The Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 71: Wei Zhongxian's troubles

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The situation in Liaodong became increasingly unfavorable for Daming.

In the second year of the Apocalypse, Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen lost Guangning, the most important city of Liaodong except Shenyang. In this battle, Xiong Tingbi advocated sticking to Guangning, and Wang Huazhen, a young but ignorant of military affairs, wanted to make merits. With the support of the Ministry of War, Xiong Tingbi took a risk and attacked, which eventually led to a disastrous defeat.

More than 100,000 defenders in Quang Ninh City were wiped out by Nurhachi. Except for 40,000 soldiers who were slaughtered and less than 5,000 soldiers fled back to Ningyuan City, the rest of the soldiers were all reduced to the coatings of the various banners of Jian slaves. During the Battle of Guangning, the Mongol ministries near the west of Liaoning had different mentalities.

The Horqin Tribe, which had the closest relationship with the building of slaves, although not directly dispatching cavalry, took advantage of the geographical advantage closest to the city of Quang Ninh to actively spy on Daming's military information for the building of slaves.

The Doyan Tribe and Chahar Tribe, who surrendered to the Ming Dynasty in name, sat on the mountain and watched the tigers. They did not send a single soldier. After the fall of Guangning, they publicly surrendered and established slavery.

As for the Tumed Tribe, which is closely related to Daming, the leader Lin Danhan is a descendant of Genghis Khan's golden family. He has always despised the establishment of slaves. In the battle of Guangning against Daming and building of slaves, 10,000 cavalry were dispatched to assist the Guangning defenders. However, the Tumote tribe was the farthest from Quang Ninh, and the Ming army in Quang Ning was defeated very quickly. When the Tumote cavalry arrived at Quang Ninh City, the building of slaves had already restored Quang Ninh.

The Jian slaves were dissatisfied with the support of the Tumote Ministry to Daming, and dispatched superior troops to storm the Tumote reinforcements. They were outnumbered, and after more than 5,000 casualties, they retreated to the grassland.

Guangning is located at the junction of the West Liaoning Corridor and the Mongolian grasslands. It is a regional platform for the alliance between Daming and Mongolia. The fall of Quang Ninh completely interrupted the exchanges between the Ming and the Mongolian ministries, and the plan of Ming and Mongolia to deal with the establishment of slaves officially went bankrupt.

The fall of Guangning angered the Emperor Zhu Youxiao, the Emperor of Apocalypse, who had always not cared about the outside of the palace, and the Ministry of War was under great pressure. Zhu Youxiao had to use the emperor Sun Chengzong to manage Ji Liao as a scholar of the Ministry of War and a bachelor of Dongge University.

Sun Chengzong adopted the strategy of "active defense", with Ningyuan and Jinzhou as the core, building a large number of fortresses on the front line of Ningjin, step by step, weakening the advantage of the slave cavalry. Although Sun Chengzong spent millions of silver taels to build the fortress, it also ensured the safety of Ningyuan and Jinzhou. In the four years from the second year of the apocalypse to the fifth year of the apocalypse, Nurhachi was photographed by Sun Chengzong's prestige and never invaded Ningjin.

However, in May of the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Ma Shilong, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan, sent troops to cross the Liuhe River and attacked Yaozhou at the words of Liu Boyuan, who had fled from Jin Dynasty. However, he was defeated and retreated.

This was originally a trivial battle, although Ma Shilong failed, the loss was not great. Compared with the tens of thousands of casualties in Liaodong, Ma Shilong's losses are negligible.

However, Sun Chengzong is a member of the Donglin Party. After the six gentlemen of the Donglin Party were condemned, and the first auxiliary Ye Xianggao Zhishi, he faintly became the head of the Donglin Party as an emperor.

For Ma Shilong's defeat, the castration party would certainly not let go of this opportunity. They impeached Ma Shilong in the name of "losing 670 horses" by Ma Shilong, and even Sun Chengzong was impeached. Sun Chengzong's letter to Emperor Tianqi was unsuccessful. In a rage, he asked himself to be dismissed from office and went back to his hometown of Baoding in Beizhili.

The eunuchs destroyed Sun Chengzong, but there was no one who could experience Ji Liao.

