The deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong, to a certain extent, is the most special deputy commander-in-chief among the border towns of the Ming Dynasty. In most cases, he is responsible for the large defense area east of the Liaohe River alone.
In terms of area, its defense area is even larger than the western Liaoning area that the Liaodong General Soldier is usually responsible for.
Moreover, the deputy commander-in-chief and the governor guard the same city as the eunuchs. In a sense, he is also responsible for protecting the governor and the eunuchs. On the contrary, the Liaodong commander-in-chief is stationed alone in Guangning, with neither a governor nor a governor above him.
There is no governor, let alone guarding eunuchs, and his responsibility in most cases is to deal with the Mongols.
Of course, if there is a big war east of the Liao River, the general soldier will still have to take charge of it, but he is usually not the first person responsible.
Therefore, if Gao Pragmatic, the new governor, wants to live a stable life and even sleep peacefully, it is best for the deputy commander-in-chief to ensure that he obeys his orders.
Making sure you obey orders is the first prerequisite, but it is not enough. You must also have the ability to be the deputy commander-in-chief.
It is difficult to generalize about abilities, but in today's era, there is one thing that must be paid attention to, and that is the number of armed servants.
In roughly the same era, the two major military strategists in the world recognized by Gao Pangshi were Qi Jiguang of the Ming Dynasty and Maurice of the Netherlands. These two military masters had the same or very similar military ideas.
The point is to emphasize the army itself, rather than overemphasizing the role of strategy as in classical military thought.
Of course, in the original history, since Maurice was the core figure in the rule of the Netherlands, he could reform the Dutch military system without looking at other people's eyes. After achieving results, he could put his military ideas into the military academy for others to see.
Study further.
But Qi Jiguang was different. Under the political system of the Ming Dynasty, once Qi Jiguang lost the support and protection of the civil servants, he could not even control his own destiny, let alone whether his military ideas could be spread.
Although Qi Jiguang's military book was repeatedly reprinted in the future and was highly praised by a large number of generals in the late Ming Dynasty, the army he dreamed of never really appeared.
This is the biggest regret.
What is the most distinguishing part of Qi Jiguang's military thought from classical military thought?
In Qi Jiguang's own words: "In the past few years, I have been working in eastern Zhejiang, and I have learned Sun Wu's method. The outlines are not as subtle as the detailed programs under his command, and none of them can be compared."
In fact, more than that, it should be said that this big problem has not been completely solved from the beginning - most of the past military thinking focused on strategy instead of forming a comprehensive and systematic "combat force composition". To put it simply, it is lame.
Qi Jiguang believes that the combat effectiveness of the army is composed of soldiers, generals, armaments, logistics and other aspects, which must be developed in an all-round way and are indispensable.
The reason why the armed servants have become the real core force in the border towns of the Ming Dynasty in this era is because the armed servants are almost born with advantages in the three aspects of soldiers, armament and logistics. The only thing they lack is almost general officers.
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In fact, due to the characteristics of the servant troops, the commander of the army has far better control over the troops than other troops. In other words, the commander can control his servant troops as well as he can, as long as he does not make too stupid mistakes.
, the combat effectiveness of such a unit is completely guaranteed.
Therefore, the new deputy commander-in-chief needs to have a strong team of servants. This is something Gao Pragmatic must consider now.
At the moment, Gao Pragmatic does not have such a candidate, such as Ma Dong. The servants he brought are about Qianqi. They have good fighting ability, but the number is too small. Besides, Ma Dong's reward has not been received yet. Even if it is done, he will be a "
"Outlanders" suddenly overpowered a large number of local Liaodong generals and directly became deputy commander-in-chief, which in itself could easily arouse antagonism.
In addition, Gao Wuzhen's current relationship with Li Chengliang, a core figure of the local general, is obviously not at ease. If he still recommends Ma Dong forcibly, I am afraid that factional struggles will start from top to bottom in the Liaodong Army.
Factional struggles are inevitable, but they must be controlled at a certain level and within a certain scope. If there are some struggles at the top, it is not a big problem, but if the entire local army in Liaodong leads General Xuan and even General Xuan
If the incoming servant troops are regarded as rivals for food, then the trouble will be big.
Since Ma Dong can't do it, Ma Chengen and Zhang Wanbang can't even think about it. Just because the level difference is too big, they can't do anything. They are not highly pragmatic, and they don't have so many political resources to back them up. Even if they are highly pragmatic,
To promote them, we have to do it step by step.
If General Xuanda is not suitable, then we have to consider the Liaodong local faction, and when considering the Liaodong local faction, we should try to avoid the influence of Li Chengliang.
This is obviously difficult.
Gao Pangshi thought about it and found that the only person who "might" meet the requirements was probably Cao Yun, the former deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong who was dismissed and interrogated last year.
