The Veritable Records of the Ming notes that as a result of Zeng Xian's long service on the border and his outstanding achievements, the nomads had not attacked Xuanfu, Datong, or Shanxi.
[2][3] After the invasion, Zeng Xian led counter-attacks and strengthened local defences, but soon felt that a permanent solution was needed to deal with the nomadic raids along the border.
To that end, he identified the Ordos Loop—a stretch of land that is technically part of the steppe, but south of the Yellow River and capable of irrigated agriculture—as a corridor that the Chinese must retake.
The Senior Grand Secretary Xia Yan, effectively the head of government under the emperor, placed his confidence and support behind Zeng Xian's proposal such that he might secure his position in the imperial court and associate his name with "an accomplishment of the kind that is seen only rarely in history" (普世之功).
[4] However, legitimate concerns about the costs of the operation were raised, and personal political rivals of Zeng Xian and Xia Yan banded together to use these opposing views to plot their downfall.
Yan Song, a rival grand secretary, arranged to have rumours spread in the capital that Zeng Xian had been misappropriating funds to bribe influential officials to support his proposal.
[6] The people of the time considered the punishment to be too harsh for the perceived crime, and in 1567, early in the reign of the Longqing Emperor, a motion was filed to review Zeng Xian's case.