prosperous age

Chapter 1061 Chapter 1152 Letter

In the Ming Dynasty, there was no fixed time for the court to end.

There is a fixed time for reporting in the morning, but officials actually get up even earlier than this. Especially for those diligent emperors, attending court in the morning is a chore.

Wei Guangde felt that he was lucky. Not to mention Emperor Jiajing, who had never paid much attention to the affairs of the previous dynasty and left them to Yan Song to handle for him.

After that, Emperor Longqing was diligent for more than a year, but then he became lazy, often canceling morning court sessions and leaving government affairs to Xu Jie and Gao Gong.

As for the current Emperor Wanli, he holds court twice a month, which is tolerable.

When the court is dismissed, there is usually nothing to do in the office and the officials can leave.

Of course, even if something happens, as long as it is not a military or national affair, no one will say anything if it is delayed for a day or two.

At 3 p.m., the memorials sent to the cabinet had been processed. After spending some time in the Prime Minister's duty room, Wei Guangde chose to go home directly after coming out.

"The master is back."

After the sedan stopped, someone went inside to report.

Wei Guangde got out of the sedan chair and walked straight into the mansion. Zhang Ji hurried over to greet him from the second gate.

"The message you brought in said that something happened in Yunnan?"

Wei Guangde kept walking inside and just asked in a low voice.

"Yes, Li Chengliang, the governor, sent a letter from Yunnan, saying that there is an important matter for you to decide."

Zhang Ji trotted behind Wei Guangde and spoke with a flattering look on his face.

"Go to the study."

The road was not a place to talk, so Wei Guangde took Zhang Ji to his study.

Soon, Wei Guangde saw the letter sent by Li Chengliang.

It has to be said that the complexity of the situation in Yunnan exceeded Wei Guangde's expectations.

He knew that some chieftains in the southwest had been preparing to make moves, and it seemed that one of the three major campaigns of the Wanli period was a rebellion by the chieftains in the southwest.

The fact that it was ranked as one of the three major expeditions shows how powerful this rebellion was.

However, Wei Guangde did not expect that the border chieftains had evil intentions and even affected the deployment of the Ming army.

In his opinion, even if those chieftains had rebellious intentions, they would not dare to overstep the line when they saw the army approaching.

But the situation is obviously different now. The Ming Dynasty mobilized 100,000 troops in the southwest, but it seems that it is still not as large as the army mobilized by Myanmar.

According to the figures reported by Li Chengliang, the Burmese army should have around 300,000 men and more than 200 war elephants.

More than half of the war elephants belonged to the Burmese King Mang Yinglong, and the remaining dozens belonged to other chieftains in Myanmar and nearby areas.

To this end, while Li Chengliang was waiting for the arrival of the army, he was also collecting heavy weapons such as Portuguese cannons from various places in Yunnan to deal with the Burmese army's elephant soldiers.

In the letter, Li Chengliang also complained about the excessive corruption of the Guangxi Dusi.

In the history of the Ming Dynasty or in its foreign wars, the Ming army's elephant troops almost never appeared.

But in fact, the Ming Dynasty set up a large garrison in Guangxi specifically engaged in elephant training, namely the Elephant Training Guard.

The Elephant Taming Guard was first established in Fenghuang Mountain of Siming Prefecture. In the 20th year of Hongwu, it was moved along the river to Nanning Prefecture. It was later moved many times. Their original purpose of establishment was to target the elephant soldiers of the chieftains in Luchuan and other places.

The Elephant Taming Guard initially had more than 2 officers and soldiers, who were dedicated to capturing and training elephants and training elephant troops.

The garrison with 20,000 people was far larger than the general Ming army garrison with more than 5,000 people. This shows how much importance Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang attached to this army.

It can be said that the stability of the southwest region, perhaps in Zhu's view, depends on this elephant-taming guard.

However, this time when Li Chengliang arrived in Guangxi, he went to the Elephant Taming Guard’s garrison and found that the Elephant Taming Guard, which once had 20,000 people, only had more than 300 bannermen and two war elephants left.

The Xunxiang Guard is now in name only.

There are many reasons for the decline of the Xixiang Guard, the most important of which was the Annan Campaign in the early years of Xuande, when the Xixiang Guard officers and soldiers "followed the expedition to Jiaozhi and lost most of it."

Although it was rebuilt later, it was never restored for various reasons and was completely forgotten in the end.

Of course, there was more than one Elephant Taming Guard in the Ming Dynasty. In fact, there was also a Thousand Elephant Taming Office in Beijing, which was affiliated with the Embroidered Uniform Guard and was one of the emperor's ceremonial guards.

During grand court meetings, elephants from the Elephant Trainers' Office would be brought out to show strength and momentum. Emperor Jiajing even rode a dragon sedan pulled by elephants as he traveled south.

It would definitely be very troublesome to raise elephants in Beijing. After all, elephants are not susceptible to drought and cold. Under normal circumstances, there would be no elephants in the north.

