It’s morning morning again, but today’s morning morning is different from the past.
The emperor's imperial palace explained that the government affairs to be discussed in the morning were related to military affairs, and the ministers knew the specific situation.
Although various major events occurred during this period, most of the time these events affected high-level turmoil.
For most imperial yamen, the impact was not significant, and the government affairs of the imperial court were always in normal operation.
It is important to welcome back the Supreme Emperor, but it is impossible for such a large court to keep an eye on this matter every day.
Fall back to this morning.
After celebrating the New Year this time and relieved of his duties as the admiral of the Beijing camp, Yu Shaobao of the Ministry of War seemed to have finally let go of his hands and began to work with Fan Guang, the governor of the Fifth Army Governor's Office, to try to formulate reforms to the border defense line.
Just a few days ago, it was said that the plan was finally mature, and the two of them jointly submitted a memorial called "Please establish a nine-sided strategic town."
The matter is of great importance, and the emperor has issued an edict to discuss it at court this morning.
At the beginning of the morning, after the ceremony, the emperor didn't say much nonsense and directly called Yu Qian's name and said.
"Today, the court has decided to ask Shaobao to set up a nine-sided spade. To Shaobao, please come and tell the courtiers what you think."
Yu Qian strode out of the queue, walked to the palace and stood still. After accepting the order, he turned to face the ministers and said.
"Colleagues, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Mongolian tribes have always been a serious problem for me. The ancestors Taizu, Taizong, Renzong, and Xuanzong all used their power to control the tribes. They conquered and pacified the rebels."
"However, the so-called warrior is not a long-term solution. During the time of Renxuan and Zhirenxuan, the loopholes in our border defense have gradually become apparent. The previous wave also launched a large-scale attack and drove straight in. It almost broke through the Bauhinia and invaded our capital. This is really a warning call."
"Therefore, I have discussed with Governor Fan. After several discussions, I have imitated Taizu's move of setting up Thirteen Fortress Kings and requested Your Majesty to establish additional border towns to strengthen border defenses and provide peace of mind to the military and civilians."
Regarding the matter of Jiubian Military Town, in fact, the court had already heard rumors.
After all, you can't hide such a big thing even if you want to.
In fact, the courtiers basically recognized what Yu Qian said.
Of course, although what Yu Qian said was beautiful, it was actually just one sentence.
Ming Dynasty's current border defense line is equivalent to no border defense line.
At the beginning, after Taizu established the country, a very important principle in governing the country was to enfeoff the kings to consolidate the vassal screen.
This principle is also followed for how to fight against the Mongolian tribes on the border.
Therefore, after expelling Bei Yuan, Taizu gradually enfeoffed the thirteen Sai kings, and the fiefdoms were distributed throughout the border.
Compared with the kings in the mainland, the Thirteen Sai Kings had greater power. Not only did they have heavy troops, but they could also take over all military and political power in the fiefdom in case of war.
At the same time, the thirteen Sai kings echoed each other and jointly built a solid line of defense to prevent the Mongolian tribe from invading.
However, this approach is obviously flawed.
Taizu was powerful all over the world, and Prince Yiwen was also highly virtuous and respected. However, Emperor Jianwen who succeeded him was restless because of the heavy power of the kings, so he aggressively cut down the vassals.
After the Battle of Jingnan, Emperor Taizong, who was already one of the Sai kings, was also worried that other Sai kings would imitate Jingnan, so he also continued the policy of reducing vassals.
As the military powers of the kings were completely deprived, how to continue to maintain peace on the border became Taizong's primary consideration.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's border policy began to change to using offense instead of defense. Emperor Taizong's five northern expeditions and Emperor Xuanzong's three northern tours were all continuations of this policy.
It should be said that this policy established the status of the Ming Dynasty as the sovereign state to a certain extent and completely disintegrated the remaining Northern Yuan forces.
Under Taizong's military front, many Mongolian tribes, including the Tatars, Oaras, and Uliangha, declared their surrender one after another and became vassal states of the Ming Dynasty.
But this policy is destined to be short-lived.
Frequent wars are a serious drain on national power.
By the time Xuanzong arrived, Ming Dynasty had already consciously begun to shrink its defense lines and turn to recuperation.
Therefore, in a certain sense, the civil war is inevitable.
It is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to continue to maintain a state of war. Once it becomes lazy and lax, and it is difficult to maintain the momentum of the offensive, then the shortcomings of border defense will be obvious.
Therefore, establishing a new and complete border defense line is something that must be done. On this point, many ministers have a unanimous view.
At issue are the specific plans.
After explaining his reasons, Yu Qian took out the memorial and re-explained his views.
The so-called nine-border town is actually very easy to understand. It is to imitate Taizu's idea of setting up a fortress king to break up the chaotic troops at various border passes into whole and gather them together.
Then, relying on the Great Wall, we concentrated our forces and added border military towns like Datong and Xuanfu to echo each other and establish a solid defense line.
It seems simple, but in fact, various problems will be encountered during implementation.
The most acute and obvious one is the financial issue.
As soon as Yu Qian finished speaking, the first person to stand up and object was Shen Yi, the Minister of Household Affairs.
"Your Majesty, I have no objection to the re-establishment of the border defense line. However, I think the nine-border stronghold mentioned by Shaobao is too wasteful."
With that said, Shen Shangshu began to calculate.
"According to what Yu Shaobao said, to establish a nine-border town, the first thing to do is to eliminate the many scattered and unsystematic passes on the border and gather them in the town."
"Then, the first thing the court faces is how to resettle the people in these passes. If they stay in place, the army will be transferred away, making it difficult to guarantee safety. Moreover, in the important towns, there will be no soldiers but no people, so it will not last long."
"If you move to an important town, the court will definitely provide compensation for such a large number of people to be relocated. If it is not done properly, a large number of refugees will be generated."
"This is one of them."
Although Shen Yi and Yu Qian had a good relationship in private, when it came to government affairs, he was not polite at all.
They strangled each other when they went to court and had a drink together when they went to court. They kept clear distinctions between public and private matters and did not commit any crimes. This was a distinctive feature of the Ming Dynasty scholar-bureaucrats.
What's more, although Shen Yi is in charge of the household department, he is not completely ignorant of military matters. Although he is not as good as Yu Qian about the situation on the border, he is also very clear about it.
"Secondly, as Yu Shangshu said, all the important towns established by Ming Dynasty today are based on the Great Wall. However, if according to Yu Shangshu's idea, the city can be built to echo the nine sides, then Ningxia, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places need to be strengthened. Build the Great Wall to connect everywhere.”
"Preliminary calculations by the Ministry of Household Affairs show that hundreds of additional forces are needed to build a border wall. Where will the money come from for the corvee levy?"
"The imperial court added Liaodong Town in addition to Xuanda. The Liaohe River Great Wall that needs to be built has not yet been completed."
"If in addition to this, several military towns are added at the same time, how will the imperial government's finances support it?"
In fact, the proposal of Jiubian Town is the greatest pressure for the Ministry of Revenue. As for the reason, it is of course an eternal topic of the Ministry of Revenue.
No money……
