The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Inside the Huamachi earthen city.

Liu Jin sat upright on the armchair, while in front of him knelt Xu Shen, and beside him stood generals such as Cao Wei and Zheng Sui.

This time Xu Shen came to apologize to Liu Jin. If Liu Jin wanted to make a fuss with him, Xu Shen would be executed for the crime of treason, and his family and subordinates would also be harmed.

"Eunuch Liu, you are so magnanimous. I am willing to serve you all my life." Xu Shen was almost crying, but he spoke clearly.

Liu Jin held a tea bowl in his hand and asked nonchalantly, "We have hands and feet, why do we need you to serve us? Do you want to be our son?"

Xu Shen said: "I am willing to serve you as my foster father for the rest of my life."

Zheng Sui taunted him, "General Xu, you made a mistake, and you are still allowed to find a foster father? How can there be so many good things? Do you know how to write the word ugly?"

Liu Jin waved his hand and said, "Alright, General Xu, you have learned from your mistakes and fought bravely. You have defeated the Tatars and made them lose their way. You have done a great job in this battle. I will remember your deeds. If you are ungrateful and want to commit crimes again in the future, don't blame me for your crime. I will kill you."

"Yes, yes. My life depends on you, father-in-law."

Xu Shen continued to cry.

The generals standing by were all in a state of headache. Was this the Xu Shen who was known as a fierce general on the battlefield? Why was he acting like a child? Even a naughty child wouldn't cry as loudly as him.

At this moment, a report came from outside: "Marquis Pinglu wants to see you."

When Liu Jin heard that it was Ma Yi coming, he no longer cared about Xu Shen and stood up to greet him.

Others also followed Liu Jin.

Only Xu Shen continued to kneel there. It was not right for him to stand up, and it seemed a bit embarrassing to continue kneeling. Just when he didn't know what to choose, Ma Yi had already stepped into the conference room.

"Eunuch Liu, what are you doing..."

Ma Yi was also a little puzzled when he saw the scene in front of him.

He had seen Xu Shen before. Previously, Xu Shen was under Cui Yuan's command. He followed Cui Yuan in the battle of the Yellow River in Ningxia, and his reputation was fully demonstrated.

But when Xu Shen worked under Zhang Mao, he seemed very cowardly.

He thought Xu Shen had made progress this time, but when he got up, he saw Xu Shen kneeling there as if he was admitting his mistake.

Liu Jin said with a smile: "Pinglu Hou, please forgive me for making fun of you. In the matter of not marching the army, General Xu did something wrong. After the battle, we always need to review it and find that he not only did something wrong, but he was totally clueless!"

"Really?" Ma Yi frowned and thought, what does this have to do with anything?

Liu Jin said, "General Xu, please stand up. I will settle your account with you later."

"Thank you, father-in-law. Thank you, father-in-law." Xu Shen quickly got up and stood there with his back straight.

Ma Yi said: "General Xu fought bravely in this battle and made great achievements. Previously, I was curious about why Eunuch Liu and his troops lingered outside the pass, neither advancing nor retreating. Now I know that it turns out that Eunuch Liu was very smart and knew that Wang Zhitai would send troops to attack from behind. This was to contain the main force of the Tatars, and he accurately coordinated the time and launched a fierce attack. This made the Tatars lose their composure. Eunuch Liu's ability to plan and strategize is admirable."

After hearing this, all the generals present couldn't help but admire Liu Jin.

It turns out that this is the truth of the matter.

It's all our fault that we are a bunch of short-sighted and cowardly people. We didn't know that Eunuch Liu had made such a big move. Unfortunately, we were kept in the dark and almost ruined his grand plan.

It's all Xu's fault. He deserves to die. Fortunately, Captain Zheng turned back and restored order in times of crisis, otherwise the crime would have been serious.

Liu Jin smiled and said, "Marquis Pinglu really flatters me. I am just doing my duty and waiting for the arrival of reinforcements."

The people present saw that Liu Jin and Ma Yi were chatting happily, and then they remembered that Ma Yi also came from Yanwu Hall. Although he did not work directly under Liu Jin's name, this was like the relationship between the examiner and the candidate in the imperial examination. Liu Jin could be called Ma Yi's "teacher".

What they didn't know was that Ma Yi was a person who liked to flatter and curry favor with the powerful and wealthy, and he was not a gentleman.

Apart from being good at fighting on the battlefield, Ma Yi was not a good person. Ma Zhongxi had long known what kind of person he was and had impeached him repeatedly because he knew that this guy would bring instability to the Ming Dynasty's border.

