Chapter 207 206 Battlefield

"Ahem."

Weng Pu coughed violently, which made Wei Guangde frightened, as if he was about to cough out his lungs.

In fact, since yesterday, Wei Guangde felt that Weng Pu could not bear it anymore, and violent coughing sounds came from the carriage from time to time.

Thinking about it, the conditions for food and accommodation when traveling abroad are not good, and now the war is on again. I guess Weng Pu's side is much more pressure than Wei Guangde, and he has to worry about changes in the war situation and is worried that once Altan's troops break through the inner Great Wall again, they threaten the capital.

In fact, Weng Pu still had one concern that he did not say, that is, once Juyongguan was in trouble, the Tartars advanced to Changping, and the tombs of emperors after Yongle of the Ming Dynasty were buried nearby, and the significance was no less than that of Nanjing and Fengyang.

After a long time, Weng Pu finally recovered, took the tea handed over by Wei Guangde and took a sip.

"Sir, I'll find a doctor for you to see. You've been working hard these days."

Wei Guangde whispered to Weng Pu, but Weng Pu waved his hand, "I know my body, it's not a problem. Maybe it's because I'm in a hurry to rush to the road these days and I've been experiencing a cold."

Weng Pu didn't take it for a while. At his age, he usually stayed in the capital with a pampered life, so he would invite a doctor twice a year to see it. They were all minor illnesses, and it was better to take two doses of medicine.

"I'll find someone to see. The lord is now in charge of military affairs. The front-line army wants you to coordinate. If there is any mistake in the health of the adult during the war, the consequences will be unimaginable."

Wei Guangde said.

"You ask someone to come and have a look. You can rest early tonight. We will go to Juyongguan tomorrow."

Weng Pu was not moved by Wei Guangde's previous words, but he had to pay a lot of attention to the following words.

It should be just a minor problem now, but if it really delays time and develops a serious illness, if the two armies are fighting in full swing, it will be a situation where there will be no leader.

When Wei Guangde heard Weng Pu's words, he felt happy at first, but when he heard the following words, he felt cold.

I really meet a person who is not afraid of death. Are you really planning to go to the front line to fight the Tartars?

To be honest, Wei Guangde felt it didn't matter if he was patrolling the border, so he just went there and just took a look.

He is different from Weng Pu. Weng Pu is not a Hanlin, so he is the last one to be the Minister of the Shang Dynasty. He is a Hanlin, and he will have the opportunity to attack the cabinet ministers in the future.

I entered the cabinet with military affairs a long time ago, but I haven't come out for decades.

Wei Guangde had consulted information before and knew that the Ministry of War had entered the cabinet, there seemed to be only two people, and his reputation was not very good.

The first one is naturally Xu Youzhen, the Minister of War. He was later rewarded by Emperor Yingzong for his participation in the "Seizing the Sect" and was later rewarded with merits. Before that, Yu Qian made great efforts to fall into Taichung and took up the position of Minister of War.

There is also an official from the Ministry of War who is very close to the present, that is Zhang Cong. I won’t say much about how he got promoted.

Wei Guangde was a little worried at this moment that if he always followed Weng Pu to do military affairs, he would be transferred to a military civil servant by the people in the court, and there would be no hope of entering the cabinet by then.

Well, as civil servants, everyone has made joining the cabinet his goal.

Wei Guangde has come to this point, so he naturally hopes to have the opportunity to go there.

If he had not been able to enter the Hanlin Academy before, he would not have hoped for anything, but now it is different.

After the doctor in Changping City came here to see Weng Pu's health, he naturally had nothing to do. He was tired for a few days and prescribed two doses of medicine to let Weng Pu pay more attention to rest.

The next morning, shortly after Wei Guangde got up, he was urged by Weng Pu to set off.

In fact, the Great Wall Pass is completely different from most people’s impressions. These obstacles are often chosen in a slightly lower terrain among the mountains. A road is opened here to avoid the fatigue of climbing mountains and crossing ridges.

Standing on the Juyongguan city tower, Wei Guangde looked at the walls on both sides still winding along the mountain like a lying dragon. It seemed majestic, but in fact it felt like there was no use for birds.

