If the trees are beautiful in the forest, the wind will destroy them.
Of course Gao pragmatic knows this truth, so he has already dealt with it.
One of them is to let your "wood" not stand unobstructed and alone higher than others, but to change its position - for example, if you have a big mountain behind you, you will be less likely to be destroyed by the wind. Much more. The wind can destroy trees, but can it also overturn mountains? If it were really such a hurricane, then even if his tree was not "better than the forest", wouldn't it still be destroyed?
In later generations, people in the officialdom liked to put a stone in the office, called the "backing stone". In fact, they understood this truth and found psychological comfort for themselves. Gao pragmatism also came from that kind of place. How could you not know?
Therefore, he found himself the biggest backing stone - the emperor's family.
The emperor of the Ming Dynasty had such a magical effect. As long as he didn't want your "wood" to be destroyed, he could keep you safe. On the contrary, when he doesn't want to protect you... How Yan Song failed is a lesson for others.
Drawing closer to the emperor's family, consolidating the relationship, and improving the sense of bond is certainly a way out, but it is not enough.
If you really want the emperor to keep you forever, it depends on how useful you are as a person. You have to make him feel that you need you to do many things. Once he leaves you, he will eat pigs with hair on them. Only when you reach this level can you truly regard him as your backer.
Therefore, Gao Gao must go on this trip to the border. He wants to make a big contribution from the Anda tribute incident!
What's more, his trip to the border was not just to get the credit and let the emperor's family see his abilities, but also for other reasons.
He also needs to make advance plans for future trends for both the frontier army and the Mongolian right wing.
If there are no accidents, Xuanfu, Datong, the three towns of Shanxi and the Mongolian right wing will have decades of peace in the future. Due to the peaceful environment and increasingly close economic and trade exchanges between the two sides, although the border people have ushered in a "prosperous age" ”, but the dangers lurking behind it are also of great concern and concern to Gao Pragmatic.
This danger can be summed up in eight words: put the swords and guns in the warehouse, and let the horses go to the south.
If we put it in more popular terms, it is this: With decades of long-term peace, the combat capabilities of both armies have declined greatly.
From the perspective of the Ming army, the Xuanda border army at this time cannot be said to be the best in the Ming Dynasty - the Qi family army has not been disbanded - but because it has been fighting against the Ming Dynasty's largest enemy Anda for a long time, it is definitely worthy of a sentence. "Count one to two."
But what about decades later? The troops drawn from Xuanda University were led by famous generals such as Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao, and their performance was acceptable when they were fighting against the bandits. However, once they were brought to fight against Hou Jin, they immediately turned into dregs and could not be led by famous generals. Move, this is a typical manifestation of reduced combat effectiveness.
At that time, Wang Shouren once said that Xuanfu, Datong, Jizhen, and Liaodong were the stable foundations of the Ming Dynasty. If these four places were lost, the Ming Dynasty would surely perish. So by inference, the armies in these four places must also be the most powerful army in the Ming Dynasty, otherwise the Ming Dynasty will be in danger.
Therefore, it is certainly a good thing to pay tribute, but high pragmatism still requires preparation in advance to prevent Xuan Da's frontier army from losing motivation to progress because of indulgence in leisure, and even Wang Xiaoer's New Year, one year will not be as good as the other.
Even the Mongolian right wing was historically too comfortable after paying tribute, which led to the rise of the Mongolian left wing Lin Dan Khan decades later and wiped them out in one fell swoop - even though Lin Dan Khan was beaten to pieces by Hou Jin, he was Sweeping the Tumochuan and other tribes that were so majestic back then!
The sudden reduction in combat effectiveness caused by long-term peace is so obvious.
The life and death of Tumochuan may be insignificant in the eyes of ordinary Ming people and even the Ming court. Even some short-sighted people would like to see them suffer misfortune, but this is not the case in Gao Pragmatic's eyes.
The Mongolia in Gao Pragmatic's eyes is not an outsider, it is one of his own people in the future! He regarded the Mongols as the Cossacks of the Ming Dynasty to a large extent!
The Cossacks were the sharp sword in the hands of the Russian Czar, and Gao Pragmatic's goal was to "transform" the Mongols into the sharp sword in the hands of the Ming Dynasty!
Mongols and Cossacks have too many similarities, and the Cossacks themselves may even have the shadow of the Mongols. So since the Cossacks can be tamed by the Tsar, why can't the Mongols be transformed by the Ming Dynasty?
Although it is difficult, it is not impossible.
Just like humans domesticating wolves into dogs or hounds, they must not only maintain a certain fighting ability, but also let them understand the principle that "the master cannot violate it."
This requires a lot of training, but it can certainly be done.
This method is very complicated to explain in detail, but it is not troublesome to summarize it simply: one hand is a stick, the other is a carrot - if you don't eat the carrot, replace it with meat.
The routine of a certain American president in later generations is still very useful: speak softly and hold a big stick in hand.
Now that Gao Wuchen is going to the border, he intends to "speak softly" and at the same time "prepare big sticks".
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic decided to answer the question frankly and honestly to a certain extent.
I saw him take a deep breath and said: "Third Uncle, as long as the Tonggong issue is completed, it is conceivable that given the situation I am facing now, he will not allow his ministries to act recklessly. This will definitely win the victory for our Ming Dynasty." There will be a lot of peaceful time. But this peaceful time is very precious and we cannot waste it casually, because An Da is already very old after all, and his eldest son Xin Ai has a far different attitude towards me, Daming. In this way, we insist on paying tribute."
Gao pragmatic paused, deliberately frowned, put on a worried look, and said: "Xin Ai Huang Taiji... According to the information my nephew has received, I am afraid he is a person with both ends. I Even if the Ming Dynasty negotiates the tribute issue with Anda this time, it must prepare for war in advance, lest after Anda's death, Xin Ai, as the heir, overthrows Nai's old government and threatens our Ming borderland again."
Gao Gong laughed and said: "Your idea coincides with that of San Bo and me. I also have a few ideas. I originally wanted to discuss them with Taiyue first. Since you have mentioned them, I will let you listen to them first. It’s okay.”
Gao pragmatism naturally listened attentively, so Gao Gong said: "I agree with your opinion just now. If I propose to pay tribute, I must make the court agree to it this time. Then, we must take advantage of this great opportunity to comprehensively rectify the border preparations and change The decadent status of the border defense in northern Xinjiang has firmly grasped the initiative in my hands and completely reversed the passive situation. You just said that I am old and no one knows how long I can live. His eldest son Xin Ai is unreliable. Yes, so if we have one year of peace, then we have one year of preparation; if the Beibei does not invade for two years, then there will be two years of rectification. If we can maintain a peaceful situation for three to five years, then we can naturally be more prepared. . In other words, the imperial court must take advantage of the rare peace situation in these decades to quickly and effectively strengthen its armaments."
When Gao pragmatic heard the last four words "strengthening armaments", his eyes suddenly moved.
