Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1638 Before the Great War (Part [-])
The imperial meeting in the Wenhua Palace did not reach a consensus. The emperor called off the meeting on the grounds of being tired, and ordered all the elders to return to the cabinet for further discussion.But shortly after the elders returned to the cabinet, the palace ordered the household department and the military department to call two ministers to discuss matters.Gao Yushi and Zhou Yong entered the palace by order.

However, there is not much to say about this time, Gao Yushi's analysis of the general situation moved the young emperor.Especially the "Tian Khan" hat once worn on Tang Taizong's head made His Majesty the emperor who devoted himself to carrying forward the "ancestor's will" of the Ming Dynasty very itchy.

According to Gao Pragmatism, strong military force should be like a retracted fist, so that it will be more deterrent. At the same time, it should be supplemented with flexible and powerful political and economic means, "to control the captives and drive them for my own use", Then the great cause of "Tian Khan" is not far away.

As for the expenses involved, according to the high-level pragmatism of one-pass... oh, one-pass calculation, it seems to the emperor that it is almost a business with the left hand and the right hand. Even if it does not make money, at least it will not lose much. The Ministry of Households is now fully capable of paying .

In addition, Gao Wushi also emphasized that since a major war will be launched after the beginning of spring next year, it is even more important not to chill these subordinate forces before the war.For this, the emperor deeply agreed.Immediately afterwards, he asked Gao Wushi what he thought of Xiao Ruxun and other generals' performance in this battle.

Xiao Ruxun was actually Gao Yushi who was the one who advocated the transfer to Liaodong at that time. Zhu Yijun actually "set the answer" when he asked Gao Yushi, thinking that Gao Yushi would definitely find various reasons for him to prove his meritorious service.But this underestimates Gao Situ, Gao Yushi's evaluation of Xiao Ruxun is "mediocre performance", saying that he "has neither special merit nor major fault" in this battle.

This evaluation was originally the emperor's heartfelt opinion, but just now there was no one in the cabinet who held this view, which made the emperor extremely displeased.The cabinet had three performances just now:

One group believed that Xiao Ruxun's performance was terrible. With the most elite cavalry as the backbone and the "Four Allied Forces", he was first led by the nose by Chahar's "partial army" and failed to form an effective blow to this partial army. In the end, he almost He was successfully attacked by someone, but his results in the anti-sneak attack battle were not satisfactory. His own losses were more than the enemy's, and he was simply incompetent-this faction obviously did not agree with Xiao Ruxun's so-called "more than three thousand enemy troops were seriously injured" .

The other faction is just the opposite, and believes that Xiao Ruxun's battle is the only large-scale voluntary attack against Mongolia in northern Xinjiang by Ming Dynasty in the past decades, except for the battle of Monan.Although we failed to fight an annihilation battle, our officers and soldiers suffered very few casualties, and the casualties were mainly caused by the "Four Allied Forces".

How can Xiao Ruxun be blamed for the lack of combat power of the four coalition forces?Considering the limited strength of our official army headquarters, it was a complete surprise to be able to fight like this, and he also completed the strategic goal of repelling Chahar, not only keeping Horqin, but also stabilizing Yehe.It can be seen from this that Xiao Ruxun not only has meritorious deeds, but also great deeds, which should be rewarded.

As for the third faction, this time it was even worse than usual.Even if the emperor asked by name, the answer he got was "I don't know how to join the army, and I dare not disturb Shengcha", which was clearly "Let's not get involved in this matter", which made Zhu Yijun so angry that he wanted to roll his eyes on the spot.

In the end, the old classmate Gao Pragmatism was willing to tell the truth, there was no black and white, one or the other, and gave a fair evaluation of "mediocre performance", which made Zhu Yijun nod repeatedly.

However, "mediocre performance" belongs to mediocre performance. When Zhu Yijun asked how to deal with the thorny issue of military exploits, Gao Yushi firmly advocated "reward".

Zhu Yijun asked why, and Gao Yushi explained: "The same principle of rewarding the four works is the same, and a thousand pieces of gold buys a horse bone." The emperor was stunned when he heard about it.

That's right, Xiao Ruxun's contribution to this battle is really not that big, but since a big battle is going to start next spring, now that Xiao Ruxun is rewarded for his little contribution, won't it inspire the generals who will participate in the battle next year?
They would think: Xiao Ruxun was rewarded so much for fighting this battle like this. If I really made great contributions, then I won't be granted the title of Marquis... Uh, should I be a governor?The pinnacle of life is right in front of you, when will you wait if you don't work hard!

So the emperor asked Zhou Benbing how to arrange the reward, Zhou Benbing himself would not dare to come up with any random ideas, but fortunately he had already asked Gao Yushi on the way into the palace just now, so he could come up with a plan in his spare time.This plan is actually nothing. In addition to giving 30 taels of silver as usual, one son of Yin Jinyiwei, one thousand households, and being promoted to the governor of the right army's governor's mansion, he was also given a unicorn suit.

