The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Chapter 875 964 Lure the Enemy Salt Law

“What are Shandai’s thoughts on this proposal?”

At this time, Zhang Juzheng was happy. He had actually chosen to support this proposal at the first sight. After all, it was a great achievement.

Just seeing Wei Guangde's reaction made him wonder if there were any problems that he hadn't discovered yet.

"Brother Uncle, you must know where Kuandian is."

Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng and said.

"Located in the northeast of Liaoning, bordering Jianzhou Jurchen."

Zhang Juzheng said.

"This place has not been controlled by our Ming Dynasty for a long time. It is a traditional Jurchen hunting area in Jianzhou."

Wei Guangde continued.

“The Jianzhou Jurchens, especially the Wang Gao tribe, have been invading the border for more than ten years.

Shandai, you don't think that the two sides started a war because of the construction of Kuandian Six Forts. "

Zhang Juzheng said curiously.

Wei Guangde handled the affairs of the Ministry of War in the cabinet, and it was impossible not to know the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the Jurchens at this time.

In name, the Jurchens of Jianzhou were annexed to the Ming Dynasty, and the so-called Three Guards of Jianzhou were ennobled. However, in fact, the relationship between the two parties took a turn for the worse after the Zhengtong period.

Fourteen years before the orthodoxy, due to the strong national power of the Ming Dynasty, the Jianzhou Jurchens had always received generous rewards through tribute, so the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the Jianzhou Jurchens was relatively harmonious during this period.

Fourteen years after the orthodoxy, due to the Tumubao Incident, the Ming Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline and its national power was greatly damaged. It had no choice but to limit the number of Jurchen tributes and personnel and reduce rewards in Jianzhou. Therefore, in order to meet the demand for property, Jianzhou The Jurchens began to raid Liaodong continuously.

In the early years of Chenghua, the Jianzhou Jurchens actually "invaded ninety-seven times in one year and killed more than 100,000 people." This triggered the Ming Dynasty's large-scale conquest of Jianzhou Jurchens, which is the so-called "Chenghua" in history. Hua Li Ting".

In this large-scale expedition, the Jianzhou Jurchens, mainly composed of Jianzhou Right Guards, Jianzhou Guards, and Jianzhou Left Guards, almost suffered a disaster. Their leaders Li Manzhu, Dong Shan and others were captured and killed, and their population and livestock losses were even greater. There are countless.

Only the Dong'e tribe, which also belonged to the Jianzhou Jurchens, escaped the disaster. Because they had always been "quite law-abiding", the Ming court did not list them as targets for conquest.

During the Jiajing period, the three Jianzhou guards who had regained their strength once again took up the idea of ​​Liaodong. Among them, Wang Gao, the right guard of Jianzhou, was the most powerful and restless.

He first made a sneak attack on Fushun in the 36th year of Jiajing, killing guard Peng Wenzhu, and then set up an ambush to capture and kill the deputy commander Hei Chun in the 41st year of Jiajing. He then looted Gushan, Fushun, Tangzhan and other cities and forts. Dozens of commanders, guards, and commanders were killed in the battle.

In stark contrast, Wang Wutang, the leader of the Dong'e tribe in Jianzhou, inherited the tradition of "quite law-abiding" leaders of the Dong'e tribe in the past. Not only did he not follow Wang Gao to plunder Liaodong, but he also captured some people who robbed the people of Liaodong. Wang Gao's men dedicated it to the Ming Dynasty.

What situation is Liaodong facing at this time?

Serious problems such as poor livelihoods, low morale, empty defenses, corruption of generals, and constant flight of military households led to the Ming army in Liaodong losing successive battles against the invasions of Tuman and Jurchen tribes.

Within ten years, Wang Zhidao and three other Liaodong commander-in-chiefs were killed in battle, leading to a situation where "the Hai and Jian tribes became increasingly powerful, and they all established their own countries and became kings." It is no exaggeration to say that at this time, the Ming Dynasty It is only one step away from losing Liaodong.

Even in this situation, Zhang Juzheng still supported Li Chengliang, who could temporarily stabilize the situation in Liaodong, and supported all his decisions in Liaodong.

