“Sea transportation?”

Zhu Yuanzhang said in amazement.

"The Tartars can transport grain at sea to supply to the capital. Why can't you transport grain at sea to supply to the Northern Expedition Army?"

Yang Feng said.

The Yuan Dynasty had developed sea canal transport, and a large amount of canal transported grain to the north every year. The highest record was that more than 1,000 ships transported more than 3 million stones of grain to Dadu every year. In fact, it is also transporting now. Whether Chen Youding or Zhang Shicheng transported grain to the north, they still took the sea route. Zhu Yuanzhang controlled Zhenjiang, and Zhang Shicheng could not enter the canal either. His control areas were Nantong, Taizhou and Gaoyou, but the entrance of the canal was in the hands of Zhu Yuanzhang. He had attacked Jiangyin many times before but failed, so his fleet set off from Taicang Port, but did not go north directly after exiting the Yangtze River estuary, so he had to flow against the coast. Their route was to insert the Hei Tide to the northeast and then go directly to the Shandong Peninsula and then turn to the Haihe Estuary. They called the Hei Tide Hei Shui Ocean. When the wind direction was right, it only took half a month to reach the Haihe Estuary. When the wind direction was wrong, it would only be a month.

This is also the case that most of their ships are sand ships.

So sea routes are feasible.

And it is also necessary.

Zhang Shicheng could not provide convenience for Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition. Although Yang Feng could force him to release the canal, a water bandit that was active in southwestern Shandong could easily solve this problem for him. Anyway, there were bandits everywhere, and since it was done by bandits, it had nothing to do with him.

What can Zhu Yuanzhang do if he knows it?

Could it be that the same water bandits were involved in the fight against Zhang Shicheng halfway?

Although he certainly wanted to do this, the fact is that he could not do it at all. Zhang Shicheng controls the canal hundreds of miles north of Yangzhou, and he actually only controls the entrances of Zhenjiang and Guazhou. Huai'an, which he controls, is simply symbolic. Huai'an, with a population of seven, has a fart value, so even if Zhang Shicheng needs to go through the canal, it is nothing more than opening a transportation line between Nantong, Taizhou and Gaoyou. This area is completely water town rivers. Those small boats can pass through this area at will. It is very simple to avoid Jiangnan's supplies from Guazhou to Gaoyou.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang could not choose to ask Zhang Shicheng and give him his neck.

Sea freight is the only option.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang's control area had already included Jiangyin. The fleet that set sail from this area could flow down the Yangtze River in one day. Moreover, on the river surface of more than ten miles or even dozens of miles wide, a large transport fleet formed a formation, and it was not a small fleet that pretended to be a water bandit to intercept. Unless Zhang Shicheng's navy was dispatched in full swing, he would break the rules and face the punishment of the angels. The remaining part was that the two sides competed in the offshore. This was entirely possible. After all, Zhang Shicheng's maritime strength was not weak. It was also possible for him to engage a navy to intercept Zhu Yuanzhang's maritime transportation on the offshore. Anyway, it was just that he was a Japanese pirate, but...

But that was exactly what Yang Feng was looking forward to.

The result of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Shicheng fighting on the sea with him on their backs was to train a real navy, and the ultimate winner would have this navy.

Then the rest is shipbuilding.

“This problem is easy to solve.”

Yang Feng said.

"I can teach you to build some new warships specially used on the sea. They are fast, have a larger transportation volume, and have strong combat effectiveness. You can use these warships to head north, first occupy a harbor in the Dengzhou area, and at the same time collect some flat-bottomed seaships suitable for the shallow waters along the Bohai Sea coast, especially the Haihe River, to ensure that the general needs to transport them to Haijin."

He continued.

"It's just that this shipbuilding requires craftsmen!"

Liu Ji said.

"That's your own business. Maybe you can find Fang Guozhen to cooperate with him. He is not on the shortlist of destiny."

Yang Feng said.

Fang Guozhen is indeed not on the list of candidates for destiny, and there is actually Zhang Shicheng left. As for how to ask Fang Guozhen to help, this is Zhu Yuanzhang's business. In fact, it is inevitable that all the princes will join forces at this time. For example, now Chen Youliang has been forgiven by Ming Yuzhen and then Ming Yuzhen provides him with various materials, including salt, as reward. Chen Youliang promises that once he becomes emperor, he will be appointed as King of Shu, and above all other kings below the crown prince, and use the entire Chengdu Prefecture as the fief of King of Shu.

Then Zhu Yuanzhang and Fang Guozhen can also join forces.

But he had to take over Jinhua and Chuzhou first.

