The wind howls and the dark clouds cover the sun.
The weather today does not look good. If it were an ordinary time, everyone would try not to go out if they could, lest a sudden winter rain pour down on their heads and catch a cold.
However, today's Tianjin Port is still crowded with people. Especially near the main dock of Jinghua in the port area, there was a dense crowd of people, and almost all the places where people could stand were filled.
Except for some people who were working at the dock, almost all of these people came to greet Gao Pragmatic and the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance's expedition fleet.
The name of the young master, the prince's grand master, the bachelor of Wenhuadian, the minister of household affairs and the Ping Japanese manager, and the Nanning Hou Gao pragmatic were finally decided. According to the imperial decree, Gao Pingshi returned to Beijing this time because the war had "temporarily come to an end" and he "returned to Beijing to report on his duties."
The post of manager was originally a non-permanent one, and it was very flexible whether he needed to return to Beijing to report on his duties during the mission. Basically, if the task is progressing smoothly but not completely completed, and Jin Lue can take time off without affecting the progress of the task, and the emperor believes that an interview is indeed necessary, then Jin Lue can return to Beijing to report on his duties. Is this right? questionable.
Of course, this is an imperial society after all. If the emperor requires you to return to Beijing to report on your duties, then the above prerequisites are not required. You have to pack your bags and return to Beijing immediately to make a face-to-face report, which is the so-called audience.
Gao Pragmatic's return to Beijing this time essentially falls into this category. However, all the previous reasons were mentioned in the imperial edict to show that His Majesty the Emperor did not not trust the ministers, but because great achievements had been made on the front line, and the ministers needed to come back and tell them in person, so that the emperor and the court could congratulate them together. Therefore, this There is more of a compliment in it.
The Sea Trade Alliance's fleet is quite large. Even though Tianjin Port is already one of the largest ports in the world, it cannot let the entire fleet come in at once. It can only be arranged according to the waterway.
The "maritime soldiers" during Gao's pragmatic expedition were largely composed of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance, with about half each from Jinghua and Jingnan noble families.
Among them, there are one second-level battleship, three third-level battleships, four first-level cruisers, six second-level cruisers, and forty-six armed transport ships, for a total of sixty ships. Among them, there are fourteen "professional battleships" certified by Jinghua. In terms of crew size, it was about 13,000 people.
Professional warships, namely battleships and cruisers, are all provided by the Beijing Fleet, accounting for nearly 40% of the total number of professional warships in the Beiyang Fleet. Gao Jingshi's flagship is the second-level battleship "Dongchang". The name of this ship comes from the opening battle of Gao Jingshi's Liaonan Battle: the Battle of Dongchang Fort.
In terms of the number of ships, this fleet is not as good as the "main body" of the imperial court's Taira-Japanese fleet, but in terms of total tonnage, it actually exceeds the Taira-Japanese fleet. Of course, as an artillery fleet that does not regard boarding battles as the main mode of naval warfare, the Alliance fleet does not have as many troops on board as the Ping-Japanese fleet.
In any case, the scene of sixty large ships rushing towards them and filing into the harbor still made many people feel a huge pressure. And because this was our own fleet, after the moment of oppression, the feeling that brought to people's hearts immediately It turned into excitement.
With their hearts surging, someone couldn't help shouting "The Ming Dynasty will be victorious", which immediately caused everyone present to follow suit and shout "The Ming Dynasty will be victorious" at the top of their lungs. From the beginning, there were many chaotic shouts, but finally converged to a beat. The sound of "Da Ming Wan Sheng" not only shook the dock, but could even be heard clearly by the fleet entering the port.
Gao Pragmatic stood on the starboard side of the "Dongchang", surrounded by various generals who were brought back by him because they had no defense mission for the time being, as well as some senior servants of the fleet itself.
Hearing the thunderous cheers of "The Ming Dynasty is victorious" on the pier, Dong Yiyuan couldn't help but complimented: "After this battle, the reputation of the Marquis has really resounded throughout the world, regardless of sea or land."
Gao pragmatic smiled and waved his hands slightly, but did not speak.
But he didn't say anything, but Dong Yiyuan had something to say: "Master Hou, the last general has been in the army for more than forty years since he was fourteen years old. It was possible to end the army with this battle. Although there were many regrets in the process, the result was finally good." I want to comfort my ancestors. I know that I did not perform well in this battle and let the Marquis down..."
