In the early hours of the morning, the city of Tongzhou was silent under the cover of night, and people who had been busy all day had fallen asleep.

Suddenly, the north gate of Tongzhou City slowly opened, and Chaganbala came out of it, holding a torch in one hand and a knife dripping blood in the other, and the corpses of more than twenty Mongolian soldiers were lying on the ground behind him.

The process of seizing the city gate was much smoother than Chaganbala expected, due to the laxity of the Mongol army and the fact that there were not many soldiers guarding the city gate at night, so this provided Chaganbara with a good opportunity to lead his guards to take the city gate tower.

After standing outside the city gate, Chaganbala raised the torch in his hand and made several large circles in the darkness of the night on the opposite side.

With this action of Chaganbala, there was a low and messy footsteps in the night, and I saw that there were countless cold rays shaking under the night, which was the ghostly light reflected on the weapon by the moonlight.

Soon, the black figure appeared in front of Chaganbala's eyes, and the Ming army, led by the Xiaowu army, swarmed into the city with weapons in their hands, and under the leadership of Chaganbala's men, they rushed to the barracks of the Mongol army and the residences of senior generals in an orderly manner.

On a hill two miles north of the city, Li Yuntian silently looked at the Ming soldiers who were marching quickly towards Tongzhou City under the cover of night.

Under Li Yuntian's gaze, the silent city of Tongzhou gradually became lively, the Ming army entering the city and the Mongolian army in the city fought in many places one after another, and the whole city seemed to wake up from sleep at once, becoming more and more noisy, and even fires were ignited in some places.

Li Yuntian frowned and looked at the scene in front of him, the 70,000 Mongol troops in Tongzhou City were the main force of this southern invasion, as long as they were annihilated in one fell swoop, then Tatar and Warat would completely lose their bargaining chips against the Ming Dynasty, so this battle was very important to the battle situation between the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Yuan.

According to Li Yuntian's plan, after the Ming army entered Tongzhou City from the north gate, it would take the lead in seizing the east gate and west gate of Tongzhou City, and then receive the Ming army ambushed outside the east gate and west gate to enter the city, forcing the Mongolian army in the city to withdraw from the south gate.

Street fighting was a scene that Li Yuntian absolutely did not want to see, because street fighting was more beneficial to the Mongolian army defending the city, once the two sides reached a stalemate, the lieutenant general would bring heavy casualties to the Ming army, so he used the common tactics of encircling three queyi to leave the south gate to the Mongolian army, drive the Mongolian army out of the city from the south gate, and fight a decisive battle with the Mongolian army outside the city.

In the past, Li Yuntian was very afraid of field battles with the Mongol army, but now it is different from the past, the Jurchen cavalry plus the Mongolian Dayan Division, the Wuliangha Division and the Huite Division, Li Yuntian's Jurchen and Mongolian cavalry in his hands has more than 35,000 people, and the cavalry against the Mongolian army is more than enough, so he now looks forward to using cavalry in the field to crush the remaining morale of the Mongolian army, and then encircle and annihilate the Mongolian army.

"I hope you're in Tongzhou City!" Looking at the brighter and brighter fires in Tongzhou City, Li Yuntian muttered to himself, and the "you" in his mouth referred to the mysterious identity of Ah Qiu.

After recruiting the bald Polo, Li Yuntian once asked the bald Polo about Ah Qiu, but the bald Polo didn't know the details of Ah Qiu, he only knew that Tuhuan valued Ah Qiu very much, and Ah Qiu was not only very good at marching and fighting, but also very strategic, helping Tuhuan recover several big tribes on the grassland.

Although he and Tuohuan are both the great leaders of Warat, the relationship between them is not as good as it seems to the outside world, and there are many contradictions between them, but because of the common enemy, the Tatars, they have formed an alliance.

