After the battle report from Liaodong came yesterday afternoon, Zhao Zhigao was as restless as an ant on a hot pan. Zhang Wei was also deeply confused and worried. He wondered why the Liaodong Army lost the first battle, which was the fiercest Daming Army, and worried about the negative impact it would have on Daming's reputation. There was also another extremely important matter.
Things had developed to this point. Japan, which had suddenly appeared outside the tributary system to challenge the old powerful countries, suddenly had a sense of existence, which made the officials quite uneasy.
The two Cabinet Elders did not sleep the entire night, racking their brains for a solution. Then, they waited for the Emperor to summon them, feeling uneasy. Of course, the reason they did not sleep the entire night was not because of Korea. Like the ministers, it was because of another matter.
It was only when Shi Xing brought these two memorials that their state of mind changed.
It was a very rare request for battle. Yes, it was quite rare because it was a general, a famous general who had just made great achievements in the northwest and was conferred the title of Duke of Peace. His name was Xiao Ruxun.
The famous general who used firearms to capture the captives and gunpowder to overturn a huge city did not have much of a presence in the hearts of the court officials because he did not have much contact with any of the civil officials. After entering the capital, he did not choose to submit to the civil officials like Li Chengliang did. He only wandered among the military generals and nobles and became a new noble in the military.
His background was not clean. First of all, he had a deep relationship with Wei Xuezeng and Ye Mengxiong. He could be regarded as an old subordinate or even a remnant and could not be trusted. Moreover, it seemed that he had no intention of joining the civil officials as a lackey. Naturally, the civil officials did not pay attention to him.
At this time, this guy handed in a request for battle.
It listed in detail the reasons why the Liaodong Army was defeated and the information he knew about Korea. He concluded that Korea was not suitable for most of the cavalry to enter the country to fight. Instead, it should use infantry as the main force and firearms as the important weapons. He proposed to mobilize 5,000 Ningxia Firearms Battalion, 5,000 Zhejiang Gunners, 10,000 Zhejiang Sword and Shield Soldiers, 10,000 Shandong Gunners, 10,000 Xuanhua Archers, 40,000 Liaodong Cavalry, and 3,000 Liaodong Cavalry to attack Japan.
Originally, this kind of memorial would not be valued by the civil officials and would be thrown away directly. After all, what qualifications and ability did military generals have to discuss military affairs? That's a matter for us civil officials. All you have to do is lead the soldiers well. We'll take care of the rest!
But now, the situation had changed subtly. The civil officials knew nothing about North Korea's situation, but Xiao Ruxun seemed to know North Korea very well. He carefully proposed the necessity of going to war. Even Zhao Zhigao, this muddle-headed man, felt that this strategy was very good.
An idea came to Zhang Wei and Shi Xing at the same time.
This was a talented marshal, a damned talented marshal, and a count at that! It was a perfect match for Daming's requirement for a commander to lead the army into battle!
A talented marshal had appeared among the generals! A handsome talent that could stand shoulder to shoulder with Li Chengliang!
Was this good or bad?
Shi Xing and Zhang Wei looked at each other, and then looked at Zhao Zhigao, who was holding the memorial and nodding his head repeatedly. They showed a helpless expression at the same time.
They chose to hand this memorial to the emperor, handing this hot potato to the emperor. As an official, they were no longer just the representatives of one or two local forces, but the representatives of the interests of an entire faction. In such a major matter that concerned the country and even international affairs, they did not dare to make a rash decision.
In fact, Zhang Wei did not want to participate in this matter at all. It was just that the muddle-headed Zhao Zhigao liked this memorial, and Shi Xing had a clear stand. He did not want to make this matter bigger and did not want to pay attention to this general at all. However, there was a change in the situation.
The other memorial was from the leader of the Jianzhou Guards, the commander-in-chief of the Jianzhou Guards, Tong Nuer Hachi. He wrote that he had just unified the Jianzhou Guards and could better defend the borders for Daming. Therefore, he begged the imperial court to bestow him with a golden-crowned hat and the title of Dragon-Tiger General.
Next, he complained that the borders of Korea had not been peaceful recently, and that more than 50 people from his tribe had died. Then he changed the topic and patted his chest, saying, "The Japanese are attacking Korea, and the next step is to attack our Jianzhou. I am willing to raise 30,000 troops for the imperial court. When the Yalu River freezes in winter, we will cross the river to resist the Japanese."
Shi Xing was quite moved, but Zhang Wei still could not make a decision.
Therefore, Shi Xing wrote something and sent it along with the two memorials. The two memorials arrived on the table of the troubled Zhu Yijun.
That's right, Zhu Yijun was troubled.
He was not troubled by Korea. Like the two Cabinet Elders and the other officials, he was troubled by something else — the struggle for the foundation of the country!
At that time, Zhu Yijun had two sons, the eldest, Zhu Changluo, and the second, Zhu Changxun. According to the rules, the eldest son should be the heir. However, Wanli doted on Zhu Changxun's mother, Imperial Concubine Zheng, and had been scheming to help Zhu Changxun ascend to the throne. As a result, he was unwilling to give Zhu Changluo the title. The officials strongly opposed this and all submitted petitions to establish the position of Crown Prince as soon as possible, but Wanli stubbornly refused.
Therefore, the officials and the emperor began a long and drawn-out struggle. It lasted from the 14th year of Wanli to the 20th year of Wanli. The problem was that in the 20th year of Wanli, the struggle had just taken a turn for the better. Under the leadership of Grand Scholar Zhang Wei, the officials launched a stormy attack on the emperor, demanding an explanation from the emperor no matter what.
At this critical juncture, all the officials didn't want to give the emperor a chance to obscure the topic. As for the dispatch of troops from Korea, they couldn't say anything whether they opposed it or agreed with it. Once they did, with the intelligence of the emperor, he would definitely follow the topic and say, "The war is urgent. Let's discuss the war. Let's talk about the Crown Prince later!"
Therefore, the pro-peace faction in the imperial court hoped to take this opportunity to control the war to a small extent, so as not to steal the limelight of the struggle for the foundation of the country.
On the other hand, Zhu Yijun wholeheartedly wanted to use this war to win some breathing space for himself and pave the way for his beloved son to ascend to the throne. Thus, he had been thinking about how to divert the attention of the courtiers.
Although Korea was indeed important, it was not as important as the Crown Prince. He saw the news of the defeat of the Liaodong army, but the officials were silent, which was not a good sign.
Therefore, he opened Xiao Ruxun's memorial helplessly.
Xiao Ruxun was right. Korea was not suitable for the cavalry to gallop. Even if they won, it would be a pyrrhic victory. If the cavalry suffered too many losses, they would not be able to maintain the suppression of the Mongolians and the Jiannu, which was not in line with the interests of Daming. From this point alone, the Liaodong cavalry could not be mobilized. In Xiao Ruxun's plan, he wanted to rely on the infantry as the main force to sweep the whole of Korea and annihilate the Japanese in Korea.
He proposed that he only needed 60,000 soldiers at most, which was based on the foundation that the Japanese sent 200,000 soldiers. However, the current information was unclear. There were speculations from tens of thousands to 100,000 to hundreds of thousands to 200,000. It was impossible to calculate the number of the Japanese. This made Zhu Yijun very angry. The day before yesterday, he reprimanded Luo Sigong, the commander of the Imperial Bodyguard, who came to report the work.
At this time, Xiao Ruxun's memorial was sent to Zhu Yijun, together with Tong Nu 'er and Ha Chi's memorials.
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