Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1205 War Discussion
Thinking of Mu Tianbo, Zhu Shenzhui sighed inwardly. It seemed that his expectations of Mu Tianbo were still a little too high, and he also attached too much importance to the control of the Duke of Qian's Mansion in Yunnan.

The outbreak of the Yunnan rebellion made Zhu Shenzhu completely abandon his previous views on Mu Tianbo and the Duke of Qian's Mansion. After all, Mu Tianbo was not the Mu Ying of the past. The Duke of Qian's Mansion's wealth and power in Yunnan for more than two hundred years also came to an end with the changes in Yunnan.

For the sake of his ancestors, Zhu Shencui would not do anything to Mu Tianbo nor strip him of his title. However, it would be impossible for the Qianguo Mansion to continue to rule Yunnan and become a vassal state as before. After the Yunnan rebellion was completely quelled, Zhu Shencui planned to use the rebellion as an excuse to bring Mu Tianbo to the capital, and then adjust the political structure of Yunnan, replacing the Qianguo Mansion with officials sent by the central government, and at the same time gradually promoting the policy of converting natives to officials in Yunnan, so that the central government could directly control Yunnan.

Zhu Shencui had already thought of a candidate to replace Mu Tianbo. This person was none other than Yang Weizhi, the deputy envoy of Yunnan who stood out in the rebellion.

"Mr. Hong."

"Chen is here!"

"When you were the governor-general of the three borders, have you ever met Yang Weizhi?" Zhu Shenzhui asked.

Hong Chengchou was extremely smart. He understood the emperor's meaning immediately and said, "I met Yang Weizhi in the past. At that time, Yang Weizhi served under Lord Sun. Although his official position was not high, he worked very hard. Moreover, he was both civil and military, and was loyal to the court. This time, Sha Dingzhou in Yunnan rebelled. If he had not turned the tide and personally led the army to defeat Sha Dingzhou with a small force in Chuxiong, the situation in Yunnan would be unimaginable. I think Yang Weizhi is loyal and brave, and he can be of great use!"

Zhu Shenzhui nodded with satisfaction. Hong Chengchou was really good at guessing his thoughts. As soon as he opened his mouth, Hong Chengchou understood his plan.

"Draft an imperial decree!" Zhu Shenzhui said, "Promote Yang Weizhi to the post of Governor of Yunnan, and give him the title of Right Provincial Governor, and give him the title of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, to control the Yunnan troops and the Sichuan-Guizhou reinforcements."

Hong Chengchou responded, stood up and walked aside. Lu Jiude helped grind the ink, and Hong Chengchou wrote an imperial edict for the emperor, and then handed it to the emperor for review. Zhu Shenzhui nodded after reading it, and asked Lu Jiude to seal it and hand it to the cabinet for publication. After doing this, Zhu Shenzhui continued the topic of the war in Yunnan and asked about the possible changes in the war situation.

Hong Chengchou and Wang Jinwu both expressed their own views and opinions, but after listening to their answers, Zhu Shenzhu was not completely satisfied, because both Hong Chengchou and Wang Jinwu were too optimistic, which made Zhu Shenzhu, who was always cautious, a little uneasy. In addition, Yunnan was not like other places, and Zhu Shenzhu could not get the news in time, especially when it seemed that the situation was changing for the better, Zhu Shenzhu was particularly worried about another accident.

In response to the emperor's concerns, Hong Chengchou comforted him by saying that reinforcements from Sichuan and Guizhou had arrived, and that Yang Weizhi was in Chuxiong, so the situation had changed. The Ming army had sandwiched Sha Dingzhou in the middle from the east and west. Although Sha Dingzhou occupied most of eastern Yunnan including Kunming, the general trend had actually changed, and Sha Dingzhou was already showing signs of defeat. As long as they took steady steps, the rebellion in Sha Dingzhou would be quelled, so the emperor didn't need to worry too much.

But this argument still could not convince Zhu Shenzhui. Zhu Shenzhui was not an ordinary emperor. He ascended the throne by means of the Jingnan Rebellion. In terms of leading troops to fight, Zhu Shenzhui would surely rank third among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. I am afraid that apart from Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and Chengzu Zhu Di, there is only Zhu Shenzhui.

Moreover, Zhu Shenzhui always made plans before taking action, and was particularly cautious about wars, and would not act rashly. This can be seen from his initial assistance to Tana in unifying Tumed, and then his leading troops to participate in the defense of the capital, to the later Jingnan Campaign, including the Battle of the Great Wall, the Battle of Jinzhou, and a series of subsequent wars.

If he was not absolutely sure, Zhu Shenzhu would not feel at ease. And from the current situation in Yunnan, although the situation has begun to improve, Zhu Shenzhu always feels a little uneasy in his heart. This is not because there is any problem with Sha Dingzhou, but a kind of intuition from a long battle. This intuition has existed since Zhu Shenzhu's first time on the battlefield. Even though he is now the emperor, he still has it. Zhu Shenzhu has always been very sensitive to his intuition.

"Although I cannot agree with what Your Majesty said, after careful consideration, it seems to make some sense. Moreover, I heard a few days ago that someone in the General Senate had a different opinion, but most people at that time did not take it seriously and just thought it was unnecessary worry. But today, Your Majesty said so, and I suddenly remembered this matter." At this time, Wang Jinwu suddenly spoke.

"General Senate?" Zhu Shenzhui asked.

