Daming talker

Chapter 670 Grandfathers and Grandchildren

If the imperial court was likened to a noisy vegetable market, when the news of the Japanese troops landing in Korea reached us, it was as if the entire market was instantly muted.

Originally in history, the Ming court did not receive the news so quickly. However, in this time and space, due to the controversy over Lin Tailai's "Preparation for the Japanese War", the court ordered Liaodong to strengthen the collection of news from the Korean direction.

However, there was only news of the successful landing of Japanese troops, and the Ming court did not feel any sense of urgency, unlike the collapse of the entire Korea as Lin Tailai predicted.

Those who just talked about the matter objectively and simply said "impossible" or cried poor were fine, but the Left Censor-in-Chief Lu Guangzu who attacked Lin Tailai for "having ulterior motives and plotting evil" was immediately slapped in the face.

Immediately, an imperial censor stepped forward and impeached Lu Guangzu for acting out of selfish motives and framing ministers.

Lu Guangzu argued that although Japanese soldiers landed in Korea, wasn't Lin Tailai at fault for bluffing, exaggerating, and trying to seize power by taking advantage of the opportunity?

The question of whether Korea was invaded seemed to have become a tool for factional struggles in the Ming court.

This is very consistent with the national conditions in the middle and late Wanli period, that is, everything can be a party struggle. No matter whether it is the case of the evil book or the case of the Chu vassal, it can eventually evolve into a party struggle.

Faced with the new situation, Emperor Wanli ordered to consult Lin Tailai.

When the urgent imperial edict, which traveled six hundred miles, was delivered to Suzhou City, it was late spring.

The first deputy leader of the literary world and a great poet, Mr. Lin, took into consideration that he had been busy with politics and military affairs in the past three years and neglected the creation of spring themes.

So he decided to update his spring poetry collection this spring, and held a gathering in the Humble Administrator's Garden, the largest garden in Suzhou.

Under the watchful eyes of the public, Mr. Lin slowly conceived his poetic ideas, and others did not dare to be impatient and waited patiently for the release of Lin Shizong's new works.

A quarter of an hour later, Lin Shizong stood with his hands behind his back, reciting in a deep voice: "Where is the most enchanting place in autumn? The setting sun and the west wind. No, wrong, wrong, let's change it."

Then Lin Shizong skillfully switched to another poem: "Today is not the same as yesterday, what will tomorrow be like? What do I really regret now? Not studying for ten years.

I wonder how the east wind blows me away, how many times have I passed by the maple river and orchid path, and how many miles have I passed by before the plains have turned into wild grass. Outside the lonely setting sun, I feel so sad.

Lin Shizong had only published one-tenth of his poem today when he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of hurried horse hooves.

Soon, a yamen runner rushed over and shouted, "The government office has informed you that the emperor has urgently sent a message to inquire about Mr. Lin. Please report back as soon as possible!"

Everyone was surprised and envious. Mr. Lin's treatment was worthy of a national hero!

But Mr. Lin snorted coldly and said to himself, "It's just an urgent consultation, not twelve golden orders to urgently summon me back to the capital."

After hearing this, no one dared to reply. It can only be said that Mr. Lin's thinking is really unusual.

But suddenly, I heard Master Lin sigh again: "This shows that the court is too stable. We need to set off a new climax of struggle!"

The people around him still couldn't understand, as if they were species from two different worlds than Mr. Lin.

Then Mr. Lin apologized for his crime and did not bother to publish the several hundred words of poetry he had prepared. He hurried home to write a memorial to answer the emperor's questions.

There are two main points. The first is to request the court to urgently allocate 200,000 taels of silver to Liaodong to cope with the needs of the situation in Korea.

The second was to request the court to mobilize about 100,000 troops to Liaodong in preparation for war.

Liaodong Town also has the task of defending the left wing of the Northern Tartars, so all of its troops cannot be withdrawn. Therefore, it is suggested that troops be transferred from Xuanfu, Datong, Yansui, Guyuan, Ningxia and other towns.

As for Jizhen and Gansuzhen, their defense tasks are heavier and they can be transferred as needed.

Lin Tailai's memorial was still sent to the capital at an expedited speed of 600 miles, which immediately caused an uproar.

The main reason was that the action suggested by Lin Tailai was too big, even far exceeding the scale of the military deployment in Ningxia last year.

In many people's minds, North Korea just encountered "Japanese pirates", just like what happened to the southeastern coast during the Jiajing period. Was Lin Tailai overreacting a bit?

He allocated two hundred thousand taels of silver in advance and recruited an army of one hundred thousand. What did Lin Tailai want to do?
Not to mention the Wanli Dynasty, even in the past hundred years, it seems that such a large-scale army has not been used.

Emperor Wanli was also puzzled by Lin Tailai's memorial and decided to use collective wisdom to send Lin Tailai's memorial to the court for discussion.

The court officials were discussing the matter, but even those who supported Lin Tailai did not dare to be too resolute. After all, the request for an army of 100,000 was indeed a bit "horrifying."

The person who felt the most uncomfortable at this time was the Left Censor-in-Chief Lu Guangzu. When the Korean issue evolved into a party struggle in the court, he had been framed.

