I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 412: My decision!
Since Duke Chengguo Zhu Xizhong, Duke Yingguo Zhang Rong and others withdrew from the Supervisory Office and focused on the posts of Commander-in-Chief of the Five Armies of the Military Government, the only people left in the Supervisory Office were Marquis Zhenyuan Gu Huan, Ministers of War Cao Bangfu and Liu Tao, Vice Minister of War Xu Wei, and Marquis Lanxi Ma Fang.

The title was changed from Assistant Military Administrator to Military Administrator.

In order to guard against possible border invasion by Altan Khan, Ma Fang was transferred to Datong. Now, only Gu Huan, Cao Bangfu, Liu Tao and Xu Wei were left in charge of military affairs in the Supervisory Office.

Some people call them the Right Prime Minister to distinguish them from the "Left Prime Ministers" in the cabinet.

The four of them usually worked in the duty room of the Supervisory Office inside the Nanhua Gate of Xiyuan, and soon arrived at the Qinzheng Hall.

"Gentlemen, you have all read the Shanxi and Shaanxi newspapers, right?"

Gu Huan, the Marquis of Zhenyuan, was the most distinguished person in the Supervisory Office, but his main job was to manage the Beijing Camp and the garrison of the capital. The person in charge of the overall situation was the Minister of War Cao Bangfu, and the Supervisory Office was implicitly headed by him.

"In reply to your Highness, we have read it all."

"Altan Khan is gathering his troops and preparing to challenge our Ming Dynasty north of Datong. How should we respond? Altan Khan is not Tumen Khan. He is a man of great talent and strategy, and the Mongolian right wing is much stronger than the left wing, so it is difficult to deal with him.

Shanxi is not Liaodong. I can abandon Liaodong for a while, but I dare not lose even an inch of Shanxi. "

Zhu Yijun put his hands in his sleeves and paced back and forth in the hall.

The four people sitting in the chairs were also thinking hard.

"Your Highness, I don't think Altan Khan will really go to war with the Ming Dynasty," Cao Bangfu replied, "but the situation is changing constantly. I am worried that the situation will change step by step, and Altan Khan will be in a dilemma and will have to go to war with the Ming Dynasty, and both sides will suffer in the end."

"It is possible. As the Khan of the 30,000 tribes on the right wing of Mongolia, Altan Khan has a lot to consider. After weighing the pros and cons, he sometimes has no choice but to do things against his will.

This is how national wars sometimes start. The Ming and Mongolia will eventually go to war. We know this, and so do Altan Khan and others.

Zhu Yijun let the four of them remain silent for a while, and Liu Tao said, "Your Highness, if this is the case, why don't you calm down the situation and remove the fuel from the fire?"

Zhu Yijun asked calmly, "You said to hand over Qiejin and others?"

"Your Highness, no!" Gu Huan and Xu Wei said in unison.

Xu Wei made a gesture and asked Gu Huan to speak first.

"Your Highness, handing over Qiejin and others will damage the dignity of our Ming Dynasty and break our promise to the tribes of Mo Nan."

Gu Huan's words made Zhu Yijun nod approvingly and turn his gaze to Xu Wei.

"Your Highness, Altan Khan defeated the Qiejin army at Baichengzi, north of Jingbian. At that time, he had 20,000 to 30,000 troops. If he could capture Jingbian City in one fell swoop, he would still have a chance to capture Qiejin.

But he dared not.

I guess that, firstly, the area around Suiyan is barren and has many mountains and valleys, and the cavalry can easily get stuck in it. Secondly, he led the elite troops of the royal tent to leave Dabansheng. If something happens, the heavy troops of Datong in the Ming Dynasty can march north and wipe out his lair.

By then, he would have lost both his wife and his army, and his prestige would have been completely destroyed."

Xu Wei glanced at Zhu Yijun's expression and continued, "I guess he made a quick decision and issued a golden order to summon troops from all walks of life in the Yunfeng area, eyeing Datong and Shanxi, just to destroy the prestige of the Ming Dynasty."

Cao Bangfu and the other two frowned slightly, but did not say anything and just listened quietly.

