The defeat of the Huo Luochi brothers can almost be described as a "devastating blow" to them. The military report Gao Pragmatic received was that the three troops of Li Rusong, Tuotuo and Yilduzi "beheaded 7,000 people and made prisoners alive" Nearly 20,000 people were able to mount 16,000 horses, and draft horses were about half that, while cattle, sheep, bows and arrows were useless."
"No calculation" is just a customary saying, which means that there are too many to count at the moment. In order to report the good news, the general results will be reported first. Later, there will be a patrol censor or a military censor (usually the patrol censor concurrently, and occasionally Separately appoint) and others to conduct a detailed inventory of these data.
The most difficult part of the investigation is the heads, which need to be carefully distinguished one by one to see whether they were killed for good or forged. Of course, the heads of Mongolians are relatively easy to identify because they have different hairstyles from those of Ming Dynasty people. The heads of those who killed good people and committed crimes can be judged from various aspects such as the direction of the hair and the color of the scalp. In short, there is a relatively common set of heads. an effective means of inspection.
Because of this, when the court was quelling civil strife, there were usually more cases of killing good people and taking credit, but when fighting the Mongols, this situation was much less common. In the original history, when Li Chengliang started to kill good people and take credit, this was one of the reasons why he was discovered all at once.
The results of this battle at Zhuang Langwei can be said to be gratifying, but the most dazzling one was Li Rusong's formation killing the rabbit. Tu, a prominent figure in the original history, also led troops to help Kuai worship the Ming Dynasty and attacked Zhenbei Fort, Ligang Fort and other places. He was later defeated by Li Rusong, Ma Gui and others. He passed through Helan Mountain and withdrew outside the Great Wall.
This time, the rabbit was not so lucky and even gave his head to Li Rusong.
Such a happy event means that the overall situation in the northwest has been decided. Even if Huo Luochi, who suffered heavy losses, can subdue the remaining troops of Litu, he will no longer be able to control Songshan, Xining and other places. The defense pressure on the Hexi Corridor will soon be relieved. The imperial court only needs to continue to send troops to "armed parades" "After a while, there is a high probability that these places can be recovered.
Gao Pragmatic, who was halfway back to the army, also breathed a sigh of relief and felt relaxed. Now that the war is basically over, Wei Xuezeng only needs to tidy up the internal affairs to ensure that the same thing will not happen again, which is of course much simpler.
Speaking of which, Gao Pragmatic was not very optimistic about Wei Xuezeng's military command ability. Most of the pacification of the Kuaibai Rebellion in history was directed by him. In fact, from a command point of view, although he was not brilliant, there were no big flaws. It was just that he was a little indecisive, hesitant about whether to forcefully attack or force surrender. , but in the end it was delayed for several months without any results. As a result, Zhu Yijun, who had repeatedly delegated power to him, was angered, and was arrested and brought back to Beijing to face charges.
One month after Wei Xuezeng was captured, the battle in Ningxia was settled - still using his previous idea. It stands to reason that this can prove that it is not that his strategy is not good, but that the heat is indeed not that good. However, Zhu Yijun was still angry and characterized him in the edict: "The chief contributor is actually the chief culprit." This shows the depth of hatred.
Zhu Yijun's character has been analyzed in the previous article. His characteristic of employing people is to select one person and try his best to delegate power to ensure that everything you want is met. If you want money, give money, if you want people, give people power, and if you want power, give power. So Wei Xuezeng initially When his performance was not good, Zhu Yijun also directly dismissed several officials who were not dealing with him, and gave Shang Fangjian to ensure his authority.
But another characteristic of Zhu Yijun is that if you can't perform at this level, then his attitude will turn 180 degrees. He will think that you are a waste and the culprit, and he will destroy you. No way - Wei Xue was like this, so why wasn't Zhang Juzheng like this earlier? This is actually all related to Zhu Yijun's character.
However, in fact, Wei Xue was a hard-working man and his later successful strategy of infiltrating the city to recruit surrender was originally his suggestion. When the victory was announced, Zhu Yijun summoned Zhao Zhigao and Zhang Wei, who were then academicians. Both of them tried their best to defend Wei Xuezeng. The Minister of War, Shi Xing, and other court officials also said that Wei Xuezeng was not guilty.
Even Mei Guozhen, the censor of the army who had previously impeached Wei Xuezeng, also went to the Shu and said: "Wei Xuezeng was a little slow to respond. I asked to reprimand the generals to boost morale. The order to arrest Wei Xuezeng came from my superior. I am deeply aware of this." I feel regretful. If Wei Xue had not been enlightened, I would be ridiculed by the world."
