The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde imagined the Ming Dynasty, or the territory of China in the future, in his mind, with the territories of the four dragon kings of the east, south, west and north.

After a brief conversation between Zhang Juzheng and Lü Diaoyang, they basically agreed with Wei Guangde's plan, which was to mobilize the Ming army in the southwest to take military action against the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar.

In fact, Wei Guangde had made a lot of preparations before the incident broke out.

Zhang Juzheng and Lü Diaoyang knew this very well.

If they really retreated at the last minute, perhaps it would be as Wei Guangde said, and the two thousand miles of territory in the southwest would be lost.

No matter whether it was the chief minister or the assistant minister, none of them could bear this responsibility.

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"Shandai, let's inform the palace as soon as possible about this matter."

Although he had been there today, Zhang Juzheng did not dare to let the three of them in the cabinet decide on it when it came to military affairs. At least he had to tell the palace.

"Well, OK, let's go together."

Wei Guangde nodded, but when the four of them walked out of the duty room, Wei Guangde still handed over a secretary and said to him: "Go to the Right Army Commander's Office and call Li Chengliang to the palace to wait."

No matter what the palace decides, it probably cannot bypass the cabinet.

In the current situation, the two empress dowagers must also prepare to launch military operations in the southwest according to the cabinet's discussion to protect the country passed down by their ancestors.

On the way to Ciqing Palace, Wei Guangde whispered to Zhang Juzheng: "Uncle, the Ministry of Revenue must also be informed. The money and grain of the four southwestern provinces will be sealed on the spot, and Huguang and Guangdong will also be stored there first.

If there is a war, money and grain support is inevitable, and transportation back and forth is also troublesome."

"The Ministry of Works has already started minting coins. Do you want the Ministry of Revenue to allocate a batch of silver coins?"

Zhang Juzheng knew that Wei Guangde was considering the military pay needed to mobilize the army. When the Ming Dynasty dispatched the garrison soldiers, it was customary to allocate a sum of silver to the garrison to mobilize them.

If the silver is not in place, the soldiers may not be willing to leave.

As for the so-called military order, it is actually just that.

In the past few years, the court's energy was either in the north or in the southeast, and there was little attention to the southwest.

Although there were often local chieftains in the southwest, they were mostly transferred from the four provinces, and some rewards were also in arrears, and they were all allocated after the grain taxes in the four provinces were collected.

At most, the money and grain from Huguang were transferred there to make up for the shortage.

Zhang Juzheng nodded. This war was of great importance, and there must be no trouble because of money and grain.

If the soldiers mutinied before the war because they were not full and could not get their pay, it would be a great shame.

He proposed to transfer a batch of newly minted silver coins from the Ministry of Works. First, he was kind and reserved a batch of money and grain in the southwest in advance. Second, he introduced silver coins to the southwest. What better way to promote it than letting a group of soldiers spend it?

From the issuance of the imperial decree for the new silver coins to the transmission to the southwest, it is possible that the silver coins minted by the imperial court will appear among the people in the normal process.

It takes a process for the people to accept it from the merchants, but no merchant dares to refuse the soldiers' money.

It can be said that since the imperial court has decided to do it, Zhang Juzheng has to work hard to promote the official silver coins to all provinces in the country as soon as possible.

"Okay, Li Chengliang will go to the southwest, let him take 100,000 taels of silver."

Although Baoyuan Bureau can start minting silver coins from today, it will definitely take time.

Especially at the beginning of minting, it is inevitable to encounter various problems that affect the minting speed.

It will take some time, and the minting speed can be raised after everything is sorted out.

But in the face of such military and national events, it actually doesn't make much difference whether it is early or late.

But the news from the capital to Yunnan, even if it is delivered by Jinyiwei's express delivery, it will take half a month.

Then Yunnan has to send a letter to the three xuans and six wei, at least another three months have passed, and when there is a reply, it will be almost half a year.

Therefore, Li Chengliang had enough time to wait for the Ministry of Works to mint hundreds of thousands of taels of silver coins before setting off.

Soon the four of them arrived outside the gate of Ciqing Palace and expressed to the eunuchs outside that they wanted to go in to see the empress dowager.

"Please wait a moment, my lords. I will go in and report immediately."

The cabinet ministers and the commander of the Jinyiwei came together. The eunuchs did not dare to neglect them and hurriedly trotted into the Ciqing Palace to report.

"How do you Jinyiwei deliver messages? As far as I know, whether it is an express delivery shop or a post horse, it takes at least 20 days to transmit the message between Yunnan and the capital."

While waiting, Wei Guangde asked Liu Shouyou curiously.

"Wei Ge Lao, the memorials submitted by the local governments to the court, even if they are urgent documents, are generally required to travel only 400 miles a day, unless there is a war, then the letter will be required to be delivered at 600 miles.

And the delivery of the parcels of my Jinyiwei is carried out according to the requirements of the war, so it is much faster than ordinary documents."

Liu Shouyou had to explain.

