The Military Secretary, also known as the Military Secretary, is one of the permanent secretaries of the Beijing Secretariat. Since the establishment of the Secretariat, a total of three people have officially held this position, namely Liu Xin, Erdemutu, and Ruan Fuyuan.
Among them, Liu Xin served as the secretary-general and also the military secretary, so he was not responsible for specific affairs. This is equivalent to the responsibility of the main leader of a certain unit in later generations, which is usually to "grasp all aspects." Erdemutu and Nguyen Phucyuan have a simple division of labor. Erdemutu is responsible for army military affairs, and Nguyen Phucyuan is responsible for naval military affairs.
As mentioned above, these three "officially serve" as military secretaries. In other words, they also serve informally.
Yes, it was after Erdemutu, the army military secretary, became the prince of Shunyi after the Battle of Yuan Dynasty and went to manage Transkarkha that the position of military secretary began to undergo some changes.
Shortly after Erdemutu went to Transkarkha, Ruan Fuyuan was transferred to Nanyang by Gao Pragmatic and became the main executor of Jinghua Nanyang Strategy. The new concurrent position was called "General Manager of Jinghua Group Nanyang Development Company".
However, it should be noted that this "Jinghua Group Nanyang Development Company" is not a simple trading company, its attributes are more similar to the "East India Company". Therefore, although Ruan Fuyuan does not have the authority to directly manage the Nanyang Fleet, Gao Pragmatic clearly stipulates that his "general manager" is directly under the jurisdiction of Huang Zhiting in the southern Xinjiang region, and he also serves as the military secretary (in charge of the navy). Almost all the expansion of the Nanyang Islands in recent years has been promoted by him.
After talking about Ruan Fuyuan, let’s go back to Erdemutu. What Erdemutu and Ruan Fuyuan have in common is that they are both highly pragmatic students. Since Ruan Fuyuan can be appointed to such an important position, Erdemutu is certainly not idle.
Although Erdemutu himself is the prince of Shunyi and the lord of the entire Outer Khalkha tribe after the Battle of Yuan Dynasty, it stands to reason that his responsibilities are quite large. However, he did not step down from his position as military secretary in Jinghua, and he was actually responsible for one thing: training the most elite cavalry for Jinghua.
This cavalry had high hopes from Gao Pragmatic, and was rarely given a unique name: Helinlang Cavalry.
Helin was the former capital of the Mongolian Khanate and now the residence of the Khan Court of the Outer Khalkha Tribe and the Prince of Shunyi. As for "wolf riding", of course it does not mean riding a wolf, but refers to a prairie wolf, which means that it must be as ferocious as a pack of wolves and can adapt to the grassland like the Mongolian cavalry. It is different from other "Han-style" cavalry in Beijing. A special troop.
Even so, this cavalry is composed of pure Han people, selected from "sons born in the family", and it goes without saying that they are loyal.
At the beginning, Gao Pragmatic asked Erdemutu how old Mongolians start riding horses. His original intention was to train Mongolians according to their age. Who knew that Erdemutu said that people usually start riding a pony led by their elders at the age of three, and then ride independently at the age of seven.
This choked Gao Qingshi so much that he decided to put aside the pony stage. He studied in the first few years and was sent to Helin to start training at the age of seven. The training lasted for six years, and basically one group was trained every year.
So far, the first, second, third, and fourth batches of Wolf Cavalry have all been trained. However, since each batch only trains 800 people, there are now three "Helin Wolf Cavalry" in the army. Thousands and two hundred people.
Except for visiting relatives, "He Linlangqi" generally does not return to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and usually stays outside the customs to perform various tasks. Their tasks are diverse, including escorting important commodities, fighting Mongolian and Han horse thieves, punishing certain tribes, etc. Of course, in essence, doing these things is more to maintain their combat effectiveness, which is no different from other cavalry in Jinghua.
At the same time, another role of staying outside the pass with Lin Langqi is to help Erdemutu stabilize the situation in Outer Khalkha. As mentioned just now, one of their tasks is to "punish certain tribes". This task is due to the needs of Erdemutu.
After all, the Transkarkha region is a newly annexed land that was acquired by Hannaji and Erdemutu less than ten years ago. The so-called kindness and prestige are not obvious, and some tribes still miss their old masters, so It is normal for people to occasionally disobey, so troops need to be sent to suppress them.
However, Erdemutu did not want the Tumote troops he brought to merge with the remaining members of the Outer Karkha tribe. He still wanted to learn the methods of the Han people and use both kindness and power, so he had a team with Lin Langqi. Useful place. Gao Pragmatic had no objection to this. Since he was called "Wolf Rider" and he was not targeting the Han people, he could still take this job even if he wanted to maintain a certain "wolf nature".
