prosperous age

Chapter 207 Chapter 206 Battlefield
"Cough cough."

Weng Pu coughed violently, which made Wei Guangde tremble with fear, as if he wanted to cough up his lungs.

In fact, since yesterday, Wei Guangde felt that Weng Pu couldn't bear it anymore, and there were violent coughing sounds from time to time in the carriage.

Thinking about it, the conditions for food and lodging on business trips are not good, and now that the war is starting again, it is estimated that the pressure on Weng Pu's side is much greater than that of Wei Guangde, and he is also worried about changes in the war situation, and worried that once the Ministry of Defense breaks through the Great Wall again and threatens the capital.

In fact, Weng Pu still has another worry that he didn’t say, that is, if Juyongguan is lost and the Tartars march into Changping, the tombs of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty and after Yongle are buried nearby, which is not much less meaningful than Nanjing and Fengyang.

After a long time, Weng Pu finally regained his strength, took a sip of the tea Wei Guangde handed over to him.

"My lord, let me find you a doctor to take a look. You have worked hard these days."

Wei Guangde whispered to Weng Pu, but Weng Pu waved his hands, "I know my body, it doesn't bother me, maybe it's because I was in a hurry to travel the past few days and caught the wind and got cold."

Weng Pu didn't do anything for a while. At his age, he was usually pampered in the capital, and he would invite a doctor to see him twice a year. They were all minor ailments, the kind that would be fine after taking two medicines.

"I'd better find someone to look at. My lord is now ordered to supervise military affairs, and the frontline army needs you to take care of it. If your lord's body makes any mistakes during the war, there will be no leader in the group, and the consequences will be disastrous."

Wei Guangde still said.

"You ask someone to come and see it. You rest early tonight. We will go to Juyongguan tomorrow."

Weng Pu was not tempted by what Wei Guangde said before, but he had to pay attention to what Wei Guangde said later.

It should be just a small problem now, but if it really drags on for a long time and develops a serious problem, if it happens to be when the two armies are fighting in full swing, it will really be a situation where the dragons have no leader.

When Wei Guangde heard Weng Pu's words, he was happy at first, but after hearing the words later, he felt cold.

I really met a master who is not afraid of death. Is this really planning to go to the front line to fight the Tartars?

To be honest, Wei Guangde didn't think it mattered about patrolling the border, so he just went and looked around.

He is not the same as Weng Pu, Weng Pu is not Hanlin, so his highest is to be a minister, but he is Hanlin, and he will have the opportunity to attack the cabinet ministers in the future.

Entering the cabinet with military affairs has happened a long time ago, but it hasn't come out for decades.

Wei Guangde had checked the information before, and he knew that there seemed to be only two of the Ministry of War in the cabinet, and their reputations were not very good.

The first one is of course Xu Youzhen, Shangshu of the Ministry of War. He was later rewarded by Emperor Yingzong and entered the cabinet because of his participation in the "Change of Seizing the Gate".

There is also an official from the Ministry of War who is very close to the present, and that is Zhang Cong. I won't say much about how he came to the top.

Wei Guangde is a little worried at the moment, if he always follows Weng Pu in military affairs, he will be transferred to a military civil servant by the people in the court, and there is really no hope of joining the cabinet at that time.

Well, as a civil servant, all of them regard joining the cabinet as their goal.

Now that Wei Guangde has reached this stage, he naturally hopes to have the opportunity to go there.

If he hadn't been able to enter the Hanlin Academy before, he wouldn't have expected anything, but now it's different.

After the doctor in Changping City came here to show Weng Pu his body, he found that there was nothing serious, but he was tired from working hard for days, so he prescribed two medicines to make Weng Pu pay more attention to rest.

Early the next morning, not long after Wei Guangde got up, he was urged to leave by Weng Pu's envoy.

In fact, the passes of the Great Wall are completely different from most people’s impressions. These obstacles are often chosen to be located in a slightly lower position among the continuous mountains, and a road can be opened here to avoid the fatigue of crossing mountains and ridges.

Standing on the tower of Juyongguan, Wei Guangde looked at the city walls on both sides still winding along the mountain like crouching dragons. It looked majestic and majestic, but actually felt useless.

Those mountains are very difficult for normal people to overcome, let alone a large army.

People can walk, but horses are troublesome.

Yes, Wei Guangde felt that instead of wasting people and money to build the majestic Great Wall, it is better to use the funds to train an elite army.

The pass of the Great Wall is still needed, which can prevent the enemy from striding forward along the official road, use the pass to delay the enemy's advancing speed, and then mobilize elite troops to attack after confirming the position and strategic intention of the enemy's main force.

