Chapter 276: Fa Yuan (Thirty-Five) and the Dangerous Order
Napoleon once said: "Never do what your enemy wants you to do. The reason is very simple, because the enemy wants you to do this." But Burihatu understood this truth without Napoleon's guidance.
Since he judged that Gao Pragmatic hoped that he would think that he was in a hurry, it meant that he could not use the premise that "Gao Rixin was very anxious" to guide his actions. However, Burihatu did not have any idea about Gao Pragmatic's ultimate intention at the moment.
Pass.
The two sides on the battlefield do not see each other clearly, otherwise the art of war would not regard "knowing yourself and the enemy" as the prerequisite for victory in every battle.
There have been almost no large-scale battles in this battle so far, but there have been several back-and-forth confrontations, and nearly two months have passed. It is difficult to say that there are not some strange things. Just as Gao Gao
Just as Pangshi's judgment on Chahar's strategic intentions is still uncertain, Burihatu now also has some doubts about Gao Pragmatism.
In fact, it is difficult to judge the strategy of nomadic tribes. The strategic intentions of farming peoples in foreign wars are very obvious, and generally speaking, it is unlikely to have any obvious changes. Of course, Burihatu knew this, so his previous
The plans were all executed well, especially the move of Jin Chan escaping from his shell, which was regarded as Chahar's biggest tactical victory since the fight against Gao Pragmatic.
The previous incident that stirred up the wind and clouds in the northwest was considered a big start for Burihatu. However, because after Gao Pragmatic's intervention, the situation in the northwest was quickly reversed by the Ming Dynasty, Burihatu did not take full credit for the whole incident.
Things seemed to be a bit disappointing.
Of course, that operation gave Chahar at least one year of preparation period for fighting. This is recognized by the Chahar Khan Court and is also an important basis for Burihatu's current status. From this aspect,
, Burihatu’s efforts were not in vain.
But no matter what, it is better to turn the tide for one's own family than to mess up other families. Tumen entrusted the Nine White Silk to Burihatu outside Shacheng. It happened after the golden cicada's escape plan was successful. The reason is self-evident.
Since then, he has taken the initiative to invite Ying to come to Buyantaiji. This is not only a gesture to Tumen, Buyan and his son, but also means that he has to take on greater and more direct responsibilities. He will no longer just
He was only a nominal ruler and an actual military advisor, but a future Mongolian Grand Master who had "custodial rights" of Buyantaiji to some extent.
In other words, this time Buyantaiji divided his troops. In name, Buyantaiji was the commander, but in fact it was Buyantaiji who really spoke. This arrangement is somewhat similar to the way that during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the prince was often the commander-in-chief of the march.
, but the actual person in charge is the deputy marching commander next to the prince.
Since it was the first time he directly took control of the military in Chahar, and he was facing a powerful and difficult opponent like Gao Pangshi, the "first literary commander in the Ming Dynasty", Burihatu had to examine every detail in place and consider every detail.
A possible danger is nipped in the bud.
Different from Gao Jingshi's self-examination, in Burihatu's eyes, Gao Jingshi's advantage at this moment is completely overwhelming. The 600,000 troops in his hands are undoubtedly the most elite field army in the Ming Dynasty, at least occupying the entire Ming Dynasty.
Fifty-fourths (four-fifths) of the total force that completed the previous round of military reform and changed equipment.
Although Burihatu expected that the 600,000-strong army would not be able to maintain its march out for a long time, it was not only the cold winter in Mongolia, but also the high military expenditure of the Ming army.
Burihatu admitted that his ability to manage the country's finances in a pragmatic manner was indeed unprecedented, but in any case it was impossible to maintain an army of 600,000 in a state of war abroad for a long time. In addition to the normal expenses of food and grass and huge transportation losses,
Another simplest principle is "military pay during wartime".
The army's military pay in war has always been different from that in peacetime. When sending troops to war, they must be paid according to the highest standard. How much does war cost? In the "Three Great Expeditions of Wanli" in original history, although the Ming army
The number of troops sent was not large, but the campaign to aid Korea alone cost 7 million taels, and the campaign in Ningxia cost 2 million taels. These were costs that were simply unimaginable in the early Ming Dynasty.
