Chapter 216 Cili

After learning some information from Chen Maocai, Zhang Ning initially planned to send someone to discuss alliances with the Miao envoy, but the next day he decided to see him in person.

Maybe I know that the other person is a woman...

He couldn't help but feel some erotic expectations in his subconscious.

For a woman who has never met before, it can always make a man imagine a beautiful woman.

Unexpectedly, after meeting, Zhang Ning was disappointed. The Miao girl's skin was a little darkened by the sun and there were freckles on her cheeks. Fortunately, her skin was darker, otherwise the color spots would definitely be more conspicuous.

Fortunately, his round face and upright facial features are not ugly, and he looks quite handsome when he looks closely. Perhaps he hasn't encountered a woman's relationship for too long.

He sighed in his heart that imagination and reality are always a little distance away.

Miao Nv's name is Bai Yu, and there are two male followers around her, who are said to be deputy envoys.

They don’t speak official language, and their accent is very similar to those of Sichuan people. Fortunately, they are in Chinese and can probably understand it.

They quickly proposed the idea of ​​the Miao rebels, hoping that Zhang Ning's troops could go south to capture Gaodu County to restrain the Changde Guards in Longtou Temple.

Zhang Ning was probably familiar with the terrain of the western Dongting Lake area, and he also participated in the map drawing before.

Changde Prefecture is located directly south of Shimen County, with a distance of about 160 miles; Chenzhou Prefecture is located southwest of Changde Prefecture, and between the two prefecture cities is Gaodu County and Longtou Temple.

Among the three counties controlled by Zhang Ningjun, Cili County is closest to Gaodu County, about 100 miles, but the road is not easy to walk.

The Miao people's requirements were still very pragmatic, and they did not want Zhang Ning to directly attack Changde Mansion or attack the main force of the Changde Guard Army who was rushing to Longtou Temple.

It is certainly not reliable to use Zhang Ning's current military strength to attack Changde Mansion. As a big city, Changde City is not only solid, but also has four towns such as Wuling and Taoyuan nearby. In such a dense area, there are 10,000 people who do not want to besiege. If you enter, you may be surrounded by enemies on all sides.

The Longtou Temple is too far away, and the guards are at least 2,000, which is not easy to fight.

Only Gaodu County in the middle is relatively empty and fragile. Once attacked, the food supply of the Longtou Temple official army may be cut off. The official army will most likely transfer the troops from Longtou Temple to rescue, which will indirectly reduce the pressure on the Miao people in Chenzhou.

Of course, the Miao people's abacus is very good, but Zhang Ning obviously doesn't want to help them at this time.

At this time, the nail stuck in the middle of Yongding Guard has not been removed, so the Jiuxi Guard and other garrison cities in the northern mountainous areas were still inactive. The three counties occupied by Zhang Ning were not really safe and foolproof. Once the main force is drawn out, it is hard to say whether the territory of the three counties can be kept.

It was impossible for him to transfer the only 1,000 troops to more than a hundred miles away at this time to fight against the officers and soldiers.

Since they are mutually exploiting each other, Zhang Ning cannot sacrifice himself for the needs of the Miao rebels.

He took the initiative to contact the Miao people and showed goodwill, with only two purposes: first, he did not want to get along with the Miao people, and there was no need to make enemies; second, everyone in Miao people can effectively restrain Zhu Yong's official army.

I believe that the Miao people sent envoys to respond was also due to this consideration.

I will discuss with my subordinates before I can give you a reply.

Zhang Ning replied, and he didn't want to refuse directly in person. After we discuss the results, we will definitely inform you of the specific deployment details as soon as possible.

Let’s say this first, he plans to send someone to explain the difficulties in two days.

Although the negotiations did not have any substantial results, Miao Zhibai's performance seemed to be satisfied, because Zhang Ning always used the title of "Nuji Madam" during the conversation. As a woman from a maid, being respected may be a very useful thing.

……

Not long after, two more important news came to Zhang Ning.

First of all, Fan Laosi and Ma Dapeng approached the western part of Yongdingwei from Fengxia Mountain. More than 100 craftsmen from the Weapon Bureau came in batches. Zhang Ning ordered two teams of troops to respond.

Then there was news from the Shuidangao stronghold of Changde Prefecture. Yuezhou Prefecture was summoning troops from the garrison to recover three prefectures and counties including Shimen.

The official army once again showed no secrets. Yuezhou Prefecture gathered troops in difficulty, mobilized in low efficiency, and made its intention to advance well known to everyone.

Soon, the Jianwen Party’s intelligence base was found out clearly.

Zhang Ning was not panicked after knowing it. With the speed of the mobilization of the government army, it was still unclear when the time for gathering troops to gather troops was cleared. It was not too late to prepare when they actually sent troops.

Yuezhou Prefecture is located east of Dongting Lake, which is quite far apart. The roads and mountains and rivers are complicated, and the main water networks are intertwined, so the army's advancement speed must be slow.

He just sent a few detailed works to find out the news near Yuezhou Prefecture.

This time, when Yuezhou Prefecture was in a hot spot, Zhang Ning could only understand the situation through the Jianwen Party stronghold in Changde Prefecture, and he realized the problem.

Zhang Ning has more than a thousand soldiers, but because this force has been established for a short time, its foundation is still not deep; and the basic advantages of the founding Party of Wen for more than 20 years have been reflected again, fortunately, the relationship between them is not yet broken.

