Chapter 553 of the text volume of The Naughty Thief: Governors on both sides, Ningxia Town, Huamachi.
This is a new city built in the Tianshun period. Because it is close to Yanchi, it is also called Yanchi City. It has always been an important place for Ningxia to face the northern invaders, and it is also an important market for Ningxia to exchange salt for horses from Mongolia.
The governor will be stationed in Huamachi.
The wind and sand caught the horses' hooves, and the grain transport team from the east was struggling. On the Drum Tower in the middle of the city, under the shadow of the huge three-story cornices, the eyes of Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, were filled with worry. He slowly read the letter in his hand.
He sighed and murmured: "The governors of the three sides..."
In this era, there were three governors-general, oh no, now there are two governors-general.
It is too difficult for the governors of both sides in this era.
In the two months since spring, he has not heard any good news from any direction.
Instead, bad news poured into his ears.
Although he ran from Gansu to Ningxia last year, according to the arrangement he made when he stayed in Liangzhou before leaving, the army and people of Liangzhou were completely able to block Liu Chengzong's army from Liangzhou.
Originally, according to the plan, the Marshal's Army was supposed to collapse due to lack of food. In the spring of this year, the Ming Army in the direction of Ningxia could gather heavy troops and easily invade Gansu to clear out the remaining thieves and recover the entire Gansu Province.
Until he left Liangzhou, Hong Chengchou believed that his plan was foolproof. No matter how he calculated it, the military rations of the Marshal's Mansion were not enough to support the winter consumption after taking in the guards' population; no matter how he thought about it, he did not believe that Ningxia would not be able to mobilize a heavy army this year.<
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But the development of things always exceeds his imagination.
Liangzhou did survive until this year, but the Marshal's army in Gansu, let alone mutiny, did not even suffer from food shortages. The Wala Tatars transported 50,000 sheep from Jiayuguan!
Before this became a reality, if someone had told Hong Chengchou that there was someone in the world who could make the Tatars transport 50,000 sheep to supplement military supplies, he would have laughed out of his eyes.
What kind of genius can make up such a funny story?
Hong Chengchou had been an official in Shaanxi for several years and was very familiar with the Mongolians living outside the country. Livestock was more important than life to people living outside the country.
The lack of supplies outside the mouth determines that as long as they can come up with money and food, or even just have a hope of grabbing money and food, anyone can drive a Mongolian army to fight for them, as small as a tribe, as large as the former Lin Dan
Damn, everyone has their own price.
This is not considered an ability. Both the Ming army and the peasant army can do it.
But no, no one has ever been able to pull grain out of their mouths.
Yes, he knew that Liu Chengzong was known as the Han Khan who was good at fighting, which was also the origin of the name Han Khan, but even so, this matter exceeded his cognition, and he continued to gallop after breaking through the bottom line of his cognition. p>
This is not a matter of whether you sweat or not. There is a lot of sweat on the grassland. Even if the genuine Lin Dan Tiger Duntu is still alive, can he accomplish this?
Asking the Mongols to bring livestock to replenish military supplies for their army, and 50,000 livestock at that, is this any different from a monk seeking alms from beggars?
So until now, Hong Chengchou doubts the authenticity of this information.
But regardless of whether this information is true or false, things have already happened. The result is that Liu Chengzong's army in Gansu not only did not run out of food in the winter, but also had a mouth full of oil.
It's true that he was full of lies. Hong Chengchou saw it. When Hou Jin retreated from Xuanyun border last year, the Ningxia border army had been in contact with the Mongolian army entrenched in Ordos. The intelligence they spied on was the army sent by the Marshal's Office to Monan.
They all brought a lot of meat and oil.
The source of the meat oil is the lambs transported to Jiayuguan by the Wara Tatars. Those sheep are different from the sheep in the Central Plains. Their butts are very fat and they are all meat oil.
It was this incident that made Hong Chengchou realize that the court had very little real information about the Marshal's Mansion, and its understanding of what Liu Chengzong had done in Qinghai in the past few years was extremely limited.
Without intelligence, the basis for his strategy as the trilateral governor is wrong. How can he win this battle?
Hong Chengchou realized that relying on the Ming court's traditional methods to spy on intelligence could not clearly see the true face of the Marshal's Mansion.
It's just that throughout the winter, he couldn't take care of the Marshal's Mansion. The locust plague that spread to Ningxia, Yansui, Guyuan and other places tortured him to death.
What torments him is not the locust plague, and the locust plague cannot torment him. On the one hand, his official position is governor-general, which is called governor-general of military affairs and in charge of food and wages. The locust plague is civil affairs.
On the other hand, although the work of exterminating locusts is indeed very complicated, it is not really a big deal for local officials in Shaanxi and military attachés in this era. It is just that of all the problems they encounter in life, it is the easiest to solve.
one of.
At least there are examples to follow. As long as you treat it as a matter of fact and follow the examples of successful handling in the past, it can really be done - there are no problems that are so easy to solve these days.