However, even if the three major campaigns of Wanli in history were tied together, they would not have as many troops as this time. Even though his wars have always been faster and rarely lasted for years, it is conceivable that such a huge force was dispatched.
And the cost may be tens of millions.
Of course, since a lot of military supplies have been slowly accumulated over the past few years, it does not mean that the Ministry of Finance has to spend these tens of millions of taels of silver all at once. It is equivalent to Gao Pragmatic making installment payments in advance.
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However, Burihatu did not fully understand Gao Pragmatic's financial methods, and he did not understand some things. In addition to "early installments", Gao Pragmatic actually also had "pay first and settle later" installments - Ming Fed
Small banknotes.
After Gao pragmatically gathered financial power and established the Ministry of Accounts, he persuaded the court to agree that these small-denomination banknotes from the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve could be used to pay taxes throughout the world. Therefore, the small-denomination banknotes from the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve actually had the function of legal banknotes.
Moreover, this paper currency is not the "anchor-free currency" that the global currency gradually evolved after the disintegration of the Bretton Woods system in later generations. The small-denomination bank notes of the Federal Reserve are anchored currencies, and what they are anchored to is silver - you take the small
If you go to the Federal Reserve Bank of China to show the amount of the banknote, you can definitely exchange it for Kuping silver according to the face value.
When the national sovereign credit did not reach the level of later generations, only the credibility of this anchor currency was guaranteed, avoiding the original trend of the Ming Dynasty that the treasure banknotes depreciated all the way until they became waste paper.
Since the banknote itself has value, it also has a reserve attribute. This means: since the credibility of the banknote is guaranteed, I can just keep the banknote with me as a savings for emergencies, or deposit it in a bank.
It’s okay, in short, you don’t have to get it and spend it right away.
In this way, assuming that Gao Pragmatic issued a small amount of five million taels of silver notes for this battle as military pay for the various troops participating in the war, and half of the face value was stored, then the impact on the market would be only
Two and a half million taels is acceptable. Even if it causes a certain degree of inflation, the intensity will be relatively limited.
Even if the remaining 2.5 million taels will be slowly released, it will no longer have any impact on a market as large as Ming Dynasty. Therefore, time and scale will directly dissipate the economic impact of this war, and the country
There will be no turmoil as a result.
Even to a certain extent, if this money is distributed, for example, 2.5 million taels will enter the market, it will have a positive effect on economic development - if you, a soldier, come back from the war with money, you will naturally
If people go to consume, then the people selling things will make money. They will either buy other things, or continue to invest, expand production or trade scale, in short, it will ultimately promote economic prosperity. In the north, where a wholesale business tax has been introduced, the economy
Prosperity also means that the court can take back some of it.
The above is easy to understand for future generations, but for the "ancients", even smart people like Burihatu, it is not so easy to understand. After all, a long-standing thinking deviation in ancient society is to regard "the world's wealth" as
Seen as a constant value, if it is in the hands of the imperial court, the people will be in embarrassment, and if it is in the hands of the people, the imperial court will be in embarrassment. This is also the basis of the so-called "not competing with the people for profit."
Of course Gao Pragmatic does not believe in this backward thinking. Wealth is created. In this era, there is no ghost called the "world financial capitalist class" in the world, so insufficient wealth only means insufficient production and insufficient trade.
The only way is to increase production and increase trade, that's all.
Production in the Ming Dynasty is definitely increasing year by year, and trade is also gradually increasing, so a certain amount of inflation is actually beneficial. What is really bad is that deflation occurs like in the original history, which is the so-called money shortage, which will instead
This resulted in insufficient production and shrinking trade, which in turn forced some people to seek medical treatment urgently and break the law to engage in some strictly prohibited transactions with the Mongols and Jurchens.
So in the final analysis, Burihatu believes that the high pragmatic urgency is likely to come from financial pressure rather than military pressure. This is actually a miscalculation.
On the contrary, Gao Pragmatic's "eagerness" really stems more from military pressure. This pressure is largely due to the fact that he has too high demands for the political goals that need to be achieved in this war - to completely eliminate the remaining Yuan and ensure that the North
The border areas were stabilized for a long time and became the Ming Dynasty's military horse farm in order to cope with the inevitable expansion of Tsarist Russia to the east in the future.
