Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 252 Fear of the Enemy
After resting in Ningyuan for one night, Hong Chengchou left Ningyuan for Jinzhou with Shen Shiyu and Wu Sangui under the escort of five hundred soldiers.The three thousand cavalry brought by Wu Sangui were led by the general Wang Shoufang to stay in Ningyuan. He only took more than a hundred of his own soldiers to follow Hong Chengchou northward.

He Feng and Li Lu had a small gathering with Wu Sangui at night, during the meeting Wu Sangui revealed that because of his meritorious service in leading troops into the pass to suppress bandits, the imperial court planned to promote him to be the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan.Although He and Li were both envious and dissatisfied in their hearts, they still praised Wu Sangui greatly on the surface and expressed their honor.

After personally sending Hong Chengchou out of the city for ten miles, Li Zhiyuan returned alone with his servants.He Qiang and Li Lu just sent the new supervisor off at the gate of the city on the grounds that they were busy with the performance.

After leaving Ningyuan City, heading north, after passing several castles such as Tashan City, Daxing Fort, Qingshan Fort, and Xingshan City, Hong Chengchou and his party arrived at Songshan City, which is [-] miles southeast of Jinzhou.

After hearing the news, Fang Yizao, governor of Liaodong, and other civil and military personnel who had already heard the news came to Songshan to meet and give a ceremony, Hong Chengchou settled in Songshan, but Zu Dashou did not come to meet Hong Chengchou as expected.

The reason why Hong Chengchou did not go to Jinzhou, but used Songshan City as the governor Ning Jin's administrative office, was largely to avoid embarrassment.

Zu Dashou has the titles of Sangu and Zuo Dudu, and according to the common saying, he is an extremely human minister, while Hong Chengchou is a scholar of Dongge University and imperially appointed governor Ji Liao, who is also a top existence among human ministers.

But Ming Dynasty has always respected civil servants, how should they salute when they meet?Zu Dashou would definitely not bow to Hong Chengchou, and if the two sides bowed to each other, this would be unacceptable to Hong Chengchou, who is a civil servant.If Hong Chengchou settled in Jinzhou, in principle, he would discuss with Zu Dashou on major matters and small matters. How could Hong Hengjiu bear this?
In addition, if Hong Chengchou enters Jinzhou, Fang Yizao, the governor of Liaodong, will have to give up the government office, but Fang Yizao is also the governor of Liaodong with the title of Dongge University Bachelor. In terms of rank, he is the same as Hong Chengchou, but the current governor It's not as powerful as the governor's authority.After comprehensive consideration, Hong Chengchou took Songshan as the place to handle his daily business.

"Ziyuan has been in Liaodong for a long time. He has been self-restraining and serving the public. He has worked hard for many years on the frontier affairs, so that Ningjin is as solid as gold. He is really a rare talent among our civil servants. The Holy One has also mentioned Ziyuan's merits many times, and asked him to After arriving in Ningjin, I cooperated with Ziyuan to make new achievements in Liaodong. I first came to Ningjin, and I don’t know much about local affairs, so I hope Ziyuan will give me some guidance!”

In the second hall of the simple garrison office in Songshan City, Hong Chengchou was talking with Fang Yizao.Liaodong Supervisor Zhang Dou and Shen Shiyu fought side by side.

Hong Chengchou is better than Fang Yizao in terms of seniority in the examination field or in the officialdom. These words are just for the occasion, and he doesn't take Fang Yizao seriously in his heart.

Fang Yizao took office as governor of Liaodong in the fourth year of Chongzhen, and left after a short term.It was not until the seventh year of Chongzhen that he increased his bachelor's degree and returned to Liaodong again.However, during his tenure, he had no outstanding achievements and could only be regarded as a well-behaved official. His daily plans depended on his son Fang Guangchen's discussions.

"Hong Gong's praise! I am ashamed of the official! I have been ordered to governor Ning Jin for several years, and I have done nothing; Hong Gong's internal thieves have stabilized the situation in Huangming Pass, and the people can work with peace of mind. It is an immortal feat! I admire it To! After coming to Ningjin, the next official should be the second deputy; with the great talent of Hong Gong, he will definitely make a difference in Ningjin, so as to relieve the worries of the emperor and the court!"

Fang Yizao cupped his hands and saluted.

Although he admits in his heart that he is not as talented as Hong Chengchou, but he is an uncompromising figure in Ning Jin after all, and now that there is suddenly a great god on top of his head, Fang Yizao feels very uncomfortable.He knew quite a lot about Ning Jin's proud soldiers, although he also hoped that Hong Chengchou could get rid of the stubborn disease of Liaoxi generals, but he never kept a cold eye on the sidelines in his heart, so that he could see Hong Chengchou's worry because of his helplessness.

