Xiao Ruxun pointed at a place in the map, and the generals came forward to watch, and they were all surprised when they saw it.

"Nihua City?!"

Li Rusong whispered, "People look at me, I look at you, and they are speechless for a moment."

"That's right, Guihua City. This time, I will not only regain Datong, but also fight until Guihua City! I will kill Tumote! Not only that! I will also kill several tribes in Datong together with Tumote to attack Datong! I will also kill all the barbarians from outside the border! I will let all the barbarians outside the border know! It is easy to plunder the Ming Dynasty for a while, and after being happy, I will have to pay the price."

In fact, Xiao Ruxun wanted to say more than that. His real purpose was to occupy Guihua City and re-engage the northern defense system during the Hongwu period that the Ming Dynasty gradually abandoned since Yongle Xuande. He even wanted to attack Hetao to restore Hetao and restore Zhu Yuanzhang's defense system, especially Dongshengwei.

The Dongshengwei was an important ward set up by Zhu Yuanzhang in the northeast corner of the Hetao area of ​​the Yellow River. It was the only ward in the northern border defense in the early Ming Dynasty that could control the entire Hetao. Its land was east of the surrendered city built by Zhang Renyuan of the Tang Dynasty.

Dongshengwei actually plays a role in connecting Liaodong in the east and Gansu in the west. From Dongsheng to the east, there are Datong, Xinghe, Kaiping, Daning and even Liaodong, from Dongsheng to Ningxia, Lanzhou, Zhuanglang, Liangzhou, Shandan, and even Gansu.

Helan Mountain, Gansu Beishan Mountain and Hetao are all within the control of this defense line, which made the northern border defense of the Ming Dynasty from point to surface, from east to west, and echo each other, thus steadily pushing its entire northern border line hundreds of miles north of the Great Wall.

This line of defense is a very enterprising active strategic defense completely different from the current Jiubian important towns, which gave the Ming Dynasty enough strategic depth in the northern theatre and gave the Ming government enough time to respond.

Moreover, even if the Northern Lu broke through this line of defense, the Ming army still had enough time to build a second line of defense in the Great Wall, and used the strength of the Great Wall to block the Northern Lu outside the Great Wall. The distance of hundreds of miles was enough for the Ming government to organize defensive forces. Most importantly, the main production areas and population settlements were within the protection scope of the Great Wall.

Defending enemies outside the country means that the war will not burn within the country. There are people in the country with production. Once destroyed, the losses will be unpredictable. Moreover, after the war, the government needs to organize other forces to resume production. The productivity of the farming country is very fragile and easy to destroy, but it is difficult to recover.

This time and countless energy have been spent over a year. The money and materials used for post-war recovery are far higher than the money needed for simple combat. This business is particularly unprofitable, so if you can defend against enemies outside the country, it is the most strategic and cost-effective one.

Some people just can't see it. They keep shrinking their defense lines, believing that shrinking the defense lines to places closer to the country will consume less money and require less money for transportation. In this way, the country's finances will be relaxed, and they will need less military expenditure, and they will be able to suppress the military forces at the same time.

As a result, the territory of the Ming Dynasty shrank and smaller, and the smaller it shrank and smaller.

In the end, the literati government reduced the huge national strategic map of the Hongwu Yongle period to the extent that it was after the unification of the Qin Dynasty in the Wanli period of Jiajing and Wanli period.

The garrisons in Liaodong and the garrisons near Yinshan in the north were all abandoned. The northern defense line of the entire country shrank on a large scale, becoming a passive defense tactic that could only be defended by relying entirely on the Great Wall.

The border is where the people live. Whenever there is war, the people will always be displaced and suffer from it. The border production and economy are deeply affected and cannot be restored in a short period of time. We still have to continue supplying from the mainland.

The combat effectiveness of the army was getting worse and worse, the status of soldiers was getting worse, the military fields were embezzled in large quantities, and the ward system was basically destroyed. The arrangements for the army left by Zhu Yuanzhang had completely gone bankrupt, and the strategic situation of the Ming Dynasty had completely turned into the stage of passive beating. These were all things that Xiao Ruxun didn't want to see.

He knew that even if he reached the original location of Dongshengwei, to Guihua City, now Hohhot, to the fishing sea that Lan Yu had once arrived, and even to the Langjuxu Mountain and Yanran Mountain that Huo Qubing and Dou Xian, he still could not win the transformation of strategic national policies in the Ming Empire led by the literati government.

They just want to live a stable life, make money safely, merge land safely, fight peacefully, and live to the death safely. It is best that all the enemies in the world will die, and only the Ming Dynasty will be left with people and land, so they can continue to fight happily.

However, they never considered what the so-called stability would cost them to get back. Your retreat can only bring about the enemy's greed. Only by making the enemy feel scared will they treat you with caution.

So Xiao Ruxun beheaded three thousand northern captives in Ningxia and piled up a Jingguan outside the Great Wall. Such deterrent force scared Ningxia's captives for three years and did not dare to invade. If they were to deal with them, they could not give in and could only deal with them.

Of course, the Mingwen government also has one thing, that is, it is that it is absolutely uncompromising to the barbarians in the north, and it has a very tough attitude towards the Mongolian tribes. If no one kills them, no one will say that the army is not good to kill. Anyway, as long as they are not allowed to see it, they will not talk too much. This is the better thing about Ming than Song.

Naturally, for the Ming government, it is better to have less things than to have more things. It is best not to fight on both sides. If you want to fight, you must have money. If you want money, you have to start arguing and start fighting. It is very annoying, so it is better not to fight.

Such thoughts not only make civil servants follow the truth, but also affect the military officers. They think that they can do their own duties and fight defensive battles well, and there is no need to attack outside the border. Like Ma Fang back then, what's the best thing about fighting the grasslands like the one who fought every day and every year, and what's the point of fighting?

Isn't it still like this now?

The Han Dynasty was a wolf, and the stone was stolen by Yanran, but so what? Are the Hu people dead?

The Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty made eight northern expeditions, and Chengzu personally expeditioned the northern part of the Mo River five times, and even reached the point of sealing the wolf and the servants. So what? Aren’t the Northern Barbarians still going south every year?

Those who say expansion do not consider whether the land is good for the Ming Dynasty. What is the use of places where food cannot grow? It is not only cold, but also very expensive. There is no profit to make a profit. I have to pay in every year and don’t know how much money to maintain it. Do you really think the Ming Dynasty is so rich?
Chapter completed!