Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 3 Change Strategy
Zhu Youjian sat back on the chair and began to meditate.

It has to be admitted that although the evening festival is not guaranteed and his name is included in the biography of the second official, the person with the most strategic vision and military ability in the late Ming Dynasty is none other than Hong Chengchou.

In the middle and late stages of Chongzhen, it was Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng, and Sun Chuanting's hard support that allowed Daming to live a few more years.If it weren't for these people, it would have collapsed long ago.

But in history, Chongzhen was an impatient person. He also saw that the thieves were the biggest scourge that endangered the Ming Dynasty, but he was eager for success, and repeatedly ordered Hong Chengchou to restrain the thieves within a time limit, and they would be completely eliminated within a few months. There are hundreds of thousands of thieves across the country who have formed a strong combat force.This made Hong Chengchou, who was stretched out, exhausted and lost his troops one after another.In the end, Yu Songshan was defeated, ruining the main force of the Ming army and surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.

The reason why the rogue bandits are difficult to eradicate is that their characteristics lie in their mobility.

Rogues are used to avoiding the real and pretending to be false. When the officers and soldiers are strong, they will run away; if the defense force is weak, they will break through the city and loot.

Among them, the thief Gao Yingxiang is the strongest.

Gao Yingxiang's subordinates are mostly Han cavalry, with sharp armor, brave and desperate, and good at assault.And after a long period of fighting with officers and soldiers, he has rich experience.During the battle, the order is strict, and the formation can be kept stable during the confrontation, and the infantry can be ambushed and the cavalry can charge.

The soldiers and horses under Hong Chengchou's jurisdiction are generally three steps and seven horses. Although they will not be easily defeated in battle, the bandits will retreat quickly when they see something wrong.

The only way to deal with cavalry is to ride against cavalry. Hong Chengchou's memorial also vaguely revealed the meaning of this aspect, but he was afraid of losing the reputation of fearing the enemy and fighting, so he dared not raise it directly.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian's heart moved, and he thought of a cavalryman with a great reputation in later generations-Guan Ning cavalry.

There is nothing to say about the combat effectiveness of this brave division mainly composed of cavalry, but the corruption of military discipline and disobedience to orders are also their biggest flaws. situation.

This can be seen from the performance of the soldiers who built slaves and broke through the pass to encircle the capital in the second year of Chongzhen. It can be seen that he no longer takes the court seriously in his heart.

But now the Ming court does not appear to be dying, and the soldiers everywhere still dare not openly disobey their orders, and they are just playing some small tricks to oblige and disobey. Soldiers, as long as strong soldiers are in hand, it will form a huge deterrent to the generals everywhere.

If there is an invincible and strong soldier in hand, then those arrogant soldiers below will be submissive.Whoever dares to defy the imperial court will be at risk of being annihilated, and the prosperity and wealth in front of him will disappear in smoke.After all, who dares to fight against a country with thousands of soldiers and horses under his command?The rogues are just some mud legs who can't eat. These aristocratic family generals look down on them at all, and don't bother to be with them.

"Wang Cheng'en, passed on the decree to the Ministry of War to transfer Zu Kuan, Zu Dale, Li Chongjin, and Wu Sangui's troops to the south. Zu Kuan and Li Chongjin's departments belonged to Lu Xiangsheng, Premier of the five provinces. Zu Dale and Wu Sangui's department belonged to Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces. Subordinate restraint."

"In addition, 20 taels of salary will be allocated to Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng each from the internal funds. The emperor does not send hungry soldiers, tell them that this is all I have, let them save some money! But you can't default on the payment of officers and soldiers! I will send someone Check and let them do it for themselves!"

Wang Chengen led the order and left.

Zhu Youjian wondered if he should write a secret decree to Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng.The content is to change the previous strategies and tactics of eagerly seeking to eliminate thieves, and to gradually develop them.Of course, this slow plan is not delayed indefinitely, because another serious problem is still eyeing.

Although Huang Taiji now vaguely has ambitions for Daming in his heart, in the eyes of most of the slave chiefs, Daming is just a piece of fat, and their fundamental purpose is to seize the opportunity to take a bite, break into the pass and occupy Daming It is simply impossible.

Therefore, the slow map is just to give Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng more time to arrange calmly. Once they seize the opportunity, they still have to completely wipe out the rogues.

Because Zhu Youjian knew that it was these rogue bandits who were not in the big picture now that finally destroyed Daming.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian ordered: "Come here, and I will serve you with pen and ink!"

Hearing the sound outside the hall, a teenage eunuch trotted in, came to the imperial case, spread out the pen, ink, paper and inkstone swiftly, grinded the ink, and bent down to present the imperial pen to Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian glanced at him approvingly, took the pen and dipped it in ink and asked, "What's your name? How old are you?"

The little eunuch quickly knelt down, and replied: "To the emperor, the name of this servant is Li Erxi, and she is 15 years old."