"The ancients said that 'wars are dangerous,' because there will always be accidents of one kind or another on the battlefield. Some of them can be avoided, some of them are unavoidable, and some of them are just gambling, so you can only gamble."
Gao pragmatic turned his head, waved his hand to interrupt him, and said: "Although there were man-made reasons for the explosion in the Yongxing battle camp, there was nothing wrong with your original strategic concept. It was Peng Xingu who was wrong. This time The cabinet department specially brought you back to the capital to explain things to you in front of the emperor, so you can rest assured about this."
"The Lao Ge Department is worrying about the general. The general is really ashamed and has no place." Dong Yiyuan sighed, and said a little lostly: "It's a pity that Peng Xingu... their family."
Gao pragmatic frowned slightly and glanced at Dong Yiyuan. Dong Yiyuan had no choice but to say with a bit of sadness: "Peng Xingu's father died while guarding the last general. He was a guerrilla in the army car camp at that time. When he died, he was hit by seven knives and thirteen arrows. At that time, it was Jiajing 43 Year……
His uncle also died in the battle with the last general, and died in the first year of Longqing. At that time, he was first blinded in his left eye by an arrow. The general ordered him to retreat, but the battle situation was getting anxious and he refused to retreat... When he died, he suffered more than twenty wounds on his body and died of excessive blood loss.
When he died, General Mo held his hand and asked him if he had anything to say. He could no longer answer the general. He just glared hard at Peng Xingu. He has no sons, only one daughter who unfortunately died in infancy, so he always regards his brother’s son as his own son..."
Gao pragmatic fell silent and couldn't help but sigh.
This is a dog-day's war. One general can accomplish thousands of things. Needless to say, if you lose, there will be casualties as well as if you win, and casualties are just numbers in statistics, but in fact they are all living lives. Their lives and deaths, even if not to mention human tragedy, are at least often related to the future of a family, or even the rise and fall of a family.
It's a pity that Peng Xingu couldn't let go of his pragmatic problem. This matter was not only bad in itself, but also related to the regularization of the army after the Ming Dynasty.
The explosion of the gunpowder depot in Dong Yiyuan's army during the Battle of Yongxing seems to be quite strange, but in fact there are traces to follow. The flash point of the problem was Peng Xingu, but the root cause occurred after the Pingbo War.
At that time, the Battle of Pingbo ended successfully, and Dong Yiyuan's troops were ordered to transfer north. Originally, the imperial court planned to let him return to Gansu and Shaanxi, but after he left for a while, he heard that the Marquis of Nanning intended to conquer Korea in person, and he immediately thought that Korea would be a place where he would make great achievements - after all, the war that Gao Pragmatic personally carried out would not be good for the generals under his command. It's always about brushing up on results.
The Dong family was originally a family of generals, and he and his brother Dong Yikui were also considered to be one of the famous generals in the world. Although they were naturally inferior to the older generation such as Qi Jiguang and Li Chengliang, they were still better than the younger generations such as Ma Gui and Li Rusong. The advantage lies in seniority.
However, although the Dong brothers have made many military exploits over the years, they have also suffered a lot of trouble due to various reasons. As for official positions, they naturally rise and fall, not to mention increasing titles. When you are lucky, you will be granted the title of palace protector, and when you are unlucky, you will be given the title.
All in all, after the Battle of Pingbo, he managed to get Gongbao back, but Enyin was still a little short of enough to share with his sons. So Dong Yiyuan was moved. He wanted to go to North Korea with Gao Pangshi, just make some achievements and arrange the future of his sons, so that he could spend the rest of his life traveling in the forest and having fun with his grandchildren.
However, his troops suffered considerable losses in the Battle of Pingbo. Some were killed in battle, and some were disabled. These were all casual losses, and it would be difficult to make up for them in a short while. The meaning of making up does not just mean Soldiers also refer to things like training.
The number of servants he could gather at that time was about three thousand, which was quite a few, and he was considered to be very powerful among the generals of Gansu and Shaanxi. With three thousand servants as the core, it is common for an army of twenty to thirty thousand to go on an expedition. However, the problem is where he will gather "twenty to thirty thousand soldiers".
