Time waits for no man. With Ma Gui as the commander-in-chief and Xiao Ruxun as the vice-commander-in-chief, the five thousand Ming Army troops joined forces to attack after a day of reorganization. Xiao Ruxun left Chen Xie to lead five hundred soldiers to guard the city walls of Pinglu and bid farewell to his wife, Caiyun Yiyi.
Because Xiao Ruxun's troops were very good at using firearms, Ma Gui became the commander-in-chief and handed over all the muskets and Francs in the army to Xiao Ruxun's troops. They formed the "firearms battalion" with Xiao Ruxun as the commander-in-chief to increase the firepower of the army.
Xiao Ruxun combined all the soldiers in the army who could use muskets and formed a seven hundred musket team and three hundred carriage and artillery team. The firearms battalion of a thousand people was completed and became the absolute trump card for the five thousand Ming Army to attack the city of Ningxia.
According to everyone's joint analysis, Xiao Ruxun believed that Bo Bai's main force was distributed in the Yuquan area of Lingzhou and Mingsha Prefecture to confront Wei Xuezeng's main force. The previous nine thousand people had been greatly damaged. It was uncertain whether Bo Bai had received the news. Even if he did, it would take a lot of time to make countermeasures. The Ming Army had a buffer of one to two days to prepare. After that, they would attack decisively and directly into the heart of the rebel army.
In order to keep the situation secret, Xiao Ruxun did not send anyone to inform Wei Xuezeng of this operation.
The army set off at dawn and advanced toward the city of Ningxia. The first day was smooth. Other than the sentinel cavalry killing a few lone rebel soldiers, there was no organized rebel army. On the second day, when the army had advanced nearly a hundred miles, the sentinel cavalry reported that they had encountered the Yaofu Castle that was occupied by the rebel army. Ma Gui made a prompt decision to attack the city and catch a few people to ask about the situation of the rebel army to find a breakthrough point.
Ma Gui arranged for the Ming Army to take advantage of the darkness of the night and suddenly move out. They surrounded the city on all sides and did not use firearms to avoid alarming the other rebel army. After two hours of breaking the siege, this small castle that was guarded by only three to four hundred people was successfully breached. The Ming Army suffered very little loss. The rebel army's resistance was also very weak. Almost as soon as the Ming Army entered the city, they knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, not daring to fight again. After asking, they found out that the main force of this castle had been dragged out as bandits. The ones left behind were old and weak soldiers who could not withstand a single blow.
Ma Gui tied up the commander of this castle and brought him in front of him. He interrogated him together with Xiao Ruxun and Xiao Ruhui. This commander cried bitterly and said that he originally did not want to be a bandit, but had no choice but to be a bandit. His parents and family were all taken by the rebel army to Ningxia City to be used as blackmail to force them to work for the rebel army. For the lives of his family, he had no choice but to be a bandit. Now that the official army had come, it meant that the suppression of the rebellion had been successful. He did not dare to resist and was willing to atone for his crimes by meritorious deeds and tell the official army everything he knew.
Xiao Ruxun and Ma Gui looked at each other and nodded together. So Xiao Ruxun said, "As long as you tell us everything you know, we will naturally not make things difficult for you. We will even think of a way to help you save your family. Now it all depends on whether you have the responsibility to atone for your crimes by meritorious deeds."
This commander immediately kowtowed to express his willingness to atone for his crimes by meritorious deeds. He was willing to take a hundred brothers with the army to suppress the rebellion. After that, he only asked for the general to forgive his family and not harm them.
Ma Gui agreed.
According to this commander, what they knew about the forty-seven castles on West River was similar. On the surface, they all had a garrison of five hundred to three thousand soldiers, but in reality, the situation of the officers and families of generals living off their pay was quite serious. Emperor Taizu's old system of dividing the army into two parts: garrison and eight parts farming. The combination of garrison and farming allowed the soldiers to farm. Emperor Taizu had once proudly declared, "I raise millions of soldiers and do not consume a single grain of rice from the people." But the reality was that after Emperor Taizu, the military system gradually deteriorated. The officers of the families of generals relied on their power to embezzle the army's farmland. There were also local tyrants who colluded with the garrison officers to occupy the army's farmland.
As a result, the entire system of farming at the borders only existed in name. There was a serious number of deserters in various areas. In some areas where the number of deserters was still around sixty to seventy percent of the army was left to defend. One could imagine the fighting power of the armies. That was why the forty-seven castles on West River surrendered so quickly and did not fight. It was not that they did not want to fight, but that they could not fight. There were only three to five hundred old and weak soldiers in the castles. There were even some castles that only had a few dozen old soldiers guarding. They could not be considered to be defending the city at all.
Ma Gui was furious when he heard this. He angrily rebuked the corrupt officers and local tyrants for harming people. Xiao Ruxun and Xiao Ruhui looked at each other. The meaning behind their words could not be clearer.
