With the Tiger Character Banner's first combat division and personal soldier division entering Datong, the Tiger Character Banner's troop strength in Datong has reached 50,000.
This many soldiers and horses were already more than the Datong army before the war started, not to mention that Yang Guozhu had already lost tens of thousands of frontier troops.
Nowadays, the total number of soldiers and horses stationed in Datong's border forts and the city is less than 10,000.
Tens of thousands of troops were dispatched from Xinpingbao to Datong Zuowei Road and Shuluo City. The local government had already sent the news to Li Guangyi in Datong Town.
"Come here!" Li Guangyi shouted outside.
Soon, a government servant walked in from outside, hunched over and said, "Master, what are your orders?"
"Where is Mr. Hu? Go and find Mr. Hu quickly." Li Guangyi said to the government servant in front of him.
The yamen servant ran out to look for someone.
Not long after, Hu Mingyi, who had been in the Yamen all the time, was brought to the Hou Yamen.
"Dong Weng, are you looking for me?" Hu Mingyi came to Li Guangyi.
Li Guangyi said with an ugly face: "I just received the news that the bandits have increased their troops again. An army of tens of thousands of people came from the grassland. Now the bandits have no less than 50,000 soldiers in Datong."
"This, this is impossible!" Hu Mingyi said with astonishment on his face, "Last time, Vice General Li analyzed that the Tiger Character Banner had at most 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers and horses on the grassland, and they also had to control the Tumote grassland. Even if It is impossible to send more troops to Datong than tens of thousands of people."
Li Guangyi said with an ugly expression: "Will I lie to you about this matter? This is an urgent official document sent from below. Go read it yourself!"
As he spoke, he threw a document on the table to Hu Mingyi.
Hu Mingyi took it in his hand, carefully held it in front of his eyes and looked through it.
When he read the above content, his face suddenly turned pale.
"The deputy general surnamed Li who came back with you last time, in my opinion, he can only talk nonsense and is full of idiots." Li Guangyi said with an angry face.
There is quite a feeling that I have been deceived.
Hu Mingyi saw that his boss seemed really angry this time, but he still didn't think that the Tiger Flag had hidden so many soldiers and horses on the grassland.
Liu Heng was just a businessman. Even if Tiger Flag could make money, he would not have the strength to secretly support an army of fifty thousand people.
Just eating horse chews for an army of 50,000 people is not something that ordinary businessmen can afford to support.
Moreover, a large army is not only about food and drink, but also the armor used by the soldiers, as well as various military weapons, which add up to a huge expense, which is beyond the reach of ordinary people.
"What? You have nothing to say?" Li Guangyi glared at Hu Mingyi fiercely.
He thought that he was deceived by the people below, and Hu Mingyi also had a share of the credit. After all, it was Hu Mingyi who brought him here.
Hu Mingyi hesitated for a moment and said: "The bandits suddenly increased their troops by tens of thousands. Will these tens of thousands of soldiers and horses be a temporary expansion of the team? They have captured many officers and soldiers as prisoners before."
Li Guangyi was stunned for a moment when he heard this.
For a moment, I felt that Hu Mingyi's words made sense. Maybe the sudden increase in troops and horses by the bandits were the border troops who had been captured before.
It is not impossible for bandits to hijack the border troops. On the contrary, it is a normal thing.
"Are you sure that the tens of thousands of new troops added by the rebels are temporary expansion of troops?" Li Guangyi asked again worriedly.
Hu Mingyi believed that the extra tens of thousands of bandits in Datong were the border troops and the people who were being held hostage, so he said with certainty: "Students are sure that the combat power of this bandit army that just came to Datong is definitely not as good as that of the previous bandits." bandit."
"Even if the tens of thousands of troops that the rebels later brought were just civilians and captured border troops, plus the more than 10,000 rebels before, there were still more than 50,000 soldiers and horses. On the other hand, I only have more than 50,000 troops around me. How can we resist the troops of Fubiao Camp?" Li Guangyi said with a frown.
Hu Mingyi hesitated for a moment and said tentatively: "How about we call for Vice General Li? Maybe he has a better way to defend against the enemy."
"Okay, then find him." Li Guangyi did not refuse.
Hu Mingyi summoned a government official and ordered him to go to Fubiao Camp to bring Lieutenant General Li.
"Dong Weng, the bandits are in such a hurry to expand their troops, I'm afraid they are coming with bad intentions!" Hu Mingyi looked at Li Guangyi who was sitting on the main seat.
Li Guangyi said with a gloomy face: "Datong already has no troops to mobilize. I believe the bandits also know this. The bandits' expansion of troops this time is most likely aimed at Settlement City and Gaoshan City."
"Dong Weng means that the bandits want to attack Datong Town?" Hu Mingyi looked worried.
Li Guangyi sighed and said: "It has been so long since I sent someone to ask for help in the capital. I don't know when the imperial reinforcements will arrive."
"Don't worry too much, Dong Weng. I believe that once the imperial court learns about the situation here in Datong, reinforcements will be sent over soon." Hu Mingyi said with relief.
In fact, he knew that Li Guangyi would not end well no matter whether the imperial reinforcements came to Datong or not.
The two frontier armies of Xuanda and Datong destroyed the bandits. This responsibility needs to be borne by Li Guangyi, the nominal commander. If the Datong town government makes a mistake, even his life may not be saved.
Even if the bandits did not take action on the relationship between the Li family and the Tiger Flag, the court would not let Li Guangyi go.
"Sir, Lieutenant General Li from Fubiao Camp is here." The officer who went to Fubiao Camp to find someone came in to report.
Li Guangyi looked out the door and said, "Where are the people? Why didn't you bring them in?"
"Young man, go and bring the people in." The officer bowed and left.
When he came in again, he was accompanied by Lieutenant General Li.
"The last general will see you at the military gate." Vice General Li knelt down on one knee and saluted.
Li Guangyi sat firmly in the main seat, stretched out his right hand and raised it slightly, and said at the same time: "Vice-General Li, please get up. I sent someone to call you here. I have something to ask you."
"Please speak to the military gate." Vice General Li stood up from the ground.
Li Guangyi said: "I have just received news that an army of more than 30,000 bandits has joined forces with Datong's original army of bandits, totaling more than 50,000 troops. They are now heading toward Zuowei Road. Come in the direction, and in two days at most, you will arrive at the foot of the settlement city."
"This is impossible. How could the rebels suddenly have tens of thousands more troops?" Lieutenant General Li said unwilling to believe it.
Hu Mingyi on the side said: "The governor and I didn't believe it at first, but later we thought about whether this army of more than 30,000 bandits could be a temporary expansion of the bandits to deal with the problem of insufficient troops."
"It is not impossible. After all, the rebels have captured many soldiers and horses of the border troops. In order to survive, these captured border soldiers are very likely to join the ranks of the rebels." Vice General Li nodded in agreement.
Apart from the expanded team of border troops holding civilians and prisoners captive, he could not think of any other possibility that would allow the bandits to increase their number by more than 30,000 troops.