Wei Guangde really ignored the Burmese elephant soldiers, but then he thought that the Ming army had artillery and should not be afraid of elephants.

Wei Guangde spread the rice paper directly on the desk and wrote two notes.

One was naturally to the Ministry of Works, and the other to the Ministry of War, both of which were to supplement the southwest with large and medium-sized Portuguese cannons.

It is definitely unrealistic to rebuild the Elephant Taming Guard at this time. There is not enough time, and the court does not have the financial resources to rebuild this money-eating beast.

The Ming Dynasty established the two capital system of Nanjing and Beijing. Although it seemed that the institutions were overlapping, it actually had some advantages, that is, everything that Beijing had, Nanjing also had.

The Nanjing Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry also had arsenals and firearms bureaus. Of course, in terms of scale and other factors, Beijing was definitely the largest, but Nanjing's firearms production could also meet the needs of the southern soldiers.

Therefore, when Wei Guangde wrote notes to the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War, he was naturally helping Li Chengliang to ask for the firearms he needed.

"Has the messenger arranged accommodation?"

After writing the note, Wei Guangde looked up at Zhang Ji and asked.

"He has settled down. He is still waiting for the master's reply so that he can take it back."

Zhang Ji answered respectfully from the side.

"Well, I'll write it right now."

Wei Guangde agreed, then took out a piece of letter paper and started writing on it.

If it were any other civil servant, they would definitely scoff at Li Chengliang's plan to lure the enemy deep into his territory and then surround and annihilate them.

why?

Because they would not think that a tiny country like Myanmar is worth the Ming Dynasty's efforts to destroy it.

In the view of these civil servants, the Burmese army should surrender as soon as the Ming army arrived.

As for the disastrous defeat that the Ming army had suffered in Annan, they had long forgotten about it.

Just so confident.

However, Wei Guangde could accept Li Chengliang's strategy. After all, he knew that China had fought with Myanmar on and off for many years but had never really defeated it.

The complex mountainous terrain in northern Myanmar is one of the reasons, but the more important reason is the tropical rainforest there, which makes it very difficult for large troops to move.

As long as Burma still has young and strong soldiers and the will to resist, the Ming army may not be able to encounter a second Annan incident.

If Li Chengliang's plan was followed and the young and strong Burmese troops were gathered in Qianya and Luchuan areas and annihilated, the subsequent military operations in Burma would be easy.

After all, the only people left there are the old, the weak and the sick, and their resistance is very low, so the Ming Dynasty's rule over the place will be strengthened.

As for immigration to the border, that is also inevitable.

It's just that the immigration strategy cannot be put forward for the time being. If we discuss the immigration strategy before the war breaks out, it will mean that the war against Burma was actually deliberately instigated by the court. Who knows how those old scholars will criticize us.

It's just right. If we lure the Burmese troops into the country and annihilate them together, they will have no reason to condemn us.

They have already entered the country, so why shouldn’t we take action to punish them?

It can only be said that Li Chengliang was not really familiar with the Ming court, otherwise he would not be afraid of being impeached and dismissed because of the entry of the Burmese army. Of course, if he did not explain the situation to the capital in advance, no one in the capital would come forward to protect him, and if the court really got into trouble, he might really lose his position.

However, those who are in power in the cabinet now, whether it is Zhang Juzheng or Wei Guangde, actually have some understanding of military affairs.

Therefore, even if there are many impeachment memorials, they will choose to suppress them and see how the situation develops.

If Li Chengliang cannot control the situation in Yunnan, then it will be possible to take him down directly.

Soon, the letter to Li Chengliang was written. Wei Guangde found an envelope, sealed it, and handed it to Zhang Ji together with the two previous notes.

"You will give the reply to the messenger later. You will immediately send these two notes to the residences of Master Zhu and Master Tan."

Wei Guangde instructed the purpose of the things, thought for a moment and said, "Send someone to Prime Minister Zhang's residence and tell them that I will be there later to discuss something."

It would be impolite to visit directly, so Wei Guangde asked Zhang Ji to send someone to inform him first so as not to be rude.

If Zhang Juzheng had something to do, he would either postpone or advance the visit, or explain the situation and ask Wei Guangde to visit on another day.

After all, both of them are in the cabinet, and they have many opportunities to meet on weekdays, so they don't have to worry about not having time to talk about things.

However, Li Chengliang's letter almost confirmed that the war in Yunnan would most likely break out today, so Wei Guangde still planned to go there overnight to explain the situation.

Military affairs are definitely not something to be taken lightly.

Wei Guangde put away Li Chengliang's letter and planned to take it to Zhang Juzheng to let him have a look.

Anyway, there is nothing shameful in this letter. It just describes the facts he learned after arriving in Yunnan.

These are exactly the real situations in the local areas that he and Zhang Juzheng, two people who have held high positions for a long time, want to know most.

After having dinner at home and saying goodbye to his family, Wei Guangde left the house in casual clothes.

The sedan chair was ready outside the mansion. After he got on it, the bearer gave a whistle and the sedan chair took off from the ground and hurried towards Zhang's mansion.

