Therefore, Yang Sichang was a man with a very strategic vision. He was indeed much smarter than Emperor Chongzhen and his courtiers in the past who were busy treating their headaches and treating their sore feet.
Emperor Chongzhen had never heard anyone systematically analyze the situation for him from a strategic perspective, so when he heard these words, he felt enlightened. He said with emotion: "I only regret that it is too late to appoint you!"
So after the strategic conception is completed, what specific implementation strategy does Yang Sichang have?
In view of the characteristics of the peasant army's dispersed and mobile operations, Yang Sichang proposed a "ten-sided net" plan that combined the main force's mobile attack and the local army's persistence and assistance to fight steadily and step by step. In fact, we can see that this plan is closely related to Wu Shigong's plan.
The full-court press plus zone defense once proposed is very similar.
According to this plan, the prime ministers of the five provinces and the governor-general of Shaanxi will respectively command the various support and suppression forces and the three-sided force, and serve as the main force to attack large groups of peasant armies in the Central Plains and the northwest; the four governors of Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Fengyang
The local corps under their jurisdiction defended their own areas while cooperating with the main corps in encirclement and suppression. The so-called "divided responsibilities for suppression and full-time defense" were called the "Four Rightes", which were the four fronts of the encirclement and suppression network.
In addition, the local corps in the six governor's jurisdictions of Yansui, Shanxi, Shandong, Yingtian, Jiangxi, and Sichuan, as the "six corners", are the six corners of the large network. They are mainly responsible for strictly guarding their own areas and assisting in encirclement and suppression accordingly. Yang Sichang believed that
, once the deployment of the net is completed, it will only take three months to completely eliminate the entire peasant army.
As far as the military plan is concerned, the plan of "spreading a net from ten sides" is still quite rigorous, but it requires many basic conditions to be implemented seriously. The first is to have sufficient and capable troops, otherwise the net will be large and the eyes will be thin.
Empty shelves cannot achieve practical results.
Therefore, it is necessary to increase troops. According to Yang Sichang's deployment, the two main legions of the five provincial premiers and the governor of Shaanxi each increased their troops by 30,000 people. The two governors of Huguang and Henan added 15,000 troops each, and the two governors of Fengyang and Shaanxi increased their troops by 15,000.
An additional 10,000 troops were added to each. In addition, 5,000 additional special defense troops were each added to the Fengyang Ancestral Tomb and the Chengtian (today's Zhongxiang, Hubei) Ancestral Tomb. The total number of additional troops reached an astonishing 120,000.
By now, together with the original number of troops in the Central Plains, the two northwest theaters and the "Liuyu" area, the number of troops used in the Shimianwang has exceeded 200,000. Mobilizing such a large number of troops to complete a general campaign was a major issue in the Ming Dynasty.
It is also extremely rare in history, and in terms of numbers alone, it is at least enough to compete with various peasant armies.
But here is a question: In the late Ming Dynasty, when the military system was corrupted, how effective were these hastily recruited troops? Only God knows.
Of course, after the increase in troops, the pay, households, and soldiers will be increased. After careful calculation, a total of 2,808,000 taels of military pay will be needed. This is another astronomical figure. And this huge expenditure is really nerve-wracking.
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Emperor Chongzhen once ordered the families of his relatives to make donations in the past, but they met with widespread resistance. Those officials and gentry were not anxious to protect the country at all. Even the country gentry in the war zone were not willing to donate. Emperor Chongzhen tolerated it.
He kept complaining: When the thieves came, everything became theirs. Why are you so stupid?
But Emperor Chongzhen didn't have to laugh at fifty steps. Even he himself was a miser by nature. He would rather destroy the country and family than use money from the inner treasury to help pay. Seeing this, I couldn't help but think of it again.
The notorious Wei Zhongxian. When he saw that the treasury was empty, he used his family wealth to pay for the army in Liaodong. It is not clear who has a higher ideological level.
Then no one was willing to pay, and the huge military pay could only be extracted from the people. Therefore, Yang Sichang proposed his famous plan of increasing "suppression" of pay, and in addition to the Liao pay, he also increased grain per mu**
, each stone is converted into eight coins of silver, which adds up to a total tax increase of more than 1.92 million taels. Including the so-called "overland" - that is, re-examination of taxable land - and other items, the country's annual increase in taxes totals 280,000 taels.
Ten thousand taels.
Emperor Chongzhen and Yang Sichang thought that the long-term pain would be better than the short-term pain, but they did not expect that the increase in wages did not go to the officials and gentry at all. Instead, it all went to the local people. Coupled with the local government's arbitrary collection and consumption, in the end
More than ten million taels were plundered from the people.
What is even more frightening is that this "suppression of wages" was temporarily set up to complete the big campaign of "spreading the net from ten sides", so the "spreading the net from ten sides" was not completed in one day, and the temporary "suppression of wages" only lasted one day.
If this continues, coupled with natural disasters, the number of refugees will really increase steadily, providing sufficient supplementary soldiers for the peasant army.
Maybe Emperor Chongzhen and Yang Sichang also understood this, but they no longer cared about it. In order to destroy the peasant army, they were already red-eyed.
After solving the problem of increasing troops and increasing pay, we must solve another problem of appointing generals. In particular, whether the prime minister, governor, and the ten governors of the four principal and six corners of the country can effectively control the army, use tactics flexibly, and proactively use encirclement and suppression as a means of encirclement and suppression.
Fighting the enemy bravely is the key to the success of the entire campaign.
For the ten governors, due to the comprehensive personnel arrangements involved, it was inconvenient for Yang Sichang to intervene, so he could only continue to use the original serving officials. Among them, Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, was the most sophisticated and sophisticated, and his department had the strongest combat effectiveness; followed by the governor of Huguang
Yu Yinggui, Fengyang Governor Zhu Dadian, Shanxi Governor Wu Di and others were also mature and capable.
