Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 289 Lu Xiang-sheng breaks through all laws with force, and Man Gui is forced to vomit.

The old man was unhappy about being dismissed for a reason. Although Lu Xiang-sheng had achieved a top rating in his performance as governor of the six prefectures of Beizhili, proving himself to be a capable official, the governorship was more administrative, the imperial inspector was responsible for supervision, and the governor-general was in charge of military affairs.
Lu Xiang-sheng was not the Governor-General of Zhili, so his merit of participating in the war to defend the emperor was not very convincing. He was still young, and as a Jinshi from the Tianqi era, he stood out among a large group of Jinshi from the Wanli era.

Most importantly, he was facing a large group of arrogant and fierce soldiers from Liaodong. Even he had a hard time dealing with troublemakers like Mao Wenlong. It was only because Mao Wenlong was getting old and much more docile than when he was young that he was able to handle him. But even that docility was relative!

He even imagined how Mao Wenlong would try to intimidate Lu Xiangsheng. The military commissioner and the general were at odds; what was going to happen?
Moreover, Liaodong is now too vast, involving Liaoxi, Liaonan, Korea, Dengzhou and Laizhou, as well as the recently recovered Guangning and other places. The affairs are complicated and numerous, and even someone as experienced as him is finding it difficult to manage. How can a young man like Lu Xiangshan handle it? He really doesn't understand why the emperor wanted to replace him.

Concerned about the Liaodong affairs, Yuan Keli applied to the emperor to take charge of the Liaodong region. Zhu Youjian agreed, but this also displeased Sun Chengzong, who was equally concerned about the Liaodong affairs. Even when he was in the Northwest, he had not given up his research on Liaodong strategy. After Zhu Youjian brought him back, he was like a big move that had been brewing for a long time, and he couldn't wait to unleash it.

Currently, the central government of the Ming Dynasty, as well as the soldiers at the front lines, are eager to launch a major offensive. The only obstacle is Emperor Zhu Youjian and his treacherous minister, Bi Ziyan. This situation seemed eerily familiar, and Zhu Youjian was horrified: "Oh no! I've become Wanyan Zhao Gou!"

Despite being in charge of Liaodong affairs, Yuan Keli couldn't actually do much. The cabinet only had advisory power over the regional officials, and couldn't establish a direct superior-subordinate command relationship.
At other times, they could issue political threats to governors and viceroys to force them to obey, but after Zhu Youjian's chaotic actions, he had completely taken control of the court's personnel power, and the cabinet ministers had almost no deterrent effect on other officials.

In reality, whether it was Zhang Juzheng or Gao Gong, the reason they were able to seize power was simply because they took advantage of power vacuums created when the emperor was young and unable to govern, or when the emperor neglected his duties. However, it is important to understand that the cabinet never truly threatened imperial power; like eunuchs, they were merely products dependent on imperial authority.

Of course, the real world operates on a massive inertia. Currently, entering the cabinet is still regarded as the end of a civil servant's career and the ultimate goal of a politician's life. No one thinks that a Grand Secretary is just a fifth-rank official, because their titles outside the cabinet are longer than their lives.

Although they had no real power, weren't the Grand Secretaries, who saw the emperor every day, closer to him than other officials outside the capital? Why did emperors and ministers throughout history so averse to the interference of the empress dowager in politics? Because a good relationship with the emperor could indeed have a significant impact.

Yuan Keli complained, but he still couldn't convince himself to quit. Although Lu Xiang-sheng took his position, the old man was magnanimous and didn't hold a grudge against a young man, so he decided to help Lu Xiang-sheng.

He first wrote a veiled letter to Mao Wenlong, advising him not to provoke trouble. He said that if Mao Wenlong was willing to cooperate on the Liaodong issue, everything else would be much easier to carry out. Then he wrote to Lu Xiangsheng in detail, imparting his experience. He regretted that words could not express his meaning, and he wished he could personally go to the scene to give Lu Xiangsheng his personal instructions.

