Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 97 An Unsuccessful Start, Losing Cities and Territory (Part 1)

Huang Taiji led his army to attack, and smoke signals rose from all directions in the direction of Jizhou Town.

The people in the northeast of Shuntian Prefecture and the west of Yongping Prefecture were all extremely nervous when they saw the smoke signals.

After finally enjoying a few months of peace, the Northern barbarians have attacked again!
What will they do if the Northern barbarians break through the defenses of Jizhou Town?

This is not impossible. During the Gengxu Incident in the Jiajing reign, the northern barbarians broke through the defense line of Jizhou Town and ravaged the capital region for seven or eight days before returning with their spoils.

The situation was somewhat better during the Longqing and early Wanli reigns, when the famous general Qi Jiguang was in power, and the northern barbarians were defeated and forced to surrender.

Now, who knows? The Ming Dynasty has just suffered a crushing defeat at Sarhu and lost most of Liaodong. The elite border troops have lost countless lives. Can the defense line of Jizhou still hold?
In reality, it's useless for ordinary people to think about it; no matter how much they think about it, they are powerless to change anything.

The one truly capable of solving this problem is the reigning emperor.

Zhu Jue is currently staring at the map, waiting for news.

The signal fire could only convey one message: that enemy troops were attacking Jizhou Town. It couldn't tell whether they were Jurchens or not.

The Jurchen invasion was merely their assessment; it had not yet been confirmed.

Fortunately, the post roads are still quite smooth at this time, especially the post stations in the capital region, which have been replenished with fast horses, and news is transmitted very quickly.

Not long after he ordered Fang Zhenghua to send out the secret edict, Fang Zhenghua rushed in again, carrying a memorial, and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, Wang Yingzhi, the Deputy Military Commissioner of Jizhou, has sent an urgent report from 800 li away."

Zhu Jue took the memorial, opened it, and nodded solemnly.

Wang Yingzhi, the deputy military commissioner of Jizhou, was quite responsible. After the smoke of war rose in the north, he sent out scouts to investigate. The scouts discovered a huge, dark mass of Jurchen cavalry, numbering in the tens of thousands.

He had already dispatched fast cavalry, as directed by Governor Lu Xiang-sheng, to have all the civilians west of Zunhua City immediately take their valuables and food and pass through Jizhou City to hide temporarily west of Jizhou City, thus giving the Jurchens a scorched-earth policy.

"As expected, the Jurchens have come to attack."

After reading it, Zhu Jue handed the memorial to Lu Xiang-sheng, who was standing to the side.

A moment later, Fang Zhenghua strode in carrying a memorial, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, Wang Yuanya, the military commissioner of Jizhou, has sent an urgent report from eight hundred li away."

Wang Yuanya, the military commissioner of Jizhou, was even more responsible. As soon as the smoke signal came from the north, he sent out scouts to investigate. After the scouts discovered the Jurchen cavalry, he made some arrangements.

As for the arrangements, it is that "the Jurchens will most likely besiege Zunhua. Your humble servant has already dispatched fast riders to the post station on the other side of the Shahe River south of the city. If the Jurchens besiege the city, your humble servant will also report to them immediately."

Now only the Santunying direction has not yet received a report.

Santunying is still nearly a hundred miles east of Zunhua, so it's not unusual that the report hasn't arrived yet.

Zhu Jue checked the time and simply ordered someone to deliver the imperial meal to the main hall of Yuxi Palace so that he could eat with Lu Xiang Sheng, Wang Cheng En, and others.

They had just finished eating when Fang Zhenghua strode in, carrying a memorial, and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, General Zhu Guoyan of Jizhou Town has sent an urgent report from eight hundred li away."

Zhu Jue took the memorial and glanced at it, then felt relieved.

Zhu Guoyan, the general of Jizhou Town, had also sent out scouts to find out that the Jurchens were coming. As arranged by Lu Xiangshan, he ordered the fast riders to inform the civilians east of Zunhua City to pass through Santunying and take temporary refuge to the east, thus giving the Jurchens a scorched-earth policy.

Now that all three cities are prepared and reinforcements have arrived, it is unlikely that the Jurchens will be able to break through the defenses north of Jizhou Town.

Not long after, Fang Zhenghua strode in again, carrying a memorial, and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, Wang Yuanya, the military commissioner of Jizhou, has sent an urgent report from eight hundred li away."

This guy, just like Zhuge Liang using a secret plan, had prepared everything in advance.

Zhu Jue curiously opened the memorial and took a look; a solemn expression appeared on his face.

Wang Yuanya left behind only one sentence: "The Jurchens have already surrounded Zunhua. Your humble servant will live and die with Zunhua. The city stands, and I stand; the city falls, and I die!"

