Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2155 Zong Baikui (卌九) quotes "Tianlei" again

It has been nearly two months since Liu Ting sent troops east of Jiayu Pass. In more than 50 days, he has gone from being eager at the beginning to being calm now, and there are naturally reasons for this.

The governor of Gansu has changed, and the governor of Gansu has also changed. No one will force him to attack this first level of Ming Dynasty.

Yes, today’s first pass in Ming Dynasty is Jiayuguan, not Shanhaiguan, because in history, Shanhaiguan became the “first pass in the world” to a large extent because of the rise of the Jin Dynasty and the fall of Liaodong, and the urgent reinforcement and strengthening of Shanhaiguan by Daming.This is not only because of the danger of the pass itself, but also because of changes in the strategic situation.

The transfer of governors and inspectors directly affects the direction of the war.Since Wang Tingzhuan and Xiong Tingbi took office, the Gansu Fuyong and the two courts have changed their previous attitude of forcing Liu Ting to retake Jiayuguan, and entrusted Liu Ting with all military issues without directly intervening.According to Gao Yuanfu's instructions before leaving Beijing, the two carried out various political and economic work in Gansu to lay a solid foundation for the next military deployment.

The order Liu Ting received was to ensure the safety of Suzhou and wait for an opportunity to recover Jiayuguan.This is quite a redundant task. The basic requirement is that Suzhou must be guaranteed, and the upgrade requirement is to regain Jiayuguan.

Naturally, Suzhou can be guaranteed, because even though the Chahar Mongolian army now has a not weak musketeer configuration, they still have a serious lack of artillery and do not have the actual ability to storm the big city of Xiongguan.Previously, Brihatu captured Jiayuguan and Suzhou City in one fell swoop, mainly relying on that successful sneak attack.

Liu Ting's headquarters has been greatly strengthened in the past two months. The army that was originally prepared to deploy to the west is basically complete, and now they are stationed in Wubao between Suzhou and Ganzhou.

Why not concentrate in Suzhou?Of course, it is because stationing nearly [-] troops in the westernmost city of Ming Dynasty will greatly increase the logistical pressure, and it is also not conducive to the drinking water and other health and safety guarantees of Suzhou City.

Fighting a war is not easy, and "adapting measures to local conditions" will always be a key element.Can fighting in a place like Northwest be the same as fighting in Jiangnan?In the south of the Yangtze River, if you have [-] troops stationed, as long as you don’t find some Jedi such as Stone Mountain to camp on the mountain, you can also dig some temporary wells to ensure the safety of drinking water.

But in the northwest, it is quite different. It is not surprising that there is no water in many places. Without a safe and sufficient water supply, even a million-strong army can die in minutes. Annihilated.

Moreover, Suzhou has not had [-] troops stationed in a hundred years. Once such a large army is stationed suddenly, it will be a huge safety hazard just to deal with human and animal excrement. Especially at the turn of spring and summer, there is a great possibility of outbreaks of epidemics of.Therefore, Liu Ting carefully ordered the engineering troops to build the barracks in Suzhou, and at the same time dispersed the Western Expeditionary Army among dozens of forts on the line between Suzhou and Ganzhou.

On the one hand, this is to ensure that the army will not be harmed by the epidemic; on the other hand, this is to familiarize the soldiers mobilized from other places with the characteristics of the northwest climate, so as to avoid acclimatization after the expedition.

In short, it is still the same sentence: fighting is not a child's play.Soldiers are not soldiers in the game. They are living people with real physical characteristics and physical limits. As a general, you must consider various details to avoid misleading yourself and others.

However, the Western Expeditionary Army and the Jiayuguan Mongolian Army did not just stare at each other at this distance every day. Both sides had launched offensives, but as if there was a tacit understanding, the scale of the offensives of both sides was not large. "In case the other party is slack, our department may succeed in a sneak attack."

Of course, neither side succeeded—after all, both sides were very vigilant during this period.

Even so, the pressure Liu Ting felt was still increasing, because after seeing and testing during this period of time, he found that Jiayuguan was inextricable, and he could only rely on strong attacks to regain it, but this first pass of the Ming Dynasty was too difficult to beat .

Not only is the solidity and majesty of the pass itself harming Daming himself, even if it is bombarded with heavy artillery, it is difficult to shake it, and more importantly, the battlefield is not wide enough. Concentrate enough heavy artillery.

In front of Jiayuguan, the front-line army could only form a frontal formation of more than a thousand people, but the Mongolian army now also has muskets with a long range, and has always had elite armor-piercing heavy archers, so the Ming army cannot get too close. Increased the difficulty of tackling key problems.

In order to find out the weaknesses of Jiayuguan, Liu Ting not only asked the local elders to ask for various information, but even asked the county chronicles to read them carefully.

However, there are not many places that can provide him with reference, because since the completion of Jiayuguan, except for Burihatu this time, there has only been one experience of falling before.

