Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 638: Beijing Camp Outing

Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen acted quickly. After leaving the palace, they went to the Beijing camp to gather troops. By the afternoon, they had finished gathering the troops, counted the soldiers and horses, and prepared to go into battle.

Although the current Beijing camp is said to have more than 400,000 troops and the capital has more than 200,000, due to the empty pay, the actual number of troops is less than 90,000, which is more than half less.

Not only that, among these more than 80,000 soldiers, due to years of lack of training, and many of them are just idling around, excluding the old, weak, sick and disabled, there are even fewer who can fight, and most of them don't even know their superiors. Many of them have been in the Beijing camp for several years, and except for low-level flag officers and lieutenants, they don't even know who their superiors are. Apart from the armor and weapons on their bodies, their combat effectiveness can be imagined.

But even so, they finally managed to gather more than 30,000 combat-capable soldiers. Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen temporarily reorganized these forces, and it finally seemed to be put together.

The remaining troops were led by Sun Tingxun, the Earl of Yingcheng, and Wu Zunzhou, the Earl of Qingping, to garrison the capital. Li Hongji, the Marquis of Linhuai, Deng Wenming, the Marquis of Dingyuan, and Tan Hongye, the Earl of Xinning, followed Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen to the expedition, along with Han Zanzhou, the eunuch sent by the palace to supervise the army. Han Zanzhou was originally the deputy commander of the Beijing camp, and Emperor Chongzhen ordered him to accompany the expedition and serve as the military supervisor. Although Han Zanzhou did not want to go, he could not disobey the emperor's order, so he had to bite the bullet and go to the army.

After leaving the city, the Beijing camp was divided into two parts, led by Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen respectively. They walked south for more than ten miles, but as it was getting dark, they decided to stop moving forward and set up camp on the spot for safety reasons, waiting until the next day.

Although they made promises in front of Emperor Chongzhen and appeared to be in high spirits, when they really had to go out of the capital to fight, Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen lost their previous courage and became timid.

According to the information we received, Zhu Shenzui's vanguard has reached Liangxiang, which is only a day's journey away from the capital. If nothing unexpected happens, Zhu Shenzui's army will arrive at the capital tomorrow.

They were not sure whether Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen could rush to Liangxiang overnight to block the enemy's way and defeat the enemy army. After all, the Beijing camp was not well trained, the soldiers' fighting capacity was barely enough, and it was too risky to rush at night. However, because they had made a promise in front of Emperor Chongzhen, Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen had to lead the troops out. To be on the safe side, they stopped after only walking more than ten miles, set up camp on the pretext that it was getting dark, and planned to wait until tomorrow to advance.

Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen had a good plan. They would wait for a day and then go a little further tomorrow. If they encountered Zhu Shenzhui's army, they would fight. They brought 30,000 Beijing troops, which was a lot of people. They would fight to test the enemy's quality. If they could win, they would charge in. If the enemy was strong, they would have no problem protecting themselves with the troops they had.

Moreover, the place where they camped was only more than ten miles away from the capital. Standing on the high ground, they could even see the city wall of the capital. With such a short distance, if the battle went badly, Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen could turn around and run away. It would not take long for them to escape back to the capital. Once they entered the city gate, they would be safe. Zhu Shenzhui would not be able to break in because of the tall city wall of the capital.

These two people have made good calculations and are well prepared for victory or defeat, and the most important point is to be especially safe.

As night fell, the camp of 30,000 people was set up. The masters of the Beijing Camp had not fought a war in many years. Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen, who led the Beijing Camp, were not talented generals. They were good at eating, drinking and having fun, but they knew nothing about how to fight. In their opinion, fighting a war was nothing more than relying on numbers. They didn't care about the deployment of troops and the like. As for setting up camp, they had no rules at all. After the orders were issued, they let the subordinates fool around. The same was true for the officers at all levels. None of them had any pre-war vigilance and precautions. The camps were scattered all over the place and in a mess.

As for scouts, there is no need to talk about them. No one cares about the scouts who were sent out casually, and the same goes for sentries. The soldiers in the Beijing camp are used to being masters on weekdays, and they have no such concept in their minds. They set up a few sentry posts carelessly, but the soldiers on duty are extremely perfunctory. They can't stand it after standing for a while, and they just leave their posts and run back to the tent to rest. Not to mention other people.

Many soldiers in the Beijing camp simply treated this expedition as a trip. While setting up camp, they also went to nearby villages and towns to search for chickens and ducks to eat. Whether they bought them or robbed them is unknown.

That was not all. The nobles in the Beijing camp found the long night very boring. Since their camp was not far from the capital, they sent their men to the city to fetch a few prostitutes from brothels to keep them company. They even arranged for two opera troupes to perform in the camp.

When it got dark, the entire Beijing camp became bustling with activity. There were people setting up a stage to sing operas, people gathering together to gamble, people drinking and playing finger-guessing games, and there were even a few people who couldn't wait to hug the women and sneak into the tents. The whole camp was filled with smoke and smell, like a market.

While Wu Weiying, Li Guozhen and several other nobles were drinking and having fun in the camp, not far from the camp, several scouts were keeping a close eye on this place. The sentries of the Laijing Camp did not notice them at all and were approached directly.

