The early cool autumn wind blew through the Chahanhot Khan Court, and a few pieces of debris peeled off the mottled and low rammed earth city wall and fell on the dust, as if to explain something to this simple city.
After the decline of Mongolia, there was not much spare effort in building cities. Even though Chahanhot had an advantageous geographical location, a hilly grassland landscape with crisscrossed grassland rivers and fertile soil, it could only build some earthen walls.
The so-called Khan's Palace in the city is generally compared with the Forbidden City. Even the pragmatic Longwen Yayuan in Xinzheng is more solid and majestic, not to mention as elegant and delicate as a garden.
In fact, Chahanhot is connected to the southern foothills of the Daxinganling Mountains to the north. The towering mountains block the cold current from the north, making the climate warm in winter and cool in summer. The environment is very suitable for human production and life here; a naturally formed valley on the east side crosses the Daxinganling Mountains. , forming a natural passage from the Mongolian Plateau to the Songliao Plain, and has a very superior transportation and strategic position.
"Burihatu, are you still thinking about rebuilding Chahanhot?" Tumen Khan appeared next to Burihatu wrapped in a thick cloak, squinting and looking ahead, and asked.
Burihatu, who was standing next to him, said calmly: "The royal court symbolizes the authority of the Great Khan and the strength of Chahar. If the royal court where the Great Khan lives is not even as good as Hohhot in Hannaji (Guihua City) ), how did the Great Khan make the four sides submit?"
"Tumote seems to be getting stronger day by day, but its strength relies on the tribute city of the Ming court. Even if Hohhot is built into a big city, doesn't it still rely on the many Han people under his command?" Tumen Khan said expressionlessly: " Han Naji is too short-sighted to know that the reason why the Han people allowed him to pay tribute to the city was precisely because I, Chahar, was threatening me. If Chahar did not exist in the world, how could Tumote live alone?"
Burihatu looked at the grassland in front of him intently, and his tone was as calm as water: "The Ming Dynasty showed signs of rejuvenation twenty years ago, and it has already begun to take shape. In terms of the political situation, the Ming Dynasty is like a big tree, and the emperor It is its root, practical learning is its trunk, and mental learning is its branch. Each has its own responsibility and control. Although it is not perfect, it is at least stable.
In terms of finance, the Ming Dynasty was still in arrears with the salaries of hundreds of officials and deducted many military salaries twenty years ago. It was almost unable to carry out major national projects. In addition to barely supporting the river construction, even the tomb of Emperor Longqing had to occupy his ancestor's palace. The ground can be said to be full of holes.
But what about now? After Gao Gong, Guo Pu and Zhang Siwei succeeded one after another, and Xiao Gui and Cao followed, gradually making up for the arrears. Although Shen Shixing Bingzheng did not create any innovations, the general trend of practical learning has been established, and various restructurings have continued to advance. Last year, Gao Pragmatic became the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs and gathered the world's financial power. Not only was the vassal ban continued to be lifted, but the trade between all parties was further improved. .
Although it is difficult for me to know the details of the Ming court's temples, from the summary of information collected from various channels, the Ming court's annual income has at least tripled in the past twenty years-perhaps more. This means that although disasters have occurred frequently in the Ming Dynasty in recent years, due to timely relief and proper handling, no major disaster has been caused so far, and its national strength is still booming.
And the wealth made the political situation more stable. When I stirred up the chaos in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty, I thought it would delay them for at least three to five years, but I didn't expect... Oh, forget it, a year and a half is still time after all. Unexpectedly, the Northwestern Rebellion accelerated Gao Pragmatic's rise to power. Now that most of the vassal restrictions have been lifted, it is expected that starting next year, the Ming court's finances will be untied, and by then there will be at least about two million taels more surplus.
Khan, a surplus of two million taels a year is not a small amount. All in all, with these two million taels, Mingting was able to fight the Battle of Monan almost twice. I am worried that once its finances are untied and there is a large surplus, it will not be far away to launch a war, and it may even send troops immediately. "
Tumen Khan looked gloomy, but did not speak. Burihatu didn't mind, and just continued to say calmly: "Speaking of military matters, the current situation is extremely unfavorable to Mongolia. From Qinghai to Ordos, from Ordos to Tumut, in these thousands of miles In terms of territory, Mingting can almost sit back and relax now.
In Liaodong, Wang Tai originally had hopes of unifying Manchuria, but he fell down and became a lackey of the Ming court. He became increasingly dim in his old age, which caused Hada's current decline. Wang Gao was originally quite brave, but it was a pity that he was exposed too early. , was attacked twice by Li Chengliang, and unfortunately died in battle; Ye Heqingjia Niu and Yang Jiniu originally wanted to succeed Hada and dominate Manchuria, but unexpectedly they were trapped and killed by Gao Pingshi before their ambitions were fulfilled...
