The Ministry of War Yamen.
Xie Qian came here in the afternoon and found Ma Wensheng who had just come out of the palace. Zhu Youtang had previously summoned Ma Wensheng to Qianqing Palace to discuss the military situation in the northwest. The discussion lasted all afternoon. The cabinet was not aware of the situation, so it sent Xie Qian to inquire. .
Ma Wensheng met Xie Qian alone and stated the situation around Ningxia: "This battle is not optimistic."
After hearing this, Xie Qian probably figured it out.
Yang Yiqing alone, with the cooperation of the original system of the Ministry of War, would be difficult to win a hearty battle.
"Are you worried about Yang Yingning?" Xie Qian asked.
Ma Wensheng sighed and said with a look of helplessness on his face: "Ying Ning has experience in studying in Gansu and is also involved in military affairs. However, he has never had any experience in leading troops before and his prestige in the army is not enough. Even with Anbian, Hou cooperates, but the little Tatar prince Batu Meng is coming fiercely. With the current ability of various forces in Ningxia, it is not easy to face the enemy head-on. "
Xie Qian asked: "How many troops can be dispatched in Ningxia?"
Ma Wensheng had obviously answered these questions in detail with the emperor before, so he also opened his mouth: "Excluding the men and horses necessary to defend the fortresses, the number of men and horses that can be mobilized and assembled is less than 4,000, and they are still scattered in various passes in Ningxia. There are less than a hundred new cannons and about a thousand rounds of artillery shells. Even if they are combined with the old cannons, it will be difficult to form absolute suppression on the Shenji camp's firearms. The number of cavalry is only two to three thousand. "
Xie Qian said: "How many people did the Tatars invade on the West Road of Ningxia?"
"Fifty thousand!" Ma Wensheng said, "They are all cavalry."
"Ahem!"
When Xie Qian heard this comparison of strength gap, he immediately felt that this was not asking Yang Yiqing to fight, but simply asking Yang Yiqing to die.
Xie Qianping calmed down and said: "The Tatars have gained wisdom through every experience. They know that if they deal with the Ming border troops again, even if they don't come out in full force, they can't disperse their troops and go deep alone."
Ma Wensheng sighed: "Even if all the troops in Ningxia can be mobilized from the city fortress, they are only twenty to thirty thousand, and the cavalry is less than four thousand. This is equivalent to an overwhelming force. Unless Ying Ning decides to make a desperate move."
"Don't!" Xie Qian said, "It's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice. If you can defend the pass, even if there is a slight loss, there is no room for loss in the northwest frontier."
"Yu Qiao, do you think His Majesty's intention is just to guard the pass?"
Ma Wensheng's question is very pointed.
The emperor asked Yang Yiqing to fight tough battles. If he didn't have this ability, why would the emperor still trust him, and why would he trust people elected by traditional civil servants?
To put it more broadly, maybe something went wrong in this battle and even the current Minister of War, Ma Wensheng, had to give way.
Xie Qian said angrily: "Your Majesty is not doing this deliberately to embarrass us. Is it to show that the imperial court is missing Zhang Bingkuan?"
Ma Wensheng didn't answer, but judging from Ma Wensheng's expression, he thought that was the case.
Let Yang Yiqing use his dispatchable four to five thousand soldiers and horses to fight against the 50,000 main force led by the little Tatar prince, or fight in the wilderness after leaving the city... Not to mention giving you new cannons and yellow gunpowder, even if the thunder is rolling Bombing everywhere has no chance of winning.
The emperor is clearly trying to trick people.
"No matter what, the last memorial was to let Zhang Bingkuan go by himself!" Xie Qian was also annoyed, and his words didn't sound very good.
Ma Wensheng asked: "Yu Qiao, what you can do now is to use Yansui troops to cooperate with Ningxia to send troops, and then return troops from Gansu. This can form a total of thirty or forty thousand troops, and Yansui has the Ming Dynasty in the Three Kingdoms." The elite cavalry on the border just don’t know..."
This means that our Ministry of War needs the policy support of the imperial court.
The emperor asked Yang Yiqing to go to Ningxia and use local soldiers and horses from Ningxia Town to cooperate with this battle.
But it did not say that troops were not allowed to be mobilized from Yansui, Guyuan, Gansu and other places. If all forces were sent together, there would be a chance to push back the Tatars.
Xie Qian said: "Where is Huoshii? Hasn't Huoshii surrendered to the Ming Dynasty now? He is still stationed in Donghetao, why not let him cooperate in sending troops? He has at least 10,000 to 20,000 elite cavalry, right? If we can cooperate... "
Ma Wensheng shook his head and said: "Your Majesty made it clear beforehand that Huo Si will definitely watch Huo from the other side. If the Ming Dynasty fails in this battle, it will only be a matter of time before Huo Si revolts."
