On the 27th day of the twelfth month in the 25th year of Wanli, Shiling Pass was lost. The Ming Army lost more than 10,000 soldiers and generals. They suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat. The governor of Ming Xuan, Wang Shiyang, decided to move the entire army back and make Taiyuan the main battlefield. He would gather 130,000 soldiers from Shanxi and Yulin towns to encircle and annihilate the 10,000 Northern Barbarians who were invading from the south.
There were 40,000 cavalrymen and 90,000 infantrymen in the 130,000 Ming Army. They were all deployed on the open land to the north of Taiyuan. The main camp alone could encircle the entire Taiyuan City. With such a tight defense, the people in Taiyuan City felt an unprecedented sense of security.
Moreover, Taiyuan was known as one of the toughest cities in China. It had a very good defense tradition. Everyone felt that this time, even if the Ming Army was useless, they would not allow 10,000 people to destroy the formation of 130,000 people. The Ming Army still had the fighting power of the border army, unlike the soldiers of the inland guards who were chased and beaten by dozens of Japanese pirates.
Their thoughts seemed to have come true.
On the third day of the first month of the 26th year of Wanli, news came from Yangqu, the last stronghold of the Ming Army to the north of Taiyuan.
The Northern Barbarians had been defeated!
On the second day of the first month, the Northern Barbarians gathered 8,000 people and dismounted to attack Yangqu. The defending general of Yangqu, Wei Zhen, followed Wang Shiyang's orders and resolutely counterattacked and actively defended. He fought to the death in order to consume a large number of the Northern Barbarians. After a day and a night of fighting, the Northern Barbarians were badly battered at the foot of Yangqu City.
That night, after Wei Zhen had arranged the retreat route, he decided to carry out a night attack. It was the last time he took the initiative to attack, and then he retreated. He did not defend Yangqu anymore because the people here had already finished migrating.
Initially, they planned to retreat immediately after the first attack. But who would have thought that the Northern Invaders would be defeated again and again. They did not even have the time to organize a proper counterattack. They fought weakly, as if they had not eaten. In a short time, they had lost hundreds of corpses, and then they retreated on all fronts.
Wei Zhen originally wanted to fight for the last time. In the end, he won the first victory of the Northern Barbarians since they came south. At dawn, the Northern Barbarians retreated from Yangqu. Wei Zhen calculated that at least 800 Northern Barbarians were killed and more than 200 beheaded. It was a rare victory.
Therefore, he continued to lead the troops to chase and kill the Northern Barbarians all the way to the Shiling Pass. There, he and the Northern Barbarians fought a series of bloody battles at the Shiling Pass, but it was a draw.
This group of fierce Northern Barbarians seemed to have suddenly weakened. They could not resist the vanguard of the Ming Army. If the Shiling Pass was not controlled by them and Wei Zhen did not have a lot of troops, the Shiling Pass could be recovered in one fell swoop.
Wei Zhen was overjoyed and immediately reported the news to Wang Shiyang. Wang Shiyang was shocked. After confirming it again and again, he confirmed that the Northern Barbarians had really retreated from Yangqu and retreated to the Shiling Pass. The situation had been reversed!
Could it be that the Northern Barbarians were tired after the continuous attacks and did not have the strength to continue the attack? The strategic goal of layers of defense was achieved? And it was doubled?
Wang Shiyang was a little confused. He was worried that this was a strategy of the Northern Barbarians to deliberately show their weakness. Therefore, he only sent his deputy general with 10,000 infantry to support the Shiling Pass. As a result, on the fifth day of the first month, the Shiling Pass was recovered by the Ming Army. The Ming Army beheaded 180 Northern Barbarians and annihilated nearly 1,000 Northern Barbarians. More Northern Barbarians fled to the north.
According to Wei Zhen's report, he found a lot of empty grain bags. There were some grain bags with some grain in them, but the amount was very small. It seemed that they had been eaten. Therefore, he judged that the Northern Barbarians had stolen some grain from Datong and then went south in an attempt to get more grain.
But before they could get more grain, they were short of grain because of the strategy of strengthening the defense and clearing the field. They had no grain and had no desire to continue fighting. They had to retreat. And because they did not have enough grain to eat, their combat power was sharply reduced.
The Ming Army had gained the upper hand.
Such a report still puzzled Wang Shiyang. He had a feeling that the Northern Invaders would not suddenly decline and that there must be some conspiracy behind it. He sent another 10,000 horsemen to the north to assist in the battle, while he himself led his main force to defend Taiyuan and stood ready for battle. He also sent out sentries everywhere. He suspected that the Northern Invaders had hidden some of their troops and were planning to attack Taiyuan by surprise.
A few more days passed. The fruitless sentries and the continuous victories of the 30,000 troops north to attack made Wang Shiyang more and more uncertain. He could not imagine that the ferocious Northern Barbarians would decline like this. Could it be that they had run out of grain and had no choice but to retreat?
It was hard to imagine.
But at the same time, the Ming Army recovered Xinzhou. Following that, they fought a great battle with the Northern Barbarians at Xinkou. They killed more than 150 and recovered Xinkou. The Northern Barbarians continued to be defeated. Wei Zhen requested more reinforcements north to counterattack in hopes of recovering more lost land. They also went north to recapture Pingxing Pass and rush to Yanmen Pass, causing the Northern Barbarians' strategic plan to completely fail.
The repeated defeats of the Northern Barbarians did not make Wang Shiyang waver. Wang Shiyang firmly believed that there was something wrong with the Northern Barbarians, but he could not find what the problem was. Wang Shiyang could tolerate it, but the generals of the army could not.
The frontline army won battle after battle. Every day, there were beheadings and gains. But they stayed in Taiyuan without any achievements. It was fine if you said you wanted the Northern Barbarians to continue to grow stronger. But the Northern Barbarians suffered repeated defeats. Of course, they were willing to carry forward the traditional virtue of pushing a wall when it was down.
The local army in Taiyuan was fine. They only wanted to defend their land. But the reinforcements from Yulin Town were different. They had come from afar to fight … no, for military achievements!
If it was not for military achievements, why did they come? Now that the Northern Barbarians were so easy to bully … and so savage, it was time for the men of my generation to go and give them a head-on blow!
Wang Shiyang looked speechlessly at the generals who had come to Yulin Town to ask for battle.
He really did not know what these people were doing when they were discussing the candidates to guard Yangqu a few days ago. Now that they saw that the persimmon was soft and easy to pinch, they were all braver than anyone else!
Although Wang Shiyang felt disdain for the morality of these people, he could not find a suitable reason to stop them from asking for battle. Although he could suppress them for a while with his status as governor, he could not suppress them forever. After all, it was difficult to offend the public. They would say, "You only let your own army fight for military achievements and treat us harshly?"
Damn the conflict between the factions in the army! Not only the generals, but even he, a civil official governor, was dragged into it! He was seen by the people of Yulin Town as the chief leader of the Shanxi faction. He was specially at odds with them. They had come from afar but were not allowed to fight. What was the meaning of this?
After a few days of suppression, he could not suppress it anymore. Wang Shiyang had no choice but to allow 10,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry to go north to help in the battle. He then allowed 10,000 cavalry to reinforce Yanmen Pass.
The people of Yulin Town were somewhat calmer.
Just then, news of Ding Xiang's recovery came from the frontlines. This time, it wasn't just the soldiers of Yulin Town, even the soldiers of Taiyuan Town began to request to go north to assist in the battle. Now was the time when morale was at its peak. How could they just watch as others took the credit while they got nothing?
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