prosperous age

"It's over, it's over."

Wei Guangde shook his head and sighed.

"What's the end?"

Chen Yiqin was taken aback by Wei Guangde's words, and immediately asked.

"I didn't think about Zhao Quan before, but you mentioned it to me. It's probably done."

Wei Guangde looked at the map and sighed, but then thought of the Ministry of War. This matter should have been thought of by the people of the Ministry of War, and hurriedly asked: "What is the final judgment of the Ministry of War? Have you ever issued a military order to Shanxi?"

"At present, the opinions of the Ministry of War are not unified. For the sake of safety, the final discussion concluded that the cavalry should want to break the Great Wall and threaten the capital."

Chen Yiqin frowned.

He could see Wei Guangde's reaction just now, and Wei Guangde also thought it was like this at first, but after being reminded later, he seemed to be more inclined that Altan Khan just wanted to rob Shizhou and other places.

If this is the case, the judgment of the Ministry of War seems to be wrong.

"The Tartars entered the customs with too few people, so it is impossible to point their swords at the capital. The most likely thing is to carry out some looting in the hinterland of Shanxi, and then look for opportunities to escape."

Wei Guangde stared at the map for a while before saying, "If the frontier troops are not forced to come back to help, the Tartars will probably finish their raids and get out of the side wall."

The main force of the Ming army's frontier army was concentrated near the Great Wall, which also led to the emptiness of troops in the hinterland of Shanxi. If a large army could not be sent to expel this area, the consequences would be disastrous.

"Do the frontier soldiers dare to fight in the wild?"

However, Chen Yiqin suddenly asked back.

Wei Guangde hesitated so far. Indeed, the imperial court can issue orders, but will the frontier army leave the city and go south to rescue the hinterland of Shanxi?

Since it is a rescue, there is a possibility of being attacked on the way.

Wei Guangde looked at the map of Shanxi. The north of Taiyuan Mansion was vast and sparsely populated, while the south was densely populated with large populations.

This time the Tartars went south, probably because they were sure that the Ming army would not dare to fight in the field, so they broke into the south of Shanxi so unscrupulously and plundered wantonly.

"Is it feasible for Ma Fang to lead troops from Xuanfu into Shanxi for rescue?"

Chen Yiqin suddenly asked again, "The expedition is in a hurry. Along the way, he can gather all the cavalry he can use. It should be possible to form a cavalry force of tens of thousands."

The cavalry of the Xuan Mansion were usually scattered in several places, and it was impossible for Ma Fang to gather all the cavalry in a hurry, so he could only take away the troops along the way.

According to Chen Yiqin's idea, naturally all the way from Xuanfu, Datong to Shanxi, as long as the cavalry is under the command of Ma Fang, as long as they rush to Taiyuan, and then use this as a base to search for traces of the captive cavalry in the south, looking for opportunities for war.

Even if you can't eliminate them, at least force them back and let them leave Shanxi.

As for the imperial court's readjustment of Shanxi's defense in the future, that is a later story. Now it can only minimize the loss of the captives entering the pass.

Wei Guangde didn't say anything, he just thought about how powerful the cavalry in Datong and Shanxi were.

Can Ma Fang take these cavalry with him like his arms and fingers, and don't get himself trapped at that time.

The current Wei Guangde is not what he was in Jiajing 35. As he got older, his courage has also worn down a lot.

In other words, if it is the current Wei Guangde, let him command the Battle of Baoan Prefecture.

I'm sorry, but he wouldn't go if he was killed. He has passed the age of impulsiveness.

War is no joke, it kills people.

After thinking for a long time, Wei Guangde still shook his head, "Ma Fang may not be able to do it, but if he gathers the cavalry from Xuanfu, maybe he can."

The soldiers and horses of the Xuan Mansion were trained by Ma Fang himself, so they are naturally familiar with each other, but the soldiers and horses who took over from Datong and Shanxi halfway are not familiar with each other, so the risk is too great.

"Has anyone mentioned this in the Ministry of War?"

Wei Guangde immediately asked again.

"Guo Shangshu has this intention."

Chen Yiqin replied, "However, he wants the troops of Xuanfu to join Datong to help defend, but because most people think that I Da Khan's goal is real martial arts, so the troops of Xuanfu cannot move, and the capital must be guarded by Xuanfu's army at critical moments." about."

That's right, the opinion of the Ministry of War still believes that the target of the Tartars should be the capital, so naturally the safety of the northern Zhili is the first priority.

As for Shanxi, it doesn't seem to be within the consideration of these big shots.

But Wei Guangde is a little strange, Yang Bo is from Shanxi, isn't he worried?

"What did Yang Shangshu say?"

"He thinks that the troops in the south of Shanxi are empty, and that only Taiyuan Prefecture has a large army of guards, and the rest of the prefectures and counties only have a few garrisons of thousands of households, and they don't have the strength to protect them comprehensively.

But when most people focused on Zhenwu, he didn't say anything. "

"There are no guards in Shizhou and Xizhou, and the nearest one is Fenzhou, which has a thousand households. It is difficult to protect yourself."

