prosperous age

"Whoa Whoah"

Amidst the sound of hooves, a group of red-robed cavalry galloped on the grassland with their horses in the afterglow of the setting sun.

Not long after, when the sky was getting late, a high mound of raised soil on the grassland appeared in front of them.

It is not accurate to say that it is a mound, it is more like a wall of earth.

Choose a place that has collapsed more severely and ride a horse across the earth wall, followed by a vast and flat grassland.

"Here, it should have been a side wall before."

The cavalry went up the mound, and one of the dark-skinned men reined in and asked his companions.

Their clothes are obviously different from those around them. Instead of red battle clothes, they are each wearing white mountain armor.

"I don't know which dynasty it was built in, but it has collapsed long ago."

The person next to him answered, then looked up at the sky and continued: "No, I can't make it in time today, and there are still about ten miles to go. If I keep going, I'm afraid I'll run into a pack of wolves when it gets dark."

Then he raised his hand and pointed at the bottom of the mound with his horsewhip and said, "We will camp here tonight, and we will go to survey the terrain tomorrow morning."

They were naturally the general officers of Datong Town Liu Han and Yu Dayou. After arranging the team, they left the brigade and rushed to Anyinbao ahead of schedule.

Ten miles or so, the distance is not too far for a uniform cavalry like them, but as Liu Han said, it must be completely dark when they go there, and the wolves on the grassland are very powerful.

Even though they had dozens of fully armed Ming troops here, they would be difficult to deal with if they encountered a larger pack of wolves.

Yu Dayou nodded slightly, agreeing with Liu Han's statement, and he was not in a hurry for a while.

While Yu Dayou was watching the soldiers build the camp, there were quite a few people standing in the main hall of Yongshou Palace in Xiyuan, the capital, but all of them lowered their heads and lowered their hands, not daring to breathe.

After knowing what happened in Datong, Emperor Jiajing's joy lasted only for a moment, and it was extinguished after seeing the note written by Yang Bo.

Immediately, not only the officials of the Ministry of War, but also other people from the Sixth Ministry, all officials who had experience in commanding troops in combat were summoned to Xiyuan.

The purpose of finding these people is also very clear, to analyze the war situation in the north and study countermeasures.

Based on the information currently available, this battle may trigger a series of changes due to the reckless actions of the Datong Army, and these changes have so far been unfavorable to the court. It can be said that the future of this battle is unpredictable.

Perhaps, many officials didn't think the loss of the mobile forces of the three towns was a big deal, but for those who were summoned to Xiyuan, most of them had stayed in the border towns, but they knew the actual situation very well.

The so-called mobile forces are actually the main force of each town, or the real elite.

In the important towns on the Nine Frontiers, each town has more than a hundred thousand soldiers and horses, and the few are tens of thousands. It seems that there are quite a lot, but the actual situation is that each guard of the Ming army has its own defense area, and each town has only a small number of guerrilla generals. The men and horses belong to the troops that can be drawn.

However, when the imperial court ordered troops to be dispatched, young and strong men were often drawn from the various guards, leaving a bunch of old and weak to guard the defense area brutally.

If you look at the figures on paper, the combat power of the guards after being drawn is still objective, but the actual situation is that these young and strong withdrawals will reduce the defense power of the entire defense area to the lowest point, and the entire defense area will be like a sieve. break.

Although the main hall was full of people, the atmosphere was extremely oppressive, and needles could be heard.

Emperor Jiajing frowned and sat on the throne. He had been sitting here almost all afternoon, watching the officials of the Ministry of War come, analyze the situation of the battle, and give a frustrating answer, but when Emperor Jiajing needed a solution, he always silence.

Then, officials were constantly recruited. Some of them already knew what happened when they came, and after learning more about the details, they made similar and frustrating analyzes like those of the Ministry of War, and did not propose a solution to the current situation.

When those officials who didn't understand the situation arrived, the joy of entering the palace after knowing the reason disappeared instantly, and then they repeated the performance of the previous officials.

Now, the main hall of Yongshou Palace is almost filled with people.

"Is there no way? Is the court doing nothing?"

Looking at the courtiers below, although Emperor Jiajing knew that the incident was sudden and completely disrupted the deployment of the court, he had to deal with it, and he couldn't just pretend to be an ostrich.

As for sending letters to people quickly, or urgently mobilizing troops and horses for support, let's wash up and sleep, there is no time at all.

