Chapter 277: Aiding Korea and Fighting the Japanese (9) Suggestions on Appointment
Who is better to choose? To be honest, Gao Pragmatic thinks that whoever he chooses is almost the same, because none of the honorable men currently available have little war experience, let alone naval combat experience. No matter who he chooses, they are still rookies.
Only?
However, the emperor was able to raise this issue not only because of Gao Jingshi's special relationship with him, but probably more because of Gao Jingshi's prestige in the military and his status as the helmsman of the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance.
What does prestige in the military mean? It means that as long as the palace lets out word that it is a highly pragmatic recommendation for someone to serve as the admiral of the Japanese navy to assist Korea, at least there will not be many people in the military who dare to question it.
In addition, it is obvious at first glance that there must be political factors in the appointment of an honorary as an admiral. It is very likely that this admiral is just in name and may not actually command front-line operations.
Therefore, usually when the civil servants and generals in the inner and outer courts see this scene, they will not foolishly start to spray at the beginning. Even if they want to spray, it will only happen after the news of the unfavorable battle situation is transmitted back to the capital.
This, in turn, actually means that Gao Pragmatic can just choose a mascot. It is best not for this mascot to express arbitrary opinions on combat. All operations should be directed by Chen Lin, who is his nominal deputy.
But there is a problem here. According to Gao Pangshi's previous recommendation, he meant to make Chen Lin the navy coach and Deng Zilong his deputy.
If an honorable minister is now appointed as the head coach, and Chen Lin can only be his deputy, what should Deng Zilong do? Arrange a so-called vanguard general for him? This is not possible. The tasks of the vanguard and his deputy are very different.
Moreover, Gao Pingshi wanted to use Chen Lin in this battle, not only because history has proved that Chen Lin is suitable for this position, but also because after he became a cabinet minister, the Practical School was about to fully expand its power in the south. The former
There is no need to explain, and for the latter, if you look back at Chen Lin's first half of his life, you will understand why.
In 1543 AD, which was the 22nd year of Jiajing, Chen Lin was born in Longtianpu, Wengyuan County, Shaozhou, Guangdong. History books record that Chen Lin had great ambitions when he was young, practiced martial arts diligently, and was familiar with the art of war. At this time, the Ming Dynasty was famous all over the country.
Troubles broke out in various places, especially in Guangdong. In addition to being deeply affected by the Japanese pirate rebellion, there were also armed separatist groups formed by local people. It can be said that the situation was extremely complicated.
In the forty-one year of Jiajing, that is, in 1562 AD, a large-scale incident occurred in Lianjiang and Chaozhou areas of Guangdong, led by Zhang Lian and Lin Chaoxi, and the number of participants once reached tens of thousands [Note: This incident is mentioned in the volume of this book
I mentioned it when I wrote about Cao Gan].
When the news reached Beijing, the imperial court was shocked and hurriedly ordered the local officials in Guangdong to put it down as soon as possible. Since there were no people who were good at fighting in the Guangdong government at that time, they posted a list of "Those who are proficient in the art of war will be rewarded by thousands of households". He was only 19 years old at the time.
After Chen Lin saw the announcement, he immediately applied for the army and started his military career.
After the young Chen Lin joined the army, he repeatedly offered suggestions, which gradually stabilized the situation of the Ming army in Guangdong. Historical records record that "Gong (Chen Lin) offered advice to the army and made a fortune. Zhang Gongqi took it and appointed him as the commander-in-chief to lead the military affairs."
Although Mr. Ba was only a seventh-grade military attaché, it was enough to show that Chen Lin had excellent military qualities when he was young.
In October of that year, Chen Lin went out with the army to attack Lin Chaoxi's troops. The bold and careful Chen Lin decided to go to Lin Chaoxi's military camp alone to persuade him to surrender. Chen Lin's courage and resourcefulness can be seen in just one sentence.
In the next two years, Chen Lin successfully put down the rebellion many times, which also enabled him to be promoted to the position of commanding Qianshi of Shaozhou in the 43rd year of Jiajing (1564 AD).
One year later, in the forty-fourth year of Jiajing, another turmoil occurred in Guangdong. The bandit Zhuo Wensheng and others looted Ruyuan, Yingde and other counties and built nests to resist the government. At that time, a Qianshi named Feng was captured, and Zhuo Wensheng He raised the price and asked the government to pay a large ransom.
Just when everyone was at their wits' end, Chen Lin came up with a bold plan. He decided to go to the meeting alone and use himself as a hostage in exchange for Feng Qianshi. After Chen Lin arrived at the enemy's nest single-handedly, he told the bandits that he was the leader of the bandits. Protect Chen Lin, if they let Feng Qianshi stay, they will get more ransom.
Zhuo Wensheng and others who were eager for money actually believed Chen Lin's statement. Chen Lin, who went deep into the enemy's nest, did not panic, but talked and laughed with his guard. After a few days, Chen Lin felt that Feng Qianshi should have been After successfully escaping from danger, he started his escape plan.
