According to the confessions of these Mongol captives brought back by Wu Xiang, the reason why the Houjin army guarding the Ninja Pass collapsed so quickly was because the Houjin was ready to withdraw their troops from the pass.

Wu Nag, the chief officer who led the Houjin army on this road, retreated to Santunying with the core of the Mongol right battalion last night, leaving behind the troops stationed at the mountain pass and the county seat of Qianxi only the troops of some Mongol vassal tribes that had just attached themselves to the Later Jin.

These Mongols, who were originally vassal tribes of the Chahar tribe, surrendered to the Houjin State because the Jin Khan Huang Taiji personally led his troops to defeat the Dorot tribe left by the Chahar to defend the Liaohetao last year.

However, the strength of these small tribes is weak, the smallest is only a few dozen households, and the largest is only a few hundred. Therefore, Houjin did not move them to the vicinity of Shenyang, and scattered them to Baqi Enyang. Instead, let them still stay in the original grassland life, and just send troops to serve according to the orders issued by Hou Jin.

Because they did not receive the Houjin ordnance supply and were incorporated into the Eight Banners for military training, the soldiers provided by these Mongol vassal tribes were not strong in combat effectiveness, and were only used by the Later Jin army as a manpower to escort grain, grass and booty.

And these Mongolian vassal tribal warriors who had just surrendered to the Later Jin not long ago did not have much loyalty to the Later Jin State. When Wunag sits on this army with the core of the Mongol right battalion, they can still go into battle.

However, when Wunag retreated with the core of the Mongol right battalion, the warriors of these Mongol vassal tribes immediately became a mass of scattered sand. There was no subordination between the tribes to which they belonged, or rather, when they surrendered to the Houjin, the Houjin removed some of the subordination between the Mongol tribes.

These Mongol vassal tribal warriors had always been under the command of the Mongol right battalion trained by Uunag, and when Uunag retreated, these warriors quickly and automatically reverted to the tribal leadership system, no longer under the orders of the military leader appointed temporarily before Unag left.

Losing unified command, coupled with the internal state of being divided and no one willing to obey anyone, when Zhang Chun and Wu Xiang rushed to the mountain pass with the Ming army, some tribal leaders secretly retreated with their own warriors first.

With these men taking the lead, the other Mongols stationed at the pass fled their positions. So the Ming army led by Zhang Chun and Wu Xiang was able to break through the position of Houjin in such a short period of time.

After these Mongolian captives finished explaining, Wu Xiang couldn't wait to say to Man Gui: "Man Shuai, the lower official has inquired clearly, and now the defenders in the Santun camp city are at most three or four hundred Mongolian Tartars. ”

When Man Gui was still groaning, Zhang Chun had already stopped and said: "Vice General Wu doesn't want Meng Lang, our army only needs to wait until the army of General Zu converges, and it will be difficult for Houjin to shake the strength of our army."

How can you easily risk sending troops now for the confession of a few Tartar captives who do not know the truth?

It must be known that today's situation can force the Tartars to retreat from the customs, and the Western Route Army led by His Majesty and the Eastern Route Army composed of our Liaodong Army cooperate with each other.

As long as the two route armies of these things are defeated by Houjin all the way, the Tartars may make a comeback, and we can only seek merit at the moment, but no fault. It is the best choice to let Houjin have no chance to take advantage of it, and to withdraw from the customs here. ”

Wu Xiang naturally did not dare to argue with Zhang Chun, but he noticed Man Gui's expression and seemed to be unimpressed by Zhang Chun's caution.

Wu Xiang immediately said: "Although what Zhang Daotai said is reasonable, but my Liaodong Army has gathered more than ten battalions, but after leaving the customs, there has not been a commendable victory, and now His Majesty has fought a victory with the new army."

Our Liaodong Army spends millions of Liao's salaries a year, but in the process of this Houjin army's detour invasion war, it has made no achievements.

In the future, will the imperial court think that we are too much to wait for and downsize the Liaodong Army, and then increase its support for the new army? If Zhang Daotai is worried that this is a trap set by the Tartars, it is better to send more sentry agents, as long as the sentry we send is more effective, we will not be ambushed by the Houjin army. ”

Wu Xiang's words immediately moved some generals, including Man Gui, and after Chongzhen ascended the throne, he promoted the reform of the military system, and last year proposed three different levels of armed forces system: field army, garrison army, and reserve force.

The generals of the Liaodong Army were delaying the arrival of the military system reform in every possible way, and they were forced to helplessly hope to obtain a few more field army titles.

Their ambivalent mood stemmed from the fact that the field army was treated much higher than that of the garrison army, but the family system and empty salaries that had once prevailed in the Ming army were directly abolished.

What worries them the most is that the appointment of officers in the field army is no longer decided by the leading commander-in-chief, but recommended by the commander-in-chief, scored by the commander-in-chief at all levels, and finally approved by the General Staff in a unified manner.

As a result, the old military system, which used to be a general, no longer exists. The ties between the upper and lower levels in the military are much more distant than in the past.