Not only that, the sons and nephews of these two people have no shame and regard thieves as their fathers. Even though their fathers died at the hands of Gao Pragmatic, they only dared to blame Nurhaci for their family hatred. From then on, they started fighting openly and secretly with Nurhaci. In order to be optimistic, but unexpectedly, Gao Pragmatic took the lead and cut off Nurhachi's arm through counterintuitive tactics, and also created a Jianzhou right guard to disgust people.
Now it seems that Nurhachi was forced to send troops to Changbai Mountain. Because of the inconvenient terrain of Changbai Mountain, the Ming court did not seem to have much reaction. I only hope that Nurhachi can be smarter and speed up the annexation of Changbai Mountain without angering the Ming court. The various ministries then reached out to the Ula Ministry, and in turn surrounded Manchuria from the outside... But this is all for another time, at least it cannot be expected in the short term.
Then the situation before us in Mongolia is still worrying. As the new lackey of the Ming Dynasty, Ye He has Hada, Ula and Jianzhou Right Guards as his support, Horqin as his ally outside, and even people from various Khalkha ministries working with them. The eyebrows are coming and going, and behind the scenes there is Ming Ting looking after him...
It stands to reason that gradually cutting off Ye He's wings, especially cutting off his Horqin arm, is actually the most urgent thing for Mongolia at the moment. In this way, not only will our eastern flank of Mongolia no longer be threatened by the Ming court and its lackeys, but it can also echo Nurhachi, making the Ming court unable to look north, and Mongolia can be somewhat at peace.
But according to Chen's understanding of Gao Pragmatic, this person will never let Mongolia destroy his layout so easily. If I am highly pragmatic, I will definitely be alert after the surrender of Transkalkha. I must think of some ways to curb this trend. I must not allow Mongolia to gradually unify, even if it is only the unification of the left wing. "
Tumen's eyes narrowed and he said in a serious tone: "But how is he going to interfere inside Mongolia? Although the Ming army's cavalry has some elites, the number is not enough. If they go out to find me for a decisive battle, what do we, the Mongolian cavalry, have to fear! The Ming army's cavalry Although the infantry has continued to strengthen over the years and is no longer as weak as it was more than 20 years ago, they are only infantry after all. If they leave the border wall and march northward, I only need to avoid fighting. No matter how strong or numerous the infantry is, But what can you do to me?
What's more, the infantry consumes a lot of money. He can support it for one month, two months, and three months. But what if it takes half a year? What if it’s one year? Even if his finances are in surplus, as long as an army of 100,000 troops goes out for half a year, I would like to see if all the civil and military officials in his Ming Dynasty are ready to drink wind and smoke! "
Burihatu smiled softly, sighed again, and said quietly: "But since the Ming Dynasty has a considerable financial surplus, why does it have to send troops on its own?"
Tumen Khan was startled for a moment, and when he was about to ask, Burihatu was already shaking his head and said: "Everything produced by the Ming Kingdom is available. Although the Mongols are called nomads, in fact they cannot cut off the goods of the Ming Kingdom in one day. No matter it is silk Porcelain, jade and gold carvings, cloth, rice and wheat, pots and pans, who can turn a blind eye to all the Mongolian tribes?
If I am highly pragmatic and believe that the situation has deteriorated to the point where a fight is inevitable, I can use these things that the Mongols need in exchange for the ministries to obey my orders. Khan, let’s not talk about distance, let’s talk about Tumut... If Gao was pragmatic and willing to spend money, do you think Tumut would refuse to fight for it? "
"Then why did you persuade me to attack Horqin before?" Tumen Khan opened his eyes wide: "Isn't this a deliberate attempt to anger Ming Ting and provoke Gao Pragmatic to take action?"
Burihatu smiled, finally turned to look at his own Khan, and said seriously: "That's because only by raising this matter at the ruling meeting can the news reach the ears of Jin Yiwei, and then Ming Ting can get it." I know. After Ming Ting finds out, Gao Pragmatic must not move..."
Tumen Khan frowned: "Did you do it on purpose? Why?"
"Judging from Gao Pangshi's recent actions, of course, the issue of opening the vassal ban is not over yet... In short, at this point in time, it should not be the time for him to launch a decisive war against Mongolia as planned. But Great Khan, with all due respect, Although we have been reforming in the past two years and trying to find ways to consolidate our strength, compared with the size of the Ming Dynasty, our improvement is limited, and the Ming Dynasty is obviously growing faster.
In this case, time is not on our side in Mongolia. In other words, the longer it is delayed, the more detrimental it will be to us in Mongolia. Therefore, if we want to deal with the decisive battle that is bound to come, instead of waiting until the Ming Dynasty thinks they are ready for us to fight, it is better for us to take the initiative before they are ready! But in this case, there is still a chance to catch them off guard..."
