I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 43: Clumsy Yang Xuan

Yang Xuan could not wait to tear open the cover of the urgent report, read it quickly, and was overjoyed.

"God bless you, God bless you!"

Everyone looked at each other, confused.

Xu Shen, the governor of Shuntian, asked, "Governor Yang, is there any chance of a turnaround?"

Yang Xuan handed him the urgent report, clasped his hands together, and chanted: "Three Pure Ones, God of Heaven bless you. Buddha bless you, Bodhisattva bless you!"

After Xu Shen took the urgent report and read it, he was also full of joy and announced loudly to everyone: "General Fu crossed the Lu River yesterday and stationed in Gushan. He immediately sent Yebushou to Pinggu to spy on the movements of the Northern Tartars. He found that a large group of Northern Tartars fled eastward at night and passed Mopan Mountain east of Pinggu."

Yang Xuan had already stood up and walked to the map on the wall. After searching for a while, he found Mopan Mountain.

"Mopan Mountain used to be the city of Jizhou. It has high walls and is heavily guarded. The northern barbarians are good at field battles but not at attacking cities, so they will definitely not be trapped under this city.

This governor judges that this group of northern barbarians are fleeing eastwards in order to find a gap along the Huangya Valley, Malanyu Pass, and Niuyu Pass, and wait for an opportunity to flee northwards.

Yang Xuan tapped the map hard and made a triumphant conclusion.

Lu Yi, Sun Bin and other generals looked at each other with expressions of disbelief.

The Northern Tartars have only been here for ten days or so, haven't taken anything, and now they're turning around and running away?

Are they here for a ten-day tour?
Yang Xuan saw the doubts in the eyes of the generals and laughed confidently: "This governor has made all the arrangements. The northern barbarians saw that our army was well prepared and had no chance to attack, so they could only withdraw their troops in dismay.

They sneaked over the wall and invaded our border, but their retreat was cut off. If they stay in our border for too long, they will run into obstacles everywhere. When our armies gather from all directions, they will be destroyed.

They must be very clear about this. That's why they turned around and fled when they saw the situation was not good and took advantage of our army's encirclement. "

As he spoke, Yang Xuan became more and more convinced.

That's right, that's it!
All the arrangements I made during my tenure as Governor-General of Ji and Liao finally paid off.

Although the northern barbarians took advantage of the opportunity, due to my careful deployment, the defense of the capital had become an iron wall, so they returned empty-handed.

Good, great!
"General Yang, General Fu is still waiting for your order. What should we do?" Xu Shen pulled Yang Xuan out of his excitement.

"What should we do? Of course we should pursue the victory!" Yang Xuan said excitedly. He rolled his eyes and added, "Tell Fu Jin that I want the heads of the Tartars. Tell him that he must cut off 100 heads of the Tartars for me! Otherwise, I will report him for delaying the opportunity to fight and he should be executed!"

Generals Lu Yi, Sun Bin and others were speechless. Aren’t you forcing Fu Jin to kill an innocent person and take credit for it?

Even if the Northern Tartars want to flee to the north, they are cavalry, while our army has mostly infantry. How can we chase them?

Return a hundred Tartar heads?

So greedy!

After fighting in nine border areas of the country, one hundred Tartar heads were captured, which was already a great victory that shocked the world.

Lu Yi could not help but say, "Yang Du, the Minister of War, is very shrewd. Even ordinary heads cannot be hidden from his discerning eyes."

Yang Xuan was silent and pondered.

That’s right, the northern Tartars were completely different from the people in the mainland in terms of appearance, hairstyle, skin color, etc. Experienced military officials could tell them apart at a glance when inspecting heads.

Yang Xuan rolled his eyes and came up with another good idea.

"I remember that under Fu Jin's command, there were fifty or sixty horse slaves and herdsmen who escaped from the north and served as Yebushou's personal soldiers. They were all northern barbarians, so they should be about the same.

Since we don’t have a hundred, fifty or sixty is acceptable to me. I will immediately send a secret order to Fu Jin to lead the troops to pursue the enemy and make proper arrangements for the capture.”

"Yes!" the trusted clerk next to him responded immediately.

Yang Xuan, full of confidence, came up with another clever idea.

"Brother Xu, you and I will lead the petition, saying that the northern barbarians are afraid of the emperor's power and have fled eastward in a panic, intending to escape north. We have sent elite soldiers to pursue them. Please ask the emperor to issue an edict and order the immortal to pray for the blessing of our imperial officers and soldiers, so that we can kill the northern barbarians in one fell swoop and shock the world outside the Great Wall and the desert south."

Xu Shen clapped his hands and praised: "Good! This is a great plan!
"I have reported to the Emperor that under Brother Yang's careful deployment, the Northern Tartars returned without success, and I have won the Emperor's favor. After the Immortal prays for blessings, Brother Yang will present dozens of Northern Tartar heads, which will be the icing on the cake and a great achievement!"

