On the 11th day of the first month of the 26th year of Wanli, 35,000 Northern Barbarians attacked Taiyuan City and it fell.
When the cabinet received this news, everyone, including Zhao Zhigao, sank into deep shock and confusion.
Wasn't it said that after Xiao Ruxun arrived, all problems would be easily solved? Hadn't Xiao Ruxun already fought his way out of Zijing Pass? Wasn't Wang Shiyang's hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in Taiyuan? How did the Northern Barbarians manage to take Taiyuan?
Wang Shiyang's memorial asking for forgiveness answered all the questions.
This time, the Northern Barbarians may have had the help of a master when they moved south.
The 35,000 Northern Barbarians who had left Zijing Pass did not return north. Instead, they quietly hid in Shanxi and attacked Taiyuan City in a situation that no one expected. The reason Taiyuan City fell so easily was because there were only 20,000 soldiers defending Taiyuan City at the time.
The rest of the defending soldiers went to counterattack.
The Northern Barbarians despicably used about 10,000 soldiers as bait. They retreated in defeat and lured the Ming Army's main force north. Although Wang Shiyang felt it was strange and did not allow the army to go north, the army strongly requested it. Wang Shiyang could not suppress it and could only agree. Later, seeing that there were no problems, Wang Shiyang also went north.
Taiyuan became empty.
As for the question of why Xiao Ruxun did not play a role that everyone was bewildered about, it was also explained.
Xiao Ruxun had just arrived at Xinzhou, where Wang Shiyang was, on the 11th day of the first month to see Wang Shiyang and express his concerns. Almost at the same time, the sentries came to report that Taiyuan City was on fire and Taiyuan City was in danger. Xiao Ruxun had no time to counterattack before Taiyuan City was taken.
This matter had nothing to do with Xiao Ruxun. The main responsibility lay with Wang Shiyang and the Yulin cavalry who had insisted on going north and disobeyed Wang Shiyang's orders.
After learning of this news, Wang Shiyang was so angry that he vomited blood and fainted. Helpless, he could only temporarily entrust the governorship to Xiao Ruxun and ask Xiao Ruxun to help him clean up the mess. He lay helplessly in Xinzhou waiting for the court's punishment.
At the same time, Wang Shiyang formally requested the royal court to confer the position of Governor to Xiao Ruxun, allowing her to legitimately control the army and clean up the mess. The matter was urgent, and there was no need to appoint another Governor, because there was simply not enough time.
The cabinet was in chaos as if it had experienced a magnitude 8 earthquake. Zhao Zhigao stopped thinking about the grudge between the emperor and the ministers, Shen Yi stopped thinking about his resignation, and Shen Li stopped thinking about her disappointment. Everything made way for the inexplicable expansion of the war.
Taiyuan had fallen. The battle had completely escalated.
Coincidentally, at almost the same time, the secret memorial that Xiao Ruxun had sent to the Emperor through the secret line of the Brocade Guard also reached the Emperor's hands. The secret memorial was sent a day later than Wang Shiyang's, so the official memorial would also arrive a day later. However, the secret memorial allowed Zhu Yijun to learn more complete and important information a quarter of an hour earlier than the officials in the cabinet.
The Northern Barbarians used a stratagem to lure the tiger away from the mountain and diverted away the 130,000 main forces of Taiyuan. They were able to easily break through the city and destroy the most important areas in the city. All of the official facilities, including the King Of Jin's manor, were burned to the ground. Almost all of the officials were killed. None of the wealthy families in the city survived. They all died.
The only thing worth rejoicing about was that not many of the common people were implicated. The number of casualties was relatively small. The Northern Barbarians retreated of their own accord eight hours after breaking through Taiyuan. By the time Xiao Ruxun sent out the secret memorial, Taiyuan had already been recaptured.
The reason the Northern Barbarians were able to attack Taiyuan by surprise was because the Northern Barbarians had found the grain storage cave of the large Shanxi Jin merchants. Using the space in the cave to hide their troops and horses, they deceived Wang Shiyang's large-scale search for the enemy and successfully caused the main force of the Ming Army to move north and leave Taiyuan empty.
As for why Taiyuan City had been breached, Xiao Ruxun expressed that she was not too sure herself. That was because when she had just arrived at Xin Province, she had received a report that someone had seen black smoke rising from within Taiyuan City. But when she entered Taiyuan City to ask the citizens, some of them said that before Taiyuan City's gates had been breached, the Northern Invaders had already appeared in Taiyuan City and caught fire.
This was the fundamental reason why Taiyuan had collapsed and there had been no defensive battle.
After he investigated, he found that the first place to catch fire was the King Of Jin's residence, the center of Taiyuan. This point puzzled him because it meant that while the attack and defense of Taiyuan was still in progress, the King Of Jin's residence had already been burned down. Unless there had been Northern Barbarians spies who had snuck into Taiyuan beforehand, it was impossible.
Xiao Ruxun directly pointed out his doubts that had already been resolved and confirmed his analysis — someone had deliberately arranged for the Northern Barbarians to move south and provided the Northern Barbarians with grain along the way. The fourth and fifth year grain that the Northern Barbarians obtained had all been provided by someone, and the ones who could do this were the large Shanxi merchants.
The people of Shanxi had always had the habit of storing grain, and the large Shanxi merchants stored even more grain. This was no secret. The common people had little grain and could not store it all. Those who could store it were the large Shanxi merchants, and they stored a lot of it.
Originally, it did not matter, but the amount was too large, and the large Shanxi merchants controlled too much land. Just the seven grain storage caves that Xiao Ruxun knew contained 120,000 dans of grain, and there were even more grain storage caves that had not been explored in time.
Xiao Ruxun strongly suspected that all the military fields in Shanxi Datong had fallen into the hands of the rich Shanxi merchants, and that they had obtained a large amount of grain. They had taken it by force to avoid taxes and stored it in the grain storage caves.
They usually did not sell it, and would wait for disaster years, or sell it to the Northern Barbarians, or sell it at a high price to the affected people. According to Xiao Ruxun's estimation, the large Shanxi merchants in Datong had no less than a million dans of grain illegally stored by them. It was enough to help all the refugees in Datong survive the entire winter, and there was still a lot left.
Putting aside the whole of Datong this time, the reason why the Northern Invaders were able to move southward to Shanxi so quickly was that someone had provided them with a route and food, helping the Northern Invaders to quickly break through Pingxing Pass and open up a path to the south. They had beaten the Ming army into a complete mess and even went around in circles. Wang Shiyang had fallen into the trap.
However, the only commendable thing was that Wang Shiyang had the foresight to send the King Of Jin's family to Qi County early to avoid the war, so the King Of Jin was still safe.
Xiao Ruxun decided to chase after the Northern Barbarians, wipe them out, and then go north to counterattack Datong. However, it had to be said that the problems in Shanxi were very serious.
After that, Xiao Ruxun also mentioned that Wang Shiyang had entrusted the power of the governor to him, and gave some explanations. He also asked for instructions on the movement of the troops, and expressed that he would obey the Emperor's orders.
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