Xu Miaoqing went to interrogate the Mongolian prisoners excitedly. Zhu Gui called a soldier and asked him to lead a group of people to Ganzhou to contact Su Wang Zhu Kai, while he wanted to understand the battle situation from the outside.
After half a stick of incense, Xu Miaoqing returned proudly with two Mongolian prisoners.
"Look, if the stupid princess takes action, there's nothing she can't do."
Zhu Gui looked at the soldier beside him with questioning eyes, and the latter nodded helplessly.
It seemed like she felt sorry that they had to take care of such a trivial matter personally.
"What's the question?" Zhu Gui looked at Xu Miaoqing.
"Just ask him directly, he knows everything now." Xu Miaoqing said proudly.
Zhu Gui had no choice but to look at the Mongolian captive in person: "How many people and tribes are you participating in this attack on King Su's fiefdom?"
"Sir, there are more than fifty large tribes and thirty thousand cavalry." The prisoner said tremblingly.
"Fifty large tribes with only 30,000 people? It seems they are not that good compared to the Mongols outside Datong Mansion." Xu Miaoqing said with some disdain.
At the beginning, Datong Prefecture was also besieged by 30,000 Mongolian cavalry, but finally won.
In comparison, King Su has now lost one-third of his fiefdom, which can be said to be very embarrassing.
Zhu Gui naturally knew what Xu Miaoqing meant, but he couldn't agree with it.
In fact, he was able to win because of other plans, rather than defeating 30,000 Mongolian cavalry on the frontal battlefield.
Not to mention that King Su would never have weapons as sharp as his, such as red barbarian cannons or even war horses.
"Okay, now that the information has been collected, let's take these prisoners down and let the new soldiers practice shooting."
Zhu Gui said.
Soon, there was a burst of intensive gunshots in the distance, which scared the villagers into hiding in their houses and did not dare to come out.
But Zhu Gui has become accustomed to this.
Now is the time of war. Taking these prisoners will only slow down his marching speed. It is even more impossible to let them go. They can only be used to train new soldiers.
That night Zhu Gui once again sent several teams of scouts to explore in various directions.
At noon the next day, the soldiers who were responsible for contacting Ganzhou came back with their men, but there was an additional general in the team who looked like he had been worn out by the world.
"I am sent to Jiang Ning, the captain of the Ganzhou Guard Station, to pay my respects to the king." Jiang Ning half-knelt on the ground and gave a military salute to Zhu Gui.
Zhu Gui nodded and said, "How is the situation in Ganzhou?"
Jiang Ning's face looked a little ugly and said: "The battle situation is shocking. The Mongols have been attacking the city more and more frequently in the past few days. I hope the prince can enter the city to discuss the big plan with King Su."
"Do the Mongols have engineering equipment?" Zhu Gui asked.
"There are only some simple ladders." Jiang Ning said.
"Then why did King Su lose several cities in a row?" Zhu Gui asked puzzledly.
"Actually, it was actually because there were Mongolian spies in the army, and they worked together inside and outside to seize the city." Jiang Ning lowered his head even further.
Zhu Gui was stunned for a moment. He did not expect that there would be Mongolian spies among the Ming army.
But now that it was over, he couldn't say anything more.
"Captain Jiang, as you can see, I have only a hundred cavalry in my group. Entering the city will only waste mobility, and it will not be of much help in defending the city. It is better to contain the enemy on the outside."
Zhu Gui thought for a moment and said.
"However, King Dai is the supervisor of the army. There are still three thousand soldiers from Datong Mansion in the city waiting for King Dai to dispatch them. King Su cannot dispatch them."
Jiang Ning said helplessly.
This was the real reason why he came here. If the reinforcements from other vassals were anything to go by, they would all obey King Su's command.
However, Xu Yingxu was not only the general of the Datong Prefecture Guards, but also the second son of Xu Guogong. He was a general conferred by the emperor himself, so he could not dispatch him.
What Jiang Ning did not say was that if it hadn't been for Xu Yingxu, Ganzhou would have been captured by the Mongols long ago.
But the more this happened, the more shameless Prince Su's face became. So as soon as he heard that Zhu Gui's soldiers had arrived in the city, he immediately sent his confidants to invite Zhu Gui into the city.
In Zhu Lai's view, although Zhu Gui, the acting king, has been very popular in Nanjing recently, he is still only a fourteen-year-old boy. As an elder brother, he can naturally control him easily.
Zhu Gui naturally had no way of knowing what Zhu Mei was thinking, but he still trusted Xu Yingxu very much.
He thought for a while and said: "I have decided not to enter the city, but you go back and tell King Su that if you want to end this war as soon as possible, it is best to hand over the command to General Xu. Even if you can't do that, at least you can
We need to discuss with him more before taking any action."
Seeing Zhu Gui's decisive tone, Jiang Ning had no choice but to sigh and leave.
Zhu Gui asked the soldiers about what he had seen in Ganzhou.
It turned out that several nearby vassals and the imperial court had sent reinforcements, but the situation of the Ming army was still very unoptimistic.
In fact, the previous defeats had demoralized the Ming army, and the Mongols obviously did not want to just grab it and leave this time.
They want to occupy the city and look like they want to fight against the entire Ming Dynasty.
The soldiers also brought a map of the entire vicinity of Ganzhou from Xu Yingxu, as well as a letter from him.
The letter said that more and more nearby Mongolian tribes were gathering in Ganzhou and that this war would be very difficult. It was hoped that Zhu Gui could prepare for the war in Datong Prefecture.
The scouts who went out to explore the road have returned one after another, but they were all attacked by the Mongols, and many people were injured. Fortunately, due to the gap in firepower, there were no casualties.
But this also means that the Mongols already know his movements.
So Zhu Gui immediately ordered the entire army to start moving, leaving only a small team to help the villagers move towards Ganzhou.
Sure enough, when Zhu Gui and the others were less than a hundred miles away from the north, they saw a column of smoke rising into the sky and rushing towards the direction they came from.
"Zhu Gui, we have such powerful firearms, why don't we fight them head-on? As long as we can defeat them, we can reduce the pressure on Ganzhou City."
Xu Miaoqing asked in confusion.
"You are stupid. We have less than a hundred people, and the opponent has at least a thousand people. And don't underestimate the Mongolian cavalry. Even if we really win, as you said, we will suffer a lot of casualties, which is not good for me.
A good deal.”
Zhu Gui said.
"Then what do you want to do?" Xu Miaoqing asked.
"With so many Mongolian cavalry gathered in one place, the daily consumption of food and grass is definitely not a small amount. The best way now is to set a fire."
Zhu Gui said.
"Set fire? Okay, but do you know where the Mongolians' food and grass are?"
Xu Miaoqing's eyes lit up and she asked immediately.
“Can’t we find out if we catch the Mongolians and ask them?”