The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Some people say that bureaucratic capital is a form of rent-seeking through rights with the purpose of obtaining excessive profits.

Bureaucratic capital is very harmful. The main reason is that it uses its power to implement monopoly transactions to obtain excess violence.

Under the protection of power, there is no such thing as market competition, and all competitors will be wiped out in the face of power.

Although this form is detrimental to economic development, it has to be said that in the early stages of capital accumulation, this is the most convenient way to expand capital.

However, all this can only stay in Wei Guangde's mind now.

After all, now he does not have enough power to support a huge capital.

Regarding the understanding of the Ming Dynasty, although many people in later generations believed that due to the formation of the cabinet system, the imperial power was subject to certain restrictions, and it was no longer the only one who was aloof and exclusive.

Because the stability of imperial power requires the support of the bureaucratic group headed by the cabinet, it seems that the imperial power and the bureaucratic group are in a cooperative relationship. Especially after the bureaucratic group has the power to refute the imperial edict, many people believe that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty has become a For decoration, the bureaucracy has actually eclipsed the imperial power.

For Wei Guangde now, he can only laugh.

Maybe the last emperor in the late Ming Dynasty was like that, but from what he sees and hears now, the imperial power is still supreme.

The so-called imperial decree does not leave the palace, which definitely did not exist in the era he lived in.

Here, the greatest power still comes from the emperor.

Therefore, in order for Wei Guangde to realize his expectations, he must get the support of King Yu.

When Emperor Jiajing was on the throne, he still planned to just hang around. After all, he had too many cards to play, and no matter how he looked at it, he would never be reused.

Perhaps this is why he and Zhang Juzheng were sent by Emperor Jiajing to collate the "Yongle Dadian".

"Zhifu, in your opinion, with the combined strength of your army and mine, can we conquer Wudang Mountain, seize Xucuowochao, and face Pinghai Guard City?"

Liu Xian looked at Yu Dayou with eager eyes and asked.

"Director Liu, although 6,000 of my men have arrived, our army with all its strength can only reach over 8,000. We are really lacking in preparedness to fight against the Japanese pirates."

Yu Dayou looked at the Japanese pirate barracks opposite, which had gradually improved its defenses, and Yu Dayou replied with some worry.

After the Japanese pirates withdrew from Xinghua Fucheng, they ambush Pinghaiwei officers and soldiers, and then captured Pinghaiwei City.

Even though Liu Xian sent troops to rescue as soon as he got the news, it was not enough.

There were more than 6,000 Japanese pirates, and Liu Xian only had more than 1,000 troops in his hands. Seeing that there was no hope of rescue, he could not avoid being attacked by the Japanese pirates, so he had to withdraw to the military camp.

After the Japanese invaders occupied Pinghaiweicheng, they set up a camp in front of Xucuo as a shield to prevent the Ming army from reaching Pinghaiweicheng.

Facing the Japanese pirates who had an absolute advantage, the Ming army did not dare to harass them and could only watch the Japanese pirates build camps.

The Nangan soldiers and horses led by Yu Dayou had arrived for a few days and had been repaired. Liu Xian also took advantage of this time to gather Pinghai Guards and escape from the Ming army, and his troops were expanded to more than 2,000.

Eight thousand against six thousand, the Ming army still did not have an absolute advantage. Facing the vicious Japanese pirates, Yu Dayou was not optimistic that this method alone could win.

"Captain Liu, from my humble position, it is better to wait until Yuan Jing's troops are in place before launching an attack. I think the Zhejiang troops will be arriving soon."

Seeing Liu Xian's ugly face, Yu Dayou had no choice but to speak again.

Having suffered too many losses, he was also worried that he had said something wrong just now and would be criticized for being cowardly.

"Yuan Jing, is there any news from Zhejiang soldiers?"

Although Liu Xian looked worried, he also knew in his heart that if he went to fight now, he was really not sure of winning.

Yu Dayou's worries are actually not unfounded.

So, he turned to look at Qi Jiguang and asked.

"Director Liu, according to the news that came out a few days ago, I think the Zhejiang soldiers should have arrived in Funing Prefecture."

Funing Prefecture is located in the north of Fujian and borders Zhejiang together with Jianning Prefecture.

Although Qi Jiguang knew that if he said this, he would definitely arouse Liu Xian's dissatisfaction, he had nothing to do.

He did not dare to hide such a major military matter.

Sure enough, Liu Xian's face became even more ugly when he heard the answer given by Qi Jiguang.

Qi Jiguang has been here for more than a month, and the Zhejiang soldiers under his command have just left Zhejiang, and they are as fast as a tortoise.

Yu Dayou on the side also looked at Qi Jiguang with some surprise. He did not expect that the Zhejiang soldiers' operations would be so delayed, but it was completely inconsistent with his impression of Qi Jiguang.

