My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 161 "Memorial Requesting the Repair of the Bastion and the Re-establishment of the Dongsheng Garrison"

"Brother Zilin! A great victory in the search!"

The well-informed Shen Yiguan rushed into the newspaper office. Upon hearing the news, Luo Wanhua, Zhang Wei, and Wang Jiaping all stood up excitedly. They looked at Su Ze, but Su Ze remained calm.

When Qi Jiguang launched his attack, it was against the enemy in the Hetao region. How could he not win a great victory?

Su Ze thought this was perfectly reasonable, but for others, it was an exciting military victory!

Shen Yiguan quickly walked up to Su Ze and said:
"General Qi led his troops to search the Tao region, and defeated the Tao barbarian Wushen tribe! He killed a thousand enemies and captured five thousand horses, cattle and sheep from the tribe!"

Upon hearing this result, everyone's breathing became even more rapid!
The Tuolu and Anda Khan were in cahoots. Anda Khan had enfeoffed twelve tribes in the Hetao region, and the Wushen were the most powerful of them.

The Wushen tribe was said to have 30,000 armored soldiers, and they were always the leaders whenever the Tuolu invaded.

The military strength on the grasslands is exaggerated. The so-called 30,000 armored soldiers means that the entire population could be mobilized to fight, but in reality, the regular combat force only consisted of a core of a few thousand people.

Qi Jiguang actually defeated the Wushen tribe and killed a thousand enemies. This was the greatest victory that the Ming Dynasty had achieved in the Hetao region since the reign of Emperor Chengzu!

In addition, there are 5,000 cattle and sheep!
It should be noted that the Ming Dynasty lacked livestock, so capturing livestock was a more reliable result than killing enemies on the battlefield!
Unfortunately, at this time, the Hetao region of the Ming Dynasty could no longer raise horses, and without the Hetao region, there was naturally no Longyou region.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty did not have horse farms in the Northwest.

The Ming Dynasty's warhorses came from two sources: one was buying horses through trade with the Mongols, and the other was raising horses through the horse administration.

Currently, the relationship with Mongolia is still at war, and there is no official tribute or trade agreement, so there are only sporadic private horse sales.

The horse administration of the Ming Dynasty was even more complicated than the military garrisons and salt administration.

The Ming Dynasty raised horses throughout the country, with the largest ranch located in Fengyang, the hometown of Zhu Yuanzhang.

Simply put, the government contracts out the raising of horses to the people.

However, the government gave the horse owners foals, but collected adult horses instead. You should know that raising horses is a very risky business, and the horses can die if you are not careful.

When a horse dies, the owner has to spend money to buy a replacement. Thus, horse owners become slaves to raising horses. They have to hand over the horses to the pasture supervisor, but they receive nothing in return. In order to survive, they have to farm the land themselves.

If the horse dies, you'll have to go bankrupt to buy a replacement.

What's even more terrifying is that the profession of horse herder is hereditary, and they are exploited by the pasture supervisors generation after generation.

Therefore, there have been many instances of horsemen fleeing throughout history.

The outcome of raising horses under this system was predictable. Of the 20,000 horses registered in Fengyang Prefecture, there were actually only 3,000, because a large number of horse owners had fled, leaving them with simply not enough horses.

Moreover, the horse breeders were very perfunctory in raising horses. Since they had to bribe officials to meet the standards anyway, they simply turned pastures into farmland. Fengyang Prefecture claimed to have 20,000 warhorses, but only 800 were actually qualified military horses, and that was based on the minimum qualification standard.

So by the time of the Longqing reign, everyone knew that the horse administration was corrupt, so they simply converted the horses into silver.

In the Longqing era, the tribute system of Anda was influenced not only by the cost of maintaining border security, but also by the Ming Dynasty's shortage of horses.

While the spoils of war in killing enemies can be faked, the spoils of livestock cannot.

For tribes on the grasslands, livestock such as horses, cattle, and sheep are their core assets, and they will never give them up unless absolutely necessary.

The fact that Qi Jiguang was able to capture so many livestock shows that he had truly found the core tribe of the Wushen tribe and completely defeated the Wushen elite, which is why he was able to bring back so many spoils of war.

Shen Yi Guan looked at Su Ze and said:
"Brother Zilin! You can't escape credit for initiating this time!"

Everyone nodded.

Qi Jiguang's trip to Datong was originally recommended by Su Ze. When the Nine Ministers were debating the matter, it was Su Ze who submitted a memorial that made the final decision, leading the emperor to order a search.

With such a victory, Governor-General Wang Chonggu of Xuanda and General Qi Jiguang of Datong would naturally receive the lion's share, while Su Ze of the court would also receive another portion.

Su Ze remained calm; he didn't think the emperor would bestow too many rewards upon him.

According to the conventions of the Ming Dynasty, officials like Su Ze were basically reserved for the Crown Prince.

Su Ze's official position was actually a position in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.

However, Su Ze no longer had many opportunities for promotion in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.

The Longqing Emperor would not remove Su Ze from the Imperial Household Department system, given his age.

However, Qi Jiguang's great victory also earned Su Ze the reputation of being "proficient in military affairs".

