prosperous age

Chapter 305 Chapter 304

In fact, Ma Fang is a "walking back person". He passively went outside the Great Wall, and then found an opportunity to escape back to Daming.

But the white lotus disciples that Ma Fang was talking about were not like that.

In the 30th year of Jiajing, more than a thousand members of the White Lotus Sect led by Lu Laozu, Xiao Qin, Qiao Yuan, etc. were preparing to revolt. They planned to cooperate with Altan Khan in the middle of the night on May [-]th to seize Datong and then Zuowei City.

Later, it failed due to leaking secrets. As a last resort, most members of the White Lotus Sect left Ninglubao one after another and defected to Altan Khan.

Because these people are relatively familiar with the situation in the Datong area, they played the roles of counselors, guides, and secret agents in the battle between Altan Khan and Datong Town, which led to the repeated defeats of the Ming army. Because of this, Ming Zhen, Zhao Quan and others were reused by Al Da.

Wei Guangde already knew these things when he read the mansion newspaper before, and when he heard Ma Fang mentioning "going back to people", he naturally thought of the Bailian Cultist who had only been out of the fortress for a few years.

If other Ming people have the opportunity to return to Daming, they should look for a job to live and work in peace and contentment, and will never be the internal support of the Tartars.

However, the acceptance of these people is the national policy of Ming Dynasty, which has been started since the founding of the country. Although the acceptance policy will be adjusted in various periods, the overall focus is still on acceptance, so naturally it cannot be interrupted because of this.

"Insufficient food, grass and military equipment stored in the military fort in the border town is also an important reason for the destruction of the military fort."

But then Ma Fang mentioned military funds. In fact, the military funds allocated by the imperial court to the border town every year are sufficient, and the premise is naturally that there is no corruption.

However, the current Ming Dynasty is different from the beginning of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Armaments, food and salaries have been deducted layer by layer from the very beginning, leading directly to the lowest level of military fortresses and soldiers. ".

There is no doubt that lack of food and qualified weapons had a huge impact on the combat effectiveness of the Ming army.

After hearing this, Wei Guangde knew that this cannot be changed, at least at the current stage, with such an atmosphere in the officialdom, who would dare to block the opportunity of officials to make a fortune?
"If Xuanfu doesn't concentrate the elite combat power of the whole town, it won't be able to fight the Ida Department?"

Wei Guangde suddenly thought, since the internal problems cannot be solved, he should seek to directly solve the external problems and directly defeat the Mongolian Alta Ministry. Will the crisis on the border be resolved soon?
"It can win, but it can't be wiped out. When they turn around, they will regroup and fight back."

Ma Fang could understand Wei Guangde's thoughts. In fact, he had considered encircling and annihilating the main force of the Alda Department more than once, even if it was only the main force of Huang Taiji or Qingtaiji.

But after careful analysis, Ma Fang knew that the possibility of success in encirclement and suppression was too low.

Mongolia has a small population, but there are a lot of horses. As long as they are on horses, it will be difficult for the Mongols to fight against the Ming army.

If they go in formation, how many troops will be needed to encircle them?
Ma Fang couldn't imagine that the current imperial court could invest a lot of resources in such a war. The key is to invest in resources, but the result is unknown.

Tell Wei Guangde, maybe he will be interested, but Wei Guangde at this stage does not have the strength to have such a major influence in the court.

Last time Wan Quan's left and right guards had a problem with military pay, so Ma Fang asked Wei Guangde for help, and everyone was happy with the result.

The delivery of the military salary made Wanquan's left and right guards look at Ma Fang differently. These days, those who carry knives in Bianzhen are fun, but those who have a background in the court. To be promoted and make a fortune, you need someone above.

What does it mean for one person to ascend to the sky, that is, as long as he is valued by Ma Fang, and Ma Fang is promoted in the future, his subordinates will naturally have the opportunity to fill in the top position.

For a while, Ma Fang's prestige in the jurisdiction reached its peak. Everyone admired the new deputy commander and were willing to serve him.

Taking this opportunity, Ma Fang explained her original thoughts to Wei Guangde in detail. Although she knew that Wei Guangde was definitely helpless, but she had this consciousness that entered Wei Guangde's mind first, and it might take more than ten years for Wei Guangde to really enter the imperial court. When he was at the top of the church, Ma Fang still had the opportunity to realize this idea.

At the moment there is no news about Shen Xiang, Wei Guangde would be happy to hear Ma Fang's views on the situation in the border town, or on the war plan.

"If you want to concentrate your forces to encircle Qingtaiji or Huangtaiji's troops, how many people are needed?"