The most important factor in hiring is, of course, the choice of the two coaches, the Prime Minister and the Governor. Hong Chengchou has been the Governor of Shaanxi for many years, and his experience and ability are obvious to all, so there is no need for further discussion. After Lu Xiangsheng was transferred to the Governor of Xuanda, the post of Prime Minister was replaced by mediocrity.
The incompetent Wang Jiazhen took over, and with the war at hand, it was obvious that he had to be replaced.
Considering the actual situation at the time, re-transferring Lu Xiangsheng was definitely the best plan, because after all, he had many years of experience in exterminating the peasant army, and his talent and courage were the best in the court. However, Yang Sichang was not interested in Lu Xiangsheng, and half of them were out of touch.
The differences in personality and temperament may be mixed with a bit of jealousy, while the other half is due to partisan disputes.
Yang Sichang and his father Yang He were both dismissed from office during the Apocalypse period because they were dissatisfied with Wei Zhongxian's autocratic power. Originally, their relationship with the Donglin Party was not bad. However, during their tenure as governors of Yongping and Shanhai, due to the artificial relocation of people in their jurisdiction,
An's former minister Guo Gong was included in the "Reverse Case" and complained that he was wronged. He also felt that Guo Gong was indeed unjust and petitioned the court for him. Guo Gong was not pardoned for this, but he himself was castrated because of it.
The party’s reputation for overturning convictions
The Donglin Party members hated anyone who tried to overturn the "counter-indictment" and regarded them as traitors. From then on, they put Yang Sichang in another book. But Yang Sichang was a round person on the outside and square on the inside. He would rather fight against the Donglin Party members to the end for a trivial matter.
, never give in.
Lu Xiangsheng came from a family of gentry in the south of the Yangtze River and was deeply influenced by Neo-Confucianism, but he was a member of the Donglin school. He was very dissatisfied with Yang Sichang's appointment during the mourning period and his suggestion to increase the number of sects, which he expressed from time to time. In this way, the two most outstanding people at the time
The military talents cannot work together.
Therefore, party strife does harm the country!
So Yang Sichang chose Xiong Wencan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Xiong Wencan was famous because when he was the governor of Fujian, he had recruited the famous pirate Zheng Zhilong who had been rampant on the sea for many years. Later, he pacified a large number of pirates Liu Xiang in Guangdong and Guangxi. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen was very interested in this repeated construction.
Qi Gong's military talents have always paid close attention to him and specially sent his trusted eunuchs to Guangdong to conduct on-site inspections on him in the name of purchasing medicinal materials in Guangxi.
There are also some stories about Xiong Wencan’s appointment:
Xiong Wencan didn't know that the eunuch was here to inspect him, but he was still very attentive to the reception. He gave a large number of gifts, held a banquet, and drank heavily for ten days.
One day at a banquet, the eunuch deliberately brought up the topic, saying that the bandits in the Central Plains could never be pacified and no one was willing to do their best for the court.
But Xiong Wencan drank a few more drinks and forgot about it. He slapped the table and said loudly: "It's all the ministers who are harming the country! If I, Xiong Wencan, were gone, how could I let those rats become so rampant?"
So the eunuch immediately stood up and said: "I am not going to Guangxi to purchase, but I have been ordered by the emperor to inspect Mr. Xiong. Mr. Xiong is really a talent of the world, and he is not enough to deal with a thief if he is not an official. Please be prepared, he will probably be here soon."
There will be an edict coming." Xiong Wencan was so frightened that he sobered up. The author believes that he must have had a shitty face at that time.
When Xiong Wencan left the relatively comfortable Guangdong and Guangxi and embarked on a dangerous career as the prime minister of five provinces. When passing by Mount Lu, he visited the monk Kongyin whom he knew well. As a result, there was a very interesting conversation between the two.
Monk Kongyin asked: "You made a big mistake. Do you think the soldiers you command are enough to kill the thief?"
Xiong Wencan shook his head and said no.
Monk Kongyin asked again: "Are there any generals under my command who can be entrusted with great responsibilities, take charge of their own affairs, and achieve victory without bothering to command?"
Xiong Wencan shook his head and said no.
So Monk Kongyin said: "Both of them can't deal with the thieves, and the emperor has given you a great reputation. If it doesn't work, won't he be beheaded?"
Xiong Wencan stood for a long time before asking: "How about appeasing?"
Monk Kongyin said: "I expected that your Excellency would use Fu, but rogue bandits are different from sea bandits, so please be careful."
Therefore, Xiong Wencan became the commander-in-chief of the theater with the purpose of focusing on pacifying. This is at least inconsistent with the original intention of the "Net on Ten Sides" plan. The commanders-in-chief have their own opinions, and they are bound to implement Yang Sichang's plan.
There will be adverse effects.
Not only that, for example, Sun Chuanting, who has a relatively tough personality, was very dissatisfied with Yang Sichang's "Ten-Sided Net" from the beginning. Sun Chuanting believed: "Thieves have always been powerful, Zhang will come out in all directions, and if they are trapped, they will return to Qin, and the thieves will be in an advantageous position."
"The Qin Ming Dynasty". If the encirclement and suppression is dispersed, "the thieves will occupy the entire Qin Dynasty as caves, and the six corners will be empty nets."
Sun Chuanting's views were not unreasonable, but the starting point was based on his own local interests in Shaanxi Province. Similar localist sentiments were also quite common among governors and Fuzhong, and they also brought many hidden dangers to Yang Sichang's battle plan.