Due to the increased pressure in the northwest after Tumen Khan fled west, Dong Yiyuan knew that he had better not advise the court to mobilize too many troops from the northwest. In addition to his own 3,000 servants, the northwest frontier troops mobilized should not exceed 10,000 at most.
In this case, even if he only brings 20,000 non-domestic troops to Korea, there will still be a gap of 10,000 people to fill. Dong Yiyuan thought about it, contacted several of his old subordinates who had been fired from their posts in the previous few years for some reason, and discussed a good solution.
This method is very characteristic of the Ming Dynasty: Dong Yiyuan came forward to ask for the war, saying that several of his former subordinates were willing to contribute people to serve the emperor, as long as the Ministry of War was willing to "establish" them, and the generals would have to figure out the personnel problem themselves.
Generally speaking, the court usually approves such a petition after receiving it. There are two reasons: First, these people deserve praise for taking the initiative to ask for the war. Many of the people who were fired from their posts before were just a way for civil servants to control the generals. That is to say, you didn't make any big mistakes, but I just chose a mistake to suppress you and let you know who is the boss.
Most of the military generals of the Ming Dynasty had this kind of experience, and even spent their entire lives in this cycle of "exerting special orders - receiving rewards for meritorious service - making mistakes and being demoted - committing crimes and meritorious service". Of course, Dong Yiyuan's old subordinates could not escape. At the same time, in the eyes of the court, this time was just the right time for them to make meritorious deeds.
The second reason is that the imperial court believes that their servants are worthy of use. The generals of the aristocratic family are not the only generals with high-level generals like Dongli and Xima gathered together, there are also many junior generals. Regardless of whether they are senior generals or junior generals, they basically have a team of servants in varying numbers, and these teams are also the source of their strength to become a general.
"My Iceberg Beauty Wife"
In this case, the imperial court certainly believed that since Dong Yiyuan dared to take the lead in asking for a fight on their behalf, these people must have many servants under their command. Maybe they have been training hard in the past few years, just waiting for a good opportunity to make meritorious deeds!
What is this called? It is better to mobilize the generals than to dispatch them. With such dedicated generals, how can they be afraid that they will not be able to fight to the death when they go to the battlefield? Therefore, the strength of this group of people is guaranteed.
The Ministry of War calculated the strength of troops in various places and found that with the expansion of the defense zone, it was indeed getting more and more difficult to mobilize troops. Since Dong Yiyuan and his old generals took the initiative to ask for a battle, let them go.
As a result, Dong Yiyuan successfully got the opportunity to go on an expedition, but as expected, the court only allowed him to take away 10,000 Shaanxi-Gansu border troops. In addition to his own 3,000 servants, he also had to urge his old generals to Twelve thousand men were gathered to accompany the army, bringing the total strength to twenty-five thousand, which was in line with the strength that a general soldier should have.
It is common for old generals to be brought together to commit crimes and perform meritorious services. After Dong Yiyuan assigned the tasks, he didn't pay much attention to them. Who knew that this was where the hidden danger occurred.
Among Dong Yiyuan's old generals was Peng Xingu, a former guerrilla who had been demoted from his post for seven years for some reason. During these seven years, Peng Xingu was quite unlucky and everything went wrong. Since his old leader, the Dong brothers, were also unlucky from time to time, they could not help him much.
Peng Xingu then went to Beijing to "manage things." Unfortunately, he didn't have enough status. He was busy in the capital for two or three years, but he didn't see any big shots who could speak effectively. Instead, he ruined the family business, and even lost the more than 1,000 yuan he originally owned. The servants are all scattered, and the young general of the Peng family is about to become a star.
It happened that at this moment, Dong Yiyuan planned to ask Dongzheng to give him a hand. It can be said that there is no way out after mountains and rivers, and there is a bright future in another village. However, how can we send out troops if there is no servant?
Peng Xingu refused to let go of such a good opportunity, so he changed his mind and thought of a "wonderful method": take all his last money and "spread coins", and recruit a group of "ferocious people" in the capital. "Those who dare to die" are dragged to fight in Korea!
Although the money in his hands can support these "households" for two or three months at most, Peng Xingu thinks it is not a big problem: The Marquis will never treat the soldiers badly when he goes on an expedition. As long as there are quotas and sufficient pay and equipment, there is no need to worry. , and as long as you get military merit, the reward will never be less than a penny.