Of course, some of the old army conventions were still retained in the garrison, but the garrison was not large in size, and the treatment was less than half that of the field army, and the slightly more capable low-level soldiers and low-ranking military attachés were willing to enter the field army rather than stay in the garrison army, which was difficult to get promoted.

According to the policy formulated by the General Staff, the garrison army is actually the former Ming army, so some hereditary military positions of the Ming army can exist in the garrison army. And those who apply for transfer to the field army are automatically asked to cancel their hereditary military positions.

Although the imperial court will issue an annuity as compensation for the cancellation of hereditary military positions, after all, it is not comparable to official positions that can be inherited from generation to generation, so many military attaches have given up the opportunity to join the field army because of this article.

However, in this way, as long as a discerning person can see that the field army established in the future will inevitably greatly exceed the garrison army in combat effectiveness, and the imperial court that controls the field army will maintain the suppression of the local garrison.

In this way, the once abandoned Beijing camp and the bankrupt strategy of defending the center and the void were revived to a certain extent with the establishment of the field army. Politically sensitive generals and civilian officials alike could realize that the field army that Chongzhen wanted to build was similar to the Jingying armed forces that had been used to suppress the localities in the past.

The main reason why the cabinet headed by Huang Liji was able to acquiesce in Chongzhen's reform of the military system was that the General Staff Headquarters was in the hands of officials from the civilian system, such as Sun Chengzong, Yuan Chonghuan, and Mao Yuanyi.

The control of the field army by the General Staff not only conforms to the tradition of the Ming Dynasty to use literature and military force, but also solves the embarrassing situation that the Ming center cannot suppress the border town after the corruption of the Beijing camp.

Since the Jiajing Dynasty, the Ming court's disposal of the military generals in border towns could only rely on the authority of the central tradition and other local powerful factions to suppress it. For example, the Ningxia Mutiny, the imperial court could only transfer the Liaodong Army to suppress it. There are changes in Liaodong, and troops can only be transferred from Xuanda, and as for the Beijing camp controlled by the imperial court, it can only be placed in the capital to fill the façade.

This situation is obviously abnormal, both the emperor and the civil officials have tried to reorganize the Beijing camp in order to restore the central government's deterrence of local armed forces, but the organizational system of the Beijing camp is really rotten, and a small fight will not help at all, and the big war will offend many nobles and dignitaries who have benefited in the Beijing camp, so no one has been able to rectify the Beijing camp.

After Chongzhen ascended the throne, he did not hesitate to offend the nobles, nor was he afraid of the Jingying mutiny, so he forcibly dismissed most of the soldiers in the Jingying, and then recruited farmers near Jinggi to establish a new army.

For this new army, everyone was not optimistic about it at first. It was not the children of generals who presided over the training of the new army, but some middle- and lower-level officers in the various border armies who were unwilling. These people have neither home education nor connections, and it always feels a little strange to train a strong army.

The nominal commander of the new army is also a defeated general transferred from the Southern Naval Division, and it is said that he has been defeated by a group of pirates in succession, and if it were not for the emperor's edict to appease this group of pirates, the commander of the new army would probably have been dismissed from his post and investigated.

However, the contempt of the Ming Dynasty for the new army has finally changed slightly with the two victories in the Battle of Fengzhen last year and the Battle of Shimen before.

And the Liaodong Ming Army, which was originally unimpressed with the new army, is now also vaguely worried about its own status.

Although last year the imperial court ordered a change in the name of Liaoyu and abolished the policy of Liao people guarding Liaotu. But in fact, the army guarding western Liaoning was still dominated by Liao people outside the Guan. The Liaoning, which has changed its name, is still mainly allocated to the Liaoxi army.

However, the imperial court's preferential treatment of the army guarding western Liaoxi was based on the fact that the Liaodong army could fight and defend against the invasion of the Houjin army.

If the Liaodong Army could neither fight nor defend against the Houjin army's detour invasion, and could only hold the Liaoxi Corridor and protect its own station, what reason did the imperial court have to continue to give preferential treatment to the Liaodong Army?

With the two battles of Fengzhen and Shimen, the army that blocked the invasion of the Houjin Dynasty changed from the original only Liaodong Army to the new army, which seems to be more combative.

If the imperial court was determined to expand the new army, then the Liao salary that should have been supplied to the Liaodong Army would obviously be intercepted and supplied to the new army.

In this kind of choice that is related to their vital interests, if they want to make meritorious contributions to cover the edge of the new army, it has become the inevitable choice of these Liaodong generals.

Neither Zhang Chun nor Man Gui could resist the request of these Liaodong generals to make meritorious contributions. If the Houjin army in front of them is still high-spirited, these generals will probably hesitate.

However, according to the Mongol captives brought back by Wu Xiang, after knowing that the Tartar army on the opposite side had begun to withdraw nervously. The temptation to seize the Santun camp and obtain the first merit of rescuing Zunhua immediately stirred up the emotions of these Ming army generals.

Man Gui, who was originally interested in marching, finally decided to listen to Wu Xiang's advice, send more sentinels, and then directly attack the Santun camp city, no longer waiting for the convergence of Zu Dashou's army.