……

……

Liu Jin and Ma Yi took their seats respectively.

Ma Yi said: "This time I came with the prince of the Duke of Ying, General Zhang Rui, who is now the deputy general and guerrilla general. He is now maintaining the situation in the army. We don't have many soldiers and horses, only 3,000."

"Only three thousand soldiers?" Zheng Sui beside him sighed, "The momentum created last night, even if we say that there are only thirty thousand soldiers, that's an understatement."

"Yeah."

All the generals present agreed.

Now that Ma Yi has led his troops to relieve their siege, he is not only innocent but also a meritorious official. Now even if Ma Yi farts, they will say it makes sense.

Liu Jin said: "It means that it is not easy to chase after the Tartars, right?"

"That's not the case." Ma Yi said, "My intention is to ask Eunuch Liu to immediately mobilize elite troops and horses, and add two thousand cavalry, and bring all the muskets that can be brought. This time, the tactics of King Xuan are to use light cavalry to deal with the Tatars, and there is no need to use artillery to confront them head-on. This is the only way to ensure that we can catch up with them and give them a heavy blow."

Liu Jin seemed a little embarrassed.

This time, he managed to "escape death" and escape from a great danger.

He would never let it happen again. Besides, he didn't have many elite soldiers under his command. This battle caused the loss of more than half of his 4,000 elite soldiers. Just how to report the casualties was a problem.

In terms of overall strategy, we won, but the losses were too great and it was easy for others to find fault with us.

Liu Jin looked at Xu Shen standing aside and said, "General Xu, it shouldn't be difficult to mobilize 2,000 cavalrymen now, right?"

Xu Shen didn't expect Liu Jin to ask for his opinion. After hesitating, he said hurriedly, "Of course it's not difficult, but our fire bomb consumption is too serious."

Liu Jin asked, "Is there no way to replenish it?"

Xu Shen said, "It's like this. In order to prevent the Tatars from stealing our technology for making fire bombs, there are no military workshops in Ningxia. Even if there are places to cast cannons, the fire bombs are transferred from Xuanfu, Datong and other places, and many are even transferred from the suburbs of Beijing." "Alas!" Liu Jin sighed, "Marquis Pinglu, you see, our losses in this battle are too severe. Do you have enough fire bombs? You can share some with the soldiers here."

Ma Yi was also confused.

Good man, I asked you for weapons and men, and you actually asked us for them?

Zheng Sui added, "Eunuch Liu, there is one more thing that must be mentioned. The amount of food and grass here is greatly insufficient. We were originally isolated outside the pass and our food and grass were basically exhausted. After entering the city, we found that the situation was not much better. Now the food routes in Ningxia have been cut off by the Tatars. Now we can only retreat to the rear of Ningxia to prevent the soldiers from freezing and starving and suffering losses."

Liu Jin said: "The losses in this battle were too great. We were under great pressure and used up almost all the resources we could!"

This is complaining to Ma Yi.

Ma Yi nodded and said, "I understand your difficulty, sir. But at the moment... I should be in charge of the military affairs here."

"Really?" Liu Jin realized it then.

Ma Yi didn't come to discuss anything with him.

Originally, the court transferred Ma Yi with three thousand elite cavalrymen to make Ma Yi the commander-in-chief here, responsible for everything. Strictly speaking, Liu Jin was not a general in charge of the troops, he was just supervising Ma Yi.

It was only because Ma Yi did not arrive in time and Xu Shen was a coward that he stole the position of commander-in-chief and has been doing so until now.

Xu Shen, who was standing aside, strictly stood on Liu Jin's side. He said, "Marquis Pinglu, you just arrived and you want to discuss military power with Eunuch Liu? Eunuch Liu just led his troops to a great victory. Our troops suffered heavy losses. You came so late, and you have caused great harm to the soldiers of the three armies."

"Yes." Now the people around him felt that what Xu Shen said made sense.

If they had to choose between Liu Jin and Ma Yi, they would immediately turn around and return to Liu Jin's arms.

There was no way, because Ma Yi was an "outsider"? Most generals had never fought against Ma Yi, so who knew what he was doing?
We followed Liu Jin to achieve victory, so of course we cannot let outsiders take away the credit.

Ma Yi was also speechless after listening to this.

Just now you all were treating me like a god, why are you all looking so dead now?
Liu Jin said, "In this case, we can't just sit there and do nothing. Pinglu Hou's mission is not to garrison this earthen city. We will swallow our pride and send you a thousand cavalrymen, and bring all the fire guns and fire bombs that can be used. What do you think?"

