Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1427 Turning the Tide (Part [-])
Li Chengliang's official career suddenly became dangerous. There were so many and strong attacks from the court that even Shen Shixing was a little timid to save the situation. However, under Wang Xijue's insistence, Shen Shixing still had to cheer up and launch Officials of the Mind School at all levels began to discuss and explain Li Chengliang's achievements, hoping that His Majesty the Emperor would not forget his past dozens of great achievements and minor achievements just because of such a "mere defeat in one battle".

Wang Xijue's words of persuasion to Shen Shixing were quite simple: "If Li Chengliang loses, I fear that there will be no place for our generation to stand on the Nine Sides."

When the School of Mind began to defend Li Chengliang, the voice of the School of Reality demanding severe punishment for Li Chengliang was on the rise. Many officials of the neutral school also joined the call to suppress Li Chengliang for various reasons such as public and private.Of course, there are also those who stand on the side of the mind school.In short, the court was surrounded by two completely opposite voices.

But at this moment, the pillar of practical education, the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Gao Yushi, who has always been considered to be trying to suppress Li Chengliang, has never spoken out, as if he had stayed out of this incident, which aroused suspicion among many people.

In fact, Gao Pragmatism is not planning to stay out of the matter, but is thinking carefully about how Li Chengliang should judge his merits and demerits at the "height of history".

Li Chengliang's credit has already been said a lot before, and the high-practical understanding is also detailed enough, so there is no need to repeat it.What about Li Chengliang?In addition to those who were impeached this time can basically be regarded as the truth, there is one more crucial point that the officials are unlikely to know, that is, what later generations often say "Li Chengliang connived Nurhachi, and the legacy of raising a tiger", highly pragmatic This is the question to think about now.

Did Li Chengliang indulge Nurhachi?If yes, was this indulgence intentional or unintentional?If so, how much influence did these indulgences have on Nurhachi's rise?If there is no such connivance, is it certain that Nurhachi cannot rise?Wait, wait, these questions became the questions that Gao Yushi suddenly had to think about clearly.

Gao Wushi felt that due to the close relationship, Li Chengliang, as the commander in chief of Weizhen Liaodong, must have had a profound impact on the growing Nurhachi.Not only that, from the perspective of the original history, Li Chengliang did help Nurhachi's rise, which is manifested in four things.

One is that after Nurhachi wiped out Atai in the 11th year of Wanli, Li Chengliang found the body of Ta Keshi who was killed by mistake, returned it to Nurhachi, and gave Nurhachi all the twenty imperial edicts and twenty horses obtained in the village.Nurhachi was appointed as the commander of the left guard capital of Jianzhou.

When Nurhachi raised his army, he was just a helpless "orphan" with only "thirteen pairs of leftover armor".At this time, Li Chengliang gave him the imperial edict, horses, and returned Tu Keshi's body, acknowledging that he was the commander of the military commander, which was not only a comfort to him, but also a great support for him.

The imperial edict is of great significance to the Jurchens. Only with the imperial edict can they have the right to Tonggong City, and the Gongshi is an important source of income for the Jurchens to obtain necessary living materials and survive.At the same time, this also marks the court's recognition of his status.

The second is that in the 14th year of Wanli, Nurhachi asked the officials of the Ming Dynasty for his enemy Nikanwailan, and the officials of the Ming Dynasty handed it over.And because of the accidental killing of Jue Chang'an and Takshi before, Nurhachi "has been given 800 taels of silver and fifteen pieces of python satin every year since then, and the matter has been settled."

This event has not happened at present, but it existed in the original history, and it is actually a continuation of the previous event.From the beginning, Nurhaci certainly did not dare to show any dissatisfaction with the imperial court and the officials of the Ming Dynasty. He only used the excuse of revenge for Nikan Wailan who instigated the official army to kill his father and ancestors, and Nikan Wailan was protected by the official army. , Nurhaci asked the officer for Nikan Wailan, but the officer agreed to hand it over and allowed him to kill Nikan Wailan, which gave him enough face among the Jurchens.

As for giving silver and satin every year as compensation for manslaughtering his father and ancestor, it is not only to comfort and save face, but also to provide financial support.Although the surrender of Nikanwailan was done by the frontier generals and not necessarily Li Chengliang's direct intervention, it must have something to do with his attitude towards the imperial edict and horses three years ago.Especially the gift of silver and satin will not have nothing to do with him.

The third is that in the 17th year of Wanli, the imperial court awarded Nurhachi the title of Governor-General.In the early days of Nurhachi's army, he went all out to unify the Jurchen ministries, and tried to show "loyalty" to the court in order to obtain official support.