"Your Highness, I think that although Qiejin has prestige in Ordos, he is one of the hidden dangers for Altan Khan to gather the Ordos tribe, but he is not a serious threat."

Zhu Yijun nodded, "The biggest worry of the Ming Dynasty is Mongolia, and the biggest worry of Mongolia is the Ming Dynasty. Altan Khan is willing to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty, not that he is willing to live in peace with the Ming Dynasty.

But he knew very well that Mongolia was now divided and not as strong as before. It had fought against the Ming Dynasty for decades and had been blocked for decades, so it could not fight anymore. Moreover, the benefits of opening up border trade after the peace talks were far greater than confronting and fighting the Ming Dynasty. "

He turned to look at Xu Wei, "Mr. Wenchang, please continue."

"Your Highness is wise. What you just said is profound and wise.

Altan Khan also knew this in his heart. He weighed the pros and cons and intended to deploy troops outside Datong Pass to force the Ming Dynasty to hand over Qiejin and others. Then the prestige of the Ming Dynasty would be destroyed. From then on, it would be difficult for the tribes in the south of the desert to trust the Ming Dynasty again. "

Yes, if Altan Khan deployed his troops and forced the Ming Dynasty to hand over the prisoners, how could we dare to side with the Ming Dynasty?

If I side with the Ming Dynasty, I will definitely offend Altan Khan. I am willing to take the risk to be your running dog, but in the end you can't even protect your bottom line, and you can't even protect our lives. Who dares to mess with you?
The leaders of all the tribes in southern Mobei, big and small, all have a scale in their hearts.

Why did the six wings of Mongolia slide down and kneel so cleanly?

Tumen Khan allowed his brothers and relatives, such as Heishitan, to plunder the tribes. The leaders of the tribes felt that their property and lives were in danger, and they turned away from Tumen Khan. When he suffered a great defeat in Liaodong, they immediately turned around and found someone else to support them in order to save their property and lives.

When Qiejin and others defected to the Ming Dynasty, you were forced to hand them over, but you couldn't even save their lives. Who would dare to surrender to you in the future?
Altan Khan wanted to use such means to severely slap the Ming Dynasty in the face, destroy the Ming Dynasty's prestige in the south of the desert, and then stabilize the situation and calmly deal with the 30,000 households on the right wing.

Zhu Yijun said slowly: "Mr. Wenchang is right. But the problem is that Altan Khan has deployed his troops to the north of Datong to threaten the Ming Dynasty. No one can tell whether the confrontation will end in a situation where he will be unable to back down and the fake play will become real."

Cao Bangfu stroked his beard and nodded, saying, "Yes, Altan Khan launched the attack at this time, but he chose our most difficult period. The cavalry from Ganning, Shaanxi, and Shanxi were all transferred to the eastern front. Now they are gathered in Haixi, the east and west wings of Heishan, and the Luju River. Distant water cannot quench the immediate thirst.

Once Altan Khan's army marches south, we can only defend the city and watch the northern barbarian cavalry gallop through Shanxi and other places, plundering the locals and endangering the people."

Liu Tao sighed and agreed, "Yes, the best way to deal with cavalry is with cavalry. Border towns like Datong are good at defending the city but lack mobility. They are helpless in the face of the erratic northern barbarian cavalry."

By then, Shanxi will be in ruins and the people will suffer.”

Xu Wei added: "Altan Khan is good at using troops. He will always find a gap in the thousands of miles of border in Datong, Shanxi, and break through the border. At that time, he will attack the place we must rescue, move back and forth, and then wait for an opportunity to ambush our infantry.

If the main force of the Datong border army is damaged, cities such as Taiyuan will be difficult to defend, and the consequences will be disastrous. "

Gu Huan glanced at Zhu Yijun and said, "Who could have thought that the situation would develop so quickly and so unexpectedly? Altan Khan, who had previously been sincerely negotiating peace with us, suddenly turned cold and turned hostile."

Everybody was silent.

If this news gets out, those civil servants who are best at finding fault and picking accusations will surely cry out, asking how your Supervisory Office is able to assist in military affairs, why did you withdraw all the cavalry and leave such a big gap without any care?
Now, Altan Khan has seized your weakness and made a big mistake. Let's see how this ends for you.

