Chapter 100: Sharp Royal Guards

However, just when Wang An commissioned the dental firm to find a suitable house.

Far outside Jinzhou city, on the banks of the Daling River, several Ming soldiers wearing mandarin duck battle jackets stayed up all night and were chewing on hard dry food with water bags.

A night sentry who was on guard at the top of the mountain suddenly looked frightened and rushed down the mountain quickly.

At the same time, he lowered his voice, as if afraid of attracting the attention of some terrifying being, and shouted: "Brother Niu, there are Tartars!"

Several Ye Bushou stood up suddenly, climbed up the hill cautiously, and looked in the direction pointed by the first Ye Bushou.

On the distant horizon, a huge cavalry team was marching towards Jinzhou.

A bearded Ye Bushou observed silently for a while until the cavalry team gradually approached, then he waved his hand to signal everyone to retreat.

Only after leaving the hill did the bearded man speak with a slight heaviness, "There are probably more than 10,000 people. Judging from their flags and equipment, they should all be genuine Jianzhou Tartars!"

"What are these beasts doing here all of a sudden? Are they planning to launch an attack while our Jinzhou City is still under repair?"

One of the men said urgently, "Brother Niu, these things are beyond our ability to figure out. Let's quickly take the news back and report to the commander!"

Niu Er nodded, and everyone quickly mounted their horses and galloped towards Jinzhou City.

…………

Jinzhou City.

The entire city seemed to have become a huge construction site. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were busy building the city walls under the command of Bi Zisu, the governor of Liaodong, and Zu Dashou, who had just been promoted to the vanguard commander-in-chief.

At the end of the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, the former Liaodong governor Wang Zhichen reported to the court that the newly completed city wall of Jinzhou was destroyed by rain.

So he left only some military households and a small number of garrison soldiers and withdrew from Jinzhou City with the main army.

Although it sounds absurd that the city walls collapsed due to rain, it is true. It is just that it is far from being exaggerated to the point where it was impossible to defend.

And everyone knew that Wang Zhichen was just looking for an excuse to shrink the defense line.

But Yuan Chonghuan had the opposite idea. He believed that the Liaodong strategy must adopt a step-by-step approach to the rear, constantly building cities and forts, and coordinating the strategy of farming to gradually reduce the living space of the Jiannu.

As the gateway to Liaodong, Jinzhou City naturally needed to be restored.

Historically, after Yuan Chonghuan took office as the commander-in-chief of Ji-Liao in the first year of Chongzhen, he immediately set about recovering Jinzhou.

He also sent his trusted general Zu Dashou to serve as the vanguard commander-in-chief to garrison Jinzhou.

Because of Wang An's relationship, Chongzhen replaced Wang's ministers in advance, which led to Yuan Chonghuan taking office several months earlier than in history.

Naturally, the schedule for retaking Jinzhou was also brought forward by several months.

At this time, Zu Dashou, who was supervising the construction site, suddenly received a report from his subordinates that a team of night patrols responsible for scouting the enemy situation on the grassland had reported that a large number of Jianzhou Tatars were found on the banks of the Daling River.

Zu Dashou was so shocked that he stood up immediately and hurriedly ordered someone to summon those Yebushou. After making sure that they were definitely not mistaken, he asked in detail about the number of people and flags of the Jiannu army.

Then he sat down with a serious expression, his face full of disbelief.

Although Zu Dashou was still overshadowed by Yuan Chonghuan at that time, he had already made a name for himself after experiencing the battles of Ningyuan and Ningjin, and had the demeanor of a famous general.

Even during the Battle of Ningyuan that year, when the Jiannu were about to break into the city, his adopted son Zu Kefa had never seen Zu Dashou lose his composure like this.

He asked nervously, "Father, do you think these bastards are here to attack us?" "Although Jinzhou City has not been repaired yet, fortunately, Commander Yuan had the foresight to let us lead Zhu Mei's troops in addition to our own troops. At present, we have more than 20,000 troops in the city, and we have the advantage of the city.

According to the reports from those night guards, this group of Jianzhou Jurchens only has more than 10,000 people, and we discovered them in advance. It shouldn't be difficult to defend the city, so why panic? "

Zhu Dashou heaved a long sigh, shook his head and said, "My son, you underestimate your father too much!"

"I am not surprised by the sudden appearance of these guys, but I knew they would appear!"

"Godfather actually knew about this a long time ago?" Zu Kefa was even more surprised.

The Jiannu used to send and receive troops as fast as the wind, and Ming soldiers could only adopt a passive defense. They usually had to wait until the Jiannu army was two or three days away from the city before they could rely on night raids to obtain information about the enemy's movements.

However, looking at Zu Dashou now, it seems that he had learned about the movements of the Jiannu at least two or three days in advance.

However, this made Zu Kefa even more confused. Since he had already known about the Jiannu's movements in advance, why didn't Zu Dashou take corresponding preventive measures in the past two days?

Moreover, when Ye Bushu discovered the Jiannu army, Zu Dashou did not seem worried at all that the Jiannu would attack Jinzhou, which had not yet been repaired.

Zu Dashou nodded, still seemingly immersed in some fact that was hard to accept.

After a moment, he said to himself, "Kefa, do you know how I knew this?"

Zu Kefa shook his head and guessed, "Could it be that my foster father has planted spies among the Jiannu people?"

Zu Dashou chuckled and said self-deprecatingly: "It would be great if I had that ability. I'll tell you the truth, this news was sent by the Emperor!"

"Your Majesty?" Zu Kefa was also shocked. "Your Majesty is far away in the capital, how could you know the movements of the Jiannu people?"

"Could it be..."

The father and son looked at each other, and after a moment they both exclaimed in unison: "The Jinyiwei are so sharp!"

Zu Kefa, who thought he had uncovered Chongzhen's source of information, immediately fell into another puzzlement, "Since my foster father knew that the Jiannu would attack the city, why didn't he take any action?"

Zu Dashou said with a sullen face, "Because the Jiannu are not here to cause trouble for us."

"Who would you be looking for?" Zu Kefa was surprised.

Zu Dashou pointed in the direction of Aomulun, "Duoluote tribe, Huang Taiji's target is the entire Chahar!"

Zu Kefa felt relieved upon hearing this. As long as the Jiannu’s target was not Jinzhou City, there was nothing to worry about.

However, just as Zu Kefa was relieved, Zu Dashou suddenly stood up and waved his hand, saying, "Send a message to the commander immediately, saying that the Jiannu have indeed appeared!"

"Also, assemble the army immediately and be ready to march out at any time!"

"Go...go out?" Zu Kefa was stunned for a moment, and said in disbelief: "Huang Taiji is outside the pass, what are we going to do at this time?"

Zu Dashou sighed, glanced at Zu Kefa and said, "Father doesn't want to either, but His Majesty has already made an order..."

"What is the decree?" Zu Kefa wanted to ask more.

Zu Dashou interrupted, "Now is not the time to explain this to you. Go gather the troops first, and we'll talk about the rest on the way!"

(End of this chapter)