Those mountains and ridges are very difficult for normal people to overcome, let alone the army.

People can leave, but horses are troublesome.

Yes, Wei Guangde felt that instead of building a majestic Great Wall with waste of money, it was better to use funds to train a elite soldier of a hundred battles.

The pass of the Great Wall is still needed, so that the enemy can avoid strides along the official road, use the pass to delay the enemy's advance speed, and then after confirming the main position of the enemy's army and strategic intentions, mobilize elite troops to attack them.

As for the opponent's light troops crossing mountains and ridges, such troops will not be brigades, and they are actually easy to deal with.

However, he also knew that with the current official atmosphere, he would rather let it go and don’t kill himself.

The Juyongguan City Tower has now become Weng Pu's temporary command post, where he sent war reports from all over the front line. Wei Guangde could only follow Weng Pu. He didn't know whether he was a praise painting or something now. He just helped with some documents, and occasionally he was arrested by Weng Pu and asked about his views on the current situation.

Because he is in this position, Wei Guangde learned about the current situation on the front line by reading the war reports sent from various places.

After Altan's army entered the pass from Wafanggou, the north of the army reached Chicheng Castle, the west of Baoanzhou, the south of Huailai, and the east of the Great Wall.

The scope is not big or small.

The reinforcements mobilized by Wanquandusi are currently rushing to Bao'anzhou and Chang'an Station. Huailai Guardian reported that only the Tartars were found, but no large cavalry was seen. Therefore, Wei Guangde keenly noticed that the only places where there were once a large cavalry were reported were Bao'anzhou, Yanqing and Yongning.

"Sir, I guess the main force of Altan's department should be concentrated on security guards. Yanqing generation, and the surroundings may be small groups of people who go out to plunder property and investigate."

Wei Guangde was called to the map by Weng Pu and asked him about his views on the current situation.

"The Altan army has lost the opportunity at present. At least after they chose to attack Wafanggou, they not only did not go south to Juyong Pass but attacked the defense centers of Chi Castle and Chang'an Station. This should be to clear out obstacles on the retreat, and there would be no possibility of raiding the capital."

Wei Guangde said here, and looked at Weng Pu. He was just staring at the map at this time. There was no expression on his old face, but asked in a deep voice: "What can they grab here? This place is not as rich as the capital of the capital within the pass."

However, although Altan's troops entered the Great Wall again, the surrounding area of ​​Yanqing is not very rich, and there is still a gap between Changping and Miyun. At least if they enter Miyun, they will go south to Huairou and Shunyi, and have the opportunity to attack Tongzhou, which will make a lot of money.

Wei Guangde was naturally thinking about this question for a long time. What are they doing here?

Although Wei Guangde had some speculations, he was not very sure, after all, it was all about the late Ming Dynasty.

Yes, Wei Guangde was a little suspicious that Altan Khan entered the pass this time to receive supplies transported from Shanxi.

Because Huailai continues to move south, he will enter Weizhou, Shanxi.

Since Wei Guangde entered the Hanlin Academy, he has also checked the changes in the business environment of Shanxi merchants over the years. After all, the "Eight Great Masters of Shanxi Businessmen" are still very famous.

They smuggled strategic materials to the Jianzhou Jurchens, and both parties to the transaction obtained goods that were in short supply in the Ming Dynasty through various relationships, while on the other side, they continued to massacre and looted the gold and silver of the Han people for trading with Shanxi merchants.

It is actually not unfair to say that Shanxi merchants are "traitors".

But have the Shanxi merchants now started to smuggle and trade with the Mongols?

Wei Guangde didn't notice too many abnormalities before.

Indeed, it is a fact that the business environment of Shanxi merchants has undergone great changes.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the "Food and Food Development" was implemented, and the salt was obtained by transporting grain to border towns and selling salt to make profits. This was naturally very profitable for Shanxi merchants.

They recruited a large number of people to farm at the border and purchased grain for salt.

Although Ye Qi, the Minister of Revenue in the fifth year of Hongzhi, submitted a memorial to "receive silver and open the Chinese law" and was approved by the court, this seriously damaged the interests of Shanxi merchants.

