Under the seemingly simple but sharp-shooting alienation plan, the situation in Ningxia City became very dramatic.
The news of Kuai Chengen's mobilization of troops was immediately learned by Tu Wenxiu, a close confidant of Kuai Bai. Since Tu Wenxiu's residence was close to Kuai Chengen's, and he had a good relationship with Kuai Chengen, he did not go to Kuai Bai first, but went directly to Kuai Chengen to inquire about the situation.
Chengen didn't know that Tu Wenxiu had previously had the idea of forming his own group. When an old friend came to visit, he revealed the plan without saying a word and encouraged Tu Wenxiu to join him.
Just imagine, how could Tu Wenxiu, a person who had begun to consider his own options when the situation was still unclear, still have the confidence to hang on this tree now that the rebels are besieging Ningxia? After he heard that Gao pragmatic not only promised to let Kuai Bai and his son find a way out of their lives, but also promised to stay in Ningxia forever, he couldn't help but be overjoyed and agreed to work with Kuai Chengen on the spot.
The reason why Tu Wenxiu was so happy was not just because Gao Pragmatic had excellent reputation, but because he thought he saw the reason why Gao Pragmatic did what he did. what reason? The imperial court was short of money, and it was a serious and urgent shortage.
Regarding this point, in fact, he had already figured it out on the way back to Ningxia. The reason is not complicated, and there are many clues to see it.
First of all, the troops mobilized by Gao Pragmatic this time were abnormal. Excluding Liaodong, there are nearly 700,000 troops around the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Faced with the critical situation of the chaos in the northwest, Gao Pragmatic actually led only more than 30,000 troops and less than 40,000 troops on the expedition. This is not the consistent behavior of the imperial court. The most likely reason is that the imperial court has no money, so it does not dare to mobilize. Too many troops.
Secondly, Gao Pragmatic's style of play this time is also different from his past style. According to his past style, he is actually a very cautious person, and insists that "a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall", let alone charging into battle, he will definitely not do it, even if the front line is only slightly dangerous, he himself is Those who won't show up will only stay behind to coordinate and direct.
But this time he actually put himself in danger and personally led an army to hang out in the Hetao to lure Boshu Ketu to take the bait. This was very abnormal. Although Boshu Ketu has been severely defeated now, we must know that in a field battle in the wilderness, no one dares to say that he will definitely defeat the Mongols. Even if the fighting power is obviously superior, the Mongols can still run away if they cannot fight - Chengzu's five expeditions This kind of thing happened to Mobei all the time, so although the Five Expeditions on Mobei seemed to be overwhelming, it actually failed to do anything to the Mongols.
Gao Pangshi's troops are also mainly infantry, and they will definitely not be able to outrun the Mongols. This means that if they win, they may not gain much, and if they lose, they will almost be killed in a hurry. However, even in such a situation, he was still willing to use himself as bait to catch the big fish Boshu Ketu. The reason is obvious: he was very eager to capture Boshu Ketu in one fell swoop and force the Ordos troops to Get out of the war.
But there is a more hidden problem here: So what if Gao pragmatism ignores Boshu Ketu?
Boshu Ketu's troops are cavalry, and they have no means of siege. Since the Ming Dynasty does not lack troops, as long as Gao Pragmatic has money and food, he can ignore Boshu Ketu and directly mobilize several armies. When Ningxia was besieged, Boshu Ketu had no good solution. He could only stare at the more than 100,000 Ming troops under the city.
However, Gao Pragmatic chose the most unnecessary battle. Not only did he personally act as bait, but he even used personal connections to mobilize Tuotuo to come (this was Tu Wenxiu's personal judgment, and the reason was that Tu Wenxiu's tribute conditions at that time were too great for Tuo Tuo to come). Mert does not assume the obligation to help Ming fight). Not satisfied with this, Gao Pragmatic also drew Ilduzi over in order to quickly defeat Boshu Ketu and allow the Ordos Department to withdraw from the war as soon as possible.
Why do this? There may be more than one reason, for example, fear of Tumen Khan's intervention may be one of them, but Tu Wenxiu believes that the biggest reason why Gao Pragmatic did this is not because he is worried about Tumen Khan, but because he knows that the Ming Dynasty cannot afford a long-term siege of Ningxia. war.
If Ningxia is regarded as Luoyang, which was besieged by Li Shimin in the late Sui Dynasty, then Boshu Ketu is actually equivalent to Dou Jiande. As long as this "Dou Jiande" is still outside and ready to rescue at any time, "Wang Shichong" in "Luoyang" city will have the confidence to continue If they stick to it, "Wang Shichong"'s men will not have their own ideas out of despair.
In other words, as long as Boshu Ketu's elite soldiers are still wandering around, Ningxia City will have the confidence to hold on. However, when Gao Pragmatic came to Ningxia this time, he obviously lacked artillery and could only choose to besieged for a long time.
Therefore, Gao's pragmatic choice was actually the same as that of Li Shimin, treating the Hurihuliang ambush battle as the battle of Hulao Pass, first knocking out the strong reinforcements, and then forcing surrender with victory!
