Chapter five hundred and twentieth eight: Cochin Cheng announced the Secretary of Political Affairs
Just by looking at the reactions of several princes, Li Huan knew the doubts in their hearts. However, since Li Huan proposed to recruit 200,000 troops in front of them, he was naturally fully prepared.
After all, Li Huan is not a fool. He wants to recruit 200,000 troops. Not to mention the cabinet, even the emperor must have a sufficient reason. Otherwise, I am afraid that few people in the whole court will support it.
Li Huan looked at the people with a serious look and said: "Since the last time Dayan Khan was defeated and fled, after several years of recuperation, Dayan Khan's forces have now recovered to some extent. According to the spies sent by Jin Yiwei to the grassland,
According to the news sent, Dayan Khan’s forces are now even stronger than before, and there is a faint intention to go south to invade our Ming Dynasty."
After hearing what Li Huan said, the expressions of Zhang Lun and others suddenly changed.
It can be said that since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Mongolian Yuan in the north has been a serious concern of the Ming Dynasty. In order to expel the Mongolian Yuan, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty have tried their best to regard the Mongolian Yuan in the north as the most powerful enemy of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, the first few generations of emperors who founded the country were able to suppress the remnants of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in the north. However, as time passed and the Central Plains became peaceful, the suppression of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in the north gradually disappeared.
The Tumubao Incident was a national humiliation.
Since then, the Ming Dynasty's army has rarely stepped outside the front line of the Great Wall. It has changed from taking the initiative to attack now to focusing on defense now. It can be said that it is easy to attack and defend.
Over the years, the remnants of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in the north have frequently gone south to invade the important areas on the nine sides of the Ming Dynasty. That is to say, the first battle severely damaged the Tatars and completely defeated Dayan Khan's troops, thus preserving the safety of the Ming Dynasty in the north for several years.
It can be said that the past few years have definitely been quiet and peaceful years on the northern border of the Ming Dynasty. The northern Mongolian and Yuan forces did not dare to go south at all, but everyone knows that once the northern Mongolian and Yuan forces regain their strength, they will definitely break out again with the Ming Dynasty.
conflict.
It's just that except for a few people in the civil and military circles of the Manchu Dynasty who still remembered the great enemy of the Meng Yuan remnants, almost all officials subconsciously forgot about the threat of the Meng Yuan.
Even the few princes present were acting like most officials, but now that Li Huan once again mentioned the crisis of the Tatars going south, their expressions naturally changed drastically.
Zhu Fu looked at Li Huan with a serious expression and said: "Dayan Khan's troops have really recovered their strength. Do you have any intention of going south to invade our border with the Ming Dynasty?"
To be honest, Zhu Fu still couldn't believe it. After all, when Dayan Khan went south with the joint efforts of Li Huan and Wang Yangming, the losses were extremely heavy. Ten young and elite troops alone were left behind.
More than ten thousand.
Such a huge loss can be said to have almost crippled Dayan Khan. Under normal circumstances, it is absolutely impossible for him to recover so quickly.
Zhang Lun and Xu Guangzhao looked at Li Huan with doubts in their eyes.
Li Huan sighed softly and said: "Dayan Khan's troops indeed suffered heavy losses, but he is still the nominal co-owner of the grassland. In addition to his own heavy losses and the great losses he suffered in the Ming Dynasty, his gaze has also dropped.
On top of other Mongolian tribes on the grassland, relying on their righteousness and their own strength, they annexed several major tribes on the grassland in a few years, and relied on this method to restore Dayan.
The strength of Khan’s troops.”
Zhang Lun, Zhu Fu and others had a look of surprise on their faces. After hearing what Li Huan said, they could understand. After all, the strong are respected on the grassland. In the vast prairie, they were divided into groups.
There are numerous tribes, large and small.
Quite a few of these tribes actually did not belong to Dayan Khan, which meant that the power that Dayan Khan could use to invade the Ming Dynasty was actually only a part of the entire grassland.
Now that Dayan Khan has regained his blood by annexing other tribes, he is indeed able to recover his vitality and improve his strength in just a few years.
Looking at the expressions of several people, Li Huan said: "Dayan Khan is definitely not the kind of person who just gives up after suffering a loss. According to Jin Yiwei's news, Dayan Khan has been preparing for war in the past two years. Once
Let them prepare well, fearing that an unprecedented and brutal war will break out in the north."
As he spoke, a gleam flashed in Li Huan's eyes and he said: "In this case, our Ming Dynasty must make preparations in advance, otherwise once the Tatars go south, with the number of soldiers and horses our Ming Dynasty currently has, we may not be able to take care of the overall situation.
"
Zhu Fu nodded in agreement and said: "It is indeed necessary to prepare early. With Dayan Khan's temperament, once he goes south, I am afraid that more than 100,000 troops will go south again. By then, my Ming Dynasty will have to dispatch at least 200,000 troops.
