Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 252 Surrender

On the [-]th day of the first lunar month in the fifth year of Tianqi, with the opening of the gate of Bansheng City, Tumed's troops surrendered except for a small number of troops entrenched in the back.

Zhu Youjian ordered Cao Wenyao to lead two battalions of Shangzhi cavalry to garrison Bansheng City to defend the logistics route, while he personally led the troops to fight back.

At the same time, Su Nang and the thirty-two Tumed lords who were captured and surrendered, as well as their families, were taken to Datong to kill the tiger by the Shangzhi cavalry.

The news came so fast that everyone who received the news subconsciously thought it was impossible.

Among this group of people, the most angry one is naturally Huo Luochi who is waiting for reinforcements...

"boom!"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

"Even if it's [-] pigs, Zhu Youjian can't catch them all in three days. How could he be defeated in two days?"

"This is fake news from the Ming army, it must be!"

Hongyanchi, Ordos Department, when the forty-two branches of Ordos in Hetao, hundreds of thousands of men, women, old and weak gathered here, Huo Luochi, who learned that Su Nang had quickly lost, was in his room, wantonly venting his anger.

"Abu..."

The big tent was lifted, and Huo Luochi's son Baltu walked in from outside the tent, glanced at the messy tent, and then said:

"Caritas Taiji and Gillian Taiji want you to take charge of the overall situation."

"Understood..." Seeing Baltu come in, Huo Luochi suppressed the anger in his heart, and after responding, he sorted out his emotions, then turned and walked out of the big tent.

When he walked out of the big tent, what came into view was the connected grassland tents and the fluttering snowflakes.

"Sudden snowfall this morning, this year's weather is a bit strange."

Seeing his father's appearance, Baltu explained, while Huo Luochi gritted his teeth: "If it had been a month earlier, there wouldn't be so much trouble."

Even though he said that, Huo Luochi also knew that it was not too late for the snow to fall now.

After all, as soon as it started to snow, the Ming army who chose to fight in the snow season had to face a more difficult road and a more unlucky transportation route.

However, in the short term, snow is good for them, but in the long run...

Huo Luochi had already thought of the scene where the livestock were starved to death because of the long-term snow accumulation and the lack of grass.

"The weather in recent years has indeed become more and more strange."

After sighing, Huo Luochi also led Baltu and his personal guards towards the big tent where the matter was being discussed.

Along the way, he could see many other tribes who had migrated.

Although there are more than [-] members in the Hetao Department, there are still a small number of males.

At this time, if the Ming army went south and took them all in one pot, basically the whole war would be declared over.

However, the Ming army did not have the ability to drop supplies by air, and it would take three to five days to attack here, no matter from any stop.

Huo Luochi sent the sentry cavalry fifty miles away, and if there was any disturbance, he would know immediately.

This is the experience of surviving the Jiajing period, and it is also what he has gained from fighting the Ming army for decades.

If Su Nang's army was given to him to command, even if he would lose against Zhu Youjian, he would not lose so badly.

It's just that it's too late to say anything now, Huo Luochi needs to appease the lords of the Ordos Department of Hetao first, and then think of a way to break out.

"It's really impossible to go to Oirat (Wala)..."

Huo Luochi thought so gloomy in his heart, because Zhu Youjian had already blocked the road to break out from the Loess Plateau to the northeast.

Now he can only escape from the northwest, and the time must be before Zhu Youjian takes off the back cover.

Tumed's troops in the back are only more than [-], and his troops are only [-].

If Zhu Youjian leads the troops in person, they will immediately choose to surrender...

When Huo Luochi thought of this, he also came to the big tent of the parliament, and then opened the curtain to see the lords of various ministries and Taiji.

Many lords who had been chatting enthusiastically shut their mouths when they saw Huo Luochi appearing. Everyone was ready to see what Huo Luochi planned to do.

Huo Luochi didn't hide it either, but chose to be open and honest.

