Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 284

"boom--"

On the fifth day of March, with the sound of gunshots, the Tangqi of the Ming Army and the sentry cavalry of Chahar, the main force of the North Sweeping Army, began to collide.

The collision of arrows and lead bullets broke out in the middle of the vast Duolun grassland, and their actions were also transmitted to the army behind them through other Tangqi.

Almost at the same time, Lin Danhan, who led the troops to the south, and Cao Meng and Saihan, who pioneered the way, received news from the front line.

Faced with the collision between the two sides, Lin Danhan, who had been leading the army in the eastern part of Monan, did not rush up foolishly, but chose to increase the number of sentry cavalry, trying to encircle and suppress the Tang cavalry of the Ming army first.

As for himself, he was stationed on the grassland more than [-] miles away from the north of the battlefield with a large army.

Compared with his behavior of stationing horses, when Cao Meng and Saihan received the news, they immediately started a discussion:
"According to what His Highness said, we should send more Tang cavalry to kill the sentry cavalry of the Beilu first."

Saihan, as a surrendered Mongolian general, didn't want to make troubles, so he prepared to fight in accordance with Zhu Youjian's military order.

Cao Meng, who followed Zhu Youjian all the way from Tengxiang's four guards, also has the same opinion, but his opinion is more than Bihan's.

He measured the map with his hand, and then said:

"We are forty-five miles away from the place where the Tangqi fights. My suggestion is that the army will continue to go northward for [-] miles with light clothes, and then decide whether to wear armor and march with heavy loads based on the news of the victory or defeat of the Tangqi ahead."

"According to the information given to Jin Yiwei by the lords of the Karaqin tribes, there are only [-] cavalry under Huduntu's command, and the remaining [-] people are rangers."

"From the perspective of our current army marching in cotton armor, even if we encounter a surprise attack, we can use the baggage carts to form an formation to protect ourselves."

"Yes." Saihan turned his head and glanced at the vanguard army. On the vast grassland, the Ming army's infantry were all dressed in mandarin duck battle jackets and cotton armor, and each banner had a carriage.

The carriage was pulled by two drawhorses, and on the carriage were placed cloth face armor, rifles and armor-piercing hammers for twelve people, military rations, fresh water, saddles, horse feed and other materials.

Each pawn leads a naive horse without a saddle, and walks on the grassland by himself.

The army has ten banners lined up, that is, a hundred households are the front of the team, and they are backward.

Such a marching team formed a long dragon with a length of two miles, and in the center of the long queue, two thousand households, that is, an artillery unit formed by twenty hundred households, was surrounded by artillery.

More than [-] people and [-] five-jin cannons, this is the firepower of the former army.

Facing the nomads, the Ming army that swept north this time did not carry too many artillery, because it was unnecessary.

The artillery only needs to be used to disrupt the formation of the Beilu, and then under the protection of the cavalry on both wings, the infantry's frontal counterattack with volleys of guns is enough to sweep Mobei.

When encountering a large army attack, the baggage carts of each hundred households will be surrounded to form a line of defense to prevent the northern cavalry from charging.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian simplified Qi Jiguang's car camp to any one hundred households, giving them the ability to protect themselves with one against ten.

But this is not to say that he is much stronger than Qi Jiguang, but because of the different and advanced weapons and equipment, he has the capital to simplify.

"Bring the message to His Majesty"

"Yes!"

Cao Meng ordered Tangqi Baihu, and the voice brought Saihan back to reality.

The two led the army to continue marching north, and the Tang riders also passed the news to the Chinese army more than ten miles away from them, and it reached Zhu Youjian's ears.

"The arrangement is good. This time, we don't need to fight too much with the northern captives. Just drive them away and build a city on the Duolun Grassland and the southern foot of Harawen Mountain."

Zhu Youjian, who got the news, was very satisfied with the former second general's execution of his military order, and at the same time said to Sun Shoufa:

"Order Man Gui to order the guards who will follow up to escort the civilian husband to go north in an orderly manner."

"In addition, send people to the capital to let Gu Ge veteran to move all the criminals from Beizhili, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong and other places to the north."

"Yumajian issued [-] taels of silver, and set up Kaiping Mansion at the southern foot of Duolun and Harawen Mountains, under the jurisdiction of Northern Zhili."

"Yes!" Sun Shoufa responded, and Zhu Youjian also glanced at the map, and then looked around.

It has to be said that with the triple encirclement of the Harawin Mountains, the Yanshan Mountains, and the Mongolian Plateau, the water veins and systems of the Duolun Grassland are not bad.

It's no wonder that Zhu Di set up Kaiping Guards here back then, and led troops from Kaiping Guards to sweep north every time.

Although this place lacks rainfall, through the melting of the snow on the two mountains, it can completely achieve the standard of raising one million people, and it can even become a high-quality pasture in Daming.