According to Xiao Ruxun's position as the deputy general of Liaodong, it is not too unusual to receive the above rewards, but it is a bit unusual to be awarded the unicorn uniform, which is obviously a generous reward.And in this way, Liaodong at this time has two unicorn uniforms - besides Xiao Ruxun, the other belongs to Li Rusong, which was given after the decisive victory in the Northwest War.

According to Zhou Yong, doing so is also a kind of spur for Li Rusong who has always been proud and arrogant.The emperor thought it made sense, so the matter was roughly settled.Afterwards, the emperor asked about various matters related to the next year's war. Gao Yushi and Zhou Yong answered one by one, and they were able to return to their respective offices almost when the palace was about to be banned.

In the following two or three months, Da Ming rewarded Xiao Ruxun and his generals in the expedition according to the high-practical idea, and generously bestowed on Tumote, Horqin, and the three Manchurian tribes, so that these subordinate forces could be more closely united in the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yijun Around the Celestial Dynasty with His Majesty as the core.

In the past two or three months, in addition to more intense and active preparations, several more important things have happened.There are two aspects of Chinese affairs.

The first thing is that Nurhachi, the commander of the left guard in Jianzhou, sent his half-brother Murhazi as an envoy to come to Beijing to offer tribute on his behalf.As a tribute on this trip, Zuowei of Jianzhou presented a hundred and eight top-quality east pearls, a hundred catties of Laoshan parameters, a piece of white tiger skin and other treasures.In the performance, he was extremely respectful and humble, and he was not stingy in flattering the emperor, and he did not feel nasty in the slightest.

Of course, at the end of the performance, Nurhachi asked Daming in an extremely humble tone to allow Jianzhou Zuowei to participate in the horse market at Yahuguan, or go to Kuandian Fort.

The imperial court had another round of disputes over this matter. In the end, it was still the highly pragmatic proposal that satisfied the emperor the most: Zuowei in Jianzhou was allowed to participate in the horse market from Kuandian, but he was required to "follow the order" in the future. When I want to fight, you must send troops to accompany me.

Gao Pragmatic is betting on one thing: Nurhachi has not yet mastered the "sun drying method".Before the Ming Dynasty, after dividing Jianzhou into two, the horse market trade of Jianzhou Zuowei was cut off. The ginseng in Nurhachi's hands could not be sold, and there was no "blanching method" to preserve the ginseng. heavy.

Although he relied on the success of the three divisions of the Changbai Mountain Expedition—er, half of the success (it was destroyed by Ye He and other divisions, and he did not make full use of it), he added a little bit of strength, but in the long run, he obviously couldn't bear it, so he could only accept Da Ming. requirements.

In the end, the two parties agreed that once Daming had military operations in Liaodong and its surrounding areas, Jianzhou Zuowei would send [-]% of the total number of troops sent by Daming to join the conscripts, but the maximum number of conscripts should not exceed [-].

This is easy to understand. It means that if Ming sent 50 troops, Nurhachi had to send [-] troops; if Ming sent [-] troops, Nurhachi had to send [-] troops; Five thousand——Because Nurhachi said that he only had so many soldiers in Jianzhou Zuowei, and he couldn't even pull the old and weak, women and children to make up the number.

However, although Nurhachi agreed, there are still conditions. The main condition lies in the economic level.He said that the area under the jurisdiction of Zuowei in Jianzhou is extremely remote, and he is really poor, so if the imperial court really needs him to send troops, he can only support 1000 people to eat horses, and the excess conscripts will be sent. The court needs to provide military rations.

Although this matter sounds reasonable, it is actually not in line with the Ming court's habit of recruiting.As we all know, even the chieftains in the Southwest brought their own dry food when they dispatched troops, and the imperial court was basically not responsible for logistics issues.

For example, at least tens of thousands of Guangxi wolf soldiers were mobilized in Jiangxi to suppress thieves back then, but the food and grass provided by the imperial court also had to be counted as money. They are allowed to exchange money for food—in fact, the chieftains have no money, and most of them rely on fighting to earn reward silver, and then use the reward silver to buy military rations.

In a word, compared to the Jurchen chieftains, the southwestern chieftains must be more "individuals". They didn't get the treatment of "eating the emperor's food". You, a mere Jianzhou left guard, want to make an exception?

However, Gao Situ, who holds the world's financial power, waved his hand and agreed on the spot, saying that if that day came, the imperial court "would not starve to death." Nurhachi learned that Gao Yushi had personally agreed, so he accepted it.

In fact, Gao Wushi played a trick here. He only said "I will not starve to death alone", but he didn't say clearly what he would eat, nor did he say how full he would be.Even Gao Yushi has a very "vicious" plan. Once the Jianzhou Zuowei will conscript up to four or five thousand soldiers in the future, and the place to go for the expedition will be far away from the old Jianzhou Zuowei camp... If it is done well, it may only Relying on military rations can firmly hold people in their hands.

