Chapter 283 Zheng Guoben (38) is treacherous and shameless
Generally speaking, it is easy for civilian officials to cause trouble for military generals, but it is difficult for military generals to cause trouble for civilian officials. However, that is a general situation. Now that there are hints of high pragmatism, the situation is naturally different.
The unusualness is reflected in two points: First, Liu Wei's quarrel with Xu Sanwei is just superficial. In essence, Gao Pragmatic is quarreling with Xu Sanwei. Then this is no longer the military general's quarrel with the civil servants, but the civil servants.
Finding trouble with civil servants, and moreover, it is important cabinet ministers making trouble with ordinary border ministers. The gap between the two cannot be calculated.
Second, the current situation is unusual. What is the current situation? There is a war in Gansu, Xu Sanwei has the responsibility to defend the territory, and Liu Wei is ordered to aid Gansu. So in this case, Xu Sanwei is undoubtedly facing huge internal political pressure
and external military pressure. As for Liu Wei, as the chief general of the Western Expedition that has been basically determined, in addition to the current task of aiding Gansu, he is also responsible for the task of making military preparations for the future Western Expedition.
In the former case, after Liu Wei arrived in Gansu, he could find an excuse to go to the court and accuse Gansu of not making any defense preparations before the war, so that the Chahar army led by Burihatu easily captured western Gansu.
Under this situation, as the governor of Gansu, Xu Sanwei either neglected his duties or was incompetent. In a word: you, Xu Fujun, must bear full responsibility for the fall of western Gansu at the hands of thieves.
In the latter case, after Liu Wei arrived in Gansu, in addition to finding ways to repel Chahar and regain western Gansu, he also had to check Gansu's war preparations. That meant that he had to order troops, clear weapons, check accounts, and patrol the borders. Here
There are so many places where you can find problems.
Although Gansu belongs to Jiubian, the pressure it has faced in the past many years has been much lighter than that of Xuanda and Jiliao. On the one hand, this has caused Gansu's war preparations to be less intense than those of the towns surrounding Gyeonggi. On the other hand, it has also caused the imperial court to
Its attention and resource allocation are also insufficient.
Gansu is already barren, and the imperial court favors its resources very little. In addition, it is as far as three thousand miles away from the capital. Therefore, the ills of the towns on the nine sides will only become more serious in Gansu.
The hardships faced by the frontier troops in the nine border towns will only become more difficult in Gansu.
In this case, as long as the court really wants to investigate, there will definitely be a lot of problems to investigate, and there will be no truth that can be found out. Under normal circumstances, of course, the court will not really investigate, after all, under the rule of the two-hundred-year dynasty,
No matter how good it looks on the outside, there will definitely be flaws on the inside. Who is so unwilling to conduct a thorough investigation? If it is found out, everyone will be embarrassed. The key is that you can't solve it, so why did you bother to investigate? Just to offend people.
?
Of course, the imperial court did not absolutely refuse to investigate. In other words, the imperial court always said it wanted to investigate, and would shout at the top of its lungs every now and then. However, there were often only a few who actually "responded to the imperial court's call" to investigate. These few
Most of the several investigations were not done because they really wanted to relieve the imperial court, but because some officials had such needs.
For example, when a censor takes office, one of his responsibilities is to eliminate fraud. No matter what the place, he has to check several frauds to prove that he has no job. This is a hard KPI and must be completed.
As I said a long time ago, although there is a big difference in rank between governors and governors, they are all officials "specially sent by the central government", so many functions actually overlap, but with different emphasis. Therefore, the governor also has the responsibility to eliminate fraud, and it stands to reason that
A border town governor like Xu Sanwei should have found out something and reported it to the cabinet and asked the court to deal with it after he took office.
But here's the problem. Gao Pragmatic asked the Guanzheng Jinshi around him to investigate specifically. Xu Sanwei had been governor of Gansu for three years and had never even mentioned a single issue about various local ills in Gansu. It seemed that the situation in Gansu was very good. What?
There seems to be no problem.
Under Liu Xin's questioning, Gao Jingshi informed her of the situation. This was no longer a hint, but simply an explicit indication of Liu Wei's work direction in the future.
After hearing this, Liu Xin naturally felt confident, but she immediately felt a little embarrassed and hesitated: "Although you will support my brother's impeachment in the court, in the final analysis, this matter is still a military general impeaching a civilian official in the eyes of outsiders.
.According to past practice, even if someone in the center insists on severely punishing this civil servant, the general will still not be able to escape being hit..."