Wei Guangde didn't expect to fight Altan Khan. He had 40,000 people in his hands. If he mobilized other reserve soldiers, it would be more than [-] to [-]. It is simply unrealistic to eliminate such a tribe.

On the contrary, Wei Guangde remembered what Ma Fang said, Huangtaiji and Qingtaiji had tens of thousands of households, and the main force in their hands was only tens of thousands of people, which made it much easier to fight, at least not on a large scale.

Moreover, they can take advantage of the opportunity of their attack on Xuanfu or Datong to take action, encircle and annihilate them.

Hearing what Wei Guangde said, Ma Fang knew that Wei Guangde was a little tempted, but he would not lie about anything, but told the truth: "The elite soldiers must be at least 30,000 people."

"Thirty thousand? Three times as many troops to encircle and wipe out?"

Wei Guangde pondered slightly when he heard the number reported by Ma Fang.

"More than that, 30,000 people are at least five or six times the Tartars, and there is every chance to wipe them out."

When Ma Fang heard Wei Guangde's words, she immediately explained: "My lord, the Tatars will not attack the border towns with all their strength, they will usually only use about half of their forces, and in reality there will be only 6000 or [-] people.

If they come out in full force, the battle will be serious, and the other tribes of the Tartars will often launch attacks from different positions. In that case, we cannot concentrate our elites to launch encirclement and annihilation tactics. "

After hearing Ma Fang's explanation, Wei Guangde naturally understood what it meant.

It was only because he didn't react all of a sudden that he came to the same judgment as before. In fact, he would understand the truth after sitting down and thinking about it carefully.

"Is there any new news from the north recently? Are there no tribes close to Altan Khan's forces on the grassland?"

At this time, Mongolia seemed to be the dominant tribe of the Alta tribe. Wei Guangde naturally hoped that new and powerful tribes would also appear on the vast grasslands.

"No, the three left-wing tribes with a little strength in the northern grassland, but after choosing to move eastward in order to avoid being annexed by the Alta Khan tribe, there is no longer any tribe that can fight against the Alta Khan tribe."

Ma Fang shook her head and said.

"Where did the three left-wing tribes move eastward, and who is their Great Khan now?"

Wei Guangde couldn't help but think of the discussion in the Imperial Academy before. In fact, before he entered the Imperial Academy, most of the officials in the Imperial Academy thought that Mongolia was one. It wasn't until he returned from the Xuanfu battle the year before last that the Imperial officials knew about it. Fighting among Mongolian tribes is also very fierce.

Of course, Wei Guangde heard these things from Ma Fang.

However, the Imperial Academy collected a lot of literature and materials, so everyone went to the library to rummage, and found a lot of materials about the various ministries of Mongolia, but time has passed and things have changed.

Reading those books can only study the history of various tribes in Mongolia, but it is meaningless for the present, so when Wei Guangde saw Ma Fang this time, he naturally planned to learn more.

"I heard that part of the left-wing Chahar and Khalkha tribes chose to move eastward. It is said that they are in the Hetao area of ​​​​the Liaohe River. The current Khan recognized by the left wing is Daresun Kudeng Khan. He must not be able to compete with Altan in terms of ability. Bi, otherwise I would not have chosen to flee, because I was afraid of being annexed by Altan."

Ma Fang frowned and thought for a while before saying, how many years has he been back to Daming, and the news about Mongolia is only learned from people and prisoners, and the information is very scattered.

He needs to piece together these scattered news, so naturally he needs to use his brain.

From the Ming Dynasty to the present, a complete military intelligence system has not been formed. In the border towns, spies are used to spy on the military, and more often they send out scouts rather than spies.

Of course, there may also be generals who thought of this in a flash of inspiration during the battle and sent people to work in this area, but obviously a complete system has not been formed.

Jin Yiwei may have taken on such a task, but they only serve the top of the empire, that is, only Emperor Jiajing may know the information of these foreign domains.

Of course Wei Guangde didn't know where the Liaohe Hetao was, but it was estimated to be an area close to Liaodong.

"What tribes are the three left-wing tribes called?"

Wei Guangde suddenly felt moved and asked.

"The most powerful of the three left-wing tribes is Chahar, as well as the Khalkha tribe and Wuliangha, and the right-wing Ordos, Mengguoljin, and Yongxiebu, all of which were entrusted by Dayan Khan at that time. Tan is the leader of the Ordos Department, and the three right-wing departments are in charge."

Hearing Ma Fang's answer, Wei Guangde nodded. He had some impressions of Wuliangha and Chahar. As for Ordos, Wei Guangde didn't know the tribe, but he knew the place where coal was all under his feet.

