prosperous age

The Xuanfu sent an early warning to the capital, apparently discovering the traces of the main force of the Alda Department.

After the military newspaper arrived in Beijing, the news spread like a whirlwind to all the yamen in the capital.

In the past few years, although there have been emergency military reports from border towns from time to time, they can only be regarded as minor disturbances. Most of the troops dispatched by the Tartars are more than a thousand people, that is, military operations of more than 3000 people to harass the border fort. Not many.

This time, the Xuanfu's urgent report directly stated the main force of the IDA Department, which was obviously a collection of tens of thousands of people, and a big battle seemed to be imminent.

"Shan Loan, what do you think?"

At this time, in the gazebo in the garden of the Imperial Academy, a group of Imperial officials sat around drinking tea and chatting.

In the past, the content of chatting here was of course a collection of classics and history, poems and songs, but today, the content of their chatting is transferred to Xuanfu.

Yes, after the news spread that a large number of Alta cavalrymen were found outside the Xuanfu, many people suddenly remembered that the latest battle with the Alta was many years ago, and wasn't it commanded by their young colleague?
Therefore, while there was nothing to do, many people brought Wei Guang to the gazebo, drank a pot of tea, and asked him his opinion on the current situation in Xuanfu.

Seeing everyone's expectant eyes, Wei Guangde even saw Zhang Juzheng among his colleagues.

It's also strange, he didn't go to the Imperial College today, but ran back to the Imperial Academy.

Wei Guangde knew that if he fooled around casually, he might not be able to fool him, so he hurriedly waved his hands and said, "I just found out about this news, and I haven't thought about it too much. Here, I will first talk about what I can think of now. If there are any mistakes or omissions, please let me know." Don't be surprised."

"Speak quickly, we all want to hear your opinion."

"Yes, time is tight, and some mistakes and omissions are normal. Let us listen to what you say, and we will discuss it after we are done."

"Well, check for gaps and make up for gaps, that's exactly what it should be."

Seeing that Zhang Juzheng was stroking his beard and nodding there, Wei Guangde could only continue to say: "I guess none of you have been to Xuanfu, and I have only been to some places.

But at that time in Xuanfu, I heard people say that within the scope of Xuanfu, the Great Wall stretches for hundreds of miles, and there are more than ten large and small passes. There is a saying among the people, "There is only a thousand days to be a thief, and a thousand days to guard against a thief."

There are too many gates to guard against.

I heard from those frontier generals that the Tartar cavalry ran all the way along the Great Wall and attacked the city when they found any loopholes in the defense. "

Having said this, Wei Guangde shook his head.

The last time I went out with Tang Shunzhi, although the memorandum back home also echoed the views on repairing the border wall and stabilizing people's livelihood, it also mentioned the weakness of the Great Wall's defense line, which cost a lot of money but was of little value.

It's just that building the Great Wall is a national policy, and Wei Guangde thinks that nothing can be changed, at least until the advent of mature thermal weapons to allow infantry to resist cavalry attacks, it is still necessary to use the Great Wall to delay the enemy's attack.

"You mean, if the Xuan Mansion can't be defended, the Tartars will come in again?"

The clever officials immediately noticed Wei Guangde's analysis and immediately asked.

"You may have seen the battle reports of border towns in recent years, but I don't know if you have noticed. In the past two years, the harassment of border towns by the Tartars has changed somewhat, especially in the direction of Xuanfu and Jizhen. They have repeatedly used hooks. The pole siege method, taking advantage of the weakness of the low wall of the military fort, can quickly break through the wall of the military fort.

I remember that Jizhen once made a memorial, saying that it was a new style of warfare invented by Qiu Fu and Zhao Quan, the remnants of the White Lotus Sect, for Al Da Khan, and it was extremely hateful. "

The so-called method of making a hook to attack a castle is actually to make a long pole with a hook on the top. The hook hooks the city wall, and the Tartars climb up the pole to break through the city.

Of course not for a large fortress with high walls and thick walls like the capital, but most of the walls of the military forts in border towns are low, so this method can be used to quickly rush up the walls.

When Wei Guangde said this, he was actually reminding his colleagues that now the Tartars can not only break through the Great Wall, but also quickly break through the military fortresses inside and outside the Great Wall, making the entire Great Wall defense line lose its defensive and containment effect.

The so-called Great Wall is actually not just an isolated city wall that winds along the high mountains that later generations saw. A three-dimensional defense system.

When building the side wall, soil was often taken from outside the wall, thus forming a moat outside the side wall, equivalent to the moat of the city wall, which increased the difficulty for the northern cavalry to cross the border.

When the northern cavalry invaded, the nearby people, livestock, and materials were accommodated in towns, camps, forts, and piers, and the tactics of fortifying the walls and clearing the fields were implemented to prevent the population and materials from being plundered by the northern ethnic groups and achieve the strategic goal of stopping the enemy. .

In the past, these frontier fortresses were not easily breached, but in the past two years there have been occasional battle reports that the frontier fortresses have been breached by Tartars, but such information has been ignored by most people.