"well!"
Xie Qian sighed heavily.
Ningxia's local men and horses were insufficient, and Huo Si's men and horses could not be counted on. Ming Dynasty had to mobilize troops from all three sides.
"Ma Butang, you should be aware of the current situation in the imperial court. The treasury really cannot allocate money and food for a big war. It is now the time of autumn harvest, and everyone on the three sides is ensuring the harvest. If we can mobilize money from all places at this time, Soldiers, the losses are probably... countless! So Ying Ning can only... Alas!"
Finally Xie Qian sighed again.
That's roughly what it means.
Yang Yiqing just relies on his own abilities.
If you can go out and fight, fight, if you can't fight, just cower. At worst, you will be dismissed from your post and questioned after the defeat, which can be regarded as a sacrifice for the overall situation.
Ma Wensheng's face was calm. He also understood that Xie Qian did not mean not to help, but because the situation in the northwest was indeed the same.
"Then can you ask Your Majesty to mobilize troops from Pianguan, Datong, and Xuanfu?" Ma Wensheng proposed a new concept.
Xie Qian almost rolled his eyes.
Xuanda is now Zhang Zhou's territory. Traditional civil servants in the Ming and Ming dynasties have said that the northwest can still stand without Zhang Zhou, but now they have to mobilize troops from the Xuanda front line where Zhang Zhou has cultivated... Isn't this a slap in the face? ?
"Three sides need to ensure the harvest, doesn't Xuanda need it?" Xie Qian sighed, "Let's see. In this situation, which side of the nine sides can mobilize troops? It's too late for each of the nine sides to guard against the wolf... Now Ji The situation in the state is also quite tense...I can tell that those hungry wolves in the grassland are also cunning and cunning people."
It’s not clear why the prairie people are cunning.
But in fact, the meaning is very obvious... Zhang Zhou's power is in Xuanda and Liaodong, and the Tatar and other grassland tribes are outside Zhang Zhou's sphere of influence... Three sides and Jizhou are on the left and right.
Zhang Zhou did not dare to move his territory, so he took action on the traditional territory that Qin Hong, Wang Xian and others were responsible for... The Tatars were simply picking on the weak.
Ma Wensheng said: "Xuanda and Liaodong have obviously cast too many cannons in the past two years. They should mobilize more cannons to other places, and the defense on the three sides should also be strengthened."
Xie Qian said: "Some people in the DPRK and the Central Government have repeatedly petitioned Your Majesty to stop mining, but now you want to increase the artillery garrison on three sides. Isn't it... contradictory?"
Ma Wensheng looked grim and said, "The Ministry of War has never made such a request."
"That's right, Zhang Bingkuan is in the Ministry of War. Now he can be considered a member of the Ministry of War, right?"
Xie Qian wanted to show his venomous side again. When he saw Ma Wensheng's unkind expression, he had no choice but to turn his head away and sighed, "Then more cannons are cast, isn't it just mining? As long as Zhang Bingkuan has the ability, even if he takes the Ming Dynasty The mines everywhere have been dug up, and he is the one responsible for the infamy! Alas! What a troubled year it has been!"
…
…
Xie Qian can naturally feel that the Ming Dynasty's nine border defenses have been tight in the past two years.
Even though there were several great victories, each time the great victory only killed one or two thousand Tatars. The princes and princes sealed several of them, but the combined losses of the Tatars were only in the tens of thousands.
It's just that the credit has increased compared to previous periods, but it hasn't reached the point of damaging the grassland tribes at all.
At this time... Zhang Zhou was sent to Nanjing... It is not difficult to understand that the Tatars "took advantage of the opportunity".
"How long will the internal fighting last?" Xie Qian was relatively open-minded and felt that Zhang Zhou was indispensable.
It seemed that he remembered again that he did not support participating in the impeachment of Zhang Zhou before.
He was angry that his colleagues were incompetent and still insisted on suppressing Zhang Zhou.
When he got home, he had to sort out his words and prepare to report to the emperor in the morning, requesting an order to mobilize troops from three sides... He had to do it as a last resort, and it cannot be said that in order to protect the autumn harvest everywhere, he decided to send troops to the west of Ningxia. He gave up and changed the emperor's main attack strategy... Xie Qian didn't want to be a sinner.
"Master." A servant appeared in front of Xie Qian.
"Yeah." Xie Qian was in a bad mood when he saw the people in the house. He was about to go in to tidy up, but then he thought of something, "Is something wrong?"
The servant said: "Master, the second young master has returned to his hometown."
"What?"
Xie Qian frowned.
His second son, Xie Pi, had been studying in the capital. Xie Qian felt that the atmosphere here was suitable for his son to study in the future. Who would have thought that Xie Pi would run away on his own.
