On the afternoon of October 19 in the second year of Chongzhen, after three days of rapid marching, Sun Chuanting arrived at Shanhaiguan with Ningyuan's army, and Zhao Shujiao, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, greeted him outside Shanhaiguan.

"Join the Governor!" After Zhao led the sect to salute, he was surprised, "Governor Sun, why did you come with so many troops?" ”

Zhao Shujiao's question made Sun Chuanting breathe a sigh of relief, it seems that Jiannu has not yet attacked Jibei, and everything should still be in time.

"General Zhao, according to reliable information, the slave chief Huang Taiji personally led an army of 50,000 to detour through Mongolia and wanted to attack the northern wall of Ji, so the governor brought troops to help." Sun Chuanting explained casually.

"Jiannu wants to attack Jibei?" Zhao Shujiao's eyes widened, and he looked incredulous.

In fact, whether it is a civilian official or a military general, most people have never thought that Jiannu will leave Liaoxi, which is close at hand, not attack, and will make a detour of thousands of miles to fight Jibei? From Shenyang, the nest of Jiannu, to the north wall of thistle, the mountains are separated, and it is not so easy to walk on the mountain road for thousands of miles!

Looking at Zhao Shujiao's expression, Sun Chuanting sighed secretly, not only Zhao Shujiao, but Sun Chuanting himself had never thought about it before. But why did His Majesty think of it like this? Your Majesty, like an unpredictable prophet, has made arrangements for this situation early! This makes Sun Chuanting hard to believe now.

"Let's go to the city, presumably there will be a holy decree to reach Shanhaiguan soon." Sun Chuanting said casually.

"Governor Sun, please!" Zhao Shujiao hurriedly said. Sun Chuanting was the governor of Liaodong, and Shanhaiguan was nominally under his control, and Zhao Shujiao had no reason to refuse him entry into the city.

Sure enough, early the next morning, the imperial court envoy Pegasus arrived at Shanhaiguan to convey the emperor's will, appoint Sun Chuanting as the governor of Jiliao, give Shang Fang the sword, command all the armies in Liaoxi, Shanhaiguan, and Jizhou, and be fully responsible for resisting the invasion of Jiannu!

Sun Chuanting immediately ordered that the cities around Yongping Mansion and the north wall of Ji should be cleared immediately, and the people nearby would move into the nearby cities.

"Tell the cities that Jiannu is about to invade, and they will surely sweep and loot wherever they pass, so that after they hear the order, they will all enter the nearest city, and the local government will be responsible for receiving the people, and the villages in the countryside will set fire to the villages, and block the wells, so that Jiannu will not get any supplies!" Sun Chuanting said coldly.

"My lord, isn't that too much? There is no news of the invasion of the slaves, and if it does, it will inevitably cause the people to boil. Zhang Chun tried to persuade.

Although there are not many cities near the border walls of Yongping Mansion and Jizhou, and the vicinity is also mountainous, there are also two or three hundred thousand people living in this area, and if the walls are clear, the lives of these two or three hundred thousand people will be seriously affected. Now that the news of Jiannu's invasion has not yet come, it has made it so big, if Jiannu doesn't come, wouldn't it become a joke?

In the final analysis, Zhang Chun and others still didn't believe that Jiannu would run this long mountain road to Jibei. Maybe Jiannu sent troops to attack the Mongols? Zhang Chun thought about it luckily.

Sun Chuanting said coldly: "The news of Jiannu's invasion is true, and the Jiannu army should still be on the mountain road to Jibei at the moment, but I'm afraid it won't take a few days to attack Jibei, and now it's still too late to give the order, if it's a few days later, once Jiannu breaks through the side wall, it will be too late." As for the grievances of the people, when the Jiannu invaded the border wall, they would know that the governor was for their good! ”

When Zhang Chun wanted to say more, Sun Chuanting no longer paid attention to him, but looked at Zhao Shujiao: "Mr. Zhao, there are too many places on the north wall of Ji that can be broken through, among which Xifengkou, Gubeikou, Lengkou and other places are the most important. The border walls in Yongping Mansion such as Lengkou have been repaired by the Sun Pavilion Department, but the garrison force is still to be strengthened, and 5,000 troops can be transferred from the defenders of Shanhaiguan to strengthen the border walls of Yongping Mansion at various passes. However, the side walls in Zunhua and other places are in disrepair, and it is easy for Jiannu to break through from that area. General Zhao, I order you to take the 4,000 cavalry of the headquarters and go to Zunhua immediately to strengthen the strength of Zunhua to defend the city.

If Jiannu breaks through the border wall near Zunhua, you don't have to fight with Jiannu Lang, you just need to hold on to Zunhua City. If Jiannu wants to attack Jizhou, he must pass Zunhua, if he chooses to go around the city to the south, you will attack it, and you will definitely be able to achieve results. However, Jiannu is strong, and the slave chieftain is scheming, so you must be cautious. ”

"The last general obeys!" Zhao led the sect to lead the way.

"Inspector Sun, in that case, why don't you strengthen the side wall defense? Troops can be sent to various border wall passes in the north of Jibei, and they may be able to block the slaves from outside the border wall. Zhang Chun asked.

