A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 674
On the fifth day, the flying sand and rocks made it difficult for men and horses to move, so the army had to rest.

After traveling for tens of miles in six days, the terrain gradually declined, and there were many meadows. There were small streams in the middle, which slowly merged into rivers and flowed southwest. The previously sparse hills and wavy terrain gradually became low mountains. Hills, peaks and valleys, sometimes feel fragmented.

At this time, the army followed the river and entered a narrow, long and wide valley, but it was the Yuanyang River Valley. From north to west, there was a mountainous area on the edge of the dam, and to the south, there was Daqing Mountain, which later became Shangyi County and Xinghe County. The lush location is now the boundary between the original Daming Xing and the Shouyu Qianhusuo.

The valley is wide, and many streams flow into the Yuanyang River from the mountains at both ends. Later generations here are densely covered with fields. At this time, there are many meadows, various coniferous forests, birch forests, and bushes. Roe deer, rabbits, and pheasants come and go from time to time.

When the army arrived here, they were all refreshed. Given the landform here, it was naturally a paradise for nomadic tribes. Even Tan Shihuai, the leader of the Xianbei era, set up tooth tents in this area.

It turned out that there were some tribes grazing herds in this area, but now they have fled far away, and there is no one. The tribe moved, which is similar to the hard wall and clearing the wilderness in the Central Plains.

With the sound of horseshoes, a group of cavalry rushed up a high slope like a whirlwind, and then reined in their horses one after another. Han Chaoce looked out from the horse. The river valley winds to the southwest, flat and wide, the wide one is tens of miles, and the narrow one is also tens of miles. meaning.

Looking at Daqing Mountain from a distance, it is dark green and towering, and there are patches of fiery red and golden yellow, but there are many sea buckthorn and sagebuckthorn flowers in the mountain.

"Shangduwei, walk another 100 miles. It is estimated that at Shenshi in the afternoon, you will arrive at the place where the village is scheduled to be built. After the village is established, there will be more than [-] miles, and another village can be built. It just seems that the Tartars will not Let me wait and relax."

A military appraiser said loudly.

In this battle, part of the Sentinel Battalion fought together at night. They found out that there were Tartar cavalry from time to time at both ends of the Daqing Mountain and the valley. All are involved in sentry.

As a result of intelligence gathering, there may be no less than [-] Tartar cavalry hiding in the area of ​​Yuanyang River. In fact, early this morning, they appeared in twos and threes in front of the army.

They moved extremely quickly, as if appearing out of nowhere, and had a wide range of activities, sometimes emerging from both sides, sometimes appearing from the front, and sometimes appearing behind the army, making the Western Expedition Army feel that the concept of front and rear is completely invalid.

It seems that any direction may face enemy attacks.

However, these Tartars behaved quite cautiously, and only followed outside the firepower of the Jingbian Army, and did not launch a surprise attack, but Han Chao and others had a premonition that they would act soon.

The mission of the Jingbian army is to collect intelligence and bring it back safely. It is not to fight the enemy desperately on the battlefield. Although they will not be defeated by the Tartars, there is no need for this.

Moreover, compared with Manchurian Tartars, many of them were horse-riding infantry, who dismounted and fought after arriving on the battlefield, these northern captives were very flexible, and generally had two or three horses, and some even had four or five horses. When Ye Bushuo rushed up, they ran away immediately, changed horses, and disappeared in a flash.

There are not many people at night, if you chase too hard, you will lose if you fall into the siege of the enemy cavalry, but the gain will outweigh the loss.

The feathered cavalry of the Han Dynasty are actually mounted infantry. After reaching the goal, they dismount and fight on foot. They move like cavalry but fight like infantry, just like the dragon cavalry of the Imperial Army of the Song Dynasty. "The maneuverability is good, but it is still disadvantageous if you fight with real cavalry units.

It is impossible for the Mongols who accompanied the army to go out to fight. After all, they still have to march. The Xuanwu army is going to fight Guihua City, not a stalemate with the Tartars somewhere.

So those Tartars, like brown sugar, can't be thrown away. They are familiar with the terrain, drilled into mountains, forests and valleys, and when they appear in another direction, they always follow the army. It is obviously not easy to achieve battlefield intelligence cover .

"Soldiers come to block, water comes to cover, and the Tartars want to fight, just let the horses come over."

A cold light flashed in Han Chao's eyes, and he said coldly.

……

At the end of time, the new attached battalion as a forward finally fought against an uncontrollable group of Tumets. There were not many harassing Tartars. On the broad front, they were divided into two wings in an evacuated formation, and attacked in an arc formation. .

He once fought for righteousness and sent thousands of Mongols from the new attached battalion to fight in a relatively dense formation. The two sides collided together and fought fiercely...

"die!"

With a ferocious face, Tabu Nang, taking the opportunity of the wrong horse, slammed the sledgehammer on the right chest of a Tumet man, and instantly the man's chest was dented with a large piece of cotton armor. Thick blood spewed out from the mouth, and the warm liquid full of bloody smell seemed to be splashed on Tabu Nang's face.

He shook it vigorously for a while, but still got off the horse, looked around, Tabu Nang jumped off the horse, and drew out his axe.

Just look at this man, still breathing, he was lying powerlessly on the grass, looking at himself, also pleading in fear, suddenly there was an inexplicable emotion in his heart, he was also a Mongolian, a descendant of Genghis Khan.

However, this thought flashed by, and with an ax in hand, Tabu Nang slashed down viciously, chopped off his head alive, and hung it on his waist dripping with blood.

He grabbed his horse again, rejoicing in his heart, and achieved military success.

After a short battle, the Tumets were defeated, leaving only a dozen wounded corpses and some horses that lost their owners.

