Early the next morning, an imperial edict came out from the Supervisor of Ceremonies. The Cabinet and the Sixth Section signed it and released it as quickly as possible. The edict was immediately sent to the Ministry of War.
On this day, the Minister of Rongzheng and the highly pragmatic manager of the Seven Towns did not stay at the Beijing Guards Camp, but sat on duty at the Ministry of War - waiting for this imperial edict.
The imperial edict was nothing more than the same style. He first talked about the tense situation in the northwest, then scolded the traitors for their treachery, then praised Gao Gongbao for his unparalleled talents, and finally ordered him to "supervise the military affairs in the northwest in his own capacity and as admiral in various capacities" before the new governor of the three sides takes office. , must act expediently, and the cabinet and the Ministry of War will not be controlled remotely."
This sentence is somewhat interesting. In theory, the first half of the sentence does not need to be explained, but it was specifically mentioned in the imperial edict.
Although the imperial edict may seem like a lot of nonsense, in fact every word must have its role. Gao Pragmatic is specially explained here as "supervising the northwest military affairs with his own duties and various duties", which actually means emphasizing his " He also holds various responsibilities."
In fact, there are many people who are highly pragmatic and hold various positions. For example, his palace protection job is also a position, but the palace protection is definitely not the focus here. The focus can only be on the real power positions, that is, "Associate Manager of the Beijing Camp, Zuo Shilang of the Rong Government and Military Department," The imperial censor of Youdu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the four towns of Jiliao and the third town of Xuanda, etc. are in charge of border affairs and also in charge of food and wages."
Gao Pingshi thought about it and found that the real emphasis in the imperial edict was probably not the Minister of Rongzheng or the Seven Towns' Strategy. Instead, it was the newly added "Right of the Metropolitan Procuratorate" that was added to him not long ago in order to match the Seven Towns' Strategy. Capital Censor".
This may seem a bit suspicious at first glance, but it’s not. After the restructuring of the Beijing camp, although the minister of Rongzheng had great power and a high actual status, and all the princes had to obey orders, in the final analysis, he was still just a third-rank official and a minister.
The governors of the three sides took office with the title of minister, whether it was Gao Guangxian before him or Wei Xuezeng who was about to take office.
In the two governor-general districts of Jiliao and Xuanda controlled by Gao Jingshi, Governor Zhou Yong of Jiliao also holds the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, but the current Governor-General of Xuanda, Zheng Luo, also holds the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, so Gao Jingshi has to manage the strategy Ji Liao and Xuanda had to add a censor from the right capital to avoid losing control of the situation - of course this was just the court's habit. In fact, both Zhou Yong and Zheng Luo were from the Real School, so there was no reason Don't give high pragmatism face.
Now that Gao Pangshi is going to supervise the military affairs in the northwest, most people will subconsciously think that he is going to supervise the northwest with the Seven Towns Strategy. However, the Seven Towns Strategy itself has no rank or rank, so the imperial edict names him and holds various positions. Among them, Gao Pangshi can be given various positions. The one who pragmatically improved the dignity of his title was the Right Capital Censor.
The censor of the right capital, the second rank, is on the same level as the censor of the left capital. Of course, in fact, the left is respected. The censor of the left capital is the leader of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, while the censor of the right capital is generally used to recommend gifts to the magistrates.
At the same time, due to the characteristics of the duties of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Gao Pingshi went to the northwest with the title of Youdu Censor, and had the special attribute of supervising the entire northwest officialdom, which was also a kind of weighting.
All in all, Zhu Yijun's words actually meant giving full power and handing over the overall situation of northwest China to one person, Gao Pragmatic.
Well, this is very Zhu Yijun. In the original history, Emperor Wanli also used this style of employment. Whether in border towns or in the center, he was very accustomed to this style.
Although the appointment of Gao Pragmatic this time was temporary, Zhu Yijun still maintained his habit. In addition to making it clear that Gao Pragmatic would supervise the northwest military affairs with "all duties", he also gave Shang Fangjian - really called this name. [Note: The record in "Ming Shilu" calls it Shang Fangjian, but there is no word "宝". ]
Along with the imperial edict given by Shang Fangjian, there is also a special explanation. The original text is "If the general does not kill him, he will be beheaded in front of the army without reporting it."
In other words, the heads of the generals who belong to the "Northwestern Military Affairs" are now in Gao Pangshi's hands. However, the status of civil servants was different. The imperial edict only mentioned military generals and did not mention civil servants.
After receiving the imperial edict and taking the sword, Gao pragmatic set out immediately, said goodbye to Liang Menglong, and took his "accompanying servants" to take office. In addition to the accompanying servants, there was also Zhu Yijun who had temporarily written it into the imperial edict for him to take office. Four thousand Praetorian Guards went there.