Civil officials didn't know much about the operation of the Jinyiwei. Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde and others naturally didn't expect that the daily official documents of the Jinyiwei were delivered at a speed of 600 miles, and they thought they had mastered some quick delivery method.

Since he knew that the difference was caused by different delivery levels, Wei Guangde naturally lost interest in asking more.

Wei Guangde just whispered to Zhang Juzheng: "If there is a war in Yunnan, the war report documents will probably have to be delivered to the capital at a speed of 600 miles, so that the capital can make some response."

"If so, will the post station be under too much pressure?"

Zhang Juzheng frowned and said.

"should."

Before Wei Guangde finished speaking, he saw that the chamberlain who had gone in to report had returned, bowed in front of them and said: "My lords, the Queen Mother invites you to come in."

Afterwards, he led Zhang Juzheng and others into Ciqing Palace.

Although it was a bit strange for the cabinet ministers and the commander of the Imperial Guard to come together to see them, Empress Dowager Chen immediately summoned Empress Dowager Li, who was still taking the exam for the junior emperor, and the three of them came to the main hall to receive them.

Several people came in to deliver the Jinyiwei information brought by Liu Shouyou, and Wei Guangde briefly introduced the situation in the southwest.

Empress Dowager Chen began to look through the Jinyiwei documents and saw that the Toungoo Dynasty imitated the Ming Dynasty's system of gold-lettered red cards and letters, and also gave "treasure belts and Burmese Duos" to other Xuanwei chieftains in the Yunnan border areas as a superior. His eyebrows were raised.

In fact, when she first heard Wei Guangde's introduction, she was quite disapproving.

After all, it was a major event involving war and death, and Queen Mother Chen instinctively wanted to avoid it.

It's nothing more than pretending to be deaf and mute and ignoring it.

However, Queen Mother Chen couldn't accept it when she saw that King Mang Yinglong of the Toungoo Dynasty actually gave tokens to other chieftains and asked them to contact him exactly as they would treat the Ming Emperor.

The imperial court recognized the status of the border chieftains and their right to rule the land, but it could not accept them becoming kings and hegemons and using the same rituals as the emperor.

"Since Mang Yinglong is unreasonable, what does the cabinet think?"

After reading the document, Queen Mother Chen handed it to Queen Mother Li next to her, and then asked the cabinet for its opinion.

In fact, when Wei Guangde introduced the situation, Queen Mother Li on the side was already very anxious. After all, the throne belongs to her son. If Southwest really loses its power, who does it belong to?

So after taking the document and hearing Queen Mother Chen's question, she didn't have time to look at the document in her hand. Her eyes were already fixed on Wei Guangde, waiting for the answer.

"Actually, before seeing the Jinyiwei information, I and others had already made guesses about the situation of the Xuanwei Department in the border areas based on the documents from the southwest obtained from the Ministry of War."

Wei Guangde didn't hide anything. He had actually revealed some of it to them at the beginning, so he directly told them their plans.

"The purpose of leaving Li Chengliang in the capital was to prepare for the use of troops in the southwest. The DPRK cannot be without generals who are accustomed to fighting.

Therefore, I believe that since the Toungoo dynasty is resorting to militarism and wantonly bullying its neighbors, the court cannot sit idly by and ignore it.

First, the imperial court sent a message to the governor of Yunnan, asking him to find out the true situation in Myanmar and other places as soon as possible and let everyone report it.

If Mang Yinglong really did such a terrible thing, he should be bound to the governor of Yunnan and punished, and the imperial court could restore the local practice of ruling the local area with three declarations and six comforts established at the beginning of the country.

If Mang Yinglong resists the imperial order, Li Chengliang, the left governor of the right army governor's mansion, should lead the southwestern army to put down Mang Yinglong's rebellion. "

Wei Guangde directly characterized the expansion of the Toungoo dynasty as a rebellion, and wantonly attacked the surrounding Xuanwei Division, which was conferred by the Ming Dynasty. This was undoubtedly a rebellion.

"Let Li Chengliang go to the southwest."

Empress Dowager Chen just repeated in a low voice, and then looked at Zhang Juzheng, "Does the Chief Assistant think the same way?"

"When I return to the Queen Mother, I have the same opinion as Mr. Wei Ge.

Now that Mang Yinglong has been attacking for many years, he has occupied many surrounding lands, and his strength has become very strong. The imperial court summoned him to Kunming, fearing that he would not be captured without restraint.

I think that for the sake of the peace of the people in the southwest, the imperial court should work hard and try not to use weapons.

However, as for Mang Yinglong, he does not seem to be a person who understands etiquette, otherwise he would not have continuously sent troops to Mubang, Cheche and other Weisi, and even sent troops to Siam twice until he broke through the opponent's royal city and captured the Siamese king.

As far as we know now, the dignity of the imperial court has disappeared in the southwest. Now that Mang Yinglong is still supervising troops to attack the Lao Xuanwei Division, the imperial court should decisively stop it and re-establish the imperial authority.

