prosperous age

"Let's keep the position in Beijing for now."

When it comes to how to settle Li Chengliang, Wei Guangde hadn't actually figured it out yet.

Recently, the Ming Dynasty has completed a major reshuffle in its northern military garrisons.

In the past, many generals of Ma Fang's generation retired, and the Ministry of War promoted mostly middle-aged and young generals.

Qi Jiguang and Li Donglin were among the older ones in the group.

The new generation of generals selected by Tan Lun have, after several years of training, gradually risen to the position of commander-in-chief.

People like Ma Gui and Liu Ting were assigned to the Nine Garrisons as commanders-in-chief or deputy commanders-in-chief.

Originally, Liaodong was supposed to be left to Qi Jiguang to guard, but the Ministry of War believed that Qi Jiguang had already been in Liaodong for several years.

The training of the Liaodong government troops has also been put on track, so they intend to send other people over.

Finally, after discussing with Zhang Ke, the result was that Dong Yiyuan would be appointed as the General Commander of Liaodong, and Dong Yikui would be transferred to serve as the Deputy General Commander to govern Liaobei.

"Brothers fight tigers together, fathers and sons go to war together." In the Ming Dynasty, the court did not pay much attention to such brother generals because the Dong family's roots were in Xuanfu.

After returning, Qi Jiguang will still stay in Jizhou and be responsible for the security of the capital region.

Li Chengliang's return from the south this time is really difficult to settle down.

Wei Guangde couldn't make up his mind whether to go to Zhenjiang or Xuanda in Gansu.

Therefore, staying at the Five Military Commands Office and having him help Xu Wenbi train the Beijing Garrison became an option.

After all, when he proposed military reforms to Emperor Wanli, the emperor only requested that troops be drawn from the Beijing Garrison to form a garrison to protect the capital, with nobles still serving as the commanders.

The old Beijing garrison still exists, but it mainly performs the duties of the military command and is no longer the main force on the battlefield.

This is Wei Guangde's current plan: after Li Chengliang is promoted to earl, he will help train the Beijing garrison, and then we will make arrangements based on any vacancies that arise later.

"By the way, according to the previous battle report, Liu Ting made a great contribution in the bloody battle of Datian Village. I wonder if, based on his merits, he is qualified to lead a town on his own?"

Wei Guangde suddenly asked Zhang Ke.

What does "善贷" mean?

The answer to whether Liu Ting could lead a town independently is, of course, no.

Liu Ting was only a deputy general before. Even if he had made great contributions, being promoted to deputy commander-in-chief and guarding a route on his own was considered a promotion and a title.

It would be against the rules to skip the deputy commander-in-chief and directly appoint the commander-in-chief.

But since Wei Guangde asked the question, he must be hoping that the people in the room could discuss it and see if they could give this fellow villager a push.

Currently, Chen Lin, the commander-in-chief of the South China Sea Fleet, is also from their hometown. Now that Wei Guangde intends to promote Liu Ting, he will naturally be the leader of the group.

Zhang Ke could understand this request, but he also found it difficult.

After all, the Ministry of War had already made arrangements for the replacement of the nine key border towns.

There had been an adjustment before due to Dong Yiyuan's transfer.

It now seems that Wei Guangde still intends to be transferred again.

"This is what I'm thinking: send Liu Ting to Burma to replace Li Chengliang, and have Wu Weizhong, the Liaodong guerrilla commander, go there as his deputy."

Deng Zilong was transferred to the Western Naval Force as Commander-in-Chief, replacing the previous commander.

Wei Guangde stated the result he wanted: to appoint Liu Ting to guard Burma, and then, upon his return, he could easily choose any of the nine important border towns.

At least for now, being the sole governor of Myanmar is definitely not a good job, and many people avoid it altogether.

After all, it was a newly civilized land, the natives were barbaric and ferocious, and it was far from the capital, so it was no different from being exiled.

Therefore, Zhang Ke abandoned his plan to replace Li Chengliang only after Wei Guangde gave his instructions, and this is why no one in the Ministry of War had any objections.

It was really difficult to arrange for people to go there; most Ming people viewed Burma as a remote and impoverished place.

Wu Weizhong was a general who followed Qi Jiguang in Zhejiang. He learned his military skills from Qi Jiguang and was also familiar with Liu Ting.

Sending him over to help Liu Ting would also allow Liu Ting to quickly bring the situation in Myanmar under control.

Qi Jiguang particularly admired Wu Weizhong's use of firearms, believing that he had fully inherited Wu's skills and was capable of handling matters independently.

In fact, during the Battle of Honshu, Wu Weizhong and Liu Ting led troops to guard the border from the south and north respectively.

However, it was only because Hideyoshi Hashiba and Ogawa chose to attack the Ota Estate where Liu Ting was stationed that he was able to accumulate enough military merits.

Wu Weizhong, who was stationed in the north, was not so lucky. He spent the entire winter in the castle until the war ended.

Despite his hard work, he failed to achieve anything in the final stage.

