Entering the city, it was obvious that the city had experienced a fire and man-made destruction. Before retreating, the Tatars obviously took out their anger on the city and carried out crazy destruction.
After inspecting the whole city, Zhang Yanling and Zhu Lin breathed a sigh of relief. Although the houses in the city were seriously damaged, the city walls were not particularly damaged. Except for the north city wall that was attacked by trebuchets that day, the battlements were damaged, and the city towers were damaged.
Apart from the collapse, the main body of the city wall is still intact.
After all, it is a solid fortress made of rammed earth and bricks. If you want to destroy such a wall structure, it is just talk.
As long as the city walls are intact, rebuilding the monolithic city is not a big problem. It is nothing more than repairing the towers and battlements and rebuilding the damaged buildings. If the city walls collapse, rebuilding will take a lot of time and manpower.
As the only fortress on the north road of Xuanfu Town, Dushi City plays a very important role. It is responsible for stationing troops and hoarding supplies. It serves as the rear base for the defenders of the beacon and wall at the passes of the Great Wall in the north, ensuring their supply of supplies, food and emergency supplies.
It has various functions such as garrisoning fortresses in various situations. Without this fortress here, the defenders on the Great Wall in the north may not be able to stay for a day.
After carefully searching the surrounding valleys and checking the traces of the Tatars, it is basically certain that all the Tatars have evacuated. This is actually expected. Batu Meng's target is Zhu Houzhao, and he will naturally evacuate if he does not succeed.
, because he knew that the Ming army was about to arrive, and this Monolith City was not a place he could hold.
Zhang Yanling and Zhu Lin discussed it and then they split up. Zhu Lin led 1,500 troops to check the situation on the Great Wall passes and city walls such as Xifengkou in the north to confirm whether the Tatars had completely evacuated.
Zhang Yanling led 500 soldiers and dozens of captains including Chen Shiyi to tidy up the city, clean up the corpses, and search for the whereabouts of the people in the city.
In the afternoon, the soldiers found dozens of civilians among the ruins of the city. After hearing the news, Zhang Yanling hurried to check and found that they were all elderly men and women with limited mobility. Zhang Yanling quickly asked them about their situation and got something from them.
Good news.
It turned out that not all the people in the city were massacred. On the night of the city's fall, after the south city gate was opened, many people took advantage of the chaos to escape from the city and hid in the mountains and forests. The only ones left behind were old people with limited mobility. They hid in the ruins
Among them, the Tatars did not find them.
Hearing the news, Zhang Yanling felt much better. What he felt most guilty about was that he left the people in the city behind and broke out, leaving the people in the city under the slaughter of the Tatars. Now he knows that many people survived,
Naturally, I was very happy.
Zhang Yanling sent several small teams into the mountains to find the hiding people, and personally participated in the operation to clean up the corpses and ruins inside and outside the city.
The Tatars seemed to have cleaned up some corpses. After all, they would not abandon the corpses of their own soldiers in the wilderness after occupying Monolithic City. But even so, the corpses scattered inside and outside the city were still everywhere. But most of them
They are all the bodies of soldiers who died in the Ming army. There are thousands of them.
Due to the hot weather, a large number of corpses had decayed, which could easily cause pollution and plague. Burying them was not practical and would cause pollution. So Zhang Yanling ordered the corpses to be piled up and cremated.
The soldiers cut down trees and piled them around the corpses like several hills, and set fire to them in the open space outside the south city gate. Black smoke rose straight into the sky. Zhang Yanling led the crowd to stand in silence outside the city gate to pay homage, feeling very sad.
pole.
After dark, Zhu Lin returned with his troops and horses and informed them of the situation at the Great Wall Pass. As expected, the beacons at the pass suffered a lot of damage, and the Tatars destroyed more than a dozen key fortresses before leaving. Zhu Lin stayed behind
Two hundred soldiers were left to garrison at various passes for the time being. They were just serving as sentinels, as there was no longer any need to guard there.
That night, the soldiers and horses camped in the clearing in the city. At the first watch, Zhang Yanling and Zhu Lin went up to the north city wall together. Stepping on the stones everywhere and looking at the incomplete battlements, Zhang Yanling's thoughts were up and down, and she remembered what happened not long ago.
The bloody battle to defend the city here makes me sigh.
"Brother Trillium, I heard Chen Qianhu tell you about your battle here, and Zhu Lin admired you greatly. In this battle of Dushi City, I can't think of anyone in the Ming Dynasty who can do better. Change it.
No matter who they are, they would never be able to do so with only a few thousand soldiers and horses.
Fighting against more than 20,000 Tatar soldiers and horses, severely damaging the Tatar army, and escorting the emperor to break out. All this is like a miracle. From now on, if anyone boasts that he led the army to fight the best in the world, I will spit in his face. Except for you Zhang Yanling, no one else
People dare to say they know how to fight." Zhu Lin said in a deep voice.
Zhang Yanling laughed and sighed: "Brother Zhu, you praise me too much. How can I fight? I'm just struggling to survive. There are so many corpses of our Ming soldiers still burning outside the city. They paid for them with their lives."
I don’t dare to take credit for winning this battle.”
Zhu Lin shook his head and said: "I don't care. If you ask me not to tell others that this is your credit, I will listen to you and not be verbose. But in front of you, I have to express my admiration. I am not flattering,
I have something to say, if you hadn’t been strategizing, the Emperor might have been in trouble this time."
Zhang Yanling smiled, turned around and stood on the city wall with his hands behind his hands, looking at the wilderness outside the city. The night wind blew his cloak and fluttered lightly. A crescent moon hung on the top of the mountain in the sky, the clouds moved and the moon dimmed, and the mountains and fields around him suddenly became dark.
