The emperor's concern for the war was soon known to the courtiers, and Wang An was accompanied into the palace not only by his stack of letters and war reports, but also by Zhang Juzheng.

"Seven days ago, Qi Shuai had entered Tainingwei; The military department also sent Li Chengliang to attack in Liaodong to stabilize the northeast. ”

This is the first time Zhang Juzheng has entered the military room of the Wanli Emperor, he looked around at the strange furnishings around, put the battle report on the deck of the Wanli ship model, sat down and said to the emperor: "Your Majesty don't have to be restless about this, they are all capable people of the dynasty - they will receive all the credit." ”

"Li Chengliang is a cadre." I don't know if it was a rebellious mind or a stubborn illness left by Chen Mu's early education, Emperor Wanli only admitted the part about Qi Jiguang in the teacher's comments to the two generals, and had many reservations about Li Chengliang, shook his head and said: "If he is a capable person, why should he raise his own respect." ”

Zhang Juzheng was not angry, he smiled lightly, and said to the emperor: "Your Majesty said that it is not bad for the Li family to raise Kou, but the imperial court needs him to raise Kou...... The four words of core interests that you often talk about, where are the core interests of the dynasty? ”

The Imperial Governor pointed to the center of the map hanging on the wall, and he found that the Emperor's secret military room was too suitable, and almost everything he needed when talking about military affairs was at hand.

He was referring to the Ming Dynasty in the middle of the map: "Two capitals and thirteen provinces, compared with this, the West, the South, the East, the Northeast, and the Southwest, are not worth mentioning. ”

Wanli nodded slowly, making his annoying feeling come again, and the teacher was right again...... The core interests of the Ming Dynasty are two capitals and thirteen provinces, which is the consensus of all people in the world.

Needless to say.

"What the teacher said is that it is precisely because of this that the imperial court has to fight this battle."

In the past five or ten years, only the Tumut Mongols had the ability to threaten the Ming Dynasty, and Qi Jiguang, the strongest city wall in the Beijing Division, proposed a few years ago that he believed that the Ming Dynasty was difficult to defend against the Tumut Department because of the loss of the Wuliang Ha Sanwei, which could be counted as the cause of this battle.

"Speaking of Li Chengliang, Your Majesty may not understand the situation in the Northeast, and the minister can explain a thing or two to Your Majesty."

Zhang Juzheng's face still has that seemingly omniscient look, although he has not finished the imperial court, two capitals and thirteen provinces, but the early Hanlin experience has given him a deep understanding of all parts of the world.

There is nothing difficult in the world, only afraid of those who have a heart.

This self-confidence comes from the fact that when he was a Hanlin, Zhang Juzheng liked to entertain civil and military officials from various places who entered Beijing.

Although he was very young and did not have much money at that time, whenever an official came to Beijing to report on his work, he would bring out wine and food to entertain them, and inquire from them about important news from all directions, so he knew a little about the situation in various places.

"Since the founding of this dynasty, the Jurchens have always been deferential to the imperial court, and the name of Uliangha comes from the Jurchen language, which means people in the forest, savages, until the change of the civil fort. Everyone in the world knows that Yu Shao defended Beijing and held the capital to stabilize the situation, but few people know that there was also a Mongol army that invaded the northeast. ”

"The northeast used to be called Nurgan Dusi, and the minister heard that the tributary leaders of all the tribes were assembled here in the past, but later the Nurgan Dusi was abandoned and assembled in 30,000 Wei."

"The imperial court did not have the spare strength to rush to the aid of Liaodong, the situation in the northeast was bad at that time, the siege of the city, the destruction of the village community are easy to repair, but the people's hearts are the most difficult to make up, after that the imperial court in the northeast to do anything, it seems powerless."

