stubborn thief

Chapter 303
Xiaohetao, the Xiaohetao where Huoluochi is located, is the place where Chuoketutaiji thinks about day and night.

From the first day when he led his army across the river, Chuoke Tutaiji observed this land with joy. He was happy with those high mountains and high platforms that had been barren for a long time; he also liked the desert Gobi surrounded by rivers.

Razun's leaving without a fight greatly encouraged Chuoke Tutaiji's self-confidence. The enemy army surrendered in anticipation. What kind of powerful prestige does this mean?
He has even sent two messengers to follow Lazun's footsteps all the way south, telling him not to run away, but to come back and surrender. As long as he converts to the Red Sect and is loyal to Lin Dan Khan, he can still maintain his transcendent status as a Living Buddha.

Who doesn't love a mascot who runs when things go wrong?

The other way is to convey an order to the son who stayed behind in Wulan Mountain, to send a team to the edge of Xuanfu, and invite Lin Dan Khan to enter Qinghai. With the rich Qinghai, they can establish a new dynasty on the plateau to rule the whole Mongolia !

But Chuoke Tutaiji's excitement didn't last long, because he never dreamed that the army entered Xiaohetao to fight the first battle, and the enemy was the Ming army.

He thought that the enemy would be Xiao Lazun from Huo Luochi's family, but Xiao Lazun ran away; he thought that the enemy would be the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion, but he didn't see anyone from the Marshal's Mansion in Xiaohetao, on the contrary, he didn't exist here. The angry Ming army blocked his way.

The person who stopped him was Qianhu, Bao Hu, deputy of Qianhu Office of Guide Guarding Qianhu.

Guide is a very common place name. There is Guide Mansion in Henan, Guide Fort in Yulin, Shaanxi, and Guide Thousand Households on the south bank of the Yellow River in the south of Xining.

This Qianhusuo is located in the south of Xining, on the south bank of the Yellow River. Between the mountains, there are two rivers running eighty miles from north to south. If the narrow strip around the valley is included in Qinghai, it is likely to be the most fertile in Qinghai. land.

However, this thousand households belonged to Hezhou Wei, Shaanxi Province, and Tuliu participated in politics. There was an acropolis and 33 Tumin fortresses. The sense of existence was extremely low. There were only 140 officers and soldiers in the ranks. Thousands of people.

Bao Hu hadn't had a good night's sleep for a long time. Liu Chengzong's entry to Xining coincided with the troubled times of Guide Qianhu Office.

Hezhou Wei asked him to cut off the connection between Liu thief and the pirate who fled into the sea.

Bao Hu is also a local official, and the generals and school ancestors here are all descendants of the Yuan Dynasty. Due to geographical restrictions, Guide and Xining are separated by the mountains of the Yellow River, and Hezhouwei is separated by mountains, so they have never had a deep connection with the imperial court.

Relying solely on the geographical blockage and the connection with the fortress to stop the pirates, the pirates are strong from time to time, and they have to pay a little Timba in the name of Guidefan. .

He didn't understand, since it was an official position conferred by the emperor, why should he take more precautions.

However, since the order is an order, it must be carried out. Anyway, Liu Shizi has no intention of crossing the river from Guide, and Xiao Lazun does not seem to have any plans to join forces with Liu Shizi. Therefore, although they can't sleep overnight, they are still alive after all.

Even when Chuoketutaiji aggressively attacked Qinghai, Bao Hu didn't worry too much. Anyway, it was a war between Chuoketutaiji and Huoluochi.

He never expected that Xiao Lazun ran away, and even sent people to escort his family members into Xining from his territory. Suddenly looking back, Bao Hu found himself being roasted on the fire.

Lazun could go, but Guide's 140 eight-banner troops guarding the Qianhusuo had nowhere to go.

Their place does not rely on the imperial salary to live, but depends on the vast land rented around it, which makes it a happy land.

They can't support themselves anywhere without these lands.

In the early morning of June 24th, from across the Yellow River in the north, an order came from Liu Chengzu, the commander of the Xining Guard, asking him to withdraw the defenses at the ferry and let the [-] soldiers of the Zhenhai Battalion cross the river as support against Chuoketutaiji.

Bao Hu kept the instructions of the Hezhou Guards in mind, did not withdraw his defenses, and justly refused the entry of soldiers from the Zhenhai Camp.

But this was only a verbal refusal, because in the evening of the same day, Hukou Fort in the south was attacked, and more than a hundred Khalkha cavalry soldiers rushed into the valley and marched northward, so Bao Hu transferred two artillery pieces from the northern ferry and buried them at the ferry. A large number of mines reduced the crossing defenders to two.

At this critical time, he can no longer tell whether Liu Chengzu, the commander of the Xining Guard, is supporting them in good faith, or taking the opportunity to seize the land that their ancestors have depended on for generations.

Fortunately, the officers and soldiers of the Zhenhai Battalion on the other side of the river were really members of the Ming Dynasty, but they ate and used the Marshal's Mansion, so they listened to the Marshal's Mansion.

