Just when the imperial court thought that the northwest was calm, in Juyong Pass, Shen Xi was studying the battle reports from the front and the maps of Xuanfu and Datong every day, focusing on the direction of mountains and rivers, and what cities and passes there were, and planning the next military action. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

For many people, this is tantamount to talking on paper, and has no reference value, but Shen Xi has a faint premonition that the Tatars are brewing a new conspiracy, and if they don't plan well and take all aspects of the situation into account, it is estimated that the Sai will no longer be a life of nine deaths, but a journey of death.

In Shen Xi's view, the Tatars did not withdraw their troops, at least not for the time being.

Once the Tatars are allowed to find a way to enter the land of Datong and Xuanfu, the soldiers and horses led by Shen Xi are very easy to be used as a breakthrough by the Tatars.

Once the reinforcements led by Shen Xi were defeated, there was no longer any mobile force in this vast area between the Great Wall inside and outside the Ming Dynasty, and the Tatars could take the opportunity to break through a few David Cities, and the troops would approach the line of Juyong Pass and Bauhinia Pass on the Inner Great Wall.

Based on all aspects of information, the Outer Great Wall is most likely to become the main direction of attack of the Tatars is Datong Town and Xuanfu Town, and among the nine important towns, these two towns are closest to Juyong Pass and Bauhinia Pass on the first line of the Inner Great Wall.

Once the Tatars opened the gap between Datong Town and Xuanfu Town and obtained grain and grass baggage, the soldiers and horses did not need to worry about the trilateral places such as Yansui, Gansu, and Ningxia, but directly launched an attack from Datong Town and Xuanfu Town, which were closer to the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and it was easier to break through the Great Wall Pass in the Ming Dynasty and directly threaten the security of the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Wall outside the Ming Dynasty from Jizhen Sihai Metallurgical Institute to Datong Town Yulinwei line, in the civil fort change was seriously damaged, Emperor Jing succeeded to the throne has been repaired many times, but until the Jiajing period Xuanda Governor Weng Wanda large-scale repair, the Great Wall between Xuanfu and Datong is still a relatively weak link in the northwest defense, mainly because this section of the Great Wall "takes care of the outside and does not care about the inside".

The main purpose of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty is to prevent the invasion of the remnants of the Mengyuan Dynasty, so the focus of defense is basically to build the Great Wall on the high mountain that is relatively dangerous for the defense of the north, often the north side of the Great Wall is more than ten meters high, but in the inner line, it is only a few meters or even parallel to the height of the mountain.

Especially in the Daihukou, Yanghekou, Baiyangkou, Xingningkou, and Zhangjiakou under the jurisdiction of Datong Town and Xuanfu Town, the Great Wall walls that were repaired later because of serious battle damage are particularly obvious, that is, they make full use of the terrain to build, and ignore the possibility of being surrounded by enemy troops.

The Great Wall under the jurisdiction of the two towns now seems to be stable, but this is based on the Tatar invasion from the north to the south, once the Tatars attack from the south side of the Great Wall Pass, it is easy to find a breakthrough, and can create a gap in the Great Wall for several miles or even dozens of miles in just three or five days.

Once this gap is opened, it means that the ideal state of the Ming Dynasty relying on the Great Wall to defend the Tatars no longer exists, and the Tatar soldiers, horses, grain and grass can continue from Datong and Xuanfu to the east and south, directly posing a threat to Juyong Pass and Bauhinia Pass, and after these two Xiongguan passes is the Beijing Division.

Shen Xi did not continue to march westward, but also felt that it was of little significance to send troops to the west to rescue on a large scale, and now the focus of defense should be around Datong and Xuanfu Town, and the most important thing is to strengthen the garrison of Xuanfu Town, and it is a very good choice to garrison Juyongguan.

Because out of Juyong Pass through Huailai County and Baoan Prefecture, you can go to Xuanfu Town, Xuanhua Mansion, and Zhangjiakou Fort and Xingningkou around Xuanhua Mansion may become the main direction of Tatar attack, then Shenxi Garrison Xuanfu can be attacked, retreated and defended, and Juyong Pass will become his solid backing.