Of course, these are just a back door. It’s hard to say whether it will be really useful at that time, but it’s better to have this back door than nothing, isn’t it?
The second incident happened in the southwest direction. Liu Ting was promoted by the Ministry of War to be the commander-in-chief of Sichuan and stationed in Xuzhou on the grounds that he had "merited in guarding Burma".

Here I want to explain that the Sichuan generals of the Ming Dynasty were often stationed not in Chengdu, nor in Chongqing, but in Syria in the south.Although there is very little information to explain the reasons in detail, it is actually not difficult to guess: the focus of Chengdu's defense is on the west, but the west has always been relatively honest, and the defense pressure is not great. ", a bit similar to Liaodong Deputy Commander-in-Chief, who is in charge of the defense of this area, and the commander-in-chief generally does not come to take care of it;
To the east of Chongqing Mansion, there are two larger chieftains, Shijie Xuanweisi and Youyang Xuanweisi. These two chieftains are not only honest, but also very obedient, and they are especially good at fighting.Among them, the Shijie Xuanwei Division is the most famous - the famous Qin Liangyu Department of white pole soldiers is this.For this reason, there is no pressure on Chongqing, and there is no need for a general officer to be stationed, so only a "sub-patrol of Shangchuandong Road in charge of Chongqing and deputy envoy of Bozhou" was set up.

An important place name, Banzhou, appeared here, and this Banzhou was very important—it was here that the Banzhou Rebellion broke out.Bozhou is in the south of Chongqing, and it is nominally under the jurisdiction of the deputy envoy of Chongqing.However, Bozhou is a place that is both strong and not very honest, so it may not be possible to rely on Chongqing alone, so a strong coercion is needed in the west of Bozhou.

This coercion is the General Military Officer of Sichuan. His most important duty is to suppress Bozhou in the east and several chieftains in the south, such as Zhenxiong Mansion, Wumeng Military and Civil Mansion, and Wusa Military and Civil Mansion. , Dongchuan Military and Civil Mansion and so on.In addition, there is a Zunyi Military and Civilian Mansion in the direction of Bozhou. Although there are officials at the top, there are still a lot of small chieftains and chieftains at the bottom, and sometimes they are not very reliable.

In short, the Sichuan General Army is stationed in Syria in the southeast of Sichuan, and its main areas of responsibility are also in the east and south of Sichuan, and even cross the border to deter Guizhou.This is why the Jiusiman and Duzhangman rebellions were clearly located in Guizhou, but it was the governor of Sichuan who suggested that Liu Xian be used as the commander-in-chief to send troops to exterminate them. At this time, Guizhou was dominated by chieftain forces, so once something happened, We had no choice but to let Sichuan send troops to settle it.

Gao Yushi had already considered letting Liu Ting go to Sichuan before, but this time there is no doubt that Liu Ting was transferred there quickly because of the mobilization of troops against Chahar next year.In the original history, Yang Yinglong launched the Bozhou Rebellion to take advantage of the Ming Dynasty's aid to Korea. The war to aid Korea has not yet happened, but the decisive battle with the Mongols is about to happen. Who knows if Yang Yinglong will have a convulsion?Naturally, Liu Ting must be arranged in place first, so as not to cause trouble and make a fuss.

In fact, earlier Gao Yushi had an impulse to deal with Yang Yinglong in advance, but after planning this matter, he found that it was really not easy to handle.For an "orthodox", it is very taboo to execute innocent people, which will greatly reduce the prestige of the court and be classified as the tyranny of a tyrant.

Gao Wushi also thought about making Yang Yinglong take the initiative to jump out, but although Yang Yinglong is crazy, he is not so stupid.The Ming court has won various victories in the Southern and Northern Wars over the years, no matter how you look at it, it looks like it is full of martial arts. He, the emperor of Bozhou, thought that he could not challenge the real emperor of the capital, and he believed that he would not mess around.

Since the method of luring the snake out of the hole was ineffective, Gao Yushi had no choice but to play dumb, and transferred Liu Ting to Xuzhou to frighten Yang Yinglong.As for whether Yang Yinglong will make a fuss after the imperial army goes out for the Northern Expedition next year, high pragmatism really doesn't care.Anyway, he prepared for the worst, if Yang Yinglong wanted to make trouble, let Liu Ting fight it.

In fact, Gao Yushi really hoped that Yang Yinglong would make a fuss. After all, there were too many chieftains in Guizhou and the surrounding areas. The imperial court had to station heavy troops nearby, which was not a small burden in itself.It would actually be of great benefit to the imperial court if we could take advantage of the opportunity of exterminating Yang Yinglong to "reduce the vassal" in Guizhou and convert as many chieftains as possible.

In addition to these two state accidents, of course there were also some private matters that happened in the past two or three months, and they were all relatively important.
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(End of this chapter)