The Prosperous Era of Longwan

In August in Liaodong, at Mao hour, the sky was already bright, and this was also the time when the night watch soldiers were most tired.

After a night, the soldiers were already hungry and sleepy, but the shift replacement had not yet arrived to replace them.

At this time, the torches and bonfires that had been burning all night on the top of the city had been extinguished, and there was still a faint green smoke. The soldiers on night watch could only brace themselves and rest for a while against the wall of the pier.

These are the treatments for the soldiers who are responsible for the night watch. For the generals and soldiers, they are naturally assigned a good job and then find a place to sleep by themselves. Who would really guard the city wall all night.

"Da da da"

A messy sound of horse hooves came from outside the side wall, which made the soldiers on guard on the battlement nervous. They lay on the wall and tried their best to look out through the battlements with wide eyes.

There were dozens of war horses, but it seemed that the knights on the horses were not in very good condition, and many of them were lying on their backs.

And the war horses under their crotches no longer have a divine horse, and they just ran towards the city wall at an unpleasant speed.

"Can you see who it is?"

On the city wall, the neighboring soldiers were already talking to each other.

Although the sky was bright, it was still far away, and the people on the horse were lying down, so it was really difficult to tell where they were coming from.

As the sound of horse hooves approached, the soldiers on the pier also woke up as a reflex. Looking out through the lookout, some people had already run to find their superiors.

"It seems to be one of our own."

"It looks a bit like the clothes."

Although it was still unclear, as we got closer, we could gradually see clearly what the man on the horse was wearing.

When these war horses finally ran along the mountain road to the bottom of the city tower, the feeble shouts of the knights finally reached the ears of the Ming army guarding the city wall.

In the Ming Dynasty, Yang Zhao, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong outside the Great Wall, led the guerrilla Lang Degong and others to attack outside the Great Wall and were ambushed. News that the entire army was almost annihilated spread back to Guangning. The governor of Liaodong and the deputy commander-in-chief of Guangning hurriedly reported the matter to the court while sending out several Lu refused to stop at night and risked his life to go out of the border wall to search for the fleeing Ming army and to inquire about the movements of the Tartar army.

However, at this time, the news of the defeat of the Ming army in Liaodong had not yet reached the capital, but the news that Prince Yu had a son had already spread throughout the court.

That night, when Feng Bao hurried to Xiyuan, the palace was under martial law.

That is to say, Feng Bao was familiar with the people in the palace. After many reports from the palace people, the words reached Huang Jin's ears. Then Huang Jin personally went to the palace gate to check and put it in the palace until the early morning of the next day. Then he left Xiyuan and returned to Prince Yu's Mansion. He was accompanied by eunuchs who delivered orders and a large number of rewards from the emperor.

All the officials in the court had already changed their minds towards Prince Jing. The royal family once again had a grandson, and countless officials flocked to Prince Yu's Mansion to congratulate him.

The birth of an heir in Prince Yu's palace certainly made Prince Yu's position more stable.

Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng often ran to Prince Yu's Mansion in the past few days to help Yin Shizhen welcome and send him off.

However, when the report of the Liaodong war was sent to the capital, the atmosphere in the court immediately changed.

Previously, after Yang Xuan took Tong Han's son hostage, he vowed in his report to the capital that there would be no war in Ji Liao from now on.

The words were still ringing in his ears, but he was slapped in the face by the Tatar.

The Liaodong official army suffered a huge defeat. How could Yang Xuan dare to hide it? You must know that the dead were the second-grade general soldiers and five thousand cavalry. This was already the main force of the Liaodong frontier army.

After losing one battle, even if he was worried about his career, he did not dare to waste time.

Obviously, his previous memorial to the court to report his merits to the court is likely to become a reason for criticism by the censor in the future.

Of course, there was nothing he could do about it. He could only send his close family members to hurriedly send a heavy gift to the cabinet Xu Jie and Yuan Wei, hoping that they could help him say a word when the court was impeaching officials.

As for Yang Bo, Minister of the Ministry of War, given Yang Xuan's understanding of him, he should be able to say a fair word for him.

In fact, this battle also showed that the intelligence he collected years ago was correct. The Mongol Tatars' attack target should be to turn to Liaodong with the intention of capturing Liaodong.

At that time, the quarrel between him and Yang Bo regarding this matter was also known to the whole court.

However, Yang Zhao was defeated miserably this time.

However, Yang Zhao had already died in the battle. Although he could pass all the blame on him, he would offend all the generals in Jiliao.

Everyone died fighting for the country, so why should they be punished?

If so, who would be willing to fight in the future?

Therefore, even if he scolded Yang Zhao to death in his heart, he still had to bear some responsibility.

Fortunately, Wang Zhigao, the governor of Liaodong, also had to share the burden, otherwise Yang Xuan really didn't know what to do.

