If the wood is beautiful in the forest, the wind will destroy it.

Of course, Gao Pragmatic knew this truth, so he had to deal with it a long time ago.

One of them is to make one's "wood" not unsheltered and lonely above others, but to change the position of the long-for example, leaning against a mountain behind it, the possibility of being destroyed by the wind is much smaller. The wind can destroy the wood, can it still overturn the mountain? If it was really such a hurricane, then even if his wood was not "Xiu Yu Lin", wouldn't it still be destroyed?

Later generations of officialdom like to put a stone in the office, called "backing stone", in fact, it is to understand this truth, and then find a psychological comfort for yourself, high pragmatism is also mixed from that kind of place, how can you not know?

Therefore, he found himself the biggest backing stone - the emperor's family.

The emperor of the Ming Dynasty has such a miraculous effect, as long as he doesn't want your "wood" to be destroyed, he can keep you safe. Conversely, when he doesn't want to protect you...... How Yan Song fell is a lesson from the past.

Getting closer to the emperor's family, consolidating feelings, and improving the sense of bonding is of course a way out, but it is not enough.

I really want the emperor to keep you forever, and it depends on what you are for, you have to make him feel that many things need you to do, and once he leaves you, he will have to eat hairy pigs. Only at this level can you really use him as a backer.

Therefore, this trip to the border must be pragmatic, and he wants to make a great contribution from the incident of attaining tribute!

What's more, his trip to the border was not only to take this credit to let the emperor's family see his ability, but also for other reasons.

He also had to make advance arrangements for the future trend on both the border army and the Mongolian right flank.

If there is no accident, there will be a decades-long peace in Xuanfu, Datong, the three towns of Shanxi, and the Mongolian right wing in the future, and because of the peaceful environment and increasingly close economic and trade exchanges between the two sides, although the border people have ushered in a "prosperous era," the hidden dangers behind them are also very concerned and worried.

This danger can be summed up in eight words: knives and guns are put into storage, and horses are put in Nanshan.

To put it in more layman's terms, it is this: with decades of prolonged peace, the combat capability of both armies has declined dramatically.

From the perspective of the Ming army, the Xuanda border army at this time did not dare to say that it was the best of the Ming Dynasty - the Qi family army was not disbanded - but because it had been fighting with the current Ming Dynasty's largest enemy for a long time, it must also be worthy of the sentence "one of the best".

But what about decades later? The troops transferred from Xuanda were led by famous generals such as Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao when they were led by famous generals such as Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao, and their performance was okay, but once they were pulled to fight against Houjin, they immediately became tofu scum, and the famous generals could not be moved, which was a typical manifestation of declining combat effectiveness.

At that time, Wang Shouren once said that Xuanfu, Datong, Jizhen, and Liaodong were the foundation of the stability of the Ming Dynasty, and if these four places were lost, the Ming Dynasty would die. So by extension, the armies of these four places must also be the most powerful army of the Ming Dynasty, otherwise the Ming Dynasty is in danger.

Therefore, it is a good thing for me to pay tribute, but Gao Shipra still needs to prepare in advance, in case the Xuanda border army loses the motivation for progress because of the indulgence in leisure, and even Wang Xiaoer's New Year, which is not as good as a year.

Even the Mongolian right-wing, in history, was too happy after the tribute, which led to the rise of the Mongolian left-wing Lin Dan Khan decades later, and wiped them out in one fell swoop - don't look at Lin Dan Khan who was beaten all over the ground by Houjin to find teeth, but he swept the majestic Tumochuan and other departments back then!

This is how evident the loss of combat effectiveness caused by a long period of peace has been achieved.

The life or death of Tumochuan may not matter in the eyes of ordinary Ming people and even the Ming court, and even some people who are short-sighted are eager to see them unlucky, but in the eyes of Gao Shishi, this is not the case.

Mongolia in the eyes of Gao Pragmatic, that is not an outsider, that is his own person in the future! He largely regarded the Mongols as the Cossacks of the Ming Dynasty!

The Cossacks were the sword in the hands of the Russian tsar, and the goal of Gao Pragmatic was to "transform" the Mongols into a sword in the hands of the Ming Dynasty!

There are too many similarities between the Mongols and the Cossacks, and even the Cossacks themselves may not have the shadow left by the Mongols, so since the Cossacks can be tamed by the Tsar, why can't the Mongols be transformed by the Ming Dynasty?

It is difficult to be difficult, but it is not impossible.

Just like humans domesticate a wolf into a dog or a hunting dog, it is necessary to maintain a certain combat ability and let it understand the principle that "the master cannot be disobeyed".

This is a lot of training, but it can definitely be done.

It's complicated to say, but it's not cumbersome to summarize simply: a stick in one hand, a carrot in the other - if you don't eat carrots, you will replace them with meat.

The routine of a certain American president in later generations is still very useful: warm words in the mouth, big stick in the hand.

Gao Pragmatic is now going to the border, just to "say warm words" and at the same time "prepare a big stick".

Therefore, for the question of Gao Gong, Gao Pragmatic decided to answer frankly to a certain extent.

I saw him take a deep breath and said: "Third uncle, as long as the matter of Tonggong is completed, it is conceivable that with the current situation that I am facing, he will not allow the various departments under his command to act recklessly, so that he will definitely be able to win a lot of peace time for my Ming Dynasty." But this period of peace is very precious, and we cannot waste it at will, because after all, I am very old, and his eldest son, Xin Ai, has a far less attitude towards my Ming than I did. ”

Gao pragmatic paused, deliberately frowned, put on a worried look, and said, "Xin loves Huang Taiji...... According to the information obtained by my nephew, I am afraid that he is a person at both ends of the world, even if I negotiate with me this time, I must prepare for war in advance, so as not to overthrow my father's old government as the heir after my death, and threaten my Ming frontier again. ”

Gao Gong laughed and said, "Your idea coincides with Sanbo's own." I also have a few ideas, I originally wanted to discuss with Taiyue first, since you have already mentioned it, it doesn't hurt to let you hear it first. ”

Gao Pragmatic naturally listened, so Gao Gong said: "I agree with your opinion, if I agree to pay tribute, this time I must let the court agree to come down anyway." Then, we must take advantage of this great opportunity to comprehensively rectify border preparations and change the decadent status quo of border defense in northern Xinjiang, so as to firmly grasp the initiative in our hands and completely reverse the passive situation. You also said just now, I am old, no one knows how long he can live, and his eldest son Xin Ai is unreliable, so if we have a year of peace, then we will have a year of preparation; If Beiyu does not commit the crime for two years, then it will have the effect of rectification for two years. If we can maintain a peaceful situation for three to five years, then we will naturally be better prepared. In other words, the imperial court must take advantage of the rare peace situation in the past few decades to quickly and effectively strengthen its armaments. ”

When Gao Shishi heard the last four words "strengthening armaments," his eyes suddenly moved.