Judging from the situation in Ningxia City, Tu Wenxiu had to admit that Gao Pragmatic's move was indeed very effective.
A military wizard in later generations of China once proposed in his writings, "Whether you win or lose, just don't make peace with it." This view is very suitable for a country with a vast territory like China, but the Kuaibai rebels in Ningxia obviously cannot do it. of. They do not have the conditions to "trade space for time", let alone such a far-sighted strategic vision.
Therefore, when Boshu Ketu, the reinforcement they had high hopes for, failed, the Ningxia rebels' courage to fight against the imperial court had actually disappeared long ago under the pressure of the official army and the encirclement from all sides.
However, for Tu Wenxiu at this moment, understanding Gao Pragmatic's hidden worries no longer makes much sense. The only function is to make him believe that Gao Pragmatic's promise should be true: a long-term siege may lead to more troubles, then Of course, the matter in Ningxia should be settled as soon as possible. Forced surrender is the best option. As for giving such generous conditions to Yu Kuaibai and his son, it is just an accessory.
After all, from Tu Wenxiu's point of view, handing over Ningxia to Yijiayong Town has nothing to do with his high pragmatism. He is a civilian official. As long as he retains the governors of the three sides and the governor of Ningxia, it doesn't matter who becomes the commander-in-chief of Ningxia. Anyway, whoever serves as the commander-in-chief must obey the governor and the governor-unless you rebel again, but that is already someone else's business. You can't rely on his high pragmatism.
Since he believed that Gao Jingshi was sincerely trying to persuade him to surrender, Tu Wenxiu was no longer polite. When he returned to the mansion, he began to take active action, deploying troops and generals to prepare to cooperate with Chi Chengen to attack the generals who were not direct descendants of the Chi family.
However, Tu Wenxiu was careless this time. He didn't know that when he went to Pinglu City, Liu Dongyang, the "General Soldier of Ningxia", took the opportunity to quietly plant a spy in his house. At this time, Liu Dongyang could know everything about Tu Wenxiu's every move in just half an hour.
As the first of the "Four Battalions" who rebelled with Kuaibai at that time, Liu Dongyang had a deep foundation in Ningxia, otherwise he would not have been appointed as the "General Soldier of Ningxia" by Kuaibai - you must know that Kuaibai's rebels were originally Only one Ningxia town was controlled. Liu Dongyang's status and strength were second only to Kuaibai among the rebels.
Liu Dongyang not only discovered the strange behavior of Tu Wenxiu, but also quickly discovered the strange behavior of Kuai Chengen. And Zhou Zhe was right. Gao Pragmatic sent more than one lobbyist, and Liu Dongyang also had one, and Liu Dongyang was moved by his words.
At this moment, Liu Dongyang discovered that Yi Chengen and Tu Wenxiu really did not miss their old relationship, and naturally they would not be polite. He immediately mobilized troops to kill Tu Wenxiu's house.
At this time, Tu Wenxiu was still mobilizing troops, and there was not much defense in the house. More than 200 servants and the whole family, including himself, were quickly killed to death, and Tu Wenxiu's head was also cut off by Liu Dongyang. It's gone, and only the regret of "unfulfilled ambition" will linger forever.
At this time, Kuai Chengen also took action, but his "division of labor" was different from Tu Wenxiu's at that time, so he killed Xu Chao's house first. At this time, Xu Chao had just received urgent information from someone sent by Liu Dongyang. Since he didn't have many soldiers at his residence, he happened to be on his way to the military camp, but was blocked by Kuai Chengen. 168
There is nothing to say about the result. Xu Chao was hacked to death on the spot. Kuai Chengen stepped forward and cut off his head, which was so severe that his face could only be vaguely distinguished. He ordered the man to hang it high on the city tower, and at the same time, he went to Liu Dongyang. Go in the direction where you are.
A fierce fight broke out between Kuai Chengen's troops and Liu Dongyang's troops, which lasted for nearly two hours. In the end, the Cangtou army of the Kuai family was more powerful and defeated Liu Dongyang's troops. Yi Chengen followed suit and hung Liu Dongyang's head on the tower, and then sent people out of the city to discuss surrender with Gao Pragmatic - of course, the rhetoric was not surrender, but reform.
The negotiations between the two armies will not be discussed for the time being, because on the day when civil strife broke out in Ningxia City, there were major events that happened elsewhere that must be mentioned.
On this day, Tumen sent troops.
However, Tumen's direction of sending troops may have surprised everyone. He neither sent troops to conquer Tumote westward nor took advantage of the Ming Dynasty's financial difficulties to pull out the nail in Daning City. The Eastern Expedition was launched inexplicably, and the target of the Eastern Expedition was even more strange, it turned out to be the Ye He tribe.
This is so strange. When did the Mongols become interested in the Yehe tribe to which the Haixi Jurchens belonged?
