Chapter 371 370 Lost Soul

"Hua Hua Hua"

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

Not long after, as it was getting dark, a high raised mound appeared in front of them on the grassland.

It's not accurate to say it's a mound of earth. It sounds more like an earth wall.

Choose a place with severe collapse and ride across the earth wall. Behind it is a vast and flat grassland.

"This place must have been a side wall before."

The cavalrymen climbed onto the mound, and one of them, a dark-skinned man, reined in his reins and asked his companions.

Their clothes were obviously different from those around them. They did not have red battle clothes, but each wore a white mountain armor.

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

The man next to him answered, then looked up at the sky and continued: "No, I can't make it in time today. There are still about ten miles to go. If I continue on my way, I'm afraid of encountering wolves in the dark."

Then he raised his hand and pointed at the bottom of the mound with his riding crop and said: "We will camp here tonight and go over to survey the terrain early tomorrow morning."

They were naturally Liu Han and Yu Dayou, the chief military officers of Datong Town. After arranging the team, they left the group and rushed to Anyin Castle in advance.

The distance of more than ten miles is actually not that far for cavalry like them, but as Liu Han said, it will definitely be dark if we get there, and the wolves on the grassland are very powerful.

Even though they have dozens of fully armed Ming troops here, if they encounter a larger pack of wolves, it will be difficult to deal with them.

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

While Yu Dayou was watching the soldiers building the camp, there were many people standing in the main hall of Yongshou Palace in Xiyuan, Beijing, but everyone lowered their heads and lowered their hands, not daring to breathe.

After Emperor Jiajing learned about what happened in Datong, his joy lasted only for a moment, and was extinguished after seeing the note written by Yang Bo.

Immediately, not only officials from the Ministry of War, but also other members of the Sixth Ministry, and all officials with 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 not been conducive to the court so far. It can be said that the future of this battle is unpredictable.

Perhaps, many officials did not think that the loss of mobile troops in 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 force is actually the main combat force of each town, or the real elite.

In the nine-border town, each town has more than 100,000 troops, ranging from tens of thousands to tens of thousands. It looks like a lot, but the actual situation is that each Ming army guard post has its own defense area, and each town has only a small number of guerrilla generals. The troops are available for deployment.

When the imperial court orders troops to be mobilized, young and strong men are often drawn from various guard posts, leaving a bunch of old and weak men to brutally guard the defense area.

If you look at the figures on paper, the combat effectiveness of each guard after being transferred is still objective. However, the actual situation is that the withdrawal of these young and strong people will reduce the defense power of the entire defense area to the lowest point, and the entire defense area will be smashed like a sieve. break.

Although the main hall was full of people, the atmosphere was extremely depressing, and you could hear a pin drop.

Emperor Jiajing frowned and sat on the throne. He had been sitting here almost all afternoon, watching officials from the Ministry of War come to analyze the battle situation and give a frustrating answer. However, when Emperor Jiajing asked for a solution, they all silence.

Then, officials were constantly called in. Some of them already knew what happened when they came. After learning the details, they made a depressing analysis similar to that of the Ministry of War, and they did not propose a response to the current situation.

Those officials who did not understand the situation arrived, and the joyful mood 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 nothing we can do? Does the court just do nothing?"

Looking at the courtiers below, Emperor Jiajing knew that this incident was sudden and completely disrupted the court's deployment, but he had to deal with it. He could not just pretend to be an ostrich and get through it.

As for delivering messages to people quickly, or urgently mobilizing troops and horses for support, just go to bed, there is no time at all.

"The Ministry of War, immediately start deploying the response, and formulate a response strategy based on the fact that Datong, Yansui and Ningxia Town were captured by the Tatars. No matter what happens, the Ministry of Revenue must ensure the food and grass needs of the Ministry of War, whether you borrow or rob them."

When Emperor Jiajing said this, his face was full of sinisterness, and he was obviously trying hard to suppress the anger in his heart.

Datong, Datong.

The war situation was originally going well, 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 Datong defeated Bansheng City in this battle, it would be inappropriate for the court to punish them after the war, at least not too severely.

