Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 557 Intervention in Xuanfu
Seeing Pei Yuan being so confident, those selected servants were actually a little confused for a moment.

Fortunately, Jiang Bin's injuries are gradually recovering, and he is hiding from the heat under a tree in the yard.

Hearing a commotion in front of the courtyard gate, he quickly sent someone to check it out.

Then, I realized that it was Pei Yuan, that scoundrel, who came to make trouble again.

Jiang Bin knew that many officials and nobles came and went in Da Ci'en Temple, and he didn't want to be laughed at, so he immediately ordered Pei Yuan to come in.

Jiang Bin had secretly harbored the idea of ​​revenge before, and was thinking about getting his revenge when his injuries healed.

But at this moment, seeing that this man was so shameless, he actually had the idea that it was better to have less trouble.

They could not win the fight, but the two sides were sworn brothers in the eyes of the world, and the current emperor even participated in the game as a witness.

This made it difficult for Jiang Bin to use such a despicable tactic as to lead others to attack.

And even if he was besieged, Pei Yuan would not be so easy to deal with.

With Pei Yuan's bravery and the caution of always being accompanied by the Jinyiwei entourage whenever he went out, without using military crossbows, a hundred or so people would not be able to surround him.

This really feels like a toad lying on your feet.

Just when Jiang Bin was feeling tired, the toad jumped in.

After Pei Yuan came in, he complained to Jiang Bin without any hesitation, "The people below are really ignorant. These are the most loyal servants of the selected front. They even stopped your brother."

Jiang Bin didn't want to respond to this and asked directly, "What are you doing here?"

Pei Yuan raised his eyebrows, "Don't give me that! I gave you such a big benefit last time, shouldn't you four towns show some appreciation?"

After hearing this, Jiang Bin immediately denied it, "What benefits? I didn't see any benefits."

Pei Yuan was expecting Jiang Bin to deny it.

He was not angry, but calmly said to Jiang Bin, "You may not know that the reason why I dared to give Qian Ning the strategy of making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby countries is because the former eunuch Gu Dayong who supervised military affairs was a close friend of mine."

"Qian Ning was able to use Gu Dayong as a channel and bypass you, Jiang Bin, to deal with the military commanders in the border town."

"Since you said so, I will let Gu Dayong contact Liu Huai, the general of Xuanfu, to see if Liu Huai means this."

"If Liu Huai is so shameless, I will admit defeat."

Jiang Bin sneered and said nonchalantly, "What a joke! Who do you think the general of Xuanfu is? Would he be threatened by a mere captain like you? Not to mention Gu Dayong, even the emperor would have to give the general some face."

Pei Yuan smiled wryly when he heard this, "Of course I can't afford to offend the general of Xuanfu. Not only that, I will ask Gu Dayong to befriend Liu Huai even more."

Jiang Bin was secretly happy to hear this, and a mocking look appeared on his face. He wanted to see what tricks Pei Yuan would play.

Pei Yuan continued with a fake smile, "Once Liu Huai and Gu Dayong have formed a close alliance, they can use Gu Dayong to get their message to the emperor. Then what use will you have?"

"Rather than letting you slowly grow up and threaten his position as the general of Xuanfu one day, it is better to choose a eunuch who will never threaten his position to represent his interests."

"And as long as they betray you, give up their support for you, and throw you to Qian Ning to tear apart, Sizhen can instantly reach a reconciliation with Qian Ning who had fallen out with them before."

"This is a good thing, isn't it killing two birds with one stone?"

Jiang Bin's face changed drastically when he heard this.

Pei Yuan really couldn't do anything to him now, nor could he do anything to Liu Huai, the general of Xuanfu behind him.

But Pei Yuan could make Jiang Bin insignificant and then throw him to others to tear apart.

Jiang Bin was a selfish person to begin with. Seeing Pei Yuan showing his fangs, he quickly forced a smile and said, "Look at you, you really can't take a joke. To be honest, I already discussed it with someone yesterday and it was settled a long time ago."

Pei Yuan looked at Jiang Bin for a while, then he also smiled, "Just now I was just joking with my second brother."

Jiang Bin waved his hand awkwardly and motioned Pei Yuan to sit with him.

Pei Yuan took a glance and also sat down on the stone bench in the yard.

Jiang Bin's expression had softened.

He was really afraid that Pei Yuan would ask Gu Dayong to contact Liu Huai directly, thus sidelining him, so he admitted his fear again and said, "I'm bored recuperating here all day, so I just teased you. Let's not talk about this anymore."

After saying this, without waiting for Pei Yuan's response, he stroked his short beard and told the bargaining chip given by Xuanfu, "Although General Liu Huai is not here, his son, Captain Liu Jing, is in the city. Captain Liu is a man of appearances, and he has promised on behalf of the general that you can go to Longmen Guarding Captain's Office and serve as a Captain."

"We have a real vacancy here. You can go to the Ministry of War and make connections yourself. It won't cost much."

