Chapter 351: Minister of Rites (IX)
"There are too few people outside the Great Wall." Huo Chong said to Qian Qing.
Qian Qing was puzzled, "What did you say, sir?"
"There are too few people outside the Great Wall." Huo Chong repeated.
Hearing the same words twice, Qian Qing was stunned. He frowned slightly and thought about it. Huo Chong did not disturb his apprentice's idle thoughts here, and took the official document to review. In the past, Huo Chong needed to review the official documents of the Chinese court, and now there were various documents from the Ministry of Rites.
Although the workload has increased, Huo Chong feels that his hard work will eventually come to an end. As long as the Ministry of Rites truly grows up, the young people will be able to take on their responsibilities.
When Huo Chong was approving the Ministry of Finance's financial summary for this year and the budget for next year, he felt the results of the young people's growth. At least this group of people could calculate a budget plan based on the numbers.
There is no advanced mathematics in it, it's basically addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Even so, the progress of young people is reflected in it after all... Huo Chong sighed in his heart. If these young people realize the hard work and are willing to ask Huo Chong for advice, they will definitely make greater progress.
Qian Qing's voice interrupted Huo Chong's thoughts, "Sir, are you planning to take this opportunity to attack outside the Great Wall? Are you planning to attack across the sea?"
"Yeah. I originally thought that the Qing Dynasty would take the initiative to attack Shengjing in Hongzhou. Although Shengjing has few people, it is unrealistic to take the initiative to attack and destroy Xi'an. But it is not without reason. Now the two sides are not fighting, I think we can't wait any longer, so we might as well take action."
Qian Qing frowned slightly, and was not happy about the war. Huo Chong admired Qian Qing's reaction. War was too cruel, and people who liked war were too twisted.
"Sir, are you not going to attack the south first?"
"Fight south or north, fight south or fight north, you choose one. If you want to do both, I can stagger the time."
Hearing Huo Chong's thoughtful words, Qian Qing shook his head, "I don't understand why the gentleman is so anxious."
Huo Chong explained the reason to his apprentice frankly as usual, "The reason is very simple. There are too many people in Shandong, and we need to emigrate. The only place we can go now is the north of the Great Wall."
On the map, although Bohai is called a sea, it is actually an almost closed bay. This bay has an entrance that is very narrow compared to the bay itself. Even at such a narrow entrance, there are some islands. It is very suitable for crossing the sea.
Qian Qing had seen the map many times before and was familiar with this kind of terrain. So Qian Qing asked in confusion : "Why didn't you do it before? Was it because you didn't have enough troops?"
"Enter the outside of the pass now...Oh, wait a moment." After Huo Chong finished speaking, he picked up the pen and quickly wrote a line of words.
Qian Qing looked at it and was stunned. Huo Chong wrote: "The Historical Research Institute summarized the contents of the Ming Dynasty's operations north of Yinshan Mountain. The focus should be on refuting the lie that the Manchus originated in Liaodong. The ancestors of the Manchus may have come from Tungus, but these Tungus savages later survived in Liaodong as slaves of Li Chengliang. Liaodong has no necessary connection with the Manchus.
After seeing Huo Chong write this, Qian Qing was even more puzzled, "Why do you care about this, sir?"
Huo Chong put down his pen and answered readily, "Because cultural competition is very important, very important. The Qing Dynasty created a lie, and this lie must be exposed. Once this lie is exposed, we can cleanse ourselves of nonsense."
Seeing that his apprentice didn't understand, Huo Chong didn't want to give him a history lesson at this time. "Qing'er, I will give a lecture on this matter at the Ministry of Rites. After all, I'm not specialized in this, and I'm afraid that I might say something wrong."
Qian Qing did not ask any more questions and returned to the topic of war, "Why did the Qing Dynasty attack Shengjing?"
Huo Chong felt that he had to give Qian Qing a homework assignment, "Well, you have to learn to use the organization to figure out why. Whether it's the bureaucratic system or the Ministry of Rites system, they are all very good work teams."
Qian Qing felt that Huo Chong's tone was like the one he gave her when he gave her homework more than a decade ago, so she understood that Huo Chong wanted Qian Qing to find the answer herself. Since Huo Chong thought so, Qian Qing did not refuse. In the past, when Qian Qing wanted to be lazy, Huo Chong would not simply indulge her.