These scouts did not get too close, but they were close enough to the camp. Everything going on in the camp was within their sight, and the laughter and noise coming from it were even clearer.

Several people walked around the periphery and returned to the original place to reunite. The leading officer gave a few instructions and left two people to continue observing. He took the other brothers and left in a hurry.

After retreating more than a mile, they led the horses out of a small forest, mounted the horses and galloped southward. After running more than 20 miles, they arrived at the place, dismounted and went straight forward, and found Wang Jinwu and Wang Hai who were waiting for news. When they reported the reconnaissance news to Wang Jinwu and Wang Hai, both of them showed surprised expressions on their faces. They couldn't believe it and asked if what they found was true? Was the camp of the Beijing camp really like that? First, it was not well arranged, second, there was no precaution, third, it was so messy, and fourth, there was no rules at all and it even violated the military regulations? This was simply incredible.

"General! Everything I said is true! If you don't believe me, you can send more people to investigate!" the scout said firmly.

It's not that Wang Jinwu and Wang Hai didn't trust him. This scout officer was a veteran in the army, experienced and loyal, and would never lie to anyone. It's just that the information he got was really surprising and incomprehensible.

For a moment, the two exchanged glances and saw the eagerness in each other's eyes.

"how?"

"What else can we do? If we miss such a good opportunity, we will be punished by God!" Wang Jinwu said with a smile.

Wang Hai also nodded with a smile. They never expected that the mighty Beijing Camp would become so rotten. They originally thought that the Beijing Camp could no longer fight, but the scale was there. Moreover, Wu Weiying and Li Guozhen were both from noble families and sons of generals. Even if they had no actual combat experience, they knew a thing or two about how to lead troops.

As the vanguard, they had only more than 4,000 people, half of whom were cavalry and half were infantry, while the main central force was still in Liangxiang behind.

Originally, according to the plan, the vanguard was going to reach the vicinity of the capital overnight to make preparations for the arrival of the main force of the central army tomorrow. However, they did not expect to run into the Beijing camp army that left the capital. When they learned that the Beijing camp that left the city had more than 30,000 people, Wang Jinwu and Wang Hai were shocked. You know, the enemy's strength is almost seven or eight times their own. Once an army of so many people fights, even if Wang Jinwu and Wang Rong are confident, they cannot guarantee victory in one battle.

Moreover, the equipment of the Beijing Camp was not weak. The Beijing Camp was composed of the original Shenji Camp, Sanqian Camp, and Wujun Camp. It was the most elite field army of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Di relied on this army to sweep across the desert, forcing the Mongols to avoid it and not dare to fight.

Although things have changed and the current Beijing camp is no longer the three major camps of the past, the foundation is still there, especially the firearms and other military equipment are far more sophisticated than those of the border troops, and are not comparable to those of ordinary garrison troops.

Facing such an army, it is not too cautious. But I didn't expect the real situation to be like this. When Wang Jinwu and Wang Hai knew that the Beijing camp was like this, they were shocked and overjoyed at the same time. How could they miss such a good opportunity? These two people have fought in many battles. The opportunity is right in front of them. If they don't take it, they will suffer the consequences. They immediately came up with an idea.

The two men immediately discussed it and decided to attack the Beijing camp at night to give Chongzhen a warning.

They sent someone to report the decision to Zhu Shenzhui in Liangxiang overnight, and at the same time assembled troops to march out quickly in preparation for war.

In order to catch the enemy off guard and win the battle, Wang Jinwu decided to lead the cavalry to attack the camp, but Wang Hai refused the suggestion of leading the infantry. How could Wang Jinwu take such a good opportunity alone? Besides, Wang Hai was originally a Mongolian, and his riding skills were better than Wang Jinwu's. In addition, nearly half of the Mongolian cavalry led by Wang Jinwu were also Wang Hai's subordinates. How could he let Wang Jinwu go alone?
Wang Hai immediately said that he wanted to go with them. Wang Jinwu agreed without thinking too much and allocated half of the cavalry to Wang Hai, agreeing that the two of them would break into the Beijing camp from two directions. As for the infantry behind, they would be led by Li You, who was also traveling with them, and would follow. After arriving at the battlefield, they would cooperate with the cavalry in an effort to defeat the Beijing camp in one fell swoop.

There were not many night battles in this era, mainly because there were too many ordinary people suffering from night blindness due to nutritional reasons. Once dark, they were like blind people and could not tell the directions of east, west, south and north, let alone marching and fighting.

But Zhu Shencui's army was different. Not to mention that his Mongolian cavalry was good at night fighting, the Mongolians who ate meat and milk from cows, sheep and horses all year round did not have night blindness. The same was true for his new army. The training of the new army was not only strict, but also very good. Zhu Shencui, who owned the entire Tumote grassland, would naturally not treat his new army badly, so the new army could not only fight during the day, but also at night.

The order was given and the whole army set out. In order to hide their tracks from being discovered by the enemy in advance, not only did they send out scouts, but the whole army also marched northwards in the night with their horses wrapped in their hooves. When they arrived at the destination, it was just after three o'clock in the morning. As the night fell, although the camp of the Beijing camp was no longer as lively as it was at the beginning, the bonfire was still bright, and faint laughter and scolding could be heard from the camp from time to time.

(End of this chapter)