"Your Highness, I received the exact news before I left Runing Mansion. Li Zicheng did not abandon Xi'an Mansion. Instead, he left Gao Yigong and Luo Hu with 20,000 to 30,000 people to defend the city, and also left Xi'an Mansion untouched.

The common people and the family members of the Dashun Army were all taken to Xiangyang Prefecture. It seems that they are ready to hold on for a long time!

The Tartars have not yet invaded Xi'an on a large scale. Duduo on the east route stopped moving after capturing Tongguan, Huayin, Tongzhou, Chaoyi and other places and did not continue to advance westward. However, the Tartars on the northern route

It is still within Yulin Town and Yan'an Prefecture.

In addition, Wu Sangui has currently occupied two towns in Ningxia and Gansu, two prefectures of Pingliang and Lintao, Gongchang Banfu, Qingyang Banfu and Jinglu Yiwei.

Li Zicheng occupied most of Xi'an Prefecture, half of Qingyang Prefecture, half of Gongchang Prefecture, Taozhou, Minzhou Liangwei, Fengxiang, and Hanzhong Prefecture.

The situation in Shaanxi is likely to result in a tripartite confrontation between Li Zicheng, Wu Sangui and the Tartars."

In the Wenhua Hall, facing a map of Shaanxi Province, Zhu Cihong, Wei Zaode, Chen Rui, Lin Zengzhi, Qian Qianyi, Hou Xun, Ma Shiying, Wu Xiang, Wu Sanfu, Cao Youyi, Huang Binqing and others were analyzing the battlefield situation in Shaanxi.

Li Yan, the military advisor who rushed back from Runing.

Li Yan's previous official position was that of the chief historian of the Tang Dynasty and the governor of Runing Mansion. He actually held the power of Runing Mansion. With his efforts, the foundation of the Ming Dynasty in Runing Mansion has been consolidated. Runing First Mansion and Second Mansion

The land and population of the five counties and eleven counties of the prefecture have been completely surveyed. The military settlements and official fields are all under the control of the four royal guards, the Dabie Guards (these five guards are all newly established) and the Runing military settlements, and part of the civilian fields

I checked again and again, and basically everything was clear and under control.

I think when Zhang Juzheng was in power, the investigation was not as clear as it is now. After all, Zhang Juzheng was also a member of the corrupt officials of the Ming Dynasty, and Li Yan, Feng San, and Hong Niangzi's group were rogue bandits, and Runing Mansion had been purged by Li Zicheng before.

Once, the gentry lost a lot of power!

After a complete inventory and rectification, the Runing Five Guards alone were able to pull out 8,000 fully armed soldiers! There are also more than 13,000 regiment training personnel in the 11 counties of Runing 2 Prefectures. Moreover, the cities in the 2 prefectures and 11 counties have been repaired.

, also stored a considerable amount of grain and grass, and built a Tangwang Fort in the Dabie Mountains as a refuge for the Tangwang and his two brothers during wartime.

After the situation in Runing stabilized, Zhu Cixiang naturally wanted to invite his military advisers back to join the war cabinet. The situation in the north is now dangerous, and a full-scale war between the north and the south is about to break out. In the west, there are also Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and Zuo Liang.

Three threats to Jade. The situation is quite serious!

Therefore, Zhu Cixiang needed a powerful "chief of staff" and a wartime cabinet that could cope with various difficult situations.

The purpose of recalling Li Yan is to let him replace the incompetent Cao Youyi as the commander of the military command and guard of the Generalissimo's Mansion.

Cao Youyi will be transferred to the newly established Ordnance Guard of the Generalissimo's Mansion. This Ordnance Guard was upgraded on the basis of the military industry and arsenal departments originally belonging to the Military and Political Guard. It consists of the Artillery Manufacturing Department and the Gun Manufacturing Department.

There are four departments including Shipbuilding Department, Arsenal Department and Purchasing Department.

The first three are in charge of government-run arsenals and shipyards. In fact, they manage some government-run and state-owned handicraft workshops. However, these workshops are not used for large-scale production, but for training craftsmen and trial production of weapons. They pay high prices to buy from Hao.

Ao, Foshan, Shijing, and Anping invited experienced master craftsmen to build artillery, muskets, and ships with Zhu Cixi's "Yicong Craftsmen" and young apprentices. The products were mainly imitations of foreign guns, foreign cannons, and foreign ships.

Zhu Cixiang would sometimes come up with some "whimsical" designs for them to create.

In addition, Zhu Cihong also asked the top ten imperial merchants to select stewards to participate in the operation and management of these government-run factories. The purpose was to familiarize them with the operations of arsenals and shipyards. In order to support the imperial merchants in opening commercial arsenals and shipyards in the future!

That's right, Zhu Cixi's military-industrial line is to maintain the official business, develop the commercial industry, and encourage competition. To put it simply, it is the most evil capitalist line!

