Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1437 Unspeakable worries
The biggest principle of high pragmatism in national affairs can be described in eight words: speed up reform and seek stability in the frontier.

The acceleration of internal reform can be seen from his eagerness to launch two departments and eleven divisions and the two major events of gathering the world's financial power; the pursuit of stability in the frontier can also be seen from his refusal to let Shuerhaqi replace Nurhachi.

Why does he insist on these two principles so much?Was it really just for the Battle of Chahar?Not really.

The decisive battle of Chahar is of course a major national plan. From the Gaogong era to the present, it is not too much to say that it is a matter of the court's expectations, and it is the number one focus in Zhu Yijun's eyes. But for Gao Yushi, he knows that this is not The most important war.

What is Chahar a force of attributes?Nomadism, even if Brihatu introduced a certain amount of agricultural production and began to learn from Yehe to engage in business, in the final analysis, Chahar is still a nomadic force.

What does it take to defeat a nomadic force?The heydays of the Han and Tang Dynasties have given posterity a model: the cavalry force that is so powerful that it surpasses the nomads is the only magic weapon to defeat the nomads.

Wei Huo is like this, and so is Li Jing.Especially from Li Jing's brilliant victory, it can be seen that defeating a seemingly powerful nomadic force may even require only a small number of elite cavalry-of course, the premise is that it is enough elite.

Compared with the left-wing Mongolian Chahar, Daming's cavalry may not be considered elite enough, but with the help of Gao Pragmatism, if Daming's cavalry can be used in a concentrated manner, they will not be afraid of a single Chahar.

As the saying goes, there are not enough elites to make up the numbers, and there are not enough guns to make up the horses and shooters.As long as the national power is strong, it is still possible to gather a strong cavalry force to fight a short, flat and fast cavalry blitz against Chahar—just like Li Jing did to East Turks. The details may be different, but the meaning is roughly the same.

The reason why Chengzu's expedition to Mobei was so powerful but with few results was that although Chengzu's overall strength was strong, the infantry was useless on the vast grassland, and the cavalry in his hand was not enough to form a countermeasure against the remnants of Yuan at that time. Overwhelming advantage, so several times out of the fortress, all became a hide-and-seek battle.

Gao Wushi always used the battle of Chahar to fool the court to give in to his opinions, but it didn't mean that he was really worried about how difficult it was to fight Chahar.For the victory over Chahar, he is very confident, and it is expected that the time required will not be very long.

What he was really worried about was the battle of Renchen.

The Battle of Renchen refers to the war between the Ming Dynasty, North Korea and Japan that took place from the 20th year of Wanli to the 26th year of Wanli. Service" and so on.This war seems to be just a war between the Ming Dynasty, North Korea and Japan, but the impact it caused was huge.

First of all, due to the time-consuming battle of Renchen, the Ming Dynasty spent a lot of food and salaries, financial chaos, and increased taxes and duties.As the front line of aid to North Korea, the Liaodong area consumed so much supplies that North Korea said after the war that "the Liaozuo Road was trapped in the battle of Liaodong, and all the mules and carts were gone."

However, due to the limitation of geographical location, North Korea has relatively little land, and its food reserves are not enough to supply hundreds of thousands of troops. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty has to send both people and goods, and needs to transport food and salaries from the Ming Dynasty.

But at that time, the Ming Dynasty was going downhill, and there was no surplus food at all, so they had to increase salt imports and tariffs to raise military pay.In this regard, some scholars have calculated that the Ming Dynasty spent more than 2000 million taels on the Korean battlefield, weapons and equipment costs, and transportation costs.The huge amount of food and payment led to the emptiness of the three major treasuries of the Ming Dynasty, Taikuang, Taipusiku and Jingtong Warehouse.

For such a huge military expenditure, the Ming court was heartbroken: "Taicang's entry and exit are improper. After two years, the sixth army and all surnames will wait for the new cao to cook. If the payment is overdue, there will no longer be a capital."

