Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

After discussions among the Privy Council ministers, the framework of the Xinwei Plan gradually emerged.

Generally speaking, it is to create the most favorable situation for the Liaodong army to fight a decisive battle.

Yuan Keli and Sun Chengzong, two old friends, mobilized all the forces they could to prepare for this battle.

After the meeting, Yang Sichang, the chief of staff who was responsible for formulating specific strategies, privately said to Yuan Keli:

"Mr. Yuan, the risk of deciding the outcome in one battle is too great."

"Why not wait two years until new weapons are available?"

Yuan Keli sighed and said:

"We can wait another two years, can others wait as long as that?"

"Liao's military pay is five million taels of silver every year. With this burden, when will we be able to equip ourselves with new weapons?"

"Not to mention that the emperor is not happy about the Liaodong army spending so much money, even the officials of the logistics department and the equipment institute have complaints about this. Dongjiang, Korea and other places are even more resentful."

"No matter how great the chances of winning this battle are, we must fight so that the Liaodong army can give an explanation to the world."

"Otherwise, we should reduce the military forces according to the imperial order and use the military funds for other purposes."

Yang Sichang remained silent after hearing this and did not quite agree with it.

In his opinion, as long as they can survive these two years, the situation in the Ming Dynasty will improve greatly.

It only takes a temporary increase in taxes for two years to quickly equip the new weapons.

Unfortunately, while the current emperor has been increasing new taxes, he has been reducing taxes on disaster-stricken areas and spending a lot of money on immigration and disaster relief. This has caused the court's fiscal revenue to be in a tight state and unable to allocate more money for military expenses.

He felt that if the one million taels of silver and grain used for immigration could be used for military training, the effect would be more obvious.

With this thought in mind, Yuan Keli shook his head and said to him:

"You are still immature in governing a country."

"Why did the emperor spend so much money and grain on immigration and disaster relief? Because if you don't give the victims a way to survive during natural disasters, they will rebel."

"This kind of internal trouble is a more serious matter for the Ming Dynasty, while the Jianlu side can only be regarded as an external threat."

Yang Sichang was puzzled and said:

“Are external troubles less important than internal worries?”

"I think the Jianlu are strong and powerful, far superior to the rebel bandits in the northwest."

"Those refugee troops can be defeated with just 3,000 elite soldiers. They are not really that big of a concern."

As the director of the Anti-Rebellion and Disaster Relief Committee, Yuan Keli had a better understanding of the current situation in the Ming Dynasty and asked Yang Sichang:

"Wen Ruo wouldn't think that the bandits have always been of this size, right?"

"If the emperor hadn't been relocating the victims, they would have been taken hostage by the bandits."

"The bandits are not strong enough to fight now, but if we don't kill them all, will they still be like this after a few years of fighting?"

"The greatest worry of the Ming Dynasty has never been outside, but inside."

"As long as the internal affairs are well governed, the imperial court has sufficient money and food, and the people are brave enough to join the war, the Ming Dynasty can defeat any enemy. What are the few tens of thousands of Jianlu that are insignificant?"

Yang Sichang was thoughtful after hearing these words, and whispered to Yuan Keli:
"The Emperor agreed to the Liaodong army's attack in order to solve the internal problems, right?"

"To be honest, I have always been a little uneasy about the disarmament in Liaodong. I am afraid that there will be a mutiny in Liaodong."

"We all know the current combat capability of the Yingyang Army, but those people in Liaodong don't know that. They won't be scared off by a mere 3,000 Yingyang Army and not dare to revolt."

"If something goes wrong, I'm afraid it will be embarrassing for the whole court."

"Sending them to the battlefield is indeed a good way to reduce the military."

Yuan Keli used this reason to convince the emperor, but he could not admit it to Yang Sichang. He said noncommittally:
"In any case, this matter was proposed by the Liaodong soldiers."

"The Privy Council should not interfere in how they fight."

"The General Staff can just ask the Liaodong Army to present a combat plan, consider the overall situation, and coordinate all the armies."

"No matter what the battle situation in Liaodong is, as long as one of the other routes achieves victory, it will be the achievement of the Privy Council."

Yang Sichang now understood that the emperor and Yuan Keli were just going with the flow and allowing the Liaodong army to fight this battle.

As for the outcome, there was no expectation at all. Whether it was a win or a loss, it would be beneficial to the court:

Victory can advance the cause of recovering Liaodong, end the war in Liaodong as soon as possible and cancel the Liao salary.

Even if we are defeated, we can take the opportunity to disarm and reduce military spending in Liaodong.

Therefore, he must not get involved in this matter. Otherwise, if the war is lost, he will be held responsible.

As Yuan Keli said, we should let the Liaodong army formulate its own combat plan.

