On the fifth day of the third month of the ninth year of Chongzhen, an expeditionary force set out from Daqingshan, crossed Yinshan through Xiaoheihe River, embarked on the distant expedition road in the northern desert, and headed to Lake Baikal to investigate the cause of the missing delegation.

The Expeditionary Force did not recruit any civilians, only 800 troops, consisting of 600 elite Guandi Army and 100 pointed whistles, and 100 nights without taking them. The elite Guandi Army was responsible for offensive and defensive tasks, equipped with fifty sharpshooters, and 50 nights without taking them as sentry detectives and alert tasks. The sharp whistle was mainly responsible for infiltration and investigation.

The commander of the army was Zhao Wu, the commander of Ye Busuo. The deputy general was Lao Huang, the chief of the intelligence department, and first entered the camp's deputy general Batu.

Both major intelligence leaders of the Guandi Army were dispatched, which shows how much Qin Chuan attached to this expedition.

Moreover, this expeditionary army was equipped with sufficient equipment. Each of the eight hundred elite soldiers was equipped with two high-quality war horses, a rifled rifle, two short guns, five javelins, one pair of cotton armor and cloth iron armor, a waist knife, long spear, shield and other soldiers were fully equipped.

The expedition will have more than 2,500 miles one-way and 5,000 miles round trip. The estimated round trip time will be no less than two months.

In order to reduce the baggage and increase the speed of the march, Qin Chuan only prepared food and grass for them for one month, from grains, dry food, dried meat to beans and hay needed for war horses, and loaded a full hundred mule and horse carriage. This was considered that war horses could eat grass on the prairie during camping, so they didn't bring much hay.

This hundred mule carriage is equipped with two strong mules at the same time. The wheels are equipped with bearings just produced by the bearing factory. Each car is equipped with two sets of spare bearings, and the wheels are all wrapped in two layers of camel leather to increase the load capacity and driving speed.

The Yima Plain Road between Yinshan Mountain and Lake Baikal is easy to travel. Although mules and horses need to carry supplies, with the organizational discipline of the Guandi Army, there should be no problem traveling a hundred miles a day.

Before departure, Qin Chuan sent an envoy to send a message to Chechen Khan, Tushetu Khan and Zasaktu Khan in Khalkha to explain the reason and purpose of the expedition. He asked them not to obstruct them and asked them to provide food, horses, war horses and other assistance to the expeditionary army. Any cattle, sheep, horses, food, hay, etc. provided by Zhao Wu and the other two were issued a receipt and stamped with the letter. The receipt was exchanged for twice the supplies to Wuliangsuhai.

The food and supplies needed for the expeditionary force to return must be provided by the three Khalkha tribes.

Qin Chuan specifically told Zhao Wu and others that if the three Khalkha tribes refused to provide it, they would forcefully grab it, from the north to the south, and rob it all the way back.

The eight hundred well-equipped Guandi army elites were not afraid of any Mongolian army. Even if the three Khalkha tribes could assemble tens of thousands of troops, it would not be so easy to encircle and suppress these eight hundred elites on the vast grasslands.

Therefore, there should be no problem with safety.

...

On the day of the expeditionary army's expedition, Luo Ba led the Shifang Battalion to break through the Wenyuhe Camp built by the Ming army west of Jiaocheng, and killed 800 Ming troops in formation and captured more than 4,000 prisoners.

On that day, Luo Ba left 2,000 troops to station the Wenyu River camp and resettle prisoners. He personally led 5,000 Ten-Plane Camps along the Wenyu River out of Luliang Mountain, into the Taiyuan Basin, and passed Wenshui and Jiaocheng without attacking. He went straight north to join Qinchuan to attack Taiyuan City.

The next day, Ren Liang led the Longwu Camp to capture Jinsuo Pass north of Fenzhou, killing 1,300 troops and capturing more than 2,400 prisoners. Li Chongzhen, the general of Shanxi who was stationed in Jinsuo Pass, was shot and killed on the spot. The rest of the Ming army fled to Fenzhou City.

Like Luo Ba, Ren Liang only left a small number of troops to station in Jinsuo Pass, and personally led most of his troops into the Taiyuan Basin and began to feint attack Fenzhou City to attract reinforcements from the Ming army and reduce the pressure on Qinchuan's war in Taiyuan.

