Chapter 527 526 News Arrives in Beijing

In Liaodong in August, at the time of Mao, the sky was already bright, and this was also the most tired time for the night watchmen.

After a night, the soldiers were already hungry and drowsy, but the people who were changing shifts had not yet arrived to replace them.

At this time, the torches and bonfires that had been burning all night on the top of the city had gone out, and there was still a faint blue smoke. The night watchmen could only force themselves to rest on the wall of the pier for a while.

These were the treatments for the soldiers in charge of the night watch. For the generals and soldiers, they would naturally assign the work and find a place to sleep by themselves. Who would really be stupid enough to guard the city wall all night.

"Da Da Da"

A messy sound of horse hooves came from outside the side wall, making the soldiers standing guard on the battlements nervous. They lay on the city wall and tried to open their eyes wide to look out through the battlements.

There were dozens of war horses, but it seemed that the knights on horseback were not in a good condition, and many of them were lying on the horse's back at this time.

The horses under their crotches were no longer majestic, but just ran towards the city wall at a slow speed.

"Can you see who it is?"

On the city wall, the soldiers next to each other were already talking to each other.

Although it was bright, the distance was still far, and the people on the horses were lying down, so it was really difficult to tell where they came from.

As the sound of horse hooves approached, the soldiers in the pier also woke up like a conditioned reflex, and looked out through the lookout. Some of them had already run to find their superiors.

"It seems to be one of us."

"Looks a bit like him from the clothes."

Although it was still not clear, as they got closer, the clothes of the people on the horses could be gradually seen clearly.

When these horses finally ran down the mountain road to the bottom of the city tower, the weak shouts of the knights on the horses finally reached the ears of the Ming army guarding the city wall.

The news that Yang Zhao, the general of Liaodong, led the guerrilla Lang Degong and others to attack the border and were ambushed, and the whole army was almost annihilated, was reported back to Guangning. The Liaodong governor, Guangning deputy general and others hurriedly reported the matter to the court, and sent several night guards to risk their lives to search for the escaped Ming army and inquire about the movement of the Tartar army.

However, at this time, the news of the defeat of the Liaodong Ming army had not yet reached the capital, and the whole court had spread the news that Prince Yu had a son.

That night, when Feng Bao hurried to the West Garden, the palace was already locked and martial law was imposed.

That is, Feng Bao was familiar with the people in the palace, and after the palace people reported it many times, the news reached Huang Jin's ears, and then Huang Jin personally went to the palace gate to check and let him into the palace. It was not until the next morning that he left the West Garden and returned to Prince Yu's mansion, accompanied by the eunuch who conveyed the emperor's order and a large number of emperor rewards.

The officials in the court who were now loyal to King Jing had already changed their minds. The royal family had a grandson again, and countless officials flocked to Prince Yu's mansion to congratulate him.

The fact that Prince Yu's mansion had a son certainly made Prince Yu's position more stable.

Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng often went to Prince Yu's mansion these days to help Yin Shizhen welcome and see off guests.

However, when the Liaodong war report was sent to the capital, the atmosphere in the court changed immediately.

Before, after Yang Xuan detained Tong Han's son as a hostage, he vowed in his report to the capital that there would be no war between Ji and Liao from now on.

The words were still ringing in my ears, but I was slapped in the face by the Tartars.

The Liaodong government army suffered a great defeat, and Yang Xuan dared not hide it. You know, the dead were the second-rank generals, and there were 5,000 cavalry, which was already the main force of the Liaodong border army.

All were lost in one battle, even if he was worried about his career, he dared not delay time.

Obviously, the memorial he had submitted to the court to report his achievements before would most likely become a reason for the censors to criticize him in the future.

He was of course powerless to do anything about this, and could only send his trusted family members to deliver a heavy gift to Xu Jie and Yuan Wei in the cabinet in a hurry, hoping that they could help him say a word when the censors impeached him in the court.

As for Yang Bo, the Minister of War, Yang Xuan should also say a fair word for him based on his understanding of him.

In fact, this battle also shows that the intelligence he collected years ago was correct. The target of the Mongol Tartars' attack should be turned to Liaodong, intending to capture Liaodong.

At that time, the quarrel between him and Yang Bo about this matter was also known to the whole court.

It's just that Yang Zhao was defeated too miserably this time.

However, Yang Zhao had died in battle. Although he could put all the responsibility on him, he would offend all the generals of Ji Liao.

People died in battle for the country, so should they be punished?

If so, who would be willing to fight in the future?

Therefore, even if he cursed Yang Zhao to death in his heart, he still had to take some responsibility.

Fortunately, Wang Zhigao, the governor of Liaodong, also had to share the responsibility, otherwise Yang Xuan really didn't know what to do.