But when it comes to crossing the border, they are still very good. The friendly army did not cross the border if they refused to let them enter. They just built simple fortifications at the ferry on the other side of the river, and let Bao Hu be informed again that they wanted to enter the country for support.

Bao Hu not only laid mines at the northern ferry, but also laid a large number of mines in the narrow area of ​​Mawu Gorge in the south.

As a battleground for military strategists during the Wanli period, Guide Shouyu Qianhu kept the most advanced armaments of the Ming army at that time, as well as a large amount of gunpowder raw materials preserved over the years.

Bao Hu ordered people to dismantle the unreliable steel wheels on the landmines. He had no time to make new steel wheels, so he could only use the ancient fuse structure and left behind soldiers to ignite the mines.

In the early morning of June 25th, the Khalkha cavalry galloped through the southern section of the valley after a night of rest. The cavalry wore leather jackets or leather armor with iron bars, stood out with long spears, waist and hip bones, and sabers. The queue galloped across the Mawu Gorge.

Not all have armor, and not all have helmets.

Some cavalry wear iron helmets, bowls and Mongolian iron round caps.

There are also some people who don't have helmets but only wear leather caps. These people will hold a wicker shield thirty inches wide. The middle of the shield is covered with a piece of large or small round iron, and various decorative iron bars are nailed around it for reinforcement. .

Their leader wears heavy armor of separate iron plates, with a rolled flag that is only unfurled when supervising battle.

Every inch of the valley trembled as the horse team passed by.

The Tu Banner Army of Qianhusuo, who had not experienced battle for a long time, hid in the pit with only half of his head exposed, watching the ground around him tremble, and a large number of enemy horses rushing past more than ten steps away, which made him tremble uncontrollably No matter how much you grit your teeth and clench your fists, you can't stop trembling.

He blew the Huozhang three times in a row without blowing, the more he blew, the more anxious he became, and the more anxious he became, the more he couldn't blow it.

So that Bao Hu, who led the army in ambush on the flank, saw that the enemy had passed through the ambush zone, so he simply ignited the artillery on the hillside. For a while, four artillery pieces, dozens of guns and two hundred tigers rushed up and down the hillside and on both sides of the canyon. The car launched a salvo, and the sound of killing filled the air with gunpowder smoke, which stopped the advance momentum of the Khalkha cavalry.

Since the city of Guide Qianhu was built in the early Ming Dynasty, there have been many artillery pieces, but as the years passed, many of the cannons became unusable and new artillery pieces were needed.

Hezhou Wei is a guard with one head and one ox in the Ming Dynasty. Other Weimans have 880 banner troops, and Hezhou Weiman has [-] Eight Banner troops. At most, it has eight thousand households and nine soil The Thousand Households Office doesn't care about the Guide Office at all.

However, the Guide Institute did not have an ordnance department, and over time, some of the cannons that could no longer be fired were taken home by the local officials and soldiers, and they were used as iron materials, swords, or armor pieces, and now there are only four cannons left. An old ancestor.

The youngest of the four masters was cast in the 13th year of Wanli. A hundred catties of general cannon.

People are superstitious about things from the time of Emperor Taizu, and they firmly believe that this ancestor can still use them, as long as they are loaded with less ammunition, they can indeed be used.

Originally, there was an ancestor of the same age who made copper coins, but there was a drought in Xining in the 44th year of Wanli, and the brothers of Qianhusuo burned that ancestor, and made some copper coins to exchange noodles with others.

As the saying goes, ginger is still hot when it is old, and the Huanshou knife of the Han Dynasty can still kill people if it is well maintained, let alone the old cannon of Hong Wunian.

The half-loaded ammunition was separated by forty or fifty steps, and the powder was still smashed into the face of the Khalkha cavalry. The heavy armored general who was suddenly attacked was overturned by the horse, and hurriedly got up and ran back, and the arrows hit him. When it rings.

Don't look at the cannon in Bao Hu's hand as a veteran, the heavy armor on this Khalkha general is not in vain.

This thing is obviously an old treasure handed down from the ancestors, and it must be older than Dayan Khan, because one of the reasons why the Ming army changed from heavy cavalry to medium or even light cavalry was that they could not keep up with the Mongolian cavalry.

There are also many reasons why the Mongolian cavalry changed from heavy armor to light armor. One of them is that the number of enemy field firearms has greatly increased, so that heavy armor can no longer completely dominate the battlefield.

At the same time, the advancement of blowing technology allows Mongolian craftsmen to create lighter nails with good protection.

It is true that fewer resources are available.

However, heavy armor does have its advantages. When the troops saw their hundred generals falling off their horses, they swarmed one by one with hooks and sickles, and three hooks were hung on the hundred generals' armor in an instant.

No one cared whether the general wanted to run or not, anyway, as long as the hook was hooked, he would run back without shouting.

For Mongolian men, the hook and sickle gun is a weapon with entrepreneurial attributes.