All of this was arranged in advance by Zhang Ji.

The news has been received from Zhang Juzheng's residence, and the Prime Minister is waiting for Lord Wei to arrive at home.

After leaving the inner city, Wei Guangde and his party soon arrived outside the Zhang Mansion, where You Qi was already waiting to greet them.

After picking up Wei Guangde, You Qi led the way in front and led him directly to Zhang Juzheng's study, where Zhang Juzheng was already waiting.

"Good loan, sit anywhere you want, just be yourself here."

"Uncle, I'm sorry to bother you so late at night. I really feel that this matter is very serious. I'd better inform you as soon as possible."

The two exchanged a few simple pleasantries and sat down in the study.

Zhang Juzheng's study was quite large, and was actually composed of two rooms. In later times, it was actually three large tiled houses.

The outer room is a small reception room, and the inner room is larger than the outer room and is the real study.

The walls of the room were lined with bookshelves, housing various books that Zhang Juzheng loved to read.

Unlike Wei Guangde, Wei Guangde's study has a small storage room next to it, which is used to store the books he has read.

Because I have a good memory, I can remember most of what I read once, so there is no need to put it in the study and just take it out to read when I have nothing to do.

The books Wei Guangde read covered a wide range of topics, but he would throw them into the small warehouse after reading them to avoid taking up space on the bookshelf in the study.

In fact, most of the books in his study were Taoist books bought during the Jiajing period. They were all obscure and difficult to understand. Wei Guangde couldn't understand them for a while, so he threw them on the bookshelf.

Later, the emperor changed, and Wei Guangde no longer read the Taoist classics he bought, and just put them there for show.

After all, Taoist books are actually treasures of Chinese culture, inheriting Chinese culture, and these books are actually very interesting.

Also because it is obscure and difficult to understand, Wei Guangde would read it for a while when he was really bored.

"I don't know what I'm doing here today?"

After chatting for a while, Zhang Juzheng got straight to the point.

Wei Guangde was also unambiguous. He took out Li Chengliang's letter from his sleeve, handed it to Zhang Juzheng and said, "Uncle, take a look first."

Zhang Juzheng took the letter and knew where it came from after looking at the envelope.

He took out the letter and started reading it in front of the candlestick.

The light from the five candles was enough for him to see the words on the letter clearly.

In these days, only families like theirs would be so extravagant as to light five candles; even some landlords and wealthy people would not do so.

As Wei Guangde expected, Zhang Juzheng soon began to frown.

Obviously, the actual situation in Yunnan was very different from what Zhang Juzheng knew, so he was shocked by Li Chengliang's report.

"Ruqi didn't know whether the imperial court knew about the situation in Yunnan, so it was difficult for him to directly write to the Ministry of War. He chose to write to me to explain the matter. It is really shocking."

Wei Guangde still helped Li Chengliang to make up for it, saying that it was somewhat unreasonable to report such a big matter privately in a letter instead of going through the official process.

However, Zhang Juzheng had encountered similar situations many times, so he naturally knew what was going on and would not delve into it too deeply.

"Shandai, what do you think?"

Zhang Juzheng was asking Wei Guangde about his strategy against Li Chengliang, which was to lure the Burmese army to Baoshan and Shidian to fight again, and to send a surprise attack on Mubang and Mengmi to block the Burmese army's escape route to the west, in order to kill the Burmese army to the greatest extent and clear the obstacles for the subsequent march into Myanmar.

“I heard that the mountains over there are high and the forests are dense. If we really let the Burmese army escape back, it would be very troublesome for the army to enter Burma to clear them out.

We were able to inflict severe damage on most of the Burmese troops in Baoshan and Shidian. Even if some remaining Burmese troops escaped, they would not cause much trouble to the main force's suppression.

But just as Ruqi worried, when the news gets back to the capital, I'm afraid many people will be impatient and impeach him."

Wei Guangde expressed his thoughts and Zhang Juzheng nodded.

In fact, after reading Li Chengliang's letter, he also felt proud of this strategy.

By encircling and annihilating the Burmese army's effective forces in familiar terrain, the Ming army's losses could be minimized.

The imperial court would benefit from this kind of war.

"Is there any news from Yu Dayou?"

Zhang Juzheng suddenly asked.

“In the vast ocean, it is difficult to maintain contact after the navy is dispatched.

But judging by the time, the letter from the Ministry of War should have been delivered to Luzon, and perhaps they have already sent troops to Jiugang."

Wei Guangde said.

"I am now worried about a situation, that is, before the war in Yunnan breaks out, Zhifu has already reached Burma."

Zhang Juzheng said.

Communication is indeed troublesome these days. We rely on horses on land and boats on water, and mistakes can easily occur if we are not careful.

"Don't worry, uncle. Zhifu is not that stupid. He will definitely find out everything before sending out the troops."

Wei Guangde smiled.

"It would be better to send him a message and ask him to pay attention to the situation in Myanmar."

Zhang Juzheng said in a low voice.