Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 482: Man Gui Arrives in the Western Regions
Also in July of the same year, when Yiprahin held a grand ceremony to welcome Yuan Keli and others, the Beijing city of the Ming Dynasty also held a grand ceremony to celebrate Man Gui's triumphant return from the Western Regions.
"Your Majesty, I, Man Gui, pay my respects to you. Fortunately, I have fulfilled your mission. Today, the Western Regions are peaceful again!"
"Hahaha, Marshal Man, please stand up. Marshal Man's contribution today is no less than that of Marquis Bowang and Ban Dingyuan!"
"The Western Regions Reopen"! This is the front page headline of the Yanjing Daily today. Thanks to its convenient location, the Chang'an Daily in Xi'an finally changed the embarrassing situation of always copying the news of the Yanjing Daily a few days ago, and published the exciting article "The Western Regions Reopen" half a month ago.
Man Gui's army naturally promoted the story along the way. In June of that year, after the Western Regions Expeditionary Force entered the northern Zhili region, the drama "Marshal Cao Fenglangjuxu", which had just been staged in the capital and had not yet set off a viewing craze, quickly turned from a favorite of the northern drama industry to an outcast. The artists suddenly discovered that when they performed Marshal Cao fighting the Mongols on stage, there would always be many audiences shouting in the audience: We don't want to watch this anymore, we want to watch Marshal Man defeat Ban Dingyuan!
So the various Jianghu artists in the capital hurriedly began to collect scripts, although the scripts that were rushed out in a hurry were not worth mentioning in the eyes of the scholars of the Ming Dynasty: in the drama, the enemies of the Manchus were all dressed as Mongolians. But in any case, opening up the Western Regions has been a place that countless Han men have been longing for since Zhang Qian. And unlike Mongolia, an old rival that has been entangled for more than 200 years, the people have been watching the drama of "Killing the Tartars" for many years. The Western Regions, after being lost in the late Tang Dynasty, have been out of the jurisdiction of the central government for nearly a thousand years. Now that it has been taken back again, the national sentiment contained in it is even fuller. Therefore, although the drama of "Manchus Opening the Western Regions Again" was rushed out and shoddy, it was full of loopholes, but the people still bought it and applauded.
It was also because of this that when Man Gui's army arrived at the outskirts of Beijing yesterday, a large number of people came to comfort the troops spontaneously. Today, when he led the elite and top-ranked soldiers into the city for a parade, the emotions of the people in the capital were completely ignited. Along the way, countless silver and copper coins fell from the buildings along the street like rain, injuring several soldiers and scaring many horses, almost causing trouble.
Such mistakes, in Zhu Youdong's opinion, well, must be improved in the future. But this also shows that the people love the soldiers who fight for the country, right? So, this is still worth being happy about.
After the military parade and the prisoner presentation ceremony, Zhu Youdong naturally convened a grand court meeting and allowed the soldiers of the Western Expedition Army to enjoy the same treatment as Cao Wenzhao and others who had returned to the capital: boasting about their attacks in front of all the civil and military officials. This was a real move to enhance the status of military men.
"Your Majesty, I really don't mean to flatter you." Man Gui was a straightforward simpleton after all. He could still pretend to be strict and polite in public, but soon revealed his true colors when he arrived at the Huangji Palace: "The first meritorious service in this expedition to the Western Regions should go to the Prince Consort. Well, he can't be called the Prince Consort since they haven't married yet. In short, the first meritorious service in this expedition to the Western Regions go to Lu Jiandou, a third-year student of the Royal Military Academy and the trainee staff officer of this expeditionary army!"
As soon as he shouted in such a loud voice, a buzz of people suddenly sounded in the hall: What? Who is this Lu Jiandou? He is just a student, but he is already a candidate for the position of the imperial consort? Which princess of Shang? Judging from Lu Jiandou's age, he must be Princess Huijuan, right?
Watching Man Gui speaking nonsense in the palace, Zhu Youdong felt angry: This reckless man! If it were another emperor, he would have the palace guards kill you on the spot for speaking like this - you are destroying the reputation of the royal princess!
That is to say, I am a time traveler, and you are my beloved general... Well, anyway, I will endure it!
"Your Majesty, in this Western Expedition, I am only responsible for fighting. I don't know how to do logistics, negotiate with local forces, or appease local people, and I don't care. It was this Lu Jiandou who proposed to me the strategy of 'attacking cities is secondary, controlling water is primary' in terms of fighting, and 'appeasement first, respecting beliefs' in dealing with local people. In this way, the journey was smooth. During the march, our army almost fell into the trap of the Yarkand people several times, but thanks to Jiandou's strategy, we successfully avoided it... In short, I am just a simple fighter. If it weren't for Jiandou's military counselor, I am afraid that this army of more than 80,000 would have dispersed while marching.
