Chapter 26 Planning
Anxiety is a matter of urgency, and the big trouble is there. It doesn't mean that the problem will be solved if you are anxious - how to deal with it is a hurdle that Niu Shiqun, Zhang Deming, and Ma Teng can never avoid.
In fact, the three officials knew pretty much what Xiao Changhua's good news was about earlier - at least they could all guess roughly. It's just that the golden rule in officialdom is that one thing more is worse than one thing less. When the water is clear, there will be no fish, especially under one's own rule. Therefore, no one would be stupid enough to take the initiative to pierce this layer of window paper.
At this moment, after receiving Yu Shengliang's urgent message, the three of them understood the whole process of the matter after thinking about it for a while. However, knowing what is going on does not mean that you have found the best solution. Even if there is a ready-made best solution, it does not mean that you should do it according to this method - on the contrary, the best solution The solution is precisely the one that will hurt the personal interests of the three officials the most!
If a large group of bandits appears, troops and horses should be mobilized to suppress it. If the province does not have enough strength to completely exterminate the bandits, then it should contain the bandits on the one hand, and report to the court at the same time, requesting coordinated support from neighboring provinces and even the Beijing camp until it subsides... Everyone knows that this is the most appropriate solution.
However, in this case, even according to the most optimistic estimates, the official careers of all the officials have come to an end: since the Holy Emperor's praise for the "Great Victory" was sent to Yulin Mansion, it was inevitable that it would be carried along with the provincial government - the Chief Envoy The official department has naturally made a note of the merits of the three managers, the inspector, and the commander for their good management. What's going on? It turns out that you all worked together to deceive the court? This is blatantly "bullying the emperor"! No matter how bad it is, you can't get rid of the label of "hiding the truth from the emperor and making mistakes", right? The chief envoy, the inspector general, the general commander, these chairs, but how many people are staring at them eagerly! In the eyes of those who are staring at these chairs with red eyes...if they need to cut off a few heads, they can sit on them...Who cares?
Therefore, the question of this test paper is not actually "What should we do if the layer of paper wrapped by Xiao Changhua can no longer contain Guan Shengyun's fire? Should we wrap it with another layer and continue to fool him, or should we make up for it and really relieve the imperial court?" " multiple choice question - the standard answer is right there: "Wrap it one more layer, throw it out, and let others burn it as they like"!
"Look for Xiao Changhua!" The horse commander, whose dark complexion turned purple with anger, roared out these words through gritted teeth, "I've got all the fucking benefits, I can't take advantage of this guy!"
"Of course." Zhang Deming, the inspector general, echoed, "The problem is that we have to take some countermeasures, otherwise... if Xiao Qiushi really can't make things right, this hot plaster will still be burned on our hands. Even if you don’t burn it to death, it will peel off the skin!”——Unlike Ma Teng, who was born as a warrior and cursed when he was anxious, Mr. Zhang used Xiao Changhua’s name, but when he brought out his last name, his tone was obviously not good—at that time , sweet potatoes, also known as sweet potatoes, have not yet spread to the Ming Dynasty, so Master Zhang’s plaster metaphor couldn’t be more appropriate.
The chief envoy Niu Shiqun coughed lightly, calmed down his thoughts and said slowly: "What you two gentlemen said is absolutely true. In my opinion, Yan'an Mansion is definitely beyond control, so there are four urgent tasks: First, quickly mobilize all The soldiers and horses of the government are prepared for emergencies. 2. Yulin Mansion is responsible for being the vanguard. If they can fight, they will fight. If they can't, they will act according to the situation of thieves. 3. The court is waiting to see the news of a great victory. Good news! Since we are rich and powerful, we must not let down the court. The good news must be delivered, the sooner the better. What about the fourth..." As he spoke, he glanced at the two of you meaningfully, picked up the teacup, Blowing the tea leaves floating on the water, he stopped talking.
Ma Teng asked impatiently: "Fantai, what is the fourth one? The general is a rough man and can't understand the twists and turns, but you have made it clear!"
