"Brother-in-law, hurry up, or we won't be able to catch up." Xu Miaoqing urged King Yan on the side.
King Yan nodded helplessly, and then ordered the entire army to march at full speed.
This is already the third day of their march, and they are only more than a hundred miles away from Datong Mansion.
King Zhu Di of Yan personally led 10,000 cavalry to Datong Prefecture this time, not only to rescue Datong Prefecture and attack the Mongols.
He wanted to sell a favor to King Zhu Gui, and then he could get more three-eyed guns from Zhu Gui.
That's why he led his army before Xu Miaoqing set off.
The one hundred three-eyed blunderbuss he obtained earlier played a very important role in several subsequent small-scale conflicts with the Mongols.
So much so that now the Mongols will move around when they see his troops.
Now he is determined to obtain firearms such as the three-eyed gun.
It's just that he gathered hundreds of craftsmen, but they were able to imitate this three-eyed gun in five ways.
As for the old-fashioned firearms of the Ming army, he even looked down upon them.
In the past three days, they had been traveling almost day and night in order to reach Datong Mansion as soon as possible.
Finally, after marching for another half a day, the outline of Datong Mansion appeared in Xu Miaoqing's eyes.
A smile appeared on her face for the first time along the way.
But next to her, King Yan Zhu Di had a solemn look on his face.
"What's wrong? Brother-in-law." Xu Miaoqing noticed something was wrong in his expression and asked immediately.
"Why are there no troops outside the city? Is it because we arrived too late?" Zhu Di said.
"Impossible, Zhu Gui has a lot of clever ideas. It's impossible for the Mongols to break through Datong Mansion so quickly." Xu Miaoqing said loudly.
"Princess Dai, don't get excited. According to reports, the Mongols have gathered the strength of all the surrounding tribes this time, with a total of 30,000 cavalry. Even if I encounter them, I will not dare to face the enemy head-on. I can only say
The acting king is still too hasty."
Zhu Di shook his head and said.
"You don't know Zhu Gui at all, why do you say that?"
Xu Miaoqing bit her lip and said.
Zhu Di looked at Xu Miaoqing in surprise.
He once heard Princess Yan, Xu Miaoqing's sister, say that Xu Miaoqing and Du Zhugui were very disgusted.
But judging from her current attitude, it seems that this is not the case.
What happened to make the second lady of the Xu family change her personality so drastically?
"Okay, no matter what, let's take a closer look. Even if Datong Mansion is breached, as long as Dai Wang is fine, there is still a chance to save everything."
After King Yan finished speaking, he once again ordered the entire army to speed up.
Soon, a dark group of cavalry arrived not far from the main entrance of Datong Mansion.
But the situation in front of them made them a little confused.
It does seem like there was a battle here, and there are still some bodies that have not been cleaned up.
It just seems that they are all the corpses of Mongolian cavalry, and there is no Han Chinese among them.
Look towards the city wall again.
The gate is intact, and there are many wooden stacks on the city wall. It seems that they were used by the Mongols to attack the city, but they are only one-third of the height and are still far away from the city wall.
Where are the Mongols? Are they in the city? But how did they capture Datong Prefecture intact? Is there a traitor in the city?
King Yan and his entourage were all thinking about this matter.
The soldiers patrolling the city wall were also startled when they discovered a large group of dark cavalry under the city wall.
They thought the Mongols were coming back.
It wasn't until someone discovered the flag of King Yan in the military formation that they realized it was King Yan's army.
So someone immediately went to the Daiwang Mansion to report the matter.
When Zhu Gui heard about it, he immediately rode his horse and came to the city wall with his bodyguards.
When he saw Xu Miaoqing and the handsome man standing with her, he immediately ordered the soldiers to open the city gate.
"Look, Zhu Gui is fine, so I said he will be fine."
Xu Miaoqing said with a smile when she saw Zhu Gui on the top of the city.
Zhu Di nodded, expressing his agreement, but there were countless angry questions in his heart.
Datong Mansion is fine, but what about the 30,000 Mongolian cavalry who attacked here?
That was quite a force. If he were to attack Yanjing, he couldn't guarantee that he could defeat the opponent so quickly.
Zhu Gui personally led people out of the city to greet him.
"Fourth brother, Miaoqing."
Zhu Gui rode up to the two of them, his excitement was palpable, but most of his eyes were on Xu Miaoqing.
"Ahem, Dai Wang, where are the Mongols?"
After Zhu Di nodded, he immediately asked.
"Mongols? They have all returned to the grassland? Don't Fourth Brother know?" Zhu Gui asked in surprise.
"Returning to the grassland? I really don't know this. It's just because I have been marching at full speed along the way. It's all because of Princess Dai."
Although Zhu Di still had some doubts, he couldn't help but joked.
Xu Miaoqing made a face at Zhu Gui, and then whispered to him: "I knew you could do it."
Zhu Gui chuckled and said, "Let's go to the city and talk."
So the three of them entered Datong Mansion with their personal guards.
As for the ten thousand cavalry, they naturally had to camp outside the city. They had been running all the way, but they were exhausted.
Dai Wangfu.
Zhu Gui prepared a grand banquet to welcome Zhu Di.
The banquet was attended by businessmen from the Datong Chamber of Commerce and some local officials.
Of course, this also includes Sun Shangqing, the censor of disaster relief.
Sun Yushi had been chatting happily with Queen Yan ever since he met her, without any of the unruly look he had when he was with Zhu Gui.
But Zhu Gui didn't care.
On the contrary, King Yan was a little confused about Sun Shangqing staying in Datong Mansion for so long.
Because Yanjing also belongs to the disaster-stricken area this time, and Sun Shangqing only stayed in Shandong for four days, but stayed in Datong Prefecture for more than twenty days, his next stop should be to Yanjing.
Sun Shangqing was also a little embarrassed about this, and immediately promised that he would go to Yanjing with King Yan this time to inspect the disaster situation.
Speaking of the disaster, Zhu Di expressed great curiosity about Datong Prefecture, which was also in the disaster area but not affected at all.
When he learned what Zhu Gui had done in Datong Mansion during this period, he showed a very surprised look on his face.
"It's a good way to attack the landlords and gentry and take all their land back to the court. Even my brother doesn't have the courage to act as king."
Zhu Di said with some emotion.
In fact, Zhu Di was able to continue fighting the Mongols in Yanjing and even raised a cavalry force of ten thousand people because of the strong support of the local gentry.
If he is asked to attack these wealthy families and benefit ordinary people, he cannot do it no matter what.
At the same time, Zhu Di also expressed his interest in Zhu Gui's method of making salt.
It's not that Zhu Di was not interested in the salt tax, but Yanjing was not a salt-producing area. Even if he controlled the salt tax, there would not be much left over except the annual tax, not to mention the risk of being liquidated by Zhu Yuanzhang.