Xie Pi was eighteen years old and already married. He could be said to be the absolute best among the children of the capital's aristocratic families, but he had not even passed the provincial examination.
The servant lowered his head and said: "The young master has been gone for three days. I haven't seen him back these days, so..."
"Why does he want to go back to his hometown?" Xie Qian was so angry that he almost threw something.
The servant handed over a letter and said: "This is the letter left by the second young master. Master, I have something to do, so I will leave first."
When Xie Qian took the letter and read the contents, his nose became angry.
The son said he was going back to Yuyao, but he stated that he was rushing to Nanjing to attend the so-called literary event. He also said that he only had one chance in this life, and he would never miss it if he missed it. He also said that after returning to Yuyao, he would study hard and take exams in the future...
"There is no fuel-efficient lamp!" Xie Qian almost shouted to the sky, "Zhang Bingkuan, Zhang Bingkuan, there is no one who can poison people's hearts better than you!"
…
…
Morning next day.
Led by Ma Wensheng and the cabinet, the matter of Yang Yiqing's appointment in Ningxia was brought up in the court, and the current dilemma of sending troops to Ningxia was mentioned, which made Zhu Youtang look very unhappy.
He had just discussed with Ma Wensheng all afternoon yesterday, and the next day the cabinet seemed to know everything, and asked all parties to mobilize troops to cooperate in the name of difficulties, but almost said that it would withdraw its intention to take the initiative... How could Zhu Youtang not be angry? ?
"... Dear gentlemen, please tell me, Ningxia is short of troops and horses. Where are there enough troops and horses to deploy troops and generals? Or point out suitable candidates to lead the troops. I will consider it as appropriate and adopt your opinions. I only want Ningxia to be able to show the majesty of the Ming Dynasty in the first battle. You can speak freely about who to use and how to use it."
The emperor was also angry.
You can just talk about deploying troops everywhere... You also know that defenses everywhere are very tight now. Where will the troops come from? Where would the food, fodder and baggage for the war come from? Also, because the war affected the autumn harvest in the military camps, the soldiers had no food to survive the winter. Who will bear this responsibility?
Who can't say that? Let’s be practical!
Li Dongyang came out and said: "Your Majesty, in the previous battle at Pianguan, due to the damage to the city gate, nearly ten thousand troops and horses were temporarily deployed from Taiyuan and Datong to reinforce the defense. Now that the Pianguan Pass has been rebuilt, troops and horses can be dispatched from Pianguan. Cooperate with Ningxia to fight!"
"Will it be too late?" Zhu Youtang didn't say no, he just asked whether it would be a bit far away to move troops from Piantou Pass to Ningxia?
Then Zhu Youtang added: "From Pianguan to Ningxia, the shortest way is through the Hetao area. On the way, you will pass Huoshii's garrison. Do you think Huoshii will cooperate with the Ming Dynasty in sending troops, or do you think he will not?" To cause trouble for the Ming soldiers on the Western Expedition?"
Li Dongyang said: "If we send troops to the remote pass, we may not need to rush to Ningxia to help, but instead march north into the hinterland of the grassland to force the little Tatar prince to withdraw his troops."
"Surrounding Wei and rescuing Zhao?" Zhu Youtang asked, "Do you know where the Tatar camp is? Or do you hope that you can accurately find the rear of the tribe just like the surprise attack on Weininghai a year ago? The little Tatar prince said yes We can only mobilize 40,000 to 50,000 troops in full force, but we still have the absolute main force to garrison the headquarters camp. How many troops do you think can be sent from the side passes to achieve the goal of encircling Wei and rescuing Zhao?"
The emperor's question was pointed.
Even a man as strategic as Li Dongyang felt that the emperor seemed to be much more mature and sophisticated than before.
Moreover, Li Dongyang could feel a sense of "narrowness" in the emperor's eyes towards the ministers.
In other words, the emperor was laughing at them.
Look at you, you have never supported my plan to send troops proactively before. Now let me hear what you are saying? He actually took the initiative to send troops to the grassland, intending to use this to force Batu Monk to withdraw his troops? This makes us forget who it was that when Bingkuan had the intention to send troops, he said that he had entered lightly?
Who doesn’t know how to fight?
Zhu Youtang saw that even Li Dongyang didn't answer, so he said: "I also learned from the Ministry of War that it is somewhat difficult for Ningxia to dispatch enough men and horses to repel the little Tartar prince's men in a head-on confrontation. But difficulty does not mean that it is impossible. Do... I also lower my requirements. As long as I don't stand firm, even if I fight in a roundabout way, no matter what kind of cunning strategy I use, if several parties really send troops to cooperate, or to surround Wei and rescue Zhao, and if I can defend the enemy head-on and drive them away, I will Remember his contribution.”
