Chapter 1558: Not Seeking Quick Victory

"Grand Coordinator, do we really have to fight?"

Santunying, Governor-General's Yamen, Qi Jiguang asked Wang Yan, who was gnawing on a big bone, uncertainly.

"You, the dignified General Qi, can you not ask such nonsense?" Wang Yan wiped his oily hands, picked up his wine cup, took a sip, and muttered, "I scolded Xu Jie and the others in the capital for over a month before the war was decided, and you still ask me if we really have to fight?"

"Old Qi, what you need to do now is to carefully consider whether the combat plan you prepared is perfect, whether you have considered unfavorable situations, and how to respond if there are unfavorable situations."

"Is the Grand Coordinator letting me have full authority?" Qi Jiguang was uncertain again.

As someone who had been in contact with Wang Yan for so long, Qi Jiguang understood that Wang Yan actually had quite a lot of accomplishments in fighting. Although it was "talking about war on paper," what he talked about was truly flawless. The two of them would push troops in their spare time, and Wang Yan would always beat him until he couldn't find north.

"You are responsible for the attack, and I am responsible for the defense and rescue in the rear, as well as providing military supplies to your frontline troops. We divide the work and cooperate, each in charge of one area. Don't worry, I will absolutely not point fingers at your decisions; you can fight however you want."

"Grand Coordinator, if we lose..."

"Victory is the only option; defeat is not allowed!" Wang Yan said firmly. "His Majesty and the imperial court have spent so much silver in Jiliao these years; how can there be any reason not to win? If you insist on asking what happens if we lose, I can tell you directly: the two of us will just commit suicide; we won't trouble others, nor will we go to the capital to suffer."

Qi Jiguang clenched his fist and hammered the table: "Grand Coordinator, rest assured, this battle will be won!"

"I don't need to rest assured; I never thought we would lose. Otherwise, so much silver, so many people I offended, and over a dozen assassination attempts—wouldn't it all have been in vain?"

Wang Yan laughed and said, "You can also rest assured about Xu Jie's side. They can only be called useless, but they can't be called holding us back. His Majesty is also waiting for a great victory to offer sacrifices to heaven. Adding trouble to His Majesty at this time is just not wanting to live. After this battle is fought, you will be in charge of the Capital Battalion, and I will be in charge of the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers; we can also enjoy ourselves properly."

Qi Jiguang nodded and asked: "When will we start fighting?"

"After the autumn harvest, there's still more than a month. You make a plan and deploy troops. I will start raising military supplies and send a batch to the front first. You set up a few battlefields in advance, find a few key positions, and make some arrangements nearby in advance."

"The commotion the Grand Coordinator made in the capital this time must be quite large, and the news that we are going to start a war must have already reached Xuan-Da and other places. The barbarians are probably already prepared..."

"No matter. The grasslands are so big, and we are unfamiliar with the place. Even if they aren't prepared, it's not easy to fight. Besides, it's not like we aren't doing anything now. If we don't fight a big battle, can't we fight a small one? Send a few thousand people out first, cross the Yan Mountains, and fight a bit. Historically, big battles don't start with tens of thousands of people right away; they all have to touch slowly, and then mobilize troops. You have fought for many years; do I need to tell you more about this?"

"Then should I arrange for people to go and fight?" Qi Jiguang was still uncertain.

"Make a plan, don't fight blindly; you should know. How many people to send, when to send them, where to fight—I don't care; you just go ahead and do it. General Qi, at this very moment, this war concerning the dignity of our Great Ming Emperor and the national destiny of our Great Ming has already begun!"

"Yes! I'll go arrange it!"

Qi Jiguang drank up a small pot of wine, let out a long breath, turned around, and walked out with dragon-like steps...

Wang Yan ultimately produced a powerful influence on this empire.

This war machine of the Great Ming finally started to move slowly, and this empire, which was originally gradually moving towards decline, radiated new vitality.

Supplies from all over the country poured into the Nine Borders defense line through land and water routes. Along with the massive transport of supplies, officials were constantly losing their heads.

If it were in the past, it wouldn't have been a big problem for officials in various localities and Yamen to embezzle some; after all, it was wartime, and everything was a mess, so they wouldn't have had the time to care unless it was too excessive. Later, of course, people would die—after all, someone had to be responsible—but they wouldn't have died in such large numbers as now.

The situation is different now. Wang Yan advocated starting the war with his life; if he loses, he has to die. So under these circumstances, whoever dares to hold him back, he naturally has to kill them first.

