No one cared about Li Chengliang's sorrow. Similarly, no one cared about Wang Shiyang's difficulties either.
As the Great Governor of Xuan, Wang Shiyang had obviously failed in his duties. His responsibility was to guard the three towns and three governors of Shanxi's Datong and Xuan Prefecture. He had a high position and power. One-third of the Daming's nine borders were under his jurisdiction. He was fully responsible for the middle section of the Daming's nine borders. He was stationed in Yanghe City, guarding the center of the three towns and coordinating with the overall situation.
When Mei Guozhen's warning letter arrived in Yanghe City, he had already set off for Taiyuan to inspect the armory. When the warning letter arrived in Taiyuan, he felt that it was nonsense. The Shanxi Inspector-General, Wei Yunzhen, was a little concerned and tried to persuade him to strengthen the defense of Yanmen Pass and Pingxing Pass, but Mei Guozhen said —
If anything happened to Yanmen Pass and Pingxing Pass, the first person to be held accountable would be Mei Guozhen. He, Mei Guozhen, was the Datong Inspector-General. The first line of defense of the Daming was in his hands!
Therefore, he ignored Mei Guozhen, who seemed to be indulging in the wildest fantasies. He trusted Third Lady's loyalty and yearning for the Great Ming Empire. He firmly believed that Third Lady would not allow Tariq to do such a thing. Moreover, Third Lady was not just a woman who had nothing. Not only did she have prestige, but she also had the ten thousand elite cavalrymen that An Da had left for her.
However, three days later, when he received Wei Yunzhen's urgent letter asking for help, he completely panicked.
The Mongolians had really invaded. The main force was the Tumite cavalry led by Lalik. There was no news of Third Lady. Meanwhile, 100,000 Mongolian cavalrymen had broken through the Datong defensive line and riddled it with holes. Currently, they were divided into two groups to attack Yanmen Pass and Pingxing Pass.
The only fortunate thing was that Wei Yunzhen and Mei Guozhen had a good relationship. He felt that Mei Guozhen would not send a warning for no reason. Therefore, he dispatched Dong Yikui, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi, with five thousand soldiers and horses to Pingxing Pass, while he himself took five thousand soldiers to Yanmen Pass. He treated it as a routine patrol and routine training, which did not make much sense.
Then, they just happened to run into the Mongols' attack. In a state of shock, Wei Yunzhen and Dong Yikui took up the positions of defending the Yanmen Pass and the Pingxing Pass respectively. They gathered their forces and managed to fend off a few fierce Mongol attacks, temporarily protecting the Yanmen Pass and the Pingxing Pass.
Wang Shiyang turned pale with fright. After a moment of panic, his mind tempered by the ups and downs of officialdom forced him to calm. He had been in charge of border affairs for many years. He had a lot of experience. He immediately knew that the Mongolian divided troops had a purpose.
One side attacked Yanmen Pass, and their goal was definitely the rich Shanxi. The other side attacked Pingxing Pass, and their goal was obviously Zijing Pass and the capital behind it.
Some time ago, Mei Guozhen had been arguing with him about food and weapons, saying that the army had no food to eat and that they still needed to support the Tummer tribe. He had come to Shanxi because he wanted to transfer some food and weapons back to Mei Guozhen.
He knew the actual situation in Datong, but he did not expect the Mongolians to come so quickly and so suddenly.
He did not know if Datong had fallen. He did not know if his base, Yanghe City, had fallen. He suddenly felt a lingering fear.
If it were not for Mei Guozhen's request to come to Taiyuan to check the inventory, he would probably be finished. At the very least, he would be trapped in Yanghe City.
The dignified Governor Xuan, who controlled three provinces and three towns, was actually besieged and unable to move. He did not want to be an official, and it was still a question of whether he could keep his life.
Right now, he was still alive and in a safe place. He could still give orders, and that was his greatest fortune.
Hence, he immediately ordered the soldiers in Taiyuan to split into two groups and rush to Yanmen Pass and Pingxing Pass. They could not let the Mongolians break through either of these two passes. Otherwise, with the current strength of the Ming Army, if they could not snipe the Mongolian cavaliers from a high vantage point on the two passes, and if they were allowed to enter the plains, they would be finished.
The Ming Army's ability to fight in the field had long since become weak. Besides, there was a major famine this year, and everyone lacked food. The last batch of food was almost finished, and no one knew when the next batch of food would arrive. The three towns lacked food, and everyone lived their lives in poverty. Some of the troops at the borders only had three days' worth of food left.
Winter clothing was also a problem. When Wang Shiyang went to the treasury to inquire about the military's supplies and equipment, he found that the winter clothing that should have been distributed had serious problems in terms of thickness and quality. This was not the first time.
He had inspected the treasury three times, and this was the third time. The previous two times also had many problems, but there was no warning at the borders. At that time, the court was also engaged in a battle for the country's resources, and he did not want to participate.
However, when things came to a head, he realized how wrong his previous actions were. The soldiers did not have good enough winter clothing to keep them warm. In such an environment, how could they persevere in battle? Their hands were so cold that they could not even pick up their weapons, and their feet were so cold that they could not even walk. How could they fight this battle? This made it even more impossible to fight in the field.
In the eyes of the court civil officials, war was an army moving out, defeating the enemy, and then coming back to count the results. As for how the army moved out and how they defeated the enemy, they did not care at all, and did not want to care.
When the army moved out, the first thing was money. They needed food, clothes, shoes, military hats, and pants. If it was winter, these requirements were even higher. If the soldiers did not wear enough, they would not be able to fight at all.
However, all of this was not a problem in the eyes of those deranged people who were trying to fish for money. If they lost a battle, it was because the officers were useless, the civil officials were useless, and the soldiers were useless. It had nothing to do with them.
Once a civil official became a military commander, he would be different from a civil official of the court. There was a chasm between them. The civil officials who had personally experienced the bitter cold of the borders knew how difficult it was to be in the army, but the civil officials who lived in a safe zone did not know. If they did not know, they would not understand or sympathize. They were crazy enough to fish for money without any scruples.
The weapons were inferior, the uniforms were inferior, the shoes were inferior, and even the rations were lacking.
Wang Shiyang felt incomparable regret for his cowardice, but he could only force a duck onto a perch.
He had ordered the army to move out, but even after half a day had passed, not a single soldier had moved out. He was infuriated, thinking that these soldiers were afraid of battle and had disobeyed his orders.
Thus, he braved the wind and bitter cold to charge to the garrison camp outside Taiyuan City. He wanted to personally supervise the army's departure, and he even decided to execute a few people to serve as a warning to others so that these cowardly people would know that only by charging forward would they have a chance of survival.
But only when he reached the camp did he realize that the situation was not like this.
After he angrily asked, a skinny Chief Qian brought him into a military tent with a bitter face. He opened the curtain, and inside were soldiers wrapped in all kinds of rags. All of them were shivering, their faces were blue and black from the cold, their lips were cracked, and their eyes were lifeless.
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