If you still have any sense of shame, resign and return home immediately, leaving the military and political affairs to the cabinet and to all the wise men in the court for discussion and decision!
Everyone couldn't help but wonder in their hearts, if a big mistake was made and someone needed to be held responsible, who would be the unlucky one?

Xu Wei began to defend himself, saying, "To attack the west and the east is a brilliant military strategy. In addition, we have been advancing step by step in the past few years and have successively recovered Luanhe, Jianzhou, Haixi and other places.

In the early spring of this year, Tumen Khan brought disaster upon himself and the main force of the Chahar tribe was almost completely destroyed. Our army was able to wipe out the left wing of Mongolia in one fell swoop. This is a godsend opportunity, and we must seize it.

Elite cavalry from various border areas were transferred to support Liaodong. A batch was transferred last year, and another batch was transferred in early spring this year. The purpose was to completely defeat the Chahar tribe and Tumen Khan and take over the left wing of Mongolia.

In my opinion, the Ming army had accumulated problems for hundreds of years and had long been rotten to the core. Your Highness worked hard and appointed capable ministers and generals such as Duke Ruzhen and Qi Fengning to reform and eliminate the problems, and managed to train an elite army of more than 300,000 soldiers.

These more than 300,000 soldiers and horses were not enough to defend the thousands of miles of border from Gansu to Liaodong. The Ming Dynasty had been at odds with the south of the desert for many years, and horse-producing areas such as Qinghai also fell into the hands of the enemy.

The Ming army was short of horses, so they could only buy a little here and there, and barely managed to gather 20,000 to 30,000 cavalrymen, but they were too weak to be of any use.

After a lot of effort to negotiate peace with Altan Khan, the Imperial Household Department collected a large number of military horses and trained cavalry. But it was a pity that in just a few years, how many cavalry could be trained? It was stretched to the limit! That’s why the Supervisory Office took this risky move.”

Zhu Yijun waved his hand, interrupting Xu Wei and said, "I made the military plan and I am responsible for it. Ultimately, I was just too eager to succeed. As soon as I saw an opportunity, I wanted to achieve success in one fell swoop.

One of the problems was that our army was short of manpower, especially the lack of cavalry, but my reckless behavior was also a big problem. I only wanted to use conspiracy and trickery to entangle Altan Khan's hands and feet and make him behave himself on the western front, but I underestimated his means, vision and courage.

I will write a self-criticism order and send it to the Supervisory Office, the Military Government, the six ministries, five temples and two courts, as well as the local and nine border towns. I will take this as a warning, and you should also have the courage to advise me in the future and persuade me not to make such a mistake again. "

Zhu Yijun's words shocked everyone.

Your Highness the Crown Prince is issuing a "self-criticism edict".

Everyone couldn't help but feel deeply moved. No wonder the late Emperor Jiajing often said that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is better than his master.

If Emperor Jiajing made such a mistake, he would never admit it voluntarily, but would only blame his ministers.

But His Royal Highness bravely admitted it.

His admission was tantamount to taking on the greatest responsibility. Even if the civil servants found fault afterwards, they could not attack or blame the Supervisory Office, the Rong government, and the border towns such as Shaanxi, Shanxi, Datong, and Liaodong.

This is the responsibility of a wise ruler.

Zhu Yijun looked resolute and continued, "But the most urgent task now is how to deal with the threat from Altan Khan. I have decided to transfer all six infantry regiments of the Shenwei Army, namely Jiayin, Bingyin, Wuyin, Gengyin, Renyin, and Yimao, to Datong, and put them under the command of Ma Fang, the general of Datong Town."

Cao Bangfu was stunned and said quickly: "Your Highness, once the six infantry regiments of the Shenwei Army are transferred away, half of the troops in the Beijing camp will be gone, and the military strength in the capital will be empty."

"The Supervisory Office sent a letter to the court at Luan River, and Qi Jiguang was transferred back to Miyun Houwei (Gubeikou), looking north to Luan River and south to the capital."

(End of this chapter)