prosperous age

Chapter 405 Chapter 404 Fujian's Defeat
Wei Guangde had his own goals, so from that moment on, he was extremely enthusiastic about Professor Yu Wang.

Because of the meaning of the palace, Wei Guangde searched for information in the name of searching for documents related to northern Mongolia, but in fact he also collected and sorted out information related to the Shibo Department and the Mutual Market.

Based on what he has collected so far, Wei Guangde has already seen many problems. At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty actually wanted to be closed and self-sufficient. This may be influenced by Zhu Yuanzhang's background.

He may think that wealth should be accumulated little by little, and all of it should be kept in the country, but he does not know that wealth can be made more through transactions.

Therefore, even if the limited mutual market started during Zhu Yuanzhang's period, it was more of a policy adopted as a last resort.

Just like the tea-horse trade in the border areas, the fundamental purpose is to solve the problem of the lack of war horses in the Ming army. It is carried out in an official-run model, which not only controls the total transaction volume but also increases the court's income.

Although the idea is good, after a hundred years of development, it has already become corrupt.

From the information he found, Wei Guangde found that during the Hongwu period, the price of a high-quality horse in the tea-horse trade was 120 catties of tea, but now it is 80 catties. It seems that tea is more valuable, while the price of horses is falling .

But the actual situation is that the price of tea has risen a little over the past century, but the rate of increase is far less than that of the price of high-grade horses.

It seems that the rise in tea prices and the fall in horse prices in the tea-horse trade are beneficial to the imperial court, but the actual result is that the Ming army is now in short supply of war horses.

Are there really fewer horses to trade because of changes in exchange value?

Not necessarily, it's just that a large number of horses have not been traded to the court. It seems that the court has benefited, but in fact it is at the expense of the weakening of the army's combat power. Those horses have flowed into the private market.

Wei Guangde planned to talk about these things to King Yu later, but now he still wants to finish talking about the relationship between Daming and the northern grassland peoples.

However, what he didn't know was that Yin Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng outside the window also started whispering.

"What Shan Loan said, is it appropriate?"

Zhang Juzheng was a little confused. He didn't know how Gao Gong and Chen Yiqin taught King Yu when Gao Gong and Chen Yiqin were there.

Although Yin Shizhen also felt that something was wrong, some of what Wei Guangde said was actually reasonable when he thought about it, but his views were slightly different from those of the current court.

However, Wei Guangde did not impose his will on King Yu. After all, King Yu is already an adult and has his own thoughts. Therefore, Wei Guangde analyzed both the current views of the outside world and his views from the data. Tell Yu Wang, let Yu Wang judge by himself, and the most important thing is to encourage Yu Wang to have his own thoughts.

Yin Shizhen looked in through the window, King Yu was older than Wei Guangde, the situation in the room really felt a little out of harmony.

"It's just to put forward some ideas, it's not deviant."

Yin Shizhen whispered to Zhang Juzheng, "Actually His Highness is already an adult, he has his own thoughts, and Su Qing often does this when teaching His Highness."

One of the important reasons why Gao Gong is respected by King Yu is that Gao Gong will not impose his ideas on King Yu, but when explaining, he will explain from many aspects, and those who are recognized by the outside world , Those are criticized, and what King Yu chooses to believe in the end depends on King Yu's own thoughts.

When King Yu and King Jing left the palace, they were actually considered adults and had completed basic education in the palace, but their thinking was not mature enough.

Gao Gong's education to Yu Wang can be regarded as teaching students according to their aptitude, but the result seems to be very good, which is very suitable for Yu Wang's temper.

At this moment, a small servant appeared at the gate of the courtyard. He came in with a note in his hand, saw Yin Shizhen by the window, and quickly walked over in three steps at a time.

Yin Shizhen pulled Zhang Juzheng's sleeves, and the two left the window sill and walked over.

The little servant handed over the note in his hand, maybe he also knew that his prince was in class, so he lowered his voice and said: "The message from Mr. Gao."

Although King Yu's status seems to have been clarified, the Prince Yu's Mansion still did not relax its vigilance, and kept an eye on the troubles in the court every day, but whenever any important event happened, the Palace would know immediately.

In the past, it was necessary to bribe the clerks in various yamen to inquire about such news. Now that Gao Gong has entered the court as an official, the news is more well-informed, and he naturally plays the responsibility of tipping off the news.

After receiving the note, he nodded at him, and after the little servant left, Yin Shizhen looked down at the note in his hand, and then frowned.

Zhang Juzheng didn't speak at the side, and he didn't go over when Yin Shizhen was reading the note.

