prosperous age

Chapter 530 529 Coping
On October 42th in the [-]nd year of Jiajing, Xin Ai, Ba Du'er and others invaded from Qiangziling and Modaoyu.

Beacon towers in the direction of Miyun and Shunyi were lit one after another, signaling the arrival of the enemy to the distance.

When the beacon was transmitted to Tucheng, a dozen miles outside the Desheng Gate in the capital, which was actually the nearest pier to the capital, one of the pier soldiers guarding the pier quickly ran out of the pier and rushed towards the capital.

The news of the enemy's situation in the direction of Miyun had spread to the capital within half a day, which once again caused turmoil in the court.

The courtiers who were passionate about the impeachment of Yang Xuan, Wang Zhigao and others just now were surprisingly quiet because they had to wait for the delivery of the written military report.

How many people came from the Tartars, where did they enter the customs, and where did they move?
Although the Beacon Tower can quickly transmit urgent enemy information, it is limited to a single method and naturally cannot provide detailed information. Therefore, it can only warn the court so that the court can make early preparations, but it cannot transmit all the information.

All eyes in the capital were on the Ministry of War, which was the first yamen to receive news of the enemy's situation, and the people from the express delivery shop were already on their way.

The Tartars really came, and King Yu called Wei Guangde, Zhang Juzheng and others back to King Yu's mansion to discuss the matter again.

In the past, they mostly discussed information from Japanese pirates in the south, but this time they wanted to talk about the enemy's situation in the direction of Miyun not far to the north.

It's just that Wei Guangde's face is very serious this time, revealing that he is in a very bad mood at the moment.

Miyun is too close to the capital.

If the Tartars attacked, they could reach Beijing in three days, but what could the capital do in such a short period of time?
The soldiers of the Beijing camp went up to the city wall, and then they were gone.

In such a short period of time, the imperial edict issued by the capital to the towns could not be delivered to the generals of the various places. This had to be done after the detailed battle report was delivered.

"Before Yang Xuan ordered Sun Bin to mobilize elite soldiers from the three camps to go out of Shanhaiguan to reinforce Liaodong, but now the Tartars have appeared in Jizhen. I don't know if the order from the Ministry of War has been issued."

Yin Shizhen now worriedly introduced the situation of Prince Yu's Mansion.

Yang Xuan sent troops to Liaodong, although Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde did not report back to Yuwang Mansion, but the informants arranged by Yu Wangfu in various yamen still knew about it, and sent the news to the Wangfu.

Therefore, in the capital, there is really nothing that can be kept secret in the yamen, unless it is personally in charge of the hall officials, it is possible to truly keep it secret.

This is only possible, so the Ming Dynasty Hall basically does not have any sense of secrecy, and everyone uses state affairs as if they are stories in the market.

Of course, having said that, it also shows from one aspect that the people of this era really have the temperament of contemptuous of the world, and they have a superior attitude towards the surrounding forces.

Hiding it, that's the behavior of a small country with few people, not suitable for the Ming Empire.

Although the Tartars in the north had a lot of trouble, the imperial court also paid great attention to it, worrying that the Mongol cavalry would go south again and rule the Han people again like the Southern Song Dynasty.

But who are the people in the imperial court? Even before becoming an official, they had such worries, but after becoming an official, they heard and saw a lot, and they probably understood that the strength of the Mongols had actually declined greatly.

Harassing Da Ming's border, Da Ming really has nothing to do with them.

But if it is true that everyone gathers elite soldiers and strong generals to fight a battle, the Ming Dynasty can pile them to death with their lives.

After all, the Mongols have such a large population, and it is already very powerful to gather an army of [-] to [-] at a time.

If Altan Khan really wants to gather more than [-] people for a decisive battle with Ming Dynasty, saying that Ming Dynasty has a vast territory and it is not good to deploy troops, and the Mongolian Tartars will have a smaller area?

The various tribes mobilized their troops, and they had to run thousands of miles away. In fact, it was difficult for everyone, and they couldn't easily launch a large-scale army battle.

The national war is really not that easy to fight.

As for other surrounding countries and forces, including the Yi people who came from afar, their firearms are indeed sharp, but the craftsmen of Ming Dynasty are not bad, and they can make them out of gourds after a few glances.

In the eyes of Ming officials, what the Yi people rely on is actually matchlock guns and Flang machines, and we also have those things.

It’s just that they don’t know that front-mounted cannons have appeared in Western firearms at this time, that is, Hongyi cannons, but the technology is still immature at this time, and there is no mass production.

Those with a small amount of equipment are naturally hidden, and they dare not let the Ming people see them.

As for why it is a cannon instead of a howitzer, the current technology is like that, and the range and power of firearms are limited.

Equipment determines tactics. With the current development of weapons, future generations will not be able to play tricks.

