"National teacher, please give me all the way, how many people do you think is appropriate, then give me as many people, even if I don't kill him, I will contain his forces and find an opportunity to annihilate him. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info please believe me, I will not be blinded by hatred, because I know that brute force on the battlefield cannot solve the problem, if I can't complete the task, the national teacher can be condemned, and even tell the Great Khan, burn me to death! ”

Huo Aya is full of fighting spirit, and she wants to fight Shen Xi to the end.

Yi Si Ma Yin said: "Huo Aya, I will give you 4,000 men and horses, along the Ming people's post road to the east, if you encounter the city fortress on the way, you must not approach, you can't be discovered by the Ming people's true intentions, and after finding the soldiers and horses led by Shen Xi, find the opportunity to destroy him." ”

"As long as my Mongolian cavalry that swept the world in the past shows a percent strength, the Ming army will collapse without a fight, and when pursuing, remember to bring back the head of Shenxi, I will give you credit, and ask the Khan to confer on you as Darhan."

When Huo Aya heard that Yi Si Ma decided to send her to the battle, she was grateful for her kindness, and immediately knelt down and saluted: "The national teacher does not need to ask the khan to give him a seal, and it is my life's wish to behead Shen Xi, I only want revenge, and I will act cautiously for the rest, please rest assured that the national teacher will not fail in my mission!" ”

Yi Sima nodded in satisfaction, handed over the talisman and the order flag to Huo Aya, and by the way, raised the account again, informed the whole army of the news of Huo Aya's expedition, and asked Huo Aya to lead the troops to find trouble with Shen Xi.

Yi Si Ma was very cautious, he had actually seen from the official documents that Shen Xi did not have many soldiers and horses, because neither the governor of Xuanda nor the governor of the three sides had any expectations for this support army.

Yi Si Ma Yin is well aware of a truth, that is, in the Ming officialdom of seniority, young people like Shen Xi do not have an advantage, and his so-called attention is actually just that he makes the generals under his command not be careless.

Yi Si Ma Yin calculated in his heart and allocated 4,000 cavalry to Huoya, as long as the tactics were properly applied, it was enough to deal with 10,000 horses in Shenxi, even if there were 20,000, there was no need to be afraid, because the Tatars knew very well how weak the Jingying soldiers were.

If Yi Si Ma knew that the actual number of men and horses in Shen Xi's army was less than 6,000, I am afraid that the number of men and horses allocated to Huo Yan would not exceed 2,000.

Even if the Ming border army has three times the strength of the Tatar cavalry, it still does not dare to fight head-on, let alone the Beijing battalion led by Shen Xi?

At this time, Shen Xi did not know that he had become the prey of the Tatars, and was slowly leading the army to Xuanfu Town. The procrastination of this march is breathtaking, not to mention the encampment after walking less than thirty miles every day, and it will take one day to distribute rewards after two days, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a turtle speed.

Shen Xi's attitude on the march was very clear, that is, to delay as much as possible, and before knowing the exact movement of the Tatars, it was best to be more than fifty miles away from Xuanfu Town, so as to have enough time to retreat.

Before the march reached the destination, Shen Xi had already studied the retreat route, and if he encountered unpredictable changes, Shen Xi would have already calculated which cities could be garrisoned.

Along the way, the security guard and Huailaiwei can become a temporary garrison location, the defensive performance of the acropolis is relatively high, and there is a Ming city around, in Shen Xi's opinion, it is impossible for the people of Jingying to fight with the Tatars in the open area of the plain, but it is okay to fight a defensive battle relying on the geographical advantage.

This march is estimated to have set the slowest speed of the Ming Dynasty's march.

Shen Xi, the commander, didn't want to leave, and the generals under him were clamoring for rewards every day, Hu Songyue and others ran to Shen Xi's side from time to time to lobby, completely forgetting their previous fear of the Tatars.

Now the whole army generally thinks that after the Tatars plundered Yansui Town and Taiyuan Town, they did not mean to burn the war to the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty at all, and with the great cooling in the north, they should have withdrawn their troops at this time. You only need to follow Shen Xi, go slowly to recover the Yulin Acropolis, and wait for the military merits to arrive.

Zhang Yong was in a hurry every day, he was the only person in the army who knew the truth except for Shen Xi, so he burned incense and worshiped the Buddha every day to pray for the Tatars not to appear.