This is true for civil servants, but what about generals? Li Rusong, an upright Liaodong man, said bluntly: "When Wei Xuezeng was arrested, the officers and soldiers of the three armies shed tears like rain."
Even Ye Mengxiong, who succeeded Wei Xuezeng as governor of the three sides, gave credit to Wei Xuezeng. Zhu Yijun refused to listen at first, and it was not until later that Wei Xuezeng was restored to his official position.
All in all, Wei Xuezeng's level is still good, but he is not so quick to respond and hesitant to make decisions. This may be a bit like Chen Gong during the Three Kingdoms period. The so-called "Chen Gong is wise and late".
The reason why Gao Pangshi was worried was because of the word "chi". He was afraid that Wei Xuezeng would procrastinate and make up his mind. Although he helped him finish the most difficult main battlefield in Ningxia, he was afraid that there would only be one village left by then. Langwei, if he wants to attack by force and surrender at the same time, he is a bad choice. Because the key to the imperial court now is not that it cannot win, but that it has no money and cannot afford to delay.
Now it's okay. Li Rusong is a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers. He went up and punched the old master to death, which can be regarded as defeating ten with one effort. In this way, not only the matter of Zhuang Langwei was solved, but also the problems of Songshan and Xining were solved. It was perfect.
However, what Gao Pangshi didn't expect was that a battle that he thought was perfect would actually cause a minor disturbance after word spread to the court.
You can actually cause trouble even if you win the battle? What disturbance?
This controversy is about merit.
Li Rusong's own credit cannot be denied, and no one has any objection to this. The Heart School definitely recommends him as the number one military commander in this battle, but the Practical School has no opinion on this - how can they offer any opinion? It’s hard to blame Tuotuo and Yilduqi for the first time, right?
Even if they were sent by Gao Jingshi, they would probably only listen to Gao Jingshi's command, but these two were Mongolians after all, and they were not naturalized (meaning to join the Ming Dynasty) Mongolians. Therefore, if the first credit is given to them, where will the dignity of the Ming Dynasty go?
The first skill of a military commander can be easily defeated, but there is a big problem with the first skill of a civilian official.
There was a dispute among the senior officials of the Pragmatic School in Beijing. Some people believed that Li Rusong, Tuotuo and Yilduzi were all appointed by Gao Pragmatic before he resigned as "Admiral of Northwest Military Affairs", and the orders they received at that time were all. It was given by Gao Jingshi, so of course the credit for winning this battle should be attributed to Gao Jingshi. Such a large amount of credit cannot be wiped out just because he had announced his resignation a few days when the war broke out.
Others believe that the imperial court has its own laws. If you win a battle while you are in office, the credit will certainly go to you. But when you leave office, you resign. The court cannot take the credit just because you made any assignment before you left office and the assignment was successful. Count it to you too. why? Because your successor may have also approved of this assignment. Otherwise, why didn't he revoke the order? At this time, Wei Xuezeng was the real commander. How could your predecessor, Gao Pragmatic, take his credit?
Although both parties are trying to reason, in fact they definitely have their own positions. Needless to say, the officials who sided with Gao Pragmatic must all be his supporters, but the officials who sided with Wei Xuezeng were not necessarily Wei Xuezeng's supporters. Many of them actually supported Xu Guo.
Is there any relationship between supporting Xu Guo and supporting Wei Xuezeng? It doesn't seem like it, but there is a twist - Xu Guo and Gao Pragmatic are actually the two current banners of the Practical School. Xu Guo is the second assistant of the imperial court and nominally the first person of the Practical School, which is also the so-called party leader.
However, his position as party leader is very unstable. Because of Gao Pragmatic's special status, only Gao Pragmatic within the Practical School can be regarded as having obtained the political legacy of three generations of chief ministers. Coupled with his relationship with Zhu Yijun and the contributions he has made, more people privately regard him as the real party leader of the Real School - even if he is too young in terms of age.
Because of these reasons, there is some tension within the Real School. Some people believe that Gao Pragmatic is the best candidate for "party leader" regardless of whether he is civil or military; others, although they do not object to this, think that Gao Pragmatic does not need to be "in such a hurry" and can wait until Xu Guo leaves office before filling in. Anyway, he is still very young and has no shortage of time.
You are only in your twenties, do you have to rush to join the cabinet and govern? Wouldn't it be better to lay a solid foundation and have a stable succession? At least there will be less gossip from the outside world, right?
After all, it is Gao Dang who belongs to the Practical School, not the Practical School, and you cannot put the cart before the horse.
There were constant disputes within the Practical School, and the external disputes were even more varied.