The Daming of this era left a deep impression on those who knew him well, that is, he has many soldiers and strong strength.

Perhaps, in their view, any force, as long as Da Ming takes it seriously, it will be a way to push across, and there will never be a second way to go.

Officials have such an attitude, and the common people are actually similar. They all look down on foreigners and think they are barbarians.

This point of the officials of the Ming Dynasty is similar to the practice of the later generations of the beautiful country. They like to show off any good things.

You can talk about his showing off, or his arrogance, anyway, if he dares to show it, others can only envy and jealous, and then obediently wag his tail.

In the eyes of everyone, the beautiful country is the world's big boss, a well-deserved boss.

But now, the capital of Daming is in danger.

The information that Yin Shizhen collected was limited to the fact that the Ministry of War wanted Ji Zhen to transfer troops back, but the actual progress was not yet known.

"The people on the Shanhaiguan side may not be able to count on them in a short time."

Wei Guangde spoke.

He also only made a judgment based on the marching speed of the Ming army and the distance between the two places. If the Jizhen army set off at Santunying, the vanguard would be able to reach the outskirts of the capital in two or three days. At least Sanhe would be no problem.

As far as the known information is concerned, the Tartars had only one way to go south when they broke through the Great Wall from Miyun, passing through Shunyi and continuing southward, with the capital and Tongzhou on the left and right.

However, no matter whether they are coming to the capital or to Tongzhou, the Tartars must first be able to cross the river, the Wenyu River and the Chaobai River.

Everyone in the house knew that Al Da Khan's tens of thousands of troops approached the capital because they could not cross the river, and had to withdraw from the side wall after reinforcements from various places arrived in the capital.

"At this moment, Xiyuan should also be discussing this matter."

Zhang Juzheng said.

The current situation, in his eyes, is actually very simple, just copy what happened more than ten years ago.

The soldiers of the Beijing camp were ready, went to the city to prepare for defense, the capital was under martial law, and idlers were prohibited from entering and leaving, and then the guards were transferred to Xuanda, Yansui, Shandong, Henan and other places to enter the capital.

What needs to be explained is that at this time, the capital knows that there are tens of thousands of Tartars entering the customs, but the exact number is not known.

Because when the Tartars broke through the Qiangziling Great Wall, the Ming army only roughly estimated that there were about [-] people based on the scale. In order to avoid mistakes, they directly set off an alarm beacon according to the report of tens of thousands of horses.

At this time, the enemy's situation known to the capital is actually similar to that when Alta Khan came to command the army back then.

Tens of thousands of extremely vicious Tartars entered the customs, so the court couldn't help being nervous.

Zhang Juzheng said everything he wanted to say. These measures were actually what he saw when he was in the capital, but recently he recalled them while looking through the records of that year.

If there is no accident, Xiyuan will soon issue the martial law order in the capital and order the deployment of troops to the surrounding military towns for rescue.

However, when discussing this matter in the capital, Sun Bin, the commander-in-chief of Ji Town, was also sitting on pins and needles in the mansion of the commander-in-chief of Ji Town to the east.

A few days ago, he received a warrant from Governor Yang Xuan of Jiliao to send elites eastward to aid Liaodong.

Now the men and horses have gone out, but the Tartars have gone to appear in Miyun.

Now the remaining troops in Santunying are mainly infantry, and most of the cavalry with strong mobility have been dispatched, and they can barely piece together more than [-] people.

What can such a small number of people do?
What's more, this time the tartar broke through the area he was in charge of defending. Even if Yang Xuan was responsible, his responsibility is not small.

After receiving the news from Fenghuo, he scolded Yang Xuan's eighteenth generation of ancestors all over the place.

Sun Bin, the commander-in-chief of Ji Town, is not the one who wrote "Sun Tzu's Art of War". According to later generations, he is just a stupid person who was promoted by connections and experience.

Because things were relatively rigid, Yang Xuan would definitely not be able to mobilize soldiers and horses by opening his mouth, so he had to issue a warrant to execute it.

However, what he has to consider now is not to use the warrant to shirk responsibility, but to think about how to deal with the Tartars who entered the customs.

Staring at the map on the table, he was still thinking about what to do, and he was also waiting for further news.

Where did the Tartars break through the wall? Are places like Gubeikou and Miyun still there?
The remaining soldiers and horses of the Santun camp had already begun to assemble and prepare to set off. He gathered the surrounding cavalry. He would first take them to Zunhua, then Jizhou, and go straight to Sanhe, at least stationed in the outskirts of the capital.

As for the remaining soldiers, they should follow behind. Those with two legs could not run with four legs, and Sun Bin did not dare to join them.

Against the Tartar cavalry, it is safer to stay with the cavalry.

"Boom."