He walked up to the position of representing the lord, and after sitting down, he said in front of many people:

"Frontally, we are no longer the opponents of the Ming army. Now we can only retreat to break through, and then unite with Jineng's troops to retreat towards Hang'ai Mountain."

"Baibagas who surrendered to Oirat, this is our last way out. I won't stop any of you who want to surrender to the Ming army."

Huo Luochi was probing, probing how many of these forty-two tribes were determined to retreat with him.

There's no harm in retreating.

If they leave the Hetao, which the Ordos Department has relied on for hundreds of years, they will only become more closely attached to themselves.

At that time, even if I go to Oirat, I can still rely on the strength in my hands to maintain a high status.

However, many lords and Taiji could also see his thoughts, so not many people expressed their opinions for a while.

Such behavior made Huo Luochi feel uncomfortable, but he also knew that his troops were not strong enough to threaten other lords.

After three victories in Huangzhong and many battles with the Ming army in Hetao, Huo Luochi's troops were only about [-].

Although it is said that he has the most soldiers and horses among the tribes, after he went to Qinghai, he lost contact with many lords, so now he is actually half an outsider.

I really want to intimidate and threaten other lords, I am afraid that others will join forces to counterattack.

Therefore, after seeing that the situation was out of control, he also said with interest:
"I will lead my troops to evacuate to Moxi tomorrow. Those of you who want to leave can evacuate with me at noon tomorrow, and those who are willing to stay can stay and wait for the surrender of the Ming army, or fight to the death with the Ming army. "

After saying that, Huo Luochi got up to leave, but this time when he left, no one stopped him.

Ji Neng from the Ordos Department of Ningxia did not bring troops, and Su Nang was captured alive by Zhu Youjian.

Huo Luochi's plan was overthrown and bankrupt, which made everyone no longer trust him.

Such a change and attitude naturally irritated Huo Luochi, but he didn't have much to do.

He could only suppress his anger and return to his big tent, and his eldest son Baltu also followed in and asked:

"Abu, are we really going to withdraw from Moxi?"

"If you don't withdraw, are you waiting to surrender Zhu Youjian? It's not clear that we have an enmity with the Ming court." Huo Luochi glanced at Baltu.

Baltu also knew that his side and Daming had a long-standing grievance, and it was basically impossible to have a reconciliation ending.

So he could only say: "But the snow hasn't melted yet, we can't go to Moxi with herds, or we might starve to death on the way."

"Then exchange the food with cattle, sheep and other tribes. Anyway, if they want to surrender to the Ming court, they won't be afraid of running out of food." Huo Luochi could see clearly.

"Tomorrow, it is estimated that Sha Jinai, Caritas, and Meng Keshili will break through with us. Don't worry that one of us will not break through."

"Yes." Baltu agreed, and knew that these three tribes, like them, were tribes that had long-standing grievances with the Ming court. With Zhu Youjian's character, he might not necessarily be surrendered to them, so there was a high probability that he would choose to break through.

However, even so, the combined strength of the four of them is at most less than [-].

With [-] troops and [-] to [-] troops, it is very difficult to break through. Of course, the biggest difficulty is the food problem.

They must ensure that after breaking through the siege, they can successfully cross Mobei, which is [-] miles away, arrive at Mount Hang'ai (Yanran Mountain), and join the Oirat (Wala) Alliance.

This is not over yet. After arriving at Hangai Mountain, they have to travel more than [-] miles to Jinshan (Altai Mountains).

Because at this time, Oirat has been nomadic for more than two hundred years, and gradually moved from Hangai Mountain in Mobei to Weirum (Urumqi) in the Western Regions.

In other words, only when they went to the Western Regions could they have a complete place to stay.

It's just that it is still unknown whether they can successfully break through with the old, weak, women and children.

"Tell the people in the ministry to kill the cattle and sheep, dry them into jerky, prepare the dried meat for a month, and then use the remaining cattle and sheep and other tribes to exchange for grain and beans."

"It's better not to have grass bundles if we need enough beans and grains for two months."

Huo Luochi explained to Baltu, but Baltu had no choice but to agree, and then turned around and walked out of the big tent.

