Chapter 204 203 Called In?

"I can't tell clearly. It was probably four or five sounds."

Wei Guangde could only answer truthfully at this time. The sound of the cannon could not be heard clearly. It was echoed by the mountains, and it was difficult to tell how many shots were fired.

At this time, everyone in the city gate was standing behind the battlements, looking at the beacon fire spreading towards this place in the distance, and another beacon tower was lit.

As the rumbling sound of cannons came to his ears, Wei Guangde saw and heard clearly this time, "Five beacons and five cannons."

"map."

Hearing what Wei Guangde said, everyone in Chengguan felt a chill in their hearts. Of course they knew what it meant.

A guard immediately took out the bamboo tube from behind and poured out a scroll. Then another person went up and unfolded it left and right with him. It was a map.

When patrolling the border, it is natural to bring a map with you for reference.

Weng Pu quickly found the location of General Shiguan on the map, and then followed the twists and turns of the Great Wall to the north. At the most prominent position, there was a mark on the ground that Wei Guangde also knew, Gubeikou.

"Is it in Gubeikou again?"

Weng Pu's fingers moved here and stopped, and he said casually.

"Sir, if it's Gubeikou, a messenger will be here soon."

General Shiguan's guard said while clasping his fists.

Wei Guangde also heard what he said. It was a rule set by Jizhen himself. When a Tatar attack was discovered along the Great Wall, not only should beacon cannons be set off immediately to warn, but someone should also be sent to explain the situation clearly in concise words. The message was delivered to the General Military Mansion of Ji Town, Santun Camp, by relaying from watchtowers every few miles.

After seeing the beacon fire warning, the sergeants of the Santun Camp will naturally start to gather and move in the direction of the beacon fire, and the General Military Mansion will confirm the final march route based on the intelligence sent.

The whole process is similar to the fastest express delivery shop in the Ming Dynasty.

The main task of the express delivery shop is to transport urgent documents, and the express delivery shop does not have carriages and horses, so traveling depends entirely on one's own foot power.

"Minghuidian" records: "In the twenty-sixth year of the lunar calendar, a pavilion was set up every ten miles away, with one pavilion leader for each pavilion and ten soldiers paving the main road. There was a Dingli field nearby with one stone and five dou of grain, and two dou below. To be strong, you need to be strong and healthy.”

The nominal number of express delivery shops per mile is actually determined by the financial and material resources of the county. However, at least one shop per county is responsible for the official documents between counties, counties and prefectures, prefectures and provinces, and provinces and the imperial court. of communication.

Therefore, each county (prefecture or province) has a main store, and then several branch stores extend along the main road of the county.

A shop consists of a shop leader and several shop soldiers, and each shop must be equipped with a sundial to determine the time. A sign gate must be set up in front of the shop door, and a pair of lamps and candles must be lit at night so that visitors can easily tell the difference. .

Once the official document is received, the shop manager must confirm the number of items received and the destination, and send a shop soldier. At this time, the shop boss must send the documents in a timely manner day and night.

"Every three quarters, you have to travel three hundred miles day and night, ringing the bell and delivering the goods. But when an official document arrives at the shop, it needs to be delivered immediately, regardless of the number of corners. If the official document arrives and is not delivered immediately, it will stop and wait. , so those who make mistakes will be held accountable.”

At this time, the troops must set off immediately and determine the location. If it is within three hundred miles, the troops must arrive within a day and night; if it is beyond three hundred miles, they must follow the destination above until the next urgent delivery. shop.

When the soldiers were delivering official documents, "Each of them would have a pair of plywood, a pair of bells, a tassel and a gun, and a Hijri calendar".

Traveling day and night, regardless of wind or rain, the carriages, horses and pedestrians along the way heard the bell and immediately moved to the side of the road.

When the soldiers at the next station heard the bell, they immediately got ready. As soon as the official documents arrived, they continued forward like a relay race.

In the Ming Dynasty, official documents and military information were delivered mainly through express stores and post stations. The express stores were specialized in "delivery of official documents".

The post station was used to welcome envoys and guests, transport military supplies, and fly military reports.

The two have some overlap in business, but they still belong to two different systems. Each performs its own duties and is not subordinate to each other.

The Ming court stipulated that "important matters should be given to the post, and ordinary matters should be delivered to the post." That is to say, important and urgent military affairs should be handed over to the post, and ordinary official documents and letters should be delivered by the post. The two complement each other and together form a complete and fast post delivery system. .

The reason why a separate express delivery shop is established outside the inn station is also because of the limitations of the inn station. The distance between the inn stations is relatively long, with one station every 60 miles.

