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

Chapter 667: Xifengkou

Before Zhu Shenzhui started the rebellion, he had planned and predicted the entire situation, and had considered both the best and worst case scenarios, and naturally would not ignore the actions of Huang Taiji in Liaodong.

Moreover, at the same time as he started the rebellion, the various Tumed tribes were not idle either. Under Zhu Shenzhui's advance arrangement, they sent out troops almost at the same time, posing as if they were going to attack the Ming Dynasty in order to suppress the border troops in the nine borders, especially Xuanfu and Datong, to prevent the border troops from coming to the capital to defend the emperor under such circumstances.

In addition to Tumed, even the Chahar tribes were not idle. Don't forget that many leaders of the Chahar tribes were captured in the previous battle on the grassland. Although Zhu Shenzui released these people one after another later, he asked for hostages. In addition, he also planted spies in the Chahar tribes to monitor their every move at any time.

Huang Taiji was going to repeat his old tricks this time and attack the Ming Dynasty again. There was no way to get around Chahar. Moreover, war was not about charging in all at once. There was a difference between marching and fighting, especially in a large battle. The arrangement of generals, the mobilization of troops, who would be the vanguard (main attack) and who would cooperate, who would make a detour, who would be responsible for logistics, etc. were not trivial matters.

Huang Taiji chose to gather at Baimachuan in order to make preparations before the war, but his final breakthrough was not to the south of Baimachuan, but to the east of Baimachuan, that is, Xifengkou. In the last Jisi Rebellion, Huang Taiji's breakthrough was also at Xifengkou, not because the defense of Xifengkou was weak, but because of the terrain.

The Xifengkou Pass is strategically located and easy to defend but difficult to attack, but the problem is that there is a plain to the north of Xifengkou, which is conducive to the deployment of large troops and the concentration of forces for breakthroughs.

It was for this reason that Huang Taiji chose Xifengkou. Three hundred years later in history, Xiao Zi also intended to break into the Great Wall and occupy North China from Xifengkou. Unfortunately, he was frightened by the big knife team of the 29th Army and ultimately failed.

As soon as Huang Taiji's vanguard entered Mongolia, Chahar got the news. After all, although Chahar belonged to Huang Taiji's control area and the Chahar tribes also surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the Mongols still had a certain degree of autonomy. In order to appease the Mongolian tribes and at the same time to persuade the Mongolian tribes to send troops to assist the Eight Banners in attacking the Ming Dynasty, it was impossible for Huang Taiji to come to Chahar without a warning, otherwise the Mongols in Chahar would think that Huang Taiji brought his troops to destroy them.

Therefore, Huang Taiji notified the Chahar tribes in advance and proposed that the Chahar tribes follow the Eight Banners to attack the Ming Dynasty as they did last time. In this way, how could Zhu Shenzhui not know about his spies in Chahar? Using the Haidongqing to pass the message, the news soon reached Zhu Shenzhui, and only then did Wang Jinwu lead his troops to rush to Zunhua.

Wang Jinwu acted very quickly. It only took him two days from sending out his troops to arriving in Zunhua. After arriving in Zunhua, Wang Jinwu did not delay for a moment and immediately started to check the border situation and set up defense lines.

It doesn't matter if you don't look at it, but you will be shocked when you see it. Wang Jinwu didn't expect that the situation in Jizhou Town was so bad. As one of the nine frontiers, Jizhou Town should be an important town in the Ming Dynasty. Before the Liaodong war, Jizhou Town was the strongest town among the nine frontiers of the Ming Dynasty. Its military strength was 85,000 during the Yongle period, and exceeded 130,000 during its heyday.

The famous Qi Jiguang was once the general of Jizhou Town, stationed here for decades. The Zhejiang Army, which was completely wiped out in the Battle of Hunhe, was originally the backbone of Jizhou Town, but today's Jizhou Town is no longer the Jizhou Town of the past. As the court continued to withdraw troops from Jizhou Town to support Liaodong during the Tianqi period, coupled with the consumption on the battlefield, Jizhou Town is now completely an empty shell.

On the defense line that is hundreds of miles long, all the troops in Jizhou Town added up to only more than 7,000 people, and a large proportion of these people are old, weak, sick and disabled. Most of them are stationed at various passes and beacon towers, with only a few or a dozen people in each place. The rest are considered mobile forces. However, with such a long defense line, coupled with the serious shortage of troops in Jizhou Town, what difference does such an arrangement make to have nothing at all?

That’s not all, because Huang Taiji had already fought once before, and he destroyed all the passes when he left. The court has not allocated funds for repairs in the past two years, and the originally solid defenses have now become ruins.

Although it is a natural barrier, it is not easy to stop Huang Taiji. Don't forget that Huang Taiji's army this time is called 300,000. Although there are only 110,000 people in the Eight Banners, after winning over the Khorchin and Chahar tribes, the number of Mongols who joined Huang Taiji has reached more than 30,000. In other words, Huang Taiji's total force has reached nearly 150,000, while Wang Jinwu's troops only add up to more than 50,000.

The strength ratio between the two sides was almost three to one, with Wang Jinwu being one of the latter and Huang Taiji being three.

Being three times weaker than the enemy and having to fight against an elite force like the Eight Banners, Wang Jinwu felt that the burden on his shoulders was particularly heavy, especially since Wang Jinwu's direct troops were only 20,000 people, of which the only ones who could really fight were his 4,000 new troops and 3,000 cavalry. The rest were the Shuntian Army reorganized from the Beijing Camp. The Shuntian Army had only been established for more than a month, and although they had no shortage of armor and weapons, their combat effectiveness could only be said to be mediocre. These people were only so-so in fighting a favorable battle following the main force, and it was simply impossible for them to go directly into the battlefield and fight hard.