Of course, Wang Yan didn't have such strong supervisory ability; he couldn't manage so far away. But he didn't need to target any specific person; anyway, the final discrepancy in the number of supplies could always be found. How much went out, how much was received—it was all recorded.

The backers of the people in various links he wanted to target—whether it was Xu Jie, Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, or Li Chunfang, etc. —Wang Yan absolutely had the ability to kick them down and could retaliate fiercely.

So Wang Yan didn't need to take action personally; the deep-thinking Xu Jie and others had already set high standards and strict requirements for those below. This was a war affecting the national destiny of the Great Ming; no one could afford the responsibility of failure.

Just Wang Yan alone could make them want to die, not to mention that Wang Yan represented the Jiajing Emperor, who wanted to take revenge, wanted to embody civil and martial achievements, and wanted to be the one-and-only emperor who surpassed past emperors.

If they really let the Jiajing Emperor die without regrets, with the Jiajing Emperor's now more powerful imperial power, it would be easy for him to take these good ministers away together; no one would have a good time...

In addition, there was sea trade. All sea merchants received notification to transport war-needed supplies like grain from overseas. The government would pay to purchase them and also provide a certain degree of tax exemption, thereby stimulating sea merchants to transport goods to Bohai Bay.

This was a more cost-saving and larger-quantity transport method than land transport and canal transport. The cycle of sea transport was also within an acceptable range. After all, the Great Ming's accumulation in these years was quite sufficient, and the grain reserves in the Jiliao region were enough to fight for a year or two. With such a long time passed, it was enough for sea transport to bring back grain supplies.

As for whether the sea merchants cooperated... they were simply quite cooperative, all enthusiastically expressing that they would definitely get war supplies from overseas and strongly expressing that grain would be supported to the imperial court for free.

No family or surname would naively think that this matter was something they could decide voluntarily. Since the suppression of Japanese pirates in the southeast a few years ago, the southeastern great families had no room for bargaining. By the time Yu Dayou managed the southeastern navy completely and turned the fleet that originally belonged to Wang Yan into an official one, the southeastern great families had all become meat on the chopping block.

The Shipping Bureau was re-established. Although many taxes were collected, the great families were very happy because that meant they survived and they still had money to earn in the future. Although they earned much less, they definitely didn't lose money; after being beaten hard, they were satisfied.

So this was an opportunity to compete to show loyalty. Everyone started to express loyalty without limits, and naturally, they contributed quite a bit of silver to support the war.

Currently, Wang Yan's famous quote is circulating in the Great Ming, which was accidentally leaked when he was the Prefectural Administrator of Shuntian Prefecture. It was about how, because he was a lone minister and no one befriended him, he could still receive many gifts during the New Year. Wang Yan said he didn't care who sent them, just who didn't...

The war against the Tatars was led by Wang Yan. The changes in the southeast were also instigated by Wang Yan. Where would the southeastern great families dare not to obey?

And the great families of Shanxi, Shandong, Hebei, and Henan on the other side had also been miserable under Wang Yan's hands in these years—otherwise, why would he have encountered so many assassination attempts?

He used the long defense line of Jiliao, the relatively abundant resources, and more trading objects to restrain the great families of the four places. Those caught smuggling were dealt with to death; there were simply too many he had "cleared out" in these years.

At this critical moment, they didn't dare to act blindly. Even if they colluded secretly, they had to assess the situation. For the current ruling class of the Great Ming, being able to see the difference in the current Great Ming was a very important point.

If they could see clearly and embrace it actively, they could earn money and continue their family line. If they couldn't see clearly and still racked their brains to resist, they would naturally reap what they sowed, fall behind the times, and be swept into the dustbin of history.

As mentioned before, the current Great Ming was at the time of the rise of capitalism, moving from traditional agriculture to the primary industrial era. Wang Yan opened this gap and cultivated the first generation of capitalists. By today, they had developed into a quite powerful new force...

Those cultivated by Wang Yan thought they were on the same side as Wang Yan, but in reality, it just wasn't the time to kill them yet. They would also be swept into the dustbin.

But they were indeed a help now, listening to Wang Yan's orders.

There was no specific organization. As long as Wang Yan started something, they would actively follow. They had cooperated quite well over the years.

And their power wasn't weak. After all, truth be told, among this first batch of people, which family wasn't a powerful great family? They were those who saw money, saw the future, and started to transform. The ones that followed were the merchant groups of various sizes that developed later.

So these local great families that were also struck by Wang Yan, as well as the emerging capitalist groups that listened to his orders, all actively supported him.

