Chapter 57 Outside the Yanmen Pass

For Geng Bingwen, the real test really begins.

Geng Bingwen has already calculated what he can calculate. But the battlefield ultimately speaks with hard power, with knives and guns. From the south bank of the Sanggan River, it is less than 100 miles to Yanmen Pass. Geng Bingwen set off for the night first, but was still caught up by the Northern Army outside Yanmen Pass.

The reason is simple.

It's the problem with the horse.

War horses are not the same as pack horses.

War horses are excellent breeds selected from countless horses, and they have an advantage in speed. And let Geng Bingwen fight the horse-drawn cart, he didn't have such a big hand, in the final analysis, it was a matter of money.

The cavalry led by Geng Bingwen was able to enter the pass first, but unfortunately, most of the mounted infantry were difficult to enter the pass on time.

So Geng Bingwen led the cavalry to charge outside the Yanmen Pass.

Tens of thousands of cavalry on both sides set off a fierce battle outside Yanmen Pass.

This fierce battle was extremely fierce, and less than 3,000 of the more than 10,000 cavalry who followed Geng Bingwen out of the pass entered the pass. And Qu Neng was even more annoyed and angry, and went into battle in person, beheaded several generals in a row, broke several formations in a row, and even shot Geng Bingwen, so that Geng Bingwen almost couldn't return to Yanmen Pass alive.

After all, the whole Northern Army held its breath, and after the great victory in Hejian, a large-scale reform of the army was carried out and military salaries were increased. To improve the treatment of soldiers and soldiers, they all held their breath from top to bottom, wanting to win the battle and being rewarded for meritorious service. But I never expected that the first battle would hit this turtle shell. I can't bite my mouth on all sides.

Not only Qu Neng was holding a fire in his heart, but the Northern Army also had the spirit of arrogance.

Even in order to pursue Geng Bingwen, he rushed directly to the front of Yanmen Pass, and was bombarded by the artillery at the head of Yanmen Pass, so he stopped.

Although more than 10,000 beheaded, more than 10,000 war horses were captured, more than 10,000 carriages were captured, and there were still some baggage. But without taking Geng Bingwen, Qu Neng only felt that today was a defeat.

Qu Neng could only comfort himself.

In any case, after this battle, the strength of the Shanxi Army was greatly damaged. The southern army that came out of the customs this time, whether it was foot or horse, was a first-class elite daring man. You must know that Qu Neng has a lot of cavalry in his hands, and this time he has transferred several regiments and tens of thousands of cavalry in formation. In the case of several times the cavalry of the Southern Army, the cavalry of the Southern Army has not been completely annihilated. In fact, it is because Geng Bingwen fights at the last moment no matter what time it is, which stabilizes the morale of the army. At the same time, it was Geng Bingwen who screened in advance, so that these people were strong-willed, and even many people died together.

Although there are many troops in Shanxi, there are not many such elites.

If there is no cavalry, it is very difficult for the foot soldiers to get out of the customs alone, and it is impossible for Qu Neng to be fooled for the second time.

He had already decided to build a large camp opposite Yanmen Pass. The first thing to do is to dig up the road outside the Yanmen Pass, and dig one, no, at least five trenches. Look at the so-called car formation of the Southern Army, what else can be done.

And time waits for no one, since Geng Bingwen can't get out for a while, then what Qu Neng has to do is to go west to Shaanxi as soon as possible.

It's been a lot of delay.

But I don't know how Shaanxi's defense is now.

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At this moment, the commander of Shaanxi, the deputy governor of the Chinese military governor's office, and the chief military officer Song Sheng.

Song Sheng's identity is actually not much different from Geng Bingwen and Qu Neng.

Song Sheng's father took his family brother to Zhu Yuanzhang, and soon after conquering Nanjing, he resigned due to old age. Although he is the second generation of founding generals. But in fact, he also participated in the founding battle, but at that time he was only a thousand households. From the early years of Hongwu, he climbed up step by step.

It is fundamentally the roots of the seedlings are red, Huaixi Dingyuan people, and the father and son family are from the dragon. Specific to Song Sheng himself, he also served as a guard by Zhu Yuanzhang's side. It can be regarded as Zhu Yuanzhang's self-friend.

There are similarities with Geng Bingwen and Qu Neng.

