Unlike Wang Yangming who only had to consider military issues, as the chief minister of the cabinet and the great steward of the Ming Dynasty, Yang Yiqing had to consider more issues.
The expedition of one hundred thousand troops to a foreign land thousands of miles away is not just a simple matter of the expedition of one hundred thousand troops, there are too many issues involved.
Not to mention anything else, just the food and fodder that these 100,000 troops will consume along the way is a big problem.
For a large army to go on an expedition, the most important thing is obviously the logistics problem. If there are hundreds of people, the problem of food and grass can be solved on the spot. Even to exaggerate, even if you hunt casually and kill some prey, you can at least ensure food.
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But an army of 100,000 is not as simple as a few dozen people. If an army of 100,000 is out of food and grass, then hunting cannot solve the problem.
Historically, there have been many examples of armies collapsing due to food and fodder problems. The most critical point is that when a hundred thousand troops set out to conquer foreign lands, they could at least find ways to ensure logistical supplies within the borders of the Ming Dynasty. But once the Ming Dynasty left, then
But it really comes down to logistical supplies.
Just think about it, the daily consumption of a hundred thousand troops is a headache, not to mention the fact that they have to be transported thousands of miles away.
As the chief minister of the cabinet and the previous governor of border towns, if Yang Yiqing did not know Wang Yangming's thoughts, it is impossible for Yang Yiqing to have been in charge of border towns for so many years.
But Wang Yangming had Wang Yangming's thoughts, and Yang Yiqing also had his own concerns. As the chief minister of the cabinet, he must have many issues to consider, so he opposed sending additional troops and horses to the expedition thousands of miles away.
Because of the speed of overseas expansion at sea, it doesn't matter. The speed and consumption of various large ships transporting various supplies are far lower than those on land. That's why the cabinet will carry out expeditions overseas one after another.
No objection.
However, the logistics of transporting grain on land consumes several times or even more than ten times more materials than shipping by sea.
In this case, it would be strange if Yang Yiqing could agree.
I could only hear Yang Yiqing saying solemnly to Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, just to supply General Lu's 50,000-strong army, the whole court has invested too much energy, especially the transfer of grain and fodder. It can be said that ten shi of grain was transported to the hands of the army.
The remainder is even less than half. If General Lu and the others had not been able to solve part of the food problem along the way, I am afraid that General Lu and the others would have been short of food and grass."
Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but look thoughtful after hearing this. As the leader of a country, Zhu Houzhao was obviously extremely competent. With Zhu Houzhao's martial temperament, he naturally knew a lot about military matters, so he knew that what Yang Yiqing said was also a fact.
That is to say, the logistics pressure is extremely high. This is beyond doubt, and Zhu Houzhao is also very aware of the logistics problems faced by the expeditionary army.
It can even be said that if tens of thousands of troops go on an expedition to a foreign land, if the logistics problem cannot be solved, once the opponent seizes the opportunity and cuts off the supply of food and fodder, it will not take long, at most ten days and a half, to be reborn.
The elite army will probably be starved to death.
The logistics problem is indeed a big problem. Once it is not handled well, there will really be no mention of a large army expedition.
Zhu Houzhao looked at Wang Yangming.
Wang Yangming noticed Zhu Houzhao's gaze and saw that Wang Yangming said to Zhu Houzhao confidently: "Your Majesty, the concerns of the Chief Assistant are not unreasonable, but as for the logistics problem, it is not impossible to solve it."
As soon as Wang Yangming said this, everyone immediately looked at Wang Yangming. Everyone knew about this problem, but the key point was that no one had come up with any effective solution.
Now Wang Yangming actually said that he had a way to solve the problem. How could this not make everyone shocked? If Wang Yangming could really solve the problem of logistics operation, why would they be such evil people here, knowing that the emperor was not interested in sending an expeditionary force?
Although he had a supportive attitude, he wanted to remonstrate with the emperor.
Yang Yiqing narrowed his eyes and stared at Wang Yangming.
Zhu Houzhao leaned forward slightly at this moment. Just by looking at the small movements of Zhu Houzhao's hands pressing on the table, he could tell the excitement and expectation in Zhu Houzhao's heart.
Under the attention of everyone, Wang Yangming slowly said, "Has your Majesty forgotten those vassal states?"
For a moment, Zhu Houzhao's face gradually showed a look of surprise, and he saw Zhu Houzhao laughing with a bit of excitement: "Wang Aiqing really woke up the dreamer with his words, I have indeed forgotten these people.
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At this moment, several pavilion elders on the side also reacted. With their knowledge and wisdom, they all understood now. It was because of their reaction that everyone looked at Wang Yangming with a look of amazement.
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To be honest, including Yang Yiqing, they really subconsciously forgot about the vassal states that were enfeoffed one by one in the past few years.
If these vassal states are the earliest, they have been enfeoffed for several years. It can be said that they have completely settled down in their feudal states.
