Why didn't the emperor trust his ministers? Because the ministers were so powerful that even the emperor couldn't do anything to them.
In his early years, when Mang Gurtai joined the army with his father Nurhaci, he heard his father say that the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was actually very pitiful, so pitiful that he could not command his ministers, and he could not even appoint any of his sons as heir apparent.
In order to maintain the operation of the country without increasing the burden on the peasants, Emperor Wanli decided to levy commercial taxes and mining taxes. However, what he never expected was that no ministers would implement his will. Instead, he received several objections. In desperation, he
Only by sending his own domestic slaves, the eunuchs in the palace, to collect taxes in various places, and withstanding the abuse of the civil servants, could he ensure the normal operation of the country and bear the money and grain required for the three major conquests.
Why were the courtiers unwilling to carry out Wanli's will, subtly obeying the emperor's will, and even insulting him endlessly? It was just because the objects of Wanli's tax were themselves or the gentry families closely related to them. What would they do if the flesh was cut on them?
If it doesn't hurt, how can they be willing to be cut? But they have never thought about where their flesh comes from, where they live, and how they, the parasites, can survive without a host.
As a result, after Wanli's death, Taichang who succeeded to the throne had no independent opinion and was like a puppet. He was firmly controlled by the Donglin Party members among the courtiers who were closely related to the big landowners and businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River. He died after being emperor for less than a month. In this
In a short period of one month, the Donglin Party members, who had counterattacked and calculated, abolished all the measures that benefited the country and the people during Wanli's life before his body was cold. They reduced business taxes to a negligible level and levied mining taxes in various places.
All the eunuchs who paid taxes were rushed back to the capital, and even the frontier army's money and food were reduced by half. On the contrary, the farmers of the Ming Dynasty suffered a great disaster. During Wanli's time, the farmers' burdens were light and their lives were relatively well-off.
After Wanli's death, they instantly fell from a moderately prosperous life to having enough food and clothing. Finally, under the double pressure of natural and man-made disasters, their food and clothing inevitably fell into abject poverty and the thin line between life and death.
The successor Emperor Tianqi was young. In the first two years of his reign, he had been deceived by the so-called "all the people in the court". When he found out that the group of ministers standing in front of him every day at court would only continue to do so.
The squabbling parties constantly asked him to reduce the taxes of businessmen and big landowners, but the state affairs were deteriorating, and the treasury was so empty that not even a mouse was found. He suddenly realized that in order to save the Ming Dynasty, he decided to imitate him.
Grandfather Wanli also reused eunuchs to "compete with the people", especially Wei Zhongxian, who trusted Wei Zhongxian. Only with Wei's strong attack did the power of the Donglin Party disappear from the court, and the will of the court could be implemented locally.
After execution, the taxes that should be collected were collected again, so that the precarious national power of the Ming Dynasty could be restored.
It was also during the Tianqi period that the Jin army's war outside the pass was in trouble. They suffered many defeats in the battle to attack Ming Dynasty, and the tribes suffered serious losses. It was not the first time that Mang Gurtai heard his father Khan complaining there, which shows that the carpenter of the country was
The emperor is much better than his father, and no worse than his grandfather. If he remains emperor for a few more years, the Eight Banners may return to the starting point and become a savage in the white mountains and black waters again.
Fortunately, the carpenter emperor did not live long. After his younger brother Chongzhen ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty's court turned upside down again. Those Donglin Party members who had been suppressed and exiled by Wei Zhongxian, secretly by Tianqi, once again entered the court. They
The New Deal brought by the Ming Dynasty did not make the Ming Dynasty peaceful and peaceful, and its troops and horses strong. Instead, the national treasury continued to be in urgent need, farmers continued to revolt, and border affairs became more and more threatening. It was also that year that Hong Tai led the Eight Banners Army into the pass and directly killed Ming Ming.
The whole country was terrified.
Mang Gurtai hated Mrs. Hong, but he was even more jealous of Mrs. Hong, because Mrs. Hong was indeed talented and discerning. He could see at a glance the biggest weakness of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the people of the Ming Dynasty were not unified, and the court only
There will be intrigues, and the officials will do nothing except raise taxes on the farmers. This will cause resentment in the country and the people will rise up one after another. What is there to be afraid of in such a Ming Dynasty!
In order to show the difference between himself and his brother, the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty vigorously eliminated the eunuchs in the palace since he came to the throne. He also cut off most of the Dongchang and Jinyiwei, the organs that could control the courtiers. As a result, in addition to those who could know the capital every day,
Apart from the price of food, as the emperor, he no longer knows anything about anything outside the palace. The result is that his ears and eyes are not clear, the information is not good, and it is inevitable to be deceived. His brother sent eunuchs to various places to supervise the army.
