When Li Rubai and other generals of the Southwest Route Army were deliberating, Li Hongyu and Yan Mingtai, the supervisor of the Ming Army of the Southwest Road, drank and laughed, Yan Mingtai was a jinshi in the twenty-sixth year of Wanli, so the two naturally had a lot of common language, at least they were the best in the imperial examination.

"Lord Governor, now that our reinforcements have not arrived, the officers and troops of Yaque Pass are on the defensive, and it is not difficult to exterminate those Jiannu soldiers outside the pass, but if Jiannu moves troops to come, Yaque Pass will definitely not be able to stop their offensive."

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Yan Mingtai changed his words and said to Li Hongyu worriedly, to be honest, he didn't approve of Li Hongyu now provoking the Houjin army outside Yaque Pass.

"Lord Yan is too worried, it's just right that Jiannu dares to come, and this official can't wait for this." Li Hongyu smiled when he heard this, took a sip of the wine in the wine glass disappreciatively, and then asked lightly, "Lord Yan, do you know what Jiannu's biggest weakness is?" ”

"Please make it clear?" Yan Mingtai was slightly stunned when he heard this, he felt that Li Hongyu had something to say, so he bowed down and asked.

"The biggest weakness of Jiannu is that there are few people, I used to think that there were millions of people in Jiannu, but I have learned a lot about Jiannu along the way, the number of Jiannu is not million, there are five or six hundred thousand is already great."

Li Hongyu smiled slightly, drank all the wine in the cup, and then said in an orderly manner, "This makes it impossible for Jiannu to stretch the battle line too long, as long as he dares to come, then the official will be strong and clear, give them Yaque Pass and Qinghe Fort, and see how much territory they can occupy?" ”

"Lord Governor, you mean to lure the enemy deeper?" Yan Mingtai's eyes suddenly lit up when he heard this, and he thought that Li Hongyu's idea was good, and every time Jiannu occupied a place, he would inevitably divide troops and garrison them, so that the troops would be greatly dispersed, which would be of great benefit to the Ming army.

"This time, our army is in strict formation, so they can no longer carry out a sneak attack, so this officer is not afraid of them coming, but afraid that they will not dare to come." Li Hongyu smiled, picked up the wine jug and filled himself and Yan Mingtai with wine, looking quite high-spirited.

"Lord Governor, although this plan is good, the Lord is too risky here, the Lord is the commander of Liaodong, and he cannot take risks easily." Yan Mingtai pondered for a while, and solemnly persuaded that if Li Hongyu had an accident, none of them would be able to explain it.

"This official can attract Jian Chieftain here, and this official wants to see how capable his Eight Banners are."

Li Hongyu raised his glass to Yan Mingtai, and said nonchalantly, "Don't hide it from Lord Yan, this official has already transferred the Hongyi cannon from Liaoyang, and at that time, the invading Jiannu will come and go, and the blood will flow like a river." ”

"Lord Governor, have you brought in the Hongyi cannon?" Yan Mingtai was taken aback when he heard this, touched the wine glass with Li Hongyu, drank the wine in the cup and said in surprise, "Then Liaoyang's city defense has weakened a lot. ”

Yan Mingtai had seen the power of the Hongyi cannon in Liaoyang last year, not only did it hit far away, but it was also a big crater on the ground when the cannon went down, especially the flying shrapnel caused huge damage to the surroundings.

"Liaoyang City has high walls and thick walls, and Jiannu has nothing to do in the face of this kind of fortified city now." Li Hongyu drank all the wine in the cup and said with a smile, "Instead of putting them in Liaoyang, it is better to transport them to the front line to deal with Jiannu." ”

Yan Mingtai nodded again and again when he heard this, thinking that Li Hongyu was reasonable, those Hongyi cannons were usually reluctant to use them because they were too expensive, so it was better to take them to the battlefield.

However, not all people are as responsible as Li Hongyu, and if those Hongyi cannons are damaged, it will be troublesome.