As the saying goes, a soldier is the courage of a general, and a general is the soul of a soldier.

For the generals who led the troops, they all agreed with this statement.

For this reason, when Yu Dayou worked with Qi Jiguang, although he looked down on him for using his self-trained troops in everything, he could understand his approach from the bottom of his heart.

But this time, the marching speed of the soldiers brought out by Qi Jiguang overturned his understanding of Qi Jiguang.

What kind of generals there are, there are what kind of soldiers.

Now Yu Dayou has some doubts. The past Qi Jiguang may have begun to decline due to continuous victories and huge rewards.

"Why so slow?"

Liu Xian asked disappointedly.

Zhejiang soldiers came from afar, and even if they arrived at the battlefield, they had to give them several days to repair themselves, otherwise they would not be able to go to the battlefield.

However, the current marching speed is really too slow.

At this time, Qi Jiguang just opened his mouth, but made no sound.

Yu Dayou's expression on the side changed slightly, and then he thought of something.

"well."

With a sigh, Yu Dayou lowered his head.

His sigh immediately attracted Liu Xian's attention, and he couldn't help but look over.

However, when he saw Yu Dayou's movements, although he had some guesses in his mind, he was still not sure. He could only ask tentatively: "Does Zhifu know the reason?"

He did not ask Qi Jiguang directly, but asked Yu Dayou.

Perhaps because Yu Dayou is now on the outside, he can still look at this matter with a calmer attitude, so he can also see more.

Hearing Liu Xian's inquiry, Yu Dayou raised his head and smiled bitterly: "Yuan Jing must have had some last resort difficulties, for example, the governor was so eager to fight."

"well."

This time it was Liu Xian who sighed, "In the past few days, I have received three letters from Governor Zhang, which not only reiterated the requirements of the Ministry of War that this battle must be foolproof and not a single thief should be leaked, but also requested that the Japanese pirates be annihilated as soon as possible.

But look at how I can win a battle quickly with only these capable soldiers. "

With that said, Liu Xian turned around and pointed at the Ming army camp behind him.

Behind them are two Ming army camps. The camp on the left is slightly smaller and contains Liu Xian's headquarters and the gathered defeated troops, while the camp on the right is much larger and contains the troops brought by Yu Dayou from southern Gansu.

The three of them tacitly agreed not to mention the deployment of reinforcements from surrounding prefectures and counties. In fact, they had already seen what the Ming army was like in various parts of Fujian all the way here.

This is also the reason why Liu Xian did not mobilize troops from the surrounding areas, preferring to select strong reinforcements from the fleeing people.

As for the wolf soldiers that Liu Xian had been asking Zhang Zhen, the governor of Fujian and Guangdong, to be mobilized, all of them were assigned to coastal counties in Guangdong at this time.

In Zhang Zhen's words, Xinghua Prefecture is already like this. If Fujian and Guangdong are attacked by Japanese pirates again, even if they lose a county seat, they will inevitably bear the thunderous wrath of the imperial court.

"Zhejiang is also unwilling to mobilize its elite land divisions to go south to Fujian to destroy Japanese pirates."

Liu Xian said without reason, and he didn't know whether he was asking Yu Dayou or Qi Jiguang.

After the words fell, no one answered for a long time. By this time, he knew the answer.

Zhang Nian was unwilling to mobilize his elite troops to go north to Fujian, but instead defended Guangdong. How could he expect that Zhejiang would mobilize any large army?

I'm afraid that Qi Jiguang was able to lead the army because of the order of generals from the Ministry of War, otherwise there would be no way he could be allowed to go south here.

With this thought, Liu Xian turned to Qi Jiguang and asked: "Yuan Jing, tell me honestly, how many percent of the Zhejiang soldiers who followed you south this time still have combat strength?"

If Liu Xian had maintained high confidence in eradicating this group of Japanese pirates before, now he felt a little guilty in his heart.

There is no doubt that if the Japanese pirates who captured Xinghua Fucheng were allowed to escape, he would definitely not be able to withstand the emperor's anger, and the civil servants in the court would definitely use him to sacrifice the flag and make him a scapegoat.

Qi Jiguang knew that by this time he had no choice but to tell the truth. He glanced at Liu Xian and Yu Dayou and said, "Two thousand people are from the new army that I trained before, and they also have experience in the battlefield of suppressing Japanese enemies. There are two thousand people." Thousands of people are newly recruited soldiers without any training.”

"So, the actual combat strength of this Japanese campaign is only the 6,000 soldiers and horses in Zhifu's hands and less than 1,000 men in my hands, and the two thousand Zhejiang soldiers who have been on the battlefield."

At this time, Liu Xian's tone of voice was already very low, which also revealed the deep disappointment in his heart.

