When Guo Junzhen arrived in Beijing in a hurry, all the border defenses along the Great Wall were shaken, and all major passes were closed to defend themselves.
However, due to the peaceful days of the past ten years, Xuan Da's border army was weakened and could not bear a battle. In order to protect the merchants in Monan, the Datong defenders withdrew into the pass. General Zhi personally led more than 4,000 troops and sent out troops without authorization. As a result, they were defeated.
They were ambushed by the Junggars and the entire army was wiped out.
The Quasi Army took advantage of the victory and harassed the Dashun border fortress everywhere. The border guards were panicked and fearful, and everyone was hunkered down, waiting for the two major field armies, the Eastern Army and the Western Army, to come for reinforcements.
After Guo Junzhen arrived in Beijing, he inspected the war preparations of the armies along the border and was extremely shocked.
He never expected that after more than ten years of peace, the Dashun soldiers who had gone to fight all over the world would be so depleted.
The towns along the border usually colluded with Saibei businessmen to bully the Mongolian herdsmen, using various commodities and deceptions to induce the Mongolian herdsmen to owe staggering amounts of loan sharks.
Some unscrupulous banks lend money, and the interest can be compounded to five times or six times in one year.
In order to defraud the Mongolian herdsmen of their cattle and sheep property, the generals of the border army towns and the border merchants also vigorously bribed the leaders of the tribes in Eastern Mongolia and entered into partnership with them to engage in usury business.
Now the Junggar army is moving south, although the Oirat tribes and Eastern Mongolia have always been at odds with each other in history.
However, Nenggehun Taiji's slogan of abandoning all Han voting numbers was extremely powerful. A large number of bankrupt herdsmen who were bullied by businessmen along the border of the Shun Dynasty and had no choice but to join the quasi-military army formed an extremely huge force.
Many Eastern Mongolian princes who were originally guests of the generals in the border army town saw that the situation was not good, so they immediately changed their camps and led their troops to join Senggehun Taiji.
All military border defense deployments will be reported to you.
As a result, the Junggar army had the upper hand everywhere, took the initiative and began to violently attack the Xuanda frontier fortress in Dashun.
The Xuan Da border army, which was built with Datong, Xuanfu, and Beijing as its focus, has been completely reduced to a group of miscellaneous soldiers who only do business after more than ten years of peaceful life.
After all, the main wars in Dashun over the years have been mainly concentrated in the northeast, northwest and southwest regions. Elite field armies are fighting on these three fronts, with a total number of about 600,000.
About 200,000 of them are deployed on the northwest front line for a long time, 220,000 are deployed in North Korea and Yingzhou, 130,000 are deployed in Myanmar and Yunnan, and 90,000 are deployed in Taiwan, Luzon, and Qingqiu.
Most of the remaining local guards and militiamen in the mainland have been in peace for a long time, their systems are corrupt, and they can still catch thieves. It is too difficult for them to go out to fight against the quasi-military forces.
Although the nominal number of elite troops in the Xuanda Border Army has been reduced several times, it should still number 80,000.
But after Guo Junzhen went to Beijing to inspect the armies, even if the standards were repeatedly relaxed, the number of soldiers who finally met the requirements of Dashun soldiers was only a mere 20,000.
The remaining people are completely unable to fight and can only be responsible for logistics and city defense tasks.
It can also be seen from this that in the first half of the Sejo Dynasty, because Li Laiheng's front was spread too wide, it was obvious that the troops were insufficient for use.
Although the Shun Army's elite field troops still had a huge scale of more than 400,000, when a border crisis occurred in Xuanda, they had to rely on recruiting guards from the palace and guards from the residence of the honorary minister Hou Bo to raise funds.
troops.
Beijing is an important border defense area, but its military strength is so low. Guo Junzhen really didn't expect it.
He stayed in Beijing for another two full months and was severely criticized by the courtiers. Even the eldest princess Li Huirou thought that Marshal Guo was sitting back and watching the destruction of Daning City.
