Han ride

Chapter 411 Secret Decree
"Actually, my subordinates think that the imperial court will not agree to allow us to enter Datong. We will face difficulties when we enter the Shahukou. I have checked the documents of Shanxi and found that this Shahukou was previously attacked by various tribes in the grassland. The imperial court already has a strategy for preparing for the passage through the Central Plains. As long as we pass through Shahukou, we will face obstacles from Zuoyun and Youyu counties. Since the imperial court is going to attack us, a small Jiang Guan is not enough , if the subordinate guessed correctly, there will definitely be a secret decree from the imperial court to the Xuanfu to let Yang Sichang take charge of this matter. Yang Sichang has nearly 10 soldiers and horses. They will leave Zhangjiakou and attack our eastern tribe. Datong's 10 elite soldiers are in the two counties of Zuoyun and Youyu to block the attack of our army, and even send a group of soldiers and horses from Shaanxi to attack our rear, block the Shahukou, and trap us in Zuoyun, Youyu and Kill Hukou, so that Yang Sichang can attack our Yunzhong. I heard that Jiang Yu’s elder brother, Jiang Rang, is the general soldier of Yulin. He still has 2 troops under his command. Datong is the foundation of his Jiang family. Jiang Rang It's impossible not to make a move, he might be the soldier." Shi Yuan stroked his beard and guessed Jiang Guan's strategy clearly.

"Will Hong Chengchou send troops?" Li Xin suddenly thought of something and asked everyone.Hong Chengchou is the governor of the three sides. He originally aimed to target the rebels in the Central Plains, but the three sides are also very close to the grassland.

"Probably not. Shanxi and Shaanxi suffered severe famines this year. There hasn't been a drop of rain since August. The people are full of grievances, and countless rebels have rebelled. Hong Chengchou sits on three sides and faces these rebels. He still feels that his troops are insufficient. If If we send troops to the grasslands to attack us, the whole of Shaanxi might not belong to the imperial court anymore." Shi Yuanzhi and Song Xiance looked at each other, Shi Yuanzhi shook his head and said.

"Yes, Hong Chengchou is also a treacherous and cunning person. He is the governor of the three sides and has the heavy responsibility of guarding the land. If Shaanxi is lost because of the attack on Yunzhong, then Hong Chengchou's life will not be guaranteed. What's more, I think Emperor Chongzhen will definitely Hong Chengchou will not be ordered in the form of imperial decree, at most it is a secret decree, and Hong Chengchou will not lose his future because of this." Li Xin also nodded.

Chongzhen's methods seemed unsolvable, but Chongzhen had a big loophole, that is, he could not order the army to attack him on the surface, and it could only be a secret decree, which left a lot of room for manipulation.

"Now, my lord can wait for Jiang Guan's document. If Jiang Guan agrees to lend the master Shahukou, it means that Emperor Chongzhen will definitely do something to my lord." Shi Yuanzhi said with confidence: "By that time , is the perfect time for our army to enter the Central Plains."

"That's right. Once Jiang Yu agrees to this matter, the lord will immediately move his army to occupy the Shahukou, and attack the territory of Datong with an instant thunder that can't match my ears." Song Xiance said with a smile: "The lord can bypass Zuo Yunhe In the two counties of Youyu, the Lord does not necessarily want to attack Datong immediately. Instead, we will take a detour and hold Jiang Tuan's troops within the territory of Datong, so that we can deal with Datong calmly."

"No, we have been notified by Jiang Guan. Jiang Guan must be ready. I'm afraid he is waiting for us to take the bait!" Zhang Cai shook his head and said.

"That's right, just now my lord said that the court handed over this man to Yang Sichang. This Yang Sichang, like his father, is a treacherous and cunning man. Although he suffered a great loss in front of his lord, but now he has elite soldiers in his hands, if it is embarrassing Speaking of Grandpa, it will make Grandpa sick." Sun Yuanhua thought for a while and said.He stayed here very comfortably, especially not long ago, Li Xin stole all the firearm blueprints that Tang Ruowang painstakingly researched through the Qilin Pavilion, and asked Sun Yuanhua to transform the General Cannon and the Frang Chicken Cannon, and he also had a good understanding of the firearms. be transformed.People like him have rarely been in touch with Li Xin's decision-making.

