Li Rusong's killing had not stopped, but Xiao Ruxun's interrogation had already begun.
Li Rusong was more concerned about how to kill all the enemies in front of him, while Xiao Ruxun was more concerned about the Northern Barbarians' whereabouts and strategy. Xiao Ruxun believed that he could get a lot of useful information from the captive soldiers at the border.
As expected, after a series of harsh interrogation, Xiao Ruxun obtained some very important information. He realized some very terrifying things.
First, Xiao Ruxun asked them where they came from. They wept and answered that they were captured from Datong. They did not do it on purpose, but they were really afraid of death and begged Xiao Ruxun not to kill them.
Xiao Ruxun promised not to kill them. He then asked how many Northern Barbarians there were in the camp, and if there were more than 40,000 Northern Barbarian cavalry like the rumors said.
The captive soldiers wept and answered that when they attacked Pingxing Pass, the army of the Northern Barbarians had already split into two groups. One group attacked Yanmen Pass, and the other attacked Pingxing Pass. There were more than 50,000 people in each group, and the group they followed was the 50,000 cavalry of the Tumet tribe.
After capturing Pingxing Pass and massacring, they split into two groups. One group of 10,000 cavalry headed south in the direction of Taiyuan, while the other group of 40,000 cavalry carried them towards Zijing Pass. They burned, killed, looted, and conquered cities along the way, resulting in a large number of lumens. When they arrived at Zijing Pass, they attacked fiercely.
But the strange thing was that four days after they arrived at Zijing Pass, most of the 40,000 cavalry quietly left Zijing Pass during the night, leaving only about 5,000 cavalry to continue the attack. Most of them were nowhere to be found.
Xiao Ruxun immediately realized that this was the crux of the problem, so he sternly asked where the Northern Barbarians had gone. The captives looked at each other and only said that it was late at night and they were all asleep. When they woke up, they found that the army of the Northern Barbarians had disappeared, but they did not know where they had gone.
Xiao Ruxun asked again and said that the person who provided the information would be rewarded with five taels of silver. Finally, one person raised his hand and carefully said that he got up in the middle of the night to relieve himself. Through the fence, he saw some dark shadows heading in the direction they came from.
They should have gone west. He did not know what happened after that because he only saw so many people and did not pay much attention.
Thirty-five thousand cavalrymen had quietly left Zijing Pass at night, and they had only left four days after arriving here. At first, they had fiercely attacked Zijing Pass, and then they had strangely left. Why?
Xiao Ruxun thought carefully and suddenly remembered what Chai Guozhu had said. At the beginning, they attacked very fiercely, but recently, for some reason, it had become like this.
If they had deliberately attacked Zijing Pass to attract the main force of the Ming Army in Guandong and not let the main force of Guandong leave Zijing Pass to fight in Shanxi, then the fierce attack at the beginning could be understood. It was to leave the impression of the Northern Barbarians attacking Zijing Pass to the Ming Army. This way, the cowardly Ming Army would not dare to leave the pass.
Leaving behind 5,000 people was to continue to maintain this impression. Once a habit of thinking was formed, it could not be changed by a few words from a few people.
Regardless of whether it was Li Chengliang or Chai Guozhu, they were both famous generals. However, it was these people who had been guarding inside the pass and did not dare to attack. Admittedly, part of the reason was that the soldiers in the capital were useless, but it was also because of the impression left by the Northern Barbarians.
They wanted to leave behind this impression and use this impression to make the Ming army freeze in their tracks and not dare to attack, thus achieving their true strategic goal. Their strategic goal had never been Redbud Pass or the capital, but some ulterior motive. As for what it was, it was probably related to the direction in which they had left.
However, if it was only to take away the looted goods and make it easier to retreat, there was absolutely no need to attack Zijing Pass. Their true goal must have been solved through war, thus buying time and not allowing reinforcements to arrive and disturb them.
What were they doing this for?
Wait!
Xiao Ruxun suddenly thought of something.
"Let me ask you, what did the Northern Barbarians eat when they were marching and fighting these days? What is military rations? You must tell me the truth, do not hide anything! "
Xiao Ruxun sternly asked these guards.
The guards looked at each other and then the leader said, "I do not dare to hide anything from the admiral. These Northern Barbarians eat wheat rice, grain, a lot of grain. They eat three meals a day, and each meal is dry rice. What they give us is a few bowls of porridge."
Xiao Ruxun's eyes instantly widened.
"The north is cold, the Guanzhong is cold, and there is a shortage of grain everywhere. The Northern Barbarians came south to steal grain because they had no grain. If they had enough grain to eat three meals a day, why would they go south to plunder? Isn't this the greatest absurdity of the world? If you dare to speak nonsense, I will not forgive you! "
Wang Hui, who was beside Xiao Ruxun, saw the situation and immediately went forward to shout, "Guards, raise your guns!"
With a clatter, hundreds of muskets were aimed at the guards. The guards were frightened out of their wits and knelt on the ground, desperately kowtowing.
"We do not dare! We do not dare! The admiral is wise! We do not dare to hide anything! We do not dare to hide anything! "
Seeing that their heads were bleeding from kowtowing, and there was no sign of lying in their tone, Xiao Ruxun waved his hand and had the soldiers put down their muskets.
"Do they really eat wheat rice for three meals a day? Or dry rice? "
"Yes, it's all wheat rice and dry rice. They have a lot of food, carts after carts. Now, they probably haven't finished eating yet. You can see it when you attack their camp. It's all wheat rice. Us brothers don't know where they got so much food!"
Xiao Ruxun frowned and faintly felt that something was wrong, very wrong. If the Northern Barbarians had so much grain, why would they plunder south?
Their only purpose in going south was to plunder grain, not to fight a war with the Daming. Otherwise, they would not just pretend to attack Purple Thorn Pass. But if they had enough grain, why would they go south? This was clearly a contradiction.
If they had so much grain and still went south, it could only mean that they had other motives. However, all the signs showed that they went south for the grain. They went south for the grain and obtained so much grain. They ate three meals of dry rice a day. If it was just one branch here, it would not make sense. If all of them were like this, it would be too scary.
The temperature dropped, and a large amount of grain was frozen to death. The entire Northern Lands was short of grain, and countless people were sent to Myanmar. Where did they get so much grain?
Xiao Ruxun's interrogation continued, but Li Rusong's attack was coming to an end. To be honest, ever since he started fighting with the Northern Barbarians, he had never fought such an easy and one-sided battle. In this battle, he led his troops and charged forward. The Northern Barbarians did not have the ability to fight back.
As he charged and killed, he suddenly felt that there was an empty space in front of him …
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