To ensure a successful, bloodless war in Shaanxi, Emperor Chongzhen devised a highly intricate and audacious plan.
First, he had Li Xingzhong and Liu Zhaoji draft a military campaign blueprint to march north onto the grasslands and engage the Mongols.
Warfare required provisions, so he ordered the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War to prepare rations for the frontier troops.
(Soldiers fighting in a campaign required double rations; for example, if they normally consumed one and a half catties of grain a day, they needed three during wartime, otherwise their physical strength would fail to keep up.)
Chapter 663