Yin Shixuan led Zhang Juzheng into the next room, then handed the note to Zhang Juzheng, and said, "Look at it too, Fujian has suffered a defeat, and the siege has failed."

"So fast?"

Zhang Juzheng was a little surprised. It was only a short time since the imperial court made the decision to exterminate the rebels, and the Fujian side launched the first encirclement and suppression operation. This did not conform to his impression of the efficiency of the local government.

Yin Shizhen understood the meaning of his words, smiled wryly and shook his head, "The imperial court asked about the news of Zhang Lian's gang of rebels. It is impossible for the Fujian government not to guess that the capital already knew about it. They should have already started dispatching troops to prepare for the encirclement and suppression at that time. .

Moreover, the previous memorials actually mentioned that when Zhang Lian and others were bandits, the local government actually mobilized a large army to encircle and suppress them, but they failed to completely wipe them out.

And because it was September and October, I was worried that the Japanese pirates would come with the wind, so I mobilized the bandit suppression army to return to the coastal counties to defend against the Japanese pirates. "

"Thinking about it, it was also the time when they were almost wiped out that made the rebels come to their senses. Sooner or later, they would be wiped out by the imperial army if they each took over the mountain. It's better to join forces to strengthen their strength, and it's not easy to be wiped out."

Zhang Juzheng had already read the note in his hand, sighed and said, "It's a pity."

"In the next year, when the Japanese pirates come to the east again in March and April, there are only two months left in the middle, and I am afraid that there is no way to encircle and suppress them. After all, there are already hundreds of thousands of people. Annihilate."

Yin Shizhen was already sitting in his seat, and said to Zhang Juzheng, "Actually, Shan Loan's method might have been better at that time.

To mobilize the officers and troops to station in the anti-thief peripheral prefectures and counties first, to block the expansion of the anti-thief forces, as long as people are blocked in the encirclement circle, they only need to wait for the surrounding army to be mobilized, and then go all out to destroy them. "

"We can't wipe out the rebels at once. It will indeed damage the majesty of the court, and it will also boost the morale of the rebels. The morale of the surrounding officers and soldiers will also be damaged. It shouldn't be."

Zhang Juzheng nodded in approval, "Will the imperial court transfer Shandai away for this failure?"

"Not at all, there are many elite soldiers and strong generals in the south, and there is no shortage of Wei Guangde."

Yin Shixuan shook his head and smiled, "Even Tan Lun from Zhejiang should be able to do it. I heard that he has trained an army in the past two years and has made great achievements in fighting Japanese pirates. I think he will choose the nearest general when he comes to the imperial court. I just hope that he will not go again. The old road, hastily dispatched troops to encircle and suppress, but finally returned in defeat."

It has been more than half a month since Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng entered Prince Yu's Mansion by order, and now it has come to December of the 39th year of Jiajing, when the yamen were about to be sealed, the news from Fujian came, and soon It spread to all the yamen in the capital.

Almost all officials looked shocked when they heard the news.

They were amazed at the speed of the Fujian government's response, mobilizing troops and horses to start encircling and suppressing the rebels so quickly, but on the other hand, they felt unacceptable that the government and army were defeated by the rebels so quickly.

Fujian is not a peaceful place. The officers and soldiers there have participated in the pursuit of Japanese pirates many times. They must have actual combat experience, but such an army was defeated by the rebels within a few days.

In the past, most of the Beijing officials had a dismissive attitude towards Zhang Lian and his gang of rebels. In their view, it was just a gathering of hundreds of thousands of mobs. Seriously, it can be destroyed overnight.

But now it seems that this is not the case at all.

At this time, many people think of Fujian, which seems to be similar to the southwest, and it is a mountainous place. It seems that it is really difficult to go into the mountains to encircle the rebels.

Thinking about the southwest region, in many places there were rebels, big and small, who had not been wiped out, but they were all so-called kings, and none of them dared to call themselves emperor like Zhang Lian, scratching the beard of the government.

Moreover, because Zhang Lian now played the banner of rebellion, the court must be paying special attention to it, so he did not dare to hide the news as he did in the past, and only reported it if he could not. Instead, he reported the news of his defeat as soon as possible. the capital.

Who knows if Jin Yiwei has been staring at this place?
While Yin Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng in the room were still chatting about Fujian affairs, when they heard the voices of Wei Guangde and Yu Wang chatting and laughing outside, it should be the end of this class.

The two got up and walked out, and they saw that Yu Wang had already walked out of the study door, followed by Wei Guangde and Li Fang.

"Your Highness."

Yin Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng hurried forward to salute.

