eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 459 Governor of Shaanxi
Wang Shouren left the capital in mid-March and went to Shaanxi to take up his post.

Since the second year of Hongwu, when Zhu Yuanzhang merged the two provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu, the actual jurisdiction area of ​​Shaanxi was very large, including later Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Hetao and part of the territory of Qinghai Province in later generations.

The right side of the Yellow River's "Ji" is the junction of Shaanxi and Shanxi, and the west will have to reach the Hexi Corridor, and the junction with Hami, that is, to Xinjiang.

In order to govern such a huge place, Daming set up the Shaanxi Xingdu Division in addition to the normal Shaanxi Metropolitan Command and Envoy Division.

The Commanding and Envoy Division is one of the three divisions, that is, the Chief Envoy, the Examination and Envoy, and the Commanding Envoy.

And in some areas where the military pressure on the frontier was huge and the ethnic minorities lived in compact communities, the imperial court set up military and political institutions such as the command and envoy of the capital as a supplement.

To put it simply, the Xingdu Division is added to assist the Dusi in order to strengthen management in the border areas with complicated conditions. It is not available in every province.

Of course, this situation in Shaanxi definitely needs it.

However, the Dusi and the Xingdusi have no affiliation relationship. They both belong to the Dudufu of the Five Armies, and they actually obey the orders of the Ministry of War.

The governing offices of the two institutions are also different. The headquarters of the Shaanxi Commander Division is located in Xi'an, and the administrative office of the Shaanxi Xingdu Division is in Ganzhou, which is later Zhangye City, Gansu Province.

Xi'an Metropolitan Commander has 11 guards under its jurisdiction, including Yulin Guard, Suide Guard, Ningxia Guard, and Ningxia Qianwei.

Shaanxi Xingdu Division has 12 guards under its jurisdiction, and its main defense area is the Hexi Corridor.

As the governor of Shaanxi, Wang Shouren was deeply trusted by the emperor, and he was sent here because he considered that he might encounter border wars later, so the imperial decree for his appointment stated that he had the power to control the 23 guards in various places in Shaanxi. Strength, 20 frontier troops.

20 is not an accurate number, but the ancients didn't have the mind to count heads every day, so it can be roughly reported like this.

The strength on paper is like this, Wang Shouren's journey has not been easy.

At this juncture, it is obvious that the fighting power of the frontier army is weak. Since Yang Yiqing was in charge of Shanxi until he became the governor of the three sides, the situation of the frontier army has improved.

But the so-called improvement means that several castles were built, and they became horns of each other for a while, and jointly defended for a while, which is nothing more than building a solid line of defense.

Because no one is able to solve the fundamental problem of the destruction of military settlements.

On the one hand, the soldiers ran away and the fields in the army station fell into desolation, and on the other hand, they were also occupied by people.No matter what kind it is, people need to cultivate it, so many soldiers have gone back to become farmers.

The lack of vacancies in various health clinics is a common phenomenon.

As for the great boost of military power written in the memorial, some troops can do it because they have raised some military supplies, but it is best that it is like this.

What Wang Shouren is facing is such a mess, lack of food, salary, and people.

It can even be said that he did not go to Xi'an to be an official, but to be a boy who spread wealth.

Everyone up and down knew that he was the emperor's favored minister, and he was appointed to ask for silver.For example, the command envoys of the Shaanxi capital, Yulin Wei, and Ningxia Wei all faltered and mumbled for a long time, and finally said one sentence: I have no money.

Wang Shouren had grown a long beard, he stroked it leisurely, without agreeing first, he just said: "I would like to inspect the various guards on the spot."

The commander of the Yulin Guard is named Zhong Yifei, and he is not a confused and incompetent general. After all, Yang Yiqing also hired some people here, but the environment is such that it is difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice.

"Zhongcheng, then go to Yulinwei first, see it with your own eyes, and you will know why we asked you."

"Yes, Zhong Cheng."

Everyone agrees.

Wang Shouren said, "I have the silver."

His words made everyone's eyes widen.

