When the emperor's imperial edict was urgently issued to Guangxi, Gao Pangshi had just had a serious talk with Zhang Ren, the governor of Guangxi.
Zhang Ren's poison has been basically eliminated, but he was too poisoned before and almost died of illness, so he is still very weak until now. He should not have left Guilin so easily.
However, the fact that Gao pragmatically wanted to conquer Annan still made him break out in a cold sweat. He ignored Miss Ali's warning that he should not work too hard and rushed to Nanning to meet Gao pragmatically in person.
Gao Pangshi was surprised by his visit. After talking with him, he found out that Zhang Ren came because he was worried.
He was not very worried that Mo Chao could invade Guangxi, but he was worried that Gao Pragmatic was "raising an army out of anger" and underestimated Annan's complexity, resulting in heavy losses.
Zhang Ren asked Gao Pingshi if he knew that Zhang Jing, a famous official during the Jiajing period and the former governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, had received the request made by Emperor Jiajing when he wanted to conquer Annan.
Of course Gao pragmatic knew that although his plan for Annan only lasted a few months in total, he still did a lot of homework in these few months and did not change his usual "over-calculating" style.
Zhang Jing's report to Jiajing at that time said that attacking Annan was very troublesome. "There are six ways to advance troops in Annan. Three hundred thousand soldiers should be used, one-year salary should be 1.6 million, build boats, market horses, make weapons, and reward."
The military expenses will be more than 700,000 yuan. If I mobilize the masses and cross the sea of flames, and they are working and resting in different situations, we must not fail to judge and punish them."
What does it mean? There are six ways to attack Annan, but it requires the mobilization of an army of 300,000 people, and the annual military expenditure is 1.6 million taels, plus shipbuilding, buying horses, forging weapons and rewarding the army, and additional
It's more than 700,000 taels. Added together, it would cost 2.3 million taels of silver a year.
Moreover, when fighting Annan, the opponent is waiting for work. We are at a huge disadvantage and must pay attention to it.
The last one can be ignored for the time being, because during the time between the memorial and the imperial edict, the Mo Dynasty had mobilized its army to the south, and the war with the Li Dynasty was about to start. The idea of leisure waiting for work no longer exists. At most, there are host and guest soldiers.
difference.
However, Gao Pragmatic has different opinions on the previous ones, especially the various figures mentioned by Zhang Jing.
First of all, it is said that three hundred thousand troops are needed to defeat Annan. This is a typical style of fighting with the mentality of a celestial dynasty. It is just like when Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty conquered Goryeo. Did he really need a million troops to fight Goryeo? Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, destroyed Goryeo.
Did they send millions of troops?
It is not necessary at all. In fact, whether it is an army of one million or an army of 300,000, it is largely for the sake of style - the style of the Celestial Kingdom.
Look at our country, it’s awesome. We can easily have an army of hundreds of thousands, overwhelming the sky and overwhelming momentum. Isn’t it just a joke to deal with these small countries like you? So it’s actually more of a matter of face.
, rather than actual needs.
Of course, the troops that Zhang Jing could mobilize at that time were mainly guard soldiers. The combat effectiveness of the guard soldiers... was probably mainly to gather the number of people to make the army look more unstoppable. When the real war started, he still relied on his servants and his squad.
The army relies on chieftains three times.
However, according to the proportion, the total number of servants of each general does not exceed 20,000, the squad army is about 20,000 to 30,000, and the chieftain who can mobilize for Zhang Jing at that time is only 20,000 to 30,000 (in the middle of Jiajing period, the high-level officials of the imperial court were very worried about the chieftain's wolf soldiers.
Its loyalty and combat effectiveness are questionable, so it is not used much).
Calculated in this way, among the 300,000 troops mentioned by Zhang Jing, the number that can be truly considered to be combat effective is only 70,000 to 80,000 people. The rest of the troops are nothing but a waste of food, pay, and a waste of transportation capacity.
practical significance.
Now that Gao Wuchen has obtained the absolute support of the Cen and Huang families, and promised them heavy profits, generous remuneration, and logistical support, the chieftains of western and southern Guangxi can attack with all their strength, and it is not a problem to mobilize 50,000 elite wolf soldiers.
The five thousand servants mobilized by Gao Jingshi are also in place. To some extent, these five thousand servants are the "test troops" created by Qi Jiguang, Liu Xian and others with Gao Jingshi's money and efforts - the main test direction is
A higher proportion of firearms than Qi Jiajun.