Huo Luochi watched the back of him leaving, and sat on his own bed, frowning, wondering what he was thinking.

Time passed, and in short, no one in the Ordos tribes could sleep peacefully that night.

Tribes like Huoluochi were worried about whether other tribes would attack them and use themselves to claim credit from the Ming army.

And like other relatively stable tribes, they are worried that tribes like Huoluochi will rob them of food.

Fortunately, Huo Luochi didn't want to cause trouble, so he chose to use cattle and sheep in exchange.

That is, a simple exchange, which greatly eased the conflict between the two parties.

From this point of view, Huo Luochi still has some political vision and means.

Because of his initiative, the entire camp was relieved until the night passed, and early the next morning, most of the Huuoluochi tribe began to prepare for the retreat.

They took the initiative to move out of the camp in Hongyanchi, and came to the west of the camp.

Also coming with them, there are three people from Sha Ji Nai, Caritas, and Meng Ke Shili.

Combined, the four ministries have more than [-] troops and more than [-] minions.

But to Huo Luochi's surprise, Wu Lie from the Zasak tribe also brought his troops and slaves to the breakout point with an awkward expression on his face.

Although he was a little surprised, Huo Luochi still accepted Wu Lie's arrival. After all, with Wu Lie's team, their strength would exceed [-].

After Wu Lie's arrival, no second tribe came to this breakout point.

That is to say, of the forty-two Ordos departments, only four were willing to withdraw, and the remaining thirty-eight departments chose to surrender.

"They're a bunch of lambs, and they'll regret it in the end."

Meng Keshili looked at the Hongyanchi camp with disdain, and mocked the other tribesmen who were trying to submit to the iron hoof of the Ming army.

However, Caritas said:

"Needless to mention them, we probably won't see them again from today. The most important thing now is to retreat together with Ji Neng and the others in Ningxia."

"If we retreat together, with their cattle and sheep, we should be able to hold on to Jinshan together, and our strength will reach [-]."

"At that time, even if Baibagas and the others are unwilling to accept us, they still need to set aside a pasture for us."

"Can we make it to Jinshan?" Sha Ji Nai suddenly asked, and this question made everyone fall silent.

Can they get to Jinshan?This is definitely possible, but it is hard to say how many people will die in the process.

The old and the weak in the tribe will be abandoned first, then the women, and finally the children.

This is cruel, but for the continuation of the tribe, this is the only way.

Women can be robbed when they are gone, but if children and men are gone, the tribe will perish.

After making sufficient preparations, the Fifth Division began to march northwest.

Even though there was fine snow in the sky, the team still unswervingly broke through to the northwest.

After they walked away, the remaining [-] Ordos lords began to send envoys to Mangui in the south to send letters of surrender.

They are not really what Meng Keshili said, they are a group of people who are greedy for life and afraid of death.

If they encountered the current situation in summer and autumn, they would resolutely choose to break through, but not now, because it is still winter.

Some small tribes with only a thousand or even a few hundred people could not break out of the encirclement alive and reach Mount Hang'ai or Jinshan.

They all understand, that's why they choose to surrender.

In fact, Huoluochi and Caritas also knew what they thought, so they didn't force them to break out together. For nomads, a large number of people in winter is a burden.

During the season when nomads are not allowed, they are no different from the Han people in that they both need to worry about logistical supplies.

Similarly, when their envoys arrived in Zasak City with the letter of surrender, Man Gui understood the plight of the thirty-eight books after reading the contents of the letter.

"It's a little tricky..."

Looking at the surrender letter in his hand like a hot potato, Man Gui frowned tightly, and said to the lieutenant next to him:
"Where is General Luqin?"

"There is no news from Tangqi, but according to the news yesterday afternoon, it should have arrived in Liancheng (Kubqi Desert)." The deputy general responded to Man Gui, and Man Gui also said after hearing:

"Tell him not to continue sweeping the north and south of the Yellow River. His Highness and Sun Jinglue have already dispatched troops to retreat. Now let him lead the troops south to Hongyanchi to accept the surrender, and then lead the thirty-eight troops to go..."

