In Zhou Zhong's office room in Wenyuan Pavilion in Beijing, although the room is not very big, it is packed with people today because Zhou Zhong has invited several ministers from the cabinet, as well as several ministers from the DPRK. As an important minister, this originally small room was packed to the brim. After everyone placed a chair and sat down, there was no more space in the whole room. Speaking of which, since Li Dongyang passed away, although Li Dongyang was buried with great honors and his posthumous affairs were very generous, that was all because Li Dongyang was already a dead man, so Zhou Zhong didn't mind giving him more glory, but He was not at all polite to those left behind in the cabinet. For example, the original two people Liang Chu and Liu Zhong entered the cabinet because of Li Dongyang's recommendation. Although these two people were quite talented, they were a bit stubborn. They had previously raised objections to some of Zhou Zhong's measures, especially against Zhou Zhong. Zhong was very resistant to some reforms in the administration of officials, so Zhou Zhong removed these two people from the cabinet in the name of Fang Niancai, and then promoted Wang Shouren and Yang Yiqing to the cabinet. As for Zhang Cai , because of his special status, he cannot join the cabinet at all, but he can participate in court discussions like ordinary cabinet ministers. This is actually not much different from joining the cabinet. There are currently five cabinet members, namely Yang Tinghe, a bachelor of Wenyuange Palace, Jiao Fang, a bachelor of Wuyingdian Palace, Wang Qiong, a bachelor of Jinshen Palace, Wang Shouren, a bachelor of Dongge Palace, and Yang Yiqing, a bachelor of Huagaidian Palace. Except for Yang Tinghe, the other four people were the core forces of Zhou Zhong's rectification of officialdom and reform. ¡°Speaking of Zhou¡¯s intention to implement reforms and rectify the administration of officials, it would be best if the cabinet can be united with him in the process of implementing the laws. Only then can there be no constraints. But Yang Tinghe is not an ordinary person. He was originally a teacher of Zhengde. Later, Li Dongyang valued him and trained him as the successor of the chief minister of the cabinet. Now that Li Dongyang died, Yang Tinghe became the representative of the entire southern department officials, and the southern department officials accounted for more than 70% of the Ming Dynasty officials. Now Zhou Zhong has ruled In addition to Liang Chu and Liu Zhong, if Yang Tinghe was also kicked out of the cabinet, it would probably cause chaos in the entire officialdom. In addition, Zhou Zhong also took it into consideration. When he was reforming the law and rectifying the government, he needed an opposing voice in the court to remind him to prevent him from going too far on certain things. Yang Tinghe, the chief minister of the cabinet, just had such strength and conditions, so Zhou Chong Yang Tinghe was still allowed to serve as the chief assistant, and he did not even have the power to exclude Yang Tinghe. Originally Yang Tinghe didn't know what Zhou Zhong was doing, but with a series of changes in the cabinet and Zhou Zhong's preparations for reform and rectification of officialdom, Yang Tinghe, who had very keen political acumen, finally became aware of Zhou Zhong's purpose. , which shocked him at the same time. I am very conflicted in my heart. I don¡¯t know where I should stand in this change. Speaking of which, Yang Tinghe is the representative of officials from the Southern Department. The corruption trend in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty has been around for a long time. If reforms are carried out, it will definitely involve the entire officialdom of the Ming Dynasty. Among them, the most numerous officials from the southern department will bear the brunt. As the leader of the southern officials, he naturally has to protect himself. The interests of one party, but as the chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty, he also hopes to completely eradicate corruption in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty. This is not only a good thing for the Ming Dynasty, but also a good thing for him, the chief assistant. It's a good thing to leave a name in Qing history. It is precisely this kind of ambivalence that Yang Tinghe has, so Yang Tinghe has always had a business-like attitude towards Zhou Zhong's preparations before the reform, neither blocking nor giving a green light. If there are problems, he will also raise objections. , and this is exactly what Zhou Zhong wants, so so far, Zhou Zhong and Yang Tinghe have not had much conflict due to the reform. Today, Zhou Zhong suddenly summoned all the five ministers to him. Yang Tinghe already had a hunch. However, when Zhou Zhong did not expressly stated that he wanted to reform before, he could still use a neutral attitude and be impartial. But if Zhou Zhong If Ming Dynasty officially announces reforms, then he can no longer be as before, but must join a camp, either completely siding with Zhou Chong like Yang Yiqing and Wang Shouren, or like Li Dongyang and all southern officials hope In this way, Zhou Chong's reforms were resisted. Yang Tinghe was full of contradictions. Zhou Zhong took a deep look at him before speaking, and seemed to have seen Yang Tinghe's entanglement. However, he did not care, but cleared his throat and said: "Everyone, please come today. , we are mainly discussing two things. The first thing is His Majesty's personal expedition to Liaodong. I wonder if you have anything else to say about this. " Hearing Zhou Zhong mention Zhengde's personal expedition to Liaodong, everyone looked at Wang Qiong. , after all, he is not only a bachelor of the cabinet, but also the minister of the Ministry of War, so he has the most say in such military matters. Wang Qiongqing coughed, stood up and said: "Reporting to the Supervisor, the Southern Route Army led by His Majesty and the Eastern Route Army led by Liaodong Dusi have been assembled. In addition, there is no logistics.If there is any problem, it can be said that the two armies