Although the staff officers, including Sun Chengzong, still did not approve of a head-on conflict with Lin Dan Khan, it was obviously a good thing to take advantage of the situation to suppress the border forces of the border towns of Datong in the name of warfare and quickly rebuild a Shanxi border army that was completely subordinate to the orders of the General Staff.

Although the first batch of cadets of the Army Military Academy lasted only a few months, they had already established a teacher-student relationship with most of the staff officers here, and in this era, in addition to the father-son relationship, the world's most important teacher-student relationship was the teacher-student relationship, even more than the clan relationship.

Although the staff officers who were born in the civil service still have inherent prejudice against the martial arts, they are quite delicate in their feelings for the students who come from their own disciples.

In the past, whether it was the local governor or the imperial court, there was a lack of personal relationship with the generals of the local border army. This also makes the officials of the DPRK and China do not want the border army to become too strong, and they are even more suspicious of the border generals who have made outstanding achievements in battle.

Now there is an opportunity to replace the generals in the border army with their own students, and to build an army that is completely controlled by the imperial court, which is really a good opportunity for these officials to completely eliminate the hidden danger of the secession of the Wuren Domain.

Unlike in the past, when only a few major generals in the border army could be contained and monitored, the field army, which was built with the cadets of the army officer academy as the backbone, could not instigate a mutiny in the whole army even if one or two generals had different intentions.

Tempted by this interest, the General Staff finally agreed with Chongzhen's proposal, but Sun Chengzong also insisted that the war should not be expanded, and that the war should be ended in time after thwarting Lin Dan Khan's ambitions to annex the right-wing Mongol tribes.

Sun Chengzong's proposition coincided with Chongzhen, and his original purpose was not to compete with Lin Dan Khan.

After determining the goal of preventing Lin Dan Khan from annexing the right-wing Mongol tribes, the staff meeting quickly concluded three operational objectives.

1. Rectify and establish the border town of Datong, and transfer personnel to form a field army;

2. Collect and resettle the Mongol tribes scattered by Lin Dan Khan, and choose a place for resettlement;

Third, the political offensive against Lin Dan Khan was the mainstay, supplemented by the means of war. After thwarting Lin Dan Khan's attempt to annex the right-wing Mongols, it was necessary to persuade the two sides to sit down and negotiate a settlement.

In addition to transferring some of the troops of Liaodong and Jizhou and the cadets of the Army Military Academy, Chongzhen also proposed to transfer some officers from the training camp and the Beijing camp, and the cavalry units trained by Wu Huai to participate in the war, so as to draw on the experience of such large-scale battles.

After determining the combat objectives, Chongzhen asked the others to withdraw and draw up the formation plan of the field army, logistics supply, and the marching plan for the transfer of troops, but he left Sun Chengzong to discuss some matters with him alone.

After the others withdrew, Zhu Youzhen bluntly said to Sun Chengzong: "In this battle, I hope that Mr. Sun will personally go to Datong to preside over it, in addition to using Mr. Wang's prestige to suppress the contradictions that may arise between the main and guest forces participating in this battle.

I also hope to take this opportunity to test what flaws the staff system that has been established now and what needs to be improved in real combat. ”

Sun Chengzong hesitated for a while, he thought for a while before he spoke: "Your Majesty, although the old minister has the heart to serve His Majesty, after all, he is already old and healthy, and his spirit is not good.

If you check and fill in the gaps by Your Majesty's side, the old minister can still encourage you to deal with it. But let the old minister be responsible for presiding over such a big military operation again, the minister was worried that he would be in good spirits and miss His Majesty's major affairs.

The minister thought that at this moment, it might be more appropriate to let some younger figures preside over the overall situation, and the old minister would assist from the side. ”

Zhu Youzhen was stunned for a moment, and then asked thoughtfully: "According to Mr., who is more appropriate to preside over the overall situation of this war?" ”

Sun Chengzong said without thinking: "In Yichen's opinion, in the general staff, only Yuan Ziru can take this position, and Ziru has the experience of standing alone in Liaodong, as long as His Majesty gives him another opportunity to have more experience, he will not be the mainstay of the future of the Ming Dynasty." ”

After watching himself finish speaking, the emperor remained silent, Sun Chengzong also chuckled in his heart, he hesitated for a moment and said: "Your Majesty is always wary of why Yuan Ziru is always wary, although Yuan Ziru has some deficiencies in personality, but in handling military affairs, he has always been impeccable.

In the third month that he entered the Beijing battalion, he had already implemented all the regulations and systems formulated by the General Staff Headquarters, and the officers and men in the battalion had no intention of being dissatisfied. ”

Seeing Sun Chengzong recommend his students and old subordinates so much, Zhu Youzhen also had to say to him bluntly: "Although Yuan Ziru's ability is good, I think he is not suitable for this kind of work to preside over the overall situation. ”

"Why is Your Majesty so sure?" Sun Chengzong couldn't help frowning and asked.

