Later Jin Jiannu gathered more than 200,000 troops, divided them into four groups, and entered the pass for the second time.
Beile Dege led the Eastern Route Army composed of the main force of the Two Blue Banners and the Mongolian soldiers to enter the fortress from Dushikou.
Daishan, Sahalian, Shuotuo and their son led the two red flags and the Mongolian soldiers to form the West Route Army, which entered the fortress from Desheng Fort.
The three brothers Azig, Dorgon and Duduo led the two white flags and the Mongolian soldiers from Longmenmen to attack Xuanfu.
Huang Taiji, the great Han Dynasty of the Later Jin Dynasty, personally led the main force of the Two Yellow Banners, and the newly surrendered Han army entered the fortress from Shangfang Fort. This route had the largest number of troops and the most luxurious lineup, including Beile Abatai, Beile Haug, Tong Yangzhen, Zu Dashou, Shang Kexi and others.
Accompanying the army on expeditions.
That is from this moment on.
The history of the late Ming Dynasty in this time and space has changed beyond recognition.
Because the army of the Later Jin Dynasty entered the Pass in advance, the second entry, which was supposed to occur in July of the seventh year of Chongzhen, was advanced to September of the sixth year of Chongzhen.
What kind of development will follow is completely unknown and difficult to predict. The prophecy advantage of time travellers will be greatly weakened. It will no longer be possible to accurately predict certain people and certain things. Everything that follows will be a completely new version of the story.
Actually!
This time, all preparations for entering the customs were too hasty.
Hou Jin mobilized almost all available young manpower.
They went into battle lightly and carried very little food, grass and baggage. The idea was to support war with war.
And they had to use the eight major businessmen in Shanxi in advance to have them cooperate internally and externally to help open the pass. Without any effort, they took over the Dushikou, Victory Fort and other passes. With very slight losses, more than 200,000 troops all entered the pass.
, and the Ming Dynasty's Great Wall and Nine-sided Defense System did not even play their early warning function. More than 200,000 Houjin troops entered Datong, Xuan Town, Shanxi Town and other places to burn, kill, loot and wreak havoc.
Huang Taiji has no choice. Time waits for no one. No matter how hasty the preparations are and no matter how many internal conspirators are exposed, this battle must be fought. It must be fought! Daming must be bled fiercely. It would be even better if he could be killed with one blow!
The Ming Dynasty is too huge. Once it gets rid of the state of continuous consumption and its vitality is restored, it will be Houjin's nightmare!
The Eight Banners Army could defeat the Ming Army ten or a hundred times, but as long as it was defeated once, the Eight Banners would be finished, and the Later Jin Dynasty would be finished.
So Huang Taiji, after discussing with De Gelei, Daishan, Fan Wencheng and others, formulated the plan for this march.
First capture the important town of Datong, sweep the surrounding areas, and collect all available grain and supplies.
Then he sent his troops eastward, stormed Xuanzhen, and captured Juyong Pass, Zijin Pass and other passes.
Then they went straight to the Gyeonggi area and burned, killed and looted to collect enough food and supplies.
Finally, all forces were concentrated to besiege the capital of the Ming Dynasty.
If it can be captured, then directly attack the capital, capture the Ming royal family, and create a Ming version of "Jingkang's Shame", plunging the Ming Dynasty into leaderless civil strife.
If the capital city cannot be captured, then besiege it in groups and then encircle it for reinforcements, specifically to attack King Qin's army who came from all over the country to consume the effective strength of the Ming army and inflict heavy damage to the Ming army.
Huang Taiji and others are confident that their Eight Banners army is invincible. With more than 200,000 people gathered together, they are like an iron fist. No matter what Ming army comes up, they will die. King Qin's army will be dead if it comes with 300,000 or 500,000 people.
Don't be afraid, the more the better, which will help defeat them one by one and recreate the glory of the Battle of Salhu.
If the Ming Dynasty has too many Qinwang troops and the Eight Banners elites suffer heavy losses and the gains outweigh the losses, then stop in time and withdraw the troops and return with the plundered property and livestock.