In the following days, the Ming army blocking the main roads in Yongning Prefecture, Qinglongdu, Wubao and other places were defeated one after another. Only the Ming army between Suidezhou and Anding remained firmly until Yan'an, Yulin and Ningxia reinforcements arrived.

The imperial court has always had heavy troops in northern Shaanxi. After the reinforcements from all over the country arrived, the Ming army's strength reached 30,000, several times that of Fengshan Camp. Therefore, Feng Yilong decisively withdrew his troops, only cleared the rest of the roads except Anding, and destroyed all camps, sentry forts and military forts under construction.

At this point, the Ming army's blockade of Qinchuan has been completely broken.

From the end of February to early March, during the half month of the war, Qinchuanzhi accepted more than 50,000 hungry people. At first, these hungry people could only enter the railway through mountain paths, and the speed of travel was very slow. After the Ming army on key roads in various places was defeated, they rushed in along the road.

In order to accept these hungry people, all the officials who could withdraw from the Household Administration Department were dispatched and temporarily recruited many people to help. The Imperial Army was able to deal with it only when it was maintained by the Imperial Army.

According to the news from the frontier whistle, there are still a large number of hungry people from all over the country rushing to northwest Shanxi, with the number of people several times more than those that have been received, and the conservative estimate is more than 200,000.

The sharp increase in population means that the demand for food has also increased dramatically. Last year's grain output can only barely support 500,000 people. Wang Jizong expects the total grain output this year to increase by 30%, which means that it can support about 650,000 people. The total grain in Taiyuan, Yangqu and Yuci is still unknown. It is estimated that after feeding the population in these three cities, one can only support tens of thousands of people at most.

If more than 300,000 people suddenly pour in this year and the war with Khalkha begins, they may face this food crisis by the end of the year.

For this reason, Wang Jizong went outside Taiyuan City to discuss this issue with Qin Chuan.

Not long after discussion, Qin Chuan decided on a solution and a backup plan.

The solution is to increase the area of ​​grain cultivation. Qinchuan has land, but most of it is unreclaimed. It is early March, the weather is starting to warm up, the ice and snow are melting, and it will soon be sown in spring. Now it will definitely be too late to reclaim the land.

Therefore, Qin Chuan set his sights on Taiyuan, Yangqu and Yuci.

These three cities are only on the edge of the Taiyuan Basin, but there are more than two million acres of fertile land around them. Most of these fertile land belong to the royal family and the gentry. Qin Chuan plans to acquire these three cities, so why not plant these fields in advance?

The war to attack these three cities is expected to last for a month, and no one will dare to go out of the city to sow in spring. After the spring sowing period, these fertile fields will inevitably be wasted for the first season of this year. Instead of wasting them in vain, it is better to cultivate them first.

Therefore, Qin Chuan asked Wang Jizong to quickly order all places to mobilize seeds, and even used the seed bank of the Loufan Agricultural Administration Base to deliver more than 500,000 mu of seeds needed for arable land to the Taiyuan area.

The Life Information Department immediately collected information about the nearby arable land and divided all the arable land of all clan relatives and gentry, while the arable land of the civilians remained unmoved for the time being. If the war ended quickly and had not missed the spring plowing, Qinchuan would let the civilians come out to sow seeds immediately.

At the same time, Qin Chuan also ordered Wen Cheng to immediately break up the hungry people and place them near Taiyuan City with a village system, and asked the Household Administration Department to cooperate with the Agricultural Department to allocate fields and distribute seeds to the hungry people as quickly as possible.

Seeds and the food required in the past few months are lent to the hungry people in an interest-free manner. In addition, the porridge shed to help the hungry people will increase the amount of porridge and increase dry food such as big cakes, so that the hungry people will have the energy to farm.

Within one month, he expected to accept 200,000 hungry people. As long as these hungry people can successfully sow more than 300,000 mu before the end of spring plowing, the food crisis will be avoided by the end of the year.

Most of the 300,000 mu of land are sown. Based on the most conservative calculation of two stones per mu, it can produce at least 600,000 stones of grain, saving food can feed 300,000 people.

In order to ensure the smooth spring sowing, Qinchuan also let the eight generals of Luo and Shifang camps scattered nearby to prevent small groups of Ming troops from raiding the hungry people in spring sowing.

This is the solution, and the backup solution is "grab".
Chapter completed!