This also means that Su Ze's military advice will be taken seriously in the future, and no one will underestimate his military pronouncements.

Just as after the last Daedong Mutiny, no one in the cabinet would underestimate Zhao Zhenji's military opinions.

What pleased Su Ze even more was that this great victory at the search for the stronghold gave Emperor Longqing and his ministers greater confidence to launch more proactive military operations in the Northwest.

The next step is to re-establish Dongshengwei.

Su Ze pondered the opportune moment to submit his petition.

At this moment, the system also popped up the settlement report from the last memorial.

[Huang Ji led the Four Seas Survey, completing the observations over three years and compiling a new calendar.]

[Approved according to the Gregorian calendar.]

Huang Ji also collected a large amount of astronomical observation data, accumulating considerable astronomical information for determining longitude.

Huang Ji discovered Jupiter's moons and invented the method of measuring longitude over land.

[Ming Dynasty +6]

It suddenly increased by six?
It seems that calendars really can unite people's hearts?
And there's Jupiter's Guardian!
Su Ze recalls that among the methods for determining accuracy, the celestial clock method was divided into two schools.

One school of thought uses the Jupiter-Moons method to determine time by observing the positions of Jupiter's moons, while the other school uses the lunar distance method to calculate the distance to the moon.

Jupiter has four moons. Time was determined by the positions of the Sun, Jupiter, and the four moons, a method invented by Galileo.

However, this method also has drawbacks. First of all, the Sun, Jupiter, and the four moons make up six celestial bodies. The three-body problem is mathematically unsolvable, let alone the six-body problem.

Therefore, this method can only provide approximate values, and Jupiter and its moons are too small to be observed on a rough sea.

Before the Suze crossing, France used this method to establish numerous observatories on land to measure longitude and create accurate world maps.

This method is indeed useful. The Ming Dynasty was also a major land power and needed longitude to draw maps.

Of course, the best method for the Tianzhong school is still the lunar distance method.

However, the lunar distance method still requires a background star map and calculations of the three-body problem involving the orbits of the Sun, Moon, and Earth.

The former requires precise astronomical mapping. The approximate period for the Earth-Sun-Moon three-body problem is eighteen years, which means that at least eighteen consecutive years of astronomical mapping data are needed.

The latter requires more mathematical tools; at the very least, calculus needs to be developed.

Su Ze's calculus skills are likely to have been almost completely forgotten.

It seems we still need to keep Huang Ji observing astronomical data; he absolutely cannot come back just because the new calendar is finished!

In addition, there's calculus. Since he can understand trigonometric functions, he should be able to understand calculus too, right?
Su Ze decided to summarize what little basic calculus he had left and give Huang Ji a good talking-to!
Perfect! It'll allow him to use calculus to pass the time during the Four Seas Test!
-
"Congratulations, Your Majesty, on the great victory in the Northwest!"

Such a brilliant military victory naturally required the entire cabinet to enter the palace to report the victory to the emperor.

Grand Secretary Li Chunfang had just finished recuperating when he received such a good job. This made the Second Grand Secretary Gao Gong look at the radiant Li Chunfang and think, "Grand Secretary Li, how come you always have such good timing, whether you are recuperating or finishing your recuperation?"
But since he was the Grand Secretary, Gao Gong couldn't do anything about it.

However, Gao Gong had no intention of competing with Li Chunfang for the task of reporting the victory. The governor-general, Wang Chonggu, was his man, and Qi Jiguang was recommended by his protégé, Su Ze. The biggest beneficiary of this Northwest victory was Gao Gong's faction. Zhang Juzheng, the governor of Sanfu, remained calm. This Northwest campaign had little impact on him; he hadn't opposed the search for the enemy back then.

The only possible trouble is that after the successful search, Wang and Qi might bring up the idea of ​​re-establishing Dongsheng Guard, which would require the Ministry of Revenue, which he is in charge of, to spend money again.

However, the livestock that Qi Jiguang brought back this time made the search operation very profitable, so it was not a big deal for the court to spend some money to re-establish Dongshengwei.

Zhao Zhenji, the fourth assistant minister, was also very pleased.

He advocated military reform, and Qi Jiguang's victory this time was an affirmation of the effectiveness of the military reform in Datong. If Dongshengwei could be re-established, the defense line of Xuanda would be even more solid.

The Longqing Emperor, seated on his throne, was in high spirits.

When his father was on the throne, the Wushen tribe had responded to Altan Khan's call to arms and plundered the capital city.

After taking power, he actually defeated the Wushen tribe.

On this point alone, I have surpassed my father!

Moreover, the operation to search for the looters was highly successful, silencing those officials who argued that the search had been fruitless.

After the initial excitement, it's time to reward those who have done their part.

The emperor looked at his cabinet ministers, and Li Chunfang spoke:

"I believe that the Shanxi Regional Military Commission should be re-established, with Qi Jiguang serving as its commander."

The Dusi is the highest military department in a province.

However, some provinces are quite large, so a "Xingdusi" (行都司) office is set up to share the management.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Shanxi included the Hetao region, so a Shanxi Provincial Military Command was established to govern it.