"My lord, I have met Hong Chengchou before. He is a smiling tiger! Although it seems that he is entrusted with the imperial decree to sit on the three sides and guard Shaanxi to prevent the Shaanxi rebels from rebelling, but it is inevitable that he will take advantage of the fire and attack us. In the cloud." Zhang Chun has silver hair all over his head, because he is in the cloud, the weather is cold, even though there is a charcoal fire in the hall, he still feels a little cold.

"Mr. Zhang means that Hong Chengchou will send troops to the three sides?" Li Xin's heart moved when he heard this, and he said nervously, "How about Shaanxi?"

"Well, this is just an old guess." Zhang Chun also shook his head. Although Hong Chengchou is treacherous, such a person knows how to protect himself.If something happened in Shaanxi to attack Li Xin, then, even if he went out according to the order, he would not be able to escape the participation of those colleagues.Therefore, whether Hong Chengchou sent troops is another matter, this is just his guess.

Li Xin nodded after hearing this. If Hong Chengchou also got involved, it would be no good. The army of the Three Routes is estimated to have 30 to [-] horses. Old, treacherous, resourceful and resourceful, although Yang Sichang was arrogant, he was also a rare commander in the late Ming Dynasty. He almost killed Li Zicheng. As a commander, such a person must be a big deal.Jiang Guan was facing a dangerous situation, and it was difficult to deal with it.

"What if I don't take the initiative to attack?" Li Xin said suddenly with a smile.

"Don't take the initiative to attack?" Shi Yuanzhi and others were taken aback when they heard the words, and soon Shi Yuanzhi shook his head and said: "Although the lord does not take the initiative to attack, this is a rare opportunity. If you lose this opportunity, the lord really doesn't know When will we be able to enter the Central Plains openly?" Song Xiance and others also nodded.Li Xin's approach is of course to shrink his army on the grassland and not to attack the Central Plains, but the same, I am afraid that he will not get the benefits of the Central Plains.

"How long ago have I said that I will not attack the Central Plains?" Li Xin shook his head and said: "Attacking the Central Plains is of course an offensive, but things need to be divided into two steps. The first step is to occupy the mouth of the killer. This is for sure. I believe that the other party will not fight with us at Shahukou, they will just lead us into Shahukou and block us in it. As long as we can easily take down Shahukou, then the army will enter it and feign attack on Zuo Yun In fact, Youyu Second County withdrew its soldiers and horses back to the cloud, waited for Yang Sichang to attack, and then gave a severe lesson to the imperial army. I enlisted the Northern Army to enter the Central Plains to help him. The troops from the Xuan Mansion, Datong, and the three sides are useless now, and they can all rush to the Central Plains to wipe out the rebellion together. But I didn’t expect that the court was simply suspicious. The three soldiers and horses have not decreased at all, and they are still the same as before, which is really ridiculous."

Everyone was silent, but they didn't know if what Li Xin said was true.But he is the Lord, whatever he says is what he says, and no one will object.Even Shi Yuanzhi just stroked the beard under his chin and didn't speak.

"My lord is going to destroy the soldiers of Yang Sichang, Hong Chengchou and Jiang Yu?" Song Xiance rolled his eyes. He is a fortune teller among the people. Loyalty, not to trouble the court is already very good, this time Yang Sichang and others came to him, how could Song Xiance let go of this opportunity!
"It doesn't count as annihilation, but we have to give them a hard lesson." Li Xin sneered and said, "I have realized that when dealing with people like Chongzhen, we can't let him feel that we are easy to bully. We have to beat them painfully. He will be afraid of me if he is afraid of fighting." Li Xin finally understood that according to the logic, if there is no imperial decree to lead the army to the capital city, that is a capital offense, but so what this time, the army was stationed under the capital city, and he entered the capital alone. Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help himself, and let himself leave Beijing obediently.And in history, Emperor Chongzhen hated Jiannu very much, because Jiannu made him sleep well at night, but it was Jiannu who finally forced him to almost sign the alliance under the city.In troubled times, the army is the most important thing. As long as you have heavy soldiers in your hands, even if Emperor Chongzhen is angry, he has nothing to do.

