My father is Jiajing

Chapter 137: War Begins

The sound of gunfire and shouts of killing from the Pigeon Cave filled the air in an instant, making everyone nervous at this moment.

Zhu Zaigui stood up suddenly and said seriously, "They are coming!"

Teng Xiang and others also immediately put away the water bottles and dried meat in their hands, and looked in the direction of the Pigeon Cave with the same nervous and serious expressions.

Zhu Zaigui immediately gave the order: "Act according to the original plan. Five hundred men will be on standby on each of the two peaks of Huangyu Valley, and the remaining fifteen hundred men will be ready to respond at any time. Anyone who acts without my order will be executed!"

Zhu Zaigui hurriedly moved, and Teng Xiang quickly tried to hold Zhu Zaigui back, saying nervously, "Your Majesty, you are a precious person and cannot risk your life. Let me go."

Zhu Zaiqi looked back at Teng Xiang and said, "You should go. I am on the right mountain peak and you are on the left mountain peak. When I send out my order, you will immediately move with me and push the rolling stones and logs down the mountain peak. After completing the task, immediately urge everyone to retreat safely and do not linger on."

Zhu Zaigui ignored Teng Xiang's obstruction and turned to shout to the soldiers around him: "Soldiers, the time has come to make contributions to the Ming Dynasty. Follow me to defend the Ming Dynasty and be loyal to our king and father! I swear that I will lead the troops in this battle and will not let you down!"

Zhu Zaigui's breath was very steady and his voice was very penetrating. When he shouted, the sound spread hundreds of meters. The 2,500 people gathered around could all hear Zhu Zaigui's voice carefully.

At this moment, their mood could not help but become excited again, and their morale rose again.

With the prince acting with them, what else can they say?

Moreover, as soldiers of the Four Guards Battalion of the Imperial Stables, their food, wages and equipment are the best among the imperial guards in the capital. The court has supported them for so many years and now needs them to work hard for the court. How can they have any reason to retreat?

"We will follow the prince till death!"

At this moment, everyone half-knelt on the ground, expressing their loyalty to Zhu Zaigui.

Zhu Zaigui did not waste any more time and immediately ordered Teng Xiang to set off with 500 men, and he also set off with 500 men.

After a day's rapid march outside the Pigeon Cave, the Anda army and the cavalry of the Three Guards of Doyan finally arrived at their target location.

At this moment, Anda was also riding a tall horse and standing under a big banner, looking at the small pass of Dove Cave from afar, his eyes lighting up. Compared with the heavily guarded Gubeikou Great Wall, this place was indeed much shorter, and it was impossible to gather too many troops to snipe them from the south.

Anda laughed at Yingke, "Yingke, I'm going to remember your achievement this time!"

Ying Ke smiled and said, "The Khan is wise and brave. I dare not take credit for it."

After hearing what Yingke said, Anda stopped being pretentious and immediately issued a military order, "Zhamusu, I give you half an hour to lead a force of 10,000 households to capture Pigeon Cave!"

"The general will get the order!"

Zhamusu immediately led a siege force of 10,000 troops and charged towards the Pigeon Cave ahead.

At this moment, the Ming army guarding the Pigeon Cave suddenly felt the ground shaking like an earthquake, and heard the deafening cry of killing outside. Their hearts sank in an instant.

They never dreamed that the Tatar army would attack from their small pass. Under normal circumstances, there were nearly two thousand troops stationed here, and by connecting with the surrounding beacon towers of the Great Wall, they could gather more than five thousand troops in a very short time.

But now most of the troops have been transferred to the defense of Gubeikou, and they are left with only the old, weak, sick and disabled, and are simply unable to stop the enemy's attack. But they have no way to retreat, and abandoning the pass is a capital crime, and it will also implicate their families, but if they die in battle, their families will still receive compensation.

So at this moment, the only officer in the pigeon cave stood up, drew his knife, and excitedly ordered: "Light the beacon fire and prepare for battle!"

Although the Pigeon Cave is small, it is assisted by several cannons. Although these cannons cannot change the outcome of the battle, they can at least block the enemy for a short period of time and give the Ming army at other passes time to provide support.

The beacon fire of the Pigeon Cave shot up into the sky from the beacon tower. The long red flame instantly became the most dazzling existence as night fell. The nearby beacon towers were frightened when they saw the beacon fire of the Pigeon Cave. They quickly lit up the beacon towers they were guarding and began to pass on the message.

All of a sudden, starting from the Pigeon Cave, the beacon fires on this line of the Great Wall suddenly lit up. When everyone saw the flames rising into the sky in the dark night, their hearts skipped a beat.

It turned out that they had all fallen into the trap. The Tatars outside the Great Wall were making a feint to the east and attacking in the west, seemingly intending to enter from Gubeikou. In fact, the place their main force was really going to attack was the Pigeon Cave, which had never been taken seriously.

The governor of Ji and Liao, Wang Ruxiao, and the general Luo Xihan, who were supervising the battle at Gubeikou to stop the attack of the Tatar army, became nervous when they saw the beacon fire coming from the direction of Pigeon Cave.

They never dreamed that the bandits who seemed to be attacking Gubeikou fiercely were actually just a feint attack force. No wonder they fought for such a long time but still failed to exert their full strength. It turned out that their main force had already gone around to the Pigeon Cave west of Gubeikou to attack.

Tuotuo, who was in charge of the feint attack outside Gubeikou, looked at the beacon fires burning on the Great Wall and immediately laughed.

Tuotuo drew out his long sword and shouted to his men, "My men! The Khan has launched an attack. We must buy time for him! Listen to my generals, attack Gubeikou with all your strength and hold back the Ming army there!"

At this moment, the soldiers under Tuotuo also howled, jumped on their horses, raised their long swords, and charged towards the Gubeikou Great Wall fearlessly.

The deafening roar of killing and the overwhelming momentum really delayed the military forces at Gubeikou.

At this time, Wang Ruxiao and Luo Xihan were as anxious as ants on a hot pan, and their mood was extremely bad.

Although Gubeikou is heavily guarded, the force only has less than 20,000 soldiers.

Moreover, the entire capital has only 40,000 to 50,000 troops now, so if they want to overwhelm the well-prepared Anda army, these 20,000 people must hold the Great Wall for at least three days to buy time for the troops from Xuanda to come to support the king.

But now the situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse. Originally, it was thought that the Tatars were going to attack Gubeikou, but now there is only one suspected soldier with an unknown number in Gubeikou, while the beacon fire in the direction of Pigeon Cave has been lit again.

Such a dilemma made Wang Ruxiao and Luo Xihan extremely anxious. What should they do?

It is not known whether the fierce attack by the bandits in Gubeikou is real or not, and the beacon fire that has been lit in the direction of Pigeon Cave is obviously also extremely urgent. If anything goes wrong, the consequences will be disastrous.

Wang Ruxiao and Luo Xihan gritted their teeth and looked at each other. Wang Ruxiao said, "General Luo, I will guard Gubeikou here. You will immediately bring a reinforcement to support Pigeon Cave. We must not let the bandits break through the pass, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous!"

Luo Xihan was also aware of the seriousness of the matter. Although there were not many troops in Gubeikou for them to take away, they could not ignore the beacon fire in Pigeon Cave. The only option now was to forcibly divide the troops and rush to support Pigeon Cave.

But even if we run along the Great Wall, it will take at least more than an hour to get from the Gubeikou Great Wall to the Pigeon Cave, and we don't know if the guards at the Pigeon Cave can hold out for an hour.

(End of this chapter)