Qianqing Palace, East Warm Pavilion.

Zhu Yunwen sat on the main seat, holding Sheng Yong's recital in his hand, looking at the people arguing in front of him, his mood was a little complicated.

In all fairness, when making the plan, he felt a little uneasy in his heart, but he couldn't find anything wrong, through Sheng Yong's feint to attack Tongzhou, attract Zhu Di back to Beiping, and then close the Xifengkou Pass, block the Mongolian army from the stopper, concentrate troops to encircle and annihilate Zhu Di, close the door and beat the dogs, it was perfect. This point is somewhat similar to the later Liaoshen Campaign, so he agreed.

But this plan was opposed by Guo Key, the secretary of the Beiping Metropolitan Division, who was Zhu Yunwen's earliest team, so he was more bold and spoke more directly. He pointed out that in this plan, it is very irresponsible to pin the fate of hundreds of thousands of troops on the actions of the rebel generals. Secondly, the imperial court has only conquered Baoding so far, and the advantage is not obvious, and the rebels may not be so easy to rebel, on the contrary, if they capture Tongzhou in one fell swoop and deter Beiping, the rebels will be more likely to be rebelled; In the end, it is nothing to think that even if the Mongols enter the customs, it is not difficult to defeat or even completely annihilate the Mongol army in the narrow area near Beiping, and even solve the border troubles that plagued the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop, so why not?

Guo Key's performance caused a backlash in the Military Aircraft Department and Wenyuan Pavilion, because everyone could see Guo Key's subtext, Guo Key thought that the people who formulated the policy were too timid to fight with the Mongols, so they formulated this kind of bullshit plan. Everyone couldn't help but be excited, and they accused Guo Jian of being a front-line general, underestimating the enemy's wave war, wantonly provoking border provocations, and not considering the actual situation. At this time, the war with the Mongols is really worth the loss, it is better to keep it out of the fortress and slowly try to do it.

And not only that, everyone also accused Guo Jian of being suspected of overstepping the level of reporting, the Mongolian army ambushed in Zunhua and plotted against the rebel generals, these things are still confidential, only the people in the Military Aircraft Department and Wenyuan Pavilion know, and the front-line generals only know Ping'an and Sheng Yong, Guo Key's level should not have known about this matter, but because Shao Yun, who plotted against Zhang Fu, was his subordinate, so he revealed the holy decree to him. In this way, a strange phenomenon has emerged, the main executors Ping An and Sheng Yong have not written against it, but a "low-level" officer who is not of enough rank is picky in his eggs, which is also where Guo Jian was blamed.

However, Zhu Yunwen didn't think Guo Key was nosy, for him, the more people who wrote to him, the less likely he was to be deceived, so he issued a decree to praise Guo Key's attitude, but did not comment on Guo Key's objections.

In private, Zhu Yunwen ordered the military department and the Governor's Office of the Five Armies to speed up the transfer of troops to the north, and at the same time ordered Geng Xuan of Liaodong and Xu Huizu of Huailai to make persistent efforts to break through the pass and march to Beiping.

It's just that what people didn't expect was that on the night of April 12, the military aircraft department received a battle report that Sheng Yong had captured Tongzhou in one day and night, and was marching to Beiping to request support. This war report immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of Wang Du, Zhuo Jing and others, who believed that Sheng Yongyang was disobedient and dissatisfied with the implementation of the task of containment, and in order to compete for merit, regardless of the lives of the soldiers, he insisted on breaking through the city of Tongzhou, causing a fait accompli, and coercing the imperial court to act according to his plan, so that the imperial court fell into passivity, and should be severely punished.

Zhu Yunwen did not express his position, and the next day the military aircraft department received a battle report from Ping An and Guo Key, and Ping An had ordered Li Yuan to send the Guards Cavalry Army to Beiping to reinforce Sheng Yong; Guo Jian transferred 20,000 of the 30,000 people in Zhigu to reinforce Sheng Yong and transported a large amount of supplies.

The swift action of Ping An and Guo Jian made Zhu Yunwen realize one point, that is, the front-line generals agreed with Sheng Yong's action to conquer Tongzhou to a certain extent. This made Zhu Yunwen a little annoyed, since there were different opinions, why didn't Ping An and Sheng Yong write to explain it? In the end, it was Liu Jing's implicit reminder that made him understand the reason, Zhu Di's discordant plan was not completely resolved before, he protected Sheng Yong and appeased Ping'an, but both of them had a knot in their hearts, Sheng Yong didn't dare to oppose because he was blamed, what about Ping'an? It should be that he is afraid of being considered arrogant, or in order to avoid suspicion, he does not dare to object. When he understood this, Zhu Yunwen smiled bitterly and shook his head, Zhu Di is really a difficult opponent to deal with, a simple letter has separated himself from the front-line generals, but fortunately, it is not too late to know now.

Therefore, Zhu Yunwen did not follow the advice of Wang Du and others and severely punished Sheng Yong, but took advantage of the situation and changed the location of the decisive battle to Beiping, and Sheng Yong continued to contain Zhu Di and made it impossible for him to leave Beiping; Ping An was responsible for commanding the follow-up army, converging with Sheng Yong, and fighting a decisive battle with Yan in Beiping; After the army converged, it was under the unified command of Ping'an.

At the same time, Zhu Yunwen wrote a personal letter to Ping'an and Sheng Yong, reassuring them, telling them to put down their ideological baggage, not to have too many worries, and to let go of command, and the letter also praised Ping'an's field combat ability and Sheng Yong's siege ability, and asked them to cooperate closely to quell the Beiping rebellion as soon as possible.

