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

Chapter 445: Cutting off the Artery
After dealing with these, Yuan Chonghuan's authority as commander-in-chief was truly worthy of the title, but the issue of military expenditure was still a big issue.

This memorial was submitted by Yuan Chonghuan to the court urging military funds. The silver that had been issued before was only an emergency measure but could not really solve the problem. If the court's subsequent military funds did not arrive, no matter how capable and prestigious Yuan Chonghuan was, he would not be able to suppress the Liaodong soldiers.

In addition to urging the military expenditure, Yuan Chonghuan also made a suggestion to Emperor Chongzhen, which was to temporarily stop setting up governors in Liaodong and Denglai. At present, he was the commander-in-chief of Ji-Liao and controlled the military and political affairs of Ji-Liao. Once a governor was set up, some of his power would inevitably be divided.

It had only been a few years since the dispute between Wang Huazhen and Xiong Tingbi over economic support. If the court appointed a new governor of Liaodong and a governor of Denglai, and if he had conflicts with Yuan Chonghuan at work, or if the two sides had different opinions, it would affect his plan to pacify Liaodong.

In order to implement the plan to pacify Liaodong, Yuan Chonghuan planned to use this incident of salary unrest to reorganize military affairs in Liaodong first, and retain only two vanguard generals from the original three or four generals inside and outside the Great Wall, who would be Zhao Lushi and Zu Dashou respectively. He also appointed his confidant He Kegang as the central army, stationed in Ningyuan, relying on these three generals to realize the plan of "recovering Liaodong in five years".

In addition, Yuan Chonghuan also eliminated nearly a hundred officers including lieutenant general, guerrilla general, garrison general, central army general, thousand-man commander, and battalion commander. He also re-planned the layout of various fortresses and post stations, and urged the Ministry of Works to improve the quality of weapons and equipment, and urged the Ministry of Revenue to order war horses from towns along the border in order to achieve the necessary conditions of "elite soldiers, strong horses, strong armor, and sharp weapons."

On this basis, Yuan Chonghuan also proposed to recruit and unite the Mongolian tribes to strengthen the power against the Qing Dynasty. He proposed the idea of ​​cooperation with the Chahar and Kharchin tribes. In addition, regarding the fact that the Tumed tribe sent envoys to Beijing to ask for the title of Shunyi King, Yuan Chonghuan also said that the court should win over the other party as soon as possible. It was just a Shunyi King, so it was given. If the Tumed tribe could be won over to the Ming Dynasty, it would be a good thing for the Liaodong war.

In the end, Yuan Chonghuan also tactfully stated that when Emperor Tianqi was in power, Liaodong intended to negotiate with Jiannu, but later the negotiations were terminated because of Emperor Tianqi's death. Now that he has returned to Liaodong, in view of the current actual situation in Liaodong, Yuan Chonghuan suggested not to terminate the negotiations directly, but to continue to contact the other party privately and reveal some willingness for peace talks.

Of course, Yuan Chonghuan also made it clear that this kind of peace talk was just a means to paralyze and confuse the other side. The peace talks between the Ming Dynasty and the Liaodong Jiannu were fake. The real purpose was to temporarily ease the relationship between the two sides, so that they would have more time to integrate the Liaodong military and political affairs and prepare for the recovery of Liaodong.

Previously in the capital, Yuan Chonghuan had already boasted about himself and got the position of commander-in-chief of Ji and Liao. To be honest, Yuan Chonghuan had no idea how to deal with the war in Liaodong now.

Moreover, the situation in Liaodong is now far more complicated than when he left. In addition, after the fall of Wei Zhongxian, there was a big problem with Liaodong's military expenditure. There was no money in hand. Relying on the current military strength and poor combat effectiveness, they could only defend the city so-so. As for recovering Liaodong, it was simply wishful thinking.

Yuan Chonghuan was not stupid, he saw his situation clearly, but at this time he had been pushed to the limit by his own boasting, and there was no possibility of him coming down. Now, he could only take one step at a time, try to stabilize the situation in Liaodong, and then use other means to ease the tensions on all sides, and the contents written in his memorial were also for this purpose.

