The Ming Dynasty, which has just entered May, can be considered a mixed blessing.
First, good news came from Ningxia. The Ningxia rebels broke out in civil strife under Gao Pragmatic's plan to alienate them. Kuai Bai and his son first killed Liu Dongyang, Xu Chao and other generals, and then Kuai Chengen had a dispute with Kuai Bai over whether to surrender. Cheng En attempted to kill his father, but was killed by Kuai Bai instead.
At the same time, the officers and soldiers, who had maintained a general grasp of the situation in the city, launched a fierce attack. People in Ningxia City were panicked and everyone had their own opinions. Some people opened the city gate in panic and surrendered, selling Kuaibai completely.
Of course, these people are not sold out to a certain extent, because they themselves are the remnants of Kuai Chengen. They think that they will die, so it is better to open the city and see if they can get "lenient treatment".
So Gao pragmatically commanded the army to enter the city. The rebels had already fallen apart and did not organize any decent resistance at all. They were quickly killed and retreated into the inner city.
Although Ningxia is also called a fortified city, it is not as good as Datong. Although the outer city is tall and solid, the inner city is much inferior, especially because there is no moat. The artillery can almost fire at close range. It is bombarded by Gao Pragmatically mobilized artillery. After a long time, the city gate was broken.
Originally, although the city gate was broken at that time, the breach was a bit high and it was not convenient to enter. The bombardment should have continued. Unexpectedly, Kuaibai's rebellious army was frightened at this time. When they saw that the city gate was broken, they dispersed and continued to retreat towards Kuaibai's mansion.
Now that we're in this situation, there's nothing nice to say, just a fight and that's it.
Ma Gui, who was in charge of commanding the artillery attack at that time, was slightly behind. Dong Yikui, the commander-in-chief of Yansui, asked him to fight first. After receiving Gao Pragmatic's approval, he immediately ordered his younger brother Dong Yiyuan to personally command his servants to attack the enemy.
Brothers Dong Yikui and Dong Yiyuan were congratulating themselves on getting a military exploit. The Ma family's top soldiers under Ma Gui took advantage of the situation to cover up and kill them, and went straight to Kuaibai Mansion. The second Dong took a closer look and saw that it was indeed Ma Chengzhao who was leading the troops. The two brothers looked at each other and smiled, but did not step forward to grab the credit.
One thing to mention here is that the Ma Gui family was born in Datong Youwei and had a very close relationship with the Dong family, who was born in Xuanfu. From a family perspective, the two families were even related by marriage. Dong Yikui, Dong Yiyuan and Ma Gui were of the same generation, and they saw Ma Chengzhao as the younger generation. They relied on their status, so naturally they couldn't compete with their juniors for credit.
In fact, the marriage relationship between the generals of the frontier commanders is very close, especially the generals in the same area (the same area here is generally limited to the governor-general area, but Jiliao is a bit unique, Liaodong can almost be listed separately), not only the Ma family The same goes for the Dong family and the Ma family, another Xuan family under Gao Pingshi.
For example, according to the "Epitaph of Ming Gaofeng's Lady Shi's Family Buried Together", it is recorded that on February 5, 1898, Mrs. Shi died. The wife is the match of General Lanxi Magongfang...according to the law, the wife's surname is Shi. When his father was promoted to an official, his handsome mother Liu Shiyang and Wei Huaweiye... gave birth to three children: Changdong, a minister of the Central Military Governor's Mansion, married the daughter of Qi Qian, a counselor of the Qi family; Ci Chun, who died early, married the Wang family, the general of the army. Honored daughter; Ci Lin, deputy commander-in-chief of the left guard of Datong, married the daughter of Sun Xiance, the capital secretary of the Sun family.
Nine grandsons: Ying, married to the daughter of Tongjian Wen Dengkui of the Wen family; Bing, married to the remaining daughter of the Hao family; Huan, married to the daughter of Ni Shangzhong, the Ni family's general soldier; Guang, still young, both born; Ye, married The name of the Wang family is the daughter of Wang Junmin of the Yuan Dynasty; the name is Yi, the daughter of Jiao Chengxun, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Jiao family; the daughter of Jiong, the daughter of Wanhuafu, the counselor of the Wan family; the daughter of Xuan, the ancestral daughter of Qi Guang, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Qi family; the name Huang is still young. Ju Lin comes out.