Of course the route is bad, but there is nothing we can do about it. Even the steam engine has not been invented these days, so there is no big industry. Even the military industry of Western England is a manual workshop. Because there is no machine industry, it is all manual work.

Work requires serious and responsible factory owners to personally control quality. Therefore, competition among a large number of private factories is one of the ways to maintain efficiency and quality.

It's just one of them. There is another way to maintain quality, which is severe punishment! Use the method that Helian Bobo used to build Tongwan City and Daxia Dragon Bird Sword to punish the craftsmen. But the question is, where can Zhu Cixi find so many swordsmen?

A good craftsman?

The government-run handicraft industry in the Ming Dynasty collapsed long ago, and the craftsman household system existed in name only, and Zhu Cixiang was also preparing to completely abolish this household registration system that stipulates occupations for ordinary people. The craftsmen in Zhu Cixiang's hands now are just "Yicong craftsmen" who followed from Tianjin

, their craftsmanship is quite poor, and even if they kill them all, they won’t be able to make high-quality guns.

As for skilled blacksmiths, they are not only in Guangdong but in Fujian. They are all private craftsmen and there are no official craftsmen. Therefore, Zhu Cixi could only set up a purchasing department under the Arms Guard to be responsible for the purchasing and acceptance of weapons.

While incorporating functions such as military and military production, procurement, and arsenal management into the Ordnance Guard, Zhu Cixi also merged the remaining departments of the Military and Political Guard into the Ministry of War under the cabinet.

This is not to expand the powers of civilian officials, but to reform the cabinet again. The purpose is to open up the connection between the military and the government, and clarify the powers of the military and government, so that the cabinet can participate in military affairs to a certain extent, and at the same time, it also opens the door for military officers to enter the cabinet to participate in politics.

channel.

Because at the same time that some institutions of the Military and Political Guards were merged into the Ministry of War, Wu Xiang, the former commander of the Military and Political Guards, also entered the Ministry of War and served as Minister of the Ministry of War! Moreover, the military camps, military registration, military personnel and other departments that originally belonged to the Military and Political Guards were also merged.

It was incorporated into the Ministry of War, and at the same time, the four departments of military selection, staff, vehicle driving and arsenal that originally belonged to the Ministry of War were disbanded, and the Military Garrison Department (responsible for field farming, grain harvesting and recruiting troops), the Military Expenditure Department, and the Military Officer Department were reorganized and managed by military attachés.

(Officer Personnel) and the Fourth Department of the Ma Political Department.

In other words, the military and political guards of the Generalissimo's Mansion have actually become the Ministry of War. The original civilian Ministry of War has been abolished.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household Affairs under the cabinet have also made corresponding adjustments.

Among them, the departments under the Ministry of Industry have been reduced from the original four to two, namely the Capital Water Department, which is in charge of water conservancy, and the Battalion and Repair Department, which is responsible for government construction. The Battalion and Repair Department is responsible for city construction and defense, so it has also become a semi-official department.

The civil and military yamen. The departments and bureaus that were originally under the Ministry of Industry and were in charge of utensil manufacturing, mountain harvesting and farmland reclamation were all abolished.

As for the Ministry of Household Affairs, the changes are even bigger! All the original thirteen departments of the Ministry of Household Affairs were abolished and replaced by the Taxation Department (responsible for customs and commercial taxes), the Household Registration Department, the Qingtian Department, the Trade and Commerce Department (managing the ports), and the Du Branch Department (managing the ports).

Expenditure) and the Money Making Department and other six departments.

In short, the pace of cabinet reform this time is not small (Zhu Cixiang's reforms are all incremental, not one step). If it were not for the wartime atmosphere of a powerful enemy, it would not be so easy to implement.

"Everything is waiting for you, but the time is not waiting for me!" Zhu Cixiang crossed his arms and looked at the Qing, Shun, and Wu families' situations in Shaanxi marked on the map, "Military advisor, can Li Zicheng be able to withstand it? Should we take action?"

"Your Highness the Crown Prince," Li Yan breathed out, "As long as Xi'an Mansion is willing to hold on, there is nothing the Tartars can do. Datong and the others have been trapped for several months and they have not been able to recruit any more."

"Datong is also in danger!" Wu Xiang interjected from the side. "The Tartars don't necessarily have to besiege the city. How much effort would it take to besiege the city? They can rob food and people outside the city and prevent the people from cultivating Datong. Once Xi'an is in trouble, it will be a disaster.

Bai Di, how long can two isolated cities hold on?"

Li Yan nodded, "Shang Shu is right. Didn't Li Zicheng use this method to harm Zhongzhou? Now it's his turn! The two strong cities of Xi'an and Xiangyang cannot be defeated by the Tartars, and Nanyang Fucheng can also hold on. But

Guanzhong and the plains north of the Han River are feared to be severely damaged.

This is to drive the tiger to swallow the wolf, just to make it impossible for Li Zicheng to gain a foothold in Xi'an and Xiangyang, and then come to seize our foundation!"
Chapter completed!