As long as we can slow down the situation in Liaodong and win over the Mongols to fight against the Jiannu, or if the Jiannu agrees to peace talks and shows sincerity, we can think of a way to maneuver them and maybe we can get away with it.

Yuan Chonghuan felt that as long as the peace talks were successful and the Jiannu stopped causing trouble, even if he failed to achieve the plan to recover Liaoning in five years, it would be enough to explain to the court. By then, Emperor Chongzhen should not be too harsh on him.

After thinking for a long time, he looked at the memorial again. The ink on it had dried. Yuan Chonghuan folded the memorial, covered it with wax, and called someone to send it out overnight. After the people left, Yuan Chonghuan still did not rest. He walked to the wall, where there was a map hanging on the wall. This was a map of the entire Ji Liao region. Facing this map, Yuan Chonghuan stared at it for a long time.

His gaze first fell on Shanhaiguan, then gradually moved eastward from Shanhaiguan to Ningyuan, and then looked northeast from Ningyuan towards Jinzhou. After a long time, it continued to move eastward and fell on Shenyang, the current site of the Liaodong Jiannu.

Yuan Chonghuan looked at these places for a long time and pondered for a long time. Then he continued to look to the east, passing through a large area of ​​Liaodong occupied by the Jiannu, and finally stopped at the far right of the map. A red circle was drawn on this location with the word "Pi Island" written on it.

"Pidao...Mao Wenlong..."

A place name and a person's name were whispered softly by Yuan Chonghuan. Yuan Chonghuan had a complicated expression. He stared in the direction of Pi Island for a long time without saying anything, but his right hand, which was placed beside him, was clenched tightly.

Mao Wenlong and Yuan Chonghuan were old acquaintances. Yuan Chonghuan had known Mao Wenlong since he was a military governor, but they had not met many times, let alone a close relationship. It could even be said that they had no friendship at all, but instead had a deep conflict. Mao Wenlong was a general in the army, the commander-in-chief of Dongjiang Town, and the left governor-general. His home base was in Pi Island.

As early as the Wanli period, Mao Wenlong had already made his mark in the army. In the early years of the Tianqi period, Mao Wenlong had single-handedly gathered the Liaodong military and civilians, and used Pi Island as a base to wage continuous guerrilla warfare and raids behind the then Later Jin, causing great suffering to the Later Jin.

Every time the Later Jin and Ming armies went to war in Liaodong, Mao Wenlong would launch a sneak attack from the rear, forcing the Later Jin to be unable to fight the Ming army with all its strength, thus cooperating greatly with the Liaodong war.

The same was true of the previous victory in Ningyuan. At that time, Nurhaci failed to take Ningyuan but broke through Juehua Island, and then quickly withdrew. The reason was not only that Yuan Chonghuan was stationed in Ningyuan and could not take it, but also that Mao Wenlong sent troops to Pi Island to threaten the opponent's retreat. To be honest, Mao Wenlong helped a lot in Yuan Chonghuan's defense of Ningyuan, but afterwards, when people mentioned the victory in Ningyuan, they only thought of Yuan Chonghuan and forgot Mao Wenlong's contribution.

However, Yuan Chonghuan never regarded Mao Wenlong as a friend, but on the contrary, their relationship was very bad. The main reason was that Mao Wenlong controlled the key sea trade routes and the main transportation routes in Pi Island.

Do you remember Yuan Chonghuan's younger brother Yuan Chongyu? Yuan Chongyu was Yuan Chonghuan's agent in Liaodong. Relying on the power in Yuan Chonghuan's hands, Yuan Chongyu went from an ordinary businessman to the largest businessman in Liaodong in just a few years.