There was a sound, the door was pushed open, and a general wearing Qianhujia stepped into the room quickly, holding a bamboo tube in his hand.

"Marshal, news from the city wall."

That Qianhu handed the bamboo tube in his hand to Sun Bin, and Sun Bin quickly took it and opened it, took out the letter paper inside and read it.

"Modaoyu Qiangziling enters the pass."

While watching, he muttered in his mouth, then put down the letter paper and looked at the map to confirm the location.

"Send people to the city wall. After the cavalry is assembled, I will take people to Zunhua first. If there is news about Gubeikou, Miyun and other cities, stop them and send them to me."

Sun Bin ordered.

He has been waiting for the message from the city wall to confirm the breakthrough of the Tartars. Now that he knows, the cavalry will follow him.

Tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry are not something his 2000 men can resist.

However, no matter what, he had to lead his troops to Sanhe first. As for whether to go to Tongzhou or not, it depended on the situation.

The remaining cavalry of the Ming army in the Santun camp set off with the commander-in-chief after receiving supplies, and the infantry still needed to be prepared, but the dry food should be fully prepared at night, and they could also set off overnight and march towards Zunhua.

At least along the way, there is no danger, even if it is slandered.

The generals of Ji Town are naturally very familiar with the terrain here.

As long as the Tartars are not breaking through the General Pass, places like Malanyu and the places east of Jizhou are relatively safe, and they are not afraid of being attacked by the Tartars.

It's just that Huairou and Shunyi on the south side of Miyun Mountain are more dangerous, which is Yimapingchuan. As for Pinggu and Sanhe counties, there may be Tatars, but they are definitely not the main direction of Tatars, and they are relatively safe.

When the chief soldier of Jizhen set off with the only remaining cavalry in the Santun camp, the imperial meeting in Xiyuan had also ended.

Emperor Jiajing's style of work this time was also very capable, that is, to copy the countermeasures for the Gengxu Change, the capital was under martial law, and the soldiers and horses of the towns were summoned to the king.

Although it was calm on the surface, Emperor Jiajing didn't want the Tartars to come to Beijing. He had already lost someone once, and he didn't want to lose him a second time.

In Prince Yu's mansion, after the Xiyuan meeting ended, and after the important ministers of the six ministries and nine ministers left, the news naturally spread quickly among the court and the public.

"The upper wall of the Beijing camp is ready for defense, supplementing the strength of the piers around the capital, and using it to convey the enemy's situation."

At this time, Li Fang was reading the news from the Ministry of War. These were the current military deployments.

The current King Yu, perhaps the time to be frightened is over, but now he seems to be very calm in dealing with the next change.

"The Ministry of War has worked with the cabinet to send soldiers and horses into the four towns of Xuanfu, Datong, Taiyuan and Ningxia, as well as the guards of Henan and Shandong, with a total of [-] soldiers and kings."

This night, the palace ban was still locked on time, but no one dared to leave their posts without authorization in each yamen, even the yamen of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Punishment.

On the towers of the inner and outer cities, there are many more soldiers of the Ming army than in the past, and the lights above and below the city are brightly lit. The officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp and government officials have already taken to the streets to patrol the streets, and the people who fled into the capital are everywhere in the city.

The quality of the people around Daming capital is still very high, and you can see the beacon smoke in the distance if you go more than ten miles to the north of the city. In broad daylight, the news will naturally spread throughout the city quickly, even if the imperial court wants to block the news.

With the beacon smoke, the common people naturally know what to do, of course they should quickly pack up their belongings and flee to the city for refuge.

How can I say that the capital city is also under the feet of the emperor. From the eyes of the common people, as long as they enter the city, they will be safe.

At night, Wei Guangde didn't rest, even though he was not in Prince Yu's mansion, he was still worried about such a big commotion.

Look at the time, think about the messenger sent by the Ministry of War, it should have passed Changping by now, and it is time to arrive in Yanqing in the early morning, and it is time to send the news to Xuanfu later tomorrow, and it will be one night in Datong. As for Taiyuan and Yansui, we won't know until three or four days later.

The courier of the Ministry of War brought the edict for dispatching troops, so it was natural to go to the post station to change horses, that is, the so-called expedited dispatch of eight hundred miles to the four towns for dispatching troops, which is already the fastest transmission speed in this era.

However, what Wei Guangde is most worried about right now is the safety of Shunyi.

He has been to several cities in the north of the capital before, so he is naturally very familiar with the terrain there.

Now Wei Guangde wished that the Tartars were still besieging Miyun, and even went to Huairou, so that the Ming army could seize the time to mobilize troops.

There is Shunyi City in the north, and the capital is much safer, isn't it?

However, when the news that Shunyi was besieged early the next morning and the surrounding villages and towns were looted by Tartars reached his ears, he had a different attitude.

(End of this chapter)