Shen Xi's mood was quite relaxed, he thought that this was just a symbolic march, although he saw that the defense of Xuanfu Town in the northwest was weak and easy for the Tatars to take advantage of, but whether the Tatars would act as he expected was unknown, and there was no need to worry too much, after all, everything had been planned before, even if there was chaos, it would be too late to make a temporary decision.

On September 20, the soldiers and horses led by Shen Xi finally arrived at the Jiming Station at the foot of Jiming Mountain.

Jimingyi was built in the Yuan Dynasty, at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Genghis Khan led his troops to the west, opened up a post road on the road leading to Xicheng, and set up "Zhanchi", that is, the predecessor of Jimingyi. In the eighteenth year of Yongle in this dynasty, the Jiming Station was expanded to the first station of the Dingwu Mansion into the Beijing Division, and the eighteenth year of Chenghua built a three-zhang high earthen wall, but it could only defend against ordinary bandits, and in the event of a large-scale war, the city defense was basically better than nothing.

Therefore, after the Tatars invaded the border, the rooster crowed and the people went to the post, and only a row of empty houses remained.

Because the gate of the Jimingyi was closed and the seal of the government was pasted on the door, Shen Xi did not let the officers and soldiers station, but only camped on the Jimingyi.

Jimingyi is still seventy miles away from Xuanfu, and it can be reached in two days with a little effort.

At this time, the slackness of the officers and soldiers reached its peak, because the five rewards promised by Shen Xi before had only been issued three times at this time, and two were not issued.

Hu Songyue came to Shen Xi's Zhongjun tent that night to find trouble, and the first thing he said was to ask Shen Xi for a fourth reward.

“…… My lord, regardless of the fact that this Xuanfu is in front of you, just talking about the hard work of the soldiers along the way, shouldn't you be considerate and give the reward? ”

Hu Song jumped up and asked Shen Xi to issue a reward, but he didn't want Shen Xi to nod his head: "What General Hu said is that this official is true to his word, and the last two rewards will be issued at one time tomorrow." But tomorrow...... We will withdraw our troops from Jimingyi and return to Juyong Pass! ”

"What did the adults say? Back to Juyongguan? Are you okay, this is good, you will arrive in Xuanfu Town in two days, why do you want to go back to Juyongguan? ”

Hu Songyue and the second monk were puzzled.

Shen Xi's thinking is too jumpy, which subverts Hu Songyue's perception of the battlefield, and this way of marching with a hammer in the east and a mallet in the west is only seen in his life.

Shen Xi said: "Could it be that General Hu doesn't want to withdraw his troops?" ”

Hu Songyue asked puzzledly: "If you want to withdraw your troops, there must be a reason." The court's errand for adults is to recover Yulinwei, and we have withdrawn our troops before we have reached the halfway point, how can we explain to the court? ”

Shen Xi nodded and said: "At present, it is very far away from the Yulin Acropolis, but the Tatar soldiers and horses are coming, we don't leave at this time, if we don't have time to withdraw to Juyong Pass, we will be cut off from the back road, and then these three armies will probably be wiped out!" ”

"Don't be kidding, my lord, where is there any movement of the Tatars? If you think about what the next march plan will be after you arrive at the Xuanfu, the soldiers will not follow you in vain! After all, you must be considerate of the suffering of the officers and men in the army! ”

Hu Songyue didn't leave the reward in three sentences, he felt that Shen Xi was looking for an excuse to push, so he hurriedly returned to the topic and talked to Shen Xi about the reward after Xuanfu Town.

Shen Xi said: "I have already said, tonight I will distribute all the rewards owed to the soldiers, and tomorrow morning I will withdraw the camp and return to Juyong Pass!" This is a military order! If anyone does not comply, they will be dealt with as disobeying military orders! ”

Hu Songyue sneered, and thought to himself: "Lord Shen really used a chicken feather as an arrow, how afraid of death is he to withdraw his troops before he arrived at Xuanfu?" When they return, the brothers will be disgraced...... But if you say withdraw, we will withdraw, anyway, you are the commander of the three armies, and it is not our turn to be held accountable if the court wants to hold it accountable! ”

Subsequently, Shen Xi summoned the main generals in the army and put forward the matter of issuing two rewards and withdrawing troops at one time, and several generals and more than ten commanders discussed one after another, only Zhang Yong said happily: "Lord Shen, is this going to withdraw the troops?" ”

"Father-in-law Zhang will go back and prepare, and set off tomorrow morning!" Shen Xi nodded.