At that time, Yuan Chongyu sent his merchants to contact the Jiannu through Pidao in order to gain benefits from the trade with them. Who would have thought that this move was discovered by Mao Wenlong. After learning about the situation, Mao Wenlong did not give Yuan Chonghuan any face at all, and directly detained Yuan Chongyu's men and the goods they brought. Later, Yuan Chonghuan wrote to Mao Wenlong to ask for leniency, but Mao Wenlong flatly refused. In the end, Yuan Chonghuan, who was not a high official at the time, had no choice but to bow his head and beg Mao Wenlong to release the people. Although Mao Wenlong finally released the people, he detained all the goods, causing Yuan Chongyu to suffer heavy losses, and also said that in the future, anyone who wanted to trade through Pidao must obtain Mao Wenlong's consent in advance and pay the fees, otherwise Mao Wenlong would detain as many as they came.

This incident caused the relationship between the two sides to break down to the extreme. After that, Yuan Chonghuan and Mao Wenlong rarely communicated with each other, and each side acted independently and ignored each other.

Things were different now. He was no longer a mere military governor, but a serious governor of Ji and Liao. Even though Mao Wenlong was a first-rank military officer, so what? Was he still afraid of him?

Apart from the previous personal grudges, there were also practical interests. What did Yuan Chonghuan lack the most now? Of course, it was money. The silver requested by the court had not arrived yet, and only a small amount came after several urgings. It was not enough. Yuan Chonghuan had to think of other ways, so he directly targeted Mao Wenlong's business, including military pay.

Mao Wenlong controlled the trade route in Pidao, and the tolls he collected every year were not small. Without this money, how could Mao Wenlong support his army? In addition, there was the military pay allocated by the court. Logically, the military pay of Dongjiang Town had nothing to do with Yuan Chonghuan. Although he was the commander-in-chief of Ji and Liao, Dongjiang Town was not under his jurisdiction. Moreover, Mao Wenlong was not only a first-rank military officer, the general of Dongjiang Town (the commander of a large military region), but also held the imperial sword like himself.

The Imperial Sword looks intimidating, but in reality it can only intimidate middle and lower-level officers. It can be used to kill officials below the fifth rank at most. It has no effect on senior officials, let alone first-rank officials like Mao Wenlong.

However, Yuan Chonghuan was always bold. Since he had set his sights on Mao Wenlong's financial resources and military pay, he would never let it go. Moreover, he and Mao Wenlong had conflicts. Moreover, as the commander of Ji and Liao, he was very dissatisfied with Mao Wenlong's dominance in Pi Island. As the saying goes, "How can I allow others to snore beside my bed?" How can you, Mao Wenlong, be qualified to be on an equal footing with me? I must give you a blow, so that you will know the consequences of offending me!
Thinking of this, Yuan Chonghuan immediately made up his mind to start with Mao Wenlong and completely get rid of this warrior whom he disliked.

A few days later, Yuan Chonghuan issued an order to strengthen the maritime ban in Denglai. The order changed the Dongjiang shipping route, which originally started from Dengzhou, Shandong (now Penglai City, Shandong Province), to start from Shanhaiguan and change boats at Juehua Island. Seagoing ships had to be registered with the Governor's Office before they were allowed to go to sea, and the Dongjiang Pay Office was set up to check money and grain.

This order directly strangled Mao Wenlong's throat. You must know that both the military pay and food supplies of Mao Wenlong's Dongjiang Town were originally shipped to Pi Island by sea via Shandong. Now Yuan Chonghuan found an excuse in Denglai to change the transportation route in the name of the commander-in-chief of Ji and Liao, which was equivalent to intercepting the transportation of Mao Wenlong's military pay and food in the middle of the way.

At the same time as the order was issued, Yuan Chonghuan also sent a memorial to Emperor Chongzhen as an explanation. Emperor Chongzhen did not care about it at all, nor did he consider the impact of doing so on Dongjiang Town. Because of his support for Yuan Chonghuan, he directly agreed to this matter. As a result, Mao Wenlong in Pi Island cut off Yuan Chonghuan's military pay and food without figuring out the situation. After knowing this, Yuan Chonghuan directly used Mao Wenlong's military pay and food to deal with his own shortage difficulties, without paying any attention to Mao Wenlong's side.

(End of this chapter)