Chapter 852

Liu Bu's nature of the Ministry of national defense is similar to that of the Ministry of war of the Ming Dynasty, but there are also many differences.

The military headquarters of the Ming Dynasty were in charge of military power and the mobilization of troops and horses in the world, but they did not directly lead troops to war.

The generals of the governor's office of the Fifth Army led the troops to fight. Before sending the troops, the military headquarters issued the tiger amulet. The generals led the troops with the amulet, and the soldiers only recognized the tiger amulet and did not recognize people.

Tiger talisman is equivalent to a symbol of military power.

When the general returns, he must immediately hand over the tiger amulet and hand over his military power. This is a common practice, which is one of the main characteristics of the Ming Dynasty's rule of literature and military affairs.

This is almost the main way to dispatch troops over the past two thousand years.

Even the Liu family are using the policy of tiger talisman. The Liu family started a rebellion and naturally guard against how others revolt. All military power is collected in the Ministry of national defense, which is in the charge of Liu Bu, the commander-in-chief of the Ministry of national defense. When using the army, they can assign the tiger talisman to their generals before they can mobilize the army.

However, the Liu family does not have the governor's office of the five armies at present. They are still equivalent to the combination of the military headquarters of the Ming Dynasty and the governor's office of the five armies.

Liu Bu divided his ministry of national defense into five departments, the first of which was the operations department; Second generation staff; Three logistics departments, four armaments departments and five government decrees have divided the work of each department, which is similar to that of the Ming Dynasty.

At present, Liu Bu's Ministry of national defense is just beginning and in a state of war, so there are some expedients and temporary. If Liu Bu will not take charge of the Ministry of national defense when the overall situation has been determined, it is estimated that he will have to implement the policy of mutual checks and balances of the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Bu came to the Ministry of national defense. They held a meeting and asked the staff office to formulate a battle plan in a short time, and then submit the battle plan to his Highness the king.

This battle plan is naturally the battle of Shandong. It is a little late for them to formulate such a huge plan now, but there is no way. The situation forces them to move forward.

For such a plan, the Chinese army can still carry out, that is, they are in the South and can transport their troops and equipment to all parts of Shandong by relying on the Grand Canal and various rivers.

The Ming Dynasty in the North was at a disadvantage in logistics because its navy was basically lost and could not use the river to fight with the Navy.

The most important function of the Beijing Hangzhou canal is for the imperial government to transport grain and allocate materials, followed by the commercial function.

After the opening of the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal, all dynasties have built and adjusted it appropriately.

After the establishment of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal was often blocked, so it was cut and straightened. On the basis of it, the current Dynasty carried out a lot of dredging and later construction work, which cost a lot while further developing and utilizing the value.

When Zhu Yuanzhang established the great Ming Dynasty, the capital should be heaven. "The millet of Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangzhou float directly down the river; the millet of Western Zhejiang and Wuzhong turn from the to the canal; the millet of Phoenix and Huai float down the Huai; and the millet of Henan and Shandong descend to the Yellow River", which makes it difficult to highlight the transportation value of the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal.

It didn't play a big role, so the imperial court didn't pay attention to the canal. After Chengzu Zhu Di ascended the throne, he moved his capital to Beijing. At this time, due to the Japanese pirates along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, there were four pirates at sea, so it was difficult for the shipping to play a practical role.

Therefore, in order to transport soldiers and materials, the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal re entered the vision of the imperial court.

However, at this time, the Grand Canal lacks daily maintenance and construction, canal accidents occur frequently, and the faults of sluice and river are more prominent.

The Huai and Yang rivers converge, and the Xu and Yan rivers pass by. They are sparse and determined, and the human resources are the system. Therefore, the gates, rivers and lakes are particularly urgent to turn into water tanks. To Xuande years, from Changgou to Zaolin gate hundred and twenty miles, sand silted up, and it was difficult for Cao boats to travel.

Water transport is a military and state event, which is related to the stability of political power. In order to solve the problem of water transport, the imperial court issued strict regulations to improve the current situation of water transport, such as "water for shallow ships shall not exceed six meters", "opening the upper gate means closing the lower gate, opening the lower gate means closing the upper gate", "closing in winter and opening in spring, storing water for ship transport", etc.

Therefore, people at that time compared the shipping policy at that time with "one gate for a day, guarding the gate is like guarding a ghost".

In order to dredge the river, the imperial court recruited a large number of river workers, with tens of thousands of people. For example, there are ba Fu, di Fu, Qian Fu, Liu Fu, Zha Fu, Quan Fu and so on.

Caohe's servants, who are at the gate, call the gate man and open and close with their palms; A walker to pull the boat up and down; Those who are at the dam are called dam men, who cross the dam with cars and boats; Those who are in shallow shops are called shallow men to patrol the banks, trees and ships, so that they are not glued to the beach and sand, or gather to serve in case of embankment and river repair, and it is forbidden to catch thieves; Spring husband, to Jun spring; Hufu, to guard the lake; Tang Fu, to guard the pond; There is also Laofu calling indefinitely; Pick a Hong Kong man and requisition him sometimes, and "set a service man, who has 474 people from Tongzhou to Yizhen Guazhou".

