stubborn thief

One thousand two hundred miles east of Xing'an Mountains, on the left bank of the Nenjiang River, there is a city called Wuwei.

The Mongolian name of this city is Gelezhuergen City, which is the base camp of the Nenjiang Khorchin tribe.

There were fortified towns in the Nenjiang River Basin in ancient times. As early as the Liao and Jin Dynasties before the Mongols came, the ancestors who settled here built fortified towns and engaged in fishing, hunting and farming.

As Mongolia moved south, Genghis Khan's brother, Khasar, led the Left Hand Army to occupy Daning, and the troops captured the places along the way.

It was the time of the Great War between the Mongols and the Jin Dynasty, and the main battlefields were in Jizhou, Luanping and Liaoxi. These areas were sparsely populated, and soon after they were occupied, the cities were razed to the ground and then abandoned.

Later, the owners of this place became the Daur people living in the Taoer River area. They were descendants of the Khitan and still set up their villages and lived here.

During the Jiajing period, the Mongols came again, with the same army and the same group of people.

The Khorchin tribe was Genghis Khan's personal archer guard.

Kuimengktashahara is the fourteenth generation grandson of Hesar.

When the Khorchin tribe moved here, they were still nomadic at first and had no cities. However, the villages and small cities everywhere in the Nenjiang River basin were not demolished. They were all built by their subjects, such as the Xibe, Ula, Guercha, Daur and other tribes.

Several large cities along the river, such as Gelezhuergen City on the east bank of the Nenjiang River, Chulemen City at the mouth of the Songhua River 120 miles away, and several other cities in the Nenjiang and Songhua River basins, were all built at the suggestion of Nurhaci to Oba Khan twelve years ago.

At that time, Oba formed an alliance with Nurhaci and was at odds with Chahar.

Nurhaci suggested that he build a few empty cities, store some food and grass there, and when the enemy attacks, let the Mongols and the Jurchens hide in the city and defend the city.

Because of the objective environment, the Later Jin Kingdom at that time was facing the threat of the Ming army and had no ability to rush north to provide assistance when Khorchin was attacked by Chahar.

But not providing assistance would go against the meaning of the alliance. Moreover, if Khorchin was destroyed by Chahar, the situation of the Later Jin would be even worse.

Therefore, Nurhaci took great pains, fearing that Oba would uphold the Mongolian tradition that they did not need cities. He even said in a letter that "those who want to fight in the wild are cowards, and those who fight in the city are brave."

The name of Fearless City means that Khorchin is no longer afraid of Ligdan Khan.

Later it was proved that it was a wise move for Oba to follow Nurhaci's advice. It was with the help of these empty cities that Korchin escaped the disaster when Chahar launched a large-scale eastward expedition without the reinforcements of the Later Jin Dynasty.

Of course, Oba did not win the battle that year. Thousands of his followers were killed, including three Nayans. In the end, he handed over the fugitives he had taken in according to the request of Ligdan Khan, and only then did Chahar withdraw its troops.

But in the final analysis, lives were saved and the strength of the tribe was preserved.

Wuwei City is located on the west side of the Nen River and is surrounded by swamps on three sides. There are sea bubbles everywhere within a radius of 100 miles.

The great general from Mo Nan that Liu Chengzong had been thinking about, E'linchen, who had been so powerful and had stolen the limelight in this war, was right under this city.

He chased Badali for more than a thousand miles from the edge of Liaoze, but his momentum did not slow down. Even when facing a city and a garrison of more than 6,000 people, he still dared to show off his strength under the city.

Badali was almost scared to death by his pursuit. He wondered what kind of medicine Liu Chengzong had fed this Ordos Jinong from the south of the desert to make him so fierce?

All they could do was watch E'linchen riding his horse without reins outside the city, going crazy as if he had gone mad.

E'linchen is not arrogant, he is just confused.

Since Ligdan Khan moved westward, Jinong of Ordos has never found its place in history. It has been drinking camel milk wine all day long and living a life of drunkenness.

Only after it submitted to the Dunta Khanate and became the Khanate of Jinong under the Daiqing Khitan Khan, did it conquer the Karashen in one fell swoop and defeat the Khanate that was at its peak on the grassland.