"Military Department, immediately start deploying and responding, and formulate a countermeasure based on the fact that Datong, Yansui, and Ningxia towns were attacked by the Tatars. No matter what, the Ministry of Households must ensure the food and grass needs of the Ministry of War, whether you borrow it or rob it."

When Emperor Jiajing said this, his face was sullen, obviously trying to suppress the anger in his heart.

Datong, Datong.

Originally, the war situation was good, and it was all under the control of the imperial court.

However, their reckless attack may shake the entire front.

The most irritating thing is that if Bansheng City is destroyed in this battle of Datong, it is not appropriate for the imperial court to punish them after the war, at least not too severely.

Now we can only consider mobilizing the inland guards to strengthen the frontier defense, in case the Alda Department continues to plunder southward after breaking through the three towns, which will harm more places, and also prevent the Alta Department from advancing into Beijing again after breaking through Datong.

The emperor above was angry, and the courtiers below were naturally silent, and a young official about 20 years old at the end of the line of ministers was also standing there with a serious face at the moment, but no one knew that at this moment, his heart was already broken.

The liver and gallbladder are split, not because of anger, but because of fright.

Wei Guangde was an official who was called into Yongshou Palace relatively early, after all, he once commanded the battle with Altan Khan.

It's just that after entering here and knowing the detailed information on the north side, Wei Guangde is helpless and helpless.

Datong's actions really disrupted his plan, and the time was tight, so there was no way to deal with it.

The most important thing is that their advance will undoubtedly cause the Alda army to move westward ahead of time, thus putting the Ming army attacking the Hetao area in danger.

However, this is not what worries Wei Guangde the most, he is actually worried about his future.

If this battle is finally defeated, it seems that it was brought about by the reckless military actions of the Datong Army, but after all, he was the one who proposed the whole plan. No matter what, he lost and he has to bear the responsibility.

Losing is losing, sophistry does not bring anything.

Wei Guangde has even thought at this moment that after this battle is over, he is afraid that he will be released, and he will never be in the cabinet for the rest of his life.

This is the price to pay for defeat.

Do more and make more mistakes, but don't do it well.

Wei Guangde couldn't help but think to himself, perhaps in the original time and space, without his presence, the Datong Army might have suffered like this at this time.

However, according to the original thinking of the imperial court, at this time, the cavalry soldiers from the two towns of Yansui and Ningxia were on their way to Xuanfu to help in the battle. Perhaps after the Datong Army was defeated by the Alta Department, this army took advantage of the situation to supplement the defense of Datong, and finally It might be possible to save this battle from danger.

According to this point of view, perhaps he really became a sinner of the court.

If I didn't propose to let them attack Hetao but let him continue eastward to support Xuanfu.

Not long after Wei Guangde entered the Yongshou Palace, he noticed that the two adults in the Ministry of War looked at him in the wrong way, maybe they had already thought of this part, but they didn't say it out on this occasion.

Speaking of it, Wei Guangde was just a proposal, and finally got their support, and in the end it was the one in the hall who made the decision.

But this is not to say that Wei Guangde has no responsibility, on the contrary, the responsibility belongs to the subordinates, and it is impossible for the superior to make mistakes.

No matter how you calculate it, it seems that you are the best candidate for this scapegoat.

Wei Guangde's intestines are green with regret now.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but look sideways at the huge map of border towns hanging on the side of the hall, which contained detailed information on important military towns, rivers, and mountains in the northern part of the empire.

If I were Altan Khan, after defeating the Datong Army outside the Great Wall of Datong, and at the same time receiving news that the Hetao area was attacked by the Ming army, what choice would I make?
In fact, Wei Guangde scoffed at what Emperor Jiajing said in the palace before mobilizing the inland officers and troops to strictly prevent our troops from going south to plunder. Very unlikely.

The Ministry of Defense was not capable of breaking through the walls of the capital, and Wei Guangde still holds this view, but the reason is that he can't say it.

And to plunder, there is no place in the world that is more affluent than the Gyeonggi area.

Yes, that is in the south of the Yangtze River. No matter how powerful the war horses of the Alta tribe are, it is impossible to cross the northern border of the Ming Empire and go to the south of the Yangtze River.

So what is he worried about?
Continue to advance westward, destroy the soldiers and horses in the second town of Yansui and Ningxia, and then return to Datong to break the side wall, then enter the rear of the Xuanfu army along the Sanggan River Valley, attack the Ming army on both sides, and defeat the Xuanfu defenders in one fell swoop.

Yes, breaking the defenses of Datong and Xuanfu and destroying the Ming army in the two places would be completely unacceptable to the Ming court.

