Sweaty palms may not necessarily mean fear, or even nervousness, but sometimes excitement.
It's hard to tell whether Cao Yan was more excited or nervous at this time, but he was probably not afraid.
Three letters, two pieces of evidence of serious crimes. One involves Nurhachi, who is the person for whom his deputy commander-in-chief of Liaoyang is tacitly responsible; the other involves Li Chengliang, which is the biggest obstacle to his further advancement in Liaodong.
If these two pieces of evidence are handed over, if the court wanted to move Nurhaci, the first person responsible would probably be Cao Yan. In other words, he would most likely be the leader of the war, and he would certainly have the credit for the war.
If the imperial court wanted to move Li Chengliang, that would be even better. Due to the special environment of Liaodong, its general troops have always been mainly local generals, supplemented by transfers from other places, and the primary and secondary proportions are very clear. General troops transferred from outside are still relatively rare. of.
Among the current local generals in Liaodong, if Li Chengliang is excluded, the remaining candidate who is most qualified to take over as the commander-in-chief in terms of qualifications, military exploits, military prestige, or any other aspect is none other than Cao Yun.
This is an advantage on the surface, and there are also hidden advantages beyond this. Li Chengliang is now a member of the Xin School. Once something happens to him, the Xin School will definitely be in trouble, while the Practical School will definitely gain the upper hand and will not spare others. They will definitely take the opportunity to overthrow Li Chengliang and take the important position of Liaodong Commander-in-Chief into their own hands.
Liaodong, especially the area west of the Liaohe River, is one of the two areas most convenient for launching an offensive against Chahar under the current Ming Dynasty's national policy of "Western Huaidong System", and it is equally divided with Ji Town.
The area west of the Liaohe River is under the direct jurisdiction of the Liaodong General Army (the east of the Liaohe River is usually in charge of the Deputy General Army, but Li Chengliang was too prestigious when he was in office, and he needed military exploits to generate income for his servants, so he often came to mobilize troops in person). The Xinxue Sect has recently He has been wooing Li Chengliang in the hope of gaining some credit for the national policy of "Eastern System", so as to prevent the Real School from becoming exclusive in front of the imperial court again.
Under such circumstances, Cao Yu felt that Gao Situ would not let go of this opportunity and would definitely take western Liaoning into his own hands, creating a situation where the entire "Eastern System" was under control. After all, in this way, it can not only ensure that all ministries are banned in the Chahar War and increase the chance of victory, but also allow the Practical School to monopolize the major achievements, thereby suppressing the Heart School in the court.
Since being rescued by Gao Pingshi, Cao Yan has always wanted to find an opportunity to repay the favor. In addition to "Little Cao, the lackey of Mu En's sect" who is loyal to Entang, he has also always wanted to prove his ability.
Although the only real battle in sending troops to recapture Beiguan was the battle of Yehehe, from a strategic point of view, Cao Yu believed that the task was completed very well.
In Cao Yan's view, Nurhaci stopped at Nanguan and sent his younger brother to accompany the army, which showed that he was afraid of his own military power. Although Burihatu played a lot of tricks, he was eventually repulsed by the Yehe River and forced The Mongols gave up the city of Yehexi they had already captured; they even found two major evidences of collaborating with the enemy after recapturing the city.
No matter how you look at it, Cao Yu fought this battle beautifully. As for the specific battlefield performance, according to the battlefield inventory results just sent by Zhang Wanbang, the casualties of the Ming army in this battle were even lower than those of the Mongolian cavalry. Considering that they even invested 2,000 heavy cavalry in this battle, and the losses of the heavy cavalry were as high as 1,200, the Ming army's total loss of less than 1,000 men is even more commendable.
The infantry faced the heavy cavalry attack and fought like this. Anyone who evaluates it would have to raise their thumbs and say it was a hero, right?
If we need more details, then the loss of Zhang Wanbang's headquarters is only more than 300 people, which makes Cao Yu even more relieved - Zhang Wanbang's department does not have the term "Zhang Jiajun", but his department is Gao Situ. A model of "controlling cavalry with foot", if his troops suffered heavy losses, it might not be easy for Gao Situ to explain. Now that Zhang Wanbang's losses are very small, Gao Situ must be satisfied when he hears the news.
Gao Situ's support is Cao Yan's biggest trump card and his confidence. With this victory in Beiguan and if something happens to Li Chengliang, if Gao Situ doesn't support him, who can support Cao Yu as the commander-in-chief of Liaodong?
Cao Yan was excited for a while in the cloth village room and then gradually calmed down. Then he thought of a question: Can these three letters be used as evidence of crime?
For Nurhaci, this letter should be enough, because Nurhachi is a "captive chief" and belongs to the group of people who "are not of my race but have different hearts."
To put it bluntly, when the court wants to deal with these captive chiefs, sometimes it may not even need any conclusive evidence. As long as the court or even the governor or the general town of Liaodong feels that you need to beat them up, then they may come to you the next day. A large army presses the border. As for the captive chieftain himself, you can either choose to send an envoy to ask for surrender and just lie down and let him be mocked; or you can choose to resist stubbornly and wait for the plow to clear the hole.