, all the guarding eunuchs were ordered to return by him, and the vacancies left by these eunuchs were all filled by civil servants. Naturally, this move won unanimous praise from both the government and the public, praising him for having the "style of Yao and Shun".
There is hope.[
Now, this young man who was praised by his ministers as the King of Ming Zhongxing has begun to realize his mistakes and no longer trusts his ministers who are regarded as the worms of the country. He must also learn from his grandfather and brother.
Did he reuse his own slaves to perform things for him that his ministers would never do?
Also, the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty are really a bunch of rubbish. It is simply a fool's dream to say that these people can defeat Mrs. Hong. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty should have re-employed people he trusts. Back then, his brother would always send supervisors to every battle.
Eunuch? When I followed Mrs. Hong to attack Ningjin, I saw with my own eyes the faceless eunuchs on the city wall wielding swords and fighting bravely. On the other hand, all the civil servants, except for them, hid behind and chanted Buddha's blessings. How could they have the courage to stand in front of them?
The city was under fire from arrows and artillery fire.
The emperor of the Ming Dynasty must have known that the civil servants were capable, so he sent eunuchs to supervise the army. Well, that's right. It's definitely true. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty was not bad in the head. He still knew who was obedient and who was not.
People, who only think about themselves, who are the people who think about his emperor. No, the Ming army changed its previous decline and swept through Liaonan Lianzhan and Lianjie. Isn’t it a proof of the incompetence of those civil servants that he, the emperor?
So wise.
Only in this way can he ensure that his orders are implemented to the greatest extent by appointing his own trusted subordinates to lead the army. That is, Mang Gurtai's Zhenglan Banner, from Jia La E Zhen to Zhuang Da Protect Banner, are all led by his trusted servants.
As a matter of fact, now that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty has sent out his army of slaves and eunuchs, Mang Gurtai can't think of anything wrong or inappropriate.
Dayong was originally worried that Mang Gurtai would not believe it, and was going to spend a few more words to make up the reason why the Ming Emperor was extremely dissatisfied with the war outside the Pass and then personally commanded the war. Although it was reluctant, it sounded like that, but
He soon realized that there was no need to make such an unnecessary move, because Mang Gurtai believed it. But then Mang Gurtai's request gave Dayong another headache, and he actually asked to see Zhao Quan.
Dayongfa agreed to this request, because the imperial envoy representing the emperor was under house arrest in Shuangdao.
After rambling here and there, Dayong said that Eunuch Zhao was entrusted with supervising the army as the emperor, and that the son of a rich man could not sit down in court. At the moment, he was sitting in the rear coordinating the military affairs and rushing to Liaoyang. The Ming army's top priority now was to capture Shenyang, so this was a very important moment.
Although he met Mang Gurtai's request, he still agreed to send Turush to the rear to meet Zhao Quan, and Eunuch Zhao would stamp the seal of the eunuch in charge of the army to show that the Ming Dynasty valued the "Anshan Treaty". As for Zhao Quan, Eunuch Zhao
Whether Dayong will cooperate or not is not something Dayong needs to consider.
This speech was fair and justifiable. Even if Mang Gurtai was dissatisfied, he could only accept it. Although meeting Zhao Eunuch in person could increase the influence of his return to the Ming Dynasty, it could also be done directly through the emperor's personal attendants and the emperor. Speaking of words, it would be better if the Eunuch Zhao can be bribed with heavy gifts to speak from his perspective. But Shi Dayong is right. The most important thing for the Ming army at the moment is to capture Shenyang, so He couldn't act too hastily. Adding a Shenyang city to the Liaoyang city also increased the weight of Mang Gurtai's surrender. Besides, there was not much time left for the Ming army, but Mang Gurtai still had a lot of time left for him. There was not much time left. If Hong Tai had not taken advantage of the snow yet and captured Shenyang on the way home, I would probably never have such a good opportunity again.
At that moment, Mang Gurtai solemnly kept the sealed "Anshan Treaty" and handed it to Turush, ordering him to immediately prepare a heavy gift and go to see the eunuch Zhao Quan. Dayong also kept the treaty. , and then directly told Mang Gurtai that he was going to send his troops north to Shenyang tomorrow. Before that, he also asked Mang Gurtai to provide the money, food and equipment needed for the Ming army to go north.
This request was expected by Mang Gurtai, and it was also his obligation. Naturally, he agreed with the conditions. Liaoyang City is an important transportation area between the north and the south. The commercial tax revenue in recent years has been extremely considerable. This year, all the money and grain transported to Shenyang have not yet been shipped. Therefore, the savings are very considerable, and there is no problem in allocating part of them to supply the Ming army going north. As for how to arrange the remaining money, food and materials, Dayong did not ask, and Mang Gurtai naturally would not talk too much. Anyway, the "Anshan Treaty" said it I understand that Mang Gurtai can handle the money and food in Liaoyang City by himself. If Shi Dayong doesn't mention it, the rest will naturally belong to him.
