stubborn thief

Ningxia, formerly known as Shuofang.

The Helan Mountains surround the northwest, and the Yellow River flows around the southeast. The terrain is dangerous and solid, serving as a shield for Guanzhong and the throat of Helong.

Although the area is small, only a hundred miles from north to south and two hundred miles from east to west, it is known as a strategic border because of its geographical advantages.

This place was once known as Jiangnan on the Frontier. It was not only a military stronghold, but also an important area for the development of military farming. It had both the fertile soil of the western part of the Yellow River and the two canals of the Han and Tang dynasties with a wide irrigation area, which enabled this place to have tens of thousands of hectares of irrigated farmland.

The soldiers and civilians of Ningxia Town are glorious and brave heroes.

In the third year of Hongwu in the early Ming Dynasty, a government was established here and officials were posted, but it lasted only two years. Due to the strong power of the Tatars, Emperor Taizu issued an edict to abandon the land and relocate the people to Shaanxi, making Ningxia a dilapidated place with empty cities everywhere.

It was not until six years later, in the ninth year of Hongwu, that the imperial court was ready to once again settle in Ningxia and set up garrisons and dispatch princes to establish vassal states.

The immigrants included people from Qi, Chu, Wu, Yue, Qin, and Jin, as well as native peoples such as Da, Tibetan, and Hui.

During the two hundred years since the Ming Dynasty, there were 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers stationed here to defend the Helan Mountains, which had many mountain passes. Although it was difficult to support them because the troops were divided into many places, they were still able to maintain the stability of the garrisons in the interior and resist the invasion from Mongolia for a long time with excellent defensive fortifications and sufficient military supplies.

However, things are different now. With the relocation of Hong Chengchou, Ningxia Town is undergoing earth-shaking changes.

Since the fall of Gansu, Hong Chengchou has been busy in Ningxia, dealing with Cao Yao's harassment during the day and worrying about the court's failure to punish him at night.

The entire Ningxia army was also flooded with serious panic as Gansu and the Jinglu and Guyuan guards in the south were successively lost and the rebel suppression armies were defeated one after another.

As a result, the military households fled and the people migrated.

Faced with this situation, Hong Chengchou responded poorly.

He was attacked by Cao Yao in the west, robbed by Zhou Qing in the east, and fought a battle with the Three Khans of Mobei, but could not say that he had achieved any great results.

It’s not because he has no ability or talent, but because his attention has long been away from suppressing the rebellion.

In fact, like Yang Sichang, he was under the threat of foreign enemies and decided to stabilize the country before resisting foreign aggression.

However, Yang Sichang's advice to Chongzhen was from the perspective of the entire Ming Dynasty.

Hong Chengchou's strategy of pacifying the country before resisting foreign aggression was based on the Ningxia Town.

Although he was the Governor-General of the Three Borders who held power over the world, Hong Chengchou knew very well that without the economic support of Shaanxi, there would be no Governor-General of the Three Borders.

If he continues to regard Ningxia and Yansui as the arms of the imperial court, he will probably end up in failure.

Others could flee to Shanxi, but as the governor who was responsible for the loss of three borders, the best outcome for him if he went to Shanxi would probably be imprisonment, or even death.

It can't be said that Hong Chengchou was afraid of death, but he was somewhat unwilling to accept it.

He reviewed the situation in Ningxia again and again and did not think there was any problem with his deployment. He always felt that he was almost able to kill Liu Chengzong in Gansu.

  The Marshal's army should have been cut off from food, but the Tianshan Wala people traveled thousands of miles to transport sheep to him for food. Who the hell could have imagined that?

As for the defeat of the five battalions of Cao Wenzhao, Bai Guangen, Bu Yingdi, Tu Shixian and Shen Guangxian when they marched south last year, he could understand it much better.

After all, he had been busy writing memorials to the court for several months, but all of those memorials fell on deaf ears. It was not known whether they could not be delivered to Shanxi at all, or whether the court did not respond because they demanded money or grain.

