Chapter 543
Xuande continued his monologue while examining the map.
“Though I said Qizhen’s character suits founding enterprises, even that’s being generous. His nature is only suitable for breaking through battle lines when placed at the vanguard. But he’s not stupid enough to attempt something with just 150,000 troops. He’ll do his utmost to gather the Jurchens in Liaodong. That way, we can deal with the troublesome Jurchens up to an appropriate point without lifting a finger while they clash with Joseon.”
Throughout long history, nomadic peoples, especially the Jurchens, were objects of terror. This fear was so profound that there existed a representative saying about the Jurchens:
“Ten thousand Jurchen troops cannot be withstood by all under heaven.”
Therefore, Ming used divide-and-rule tactics to control the Jurchens.
They sowed discord between Jurchen tribes to make them hostile to each other and induced them to show loyalty to Ming.
However, the Jurchen population began growing again, and meanwhile, Joseon started slowly infiltrating.
Thus, Xuande devised a plan to use Zhu Qizhen to weaken the Jurchens to an appropriate degree.
“Not too strong, not too weak. Just enough to check the Mongols’ movements.”