If we can cope with it, after all calculations, our Ming Dynasty’s current troops are really not enough.”
Zhu Fu looked at Li Huan and said, "I would like to submit a joint letter to Your Majesty with the Duke of Qin, requesting Your Majesty's permission to recruit troops."
Zhang Lun and Xu Guangzha on the side also nodded, supporting Li Huan's recruitment of troops and expressing their willingness to sign a letter.
A few days later, several important ministers of the cabinet came to the imperial study. In the imperial study, Zhang Lun, Zhu Fu, Li Huan and other military dignitaries had been waiting for a long time.
The emperor saw Wang Yangming and others arriving, motioned for them to sit down and said, "Dear gentlemen, the Governor of the Fifth Army would like to submit a memorial to recruit 200,000 troops. I wonder how the cabinet deliberations are going!"
Hearing the emperor's inquiry, Wang Yangming and others looked at each other. Wang Yangming took a deep breath, bowed to the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, after several days of deliberation, I feel that it is indeed very important for the Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Army to ask for troops."
It is necessary that in order to prevent the Tatars from going south, the court must have enough troops."
Hearing what Wang Yangming said, Zhang Lun, Zhu Fu and others, who had already prepared to argue with Wang Yangming and others, couldn't help but look a little surprised. Apparently they did not expect that the cabinet, which had always opposed the expansion of the military, would actually insist on this.
supportive attitude.
But the next moment I heard Wang Yangming say: "It was just discussed by the cabinet that raising 200,000 troops at a time is not too much. Although the court now says that it has sufficient finances, adding 200,000 troops at a time is also an extremely staggering expense."
, The most important thing is that our Ming Dynasty is now at peace, and with the nine-border strongholds and the troops in the capital, the offense may not be enough, but the defense is enough."
However, Li Huan's expression did not change at all when he listened to Wang Yangming's words. Based on Li Huan's understanding of Wang Yangming, Wang Yangming must support the military expansion. However, Wang Yangming himself cannot represent the cabinet or the entire civil service group, so he does not
As the representative of the civil servant group, Wang Yangming must balance the interests of the civil servant group, the Xungui Group, and the Emperor.
Li Huan was heard to say calmly: "I wonder what the cabinet's opinion is?"
Wang Yangming looked at Li Huan and said: "The cabinet means that two hundred thousand is too much. The cabinet agrees to recruit troops to prepare for war, but the number must be limited to one hundred thousand."
Everyone can hear that this should be the bottom line acceptable to the cabinet.
Zhu Houzhao looked at the people in the cabinet, then at Li Huan, Zhang Lun and other nobles from the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army. He pondered for a while and said: "What you all said makes sense. We can recruit an army of 200,000 people at a time."
It is indeed too much, but my Ming Dynasty does need to replenish its armaments. Since this is my opinion, I raised 100,000 soldiers and horses in the first year, 50,000 in the second year, and another 50,000 in the third year.
In three years, we have raised a total of 200,000 troops, what do you think?"
Several important ministers in the cabinet couldn't help but frowned after hearing this, and subconsciously wanted to object. However, at this time Wang Yangming coughed lightly, stepped forward, bowed to the emperor and said: "Your majesty is wise, I think this strategy is feasible."
And Li Huan also stepped forward and bowed to the emperor at the right time and said: "I will obey the holy instructions!"
All the nobles with a somewhat proud look on their faces also followed Li Huan and bowed to the emperor.
After leaving the imperial study and returning to the cabinet, several cabinet ministers looked grave. Yang Yiqing, who had just been transferred from the local government to the capital and served as Minister of War, said to Wang Yangming: "Why did the chief minister agree with your majesty's decree just now? You have to know three years
Expanding the army by 200,000 will definitely put a lot of pressure on the Ming Dynasty's finances. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty simply cannot have such a large army. Such a militaristic move will only fuel the arrogance of the military nobles and is of no benefit to the country.
ah!"
Wang Yangming just paused when he heard this, looked at Yang Yiqing and said: "Does Yang Shangshu think that it is useless to prepare the country for military preparation?"
Yang Yiqing was stunned for a moment, then realized and shook his head: "That's not what Yang meant. Our Ming Dynasty does need to strengthen its military, but it must be limited to a certain range. It is not right for Qin Guogong to recruit hundreds of thousands of troops at every turn.
Instead of arranging the army and preparing for it, we are resorting to force."
Sighing softly, Wang Yangming looked at Yang Yiqing and said: "It has not been long since Yang Shangshu came to the imperial court from the local government to take charge of the Ministry of War, but he did not know that there was another turmoil in the southwest border area."
Yang Yiqing was able to enter the sight of the emperor, so he was naturally a capable minister and official, and was by no means an ordinary person. When Wang Yangming said this, a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and he said almost instinctively: "Is it possible that Annan has invaded my Ming Dynasty Yungui again?"
place?"