But it doesn't matter now.

Hong Chengchou has realized that he cannot pin his hopes on others, neither Chen Qiuyu nor the Ming court.

People still have to rely on themselves.

After he was convinced that this would not end well, he came up with a complete plan to secede.

In order to resist foreign aggression, one must first stabilize the internal situation. He wanted to manage Ningxia in order to resist Liu Chengzong's attack and wait for things to turn around in the future.

Because Yansui Town is located in the transition zone between the Maowusu Lake and the Loess Plateau, it combines agriculture and animal husbandry. It has neither high-yield fields nor excellent aquatic plants, but it can make do.

From a military perspective, the terrain determined that the main strategy of Yansui Town was defensive counterattack, with a border wall as the line of defense, three routes for local defense, and Yulin Town as the overall defense.

When the enemy broke through one side wall, the Ming army deployed its forces in valleys and river mouths that were easily breached, intercepted them with numerous fortresses, delayed them with the mountains between the two side walls, and finally outflanked and killed them.

But it would be a different situation if the enemy came from behind. There was no strategic location to defend around Yulin Town and it would be easy to be surrounded by a large army.

Hong Chengchou didn't want to be beaten up in the city by Liu Chengzong.

So Ningxia is his only choice.

However, Hong Chengchou did not implement this plan until last autumn, before Cao Wenzhao and other defeated generals fled back.

The reason was very simple. Firstly, the Mongolians from Mobei and Cao Yao came to make trouble one after another. Secondly, there were not many available people around him.

The so-called "pacify the country before fighting the enemy" means that if you want to resist Liu Chengzong, you must first ensure that Ningxia has sufficient money and food and capable soldiers.

In order to have sufficient money and food, the military settlements in Ningxia must be cleared out.

It just so happens that the military farms in Ningxia are the most difficult places in the world to clean up.

Among the nine frontiers of the Ming Dynasty, the northwest had the most military farming, and among the northwest, Ningxia was the best.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the military farmland here reclaimed more than 800,000 mu, and then it continued to increase, reaching 2 million mu during the Jiajing period.

However, the military fields that were initially reclaimed were of high quality, as they were all high-quality farmland near Yinchuan irrigated by the two canals of the Han and Tang dynasties. However, the newly reclaimed military fields after Zhengde were all arid and semi-arid wastelands on the edge of the Ningxia Plain, and their quality was far inferior to that before.

But more is more, even one more acre is more.

It’s just that Ningxia not only has a lot of military farms, but also even more civilian farms. The civilian farms here had another name in the early years, called Shangtun.

That is, under the policy of opening up salt in China, merchants reclaimed land nearby and planted grain in exchange for the land they cultivated during the salt-trading period.

During the Hongzhi period, the Minister of Revenue Ye Qi carried out reforms, allowing merchants in Lianghuai to use silver instead of grain, which caused the salt tax to suddenly increase to one million.

Forty-one years later, the military pay for the nine frontiers increased from 400,000 taels to 2.2 million taels.

The commercial settlements on the border were in ruins, the farmland was sold at low prices and became the people's farmland.

Due to unpaid wages, escape, and population loss, military settlements were abandoned while civilian farmland increased. A large amount of military settlement land became civilian farmland, and the boundary between the two became blurred.

So when Chongzhen ascended the throne and wanted to clear out the military settlements in Ningxia, the Minister of Revenue Bi Ziyan verified it and had no choice but to report: This has been going on for a long time and is difficult to verify. Please levy taxes on all military and civilian land regardless of their ethnicity.

This means that the Ningxia military settlements have completely disappeared.

There was nothing wrong with the original intention. The military settlements couldn't collect much anyway, so for the sake of fairness, they might as well count it as civilian land.

Because the background at that time was that Bi Ziyan was in charge of the court's revenue and expenditure, and when Chongzhen ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty's finances were extremely bad, and the most important military expenditure issue was Ji and Liao.