It is a pity that the Ming Dynasty and the opposition always believed that the main direction of attack of the Tatars was on the three sides, because the Ming court felt that the Tatars would not cross the two Great Walls to attack Xuanfu Town if they wanted to invade the Central Plains, but would attack the relatively weak trilateral forces from the Great Wall Pass and plunder the hinterland of Shanxi and Shaanxi at will, so they focused on the three sides of Yansui, Gansu and Ningxia, and ignored the defense of the most important middle section of the Great Wall.

Prior to this, even the ordnance that the Ming Dynasty mainly used for defense, including the newly cast Franc cannon, was mostly deployed on the three sides, and there were not many artillery pieces left around Xuanfu Town.

Shen Xisuo led the troops and horses did not have a single Franc cannon, and it was very difficult to win the battle under such circumstances, so he set his sights on the artillery in the Juyong Pass reserve, and prepared to take the Franc cannon in the Juyong Pass inventory to Xuanfu, and use Xuanfu Town as a fortress to deal with the Tatars.

If it weren't for the last resort, Shen Xi was very reluctant to burn the flames of war to Juyong Pass, because after Juyong Pass, he could go to Beijing in Pingchuan, and it was always too risky to leave the battle line until the last level.

When Shen Xi made this request, the commander of the Longqing Guard, Li Pin, reported the firearms equipped at Juyongguan to Shen Xi in detail.

“…… My lord, there are more than 4,000 old-style firearms in Juyong Pass, but basically...... Not available. Among the new-style firearms, including the new guns cast by the imperial court in the previous two years, there are more than 90 guns and more than 4,000 pieces of ammunition, and as for the new-style handguns, there are more than 900 pieces, which are equipped with relatively little ammunition and may not be able to be used in actual combat. "Lee Channel.

Shen Xi nodded, which was basically consistent with his previous investigation. Shen Xi asked, "Then among the more than 80 cannons, are there rusts or damage?" ”

At this time, Li Pin looked very ashamed and said: "In recent years, there has been no war in Juyongguan, these guns were originally equipped with artillery crews, but they have not gone through several drills, and among the more than 90 guns, it is estimated that there are less than 60 guns that can come in handy!" ”

Shen Xi calculated, sixty Franc machine guns, plus more than 4,000 mixed "cannonballs", far more than his resources when he bombarded the Tatar cavalry across the Yuxi River in the thirteenth year of Hongzhi.

With this alone, there is hope that this battle will be won.

It's just that now the Tatars are shrewd and will never give him the opportunity to be a target again, and how to use this Franc cannon is a university question.

Shen Xi said: "These cannons have been requisitioned by this official!" Take me over in the afternoon to see the artillery, and if it can come in handy, together with the gunners, go west with my army! ”

"Huh? Your ......, my lord."

Li Pin couldn't help but be shocked when he heard this, this is not good, Shen Xi requisitioned the Franc machine guns and cannonballs in Juyong Pass, so if the Tatars come to attack, won't there be a lack of defensive weapons in the city?

"My lord, you may not know that this new type of artillery can only come in handy when garrisoning the fortress, and you are afraid that you will be ...... with these bulky artillery pieces on the road It will delay your marching schedule! ”

As far as he knows, Shen Xi was in Yansui Town to swing the "ox cart array" and use the Franc cannon for field combat, and he was naturally very clear about the advantages and disadvantages of the artillery, and some people said that this artillery was simply Shen Xi in Quanzhou Mansion after the war with the Franc man, and introduced imitation from the Franc man, when the Beijing cast cannon and test the cannon or Shen Xi presided over, Shen Xi can not know this?

