Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 569 When Using a New Way of War
Zhu Youjian explained to the generals present at the Generalissimo's Palace the benefits of continuing to launch foreign wars to the Ming Empire.

Li Mingrui, Li Banghua and others did not realize that Daming could not do without war.

The same is true for Zhou Yuji and Huang Degong. There are some things that they can’t tell Zhu Youjian. In fact, they are secretly using their political privileges to speculate on Northern Expedition coupons. Even now, there is almost no military officer who does not have a large number of Northern Expedition coupons.

"As His Majesty said, once the fighting is stopped, not only will they not be able to make contributions, but even the Northern Expedition vouchers in their hands will become a pile of waste paper, losing more than half of their wealth."

As soon as the generals in the Grand Marshal's Mansion realized this problem, they all began to feel scared.

Li Mingrui stood up first: "Your Majesty, I have decided to run for the next cabinet minister, support the continued expansion of the Grand Marshal's Mansion, wipe out the remnants of the Jianlu, and pacify the northern barbarians!"

As soon as Li Mingrui's words came out, Li Banghua couldn't help but raise his eyes, and gave Li Mingrui a meaningful look.

In the eyes of the Ming bureaucracy, the chief assistant of the cabinet still represents the highest status of an official, and is still the most admired position by officials.

What's more, now Emperor Zhu Youjian of the Ming Dynasty has clearly stipulated the position of prime minister as the chief assistant of the cabinet.

Not to mention Li Mingrui, Li Banghua also wanted to be the chief assistant of the cabinet.

Li Banghua did not expect that Li Mingrui would directly propose at the meeting of the Generalissimo's Mansion that he would run for the cabinet chief assistant, and even proposed that the reason why he wanted to become the cabinet chief assistant was to support Ming's continued external expansion.

"The same goes for my humble minister!"

Now everyone knows that if Ming Dynasty does not continue to expand abroad, the Northern Expedition vouchers held by the bureaucratic and capitalist classes will become waste paper, and the empire will inevitably fall into chaos.

Naturally, Li Banghua also understood what Zhu Youjian meant. He knew that Daming was different from before. In the past, fighting a war would damage the country's strength, but now not fighting a war would damage the country.

Therefore, Li Banghua was not willing to be half a step behind Li Mingrui, and hurriedly expressed his meaning.

The deputy privy envoy Wang Yingxiong was quite horrified. He was the elder of the cabinet 17 years before Chongzhen, but he never thought that one day, the officials of the Ming Dynasty would take the initiative to propose to the emperor: "I want to be the chief assistant of the cabinet, you can choose me. "

"Even if you really want to be the chief minister of the cabinet, don't you pretend to be indifferent and even resign from the office and say that you only want to live in the countryside? When did the officials of Ming Dynasty be so straightforward, without the slightest courtesy of humility and moderation?"

Wang Yingxiong looked at Zhu Youjian. Seeing that Zhu Youjian just nodded with a smile, he couldn't help saying: "Your Majesty has a broad mind and is such a rebellious minister. If it was replaced by other emperors, he would have been released to the barbarians." It's time to grind your temper."

Zhu Youjian is really satisfied that Li Mingrui and Li Banghua will propose to compete for the cabinet chief assistant next year in front of him.

What Zhu Youjian is most worried about now is that the cabinet does not support external expansion.

Confucian-educated civil servants fundamentally believe that war is militarism, and many times they would rather lose their own interests than start a war lightly.

Although the military power is in the hands of the Grand Marshal's Mansion, the money and supplies are in the hands of these cabinet officials.

If the cabinet does not support it, it will be difficult to coordinate money and food to cooperate with the empire's war.

The only way to solve it is to let someone who supports foreign expansion be the first assistant of the cabinet.

Therefore, when Li Mingrui and Li Banghua proposed to be the chief assistant of the cabinet, he was also very happy.