Although Gao Pragmatic has always had doubts about his commanding ability, he has no doubt about Qi Jiguang's ability to train troops. He feels that the combat effectiveness of this retainer group is reliable. As long as he does not command blindly, there should not be any big defeats.
Case.
As for the so-called blind commanders, Gao Qingshi believes that the biggest blind commander is his love of dividing his troops.
Love to divide the troops is really a chronic disease of the Ming Dynasty. In the Battle of Sarhu in history, although the Eight Banners soldiers in Jianzhou were at their peak moment, if the Ming army did not divide the troops randomly, they would actually be able to fight - Liu Wei's troops alone
It almost broke the teeth of the Eight Banners, and at that time Liu Wei did not wait for the Sichuan soldiers he was used to leading, but went out with the troops allocated to him by the imperial court.
It can be seen that the division of troops is indeed a taboo that Taizu of the Red Dynasty has emphasized countless times. On the contrary, it is Nurhachi’s "No matter how many ways you come, I will only go all the way" style of play, which is different from Taizu of the Red Dynasty's "concentrate the troops, each
"Break" is the same idea.
Therefore, in terms of military strength, Gao Pragmatic feels that what he has now is enough, and there is no need for an army of 300,000 troops. Although he has money, he dare not say that he can support an army of 300,000 troops for an expedition.
Since money was mentioned, Gao Pragmatic discussed it carefully with Zhang Ren. Generally speaking, he believed that there were problems with the financial account calculated by Zhang Jing. At least compared with the situation he was facing now, it was
Totally inconsistent.
First of all, the first point is that the 300,000-strong army is gone, and only 50,000-60,000 troops are left to support. This needs no explanation.
Then, among the 50,000 to 60,000 troops, the chieftains and wolf soldiers are not paid. Only the highly pragmatic servants are paid, and the pay standards are relatively high. However, the highly pragmatic servants are also paid in peacetime, and only part of the increase is raised during wartime.
, coupled with the rewards after winning, even if the final total is doubled, it will not have much impact on Gao Pragmatism.
The current regular salary of the servants of the Gao family is four taels a month, which is a typical high salary. If the silver reward is included, the total final expenses will be doubled, which is eight taels. How much is it a month? Forty thousand taels.
Is it low? It's definitely not low. It's quite high. It's close to 500,000 taels a year. But in fact, the increase is only more than 200,000 taels. How can he, being so pragmatic, not be able to even out this little money?
Therefore, the monthly expenses calculated by Gao pragmatically amounted to a hundred thousand taels. Even if the battle was fierce and the losses were relatively large, if he had calculated an additional 50,000 taels, it would still only be 150,000. He could still support it - he was far away from
It has only been more than half a year since he left office, but he never thought that this battle would last for more than a year. He wanted to fight quickly, so the military pay must be enough, and it will not even hinder Jinghua. What is great is Jinghua.
Just pause expansion during the war.
As for the other 700,000 taels in Zhang Jing's account, Gao Pragmatic simply ignored it - he had ships, horses, weapons, and rewards...the money had just been calculated.
It’s part of the military pay.
Zhang Ren was a little stunned after listening to Gao Jingshi's analysis. Why did the imperial court need so much expenditure to attack Annan, but Gao Jingshi came to fight and it was so much less?
But he couldn't say that the highly pragmatic analysis was unreasonable, because the calculation was very clear. The only question was whether the 50,000 to 60,000 people were really enough.
After all, Zhang Ren and Liu Yao's previous plan to attack Bazhai was to encircle and suppress the enemy with a large army, rather than to attack with elite troops like Gao Wusheng was doing now, so he was still a little doubtful for a while.
In his mind, an army of 300,000 naturally sounded more awesome...
Gao pragmatic smiled and said nothing. He knew that the ideas of Zhang Ren and others were outdated a long time ago. Just look at Qi Jiguang and he knew that now is not the time to engage in human sea tactics. When the human sea tactics showed their power again, they had already entered the industrialized world.
The production period, and now, is the period of elite combat. Just like those European colonists, a few hundred people can destroy a big country (such as Spain destroying the Aztecs, of course, there are unexpected factors and Spain has indigenous allies), so now
We have begun to enter the era of quality.
Zhang Ren failed to convince Gao Jingshi in the end, so he could only sigh and wish Gao Jingshi good luck.