Even they didn't need to support him; as long as they didn't cause trouble and didn't hold him back, it was already a help to the Great Ming, not to mention support.

This was a moment of unprecedented high unity for the Great Ming.

Thus, other places were also stable, such as the various chieftains in Yunnan and Guizhou, such as the Three Guards of Doyan and the Jurchens in the north, etc. At this time, there were no internal problems, and they were all enthusiastically paying for the war. If any barbarian outside dared to cause trouble, they would be "cleared out"—this wasn't a joke.

Barbarians had no culture, but they weren't stupid; they could see the situation clearly and were very honest.

Among them, the Three Guards of Doyan and the Jurchens were the most honest. In these years, besides dealing with great families, reforming the army, and Jiliao construction, Wang Yan's remaining time was spent studying them.

Winning over, dividing, and taking the people of the Three Guards of Doyan and the Jurchens to work and engage in construction, giving them money, helping them farm, and intermarrying. Directly making decisions for the oppressed grassroots people and dealing with their leaders.

It was certainly impossible to make them submit in a short time, but it was no problem to make a portion of them recognize and support the Great Ming's rule. The soldiers Qi Jiguang took out to fight this time included over ten thousand people from the Three Guards of Doyan and the Jurchens.

How could Wang Yan let them enjoy themselves in the rear while also being an unstable factor? They were all sent to the front to fight for their lives. If they dared to disobey military orders during wartime, their fate would be even more miserable than the Tatars; the priority of killing them was even higher than killing the Tatars...

Combining various conditions, this war against the Tatars was not simple, but it was a steady advance step by step.

After Qi Jiguang sent out troops, he experienced a few small battles, and in over a month, it became a big battle. Both sides had over one hundred thousand troops, maneuvering, attacking, and defending each other on the grasslands and in the surrounding mountains.

Qi Jiguang quickly became familiar with the fighting on the grasslands and summarized a set of fighting methods, which was his strength. He quickly turned the battle into a war of attrition and a protracted war.

This was what Wang Yan had instructed him. This battle didn't seek quick victory at all; as long as they could achieve a certain advantage and maintain it, it was a victory for the Great Ming.

Because the current Great Ming had money, it relied on national strength to fight logistics, which the Tatars couldn't resist. Their ability to fight well on the grasslands couldn't be exerted at all, and instead, it was all used on running away to save their lives.

This was indeed the Great Ming's weakness, mainly in the gap in cavalry. However, on the other hand, the Great Ming wasn't without advantages, and that was firearms. Wang Yan had never stopped improving the performance of firearms.

It was certainly not that he had created an AK, but under his constant urging, he had created rifling. This was a quite significant progress.

After all, there were many ways to talk about rifling: how many lines to engrave, how deep, how to engrave—it was all knowledge.

It was mainly because Wang Yan didn't even give hints, just increased R&D investment in this area, and occasionally checked the progress and looked at the finished products. This was all the wisdom of the Great Ming craftsmen...

In addition, there were many improvements in firing speed, gunpowder propulsion, projectiles, etc. The power was absolutely sufficient, making up for the gap in mobility...

Wang Yan kept his word; he really didn't point fingers at Qi Jiguang from beginning to end, just guarding the rear as previously said, preventing the Tatars from stealing chickens.

In logistics, Wang Yan was naturally not bad. He had fought for so many years; in fact, what he liked most was fighting logistics, using sufficient resources and powerful national strength to grandly crush his opponents.

At the same time, Wang Yan was also using the war to promote economic development. After all, people were working in every link, soldiers had pensions for casualties, and the treatment of military pay during wartime was also better. The Imperial Bank was printing money every day.

Wang Yan was also trying his best to stabilize prices and ensure the stability of the treasure notes' purchasing power. After this battle was fought, the Great Ming could be even more prosperous.

This was something the ruling class of the Great Ming couldn't understand: why Wang Yan could turn a war that consumed money into a big business that earned money. Before occupying the grasslands and letting the people of the grasslands earn money, he had already used the war to expand domestic demand and drive the rapid development of the economy.

It didn't delay anything at all: he fought the war, engaged in construction, cultivated his own people in every link, promoted many people, accepted many people's surrender, and accumulated even more solid qualifications and political capital.

It also gave the Jiajing Emperor great satisfaction and reaped even greater benefits...

?? Daily thanks to the good brothers who tip, vote for monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and silently read the book for their strong support! ===== CHAPTER 1559 =====