After returning to the headquarters, Qian Qing first called the people from the Military History Bureau and asked them about Liaoyang.
When the military history department heard the word Liaoyang, they were confused for a moment. They looked at each other. After a long while, they hesitantly asked, "Commander, where is Liaoyang?"
"Yes. It's a place name outside the Great Wall."
The young guys still didn't understand, so they asked, "Where is Liaoyang outside the Great Wall?"
Qian Qing replied unhappily: "I asked you to come here because I want you to answer me, not for me to answer you. Since you don't know, then go look it up in the book."
Seeing Qian Qing so unhappy, the people from the Military History Bureau hurried back to work.
Two days later, this group of people came to see Qian Qing with sad faces, "Commander, the information is not enough. We only found out a little bit about Liaoyang."
"Tell me about it." Qian Qing almost forgot about Liaoyang. In the past few days, Qian Qing has been identifying another group of officers who are obviously not up to par based on the progress of the military academy. He is thinking about how to persuade them to withdraw voluntarily. He wants to change his mind now.
The Military History Bureau quickly brought out the research results. Liaoyang is one of the oldest cities and a famous cultural city with a history of more than 2,300 years.
As early as the Warring States Period, it was the seat of Liaodong County of Yan State, and Qin followed the Yan system. In the early Han Dynasty, Liaoyang was the capital of Liaodong State, and the Liaodong County was still set up here. During the Gongsun period, Xiangping was the seat of Pingzhou and Liaodong County. In the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, Xiangping once again became the capital of Liaodong State, and later changed to Pingzhou. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liaoyang was successively occupied by local ethnic regimes such as the Former Yan, the Former Qin, the Later Yan, and Goguryeo. In the Tang Dynasty, Liaoyang was the seat of Liaocheng Prefecture and once became the seat of Andong Protectorate. During the Liao and Jin Dynasties, Tokyo Liaoyang Prefecture was established. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was the seat of Liaoyang Province. The Ming Dynasty established the Liaodong Commandery to govern the entire Liaoning Province. In the early Qing Dynasty, the capital was built in Liaoyang, and Liaoyang County of Liaoyang Prefecture was later established, and then Liaoyang County was changed to Liaoyang Prefecture.
Qian Qing suddenly understood after listening to the brief report from the Military History Bureau. The Liaodong Commandery, just by hearing the name, is a semi-military organization. It is a bit like a military town. Qian Qing's understanding of the Liaodong region is roughly the same.
However, the Military History Bureau actually proposed the Yan State 2,300 years ago. Qian Qing had certainly heard of Yan State, one of the Seven Kingdoms of the Warring States Period. This history made Qian Qing's understanding of Liaodong completely different.
Yan was a fiefdom of the Ji clan, and had existed at least since the early Zhou Dynasty. So the Manchus' claim that Manchuria belonged to them was a complete lie.
Huo Chong suddenly asked Qian Qing to do this, and Qian Qing already understood the reason. The Chinese court was inherited from the Qin and Han dynasties, at least politically. So the old lands of the Qin, Han, Tang and Song dynasties were of course the old lands of China.
If the Manchus claimed that the old Yan was their own land, the Chinese court would not admit it. The land conquered by the Chinese dynasty was of course the Chinese dynasty's, and the ancestral land worshipped by the Chinese dynasty also belonged to the Chinese dynasty.
This should be what Huo Chong meant.
After figuring this out, Qian Qing asked the Military History Bureau to continue the work and sent someone to call a few people over.
The few people who came seemed to have been injured, but their injuries have almost healed, so it was not very noticeable when they were walking.
But Qian Qing could see that he had completed these trainings long before these people had such detailed close combat trainings, and knew where the difficulties of these trainings lay.
These people knew what was going on, and when they saw Qian Qing, they said nothing. Qian Qing didn't say anything either, and the two of them just stared at each other. After a while, these people couldn't stand the pressure anymore, and the leader asked, "Sister, we don't want to leave."
Qian Qing's attitude was much firmer than these people. "I'm not trying to drive you away. I just don't want you to get hurt and suffer. We followed the teacher in the uprising to live a good life. We don't have to be a high-ranking officer to live a good life. After we recover, we can still live a good life. Why do we have to save face and suffer?"
Several people saw Qian Qing's determination, and the leader shouted anxiously: "We are not afraid of death."
