prosperous age

In the Liaoxi Corridor of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming troops in various military forts have received warnings that tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry are crossing the Xiaoling River, and their target seems to be Jinzhou.

This time the Mongolian invasion was carried out in multiple directions, one of which was advancing from Suizhong to the northwest. The first to discover the abnormality was Suizhong Guangning, who detected the movements of thousands of Mongolian cavalry in Changling Mountain Fort.

He then urgently reported the military situation, and Ning Yuanzhong Zuowei also quickly discovered the warning, so the news was quickly passed to Qi Jiguang.

In recent years, Qi Jiguang's main combat focus has been on the Jurchen tribes in the north. He used various means to divide and disintegrate the alliances between the Jurchen tribes, and fully supported the pro-Ming forces among the Jurchen tribes, with very good results.

After the suppression of Wang Gao, the Ahai and Atai tribes were also suppressed, so that those Jurchen tribes that were dissatisfied with the Ming Dynasty could only speak out because they were alone.

At the same time, the rumor was widely spread among the Jurchen tribe that the Ming Dynasty had accepted the Jurchen tribe in Nantou with good intentions, but some leaders of the Jurchen tribe became more ambitious and even wanted to attack the Ming Dynasty, which was truly unkind and unjust.

Under such influence, the Jurchen tribes have calmed down in the past two years and their hostility towards the Ming Dynasty has been somewhat resolved.

However, Qi Jiguang was still keeping his eyes on the north at this time, because Wei Guangde wanted to restore the Nurgan Regional Military Commission. For the ministers in the cabinet in the capital, this matter was just a matter of slapping their heads and making a decision.

But the task fell on Liaodong and on Qi Jiguang's shoulders, and that was to implement the specific implementation plan for this matter.

In today's Liaodong of the Ming Dynasty, the northernmost city is Anlezhou. If the Ming army wants to reach Nurgan City by boat from Heilongjiang as Wei Guangde said, the border needs to advance hundreds of miles to the north.

In fact, it was still a wasteland, with only a small number of Jurchens and Mongols living together.

The fleet continued to advance northward to the Tuhe River, which is a tributary of the Songhua River. After disembarking here and following the Songhua River into the Heilongjiang River, it was possible for the fleet to reach the city of Nurgan.

If we have to give up the water route and go by land, then we should just take a rest and get some sleep.

In this era, if there is no water transportation, then transportation can basically be abandoned.

If Wei Guangde wanted to manage the Northeast, he had to open up the waterway.

At this time, Qi Jiguang was planning how to set up a safe corridor that would allow the Ming army to move safely back and forth between Changtu and Tuhe.

After all, it is too unsafe to build such a corridor outside the Liaodong Great Wall.

It is basically impossible to expand the Great Wall for this corridor, as it would be too time-consuming and costly.

Therefore, this corridor could only be protected by building dozens of military forts with a distance of ten to twenty miles between them.

Well, even so, the cost is huge.

This is the Ming Dynasty version of “The leader says one word and the subordinates run around for it.”

To be honest, if Qi Jiguang were allowed to choose, he would never consider going to Nurgan City, as it was simply too difficult.

But thousands of miles away in the capital, Wei Guangde, Tan Lun, and Zhang Juzheng actually nodded in agreement and assigned the task in a formal document.

Otherwise, Qi Jiguang would have written back to ask Wei Guangde to give up this plan.

Unfortunately, the group had already made up their minds and did not allow him to express his own opinions.

Ancient transportation really had a huge impact on a country's development.

However, the warning from the Liaoxi Corridor forced him to withdraw his gaze to the north and face the crisis in Jinzhou instead.

Guangning and Ning Yuan detected the movements of the Mongolian cavalry, and their targets were Jinzhou, a key junction of the Liaoxi Corridor of the Ming Dynasty. In order to maintain the land connection between Liaodong and the interior, this place must not be lost.

At this time, Qi Jiguang had already led the main force, including the infantry battalion, cavalry battalion, chariot battalion and the elite troops of Liaodong, from Liaoyang and rushed westward to prepare to stop the Mongolian threat to Jinzhou.

The army felt at ease marching inside the Great Wall, but Qi Jiguang still had no idea how to fight the battle.

The first thing is to get to the vicinity of Jinzhou as soon as possible. Then, by combining the forces at hand, it will be no problem to defeat the enemy.

But there is one thing that still puzzles Qi Jiguang, that is, several scouts have not found out who the leader of the Mongolian invasion is, because they have not found the opponent's royal flag.

For this reason, although it seemed that the war might be concentrated in the Liaoxi Corridor, when leaving Liaoyang, Qi Jiguang still sent orders to all the forts in the Liaodong border towns to defend their positions.

After all, Liaodong is isolated and seems to be surrounded by enemies.

Even if the Jurchens were subdued by him, Qi Jiguang would never take it lightly.

The surrounding environment of Liaodong is really bad, far inferior to Jizhen.

Jizhen only needs to pay attention to the north, but in Liaodong, it has to guard against the east, west and north.

When Qi Jiguang led the army to march westward in a hurry, Wei Guangde also came to Zhang Juzheng with military intelligence.

