Chapter 916 1005 Navy Arrives

Why the Ming Dynasty used side walls and the Great Wall to call the "Great Wall" in the eyes of later generations is actually because the so-called "Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty" at this time had a completely different image from that in the eyes of later generations.

The Great Wall that later generations saw was a wall covered with bricks, but at that time, most of the Great Wall was made of rammed earth without bricks on the outside. Only a few sections of the Great Wall such as Ji Town were built this way, which was actually a section of earth wall.

Although it is an earth wall, it is not ordinary earth. It is all rammed earth made according to the manufacturing process of city walls.

In fact, rammed earth is not what everyone thinks, where a large amount of soil is first piled up and then repeatedly pounded and compacted with a stone mill or pestle. Instead, a special mold is used to pound the soil into tightly adhered mud bricks.

The materials used for rammed earth are usually taken locally. If loess is available locally, choose loess. If it is red soil, you can also choose red soil, depending on local conditions.

After the soil is taken, some things such as coarse sand, lime blocks, and clay are added and poured into mud brick molds to make mud bricks.

Such mud bricks are very compact inside, and even blisters will take a long time to penetrate. Only time will become a weapon to destroy them. They will gradually age after being exposed to the sun, rain, and wind for several years.

The mud bricks are spliced ​​after they are formed. During the splicing process, ancient cement is used, that is, glutinous rice juice plus quicklime and other raw materials are used to make mortar to fill the joints to make the mud bricks more firmly bonded.

After the earthen wall comes out, if bricks are to be laid outside, this mortar will also be used to fill the joints to increase the bonding strength between the bricks.

This kind of production can allow the city wall to stand for hundreds of years without falling down, if there is no external force to destroy it.

Most of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty was built bit by bit in this way, which can be said to be very time-consuming and labor-intensive.

In addition, baking bricks in ancient times was not simple or low-cost. It required the acquisition of soil and the purchase of a large amount of fuel, which was very expensive.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty only chose to build an earth wall from the beginning to separate the territory of the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia. The earth wall was only covered with bricks at some passes, which was not only good-looking but also conducive to the long-term protection of the city wall.

After all, a city does not only last for a short time. It is a transportation hub formed over thousands of years, so it naturally requires tighter defense.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the country was powerful and had a large number of generals and soldiers who were good at fighting. Naturally, it did not need the Great Wall to protect itself.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty was lucky enough not to take the initiative to send troops.

Only with the end of the Yongle era, the Ming Dynasty's national power began to decline and its military strength declined, did the construction of border walls begin.

During the "Gengxu Rebellion" in the 29th year of Jiajing, the Ming court paid more attention to the border walls. After that, it began to allocate money to the border gates to repair the city walls. In fact, it began to cover the original earth walls with bricks, and at the same time, it also rebuilt some damaged walls.

After all, in some places with difficult terrain, it is inevitable that there will be some shoddy projects.

Maybe it's not necessarily because the craftsmen cut corners, but because there is really no other way.

Such activities have continued until now.

In the past few years, the imperial court naturally followed closely around the capital, so Jizhen Great Wall was the first to allocate money for repairs, followed by Xuanfu, and now it is Datong's turn.

However, now Wei Guangde feels that there is no need to continue such a money-consuming project.

The Ming Dynasty was already financially strapped, so it was still spending money on future projects.

Now that they have negotiated peace with the Mongols, the risk of war has been greatly reduced. Instead of allocating a large sum of money to repair the border wall, it is better to use this money to build an army of ten thousand people.

The army is alive, can move around, and can be deployed wherever there is danger.

And the city wall is here, and it is actually very easy to be conquered.

In Wei Guangde's opinion, there is really no need to build border walls. It is enough to build enemy towers in dangerous areas and station a small number of soldiers to defend and transmit beacon fire.

Since it is a dangerous area, the roads are naturally not smooth. Such a place is generally not suitable for large regiments to maneuver, and only a small number of enemy troops can come.

This level of threat is actually within controllable range.

As long as the beacon fire spreads, the Ming army in the surrounding forts can completely resist.

As for other more important passages, they actually didn't cause much trouble to the Mongols every time, but they couldn't stop the beacons from lighting up and passing on the news of their arrival.

In the final analysis, the Great Wall is of little use. Apart from the use of beacon towers, it really has no use.

People won't even consider difficult places.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde put this memorial aside. He did not intend to approve it immediately, even though it was a memorial to send money to Ma Fang.

The local government can allocate funds for the construction of these piers such as enemy towers, and the imperial court does not need to fund them.

This amount of money, plus the military salary that was originally allocated to Datong, should be enough for Datong to form an army of 10,000 people and still maintain combat effectiveness.

Wei Guangde continued to deal with other memorials. At this time, on the pier near the sea in Huai'an, looking at the sea from a distance, white sails appeared on the horizon, and they soon became one.

