Tyrant of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 37 Your Majesty, the Backbone of the Ming Dynasty Has Broken

Chongzhen's curiosity was piqued by Fang Zhenghua's words; he wanted to hear what disrespectful things Fang Zhenghua would say.

Kneeling on the ground, Fang Zhenghua took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, the backbone of the Ming Dynasty is broken!"

These words immediately made Wang Chengen, who was waiting to the side, tremble. He repeatedly gave Fang Zhenghua meaningful glances.

Inwardly, however, he thought to himself, "The Emperor asked you to share your thoughts, not to nitpick.

You said the backbone of the Ming Dynasty is broken—such treasonous words! Do you want His Majesty to break your spine?"

Chongzhen, on the other hand, remained calm, as if he hadn't heard these words at all.

"The older generation of the Ming Dynasty has been terrified by Esen and the Jurchens, losing all ambition and the will to fight."

"Your Majesty, our Ming Dynasty has a vast territory and no external enemies, but our greatest enemy is the Jurchens of Liaodong."

Emperor Chongzhen frowned. He'd been asking Fang Zhenghua to share his thoughts, and now the conversation was back to external enemies. But he patiently asked, "What's the basis for this?"

"The 46th year of Wanli (1618)..." In 1645, Nurhaci offered the "Seven Grievances" to Heaven and Earth, launching his rebellion against the Ming Dynasty. These Seven Grievances already demonstrated the Jurchens' determination. They subsequently launched several attacks on our Great Ming Dynasty, their forces growing stronger and their plunder increasing with each battle.

Therefore, I have concluded that the Jurchens will undoubtedly be a major threat to our Great Ming."

Emperor Chongzhen was startled, but his face remained unperturbed. He countered, "So what? Liaodong has the Guan-Jin-Ning defense line built by Sun Chengzong." "Nine major cities, over forty fortresses, and an army of over one hundred thousand—the mere tens of thousands of Jurchen troops are nothing to them!"

"Naive!"

As soon as Chongzhen finished speaking, Fang Zhenghua, who was kneeling on the ground, straightened up instantly: "Your Majesty, although this servant does not know what Grand Secretary Sun's ultimate goal is, this servant is a martial artist and knows the principle that prolonged defense inevitably leads to defeat.

In the common people, there is a thousand days of thievery, but how can one defend against thieves a thousand days?

The same applies to war.

We are..." "They have fortified castles, but no corresponding field cavalry. They can use endless harassment, and each attack will drain our resources, while their losses will be minimal thanks to the speed of their cavalry.

If our Ming Dynasty were stable, with annual taxes of 50 million taels, such a war would be feasible. But what about now?"

Emperor Chongzhen didn't reply. He turned to the hanging map, staring at the Guan-Ning-Jin defense line outside Shanhaiguan, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

Later generations have held differing opinions on this defense line. Some say it was the most important defense line of the Ming Dynasty because it greatly delayed the Jurchen invasion, effectively killing two Jurchen masters.

Others say it was the Ming Dynasty's Maginot Line—seemingly powerful, but actually quite weak.

A little thought makes it clear: what dynasty, what country, has a defensive line that coincides with or is highly parallel to the enemy's attack route?

For an enemy determined to invade, such a defensive line forces them to find alternative methods.

Sure enough, in the second year of the Chongzhen reign, Huang Taiji led his troops around Mongolia, bypassing the Jinning defensive line, and entered through the Longjing and Da'an passes of the Great Wall, capturing Zunhua and heading straight for Beijing.

In Chongzhen's view, Sun Chengzong's establishment of the Guan-Jinning defensive line was a combination of offense and defense, namely, defending against the Jurchen cavalry and serving as a garrison point for the future subjugation of the Liaodong region.

This was also a major reason why he wanted to recall Sun Chengzong.

However, this defensive line had a major flaw, as Fang Zhenghua pointed out. The core of the Guan-Ning-Jin defense line was the Ming court itself. With an unstable court and insufficient finances, the defense line itself was extremely expensive.

The continuously deteriorating finances forced the government to extract funds from the populace to prevent mutinies, leading to peasant uprisings.

In short, the Guan-Ning-Jin defense line was a burden on the Ming Dynasty, accelerating its descent into an abyss.

In fact, there was another crucial point, which Fang Zhenghua also mentioned: the backbone of the Ming's military leaders and nobles had broken; they had been terrified by the Oirats and the Later Jin.

The Jurchens had a small force; if they had the will to fight to the death, even if it were ten Ming soldiers for every Jurchen, they would have exhausted the Jurchens, not to mention the Ming army's various firearms.

In the Battle of Songjin (1640), the Jurchens and the Ming army clashed with hundreds of thousands of troops. The Ming army inexplicably adopted a retreat strategy, ultimately being completely wiped out. Their foolishness in fighting can only be described as laughable.

Seeing Chongzhen staring at the map in silence for a long time, Wang Chengen said softly, "Your Majesty, Lord Fang was only in a moment of impatience and offended you. Your Majesty, please forgive him!"

Fang Zhenghua had calmed down by this time, realizing the great disrespect in his words and actions. He immediately bowed his head again, awaiting Chongzhen's wrath.

Chongzhen stared at the map for a while, then turned to Fang Zhenghua: "Fang Zhenghua, tell me your next steps."

Fang Zhenghua looked up again, his eyes full of admiration.

"If I were to take over the Horse Stables, I would reorganize the Tengxiang Four Guards. First, I would appoint a young general from the Capital Garrison and the nine border armies as commander of the Tengxiang Four Guards, for they possess the courage and fighting spirit to charge into battle. Second, I would primarily utilize the existing soldiers of the Tengxiang Four Guards,

and recruit a new batch of brave warriors from the general populace to fill the ranks. Third, the Tengxiang Four Guards would use the silver earned from the pastures and imperial estates under the Horse Stables to build a cavalry force—not all, but at least eight-tenths of it." "The rest are infantry, responsible for arson.

In battle, the cavalry will charge from behind the fire.

Normally, only one battalion will remain in Beijing; the other three guards will be sent to suppress rebellions in towns, fight in border garrisons, or train local prefectural guards. I intend to train the Tengxiang Four Guards to be not only skilled on horseback but also exceptional in hand-to-hand combat. Their desperate charges will be extremely powerful, and their dismounted infantry fighting ability will be considerable.

This cavalry force must ultimately be as strong as the Jurchen cavalry, and their final enemy will also be the Jurchen."

Joy, great joy.

Chongzhen was somewhat shaken at this moment. Fang Zhenghua had truly given him many surprises; his strategic insight was welcome, and his proposals were even more welcome.

If his plan had been followed, this would have been an elite force.

Even with fire at this point, and even with his plan to establish the Great Ming Industrial Bureau after the court stabilized, appointing Xu Qi and Bi Maokang as its directors to focus on fire research,

it would still be impossible to develop the Type 38 rifle of later generations within twenty or thirty years. This was determined by the state of the industrial base.

Therefore, fire in the short term could not stop a rapidly charging, fearless iron cavalry.

For the next thirty years, a powerful iron cavalry would dominate the battlefield.

In the short term, it would be extremely costly and not worth the effort, but in the long term, it was absolutely necessary to build one.

The cavalry was not only for dealing with the Jurchens, but also for the surrounding Oirat, Tatar, Tibetan, Yarkand, and U-Tsang tribes, as well as Siam and Nanyue. A strong cavalry force was needed for these conflicts as well.

After a moment of contemplation, Chongzhen said in a deep voice, "Fang Zhenghua, your proposal is good, but I have a few questions for you."