Emperor Jianwen and Zhang Ning are father-son relationships, but the two are by no means close.

Zhang Ning had just confirmed his life experience and had a rift with Emperor Jianwen. The consequences of the last unsuccessful meeting in the teaching hall are difficult to make up for...

After all, this matter is actually a problem in Jianwen's harem, and the root cause lies in the palace fight between Empress Ma and Mrs. Yao.

The influence of women on politics is reflected again.

But Zhang Ning did not want to intensify the conflict. After thinking about it, he formulated the idea of ​​uniting the united front.

Emperor Xuande, who controlled the central government of the empire, was himself an absolutely strong and advantageous side. At this time, it would be obviously an extremely unwise thing to Zhang Ning take care of internal struggles.

His general direction is to win over all forces that can be won over. As long as it is not a mortal enemy of the death, he can cooperate and communicate with each other.

All internal contradictions should be dealt with on the day when the biggest enemy is defeated.

For example, the father and son have never met each other before, and they lack emotional foundation and cannot truly trust in power at all; the conflict between Yao Ji and Empress Ma is even more difficult to reconcile.

After forming an alliance with the Miao people, the contradictions were also very obvious. In this era, the degree of national integration and consolidation was completely incomparable to modern times. The Miao people and the Han people distrust each other. In fact, the national policy of the Han regime did not give the young people any benefits, but the most was exclusion, discrimination, and plunder.

Zhang Ning knew that Emperor Xuande was not the best at fighting in the south and north, but political skills; Zhang Ning himself was a civil servant, but in fact the same was true.

Maybe I am not qualified to be an opponent of Emperor Xuande Zhu Zhanji, so I have to show higher strategies.

...A few days later, Ma Dapeng and others from the Weapons Bureau arrived in Cili County, and Zhang Ning then moved the center of gravity westward with his men and set up a headquarters in the Cili County Government.

The people in the Weapon Bureau only carried some light tools, and there was nothing else. It would be another complicated matter to rebuild workshops, make tools, arrange raw materials in Cili County.

At this time, the staff in Cili County were numerous and complex, including military soldiers, craftsmen and managers, local officials, and the people. Zhang Ning realized that relying solely on the previous methods, it was easy to cause internal management chaos.

So he temporarily added two institutions, the first one was called the Senate Department. The name he thought of was an organization that assisted in decision-making and planning specific execution of various affairs. Lao Xu was the Senate envoy and led the officials.

Of course, Zhang Ning knew that Lao Xu's ability in this regard was definitely not as good as Wang Yu and his aides, and it was not necessarily better than Hou Mao, the leader of the cultist, but Lao Xu, as the confidant who followed Zhang Ning in the early days, naturally had his strengths.

There is also a Confidential Department, who is Zhang Ning's deputy, helping him manage confidential documents and other items.

Currently, Xu Wenjun is the only secretary. As the name suggests, the secretary is a person who knows the secrets. Naturally, he cannot just recruit a few people to make up for it, at least he trusts.

After raising these two yamen, Zhang Ning accepted Wang Yu's suggestion, and the Senate Department was responsible for engraving and manufacturing seals of various civil and military yamen, and promulgating laws to punish for forging seals, etc. to regulate the organization of official documents.

Then he ordered Fan Laosi, a native of the Weapons Bureau, to form a workshop for weapons manufacturing, and Wang Yu was responsible for coordinating it in the Senate Department to specifically arrange for officials in Cili County to requisition the housing site and materials.

After Zhang Ning often inquired, the Weapons Bureau quickly found the houses and territory for workshops and warehouses, and listed the full name of the Weapons Bureau.

But there is one thing that only Zhang Ning can do, which is the design drawings of the mortar.

In the entire Ming Dynasty, he could only think of how to make this thing.

He is not a professional workshop worker, and the design drawings cannot be completed by himself, so he must be a person who understands craftsmanship.

Ma Dapeng was asked to meet Zhang Ning in the county government every day, and the two discussed ways to tinker with mortars.

However, with the experience of manufacturing long-barrel cannons for mothers and children, it is obviously not difficult to cast mortar cannons. Large-caliber, thick and short iron cannons are obviously very easy to grind the chamber.

When Ma Dapeng talked about casting cannons, he came up with a method of using copper as the inner iron as the outer. The copper material as the inner can not only avoid sand holes but also not easily exploded.

But Zhang Ning quickly rejected the practical use of this method. Due to the lack of copper, with their current financial situation, the copper material mined is better than using it to mint coins.

Then Ma Dapeng said that when casting cannons, the hollow water cooling method should be used to make the cannon cool first.

When Zhang Ning asked the reason, Ma Dapeng said: It is difficult to avoid a lot of slag in the molten iron. After casting the cannon, polishing the cannon chamber, and often found sand holes on the inner wall. He was afraid that the cannon would explode and had to recast it, so casting the cannon was so slow.If the middle of the barrel is cold first, the slag will easily remain outside the barrel with the molten iron, which can better avoid sand holes.

After hearing this, Zhang Ning suddenly realized it and thought it was indeed the case. As expected, he had a specialized career, and in practice, he still needed the wisdom of a craftsman.

But Zhang Ning also has advantages in this regard. He can come up with things that the ancients could hardly imagine, such as simple vises.

After the weapons bureau was made according to the structural diagram, the craftsmen said it was very practical.