As for the opponent's light troops crossing the mountains and mountains, such an army will not be a large group, but it is actually very easy to deal with.

However, he also knew that with the current officialdom, let it go, don't play yourself to death.

Juyongguan City Tower has now become Weng Pu's temporary command post, here to send and receive battle reports from all over the front line, Wei Guangde can only follow behind Weng Pu, he doesn't know whether he is praising the painting or what, just helping Handling some documents, and occasionally being caught by Weng Pu to ask his views on the current situation.

Because of this position, Wei Guangde understood the current frontline situation by reading the battle reports sent from various places.

After entering the customs from Wafanggou, the Anda Department arrived at Chicheng Castle in the north, Baoanzhou in the west, Huailai in the south, and naturally the corner of the Great Wall in the east.

The scope is neither big nor small.

The reinforcements mobilized by Wanquandu Division are currently rushing to Baoan Prefecture and Chang'an Office. The report from Huailai Defense Office only found Tartar reconnaissance cavalry, but no large group of cavalry. Only Baoanzhou, Yanqing and Yongning are left.

"My lord, I guess that the main force of the IDA Department should be concentrated in the security guards and the Yanqing generation, and the people around them may be small groups of people who go out to loot property and investigate."

Wei Guangde was called by Weng Pu to the map to ask his opinion on the current situation.

"The Alda Department has already lost the opportunity. At least after they chose to attack Wafanggou, they not only did not go south to Juyongguan, but attacked Chicheng Castle and the guards of Chang'an. This should sweep away the obstacles on the way back. There is no possibility of raiding the capital."

When Wei Guangde said this, he glanced at Weng Pu. He was just staring at the map, his old face showed no expression, but asked in a deep voice: "What can they grab here? This place is not as rich as the capital in Guannei. .”

But, don't look at the fact that the IDA's army entered the Great Wall again, but the surrounding areas of Yanqing are not very rich, and there is still a gap with Changping and Miyun. At least if they enter Miyun, they will go south to Huairou and Shunyi, and there is still a chance to attack Tongzhou. You will make a lot of money.

Naturally, Wei Guangde has been thinking about this question for a long time, what are they doing here?
Although Wei Guangde had some guesses, he was not very sure, after all, it was all in the late Ming Dynasty.

Yes, Wei Guangde was a little suspicious that Alta Khan entered the customs this time to receive supplies from Shanxi.

Because Huailai continued to go south, he would enter Weizhou, Shanxi.

Since Wei Guangde entered the Hanlin Academy, he has also investigated the changes in the business environment of Shanxi merchants in recent years. After all, the "Eight Great Masters of Shanxi Merchants" are still very famous.

They smuggled strategic materials to Jianzhou Jurchen, and the two sides of the transaction, on the one hand, obtained commodities that were in short supply in Daming through various relationships, while on the other hand, they continued to slaughter and plunder the gold and silver of the Han people for trading with Shanxi merchants.

Saying that Shanxi merchants are "traitors" actually did not wrong them.

It's just that the current Shanxi merchants have already started smuggling transactions with the Mongols?
Wei Guangde didn't find too many abnormalities before.

Indeed, it is a fact that the business environment of Shanxi merchants has changed a lot.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the "Satisfying Grain and Opening the Chinese Law" was implemented. By transporting grain to border towns to obtain salt, and selling salt to make a profit, it can be said that it is very profitable for Shanxi merchants.

They recruited a large number of people to farm on the border and bought grain in exchange for salt.

Although in the fifth year of Hongzhi, Ye Qi, the Minister of the Household Department, played "Nayin Opens the Chinese Law" and was approved by the court, which seriously damaged the interests of Shanxi merchants.

Inland merchants can get Yanyin without having to transport grain all the way to the border. This makes Shanxi merchants who used to monopolize most of Yanyin very dissatisfied. Salt cited.

Soon after the implementation of the new salt law, the Shangtun ceased to exist. At this time, the Ming court was no longer the court in the early Ming Dynasty. Silver taels.

Even if these silver taels are exchanged for food, the amount of silver that can really enter the pockets of Shanxi merchants is still less.

In fact, Wei Guangde also saw in the library of the Imperial Academy that in recent decades, local officials in Shanxi also reported that there were unscrupulous businessmen who began dumping supplies outside the customs, but the number was not large, so Wei Guangde naturally did not pay attention at that time.

Smuggling is unavoidable.

It's just that the strange action of the answering department this time made him feel a little vigilant.

I remember that when later generations introduced the family history of Shanxi merchants, it was mentioned that Shanxi merchants once raised too much material and could not directly send them out of the customs to trade with Jianzhou Jurchen. Jianzhou directly sent troops to sweep the grasslands and harassed the side wall of Daming along the way. , Pick up the supplies.