He first used gambling tricks to seduce these bandits. At the same time, the bandits also believed that their lair was foolproof, so they relaxed their guard. Chen Lin seized the opportunity and escaped quietly. At this time, Chen Lin not only regained his freedom, but more importantly It was he who already had detailed information about the inside of this group of bandits' lair.
Therefore, after returning, he led the Ming army to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop and captured Zhuo Wensheng alive. For many years thereafter, Chen Lin has been on the front line of fighting the chaos in Guangdong, and has led troops to defeat local bandits many times.
Time came to the first year of Wanli. At that time, Chen Lin relied on his military exploits to be promoted to the governor of Guangdong and became a senior military general. As soon as Chen Lin arrived in office, he organized a campaign to suppress the bandit Deng Shenglong. This was also It was the first military operation that Chen Lin presided over alone in his military career. With his rich military experience, Chen Lin used an ambush arranged in advance to capture Deng Shenglong alive and return with a great victory.
In the second year of Wanli, Chen Lin once again led troops to participate in the combat operation against Zhu Liangbao, a bandit in eastern Guangdong. Zhu Liangbao had been attacked by the court as a bandit as early as the Longqing period, and then chose to surrender to the court and accepted a huge reward.
But what I didn't expect was that it didn't take long for Zhu Liangbao to rebel again and become a bandit. The local Ming army was unable to match them. The eastern Guangdong area once again fell into turmoil. Zhu Liangbao also carried out extensive construction projects and built a city that was easy to defend but difficult to attack. The stronghold was used to fight against the government troops.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! In the spring of that year, Chen Lin volunteered and was willing to lead 3,000 Ming troops to pacify Zhu Liangbao. Yin Zhengmao, who was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi at the time, was overjoyed. In order to ensure the smooth operation of the battle, he even Chen Lin was granted the power to handle the battlefield "at every opportunity and without any compromise", and also promised that if the battle was successful, he would petition the imperial court to promote Chen Lin to the rank of staff general.
Yin Zhengmao was mentioned in the previous article in this book. He was not originally a high-ranking party member (herein referred to as a subordinate or ally of Gao Gongmen), but later because Gao Gong did not shy away from revenge, he recommended him as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and then gradually began to get closer to the high-ranking party.
aside.
This is a bit like Zhang Juzheng's original disciple Liang Menglong. The latter also gradually became the pragmatist school because Gao Gong was fairly appointed without regard to relationships but abilities. He was also a die-hard Gao Party member and was of great help to Gao Pragmatism later on.
Closer to home, in March and April, Chen Lin led his troops outside Chu Liangbao's walled city. He chose to build a tall watchtower first to observe the specific situation in the enemy's nest. At the same time, he ordered the soldiers to prepare a bunch of hay each to fill the enemy's nest.
Silt around the flat.
After fully understanding the enemy's situation, Chen Lin decided to divide his troops into two groups and attack from the north and south. He personally led the army to attack from the north. At the same time, he used the wind direction to decisively launch a fire attack, causing the city that Chu Liangbao thought was unbreakable.
A sea of fire.
In this battle, Chen Lin and his family members alone killed the bandit "Level 224", and Chu Liangbao was also buried in the sea of fire. In order to win this battle, Chen Lin did not remove his armor for a long time.
The hair on the temples is also starting to show gray.
In the third year of Wanli, due to the temporary cessation of war in eastern Guangdong, Yin Zhengmao turned his attention to the Luopang area in western Guangdong. Chen Lin, as a general in the Guangdong area, was naturally transferred to western Guangdong to serve as the guerrilla general in Zhaoqing, Guangdong.
, and later served as Gaozhou Senator-General.
The Luopang area has been an inhabited area of the Yao people since ancient times. In the early years, the imperial court established chieftains to govern the area. However, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the local Yao people rebelled, which caused transportation obstacles in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas. Although they had been cleared before, due to the terrain,
Various reasons such as military strength have never been well resolved.
As the situation in the rest of Guangdong has eased, the imperial court, under the decision-making of Gao Gong, the then chief minister, finally decided to make every effort to solve the problem in the Luopang area.
In the fourth year of Wanli, Ling Yunyi, the newly appointed governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, formulated a battle plan to attack Luopang. He merged the original four generals in Guangdong into two, one to guard Gaozhou and the other to guard Zhaoqing. Chen Lin was responsible for Gaozhou.
military operations in the region.
One year later, in the fifth year of Wanli, the rebellion in the Luopang area was finally put down. After that, the Luopang area was divided into one state and two counties, one of which was Luoding state. Chen Lin was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief because of his meritorious service in quelling the rebellion.
General Dong'an has been stationed in Luoding for several years.
However, in the eleventh year of Wanli, that is, 1583 AD, Chen Lin caused a mutiny among the soldiers because of withholding military pay. Although he was later suppressed by him, he was still impeached by the Guangdong Inspector.
Impeachment always has a miraculous effect. Zhu Yijun dismissed him from office without saying a word. However, taking into account the special nature of Luo Ding, Chen Lin was allowed to serve as a criminal and was fined for half a year, so that he could perform meritorious service. This time, it was Chen Lin who encountered the first obstacle in his official career.
A major blow.
