Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

Half an hour later, in the central command tent.

"Lord Pan, did you summon me and Lord Dong here because of this secret letter?"

The speaker was Ding Xian, the commander of the Right Guard of Baoding.

At this moment, there were three identical secret letters on the table.

"Since Lord Pan hasn't contacted us, I also intend to invite the two of you to discuss this matter together."

Dong Zhou, the commander of Dingzhou Guard, bowed to Pan Bingyi and Ding Xian.

"Although we do not know who wrote this letter, the fact that it was placed on the bedside of our three commanders on the same night shows that they have great influence."

This letter does not seem to be baseless or an unwarranted slander.

"This person must have a purpose for going to such great lengths."

Ding Xian nodded and said,

"But what the letter said was truly appalling. The dignified Commander of the Taiyuan Left Guard actually colluded with the Mongols to build a mountain stronghold, manufacture a large number of weapons and armor, hoard grain and fodder, train private soldiers, and plot a rebellion!"

If what you say is true, this is a shocking case!

But why would this person tell us this?

"Could it be because we're the guest troops?"

Pan Bingyi thought for a moment,

"If what is said in the letter is true, then Zhang Yin's plot to rebel has been going on for a long time. This mountain stronghold called 'Black Cliff' is huge, with at least several thousand people."

The area at the top of the cliff is larger than that of an ordinary county town, with a large number of buildings and even pavilions and towers.

This can truly be called a mountain city; it couldn't have been built in just a few years.

If this were true, the local officials in Pingding Prefecture could not have been completely unaware of it. The only possibility is that they were bribed by Zhang Yin, or even that they were Zhang Yin's accomplices.

The visiting soldiers from other provinces had no connection with the local officials of Taiyuan Prefecture, which is why they came to us.

Do you two know when Zhang Yin was appointed Commander of the Taiyuan Left Guard?

"Before coming here, I had already asked around, and it was the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign."

Dong Zhou spoke up,

"It was during the time when Emperor Wuzong passed away and the current emperor set off from Chengtian Prefecture to the capital to inherit the throne."

Looking back now, the imperial court was focused on the succession to the throne, and the local areas were in a state of chaos, making it easy for people to take advantage of the situation.

Whether this Zhang Yin is truly Zhang Yin is still unknown.

"From the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign until now, a full twenty-one years have passed!"

Pan Bingyi slammed his hand on the table.

Regardless of whether Zhang Yin impersonated someone else, if this person truly harbored rebellious intentions, he would probably have already begun planning and preparing for it.

According to the letter, Blackwood Cliff is located in the Taihang Mountains within the territory of Pingding Prefecture.

Pingding Prefecture was under the jurisdiction of Taiyuan Prefecture and was personally protected by the commander of the Taiyuan Left Guard, so it was fully capable of secretly establishing a large mountain stronghold.

Even if Zhang Yin only started construction after serving as commander for several years, as long as there was sufficient financial resources, it was indeed possible to build a mountain city of this scale in just over ten years.

Since they want to rebel, the Taiyuan Left Guard will certainly not be as short-staffed as our Three Guards; it is very likely that they will be fully staffed with more than 5,000 men.

With the addition of the several thousand private soldiers in the mountain stronghold, if Zhang Yin were to start a rebellion, he could immediately raise tens of thousands of rebels who had received formal military training.

Using this as their backbone to coerce the people, the rebel army could quickly swell to tens of thousands of people.

This scale is no smaller than the Ning Prince Rebellion during the Zhengde era.

Gentlemen, the imperial court's rewards for suppressing rebellions are extremely generous!

When Wang Yangming quelled the rebellion of Prince Ning, he was granted the title of Earl of Xinjian, which is an earldom!

"Is Lord Pan trying to gamble on this enormous fortune?"

Upon hearing Pan Bingyi's words, Ding Xian seemed somewhat tempted.

"Unfortunately, these three anonymous letters are not enough to confirm this matter."

