I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 75 Datong Town

Datong City is the seat of Datong Town, Datong Prefecture, and Shanxi Xingdusi, especially Datong Town, which is the most important.

In the back hall of Datong Prefecture's government office, Hu Zongxian, the governor of Shanxi, Datong and Xuanfu, convened a group of generals for a meeting.

"I have submitted a petition to the imperial court and the Ministry of War, and have received the imperial edict and the Ministry of War's document. The appointments are as follows. Xue Lin is the commander-in-chief of Datong, Dong Yiyuan is the deputy general of the three guards of Yanghe, Gaoshan, and Tiancheng, Ma Gui is the deputy general of the three guards of Datong, Chen Wu is the deputy general of the right guard and Weiyuan guard of Datong, and Fu Yingjia is the lieutenant general of the left guard of Datong."

Hu Zongxian read it out loud, and the generals had different expressions.

Xue Lin is the illegitimate grandson of the third generation Yangwu Marquis Xue Cong, and the cousin of the contemporary Yangwu Marquis Xue Han.

His father entered the officialdom through military examination and served as a general in Datong, Shanxi, Yande and other towns.

Xue Lin himself was first a garrison commander in Yande Town, and was later transferred back to Shanxi and Datong Towns.

Hu Zongxian promoted him to be the commander-in-chief of Datong Town, with profound intentions.

Two generations of his family served as generals in Datong and Shanxi, and they had many comrades and old subordinates. However, they were different from the military families that had served as generals in Shanxi and Datong since the Hongwu and Yongle years.

What's more, he is the illegitimate grandson of Yangwu Marquis Xue Cong and a descendant of noble family.

At this very delicate moment, promoting him to be the general of Datong can stabilize the morale of the army without being overly restrained by the old forces.

Well-intentioned.

Dong Yiyuan came from the Dong family, a family of military generals in Datong.

His father Dong Yang was once a guerrilla general in Xuanfu and died in battle when Altan Khan invaded the border.

Dong Yiyuan was appointed as a guerrilla commander in Jizhou Town due to his meritorious service. During the Guihai Rebellion, he was one of the few generals in Jizhou Town who made meritorious service.

He held Shimenzhai firmly and later took advantage of the Northern Tartars' retreat to pursue them, beheading more than 300 of them. He was then promoted to Lieutenant General of Shimenzhai.

Needless to say, Ma Gui came from a family of military generals in Datong. His father, Ma Lu, served as the Lieutenant General of the Right Guard of Datong and made many military achievements when Altan Khan invaded the border.

During the Guihai Rebellion, Malu, as the deputy general of Xuanfu Town, brought his eldest son Ma Jin and followed the former Xuanda Governor Jiangdong, leading the cavalry to rush to the aid of the capital, and defeated Xin Ai's troops in Tongzhou and other places. He was promoted to the general of Xuanfu Town and was awarded the Douniu suit.

Ma Jin was promoted to lieutenant general and served under Qi Jiguang.

Ma Gui was as brave as his brother and slightly more intelligent. Under the command of Jiangdong, the former governor of Xuanda, he repeatedly defeated the various barbarian tribes north of Datong, including the harassment by Baduer of the Duolotu tribe, which forced him to flee to the east to seek fortune and follow Xin Ai to invade the capital in an attempt to make up for his losses. In the end, he lost all his capital.

Not long after Baduer led the remnants of his troops back to the pasture, Ma Gui seized the opportunity and launched a surprise attack, completely sending them into the dust of history.

This raid was secretly instigated by Hu Zongxian and was also a token of Ma Guina's surrender.

He did a good job and was highly valued by Hu Zongxian.

Needless to say, Chen Wu and Fu Yingjia were Hu Zongxian's trusted old subordinates brought over from the southeast.

After hearing the appointment, the generals knew what was going on, and Governor Hu finally took action against the three towns of Shanxi, Datong and Xuanfu.

The positions and responsibilities of the three towns are very interesting.

Xuanfu Town is located on the west side of the capital, and its purpose is more to guard the capital's flank, just like Liaodong, one is east and the other is west.

Only some of the checkpoints in the west of Shanxi Town, including Piantou Pass and Laoyingbao Checkpoint, directly face the Tatar tribes in Donghetao. Most of the checkpoints in Shanxi Town, such as Zhenwuwei, Yanmen Checkpoint and Ningwu Checkpoint, are "second-line checkpoints".

Its main responsibility was to become the last line of defense in the hinterland of Shanxi after the Datong Town Checkpoint was breached.

Therefore, Datong Town assumed the most important defense function of the three towns, directly guarding the defense line with the various tribes of the northern barbarians in the desert. It had the largest garrison, the most military settlements, commercial settlements, and civilian settlements, so the situation was also the most complicated.

As long as Datong Town is taken, the three towns in Shanxi will fall as well.

