Fang Congzhe said: "Zishan said this, there must be a reason, I would like to hear it in detail." ”

"Those who are in chief must not be in chaos when facing the enemy, and their will is not strong. When the lower officials were in Ningxia, the northern captives invaded the border, and the local panic was in turmoil, and the generals all said that the captives were very numerous and could not be compared with the enemy. As a result, I sent my adjutant general to send a banquet over, and I said that it was the labor army, and the captives were panicked, and they actually withdrew like that. Huang Jiashan said: "Of course Yang Fengyun knows the soldiers, but I think he failed in the Battle of Ulsan that year, and his courage is a little weak!" ”

"Looking at his letter, it is true that the generals of all walks of life are not bold, and in addition, the military supplies are insufficient and the equipment is not fine, which is also true, right?"

"Ge Lao, the soldiers and horses in the border towns have never fought battalion soldiers." Huang Jiashan said as a matter of course: "After the Liaodong incident, there were more than 300 military attachés above the division level, and their families added up to nearly 20,000 people, and the entire clan of Dongyu was only more than 60,000 people, plus the Han army and the like were less than 100,000 people, among which the elite soldiers were about the same as my Ming generals, and I had the advantage of battalion firearms, and the number was far above it. ”

"Of course," Huang Jiashan added, "it is also very important to make a decisive command in the face of the enemy's camera." The route of the army, the generals are deployed, to stimulate morale, such as the reward for beheading the old slave, these may as well be raised higher, used to motivate the soldiers, if Yang Fengyun does these things well, the lower officials can't see any chance of victory for Dongyu. No matter what, the eastern captives have always been easier to fight than the northern captives, during the Jiajing period, the Jianzhou Wei made many offenses, and was killed by Li Chengliang very badly, Nuer Hachi also looked up to the Li Mansion to snort, which was spared from the disaster. ”

Fang Congzhe felt that Huang Jiashan also relied too much on his experience when he was in the northwest of Fubian, and did not study the eastern affairs very carefully, so he was afraid that he would not be able to believe his words, but he himself had never seriously taken care of border affairs, and he could only rely on Huang Jiashan's judgment in such matters.

Moreover, the whole court, including the military department, felt that there were many soldiers, and it was enough to recruit and suppress the eastern prisoners, and at this time, if he said that he was worried about failure, Fang Congzhe was worried that his original precarious reputation would be worsened in an instant.

"In that case," Fang Congzhe didn't mention that Yang Hao sent a special messenger to deliver the letter, he said: "This soldier and I sent the red flag to Liaodong together, urging Yang Fengyun to march immediately, and it can't be delayed until the first day of the first day of March at the latest, what do I think?" ”

"Dare to disobey?" Huang Jiashan said with a smile: "As soon as the heavenly soldiers arrive, the East Captives will become powder!" ”

……

After dark, the general manager of the letter was called to the Fang Mansion, and Fang Congzhe did not see him, but only called a Shuqi staff member to take the reply letter to the general manager, and instructed him to leave the city early tomorrow after tonight, without delay in the city, and after two days, the reply must be delivered.

In addition, this staff member told the general that the imperial court had decided to send a red flag to urge the use of troops, so his reply must be delivered before the red flag arrived in Shenyang, otherwise he was afraid that Inspector Yang would be caught off guard and make a joke. After all, this general trip is to extend the time limit for entering the army, and Fang Congzhe does not want his confidant to be in the dark when the Red Flag of the Military Department is sent to Shenyang.

The general is only a lower-level military attaché, in the early middle and early stages of the dynasty, the chief military attache is an important position, often a military position that can only be held by a military attache above the command level, and at the end of Wanli, the general status has been judged like a cloud of mud in the year, this general is only a hundred military attachés, six military positions, in the superintendent line to grasp a handful, to put it bluntly, it is a miscellaneous errand officer, the middle officer who is responsible for a lot of miscellaneous things in the line is the military position of the guerrilla rank, the three-grade military position, in the governor or patrol press the door, and even the military preparation road, the senator, and the acquaintances when they come to the door, the Chinese officers also have to kneel down with a smile, the military officers are worthless, and no one takes them seriously, the more they are like this, the more they understand the bottom things, and the more worried they are in their hearts.

This general is usually in the line of the line, seeing the arrogance of the adults, it seems that he does not take Donglu seriously, and the middle and lower-level military attaches he sees, as well as ordinary battalion soldiers, and even those well-equipped family members, when they mention fighting with Dongyu, everyone mutters in their hearts, and even feels timid. When Huang Jiashan and Fang Congzhe spoke, all the experience was based on the situation in Ningxia and the northwest, where the trick was Huoluochi, saying that there were more than 100,000 or 200,000 people, but in fact, even the number of the old and the young with women and children was less than this number, and the real armor was estimated to be a few thousand, and they were scattered everywhere in peacetime, and the Ming army generals and hundreds of families could drive away tens of thousands of herdsmen, and Liaodong was facing an elite army of tens of thousands of people. And the equipment and equipment of the main armor soldiers are far above the Ming army, the battle of Fushun Pass, the main force of the Ming army more than 10,000 people went to war, and the result was broken by the Houjin soldiers with a drum, except for a few people who escaped, even more than 100 military attachés and more than 10,000 soldiers including the general army were all killed, thousands of horses were lost, and countless military equipment were lost, this fiasco plus the loss of Fushun, the loss of Qinghe and the loss of more than 10,000 people, after successive fiascos, the Ming army in Liaodong has gradually lost confidence in the victory of Houjin, especially now that the weather is still cold, and the military horses are still very tired, It is a great irony to think that these big men raised such an army, but expected them to be able to easily defeat a strong enemy and achieve victory.

