Chongzhen frowned and said: "The rank is a bit low, and the status of a Shandong Deputy Inspector is indeed not enough."
"Because it is a guest army, Sun Chuanting cannot mobilize the troops in Shandong." Zhang Fengyi added at the side.
Chongzhen thought for a while and said, "Let's do this. I will promote him to be the envoy of Shandong Province. I will be the envoy of Shandong Army Preparation and allow him to recruit troops on the spot in Dongchang Prefecture and Jining Prefecture."
"How to pay for the recruitment of soldiers?" Zhang Fengyi asked. Food and wages determine the number of soldiers recruited. Chongzhen pondered for a moment and said: "He is allowed to recruit ten thousand soldiers, and the food and grass will be provided by the local cooperation."
"I will send a document to Sun Chuanting in the name of the Ministry of War." Zhang Fengyi said,
"Can the local soldiers and horses in Shandong be handed over to Sun Chuanting for unified deployment?" He wanted to get more soldiers and horses for Sun Chuanting.
The Tiger Character Banner was already overwhelming and there were not enough troops to suppress it. He was worried that Sun Chuanting would not be able to easily fulfill Chongzhen's expectations.
"Would it be too much if we gave him all the local soldiers and horses?" Chongzhen frowned.
In his opinion, the soldiers and horses Sun Chuanting brought to Shandong, plus the 10,000 soldiers and horses recruited from Shandong, already amounted to tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. Sun Chuanting was just a military commander, and having so many soldiers and horses was already a lot. .
Zhang Fengyi saw that Chongzhen was not willing to let Sun Chuanting control too many troops, so he persuaded him: "Your Majesty, it is more important to stabilize Shandong first. Once Shandong is lost, Beizhili will be in danger." It seems that this sentence has played an role. , Chongzhen said reluctantly: "Then allow him to control the troops and horses of Dongchang, Jining, and Yanzhou."
"Your Majesty, your Majesty." Zhang Fengyi stood up and bowed to Chongzhen. Being able to dig out the soldiers and horses of the three mansions in Chongzhen, he knew that this was Chongzhen's bottom line.
He has done what he can for Sun Chuanting. Next, it depends on whether Sun Chuanting can ensure the safety of Shandong.
As long as Sun Chuanting could keep Shandong, given the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, he believed that there would be no problem for Sun Chuanting to obtain the position of governor.
"By the way, there is one more thing I want to ask you, Aiqing." Chongzhen looked at Zhang Fengyi and said.
"Your Majesty, please speak." Zhang Fengyi was curious about what Chongzhen wanted to ask him. Chongzhen took a sip of tea, wet his lips, and said, "If Shandong cannot be pacified, what do you think about transferring the troops from Shanhaiguan to Shandong to quell the rebellion?"
"Absolutely not." As soon as Chongzhen's words came out, Zhang Fengyi immediately stopped him.
"Why not?" Chongzhen looked unhappy. Ming Dynasty's elite soldiers and horses are all in Liaodong. This is the only way he can think of to solve the problem of Tiger Flag.
If the Tiger Character Banner had been huddled in Shanshan and Shaanxi, he could have tolerated it temporarily. Later, Henan fell into the hands of the Tiger Character Banner, and he had the idea of mobilizing troops from Shanhaiguan to Henan, but at that time, the slave soldiers and horses bypassed it. Shanhaiguan entered the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, so it temporarily put aside the affairs of Henan and concentrated on dealing with the slave soldiers and horses who invaded the Ming Dynasty.
Now that the slave thieves were driven back to Liaodong, and the Tiger Character Banner was about to capture Shandong again, he once again thought of mobilizing Shanhaiguan troops.
Once Shandong made a mistake, he knew that he, the emperor, would really be in despair. Zhang Fengyi said: "Shanhaiguan is an important place outside the pass. Once this pass is lost, the Ningjin front line will have no backup. The fall will be a matter of time. And without the obstruction of Shanhaiguan, the slave thieves no longer need to detour from the grassland, but We can directly invade the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, and the capital will be surrounded again, and then Your Majesty will be really in danger."
"Okay, please step back and let me think about it again." Chongzhen was not happy with Zhang Fengyi's words, and he did not give up the idea of mobilizing troops from Shanhaiguan to enter the customs to quell the rebellion.
In his opinion, once Shandong cannot hold it, the capital will also be in danger. At that time, whether or not Shanhaiguan can be defended will no longer be that important.
Moreover, the war in Liaodong has made him exhausted. Since he ascended the throne, the gold-swallowing behemoth in Liaodong has already exhausted him.
Of course, it would be best if the capital could be moved. The north would be left to the tiger-character flags and slave thieves to fight over, and the Ming Dynasty could be Nanjing and reap the benefits.
"Your Majesty, we must not bring back the troops and horses from Shanhaiguan and outside the pass!" Zhang Fengyi was afraid that Chongzhen would act impulsively and bring all the troops and horses from Liaodong into the pass.
"Okay, I understand, you can go back first!" Chongzhen waved his hand impatiently. What he wanted most was to move south, but unfortunately, after looking for several ministers, no one was willing to take the initiative.
In order to protect the emperor's face, he couldn't take the initiative to propose the idea of moving south. If Zhang Fengyi, the minister of the Ministry of War, was not needed to maintain the current situation, Zhang Fengyi refused to come forward to share the emperor's worries and took the initiative to propose the southward move. I want to replace Zhang Fengyi, the Minister of War.
"I beg you to leave." Zhang Fengyi saw Chongzhen showing impatience and had no choice but to leave. However, he had already decided in his heart that once Chongzhen proposed to transfer Liaodong troops to the pass to deal with the Tiger Flag, he would definitely stop it.
As the Minister of War and the governor of Liaodong, he saw it very clearly. Now that the Liaodong generals have reaped the dividends of the Liaodong war for so many years outside the pass, if they are to give up their interests in Liaodong and come to the pass to fight as guest troops against the Tiger Banner, it is likely that these Liao generals will completely alienate the imperial court.
At that time, regardless of whether these Liao generals defected to the slave traitors or continued to stay in Liaodong to listen to the propaganda but not the propaganda, all that would be lost would be the last elite troops of the Ming Dynasty.
As soon as Zhang Fengyi left, Chongzhen turned to look at Wang Chengen, who was waiting on the side, and said: "My companion, did you hear what Zhang Fengyi said just now? It seems that I, the emperor, can no longer command the military department."
"Zhang Butang did go too far, but I think that the Ministry of War is the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhang Butang's alone does not count." Wang Chengen comforted Chongzhen.
After hearing this, Chongzhen sighed softly and said: "I hope so, but it is a pity that I am not surrounded by ministers like this who are unwilling to share my worries, or they are mediocre people, otherwise there would be no tiger thief today." For He hated the tiger-shaped flag very much, but he also vaguely regretted it.
When he first ascended to Dabao, he was so high-spirited that he didn't pay attention to the tiger-shaped flag entrenched in the northwest. He even regarded the tiger-shaped flag as one of his achievements after ascending the throne.
If he had known that it would be like this, he would rather give Hu Ziqi the title of Duke of the country and win over Hu Ziqi.
"In the final analysis, the tiger thieves are a group of thieves. If our Ming Dynasty had not been repeatedly invaded by slave thieves, Your Majesty would have put down this tiger bandit long ago." Wang Chengen has been with Chongzhen for many years, so he naturally understands what Chongzhen likes to hear.
Chongzhen sighed softly: "Yes, without the drag of the slave thief, the tiger thief would have been wiped out by me long ago, and I would not have been put in a dilemma."
