(Thanks to the time newcomer book friends for the reward)

The general army of Datong is on the march, and Cao Yue is discussing with the generals under his command.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the general has already determined that Li Yan's troops are coming in the direction of Datong, and they are preparing to attack Datong," Cao Yue stood in front of the map of Datong he had drawn and told the generals about the information he had obtained, "Li Yan's headquarters is still more than 300 miles away from Datong, and it is estimated that it will arrive in five to six days." Liu Zongmin's department originally went to Taiyuan, but now it suddenly changed direction and came to Datong, which is now more than 600 miles away from Datong. Obviously, more than 100,000 people from these two gangsters are coming towards our Datong, and we must be on strict guard not to give the rogues a chance to take advantage of them. ”

Cao Yue originally thought that he was preparing to attack Datong because the royal servants had lost all the Datong army, and Datong's defense was empty and easy to attack, but now that the Liukou had explored the situation in Datong, it stands to reason that they should retreat and give up the attack.

But unexpectedly, Li Yan and Liu Zongmin still came straight to Datong, what was the reason for Liukou, he can't think of it now.

Could it be that Li Zicheng sent Li Yan and Liu Zongmin to lead a large army to attack Datong, the purpose of which was to contain the Ming official army in the area of Jingshi and prevent them from going south. Now that the threat of Jiannu has been temporarily lifted, the men and horses in Liaodong and Jingshi can be transferred to reinforce Henan and Shaanxi to encircle and suppress the Liukou. If Li Yan and Liu Zongmin's army attacks Datong, the officers and troops in the north will definitely be pinned, so that Li Zicheng will have no worries and can attack Henan and Shaanxi and take these two places into his pocket.

Now although the Ming Dynasty claims to have nearly a million people, most of the elite have been consumed, many of these nearly one million people are false data, and most of the real people are rabble, and the warlords everywhere only want to preserve their strength, and want them to defeat the rogues, which is almost a fantasy. Moreover, Li Yan and Liu Zongmin's army of more than 100,000 attacked Datong and made a gesture of attacking Beijing, so the official army in other places must be reinforced in the direction of Beijing, not Henan and Shaanxi.

Today's rogues are already quite large, they are known as millions of people, and they have the strength to fight on two fronts. And the official army also has to take care of Liaodong, if the Liukou divide the troops to attack like this, Henan and Shaanxi will not be able to take care of it, and it is likely to be occupied by the Liukou.

This is the inference that Cao Yue came to after discussing with Wei Daben, the prefect of Datong, and Zhang An, the eunuch who guarded the town, but what the specific situation was and what Li Zicheng's plan was, they had no way of knowing.

However, all signs show that Li Yan and Liu Zongmin, the two armies of the Liukou, are going to invade Datong, and Cao Yue must not take any chances, and must be strictly guarded. Liukou are different from Jiannu, they will not leave without winning, and they may have a long-term confrontation with other people under Datong City.

Datong cannot be lost, it must be defended, and it must be defended with the strength of the local town army, and no reinforcements can be expected to arrive.

It is also possible for the Liukou to attack Taiyuan or other places in order to open the gateway to Beijing, and it is impossible for other military towns to divide their forces to rescue. Moreover, Cao Yue scoffed at the combat effectiveness of the town army in other places, even if these places could send reinforcements, it would only increase the number of people who needed to eat and ask for military salaries, and the increase in combat effectiveness would not be obvious.

Under Cao Yue's strict order, inside and outside Datong, once again prepared to clear the wilderness. However, this time the people were not as willing to take refuge in Datong City as they were in the last Jiannu attack, and the propaganda of the Liukou "Juntian Exemption" still had a great impact on them, and many people thought that the Liukou would not embarrass them, and maybe they would treat them better than the government, so they refused to temporarily go to Datong City to escape the war for various reasons.

This situation was something that Cao Yue did not expect, and in the end he did not insist on this point and let the people do it. There is no way to force the people's hearts, and the people will have their own judgment when the time comes, and those people who are willing to go into the city to hide, Cao Yue also asked Wei Daben to arrange for them, and he is unwilling or forced them, let alone punish them.