The reason why a "possible" is added here is that Cao Yu's promotion in his early years was very much in sync with Li Chengliang's, and he himself was a member of the Cao family of Wuqingtang in northern Liaoning.
In other words, he and Li Chengliang were not only fellow villagers in northern Liaoning, but also should have been close comrades-in-arms in their early years.
By the way, a digression: the Cao family of Wuqingtang was the descendant of the Cao Xueqin family. Later, three years after Jin Tianming, Nurhaci launched an army to attack the Ming Dynasty, and the fate of the Li and Cao families changed accordingly.
In April of that year, Nurhaci captured Fushun, and Li Chengliang's cousin Li Sizhong surrendered. In May of that year, during the battle of the Eleventh Fort southeast of Tieling City, Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather Cao Zhenyan was captured and "returned to the flag" and became a leader. The next year, Nurhaci
He led his army to attack Tieling, but Li Ruzhen, Li Ruzi, Li Cunzhong and others rose up to resist. Twenty people died, the Li family's private residence Kanhualou was destroyed, and the Li family and the Cao family collapsed.
After establishing the capital in Liaoyang, Nurhaci ordered Li Sizhong to recruit Li clan members to serve the Hou Jin Dynasty. At this time, Cao Zhenyan, who was incorporated into Zhengbai Banner, came to settle in Liaoyang.
In addition, other clansmen of the Li and Cao clans successively surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and both families got along well during the Qing Dynasty. For example, Cao Zhenyan made many military exploits, and Tian Cong was promoted to Niulu Zhangjing in his early years, with a fourth-rank official residence.
In the early years of Tiancong's reign, the Eight Banners only had more than 40 Jiala and more than 200 Niulu. Including Beile, ministers of political affairs, officials from the Sixth Ministry and the Third Academy of Internal Affairs, there were a total of more than 500 people. Cao Zhenyan, who became Niulu Zhangjing, already belonged to the backbone of these more than 500 people.
Being a member marked the Cao family's entry into the upper class society of the Later Jin Dynasty.
Li Sizhong rose to prominence even more. He distinguished himself in the subsequent battles and served successively as Niulu Ezhen, second-class staff general, deputy commander of Xi'an garrison, commander-in-chief of Shaanxi admiral and officer-in-chief of the Four Banners Han Dynasty, Ang Bang Zhangjing, among others.
From Shunzhi to Kangxi, a total of nearly 30 people held important positions in the imperial court.
But there is a very miraculous thing, that is, the records of Cao Yun from the Wuqingtang Cao family seem to have been lost.
What is unusual about this incident is that Cao Yun was second only to Li Chengliang among Liaodong generals in the early years of Wanli. Why is there no record of such an important figure?
He himself would definitely not survive the anti-Qing period, so the most likely possibility is that his descendants participated in the anti-Qing war and even played a big role in it, making the Tatars hate him deeply, so according to the Tatar tradition
, simply erased the traces of his branch from history.
Of course, whether to participate in the fight against the Qing Dynasty is not the key to pragmatically judging whether a military general is available, because it is a bit naive to expect that all military generals in this era will pay attention to the justice of the family and the country. Instead of asking those military generals, it is better to ask the civil servants -
Military generals who do not understand justice can be said to have little education. Do you, the civil servants, also have little education?
Moreover, before the rise of nationalism and statism, there were very few people who had the mentality of sacrificing their lives for the country. Even some generals who died in battle were mostly "loyal to the emperor" - this kind of loyalty comes from the brainwashing of feudal foolish loyalty.
, rather than coming from identification with the country and nation.
Those who are unwilling to "be loyal to the emperor" are simply brainwashed not thoroughly enough. Those who can sublimate their thoughts to the point of fighting for the country and nation are probably very rare.
Closer to home, since Cao Yu is from northern Liaoning, and his early promotions were quite similar to those of Li Chengliang, why does Gao Pragmatic think this person can be considered?
The key lies in Li Chengliang's attitude towards Cao Yu after the Battle of Chang'an Fort.
In the battle of Chang'an Fort, the Ming army lost one thousand generals and one general, 317 officers and soldiers were killed, 464 horses were killed, and 298 men and women were taken captive.
There are hundreds of grains for livestock.
Is this failure serious? It depends on how it is compared.
Taken in isolation, this defeat was quite serious, especially the death of a thousand generals and nearly five hundred war horses. Not only was this a considerable loss in terms of the generals who died in battle, but the loss of important strategic materials made the imperial court even more angry.
But the problem is that this battle is not a separate battle. It has prerequisites. First, the Mongolian left-wing Black Carboniferous tribe invaded Liaoyang. Cao Yu led his army to resist tenaciously, and the Black army was defeated and retreated. Then Cao Yu took advantage of the victory and pursued it, and entered Chang'an Fort where he was ambushed.
