Gao Pragmatic's new mansion has not yet been completed, and he still lives in Baiyu Tower in the northwest suburbs of the capital. According to the route to the palace, of course, the closest route to the palace is Xuanwu Gate in the north, but since Xuanwu Gate leads directly to the harem, it is not convenient for foreign ministers, so he usually Enter the palace through Donghua Gate.
The Donghua Gate entrance to the palace is closest to the Wenhua Hall, and the cabinet is not far away. This is one of the reasons why Zhu Yijun often receives ministers or holds meetings in the Wenhua Hall. However, Gao Jingshi is often an exception, and Zhu Yijun also likes to let him go directly to the East and West Nuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace.
Gao Pragmatic himself has also figured out the rules. If Zhu Yijun comes to him mainly for personal matters, he will most likely be asked to go to Dongnuang Pavilion. If it is mainly for business, he will usually be asked to go to Xinuang Pavilion.
Since he was asked to go to Xi Nuan Pavilion to have an audience today, it seemed to be mostly official business. The new year has just begun, and there are certainly many official matters, but there is no need to think too much about it today. Zhu Yijun will definitely ask about Li Chengliang.
Sure enough, as soon as Gao pragmatic arrived at Xinuang Pavilion, Zhu Yijun waved his hand to Chen Ju and sent everyone away as usual, leaving only Gao pragmatic.
At this time, the two of them are usually relatively unruly. Zhu Yijun greeted Gao pragmatically to sit down as if greeting an old classmate, and then asked directly: "Did you expect Li Chengliang's defeat before?"
Gao Pingshi had a strange look on his face and asked: "Your Majesty, do you think I just sit back and watch Uncle Ning Yuan's defeat?"
"That's not the case. I'm just curious. Aren't you always good at predicting things?"
Gao Pragmatic said helplessly: "The so-called predicting things like a god is just a reasonable calculation based on normal circumstances. But Ning Yuanbo's defeat was really an accident. I am not a god. How could I have expected this?"
"Are you saying you didn't expect that he would fall into Nurhaci's plan to surrender?" Zhu Yijun asked.
Gao pragmatic pondered for a moment and replied: "Not only that. I didn't expect that Nurhachi would be so dangerous, take the wrong direction, and act so decisively against Ning Yuanbo; secondly, I didn't expect that Nurhachi would treat Nurhaci so decisively. His vigilance was so insufficient that he made such a low-level mistake."
"A low-level mistake..." Zhu Yijun muttered, paused, exhaled, frowned and said, "Do you think Li Chengliang is really old?"
Gao Pragmatic didn't know how to answer for a moment, and was about to think about the words. Unexpectedly, Zhu Yijun didn't seem to be waiting for his answer. Instead, he continued: "I asked him to beat Nurhachi, not to scare him. After all, he launched such a big four-way attack, but in the end he planned to accept Nurhachi's surrender after a small battle... Do you think he understood what I meant?"
If Gao Pragmatic wanted to frame Li Chengliang, and if Li Chengliang understood it but deliberately pretended not to understand and went his own way, Zhu Yijun would definitely be furious.
But Gao Pragmatic didn't intend to do this, so he pretended to think about it, shook his head and said: "Maybe Ning Yuanbo did make some mistakes in judgment. He thought that after such a big posture, Nurhaci would know that what he did had gone too far. From now on, You will become more honest."
"Humph, you are so smart." Zhu Yijun snorted and frowned: "But I don't understand one thing. Li Chengliang used to care about these military achievements. Logically speaking, this time is also a good opportunity. Why would he be satisfied with shocking instead of intimidation?" Aren’t you going to Liting to clean holes?”
Gao pragmatic thought and said: "Maybe Ning Yuanbo wants to preserve his strength and save it for the future battle against Chahar."
"Oh?" Zhu Yijun couldn't help but think about it after hearing this. After a while, he slowly said: "It's not impossible, but... hmm, then his determination to win is too strong."
Gao Pragmatic was startled: "What do you mean by the emperor's words?"
"You really don't understand?" Zhu Yijun said with some surprise: "If we attack Chahar, Xuanda, Jiliao, Changping, Baoding and other towns, as well as the Beijing Guards and even Tumote may send troops. In this situation, except If you go to command the troops and you can control the situation, can I rest assured about the others?"
Although the outside world had speculated like this before, after all, this was the first time that Zhu Yijun made it clear that he was the leader of the army in the Chahar Battle. Therefore, Gao Pragmatic had no choice but to say: "I am ashamed of myself."
"If you don't deserve it, then I will have no choice but to fight in person, haha." Zhu Yijun smiled and shook his head. Of course it is impossible for the emperor to conduct a personal expedition. There was Yingzong before him and Wuzong after him. The example is there. Don't even mention the matter of the emperor's personal expedition, otherwise the court will definitely explode.