The Ma family had always been ostracized by the Nine Border Families of Generals. They were not valued because they were not of Han origin. The Xiao family knew this very well. Even though they did not do anything evil, they would be overestimating the Xiao family if they said that they did not benefit from it. Of course, all the Nine Border Families of Generals knew this very well. Moreover, the rapid decline in the fighting power of the armies was a result of the system. It was not something that could be changed by manpower. The slightly more elite armies of the Nine Border Families were all recruited. It was an open secret that the Families of Generals recruited private soldiers to defend their lands.
In order to occupy the military fields and profit from it, the Families of Generals would wantonly eat without pay. Those who had ambition and a sense of responsibility would recruit private soldiers to increase their own strength. Those who had no sense of responsibility and only wanted to muddle along would just eat without pay.
When the civil officials came to the Imperial Censor, they would cover up or simply bribe them. Everyone knew this very well. They worked together to keep the emperor in the dark. There were fewer and fewer generals and troops who dared to resist. The situation of the Mongols being defeated by the army of the early Ming Dynasty never happened again. The situation of being suppressed appeared again.
But Xiao Ruxun did not expect that the important Ningxia Town in the west of the river, the border of the country, could be taken by Bo Bai so easily. It turned out that this was the reason. They had actually extended their hands to the most strategic place in the country! Daming giving up Hetao was already a bad move in strategy. If they lost Ningxia as well, it would be the same situation as the northwest of the Northern Song Dynasty again!
Those nominal garrison officers could not resist the surging rebel army at all. They did not want to die, so they could only surrender. They were forced to take their private soldiers to join the rebels and leave their deputies to guard the city. To be safe, their families were all taken to the town of Ningxia to guard, in case they surrendered and rebelled again.
Xiao Ruxun comforted the furious Ma Gui and advised him to put the rebellion first. The rest could be discussed later.
"If this situation is not stopped, Ningxia Town will be useless! How can I ignore it?! "
Ma Gui's sense of justice was bursting.
Xiao Ruxun smiled helplessly and said, "The Families of Generals in the nine sides may not be united, but at least they are grasshoppers on a rope. If one link is moved, the whole body will be affected. Moreover, the Families of Generals will not have no backing. The involvement is too wide. You and I can't do anything about it. In this case, don't bite off more than you can chew. First quell the rebellion, make military achievements, and promote your position and status. Then think about other things."
Ma Gui thought for a long time. He shook his head helplessly and sighed bitterly. He agreed to Xiao Ruxun.
The three of them began to discuss. The main force of the rebel army was facing off against the main force of the Ming Army at the front line. The defense in the rear was almost zero. Then, our troops could completely attack the base of the rebel army and raid the town of Ningxia. It would completely disrupt the strategic deployment of the rebel army and give them a great psychological deterrent. Think about it, if our cannons fired at the base of the rebel army, how terrifying the deterrent would be for the rebel army!
The three of them maintained a high altitude. So, Ma Gui gave the order to ignore the forts and directly rush in the direction of the town of Ningxia. If they encountered any forts, they could directly break through.
The general who surrendered, Ma Gao, stood up and said that he had many friends and comrades in the 47 forts. He was willing to persuade them to take the initiative to open the gates. Ma Gui was overjoyed and immediately agreed.
Next, the two-day forced march began. Under the leadership of Ma Gui and Xiao Ruxun, the 5,000 Ming Army, who had eaten and drunk their fill, started the forced march. They headed west. In the two days, they encountered more than 10 forts. A few of them were the main army. When the defending generals saw the situation, they took the initiative to open the gates. Ma Gao persuaded eight of the forts to open the gates. Ma Gui did not even bring the army to them before they opened the gates. Then, they joined the rebel army to make up for their crimes. Along the way, there were more than 500 rebel army soldiers in the army. They were all integrated into the vanguard army.
Along the way, Xiao Ruxun realized that he did not encounter any organized main force of the rebel army. It was a smooth journey without any obstacles. It was enough to imagine how unpopular this rebellion was. If they were popular, their progress would not be so fast. But before this, the rebel army's progress was also very fast. It was enough to show that the Ming court did not have any loyal officials here. It was just a matter of who had the bigger fist. As long as the opponent was not the Mongolians, then following the rebel army did not seem to be a fatal thing.
The fall of the Ming Dynasty was the end of the Ming Dynasty. This was true, but something deeper was hard to change. Just like in 1997, all the bamboos in Europe bloomed and died overnight. It was not because of any other reason, but because their parent came from Hubei, China in 1907. From the moment they were born, they were destined to die. No matter how many they produced, they would all die at the same time. Did Zhu Yuanzhang think of this when he established the Daming Dynasty?
Xiao Ruxun felt that Zhu Yuanzhang must not have thought of this. Otherwise, Zhu Yuanzhang would not have killed all the meritorious officials and left Zhu Yunwen a vine whip without thorns. He also would not have thought that his strong sons would not rebel against his beloved young grandson. He also would not have allowed his descendants to become the biggest cancer of the Ming Dynasty, almost sucking the blood of the Daming Dynasty dry.
Now, the world had fallen into the trap of the civil officials who hid needles in silk floss.
How could he save this sick giant, who was only one step away from death's door and would never be able to be saved?
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