prosperous age

Chapter 382 Chapter 381
At the beginning of Shen, that is, around three o'clock in the afternoon, it was time for Ming Dynasty officials to get off work.

But today is very strange, there is no scene of officials filing out in front of the gates of the major yamen, and the gatekeepers at the gates of the yamen are not surprised, because at this time they are also gathered together to chat enthusiastically .

"Anyway, I think the master over there in Datong is really daring, hehe. Thousands of people ran away with tens of thousands of Tartars. What a joke."

"I think so too"

Walking past them, you can hear the crowd talking fiercely.

The inner and outer courts of the Ming Dynasty were often like a sieve that leaked everywhere. After Zhu Xizhong entered the palace and reported the information sent back by Datong Jinyiwei, it quickly spread from Xiyuan to the palace, then the cabinet, and then to the various places in the capital. Big yamen.

Now the cabinet ministers and the six ministries and nine ministers, the big figures in the court, were once again summoned by Emperor Jiajing to Xiyuan to discuss matters. Following the mouth of the officials who delivered the decree, the gossip was officially confirmed.

When it was circulated in the major yamen before, most people regarded it as fake news, and I don't know who made up the rumor for grandstanding.

But when the decree-delivering official and the hall official walked out together, the clerk on duty naturally passed on what he had just heard in the on-duty room.

And the officials in the various yamen did not arrive on duty on time, also because of the influence of this unbelievable news. At this time, most of the officials gathered together to discuss this important event.

These days, although the Beijing officials do not say that people are in a state of panic, they are more or less affected. It is foreseeable that the border town will suffer a big defeat. The back of the war.

But today's battle report from Datong completely overturned the judgment of all the officials before, and the Ming army won.

The officials of the Ministry of War gathered in front of the map to deduce, but there was too little news about that battle, and they only knew the result. Naturally, they couldn't draw any conclusions, and it naturally became a re-examination of the situation in the north.

The officials of the Ministry of Households discussed whether the series of troop transfer orders that are currently being implemented can be terminated and the various ministries that have already set off should return to their camps after the victory in the north.

The army is out, and the money is spent like flowing water.

If those poor soldiers are not needed, it is better to let them fight back and forth, save some expenses, and ease the financial pressure on the imperial court.

As for other yamen that have nothing to do with the war, it is the place where the discussion is the most intense, and the content of it is naturally whether this is true or false.

If you really win the battle, those who have made meritorious service should naturally be rewarded, but if it is a false report
When Zuodu Censor Zhou Yan left the Metropolitan Procuratorate, he was familiar with the pissing nature of his subordinates and he issued a strict order that the censor was strictly prohibited from imagining wars until the Datong battle report was sent to the capital.

The atmosphere in the celestial court is oppressive these days. As a big boss, he naturally heard the news from the inner court, and the emperor was very unhappy.

At this time, if there is anyone who is bold enough to jump out and accuse Datong of falsely reporting military exploits, how can it be done? Now the news is delivered by Jin Yiwei, and the impeachment comes from nowhere.

Even if Datong really did such a thing, it is not only the Metropolitan Procuratorate who is in charge, but the Jinyiwei and the Ministry of War are really decorations. The current minister of the Ministry of War is Yang Bo, a person who can't rub his eyes.

The key is that the time is very delicate now, there is good news, the emperor will be happier, and the life of the courtiers will be easier.

If there is a problem, let's wait for a while.

With Zhou Yan's words, the Metropolitan Procuratorate has become the most disliked yamen among the yamen in Beijing, and the censors are all doing nothing, and then get off work on time.

But at this time in Xiyuan, a group of bigwigs were silent after reading the information sent back by Jin Yiwei.

It's not surprising that the news came too suddenly, completely beyond their imagination, and they were not prepared at all.

It wasn't until Emperor Jiajing asked Yang Bo to re-analyze the situation in the border town based on the battle report that the quiet atmosphere was broken.

"Judging from the results of this battle of the Datong Army, the Alda troops we were worried about before took advantage of the trend to attack Yansui and the second town of Ningxia.
Therefore, Altan Khan now has two choices, one is to continue to attack Xuanfu with all his strength and abandon Datong and Hetao areas, and the other is to withdraw troops from Xuanfu and attack Datong, Yansui and other towns to retaliate. "

After some comments, Yang Bo made his own judgment on the situation of the battle, and at the same time analyzed the countermeasures that Altan Khan might take.

"That is to say, the victory of the Datong Army has completely reversed the situation in the northern battle?"

Emperor Jiajing on the throne asked, although he had already expected these things, it was only from Yang Bo's mouth that he had a real feeling.