With this idea in mind, Yang Sichang naturally focused his energy on other routes, especially the grasslands he had visited before.

He felt that he was quite familiar with the grassland, so he planned to complete the establishment of three protectorates, let them attack on the grassland, and tie down part of the Jianlu troops here.

Yuan Keli also told him before leaving:

"Talk more with your father and learn more about the situation in the northwest."

"There was a proposal in the court to relocate the immigrants from Shaanxi to the nearby area."

"In the past, the idea of ​​the Tuolu being strong was rejected. Now that the Tuolu have been defeated by the Jianlu, we can ask the Shaanxi generals for their opinions again."

"If we can send the disaster victims to the Hetao area for reclamation, we can also reduce some of the immigration costs."

Yang Sichang's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he thought this was a good idea. He then asked Yuan Keli:
"Is the Hetao area divided into different regions?"

“If it is divided into different areas, it should attract more people.”

Yuan Keli pondered for a moment and said:

"The emperor didn't mention this, but judging from the Daning Protectorate, the three protectorates in the south of the desert can all be granted land."

"But it would be best if there were guard posts within 500 miles of the Great Wall, which would be completely controlled by the Protectorate."

"The lands of these hereditary officials in the frontier garrisons are also measured in square miles. They can own dozens of square miles of hereditary land."

"In the future, some of the nine frontier garrisons will be relocated to the outer reaches of the Great Wall."

Yang Sichang now had an idea in mind, and even considered whether he should let his father go to the grassland to make merit and earn a piece of territory for the Yang family.
-
In Shaanxi, Yang He's mood was far less relaxed than Yang Sichang's.

As the military commander of the three provinces to suppress bandits, he looked at the disaster victims all over the place and said worriedly:

"There are disaster victims all over Shanxi. Once the bandits disperse, the situation will spread."

"The victims of the disaster must be comforted. Only by comforting them can we cut off the source of the bandits."

He asked Shanxi Governor Geng Ruqi in confusion:
"There are so many disaster victims, why not allow them to migrate via the Yancang Highway?"

"What on earth were these county officials thinking? They neither provided disaster relief nor allowed them to relocate?"

Geng Ruqi's face turned red when he heard this, and he said with some resentment:
"Geng was not good at judging people and was deceived by these officials."

"In order to protect their political achievements, they deceived their superiors and concealed the truth from their subordinates by not reporting the victims and the disaster situation."

"Not allowing the disaster victims to relocate is naturally to prevent the truth from being exposed."

He now hates the Shanxi officials to death, because it was these people who deceived their superiors and subordinates and planted such a huge bomb for him.

Moreover, this bomb exploded during his tenure. As soon as the bandits from Shaanxi entered the country, many victims attached themselves to them. As a result, the bandit problem in Shanxi became more and more serious, even worse than that in Shaanxi.

Yang He listened to Geng Ruqi's story and felt very sympathetic towards him, because when he was coordinating local affairs for the army, he was often shirked by local officials.

Those local officials are really too cunning, and some are simply too lazy to govern, thinking that it is better to do less than more.

The two of them poured out their troubles to each other and felt like they had found a deep understanding of each other.

Geng Ruqi thought of a rumor and said to Yang He:
"I can't stay in Shanxi anymore. If Yang Hujun comes to Shanxi to be the governor, he must rectify the administration of officials."

"The Shanxi bureaucracy is rotten to the core. Half of it was cleaned up two years ago, but there are still so many incompetent officials."

There were indeed rumors that Yang He would serve as the governor of Shanxi.

Because he did a good job as the military commander in charge of suppressing bandits in three provinces and was familiar with the situation in Shanxi.

Therefore, the court intended to appoint him as governor, and Yang He himself submitted a policy plan.

However, the final outcome of this matter still depends on the emperor. After all, Shanxi is now under martial law and can be managed directly by the emperor using imperial edicts.

The two talked about this year's replacement of governors and governors, and Geng Ruqi sighed:

"There are quite a lot of governors and governors-general to be transferred this year, and many officials from the imperial court will also be sent out."

"I just don't know how I will be treated after I am called back to the capital."

Yang He comforted him:

"Brother Geng, don't worry. You just made a mistake."

"The current emperor is magnanimous and will not blame you."

Geng Ruqi sighed and could only hope so.

He had originally hoped to be appointed governor of other provinces, but after the imperial court had not allowed him to submit policy proposals, he no longer had this intention.

Now, he could only hope to win the battle on the front line and suppress the bandits in Shanxi before he left office.
-
On the front line, Zu Dashou led his cavalry and chased the bandits.

This time he was originally responsible for the war in Shanxi, and was appointed by the court as the deputy admiral of the three provinces' bandit suppression campaign.

