Although the Wanli Emperor was sluggish, many of the foreign ministers' recitals he took a negative attitude of staying in the middle of the country, but he still attached great importance to the border troubles in eastern Liao, since the news of the fall of Fushun reached the capital, the Wanli Emperor had nightmares for three nights in a row, each time he dreamed that a foreign woman rode on him and stabbed him with a spear, and he was sweating profusely when he woke up-

There is no need to ask the ministers to interpret the dream to understand that this alien woman represents the Jurchens, the threat of the Jianzhou Jurchen to the Ming regime is imminent, and on October 16, he learned the news of the defeat of Zhang Chengyin, the general army of Liaodong, and the Wanli Emperor couldn't sit still, since the attack last year, the emperor has not summoned the foreign ministers, this time he can't see the foreign ministers, October 21 in the Wenhua Hall summoned the cabinet and the six ministries of Jiuqing Kedao officials to discuss the crisis in Liaodong -

Xue Sancai, the acting secretary of the Ministry of War, reported the lack of wages in Liaodong, and since last autumn has been in arrears of 500,000 taels of Liaoning, he implored the emperor to send a large amount of internal money to help him so that Liaodong could recruit troops to deal with the offensive of the slave chieftains.

As soon as Emperor Wanli heard that he wanted the money from his inner treasury, he said: "The inner treasury is empty, and the palace is still insufficient, how can there be more silver to help the salary, and this matter has to be discussed by the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households. Zhiwu passed Liao's salary, and said: "The Liaozuo overturned army is a general, the situation is increasing, and the border affairs are very critical, so the Ministry will push a member of the general military officer, order the Ke period to take office, take care of military affairs, all defense and suppression matters, and arrange the officials such as the governor cheaply, and the service period will be extinguished." In order to lay the foundation of the frontier. and other things such as the transfer of salaries for military recruitment. That is, the meeting of the decree is played. ”

Fang Congzhe Qizuo said that the cabinet ministers and ministers were short of officials, and everything should be filled, and recommended Yang Hao, who was familiar with Liao affairs, to pass through Liaodong, and accused Li Weihan, the governor of Liaodong, of being mediocre and inactive, and should be dismissed from his post and investigated, and replaced by Zhou Yongchun, the right emperor, and the Wanli Emperor approved it, and ordered the Ministry of Officials to immediately recruit Yang Hao into the court.

……

Three days later. Xue Sancai, who was in charge of the Ministry of War, reported to the emperor the results of the meeting of the officials of the Ministry of War: first, 30,000 strong men from Baoding, Zhending and other places were recruited as soldiers; the second is that all sides of the abolition of the Ben family are allowed to use the army, and thousands of people can be obtained; Shanhaiguan is the gateway to Jiliao, and a general must be appointed to raise troops and suppress, not only to ensure that the Beijing division is safe, but also to support Liaodong, the military department will postpone the Sui staff general Juniper to garrison Shanhaiguan, Baoding General Wang Xuanguan, after Zhang Chengyin died in battle, Liaodong General Soldier is vacant, and it is planned to use the abolished general Li Rubai.

Xue Sancai's recital had just been submitted. The news that the rebel general Li Rufang had surrendered to Songshan Tunbao also came back, and all the eleven forts such as Fu'an, Huabaochong, and Sancha'er fell. After the Jiannu plundered, they burned down the village, and returned to Hetuara with the first snow of this winter, carrying Han people, cattle and sheep and other belongings—

Before withdrawing from the army, Nurhachi released two merchants who had been captured in Fushun and asked them to send letters to Li Weihan of Quang Ninh, these two merchants were the subordinates of the eunuch Lu, one of whom had been to Korea with Zhang Yuan, named Zhang Rushen and the other named Yang Xishun, who gave Li Weihan a document from Nurhachi to the Ming Dynasty, in which Nurhachi used the Seven Hatreds as the reason for raising the army, and asked the Ming Dynasty to send officials to negotiate with him Dajin on the matter of tribute and dismissal, which mentioned the return of Nalambaksh and the head of Huer Khan.

