The so-called eight hundred miles express does not mean running eight hundred miles a day. Horses are delicate animals, and they can run five hundred miles, which is already the fastest express. No matter how many, as long as the official document indicates "immediate delivery"
The words, just run as hard as you can.
This kind of official document is usually urgent military information. In order to keep it confidential, only one person rides a fast horse to deliver it to the end, passing by inns along the way. Changing horses does not change people.
The Ming Dynasty post station was very large and could accommodate dozens of people. Corruption, no matter who it was, as long as they had the connections to get horse cards (using the letter of certification from the post), they could eat and drink for free. Emperor Chongzhen once abolished one-third of the
The first inn station treats the symptoms but not the root cause. Although some expenses have been reduced, the inn station area still imposes a heavy burden on the local people.
After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered Beijing, they easily solved the problem of post stations. Instead of apportioning taxes, they levied a low post tax on local people. The shortfall was made up by the national treasury. In fact, there was no need to make up for it, it was enough. In the early Qing Dynasty, the law was strict, so there was no
People dare to take advantage of the post station. Ironically, the Qing government levied post tax on the local people, and the people were actually happy to comply, because this post tax was pitifully small compared with the previous huge apportionment.
Zhu Hengjia felt that the Ming Dynasty could not be compared with the Tatars. He ordered that all the expenses for the post stations in the areas under his control should be paid by the imperial court. It was neither allowed to apportion the local people nor levy the post tax from the local people. This cost was quite a lot, and the annual funding was
No matter what, we need more than 300,000 taels.
This is the result of a strong focus on clean government and severe punishment for private use of public instruments. Otherwise, the cost will be even greater.
In fact, Zhu Hengjia also wanted to use his imagination to set up a post office or something, but he couldn't do it because the cost of raising horses was too high. Turning the post station into an inn? It was unsafe and could easily leak military information. Moreover, under the big pot system, doing this would only make the post station's employees miserable.
The costs are getting higher and higher. There is no other way but to crack down on corruption while streamlining personnel and costs.
After reading the 800-mile express delivery from Jiangxi, Zhu Hengjia looked heavy and remained silent for a long time.
"The cabinet scholar and the Minister of War will stay, and everyone else should step down."
Upon seeing this, the ministers knew that the matter was of great importance and did not dare to ask questions, so they withdrew one after another.
In the Liang Hall, only six people, Zhu Hengjia, Guan Shouzhen, Sun Jinding, He Wuzou, Zheng Feng and Yu Chaoxiang, were left.
"Alas!"
Zhu Hengjia let out a long sigh and said, "The military report I just received is that Jiujiang has been lost. Deputy General Zhenshuo and Marquis of Ying State Gao Bizheng died for his country."
The noble ministers are silent.
Zhu Hengjia was complaining in his heart. He had originally decided to launch the Northern Expedition to South Zhili in three months. He secretly transferred 30,000 Guangxi soldiers and 20,000 Guizhou soldiers to Changsha, and recruited 50,000 new soldiers in Huguang. As a result, he had just recruited them and had not yet arrived.
After training, the Qing army came over. Now there are only more than 60,000 veterans in Changsha who can fight. In an important area, 10,000 veterans must be left to garrison. If they go to rescue Jiangxi, they can only bring 50,000 troops. Once
If they were defeated again, Changsha would have no troops to defend; but if they did not save it and allowed the Qing army to attack from Jiangxi to Huguang, the consequences would be disastrous.
"Everyone, please tell me, should I go to rescue Jiangxi, or should I stick to Changsha and wait for help?"
Guan Shouzhen thought for a while and said: "How many remaining troops are left in Gao Bizheng's army? Where have they withdrawn? How many soldiers and horses are left in Li Mingzhong's army?"
"Yuan Zongdi, Li Yuanyin, Lin Chengcheng, and Li Laiheng have only 19,000 people left and have withdrawn to Xingguo Prefecture. Li Mingzhong still has 60,000 people and is still holding on to Nanchang."
"Jian Guo, there are only tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in Changsha City now. If you take tens of thousands of people to Jiangxi and work hard on the expedition, you may not be able to win. Once defeated, not only Jiangxi but also Huguang will not be able to survive. Didn't you previously mobilize 30,000 troops from Guangxi and two from Guizhou?