"Where is the family, why did you enter the palace?"

Zhu Youjian didn't write immediately, but asked with great interest.

"So that the emperor can know that the servant's family is from Changping, North Zhili. In the second year of Chongzhen's establishment of slavery, Changping suffered a war disaster. The parents and elder brothers of the servant died, and there was only one younger sister. The servant took the younger sister and went with the villagers. After escaping to the capital, she stayed. Later Jiannu left, and the villagers all returned home. Because the servant’s family had no property left, they used to rent other people’s fields to make a living. Now it’s just the servant and younger sister. She was only five years old at the time, unable to Farming, so I stayed. The maidservant is still young, and has no energy to work to support my sister. Fortunately, I was castrated and entered the palace with a monthly salary to support my sister!"

Zhu Youjian felt miserable: "What about your sister? You are in the palace, and you can't go out of the palace on weekdays. How can she survive at such a young age?"

"Returning to the emperor, the kind-hearted man who instructed me to enter the palace took her in as a righteous daughter. After the monthly expenses, the servant will go out of the palace once and send the money to her."

Zhu Youjian was silent for a while, then said: "Get up, do your best in the future, and follow Wang Chengen."

"Thank you for your grace, thank you for your grace!"

Li Erxi got up from his side and happily replied, following the emperor's personal eunuch, the future is bright, at least someone will cover him, so he won't be bullied by other eunuchs again.

Zhu Youjian began to write the will.

The secret decree is different from other imperial decrees, of course you have to write it yourself.Especially this kind of secret decree that basically negates his previous strategic thinking, try not to let others know, so as to maintain the dignity of the emperor.Although the soul comes from a later life, it has inherited all the functions of the previous body.Emperor Chongzhen was still very talented, and his calligraphy was especially praised.

After deliberating for a while, Zhu Youjian began to write quickly.

It is not so much a decree as a secret letter.One was written a quarter of an hour later, and then another, with roughly the same content.

About half an hour later, when the two secret decrees were written, Li Erxi took it, and after the ink was dry, he picked up the jade seal that was placed on the imperial case and covered it.Finally put each into a scarlet box and seal it with beeswax.

"You hand over the secret decree to the Shangguan of Jinyiwei Hall, and ask him to arrange proper manpower to escort the eunuch who delivered the decree, together with the payment, to the governor and Lichen!"

"Slave obeys the order!" Li Erxi picked up the box, turned around and trotted away.

"Why hasn't this servant Wang Chengen come back yet?"

Zhu Youjian muttered something in his mouth.After thinking about it, the military department is outside the palace, and it will take an hour to go back and forth and send an edict to reply, but I am a little impatient.It's no wonder that although it's a time travel of the soul, the temper is deeply ingrained and it's hard to change it all at once.

After more than an hour, Wang Chengen came back, and Zhu Youjian asked, "Is everything done?"

"My lord, it's done, because I had a few disputes with my soldiers, so I lost some hours!"

"Oh? What did Zhang Fengyi say?" Zhu Youjian asked.

"Back to the emperor, my soldier was embarrassed after receiving the imperial decree, and then the servant urged him to use the seal to give the order. He said that the old slave should report to the emperor, saying that if so many troops are sent south, he is afraid that Jiannu will take advantage of the news and attack. In the event of an accident He is a serious crime of losing land. Although the old slave does not understand military affairs, the old slave is the emperor's man, so he told him that this is the holy will and must not be violated! Only when the old slave insisted, he gave the order and then used the seal, the old slave The slave watched him leave after being ordered to go, and then rushed back."

"You did a good job, go pass the meal!"

Wang Chengen promised and turned around to go, then suddenly turned back to Zhu Youjian and said, "My lord, this servant thinks what I said makes sense. There won't be any problems in Liaodong, right?"

''Hurry up and pass on the meal, this is not your business! "Zhu Youjian scolded with a smile.

Wang Chengen turned around with a smile and went to the direction of Shangshan Supervisor.

According to common sense, Zhang Fengyi, Minister of the Ministry of War, is actually right. After all, this time more than 1 elite cavalry were dispatched to the south at once, but the troops in Liaodong were a bit empty.But I came with the information of later generations, knowing that next year Jiannu did break through the Great Wall again and attacked near the capital, but not from Shanhaiguan, but from Juyongguan.What's more, Liaodong has gathered 10,000+ heavy soldiers, all of whom are huddled in the city. The cavalry dare not take the initiative to provoke Jiannu, so it is not very useful to stay there.

Thinking of Zhang Fengyi's deeds in this life, Zhu Youjian felt disgusted in his heart. An incompetent person has stolen a high position. It seems that it is time to use Yang Sichang.

Although later generations derogated Yang Sichang more than praised him, the strategy he formulated at the beginning of his tenure as Minister of the Ministry of War was still feasible. However, various reasons later led to the continuous deterioration of the situation, and he finally ended up ruined.

(End of this chapter)