Ming Empire

Chapter 252

"You can't hide everything from my cousin, that's true." In front of Cao Yue, Cao Yue didn't hide anything, and directly admitted, "I don't sympathize with the bandits. But if the rogues are allowed to be wiped out by Jiannu, then all the land occupied by the rogues will fall into the hands of Jiannu, and the sphere of influence of Jiannu will expand rapidly, and there will be more traitors like Wu Sangui and Tang Tong Surrender to Jiannu and work for them. Therefore, my younger brother believes that there is still a need for the rogues to exist. They can restrain Jiannu and save a piece of land for our Han people. Now the rogues are back and attacking Jiannu, which is exactly what I expect. If the rogues attack effectively, then Dorgon will have a headache again. What the cousin said just now is exactly what the younger brother meant, and the younger brother also feels that there is no need to rush to a decisive battle with Jiannu. We can fight steadily and wait for the right time. A decisive battle with Jiannu."

Cao Yue didn't think it was necessary to fight against Jiannu in winter. After all, winter had a greater impact on firearms. The canals were frozen and lost their transportation and barrier functions, and sea transportation was not easy.But Cao Bianjiao said that we should put pressure on Jiannu with a steady advance, and at the same time give our own time to prepare military supplies, and also give the rogues a chance to fight back.

Suspending the attack, the last thing you want to see must be Jiannu, there is no need to doubt this.

In fact, the current situation of the Ming army does not allow another attack immediately, because the amount of ammunition consumed during the war during this period is astonishing, and there are also many muskets and artillery damaged due to various reasons. If the war continues, the artillery and musket shooting will definitely be intensive. It is not as good as before, and the number of damage will increase, and the ammunition will not be enough.

Although the Nanjing Armory and other weapons workshops are operating at the highest capacity to manufacture muskets, artillery and explosives, due to technical problems and production capacity, the daily production is limited, which is far from meeting the needs of war.Currently, more than half of the Ming Guards are not equipped with muskets, and the number of artillery is seriously insufficient.If the offensive is postponed for a few months, then the muskets, artillery and ammunition produced in these months can be accumulated, and the output in a few months will be very considerable, and all of them will be transported to the front, enough to be used for a long time.

Combining various factors, Cao Yue believes that Cao Yue is not suitable for another major war. Therefore, after he captured Linqing and Dezhou, he slowed down the pace of attack, improved and slowly moved northward, and chose a suitable location to build Line of defense, beware of Jiannu's counterattack.

Cao Bianjiao also suggested this, and Cao Yue became more confident in his strategy.

The two brothers continued to discuss how to take follow-up actions, and finally decided that the army should slowly move northward, looking for opportunities to fight Jiannu again.The most important thing now is to stabilize Shandong, eliminate the slaves and servants in Shandong, hoard military supplies, train sergeants, and adapt the troops brought by Hong Niangzi and Cao Bianjiao.

After the two brothers discussed, Cao Yue also made a decision to mix the troops brought by Hong Niangzi and Cao Bianjiao into five Guard Divisions, numbered [-]th to [-]th Guards Division, Guards Division The chief officer --- the general will be served by the senior general of the original two armies.These five guard divisions serve as the reserve force of the whole army, hurry up to train and become familiar with the firearms-based warfare mode.

In the end, Cao Yue still told Cao Bianjiao that he would propose to the court that Cao Bianjiao should be appointed as a high-level post, the deputy of the Metropolitan Governor—the Tongzhi of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion.After Cao Bianjiao hesitated for a while, he finally accepted Cao Yue's proposal.

Cao Bianjiao is clear that Cao Yue and Sun Chuanting have the final say on all affairs in the Ming Dynasty Hall, and Sun Chuanting also listens to Cao Yue.Although he is not very clear about the specific inside information, he still knows that Cao Yue is the person who now holds the real power of Ming Dynasty, so he absolutely dare not and will not fight for power with Cao Yue, at least for now.

Since Cao Yue proposed to let him serve as the co-magistrate of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to help him manage military affairs and command campaigns, this was exactly what he wanted, so Cao Bianjiao did not refuse.He also knows that although Cao Yue is in power now, his foundation is still unstable. Although there are many cronies in the army, there are very few capable ones.His cousin has good abilities and combat achievements, so Cao Yue certainly wants to reuse him.

And Cao Yue, from the fact that Cao Bianjiao rejected his proposal to serve as the governor of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, Zhuaner accepted the post of Tongzhi in the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and offered to reorganize his department and create a few new guards, Cao Yue clearly understood Cao Bianjiao. It means that he has recognized his cousin's power and will actively cooperate with him.This is the point he is most willing to accept, so all the original worries have been eliminated.

Cao Yue also formally proposed to appoint Cao Bianjiao as the co-prefect of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and sent the memorial to Nanjing urgently, and wrote a secret letter to Sun Chuanting.Then he told the senior generals in the army about the next arrangement.

It's just that Cao Yue's arrangement more or less disappointed the generals. They had won a big victory just now, and what they were looking forward to most was to take advantage of the victory to pursue and attack Jiannu again, and even drive Jiannu out of the pass.Fortunately, when they were full of enthusiasm and wanted to continue fighting, Cao Yue issued an order to suspend the attack, slowly move north, and the army entered a state of rest.

It's just that no one dared to clearly oppose or not implement Cao Yue's order, and everyone followed the order.

However, the actions of the navy marching by sea did not stop. They continued to go north, preparing to attack Tianjin Wei.

Originally, they were supposed to move faster than the main army marching by land led by Cao Yue, but in the summer, several storms blew on the sea in succession, which slowed down their progress and almost caused heavy losses.After several storms, the sea was still very rough. It was not until Cao Yue led his army to capture Liaocheng that they had the opportunity to continue northward.

The time when Tianjin Wei's war started will still be delayed.However, Cao Yue was not worried about anything. Now Jiannu has not found the warships of the Daming Navy marching from the sea, and Tianjin Wei's defensive strength has not been significantly strengthened.As long as there are no accidents, Tianjin Wei will definitely be captured eventually, and the connection between Cangzhou and Beijing through the canal will be cut off.

After discussing these matters with Cao Bianjiao, Cao Yue also introduced the red lady who returned to Liaocheng with him to Cao Bianjiao.

Cao Bianjiao had already heard about some things between Cao Yue and Hong Niangzi, and now that Cao Yue introduced Hong Niangzi to him with such great fanfare, the expressions between the two were very different, how could they not understand the whole story.At the moment, he jokingly told Hong Niangzi that she, the younger sister-in-law, should take good care of Cao Yue and help him in all aspects. As the Cao family, he would make decisions for Hong Niangzi in many aspects.

Cao Bianjiao's expression made Hong Niangzi surprised, but also very happy.She was afraid that she would not be accepted by the Cao family. Cao Bianjiao, a very important man in the Cao family, said this to her, he accepted her existence as the daughter-in-law of the Cao family. How could she be unhappy?
(End of this chapter)