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

Chapter 338 Clever mistake

Emperor Tianqi trusted Sun Chengzong very much and agreed with his opinions. The current changes in the situation in Liaodong also prove that Sun Chengzong's judgment was correct.

But even so, Sun Chengzong never said that it would take five years to pacify Liaodong. Instead, Sun Chengzong told Emperor Tianqi that the war in Liaodong might last for a long time and the court must not be impatient. As long as the current strategies and tactics were patiently implemented to continuously oppress the living space of the Later Jin and Jiannu, the opponent's power would be continuously suppressed by the Ming Dynasty. As long as the Jiannu could not break the encirclement and blockade of the Ming Dynasty, the final winner would eventually belong to the Ming Dynasty.

But now Yuan Chonghuan suddenly proposed to pacify Liaodong in five years, and seeing that he was confident and sure of it, Emperor Tianqi could not help but be slightly tempted. After all, Sun Chengzong's strategy was too costly. If Yuan Chonghuan really had such confidence and ability, it might not be a bad idea to give it a try.

But the Tianqi Emperor did not slap his thigh and praise Yuan Chonghuan without saying anything, showing an impatient look. As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the monarch of the empire, the Tianqi Emperor was young but calm and never impulsive in thinking about things. He was attracted by Yuan Chonghuan's words and also wanted to hear how Yuan Chonghuan would achieve the goal of pacifying Liao within five years, so he immediately asked Yuan Chonghuan to talk about his strategy for pacifying Liao in detail.

In response to the emperor's question, Yuan Chonghuan immediately gave an answer. He proposed that Liaodong should adopt the strategy of military farming while implementing the current siege tactics, so as to deal with the war situation by integrating the military and civilians of Liaodong.

Military farming is not uncommon in the military. The most famous military farming in history was presided over by Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. It was through this method that Cao Cao accumulated a large amount of food and grass, trained elite soldiers, and eventually defeated Yuan Shao, thereby unifying the north and possessing the strongest military force at the time.

If we had not been careless during the Battle of Chibi, perhaps history would have been rewritten and there would have been no Three Kingdoms.

But in any case, we have to admit that the military farming system adopted by Cao Cao laid a solid foundation for the later Wei Kingdom and also led to the final outcome of the three families returning to the Jin Dynasty.

The military farming system was also adopted when the Ming Dynasty was founded. The later military household system was a variation of the military farming system and has continued to this day.

Yuan Chonghuan told Emperor Tianqi that as long as the military farming system was implemented in Liaodong and the military and civilians of Liaodong were integrated and united, it would inevitably further strengthen Liaodong's suppression of the Later Jin Jiannu. Under such circumstances, within a few years the Later Jin Jiannu would collapse without a fight and would inevitably surrender voluntarily.

In order to prove this point, Yuan Chonghuan also used actual conditions to verify it, and talked a lot about the current situation in Liaodong, etc. In addition, the military farming system and the system of integrating the military and civilians have other benefits. On the one hand, it can reduce the court's support for food and military pay to Liaodong, making Liaodong partially self-sufficient.

Secondly, the integration of the military and civilians can also enhance the military strength of Liaodong and further strengthen its own military strength so that it can have the ability to confront the Later Jin and Jiannu head-on militarily.

Yuan Chonghuan became more and more excited as he spoke. He couldn't help but gesture with his hands, and his face looked even more radiant.

But after listening to his story, Emperor Tianqi felt a little disappointed. Although what Yuan Chonghuan said sounded quite reasonable and theoretically possible, combined with the facts, Emperor Tianqi still heard some unrealistic things in it.

"My dear Yuan, the idea of ​​cultivating land in Liaodong and uniting the military and civilians sounds good, but there are a few points that I don't understand. Could you clear them up for me?" After Yuan Chonghuan finished speaking, Emperor Tianqi thought for a moment and asked.

"Your Majesty, please consult me." Yuan Chonghuan replied without any fear.

Emperor Tianqi immediately asked Yuan Chonghuan six questions. These six questions were: How to ensure the relationship between the Liaodong military and civilians in the Liaodong military farm? How to ensure the livelihood of the Liaodong civilians while building a city in the military farm? Who does the military farm land belong to? The Liaodong civilians already have their own land. Should their land be taken away for the court or should wasteland be reclaimed? How to distribute the wasteland? How to ensure the unity of the military and civilians? The military is the military, and the civilians are the civilians. How do you ensure that the civilians are trained and their combat effectiveness is guaranteed just like the military?

In addition, it takes time to cultivate and harvest the land, which requires a lot of manpower and material resources. In this case, aren't you worried that the Later Jin Jiannu will come to disrupt the cultivation or harvest? And what if the Later Jin Jiannu comes to rob the food when it's harvest time? Then the food you have worked so hard to grow will become supplies for the enemy? How to solve this problem?
More importantly, Liaodong is not an ordinary place, it is the front line, the battlefield for fighting against the Later Jin Jiannu. Since it is the front line, wars can break out at any time. Where does so much energy come from to build cities, cultivate farmland, and integrate the military and civilians?

Once the war started, it would be too late to resist the attack of the Later Jin Jiannu. What would happen to the crops that had just been planted in the fields? If the Later Jin Jiannu burned them all, wouldn't all the hard work and effort be wasted?

There is another most important issue, which is how to solve the problem of daily training and defense of the army once the farming is carried out? The army fighting is not the army farming. If the army cannot be trained and its energy is too dispersed, what will happen if it is defeated?
Emperor Tianqi said that Yuan Chonghuan's idea was not bad, but the premise was how to solve these problems. Only by ensuring that these problems would not occur, his strategy could be implemented. Now, Emperor Tianqi hoped that Yuan Chonghuan could carefully consider the possibility of these situations and come up with a practical plan.

