weaving

Shandong, Yanzhou Prefecture, Juye County.

Marquis Yongning, Zhang Cheng, rose from his command chair and went to the west wall to look at the map. He asked loudly, "Chengzu, where is Zhao Guangbian's eastern army now?"

"Zhao Guangbian, the governor of Jizhou, has now entered Jinan Prefecture. Cao Bianjiao and Lin Dengyou of that route are stationed in Qihe, Zhong Minggao's troops are stationed in Zhangqiu, Xue Minzhong's troops are stationed in the Wuding Prefecture area, Zhou Yuji and Zhang Dengke have been ordered to reinforce Qingzhou Prefecture, and Liu Zhaoji's troops have also entered Qingzhou via Zouping."

Two thousand troops under Xiong Tingrui have arrived to reinforce Yanzhou and are currently stationed in Jining, awaiting your orders.

Where are our troops?

"Commander Cao is stationed in the Jining and Jinxiang areas; Commander Wang of Datong, along with Jiang Jianxun's troops, is stationed in Anxingji; Commander Li of Shanxi, along with Ge Ruzhi of Xuanzhenyang and Pi Zhongyao of Fubiao, is stationed in Yuncheng; and the troops of Jiang Xiang, the Assistant Commander-in-Chief of Datong, have also advanced to Wenshang County."

General Guangda's Qinglong Camp was stationed in the hills from Gaoping Mountain to Tashan Mountain; General Shizhong's Xiaoyuan Camp was stationed in Shijiazhuang, south of Jining; and General Jiyu's Xuanwu Camp was stationed in Luqiao Town, north of Dushan Lake.

After listening to Liu Chengzhu's report, the Earl of Yongning looked at Wei Zhice and asked him, "Zhice, you are known as 'Little Zhuge Liang.' What is our army's next strategic move? Please give your opinion."

Wei Zhice first clasped his hands in greeting to the Earl of Yongning and the others before walking to the map. He took down a wooden stick, pointed at the map, and said, "Commander, I believe that Commander Zhao's main force of the Eastern Route Army is currently gathered in Jinan Prefecture, and the vanguard has already advanced to the territory of Qingzhou."

To support Zhao Du's eastern army, our western army should send its main force eastward, using Tengxian, Yixian, Yizhou, and Feixian as mutual shields to separate the Jurchens entering Southern Zhili from those in Qingzhou, preventing them from supporting each other. We should then seize the opportunity to eliminate the Jurchens in Southern Zhili, thus removing their wings.

He pointed to the map and continued, "At the same time, our army will leave a portion of infantry to garrison the line of Cao County, Chengwu, Jinxiang, and Jining to prevent the Jurchens from taking advantage of the situation to flee north and return to Yanzhou to cause trouble."

Meanwhile, another elite cavalry unit will be dispatched to the southern part of Qingzhou Prefecture. Using Mengyin, Yishui, Zhucheng, Juzhou, and Rizhao as bases, and relying on fortified cities or mobile warfare, they can both contain the Jurchens entering Qingzhou and prevent them from reinforcing the Jurchens in Yanzhou.

After Wei Zhice finished speaking, he turned around and handed the wooden stick back to Zhang Mingyuan. Then he clasped his hands and said, "Zhice's knowledge is shallow and his plans are rough. I hope the commander can give me some guidance."

Luo Rucai glanced at Ji Gui beside him and saw that he was shaking his head slightly at him, so he stopped talking.

At this moment, Wang Pu spoke up, saying, "We think General Wei's strategy is feasible."

Li Fuming glanced at Wang Pu, about to speak, but Zhang Guangda interrupted him: "Commander-in-Chief, I think Zhi Ce's strategy is feasible, but we shouldn't just sit and wait for the Jurchens in the south to attack. It would be better to take the initiative and attack first, so that we can seize the strategic initiative."

"Given the current situation, Zhi Ce's strategy is indeed the best option."

The Earl of Yongning first affirmed the strategy proposed by Wei Zhice, but then he changed the subject and said, "However, we cannot operate in this way for the time being."

"Why is that?" Zhang Guangda asked.

“Killing the Tartars can bring military merit and serve the country and its people. Not to mention you, even I am itching to go and fight the Tartars right now to avenge the blood feud we had at Julu.” When Yongning Earl said this, he kept looking at Zhang Guangda. Now he glanced at the others around him before continuing, “But you should also know that defeating the Tartar troops brought by Abatai is just a small part of our strategy.”

Our ultimate goal at this stage is to conquer the Hetao Plain. Everything we do now must serve this ultimate goal.

The hall was completely silent. Everyone agreed with the Earl of Yongning's decision and simply waited for him to continue.

The Earl of Yongning drew a semicircle around the map with his arm before saying, "Now from Korea to Liaodong, then to the Horqin Grassland, then to the Chahar Grassland in the northern desert, and further west to the Tumed Hetao Grassland."

As a result, in the far north and far west, all the Mongol tribes that lived off the grasslands had established contact with the Jurchens in Liaodong, and they had even come to regard the Jurchen chieftain Huang Taiji as their common lord.

His fingers tapped incessantly on the capital, the capital region, and all the way to the Qilu land in Shandong, as he continued: "This year and in the eleventh year, the Tartars invaded by entering through the northern pass of the capital, but in the ninth year, they broke through the pass through the Shahu Pass."

It was precisely because the land and people beyond the Great Wall had fallen to the Jurchens that their power increased so much that they could threaten any border pass of our Great Ming Dynasty at any time.

Take the Jurchens currently ravaging Shandong as an example. They are probably only half Jurchens from Liaodong, while the other half are a force composed of various Mongol tribes such as the Khorchin, Chahar, and Tumed.

He glanced at everyone again and said, "As you all know, in addition to the Manchu Eight Banners, the Jurchens also formed the Eight Banners of the Mongol tribes. This year, they even split the original four Han Army Banners into eight Han Army Banners. This is the foundation of the bandit chieftain Huang Taiji."

Many other Mongol tribes outside the capital, as well as some Mongol tribes that later submitted to the Jurchens, were not incorporated into the Mongol Eight Banners. These Mongol tribes were only bound to the Jurchens for their own interests.

This time, we must not only defeat the invading Jurchens in Shandong and the capital region, but also inflict heavy losses on them, ideally crippling them. We must not only inflict heavy casualties on them, but also ensure that they do not gain any advantage on their return journey.

As a result, Huang Taiji's prestige among the Mongol tribes would be greatly diminished, and his control over those outer Mongol tribes, including those that later reluctantly submitted to him out of fear of his military power, would inevitably be significantly weakened.

Yongning Earl Zhang Cheng pointed to the Hetao region again and said, "We must take advantage of this excellent opportunity when the Mongol tribes are following the Jurchens to invade the capital region, while the tribal settlements are undefended..."

They marched north to try to recover the old territory of Kaipingwei, in order to sever the connection between the Chahar Mongols and the Tumed Mongols and isolate the Jurchens from their control and influence over the Tumed Mongols.

They marched westward, aiming to wipe out the Jurchens entrenched in Guihua City, restore the freedom of the Tumed Mongol tribes, and then use the horse market to implement a policy of appeasement, thereby freeing the Tumed from the Jurchens' influence.

Even if the Tumet cannot be used by us, at least we will have cut off one arm of the Jurchens. When we are free to do so, we can change the situation from tributary to actual control, so that the Hetao grasslands can return to the control of our Great Ming, and the Tumet can become a member of our Yongyi Army family, and become our assistant in suppressing bandits and defending against the Tartars.

How wonderful! (End of Chapter)