"The two gentlemen are dead."

King Yu hurriedly stretched out his hand to help, and said in his mouth.

"This is the news from outside today, please read it, Your Highness."

Yin Shixuan stood up, took out the note from his arms and handed it to King Yu.

"It's not a big deal in court today, it looks like the Chinese New Year is coming."

King Yu said with a relaxed smile at this moment, before Li Fang could pass by, he stretched out his hand to take the note from Yin Shizhen, looked down, and frowned instantly.

Although Wei Guangde beside King Yu was very curious if something happened in the court today, he saw that Yin Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng didn't look relaxed, but he was just curious, and he would know in a while.

On the other side, Li Fang only took two steps, and when Yu Wang reached out to take the note, he had already retreated to Yu Wang's side.

"How could it be so fast, it was defeated in only three days."

King Yu had already read the note in his hand, and looked up at Yin Shizhen in disbelief.

Yin Shizhen smiled wryly, "How can you be undefeated if you are in an ambush?"

Zhang Juzheng next to him had a serious face from beginning to end, and when King Yu didn't ask him, he would choose to stand there quietly without saying a word.

lost?Zhongfu?
Wei Guangde naturally guessed what happened, no wonder Yin Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng both appeared, it was really bad news.

Not surprisingly, King Yu is the future emperor, as long as anything that is unfavorable to the imperial court happens, it is actually unfavorable to King Yu.

On this point, a consensus has already been formed in the Yuwang party. They already have the awareness to purge the court and lay a solid foundation for Yuwang's ascension to the throne.

In the end, the country belonged to King Yu. If it was really beaten to pieces by those rebels, King Yu would suffer in the end, and they should come forward to clean it up.

However, Wei Guangde did not agree with Yin Shizhen's words.

Who said that if you hit an ambush, you will definitely fail?

That's just what the literati subconsciously think, as if it's said in the books, it seems that if you are in an ambush, you must lose the battle. Who stipulated it?

If the officers and soldiers are powerful, even if they are ambushed by the mob, the winner or loser is still unknown. It can only show that the army is either too arrogant or a command error.

Wei Guangde has paid close attention to the information from Fujian, and concluded that the rebels are a mob. How powerful can an army composed of Fujian's cellar people, boat people, miners, and refugees be?
"Let's talk in the room."

King Yu nodded slightly after hearing Yin Shizhen's words, and then led everyone back to the study room, but the study room was no longer his classroom, but a place where they discussed matters.

King Yu handed the note to Wei Guangde and asked him to read it too.

Although Wei Guangde roughly guessed some of the conversation between the two before, he still looked down.

Sure enough, tens of thousands of Ming troops assembled in Zhangzhou Prefecture and set off into the mountains to suppress the bandits. On the third day, they fell in ambush, and most of them retreated in defeat.

Wei Guangde understood that the casualties were not too heavy. It is estimated that the Ming army had just won the victory of repelling the Japanese pirates. At that time, their self-confidence was a little bursting. Maybe they were counting on the end of the battle years ago, so they underestimated the enemy and rushed forward. Finally, they were beaten and ambushed. It collapsed in an instant.

After everyone entered the room and sat down, King Yu asked Yin Shizhen, "What do you think should be done after discussing?"

Naturally, he asked Yin Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng. The two of them knew the news first, so they would naturally discuss it in advance. Now King Yu wanted to know the result of their discussion.

In fact, this is also King Yu's test for these officials. Those who are capable will naturally be useful in the future, and those who are not will naturally depend on the situation.

Yin Shizheng and Zhang Juzheng looked at each other before saying: "We think it's best to use the method Shan Loan said at the beginning, and first deploy officers and troops to guard against the rebels in the surrounding counties, and then mobilize the army to encircle and suppress the rebels in June next year."

At the beginning, Wei Guangde thought that there was no need to be so eager to encircle and suppress Zhang Lian and others, so he was afraid that it would be counterproductive. It is better to make more preparations, first encircle and investigate the enemy's situation, and fight back the Japanese pirates in the coming year before proceeding to suppress.

However, Wei Guangde also said that if he did this, he was afraid that someone would impeach him, and the local government would be under great pressure.

"Shan Loan, what do you think we should do now?"

Yu Wang nodded, but he was not satisfied with their answers, because there was nothing new.

"The officers and soldiers have at most three months to carry out the campaign, and then they have to return to their respective defense areas to guard against the invasion of Japanese pirates. I'm afraid it will be a bit troublesome for Fujian."

Wei Guangde shook his head, and poured cold water on everyone when he opened his mouth.

(End of this chapter)