Chapter 382 381 Commendation

At the beginning of Shen Dynasty, that is, around three o'clock in the afternoon, it was the time for Ming Dynasty officials to get off work.

But today it is very strange that there are no scenes of officials filing out in front of the major government offices, and the gatekeepers at the gates of each government office are not surprised, because at this time they are also gathered together and chatting enthusiastically. .

"Anyway, I think the master over there in Datong is audacious, hehe. Thousands of people are running away from tens of thousands of Tatars. Are you kidding me?"

"I think so"

As you walk past them, you can hear the crowd talking fiercely.

The inner court and outer court of the Ming Dynasty were often like a sieve that leaked air everywhere. After Zhu Xizhong entered the palace to report the information sent back by the Datong Jinyi Guards, it quickly spread from Xiyuan to the palace, then to the cabinet, and then to various departments in the capital. Big Yamen.

Now, the cabinet ministers and the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers, all the big shots in the DPRK, were once again summoned by Emperor Jiajing to Xiyuan for discussion. Following the word of the official who passed the order, the gossip was officially confirmed.

When it spread to the major yamen before, most people regarded it as fake news. It was unknown who made up the rumor to please the public.

But when the messenger and the hall officer walked out together, the clerk on duty naturally relayed what he had just heard in the duty room.

The reason why the officials in various yamen did not go off duty on time was because of this incredible news. At this time, most of the officials gathered together to discuss this important matter.

These days, although the officials in the capital are not panic-stricken, they are still more or less affected. It is foreseeable that the border town will suffer a big defeat. The Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Sixth Section are already considering who should be found to deal with this. Taking the blame for the war.

But the battle report from Datong came today, which completely overturned the judgment of all officials before. The Ming army won the battle.

Officials from the Ministry of War gathered in front of the map to deduce, but there was too little news about that battle. They only knew the result, so naturally they couldn't draw any conclusions, so they naturally turned to re-examining the situation in the north.

The officials of the Ministry of Revenue were discussing whether the series of troop deployment orders currently being implemented could be terminated since the battle in the north had been won, so that the various units that had already set off could return to their respective camps.

The army is out, and the money is spent like water.

If those naughty soldiers are not needed, it would be better to just let them go back and forth wherever they go, so as to save some expenses and relieve the financial pressure on the court.

As for other yamen that have nothing to do with the war, the discussion is the most intense, and the content is naturally whether this is true or false.

If you really win the battle, the general with meritorious service should naturally be rewarded, but if you falsely report your military exploits,

When Zhou Yan, the censor of Zuodu, left the Imperial Procuratorate, he, who was well aware of the urinal nature of his group of people, issued a strict order to strictly prohibit the censor from imagining the war until reports of the Datong war were sent to the capital.

The atmosphere in the imperial court was depressed these days, and as a big boss, he naturally heard the news coming from the inner court, and the emperor was very unhappy.

At this time, what if anyone dared to jump out and accuse Datong of falsely reporting military exploits? Now that the news was delivered by Jin Yiwei, the impeachment was all out of nowhere.

Even if Datong really does such a thing, it is not just the Metropolitan Procuratorate who calls the shots. They really treat the Jin Yiwei and the Ministry of War as decorations. The current Minister of the Ministry of War is Yang Bo, a person who can't get rid of the dirt in his eyes.

The key is that this time is very delicate. If good news comes, the emperor will be happier and the life of the courtiers will be easier.

If you have any questions, let’s wait until some time later.

With Zhou Yan's words, the Metropolitan Procuratorate became the yamen least interested in Datong among the major yamen in Beijing. The censors all had nothing to do and got off work on time.

At this time, in Xiyuan, a group of big guys fell silent at first after reading the information sent back by Jin Yiwei.

It's not surprising, the news came too suddenly, completely beyond their imagination, and they were not prepared at all.

It wasn't until Emperor Jiajing asked Yang Bo to use the battle report to re-analyze the situation in the border town that the quiet atmosphere was broken.

"Judging from the results of this battle of the Datong Army, the Anta Division we were worried about before will take advantage of the trend and attack the troops in the Yansui and Ningxia towns.

Therefore, Anda Khan now has two choices in front of him. One is to continue to attack Xuanfu with all his strength and abandon the Datong and Hetao areas. The other is to withdraw troops from Xuanfu and attack Datong, Yansui and other towns to retaliate. "

After some comments, Yang Bo made his own analysis of the battle situation and analyzed the countermeasures that Anda Khan might take.

"Does this mean that the victory of the Datong Army completely turned the tide of the war in the north?"

Emperor Jiajing on the throne asked. Although he had already expected this, it was only when Yang Bo said it that he felt it real.

