The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Commander, send out troops to kill Wang Gao and massacre Gule City.

"Commander, send out troops to kill Wang Gao and massacre Gule City."

The banquet, which had been lively just now, suddenly erupted with a strong murderous aura. The big trees outside seemed to feel it, and the leaves kept swaying.

At this time, the Ming army in Liaodong did not experience the same powerlessness as facing the rising Jianzhou Jurchen decades later.

Although the Ming army is on the defensive in Liaodong, once an attack target is selected, whether it is against the Tuman tribe in the west or the Jurchen tribe in the north, the chance of victory is extremely high.

Even if they miss occasionally, as long as the Ming army cheers up, revenge will be easy.

Otherwise, the vast land of Liaodong would not be firmly controlled by the Ming court.

As for the battle reports on the capital, many of them exaggerated the strength of the Mongols, especially the Tuman tribe who were still at war with the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, this is not a puzzling question. If you want to get more money from the court, you have to build a "powerful" enemy for yourself.

Otherwise, when it comes to rewards based on merit, the difference between defeating a strong enemy and defeating a small thief will be huge.

At this time, the reward set by the Ming Dynasty was that the head of a mature Mongolian was several times more expensive than the head of a mature Jurchen.

The reason why the first level is called "the first level" is because "the first level is one level", which originated from the Qin State's military merit awarding system in Shang Yang's Reform. "One level is awarded to the first level of nobility by killing one head in battle, and those who want to be officials are fifty stones." .

However, the use of heads to record merit did not start in the Qin Dynasty. It existed as early as the Shang Dynasty. However, Shang Yang's reform put many previously unwritten rules into writing and made them well-founded.

For a long time, beheading has been the mainstream method.

But there are definitely still disadvantages, such as taking credit for killing good people, and even killing each other for heads on the battlefield.

Therefore, Di Qingshangshu, a famous general in the Northern Song Dynasty, proposed the abolition of beheadings and was approved. From then on, beheadings were no longer implemented in the Song Dynasty.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, military merit was also used as the assessment standard, and it was divided into three types: extraordinary merit, first merit, and minor merit.

The so-called miraculous skills refer to beheading generals, capturing flags, trapping the formation, and ascending first in the battle formation. The first skills refer to taking the lead, leaping, destroying the front, and defeating the enemy. The second skills refer to detecting, defending the formation, and capturing the enemy. , injured, etc.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty's merit book usually mainly consists of first and second merits. After the founding war in the early Ming Dynasty, extraordinary achievements rarely appeared.

For example, in the battle of Caishiji in the 15th year of the Yuan Dynasty, Chang Yuchun rode into the enemy formation alone, unstoppable, and single-handedly tore apart the Yuan army's defense line. The Ming army won the victory. This was the miraculous feat of trapping the enemy. .

Although this kind of war merit design has its rationality, it is only suitable for the entrepreneurial period. As long as you have the courage and are not afraid of death, you will have a lot of achievements to make. It does not matter if there are loopholes or not, it is done.

However, it is not enough to enter the defensive period after the founding of the country. The credit is limited, and the combat quality of the army is far less than that of the founding of the country.

And this kind of unquantifiable military merit system will inevitably lead to injustice and corruption, and all the merits have become a matter of merit.

Therefore, starting from Hong Xi, cases of indiscriminate reporting and false reporting abounded. Whenever a battle was won, the people around the general were basically the ones to report the merit.

In the end, the Ming court discovered that it was necessary to have a quantifiable decapitation record that would convince people. It would be simple and trouble-free to record as much merit as the number of heads handed over.

Starting from the Zhengtong period, the Ming army's beheadings were recorded in four categories from high to low: the first was from the north, that is, the Mongolian tribe; the second was from Liaodong, that is, the Jurchen tribe; the third was from the Fanman, that is, the Tubo and Miao territories; The fourth are the internal thieves, namely the rebels and the peasant army.

Taking Tianshun five years as an example, one leader from Yibei can be promoted to one rank or receive a reward of 50 taels of silver; 5-7 leaders from Liaodong and Fanman can be promoted to one rank or receive a reward of 40 taels; Each can be promoted to one level or receive a reward of 30 taels.

Of course, this level up does not include mid- to high-level generals, but only reaches the Hundred House level.

It can also be seen from this that there is a huge gap between the heads of Mongolians and Jurchens.

Of course, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the rewards between the two were reversed again, but that's a story later.

"Rusong, take your troops to go ahead and go to Gushan Fort to learn about the situation."

Now that he has insufficient information, Li Chengliang will not let his son go directly to Changdian.

"Father, why don't you go to Changdian and capture Wang Gao's son?"

Li Rusong, a newborn calf, is not afraid of tigers, so he immediately shouted.

"Just do whatever I tell you and carry out military orders."

In the following time, Li Chengliang began to mobilize troops and generals. While sending reinforcements to Shichakou to avoid the Changdian tragedy from happening again, he also organized his troops and prepared to go to Gushan Fort.