Although Yang Feng asked all the princes to cease the war, theoretically Zhang Shicheng was still the Grand Marshal of the Yuan Dynasty at this time, so Zhu Yuanzhang could take this opportunity to retake these two places, just in time for him to avenge Hu Dahai and Geng Zaicheng.

Yang Feng will try his best to drag them until they take these two places before leaving.

Taking these two places opened up the road to Ningbo or Qingyuan. Fang Guozhen had been a fence-skinned man and even paid tribute to Zhu Yuanzhang. He was not very ambitious. Someone had advised him to send troops to go north from the sea to compete for Jiangdong and then fight for the world. Then he honestly answered that I am not as ambitious as yet. So as long as Zhu Yuanzhang gave him enough promises and Yang Feng became the guarantor to make him believe that Zhu Yuanzhang would fulfill his promise, then Fang Guozhen would definitely turn to Zhu Yuanzhang. He had everything Zhu Yuanzhang needed, and he had the largest shipyards of this era. The sea ships used by Zhang Shicheng were all built by him. He also had the most experienced navy in this era, or it could be said to be pirates.

Anyway, it depends on Zhu Yuanzhang's bid.

He probably had to pay some big price.

After all, Fang Guozhen and Zhang Shicheng also maintain a cooperative relationship, and the latter's territory has already reached Shaoxing.

As for the new ship Yang Feng gave to Zhu Yuanzhang...

Of course, this is an old gate ship. It can sail on the Yangtze River and the Pearl River, sail on the South China Sea for trade, can be used as a frigate, and can also sail in shallow waters along the Bohai Sea coast. If it is even possible to enter the Haihe River and go directly to Tianjin during the flood season, it can almost be said to meet all needs. More importantly, using Chinese hard sails does not require special training of sailors.

After this thing was loaded with twenty or thirty cannons, it was a warship that was rampant in Asia in this era, at least east of the Strait of Malacca.

Of course, there is military industry left.

Zhu Yuanzhang's conditions were better than Chen Youliang's. The coal and copper mines in Tongling and the Ma'anshan iron mines were a military base. They were not worth mentioning in making guns and cannons, and there was also a smooth foreign trade. As long as he and Fang Guozhen cooperated with them, the sulfur from Japan could continue to flow. The route from Ningbo to Bodo was maintained for hundreds of years. Merchant ships traveling to and from Japan during the Northern Song Dynasty continued to bring sulfur there. However, the source of saltpeter on his side also depends on Ming Yuzhen. Yang Feng had already pointed out all the saltpeter holes in Sichuan to Ming Yuzhen. There were saltpeter production sites everywhere from Chongqing to Jiangyou, including several saltpeter production areas in Hanzhong. So, both Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang had to serve him. Ming Yuzhen, who was also so frugal that he couldn't bear to repair his capital, would become a nouveau riche.

This is the best.

What Yang Feng wanted was that these princes carried out large-scale trade with each other under the common banner of the Northern Expedition, and then gradually formed an economic community.

He did not expect that the destiny would be elected and ended this kind of separatism. What Chen Youliang could think of, of course, he could think that this kind of unification was not the unification that Zhu Yuanzhang had forcibly fought in history. Although this unification minimized death, it also turned the successful emperor into a bald man. If Chen Youliang succeeded, would Zhu Yuanzhang, who had hundreds of thousands of troops, listen to him? Similarly, if Zhu Yuanzhang succeeded, would Zhang Shicheng and others listen to him without losing their strength? At most they would recognize his status as emperor, but it was still difficult for Zhu Yuanzhang to acquire their territory, so the success of the Northern Expedition was only the first step of unification, and there were still countless troubles to be solved next.

But it's the winner's trouble.

This is not something Yang Feng needs to worry about. What Yang Feng wants is that he cannot die too many people, after all, there are really not many people at this time.

After taking Yunnan in the 14th year of Hongwu, the number of households in the country was 10 million, and the number of households in modern bricks was incredible, because it increased too much compared with the early years of Hongwu, but even so, it was only half of the number of households in the first year of Chongning in the Northern Song Dynasty. At this time, the area of ​​the Ming Dynasty was equivalent to the sum of the most densely populated areas of the Northern Song Dynasty, Western Xia, Dali and Liao Dynasty. If calculated in the Chongning period, the population at that time was estimated to be only one-third of that at that time, and it was even worse than that of the Southern Song Dynasty after being killed by the Mongols. In other words, from the first year of Chongning to the present, two-thirds of the population has been lost in this land for more than two hundred years, countless originally prosperous lands have turned into ruins. Sichuan, which once had a population of more than 10 million, had 90,000 households left. Bianliang, which was once the most prosperous city in the world, had a population of more than one million. At this time, a total of 180,000 people, along with the 38 counties around it...