In fact, due to the terrain, the radiation range of the post station is not as wide as that of express delivery. However, express delivery can be used in many areas where stations cannot be set up.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was relatively rare to use Pegasus express delivery at the post station. That is to say, when something happened on the Jizhen Great Wall, emergency military information would be reported by Pegasus. The distance was relatively limited, only one or two hundred miles apart.

For the wider south, express delivery shops were mostly used instead of horse-drawn carriages, because the Ming Dynasty could not get enough horses for communication.

But at this time, Weng Pu was not done with it. He was still staring at the map, guessing the possible detention locations of the Andu Department.

Continuing from Gubeikou, there are Chaohe Station, Bohai Station and Sihai Station, which have many passes under their jurisdiction, all of which are walls that may be breached by the Anda tribe.

Well, the Great Wall seems to be a fortification placed in the north of the empire to stop the prairie cavalry from going south, but in fact the existence of the Great Wall also makes it difficult for the empire to defend, because the Great Wall stretches for thousands of miles and has countless passes along the way. If you guard against this, others will The weak point of defense in a sneak attack can be said to be completely like a sieve.

"Lord Weng, it's lunch time. Let's have lunch first. I think there will be news soon."

At this time, the beacon fire had passed through the General Stone Pass and continued to extend eastward, and the news of the Tatar invasion would be passed all the way to the General's Mansion in Jizhen, Santunying.

Although he said so, Weng Pu did not end there, but continued to stare at the map, and suddenly said, "Guangde, what do you think?"

"What?"

Wei Guangde wondered, he was also looking at the map, but now he had given up, there were too many passes along the Great Wall, and breaking through any point at random could shake the entire defense line.

"Where do you think Altan will choose to enter the pass?"

Weng Pu added and asked.

Now Wei Guangde understood what Weng Pu meant. He asked him to guess the location where Altan broke through the pass. The beacon fire came, and naturally he had already attacked.

Wei Guangde did not intend to continue to look at the Great Wall as before, but put himself in Altan's shoes, looking at this war from his perspective, and what kind of choice he would make.

It's just a guessing game, you guess, I guess, everyone guesses, it doesn't matter if you guess wrong.

Wei Guangde first cast his sights on Wanquan Youwei, then gradually moved to Xuanfu, and then bypassed the defense zone of Longmenwei.

He not only stared at the map with his eyes, but felt that it was not intuitive enough. He even slid from Xuanfu to the Great Wall bulge of Longmenwei. After bypassing Longmenwei, it was flat, and then it was the bulge of Miyun Wei.

Jiangjunshiguan is in the southeast corner of the defense zone of Miyun Wei, very close to it.

The last time Altan invaded, he broke in from Gubeikou where Miyun Wei was stationed. It should be said that he was familiar with the road, and it seemed reasonable to go again.

Wei Guangde's considerations at this time were somewhat similar to Weng Pu, but he soon realized that something seemed wrong.

How many days have it been since Altan's troops moved eastward? It has been about 20 days. Most of the opponents are riding horses. Logically, they should have reached Gubeikou long ago. Why did they hide and prepare for such a long time before attacking the city?

You know, ten days ago, the guards of various passes received warnings that the Tartars might invade. The pass was well prepared and it was difficult to attack.

The timing was wrong. This was what Wei Guangde thought of at this time. I don’t know if Weng Pu noticed it.

Soon, his sight fell on Bohai, which is the area north of Huairou. The Great Wall here is very special because the area defended by Jizhen is divided into two here. One pass wall extends north to Xuanfu, and the next to defend is Longmenwei, then Xuanfu and Wanquan.

The other part continues to extend southwest to Shanxi, including Juyongguan defended by Yanqingwei, Zijingguan and Daomaguan of the inner Great Wall behind.

Wei Guangde was not familiar with Altan, so he naturally didn’t know the real purpose of his invasion of the Ming Dynasty this time. Was he trying to rob things or attack the capital to establish greater prestige for him outside the pass.

Altan Khan, also known as Sodo Khan, whose real name was Borjigin Altan, was also called Altan. He was the leader, politician, and military strategist of the Tumed tribe of the Mongolian Empire in the Ming Dynasty. He was a descendant of the Golden Family of Genghis Khan and the grandson of Dayan Khan.

Wei Guangde didn't know these, but the official data of the Ming Dynasty did record his relationship with the Golden Family of Genghis Khan, which means that such a person should have the purpose of unifying the Mongolian tribes and going south to herd horses again to reproduce the splendor of the Yuan Empire.

Well, at this time, Wei Guangde still accepted Weng Pu's initial judgment that Altan might choose to break through the rear defense zone of Miyun and go south to threaten the safety of the capital again.

Then, he felt a chill. Altan's tribe broke through here, so looking at the map, the straight-line distance between them and Altan's tribe was less than 100 miles, only a few dozen miles.