Naturally, the banquet prepared for Liu Tai could not go on.

A few days later, when Li Chengliang and Liu Tai arrived at Gushan Fort and saw more than a thousand soldiers and civilians who had escaped from the pass, and heard some things, they realized that the matter was more serious than he imagined.

According to what the escaped soldiers said, after General Liu Chengyi and Hundred Household Liu Zhongwen led troops to support and were defeated by Wang Gao and Laili's red army, Pei Chengzu, Liu Chengyi, and Liu Zhongwen were disemboweled and their hearts were gouged out, and the remaining prisoners were all beheaded with swords. The scene was extremely Tragic.

Afterwards, Wang Gao led his troops to storm the camp from the north gate. Because there was no one in charge of the camp, the morale of the troops was disorganized, resulting in the complete collapse of the camp.

When they were unable to escape, they were chased by Jurchen cavalry. Of the six to seven thousand people who went out, only less than a thousand returned.

"Where is Rusong?"

At the top of the Gushan Fort, Li Chengliang saw that everyone was there, but there was no trace of his eldest son Li Rusong.

"The Major General went to Gushan Fort two days ago. He learned the news from the soldiers who had escaped, so he took his troops and went to Changdian to seek revenge on Wang Gao."

Gushan Fort garrison Cao Husheng hurriedly reported, "The general did not stop him, so he had to send his men to follow."

When Li Chengliang heard the news, there was no change in his face, but he would not stay in Gushan Fort any longer. He immediately ordered: "Follow me to Changdian."

Having said this, Li Chengliang looked at Yushi Liu Tai and said, "Yushi Liu, please rest in Gushan Fort for two days. After I collect the remains of the Changdian soldiers, I can then apologize to the court."

"Marshal Li is serious. This matter is all due to the viciousness and cunning of the traitor chief and has nothing to do with the general."

Liu Tai shook his head and said.

Just now, he also inquired about the news of the defeat and learned that Pei Chengzu was more cautious at first, just holding on to the camp and making preparations for building the city.

However, he was later deceived by a spy sent by the Jurchens, thinking that Wang Gao only came with a small number of troops to observe the camp, so he rushed out with more than 200 people to capture the thieves and the king. Unexpectedly, he fell into the trap of the Jurchens. The army was destroyed.

And because the hilltop was very close to the Ming army camp, Pei Chengzu thought that even if he failed to succeed, it would be no problem to escape intact, so he did not explain other arrangements.

His death would be a minor matter, but it would be a hardship to the Ming army and the civilian craftsmen.

Although it seems that Li Chengliang is not responsible for this matter, Liu Tai still knows that the document he gave to Governor Zhang Xueyan stated that Pei Chengzu was chosen because he was cautious, so he was allowed to lead the army alone. Entered Changdian.

Obviously, Li Chengliang misjudged the wrong person, or maybe this person was cautious and ambitious, but he just didn't expose it.

But no matter what, thousands of people died. This was already a big defeat. As the censor of Liaodong patrol, Liu Tai still had to report it.

As for how the court will deal with the matter in the end, that has nothing to do with him.

However, seeing Li Chengliang, Liu Tai understood to some extent that as long as the court did not have a suitable candidate to replace Li Chengliang, his position as commander-in-chief would be as secure as a mountain.

When the Ming army packed up and marched out from the north gate of Gushan Fort, Li Chengliang led the generals behind him down the city wall. He called a personal guard on the way and whispered: "Send someone to contact Hachi. Such important news was not given in advance." Tell me, damn it.

He told him that I wouldn't mind taking advantage of his tribe if they were the two sides. ’

"yes."

The guard hurriedly retreated and passed on Li Chengliang's order.

Yes, Li Chengliang has been able to gain a foothold in Liaodong over the years, not only because of the three thousand servants around him, but also because he has placed informants in the Mongolian Tuman Tribe and the Jurchen Tribe, allowing him to grasp information from both sides.

It is precisely because of the intelligence support that he has gained the upper hand in many foreign battles, and has not lost a single battle for many years.

But obviously, this time his intelligence network did not get the news in advance that Wang Gao was going to take action in advance, or the opponent moved too quickly and did not have time to notify him.

The Ha Chi in his mouth was actually a small leader in Wang Gao's tribe. He had hundreds of people in his tribe and was a force that was attached to Wang Gao.

Of course, in addition to him, Li Chengliang also had contacts with many Mongolian and Jurchen nobles and leaders. After all, they needed to trade with the Ming Dynasty to obtain the supplies they needed.

In exchange, they also have to provide Li Chengliang with various information.

Li Chengliang not only wanted to make money through mutual trading to support his troops, but also wanted them to provide intelligence. He had to do both.

As a native of Liaodong, through his visits to the capital and the actual situation in Liaodong, he already had his own way of doing things, which was to pull together one faction and fight against another.

