The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"I can't tell clearly. It was probably four or five sounds."

Wei Guangde could only answer truthfully at this time. The sound of the cannon could not be heard clearly. It was echoed by the mountains, and it was difficult to tell how many shots were fired.

At this time, everyone in the city gate was already standing behind the battlements, looking at the beacon fire spreading towards this place in the distance, and another beacon tower was lit.

As the rumbling sound of cannons came to his ears, Wei Guangde saw and heard clearly this time, "Five beacons and five cannons."

"map."

Hearing what Wei Guangde said, everyone in Chengguan felt a chill in their hearts. Of course they knew what it meant.

A guard immediately took out the bamboo tube from behind and poured out a scroll. Then another person went up and unfolded it with him on the left and right. It was a map.

When patrolling the border, it is natural to bring a map with you for reference.

Weng Pu quickly found the location of General Shiguan on the map, and then followed the twists and turns of the Great Wall to the north. At the most prominent position, there was a mark on the ground that Wei Guangde also knew, Gubeikou.

"Is it in Gubeikou again?"

Weng Pu's fingers moved here and stopped, and he said casually.

"Sir, if it's Gubeikou, there will be messengers coming soon."

General Shiguan's guard said while clasping his fists.

Wei Guangde also heard what he said. It was a rule set by Jizhen himself. When a Tatar attack was discovered along the Great Wall, not only should beacon cannons be set off immediately to warn, but also people should be sent to explain the situation clearly in concise words. The message was delivered to the General Military Mansion of Ji Town, Santun Camp, by relaying from enemy towers every few miles.

After seeing the beacon fire warning, the sergeants of the Santun Camp will naturally start to gather and move in the direction of the beacon fire, and the General Military Mansion will confirm the final march route based on the intelligence sent.

The whole process is similar to the fastest express delivery shop in the Ming Dynasty.

The main task of the express delivery shop is to transport urgent documents, and the express delivery shop does not have carriages and horses, so traveling depends entirely on one's own foot power.

"Ming Huidian" records: "In the twenty-sixth year of the lunar calendar, a pavilion was set up for every ten miles, with one pavilion leader and ten soldiers paving the main road. There was a Dingli field nearby with one stone and five dou of grain, and two dou below. To be strong, you need to be strong and healthy."

The nominal number of express delivery shops per mile is actually determined by the financial and material resources of the county. However, at least one shop per county is responsible for the official documents between counties, counties and prefectures, prefectures and provinces, and provinces and the imperial court. of communication.

Therefore, each county (prefecture or province) has a main store, and then several branch stores extend along the main road of the county.

A shop consists of a shop leader and several shop soldiers, and each shop must be equipped with a sundial to determine the time. A sign gate must be set up in front of the shop door, and a pair of lamps and candles must be lit at night so that visitors can easily tell the difference. .

Once the official document is received, the shop manager must confirm the number of items received and the destination, and send a shop soldier. At this time, the shop boss must send the documents in a timely manner day and night.

"Every three quarters, you have to travel three hundred miles day and night, ringing the bell and delivering the goods. But when an official document arrives at the shop, it needs to be delivered immediately regardless of the number of corners. If the official document arrives and is not delivered immediately, it will stop and wait. , so those who make mistakes will be held accountable."

At this time, the troops must set off immediately and determine the location. If it is within three hundred miles, the troops must arrive within a day and night; if it is beyond three hundred miles, they must follow the destination above until the next urgent delivery. shop.

When the soldiers were delivering official documents, "Each of them had a pair of plywood, a pair of bells, a tassel and a gun, and a Hijri calendar." They "tied a leather belt around their waists, held bells and guns, carried raincoats, and walked quickly with the documents."

Traveling day and night, regardless of wind or rain, the carriages, horses and pedestrians along the way heard the bell and immediately moved to the side of the road.

When the soldiers at the next station heard the bell, they immediately got ready. As soon as the official documents arrived, they continued forward like a relay race.

In the Ming Dynasty, official documents and military information were delivered mainly through express stores and post stations. The express stores were specialized in "delivery of official documents".

The post station was used to welcome envoys and guests, transport military supplies, and fly reports on military information.

The two have some overlap in business, but they still belong to two different systems. Each performs its own duties and is not subordinate to each other.

The Ming court stipulated that "important matters should be given to the post, and ordinary matters should be delivered to the post." That is to say, important and urgent military affairs should be handed over to the post, and ordinary official documents and letters should be delivered by the post. The two complement each other and together form a complete and fast post delivery system. .

The reason why a separate express delivery shop is established outside the inn station is also because of the limitations of the inn station. The distance between the inn stations is relatively long, with one station every 60 miles.

