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Chapter 439 Turks go south
what?
The Hu army went south!
The news immediately shocked everyone.

For the Han people, almost every time the northern nomads went south, they brought war and killing.

Even with the Great Wall as a barrier, it is not foolproof.

There are very few dynasties in the past that can truly solve the northern border troubles.

But now, the news that the Hu people are going south again has cast an invisible shadow on the joyous scene where Ming Dynasty just defeated Li Tang.

"No need to worry, what are the details?"

Zhao Mingyuan's words seemed to have some kind of magic power. Listening to his calm tone, everyone couldn't help but calm down.

Following the messenger's eloquent talk, everyone finally understood the whole story.

It turns out that the ones who went south this time were DTZ, which is now the largest tribe on the grassland, and it is also the tribe where Wu Zun Bixuan is the national master.

It seems that they have known for a long time that there will be changes in Chang'an City, and may have guessed what will happen, so they are well prepared.

Could it be that Jieli Khan already knew the final result of that battle, so he wanted to go south to avenge Bi Xuan?
Of course, as a political figure, revenge for Bi Xuan was just an excuse for Jie Li to go south.

The truth is of course that Jie Li was frightened when he learned that Zhao Mingyuan had defeated Li Tang and was about to dominate the world.

He was afraid that the Central Plains would be unified and a powerful Han empire would emerge.

After all, almost every powerful dynasty will inevitably expel the Tartars and attack the barbarians in the north, without exception.

Therefore, it would be a good strategy to take advantage of the fact that Ming Dynasty has not yet truly annexed Li Tang and weakened Ming Dynasty's strength.

I have to say that their timing was really good.

Now Zhao Mingyuan has just taken control of Chang'an City, and many nearby cities have not yet truly surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. At this time, the war will be chaotic, and it will be difficult to exert its full strength.

"Where are they now?"

Zhao Mingyuan asked calmly.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the time of the summons was three hours ago, when the barbarian vanguard had already entered Longyou."

"Impossible! Isn't there anyone who can resist? What do those border troops do for food!"

Someone immediately spoke out to refute, it was one of Li Tang's surrendered ministers.

Someone soon raised the question whether the frontier troops switched sides because news of Li Tang's demise spread. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why the barbarians came so quickly.

At present, the Hexi Corridor is not in the hands of Li Tang, so the Hu-Han border is only a few hundred miles away from Chang'an. If the Hu people come with light cavalry, they can invade Chang'an in just half a day.

Therefore, although there was some cooperation with the Hu people, Li Tang would naturally not be unprepared. There were quite a few troops stationed at the border.

In fact, the troops and even the material capital at the border belonged to the Sui Dynasty, but were just taken over by Li Tang.

Although Li Tang did mobilize a lot of frontier troops because of the decisive battle with the Ming Dynasty, even so, they should not be broken through so easily.

After all, the defenders relied on the city and occupied a favorable location, making it difficult to break through.

What's more, most of the Hu people are cavalry, but there is a serious shortage of siege equipment. How can it be so easy to break through the border fortified city?

Unless the border troops really surrendered without firing a single shot.

But this is more like a fantasy.

The border officers and the barbarians have been fighting for years, and their hatred is as deep as the sea. How can they surrender to them?

What's more, those soldiers were originally from the Sui army. Although they surrendered to Li Tang, it's hard to say how loyal they were to Li Tang.

It makes no sense that they would do things to lure barbarians into the country for Li Tang.

Just when the ministers were puzzled, an old eunuch emerged from the back hall, quietly came to Zhao Mingyuan, leaned down and whispered a few words.

This old eunuch is none other than Wei Lianxiang, one of the elders of the Yingui Sect.

As an undercover agent of the Yin Gui faction, he originally served Yang Guang. After the death of the Sui Dynasty, he came to Li Tang's harem and became Li Yuan's personal eunuch.

Because he was very familiar with the palace, Zhao Mingyuan entrusted him with the management of the palace's affairs.

It seemed that he had found out something.

Sure enough, as Wei Lianxiang spoke softly, Zhao Mingyuan understood the whole story.

It turned out that Li Yuan secretly sent several letters before committing suicide.

According to Wei Lianxiang's investigation, it was confirmed that three letters were sent out by Li Yuan's dead men.

One of the letters seemed to be sent to Dou Jiande, but the other two letters were sent to the same direction.

One of them seemed to be sent to the general guarding the city at the border, while the remaining letter was even sent to the grassland.

Now it seems that that letter finally found its way into the hands of Jieli Khan, which led to DTZ's unexpected move south.

The general who defended the city was the Li Tang clan, and it was from the city where he was stationed that the barbarians entered the pass.

It turned out to be the case.

It must have been that before his death, Li Yuan was unwilling to accept his own defeat and his three sons were all killed by Zhao Mingyuan, so he became interested in revenge.

In order to make the guard willing to lure the barbarians into the border, I don't know how he exaggerated Zhao Mingyuan's cruelty and ruthlessness in that letter.

Could it be that Zhao Mingyuan slaughtered all the Li Tang clan?
Or rather, the guard had always obeyed Li Yuanyan. However, since he is such an important person as the border guard, he must be someone whom Li Yuan has great trust.

