After the First Hope Dachao on the first day of March, Emperor Jingtai and Yu Jie led an army of 140,000 from the Jingying Forbidden Army and set off. They moved towards Datong and Taiyuan via Zijin Pass.
Li Xuan, as the 'General Zhenji', was in charge of the defense of North Zhili, so there was no hurry to leave the capital city.
However, since the alert message from the Northern Border on the 27th of February, Li Xuan has been preparing for war.
Various grains, military supplies, and so on, were continuously transported to the military warehouses in Jizhou Town.
The Weisuo armies from North Zhili and Shandong also successively received Li Xuan's orders and flocked towards Jizhou Town.
The total strength of these two regions was 80,000 troops. Coupled with the local Weisuo army in Jizhou Town itself, the total was 280,000 men.
