At the beginning of May, Xu Guangzuo, who had been at home for nearly half a year, returned to the mountains and became the leading governor of the army to resist the invasion of the Tatars. This time, Xu Guangzuo was no longer as indifferent as Liu Liu and Liu Qi when they rebelled, he knew that this was still the last chance for the Dingguo Mansion, and he did not hesitate to cut his love and exclude his son Xu Yande from the leading generals.

After so many years, Xu Guangzuo finally understood a truth, instead of letting his son follow him to mix credit, it is better to make his own credit and let his son enjoy the stability of his success.

Xu Guangzuo accepted the construction of the outer court, summoned Yang Yiqing, Qiu Yue, Shenying and other northwest generals as deputies, and gathered nearly 100,000 troops from dozens of prefectures in Shaanxi to advance into the area of Zhenfanliangzhou.

In fact, before Xu Guangzuo set off, Yang Yiqing, the chief of the three sides, had already gathered more than 20,000 soldiers and horses to arrive in Liangzhou. In the seven or eight days after the arrival of the army, the fortification of the Liangzhou city defense was used to block the pace of the Tatar army, although there were heavy casualties, but the Tatar army did not break through Liangzhou.

After Xu Guangzuo led the army to arrive, nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses on both sides launched a tug-of-war around Miaoerbao, Shuimoguan, North Castle, New Castle and other strategic forts in the northwest of Liangzhou; For more than 10 days from early to mid-May, the two sides fought more than 30 times; For a time, the northern foot of Qilian Mountain was in flames, and there was no peace.

In late May, the two sides simultaneously ceased a truce; Bald Meng can lead 70,000 Tartar soldiers and horses to retreat to Yongchang Wei to rest; And the Ming army, which had paid tens of thousands of casualties, also had to rest. In this series of battles, the Ming army suffered losses overall; The Tartar soldiers and horses were superior to the large army composed of officers and soldiers of the Ming Army Guard in terms of combat power and firearms and equipment. Originally, Xu Guangzuo planned to defend the front line of Liangzhou Town and did not plan to take the initiative to attack, but in the face of the artillery bombardment of the Tartars, defending the city was not a long-term solution, so he was forced to choose to fight with it in the field.

But on the whole, the Tartars' aggressive southward movement was blocked, and the strategic goal had been achieved, and the court believed that as long as the shape could continue to develop like this, the Tartar soldiers would withdraw sooner or later, because the Ming army could afford to consume it, but the Tartars could not afford it. The supply and supply of Tartar soldiers were far less fast and abundant than those of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, it was also the case, being unable to advance an inch on the road to the south by a ruined Liangzhou city, Bald Meng could be extremely annoyed, but he couldn't ignore the fierce attack on Liangzhou, because the soldiers and horses he had at hand were indeed limited.

He only had less than 200,000 troops on hand in total, and this time he brought 100,000 soldiers and horses, and 50,000 soldiers and horses were placed in the front banner of Chahar at the southern foot of Daqing Mountain, maintaining pressure on the same line of Xuanfu, and the other 50,000 soldiers and horses remained on the grassland, led by the second son Urusburot; These 50,000 soldiers and horses cannot be mobilized lightly, and many of the twenty-three tribal leaders under his account have people with different aspirations, and there have been many cases of the Great Khan leading the army to set fire in the backyard on the grassland, and he has to guard against it. Keeping these 50,000 soldiers and horses is to watch those tribal leaders, so as not to catch fire in the backyard.

However, now the shape of the shì forced the bald man to consider the use of these 50,000 soldiers and horses, and after consulting with his eldest son Tulu Borot, he determined his own goal; I was too optimistic, I thought that 100,000 Tatar cavalry could drive straight into the world, but now I had to adjust my strategic goals; The destruction of the Ming Dynasty seems to be a utopian dream, but the labor and mobilization of the people, the loss of 30,000 soldiers and horses, the purchase of firearms and armaments spent a lot of money and silver, the planning of the past few years can not be in vain, once this defeat returns, I am afraid that the Dayan Khan will have no prestige, and the rebellious tribal leaders under his command will also be ready to move, on the grassland. will be plunged into civil strife.

Therefore, this war must be fruitful, and those huge war preparation expenses must force the Ming court to pay, so they must fight to negotiate peace, cut land, pay for silver, pay for grain, pay for cloth, pay for women, etc.; And to achieve this, it is necessary to bet on the qiē at hand.

The two princes of Tulu and Urus took the edict and carried the golden sword, and led 50,000 soldiers and horses around the large and small tribes of the steppe, and slashed and killed seven or eight leaders who did not want to obey the order under the golden knife, and finally returned to the royal court, 50,000 soldiers and horses became 80,000, and more than 30,000 people were taken from the accounts of the leaders of the tribes and the young herdsmen came from the army.

This is already the ultimate that can be done, and among the less than a million Tatar people, men in the prime of life are basically in the army.

The 80,000 men left 20,000 to maintain tranquility on the grassland, and the remaining 60,000 soldiers and horses passed through the southward gate opened in Zhendong, Gansu, and it took only four or five days to rush to the front line in Liangzhou.