It is worth mentioning that in history, after Tohuan killed the Tatar Taishi Arutai, he successively killed the two major leaders of Warat, the Balpola and the Taiping, and then unified the Mongolian steppe, laying a solid foundation for his son to capture the orthodox emperor in Tumubao first, which shows that the relationship between the Vulture Polo and the Tuhuan is not more than Erer.

As before, Li Yuntian did not stay on that hill to pay attention to the progress of the battle situation in Tongzhou City, but then returned to the military tent to make up for sleep, and if there was no particularly important matter, Lei Ting would not disturb him.

The reason why Li Yuntian went to catch up on sleep was because he was full of confidence in his siege plan, so there was no need to waste time on the hills, so it was better to take this opportunity to recharge his energy and meet the chaotic and complicated affairs of tomorrow with full spirit.

The next day, until the afternoon, Li Yuntian lazily got up from bed, and when he walked out of the military tent rubbing his sleepy eyes, several men in official robes and civilian clothes were chatting and laughing quietly under a big tree.

"See Master Hou!" Seeing Li Yuntian come out, several people stepped forward to salute him.

"You've done a great job." Li Yuntian smiled and nodded, then stepped forward to help up an old man in civilian clothes with white hair, and said with a smile, "Teacher, why are you here too, it should be a student who went to visit you." ”

This old man with white hair is Liu Tong, the left attendant of the Nanjing Rite Department of the Ming Dynasty, seventy and six, a jinshi in the Hongwu period, Li Yuntian was one of the examiners when he took the exam, so Li Yuntian called him "teacher".

Six years ago, Liu Ming, who was in his prime, was able to become a scholar, he did not stay in Nanjing City, but returned to his hometown Tongzhou to settle down, and lived in Tongzhou City.

It is worth mentioning that the age of officials has been clearly stipulated in China since very early on. Qu Li (I)" records: "The doctor is seventy and causes trouble".

That is to say, the official is seventy years old, and this rule began in the Zhou Dynasty and has continued.

The adjustment of the age of the official to the official began in the Ming Dynasty, in February of the thirteenth year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty ordered the civil and military officials over 60 to listen to the Zhishi, so far, the retirement at the age of 60 on the stage of history.

Compared with the civil officials who work mentally, it is difficult for the military attache who works to have enough energy and body to devote himself to military affairs at the age of sixty, so in August of the eighteenth year of Hongwu, Ming Taizu ordered internal and external commanders, thousands, hundreds of households, and pacification, and those who are over fifty years old are allowed to serve as children and grandchildren.

Because of this holy edict of Ming Taizu, the age of the Ming military officials was advanced to fifty years old, of course, the military officials in this do not include those who followed the founding of the Ming Taizu to make meritorious deeds.

After Emperor Yongle ascended the throne, he restored the ancient system of seventy-year-old Zhishi for a period of time, because a large number of civil and military officials were killed after the Battle of Jingyan, so Emperor Yongle had to delay the retirement age of officials, but when the Ming Dynasty in the middle of Yongle had enough official reserves, it was restored to the age of sixty.

Although the law stipulates that officials should be appointed at the age of 60, because this law is usually not strictly enforced, the age of Ming Dynasty officials is basically between 60 and 70 years old, and those with higher positions will retire later.

In the Ming Dynasty, officials can also enjoy the corresponding preferential treatment after retirement, Hongwu years stipulated, the third grade or above the official to the product, the fourth grade below and the current post for three years and no major fault can be promoted to the first class, if there is a person who is incompetent, to the original level, can participate in official banquets, sacrificial activities, etc.

However, the economic treatment of officials after the official has changed greatly, the early years of Hongwu implemented the provisions of "official food and original salary", that is, after the official took office, it was a pity that the good times did not last long, this provision was soon canceled by Ming Taizu, no longer issued the money, but enjoyed the right to be exempted from servitude, and the officials who were in difficulty in life had two stones per month, and repaired (end) their bodies.