What tormented Hong Chengchou was the secondary problem caused by the locust plague. He had to take care of food and salary, but when the locust plague passed through, where would there be food and salary?
In fact, it was not just the peasant army who were desperate at this time. Ming officials such as Hong Chengchou were also desperate, but the place of despair was different.
What lay before Hong Chengchou was a shattered Shaanxi Province, with less than half of the officials in each county and prefecture, and once the official died, or was promoted or demoted, it would be difficult to find a successor, the prefect of Xi'an
, Shaanxi Grain Supervisor, these are all real shortcomings of overwhelming power, and it can be left empty for a year or two without anyone to fill it.
How desperate are you?
Hong Chengchou used to have a colleague named Liu Jiayu.
When he was an official in Shaanxi, he was in charge of grain administration and Liu Jiayu was in charge of postal services. They had to deal with each other. The relationship was not very good and they were kept at arm's length... Hong Chengchou rarely looked down on other people's fortunes, and Liu Jiayu was one of them.<
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Liu Jiayu is a native of Qiu County. He is talented and knowledgeable, has a strong head, has bad luck, has a tough life, and has a bad temper.
This man is very willful. He offended the imperial envoy as soon as he became the county magistrate; he offended Wei Zhongxian when he joined the Ministry of War; he stayed away from home when he was an official; Cui Chengxiu, the leader of the Five Tigers of the Eunuch Party, tried to steal the love of the Ministry of War, but was scolded by him: "Ominous!"
Body.
It happened that this person offended Wei Zhongxian because Wei Zhongxian admired talents and promoted him twice in a row. He was promoted four times to outstanding officials. When the court asked to recommend officials, three of the twenty people recommended him.
The locust plague and the backlog of cases were handled with ease; Shanhaiguan military supplies and Tianjin guard ships were no problem at all; Shaanxi's postal service was very good. When he went to Shanxi, he even dragged his sick body to fight with the bandits for three months.
Wherever you are an official, you will make meritorious deeds. As long as you calm down your temper, you may be in the cabinet early.
How is such a person doing now?
Dead.
He died the year before last and was exhausted to death while serving in Huailong Military Preparation Road in Xuanfu.
Because after years of war, the imperial machinery has become dysfunctional. If local officials are not so talented and have integrity, they will have a bit of a fool-like mentality when they are in office. They will only do what they can do and take care of, and they will not care about other work.
A little more Buddhist.
If you don't encounter major events such as the invasion of bandits by the Later Jin Dynasty, mass plunder by bandits, or peasant uprisings, it would not be difficult to serve a full term.
Just be careful when you encounter one.
It is impossible for everyone to have the intention to turn the tide. Even if they have such intention, it is impossible for everyone to have such ability and talent.
But if we take it seriously and be a good official, the backlog of problems will never be finished even if it exhausts people to death.
Hong Chengchou is facing the same situation now. Ningxia and Guyuan are already extremely empty.
Needless to say, the emptiness of Guyuan, a military town, was the place where the dream of the Shaanxi Uprising began.
The next eight years were even more miserable. Liu Chengzong snatched it all away. The military generals who were born in Guyuan were the backbone of the Marshal's Mansion. Yang Qi, Li Hongsi and other generals transferred troops from there one after another.
Counterinsurgency.
Nowadays, the entire Guyuan Town cannot be said to be fortified, otherwise Jingning Prefecture, which is separated by a mountain, would not fall directly to the Marshal's Mansion.
Comparatively speaking, the situation in Ningxia Town is much better. It has been self-sufficient in the past, and its military strength, armor, and city defenses can be said to be the leader on three sides.
Until last year, more than 60,000 people from Jianbi Qingye in Liangzhou moved to Zhongwei. The intense resettlement work left Ningxia very stretched. Then a locust plague destroyed a crop of grain, and the situation was different.
Soldiers were unable to receive food and pay, their horses fell dead, and the proportion of equipment lost was getting higher and higher. More and more soldiers were asking for leave for drills in the camp. On more than one occasion, military attachés reported to Hong Chengchou that if food and pay were not provided, the troops would not be able to carry them. Those professional warriors who had been in the army for generations all took their names in the camp and ran out to find their own way.
The most terrifying thing among them is that Ningxia Town, which has not had a mutiny since the end of the Wanli Dynasty's Ningxia Campaign, is showing signs of a pay mutiny.
Fortunately, the military attache in Ningxia Town had strong control over the army, and they worked together to properly channel the soldiers' anger outside the border wall. Later, the Jin army declared a large-scale retreat, and the border army's pursuit caused friction with the Marshal Mansion's Monan Army. At the same time, the troops from Ningxia Town also cooperated to go out and attacked the Mobei Mongolian army entrenched in Ordos.
The responsibility does not entirely lie with the Ningxia border army. The Mobei army entrenched in Ordos also has the idea of provoking disputes and is going in both directions.
In the Houjin Koubian battle that took place last year, none of the five forces participating in the war achieved what they wanted. In other words, none of them won.