The main force in Tsarist Russia's eastward expansion in the early days was always Cossacks, which led Gao to pay much more attention to the cavalry. When he discovered that the Ming Dynasty's cavalry companies were unable to annihilate the Mongols who had been blocked for two hundred years,
Of course, it is natural to think about what will happen when facing the Cossacks in the future - then you must not be beaten?
Because of the nature of his work in his previous life, Gao Pragmatic read "The Quiet Don" by Soviet writer Sholokhov carefully. The heroic image of the protagonist Gregory was as deep in Gao Pragmatic's mind as a saber.
This book mainly writes about the history of the Cossacks on the Don River in Russia in the first 20 years of the 20th century. The author uses his wonderful pen to paint a vivid picture of the magnificent war history of this period. In fact, the real Cossack history is probably better than the literature.
The works are more colorful.
In Gao Pragmatic's view, they were born specifically for the wars of this era. A history of the Cossacks is most of the history of Russia. From the day they were born, they were given the important task of opening up territory for Tsarist Russia.
As for later generations, most of Russia's territory was actually captured by them with the help of the young father of the Czar at that time.
Gao Pragmatic is still somewhat confused about the future direction of the Ming Dynasty, or the future direction of Chinese civilization. However, the expansion of the Ming Dynasty from north to west by land is basically his main idea.
Since we want to go north and west, conquering and assimilating Mongolia is just the first step. The main "BOSS" in the later period must be Tsarist Russia and the Cossacks. If you can't defeat the Cossacks, no matter what long-term plan you have, you are doomed to fail.
In fact, many people in later generations did not have a deep understanding of Cossacks. They probably only had a few labeled images in their minds: fierce, saber, and Don hippopotamus; manic, good at drinking, and stupid in battle.
In fact, some of the previous labels applied to Cossacks are pretty much the same. The only strange thing is that they are "combat stupid". It seems that when mentioning Cossacks, one can only think of the 100,000 Cossacks who could not defeat only 8,000 Japanese soldiers during the Russo-Japanese War. It seems that the Cossacks are stupid.
To use cavalry to attack the Japanese trenches with machine guns is simply stupid and self-destructive.
But the fact is that the main responsibility lies with the commander who is too stupid, and his commanding art has completely failed to keep up with the times! Look at the early days of the founding of Soviet Russia, what was the status of the Cossack cavalry in the Soviet army at that time, and what was its record? That was the Soviet Cavalry Guards
Such a general existence that at that time the Soviet cavalry units were proud of the number of Cossacks in their own army. It was not until they were replaced by armored units that their glory ended.
The wild Cossack cavalry has always been an important pillar of the Tsar's Russian armed forces, known as the "Tsar's Horsewhip." In hundreds of years of history, the Cossack cavalry played an important role in every foreign campaign of the Tsar. From the conquest of Kazakhstan
From the Shan Khanate to the Eastern Conquest of Siberia, from the bloody battle against the Ottoman Empire to the struggle for hegemony on the European battlefield, the Cossack cavalry played a decisive role.
During the Seven Years' War, the Prussian army, which was invincible due to its "oblique attack" tactics, was swept away by the Cossack cavalry. The Russian army occupied Berlin in one fell swoop, forcing the powerful Emperor Frederick II to almost commit suicide. The Cossacks became a powerful force in Europe from then on.
After the Battle of Borodino in 1812, Napoleon, who experienced the power of the Cossack cavalry, sighed: "If my army has these Cossacks, it will be rampant in the world!"
Tolstoy even had a famous saying to describe the Cossacks: "The Cossacks are not cowards, they are born warriors!"
It's outrageous that such an awesome cavalry would later become synonymous with "stupid".
What's more, even though there is still a certain amount of preparation time for the war with the Cossack cavalry, Gao Wushi now thinks of the decisive role of the cavalry in the war to aid Korea that is likely to be imminent.
In fact, in Japanese history, cavalry has often been seen in wars. In the late Warring States period of Japan decades ago, the Takeda family's cavalry was said to have reached the scale of thousands of horsemen. Before Oda Nobunaga used iron cannons on a large scale,
Takeda Shingen's cavalry traveled across Japan and had almost no opponents.
