The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"General, Wei Ge Lao sent someone to deliver a letter."

Ma Fang is only in his fifties, which is not considered old in the future market, but don't forget that it was in the Ming Dynasty when the average age of men was less than fifty years old.

Moreover, Ma Fang lived in the north for a long time. He lived as a slave in his early years and fought for many years in the middle and late periods. His physical fitness was not good to begin with, and he also had some hidden injuries.

Long-term exposure to the wind and rain in the border town made Ma Fang look like a 70-year-old old man in later generations. Not only was his skin old, but it also looked wrinkled.

However, under such a body, his eyes were still bright.

After hearing the letter from the capital, Ma Fang instantly became alert, stood up from the commander's chair, walked down directly to take the letter delivered by the personal soldier, and asked casually: "Where are the people arranged?"

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"Someone has been sent to the general's mansion to rest."

The personal soldier immediately replied.

"Yes."

Ma Fang has his own general's mansion in Datong, but his favorite place to stay is still the military camp. He likes to watch his soldiers go out for training every morning.

Yes, all generals who can fight have always attached great importance to the training of soldiers.

And in order to make soldiers willing to train, the most basic food and salary must be given enough.

The reason why those generals who often lose repeatedly suffer defeats is, to put it bluntly, greed and unwillingness to give more food and salary to the soldiers.

Without food and wages, the training will naturally be very sparse. If the training is too intense, but no food and wages are given, wouldn't it force people to make trouble and create mutiny?

Of course, the social order is still there now. The military leaders in the late Ming Dynasty were even more ruthless. Not only did they not have food and wages, they also directly asked their subordinates to go out and rob money and food, taking part of it for themselves and handing over part of it, completely treating the army as a business without capital.

So, in fact, those slightly famous and capable generals in the late Ming Dynasty were actually just a little more conscientious than other colleagues, willing to give some money and food to the soldiers, and they could become a generation of famous generals.

After all, the war was fought by soldiers, and it was no longer the era of military generals fighting alone.

In folk storytelling and novels, the most popular way of fighting on the ancient battlefield was not for thousands of troops to rush forward, but for the two armies to fight on horseback to decide the outcome of the war. This way of fighting was called "fighting generals".

If you have read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", you will definitely be impressed by the phenomenon of "fighting generals" before the war.

Because every time two armies fight, there will always be a general wearing a golden helmet and silver armor, riding out to fight with the enemy generals, fighting dozens of times, while the soldiers stand still and watch the generals fight.

In their mouths or writings, the winning side of the duel is generally boosted by the victory of the main general, thus gaining a crushing advantage on the battlefield and defeating the opponent.

Also because of those wonderful stories, people often feel that before the two armies fight, there must be a call, and then there will be a drama of fighting, and then there will be a melee between the two armies.

It can only be said that "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has done a lot of harm to people, especially after the book was circulated abroad.

There was a joke that during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Toyotomi Hideyoshi of Japan invaded Korea and encountered the Liaodong Iron Cavalry of Li Rusong of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, there was a general in the Japanese army who went crazy after reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He admired the generals who fought one-on-one in the Three Kingdoms very much. He jumped out and shouted: "Who will fight me in a one-on-one fight?" The Ming army thought he was crazy and shot him into a sieve with a musket.

When the two armies were fighting, the soldiers lined up in formation. The generals of both sides rode white or red horses, held long spears or broadswords, wore silver helmets or golden armor, and rode out of the ranks, rushed to the most dangerous front line, and shouted loudly: "You rats, who dares to come out and fight me?"

At this time, the other side's camp did not need to shoot him with arrows or beat him up. It was the same. A brave general flashed out, rushed to the most dangerous front line, and shouted loudly: "Who are you? Tell me your name quickly, I will not kill you unknown people under my gun!"

Then, it was a duel between two people. After one, three, five, or dozens of rounds, the general of one side was knocked off the horse.

And the soldiers did not fight back at all, and immediately bowed their hands and admitted defeat, so the war ended.

It is full of the romantic spirit of personal heroism, which really satisfies the preferences of readers and listeners, and it is very immersive.

It gives people the feeling that as long as the main general wins, the whole army wins, and as long as the main general loses, the whole army loses.

The outcome of the entire war was completely determined by the martial arts of the two main generals. The soldiers were only used as decoration and had no practical value.

Of course, it is not to deny that there have been fights between generals in history. The duels recorded in official history are often not "wars" in the true sense. At most, they are "duels" between the main generals. However, there have been almost no more since the Tang and Song dynasties.

