Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2423: The Duke is not an assistant, but a regent (XIV) Liu Jing's audience

In the western warm room of the Qianqing Palace, the smoke from the bronze crane incense burner twisted and rose in the candlelight. When Liu Jing's unicorn-patterned sleeves brushed across the imperial desk, they brought a gust of cold snow. He took off his lion helmet and tucked it under his ribs, then quickly walked up to Gao Youshi.

"I am here to see you, Prime Minister." Liu Jing knelt on one knee, his voice echoing in the side hall like thunder. He took off the tiger talisman of the Protectorate of the Western Regions hanging from his waist and raised his hands high, "I was ordered to march west, and fortunately I have fulfilled the mission. Now the Western Regions have been renamed Anxi, and I have brought the tiger talisman back to the court."

His eyes turned slightly, as if he was looking at where the emperor was - yes, he came to the Qianqing Palace, and the official reason was to meet the emperor and hand over the mission to the west, but... why was the prime minister sitting in the west warm pavilion?

"No need to look for him. The emperor is practicing calligraphy in the East Warm Pavilion. This department is ordered to meet him."

Gao Youshi said, motioning Liu Ping, the new eunuch of the Imperial Horse Administration and the official in charge of the Imperial Household, to come forward and take the tiger talisman. He then put down the "Map of the Western Regions" in his hand and stroked the cold gilded paperweight on the desk with his fingertips: "Shengwu, how is the situation in Anxi?"

"Reporting to Yuanfu, Anxi is generally peaceful both inside and outside, but there are still concerns." Since the emperor was not there, Liu Jing felt much more relaxed. He took out three volumes of documents from the cowhide bag he brought with him. The top one, "Seven River Defense Map", had fresh ink marks. "Reporting to Yuanfu, I happened to meet Li Ziqing in Lanzhou. We talked for a long time and came up with three strategies. I wonder if Yuanfu would be willing to take the time to listen to me?"

"Oh?" Gao Youshi smiled slightly, "It seems that it is right to let you take charge of things on your own. Do you have your own strategic plan? Well, tell me about it."

Liu Jing was quite excited, and regardless of whether Yuan Fu's words were a bit sarcastic, he immediately said: "Bujihatu led the Chahar tribe to regain strength, occupied most of the Bukhara Khanate, and then used this as a base to swallow up the Khiva Khanate, and finally defeated the main force of the Kazakh Khanate, seized the southern part of Middle Juz and Lesser Juz, and the power was even several times greater than before it fled west.

I discussed with Li Ziqing and both of us thought that the best strategy was to continue the westward expedition and completely wipe out the Chahar tribe; the middle strategy was to capture Samarkand and Tashkent and form a triangle with Andijan, each as a corner and supporting each other; the worst strategy was to wait and see how it grew and then just do passive defense in the future..."

His thoughts were naturally not hidden from Gao Youshi, who said, "You know that Anxi has just been settled, and there are very few Han people. The court cannot launch a large-scale westward expedition before Anxi is stabilized, so this best strategy is just to create confusion. You also know that passive defense is not a good strategy, and this cabinet will not be willing to accept it, so this worst strategy is just to make up the numbers...

Since you want to propose a middle policy, why don't you speak clearly? Why do you have to play these tricks in front of me? Do you think that I won't dare to punish you if you become the commander of the Imperial Guards?"

Liu Jing was shocked and quickly knelt down to apologize: "Don't blame me, Prime Minister. Recently, the court has sent many scholars to Anxi... There are many scholars who are filling government offices and building schools. I have been dealing with them a lot and learned some tricks. I even pretended to be cultured. Please forgive me."

At one moment he said "don't blame me", at another he said "I will blame you". It seems that Liu Jing was indeed a little scared when facing Gao Youshi.

"It's good that you admit your mistakes. I'll forgive you this time and let's talk business... You and Ziqing want to take over Samarkand and Tashkent. What exactly do you plan to do?"

