As the commander-in-chief, Xiao Ruxun's orders were very effective.
On the evening of the eighth day of the third month, Li Rusong sent someone to report that they had broken into a city, killed more than 2,100 Northern Barbarians, and rescued 10,000 civilians. They were being escorted and transported. He requested for Xiao Ruxun to receive them and continue to lead the troops to attack with him.
On the morning of the ninth day of the third month, Nurhachi sent someone to report that they had broken into a city, killed more than 1,500 Northern Barbarians, and rescued 10,000 civilians. He requested for Xiao Ruxun to send someone to receive them and protect the civilians. He would also continue to attack.
On the afternoon of the ninth day of the third month, as Xiao Ruxun was arranging for the troops to distribute rations to the arriving civilians, reports from Li Rumei, Li Rubai, and Wang Hui arrived. They had each broken into a city and killed more than 10,000 Northern Barbarians. Among them, Li Rubai found more than 1,000 Northern Barbarians in the northern city, and more than 3,000 Northern Barbarians, including the elderly, the weak, the women, and the children.
The Northern Barbarians were basically unprepared. They were befuddled as if they were celebrating a festival. When the army suddenly attacked, they were at a loss. Basically, one wave of attack would be enough to destroy them.
In other words, the north of Summer Rice Village had already been occupied by the Northern Barbarians. It was not a military occupation, but a complete occupation. It was as if they had conquered them. It was like a reenactment of the Five Barbarians Chaotic Times.
Because even the elderly, the weak, the women, and the children who usually did not show their faces were here!
However, the current dynasty government of the Central Plains was not the Jin government of the past. The Zhu family was not the Sima family. The national policy of not compromising with the Barbarians was shouted loudly. Expelling the Tartars was definitely a politically correct slogan. No one could say anything wrong when it came to expelling the Tartars.
Moreover, Xiao Ruxun really felt that the intelligence of these Northern Barbarians was very touching.
When the Eastern Jin and Southern Song were defeated, they fled to the south. Although they only had half of the country left, they did not give up on the northern expedition. There were always people who dared to go north. Sui and Daming, who inherited their cause of unification, achieved more complete victories.
This was especially so for the Great Ming Dynasty. Two generations of emperors had gone on thirteen expeditions to the north, comparable to Emperor Wu of Han's attack on the Xiongnu. In the end, it was Emperor Yongle, Zhu Di, who fought all the way to Wolf Storey Mountain, reinstating Wolf Storey Mountain as the highest military achievement of the Han.
Huo Qubing was not the only one who was conferred the title of Wolf Storey Mountain. There was also Zhu Di. The ones who actually fought their way to Wolf Storey Mountain included Li Jing, Hou Junji, and other generals from the Tang Dynasty. However, only Huo Qubing and Zhu Di actually held the ceremony. Huo Qubing was the first, while Zhu Di was the emperor.
Do you think that such a stubborn Great Ming Dynasty would just watch them occupy the Han territory and not plan to rest and recuperate here?
From a political point of view, China was invaded. As an orthodox dynasty, it was necessary to take back the lost land. This was absolutely correct. If they did not take back the land, it would cause unrest in the hearts of the people. It might even be impossible to be recognized as an orthodox unified dynasty. For example, the Song dynasty was never recognized as a unified dynasty.
From a military point of view, the three hundred years of the Song dynasty made the Han people suffer without the Great Wall. Shi Jingtang ceded the sixteen states of Yan and Yun to the Khitans, which opened the way for foreign tribes to cross the Great Wall and enter the hinterland of Huaxia. Without the Great Wall, the entire North China Plain was flat and had no buffer. It was extremely difficult to stop large-scale cavalry attacks.
After learning this lesson, Daming paid great attention to the defense of the Great Wall after recovering the Yan and Yun regions. He rebuilt the Great Wall several times. Now, you let the Northern Barbarians cross the Great Wall and settle in Datong?
What a joke!
If Zhu Yijun knew about this, he would fly into a rage and order Xiao Ruxun to immediately expel all the Northern Barbarians and slaughter them as revenge.
Xiao Ruxun really did write an official memorial. There was no need to hide this news. When he ordered the army to reclaim the lost land and kill the Northern Barbarians, he also racked his brains to write an official memorial.
In this memorial, he exaggerated the things that the Northern Barbarians had done in Datong and Shanxi by three to five times. He played up the tragedy in various ways and even asked Xu Guangqi, the real High Scholar, to polish it.
Then, he would submit this memorial to the imperial court and use it as a weapon to incite public opinion to attack Guihua City. Of course, he could use his special status as a general outside the Great Wall to forcefully lead his troops to attack outside the Great Wall, but the consequences would still be severe.
In order to make it easier for him to clean up the mess, it was necessary to incite the desire of the orthodox scholars in Daming's imperial court to avenge the humiliation.
He raised this matter to the level of national righteousness, supplemented by the tragic situation, and stirred up the matter to the level of political correctness. This would increase the possibility of the imperial court allowing him to attack Guihua City to avenge the humiliation.
As for whether Zhu Yijun would support this matter, it was hard to say. However, Xiao Ruxun felt that Zhu Yijun hoped that he would stay as the Governor of the four sides for a while longer so that he could help him complete his plan.
Xiao Ruxun also wanted to leave the Great Wall to see the real situation outside. The current situation might be different from before. He wanted to investigate it so that he could give Zhu Yijun a practical, detailed, and feasible northern strategy to turn passivity into initiative.
Zhu Yijun's support was still helpful to Xiao Ruxun. At the very least, it could have some influence on the cabinet.
Xu Guangqi could not see Xiao Ruxun's real intention, but he could see that Xiao Ruxun wanted to attack outside the Great Wall. He could clearly see that Xiao Ruxun had exaggerated the tragic situation of the people here by several times. He even wrote that "Northern Barbarians eat children and young women as rations."
This was obviously nonsense. The Northern Barbarians here had so much food that they could not finish it. They were even richer than the food of the Ming Dynasty Army. Now, there was enough food to feed 100,000 refugees. With so much food to eat, why would the Northern Barbarians eat people?
However, since Xiao Ruxun had written it this way, would anyone defend the Northern Barbarians?
"Governor-General, did you write it this way to get the court to agree to the army attacking outside the Great Wall?"
Xu Guangqi put away his brush and ink and looked at Xiao Ruxun.
"Of course. If I didn't write it this way and not let the court officials feel humiliated, why would they allow the army to cross the Great Wall and attack outside the Great Wall? From their point of view, fighting a war is spending money, and spending money is cutting off their lifeline. For their lifeline, what else can they not give up? Taizu's entire strategy has been abandoned by them. What a pity! "
Xiao Ruxun felt somewhat helpless.
"An army attacking outside the Great Wall does indeed need to spend a lot of money, and in the past, they did not get much. Therefore, there will probably be people who feel that attacking outside the Great Wall is not worth it and do not support it, right?"
Xu Guangqi seemed to be exonerating someone.
"Mr. Xu's words are wrong."
Xiao Ruxun said solemnly, "Can attacking outside the Great Wall and attacking the enemy countries be considered purely with money? Or are the court officials only looking at their own losses and not seeing that the losses outside are greater than ours? "
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