In the imperial palace in the capital, Emperor Hongzhi held the latest issue of the Ming Morning Post, drinking tea and reading the newspaper at the same time.

"Bang~"

"Is Gansu and Shaanxi really as the newspapers say?"

Just after watching the most important news, Emperor Hongzhi couldn't help but slap heavily on the table, and the whole person looked very atmospheric.

"Back to Your Majesty's words, eight or nine are not far from ten, in fact, every time the Tartars go south to plunder, the place they pass is like locusts crossing the border, leaving no grass behind, and most of the areas in Gansu and Shaanxi are like this."

Xiao Jing on the side heard a loud noise, and the whole person was startled, and when he heard Emperor Hongzhi's question, he thought about it and replied.

"Then why didn't the previous report explain it in detail?"

Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly after hearing this, he also knew a little about this, but the notes presented by the ministers in the past would not focus on mentioning it in this regard, for these ministers in the court, they focused more on describing the matter of how to repel the Tartars, rather than caring about how many ordinary people were killed.

Repelling the Tartars can make them promoted and rich, but the life and death of the common people have no impact on them, so naturally the description on the desk of Emperor Hongzhi is basically a beacon fire, thieves and so on.

Although Emperor Hongzhi also knew that the Tartars would loot when they went south, he did not have an intuitive concept, how they plundered, and what the casualties of the Ming people were, and there was no specific number and detailed description.

But the Daming Morning Post is different, because of Liu Jin's explanation, so the Daming Morning Post has special reporters to go to Gansu and Shaanxi.

When reporting on this incident, it is more focused on describing the brutality of the Tartars, rivers of blood flowing and drifting in the places they passed, how many people died, how many towns were slaughtered, and so on.

There is a huge contrast between the two, which makes Emperor Hongzhi know, it turns out that the Tartars have committed many crimes in the south, killing how many children of the Han family have been killed, burning, killing and looting, and doing all kinds of evil.

It is no longer as empty as the previous recital, just a paragraph, a few words, so that people do not feel the brutality of the Tartars, and there is no intuitive feeling.

"This..."

Hearing Emperor Hongzhi's question, Xiao Jing didn't even know how to answer for a while.

The reason why the ministers of the court wrote like this is that in fact, the main purpose is not to want the emperor to be warlike, after all, the emperor is the son of heaven of the Ming Dynasty and the son of heaven of all the people of the Ming Dynasty.

If a Son of Heaven knew that his people were ruthlessly slaughtered by the Tartars, the emperor who was a little fleshy would still have some temper, and he would have to give an explanation to the people of the world.

Once the emperor wants to fight, then it is natural to reuse the military generals and nobles, which is extremely unfavorable for the civilian officials to suppress the military generals and nobles.

And the emperor is warlike and likes to use butcher knives to solve problems, and the good days of these ministers are over, look at Comrade Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, and then look at Comrade Zhu Di, the son of Zhu Yuanzhang, these two people are belligerent people, and they both like to use butcher knives to solve problems.

Their butcher's knives are not only powerful against aliens, but also against these ministers, and I don't know how many ministers died in the hands of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di.

Therefore, whether it is to suppress the military generals and nobles, or to avoid making the emperor belligerent, we must pay attention to when writing this report, those are the key points, and those should be brushed aside, and these ministers in the court are very clear.

Whether it is a report about the raids of the Tartars going south, or a report about disasters and famines, many times it is good news but not bad news, trying to make the emperor feel that the whole world is a feast, so that the emperor can put his mind on pleasure, instead of becoming an emperor who likes to toss.

The emperor who likes to toss and turn, he is not easy to control, and it is not conducive to the interests of their civilian clique, and it is even easier to destroy the situation in which the civilian clique that they have managed to run with great difficulty is dominant.

"Hmph~"

Emperor Hongzhi snorted coldly, thought for a while and said: "Immediately summon cabinet ministers Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, Ma Wensheng, the secretary of the Ministry of War, Zhou Jing, the secretary of the household department, and Zhang Mao, the British minister, into the palace." ”

"Yes~"

When Xiao Jing heard this, he nodded hurriedly, and immediately gave a look to the little eunuch beside him, and the other party understood it and went to do it immediately.