Wei Guangde also thought about it for a long time before choosing someone from Qi Jiguang's troops to follow Liu Ting south and protect him.

According to the information relayed back by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, although there were no powerful rivals around Burma, the Mughal Kingdom to the west was expanding rapidly.

At this time, the Mughal Empire, under the leadership of King Akbar, not only recovered the northern India that the Mughal Empire had originally occupied, but also defeated the Afghan nobleman Shim, extending its territory to the northwest.

The Mughal Empire was actually a feudal autocratic dynasty established in India by Babur, a descendant of Timur, a Turkicized Mongol. After the collapse of the Timurid Empire, Babur, a descendant of the royal family, led his army to invade the South Asian subcontinent and established the Mughal Empire.

After the fall of the Timurid Empire, Babur crossed the mountains into Afghanistan, captured Kabul, and established a small dynasty there.

During this period, he received assistance from the Persian Empire, which stabilized the political situation.

However, after relations between the two countries broke down due to religious reasons, Babur set out from Kabul to conquer India.

During this period, Babur attempted to expand his territory in Central Asia, but after failing, he turned his attention to the Delhi Sultanate in the south, which was fragmented and disunited.

In 1525, Babur marched south to attack India, and the following year he captured Delhi. He repeatedly defeated the allied forces of Indian princes, conquered most of northern India, and established the Mughal Empire.

Therefore, the Mughal Empire was originally a regime established in India by a foreign ethnic group.

In 1530, after Babur died of illness, his son Humayun succeeded to the throne. His three half-brothers, Kamran, Hindal, and Askar, launched an attack on him to compete for the throne.

After the internal strife, the Mughal Empire was greatly weakened, and in 1556, Akbar, who was only thirteen years old, succeeded to the throne.

When he first ascended to the throne, the Mughal Empire was very small, and its capital, Delhi, was occupied by the Afghan nobleman, Shim.

With the assistance of General Bayram Khan, Akbar began to govern the Mughal Empire. After more than ten years of war, he restored the territory of the Mughal Kingdom and began to move south, continuing his attempt to conquer several kingdoms in the south.

In fact, it was from this time that the Mughal Empire began its war to unify India, a process that lasted for more than two centuries and was finally completed with the help of the British.

Akbar is now in his forties, in the prime of his life.

The Mughal Empire's southward war was naturally described in the intelligence of the Embroidered Uniform Guard as highly expansionist.

At this time, the general stationed in Burma by the Ming Dynasty had to be a fierce general, someone who dared to fight and take risks.

In fact, the Li family was the best choice to leave Myanmar.

However, when Wei Guangde realized that Myanmar might get out of control, he decisively chose to recall Li Chengliang and his son and send someone else to guard Myanmar.

Wei Guangde had no intention of conquering Burma and then creating a new Li dynasty there.

Therefore, Li Chengliang was transferred away in advance to nip problems in the bud.

It can be said that Wei Guangde's emphasis on intelligence regarding surrounding countries was a crucial means for him to maintain peace and tranquility on the Ming Dynasty's borders. Knowing what the other side was doing allowed him to make timely arrangements.

What Myanmar needs is not a general who can maintain the status quo, but an offensive one, so as to prevent the expanding Mughal Empire from turning its attention to the Indian subcontinent to the east.

"Shan Dai, I will get back to you about this later."

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Ke gave an answer that was not an answer at all.

He really needed to gather people at the Ministry of War to discuss this matter and see if they could promote Liu Ting's achievements and elevate him from deputy general to commander-in-chief.

"By the way, last time you mentioned the Portuguese in Malacca. According to intelligence from the Embroidered Uniform Guard and Old Port, the Bureau of Military Affairs learned that although there are more than two thousand Portuguese stationed there, the army seems to number only five or six hundred."

If the imperial court truly intended to seize Malacca, it would be a piece of cake.

Zhang Ke suddenly brought up something Wei Guangde had casually mentioned before. After all, capturing Malacca, formerly known as Mantek, was extremely important for the Ming Dynasty to restore its prestige in Southeast Asia.

"And then there's the Kingdom of Aceh, the kingdom in northern Sumatra. According to information sent back from Palembang in the early years, it seems they had contact with the Ottoman Empire a long time ago, and even received help from the Ottoman Empire."

Zhang Ke continued, recounting the information the Ministry of War obtained after reviewing documents. This information had actually been collected, organized, and sent to the Ministry of War several years earlier from Jiugang.

However, at the time, the Ministry of War did not pay attention to it.

At that time, the imperial court had just recovered Old Port, and the Kingdom of Aceh in the north was quite respectful and voluntarily withdrew from Old Port, so naturally they did not care much about the history of Aceh.

Or rather, at that time, the Ming Dynasty did not intend to exert its power on a large scale in Southeast Asia.

"Acehnese had connections with the Ottomans?"

Upon hearing this, Wei Guangde's expression changed slightly.

"Yes, twenty or thirty years ago, the Kingdom of Aceh attempted to conquer Malacca, but failed."

At that time, they received military assistance from the Ottoman Empire.