In fact, his worries were unreasonable. Because of the huge military expenditure, in order to make up for the emptiness of the national treasury, the imperial court had to increase taxes. The demise of the Ming Dynasty laid the groundwork.

Second, the war to aid Korea led to intensified internal conflicts in the Ming court and fierce party struggles.Firstly, the military generals headed by Li Rusong and the civil servants headed by Song Yingchang had conflicts during the war due to different political views, and after the war there were frictions due to meritorious deeds and rewards. Both sides planned their own interests for their own camps.

In the Ming army that supported North Korea this time, it was divided into northern soldiers and southern soldiers. The northern soldiers were good at riding and shooting, but they were very limited in attacking the city, while the southern soldiers had more gunners, which played a huge role in the siege.However, when discussing meritorious deeds and rewards, the northern soldiers took the lead, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the southern soldiers.According to historical records, "the North and South armies were at odds, and rumors spread in the army".

In addition, the generals of the Eastern Expedition were changed frequently, Jinglue was replaced by Song Yingchang with Xing Jie, the admiral was replaced by Li Rusong with Ma Gui, and the Minister of War was changed from Shi Xing to Li Zhen... As a result, the court was full of contradictions, which aggravated the political instability sex.

In the 21st year of Wanli, when the war entered the period of peace talks, the Ming Dynasty was arguing endlessly about whether to fight or not.Soon after, the war resumed, and Shen Weijing, Shi Xing and others were impeached;
In 25 years, Ding Yingtai, the principal of Zanhua, impeached Yang Hao for a series of crimes such as "corruption, killing teachers, instigating chaos and traitors, and forming a party to deceive the emperor". Be upright and make peace with him."Later, Yang Gao was dismissed from office.

This series of impeachments reflects the various contradictions within the Ming Dynasty: the struggle between factions, the struggle between the main war faction and the main peace faction, the struggle between civil servants and generals, the struggle between southern soldiers and northern soldiers, etc. The instability of the bureau also further weakened the strength of the Ming Dynasty, which provided an opportunity for Nurhachi to grow later.

The last point, and the most important point, is that the war to aid Korea led to the weakening of the military power in the Liaodong region of the Ming Dynasty, which was an important factor leading to the rise of Nurhachi.

Because the Liaodong area is geographically closest to North Korea, it became the first army to send troops to North Korea for rescue.However, from the beginning of the war to the 28th year of Wanli, only about [-] of the [-] soldiers in the Liaodong area could participate in the war-this is the so-called Li Chengliang lineage (Cao Yu was not rescued in the original history, and the Cao family army actually dissipated) .

In addition, in addition to the Liaodong region, the Ming Dynasty also transferred troops from all over the country to North Korea, and successively invested about 10 troops.However, the Korean battlefield was like a muddy quagmire, causing the Ming army to suffer extremely heavy losses. During the entire war, the Ming army had a total of [-] to [-] casualties, and the loss of war horses was also huge.

This war weakened the military power of the Ming Dynasty, especially in the Liaodong region. Excessive deployment of troops left the local defense empty, thus providing an opportunity for the rise of the Jianzhou Jurchen.

During and after the War of Renchen, Nurhachi stepped up the pace of unifying the Jurchen while cooperating with the Ming Dynasty, and gradually subdued the four tribes of the Haixi Jurchen.

But is Daming the only one affected?otherwise.In the 26th year of Wanli, that is, at the end of 1598, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army returned to Japan. After seven years of fighting, they achieved almost nothing.

They did take away many Korean slaves, who were forced to work in the fields or were sold in the slave market; A large number of copper movable type was taken away, which laid the foundation for the vigorous development of the Japanese printing industry in a short period of time in the future.

In addition, thousands of precious books were looted back to Japan, and many of them were collected in the library built by Ieyasu Tokugawa, so the Japanese mastered the knowledge in the books.North Korean paintings, scrolls, and religious objects suffered heavy losses as well, and even stone pagodas and precious wood were not spared.

It is precisely because of these looted items that later Japanese people called Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s war of aggression on the mainland the “Battle of Ceramics” or the “Battle of Movable Type”.

