Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 335: 15 mines against 1 mine, the advantage is in my hands!

The first group to enter Liaoning to fight were soldiers from the Beijing garrison. According to reports from the front lines, Yuan Keli and his men have now crossed Shanhaiguan Pass and are expected to reach Ningyuan in two days.

The Ming army under Cao Wenzhao in Jinzhou, Zu Dashou in Guangning, and Mao Wenlong in Liaonan received orders to dispatch large numbers of cavalry deep into Liaoze to scout ahead. The Ming army might not actually pass through Liaoze, but they needed to ensure that the Jurchens would not launch a surprise attack through it.

The Jurchens were also actively gathering intelligence. Scouts from both sides had already clashed, but since both sides were only trying to ascertain the enemy's situation, the fighting was relatively restrained.

On the Jurchen side, scouts publicly declared their desire to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty. The Jurchen Khan Ajige and the Grand Marshal of the Eight Banners, Daišan, formally submitted a letter of request for peace to the Ming Dynasty.

They no longer asked for a thousand sable pelts in exchange for a million taels of silver from the Ming Dynasty; instead, they hoped to establish a trade relationship with the Ming Dynasty and were willing to become brotherly nations with it.

Their Khan addressed the Ming Emperor as his brother, and unilaterally paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty every year with 300 sable pelts, 3 gyrfalcons, and 300 catties of wild ginseng. They also returned Korea to the Ming Dynasty, as well as the four prefectures of Liaonan and the Liaoxi Corridor.

Even Liaoyang is not out of the question. As long as Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty forgives them and promises not to attack them again, they are willing to use the Taizi River as the boundary with the Ming Dynasty. The area north of the Taizi River belongs to them, while the vast area south of the river, including Liaoyang and Anshan, will be returned to the Ming Dynasty.

It must be said that the peace terms offered by the Jurchens were very tempting, and the officials of the court began to waver. But that was Liaoyang! Many were unsure whether they could recapture it. Even a hero like the Divine Martial Emperor of Northern Qi had fallen at Yu Bi City; what would happen if the Ming Dynasty couldn't conquer Liaoyang? They advised the emperor to accept the offer while he was ahead.

Zhu Youjian himself was very principled and kept his promises, even the Jurchens believed him. But the problem was that Zhu Youjian couldn't trust the Jurchens! Their conditions were indeed good, but it's like tricking someone into going to northern Myanmar with a monthly salary of 88,000; you have to actually get the money.

The credibility that Zhu Youjian had painstakingly built up could not be easily broken. If he agreed to the Jurchens' conditions, then he really couldn't continue to deal with them. But what if the Jurchens recovered and suddenly a powerful figure appeared who would tear up the treaty?

As far as Zhu Youjian knew, the only talented person left on the Jurchen side was Ao Bai, who was still alive! Jirhalang was no pushover either; he just hadn't seized power yet, otherwise his destructive power could have threatened Huang Taiji. Therefore, Zhu Youjian told his ministers, "The arrow is already on the bowstring, and we must release it!"
The officials also expressed their regret. Bi Ziyan secretly approached Zhu Youjian and said, "The Jurchens have ravaged Liaodong. Even if we recover Liaodong, we won't be able to generate much tax revenue. The people of Liaodong are suffering so much that not many will be willing to move there. We don't know how long it will take to achieve a balance between income and expenditure."

More importantly, if the war is lost, people will bring up the Jurchens' peace negotiations, which would be a huge blow to the emperor's prestige.

Zhu Xieyuan also said that the unwillingness to negotiate peace could be seen as a truce, and that drawing a line and then gradually developing relations would be a good solution. He himself wasn't sure if they could win the war; the claimed army of hundreds of thousands was actually quite weak, with the elite forces on both sides roughly equal. Zhu Youjian was somewhat swayed by their words, but he still shook his head at the two men, saying that even if they wanted to negotiate peace, they needed to fight first; how could they know if they could win without fighting? This war was not only between the Ming Dynasty and the Jurchens, but also a warning to other restless forces both domestically and internationally!