However, Yang Xuan thought so, but the court officials didn't think so.

They knew that Liaodong had suffered a great defeat at the beginning, and they knew that they would definitely lose soldiers and generals.

But when the details of the losses of the Ming army in the Ministry of War were reported, the court and the public were shocked.

The mobile force of the Liaodong Ming army, that is, the cavalry, was less than 10,000 in total. The loss of 5,000 cavalry directly caused Liaodong to lose more than 60% of its troops.

If you want to rely on infantry to fight the Mongolian Tartars in the field, you can, then you have to gather the army to arrange the troops, and you can also fight.

But Liaodong is a vast area, and it is naturally impossible to gather the army after the seemingly strong military force is dispersed.

In fact, after this battle, as long as the Mongolian Tartars did not attack Liaoyang, Shenyang, Guangning and other cities heavily guarded by the Ming army, other places were basically undefended.

Because even if they attacked those places, the surrounding Ming army could not gather troops to rescue them.

Being isolated and helpless, what news could be more devastating to their morale?

Although Yang Xuan has sent people to appeal to Liaodong, Jizhen will dispatch a troop of troops to Liaoyang urgently to supplement Liaodong's troops.

But how many cavalry can Jizhen send over?

Two thousand or three thousand?

No one believed that Ji Zhen would deploy 5,000 cavalry to replenish Liaoyang and restore the combat effectiveness of the Liaodong official army.

In fact, this battle severely damaged the Liaodong officers and soldiers.

As for Yang Zhao's death, to be honest, not many people care about it, and there are just more people rising up.

"Taipu Temple will increase the purchase of war horses this year."

Yin Shizhen took out the document in his hand and handed it to Wei Guangde and said.

When the news reached the capital, King Yu, who had already claimed to be the crown prince, would naturally convene a meeting with his staff to analyze the situation.

In fact, Prince Yu's Mansion arranged people to lurk in various government offices to collect information, and Dongchang had already reported it to Emperor Jiajing.

It's just that they were mostly inquiring about information rather than intervening in the affairs of various government offices, so the palace just turned a blind eye.

This news was brought back from the palace by Feng Bao this time.

It can only be said that his connections and eyewitnesses in the palace are still there, not to mention that when he went to Prince Yu's Mansion, no one said anything about it.

It's hard to say that a hundred years after the current emperor, Feng Bao will become the master again and return to the palace as the new emperor's favorite.

Of course, if Feng Bao had been the eunuch guarding the mausoleum, no one in the palace would care about him.

They are not blind, they know who they can ignore and what they cannot offend.

Perhaps Emperor Jiajing also wanted to train King Yu, after all, it was only a matter of time.

Since he fainted last year, Emperor Jiajing could feel it in his body, so he hurriedly made arrangements in the court, not wanting anything to happen.

However, the short period of great joy and small sadness still made him feel that his body was a little overwhelmed.

Of course he doesn't feel bad about the loss of 5,000 cavalry in Liaodong. What he feels bad about is the money. The court has to spend money to buy back 5,000 war horses, as well as the troubles in front of him.

Yang Bo did not agree with Yang Xuan's trend of dispatching Jizhen's army to support Liaoyang, and insisted that he did not want to dispatch a single soldier to Liaodong.

In the memorial to the Ministry of War, Yang Bo bluntly stated that Liaodong would be able to recover in at least two years.

During this period, the Liaodong armies only need to be careful.

In a word, Yang Bo's first consideration is Jizhen and the safety of the capital.

Without a strong enough army around the capital, he felt very uneasy. This was perhaps the first responsibility he had to consider as Minister of War.

Naturally, Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng already knew this information, so they just took the note from Yin Shizhen and read it.

This is a procurement task that the Cabinet only handed over to the Ministry of War today and passed it on to Taipu Temple.

"Shandai, you said before that Yang Xuan's plan was going to fail, and you were right. The Tatars didn't care about that prince at all."

King Yu spoke from above.

"Yang Xuan is a little clever. A national war like this can be avoided if the hostages are in hand. Unless he is the prince selected by Anda Khan, he may have some scruples."

Wei Guangde had said a long time ago that what Yang was holding was just the son of a clan leader among the many tribes on the grassland, and he was not a big shot at all.

Maybe this tribe can change its attitude towards the Ming Dynasty, but for the whole of Mongolia, there are too many such tribes.

Moreover, the various Mongolian tribes themselves are not monolithic. They are also full of various contradictions within them.

Maybe it's for a piece of pasture, or maybe it's the historical grudges between the tribes, or maybe it's just that the tribe leaders don't like each other.

If Yang Xuan had captured Anda Khan's most valued son, Xin Aitaiji, a war between the two countries should have been avoided, but small-scale conflicts were unavoidable.