Guo Junzhen originally wanted to wait for the Anton Army to return to defend and assist in the war, but the emperor was unwilling to give up Japan, which was almost pacified because of the Daning incident.
As a result, after waiting for two months, only a field force of about 20,000 people was organized within the jurisdiction of the Anton Metropolitan Governor's Office. They invaded the Mobei Grassland from the east and tried to find the quasi-combatants left behind.
Women and children.
Guo Junzhen had no choice but to select about 10,000 brave warriors from the Xuanda frontier army with a corrupt military system. Together with the 3,000 palace guards and the guards from the imperial ministers' mansions who were urgently transferred from Kaifeng, they
Under the strong urging of the ministers, he went out to rescue Daning at great risk.
The troops that the Shun army sent out to relieve the siege were far weaker than the troops and horses that Senggehun Taiji had at this time.
Guo Junzhen estimated that the Junggar troops in the Monan area should be about 50,000 cavalry, and there were also a large number of Mongolian herders who were hostile to the Shun Dynasty to assist in the battle.
Dashun's army went deep into the grassland, surrounded by enemies on all sides, and there was an unexpected risk of the entire army being annihilated at any time.
But Guo Junzhen also believes that the Dashun Army also has many advantages:
Although the rescue force he selected and organized was small in strength, it only carried about 20,000 horses. Compared with Liu Fangliang's 40,000-strong army and 120,000 horses in the expedition to the Tianshan Mountains, there was a huge gap.
However, the Shun army has basically all been equipped with new flintlock guns. Due to the use of paper shell charges, the shooting speed of the Shun army gunners has been greatly improved. Even if the Mongolian cavalry is attacking and harassing them on all sides, the Dashun army can still fire in the open air.
maintain the front line on the grasslands.
Secondly, in the later stages of the siege of Daning, in order to solve the problem of food for cattle and sheep, the Quasi Army dispersed its forces several times. The 50,000-horse army was distributed throughout the vast Monan grassland, and its local strength was not necessarily higher than that of the Dashun Army.
Finally, over the years, the Dashun Business Travel and the ticket office have been operating in the Monan grassland. Although these profiteers have seriously damaged the reputation of the Shun Dynasty among the poor herdsmen of Mongolia, they have also established a broad network of contacts and intelligence in the process of doing business.
The business travelers of the Shun Dynasty were familiar with the climate and geography of the Monan Grassland, bribed many Mongolian princes, and built a large number of business inns on key trade routes.
Although many trading houses were destroyed by Mongolian herdsmen, they could be reused with a little repair by Shun soldiers.
In the hidden places near these business inns, there are also cellars built by many ticket companies, in which a very large amount of rice, wheat, bean cakes, grass bundles and dried meat are stored, which can help Guojun Town solve most of its logistical needs.
Therefore, when Guo Junzhen led his army out on an expedition to relieve the siege, the Dashun army did not have a dark eye on the Monan grassland.
After all, the promotion of great peace in the past ten years was based on the Shun Dynasty's effective management of the Monan grassland.
The foundation laid by a large number of traveling merchants in Mongolia became the best guide for Shunjun's expedition.
These Mongolian businessmen know the water, grass, roads, and hills on the Monan grassland even more than the Mongolian herdsmen who have lived here for generations, let alone the Junggar people who have traveled thousands of miles and come all the way?
The Dashun army was exposed to the wild and fought through thorns and obstacles. Under the guidance of merchants traveling in Mongolia, they avoided the main roads commonly used by Mongolians and drove to the vicinity of Daning via small roads commonly used by Han merchants traveling in Mongolia.
At this time, the Quasi Army besieging Daning City did not realize that the Shun Army had already left the fortress for an expedition, and believed that the main force of the Dashun Army was still in the Guan area. Therefore, the number of troops surrounding Daning was only about 10,000, which was relatively small in terms of military strength.
Guo Junzhen and Huining King Li Chunhe did not have much advantage.