The first day of May in the twenty-fourth year of Chongzhen.
In the evening, Li Dingguo arrived at Xiping Fort, a hundred miles away from Xining Fort.
The situation in Xiping Fort was the same as that of other nearby fortresses. In addition to the damaged city walls, there was not a single soldier in the city.
The Ming army captured Xiping Fort without any effort.
"My Lords," the messenger who delivered the news came to Li Dingguo and Li Guo and said, "The Governor has personally led the army to pacify Liao out of the Great Wall and into the grasslands."
"What are we going to the grassland for?" Li Dingguo was a little confused.
"The Great Wall in the north has been destroyed. In order to drive away the main force of the Jiannu and the Mongolian tribes near the Great Wall, the governor decided to send troops to the grassland." The postman replied.
"It is reasonable for the Governor to do this!" Li Guo nodded.
Li Dingguo was about to nod his head to show his approval when he suddenly realized a big problem.
He turned around and asked Li Guo beside him: "What do you think...if the main force of the Jiannu is not on the grassland?"
"Not on the grassland?" Li Guo frowned, "No way?"
"After the Battle of Guangning, scouts from various units reported that the main force of the Jiannu troops retreated to the grassland. If only one scout said so, the news might be wrong, but if all the scouts said so, it should be correct."
After listening to Li Guo's analysis, Li Dingguo began to question his own guess. He shook his head and said, "Maybe I'm overthinking it."
"Wait," Li Guo stretched out his right hand and held it in the air, "If the main force of the Jiannu is not in the grassland, then where do you think it is?"
"There!" Li Dingguo pointed to the southeast, "Near Haizhouwei!"
"Why there?" Li Guo asked again.
"Now our main force is in the north, and the south is short of troops. However, there is a navy guarding the southern sea, and the west bank of the Daling River is our territory, so the only flaw can only be in the southeast." Li Dingguo said seriously.
"Hearing what you said, it seems to be true!" Li Guo also began to worry, "How about we tell the Governor-General about this news immediately?"
Li Dingguo nodded: "Of course I have to tell you, but there are two problems."
"First of all, the Governor may not believe it. After all, we are in the southeast, and we have not found any trace of the Jiannu so far."
"Secondly, the main force of the Ping Liao army has already entered the grassland. Even if the governor believes it, we cannot just retreat. Returning empty-handed will have a huge impact on the morale of the army. Even if we have solid evidence that the main force of the Jiannu is in the southeast, the Ping Liao army cannot quickly withdraw from the grassland in a short period of time, otherwise it will cause a rout."
"In that case, let's find evidence first! Then we can inform the Governor after we find the evidence." Li Guo suggested.
"That's exactly what I was thinking," Li Dingguo waved his hand to call for his personal soldiers, asking them to send out a large number of scouts to investigate the enemy situation.
At noon on the second day of May, Ming army scouts arrived near Wujiafen.
Wujiafen seems to be the name of a village, but it is actually a village.
But this village is special.
There are earthen walls around it, with arrow towers, artillery batteries and other defensive equipment on the walls.
This was once the garrison of the Ming army on the west bank of the Liaohe River, and most of the villagers were family members of the army.
In the summer of the 22nd year of the Wanli reign, the famous official Li Hualong used the empty city plan here to kill the invading Mongolian Fuyu leader Boyaner, defeated the Mongolian Balin tribe, and shot and wounded the Balin leader Batuer.
The Ming army scouts first circled the dilapidated Wujiafen Village several times, and then split into two groups.
Some people went into the village to search, while the other part continued to move forward towards Xining Fort.
That evening, a scout came to Li Dingguo and said, "Wujiafen Village is empty, but there are traces of Jiannu in Xining Fort."
"How many Jiannu are there in Xining Fort?" Li Dingguo was a little surprised.
Xining Fort is on the west bank of the Liaohe River.
Now the Ming army's forces are in the west, and the Jiannu's territory is in the east.
After the Ming army recaptures Xining Fort, it will certainly launch an attack in the west, and the defenders in Xining Fort will then face the unfavorable situation of fighting a desperate battle.
Unless in desperate situation, no general would let his troops fight with their backs to the wall.
The scout replied: "When my men were still 20 miles away from Xining Fort, they were driven away by dozens of Jiannu scouts. We were unable to get close enough to investigate, so we don't know exactly how many Jiannu there are."
"Dozens of Jiannu scouts?" Li Dingguo asked.
"yes."
"It's bad," Li Dingguo stood up directly, "The main force of the Jiannu must be in the Xining Fort area, otherwise there wouldn't be so many scouts, let alone stationed on the west bank of the Liaohe River!"
Li Guo, who was standing next to him, also stood up and asked, "What should we do? Should we inform the Governor immediately?"
"No hurry," Li Dingguo suddenly regained his composure.
Especially at times like this, we must not lose our composure.
He first ordered someone to bring paper and pen, and wrote down the findings and analysis results on paper, ready to send them to the grassland.
While writing, he asked the scout: "Are there any traces of Jiannu scouts near our army?"
"No."
"In other words, Jian Nu doesn't know the position and strength of our army?"
"It should be, but I can't guarantee it."
"That's enough," Li Dingguo suddenly had an idea. He said to Li Guo beside him, "The Jiannu put their main force in the southeast, just to attack the rear of the Ping Liao army while Governor Wang is heading north, forcing them to retreat."
"Or... launch a surprise attack when Governor Wang comes back to provide support."
"As long as we are here, they will never succeed!" Li Guo clenched his fists.
"No," Li Dingguo had already finished writing the letter. He blew the ink dry and put it into the envelope, then said, "We don't have enough troops to fight them head-on."
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