After hearing the report from the messenger, Dalima felt completely bad. She no longer regained her previous calmness and asked in a voice, "Who did it? Duan or Yang Ju?!"
"No, it's the Ming army!" the messenger said timidly.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" Erdun roared after hearing this: "Even if the Ming army has passed Puding, there is still Pu'an Village and Luoshan City in front. Did they fly over with wings?"
"They disguised themselves as broken troops, bypassed Pu'an Village and Luoshan City, sneaked into Shengjing Pass, and launched a shameless sneak attack while the defenders were not paying attention! The defender, Ah Rixi, and the following were all killed in the battle!" the messenger reported.
"What?!" Darima's head was buzzing, and she suppressed the feeling of spinning and asked him: "Where did the rout come from?"
"They are under the command of Marshal Yaizhu. They suffered heavy losses in Puding and had no choice but to retreat," the messenger replied.
"Then why didn't you retreat into Pu'an Village and Luoshan City? Why did you flee back to Shengjing Pass?!" Erdun asked loudly.
"Because the Pu'an and Luoshan tribes defected before the battle, he did not dare to go to Pu'an Village and Luoshan City." The messenger replied bravely.
"Damn it! Pingzhang destroyed all the four lines of defense that he had carefully built for twenty years..." Erdun said angrily incompetently: "What the Ming army couldn't accomplish without the death of 100,000 people, let him do it alone."
Done!"
"..." Although Dalima did not say a word, the blow he received was not light at all.
As Erden said, since he took office, he has focused on building a peripheral defense line. He spent huge sums of money to build these forts, villages and cities in order to take advantage of the geographical advantages and natural dangers to block the Ming army outside Yunnan and make it intimidating.
.It plays the role of a soldier who can subdue others without fighting.
Dalima was also very satisfied with these three peripheral lines of defense. He believed that "even if the Ming army used the whole country to attack, it would have to use 200,000 troops, cost tens of millions, and last two years! If they had enough food and soldiers, they would be able to break the city."
It's out of reach.'
Precisely because he had full confidence in one fortress, one village, and one city, he only stationed five thousand soldiers and horses at Shengjing Pass. Just like the wooden doors in the security doors of later generations, few people would lock them, so there was no need.
The result now tells him that the three outer lines of defense, including the Shengjing Pass, have all been lost... Who else can withstand it? Anyone with high blood pressure will directly suffer from cerebral hemorrhage.
Although Darima did not have a cerebral hemorrhage, she could not recover for a long time.
He sat there until dark, then asked in a hoarse voice: "How many troops does the Ming army have?"
"I don't know." The messenger shook his head.
"Who is leading the team?" Darima had no choice but to ask again.
As a result, the messenger still didn't know.
"Where's Biting Zhu? Is he back..." Darima asked irritably.
"Oh, Marshal Yaizhu and his son are missing. Only Deputy Marshal Huo Chi came back with thousands of remnants. He also brought back the news." The messenger hurriedly replied.
"Humph, I ran away in fear. I'll be dead if I come back." Erden spat.
"If we find him and cut his father and son into pieces, it will be difficult to understand the hatred in my heart!" Darima said through gritted teeth.
"Yes!" Erden responded loudly. Mongolia respects the right, and he, the marshal on the left, finally has the opportunity to ascend to power.
"Also, I'm ordering all armies to cancel their operations tomorrow and stay put for the time being." Dalima said again dejectedly.
"Ah?" Erden asked in surprise: "Why don't we take back the defense line? At least we have to take back Shengjingguan, otherwise we won't be able to sleep well."
"I will give you 10,000 troops and horses, go and take them." Dalima glanced at him.
"How can that small amount of troops be enough?" Erdun immediately stopped: "The natural danger of Shengjing Pass is that only one man can pass it and ten thousand men cannot open it. An army of 50,000 is simply not enough."
"You also know that it is a natural insurance, so why are you making such a fuss?" Darima said feebly: "Since it has been taken away by others, it is their natural insurance. If we take it by force, the loss will be too great."
As he spoke, he closed his eyes in pain and said: "Let's let the army set up defenses on the Bailong River to prevent the Ming army from crossing the river. This way, we can at least have a favorable location."
"..." Erden said in his heart that the geographical advantages of Bailongjiang are too average. Not to mention compared with Shengjingguan, even with the forts, villages and cities, they are far incomparable.
But Pingzhang is right. If we go to fight Shengjing Pass at this time, the opponent will have the advantage, and it is an absolute advantage. Therefore, it is more appropriate to set the battlefield in Bailongjiang.
~~
Dalima had no intention of attacking Shengjing Pass, but the Ming army over there was not polite.
Two days later, Xuande Hou Jin Chaoxing led an army of 20,000 people and arrived at Shengjing Pass.
The other 10,000 troops were divided into two sections by him, one was stationed in Pu'an Village and the other was stationed in Luoshan City.
Coupled with Puding Fort, the fortress built by the Yuan army at a huge cost became an invincible fortress for the Ming army to protect its logistics line.
All of a sudden, the difficulty of maintaining the army's supply line suddenly dropped by several levels.
Another unexpected surprise was that the Ming army discovered in Shengjingguan Panku that there were actually fifty thousand shi of grain stored in the Guancheng grain depot!
Enough to feed an army of 100,000 for a month!
Moreover, this is 50,000 shi of grain in Yunnan. If it was transported from Huguang to here and was eaten by people along the way, it would be necessary to prepare at least 100,000 shi to transport these 50,000 shi.
It is not difficult to understand why when Marquis Xuande met Marquis Xiping, he repeatedly praised him as the most wise general in the Ming Dynasty and the most blessed general in the Ming Dynasty.
I have to admit that the success of Xipinghou's trick to outmaneuver the border does require a bit of luck. If you have a little bad luck, your success will be on the verge of failure, or even the entire army will be annihilated.
After all, no one could foresee that the defeated troops who fled into Shengjing Pass would flee as soon as they heard that the Dongguan City Gate was breached, and would also take the three thousand defenders in the city with them...
As long as Biting Zhu pays a little attention and gathers and reorganizes the defeated troops, their performance will not be so scattered.
However, Yaizhu no longer wanted to worry about this. He knew that after meeting Darima, he would definitely die, and his death would be ugly.
So when he heard Ah Rixi say that Dalima had led a large army and would arrive at Shengjing Pass in the near future, Yaizhu had the idea of escape.
As soon as it got dark, he sent a group of personal soldiers to Qujing on the pretext of delivering a message to Pingzhang. He and his son mingled with the group, left Shengjing Pass, and fled.
When the Ming army attacks, the soldiers can't find their commander. How can they still be eager to fight? Of course, they have to flee...
Biting Zhu's escape was also unpredictable. So how can we say that there was no element of luck in the success of this surprise attack?
What if he did not escape, but led his men to rescue Dongguan City. Judging from the situation at that time, it is likely that the Ming army would be unable to withstand it...
But there are no ifs in this world, we always just look at the results.
Of course, luck is also a part of strength. Those who have been able to achieve great things since ancient times have not been extremely lucky, for example, with divine help?
That’s why there’s the saying, ‘When times come, heaven and earth are all united, but heroes are not free when they are gone’…
