Geng Zhanghua has a good memory and took Huang Yi's words to heart.
He learned that Lin Danhan had indeed come to Datong to show off his power and extort money, and he admired Huang Yi even more.
Geng Zhanghua had already understood clearly from Huang Yi. He knew that Lin Danhan was a coward with great ambition and talent but was afraid of the weak and afraid of the strong. He knew that he was unpopular.
So when Geng Ruqi summoned Xuanda's civil and military generals to ask for advice, General Geng Shen of the Supervisory Biao Camp, who had strong soldiers and horses, made a speech.
In his words, he extremely despised Lin Dan Khan, and threatened to personally lead the soldiers and horses of the Supervisory Camp and the armored servants, which would surely deter the Chahar Tatars from their wishful thinking.
Xuanfu, Datong, Taiyuan, including Yansui Town, Ningxia Town and other important nine-border towns were often attacked by Tatars, and it was impossible to defend the Tatars on the front line of the Great Wall.
The purpose of the Tatars crossing the Great Wall was to rob. The officers and soldiers of the Ming court had long been numb and used to it.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the situation worsened. Most civilian and military generals defended the city to protect themselves, allowing the Tatars to plunder for a few days before withdrawing from the Great Wall.
Civilian and military officers basically ignored the life and death of the border residents.
Lin Danhan personally led tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to the Datong front in a murderous manner. Of course, no civilian or military general under Governor Xuanda would take the initiative.
Geng Zhanghua in the government office was so high-profile and prepared to lead his troops to compete with Lin Dan Khan. How could the civilian and military generals of Xuanda University possibly object?
In fact, military generals basically have no say. It is the civilian officials who decide whether to fight or make peace.
It is really difficult to deal with the fact that Lin Dan Khan led his troops and horses to provoke the same front in Datong. Governor Xuan Da couldn't stop him when he asked about the countermeasures.
While the civil servants were looking at each other in disbelief, the Ya Nei, who did not know the heights of the world, jumped out to take over this difficult matter. Of course, you adults are happy to go along with it.
As soon as Geng Zhanghua finished speaking, there was a lot of flattery, such as the father is a hero and the son is a good man, the tiger father has no canine sons, and so on.
Although Geng Ruqi knew the urinary nature of civil servants and military generals, these disgusting words praising Geng Zhanghua still felt quite comfortable in his ears.
As he gets older, he must be worried that his son will make a mistake, but Geng Zhanghua has performed well during this period, and he can be regarded as daring to fight and win.
In addition, the armored servants, which have been expanded to 1,500, are all selected elite cavalry from the Nine Sides.
Money makes things easier!
The families of these servants were all moved to Xuanfu and Zhangjiakou, and each household was given thirty acres of dry land. Everyone was grateful.
These servants are all veterans and have personal experience of fierce battles with the Tatars. There is no doubt about their combat effectiveness.
Therefore, Geng Ruqi readily agreed with Geng Zhanghua to personally lead the governor's camp and rush to Datong.
When parting, the old father must have some secret words.
It's just that if something is impossible, don't be brave and show off. The walls of Datong City are high and thick, and the food reserves are enough for half a year's expenses. As long as you enter the city and stick to it, Hu Duntu will be helpless.
Geng Zhanghua was worried that his father would change his mind and not allow him to rescue Datong, so he agreed wholeheartedly, saying that he would work steadily and not seek merit but seek no faults.
"God's Coming"
At the end of February, Geng Zhanghua had already led Governor Xuanda's model battalion of 2,000 troops, plus 1,500 armored servants, to Datong.
He did not close the city gates tightly like most civilian and military generals.
Instead, he led the troops of the Supervisor Biao Camp and the eight thousand soldiers and horses assembled by Datong Chief Du Wenhuan and Yansui East Road Deputy General Cao Wenzhao to face the menacing Lin Dan Khan.
The impoverished Lin Danhan is really a paper tiger. He really is not here to conquer the city, but just wants to get more benefits!