He cautiously sent people to pay tribute to the Ming court in accordance with the requirements, and carried out mutual market transactions at the four passes of Fushun, Qinghe, Kuandian, and Kuiyang, and received rewards as usual: he sent back the Han people and livestock robbed by his subordinates several times; The Jurchen chief Ke Fifty, who was looted in the frontier, offered his head to the officials of the Ming Dynasty as a reward. Therefore, at the request of the governor Zhang Guoyan and others, the imperial court agreed to reward him and confer the title of governor.

At that time, for the Jurchens, being rewarded by the court meant that they had a status higher than others and could command other tribes, which was a great honor.Therefore, Nurhachi's "Mududu's title Yiqie" finally achieved his goal after hard work.

In the 19th year of Wanli, when Yehebu Nalinbulu sent people to threaten to send troops to conquer, he proudly and angrily said: "In the past, my father was killed by Ming by mistake, and I gave me thirty orders and thirty horses. Send them back. The dead body, sit and receive the imperial edict of the left governor, continue to seal the imperial edict of General Dragon and Tiger, and give 800 taels of silver and fifteen pieces of python satin every year. Your father was also killed by Ming Dynasty, can you collect his corpse?"

This passage can well explain how powerful Li Chengliang's support for him is, and what a superior position he has in the Jurchen ministries, and how proud he is.

However, there is a problem in the above paragraph that needs to be identified, and that is the matter of "continuing the title of General Dragon and Tiger".The Ming court granted Nurhachi the title of Dragon and Tiger General in the 23rd year of Wanli, and the "Records of Emperor Wu of the Qing Dynasty" was compiled in the ninth year of Tiancong (1635). Here, the later things are mentioned in advance for the sake of boasting. This is the problem of the editor.

It should also be explained that when Nurhachi was named General Dragon and Tiger, Li Chengliang was impeached and resigned three years ago, so this matter cannot be said to be his responsibility. Fundamentals matter a lot.

Fourth, in the 34th year of Wanli, the abandonment of Kuandian and other six forts that had been reclaimed for many years provided room for the developing Nurhachi to expand its power.

In the first year of Wanli, at the initiative of Li Chengliang, the defense line of the officers and soldiers was advanced 800 miles to the Yalu River, the original Gushan Fort was moved to Zhangqihaladian, the Danshan Fort was moved to Kuandian, and the Xin'an Four Forts along the river were moved to Changdian, Changling and other places.This is the famous Kuandian Liubao.

Liubao is located in the west of the Yalu River, adjacent to Jianzhou Jurchen. It is an outpost for defending Jurchen.

When Li Chengliang defended Liao for the second time, his military strength was not as good as before, and the defense was difficult, so he suggested with Governor Jian Da and Governor Zhao Ji to abandon this area and retreat the defense line.As a result, this reclaimed land fell into the hands of Nurhachi.At this time, Nurhachi had unified the three branches of Jianzhou Jurchen and Haixi Jurchen, and the power was flourishing, and the expansion of the territory was more beneficial to development.

Li Chengliang, as the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, and an extremely influential "grand teacher" in the central and local areas, in the above four things, the smooth development of Nurhachi's early rise undoubtedly played a very beneficial role in terms of external factors. It is said that Li Chengliang was helpful to Nurhachi's rise.

So in summary, Gao Yushi believes that it can be concluded that Li Chengliang and Nurhachi have a close relationship, which has played a favorable role in Nurhachi's rise.Because of this, when Nurhachi rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, the government and the public said that Li Chengliang "raised a tiger to bring trouble", and even later generations still called Li Chengliang a traitor.

But Gao Yushi believes that even though he and Li Chengliang are not on the same side, and even belong to political enemies, such an evaluation as a "traitor" is still a bit extreme.

From an objective point of view, although what Li Chengliang did during the 30 years of Liao Dynasty, whether indirectly or directly, was beneficial to the rise of Nurhachi, in essence, he was still faithfully implementing the Ming court's "divide and rule" of the borderland minority. The policy of "separate from the party, protect the group and survive".

Severe punishments were given to Wang Gao and his sons Atai, Yehebu Dong and Xibeile who did not obey the imperial court's restraint, and they were severely punished, but they were tolerant of Nurhachi who showed "loyalty and obedience". It is very worthwhile to hope that he can be as loyal to the court and loyal to the border as Wangtai and his sons of Hadabu. As for his subsequent rebellion, Gao Yushi believes that Li Chengliang should have been unexpected.

