Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 100 Beijing North Defense
It wasn't until Yuan Chonghuan put down Qian Longxi's letter, picked up his own memorial and opened it, and saw the eye-catching red letter at the end of the memorial, that he was stunned on the spot, his back wet with sweat.

After a long time, Yuan Chonghuan slowly came back to his senses. At the same time, he finally recalled the bet that the emperor mentioned to him when he met the saint on the platform. Although he was not convinced by the emperor's "two years of peace" It felt unbelievable. Even though the emperor seemed confident and confident, he still felt that it was impossible to achieve peace in two years.

But the point is not whether the emperor can pacify Liaodong within two years, but that the emperor is using the bet to warn himself that he must obey Sun Chengzong's orders honestly before the two-year agreement expires. , can't cause trouble.

Even though Yuan Chonghuan is not as enlightened and wise as Sun Chengzong in terms of being an official, he is not a fool. It is impossible for him not to understand the emperor's intentions with such an obvious "warning" from the emperor.

Yuan Chonghuan could also immediately think that if he dared to act rashly again and do anything arbitrarily and decisively, especially if he dared to bypass Sun Chengzong, the "coach" of Liaodong, and make a report at a higher level, I am afraid that what is waiting for him would not be What a good result.

On the other hand, Sun Chengzong's memorial had been sent to the capital. When Qian Longxi sent Sun Chengzong's memorial to Zhu Tianqi, Zhu Tianqi thought it was a memorial for Sun Chengzong to impeach Yuan Chonghuan. After all, he had just received it a few days ago. After reading the memorial submitted by Yuan Chonghuan's "leap-level petition", if Sun Chengzong knew about this matter, Sun Chengzong would inevitably be emotional. It would not be surprising to read Yuan Chonghuan's copy!
In fact, if Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan only had a few words and quarrels over the memorial, it would be considered a trivial matter. What Zhu Tianqi was really worried about was that he was afraid that the two of them had already started a "confrontation" in Liaodong because of this matter. If the two turned against each other because of this, then there would be big problems for the Liaodong defense line.

Even though I had already warned Yuan Chonghuan about the "gambling contract" in Yuan Chonghuan's memorandum, according to Yuan Chonghuan's temperament, the possibility of him continuing to "make a mess" was not ruled out.

Thinking of this, Zhu Tianqi couldn't help but take a breath and quickly opened Sun Chengzong's memorial. After reading the contents written in Sun Chengzong's memorial, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.

Judging from Sun Chengzong's memorial, the relationship between Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan should still be very harmonious, because Sun Chengzong also specifically mentioned in the memorial that it was Yuan Chonghuan who was the first to detect the movements of the slave-building army and was keenly aware of the movement of the slave-building army. The potential crisis that may be caused by the Western Expedition to Tatar, the appreciation for Yuan Chonghuan is beyond words.

Since the relationship between Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan is still very harmonious, the Guanningjin defense line in Liaodong is still strong. As for the establishment of slaves to conquer the Tatars in the west, for Zhu Tianqi, it is not a big problem and will not affect his battle plan.

But Qian Longxi is not like Zhu Tianqi, who has historical records and knows what he knows. In his opinion, the memorial written by Sun Chengzong is indeed reasonable. The imperial court should pay attention to it and adopt Sun Chengzong's suggestion to strengthen the northern part of the capital. Jimen Defense, but judging from the emperor's reaction, it seemed that he did not pay too much attention to this matter.

So Qian Longxi immediately gave a salute and said: "Your Majesty, I believe that it is necessary to step up the deployment of the strengthening of Jimen's defense as proposed by Governor Sun in the memorial!" Zhu Tianqi did not seem to hear it. His words were ordinary and he did not give any response. Instead, after a moment of silence, he suddenly said: "I already know about this matter. Tell Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan that there is no need to make a fuss. Jiannu can do whatever he wants outside the customs." Let them go, just help me guard Liaodong!"

"Your Majesty..." When Qian Longxi heard this, he became a little anxious. He thought that he must not have said it clearly. The Emperor did not realize the seriousness of the problem through Sun Chengzong's memorial, so he planned to do it again. He tried to persuade the emperor, but as soon as the words came to his lips, he stopped talking and swallowed back what he wanted to say, "I obey the decree!"

The reason why Qian Longxi failed to say the words to persuade the emperor in the end was because he suddenly thought of strengthening the defense north of the capital. This matter was easy to say, but it was a big problem to actually do it.

The Guanningjin defense line in Liaodong was only more than [-] miles long. It still needed more than [-] troops and more than [-] large and small city fortresses to resist the invasion of Jiannu. The imperial court needed to supply countless military rations, military pay, and ordnance every year. The burden was very heavy, and many people in the court criticized it, saying that the Ming Dynasty was about to be dragged down by the war in Liaodong, and they all clamored to abandon Liaodong and retreat to Shanhaiguan!
If you want to build a new line of defense north of the capital, you don't have to just defend one pass like Shanhaiguan. Instead, you need to strengthen defense on the entire section of the Great Wall north of the capital. You know, from Shanhaiguan east of the capital to the capital Chaigou Fort in the west, this section of the Great Wall is more than [-] miles long. Is it realistic to construct such a long line of defense?How much military and financial resources will the court invest?
Qian Longxi felt that he suddenly understood why the emperor did not adopt Sun Chengzong's suggestion, because the current court simply did not have the extra military and financial resources to build such a line of defense, and even if the court built such a line of defense, there was no guarantee that it could be stopped. After all, this line of defense is too long for the army of Jiannu, and it is impossible to be foolproof.

But Zhu Tianqi actually didn't think that much. He didn't calculate such a detailed account like Qian Longxi. He was just advancing steadily according to his own battle plan to ensure that his plan would not be interfered with. .

Of course, since he, the emperor, has already spoken, no one in the court will go to Shang Shu to persuade him. After all, even Qian Longxi, who is the Minister of War, has remained silent. Who else is willing to take the risk? Where is this boss?

Moreover, although these ministers in the court clearly opposed the court's recovery of Liaodong and demanded the abandonment of Liaodong, there were no more people to retreat to Shanhaiguan. After all, the direction of the court was now clear. The emperor insisted on recovering Liaodong, and the court was also currently unwilling to do so. Although they are fully supporting the work of Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan, most people are still disgusted with this matter.

After all, not to mention anything else, Liaodong's annual military expenditure is so high that it occupies a considerable part of the imperial court's financial expenditure. Don’t you regard Liaodong as a thorn in your side?
In other words, if a defense line is still to be built along the entire line north of the capital, how many times will the investment and military expenditure of this new line of defense be that of the Guanningjin Defense Line in Liaodong?

(End of this chapter)