The establishment of the Imperial Guard is divided into five towns with more than 60,000 people. According to Gao Pragmatic's original plan, each town has a quota of 12,512 officers and soldiers, consisting of infantry, horse, artillery, engineering, baggage and other arms. Each town has a unified system. , deputy commander, chief of staff. Later, because the word "Zhi" in "control" could not be used casually after the Great Ceremony, it was directly changed to "Xietong" and "Deputy Xietong".
Each town has two infantry regiments, each with 4,038 officers and men; each regiment has two infantry regiments, with each regiment having 1,756 officers and men. (The horse regiment has slightly fewer officers and soldiers, 1,117.) name); each bid is divided into three battalions, each battalion has four companies, each company has three rows, each row has three sheds...and so on.
It stands to reason that when Gao Pingshi went to the northwest, he should be given cavalry troops, but I don't know if Zhu Yijun forgot or had other ideas, so he was given an infantry army of 4,038 people in total. Gao pragmatic himself estimated that the emperor's intention was probably to let him use the imperial guards as personal soldiers to show his honor.
The record of being the first to command the Imperial Guards to leave Beijing to perform military duties fell on Gao Pragmatic. But thinking about it in reverse, it is not wrong. After all, he is the founder of the Imperial Guards and is qualified to enjoy this opportunity. Record.
The Imperial Guard sent out four thousand, and the accompanying servants were only slightly less than this number, a total of three thousand. Because Gao Pingshi usually only places so many armed servants around the capital.
Three thousand servants, which in many places are almost at the level of a general soldier, are nothing to Gao Panggang. The servants he brings now are only for the officials in Beijing to see. In fact, he is in There are many armed servants on the three northwest sides, especially the cavalry. It's just that these servants were relatively scattered before. For example, Cao Gan brought three thousand cavalry and waited in Lanzhou.
Of course, now it seems that Cao Gan is about to make a move. With the changes in the northwest, there is no point in him staying in Lanzhou to wait for the army - who knows when the army will be free to go to Lanzhou.
The first step of the highly pragmatic march route is to go straight to Datong. But speaking of going straight, due to the current road conditions, the so-called direct march still has to go through Xuanfu. The whole journey is about 700 miles. If they are all infantry, it will take more than ten days to walk there.
But the Imperial Guards brought out by Gao Pragmatic are unusual. They have horses for transportation. The only difference from the cavalry is that their horses are not war horses and are only used for transportation. Moreover, there are no double horses. One horse, no spare parts.
As for the servants of the Gao family, needless to say, Gao Jingshi had already dispatched them some time ago. These 3,000 people were all cavalry. In addition to one person and two cavalry, they also brought 500 "reserves", and now they are also temporarily responsible. Check out the "Horse Reserve" mission of the Imperial Guard.
The training syllabus for the Gao family's servants was originally compiled by Qi Jiguang based on high pragmatic requirements. Now the training requirements of the Imperial Guard are also very high, so both armies have more than 7,000 horsemen who can run quite well - the training standards of both sides are consistent. One hundred and forty miles a day.
This speed is not a result of high pragmatism. It is the result of Qi Jiguang's rigorous research based on the endurance of the Ming army's horses. In fact, it is basically the same as the speed of Xiahou Yuan's cavalry during the Three Kingdoms period. 3a reading network
At that time, Xia Houyuan's troops were famous for their speed. They were known as "five hundred in three days and one thousand in six days." When converted into Han rulers, it was almost 140 miles a day.
Now Gao pragmatic was also moving at this speed and arrived in Datong on the afternoon of the fifth day. At this time, Ma Gui was all ready. Among the 20,000 troops under his command, there were about 5,000 Ma family elite soldiers, and the entire army was ready to go.
But although Gao Pragmatic's time is tight, he will not rush at night, because others may be able to bear it, but the artillery team cannot. Even with Jinghua's special artillery carriage with a spring chassis, the "horse-drawn cannon" can run at cavalry speed throughout the journey. I am also extremely tired, and normal rest is completely necessary.
So he slept outside Datong that night, and Gao Pragmatic himself didn't even enter the city.
If he didn't enter the city, Datong officials had to go out of the city to see him. So everyone from the Datong governor, the Datong garrison eunuch to Ma Gui, the Datong general soldier, had no choice but to go out of the city to see the manager.
The current governor of Datong is an old acquaintance. He is Gao Gong's disciple Gu Yangqian, who was born as a Jinshi in the 44th year of Jiajing. In the original history, Gu Yangqian was promoted from Jizhou Bingbeidao to governor of Liaodong in the 14th year of Wanli. However, in this life, because of his pragmatic little butterfly wings, he did not go to Liaodong and became governor of Datong instead.
But it doesn't matter. The importance of the governor of Datong and the governor of Liaodong is not much different. Gu Yangqian is still one of the important foreign officials of the Practical School. As for the Datong garrison eunuch, he still belongs to Huang Mengyu - Huang Zhangyin attaches great importance to the position he started from, so since he returned to Beijing, the Datong garrison eunuch has always been from his faction.
