As winter goes and spring comes, another year, as the ice and snow on the grassland begin to melt, Yongsheng Emperor Zhuqiu finally summoned a group of confidants and began to discuss plans to expand northward.

It is not easy to expand territory. Although Jiannu has already fled far away and most of the tribes of the Mongol Yuan surrender, there are still many factors that have to be considered.

For example, the northern border has always been uneasy, and it is definitely not possible to not station a large army. It is easy to say that the Chahar Grassland has four cities, and everything is under the control of the Ming Dynasty. There are no places for the army to be stationed in the central and northern parts of the Korqin Grassland, and there is also the Nuergandus Department, which has a huge territory and not even a decent city. Where are the army stationed?

As for places such as Mobei and Siberia, let alone the cold weather. If the city is not built and heating is installed, even if the army can occupy it, it will not be able to stay in winter.

For example, the problem of food, supplies and transportation is now built to the southern edge of the Korqin Grassland, which is nearly two thousand miles away from the northern edge of the Korqin Grassland. As for the Nuergandus, let alone, the railway has not yet reached Liaodong, so the transportation there is even more inconvenient.

There are also the issues of how the people there manage after the garrison, how to develop minerals to ensure the income of the court, etc.

In short, there are many problems and it is not easy to solve them. After all, problems need to be solved by others, and they do not solve them by themselves as soon as they are mentioned.

After discussing for a few days, everyone decided to take it slowly and consolidate the rule of Chahar Grassland, Korqin Grassland and Liaodong first, and then develop experience.

If you are in a hurry, just like the Hongwu Dynasty and Yongle Dynasty, you will rush over and take them all, and then say it again, then there may be nothing.

After all, it is just for the sake of profit to occupy a place. If you have no profit at all and can only invest money like a bottomless pit, it will be meaningless.

If it was occupied just for the sake of occupation, it was very likely that it would occupy a large area like the Hongwu Dynasty and the Yongle Dynasty, and then quietly retreated.

Therefore, the most important thing is to create benefits. Only with benefits can it be meaningful. The Chahar Grassland, Korqin Grassland, Nuergandus, and subsequent places such as Mobei and Siberia, the minerals that can create benefits at this stage are minerals.

These places are quite rich in minerals, but no one has ever been exploited.

Having said that, these places were occupied by the Hongwu Dynasty and the Yongle Dynasty. Did the imperial officials have any problems at that time? Didn’t they know that these places have abundant minerals?

This is definitely impossible. Even if the court officials of the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties are of poor level, they can more or less find some mineral deposits in these places, such as open-pit coal mines. As long as they are not blind, they can be seen!

Then why did no one think about mining minerals from these places to create benefits before?

There are many reasons.

For example, the transportation problem was that there was no railway at that time, and even if the minerals were dug out, transportation was a big problem.

For example, the issue of mineral consumption. At that time, except for the minerals used for minting coins such as gold, silver and copper, other minerals were not in high demand. The minerals from the thirteen provinces of the two capitals were enough. Why did they have to travel thousands of miles away to dig?

There are also population problems, mineral processing problems, even profit problems, sales problems, etc. If these factors are considered in combination, if the Hongwu Dynasty and Yongle Dynasty mine in these places, it would be a waste of money and a thankless effort. Not only can you make money, you will have to lose money.

At this time, transportation problems and mineral consumption problems are not big problems. With trains and ships, it is not difficult to solve the transportation problems. As for the consumption of minerals, with the development of the industry in the Ming Dynasty, the consumption of iron ore, coal mines and other minerals will definitely increase steadily, and this is not a problem.

The key is how to create this profit. No matter how you dig it, it will definitely not work if you dig it inland. If you pull the raw ore for such a long journey, you will probably not be able to make the freight back.

Based on these factors, Zhu Qizhe found that if you want to create enough profits so that the court can make profits rather than invest money in it like a bottomless pit, processing and manufacturing are the key. Just mining can't make much money.

After much thought, he decided to build a large processing and manufacturing center at the mouth of the Liaohe River to specialize in processing minerals.

As for why we chose the Liaohe estuary instead of the Chahar grassland and the Korqin grassland, there are many reasons.

For example, water resources are not very abundant on the grassland, so it is no problem to open a few processing sites. If it is a large processing center, water will definitely not be enough.

For example, population problem, there are not many people on the grassland. If a processing and manufacturing center is established here, I don’t know how many people will be migrated.

There is also the problem of grain. The population of the processing and manufacturing center must be millions. I don’t know how much food is needed in a year. However, there is no grain produced on the grassland itself. If the processing and manufacturing center is built here, the transportation of grain alone will cost huge expenses.

Of course, the most important thing is the transportation issue. It can be transported by railway on the grassland. It is difficult to transport a raw ore, not to mention the others. The estuary of the Liaohe River not only has a crisscrossing rivers, but also connects the sea. Both rivers and sea routes are very convenient. As long as the railway is built, it will connect the four seas, and the transportation of raw materials and products is quite developed.

In order to make the next hundred years of plan, Zhu Qizhuo personally led a group of civil and military officials from the Yuanbaoshan mining area in the southeast of the Chahar grassland to pass through the Gobi, desert and mountains, and came to Liaodong. He inspected all the way. It took more than ten days before finally reaching the mouth of the Liaohe River.

At this time, the ice and snow in the southern part of the Korqin Grassland and Liaodong had melted, while the northern part of the Korqin Grassland and Nuergandusi were still covered in ice and snow. The temperature was relatively low, but it no longer affected the construction.

Zhu Qizhu faced the vast sea and said wisely: "Meng Hou, Chang Geng, Liang Fu, we want to build a big city here, a city about the same size as Jinling and Beiping."

ah!

Bi Maokang, Song Yingxing and Wang Zheng were all stunned when they heard this.

It is not very difficult to build a city these days. There have been many cities built in Chahar Grassland and Korqin Grassland. The problem is that they are all cities with a population of 50,000 to 100,000, and the radius is only a few miles, so it is naturally not difficult to build it. Jinling and Beiping are both large cities with a population of millions, and the radius is dozens of miles!

Why build such a big city?

Zhuqizhu then said wisely: "This city is the key to our expansion to the north. In order to reduce the burden on the court and even create profits, the minerals in the north must be turned into products and transported to various places. Therefore, there must be large smelting grounds, large casting yards, large machining yards, large docks, large ports and docks, and even weapons processing yards, train manufacturing yards, various instrument processing yards, etc. In short, this must become a huge and comprehensive manufacturing and processing center."

Uh, this one.

Bi Maokang couldn't help asking: "Your Majesty, these workshops need a lot of people, where do people come from?"
Chapter completed!