In addition, I think the second merit of this expedition should go to Ding Qijun, the Junior Minister of the Imperial Academy. During this Western Expedition, there were many ethnic groups along the way, including Hui, Mongolian, Uyghur, Kazakh, and Ke, who believed in many religions, such as Buddhism and Xingyue. Qijun was able to communicate smoothly with believers of various ethnic groups and various religions along the way, and gained their trust and support. Therefore, I had no worries along the way.
I think the third meritorious service of this expedition should go to Doctor Wu Zhiwang of the Imperial Hospital. This expedition was a 6,000-mile round trip, and many soldiers suffered from acclimatization. Thanks to Doctor Wu and many military doctors who worked hard, our 88,000-man army suffered more than 7,000 casualties in battle, and only more than 800 died of illness. Without Doctor Wu and many military doctors, it is estimated that at least 10,000 soldiers would have fallen from the epidemic alone...
I think the fourth merit should be counted as..."
If, at the beginning, the military leaders attending the meeting were full of concerns about Man Gui, a loudmouth, fearing that this rough man would bring shame to their side, and the civil officials attending the meeting were watching Marshal Man's performance with a sense of embarrassment, then by this time, everyone had basically woken up.
This guy! He is so smart! You gave the credit to your subordinates, and the subordinates' rewards were high, so how could your reward be less? Not to mention, this guy took care of all aspects of the royal family, civil officials, and imperial doctors.
This guy is not a rough guy at all, he is clearly a smart guy!
Even Zhu Youdong, who was slightly annoyed at the disclosure of his sister's privacy, smiled and listened: the marriage of princesses in the Ming Dynasty was a long-standing problem, although Zhu Youdong was confident that he could strongly promote the rule that the prince consort could also enjoy a powerful official position. However, now that this man has made a fuss in such an occasion, wouldn't it be better to stir up public opinion first?
As for Ding Qijun, he is from Quanzhou, Fujian: Quanzhou is one of the settlements of the Hui people in the south, and Ding Qijun is a Hui. After passing the imperial examination in the 20th year of Wanli, he has been in the political and legal system for nearly 30 years in the officialdom. He is a person Yuan Keli brought with him. For this expedition to the Western Regions , Yuan Keli solemnly recommended this person to Zhu Youdong: a Hui, he believes in the Xingyue religion, but he was born and grew up in a Han settlement. It can be said that except for his faith, he has been completely sinicized. Such a person was originally the designated civil chief after the Western Regions were taken back. This time he followed Man Gui all the way and performed extremely well. After the establishment of the Western Regions Province, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be appointed as the governor.
The only problem is that he is not good at socializing and has average popularity. So, after decades of being a Jinshi, he ended up working his way up from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Rites. If he were to suddenly be assigned a semi-idle position like the Minister of the Ministry of Rites to a super-large province like the Western Regions, it might cause dissatisfaction among some court officials. Again, Zhu Youdong is not a saint, and neither are his officials. Although his officials basically maintained unity and cooperation in front of him, they all had their own factions in private. If they really wanted to be completely united, Zhu Youdong would have trouble sleeping.
In short, if Yuan Keli's people took a province, the leaders of other factions would definitely feel uncomfortable. But after Man Gui praised Ding Qijun in front of all the civil and military officials in the hall, this resistance seemed to disappear.
So, this guy is not rude at all, he is quite smart.
Therefore, the emperor, in a good mood, was not stingy in rewarding. After Man Gui finished praising his achievements in the hall that day, he instructed the cabinet and the Imperial Household Department to quickly sort out the rewards.
The Western Regions were returned to the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial court decided to establish a province here, which was the eighteenth province of the Ming Dynasty. The name of the province was Xinjiang.
Ding Qijun, Shaoqing of Taichang Temple, made great contributions in this Western Expedition and was appointed as the first Governor of Xinjiang.
The core Fourth Town of this expeditionary force was awarded an exclusive title: Hussars.
Lu Xiangsheng, the trainee staff officer of the expedition, made many military plans along the way, and the court allowed him to marry the eldest princess Zhu Huijuan. His various contributions on the expedition were accumulated to one great merit, and he was awarded the rank of lieutenant.
The commander-in-chief of the expeditionary army, Man Gui, was awarded the rank of general along with Cao Wenzhao, who had returned a few days ago .