Tumen Khan was stunned for a moment, hesitated, and asked: "But according to what you told me before, if we attack Horqin this time, the number of troops sent by the Ming Dynasty will not be too many, and it is even less likely that Gao Pragmatic himself will lead it personally. If the soldiers... Gao Pragmatic doesn't come, what's the point of annihilating all the incoming enemies?"
The Great Khan of Mongolia paced up and down with his hands behind his back and said: "If Gao Pragmatic comes in person, our army will try our best to kill him on the grassland. As long as he dies, the Ming Dynasty will be in chaos! In the past twenty years, the Ming Dynasty will be in chaos!" The threat posed is also very likely to be defeated by itself!
Even though this man has always been cautious and we failed to kill him in the end, as they call him 'the best military commander in the world', as long as our army can defeat him once, it will severely damage the confidence of the Ming Dynasty and make the Ming Dynasty unable to fight for at least several years. Dare to look north. But if he himself doesn't come, the number of soldiers and horses that come will not exceed 20,000, so how can you talk about the decisive battle?
Burihatu, the Ming Dynasty had a million-strong army. Is it a big deal to lose 20,000 in one battle? What's more, you have analyzed before that the Ming Dynasty is now slowly running out of money, and it may not be short in the future. Since there is no shortage of money, you are not worried that they will still be short of people to join the army, right? "
Burihatu shook his head and said: "Great Khan, there are two things to say about this matter. First, in terms of Gao Jingshi's current position in the Ming court, once he leads the troops in person, he will only be able to hold the title of Sutra. According to the strategy, at least 100,000 soldiers and horses will be used by then. With the current financial resources and weapons of the Ming army, I am afraid that this 100,000 army will all be bayonet troops except for the cavalry... Is the Great Khan confident that he can deal with it?
From what I can see, the chance of attacking Gao Jingjing is really slim. In the end, we will most likely have to resort to the method of avoiding his main force and trying to defeat his divided forces. After a long time of dealing with them, the enemy will retreat.
Secondly, this time is different from what was just mentioned. Since Gao Pragmatic will not come in person, the Ming army will probably only be able to send out a small number of elite cavalry to rescue Horqin. Even if Ye He's reinforcements are added, I think that their troops will not be able to defeat Horqin at most. Reaching the number of fifty thousand..."
"You mean, a decisive battle with them?" Tumen Khan asked in a solemn voice, then turned his eyes and nodded: "Both the Ming army and Ye He army have to go out of the fortress to rescue Horqin, and our army can conquer Waikhar again. He made a sneak attack and defeated the Ming-Manchu coalition forces in one fell swoop, then returned to Horqin.
By then, Horqin's foreign aid will be cut off, and our army will have a new victory. With the power of this great victory, it is very likely that Horqin will surrender without a fight. After Horqin surrendered, no one in the Inner Khalkha tribes dared to ignore the order of this Khan, and the left-wing Mongolian unification was complete! "
It seemed that this idea was good, but Burihatu shook his head and said: "The Great Khan's strategy was originally feasible, but as a highly pragmatic person, I thought he would definitely be able to think of this."
"So what? As long as he doesn't come, the Ming army is not strong enough. Even if it counts, it can't be defeated." Tumen Khan said with confidence.
"It's hard to say." Burihatu still objected, saying: "Li Rusong probably won't send out the Ming army this time, but if it is true as the Khan said, our army needs to defeat the Ming-Manchu coalition forces first... ...Great Khan, although the Liaodong cavalry may not be as elite as our Mongolian elite cavalry, their troops are all equipped with firearms, and they can at least cause considerable casualties to our army.
In this way, even if our army wins, there will be fewer people who are still capable of fighting again after the war, and the defeat of the Ming-Manchu coalition will definitely stimulate the Ming court. At this time, Gao Pangshi himself has not yet been defeated, so will the Ming court send troops out of anger, forcibly mobilize the army and contact my surrounding ministries to encircle and suppress me, and simply advance the expected decisive battle?
The Great Khan might say that even if the decisive battle is brought forward, our army just needs to avoid fighting and drag them to death on the prairie as we said before. But has the Great Khan considered that the reason why he can avoid fighting is because our army has a cavalry advantage? But if the situation reaches that point, does our army really have a cavalry advantage? Khan, at that time, Tumut's strength was not lost at all. "
Tumen Khan took a breath and thought to himself: How could he have forgotten Han Naji? If it really comes to that point, this kid would be eager to jump out and show his loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, and be willing to be the vanguard to fight me... That would be very bad.
Seeing Tumen Khan's expression changed drastically, Burihatu knew that he had figured out the key, so he smiled slightly and said: "So Great Khan, our army should not target the Ming-Manchu coalition forces or even Horqin at this time. Our army really The target should be Tumut!
Great Khan, our army has no choice but to launch a powerful offensive against Tumote by surprise. Even if Tumute is not wiped out, at least it will severely damage their strength. Only in this way can we prevent them from becoming a leader in future battles. Ming Ting's biggest accomplice. "
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