Qian Qing did not scold them, nor did he laugh at them. Nodding vigorously, Qian Qing said: "I know you are not afraid of death. After so many years, of course I know."
Several people were stunned. They knew before coming that Qian Qing wanted them to retire, so they were determined not to retire. They even thought Qian Qing wanted to mock and attack them. But seeing Qian Qing's courage to admit it so readily, and admit it from the heart, was unexpected. They didn't know .
Qian Qing continued, "I remember you all have children. The master talked about educating children before. He said that children are also human beings. The master looks at us like children, he treats us as human beings. Do you think the master wants to see us die?"
Several people were getting anxious, "Big sister, why do you think we are so useless?"
"It's not that you are useless. You have become regiment commanders, how can you be useless? Now the troops have to fight in close combat, quick combat, and mobile warfare. The Qing Dynasty is also learning from us. If we were still firing guns like before, I wouldn't say this. But in the future, we will not only fire guns, but also charge with bayonets and fight in close combat and quick combat. You may not survive by then. I don't want you to die. I also care about your reputation. I don't want you to lose too many people when commanding a battle and ruin your reputation."
"Big sister still looks down on us!" Several people felt that their opinion of Qian Qing was correct, "Why do so many people die when we fight?"
"Because the terrain is different! Because the way of fighting is different! Since you think you are useful. Very good, let's talk about the terrain together. Come here." Qian Qing said, and stood up and walked to the side of the square table. He asked the guard to spread a sand table on it.
There is a pusher fixed on the sand table. After pushing it back and forth twice, the fine sand becomes very smooth.
Qian Qing took a wooden pen and described the areas controlled by the Huaxia court while drawing. There are several large plains in China, and the Huaxia court has occupied the Huanghuai Plain and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions connected to the Huanghuai Plain.
These areas are either large plains or relatively flat hilly areas. After drawing and talking, Qian Qing looked at these people and saw that they looked a little confused. It was obvious that they had not learned enough geographical knowledge. Qian Qing continued to ask: "Then you can tell me, if we continue to use the current tactics, which areas around are suitable for doing so?"
Several people were confused. As everyone knows, Huo Chong is very familiar with Chinese geography, and no one in the army can compare to him. The only person who is second to Huo Chong is Huo Chong's eldest disciple, the eldest sister of the generals, Qian Qing.
Now that Qian Qing had raised the question, they knew they couldn't fool him. Huo Chong didn't tolerate any sand in his eyes, but he didn't like violence against fools. Qian Qing didn't tolerate any sand in his eyes either, but he wasn't as tolerant as Huo Chong. If someone made up something, Qian Qing would really beat him up. At least a dozen years ago, Qian Qing had made many people suffer. After that, everyone was no longer a child. Although Qian Qing didn't often do it himself, he still taught them a lesson.
Since there was no way to escape this scrutiny, someone finally picked up another wooden pen and prepared to add his own opinions to the figure drawn by Qian Qing.
However, this light pen felt like it weighed a hundred or a thousand pounds, and I couldn't continue painting. Many seemingly plausible knowledge points rolled around in my mind, but they couldn't turn into real ideas.
But this was not a solution. Someone laughed dryly, pointed at the figure Qian Qing had drawn with a wooden pen and said, "Sister, the positions of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River are not drawn correctly."
If it was something unimportant, Qian Qing wouldn't mind if the group of people just joked around and got away with it. But this time, this matter couldn't be joked about. She said with a straight face, "Don't interrupt. What do you want to say?"
"Big sister, if it's the place you drew, we have been there too. We know exactly where to fight, how to march, how to set up an ambush, and how to fight. If you don't believe me, we can do a sand table simulation right now. If we can't do it, we will go there on our own without you telling us."
"Haha." Qian Qing laughed bitterly. "Brothers, these places are our own territories. Are you fighting here against our own people?"
Seeing Qian Qing say this, several people quickly put down their pens and said, "Sister, we really want to stay in the army. You ask us to go home, but we don't want to go home."
"If you don't want to go home, that's fine. But you can't go to the front line to fight anymore. I still say that when you are on the front line, you have to lead the charge. Charging doesn't mean you and everyone else will die together. It means fighting quickly in close combat at the right time to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop. It will allow us to use less ammunition, end the battle in a shorter time, and result in fewer deaths. This doesn't mean you have to fight to the death and then have more deaths."