"When I met with Majesty in the capital, I just heard that Zu Shaofu had an urgent official document to enter the Ministry of War, asking for a large amount of money, food and military supplies on the grounds of building a prisoner and invading the border; Side? How about gathering troops? Can Ziyuan know the details?"

After the scenes, Hong Chengchou brought the narrative into the main topic.

Zu Dashou used the excuse that Jianlu had gathered soldiers to invade Jinzhou, and the Xingwen Ministry of War asked for military resources such as gunpowder and armored battles to prepare for border troubles.According to the history of the previous life, Zhu Youjian knew that Huang Taiji was sending troops to attack the Mongolian tribes to expand supplies and soldiers, and it was unlikely that he would have the energy to come to Jinzhou to provoke quarrels, so he asked Hong Chengchou to send people to investigate after he left the customs.

Fang Yizao froze for a moment after hearing Hong Chengchou's question, and suddenly understood that Zu Dashou was still playing old tricks, making excuses to ask the court for money and things, and then reselling them to make a fortune.

"The nearest stronghold of Jianlu to Jinzhou is Yizhou, which is more than a hundred miles to the north. It is said that there are thousands of Jianlu stationed there, and they usually farm for fishing and hunting. When the wheat is about to mature, Jianlu should be busy preparing for harvesting. Is it because you have no time to commit crimes? The lower officials have not heard the news that the enemy is attacking aggressively!"

Although Fang Yizao felt uncomfortable with Hong Chengchou's arrival, he would not go along with Zu Dashou on such a major military matter.Moreover, this time Zu Dashou did not know that he would be with him, so he wrote to the court privately, which made him feel slighted, so he still truthfully told what he knew, and Zhang Dou, the superintendent, also nodded in agreement.

"Well, since that's the case, let's put this aside for now; can Ziyuan know how many soldiers and horses the enemy of Yizhou has? How many horses and horses are there? Has Jinzhou ever sent troops to attack? The Lima team assaulted; Yuan Yuanyuan had spent huge sums of money to build tens of thousands of cavalry in Ningjin, and he once claimed to be one of the most powerful troops in the world. The land of a hundred miles is close at hand, and Jinzhou holds an elite cavalry, how can it accommodate Jianlu in a couch sleeping next to him?"

When Hong Chengchou heard that there was an enemy in Yizhou, his heart moved, and he immediately realized that this seemed to be an opportunity to leverage the situation in western Liaoning.

Although later generations have mixed praises and criticisms for Yuan Chonghuan, he still did a lot of practical things during his governorship of Liaodong.The famous Guanning iron cavalry was created by Yuan Chonghuan back then, so Hong Chengchou asked this question.

"Your official is ashamed! I don't know the exact number of enemies in Yizhou. It is said that the number does not exceed [-]. There are also Han people who were captured by him to farm for him. He has been farming around Yizhou for several years, and the army has not been as big as him. There have been large-scale fights. Zu Shaofu once said that it is better for our army to stick to Ningjin. I respect Shao Fu's order, since Shao Fu spoke first, the officers and soldiers put the most emphasis on defending the city, and almost no one led an army to take the initiative to attack, so the two armies rarely confronted each other!"

Fang Yizao clapped his hands and replied.

Although there are tens of thousands of officers and troops stationed in Jinzhou City and the surrounding castles, they have fought against Jianlu on a small scale in the past few years, and most of them ended in failure.Occasionally, Jinzhou would exaggerate the small victories of dozens of people, report the victory to the court, and then take the opportunity to ask for money and food for rewards.

Zhang Dou, the supervising officer on the side, opened his mouth to speak, but swallowed the words again, and Shen Shiyu, who was opposite him, saw Zhang Dou's behavior in his eyes.

"Hong Gong, since Fang Zhongcheng doesn't know the inside story, this matter is not in a hurry. I will talk about it later. Dare I ask Zhongcheng, how much of the original Ningjin tens of thousands of cavalry exists? Zu Shaofu's strategy of sticking to Jinzhou is understandable, but what is the use of cavalry defending the city?" ? According to the strength of the Ning Jin cavalry team that entered the customs to suppress the bandits before, I feel that it is already a strong army. I don’t know how it compares with Jianlu? I hope Zhongcheng will tell you the truth!”

Shen Shiyu raised his hands to Fang Yizao and asked.

(End of this chapter)