Wang Yangming nodded slightly and said: "Yes, during the rare times when the Li family was in peace, they kept intruding on our southwestern frontier of the Ming Dynasty. According to the Jin Yiwei report, last year alone, within a year, the Li family sent
Soldiers and horses invaded our territory of the Ming Dynasty, massacred, and plundered several counties."
"Damn it, a country of barbarians dares to stroke the beard of my great Ming tiger!"
Yang Yiqing is not that kind of weak scholar who has no power. He holds the post of Governor of the Three Borders at a local level. He manages the army on horseback and the people on horseback. He defeated the Tatar War in the first place. As the Governor of the Three Borders
It can be said that Yang Yiqing has contributed a lot.
Such a person naturally looked down on a small barbarian country like Annan, so he was naturally very angry when he suddenly heard that Annan had repeatedly invaded the southwest.
Wang Yangming looked at Yang Yiqing and said: "It has been nearly a hundred years since Emperor Xuanzong deposed the Chief Envoy of Jiaozhi. After several generations of emperors, the Li Dynasty has become powerful in the southwest.
However, the current leader of the Li family, Li Yi, has a vague appearance of being the leader of the ZTE. He vigorously develops armaments, expands everywhere, and invades our borders almost every year."
Hearing this, Liu Yu stroked his beard and chuckled: "It's just a barbarian state. It just sends envoys to the barbarian state to reprimand its master and ask him to send envoys to apologize to the court."
Wang Yangming, Yang Yiqing and others just glanced at Liu Yu and did not answer Liu Yu's words.
Yang Yiqing took a deep breath and looked at Wang Yangming and said, "Could it be that Duke Qin has plans to use troops against Jiaozhi?"
Wang Yangming said slowly: "Even Wang doesn't know what the Duke of Qin is thinking, but even if we want to send troops to the southwest, I think it will have to be done after the north has been pacified."
Yang Yiqing had a thoughtful look on his face and nodded slightly.
A general under the Imperial City's Ministry of Internal Affairs serves as a supervisor
Li Huan looked at the officials who would serve as supervisors and the top shopkeepers of the Royal Commercial Bank and said, "How are the things you were asked to arrange arranged?"
Several people present looked at each other after hearing this, and saw one of the officials step forward and said cautiously: "Mr. Huiguo, according to your instructions, the general supervisor has sent out skilled craftsmen to assist the Royal Commercial Bank in the construction of several mines.
Cement burning plants. But I don’t know the specific conditions of these cement burning plants.”
Li Huan's eyes naturally fell on the several big shopkeepers of the royal trading houses present.
Being caught by Li Huan's gaze, several big shopkeepers who were responsible for building the cement firing plant quickly bowed to Li Huan and said: "Go back to the Lord, please follow the Lord's instructions and gather the strength of the business."
, a total of dozens of mines have been acquired, and a total of eight cement firing plants have been built. They have already been fired, and have accumulated about 800,000 stone of finished products. "
When Li Huan heard this, he couldn't help but stare at the big shopkeeper who spoke: "What is the monthly output of the eight cement burning plants? If they operate at full capacity, how much output can they achieve?"
The big shopkeeper just thought for a moment and said without hesitation: "Now the eight cement firing plants can produce about 300,000 stone cement products per month. If the craftsmen become more skilled and increase the manpower, the output will be increased by then."
It will definitely be no problem to increase it several times to reach a monthly output of one million stones."
Li Huan nodded and said: "Very good, we will transport ten thousand stones of cement to Beijing immediately."
Double Ninth Day in the 10th year of Zhengde
A group of people came out of the imperial city. The leader was none other than the emperor Zhu Houzhao, who was dressed in ordinary clothes. Accompanying the emperor were Li Huan, several ministers in the cabinet, Zhang Lun and other nobles.
A group of more than a dozen people dare not say that they have gathered all the core figures of the Ming Dynasty, at least they account for most of them. They are all beings who have the core right to speak in the Ming Dynasty. If something unexpected happens, I am afraid that the Ming Dynasty court will be shaken three times.
No.
At this time, Zhu Houzhao looked at Li Huan who was following him on horseback with curiosity and said: "Li Qing, where are you taking me, and what is your surprise?"
Not only the emperor, but also everyone accompanying him looked curious and puzzled. Li Huan's actions were really too mysterious. Just yesterday, Li Huan personally invited the emperor to summon a group of people.
I came here saying I wanted to give everyone a surprise.
However, no matter how they asked, Li Huan remained silent, so the group was all extremely curious at this moment. After all, it was definitely not a small matter for Li Huan to mobilize troops and mobilize people like this.
Hearing this, Li Huan glanced at the crowd and said with a hint of a smile: "Your Majesty will know when he arrives, but I can guarantee that your Majesty will be very happy once he sees it."
When Zhu Houzhao saw this, he couldn't help laughing and said: "Okay, in that case, then I want to see what kind of surprise you, Li Qing, are going to give me."