After the order came here, Man Gui could not continue to order.

If the members of the Thirty-eight Department are driven into the pass, then the Northern Army Governor's Mansion will be responsible for managing them not to riot, which is equivalent to keeping Luqin's department in the pass.

If the thirty-eight troops were allowed to stay in the camp at Hongyanchi, then the Ming army would be responsible for some of their food.

Because livestock such as cattle must be handed over to immigrants from northern Shaanxi for reclamation in Hetao after the war, and they cannot be slaughtered arbitrarily.

But here comes the problem. Randomly transferring grain from Datong, Taiyuan, and Yansui to Hongyanchi requires the help of hundreds of thousands of people.

It is obviously impossible to recruit civilians temporarily. In this way, it is still necessary to transfer a logistics civilian to be responsible for the food delivery of these hundreds of thousands of captives.

So no matter what, in order to protect their livelihood, there must be a line of soldiers and horses staying behind.

As for why Man Gui didn't transfer them to Bansheng City, of course he didn't dare.

If these [-] people went to Bansheng City, suddenly rioted, and then fled north to join the Chahar tribe, then the Ming army would be miserable.

So after thinking about it, he still bite the bullet and said:

"Order Lu Qin to lead the army to Hongyanchi, supervise the thirty-eight captives, and move them to Pianguan, Shanxi."

Compared with the barren Shaanxi, Mangui still chose to relocate the thirty-eight tribes to the Pianguan area outside the Great Wall of Shanxi.

Shanxi people and military households have been sharing land for a long time, and the grain is relatively stable. Although this arrangement still requires tens of thousands of shi of grain every month to appease the Thirty-Eight Departments, it is better than staying in Hongyanchi and allowing them to flee north .

Man Gui issued a military order as the governor of the Northern Army's governor's mansion, and the deputy general could only do as he heard.

Fortunately, Luqin's Ministry is not the main force for sweeping up the set, so it's okay to withdraw, it's just that the credit has fallen.

But it doesn't matter, just give him some credit after the war.

"The army is ready to go out of the city tomorrow morning and chase the Huoluochi five tribes northwest. I think Wu Lie will leave a lot of traces for us."

"Also inform the other armies not to let Huo Luochi go."

After finishing the arrangement of the thirty-eight departments, Man Gui also began to prepare for the encirclement and suppression of Huoluochi.

Since the [-]st year of Wanli, Huoluochi has basically appeared in the border troubles in the northwest of Ming Dynasty.

In the early stage, he was just making small troubles, and in the middle and late stages, he began to disturb the peace in the northwest of Ming Dynasty.

The other Ming armies can be let go, but the four of them can't.

This is not only Man Gui's idea, but also the idea of ​​all Ming army generals.

Due to the heavy snow, the homing pigeons could no longer be used, so Mangui could only send out Tangqi, who was [-] miles away, overnight.

The first to receive the information was Luqin's Department in Liancheng, [-] miles away, and Zhu Youjian's Department, which had just arrived in Shiguai Mountain (Baotou), more than [-] miles away, in the Yinshan Mountains.

After receiving the order, Lu Qin chose to go south without hesitation, preparing to take over the Ordos Thirty-Eight Department in Hongyanchi.

After all, he is only the general soldier of Shanxi, and Man Gui is his superior.

Compared with him, Zhu Youjian has more autonomy.

When he received the order, it was already noon on the seventeenth day of the first lunar month.

At this moment, the army was on its way to Houtao. When passing by, Zhu Youjian received news from Man Gui, so he accelerated the march.

However, due to the continuous raids and the non-stop heavy snow since yesterday, the [-] cavalry chose to dismount and walk, so the marching speed was very slow.

This kind of marching speed, for Zhu Youjian, has a better look at this place known as "Lucheng, Baotou" in later generations.

Zhu Youjian didn't know what this place looked like in the thousands of years of the Warring States Period, Qin and Han Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, but in his eyes, this place in the Ming Dynasty was barren.

