The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 311

When Zhou Chu first returned to Beijing, he told Zhu Houcong that the Mongols might attack the Ming Dynasty from the Hetao region, but he did not specify the exact location of their attack.

The reason is simple: the winters of the past two years have been exceptionally cold and long, and the long winters mean that the Mongols have a hard time enduring them.

It is very difficult for cattle and sheep to gain weight in winter. It is already difficult enough to maintain their meat weight. Moreover, there is no grass for these cattle and sheep to eat in winter. Therefore, most Mongolians choose to slaughter most of their cattle and sheep in winter and store them for the winter.

However, the cold and long winters meant that most Mongols did not have enough meat stored up, so they had no choice but to attack the Ming Dynasty and plunder its grain.

This has always been the pattern of nomadic peoples on the grasslands.

The Mongols had already been weakened considerably by the Ming Dynasty. If this weakening continued, they would collapse on their own without the Ming Dynasty even needing to attack them.

However, the emergence of Anda and the continuous supply of goods from Shanxi merchants led to a Mongol counterattack.

The Mongols also knew that continuing like this would be like boiling a frog in lukewarm water for them; the Ming Dynasty would slowly wear them down, so they naturally wouldn't sit idly by and wait for their demise.

Now that the New Year has just passed and spring is just around the corner, the Mongolians are already finding it difficult to hold on.

Fortunately, thanks to Zhou Chu's reminder, Jiajing replaced all the generals in Datong and the surrounding areas, including Hang Xiong, the incompetent general who was guarding Datong.

Although the Mongol attack was unexpected, it was successfully repelled by the well-prepared Ming army.

The Mongols' attacks relied on speed and surprise; once a city was prepared, attempting to quickly breach its defenses was simply wishful thinking.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Anda led his Mongol tribe to retreat quickly into the grasslands.

"Now, the only ones capable of pursuing and annihilating this Mongol force are probably the Tiger Legion and the Black Tortoise Legion. However, the Black Tortoise Legion is not good at land warfare, so the Tiger Legion is more suitable."

Jiajing looked at the map and said.

In grassland warfare, the key is to move swiftly like the wind, giving the enemy no chance to react. Once the Tiger Legion is equipped with light armor, it can do just that.

As for the garrison in Shanxi, it was already quite an achievement that they could hold their ground; they had absolutely no ability to pursue the enemy into the grasslands.

Although the Shanxi garrison was large in number, it consisted mostly of infantry, with only a few cavalrymen, whose quality was also quite worrying.

Whether in Shanxi or other regions, the army faces the problem of soldiers having their pay embezzled. If this problem is not resolved, the soldiers will not have a strong fighting spirit.

A group of soldiers who have lost their will to fight is a mob, a disorganized rabble. They would have a hard time even defending a city, let alone pursuing the Mongols.

"Your Majesty is right. If Zhixin leads the Tiger Legion, we can annihilate this group of Mongols on the grasslands."

Zhou Chu echoed.

Zhixin is Lin Lu's courtesy name, given to him by his father in the hope that he would always maintain a childlike heart.

Zhou Chu did not directly request to fight. After all, he had already handed over the Tiger Legion, and it would be inappropriate to rashly request to fight at this time. He would accept such military power if the emperor gave it to him, and he would not accept it if the emperor did not give it to him.

As expected, Jiajing shook his head upon hearing this.

"Zhi Xin's ability to lead troops in battle is average. Even if he is better than the average general, it's only because he has followed you for a year. He probably hasn't even learned two-tenths of your skills. What I want is to win the battle in one fell swoop. Otherwise, those civil officials will have something to say again."

Jiajing rubbed his head in annoyance.

Once the war reaches a stalemate, the civil officials will seize the opportunity to rise up. Although the current Jiajing Emperor's power seems stable, the Ming Dynasty has too many problems. Once these civil officials find an excuse, they will unite again.

Jiajing would naturally not give them that opportunity.