In fact, during the Qin and Han dynasties, which can represent the highest level of ancient Chinese military warfare, there are much fewer examples of "fighting and fighting generals" in the official history of these stages compared with other war periods.

This is because there were more large-scale wars during the Qin and Han dynasties, such as the Qin's conquest of the six kingdoms and the Han's attack on the Huns, which were not completed overnight.

To win in such an arduous battle, the group combat method and the general's strategy and tactics are the important factors for winning the battle.

This is the law of war. After all, the general is the treasure of the army and the commander of the war.

The ancients often said, "If the main general is lost, the three armies will be wiped out", so the generals in ancient times would not be stupid enough to take risks.

As for the Three Kingdoms period, although the novels are well written, there are not many generals fighting in the Three Kingdoms period in real history.

For example, Lu Bu fought Guo Si and Sun Ce fought Taishi Ci, which are all well-documented in history.

As for other dynasties, the more famous one is Wang Yanzhang, the iron spear general of the Five Dynasties, who was addicted to single combat.

There were also cases where the main general was captured and the whole army was defeated, such as the Battle of Hulao Pass in the Tang Dynasty, Dou Jiande was wounded and captured when he went out on a light cavalry, and the 150,000-man army collapsed immediately.

He had been operating in Hebei for many years, with light taxes and levies, and was considered to be able to compete with Li Yuan and Wang Shichong for the world, but he was destroyed in one battle.

Dou Jiande did not come out to fight generals, he just wanted to debate with Li Shimin, but was surrounded and captured alive by Li Tang's light cavalry.

In fact, by the time of the Song Dynasty, the command ability of strategy and tactics had been highly valued by military generals.

Strategy, of course, is the court's deployment of troops, and tactics is the arrangement of the opposing army formations. Different army formations have different ways of fighting.

However, the Song Dynasty used it very rigidly, and even the court chose tactics and arranged the military formations. As a result, it was not flexible and was targeted by the opponent, so it often suffered defeat.

However, even so, the ministers of the Song Dynasty still enjoyed it and liked to plan and win thousands of miles away.

Ma Fang was not a sham, and perhaps he was not really that strong in single combat, so he cared more about the training of soldiers.

In fact, among the military generals of the same era, perhaps only Yu Dayou had this ability when he was young, and could come out to fight alone without fear of the enemy generals, but Yu Dayou never did so in front of the battle in his life.

Well, Yu Dayou's most successful fight with a general was said to be the one he went to challenge Shaolin Temple.

People like Qi Jiguang and Li Chengliang were obviously not good at single combat, so they were all good at training soldiers.

Here, Ma Fang had read Wei Guangde's letter, and his brows were immediately relaxed.

In fact, Ma Fang has been frowning these days, because the governor, Lord Huo Yi, was persuaded by the Pingyang merchants to report to the court to open a horse market in Datong.

Well, the tribute market can no longer satisfy the appetite of the merchants, so they want more.

However, when he was young and lived in Mongolia for a long time, he certainly knew that there were Shanxi merchants smuggling, secretly bringing contraband into the grassland and illegally trading with the Mongolians.

He was promoted from the general of Xuanfu to the general of Datong, which may have been intended to strengthen the border defense and prevent the merchants from smuggling.

Now the merchants' smuggling channels have been blocked by him, but they secretly took the upper route and wanted to increase the horse market.

It can only be said that the appetite of merchants can never be satisfied. After getting a little bit, they still want to get more.

Marx once said that when the profit reaches 10%, some people are ready to move; when the profit reaches 50%, some people dare to take risks; when the profit reaches 100%, they dare to trample on all human laws; and when the profit reaches 300%, they are not afraid of even going to the gallows.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it was fully reflected that in order to obtain excess profits, Shanxi merchants would not hesitate to take risks, even if it touched the crime of exterminating the clan.

If Ma Fang was still worried about the horse market a few days ago, now after seeing Wei Guangde's letter, his worries are gone.

Developing the horse market may make the Shanxi merchants, who had already calmed down, active again, and they may infiltrate the border towns and smuggle quietly outside.

You know, smuggling is not a one-way action, and there must be someone outside to support it.

Shanxi merchants smuggle across the border, and there must be someone on the Mongolian side to help take care of it, otherwise they will be robbed by that tribe when they enter the grassland.

Now, with the support of the capital, he naturally knows what to do.

If it were in the past, it would be a bit restrictive, after all, Huo Yi was his direct superior. As the saying goes, a higher rank can crush a lower rank. Although his rank is higher than that of the governor, he has real power over him.

