On the Gubei Terrace.

"When the sun sets, it's dark, and every house closes its door..."

A guard sang at the top of his voice.

"What's the hell about the ghost crying wolf?"

Zhang San couldn't bear to be disturbed, wrapped the padded jacket on his body tightly, and slept sideways in a different direction.

"Fart ghost crying wolf howl, I am practicing the lyrics of the dancing god, Tartar is the best at raising evil spirits, usually don't have a good relationship with the immortals, really run into something, and then call people who will pay attention to you?"

Zhang San's heart moved, and he sneered: "Then you say hello to Daxian for me, it's really a fight, let the old man take care of it?" ”

"Hey, that's easy to say!"

In the pier, some of the soldiers slept, some did some needlework, and they usually did one or two hands of needlework, in addition to sewing clothes, the surplus can also be sold to subsidize the family.

On weekdays, the most taciturn little flag officer said coldly: "The beacon fire burned for a few days before, and I don't know how many people came in this time. ”

"Hey, what do you want to do so much, Your Majesty drove the expedition in person, accompanied by the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, it was the period of Jingjing, and he followed the veteran generals and fierce generals of Chengzu's grandfather, can the hundreds of thousands of troops still be defeated by the Tartars?"

"Boss, if you have that worrying effort, you might as well sew two more net towels and send them to your sister-in-law in exchange for money. Recently, it's getting colder and colder, and every morning I'm wrapped in a thick wrap, and when I wake up, I still feel like an ice cave in the mound. ”

"While it's not dark, sixth, let's go to the forest and chop more firewood."

The little flag officer said: "Go, but be vigilant, Tartar Koubian, we have a limited number of people in this stage, before you came, several brothers were taken away by the Tartars when they went out to chop wood." ”

Risk is risk, but firewood must be chopped.

According to the usual practice, they had to cut down enough firewood for half a month's worth of firewood for the pier at a time, but this time it happened that a few days ago, a large number of Tatar horses invaded the border, so that they did not go out to cut firewood, and now the platform is almost out of firewood.

The sixth said with a smile: "Just let the big eyes keep an eye on it, the Tartar is not small this time, and I won't leave anyone to knock our small platform in the future." ”

The pier platform can be looked at, the effect of the beacon, because it is stationed in a high place, has the advantage of the terrain, and has a water cellar, the warm moon holds water, and the cold moon accumulates ice, and it really has to be surrounded, with grain and stored water sources.

A small group of enemies is difficult to gnaw, and a large number of enemies disdain to gnaw.

The lookout at the top of the pier suddenly reminded: "Wait, it seems that someone is coming!" ”

From the lookout, a black dog sprang out, barking into the night.

Frontier piers, often with a dog, a chicken, the former vigilance, the latter Si Chen, chicken coop, kennel, all raised in the lookout of the greenhouse, every morning when going down to draw water, will first put the dog down, to find out if there are enemies or monsters lurking.

The little flag officer ordered: "Light the lantern, bring out the fire gun, if it is a tartar, let it be released according to my order, if it is a wolf pack, it will be used as a tooth sacrifice." ”

"Order!"

The guards were on guard, but they weren't too nervous.

Although their defenders are limited, it also means that there is very little oil and water, and if they are not poor and crazy, no one wants to fight with them here.

"Looks like a woman!"

After looking at the hand, he breathed a sigh of relief.

only to find that the people who sang and danced the gods, as well as their little flag officers, turned pale.

"How could a woman come to this wilderness on this big night?"

"Could it be those... Something not clean, right? ”

...

Lothar's party, after a half-day march, was now encamped.

In the handsome tent with a strong oriental style, he lit candles and was thinking about how to deal with the nomadic cavalry that came and went, and he had dealt with many nomadic cavalry before.

Magyar cavalry, Turkic cavalry, Bedouin cavalry ... But they can't be compared with the Tatars, after all, they are the ones who built the world's largest land empire, and their strength cannot be underestimated.

After thinking about it, he decided to pick a small group of enemies first and see what it looked like.

The little flag is in his tent, and he is slowly telling him what he knows.

For example, the gap between this Warat Department and the Northern Yuan Dynasty, at least this detachment is not a heart.

