnaces, all of which require a large number of workers.Last year, Huaiyuan Town had a surplus of more than 1.4 million stone grain, not to mention more than 200,000 people, even if they came another 200,000 people, they could afford to raise them.So, since last year, some people have crossed the Great Wall with relatives and friends to join the Fair Army.Hong Chengchou naturally knew about this situation, he didn't care, thinking that it was a good thing that these poor ghost people fled, the climate in Ningxia was arid, there were not many fields, and they couldn't feed so many people, and now the outflow of population is a good thing.At this time, Huaiyuan Town had soldiers, food, and work to do, as if it was like a huge whirlpool, constantly absorbing displaced people and people from Ningxia, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi and other places.Despite the bitter cold wind, these people have begun to drag their families and mouths all the way north under the organization of well-intentioned people.