"When I came here, I also considered the troubles of this Japanese war, so I did not use the past training methods for those new recruits. Instead, I only trained them to form formations and release firearms. They should be able to fight by then."

Qi Jiguang spoke at this time.

Hearing Qi Jiguang's words, Yu Dayou became interested, stared at him and asked: "Did the soldiers you led train all the way?"

"The imperial court has a decree, and it must be carried out in accordance with the decree, so this is the only way to do it."

Qi Jiguang still replied with a grimace.

Yu Dayou and Liu Xian looked at each other at this time, and they understood why the Zhejiang soldiers were moving south so slowly.

According to the rules of the Ming army's march, they walked for half a day every day, arrived at a certain place, then rested, and had to train. After walking for several days in a row, they should have repaired in a certain place for a day, and then continued to set off. Isn't this speed slowing down?

However, at this time, Yu Dayou and Liu Xian were actually most worried about how much combat power the soldiers trained in this way could exert.

He would rather have a hundred elite soldiers than a thousand common people.

Fighting against the vicious Japanese pirates, who are they?

They are all ferocious people who have seen blood on their hands. For the people of this era, many people's feet will tremble when they see the bloody battlefield, and their whole body will be weak, let alone fighting the enemy with swords and guns.

Moreover, the herding effect of the military formation is also very strong.

In the era of cold weapons, if a neat battle formation breaks down, it will often quickly infect other troops, leading to the overall collapse.

Although the three generals Liu, Yu and Qi did not know these principles, they still had many years of combat experience and knew that soldiers had a blind obedience mentality.

The so-called killing of generals and capturing the flag in ancient times is actually to achieve overall victory through local breakthroughs, and that point is the military flag.

On the battlefield, the military flag is a very important symbol. It not only carries the morale of the army, but also represents life and death.

This may also be the natural pursuit of glory among soldiers. The soldiers waving the military flag vigorously is the burning fighting spirit of the soldiers. As long as the military flag is there, they will be there; but once the military flag falls, the spiritual support will also disappear.

If the military flag is taken away, it will not only mean the general's safety, but also their unpredictable future.

However, at this time, Liu Xian and Qi Jiguang still felt unsure since they had not seen the Zhejiang soldiers coming from the north with their own eyes.

Two thousand ordinary people have joined the army for several months and marched thousands of miles. What kind of combat power can such an army have?

Don't collapse at the first touch, and also cause their own troops to lose their morale. That would be terrible.

Yu Dayou knew that the atmosphere between the three of them was very bad now, and wanted to break the dullness, so he smiled and said: "Anyway, Yuan Jing still has a good way of training new soldiers, and his soldiers are good at using firearms. By then, they can As a Chinese army, I expect the Japanese pirates will be hard-pressed to defeat such a large army."

Yu Dayou could only follow Qi Jiguang's words. Since he said that he had made arrangements before going south to train these new recruits in the use of firearms, it seemed that there was merit.

In Yu Dayou's impression of the Ming army in the south of the Yangtze River, it seems that Qi Jiguang paid more attention to the use of firearms.

In fact, I didn't think highly of firearms at first, but now, my views have changed a lot, especially after relying on infantry to defeat Anta's cavalry with firearms.

He has already seen the tremendous power that firearms can unleash through concentrated use.

As for Liu Xian, judging from Yu Dayou's observations during this period, it seems that he has not paid attention to it at all, and is still training in accordance with the Ming army's standard drills.

"Let's wait until the Zhejiang soldiers arrive to discuss how to arrange their troops."

Yu Dayou's words did not dispel Liu Xian's concerns, he just spoke lightly.

However, he immediately said to Yu Dayou in a serious tone: "Zhifu, the stakes in this battle are very important."

Yu Dayou nodded slightly, acquiescing to Liu Xian's words.

Yu Dayou had received Wei Guangde's previous letter to him, and he also knew that he would be appointed as the general military officer of Fujian.

Not only that, his official title even combined with the position of the Commander-in-Chief of Southern Gansu Province, serving as the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern and Southern Gansu Provinces.

Although the post of Chief Soldier is a false one and is a temporary official position, after all, he was demoted from the post of Chief Soldier of Zhejiang, and now he has finally been promoted back.

Liu Xian was like this, naturally because he was not optimistic about the troops brought by Qi Jiguang, and chose to rely on cooperating with Yu Dayou to wipe out the current group of Japanese pirates.

Qi Jiguang saw these private interactions between the two, but didn't say much.

Here, Liu Xian is naturally the highest official, he is second, and Yu Dayou is the lowest.

Even though Yu Dayou was once his immediate boss.

Thinking of this, Qi Jiguang also had concerns in his mind.

Of course he didn't want to be ignored, so he chose to write a letter to the new Fujian governor Tan Lun after returning to the camp, asking him to go to Xinghua Prefecture in person to supervise the war.