Chapter 892 981 Qi Jiguang Planting Trees

"It would be fine if Li Chengliang trained the soldiers in Liaodong, but he transferred the best soldiers from the garrison to his private army. We can't just sit back and watch.

Wei Guangde lowered his voice to explain why he wanted to suppress Li Chengliang. In fact, it was not suppression, but a horizontal transfer.

"Qi Jiguang is training troops in Jizhen. I think my uncle should have heard about it. I plan to secretly go to see the results of the Jizhen army training in the next two days. ”

At this time, Wei Guangde revealed that he was going to inspect Jizhen.

Hearing this, Zhang Juzheng finally nodded slowly.

Since Li Chengliang took office as the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, he has won several victories in succession, and his prestige in the Liaodong army has been growing.

However, Wei Guangde still compared Li Chengliang and Qi Jiguang. After all, the two had made some achievements after taking over the positions of commander-in-chief of Liaodong and Jizhen respectively.

Based on this, Wei Guangde also had a certain opinion of the two.

Based on the current situation, Li Chengliang and Qi Jiguang have completely different characteristics. Li Chengliang is better at attacking, while Qi Jiguang is better at defending.

Of course, this is also different from the environment in which the two are located.

The Jimen area is mountainous, and the main task here is to prevent the Mongols from going south. After all, across Jimen is the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing.

The situation in Liaodong is Another look, once you cross the Liaoxi Corridor, there is a large plain. Such terrain is more conducive to the attacker, so Li Chengliang's main achievements are reflected in the offense.

The first thing Qi Jiguang did when he arrived in Jizhen was to train soldiers. At the same time, he reorganized the guards of Jizhen, made the entire Jimen defense a new one, and also established a chariot camp.

Just for this point, Wei Guangde raised Qi Jiguang's position to a higher level, surpassing Li Chengliang who was still training his private army.

And Wei Guangde also had a general understanding of the victories that Li Chengliang had won in recent years through the documents of the Ministry of War.

Li Chengliang's tactics were to attack instead of defend, and he would attack the enemy before the enemy got close, and he defeated the Mongolian and Jurchen armies many times with this tactic.

Li Chengliang usually let the Liaodong guards block the enemy first, and then led a small number of elite troops to raid and break the enemy camp. Li Chengliang Liang called this tactic "smashing the nest".

This approach can destroy the enemy's command system or burn the enemy's logistical supplies to make them retreat, but it cannot completely eliminate the enemy's living force.

The most fundamental strength of nomadic peoples is people. If the enemy's population is not eliminated, just burning supplies can only temporarily make the enemy retreat.

All of Li Chengliang's achievements were small achievements with less than a thousand people, lacking too eye-catching records, and the enemy's strength remained after retreating, and it was easy to come back.

Of course, such tactics have a certain rationality, that is, Liaodong was attacked from both sides, and the Ming army lacked the so-called elite.

Without elites, they can only use the cannon fodder in the fortresses of the guards in various places to delay and block the enemy's attack.

And the private army he led, or the Liaodong army, was not deployed on the border, so after receiving the alarm They can quickly gather and go to the border for support.

At this time, Li Chengliang would order the front-line Ming army to hold on, while he would lead his army to find out the enemy's situation and directly bypass the enemy's front and attack the nest behind them.

Defeating the nest and beheading the enemy leader, the enemy army, facing a group of dragons without a leader and no logistical supplies, often had to retreat, and he would follow and kill to harvest heads and gain credit.

Such tactics also led to an evaluation of him in later generations, that is, Li Chengliang was suspected of raising the enemy for his own benefit.

Wei Guangde was not sure whether Li Chengliang really meant to raise the enemy for his own benefit by adopting this tactic, but the result was obvious.

It was also for this reason that although Li Chengliang continued to win great victories in Liaodong, the various forces in Liaodong did not suffer much damage. The final result was that the Jianzhou Jurchens grew stronger and finally became a major concern for the Ming Dynasty.

The second reason that really made Wei Guangde dissatisfied with Li Chengliang was that Li Chengliang had no overall view at all, or was very selfish, and he was completely concerned about his own interests.

In fact, to be a general officer, one often needs a person with a certain overall view to achieve results.

However, Wei Guangde could not see any such temperament in Li Chengliang.

This was a serious mistake that Li Chengliang made that Wei Guangde could not accept, giving up the construction of the Ming Dynasty army.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the army had different levels, roughly two categories: private soldiers and official troops.

In fact, private soldiers were also divided into two levels, the first level was personal soldiers.

These personal soldiers were the bodyguards of the generals. They were well-equipped and well-rewarded. They were generally responsible for future guards and conveying orders, and their status was very high.

The second level was the family servants, or the main combat force among the private soldiers. They had sufficient military pay and strong combat effectiveness, and were very loyal to the generals.