Whether it is the Liaodong Army or its opponents, the Mongols or Jurchens, there are internal conflicts of interest and have long since split into countless factions.

Using this relationship to obtain the greatest benefit for yourself was what he saw those civil servants doing in private in the capital.

Party strife was strictly prohibited in the Ming Dynasty, but in fact the entire dynasty was full of party members.

However, after he led his people out of Gushan Fort, Liu Tai quickly followed him on horseback with his guards, saying he wanted to visit Changdian.

When Liu Tai came to Liaodong, he naturally did not come willingly. He was specially sent here by his teacher Zhang Juzheng.

The purpose is naturally to observe the Liaodong generals.

Wei Guangde had already taken control of Datong and Jizhen in Jiubian. As the chief assistant, Zhang Juzheng was naturally unwilling to lag behind, and his eyes were set on Datong and Liaodong.

At least at this stage, Li Chengliang gave him a good feeling, because he could win the battle and was exactly the person he needed.

Therefore, for Liu Tai, he still hopes to have a good relationship with Li Chengliang, although he despises this vulgar soldier from the bottom of his heart.

When the group arrived in Changdian, they only saw densely packed small mounds of soil at the foot of a hillside.

While arranging for people to set up camp, they soon found Li Rusong on a small slope.

"Father."

Seeing Li Chengliang arriving, Li Rusong hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

Seeing that Yushi Liu Tai was following behind him, he hurriedly bowed and saluted: "Master Liu has worked hard, why is Master Liu here?"

"You can come, what? Can't I come?"

Liu Tai smiled kindly.

"This place is already outside the border wall and is still a bit dangerous."

Li Rusong explained hurriedly.

Liu Tai didn't take it seriously, just waved his hand, stood on the top of the mountain and looked to the north.

"Have you found any trace of Wang Gao?"

Li Chengliang brought people here to find Wang Gao.

But judging from the current situation, he should have left.

"After they broke camp, they chased the remnants of our army for a day and then fled north. They probably went back to Gule City or Hongli Village."

Li Rusong said harshly, and then pointed to the mounds at the foot of the hillside, "Those are the remains of the soldiers I asked my men to restrain."

"The loss of more than 5,000 people this time is too tragic."

Liu Tai withdrew his gaze at this time and just interjected.

"They are all incompetent."

Li Chengliang quickly admitted his mistake.

"Marshal Li will never feel sorry for himself. Sooner or later, Wang Gao will pay with his life."

Liu Tai still knew the court's plan to some extent. He was originally dissatisfied with Wang Gao, so this time he had even more reason to send troops.

"Let the Major General talk about the situation here. I just reported a briefing to the court a few days ago, and a detailed battle report needs to be delivered to the capital."

Liu Tai continued.

"Mr. Wei Ge, it's almost ready."

After carefully checking the test papers and rankings, deputy examiner Wang Xilie came to Wei Guangde and whispered to him.

"Everyone is here?"

Wei Guangde put down the teacup in his hand and asked casually.

"They're all here."

Wang Xilie replied, "It should be possible to open the seal and fill in the list."

After hearing this, Wei Guangde stood up and walked to a large desk, on which the examination answer sheets had been densely arranged. However, the place where the candidates' names were filled in the answer sheets was still sealed, and the candidates' names could not be seen.

I casually picked up the top few, read the examiner's comments, nodded, and put them back as they were.

"Everyone, everyone has worked hard these past two months.

At any rate, I finally finished this imperial mission.

Now that the list is out, let’s open it up and fill in the list.

Come to think of it, the candidates outside have long been fascinated, just like you and me. "

Wei Guangde smiled at the examiners and invigilators around him.

"Haha, yes, I was restless after the first test."

An examiner said this and shook his head in embarrassment.

"What's the point? Who was not like this at the beginning? Do you think so?"

"Haha. Exactly, exactly."

The examiners chatted about interesting things from the past, and the hall was really lively.

Wei Guangde returned to his seat and sat down, indicating that he could start filling in the list.

According to the rules, naturally starting from the last one, the seals are opened, the names are called, and the list is filled in.

"Gong Jingguo, a native of Xuancheng, Ningguo Prefecture, South Zhili, will test three hundred people."

As the name of the first tribute student was sung, the examination paper was handed over to the invigilator for verification. The official responsible for filling in the results had already picked up a pen and dipped it in ink and was ready to fill it out.

However, Wei Guangde's eyes were looking outside the lobby. At this time, a guard was running away with his back to them.

Wang Xilie noticed Wei Guangde's gaze, looked out curiously, and then laughed "hehehe".

"Let him go, the candidates are still waiting for them to announce the good news."

Wei Guangde turned his head and looked at Wang Xilie and said.

Wang Xilie nodded, having experienced this, he naturally knew what the officer was doing.

It is also good to like money and everyone likes it.

"continue."

Wei Guangde looked at the examiners around him and smiled. (End of chapter)