The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 278 Thunderbolt

In September in Gyeonggi Province, golden ears of wheat and rice dance in the wind like waves.

The soldiers of the Beijing camp began to harvest crops with their families. The joy of the harvest was on everyone's face, and the fields were filled with laughter.

At this time, Wanli suddenly issued another decree.

He actually ordered the nine border towns to gather cavalry and prepare for an attack!
To be honest, the remnants of the three major families in Puzhou and the Northern Tartars were left speechless by his tricks.

He issued an edict in early June to prepare for the expedition against the Northern Tartars.

As a result, after three months of preparation, there was still no progress.

This time, the cavalry from the nine border towns began to assemble according to his wishes.

The problem is that the Beijing Army has not started to assemble.

All the soldiers of the Beijing camp were harvesting grain at home, and there was no sign of gathering.

Is this called preparing to attack?

The northern barbarian tribes had become a little numb from being played around. After receiving the news, they not only did not migrate north, but instead ran to the grasslands near the nine borders in the south to graze.

They probably wanted to eat up all the pasture in the south before the Beijing camp gathered, and when the Beijing camp started to gather, they would start migrating north.

This time, Wanli did not just thunder without rain.

After he ordered the nine frontier cavalry to assemble, he issued an imperial decree to inform all the military garrisons in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty that, except for the border garrisons and coastal garrisons, all those with garrison military status could take the navy's express ships to the capital and go to Nanyuan for training and selection.

Soon after, long lines of carriages came out of the Summer Resort, and each line consisted of thousands of carriages.

These carriages were not the grain carts of the Shenji Camp, nor were they the chariots of the Shenshu Camp. Instead, they were the kind of trough carts with wooden boards about two feet high on all four sides. This was somewhat similar to the border army's grain carts, and would definitely be very good for transporting grain.

If the soldiers and horses are not moving, the grain and grass will go first.

It was normal for him to send a convoy to Datong Town to transport grain.

The border residents in Datong Town have to hand over nearly 10 million dan of military rations every year. Now that the grain is ripe, it is normal to send horse-drawn carriages to transport it.

It seemed that these carriages were really heading to Datong Town, and they were transporting food from the vicinity of Datong Wei to Longcheng Wei in batches.

It seems that the little emperor is really preparing to march north.

However, the northern barbarian tribes have not yet started migrating northward.

There was no way. The young emperor of the Ming Dynasty had been playing with them for three months, and they were so scared that they dared not graze on the grasslands near the nine borders of the Ming Dynasty.

The grass there is growing wildly, but the grass in the north has been almost eaten up.

If they don't quickly eat the grass in the south before the Beijing troops gather, allowing the grass in the north to grow, what will the cattle, sheep and horses eat in winter?
What exactly does Wanli want to do?

It's already September, and it will snow outside the Great Wall in two months at most.

If he doesn't gather the Beijing troops to attack at this time, what's the point of fighting this year?

On the tenth day of the ninth lunar month, Gengshen year, early in the morning at about 1 a.m., when the sky was just getting light, a thunderous sound of horse hooves suddenly came from the south of the Mountain Resort. Tens of thousands of imperial guards and light cavalry formed a long dragon and filed out, heading straight for Xuanfu Town.

Immediately afterwards, the cavalry of the Beijing camp mounted their horses from their respective garrisons as if they had suddenly received an imperial edict, and galloped towards Xuanfu Town like a hundred rivers converging into one.

The chariots of the Shenshu Camp followed, and the Shenji Camp also moved with it, but they were heading towards Nanyuan.

The little emperor is going to launch another surprise attack!

By the time the remnants of the three major families in Puzhou discovered it, it was too late.

At this moment, the official road from Shuntian Prefecture to Xuanfu Town is densely packed with cavalrymen from the Beijing Camp. If they want to pass through these cavalrymen to report the news, wouldn't that be courting death?

By noon, Wanli had already led tens of thousands of imperial guards and cavalry to the river bank south of Zhangjiakou.

The warhorse had run nearly four hundred miles and had reached its limit. He gave the order without hesitation to set up camp on the spot.

The cavalry from the Beijing camp behind them continued to gather, and continued to gather, as if there was no end in sight. The entire Yanghe River Valley gradually stretched for hundreds of miles. At this time, the tens of thousands of cavalry from Xuanfu Town had already gathered north of Zhangjiakou and set up camp.

They were blocking the northern pass, and the northern barbarians certainly didn't know that the Imperial Guards and the Beijing Camp Cavalry had already arrived.