Cao Yue also wrote a letter to Li Yan and Liu Zongmin, in which he elaborated on the current trend of the world, told them that Chen was powerful, hoped that they would not help the abuse, and gave Jiannu an opportunity to take advantage of. Now the main enemy of the people of the Ming Dynasty is Jiannu, who fights in the same room, and in the end it will be Jiannu who will benefit. Jiannu is a foreign race, they pass everywhere, the Han people will be wiped out, and another Mengyuan will appear. What is most needed now is to unite all the Han forces and completely wipe out the Jiannu and Mongols, and wait for other things to be wiped out by the foreign captives.

Cao Yue's letter was quickly delivered to Li Yan's hands, and he was quite surprised that Cao Yue would write to his Li Yan, after reading Cao Yue's letter, he couldn't help but sneer: "What a Cao Yue, usually full of male thieves and female prostitutes, now looks righteous and awe-inspiring, and wrote a letter to persuade Ben to serve the corrupt Ming Dynasty and fight against the Jiannu who only dared to enter the customs and rob things, which really makes people laugh to death." ”

Li Yan, who has a deep prejudice against Cao Yue, ignores the words written in Cao Yue's letter, because he has never seen Cao Yue, and he has not witnessed the situation of Datong with his own eyes, but the red lady has been humiliated again and again, all because of Cao Yue, he has classified Cao Yue as a traitor.

He didn't even think that what Cao Yue said was really for the sake of righteousness, for the people of the Ming Dynasty to no longer suffer, and not to let Jiannu take advantage of it, but thought that Cao Yue was hypocritical, and that Cao Yue was showing weakness. Datong's defense is not strong, and now that he and Liu Zongmin are attacking Datong, Cao Yue is afraid, so he wrote a letter to persuade him not to fight Datong and jointly deal with Jiannu.

"If I listen to him and fight against Jiannu with the official army, maybe he will stab us in the back," when showing Cao Yue's letter to the generals, Li Yan also analyzed it like this, and finally came to a conclusion, "Datong's defense is weak, we must take this opportunity to capture Datong in one fell swoop, seize military supplies, and then plan for King Chuang's actions in Henan and Shaanxi." ”

Li Yan's general, Li Qing, also immediately stood up and echoed: "Cao Yue's letter is just a measure to slow down the enemy, the purpose is to delay the movement of our army and strive for a delay. Most of the Datong soldiers were lost in the Battle of Songshan, and the newly recruited men and horses were definitely not strong in combat. Cao Yue's subordinates claim to have 50,000 horses, but in fact there are 30,000 is already very good, and our two righteous armies have more than 100,000 horses, and it is easy to capture Datong. ”

Because of the unclear things between the Red Lady and Cao Yue, Li Yan was also half-convinced of what the Red Lady was probing, and even suspected that this was Cao Yue's suspicious plan. Knowing some of the things that the Red Lady experienced in Datong, Li Qing also had a different view of the Red Lady, plus he didn't know much about Datong, so he thought that Datong's defense was still empty and could take the opportunity. Li Yan and Li Qing's words became the mainstream ideology of this rebel army, and they ignored what Cao Yue said in his letter, and continued to march eastward, preparing to attack Datong.

Liu Zongmin also received Cao Yue's letter, and he also scoffed at Cao Yue's proposal to resist foreign captives written in Cao Yue's letter, and also thought that Cao Yue was showing weakness like Li Yan, and that the current Datong defense was empty and could take the opportunity. So Liu Zongmin ordered a division of men and horses to attack Taiyuan and Shunde, and the main force bypassed Taiyuan and went north, preparing to break through Datong, an important northern town in one fell swoop.

Because he knows less about Cao Yue, Liu Zongmin also believes that after Wang Pu, the general soldier of Datong in the Central Plains in the Battle of Songshan, abandoned the army, Datong's defense in the Nine Soldiers Army Town should be the weakest.