Ninth granddaughter: Chang Shi, Commander-in-Chief Ma Guizi, inherited the clan, and the second Xu Jinyiwei commander Zhou Xikou's eldest son, Yu was still young, was born in Judong; The second son of Huang Mingchen, the commander-in-chief, Yu Shangyou came out of Julin.
According to the inscription, Mrs. Shi was the wife of Ma Fang, a native of Yanghewei, Shanxi. She was born in the fourth year of Jiajing and died in the twenty-seventh year of Wanli at the age of seventy-four. The inscription calls Shi's mother "Yanghe Wei Hua Zhou Ye". Hua Zhou means that she came from a noble family. Ma Fang was appointed to Yanghe Wei in the early days. At that time, he performed bravely and had an obvious upward trend, so it was reasonable to marry the daughter of a prominent family in Wei. The inscription also mentions the marriage relationship of Ma Fang's third son, ninth grandson and ninth granddaughter.
Among them, Ma Dong married Qi Qian's daughter. According to Guangxu's "Yizhou Chronicles", Qi Qian was a Weizhou guard. He was a member of the Jiajing Yimaoke (1555) martial arts examination and later served as a guerrilla general.
Ma Chun married the daughter of Wang Guoxun (the former chief soldier of the Xuanfu who was recently arranged to retire by Gao Pragmatic and replaced by Ma Chengen due to old age). According to Qianlong's "Xuanhua Prefecture Chronicles", Wang Guoxun was a member of the Kaiping Guards in the eighth year of Wanli. He was first appointed as the chief military officer of Shanxi, and in the twelfth year of Wanli, he was appointed as the chief military officer of Xuanzhen.
Ma Lin married Sun Xiance's daughter. According to Jiajing's "Xuanfu Town Chronicles", Sun Xiance was from Guangchang. In the 35th year of Jiajing's reign, he served as the commander and garrison officer.
The eldest grandson Ma Ying married Wen Dengkui's daughter. According to Wanli's "Su Zhen Huayi Zhi", Wen Dengkui was from Guangling, Shanxi Province. He was originally a supervisor and later served as the general magistrate of Suzhou.
Sun Ma Bing married the daughter of Hao Jie, who was born in Yuzhou. He was a Jinshi in the 35th year of Jiajing (1556). He served successively as the Right Minister of the Ministry of War, the Governor of Ji, Liao and Baoding Military Affairs, and the Censor of Youdu, and finally served as the Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing.
Sun Mahuan married Ni Shangzhong's daughter. According to Wanli's "Baoding Prefecture Chronicles", Ni Shangzhong was a guard at Longmen of Xuanfu. In the 19th year of Wanli, he was appointed as the governor of Zuofu and later served as the general commander of Baoding Prefecture.
Sun Maye married Wang Junmin's daughter, but her identity is unknown.
Sun Ma Yi hired Jiao Chengxun's daughter. According to Shunzhi's "Yunzhong County Chronicles", Jiao Chengxun was a member of the Datong Guards. He served as the Chief Soldier of Datong during the Wanli Period, and his father Jiao Ze served as the Chief Soldier of Datong during the Jiajing Period.
Sun Majiong hired Wanhuafu's daughter. According to Tongzhi's "Hequ County Chronicle", Wanhuafu was a native of Pianguan County. During the Wanli period, she served as the general of Datong Middle Road, the general of Shanxi Hequ, the general of Shenmu, and the general of Dezhou Camp, and was later promoted to Zun. Hua Zongjun.
Sun Maxuan married Qi Guang's ancestral daughter. According to Qianlong's "Xuanhua Mansion Chronicles", Qi Guang was from Yuzhou and served as the deputy chief soldier of Laoyingbao.
The daughters of Ma Dong and Ma Lin were betrothed to Ma Gui's two sons, Ma Chengzong and Ma Chengxuan respectively. His son-in-law Xie Jisheng was the commander-in-chief Xie Jisheng's son. Xie Sheng once accompanied Ma Gui to aid the DPRK to fight against the Japanese, but was defeated and died in Liaodong.