But it doesn't work. After all, this is an army, which is much better than the bandits composed of ordinary people. In addition, there are the Shandong Army and the troops from the former Dongjiang Town, which are about to arrive from Shandong. These two armies are commanded by Li Xin, with a total strength of more than 7,500 people.

The commander-in-chief of the Shandong Army was Zhang Keda. After Dongjiang Town withdrew to Shandong, Xu Xiancheng directly dismissed Huang Long, the former commander-in-chief of Dongjiang Town, and replaced him with Shen Shikui, who was temporarily appointed as the commander-in-chief, and was assisted in leading the army by deputy commanders Jin Riguan and Chu Jigong.

In addition, Sun Yuanhua accompanied the army as a counselor. It was not Xu Xiancheng's order that Sun Yuanhua went with the army, but Sun Yuanhua volunteered. Sun Yuanhua said that although he could not directly command the battle, he was quite knowledgeable about firearms. This time Huang Taiji attacked the Ming Dynasty again, and Sun Yuanhua felt that his skills might be useful. Considering that the army carried a large number of firearms, Sun Yuanhua volunteered again. Xu Xiancheng finally agreed to Sun Yuanhua's request and followed Li Xin to the expedition. Another unit was the Black Dragon Cloud Unit of Xuanfu, which had 4,200 people, plus the Wei Suo Army of Northern Zhili, including the Ming army of Baoding and Changping, which was about 10,000 people, and Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army, which was still on the way. These were all the forces of Wang Jinwu.

After Wang Jinwu arrived in Zunhua and looked at the border defense situation, he immediately made arrangements. He sent some troops to garrison the areas from Gubeikou to Jielingkou to supplement the insufficient troops in Jizhou Town, especially to repair Xifengkou, which was the most severely damaged, in order to prepare for defense.

These garrisoned troops did not call upon his main force, but were mainly composed of the Shuntian Army and the Ming Army incorporated from Baoding and Changping. At the same time, they were commanded by subordinates sent by Wang Jinwu.

After Hei Yunlong arrived, Wang Jinwu did not let him stay in Zunhua for long. He asked his Xuan Army to directly take over the defense of the area west of Zunhua to Gubeikou and cooperate with the current garrison troops to prevent Huang Taiji from adjusting the direction of attack and breaking through directly from Baimachuan to the other two directions.

Hei Yunlong took the order and left without saying a word. With Hei Yunlong's help, Wang Jinwu's pressure was relieved a lot. Moreover, the main task of the Xuan Da army was to garrison rather than attack. With his own arrangements and the combat effectiveness of the Xuan Da army, defending this section should not be a problem.

However, the next priority is Xifengkou, which is the main attack direction of Huang Taiji. Wang Jinwu does not have many troops. After he sent out nearly 30,000 people, he now has less than 10,000 mobile troops left. Once Huang Taiji attacks Xifengkou, the ordinary Ming army stationed at Xifengkou will not be able to stop him.

Looking at the sand table with a serious expression, Wang Jinwu understood the importance of this battle, and knew that he could only win and not lose. If he lost, not to mention whether Zhu Shenzhui could still hold on as the regent, the Ming Dynasty might be in turmoil. If Huang Taiji marched straight into the capital, and someone in the capital surrendered to Huang Taiji, the Ming Dynasty would be in danger.

"Marshal! Marshal!"

Just as Wang Jinwu was thinking about the next arrangements, he suddenly heard a hurried shout from outside, and a junior officer rushed in.

"What's the matter?" Wang Jinwu turned around and asked.

"Reinforcements are coming! They just arrived in Zunhua!" the lieutenant colonel replied hurriedly.

"Reinforcements? But the Shandong Army and the Dongjiang Town troops? Great! Great! I thought it would take them two days to arrive, but they came so soon..." Wang Jinwu was overjoyed. He was just worrying about the lack of troops, but he didn't expect to receive good news.

Once the Shandong Army and Dongjiang Town troops arrived, the mobile forces he could mobilize doubled. Although he didn't know how strong the Shandong Army and Dongjiang Town troops were, they were definitely stronger than the reorganized Ming troops, right? Especially the latter, who had a deep hatred for Huang Taiji. Now that Pi Island had fallen into Huang Taiji's hands, Dongjiang Town would definitely fight to the death if they encountered the Eight Banners on the battlefield, both in public and private.

Just when Wang Jinwu was happy about it, the lieutenant colonel told him that it was not the Shandong Army or the Dongjiang Town troops that came, but the Guanning Army that came from Shanhaiguan.

When he heard that it was the Guanning Army, Wang Jinwu was stunned at first, and then he was overjoyed.

Since he sent out the troops, he had never expected that the Guanning Army would come to reinforce him. You know, he knew very well what kind of people the Guanning Army was. Both Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou were military leaders of the Liao Army, and the Guanning Army was equivalent to their private property. Especially after Zhu Shenzhui became regent, he was also polite to the Guanning Army. Not only did he confer the title of earl to Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou, he also wrote letters to show goodwill and appease them. His purpose was nothing more than to let the Guanning Army hold on to Liaodong and not interfere in the government. As long as the Guanning Army acquiesced to Zhu Shenzhui's position as regent, he would allow them to be local emperors in Liaodong.

This time, Zhu Shencui did not order the Guanning Army to reinforce Jizhou. However, Wang Jinwu did not expect that the Guanning Army could have stayed out of it, but they took the initiative to send troops to reinforce. How could he not be happy?

(End of this chapter)