Seeing Wang Jinwu nod, Zhu Shenzhui asked again: "What is the different opinion of the General Council? Why didn't I see the memorial submitted?" "This..." Wang Jinwu said embarrassedly: "Because it is just one person's opinion, it was directly rejected internally, so there is no such content in the memorial submitted."

Zhu Shenzhui frowned slightly. Because of the war in Yunnan, the General Council had been busy these days. The General Council was originally set up based on the framework of the General Staff in later generations. After the establishment of the General Council, Zhu Shenzhui transferred some of the powers that originally belonged to the Five Military Commander's Office to it.

But even so, the current General Council is far from the level of the General Staff of later generations. According to the military system and the scope of military authority of later generations, the General Council should be one of the highest military institutions, second only to the emperor and the cabinet, equivalent to the previous Five Military Governors' Office.

But as early as after the Battle of Tumu, the Five Military Governorates of the Ming Dynasty existed in name only, and military power basically fell into the hands of the Ministry of War. Although Zhu Shenzhui had been continuously weakening the Ministry of War's control over military power in recent years, using the promotion of the status of meritorious officials and the changes in the military system of the new army and the local army of the Ming Dynasty to reverse this situation, the time was too short after all. Even though he was one of the few emperors in the history of the Ming Dynasty who truly controlled the military power, he still had not yet completely replaced the Five Military Governorates with the General Council.

But there is absolutely no problem with this direction, otherwise Zhu Shenzhui would not have established the General Staff Department as a special agency and let Zhou Anmin be the head of the General Staff Department. Doing so is to further enhance the status of the General Staff Department in the military and subtly change the military structure. When the time is right, it will be a natural thing for the General Staff Department to become one of the military's decision-making bodies, but it is not yet at this point. Therefore, although the current General Staff Department is sufficient in level, it still lacks actual power. Most of the senators in the General Staff Department are currently doing some auxiliary work, including the deduction and prediction of war events.

"Who has a different opinion?" Zhu Shenzhui asked.

Wang Jinwu replied: "It was Zhang Xianzhong, the councilor of border affairs."

"Zhang Xianzhong?"

"It's this person!"

No wonder! Zhu Shenzhui suddenly realized that it was Zhang Xianzhong. Although Zhang Xianzhong was the Dingbian Earl of the Ming Dynasty and also held a position as a councilor in the General Council, his background was completely different from that of others. Whether it was Wu Xiang, the deputy chief councilor, or other people currently serving in the General Council, they were either from Ming nobles or from aristocratic families, but Zhang Xianzhong was an exception. He was born a bandit. He was an opponent of these people back then. The two sides had fought to the death on the battlefield. If Zhang Xianzhong had not seen that the situation was not right later, he decisively led his troops to surrender to the Ming army. In order to solve the bandit problem as soon as possible, Zhu Shenzhui ordered the incorporation of Zhang Xianzhong's troops and brought him to the capital to be appointed as the Dingbian Earl. Zhang Xianzhong might have been destroyed by the Ming army like Li Zicheng and others.

Zhang Xianzhong was quite honest after entering Beijing, but he had no choice but to be honest. Zhang Xianzhong was not stupid. Since he could stand out from the bandits and become the leader of the rebel army second only to Gao Yingxiang, the King of Rebellion, there was no doubt about Zhang Xianzhong's ability.

Moreover, Zhang Xianzhong was very smart. He knew that the court was wary of him and was on guard. Placing him in the capital was clearly a way to keep a close eye on him and prevent him from having any other intentions. In addition, after the establishment of the General Council, Zhang Xianzhong directly entered the General Council to serve as a councilor. This position was not high, and it was just a job. In these years, Zhang Xianzhong was well-behaved and did not do anything. Moreover, he was very low-key in the General Council. On weekdays, except for going to the General Council to sit in the office, he usually stayed in his Dingbian Earl's Mansion.

But Zhang Xianzhong was quite capable, and he did not just idle away his time in the General Council Office, but also did some things. Let's not talk about other things for now. During the previous Battle of Jinzhou, Zhu Shenzhu sent Li You and Zheng Hongkui to cross the sea to fight. Zhang Xianzhong showed his military insights that were different from others in a war game simulation of Jinzhou.

At that time, Zhang Xianzhong proposed the tactic of digging underground to attack the city, and believed that once Huang Taiji adopted this tactic to attack Jinzhou, Zu Dashou would not be able to wait for Li You and Zheng Hongkui to cross the sea to break the situation, thus forcing Huang Taiji to withdraw his troops from Jinzhou.

At that time, most people scoffed at Zhang Xianzhong's suggestion, thinking that Zhang Xianzhong, a mere bandit, didn't know how to fight. Who among those present didn't know how to fight better than Zhang Xianzhong? Who hadn't read a few military books? Zhang Xianzhong's so-called siege tactics were simply fanciful, even boastful, and were simply paper talk. So the matter ended up with no results, and only a plan from the deduction process was submitted to Wang Jinwu. In the end, although Wang Jinwu read the plan, he didn't take it too seriously.

Who would have thought that when the Ming Dynasty launched a war against Liaodong and planned to finally solve the Jiannu problem in Liaodong, Wang Jinwu suddenly thought of Zhang Xianzhong's tactics against Jinzhou. After careful consideration, Wang Jinwu, as the commander, finally tried to adopt Zhang Xianzhong's digging siege tactics when attacking Shenyang (Shengjing). Unexpectedly, this tactic was successful. It was precisely because of the use of this tactic that the Ming army took Shenyang at the lowest cost, thus destroying the Jiannu who had been entrenched in Liaodong for many years.

(End of this chapter)