Invincible Zhengde

Chapter 161

The current situation in the Northwest is not very complicated, because it is what it is. The key lies in the problems of Ming Dynasty. What is the problem of Ming Dynasty?That is the low combat effectiveness of the northwest frontier town.Not to mention counterattack, even the defense is not good, the city walls are in disrepair, the weapons are old, and the generals are neglected in the army, and they are afraid of fighting. Under such circumstances, the defense is not good.

Based on this reality, if Da Ming wants to fight back and attack Hetao, it is simply impossible.

If you want to do a good job of defense, you need to invest a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, and the court has little money.

Under such circumstances, it is naturally a dilemma. In addition, on the Mongolian side, Dayan Khan has risen strongly, and Huosai can fight well. Now the fire has entered Hetao, forming an offensive posture against Ming Dynasty. At the same time, Dayan Khan's The tribes can respond from east to west, and the situation is very unfavorable to Daming. If they harass the border, Daming's damage will increase, and it will lose the hearts of the people in the northwest.

"This is the inscription book of Wang Jia, the servant of the Ministry of officials!" Seeing that Zhu Houzhao had finished reading the inscription book, Zhu Youzhan handed a copy of the inscription book to Zhu Houzhao with a gloomy expression.

Zhu Houzhao knew Wang Jia, and he was a well-known minister in later generations. Wang Jia studied with his father since he was a child, and he was extremely intelligent.He could read classics and history at the age of eight and compose poetry at the age of 12. At the age of 16, all the students of Guozijian began to recite his essays.He was a Jinshi in Chenghua for 11 years. He was awarded the editor of Hanlin, a bachelor of Li Shi, a Japanese official, and was promoted to the right servant of the Ministry of officials last year.

What made Wang Jia famous was that he was a clean and honest official and had no savings. He was called "the poor old man in the world".Tang Yin knew him well, so he presented him with a pair of couplets. The first couplet was "the number one article in the country", and the second couplet was "the prime minister in the court is unparalleled".

Zhu Houzhao is no stranger to Wang Jia, he is also one of Zhu Houzhao's teachers, but Zhu Houzhao did not expect Wang Jia to adopt the border policy, which is a bit interesting.After receiving the test book handed over by his father, Zhu Houzhao quickly flipped through it. In fact, he also wanted to know what Wang Jia wrote in this test book.

"Today, the little prince is not to be feared, but fortunately, the government is chaotic, the merits and crimes are unknown, the appointment is not specific, the laws are not valid, the border is empty, and there is a deep fear. The general will lose the law, lead the crimes and kill the thieves, and the hearts of the people will be relaxed , Morale is low. I hope that your Majesty will make a big plan. If you are guilty, you will be punished. If you have meritorious service, you will be rewarded, and you will be in charge of the generals. Give generously to the families of dead people along the border, and recruit brave men from the border. material."

Zhu Hou looked at Wang Jia's test book and sighed in his heart. In this test book, Wang Jia also spoke nicely.

Huozhai and the little prince are not to be feared, but Zhu Houzhao's is not surprising. The civil servants of the Ming Dynasty never put the barbarians in the northern and southern borders in their eyes, and they always feel that they are not to be feared.Whether it is against Mongolia at this time or against Liaodong in the future, even if the situation in Liaodong is very corrupt, these people just regard them as scabies.

However, Zhu Houzhao knew that this would not work. Northern Xinjiang really involved too much energy of Da Ming, whether it was manpower or material resources, Da Ming invested too much.

I don't know what they think, but for Zhu Houzhao, northern Xinjiang must be resolved, and Monan Mongolia must become a horse herding land for Ming Dynasty.

Like other things that Wang Jia said, "Major campaigns, crimes must be punished, meritorious service must be rewarded, the power of the general will be given, the family of the dead along the border will be given generously, and brave men from the border will be recruited", these things mean That's all.The first is the power of the lord and general, whose power is it?Civil servants or military commanders?Thick pension, where does the money come from?

Can the money sent go to the right person?Not to mention other things, [-]% or even [-]% of the money that went out from the Ministry of War was directly lost. They dared to lose the military salary, not to mention the pension.

When we arrive at the border town, local officials, local military generals, who don't want to drift away?How did the term "drinking soldiers' blood" come about, and how much of the money handed out can really be put to practical use?

In a word, if the military household system is not abolished, and if the military household system is not changed into a recruiting system, everything else is just scratching the surface and useless.Compared with the military household system, the recruitment system has many advantages, but the disadvantage is that it costs money.Or spending money can't be considered a bad thing. Recruiting soldiers is too expensive because the court is incompetent, and we can't blame recruiting for spending too much money.

Zhu Houzhao closed the question book, and frowned unconsciously. In Zhu Houzhao's view, this is a knot, and it is not so easy to solve it.

During the period of Emperor Jiajing, there were Japanese pirates in the south and Dayan Khan in the north. How did they solve it?In addition, new troops are recruited, which is the recruitment system, and the original military household system remains unchanged.After the war, the borders were stabilized, and the recruitment system was basically abolished. The combat effectiveness of the recruitment system was shining. Whether it was the Qi Family Army or the Wanli Three Great Marches, they all reflected the superiority of this system.

It's just that later, the imperial court's finances were dragged down, and the recruitment system was also discontinued. After Saarhu, Daming burned 800 million taels in Liaodong a year and couldn't afford it.

