Early the next morning, Gao Pragmatic went to the cabinet office as usual. However, he had just walked outside Wenyuan Pavilion and before he reached the main room of the cabinet, he saw Chen Ju standing at the door of the courtyard with a smile on his face, saluting him and saying: "Yuan Fu is indeed a punctual person, and he is on time every day." , exactly."
"Lingang, thank you for the award." Gao Pingshi returned the favor with a smile and asked: "However, Zhang Yin is waiting here, I guess there must be something important today?"
"There is indeed a battle report. It was sent by the Jin Yiwei six hundred miles in the early hours of last night." Chen Ju took out a letter from his left sleeve and handed it to Gao Pangshi, adding: "Because the Jin Yiwei rushed it and sent it directly to the palace. In addition, It was after midnight, and it was inconvenient to disturb Yuan Fu's rest, so I didn't inform him in time, so please don't blame Yuan Fu."
This is naturally a polite statement. Jinyiwei's six hundred-mile urgent offer is not the six hundred-mile urgent offer from the Ministry of War. There is no need to send it to the cabinet for review first, but it must be sent directly to the emperor. Chen Ju's statement that Gao Pragmatic should not be disturbed during his rest in the middle of the night is obviously unreasonable. The real reason is that the emperor must see it first, and then the emperor decides when to tell Gao Pragmatic, the chief minister of the cabinet.
From this point of view, the emperor should not be in a hurry about the military situation mentioned in the urgent intelligence, so there is no need to notify Yuan Fu immediately. He can just wait until dawn before showing Gao Pragmatic. Of course, it can also be said that the emperor was still very concerned. He only delayed it for a few hours, but informed Gao Pragmatic before he arrived at the cabinet to start reviewing the memorial.
Chen Ju just said that what the Jin Yiwei sent urgently was a "battle report", which shows that it is related to the war. At present, the only war worth mentioning in the Ming Dynasty is Liu Wei's Western Expedition, and this matter is of great concern to Gao Pragmatic, so he did not talk nonsense and immediately took out the letter and started reading.
The battle report was not complicated, and it didn’t even fill a page. The general meaning is that after Liu Wei and Erdemutu joined forces and regained Suzhou, they marched towards Hami. After a bloody battle, they recovered Hami, which had been lost for many years. However, there may be some inside story about this battle.
Based on observations, Jinyiwei believed that Canyuan Grand Master Burihatu might have expected that Hami would not be able to defend it early on, so he chose to hold off the Ming and Mongolian coalition forces head-on, but sent elite cavalry to sneak attack the coalition baggage. As a result, although Liu Wei lost personnel It was average, but the baggage losses were very serious. It was no longer possible to continue westward and had to wait for logistical supplies to arrive before making plans.
Jin Yiwei only said this, and did not make too many predictions about subsequent military operations - maybe this aspect is indeed not their expertise. However, when Gao Pragmatic saw the news, he knew that the situation was very bad.
As he said before the war, the difficulty of the western expedition to Yerkang was not the battle, but the logistics.
In terms of combat, there is no doubt that today's Ming army is better than Can Yuan in terms of equipment level, personnel quality, and even military morale. However, the road to the Western Expedition is too far away. The almost fully weaponized Ming Army infantry and the semi-armored Ming Army cavalry obviously rely heavily on logistics. Now that the baggage losses are huge, Liu Wei's troops have basically lost their mobility. , we can only wait in Hami to wait for the supplies to be replenished and ensure the safety of the logistics and food routes before we can continue to attack westward.
However, before the war, Gao Pragmatic made it clear that the Western Expedition was too far and the logistics pressure was huge. To strive for a quick attack, it was best to be unstoppable and achieve complete victory through one or two decisive battles, and the worst thing was to avoid long nights and many dreams.
Why should high pragmatism be emphasized in this way? Because of two points: first, too long a combat distance will lead to huge losses of materials, especially food and grass, so delaying for one more day will cost a lot of money and food, and the Ming Dynasty's treasury is not rich enough to support a logistics line of as long as A thousand-mile war is fought on an annual basis.