Seeing that the Prime Minister would not pursue the matter any further, Liu Jing quickly unfolded the map and pressed his fingertips heavily on the Tashkent city mark. "First, launch a surprise attack on Tashkent. This city is the granary on the west side of the Fergana Basin. Although the city defense is strong, after careful investigation, we found that most of the defenders are Kazakh surrendered soldiers, and the morale of the army is unstable."

The light coming in from the window cast shadows on the map. Gao Youshi noticed that there were twelve hidden warehouses marked around Tashkent. "Where are these grain routes?"

"The secret passage of the Jinghua caravan." Liu Jing subconsciously lowered his voice, "Each place stores 10,000 dan of grain, and is guarded by the Yarkand conscripted army that surrendered to our Ming Dynasty disguised as a caravan. If we can capture Tashkent, we can cut off 30% of Burihatu's food and fodder."

Jinghua Group is now too large. Gao Youshi really doesn't know the details of a granary with a storage capacity of about 10,000 dan somewhere in the Western Regions. He nodded slightly, and his fingertips traced the Chu River Basin on the map: "What about the second one?"

"Send troops from Andijan and take Samarkand directly. The copper gate of this city is three feet thick. Our army in Anxi does not have enough artillery, so it may be difficult to storm it." Liu Jing paused and pointed at the mountain pass not far from the northwest corner of Samarkand. "But this mountain pass hides an important fodder field for the Chahar cavalry. If we use elite cavalry to launch a sudden attack at night and set fire, we can disrupt the morale of the Samarkand army."

Gao Youshi shook his head and said, "If we can't break the city by ourselves, just burning a horse feed yard to disrupt the enemy's morale may not make them surrender."

"This requires the third strategy, which is to besiege Bukhara." Liu Jing pulled out the second volume of "Bukhara City Defense Map", "This city is a strategic point in the river. It was the location of the Khanate of the Bukhara Khanate before, and it is also the place where that kid Lindan Khan stays now.

Although the city walls are thick and the defenses are tight, there is a tributary of the Amu Darya River to the west of the city, which can be used to divert water to the city. However, if we choose to attack by water, it will be inconvenient for our army to move, so I discussed with Li Ziqing and thought that as long as we besiege Bukhara and let Samarkand know that they can't expect reinforcements from Bukhara, it will be enough to make them surrender. "

Gao Youshi thought for a moment and asked, "Will the 10,000 Liaodong cavalrymen brought by Li Rumei, plus the 50,000 Mongolian cavalrymen led by Boshoktu, be enough to surround and destroy Bukhara City?"

Liu Jing understood the meaning of the song and immediately asked, "What the Prime Minister meant is that we should only besiege Bukhara, not attack it. Therefore, as long as we surround it with 10,000 armored cavalry and 50,000 light cavalry, we can ensure that Burihatu will not dare to leave the city to fight. And our Ili First Army, as the main force of Type A, will attack Samarkand?"

Gao Fusi nodded in affirmation. Liu Jing's leopard eyes shone brightly under the candlelight: "If we can get more artillery, it will only take ten days to break the city." "Artillery..." Gao Fusi was also a little puzzled. The Silk Road was not easy to travel these days. The artillery transported to the west in the last expedition was already at full capacity. If we want to transport another batch now, it will cost a lot.

This is different from the 10,000 cavalrymen that Li Rumei brought. The entire army is made up of cavalrymen, which means that only some fine fodder is needed. Most of the time, it depends on grass fodder, which can be solved by taking a detour to the northern grasslands. As for the people... just bring a small amount of dry food, and eat at the Mongolian tribes on the way, and give them some light and expensive trading items such as silk. Anyway, they are all subordinates of King Shunyi, and they are easy to talk to now.

Gao Youshi was still silently calculating whether it was feasible to transport the artillery when Liu Jing suddenly remembered something important. He took out a bronze plate from his arms and said, "This is the ironclad evidence of the connection between Burihatu and Luosha... uh, and Russia." The Cyrillic letters on the bronze plate glowed coldly. Although Gao Youshi didn't know the specific meaning, he could tell that it was early Russian text.