The map they looked at also marked the deployment of troops in Shanxi Town of the Ming Army.

The main force of the Ming army in Shanxi was deployed in Datong and Taiyuan, and only Wei and Yisuo were deployed in Lan County and Jingle as a barrier to the north of Taiyuan Prefecture.

The captives did not attack these two cities, and the Ming army was naturally happy to defend the cities.

In the south of Taiyuan, except for the Pingyang Guard stationed in Pingyang Mansion, there are only a few guarding thousands of households, which are almost undefended areas.

Wei Guangde had a guess that those who directed the court's attention to Guguan could not be the ones arranged by Yang Bo.

You know, Yang Bo had long wanted to push Huo Yi to be Minister of War, while Emperor Longqing chose Guo Qian.

If the Ming army in Shanxi does not perform well this time, Guo Gan's position as Minister of the Ministry of War will be in jeopardy.

But Wei Guangde immediately denied this idea in his heart, after all, it is his hometown, Yang Shangshu should not be so ruthless.

However, looking at the defense of the Ming army in Shanxi, Wei Guangde had to say that in the current situation, it is really difficult to save.

Think about the end of Ming Dynasty, as long as the Tartars broke through the border wall, they dared to plunder unscrupulously in the north, and it was not because of the decline in the fighting power of the Ming army.

Not daring to fight in the field, the Ming army could only hide in the city, and the vast plains could be used for the army to gallop freely.

But in these places, the deployment of troops is already empty.

As long as they are not close to these large cities with heavily deployed troops, there will basically be no strong resistance.

After a long time, Wei Guangde sighed leisurely and said: "If An Dahan really sets his goal on Zhenwu and wants to approach the capital, this game will be easy to solve."

Chen Yiqin didn't get a solution to the war from Wei Guangde, and he had no choice but to hope that the Ministry of War's analysis was correct, and the cavalry would choose to attack the capital.

It's just a pity that news came from Shanxi a few days later that on September [-]th, An Da, Zhao Quan and others captured Shizhou City, killing more than [-] men and women, and burning houses for three days.

Shen Weiyue, the commander-in-chief of the Taiyuan Prefecture, sent [-] troops to the rescue, but the army dared not move again when they entered Dawudian. This place is only [-] li away from Shizhou City, but they kept sending out scouts to investigate the enemy's situation.

After breaking Shizhou, I Da divided troops into Laishui, Jiaocheng, Pingyang, Jiexiu, and plundered Xiaoyi, Pingyao, Taigu, Xizhou and other places, destroying [-] Zhuangbao.

In the past few days, the atmosphere in the court hall was very depressing.

After receiving the report of the fall of Shizhou City, the cabinet almost moved the Ministry of War to Wenyuan Pavilion, and a series of military orders were issued from this, only to gather the surrounding Ming troops to station in various counties in Shanxi.

Now no one dares to send troops to destroy the Alda tribe. They only hope to gather heavy troops in Shanxi as soon as possible to force them back.

There is nothing to keep secret about the military orders issued. In fact, the Ming Dynasty Hall is a big sieve. Once an order is issued, it will quickly spread throughout the officialdom.

To Wei Guangde's relief, he did not hear the order to urgently dispatch the Xuanfu army to rescue Shanxi. Perhaps it was because the Xuanfu guarded the left wing of the capital, so the Xuanfu soldiers and horses would not be easily mobilized unless the sky collapsed and the earth collapsed.

Wei Guangde dealt with official documents in the duty room, and basically cleaned them up like the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but there were still a few people from the Sixth Division who hadn't taken them away, and they still had to think about how to do it, so Xu Jie couldn't stop it.

As long as Ke Dao's power is knocked out, Xu Jie's power in the court will be much smaller.

Ke Dao Yanguan is a group of mad dogs specially raised by Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. The original intention was to contain important court officials.

It's just that during the Yingzong period, the imperial power was greatly weakened, and this group of mad dogs became less obedient.

In many cases, they even helped the ministers of the DPRK and China to fight back against their masters.

Because of the privilege of "gossip and deeds", he often speaks unscrupulously. In the eyes of all officials, the imperial staff has changed from punishment to a show off capital that is not afraid of imperial power.

Emperor Jiajing was in a good mood. At that time, although some people took the opportunity to attack Yan Song to mock the emperor, he didn't even look at it and just left it aside.

But today is not such a mentality, perhaps because of the experience of those years, he is very concerned about gossip and gossip between the government and the opposition.

In order to keep Emperor Longqing mentally healthy, the responsibility of helping to clean up those officials who like to talk nonsense can only fall on him, the right servant of the official department.

While Wei Guangde was dealing with official documents, he was considering which position to choose and which ones to put them in, when a series of hurried footsteps sounded outside the door.

Wei Guangde stopped what he was doing and looked up. Lu Bu had already reached the door, and behind him was the figure of Chen Ju.

"Why is he here?"

Wei Guangde was surprised, but his expression remained the same, and he just stood up.

"Master, there are people coming from the palace."

Lu Bu bowed in front of Wei Guangde and moved his body to one side after speaking.

