I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 326 The Mongols Are Coming

At this time, no one could persuade Zhu Houzhao, and anyone who tried to persuade him would just get out.

The nine border garrisons also sent out scouts every day to spy on the enemy and report any enemy activity immediately.

Time passed little by little, and it was October in the blink of an eye.

The eagerly awaited Zhu Houzhao finally received the news he desired most.

"Reporting to the mighty general, the Mongolian army has been discovered in Yulin. The enemy has crossed the Great Wall in three groups. The exact number is unknown, but it is at least over 5. At present, they have bypassed the Yulin Guards and are burning, killing and looting everywhere!"

"Finally he's here," Zhu Houzhao complained, both happy and angry. "This little Mongolian prince is too disrespectful. I'm personally guarding Zhenluwei, so why doesn't he invade from Zhenluwei?"

Although it was only the eleventh year of Zhengde, the Mongolian army still chose to attack Datong Town. However, in history, Datong Town was also the Ming border town that was attacked the most times.

However, Zhu Houzhao was stationed in the northeast of Datong Town, while the Mongolian prince entered from the northwest of Datong Town.

The Mongolian prince did not attack the garrisons at all, but bypassed the border acropolis, burning, killing, and looting property and people everywhere.

As before, as long as the Mongols did not attack the Acropolis, the border garrison would not bother to attack. When the Mongols had looted enough, they would leave, and the border troops would go out of the city to "recover lost territory" or follow them across the Great Wall and kill some Mongolian herdsmen as military merits to report to the court.

Now the Mongolian army is larger than ever before, so the border troops in Datong Town dare not leave the city.

In fact, the Mongolian prince arrived at the end of September, and he did not take the Ming border troops seriously. The Mongolian cavalry totaled more than 100,000, and they did not care about the border troops and the city at all. They divided into three groups and went south to plunder. The troops were divided again and again, like a basin of water, quickly pouring into the countryside.

The smallest team has only dozens or hundreds of cavalry, and the largest team has only one or two thousand cavalry, because this makes it convenient to rob quickly.

The Mongolian prince did this not because he was arrogant, but because of the psychological advantage he had built up over the past few decades. The Ming army had been on a passive defensive for the past two or three decades, rarely going out of the city to fight in the field, and had been guarding the city.

In fact, the Mongols also hoped that the Ming army could go out of the city to fight in the field, because the cavalry had strong mobility. As long as the Ming army could be fully mobilized, the Mongols could use their mobility to quickly mobilize troops and form a situation of outnumbering the enemy in local areas.

In fact, this point also applies to the nine borders of the Ming Dynasty.

The nine borders of the Ming Dynasty stretched for thousands of miles. The 9 border troops were much more numerous than the Mongolian army, but they were divided into nine military towns, each with more than 4 people. The Mongols could form a local military advantage by simply gathering their troops in one place. Although the Ming border troops were large in number, the initiative of the war was always firmly in the hands of the Mongols.

It was easy for Mongolia to gather more than 50,000 people and march south. This number would give them a military advantage over any border town of the Ming Dynasty.

If the Ming army wanted to go out of the city and fight in the field, they would definitely have to gather the troops scattered in various border towns and attack together. This would definitely leave some cities or military forts empty of troops, which would give the highly mobile Mongolian army an opportunity.

Even if the general of the border town wanted to fight the Mongols in the field at all costs, it would not make much sense, because without the initiative of the battle, the Mongols could choose to fight or not, and choose where to fight based on the number of Ming troops.

The Ming army did not have any decisive killing power, so they could only watch the Mongols leave calmly with their spoils.

Therefore, the border troops of Datong are now defending themselves in the city as the scale of the Mongols' southward advance is even larger.

Because of this, the Mongolian prince encountered no resistance and easily broke through half of Datong Town. These Mongols were already looting like crazy. After looting in the west, they ran to the east, and even wanted to loot Datong Town diagonally from northwest to southeast. Military intelligence was reported several times a day, saying that bandits had appeared somewhere again, as if half of Datong Town was occupied by the enemy.

The battle situation changed so quickly that Zhu Houzhao was dumbfounded. The Mongols broke through the defense of Datong Town without any effort.

In fact, the two sides did not engage in battle at all. It was the border troops who were defending the city, while the Mongolian army was looting!
"Report, the main force of the Mongolian bandits has passed Huairen and is heading for Yingzhou!"

Upon hearing the news, the generals breathed a sigh of relief. The main force of the enemy was marching in the opposite direction and was not coming directly towards the emperor.

Zhu Houzhao had the exact opposite idea to his generals. The reason why he placed all the new troops on the border was that he thought that the Mongolian army heading south might run into him head-on, and then he would gather the border troops of the nearby daimyo and have a good fight with the Mongols.

But now the Mongols were moving further and further away from him.

Zhu Houzhao was furious: "These damn Mongols!"

"And the Datong border troops have disappointed me so much. There has been no movement at all!" Zhu Houzhao continued to curse.

No one present dared to speak. The situation on the battlefield was unclear, so it was better to say less.

"How does the General Staff think we should fight?" Zhu Houzhao began to call out names.

Jiang Jiangong also felt helpless.

According to battle reports from various places, the main forces of the enemy are everywhere, which means that it is impossible to find out where the main forces of the enemy are.

How can we plan our route if we can’t even find our target?
However, the General Staff had already deduced the current situation, but the emperor was still in the army, which made Jiang Jiangong feel great pressure.

He could only choose the most conservative plan and said: "Order those scattered troops to gather separately and do not easily fight with the enemy's main force. Block the main road for the Mongolian bandits to withdraw. We will immediately march south and garrison in Datong Prefecture first, and then make a decision after obtaining more military information."

This was a safe strategy, but Zhu Houzhao was not satisfied.

Zhu Houzhao said: "Send an order to Zhu Zhen, Zuo Qin, Du Xun, Jin Ying, Jiang Huan, and Zhang He (all generals of the new army and frontier generals of Xuanfu) to speed up their march and abandon their baggage to join me. Then order Wang Xun, the general of Datong, to lead all the troops under his command to immediately go south to find the main force of the enemy. Once the main force of the enemy is found, immediately hold on to the spot, and this general will quickly go to rescue him!"

"Your Majesty, you can't do this!" Jiang Bin quickly advised.

Zhu Houzhao said angrily: "Call me the mighty general!"

Jiang Bin had no choice but to say: "Mighty General, we cannot let General Wang act rashly. What if he is eaten by the Mongolian bandits?"

Jiang Jiangong also advised: "The enemy's situation is unclear, and the number of enemy soldiers is far greater than in previous years. If General Wang really encounters the main force of the enemy, he will probably find it difficult to hold out in the field for too long."

In fact, everyone understood Zhu Houzhao's idea, which was to send Datong's border troops to attract the enemy's main force first. When the Mongolian army assembled and began to besiege Datong's border troops, Zhu Houzhao could lead the army to suddenly attack and catch the Mongolian prince off guard.

(End of this chapter)