These family servants were often the fingers of the generals on the battlefield. They were often sent to the grassroots to serve as commanders and team officers, urging the soldiers of the guards to fight. They would also be used as elites and put into key battles by the generals as the main force to break the formation.

The generals in Jiangnan, because of the peace in the world, would only recruit a few private soldiers, who were usually personal soldiers, and were sent out to control the army in wartime.

Only in the northern border towns would the generals divide the private soldiers so clearly.

As for the official soldiers, they were the standard camps of the governors and generals, the camp soldiers recruited with sufficient pay, and the larger number of garrison troops.

Among these three types of official troops, the standard camps were the best equipped, and the garrison troops were the worst equipped, and the hard battles or consumption were mostly assigned to the camp soldiers.

The camp soldiers are actually similar to mercenaries. They are supposed to earn money by selling their lives. The Qi Family Army formed by Qi Jiguang in Zhejiang actually belonged to the camp soldiers. They were offered much higher military pay and rewards than the garrison soldiers. They were often deployed to the front line to perform the most dangerous tasks.

In Li Chengliang's tactics, the role of camp soldiers and garrison soldiers was to be cannon fodder.

Due to the high consumption, the shortage was quite serious. In many cases, when the war came, it was necessary to select the remaining soldiers of the garrison or even civilians to supplement them.

Li Chengliang's tactics were to use these cannon fodder to contain the enemy, and then take the family servants to directly attack the enemy camp to obtain the final victory. There was no problem with the tactics, but the problem was that there was no achievement in the army construction.

Since Li Chengliang took over as the general commander of Liaodong, he had never properly trained the Liaodong soldiers and horses, but just kept drawing elites from the Ming army to supplement his Li Family Army.

The result of this was obvious, that is, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army in Liaodong continued to decline, and it could not be stopped at all.

Once these elite Li Family Army were defeated and their strength was weakened, the entire Liaodong defense became very empty.

Even if the Li family army remained strong, the entire Liaodong army was completely supported by the Li family army, which was unacceptable to Wei Guangde.

As a military town, the official army's combat power was worrying, but Li Chengliang, as the general commander, had a private armed force comparable to the entire Liaodong army.

With him as the general commander, he had a unique advantage in selecting Liaodong generals. If things went on like this, the consequences would be disastrous.

At that time, it was really unclear whether Liaodong belonged to him, Li Chengliang, or the court.

After carefully analyzing Li Chengliang's actions in Liaodong, Wei Guangde had already vaguely sensed the root cause of the rise of the Jurchens from Liaodong in the late Ming Dynasty.

If Li Chengliang stayed in Liaodong, perhaps in the next 20 to 30 years, Liaodong would continue to have great victories, and Li Chengliang could stabilize the situation in Liaodong, but once something went wrong, Liaodong would be doomed.

It was too risky to keep Li Chengliang in Liaodong. Wei Guangde did not intend to raise a tiger to cause trouble, so he planned to transfer him away early.

However, in order to prevent people from saying that he had done his job and abandoned the donkey, and that the bow was put away after the bird was gone, he planned to let Li Chengliang complete the war against the Jurchens and Mongols in Liaodong, give him the title of Left General or even the title of Three Dukes and Three Orphans, and then transfer him to other military towns.

Having received the highest honor of a military general, Wei Guangde thought that he had lived up to Li Chengliang's contribution to the court.

As for why Liaodong and Jizhen were not swapped, Wei Guangde really did not dare to put Li Chengliang in Jizhen based on Li Chengliang's approach.

If he continued to use the gameplay in Liaodong, I am afraid that the entire Jizhen defense line would become like mud, which would make the capital too dangerous.

Going to Datong and replacing Ma Fang would not have such worries.

Even if Datong was lost, Shanxi Town and Xuanfu Army could still rescue it, at least the capital would not be put in danger.

Zhang Juzheng may know these, or he may not pay attention to them, because Zhang Juzheng is a person who looks at the results, and he does not care about the process.

However, after Wei Guangde raised the issue of Li Chengliang's private army in Liaodong, Zhang Juzheng, as the chief minister, had to give an attitude.

Mobilizing Li Chengliang is undoubtedly the best solution. At that time, the team of servants under his command will probably be reduced by more than half in an instant, because not so many people are willing to leave their homes and follow the general to make a living in other places.

Without much preparation, Wei Guangde contacted Tan Lun that night and arranged to set off two days later.

This time when they went to Jizhen, both of them were light and simple, and Wei Guangde only brought a dozen servants to follow as guards along the way.

Although Tan Lun was a civil servant, he had led soldiers for so many years and had many habits of generals, and he was also capable in doing things.

He only had seven or eight servants, less than Wei Guangde, all of whom were good players he recruited from the southern and Jizhen armies, and all of them had practical combat experience.

So although he brought few people, if a fight really started, Wei Guangde might not win even though he had the advantage in numbers.