In the past, when the Tartars attacked the border forts, they had to use surprise tactics. When the Ming army was unprepared, they rushed into the military fort at the speed of cavalry. Once the military fort was prepared, if they could not rush in, they would fall into a stalemate, and the defenders would be consumed little by little. After morale and equipment, look for weak points to attack the city.

The Tartars crossed the Great Wall, but as long as the Ming army's military fort was still there, it still had a restraining effect, preventing the Tartars from going deep.

"The meaning of Shan Loan is that if we let the Ministry of Defense come in, I'm afraid there will be another big war? Then the request of Xuanfu to send troops to Jizhen should be supported?"

At this time, Zhang Juzheng, who had been silent all this time, suddenly asked.

He understood the meaning of Wei Guangde's words, and now the combat strength of the Alda Department has improved again. This time, a large army is gathered here, and a big battle is inevitable.

"It's time for the nine sides to move."

Wei Guangde nodded and said.

While the officials in the capital were discussing the Xuanfu Military News, a secret meeting was being held in Datong Town.

This is the official residence of Datong Governor Li Wenjin. There are not many people in the house. Apart from the governor Li Wenjin, there are also the Datong commander-in-chief Liu Han and the former commander-in-chief Yu Dayou.

At this time, Liu Han said loudly to the governor Li Wenjin: "Governor Ge just asked us to mobilize troops to support the Xuanfu at any time, but Master Li wanted to take people out of the side wall. Once Master Ge issued an official transfer order, where can I find soldiers and horses?" Go to rescue Xuanfu."

The Governor Ge that Liu Han mentioned was the current Governor of Xuanda, the capital censor Ge Jin. At this time, he was in the Xuanfu, and while sending an urgent report to the capital, he did not forget to issue an order to make the Datong Army ready and support at any time.

Before the Alta Department did not attack the Xuan Mansion with all its strength, Ge Jin did not dare to call in the Datong Army to assist in the defense. Once Al Da Khan found out, he shot a feint in the Xuan Mansion and turned around to attack the empty Datong. But four-legged.

However, today Liu Han was called here by Li Wenjin. What was waiting for him was not what he thought he would discuss about how to prepare reinforcements for the Xuanfu, but Li Wenjin proposed to him a very bold idea to send troops out of the side wall into the grassland to raid Al Dahan The old nest board liters.

Bansheng, that is, Fengzhoutan, was originally the place where the Tumed tribe under the command of Mongolian Altan Khan stationed herds, but now it has become a city, a big city outside the Great Wall.

For decades, some northern border residents fled to the Mongolian region because they could not bear the oppression of the feudal rulers, and gradually settled in the Fengzhoutan area, forming Bansheng City where Mongolian and Han people lived together.

Among the Han people who settled in Bansheng, there were Bailian believers who were counted by the court, border guards who rebelled against the court, prisoners who were assigned to guard the border, and most of them were farmers in the border areas who could not pay taxes.

These people did not come here by themselves. Most of them were caught and brought here by the Tartars after leaving the customs wall, and gradually a large number of Han people settled here.

The Han people settled here, built houses, engaged in production, and gradually formed a certain scale of Bansheng City.

Qiu Fu, Zhao Quan, Li Zixin and others, the leaders of the White Lotus Cult, came here. After gaining the trust of Alta Khan, they began to instruct the Alta tribe to break the defense of the Ming army, and joined the war to promote the formation and tactics of the Mongolian army. Further enrichment.

At the same time, he gave Altan Khan an idea and helped Altan Khan build a palace in Bansheng City. The palace was "very magnificent" for Altan Khan to proclaim himself emperor.

"Pluck the wood, build nine rooms in the city, and the hall of nine couplets rises on the Fangcheng board. It is the house, pretending to be a prince, the blue and green, shining on the Dragon Court, and the name of the country is 'Golden'".

These news are all news from the Ministry of Altar, so the imperial court pays close attention to every move of Bansheng City.

Fengzhou, where Bansheng City is located, is surrounded by high mountains, with abundant water and grass. The Mongols graze here, and the Han people have opened up thousands of hectares of fertile land. Every summer, the old and young go out of the Daqing Mountain Pass to escape the heat. Zhao Quan and others stay behind in Bansheng City. , ready to stay with this for a long time.

They not only encouraged the Alta tribe to attack the Daming border town, plundered a large number of border residents and brought them to Bansheng City to strengthen their own strength, but also actively lobbied Alta Khan, who had established himself as the Mongolian Khan, and encouraged him to imitate the Han system and become emperor.

It can be said that Bansheng City is not only the lair of Altan Khan, but also the stronghold chosen by the defected Bailian believers.

Here they keep in touch with the congregation who are still inside the Great Wall, not only smuggling ironware, food and other strategic materials, but also leaking information about the Ming army. The purpose of doing this is to encourage Altan Khan to raise troops to fight in Daming.