The eunuch party has Wei Zhongxian as the core, the eunuch and Dongchang in the palace as the team, and the Qi party and the Chu party are outside. Let them kill people, set fires, and engage in framing. If they lead soldiers, it's not the material. In addition, Liaodong is a mess nowadays, and the eunuchs are even more afraid to take over. Although both the Qi Party and the Chu Party were foreign ministers, when they couldn't fight the Donglin Party, they bent over and bowed their knees and bowed to the eunuchs who were most despised by the literati. Naturally, they did not have the strength of a soldier. Things gather together, and the bones of people who are in contact with them are not hard.

So the eunuch party had just been immersed in the excitement of getting rid of Sun Chengzong, and in a blink of an eye, no one could serve as the Jie Liao Classic.

The dwarf was selected as the general. In the end, the honest, obedient, and somewhat dull Gaudi became the Shangshu of the Ministry of War and the Confucian Classics in the fifth year of the Apocalypse.

After Gaudi took over the entire Jiliao, he completely rejected Sun Chengzong's "active defense" strategy. He was timid and fearful, and adopted a "passive defense" policy. In order to allow the people outside the pass to live a stable life and prevent them from being killed by slaves when the city broke, he wanted to abandon the fortresses outside the pass that Ningyuan, Jinzhou, and Sun Chengzong spent millions of silver taels to build and withdraw the people outside the pass. Fully retreat to Shanhaiguan.

Ning Yuan’s former Dao Yuan Chonghuan, General Bingman Mangui, Senator Zu Dashou, and others were all Sun Chengzong’s subordinates. They resolutely refused to remove Ning Yuan, and the lawsuit was sent to the Ministry of War. Under Zhu Youjian’s suggestion, Li Chunye fully supported Gao Di. As a result, Yuan Chonghuan, Man Gui, and Zu Dashou were dismissed from all positions.

Gaudí’s “passive defense” did not hide Nurhachi’s eyes. After learning that Sun Chengzong had left Liaodong and Zhishi returned to his hometown, the slave chief immediately used the Eight Banners and 100,000 elites, based in Guangning, and aggressively rushed towards the Ningjin front line. .

Sun Chengzong put too much pressure on the establishment of slaves. He spent four years in the Liao Dynasty. It was the four years in which the establishment of slaves did not seize an inch of land and a grain of grain from the Han. Now that Sun Chengzong is returning to his hometown, how can Nurhachi let go of such a good opportunity.

Ningyuan and Jinzhou were soon occupied by Jian slaves. Nurhachi's soldiers had reached Qiantun outside Shanhaiguan, and confronted Gaodi at Shanhaiguan across Qiantun.

However, Ningyuan and Jinzhou are already empty cities. The Eight Banners Army who built slaves occupied these two cities and did not get many horses. Even the food was only enough to feed a dozen sparrows, and Guangning did not have enough food for the slaves to eat horses. of. In his anger, Nurhachi ordered the destruction of all the fortresses built by Sun Chengzong on the front line of Ningjin.

After losing ground for thousands of miles outside the pass, Zhu Youxiao was furious. Even Wei Zhongxian, who recommended Gao Di, was rarely reprimanded by Zhu Youxiao. There is no way, Wei Zhongxian transferred the pressure to the cabinet and the Ministry of War, but the cabinet chief Gu Bingqian, second assistant Huang Liji and several ministers of the Ministry of War are usually the only masters in front of Wei Zhongxian. How can they come up with any good ideas. In addition to cursing Wei Zhongxian and releasing the emperor's anger, they knew nothing about the critical moment.

Although the anger was out, but the threat of establishing a slave was not relieved, Wei Zhongxian was still very uneasy. Although he is the admiral of the Dongchang, in charge of the first vital department of the court, he is also the chief eunuch of Si Libingbi. All the memorials of the court ministers must be read by him before being transferred to Zhu Youxiao. But the systems of eunuchs and civil officials are different. Wei Zhongxian has the right to read memorials. That is the emperor's laziness and reluctance to read the memorials of ministers. There is no system guarantee at all. In a word, he is the emperor's personal secretary. His rights are based on the emperor's trust. When the emperor gets upset, he kicks him out of the door without even looking for a reason.

After Li Chunye and other key members of the cabinet and the Ministry of War left, he stayed alone. "Nine thousand years old, his subordinates have something to report." He knelt down on his knees in front of Wei Zhongxian's seat, his whole body lying on the ground, not only his forehead, but his old face was stained with dust from Wei Zhongxian's mansion.

"What are you going to say? Is there a way to build slaves and retreat?" Wei Zhongxian's anger disappeared, but the fear in his heart has not been relieved. Besides, Li Chunye is not his confidant. He is in a bad mood, and his face is even worse. . His eyes were gloomy, and the loose muscles on his face were shaking gently, like a frog ready to swallow the prey in front of him at any time.

