"How about it, have you found out the details of the Ming troops in Zhenyitai?" Inside Shanhaiguan, the guard Gao Basi Timur asked with an anxious look on his face.
"Those smart dogs have a very powerful cavalry in their hands. Our sentinels cannot get close to the beacon to investigate." The person Gao Basi Timur asked, Hong Boyan Timur, another guard at Shanhaiguan, put his helmet on On the table, a pair of dangerously slender eyes narrowed slightly. "Their banner is Qin Wangwei. Ordinary Ming troops would not be so elite. I think those people are really the sons of the Emperor Zhu."
"Damn it." Gaobasi Timur slammed the wine bowl in his hand onto the table. "Where did this Ming army come from? Why did it suddenly appear here?"
"Prime Minister Zuo (Naha's official position in Yuanting at this time) asked us to guard Shanhaiguan and clean up the Ming army in Liaodong... Seeing that the Ming army was about to be wiped out by us, these few people appeared out of nowhere. Here comes the son of Emperor Zhu’s family.”
"What a fuss about this, I'm really depressed! Why don't we mobilize a large army to go out tomorrow, be it mules or horses, and force them to pull them out!"
"Don't be reckless!" Hong Boyan Timur waved his hand. "We still don't know what they are and what they are. We have escaped by ourselves. What if we are wiped out by them?"
"Moreover, the Ming army named Ye has also joined them. It is obvious that the Ming army has regained a foothold in Liaodong and is planning to seize Shanhaiguan. We cannot act rashly at this time."
"Can't we just wait and see?" Gaobasi Timur asked dissatisfied.
"It's okay, I can't wait long." Hong Boyan Timur narrowed his eyes slightly. "The son of Emperor Zhu can come to Liaodong without anyone noticing, but it is impossible for him to carry tens of thousands of stones of food and grass without anyone noticing!"
"Tens of tens of thousands of stones of grain and grass! How many civilians, chariots and horses would have to be mobilized! How much waste would have to be spent along the way! If the Ming Dynasty could have such confidence and ability, you and I might as well have surrendered to the Ming court. Therefore, although we don't know, How many people do they have, but one thing is certain: their army must still be short of food at this time."
"Well, that's right!" Gaobasi Timur's eyes lit up.
Don't forget that when Zhu Su was in Jiangnan, he easily raised tens of thousands of stones of food and grass by raiding merchants. You must know that the food in the Jiangnan area is completely different from that in the northern Xinjiang area.
The first is the issue of production. China has experienced hundreds of years of chaos, especially in the north. At this time, the Ming Dynasty had not been established for a long time. Although the scene of "white bones exposed in the wild" in this vast northern region has been reduced, the words "there is no cockcrow for a thousand miles" are not an exaggeration at all.
The people in the north are sparse and productive, and due to differences in weather and geography, the fertility of the land is not as good as in the south. From time to time, the Yuan people in the north would go south to harvest grass and grain. Although the Ming Dynasty had already been established, the people would not let Yuanting fish and meat, but each household in the north could barely grow enough food to support their own family. It is simply impossible for the large amount of surplus grain to be paid to the court for the court to support troops and fight.
Based on this fact, Lao Zhu also implemented a policy of light corvee and low taxes on a large scale in the north, hoping that the northern areas could recuperate and live well, and did not expect them to be able to support the imperial army.
But Yuanting is still watching with eager eyes outside the pass, and most of the Ming army still has to be stationed in the north. Where will the food and grass to feed these armies come from? That is of course the "South-to-North Grain Diversion". Every year, the imperial court organized a large number of grain transport teams to transport grain to and from northern Xinjiang.
If the food grown in the south is to be delivered to the soldiers in the north, it must bear an extremely large amount of losses. First of all, the imperial court needed to recruit a large number of civilians. In ancient times, more than half of the heavy "corvees" that the people had to bear were the task of transporting grain. At that time, the roads were inconvenient, and the time for a round trip was often measured in months. The civilians also need to eat food while transporting food. If they eat while walking, the food will naturally be lost very quickly. In addition, it is not easy to store food on the road. If it encounters rain or snow, or becomes moldy due to moisture, or is exposed to rats or thieves, these will all be losses.
Even if a grain transport team initially had tens of thousands of shi of grain, by the time it was delivered to the northern frontier troops, it would often have less than a hundred shi left.
Such huge losses meant that every attack on grain and grass in northern Xinjiang was enough to cripple the Ming Dynasty's national power. The 100,000 stones of grain and grass that Nahachu burned were already the grain reserves that the Ming Dynasty had hoarded for several years in order to counterattack Liaodong. Now they have all been destroyed. The Ming Dynasty was so capable that it was able to collect enough grain for a million shi in a short period of time, and it also allowed a group of civilians serving in corvees to bypass the front lines and battlefields without anyone noticing, and quickly transport the food that was in short supply. In the hands of Ding Liaowei?
Absolutely impossible.
"Since the Ming army is short of food, all we have to do is stay behind closed doors and fortify the walls and clear the fields. Naturally, the Ming army cannot continue to stand still." Hong Boyan Timur was confident. "Whether they want to plunder grain and grass from all over Liaodong, or storm Shanhaiguan to get in touch with the Ming army, they must be in the next few days. I have asked people to monitor their movements."
"And a Ming army without food and grass is not at our mercy whether it fights or flees?"
"Okay! Great!" Gao Ba Si Timur was overjoyed. "It has to be you, eldest brother!"
"If we take Emperor Zhu's son, it will be a great achievement! Even if we are granted the title of marquis and become the prime minister, it is not impossible! In the future, you and I will be like Prime Minister Zuo, supporting the army and becoming the leader of the grassland... "
The two of them looked at each other and smiled, quite in the style of the Han idiom of colluding with each other.
"My lord! My lord!" While they were drinking hot wine from a large bowl, a young man outside shouted and rushed into the palace door. A gust of night wind blew directly into the faces of the two Timurs. Both of them were excited, and Gao Basi scolded: "You bastard, what's the name of a ghost in the middle of the night? Do you want to kill these two grandpas in the cold?"
The boy quickly closed the door of the palace and continued to say hastily: "Two adults, I have important military information."
"The Ming army in Zhenyitai suddenly broke out of camp at night!"
"What?" The two Timurs were not surprised but overjoyed. Hong Boyan glanced at Gao Basi and said, "See what I said? The Ming army has indeed run out of food!" Gao Basi threw the wine bowl in his hand, "Quickly , blow the trumpet! Let me put my armor on!" He kicked the desk aside and strode out of the hall.
Military glory is coming, why should he care about the strong wind at night? It's important to capture the Zhu family emperor's son!
…
Just as the boy said, the Ming army, which had been silent around Zhenyitai for several days, was unusually active tonight. Even from Shanhaiguan Pass, you can see the hilltop where Zhenyi Terrace is located, illuminated by countless torches.
"Woooo...woo!" Three low horns blew, and countless Ming troops filed out from the Zhenyi stage, everyone looking anxious. Even in the darkness, you can still see the flags covering the sky.
War is about to break out!
However, what the Ming army did not discover was that there were many Yuan army sentries hidden in the dark and gloomy jungles and shrubs around them.
"Quick! Report the movements of the Ming army quickly to the two generals in the pass!" A Yuanting commander scolded his subordinates in a low voice, and then continued to open his eyes wide, watching the anxious Ming army in the darkness. .
(End of chapter)