As I said before, there are two main reasons why Ming used Jiayuguan as the western border and established a military defense line here.One is the west of Jiayuguan, which gradually transitions to multi-ethnic, multi-national, and multi-religion, and the east of Jiayuguan gradually transitions to Han nationality, unified political power, and Confucian culture.This is the cultural dividing line between the controllable area in Hexi of the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolian forces in the Western Regions;
The second is that Jiayuguan has a special geography. The Kulai River Canyon, Black Mountain, and Xincheng Caohu Lake can block traffic. These natural barriers are connected by the Great Wall and piers, and then troops are stationed to guard them. The Great Wall relies on natural dangers, forming a unique country in Jiayuguan. line of defense.Natural moats and natural dangers are the main body of Jiayuguan Great Wall's defense system.The natural barriers are compact, resulting in low construction costs and high defensive efficiency, so the Ming Dynasty chose to set up a national defense line at Jiayuguan.

Beyond the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, there was a transition zone or an area controlled by both Ming and Mongolia.Hami and Dunhuang to the west of Jiayuguan are of this nature.At the beginning of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in order to stabilize the frontier and maintain the national defense security west of Jiayuguan, the Ming court first set up seven guards in Dunhuang and Hami, and appointed the leader of the Fanyi tribe as the chief of the guard; Elect the leader; the third is to control the relationship with Mongolia and the Western Regions by adjusting the frequency of Jiayuguan trade and tax rates.

These measures have regulated the relationship with the Western Regions, wooed and contained Mongolian forces.To the west of Jiayuguan, there were no swordsmen before the Zhengde Dynasty, and it was basically stable.

However, at the beginning of the 16th century, the Mongolian power in Xinjiang was succeeded by Mansuer Khan (Ming history called Sutan, Sutan is a transliteration of "Sudan", generally referring to the kings and rulers of Central and West Asian countries, Mansuer is East Chagatai Khanate No.13 Ren Khan), he has the ambition to restore Mongolia and rule the Central Plains.

Mansoor Khan knew clearly that if he wanted to occupy the Central Plains, he must first occupy Hexi; if he wanted to occupy Hexi, he must first occupy Suzhou;Since then, Jiayuguan has been coveted and threatened by force from Mongolian forces in Xinjiang at any time.

After several years of hard work, Mansour Khan led more than 11 Mongolian troops eastward in November of the 1516th year of Zhengde (1).Facing the heavily guarded and insurmountable Jiayuguan defense line, the Mongolian army did not directly attack from the front. Instead, they sent a team to smuggle across the difficult Tiansheng Bridge, cross the Manjusri section of the Chaolai River, and sneak behind Jiayuguan.

On November [-]th, a full-scale attack was launched on Jiayuguan and its line of defense with a flanking attack from east to west and the use of troops in multiple places.At that time, Rui Ning was the guerrilla general in Suzhou. He had been the commander-in-chief of Jiayuguan in Zhengde two years ago.Knowing that Jiayuguan was besieged by the Mongolian army, Rui Ning led his troops to rescue on the [-]th. He traveled to the Fengjiagou area of ​​Manjusri, where he encountered the Mongolian army and was intercepted. Killed by an arrow.Jiayuguan fell on the same day, and then the Mongolian army surrounded Suzhou.

As for the battle process of the fall of Jiayuguan, there are no records in history books or chronicles.Only the huge amount of grain stored in Xiaobohe Temple (Siying Zhuangzi) located in the west of Yemawan Village in later generations shows that the battle was extremely fierce.

However, the histories that Liu Ting inquired or verified did not help him much.

Since Chenghua, Xinjiang has produced a large number of displaced refugees and refugees due to tribal disputes and battles for the throne. They returned to the Ming Dynasty and were resettled in Suzhou City and its surroundings.Among them, there are a large number of Mongolian spies and undercover agents. These spies and undercover agents have long been engaged in collecting intelligence, instigating rebellion against the barbarians, and developing troops behind enemy lines.Information on the garrison, deployment, combat power, fortresses, and routes of the Jiayuguan defense line was obtained by Mansuer.

They rioted in Suzhou City on the [-]th, trying to cooperate with the inside and outside, and fell to Suzhou City.The Suzhou defenders suppressed and finally stabilized the situation with all their strength, but because of this, they were unable to send troops to reinforce Rui Ning in time and were unable to do so.Of course, on the other hand, Rui Ning's troops fought fiercely with the enemy in Manjusri, which also bought time for the Ming army in Suzhou to quell the chaos.Therefore, in the end, because the internal response plan was broken, the Mongolian army retreated after looting.

In other words, Mansoll Khan also relied on sneak attacks to win Jiayuguan.And it has to be said that although Rui Ning's heroic death in battle is worthy of recognition, he died in the field battle outside Jiayuguan as the leader of an army, and he was also the person responsible for the indirect cause of the fall of Jiayuguan—the death of the leader of the feudal army, the consequences Everyone understands.

Looking at it this way, it confirms one thing: Jiayuguan basically has no weaknesses as long as the defenders are cautious and don't move blindly.

Unable to launch a surprise attack, and unable to concentrate enough heavy artillery on the frontal battlefield, Liu Ting had no choice but to bite the bullet and explain the situation to the cabinet, and then asked whether a storm attack was feasible—in other words, whether it could be paid for by human life.

