After the silver matter was settled, Zhu Yijun was in a good mood and chatted with Gao Pragmatic for a few words. Gao Pragmatic responded with his usual attitude, and then changed the subject and mentioned the Liaodong issue.
"By the way, I heard that Li Songshangshu, the governor of Liao Dynasty, asked Cao Yu to put Nikan Wailan back and let Nurhaci handle it. Is it true?"
It is certain that it is true. How can the news from Wu Dui, a minister in the cabinet, be false? Gao pragmatically asked this just to try not to involve Wu Dui, pretending it was just a "hearsay".
However, the Ming Dynasty "had its own national conditions", and news from the palace always flowed out like a sieve, so Zhu Yijun didn't think much about it. Hearing this, he nodded and said: "There is such a thing... Hey, don't tell me yet. I was going to ask you what you think. It seems that Cao Yuan said that it was your intention to take in Nikan Wailan?"
"That's right." Gao Pragmatic nodded and said, "I made a decision on this matter when I was in Liaodong. At that time, Nikan Wailan was a little frustrated. I was about to go to Beijing again at that time, so I told Cao Yun that in case Nikan Wailan When he is desperate, he must come to the Ming Dynasty, and I ask him to take him in decisively and protect him."
Zhu Yijun pondered and asked: "Why do you do this? Nikan Wailan had such a huge advantage before, but was defeated by Nurhaci in such a short period of time. This shows how incompetent this person is, and he is not a Han citizen. I What is the use of Ming Dynasty keeping chiefs like him?"
The Jisu area was all enfeoffed based on strength, for the sake of border stability. Of course, its chiefs were not "residences for the virtuous" but "residences for the powerful." Although Zhu Yijun's words seemed a bit harsh and ungrateful, it also depended on who he was addressing. After all, he clearly said "they are not Han people", which shows that this attitude was specifically aimed at the Jisi area.
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "This matter is not that simple. When I was in Liaodong, I carefully observed and thought about the issue of Jianzhou Jurchen. Including the inspection of Nikan Wailan and Nurhachi, I made several judgments."
Zhu Yijun nodded slightly: "Okay, tell me."
Gao pragmatically said: "First of all, we can be sure of two things. One is that Nikan Wailan is good at business but not good at military affairs. The other is that this person is indeed a loyal minister of our Ming Dynasty. He has been able to be where he is today in the past half of his life only because of the cultivation of the Ming Dynasty. He himself also sincerely surrendered to the Ming Dynasty."
Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and said, "Maybe, but so what, is Nurhaci unfaithful?"
"Nurhachi seems to be a loyal minister now, but his loyalty is different from that of Nikan Wailan." Gao pragmatically replied conclusively.
Zhu Yijun sat up slightly: "What's the difference?"
"Nikan Wailan's loyalty runs deep into his bones, and he is devoted to the Ming Dynasty. This can be seen from his devotion to learning Chinese and asking his subordinates to do their best - he is the kind of person who deeply hates that he is not Han. Your Majesty, If you remember some of the analysis that Shi Chen made when discussing history with me, you should understand that this kind of people are often more loyal than ordinary Han people."
That's right. Gao Pragmatic has explained this issue before with examples. The principle is roughly equivalent to the fact that after a traitor surrenders to a foreign race, he is often more loyal than the foreigner's own tribe. The reason is that he has no way to retreat and can only go one way. black.
The same is true for Nikan Wailan. His real name is rarely mentioned in the Jurchens, but he is called "Nikan Wailan" - a Han document. What else can be doubted about this loyalty? Even if even Han Chen rebels, such people will not rebel.
Zhu Yijun nodded somewhat suddenly, and then asked: "What about Nurhaci? I remember seeing it once. He stayed under Li Chengliang for several years, and it was you who cultivated him later on when he became successful?"
Gao pragmatically said: "Both of these situations are true, but they don't mean anything. I was not a party to Ning Yuanbo's original situation, so I can't comment too much. However, what I said about 'cultivating' Nurhachi is right. The situation is not right. Under the circumstances at that time, Jianzhou Zuowei was actually on the verge of falling apart due to the death of Jue Changan. If there is no suitable candidate to stabilize the situation, Jianzhou Zuowei will be annexed by Nikan Wailan sooner or later. …”
"Huh? Wait, wait..." Zhu Yijun frowned and reminded: "You just said that Nikan Wailan is a loyal minister."
"He is a loyal minister, but what happens after he dies?" Gao Pragmatic spread his hands: "Nikan Wailan is already over fifty years old. It is not up to me to decide when he will die. What if in the future his successor does not want me to be the Ming Dynasty? Not as loyal as him, and at that time, all the guards in Jianzhou were unified by him, which was not a good thing for our Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Nikan Wailan is a loyal minister, so we can just be nicer to him, which can improve his status , but we cannot always let him have more real power and strength without restrictions."
