After training like this for more than two months, someone suddenly came to report that a Tartar soldier had been found at the pass of the Great Wall at the meander, and his appearance was suspicious. The city defense of the Great Wall of Hequ is not heavy, and several passes are connected to steep mountains, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack, so as long as there are not many men and horses, they can defend it.

But in the middle section, there is a plain, where the terrain is open, and the defenders cannot rely on the terrain but the walls of the Great Wall. The original Ming army guarded the city wall has been damaged, after Li Guo's call, as long as you can work to eat enough, this section of the city wall has been repaired and reinforced, so, if there is no strong siege weapons, it is difficult to break here.

This pass is very famous, it is the West Exit Fort, and the people who walked through the West Exit used to go out of the customs here. It was this West Mouth Fort where Tartars were found.

And why are those outside the gate called Tartars? There is a reason for this, because there are not all Mongols and Manchus outside the Guan, there are also Han Chinese, and there are still many Han Chinese.

Speaking of the many Han people outside the Guan, I have to talk about Zhao Quan of the White Lotus Sect.

In the 33rd year of Jiajing, Zhao Quan, the head of the White Lotus Sect in the Yanbei region, and others led the people to illegally cross the border, defected to the Fengzhou area of Hetao, and relied on the power of the Ministry of Ota to sit on the throne, burning, killing and looting the Ming frontier, and finally became a major problem for the Ming government. These White Lotus rebels are supposed to be the first Han Chinese in history to immigrate outside the mouth.

And with the natural disasters at the end of the Ming Dynasty*, a large number of people continued to flee, where to go? Go Kanwai! At least there is food outside the gate, and no one will die of hunger! Therefore, there is also the saying of going to the west exit. Many of the people in the mouth crossed the border to escape lawsuits or unbearable taxes, but instead lived a relatively free life.

Although the Ming Dynasty strictly banned it, it was repeatedly banned. Also, you let us be loyal and patriotic, but you have to let us eat! are all starving to death, those loyal, filial piety, and righteousness are all bastards!

In addition, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the government was in turmoil, and the military border government was even more slack. Due to the long-term border troubles, there are no villages for hundreds of miles in many places along the Great Wall, there are no people for thousands of miles, a desolate depression, the soldiers guarding the border are disheartened, the soldiers are hard to withhold military salaries, and it is a common thing for soldiers to make soldiers and soldiers, and the working and living conditions of soldiers are extremely poor, and even some soldiers kill generals and escape from the border, and there are not a few fugitives.

A considerable part of these escapees were integrated into the steppe tribes, and some of them converged into villages, called Bansheng. Bansheng is a transliteration of Mongolian, which means city, house, and fort. In the late Ming Dynasty, Han soldiers and civilians in the Central Plains migrated to the outside of the Great Wall, where they built houses, reclaimed wasteland, established villages, engaged in agricultural, sideline and handicraft production, and paid taxes to Altan Khan and other lords. The local Mongolian people refer to these houses, villages and Han people as "bansheng".

There are many Han people in Bansheng, and the White Lotus Sect is prevalent, which has also formed a force, but it is still inseparable from the grassland tribes. Therefore, many times, it is not simply the Mongols or Manchus who enter the customs to plunder, but also many Han people. Therefore, the people outside the customs are collectively called Tartars.

Although some horse markets have now been opened, the number of Tartars who have entered the Great Wall to rob is also small, and the scale is also small, it is not nothing.

Everyone thinks that this is just a small group of enemies, and Li Guo also thinks so, but it is not. A qiē is just the beginning.

Although the Tartars outside the gate are brave, they are also willing to take a few extra steps to trade in the horse market. Although the armament of the Great Wall was relaxed, the Ming army did not dare to fight hard. But it is not guaranteed that the Ming army at that pass will shoot a few arrows indiscriminately, and it may kill people. If you don't have the capital to trade in the horse market, who is willing to rob?