The soldiers at the Seaside Guard Station noticed something unusual and immediately sounded the alarm gong.

In recent years, there have been no Japanese pirates in Huai'an Prefecture, or the coastal prefectures and counties north of Fujian.

In the Ming Dynasty, when the sea ban was implemented, there should not be a large number of white sails on the sea.

However, when Qianhu, who was guarding Qianhu Station, led his people up to the watchtower and saw a large group of ships approaching the dock below in the distance, he just observed for a moment and immediately asked the sentry to stop beating the gong.

"Go gather the troops and wait until it is confirmed that it is the Nanyang Navy before lifting the alarm."

Qianhu turned around and gave instructions to a Baihu.

Then, he arranged for his personal soldiers to ride to Huai'an Prefecture and the Governor's Office of the Canal Transport to report the matter.

The news that the Nanyang Navy was coming to Huai'an had long been passed from the Governor's Office of the Canal Transport, so the Qianhu could sit still when he saw a large number of sea ships appearing.

After all, a similar situation happened last year.

Who would have thought that the Ming Dynasty had reorganized a large navy fleet in the south.

But today, the Qianhu and his men stood on the observation deck, looking at the fleet approaching in the distance in amazement.

"This ship, isn't it... a little too much."

The Qianhu said in disbelief.

Last year, there were only about twenty ships, but the warships that appeared in front of him were probably no less than a hundred, and they were all large and large ships.

However, the more this was the case, the more he felt that these warships should be the warships of the navy in the south.

If the Japanese pirates had so many warships, they would have robbed Zhejiang long ago.

With so many ships, there must be thousands or tens of thousands of troops.

Although I haven't seen it with my own eyes, I have heard that Wang Zhi, the Japanese pirate, had tens of thousands of troops.

Even after Wang Zhi's death, tens of thousands of people were wiped out by the court, but many are still active on the sea, and they are still threatening the coast of Ming Dynasty.

I remember that a small group of Japanese pirates appeared along the coast of Guangdong last month, and they also attacked the coastal garrisons set up by the court.

"Sir, it should be our ship, otherwise it would never come to the shore so blatantly.

It should be the navy that the Canal Transport Office said was transporting grain to the north."

A centurion came over and said flatteringly, "I was scared when I saw so many ships before, but you were wise and stopped the gongs directly, hehe"

"Yes, I was scared just now, too, so many ships, my goodness, no wonder there is little news about Japanese pirates now."

The people following behind the thousand households were all his close friends. Hearing them flattering like this, the thousand households just smiled, with a calm face.

If he didn't know that there were warships coming from the south, did he think he could still stand here and watch, and he would have run to Huai'an City with his concubines wrapped in his belongings.

When the fleet approached the dock, it finally stopped. A small boat was lowered by the big ship, and several navy soldiers on it rowed towards the shore.

Seeing this scene, the thousand households guarding this place finally moved.

"Let's go down and see if it's the fleet of the Nanyang Navy."

I didn't see the seals they carried. To be honest, although I was very sure that this was the navy of the court, I didn't dare to let their fleet pass.

You know, behind them is the estuary of the Yellow River. If you go upstream, you will reach the Qingjiangpu Stone Wharf.

The Stone Wharf was later called the Imperial Wharf because the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties would stop here when they went south along the canal for inspection.

This section of the river was originally the estuary of the Huaihe River. After the Yellow River took over the Huaihe River and flowed into the sea during the Hongzhi period, this place was occupied by the Yellow River and became the estuary of the Yellow River.

It happened that the grain boats arrived in Huai'an through the canal, entered the Yellow River section in Huai'an, went upstream to Xuzhou, and then continued to enter the Grand Canal to Shandong and arrived at their destination.

Therefore, a guarding thousand households were set up at the estuary to monitor the nearby sea surface. If an unknown fleet was found, it would naturally be stopped and inspected.

Because Huai'an Prefecture is not far away, Huai'an Prefecture has long become a prosperous place in Jiangbei with the help of the canal.

If Huai'an Prefecture had made a mistake, it would have shocked the world.

During the Jiajing period, Japanese pirates appeared in Huai'an Prefecture many times, but because Huai'an's city walls were tall, the Japanese pirates could only plunder the countryside, and did not dare to set their sights on the city with tall walls.

This also caused most of the wealthy families along the river to move to Huai'an Prefecture in a hurry to avoid the invasion of Japanese pirates.

At the mouth of the river, several cannons were ready to aim at the fleet in front, although they would not cause much damage.

On the dock on the shore, Ming army officers and soldiers had already begun to line up.

The boat quickly rowed to the shore, and the people of the navy took the pass ashore to report their itinerary to the Ming army here.

Just when the Nanyang Navy fleet arrived in Huai'an, the news was finally delivered to the Governor's Office of the Canal Transport.