Victory would definitely alleviate or even reverse the critical situation, but the continuous accidents during this period made the situation turn sharply and unexpectedly, making him feel very uneasy.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Yang Bo did not return to his previous position, but still stood in the middle of the hall and said: "Although the initiative on the battlefield is still in the hands of Anda Khan, there are not many choices he can make.

As I said before, either continue to attack Xuanfu, or turn around and attack Datong. Regardless of the choice, the situation is actually in our army's favor. "

There were many officials in the palace, but no matter who they were or what their motives were, no one questioned this secret report from Jin Yiwei at this time.

"That's good, Zhu Aiqing, although Datong's military report may still be on its way, you Jin Yiwei must verify the news about this battle as soon as possible."

"According to the order."

Zhu Xizhong, the Duke of Chengguo below, immediately stood up and bowed to accept the order.

"Has there been any news from Xuanfu in the past few days?"

Wei Guangde learned about this from Lao Kan who came to visit him later.

Wei Guangde did think that the Datong Army defeated the cavalry of the Altan tribe, but that was in a dream, a battle he personally commanded.

Well, in Wei Guangde's opinion, it was already very good that Yu Dayou could withstand the attack of the Altan tribe, and he really didn't expect that he could repel the opponent.

Wei Guangde had seen the combat power of the cavalry of the Altan tribe.

In that battle, if the Datong Army had not appeared nearby at the critical moment and scared away the weak Altan Khan, Wei Guangde doubted whether he would have won the final victory.

But this time it was different. The Ming army had only a few thousand soldiers and horses going out of the border, and the intelligence said that the Tartar pursuers had more than 10,000 soldiers, and the strength was not equal.

Wei Guangde didn't believe that Liu Han could achieve such an impressive record with his team. If he could, what would he have done long ago?

However, this did not affect Wei Guangde's happy mood at all. Like others, Wei Guangde was surprised, but he did not doubt it. He did not believe that the people of Datong Jinyiwei would make such a low-level mistake, nor did he think that Datong officials would choose to falsely report military exploits. This was courting death.

With such good news, Wei Guangde would of course set up a table of good wine and food to entertain Lao Kan. Tomorrow he would also go back to the Hanlin Academy to work, and by the way he would go to the Zhanshi Mansion and the Duchayuan.

These days, he was also very depressed at home.

Early in the morning of the second day, Wei Guangde walked out of the house and returned to the Hanlin Academy to report his leave and work.

For Wei Guangde's return, his colleagues also smiled knowingly.

They naturally knew what happened some time ago, and they also knew the reason why Wei Guangde reported illness. In fact, this is also a rule in the officialdom. They came forward to greet Wei Guangde before they dispersed.

In the following days, Wei Guangde returned to his usual life, working on time every day, and at the same time, good news from Xuanda gradually came.

The earliest good news came from Xuanfu, reporting that after Altan's army broke through the Great Wall and approached Chang'an, the Tartars' offensive momentum was curbed.

Immediately following, Li Wenjin, the governor of Datong, and Liu Han, the general of Datong, reported the victory. The memorial to the capital the next day reported in detail the process of the two major battles of the Ming army on the way out of the border and on the way back.

At this point, the court was completely relieved about the Datong war.

Although the war was not over, Altan's army still occupied several Great Wall passes under Longmenwei and stayed inside the pass, but the court's attention had obviously been shifted from caring about the war to how the Datong army defeated Altan's army in the field battle.

Before, everyone was just curious about how the Datong army defeated Altan's army.

The earliest intelligence provided by the Jinyiwei mentioned the place name Anyinbao, so many people took it for granted that the Ming army held on to the fort, severely damaged the Tartars' main siege force, and even killed and injured the Tartar leaders, before successfully forcing back Altan's army's pursuit.

But when the detailed battle report of Datong was sent to the capital, the officials were surprised to find that the Datong army actually won the battle in the field.

It was really unimaginable that the Ming army defeated the dominant Altan tribe in the field, which was even more unacceptable than the officials knowing that the Datong army had won the battle.

It was unacceptable.

The attack power of the Mongolian cavalry has always been a nightmare for the Ming army. Since the Battle of Tumu, the Ming army has rarely won in the field.

There was a field battle in the Yingzhou victory commanded by General Zhu Shou. It is hard to say whether it was a victory or a defeat, but in terms of overall strategy, the Ming army should have achieved its goal.

After all, after the Battle of Yingzhou, the Mongols did not dare to break into the Ming Dynasty for more than 20 years, that is, they wandered around the border forts and did not dare to go deep.

