The place where the smoke was lit was Maoerzhuang, 20 miles northwest of Mao'er Fort, was the northernmost part of Gao Shanwei's jurisdiction. If the Tartars had come from the north, they would have passed through the Cat's Ear Fort.

20 miles is not a very long distance for a cavalry, and it can be completed in 30 minutes. Ten minutes after the smoke was lit, the musketeers of the amphibious battalion had arrived at the walls of the cat'er fort. Brother Zhu Houzhao took a look, and the wall was about 5 meters wide, which was enough to shoot in three stages.

Brother Zhu Houzhao stood at the dilapidated city tower, holding a telescope to observe the distance of the person. Zhu Houzhao asked: "Doesn't the imperial court allocate 300,000 taels to Datong Town every year to offset the money they spend on buying grain?" ”

Datong Town is located in the northernmost part of Shanxi, and is often invaded by the north, especially the little prince, that is, after Dayan Khan unified Mongolia, the operation to fight the grass valley in recent years has been larger than before. The grain production of the various military forts and civil forts in Datong Town was greatly affected and could not be self-sufficient, so the imperial court asked merchants to transport grain to Datong Town, and let Datong Town buy grain by itself, and the imperial court directly allocated funds to Datong Town.

Zhu Houwei heard Zhu Houzhao's question, and sighed: "How can people's hearts be filled with only 300,000 taels." The two brothers were silent for a while.

After about 20 minutes, the people standing at the head of the wall felt the city wall shake slightly, and then they saw several black shadows appear on the horizon in the distance, and then rows and rows of black shadows appeared behind them. Under the illumination of the setting sun, these black shadows seemed to be draped in a layer of golden armor, which brought great shock to the soldiers of the land and water battalion.

No matter what era, the shock brought by thousands of cavalry marching together is great, the earth is trembling, the grass that the horse's hooves have just been pressed horizontally on the ground, and it is only about to slowly return to its original shape that it is trampled on the ground again by the horse's hooves behind, and the rumbling horse's hooves hit the earth and the enemy's heart, and the roar and shout of the warriors on the horse make people think that this is a group of beasts, ferocious and bloodthirsty beasts.

Zhu Houzhao's face was fine, but Zhu Houwei's throat was very dry, and he could only keep swallowing saliva to relieve this discomfort, and some of the soldiers in the land and water battalion were pale, and they couldn't help but hold their weapons tightly, and their bodies were stiff. Zhu Houzhao roared, "The Tartars are still far away, what are they nervous about, can they still fly to the city?" "The soldiers of the amphibious battalion are only slightly better. The city wall was about 500 meters in total, the waterway battalion defended about 400 meters, and another 100 meters were handed over to more than 50 sergeants of the cat-eared fort.

The old soldier of Mao'er Fort, who was standing next to the soldiers of the water and land battalion, glanced at Zhu Houzhao who was high above the city tower, and asked, "This doll is your adult?" The soldier of the amphibious battalion looked back at the old soldier, then nodded, and did not speak, but the old soldier could still see the young man, about 18 or 9 years old, holding the musket to the point of his whitish fingertips.

The old soldier smiled, "Look at the way you guys, let's fight for the first time." His words attracted the attention of the 10 or so soldiers of the land and water battalion around him. The old soldier glanced at them, "Dolls, this first time on the battlefield is the same as the first time in the cave room, you can't be nervous, if you are nervous, your mother-in-law will be able to laugh at you for a lifetime." There is nothing to shoot these Tartars, at most they are to put a few arrows under the city, just pay attention to the dodge point, you see these Tartars, they are all cavalry, there are no siege weapons, just like your little general said, they can't fly. ”

Some of the surrounding land and water battalions heard the old army compare going to the battlefield to entering a cave room, some laughed, and some blushed, but the tense atmosphere was relieved, and the body was not so stiff. The old soldier continued, "Don't be embarrassed if anyone pees their pants, there are few of us who didn't pee when we were playing Tartars. As soon as the words fell, several other veterans of Mao'er Fort said, "Old Meng, don't talk about everything, it's all decades ago, are you very glorious when you urinated like a flood?" Everyone around laughed, this old Meng didn't care, and replied, "It's nothing to talk about, everyone has a first time, I just see that these guys are good, so I point out." Everyone smiled, but no one heard Lao Meng's muttering, "His grandmother's, why did he come so much at once?" ”