Zhu Yijun nodded thoughtfully and gestured to Gao Pragmatic to continue.
Gao Pragmatic continued: "Actually, this is how I dealt with Nurhaci. His role was to stabilize the left guard of Jianzhou, but he did not admire and obey the Ming Dynasty from the bottom of his heart like Nikan Wailan, so I was The plan is for him to stop at Jianzhou left back."
"But he wanted to seek revenge from Nikan Wailan, and you didn't stop him?" Zhu Yijun was obviously confused.
Gao pragmatic smiled and said: "Why do you want to stop me? Nikan Wailan was very powerful at that time and almost had the tendency to unify Jianzhou. Let Nurhaci come forward to play against him. A fight between the two sides can prevent Jianzhou from becoming the second Hada and Ye." Hey. And if Nurhaci wins, won’t Nikanwailan need to rely on me, the Ming Dynasty, even more?"
Zhu Yijun thought for a while: "But if Nurhaci had lost at that time..."
"Then the Ming Dynasty will support Nurhachi and help Nurhachi to protect him." Gao Pragmatic said nonchalantly: "The reason is very simple. You guys are fighting back and forth, which has affected the stability of the border of the Ming Dynasty. So now I, the Ming Dynasty, want to mediate the long-cherished wishes of both parties and require both sides to abide by it. Guard the border for Ming Dynasty. If anyone dares to use weapons again, Ming Dynasty will send troops to suppress them."
Zhu Yijun couldn't help but laugh: "What a good idea. At that time, Nurhachi was newly defeated, so of course he wanted to 'guard the border', and Nikan Wailan was afraid of the Ming Dynasty and did not dare to continue the attack... Okay, I understand what you mean. , you just want Nikan Wailan, who can't fight, to maintain the advantage in strength, but also let Nurhachi, who can fight, be able to threaten him at any time. In this way, both parties must look at my name. .”
Gao pragmatic also smiled and said: "This is indeed the original plan."
Zhu Yijun sighed: "It's just that Nurhachi was too good at fighting, so there was an accident?"
"Well... this is one aspect." Gao Pragmatic was not modest: "But if I were still in Liaodong, I would not let this happen. Probably after Nurhaci established his advantage, I would intervene and let Ni Kanwailan ceded several cities to Nurhaci as apology for the 'accident', and then ordered Nurhachi to withdraw his troops."
Zhu Yijun was a little helpless: "This was an accident. If I hadn't called you back at that time, I'm afraid there would have been some trouble in the Yunnan-Burma War."
Hey, that's more than just trouble. I'm afraid that the war in Yunnan and Burma will turn out like it did in history, with back and forth fighting for more than ten years. In the end, the Ming Dynasty clearly had the upper hand in the battle, but the external Xuanwei Department was lost. It was so clean that it left people speechless.
The current problem is that when Gao Pangshi was recalled to the capital to report on his duties, he did not step down from his post as Liao Governor. Later, after he was transferred to the Ministry of War, the post of Liao Governor remained vacant for a while before being re-appointed. During this period, Nurhachi happened to complete In order to attack Nikanwailan, Nikanwailan was defeated and desperate.
In other words, no one in Liaodong could decide how to deal with the situation of Jianzhou at that time, forming an actual power vacuum, so Nurhaci took advantage of the situation and achieved a great victory.
Gao pragmatic thought for a while and said: "Nurhachi showed strong force outside Fushun Pass this time, and even asked Cao Yu to release his people, forcing Qi Jin to personally lead troops from Shenyang to Fushun Pass, which itself illustrates some problems."
Zhu Yijun frowned and said, "What's the problem? Is Nurhachi already in a desperate situation?"
"That's not the case." Gao pragmatic shook his head: "Although his strength has greatly increased now, Jianzhou Right Guard and other territories have not been completely digested. His core strength still comes from Jianzhou Left Guard. At this time, we can't talk about it. It’s difficult to control. But the fact that he dares to show off his power outside Fushun Pass can prove that he is testing our Ming Dynasty..."
"Oh?" Zhu Yijun sneered and said solemnly: "What does he want to test? Can he try to see if his more than 3,000 soldiers can take Fushun Pass?"
Gao Jingshi shook his head slightly: "Of course he doesn't dare to fight with Ming Dynasty now. The purpose of his move is to see if Ming Dynasty will continue to indulge him because he doesn't want to see the border instability."
Zhu Yijun's face darkened and he said in a serious voice: "You mean... he guessed that I, Ming, was going to attack Tumen, so he didn't think that Ming would waste his energy on him at this time?"
Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "I think we are inseparable."
