Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 456 The Nine Sides Argument
It's the morning court again, but today's morning court is different from the past.

The Palace of Imperial Martial Arts, the Son of Heaven, explained that the government affairs and military affairs to be discussed in the early court this time were related to military affairs, and the ministers were well aware of the specific situation.

Although various major events have occurred during this period, most of these events affect high-level turmoil.

For most of the imperial government offices, the impact is not great, and the government affairs of the imperial court are always in normal operation.

It is important to welcome back the Supreme Emperor, but it is impossible for such a huge court to keep an eye on this matter every day.

Fall back to this morning.

This time after the Chinese New Year, Yu Shaobao of the Ministry of War seems to have finally let go of his job as the admiral of the Beijing camp after he was relieved of his job as the admiral. He began to work with Fan Guang, the governor of the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion, to try to formulate the reform of the border defense line.

Just a few days ago, it was said that the plan had finally matured, and the two jointly submitted a memorial called "Please Set up the Nine Frontiers".

The matter is of great importance, and the emperor issued an edict to discuss it in court this morning.

It started early in the court, and after seeing the ceremony, the emperor didn't talk nonsense, and directly called Yu Qian's name, saying.

"Today, please set up Jiu Bianshu at the Shaobao office. Yu Shaobao, please come and tell the courtiers what you think."

Yu Qian strode out, walked to the hall and stood still, and after accepting his orders, he turned to face the officials and said.

"My colleagues, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the various tribes of Mongolia have always been my confidants' serious troubles. Taizu, Taizong, Renzong, and Xuanzong, all the former emperors, all visited the tribes with authority, and the kings conquered them and put down the ministers."

"However, the so-called fighters are not a long-term solution. At the time of Renxuan's orthodox rule, the loopholes in our border defenses have gradually become apparent. The former also attacked aggressively and drove straight all the way. They almost broke the Bauhinia and invaded our capital. This is really a wake-up call."

"Therefore, I discussed with Dudu Fan together, and after several discussions, I asked His Majesty to add an important border town to strengthen the border defense and to secure the army and the people, following the example of Taizu's establishment of thirteen kings."

Regarding the matter of the Nine Frontier Army Town, there have been rumors in the imperial court for a long time.

After all, such a big matter, you can't hide it even if you want to.

In fact, the courtiers basically agreed with what Yu Qian said.

Of course, although Yu Qian's words were beautiful, they were actually just one sentence.

The current border defense line of Ming Dynasty is equivalent to no border defense line.

At the beginning, after the founding of the country by Taizu, a very important principle in governing the country was to entrust the kings to strengthen the vassal screen.

This principle is also followed for how to fight against the Mongolian tribes on the border.

Therefore, after expelling Beiyuan, Taizu gradually divided up the thirteen kings of Sai, and the fiefdoms were distributed all over the border.

Compared with the kings in the interior, the Thirteen Sailors had greater power. Not only did they hold a large number of soldiers, but they could also control all the military and political power in the fief in times of war.

At the same time, the thirteen kings of Sai echoed each other from afar and jointly built a solid line of defense to prevent the Mongolian tribe from invading.

However, this approach is obviously flawed.

Taizu was overwhelming, and Prince Yiwen was also highly respected. However, Emperor Jianwen, who succeeded him, was restless because of the heavy power of the kings, so he cut down the vassal.

After the Battle of Jingnan, Emperor Taizong, who was already one of the kings of Sai, was also worried that other kings of Sai would follow Jingnan, so he also continued the policy of reducing the vassal.

As the military power of the kings was completely deprived, how to continue to maintain the tranquility of the border became Taizong's primary consideration.

Therefore, the border policy of the Ming Dynasty began to change from offense to defense. Emperor Taizong's five northern expeditions and Emperor Xuanzong's three northern tours were the continuation of this policy.

It should be said that this policy established the status of the suzerain of the Ming Dynasty to a certain extent and completely disintegrated the remaining forces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

Under Taizong's attack, many Mongolian tribes, including Tatar, Wala, Wuliangha, etc., declared their surrender one after another and became the vassal state of Ming Dynasty.

But this policy is destined to be short-lived.

Frequent wars are very serious for the consumption of national strength.

When Xuanzong arrived, Daming had already consciously started to shrink his defenses and turn to rest and recuperate.

Therefore, in a certain sense, the occurrence of civil wars is actually inevitable.

It is impossible for Ming Dynasty to maintain a state of war continuously. Once laziness and slack, it is difficult to maintain the offensive momentum, then the shortcomings of border defense will undoubtedly be revealed.

Therefore, establishing a new and complete border defense line is an inevitable thing to do. On this point, many ministers have the same view.

At issue are the specific programs.

After explaining the reasons, Yu Qian took out the memorial and re-explained his views.

The so-called important towns on the nine borders are actually very easy to understand. It is to imitate Taizu's idea of ​​setting up the king of the fortress, and gather the messy troops at the various passes on the border today.

Then, relying on the Great Wall, concentrate troops, and add border military towns like Datong and Xuanfu, so that they can echo each other and establish a solid line of defense.

It seems simple, but in practice, various problems will be encountered in practice.

The most acute and obvious is the financial problem.

As soon as Yu Qian finished speaking, the first person who stood up to object was Shen Yi, Minister of the Household Department.

"Your Majesty, I have no objection to re-establishing the border defense line, but I think the nine border towns mentioned by Yu Shaobao are too expensive."

After speaking, Shen Shangshu began to count.

"According to what Yu Shaobao said, the first thing to do in setting up the important towns on the nine borders is to abolish the sporadic and unsystematic passes on the border and gather them in the important towns."

"Then, the first thing the imperial court faces is how to arrange the people in these passes. If they stay where they are, the army will be transferred away, and safety is difficult to guarantee. Moreover, there are soldiers but no people in the important towns, so it is difficult to last long."

"If they are relocated to an important town, the imperial court will definitely provide compensation for such a large number of relocated people, and improper operation will result in a large number of refugees."

"This is one of them."

Although, in private, Shen Yi and Yu Qian have a good friendship, but when it comes to government affairs, he is not polite at all.

When they go to court, they strangle to death, and when they go to court, they have a drink together. Public and private are clearly distinguished, and autumn is innocent. This is a distinctive feature of the scholar-bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty.

What's more, although Shen Yi is in charge of the household department, he is not completely ignorant of military affairs. Although he is not as good as Yu Qian about the border situation, he is also very clear.

"Secondly, as Yu Shangshu said, the important towns I have set up in the Ming Dynasty today are all based on the Great Wall, but if according to Yu Shangshu's conception, nine sides that can echo each other are built, then Ningxia, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places need to build more The Great Wall connects all places."

"The preliminary accounting of the Ministry of Households requires the addition of hundreds of miles of side walls. Where does the money come from for the corvee levied?"

"The imperial court added Liaodong Town in addition to Xuanda, and the Liaohe Great Wall that needs to be built has not yet been completed."

"In addition to this, if several military towns are added at the same time, how will the imperial court's finances support it?"

In fact, the proposal of the Nine Border Towns put the greatest pressure on the Ministry of Household Affairs. As for the reason, it was of course an eternal topic of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

No money……

(End of this chapter)