"People who are close to Yang Xuan are now lobbying that the intelligence Yang Bo sent to the capital at the beginning of the year is accurate. Anda Khan may launch an all-out attack on the Liaodong region starting this year, hoping to completely occupy it.

Otherwise, if the Jizhen army had entered Liaodong in the first place, they would not have been defeated today. "

Yin Shizhen said.

After entering Prince Yu's Mansion today, the main people talking in the room were Yin Shizhen and Wei Guangde, but Zhang Juzheng was very quiet.

But everyone also knows why. In order to be promoted to the chief military officer of Liaodong, Yang Zhao often sent people to give gifts and asked Zhang Juzheng to talk to Xu Jie.

Now because of Yang Zhao's reckless and bad behavior, Zhang Juzheng naturally felt very uncomfortable, and was worried that he would leave an unclear impression on Prince Yu.

"According to that, the Tatars may not go to Liaodong to fight this battle, but directly attack the border wall of Ji Town."

Wei Guangde shook his head and said with a smile, "Andakhan will not understand the principle of avoiding the truth and attacking the weak. If you want to win the battle, you naturally have to catch the weak persimmons to ensure victory, and the morale of the army will be high."

To be honest, it is really difficult to judge the direction of the Mongols' attack.

Unlike the Han army's war, if you want to attack a certain direction, you must reserve food and grass in that area in advance for the consumption of the army, but the Mongols are different.

The main force of their army is cavalry, and the logistics are tribesmen who drive the sheep.

The soldiers fought in the front, and the tribesmen were responsible for driving the sheep and carrying the looted materials. Their mobility was indeed much better than that of the Han army.

Today you see him gathering to go to Liaodong. You never know when he will turn around and go south to attack Jizhen. It is really hard to guard against it.

Therefore, Yang Bo's view is that sticking to the border wall and defending the city are more appropriate tactics based on the current combat power of the Ming army.

The Tatars would not give the Ming army time to deploy troops and generals, nor would they gather their main forces together and wait for the Ming army to attack.

Although the construction of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty seemed to have protected the safety of the Han people and allowed people to live and work in peace and contentment, it did affect the officials and soldiers of the imperial court, whether it was because they did not want to make progress because of the city wall, or because there were loopholes in the fortifications everywhere.

In the middle and late stages of the Ming Dynasty, the overall combat power of the Ming Dynasty declined seriously. Although it was not completely defeated, it could not find a suitable strategy, so it always seemed very passive.

Wei Guangde actually doesn't know how to deal with the prairie cavalry. He really feels that they are slippery. Unless they are willing, they will not fight you at all, but will flee directly.

Think about the time of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di. Several northern expeditions to the grasslands consumed a lot of national power. Although they had gratifying results, they failed to fundamentally eliminate the main force of the Mongols.

"Master Yang Bo is right to seek stability."

Finally, Zhang Juzheng, who had been silent for a long time, also spoke, supporting Wei Guangde's view.

He had some responsibility for Yang Zhao's incident, but it was all behind the scenes.

The court wanted to hold him accountable, but it really couldn't find him.

But after Zhang Juzheng received the news of the defeat in Liaodong, he still blamed himself because he felt that he had a great responsibility.

Thinking of Wei Guangde's repeated advice before, he ended up not listening, which not only cost thousands of innocent lives, but also plunged the court into crisis.

Perhaps, if it were other generals at that time, although they would have chased him out of the pass, they would never have chased him that far. Naturally, the Tatars would not have been able to set up an ambush, and they would not have died tragically.

After listening to Zhang Juzheng's words, Wei Guangde smiled and nodded, not knowing whether he was agreeing or thanking him for his support.

"As Yang Shangshu envisioned, it doesn't matter even if our Ming Dynasty suffers a few more losses like this. Our country has a large population, a vast territory and abundant resources. It is easy to replenish and restore our strength. It only takes a few years.

As long as the border cities are strictly guarded, the Tatars will have to withdraw their troops because they have gained nothing. If they dare to bypass the border cities and go deep into the interior, they will only lead to their own death. That is the time to plan how to eliminate them.

But for these, the other party must first make a mistake. "

Wei Guangde answered.

King Yu interjected at this time: "You also support Yang Bo, are you worried that the elite soldiers of Ji Town have gone to Liaodong, and the Tatars will take the opportunity to attack Ji Town?"

"It's completely possible. As I said before, the biggest advantage of the Tatars is that they come and go like the wind. They are still in Liaodong today, but they may appear outside the border wall of Ji Town tomorrow."

Wei Guangde replied, but thought that King Yu might still be in the exploratory stage of government affairs at this time, so he added: "No matter how bad the war situation in Liaodong is, the safety of the capital is the most important, and it is a major matter of concern to the world. If you are careful, the whole country may be shaken.”