He could only continue to question Lin Tailai's motives and expose Lin Tailai's ambitions. There was no turning back.

But seeing that Lin Tailai was gambling more and more, Lu Guangzu became confused and a little scared.

When a person lacks confidence, he will always think of seeking help from external forces. So Lu Guangzu gathered together all the people he thought were smart to discuss strategies together.

But even among our own people, there is no consensus.

Senior Imperial Censor Qian Yiben passionately advised: "Once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. The most terrible thing about doing things is hesitation. If you retreat at this time, you will only become a laughing stock of the world!

Things have come to this point, we must grit our teeth and persevere to the end and never give up halfway!

Even if there is a price to pay for it, it is better than being indecisive and being ridiculed and despised by others.

If the General needs to take care of himself, then let me and Lin Tailai deal with it to the end!"

Qian Yiben's words were very passionate and morale-boosting, completely in line with the political correctness of the Qingliu movement, and no one could say anything wrong with them.

If no one shows the courage to die rather than surrender, the cohesion of the Qingliu forces will be gone.

Only another chief censor, He Zhuo, was silently calculating in his heart: the one-year privilege they had exchanged for the famous painting seemed to have not expired yet?
However, Zhao Nanxing, the head of the Ministry of Rites, was much more cautious and also said, "Although Lin Tailai has always been bold and daring, he never does anything without a purpose.

He is betting so heavily, I am afraid he has something to rely on and a trump card. If we blindly follow the bet without knowing the enemy situation, I am afraid we will encounter unexpected risks. "

Everyone can understand Zhao Nanxing's conservatism.

After all, Zhao Nanxing has been demoted three times in a row. If he is demoted again, he will have to go to another place to be a county magistrate. He has to be extra cautious.

As a result, the two different opinions seem to have their own reasons, and still no conclusion can be reached.

Looking at Zhao Nanxing, Lu Guangzu suddenly asked, "Is the Korean delegation still in Huitong Hall? Can you introduce them to me?"

As the saying goes, without investigation, there is no right to speak. Lu Guangzu decided to personally contact the top leaders of North Korea to obtain first-hand information and then make plans.

In the past, Lu Guangzu would not care what this small vassal state was like. But now that it involved party disputes, he had to pay attention to it.

The day before the court meeting, the Left Imperial Censor Lu Guangzu personally went to Nanhuitong Hall to visit and host a banquet for Yin Zhuoran, the chief envoy of the Korean delegation, to consult on Korean affairs. After three rounds of wine, Lu Guangzu asked, "Can your army resist the Japanese pirates?"

Yin Zheng spoke fluent Chinese and did not need an interpreter. He answered directly and proudly:
“Although my country cannot be compared with the Ming Dynasty, it also has a depth of 3,000 miles, many mountains and rivers, and soldiers and civilians can be used.

Although the Japanese pirates took advantage of our unpreparedness and successfully landed, our country can still defend its various places and mobilize the country's troops to encircle and suppress them, which is enough to destroy them! "

Although the Kingdom of Korea was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, as the chief envoy, Yin Zhuoran could not lose the dignity of a small country!

National self-reliance starts with talking!

Lu Guangzu was silent for a long time, and then thinking about the experience of the Jiajing Dynasty in resisting the Japanese pirates, he felt that what Yin Zhengshi said was right.

The Japanese pirates could only advance a hundred miles along the coast.

No matter what, Korea is also known as the powerful country in the East. How could it need the Ming Dynasty to mobilize an army of 100,000 to rescue it?

The next day, about one hundred and eighty people gathered in the East Court Room. The scale of this court meeting was much larger than the court recommendation.

All officials from the six ministries and censors who want to come can attend. The main purpose is to pool wisdom and solicit opinions widely.

Wang Yusheng, a third-year censor and member of the Renewal Society, stood in the crowd, feeling uneasy.

He is now at a critical stage and needs some performance to boost his performance. So the organization decided that he would be the main attacker today, and the main target would be Lu Guangzu.

For Wang Yusheng, who came from a wealthy family, he was not good at quarreling with others, but he did have some experience of being quarreled with by Lin Tailai.

The family knowledge left by his grandfather's grandfather, the late Grand Secretary Wang Ao, did not say anything about how to offend others.

As the Minister of Personnel, the first person in the outer court, Wang Tianguan was required to preside over the court meeting, but he simply announced the start and then stepped away.

Wang Tianguan had no interest in this kind of meeting which seemed to involve no personnel struggles.

Wang Yusheng, who was extremely nervous, rushed out when he heard the court discussion begin. He stuttered and said to Lu Guangzu:
"Lu, General Lu! You are old, incompetent, ignorant, and misleading the country! You put personal interests above public ones in the affairs of North Korea!"

Lu Guangzu looked at Wang Yusheng in confusion and asked, "Who the hell do you think you are?"
The matter hasn't even been laid out yet, but you've already started making personal attacks. Is that polite?

After being confused, I was furious! You haven't even grown all your hair yet. When I entered the court, your father might have just been born!
"Who gave you the courage?" The enraged Lu Guangzu questioned Wang Yusheng, who was about 26 or 27 years old.