The Ming soldiers and horses in Liangzhou didn't know about it, and they thought that the other side maintained a balance of strength with themselves, but they didn't know that the other party's soldiers and horses had doubled. And at the critical time, Xu Guangzuo made a stupid move, and when he ordered his second son Urus to lead 20,000 soldiers and horses back to the north of Zhenfanwei and make a situation of attacking Zhenfanwei on the flank, Xu Guangzuo did not make a correct judgment and ordered to divide 10,000 troops to reinforce Zhenfanwei, so as not to break through Zhenfanwei and lead the flank to be enemy.

Xu Guangzuo didn't consider at all that if the Tartar soldiers and horses could break through directly from Zhenfanwei, why should they be obsessed with attacking Liangzhou, it was nothing more than because although Zhenfanwei was as lonely as Ningxia Town in the east, its geographical location was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Not to mention the mountainous and desert terrain, just a dozen or so dangerous fortresses such as Liuba Fort, Black Mountain Pass, Wild Boar Ridge, and Qingsong Fort near Zhenfanwei are enough to form a strategic defense system in depth.

Xu Guangzuo was so easy to be fooled, so that the bald coke was unbearable, after the 10,000 soldiers and horses in Liangzhou left to increase the number of troops, that night, 130,000 Tartar soldiers attacked Liangzhou with lightning speed, under the bombardment of hundreds of cannons, the city of Liangzhou was on fire, and the explosion resounded through the world.

The soldiers of the Ming army desperately defended the city, but they were defeated by the Tartar soldiers who were densely packed all over the mountains, twice their own strength, suppressed by firearms with strong firepower, and were good at long-range bow and arrow shooting, so that the Ming soldiers who relied on the defense of the city could not gain a foothold; By daybreak, the 80,000-strong army had lost more than 30,000 dead and wounded, and the Tartar soldiers were still flowing like a tide; Although the casualties of the Tartar soldiers were no less than those of the Ming army, their desperate posture had already shown their determination to take Liangzhou.

In Xu Guangzuo's earth-colored face, Yang Yiqing made the most correct choice, he built Xu Guangzuo to give up Liangzhou, because if the city was broken, he would turn into street fighting with the Tartars, and then the remaining 50,000 people would not be spared, and this loss would definitely not be bearable; More importantly, the consequence of the destruction of the army was that the Tartars would be unstoppable in advancing to the southeast, and it was too late to mobilize troops and horses in the rear, and more than half of the soldiers and horses in the northwest had already gathered here.

Xu Guangzuo had no idea, he was silent in a daze, Yang Yiqing sighed, and discussed with the generals to leave one person to lead five thousand soldiers and horses to drag the Tartar soldiers, and give the others to lead the army to retreat to gain time, everyone knows that it is difficult for one person and five thousand soldiers and horses to survive, and finally Qiu Yue took the initiative to take on this important task, and everyone did not listen to the persuasion, so they had to say goodbye with tears, and surrounded the half-demented Xu Guangzuo to lead the army to retreat.

On the seventh day of the first month of June, Liangzhou announced that it was broken, the battle of Liangzhou, only half of the 100,000 Ming troops remained, and the rest were all killed, Xu Guangzuo led 40,000 remnants of the army to retreat to Shuitunbao, Gulang Town, and Shixia Pass; In addition, more than 20,000 Ming troops were cut off from the inland by the Tartars, and they were alone. Fortunately, the Fanzhen guard was easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it became a force to clamp the Tartar army to the south, forcing the bald man to turn his gun first and take Fanzhen, giving the Ming army time to mobilize.

The news of the defeat in Liangzhou made the government and the opposition exclaim, and Zhengde fainted after hearing the news in the Qianqing Palace, which was the first time he fainted as the king of a country because of state affairs. Fools know what the defeat of Liangzhou means, which means that the northwest gateway is open, and the war will soon spread to the Shanxi region of Shaanxi, and it is a stone's throw away from the capital.

No one expected this result, if it is said that Changning's defeat was due to lack of preparation, this time Xu Guangzuo was well prepared, and his subordinates were also full of strong generals, but they were actually beaten into a falling flower. It is said that Xu Guangzuo was overstimulated and could no longer speak and could not handle military affairs.

At the emergency meeting of the courtiers, Zhengde gritted his teeth and issued a dismissal order, removing Xu Guangzuo from his position as the governor of the capital, and he cursed in front of the ministers with a nervous mouth, which was extremely out of shape.

The ministers have no time to care about the emperor's gaffe, the current situation has reached a time when they are not allowed to meddle in their affairs, it is necessary to avoid Xu Guangzuo, but who will clean up the current situation in the northwest, and who will clean up this mess has become the biggest problem.

Before the candidate was finalized, Lu Wan had to go to the northwest to clean up the mess in person, he didn't have any bottom in his heart, but he had to go, Xu Guangzuo was recommended by him by name, and now that it was like this, he was already guilty. Now is not the time to settle accounts, at this time, if he can twist the shape a little in the northwest, there will be some room to speak in the future.