This general left the Prime Minister's Mansion with a complicated feeling, this time he was burdened with a heavy responsibility, although he had not read the letter, but he probably knew what the task was, but the result was unsatisfactory, he had a heavy gray feeling in his heart, left Fang Congzhe's mansion, and went to a hall in the capital of Liaodong to rest, and he had to hurry back early tomorrow morning, but the mood of coming and going was completely different.

It was already dark for a long time when the general from Liaodong left, and there were some officials waiting to be summoned in the concierge of the Prime Minister's Mansion, they either had something to visit them, or they were outsiders who came to give gifts, and there were also some officials who had just been released, and they came to the Prime Minister's Mansion to ask for a meeting, and they were invited to meet in time, of course, in fact, Fang Congzhe would not teach them the actual strategy of governing the place, this kind of reception was nothing more than an official article, nothing more than clinging, Fang Congzhe rarely saw them, most of them were asked to meet the staff, and there were also some cheeky people who were in the gatehouse, Expecting Xiang Ye to suddenly change his mind, as soon as they meet, when they come to the place in the future, they can pull up the tiger skin as a banner.

Before the change, all the foreign guests were either received or discouraged and left, some officials came almost every day, most of them were people from the Zhejiang Party or the Qi Party, they actually had nothing to do to see Fang Congzhe, but they would come to the Prime Minister's Mansion every day to wait for the summons, Fang Congzhe sometimes met, most of them were not seen, these people still came every day, and they worked harder and more attentively than they went to the Yamen.

Before the change, everyone's light, those who sold snacks inside and outside the alley also pushed the cart away, the sedan chair and the coachman who were originally lined up followed the master, only the lanterns in front of the Fangfu and the alley still exuded a warm luster, the spring is cold, the sun is better during the day, and the dead people who are still frozen like winter nights at night at night, except for the husband who beats the bangzi, there are few people walking on the street, ordinary people will not go out at this time, meet the five cities of the Terracotta Division or the Imperial History of the Patrol City, It is likely that they will be taken up and locked up overnight, or even beaten through the board, only those children of the lords and ministers who have status, or the children of the eunuchs and ministers, have just gone out at this time, calling friends, going to a certain mansion to drink, gamble, fight, and listen to tunes, in the east city is mostly the home of the powerful, when walking in the alleys and streets, you can faintly see the light in these mansions, hear the sound of silk and bamboo, when passing by these places, you can smell the aroma of wine and food wafting in the wind, and those happy laughter.

Xu Xiaoqi shrunk his neck, holding a yellowed lantern in his hand, and after smelling a burst of wine and food aroma in his nose, he looked at the deep door of the house and secretly cursed.

Even if he does things in front of the Prime Minister's Mansion, he is just a casual worker, good wine, good food and red envelopes can't take his turn, he is not a child, and he will not be able to be a chief steward and deacon in the future, and his future is really limited.

He is a native of the capital, the people in Fangfu are actually people from the capital of Daxing or Wanping, Fang Congzhe is a parasitic family, in the early years it was the Wenchen family, and later his ancestors entered the Jinyiwei nationality, Fang Congzhe grew up in Beijing, and the people used in the house are of course also mainly from Beijing, Xu Xiaoqi is not a few slaves who have their own families, usually they also live in Fangfu, and they can ask for leave to go home every once in a while, today Xu Xiaoqi is to ask for leave to come out.

His family lives not far from Fangfu, but the local environment is very different, and he lives on the edge of the city of Chongwenmen, surrounded by low bungalows and many thatched houses. As he approached the door, he heard the cry of someone clinging to the wall, which was particularly harsh in the middle of the night, and it was not a woman, but the cry of several men, and the dogs around him listened to the cry, but people did not bother to pay attention, and no one came out to see the movement.

Xu Xiaoqi also didn't pay attention to this matter at all, this is the inner city gate, there are many official shops outside the Chongwen Gate, there are also tax customs, people who enter the inner city have to pay taxes, the people in the official stores even rob those merchants from other places, Xu Xiaoqi grew up here, and there are too many injustices and tragedies to see, some merchants are all blackmailed or cheated, or they can only hang themselves if they don't get their money back, after such a cry, most of them will have a few more corpses tomorrow morning, it may be a big deal in the field, and no one cares about it here in Chongwenmen in the capital, Those people are either the rich slaves in the lord's mansion, or the guests of the eunuch's house, and then the family of a certain prince, who dares to touch the nails of these people? Not to mention the official government, even Fang Congzhe, the first assistant, and even the Wanli Emperor in the Forbidden City can't control it.