After hearing this, Zhang Chun, Sun Yuanhua, and Zhang Cai could only sigh deeply. Although they surrendered to Li Xin and assisted Li Xin, they were influenced by the Confucian idea of ​​loyalty to the emperor, and they were still full of guilt towards Chongzhen.There is still a little yearning for the court.At this time, Li Xin wanted to teach the court a lesson, and everyone felt uncomfortable.

"I don't know what my lord should do next? Please ask for instructions." Shi Yuanzhi asked again, since Li Xin was already preparing to slander the court once, it was time to prepare.

"Wait, we can only wait now, and wait for Jiang Guan to pass the letter to us." Li Xin showed a mysterious look on the corner of his mouth, and said: "We don't have time to go to the Central Plains now, we have to wait until after the spring, and we always have to give the imperial court Leaving time is not."

"What the lord said is very true. The less anxious we are, the more anxious Jiang Yu will be. Waiting for him to beg us to take the bait, if we don't take the bait, the momentum of his subordinates will become weaker as time goes by. Decline, three and exhausted. When their army is in turmoil, that is when we send troops. The imperial court will spend countless money and food on an expedition. After a long time, their morale will be shaken, and we will not be afraid of each other." Shi Yuan said with a straight smile.

"How about Yang Sichang's soldiers coming to attack?" Zhang Cai asked again.

"If we were in the Central Plains, we would face the enemy on three sides. Naturally, we would have to be cautious, but this is a grassland, an endless grassland. This is my territory, and I am in charge of my territory. The army will attack and divide into several divisions. Not only will it harass and delay Yang Sichang's attack , harassing his rear, cutting off his food and grass, and shrinking all the people in the clan to the vicinity of Yunzhong, I am afraid that Yang Sichang will not be able to reach my cloud, so he will have to retreat." Li Xin said nonchalantly.

"What my lord said is very true. During the Northern Expeditions of the previous dynasties, there must be a large number of cavalry. On the grassland, the infantry is not very useful at all. When Emperor Wu of the Han attacked the Huns, he used hundreds of thousands of cavalry. Today's How can there be so many cavalry in the imperial court? Yang Sichang only has [-] to [-] cavalry around him, but there are [-] cavalry in Datong. There are cavalry, but there are not many of them." Shi Yuanzhi calculated carefully, and said with a smile: "The soldiers and horses of Datong are the biggest threat to us. Because of this, I can only go back sadly."

Everyone nodded. The ethnic groups on the Mobei grassland have always been a serious problem in the Central Plains. Even if the Central Plains dynasty conquered the grassland for a while, they could not occupy the grassland permanently. Every time a larger force rose up on the grassland Sometimes, because of the living conditions, these minority cavalry would go south, and in a short period of time, it was difficult for the Central Plains dynasty to conquer these minority groups. Even if they were defeated, after more than a hundred years or decades, these minority groups It will rise again. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin called the emperor of the Central Plains Tian Khan, but more than a hundred years later, the Tang Dynasty fell, and the ethnic minorities rose. In the end, even the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun were lost. Examples like this Countless.These examples can only illustrate one problem. In the ancient Central Plains dynasty, it was very difficult to completely control the grassland. The grassland army could easily go south, but the Central Plains dynasty wanted to attack the grassland, but it took a lot of effort. At the very least, with To compete with the prairie cavalry, there must be horses.At the very least, in terms of the number of cavalry, the imperial court cannot be compared with Li Xin.

Apart from the cavalry, it is the general's ability to command battles. Undoubtedly, the imperial court once again lost the wind; conquering the grassland requires the power of the whole country. Today's Ming Dynasty has serious internal and external troubles. The rebel army headed by Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong occupied Daming Most of the court's military strength consumed most of the court's supplies. The court couldn't mobilize the whole people, so how could it deal with Li Xin? In the end, even Li Xin knew about the court's upcoming actions.Let Li Xin be prepared, so that there will be no surprise effect.It is even more difficult for the imperial court to defeat Li Xin.