Qian Qing explained it so clearly that no one dared to say anything. The military academy had indeed been training combat capabilities in this area these days. They were indeed very uncomfortable with the new tactical requirements.
Even without Qian Qing saying this, the few people themselves knew that they were not suitable for these things, at least their performance was obviously not excellent. It was because of this feeling that they felt particularly uneasy. The reason why everyone was so well-organized before was that they relied on mastering things that others could not do, that is, lining up to fire guns and cannons. When the Qing army on the opposite plain collapsed, they began to pursue.
In the current training, the Qing army on the other side is more powerful, or at least it is set to be more powerful. Traditional tactics are somewhat useless. This is difficult for everyone.
But they still didn't want to leave, and they were in a stalemate when a guard came to ask Qian Qing to go to Huo Chong. Qian Qing had to temporarily stop what was going on here.
When they got to Huo Chong's place, Huo Chong was gone. His secretary told Qian Qing to receive a few people. When these people came in, Qian Qing was stunned. The people opposite were not strange in themselves, they were normal human appearances. Qian Qing even felt familiar with them.
The bald head and the rat tail on the back of the head were very familiar. Qian Qing had also seen many of these people's cotton coats on the battlefield. All the officials of the Qing Dynasty wore them.
So what Qian Qing couldn’t understand was why the Qing officials would come here.
As the two sides talked, Qian Qing laughed out of anger: "Hahaha! You are here to persuade us to surrender? You are so brave."
The Manchu official did not find this funny and said with a straight face, "My dear girl, Mr. Huo is an official appointed by the imperial court. What is wrong with submitting to the imperial court?"
Qian Qing laughed and said, "Haha, you are Manchus, you are really brave."
"The Manchus were originally the imperial court..."
"Bullshit! You Tungus savages have the nerve to call yourself the imperial court." Qian Qing couldn't help but curse.
Without waiting for these guys to finish their nonsense, Qian Qing had already brought up the past history and talked about it.
During the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, the Northeast also revolted against the rule of the Yuan Dynasty under the leadership of local residents, but was eventually suppressed by the Yuan government. However, due to the decline of the central prestige of the Yuan Dynasty government, it could no longer restrain these local tyrants. Therefore, although the Yuan Dynasty still nominally occupied Liaodong, it had actually been divided up by various tyrants.
This group of people attacked each other in Liaodong and fought for territory, completely disregarding the life and death of the Yuan Dynasty. While the Yuan Dynasty was engaged in internal strife, the Ming regime in the south was at its peak. It eliminated all the heroes in Huguang and Jiangnan regions, and prepared to start a vigorous Northern Expedition to completely unify China.
As the Ming Dynasty won the Northern Expedition, the old officials of the Yuan Dynasty began to waver, and gradually internal strife broke out, splitting into two factions: those who resisted the Ming Dynasty and those who surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. In the fourth year of Hongwu, Liu Yi, the governor of Liaoyang Province of the Yuan Dynasty, led his people to surrender to the Ming Dynasty.
After Liu Yi's death, the Ming Dynasty sent Wu Li, Zhang Liangzuo and Fang Hao as deputy commanders of Liaodong Guard. In the same year, the Ming Dynasty sent generals Ma Yun (not your father) and Ye Wang to Liaodong, and appointed Ma Yun and Ye Wang as commanders of Dingliao Guard. In the eighth year of Hongwu, the Dingliao Guard Command was changed to Liaodong Command.
But this was not the end, because there was still a Yuan general named Nahachu in Liaodong who was always eyeing an invasion of the Ming Dynasty. After stabilizing the northern border, in order to cut off the left and right arms of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, in the 20th year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty sent General Feng Sheng to lead 200,000 troops to attack Nahachu. Nahachu was defeated and surrendered. From then on, the entire Liaodong was basically brought under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty.
In order to prevent the remnant forces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty in Liaodong and the local Jurchens from uniting to resist the Ming Dynasty, in the 28th year of Hongwu, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang once again sent the commander-in-chief Zhou Xing out of Kaiyuan to attack the Jurchen chief Youyangha in the Hulan River Basin, who was close to the remnant forces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty. The three armies pursued Youyangha to the ancient city of Futami in the Songhua River Basin today. Although Youyangha eventually escaped, the army's prestige traveled thousands of miles and frightened many local tribes, so Jurchen tribes from far and near came to surrender.
