Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 299: Chess Players and Pieces Inside and Outside the Wall

The enemies in the north are looking south, while the emperor and his ministers in the Forbidden City are looking north.

Only the other four ministers participated in the "expanded meeting" of the Privy Council on military affairs.

This was the first time since the beginning of the eighth year of Taichang that Zhu Changluo and they had gathered together and formally made arrangements and coordinated their steps for this year's affairs.

Tian Le is the main commentator.

"When Li Yutian was the governor of Liaodong, he once reported: The small-time criminal Qing is known for his viciousness and cunningness, and he is the leader of the chieftains. His lair is among the captives. He has made friends with local chieftains in the north as his confidants and eyes and ears, and he helps Chang'ang in the west and Chaohua in the east. The captives are large-scale, with tens of thousands of them, spying everywhere; for small-time thieves, they are like flying cavalry and appearing between Jinyi, like ghosts and wind, and cannot be traced."

After saying this, he looked at the emperor and continued to add: "Since I, Hualong, took office, I have often sighed for him, saying that if the little villain Qing is not dead, the worries of Liaodong will not end."

Zhu Changluo nodded. These matters had been discussed in the Privy Council before, and now they were being told.

Although Li Hualong used to focus on preserving himself, he was not bad in ability and vision.

Lindan Batur is still young, but he is a young villain belonging to the Wanhu of Chahar and should not be underestimated. The focus of this campaign against the Mongols is to break one leg of the Khanate. If they cannot be forced to surrender, there will be no support from behind to attack the right wing.

For this reason, they first cut off trade with him, except for the Doyan tribes he supported, and the next step was to eliminate the Chaohua tribe he supported south of the Liaohe River.

Tian Le continued, "If the Khan wants to establish his prestige, he must not just take advantage of the situation to attack his own people. He might as well take advantage of the situation to attack the Ming Dynasty again. If the Khan wants to take action, he can only rely on Xiao Daiqing to first subdue Khalkha and then Kharchin. The Privy Council has been investigating and sorting out the origins of these tribes for many years..."

The Mongolian tribal power is an increasingly confusing matter, with many of its members intertwined.

Dayan Khan, the leader of the Restoration Movement, divided the Mongols into two wings: the left and the right.

The left wing is Chahar, Uriankhai and Khalkha, and the right wing is Tumed, Ordos and Yongshebu.

However, during Dayan Khan's reign, the Mongols actually still controlled the Khorchin tribe, which was independent of the left and right wings and adjacent to the Jurchens.

After Altan Khan became powerful, he annexed many places of the Yongxiebu Wanhu and took control of them, and the remnants became the present-day Kharachin tribe.

To the north of Xuanda in the Ming Dynasty, from west to east, there are Tumed, Kharchin, Khalkha, and Horchin.

The Khalkha, which is adjacent to the Ming Dynasty, is the result of the migration of five tribes from the Khalkha Wanhu divided by Dayan Khan. Now, one part of the Khalkha is in the northern desert, which is the Outer Khalkha; the other five tribes are in the south, which is the Inner Khalkha.

They were entrenched in the area south of the Liao River, and were intertwined with the right wing of Khorchin, whose influence extended there. They were also a force that the Ming Dynasty wanted to eliminate this time.

"The so-called Golden Family of the Tartars today is actually even more mixed. They are just the descendants of Kublai Khan..."

If we only talk about Genghis Khan’s bloodline, the scope of his sowing and conquest is too large. In the past, several major khanates, the descendants of Jochi were in the Turkic countries in Central Asia, the descendants of Chagatai were in the Turpan-Yerqiang area in the Western Regions, and the descendants of Ogedei…

The people who have the closest relationship with the Ming Dynasty are actually the descendants of Tolui, and the descendants of Tolui also include the Persian Golden Family.

However, starting from Kublai Khan, the inheritance of the Northern Yuan Dynasty was relatively clear.

As for Dayan Khan's descendants, currently the main ones are Chahar Khan, Ordos' Right Wing Jinong, Tumed Khan, and Khalkha Khan, who still have clear golden bloodlines.

"This time, we drove out the right wing of Khorchin, wiped out the Inner Khalkha Khanate, cut off a finger of Chahar, and the little villain Qing of the Aokhan tribe also took advantage of the chaos to wipe out Kharchin, leaving only two tribes on each of the left and right wings of the Khanate."

