The Imperial Guard’s Revenge

After the news came out, most people were not surprised that the emperor treated the second prince preferentially and sent Xia Wenjin to teach him. It can be seen that the emperor has long been interested in the second prince. They mocked Lu Heng secretly. Lu Heng actually declined the beautiful job of letting his son be the second prince's companion. Now that he has just chosen the third prince, the second prince will be established as the crown prince.

While everyone was ridiculing, their hearts were also relieved. It turned out that Lu Heng was not a god, and he also misunderstood.

When there was a lot of discussion in Beijing for the establishment of the prince, a battle report suddenly came from the front line, the Mongols harassed the border, and the battle situation in the northwest was tight.

Chapter 135

The Japanese pirates in the southeast have not been eradicated, and wars have broken out in the northwest. When the court seemed to never stop, the ministers started arguing again.

Usually, the civilians lead the peace and the generals lead the battle, but this time it was the other way around. A military general headed by Guo Xun advocated opening the horse market with Mongolia, and the court exchanged grain and cloth for Mongolian war horses. Both sides benefited and avoided war.

Although Guo Xun has not been on the front line for many years, he was born in a noble family and knows the Mongolians very well. Mongolia is different from Japanese pirates. The north side of the Great Wall is grassland. Daming can neither dig up the grassland nor drive out the nomads. The Mongols can’t be beaten. After this tribe is driven away, a new tribe will come. As long as Mobei With the existence of grasslands, northern Xinjiang will never be peaceful.

Moreover, Mongolians are not born to love wars. Nomads are different from farming peoples. Every household in the Ming Dynasty will store grain if they have the conditions, but nomads have no surplus grain. Once they encounter snow disasters, droughts, and plagues, they have no food to eat. The face cannot survive this winter.

So they could only go south to fight. If they won, they would snatch food for the winter. If they couldn't win, they would starve to death when they returned. The Mongolian cavalry was extraordinarily brave.

People who are driven by death are invincible, and the lives of frontier officers and soldiers are not in vain. There is no need to fight a group of desperadoes. What the Mongols want is food, just exchange it for them, and they can also get a batch of high-quality war horses.

Guo Xun is out of the conscience of a coach who has led soldiers. He really feels that opening up the horse market and communicating with each other is good for Mongolia and Daming. He wrote a long letter to the emperor, stating the benefits of opening the horse market, and handed it to the palace early.

Many generals of the Northwest Army agreed with Guo Xun's point of view, and even Fu Tingzhou sent a book back and agreed to open the horse market.

He also pointed out in the book that Mongolia's eight requests for tribute were rejected, but many of the daily necessities of the Mongolian people had to be exchanged from within the customs. When the official channels are closed, they can only communicate with private individuals, which is easy to nurture disasters, and a little carelessness will develop into the second Japanese pirate rebellion. Instead of letting them collude in private, the imperial court should take over and control the initiative in their own hands.

Fu Tingzhou wrote in the book how to manage the horse market, how to adjust the military defense during the horse market, and ensure security without affecting the mutual market. It can be seen that Fu Tingzhou has matured a lot after he went to the front line. These are very practical suggestions. After reading it, the emperor attached great importance to this document, and kept calling his ministers into the palace to discuss it.

The emperor is also inclined to open the border market, and it can be solved by other means. Who wants to fight? The war of Japanese pirates emptied the national treasury. Forty-one guards in central Zhejiang, four hundred and thirty-nine warships, and all military registrations were exhausted. The country has not eased this sigh of relief now, and the emperor is not willing to renew the war.

In the end, with the strong support of the Marquis of Wuding, Guo Xun, and the emperor's tacit approval, the matter of reopening Gongshi at the border was settled in this way.

From September 25th to 28th in the 18th year of Jiajing, in Kaima City, Xianbao, Datong Town, the Altan tribe picked good horses to the Ma City for jiāo trade in exchange for corn beans, fine satin and other necessities. The Altan tribe attaches great importance to this jiāo trade, and the Datong generals also visited the market in person. Within three days, everyone was very polite. No Mongolians disturbed the jiāo trade from beginning to end, and the horse market ended successfully.

Zhenxianbao's first test of the water was very successful, and the Altan tribe got food and cloth. As expected, they did not go south again that winter, and the two sides were at peace with each other. When other tribes heard about Ma Shi, they also asked for jiāo yi. Guo Xun, Fu Tingzhou and others made a guarantee that under the promotion of everyone, in the winter of the 18th year, the horse fair was held for the second time in Huamachi.

This time, the jiāo change took longer. Several Mongolian tribes were present, and Taiji strictly restrained the tribes. The wells of Mongolia and Han did not violate the river water. The local people lived peacefully and were not affected by the horse market.

In the second half of the 18th year of Jiajing, the border wars were greatly reduced because of the existence of Ma Shi. The two successful jiāoyi boosted morale, and Fu Tingzhou once again submitted a proposal, suggesting that the number of opening horse markets can be increased to four times a year, and that it can be expanded to Xuanfu and Yanning towns, so that local military and civilians can be close by and nomadic tribes outside the customs. jiāo easy. As long as the trade volume is limited each time, the Mongolian tribes will not be strengthened, and their population and livelihood can be controlled by means of food. In the long run, the Mongolian tribes will no longer pose a threat to the Ming border.

The emperor adopted Fu Tingzhou's suggestion, and in the second year, tried to expand the scope of the horse market. However, the next mutual market is often in chaos.

In March, Mongolia requested to exchange cows and sheep for corn beans, but the local guard refused.

The Mongols believed that this was a jiāo trade. The two sides used equivalent things to get what they needed. The poor did not have horses to exchange, but the cattle and sheep they brought were also of high quality. However, in the eyes of the imperial court, the horse market is a tribute. If you pay tribute to the war horse, you will pay tribute to the war horse. How can there be bargaining?