In this way, although Erdemutu is far away from Outer Mongolia, it has always had a close relationship with Beijing, which is a good foundation.
As for Meng Guzhezhe's proposal to let Liu Xin go to the Tumote Western Expedition led by Erdemutu, in addition to her being able to represent high pragmatism, another advantage is that she is the "Military Affairs Secretary".
Liu Xin is not only a highly pragmatic bedfellow, but also Erdemutu's old boss. In fact, when Erdemutu first became military secretary, he had little understanding of military affairs and no actual command experience, so Liu Xin, who had already fought several battles in southern Xinjiang and had great military achievements, became his The leader, which made Erdemutu feel even more grateful to her.
Gao pragmatic found that Meng Guzhezhe's suggestion was indeed very good. When Liu Xin goes, not only will Erdemutu definitely not neglect them, but they and Lin Langqi will immediately be under Liu Xin's command, which is a good arrangement from all angles.
The only question now is when Tumut will need to send troops, and will it be too cold in Transkarkha then? Gao Pragmatic still cares about Liu Xin, mainly because in his impression, Liu Xin does not seem to be Very cold hardy.
Speaking of which, among the girls of his Gao family, there is currently only Meng Guzhezhe who is really cold-resistant, followed by Jia Feiji, then Liu Xin, and finally Huang Zhiting... Well, it seems that place of origin does affect the ability to withstand cold.
When he raised this point, Liu Xin didn't care. On the contrary, Meng Guzhe was a little surprised at first, and then apologized repeatedly, saying that he had not considered it.
Liu Xin smiled and waved her hands, saying: "Sister Meng Gu, you don't have to be like this. I'm not really afraid of the cold. I just don't like dressing like a bear."
Meng Guzhezhe wanted to say something more, but Liu Xin stopped her and said with a smile: "Besides, the actual time to send troops is unlikely to be in the winter, at least after the snow melts in spring. At that time, even in Waikato Erkha, it won’t be too cold.
In addition, I have not led an army for a long time. I have been living in the capital for many years, and I will become fat if I continue like this... Putting it this way, it really makes me yearn for leading cavalry across the grasslands. "
Huang Zhiting remembered something at this time and asked, "Should I transfer the Third Association of Dingnan Guards to you? They are your own soldiers after all, so they should be easier to use."
"No need." Liu Xin shook his head and said: "Although they are my own soldiers and still have a few skills to fight, few of them are good at cavalry combat. If they are transferred to attack with the Mongolian cavalry... it may delay things. , let them stay in Dingnan."
"Oh, that's true." Huang Zhiting nodded, feeling that this was indeed the case. The three thousand Liu family troops Liu Xin left behind in Dingnan were obviously not strong in cavalry warfare, and indeed did not meet the needs of this battle.
Liu Xin then said: "Sir, since I will be going to Transkarkha to lead the troops, then all three military secretaries will be away from the capital. Should we consider making Wu Zheng and Wu Ruo 'regular'?"
Gao Pragmatic pondered for a moment, frowned and said: "They have been working as trainee secretaries for some years, and it is reasonable to say that they should become full-timers. However, they have experienced few setbacks and have no combat experience, so the opinions they put forward are often not comprehensive enough, or It's a little naive...
I originally planned to find an opportunity to let them personally lead thousands of troops to have a good training, but since the current situation is like this, it seems that this is the only way to arrange it.
Well, otherwise, let Gao Qi also work part-time as a military secretary. Although he is a junior, he has been doing intelligence work all year round, and he often appears to be more careful. "
Liu Xin had no objection to this. After all, they were all members of the Gao family, so who should be used instead of others?
At this time, Huang Zhiting thought of another question: "By the way, if Master can't go to the Western Expedition this time, who will lead the Western Expedition army? Which generals will he bring with him?"
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "I haven't thought of a candidate for the general manager at the moment, but it's okay for the generals...except for Ma Gui who can't go, everyone else can be easily dispatched."
"Why can't Mr. Ma go?" Huang Zhiting and Liu Xin were both a little surprised.
Gao pragmatic replied: "He wants to be transferred back to the capital to take charge of the Imperial Guard. In addition, he also has to serve as the dean of the Military Academy like Qi Shuai. Naturally, he cannot be easily sent abroad."
That's it. Huang Zhiting and Liu Xin both nodded.
Then Huang Zhiting glanced at Liu Xin, thought about it again, and asked, "Will Dong Zongrong and Liu Zongrong both join the Western Expeditionary Army?"
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "It's hard to say Dong Yiyuan, I think he has already decided to quit. Sheng Wu (Liu Wei) should go... At present, the Western Expedition should be the last and probably the biggest one in the Ming Dynasty in the near future. A battle.
