Although the Ministry of War is theoretically equivalent to the Ministry of National Defense in later generations, the Ministry of War in the Ming Dynasty lacked a professional "general staff", and its "staff" function was not strong.
One sentence: official position, master map, military system, city god, garrison, simplicity, conquest.
When it comes to the specific item of "conquest", its responsibilities are only to "request orders for generals to send out troops, offer rewards and punishments, adjust troops and food, record merits and demerits, and depose them." In other words, although Zifangsi is in charge of conquest, it is actually not responsible for it.
Don't really care about "how to fight".
Therefore, to answer Zhu Yijun's question, we can only let Grand Sima Liang Menglong play freely.
Liang Menglong had previously communicated with Gao Jingshi, who went to the Ministry of War to hand over power. Although the situation was unexpected at that time, and Gao Jingshi went to handle the transfer of power, the two of them did not talk deeply. Fortunately, the emperor listened to the plan at best.
Liang Menglong can still handle it if he listens to the strategy and doesn't ask for details.
"Reporting to your Majesty, the Ministry of War believes that the troops under the command of Cao Yan, the deputy commander-in-chief guarding Liaoyang, are sufficient and can be ordered to consider the details of the war and defense on his own." Liang Menglong paused for a moment and then added: "What I am worrying about now is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and
Winter always begins earlier in Liaodong than elsewhere, and by the time Cao Yun is ready, it may already be freezing cold in Liaodong, making it difficult to send troops."
Zhu Yijun was a little surprised: "If Cao Yu is told today, it will not be ready in time before winter in Liaodong?"
Liang Menglong said: "However, unless Cao Yu mobilizes the army within half a month, it may be slow."
As the Grand Sima, his words are not nonsense, because winter in China advances from north to south.
In later generations, winter began in the northernmost Mohe area as early as early September. In early October, winter entered Jilin from Heilongjiang Province and arrived in the Beijing-Tianjin area at the end of October. In mid-November, winter came to the Huaihe River and both sides of the Han River.
Crossed the Yangtze River in late December. In early December, winter approached the Wuyi Mountains and the northern slope of Nanling. In early January, it crossed Wuyi Mountain and Nanling and reached its southernmost position. And roughly reached Fuzhou in Fujian, Shaoguan in Guangdong, Hechi in Guangxi, and Yunnan
The area south of the Lincang line and the entire province of Taiwan belong to China's winter-free zone.
Specifically speaking, Liaodong, especially Kaiyuan, where troops were dispatched for this battle, was actually the front line of Jilin in later generations, that is, winter entered in early October. But this "October" refers to the Gregorian calendar of later generations, and the Ming Dynasty certainly did not promote this.
So in fact, there are only about twenty days before winter begins in Kaiyuan.
Liang Menglong said that unless Cao Yu mobilized the army in half a month, this time calculation can be considered accurate.
Although Zhu Yijun has never been to Liaodong, he is still very aware of the severe cold in Liaodong. Funny to say, the thing that impressed him most about the "Liaodong cold" was actually that after Gao pragmatic was promoted to the governor of Liaodong, he spent his own money to install ground dragons in the governor's office.
.
The reason why I was deeply impressed was because Gao Pingshi's set of earth dragons did not simply dig some fire tunnels in the ground. He used large copper pipes produced by Jinghua as fire tunnels and arranged them in the ground in a pattern as detailed as a greedy snake.
The cost is more than ten times more expensive than the ordinary earth dragon.
At that time, Zhu Yijun asked Gao Jingshi why he was so extravagant. Gao Jingshi told him that the batch of copper tubes were unqualified products during the trial production of a certain type of artillery. They were actually waste reuse, but the cost of this batch of "waste" was a bit high.
At the same time, Gao Pragmatic also told Zhu Yijun that this batch of "waste products" was only a small part of the trial production process. Making any new weapons would cost a lot of money in research and development. This is why Jinghua's firearms are so much more expensive than the original products of the Ordnance Bureau and other yamen.
One of the main reasons for the lack of.
The cost of trial-producing a small portion of a new artillery piece was so huge, which certainly impressed Zhu Yijun. Not only did he understand that firearms research and development was not easy, he also remembered that Liaodong was indeed very cold.
Now, seeing that the Liaodong Army was about to fight a war that would last for at least the early winter, Zhu Yijun couldn't help but hesitate. He looked around at the elders and felt that he could only ask Zhang Xueyan and Wu Dui for Liaodong military affairs - Zhang Xueyan was in Gao Gong during the period.
Once the governor of Liaodong, Li Chengliang's first major defeat against Wang Gao was under Zhang Xueyan's decision and command; while Wu Dui had served as Grand Sima and was still in charge of the Ministry of War, and he was much more knowledgeable about military affairs than Shen Shixing.
Wang Jiaping and Wang Xijue should be familiar with each other.
"Zhang Qing, Wu Qing, do you think this battle can be fought?" Because neither Zhang Xueyan nor Wu Dui had ever served as a Japanese official (including in Jiajing and Longqing dynasties), Zhu Yijun was not addressed as sir.