However, in the later period of Li Chengliang's town in Liao Dynasty, his ambition to make contributions has long faded, and the strength of the Liao army is no longer what it used to be. He is no longer able to control the situation in Liaodong, so he gave up the defense of the six forts in the 34th year of Wanli.

At that time, his reason for abandoning Liubao was "the land is lonely and difficult to defend". In fact, this is a truth and a truth.At this time, all he wanted was to maintain the temporary peace and tranquility of Liaodong.Therefore, it cannot be said that he intends to support a rebel and gravedigger of the dynasty he serves.

Now that the big hat of "traitor" has been removed, Gao Wushi believes that Li Chengliang is at least not worthy of death due to his past achievements-Gao Wushi himself has always disliked mass murder in politics, just as he did back then. It's not the same as killing Zhang Juzheng.

Even if you are my political enemy, as long as you still consider the country and the nation in your basic starting point, then I will not insist on fighting with you forever.

Contradictions among the people are not complete contradictions between the enemy and ourselves. They belong to the contradictions that can be silenced when we gain the upper hand and grasp the real power.

And to be honest, the criticism of Li Chengliang by the officials of the Real School has begun to "exaggerate", especially when they say that Li Chengliang's tail is too big to lose.

Li Rusong just took up his new post not long ago, and went to Xuanda to serve as the general of the Xuanfu. Ma Chengen was transferred to the three sides of Shaanxi to carry out the mop-up work after the Northwest War of Rebellion.Therefore, Ren Yangxin included in his speeches for the impeachment of Li Chengliang, "There is a lot of power around Shenjing, and nothing can be shaken by arrogance".

This statement is obviously a bit exaggerated, because Li Rusong has just been transferred to the Xuanfu, and the Xuanfu is actually one of the basic schools of the Pragmatism School—or simply put, High Pragmatism.Although Li Rusong brought five thousand Liaodong iron cavalry, which can be called a powerful force anywhere, but when it comes to the Xuanfu, these five thousand iron cavalry can only guarantee that someone will listen to what he says, and it is absolutely nothing "Unshakable".

The total military strength of the Xuan Mansion has exceeded 13, and as a "direct line" military town with high practicality and great influence, it can be regarded as a model in terms of armament and training. Not afraid.

What about Li Rusong?Although there are many generals from the Li family army, and their positions cannot be said to be unimportant, no matter where they are-even in Liaodong, it is not enough to form a "big tail".

Originally, Liaodong was likely to have such a possibility, but after some operations during the period of Gao Liao's care, his Xuanda "direct line" has penetrated into Liaodong, and Liaodong is second only to Li Chengliang's local general Cao Yu He has long been a general under his command, and the "direct power" currently in his hands is not weaker than that of Li Chengliang.

Li Chengliang is usually extremely powerful in Liaodong, which has more to do with him serving as the general of Liaodong. If there is no tiger skin, the Li family army alone will not be able to do it.

What's more, the Li family army was taken away by Li Rusong for [-], and this time it lost another [-] (in fact, it was not completely lost, but the court, including Gao Wuzhen, is now counted as annihilation of the entire army). There are about [-] left in Liao.

There are about 18 troops in Liaodong, and the remaining less than 3 of Li's army can really go against the sky?What's more, there are nearly [-] descendants of Cao Yu and the highly pragmatic Xuan Da's lineage together. How can Li Chengliang really keep his tail down?
To be honest, if you want to say that Li Chengliang can't lose his tail, it's better to say that he can't lose his tail, but according to the tradition of Ming Dynasty, the imperial court doesn't think that civil servants can "keep his tail on". The influence in the military is too great.

However, on the issue of the influence of civil officials on military generals, the princes of the court will not say much. Who has not received letters of recommendation from military generals who claim to be lackeys?This is a tradition that anyone who is a civil servant will not break, no matter whether he studies the mind or practice, he will not break the tacit understanding on this issue.

Thinking about it this way, Gao Yushi felt that it was best to have a limit to this matter: to impeach Li Chengliang, impeach Li Chengliang, and don't drag and drop and implicate others.

For example, Li Rusong is a straight-hearted person. If you say that he doesn't play well enough, he may admit it. But if you say that he wants to rebel with ulterior motives, maybe he didn't even think about it. Maybe.

The problem now is that the emperor didn't reveal his tone, and he didn't know if he was angry or not, or to what extent he was angry.If you don't understand these things, it's not easy for you to be highly pragmatic.

When he fell asleep, someone sent him a pillow. Gao Wushi was about to keep silent and wait for the emperor's response. Suddenly, Chen Ju came in person and said that the emperor had summoned Gao Wushi to meet him in the West Nuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace.

(End of this chapter)