However, even the Dongsheng Guard was later abolished, so the Shanxi Regional Military Commission was also abolished.

The position of Commander-in-Chief could be held by both civil and military officials, but after the Tumu Crisis, very few military officers held this position.

The position of Commander-in-Chief was a second-rank military officer, which meant that Qi Jiguang had already broken through the ceiling of his career.

The Longqing Emperor nodded and said:

"Prime Minister Li's suggestion is excellent, let's do it that way."

The emperor then asked, "Where is Wang Chonggu?"

Li Chunfang thought for a moment and said:
“Governor Wang himself cannot be promoted for the time being, but his son Wang Qian can be promoted.”

The emperor nodded. If Wang Chonggu were to be promoted again, he would have to return to the capital to serve as Minister of War. However, the current Minister of War, Huo Ji, was doing a good job. Therefore, Wang Chonggu had no choice but to first promote his son and then let him return to the capital when the position of Minister of War became vacant.

This is the difficulty of promotion for high-ranking officials. You need to have merit and a position. High-ranking positions are like a sardine's nest, and you can only fill a position if the previous one becomes vacant.

However, if the emperor and the cabinet remember the merits, there will always be a chance to make amends in the future.

After rewarding the two meritorious officials, Emperor Longqing looked troubled and said:

"How will Su Ze reward me?"

Even Gao Gong looked troubled when this question was raised.

Su Ze's position in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices was already Left Vice Minister, and the next position above him would be Left Imperial Tutor.

The current Left Imperial Tutor is a high-ranking official, while the other official is a senior Hanlin scholar.

In the eyes of the emperor and the cabinet, Su Ze was certain to be admitted to the cabinet.

However, he will definitely be placed in the Crown Prince's cabinet.

It would be inappropriate to promote Su Ze now.

At this moment, Li Chunfang stepped forward and said:

"Your Majesty, you may appoint Su Zejia as a lecturer."

After Li Chunfang finished speaking, everyone nodded in agreement, including the Longqing Emperor.

The lecturer was also a lecturer, but not one who lectured the crown prince; rather, he lectured the emperor.

Su Ze also held a position in the Hanlin Academy, and the emperor's lecturers were all from the Hanlin Academy, so Su Ze's qualifications were not in question.

The emperor nodded in satisfaction. Now, Su Ze had an additional position as a lecturer to the crown prince, in addition to his existing role as a lecturer to the emperor.

After this matter was resolved, the emperor asked again:
"How's the matter of the capital inspection going?"

Gao Gong stood up and said:
"The list of those to be dismissed has been drafted, and then the six departments will conduct an investigation."

In fact, the emperor had already seen the first draft of the list. The highest-ranking official to be dismissed this time was Hong Chaoxuan, the vice minister of the Ministry of Justice, who had performed poorly in the Liaodong expedition.

The final step is the inspection in Beijing.

"How are the preparations for the court's decision coming along?"

There are demotions, and there are promotions.

The position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice required recommendation from the Nine Ministers.

In fact, the emperor had already thought of a candidate: the current Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review, Li Yiyuan. The next step was just to go through the formalities.

Gao Gong understood the emperor's thoughts and immediately said, "Your Majesty, please rest assured."

Emperor Longqing nodded in satisfaction, and thus the personnel change at the level of a Nine Minister was completed.
-
March 25th.

Li Yiyuan, the Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review, was in a good mood.

There is already a lot of news about the results of this imperial examination. It is a foregone conclusion that Hong Chaoxuan, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, will be dismissed from office. And now there are rumors in the court that I will be transferred to the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.

Although the position of Commissioner of the Court of State Affairs was crucial and well-informed, the Court of State Affairs was still not comparable to the Six Ministries.

Minister of Justice Mao Kai is getting old and rarely expresses his opinion on ministry affairs. If I can hold the position of Vice Minister of Justice, I can advance further when Minister Mao retires.

What made Li Yiyuan even happier was that he was finally going to be transferred away from the Ministry of Justice, and he would no longer have to deal with Su Ze!

Whoever wants to be the fearful and anxious Commissioner of the Court of Judicial Review can have it!
Li Yiyuan hummed a little tune as his subordinate, carrying memorials, entered his office. Seeing that the Grand Secretary was in a good mood, the subordinate, feeling somewhat sorry for him, said:

"Da Yintai, Su Ze has submitted a memorial."

Li Yiyuan's good mood came to an abrupt end, and he hurriedly ordered his subordinates to bring over the memorial.

"Petition to repair the fortress and re-establish the Dongshengwei"
So it was Dongshengwei. Li Yiyuan breathed a sigh of relief. After the great victory in the Northwest, it was only natural that Wang Chonggu and Qi Jiguang would re-establish Dongshengwei.

That's how it is in the military; the reason why military decisions are questioned is because people are afraid you'll lose the war.

As long as you can win the battle, then everything you say is correct.

Qi Jiguang's great victory made him a formidable figure in the northwest frontier, so it was only natural to re-establish the Dongsheng Guard at this time.

Su Ze was also one of the first officials to explicitly support the search for the goods, making his petition all the more legitimate.

But what is a bastion?
(End of this chapter)