"Four and six? Who is four and who is six?" Fan Ciwu asked with his eyes wide open.
"Of course you are 6 and we are 4!" Liang Min replied.
"No," Ren Qi said unhappily without waiting for Fan Ciwu to express his opinion: "Why should they have six and we have four?"
"The supplies are in their hands, so why not give in a little?" Liang Min started to play the role of a good guy.
"Well!" Ren Qi pretended to think and nodded.
Seeing the other party give in, Fan Ciwu stopped hesitating and agreed to the 6:4 split.
After distributing the supplies, Wang Jun asked Fan Ciwu in confusion: "The supplies are in our hands, there is no need to distribute them!"
"It's not as simple as you think," Fan Ciwu shook his head, "The reason why the rebels fought against the imperial court for such a long time was mainly because of the trust and support of the people."
"Why should the people trust and support us? The key lies in the word righteousness. It includes morality, trustworthiness, and loyalty! These things are worth half of Ren Qi's capital. If we seize them and don't give them back, it would be unrighteous. Without the support of righteousness, we will soon lose the support of the people and be wiped out by the court."
"I still don't trust Ren Qi and the others!" Wang Jun frowned.
"I don't trust them either," Fan Ciwu said, "but one thing is for sure. We need to give them what they need and take precautions against what they need."
"How to defend?"
Fan Ciwu thought for a moment and told Wang Jun: "Place more secret guards outside Yu Garden and keep a close eye on Ren Qi and his men to see if he has any dealings with the government!"
Wang Jun blinked and thought for a moment, "Do you suspect Ren Qi will betray us?"
"Yes," Fan Ciwu nodded seriously, "Ren Qi's return is too strange! So I suspect he has become a spy for the government. However, even the smartest fox will reveal his true colors. If Ren Qi is a spy for the government, he will definitely contact the government. As long as we find evidence that he has contacted the government, we can put aside our concerns and take action against him."
"Don't worry, I'll arrange it right away." Wang Jun left in a hurry.
Different from the nervousness of Fan Ciwu and others, after distributing the supplies, Ren Qi and others began the most comfortable time of their lives: eat a full morning, eat a full lunch, and eat a full evening!
Not only did they recruit people from nearby areas, they also opened porridge factories to provide disaster relief.
When the people around heard the news, they flocked to join him, and Ren Qi became famous overnight.
On September 23, the 23rd year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen received an official document from Wang Fuzhi.
After some consideration.
He picked up a red pen and wrote a four-word reply: I have read it, very good.
Wang Fuzhi did a pretty good job and he should be encouraged.
Chongzhen was not worried about the Shandong uprising.
If the flood had not caused large numbers of people to suffer, the size of the Yuyuan Army would not have grown to such a large scale.
Now there are both imperial decrees and disaster relief.
The Yuyuan Army, which lacks a mass base, will become smaller and smaller.
In a year at most, or half a year at least, the problems of the Yuyuan Army should be completely resolved.
His eyes were always on Jiangnan.
Even if Liaodong suffered defeats one after another, as long as money could be obtained from Jiangnan, the Ming Dynasty's basic foundation would not be disrupted.
Before he could finish dealing with the memorial, the chief minister of the cabinet, Fan Jingwen, and the minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Xie Sanbin, came outside the palace to ask for a meeting.
Xie Sanbin came to the audience after receiving Chongzhen's oral order, while Fan Jingwen took the initiative to seek an audience.
"Your Majesty," Fan Jingwen said directly after entering the palace, "I request that Gao Jie's troops be immediately transferred to Jizhou and Miyun to set up a garrison."
(Swinging is a border defense strategy, which will be explained later.)
"Oh?" Chongzhen was startled. "The area around Jizhou and Miyun is the grazing area of the Mongolian Chahar and Yongxiebu tribes. Have they violated the border recently?"
"No," Fan Jingwen said solemnly, "It is precisely because I did not violate the border that I feel something is wrong."
"This year, the border troops of each town went to the grassland to burn the wasteland as usual. Although the border troops of the three borders of Shaanxi and Xuanfu Datong successfully completed the task, they were harassed by the Mongols on a small scale as in previous years. The border troops of Jizhou and Miyun not only did not encounter any resistance during the burning process, but the Mongols turned around and ran away when they saw them, just like mice seeing a cat, without any hesitation."
“This is not normal!”
Burning the wasteland was an action taken by the Ming Dynasty to resist the Mongolian invasion of the border.
Simply put, when the grass and trees wither in autumn and winter, fire is set on the grasslands around the Great Wall.
Burn all the dead grass on the grassland and implement the policy of clearing the fields.
If they didn't burn the wasteland, the Mongols wouldn't have to worry about fodder for their war horses when they invaded the border.
Each of them had multiple horses and they took turns riding them.
Just let the idle war horses take turns to graze on the weeds.
If the wasteland is burned, bundles of grass must be prepared in advance to feed the war horses when invading the border.
This will not only consume the stored grass for livestock to survive the winter, but will also occupy horses for carrying goods and consume autumn fat.
If the gains from the violation are not enough to offset these losses, then there will be a loss.
Due to these concerns, many Mongolian tribes no longer easily violated the border.
Burning wasteland was not invented in the Ming Dynasty, but began in the Qin Dynasty.
In the Ming Dynasty, the burning of wasteland began during the Yongle period.
In the winter of the fifth year of Yongle, Wu Gao, Marquis of Jiangyin, reported to the emperor that the grass along the border was overgrown and he wanted to burn it.
Zhu Di issued an order: "We should be most concerned. The unknown people around us may cause suspicion. Moreover, the patrol troops will be hard to escape in a hurry, and the houses in the garrison will be damaged. We must report it in advance so that we can prepare...
Since Yongle, burning the wasteland has become one of the main tasks of the Ming border troops in autumn and winter.
As time went on, the Ming border troops penetrated farther and farther, even reaching three to five hundred miles.
Burning the wasteland is a technical job that requires a lot of luck.
You have to know that the grass on the grassland cannot be ignited by just one fire.
Many grasslands are small patches that are not connected to each other due to terrain or water sources.
So if you want to burn down the entire grassland, you must have enough patience and skills.
First, you need to find those grassy areas that are easy to burn, then connect them with flammable materials such as hay or grease, and finally ignite the fire source. This will allow the fire to spread and cause the greatest damage.
This is the case when there is no interference. If we go deep into the grassland, this method alone will not work.
The Ming border troops' approach was to march three to five hundred miles beyond the border and then split into two routes.
They served as scouts along the way, responsible for observing the enemy's movements and preventing sneak attacks by Mongolian cavalry.
The other group was composed of arsonists, who were responsible for burning the grass.
They burned the grass while retreating towards the Great Wall.
When burning, some grass is deliberately left out to create the illusion that it is not completely burned.
Once the Mongolian war horses ate these grasses, they would be poisoned to death by the poison given by the Ming army (horses would die if they ate the grass).
The reason why burning the grassland requires luck is that the wind direction on the grassland changes very quickly.
It may be a north wind one moment and a northwest wind the next, or it may become a westerly wind due to the terrain.
If they are not careful, the soldiers burning the wasteland will be surrounded by the fire.
In addition, when the wind is particularly strong, the burning weeds will be carried by the wind to the retreat route of the Ming army that is burning the wasteland, causing them to be surrounded by fire and accidents to occur.
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