Shen Xi said: "On the front line of Juyong Pass, the defense relies on natural hazards, and the chance of artillery coming in handy is not great, but this official has come to the aid of the three sides, if there is no artillery to help, I am afraid it will be difficult to win!" Although General Li was relieved, his official had the imperial order, and he could requisition local soldiers, horses, grain, and grass materials on his own. ”

"This matter will be reported to the court in detail, even if something happens, it has nothing to do with General Li! Moreover, if the Tatars really came to Juyong Pass, this place was not far from the capital, and even if it was a cast iron cannon, it would have time to transport and deploy in place, and it would not delay the defense plan. ”

Li Pin finally relieved himself when he heard this, he was afraid that this Qin Cha would come to chaos on his own and push everything on him in the end.

Li Channel: "What do adults say, if you need it, just recruit it, but there are not many Longqingwei gunners, most of them have only received a month of preliminary skill training, and they have no actual combat experience. ”

Shen Xi was very pleased to be able to get Li Pin's support, and one of the biggest problems before the war was the lack of means to win, which was finally solved for the time being.

With artillery with the army, there is an additional magic weapon to defeat the enemy, that is, to use artillery fire to disrupt the impact formation of the Tatar cavalry, even if the chance of victory is not great, but this can be put on the table, Shen Xi really didn't know how to rely on the 6,000 weak soldiers under his command to confront the brave and good Tatar cavalry head-on.

In the afternoon, Li Pin put all the artillery on the city wall and asked Shen Xi to take Hu Songyue and others to the head of Juyong Pass to "inspect".

Hu Songyue was the commander of several Beijing battalions, most of whom saw the Franc cannon for the first time, and originally thought that the magic weapon that could defeat the Tatars should be very strange, but when they saw the real thing, they felt that "it's just that", and all of them had a look of contempt on their faces.

Shen Xi personally led people to strictly inspect the maintenance of the artillery, to see the caliber of the artillery, the inner chamber, the sealing condition, etc., so as to calculate how many more guns can play a role on the battlefield.

The situation is far better than he imagined, even if some of the guns are rusty, but due to proper maintenance, the bore is smooth, and because the Franc cannon uses a letter gun, the requirements for the barrel of the mother gun and the shells installed in the sub gun are not high, although this leads to the firing distance of the Franc cannon is not far, but the requirements for quality are naturally reduced a lot.

Therefore, if it is pulled to the battlefield for actual combat, about 80 of these 90 guns can continue to be used, which is better than he imagined.

As for the handcuffs that were modified by the firing principle of the Franc cannon, due to the lack of ammunition, it caused the embarrassment of having guns but no bullets.

Shen Xi didn't dislike these things as useless, so he asked them to take them with them, and by the way, they "requisitioned" the more than 18,000 catties of gunpowder stored in Juyong Pass.

This kind of black powder with low lethality, there is a little bit of it, Shen Xi feels that even if there are no bullets on the battlefield, it is still too late, it is much better than wanting to make no materials.

In the end, Li Pin found that Shen Xi was not here to requisition materials at all, but to "rob", but whenever Shen Xi took a fancy to something, he pointed his finger, and the clerk who followed behind wrote down the items, which meant that he was called by Shen Xi.

Seeing this scene, Li Pin was very embarrassed.

But Shen Xi is in a high position, and this time Shen Xi was ordered by the emperor to perform his duties in the northwest, and he was given the title of governor of Yansui, and the official was not one or two levels older than Li Pin, plus he admired Shen Xi's personality, so he silently accepted Shen Xi's recruitment.

Li Pin thought to himself: "It's best to send Lord Shen away as soon as possible, anyway, even if Juyongguan encounters a war, the Jingshi side will not ignore it, and the supplies must be in place quickly, so it's better to be a favor." ”

"If Lord Shen can make a great contribution in the northwest, as long as he mentions me at that time, or helps to say a few words when he asks for rewards in the future, then it will be possible to command the envoy and seal the marquis in the capital!"

With this thought, Li Pin no longer had any worries, as long as Shen Xi proposed to be recruited, he would be satisfied, and even he would "ride" a large number of bows and crossbows and shields on his own to fully meet the needs of Shen Xi's soldiers and horses.

Shen Xi was worried that there were not many weapons at hand, so he "laughed" at the moment.

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