Zhang Xueyan had a higher status and had served as governor of the Liao Dynasty, so after looking at Wu Dui he replied: "Most of the soldiers in Liaodong are from the local guards. Even if they are not, they are also the elite of Xuanda, and they can keep out the cold. That's why
, I think there is nothing wrong with sending troops in winter, but as Grand Sima just said, the key to this matter lies in whether Cao Yun can prepare properly. If so, then there is no harm in sending troops; if not, it will be very disadvantageous or there may be hidden dangers."
Zhu Yijun nodded slightly and looked towards Wu Dui again.
Wu Dui said: "As far as I know, there are things to keep out the cold in Liaodong, and they are generally sufficient for use. However, most of them are prepared for the future. If you use them now, they will have to be replenished later. I don't know.
Ministry, does the Ministry of War have a measurement?"
Good guy, it turns out that the cannon fires a thousand taels of gold, and the accounts have to be settled before the fight even begins.
But there was nothing that could be done about it, especially as it involved reserves for the future decisive battle against Chahar. Zhu Yijun had no choice but to look at Gao Pragmatic, and said with a somewhat embarrassed look on his face: "Seeking truth..."
It is not difficult to understand his attitude. The root cause of such big trouble in the northwest this year is money, and everything is to prepare for the destruction of the residual Yuan. Now because of the changes in Liaodong, these reserves have to be spent again
, the Ministry of Revenue still needs to make up for it. The burden of these tasks lies entirely on Gao Pragmatic, and Zhu Yijun is naturally a little embarrassed.
However, Gao Gao's pragmatic expression was normal, and he said calmly: "If money comes in, it must come out. Just as the minister said, 'Taxers take what is from the people and use it for the people.' The border army prepares for war and fights with the same purpose.
They are defending the homeland and the country, and they are fighting for all the people, so the money should be well spent."
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Then he paused and said: "However, money should be spent, but how to spend it? As an official of the Household Department, I have to do something."
Suggestions."
Zhu Yijun immediately said: "This is natural. If you ask for anything, just say it."
Gao pragmatic pretended not to see Shen Shixing, and Wang Xijue changed his face slightly after hearing the emperor's words, and said solemnly: "I just talked about the situation in Liaodong, but there is one thing that I haven't mentioned yet. I would like to add a little bit." As he said that, he looked at Zhang Xueyan and Wu.
Dui and Liang Menglong bowed slightly to signal.
Of course, these three people would not blame Gao Yingshi for "not giving face", they just smiled and nodded in return, and Zhu Yijun told Gao Yingshi to speak frankly.
Gao pragmatically said: "What you just discussed, you just talked about the disadvantages of our winter operations. In fact, fighting in winter is not only disadvantageous to our army. Your Majesty, gentlemen, and Nurhachi's troops are all local barbarians, and the mountains are blocked by heavy snow."
They often go into the mountains to hunt and dig. Winter has little impact on them, so I won’t go into detail here.
Fortunately, Jianzhou has few soldiers, so the number of troops sent out this time will not exceed 5,000 at most. And because of the small number of soldiers, I expect that they will not dare to fight to the death with our army, so as not to offend the Celestial Empire and cause the thunder of the heavenly troops to attack in the spring of next year.
As long as our army can defeat or repel the Tumen, and then take advantage of the situation to press forward, Nurhachi will undoubtedly retreat."
Zhu Yijun was overjoyed when he heard this, and thought to himself: It is better to listen to the truth-seeking and discuss military affairs in a thorough and detailed manner! Although Nurhaci should be beaten, it is not cost-effective to fight him in winter, not to mention that beating him now may delay important events, which is not good. If he can be scared off,
This guy is the best way. As for Jianzhou Left Guard... Humph, it's a small country. It won't be too late for me to take care of Chahar after I deal with it.
"What Qiuzhen said is very much in line with my wishes." Zhu Yijun finally laughed today and said cheerfully: "Then where is Tumen?"
Because of the emperor's praise, Gao Jingshi had to bow slightly to show his humility, and then said: "Tumen's tribe is different from Jianzhou. Although the northern barbarians can also resist the cold, they have many livestock under their command, and the people they attacked this time are Ye
He, it is no better than if you invade our territory of the Ming Dynasty, you can plunder and maintain it..."
Zhu Yijun interrupted and asked: "Wait a minute, although Ye He may not be as wealthy as my Ming Dynasty, but he won't have nothing to rob at all, right? Why can't Tumen survive by plundering?"
Gao pragmatic explained: "The emperor may not know something. Ye He is the Jurchen outside Liaodong. He is closest to Mongolia and has the most cavalry, so he is most familiar with fighting with cavalry. According to this military report, Ye He is very familiar with the map.
Our attack should be well prepared..."
Zhu Yijun couldn't help but ask: "How can this be seen?"
This was really a layman's statement, but Gao Pragmatic still had to explain: "The military report said, 'Tumen besieged the east and west cities of Yehe and cannot be conquered for a long time.' Your Majesty, Tumen has 20,000 cavalry, and they want to capture Yehe."
He, naturally chooses to attack suddenly. If Ye He was unprepared at this time, the east and west cities would have been captured in one fell swoop. Since they can defend until now, they are obviously well prepared."