Zhu Youjian felt that the old man was being overly anxious. Was it just that old people tend to worry more?
Although Lu Xiang-sheng was young, he had already served for 11 years from the second year of the Tianqi reign to the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign, and his experience in officialdom was not shallow. Moreover, it would not matter if he made some minor mistakes. How could a country not have the ability to tolerate mistakes, and how could an emperor not tolerate his subordinates making mistakes?
Besides, how many more years can these old men hold on? Many veteran generals and ministers were appointed to their posts in times of crisis in their later years, only to end up disgraced and ruined.
The Ming Dynasty still needed to cultivate new important officials. What impressed Zhu Youjian the most was that he clearly felt that it was much more difficult to cultivate a civil official who could take on a major responsibility than to cultivate a military general who could stand alone. He didn't know if it was because military generals learned their skills quickly in the face of life and death on the battlefield, or if civil officials simply needed a long and painstaking process to be cultivated into talents.
This is not a difference in intelligence, but more a difference in experience. Military generals also need experience, but they need to be more wary of falling into the trap of empiricism.

The reason Zhu Youjian was so conflicted was that he was somewhat annoyed with his arrangements for Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou. He felt he had ruined these two SSR civil officials, leaving them in the Northwest, far removed from the central government, to the point that they were practically nonexistent in the court. Zhu Youjian also had a path dependency; he was too comfortable using older officials, so much so that he didn't give newcomers a chance to rise. However, those who leave their mark on history are never ordinary people. Lu Xiangshan was indeed looked down upon after arriving in Liaodong, after all, the probability of producing incompetent officials in Liaodong was too high. If the generals of Liaodong accepted anyone, they would be long dead.

When Yuan Chonghuan defended Ningyuan, he lacked sufficient prestige. His approach was to play the emotional card: he knelt before the soldiers of Ningyuan, braved fire arrows himself, and set an example. Only after winning the battle did he truly gain the recognition of the generals in Liaoxi. Unfortunately, he did not gain the recognition of Wei Zhongxian and the eunuch faction, and ultimately withdrew hastily.

Lu Xiang-sheng's approach was much simpler and more brutal. His method of subduing the Liao generals was outrageous: starting in August, he entered Liao by land via the coastal route, carrying a large spear, patrolling and fighting along the way.

Inspecting the various camps was his duty, and as long as they didn't rebel, the generals in Liaodong couldn't find a reason to refuse. He used a less formal excuse to disrupt things, saying that he liked practicing martial arts and that he saw a certain general who was handsome and talented, and must be a reincarnation of Xiang Yu or Qin Qiong. He was itching to show off his skills and wanted to have a match with him.

Lu Xiang-sheng's words were tactful, giving these Liao generals ample face—after all, he was a civil official, and a high-ranking one at that—but they were also clearly meant to undermine them. Unless a military general was utterly incompetent and lacked confidence, none could remain unmoved upon hearing such words. As a result, Lu Xiang-sheng practically subdued every Liao general he encountered along the way.

His martial arts skills weren't particularly outstanding, and his practical combat experience was far from sufficient, but his superhuman strength, which was recorded in official history, was simply too unfair:
With Zhao Shuaijiao absent, Man Gui fought against him. The two fought fiercely for thirty rounds. Lu Xiang-sheng struggled on all sides, but managed to stabilize his position after fifty rounds. After eighty rounds, Man Gui could no longer take it. After one hundred and twenty rounds, Man Gui was so exhausted that he vomited and had to admit defeat. Lu Xiang-sheng simply wiped his sweat, pointed at Man Gui's beloved general, Hu Dawei, and challenged him again and again, eventually winning this battle of attrition.

Man Gui was completely convinced now. Of course, being good at fighting doesn't necessarily mean you're qualified to be a leader. I've never heard of anyone becoming the Liaodong Military Commissioner because of their fighting skills. But at least it earned Lu Xiang-sheng respect, so that before these troublemakers thought of underestimating Lu Xiang-sheng, they could at least recall the scene of being defeated.

If before the fight, everyone subconsciously wanted to oppose Lu Xiang-sheng, the parachuted-in superior, then now his words have made them listen and carefully consider whether or not to obediently cooperate.

Of course, he didn't always win: in Jinzhou, after exhausting himself to the point of vomiting at Cao Wenzhao's hands, he tried to replicate his feat of fighting in Ningyuan, but was defeated by the equally energetic Cao Bianjiao. Cao Bianjiao was now entering the peak of a military general's life, and the two fought for two hours, until Lu Xiangshan was exhausted to the point of vomiting.

Cao Bianjiao squatted on the ground, looking at Lu Xiang-sheng, who was soaked in sweat and looked disheveled, and said, "Lord Lu, why are you doing this? You and I are both His Majesty's men. Even if Man Gui and the others make things difficult for you, we uncle and nephew would never make things difficult for you. We should all work together to serve His Majesty."

(End of this chapter)