, as a result, the Ming army was surrounded by enemies on all sides. After hard fighting, only some of its personnel were able to break through, resulting in a "big defeat".
In other words, there are two possibilities for this battle: one is that the Black Carboniferous Tribe fails to attack Liaoyang and is pursued by Cao Yun, and the Black Carboniferous Tribe fights back and defeats Cao Yun; the other is that the Black Carboniferous Tribe had already predicted it and was planning it from the beginning
Cao Yu, so he pretended to be defeated and fled, leading Cao Yu to pursue him, and then defeated Cao Yu.
Which possibility is the truth? The first one is because after the Black Carboniferous Tribe defeated Cao Yun, they did not turn back and continue to plunder the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but turned back to Mongolia.
Just imagine, Cao Yu's troops were the core of the Ming army's field operations in Liaodong. Since he was severely damaged, if the Black Carboniferous Division still had some strength, how could they not seize the opportunity to carry out a large-scale robbery near Liaoyang, but just capture the people?
Three hundred people, hundreds of livestock and rice grains?
Therefore, looking at the entire battle together, Cao Yu can only be regarded as victorious first and then defeated. Although the losses were not small, the losses suffered by the opponent were not necessarily serious - at least the opponent did not dare to stay in the Ming Dynasty.
In this case, even if Cao Yu should be punished for this battle, it seems that it would not be so serious as directly losing his official position, not to mention that he has an elite retainer unit second only to Li Chengliang.
It is not nonsense to say that Li Chengliang may have secretly done something to frame Cao Yun. After all, there is no evidence, but Li Chengliang obviously did not rescue him.
If they were really old comrades in arms, and Li Chengliang just had to say a few nice words to him casually, Cao Yun would not have ended up like "retired from his post, and then asked questions by the censor when he went down to patrol".
In addition, after Cao Yun was imprisoned, his younger brother Cao Jian worked hard to maintain the team of servants left by Cao Yun. They were extremely poor, but Li Chengliang had no intention of lending a hand to help. There was no such thing as "helping his brother".
Gao Pragmatic had to think that Li Chengliang was waiting for Cao Jian to take the initiative to dismiss these people after he could no longer support them, and then he would take over these servants to strengthen himself.
What does comradeship mean in the face of one's own interests? If we are still talking about comradeship, it's just that the interests are not big enough.
Gao Jingshi didn't know very well how Cao Yu, who was imprisoned in Shandong, viewed this matter, but Cao Jian, the commander of the Jinzhou Guard, was Gao Jian's subordinate when he was in Liaonan, and he didn't have a good impression of Li Chengliang. This was Gao Jingshi's very
clearly.
Presumably, if Cao Yu knew that Li Chengliang was plotting against his servant, he would not have a good look on his face - the servant itself is the basis for his "criminal meritorious service". As long as the servant is still there, there is still hope for Cao Yu or the Cao family.
, if the servants are separated, then Cao Yun will really be doomed.
Therefore, Gao Jingshi felt that re-activating Cao Yu as the deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong was the best choice under the current circumstances. He had both a useful armed servant and a local general in Liaodong. He had served as deputy commander-in-chief for many years and had great prestige.
That's enough. In addition, it's hard for him not to resent Li Chengliang now. It can be said that all aspects meet the current high and pragmatic employment standards.
However, Cao Yun is now in prison in Shandong, and the specific situation needs to be understood. After Gao Pragmatic sent Han Guang away, he personally wrote a handwritten letter to An Zhizhi in Shandong, asking him to learn about Cao Yun's current situation, and at the same time, he revealed a little bit about his intention to return again.
The meaning of enabling Cao Yu.
Gao Pragmatic's letter could be sent by sea or water, and it only took less than ten days to arrive in Jinan. An Zhizhi's reply was also very fast. The letter stated that he had spoken to Cao Yu alone and that Cao Yu had already understood the current situation in Liaodong.
He understood this and swore to heaven that as long as he could recover, he would do everything according to Futai's will. If Futai said to chase away the chickens, he would never drive away the dogs.
An Zhizhi also said that when Cao Yan learned that Li Chengliang not only had no idea to save him, but even waited indifferently for the Cao family to be unable to support his servants so that he could be dismissed on his own, he was stunned for a while, then cursed, and even said, "I regard him as a
Brother, you treat me like a fool!" He then tore his sleeves and threw them under his feet.
Does cutting off one's robes mean that one's righteousness is cut off? Haha...
After receiving the reply from An Zhizhi, Gao Jingshi no longer hesitated and immediately began to write a memorial, requesting that Cao Yu be reinstated and that he would be punished and meritorious.
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