Moreover, if Zhang Yin is truly a traitor, even if the three guards join forces, they might not be able to defeat him.

"Lord Ding is overthinking it."

Dong Zhou burst into laughter and pointed to one of the letters.

"Who said that based on this anonymous letter, we should report Zhang Yin to the court as a traitor?"

There is absolutely no need to engage in armed conflict with the Taiyuan Left Guard!

The location of "Blackwood Cliff" is clearly written here, isn't it?

All we need to do is send a team of night scouts to investigate this place!

If there really is such a large mountain stronghold, we'll just lead our troops to surround it!

A large band of bandits occupied the mountain stronghold, harassing the local area.

Since we are stationed here, even though we are guest troops, it is our duty to suppress bandits!

If this secret letter is fake, and the stronghold is just made up of ordinary bandits, then we should wipe them out directly, which would also be considered eliminating a scourge for the local area.

If there are indeed well-equipped and well-trained private soldiers on the mountain, then it confirms that this place is indeed a rebel stronghold.

"Lord Dong's plan is brilliant!"

Pan Bingyi also laughed.

"If that 'Blackwood Cliff' is indeed a rebel stronghold, and the mountain stronghold is easy to defend but difficult to attack, then we don't need to launch a strong attack. We can just surround it at the foot of the mountain."

Then you can report directly to the governor and request reinforcements!

We don't even need to accuse Zhang Yin!

If this "Blackwood Cliff" is indeed Zhang Yin's carefully cultivated stronghold, then upon learning that the mountain stronghold is besieged by government troops, his only option is to immediately rebel.

There isn't even the option of making the tough decision to abandon "Blackwood Cliff"!

Because once the mountain stronghold is captured by the imperial army, they will surely be able to find evidence that he was the mastermind behind it all.

Rather than that, it would be better to raise the banner of rebellion while the stronghold has not yet fallen, and while the military supplies accumulated over the years and the thousands of private soldiers are still there!

"The total number of men brought by our three guards this time is just over five thousand, which is roughly equivalent to the full strength of Zhang Yin's Taiyuan Left Guard."

We don't know how many private soldiers are on "Blackwood Cliff," so let's assume it's five thousand.

Zhang Yin likely has twice as many troops as we do!

Ding Xian was still somewhat worried.

"If we really force Zhang Yin to raise the banner of rebellion, we're afraid we won't be able to defeat him!"

"Lord Ding, if Zhang Yin is truly a rebel, these troops are most likely all the wealth he has painstakingly accumulated over the years."

Dong Zhou waved his hand.

"Behind us is the mighty Ming Dynasty, with its million-strong army and vast wealth!"

If we lead our troops to surround "Black Cliff" and Zhang Yin really raises the flag to rebel, we won't need to quell the rebellion on our own.

Around "Blackwood Cliff" there are many hills that are easy to defend and difficult to attack.

If we choose a hill like this to set up camp, the offensive and defensive positions will be reversed, and it will be the rebels' turn to have a headache!

To take us down, whether it's the rebels on "Black Cliff" or Zhang Yin's Taiyuan Left Guard, they have no choice but to launch a direct assault.

Their forces are only twice as many as ours, at most twice as many. To think they could capture the camp built on the easily defensible hill in a short time is simply wishful thinking.

Time is on our side!

When war breaks out, the governor-general, and even the imperial court, will urgently dispatch officials and troops from surrounding areas to quell the rebellion.

We only need to hold out for a few more days at most, and we'll have the credit for suppressing the rebellion!

. . .

Shuozhou, the administrative office of the Governor-General of Xuanda.

The right-wing Mongol army led by Jinang and Anda, carrying a large amount of supplies and tens of thousands of Han people looted from various prefectures and counties in northern Shanxi, has already left Ningwu Pass and returned north to the grasslands.

This massive war, which swept across half of Shanxi, has finally come to an end.

Governor-General Fan Jizu of Xuanda sat down in the grand chair and picked up two completely different official documents.

Finally, I can free up some energy to deal with this!