The army that suppressed the rebellion marched south from Ba County to Zunyi, and after arriving in Zunyi, it turned west without stopping to the Anshun Military and Civilian Government.
The Military and Civilian Office was a type of office unique to the Ming Dynasty, and was first established during the Hongwu period.
At that time, the people of the minority tribes in the southwest would become soldiers when they gathered together and civilians when they dispersed, making it difficult to mobilize them.
Faced with this situation, the Ming Dynasty established a military and civil government in the area.
All the people in the prefecture were registered in the army, with a centurion for each hundred people. They farmed and hunted in peacetime, and were recruited into the army in wartime.
The Anshun Military and Civilian Prefecture was originally under the jurisdiction of Sichuan Province, but was later downgraded to a direct-controlled prefecture under the jurisdiction of Yunnan Province.
During the Yongle period, Anshun Prefecture was promoted to a military and civil prefecture and was assigned to Guizhou for governance.
Wen Anzhi's official document arrived before the army arrived.
The official document only contained one content: to prepare food and fodder.
In late February, 30,000 troops arrived outside the Anshun Military and Civilian Prefecture and advanced westward rapidly without stopping.
To the west is Pu'an Prefecture in Yunnan.
In addition to Pu'an Prefecture, there were two other garrisons: Xinxingso (now Pu'an County) and Annanwei (now Qinglong County).
These places were captured by Sha Dingzhou's rebels not long ago.
The Ming army wanted to attack them by surprise.
The defenders in the city were all surrendered Ming troops. After seeing the Ming army flag, they immediately opened the city and surrendered.
After taking the three cities without bloodshed, Li Dingguo personally led 5,000 cavalrymen from his camp to Pingyi (now Fuyuan County) in the west.
Qujing is the gateway to Yunnan, and Pingyi is the gateway to Qujing.
In order to guard the gate, Sha Dingzhou stationed 2,000 troops here.
These two thousand soldiers were not the surrendered Ming troops, but Sha Dingzhou's own soldiers.
On the way to Pingyi, Gao Wengui said worriedly: "General, I know that you have just surrendered to the court and are eager to make merit as a token of your loyalty, but no matter how anxious you are, you cannot use cavalry to attack the city!"
Li Dingguo rolled his eyes at him and said, "How do you know I will use cavalry to attack the city?"
"Eh?" Gao Wengui was stunned by this question. After he recovered, he asked back, "If I remember correctly, you only brought 5,000 light cavalry with you to Pingyi, right?"
"Yes!" Li Dingguo nodded heavily.
"The court set up a county guard in Pingyi. Although the specifications of the guard were not high, it still had the necessary city walls and gates. And as far as I know, there is a river outside the city called Huangni River. The local guard station diverted the water of Huangni River to surround the city as a moat."
"First, we don't have siege equipment, and second, we don't have an insider to open the gate. It's not easy to capture Pingyi." Gao Wengui said while sighing.
He was not afraid of death, but he did not want to make a meaningless sacrifice.
Li Dingguo smiled and turned back, staring into Gao Wengui's eyes: "Who told you that I'm going to attack the city?"
"Not attacking the city?" Gao Wengui was stunned by this. He blinked and continued, "Our army has 5,000 cavalrymen, but the defenders are only 2,000 and half of them are infantrymen. Only a fool would go out of the city to fight in the field! How can we take Pingyi if we don't attack the city?"
"Haha," Li Dingguo smiled faintly, "The best strategy is to attack the enemy's plan, the next best is to attack the enemy's troops! I will tell you the plan later, you just need to act according to it."
Gao Wengui nodded without comment, turned around and called on the cavalrymen behind him to catch up quickly.
Five thousand cavalrymen stopped twenty miles away from Pingyi.
Li Dingguo divided these troops into two.
Among them, one thousand cavalrymen were the vanguard, led by him personally; Gao Wengui and the remaining four thousand cavalrymen followed far behind.
After making all the arrangements, Li Dingguo led a thousand cavalrymen to Pingyi.
More than ten miles away from the city, Sha Dingzhou's scouts discovered their traces.
"Report!" The scout rushed back to the city, "General, a cavalry of the Ming army was spotted ten miles east of the city."
"Ming cavalry?" Pingyi garrison commander Sha Yueze was shocked. "How many soldiers are there? Who is the enemy's commander?"
"About a thousand people, carrying the Ming army flag and the Li general flag."
Sha Yueze frowned and thought for a while, but still didn't know who the general named Li was.
However, this did not affect his deployment of troops.
"Order all troops to climb up the city wall and prepare for defense."
"Yes, sir." The messenger left quickly.
Ten miles was a very short distance for the cavalry, and they arrived outside the city in less than half an hour.
A Ming cavalryman came to the outside of the city with a military flag and shouted, "We are the official army of the Ming Dynasty. The court heard that Mu Tianbo had rebelled, so they specially sent us to Yunnan to suppress the rebellion. Open the city gate quickly and let us in!"
Sha Yueze asked loudly: "Who is leading the troops?"
"Governor Wen Anzhi, General Li Dingguo."
"Do you have an official seal?"
"Yes!" The Ming cavalry tied official documents to arrow shafts and shot them into the city.
After reading the official document, Sha Yueze was in a dilemma.
When they started the rebellion, they spread rumors that Mu Tianbo was plotting a rebellion in order to have a legitimate reason to do so.
Now, the imperial army sent to suppress the rebellion has arrived and is about to enter the city.
The court has not yet reached a conclusion on who the rebels are.
Not letting them into the city would arouse suspicion.
Letting them into the city is like inviting a wolf into the house.
what to do?
Sha Yueze hesitated for a moment and then came up with an idea: "I'm a new transfer here and I don't know how to identify official documents. Please rest outside the city for a few days. I will immediately send someone to Qujing to verify the authenticity."
He has thought it through.
The Ming Dynasty court must have known the truth before it sent troops to quell the rebellion.
What he could do was to hold these people back and then pass the message on to let Sha Dingzhou prepare for defense.
"No need to trouble you, we will go to Qujing ourselves now." The Ming cavalry outside the city waved to the "friendly troops" on the city wall and rode away.
Under Sha Yueze's gaze, a thousand Ming cavalrymen marched past Pingyi City in a swagger.
Before they could walk away, Sha Yueze on the city wall couldn't help but ask, "Have you spotted a large Ming army nearby?"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