But there are also differences, Geng Bingwen and Qu Neng's father's shadow is big enough, so as soon as they come up, they are high-ranking generals, not like Song Sheng who came up step by step from below. Historically, Song Sheng's status in the Yongle Dynasty was also very high, because of Song Sheng's status in the northwest.

In the northwest, the four towns of Song Sheng in history, and now it is the third time to serve in the northwest, he also attacked the Western Regions, captured Hami, and made Hami submit, King Hami, that is, the king of Dongcha Hatai Khan. Of course, because of the distance, Hami's submission was only nominal.

There was no garrison.

This kind of nominal submission has been repeated several times in history, and at the beginning of Jiajing, it completely lost control of Hami.

Looking at Song Sheng's resume, you can know that Song Sheng is actually not favored, after all, where is the situation in the northwest. There are only two or three million people in the entire Northwest. Support the border defense of Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia. There is simply no way to have much military action. It's also hard work to guard this place. If there were people above him, how could he come here to guard it three or four times, although he was promoted every time.

However, it is also a blessing in disguise.

Because Song Sheng was in such a remote place, no one in the court cared about him at all. Therefore, in history, Zhu Yuanzhang went on a killing spree and did not kill him, and now Zhu Yunwen's purge did not kill him.

Historically, he guarded the northwest, and Emperor Yongle married two daughters to the Song family in order to win him over. Change the submission of the Northwest. Let the Song family leap up and become a marquis family. Of course, the Song family was not without losses in the Battle of Jingyan. One of Song Sheng's sons died in battle on the Huai River.

There are some differences between today and history. Geng Bingwen was transferred to Shanxi to fight.

Song Sheng, as a veteran who was familiar with the northwest, replaced Geng Bingwen to preside over the northwest military. This is not far from history. The real difference is that in history, the Northwest has never been the main battlefield, and Song Sheng can be regarded as sitting and watching the success or failure, and finally took the Northwest as the capital in exchange for his glory and wealth.

Now the northwest has become another battlefield for the two sides to fight.

suddenly pushed Song Sheng to the cusp.

Even Nanjing has the crazy idea of wanting to change generals. It's just that after thinking about it, changing generals on the spot has too much impact on the army. There was no change of general, but the center seemed to know on the first day that there was a person named Song Sheng in the northwest.

It can be said that Song Sheng has received the edict in the past few months. More than the first half of his life combined. There are even secret decrees of the emperor, private messages from the dukes and counts, and so on.

Song Sheng's identity is not qualified in front of these nobles. No one cared about the Song family at all before, but now it seems that the Song family has suddenly become the Northwest Heavenly Pillar and the minister of the country's pillars, which makes Song Sheng simply flattered.

He had never received so much attention. He couldn't bear it.

So, he couldn't sit still in Guanzhong, and got the soldiers and horses of the Sichuan Dusi to be transferred from the south, and he almost transferred all the troops in Guanzhong. Almost all of them were transferred to Yulin, and Yulin City was strengthened at all costs.

As a military town, Yulin Town was a matter of the middle and late Ming Dynasty. During the orthodox years, the Mongols entered the Hetao region, and Shaanxi became a frontier area, and before that, there was no trace of the Mongols in northern Shaanxi.

Because of this, the so-called Qianli Wall in Shaanxi was built by Yu Zijun and others. Not at all. Naturally, the Yuan Dynasty would not build any walls. At the time of the Jin and Song dynasties, the border line corresponding to Western Xia was completely different from the border line of the wall.

So it is impossible to borrow either.

But Song Sheng also knew that it was impossible to block the northern army east of the Yellow River. The reason is simple, Dong Shengwei controls a considerable stretch of the Yellow River, and there is a large desert south of the Yellow River. It is simply impossible to send people to garrison.

Moreover, the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River are not as varied and problematic as the lower reaches. In most places, the water is gentle, and some places are even crossable. So crossing the Yellow River is an easy thing to do.

The nomads could even cross the Yellow River with sheepskin rafts, and even if Song Sheng put all the troops in Shaanxi away, he would not be able to block the Yellow River. I have to settle for the next best thing.

That is, to Fuzhou, Yulin line. As a line of defense in northern Shaanxi. This was originally a very important frontier land, and in the Song Dynasty, it was the place of the family town. The key point of the confrontation between the north and the south is at the junction of the grassland climate and the agricultural climate.

To the north of this line of defense are deserts, with a small amount of vegetation wasteland. And to the south of this line of defense is the place where farming can barely be done.