The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 183 How to fight a war with internal thieves

It was past noon and the sun was setting in the west.

Qi Jiguang had already set off with his personal guards and elite imperial guards. The rumbling sound of horse hooves had gradually faded away, but Wanli was still standing on the Wangjing Tower with his hands behind his back, staring at the mountain road to the south in a daze.

This time he was really careless and didn't consider the problem of internal thieves at all.

The remnants of the three major families in Puzhou are the eight imperial merchants. In history, it was this group of guys who sold out the Ming Dynasty.

At that time, Chongzhen only prevented these guys from taking power, and did not do anything to them. However, these guys could have sold out the Ming Dynasty.

Now he has killed all the sons and in-laws of the three major families in Puzhou who are in official positions. It would be strange if these guys did not retaliate against him crazily.

He was really careless and didn't consider this factor at all.

These guys are capable of anything. Helping the Northern Tartars to find out the movements of the imperial army, secretly notifying them, and even allowing them to take the opportunity to counterattack is just child's play for them.

In history, this group of guys bribed countless civil and military officials and sent them to the Later Jin Dynasty.

It can be said that the Ming Dynasty was destroyed by this group of internal traitors. Otherwise, how could such a bizarre thing happen that the Ming Dynasty with a population of hundreds of millions was destroyed by the Later Jin Dynasty whose population was less than one million at that time.

He didn't even consider this point, which was really wrong.

Fortunately, this time they only wanted to raid the three guards of Doyan and did not want to recapture the former territory of the Beijing Xingdusi. Otherwise, once the army was dispersed over thousands of miles in the Beijing Xingdusi, it would take an unknown amount of time to regroup and return to support.

What to do next?

How should we fight the battle to recapture the Beijing Xingdusi next year?

The Northern Tartars are well aware of their movements. Once he devotes all his efforts to recover the former territory of the Beijing Xingdusi, other border towns will probably be in chaos.

He was just frowning in thought when another rider came galloping towards him from the Chaohe Valley in the north.

Soon, a messenger guard came up quickly through the heavy guards.

This guy turned out to be the personal guard of Li Chengliang, Marquis of Ningyuan, the general of Liaodong!
After being handed over to Duke Yingguo Zhang Yuangong and father-in-law Zheng Danian, this military uniform has been made very formally. The collar and sleeves are embroidered with colorful threads, and it is easy to tell which part it belongs to at a glance.

For example, if the first line is red, it represents the emperor's personal soldiers, including the Beijing Camp, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Forbidden Army. If the first line is green, it represents the border garrison. If the first line is blue, it represents the navy soldiers and garrison soldiers from other places.

There are also lines of various colors behind it to represent specific identities.

So he could tell at a glance that the person coming was the personal guard of Li Chengliang, the Marquis of Ningyuan and the general of Liaodong.

The guard quickly stepped forward and immediately knelt on one knee, clasping his hands and bowing, saying, "Report, Your Majesty, the Tuman suddenly assembled an army of over 100,000 soldiers to attack the line from Anle Prefecture to Tielingwei. Our Lord had no time to report, so he could only quickly lead the cavalry back to provide support."

The three great families of Puzhou!

These are a bunch of traitors!

It was obvious that as soon as they started to gather, the remnants of the three major families in Puzhou notified the Northern Tartars to start preparing.

As soon as they launched the attack, the Northern Tartars began to gather. As soon as they broke into the grazing area of ​​the three guards of Doyan, the Northern Tartars launched an attack on Datong Town and Liaodong Town.

The timing is perfect, and the place is well chosen too.

The line between Anlezhou and Tielingwei is located at the northernmost part of Liaodong Town, more than a thousand miles away from Li Chengliang's current location. Even if the Liaodong cavalry rushes there, it will take three or four days.

Wanli frowned and thought for a while, then asked, "How did you get here?"

The guard quickly explained, "Your Majesty, the place we are marching to is the former Yingzhou Qiantunwei garrison. There is a mountain road leading to Daningwei from the former Yingzhou Qiantunwei garrison.

I rushed to the vicinity of the Daning Guard station and then took the Laoha River Valley, the Kuan River Valley, the Luan River Valley, and the Chao River Valley, all the way here."

Li Chengliang is the same. He doesn’t even have time to write an urgent report?
Wanli looked at the guard with empty hands and frowned slightly.

Now he didn't know whether Li Chengliang was confident of repelling Tumen Khan's army.

This is fine.

He thought for a moment and then simply asked, "Do you think Anlezhou and Tielingwei can hold the line?"

Uh, this.

how to say?

The guard thought about it carefully, then said cautiously: "Your Majesty, this is not about whether we can hold it or not. We only have about 10,000 defenders over there, and this cannot be changed.