Now we can only consider mobilizing the inland garrison to strengthen the border defense, to prevent our troops from continuing southward to plunder after breaking through the three towns, causing harm to more places, and to prevent our troops from advancing into Beijing again after breaking through Datong.

The emperor above was angry, the ministers below were naturally silent, and a young official in his twenties at the end of the queue of ministers was standing there with a serious face, but no one knew that at this moment he was already heartbroken.

He was so angry that his heart and liver were torn apart. He was not angry, but frightened.

Wei Guangde was one of the officials who was summoned to Yongshou Palace relatively early. After all, he had commanded the battle with Altan Khan.

But after entering here and learning the detailed intelligence from the north, Wei Guangde was at a loss and at a loss.

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

The most important thing was that their advance would undoubtedly cause Altan's army to move westward in advance, thus putting the Ming army attacking the Hetao area in danger.

However, this was not what Wei Guangde was most worried about. He was actually worried about his future.

If this battle was eventually lost, it seemed to be caused by the reckless military actions of the Datong army, but after all, the entire plan was roughly proposed by him. No matter what, it was a loss, and he had to take responsibility.

Losing is losing, and quibbling can't bring anything.

Wei Guangde even thought at this moment that after the end of this battle, he was afraid that he would be sent out, and he would never be able to get a position in the cabinet in his life.

This is the price to pay for defeat.

The more you do, the more mistakes you make; if you do nothing, you will make no mistakes.

Wei Guangde couldn't help thinking to himself that perhaps in the original time and space, without his appearance, the Datong Army might have had this experience at this time.

But according to the court's original idea, at this time, the cavalry of Yansui and Ningxia Towns were on their way to Xuanfu to help in the battle. Perhaps after the Datong Army was defeated by the Altan tribe, this force supplemented Datong's defense and finally saved the battle from danger.

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

If he had not proposed that they attack Hetao but let him continue to move east to support Xuanfu.

Not long after Wei Guangde entered Yongshou Palace, he noticed that the two adults of the Ministry of War looked at him in the hall with a wrong look. Perhaps they had already thought of this, but they just didn't say it on this occasion.

Speaking of which, Wei Guangde only proposed it, and finally got their support, and it was the one in the hall who made the final decision.

But this does not mean that Wei Guangde has no responsibility. On the contrary, the responsibility belongs to his subordinates, and the superiors cannot be wrong.

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

Wei Guangde is now regretting his intestines.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but look sideways at the huge border town map hanging on the side of the hall, which has detailed information about the northern military towns, rivers, mountains, etc. of the empire.

If he were Altan Khan, after defeating the Datong Army outside the Datong Great Wall, and at the same time receiving the news that the Hetao area was attacked by the Ming Army, what choice would he make?

In fact, Wei Guangde sneered at what Emperor Jiajing said in the hall before, mobilizing the inland official army to strictly prevent Altan's tribe from going south to plunder. Even if they went south to break through Zijing Pass, break through the inner Great Wall again, and return to sweep the entire territory of northern Zhili, Wei Guangde also felt that the possibility was very small.

Altan's tribe was not capable of breaking through the walls of the capital. Until now, Wei Guangde still holds this view, but he can't say the reason.

If you want to plunder, where in the world is there a more prosperous place than the capital area?

Yes, that is in Jiangnan. No matter how powerful the war horses of Altan Khan's tribe are, they can't cross the northern border of the Ming Empire and run to Jiangnan.

So what is he worried about?

Continue to move westward, destroy the troops of Yansui and Ningxia, then return to Datong to break the border wall, and then enter the rear of Xuanfu Army along the Sanggan River Valley, attack the Ming Army from 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 will be a result that the Ming court cannot accept at all.

The barrier in the northwest direction of Beijing City was broken, which would not only put the capital in a situation where it was always threatened by the Mongolian grasslands, but most importantly, it might involve the loss of the empire's territory.

The defense range of Datong and Xuanfu is the outer Great Wall. The main force of the Ming Army was destroyed, and Altan Khan's tribe could completely occupy this place. The final result was that the court lost two pieces of land and gave up the outer Great Wall defense line that several generations had worked hard to build and invested huge manpower and material resources to complete.