The people of the Ming Dynasty were the most simple and hard-working. Under their hard-working hands, the originally desolate land turned into fertile soil. In just a few years, the vassal states changed drastically.
At the beginning, the food needed by these vassal states relied on domestic support to a certain extent. However, by the second year, these vassal states completely got rid of their dependence on the Ming Dynasty, and instead fed back to the Ming Dynasty to a certain extent.
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Wang Yangming's meaning is very clear, that is, to attack these vassal states.
These vassal states are all outside the Ming Dynasty. There are no less than dozens of vassal states, large and small, in the north. Perhaps one or two vassal states cannot support the logistics consumption of a hundred thousand troops, but the combined power of dozens of large and small feudal states
If we get up, the logistical cost of welcoming a hundred thousand troops is really not a problem.
The most important thing is that if the grain is collected from those vassal states, the consumption along the way can be completely saved.
Even if we move grain and fodder from the vassal states further north, it will save a lot more than mobilizing grain and fodder from the Ming Dynasty.
Although the logistics consumption may still be very large, compared with the transportation of logistics materials from the country, at least its consumption can be accepted by the princes above the court.
Now that there was a solution, Yang Yiqing, Wang Yangming and others soon came up with a plan. Zhu Houzhao just looked at it once and decided immediately.
Zhu Houzhao couldn't have more confidence in the abilities of Yang Yiqing and Wang Yangming. If Yang Yiqing and the others couldn't solve the problem, then he couldn't solve it himself either.
Zhu Houzhao made a final decision on the logistics supply of the army, and waved his hand directly to Wang Yangming and said: "Dong An Guo, I order you to immediately recruit 100,000 elite troops, select good generals to lead them, and go to the north to support Lu Dazhu."
Wang Yangming took a step forward, looked solemn, and said respectfully: "I obey your order!"
The Ming Dynasty has solved a series of domestic problems and its national power is now more prosperous than any other period of the Ming Dynasty.
The prosperity of the country is not only reflected in the hundreds of millions of gold and silver in the Treasury of the Ministry of Households, but also in terms of military strength.
The Weisuo system created by Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang allowed the Ming Dynasty to easily have a standing army of more than one million people at the beginning of its founding.
But now that the imperial court has solved the garrison system, it has laid off a large number of garrison soldiers. Now the Ming Dynasty has only about 400,000 soldiers in full.
Among them, there are almost hundreds of thousands in the capital area, and hundreds of thousands in the border towns. As for the others, they are distributed in various important towns.
As for the navy, it was a latecomer and its development was astonishing. Not to mention the thousands of warships, there were nearly 100,000 navy soldiers alone.
With such an elite army, as the Minister of War, it was naturally much easier for Wang Yangming to recruit troops.
Once the 100,000-strong army is mobilized for an expedition, both local and capital forces will inevitably be greatly depleted of troops. This is inevitable.
After all, even if the Ming Dynasty includes the rising navy, it only has more than 500,000 soldiers. Excluding the 100,000 navy, the remaining army is only more than 400,000.
If you include the 50,000 troops led by Lu Dazhu and the 100,000 troops, it would be a full 150,000 troops, accounting for almost 40% of the entire army of the Ming Dynasty.
When Yang Yiqing and other pavilion elders determined that they could not change the emperor's decision, they naturally began to think of ways to help Zhu Houzhao solve various subsequent problems.
As the chief minister of the cabinet, Yang Yiqing stroked his beard and looked at Zhu Houzhao after Wang Yangming retired and said: "Your Majesty, I would like to ask your Majesty to allow the court to recruit another hundred thousand troops to replenish the place."
Zhu Houzhao obviously knew what kind of changes the situation in the country would be caused by the deployment of 100,000 troops from the country, so Zhu Houzhao nodded and agreed to Yang Yiqing's proposal without much thought.
Even if Yang Yiqing didn't mention it, Zhu Houzhao would issue an order to recruit new soldiers to supplement his troops.
The Ming Dynasty mobilized troops here. In a short period of time, a hundred thousand troops set off lightly. Along the way, every state capital they passed would prepare the food and grass needed by the army in advance. After leaving the Ming Dynasty, there was a
vassal states.
The emperor's will was conveyed to the heads of these vassal states by messengers one step ahead of schedule.
Regarding Zhu Houzhao's will, these princely states naturally did not dare to make any sense. No matter what they thought in their hearts, one thing was beyond doubt, that was Zhu Houzhao's will, and they did not dare to disobey it at all.
Grand Duchy of Moscow
After years of external expansion, the Grand Duchy is naturally different from what it used to be. As the successor of Ivan III, Vasily III is also not a fatuous ruler, especially his interest in external expansion is even stronger.
The Moscow Third Army that Lu Dazhu led the army encountered was one of the external expansion armies sent by Vasily III.
Antony followed Andrei's orders and reported the encounter with the Ming army to Vasily III in Moscow as quickly as possible.
Vasily was at the peak of his life, and it could be said that he had not encountered many opponents on the road to external expansion. Suddenly, he heard that the Ming Dynasty had crossed the Ural Mountains and entered his territory. Naturally, Vasily could not just sit back and watch.