There are also two views on the neutral side: one thinks that the credit for this time should be given to Gao Pragmatic, but the reason in their hearts is that Ming Dynasty needs an all-round top civil servant to push the status of civil servants to the highest peak. . Now it seems that the most promising person to achieve this is Gao Pragmatic. Not only does he have a good family background and outstanding achievements, but the key is that his relationship with the emperor is also good.
Why is this last point particularly important? Because only by satisfying this point can we ensure that there will definitely not be another Wang Zhen or Liu Jin - these two are just eunuchs, but they can actually dominate the civil and military forces of the dynasty. Don't they all rely on the emperor's favor?
And once the top civil servants also have such holy relatives, it is obvious that the eunuchs have no hope and can only be suppressed by the civil servants like grass and grass - this is in line with the trend of civil servant politics, and is also in line with the interests of the civil servant group.
As for the other faction, of course they believe that the credit should be given to Wei Xuezeng. Their reason is exactly the opposite. They believe that there should not be an overly powerful top civil servant, even if this civil servant can powerfully suppress the power of the eunuchs.
This is very strange. After all, as I just said, strong top civil servants can ensure that the interests of the civil servant group reach their peak. They are also civil servants themselves, so why would they disagree?
The reason is simple. The political stances of these officials tend to be conservative, and Gao Pragmatic is obviously a reformist who is not conservative at all. In their eyes, Gao Pragmatic is even a complete radical.
What about privatizing military industry, what about post station reform, what about heavy industry and commerce, which one is not "abandoning the ancestral system"?
Yes, when you did this, you spoke very nicely, and you were accused of not abandoning the ancestral system, but even inheriting the "spirit" of the ancestral system. But everyone is the best among scholars. What's behind these fallacies of yours? What is it? Can’t we see it?
It’s not that I can’t see it, I just can’t object to it! After all, the cabinet at that time was controlled by your pragmatic school, and the emperor only listened to your pragmatic words!
These officials have filtered eyes. They will not see that the Ming Dynasty's armaments were gradually strengthened and the weather was getting better after the military industry was privatized; they will not see that the efficiency of the court was greatly improved and costs were saved after the reform of the post station; they will not see that After heavy industry and commerce, people in the Ming Dynasty became richer and materials circulated faster...
In their eyes, the privatization of the military industry has resulted in "the most important weapon of the country being held by private individuals", and the original opportunities for local government offices to "sell garbage for money" have disappeared, which is equivalent to the shrinkage of small treasuries in various localities.
In their eyes, the post station reform has made it inconvenient for them to travel. Not only can they not enjoy the hospitality of the post station as carelessly as in the past, but they can even give them money. On the contrary, if they exceed the limit even slightly, they will be refused by the local government for reimbursement, and even be impeached by the censor. (Note: As mentioned above, because the patrol inspectors need to check the accounts, if they do not check or miss the inspection, the "accounting team" assigned to the patrol inspectors by the Ministry of Household Affairs will be reported to the Ministry of Accounts, resulting in the inspector himself being held accountable).
In their eyes, the emphasis on industry and commerce has led to the improvement of the social status of factory owners and businessmen. Correspondingly, it has lowered the social status of literati, which makes them who were born in literati feel very unhappy. Of course, at the same time, they are also jealous of the wealth of these people - how come I have studied hard for so many years and passed so many exams that are like a lot of hardships, but in the end, I am not as rich as you, a nouveau riche who started a factory? rich?
For these reasons, they are certainly opposed to giving credit to Gao Pragmatism.
In addition to the practical school and the neutral school, of course the heart school is also indispensable. The response from the Xin School was unanimous: they insisted that the credit should certainly be attributed to Wei Xuezeng, and had absolutely nothing to do with Gao Pragmatic.
The public reasons given by the Xin School are exactly the same as those within the Real School for "supporting the Wei School". Of course, this is just official talk. In fact, their reason is very simple: Your contribution to being highly pragmatic cannot be greater!
Now that Gao Pragmatic has not yet joined the cabinet, everyone within the Practical School can suppress Xu Guo, who is the second assistant, and let you continue to perform meritorious services and raise your hopes. Once you enter the cabinet in the future, even if you are just a low-ranking assistant, You might even suppress the chief assistant until he can't speak, so what's the point?
This situation is not without signs. When Gao Gong returned to the dynasty, he was obviously a second minister, but Li Chunfang, the chief minister, was so miserable that whenever people in the world heard the word "cabinet", they were the first or even the only one. The person who comes to mind is Gao Gong. What happened to Li Shilu?
This situation must never happen again - nonsense, the current chief assistant is from their Xin School, how can this kind of thing be tolerated?
Gao Pragmatic, who returned triumphantly, returned to the capital amid this turmoil.
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