Chapter 110 Five Provinces and 200,000 Allied Forces Will Suppress
Five years.
Since the first year of Chongzhen, Gao Yingxiang, who calls himself King Chuang, has been wreaking havoc on the Central Plains for five years.
They fought thousands of miles back and forth in Shan, Shaanxi, Henan and other provinces, conquered dozens of large and small cities, killed countless officials, gentry and clans, and kidnapped countless good people.
In August of this year, the bandit army led by Gao Yingxiang broke into pieces, sneaked into the Taihang Mountains, and then suddenly broke out, attacked Jiyuan, Qinghua, Xiuwu, surrounded Huaiqing, sneaked into the Xishan Mountains, attacked Shunde, Zhending, and invaded the capital.
If it hadn't been for the famous prefect Lu Xiangsheng leading an army to fight back, I'm afraid it would have caused a shock in the capital.
Because of this.
This cancer that is so stubborn, cunning and extremely destructive cannot be tolerated any longer.
So starting from September 10th.
Chongzhen held a military meeting in Wuying Hall for many days, convening cabinet bachelors Zhou Yanru, Wen Tiren, Wu Zongda, Zheng Yiwei, Xu Guangqi, the new Minister of War Zhang Fengyi, the new Minister of Hubu Hou Xun (Bi Ziyan has been dismissed from office and imprisoned), and some military honors
The military generals and others discussed the major political strategies for annihilating the bandits.
Most of the ministers convened by Chongzhen are quite talented. They are by no means mediocre and incompetent. They can all be called dragons and phoenixes among men. They are the top elites of the Ming Dynasty. They can completely refute those opinions that Chongzhen cannot use people.
For example, Xu Guangqi was the first person in the Ming Dynasty to open his eyes to the world. He keenly discovered that the Ming Dynasty had obviously lagged behind the West in terms of mathematics, astronomy, calendar, physics, military, etc., so he studied under the missionary Matteo Ricci and wrote "Chongzhen"
"Almanac", which introduced the concept of a round earth and introduced the concepts of longitude and latitude. He devoted his life to the research of science and technology and wrote diligently. He was an active promoter of introducing and absorbing Western science and technology, and provided the basis for the Eastern and Western sciences in the seventeenth century.
Cultural exchanges have made important contributions.
In terms of agronomy, drought-tolerant crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes have been actively introduced. After the emergence of various high-yielding crops in Xujiazhuang, Xujiazhuang improved varieties have been targeted as the key introduction target, and very good results have been achieved.
He also compiled scientific masterpieces such as "The Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs", "Miscellaneous Agricultural Relics", "Drafts of Agricultural Books", "Taiwan Water Law", etc. He is definitely the greatest scientist of this era.
In terms of military affairs, Xu Guangqi paid special attention to the manufacture of artillery. He made many suggestions and kept improving, hoping to introduce artillery manufacturing technology. He wrote "Hundred-Character Selection and Training Rules", "Selection and Training Rules", "Learning Rules" and "Shuwu Rules"
Various regulations and codes such as "Gate", "Forms of Form and Name", "Synopsis of Fire Attack", "Gunpowder Production Law", etc. are the earlier batch of regulations and codes.
Astronomer, agriculturist, scientist, military expert, so many labels are concentrated in one person. Such encyclopedia-like wizards can only be found in China's five thousand years of history.
It was precisely because of his outstanding talent that he was reused by Chongzhen, so Xu Guangqi entered the cabinet and became one of the five bachelors.
There is also the new Minister of War, Zhang Fengyi. There seems to be nothing extraordinary about this person. In the normal historical timeline, Zhang Fengyi was helpless in the face of the slave army entering the pass. He went out of Beijing to supervise the army with Shang Fang's sword in hand, but he was unable to stay in Zunhua City.
Out, the Japanese server Dahuang Qiu died, he was a man with low talent and timid nature, but he was also the man who promoted Hong Chengchou, Chen Qiyu, Lu Xiangsheng and other famous generals, and he had a very good eye for recognizing people.
I won’t give examples of the others one by one. If you just focus on the shortcomings, Chongzhen is indeed not very good at employing people. But if you look at the advantages and disadvantages and comprehensively evaluate the ministers appointed by Chongzhen, you may come to a fair conclusion.
As for why Chongzhen failed in the later period, and why he had to change his first assistant every three to five months on average, the fundamental reason was that all the capable and loyal talents died. Some were framed to death by villains, and some were killed by Chongzhen himself.
If you are tricked to death, no one will be available in the end, or even if you are talented, you will not dare to show your talents. Since the capable and loyal will die the fastest, you might as well just fish.
This was also one of the reasons for the rapid collapse of Chongzhen in the later period.
But now it is the fifth year of Chongzhen.
Talents such as Hong Chengchou, Chen Qiyu, Lu Xiangsheng, and Sun Chuanting are all here and are emerging one after another.
Zhu Youjian now has a considerable amount of money in his internal funds. It is the golden age for him to do something big!
So after discussing it for several days.
A strategy of "two hundred thousand coalition troops from five provinces to suppress" was formulated.
The five provinces refer to Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan. They plan to designate these five provinces as war zones in the next one to three years. Taxes in this area may be exempted.
, or there is no need to escort them to the central government, and they can be used to exterminate the bandits on the spot!
The army of 200,000 people will be expanded on a large scale based on the current official armies in various places. The army of 5,000 people will be expanded to 10,000 people, and the army of 10,000 people will be expanded to 20,000 people. In addition, the army will be expanded from Shandong and north to
Troops were mobilized from Li, Chongqing and other places - such as Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army, Tongzhou Commander Yang Yufan's Tongzhou Army, Tianjin Commander Wang Hong's Tianjin Army, Jimen Commander Deng Qi's Jimen Army, and Shizhu Chieftain Qin Liangyu's Bai
Pole soldier.
