A few days later, news from Liaodong continued to reach the capital.
Although Zhu Youjian had made up his mind not to let the generals on the front lines command the army anymore.
However, the ministers in the court were somewhat panicked.
Whether they were ministers who disliked Li Ruolian and Qin Liangyu, or loyal officials who genuinely cared about the Ming Dynasty.
They all felt that launching a fierce attack on Guangning would be asking for trouble.
"Since Goryeo has already tied down the main force of the Jurchen Khan, why rush things?"
"As long as we send troops to besiege Guangning, the Jurchens inside the city will naturally surrender after a while!"
Many ministers gathered together, their faces filled with righteous indignation.
"The imperial court has gone to great lengths to revive the capital garrison. If they all die under the walls of Guangning, wouldn't all that effort have been for nothing?"
This time, even the two vice ministers of the Ministry of War spoke well of Yuan Chonghuan.
"Sigh, if Minister Yuan were in Liaodong, he certainly wouldn't have stood by and watched them do this."
"Even if the imperial court recovers the city in this battle of Guangning, I'm afraid it will not have the ability to continue its eastward advance!"
Although these ministers had never been on the battlefield, they possessed some basic common sense.
Even things I didn't know before, I've learned quite a bit in the last few days.
They knew that if they were to use human lives to forcibly attack the city, the losses would be enormous.
If they wanted to wipe out the 10,000 Jurchens in Guangning City, the Beijing garrison itself would suffer 30,000 to 40,000 casualties.
The Beijing garrison only had a little over 70,000 men.
With more than half of them dead, what kind of war can we fight?
"And that Li Zicheng! He clearly brought more than a dozen Italian cannons, so why didn't he fire them?"
The highest level of deception is to deceive even your own people.
Even these court officials were unaware of the truth.
They assumed that Li Zicheng had indeed brought a large number of powerful cannons this time.
"As soon as he fires the cannon, the Jurchens in the city will surely be terrified!"
Upon hearing this, someone sneered in a low voice, "Maybe that Italian cannon isn't that powerful at all!"
"I've heard that the previous Khan of the Jurchens didn't die from cannon fire, but from illness."
"But Li Ruolian was greedy for credit and insisted on taking the credit, which is why she said that."
That's a bit taboo.
The other ministers dared not respond.
The man himself felt a little guilty and quickly changed the subject.
"Should we offer some suggestions to His Majesty when we attend court later?"
"After all, it is not the way of a subject to watch the capital garrison die in vain."
The others were somewhat tempted by these words.
But someone coldly retorted, "Why should we worry about this?"
"Our current emperor is all-powerful and doesn't listen to any objections."
"Anyone who raises a different opinion now will likely suffer the same fate as Tian Feng if something happens on the front lines!"
Upon hearing this, everyone immediately understood what he meant.
Before the Battle of Guandu, Tian Feng advised Yuan Shao not to march south, but Yuan Shao ended up losing the battle.
Upon returning to Ye City, the first thing he did was kill Tian Feng.
Would the emperor do that?
"It's hard to say, but we don't need to take any risks."
"That's true. The emperor is quite ruthless. We shouldn't invite trouble upon ourselves."
After discussing it for a while, the ministers all fell silent.
Not long after, when they entered the palace to meet the emperor, even Zhu Youjian felt something was amiss.
He glanced at Luo Yangxing.
It turns out that Luo Yangxing had submitted several memorials to the emperor in the past few days.
The memorials all spoke of the ministers in the court who had many complaints about the situation in Guangning.
Zhu Youjian had originally prepared to persuade these ministers.
But when it came time for court, they all fell silent.
Zhu Youjian frowned and took the initiative to ask about the matter.
"My esteemed ministers, what are your thoughts on General Li's troops being bogged down at the gates of Guangning?"
The ministers exchanged glances, then bowed in unison and said, "We have no objection."
"Everything is at Your Majesty's command."
A hint of displeasure flashed in Zhu Youjian's eyes.
Whether the emperor listens to the suggestions made by his ministers is his own business.
However, the ministers could not help but offer their suggestions.
Otherwise, what use would the emperor have for them?
Zhu Youjian turned his gaze to Zhou Yanru.
Zhou Yanru's eyes flickered, and he quickly stepped out.
Although he genuinely agreed with the emperor's methods, since Zhu Youjian had given him a hint, he had to react.
Zhou Yanru first bowed, and then spoke:
"Your Majesty, there has always been a saying that if you surround a place with ten men, you can siege it."
"The Jurchens in Guangning now number as many as 10,000, while General Li only has 70,000 under his command, and he also has to divide his troops to guard the Liao River."
"His forces were insufficient, which is why he was forced to double his attack."
"Therefore, I believe that if we want the Battle of Guangning to be foolproof and at the same time reduce losses, we should send more troops to the front line."
As soon as he uttered these words, many ministers inwardly scoffed:
"That's a real old fox!"
"Not only did he explain it to Li Ruolian, but he also came up with a solution."
"But this old man has forgotten, where in our Great Ming Dynasty do we still have soldiers?"
In fact, at this time, the Ming Dynasty still had hundreds of thousands of troops on its books.
But most of these positions have already become vacant.
There's simply no one available.
The remaining few troops with some fighting capacity are mostly stationed in various strategic locations and cannot be easily mobilized.
Sure enough, after hearing Zhou Yanru's words, Zhu Youjian also asked, "Lord Zhou, where did these troops come from?"
Zhou Yanru replied matter-of-factly, "Of course, we'll recruit more soldiers from Shaanxi and Gansu!"
"Your Majesty should also know that, given the situation this year, Shaanxi and Gansu are likely to suffer from disasters again."
"Instead of waiting for the disaster to escalate and then sending an imperial envoy to recruit soldiers, it would be better to recruit some soldiers now."
"These recruited soldiers don't need any training. They are directly taken to the Nine Garrisons and assigned to the original officers and soldiers."
"Then we'll move some troops from the nine border regions to the front lines."
"Wouldn't that give the imperial court an army?"
Zhu Youjian gave Zhou Yanru a strange look.
He never expected that Zhou Yanru's suggestion would actually be feasible.
The Nine Borders were mainly for defense against the Mongols, but in recent years the Mongols have also weakened considerably.
Therefore, having the veterans in the Nine Garrisons mentor the new recruits, and then transferring some veterans to Liaodong, wasn't too risky.
Seeing Zhu Youjian deep in thought, many ministers became anxious.
They also forgot that not long ago, they had all agreed not to act rashly.
Several ministers came out together.
"Your Majesty, this is absolutely forbidden!"
"At this time, our Great Ming Dynasty is fighting against the Jurchens, and the Mongols are probably also eyeing us covetously."
"If we were to draw veterans from the nine border regions, wouldn't that be giving the Mongols an opportunity?"
Someone else exclaimed, "Yes, the Jurchens are nothing but a minor ailment; the Mongols are the real threat!"
Zhu Youjian was not surprised by their strong reaction.
Even if we disregard the fact that the Jurchens had no real connection with the Jurchens, we can still argue that they were descendants of the Jurchens.
The Jin Dynasty in history, which invaded the Central Plains, did not actually destroy the Song Dynasty.
On the contrary, it was the Mongols who truly swept across the world.
For the first time in history, the land of China was submerged.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty naturally became more wary of the Mongols.
Zhu Youjian did not respond directly to them, but instead asked in return:
"Since you disagree with Zhou Yanru's suggestion, what are your opinions?"
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