However, there are too few capable ministers who are familiar with political and ideological work and military management in the guard army system. Zhu Youjian still does not want Li Mingrui and Li Banghua, who have rich political experience in managing large corps, to leave the Generalissimo's Mansion.

Therefore, what he was thinking was that someone else could be the chief assistant of the cabinet. Among the officials in the Grand Marshal's Mansion who did not have much experience in military management but supported the continued expansion of the Grand Marshal's Mansion, Wang Yingxiong was an experienced official who was in the Grand Marshal's Mansion. The veteran who has been in the Marshal's Mansion for several years is naturally the most suitable.

Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Yingxiong, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council: "Wang Aiqing, how about you, have you ever thought about becoming the next chief minister of the cabinet?"

Wang Yingxiong thought that Zhu Youjian was trying to test him on purpose, that Zhu Youjian was dissatisfied with Li Mingrui and Li Banghua's sharpness, so he cupped his hands and said:

"The minister is old and dull, and dare not be greedy for the position of chief assistant. Now that the world has been settled, and the minister has no ability to expand the territory, he is about to ask His Majesty's prospective minister to return to his hometown when he is old."

Zhu Youjian glanced at Wang Yingxiong, seeing that the outside world was already like a crystal world, he couldn't help but said: "Shuzhong should still be as warm and moist as spring at this time, I allow you to retire and return to your hometown, remember to run more schools after you go back, don't waste your money Only spend on collecting ancient books, leaving a book is not as good as educating a person."

Wang Yingxiong was quite surprised.

Was he demoted just like that?
Wang Yingxiong couldn't make a turn in his brain circuit at this time, but now he could only prostrate on the ground: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for making it happen." At the same time, he said with a sense of loss in his heart: "I just brought Concubine Ji to Beijing, and now I have to bring it back. The key is that I obviously want to be the chief assistant."

"Continue with the discussion, Li Yan, please start, you are the chief of staff, tell me about the current military situation in Ming Dynasty."

After Zhu Youjian said this, Li Yan, who had been transferred back to the capital from the post of governor of Sichuan, came to the front of the map first:

"The Guannei area from Suzhouwei to the south of Shanhaiguan has been returned to our Ming Dynasty, and the land of Liaodong and Liaoxi has also been returned to our Ming Dynasty. The cabinet has decided to designate it as Liaoning Province, but there is still a powerful Mongol around us. The tribes and the remnants of Jianlu;

According to the Jinyiwei report, the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty Shunzhi Emperor and his auxiliary king Jierhalang withdrew from the direction of Gubeikou and crossed the desert along the Luan River and entered the Mongolian Karaqin tribe. Now they have gone to the Horqin tribe. Yichen It is expected that [-]% of them returned to Hetuala. "

"The most important task now is to completely annihilate the remnants of Manqing. The former Nuer Gandusi cannot allow it to exist, and must completely turn it into a province of our Ming Dynasty."

When Li Yan said this, Zhou Yuji also stood up and said:
"Now the only support for the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty is the Horqin Department. The Horqin Department has a close relationship with the Jianlu royal family and they are closely related. We must completely wipe out the remnants of the Qing Dynasty. We must not let the Horqin Department go. One branch went to suppress the Horqin Department, and one branch went to suppress the Nuer Gandu Division."

"I think that, as Your Majesty said, since the only way to keep our Ming Dynasty from being chaotic due to the depreciation of the Northern Expedition is the only way to expand abroad, then we should change the way we fight, not only to suppress the thieves, but also to occupy their territory , Serve the people, build a city every time they enter and occupy a land, reclaim a land, immigrate a land, the imperial court should send administrative officials and encourage business groups to expand with the guards, the guards are responsible for military occupation, and the court is responsible for opening teeth and building Mansions, business groups reclaim wasteland and start businesses, so conquering a city will be a territory for our Ming Dynasty, not the previous conquests, which only destroy the royal court and return to the teacher."

(End of this chapter)