In fact, due to the terrain, the radiation range of the post station is not as wide as that of express delivery. However, express delivery can be used in many areas where stations cannot be set up.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was relatively rare to use Pegasus express delivery at the post station. That is to say, when something happened on the Jizhen Great Wall, emergency military information would be reported by Pegasus. The distance was relatively limited, only one or two hundred miles apart.

For the wider south, express delivery shops were mostly used instead of horse-drawn carriages, because the Ming Dynasty could not get enough horses for communication.

However, at this time, Weng Pu was not done with it. He was still staring at the map, guessing the possible locations of the Andu Department.

Continuing from Gubeikou, there are Chaohe Station, Bohai Station and Sihai Station, which have many passes under their jurisdiction, and they are all walls that may be broken by the Anda tribe.

Well, the Great Wall seems to be a fortification placed in the north of the empire to stop the prairie cavalry from going south, but in fact the existence of the Great Wall also makes it difficult for the empire to defend, because the Great Wall stretches for thousands of miles and has countless passes along the way. If you guard against this, others will The weak point of defense in a sneak attack can be said to be completely like a sieve.

"Master Weng, it's lunch time. Let's eat first. I think there will be news soon."

At this time, the beacon fire has passed through General Shiguan and continued to extend eastward, and will spread the news of the Tatar invasion all the way to the General Military Mansion of Ji Town, Santun Camp.

Although he said this, Weng Pu did not end there. Instead, he continued to stare at the map and suddenly said: "Guangde, what do you think?"

"What?"

Wei Guangde wondered. He was also looking at the map, but he had given up at this moment. There were really too many passes along the Great Wall. Breaking through any point could shake the entire defense line.

"Where do you think I will choose to enter the customs?"

Weng Pu added and asked.

Now Wei Guangde understood what Weng Pu meant, and asked him to guess the location of the battle. When the beacon fire came, naturally they had already called.

Wei Guangde does not intend to continue to look at the Great Wall the way he did before, but to put himself into Anda and see what choices he will make in this war from his perspective.

It's just a guessing game. You guess, I guess, everyone guesses. It doesn't matter if you guess wrong.

Wei Guangde first cast his eyes on Wanquan right guard, then gradually moved to Xuanfu, and then bypassed Longmen Guard's defense area.

Not only did he move with his eyes on the map, but he didn't feel it was intuitive enough. He even started to slide from Xuanfu to the protruding part of the Great Wall at Longmen Guard. After bypassing Longmen Guard, he reached the flat plain, and then to the protruding part of Miyun Guard.

General Shiguan is in the southeast corner of the Miyun rear defense area, very close to there.

Last time I answered that the invaders came from Gubeikou where the Miyun Guards were stationed. It should be said that they were familiar with the route. It seemed to make sense to walk it again.

Wei Guangde's thoughts at this moment were somewhat similar to Weng Pu's, but he soon realized that something was wrong.

How many days has it been since the Anda tribe moved east? It must have been about twenty days. Most of the opponents were traveling on horseback. Logically speaking, they should have arrived at Gubeikou long ago. How long did it take to hide and prepare before attacking Guancheng?

You must know that ten days ago, the guards at each pass received warnings that the Tatars might invade. It was difficult to attack the pass city if it was fortified.

There is something wrong with the time. This is what Wei Guangde thought of at this time, and I don't know if Weng Pu noticed it.

Soon, his eyes fell on Bohai Station, which is the place north of Huairou. The Great Wall here is very special, because the area defended by Jizhen is divided into two here, and a wall extends north to Xuanfu, taking over. The ones defending are Longmen Guards, then Xuanfu and Wanquan.

The other part continues to extend southwestward to Shanxi, including Juyong Pass defended by Yanqing Guard, Zijin Pass and Daoma Pass behind the Inner Great Wall.

Wei Guangde was not familiar with An Da, so he naturally didn't know his true purpose of invading the Ming Dynasty. Whether he wanted to rob things or attack the capital to establish greater prestige for him outside the customs.

Anda Khan, also known as Sodo Khan, whose real name is Boljijin Altan. Some people also call him Altan. He was the leader, politician and strategist of the Mongolian Tumut tribe in the Ming Dynasty, and a member of the golden family of Genghis Khan. Descendants, Dayan Khan grandson.

Wei Guangde didn't know this, but the official materials of the Ming Dynasty did record his relationship with Genghis Khan's golden family. In other words, such a person should have the purpose of unifying the Mongolian tribes and going south to herd horses again, recreating the prosperity of the Yuan Empire. scene.

Well, at this time, Wei Guangde still accepted Weng Pu's initial judgment that Anda might choose to break through the Miyun defender zone and go south to threaten the security of the capital again.

Then, he had a creepy feeling. The Anda tribe had broken through here. Looking at the map, the straight-line distance between them and the Anda tribe was less than a hundred miles, only a few dozen miles.