Zhang Juzheng had finished reading the Liaodong military report, and looked at Wei Guangde and asked, "What is Shandai's proposal?"

Wei Guangde must have had other ideas when he came here, and it was definitely not as simple as transferring troops from Liaodong to resist the enemy.

Otherwise, he could just instruct the Ministry of War directly, why would he have to come here to find him.

Wei Guangde did not hide anything in front of Zhang Juzheng and directly expressed his concerns about Aldan Khan's health and Mongolia in the post-Aldan Khan era.

"Are you worried that after Altan Khan dies, his successor will overturn the Longqing Peace Agreement?"

Zhang Juzheng frowned slightly. He had thought about it at this time, but Wei Guangde was already planning for Mongolia, and it didn't seem very urgent, so he naturally just glanced over it.

But now the situation has changed. Altan Khan is still alive, but some people in the Tumed tribe dare to disobey his orders. This is indeed not good news.

"Are you planning to have a big fight? To intimidate the Mongolian scoundrels?"

After a moment, Zhang Juzheng guessed what Wei Guangde meant. Although he was still unclear about his idea, he could still understand the general meaning.

"Yes, I want the Liaodong government troops to inflict pain on the Mongols, but not injure them too badly. It would be best if they could maintain a stalemate.

There is a high probability that Huang Taiji was in command of this invasion. Once he found that his troops were not enough to defeat the government army, I expected that he would contact the Liaodong Tuman, Taining and other tribes to gather troops to attack the Ming Dynasty.

At that time, the Jizhen army would march north and attack the enemy together with the Liaodong government troops.

If this battle is successful, even if Altan Khan dies, no Mongolian Khan will dare to attack our Ming Dynasty within ten years.

As a result, Liaodong will not have to fight with the Tuman and other tribes for at least a few years, and can focus on managing the Northeast."

After Wei Guangde finished speaking, he kept silent and waited for Zhang Juzheng's reply.

It was going to be another big battle, and the Ming Dynasty's financial resources were really not enough to withstand it, so Wei Guangde had to obtain Zhang Juzheng's support in advance.

If he had directly instructed the Ministry of War to launch a massive attack, and then the Ministry of Revenue was unable to provide aid and all previous efforts were wasted, that would have been a real loss for the Ming Dynasty.

"It's another big battle."

Zhang Juzheng sighed again.

During the two years that Gao Gong was in power, the Ming Dynasty enjoyed good weather and peace all around. Unexpectedly, after he took over, first the Jurchens invaded, then Burma broke out, and finally they had to fight a big battle with the Mongols.

"Troubled times."

Wei Guangde smiled bitterly.

"Yes, it's an eventful time."

Zhang Juzheng echoed the same feeling.

"Let's fight. Huang Taiji is too ambitious. If we don't teach him a profound lesson, as you said, if something unexpected happens to Altan Khan, this war will be unavoidable.

Instead of doing that, it is better to fight now while Altan Khan is still here and can still control the main forces on the grassland. If he really has the overall situation in mind, he will definitely control the other Mongolian tribes after the war breaks out, so that the war will not continue to expand. "

Zhang Juzheng figured it out. Judging from Altan Khan's behavior over the years, he really didn't want to be an enemy of the Ming Dynasty. But there were still some people around him who were ambitious and coveted the Ming Dynasty.

By fighting, at least we can gain some control over the war, which is better than waiting until his death.

If things go wrong, that would be a decisive battle between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia.

Next, Wei Guangde planned to order the government troops in the nine border areas to be on high alert, and the Jizhen army was also ready to go out and help as soon as the battle report from Jinzhou arrived.

The most important thing is the Ministry of Revenue, which has to prepare enough food and silver for the army. Liaodong is not so bad, as the government troops are fighting all year round and the military pay is higher than that of other garrisons, so there is no need for any silver to mobilize the army, and it is only necessary to distribute the rewards afterwards.

In Jizhen, we have to pay silver to the army before we can send them out to fight.

If you don't have money to settle down, then be careful that your soldiers won't fight hard on the battlefield and may just sell themselves out.

"Shandai, you go to the Ministry of War to participate in the discussion. I will send a note to the Ministry of Revenue right away, asking them to transfer money and grain to the Santun Camp as soon as possible. No matter what the final result is, we must make the necessary preparations."

Zhang Juzheng made a prompt decision.

"Okay, Shandai will take his leave now."

Wei Guangde stood up, bowed and said something.

"it is good."

Zhang Juzheng stood up to return the greeting. After Wei Guangde left, he returned to his desk and quickly wrote a note to the Ministry of Revenue.

It is almost the end of the year, and normally this time is related to the year-end settlement. However, with the current military situation, the Ministry of Revenue’s account books may not look good again this year.

Last year, I had to use some tricks to make the account books look better, at least there was a surplus on the surface.

I didn't expect that this year, I'm afraid there will be another big loss.

The note was delivered to Zhang Xueyan not long after. Although he didn't know why, the fact that he was going to allocate silver and send food to the Santunying clearly showed that he was going to fight a war near the capital.

Over the years, especially after the "Longqing Peace Agreement", the people of Beijing finally put their minds at ease and lived a few years in peace.