"There is no way for Jian slaves to retreat..." Li Chunye bit his head. He knew that the moment when the muscles on Wei Zhongxian's face trembled was the moment when someone suffered. Now there are only two of them in the hall, and it must be himself who suffers. But now is also the time when Wei Zhongxian is most helpless, and any little hope is his life-saving straw.

"There is no way to let Jiannu retreat, so what else are you talking about?" Wei Zhongxian didn't give Li Chunye a chance to finish. He angrily got up from his seat, kicked Li Chunye's shoulder, and kicked Li Chunye down. On the ground, he fell on his back again and rolled on the ground, which was regarded as a free rag from the Wei mansion.

With cold sweat, Li Chunye quickly got up and knelt at Wei Zhongxian's feet again.

When Wei Zhongxian looked at Li Chunye's embarrassed portrait, he couldn't bear it. At any rate, he was also a civil servant of the Ministry of War, the second grade of the Ming Dynasty. "What are you going to say?"

"The subordinates are incompetent and can't let Jian slaves retreat, but the subordinates have a way to avoid disasters for the nine thousand years old." Li Chunye trembling, squatting on the ground, dare not even shoot the dust on the official uniforms.

Wei Zhongxian looked at Li Chunye carefully, as if he didn't know him, and he seemed to find a reason for his anger: "Then why didn't you say it just now?"

"When I am nine thousand years old, my subordinates don't know if this method will work. Besides, this matter involves the royal family, so I dare not say it in front of others." Li Chunye did not speak fully, and then carried out of the royal family, apparently wanting to make secrets. words.

"Royal?" Wei Zhongxian sat back in the chair again, his eyes swept across Li Chunye's body, but Li Chunye was crawling on the ground, his face could not be seen. "Get up! Let's talk about it first, what is going on."

Li Chunye slowly sat down in a chair, "Nine thousand years old, the war in Liaodong is unfavorable. The emperor blames the nine thousand years old for improper employment. There is a way for the emperor to stop blaming the nine thousand years old." Li Chunye found that Wei Zhongxian listened very well. Careful, for fear of missing a word, I firmly believe that the kick just now is worth it. "The King Xin just defeated the Japanese pirates in Shandong, and was named the commander of the four military camps by the emperor, and let him be responsible for the training of the four military camps. At the age of nine thousand years, he can introduce slaves into the king of Xin."

"How to introduce Xin Wang?" Wei Zhongxian really became interested, and the muscles on his face no longer tremble.

"Since King Xin is good at commanding troops, let King Xin go to deal with Jian slaves. The nine thousand-year-old must fully support King Xin in training Siwuying." Li Chunye looked like a sly fox, and smiled fiercely at Wei Zhongxian.

Wei Zhongxian was taken aback for a moment, and then he understood, but there were some things he couldn't say. "Hou Qiao, you mean you don't really need to support Xinwang?"

"When you go back to the nine thousand years old, you must really support it, otherwise the King Xin will definitely appeal to the emperor. If you really support the King Xin, the emperor will see that nine thousand years old is the cause of Liaodong. "Li Chunye followed the temptation and approached Wei Zhongxian's heart step by step.

"But no matter how strong the Siwuying camp is, and the king will train soldiers again, he can't scare him back to build slaves now!" Wei Zhongxian still didn't understand.

"Nine thousand years old, Shanhaiguan city is very strong, and the slave building will not break Shanhaiguan for a short time. Now supporting the king is to let the emperor see that the nine thousand years old is working hard for the Ming court. In the future, the slaves will come again, just to let the letter king To deal with Jian Slaves, Jian Slaves are similar to Japanese pirates, and they are all very capable of fighting individually. This is the strength of Xinwang."

"But Jiannus are all cavalry, and they are very good at cavalry and shooting, unlike Japanese pirates who are infantry." Wei Zhongxian still didn't understand. He looked at Li Chunye and found that Li Chunye was laughing strangely again. He immediately understood and reported to the emperor that it was okay. The neglected place should still be ignored. He always did this. Zhu Youxiao never saw the memorials against him. They were directly ignored by him. Today may be the first time he has been reprimanded by the emperor, and he has forgotten the most important trick. . "Waiting, if the king of faith loses in the future, what will our family do? Will the emperor once again punish our family for being unknown