"Like this..." Ma Yi realized that he couldn't make the decision, and now this group of people only listened to Liu Jin.

Finally, he could only compromise and nodded, saying, "In that case, please ask Eunuch Liu to dispatch troops immediately to pursue and intercept the Tatars. There is no time to lose. Please also ask Eunuch Liu to lead the troops to gather in the direction where the Tatars fled from all over and try to cut off their retreat."

Liu Jin smiled and said, "Of course. But we also need to replenish our food supplies."

Xu Shen said: "Wherever you go, just ask the city for it."

Soldiers are not used to bad habits. The Tartars came to rob, who says we can't rob the people of the Ming Dynasty?
We have no food to eat, why should we care about those things?
Liu Jin was not a decent person to begin with, but now he was a little hesitant. Although the grain robbery was rampant in the northwest, he still wanted to do something. Especially since he was being watched by the civil officials because of Xie Qian's incident, he did not want to become the target of public criticism.

Liu Jin said: "We have already sent people to Yansui to collect grain, and we will send people to various places to collect grain this time. Everything must be done according to the rules. If it really doesn't work, let the soldiers kill animals to satisfy their hunger, but don't disturb the people, they are also living a hard life."

The generals present did not agree with this statement.

We can't even get enough food to eat and we're almost starving to death, and you don't let us rob the people?
Zheng Sui asked: "If we encounter the Tatars, can we take back the goods we have taken from them?"

"That's fine." Liu Jin said, "We have to make do with this. These can be used as military rations temporarily. After all, some things are difficult to return. That's it. We will take a day off today. Tomorrow morning, we will lead the troops to various places. All troops must be ready to fight at any time to deal with the Tatars' attack."

……

……

Liu Jin was very proud.

In his opinion, the war had already come to an end and there was no need to fight hard anymore.

In just a few days, the imperial commendation letter may arrive.

You can have a good sleep.

The news of the great victory at Huamachi soon reached Yulinwei, the base in Yansui. At the same time, Wang Qiong also received an official document from Liu Jin requesting a transfer of grain.

As the commander-in-chief, Shen Ying personally delivered the letter to Wang Qiong, and he could also see the anger on Wang Qiong's face.

"Wang Boan is very capable, but he doesn't like to discuss anything with others. He transferred troops from Datong to the grassland. Although he caught the Tatars off guard, he didn't give us any information, which led to a lack of coordination between the troops. He got the credit for this battle, but we have to bear the blame."

Wang Qiong was not annoyed by Wang Shouren's brilliant strategy.

What he hated was that Wang Shouren had no martial ethics.

I sent out troops, but encountered an obstruction and was forced to retreat, and you launched a surprise attack from behind. This meant that I diverted the Tatars' attention and made them think that the Ming Dynasty's main attack direction was to transfer troops from Yansui to the west.

So you just snatch food from the tiger's mouth?
But you didn't even say hello. If you had told me about this, I would have fully cooperated with you. Even if we encountered obstacles in our progress, we would not have retreated immediately. This would have given the censors a chance to impeach me.

Shen Ying said, "Liu Jin is asking us to transfer food, but how can we have enough food to transfer to him? First of all, it is the spring famine, and there is a shortage of soldiers and food everywhere. If our soldiers and horses had enough food and grass, we would not have encountered some obstacles when advancing to Ningxia earlier."

Wang Qiong said, "Transfer the food to him."

"Ah?" Shen Ying seemed confused.

We don't have much food ourselves, and we are actually giving it to Liu Jin?
Although Liu Jin now has less than 10,000 soldiers and horses, the food, drink, and defecation of so many people is still a huge expense.

Why should we, Yansui, bear this expense?

Wang Qiong said: "Liu Jin is blessed with good fortune this time. We thought he would die, but who would have thought he could escape and even make military achievements. Now he is no longer able to take on the follow-up of the war, and the initiative will definitely be taken by Ma Yi."

Shen Ying said: "Since he has already withdrawn from the front line, why should we transfer food to him? He is in Ningxia, so why not let Ningxia transfer food to him?"

Wang Qiong shook his head and said, "After this battle, I will most likely be transferred back to Beijing, and so will Liu Jin. Now I'm just asking you, do you want to continue staying in the northwest, or go to the Beijing camp?"

"This..." Shen Ying said, "I just want to work in the Beijing camp and get a peaceful job."

Wang Qiong said: "After this battle, I will recommend you. Although Liu Jin does not have much practical experience, he has a wide network of contacts. If we help him, he will return the favor." (End of this chapter)