"Our family has met Master Wei."

Chen Ju didn't use the address in private, after all, he was in the official office, even though Lu Bu looked like Wei Guangde from his reading.

"Eunuch Chen, I don't know what's the matter with you coming to my place today?"

Wei Guangde wouldn't call him big brother either, he was just doing business, he and Chen Ju had done business together, pretending they didn't know each other would be even more fake.

"The emperor ordered Master Wei to enter the palace to meet him."

Speaking of this, Chen Ju smiled and said to Wei Guangde: "Master Wei, if there is nothing wrong, then come with our family."

Hearing that the emperor summoned him, Wei Guangde would be fine even if he had something to do at this time, so he agreed immediately.

"Lu Bu, pack up the desk, I will go to the palace to face the saint."

After speaking, Wei Guangde followed Chen Ju out of the guard room.

There was already a carriage parked in front of the yamen of the Ministry of Officials. The appearance did not look luxurious at all, but the available materials were exquisite. This was the carriage used in the palace, and the eunuchs in the palace used them when they went in and out.

After a long time, everyone who saw such a carriage knew that it was from the palace.

At this time, the guards in front of the official department stood on both sides of the gate without looking sideways, pretending to be very conscientious.

On weekdays, they would only do this when the adults were traveling. Usually, they would sway left and right in front of the gate, embarrassing those who wanted to enter the door.

When Wei Guangde came out with Chen Ju, he was naturally seen by many people, and many people pointed at him.

However, the two of them didn't show any expression, they looked very calm.

After a while, Lu Bu will spread the news of the emperor's summons, but he is not worried about their gossip.

"Get into my carriage?"

Chen Ju stood in front of the carriage and asked.

Wei Guangde had already seen his own carriage in the distance, and the moment he went out, the coachman had already driven the carriage over, so he said with a smile: "Why don't you take my carriage, the carriage is soft and cool."

These carriages in the palace are all of the same style, and the curtains of the carriages on this hot day are still dense cloth curtains, and it feels hot just thinking about it.

Wei Guangde's carriage only uses such cloth curtains in winter, and it has long been replaced with gauze curtains in summer.

Looking at the carriage approaching, Chen Ju said, "That's fine."

After speaking, he still did not forget to say to the driver on the carriage in front of him: "Go back to the palace and talk about it. It's best to change the curtains in summer, because it's really hot inside."

"Yes, Eunuch Chen."

The waiter hastily replied.

After Wei Guangde and Chen Ju got into the carriage, the carriage started slowly and headed towards the imperial city one after the other, Wei Guangde asked, "Brother Chen, what is Your Majesty calling me today?"

"It may have something to do with the border town. The emperor couldn't eat well or sleep well in the past two days, and he didn't find his concubine to sleep with him at night."

Chen Ju said in a low voice, "Even after Shicheng was slaughtered, the emperor has been in a bad spirit."

Wei Guangde nodded upon hearing the words, "Has Your Majesty asked any of you adults?"

"In the past two days, the cabinet and the six officials were summoned several times, and we were all kicked out. I don't know what was said inside."

Chen Ju replied honestly.

Wei Guangde reckoned that Emperor Longqing was not satisfied with their answers, and he couldn't think of any good solution, so he summoned him today.

But for the border town issue, what can he do?
In the early Ming Dynasty, it was only by relying on the strength of the powerful Ming army to sweep the northern Mongolia repeatedly that the border troubles were temporarily resolved.

Only a strong powerlessness can solve the border troubles. This is the only way. Right now, with the strength of the Ming army
"Ugh"

Wei Guangde sighed, he felt that the emperor might be disappointed today, and he had no good idea.

"By the way, last night the emperor approved the memorial to the Minister of the Household Department submitted by the cabinet, and selected Ma Sen from Nanjing to be the Minister of the Household Department, and it has been sent to the cabinet today."

Chen Ju whispered again about Emperor Longqing's memorials to criticize the reds in the past two days. For some urgent ones that cannot be delayed, the Supervisor of Ceremonies must give priority to them, while those that are not in a hurry will be dealt with later.

He believed that Wei Guangde must not know about these news, so he told him in advance at this time.

This is also a habit that the two of them developed when they were together. Chen Ju quietly revealed the news from the palace.

"Has your Majesty's attitude towards Mr. Guo Gan Guo changed?"

Hearing that Ma Sen was appointed as the Ministry of Household Affairs, it was evident that Chen Yiqin and Xu Jie were working hard, and it seemed that Guo Gan would be in trouble next. After all, Shanxi was defeated and tens of thousands of people died, which is not a trivial matter.

"Although the emperor didn't say anything, I can observe it. I'm afraid there won't be many days left."

Chen Ju didn't know the tacit understanding between Yang Bo, Xu Jie, and Chen Yiqin, so he just made his own judgment from the emperor's attitude towards Guo Gan.

Wei Guangde nodded, "The Ministry of War should take some responsibility for Shanxi affairs."

As if thinking of something, Chen Ju suddenly said to Wei Guangde: "If the emperor asks you whether to go to the Ministry of War, you'd better not agree."