It will be much easier to build a city and set up a mansion here, and lead troops to sweep the North in the future.

Of course, Zhu Youjian can also choose not to sweep the north, but like the Qing Dynasty, he will rule this territory by means of marriage and relatives.

However, Jiji's rule was not the rule Zhu Youjian wanted.

History often proves that the Han dynasty's Jimi ruled the Mongolian plateau, usually not for long.

Only by relocating the people, forming a sufficient number of people and arable land in the local area, and achieving the most basic balance of income and expenditure, can the Han dynasty rule the local area for a long time.

The severe drought and famine during the Little Ice Age were too long, and even if we survived, there would still be another [-] years of low temperature period.

If Zhu Youjian remembers well, this low temperature period will last until 1720.

Huang Taiji, Kangxi, and Yongzheng also seized this low-temperature period to squeeze the Han people inside and squeeze the living space of the nomads to the north to cooperate with Tsarist Russia, so they completely ruled the Mongolian plateau with half control and half restraint.

Zhu Youjian couldn't predict what would happen after his death, but he could predict that whenever the Mongolian Plateau didn't have enough Han people and enough economy to maintain a balance of payments, the Han bureaucrats would abandon this place.

Therefore, in order to completely rule the Mongolian plateau, the most important thing is to relocate the Han people to the Mongolian plateau, provide them with sufficient pastures, and ensure that the inland materials can quickly reach all parts of Mongolia.

In the final analysis, it is to increase the delivery ability of the Han Dynasty to this place, that is, in disguise, it boils down to the emergence of trains...

"You must get the train out in your lifetime, otherwise, no matter if it's the Western Regions or Mobei, even if I take it down, I'm afraid it will be discarded by the prodigal descendants of later generations..."

After figuring this out, Zhu Youjian is not in a hurry to conquer the Mongolian plateau.

In the next eighteen years, it is destined that Ming Dynasty will not over-develop the Mongolian Plateau and the Western Regions.

After all, in the case of a severe drought in the north, unless there is a train, otherwise, with Daming's delivery ability, it is really difficult beyond the times to move too many people to places like Langjuxu Mountain, Lake Baikal, and Ili River Valley.

After thinking about everything clearly, Zhu Youjian is no longer so fanatical about the northern territory, but puts his thoughts on the sea and the south, as well as the advancement of science and technology.

"Your Highness, you said that we have restored Kaiping this time, can we be recorded in the history books?"

Suddenly, Sun Shoufa asked honestly, and Zhu Youjian smiled when he heard the sound:
"Remember! Not only do you have to remember, but you must also write down your Sun Shoufa's name first!"

"The first one belongs to His Highness, I don't dare to think..." Sun Shoufa scratched his beard, and Zhu Youjian also slowly put away his smile:

"Okay, stop joking."

"Order the Tangqi of the Chinese Army to gather back, the cavalry of the rear army will replace the Tangqi of the Chinese Army, and the whole Chinese army will prepare their armor after another [-] miles."

"The last general takes orders!" Seeing Zhu Youjian's seriousness, Sun Shoufa immediately responded solemnly.

The military order was passed on layer by layer, and when it was passed to the rear army, Man Gui did not delay, and immediately sent Habayashi Wei to replace Long Xiangwei as the Chinese Army Tangqi.

At the same time, he also began to order the whole army to march forward forty miles and put on armor.

The army responded, and some civilian husbands also nervously clenched the spears in their hands, and tightened the mandarin duck battle jackets on their bodies.

Everyone was preparing, and Lin Danhan in the north also became vigilant after noticing the move of the Ming army to strengthen the striker Tang Qi.

"The death and injury of the Khan and the former sentry cavalry has reached more than [-] people. How about we retreat first, and wait for the Ming army to go north to reach Li Lake, and then we will attack them from a high position?"

The death and injury of the sentry riders in front made Sirhunak Dulen Hongtaiji, the minister in charge of [-] households on the left wing, unable to help persuading Lin Danhan. This persuasion also made Lin Danhan hesitate.

The two armies hadn't fought each other yet, and the sentry cavalry alone had suffered more than [-] casualties, which was already considered a considerable casualty for him.

It's just that at the moment, he is on the verge of an arrow and has no choice but to send it.

If he hastily withdrew his troops like this, some Taiji and Baylor inside Chahar would definitely look down on him.

Since six years ago, under the persuasion of the monks of the Sakya Sect in Wusizang, he converted from the Yellow Sect of the Gelug Sect to the Red Sect of the Sakya Sect. His religious deviation has caused many Mongolian tribes to criticize him.

In addition, he turned his back on the Ming Dynasty and took the initiative to destroy the five tribes of Nekalka.

This has led to the fact that if he cannot use military operations to stabilize his position now, then he will have no way to gain absolute prestige in the two major ministries of Wai Khalkha and Harqin.