That is to say, as long as you can make money in this battle, it is worth fighting; as long as you lose, you should stop the loss in time.
Anyway, we just can’t let the Ming Dynasty court make Chongzhen’s child’s life too easy!
It's just that the people of Ming Dynasty were in bad luck.
Within Datong Prefecture, in Magou Village, which is close to the Great Wall, a group of Tatars rushed into the village.
Then the screams and wails could be heard endlessly:
"The Tatars are coming!"
"ah!!"
"Run, run quickly!"
"My house, my food, my mother-in-law, my ten-year-old daughter!"
"Let's fight, we will fight with these beasts!"
"Kill, Tatar, I will fight with you!" The villager raised a hoe to resist, but was quickly killed by a white-armored soldier with a knife.
The resistance of other villagers was easily defeated, and all of them lost their lives.
Soon Magou Village turned into a hell on earth.
The elderly and children were all killed.
Most of the young men were killed.
Most of the women were captured, and those with bound feet were defiled and killed.
All food, livestock and property were confiscated and taken away.
All the houses were burned down.
After brutal destruction, the civilization here was reduced to charred ruins.
And there are not one villages similar to what Magou Village suffered, but hundreds or thousands. Almost all villages and towns in Datong Prefecture were massacred and looted, with black smoke everywhere and countless miserable wailings.
.
Only a few villages, towns or forts that had good relations with the eight Shanxi merchant families were not looted and massacred, and were rewarded with a liberal approach.
On September 10, the Houjin Fourth Army made good progress and successively captured Daizhou, Yingzhou, Shuozhou, and Lingqiu.
On September 13th, several armies from Houjin arrived in Datong one after another.
On the night of September 14th, several city gates of Datong City were quietly opened from the inside, and then the fire was used as a signal. The Hou Jin army outside the city rushed into the city one after another, and there were not many troops stationed in the city.
The defense was empty, Datong's general Wang Wei committed suicide, and his son Wang Pu surrendered.
The entire Datong Prefecture was declared occupied.
…
September 15th.
Beijing, inside the Forbidden City.
I learned that the slave-building army had once again entered the pass, with a strength of more than 200,000. They were looting and raging in Datong, and were very likely to invade and threaten Xuanzang and Gyeonggi.
The Ming Dynasty was in panic.
Emperor Chongzhen was also panicked, and his face turned livid and became angry with embarrassment!
"My army has just wiped out the rogue bandits in the Central Plains. They are returning to the city one after another. They haven't even had a good breather to repair themselves. The slaves have invaded again. They seem to know that the nine sides are empty. A large number of soldiers and horses have been transferred to the south to suppress the bandits.
, so you are confident and take advantage of the situation, just because you don’t want me to have a peaceful life, you just want to give me some eye drops!”
"Damn it, Duan is extremely insidious and abominable. He has gone too far to bully me!"
"Your Majesty, the entry of slaves into the pass is just a manifestation of the nature of plundering, and it will not be diverted by our will. The top priority is to quickly mobilize troops from all over the country to Beijing to serve the king. Otherwise, the army of more than 200,000 slaves will not be able to resist the nine sides.
Xuanzhen is in danger! The capital is in danger!"
Wen Tiren, the chief minister of the cabinet, quickly advised him (Zhou Yanru had been dismissed).
Zhu Youjian said: "To build a slave army, more than 200,000 soldiers must be assembled. It will take at least several months to prepare. So many beacon piers set up on the Great Wall defense line, don't they have any effect? Dushikou, Deshengbao, etc.
Why was it that the pass was breached overnight, and the Jiannu invaded Shanxi? Why was it that they quickly captured several fortified cities as if they were entering an uninhabited land, and encountered almost no resistance? What's so tricky about this?"
Zhu Youjian vaguely realized that something was wrong. It was too fast. The actions of the Jiannu army were too strange and fast. First, they completed the gathering of troops without knowing it, and then quickly invaded Datong, conquering cities and territories everywhere.