The breaking of the barrier in the northwest of Beijing will not only put the capital in a situation where it is always threatened by the Mongolian grassland, but most importantly, it may involve the loss of the empire.

The defensive range of Datong and Xuanfu is the Outer Great Wall. The main force of the Ming army was wiped out, and the Alda Department could completely occupy this place. The final result was that the imperial court lost two pieces of land, and gave up several generations of painstaking efforts and invested huge manpower and material resources. The defense line of the outer Great Wall has just been completed.

If it doesn't work out, it is possible to be decapitated.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde felt even more fearful in his heart. There is no greater guilt than losing his teacher and land, maybe he can't find it except treason.

Thinking of what I only learned from Gao Gong a few days ago, the final plan determined by the Ministry of War is to deploy guards from Shandong and other places to support the capital, bringing together more than 200,000 troops. There should be [-] people.

With so many horses, can they be thrown into the battle of Xuanfu?

There should be about 200,000 soldiers and horses in Xuanfu and Shanxi together, and another 300,000 troops will leave Juyongguan Great Wall and enter Xuanfu. Can 100,000 troops defeat the [-] people of Alda?

Facing the possible tragic consequences, even though Wei Guangde is completely pessimistic about the prospect of this battle, he still wants to take a gamble.

If you do nothing now, you may be gradually pushed out of the court after the war, and you may even be asked for a reason many years later.

He did it, took a gamble, and if he won the battle, he might usher in a bright moment. At the very least, he would not be able to enter the cabinet, but the position of Minister of War could be reserved.

Only when you lose.
If you are more bold, strengthen the defense of the Inner Great Wall, and do not give the Alda Department a chance to break through the Inner Great Wall, so that the Alta Army can only choose to continue to plunder southward.

Trade space for time, give Alda Department enough territory to disperse troops, and then mobilize the Southern Huguang and Jiangxi Guards, including Hu Zongxian's main force to fight Japanese pirates, and the new army newly trained by Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang from the south What about the North attack?

At that time, 200,000 troops will leave Juyongguan to close the escape route of the Alda Department to the north, and completely wipe out the main force of the Alda Department within the pass. Is such a plan feasible?

When he foresaw that he might have a tragic future, Wei Guangde also began to have countless ideas popping up in his head, wild and unconstrained, becoming more and more unreliable.

Well, Wei Guangde was also cornered.

Because he quickly realized that with the current strength of the Ming army, it is almost impossible to maintain such a huge battle plan. Perhaps those troops in the early Ming Dynasty could barely complete it.

The seemingly perfect plan is actually a loophole in every point. The Ministry of Defense only needs to find one point and make a breakthrough, so that the so-called combat plan that consumes countless resources can be wasted.

Shaking his head, Wei Guangde wanted to shake the unrealistic things out of his head.

There is nothing wrong with talking on paper.

Liu Han, and that guy named Li Wenjin, have made labor and capital miserable.

Wei Guangde can only curse these two people in his head at the moment. He was very unfamiliar with them before, but Li Wenjin has heard about them, and it was mentioned in Yu Dayou's letter.

Thinking of Yang Bo's analysis of the two people before, he said that neither of them would have thought of or dared to do such a big thing, and there were weird words in it, Wei Guangde's heart shuddered again.

Looking back on this battle, the Ming army could not have completely fallen into the trap of the Ida Ministry.

Feigning an attack on the Xuanfu gave Datong a reason to send troops, and used Bansheng City as a bait to attract the Datong army to fight and then wiped them out. achieve such a goal.

At this time, Wei Guangde couldn't help thinking of the scene of Infernal Affairs in Datong Town, where spies from the Bailian Sect infiltrated the high-level officials of Datong, defrauding Li Wenjin and Liu Han of their trust.
"Retreat."

When Wei Guangde was thinking of this, Huang Jin's high-pitched voice suddenly came out of his ears.

Reflexively, Wei Guangde saluted Emperor Jiajing on the throne together with the others, and then everyone slowly exited the hall.

Not daring to look at the current state of the person above, the distraught Wei Guangde hurriedly left Yongshou Palace and Xiyuan like a bereaved dog.

At this time, Yu Dayou and Liu Han, who had just finished camping, were naturally unaware of the development of the situation. Although they were about to fight the Alta Department, they were not under too much pressure, and they were both old people fighting.

At this time, the two were watching their soldiers roast the leg of lamb, which is dinner tonight.

On the prairie, the autumn wind is refreshing, the endless starry sky above the head, and a picnic begins on the vast land.