Gao Wushi also scratched his head when he received Liu Ting's military report.He has never been to Jiayuguan today, but he did visit it briefly in later generations. Although he could not see the whole picture of Jiayuguan in the Ming Dynasty, he also generally understood that this place is indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack. As Liu Ting said: there is no way around it. If you go around, you can't open the formation.

However, it is impossible for Gao Yushi to agree to take human life.

Even if you don't say that life is precious, just talk about sending a soldier to Jiayuguan, do you think it is fun?Do you know how much it will cost?With this kind of cost piled up with the army to fill the natural barriers of Jiayuguan, and then continue to march westward, will Gao Yuanfu not allocate an additional 200 million silver to fight it?
Gao Wushi called Zhou Yong, and the two rushed to the Ministry of War together to discuss with Da Sima Song Yingchang how to break through the barrier.

There is nothing Zhou Yong can do. He is essentially a civil servant. He didn't have much military exploits when he was Governor of Liao Fu and Ji Liao.

Song Yingchang is better than him, at least his performance in the early stage of the Korean War can be regarded as a commanding officer.However, facing Liu Ting's current Jiayuguan problem, he couldn't think of any solution.If he hadn't become more aware of the cost of killing human beings after becoming Minister of the Ministry of War, he probably would have agreed with Liu Ting's opinion immediately.

After a lot of work, we still have to be pragmatic and find a solution in the end.And what made Gao Wushi quite dumbfounded was that just by looking at his eyes, he knew that the two of them couldn't think of a good way, and immediately put their hopes on him, the victorious Yuansuke, and looked at him eagerly.

Well, you chiefs of staff and ministers of defense can't handle your professional work, and you all count on me, the head of the government, to bring you a Wagner?But Jiayuguan is not Bachmut!
Gao Yushi does have a "private mercenary army", but it is more difficult for him to bear a large number of losses than the imperial government's army.Not to mention anything else, at least the pensions for the imperial court officers and soldiers are much cheaper than the pensions for servants in his hands.

There is another saying on this matter: Within the Jinghua system, the family pensions in the Ming Dynasty are the most expensive and the most difficult. The pension work of the southern Xinjiang armies is far easier to handle than the family pensions in the Ming Dynasty.

This is because Gao Wu actually controls the political power in southern Xinjiang, and he also controls land, the most important means of production. In southern Xinjiang, especially the recently captured Nanyang Islands, there are still a lot of "land without owner" and "wasteland to be reclaimed". Therefore, even if the war damage in southern Xinjiang is not compensated with silver, it can also be given hard currency such as land. Basically, no family member of a soldier will refuse land compensation—as long as there is no "short catty and less tael" .

However, in Daming, there is no way to go, basically only money can be given.After all, although Daming is big, land has long been scarce. In many places, even if you have money, you can’t buy suitable land, because unless people are really desperate, who in the farming society will easily sell the land?

This is one of the important reasons why Gao Wushi dared to give Gao Yuan, who was only 13 years old, the battle against the prosperous Mughal Empire in southern Xinjiang, but in Daming he only dared to let a famous general like Liu Ting take charge of a province's Jinghua family. ——The country really can't afford to lose, or can't afford to pay.

However, no matter what, Zhou Yong and Song Yingchang can't think about facing Jiayuguan now. Gao Yushi must find a way to solve the problem no matter how reluctant he is.However, this kind of Xiongguan Jiancheng, which cannot be circumvented, and cannot be deployed by force, is there any other way to think about it?

Gao Yushi frowned deeply, and fell silent for a while.Zhou Yong and Song Yingchang held their breaths and concentrated, not daring to disturb Gao's pragmatic thinking.

Master Yuanfu thought for a long time, then suddenly sighed, and said: "Have you two heard of the battle when Zhuojing defeated Langshan?"

The two were taken aback for a moment, looked at each other, and then looked at Gao Yushi.Zhou Yong said in astonishment: "I heard that Yuan Fu led the lightning to break it...Could it be that Yuan Fu wants to go to Jiayuguan in person, and then lead the thunder?"

Gao Wushi waved his hand and said, "If you want to say 'leading the sky thunder', I really know how to do this kind of thing, but it needs to build a tall tower... Come on, let's stop joking, breaking Lang Son is not because I cast a spell to trigger the sky thunder, that is A powerful gunpowder.

But that thing is very dangerous, as long as you don't pay attention... For example, if it shakes a little bit, it will explode violently, so after only using it once, I ordered it to be banned from production.However, this time it is really forced by the situation, I will order Jinghua to rush to make a batch and send it to Suzhou.It would be troublesome along the way, so you arrange a dedicated escort, so there must be no problems at all. "

Zhou Yong glanced at Song Yingchang, and Song Yingchang murmured: "This thing is as powerful as a thunderbolt, and Yuan Fu said it is very easy to detonate, so this escort is really a big deal. The next official suggested mobilizing a part of the imperial guards." Escort, may I know?"

Gao Wushi nodded and said: "Yes." Then he added: "The Emperor's Tiger Talisman is needed to mobilize the imperial guards. I will go and talk to the Emperor about this in person."
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(End of this chapter)