But now there are really Tartars who have no money to trade in the horse market, let alone trade, and there are many people, these people are the tribe of Lin Dan Khan, who was once chased by the Later Jin Emperor Taiji.

The last time Huang Taiji attacked Lin Dan Khan, he didn't see Lin Dan Khan's shadow, but Huang Taiji carried forward the spirit of continuous combat and pursued him for forty-four days without interruption. Therefore, although Lin Dan Khan was not beaten, most of the property in the tribe, including cattle and sheep, was left behind.

If you don't have cattle and sheep, you can't get anything, so why do you go to the horse market? So only grab!

Lin Dan Khan didn't come to rob it, after all, he was a Great Khan, and there were still a lot of cattle and sheep in his central tribe, not to mention rich, and he could still live. However, the other tribes were different, so this time it was the Balhu tribe who came to Xikoubao to rob.

The Balhu tribe is very familiar with the area of Xikou, they are originally the steppe tribes here. Therefore, after it was determined that the Jin soldiers really withdrew their troops, the Balhu Department lived a period of starvation, and they really couldn't stand the poverty, so they returned here and prepared to enter the customs to rob.

Bal Hu came to Liujiabao, the largest bansheng outside the mouth, and went to find Liu Han, the leader of Liujiabao.

Liu Han is the largest leader of the White Lotus Sect here, and the people who leave the customs all believe in the White Lotus Sect. This is because the teachings of the White Lotus Sect are simple and simple to practice.

Liu Han had always been attached to the Balhu tribe, and the Emperor Taiji of the Later Jin mainly wanted to eliminate Lin Dan Khan, and did not attack these Bansheng. Liu Han had a close relationship with Bal Hu, and when he saw Bal Hu coming back, he naturally warmly entertained him.

After killing cattle and sheep, Balhu drank with Liu Han. So, Balhu proposed to go to the meanders of the mouth to plunder.

Liu Han groaned for a while, shook his head, and said to Balhu, "It's not proper, although I heard that Hequ is still quite rich, but now the Ming army guarding there has now repaired the city wall, and I can't get in. ”

Balhu didn't think so, it used to be a ruined wall, but now how strong can it be? He asked, "How many people did you send last time?" ”

"More than two hundred." Liu Han replied.

Bal Hu waved his hand, "There are fewer people, this time we send more people, and we can't break a small West Mouth Fort." Didn't you say that the meanders in your mouth are now very rich? As long as we rush in, on the plain, who can stop the iron cavalry of our steppe tribes? Then we'll be able to grab a lot of money! ”

Liu Han actually didn't want to fight, in the past, the west exit was an important passage for the people in the customs to get out, but now that it has been sealed, Liu Han is very depressed. The reason is that Liu Han is the leader of the White Lotus Sect, if the pass is sealed, where will the sect members come from?

Speaking of the White Lotus Sect, it is a very interesting folk religion, since the Northern Song Dynasty began to rebel, the Song Dynasty was against the Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty was against the Jin, the Yuan Dynasty was against the Yuan, the Ming Dynasty was against the Ming, simply put, no matter who was in power the White Lotus Sect would rebel. Therefore, the White Lotus Sect was designated as a cult by successive dynasties and strangled in a big way.

However, the White Lotus Sect took the lower route and faced the poor masses, so it still had some appeal.

Therefore, opening Xikou Fort is also a big deal in Liu Han's heart, because Liu Han is the leader of the White Lotus Sect, but he wants to be the leader of this area, so Liu Han also needs people, and Liu Han also wants to rebel.

Seeing Liu Han bow his head and remain silent, Balhu thought that Liu Han disagreed, so he said, "This time, let's send more people, I will send 500 cavalry, and you will send 1,000 people!" ”

You must know that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army was not strong at that time, and the five hundred Mongolian cavalry could indeed run rampant on the border for a while. So Liu Han made up his mind, "Okay, just do it!" I'm out of a thousand! ”

As soon as the two men discussed, they sent 1,500 men to kill the West Castle.