Zhang Juzheng said and simply got up, pointed to the northeast on the map and said slowly to Emperor Wanli: "Qi Shuai once said that the reason why the imperial court could not contain Tumut was because of the loss of control of the Wuliang Ha Sanwei, and the ministers also agreed, Mongolia is gradually getting bigger, and it is because of this. ”

"There is a Haixi Jurchen named Yehe, I don't know if Your Majesty knows? This tribe did not exist in the past, and their leader, surnamed Tumut, was the result of the subtle expansion of the Mongols in the northeast. ”

"The minister has not summarized the previous changes in the map, but if there is, His Majesty will definitely be able to see that the Beilu and Dongyi are getting closer and closer to each other on the map, and combined with the war reports over the years, it is not difficult to find that they often join forces against the imperial court, and in the past, the imperial court was short of money and salary, and could only defend, which was difficult to contain."

"Li Chengliang did all the things that the ministers knew, internally he lent money to poor soldiers, and the soldiers fought bravely to repay the money; Externally, he used the power of the imperial court to control the various tribes, and supported Wang Zhong and Wang Tai of the Hada tribe to make the border peaceful. ”

The more Wanli listened, the more frowning he became, Zhang Juzheng's statement to the Northeast was very different from the 'the whole world is not the king' that was instilled in his mind by Chen Mu, it sounded like ...... Daming can't control the Northeast at all.

I can even manage Asia 20,000 miles away, but the Northeast can't, what is the reason?

"But Li Chengliang has not been good to the court for a long time, he always pulls this to fight that, and then pulls others to fight this." The little emperor stated that Li Chengliang's operation had blinded him, and finally simply pouted and said: "It's far less than Qi Shuai's once and for all." ”

Zhang Juzheng sighed and repeated the emperor's words: "Once and for all." ”

"The thief is coming, Your Majesty needs two knives to defend against the enemy, one is commonly used to defend against the enemy, the other is only occasionally defended, there is only one or two silver in the hand, a good steel knife in the knife market costs eight dollars, and a bad knife costs two dollars, Your Majesty will use an inferior knife to defend against the enemy and a steel knife to defend yourself?"

Zhang Juzheng spread his hands and said: "Your Majesty knows that Qi Shuai spent 150,000 taels on the Great Wall built in Jizhen, and he should also know that the money and wealth of the elite soldiers trained by Qi Shuai in the imperial court can build four or more such Great Walls in Jizhen every year." ”

"Every general has his specialty, just like eating the most expensive forage and running the longest road is the best good horse, eating the general forage and running slowly but good at long-distance running is also the best good horse, when it comes to the famous generals of the imperial court, Chen Shuai can spend the most, is good at naval and land battles, and can also transport back silver taels for the imperial court, which is a famous general at sea; Qi Shuai can also spend, good at defending the city in the field, and the most able to defend Gyeonggi, which is the famous general of the Beijing Division; Compared with them, Li Shuai is like spending no money, the field battle is not weak, the military discipline is poor, and he only needs to spend some rewards for his military exploits to stabilize the northeast defense line. ”

Compared with Chen Mu and Qi Jiguang who spent money first and then fought and then continued to spend money, Li Chengliang fought first and then spent money, and the money spent was much less than the first two.

"This is also a famous general."

Zhang Juzheng shook his head as he spoke: "In the end, the court has no money in the past, and when this battle is settled, Wuliangha will make a big move, and free his hands...... Liaodong should do it with a fake hand. ”

He knew that the Northeast had always been an uneasy factor for the imperial court, but there was no way in the past, the imperial court lost its prestige there, and only Li Chengliang could stabilize the situation there and slowly figure it out.

If you change someone else, it is difficult to do better than Li Chengliang.

Speaking of this, Zhang Juzheng suddenly felt a little worried about his body, he had hemorrhoids for ten years, and this illness had always plagued him, but this worry only remained in his heart for a moment, and then smiled: "Your Majesty must know that Li Shuai of Liaodong cannot be replaced lightly, he has been operating in the Northeast for several years, and only he can deter the ministry; If there is a need to replace him, he should not be replaced in a hurry, and the candidate for his replacement should be properly selected. ”

"Japan's Chen Bazhi has the experience of controlling other countries, and if he can't do it, he can make Li Shuai's son Li Rusong control Liaodong."