In order to alleviate the accusations of dereliction of duty and incompetence of the officials in the DPRK and China, Li Weihan also gave the emperor a letter at the same time as he forwarded Nurhachi's documents, deliberately exaggerating the seventh hatred of Nurhachi's seven hatreds, and said that the Jiannu army to invade Liaodong was forced by Zhang Yuan, which was Li Weihan's despicable psychology of wanting to find a scapegoat, and Li Weihan did not know that the imperial court had decided to dismiss him.

……

On October 29, the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of War submitted a letter to the Wanli Emperor after a meeting and a suggestion: to restore Yang Hao as the left attendant of the Ministry of War and the Imperial History of Liaodong; Wang Keshou, the governor of Jiliao, led his troops out of the customs and arrived in Guangning, and the camera was transferred to the governor; Zhou Yongchun patrolled Liaodong on behalf of Li Weihan, and the governor moved from Guangning to Liaoyang, and cooperated with Li Rubai, the new commander-in-chief of Liaodong, to resist the defense, and then try to advance after the arrival of the soldiers; Set up the Shanhaiguan military town, by the Yansui general Du Song as the Shanhaiguan commander-in-chief, Baoding general Wang Xuan led the headquarters of the troops and horses to move to the customs, and Juniper together with the arch guard Beijing Division; The military salary should be repaid as soon as possible, and the emperor should open the internal fund to subsidize the salary-

The Wanli Emperor, who was lazy in the past, also knew that Liaodong was in a hurry, so he approved it the next day, adopted all the suggestions of the military department and the official department, and added: "——Wang Ke is subject to the command of the troops out of the customs, the camera is in and out, and the service period is heavy, so as to ensure everything; The governors of Shuntian and Baoding moved to Shanhai and Yizhou to support each other; Liaodong soldiers rushed to recruit and replenish; Li Weihan dismissed from his post to listen to the inquiry; Yang Hao sent someone to urge him to come in the starry night, trying to make peace together, and there was no longer any delay in the matter. ”

Emperor Wanli finally relented and agreed to allocate 100,000 taels of silver from the treasury to solve the urgent need, and Taifu Temple also raised 60,000 taels of silver to buy war horses, and the rest had to be raised by the military department and the household department themselves.

……

On the third day of the first month of November, on the evening of this day, Qi Chengjiao came to Zhang Yuan's apartment, Qi Chengjiao looked solemn, tasted a little tea, and said: "Jiezi, Liaodong Li Weihan has the latest recital, which contains the paradox of the slave chief, the slave chief reiterates the seven hatreds, and asks for a negotiated strike to pay tribute, and mentions sending back Nalan Bakeshi. ”

To pay tribute is to go to the capital of Daming to contribute things, and Nurhachi has to come to pay tribute after winning the battle, isn't it strange? In fact, it is not surprising that although Nurhachi captured Fushun and annihilated Zhang Chengyin's 10,000 Ming army, he was still extremely jealous of the national strength of the Ming Empire, and affirmed that the seven hatreds were to find a reason for his own army, and said that he was persecuted and had to resist, and he wanted to let the Ming reopen the horse market and Jianzhou trade, after all, Nurhachi was not very confident in a comprehensive confrontation with the Ming Dynasty, and it would be best if he could strike the army and go to tribute, anyway, he had robbed a lot, After Nurhachi retreated, he burned down Fushun City and the surrounding villages, it can be seen that Nurhachi at this time had no intention of occupying the territory of the Ming Dynasty, he was just a big horse thief, and he left after robbing it, and it was the cowardice and incompetence of the Ming army in Liaodong that fueled his ambitions-

Zhang Yuan said: "The emperor has been very diligent recently, dispatching troops, raising military salaries, and launching a general attack on Jianzhou, foolishly thinking that he should not be in a hurry, what is the matter with negotiating with the old slave, he can be used as a strategy to delay the army——"

"Never!"

