Cabinet value.
The news from the northwest came like snowflakes, especially after Zhu Hui sent out five troops out of the pass in early April. Qin Hong, the trilateral commander, provided sufficient support for Zhu Hui's troop dispatch, but it was obvious that Ming's troops It is difficult to perform well in an unfamiliar venue in the Loop.
In other words... it is difficult for an honorable minister like Zhu Hui, who has primitive thinking and no foresight, to achieve any results on the battlefield.
Xie Qian singled out several memorials from Yansui, put them on the desk in front of Liu Jian after reading them, and said: "Send troops from Piantou Pass to Yulinwei, a dozen major earthen forts, written in The reported number is more than 46,000 soldiers, divided into five groups. The minimum number of soldiers in one group is only 2,000. The Baoguogong group has 20,000 elite cavalry. It is estimated that it will take more than 20 days to complete the entire Donghetao area. It has not yet been done Any results are reported."
Li Dongyang raised his head and asked: "Isn't there already a memorial to disturb the people?"
"Haha." Xie Qian smiled, "Thieves come like a comb, soldiers come like a grate, and officials come like a shave. This kind of thing happens every year. Fortunately, there are many thieves and few people in the Hetao area. In the past few years, They all say they want to immigrate to the Hetao, but Qin Shiying only focuses on building cars. This time he built a fort in the northwest, and he seems to have been more neglectful than usual."
Recently, Xie Qian has come forward to contact people in the military and political system, and he seems to have seen through the military and political system of the Ming Dynasty.
The last time Qin Hong was in the northwest, he was high-spirited and very attentive to the defense of the Hetao. But after this time, Qin Hong only focused on managing the area in front of him. He said he wanted to calm the people and run the army in the Hetao, but more importantly It's mostly dry thunder but no rain.
Liu Jian asked: "There is no movement of the march in Datong?"
Xie Qian shook his head and said: "Wang Bo'an seems to have stopped since he took over the General Administration of Military Affairs of Xuanda. Recently, he has been very careful in raising military supplies. He has made many unreasonable claims to the court in the name of being inconsistent with his qualifications. "Request', but there is one good thing. The Ming Dynasty sent troops from the Hetao area, but they are stuck on the Datong road. The Tatars want to send troops from the eastern front to the south, but they have to wonder whether they will be cut off by him."
Li Dongyang said: "As the commander-in-chief of Datong Military Affairs of the Xuanfu, no matter what kind of request you make, it is not too much."
At this time, Li Dongyang was willing to speak for Wang Shouren.
Although Wang Shouren seemed to be promoted by Zhang Zhou, traditional civil servants were willing to regard him as a target to win over. Especially people like Li Dongyang who once admired Wang Shouren did not want to give up this talent.
"Bin Zhi, you are right. If I were in this position, I would make more requests like Bo'an. It is difficult to say whether the three sides are more important or the declaration of the university is more important, but others may not think so. Ah." Xie Qian sighed.
What he calls "unreasonable demands" is that you, Wang Shouren, are clearly not of high rank, yet you still make so many demands. It seems that you are greedy and completely disregard the government's financial constraints in all aspects.
Liu Jian asked: "Now, do others have any objections to the raising of military supplies in Datong?"
"Yeah." Xie Qian nodded, "There are still a lot of criticisms. Some people say that Zhang Bingkuan instructed Wang Bo'an to do this. There has been a lot of commotion in Datong recently. It seems that the importance of northwest defense will be moved to Datong in the future, but now cats outside Datong From Zhuang to Weininghai, there are no signs of Tatar activities. How can we start talking about the importance of Datong's defense?"
Li Dongyang smiled and said: "Yu Qiao, didn't you just say that Datong has a special terrain. It is outside the Hetao, but it can block the east entrance of the Hetao. As long as Wang Bo'an is in Datong, the Tatars will not dare to invade the Hetao at will. In this way In other words, Datong is like blocking a piece of fertile land outside the pass."
Liu Jian asked again: "Zhang Bingkuan has not done anything recently?"
"Exactly." Xie Qian said with a hint of disdain, "I don't know what this guy has been busy with recently. He often travels in and out of the capital, and almost no one is seen in the court. The Minister of War of the Ming Dynasty, but even the Minister of War It’s all left to the people below, even the people in the Ministry of War can’t stand it, but some opinions...we dare to think but dare not say.”
While Zhang Zhou was "not doing his job properly", no one dared to accuse Zhang Zhou of not doing his job properly. This was what Xie Qian was angry about.
Li Dongyang commented: "That's because most of what Zhang Bingkuan has done cannot be replaced by others, and His Majesty has such faith in him that even the most outspoken officials have to shy away. No wonder others. We didn't do it before. Suppress his momentum."
In the past, a bunch of old ministers tried to impeach Zhang Zhou, but nothing happened to Zhang Zhou. Now that Zhang Zhou has reached a high position by virtue of his military exploits, is he still afraid of ministers participating in the impeachment?
Xie Qian said: "Then what is he doing? How can he be irreplaceable?"
Li Dongyang and Liu Jian didn't answer. Instead, they looked at Xie Qian with both eyes.
It seems to be saying, you ask us, who should we ask? Aren't you the one who has been contacting me about this matter?
He has done so many things, let alone we can't understand it, let's just say who else in the court can understand it? Those artillery pieces and muskets, who knows how he made them? Who knows how the so-called reform of tactics will be completed in a few years?
This matter cannot be explained clearly.