In the end, Zhu Yunwen ordered Qu Neng to lead 50,000 Beijing troops to the north, join Zhang Lun and Cao Yushu's First and Second Guards armies, and go north along the canal to reinforce Sheng Yong.

At the same time, Zhu Yunwen ordered the Shandong political envoy Tie Xuan to make the army grain and grass, and the Henan political envoy Huang Zicheng as his deputy, combined with various means such as canals, shipping, manpower, and animal power, to ensure the supply of grain and grass for the army. In order to avoid the prevarication of officials, Zhu Yunwen also sent inspectors to Henan, Shandong, and Beiping.

Finally, at Wang Du's suggestion, Zhu Yunwen granted higher authority to the Intelligence Department and the Investigation Department, which can instigate rebellion against any rebel general, but some generals will not necessarily be spared death even if they fight back, such as Chen Xuan and others.

Beiping, Yanwangfu.

After Zhu Di returned to Beiping, although he stabilized the hearts of the people and consolidated the city defense, he could not break the deadlock, and finally Zhu Di had to convene a military meeting, which was attended by Daoyan, Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Neng, Chen Xuan, Zhang Fu and others.

At the meeting, Zhu Di first asked Zhu Neng to make an analysis of the situation, Zhu Neng was prepared, walked to the map with confidence, and said loudly: "The prince, the master, the prince, the prince of the county, the generals, the current situation of our army is very grim. ”

"The total strength of our army is as follows:"

"There are 40,000 infantry and 65,000 cavalry in Beiping;"

"Juyongguan infantry 20,000; 5,000 Jizhou infantry; Miyun infantry 3,000 men; About 10,000 people are on the side of the Great Wall."

"Yongping infantry 5,000 and cavalry 5,000."

"A total of 153,000 people."

"But the only forces that our army can use are 40,000 infantry and 65,000 cavalry in Beiping."

"Juyong Pass," Zhu Neng pointed to the map and said, "Xu Huizu's onslaught day and night has been going on for a month, and the guard Li Bin has been in a hurry again and again, and there are only more than 13,000 people left in his hands, and according to his estimates, he can hold out for two months." ”

"In Yongping, Liaodong Dusi led an army of 50,000 out of Shanhaiguan, including 20,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry, but Yongping is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the city wall is as high as four zhang, so it is not easy to capture, so don't worry about it for the time being."

"The other border fortresses of Miyun, Jizhou, and the Great Wall cannot be withdrawn, and it is easy to cause mutiny, and the combat effectiveness of this part of the army is not strong."

"As for our reinforcements, there are 30,000 cavalry from the Varat Cavalry Eseku Department currently stationed in Tongzhou."

"Beyond the Great Wall, the agreement reached between the King of Gaoyang and the Mongols means that the Mongols can reinforce another 80,000 cavalry."

"Eighty thousand? So much? As soon as Zhu Neng's voice fell, it immediately caused a commotion among the generals.

Zhu Neng took everyone's reaction into his eyes, and couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart, but he didn't show it on his face, but continued: "Let's talk about the imperial court, at present, there are Sheng Yong's 20,000 cavalry, 80,000 infantry, and Ping'an's 20,000 cavalry under Beiping City, as for Tongzhou and Zhigu, each garrison is 10,000, and the number of cavalry and infantry is not yet clear. ”

"The number of Xu Huizu who came to Huai is unknown, and it is estimated that it is at least more than 50,000."

"The Liaodong Metropolitan Division, with a total strength of 150,000, so the army that Geng Xuan can mobilize is more than 100,000, which cannot be underestimated."

"The number of people in Baoding is more than 100,000, and it is still increasing."

"More than 40,000 people from the First and Second Guards of the Imperial Court were entangled with our army near Cangzhou a few days ago, but Huozhen only had 5,000 people, and they couldn't stop it for too long."

"In addition, there are 10,000 people in Cangzhou and 40,000 people in Hejian."

"The troops that the imperial court can transfer to Beiping should be Ping'an, Sheng Yong's troops, and the imperial court's guards, with a strength of nearly 300,000, and the possibility of continuing to increase is not ruled out."

"Hiss-----" "Hiss-----" With Zhu Neng's description, the generals seemed to be suffering from toothache and kept hissing, after Zhu Di saw it, he was secretly annoyed in his heart, but his face was silent.

At this moment, the guard outside the door knocked on the door outside: "Lord Wang, urgent military report!" ”

Zhu Di paused for a moment and gave Zhu Gaochu beside him a look, Zhu Gaochu quickly stood up, walked to the door, took the general newspaper back, and handed it to Zhu Di with both hands.

Zhu Di checked the fire paint and found that it was intact, so he opened the envelope, took out a piece of paper from it, glanced at it, trembled slightly, and then put away the military report very calmly and put it on the table.

When everyone saw Zhu Di's appearance, they felt that it was nothing serious, so they continued to discuss, but at this time, Zhu Di's mind was tumbling with what he had just seen:

Rajah:

The last general is incompetent, today Xu Huizu suddenly conquered Cuiping and Jinzhai Mountain, the artillery fire was condescending, the defenders in the city had nowhere to hide, suffered heavy casualties, and were powerless to resist.

The last general is willing to fight to the death, buy time, and hope that the prince will make plans early.

Li Bin

Stop!

April 16 of the first year of Jianwen