Dayong asked Mang Gurtai to immediately recruit Qingzhuang, the bannerman of Liaoyang City, to accompany the army, and asked Manggurtai how many bannermen he could recruit. Manggurtai had already counted with Cui Da and others in advance, and in Liaoyang City, except for those who were unwilling to In addition to the bannermen who returned to the Ming Dynasty, they were able to recruit a total of 1,600 young bannermen. Among them, there were only 600 armored soldiers belonging to the Xianglan Banner, and the rest were temporarily recruited armored soldiers.
In order to reduce unnecessary losses to his men, Mang Gurtai proposed that the Ming army provide 1,000 pieces of cotton armor. Dayong agreed to this request after thinking for a while, but only agreed to give 500 pieces of cotton armor. The reason was that the army's baggage was still in Anshan. The army could not afford so many cotton armors at once. As for the horses, Dayong did not need to worry about them. There were still a lot of horses in Liaoyang City. Dayong kept these in mind and considered whether he could expand the cavalry again after returning to the army.
It's great that Shi Dayong can give him 500 pieces of cotton armor. Even though the Eight Banners have enjoyed a good life in recent years, there is a huge shortage of cotton armor. In the past, each banner had to send people to collect it on the battlefield after every war. The armor on the corpse, regardless of whether it is the enemy or ours, shows how important the cotton armor is to the Jin Army. Even now, each banner has many unarmored bannermen accompanying the army. If you can get the armor, you will be a member of the armored warrior. Second only to the existence of the personal soldiers of each banner leader.
Mang Gurtai is not an ignorant person. Now that the two sides are cooperating to attack Shenyang, he will naturally not be petty. He is not happy about what happened to the 500 pieces of cotton armor and the Ming army. He immediately ordered Ebilun and Cuida to wait. The people immediately went to recruit bannermen and prepared to set off with the Ming army tomorrow.
Mang Gurtai wanted to lead his troops to attack Shenyang with the army. The defense of Liaoyang City was naturally taken over by the Ming army. According to the "Anshan Treaty", Dayong allowed the bannermen in Liaoyang City who were willing to return with Mang Gurtai to move to Liaoning. In the south, the Ming Dynasty can temporarily allocate any city in southern Liaoning to Mang Gurtai for garrison. After Mang Gurtai meets the Emperor of Ming Dynasty in court, the court will decide where to garrison them.[
Mang Gurtai's choice of any city did not surprise Dayong. He chose Jinzhou. Before he named the location, Dayong had pointed out that Shenyang or Liaoyang could be returned to Mang Gurtai, but no matter Mang Gurtai, Gurtai and his subordinates all unanimously rejected these two cities.
Dayong could also guess what they were thinking. Unless they knew that the Ming army would not be able to hold on to Shenyang even if they captured it, after all, although the Ming army invaded with great force, they never encountered any decent resistance, let alone The battle with the main force of the Eight Banners was completely a sneak attack war. The Ming army's eagerness to capture Shenyang had more political significance than military significance. Mang Gurtai believed that after the Ming army captured Shenyang, it would only destroy Shenyang. Burning them to the ground, and then quickly retreating to southern Liaoning, they would never be stupid enough to stay for a long time. If the Ming army really did this, the main force of the Eight Banners returned by Hong Tai could easily tear them apart, even if they had Shenyang Fort to rely on. With food routes and reinforcements cut off, the fate would be as miserable as that of Zu Dashou who was besieged in Daling River City.
The myth that the Eight Banners is an enemy in the field has not been broken by any army. Last year's Battle of Jinzhou was completely a battle that pitted one's own shortcomings against one's own strengths, and did not represent the real combat power of the Eight Banners Army. Mang Gurtai finally escaped from Shenyang with his life, so how could he leave his life in an isolated city that was destined to be undefendable?
Mang Gurtai insisted on Jinzhou, and Dayong naturally did not object. He immediately agreed with a smile, asking Mang Gurtai to immediately arrange for his troops to move south, while he had to prepare for the northward move.
Before the expedition, Mang Gurtai asked Shi Dayong to kill the white horse to make an oath. Dayong agreed without hesitation. After the oath, he ordered his troops and horses and marched towards Shenyang. Mang Gurtai and his newly recruited 1,600 flag soldiers walked at the forefront of the army. The flag displayed in front is also "gold", but the color is the true blue color of his national flag.