However, given the great distance, the Ottoman Empire could only provide limited assistance, roughly two ships of firearms.

This Ottoman fleet had come from the western Red Sea.

Zhang Ke continued, "If you hadn't mentioned religion, I wouldn't have even thought of it that way."

Based on the information available now, it seems that Western nations have an unusually strong fascination with religion, even to the point of going to war over it.

Although wars were frequent in Chinese history, there were few precedents of wars being waged because of religion.

Therefore, when they saw the intelligence reports that mentioned religious wars, they were quite dismissive of it.

However, the fact that the Ottoman Empire would go to great lengths to provide support to such a small country as Aceh, simply because of their shared religion, finally made Ming Dynasty scholars realize the influence of their religion in Western countries.

"It seems that the Pope in Europe may indeed have boundless power."

Lao Kan muttered to himself.

“Shan Dai, we need to think carefully about the potential consequences if we actually defeat the Kingdom of Aceh.”

I'm not worried about the Ottoman reaction. Even if the court destroys Aceh, they might not even know.

However, after Aceh's defeat in the war with the Portuguese, relations between the two sides were somewhat restored due to trade.

Once we take action, the Portuguese in Malacca will likely become alert.

The Mancijia royal descendant you had the Embroidered Uniform Guard find is probably too late.

Zhang Ke reminded him.

According to the previous plan, the Ming Dynasty would first target the Kingdom of Aceh, expanding the control of the Old Port Pacification Commission from the southern part of Sumatra to the entire island.

But without a doubt, Zhang Ke foresaw that this might alert the Portuguese and lead them to increase their troops in Malacca.

"It's just a small place. If we control Sumatra, we can also directly control the Malacca waterway."

Moreover, Old Port didn't just send a detachment to Temasek, where they established barracks and a naval base.

Wei Guangde smiled and said, "It doesn't affect the overall situation, so it doesn't matter."

But now Aceh has revealed its ambitions for the Old Port, and we must take them down.

Even if they have the Ottomans behind them, they must be wiped out.

Neither of us wants to extend our reach to the far west, and I doubt the Ottoman Sultan would truly break with our Ming Dynasty.

Because of maritime trade, the world situation at the end of the 16th century had become closely intertwined with maritime routes, and the international situation had become more complex.

This is clearly vastly different from the international situation faced by the Ming Dynasty a century ago.

In the Ming Dynasty, only Wei Guangde has truly been able to unravel this complex relationship.

After all, other officials are used to focusing only on China and have never looked outward.

Wei Guangde's vision truly surpassed that of other Ming Dynasty figures of his time.

They needed Wei Guangde to help them sort out this somewhat complicated situation.

In fact, if it weren't for Wei Guangde's deliberate push, the key figures of the Ming Dynasty would have preferred to retreat and simply sell Ming-made goods in Songjiang, Guangzhou, and other places to make money, without needing to expand outwards at all.

"In that case, the Ministry of War will issue a document instructing Chen Lin to strengthen the garrison at Old Port as soon as possible."

At that time, the imperial court could also mobilize the Western Navy to assist in severing the connection between Aceh and the Ottoman Empire.

They could even move Burmese troops into Sumatra without having to move troops from Luzon, Dongpan, or even Fujian and Zhejiang.

Zhang Ke made a decision after thinking it over. Since Wei Guangde's determination to destroy the Kingdom of Aceh remained unchanged, it would be more convenient to transfer troops from Burma than from within the country.

However, the main force of the navy still needed to head south and station itself in Old Port.

Just when the matter seemed to be settled, Zhang Xueyan, the Minister of Revenue, suddenly spoke up: "Aceh's coveting of Palembang deserves punishment, but once war breaks out, a lot of money will be spent, at least another million taels of silver."

The Ministry of Revenue is out of money. The little silver in Taicang needs to be reserved to reward the army and support the settlement of the garrisons crossing the sea to the east.

But we don't have the money to spend on troop deployment to attack Aceh.

Warfare seems to boil down to just one sentence: mobilize troops and that's it.

In reality, even setting aside whether a war will actually break out, just starting to mobilize troops requires throwing money out of the country.

The Ministry of Revenue knew about the expenses for rewards and troop relocation beforehand, so they tightened their belts to save money. They really had no plans to fight in Southeast Asia.

The Ming Dynasty's finances were not yet so abundant that one could casually dismiss enemy ships with a feather fan and a silk turban.

"The navy and Burmese garrison will make up the initial cost, and the payment will be gradually made up from customs duties once the customs offices in Dagon and Bago are established."

Wei Guangde frowned slightly before speaking.

The South China Sea Fleet, which operated in Dongfan, Luzon, and Palembang, was the wealthiest of all the towns in the Ming Dynasty, so it was not unreasonable for them to embezzle some funds.

The Western Navy is poor, but it should be able to cover the troop deployment expenses. There are also the Burmese government troops; the silver remaining in Burma should be enough to support the deployment of 20,000 to 30,000 men. If that's not enough, it can be charged to the South China Navy.

After all, it's about helping them conquer territory. (End of Chapter)