The Zhu Houzhao brothers and Dong Qinghai both had a telescope, and Dong Qinghai whispered to Zhu Houzhao with a heavy face, "My lord, there should be 3,000 people." Zhu Hou looked at the number of beacon smoke in the distance, nodded, turned his head and asked Zheng Baihu who was standing next to him, "Were there so many people before?" Zheng Baihu's face was not good-looking, "Back to His Royal Highness, it used to be at most 2 or 3 hundred, and it was the first time I saw so many." ”

Tartars lack everything on the steppe, that is, there is no shortage of horses, these Tartars are 3000, they can all be one person with three horses, and some even have 5 horses. After a while, more than 10,000 horses from 3,000 Tartars arrived near Mao'er Fort, but what is strange is that no one has grabbed or burned the grain that has not been harvested in the field, and Zhu Houzhao's brothers have seen that these people basically have torches on their horses, but they have not been lit yet, and the strangest thing is that when they reach the vicinity of Mao'er Fort, these Tartars have no signs of staying, and continue to ride in the southwest direction, and disappear from everyone's sight after a while.

The soldiers were all relieved, but Zhu Houzhao and the others were confused. What does it mean for these people to go straight to the hinterland of Datong without grabbing food, 150,000 people in Datong Town, even if there are not so many, 100,000 people still have them, the combat effectiveness is not bad, and there is a strong city, these 3,000 people can't attack the city and pull out the village, it can't be a group tour.

Zhu Houwei frowned slightly, he couldn't think of these Tartars' plans. Zhu Houzhao's team Zheng Baihu said: "Is there a cat ear fort that doesn't collect at night? Zheng Baihu immediately replied, "There is no regular night non-collection, but there are more than 20 people who are good at riding, and they can also be competent in detecting the enemy." ”

Zhu Houzhao thought for a while and said, "You send some people to divide into two roads, go all the way to the north to investigate, see if there is any backup from the Tartars, and follow these Tartars all the way south to see what they are going to do." As long as you go to investigate, each person will be given 5 taels of silver first, and then 5 taels when you come back, and another reward will be given if there is important news. Zheng Baihu was a little embarrassed and said, "Your Highness, this" but seeing Zhu Houzhao glaring at him, Shi Li said, "My subordinates thanked you first." Then he arranged for the men to go. After a while, there was a cheer among the crowd of people in the cat-ear fort, and then as soon as the gate of the cat-ear fort opened, about 20 people rode horses, divided into two roads, and headed north-south. There are only 3 horses in Mao'er Fort, so the horses are basically borrowed by land and water, so it is barely 1 person and two horses.

Zhu Houwei was still frowning and thinking, Zhu Houzhao smiled, "Okay, don't think about it, no matter what they do, they will definitely come back." Zhu Houwei heard him say this, and asked, "3,000 people will definitely return the same way, after all, the Datong North Line is so long, you can go anywhere, and the other party has 3,000 people, and we add up to only 900 here, fight or not." Zhu Houzhao was also depressed, "I wanted to catch rabbits, but I didn't expect it to be a wild boar, so it's not easy to mouth." ”

At night, there were a few sergeants of the cat-eared fort on the city wall, and some soldiers of the land and water battalions were patrolling, and the brazier torches were lit, and there were fires in the distance under the city, so that if an enemy approached, they could be spotted in a short time.

The cat's ear fort was quiet all of a sudden, and the people in the cat's ear fort were basically resting, and it was necessary to keep enough kick away. In the big tent of the Chinese army, Zhu Houwei and Zhu Houzhao had not slept yet, Zhu Houwei sat on the side and thought, Zhu Houzhao said hatefully, "This Datong is like a sieve, the Tartars can come in if they want to come in, and they can go out if they want to go out." If you can beat it, you will grab it and burn it, and if you can't beat it, you will run, which is really annoying. Huairen, Shuozhou has Tartar minions, maybe there are also in the prefectures and counties to the south, how to prevent this, what are these civil and military officials doing, it's really" Zhu Houwei's eyes lit up, and he said with some excitement, "You just said Huairen?" Zhu Houzhao paused and asked, "What's wrong with Huairen?" Didn't we come here from Huairen? ”

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