On the 11th day of the first month of the 25th year of the Wanli calendar, Taiyuan City was burning. Crimes continued, and tragedies continued.
On the 11th day of the first month of the 25th year of the Wanli calendar, Xiao Ruxun rushed to Taiyuan City with his army in full armor.
On the 11th day of the first month of the 25th year of the Wanli calendar, the main force of the Northern Barbarians under Lalik moved south from Taiyuan. They were sharpening their swords and eyeing covetously, but no one had predicted their whereabouts. Naturally, no one had anticipated the coming carnage.
However, the north of Taiyuan was already in chaos. The 90,000 main force of the Ming Army were all over the place. They were heading for Yanmen Pass and Pingxing Pass respectively, heading for the silver and women of their dreams. However, they had never expected that a summons would shatter their dreams.
Not only would they not get the silver and women, but if they did not move south as soon as possible, they would all be in danger of losing their heads. In the summons, except for the 10,000 infantry under General Wei Zhen of Shanxi and the 3,000 cavalry under General Yang of Yulin to support Pingxing Pass and Yanmen Pass according to the original plan, the other troops were to immediately return south and gather in Taiyuan.
The reason was that a group of 35,000 Northern Barbarians had suddenly attacked Taiyuan City. The odds were against Taiyuan City, and the rear of the entire Jin region had suffered a serious blow. If they did not return as soon as possible, not only would Shanxi be in danger, but their own lives would also be in danger, because the imperial court would definitely hold them accountable.
Another thing that surprised them was that Governor Wang Shiyang had vomited blood and fainted. Commandant Xiao Ruxun was temporarily in charge of the governor's seal and was in charge of all matters of the war.
In other words, from the moment Wang Shiyang made this decision, Xiao Ruxun was actually the most powerful person in the entire Shanxi theater of operations. He had the right to command the recruitment and dispatch of hundreds of thousands of troops.
They all had to obey Xiao Ruxun's orders, or they would be disobeying orders, and the Governor-General could remove them from their positions. Moreover, Xiao Ruxun was a favorite of the Emperor, and the possibility of him being reinstated in the future was very slim. Moreover, it was the first time that a military general had the authority of a Governor-General, which had historically only been held by civil officials, in the Daming Dynasty.
Even during wartime, even if it was an emergency, this was still a very strange thing. Daming was the first general to hold the power of an Governor-General since Tumu Castle. This was a very rare thing, and no one knew if it would be the last time. But since it had happened, they couldn't miss it.
On one hand, they had to deal with the deadly official business, and on the other hand, they were curious, so they hurriedly headed south.
The entire northern part of Shanxi was in a state of frenzy. Following Xiao Ruxun's movement south, the center of the Shanxi battle had once again shifted back to Taiyuan. In Xinzhou, where all of this was supposed to be the command center, Wang Shiyang was sitting behind his desk, personally writing a criminal document to be submitted to the Imperial Court.
Wang Shiyang was currently in good spirits and didn't seem to be sick in the slightest. Only, he was dressed in casual clothes and had a bandage tied around his head, giving him the appearance of a patient.
In reality, even his closest advisor, Zhou Xiangrong, didn't quite understand why Wang Shiyang had made such a shocking move. He had clearly spat out a mouthful of blood out of anger and would recover after two or three days of rest, but he had still announced to the public that he was bedridden and couldn't bear such a great responsibility, giving the Governor-General's authority to a military general.
Even if it was a Marquis, a general known as the number one general in the Daming Dynasty, who could wield such great authority after Tumu Castle and command hundreds of thousands of troops? This was simply unheard of, and yet Wang Shiyang had done it. With such great authority, he couldn't do it even if he was in a hurry!
Zhou Xiangrong really couldn't understand.
And at this moment, Wang Shiyang was actually writing his own confession, asking the Imperial Court to punish him for dereliction of duty. He also suggested the Imperial Court not to send another Governor-General, but to give the position of Governor-General of the four borders to Xiao Ruxun.
Firstly, the war was urgent, and secondly, even if someone else came, they might not be able to do better than Xiao Ruxun. After all, he was a famous general who had gone through hundreds of battles.
This was simply unheard of on top of unheard of, a miraculous story that had been unheard of for thousands of years!
Zhou Xiangrong couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Dong Weng, only Li Chengliang and Xiao Ruxun have military generals as Commanders-General. This time, His Majesty has made an exception for Xiao Ruxun to lead an army without your control. Giving him the Governor-General's authority can still be explained by saying that it was urgent, but to really make him Governor-General! Dong Weng, absolutely not! "
But Wang Shiyang was still calmly writing his report.
"Why not? Xiao Ruxun is a transcendent-rank Marquis. According to the Daming Dynasty's rules, it's very normal for a Duke, Marquis, or Earl to lead an army in battle. What can others say? "
Zhou Xiangrong couldn't believe that Wang Shiyang, who had been through the ups and downs of officialdom for so many years, could say something like this.
"Dong Weng! Ancestral rules are ancestral rules, but how many years has it been? In the future, Tumu Castle will be nothing more than empty words. You … you know this very well, don't you? Why are you doing this? Not only will this push Xiao Ruxun into the teeth of the storm, but more importantly, you will be roasted on the fire! "
Wang Shiyang wrote a few more words, then put down his brush. He loosened his arms and sighed.
"Sir, do you think that I'm safe now?"
Zhou Xiangrong was stunned.
"Sir, right now, right now, I'm already tied up. Someone has already lit a fire and is waiting for my report to be sent to the capital. Then, my life will be over. If I write as usual and take responsibility for my crimes, I'll definitely die!
If Taiyuan is finished, how many wealthy Jin merchants in the city will be finished? Once they're finished, the Jin officials will lose their foundation. What will happen then? Did the Jin officials offend just one or two people in the past? Did Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu offend just one or two people? Did they suppress just one or two people?
In the entire south, including Shandong and Liaodong, the sea merchants, salt merchants, and iron merchants all dreamed of tearing the Jin merchants apart. Now that someone had done it for them, they would be wild with joy!
And Sir, don't tell me that those four years of Thoughtless wheat have nothing to do with them. Even if we take ten thousand steps back and say that there really isn't anything to do with them, the grain is right here, and the evidence is irrefutable!
Who could hide such a thing? Do they really think that no one knows about their grain storage cave? It's not that they don't know, it's just that the Jin officials are too powerful and don't dare to say it!
Do they really think that the Imperial Bodyguard is useless? Apart from Lu Bing, Luo Sigong is the most capable commander of the Brocade Guards since Gia Longwan. Not to mention the entire Great Ming Dynasty, he has people in Korea and Japan. We also have a lot of Brocade Guards here, but why doesn't anyone say anything?
Because the Jin merchants are too powerful! No matter which faction it is, no one has the confidence to deal with the Jin merchants. They also have many internal problems and conflicts. If the Jin merchants bite back at them, who among them is clean? Rummaging through their ancestral graves, those are not the bones of their ancestors, but chests after chests of silver!
Even I know, how can Luo Sigong not know? How can the officials in the imperial court not know? How can the people in the south not know? They all know, they just don't dare to say it!
Now that the Mongolians have helped them to catch the Jin merchants unprepared, Datong is finished, and the Jin merchants lost one out of five of their martial arts. Taiyuan is finished, and the Jin merchants lost two out of five of their martial arts. Their strength is greatly reduced! Was there anyone who was indifferent?
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