Yingzong carried out a civil war that year, completely ruining the good Beijing camp, and by the way, he killed Zhang Fu, the first general of the dynasty who had beaten Annan to shit; Wu Zong did not suffer any defeat, and even He achieved some results, but he was strongly resisted by civil servants because of his various deviant behaviors, and now he has become synonymous with the faint king.
Zhu Yijun neither wanted to risk the failure of his personal expedition by doing such a thankless job, nor did he want to become a coward for no apparent reason despite having won the battle, so naturally he would not consider the imperial driver's personal expedition.
What's more, in his consciousness, he wanted to leave an eternal reputation for being a pragmatic monarch and his ministers. The specific method was that he would make wise decisions in the capital, and Gao Pragmatic would implement them. According to this idea, fighting a war is a highly pragmatic task. Why should he, an emperor, steal work?
Besides, he felt that if he took over the job, he wouldn't be able to do it better than Gao Pragmatic, so there was no need to add any unnecessary extravagance.
The so-called monarch, monarch and ministers are also the embodiment of monarch, monarch and ministers.
However, after saying this, Gao Pragmatic had to express something: "The Lord is worried about the humiliation of the minister. The emperor said this, and I am really ashamed."
"You're done soon." Zhu Yijun smiled and waved his hand: "I have nothing to worry about. I just want to ask you to stop being so humble all the time. Just talk about the Chahar decisive battle. From Mr. Gao to you, the whole thing It's all your uncle and nephew who are planning this, and you are the leading military commander and civil servant of our Ming Dynasty. If I don't leave this matter to you, who else can I leave it to? If I leave it to someone else, do you think the outer court will be noisy? Anti-Yingtian, so why do you have to be humble?"
Gao Pragmatic smiled bitterly and said: "My lord... thank you for your trust, Your Majesty."
Zhu Yijun shook his head and said: "Since we are talking about commanding troops, let's get back to the topic. Li Chengliang made such a big mistake this time. Eight thousand elite soldiers were almost destroyed overnight. It seems that the outer court was also very noisy... You know the border situation best, how do you think it should be handled appropriately?"
Gao Jingshi mused: "Uncle Ning Yuan's defeat is really surprising, and the loss is indeed not small, but after all, this battle is not over yet... In fact, I feel that the emperor does not necessarily have to deal with it now."
"Oh?" Zhu Yijun was a little surprised: "Isn't Li Chengliang the main force in the attack on Nurhaci this time? He has been defeated, can this battle be continued?"
Gao pragmatically said: "We can still fight. Cao Yun still has 6,000 men on hand, all of whom are fresh troops, and the progress is going very smoothly. Although Ma Chengxun was injured in an ambush and was delayed for a few days, he originally advanced too fast, and now On the contrary, the battle line was leveled, and the loss of the department itself was negligible, which is nine thousand; plus the three thousand people on Yang Yuan's side, and the possible reinforcements from Dong E's department..."
"Forget about Dong E's troops. How many troops can they send? Three hundred or five hundred? Just don't hold Yang Yuan back." Zhu Yijun calculated: "Six thousand, three thousand, three thousand, there are still ten thousand left." 2. How many soldiers does Nurhaci have? At first it was said to be around seven or eight thousand, right?"
Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "Based on the intelligence before the war, it is estimated to be around this number."
Zhu Yijun said "hmm" and said: "In the battle where he ambushed Ma Chengxun, although he injured Ma Chengxun with hidden arrows and delayed Ma Chengxun's advance, in terms of losses, it was Ma Chengxun's fault. Xun's losses were even lighter, and the battle report said that Nurhaci lost more than a thousand people..."
Gao Jingshi interrupted at this time: "Your Majesty, not all the wounded can be counted as losses. Some minor injuries can be recovered quickly and returned to the war."
"Oh, how many people do you think Nurhachi could actually lose?" Zhu Yijun was very obedient in this regard and immediately accepted Gao's pragmatic statement.
But Gao Pragmatic was very cautious and just said: "I have not been to the battlefield in person, so I cannot accurately estimate it, but based on past experience, he will probably lose about 500 to 600 people."
"Okay, let's calculate it as five hundred." Zhu Yijun said: "The maximum number of his troops was eight thousand, and he lost five hundred on the North Road. Although he succeeded in the sneak attack on Li Chengliang that night in Hetuala, I don't think there were any casualties. ...You can always have five hundred, right? Then there are only seven thousand left..."
Gao Pinggong said sincerely: Although Li Chengliang's performance that night was terrible, it was just like Cao Cao's time in Wancheng. It seemed miserable and involved Dian Wei, but in fact it was more of a miserable scene. In fact, Zhang Xiu's losses were not light, so when Cao Cao once again had his thoughts on Wancheng, Jia Xu still persuaded Zhang Xiu to surrender directly.