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while, and then prevaricated and said: "He is too arrogant, it is okay to let him be in charge of general administrative affairs, but let him preside over this battle alone, I am afraid that he may not get a good result." ”

Chongzhen's prejudice against Yuan Chonghuan made Sun Chengzong a little helpless, seeing Sun Chengzong's appearance, Zhu Youzhen continued: "In this way, Mr. Sun, you go to Datong to take charge of the overall situation, and then select personnel to form the former enemy headquarters according to your requirements." As for this war, I will hand it over to Sir completely and completely, what do you think? ”

Sun Chengzong thought about it, and then asked tentatively: "Then if the old minister asks Yuan Chonghuan to assist as a deputy, will Your Majesty also allow it?" ”

Zhu Youzhen's face changed, and then he replied: "Since Mr. Sun thinks that this is necessary, I will not stop Mr. Sun." All matters concerning this war are decided by the husband, and I am responsible for ensuring the logistics for the husband. ”

Sun Chengzong thought about it for a long time before he nodded and said, "Since this is the case, then the old minister is willing to give it a try." ”

Sun Chengzong, who accepted the emperor's order, summoned Yuan Chonghuan, Mao Yuanyi, Sun Yuanhua and others after leaving the Wuying Palace, and began to discuss various matters concerning the formation of the former enemy headquarters in Datong.

Instructions for the transfer of troops, armaments, transport vehicles, and caravans began to be distributed one by one from within the organs of the newly established General Staff.

Compared with the previous period when the chief general of the army was appointed, the general staff had to go to the military headquarters and the household headquarters to communicate with each other and allocate ordnance, military salaries, money and food, the general staff showed extremely high efficiency from the very beginning.

An hour after Sun Chengzong left Wuyingdian, an order was issued to transfer 3,000 cavalry troops from Liaodong, which stated that Cao Wenzhao should be the commander of this cavalry unit.

After another hour, another order to transfer a car battalion of the Jizhou Army also left the capital.

Next, the General Staff transferred back Wu Huai's department, which was training cavalry marches in the field, and the night troops who were training in Shijingshan, and so on.

When Sun Chengzong and others were busy mobilizing the army and formulating a battle plan with Lin Dan Khan, Chongzhen also urgently summoned Liu Jingting and Feng Quan.

Feng Quan's mood is very good, after taking over the Daming Times, with his influence among the gentry in Hebei, the Daming Times finally has a great development and has become an influential mouthpiece of public opinion in Hebei and Shandong.

And Feng Quan also used this way to return to the political center of the Ming Dynasty, although many officials are still privately criticizing him, but with the newspaper as a new tool of public opinion, Feng Quan has quickly whitewashed some of the stains on the past.

After all, these officials, who have opinions about him, can only criticize him at private gatherings. The unfavorable rumors about him are obviously not as fast as the Daming Times, which is published every three days, and they come quickly, and they are also widespread.

Feng Quan also quickly learned how to publish some specious news in the newspaper, plus an opinion piece, directly discredited his political opponents, so that the words of these people could no longer be believed.

When Liu Jingting and Feng Quan entered Chongzhen's office in Wuying Palace, and the two were still guessing what the emperor wanted to do when summoning them, Chongzhen had already ordered them directly.

"I summoned the two of you, but there are actually two things that need to be done. First, the Ming Dynasty will soon be fighting against Lin Dan Khan of the Chahar Department, and I need the two of them to do some public opinion agitation work. ”

Chongzhen's words surprised the two of them very much, after all, before they came, they both thought that this summons was probably related to the drought in Shaanxi and Gyeonggi regions.

Feng Quan was silent, just carefully observing the emperor's expression, but Liu Jingting opened his mouth without any scruples to advise: "Your Majesty, is it too inappropriate to start a war with the Mongols at this time?" This year, the drought situation in Shaanxi and Gyeonggi has been obvious.

Fortunately, the Gyeonggi region has been able to alleviate the severity of the drought somewhat thanks to the water conservancy projects that began at the beginning of the year, but it is said that there has not been rain since the beginning of spring, and officials and businessmen who have come to the capital from Shaanxi are worried about this year's harvest.

At such a moment, shouldn't we first plan for relief to the victims and make peace with the Mongols? ”

Chongzhen was not unhappy with Liu Jingting's excitement, and he patiently explained to Liu Jingting: "I don't want to fight this battle, but the dominant power of the war is not in our hands..."

After listening to Chongzhen's explanation, Liu Jingting looked a little worried, but Feng Quan understood the emperor's thoughts, and he immediately said indignantly: "This Lin Dan Khan is really a wolf with ambition, and he has wasted so many rewards that my Ming gave him before."

He didn't help my Ming Dynasty resist Jiannu in Liaodong, but he went to the west to disrupt the right-wing Mongolian tribes who had been friends with my Ming Dynasty for decades, and it was still in the season when Shaanxi was affected by the disaster. In this way, he is also embarrassed to ask us for a city reward? It's just unreasonable.

The minister thought that not only should we not agree to his rude request, but even his original share of the city reward should be given to him after he returned to Liaodong. ”