In order not to let others criticize him, and to be the biggest example, Shen Yicheng paid 50,000 taels of silver himself.
With all the collected silver added together, Shen Yicheng had a total of 600,000 taels of silver. Immediately, Shen Yicheng asked Zhao Shiqing to transfer the money from the national treasury of the Ministry of Revenue. 600,000 taels of silver instantly became clean, like a white lotus flower. In the blink of an eye, it became a special fund for the national treasury to use for the prisoner offering ceremony.
Xiao Daheng thought of the thick resentment inside and outside the court in the past few days and was deeply impressed by Shen Yicheng's decisiveness and methods.
Of course, all of this was not understood by the meritorious soldiers headed by Xiao Ruxun.
The soldiers had traveled for several days and were exhausted. One by one, they began to enjoy the preferential treatment given by the court. Xiao Ruxun took Xiao Daheng to see the 126 chief-level captives of the Northern Barbarians that would be presented to the Emperor at the prisoner offering ceremony the next day.
Zhu Yijun, who desperately needed to vent his anger, ordered that the ten that were offered earlier be executed alive. Now that there were one hundred and twenty-six, it was likely that they would not be able to escape death. It was no wonder that after Tumu Fort, the Great Ming Dynasty had never captured so many tribal chieftain level captives in their battles against the Northern invaders.
It could be said that in this battle, Xiao Ruxun had crippled dozens of tribes. For the small population of the Northern Barbarians, this was an extremely painful loss. After this news spread, the Northern Barbarians would also be frightened and stay away from the Great Wall, not daring to continue south.
Therefore, the Northern Borderline would usher in a long period of peace. This was too precious for the Ming Army, which urgently needed to rest and reorganize, especially the broken Shanxi and Datong, which had almost no power to deal with even a small scale war.
"These were only captured alive. When the soldiers were killing the enemy, it was impossible for them to always pay attention to those with status and those without. The soldiers would capture them alive if they wanted to, and kill those who were blinded by killing. There were many such people. Strictly speaking, these people were considered lucky. At least they were not dead."
Xiao Ruxun and Xiao Daheng strolled by the side of the wooden cages that held the captives. These captives were lined up in a row. The people inside had long been beaten by the Ming Army's daily whipping and insults. There were also many who had gone crazy.
"So that's how it is. There were so many leaders. One can imagine how shocking the outcome of this battle was! Xiao Zhennan, you've almost wiped out all the Northern Barbarians tribes near the Daming Nine Border Towns! "
At this moment, as a person who understood military affairs, Xiao Daheng was very excited.
Xiao Ruxun smiled and shook his head.
"Not necessarily. It can only be said that a large number of Northern Barbarians tribes in the west, north, and east within a certain distance of Tumed have been wiped out. But further north, west, and east, there are still Northern Barbarians active.
To put it simply, the group of Northern Barbarians that Xuan Da directly faced has been wiped out. I'm not sure about further north. Further east, General Li's Liaodong Army is trembling and does not dare to act rashly. Now, only those further west may have the strength to go south.
However, I have sent people to build more than 20 forts on the grasslands. I'm just waiting for this news to spread. I don't know if those Northern Barbarians have the courage to continue to go south. But even if they go south, it will not be a large-scale attack. At most, it will be a small force that comes to test the waters. The garrison of Nine Border Town can handle it. "
Xiao Daheng nodded.
"This is already very good, really very good. Xiao Zhennan should not know how troublesome the imperial court is for the military expenditure of the Nine Border Town every year. In order to defend the Nine Border Town, the imperial court really racked its brains and emptied the national treasury!"
Xiao Ruxun pursed his lips, thought for a moment, and slowly said, "In fact, there is a solution."
Xiao Daheng suddenly became interested.
He wanted to hear how the most powerful general in Daming viewed the problem of the Nine Border Town. Although they were enemies, as a military talent, Xiao Daheng was also very interested.
"I'd like to hear the details."
"It's very simple. If we want to change this situation, the best strategy is to abandon the Nine Border Town, train the cavalry, rely on the castle, take the initiative to attack, nourish the war with war, and directly attack Mobei."
Xiao Daheng was stunned.
This was incredible.
In the beginning, Zeng Xian only wanted to recover Hetao and was killed. Now Xiao Ruxun was even more straightforward. He directly asked to abandon the Nine Border Town, train the cavalry on a large scale, and then take the initiative to attack Mobei. This was clearly the strategy of Emperor Wu of Han. An all-out war!
"What about the second strategy?"
Xiao Daheng wanted to listen to all of Xiao Ruxun's strategies.
"The second strategy is to weaken the Nine Border Town, move the front line to the north, occupy all the communication points of the Northern Barbarians going south, build castles, train the elite troops, restore the Hongwu Daming Northern Defense Line, and lay the foundation for the initiative attack. At the very least, we can hold the main road. If the main road is not lost, the Northern Barbarians can't continue to go south."
This was incredible. Hongwu?
Xiao Daheng felt that his concept had been strongly impacted.
"Then, what about the second strategy?"
Xiao Ruxun smiled.
"This …"
Xiao Daheng had to admit that what Xiao Ruxun said made sense. On this point, there were some scholars in the imperial court who were knowledgeable about military affairs who had proposed the weakness and stupidity of the Nine Border Town Strategy. Unfortunately, these people were all killed, and their opinions were also eliminated.
The scholars from the mainland only relied on their imagination to think that by reducing the scale of the defense line and the occupied land, they could reduce the burden of military expenses, so that they would have more money to develop themselves. Later, they would have more money to make themselves fatter.
But for some reason, the more they retreated, the more passive they were strategically. The enemy in the north was more rampant, and the military expenses not only did not decrease, but increased. This made the scholars who were nourished by the rivers in Jiangnan even more puzzled.
Xiao Daheng didn't know what to say.
But he knew that attacking and taking the initiative was impossible.
"Throughout the dynasties, whenever there is a slight border trouble, it is the time to take the initiative to attack. Keeping the enemy outside the country not only can we eliminate a large number of Northern Barbarians, but also can protect the people in the mainland from losses, so as not to jeopardize the food production, and not to cause a large number of refugees.
If we blindly defend the Great Wall, once the Great Wall is breached, the people and land will be behind it. Once it is destroyed, it will be like now. To tell you the truth, when I led the army back to Zijing Pass, I saw the people of Shanxi moving back with their families in rags.
Now it is already May. If we cultivate the land now, how much food can we harvest in autumn? If it weren't for the discovery of the grain storage cave in Shanxi this time, so that the people could have food to survive the winter, more than a million refugees in Datong, Shanxi would have starved to death! "
Xiao Ruxun's face was full of sorrow.
Xiao Daheng sighed, but more than that, he was afraid.
Why did a general think about these civil affairs instead of training his troops and fighting? Did he forget himself just because he was a temporary governor?
Xiao Daheng was more certain of his judgment.
This person was extremely dangerous and couldn't be kept for his own use. He had to be eliminated as soon as possible.
At the same time, an uninvited guest came to Shen Yicheng's mansion.
"Cabinet Elder Shen, we've found out where Zhang Cheng went."
The uninvited guest knelt on one knee and presented a letter to Shen Yicheng with both hands.
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