Zhang Deming thought for a while and suddenly said: "Commander Ma, don't be anxious, Zhang will give me a guess." He said, Xiang Dongxu cupped his hands, "Your Majesty, what we got earlier was the news of the great victory in Yulin, and then came the news of the great victory in Yulin. Yan'an Fucheng! This matter must be explained to Long Live Lord. Fantai, can you guess right?"
The cattle warriors put their hands on each other and smiled: "Brother Bei (Zhang Deming's name), please help me!". Seeing that Ma Teng was still staring with two big eyes and completely confused, he continued to enlighten, "The Yan'an Mansion is lost. This cannot be covered up at any cost. However, how exactly it was lost... There is some discussion here. "
Ma Teng said blankly: "How did you lose it? Didn't Magistrate Yu make it clear? I heard the master read a military intelligence document. There were spies in the city, and they opened the city gate at night. Thousands of thieves swarmed in, so just lost it. ! But from the general's point of view, even if there are no spies to open the door, thousands of thieves attack, and ants crawl on the walls, it will just be a few more people killed. In the end, it will definitely not be able to defend it! Even if the general brings his servants over, several times Even if there are thousands of thieves, even if they attack us by force, they will not be able to withstand two days."
Hearing this, Zhang Deming glanced at Niu Shiqun and received a look of acquiescence. He simply said clearly: "Ma Shuai's words are wrong. Where are the thousands of thieves? They are obviously hundreds of thieves who were dispersed by Yulin Mansion. They are tired of running for their lives. , ran into Yan'an Prefecture by accident! Yu Chaiyuan (named by Yu Shengliang) was not prepared, and coupled with his old age, he was afraid of the enemy like a tiger and fled without fighting. Of course, the soldiers below him behaved like birds and beasts. To coax them away is obviously carelessness, carelessness!”
Ma Teng scratched his head and muttered to himself: "A few hundred defeated troops? Did the master misread the number? The general clearly remembered that there were thousands of thieves..."
Niu Shiqun had always looked down on this rough man, and he was even more contemptuous when he saw that this elm-headed man was not yet enlightened. However, he had no choice but to end up on his own: "Your master is right, where is Yu Zhaoyuan?" It is indeed written as a few thousand. But! But he lied about the military situation in order to absolve himself of the crime of losing his land! Ma Shuai, think about it: if there were thousands of thieves, would the Holy One ask: Hasn’t Yulin Mansion defeated all the thieves? Are you fleeing in all directions? Where did you get the thousands? In recognition of Yulin Mansion's great victory, didn't you also receive the decree of "Running the army well, Yin's second son Qianhu"? It's only been a few days, and suddenly it popped up Thousands of thieves are coming! Are we... are we trying to deceive the emperor? Therefore, the number of thieves is several hundred, and it must be several hundred! Well, it must not exceed five hundred!"
After these instructions, Ma Teng finally understood the stakes involved, and said at once: "Then, at the prefect's place..."
Zhang Mingde snorted and sneered: "That's because Mr. Yu's life is miserable! You can't blame anyone else. Besides, the lower officials have already heard that Xiao Qiushi has a good background. It is said that he is the favorite disciple of Mr. Yuan of the Ministry of Revenue. Mr. Yu? , Hey, if the backing is strong enough, why do you still want to be a fourth-grade prefect at such an old age? There is clearly a precedent set by Yulin Prefecture there. With a little restraint, it will not be difficult for the thieves to go all the way to Shanxi along Yanshui. Right? Isn’t it just a matter of a few stones of grain, a few taels of silver, and a few ships! When the matter is over, can’t we lend a helping hand? That would be great, because we can use our own hands as a chariot, and if we don’t block it, we have to drag the whole province with us. Get into the water! What should we do? He has lived enough at his age. Why should we give him a backing when we have provoked whomever? At the court, anyway, we have to give an explanation - kick Xiao Qiuhua in the back. Iron plate, should we just hand over our three heads directly, or... give in to the adults for a while... Marshal Ma won't be able to figure this out, right?"
Ma Tengteng stood up and hugged the two of them with a fist: "General, I have a bad mind, so I have to obey the orders of the two adults! General, I am grateful, grateful!"