What Jiang Bin said is also a common phenomenon today.

It is very cheap to buy a high-ranking official position, but it is basically not enough to fill a vacancy. If you really want to fill a real vacancy, the money you spend is more than just a little bit.

Therefore, there are a lot of Qianhu and Qianshi who are idlers on the streets of Ming Dynasty nowadays, but they are useless.

Now that Xuanfu is willing to give a real vacancy, it will cost much less to buy up Chen Xinjian's rank and smooth the way for the Military Selection Division of the Ministry of War.

However, when Pei Yuan heard about the Longmen Guarding Thousand Households, he frowned.

Then, he looked at Jiang Bin with a half-smile and said, "Second brother, are you kidding me? Is this what you in Xuanfu are using to express your gratitude?"

Jiang Bin said calmly, "My dear brother, you may not know. Our Xuanfu Town is an important town in the north. Some time ago, the Wanquan Commandery was established in Xuanfu Town. Now the entire Commandery has eleven guards of different sizes under its jurisdiction. In addition, there are several thousand guards in key places."

"These guarding thousand households have strong independence. They are not under the jurisdiction of the local guards, but directly obey the command of the Commandery."

"In this way, the Guarding Thousand Households Office not only has a higher status than the ordinary Thousand Households Office, but also has one less immediate superior, which can avoid a lot of trouble."

"Don't think that this time we in Xuanfu only gave a position of a thousand households in the Guarding Thousand Households Unit. Even ordinary guards may not have such real power."

Seeing that Jiang Bin was avoiding the main point, Pei Yuan turned hostile and said, "If I didn't know this, would I have asked you to guard the Qianhu Sentence? What I want to ask is, why the Longmen Sentence?"

Jiang Bin was dissatisfied and said, "What's wrong with Longmen Fort? Longmen Fort guards an important place, which is one of the most important places in the whole Xuanfu. If it wasn't for making friends with you, why would Xuanfu give Longmen Fort to you?"

"Go and ask around, who doesn't know the importance of Longmen?"

Pei Yuan didn't say anything, just stared into Jiang Bin's eyes.

When Jiang Bin looked away unnaturally, Pei Yuan said calmly, "It seems that Second Brother really thinks that I know nothing about the border area."

"If I remember correctly, when the barbarians invaded Xuanfu last year, they broke through the Longmen Guarding Thousand Households and entered the country in large numbers from there."

"The battle was so fierce that even Zhao Yu, the Right Supervisor of the Longmen Garrison, and Wang Ji, the Commander-in-Chief, who came to support Longmen, died there." "The entire Longmen Garrison was almost completely destroyed by the fierce attack of the barbarians."

"It's only been more than half a year since the incident happened. Has Longmen received reinforcements? Has it received funding? Has it expanded its construction?"

Seeing Pei Yuan reveal the secret, Jiang Bin looked a little uncomfortable, and said dissatisfiedly, "We are all working for the country and defending the border. Others haven't complained yet, why is it your turn to be picky?"

"What happened to the Longmen Guarding Thousand Households? Isn't it an important territory of our Ming Dynasty?"

Pei Yuan ignored this and responded bluntly, "It is precisely because the Longmen Guarding Thousand Households is in a critical position that we cannot take it lightly."

"Longmen is now short of soldiers and generals, and has no supplies or money, and is also in a critical area prone to invasion by the barbarians."

"Xuanfu gave me this position. Was it to protect the territory or to eliminate my people?"

Jiang Bin felt a little embarrassed after hearing this, "If you think so..."

Seeing the ruthlessness on Pei Yuan's face, he didn't want to completely fall out with this ignorant guy.

Jiang Bin changed his mind and decided to use defense as offense. "Then where do you want to go?"

Pei Yuan already had a target in mind, and immediately said, "The Meiyu Guarding Thousand Households Office is good. Chen Xinjian has been working beside me, and he doesn't have any decent servants or soldiers. The Meiyu Thousand Households Office has enough buffer, so when the barbarians come, we can deal with it calmly and avoid making mistakes in the chaos."

The Meiyu Guarding Thousand Households was located in Bao'an Prefecture, not far from Shuntian Prefecture.

It was located on the left and right of Tianjin Wei, serving as Pei Yuan's double insurance when he was in Beijing.

Jiang Bin said calmly, "Impossible. The commander of the Meiyu Guard is the nephew of Song Shi, the commander of the Wanquan Right Guard. If you let Chen Xinjian replace him, do you still want to stay in Xuanfu?"

That being said, it is indeed difficult to start.

Pei Yuan hesitated for a moment, then compromised and said, "The Chang'an Guarding Thousand Households Office is also fine."

The Chang'an Guarding Thousand Households Station is located to the north of Tumu Fort, more than a hundred kilometers away from Pei Yuan. It is inferior to the Meiyu Guarding Thousand Households Station.

Jiang Bin continued to sneer, "Impossible. The commander of the Chang'an Guard is the favorite of Chen Xun, the commander-in-chief of the Wanquan Division. He grew up in the Chen family."