Suddenly confused.
"The sand in the desert is like snow, and the moon in Yanshan Mountain is like a hook. In the frontier fortress, there have been countless battles throughout the ages, and how many people have died in battles. Brother Zhu Lin, do you think their deaths are meaningful?" Zhang Yanling said softly.
Zhu Lin was stunned for a moment, scratched his head and said, "I never thought about this. Why do you suddenly ask this?"
Zhang Yanling said with a smile: "It's just something I feel. Think about it, hundreds of thousands of soldiers of our Ming Dynasty guard the border fortress, ready to fight the enemy to the death. What do they do? When they stood on the city wall pass, they thought in their hearts
What is it?"
Zhu Lin smiled and said: "Brother Yanling, you think too much. Why do you think about these useless things?"
Zhang Yanling turned to look at Zhu Lin and said: "Brother Zhu, of course I have to think about these things. I didn't want to think about these things before, but after the Battle of Dushi City, I think there are some things that I should think about."
Zhu Lin looked at Zhang Yanling blankly, but heard Zhang Yanling say softly: "When we eat and drink in the capital every day, and fight for our own petty profits every day, have we ever thought about the frontier fortress, where dozens of people are living?"
Thousands of soldiers are here
Here we guard the tranquility of the Ming Dynasty. They endure the heat, bitter cold, loneliness, and a life of meager food. They also always face threats from enemies and death. Compared with them, how can we feel at ease?"
Zhu Lin scratched his head and didn't know what to say.
Zhang Yanling said with a smile: "Brother Zhu, I don't mean to blame others. What I mean is that we should actually be worthy of these brothers who died on the battlefield. Maybe some of them had no choice, but I think many of them must be
With the thought of serving the country and defending the family, I have the courage to die. I was just thinking, I
We, the noble people of the Ming Dynasty, should have a bigger picture. We should have the thought of serving the country, rather than just focusing on the present mediocrity. This feeling is what impressed me most this time. Maybe Brother Zhu thinks that I
It's very boring, and the words I said are very pretentious, but these are some of the true feelings in my heart."
Zhu Lin said in a deep voice: "Brother Yanling, I don't think you are pretentious and boring, but I admire you even more. What you said makes me ashamed. My father also said these words. I didn't understand it before, but today
Standing on top of this city, I suddenly feel that what you said is reasonable. Our family may need to make some changes."
Zhang Yanling smiled and said: "Brother Zhu, it seems that I really saw you right."
…
Zhu Houzhao and his party went all the way south. One day later, 6,000 cavalry led by Zhu Hui, the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu Town, rushed to meet them.
When Zhu Hui saw that Zhu Houzhao was safe and sound, a stone fell in his heart. The first thing he did was to apologize. Because after learning that the emperor was besieged by two Tatar armies in Dushi City, Zhu Hui immediately realized that he had been deceived.
Already.
In order to reinforce the Shangxi Road, Zhu Hui even mobilized all the Longmen guards and horses on the Shangbei Road, leaving the Shangbei Road empty of troops and unable to rescue them in time. Based on Zhu Hui's understanding of the number of soldiers and horses in Dushi City and the defense situation,
After learning that the emperor was trapped in Dushi City by more than 20,000 Tatars, his heart dropped. I am afraid that the emperor will not be able to escape this disaster.
So he immediately mobilized six thousand cavalry to rescue him, but he knew that it would be too late. But now, seeing that Zhu Houzhao was safe and sound, Zhu Hui was both ecstatic and incredible.
Of course, Zhu Hui would not punish Zhu Hui for his plea. Zhu Huzhao had concealed his whereabouts, and it was understandable that Zhu Hui mobilized troops to encircle and suppress the invading Tatar army of 40,000. He had no reason to blame him.
What's more, Zhu Houzhao had accepted Liu Jin's suggestion and described the encounter with enemy attacks during the border patrol as a proactive move to meet the enemy, so he could not blame others.
When Zhu Hui heard from the emperor that he had taken the initiative to go to Dushi City to defend against the enemy, he blocked the Tatar army from going south and seized the rear route of the soldiers and horses in Xuanfu Town, thwarting their attempt to invade the Tatar army from the north and south along the West Road.
When he said this, Zhu Hui was stunned and stunned.
Zhu Hui was the person involved, and he already knew that this was Batu Mengke's plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain. How could he believe Zhu Houzhao's statement? But he soon understood that this was just a set of words from the emperor. The emperor this time
Patrolling the border was a reckless and absurd move. The emperor just wanted to have a funeral and go back to make amends.
Zhu Hui was a smart man, so of course he would not expose him. So he followed the trend and praised the emperor for his wisdom and martial prowess. He attributed the active retreat of the Tatar army on the Shangxi Road to the inevitable result of the emperor's blocking battle at Dushi City on the Shangbei Road.
.The credit for the entire Tatar invasion to their defeat was attributed to the emperor's insight into fighter planes and his invincible bravery.
However, in private, Zhu Hui soon learned some details of the Battle of Dushi City. He also learned from some people that Zhang Yanling, the Marquis of Jianchang, was the key figure in the emperor's successful escape.
After learning more details of the battle, Zhu Hui was even more surprised and admired Zhang Yanling's actions.
As the holy driver headed south, the soldiers and horses who came to rescue him one after another along the way had arrived. A mighty army of 40,000 to 50,000 people accompanied him. In a few days, the army escorted the holy driver to Juyongguan. At this moment, it was learned that
It was reported that all the civil and military officials of the imperial court, including Prince Qi and more than 100,000 troops dispatched from the Beijing camp, had arrived at the south entrance of Juyong Pass.
Zhu Houzhao issued an imperial edict that they did not have to leave the customs and could only meet them outside the south entrance.