Secondly, the time of the Western Expedition was not randomly chosen. The Western Region is not like the Central Plains. There is not a county within a few dozen miles, and troops can be mobilized all year round. The cities in the Western Regions are like a string of pearls, and each pearl is quite far apart. However, it is still very cold in the Western Regions during the Little Ice Age - the so-called "Hutian is full of snow in August", which basically makes it inconvenient to march in autumn. , not to mention winter.
In other words, because it is already midsummer, there are only no more than two months left for fighting in the Western Regions, and Liu Wei's troops are short of supplies. They have to wait for the customs to make up for it and keep the food roads open... two months It's good to be able to do this well. But by that time, the weather was not suitable for fighting, so Liu Wei's troops could only continue to stay in Hami and wait until next spring before continuing their operations.
That would take half a year.
Half a year! In the past six months, grain and grass supplies have to be transported from the pass to Hami, and perhaps cold-proof materials are also needed. Quilts and cotton clothes are just fine, just like firewood, charcoal or coal. When transported, these things are like tofu mixed with meat.
What, you said that firewood can be obtained locally? Friends, this is not within the customs. If it were that simple, how could these nomadic people outside the customs have the habit of burning cattle and sheep dung for thousands of years?
Hami's landscape is dominated by the Gobi Desert, and there isn't even much grass. How do you expect to be able to cut down trees in advance and dry them for firewood in winter? Tens of thousands of troops, all burning local firewood, would probably cut down hundreds of miles around Hami.
Of course, it was impossible for Gao Pragmatic to transport firewood to Liu Wei for burning. On the one hand, it would not be burned, and on the other hand, it would take up too much transportation volume. It's not possible to transport charcoal. We've burned a lot of charcoal, but it's too expensive and we can't afford to burn it. Therefore, in fact, there is only one choice, transport coal to keep the Ming army warm and keep out the cold, and wait until the spring comes and the flowers bloom.
Tens of thousands of troops had to be fed, kept out of the cold, and transported long distances for half a year. Gao Pragmatic felt his heart bleed just thinking about it - this was a good idea, spending an extra two to three million taels out of thin air! Buri Hatu, Buri Hatu, no matter how cruel you are, you are indeed an opponent worthy of facing up to! Knowing that this battle of my Ming Dynasty is conducive to a quick victory, you tried every means to delay my time and wasted my money and food.
Okay, you have the ability. However, don’t be too proud. I have spent nearly thirty years laying a solid economic foundation for Ming Dynasty, and you still don’t believe that you can drag me to death! Let's wait and see, now the Ming Dynasty's Nine Sun Magic Skill has been completed, no matter what fancy moves you have, I can't take a thousand slaps from you, but if you take one slap from me... you will not die but will be disabled!
"Does your Majesty have any concerns?" Gao Jingshi frowned, put away the letter, and asked Chen Ju.
Chen Ju shook his head and said: "The emperor is worried about the treasury, but he can't calculate how much money it will cost, so he sent us to ask Yuan Fu, the best financial expert in the world, first."
Gao pragmatic sighed and said: "Lingang, once the Western Expedition is postponed to autumn, it will not be possible. We can only continue to postpone it until the spring of next year before we can take action. During these six months, the Western Expedition army can only stay in Hami, I think the cost of quilts, cotton clothes, grain, coal and other supplies alone is at least two million taels.
In addition, we have to take into account that they have experienced a bloody battle in Hami, and there must be some ordnance, gunpowder, projectiles, arrows and other items that need to be replenished, and some armors and weapons need to be repaired... We may have to calculate it as three million taels. "
When he heard that it cost three million taels, Chen Ju also twitched the muscles in his face and asked dryly: "Yuanfu, are these three million taels not in the original expenditure plan?"
Gao Pragmatic smiled bitterly and said: "Of course he won't be here - our plan at that time was to have Liu Wei go to Yarkand to spend the winter, but not in Hami."
Chen Ju put his hand on his forehead and said with a wry smile: "Since it was unplanned, our family will not be able to report to the emperor on behalf of Yuan Fu. I would also like to ask Yuan Fu to spare a moment and go with our family to meet the emperor. Please tell me in detail." Tell me the whole story in detail."
There was nothing he could do about it. Gao Pragmatic could only nod his head in agreement and said: "It's my wish, but I don't dare to ask for your ear."
——
Thanks to book friend "o Shangshu Ling" for your monthly ticket support, thank you!
(End of chapter)
