My father is Jiajing

Chapter 69: The Highlight Moment of Emperor Zhengde

When Gao Gong heard that Zhu Zaigui wanted to know Anda's current situation, he immediately became excited.

As for the level of attention paid to Altan, not to mention Gao Gong, anyone with some insight in the court knew that Altan was not an easy person to deal with, and that he posed a greater threat to the Ming Dynasty than his grandfather, the "little prince" Dayan Khan.

Gao Gong organized his words and then said, "In the past two years, Anda has been requesting mutual trade with the Ming Dynasty, but the court believes that Anda's request for mutual trade is a sinister move, trying to strengthen its strength through mutual trade and thus pose a greater threat to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, since the 11th year of Jiajing, when Anda and Jinang requested tribute in Yansui, the court has always refused."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Zaigui couldn't help but sigh inwardly. It turned out that the Ming Dynasty would resort to economic sanctions. However, this method was obviously very crude. If not handled properly, it would lead to the enemy becoming desperate and causing unrest in the nine border areas.

Zhu Zaigui asked: "The court has been rejecting Altan's request for tribute and trade on the grounds that Altan is trying to increase its power through trade. It seems a bit like a one-size-fits-all approach. Is there another story behind this?"

Zhu Zaigui is not like the average angry young man who gets excited when faced with such problems.

Zhu Zaigui should first understand the cause and effect before judging the root cause.

After all, Anda is not a small grassland tribe. It has now unified most of the forces in the grassland and can cause great border pressure to the nine borders of the Ming Dynasty at any time. If we are not careful, we can't even stop the terrible fact that Anda is whipping his horse southward.

Therefore, when thinking about how to deal with such an enemy, you should not rely on the simple thinking of angry young people and act directly.

Because it's easy to start a fight, but hard to end it.

Once the war starts, it will be easy to win. But if we lose or the stalemate continues, Ming Dynasty cannot afford it with its current financial strength.

Gao Gong sighed: "The grudges between them are a long time ago."

Zhu Zaigui said: "Let's not talk about the distant past. The grievances between the tribes on the grassland are more inseparable than the grievances between them and our Ming Dynasty. Grudges that are too far away are not very meaningful. After all, the grassland people are not like us Han people who have the habit of compiling history and remembering grudges. Let's just talk about the grievances between the Anda tribe and us."

After hearing what Zhu Zaigui said, Gao Gong also felt very surprised. He did not expect that Prince Yu had such a unique vision and insight that he directly separated the old grudges and grievances between the grassland and the Ming Dynasty and only talked about the grudges between the Anda tribe and the Ming Dynasty.

Compared with the original way of thinking about the grassland as a whole, this is indeed more targeted.

Gao Gong said: "The grudge between the Ming Dynasty and Anda can be traced back to the time when Anda's grandfather was the little prince. That was during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty Emperor Xiaozong. The little prince often violated the border. Although the imperial army and the little prince had victories and defeats, the Ming Dynasty suffered more losses, which caused the Hetao area to be eroded and difficult to recover. As a result, the hostility between the Ming Dynasty and the little prince deepened."

"During the reign of Emperor Wuzong, the little prince was even more powerful than during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong, and the threat he posed to our Ming Dynasty was increasing day by day. Emperor Wuzong was active by nature. In the 12th year of Zhengde, the little prince led 50,000 troops to attack the border. Emperor Wuzong ignored the dissuasion of his ministers and named himself the 'Duke of the State' and the mighty general Zhu Shou. He personally led the army to Xuanfu and fought with the little prince's troops in Yingzhou, Shanxi. In this battle, Emperor Wuzong planned and led the troops himself, which boosted morale. The little prince's troops were defeated and eventually retreated to the grassland."

Zhu Zaigui couldn't help but take a breath when he heard this, but in the end he still raised a soul-searching question.

Zhu Zaigui said, "I have read the "Records of Emperor Wuzong" which records that in the battle of Yingzhou, 16 enemy heads were beheaded, 52 of our soldiers were killed or wounded, 563 of them were seriously injured, and the imperial carriage was almost trapped. But I think, if the little prince's army really had 50,000 troops, and Emperor Wuzong led the garrison troops in Xuanfu to fight against them, the number of casualties would probably be more than this, right? And I also heard that Emperor Wuzong personally said that he killed one of the enemies with his own hands."

"If what Emperor Wuzong said is true, and combined with the words 'the imperial carriage was almost trapped' in the official records, the brutality of this battle cannot be calculated by the casualties of dozens of people. It must have been thousands or tens of thousands at least." As soon as Zhu Zaigui asked this soul-searching question, Gao Gong was speechless. The problems and tricks involved were really not something Gao Gong could comment on.

Zhu Zaigui can just ask it directly, there won't be any problem.

But if what he said is not quite right, then the problem will be serious.

Gao Gong said: "This happened a long time ago. I was young at the time and did not experience it, so I cannot answer for Your Majesty. Your Majesty should remember this matter mainly based on what is recorded in the Veritable Records."

Zhu Zaigui said, "Sir, you are right. The Veritable Records is the basis. Sir, please continue."

Zhu Zaigui no longer wanted to know the truth about the victory in Yingzhou. After all, it had been thirty years since the incident, and Emperor Wuzong had passed away twenty-eight years ago. There were probably not many old ministers who had experienced this incident left.

If you insist on getting to the bottom of things, you will only make things difficult for yourself.

Anyway, history will have its own opinion. Although the actual numerical records of this battle cannot be uncovered, there are still records of the deployment of troops before and after the battle.

So it’s better to stay calm and don’t look for trouble.

Gao Gong was also surprised at Zhu Zaigui's curiosity, as he thought Zhu Zaigui would ask a few more questions.

As a result, Zhu Zaigui stopped talking at that point and asked him to continue talking about what happened later.

This made Gao Gong sigh in his heart at Zhu Zaigui's wisdom.

Gao Gong continued, "After the great victory in Yingzhou, the little prince was defeated and retreated, and the nine borders of our Ming Dynasty also ushered in a long period of peace. Later, the little prince's grandson Anda succeeded the little prince's chieftainship. In the eleventh year of Jiajing and the twentieth year of Jiajing, he requested tribute, but our dynasty rejected it. However, when Anda requested tribute this time in the twentieth year of Jiajing, Anda sent two envoys, Shi Tianjue and Kenche, to Yanghesai in Datong to request tribute, and said that his father 'often paid tribute in the previous dynasty, was rewarded, and was allowed to trade, which benefited both Han and Datong. Recently, because the tribute road is blocked, they have been plundered every year, and because of the many disasters and diseases of people and livestock, the divine officials said that it would be auspicious to pay tribute', and he also proposed that once tribute is paid, they will be restrained, and the border people will be ordered to cultivate land in the frontier, and the barbarians will be ordered to graze horses outside the frontier, and they will never offend each other, and they will drink blood as an oath."

After finishing this, Gao Gong sighed, "In the end, the court not only rejected Altan's request, but also detained Kenche and offered a high reward, saying that anyone who could kill Jinang and Altan would be appointed as a governor and rewarded with a thousand gold coins."

After hearing these words, Zhu Zaigui's facial expression also became interesting.

If they didn't want to pay tribute, they could have just dragged it out and talked about it slowly. But not only did they detain the other party's envoy, they also made a "bold statement" that "whoever kills Jinang and Altan will be appointed as governor and rewarded with a thousand gold coins." I really don't know whether it was Emperor Jiajing who was stupid or the minister in charge of the matter who was stupid.

Isn't this a fight to the death?
Faced with such an irrational result, Zhu Zaigui asked quietly: "What happened next?"

(End of this chapter)