In other words, Li Hongyu just used those Hongyi cannons as weapons, and he didn't have so many worries, and he bought another batch in the future, anyway, because the Wanli Emperor had been persuaded to open overseas trade after the defeat of Salhu, it would not be a piece of cake to buy artillery at that time.

In fact, Yan Mingtai didn't know that the reason why Li Hongyu beat Houjin in Yaque Pass with great fanfare was actually that the drunkard did not mean to drink, and his purpose was naturally the military and civilians in Yehebu, Kaiyuan City, and Tieling City in northeastern Liao.

Therefore, Li Hongyu played a trick to repair the plank road and secretly Chen Cang, hoping to attract Nurhachi's attention to this side.

In Li Hongyu's view, Yehebu, Kaiyuan City and Tieling City are the targets of Nurhachi, as long as these places are occupied, then Houjin's territory will not only expand dramatically, but also have no worries, and can go all out to attack Shenyang, Fushun and Qinghe and other places.

In addition, the place where Yehebu, Kaiyuan City, and Tieling City are located is a land with fertile land and abundant water and grass, which is thousands of times better than the Qinghe River, which is barren and steep in the mountains.

Therefore, Nurhachi will definitely take advantage of the victory to pursue and take the opportunity to capture Yehebu, Kaiyuan City, Tieling City and other places with important military and economic value, so as to not only increase his strength but also be able to fight with the Ming without worries.

Historically, Nurhachi's Later Jin army captured Kaiyuan City in June of the 47th year of Wanli and Tieling City in July, occupying two important towns of the Ming army in northeastern Liao, and then lost its grip on the flank of the Later Jin.

It is worth mentioning that at this time, Xiong Tingbi had just come out of the Shanhaiguan and could not do anything about it.

And in August of that year, Nurhachi finally waved his army to eliminate his henchman Yehebu, so that the Jurchens could be unified, and no one could shake Nurhachi's position.

Li Hongyu knew very well that the strength of the Jin army was too strong after the new defeat of the Ming army, and the Ming army did not have many effective ways to restrain the archers and archers of the Later Jin army, so even if he wanted to hold Kaiyuan and Tieling, it would be impossible, it would only cause greater casualties and make the situation in Liaodong worse.

Besides, the so-called not broken and not standing, the crumbling edifice of the Ming Dynasty has been beyond the human power to save, even if the Houjin is defeated, it will only enable the Ming Dynasty to survive for a period of time, and it will be the people who will suffer.

Therefore, Li Hongyu now wants to quietly wait for the coming of the chaotic times at the end of the Ming Dynasty and end this chaotic world as soon as possible, so naturally he can't fight with Houjin, so that the gains outweigh the losses, and if he loses the war, he will inevitably be impeached by the officials in the court.

At the same time, a matter related to Li Hongyu was in full swing, and more than 60 people from the 13 provinces of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty were participating in a special Enke examination specially set up by the Wanli Emperor in the Jingshi Gongyuan to obtain the tax officials who were proficient in commercial affairs in the Ming Dynasty.

On the third day of Li Hongyu's departure to Liaodong, after seeking the opinion of Princess Shouning, Emperor Wanli suddenly issued a decree that he was going to select tax officials from the capital's people to be responsible for the taxation of the royal family.

Emperor Wanli's decree suddenly caused an uproar among those who had not yet left the capital, and no one could have imagined that Emperor Wanli would make a big move for the tax collectors.

Although the Chinese military officials were suspicious in their hearts, the Wanli Emperor had already made it clear in his decree that the tax collectors would be responsible for the taxation of the imperial family, and had nothing to do with the major ministries of the Daming Dynasty, so they were not easy to say, after all, the Wanli Emperor was not easy to provoke.

Different from the usual situation where the lifters were excited and enthusiastically referenced, because Enke selected the tax officer this time, the lifters in the capital were not interested in it, firstly, this was not the right way to the two lists, and secondly, they also disdained the position of tax officer.