can launch an attack at any time. However, according to the previously formulated plan, this time the battle against the Duoyan Three Guards is still focused on recruiting and surrendering. Therefore, before launching the attack, the Ministry of Rites has sent envoys to the Duoyan Three Guards. I hope that I can persuade the three guards of Duoyan to join them directly without raising any more weapons. After all, as long as there is a war, not only will countless soldiers die, but also a lot of financial and material resources will be spent. " Zhou Chong also knew about sending envoys to the Duoyan Sanwei. After all, the Duoyan Sanwei were originally the backbone between the Ming Dynasty and the Tatars. If the envoys could be used to persuade the other party to surrender again, that would be a good thing. "Master Wang, In your opinion, will the three guards of Duoyan be persuaded by our envoys to leave the Tatars and join the Ming Dynasty? " Zhou Zhong pondered for a moment and asked. Although Wang Qiong has a problem with his character, his talent can be said to be the first among the ministers. Otherwise, he would not be called the third minister of the Ming Dynasty together with Yu Qian and Zhang Juzheng. Hearing Zhou Wang Qiong pondered this important question and immediately answered: "If it were done before, the three guards of Duoyan would probably be persuaded by the envoy to submit to the Ming Dynasty again, but the previous submissions were only in name." , our Ming Dynasty will not interfere in the internal affairs of Duoyan Sanwei, but this time we not only proposed to make the other party submit, but also proposed to take over the other party's army, and then send officials to manage it. In this way, the power of the tribal leaders will be Being ignored and treated as a flower, this person's character will definitely not agree to the conditions proposed by our Ming Dynasty, so this battle is probably inevitable! " Zhou Zhong and other cabinet ministers nodded in agreement when they heard Wang Qiong's analysis. The reason why they used troops against the three guards of Duoyan this time was to completely subdue them, and then recruit the Mongolians of the three guards, and add The Han people formed a Han-Mongolian cavalry as the main force to invade the grasslands in the future. Therefore, it is naturally impossible to allow the Duoyan Three Guards to be autonomous. They must completely bring the Duoyan Three Guards into the rule of the Ming Dynasty. This contradiction is irreconcilable and the other party must not He agreed easily, so Ming Dynasty could only use war to beat the opponent until he had to agree. "That's it, then we can only fight. But this time we dispatched an army of 150,000 people. Isn't this a little small?" What a big question. With so many troops, they can almost wipe out the three Duoyan guards? "At this time, Yang Tinghe suddenly raised his objection and said, Duoyan Sanwei is just a wallflower. To deal with such a tribe, only tens of thousands of people are needed. Now Wang Qiong has mobilized 150,000 people at once. In Yang Tinghe's view, this is simply It¡¯s just a waste. ¡°Mr. Yang, don¡¯t underestimate Duoyan Sanwei. In recent years, they have been encroaching on Liaodong step by step. Their strength is no longer what it used to be. The total population of Sanwei has also increased several times. It is initially estimated that it should be more than 500,000. , if you want to conquer such a large tribe, hundreds of thousands of people are still relatively few, and the 50,000 Japanese servants on the Liaodong Dusi side not only have to deal with the three Duoyan guards, but their most important task is to deal with the women of the Jianzhou guards. What a savage. "Before Wang Qiong could speak, Zhou Zhong answered for him. "But the three guards of Duoyan are originally from the grasslands and have no fixed place all year round. What if the army is pressing down on the border now and they see that they can't defeat them and they flee north with their people? , after all, they originally lived in the upper reaches of the Songhua River, so it would not be difficult to return to their ancestral land? "Yang Tinghe raised his objection again. "Although what Mr. Yang said is possible, it actually doesn't work. First of all, the reason why the three guards of Duoyan went south was not only to covet the beauty of the southern grasslands, but also the most important thing is that in these years the north It's getting colder and colder, and a large number of grassland people freeze to death almost every year. That's why the three guards of Duoyan desperately migrate south. However, after they left, the grassland that originally belonged to them has been occupied by other Mongolian tribes. They want to If we want to go back, I'm afraid we can only go to war with those Mongolian tribes. Then it will be a war of genocide, which is more terrifying than surrendering to our Ming Dynasty! "Wang Qiong, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, is indeed very competent. He actually knows everything about the grassland. "Well said, the three guards of Duoyan have no retreat. We sent an army of 150,000. On the one hand, it shows the military might of our Ming Dynasty. On the other hand, On the one hand, it also allows the Duoyan Three Guards to see our determination to regain Liaodong. I believe that as long as the Duoyan Three Guards cannot take advantage after the war begins, they will seriously consider surrendering. "At this time, Yang Yiqing also added that he was the only one among the civil servants who could lead troops to fight alone, and when he was in Ningxia, he knew the situation on the grassland very well. Although the situation in Liaodong is different from that in Ningxia, the truth is When Yang Tinghe heard this, he finally had no objections. Then Zhou Zhong discussed a few more words with Wang Qiong and Yang Yiqing, then put the Liaodong matter aside and started talking about the second matter, which was also Zhou Zhong's. The main reason why Zhong called everyone here today is also what Yang Tinghe is most worried about. (To be continued)