The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Ahem."

Weng Pu coughed violently, which made Wei Guangde frightened, as if he was about to cough out his lungs.

In fact, since yesterday, Wei Guangde felt that Weng Pu was a little unable to bear it, and violent coughing sounds could be heard from time to time in the carriage.

Thinking about it, the conditions for food and accommodation are not good when traveling on a business trip. Now that the war has started again, Weng Pu is probably under greater pressure than Wei Guangde. He is also worried about the changes in the war situation and is worried that if his troops break through the inner Great Wall again and threaten the capital.

In fact, Weng Pu still had another worry that he had not expressed, that is, if Juyongguan was lost and the Tatars invaded Changping, the tombs of emperors of the Ming Dynasty after Yongle were buried nearby, and their significance was no less than that of Nanjing and Fengyang.

After a long time, Weng Pu finally regained his composure, took the tea handed over by Wei Guangde and took a sip.

"Sir, let me find a doctor for you. You have been working hard these days."

Wei Guangde whispered to Weng Pu, but Weng Pu waved his hand and said, "I know my body, it's not a problem. Maybe I caught a cold due to the wind in the rush these past few days."

Weng Pu didn't take it seriously. At his age, people who usually live well in the capital would ask a doctor to see him twice a year. They were all minor illnesses that could be cured by taking two doses of medicine.

"I'd better find someone to take a look. Your Excellency is now the admiral in charge of military affairs. You are responsible for coordinating the frontline troops. If anything happens to your body during the war, your Excellency will be leaderless and the consequences will be disastrous."

Wei Guangde still said.

"You can ask someone to come and take a look. You can rest early tonight. We will go to Juyongguan tomorrow."

Weng Pu was not tempted by Wei Guangde's previous words, but he was very concerned about what he said next.

It should be just a minor problem now, but if it really drags on and develops into a serious disease, if it happens to be when the two armies are fighting, it will really be a leaderless situation.

When Wei Guangde heard Weng Pu's words, he felt happy at first, but then felt cold when he heard the next words.

I have really met a master who is not afraid of death. Are he really planning to go to the front line and fight the Tatars?

To be honest, Wei Guangde didn't think it mattered much, so he just went and took a look around.

He is different from Weng Pu. Weng Pu is not a Hanlin scholar, so the best he can do is become a minister. But he is a Hanlin scholar and will have the opportunity to influence the cabinet ministers in the future.

The use of military services to enter the cabinet has happened a long time ago, but it has not come out for decades.

Wei Guangde had checked the information before and knew that there seemed to be only two people in the Ministry of War who joined the cabinet, and neither of them had a very good reputation.

The first one is naturally Xu Youzhen, the Minister of the Ministry of War. He was later rewarded by Yingzong and entered the cabinet because of his participation in the "Seize the Gate Rebellion". Before that, he played a great role in Yu Qian's downfall and took the position of the Minister of the Ministry of War.

There is another official who came from the Ministry of War but is very close to the present, that is Zhang Cong. I won’t say much about how he got to the position.

Wei Guangde was a little worried at the moment. If he always followed Weng Pu in military affairs, he would be transferred to a military and civilian position by the people in the court, and then there would really be no hope of joining the cabinet.

Well, as a civil servant, he always has the goal of joining the cabinet.

Wei Guangde has reached this point, so he naturally hopes to have the opportunity to go there.

If he hadn't been able to enter the Hanlin Academy before, he wouldn't have had any extravagant hopes, but it was different now.

After the doctor from Changping City came here to see Weng Pu's body, he found that there was nothing serious, but he was tired from working for days. He prescribed two doses of medicine to let Weng Pu pay more attention to rest.

Early the next morning, not long after Wei Guangde got up, Weng Pu's envoys urged him to set off.

In fact, the Great Wall passes are completely different from most people's impressions. These passes are often chosen to be located at slightly lower terrain among the rolling mountains. A road can be opened here to avoid the fatigue of climbing over mountains and ridges.

Standing on the tower of Juyongguan, Wei Guangde looked at the city walls on both sides still winding along the mountain like crouching dragons. They seemed majestic, but in fact they felt useless.

Those mountains are very difficult for normal people to overcome, let alone a large army.

People can walk, but horses and carriages are troublesome.

Yes, Wei Guangde felt that instead of wasting people and money on building the majestic Great Wall, it would be better to use the funds to train an elite soldier who can fight in every battle.

Passes on the Great Wall are still needed to prevent the enemy from advancing along the official road. Use the pass to slow down the enemy's advance. Then, after confirming the location of the enemy's main force and strategic intentions, mobilize elite troops and strong generals to attack it.

As for the opponent's light troops crossing mountains and ridges, such a unit would not be a large group, but it is actually very easy to deal with.

However, he also knew that given the current official atmosphere, it was better to forget it and don't kill yourself.