People in other yamen were just surprised, but it was not the case when they came to the Ministry of War. They reviewed the process in the battle report, and two highlights attracted their attention.

The first is that the concentration of firearms in the Ming army's participating troops is very high. Although the battle report said that the Ming army had 7,000 cavalry and infantry participating in the battle, in fact, only 3,000 troops led by Yu Dayou actually participated in the battle.

And these 3,000 troops were equipped with 1,000 bird guns and 100 Portuguese cannons. Such a configuration made the officials of the Ministry of War stunned. Their firearm ratio was very close to that of the Shenjiying.

The standard configuration of the Shenjiying in the Ming Dynasty was 3,600 infantrymen, equipped with 3,600 fire guns; 1,000 cavalrymen; 400 artillerymen, equipped with 400 short hand-held fire guns, 160 cup-mouthed general cannons, and a total of 5,000 officers and soldiers in the entire battalion.

Although the Ming army led by Yu Dayou has not yet reached 80% of the firearm ratio of the Shenjiying, it is not much different.

Of course, this is just paper data. In fact, it is a question whether there are 3,000 officers and soldiers in the current Shenjiying, and the cavalry is even less than half.

The second point is that Yu Dayou, mentioned in the war report, designed a one-wheeled chariot, which is not only light, but also very adaptable to various terrains, and can also solve the problem of transporting military supplies.

The one-wheeled design makes it very convenient for this chariot to turn on the battlefield. The frame itself is the gun frame of the falconet cannon. The large shield in front can also protect the soldiers behind the chariot. It can also be regarded as a mobile horse, because the spear head is also installed in front of the large shield.

In fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, the Shenjiying was equipped with a side-carriage chariot, and the whole army was equipped with 128 vehicles, but at this time it was equipped to protect infantry and could defend against the opponent's arrows, but once close, there was no way.

Of course, the Ming army was powerful at that time. When the opponent really rushed up, the Ming cavalry had already rushed up.

With the decline of the Ming army's combat power, the old side-carriage chariots were no longer suitable for the changes in the battlefield situation and gradually withdrew from the Ming army.

It was not until more than ten years ago that Zeng Xian, the governor of Sanbian, started to build chariots again and picked up the eliminated side-carriage chariots, but in the end, due to some reasons, these chariots were not able to go to the battlefield.

The Ministry of War has actually forgotten about this matter over the years, and forgot that they could try to use chariots to fight against the Tartar cavalry. In their minds, only by raising a large number of war horses and arming a large cavalry force like the Tartars can they fight against them on the prairie.

Suffering from the financial difficulties of the court, the Ministry of War knew that it was impossible to raise silver, and it was naturally impossible to purchase horses. The idea of ​​forming a large cavalry corps could only remain on paper.

In fact, after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, horse politics has always been very important.

"Although the chariot is good, it relies on manpower after all, and is not suitable for long-distance combat."

"Yes, but there is a way to see if the side-carriage can be modified to make the side-carriage also have the function of the chariot, and equip each town with a batch."

At this time, Yang Bo, the Minister of War, presided over the meeting of the officials of the Ministry of War to discuss the gains and losses of the Battle of Datong. Naturally, the topic was led to these two points.

Although the chariot designed by Yu Dayou has withstood the test of actual combat, in the eyes of the officials of the Ministry of War, it is still not suitable for mass production. The disadvantage is that it is driven by manpower and difficult to maneuver over long distances.

But they thought of the horse-drawn side-carriage from the changes in the chariot, which can actually be improved.

"When the Arsenal is free, discuss with the Ministry of Works to see if the side-carriage can be redesigned, and the improvement can be made based on this chariot."

The discussion of the people below also reminded Yang Bo that there are still a large number of side-carriages in the Nine Frontier Armies of the Ming Army. Although most of them are broken, the batch originally built by Zeng Xian can still be used.

As long as it is redesigned and the side carriage is turned into a main carriage, it can be rebuilt as long as it is usable.

"Difficult, this chariot is different from the previous ones. It is used to face the enemy head-on, so it may not be easy to modify."

Someone immediately proposed.

"That's easy. This chariot is simple. It is better to directly distribute it to the military towns and let them build it themselves. The Arsenal Department should also think about new side carriages with the Ministry of Works."

Indeed, the chariot is really too simple. Looking at the simple diagram, many officials feel that they can build such a chariot.

"What does the cabinet say about Datong's meritorious service?"

Yang Bo thought it made sense, so he didn't want to continue talking about the chariot, and immediately asked the doctor of the Military Selection Department.

Yang Bo's question was answered by the doctor with a bitter face: "It was returned again, it seems to be because of Yu Dayou's matter."