The current Datong garrison eunuch is also one of Huang Mengyu's "godsons", but Gao Pragmatic doesn't pay much attention to the specific situation. The guarding eunuch also kept a low profile in front of Gao Jingshi. I don’t know if Huang Mengyu had an explanation. In short, he basically treated himself as a decoration and allowed Gao Jingshi to discuss military affairs with Gu Yangqian and Ma Gui. From beginning to end, he said nothing No one ever interrupted.
Gu Yangqian was a little worried that Gao Jingshi only took 20,000 people from Datong, because he already knew that Gao Jingshi and the Communist Party only planned to mobilize 30,000 people from the third town of Xuanda. He felt that this number was too small - even if he added Four thousand Praetorian Guards are too few.
According to what Guo Yangqian said, Datong has been recuperating for more than ten years. Let alone 20,000 people, it can be easily mobilized by doubling it to 40,000 people. As for defense issues... To the north of Datong is the Tumut headquarters, which is more than ten thousand people. Nothing happened in the year, and the king of Shunyi Han Naji was a die-hard supporter of the Ming Dynasty. As long as he was around, Datong was simply impregnable.
Even if Tumen comes to kill him, he doesn't even know if he can win a Tumote fight. How can he have the energy to attack Datong? Taking a step back, even if Tumen really defeated Tumut, Datong would still have 70,000 to 80,000 troops left at this time. It may be difficult to attack, but can it still be defended? What's more, Xuanfu is not far to the east. It and Datong are at each other's horns. Datong has police, and Xuanfu must have support... In short, the two towns of Xuanda and Datong are not afraid of Tumen coming.
Gao Pragmatic was quite pleased with Gu Yangqian's confidence. Once upon a time, the Ming Dynasty's confidence in the Mongols had already collapsed, especially when Anda launched the Gengshu Revolution. Most of the frontier generals were timid when facing Anda. Many people almost fled when they saw the Mongolian cavalry. Now this situation has Completely turned around.
It seems that the thinking back then was correct. Troops such as the frontier army cannot follow the beggar line. Only good soldiers can be trained with well-equipped equipment and adequate food and clothing - especially in a period of overall peace.
However, when Gao Pragmatic expressed this attitude, Ma Gui had different opinions.
The mainstay of the Majia Army at this time sighed and said: "The commander-in-chief doesn't know. Although the Datong frontier army now has enough to eat compared to the past, and has time to practice on weekdays, this army has been in peace for a long time. , without fighting for more than ten years...the general is still worried that they will be worn down."
Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "What you said makes sense, but you can't just rely on guesswork. You have to fight to find out whether it is effective or not - isn't this opportunity coming now? Xiquan, You are the main force in this battle, and I hope you will do your best to let me have a look at the current situation of the Datong frontier army. This will be of great reference value for the next...well, it is also of great reference value, do you understand?"
Ma Gui hurriedly clasped his fists and said: "General, I understand that I must fight hard. Firstly, I will live up to the high expectations of the shogunate. Secondly, it will also allow the shogunate to accurately assess the true strength of the Datong frontier army."
Gao pragmatic nodded and said to Gu Yangqian: "Senior Brother Yiqing..."
"What are your orders, Brother Shi?"
One calls him senior brother and the other calls him world brother. This means they are friends with each other based on their high-level relationship. In other words, they have some personal things to talk about.
The guarding eunuch and Ma Gui stood up at the same time, both saying that they had important matters and needed to leave first.
Gao pragmatically confessed his crime to Gu Yangqian, stood up and sent them out of the camp, then came back to talk to Gu Yangqian.
"Senior Brother Yiqing, there are two biggest problems in sending troops this time: first, I only have more than a month to stay in the northwest, so the battle must be carried out quickly; second, the imperial treasury no longer has enough money to support a big war. The money I brought with me this time was all squeezed out of the emperor's internal funds, and it currently only has 200,000 taels."
When Gu Yangqian heard this, he immediately frowned: "I knew the imperial court was nervous about spending money, but I didn't expect it to be this tense. To be honest, do you want to ask Datong Town if they can get some money out?"
Gao Pingshi sighed, but still nodded and said: "Yes, I do have this intention, but Senior Brother Yiqing doesn't have to be too embarrassed, just take it as much as you can."
Gu Yangqian nodded and did not answer immediately. Instead, he thought about it carefully and then said slowly: "This matter is a bit unexpected for me, so I didn't make much preparation in advance. Right now... I mean I can guarantee one hundred thousand taels of silver that can be delivered immediately. As for the next step, there may be a little more, but I'm afraid it won't be too much. Please take a look..."
"Then let's start with one hundred thousand taels. This money should be enough to deal with Boshu Ketu's side." Gao pragmatically said decisively.
Gu Yangqian was stunned: "What do you mean by asking for truth?"
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