At this time, Vasily III had just completed the conquest of the Kazan Khanate, and his army had not yet disarmed. So with a wave of his hand, Vasily sent out the 50,000-strong Second and Sixth Army that had not yet had time to repair.
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At the foot of the Ural Mountains, a series of camps are stationed there. At a glance, there are a series of camps and tens of thousands of troops stationed, occupying a vast area.
In the commander's tent, Lu Dazhu sat on top of the throne, and below him were the civil and military generals of the army.
A general was begging Lu Dazhu with a sad expression.
"Commander, the general is incompetent and escaped from Andre, the enemy chief! Please punish me, Commander!"
Lu Dazhu waved his hand and shook his head and said: "Andre is extraordinary in both his intelligence and military strategy. If you can catch him so easily, then we won't be dragged here by him for several months."
A general heard this and said with some annoyance: "The commander-in-chief thinks too highly of Andre. If the commander-in-chief didn't want to use Andre as bait for fishing, how could he let Andre?
The remnants of the army have lingered on for so long."
Lu Dazhu smiled slightly and said: "No matter what my commander-in-chief has planned, although he has not tried his best, he has not let anything go. Andre has been able to persevere until now, but he still has real qualities."
A rush of footsteps came from outside the camp, and a sentinel strode into the camp, bowed to Lu Dazhu, and said in a solemn voice: "Commander, our people have found out that a large army is slowing down."
He came slowly and gathered with the remnants of Andrei's troops not long ago. It is almost certain that those who came must be reinforcements from the Grand Duchy of Moscow."
Everyone's eyes couldn't help but light up when they heard this. Everyone's body showed high-spirited fighting spirit and eagerness to try. If anyone saw it, I don't know what they would think.
Lu Dazhu narrowed his eyes, raised the corners of his mouth slightly and muttered softly: "I'm finally here. It's not in vain that I've been waiting here for so long."
While speaking, Lu Dazhu looked at the sentry and asked: Have you ever found out how many reinforcements there are on the other side?"
The sentry detective immediately said: "If nothing unexpected happens, the number of reinforcements coming to help should be around 50,000."
I have to say that the observation and judgment skills of these sentries are really not comparable to ordinary people. After all, these are what these sentries are best at. If they cannot even determine how many enemies they encounter, then they are not qualified sentries.
Explore.
Nodding slightly, Lu Dazhu looked at the generals and said: "Everyone, the other side has sent an army of fifty thousand. Are you afraid? Do you dare to follow me to fight with them?"
"Hahaha, what do we have to fear? Aren't they just tens of thousands of barbarians? Not to mention fifty thousand, even if it is one hundred thousand, we can still defeat them."
What kind of self-confidence is this? Only through repeated victories can military generals have such confidence to say such words.
At this moment, a general with a somewhat elegant air looked calm and said slowly: "Everyone, fifty thousand reinforcements is not a small number. Don't forget, in order to destroy Andre's Third Army,
We have suffered nearly 5,000 casualties, and the number of people who are still capable of fighting is only about 40,000..."
Although the generals were confident, they had personally experienced the violent fighting power of the barbarians in their eyes. Their expressions changed slightly, but at this moment, Lu Dazhu chuckled and said: "Who said we only have more than 40,000 people?
There are obviously 140,000 people!”
"What?"
"Are reinforcements coming?"
"Hahaha, 140,000 versus 50,000, if this still doesn't kill the other party, we might as well just wipe our necks and apologize!"
Lu Dazhu's words immediately excited the spirits of all the generals present. Although they were not afraid of a battle, they did not want their soldiers to suffer heavy casualties. Now, according to Lu Dazhu's words, reinforcements from the imperial court were about to arrive.
When the time comes, there are many people bullying the few, and destroying the opponent's tens of thousands of reinforcements, isn't that an easy thing?
Lu Dazhu clapped his hands and saw a figure walking into the commander's tent. It was the vanguard general Cheng Yu of the 100,000-strong army that came to the rescue.
As the son of General Cheng Xiangwu, Cheng Yu can be regarded as a son of the general. Most of the generals present knew Cheng Yu, so when they saw Cheng Yu, they were all stunned. Some people reacted and exclaimed: "Is it possible?
Are you saying that General Cheng is here?"
Cheng Xiangwu of the Ming Dynasty was no worse than Lu Dazhu. He was also a giant in the military. However, Cheng Xiangwu was mainly responsible for the navy of the Ming Dynasty. Cheng Yu, as Cheng Xiangwu's son, had always served as a vanguard general under Cheng Xiangwu.
It can be said that where there is Cheng Yu, there must be Cheng Xiangwu.
Almost as if he was carved out of the same mold as Cheng Xiangwu, Cheng Yu stepped forward and saluted Lu Dazhu: "The last general, Cheng Yu, has been ordered by the general to pay homage to Lu Shuai!"