When Emperor Tianqi asked these questions one after another, Yuan Chonghuan, who had been looking calm, suddenly looked a little embarrassed. He never expected that this young emperor had such vision. Every question he asked hit the point and left him unable to refute.

"These...ministers...ministers..." Yuan Chonghuan, who was a little flustered, lost his composure in an instant and opened his mouth without knowing how to answer. Seeing his reaction, Emperor Tianqi sighed in his heart. His expectation for Yuan Chonghuan was no longer as eager as before, but disappointed instead.

"It's okay that you can't answer at the moment." Emperor Tianqi smiled and comforted Yuan Chonghuan: "This matter is of great importance and there is no need to rush. You can think about it carefully and report to me when you have come up with a proper solution."

"I know that you, my dear Yuan, have been working hard for the country. It is not your fault that you are a little hasty. I know that you are a loyal person, otherwise you would not have proposed this plan. I am very pleased about this..."

The Emperor's words immediately made Yuan Chonghuan feel relieved, and the heavy stone in his heart fell to the ground. He was really afraid that the Emperor would ask more questions about this matter. If the Emperor was serious, he would not be able to answer any of those questions.

If this is the case, then Yuan Chonghuan would have completely lost points today. He finally met the emperor, but he couldn't even answer the questions asked by the emperor. What did the emperor think of him? What did he think of him? Yuan Chonghuan couldn't help but feel uneasy.

At present, Emperor Tianqi still gave Yuan Chonghuan face, did not pursue him relentlessly, and took the initiative to give him a way out, which made Yuan Chonghuan extremely grateful. It was also because of this that Yuan Chonghuan did not dare to underestimate this young emperor. Before meeting the emperor, Yuan Chonghuan had some thoughts in his mind when facing Emperor Tianqi. He felt that the outside world had always rumored that this young emperor was addicted to carpentry, and left state affairs to Wei Zhongxian, the eunuch, to handle, and usually did not care about government affairs at all.

In Yuan Chonghuan's view, the Emperor Tianqi should be easy to fool, and he could just flatter the Emperor and make him happy. So when talking about Liaodong military affairs, Yuan Chonghuan could still hold his temper and talk about the actual situation at first, but when he got excited, coupled with his personality of showing off, he finally started to brag about the so-called five-year plan to pacify Liaodong.

But the Emperor Tianqi saw the problems in his five-year plan to pacify Liao at a glance, and directly threw these questions to him for answer. How could Yuan Chonghuan answer them? He was sweating coldly behind his back, but the Emperor Tianqi lightly put these questions aside and took the initiative to help Yuan Chonghuan out of the predicament, which made Yuan Chonghuan never dare to underestimate this young emperor again.

The previous question was no longer asked, and the Emperor Tianqi talked to Yuan Chonghuan about the military situation in Ningyuan. Yuan Chonghuan was naturally well aware of this and answered them one by one. After a few words, Yuan Chonghuan calmed down, without the slightest fear just now, and his demeanor returned to the calmness when he first met the Emperor Tianqi.

After discussing these things, the meeting between Emperor Tianqi and Yuan Chonghuan ended. Yuan Chonghuan was asked to go back and have a good rest, rush to Ningyuan as soon as possible, and do his job diligently. In addition, Yuan Chonghuan was given a grace, which was to allow him the right to submit memorials directly in the future to deepen communication with the court.

In response, Yuan Chonghuan kowtowed to the emperor, stood up, bowed deeply, and then left. After seeing Yuan Chonghuan off, Wei Zhongxian returned to the side hall and admitted his mistake to the Emperor Tianqi, saying that he was not good at judging people and had misjudged Yuan Chonghuan, and was willing to be punished.

"What are you doing? Wei Banban, get up." When Emperor Tianqi saw Wei Zhongxian kneeling in front of him, he quickly reached out and helped him up from the ground.

"Your Majesty, I didn't expect that Yuan Chonghuan was so ambitious but lacked the ability to achieve the goals. If it weren't for Your Majesty, I would have almost made mistakes in state affairs..." Wei Zhongxian was ashamed. He had seen and heard everything that had just happened, so he knew how Yuan Chonghuan had performed.

Emperor Tianqi smiled and shook his head, patted the back of Wei Zhongxian's hand and said, "Wei Banban, there is no need to do this. There is nothing wrong with recommending Yuan Chonghuan. Moreover, although Yuan Chonghuan was a little anxious and thoughtless, he is indeed talented, otherwise Mr. Sun would not have recommended him to me."

At this point, Emperor Tianqi shook his head and sighed: "Although this man has talent, he is not a commander, but only a general. This is not your fault. Besides, you recommended a good minister to me for the sake of state affairs. I am so happy that I can't wait. How can I blame you?"

"Yuan Chonghuan can still be used. If he is a general, he is like a sharp blade. But if he becomes a commander..." Emperor Tianqi shook his head slightly and did not continue.

"Your Majesty is wise, there is no one better than Your Majesty..." Wei Zhongxian hurriedly flattered him. The Tianqi Emperor laughed, then thought for a moment and asked Wei Zhongxian: "I remember that Gao Di, the former Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, retired to his hometown?"

"Your Majesty remembers clearly that Gao Di retired and returned to his hometown in February this year."

Nodding, Emperor Tianqi thought for a moment and said, "Draft an imperial decree to reinstate Gao Di as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works and have him return to Beijing today."

Wei Zhongxian immediately understood what Emperor Tianqi meant and quickly agreed.

(End of this chapter)