Ma Fang naturally has a way to obstruct the selection of the trading site.

Didn't he say that he would choose a trading town?

It's simple. Ma Fang directly selected a dozen places that can be used as trading towns, and then each place has more or less defects. The only place that is really suitable for trading is a place with convenient transportation and tight defense around it. That is not recommended.

When the site selection is discussed, someone will naturally point out these shortcomings, and then he can propose to see the site and understand the actual situation.

There really shouldn't be too many ways to delay time.

You know, Ming Dynasty officials also have a big shortcoming, that is, they are unwilling to take the initiative to take responsibility and like to shirk responsibility as much as possible.

Of course, the credit will not be pushed out.

As long as those shortcomings are pointed out at the critical moment, if Huo Yi wants to force the matter, he can not only report it, but also let him take full responsibility after the incident.

With such words, no one dared to act recklessly.

As for the purpose of doing this, the letter did not say it, and Ma Fang naturally did not know, and did not even intend to reply to tell him about his intention.

Wei Guangde did not mention the situation in the capital to Ma Fang in detail, but he knew that Ma Fang would do so after seeing the letter.

Of course, perhaps the new Minister of the Ministry of Revenue would still support the opening of the horse market in Datong, but after all, there is always a buffer period for new officials to take office, and they will not rush to promote the issuance of this decree immediately.

Wei Guangde did this to sort out the pros and cons of opening Datong.

To be honest, if it is finally found that the opening of Datong may have more benefits than disadvantages, Wei Guangde may also support this matter, even if it may lead to large-scale smuggling of contraband by Shanxi merchants.

Again, as the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, you cannot ignore some policies just because you are afraid, and you have to look at it dialectically.

For example, to crack down on the smuggling of Shanxi merchants, you can prevent it by strengthening the customs and the Jinyiwei and the Censorate to strictly investigate.

And you can't ignore the people of the northwest and kill them with one stick just because you are worried about their smuggling.

In fact, Wei Guangde quite agrees with a point of view put forward by someone in later generations, that is, the essence of nomadic peoples going south is to survive rather than plunder.

Plundering people and materials is just to protect the survival needs of the Huns in the harsh natural environment of the north.

The achievements of Qin Shihuang are not only the same writing, the same track, the same weights and measures, the same ethics, and the elimination of the six countries, which ended the chaos that lasted for hundreds of years on the land of China and opened the process of the development of a unified multi-ethnic country in China, but also the north to attack the Huns and draw the dividing line between farming and pasture.

This farming-pastoral boundary zone is roughly from Yanshan Mountain in northern Hebei to Yinshan Mountain, and then turns south to Lintao in Gansu Province, which roughly coincides with the 400 mm precipitation line.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were both farming civilizations and nomadic civilizations in the Central Plains, and both sides were intertwined.

However, as the farming forces in the Central Plains gradually grew stronger, the nomadic forces were forced to migrate to distant places, and the Central Plains gradually became a pure farming world.

However, the farming production method, affected by factors such as rainfall, cannot be expanded indefinitely.

Therefore, this formed a farming-pastoral boundary zone. After this zone, farming cannot be carried out, and only nomadism can be carried out.

This middle zone is a must-fight place for both farming and nomadic forces.

For nomadic peoples, their biggest advantage is that they have a large number of high-quality war horses. They often rely on elite soldiers and good horses to go south to plunder survival resources, and this dividing zone is their only way to enter the Central Plains.

When natural disasters occurred in the north, the people in the north could not obtain the necessary resources for survival through nomadic life, so they could only look to the south and obtain survival resources from the farming areas.

Therefore, on this dividing line, a protracted war broke out between the two tribes. The Han army was desperately guarding this Great Wall, while the northern nomadic peoples were desperately attacking, hoping to go south to obtain survival supplies.

As for whether the nomadic peoples had the idea of ​​unifying China, perhaps they did, but after all, they were nomadic peoples, so they were not very interested in the southern farming areas.

For example, the Yuan Dynasty, although it destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty and unified China, its ruling foundation was still in the north.

Moreover, with the advent of the era of hot weapons, the advantages of the northern nomadic peoples were actually declining significantly, so Wei Guangde was naturally not very worried.

Well, just like what was said on the Internet in later generations, the turn of the Ming and Qing dynasties was essentially a competition to see who was worse.

The final result was naturally that the Ming Dynasty was rotten to the root, so it was destroyed.

Wei Guangde believed that if you do your best, no one can destroy you. (End of this chapter)