Tabu Nang looked at Galed, and he also achieved results, but he used the hook on the spear to pull a Tumot man off his horse, and then chopped him to death with a crescent knife. A person's head, and then pin it on his waist.

The eyes of the two met, and they both saw the joy in each other's eyes.

"it is good!"

Seeing those Tumets fleeing in embarrassment, Zeng Yiyi laughed, and all the Mongols in the formation also cheered.

Zeng Yiyi was about to give orders to chase after him, when a middle-aged Mongolian with a tiger beard and grassland red face hurriedly said in blunt Chinese: "Captain Zeng, you can't chase, those Tumed barbarians may be trying to lure the enemy Defeated. Their tactics just now are very similar to the Lava tactics on the grassland..."

He explained: "Similar to the pocket war of the Han people, if you chase after them, you may be caught in their ambush."

"Lava tactics?"

Zeng Yi felt a chill in his heart. Before he took office, he studied in a military academy for a period of time and learned a lot of tactical battles, especially those of the Mongols on the grassland.

The nomadic barbarians on the grassland are best at luring the enemy into ambush, which is called Lava tactics. At first, they use the two wings of the advance team to lure the enemy.

There was an example of a battle. When the Mongols marched westward, they fought on the Kalka River. Subotai lured the enemy with a small number of troops and retreated for nine days and nine nights. During this period, he even abandoned a lot of gold and silver property, and finally lured the enemy to the Kalka River. In the Lava formation set up, with 8 Mongolian troops, they wiped out [-] opponents.

This battle example was said by the general, although Zeng Yiyi didn't understand how he knew about the far west, but the general's words were definitely not false.

At this time, Youye Bu sent a hand gun signal, indicating that there had been a large number of ambush soldiers in a valley forest on that side, but seeing that this side was not moving, they left one after another, and once cursed: "These barbarians, defeated It's just like the real thing."

I took a look at this middle-aged Mongolian with a prairie red face, and found that this man was Zhang Jing, a deputy in charge of the flag under Karaqin's subordinates. This time, he sent [-] troops, and more than half of them had armor. He was considered the most populous and most powerful of the Mongolians who defected a tribe.

Zeng Yiyi thought to himself: "Sure enough, these Tartars know better about the grassland."

The subordinates inspected the corpses and horses of these dead Mongols. They all had leather bags wrapped in cowhide and branches, and a lot of weapons and rations were hidden in them. As a result of the search, there were cheese, meat floss, and meat powder in each person’s leather bags. There is a lot of dry food, but there are quite a few hay and beans.

Zeng Yiyi said: "President Lemegeqian, what do you think, is the base camp of these harassing Tartars nearby? It seems that they don't have much information."

Lemege rubbed his chest and said, "Captain Zeng... No, Captain Zeng, judging from the seized barbarians' luggage, it is not certain that their camp is nearby. The dried meat and cheese they brought can be eaten for at least ten days. Half a month, or even a month."

"They also have a lot of horses. The range of this attack is too large to judge..."

"These barbarians don't have many horses, but we Mongols, one person can change horses in rotation. By changing horses, we can solve the horsepower problem of war horses."

He said: "Plus the abundance of water and grass here, even if they can't grow fat, the fodder for the horses is sufficient...Of course, after they harass, the horses in various ministries will definitely lose, and the remaining horses will have to be fattened for a long time. time."

Zeng Yiyi rubbed his own face, the current situation, it is difficult to judge if it is not closed overnight, but as the battle progresses, they will always show their feet.

……

It seems that the attack of the Tumets kicked off the prelude to the attack. Waves of Mongolian cavalrymen from the Outer Domain appeared outside the marching array of the Xuanwu Army, a few miles away, and they followed them eagerly. If a pack of wolves looked around.

Occasionally, some rangers rushed forward, and when they met Yebushou and the Ming army sentry to intercept them, they avoided them from a distance. The Xuanwu army had a marching mission, so it was impossible to tangle with them.

Judging from the banners of these people and the various Sulu ingots with wolf skins hanging on them, the surrounding Mongolian cavalry came from a variety of sources, including the Tumed people in Guihuacheng, the Mongolian tribe in Hetao, and some soldiers from the Mongolian tribe in Waizasak.

These Mongolian soldiers from outside the vassal vassals are not as neatly uniformed as the Mongolian Eight Banners. They wear different armors and costumes. They may wear bowl caps and leather gowns with collar buttons on them. wait.

Or the traditional Mongolian fur caps and leather robes with tassels on the hats. In the Jiajing period, they were called Hongtassel Tartars, or they wore some Manchurian-style cotton armor.

Han and North Korea received information that groups of Tartar soldiers also rushed over from the mountains and hills on the left bank of the river more than ten miles behind the army. They either crossed the river directly from shallow water, or used "huntuo" It is a special kind of raft, which is used to cross the river.

The army appeared in all directions, and there seemed to be enemy cavalry. The Han Dynasty ordered to march in formation, with guns and guns in front, the attached Mongols on the right flank, feather cavalry to protect the baggage, and the left flank was the river, and some wheelbarrows were used for cover.

The Mongolian cavalry gathered more and more, and there were strange whistles one after another. They did not gather densely, but galloped in twos and threes, far or near, and strange whistles sounded from time to time.

Sometimes the cavalry of the Ming army rushed to a certain place, and they immediately scattered like birds and beasts, and then gathered together in twos and threes at some point.

Han and North Korea know that this is a tactic that the Mongols are good at, called the Crow Soldiers Scattering Array.

Their number is definitely not as large as the Western Expeditionary Army, but their depth and range of activities are very wide. There are faintly a hundred riders surrounded by thousands of people, and a thousand riders can be divided into hundreds of miles.

(End of this chapter)