Thinking of the Three Kingdoms and Cao Cao, Gao Pingshi suddenly thought deeply and thought of Sun Tzu's Art of War.
There are many legends about "The Art of War" in later generations, such as it being a required course at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and every American soldier in the Gulf War having a copy. Those who have truly read Sun Tzu's Art of War will know that many of these legends are fabricated without having to refute them.
Sun Tzu's Art of War talks more about the ideas of "win without fighting" and "win first and then fight". It cannot be a combat manual for ordinary soldiers, nor is it a strange strategy that ordinary people understand. Sun Tzu emphasized overwhelming superiority most, and would never encourage later military commanders to use risky methods to achieve victory.
But unfortunately, only a few "golden sentences" in this unique book "The Art of War" are widely circulated. Because the ancient texts are difficult for many modern people to understand, and the translation skills are uneven, there are not many people who have actually read the entire "Art of War", and those who can understand its profound meanings are even rarer.
In "ancient China", the person who has the most thorough understanding of "Sun Tzu's Art of War", in Gao Pragmatic's opinion, besides Sun Tzu himself, is probably Cao Cao. Compared with other figures who have also annotated "The Art of War", Cao Cao is a person who truly leads troops to fight and has an immersive experience of the battlefield. As a de facto ruler, he also had intuitive experience with the consumption of war. However, it is a pity that Cao Cao's annotations on "The Art of War" are relatively simple and concise, and are also "obscure ancient texts", which are difficult for ordinary readers of later generations to understand, and are only suitable as an important reference for scholars.
What kind of military art ideas can ordinary people digest and absorb? I'm afraid it can be counted as "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". If Cao Cao established the Wei State militarily by relying on "Sun Tzu's Art of War", then it can be said that Nurhachi and Huang Taiji destroyed the Ming Dynasty by relying on "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" written by Ming people. It is said that when Nurhachi was studying Chinese in Li Chengliangjun's middle school, his favorite book was "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
As a foreigner, in the process of learning Chinese, it is easier to accept the more popular tone and wording, especially those with a lot of military strategy. This is completely understandable. Nurhachi asked his nephew to read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" familiarly and learn the tactics and tactics from it. In actual combat, the tricks from "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are often used. Even for the advantages and disadvantages of his nephew's command of the war, he had to find the basis in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
After Nurhachi's death, Huang Taiji, who valued learning Han strategy more than him, succeeded to the throne. He immediately translated "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" into Manchu and required all civil and military ministers to study it, making this book a formal strategy classic. For example, Huang Taiji imitated Liu Bei's Taoyuan Three Brothers, comparing himself (Houjin) to Liu Bei, and the Mongolian Horqin tribe to Guan and Zhang. As for the generals who surrendered in the Ming Dynasty, they followed Cao Cao's story of winning over Guan Yu and gave them various preferential treatments.
In the hands of Nurhachi, "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is basically a purely military classic. By the time of Huang Taiji, "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" had even become a comprehensive collection of strategies. Now Huang Taiji may not appear at all, but Nurhachi is still the same Nurhaci. It is indeed normal for him to follow the strategies of Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to deal with Li Chengliang.
So Gao Jingshi continued Zhu Yijun's words and said: "With Ning Yuanbo's defeat, the other three armies will inevitably be more cautious. Now that the encirclement of the three armies has become smaller and smaller, Nurhaci's maneuvering space is greatly restricted. If he wants to It was already very difficult to use the inside advantage of the battlefield to fight first and then all the way like when ambushing Ma Chengxun.
In this way, Nurhaci can either fight to the death with all of them, or he can only defend Hetuala. However, the strategy of decisive battle on one route is easy to break. As long as the three armies hear each other, Nurhaci will soon face reinforcements from the other two routes if he engages with any one route. This will lead to a wheel battle, and failure is inevitable. As for the strategy of sticking to Hetuala, we have analyzed it earlier. It is a suicide. Under the fire of our heavenly soldiers, any so-called fortified city of the Jurchens will be vulnerable, so it is impossible to succeed. "
Zhu Yijun nodded repeatedly after hearing this, but finally asked seriously: "So, are you sure that even if Li Chengliang is careless and loses Jingzhou in front of him, Nurhachi will still be defeated?"
"Yes." Gao pragmatic nodded and said seriously: "I suspect... Nurhaci may have to learn from Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu again."
Zhu Yijun was startled, then frowned: "You mean he's going to surrender again?"
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PS: I’m leaving my hometown tomorrow afternoon. I’m not sure if there will be traffic jams or something like that. I plan to make up for the various acknowledgments that were delayed during the Chinese New Year the day after tomorrow. Today I’d like to bow to you all and thank you for your support.