But don't worry, Tumen Khan was not the only one to launch the war on the same day, there was also a Jurchen leader who had been very high-spirited recently - Nurhaci.
On this day, Nurhachi also launched a war, targeting the Hada tribe. The reason he launched the war was that Menggebulu was responsible for the death of his father-in-law, Nurhaci.
Ah, this...didn't you kill your father-in-law yourself? Why is it Meng Gebulu's turn to be responsible?
However, Nurhachi has always been a very reasonable person. His method of reasoning is mainly to make the other party unable to reason. This matter is easy to handle: just kill him, dead people cannot be reasoned with.
Tumen and Nurhachi raised troops together. This is obviously not a coincidence. Yes, this matter is part of Burihatu's grand strategy.
According to Burihatu's conception, or what he said to Nurhachi, Ye He had already formed a deadly feud with the Jianzhou Zuowei because of the deaths of Qing Jiali and Yang Jiniao, and they would have to fight each other sooner or later in the future. The reason why there is no movement from Ye He's side now is simply that Ye He has not recovered from the last loss. Once they regain their strength, the first target to be operated on will definitely be you, Nurhachi.
The reason is obvious: let Ye He seek revenge against the Ming Dynasty, even if they are ten brave men, they would not dare to do so. The only person they dare to make plans for is you, Nurhachi. As for why they didn't find Meng Gebulu of Hada, the reason is the same: Hada was originally a puppet introduced by the Ming Dynasty. What's the difference between them beating Hada and beating the Ming Dynasty? You beat up someone else's son, but the other person's father won't beat you up?
But this alone is not enough to convince Nurhachi, because Nurhaci also knows that he has just been warned by Gao Pragmatic. Although he quickly withdrew his troops after receiving the letter, his previous actions may have left a bad impression on Gao Pragmatic. Impression, it's best to be nice at this moment and don't jump out and cause trouble.
However, Burihatu's envoy told Nurhachi that there was a greater benefit for Mongolia and Jianzhou to join forces to attack Yehe and Hada, and this benefit was trade routes.
As long as Chahar defeated and annexed Yehe, and Nurhachi defeated and annexed Hada, then the trade routes for Liaodong's specialties would be monopolized by both of them, and the Ming Dynasty would no longer be able to obtain Liaodong's goods without going through them.
Now that the Ming Dynasty is short of money, it is definitely not willing to cut off the Liaodong trade route. By then, Mongolia and Jianzhou will no longer have to rush to beg the Ming Dynasty to open tribute markets as they did in the past. Instead, it will be the Ming Dynasty's turn to rush to trade with them.
As for how to distribute the benefits of this trade route, Burihatu did not bully others or deliberately treat Nurhaci harshly. He said that in principle, Chahar could monopolize the antler and fur trade, while Jianzhou mainly monopolized the ginseng trade - that is, the Mongolians The nearby "Beiguan" has a deer antler and fur market, and the "Nanguan" near Jianzhou has a ginseng market.
Under this situation, even if the Mongolians have ginseng, they still have to go to Nanguan to trade, while the Jurchens have deer antlers and furs, and they have to come to Beiguan to trade.
Although it seems that the Mongols have mastered the trade of deer antlers and furs, since deer antlers and furs did not form a complete monopoly on the Ming Dynasty, the profits are not higher than those of ginseng, which has an almost complete monopoly. Therefore, this idea is generally not feasible for Nurhaci. It's still very fair, and Nurhachi can completely accept it from the bottom of his heart.
But Nurhachi also has other worries, that is, once the Ming Dynasty comes to his senses, what will happen if Gao Pragmatic comes to attack?
Nurhaci is really afraid of Gao Jingshi. Whether in terms of intelligence or strength, Nurhachi now has an obvious fear of Gao Jingshi. This was when Gao Jingshi made the original plan to kill Ye He Erbeile. formed, and this fear is now even worse than his fear of Li Chengliang.
However, Burihatu gave a comfort and promise. His envoy told Nurhachi that the Ming Dynasty was currently in chaos in the northwest, and it would take time to recover even after it was calmed down. Moreover, the main enemy of Ming Dynasty has always been Mongolia, to be precise, their Mongolian left wing. Since the Mongolian left wing also launched an attack on Ye He in this battle, even if Ming Dynasty wants to retaliate in the future, it will definitely look for them first. It will never be possible to look for them first. Nurhaci.
And once that time comes, even if you, Nurhaci, go to the Ming Dynasty to surrender, Mongolia will not blame you. Presumably, at that time, it is impossible for the Ming Dynasty not to accept your surrender. So what do you have to worry about?
After hearing this, Nurhaci felt that it made sense, and he was really itchy about controlling the trade routes proposed by Burihatu, so he agreed. As for why Ming took the initiative to seek trade with them, he didn't have much hope, and he also knew that even if there was such a day, it would only happen after Ming found that it was impossible to defeat them and restored Ye He and Hada. It was too early to think about that now. Too early.
What we should do now is to take advantage of the chaos in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty and conquer Ye He and Hada first!
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