At around 5 p.m., as the sun was setting, Qi Jiguang, Dong Yikui, Qin Bangping, Liu Jing, Zhao Luejiao and You Shigong's generals had already gathered in the tent where the maps were placed.

Wanli pointed directly at the map and gave detailed instructions: "We will attack early tomorrow morning.

Bangping, you lead the Shenwu front camp out of Zhangjiakou and head west to Longchengwei, a hundred miles away, then spread out horizontally and sweep to the north. This two-hundred-mile-wide area is under your responsibility.

I will lead the Shenwu rear camp out of Zhangjiakou and head west. Spread out about a hundred miles to the east of the area responsible for Bangping, and sweep to the north. This two-hundred-mile-wide area is under your responsibility.

Shengwu, you lead the Shenwu Left Camp out of Zhangjiakou and head east, straight to a hundred miles near the Beijing Xingdusi, then spread out horizontally and sweep to the north. This two-hundred-mile-wide area is under your responsibility.

Shigong, you led the Shenwu rear camp out of Zhangjiakou and headed east, spreading out about a hundred miles west of the area under Shengwu's responsibility and sweeping to the north. This two-hundred-mile-wide area is under your responsibility.

Yuan Jing and Yi Kui, you will lead your personal guards and the Xuanfu Town cavalry to follow me in the center and advance northward. General Ma and Yi Yuanhui will lead the cavalry and craftsmen to follow us in the east and west and advance northward, and at the same time build a defensive thousand-household post.

This time, we will push northward until we reach the desert Gobi of the vast sea. We will take over this area that is thousands of miles wide from east to west.

"Chahar tribe, regardless of sex, age, cattle, sheep, horses, etc., all must be captured. Just be careful. If you see anyone with a secret guard's sign, just pretend you didn't see them and let them go."

Upon hearing this, all the generals responded with unanimous agreement.

The next morning, at about 1 a.m., just as the sky was getting light, the entire Xuanfu Town suddenly seemed to explode, filled with the thunderous sound of horse hooves.

The dense cavalry poured out of Zhangjiakou like a torrent, quickly spread out to the south of the Chahar tribe, and then swept northward like a black line.

At the same time, Longcheng Guard and Kaiping Guard also sent out 20,000 cavalry and thousands of horse-drawn carriages, pushing northward along the east and west sides of the Chahar tribe.

As they advanced, they left behind piles of carriages in areas with abundant water sources. After the craftsmen got off the carriages, they began to dig the ground frantically. After digging the foundation, they began to build the city wall.

The defensive city wall of the Thousand Households Defense Force there was taking shape at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This is not the end yet. The chariots of the Shenshu Camp, the grain carts of the Shenji Camp, and the grain carts from Jizhou Town, Xuanfu Town and Datong Town are all pouring into the territory of the Chahar tribe.

There are less than 200,000 men, women, young and old from the Chahar tribe left here to graze. The Ming cavalry seems to have no less than 200,000. How could they possibly withstand it?
They had no way to escape, as the Ming cavalry were chasing them everywhere like crazy.

The advancing speed of this pure cavalry is quite terrifying. Not to mention three or four hundred miles a day, more than two hundred miles a day is definitely no problem.

By the time Tumen Khan received the news, four or five days had passed.

At this time, the Ming cavalry had swallowed up the entire Chahar territory in a swift and fierce manner!

Moreover, the Ming army not only swallowed up the territory, but also robbed all the men, women, young and old, as well as the cattle, sheep and horses left there, and they were still frantically building cities and fortresses.

When he sent scouts to take a look, he saw a row of cities and fortresses from Dashawo in the east to the vast sea in the north of the Chahar tribe.

Although those city fortresses had not been built yet, the Ming army's cavalry, chariots, food carts, and various vehicles were densely guarding there, and even scouts could not get through.

This time, he didn't know what to do.

According to the young and strong men who escaped, the Ming army dispatched nearly 200,000 cavalry this time.

Even if all the young and strong men under his command were assembled, there would not be more than 200,000 of them. How could he fight against the enemy?

Finally, he decided to endure it!

He had no way to deal with the Chahar tribe being captured by the Ming army. He could only quickly arrange people to guard the line from Dashawo to Hanhai.

The so-called Dashawo is actually a desert with a radius of four or five hundred miles in the northwest corner of Beijing Xingdusi.

In other words, at this time the Ming army had already occupied an area thousands of miles in radius from Xuanfu Town to the north to the Hanhai.

How many days has it been?
When the Tumed and Kharchin tribes heard the news, they were trembling with fear.

The current Ming army is too powerful, so powerful that it is terrifying, just like it was during the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties.

(End of this chapter)