But looking at Wei Guangde's performance now, it seems that it is different from what he thought.

"Unless Li Chengliang has the strength to defeat Wang Gao's tribe face to face, moving to Kuandian Six Forts will be a very dangerous military adventure."

Wei Guangde just shook his head and said, "When the Ming Dynasty built the castle, it was impossible for Wang Gao and other Jianzhou Jurchens not to take military action.

If Li Chengliang cannot take the opportunity to defeat or even kill Wang Gao, the entire plan will remain on paper and cannot be realized. "

Wei Guangde really didn't know that in the late Ming Dynasty, there had always been a lot of discussion because of the construction and eventual abandonment of Kuandian Six Forts.

Although most people think that Li Chengliang was right to build Kuandian Six Forts, he abandoned this place after the Jurchens became stronger. This is regarded as a huge failure of the Liaodong layout. However, some people think that Kuandian Six Forts themselves should not be built. Construction, because construction itself is doomed to be abandoned in the future.

In fact, it is this 180 miles of land that makes the distance between Kuandian Liubao and the main control area of ​​Ming Dynasty more than 400 miles. That is to say, once Liubao is attacked by Jurchens, it will be difficult for Liaodong troops to rescue them in time.

"But since Li Chengliang has the ability to defeat Wang Gao's tribe, why not intercept him as he goes south, but spend money and food to build a fortress in Kuandian?"

Wei Guangde continued.

"this"

Hearing what Wei Guangde said, Zhang Juzheng hesitated.

Wei Guangde actually skipped over whether to practice or not to practice, but considered how to practice and whether he could succeed in it.

Wang Gaobu had already broken up with the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty built a fortress in Kuandian. If they targeted them like this, they would definitely not sit back and wait for death, but would wreak havoc.

If the Ming army cannot defeat the opponent, then the soldiers and civilians who built the fort will become fat meat in the mouths of the Jurchens, allowing them to take whatever they want.

"Li Chengliang has a remarkable record in Liaodong. If it weren't for several recent big wins, the situation in Liaodong would still be unstable.

I think he should have this ability. "

Zhang Juzheng thought about it before saying, "What's more, according to Wang Shilang, this plan itself was proposed by Li Chengliang.

With his ability as the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, he should have thought of this place a long time ago, and there must be careful arrangements. "

After hearing Zhang Juzheng's words, Wei Guangde just blinked, then looked at Tan Lun and said, "Brother Zili, what do you think?"

"If the imperial court plans to build a fort in Kuandian, it will naturally have to allocate money and food and make full preparations, including dispatching troops to protect it.

Last month, the Ministry of War received a report from Zhang Xueyan, governor of Liaodong, that King Gao of Jianyi repeatedly looted and looted, but was defeated by the Ming army."

Tan Lun said immediately.

After reading this article, he also agreed in his heart, but building a fort and moving troops required money and food, so the Ministry of Household Affairs must allocate additional money to the Ministry of War, otherwise the Ministry of War would not be able to support this military operation.

"Stop talking."

However, Wei Guangde suddenly interrupted Tan Lun's talk, "Last month, I just rewarded Yang Jian, the commander of the front camp for defeating the Tuman tribe, and then he was dismissed from his post."

Wei Guangde's words made Tan Lun speechless for a moment.

It has to be said that this was an oversight by the Ministry of War, or the writing was too hasty, which led to such errors and omissions, and forced him to submit a memorandum of apology.

Just the month before last, more than 10,000 native barbarian soldiers invaded the rear post of Qiantun. The former camp's generals Yang Jian and guerrilla Li Weiyi defended them.

The Tuman tribe rushed to attack Shaheyi. During the fierce battle between the armies, the chief military officer Li Chengliang and others arrived. The Tuman tribe was frightened and had to retreat.

In this battle, faced with the dangerous front line of the 10,000-horse bandits, more than a thousand exhausted soldiers were used to fight against all the bandit forces, and they were divided to defend against the enemy's front line. Li Weiyi made most of the contributions, including Yang Jian, Li Yuanshan, Ge Jing, and others. Yue Yuqing came next, followed by Yang Teng and Chuan Tingxun.