Of course, Wei Guangde just thought about it. If he fought alone, he might not be a match for the whole team. But if he really distanced himself and formed a battle formation to fight, it seemed that he might not win.

More than 20 people means more than 20 horses. Such a cavalry appeared near the capital, which naturally attracted a lot of attention.

However, after Wei Guangde and others left the capital, they rode to Jizhen, which did not waste time at all. The government sent yamen to investigate the cavalry's route, but they came up empty-handed.

Wei Guangde's cavalry left from the east gate, first went to Tongzhou, crossed the river and went straight to Sanhe and Jizhou. By the evening of the next day, the cavalry had appeared outside Zunhua City.

In two days, they ran hundreds of miles and killed directly from the capital to Zunhua.

Arriving in Zunhua, Wei Guangde was going to rest in the inn outside the field for one night and continue on the road the next morning. However, after two days of running, Tan Lun was a little bit overwhelmed by the shaking on the horse.

"Brother Zili, I told you that you should stay in the capital to handle the affairs of the Ministry of War. You are so tired coming out here."

Arriving at the inn, Wei Guangde helped Tan Lun go in to rest, and said as they walked.

Wei Guangde did not intend to take Tan Lun with him at first, but he also wanted to secretly see the situation of Qi Jiguang's training of soldiers and horses.

After all, the Ministry of War had already ordered the border town to send generals to Jizhen to learn Qi Jiguang's training methods.

"Alas, I am old, not as good as when I was young."

Tan Lun just sighed and said.

"Let's rest here for a day before setting off. Let the shopkeeper arrange an independent yard for us."

Wei Guangde instructed the servants around him.

More than 20 people took up a large yard of the inn at once.

The innkeeper moved out the original residents in the courtyard before settling Wei Guangde and his party in.

After all, whether it is Wei Guangde or Tan Lun, they have noble status and cannot live in the same courtyard with other people.

Originally, this kind of thing was very troublesome, but the people brought out by Wei Guangde and Tan Lun were used to being arrogant and indulgent in the capital, and the habits they developed were not good.

The innkeeper has seen many guests coming and going from north to south, and he knew at first sight that he was not easy to deal with, so he agreed to come down.

When Wei Guangde moved into the courtyard, the shopkeeper and the waiter brought two large baskets of white pears.

"Two gentlemen, these are white pears that have just been brought in from the shop. They have large, thin, crispy skin, are sweet and juicy, and are very delicious. The younger one has sent two baskets for you to try."

The innkeeper said cautiously.

Although Wei Guangde and Tan Lun looked tired, and Tan Lun looked sick, their official aura made the shopkeeper know to be careful.

"Oh, thank you so much, shopkeeper."

Wei Guangde laughed happily and picked up a white pear. As the shopkeeper said, the fruit was very big. Although he hadn't tasted it yet, the appearance of it was very appetizing.

"Well, it looks like it tastes good."

Wei Guangde just sniffed it and praised, "It's still very fresh. Take it and wash it. Don't waste your time on the shopkeeper."

"Haha, sir, these pears were just picked from the tree. Of course they are fresh, and they still have the fragrance of fruit."

The innkeeper answered.

"Does your inn also have an orchard?"

Wei Guangde smiled and said, "The shopkeeper is really good at making money. There are many customers here, so it should be easy to sell."

"They are all grown by military households nearby. I have entrusted my small shop to help attract customers. Haha, I just want the master to like it."

The shopkeeper smiled.

“This military household in Ji Town still knows how to make money by growing fruit trees?”

Wei Guangde asked with a smile.

"Hey, how do they know this? It was the idea given by the Jizhen military clan that these military households were too poor and they had to find a way to make money for them.

Along the Jingdong Great Wall, there are barren mountains and ridges everywhere, which is a good opportunity for these military households to plant some fruit trees. When they are mature, whether they eat them themselves or send them to the capital, they can make a living.

So I found people to buy tree seeds, distributed them to them for planting, and sent people to guide them.

It was a little more mature last year, but the quantity was small, so the General Military Office collected them all.

This year the quantity was a bit large, and the General Military Mansion couldn’t eat so much, so I found a small shop to help recommend it to customers, haha.”

The shopkeeper explained the matter with a smile, and then found an excuse to exit the yard.

"I didn't expect that Qi Yuanjing could still do business. He seems to be very familiar with business."

Wei Guangde smiled at Tan Lun.

"Yuan Jing is good at doing business, but he is even better at fighting."

Tan Lun raised the corner of his mouth and smiled.

When the servant washed the pears and brought them in, Wei Guangde picked one up and took a bite without peeling it. "Well, it's very sweet. Try it."

Tan Lun also picked up a pear and swallowed it directly like Wei Guangde.

"Many people impeached him at the beginning, saying that his hands and feet were dirty."

Suddenly, Wei Guangde said to Tan Lun. (End of chapter)