Niu and Zhang looked at each other and smiled.
Zhang Mingde bowed and returned the greeting: "You're welcome, Marshal Ma."
Niu Shiqun made a "please" gesture: "Then the three of us will jointly submit the memorial. Brother Qiubi and I will write the memorial, and we will wait for Ma Shuai to take the lead in signing it."
Ma Teng blushed so anxiously that his neck was thick and he shook his hands together: "I can't do it, I can't do it! The ancestral system of this dynasty is to use civility to control military force. How dare you be arrogant in front of these two adults? It will be a capital crime, a capital crime!"
In fact, although Ma Teng is an illiterate warrior, he is not stupid after all - in the Ming Dynasty, no matter how great the contribution of his ancestors, if he is not smart in this regard, time flies, how can he maintain the first and second rank in one or two hundred years? His job! Most of the previous performances were just fake. He also had another worry in his mind: Don't let these two evil-minded guys easily trick him into harming him!
The Niu Shiqun laughed and said, "Commander Ma, you are worrying too much. This is really not an act of immodesty on our part - Grandpa Taizu decreed: 'All major military and state affairs shall be reported with the title of commander in chief.' This is the ancestral system. Otherwise, how could we dare to ignore it?" Is the imperial court a child's play? Besides, civil and military people have the same mind. You and I both work for the Holy Emperor, but we have different divisions of labor and different divisions of labor. And... As of now, we are all in the same boat, living and dying together. If Shuai is in trouble, none of us will have anything to do with it, so don’t worry, Shuai Ma. Hahaha."
Ma Teng finally felt relieved and bowed again with clasped fists: "General, I will take your orders. I will listen to you two adults."
I thought to myself: Is the division of labor different? I'll go to hell with you! No matter what you say, I still have to be careful with you bastards! But...hey, I'm not a vegetarian. Fortunately, I buried a nail a long time ago. Now it's time to use it.
Knowledge points in this article:
1. The troika of provincial management agencies in the Ming Dynasty:
The administrative envoy Si (similar to a provincial governor, in charge of civil affairs) is referred to as the feudal lord. In the later period, a governor was established, whose rank was higher than that of the chief envoy, and took charge of the administration, justice, and military affairs of a province. The chief envoy's position was completely limited to civil affairs.
The Sentencing and Procuratorate Division (similar to the president of the Provincial High Court, in charge of criminal matters), referred to as the Nie (pronounced "Nie") Division. Note that sometimes it is also written as "Gao Si". There are two possible reasons for this: The main reason is probably a clerical error: there were no unified textbooks in ancient times, and the literacy rate has always been around 4%-5%. Even among those who are literate, many are half-baked - look at what Hong Xiuquan wrote. You can get a taste of those nonsense "Poems of the Heavenly King". There is no Chinese pinyin for Mandarin, and Mandarin is very non-standard (the same is true today, as can be imagined in ancient times), and typos are inevitable. When checking historical materials, I read a lot of memorials to the Holy Emperor. Even in these most serious documents, there are many typos and typos. In particular, the name of the "Rebel" had the most typos due to the different accents of the different reporters. It even sounded completely different when read in today's Mandarin. Another reason may be because of Gao Tao. According to legend, Gaotao was in charge of justice during the Yellow Emperor's reign, and his duties were the same as those of punishing and inspecting envoys, so some people took it for granted that he was remembered as Gao Si. Strictly speaking, the way to write Zhen Si is formal, but it cannot be said that it is 100% wrong when written as Gao Si.
Du Commander Si (similar to the commander of a provincial military division, in charge of military affairs), referred to as Du Si (later there was also a middle and low-level official position called Du Si, which was between guerrilla and garrison. In order to avoid confusion, the honorific title I use here is "Shuai") .
2. The Ming Dynasty used culture to control military affairs, but when major military and state affairs were jointly announced, the commander of the capital had to give the title first. This fully illustrates what Zhu Yuanzhang felt in his heart: In normal times, take precautions and let the civil servants keep an eye on you at any time. When something happens, come out and do your duty. Don't think about slipping away!