However, the Japanese cavalry can only be fierce on the island, and they are vulnerable to the cavalry on the mainland. In the Imjin War when Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea, the Japanese cavalry was no match for the Liaodong cavalry of the Ming Dynasty's frontier army. Its size was
Both horses and tactics were at a disadvantage, and they did almost nothing in the entire war. Li Rusong defeated the whole battle from beginning to end.
The reason why the Japanese cavalry is weak is that its scale is poor and its horses are short. As an island country, Japan has a small territory and limited resources. A cavalry battle with a thousand cavalry is already the most spectacular war scene in Japan, and the Japanese cavalry is not good at large group battles.
Instead, he is obsessed with "Yi Qi Bei".
Japan's native horse breed, the "Jairai Horse", is a Mongolian horse imported from China. It is already short in stature, and has been further degraded in the environment of the island country. It is only 1.3 meters tall at the shoulder, has little strength, slow speed, and poor power.
What about the Don horses and Orlov horses of the Cossack cavalry? Their shoulder height is about 1.5 to 1.6 meters, and their speed and strength are much better than the Japanese horses. The combat mode of the Cossack cavalry is usually to use tens of thousands of horses on a wide front.
Even launching an overwhelming assault with more than 100,000 horsemen is something that Japan simply cannot imagine.
The advantages must be continuously strengthened, and the disadvantages must be made up as soon as possible. Anyone with a vision and the ability to be responsible for the strategic level will consider this, and Gao Pragmatism is no exception.
In his opinion, it is imperative to clean up the remaining elements as soon as possible, re-examine the development direction of the cavalry, and determine a new idea. At the same time, this will also help to defeat Japan faster in the upcoming war to aid Korea.
, preserve the vitality of the Ming Dynasty, especially the Liaodong frontier army, and curb the rise of the Jurchens.
It's just that the Mongols' current movements are suspicious. If some conditions are not created to tempt them to take the bait, even if the main force of the Ming army comes out this time, they may not be able to complete the mission, so they have to take risks. Who knows that Burihatu can't judge his true intention?
Unexpectedly, he refused to take the bait. After much deliberation, he finally decided to take the pragmatic approach and issued four orders:
Expand the scope of the Mongolian army's reconnaissance to three hundred miles to ensure that you are always aware of whether other Ming troops are approaching; closely monitor the movements of Gao Pragmatic's headquarters to prevent it from suddenly making unexpected new moves; send someone to report Gao Pragmatic to Tumen Khan
The headquarters is abnormal, but the messengers are not allowed to give any hint to the Khan; Buyantaiji's headquarters retains physical strength and horsepower, and always maintains a distance of 150 miles from Gao Pragmatic's headquarters, that is, fully maintaining "the ability to move"
"Go, fight if you want and be able to fight".
At the same time, many generals in the Ming army believed that narrowing the scope of horse detection would bring serious threats to their own side. It is very likely that the early warning would not be timely, and they would be suddenly killed by the Mongols without having time to put on their armor.
They strongly recommended that the platform immediately restore the horse detection distance, otherwise they can only keep marching in armor - which is actually basically impossible, consuming both horse power and human energy. Moreover, once detected by the Mongolian horse detection, it will inevitably attract the enemy
Be vigilant and expose your high pragmatic intentions.
Danger is definitely dangerous, but being pragmatic right now means taking risks. If you pretend to be untrue, you might as well not pretend at all. At this moment, he remembered Herodotus's famous saying: Great deeds are achieved by taking risks.
After eating some cold dry food for lunch that day, Gao pragmatically called the last batch of returning emissaries over to ask for some key information. He then gestured on the map by himself for a long time, and then called all the eight guerrilla generals over for a lecture.
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"Keep a distance of a hundred miles to explore a horse, keep a distance of a hundred miles a day, keep the goal of naturalization." Gao Pingshi didn't have any explanation. He put on the only scarlet silk in his army and sat on a python, looking around proudly at the generals.
He reiterated the military order with a cold face: "Anyone who wavers again will be punished for disturbing the morale of the army... and he will be executed without mercy!"
The generals sternly alerted themselves, and the whole place fell into silence immediately, with no one daring to discuss it further.
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