The remaining generals who came from the three towns of Shanxi were feeling uneasy.

Datong Town is strategically located, so the Shanxi merchants and the Shanxi Party behind them have been working hard to manage it.

From Datong Prefecture to Datong Town, and even the Shanxi Xingdusi, which existed in name only and was only used for a temporary post, were all thoroughly infiltrated from top to bottom.

During the more than half a year that Hu Zongxian had been the governor of the three towns, he had only been patrolling the border, rectifying military discipline, strengthening training, and repairing the passes. In terms of personnel, he only relocated some middle and lower-level officers due to various violations of laws and disciplines, and there had been no major changes to the middle and high-level generals above.

I didn't expect that everything would move at once.

The magnitude of the movement made Xue Lin and others tremble with fear. Will there be a big chaos?

This is the Xuanda border, and there has been a big mess. It threatens the capital, and the earth is shaking. It's terrible. I wonder how many heads it will take to hold it down!

After the meeting, Xue Lin just returned to his house, and Lieutenant General Wang Guogui, Guerrilla Gao Wenqiang, Xu Cheng, Qi Fang, Ma Boliang, Quan Tingyong, Garrison Xue Ang, Gao Wenyong, Liu Zhijiu came to visit one after another. "Congratulations, Master Xue, on being promoted to the General of Datong Town!"

The nine people said in unison.

Xue Lin knew that the position under his ass was a volcanic crater, but getting promoted was always a good thing. He forced himself to cheer up and bowed in return.

"My fellow comrades, you are so polite. Please take a seat, please take a seat!"

After sitting down, everyone looked at each other, and finally Xue Liang spoke.

"Uncle San, former general Zhao Guoliang, deputy generals Yang Lu, Xiao Ling, lieutenant generals Wu Qiyong, Lin Dongyang and others gathered in the manor of the wealthy Tian family outside the city, and seemed to be plotting something."

Xue Ang is Xue Lin's nephew and was pushed to the front by everyone.

"You know about this, I know about it, and Hu Bingbu also knows about it."

"Uncle San, behind Zhao Guoliang is Chen Xixue, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice. I heard that behind him is the cabinet minister Gao. Can Minister Hu defeat them?"

"Yes, General Xue, we are all warriors who only know how to fight in battle. We are completely clueless about this kind of court struggle."

Xue Lin stroked his beard and said, "This kind of court struggle is more dangerous than fighting in the battlefield. How many people died in the several court struggles? How many of our three towns' generals were innocently implicated?"

"Third Uncle/General Xue, what should we do? Just sit here and do nothing?"

"What else do you want to do?" Xue Lin glared at them. "What ability do you have to fight in the court?"

"Oh! What should I do? I should have known this earlier."

Xue Lin interrupted without hesitation, "Knowing this earlier? Do we have any choice?"

Yeah, do we have a choice?

Hu Zongxian was still busy in the signing room of the Datong Prefecture government office when the captain of the personal guards came in to report.

"Minister, Mr. Buncho is here."

"What!" Hu Zongxian stood up suddenly and said quickly, "Quick, take me to greet him."

At the gate of the Second Hospital, Hu Zongxian took Xu Wei's hand and said, "Brother Wen, I have finally got you here."

Xu Wei smiled and said, "I know that Brother Ruzhen is looking forward to it, waiting for my good news."

"Did Brother Wen bring you good news?"

"Haha, let me keep you in suspense." Xu Wei laughed twice, then explained: "This matter is of great importance. Take me to the signing room for a confidential discussion."

"Okay, Brother Wen, this way please!"

The two men sat down in the signing room. Xu Wei took out a leather-wrapped wooden box from his arms, opened the lid, and took out two documents from it.

"This is a copy of the memorial submitted by Hu Yingjia, the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of War, and this is the imperial edict written in red ink by the Emperor."

Hu Zongxian hurriedly took the copy of the memorial, glanced at it quickly, and his face showed no joy but extreme fear.

"Prince. Prince." Hu Zongxian stuttered and couldn't say anything else.

Xu Wei asked softly, "Ruzhen, do you also think this is just a party dispute?"

Hu Zongxian turned his head suddenly and stared at Xu Wei, "Brother Wen, what do you mean by that?"

"Brother Ruzhen, the Crown Prince has personally intervened. Do you think this is still a factional struggle? Is it just a struggle between the Crown Prince's Party and the Jin Party?"

Hu Zongxian remained silent.

"In the Wanshou Palace, when Gao Ge Lao presented Chen Yijing's memorial, the prince said something to him."

"What?"

"The prince stared at Gao Gelao and said, 'I am the prince, the king, and you are the subject! You listen to me when I speak, and you only speak when I tell you to!'"

Hu Zongxian heaved a long sigh of relief, looked up at the roof, and said with a sigh: "God bless the Ming Dynasty!"

　Third update!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)