Chapter 643 Chapter 642 Massacre of the City

Chapter 643 Chapter 642 Massacre of the City

"It's over, it's over."

Wei Guangde shook his head and sighed.

"What's over?"

Chen Yiqin was startled by Wei Guangde's words and immediately asked.

"I didn't think about Zhao Quan's incident before. I only remembered it after you mentioned it. It's almost done."

Wei Guangde looked at the map and sighed, but then he thought of the Ministry of War. People from the Ministry of War should have thought about this matter, and hurriedly asked: "What is the final judgment of the Ministry of War? Has it ever issued a military order to Shanxi?"

"Now the Ministry of War is not unanimous in its opinions. For the sake of safety, it was finally concluded that Luqi wanted to break through the inner Great Wall and threaten the capital."

Chen Yiqin frowned.

He saw Wei Guangde's reaction just now. Wei Guangde thought it was like this at first, but after being reminded later, he seemed more inclined to think that Anda Khan just wanted to plunder Shizhou and other places.

If this is the case, there seems to be an error in the judgment of the Ministry of War.

"There are too few Tatars entering the border, so it is impossible for them to target the capital. The most likely possibility is to carry out some looting in the hinterland of Shanxi and then look for an opportunity to escape."

Wei Guangde stared at the map for a while before saying, "If we don't force the border troops to come back for reinforcements now, the Tatars may be able to finish the loot and successfully break out of the border wall."

The main force of the Ming army's border troops was concentrated near the Great Wall, which also led to a lack of troops in the hinterland of Shanxi. If a large army could not be sent here to expel it, the consequences would be disastrous.

"Do the border troops dare to fight in the field?"

However, Chen Yiqin suddenly asked back.

Wei Guangde paused for a moment. Indeed, the court could issue orders, but would the border troops leave the city and go south to rescue the hinterland of Shanxi?

Since it is a rescue, there is a possibility of being attacked on the way.

Wei Guangde looked at the map of Shanxi. The terrain to the north of Taiyuan Prefecture is vast and the cities are sparse, while the south is densely populated with cities and a large population.

This time when the Tatars went south, they probably knew that the Ming army did not dare to fight in the field, so they could so unscrupulously invade the southwestern part of Shanxi and plunder.

"Is it feasible for Ma Fang to lead his troops from Xuanfu into Shanxi for rescue?"

Chen Yiqin suddenly asked again, "He is in a hurry to go on an expedition. He can collect all the cavalry that can be used along the way. He should be able to form a cavalry force of tens of thousands."

The cavalry of the Xuanfu were usually scattered in several places. In a hurry, Ma Fang could not assemble all the cavalry and could only take away the troops along the way.

According to Chen Yiqin's idea, naturally all the cavalry from Xuanfu and Datong to Shanxi will be under the command of Ma Fang. As long as they rush to Taiyuan, they will use it as a base to search south for traces of the captive cavalry and for fighter opportunities.

Even if we can't eliminate them, we can at least force them back and let them leave Shanxi.

As for the imperial court's subsequent readjustment of Shanxi's defense, that is a matter for later. Now it can only be done to minimize the losses of the captives entering the pass.

Wei Guangde said nothing, just thinking about how powerful the cavalry in Datong and Shanxi were.

Can Ma Fang, with these cavalry, be able to use his arms like an arm and his fingers to avoid getting himself into trouble when the time comes?

The current Wei Guangde is not what he was in the 35th year of Jiajing. As he gets older, his courage has been eroded a lot.

In other words, if it were Wei Guangde now, let him command the battle in Baoan Prefecture.

Sorry, he won't go even if he kills him. He is past the age of impulsiveness.

War is no joke, it kills people.

After thinking for a long time, Wei Guangde still shook his head, "Ma Fang may not be able to do it. If the Xuanfu cavalry is mainly gathered, maybe it can be done."

The soldiers and horses of Xuanfu were trained by Ma Fang himself, so he was naturally very familiar with them. However, the soldiers and horses of Datong and Shanxi who took over halfway were not familiar with each other, so the risk was too great.

"Has anyone in the Ministry of War mentioned this?"

Wei Guangde then asked again.

"Guo Shangshu has this intention."

Chen Yiqin replied, "But he wanted the Xuanfu troops to join Datong to help defend. However, because most people believed that Anda Khan's target was Zhenwu, the Xuanfu troops could not move. At the critical moment, the capital must be protected by the Xuanfu army. about."

Yes, the opinion of the Ministry of War still believes that the Tatars' goal should be the capital, so naturally the safety of Beizhili is the first priority.

As for Shanxi, it seems that it is not within the consideration range of these big shots.

But Wei Guangde is a little strange. Yang Bo is from Shanxi. Isn't he worried?

"What did Yang Shangshu say?"

"He believed that there was a lack of troops in the southwestern part of Shanxi. Only Taiyuan Prefecture had a large army to protect it. The other prefectures and counties only had a few guard posts for thousands of households, and they did not have the strength to protect them comprehensively.

But when most people focused on Zhenwu, he didn't say anything. "

"There are no health centers in Shizhou and Xizhou. The nearest one, Fenzhou, has a thousand-household health center. It is difficult to protect oneself."