In truth, everyone knew perfectly well that the emperor wanted to finish the war and flee south; many of the ministers who wanted to negotiate peace also wanted to spare the Jurchens' lives to prevent the emperor from moving south. Zhu Youjian had explained the reasons to them repeatedly, and they weren't unaware of them, but each had their own convictions.

The second echelon to set off for Liaodong consisted of Shandong's anti-Japanese garrison troops. Anti-Japanese garrison troops were a common name, but they were actually coastal guard posts, including Weihaiwei, Dasongwei, Lingshanwei, the Denglai Navy, and the Tianjin Three Guards of Beizhili.

Currently, the garrisons within the Ming Dynasty that still possess combat capability are mostly coastal garrisons. Their so-called combat capability is merely due to being well-fed and relatively strong, but they have very little actual combat experience. The Imperial Guards have also been dispatched, along with troops from the Jizhou Garrison; these are the troops that entered Liaodong to participate in the war this year.

When sea transport resumes next year, troops from Sichuan, Guangxi, and Zhejiang will be transferred by ship to travel north. The navies of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang will also be added to the war effort, mainly to maintain the logistics and supplies of the army.

Zhu Youjian planned to summon Zheng Zhilong's Dongfan garrison to Liaodong for battle, partly to test Zheng Zhilong's abilities and let him experience the local customs and culture of Liaodong. Previously, the court had made many compromises regarding Zheng Zhilong's arrangements, and Zhu Youjian actually wanted to deal with this fellow, but unfortunately, the Ming navy was just a large grain transport fleet and not skilled in naval warfare.

Although Zheng Zhilong only commanded armed merchant ships, which were no match for the regular navies of Europe, they could probably still overpower the Ming navy. However, this man was essentially a merchant with a natural fear of the imperial court, and showing him the true elite of the government forces would help him come to terms with reality.

Zheng Zhilong is beyond saving, but perhaps young Zheng Sen can still be nurtured. If Zheng Zhilong's pirate gang can be truly subdued, the Ming Dynasty will have the resources to develop its navy.

Limited by transportation capacity, the Southern army could only deploy its elite troops, while the Northern army had more leeway, allowing its less capable garrison troops to defend cities while the field army attacked and seized territory. Zhu Youjian began to consider whether he should train a new army, as constantly robbing Peter to pay Paul was not a sustainable solution.

The new army's combat effectiveness was predictably formidable, and it wouldn't pick up many of the old army's bad habits for the time being. However, Zhu Youjian needed ready-made combat power, so he had to suppress this idea for the time being. Times were changing; now it was a version of professional soldiers, and the combat effectiveness of the militia that were just randomly recruited was simply insufficient.

Zhu Xieyuan was speechless. He felt the emperor had developed a delusion that he was incompetent while the Jurchens were incredibly powerful. Even the largest army needs adequate logistics, and money shouldn't be squandered so easily! There was no need to use the nation's elite troops to bully a few small Jurchen tribes!

Zhu Youjian didn't care. He believed that if a group fight could be waged, there was no need for one-on-one combat; if a crushing defeat was the best strategy, there was no need for so-called "art of command." Currently, the Taicang treasury only had a surplus of over 30 million taels of silver, but his personal treasury still held several million taels of silver and tens of millions of shi of grain. He refused to believe he couldn't wear down the Jurchens. If all that money ran out, then he would borrow money to fight, even mortgaging the iron mines in Liaodong as collateral!
It's truly bizarre! If there weren't traitors within the Ming Dynasty, how could such a vast empire be defeated by the tiny Jurchens?! Hundreds of millions of Han Chinese were humiliated by hundreds of thousands of Manchus for centuries, to the point that they forgot who they were and even their ancestors! It's an utter disgrace, incomprehensible; the world shouldn't be like this!
(End of this chapter)