This person is good; we can consider giving him an important position. After reading it, Zhu Jue solemnly handed the memorial to Lu Xiang-sheng.

Lu Xiang-sheng couldn't help but sigh after seeing that: "There aren't many officials with such integrity these days."

Yes, nowadays, most officials in the outer court only think about vying for power and profit; very few of them have the idea of ​​being loyal to the country.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Jian Dou, when do you plan to go?"

Without hesitation, Lu Xiang-sheng replied, "Your Majesty, I plan to go there as soon as I receive news of Ying Yuan's arrival in Jizhou City."

I also want to go and see.

Zhu Jue pondered, “The palace examination papers will take two days to be reviewed. Why don’t you wait for me? We can go together in three days. This shouldn’t have much of an impact. We can head to Jizhou City early on the fourth day. By then, the Jurchen infantry should have only just arrived in Zunhua. They shouldn’t be able to take the heavily fortified Zunhua City so quickly.”

Uh, you're going too?

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiang-sheng hesitated for a moment, but still advised, "Your Majesty, the battlefield is dangerous. If the Jurchens knew that Your Majesty was personally leading the expedition, they would probably attack recklessly."

I never said I would personally lead the army.

Zhu Jue shook his head slightly and said, "I am just disguising myself as a soldier of the Imperial Guard to go to Jizhou City to take a look. After all, it is close to Zunhua, and I will receive news from Zunhua soon. If I wait here, it will delay for at least two hours, which is quite anxious."

Are you going to Jizhou City in disguise?

This shouldn't be a big problem.

After all, when they arrived at Jizhou City, the army gathered there numbered over 50,000. Unless the Jurchens attacked like madmen, they had no chance of taking Jizhou City.

Lu Xiang-sheng thought for a moment, then bowed deeply with a solemn expression and said, "Your humble servant obeys the decree."

Zhu Jue really wanted to go and see it. After all, in his two lifetimes, he had never personally witnessed a battle involving more than 100,000 people. Moreover, as the emperor, he didn't even know what the border was like. He could only ask Lu Xiangshan and Sun Chuanting, who had been to the border, about everything. This was extremely disadvantageous for him in formulating relevant strategies.

At this moment, he could only follow Lu Xiang-sheng's advice on relevant strategies. He disliked this feeling. It wasn't that he didn't trust Lu Xiang-sheng, but the key was that whether as an emperor or a president, one had to control everything. Moreover, Lu Xiang-sheng didn't have the hundreds of years of experience in his mind, so the strategies he came up with were definitely not as forward-looking as those he came up with.

Therefore, he had to check the border.

If possible, he also wanted to receive news that the Beijing garrison had arrived in Jizhou City so that he could go there with Lu Xiang-sheng.

Unfortunately, he couldn't leave yet, because before the list of successful candidates in the imperial examination was posted, the imperial court had to send a messenger to listen to the essays of the top candidates to determine the final ranking.

At that time, the officials in charge of sealing the documents, the examiners, the examiners, and even the officials of the Court of State Ceremonies will all be present. If he does not show up, it will surely arouse suspicion from the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party.

He wasn't there for such an important event as determining the rankings in the palace examination, so where did he go?
It's obvious without even guessing; they're most likely heading to Jizhou Town!
Therefore, he still had to show his face when the imperial edict was issued, so that those traitors who colluded with the enemy and betrayed the country would not guess that he had gone to Jizhou Town.

If traitors and collaborators discover that he went to Jizhou Town, it would be a huge problem. The Jurchens might actually go berserk and besiege the place where the emperor is.

After all, the precedent of the Tumu Crisis was there for all to see. If Emperor Yingzong hadn't inexplicably led hundreds of thousands of Beijing garrison troops on a chaotic rampage in Xuanfu Town and ultimately been captured, the Ming Dynasty would not have been likely to be defeated by Esen of the Oirat Mongols.

Huang Taiji was naturally aware of the Tumu Crisis, and he certainly wouldn't miss such a good opportunity.

He didn't want to cause chaos on the border, so he had to go there quietly.

He has no choice but to wait these three days, whether he wants to or not.

Fortunately, he received good news. On the first day, Zhou Yuji led 10,000 cavalrymen from the capital to Jizhou City. On the second day, Huang Degong led 10,000 cavalrymen from the capital to Santunying. Then, Sun Yingyuan led 30,000 chariot soldiers to Jizhou City.

On the morning of the third day, Song Yingxing coincidentally delivered a newly developed telescope to him. It was two feet long and had a viewing distance of five or six miles.

(End of this chapter)