Gao Jingshi knew her worries and comforted her: "You can rest assured about this. I am not the kind of person who abandons his car to protect his commander. Shogo is mainly responsible for finding out the problems in this matter, but he does not have to be responsible for the final impeachment."
Open your mouth, I have other plans."
Liu Xin asked in surprise: "What arrangement?"
"Xiong Tingbi, do you still remember this person?" Gao Pingshi said: "He is one of the Guanzheng Jinshi around me. I have told you about his original... experience in the past."
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"Oh, it's him. I remember this person, but what does this matter have to do with him? He is the Guanzheng Jinshi next to you. It seems that it is not his turn to speak about this matter, right?" Liu Xin asked.
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "Guanzheng Jinshi is naturally not qualified to talk about such a specific matter, but what if I immediately release him to Gansu for inspection?"
Liu Xin was slightly surprised, then couldn't help but laugh and said: "After all, you are the eldest man who is about to be the chief assistant, and the Guanzheng Jinshi next to you can actually be sent out to patrol Gansu?"
"Well, I have to abide by the rules, but it's really easier for me to do formalities like this during my tenure." Gao Pragmatic shrugged and said: "Let him go to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to make a name first, and after a month he will be directly released to Gansu Province for inspection.
That is, I actually took the same route when I went to Guangxi. By the time he arrived in Gansu, your brother had only been there for about ten days and a half, so the two of them could work well together."
"Since you have arranged everything, I will naturally write to my brother immediately to ask him to cooperate." After a pause, Liu Xin hesitated and said: "By the way, in this matter... who is the leader between them?
"
Gao pragmatically said: "I asked Xiong Tingbi to go to Gansu not just for this matter. Do you still remember? I said that Xiong Tingbi is quite insightful on border affairs and even military issues. Moreover, specifically,
I also gave him some advice on this Western Expedition, and he should have understood my general idea."
Liu Xin suddenly said: "So you are saying that apart from the transfer of Xu Sanwei, my brother and Xiong Tingbi were still a pair of partners you had planned in advance during the Western Expedition?"
"Of course!" Gao Pragmatic nodded and admitted, "Xu Sanwei's transfer, Shengwu was responsible for verifying it, and Xiong Tingbi, as the patrol censor, was responsible for impeaching the imperial court; during the Western Expedition, Shengwu was the chief military officer and was specifically responsible for combat affairs.
And Xiong Tingbi will become the supervisor...
But don't worry, although Xiong Tingbi is knowledgeable, he is still a fledgling after all. I will not let him restrict Xingwu's frontline command. His most important job in the position of military supervisor is actually to oversee the stability of the supply line between Li Wen and Xingwu.
In other words, it will provide stable logistics for Shogo’s operations.”
Liu Xin nodded, then smiled and said, "Looking at how much you attach importance to Xiong Tingbi, I think if it weren't for his very junior qualifications, you would really like him to be the governor of Gansu and the governor of Anxi, right?"
Gao pragmatic did not hesitate at all, spread his hands and said: "So what, if he is not a Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli, he has no qualifications at all... As long as he has a few subjects earlier, do you think I dare not let him go?"
?”
Liu Xin was a little surprised and said: "I remember you told me before that he was one of the few capable ministers in the late Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, his fate was not good. He was innocently involved in party strife and ended up being the first person in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
What happened to Bian...but you never told me how capable he is."
"Xiong Tingbi... it's really a pity and pitiful." Gao Pingshi sighed: "You know, before Nurhachi raised his troops, the Ming Dynasty had always used offense as defense against the Jurchens in the Liaodong region, setting up military bases in border areas.
The defense system had a great deterrent effect on the entire Jurchen tribe. However, after the Battle of Sarhu, the situation in Liaodong was completely reversed. Coupled with the fall of Kaiyuan and Tieling, the Ming Dynasty completely lost its dominant position in the Liaodong battlefield.
.
Therefore, the situation Xiong Tingbi faced in Liaodong at that time was very severe. He not only had to collect scattered soldiers to stabilize the morale of the army, but also concentrated troops to ensure that the two towns of Liaoshen and Shenyang were safe. In addition, Xiong Tingbi also encountered a very difficult situation.
——Insufficient military pay.
On the one hand, the imperial court pushed Xiong Tingbi into danger, but at the same time it did not give Xiong enough financial support, which made Xiong very passive during the confrontation with Nurhaci's forces. This was also an important factor in the final fall of Liaoshen.
Of course, from another perspective, Xiong Tingbi was very lucky to take office at that time. Because after Nurha annexed the Yehe tribe, there was no chance to immediately launch a large-scale attack on Liaoshen. This also provided Xiong Tingbi with the opportunity to consolidate Liaoshen.