Seeing the 13,000 Xuan army in prepared formation, and the thousands of cavalry troops in good order, with a posture of drawing swords at any disagreement, he immediately lost his temper.
You may not be defeated, but can you be defeated? We kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred to ourselves. We are here to get some food, not to fight tooth and nail.
The next step is of course friendly negotiation. There is no way to give the city more rewards, so we can only follow the old rules, which also requires thousands of good horses for Geng Zhanghua's armored servants to choose from.
Of course, Geng Zhanghua became more and more stubborn, because after a behind-the-scenes operation, the civilian and military generals under Governor Xuanda were basically convinced.
Those who understand current affairs are considered outstanding, and those who have a good relationship with the Governor are promoted one after another. Of course, the rest will not dare to be stubborn.
Those who have been promoted know it well and dare not disobey, because they are actually criminals and have participated in buying offices and titles.
They all obtained inexplicable military merit at a price several times the imperial head reward.
This kind of military merit cannot withstand scrutiny at all, but the person who presided over the report of the meritorious deeds to the court for reward was Governor Xuanda himself. He only recognized the head and did not ask about the ins and outs.
The Yanguan Yushi could only hold his nose and admit it. Who made the imperial court's system of merit-based rewards based on the number of beheadings as the criterion?
Reporting and exposing dirty tricks in military exploits should not be carried out on suspicion. Usually, it is found that the head is not a real slave or a real Tatar, and some even use the head of a woman to pretend to be one.
In the Ming Dynasty, there were so many masters who could identify human heads that the officials and censors secretly sent their confidants to examine the heads that Governor Xuanda had requested for his subordinates.
The final conclusion is that all of them are young and middle-aged real slaves and real Tatars. One hundred or dozens of real slaves have blue flag waistbands.
The iron facts are in front of you, which is enough to prove that you have gained a lot!
But no one can explain how they can gain so much? I have never heard of a war of this scale being fought anywhere!
What should I do if I can’t tell?
Just ask!
However, Governor Xuan refused to answer on the grounds that military secrets could not be made public.
Later, some rumors spread that the Harqin Tatars, who were the collaborators, were wiped out by the Xuan Da coalition forces. Many tribes were wiped out, and the Jiannu reinforcements also suffered heavy losses.
Yes, people are not killing good people and taking credit. As for giving the credit to whoever gets promoted and makes a fortune, it is really not easy to control the officials and censors.
Forget it, let’s stop this!
Geng Zhanghua has changed, and he has completely changed into asking for money rather than fame. This time, he actually didn’t retain any of the first-level products and sold out all of them.
Now that he has received more than 400,000 taels of silver, he no longer lacks money and food to support his family.
Of course he couldn't keep it all for himself, so he entrusted Li Weida to purchase large quantities of grain, cloth, saltpeter, sulfur, etc. to deliver to the base area.
Geng Ruqi also had a lot of expenses, so of course a son should be filial, and he gave him a hundred thousand taels of silver.
This term of Governor Xuanda has plenty of money, so he certainly does a good job.
Not only was he not afraid of Lin Dan Khan's provocation, he also conquered a large tribe with a population of tens of thousands and 4,000 string controllers.
Geng Ruchi had political achievements, and he also sent high-level tributes to high-ranking officials in the imperial court, so many officials spoke for him.
There was originally a rumor that the imperial court wanted to transfer Geng Ruqi to Beijing to be appointed Minister of War.
Geng Ruqi had the official position of Minister of War, and he was also the censor of Youdu. It was just a false position that paid him nothing.
However, Geng Ruchi emphasized that Xuan Da was unstable and needed time to reorganize the army and stabilize the people, and that governors should not be changed frequently.
The final result was that Emperor Chongzhen gave the remaining Geng Ruqi the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, a promotion to a casual rank, the reward of Yin Yizi as a guard for thousands of households, and also rewarded some brocade and silk...