As a result, because the Jianlu launched a westward expedition, the imperial court was eager to pacify the bandits, so it asked Sun Chuanting to personally preside over the war, and he thus became a vanguard.

This made him feel a little disappointed, and now all he wanted was to suppress the bandits before Sun Chuanting entered Shanxi.

For this reason, he was extremely brave in battle, fighting the bandits whenever he saw them, not caring about any casualties at all.

Those thieves who had just transformed from refugees into bandits were simply unable to stop the servants of the Zu family.

After their initial concentrated forces were defeated by Zu Dashou in one fell swoop, they quickly fled in all directions.

Zu Dashou had no choice but to split up his troops and let Zu Dabi, Zu Dale, Zu Kuan and others lead a troop each to chase the fleeing bandits.

"These bandits are really endless."

"It seems that we can only wait for Sun Zhitai's army to arrive before we can completely capture and kill them."

Zu Dashou's eldest son Zu Zerun said as he looked at the fleeing bandits after defeating them once again.

He is the son of Zu Dashou's elder brother, and was adopted by Zu Dashou before he had a son. He is still the eldest among Zu Dashou's sons, and has always followed his father to fight.

Zu Dashou got off his horse, took out the leather bag and drank a few sips of water, then said:

"Let the soldiers take a break. They have been working too hard these days."

"Since we can't wipe them out in a short time, let's wait for Sun Zhitai to come."

"Our elite troops are not only used to suppress bandits, but also to make contributions at the border."

When Zu Zerun heard this, he immediately said happily:
"Has the Emperor allowed us to return to Liaodong?"

"Did father get the news?"

The other generals and servants of the Zu family who heard the words also gathered around and looked at Zu Dashou expectantly.

After leaving their hometown and coming to Shaanxi, although they lived a good life, their status was no longer comparable to their previous status in Liaodong.

Many of them do miss Liaodong and want to go back to Liaodong.

Zu Dashou looked at these people, but did not give them the answer they wanted. Instead, he said:
"The imperial court is planning to establish the Hetao Protectorate and is ordering the generals in Shaanxi to recommend themselves."

"As long as you write a good battle plan, you will have the opportunity to become the governor of Hetao and lead a large army."

"I want to go over and give it a try, what do you think?"

Many Zu people were disappointed to hear that it was not the Liaodong they had been longing for, but the Hetao in the north.

However, the opportunity to lead a region on their own was indeed extremely rare. Especially for those of them who were suspected of colluding with the enemy by the imperial court, it was even more difficult for them to get the opportunity to lead an army on their own under normal circumstances.

Zu Zerun said suspiciously:
"Is the court willing to give us a chance?"

“Will you choose someone else?”

Zu Dashou said fiercely:
"Then write a better battle plan and promise to the court to recover Hetao."

"The Tuolu on the grasslands have been defeated by the Jianlu. Can't we seize this land?"

"When the time comes, the imperial court will confer hereditary positions or titles on you, and each of you will be able to have hereditary land or even own territory."

Everyone's eyes lit up when they heard this. Zu Zerun said:

"Father, do you mean to take root in Hetao?"

"From now on, our ancestral home will be based in Hetao?"

Zu Dashou nodded and said:
"exactly!"

"We can't go back to Liaodong. Not only will the imperial court not allow it, but the Jianlu will also not be so easy to pacify."

"But on the Hetao side, the Taolu were much weaker than the Jianlu and were easily defeated by the Jianlu."

"We can contend with the Jianlu in Liaodong, so dealing with the Taolu won't be a piece of cake, right?"

"As long as we seize this opportunity, we can recapture Hetao and make it our ancestral territory."

Now Zu Zerun was also a little excited, because he was Zu Dashou's eldest son and would have the opportunity to inherit the title and territory in the future.

He immediately said:
"I naturally support my father's decision."

"How can we write this battle plan to impress the imperial court?"

Zu Dashou took a sip of water and said:

"It's called a battle plan, but it's actually a military order. If you fail to complete it, you will be punished."

"We can't write too high and fail to complete it, nor can we write too low and lose the opportunity."

"I plan to consult Sun Zhitai on this matter and see what he thinks."

Sun Chuanting and Yuan Shu were close friends, and Yuan Shu was Yuan Keli's son. Zu Dashou wanted to find out Yuan Keli's thoughts and write a plan based on them.

At the same time, he also planned to consult Sun Chengzong to see if his old boss had any advice.

The establishment of the three protectorates in the south of the desert was to support the war in Liaodong. I think the court would not ignore Sun Chengzong's opinion.

Sun Chengzong helped change his name to Zu Dashou. Sun Chengzong also took good care of him when he was involved in the collusion case.

Zu Dashou hopes to get help from Sun Chengzong and Sun Chuanting to get this opportunity. (End of this chapter)