Wang Yusheng shrank back and asked, "Doesn't the Left Censor-in-Chief allow people to speak?"

Lu Guangzu didn't want to continue paying attention to Wang Yusheng, this little piece of trash, so he turned around and said loudly to everyone:
"Over the past hundred years, the threat of Japanese pirates in the East China Sea may have occurred from time to time, and Korea is also in the East China Sea. Lin Tailai's accidental prediction of a Japanese invasion does not mean anything.

On the contrary, Lin Tailai used the incident of the Japanese invasion of Korea to prove that Lin Tailai had ulterior motives and was plotting something bad! "

Wang Yusheng stubbornly made his presence felt, and stood in front of Lu Guangzu again, retorting: "How can it be verified? Just because you said it is verified, it is verified?"

Lu Guangzu thought about his age, incompetence, and lack of knowledge, and his anger grew. He said in a loud voice, "After my in-depth research and analysis, I know a thing or two about the situation in North Korea!"

In order to prove himself, Lu Guangzu continued, "Although Korea cannot be compared with Ming, it also has a depth of 3,000 miles, many mountains and rivers, and soldiers and civilians can be used.

Although the Japanese pirates took advantage of Korea's unpreparedness and successfully landed, Korea could still defend its various parts and then mobilize its troops to encircle and suppress them, which would be enough to wipe out the Japanese pirates!

This is the situation, but Lin Tailai advocated mobilizing 100,000 troops and allocating 200,000 silver taels. Isn't this an attempt to do something wrong?"

Although some people, such as the Minister of War Ye Mengxiong, wanted to speak up for Lin Tailai, they really couldn't speak up when faced with the seemingly outrageous proposal of "one hundred thousand troops and two hundred thousand taels of silver."

Lu Guangzu felt like he had reached his peak state after a long absence. His voice drowned out everyone else's. "We must reject Lin Tailai's proposal and reprimand him, forbidding him to manage military affairs again, to nip the problem in the bud!"

When Ye Mengxiong was thinking about how to fight back, an official from the Ministry of Public Administration suddenly appeared at the door of the east chamber.

Then he shouted to all the ministers: "Urgent report from the Liaodong Governor! The Japanese troops have broken through the capital of the Joseon Kingdom, and half of the Joseon Kingdom has fallen!"

Officials: “.”

Holy shit, is this Joseon Kingdom going to be any good? It’s only been over half a month since the Japanese soldiers landed in Busan, how come they even lost the capital, Seoul?

"Yin Zhuoran, I'm going to stab your mother!" In the midst of everyone's shock and speechlessness, Lu Zongxian suddenly lost his composure first and started swearing in an undignified manner.

A powerful country in the east, with a depth of 3,000 miles, a strategic location, and troops at its disposal. That's it? That's it?
Others didn't know what to say, and some even felt a little sympathy for Mr. Lu.

What does "knowing a little about the situation in North Korea" mean? I don't know who fooled me.

Wang Yusheng suddenly jumped out again, and stopped stuttering. He pointed at the grandfather-like Lu Guangzu and said, "You are old and incompetent, and you don't know much, but you still don't accept it!"

"Shut up! Get out!" Lu Guangzu shouted at his grandson Wang Yu like an enraged old lion.

Wang Yusheng accused again: "As the head of the censors, you actually tried to block the way for speech!
You are old and incompetent, you have no clear vision, you put personal interests above public interests, and you block the way for people to speak out. You are not worthy of being the Left Censor-in-Chief!"

Lu Guangzu: "."

Shi Xing, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War, stepped forward to smooth things over and said, "Even if General Lu's judgment was biased, does that mean Lin Tailai was right?
In any case, we don't need an army of 100,000. We only need to send one or two generals from Liaodong to lead their troops to rescue!
When our Ming army arrives in Korea, with the help of the Korean army, we will be able to wipe out the Japanese pirates!"

Compared with Lin Tailai's "100,000 troops and 200,000 taels of silver", Shi Xing's proposal was obviously more "appropriate".

Anyway, this was the Ming Dynasty court's habitual thinking. When encountering an enemy, they would stabilize their defenses and then mobilize a few thousand or at most tens of thousands of troops to tinker with it.

After some discussion, the officials still tended to support Shi Xing's proposal.

Although the capital of the Joseon Dynasty was lost and half of the country was gone, at least half of it was left. We couldn't let the whole country fall, could we? We just had to stabilize it and then slowly counterattack.

But Wang Yusheng was thinking about his mission and insisted, "But General Lu is old and incompetent, has no clear vision, puts personal interests above public interests, and blocks the way for people to speak out. What do you say?"

Lu Guangzu took off his official hat and said angrily: "I'm betting my position to support Shi Shilang's proposal!

If I really need the army that Lin Tailai mentioned in the future, I will resign and apologize! "

Faced with this kind of rhetoric, the young Wang Yusheng was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously said: "Can you...write a letter of agreement?"

Everyone: "..."

Why are the descendants of Grand Secretary Wang Ao so sarcastic?

(End of this chapter)