The map they looked at also marked the Ming army's troop deployment in Shanxi Town.

The main force of the Ming army in Shanxi was deployed in Datong and Taiyuan, and only one guard and one camp were deployed in Lan County and Jingle County as a barrier to the north of Taiyuan Prefecture.

The Luqi did not attack these two cities, so the Ming army was naturally happy to defend the city.

In the south of Taiyuan, except for the Pingyang Guard stationed in Pingyang Mansion, there are only a few guard posts, which is almost an undefended area.

Wei Guangde had a suspicion that those who drew the court's attention to Guguan were not those arranged by Yang Bo.

You know, Yang Bo had long wanted to recommend Huo Yi to be the Minister of War, but Emperor Longqing chose Guo Qian.

If the Ming army in Shanxi does not perform well this time, Guo Gan's position as Minister of War will be in jeopardy.

However, Wei Guangde immediately rejected this idea in his heart. After all, this is his hometown, and Yang Shangshu should not be so ruthless.

However, looking at the Ming army's defense in Shanxi, Wei Guangde had to say that it was really difficult to save the current situation.

Think about the late Ming Dynasty, when the Tatars dared to plunder the Northland without restraint as long as they broke through the border wall, it was not just because of the decline in the combat power of the Ming army.

Not daring to fight in the field, the Ming army could only retreat into the city, leaving vast plains for the army to gallop across.

However, in these places, the deployment of troops is already empty.

As long as you don't get close to these big cities with heavy military deployments, there will basically be no strong resistance.

After a long time, Wei Guangde sighed and said: "If Anda Khan really targets Zhenwu and wants to approach the capital, this situation will be easy to solve."

Chen Yiqin did not get a solution to the war from Wei Guangde, and was helpless. He could only hope that the Ministry of War's analysis was correct and the Luqi would choose to attack the capital.

It was a pity that news came from Shanxi a few days later. On September 12, An Da, Zhao Quan and others captured Shizhou City. More than 50,000 men and women were killed, and houses were burned for three days.

Shen Weiyue, the commander-in-chief of Taiyuan Prefecture, sent 20,000 troops for rescue. The army did not dare to move after entering Dawudian, which was only forty miles away from Shizhou City. They only sent out scouts to investigate the enemy's situation.

After conquering Shizhou, Anda divided his troops and invaded Laishui, Jiaocheng, Pingyang, Jiexiu, and plundered Xiaoyi, Pingyao, Taigu, Xizhou and other places, and destroyed seventeen Zhuang Forts.

In the past few days, the atmosphere in the court has been very depressing.

After receiving the report of the fall of Shizhou City, the cabinet almost moved the military department to Wenyuan Pavilion, and military orders were issued one after another, just to gather the surrounding Ming troops to garrison in various prefectures and counties in Shanxi.

Now no one dares to send troops to destroy the Anda tribe. They only hope to gather heavy troops in Shanxi as soon as possible and force them to retreat.

The military orders issued are nothing to keep secret at the moment. In fact, the Ming Dynasty court is like a big sieve. As soon as any order is issued, it will quickly spread throughout the official circles.

To Wei Guangde's relief, he did not hear an order to urgently mobilize the Xuanfu army to rescue Shanxi. Perhaps it was because the Xuanfu guarded the left wing of the capital, so the Xuanfu troops would not be mobilized easily unless the sky fell and the earth collapsed.

Wei Guangde was dealing with official documents in the duty room. They had basically cleaned them up like the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but there were still a few people in the Sixth Section who had not been removed, and they had to think about how to operate them so that Xu Jie could not stop them.

As long as Ke Dao's power is eliminated, Xu Jie's power in the court will be much smaller.

The Kedao Yanguan was a group of mad dogs specially raised by Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Their original intention was to contain the important officials of the imperial court.

It's just that during the Yingzong period, the imperial power was greatly weakened, and these mad dogs became no longer so obedient.

In many cases, they even helped the ministers to attack their masters.

Because he had the privilege of "telling stories based on rumors", he often spoke unscrupulously. In the eyes of officials, the imperial staff changed from a punishment to a show-off capital that was not afraid of the imperial power.

Emperor Jiajing had a good attitude. At that time, although some people took the opportunity to attack Yan Song to mock the emperor from time to time, he didn't even look at it and just threw it aside.

However, this is not the mentality today. Perhaps it is because of his experiences in those years that he is very concerned about the rumors between the government and the public.

In order to keep Emperor Longqing mentally healthy and help clean up those officials who liked to talk nonsense, the responsibility could only fall on him, the right minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

While Wei Guangde was processing official documents and considering which positions to choose and which positions to place among the staff, a series of hurried footsteps sounded outside the door.

Wei Guangde stopped what he was doing and looked up. Lu Bu had already arrived at the door, and Chen Ju appeared behind him.

"Why is he here?"

Wei Guangde was surprised, but his expression remained normal and he just stood up.

"Master, someone is coming from the palace."

Lu Bu bowed in front of Wei Guangde and stepped aside after speaking.