The granddaughter married the second son of Commander-in-Chief Huang Mingchen. According to Qianlong's "Xuanhua Prefecture Annals", Huang Mingchen was originally from Pengze. He occupied Xuanfu in the early Ming Dynasty and was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of Shanxi Province from a thousand households. The eldest son of Jin Yiwei commander Zhou Ximou (the identity of this person is unknown and no information has been found).
All in all, the characteristics of this kind of marriage relationship are obvious: firstly, the scope, which is generally limited to the same governor-general; secondly, the identity, mainly from families who are also generals, and very few can also marry civil servants, but the number is small; Finally, there is the network. The network here refers to the formation of an intricate "marriage network" by marrying each other.
It can also be seen from this that after entering the chaotic times of the late Ming Dynasty in original history, some generals were able to respond to one call and represent the entire local generals as a family. There is one reason why - the in-law relationship formed over the years.
After all, a general is not a noble person. It is normal for a certain family's general to be relatively weak in a certain generation. This is the case in your family and the same is true in my family. But it is also possible that this situation will be turned upside down just because there is someone capable of fighting in the next generation. Therefore, the generals will probably take care of each other, so that no one will look at each other seriously when their family declines in the future, and there will be no chance of recovery - I have to say, this is quite typical of the entertainment industry of later generations.
In the same way, after Gao Jingshi selected Xuanda General as his direct descendant in his early years, only Liu Xian and Liu Wei and his son were the exceptions for a long time. There were no other additions until he was appointed to Liaodong last time. How many generals are there? Why?
The reason why the direct lineage is the direct lineage is that their treatment is different from that of ordinary people. As a superior, high pragmatism needs to ensure that you can afford to give them what they need, so that you can truly conquer them.
In the early years, the focus of Gao Gong and Gao Pragmatic's work in the Jiubian area was to implement the "West Huai East System", and they had just advanced to the "West Huai" stage. At this stage, the most critical border town is the third town of Xuanda, so conquering the representative generals of the third town of Xuanda is the meaning of the title, whether it is the Ma family or the Ma family, including the Zhang family, Dong family, etc. , were all selected by Gao's uncle and nephew because of this strategy, and were quickly taken under his command.
After the Monan War, the court's focus began to shift eastward, and "Eastern System" was gradually put on the agenda. Even Gao Pragmatic himself requested an order to go to Liaodong.
At this time, of course, he would start to consider recruiting a new group of direct descendants. However, at that time, Liaodong was dominated by the Li family in Tieling. Due to various reasons, Gao Jingshi was unable to control Li Chengliang according to his requirements, so he had to find another way to rescue Cao Yun from prison. At the same time, he selected a few from the tribesmen in southern Liaoning and reluctantly formed a new group under his command. The faction-may be called the Gaodang Liaodong General Gate, to be distinguished from the Gaodang Xuan General Gate.
However, at this time, Gao Dang's Liaodong generals clearly lacked strength in front of Li Chengliang - mainly due to insufficient status - so Gao Pragmatic chose to keep Ma Dong, Ma Cheng'en, Ma Chengxun and others in Liaodong to cooperate with Cao Yu to maintain the situation. . After Qi Jin was transferred to Liaodong, Gao Pragmatic transferred Ma Chengen back to Xuanfu.
There was no fooling around in all of this, they were all very prudent choices based on the objective conditions at the time.
Gao Jingshi regained Ningxia in less than a month, which was of course a great blessing for the imperial court. You must know that the new governor of the three sides, Wei Xuezeng, had not even arrived yet. He came from Nanjing just after that. After arriving at Tongguan, we haven’t even reached Xi’an yet.
Moreover, the imperial court also received a memorial from Gao Jingshi a few days ago, and knew that Gao Jingshi had sufficient arrangements for brothers Huo Luochi and Jilitu. At this time, Zhuang Langwei not only had Liu Chengsi, the commander-in-chief of Gansu Province, personally in charge, Li Rusong's reinforcements had also arrived. In addition, Gao Pragmatic even sent them 50,000 Mongolian cavalry - the opponent could only have this number at most. . It is equivalent to all the departments of the Ming army having more parts than the Huo Luochi brothers.
Although the battle report over there has not been sent yet, at least on paper, there is no reason for Zhuang Langwei to lose the battle.