Even if Ningxia was entirely civilian farmland, the tax collected could still cover the cost of the troops. The annual salt tax for Huai and Zhejiang salt was 80,000 yuan, while the silver transported to Beijing was only 20,000 yuan.

Jizhen alone owed 530,000 taels that year, and the annual transportation to Beijing cost 420,000 taels.

In comparison, this is a minor detail in Ningxia. Who cares?

But now, these military fields have become a concern for Hong Chengchou.

If he wants to survive, he must turn all these fields into military land, but if he wants to move Ningxia’s military land, he must have foreign troops.

Since there are so many civilian fields in Ningxia, many of which are in the hands of military families, those people will not be willing to let him take over the fields as military land, and even many bannermen will not support it.

Therefore, Hong Chengchou reorganized his own battalion last year, which consisted of only some carefully selected Ningxia soldiers. The rest were capable people selected from among the Gansu people he migrated to Ningxia, and Ding Zizhen from Liangzhou was temporarily appointed as the lieutenant general.

But this one camp alone is not enough.

It was not until Zuo Liangyu, Cao Wenzhao, Zhang Yingchang, Bai Guangen and Cao Bianjiao led tens of thousands of defeated soldiers back to Ningxia that Hong Chengchou finally gained confidence.

He treated these defeated generals very kindly. When he met them, he first threatened and intimidated them, and then said with heartache that he would write a petition to the court to plead for leniency and pardon for them so that they could continue to contribute.

Although Hong Chengchou knew very well that this letter could never be delivered to the imperial court.

Even if they were not intercepted by the peasant army, Tatar cavalry and Yan'an soldiers who were moving back and forth between Ningxia and Yansui, they could only reach the Yellow River. There was a plague in Shanxi, and the letter could not be delivered at all.

But he still wrote it, just like making a wish.

Request the court not to remove them from their posts.

The implication is to remind the court not to forget these losers who lost the battle, and to deal with them quickly, removing them from their posts but retaining their positions.

Dismissal is important.

Because they were in Ningxia, Hong Chengchou had to pay them salaries.

But this is easier said than done. Just take Zuo Liangyu, Cao Wenzhao and Zhang Yingchang as examples. Their official titles are all deputy commanders of the Five Military Commanderies, which is the second rank.

Hong Chengchou's position as Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War was only the third rank.

However, they will be used to do important things in the short term. It would be best if the court dismissed them after receiving the letter, but it doesn't matter if they are not dismissed.

After pacifying many defeated generals, Hong Chengchou relied on them as his confidants and immediately carried out drastic measures to clear out military farms in Ningxia and transform the Ningxia fortress defense facilities.

Because Ningxia is geographically defended on three sides: east, west and north, and the defenses on these three sides can be said to have been armed to the teeth. With the Helan Mountains as a barrier and the Yellow River as a barrier, they are as solid as a rock.

But Liu Chengzong would attack from the south.

He had to strengthen the defenses in southern Ningxia.

To this end, Hong Chengchou simply moved the Ningxia rear guard to Lingzhou.

However, his fortress had not been built for long when it suffered a new huge blow.

It’s snowing in Shaanxi.

It’s certainly a good thing that it snows in Shaanxi, but it doesn’t snow in Ningxia.

This winter, there was not a single snowflake in Ningxia and it was terribly dry.

This news made Hong Chengchou unreasonably nervous. He estimated that the snow in Shaanxi this year would undoubtedly be regarded as a good omen by the Marshal's Office, which would greatly boost the morale of the rebels.

I'm afraid Liu Chengzong won't wait until he finishes repairing the fortress before attacking him.

However, Hong Chengchou was also praying in his heart, hoping that the snow this year would paralyze Liu Chengzong, who had just entered Xi'an Prefecture, and that there would be enough food to eat and there would be no need to fight.

  Give him a year and he will be able to build a city wall around the south of Ningxia!

Just as Hong Chengchou was dreaming of this, he heard a report that Yu Chongxiao, the commander-in-chief of Yansui Town, had come to Ningxia.