Zhu Yijun became a little more serious and frowned: "Pragmatic, I am not questioning your judgment, but do you think highly of this guy? How can he, a Jurchen barbarian, have such a vision?"
Gao pragmatically knew that the Ming Dynasty had a huge psychological advantage over the Jurchens at this time. The main enemy in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty was the Mongols, and the Jurchens were not ranked at all, so Zhu Yijun had such a mentality - after all, women The real people have been manipulated by the Ming Dynasty for two hundred years. It is really unbelievable that they can suddenly have such an overall view.
But Nurhaci is obviously not an ordinary Jurchen, and there is no need to explain this. But Gao Pragmatic couldn't say this. He could only say: "Your Majesty, the fact that Ming Dynasty wants to attack Tumen is actually very easy to see around Liaodong. It's not surprising that Nurhaci can see it."
"Why is this?" Zhu Yijun was a little confused. Could it be that the confidentiality work was messed up again?
Gao Pingshi said: "After the Battle of Southern Liaoning, our Ming Dynasty defeated Chaohua and regained the Liaohe Hetao area. It stands to reason that it would be convenient to tilt the center of gravity to the east of the Liaohe River at this time, but in fact it is not. We are continuing to strengthen In western Liaoning, all kinds of strategic reserves, including armor, gunpowder, grain and grass, etc., are trying their best to hoard in western Liaoning. As long as Nurhachi is not a fool, he can see that Ming Dynasty's focus is in western Liaoning rather than eastern Liaoning.
What can Western Liaoning use for hoarding so many strategic reserves? The fried flowers are dead, and the only target in western Liaoning is Tumen. Of course, the Ming Dynasty did this to continue targeting the Chahar tribe. Nurhaci can conclude from this that the Ming Dynasty must intend to defeat Tumen in one fell swoop and completely conquer Mongolia. Rival.
So in other words, before Ming Dynasty defeated Tumen, no matter what Nurhachi did in Jianzhou, Ming Dynasty should tolerate it first. Moreover, he should also know that this period is the last window period for him to expand his strength. Once the Ming Dynasty frees up its hands and turns to Liaodong with the power after conquering Mongolia, he may not have much chance.
In his opinion, the only opportunity is to take advantage of this to become bigger, and hope that the Ming Dynasty will suffer a lot in the process of conquering Chahar, so that he can unify the state... Although unifying the state is not possible. He competed with Ming Dynasty, but if Ming Dynasty was really badly hurt when the time came, he would have the opportunity to make Ming Dynasty acquiesce in his victory, which would be regarded as achieving his goal. "
After this analysis, Zhu Yijun came to understand and sneered: "The earthworm shakes the tree."
However, having said that, Zhu Yijun really felt that it was a bit tricky for a while - as Gao Pingshi analyzed, the Ming Dynasty's power in Liaodong is actually gathered in western Liaoning, and these forces are all prepared to deal with Tumen, not It is easy to use in Liaodong.
The main problem here is still money. War must cost money, and this year not only the imperial court has no money, but the internal funds are also empty because of King Lu's affairs. Although Gao Pragmatic has come up with many methods and the prospects are promising enough, money is not after all You just open and close your mouth, and there has to be a process of accumulation.
Now the problem lies in time. If we wait three to five years and Tumen's problem is solved, Nurhachi's trouble will certainly be nothing. But now Tumen is still there, and Zhu Yijun is determined to solve even such sensitive issues as vassalage. Obviously, he will not give up the control of West Huaidong and instead use troops in Liaodong just because of this trivial matter like Nurhaci.
Therefore, even if Zhu Yijun said that Nurhachi is a cricket that shakes the tree, it is a pity that he can't free his feet to crush this cricket to death.
so annoying……
Zhu Yijun frowned deeply, thought for a while, and then asked: "What do you mean now...or should you take Nikan Wailan in?"
Gao pragmatic nodded and said very simply: "Yes."
"What should we do about Nurhachi's troops outside Fushun Pass?" Zhu Yijun said in a deep voice: "Qi Jin won't be angry for a moment and really go out to fight Nurhachi? I'm not afraid that he won't be able to defeat him, but I'm afraid that Nurhachi will be beaten. The whole Jianzhou is in turmoil. If Ye He and other troops also see the opportunity and start a fight together, it will be difficult to say whether Chahar can succeed..."
Gao pragmatically said: "On Nurhachi's side, I wrote a letter to warn him a few days ago. He should not dare to continue to take the initiative to provoke. However, when the emperor mentioned Ye He and other departments, this matter must be guarded against... What I mean is, Nurhaci may contact them secretly, but I haven’t had time to think about their specific plans yet.”
Zhu Yijun sighed: "It's hard for you. We are no longer Liaofu, but we are still planning for Liaodong."
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