However, these six tribes did not have the Horqin that Wei Guangde was familiar with, so he was a little confused. Could it be that Horqin was one of the six tribes that changed its name later.

It's just that for the officials of the Ming Dynasty in this era, it is too troublesome to distinguish the various tribes of Mongolia. They generally only need to identify the tribe leaders.

For example, the Ministry of Alta Khan was unified as the Ministry of Alta in the Ming court.

Although Wei Guangde felt something was wrong with the confused understanding of Mongolia by the princes and ministers of the Ming court, he couldn't change anything, because he couldn't tell what was going on and what was the relationship between the various Mongolian ministries.

He just subconsciously realized that if he didn't understand the history and relationship between the Mongolian tribes, he might not get twice the result with half the effort and win twice the result with half the effort if he wanted to divide and win over the Mongolian tribes.

What Wei Guangde didn't know was that the eastward migration of left-wing Mongolia that Ma Fang mentioned was historically known as the "south migration of left-wing Mongolia". towards.

In fact, before the left-wing Mongols moved eastward, although the Mongols occasionally appeared in the southeast of the Great Khingan Mountains, they were not very long in terms of scale or residence time.

With the migration of the left-wing Mongols, it was inevitable that they began to communicate with the Jurchen tribes in the north. At the same time, their arrival also increased the military pressure on the Liaodong Ming army, and they were finally defeated by the combined forces of Jurchen and Mongolia.

While Wei Guangde and Ma Fang were chatting about the relationship between the Mongolian tribes in the north, the scouts from the southeast who had been sent to check the direction of Huailai had already galloped back, as if they had spotted their target.

If people are still behind them, they have more room to operate.

Sure enough, the two guards rushed to Wei Guangde, reined in their mounts, and reported to Wei Guangde: "About half a day's journey ahead, we found a team of officials from Zhejiang and a prison cart."

"Why did it take so long to report back?"

Wei Guangde said in surprise, they were not sent out just now, but had already been sent out to search for them before, and after two days of searching, they ended up half a day's journey behind them.

"My lord, it's not our fault. These officials think that the sun is poisonous during the day, so they don't rush on the road very much. They just take advantage of the coolness in the morning and evening to go on the road, so we missed it. I heard the shopkeeper mention it during dinner." We just found out."

One of them hurriedly replied.

"The Zhejiang officials also seem to know that sending the criminals to the place may be doomed, and they seem to be delaying time on purpose."

The person who spoke before spoke again.

Wei Guangde is not interested in these things, but thinking about it, one can know that no matter what the Shen family is in Zhejiang, there will still be some relatives and friends. Seeing that the Shen family is in trouble, although it is obvious that they cannot help them, they will also take care of them in private. At least let Shen Xiang not be too ugly along the way.

"My lord, are you planning to rescue him?"

When those two people were called down to rest by Wei Guangde, Ma Fang asked suspiciously.

Wei Guangde stayed here to wait for someone. Hearing what the two guards said, Ma Fang naturally understood who they were waiting for. Who else could be loaded in the prison car from Zhejiang, and that could only be Shen Lian's son.

However, he has a lot of opinions on Wei Guangde's attempt to rob the prison car. The prison car is easy to rob, but it doesn't end well. This is a serious crime.

But Wei Guangde shook his head, "Hijacking a prison car is no different from rebellion. As the imperial court officials, how can we do such a thing."

After hearing Wei Guangde's words, Ma Fang's heart that was still beating violently "thumping" calmed down.

"I came to Xuan Mansion to do business according to the order, and I understand the current situation here. As for Shen Xiang, I can only depend on his fate."

Wei Guangde explained to Ma Fang: "I have sent the most important letters to the capital, and I think the court will make a decision soon.

But, no matter what, since I know about the Shen family, I don't want to stand idly by. I can't stop it directly. It's okay to find a way to delay it. As long as the new order arrives in the capital, we will retire.

Besides, the errands on my body have not been unloaded, and the things here are over, and I have to rush back to follow Mr. Tang to inspect Ji Town. "

"Back when Master Yang Bo was here, Bianbao could still get supplies in time no matter what, but now, Master Yang Shun Yang, that's good."

Ma Fang couldn't help shaking her head when she said this, "The military salary of my Wanquan left and right guards should have been allocated long ago, but it has been suppressed all the time. I heard that the military salary has become a reward. I haven't won any battles. Where did the reward come from? It's just that they were greedy for ink.

I also have no choice. I used to be a guerrilla, and I could find a way to do it if there were few people to eat. Now I have two guards with tens of thousands of people who need to eat. I have no choice but to ask the adults. "

"Come to me if you have any problems."

Wei Guangde replied lightly, "Are there any clever people under your command?"

(End of this chapter)