However, this note from the Prime Minister made Zhang Xueyan smell a strong smell of gunpowder.

After all, he had just returned from his post as governor of Liaodong, so he was certainly not unfamiliar with war.

With both money and food, what else can we do except fight a war?

He immediately called his men to start making arrangements. "The grain and grass will be sent directly from Tongzhou to Santunying, and the silver will be sent from Taicang. It will not go beyond the Ministry of War. Just send it there and pass a note to the Ministry of War."

Zhang Xueyan knew very well that after the silver left the Ministry of Revenue, it would be taxed again after passing through the Ministry of War.

The order from the Prime Minister required the Ministry of Revenue to allocate the full amount of silver. Zhang Xueyan also wanted to do something, so he planned to use Zhang Juzheng's note to directly pay the silver.

Dong Yiyuan, the general of Jizhen, had a good relationship with Wei Guangde, and took the opportunity to make friends with the second assistant.

As for the opinions below, after seeing the Prime Minister's note, I think the anger will not be directed at me.

Although Zhang Juzheng's situation seemed good at this time, in fact, the officials below were more or less aware of something and each had their own plans.

Dong Yiyuan of Santunying didn't know yet that he would receive the full amount of salary from the imperial court for the first time in history.

This is probably the first time in the Ming Dynasty in a hundred years.

Wei Guangde walked into the lobby of the Ministry of War. At this time, the Langzhong and the Chief Clerk of the Ministry of Personnel were all there, and Zeng Shengwu, the Minister in Charge, was naturally also here.

"Shan Dai, take a look at this. This is the document I intend to send to Qi Yuanjing."

Not only do they have to repel the Mongolian cavalry, but they also have to attract their men and prevent them from fleeing directly, and they also hope to lure Huang Taiji to find allies. To be honest, this is a very difficult operation.

Tan Lun only considered letting Qi Jiguang attract Huang Taiji's troops to create time for the Jizhen army to encircle them.

But Wei Guangde had a bigger plan. He wanted to deal with the disobedient Taining and the barbarians who always opposed the Ming Dynasty. This was not easy at all.

Wei Guangde took the document and glanced at it. He raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, "Taining and Tuman just want them to get involved. It is not necessary. There is no need to emphasize this matter. The word 'must' is inappropriate."

Wei Guangde soon discovered something was wrong. He really wanted to make dumplings for them, but he also knew the difficulty of it, and he couldn't influence Huang Taiji's ideas.

"We can't do anything about this at the Ministry of War. We might as well ask the Imperial Guards if anyone is already with Huang Taiji."

However, something Tan Lun said casually made Wei Guangde feel something.

"Someone is coming."

Wei Guangde suddenly shouted.

He came to the Ministry of War, and naturally he was surrounded by people from the Ministry of War, but there were also some minor clerks coming over.

"Go to the Northern Pacification Office immediately and ask Commander Liu to come over."

Wei Guangde immediately gave the order.

"Ah, yes, Lord Wei."

The clerk didn't expect that he would be assigned to the Imperial Guard, so he felt uncomfortable, but he immediately agreed and quickly left the lobby of the Ministry of War.

"If this plan can be realized, the loss of a spy will be worth it."

Wei Guangde simply whispered to Tan Lun, who just nodded slightly.

The conversation between the two people made Zeng Shengwu, who was standing next to them, a little confused.

The Ministry of War did not send people directly to the grassland, but Tan Lun had previously issued confidential documents to various military garrisons, allowing them to arrange the matter on their own.

In the capital, the only ones who could directly eliminate spies and secret agents were the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

So it is normal that Zeng Shengwu doesn’t know some things.

Liu Shouyou did not dare to delay when he received the news in Beizhen Prefecture. He immediately rode his horse to the Ministry of War with his guards.

At this time, Tan Lun was signing documents to various military towns, briefly summarizing the military situation in Liaodong and asking the garrisons in various places to remain on high alert. The generals of each town immediately summoned their elite troops and were ready to go into battle at any time.

These documents are similar, except that those for Liaodong and Jizhen have not been completed yet and need to wait for final decision.

Liu Shouyou was led into the lobby of the Ministry of War and immediately saluted Wei Guangde, Tan Lun and Zeng Shengwu.

He may ignore other people, but these three are important officials of the imperial court and he cannot ignore them.

"Go down and rest first, I'll call you back later."

Tan Lun gave instructions to the others in the hall, and after they left, Wei Guangde asked Liu Shouyou, "Siyun, does Jinyi have anyone planted around Huang Taiji?"

"Ok?"

Wei Guangde's question surprised Liu Shouyou, but after thinking for a moment, he said, "Yes, but I am only around him, not by his side, so it's hard to talk to him."

Hearing this, Tan Lun frowned slightly, but Wei Guangde was indeed very satisfied and smiled at Tan Lun, “This is how the great plan can be accomplished.

As long as people talk about it to those around them, I think someone will report it to Huang Taiji.

As for whether he will do what we envision in the end, that depends on fate.”

After Wei Guangde finished speaking, Tan Lun's worry turned into joy, "Great, great, great, that's exactly how it should be." (End of this chapter)