"According to intelligence, the Russians have promised to provide 5,000 matchlock guns. The terms of exchange are unknown, and Persia will accept their warhorse tribute and acquiesce to their current sphere of influence."

Gao Youshi's fingers stroked the raised lines on the bronze plate. It was the double-headed eagle emblem of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. "What other news is there about Russia and Persia?"

"That's not much." Liu Jing shook his head. "But when the Erdemutu tribe returned eastward, the Russian vanguard did not seem to chase them, but went northeast instead. The Oirat people said that there are three seasons of ice and snow there in a year, and only three or four months in summer without frost or snow... These Russians are really not afraid of the cold."

As soon as he said this, Gao Youshi was suddenly shocked - the first year of Taichang today is the thirty-second year of Wanli in the original history, which is 1604 AD... In this year, the Russians officially marched eastward into Siberia and established Tomsk!

Liu Jing, who was standing by, did not notice the slight change in Yuan Fu's expression, and continued to unfold the third volume of the secret report at his own pace. "According to Erdemutu and Boshoktu, the Russian army's firearms are inferior to ours, but their Mongolian cavalry has no good way to deal with the Russian army. In addition, the Russian cavalry performed well, especially fearless and fearless. Erdemutu privately admitted that these Russian cavalry were more bloodthirsty and courageous than the Mongolian cavalry."

Gao Youshi was not surprised by this. The Russian army's equipment level has long been at a medium to low level in Europe, and the current level of Ming army's firearms is even slightly higher than that of Western Europe, and of course more advanced than the Russian army.

As for the so-called "Russian cavalry", they are most likely not pure Russians, but Cossacks - originally a mixture of Mongolians, Slavs, Caucasians and other nationalities. In the original history, they have long existed as the "Tsar's whip". Their proficiency in horsemanship and bloodthirsty courage to fight have always been their characteristics.

Gao Fusi waved his hand and asked, "How is the gunpowder reserve in Anxi?"

"Anxi currently has 80,000 kilograms of gunpowder, and it is said that Jinghua is rushing to transport new fixed-load ammunition." Liu Jing suddenly lowered his voice, "This is because I learned that the court was fully engaged in disaster relief and estimated that the transportation capacity was insufficient, so I asked Jinghua to purchase additional gunpowder in the name of the Western Regions Protectorate."

Gao Youshi's mouth twitched: "Nonsense!" He suddenly waved his hand, "What about the grain? Spring plowing is coming, and Anxi is still in the early stages of reclamation this year, so there probably isn't much surplus grain... How much can be transferred from the northwestern provinces? Do you have an estimate?"

"Report to Yuanfu," Liu Jing pulled out a list from his boot, "According to the court's deployment last year, Anxi, Shaanxi, and Plateau (XX Plateau region, you can use your imagination, I wrote 404) have negotiated and collected dan of wheat and dan of barley, which have now been transported to Hami."

Gao Youshi tapped the word "Hami" with his fingers, frowning and saying, "We have just arrived in Hami... By the time we transport it to the front, I'm afraid it will be reduced by half. So even if we add the secret grain reserves in Jinghua, Li Rumei won't have much time to mobilize the troops."

Liu Jing opened his mouth and wanted to say, "As long as we can maintain the needs for three months, the battle will be won." However, although he had an old acquaintance with Li Rumei, he could not guarantee Li Rumei's command level after all, so he had to swallow back the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

Gao Youshi pondered for a moment and said, "Tomorrow morning, our ministry will hold a cabinet meeting. You will come then and explain the situation to the ministers and the Grand Marshal."

"Yes, the general will take your orders."

When Liu Jing left the side hall, the snow on the eaves fell down. He stroked the waist badge of the commander of the imperial guards and the half tiger talisman that Gao Youshi gave him on behalf of the emperor, and thought to himself that as long as he could convince the cabinet and the Grand Marshal tomorrow, if this battle was successful, the Anxi area of ​​the Ming Dynasty would be secured.
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PS: The fingers haven’t healed yet, so there’s a little less.

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