I.
On the 27th day of the 11th month of the 25th year of the reign of Wanli, the vanguard of the 10,000 officers and soldiers of the capital camp set off under the leadership of Chai Guozhu, the deputy commander-in-chief of this campaign. The remaining 40,000 soldiers would set off under the leadership of Li Chengliang after they had prepared their equipment and supplies.
This time, Li Chengliang also received the highest official title of a general — Admiral, a position comparable to that of a civil official.
Before this, only the current Marquis Zhennan, Xiao Ruxun, had obtained this position. Therefore, Li Chengliang could be considered to have achieved his long-cherished wish, and he was very happy.
Originally, he was very happy.
According to the rules of Tumu Fort, when the army went to war, the civil officials should be the commander-in-chief, and the generals could only be the commander-in-chief. However, not to mention that Xiao Ruxun had been treated as an exception, Li Chengliang was a 70-year-old general going to war. Among the civil officials, who could be more qualified than Li Chengliang except for Zhao Zhigao?
Therefore, the civil officials thought about it and decided to give him the title of Admiral and let him lead the army to fight, to show the court's trust and comfort for the old general. Originally, it was fine, but when they were discussing whether to give Li Chengliang the title of Admiral and entrust him with the power to command the army, a civil official suddenly sighed.
With Xiao Zhennan here, why worry about the Northern Barbarians not breaking through? Why does an old general still need to lead the army to war at the age of 70?
As soon as this sentence was said, Li Chengliang's face immediately darkened.
Xiao Ruxun had been the first general of the Daming Wanli Dynasty for several years. At that time, Li Chengliang's first meritorious service as a border commander was overshadowed by Xiao Ruxun's brilliant achievements.
Li Chengliang had been guarding Liaodong in the northeast for many years, but he had not been able to reduce the number of bandits in Liaodong and relieve the pressure on the Jurchens and Mongolians. Instead, there were more and more bandits.
His contributions were getting bigger and bigger, but the situation in Liaodong was not getting better. That was why some people kept bringing up the fact that he was nurturing bandits for self-respect and harboring ulterior motives to bring him down.
Compared to Xiao Ruxun's record of wiping out two countries in three battles, it paled in comparison. Even if nothing else, the record of wiping out 200,000 Japanese pirates in one battle was enough to make Xiao Ruxun's name go down in history.
On the other hand, Li Chengliang's achievements had to be added with a big question mark. People would always question whether he was harboring evil intentions, whether he had indirectly caused the rise of Nuzhen, and finally caused China to sink.
Compared with Xiao Ruxun's impeccable record, Li Chengliang's reputation as the former number one general of the Wanli Dynasty was not worth much. It was just that at this time, Xiao Ruxun was not in Beijing, but was guarding the border of Myanmar, the southernmost barren land of the Empire. That was why Li Chengliang, who was 70 years old and should have been enjoying his old age, went to war again.
The civil official did not want to express his dissatisfaction with Li Chengliang, but he wanted to express his dissatisfaction with the imperial court's decision to leave Xiao Ruxun in Myanmar to guard Myanmar.
At that time, this decision did make many civil officials express their dissatisfaction. At that time, it was the civil officials of the Liaodong faction and Wang Xijue, the backer behind Li Chengliang, who pushed this matter forward. Xiao Ruxun was obviously not in the same pot with the Liaodong faction.
He also beat up Li Rusong in Korea and punished many Liaodong cavalry, which could be considered as offending the Liaodong faction. Therefore, the civil officials who were not on good terms with the Liaodong faction at that time all admired Xiao Ruxun and wanted to win him over.
However, the Liaodong faction was not weak at that time and could even compete with the Jin faction. Because of this, Xiao Ruxun went to Myanmar in the end and could not return to the capital to take up a position, which made many other factions very dissatisfied.
With the passage of time, the leading figures of the Liaodong faction had retired to the second line. Wang Xijue returned home, Li Chengliang was half under house arrest in the capital, and the Liaodong faction could not recover. In the imperial court, it could be seen that the Jin faction and the Jiangnan faction were in conflict.
After a few days, the Jiangnan faction would also split. The famous Donglin faction would come down like thunder, and the Jiangnan faction would be divided into the Zhe faction and the Chu faction, the Qi faction would appear in Shandong, the Qin faction in Guanzhong, and the eunuch faction after that. The general trend would be formed.
Looking at the political chaos of the late Ming Dynasty and the political struggle of the civil officials, it was quite possible to see the embryonic political struggle of today in Europe, America, and Taiwan. It was just that one had the shell of the feudal monarchy, the other had the name of the people, but the essence was the same.
Now, the political struggle of the factions had begun to show its power. For the interests of their factions, the civil officials of each faction also supported the spokespersons in the army and fought for great military achievements that would be of great help to the factions.
Li Chengliang's outstanding military achievements could pull up the foundation of the Liaodong faction and let them be unscrupulous for a long time. If the hostile faction could support Xiao Ruxun, it would also be a trump card.
For more than three years, they had never given up the idea of recalling Xiao Ruxun, and sometimes they even got partial cooperation from the emperor. But the opposing forces were also extremely large and powerful, such as the noble group. They absolutely did not want the emperor to use Xiao Ruxun to reorganize the capital camp.
Who knew if Xiao Ruxun was in the same boat as them? His father and family had left Beijing and returned to their hometown and post. They had long had nothing to do with the capital camp and had left the noble circle.
Such a person could not be trusted.
Of course, Li Chengliang absolutely did not want to see Xiao Ruxun come back, then his last hope of making a comeback would be gone. The useless people of the capital camp were useless, but even so, they were Li Chengliang's last hope, and he absolutely could not accept his last hope being destroyed.
But those civil officials still kept mentioning these things.
"Xiao Zhennan used 40,000 soldiers to defeat 200,000 Japanese pirates and completely solved the problem of Japanese pirates. Then, he used 30,000 soldiers to destroy Dongwu Country and solved more than ten years of border trouble. When Bo Bai rebelled, he also killed more than 3,000 Mongolian cavalrymen. His military achievements are outstanding. Why would he know how to use troops? If Xiao Zhennan is here, we will have no worries! "
A civil official put on a bemoaning and pitying expression, which made Li Chengliang extremely unhappy.
"Who said it wasn't? Xiao Zhennan is very good at using troops. He has fought in dozens of battles, big and small. When has he ever been defeated? If we kept Xiao Zhennan and used him to train troops, how could we have today? It's not impossible to conquer the grasslands in the north and restore Taizu's achievements! "
A civil official glanced at Li Chengliang with a rather disdainful look and then quickly looked away.
This made Li Chengliang furious.
"What do you mean by that? I have fought for the Daming for decades. Even if I don't have any meritorious service, I have worked hard. When I was bleeding on the battlefield, his surname Xiao wasn't even born yet! Even his father has to call me a junior in front of me, let alone him! How dare you humiliate me like this?! "
Relying on his age, Li Chengliang made those civil officials lower their heads and did not dare to say anything. In the end, it was Zhao Zhigao who frowned and said,
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