My father is Jiajing

Chapter 121 Believe in the wisdom of future generations

No matter how good Weng Wanda is, he is still a distant source. So in order to put out a nearby fire, the right way is to use the talents around you who can be used.

Therefore, no matter how anxious Emperor Jiajing was, he could not allow Weng Wanda to immediately report from his hometown in Lingnan to the capital thousands of miles away.

After all, there were no airplanes or high-speed trains in the Ming Dynasty, so people had to rely on boats, cars, and other means of transportation. Even after thousands of years of transportation development, today's transportation conditions have shortened the journey time to about one month compared to several months in the Han and Tang dynasties, but it still cannot meet current needs.

Moreover, the situation is so critical now that even if the court urgently summoned Wang Wengda to come to the capital at an express speed of 600 miles, the edict would have to be on the road for ten days or half a month. By the time the edict was delivered to Weng Wanda, even if Weng Wanda set out immediately and traveled at the extreme speed of 200 to 300 miles a day, it would take him almost two months.

And during these two months, neither the Jiajing Emperor himself, the imperial court, nor the border troops in Xuanda and the suffering local people could afford to wait.

Therefore, at this time, Emperor Jiajing could only ignore the "end of mourning" for ministers and urgently summoned Weng Wanda to return to the border as soon as possible to take up the important task of governor.

At the same time, he still had to discuss with the Cabinet and the Ministry of War about the temporary personnel of Xuan Da's commander.

Therefore, another faction recommended Xianning Hou Qiu Luan, who was the grandson of Xianning Hou Qiu Yue, a famous general in the Zhengde Dynasty.

Speaking of Qiu Yue, he was a legendary figure with great luck. He was born during the Chenghua period. He was originally just a "mercenary" in the Ningxia General's Mansion, but he was cautious and prudent and was greatly trusted and favored by the general.

As a result, he got many opportunities to display his abilities and talents, and was appreciated by Qiu Li, the deputy commander. The reason why Qiu Li appreciated Qiu Yue was very simple, it was because he had no son and did not want his family line to be cut off, so he let Qiu Yue pretend to be his son and make him inherit the hereditary position as the deputy commander of the Ningxia vanguard.

After obtaining the hereditary military position, Qiu Yue did not disappoint the Qiu family and made rapid progress.

At that time, enemy invaders invaded Ningxia and fought in the Shigou area. Qiu Yue, as the vanguard, personally killed one enemy, and was therefore promoted to commander.

In the 18th year of the Hongzhi reign, the enemy invaded on a large scale. Qiu Yue once again served as the vanguard and fought in Hongsi, beheading six people. For his contribution in defeating the bandits, he was promoted to the rank of deputy commander.

In the second year of Zhengde, Qiu Yue was promoted to Ningxia guerrilla general due to the recommendation of General Yang Yiqing.

Later, he encountered the fool Anhua King Zhu Zongxian, who joined forces with the commanders He Jin, Zhou Ang, and Ding Guang to rebel. Qiu Yue designed a plan to capture Zhu Zongxian, and was promoted to deputy governor for his meritorious service, and was appointed as the general of Ningxia and was granted the title of Xianning Earl. In the winter of the following year, he was summoned to command the 3,000-man camp and became a hot figure at the time.

In the seventh year of Zhengde, he was appointed General of Suppressing Bandits and suppressed the uprisings of Liu Hui and Zhao Sui in Henan. He also moved his army to join Lu Wan to suppress the uprising of Liu Qi in Jiangbei. After this battle, the court granted him the title of "a military official who has been awarded the rank of a loyal and devoted military official", the title of "specially promoted and promoted Ronglu Dafu", and the title of "Zhuguo", with an annual salary of 1,000 dan, and granted him a hereditary certificate, allowing his title to be inherited by his descendants.

In the eighth year of Zhengde, a young Tatar prince invaded Datong and was appointed as the general commander. Qiu Yue led the Beijing army to fight against him. At that time, the bandits invaded Wanquan Shahe. Qiu Yue led his army to attack and killed three people, forcing the bandits to retreat.

Although he was rewarded for this battle, he was ridiculed by court officials, who believed that his contribution and the rewards he received were not worthy of the name.

This shows how difficult it was to be a military officer during the Ming Dynasty.

If they fought well, it was their duty. If they fought badly, they would be beheaded. If they fought half-way, they would be ridiculed. If the military honors were not hereditary, these frontier generals would have quit long ago.

Although Qiu Yue was indeed very powerful, and all his achievements along the way were achieved through hard work except for luck, so after his death, the newly enthroned Emperor Jiajing ordered the Ministry of Works to provide a "thin coffin" and tools for funeral arrangements, and ordered the Ministry of Rites to hold thirteen sacrifices, and also donated vegetarian food and cloth, and gave him the posthumous title of "Wuxiang".

It can be said that with such a good reputation both before and after his death, Qiu Yue’s life was complete.

But sometimes life likes to play jokes. Qiu Yue's son died early, so after his death, his title naturally fell into the hands of his beloved grandson Qiu Luan.

Apart from inheriting Qiu Yue's title and honor, Qiu Luan seemed to have not inherited any of Qiu Yue's ability to lead troops and fight.

But because the military positions in the Ming Dynasty were so shitty and almost all military positions were inherited from generation to generation, the court would sometimes let the children of these hereditary military positions take up important positions in order to be lazy about training generals.

Therefore, the level of officers and generals in the Ming Dynasty was generally not high. In the early and middle periods, they were suppressed by the behemoth imperial court, and these hereditary officers could not make any waves. But in the middle and late periods, these hereditary officers would seize the opportunity to arrange all their sons in important positions.

For example, Li Chengliang of the Wanli Dynasty, except for his eldest son Li Rusong, the rest of his sons were able to become generals. In fact, they all benefited from their father and took advantage of the fact that the Ming Dynasty did not have a systematic system for training officers.

This led to the emergence of a type of military leaders who looked like warlords in the late Ming Dynasty but were actually strong on the outside but weak on the inside. This caused the military system of the Ming Dynasty to further collapse, and finally became so fragile that it could collapse at any time, making it unable to suppress rebellions at home and unable to defeat strong enemies abroad.

Therefore, relying on the current military system of the Ming Dynasty and wanting to compete with Anda on the grassland is simply a pipe dream.

The current situation is that we can only stick to the status quo and survive as long as possible.

As for change, it’s not that I don’t want to, but that I can’t.

Because the accumulated problems of the past two hundred years are so deep and serious that they are no longer reversible.

If there is no clear and feasible reform plan, relying on the emperor and a group of high-ranking and pampered court officials to dream of reform will only lead to more and more dead ends.

So when it came to this point, whether it was the emperor himself or the important cabinet officials at the core, the best solution they could think of was to cover up the matter. As long as their generation could cover up the problem, then their mission would be accomplished.

As for what will happen to future generations, we have to trust in their wisdom.

However, later generations may not be much wiser than them. After all, they are all educated in the same education system and ideological system. It is wishful thinking to expect such later generations to have the ability to change the status quo.

So now, no matter whether Emperor Jiajing is willing or not, he can only grit his teeth and hand over the most critical task to Qiu Luan, the descendant of a famous family, and hope that he can also create the miracles of his ancestors and make great contributions to the Ming Dynasty!
(End of this chapter)