The military system of the Ming Dynasty was not only weak in defense, but also extremely slow in response, catching everyone in the court by surprise.
By the time the imperial court pays attention to it, the entire Datong Mansion may be in danger and it will be too late to save it.
"Come here, Zhang Fengyi, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, will be deposed and imprisoned. The Inspectorate will conduct a strict investigation on the corruption of the Ministry of War and find out the source of the lag in military intelligence!"
Under Zhu Youjian's anger, Zhang Fengyi became the first official to be held accountable, which made all the officials in the court dare not speak out and the atmosphere was extremely depressed.
"Your Majesty, the disadvantages of delaying the military situation can be strictly investigated after repelling the Jiannu. The most urgent task is to strengthen the defenses of Juyong Pass and Zijingguan to prevent the Jiannu army from attacking Xuanzhen. In addition, an edict was issued to order the soldiers and horses of the world to be diligent and order the capital.
We and the surrounding cities must also enter a state of war readiness, organize young and strong civilians, and prepare in advance to deal with the slave establishment, so that the villages can form strongholds to defend themselves, fortify the walls and clear the wilderness. As long as we are fully prepared, even if the slave establishment comes, it will only
Can hit a wall and fail!"
At this time, Yang Sichang, the Minister of War, came out and said, proposing a series of countermeasures.
"Okay, I will follow your plan."
Zhu Youjian nodded, feeling his eyes light up. This Yang Sichang was very good, much better than the incompetent and mediocre Zhang Fengyi.
Soon, the Ming Dynasty took a series of countermeasures efficiently.
In order to prevent Jiannu from advancing eastward, the imperial court ordered Chen Hongfan, the general in charge of Changping, to increase his troops at Juyong Pass, and Ding Kuichu, the censor of Baoding, to strictly guard Zijin Pass and Yanmen Pass.
He also issued an edict to order soldiers and horses from all over the world to march to the capital to serve the king, requiring all armies around the capital to speed up. Anyone who is afraid of the enemy and refuses to advance will be severely punished!
but!
There is no reason in this world to let a horse run without giving it food.
If you want to mobilize armies from all over the country, you cannot rely solely on the authority of the imperial court and their loyalty to the imperial court. A hungry army cannot fight, and a large amount of money and food must be spent.
Mistakes like the one in the second year of Chongzhen, when a large number of King Qin's troops mutinied due to lack of money and food, and even caused the regular army to join the peasant army, must not be repeated again.
So this time the court showed enough sincerity.
Just calculate it based on the actual number of soldiers who came to Beijing to serve the king.
King Qin's army, which numbered 3,000, was given 500,000 money and food supplies.
An army with a strength of 5,000 will be given 1 million yuan in food and supplies.
King Qin's army with more than 10,000 people will immediately be given 1 million yuan in food and supplies, all of which will be distributed without any loss in the middle!
besides.
In order to teach Jiannu an extremely painful lesson and to inspire the bloody courage of King Qin's army, this time Chongzhen was in trouble, and he wanted to fight Jiannu to the end!
He wanted to use the money and food from his own funds to kill the slaves.
Behead one person and reward him with 50 taels of silver!
Kill a captive chief and get a reward of 1,000 taels of silver!
If unfortunately he died in battle, he would take out 30 taels of burial compensation!
Anyway, as long as he can cause losses to Jiannu and kill as many Tatar heads as possible, Chongzhen will reward him with as much silver as he can!
The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty did not have to worry about anything. The 30 taels of burial and pension money were enough for their families to survive for a period of time. They could just kill the enemy without caring about their own lives.
"My officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, this time, we have enough money and grain, and enough reward money! Not even a penny of pension money will be missing! I have already risked my life, you just kill the enemy, kill the enemy with all your strength, and kill all the hateful Jian slaves
Absolutely, I will go bankrupt and bear huge debts! I will also pass on your silver reward and pension. I will do what I say, and I will never lie!"
Zhu Youjian clenched his fists, eyes red, and swore secretly.