A great opportunity..."
Liu Xin stretched out her hand and made a pause gesture and said: "Wait a minute, why didn't Nurhaci take advantage of the trend and attack westward to capture Liaoshen after he captured Kaitie and annexed Yehe? Wouldn't this move give the Ming Dynasty the opportunity to deploy defenses in Liaoshen?
The perfect time?"
"The reason for this is actually very simple." Gao Pragmatic explained: "As a hunting nomadic people who are still in a semi-savage state, the war between Jianzhou and Ming Dynasty is just another form of hunting in their eyes.
As a hunt, there will definitely be dividends, not to mention that the Iron Battle is a huge-scale hunt. Therefore, after capturing Kaiyuan, Tieling and Yehe, the various materials captured by Nurhachi must be distributed in time.
into the hands of individuals.
Resource allocation seems simple, but in fact if it is handled slightly carelessly, it may lead to the danger of internal division. Therefore, before the resources have been successfully allocated, even though Nurhachi was already very prestigious at the time, he still had no conditions.
to start the next war.
Secondly, it is actually a difficult problem to completely digest the Ye He tribe. Although Nurhachi had captured Ye He at that time, it would take a certain amount of time to truly win over the hearts of the Ye He clan. And it is the strength of the Ye He tribe that
Nurhaci is quite powerful among the Jurchen tribes, and Nurhachi must convince them as soon as possible. Otherwise, conquering Ye He will not only not be an expansion of power, but may become a time bomb within the Jurchens.
In addition, at that time, both Lin Danhan and Li of the Chahar tribe did not express their submission to Hou Jin. On the contrary, they both stood in the same camp as the Ming Dynasty and jointly opposed Nurhaci. Therefore, Nurhaci also had to strive for a solution to stabilize or at least
Only after confirming their attitude can we launch another attack against Ming Dynasty."
"That's it." Liu Xin nodded and said in a deep voice: "It was indeed a good opportunity, but judging from what happened later, Ming Dynasty did not make good use of this breathing opportunity... Speaking of which, Xiong Tingbi couldn't do it either.
What kind of performance should he have? Why do you look at him so highly?"
"Then you are wrong. Xiong Tingbi did a lot of things at that time." Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "While Nurhaci did not launch a war, Xiong Tingbi immediately set about calming the people and rectifying military discipline, even though he was in the adversity of insufficient military pay.
, but Liaoshen Second Town has gradually become completely new under Xiong Tingbi’s painstaking management.
Strategically, Xiong Tingbi led the Jiliao soldiers to camp step by step, and gradually began to reach out to Kaiyuan and Tieling areas. According to documentary records, this move made Nurhaci restless at the time.
Therefore, in the middle of June of the lunar calendar in the forty-eighth year of Wanli, Hou Jin launched its first attack on Liaoshen. Nurhaci personally led 68,000 banner troops and divided the troops into two groups in an attempt to destroy Xiong Tingbi's strategic layout. Xiong Tingbi took advantage of Hou Jin's risk.
However, with the mentality of underestimating the enemy, he successfully repelled Nurhachi's attack.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! This battle was the first victory for the Ming Dynasty since Nurhaci raised his troops. It greatly boosted the morale of the Ming army, broke the myth of Hou Jin's invincibility, and also provided a great opportunity for Xiong Tingbi himself.
It has been greatly facilitated to carry out further work in Liaodong.
At the same time, this battle also fully proved that Xiong Tingbi's strategy was completely correct. I have always felt that if he is given a certain amount of time and financial support, the recovery of Liaodong will be just around the corner...at least better than Yuan Chonghuan's later so-called "recovering Liaodong in five years"
Ten times more reliable.”
Liu Xin sighed and said: "Every time I hear you talk about these histories, I always feel that the Ming Dynasty had many opportunities to save the defeat, but always failed at critical moments... Do you think this is some kind of
A historical necessity?”
"History is inevitable composed of countless accidents." Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "In a country that is going downhill as a whole, the probability of one or two heroes successfully turning the tide is definitely much smaller than the chance of countless people stepping on the downhill road.
Throttle probability.”
Liu Xin was silent for a moment, and suddenly her eyes were a little confused, and she said: "Then... you must be able to turn the tide now, right? After all, you are different from any hero!"
Gao Pingshi didn't expect that she would be confused about such a thing. He looked at her in surprise, smiled and said, "Of course I am different from those heroes."
When Liu Xin heard this, she breathed a sigh of relief, but Gao pragmatically continued: "I am much more cunning and shameless than those heroes."
"You..." Liu Xin looked at him, dumbfounded for a moment.
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