To be honest, lying down and letting you laugh might be the best option. For example, Ye He was pragmatically killed two Baylors without saying a word, but Ye He immediately lay down and let him be mocked, not daring to say a word. The result was that this time the Ming army went out to rescue them and life and death were at stake. Heaven recreates.
Choosing to resist stubbornly is not so good. For example, Wang Gao refused to listen to Li Chengliang's call and insisted on recognizing himself as a hero. As a result, Li Yincheng plowed the court and destroyed Gule Village twice - once for his father Wang Gao, and once for his father Wang Gao. His son Atai was completely wiped out once.
Speaking of which, if Wang Gao and his son had not insisted on dancing on the grave and committing suicide until death, nothing would have happened to Nurhachi later.
Therefore, Nurhaci's evidence is definitely useful. It just depends on whether Gao Situ intends to use this evidence to cause trouble for Nurhachi. However, it was Gao Pragmatic's decision whether to use it or not, but by handing over this letter to Cao Yun, he could always count as making a contribution.
But whether the two letters from "Tong Weixun" were considered evidence of Li Chengliang's crime or not, Cao Yu felt a little unsure after he sobered up and thought about it.
The biggest hidden danger in these two letters is that the "master"'s name is not mentioned throughout the text, and Cao Yun has no idea who the "Tong Weixun" is.
The surname Tong is a common surname in Liaodong. It is said that it is derived from the surname Gui. It comes from the descendants of Taishi Zhonggu at the end of the Xia Dynasty. It is a surname changed from the ancestor's name. According to the historical record "Lu Shi", at the end of the Xia Dynasty, King Tang actively prepared to attack Xia Jie. Taishi, the original Xia Dynasty, had always been a virtuous man and was highly regarded by the world, so King Tang called him to join the business community. After Zhonggu returned to Shangtang, his descendants took their ancestor's name as their surname and called the Zhonggu family. Later, they removed the radical "Si" from the word "Zhong" and changed it to the single surname "Dong", and then added the radical "人" and changed their name to the Tong family. Passed down from generation to generation, it is known as Tong's authentic surname in history. It is one of the very ancient surnames.
At the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty during the Northern Yan period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, a great scholar Tong Wan came out of Liaodong, and later a general Tong Shou came out. Therefore, the surname Tong was taken as the county commander in Liaodong, just like "Longxi Li family" and "Taiyuan family". "Wang" and other famous surnames belong to high families. Later, the Tong surname took Liaodong as its stronghold and slowly moved to the south. Probably during the Ming Dynasty, the population of Tong was mainly concentrated in Hebei, but it was always a common surname in Liaodong.
However, it should be noted that the surname Tong at this time has both origins and differences from the later Manchu surname Tong Jia during the Tatar Qing Dynasty.
The Manchu Tong Jia surname, Donggiya Hala in Manchu, originated from the Han surname Tong. After entering the Manchu Banner, a "jia" character was added to the end of the surname to distinguish it from the Han surnames that were not included in the banner.
This Tong Jia surname was not originally a Manchu surname. It was originally a giant of the Han nationality in Liaodong. Tong Jia was originally a place name in Xinbin Manchu Autonomous County, Fushun City, Liaoning Province.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Hou Jin regime, there were two brothers, Tong Yangxing and Tong Yangzheng, who lived in the land of Tongjia, so they took their surname. The brothers Tong Yangxing and Tong Yangzheng later moved to Fushun to finance the trade. After the Jin army captured Fushun, Tong Yangxing transferred money to Nurhaci, and Tong Yangzheng simply took his family members to Nurhaci's newly formed Zhenglan Banner Han Army.
Later, Tong Guogang, the grandson of Tong Yangzheng, said in the 27th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty: "I was ordered by Taizu to review the clan genealogy of the tribe and clan with the ministers of Batu Li Meng Atu of Tongjia clan. Now please return to Manchuria."
As a result, the Tatar Ministry concluded: "Since the Tong Jia clan has many official positions, it should have been subordinated to the Han army; only Tong Guogang's own branch was suitable for entering Manchuria, so he became a member of the Zhengbai Banner of Manchuria." So the Tong Jia clan, who was originally from the Han nationality, came "The Manchu and Han surnames were divided into subordinates, and the clans were large and branched. They were the most popular among the eight major surnames in the country."
In addition, some tribes in Mongolia and Qing Dynasty changed their surname to Tong after joining the banner. For example, the Mongolians have the Brute clan, the Darut clan, the Tongniguote clan, the Tongniyaote clan, etc.; the Manchu clan has the Tongcang clan, the Donga clan, the Hesheli clan, the Jiamuhu clan, the Lijia clan, Sakda's family, Tangda's family, Tong Qi's family, Tong'er's family, Tong Saiyi's family, Tuseli family, etc.
Although the above reasons for changing the surname to Tong are various, many of them may be because the surname Tong was originally a common surname in Liaodong during the Ming Dynasty. They may think this surname is more noble, so they changed it to themselves for convenience. He thinks he is superior to others.