Although Wangshan is said to be a dead horse, people really want to know that there is a third-rank official of the imperial court here. Maybe he will come to arrest Weng Pu. After all, the news of their border patrol has been reported to all the guards at all the passes of the Great Wall. I know.

The reason why the news was released was to make these people more conscious so as not to be caught in the act. At least at this moment, Weng Pu did not want to cause trouble and cause more trouble. After all, the purpose of their trip was to strengthen their defense against Anta's attack.

However, they waited all day, and the news came in the evening. The result surprised both him and Weng Pu, because the actual results were far from their analysis.

Anda Khan did not choose to break through the defense zone of Miyun Guards and then go south to threaten the capital. Instead, he chose to break through the defense zone of Longmen Guards. This means that they have only penetrated the defense of the Great Wall. If they want to threaten the capital, they must at least still A breakthrough must be achieved at Juyongguan or at the pass near the town border town.

After receiving the information, Wei Guangde was called over by Weng Pu, and the two began to discuss what to do next.

The capital must have received the news, and it's hard to say what measures will be taken. At least it's not yet a critical moment, and there is still a Great Wall defense line between the Anta Department and the capital.

But their mission may not be able to continue. They have already invaded and why are they still patrolling?

"The men and horses from the Santun camp should have come out."

Wei Guangde thought about the speed of Feng Run's message. The Santun camp must have seen the beacon at this time, but he didn't know the location of the wall where Anda broke through. However, according to the usual practice, it was certain that the Santun camp garrison would be dispatched.

"We may go to Zunhua tomorrow, then go to Pinggu, and explore all the way until we determine the location of the Tatar invasion."

Weng Pu knows a lot, after all, he is the right minister of the Ministry of War.

The two of them were not panicking at the moment, and Weng Pu also guessed that Emperor Jiajing put such a child next to him, definitely not to monitor him, but more likely to train him, so he deliberately approached Wei Guangde along the way. Ask questions and let Wei Guangde analyze and answer them.

Regarding the questions Wei Guangde asked, he naturally told everyone what he knew. There was nothing to hide about the affairs of the court, at least he could tell others everything he did.

Well, Wei Guangde was still staring at the map at this moment. It was obvious that they had been deceived by Anda Khan. They thought that Anda Khan would attack the Miyun defender again after bypassing the Longmen Guard area by moving eastward. The result was very likely.

At this moment, Wei Guangde's eyes fell on Mantao'er and Hadang, which used to be the Fengning City of the Ming Dynasty. They were nearly a hundred miles away from the current Ming army's control area and were definitely not within the Ming army's investigation range.

Anda Khan stationed his men and horses here and fired a feint, making Ming think he was going to attack the Miyun defenders eastward. After his attention shifted there, he used a carbine to hit the Longmen guards of Xuanfu, and it was extremely successful.

Only from this, Wei Guangde understood Anda Khan's purpose. The purpose of Anda's troops' attack south this time was probably to rob property. They should have no intention of attacking the capital, otherwise they would never go beyond the Great Wall.

Looking at the map, Wei Guangde suddenly raised his head and said to Weng Pu: "Master Weng, it seems that this time the Anta Department wants to plunder Yongning, Yanqing and Baoan."

"Yes, there is only one garrison stationed here, Yanqing Guard. The news is that they broke through the Wafang Valley where Longmen Station was stationed, crossed Longmen River, and may be close to Yanqing Prefecture now."

"Then what should we do? Go directly to Huairou or..."

Wei Guangde didn't dare to say anything about returning to the capital. He would easily be said to be as timid as a mouse in the future, which was terrible for a literati.

The literati of this era must be tough-talking masters. Even if they are scared to death, they must stand on the moral high ground and talk about themselves as if they are swordsmen. Dare to challenge An Dahan to show his sword. This is integrity.

Although Wei Guangde sneered at this kind of integrity in his heart, he still knew the allusion of "the water is too cold" in later generations. That is the big winner in life. With "fame" and profit, he also got an oiran as a concubine.

"It will take at least ten days for the troops from Ji Town to reach Huairou, unless only the cavalry is dispatched."

At this time, Weng Pu frowned slightly and continued: "Let's go to Miyun first and go to Yanqing Prefecture to see the situation."

"Then let's ask Mr. Weng to send a memorial to Beijing and explain the situation. Since we are patrolling the border, we must have a beginning and an end."

Wei Guangde understood that it was impossible to go back to the capital. The right minister of the Ministry of War still wanted to enjoy the feeling of commanding the army. However, it was better to go to Huairou first. As long as he did not go out of the Great Wall, it was still very safe. He just hoped that others Going to Yanqing Prefecture is outside the Inner Great Wall.

ps: At this time, the name of Yanqingwei in Yanqing Prefecture should be Longqingwei in Longqing Prefecture, and it was renamed Yanqing ten years later.