Juyongguan City Tower has now become Weng Pu's temporary command post. Here, he sends and receives battle reports from all over the front line. Wei Guangde can only follow behind Weng Pu. He doesn't know whether he is praising the painting or what, just helping. When dealing with some documents, Weng Pu would occasionally catch him and ask for his views on the current situation.

Because of being in this position, Wei Guangde understood the current situation on the front line by reading battle reports sent from various places.

After Anda's troops entered the pass from Wafanggou, the front reached Chicheng Castle in the north, Baoan Prefecture in the west, Huailai in the south, and the angle of the Great Wall in the east.

The scope is not too big, not too small.

The reinforcements mobilized by the Wandu Division are currently rushing to Baoan Prefecture and Chang'an. The Huailai Guard Post reported that only Tatar reconnaissance cavalry was found, but no cavalry brigade. Therefore, Wei Guangde keenly noticed that the places where the reports had appeared were the cavalry brigade. Only Baoanzhou, Yanqing and Yongning are left.

"Sir, I guess the main force of our department should be concentrated on the security guards and the Yanqing generation. The surrounding people may be small groups of people who go out to rob property and conduct investigations."

At this moment, Wei Guangde was called to the map by Weng Pu and asked for his opinion on the current situation.

"The Anda Division has lost the opportunity. At least after they chose to attack Wafanggou, they not only did not go south to attack Juyong Pass, but instead attacked the garrison of Chi Castle and Chang'an. This should be to remove the obstacles on the way back. There is no possibility of raiding the capital."

Wei Guangde said this and glanced at Weng Pu. He was just staring at the map at this time. There was no expression on his old face, but he asked in a deep voice: "What can they grab here? This place is not as rich as the land in Guan Nei Jing Ji." .”

However, despite the fact that our troops have once again invaded the Great Wall, the surrounding areas of Yanqing are not very wealthy, and there is still a gap between them and Changping and Miyun. At least if they invade Miyun, they can go south to Huairou and Shunyi, and there is still a chance to attack Tongzhou. You will make a lot of money.

Wei Guangde has naturally been thinking about this problem for a long time. What are they doing here?

Although Wei Guangde had some guesses, he was not very sure. After all, it was all about the late Ming Dynasty.

Yes, Wei Guangde had some doubts that Anda Khan entered the customs this time to receive supplies shipped from Shanxi.

Because Huailai continues southward and will enter Yuzhou, Shanxi.

After Wei Guangde entered the Hanlin Academy, he also checked the changes in the business environment of Shanxi merchants over the years. After all, the "Eight Shanxi Merchants" are still very famous.

They smuggled strategic materials to the Jianzhou Jurchens. One side of the transaction obtained commodities that were in high demand in the Ming Dynasty through various relationships, while the other side continued to slaughter and plunder the gold and silver of the Han people for trading with Shanxi merchants.

To call Shanxi merchants "traitors" is actually not unfair to them.

But now, have Shanxi merchants started smuggling transactions with the Mongols?

Wei Guangde didn't find many abnormalities before.

Indeed, it is a fact that the business environment of Shanxi merchants has changed a lot.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the "Law of Grain Delivery to Open China" was implemented. Salt was obtained by transporting grain to border towns, and the salt was sold to make a profit. This was naturally very profitable for Shanxi merchants.

They recruited a large number of people to farm on the border and purchased grain in exchange for salt.

Although Ye Qi, the Minister of Household Affairs in the fifth year of Hongzhi, presented the "Law of Accepting Silver and Opening the Middle Kingdom" and it was passed by the court, this seriously damaged the interests of Shanxi merchants.

Inland merchants were able to obtain salt without having to transport grain all the way to the border. This made Shanxi merchants who had monopolized most of the salt very dissatisfied. The large amounts of land they had previously controlled in the border areas had lost value because they could not provide it. Salt leads.

Shortly after the implementation of the new Salt Law, Shangtun ceased to exist. At this time, the Ming court was no longer the court of the early Ming Dynasty. Corruption began to occur from top to bottom, and many important ministers and wealthy families began to get involved in the affairs that were supposed to purchase supplies for the border army. Two silver coins.

Even if these silver taels were exchanged for grain, the amount of money that could actually enter the pockets of Shanxi merchants was still reduced.

In fact, Wei Guangde also saw in the library of the Hanlin Academy that in recent decades, local officials in Shanxi Province had reported that unscrupulous businessmen had begun to dump materials outside the customs, but the number was not large, so Wei Guangde naturally did not pay attention to it at the time.

Smuggling cannot be eliminated.

However, An Dabu's strange actions this time made him feel a little wary.

I remember that when later generations introduced the history of the Shanxi merchant family, it was mentioned that Shanxi merchants once raised too much materials and could not send them directly out of the customs to trade with Jianzhou Jurchens. Jianzhou directly sent troops to sweep the grasslands and harassed the border wall of the Ming Dynasty. , pick up the batch of supplies.

