Wanli 1592

Chapter 607
Xiao Ruxun pointed to a certain place on the map, and the generals stepped forward to look at it, and they were all surprised when they saw it.

"Guihua City?!"

Li Rusong shouted in a low voice, generals, look at me and I look at you, they were speechless for a moment.

"That's right, Guihua City, the governor will not only regain Datong this time, but also fight all the way to Guihua City! He must kill Tumed! Not only that! The number of people who cooperated with Tumed to attack Datong All the tribes must be exterminated together! The governor wants to let these barbarians know! Looting Daming is easy for a while, and you will have to pay the price after you are happy."

In fact, what Xiao Ruxun wants to talk about is not only these, his real purpose is to occupy Guihua City, and re-establish the northern defense system during the Hongwu period, which was gradually abandoned by the Ming Dynasty after Yongle Xuande, and he even wants to attack Hetao regained Hetao and restored Zhu Yuanzhang's defense system, especially Dongshengwei.

Dongshengwei is an important guard station established by Zhu Yuanzhang in the northeast corner of the Hetao area of ​​the Yellow River. In the northern frontier defense in the early Ming Dynasty, it was the only guard that could control the Hetao as a whole.

Dongshengwei actually plays the role of connecting Liaodong in the east and Gansu in the west. From Dongsheng to the east, there are Datong, Xinghe, Kaiping, Daning and even Liaodong. From Dongsheng to the west, there are Ningxia, Lanzhou, Zhuanglang , Liangzhou, Shandan, and even Gansu.

And Helan Mountain, Gansu Beishan and Hetao are all within the control of this line of defense, which makes the northern frontier defense of the Ming Dynasty connect from point to area, connect east and west, and echo each other, thus steadily advancing the entire northern frontier line to the north of the Great Wall by several hundred. inside.

This line of defense is completely different from today's nine border towns. It is an aggressive and active strategic defense, allowing the Ming Dynasty to have sufficient strategic depth in the northern theater and giving the Ming government enough time to react.

Moreover, even if the northern captives break through this line of defense, the Ming army still has enough time to build a second line of defense on the Great Wall, using the strength of the Great Wall to block the northern captives from outside the Great Wall. The distance of hundreds of miles is enough for the Ming government to organize The defensive forces, and most importantly, the main production areas and population centers are all within the protection of the Great Wall.

Keeping the enemy out of the country means that the flames of war will not burn within the country. There are people in the country who have production. Once it is destroyed, the loss is unpredictable. After the war, the government needs to organize other forces to resume production. Farming the country The productivity of the enterprise is very fragile and easy to destroy, but it is very difficult to recover.

It will take more than a year and countless energy to go back and forth. The money and materials used for post-war recovery are far higher than those needed for simple combat. This business is not worthwhile, so if you can prevent The enemy is outside the country, that is the most strategic and cheapest.

And some people just can't see it. They keep shrinking the defense line, thinking that it will cost less money to shrink the defense line to a place closer to the country, and the money needed for transportation will be less, so that the country's finances will be easier. They need The military expenditure will be less, and the military forces will be suppressed by the way.

As a result, the territory of the Ming Dynasty shrank and became smaller and smaller.

In the end, the literati government shrunk the huge national strategic territory of the Hongwu Yongle period to the level after the unification of the Qin Dynasty in the Jiajing Wanli period.

The guards in Liaodong, the guards in the northwest, and the guards near Yinshan Mountain in the north were all abandoned. The northern defense line of the entire country was shrunk on a large scale, and it became a passive defense tactic that relied entirely on the Great Wall to defend.

The border is where the people live. Whenever there is a war, the people will always be displaced and suffer greatly. The production and economy of the border will suffer greatly. They will not recover in a short time, and they must continue to supply from the interior.

The combat effectiveness of the army is getting worse and worse, the status of the soldiers is deteriorating, a large number of military fields have been embezzled, the guard system has basically been destroyed, the arrangements for the army left by Zhu Yuanzhang have been completely bankrupt, and the strategic situation of the Ming Dynasty has completely turned into a passive one. stage, these are things that Xiao Ruxun does not want to see.

He knew that even if he hit the original location of Dongshengwei, the city of Guihua which is now Hohhot, the fishing sea where Lan Yu once arrived, and even the wolf where Huo Qubing and Dou Xian arrived, Juxu Mountain and Yanran Mountain were still unable to win a change in strategic national policy in the Ming Empire dominated by the literati government.

They just want to live in peace, make money in peace, annex land in peace, political struggle in peace, life and death in peace, and it is best that all the enemies in the world are dead, and only Daming is left here There are still people and land, so they can continue to fight happily.

However, they have never considered what price they need to pay for their so-called stability. Your retreat can only be exchanged for the enemy's advances. Only when the enemy is scared, they will treat you cautiously.

So Xiao Ruxun beheaded three thousand captives in the first battle in Ningxia, and piled up a Beijing temple outside the Great Wall. This kind of deterrence scared the captives in Ningxia for three years. .

Of course, the Mingwen people’s government also has one good point, that is, it will never compromise with the barbarians in the north, and its attitude towards the Mongolian tribes is very tough. No matter how many people are killed, no one will say that the killing of the army is not good. Anyway, as long as they don’t let them see it It's good if they are inside, they won't talk too much, this is where Ming is better than Song.

Naturally, for the Ming government, one more thing is worse than one less thing. It is best not to fight on both sides. If you want to start a fight, you will definitely need money. If you want money, they will start arguing and scrambling. It is very annoying. So it's better not to fight.

This kind of thinking not only makes the civil servants regard it as the truth, but also affects the military officials. They feel that it is enough to perform their duties and fight a good defensive battle. What's so good about being like chickens flying like dogs?

Don't you still make it like it is now?

In the Han Dynasty, the wolf Juxue Le Shi Yanran was sealed, but so what?Are the barbarians dead?

Taizu of the Ming Dynasty made eight expeditions to the north, and Ancestor Cheng personally conquered Mobei five times, and even reached the point where wolves lived in Xuxu. So what, don't the northern captives still go south every year?

Those who talk about expansion don't even think about whether those lands are good for Daming. What's the use of him in places where no grain can grow?Not only is it cold, but it also consumes a lot of money. There is no income at all, and I don’t know how much money I have to pay every year to maintain it. Do you really think that Daming is so rich?

So under the guidance of this kind of thinking, saving money became an important principle of the Ming government's strategic defense, how to save money.

(End of this chapter)