Winning the battle would definitely alleviate or even reverse the critical situation, but the continuous accidents during this period made the situation turn sharply downwards and turn around, which made him feel very uneasy.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Yang Bo did not return to his previous position, but still stood in the middle of the hall and said: "Although the initiative on the battlefield is still in Altan Khan's hands, there are not many choices he can make.

As I said before, either continue to attack the Xuanfu, or turn around and attack Datong, no matter what you choose, the situation is actually in our army's favor. "

There were many officials in the palace, but no matter who they were or what their thoughts were, no one questioned this secret report from Jin Yiwei at this time.

"That's good, Zhu Aiqing. Although the Datong military report may still be on its way, you Jinyiwei should verify the news of this battle as soon as possible."

"According to the order."

Cheng Guogong Zhu Xizhong below immediately stood up and bowed to accept the order.

"Is there any news from the Xuanfu in the past few days?"

Wei Guangde only found out about it later from Lao Kan who came to visit.

Wei Guangde had thought about the Datong army defeating the Alda cavalry, but it was in a dream, and he personally commanded the battle.

Well, from Wei Guangde's point of view, it is already very good for Yu Dayou to be able to withstand all of our attacks, and he really did not expect to be able to repel the opponent.

Wei Guangde has seen the combat power of the Altan cavalry before.

In the previous battle, if the Datong Army hadn't appeared in Zuojin at a critical moment, scaring away Altan Khan who was not strong enough, Wei Guangde doubted whether he would have won the final victory.

But this time it was different, the Ming army had only a few thousand soldiers, but the information said that the Tartars were chasing more than [-] troops, and their strength was not equal.

Wei Guangde didn't believe that Liu Han could lead the team to achieve such an impressive record. If he could, why would he have done it earlier.

However, this did not affect Wei Guangde's happy mood at all. Like everyone else, although Wei Guangde was surprised, he did not doubt it. Falsely reporting military exploits is courting death.

With such good news, Wei Guangde will of course entertain Lao Kan with a table of good wine and good food. Tomorrow he will return to the Imperial Academy to be on duty, and by the way, he will go to the Zhan Shi Mansion and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

These days, he is also holding back at home.

Early in the morning of the second day, Wei Guangde walked out of the house and returned to the Hanlin Academy to sell his holidays.

Regarding Wei Guangde's return, the colleagues also smiled knowingly when they saw him.

They naturally knew what was going on some time ago, and they also knew the reason why Wei Guangde complained about his illness. In fact, this is also a rule in the officialdom, and they went up to greet Wei Guangde before leaving.

In the next few days, Wei Guangde returned to his usual life, going up and down on time every day. At the same time, good news from Xuanda gradually came.

The earliest good news came from the Xuanfu, reporting that after the Alda tribe broke through the Great Wall and advanced to Chang'an, the offensive momentum of the Tartars was contained.

Immediately afterwards, Li Wenjin, the governor of Datong, and Liu Han, the commander-in-chief of Datong, reported the victory. The memorial to the capital on the second day even reported in detail the process of the two battles of the Ming army on the way out and back.

At this point, the imperial court was completely relieved of the Datong War.

Although the war was not over, the Alda Department still occupied many passes of the Great Wall below the Longmen Guard and stayed in the pass, but the court's attention had obviously been shifted from caring about the war to how the Datong Army defeated the Alta Department in the field.

Before, everyone was just curious as to why the Datong Army defeated the Alda Department.

The place name Anyinbao was mentioned in the earliest information provided by Jinyiwei, so many people take it for granted that the Ming army defended the fort and severely damaged the main force of the Tartars attacking the city, and may even kill and wound the leader of the Tartars before successfully forcing back. Department of pursuit.

But when the detailed battle report of Datong arrived at the capital, the officials were surprised to find that the Datong army actually won the battle in the field.

It is unimaginable that the Ming army defeated the dominant Alta Department in the field, even more unacceptable than the officials knowing that the Datong Army had won the battle.

It's just unacceptable.

For a long time, the attack power of the Mongolian cavalry has been a nightmare for the Ming army. Since the Tumu Fort, the Ming army has rarely won in field battles.

There was a field battle in Yingzhou under the command of General Zhu Shou. Whether it was won or lost is hard to say, but in terms of overall strategy, the Ming army should have achieved its goal.

After all, after the Battle of Yingzhou, the Mongols did not dare to break into Daming for more than 20 years, that is, they wandered around the border fort and did not dare to go deep.

People in other yamen were just surprised, but it was not the case when they arrived at the Ministry of War. They reviewed the process in the battle report, and two of the highlights caught their attention.