Although the details cannot be studied, Zhao Mingyuan already understood the general situation.

The most important thing at the moment is not to investigate the cause, but to find a way to solve the problem.

Fortunately, this problem is not difficult to solve.

At least for Zhao Yuan, it's not difficult.

However, Li Yuan should also pay attention to Dou Jiande's letter. He wonders if Dou Jiande will also take the opportunity to lead his army south.

Therefore, Zhao Mingyuan immediately sent a summons to ask Li Jing to be alert to the movements in the north, and then skipped this item and asked the ministers to report other matters.

Although the ministers were a little strange, it seemed that Zhao Mingyuan was confident, as if he had already had a solution, so he stopped insisting and reported all the problems he was facing one by one.

Li Tang had just been annexed, and various affairs were complicated. Naturally, there were many problems waiting for Zhao Mingyuan to solve.

It was already several hours later when he had completely solved the main issue at hand.

After the ministers retreated, Zhao Mingyuan came to the military camp outside Chang'an City.

In order to prevent disturbing the people, nearly half of the army was still stationed in the military camp outside the city.

Now that many political issues have been resolved, Zhao Mingyuan naturally has to resolve military issues as well.

Just now he was calm and composed in the court. Naturally, it was not that Zhao Mingyuan didn't care about the people of Li and Tang and allowed the barbarians to plunder them. Instead, he was prepared to lead the army in person to quickly resolve this trouble.

The reason why Zhao Mingyuan acted in secret was naturally to prevent him from leaving Chang'an without anyone in charge, fearing that someone would take the opportunity to cause chaos.

In fact, someone may have already guessed Zhao Mingyuan's plan.

However, smart people should understand that not to act rashly at this time is their best choice.

Otherwise, even if it can cause some troubles and cause some losses to Ming Dynasty. But when Zhao Mingyuan returns, those who stay with them will also be destined to perish.

Unless, Zhao Mingyuan will never come back once he leaves.

But is this possible?
How could those barbarians keep Zhao Mingyuan?

After such a long time of news spreading, most people who should know already know what happened in the Imperial City last night.

No matter who he is, when he learns that Zhao Mingyuan is so incredibly powerful, he can no longer arouse the desire to rival him.

And if they can't get even this information, even if those people make a rebellion, they won't be able to make a big splash, and they will be wiped out by the defenders.

After understanding this, Zhao Mingyuan can naturally leave with peace of mind.

However, on this trip, he had no intention of leading a large army, but only brought three thousand cavalry.

These are naturally not ordinary cavalry. In fact, they are Zhao Mingyuan's ace cavalry and crossbowmen.

This army was originally the elite of the three armies carefully selected by Zhao Mingyuan and rigorously trained. It was not just about outstanding riding and shooting abilities.

In fact, even without the steel crossbow in hand, they are still as elite as ten.

Although Zhao Mingyuan only brought 3,000 of them during this expedition.

But these three thousand people were all one person and three horses, carrying sufficient food, grass, ammunition, and even a lot of gunpowder.

This time, the destruction of the Tang Dynasty was easier than Zhao Mingyuan had expected, so many firearms had not yet had time to be used.

Since the barbarians from DTZ suddenly moved south, let's use the extra ammunition on them!
The Hu people's march south was naturally dominated by cavalry, and the power of firearms to kill cavalry at first sight was definitely beyond the imagination of the world.

Although the main lethal weapon used by Zhao Mingyuan's cavalry is the steel crossbow, its combat method is very similar to that of a light cavalry in history.

That was Gongsun Zan's white-horse righteous follower during the Three Kingdoms period.

Bai Mayi always comes and goes like the wind, and those who are invincible are invincible.

Gongsun Zan once relied on his White Horse Yi Cong to soar outside the Great Wall and kill Wu Huan so much that he had to flee far away.

Strictly speaking, the tactics of this type of unit are fast speed and strong attack power. They can only hit others by themselves, but it is difficult for others to hit themselves.

Even Zhao Mingyuan's cavalry crossbowmen went one step further, with stronger attack power, denser crossbow arrows, and longer range, so they were naturally more difficult to deal with.

If you want to withstand crossbow fire, unless you are wearing heavy armor or a knight, you will not be able to withstand hundreds of thousands of arrows.

But if they wear heavy armor, the speed of heavy cavalry cannot catch up with light cavalry.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, no unit can restrain them.

The death of Baima Yicong was caused by Gongsun Zan's excessive arrogance and his death. He was surrounded in a narrow place and could not move or evade. Only then was Qu Yi's 800 Xianden defeated him with a powerful crossbow.

In fact, as long as Gongsun Zan had been more careful, the outcome of the Battle of Jieqiao might have been rewritten.

Although history cannot be rewritten, Zhao Mingyuan will not make the same mistakes after learning from the lessons of his predecessors.

Not to mention that the land of Longxi is vast and smooth. As long as a few key positions are avoided, no one can bring any danger to this army.

Therefore, Zhao Mingyuan was sure of winning this battle, and he really couldn't imagine how he would lose.

(End of this chapter)