Pei Yuan didn't believe it, so he asked, "Then the Sihai Branch, Yunzhou Branch, and Guangchang Branch will all work, right?"

Jiang Bin didn't wait for Pei Yuan to finish his words, and said directly, "No. Unless your subordinate wants to fight with the whole Xuanfu, it's better to go to Longmen Office honestly."

After saying this, Jiang Bin looked at Pei Yuan proudly.

Then, as if afraid that Pei Yuan would flip the table, he added, "Otherwise, you can also let your subordinates go to various guards to train for a few years. I can promise here on behalf of General Liu that if it is a guard, there are eleven guards in Xuanfu, and your subordinates can go to any guard to become a thousand-man commander who can lead troops."

Perhaps thinking this was a good idea, Jiang Bin urged, "It's not bad to go to the garrison. Just take less money in normal times and don't look too bad during the war. You can still make some money every year."

Pei Yuan didn't respond.

The reason why he preferred to defend the Thousand Households was because this kind of strengthened Thousand Households had a great degree of autonomy.

Especially when encountering war, the word "defense" in the Guard Thousand Households Office is very useful.

Because this thousand households are stationed in a key location that matters to the overall situation, they can completely ignore deployment and conduct mobile operations depending on the situation.

Pei Yuan was still counting on Chen Xinjian to send out surprise attacks on the fleeing barbarians during the Battle of Yingzhou, but of course he could not be bound by the constraints of command on the battlefield.

Fortunately, when Pei Yuan was considering this plan, he also thought about the worst-case scenario.

He immediately let out a breath and said to Jiang Bin, "Then let's go to Xinghe Guarding Thousand Households Office."

Jiang Bin was startled after hearing this, and then his face looked a little strange, "Xinghe Guarding Thousand Households? Are you sure?"

Pei Yuan did not answer but asked, "Can it be done?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Bin stroked his short beard again.

——It’s really hard to say!

Before today, Jiang Bin might have thought that Pei Yuan was fooled by someone.

But judging from Pei Yuan's conversation today, he doesn't seem like an amateur.

Jiang Bin simply didn't want to bet on how much Pei Yuan knew, and said directly, "Brother, you should know about the Xinghe Guarding Thousand Households, right?"

"The Xinghe Guarding Thousand Households Unit was originally stationed in Xinghe City. Later, in the 20th year of Yongle, Alutai attacked the Xinghe Guarding Thousand Households Unit and captured Xinghe City."

"At that time, Emperor Taizong personally led the attack, and Aluta fled far away upon hearing the news. The Ming army chased him all the way to the Dala Namur River, but there was no trace of Aluta."

"Because they were unable to fight a decisive battle with Alutai's main force, the imperial court withdrew the Xinghe Defending Thousand Households into the interior of the country in order to prevent Xinghe City from falling again."

"Now Xinghe City has fallen into the hands of the Tatars, and the Xinghe Guarding Thousand Households is only in name only. If you want this, I'm afraid it's not as good as Longmen Fort."

Xinghe City is 300 miles away from Xuanfu. Since the Later Wei Dynasty, it was considered an important place deep in the grassland. In the third year of Hongwu, it was captured by Li Wenzhong, and in the seventh year of Hongwu, Lan Yu defeated the Hu Lu here.

So the Ming Dynasty established the Xinghe Guarding Thousand Households here.

Although this is just a small thousand-household unit, it and Kaiping are two sharp weapons for the Ming Dynasty to guard its border.

According to the idea of ​​the emperors in the early Ming Dynasty, "guarding the borders of Kaiping, Xinghe, Daning, Liaodong, Ningxia, and Gansu will never cause any trouble."

Let’s not mention Ningxia and Gansu, which are far away in the northwest; let’s not mention Liaodong, as the main target of Liaodong Town is the three Uriankhai guards and the various Jurchen tribes.

The main forces in the north to deal with the Mongolian tribes were Kaiping, Xinghe and Daning.

From this we can see that Xinghe, a small garrison, played an important role in the northern border defense of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the subsequent Jingnan Campaign completely destroyed this layout that pinned down the grassland.

In order to deal with his ambitious younger brother, Prince of Ning, Zhu Quan, Zhu Di relocated the powerful Da Ning vassal state to the interior to prevent him from causing trouble in the north.

As a result, once the Daning vassal state, which originally had 40,000 to 50,000 elite cavalry, retreated, Xinghe City, which had lost its strong support, was quickly captured. The remaining Kaiping was isolated and had no help from either side, so it had no choice but to give up its land and retreat back to the interior of the country.

The former site of Xinghe was far to the north of Yehu Ridge, and retaining the name of Xinghe Guarding Thousand Households temporarily was nothing more than the emperor's way of saving face and retaining the right to claim that piece of land.

Pei Yuan's request for the Xinghe Guarding Thousand Households Unit really made Jiang Bin a little confused.

(End of this chapter)