"Our family has met Mr. Wei."

Chen Ju did not use the private address, after all, this was in the official office, even though Lu Bu looked like he was from Wei Guangde.

"Eunuch Chen, I wonder why you came to my place today?"

Wei Guangde wouldn't call him eldest brother, he was just doing business. He and Chen Ju had gone on errands together, so pretending not to know each other would make it even more fake.

"Your Majesty ordered Mr. Wei to come to the palace to see you."

Having said this, Chen Ju smiled and said to Wei Guangde: "Master Wei, if you have nothing to do, you can come with our family."

When Wei Guangde heard that the emperor had summoned him, even if he had something to do at this time, it was definitely nothing, so he immediately agreed.

"Lu Bu, pack up your desk and I'll go into the palace to meet the Holy Spirit."

After speaking, Wei Guangde followed Chen Ju out of the check-in room.

A carriage has been parked in front of the official office. The appearance does not look luxurious at all, but the materials used are exquisite. This is the carriage used in the palace, and the eunuchs in the palace use them to enter and exit.

As time passed, everyone who saw such a carriage knew that it was from the palace.

At this time, the servants in front of the official department stood on both sides of the gate and looked intently, pretending to be very responsible.

On weekdays, they would only behave like this when adults were traveling. They would usually wander around in front of the gate, embarrassing anyone who wanted to enter and have a relationship.

When Wei Guangde followed Chen Ju out, he was naturally seen by many people, and many people pointed at him.

However, the two of them had no expressions and looked very calm.

After a while, Lu Bu will spread the news about the emperor's summons, but he doesn't worry about them gossiping.

"Get in my carriage?"

Chen Ju asked while standing in front of the carriage.

Wei Guangde had already seen his carriage in the distance. The driver had already driven the carriage over when he went out, so he smiled and said, "Why don't you take a ride in my carriage? It's soft and cool."

All the carriages in the palace were of the same style, and the curtains on the carriages were made of dense cloth on this hot day, which made me feel hot just thinking about them.

Wei Guangde's carriage only uses such curtains in winter, but has long been replaced with gauze curtains in summer.

After looking at the approaching carriage, Chen Ju said, "That's fine."

After finishing speaking, he did not forget to say to the driver in the carriage in front of him: "Go back to the palace and tell me. It's best to change the curtains in the summer. It's really hot to sit inside."

"Yes, Eunuch Chen."

The waiter replied hurriedly.

After Wei Guangde and Chen Ju got on the carriage, and the carriage started slowly, heading towards the imperial city one after another, Wei Guangde asked: "Brother Chen, why did your Majesty summon me today?"

"It may have something to do with Bianzhen. The emperor has not been able to eat well and sleep well these past two days, and he has not found any concubines to sleep with him at night."

Chen Ju said in a low voice, "Even after Shi Cheng was massacred, the emperor's spirit has not been good."

Wei Guangde nodded when he heard this, "Has your Majesty asked any of the adults?"

"In the past two days, we summoned the cabinet and the six ministries several times, but we were all kicked out. We don't know what was said inside."

Chen Ju answered honestly.

Wei Guangde estimated that their answers dissatisfied Emperor Longqing, and he couldn't think of any good solutions, so he summoned him today.

But what can he do about the border town problem?

In the early Ming Dynasty, it was purely due to the combat power of the powerful Ming army that they repeatedly raided northern Mongolia to temporarily solve the border troubles.

Only by being powerful and powerless can border troubles be solved. This is the only way. At present, with the combat power of the Ming army,

"well"

Wei Guangde sighed. He felt that he might disappoint the emperor today, and he had no good solution.

"By the way, last night the Emperor approved the proposal submitted by the Cabinet for the selection of the Minister of Household Affairs, and selected Ma Sen from Nanjing as the Minister of Household Affairs. It has been sent to the Cabinet today."

Chen Ju also whispered about the memorials that Emperor Longqing had approved in the past two days. Some of them were urgent and could not be delayed. The Chief of Ceremonies would definitely give priority to them, while some of them that were not urgent would be dealt with later.

He believed that Wei Guangde still didn't know about this news, so he should tell him in advance at this time.

This is also a habit that the two developed when they were together. Chen Ju quietly revealed the news in the palace.

"Has there been any change in Your Majesty's attitude toward Mr. Guo Ganguo?"

I heard that Ma Sen was appointed as the Ministry of Household Affairs. It was obviously Chen Yiqin and Xu Jie who were exerting their efforts. It seemed that Guo Qian would be unlucky next. After all, Shanxi was defeated and tens of thousands of people died. It was not a trivial matter.

"Although Your Majesty didn't say anything, I can observe. I'm afraid there won't be many days left."

Chen Ju did not know the tacit understanding between Yang Bo, Xu Jie and Chen Yiqin, so he only made his own judgment on Guo Qian's attitude from the emperor.

Wei Guangde nodded, "The Ministry of War has some responsibility for Shanxi affairs."

As if he thought of something, Chen Ju suddenly said to Wei Guangde: "If the emperor asks you whether to go to the Ministry of War, you'd better not agree."