Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 297 Prediction of the Military Situation Next Year
Then, Fan Jingwen took the blame and resigned because the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate impeached Fan Jingwen for failing to detect the flaws in the previous tax invoice cheating case, which caused damage to the country.

However, Zhu Youjian made the central decree to retain Fan Jingwen's position as the chief assistant of the cabinet, and he was still in charge of the cabinet, and he was allowed to resign from the post of Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

On the recommendation of Fan Jingwen, Qi Biaojia, the right servant of the household department, was promoted to the post of minister of the household department.

Fan Jingwen's reason is that Liu Wanchun, the left servant of the household department, is still inexperienced. Although he is the left servant, he will not be promoted for the time being.

Fan Jingwen suggested that Qu Shixu, governor of Yingtian, should be promoted to the new right servant of the household department.

At the same time, Cheng De, the magistrate of Yingtian, was promoted to the governor of Yingtian, and Guo Jiayin, the magistrate of Changzhou, was replaced as the magistrate of Yingtian because of the high amount of taxation.

However, Ying Tianfu's Tong Zhi Chen Yu was quiet and sensitive, but he was too cowardly, so he still retained his original job, and did not pursue his crimes or meritorious deeds.

At the same time, Zhu Youjian also filled Qi Biaojia's position as a Bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion, and entered the cabinet to pre-order maintenance, ranking under Ma Shiying and above Liu Zongzhou.

That is to say, there are currently six cabinet ministers in the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, namely Fan Jingwen, a scholar of Jianji Hall, Gao Hongtu, a scholar of Wenhua Hall, Ma Shiying, a scholar of Wuying Hall, Qi Biaojia, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, and Dong Fang, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion. Liu Zongzhou, a scholar of the Pavilion University, and Song Yingxing, a scholar of the Dongge University.

Except for Fan Jingwen, as the chief assistant of the cabinet, who does not concurrently serve as the minister of the six ministries, the rest are all ministers of the official, rite, household, engineering, and military ministries in the six ministries.

Next, only the mission of the Ministry of War in the next year has not been proposed by Zhu Youjian, but the Ministry of War is related to military affairs, so it must be decided together with the Generalissimo's Office.

Therefore, discussing the affairs of the Ministry of War for the next year is equivalent to discussing the military affairs of the next year.

Chongzhen Zhu Youjian simply summoned the officials of the Grand Marshal's Mansion together with the officials of the Ministry of War to the Grand Marshal's Mansion on the west side of the Qianqing Palace.

Li Yan, Qu Shixu, Cheng De, Qi Biaojia, Guo Jiayin, Liu Wanchun, etc. have been personally trained by Zhu Youjian, cabinet ministers and six ministers at the Daming School of Administration for a period of time.

Now after Qu Shixu and other officials were promoted, he has also been promoted by Zhu Youjian to be the deputy chief of staff of the Generalissimo's Mansion and the left servant of the Ministry of War, assisting Ma Shiying in handling the affairs of the Ministry of War and the strategic layout of the Generalissimo's Mansion.

Ma Shiying knew that Chongzhen Zhu Youjian intended to train Li Yan, so he had already put his main energy on the general affairs of the Ministry of War and the formation of the navy, and entrusted Li Yan with the task of studying the military strategy of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Yan now has a lot of experience in studying the military strategy of the entire empire of the Ming Dynasty by receiving military intelligence from various places in the Ming Dynasty at the Grand Marshal's Mansion, coupled with the domestic economic intelligence of the Ming Dynasty from the East Factory Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics.

In the main hall of the Generalissimo's Mansion, which is ordinary and somewhat crowded, Zhu Youjian sits in the center, Ma Shiying, Minister of War, and Zhou Yuji, Minister of the Army and Chief of the First Army of the Guards, stand on both sides of Zhu Youjian, and Huang Degong sits on Zhu Youjian's side. On the opposite side of the inspection, and on the side are Yuan Jixian and others.

Liu Fangliang stood at the door, looking at Li Yan who was standing in front of the military map.

Li Yan was indeed a little nervous at this time. He never thought that one day he would speak about the war in the Forbidden City in Nanjing in front of His Majesty the Ming Emperor and many famous generals.