Qi Cheng said in horror: "Jiezi must not mention such words of boycott and peace talks to others, Jiannu captured Fushun and plundered Liaodong, the capital was shaken, and everyone from the emperor to the common people hated Jiannu, and only wanted to raise troops to sweep away the thieves' dens and capture the old slaves alive. ”

Zhang Yuan was silent, Qi Chengyin was right, if he advocated negotiating with Nurhachi at this time, even if it was a delaying strategy, it would not be tolerated by the government and the opposition, at this time, the Ming Shishu were still immersed in the dream of the Heavenly Empire, the fall of Fushun and the defeat of Zhang Chengyin did not cause them much vigilance, they only thought that it was a moment of negligence for the enemy to take advantage of, the territory of the Ming Dynasty was thousands of miles, and the population of Jianzhou Jurchen was in Haidong, the population was only hundreds of thousands, how could it compete with the Ming Dynasty, when the army from all walks of life arrived, Jiannu would be defeated by wolves, Twenty years ago, the three major expeditions of Wanli were all victories of the Ming Dynasty, and this time will not be an exception, if anyone says at this time that the Eight Banners Army is strong and difficult to defeat, it will definitely be said to be "destroying their own ambition and growing the enemy's prestige", "traitor" or "Ming traitor" This hat will be put on for you -

Qi Chengyi said again: "Then Li Weihan is responsible for the crime, and slandered in the song that it was you who captured and killed the Jiannu envoy in North Korea and caused the old slave to get angry and raise troops-"

Zhang Yuan sneered: "If you allow the slave chief to collude with Guanghaijun, you can avoid the fall of Fushun City?" Li Weihan is so shameless! ”

Qi Chengjiao said: "Although such absurd words are not worth arguing, but under the impetus of those with ulterior motives, I am afraid that it is not good for meson, and meson must be cautious, and don't mention the words of peace talks, otherwise it is giving people with ulterior motives an opportunity." ”

Zhang Yuan nodded and said, "Thank you Kuang Weng for reminding me, Zhang Yuan knows the stakes." ”

Qi Chengjiao said: "Those science and Taoist officials don't know the difficulties of the military department, lack of soldiers and salaries, and they are anxious." ”

Zhang Yuan asked: "The emperor refuses to pay more money and silver subsidies, how to solve the Liao salary?" ”

In fact, the Wanli Emperor is very good at collecting money, and there is a lot of silver in the inner government, and Zhu Changluo of Shi Zaiguangzong immediately issued two million taels of silver as the military salary of Liaodong and Jiubian after his accession to the throne, which is the savings of the Wanli Emperor, but now the Wanli Emperor is only willing to pay 100,000 taels of internal money, and it is useless to ask for the military department and the household department, so he has to find another way.

Qi Chengyi said: "Today, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households will consult, and Li Ruhua, the left attendant of the Ministry of Households, will cite the example of the previous year's conquest of the Japanese and the state, and increase the distribution according to the acres of land, plus three centimeters and five millimeters per mu, so that the whole country can get more than 2 million taels of silver, which will be used as Liao's salary. ”

Zhang Yuanxin said: "The chaos in Liaodong is protracted, and these two million taels of Liaoyu can solve Nurhachi's Eight Banners Army, which is really too wishful thinking. But now it's useless to say these things to Qi Chengjiao, Qi Chengjiao is just a soldier Langzhong, and asked: "Is Governor Wang out of the customs?" ”

Qi Chengyi said: "Governor Wang is still staying at Shanhaiguan, and he has to wait for Shanhaidu to lead the army to the pass. ”

Zhang Yuan said: "This is icy and snowy, Jiannu also went back to the old nest to avoid the cold and winter, our army does not need to rush out of the customs for the time being, buy healthy horses, new armor, muskets, and actively prepare for war. ”

Qi Chengjiao said: "There are about 5,000 branches, and 2,000 have been taken away by each side, and there are still more than 3,000 in the Ordnance Division. ”

Zhang Yuan said: "Three thousand is too little, and we have to step up to build it." ”

Qi Chengjiao said: "Shangqiu Yang Shilang will enter Beijing tomorrow, Yang Shilang is ordered to pass through Liaodong, transfer troops, levy salaries, and build ordnance, all have the right to decide, and Jie Zi can give advice to Yang Shilang." ”

In July, Zhang Yuan had sent Wu Ling to Shangqiu with his letter to meet Yang Hao, and in less than four months, Yang Hao made a comeback, Yang Hao was the decision-making figure in the upcoming war, especially the juniper, and Zhang Yuan had to exert influence on Yang Hao.

———————————————————— (To be continued.) For mobile phone users, please go to read. )