Tian Le mentioned the strategic goal. Xiao Daheng came for this achievement that would go down in history, so he said, "I will prepare the food and money, but to accomplish this great feat, we must defeat their elite troops in one battle. The enemy comes and goes like the wind, and it is not easy to chase them in Kaiping and Daning. How can we stop them from escaping to the north?"

This is the eternal problem we face in the face of the Northern Tartars.

They invaded, and we thwarted their continued attacks, which the Ming Dynasty had done time and again.

But it is too difficult to pursue or destroy their manpower on a large scale.

"Two pockets." Tian Le pointed at the map, "One is in the Liaohe trap, and the other is in the Linghe Valley. The Liaohe trap is of course a secret. The Guangning army will go north, while the Kaiyuan army will go west together with the Yehe tribe and the Tianshu camp to encircle them. The Tianshu camp will be the vanguard, and we can kill the Inner Khalkha leader and drive them away. It's this Linghe Valley that will motivate Xiao Daiqing to cross the Jiliang Mountain from the Laoha River and go deep into the Linghe Valley."

This ridge mountain is called Nuru Erhu Mountain outside the Great Wall. This mountain range is high, and between it and the western side of the Ming Liaodong border wall is the Daling River Valley. There is an opening in the northern section of the Nailingao area. After exiting, you can go north along the Daling River, and then turn east to the Dakang Fort area of ​​the border fort in the direction of Guangning, Liaodong.

It was difficult to lure the little bad guy into the Ling River Valley. It was another difficulty to block the Guangning area along the river valley from Dakangbao to Nailingao.

Although the mountains on the west side of Linghe Valley are steep, there are roads.

Zhu Changluo said: "We will just sweep away Kharachin and Inner Khalkha. The Xuanda troops will go out of Dushikou, the Jizhou troops will go out of Dushikou and Xifengkou, and most importantly, the Guangning troops will go west after sweeping the south of Liaohe River, crossing the Jiliang Mountain to make a move to suppress the Halahetao. Only Xiao Daiqing thinks that Liaodong is empty and wants to break through Dafubao and Dashengbao through Linghe Valley via Heishan, Xiaolinghe or Nv'erhe, and cut off the coastal road, so he will not be able to retreat." Shen Li was quite worried: "In that case, can the area north of Ningyuanwei hold on?"

"Hulutao." Tian Le explained, "The Beijing Camp first borrowed the Beiyang Fleet's boats and sneaked to Hulutao. The Yongwei Camp hid in Dahei Mountain, and when they invaded Guangning, they sneaked to Nailingao. The Beijing Camp chased them along the Nv'er River, first entering the Linghe Valley westward and then fleeing northward."

Ye Xianggao and Li Tingji were not good at military affairs and were just listeners for now.

Anyway, the meaning of the words is that the troops of Xuanda and Jiliao are all outside the border wall, creating a situation where the border defense is empty. It seems that they only attack the Kharchin, Inner Khalkha and Khorchin tribes next to the Ming Dynasty, and are not prepared to threaten Aohan, Wengniute, Kulun and other places in the north of the Jiliang Mountain.

If the Ming Dynasty cleared the area south of the Liaohe River, with the addition of the territories of Hada, Huifa and Ula, it would have to station troops in Liaodong, which seemed to be stretched to the limit.

Presumably, the main force from Guangning was heading west over the Jiliang Mountain in order to make it known to Xiao Daiqing in a high-profile manner.

In this way, if the Guangning area in the deeper part of Liaodong is lost, the entire Liaodong will be cut off from the Ming Dynasty by land.

"Your Majesty, it is indeed a bit dangerous. Moreover, since the little villain Qing is as vicious and cunning as Governor Li said, he may not fall into the trap. If he just ambushes the Guangning army halfway and then attacks Guangning directly, he can escape from the north of Guangning and have a wide retreat route." Xiao Daheng used to be a border official and had a strategic vision.