However, with the tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers killed (reasonable estimates range from [-] to [-], some on the battlefield and many more from hardship and disease), and for the Compared with the huge wealth and resources extracted from the Japanese economy to support this war, the development of the cultural field can only be said to be better than nothing.

Such a huge price would not be worth the loss if a large amount of new land could not be seized, and Hideyoshi's army failed to achieve the above goals.Therefore, the Japanese summed up Hideyoshi's ambitious battle to conquer Asia as another word "the battle of the dragon's head and the snake's tail", that is, at the beginning, he had great ambitions, but in the end he was empty-handed.

More than a year after the end of the Korean War, the peace of Japan is at stake.Toyotomi Hideyoshi's successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was only five years old, and the "guardian" Maeda Toshiie arranged for him by Toyotomi Hideyoshi also died the following year, and Tokugawa Ieyasu had no strong constraints.

The cloud of war hung over the whole of Japan, and the two camps of the civil war began to draw.

On one side is Ieyasu Tokugawa, who is considered to be the most powerful daimyo in Japan in the post-Hideyoshi era. With more and more support, he is even more powerful.

Most of the daimyo who supported Tokugawa were in East Japan, and Tokugawa's own territory was also here.Veterans who participated in the Korean campaign, such as Kuroda Nagamasa, Nabeshima Naomo, Muneyoshi Tomo, and Kato Kiyomasa who was loyal to Hideyoshi (the example of Kato supporting Tokugawa is a good example that the daimyo is only loyal to Hideyoshi himself, so in He quickly switched sides after his death).

On the other side was a loose coalition of anti-Tokugawa daimyos, mainly from western Japan, headed by Ishida Matsunaki, one of the five chief ministers.Like Tokugawa, Ishida also claimed that he was only defending Hideyoshi's legacy, but in fact he also harbored personal ambitions to seize the ruling power.

The daimyo who supported him include the following people: Ukita Hideka, an important figure in the Korean War, he was the nominal general general of the Japanese invaders in the Imjin War, and one of the five elders who had vowed to protect Hideyori; Terumoto Mori, another of them, who commanded the Japanese navy against Yi Sun-shin; Konishi Yukyo-chan, the Christian daimyo of Kyushu, who spearheaded both invasions and who was involved in planning most of the diplomatic swindles during the armistice; Yoshihiro Shimadzu, the victor at the Battle of Sacheon, who cut off a large number of noses as a trophy; Hideaki Kobayakawa, the adopted son of Takakage Kobayakawa, the Kyushu daimyo who defeated the Ming army at the Battle of Byekjekan in 1593.The elderly Long Jing died in 1593 at the age of 65 without heirs.

The Sekigahara War ended with the victory of the Eastern Army. After the war, the so-called "largest transfer in Japanese history" occurred. The territories of 87 daimyos who opposed Tokugawa were confiscated, and then rewarded to those who were lucky to choose the camp. daimyo.

In this unprecedented turmoil, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's son Hideyori was not deposed.He kept the territory of 65 koku in and around Osaka Castle. Although it was only one-third of what his father left behind, he was still one of the largest daimyos in Japan.

Tokugawa Ieyasu knew that the time to get rid of this child was not yet ripe, and the Japanese had not forgotten Hideyoshi's authority.It is only two years away from Taiko's death. If you choose to completely overthrow the Toyotomi family at this time, those daimyo who have just sworn allegiance to Tokugawa will inevitably rebel, the alliance will inevitably collapse, and some daimyo will choose to side with Hideyori.Tokugawa Ieyasu waited patiently for another 14 years from the victory of the Sekihara Battle to the destruction of the Toyotomi family.

At the same time, the Imjin War had a much greater impact on Korea than on Japan.During the war, tens of thousands of Koreans were directly killed by Hideyoshi's aggression, including both bloody soldiers and unarmed civilians.In addition, the war caused a large number of people to be displaced, and many people died from the ensuing starvation and disease. Coupled with those who were taken as slaves and never returned home, North Korea's population loss is likely to be as high as 200 million , about 20% of the country's total population.