Khalkha Mongol entered Qinghai for what?Isn't that just running thousands of miles just for money?

Leaving Chuoke Tutaiji's grand ambition of establishing a great cause for thousands of years aside, for ordinary herdsmen, as long as they hook this heavy thing back, it doesn't matter whether they win the battle or not, they must win the battle.

Bao Hu, who was firing cannons on the hill, was dumbfounded. The smoke from the guns had just cleared, and he urged his men to reload quickly, for fear of being attacked by the enemy, but when he looked closely, no one fought them at all.

I saw a group of Mongolian soldiers each hanging their comrades with hooks and sickle guns, leading their horses and running back, regardless of whether they were dead or alive, and whether they wanted to go back if they were hooked, anyway, as long as they were hooked, they would not want to run.

But the entrepreneurs in this battle are not only the Mongols.

Bao Hu looked at those Mongolian cavalrymen, his eyes were tearing open, and he shouted hoarsely, revealing half of his body on the top of the mountain: "Don't let them take the corpse away!"

For a while, more than twenty banner troops rushed out from the front, brandishing their knives and axes to chase after dozens of steps, and finally saw the huge shaking flames in Mawu Gorge.

A series of landmines buried beside the road were ignited by the Tu Banner Army. The landmines burst out from the front and back one by one, breaking the ground and roaring, and the broken rocks burst and splashed in all directions.

If you are close, you may not die, and if you are far away, you may not live. Basically, it depends on the horoscope. If your fate is strong enough, you will not die if you lose a battle; if your fate is soft, you will not survive a victory.

Hundreds of catties of gunpowder were buried in the ground, and the explosion was terrific, but the lethality was not that terrible. More Mongolian soldiers were stunned than killed, and more unscathed than transported.

The hook and sickle cavalry who risked their lives to start a business broke through many barriers and escaped from the battlefield with their trophies; the Guide Army who jumped out of the fortifications also got the head they wanted.

At least in this battle, part of the soldiers on both sides found their own happiness.

But Bao Hu was not happy. After checking the equipment of the captives and dead bodies, the Deputy Qianhu of the Guide Institute frowned.

The landmine ambush can only be used once. Although Guide's land is long and narrow, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there are many fortresses in the river valley, he does not have enough troops to defend each important point. As long as one line of defense is breached, there is no need to fight in the future.

Just at this time, the flag army sent to Hezhou Wei for help returned in a hurry, bringing news that he was allowed to guard the fort.

Bao Hu was so angry that his teeth itch, isn't this nonsense, Guide is his hometown, if he doesn't defend it, who will defend it: "Where is the reinforcement I want?"

The Tu Banner Army shook his head, with fear in his eyes: "The commander said that Guyuan dispatched the Banner Army of the Hezhou Guard, and because Lazun went south, the Hezhou Guard needed to be on guard against Tumen Pass and Jishi Pass. There is chaos in Fanmu, so we can only send two hundred households to rush to help."

Bao Hu felt relieved suddenly, and clapped his hands and said: "Two hundred households are fine, and my strength will be doubled. Where are you?"

The Tuqi army lowered their heads and did not dare to speak. They turned their heads and pointed to the two riders behind and said, "Thousand households, that is two hundred households."

Bao Hu was stunned for a moment, looked at the Tu Banner Army, and then at the two people in the distance who had just dismounted and dared not come over. They were wearing armor, and the flags on the helmet spears were indeed hundreds of households.

He pointed to the two men and asked the Tu Banner Army, "Just the two f*cking sheep carriers?"

Obtaining the affirmative response from his subordinates, Bao Hu looked at the two hundred households, his face flushed, his blood pressure surpassed his height in the blink of an eye, and suddenly there seemed to be a suona playing in his ears, and he had the illusion of being carried away by a professional team singing and dancing in front of his eyes.

After a while, General Bao finally caught his breath. Furious, he raised his arms and cursed, "Get out! I want two hundred banner troops, not two hundred households carrying sheep! Soldiers!"

"General, soldiers, there were indeed [-] Banner Army households when we set off, but they passed by the Changning Horse Station. They heard that there were tens of thousands of Tartars here, so they crossed the Yellow River and ran to Xiningwei." The Tu Banner Army lowered its head and said. : "Qinghai Marshal's Mansion is recruiting people to reclaim... Lintao Gongchang knows it."

The moment Tuqijun finished speaking, a series of Northwest swear words with extremely high content came from Deputy Qianhu, and finally Bao Hu looked up at the sky and sighed quietly: "Where is this for me?" Isolate the Liu thief and the pirate, it is clear that the Liu thief and the pirate are separating me... Open the ferry!"

"what?"

"I said to open the ferry and let the reinforcements from Xiningwei come over. If they want to come to fight, they can fight. I don't care, just go home." Bao Hu waved his arms wildly, as if he wanted to spend all his money on the enemy that didn't exist in the air. Li Qi: "Go home and defend our Guide City."

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)