……

In the house of Liu Jian, the first assistant of the cabinet, Liu Jian, who had just left the early dynasty, was also reading the newspaper while eating breakfast.

"This Ming Morning Post~"

Liu Jian frowned, the Ming Morning Report was still very good, but this first report about the Tartars going south made him feel very inappropriate.

"If such a report is made, it will definitely be indignant, and it will be difficult for the imperial court to do it at that time."

Liu Jian seems to have seen the scene of the crowd's anger, and when the time comes, countless people will petition the emperor and ask for troops to take revenge, this matter will be really difficult to do.

As the first assistant of the cabinet, he is very aware of the current situation of Daming.

Now the situation of the Ming Dynasty belongs to that kind of war, it is impossible to fight a war, because the combat effectiveness of the Ming army is very low, the level of the five scum of the war, and it is not allowed financially, the treasury of the Ming court can starve to death of mice, where is the silver to fight for the imperial court.

Therefore, every time the Tartars go south to plunder, as long as the other party does not coerce the Jingshi, then the imperial court will only retreat in the big city, and when the Tartars plunder, they will naturally retreat.

This is a typical herd mentality.

That is, what to do in the face of a lion attack?

There is no need to do anything, just wait for the lion to eat enough, and the lion will naturally not be a good thought.

But now it's different, the Ming Morning Post has poked out this matter, so that everyone in the entire Ming Dynasty clearly knows the various crimes committed by the Tartars, and naturally, the entire Ming Dynasty will be indignant.

At that time, even if the court doesn't want to fight, it will fight, because public opinion is boiling, everyone will ask for revenge, if you don't fight, you will deviate from morality, and whoever opposes the fight will be scolded as Qin Hui and others.

But will the imperial court be able to fight the Tartars?

Even if you can fight, can you win?

Judging from the current situation of the Ming army, it is almost impossible, if you defend the city, you can also rely on the high walls built of cement to fight a dozen, if you go out of the city, it is almost all meat in the mouth of the steppe wolf, and the other party can eat it as much as he wants.

If you don't fight, the Ming army can still hold a lot of big cities, but once you really fight with the grassland, it will be a trivial matter to lose troops and generals.

Once the losses of troops are too heavy, and some important cities are empty, it is very likely that these Tartars will take advantage of the weakness, and the number of dead will be even greater.

Even the more the Tartars fight, the smoother and smoother this ambition becomes, maybe when the time comes, the sword will be pointed at the Beijing Division, and then it will really be turbulent in the government and the opposition.

This is why Liu Jian feels that the description of the Ming Morning Post is very inappropriate, and he already seems to have seen that a big change is coming.

"Master, someone from the palace will announce your entry into the palace~"

Liu Jian was still thinking about this, and the will of the palace had arrived.

"Alas~"

"This Liu Jin is really not worry-free, what kind of newspaper to run."

Hearing the housekeeper's words, Liu Jian couldn't help but sigh, he could almost guess what Emperor Hongzhi had announced him to enter the palace for.

Soon, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, Zhou Jing, Ma Wensheng, Zhang Mao and other important ministers of the court all came to the temporary office of Emperor Hongzhi.

"Everyone has read the newspaper, right?"

Emperor Hongzhi's face was ugly, and when he saw that everyone had arrived, he slowly spoke.

"I've seen it~"

Everyone looked at each other and nodded.

"It's good to have read it, then you can talk about it first, why the report submitted below does not list the slaughtered areas and the number of deaths in detail, and in the notes I have seen, they are all mentioned in passing, and there is no detailed mention of this matter, if it is not published in the Ming Morning Post, I still think that many people have not died."

"You are all the pillars of the country, the pillars of the society, everyone sees, this time the Tartars went south, Gansu and Shaanxi, and the number of deaths was at least 100,000, these are all bloody lives, and they are all the sons and daughters of our Han family."

Emperor Hongzhi was very annoyed, although the voice was not loud, but it made these ministers sweat on their foreheads one by one, everyone knew that Emperor Hongzhi, a good old man, was really angry this time.

Everyone was silent for a while, everyone was silent with each other, everyone knew the doorway here, but this kind of thing can't be said, once it is said, it can involve restricting the imperial power and restricting the emperor, and there is no telling how many people will die at that time.

"Why don't you speak?"

"Liu Jian, you talk about it first."

