Chai Guozhu had been on the battlefield for a long time and was well-versed in military affairs. Before making defensive arrangements, he had to first count the soldiers and then arrange further defensive arrangements according to the numbers of the troops. This was a very normal thing.
He counted the number of soldiers in Zijing Pass and found that it was about 80% of the soldiers recorded in the books. Nominally, there were 10,000 soldiers, but in fact, there were 8,000. Excluding the old and weak 2,000, there were still 6,000 soldiers who could fight. It had to be said that the situation in Zijing Pass was very conscientious.
As one of the three famous passes in the inner pass, it was useless before the outer pass was in danger. Chai Guozhu originally thought that the actual number of soldiers in Zijing Pass would be pitifully small. He didn't expect that there were so many soldiers who could fight. It was really rare.
But then his face darkened.
There was a problem with the soldiers in the capital camp.
When he arrived yesterday afternoon, it was filled with 10,000 people, and not a few were missing. At that time, he only did a rough count and did not do anything else. Now that he looked, even a blind man could see that a large number of people were missing. The drill ground that was full yesterday had become sparse today!
Did they think that he was blind?!
The soldiers in the capital camp were so arrogant! How dare they be so brazen as deserters! It was simply impudent to the extreme!
He immediately asked the Deputy General of the capital camp, Director Qian, and other officers to see him. He wanted to ask them what was going on. In the end, he only found Director Qian. The rest of them were gone, including the Deputy General of the capital camp.
"What the hell is going on?! Where are they?! "
He angrily questioned that Director Qian.
That Director Qian looked embarrassed.
"The Deputy General said that his mother is critically ill and has to go back to take care of her. Director Li said that his son is critically ill and has no heart to fight. Director Zhao said that his wife is critically ill and has no heart to fight. Director Chen said that his grandmother is critically ill and has no heart to fight. And Director Liu said …"
"Enough! Did they meet the Tai Sui this year?! During the war, one after another is critically ill, but when there is no war, none of them have any problems at all. Let's not talk about this kind of thing. When the army is about to set off and the war is imminent, they actually dare to leave the army without permission. Are they tired of living and want to see their children die before them? "
Chai Guozhu was furious. He never thought that the officers in the capital camp would be so shameless.
"General, this …"
The only one who stayed behind, Wang, looked around and said carefully, "The reason why those people were chased away is because they have backers behind them. There are people from the Zhenyuan Marquis, Xining Marquis, Wuan Marquis, Dingyuan Marquis, and even Duke Dingguo and Duke Cheng.
General, the situation in the capital camp is very complicated. Any ordinary ten-man squad leader could be a servant of some family. Once you meet him, you will get into trouble. People like us who have no backing can only be bullied and humiliated by them to make a living. Those who have a bit of status and connections have all run away. Those who stay behind are all suffering.
Originally, everyone thought that it wasn't their turn to fight, so they came over to make up the numbers and shout a few times. That way, they would be able to live up to their military uniforms. In the end, Pingxing Pass was gone, and the Mongolians were invading. Which of those old soldiers knew how to fight? Even the horses can't get up. If we don't run now, it'll be too late! "
Chai Guozhu stared at Boss Wang with his mouth agape. Seeing the bitter look on Boss Wang's face, it didn't seem like he was lying. Chai Guozhu suddenly felt dizzy.
He had long heard that the capital camp was rotten, but he didn't expect it to be so blatant. This was considered to be under the rule of the Emperor. Were all the soldiers under the rule of the Emperor like this? If they really lost Zijing Pass, how could they defend Beijing? Wouldn't that be fatal?
But …
Chai Guozhu had no way of dealing with these people. He knew some inside information and knew that the nobles and the ministers in the imperial court had colluded with each other to empty the capital camp. He also knew that every family had their own protection umbrella. No one was weak, and no one was stupid. They were all thousand-year-old foxes. Only Chai Guozhu was a big fool.
There were 6,000 usable soldiers in Zijing Pass, and these sly soldiers from the capital camp who only had 6,000 left. There were 20,000 soldiers on the surface, but before the war started, and before they even saw the Mongolians, there were only 12,000 left. How could there be such a war in the world?
This was the biggest absurdity in the world.
Those nobles had no way of dealing with the civil officials. They were already pigs raised by the civil officials. They didn't have any power or military power. They could only fatten their own pigs by eating without pay. But against a border general like him, these nobles still had a way. They could use money to borrow the power of the civil officials to deal with him. He didn't have the slightest ability to fight back.
Didn't they think that if Zijing Pass was really finished? If the capital was really attacked, would they have a good ending?
Chai Guozhu didn't believe it. He didn't believe that these people were really shameless to this extent.
But it was true. This group of civil and military officials ranked in the top three in terms of shamelessness in the history of China. Even at the last moment of their lives, they didn't dare to believe that they were facing death.
Even when Li Zicheng's iron hoop was about to crush their dog heads, when the Manchurian Qing's butcher's knife was about to reach their necks, they might still think that they were dreaming.
In their hearts, there was only themselves. They, who had been in high positions for a long time, didn't know the suffering of the common people. They, who had held power for a long time without any competitors, only knew how to protect themselves and not the country. Only the civil and military officials at the end of the Song Dynasty could compare to their shamelessness.
So Chai Guozhu was destined to be unable to get the answer he wanted. No matter how much he didn't believe it, he still had to brace himself and prepare for the battle to defend Zijing Pass.
He divided the main forces between Zijing Pass, Small Boulder City, Strange Fengkou City, and Guanzuoling City on the south bank of the Juma River. He only left a few reserve forces in Xiaojin City on the north bank, ready to provide support wherever there was an emergency. He also arranged enough troops at each pass and was also equipped with enough firearms, especially cannons.
Just as Chai Guozhu was bracing himself to defend Zijing Pass, Wang Shiyang also received an extremely shocking news. This news caused him, who was in Taiyuan City, to fall to the ground, dumbfounded.
Pingxing Pass had fallen, Dong Yikui had died in battle, and a group of Mongolian cavalry roared and charged toward Taiyuan. The five thousand troops sent to reinforce Pingxing Pass encountered the Mongolian cavalry near Mount Wutai. In a panic, the five thousand troops were completely annihilated. Only a few dozen escaped and came back to report.
Now the Mongolians were charging toward Mount Wutai. Wutai Town was already in a mess. The defending troops fled without fighting and headed toward Taiyuan with a large number of people from Mount Wutai. The Mongolians were very close, and the fall of Mount Wutai was irreversible.
The only thing worth rejoicing was that, according to the information, the Mongolians had tens of thousands of people when they attacked Pingxing Pass, but only ten thousand people at most went south. In other words, most of them headed toward Zijing Pass in an attempt to cut off the capital's retreat.
Disregarding everything else, at least the Mongolians' target was Taiyuan, and there were only ten thousand of them.
Wang Shiyang gritted his teeth and thought about it again and again. He decided to speed up the deployment of troops and give up the idea of rushing to reinforce Pingxing Pass. He would set up three lines of defense at Dingxiang, Xinzhou, and Shiling Pass.
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