That night, three people were sent from Shanhaiguan and rushed to the outskirts of Kaiping City overnight. They entered the city in a basket.
At this moment, Hou Hai from the Northern Office of the Defense Department had not yet finished his duty and was still interrogating criminals under the order of the emperor. When he heard the news, he immediately went to meet the newcomer!
Among the three men, two were accomplices of the gang of treacherous people under the Dai King. When they saw that the situation was not good, they turned against them and fled to inform the emperor. The other one was a household of the Ming army. After the Joseon envoys were attacked, they fled to Shanhaiguan.
Faced with a traitor within the group and the exposure of his own identity, a criminal leader named Yang Pu was finally willing to confess!
"Name?" Hou Hai picked up the brush and dipped it quickly in the inkstone a few times.
The chained man sitting on a stool ac
"Huang Yan is missing!" an eunuch said in front of Zhu Gaosui.Zhu Gaosui was sitting on the throne in the main hall of the Zhao Palace. He was horrified when he heard this. He stood up and glared, "Huang Yan ran away?!"The eunuch in front of him was Huang Yan's godson Huang Taiping.Huang Taiping looked as if his parents had died, uglier than Gao Sui's. Huang Taiping nodded continuously and said, "I haven't seen him since the day before yesterday! At first I thought that Eunuch Huang had left the palace for something, but then I heard some news and I thought something was wrong! I also remembered that not long ago, Huang Yan met a Wuliangha Mongol. Could he have gone to Mongolia?!"Zhu Gaosui pointed at Huang Taiping's nose and asked, "Why are you reporting this now?"Huang Taiping said with a sad face, "I deserve to die!""Huang Yan, I treated you well, but you hurt me so much..." Gao Sui muttered with gritted teeth.At this moment
The plain was filled with the rumbling sound of horses' hooves, and more than 20,000 cavalrymen were surging on the land. Some of the horses were marching slowly in formation, while others were jogging in a circuitous manner. The cavalry occupied a large area, and the presence of more than 20,000 cavalrymen was earth-shaking.The Ming Emperor's central army flag fluttered in the wind. Guards in distinctive armor surrounded Zhu Gaoxu, and the group of horses gradually walked onto the official road.Just then, a shout came from the road ahead, "Urgent report that the vanguard general is safe!"Two riders galloped forward to interrogate him. After a while, the messenger walked to Zhu Gaoxu's horse, knelt on one knee and presented a memorial, saying, "The King of Zhao sent the eunuch Huang Taiping from the King of Zhao's palace, and a memorial. General Ping ordered me to take the memorial and present it to His Majesty by fast horse!"Zhu Gaoxu asked Chen W
On July 20, Ping An led the vanguard army to approach Datong City and set up camp five miles away. Three days later, Zhu Gaoxu led the main cavalry to arrive, with more than 30,000 cavalrymen marching to the city of Datong!The autumn wind was bleak, and the dust in the air was mixed with fallen leaves; outside Datong City, soldiers and horses were surging, and there was a murderous atmosphere. The cavalry of various units had deployed troops in all directions, and there were running horses everywhere. The neighing and the sound of horse hooves in the air brought the breath of war.Zhu Gaoxu rode his horse to the east gate of the city and looked at the flags and weapons on the tower for a while. He turned to Hou Hai and said, "Shoot the letter of surrender to the top of the city and ask the King of Dai to send someone out to talk."Before Hou Hai could reply, he suddenly stared at the city gate in the distance. Zhu Gaoxu turned around and saw that the city g
On both sides of the Yang River, there was a vast plain. Between the ridges of the fields, people, horses, mule carts, and wheelbarrows formed long lines, and among the people, swords and guns stood in rows, and flags fluttered in the wind.Parallel teams were marching westwards, stretching out from north to south. If people looked ahead, they could see endless long dragons, moving in the sunlight. There were also war horses running back and forth between the teams, raising clouds of smoke.The virtuous lady Li, sitting in a carriage, lifted a corner of the curtain on the left. What came into view was the shadows of the mountains in the distance to the south, which were like dark clouds pressing down on the horizon. Then she saw some cattle and sheep moving along the river on the grass by the river.The eunuch Cao Fu was riding a horse beside her, so the virtuous princess asked in Chinese, "Eunuch Cao, have we reached the Mongolian steppes?""It's earl
The next morning, nearly 300,000 soldiers and able-bodied men of the Ming army set out for the northern expedition. Amid the sound of trumpets, the vast land between the Yanghe River and the Qingshui River was filled with people and horses, like a sea of people.The red morning sun hung in the sky, while the earth was sprinkled with yellow sunlight. Under the slanting sunlight, the colors of everything were very saturated, and the soldiers seemed to be covered with a layer of orange-yellow paint.Countless helmets were surging, and many wide-brimmed iron helmets were seen, which were different from the troops on the northern frontier. Because more than half of the troops were mobilized from the capital, and the south was rainy, the helmets were all wide-brimmed.The sound of horse hooves and loud footsteps mixed together, and a thick "rumbling" noise resounded between heaven and earth."Swoosh!" A loud eagle cry was heard in the air.Zhu Gaoxu, h
Huang Yan and his group headed north across a desert, and soon they saw an endless grassland.Between the grasslands, a winding river several dozen steps wide flows into Bui Er Hai (Lake Beier). On both sides of the river, there are large tracts of reeds, and the snow-white reed flowers dance up and down in the wind. Cows, sheep, horsemen, and tents gradually come into view.Suddenly, Huang Yan saw two teams of horsemen in the distance, encircling this side!"What do they want to do?!" Huang Yan asked hurriedly.The Wuliangha people gestured downward with their palms, "Don't worry, Eunuch Huang. The leaders in the Hulun River area have all received benefits from me. Tuotuo also knows some people. Once they know that Tuotuo is under Arutai's command, they will not dare to do anything!"Huang Yan nervously watched the troops on the grassland. Seeing that they were all carrying bows and arrows, his face turned pale with panic.The Wuliangha pe
Zhu Gaoxu galloped to the edge of a lava platform and looked into the distance. A gray city appeared near the river bend.Kaipingwei! This city was originally the Shangdu (Xilinguole League) of the Yuan Dynasty. It was once a big city, but now it has declined beyond recognition. The city now sits alone on the earth.From Xinghe Qianhu Suo (Zhangbei County, Zhangjiakou) to Kaipingwei, the distance is more than 800 miles from north to south and even wider from east to west, with only two post stations along the way. The court's control over this area can only be regarded as better than nothing.The Ming army took about 20 days to travel the 800-li route. They encountered no enemy forces along the way, and even saw few people. Suddenly, the soldiers saw the city and shouted excitedly from far and near.Zhu Gaoxu turned his horse around, took a detour back to the post road, and then followed the army and continued marching towards Kaiping Weicheng.T
From late August to early September, the Ming army of 250,000 infantry and cavalry and tens of thousands of able-bodied men were divided into eight armies, maintaining a formation that could reinforce each other and marching all the time. The army had already entered the area where the Tatars often moved.There were no more cities or villages along the way, let alone government post stations. It was a desolate place. The combined population of all the people within a radius of hundreds of miles should not be as large as the number of the Ming army.It rarely rains on the grasslands at this time of year, so with so many people on the march, they must take roads with sufficient water sources. In addition to rivers, Zhu Gaoxu would occasionally see lakes, all of which were named Naoer, because it was a name first given by the Mongols and translated from the phonetic notation.Around the "Nar" in front, thick smoke and flickering flames were billowing. Zhu Gaoxu