Seeing that everyone didn't speak, Emperor Hongzhi said very dissatisfied, and then directly began to roll call.

"Back to Your Majesty's words, there are many references to the brutality of the Tartars in various places, but because this song has always paid attention to the introduction, there is no way to describe it in detail like this newspaper."

Liu Jian thought about it for a while, and could only explain it head-on.

"Yes, in that case, in the future, the numbers and areas must be listed in detail in the future reports on the war and disasters, and they can no longer be vague."

After listening to this, Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly, and did not continue to dwell on this matter, he had also seen it, and it was true that he had mentioned the brutality of the Tartars, and it could not be said that these people below did not mention it.

"Yes~"

When everyone heard this, they hurriedly said yes, and at the same time, they couldn't help but frown, this list of detailed numbers and areas cannot be as vague as before, which means that it will not be so easy to fool the emperor in the future.

Sometimes some minor disasters and small disasters can no longer be used to deceive the imperial court for relief, and some major disasters are not so easy to hide.

"I summoned everyone here today, mainly to talk about whether our Ming Dynasty can win the Tartar thing, the Tartars go south every year, enter the customs every year to loot, kill my people, rob my money, and our Ming army can only watch, there is no way to take them."

"In the long run, won't my Ming become a leek for the Tartars, coming to harvest every year, and one will eventually become a big disaster."

"This time I went south, killing 100,000 of my people, and next time I went south, I killed 100,000 of my people, this sea of blood and hatred, can he sit idly by?"

Emperor Hongzhi thought for a while and said.

From the moment he saw the description on the Ming Morning Post and saw the bloody figures, he decided that he must return the color, as the son of heaven of the Ming Dynasty, he could not sit idly by, and he could not seriously watch his people being slaughtered and be indifferent.

Hearing Emperor Hongzhi's words, the faces of Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, Zhou Jing, Ma Wensheng and others became ugly, and Emperor Hongzhi was determined to fight a good battle with the Tartars.

But they don't want to fight, because fighting not only will kill more people, but more importantly, it will shake the interests of the civilian clique.

"Your Majesty, the Tartars are going south to loot the supplies for the winter, as long as they have looted enough, they will naturally return to the grassland."

"Soldiers, the major affairs of the country, the place of death and life, the way of survival, starting a war lightly, I am afraid that it will become a catastrophe."

Zhou Jing was the first to stand up and object, his meaning was very clear, that is, these grassland people have nothing to fear, they just came to loot materials and wealth, as long as they are full, they will naturally go back, there is no need to fight with them at all, because fighting with them will only cause greater losses, and a careless one is very likely to shake the society of the Ming Dynasty.

"Yes, Your Majesty, don't talk about war lightly."

"This time, the Tartars chose to go south from Gansu and Shaanxi, mainly because our Great Wall and cities in this area were not consolidated and heightened with cement."

"In the past, the Tartars went south from Datong and Xuanfu, but since we used cement to raise the height and consolidate the Great Wall, passes and cities, it has been difficult for the Tartars to go south."

"Therefore, the minister thinks that he only needs to allocate more cement to Gansu and Shaanxi to repair the Great Wall and passes, and consolidate and raise the city wall to resist the southward movement of the Tartars, and then there will be no more boundless troubles."

Xie Qian also stood up and expressed his views.

His meaning is simpler, that is, this time the Tartars succeeded in going south, and that was because the Great Wall and passes in Gansu and Shaanxi had not yet been repaired with cement, so the Tartars were able to successfully go south.

As long as cement is used to rebuild, consolidate, and heighten, the future Tartars will rest in the south, and a strong defense line can be built with cement, and there is no need to fight these steppe people to the death.

"Your Majesty, what Duke Li and Duke Zhou said is very true."

"My Ming army has slack armament, lax training, and low combat effectiveness, and there is no way to compare with the grassland army, relying on the city to defend the city is acceptable, and there is no chance of winning in this field battle out of the city."

Li Dongyang also said, bluntly saying that the combat power of the Ming army is low, and it is not suitable to fight with the grassland people at all, and it is wiser to rely on cement to build a tall city wall to arrive.

Hearing the words of these three people, Emperor Hongzhi's face was all blue and iron, and he called them over to discuss how to clean up the grassland people, not to ask them to come over against him.