Zhu Yijun suddenly understood, said "Oh" and nodded: "Then what?"
"Since Ye He is relatively well prepared and they know how to deal with the cavalry, they must collect food and fodder for horses in the city to prevent the Tumen from getting it. Now that winter is coming, if even the fodder cannot be guaranteed
, how can the supplies of Tumen’s army be sufficient?”
Zhu Yijun was a little surprised and asked: "Can't horses also eat grass? Oh, I know it's winter, but can we still get some hay?"
Gao Pragmatic smiled bitterly and said: "If the number of horses is small, it is not impossible to eat grass or hay, but there are some things to pay attention to here. First, the so-called hay is actually green grass, which needs to be made through some processing methods, and it is
There are requirements for the type of grass, and it does not refer to those naturally withered and yellow wild grasses in the wild. Even if the Mongolian horse has low requirements and can eat some natural withered grasses, it is impossible to eat all of them.
Secondly, even if it is green storage fodder, its caloric content...oh, I mean what is needed to fill the stomach, is more than that of concentrated fodder, and feeding takes much longer. Overall, it is very unfavorable for wartime
Therefore, once the Tumen are short of food, they have no choice but to retreat, otherwise their weaknesses will be magnified and create opportunities for our heavenly soldiers to defeat the enemy."
Zhu Yijun nodded repeatedly, clapped his hands and praised: "It is indeed a blessing to seek truth and win every battle. Such trivial matters can be treasured by many families. This is my great fortune." Gao Pragmatic even said that he did not dare to take it seriously.
In fact, the lower-ranking officers master these "trivial details" more carefully. It is indeed very common for top-level decision-makers like Gao Pangshi not to understand enough or ignore them at will. Of course, if famous generals like Qi Jiguang are here at this moment, they
They certainly wouldn't ignore it. But even if they said it, the emperor probably wouldn't be so amazed - after all, leading troops is their profession, and the highly pragmatic "profession" is studying and governing.
Zhu Yijun finally felt that his own side did not have all the disadvantages, but his opponents also had many disadvantages, so he changed the topic back and asked: "In this case, what are your plans for seeking truth?"
Gao pragmatically said: "Considering that the cost must be controlled as much as possible, the troops sent this time should be more expensive than large ones, and in terms of combat, the peace should be valued rather than strong ones. I think that I can order Cao Yu to select and deploy elites so as not to exceed
With a limit of 20,000 troops, we will leave Zhenbeiguan and slowly approach the east and west cities of Yehe."
"Since winter has already entered, why do we have to delay the battle outside the border?" Wang Xijue suddenly couldn't help but interjected and asked: "Although Tumen's army has hidden concerns about food and fodder, they are barbarians and their cold resistance is not inferior to our army.
.If we delay in taking it and our army is left alone outside the fortress, won’t the cost also increase? Besides, in wild battles, the Mongols have always had the upper hand..."
Gao Pragmatic remained silent as a civil servant, intending to wait for Wang Xijue to finish speaking before answering. Unexpectedly, Zhu Yijun couldn't help it and interrupted: "Did Mr. Wang not read the newspaper when he was worried? Monan, Liaonan, Northwest
In the three battles, Qiuzhen defeated the Mongolian cavalry in the wild. How can we say that the Mongols have always been superior in wild battles?"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Wang Xijue then remembered that Gao Pragmatic has always been an exception in the "Mongolians have the upper hand in wild battles", and couldn't help but blush. However, his reaction was very
Quickly, he immediately said: "Your Majesty is right to blame you, but I only read the newspaper in the palace, and what I just said was based on the three battles of Monan, Liaonan and Northwest."
Zhu Yijun frowned and said, "How do you say this?"
Wang Xijue replied: "Back to the emperor, these three battles were all commanded by Gao Situ, which led to a great victory for our army. But how many Gao Situ are there in the world? How capable is Cao Yu compared to Gao Situ?"
This was somewhat sophistry, but Zhu Yijun was surprised and secretly said: Yes, being able to win by seeking truth does not mean that anyone can win. In addition to seeking truth, the Mongols can still be defeated in a field battle.
There aren't many left.
When he thought about it, he hesitated even more, because he remembered that Cao Yun was convicted because he was ambushed while chasing the Mongols, resulting in heavy losses.
At this time, the emperor couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. He moved his buttocks and asked Gao pragmatically: "Uh, to be honest, do you think Cao Yun... can take on such an important task?"
Gao pragmatic thought for a while and said: "The reason why Cao Yun was ambushed at Chang'an Fort last time is that although Cao Yun himself had improper command, the governor's urging him to defeat the enemy within a time limit was also one of the reasons. According to what I saw when I was in Liaodong
, Cao Yun is a man who dares to fight and fight hard, so he can be called a brave general. As for the shortcomings of his wisdom and planning, it is not inexplicable."
Zhu Yijun said: "How to solve it?"
Gao pragmatic hesitated for a moment, but finally said: "I have the grace to rescue him. If I come here, I would like to send you a letter and give you some instructions about the military affairs. He will not turn a blind eye."
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friend "o Shangshu Ling" for your monthly ticket support, thank you!