However, Yang Xuan thought so, but the courtiers did not see it that way.

They knew from the beginning that Liaodong suffered a great defeat, and knew that they would lose troops and generals.

But after the details of the Ming army's losses came out from the Ministry of War, the government and the public were shocked.

The total mobile strength of the Liaodong Ming Army, that is, the cavalry troops, was less than 10,000. The loss of 5,000 cavalry directly caused Liaodong to lose more than 60% of its troops.

If you want to rely on infantry to fight the Mongolian Tatars in the field, you can, but you have to gather a large army to form a formation, and you can also fight.

However, Liaodong has a vast territory and seemingly strong military strength. After being dispersed and garrisoned, it is naturally impossible to gather a large army.

In fact, after this war, as long as the Mongol Tatars did not attack cities such as Liaoyang, Shenyang, and Guangning that were heavily guarded by the Ming army, other places were basically undefended.

Because even if they attack those places, the surrounding Ming army will not be able to gather troops for rescue.

Isolated and helpless, what news could be more demoralizing.

Although Yang Xuan has sent people to appeal to Liaodong, Jizhen will dispatch a troop of troops to Liaoyang urgently to supplement Liaodong's troops.

But how many cavalry can Jizhen send over?

Two thousand or three thousand?

No one believed that Ji Zhen would deploy 5,000 cavalry to replenish Liaoyang and restore the Liaodong army's combat effectiveness.

In fact, this battle severely damaged the Liaodong officers and soldiers.

As for Yang Zhao's death, to be honest, not many people care about it yet, and there are just more people rising up.

"Taipu Temple will increase the purchase of war horses this year."

Yin Shizhen took out the document in his hand and handed it to Wei Guangde and said.

When the news reached the capital, King Yu, who had already claimed to be the crown prince, would naturally convene a meeting with his staff to analyze the situation.

In fact, Prince Yu's Mansion arranged people to lurk in various government offices to collect information, and Dongchang had already reported it to Emperor Jiajing.

It's just that they were mostly inquiring about information rather than intervening in the affairs of various government offices, so the palace just turned a blind eye.

This news was brought back from the palace by Feng Bao this time.

It can only be said that his connections and eyewitnesses in the palace are still there, not to mention that when he went to Prince Yu's Mansion, no one said anything about it.

It's hard to say that a hundred years after the current emperor, Feng Bao will become the master again and return to the palace as the new emperor's favorite.

Of course, if Feng Bao had been the eunuch guarding the mausoleum, no one in the palace would care about him.

They are not blind, they know who they can ignore and what they cannot offend.

Perhaps Emperor Jiajing also wanted to train King Yu, after all, it was only a matter of time.

Since he fainted last year, Emperor Jiajing could feel it in his body, so he hurriedly made arrangements in the court, not wanting anything to happen.

However, the short period of great joy and small sadness still made him feel that his body was a little overwhelmed.

Of course he didn't feel bad about the loss of 5,000 cavalry in Liaodong. What he felt bad about was the money. The court had to spend money to buy back 5,000 war horses, as well as the troubles in front of him.

Yang Bo did not agree with Yang Xuan's trend of dispatching Jizhen's army to support Liaoyang, and insisted that he did not want to dispatch a single soldier to Liaodong.

In the memorial to the Ministry of War, Yang Bo bluntly stated that Liaodong would be able to recover in two years at most.

During this period, the Liaodong armies only need to be careful.

In a word, Yang Bo's first consideration is Jizhen and the safety of the capital.

Without a strong enough army around the capital, he felt very uneasy. This was perhaps the first responsibility he had to consider as Minister of War.

Naturally, Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng already knew this information, so they just took the note from Yin Shizhen and read it.

This is a procurement task that the Cabinet only handed over to the Ministry of War today and passed it on to Taipu Temple.

"Shandai, you said before that Yang Xuan's plan was going to fail, and you were right. The Tatars didn't care about that prince at all."

King Yu spoke from above.

"Yang Xuan is a little clever. A national war like this can be avoided if the hostages are in hand. Unless he is the prince chosen by An Dahan, he may have some scruples."

Wei Guangde had said a long time ago that what Yang was holding was just the son of a clan leader among the many tribes on the grassland, and he was not a big shot at all.

Maybe this tribe can change its attitude towards the Ming Dynasty, but for the whole of Mongolia, there are too many such tribes.

Moreover, the various Mongolian tribes themselves are not monolithic. They are also full of various contradictions within them.

Maybe it's for a piece of pasture, or maybe it's the historical grudges between the tribes, or maybe it's just that the tribe leaders don't like each other.

If Yang Xuan had captured Anda Khan's most valued son, Xin Aitaiji, a war between the two countries should have been avoided, but small-scale conflicts were unavoidable.