Yang Xuan stroked his beard and laughed triumphantly.

Lu Yi, Sun Bin and others were speechless.

If the two of you had put half of your thoughts into the right things, you wouldn't have made such a big mistake today, allowing the Northern Barbarians to invade our borders and disrupt our territory.

Xiyuan.

After receiving Yang Xuan's urgent report, Emperor Jiajing was half-believing and half-doubting. Zhu Yijun, who was sitting next to him, suggested: "Grandpa Emperor, Yang Xuan is the governor of Ji and Liao. If you are half-believing and half-doubting his words, you might as well find an outsider. The military intelligence of the nine borders of the capital has always been the responsibility of the Jinyiwei. It would be better to summon Governor Zhu and ask him."

"Yes! Huang Jin, quickly call Zhu Xixiao."

Half an hour later, Zhu Xixiao, dressed in a Feiyu suit, hurried over with beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Your Highness, your Highness, is the Grand Tutor and the Crown Prince's Grand Tutor, the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Rear Army Command Office, and the Chief of the Imperial Guards, Zhu Xixiao, and I pay my respects to the Emperor."

"Zhengxiao," Emperor Jiajing trusted the brothers Zhu Xizhong and Zhu Xixiao very much, and asked Zhu Xixiao in a friendly manner, calling him by his name.

"You are in control of all the military information in the capital."

"Your Majesty, we dare not slack off. Everything is under the control of the Jinyiwei."

"Where are the northern barbarians who broke into the border now?"

"Your Majesty, we are still stationed in the east of Pinggu City."

Emperor Jiajing's eyes flashed coldly, and he asked calmly, "No signs of movement?"

"Your Majesty, yesterday and today, the Northern Tartars sent hundreds of scouts to the east and south respectively, searching for more than a hundred miles."

"Where do you think they're going?"

"Your Majesty, from the military intelligence I have collected in the past few days, I think the northern barbarians have the intention of raiding southwards, plundering Sanhe and Xianghe, and waiting for an opportunity to attack Tongzhou again."

Emperor Jiajing was so angry that his hands were shaking slightly. He suppressed his anger and said calmly: "You should collect and organize the military intelligence of the northern barbarians carefully, and submit three reports a day to the Forbidden City. There must be no mistakes."

"Yes, I obey your order!"

"Zhengxiao, you've worked hard, please go down."

"Yes, I resign!"

After Zhu Xixiao left, Emperor Jiajing angrily swept away all the memorials on the desk.

"Idiot! What a stupid idiot!
Zhu Yijun was also speechless.

Yang Xuan, as the governor of Ji and Liao, you did not rush to the front line to command the Northern Barbarians who invaded the border and wreaked havoc on the capital, but instead hid in Miyun and refused to move.

Then he gave reckless commands without knowing the enemy's situation.

Even at this time, his mind is not on defending against the enemy, but on flattery.

Is this the true character of the Ming Dynasty's civil servants?
The Ming Dynasty's civil servants, who were mainly Jinshi, produced both powerful and capable officials like Hu Zongxian and incompetent and mediocre people like Yang Xuan.

But judging from the proportion, Hu Zongxian is rare and insignificant.

There are many Yang Xuans.

I must change this situation in the future.

Otherwise, even if you max out your skills in controlling your subordinates like Grandpa Huang does, it will still be difficult to pick out useful talents from this pile of rotten carrots.

Zhu Yijun calmed down and advised: "Grandpa Emperor, Minister Yang of the Ministry of War has urgently summoned the Governor of Xuanda, Jiangdong, to lead the elite troops of Xuanda to rush to the rescue day and night. The vanguard has reached Juyong Pass, and we can set up camp behind the city soon.

Gu Huan, Marquis of Zhenyuan, was also ordered to lead the troops of the Beijing Camp, stationed inside and outside the capital. The officers and soldiers of Baoding, Tianjin and other garrisons also stationed in Tongzhou. The guards were strict and the defense was perfect.

The capital is safe!"

Emperor Jiajing sighed and said, "How hateful and shameful! During my forty years of reigning, the northern barbarians have repeatedly breached the borders. Including this time, the capital was shocked twice!"

My reputation has been completely disgraced by these useless people!

It is thrown on the ground and trampled on by people of this world and future generations!"

Seeing the extremely sad and angry grandfather emperor, Zhu Yijun didn't know how to persuade him.

The root of the problem lies in you, Grandfather Emperor!
In the early stage, you focus on controlling your subordinates and seizing power, and in the later stage, you focus on cultivating your mind and respecting Heaven.

What the superiors like, the subordinates will vote for.

All the civil and military officials in the court are busy competing with you in wits and courage, as well as trying to please you. They have no time to care about the military preparations at the border.

(End of this chapter)