My life skills in Daming Liver - Chapter 622

c614 capitulationist strategist

After Chen Yiqin assisted Southeast in taking over various places in Henan, he heard that his Governor’s Mansion was besieged.

Most of these people were the family members of local officials who had committed crimes. They surrounded Chen Yiqin’s official residence, asking their “old boss” to help them intercede with the southeastern government and pardon their families.

After Chen Yiqin heard about it, he immediately took his son Chen Yubi and bypassed Kaifeng and went straight to Nanjing.

Chen Yubi sat on the boat and asked doubtfully: “Father, those are your disciples and former officials. Some of them committed only trivial things. Didn’t you always teach your sons to make more good friends in the officialdom?”

Chen Yiqin shook his head and said: “One moment and another moment. When you were an official in the Ming Dynasty, your father told you to make more good friends and not offend your colleagues easily.”

“But now that we are officials in the southeast, we must not be afraid of offending our colleagues.”

Chen Yiqin added: “The reason why things in Henan failed is that these people are greedy and cunning. When my father was in power in Henan, they did many things in secret and hindered everything. Now that people from the southeast have come, they are still doing this. If you do one thing, you deserve to be caught.”

Chen Yubi remembered that when his father went to Henan to promote reforms, the officials below him always resisted the most fiercely. At that time, Chen Yiqin could only reform in Kaifeng Prefecture first and achieve results before spreading it to Henan.

After understanding his father’s thoughts, Chen Yubi stopped persuading him.

Chen Yiqin then said, “Has the letter of surrender you wrote to your father-in-law been delivered?”

In order to protect each other with Shaanxi, Chen Yiqin asked his son to marry the daughter of Guo Pu, the governor of Shaanxi, and they became in-laws.

Guo Pu originally planned to lead troops to support Henan, but he did not expect that Suiyang would be defeated so quickly and completely, and the Chen family and his son immediately surrendered.

After Chen Yiqin surrendered, he took the initiative to propose to Chen Lin that his son could persuade Guo Pu to surrender. Chen Lin asked Chen Yubi to write a personal letter and send it to Shaanxi to persuade his father-in-law to surrender.

Chen Yubi was indeed a well-known child prodigy. His letter was delivered to Guo Pu. Guo Pu, who was also a civil servant, greatly appreciated the literary talent of the letter.

Guo Pu led his troops at Tongguan, which is the main route from Henan to Guanzhong. It is close to mountains and rivers, and its geographical location is very dangerous.

Guo Pu immediately called a meeting of his counselors to discuss how to deal with the southeast.

A middle-aged counselor stepped forward. This counselor’s name was Qiu Yuanshan, a local scholar in Shaanxi.

Qiu Yuanshan took part in the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty, but he came close every time and is still just a scholar.

However, Qiu Yuanshan’s abilities in all aspects are outstanding and he is very famous in Shaanxi. Some people even compare him with Xu Wei from the southeast.

Xu Wei also failed in repeated attempts, and later became a staff member under Hu Zongxian, and is now the Prime Minister of the Southeast Cabinet.

So after Guo Pu arrived in Shaanxi, he immediately recruited Qiu Yuanshan as his staff.

But before Qiu Yuanshan could speak, a young man in military uniform stood up. This was Guo Pu’s eldest son-in-law Ning Yuan, a commander of the Shaanxi New Army trained by Guo Pu.

Ning Yuan immediately said: “Your Majesty Governor! Tongguan is naturally dangerous. As long as our troops guard the southeastern part of Tongguan, we will not be able to enter Guanzhong. There have been countless battles at Tongguan in history, and there are only a few people who can capture this majestic pass.”

“Southeast has always been stingy with troops. If Tongguan is difficult to defeat, they will definitely attack other targets.”

After Ning Yuan finished speaking, all the staff present nodded.

During the Tang Dynasty, Guanzhong was the political center of the entire empire, and Tongguan was built to defend Guanzhong.

Now times have changed, Guanzhong is no longer the center of the world, but Tongguan’s position is still dangerous.

The reason why Guanzhong is called Guanzhong is because of the series of checkpoints surrounded by mountains and rivers, which separate Shaanxi from other provinces.

Guo Pu also understood what his son-in-law was thinking. This was also the thinking of most civil and military officials in Shaanxi today, that is, surrender was inevitable. Chen Yiqin was sitting in Henan, with stronger military strength than Shaanxi, and Henan’s agricultural and industrial foundation was better than Shaanxi’s. , was still beaten by the Southeast, and the whole territory fell in less than two months.

Therefore, the land of Shaanxi will definitely not be able to stop the southeastern army.

Now that the situation of changing dynasties has taken shape, even the people in the capital feel that the fate of the Ming Dynasty will be over soon. Shaanxi, which has directly fought with Southeast China many times, understands this truth even more.

But when to surrender and how to surrender are still controversial within Shaanxi.

Among them, they are divided into the slow descent faction headed by representative Ningyuan and the rapid descent faction represented by Qiu Yuanshan.

The group of people represented by Ning Yuan mainly want to let Southeast know how difficult Shaanxi is to fight, and finally be able to surrender after other places in the Ming Dynasty surrender. Only in this way can the value of the entire Shaanxi be reflected and better surrender conditions be obtained.

This idea also takes advantage of the characteristics of the southeastern army’s combat. The generals in the southeast are often very stingy with troops and rarely fight tough battles with heavy losses, but prefer to fight annihilation battles with overwhelming troops and equipment.

Ning Yuan is no idiot. He keeps an eye on the important battles in the Southeast and has some understanding of the Southeast’s combat style.

Guo Pu looked at his son-in-law and asked: “But Suiyang is as dangerous as Tongguan. Since the southeastern army can capture Suiyang, can Tongguan be defended?”

Ning Yuan said decisively: “We can hold it!”

“Tongguan is different from Suiyang. Suiyang is surrounded by flat land. The Chen family relied too much on trenches and bastions, and the new tactics of the southeastern army broke through the trench defenses.”

“No matter how strong Suiyang’s defense is, it is surrounded by plains and dense water networks. Southeast can transport weapons to the outside of Suiyang city and arrange them calmly.”

“But Tongguan is different. There are three thousand miles to Tongguan inside and outside, and the terrain of Tongguan Mountain Road is dangerous. It is almost impossible to transport the artillery to the vicinity of Tongguan before our army discovers it. Moreover, the terrain in front of Tongguan is narrow and cannot be deployed. This This is also the reason why Tongguan was easy to defend but difficult to attack in ancient times.”

“If the southeastern army wants to attack Tongguan, it will inevitably pay a huge price.”

Many officers present nodded along. The mountain road in front of Tongguan made it very difficult to transport artillery. The goal of the Shaanxi Ming Army was to defend, and it was not to defeat the southeastern army, so such a strategic goal could be easily achieved.

Guo Pu naturally understood this truth. Since he was going to surrender, he might as well offer more favorable terms before surrendering.

Qiu Yuanshan said: “Your Majesty Governor, this is wrong. Since we want to surrender, it would be better to surrender as soon as possible!”

Everyone looked at Qiu Yuanshan, and only heard the other party say: “The position in the world is limited. The imperial examination has been opened in the southeast, and more than half of the world’s talents have entered the southeast. When they surrender later, the interior of the southeast Is there still room for us?”

“Even if the conditions seem to be favorable, they are just a wealthy man. When the world is at peace, any official can take advantage of me.”