Although the "nomadic empire" of Warat seems to be powerful, it can produce a large number of cavalry with a small population.

But he still can't get rid of the characteristics of the tribal alliance, if he really fights, if he stares at the headquarters first, those from the rest of the tribes, including Duoyan Sanwei and the Jurchens, these servant armies, will definitely not go all out to rescue.

Along the way, listening to the situation of the night without collecting small flags, Lothar gradually recovered.

"In this way, as long as His Majesty the Emperor does not move and holds on to the Tumu Fort, it is impossible for the Tatars to storm it for a while?"

This is normal thinking.

But in history, Zhu Qizhen was defeated, the six divisions were gone, and he was captured by the Tatars.

The small flag was not collected at night, but it was not optimistic, the grain route was cut off, and the Jingying army was not so much stationed in Tumubao as it was driven to Tumubao.

I am afraid that the water source of the food I carry with me has been cut off.

"Messenger Mingjian, when I break out, the grain and grass in the camp will be almost exhausted."

Lothar didn't raise his head and replied: "Relax, people can't starve to death if they don't eat for a day or two, besides, when you break out, although the grain and grass are almost exhausted, haven't you run out yet?" Can you give me an estimate of how long His Majesty's army can last? ”

Xiaoqi estimated: "The food province is still enough for a few days, but the water is almost gone." ”

"It doesn't matter, I carry animals and mules with the army, slaughter and drink blood and eat meat, and I can still last for a while, and now I am shouldering the heavy responsibility of saving Your Majesty, and I can't be in a hurry."

Lothar reassured again.

The little flag officer smiled bitterly: "It's all up to the envoy's arrangement." ”

He also saw that the envoy led the team really had the intention of rescuing the driver, otherwise he would be able to take the initiative to join the Warat people when he rushed to Tumu Fort now?

…

At this time, the civil fort is located.

Zhu Qizhen looked at the eunuch who walked into the tent quickly, and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

"Your Majesty, it's a good thing, it's a great thing, the Tartar chief has also agreed to negotiate and withdraw from the army!"

Zhu Qizhen was overjoyed, the food and grass in the army were cut off, although it was not enough for him to eat and drink, but it was also a hard thing, and he had already had enough.

"Wang Daban, what the Tartar chief said is credible?"

The eunuch known as Wang Daban, the eunuch who was the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch at the time, was the most relied on confidant of the orthodox emperor.

The eunuch said respectfully: "Your Majesty, a group of grassland stinky tartars, isn't it just for that little money, grain, cloth, and silk to go south, just allow them." Where did they get the courage to fight to the death with my Ming Dynasty? ”

Zhu Qizhen breathed a sigh of relief.

During this time, he felt that he had suffered too much.

This war is not at all what I imagined.

"Those Tartars are really cunning, if they line up head-on and fight, they will definitely not be my opponents."

Zhu Qizhen was very unconvinced, but he also extinguished his intention to follow Emperor Wen's personal expedition.

Fighting a war is not an easy job, and if nothing else, this march alone is torturous enough.

I can't do it again.

…

And the other side.

Warat contacted a large camp of tens of thousands of people.

The first Taishi also looked happy.

"The emperor of the Ming Kingdom is so stupid, as long as they leave the turtle shell, aren't they trampled into pulp by our iron horse?"

Before he went south this time, he also said to his henchmen on the left and right: Just loot and get some money and food.

There was a huge disparity in strength between the Ming court and them, and he had never thought of fighting a decisive battle with the Ming army before, let alone breaking through the Beijing Division, reviving the Yuan Room, and returning it to the old capital.

However, the Ming army was unexpectedly weak, and many of the guards were less than half of the strength on paper, and they would have no fighting spirit, no fighting spirit, and no trace of the original pursuit of the north and the destruction of the prestige of the Yuan court.

This inflated his ambitions.

One of the generals under his command said with a happy face: "If the Taishi can recover the capital and establish an immortal cause, where can he still use the support to take off and not spend that little hairy child to sweat?" ”

He also took a deep breath, his eyes shining with a brilliance called ambition.

If you can do it... Even if it's just a two-way world with the Ming Kingdom, the north and the south face each other.

Even if you don't have the blood of the Golden Family, you can still be a righteous Great Khan!