Thinking of this, Lin Danhan no longer hesitated, but directly ordered:
"The whole army is ready. I will take a detour to raid the Chinese army of Zhu Youjian's baby, hand over his banner, and capture him alive and return to Onan River to sacrifice to Genghis Khan and Changshengtian."

"This..." Du Linghong Taiji looked hesitantly at the three Wanhus on both sides, and Lin Danhan saw his hesitant action, and immediately scolded:

"Are you going to disobey?!"

"No... I'll give the order now." Seeing that Lin Danhan was angry, Du Leng Hongtaiji could only show weakness.

In this regard, Lin Danhan frowned, and then said:

"I will leave you a Wanhu, and you will take this Wanhu and the seven thousand sentry cavalry in front of you to attract the attention of the vanguard of the Ming army, lead them out twenty miles away, and turn back to harass them."

"Yes..." Hearing what he was going to do, Du Lenghong Taiji could only bite the bullet and issued a military order to the resting more than [-] cavalry.

With the passing of half an hour, when the time came to the afternoon, Lin Danhan led [-] cavalry to launch a surprise attack when the sun was the most vicious and people were most likely to get sleepy.

Lin Danhan used sentry cavalry to find out the location of the Tang cavalry of the Ming army, circled a large circle to the west, and ordered the sentry cavalry to retreat continuously, attracting the Tang cavalry of the Ming army to pursue, and tried to make Cao Meng and the former army of the Ming army Saihan marched forward.

The Mongols had one man and four horses. In addition to the [-] men left for Du Leng Hong Taiji, Lin Dan Khan led [-] cavalry and began to look for the location of Zhu Youjian's army.

The place where the Ming army marched was a long hilly area with a low slope on the left. Lin Danhan, who knew the terrain, did not think that the Ming army would be aware of his intentions.

In the state of rushing, his marching speed was three times that of the Ming army.

That is to say, when Cao Meng and Saihan marched fifteen miles forward, he had already rushed for a distance of nearly fifty miles, bypassing the Ming army Tangqi's detection circle.

The Ming army sent Tangqi away for fifty miles. Bo Yunai told Lin Danhan that he knew how to use intelligence to play a sneak attack.

Cao Meng and Saihan didn't notice this, but when they saw the Beilu cavalry start to retreat, they followed Zhu Youjian's military order and slowly wore down the opponent's sentinel cavalry.

The sound of horseshoes rumbling and arrows riding blunderbusses kept colliding on the Duolun Grassland. One side retreated unhurriedly, while the other pursued unhurriedly.

After such a strange scene, it was not until an hour later that Du Lenghong led his people to evacuate [-] li to the northeast before he gave an order to the whole army:
"The whole army is ready to rest and recuperate. All sentry cavalry retreat and prepare to face the vanguard of the Ming army!"

"Yes!" All the Taiji Belle responded one after another, and as time went by, countless sentinel cavalry who were still entangled with the Tang cavalry on the front line of the Ming army began to retreat.

Some Tangqi tried to catch up, but after chasing for more than ten miles, they immediately reined in their horses when they saw tens of thousands of cavalry stationed on the grassland:

"The northern captives are about to fight. Chen Long, go back and report to Commander Cao and Uncle Yin Shan. I will take people here to observe."

"Yes!"

The Tangqi Xiaoqi officer who arrived first reined in his horse, and then began to order one of the Tangqi in the team to return to the main force of the former army, while he stayed to observe.

On the Duolun Grassland in March, even if the sun is shining, it will not feel so hot.

It's just that the gauntlets on both arms were hot from the sun, and the horse under his crotch kicked restlessly.

The little flag officer led people off his horse, and watched Du Lenghong's men and horses from four miles away. During this period, other Tangqi small flags also arrived one after another, and at the same time drove a large number of northern prisoner sentry riders.

They poured into Du Lenghong's army, making this army continue to grow.

Later, the boundless people and horses covered the opposite grassland, and Cao Meng and Saihan, who led the cavalry to the rear fifteen miles, also received the report from the former army's Tangqi.

"The northern captives are going to a decisive battle? Have you seen how many people there are?"

Riding on horseback, Cao Meng patiently asked all the Tang riders who came back, and behind him were the infantry who stopped and began to help each other.

Beside them, panting, and the non-stop sound of "Xi Lv Lv" represented that they had just carried out a short-distance forced march.

"The place where they are stationed is a plain. It is hard to tell how many people there are, but the flags of [-] households of the Tatar Ministry are all there."

An old Tang Qi responded to Cao Meng's words, and the rest of the Tang Qi also nodded, saying that what the old Tang Qi said was correct.