The scorched-earth policy implemented by the Japanese during the second invasion, and the phenomenon of farmers abandoning their fields and fleeing, dealt a heavy blow to the Korean economy, especially the southern granaries of Gyeongsang-do and Jeolla-do.The loss of four-fifths of North Korea’s farmland meant not only a severe shortage of food, but also a significant reduction in tax revenue for the government, which was desperately in need of tax money to rebuild the country.

North Korea never fully recovered from the blow, and a century after the war ended, its arable land still hasn't recovered to prewar levels.250 years after the end of the war, the former royal palace, Gyeongbokgung Palace, is still in ruins.

This decline has led to another serious consequence, that is, when Nurhachi was established, because of the impact of the Little Ice Age and Nurhachi’s own policy of excluding Han people, Jin began to suffer from severe famine, and then had to go south to conquer North Korea—— North Korea collapsed at the first touch, and was forced to pay tribute. It began the "double-duty tribute" that not only proclaimed its vassals to the Ming Dynasty, but also to the Later Jin Dynasty.

The entire situation in Northeast Asia has been affected by this war, and almost all of them are negative.This is obviously not in line with the high pragmatic ideal - he hopes to squeeze these forces to fight against the "westerly wind".

How to reduce the negative impact of the Renchen War as much as possible, and at the same time use this war to achieve his "unspeakable" goals, this is the real reason why Gao Yushi is worried like a parent.

However, Gao Wushi was worried that his successor would be late, but this underestimated Gao Yimin, or underestimated Jinghua's strength in Liaodong.

Gao Yimin is a person who can lead troops. He judged that since Cao Yu's army had just passed in front, and Nurhachi was surrounded by three sides, it was impossible for Nurhachi to leave extra troops dangling outside, so this pursuit is undoubtedly safe.

Therefore, in Liaoyang, Gao Yimin led [-] family members straight to Fushun Pass with a highly pragmatic order, chasing Cao Yu's army.

Although Fushun Pass is a border pass, it is now in the Ming Dynasty, and the rules of the border are completely different from those of later generations.To put it simply, it is very troublesome for the Jurchens to enter the customs, requiring a lot of procedures, but it is very convenient for the Ming people to exit the customs, almost unimpeded - after all, the Jurchen countries outside the customs are all guards of the Ming Dynasty in name, there is no reason for me to declare People can't go there.

Ordinary people can go out of customs, not to mention Gao Yimin.Under his leadership, the three hundred cavalrymen traveled eastward along the Hun River valley, and arrived outside the city of Hetuala before Yang Yuan arrived.

Counting the time, it was the time when the three generals of the Ming Army had a meeting, and Gao Wushi and Liu Xin discussed the Jurchen situation.

"Report!" The voice of ordering the soldiers came from outside Cao Yu's tent: "Marshal, the senior staff officer of Jinghua is seeking to see you."

Cao Yu was taken aback, and asked, "Which senior staff officer is Mr. Yimin?"

The outside replied: "Yes, Commander."

"Where is Mr. Yimin?" Cao Yu stood up quickly, and said to Qi Jin and Ma Chengxun, "Mr. Yimin must have something important to come here at this time, and I will wait and greet him." Qi Jin, Ma Chengxun Xun got up happily, although Cao Yu went out of the account together.

Gao Yimin is just a high-level servant with some status in Jinghua and Liaodong. He is not worthy of being greeted by the dignified deputy general, but Cao Yu has actually explained the reason just now: Gao Yimin has come for the sake of the war. There must be something important.Moreover, Gao Yimin will never take the initiative to intervene in anything, he can only come here following Gao Pragmatic's order.

Since he is Gao Situ's messenger or even representative, how could he not welcome him?Looking back, if Gao Yimin mentioned in the report to Gao Situ that he, Mr. Cao, was arrogant and rude, what would Gao Situ think of it?That's great!

As soon as he got out of the command tent, Cao Yan heard a familiar voice laughingly saying: "Cao Zongrong is fine, Yimin is here to bother you again."
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(End of this chapter)