Zhang Yong was a little difficult, but there were generals present, and he stopped talking. After the commander and commander went back to prepare, he asked Shen Xi privately in the big tent of the Chinese army:

"Lord Shen, now that the movements of the Tatars have not yet been determined, is it too hasty for you to withdraw your troops like this? Perhaps it is possible to wait for the exact news from the front to determine whether the Tatars are taking Xuanfu as the main direction of attack, and then decide to withdraw their troops? ”

Shen Xi said: "Grandpa Zhang, didn't I analyze it with you before?" Do you think that if we wait until the imperial court learns that Xuanfu is besieged by Tatars, it will allow us to pass through Xuanfu without entering, and withdraw our troops directly? ”

"This ......"

Zhang Yong thought about it and shook his head honestly.

Just kidding, the imperial court knew that Xuanfu was in danger, of course, it mobilized all the living forces to defend Xuanfu, how could it let Shen Xi withdraw his troops? Zhang Yong said tentatively: "If it is really not feasible, garrisoning the Xuanfu may save the fatigue of the journey, and it is easy to explain to the imperial court!" ”

Shen Xi said: "Is that father-in-law Zhang going to be buried with Xuanfu?" ”

Zhang Yong was completely discouraged at this time, and said: "Lord Shen, our family can't talk about you, you have the ability and knowledge, our family should be willing to bow down, right?" But Lord Shen also has to remember that if things are different from what you expected, and in the end something happens to Xuanfu, and even Gyeonggi is threatened, don't say that our family will impeach you with the imperial court regardless of the situation! ”

Shen Xi arched his hand and said: "At that time, there is no need for Gonggong Zhang to participate in the impeachment, and he will write to the court to ask for guilt at the next natural meeting." ”

Zhang Yong left satisfied, as long as Shen Xi was willing to bear the responsibility of withdrawing troops without reason, of course he was happy to return to Juyongguan, at least it was safer than Xuanfu, of course, it was mainly Shen Xi's analysis of the evolution of the battle situation that scared him.

That night, when most of the soldiers in the army were sleeping peacefully, Shen Xi still checked the military reports he had received in the past few days overnight, and for some reason Shen Xi suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

In the area west of the Huai'an Acropolis, there has been no news to the capital for about half a month, and the latest information is in early September, and the news reported by the guards is nothing more than that the place is peaceful.

"Could it be that the Tatars have already made a move, conquering the fortresses west of Xuanfu one after another, and are preparing to march to Xuanfu Town at this time? If this is the case, Huai'anwei, as an important acropolis in the west of Xuanfu, is afraid that it will inevitably be broken by the Tatars. ”

"From the Jiming Post to the Huai'an Acropolis, the horse journey is only two days, if it is a fast horse, it may only take one day, if the Tatars have insight into the movements of our army in advance, then I am not very dangerous now?"

Shen Xi thought that it would be in time to withdraw his troops on the twenty-first day of September, but after analyzing the current situation, he felt that the Tatar offensive was brewing was probably more ferocious than he had expected.

Feeling that danger was coming, Shen Xi didn't even want to delay for half an hour, even if he withdrew his troops overnight, it was better than waiting to die in a place like Jimingyi, which had no slightest defense.

Shen Xi directly called the herald and shouted: "Summons the three armies, set off on the fifth watch, and retreat to Juyong Pass." The whole army must not be delayed, and if there are those who are unwilling to leave, they will all be discarded, and as for the baggage in the army, except for artillery, guns, shells, and gunpowder, the rest of the materials can be appropriately discarded! ”

Seeing that Shen Xi was still neatly dressed and tidy up the copywriting on the table, Hu Songyue shouted: "My lord, why do you want to start on the fifth watch?" It was cold on the fifth watch, and the earth was frosting, what if the soldiers froze out on the road? ”

"The Tatars are all killed, and you still think about the cold? If you don't want to do it, just stay in the chicken station, and the official won't be able to take care of you! Shen Xi said coldly.

When Hu Songyue and the others heard this, their first reaction was, who are they striking?

But after a little pondering, the generals had a little doubt in their hearts, and thought: "Lord Shen doesn't look like a crazy person, but why does he talk and act like a madman?" Haven't the Tatars been without a trace, how can they suddenly come closer? (To be continued.) )