In other words, as long as you can find an opportunity to perform meritorious service within two months of sending troops - it is not difficult to perform meritorious service, just fight in any battle. Then the whole plan will be complete, and the comeback can be successfully achieved.
Peng Xingu's plan seems to be very sophisticated and interlocking, but there is only one thing that seems to be a problem: are there really so many "ferocious people who dare to die" in the capital?
Peng Xingu thought there was, so he recruited a group of... rogues. Yes, you read that right, a scoundrel.
In this way, Peng Xin didn't spend much of his ancient money, but the number of people he killed was far greater than expected. When Dong Yiyuan arrived in Beijing to collect his ordnance and pay, he discovered that this guy actually pulled out a "quite powerful" army with a large number of people. About two thousand "housekeepers" are coming!
Although Dong Yiyuan quickly discovered that Peng Xingu's "servant" seemed to have some bad military discipline, when he asked Peng Xingu for questioning, the answer he received was: "I have had a hard time these years, and I really don't have time to control him." , to the point of breaking military discipline... But Commander, don't worry, in just one month, I will definitely train them to be as good as before!"
Dong Yiyuan thought it was understandable. After all, this guy had been raped for seven or eight years and had tried countless ways but still couldn't get the chance to make a crime. It's not surprising that the servants were used to letting him go.
As for whether he could be trained to be "the same as before" in one month, Dong Yiyuan naturally didn't believe it, but since he himself felt that there would be no problem in fighting with the Marquis, he pretended to believe it - in short, everything ended It is important to be able to dispatch troops smoothly!
The army went out successfully. Dong Yiyuan divided the ordnance received from the Ministry of War. Considering that Peng Xingu had been unlucky for seven or eight years and he could not do anything to help him, he kindly gave him a lot more. Firearms include not only Wanli Type II muskets, but also more than a dozen artillery pieces.
After arriving on the Korean battlefield, Dong Yiyuan himself was actually a little worried about the strength of his opponents, so he did not dare to fight for any opportunity to fight a tough battle.
Ma Gui also heard that he has a large number of old generals who have committed crimes and have made meritorious service. They are all the kind of people who have not fought in many wars for many years. Considering that there are many marriages between generals from the Xuan Da family and the Shaanxi-Gansu family, Both sides basically regarded each other as allies psychologically, so Ma Gui assigned them a simple but rewarding task: to cut off the connection between the northern and southern Japanese armies and open up the road between Hanyang and Wonsan.
By the way, Ma Gui explained that if he successfully captured Yuanshan and found that the remaining Japanese pirates in the north were not strong enough, he could consider joining forces with Nurhachi to encircle and annihilate them. At the same time, Ma Gui also hinted to Dong Yiyuan that the main purpose of doing this was not actually a combat mission, but to take care of the Jurchen coalition forces in Nurhachi's hands and prevent them from doing whatever they wanted.
It was precisely because of Ma Gui's explanation that Dong Yiyuan deliberately set up a large tent near the armory and gunpowder depot, and asked Nurhachi and his party to come here to pay their respects.
Essentially, he wanted to use these powerful firearms to scare Nurhaci. Who knew that the rogues under Peng Xingu did not have enough safety awareness at all, and actually caused a big explosion, which almost killed the top brass of Dong Yiyuan's Ministry and the Jurchen Allied Forces. Served directly in one pot.
How can Gao Pragmatism, who always takes formalization as the orientation of reform, tolerate this kind of thing where a group of scoundrels are gathered at random and sent out to fight without strict training? If Peng Xingu is not severely punished, when will this formalization be effective?
At this time, the "Dongchang" was about to enter the berth. Gao Pragmatic didn't have much time to continue this topic, but he made his decision quickly.
"Later, I will personally contribute money to build a temple or a Taoist temple for the Peng brothers and their family members who died in the war, and I will personally inscribe a plaque for it." Gao pragmatic sighed, seriously He said to Dong Yiyuan: "But Peng Xingu's affairs cannot be overturned. Dong Zongrong, do you understand what I mean?"
Dong Yiyuan lowered his head and said: "I will understand, but the Marquis and the Peng brothers are not related. How can this matter cost the Marquis? The fact that you can inscribe a plaque is enough to make them smile..."
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
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PS: The system sensitive words made me depressed two days ago. Today I have regained some of my mood and made up for a thousand more words.
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