As for the money spent, it is even greater. For example, Huo taoyun, the left attendant of the Ministry of officials in the 14th year of Jiajing: "There are 1500 odd Hongfu, including Qianfu, Zha Fu, Quanfu, Banfu and groom. The Hongfu's first service is twelve years old, that is, eighteen thousand Liang. Other services can't be investigated... There are only twenty thousand households in Xuzhou. The miscellaneous households are like this. Why should the people be embarrassed."

In the 23rd year of Jiajing, Shandong was the only one who worked in Caohe, and the amount of money was very heavy... The original amount of corvee was more than 4900 liang of silver, of which more than 14200 were employed, about 134600 liang of silver. If something happened in the river in previous years, it had to be recruited, so there was no way to deal with the work, food and silver.

The existence of the Grand Canal gave birth to countless canal cities and canal economy. In fact, it is the lifeblood of the Ming Dynasty. The Liu family, where the Liu family started, has today's scenery. In fact, they are also a member of the Grand Canal.

Before their rise, the Liu family was one of the four fleets of the canal. Their ability to quickly win Shandong and Jianghuai was also related to their rapid deployment of troops relying on favorable terrain.

In this war, they were passive, but they planned to use the Grand Canal to fight back and pull back the gap between them.

To attack all parts of Shandong, the Ming army could only ride a horse or walk on two legs, while Liu Jiajun was different. He could rely on the canal to send troops, which further improved their mobility.

Of course, this is almost an option, because the Liu family's navy is too powerful. They always use the navy to transport materials. Those who can use the Navy and waterway will use the waterway. Therefore, in the northern Daming, they are often called water rats. At the same time, their materials and warehouses are originally concentrated by the river, This makes it easier and faster for them to transport troops.

Since entering the little ice age, the canal, the lifeblood of Daming, has often been frozen, so it is impossible to transport materials to the north. Often, the freezing period lasts for two or three months, which means that Daming must quickly transport materials to the north before the river is frozen every year.

It was a miserable year last year. It was the peak period of the goods passage. The Liu family rebelled and cut off the canal, so that the grain taxes in the South could not be transported to the north, which made the life in the North extremely sad. The Imperial Court pointed to the rice and put it into the pot. The result was good and there was no hope. This is also the reason why the imperial court is so poor and has little power to fight back against the Liu family.

The ice cover is mainly in the north section of Linqing canal in Shandong province or more north, but in the south, although it is extremely cold, it is not so cold that the river is frozen.

Therefore, the Liu family decided to use their advantages in the canal to quickly transport a large number of troops and human resources to the north and to the major battlefields in Shandong.

It can be predicted that after the warm spring, the battlefield in Shandong will be divided into three parts. The first is Yang Sichang in the north. He will attack Cangzhou and Dezhou from Tianjin. After he succeeds, he will advance and retreat freely whether he attacks Jinan or Denglai.

Hong Chengshou will also go out of Baoding to attack Dongchang Prefecture, Liaocheng, Linqing and other places. Zhu Xieyuan department in Henan will also send troops to attack Yanzhou Prefecture, Jining and other places.

Of course, they also have other auxiliary troops and armies to assist and support each other, but the real main direction of attack should be these three aspects.

This time, the Ming army gathered all the troops it could, and went all out without giving them any chance to breathe. If it failed, it would become benevolence.

Because they have relatively few troops, the Liu family can only defend passively. Now, they have no ability to carry out strategic attack.

When deciding the fate of both sides, the Liu family focused on the canal and wanted to use its convenience to facilitate the deployment of troops and generals, but the Ming army also focused on the canal.

Xu Jianqiang wrote to Emperor Chongzhen and suggested: "the key to winning the war in Shandong lies in the Grand Canal. The thief army must use the convenience of the canal to transport troops quickly. If the canal can be paralyzed, they will not have this convenience. If the front line can not get strong support from the rear, they will be quickly defeated by our army."

It was the first time to hear such a suggestion, which made emperor Chongzhen bright. The Grand Canal was the lifeblood of the Ming Dynasty, or the enemy. Its location determined its decisive importance. Cutting it off could also paralyze the enemy. Emperor Chongzhen asked, "can Xu Qing paralyze the canal?"

In the traditional way, to paralyze the canal, you just bury explosives on several key hubs and canal gates and blow it up. It's very difficult for you to restore it and make it work normally. Even emperor Chongzhen believes that this is a good way. In this way, you can really paralyze the enemy's logistics supply.

If they stormed Shandong, but the other side could not get the support from the rear, the morale of the army would be chaotic and unsustainable, so as to lay their victory.

Xu Jianqiang said, "I naturally have a way, but not to destroy the canal, but there is a better way."