Sun Chuanting glanced at Zhang Chun: "Do you know how many mountain passes on the north wall of Ji can be entered and exited?" ”

Zhang Chun thought for a moment: "There should be one or twenty." ”

Sun Chuanting shook his head: "More than that." Although Jibei is full of mountains, but the terrain is not too steep, the peaks and peaks are all over the river valleys before, and the Great Wall is built on the mountain peaks and valleys, from the Jiajing period Qi Shaobao renovated the side wall of Jizhen Town, until now sixty or seventy years, there is no war between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia, the side wall has long been in disrepair, these places can not block the invasion of Jiannu at all.

How many troops Jizhen has, you must know better than me, how to hold this thousands of miles of defense line. Although the Governor brought 40,000 troops, our troops were all infantry, and I am afraid that it would not be possible to send them to the north wall of Ji, and the Jiannu cavalry had already arrived. It's too late! ”

And there is a sentence that Sun Chuanting did not say, if the Liaoxi infantry has not yet reached the border wall, but Jiannu has already broken through the border wall, then the Liaoxi soldiers will face a heavy attack from the Jiannu cavalry, and they are likely to be broken by Jiannu or even annihilated by the whole army. This is also the reason why Sun Chuanting is not ready to send Liao soldiers to assist in guarding the border wall mountain passes.

Zhang Chun was surprised: "Inspector Sun, didn't you train tens of thousands of iron horsemen, why can't you let them ride horses to reinforce everywhere?" ”

Sun Chuanting glanced at Zhang Chun lightly: "The Liaoxi Iron Cavalry has another important task, and Zhang Jianjun doesn't need to say much." ”

"At present, the strategy of our army is to hold on to the cities and clear the wilderness. Shanhaiguan left 20,000 troops to defend the city, and Zhang Jianjun was responsible for guarding Shanhaiguan. Other armies in Shanhaiguan were transferred to Luanzhou, Changli, Qian'an, and Funing Fengcheng. Tell the local officials and guards of the cities that their duty is to defend the city, and that the people in the city will die! If there is a person who is afraid of the enemy and abandons the city and flees, he will be killed, and his family members will be reduced to untouchable! If there are those who surrender and build slaves, raze their three clans!

Zhang Jianjun, Shanhaiguan will be left to you, and this superintendent will lead Ning Jinbing to Gyeonggi, waiting for an opportunity to fight to the death against the invasion of Jiannu! ”

"Yes, my subordinates obey!" Zhang Chundao. Although he was not very satisfied with Sun Chuanting's strategy against the enemy, he had to obey orders.

Although the news of Jiannu had not yet come, Sun Chuanting was unwilling to wait any longer, and with 40,000 Liaoxi infantry, he left Shanhaiguan and headed towards Beijing. Jiannu has many cavalry, and the marching speed is much faster than his own, so he must be one step ahead. Gyeonggi is the battlefield of the decisive battle with Jiannu demarcated by Sun Chuanting!

In fact, Jiannu was even faster than Sun Chuanting thought. On October 23, the second year of Chongzhen, Zhao led 4,000 cavalry on the way to Zunhua, Sun Chuanting led the army just to Luanzhou, Yongping Prefecture, and Huang Taiji had already led the Eight Banners to the old place of Duoyan Sanwei on the bank of the Laoha River, Ningcheng.

From Shenyang to Ningcheng, except for the Liaohe Hetao Plain at the beginning, and then it is full of mountain roads, and the march along the river valley and mountains along the way, the speed is naturally not fast. In fact, the Eight Banners have a large number of war horses with the army, even ordinary bannermen and clothed soldiers can also reach one person and one horse, while the main force of the Eight Banners, the escort army and the marching camp soldiers, are all one person and two horses. The many Mongol tribes that were subdued, coupled with the sacking of the entire Uliangha Mongol tribe last year, made Jiannu not short of war horses at all.

However, war horses also have physical limitations, it is impossible to ride all day, most of the bannermen in Jiannu are very poor, the biggest property is war horses and armor, knives and guns, many people are not too willing to ride horses at all, most of the time are led by horses on foot. In fact, many of the trails are not as fast as anyone can ride a horse.

However, Jiannu lived in the bitter cold land in the end, and his personal physical endurance was very strong, even in the case of such a difficult road, he still maintained a daily march speed of seventy or eighty miles, starting from Shenyang, it took half a month to reach Ningcheng, and to the south of Ningcheng, is the north wall of thistle.

It stands to reason that after half a month's march, it should be rested, but Huang Taiji did not order the troops to rest, but on the day he arrived in Xingcheng, he ordered an attack on the border wall.

It's not that Huang Taiji doesn't want his subordinates to take a break, but the military rations he carries are almost exhausted. And the Mongols in this area were slaughtered by Huang Taiji himself last winter, there are not many Mongols living in this mountainous area, even if you want to grab some cattle and sheep food, you can't grab it, the only way is to cross the border wall to rob the Ming people!

A rudimentary sheepskin map was laid on the stones, and Huang Taiji summoned the Eight Banners Banner Lords Baylor to discuss the offensive strategy.