Even so, there were very few officials who could receive two stone of rice per month, and in addition to the fact that they were not very attractive to officials, so that at the age of 60 there were many officials who did not want to serve in office, and all tried to continue to serve as officials, and those who did not have no way to stay in office were usually impeached.

Therefore, the imperial court will give encouragement to officials who take the initiative to give advice, for example, during the Hongzhi period, Ming Xiaozong issued a special edict: "Voluntarily retire officials, regardless of age, all order to be official." ”

"Master Hou can come from Liaodong to relieve the siege of Tongzhou City, and the old man naturally wants to come to see Master Hou."

Although Li Yuntian claimed to be a student in front of Liu Tong, Liu Tong could not claim to be a teacher, after all, he was just an invigilator and not an examiner back then, and only the chief examiner could be called the mentor of the Jinshi, so after getting up, he said to Li Yuntian with a smile, with an excited look in his words, he never dreamed that the person who recovered Tongzhou City would be Li Yuntian.

Originally, Liu Tong didn't know that Li Yuntian had gone to Liaodong, after all, this was a secret of the Ming Dynasty, and many civil and military officials in the capital didn't know about it, not to mention that he had already sent a message to the court, far away from the court, and there was no source.

However, after the Mongol army captured the city of Tongzhou, in order to deter the residents of the city, a lot of notices were posted in the streets and alleys, which not only reported the defeat of Emperor Xuande's northern expedition, but also involved the war in Liaodong.

According to the notice, Li Yuntian and Zhang Hao had been surrounded by the Mongol army in Liaodong and would sooner or later become prisoners of the Mongol army, which hit the people of Tongzhou City hard.

It has to be said that the notices posted by the Mongolian army are very confusing, using a combination of fiction and reality to deceive the people of Tongzhou City, and the failure of Emperor Xuande's northern expedition is already obvious, otherwise the Mongolian army would not be able to hit the Gyeonggi region, and since the army led by Emperor Xuande was defeated, then the defeat of Li Yuntian and Zhang Hao in Liaodong is logical.

The battle in Tongzhou was basically over by noon, and only sporadic engagements continued, and in the face of the fierce Ming army descending from the sky, a large number of Mongol and servant soldiers chose to surrender, and long lines of prisoners could be seen everywhere in the streets.

Although Chaganbala led the people to Arutai's residence as soon as possible, he was still a step late, and Arutai had already left ahead of schedule and gathered the city's troops to break through from the south gate.

Liu Tong was taken aback when he learned from the Ming army who entered the city that it was the Ming army of Liaodong who recovered Tongzhou City, and then he knew that the Mongolian army had lied about the war in Liaodong, so he found the famous officials and gentry in Tongzhou City and went out of the city to meet Li Yuntian together.

"The teacher's mind and the student have understood it, and the student should immediately return to Beijing to meet the emperor, and after the affairs in front of him are busy, the student will be drunk with the teacher and several adults."

Liu Tong and others originally wanted to invite Li Yuntian to enter Tongzhou City to boost the morale of the people in the city, and at the same time to pick up the wind and wash the dust for Li Yuntian and others, but Li Yuntian refused with a smile, and now that Tongzhou City has been conquered, the top priority is to go to Beijing City to see Emperor Xuande and give good news to Emperor Xuande who is on the cusp.

"I can have a civil and martial arts minister like the Marquis of Zhenwu, which is really a blessing for the society!" Liu Tong and the others naturally couldn't insist anymore, seeing Li Yuntian leading thousands of cavalry to the capital, looking at Li Yuntian's distant back, Liu Tong couldn't help but praise the people around him, and several people around him nodded their heads.

In the eyes of Liu Tong and others, Li Yuntian decided Liaodong in three battles, and no one in the Ming Dynasty except him could accomplish such a feat in such a difficult situation, coupled with his courage to enter Daning City to persuade Wuliang Ha Sanwei to return to the imperial court, it is simply incredible, and it is full of legends.