Let all the tribes in the southwest call off their troops and make a truce, and bathe in the grace of our Emperor. "

Zhang Juzheng's attitude, in the past, he might have ignored things outside Yunnan. However, under the influence of Wei Guangde, especially after losing two thousand miles of land, he, the chief minister of the cabinet, could not sit idly by. of.

Now that Wei Guangde has made preparations, he should act according to Wei Guangde's plan, and the left and right will not affect him.

Anyway, it was Wei Guangde who took the lead in this matter, and he was also the one who impeached the court officials for making mistakes.

When Queen Mother Chen turned her eyes to Lu Tiaoyang, Lu Tiaoyang also nodded in approval.

“Now that the cabinet has decided to intervene in the situation in the southwest, it should be fully prepared.

Li Chengliang asked him to go to the southwest capital as soon as possible to count the troops and conduct training to prepare for everything. "

In fact, Queen Mother Chen knew that this battle was inevitable after seeing the Toungoo Dynasty attacking cities and plundering territory everywhere.

Now that the cabinet has a plan, let the cabinet do it.

For more than a hundred years, the government has been run by the cabinet. Whether it is domestic affairs or foreign wars, she does not have to worry about it.

But turning around, Queen Mother Chen began to scold Liu Shouyou.

"The palace has handed over the command of the Jin Yiwei to you. What are the responsibilities of the Jin Yiwei? You actually had no idea about the situation on the border before."

In fact, before this, the harem had absolutely no way to interfere with the powers of the cabinet and the royal guards, but now the situation was different. The emperor was young, so they were given the opportunity to intervene.

However, this intervention exposed the problems of the Jinyiwei. They may have good monitoring of the entire capital, and may have considerable monitoring capabilities for the thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, but they obviously lack monitoring of the border areas.

Liu Shouyou could only bow his head and admit the reprimand of Empress Dowager Chen.

Obviously, Empress Dowager Chen was more or less influenced by the people, thinking that the Jinyiwei was an omnipotent organization responsible for spying on the military and political intelligence of the whole country and helping the emperor understand the work of local military and political officials.

In fact, although the Jinyiwei had a prominent reputation, its powers were not what she thought.

In any case, the Jinyiwei was actually responsible for protecting the emperor, holding the imperial guards, ceremonial guards, and summoning officials in front of the emperor.

Although the Jinyiwei secretly monitored hundreds of officials, most of them were officials in the capital.

The monitoring of local areas was mainly based on the prefectures where the guards were set up, and it was impossible to spread the intelligence network across the country.

Because the Jinyiwei was directly under the emperor, they were sent to perform spy missions, but their goal was mostly to send people to the northern Mongolian grasslands. Most emperors of the Ming Dynasty regarded the northern forces as a major threat.

Although the Jinyiwei participated in the wars to pacify Yunnan, Annan and other places in the early Ming Dynasty, they mostly acted secretly under the orders of the emperor.

In the Korean War in the middle of the Wanli period, the Jinyiwei successfully completed the spy mission against Japan, which was also specially ordered by Emperor Wanli.

It can be said that all the external actions of the Jinyiwei, an intelligence agency, were not routine, but were ordered.

If Wei Guangde had not found him before and reported to the palace, Liu Shouyou would not have dared to agree to Wei Guangde's request to send people abroad to inquire about the news.

After leaving the Ciqing Palace and returning to the cabinet, he was informed by the clerk when he entered the gate that Li Chengliang, the left governor of the Right Army Governor's Office, had arrived and was waiting.

"Good loan, you can go to see Li Chengliang. I will go back to draft the document to Yunnan."

Zhang Juzheng said.

Today, there are both coinage and the situation in the southwest, which has delayed a lot of time. There are still a lot of memorials waiting for them to deal with in the duty room. There is really no need to go to see Li Chengliang together.

In fact, this is also a typical example of civil officials looking down on military generals.

Speaking of which, Li Chengliang is the left general of the Right Army General Office, a first-rank military position in the court, and whether it is Zhang Juzheng or Wei Guangde, their ranks are actually the same as Li Chengliang.

But the cabinet can still order the general to come and go, which is an obvious difference between civil and military.

If it is according to the rules, in fact, when Li Chengliang arrived here, the three cabinet ministers should go to see him, at least show up.

But Zhang Juzheng and Lu Diaoyang did not plan to see him, after all, it was not related.

Wei Guangde nodded and did not refuse, because he was the one who caused the matter.

"Go and ask General Li to come to my duty room to talk."

Wei Guangde just gave an order to the secretary and went straight back to his duty room.

Soon, Lu Bu came in and reported, "Master, Li Chengliang, the governor, has arrived."

"Please ask him to come in."

Wei Guangde was sitting behind his desk at this time, taking time to read a memorial and preparing to draft it.

When Li Chengliang entered the room, Wei Guangde said without raising his head, "Sit down first, Lu Bu, serve tea."