"Great Khan, the northern wall of thistle, when the terrain of Gubeikou, Xifengkou and Lengkou in the east is the most open, we had better attack from these places." Big Baylor suggested it.

Huang Taiji shook his head: "What we can think of, the Ming people may not be able to think of." Let's attack from these places! ”

As he spoke, Huang Taiji pointed to several places on the map and ordered: "Jierharang, Yue Tuo, Ben Khan will give you a thousand battalion soldiers and two thousand infantry, and you will attack the border wall of Da'ankou." Abatai, Azig, and Ben Khan will also give you 1,000 battalions and 2,000 infantry to attack Longjing Pass. Ben Khan led the main force and attacked Hongshan Pass! ”

The three mountain passes are separated by twenty or thirty miles in turn, among which the Hongshan Pass is the most open. With Huang Taiji's order, tens of thousands of Eight Banner soldiers suddenly moved.

Hongshankou, looking at the overwhelming army of Jiannu in the distance, the guard general Yu Zhuang was bitter in his mouth.

Hongshankou is located on the ground of the Hongshan Valley, the winding side wall cuts the valley into two, the side wall does not open the door, the height is about three zhang, the valley outside is only thirty or forty zhang wide, under normal circumstances, as long as there are more than 1,000 troops enough to defend this side wall.

But the problem is that the side wall has long been in disrepair, and there are five or six cracks in this side wall alone, and the most dilapidated part can be climbed by jumping from the outside. Although the defenders of Hongshankou nominally numbered 1,000 men, in reality there were only about 400, and the rest only existed on the military rolls......

"How could it be, how could Jiannu appear in this Hongshan Pass?" Yu Zhuang muttered.

Although three days ago, he received a message sent by the governor of Jiliao, saying that Jiannu would soon attack the northern border wall of Ji, so that the defenders of the border wall would be vigilant. But Yu Zhuang thinks that it is impossible, outside the border wall of Hongshankou is the territory of the Mongols, where is the existence of Jiannu? Moreover, this Hongshan Pass is so remote, how could Jiannu choose to attack from here?

However, luck has finally become a reality, and Yu Zhuang has now fallen into despair. The Jiannu on the opposite side are overwhelming, with only these four hundred subordinates, where can they be stopped?

"Bastard, since you know that Jiannu is going to invade from Jibei, why didn't you send an army to help defend earlier?" Yu Zhuang scolded hatefully.

"Mr. Qian, there are too many slaves, we can't hold it at all, run away, otherwise it's too late!" The hundreds of households under him urged repeatedly.

Yu Zhuang shook his head, his face full of despair: "You all know the order of the imperial court, if the guards abandon the city and flee, if they are executed, the whole family will be relegated to lowly status, and they will never be able to turn over!" ”

"But if you don't escape, there's only one way to die." The men shouted.

Yu Zhuang said sadly: "If you run away, I will die here, it is better than my wife and children being beaten into the lowly status." Brothers, I only ask you for one thing, take my little family away. Don't go to Zunhua, Jiannu will definitely attack Zunhua City next, bring some food, you just flee to the mountain, just find a hill to hide, most of the Jiannu will not be found, and there is no time to find it. ”

"Mr. Qian!" The subordinates shouted, seeing that Yu Zhuang's attitude was so resolute, they all knew that they couldn't persuade him.

"Mr. Qian, don't worry, as long as my second king is here, my sister-in-law and little nephew are here." The king of the hundred households kowtowed heavily and turned away.

"Take care!" The rest of his men also left. Soon, only Yu Zhuang and a dozen other soldiers were left on the city wall, all of whom were Yu Zhuang's family members.

"Why don't you go, brothers?" Yu Zhuang asked with a smile.

The family members glanced at each other, and one of them said: "The master is usually not thin to us, good food and drink to support us, the salary is two or three times that of the other brothers, and the soldiers are used for a thousand days, and now if the master is abandoned and left, my brothers may not be able to raise their heads again." ”

"Yes, sir, let us die with you." Another family member also said.

"Good brother!" Yu Zhuang said angrily, "Let our brothers fight with Jiannu today, let Jiannu see, I also have a good man in Daming!" ”

"Yes, sir!" More than a dozen family members answered at the same time.

"Kill slaves!" Yu Zhuang shouted, an arrow was shot, and in the valley, a Eight Banners soldier fell to the ground.

"The old man is mighty!" The servants shouted, and they bent their bows and drew arrows, and fired their bows and arrows at the city.

However, for the tens of thousands of Eight Banners on the city wall, this sparse rain of arrows did not pose much threat at all. One hundred and ten Jiannu stood under the city, bending their bows and pulling arrows to counterattack the side walls, while the other Jiannu tried to climb the city walls under the cover of a rain of arrows.

The family members fell down one after another with arrows, and in the end, only Yu Zhuang was left, and the armor on his body protected him.

And when Jiannu climbed the city wall from the crack, Yu Zhuang knew that the final moment had come.

"Kill slaves!" Yu Zhuang threw his bow and arrows, pulled out his steel knife, and rushed bravely towards the Jiannu on the wall.

A feather arrow shot at the door, right in front of Yu Zhuang......