Hearing that the Nanyang Navy had arrived, Wang Zongmu immediately got up and took the documents from the Ministry of War to Yu Dayou, which were handed over along with the official documents from the capital, to the Huai'an dock.

When Wang Zongmu got on the sedan chair, he did not forget to let the general of the transport army know, asking him to gather the transport soldiers who had come ashore to rest as soon as possible, and be ready to follow the Nanyang Navy to go north at any time.

When Wang Zongmu arrived at the stone pier, the Ming Navy fleet had already appeared in the distance.

The pier here occupies a large area, but it is not possible to dock all the warships, so they can only take turns.

After a large Fu ship docked at the pier, the step was put on, and Yu Dayou got off the ship wearing a red official robe embroidered with a lion.

The military generals of the Ming Dynasty, unless they were going to war, generally chose to wear official uniforms.

Yu Dayou and Wang Zongmu greeted each other. Although they met for the first time, the peacock patch on Wang Zongmu's chest clearly showed his identity.

In Huai'an Prefecture, there was only this person who was qualified to wear a peacock patch.

And the civil servant next to him had a Yunyan patch on his chest, so he was naturally the prefect of Huai'an Prefecture.

After a round of greetings, Wang Zongmu pulled Yu Dayou aside, took out a document from his sleeve and handed it to Yu Dayou.

"General Yu, this is the document sent by the Ministry of War a few days ago, I will pass it to you."

After Wang Zongmu handed the document to Yu Dayou, he stood aside quietly waiting for him to read it.

Although Yu Dayou felt strange, he quickly opened the document of the Ministry of War and read it quickly.

"General Governor."

Yu Dayou held his hands and clasped his fists and said, "I don't know how you arranged it."

"I have prepared 500,000 shi of grain, of which 350,000 shi will be loaded on the grain ship, and the remaining 150,000 shi will be carried by the general's fleet.

After arriving in Tianjin, unload 200,000 shi of grain, and transfer the remaining 300,000 shi of military rations with the general to join the Jizhen troops and go to Gaizhou."

Wang Zongmu told his plan, "I just don't know if the general's fleet can carry the 10,000 soldiers and horses of Jizhen?"

"How much grain can the grain ship carry if it is fully loaded?"

After a while of silent calculation in his mind, Yu Dayou still asked.

He knew that the troops organized by Qi Jiguang in Jizhen were equipped with a large number of heavy weapons such as chariots and artillery. He had not seen the Jizhen army organized by Qi Jiguang with his own eyes, and he was not sure whether he could load so many people and equipment.

So, the idea was to find a way in Huai'an.

There are a lot of canal ships here.

Although these canal ships are not suitable for sea transportation, although it is sea transportation this time, the real dangerous place is actually the section from Huai'an Prefecture to Shandong.

Going around Shandong, you will enter the Bohai Sea. Rather than calling it a sea, it is actually no different from an inland river.

Compared with the open ocean, the Zhili Bay is already calm, and the water here is shallow, so the risk of sailing is not great.

As for Tianjin to Gaizhou, it is actually sailing in the Bohai Sea, so it is still safe.

What he is not sure about is whether the troops and equipment can be transported at one time.

If he knew that he had to transport troops, he would have brought those small and medium-sized Zhejiang ships and Guangzhou ships.

It is very simple to load things. As long as the center of gravity of the ship is determined and the center of gravity of the ship is not unstable, it will be no problem to go to sea.

But if you want to load people and travel for two days by sea, you have to consider more things.

Eating, drinking, defecating and urinating are all things that need to be considered, otherwise don't make a big deal on the ship, it will be troublesome.

The court's dispatch of troops to Liaodong was obviously not an ordinary troop movement.

I didn't see that Qi Jiguang was taken to Liaodong on official business, but Qi Jiguang was the general commander of Jizhen.

"Sir Wang, did the court go to war with the Jurchens in Liaodong?"

Yu Dayou looked around and saw that no one was around, so he couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

"I don't know either."

Wang Zongmu shook his head gently.

He and Yu Dayou are now under the wings of Wei Guangde, the second assistant of the cabinet, so they are naturally considered to be in the same party, and there is nothing to guard against.

"However, if it is against the northern barbarians, it seems that there is no need to take a boat across the sea to Gaizhou, and it is enough to go directly north from the Great Wall of Jizhen.

Or it is also possible to go from Shanhaiguan to Guangning and enter the Liaoxi grassland."

Wang Zongmu said that the route of the Ming army inside the pass to enter Liaoxi is much better than taking a boat to Gaizhou and then going by land.

Although it has not been confirmed, Yu Dayou still nodded in agreement.

In fact, this meaningless conversation had already convinced them that the imperial court had taken action against the Liaodong Jurchens. (End of this chapter)