"From the beginning of this year to July, Daming was plagued by internal and external troubles. First, Zuo Liangyu raised troops in Huguang, Jing Guogong and Yuan Shaobao led the headquarters to contain Zuo Liangyu in the Huaixi area on the right side of the river, and then Liu Dudu, the deputy general, led troops to the west Jin, wiped out Zuo Liangyu's tribe in Suzhou;
So far, there is no strong vassal on the side of my Ming bed;

Later, Azig, Prince of Jiannuying, and Duoduo, Prince of Yu, led the Qing army cavalry to the south to conquer Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places. In the end, Duoduo's troops entered Henan, and Azige's troops entered Huguang. Fortunately, His Majesty the Emperor made a wise decision and strategized , First destroyed the Duoduo tribe in Huaiyang, and then ordered the guards in Huguang to rush to help the exterminated army, and was able to repel the Azige tribe, and thus the southern part of the Ming Dynasty was protected. "

Li Yan first roughly talked about the entire military history of the Ming Dynasty this year, and the officials all nodded and laughed when they heard this.

After all, there are many battles here, and many people present have participated in it. Now that Li Yan mentions it, there is naturally a sense of being there.

Next, Li Yan mentioned the military situation forecast for next year:

"Jiannu suffered two defeats and lost nearly [-] Manchurian cavalry. This was a heavy blow to Jiannu. In addition, the people's livelihood in the north was already declining due to successive years of war. The Qing government issued an order to shave their hair and The enclave order caused public complaints, so I thought that the Qing court would not go south again next year; even if the Qing government would go south next year, it would be after the autumn harvest and when there was enough food and grass;

And if that is the case, the Qing court's southward army must be dominated by Han soldiers, and the proportion of Manchurian cavalry will definitely decrease, and the Qing court will also realize that iron hooves alone are not enough to conquer Jiangnan, and will be equipped with more firearms and soldiers. As for the cannon, I guessed by my humble ministers that the leader of the army is probably also a Han general who is good at commanding various arms. He may be Hong Chengchou or Wu Sangui.

Of course, with the current fighting power and national power of the Ming Dynasty, even if the Qing government went south with the whole country again, it would be difficult to win. In order to continue, the longer the delay, the more difficult it will be for the Qing government to conquer the south. Just like the Jin and Southern Song Dynasty, the strength of the Jin's southern conquest declined year by year.

In other words, as long as the Ming Dynasty defeated the Qing army's southern expedition again, the Qing army would no longer be able to go south, and in order to seize the land of grain production, they could only take the land of Hanzhong or Sichuan, and fight against Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi;
As long as my Ming Dynasty defeats the Qing army's Southern Expedition again, it will be able to accumulate enough combat power to make a northern expedition to the Central Plains within two or three years. At that time, we can advance both land and water, regain the Northland, and revive the Ming Dynasty! "

When Li Yan said this, Zhu Youjian stood up and patted Li Yan on the shoulder:

"Li Aiqing is right, and I think so too. The Qing court suffered two major defeats this year, so it is necessary to recharge its batteries and will not go south easily in a short period of time. But I, Ming, still have to guard against it. The armies still need to actively prepare for battle and train their troops. If the Qing court goes south, it is more likely that they will go south from Huguang, Shandong, and Henan. The First Army and the Third Army of the Guards still defend Henan and Shandong, while Huguang still needs to be defended by the Extermination Army and the Fourth Guards Army, as long as the Qing court dares to send another large army, we must ensure that he never returns!"

When Zhu Youjian said this, Liu Fangliang shouted first: "Yes, let him come and go!"

The other generals also followed suit.

"The Jinyiwei should be the most important task now, Wu Mengming, your Jinyiwei should continue to closely investigate the enemy's situation and inquire about the internal news of the Qing court, especially some of the Qing court's skilled generals and Han officials, to find out their current situation. , including the improvement of the current firearms and artillery skills of the Qing court, the treatment of Jinyiwei needs to be improved again, and the salary should be tripled. Han Shoujing from the Finance Department of the government asked for money."

Because of Zhu Youjian's words, the staff of Jinyiwei will actively hope to go to the enemy's rear to do business in the future, so that they can get a good income.

(End of this chapter)