The Ministry of War rewarded the generals, but when they turned around, they were impeached by Li Song, the minister of Ningqian.

Li Song visited the border fort and heard that Liu Dengyun, the acting guard of Heizhuang Nest, was shot to death by thieves. Yang Geng, the former camp commander, wanted to cover up his crime and reported that Liu Dengyun was ambushed and killed by thieves just to welcome Li Song. In fact, the purpose was to cover up the incident. Misdirection on his part.

After this incident, Yang Jian knew that he had offended Li Song, so he sent 200 gold coins hidden in a wine vat in the name of giving wine to Li Song, intending to use the money to get Li Song to expose the incident.

However, the result was naturally not what he wanted, and Li Song still chose to report it. Yang Jian was offended and dismissed from his post, and was later investigated by the censor.

"Brother Zili, I am not saying this for anything else. I just hope that the Ministry of War will not be so arbitrary in its actions.

Li Chengliang was the first to mention this matter, and he raised it in front of Wang Daokun, but was it appropriate? "

When Wei Guangde said this, he just looked at Tan Lun with a frown, and then continued: "It is best for the Ministry of War to write a letter to Zhang Xueyan, the governor of Liaodong, and let him make the final decision."

After hearing Wei Guangde's suggestion, not only Tan Lun, but also Zhang Juzheng and Lu Tiaoyang also nodded slightly.

After all, Wang Daokun was only touring Liaodong and was not familiar with the place.

The governor of Liaodong, Zhang Xueyan, was different. He had been in Liaodong for two years and should be very familiar with the local area, especially the deployment of troops in Liaodong.

To put it bluntly, the opinion of local snakes is the most pertinent at this time.

"Kuandian, if it's just targeting Wang Gao's tribe, it's reasonable."

Wei Guangde continued, "But I'm afraid of causing dissatisfaction with other Jurchen tribes, especially the Jianzhou Dong'e Wang Wutang tribe. This tribe has always been quite obedient. In fact, part of the land where Kuandian Liubao is located is also the area of ​​this tribe."

The construction of Kuandian Six Forts advocated by Li Chengliang was essentially to establish six strongholds more than a hundred miles north. The first was to detect the movements of the Jurchens in Jianzhou, and the second was to act as the first fortress to delay their southward movement, so that the Ming army behind them could There is time for transfers.

But the six forts are facing two Jurchen tribes, Wang Gao and Wang Wutang, which is extremely dangerous.

In fact, it was precisely because of the completion of Kuandian Six Forts that Wang Gao's and Wang Wutang's tribe felt uneasy. Especially the always obedient Wang Wutang's tribe finally ended the cooperative relationship with the Ming Dynasty in the next few years and turned to attack the Ming Dynasty and choose to go to war. .

Of course, perhaps even if the Ming army did not build a fort here, Wang Wutang's tribe would betray the Ming Dynasty a few years later. But after all, judging from the time when he launched the rebellion, Wang Gao's tribe had already been struck by a thunderous blow from the Ming army and was almost destroyed. Gao himself was even captured, taken to the capital and executed by Ling Chi.

Wang Wutang chose to betray the Ming Dynasty at this time, which was indeed very strange. His strength was not as strong as Wang Gao.

Wang Gao was defeated by Ming Dynasty, let alone him.

Wei Guangde feels that the layout in Liaodong needs to be done, but it requires long-term planning.

Now that he is here, he will naturally not let the Jurchens sweep the world and take over the Han people like later generations.

But to launch the plowing and clearing holes, we need an opportunity so that Ming Dynasty can draw money and food from its distressed finances to support the First World War.

War cannot be decided by cabinet ministers just by slapping their heads.

Without adequate logistical preparations, Wei Guangde would not let the Ming army sacrifice his life and lose his prestige as Wei Ge Lao.

"In this case, I will return to the Ministry of War to write about Liaodong."

Tan Lun nodded and immediately stood up to leave.

