On the second day of the twelfth month in the twenty-fifth year of Wanli, ten thousand Mongolian cavalry arrived at Wutai Town. They found that the town was empty and there were no signs of people living there. While they were disheartened, they were also quite angry. They were furious that they had come from afar and gained nothing, so they set fire to Wutai Town.
The Mongolian cavalry traveled south and did not encounter any strong resistance from the Ming Army. In fact, there was not even a decent resistance. They traveled south without any obstacles. At most, they encountered some barricades and obstacles that were basically useless, but they were easily taken care of by the Mongolian cavalry before they continued south.
At that moment, Wang Shiyang received an edict from the court. His title of Governor Xuan was added with the power to control the troops in Yulin Town. This made him the commander-in-chief of the troops in Taiyuan, Yulin, Datong, and Xuan Fu. He was also the commander-in-chief of this battle.
The only troops that were not under his control were the sixty thousand soldiers that Li Chengliang had sent to Zijing Pass to fight against the Mongolians. There were also the elite Liaodong cavalry under Li Rusong who were marching anxiously.
According to his calculations, as long as the battle did not continue to worsen and they could last until Li Rusong's elites arrived, they would be able to turn the situation around.
Wang Shiyang forced himself to calm down. He set up defense lines in Dingxiang, Xinzhou, and Shiling Pass while he forcefully moved the people around Taiyuan Town and cleared the fields.
He knew that the reason the Mongols came south this time was because they were short of food, and on top of that, they had accumulated many years of resentment. They wanted to plunder to their heart's content, and the main target of their plunder was the food they had looted from Datong and Shanxi provinces to sustain their fighting power.
But times were different now. Daming had suffered a serious disaster over the past two years and had no food to eat. The food the Mongolians had looted was definitely very little, and it was difficult for them to fight for a long time.
As long as they persisted and cleared the fields, the longer they dragged on, the higher the chances of Daming winning would be, and the more the Mongolians would lack food.
Wang Shiyang's idea was correct. He knew that the Mongolians used war to sustain war, but he was also puzzled.
Great Harmony did not have enough food to feed the 100,000 Mongolian cavalry. Even if they looted the local people and castles, the harvest would be very limited. It was almost a natural tactic of fortifying the walls and clearing the fields. How could the Mongolians have such a strong endurance?
Wang Shiyang began to suspect that the Mongols were using human flesh as rations. He knew that when people were starving and did not have enough food to eat, they would choose to eat other things to fill their stomachs. In a sense, the history of human warfare was a history of cannibalism.
If the Mongolians persisted with human flesh as food, who knew how long they could last. they had no morals and no humanity.
Cannibalism was not something unacceptable to these barbarians. This was what Wang Shiyang was most worried about. If that was the case, the ground would be filled with food.
But he of Datong, he did not. Mongolian. and of Datong. and Month of Datong of the Datong of the Ming Ming Nation.
At Datong, they were able to replenish their supplies, and it was precisely these supplies that fueled the Mongols' ambition, prompting them to attack Yanmen Pass and Pingxing Pass.
Including the Shanxi merchants, no one would have guessed that it was the series of preparations they made in Datong that gave the Mongols the confidence to continue attacking.
This story started from the first day the Mongolians invaded the border.
The Jin Merchants were not united. Ever since they started to expand their business, there were many internal differences. For example, the bow and arrow business, horseshoes business, saddle business, arrow business, etc.
There were many different types of businesses, and many families were in charge of them. In the beginning, they were doing well, but in the actual operation, there were always competitions and annexations. In the end, there were only a dozen or so of the largest families in Jin Shang. There were also a series of vassal families under them, and they survived by eating the leftovers.
However, not all the clans were willing to submit to the dozen or so great clans. These clans left Shanxi and ran to Datong. Relying on their favorable geographical location and lower prices, they engaged in a price war with the great clans and seized quite a bit of market share.
This sort of thing made the Great Clans very angry. Although they were also doing business in Datong, they were unable to compete with the Great Clans. Since they couldn't win a fair trade war, they could only play dirty. Allying with the Mongols to plunder and take care of these Great Clans was a very sinister plan.
They begged the Mongols to destroy these families and promised them enough benefits. Under the premise of killing with a borrowed knife, they could get a share of the business and fatten themselves up.
When the Mongols went south to plunder food, they would not lay their hands on these cooperating families. Instead, they would deliberately protect them. After the Ming Army drove the Mongols back, they would continue their business.
This time, they had set their sights on harming the Ma and Zhang families, as well as the dozen or so smaller families that supported them. This group of people had gathered in Datong, and they were gradually becoming an equal to the Ma and Zhang families. In the face of such a crisis, the Ma and Zhang families could not let them go.
The Mongols had not gone south for a long time, and they did not know the way. They sent a few people who were familiar with the roads to hide in the Mongols' troops. They pointed out the weak points of the Ming Army's defenses and the main roads. They helped the Mongols smoothly go south and successfully wiped out the Ma family, the Zhang family, and the small families.
This was done by a few thousand cavalry from the Tumert tribe under the leadership of a member of the Liu family, Liu Xi. This was something they discussed with the Tumert tribe alone. These benefits belonged to the Tumert tribe, and not the other tribes further north.
Looking at the burning fire and the mournful sound of the horn, Liu Xi revealed a sinister smile. The Ma family and the Zhang family bastards had given him a big blow. No matter what, he could not defeat them with proper means. They even almost caused him to be stripped of his current position by the main family.
But now, what else could they do?
The most detestable young master of the Ma family had just been beheaded, and his wife was being ravaged by seven or eight Mongolians. All the men in the family had been killed, and all the women had been abducted. Liu Xi's eyes burned with envy. He wanted to go up and have a taste of those beautiful women, but now was clearly not the time.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
