The news of a hundred thousand Mongolian cavalry invading the south terrified Zhao Zhigao.
He reached out and took the urgent military report of Datong. With trembling hands, he tore open the envelope and read.
On the thirteenth day of the eleventh month in the twenty-fifth year of Wanli, the leader of the Tumer tribe, Prince Shun Yi, betrayed Daming. He led fifty thousand Tumer cavalry and fifty thousand cavalry from other tribes to invade the south. The Ming Army at the border was caught off guard. Due to the lack of rations and uniforms, they were cold and hungry. They could not even hold their weapons and were unable to resist.
More than half of Datong's seventy-two castles fell in a day.
The inspector of Datong, Mei Guozhen, urgently mobilized Ma Gui's Cang Tou Army to support the castles that were still resisting. However, most of the castles had no more than three hundred soldiers and no more than ten warhorses. The soldiers and horses were cold and hungry and could not fight. They collapsed at the first encounter.
Ma Gui fought hard for a day. Because there were too many Mongolian cavalry, the Cang Tou Army lost more than half and had to retreat into Datong. Other than the town and a few castles with more soldiers still resisting, most of Datong had fallen.
By the time Mei Guozhen sent someone to deliver the letter, the Mongolian cavaliers had split into three groups. One group continued to besiege the town of Datong, another group attacked the Yanmen Pass, and the last group attacked the Pingxing Mountain Pass. The situation was incredibly critical.
Fortunately, Mei Guozhen had heard the news in advance, so he sent a letter to Taiyuan Town and Xuan Fu Town, telling them to be on guard against the sudden attack of the Mongols. At present, Yanmen Pass and Pingxing Mountain Pass should not have fallen.
However, the remaining castles in Datong that were still resisting had become isolated cities. Only Yanghe City's commander risked his life to break out of the encirclement to ask for help, saying that Yanghe City was still in the hands of the Ming Army.
As for whether the other cities were still resisting, no one knew. The only thing they knew was that Datong had been plunged into misery and suffering.
Datong's defensive line had been completely broken. It was as broken as a sieve and could not be any more broken. The only place they could go was the castles with fewer soldiers had definitely fallen. Only the castles with more soldiers could hold on for a while, but not for long.
The reason was simple. They lacked food. Without food, the soldiers were so hungry that they no longer had the strength to fight. They did not even have enough winter clothes. They were so cold that they could not even hold their weapons. They would either starve to death, freeze to death, or die when the Mongolians attacked.
Once the Mongolians conquered one or two of the castles, they would be able to obtain siege weapons and even firearms. Along the way, the Ming Army's castles were as fragile as a piece of paper. One poke and it would be pierced through. The reality of the situation of the Ming Army on the nine sides was clear to see.
If it wasn't for the fact that the Tumet tribe had guarded the borders for the Daming for more than ten years, the tragedy at the Adako border would have happened many more times.
This time, there were no Tumers to block the disaster. Tumers had no food to eat and had already betrayed the south, joining forces with the other tribes. This was the most dangerous situation since the beginning of Anda, and it was very likely that the old situation of the Anda Bandits would reappear.
This was because one of the Mongolians was still charging towards Pingxing Pass.
The only place behind Pingxing Pass that had the ability to fight back was Purple Thistle Pass. Once Purple Thistle Pass fell, there would not be many defense lines in the capital regions of Hebei that could be defended. The Mongolian cavaliers could charge through the Great Northern Plains and plunder as they pleased. In fact, they could even point their vanguard at the capital!
When that time came, Datong would not be the only one suffering.
Zhao Zhigao's hand trembled, and the urgent report fell to the ground. The memories of the Adako border from forty years ago reappeared in his mind.
Zhang Wei quickly rushed over and picked up the military report before everyone else. He read it carefully, and when he did, his eyes widened in shock.
After that, Shen Yicheng, Shen Li, and the others read the urgent reports one after another. The big shots in the cabinet had already understood the emergency that had happened in Datong.
Everyone's eyes were focused on Zhang Wei and Zhao Zhigao.
Previously, Mei Guozhen had written a petition to the imperial court to allocate more food to support the Tumers in their fight against the disaster. He wanted to appease them so that they could continue to guard the borders for the Daming. He also suggested that once the Tumers were extremely hungry, they would not continue to wait for death to come. Instead, they would go south and attack the borders in order to survive.
This was not a betrayal in the ordinary sense, but a plea for survival.
Mei Guozhen had repeatedly emphasized that it was almost certain that the Northern Barbarians would go south during the bitter cold. Under the leadership of the Third Lady, the Tumers had guarded the borders for the Daming for more than ten years. They had participated in no less than thirty battles, both big and small, and had saved a lot of military expenses for the Daming.
Even if they did not contribute much, they still worked hard. They could not be treated as a normal Mongolian tribe. They could not afford to lose this strategically important ally because of some food.
Zhao Zhigao supported the idea and strongly advocated that the grain transport should be given priority to Datong and Tumers. This would appease the Tumers and make them continue to guard the borders for the Daming, reducing the pressure on Datong and Xuanfu. This would ensure that when the Northern Barbarians went south during the bitter cold, the Tumers would stand on the side of the Daming and fight for the Daming.
Zhang Wei, on the other hand, argued with all his might that the grain transport should be given priority to the people in the capital region. He had a good reason.
Many of the people in the capital region were starving. If they went to the outskirts of Beijing now, there were starving corpses everywhere. If they did not distribute food to appease them, the people here would probably start a riot before the Mongols invaded. This was the capital of the empire, the face of the empire.
Once there was a riot, how would the Daming keep their face?
Zhao Zhigao was furious at that moment. It was one thing not to give food to the Tumers, but you did not even give food to the soldiers at the nine borders. If the Mongols went south, the soldiers would not be able to eat and wear warm clothes. How would they defend against the enemy?
Zhang Wei also argued with reason. If there was no food to eat, no one would have anything! Once the people in the capital region started a riot, it would directly threaten the imperial capital, directly threaten His Majesty, directly threaten your and my family's lives. Which was more important, the capital region or the nine borders?
The two of them could not come to an agreement, so they went to argue in front of the Emperor. Zhu Yijun was dizzy from their arguments and could not come up with an idea for a while. Then, this matter was brought to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue, causing the two to be in conflict. Both sides were divided into two factions, and they quarreled endlessly.
Shi Xing was so angry that he almost brought his men to the Ministry of Revenue to steal the grain.
The Daming government carried out the fine tradition of quarreling over big things and small things. In short, they had to quarrel. It did not matter what the purpose of the quarrel was, as long as they quarreled. After the quarrel, someone could fish in troubled waters and use some people's mistakes to make an issue out of it, starting the next round of court battles.
There was no other way. Next year was the year of the Peking Inquisition. Seeing that Zhao Zhigao was about to retire, the position of the Grand Secretary and the Peking Inquisition concerned the life and death of some factions.
Just like Yan Song's era, the Peking Inquisition was an important means of political struggle. The Minister of Personnel and some positions with real power in the Ministry had become important fortresses that everyone fought for.
So on the surface, everyone was quarreling for Datong, but in reality, they were quarreling for the Grand Secretary and the Peking Inquisition. Everyone knew that whoever represented the faction that won the Peking Inquisition would become the next Grand Secretary.
This concerned their lives and future power and status. Who dared to be negligent?
As for Datong and Tumer … they could go to the side!
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