All these soldiers and horses were used to encircle and suppress Gao Yingxiang and other rogue bandits, forming a court army group of at least 200,000 people. They were divided into several groups, all of which were carried out at the surrounding passes of the three main activity areas of rogue bandits, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan.
During the suppression campaign, it compressed inward and continuously narrowed the scope of activities of the rogue army. Even if the rogue bandits resisted desperately, even if they concentrated all their strength to attack one of the imperial officers and soldiers, the imperial soldiers and horses along this road could defeat the rogue bandits alone.
strength.
Even if the rogue bandits are unable to break through this dragnet, no matter where they charge, they will only end up defeated and dead!
Does this strategy sound familiar?
That's right.
In the normal historical timeline, Yang Sichang, Minister of the Ministry of War, proposed a strategy of "four righteousnesses and six corners, and a net on ten sides" to suppress the rogue army in the tenth year of Chongzhen. The strategy adopted is essentially the same as this "draft and earth net" strategy
It's the same. At first, the effect was surprisingly good, almost all the bandits were wiped out in one fell swoop, but Yang Sichang failed in the end. It is said that Chongzhen touched the woman's kindness and said, "Thieves are also innocent, they cannot be killed," so they could only try their best to appease them.
However, he was unable to provide money and food for resettlement, which led to the bandits surrendering and revolting, and their achievements were wiped out. Of course, this may also be false history. It is unlikely that Chongzhen was stupid enough to regard the bandits who dug up the Zhu family's ancestral grave as "innocents".
The actual reasons for Yang Sichang's failure were, on the one hand, that the imperial court could no longer support it financially and could not continue the fight, so it had no choice but to choose Zhao'an; secondly, the mesh was too large and the network cable was not strong enough, which caused Li Zicheng to escape and Zhang Xianzhong to break out of the encirclement.
, finally made a comeback and buried the Ming Dynasty.
Now that Chongzhen has discussed with his ministers, can the dragnet strategy of "The Allied Forces of Five Provinces and Two Hundred Thousand Soldiers Conquer the Army" be successful and achieve the goal of wiping out all the rogue bandits?
"Your Majesty, if the five provinces work together, plus the two hundred thousand elite troops of the imperial court, all the bandits will be reduced to dust, and there will be no possibility of resurgence. Just to complete this strategy well, Your Majesty has five hundred internal funds.
I'm afraid that the 10,000 yuan of food will not be enough, and it will only last for half a year at most." Hou Xun, the Minister of Household Affairs, said.
"Half a year?" Chongzhen frowned, so much money and food can only be burned for half a year?
Hou Xun then carefully calculated the accounts for him. For a period of one year, how much would he need to pay for an army of 200,000, how much would be needed for war horses, as well as weapons and armor, and the losses during transportation for thousands of miles, so he would need to maintain 200,000.
The troops and horses fight continuously, and the minimum monthly expenditure is one million. He said that it can last for half a year, but he is deliberately optimistic, and it is actually good to fight for four months.
The saying "when the cannon goes off, you get a thousand taels of gold" is no joke.
"The Ministry of Finance should come up with another five million!"
Zhu Youji thought for a while and said: "In addition, I will send eunuchs Jin Yiwei to go to the front line with money and food. They will call the roll call one by one to completely eliminate corruption, corruption and other phenomena. Anyone who dares to reach out will be beheaded immediately, regardless of him.
Whoever wants to drink the blood of the soldiers and be greedy for the food and wages that the soldiers worked so hard to get." Fang Yizhi taught him this trick of calling the roll call, and it worked wonders in the royal farm, and it was effective at the source level.
Corruption has been eliminated and farmers' labor enthusiasm has been greatly improved.
Given the same amount of food and salary, the motivation may differ ten times.
Of course, Chongzhen must learn from such a good method, especially in military affairs such as war.
"Your Majesty, even if the salary is paid by roll call, it can only support it for a while. Although the Ministry of Revenue has more income this year, the debt accumulated over the years is too huge. It will have to pay back at least two to three million. Guan Ningjin and the Nine Border Defense Line
, we also need to allocate five million in money and food. Even if we cut off the salaries of all civil and military officials, at most, we will squeeze out only 2 million in money and food. There is still a shortfall of 3 million, and there is really nothing I can do." Hou Xun knelt down.
On the ground.
Hear this.
Chongzhen could not continue to force him. After all, the salaries of all civil and military officials had been cut off. Officials who were not very honest could continue to live happily, but there were still a small number of honest officials who relied on their meager salaries to survive.
Yes, if this is cut off, how can those incorruptible ministers rely on to support themselves?
The Hou Xun in front of me is famous for his incorruptibility. The patches on his clothes are no less than the dragon robe he would wear when he was so poor that he had no money. Of course, Hou Xun may be doing this for show, but even so, he is incorruptible.
In the court where there were not many talented people, Chongzhen had to show his trust and respect for him.
"Seven million dollars of money and food is enough for the time being, at least for a while. As for the shortfall, we can always find a way to solve it!"
Zhu Youjian said that the war cannot be fought in one day. If we can persist until August or September next year, when next year's taxes are collected, the court's war machine can be started again.
However, considering that Jiannu is watching from outside and Xujiazhuang is constantly growing inside, this war still cannot drag on for too long. It is best to fight it quickly!
…
September 20th.
As the Ministry of War issued military orders one after another, Ming Dynasty entered a state of comprehensive military preparation.
On the 25th, Fang Yizhi finally finished all the affairs of the royal farm and entered the capital on bicycles with only a few followers. Chongzhen was overjoyed and immediately held a banquet in honor of him. The emperor and his ministers even talked for a long time all night long.