After the news that Chongzhen wanted to dismiss Wang Jiazhen and arrest him and imprison him, many courtiers in the Ming Dynasty were empty-minded...
Many people could not understand why Chongzhen wanted to remove Wang Jiazhen at this time.
What's more critical is that you only remove people, but you don't replace them with someone with sufficient qualifications and abilities in time.
Now that the Jiangnan war is at its most critical juncture, under such circumstances, just kill the Governor of Nanjing who is responsible for coordinating the war. Is this what you want to do?
Even if you have to change generals on the spot, that's not how you do it.
Although Jiujiang suffered a disastrous defeat and Wang Jiazhen cannot escape responsibility, many people also know that Jiujiang's defense has nothing to do with Wang Jiazhen himself.
The Jiujiang Defense Line was built by Shi Kefa himself, and it really had nothing to do with Wang Jiazhen himself. When Shi Kefa built the Jiujiang Defense Line, Wang Jiazhen was still playing concubine in the capital.
After Wang Jiazhen took over as the governor of Nanjing, he also strongly supported Shi Kefa during the limited two or three months. He also gave him whatever he asked for and gave Shi Kefa great support.
Therefore, in the eyes of many people, the fall of the Jiujiang Defense Line really had nothing to do with Wang Jiazhen.
Even if he has to take responsibility, there is no need to fight him to the end. It is a routine operation to let Wang Jiazhen take the blame and make meritorious service.
Even if you don't consider these, you should at least consider who should take over as governor of Nanjing after killing Wang Jiazhen.
It's not easy to find someone to be the governor now. There are only a few people who meet the requirements, and it's hard to move any one of them.
If it were so easy to select such a powerful governor, the imperial court wouldn't have been so troublesome and procrastinated when it selected Yang Sichang, Chen Biqian and even Wang Jiazhen last year. Instead, it was really difficult to select people.
Let’s not talk about it far away, let’s talk about it now, the Ming court has not even elected the real Minister of the Ministry of War. Just because it can’t be left alone for a long time, it can only pinch its nose and let Wang Yehao, the left minister of the Ministry of War, act as the Minister of the Ministry of War first.
But everyone knows that this is only temporary, even Wang Yehao himself knows...
The selection of the Minister of War is still difficult to produce, and now it is necessary to elect the Governor of Nanjing. What kind of trouble is this?
He really has high prestige and is good at leading troops, and he can also control the next group of governors. The governor in charge of the army is a big cabbage, you can choose whatever you want...
If he randomly chooses someone to fool him, something bad might happen, and Jiangnan will be completely ruined by then.
Moreover, in the first half of this year, a minister of the Ministry of War committed suicide, and Yang Sichang, the governor of the Southwest, was transferred, Hong Chengchou was transferred to the northern front, and Sun Chuanting was replaced as the governor of the three sides.
Now we have killed Wang Jiazhen, the governor of Nanjing...
This is equivalent to that in just a few months, Chongzhen changed the three governors responsible for encircling and suppressing the Chu bandits one by one.
Not only the governor, but also the governors, military personnel and military supervisors were replaced. In one year, the senior civilian officials responsible for military affairs in the surrounding provinces could basically be replaced one by one.
However, the frequent replacement of senior local civilian officials such as governors and governors who actually command the army in battles will seriously damage the morale of the frontline officers and seriously affect the continuity of various military policies.
After all, each senior civil servant's philosophy of suppressing thieves and building an army is somewhat different.
One likes to play field battles, that likes to play city defense, that likes to build new standard troops, and the other likes traditional soldiers paired with artillery.
People are like this, and they have their own ideas to some extent.
But the top management changes so frequently. This governor worked for a few months and then left, and the next governor worked for a few months and then left. In the end, after all the efforts, nothing was accomplished, leaving only a lot of mess.
Arresting Wang Jiazhen now will cause a lot of mess!
Many people can already imagine this scene: the imperial edict to arrest Wang Jiazhen was sent to Jinling City. Wang Jiazhen was arrested by the Jinyi Guards and escorted back to the capital to await trial, and the Chu army entered Jinling City.
If this continues, Jiangnan may be doomed, and the Ming Dynasty may also be doomed.
So much so that some officials in the capital began to consider an issue very seriously, that is:
In this world, is it okay to have the surname Luo?
After the surname is Luo, what about the gain or loss of my own interests?
Well, in history, a large number of Ming court civil and military officials also seriously considered this issue when Li Zicheng led his troops to the capital. In the end, some of them made the final decision: to abandon Chongzhen and switch to Li Zicheng.
But they didn't expect that Li Zicheng, who seemed to be so powerful, would be defeated cleanly outside Shanhaiguan, and was finally kidnapped by the East to take advantage of it.
But it doesn't matter, they turned around and surrendered again... This time, they were kneeling to the barbarians they used to despise!
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After Chongzhen was angry and killed Wang Jiazhen with an imperial edict, he knew that the Governor of Nanjing was very important and could not be left alone for a day. In addition, the courtiers also knew that Wang Jiazhen's dismissal was inevitable, and the top priority was to appoint a new one immediately. The last part of the Governor-General of Nanjing proposed that Fan Jingwen, Shangshu of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, be the governor-general of military affairs in Nanzhili, Jiangxi, Henan and other places.
Speaking of Fan Jingwen, what should I say about this person? The serious Donglin Party loves party struggle and is good at party struggle!
In his early years, he was kicked out of the court because of the failure of the party struggle. It took several years before he was reactivated. After being activated, he continued to fight with Wei Zhongxian and others, and was suppressed to death again.
It wasn't until Chongzhen succeeded to the throne that he ushered in spring again. Well, like most Donglin Party members, getting promoted was like being a rocket.