The imminent settlement of the northwest is obviously good news. However, what the court did not expect at all was the move of the Mongolian left-wing Chahar tribe. Tumen Khan neither conquered Tumote in the west nor took the opportunity to "recover" Daning. Instead, Inexplicably launched an offensive against the Jurchens in Liaodong.
First, Yang Siwei, the commander-in-chief of Ji Town who was guarding Daning, sent a military report saying that the Tumen had set off from Chahanhot and that the entire army had taken away about 40,000 or 60,000 cavalry. Although they were heading east, they Yang Siwei still judged that this was Burihatu's "old suspicion formation" and said that he would strengthen his defense. At the same time, he also asked the court to strengthen defense on the front line of the Great Wall.
The imperial court basically recognized his judgment, and not only ordered the strengthening of defenses along the Great Wall, but also made the Imperial Guards ready to fight at any time.
However, when there were less than three people, new news came. The Tumen army did not kill any carbine, but went straight to northern Liaoning, bypassed the northernmost Kaiyuan section of the Liaodong Great Wall, and broke into Yehe territory.
This news came from Liaodong. From the governor Li Song and the commander-in-chief Li Chengliang to the deputy commander-in-chief Cao Yu and the Kaiyuan general Ma Chengxun, they all wrote memorials and analyzed the Tumen's move from their respective standpoints. After a while, they all said that they had strengthened their defenses and would not let the old Tumen thieves' "surround attack" plan succeed - Liaodong still believed that Tumen's move was aimed at the Ming Dynasty.
Well, perhaps in the eyes of both the government and the army in Liaodong, since the Ming Dynasty's goal is only Mongolia, Mongolia's goal should of course be only the Ming Dynasty. Who are the Jurchens, and they deserve to get involved? When two tigers are fighting, there is no such thing as a dog!
However, Zhu Yijun had a different view from the cabinet. He felt that the tiger in the Mongolian Chahar tribe had lost weight and his teeth were not in good condition. Could he go to the Jurchens to plunder and replenish himself? Or even...occupy the territory of the Jurchens?
The reason why Zhu Yijun had such an idea that even the ministers would not think about was because when he was a child, he heard Gao Pingshi mention that Liaodong was not only "familiar land" within the Great Wall. In fact, there were other lands outside Liaodong. Lots of good land. Especially a place that Gao Jingshi called the "Songnen Plain", and Gao Jingshi called it a God-given "excellent soil". He said that the land there is extremely fertile. If it can be developed and utilized, "it will be no less than Yu Huguang".
There is nothing wrong with Gao Pragmatic's words. The grain output of the three northeastern provinces in later generations is obvious to all. However, Gao Pragmatic had an ulterior motive when he said this. He was deliberately leading the young emperor to have thoughts about the Northeast, and he deliberately did not mention issues such as the extreme cold in the Northeast during the Little Ice Age. As for issues such as cultivating cold-resistant rice suitable for planting in the cold regions of Northeast China, he would not even talk about it.
Zhu Yijun didn't know this, so an idea suddenly came to him at this time: I heard that Burihatu was also learning from Tumote, and advised them to use the Han people they had plundered in the early years to start reclamation. Is it possible that he also took a fancy to this "Songnen Plain" and wanted to occupy it, then farm and collect grain, and stubbornly resist the Ming Dynasty?
Zhu Yijun's biggest ideal now is to defeat Mongolia, the life and death enemy of the Ming Dynasty for 200 years, completely destroy Can Yuan, and achieve the great cause that neither Taizu nor Chengzu achieved. When he thought that Can Yuan actually "figured it out", he even planned to seize the title of Gao Jingshi. The "God-given land" started to grow food, and he suddenly broke into a sweat.
However, when he summoned his chief assistant Shen Shixing to ask questions in the Wenhua Hall, Shen Shixing disagreed, thinking that "it was already bitterly cold in Liaodong, how could we grow food in northern Liaoning?" At the same time, he cited the reason for the empty treasury and urged the emperor to now Don't think so much, solve the current problem first.
Moreover, Shen Shixing also vaguely criticized the Ministry of Revenue, believing that the Ministry of Revenue was "sticking to the past" under the current situation and could not come up with any mitigation strategies, which really failed to meet high expectations.
After Zhu Yijun heard this, he was silent for a long time, but ended the call with disappointment.
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