"People who are close to Yang Xuan are now lobbying that the intelligence Yang Bo sent to the capital at the beginning of the year is accurate. Anda Khan may launch an all-out attack on the Liaodong region starting this year, hoping to completely occupy it.

Otherwise, if the Jizhen army had entered Liaodong in the first place, they would not have been defeated today. "

Yin Shizhen said.

After entering Prince Yu's Mansion today, the main people talking in the room were Yin Shizhen and Wei Guangde, but Zhang Juzheng was very quiet.

But everyone also knew why. In order to be promoted to the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, Yang Zhao often sent people to give gifts and asked Zhang Juzheng to talk to Xu Jie.

Now because of Yang Zhao's reckless and bad behavior, Zhang Juzheng naturally felt very uncomfortable, and was worried that he would leave an unclear impression on Prince Yu.

"According to that, the Tatars may not go to Liaodong to fight this battle, but directly attack the border wall of Ji Town."

Wei Guangde shook his head and said with a smile, "Andakhan will not understand the principle of avoiding the truth and attacking the fictitious. If you want to win a battle, you naturally have to catch the weak persimmons to ensure victory, and the morale of the army will also be high."

To be honest, it is really difficult to judge the direction of the Mongols' attack.

Unlike the Han army's war, if you want to attack a certain direction, you must reserve food and grass in that area in advance to provide for the consumption of the army, but the Mongols are different.

The main force of their army is cavalry, and the logistics are tribal tribesmen who drive the sheep.

The soldiers fought in the front, and the tribesmen were responsible for driving the sheep and carrying the looted materials. Their mobility was indeed much better than that of the Han army.

Today you see him gathering to go to Liaodong. You never know when he will turn around and go south to attack Jizhen. It is really hard to guard against it.

Therefore, Yang Bo's view is that sticking to the border wall and defending the city are more appropriate tactics based on the current combat power of the Ming army.

To the extreme, if they want to accomplish all their efforts in one battle, they should save their money. The Tatars will not give the Ming army time to deploy troops and generals, nor will they gather their main forces together and wait for the Ming army to attack.

Although the construction of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty seemed to protect the safety of the Han people and allow people to live and work in peace and contentment, it did affect the officials and soldiers of the imperial court, whether it was because they did not want to make progress because of the city wall, or because there were loopholes in the fortifications everywhere.

In the middle and late stages of the Ming Dynasty, the overall combat power of the Ming Dynasty declined seriously. Although it was not completely defeated, it could not find a suitable strategy, so it always seemed very passive.

Wei Guangde actually doesn't know how to deal with the prairie cavalry. He really feels that they are slippery. Unless they are willing, they will not fight you at all, but will flee directly.

Think about the time of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di. Several northern expeditions to the grasslands consumed a lot of national power. Although they had gratifying results, they failed to fundamentally eliminate the main force of the Mongols.

"Master Yang Bo is right to seek stability."

Finally, Zhang Juzheng, who had been silent for a long time, also spoke, supporting Wei Guangde's view.

He had some responsibility for Yang Zhao's incident, but it was all behind the scenes.

The court wanted to hold him accountable, but it really couldn't find him.

But after Zhang Juzheng received the news of the defeat in Liaodong, he still blamed himself because he felt that he had a great responsibility.

Thinking of Wei Guangde's repeated advice before, he failed to listen, which not only cost thousands of innocent lives, but also plunged the court into crisis.

Perhaps, if it were other generals at that time, although they would have chased him out of the pass, they would never have chased him that far. Naturally, the Tatars would not have been able to set up an ambush, and they would not have died tragically.

After listening to Zhang Juzheng's words, Wei Guangde smiled and nodded, not knowing whether he was agreeing or thanking him for his support.

"Just as Yang Shangshu envisioned, it doesn't matter even if our Ming Dynasty suffers a few more losses like this. Our country has a large population, a vast territory and abundant resources. It is easy to replenish and restore our strength, and it only takes a few years.

As long as the border cities are strictly guarded, the Tatars will have to withdraw their troops because they have gained nothing. If they dare to bypass the border cities and go deep into the interior, they will only lead to their own death. That is the time to plan how to eliminate them.

But for these, the other party must first make a mistake. "

Wei Guangde answered.

King Yu interjected at this time: "You also support Yang Bo, are you worried that the elite soldiers of Ji Town have gone to Liaodong, and the Tatars will take the opportunity to attack Ji Town?"

"It's completely possible. As I said before, the biggest advantage of the Tatars is that they come and go like the wind. They are still in Liaodong today, but they may appear outside the border wall of Ji Town tomorrow."

Wei Guangde replied, but he thought that King Yu might still be in the exploratory stage of government affairs at this time, so he added: "No matter how bad the war situation in Liaodong is, the safety of the capital is the most important, and it is a major matter that concerns the world. If you are careful, the whole country may be shaken.”