In the first year of Chongzhen, he was promoted to Taichang Shaoqing. In the second year of Chongzhen, he was promoted to censor of Qiandu and patrolled Henan.
When the East Captives detoured through Mongolia and entered the customs, he led the officers and soldiers of Henan to serve the king. He never fought in a battle, but soon relied on his qualifications and was awarded the title of Zuo Shilang of the Jin Ministry of War in the third year of Chongzhen, and commanded the army in Tongzhou.
Unfortunately, his father failed to live up to his expectations and died two years later. Fan Jingwen was forced to resign in mourning.
After the mourning period passed, the center of power in the capital had nothing to do with him... Of course there was also party struggle, but this time he didn't win and became a loser.
In the end, he was mentioned to Nanjing and served as the censor of the right capital of Nanjing. Later, after a lot of troubles, he became the minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, but he had already left the center of power.
After all, everyone knows that the capital is the core of power.
Nanjing is just a companion capital, and the ministers or ministers there are either old-age people, or they were kicked here after losing a fight.
However, Fan Jingwen was able to be killed several times and then revived again. Naturally, his connections and his ability to fight were good.
Therefore, some ministers recommended this person to take over as the governor of Nanjing, saying that Fan Jingwen happened to be in Jinling City, and he had been a governor before. He had also trained troops in Tongzhou and had experience in leading troops. He had served in Nanjing for several years and was familiar with the south. The situation is like this.
Qualifications and abilities are suitable as well as experience.
When Chongzhen looked at it, he also remembered that this man led troops to serve the king in the second year of Chongzhen's reign, and had trained troops in Tongzhou. He felt that this man still knew the military, and in addition, it was difficult to find anyone else who was more suitable in a short period of time. This person was appointed governor of Nanjing.
Therefore, a formal decree was made to let Fan Jingwen, the Minister of War in Nanjing, governor of the military affairs of Nanzhili, Jiangxi, Henan, Zhejiang and other places.
It's just... many people are worried about Fan Jingwen's rise to power.
Fan Jingwen is a good player in party disputes, but when it comes to leading troops to fight, even though he has led troops more diligently than the king, and has also gone to Tongzhou to train troops, he has never really led troops to fight in a war...
For comparison, several other former or current governors have more or less led troops to fight in wars.
Wang Jiazhen, the former governor of Nanjing, had been the governor of Gansu before, and had led troops to fight in battles, and his military exploits were quite impressive. He once led his troops to behead hundreds of people.
This person also served as the left assistant minister of the transfer department and was in charge of money and food affairs.
Combining the two, Wang Jiazhen is actually quite suitable to be a governor and coordinate the army. When the cabinet ministers asked him to be the governor of Nanjing, they took his experience and abilities into consideration.
The predecessor, Chen Biqian, although he was a public official, seemed to have not achieved much when he was the governor of Henan and the governor of the military affairs of the eastern provinces, but in fact Chen Biqian did a very good job under limited conditions.
At least under his leadership, although Zuo Liangyu was domineering, he still guarded Ye County and other areas honestly, preventing Chu thieves from entering the Central Plains.
At the same time, Chen Biqian also tried his best to maintain many fronts such as southern Ruzhou and Runing Mansion.
Of course, the Chu army's strategic direction was not in these directions, but it was also inseparable from Chen Biqian's overall planning.
If the Ming army in these places is not very strong and the Chu army can attack the city and seize territory by simply sending some troops to kill them, the Chu army would not mind seizing a few more territories.
Another example is Yang Sichang, the former Prime Minister of the Military Affairs Department of the Five Provinces. This person was good at strategy and had pretty good abilities. Among the many governors in the Ming Dynasty who knew military skills, his strategic planning ability should be second to none.
The new standard army currently being compiled by Ming Ting was the first one he worked out, and he also proposed a series of complete strategies to suppress thieves. Although his containment strategy failed, at least he had formulated a serious strategy.
The previous governor of Huguang, Tang Hui, who was the prime minister of the military affairs of the five provinces, also led troops and fought many battles against bandits. During the sixth and seventh years of Chongzhen, he also participated in the encirclement and suppression of Chu with Lu Xiangsheng and others. Battle of Beiliu Bandits.
But it was a tragedy when he met the Chu thieves later!
But it was nothing to be defeated when the Chu thieves were defeated. Even Lu Xiangsheng was defeated and died. It was normal for him, Tang Hui, to be defeated.
It's not that Tang Hui is incompetent, it's that the Chu thief is too strong!
What's more, the subsequent Ming army imitated the Chu thieves and used trenches and fortifications to defend the city. This new set of city defense tactics was also first developed and applied by Tang Hui.
There is also Hong Chengchou. This man is said to be able to lead troops in war. He has fought with bandits from all walks of life before. Although he has not fought many Chu bandits, he went to Beizhili and had a fight with Dong Zhuo. , although the troops were lost and the generals were lost, it was still a confidence boost.
After all, it was a serious field battle that blocked the attack of the Dongluo, and the strength of both sides was about the same, and the Dongluo had a large number of cavalry, which was very difficult for the Ming army.
Then there is Sun Chuanting, this person is even more outrageous. He caught Gao Yingxiang within a few months of being the governor of Shaanxi. Now he has completely taken control of the local situation within a few months of being the governor of the three sides. The new standard-setting troops under his command are all rushing to break through 10,000 people. The scale went.
Looking at these governors, their experience and ability vary, but no matter what, they are basically capable of leading troops into battle, and no matter how bad they are, they can still sit in the rear and coordinate the army.
But Fan Jingwen, many people have no confidence in him!