"Wait a moment."

Wei Guangde stopped Tan Lun. At this time, he rubbed his chin and said, "In the text for Zhang Xueyan, let him pay attention to the terrain of Kuandian area and whether it is easy for an ambush."

"Why ambush instead of building a fort?"

Tan Lunqi said.

"When the fortress is built, Wang Gao's troops will mobilize troops to stop it. If we can seize the opportunity to annihilate most of them, and then send troops to attack Huanglong, great things can be accomplished.

Doing this is far better than sending troops to attack Wang Gaobu's city on an expedition.

I remember that in Chenghua Liting, although the strong were killed and the young and young were captured, the Ming army suffered a lot of casualties.

If we can lure them out of the mountains and wipe out the young and strong tribes in the Kuandian area, our army's casualties will be much smaller in the end. "

Wei Guangde explained, and then said: "Whether the six forts in Kuandian are built or not, the Ministry of War should make plans and conduct deductions based on this. I think that in the name of building forts, it should be possible to lure them out."

What Wei Guangde said was actually a naked request for the Liaodong Ming army to kill Wang Gao. It was really that there was too much hatred between this person and the Ming Dynasty.

Just kidding, killing the Liaodong general appointed by the court, the court's prestige in Liaodong cannot be restored without killing him.

When Tan Lun left, Wei Guangde stopped Lu Diaoyang who was about to leave and said: "Wang Daokun's memorial gave me another idea, that is, salt transportation."

"Shandai, are you going to change the salt transportation?"

Zhang Juzheng said suspiciously. He looked puzzled at first, and then he seemed to understand what Wei Guangde meant.

But after a while of entanglement, Zhang Juzheng still hesitated and said: "If the Kaizhong Law is restored at this time, it may be counterproductive."

Salt Law is the mainstay of Ming Dynasty's finances and taxes. Most of the annual tax revenue of the court of three million taels of silver comes from this.

If Wei Guangde abolished the Kaizhong Zhese method and restored the original requirement of exchanging salt permits for grain and grass to the border, the border would be reduced to empty talk and the court would go bankrupt.

In fact, since the Jiajing Dynasty, the Ming court wanted to restore the original Kaizhong method, but gave up Ye Qi's reform.

However, in the face of increasingly difficult finances, the salt policy implemented during the Yan Song period emphasized the method of "regular salt is opened in the border, and the remaining salt is delivered to the transport department".

That is, the salt permit is divided into regular salt and residual salt. Regular salt needs to continue to transport grain and grass to the border town according to the Kaizhong method, while the remaining salt is directly delivered to the department to obtain salt permits.

But in terms of actual results, it is of course very unsatisfactory.

The situation of border town dereliction has not been restored, and the phenomenon of large-scale escape of border residents and military households continues. Once the strategy of garrisoning the border is destroyed, it will be extremely difficult to restore it.

These are all well known to the three cabinet ministers.

Zhang Juzheng had thought about saving the salt law, but he didn't come up with a good solution.

"Shaandai, do you have any good ideas for the salt law?"

Zhang Juzheng asked tentatively, while Lv Diaoyang on the side looked at Wei Guangde with joy.

The salt law is too important for the Ming Dynasty.

"It is difficult to restore the Kaizhong Law. It was so corrupt at the beginning."

Wei Guangde just shook his head and said.

When the Kaizhong Law was implemented, because the salt permits were valuable, the royal family, nobles and border officers made a lot of money from it.

"In my opinion, since we were able to design the opening-up law to solve the border problem, there should still be a way to revise the salt law under the current situation.

The new salt law should take into account the needs of developing border towns and solve the financial problems of the court.

But you and I are not from the salt administration, so we are naturally very unfamiliar with this. Can we find officials who are familiar with the salt administration and let them think about this and design a salt law that can be used for decades, if not for a long time?

The so-called customization can only meet temporary needs. The world is changing, and there is no unchanging law."

Wei Guangde couldn't help but sigh. (End of this chapter)

Chapter 887/1226
72.35%
The Prosperous Era of LongwanCh.887/1226 [72.35%]