The first is that the concentration of firearms of the Ming army's participating troops is very high. Although the battle report said that the Ming army had 7000 horse infantry troops, in fact only 3000 troops led by Yu Dayou actually participated in the battle.

But these 3000 troops are equipped with a thousand guns and a hundred Fran cannons. This configuration stunned the officials of the Ministry of War. The proportion of their firearms is very close to that of the Shenji Battalion.

The standard configuration of the Shenji Battalion in the Ming Dynasty was 3600 infantry, equipped with 3600 firecrackers; 1000 cavalry; 400 artillerymen, 400 short-handed firecrackers, and 160 Zhankou general guns. The whole battalion has a total of 5000 officers and soldiers. .

Although the Ming army led by Yu Dayou has not yet reached [-]% of the firearm ratio of Shenjiying, it is not far behind.

Of course, this is just data on paper. In fact, it is a question of whether there are 3000 officers and soldiers in the entire Shenji Battalion, and the number of cavalry is more than half.

The second point is that Yu Dayou mentioned in the battle report designed a one-wheeled chariot, which is not only light, but also very adaptable to various terrains, and can also solve the problem of military transportation by the way.

The single-wheel design makes this kind of chariot very convenient to turn on the battlefield. The frame itself is the gun mount of the Franco cannon. The large shield in front can also protect the soldiers behind the chariot. It can also be regarded as a mobile horse, because There is also a spear head mounted on the front of the large shield.

In fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, the Shenji Battalion was equipped with a side tank chariot, and the entire army was equipped with 128 vehicles. But at this time, it was equipped to protect the infantry and can defend against the opponent's arrows, but once it was close, it was useless. There is a way.

Of course, the Ming army was powerful at that time, and when the opponent rushed forward, the Ming army cavalry had already rushed forward.

With the decline of the Ming army's combat power, the old side vans were no longer suitable for changes in the battlefield situation, and gradually withdrew from the Ming army's sequence.

It wasn't until Zeng Xian, the governor of the three sides more than ten years ago, started to build chariots again, and picked up the side vans that had been eliminated, but in the end, due to some reasons, these chariots failed to go to the battlefield.

Over the years, the Ministry of War has actually forgotten about this matter. They have forgotten that they can try to use chariots to fight against the Tartar cavalry. In their minds, the only way to raise a large number of horses is to arm a huge cavalry force like the Tartars , in order to compete against it on the prairie.

Suffering from the imperial court's financial difficulties, the Ministry of War knew that it was impossible to raise money, and naturally it was impossible to buy horses. The idea of ​​forming a large cavalry regiment could only remain on paper.

In fact, after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it has always attached great importance to horse politics.

"Although the unicycle is good, it relies on manpower and is not suitable for long-distance combat."

"Yes, but there is a way. See if we can change the lower side van so that the side van can also have the function of a unicycle chariot, and allocate a batch to each town."

At this time, Yang Bo, Minister of the Ministry of War, presided over a meeting of officials of the Ministry of War to discuss the gains and losses of the Battle of Datong. Naturally, the topic was drawn to these two points.

Although the unicycle chariot designed by Yu Dayou has withstood the test of actual combat, in the eyes of officials of the Ministry of War, it is still not suitable for mass production. The disadvantage is that it is propelled by manpower and it is difficult to maneuver over long distances.

But they thought of the horse-drawn van from the change of the unicycle, which can actually be improved.

"Arsenal Secretary has a discussion with the Ministry of Industry when he has time to see if he can redesign the lower side van, and use this unicycle as a model for improvement."

The comments of the people below also reminded Yang Bo that there were still a large number of vans in the Nine Frontier Army of the Ming Army. Although most of them were broken, the batch built by Zeng Xian was still usable.

As long as it is redesigned, the side car becomes a box car, even if it is rebuilt, as long as it is really usable.

"Difficult, this one-wheeled chariot is different from the past. It faces the enemy head-on. I'm afraid it won't be easy to change."

Immediately someone brought it up.

"That's simple. This unicycle is simple. It's better to send it to the military towns and let them build it themselves. It's better for the Armory Department and the Ministry of Industry to think about a new sidecar."

Indeed, the unicycle is really too simple. Looking at the sketch, many officials feel that they seem to be able to build such a one.

"What does the cabinet say about Datong's meritorious service?"

Yang Bo thought it made sense, so he didn't want to continue talking about the chariot, so he immediately asked Wu Xuansi Langzhong.

When Yang Bo questioned, the doctor said bitterly: "It was sent back again, it seems to be because of Yu Dayou's matter."

(End of this chapter)