In Zhu Houzhao's view, with the size of Daming and its economic strength, it can afford to burn 800 million taels a year, not to mention 8000 million taels.

"What do you think?" Zhu Youtang looked at his son and asked, it has become Zhu Youtang's habit to ask his son when something happens.Besides, this time it's the military, and my son knows more about it than himself, so it's normal to ask him.

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Houzhao said: "Send a high-ranking minister to the three sides to strictly govern officials, renovate the side walls, enforce military discipline, punish some lawless generals, weed out the old and the weak, and train the army to prevent and screen intruders. The current financial resources of the imperial court should not be a big problem, and the Yanzheng will be opened in a few days, and the money should be available."

"The other thing is to teach Huosie some lessons!" Zhu Houzhao thought for a while and said, "It's best to send a team to attack Hetao, and give Huosie a hard time!"

Zhu Youtang looked at his son and said with a wry smile: "What you said earlier is easy, it is nothing more than a matter of candidates and money, but now there is no one in the imperial court who can enter Hetao, there is no such general in the imperial court, and there are no such soldiers. Daming has no Champion Hou, nor Ban Dingyuan."

Glancing at his father, Zhu Houzhao wanted to blurt out, I'll go, but Zhu Houzhao swallowed the words back.

If this sentence is said, then I really have no way to go. After pondering for a moment, Zhu Houzhao said: "Then choose the candidate for the minister first!"

After returning from Qianqing Palace, Zhu Houzhao’s heart has been blocked. Daming’s current situation is very embarrassing. He has no time to spend more than ten or twenty years in northern Xinjiang, and he has no intention of entangled with Dayan Khan.The battle of Hetao had to be fought, and it had to be fought constantly, and the fire screen was also painful. Abolishing the fire screen would be equivalent to breaking Dayan Khan's right hand.

Hetao, a region that was destined not to jump in the history of China, is also a name that is destined not to jump.

The Hetao area is geographically located north of the 37th parallel north latitude of the Huaxia Continent. Its scope includes the areas east of Helan Mountain, west of Luliang Mountain, south of Yin Mountain, and north of the Great Wall. Because the Yellow River channel presents a zigzag shape in this area, it is called Hetao area. , because of the abundant rainfall, suitable terrain and rich aquatic plants, the Hetao area is also known as the frontier of the south of the Yangtze River.

Because the Hetao area is rich in resources, and has always been a place where the Central Plains regime and nomads must contend, it has always regarded the Hetao area as a strategic location since the Qin Dynasty.

After the Ming Dynasty stabilized the regime, it quickly entered the Hetao area and actively fortified to resist the Yuan court entrenched in the Mongolian plateau.During the reign of Emperor Taizong Zhu Di, due to the shortage of troops and other reasons, the defense line of the Ming Dynasty in the Hetao area began to shrink. As a result, the Hetao area was directly exposed to the Mongolian forces. In the first year of Tianshun, civil strife broke out among the Mongolian tribes. Maolihai and other tribes successively gained control over the tribe.

Then it began to enter the Hetao area. Since then, various Mongolian tribes settled in the Hetao area, and used the Hetao area as a base to continuously harass the border of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty's Hetao troubles began to form.

Zhu Houzhao began to recall the troubles of the Hetao in the Ming Dynasty in his mind, and now, during the Hongzhi period, with Huozhai moving into the Hetao, the troubles of the Hetao have officially taken shape.

In fact, Daming did not ignore Hetao. Since the Chenghua period, Daming has been driving away the Mongolian tribes entrenched in the Hetao area. has little effect.Zhu Houzhao can understand this question, so what if he calls over?
You can't garrison troops, you can't live in people, I'll leave when you come, and I'll come again when you leave, anyway, the Mongolian tribes live by water and grass.

In the tug-of-war over the Hetao, Daming was finally defeated, and they had no way to win.

In addition, even with the arrival of the Little Ice Age, the colder the north, and the severe desertification of the land, even the city walls of Datong were buried in the yellow sand. It is so difficult to station troops there, and the logistical pressure is so great that the imperial court simply cannot support them. How difficult it is to repeat the same pattern, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did it only with the efforts of several generations and the whole country.

Although the current Mongols are not as powerful as the Xiongnu, the Ming Dynasty is not as powerful and powerful as the Han Dynasty.

"It's really tasteless!" Zhu Houzhao pondered for a long time, and couldn't help sighing, yes, he was talking about the unique piece of land called Hetao.

Hetao is located in the south of the Yellow River, so it was called Henan Land in Ming Dynasty, and its approximate scope corresponds to Mu Us Sandy Land, Ordos Plateau, Kubuqi Desert and Hetao Plain in later generations.It is a pity that most of the Hetao is now outside the 400 mm precipitation line.This means that the lack of precipitation in Hetao is not suitable for large-scale cultivation, and there is also the Mu Us Desert, one of the four major deserts in China, in Hetao.

Even in later generations, the country continued to invest a lot of money in planting trees for the governance of the Mu Us Desert. The current Ming Dynasty does not have this economic strength or technology at all.

Even if Zhu Houzhao is a traverser, he is helpless in the face of this matter. Small-scale military operations and policy changes are meaningless unless hundreds of thousands of cavalry sweep the grasslands and completely occupy Monan Mongolia.

(End of this chapter)