Have tens of thousands of elite soldiers arrived for reinforcements? I estimate that they have already walked more than half the way, and reinforcements will arrive in more than a month. You might as well stick to Changsha and wait for the work, wait for the reinforcements to arrive, and join forces to fight the Tartars.
The chance of winning is greater." Guan Shouzhen advocated sticking to Changsha and waiting for help.
Zhu Hengjia didn't say anything and shook his head secretly. This chief minister was very good at handling government affairs, but it was a pity that he was a little inferior in military strategy. Jiujiang is a strategic location. To the northwest, you can attack Wuchang along the Yangtze River; to the southwest, you can attack Changsha; to the southwest, you can attack Changsha;
To the south, Nanchang can be attacked. The Qing army must not be allowed to gain a foothold in Jiujiang and must be recaptured. Besides, staying in Changsha and letting Jiangxi fall without saving it will do too much damage to morale. Regardless of whether the reinforcements can arrive, even if they do, they will not be saved.
It's hard to say whether an army with low morale can win. It's better to take advantage of the current high morale and rush to Jiangxi to fight the prisoners.
"The ministers and others seconded the proposal." He Wuzou and Yu Chaoxiang supported Guan Shouzhen's suggestion.
Zhu Hengjia still didn’t speak.
As soon as Sun Jinding took a look, he knew that the governor did not agree to defend Changsha. He immediately said proudly: "Although the Qing army has 160,000 to 70,000 people, if they capture Jiujiang, they will suffer heavy casualties; and they will have to divide their forces to deal with the Ming army in Xingguo Prefecture and Nanchang."
; The captured prefectures and counties must also be divided into garrison troops. Their mobile troops may not be much more than ours. Moreover, Jiujiang is the thoroughfare of seven provinces and poses a great threat to our army. I believe that we should send troops to Jiangxi while the Qing Dynasty's foothold is not stable.
Take back Jiujiang".
Zhu Hengjia nodded. Although his second-in-command was not as good at managing internal affairs as Guan Shouzhen, his military vision was better than that of Guan Shouzhen. The best thing is that he can always be consistent with himself at critical moments.
He also wanted to ask Zheng Feng's opinion again, "Zheng Qing, what do you think?"
Zheng Feng asked: "When the Jianguo first raised troops, how many troops and horses did it have? How big is the area?"
"When we raised the army alone, we only had more than 10,000 soldiers and horses (not counting the 20,000 men we recruited), and it was just a city in Guilin."
Zheng Feng laughed: "The Jianguo country had only ten thousand troops at the beginning. It dared to plunder Guangdong and Guangxi and swallow up Yunnan in just one province. Now it controls seven provinces and has hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Instead, it is afraid of the Tatars and dare not fight.
Is it done?"
Zhu Hengjia clenched his palms and laughed, "The one who knows me is Zheng Qing! I have passed on the order of Gu, inspected the troops and horses, and set out for Jiangxi. Come and get paper and pen. I want to write a poem!"
Brush, brush, brush. Although the writing is ordinary, the momentum is strong and penetrates the back of the paper.
"Northern March"
Looking at the old rivers and mountains in the distance,
Yangzhou’s blood has not dried for ten days.
The sword in the box is hard to suppress,
Immortal Loulan vows not to return it.
The king is brave and his ministers are brave. When they saw Zhu Hengjia writing this poem, everyone was excited. They quickly unified their opinions and prepared for the Northern Expedition.
Just as we were preparing, we suddenly reported that Shi Zhaoxi, the commander of Longzhou Tuwei, arrived with 2,100 soldiers and 300 war elephants.
This time, Zhu Hengjia ordered the 30,000 Guangxi soldiers to be transferred to Huguang to fight, including Zhao Xi's war elephant troops.
Elephants are creatures that can walk faster than people. What's even more rare is that they have a short sleep time. They only need to sleep for one hour a day and can still bear heavy loads. Therefore, the elephant soldiers march faster than the infantry. In addition, Zhao Xi
In order to flatter Zhu Hengjia, in addition to war elephants, they also equipped with many draft horses and carts, which were highly maneuverable and traveled day and night. Finally, they arrived in Changsha more than a month ahead of other Guangxi troops.
Zhu Hengjia was overjoyed and rewarded Zhao Xi heavily.
The arrival of Zhao Xi boosted the morale of the Ming army, which meant that reinforcements were about to arrive.
The military situation was raging, and Zhu Hengjia ordered that the entire army rush to Jiangxi immediately without waiting for other reinforcements.