Since the surname Tong is a common surname in Liaodong, it would be very troublesome to find out who an unknown person named Tong is and where he is employed. In other words, it is very difficult to prove that the "master" mentioned in Tong Weixun's letter is Li Chengliang.
First of all, you have to find this Tong Weixun, which requires no explanation; secondly, because the bigger the surname, the easier it is to have the same name, so you have to prove that this Tong Weixun is the other Tong Weixun; finally, you have to prove that the master Tong Weixun talks about is Li Chengliang, not someone else he secretly has. His identity is actually to serve others, and he is only in Li Chengliang's house to hide his identity.
Take a look at the difficulty: first I have to find a needle in a haystack, then I have to prove that the needle I am looking for is the needle, and finally I have to prove that the owner of the needle is really his owner.
The dungeon is too difficult, and players apply for weakening... Sorry, only Gao Pragmatic would come up with this idea, and Cao Yu can only find a way on his own.
Thinking of a way, it’s not like I don’t have any ideas.
Although Li Chengliang had many followers, since Tong Weixun was responsible for dealing with the Mongols and wrote letters himself, he must understand "Fan language". Even if these two letters were written in Chinese, it would not change this fact.
Writing in Chinese only shows that Tong Weixun has a psychological advantage over the Mongolians. He knows that even if he writes in Chinese, the other party cannot say nonsense like you are not polite.
What's more, these two letters were written to Buri Hatu, and it is well known that Buri Hatu was a learned scholar among the Mongolians. His Chinese proficiency was comparable to that of the Ming Dynasty, and he might have been able to pass the exam to become a scholar or something. Tong Weixun wrote in Chinese. It won't cause him any trouble at all.
Therefore, Tong Weixun's identity only needs to be secretly investigated among Li Chengliang's retainers, especially those who understand the foreign language, and most of them will gain something.
The next problem is to prove that "this Tong Weixun is that Tong Weixun". This cannot be said to be difficult to do. As long as we find the handwriting of "Li Chengliang's guest Tong Weixun" and compare it with the two letters, we can judge.
Confirming handwriting will basically require professionals in later generations. It is quite difficult for ordinary people to do it, especially if the other party deliberately conceals it. However, this matter does not need to be so "professional" now.
The big shots in the imperial court these days are all academic masters, and their calligraphy skills are higher than the others. Otherwise, they would probably fail in the imperial examination. If you can get on the gold list, at least you must have good skills in Taige style, the special font for the imperial examination. It is deep, and after writing Taige style, it is basically not difficult to write other fonts, because the foundation is hard enough.
Therefore, as long as he can get the handwriting, even if Cao Yun doesn't judge it, handing it over to the court bosses for a look, judging the handwriting is simply child's play. Not to mention the big men of the imperial court, even the current emperor is known for his good handwriting. It is not difficult at all to decipher the handwriting of the two.
There are original works and photos of Wanli calligraphy, and the level may put some current calligraphers to shame. Historically, his calligraphy was very good when he was a boy. Zhang Juzheng praised him from the beginning. As a result, Wanli was inspired and worked harder to practice calligraphy. Who would have known that Zhang Juzheng stopped boasting later, until one time, Zhang Juzheng finally spoke, but he advised the young emperor not to focus all his energy on writing, but to read more useful books, so as to govern the country and stabilize the country in the future. .
Zhang Juzheng wrote in his essays to the young emperor at that time: "The emperor has been paying close attention to calligraphy for several years. Yesterday he admired the big calligraphy given to his ministers. The writing is powerful and the body is solemn. Although the previous generations were good at calligraphy, no one can surpass it. But the emperor The study of music must be very important. From Yao and Shun to the sages of the Tang and Song dynasties, they all focused on cultivating moral administration, governing the world and bringing peace to the people, and there was no skill in skills. Only Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty knew the music and could play Xiaodu music. In the Six Dynasties, Emperors Liang Yuan and Chen The emperor, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, and Emperor Ning Zong were all able to write well, but they were unable to save themselves from chaos and destruction. It can be seen that the great virtue of a monarch does not lie in his skills. Now that the emperor has a bright future, he should pay attention to governance in a timely manner. The Holy Emperor Mingwang is the Dharma. If you write a letter, it is just a pretense to calm your mind. Even if you approach Zhong and the King directly, what is the use?"
What Zhang Juzheng said is actually correct, but it may have caused a big psychological blow to Xiao Zhu Yijun. However, Gao Gong replaced Zhang Juzheng in this life. He was not responsible for Wanli's love for calligraphy. Gao Pragmatic also said to him, "It is better for the emperor to love writing than to mess around." Therefore, Wanli's calligraphy level in this life is better than in history.
The person can be found, the words can be correct, but there is only one difficulty that is difficult to solve, that is, even if the person is found, the other person is under the protection of Li Chengliang, how can Cao Yu make him admit that the "master" mentioned in the letter is Li Chengliang? What about me?
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