In the eyes of the people, the image and status of the tax officials in the Ming Dynasty are the most unbearable, and they can be directly equated with those local tax officials who bully and are extremely vicious, so few people can pull down this face for the sake of the face of the scholars.

However, not all lifters can take the exam, and the Wanli Emperor specifically stated in his edict that the age of the candidates must be under twenty-seven, so that more than half of the lifters are excluded, and those people will not put down their sons to take the exam anyway.

The reason why Li Hongyu set the upper age limit of the lifting child to 27 years old is because the younger lifting child is more receptive to new things, and he is more motivated and persevering in doing things.

In addition, the task of the Customs Department is an errand that requires physical strength and energy, and although the Commerce and Excise Bureau under the Customs Department is only responsible for overseas trade, it is difficult to cope without sufficient physical strength because of the many things involved in overseas trade.

In fact, the establishment of the Commercial Bureau and the Tax Bureau under the Customs Department has not yet been announced to the public, and they are collectively referred to as tax officials to the outside world, and Li Hongyu did this because he took into account that the social status of businessmen is the lowest, and he is most looked down upon by scholars.

Anyway, when the time comes, Li Hongyu has a workaround to make those who have passed the exam enter the business bureau on errands, and the most important thing at present is to recruit all the people first.

Because Li Hongyu went to Liaodong, Zhao Xin was naturally in charge of the examination, and the imperial examination is somewhat different from the imperial examination, Li Hongyu changed the examination, only testing fill-in-the-blank questions, true or false questions and multiple-choice questions, and for the first time in Daming, the 100-point system was assessed.

In addition, although the content of the exam is related to the Four Books and Five Classics, it is not limited to the Four Books and Five Classics, and there are also questions related to taxation.

Since each question has a unique standard answer, this kind of assessment is the fairest and fastest in Li Hongyu's opinion.

It is worth mentioning that among the more than 60 lifters who took the exam, half of them were from Huguang and Shanxi, which were obviously influenced by Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin.

Due to the small number of people who took the exam, the candidates took the exam in several wings of the Gongyuan, and Zhao Xin and Princess Shouning's concubine Ran Xingrang served as the chief examiner.

Zhao Xin is the Hanlin editor of the Hanlin Academy of the Ming Dynasty, so there is nothing wrong with him being the chief examiner, but Ran Xingrang is only from a lifting son, and the status of the Ming Dynasty concubine is originally low, which makes the reference of the lifting of a lot of criticism in private, but since the Wanli Emperor has issued an edict, they can only accept it.

In order to prepare for this exam, Zhao Xin spent a lot of energy, and since this was what Li Hongyu explained, she naturally had to do her errand.

Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin originally thought that it would be almost enough to have more than 30 lifters to take the exam, after all, the idea of being a tax official is deeply rooted in the hearts of scholars, and it is not easy for them to accept it for a while.

However, the reality was much better than the two of them predicted, and there were more than sixty people for reference, and the number of people was exactly twice as many as they predicted, which was a very good phenomenon for the two of them.

If there is no accident, these more than 60 people will all pass the assessment, and then go through almost a year of training to understand the operation and corresponding knowledge of the business bureau and the tax bureau.

To this end, Li Hongyu has compiled relevant textbooks, which will be taught by Zhao Xin during his absence from the capital.

Li Hongyu did not set the training time at one year for no reason, and it was almost the end of the year when he was busy with the affairs of Liaodong, and after returning to Beijing, he would stay for a few more months, and it was almost time to leave Beijing to prepare for the establishment of the Customs Department, so the one-year training period was just right.

Zhao Xin is not worried about the examination and training of the personnel of the Customs Department, she is concerned about Li Hongyu's situation in Liaodong.

The letter that Li Hongyu left to Zhao Xin had already told her about the defeat of the Ming army in Liaodong, and said that he had received the holy decree of Emperor Wanli to deal with the aftermath and stabilize the battle situation in Liaodong.

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is .. All come to read the mobile version reading website: m.