Mainland merchants can get salt intake without having to transport grain to the border thousands of miles away, which makes Shanxi merchants who used to monopolize most of the salt intake very dissatisfied. The large amount of land they used to control in the border areas lost their value at this time because they could not provide them with salt intake.

Shortly after the implementation of the new salt law, Shangtun no longer existed. At this time, the Ming court was no longer the court in the early Ming Dynasty. The whole country began to become corrupt, and many important officials and wealthy families also began to get involved in the silver that was supposed to buy materials for the border army.

Even if the grain exchanged for these silver is reduced, the amount of money that can actually enter the pockets of Shanxi merchants has become less.

In fact, Wei Guangde also saw in the library of Hanlin Academy that in recent decades, some local officials in Shanxi reported that illegal merchants began to rush out supplies outside the pass, but the number was not large, so Wei Guangde naturally did not pay attention to it at that time.

Smuggling is impossible to eliminate.

However, this time, Altan's strange actions made him feel a little alert.

I remember that when later generations introduced the history of Shanxi merchants making their fortunes, they mentioned that Shanxi merchants once raised too much materials and were not able to send them out of customs to trade with the Jianzhou Jurchens. Jianzhou sent troops to sweep the grasslands, harassed the Ming Dynasty's border walls, and took away the batch of supplies.

The Shanxi merchants directly traded with the Jurchens on the battlefield, which was really unimaginable.

After Wei Guangde had this guess, he naturally stared at the lower left corner of the map, Huailaiwei, and there was a town border town next to it. Then an official road leads directly to Shanxi and reaches Weizhou.

At the junction of Shanxi and Zhili, there is Zhuolu Mountain, and there is a Meiyu Guarding Thousand House at the foot of the mountain.

But immediately, Wei Guangde thought that the area where the Tartars's cavalry appeared was only reaching Huailai to the south, perhaps guarding against reinforcements from Datong.

If my previous guess is correct, then the smuggling merchant should also deliver the goods to the area north of Huailai.

Until now, Wei Guangde still doesn't think Altan Khan will choose to attack Yanqing and threaten Beijing.

Weng Pu seemed to be shaken, and no longer insisted that Altan Khan chose the target of capital.

"Sir, do you think, would anyone have sent some things that Altan Khan was interested in to the vicinity of Yanqing Prefecture before?"

Wei Guangde just said something tentatively, and he had thought about it later. Anyway, when he was in the Hanlin Academy, he did check the previous reports of local officials in Jiangxi, including a memorial report that an illegal merchant in Shanxi bribed the border town garrison and went out of seclusion to trade tea, iron and other restricted materials with the Mongolians.

However, Weng Pu's reaction was very plain. He just looked up at Wei Guangde, then lowered his head to continue looking at the map, but he didn't know whether he was really looking at the map or thinking about something.

After a while, someone sent a new document, which was sent from Xuanfu.

However, Weng Pu was furious after reading the documents. However, the cultivation of a literati still made him suppress his almost bursting temper, and just threw the documents in his hand heavily on the desk.

Wei Guangde was curious, walked over and carefully picked up the document and looked at it, and frowned slightly.

The troops of Xuanfu have been departing one after another, and the vanguard has arrived near Bao'anzhou and have begun to confront Altan's grassland cavalry.

According to the document, the main force of Altan's army was in Bao'anzhou, so that the Xuanfu army could not move forward at all. This was to ask Weng Pu, the admiral of military affairs, for instructions on the next move.

Shaking his head gently, Wei Guangde didn't know what to say.

The enemy is right in front of you. You are ready to fight if you can beat him or not. He said that the two armies confronted each other but did not launch an attack. He also came to ask Weng Pu what I should do next.

"Ahem."

After finally suppressing his anger, Weng Pu couldn't help but cough a few times, opened the door and walked out of the city tower, standing on the city wall and looking out.

Wei Guangde placed the documents on the side of the desk, where he neatly placed the various war reports he had received these days, but soon a strong wind blew into the house from outside the house, causing the desk to be blown to make the desk on the desk rustling.

"Put the paperweight to press the documents."
To be continued...