It has many names at the junction of the front cover and the back cover. Lu Bu, who was relatively well-known during the Three Kingdoms period, was also born here.

It can be said that before the end of Tang Dynasty, this place was a place with abundant water and grass and prosperous people and animals.

However, after nearly [-] years of excessive animal husbandry from the end of Tang Dynasty to the beginning of Ming Dynasty, Jiuyuan at this time is no longer the grand occasion of the past.

Although many green plants can be seen on both sides of the Yellow River, and it can be seen that it can be cultivated here, there are very few places that can be cultivated.

Zhu Youjian's participation in the first war of re-tao was not only to clean up the three groups of Taolu, but also to see Hetao in this era with his own eyes, so that he could better make plans to relocate the people in northern Shaanxi and Guanzhong.

When he was in Qiantao, he was quite happy, because Qiantao was still relatively rich. Although it was not as rich as some areas in Guan, there were enough rivers and lakes for farming.

In addition, the entire front cover is basically a pasture, and it is much easier to turn it into arable land than other places.

As far as the land that can be reclaimed in the first set is concerned, it is enough to reclaim tens of millions of acres and support millions of people.

But after arriving in Jiuyuan, Zhu Youjian just glanced at it and knew that this place could only reclaim one or two million mu of arable land in this era.

In other words, the Hetao area that has been discovered so far can only support about two million people if the standard of five acres per person is used.

This sounds very good, so Zhu Youjian was not particularly discouraged, but was full of expectations for the next set.

If Houtao can also reclaim millions of acres of arable land, the density of people in Shaanxi can be greatly reduced, thereby improving the people's ability to resist disasters.

"Your Highness, this heavy snow is too strange. I have never heard of such heavy snowfall in the first month of the lunar year."

Just as Zhu Youjian was thinking about how to prepare the people of Shaanxi to move to Hetao, Cao Wenzhao's words brought him back to reality.

He looked up at the snowflakes that kept falling from the sky. Although he felt strange in his heart, he felt relieved when he thought that this was the end of the Ming Dynasty and this was the era of constant disasters in the small glaciers.

"The heavy snow will fall until the end of February at most, and we will have already dealt with Huoluochi by then."

"The top priority now is to arrive at Houtao first, or accept the surrender of the local Tumed lord Taiji, or mobilize troops to annihilate them."

"Anyway, we can't let Huoluo Chixi escape."

Zhu Youjian would not sit back and watch Huo Luochi lead [-] soldiers and horses and [-] to [-] troops to migrate to Oala. Regardless of whether he could migrate the thousands of miles, Zhu Youjian would not give him and Oirat this opportunity.

Speaking of Wala alone, anyone who is familiar with the history of the Ming Dynasty knows who it is, and Zhu Youjian is no exception, and one of the Wala is known to those who are more familiar with the history of the Qing Dynasty.

Junggar...

Zhu Youjian frowned slightly, even though he knew that the current Junggar tribe had just raised its head within Wala, and it wasn't even considered the largest tribe.

But who knows what kind of help Huoluo Chixi will bring to Oala after fleeing?
What if the butterfly effect causes the Oirat Alliance to wipe out Yarkand, Turpan, and Hami belonging to the Eastern Chagatai Khanate?
Don't ask Zhu Youjian to go on an expedition by himself when the time comes. The forces entrenched in the Western Regions.

Therefore, he will not give Wala a chance to strengthen his strength, nor will he let Huoluo Chibei escape successfully.

"Order Sun Chuanting and Yang Zhaoji to seal off the west bank of the Yellow River and prevent Huo Luochi from successfully crossing the river."

"Yes!"

Zhu Youjian gave the order proficiently, and Cao Wenzhao responded honestly, and then dispatched Tangqi to look for Sun Chuanting and Yang Zhaoji along the Yellow River.

After that, Zhu Youjian continued to lead the troops forward, but the snow falling from the sky was getting bigger and bigger...

　Update at [-]:[-] p.m.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)