Tian Le shook his head and said, "In the ninth year of Wanli, Xiao Daiqing attacked Liaoyang. But after that, he went out alone to attack Guangning, especially Jinzhou and Yizhou. In the twenty-third year of Wanli, he petitioned for a trade for wooden horses. For so many years, he had been floating wood along the Daling River to Dakangbao. For him, going to Liaohe would offend the Khalkha, who also belonged to the left wing, and he would have to be wary of Khorchin in the future. This Daling River is the closest to the Aohan tribe. The Daling River Valley is easy to defend but difficult to attack. He has been eyeing Guangning for most of his life, precisely because the Guangning army is the easiest to threaten the Daling River Valley."

"...Is his appetite really that big?" Xiao Daheng looked at Tian Le, "The whole Guangning, the whole Liaodong?"

Tian Le laughed, "That's not so arrogant. But in the first year of Taichang, he asked for a reward of 40,000 taels of silver per year to help him build the pagoda. How can his ambition be small? Besides, he is almost old, right? This is the last battle of his life, so of course he wants to have a good meal. I'm afraid what he wants is only the Daling River Valley, the Guangning border market and the annual silver."

"……I see."

Zhu Changluo looked at them and concluded, "Okay. The Privy Council has already deduced many times in all aspects. The war situation is changeable, and it may not go smoothly, so we need to create a situation. The deployment of troops, the transportation of food and military supplies, and the way to spread false news. These things require the cooperation of people outside the Privy Council."

The new grain of the seventh year of Taichang has been shipped from the south. Zhu Changluo has spared no effort, and the Ming Dynasty has been hoarding money and grain for several years. Grain cannot be hoarded for too long, but at least after a planned disposal, the Xuanda, Jiliao and Beijing camps will not be short of grain this year. The more than 5 million shi of grain shipped north through Caohe and Zhayanghang can also be used as military rations.

After all, the grain transport companies are no longer restricted to one trip a year. As long as their ships are well maintained, they can still transport other grain purchased from the south by Changming Grain Company after summer. Even if they have to pay taxes when passing through the customs, it will be paid by Changming Grain Company.

After aiding Korea in the fight against Japanese pirates and pacifying the Japanese invasion, the Ming Dynasty fell silent for several years, focusing only on internal affairs. The Khanate's various tribes, whose power structures and systems were relatively backward, were bound to have an understanding of the Ming Dynasty that was inconsistent with the actual situation.

Including the combat effectiveness of the Ming army.

After Dayan Khan and Altan Khan successively plagued the Ming Dynasty, the Mongols had become accustomed to the Ming army only defending the border walls and rarely going out of them.

Whether Xiao Daiqing will fight a big battle in this last battle of his life as the Ming emperor and his ministers expected, we must take advantage of the situation.

The Zhayang Company is still shipping grain in Dagu: in the Three Kingdoms area, with the great battle in Liaodong, more grain needs to be transported to the northeast.

Including the coastal roads inside and outside Shanhaiguan, the Jinxianyuan offered many official positions, and the Shizhengyuan started with northern Zhili and Henan, using land distribution and "many Jurchen women" as bait, and indeed organized a group of poor people to go to Guandong.

Wang Bing personally brought many lower-level clan members. A large number of concubines and illegitimate children had low status in the clan and suffered from exclusion. Some of them were willing to go to Liaodong to try their luck. Of course, the clan government promised them that they would be in the best Guangning and Kaiyuan, where the Zongminghao would get a large piece of good land.

Lindan Batur also met Dai Qing in the Aohan tribe, and he tried hard to show a different spirit.

"No need to help Khalkha and Khorchin. Wait for them to come to the Khan's court for help! If Duling is willing to subdue Kharchin, I will go and persuade the rest of Otog to march south with Duling!"

There is new news from the east. I heard that some small tribes of Khorchin and Khalkha were destroyed, and the ones who appeared there were actually Jurchens.

Dai Qing looked at Lin Dan: "You won't even help with the fried flower?"

"Conquering Kalaqin, forcing the Han people to negotiate, and opening border markets is to help Chaohua. Whether he is willing to lead the Khalkha to obey my orders or not, I can't help him directly!"

Dai Qing looked at Lindan Batur deeply.

In any case, it is good that the young Khan dares to make decisions. As an Otog of Chahar, the interests of the Aohan tribe and the Khan's court are ultimately the same.

He bowed his head and said, "I will obey the Khan's order!"

Lindan Batur was so excited that he could not immediately understand: Isn't this also the Aokhan tribe using the power of the Khanate to expand their territory?

(End of this chapter)