If he fails, he might even be beheaded.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde was even more afraid. What greater crime could there be than losing troops and territory? Perhaps there is no other than treason.

Thinking of the final plan determined by the Ministry of War, which he had just learned from Gao Gong a few days ago, he would draw troops from Shandong and other places to support the capital and gather more than 100,000 troops. If the troops of Jizhen and the tens of thousands of troops that could be assembled from the Beijing Camp were included, there should be 200,000 troops.

Can so many troops be put into the Battle of Xuanfu?

The troops of Xuanfu and Shanxi should be about 100,000 together. If there are 200,000 troops going out of the Juyongguan Great Wall and entering Xuanfu, can 300,000 troops defeat the 100,000 troops of Altan?

Faced with the possible tragic consequences, even though Wei Guangde was completely pessimistic about the prospects of this battle, he still wanted to take a gamble.

If he did nothing now, he might be gradually squeezed out of the court after the war, or even be found to be held accountable many years later.

If he did it, he would take a gamble. If he won, he might have a highlight moment. At least, he would not be able to enter the cabinet, but he could reserve the position of Minister of War.

But if he lost.

If he was bolder, he would strengthen the defense of the Inner Great Wall and not give Altan Khan the opportunity to break through the Inner Great Wall, so that Altan Khan could only choose to continue to plunder southward.

Trade space for time, give Altan's army enough territory to disperse its forces, and then mobilize the southern Huguang and Jiangxi guards, including the main force of Hu Zongxian's army to fight against the Japanese pirates, and the new army newly trained by Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang to attack from south to north?

At that time, the 200,000-strong army will leave Juyongguan to block Altan's escape route to the north, and completely eliminate the main force of Altan's army inside the pass. Is this plan feasible?

When Wei Guangde foresaw that he might have a tragic future, countless ideas began to pop up in his mind. They were wild and unreliable, and the war that would overthrow the country was inexplicably thought of by him.

Well, Wei Guangde was also forced into a corner.

Because he soon thought that with the current combat power of the Ming army, it was almost impossible to maintain such a huge combat plan. Perhaps the armies in the early Ming Dynasty could barely complete it.

The seemingly perfect plan actually had loopholes at every point. Altan's army only needed to find a point to break through, and the so-called combat plan that consumed countless resources could be wasted.

Shaking his head, Wei Guangde wanted to get rid of the unrealistic things.

Talking about war on paper is not good.

Liu Han, and that guy named Li Wenjin, have caused me so much trouble.

Wei Guangde could only curse the two men in his head. He was very unfamiliar with them before, but he had heard of Li Wenjin, and it was mentioned in Yu Dayou's letter.

Thinking of what Yang Bo said when analyzing the two men before, that the two men should not think of or dare to do such a big thing, Wei Guangde was startled again.

Looking back on this battle, it was not that the Ming army fell completely into the trap of the Altan tribe.

The feint attack on Xuanfu gave Datong a reason to send troops, using Banshengcheng as bait to attract the Datong army to fight and then annihilate them, and then break through the pass from Datong. So, there are White Lotus bandits in the upper echelons of Datong Town, and they have used all means to achieve such a goal.

At this moment, Wei Guangde couldn't help but think of a scene of Infernal Affairs in Datong Town, where a White Lotus spy infiltrated the high-level officials of Datong and deceived the trust of Li Wenjin and Liu Han.

"Withdraw from the court."

When Wei Guangde was thinking about this, Huang Jin's shrill voice suddenly came into his ears.

As a conditioned reflex, Wei Guangde saluted the Emperor Jiajing on the throne with others, and then everyone slowly left the hall.

Not daring to look at the current appearance of the person above, the soul-destroying Wei Guangde hurriedly left Yongshou Palace and Xiyuan like a stray dog.

At this time, Yu Dayou and Liu Han, who had just finished camping, naturally didn't know the development of the situation. Although they were about to fight with the Altan tribe, neither of them had much pressure, as they were all experienced fighters.

At this time, the two were watching their soldiers roasting lamb legs, which was tonight's dinner.

On the prairie, the autumn wind was refreshing, the endless starry sky was overhead, and a picnic began on the vast land.