Yuan Shouzhi, the general envoy, said: "Your Majesty, it is the best policy to stick to the fortresses in Ningxia now!"
Zhu Youtang's voice rose an octave and he shouted angrily: "Does that mean that the autumn grains in Ningxia will be handed over to the little Tatar prince? Do you ignore the people, animals and property outside the city? Bingkuan used two Will the advantages accumulated over the years in border warfare be lost because of your retreat?"
After a series of aggressive rhetorical questions, not to mention Yuan Shouzhi who couldn't resist, most of the ministers present felt that the heavy burden on their shoulders was weighing them down.
"From the first time I discussed military aircraft with Bingkuan, he told me not to think that the Tatars would rarely invade the country ten years before Hongzhi, and that the Tatars would keep to themselves. This is precisely their forbearance."
"Eleven years after Hongzhi, droughts continued in various parts of the north. Batu Mengke, the little prince of the Tatars in the steppe, took advantage of the situation and rose up. He had annexed many tribes such as the Oara. It was difficult for those tribes in the cracks to survive. Such a situation Under this situation, if Ming Dynasty still uses a defensive stance to deal with the invading enemies, it will only make the enemy invaders worse."
"When in the future the little Tatar prince can really unify the grasslands and start a war with the Ming Dynasty, there will be wars everywhere on the nine sides."
"I don't want to discuss these matters with you. If you think Bingkuan is being alarmist, then take a look at the current situation at the border. Have there been any changes because of Ming's forbearance? Only those who took the initiative and achieved great success Where there is victory, Tatar talents seldom set foot, doesn’t this explain the problem?”
Zhu Youtang is also tough now.
The three ministers Tu Fu, Xu Qiong, and Bai Ang have retired, and Min Gui, the censor of Zuodu, is missing. There are fewer and fewer ministers in the court who can challenge the imperial power, and the military deterrence brought by Zhang Zhou is becoming more and more effective. .
It also allowed him, an emperor who had always advocated governing the country with filial piety and righteousness, to finally open up and mention his achievements in martial arts.
In front of all the ministers, he seemed to be proud and proud.
"My lords, please think about it carefully after you go back. If you have any good strategies, just mention them to me. I will treat you all equally." Zhu Youtang didn't seem to want to hear any more and waved his hand, "Retreat from the court!"
…
…
There were many other issues in the court, but Zhu Youtang didn't like hearing them, so he just skipped them.
Out of sight, the mind is still.
Wouldn’t it be nice to go back and reunite with your beloved concubine, hug your newborn son, and enjoy family happiness?
But on the minister's side, it was like overturning the jealousy. After the court meeting, a group of people were angry again. This time, they did not target the three cabinet members, but directly pointed their finger at Ma Wensheng, who "had a vegetarian meal in the corpse position".
"Ma Shangshu, you were considered a famous commander in the northwest back then. You had no problem dispatching troops and generals. Now you have to watch Xiao Yu cause trouble in the court and turn a deaf ear?"
"The military and political matters of the Ming Dynasty should not be relied on by a sorcerer who talks nonsense!"
The words of the ministers may be a bit extreme, but civil servants are like this. No matter how important the family or the country is, it is not as practical as party disputes.
Even if you change the emperor or the title of the country, you will still be a minister, and you will still use the same loyalty and patriotism to suppress political opponents. There is no essential difference. Anyone who rushes to national calamity is just a story in legend.
Xie Qian stepped forward, smiled and waved his hands and said: "Don't be excited, your Majesty has already made plans for this battle, and the Ministry of War has a complete plan, so you should not speculate. No matter how urgent the battle in Ningxia is, it will also affect I won’t be safe until Gyeonggi.”
“Mr.
Xie Qian smiled and said: "This is meaningless. Why don't you all request an order to have His Majesty recall Duke Lai Guo?"
When this was mentioned, all the ministers became silent again.
He had a lot of objections to Zhang Zhou, but now the emperor thinks that the best solution is to transfer Zhang Zhou or Zhang Zhou's people to Ningxia.
Xie Qian means.
Since you are so excited, then transfer Zhang Bingkuan back, and he will be responsible for success or failure... This is always in line with your wishes, right?
Zhou Jingdao: "Before next year, you might as well calm down for a while regarding the battle in Ningxia. Let Your Majesty and the various ministries in the DPRK discuss with the local government the mobilization of money and food."
"Yep."
Immediately some moderates came out to ease the conflicts between the parties.
Someone said: "Can that Yang Yiqing really do it? Ningxia asked him to lead the army, why not send a famous military figure to go there? Even if it's better to let Mr. Qin send the troops."
"It's better to say goodbye." Xie Qian said, "Such an arrangement must have deep meaning. Your Majesty is more anxious than anyone else to ensure the stability of the three sides, and your Majesty will definitely make reasonable arrangements."
(End of chapter)