Shanxi merchants directly conducted transactions with the Jurchens on the battlefield, which is really unimaginable.

Wei Guangde had this guess, so he naturally focused his eyes on the lower left corner of the map, Huailaiwei. There was a border town next to it, and then there was an official road leading directly to Shanxi and Yuzhou.

At the junction of Shanxi and Zhili, there is Zhuolu Mountain, and at the foot of the mountain there is the Meiyu Guards House.

But immediately, Wei Guangde thought that the southern part of the area where the Tatar reconnaissance cavalry only reached Huailai, perhaps to prepare for reinforcements from Datong.

If his previous guess was correct, then the smugglers should have also sent their goods to the area north of Huailai.

To this day, Wei Guangde still doesn't think Anda Khan will choose to attack Yanqing and threaten Beijing.

Weng Pu also seemed to be shaken, and no longer insisted that the target chosen by Amada Khan was the capital.

"Sir, tell me, is it possible that someone previously sent some things that Anda Khan was interested in near Yanqing Prefecture?"

Wei Guangde just said something tentatively, and he had thought about the rest. Anyway, when he was in the Hanlin Academy, he did check the previous reports from Jiangxi local officials. Among them, Shangshu reported that unscrupulous businessmen in Shanxi bribed the border town guards. He went out of customs without permission to trade tea, iron and other restricted supplies with the Mongols.

It's just that Weng Pu's reaction was very dull. He just raised his head and glanced at Wei Guangde, then lowered his head and continued to look at the map. But he didn't know whether he was really looking at the map or thinking about something.

After a while, someone sent a new document, which was sent from the Xuanfu.

However, Weng Pu became furious after reading the document. However, his cultivation as a scholar still allowed him to suppress his temper that was about to explode, and he just threw the document in his hand heavily on the desk.

Wei Guangde was curious, so he walked over and carefully picked up the document and looked at it, frowning slightly.

Xuanfu's troops have been setting off one after another, and the leading troops have arrived near Baoan Prefecture and started a confrontation with the Anda tribe's grassland cavalry.

According to the document, the main force of the Anda Division was in Baoan Prefecture, preventing the Xuanfu army from advancing even half a step. This was to ask Weng Pu, the admiral in charge of military affairs, for instructions on the next move.

Wei Guangde shook his head slightly, not knowing what to say.

The enemy is right in front of you. Whether you can win or not, you should prepare to fight. He said that the two armies were facing each other but did not launch an attack. He even came to ask Weng Pu what I should do next.

"Ahem."

After finally suppressing his anger, Weng Pu couldn't help but cough a few times. He opened the door and stepped out of the tower, standing on the wall and looking out.

Wei Guangde placed the documents on the side of the desk, where various battle reports received over the past few days were neatly stacked. However, a strong wind soon blew into the house from outside, causing the desk to flutter and rattle.

"Use a paperweight to press all the paperwork."

Wei Guangde told the scribes on the side that these people were found by the magistrate of Changping Prefecture. After all, they did not bring any scribes with them when they went out this time.

This is a mountain pass, blocked by high mountains on both sides. The wind blowing from the northwest is blocked by the mountains and naturally converges to the mountain pass, so the wind is particularly strong at Juyong Pass.

Wei Guangde also walked to the door and was about to close it when he heard Weng Pu's words.

"Guangde, go and write a document with stricter wording, so that the Datong Army can rush to Huailai as soon as possible and move closer to me."

Wei Guangde heard this, said "yes", turned around and went back to the room to start writing official documents.

The latest urgent report from the Datong Army came two days ago. It is said that the army has been assembled and set off. It will arrive in Yuzhou in three days, and will enter Beizhili and pass Meiyusuo in the seventh or eighth day.

Combining the previous urgent report from the Xuanfu, Wei Guangde understood that Weng Pu also knew that he could not force the Xuanfu army to take the initiative to attack the Anda tribe. He could only wait for the arrival of the Datong army and use superior force to force the Anda tribe to retreat and withdraw from the Great Wall Pass.

If the Anda troops do not retreat, then after the Datong Army enters Huailai, large armies will gather in Yongning, Yanqing and Huailai to first ensure the safety of Juyongguan and Zhenbiancheng, two important passes of the Inner Great Wall.

If the Tatars really want to invade Juyongguan, they will be surrounded by armies from three places, forming a situation of encirclement on all sides.

If you choose to go south to attack Zhenbiancheng, you will be attacked by the Yanqing and Huailai Datong armies.

However, if Andabu really stays where it is, the battlefield will be basically determined, in this relatively narrow triangle formed by Baoan Prefecture, Yanqing Prefecture and Huailaisuo.