tread! tread! tread!
Rapid footsteps sounded outside the door, and soon a figure walked in from outside the house.
"Proprietor, urgent documents just arrived from Beijing." Yang Yuan took a wooden box, walked to the desk in front of Liu Heng, and placed the wooden box on it.
There are three red lines painted with vermilion paint on the outside of the wooden box. There is a copper lock on the outside, and a paper seal is affixed to it.
Liu Heng took out a key, inserted it into the keyhole, opened the copper lock, and tore open the paper seal with his hands.
Finally, he opened the wooden box and took out a rolled piece of paper.
Opening the paper, he held it in front of his eyes and flipped through it.
"Proprietor, are there any changes in the court?" Yang Yuan asked curiously.
Although the news was sent back by spies from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau in Beijing, because it was sent back as an urgent document, he, the director of the Foreign Intelligence Bureau, was not qualified to open the seal privately and view the contents.
After Liu Heng read it, he handed it to Yang Yuan and said, "Wei Zhongxian has taken action against the Donglin Party. Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others have been captured by Beizhen Fusi."
"The Donglin Party members will definitely not be captured without hesitation. I'm afraid there will be a fight between dragons and tigers." As Yang Yuan spoke, he reached out to take the page handed over by Liu Heng and held it in front of him to read.
Liu Heng took out his pipe, pinched some shredded tobacco and put it in, lit it and took a puff, and said: "The Donglin Party has not done much in recent years when it has been in power. Instead, it only wants to hide wealth from the people. Liaodong After such a mistake happened again, Tianqi has lost trust in them."
A smoke ring blew out of his mouth.
"When Yang Lian impeached Wei Zhongxian, he just impeached Wei Zhongxian. How could he still have our affairs? He also committed Wei Zhongxian's twenty-five major crimes." Yang Yuan looked at Liu Heng.
In the original history, Yang Lian impeached Wei Zhongxian for twenty-four crimes, and now there is one more crime: Wei Zhongxian colluded with Xuanda Liu to commit rebellion.
Liu Heng said with a smile: "Wei Zhongxian had no time to hide from us, so how could he collude with us? It doesn't matter whether the above impeachment charges are true or false, as long as Tianqi believes them."
He picked up the teapot at hand and took a sip of water.
"In the words of the proprietor, this is called talking nonsense. It doesn't matter whether there is evidence or not. The key is that I will pour dirty water on you first and make others think first." Zhao Wu from the side interrupted.
Liu Heng put down the teapot in his hand and said with a smile: "What Zhao Wu said is right. Not many people care whether this kind of thing is true or not. If we really need to investigate it carefully, we don't know how long it will take. For the Donglin Party, as long as they can Wei Zhongxian succeeded in driving away Tianqi, and not many people will care about what will be found out in the future."
"So Wei Zhongxian is going to fall? No, if he falls, why are the people who are arresting Beizhen Fusi all members of the Donglin Party? Without Tianqi's order, Wei Zhongxian would not dare to arrest those important figures of the Donglin Party no matter how courageous he is." Yang Yuanqing frowned and analyzed.
Since the Taichang period, the Donglin Party has begun to control the government. Although Wei Zhongxian arrested some important figures from the Donglin Party and entered the Beizhen Fusi, the whole court was already filled with Donglin Party people. No matter how he thought, he felt that the Donglin Party Not so easy to lose.
He controlled the Foreign Intelligence Bureau and obtained information not only from Liaodong and the capital, but also from sources in the south of the Ming Dynasty.
The foundation of the Donglin Party is not in the capital, but in the south. No matter how powerful Wei Zhongxian's power is, it is mainly in the north. There is no way to lose the foundation of the Donglin Party in the south.
"How is the situation in Liaodong?" Liu Heng interrupted Yang Yuan's thoughts and took a puff with the cigarette holder in his mouth.
Yang Yuan came back to his senses and said: "Old slave only broke through a few forts between Jinzhou City and Ningyuan, but he has never been able to shake big cities like Jinzhou and Ningyuan. My subordinates thought that if Lao slave could not hold on for long, he might be defeated. retreat."
"Well, if there are fewer internal thieves, as long as they don't leave the city to fight, the Ming army will not have much problem defending the city. It can be seen that the slave thieves' front is not that strong." Liu Heng said.
The past in Liaodong was recalled in his mind.
The Ming army's several major defeats in Liaodong mostly occurred in field battles. The lost cities were all due to the betrayal of internal thieves, which led to the fall of large cities, or the troops in the city were sent out to fight in the field, leaving the city empty and giving rise to The opportunity for the army of slave thieves to attack the city was eliminated.
The slave thieves are stronger than the Ming army in the field.
Except for the adopted servants, the Ming army did not have many capable soldiers and horses. The camp soldiers and ordinary soldiers did not even have enough to eat, and the weapons in their hands were all jerry-rigged gadgets made by the Ministry of Industry. They can also bully the peasant army.
But the soldiers and servants who led the soldiers around were no worse than the real Jurchen.
Many of the free wages received from the camp soldiers and regular soldiers were used by the generals to support their own servants. All of these people's soldiers and armors were specially made by others, and they did not use the stuff given by the Ministry of Works at all.
The wages of tens of thousands of troops were used to raise less than a thousand private soldiers.
The generals and private soldiers raised with the country's money only have eyes for their own generals and have no military and national righteousness. When they go to the battlefield, if the battle does not go well, the private soldiers will save their own generals and flee the battlefield. How can such a field battle be undefeated?
Yang Yuan said: "The Governor Sun of Liaodong is still very capable. If someone like Wang Huazhen were to be in charge of Liaodong, I am afraid that even Shanhaiguan would be lost."
"I have the ability, but it's too expensive." Liu Heng picked up the teapot on the table and took a sip of water.
Sun Chengzong's method of guarding Liaodong completely turned Liaodong into a hole that could not be filled. It was also from this time on that the imperial court spent a large amount of money on military affairs in Liaodong every year, gradually dragging down the Ming Dynasty. Much finance.
Of course, his method of guarding Liaodong was extremely supported by the generals stationed in Liaodong.
Yang Yuan nodded in agreement.
The imperial court spends so much money on Liaodong every year, but their Tiger Character Banner can get such a large sum of money every year. They have already started to counterattack and drive the old slave out of Shengjing.
Liu Heng finished smoking a pack of cigarettes, knocked the ashes from the pot, and said: "The Foreign Intelligence Agency should keep an eye on the movements in Liaodong. Once the slaves retreat, it will be the imperial court's turn to use troops against us."
"My subordinates will personally keep an eye on the news from Liaodong." Yang Yuan said, "Now that the imperial court has no troops in Taiyuan, why don't we take Taiyuan at this time and take advantage of the situation to take over all of Shanxi."
The Tiger Character Banner has captured Datong and Xuanfu, and Taiyuan has become a piece of fat.
Liu Heng shook his head slightly and said: "We have captured Xuanda and other places in just a few months. We are not slow at all. We are not in a hurry to capture too many places at this time. Otherwise, even if we send troops to capture them, we will not be able to manage them. We are not in a hurry for our talents, we need to work steadily."
The most chaotic period of the Ming Dynasty has not yet come. He is not in a hurry to use troops everywhere. He can use this time to accumulate internal strength and slowly encroach on the surrounding areas.
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty cannot fall yet. The slaves and thieves in Liaodong still need the Ming Dynasty to support them from the front. They must not fall apart at this time and take advantage of the slaves and thieves in Liaodong.