…
…
The situation in the northwest is becoming increasingly tense, but Zhang Zhou is actually very relaxed recently. He spends most of his time in the capital, does not have to walk between government offices, and rarely goes to the palace.
But this does not mean that he has less communication with the emperor.
Most of the recent communication was completed by Li Rong and other eunuchs. In other words... the emperor did not need to see Zhang Zhou all the time. Occasionally, the emperor and his ministers met, and they were polite to eat together and talk about family matters. On the contrary, There is less time to talk about official business when we meet.
Although the Shangting Department also performs military affairs, Wang Qiong is in charge most of the time. Wang Qiong has become the chief minister of the Shangting Department. In terms of military affairs in the northwest, Wang Qiong is much more involved than Zhang Zhou. Because the northwest military affairs do not involve marching strategies, but are more importantly completed by logistical supplies, it is more convenient for Wang Qiong, the Minister of Household Affairs, to handle and take over.
Outside Yansui Pass.
Zhu Hui personally led 20,000 elite cavalry, carrying more than half of the firearms in the army. The march speed could only cover 60 miles a day. After five days of marching, he finally covered more than 200 miles, but Zhu Hui felt that The sky is full of yellow sand, and the weather is gray with no end in sight.
"Is this this damn place like this all year round?"
Zhu Hui has never held any military meeting in the past few days, or he thinks it is not important. Even his 20,000 troops are divided into three armies: front, middle and rear. The distance between the front and rear is only a dozen miles.
When he asked the question, there was only one "general" who accompanied the army beside him. She was the eldest princess of Yongkang who had won the trust of the emperor and received many commendations. However, because she had no actual experience in leading troops, she could only accompany the commander Zhu Hui. Consort Cui Yuan.
Cui Yuan examined the map in front of him and said: "To the south is the Mu Us sandy land. The southwest wind has been blowing these days, so the sand and dust may be larger. When I left, I went to visit Mr. Qin Taitai. He Tell me, we try to walk where there is a river, and if there is a lot of sand and soil, we should march as much as possible during the day, because the wind and sand are stronger at night, and it is difficult to distinguish the direction."
As the commander sent by the imperial court to lead the troops, Zhu Hui did not directly communicate with Qin Hong.
In other words, he did not want to be restricted by civilian officials. He also wanted to learn from Wang Shouren, who could solve problems directly with his military skills and troops. The civilian officials accompanying the army were the censor of Youqiandu, the temporary governor of Baoding, Yamenguan, etc. Although Zhang Jin was a veteran, his reputation in the court was not high, so Zhu Hui did not take Zhang Jin seriously.
"He also said this?" Zhu Hui frowned.
Cui Yuandao: "Qin Lao Tai Tai gave a lot of assistance to this troop dispatch. In fact..."
Cui Yuan originally wanted to highlight Qin Hong, but seeing that Zhu Hui's face looked wrong, he stopped talking.
Just as he was talking, Liu Ning, a former army general, asked for orders to enter the Chinese army's tent and complained to Zhu Hui: "Commander, the terrain for dozens of miles in front and back of this place is too bad. The wind and sand are strong at night, and the soldiers are buried." Even the water after the stove is boiled is full of dust."
Zhu Hui said angrily: "Don't you keep the lid on the pot?"
Liu Ning said: "If there is no lid, there will be more dust."
"Then we'll eat it after it's finished." Zhu Hui looked very annoyed.
Cui Yuan reminded: "There should be no one in the army who is still eating now, right?"
Liu Ning said: "All the armies are complaining. Some say that it will still be like this if we go further north. We should avoid places with sandy areas. Others say that we shouldn't come to this Hetao. There are people in the army who are worried about the marching speed." If you are dissatisfied, you may send a group of troops to camp and bury the stove in front."
Zhu Hui said coldly: "Just obey your orders. I haven't given the order yet. How can a group of generals still want to rebel? March with calmness!"
"Yes." Liu Ning clasped his fists and accepted the order while asking for instructions, "Commander, how will we march tomorrow?"
Zhu Hui looked at Cui Yuan, but Cui Yuan quickly looked away.
Zhu Hui then said: "Now that we have passed Mu Usu, the rest of the road is easy to walk. We saw several abandoned earth forts on the way. We walked north along the river and settled down at Xiaoqing River. Five Didn’t the passers-by already agree on a place to gather troops?”
"yes……"
Liu Ning didn't hear clearly for a while.
It felt like Zhu Hui had said everything, but it seemed like he didn't say anything. The march plan for the next day... was just to continue walking north?
Is there no strategy for dealing with this sky full of yellow sand?
After Liu Ning left with doubts.
Cui Yuancai reminded: "After the beginning of spring, if the wind and sand are too strong, we should step up our march."
"Mao Ren."
Zhu Hui tied Cui Yuan to his side. He didn't want Cui Yuan to make meritorious deeds, but also wanted Cui Yuan to help him make meritorious deeds. He also had to have the necessary respect for Cui Yuan. After all, this was a figure that even the emperor admired.
"You have never led a soldier, and you don't understand many things. Listen to me. If we have no faults along the way, it is a merit. Don't rush forward. No matter how strong the wind and sand are, can people drown? We are not walking on the sand, it is just covering the sky. Block out the sun a little... I've been able to investigate the situation ahead clearly at night, no problem. It's good to be at home for a thousand days, but it's difficult to go out for a while... If Wang Bo'an were to lead the army, it wouldn't be much better than us!"
(End of chapter)