But having said that, preparations for the Western Expedition will take at least one or two years. No one knows whether the situation will change by then, so let’s wait until then. "
"Dong Zongrong wants to retire?" Huang Zhiting said in surprise: "I think the master even asked him to go to another hospital, thinking that the master will be of great use next."
"Does a great talent need to be taken care of?" Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "In the political arena, the most taboo thing is not to burn incense and just do something temporary. If you want to maintain influence for a long time, you must have continuous investment. This kind of investment It can be support and help, or it can be respect and understanding.
What's more, regardless of whether Dong Yiyuan retires or not, the Dong family is the best among Shaanxi generals. He himself is also one of several famous generals in Shaanxi, so treating him with courtesy is the same as treating Shaanxi generals. "
Huang Zhiting rolled his eyes: "That is to say, for the Western Expedition, we will still try our best to select generals from Shaanxi generals?"
"Of course, for the Western Expedition, Shaanxi is the rear area and should contribute at least half of the force." Gao Pragmatic paused and added: "However, we rarely send troops to only one place, so I just said My brother is going to go too."
It stands to reason that Liu Xin should be happy that Liu Wei can send troops, but she was surprised and asked: "My brother's troops should still be mainly infantry, but he is also asked to go to the Western Expedition?"
"It's important that the imperial court's western expedition was not just to punish Chahar, but to completely regain the homeland of the Han family in the Western Regions. Therefore, I proposed to the emperor that in the future, we should use the Yinli River Valley as the basis to re-create the core farming area of the Western Regions.
Then we must use this as a base to gradually expand the territory and scope of influence, and finally bring the Central Asia region under control to prevent Tsarist Russia from controlling the area in the future and use it as a bridgehead to invade our country, the Ming Dynasty.
Central Asia has been nomadic for thousands of years. If Tsarist Russia takes control of it, the threat may be greater than that of Mongolia before. Therefore, if our government wants to defend Guanzhong, it must first defend Gansu. If it wants to defend Gansu, it must first defend the Western Regions. If it wants to defend the Western Regions, it must ensure that Central Asia is not occupied by Tsarist Russia at least.
As for the Western Region being too far away from the Central Plains, this is naturally true, but Tsarist Russia is not close to Central Asia either. As long as our country can manage the Yinli River Valley well, then at least we won't have to rely on supplies from the Central Plains for food and grass. In this way, the Central Plains will only need to provide arms and main soldiers to rule the Western Regions, and things will be much easier to handle. "
Gao Pragmatic's words are indeed true, but there is one thing that may be misunderstood by many people in future generations, that is, Central Asia is actually closer to Tsarist Russia than to the Central Plains.
Take Samarkand, a famous city in Central Asia, for example. The distance from Samarkand to Moscow is about 5,600 miles (2,800 kilometers), while the distance from Samarkand to Beijing is about 8,300 miles.
Of course, both the Ming Dynasty and Tsarist Russia had their own difficulties in terms of the difficulty of traveling from their core ruling areas to Central Asia.
Tsarist Russia's conquest and rule of Central Asia mainly relied on Cossack cavalry, and Gao Pragmatic believed that if the Ming Dynasty was to complete this work, it would definitely need the help of Mongolian cavalry. Therefore, this is one of the reasons why he insisted thirty years ago that my tribute must be completed.
As for the construction of the Yinli Valley, it was because Gao Pragmatic believed that if the Ming Dynasty wanted to regain the Han family's homeland in the Western Regions, it could not rely solely on Mongolian cavalry - if the Han family's homeland were all Mongols, would it still be called the Han family's homeland?
Therefore, the Han people must have a large enough gathering area in the Western Regions. Since the Han people are to be gathered, the local area must be agriculturalized. Otherwise, it may become "the Chinese invade the barbarians and the barbarians will conquer them." Then it's all over. .
When it comes to today’s matters, basically everything that needs to be discussed has been discussed once. Liu Xin smiled and said: "It seems that the Secretariat is still busy. Whether it is about sending troops or constructing the Yinli River Valley, the Secretariat will put together a plan for these matters as soon as possible."
Gao pragmatic nodded in agreement, and said: "Wu Zheng and Wu Ruo, let's become military secretaries as discussed before. However, don't let them just work as staff officers in the capital according to the map. Gui Huan, He Lin must be They went there in person to understand the current situation in Tumut.
In addition, Gansu must also go there, even outside Jiayuguan... If possible, it is best to go and have a look. This will help them understand the difficulty of this battle and formulate a more appropriate plan. "
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ps: This chapter is a make-up for yesterday. I fell asleep after typing at 2.9k last night, woke up at 2 am, and now it’s almost finished at 4 o’clock... In addition, today’s chapter may be updated before noon.