"However, the imperial court allocates money to me, so that I can guard the frontier and repel foreign enemies. Therefore, this official's money must be put to better use. To put it more bluntly, the money allocated by the imperial court must not be able to take care of everyone. The current situation in the frontier is not good. For the sake of the overall situation, I can only give to those who are able to fight, those who dare to fight, and those who are good at fighting.

As long as there is a team of good fighters, if they win the battle, are they afraid of being short of money? "

Seeing their complex expressions, Wang Shouren added, "In the past, the governor of Shaanxi Province did not care about him, but I am a disciple of the cabinet minister Wang Jizhi, and he can enter the palace to meet the Holy Majesty with just a note. That's why I asked for money." If you get it, you have to get it.”

After saying this, the atmosphere in the room became lively.

"That works! Everything is at Zhongcheng's command!"

"You can listen to everything, but if you want to win, in the current situation, can Zhongcheng win?"

Wang Shouren nodded confidently, "I have an idea, are you willing to listen?"

Everyone looked at each other, could it be that this white-faced scholar sent by the capital is also good at fighting?
"My officer used to fight with Mr. Wang Xiangmin, and later led troops in Fujian. However, the suppression of bandits in the interior is different from fighting in the frontier. In Fujian, there are mostly mountain trails, and the soldiers are expensive and not expensive. There are too many and crowded." It’s useless if you don’t have mountains. But in Shaanxi, the Tatars may attack from any direction, so it’s better to be both expensive and more expensive, but this is difficult to achieve, then the next best thing is not expensive, but expensive many.

The Tartar army is a marauding army, and they want most to come and go without hindrance.We are going to fight him on this point, which is to set up obstacles at every level, fight if you can fight, and retreat if you can't fight. "

In fact, Wang Shouren didn't want to add the last five words, but the reality is that he must formulate strategies based on reality.

Then he explained: "In a word, if the Tatars enter Shaanxi from Yulin or Huamachi, we will definitely not be able to defeat the enemy with one blow. However, there are guards all over Shaanxi, and the guards in various places must be guarded regardless of day or night. , taking turns invading, if you gnaw a piece and I gnaw a piece, it can cause heavy losses."

"I'm afraid Zhongcheng doesn't know something. The Tatar cavalry is like fire. If you are not careful, this intrusion will never return."

"Is there no cavalry in my Ming Dynasty? Yang Shangyi's headquarters is in Ningxia Town. We know this, and the Tatars know it even more. Moreover, Yulin has Ningxia to the west and Datong to the east, so he will not dare to fight for a long time, nor dare to pursue deeply."

"What if the invaders go west from Ningxia?"

"He didn't dare either."

Wang Shouren affirmed this sentence directly.

"In the second year of Zhengde, the imperial court succeeded in suppressing the trap, and Ningxia has to go further west? After running so far, when he comes back, where is the lair?"

All in all, this is the difference between being able to counterattack and not being able to counterattack. If it was just a few years ago, there were only some infantry, the frontier fortresses were dilapidated, and the generals who led the troops would even be afraid to move forward. Naturally, you can fight as you want.

But once the Central Plains Dynasty came to their senses, the Great Wall stretched for nearly a thousand miles from east to west, and they still had cavalry in their hands, so they could take some active tactics.

Of course, the Tatars will definitely avoid Ming's elite troops.

This made the rest of the people murmur, especially Yulin Wei.

"Zhongcheng, although Ningxia and Datong are close, it will take several days for the troops to go out to help, but Tatar soldiers can often travel hundreds of miles in a day."

Kindness does not hold soldiers.

This is not the original suppression of bandits.

Wang Shouren is a Confucian general, but he has a lot of experience in leading troops. He has reached this juncture, and his tone changed, "Commander Zhong thinks that being rewarded for meritorious service is easy to do? General Zhou Shangwen was in Huamachi back then. Counting the number of knives, fighting to the death without retreating, so that there will be a smooth rise in the future!"

People die in war. If you are afraid of sacrifice, the end result may be that more people will die.

(End of this chapter)