This news surprised Hong Chengchou greatly. When he saw Yu Chongxiao, he quickly said, "At this time, although General Yu is extremely powerful, as a town official, he must take his safety into consideration."

"Your Excellency, I am unwilling to take any risk. It is because the Tartars came to my house and I want to deliver a letter to you."

As Yu Chongxiao spoke, his attendant handed a letter to Hong Chengchou.

When Hong Chengchou heard this, he frowned and asked, "What does Commander Yu mean?"

Yu Chongxiao shook his head. He had not opened Hong Chengchou's letter, so he naturally did not know the content. "I interrogated the person who reported the letter. He turned out to be a traitor from Ningyuan. He was stubborn and refused to tell me the contents of the letter. General, do you want me to recuse myself?"

Hong Chengchou gave him a reproachful look and said as he opened the letter, "Why should we avoid this? You have fought with the Eastern Tartars before, so you are a good adviser to me."

After opening the letter and reading just two sentences, Hong Chengchou had a look of disgust on his face, and said to Yu Chongxiao with disdain: "The Eastern Tartar is simply delusional. He called himself the Chongde Emperor and was just fooling around in Shenyang, but he actually wanted to persuade you, me, and the 100,000 troops in Ningxia and Yansui to surrender."

"what!"

Yu Chongxiao was also amused. He thought Huang Taiji was out of his mind and blurted out, "He is a defeated general, and he still wants to persuade me to surrender?"

Hong Chengchou turned over the letter in his hand, took a look at it, and handed it to Yu Chongxiao, indicating that it was a used official paper from Liaodong.

He said expressionlessly, "He said that if you and I surrender with courtesy, we will reward you with one million taels of silver."

Yu Chongxiao's smile froze for a moment. The officers in Yansui Town were almost going crazy asking him for military pay.

The two looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

  Or, how about cheating some money?

Then, they rejected the idea in silence.

Seeing Yu Chongxiao's unwilling expression, Hong Chengchou held the letter and said with a smile: "Look at the expression on General Yu's face. They don't even have paper. They actually used official waste paper to write the letter. The so-called million silver is just a lie."

Unexpectedly, Yu Chongxiao suppressed his contempt and shook his head seriously, saying, "General, you don't know that the Eastern Tartars have invaded our Ming Dynasty many times and robbed our children and property. Jianzhou has money but nowhere to spend it. One stone of rice costs eight taels of silver, and one piece of cloth costs nine taels of silver. We are so poor that we only have money left."

"It's a pity that we don't have the money."

In fact, what Yu Chongxiao was thinking in his heart was that if Liu Chengzong had such a broad mind and could spend one million taels of official silver on Yansui, Ningxia, then his Yansui Town might really surrender.

Hong Chengchou nodded continuously. If he had one million pieces of silver, Ningxia would have no other difficulties except time.

This emotion comes and goes quickly.

Hong Chengchou believed that he had the ability to manage Ningxia well. Once the military fields were cleared, Ningxia would have sufficient supplies within a year at most.

Thinking of this, he felt much more relaxed, and gloated to Yu Chongxiao: "But from what I saw in this letter, the Eastern Tartars seem to deeply hate Liu Chengzong for calling himself Khan. What's that called? Daiqing Khitan Khan, who said he would definitely conquer them. I'm afraid Yang Qi outside the borders will have a hard time this year."

At this moment, the street outside the Governor's Office became noisy. Before the two men had time to ask questions and were about to call someone to go out and take a look, they saw the Governor's Lieutenant General Ding Zizhen running over quickly.

He rushed to Hong Chengchou's side and whispered anxiously, "Something bad has happened to the military. The soldiers in Zhenchengning have mutinied and have surrounded the governor's office. Some are heading towards the governor's office. Deputy Envoy Ding has gone to mobilize the troops."

"Please stay at the camp temporarily and return to the palace after the situation calms down." (End of this chapter)