Well, this is before the war.

In fact, it is hard to say whether there are still living people there at this time. After all, when Liu Futong made an expedition, it was the main battlefield, and he even regarded it as the capital of the Song Dynasty.

In fact, both the Yuan Dynasty and the princes in the south were not interested in Henan. To a large extent, they regarded this hinterland of the Central Plains as a strategic buffer zone. Therefore, no matter who is in the Northern Expedition, they must first solve the problem of water transportation, because they could not raise food in Henan for the army. To put it bluntly, they had no food to eat even if they eat people.

The same is true for the northward situation. There is no population and it is not enough to solve the food problem. Moreover, there is still a famine in Hebei. So what if it is? The twenty-two counties on Dadu Road have a total of 400,000 people. This is also pre-war. In fact, after the famine, it is probably only half of them left. The rule of the Mongols is a complete disaster for this land. Even if there is no war in the north for more than a hundred years, the result is the stagnation of population growth. This is the only dynasty that ends the troubled times but almost stagnates the population growth. The Yuan Dynasty, which has the largest territory in history, is only slightly more than the Jin Dynasty. Their own statistics are 13 million households. They have to brag that they are more than the Han and Tang Dynasties, but they dare not compare with the Northern Song Dynasty, which is only half of their territory, and even the Southern Song Dynasty, which is a relatively stable area. The population of the capital is actually not as good as that of the Jin Dynasty. To be precise, the number of households is slightly more than that of the latter.

According to Yuan Dynasty, the population of 22 counties on Dadu Road is 140,000 households, and the population of Zhongdu Road in Jin Dynasty is 220,000.

And the densely populated area is in Jiangnan.

Jiangxi is the first, Zhejiang is the second, Hangzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Suzhou, Changzhou, Wuzhou, Taizhou, Raozhou, Ningguo, Jiqing is the first, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Longxing is the first, Nanchang, Ji'an, Fuzhou, and Guangzhou. There is no one less than one million, and the most terrifying number is in an incredible place in modern times.

Raozhou.

It is the east of Poyang Lake, in the modern Poyang, Dexing, Jingdezhen and Yujiang, which are in total three counties and three prefectures, and the six cities have a total of 4.03 million. Do you know what this number represents? It means that the population on this small piece of land alone exceeds that of most provinces, while Jiangxi has a population of more than one-quarter of the country. So it is said that integration can save money. The north has not integrated, and the north has killed only a few people. The total population north of the Huai River is probably similar to that of Jiangxi Province. Most of them are still Han people. So how to integrate with the huge population in the south? As for the circulating Hongdong in Shanxi, it is nonsense. Shanxi may have immigrated outwards, but the main force of real immigrating outwards is Jiangnan. Zhu Yuanzhang forced the southern residents to move towards Jiangbei.

Fill in Hubei in Jiangxi.

Zhejiang fills Lianghuai.

Fill in Sichuan in Hunan.

As for Shanxi...

The entire Taiyuan Road has a population of 150,000, and the population of more than 20 prefectures and counties including Pingyang Road, Pingyang Road, and Hongdong is only about 200,000. The total is not as good as a county in Raozhou. How can you fill in other places just this population?

The real source of immigration is Jiangxi and Zhejiang.

Zhu Yuanzhang used coercive means to drive the powerful people out of their hometowns, injected their land into official land, and even had no official property. Then he asked them to go to the resettlement land north of the Yangtze River to plant grass as a benchmark, reclaimed the land that was abandoned due to the war, and finally restored the population north of the Yangtze River again, and the population from Jiangxi was moved out of the entire Ming Dynasty.

The Han people then restored their absolute control over the land.

This is also because Yang Feng would rather let them play separatist than make them willing to fight. The population left behind in these places is too precious. These are all seeds of the Han people in the future. No matter who they have the result of the war, the speed of population recovery will be delayed. Good varieties, agricultural technology, medical and health care are all easy to solve for him, but the population is impossible to achieve overnight. There must be a sufficient base to achieve a surge. At this time, one less person will be one more family. The others are not important to him, even if it is formal unity, it is unified. Then a national market monetary and financial system, especially the common interests brought by external expansion, will turn formal unity into real unity bit by bit.

The only thing left to solve the problem of separatist vassalization is that it only takes an edict.

Dare not to listen?

Then you are resisting destiny.
Chapter completed!