Although it is said that a dead horse will die if you look at the mountain, if people really know that there is a third-rank official of the court here, they may come to arrest Weng Pu. After all, the news of their border patrol is known to the guards of all the passes of the Great Wall.

The reason why the news was released was to make these people more conscious, so as not to be caught in the act. At least at this moment, Weng Pu did not want to cause trouble, after all, the purpose of their trip was to strengthen the defense against the attack of Altan Khan.

However, they waited for a whole day, and the news came at night. The result surprised him and Weng Pu, because the actual result was far from their analysis.

Altan Khan did not choose to break through the defense zone of Miyun Rear Guard and then go south to threaten the capital, but chose to break through the defense zone of Longmen Guard. That is to say, they only broke through the defense of the outer Great Wall. If they want to threaten the capital, they must at least break through the pass near Juyong Pass or Zhenbian City.

After receiving the information, Wei Guangde was called over by Weng Pu, and the two began to discuss what to do next?

The capital must have received the news. It is hard to say what measures will be taken. At least it is not a critical moment yet. Altan's tribe and the capital are still separated by a Great Wall defense line.

But their mission may not be able to continue. Why patrol the border when they have already been attacked?

"The troops of Santunying should have come out."

Wei Guangde thought about the speed of beacon transmission. Santunying must have seen the beacon fire at this time. It's just that the location of the wall that Altan broke through is unknown. But according to convention, the garrison of Santunying will definitely be dispatched.

"Maybe we will go to Zunhua tomorrow, and then go to Pinggu, and explore all the way until we determine the location of the Tartar invasion."

Weng Pu is very familiar with it. After all, he is the right assistant minister of the Ministry of War.

The two men were not panicking at this moment, and Weng Pu also guessed that Emperor Jiajing put such a child beside him, definitely not to monitor him, but more likely to train him, so he deliberately asked Wei Guangde questions along the way, letting Wei Guangde analyze and answer.

For the questions asked by Wei Guangde, he naturally told everything he knew. There was nothing to hide about the affairs of the court, at least he did nothing to hide.

Well, Wei Guangde was still staring at the map at this moment. It was obvious that they were fooled by Altan Khan. They thought that Altan Khan would attack Miyun Wei again after going east to bypass the Longmenwei defense zone. The result was very likely.

Wei Guangde's sights fell on Mantaoer and Hadang. This place used to be Fengning City of the Ming Dynasty. It was nearly a hundred miles away from the current control area of ​​the Ming army, and it was definitely not within the reconnaissance range of the Ming army.

Altan Khan stationed his troops here, making a feint to make the Ming Dynasty think that he was going to attack the rear guard of Miyun in the east. After the attention was shifted there, he turned back and attacked the Longmen Guard of Xuanfu, and it was a success.

Only from this, Wei Guangde understood Altan Khan's purpose. The purpose of Altan's attack to the south this time should be to plunder property. They should not have the intention to attack the capital, otherwise they would not go to the outer Great Wall.

Looking at the map, Wei Guangde suddenly raised his head and said to Weng Pu: "Sir Weng, it seems that Altan's troops want to plunder Yongning, Yanqing and Baoan this time."

"Yes, there is only one guard stationed in Yanqing here. The news says that they broke through the Wafanggou where the Longmen guard is stationed, and passed the Longmenchuan. They may be close to Yanqing Prefecture now."

"Then what should we do? Go directly to Huairou or..."

Wei Guangde didn't dare to say that he would go back to the capital, because he would be easily accused of being cowardly in the future, which is very fatal for a scholar.

The literati of this era must be stubborn and stubborn. Even if they are scared to death, they must stand on the moral high ground and say that they are swordsmen who dare to challenge Altan Khan. This is integrity.

Although Wei Guangde sneered at this kind of integrity in his heart, he still knew the allusion of "the water is too cold" in later generations. That is the big winner in life. He has "fame", profit, and a concubine.

"It will take at least ten days for the troops from Jizhen to reach Huairou, unless only cavalry is dispatched."

At this time, Weng Pu frowned slightly and continued, "Let's go to Miyun first and go to Yanqing Prefecture to see the situation."

"Then please ask Lord Weng to send a memorial to the capital and explain the situation. Since we are out on a border patrol, we must have a beginning and an end."

Wei Guangde understood that it was impossible to return to the capital. The right assistant minister of the Ministry of War might want to enjoy the feeling of commanding troops. However, it is better to go to Huairou first. As long as you don't leave the Inner Great Wall, it is still very safe. I just hope not to go to Yanqing Prefecture, which is outside the Inner Great Wall.

PS: At this time, the name of Yanqingwei in Yanqing Prefecture should be Longqingwei in Longqing Prefecture, and it was renamed Yanqing ten years later.