The carriage drove slowly out of the village.
The people in the village, led by the village chief, kept sending the carriages and the men and horses from Fubiao Camp out of the village entrance.
As the carriage walked away from the village entrance, Hu Mingyi opened the curtain on one side of the carriage and said to a battalion of soldiers outside the carriage: "Go and find your Vice General Li."
The battalion soldier quickly ran to the front of the team.
Soon, Vice General Li rode his horse to the side of the carriage and said to Hu Mingyi who was guarding the carriage window: "Sir, are you looking for the last general?"
"Did you find out anything about Tianchengwei?" Hu Mingyi asked.
Lieutenant General Li urged his horse and carriage to maintain the same speed, and at the same time said: "I have already asked, it is true that those defeated soldiers escaped from Tiancheng Guard, but when they escaped, the tiger-shaped flag only came A battalion of soldiers and horses took the initiative and did not attack the city."
These defeated soldiers from Tiancheng Guard who fled to the village were soldiers from the guard station near Tiancheng Guard. After Liu Qingzhou rushed to Tiancheng Guard, he cleaned up the surrounding officers and soldiers. These people took advantage of the chaos and escaped, unlike others. Like the guardsmen, they became prisoners of the Tiger Flag.
Facing Hu Mingyi's questioning, in order to make the problem more serious and save their lives, they exaggerated that Tianchengwei had fallen into the hands of criminals.
However, after some cleaning up, Lieutenant General Li had to tell the truth and admit that they had lied about Tianchengwei's fall into the hands of bandits.
"You mean Tianchengwei is still in the hands of the imperial court." Hu Mingyi twirled his beard.
Lieutenant General Li said: "The general feels that Tiancheng Guard should still be in Zhou Tong's hands, and General Wang has collected some of the defeated troops and is also in Tiancheng Guard. With so many people defending the city, it will be difficult for the Tiger Flag without an army of 10,000 or 20,000 people. Capture the Tiancheng Guard."
"As long as Tianchengwei is still in the hands of the imperial court." Hu Mingyi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The fewer Datong cities and border forts captured by the Tiger-Character Banner, the greater his confidence in the Tiger-Character Banner's recruitment. If Zhou Tong of Tianchengwei can defeat the Tiger-Character Banner army in Tianchengwei, he may not even need to To recruit troops to the Tiger Banner, we only need to use several side forts near Xinping Fort to hold back the Tiger Banner army. Once the imperial army arrives, they may be able to directly wipe out the Tiger Banner bandits.
Lieutenant General Li on horseback said: "Sir, don't worry, even if the bandits in Tiger Character Banner become powerful for a while, they won't last long. When the Beibei army arrived in Datong, it was like entering an uninhabited land. But in the end, Datong still belongs to our Ming Dynasty." Territory, the leader of the Northern Barbarians can only obediently surrender to our Ming Dynasty. No matter how powerful the tiger-character flag is, it can still be much stronger than the Northern Barbarians back then!"
It had only been a few decades since Anda Khan invaded the Ming Dynasty. Even if the generals in Datong Town had not experienced it personally, they had a deep memory of the Beilu invasion under the influence of the ears and eyes of others around them.
"That's right." Hu Mingyi nodded in agreement.
In the field, the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of the frontier army cannot defeat the Tiger-Charactered Banner army, but in defending the city, they may not be able to stop the attack of the Tiger-Charactered Banner army just like they did when they blocked the Beibei army that invaded the border.
Hu Mingyi returned to the carriage, and Vice General Li also rode to the front of the team.
The team moved forward slowly.
After walking for a while, Hu Mingyi in the car felt a little uneasy, so he said to the camp soldiers outside the car: "Go and find Vice General Li."
Not long after, Vice General Li came to the carriage.
Before he could speak, he heard Hu Mingyi say: "Send two people on fast horses to go to Tiancheng Guard to see what's going on there."
"Sir, are you worried about Tianchengwei?" Vice General Li asked.
Hu Mingyi said: "I don't know why, but when I think of Tianchengwei, I always feel a little uneasy. It would be more reassuring to send someone to take a look."
"General Mo will arrange for people to go to Tiancheng Guard right now." Vice General Li nodded and agreed.
Hu Mingyi said to Vice General Li who was about to leave: "Send a few more people over. If anything happens to Tiancheng Guard, remember to send news to the governor."
"The last general has taken note of it." Vice General Li agreed, and then urged his horse to leave.
Not long after, four riders broke away from the team and ran towards the Tiancheng Guard.
Until dark, the people sent out to inquire about Tianchengwei's news did not return. When Hu Mingyi and his team passed by a Zhuangzi, they stayed overnight in the Zhuangzi.
There was a family of scholars in Zhuangzi.
As both scholars, Hu Mingyi lived in the scholar's home, while the other soldiers of the Fubiao camp who escorted him lived in the homes of almost everyone around the scholar.
One night passed, and the person he was waiting for never came back. Hu Mingyi, who was feeling uneasy, had no choice but to lead the team and continue on their way.
It was nearly noon, and Hu Mingyi, who was distracted, suddenly heard someone outside the car say: "Sir, the people sent to Tiancheng Guard are back."
Hearing this, Hu Mingyi hurriedly opened the curtain on the car window, looked at Vice General Li outside and said, "Tell me, how is Tianchengwei?"
"Tianchengwei has fallen into the hands of bandits. The people we sent took so long to come back in order not to be discovered by the Tiger Flag people." Vice General Li said in a low tone.
Even a city with soldiers and generals like Tianchengwei could not withstand the attack of the bandit army. He felt that except for Datong Fucheng with high walls and thick walls, other border forts and county towns might not be able to stop the bandit army.
"How could this happen? Didn't Tiancheng Guard have many defenders here? How could it have fallen into the hands of bandits in just one day?" Hu Mingyi didn't want to believe it.
The field battle was no match for the Tiger-Charactered Banner army, nor could the city be defended. He didn't know what else Datong could use to resist the invading Tiger-Charactered Banner army.
Vice General Li said with relief: "The fall of Tianchengwei may be due to the bandits arriving too quickly and the city not being prepared. If other cities were well prepared, the situation might be different."
"No preparation, hum!" Hu Mingyi snorted, "Tiancheng Guard not only has guardsmen and horses, but also some border troops brought by General Wang. With so many soldiers and horses guarding the city, how could they not be prepared at all."
After hearing this, Vice General Li did not dare to answer.
Because even he himself did not expect that the bandits of Tiger Character Banner would be so powerful. Not long after they defeated the two frontier armies of Xuanda, they captured Tianchengwei again.
Moreover, the capture of Tianchengwei was very different from the previous capture of Xinping Fort.
In Xinping Fort, the city's defenders took the initiative to open the city gates and surrender. On the contrary, it was the Tiancheng Guards who had many soldiers and horses to defend the city. However, they failed to defend the city for even a day and fell into the hands of the enemy.
"The bandits who captured Tianchengwei are probably even more arrogant. Sir, do you think we should go to Xinping Fort?" Vice General Li asked cautiously.
At this moment, even he was not optimistic about recruiting the bandits.
"Go, the more this happens, the more you have to go." Hu Mingyi said through gritted teeth.
It was precisely because he was afraid of not being able to defend Datong that the governor asked him to come and recruit troops. Now that Chengwei has fallen, it proves that the governor's worries are correct and strengthens his determination to recruit troops.
