"Ma Shangshu, Your Majesty has summoned you, you slow down. Emperor Hongzhi's attendant eunuch Xiao Guizi said to Ma Wensheng, the secretary of the military department.

"There is Lao Gui's father-in-law. ”

"Ma Shangshu, you're polite. ”

Ma Wensheng is already eighty-one years old, and he walked tremblingly to the imperial study room of the Qianqing Palace, "Minister Ma Wensheng knocks to see Your Majesty." Marven ascended to the imperial study and knelt down to salute Emperor Hongzhi.

"Ma Aiqing is old, hurry up and give a seat. If it weren't for the urgency of the situation, I wouldn't have summoned Ma Aiqing. ”

"Your Majesty is too polite, eat the king, and share your worries for the king. Marven got up and clenched his fists and replied.

"Ma Aiqing, you don't have to be formal, otherwise I can't bear it. ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty. His Majesty summoned his ministers at this time, but it was for this invasion of the northern captives. ”

"As Ma Aiqing said, in this invasion of the northern captives, our border army of 200,000 was defeated by 50,000 northern captives, and I would like to ask Aiqing what to do. ”

"Your Majesty is not very shocked and angry that the border army of 200,000 is defeated by 50,000 captives in the north. ”

"As Ma Aiqing said, I can't figure it out, please ask Aiqing to solve my doubts. ”

"Your Majesty knows that the army here is divided into soldiers and auxiliaries. ”

"Aiqing knows that there are frequent wars in my dynasty, and I hope to govern the country of my Rose Empire well, and I don't care much about military affairs. Please Ma Aiqing to solve my doubts. ”

"Your Majesty's benevolence is the blessing of my empire and the blessing of the people. The minister has the cheekiness to talk about the military affairs for His Majesty, and I hope Your Majesty will not blame him. ”

"Ma Aiqing should be humble, Aiqing is a veteran of the three dynasties, and he has led the troops to fight against the northern captives many times, and he has worked hard and made great achievements, how can I blame him, please Aiqing but it doesn't matter. ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty. In the army, there are soldiers and auxiliaries. Soldiers are combat soldiers, they need to be trained for combat, they need to be distributed, and they need more rations for training than auxiliaries. Soldiers need to wear armor and hold weapons in combat, but the army needs to fight long distances, and the fighters will disappear in a moment's turn, so the soldiers are fast, and the northern captives are cavalry, and the northern captives are especially fast. If the soldiers run for a long distance and are armored and armed, they will not be able to fight when they reach the battlefield.

Therefore, in order to save military salaries, auxiliary soldiers are rarely used in peacetime, and only a small part of the firehead army is retained, and the people are requisitioned in the war.

However, this pass is always facing the threat of northern captives, the land is barren, and the people are very few, but there are 200,000 troops hoarded at the border pass, and the consumption is very heavy, so half of the 200,000 troops are auxiliary soldiers who supply military supplies in Tuntian in peacetime, and transport grain and grass in wartime, and some people are also required to levy and distribute some people.

In this way, there are 100,000 soldiers who can fight at the border pass, but the northern captives are cavalry, and most of the troops at our border pass are foot soldiers. The cavalry of the northern captives came and went like the wind, and our army attacked if it was few, and our army fled when it was large, and it was impossible to pursue and suppress it. In this way, our border soldiers can only build strongholds and guard those border towns and strongholds.

This time the northern captives sent 50,000 troops, 50,000 troops far better than any of our side of the garrison, if the local troops are rescued, it will be robbed by the northern captives, if not saved, our major towns have more food and grass than more than a month, not to mention the stronghold, the northern captives only need to besiege, and then sweep around, we are a stronghold, a heavy town lost, so the rest of the month we will definitely suffer heavy losses. ”