"By the way, how is the Heroes Cemetery going?" Li Xin asked again.

"Because of the heavy snowfall, things didn't go well." Shi Yuanzhi and the others showed a little shame. Although they didn't want Li Xin to raise the status of the soldiers too much, they found that when the soldiers knew that they could enter the Heroes Cemetery after death After being worshiped by the world, the morale of the army soared.Immediately knowing what Li Xin was thinking, while admiring him, he gradually became concerned about this matter.It's a pity that the weather is not beautiful, the weather in Saibei is like this, there is a long period of heavy snow in a year, and the project of the Heroes Cemetery is huge, it cannot be completed in a day or two.

"There is no rush." ​​Li Xin also nodded and said, "It won't be too late to proceed when the ice and snow melt next year. Everything must be safe. What we have to do is not just to show off, but to All the people will always remember these soldiers, we eat here now, drink spicy food, go in and out, live in eight seats, hug each other, these are the soldiers who fought bloody battles, so we must remember them."

"My lord taught me a lesson." Shi Yuanzhi and the others stood up one after another and said in a low voice.After Li Xin said this, a little bit of opinion in his heart disappeared without a trace. This is the difference between Li Xin's officials of the Northern Army and those officials of the imperial court.If it was in the imperial court, if Emperor Chongzhen did this, those Qingliu would have swarmed up, and all kinds of opposition memorials would press down on Emperor Chongzhen like a mountain.

"According to the emperor's orders, Yang Sichang, governor of the Xuanfu government, accepts the decree. I hereby!" Inside the Xuanfu government office, Yang Sichang kneeled respectfully on the ground, cigarettes curled up from the incense table, and an eunuch stood in front of him, looking straight at him with a dignified expression. .

"Minister Yang Sichang accepts the order." Yang Sichang stood up with a smile on his face, cupped his hands at the eunuch and said, "Grandpa Zhang has worked hard." As he spoke, he inadvertently took out a bank note from his sleeve and stuffed it in In the hands of eunuchs.The eunuch's face instantly burst into a smile, and he even said he didn't dare.

"Your subordinate has not been in the capital for a long time, so I don't know what's going on in the capital?" Yang Sichang rolled his eyes and made a gesture of invitation to the eunuch, the two chose chairs and sat down, and a servant brought tea.

"The emperor is concerned about your lord, but the elders are a little dissatisfied with your lord!" The eunuch cupped his hands in the direction of Beijing, only to hear him say: "Our family heard that the emperor invited several gentlemen to discuss this matter. In this matter, several gentlemen think that we should not fight on two fronts. They said that the Duke of Liao is the pillar of the country and cannot start a war easily, Mr. Yang, this time the emperor is in charge of the boss."

"This subordinate naturally knows, naturally knows." Yang Sichang's face was full of smiles, but his heart was full of hatred. He was well versed in the mysteries of officialdom. It was approved there, but it was obviously not approved by the cabinet.Even why the cabinet did not pass, he understands a little bit of the mystery. The so-called lack of food and grass and not being able to fight on both sides are all excuses, but it is really a joke to say that Li Xin is a loyal minister. Everyone in the world may be a loyal minister. Only Li Xin is impossible.These guys didn't want to do anything, but in the final analysis, they didn't want to make meritorious service for themselves. Thinking of this, Yang Sichang wished he could go back to Beijing immediately and question Wen Tiren and these treacherous ministers face to face.

"My lord, before leaving Beijing, my godfather asked our family to ask my lord, are you sure this time?" The eunuch pondered for a while, then suddenly asked softly.

Yang Sichang was taken aback when he heard the words, staring at the eunuch for a while, Fang chuckled and said: "It's up to people to make things happen, and the lower officials don't know. But, if you think about it, you can be sure about it." He was going to say [-]% at the beginning Ten percent, but suddenly remembered that this person's godfather was not someone else, but Wang Cheng'en, and immediately put his thoughts down.

(End of this chapter)