The Bailian Jiao Bansheng Group not only supported Altan Khan as emperor, but also suggested that he capture and rule the Great Wall border, imitate the stories of Shi Jin in the Five Dynasties period, and establish a regime that was evenly divided with the Ming Dynasty.

In the words of Zhao Quan, Li Zixin and others, that is, "dispatch the captives to attack the Datong, Xuanfu, and Jizhou areas, and divide the world equally with the Southern Dynasty."

They even sketched out the prototype of a huge empire, with Bansheng City as the center, starting from the border of Jiliao in the east, bordering Wuliangha Sanwei and Harbu in the west, extending to the border of Gansu in the west, reaching the Great Wall in the south, and reaching the Mobei borders Khalkha Mongolia, and an independent "Golden Kingdom" regime with a Han-style ruling system was established in the vast Monan area.

Bansheng's status is very important in the Alda Department, so after Yu Dayou learned that the main force of the Alda Department had left the Xuanfu, he hurriedly discussed countermeasures with Li Wenjin, the governor of Datong, and the strategy he said to retreat the enemy pointed directly at Bansheng City, planning to play a strategy of besieging Wei and saving Zhao.

Break through Bansheng City, wipe out the remnants of the White Lotus Sect in it, and at the same time force Alda Khan to return to the rescue to relieve the predicament of Xuanfu.

Li Wenjin was also very surprised when he first heard about Yu Dayou's plan. It was more than three hundred miles away from Datong Town, and he had to cross two rivers, the Heihe River and the Huihe River.

However, after Yu Dayou's detailed explanation, Li Wenjin felt that this battle plan was very reliable, so he hurriedly called Liu Han, the commander-in-chief of Datong, to discuss the matter.

At this time, Liu Han was considering which people Ma Dongjin would send to reinforce the Xuanfu. When he heard the governor's call, he thought it was a matter of contacting grain and grass.

Food, grass and supplies must be the most important thing when the army moves to defense. Once there is a mistake, it is also possible to mutiny and flee halfway, so Liu Han rushed to the governor's office as soon as possible.

But what he never expected was that what Li Wenjin called him to discuss was not what he thought was food and supplies, but to lead troops northward to attack Bansheng City.

Regarding Liu Han's concerns, Yu Dayou immediately replied: "As long as our army succeeds in attacking Bansheng City, our troops will return to rescue, and the danger of Xuanfu will be relieved.

In fact, what we have to consider is not the safety of the Xuan Mansion, but the encirclement of our army by the Tartars after we win, and we must find the nearest passage to return to Datong."

Hearing Yu Dayou's words, Li Wenjin next to him nodded in sympathy and echoed: "That's right. After I Dahan learned that Bansheng City was broken, he must have guessed that our Datong Army did it, and it is very likely to send a rescue board." Ascend the city, and the other part is inserted into the board and ascended between our Datong to intercept our army's return."

"Then you still want to do this? It's too dangerous."

Liu Han said with a frown.

Hearing Liu Han's question, Li Wenjin's expression remained unchanged, but he did not give an answer. His eyes turned to Yu Dayou who was beside him.

For Li Wenjin, he only focuses on strategic issues.

Yu Dayou's plan to encircle Wei and save Zhao was in line with the strategic goal of saving Xuanfu and attacking the White Lotus believers outside the Great Wall. By the way, burning down Bansheng City could also show the strength of the Ming army, making Al Da Khan dare not easily proclaim himself emperor.

On the prairie beyond the Great Wall, it is up to you to stand on your own as a Khan. As long as the Mongols obey you, Li Wenjin thinks it has nothing to do with them.

But if Alta Khan is allowed to proclaim himself emperor, the nature will be completely different.

There can only be one emperor in the world, and that is Emperor Ming.

Once Altan Khan is proclaimed emperor, the Ming Dynasty will inevitably send troops to encircle and suppress it, and it will definitely be an endless war.

The raid on Bansheng City can let Aldakhan know the combat power of the Ming army, so that he will not dare to proclaim himself emperor easily. No matter how those traitors instigate him, I believe Aldakhan will make the right choice.

As for the safety of the raiding troops on their return journey, such tactical issues are considered by generals such as Yu Dayou and Liu Han.

Once the Datong army set off, he, Li Wenjin, would definitely not stay in the pass, but would set off with the army, but he would only stay a few dozen miles away from the side wall and lead the team to respond to the raiding army.

As for the general leading the team, Li Wenjin had already made up his mind when he asked Yu Dayou before. If Liu Han did not want to lead the team to attack, then Yu Dayou would lead the team to attack Banshengcheng, which he strongly requested.

Attacking with the army, Li Wenjin understood Yu Dayou's thoughts.

Hu Zongxian's framing this time caused him to suffer innocent injustice. Not only did he lose the position of commander in chief that he gained after more than ten years of fighting, he also lost the hereditary military position passed down from his ancestors. If Feng Yin cannot be regained in his hands, then he After death, I have no face to see my ancestors.