"How far are we from His Highness?" Cao Meng turned his head to look at Saihan next to him, and Saihan measured the map with his hands, and said without thinking:
"It's a bit beyond the distance of fifteen miles stipulated by His Highness. Now we are estimated to be twenty-three miles away from His Highness."

"Twenty-two and three miles..." Cao Meng paused for a moment, and after thinking for a while, he did not launch an attack directly, but sent an order:
"Wu Xiangwei Zuo Jun Qianhu took all the horse-drawn carts, and the horses retreated ten miles. The rest of the army waited for another quarter of an hour, and then marched northward after a quarter of an hour."

"Qianhu, the left army of Wu Xiangwei, went north with the Chinese army after seeing His Highness."

"The last general takes orders!" Qianhu, the left army of Wu Xiangwei, turned around and left immediately after hearing this.

The left and right armies of the Shangzhi Infantry are composed of thousands of cavalry. Cao Meng is equivalent to sending thousands of armored cavalry to retreat. If there is any situation in the central army, they can also provide timely support.

Under his arrangement, the vanguard army began to put on armor in an orderly manner and wait for the opportunity, and it was not until a quarter of an hour later that they began to move northward.

Also a quarter of an hour after they pulled out the army, Zhu Youjian also received a report from the former army Tangqi.

"The whole army is ready to go on the road with armor, first ride the rough horse, and inform the rear army that Man Gui is also preparing to go on the road with the whole army, so as to be alert to the northern captives attacking and disturbing the rear army."

After getting the news, Zhu Youjian began to order, and the [-] members of Long Xiangwei also began to put on armor, and this made Sun Shoufa next to him puzzled:

"Your Highness, we are still twenty miles away from Cao Meng and the others, and thirty-five miles away from the tiger squatting on the rabbit. Don't be so anxious?"

"Have you ever seen that the northern captives will directly expose the banners and flags of thousands of households, and even set up a battle against me, Ming Dynasty?" Zhu Youjian asked suddenly, which made Sun Shoufa stunned.

Yes, if the northern captive cavalry who often fight the Ming army, the basic operation is to detour to cut off the supply of the Ming army, or engage in flank raids. When did they fight with real swords and guns?
but……

"But Your Highness, Tiger Crouching Rabbit has never fought against me, Daming, does he know how to fight?" Sun Shoufa was limited to the combat thinking when dealing with the three major parts of Hetao.

In this regard, Zhu Youjian, who had already dismounted and started putting on armor, frowned, and said in an educational tone:

"Abiding by the law, don't deal with all enemies with the mentality and thinking of dealing with one enemy."

"The northern captives in Chahar have the capital to carry out flank raids. They took my yearly reward from the ninth year of Ming Dynasty and bought a lot of iron materials. Presumably there are quite a large number of iron cavalry in the army."

"It is impossible to use iron cavalry to collide with the cavalry head-on. If the tiger squats and the rabbit comes to attack the flank of our army, it is not familiar with the tactics against our army, but the tactics of using the iron cavalry to attack the flank in a detour."

"Understood, Your Highness, thank you for your enlightenment." Sun Shoufa also got off his horse and asked the cavalry on both sides to put on armor for him.

After a cup of tea, Zhu Youjian and Sun Shoufa put on their armors one after another, and nearly one-third of the Longxiang Guards also successfully put on their armors.

Looking at the posture, it is estimated that it will take two cups of tea to change all the clothes. In this regard, Zhu Youjian carefully checked his riding guns, bows and arrows, long knives, pumpkin hammers and other armaments.

After checking everything, he put the phoenix wing helmet on his head.

"Your Highness, don't tell me, you have such a physique at this age. When you reach the crown, you may be about the same height as the general."

Sun Shoufa looked at the heroic Zhu Youjian, and couldn't help but praise him.

After all, Zhu Youjian's physique and appearance can be said to be based on the aesthetics of men and women in Ming Dynasty.

He has a physique and looks very heroic, inheriting the rough temperament of the old Zhu family in the early days.

"Forget about your head, I can do it now." Zhu Youjian patted the armor on his body, drew his sword, and after confirming that everything was ok, he turned his head to respond to Sun Shoufa's joke.

Seeing this, Sun Shoufa stroked his beard, as if he thought that His Royal Highness didn't know how to appreciate "beauty".

"Your Highness, the whole army is ready."

While the two were joking, the entire army of Longxiangwei had already put on their armor, and the horses were also covered with half armor.

Without anyone to help him, he put on his armor and mounted his horse very skillfully.

"Okay, the army is marching, let's take a look at what medicine is sold in this tiger squatting rabbit medicine jar... drive!"

Shaking the reins lightly, Zhu Youjian, under the arch guard of Sun Shoufa, led the armored Long Xiangwei and started heading north.

At the same time, Cao Meng and Saihan of the former army have already collided with Du Lenghong's troops...

　It's still four o'clock...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)