Whether we can hold this place depends on whether the Tuman are willing to spend a lot of money. If the Tuman continue to attack without regard for casualties, we will definitely not be able to hold it."

Would Tumen Khan launch a fierce attack regardless of casualties?
This is really hard to say.

If this guy were allowed to lead the cavalry into Liaodong Town, it would be a catastrophe for the border troops stationed in Liaodong Town and their families.

I have so many troops, can I still let the northern barbarians invade the nine borders? Wanli frowned and thought for a while, then said decisively: "Uncle, send someone to follow him all the way to convey my order.

He ordered the Shenwu Left Camp and the Shenwu Right Camp to immediately go through the Luan River Valley, Kuan River Valley and Laoha River Valley to meet up with the Shenwu Rear Camp.

He ordered Dong Yiyuan to lead the 60,000 cavalrymen from the combined Shenwu Left Camp, Shenwu Right Camp and Shenwu Rear Camp to cross the Daling River Valley and rush to Liaodong Town's Anle Prefecture and Tieling for support.

Order the Shenji Left Camp, Shenji Right Camp, Shenji Rear Camp, and Shenshu Left Camp, Shenshu Right Camp, and Shenshu Rear Camp to return along the same route."

This battle is really impossible to fight.

They also raided the three guards of Doyan, but they didn't find a single hair of the three guards of Doyan. Instead, Datong Town and Liaodong Town were raided by the northern barbarians.

How do we fight this war when there is a traitor within?
Historically, Chongzhen didn't know how to fight, so he fought in a mess and destroyed the Ming Dynasty in just over ten years.

He can't fight like Chongzhen did.

As for how to fight it, there is no way to fight it this year. We can only wait until next year to find a way.

This year he was one step behind and was bitten back.

I don’t know whether Datong Town and Liaodong Town can be defended.

If he was so aggressive and recruited so many troops, and was still invaded by the northern barbarians, he would not only be embarrassed, but it would also have a great impact on the morale of the Beijing camp and the border garrisons.

So, will the Northern Tartars or the remnants of the three major families of Puzhou slap him in the face?

The remnants of the three major families in Puzhou must be thinking about it.

These guys not only wanted to slap him in the face, they probably wanted to pounce on him and bite him.

Fortunately, the reputations of Ma Gui, Qi Jiguang, Li Chengliang, Dong Yikui, Dong Yiyuan and others are not exaggerated.

The Northern Tartars would not be so stupid as to take the lives of their own family members to avenge the three major families of Puzhou.

A few days later, news came from Datong Town.

Thanks to Ma Gui's perseverance, the line of Xuandewei, Tucheng, Maoerzhuang and Liangmatai was not breached by the northern barbarians.

As soon as Qi Jiguang arrived, the northern barbarians were frightened and stopped attacking.

As soon as Dong Yikui's reinforcements arrived, the Northern Tartars were frightened and retreated.

It's similar in Liaodong Town.

Tumen Khan did not launch a desperate attack on the Great Wall from Anlezhou to Tielingwei.

When Li Chengliang led his army to rush over, Tumen Khan also stopped the attack.

When Dong Yiyuan led 60,000 cavalrymen from the Beijing camp to rush over, Tumen Khan also retreated directly.

This time, Datong Town and Liaodong Town did not seem to have suffered any losses.

However, the border troops suffered heavy casualties.

Datong Town was difficult to defend due to its terrain, and the Northern Tartars' attacks were fierce. Thousands of soldiers there were killed or wounded, with hundreds killed in action.

Liaodong Town was better off, with only over a thousand casualties and over a hundred deaths.

Fortunately, they were all defending the city walls, and the northern barbarians suffered greater casualties than them.

This is no small achievement.

In order to boost morale, Wanli directly ordered Li Tingji to produce a court report specifically introducing the great victories in Datong Town and Liaodong Town.

Moreover, the military and industrial rewards for the injured and dead soldiers, pensions, and meritorious soldiers were immediately distributed.

In this way, the morale of the border troops was not only not affected, but was boosted a lot.

From this perspective, the remnants of the three major families in Puzhou were defeated.

These guys can only rely on folk rumors to make up lies. Compared with the official gazette with a circulation of hundreds of thousands of copies, they are nothing.

The methods used by unscrupulous businessmen to spread rumors cannot be compared with the information released through the official channels of the court.

This is the importance of controlling the right to speak.

He could easily describe the failure of the surprise attack on the three guards of Doyan, which allowed the northern barbarians to take the opportunity to invade Datong Town and Liaodong Town, as two great victories.

(End of this chapter)