Later Jin consolidated its control over the Harashen tribe, and Shenyang successfully survived the terrible floods. However, many corpses were left on the battlefield. In the end, all the looted people and property were returned in the pursuit, and they returned without success. My hometown was also attacked by Shen Shikui, but the results were not great, so I was shocked.
The Ming Dynasty successfully defended Xuanyun at a small cost. This battle went more smoothly than before. However, more than half of the Zhongquan camp in the Xuanfu was lost. At the same time, only a part of the plundered population and property was recovered. Most of them were lost to Yang Qi. If you rob it, you will have to face a more complex external environment in the future.
Tumut was liberated from the threat of Houjin, but it can't be said to be independent. In fact, Tumut can't be said to be a completely independent force since the beginning of Tonggong. It’s not a loss.
Of course, the Marshal's Mansion is not the winner. Although this lone army successfully took root in Monan, it can hardly be said that the influence of the Marshal's Mansion has spread here. After all, it is an enclave, not to mention that it has to face a hundred thousand Mobei Mongolian troops. Placement issues.
Speaking of which, only Mobei Mongolia made more money, not many people died, and the natural disasters in their hometown in the north were avoided. They also reached an agreement with the Marshal's Office to station herdsmen in Monan, but the Ming Dynasty did not give them any relief. In the market, the rewards in the imperial edict were not given in full, leading to constant border conflicts.
To be honest, after the incident of Hou Jin and Kou Bian was over, Chongzhen really had no intention of breaking his promise, and he really planned to pay the full market reward of 490,000 taels.
The market reward in question is not a direct payment, but refers to the amount of trade between the exchanges.
Now both sides want food. In some areas of Shaanxi under the control of the Ming Dynasty, they collected and collected noodles in the name of market rewards, purchased noodles, and transported them to Yansui. The second town of Ningxia was seized by Hong Chengchou: the soldiers were not full, and they still had to eat. Sell it outside? Replace it with a satin iron pot and sell it to them.
The nobleman from Mobei was visiting the moon market, looking at the high-quality Lu silk with horse prices. His eyes widened and he said: I am almost starving to death, so you are going to sell me this and let me cook the silk in an iron pot?
The soldiers on both sides wanted to eat each other.
But soon there was no more Lu silk in the market, because there was a plague in Xing County, Kelan Prefecture, Shanxi Province. Hong Chengchou didn't know what the disease was, but he heard that it was not the common smallpox in the past, but a sudden and sudden disease.
Soon, a severe plague with swollen necks killed an entire family. The people of Xing County fled in all directions, and the entire city almost became empty.
Hong Chengchou's reaction was extremely quick. As soon as he heard the news, he asked the entire Shaanxi Yellow River coast, Fugu, Jiazhou, Wubao, Yanshui Pass, and Hancheng to block all communication with Shanxi - he had returned after hearing the Hehuang War.
The soldiers said that Liu Chengzong was the Marshal of the Plague and could lead the army to advance and retreat freely in the plague.
Hong Chengchou was not that stupid to believe such nonsense about the god of plague coming to earth. He just knew that Liu Chengzong had a good way of dealing with the plague. If the plague spread in Shaanxi and the Marshal's army took the opportunity to march eastward, the consequences would be disastrous.
In fact, he is paying attention to another thing now: Zuo Liangyu, who is stationed in Qinzhou, wrote to him, mentioning that Liu Chengzong transported military supplies from Liangzhou to Ningyuan County, and believed that Gansu was empty at this time and it was a good time to recover. p>
Hong Chengchou knew that Gansu was empty. He came here from Gansu. He knew the situation there very well. Before Gansu received food supplies this autumn, the troops stationed there by the Marshal's Office would definitely be transferred elsewhere because there would be insufficient food.<
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But to what extent the emptiness would be, he was not sure. What if there was an army of Wala Tatars two thousand miles away, moving towards Gansu?
He must first understand the territory of the Marshal's Mansion and whether Gansu is considered the rear or the front.
Therefore, he turned his attention to looking beyond the Great Wall, searching for information about the Marshal's Mansion from the Mongols in Ordos, the three Mobei tribes going south, and even the Monan Governor's Mansion in the Marshal's Mansion.
Before making this decision, he told himself that no matter what outrageous information he found, he would take it all in and believe it all - because in the Battle of Gansu, the strength and influence shown by the Marshal's Mansion had exceeded his expectations.
It is common sense for peasant armies and even rebels.
Information that seems outrageous may very well be true, and may not even be comprehensive.
"In the military, it is a honor to live up to your humble duty."
At this moment, Ding Qirui, the deputy military commander, quickly climbed up to the Drum Tower with a few scrolls in his hands: "Liu Thief arrogantly claimed that he was the Khan and sent a notice to all ministries. I got it!"
As he spoke, a picture scroll with mountains, rivers and nobles was unfolded in front of Hong Chengchou, like opening a door to a new world, unveiling the curtain along the tip of the iceberg.
A Marshal's Mansion that was completely different from what the Central Plains court knew slowly appeared before Hong Chengchou's eyes.