Shanxi merchants directly traded with the Jurchens on the battlefield, which is really unimaginable.

With this guess, Wei Guangde naturally fixed his eyes on the lower left corner of the map, Huailaiwei, there is a border town next to it, and then there is an official road leading directly to Shanxi to Weizhou.

At the junction of Shanxi and Zhili, there is Zhuolu Mountain, and at the foot of the mountain is the Meiyu Guardhouse of Thousand Households.

But right away, Wei Guangde thought that the southern part of the area where the Tartar scouts and cavalry haunted only reached Huailai, perhaps they were guarding against reinforcements from Datong.

If my previous guess was correct, then the smugglers should also send their goods to the area north of Huailai.

Up to now, Wei Guangde still doesn't think Al Da Khan will choose to attack Yanqing and threaten Beijing.

Weng Pu also seemed to have been shaken, and no longer insisted that the target chosen by Altan Khan was the capital.

"My lord, tell me, will someone send some things that Altan Khan is interested in to the vicinity of Yanqing Prefecture?"

Wei Guangde just tentatively said something, and he has already thought about what to do next. Anyway, when he was in the Imperial Academy, he did check the report of the former Jiangxi magistrate. Go out of the customs without permission to trade tea, iron and other restricted materials with the Mongols.

It's just that Weng Pu's reaction was very flat, he just looked up at Wei Guangde, and then lowered his head and continued to look at the map, but he didn't know whether he was really looking at the map or thinking about something.

After a while, someone sent a new document, which was sent by the Xuanfu.

However, Weng Pu flew into a rage after reading the documents, but the cultivation of a literati still allowed him to suppress his temper that was about to explode, and just threw the documents in his hand heavily on the desk.

Wei Guangde was curious, walked over and picked up the document carefully, looked at it, and frowned slightly.

Xuanfu's army has already moved out one after another, and the vanguard has arrived near Bao'an Prefecture, and they have begun to confront the prairie cavalry of the Alta tribe.

According to the document, the main force of the Alda Department is in Baoan Prefecture, preventing the Xuanfu army from advancing half a step. This is to ask Weng Pu, the admiral of military affairs, for instructions on the next move.

Shaking his head lightly, Wei Guangde didn't know what to say.

The enemy is right in front of you, you are ready to fight if you can win the fight or not, but you said that the two armies were facing each other but did not launch an attack, and you came to ask Weng Pu what I should do next.

"Cough cough."

After finally suppressing his anger, Weng Pu couldn't help coughing a few times, opened the door and stepped out of the tower, standing on the wall and looking out.

Wei Guangde put the documents on the side of the desk, where all kinds of battle reports received these days were neatly stacked, but soon there was a strong wind blowing into the room from the outside, making the desk on the desk rattle.

"Use a paperweight to press all the paperwork."

Wei Guangde told the scribes beside him that these people were found by the magistrate of Changping Prefecture, after all, they did not bring scribes with them when they went out this time.

Here is a mountain pass, blocked by high mountains on both sides. The wind blowing from the northwest is blocked by the mountains and naturally converges to the mountain pass, so the wind is particularly strong on Juyongguan.

Wei Guangde also walked to the door at this moment and was about to close the door, when he heard Weng Pu's words in his ear.

"Guangde, you go and write a document, and the wording is stricter, so that the Datong army will rush to Huailai as soon as possible and move closer to my side."

Hearing this, Wei Guangde said "yes", turned around and went back to the room to start writing official documents.

The latest urgent report from the Datong Army came two days ago, saying that the army has assembled and set off, and will arrive in Weizhou in three days, and will enter Beizhili in seven or eight days and pass through Meiyusuo.

Combined with the previous urgent report from the Xuanfu, Wei Guangde understood that Weng Pu also knew that he could not force the Xuanfu army to take the initiative to attack the Alda tribe. He could only wait for the arrival of the Datong army, and use the superior force to force the Alda tribe to retreat and withdraw from the Great Wall pass.

If the Alda Department does not retreat, then after the Datong Army enters Huailai, there will be large armies assembled in Yongning, Yanqing, and Huailai. First of all, the safety of Juyongguan and Zhenbian Town, two important passes of the Inner Great Wall, will be ensured.

If the Tartars really wanted to invade Juyongguan, they would be surrounded by armies from the three regions, forming a situation of encirclement on all sides.

If you choose to go south to attack the border towns, you will be flanked by the Yanqing and Huailai Datong armies.

However, if the Alda Department really stayed where it was, the battlefield would be basically determined, in the relatively narrow triangle formed by Baoan Prefecture, Yanqing Prefecture, and Huailai Institute.

(End of this chapter)