Two years later, in the 13th year of Wanli, Chen Lin chose to resign and live in Luoding. This left him idle for seven years. Until 1592 AD, which was the 20th year of Wanli, Chen Lin's fate changed due to
A major event was changed - aiding Korea and fighting against the Japanese.
In the original history, there were of course historical reasons why Chen Lin, a veteran who had been idle for seven years, was used in this war. The reason was that when the Ming Dynasty heard that Japanese pirates were invading North Korea, they were first worried about their own coastal provinces.
Therefore, all provinces are required to take strict precautions to avoid being invaded by Japanese pirates from the sea, and Guangdong is certainly no exception.
But this led to a problem, that is, the coastal provinces had the advantage of the navy, but it was difficult to mobilize troops to fight abroad because they had to defend their territory. Therefore, the imperial court began to think of ways to use some "retired veteran cadres" and "capital officers" who had made mistakes.
Chen Lin was selected as a coastal general who had "lead leisurely residence" because of his series of military exploits in his early years.
The current situation is not much different from the original history at this point. The imperial court had already made the decision to have the coastal provinces strengthen their defenses before Gao Pragmatic returned to Beijing.
As for Gao Jingshi, the Ministry of War also had no time to conduct remote control, and quickly formulated orders for the provinces according to the requirements of the emperor and the cabinet. Temporary changes in major policies are one of the most taboo things for the central government, so it would not be good to wait for Gao Jingshi to learn the news.
The only way to make this easier was to scratch the surface - so Chen Lin was proposed to be the admiral of the navy.
At this point, let’s look back at Chen Lin’s resume: Whose approval did he rely on to enter the ranks of senior generals? It was Yin Zhengmao, an older generation of ministry-level civil servants who was not from the real school but ended up close to the real school, especially the high party.
.
But obviously, at that time, Chen Lin had not yet made it clear who he would join - or he was not even that important yet. Therefore, he later won a great victory under the command of Ling Yunyi, and was recommended by Ling Yunyi to guard Luoding.
for many years.
Luoding is the place where Ling Yunyi's achievements are displayed the most, and his role as a local military commander must be recognized by him. Therefore, Chen Lin at this time is actually considered Ling Yunyi's person.
But not long after, Ling Yunyi offended Gao Pragmatic, and was used by Gao to establish his power in anger, and was instantly overthrown. At this moment, Chen Lin, the unlucky guy who had just hugged him, was dumbfounded - he was
His death in Luoding was ignored for many years. Later, he caused trouble and withheld military pay, causing a commotion.
No one knows why Chen Lin, who originally did not deduct military pay but was only focused on fighting and meritorious service, "degenerated" at this time, but from normal thinking, it is likely that he hoped to save some money and make some plans to try to change his bad luck.
transport.
It's a pity that as a mere general in Guangdong at that time, he had not yet entered a higher level of vision. In fact, the splash he could make with his little money was too small, and even if he managed it, he could not reach the level of high pragmatism, or even
There is no way for anyone to come forward to Gao Qingjing to plead for him, so money is wasted.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! So Chen Lin became discouraged soon after and simply resigned and stayed at home for seven years. However, Gao Pragmatic actually knew about Chen Lin's situation
.However, politicians cannot do things based on joy and anger. Even if Gao Pragmatic knew that Chen Lin's misfortune was purely caused by Ling Yunyi's incident, he would not take the initiative to jump out and give Chen Lin a hand. Otherwise, where would his majesty in the officialdom be? -
—Unless Chen Lin also has a sister named Chen Xin or something...
Seven years have passed since that incident, and the limelight can be said to be over now. Moreover, there is no need to worry about Gao Pragmatic's current majesty. With the power of destroying the Yuan Dynasty in hand, Gao Pragmatic is in the limelight at both the court and the public, both inside and outside the court.
, there is no obstacle to reactivating Chen Lin.
Today's Ming Dynasty is stronger than the Ming Dynasty in the original history, and Chen Lin offered to borrow Jinghua's power. This shows two things: first, Chen Lin's thinking is still clear, and he can see the gap in power balance at a glance and knows how to win;
He was using this as a pretext for trading with Gao Jingshi. In fact, he made it clear that he wanted to join Gao Jingshi.
Borrowing my power from Jinghua, how dare you not share the credit with me afterwards? No matter whether Gao Jing really doesn't care about the credit, at least this must be Chen Lin's attitude.
As a local senior general in Guangdong, it is obviously meaningful for Chen Lin to join Gao Pragmatic's command. Therefore, Gao Pragmatic, in turn, must ensure Chen Lin's status in this battle. It cannot be because of the addition of an additional military minister.
Admiral, it weakens Chen Lin's own merits.
As noble as the military officials are, the credit itself doesn't mean much to them, so why not give it to someone with more valuable credit?
Gao Jingshi pondered for a long time and finally said: "Your Majesty, I suggest that Cheng Guogong be appointed as the admiral of the navy, Chen Lin be appointed as the commander of the Eastern Expedition Fleet, and Deng Zilong be appointed as the deputy commander of the Eastern Expedition Fleet."
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