Wanli 1592

Chapter 579 The Incident
On the 26th day of the first lunar month in the 5000th year of Wanli, [-] people from the main force of the northern captives attacked Taiyuan City, and Taiyuan City fell.

When the cabinet got the news, everyone including Zhao Zhigao was deeply shocked and puzzled.

Didn't it mean that after Xiao Ruxun arrived, all problems were solved?Didn't Xiao Ruxun already break out of the Bauhinia Pass?Didn't it mean that Wang Shiyang had 10,000+ soldiers and horses in Taiyuan?Why did Beilu still take Taiyuan?
Wang Shiyang's apology memorial solved all doubts.

This time the northern captives may have expert help when they go south.

The [-] northern captives who left from Zijingguan did not return to the north, but quietly hid in Shanxi, and raided Taiyuan City when no one expected it. The reason why Taiyuan City fell so easily was because At that time, there were only [-] defenders in Taiyuan City.

The rest of the defenders went to fight back.

The northern captives despicably used an army of about 1 people as bait to retreat all the way and attract the main force of the Ming army to go north. Although Wang Shiyang felt strange and did not allow the army to go north, but the army strongly demanded that Wang Shiyang could not suppress it and could only agree. There was no problem, and Wang Shiyang himself went north.

So Taiyuan was empty.

The question of why Xiao Ruxun didn't play a role, which everyone was wondering about, was also explained.

Xiao Ruxun had just arrived at Xinzhou where Wang Shiyang was located on the [-]th of the first lunar month to meet Wang Shiyang to express his concerns. At almost the same time, the sentry came to report that there was a fire in Taiyuan City, and Taiyuan City was afraid of disaster. Xiao Ruxun had no time to counterattack , Taiyuan City was breached.

This matter has nothing to do with Xiao Ruxun, but Wang Shiyang and those Yulin cavalry who insisted on going north and disobeying Wang Shiyang's orders are mainly responsible.

After hearing the news, Wang Shiyang was so angry that he vomited blood and fainted. In desperation, he could only temporarily entrust the power of governor to Xiao Ruxun, asking Xiao Ruxun to help him clean up the mess, and he lay helplessly in Xinzhou waiting for the court to punish him.

At the same time, Wang Shiyang formally requested the imperial court to grant Xiao Ruxun the position of governor, so that Xiao Ruxun could justifiably control the army and clean up the mess, and act in a hurry. Don't send another governor, because time is too late.

The cabinet became chaotic as if it had experienced an eight-magnitude earthquake. Zhao Zhigao stopped thinking about the enmity between the emperor and his ministers, Shen Yitong didn't think about his resignation, Shen Li didn't think about his loss, everything was in vain. Make way for the inexplicably expanded war at the moment.

Taiyuan was breached, and the war escalated completely!
Coincidentally, at almost the same moment, Xiao Ruxun sent the secret memorial to the emperor alone through the secret line of Jinyiwei and delivered it to the emperor. However, Zhu Yijun was informed of more complete and important news a quarter of an hour earlier than the cabinet ministers.

The northern captives used tactics to divert the tiger away from the mountain, and transferred 13 main forces from Taiyuan City, and were able to easily break through the city. The main essence of the city was destroyed, and all official facilities including Jinwangfu were burned. Officials were almost killed. None of the households survived, and all died.

The only good thing is that the people were not affected much, and the number of casualties was relatively small. The northern captives took the initiative to evacuate after four hours after breaking through Taiyuan City. By the time Xiao Ruxun issued the secret report, Taiyuan City had already recovered.

The reason why Beilu was able to attack Taiyuan City by surprise was that Beilu found the grain storage cave of a large family of Shanxi merchants in Shanxi, and used the space in the cave to hide soldiers and horses. The main force of the army went north, and Taiyuan was empty.

As for why the strong city of Taiyuan was breached, Xiao Ruxun said that he was not very clear, because he had just arrived in Xinzhou and got a report that someone saw black smoke rising from the city of Taiyuan, but when he entered the city and asked the people in the city, some people said Before the gate of Taiyuan City was breached, northern captives appeared in Taiyuan City and caught fire.

This is the root cause of the direct collapse of Taiyuan City without defensive operations.

He investigated later and found that the place where the fire started first was Prince Jin's Mansion, the center of the entire Taiyuan. It was burned, unless the northern captives had sneaked into Taiyuan City before, it was absolutely impossible.

And Xiao Ruxun directly pointed out his doubts that had already been resolved, and confirmed his own analysis-this time the northern captives went south was deliberately arranged by someone, and the food was provided along the way. Someone provided it, and those who can do this are the big Shanxi merchants.

The people in Shanxi have always had the habit of storing grain, and it is no secret that the big households store more grain. The common people have little food and cannot keep it.

It doesn't matter at first, but the number is too huge, and the big households have too many fields. As far as Xiao Ruxun knows so far, there are 12 shi of grain in the seven grain storage caves, and more grain storage The hole has yet to be explored.

Xiao Ruxun strongly suspects that all the military farmland in Datong, Shanxi Province has fallen into the hands of rich Shanxi merchants in Datong, Shanxi Province, and they have obtained a large amount of grain by means of this.

They usually don't sell it, they just wait for the disaster year, or sell it to the northern captives, or sell it to the disaster-stricken people at a high price. According to Xiao Ruxun's estimation, the illegal grain stored by the big households in Datong, Shanxi is no less than several million shi, which is enough to help the whole of Datong, Shanxi. of the refugees survived the winter and still have a lot to spare.

Not to mention the whole of Datong this time, the reason why the Beilu can go south to Shanxi so quickly is because someone provided the route and food, which helped the Beilu quickly break through the Pingxing Pass, opened the way to the south, and beat the Ming army into a mess. It was a mess, and Wang Shiyang fell into the trap.

However, the only thing worthy of praise is that Wang Shiyang was quite foresighted, and he sent King Jin's family to Qi County to avoid the war very early, so King Jin was still safe.

Xiao Ruxun decided to pursue the northern captives, annihilate them all, and then go north to counterattack Datong, but it has to be said that the problems exposed in Shanxi are very serious.

Afterwards, Xiao Ruxun also mentioned that Wang Shiyang had entrusted him with the power of the governor, and gave some explanations, asked for instructions on troop mobilization, and expressed that he would follow the emperor's order.

After reading it, Zhu Yijun didn't notice that his hands were shaking.

(End of this chapter)