The glorious victory did not go to E'erlinchen's head and make him have the illusion that he was a military god.

He knew very well that he was able to defeat Harashen because he had a good grasp of the timing of the attack, which was just a replica of the Ming army's raid on their nest.

Especially this time when entering Korchin, the strength of the 230,000 households in the south of the desert was clearly displayed in front of E'linchen.

They are indeed good at fighting. The combination of experienced soldiers and bandit leaders who are skilled in looting can maintain a very high winning rate in small-scale battles.

But such combat effectiveness has nothing to do with his E'erlinchen's exquisite command.

All he could see were the unruly Wanhu, the Qianhu who did not obey orders, and of course the cavalry who disappeared as soon as they went to the battle and could never be regrouped again.

But in the final analysis, their troops, from top to bottom, were very clear about the battle situation.

From the small soldiers to the commanders, everyone knew that to invade Korchin, it all depended on who could run faster.

Korchin's cattle, sheep, and women were waiting to be robbed in the front, and the Eight Banners troops were chasing and killing them from behind. They had no choice but to kill and rob as quickly as possible, then withdraw from the battlefield from the flank to find the grand marshal to receive the reward, and leave the enemy troops to be lured by E'linchen who continued to move north, so as to escape.

E'linchen cooperated very well and chased Badali all the way to the northeast, crossed the Nenjiang River, and arrived at the city of Wuwei.

In fact, it was not that E'linchen wanted to cooperate. After running three hundred miles, he wanted to turn around and rush into the Xing'an Mountains to report to Liu Chengzong.

He was a great nobleman and the lord of the entire Ordos. He did not bring many direct-controlled troops with him on this expedition. Only more than 2,000 people from the entire Ordos were dispatched, scattered under the command of his brothers and nephews, such as Sanang, Sonomo, Seling, Shandan, Xiao Zhamusu and other nobles.

The pastures on the Horqin grassland are located with the left wing in the south and the right wing in the north.

They chased Badali northwards from Liaoze, but before they ran out of the pastureland on the left wing, all the nobles around them, except Sanang Taiji, led their troops to plunder and ran away.

The soldiers have all dispersed, why is he still running?

However, his most loyal vassal and brother of the same generation, Sanang Taiji, was really courageous.

People advised him that the lord was a Jinong leader who had led the troops to fight. Now that his troops were scattered, he returned without permission. He might be punished by the Khitan Khan. It would be better for him to attract the Eight Banners as a soldier and chase the main force of Khorchin all the way north.

Sanang Taiji was E'er Chen's think tank. E'er Chen followed his advice in a daze and decided on the spot to continue leading the pursuit.

He said such lofty words openly and honestly, and then he told E'linchen privately: "It is not safe to retreat westward on the grassland. I know the way. We can chase the enemy all the way to their lair. Even if we cannot achieve meritorious service, we can still return to the south of the desert from the Xing'an Mountains through Chechen Khan's pasture."

In fact, Sanang felt that they had missed the best opportunity to retreat. If they turned around and retreated, they might not only be defeated by Khorchin's troops, but would also run into the Eight Banners Army head-on.

In this case, it would be better to keep chasing, at least this is safe. The Eight Banners Army behind them will also disperse their forces to chase those troops retreating on the way.

The fleeing troops would think that E'linchen was attracting the enemy for them, and the soldiers who followed him would also think that E'linchen was a hero.

Maybe the next time they go to war, those Wanhu in Mo Nan will really obey E'linchen's orders?

It has to be said that Sanang Taiji was indeed very capable.

When Sanang went on the expedition, he led only more than 400 people from his own Wushen and Besuxi tribes. Even when attacking the artillery transport team of the Eight Banners, he had to rely on E'linchen to allocate another 500 cavalrymen to make up a total of 900 cavalrymen.

However, on the way to drive the Khorchin north, among the many nobles in Ordos, only Sanang could use his prestige to control his troops and horses, and even won victory after victory, with his troops increasing compared to when he set out on the expedition. The cavalry of other nobles who had escaped during the looting were also more willing to be gathered by Sanang Taiji and temporarily placed under his command.

Because Sananghong Taiji had the honorific title of Chechen.

Throughout the entire Mongolian history, only a few people have been given the title of Chechen.

Kublai Khan, Manduhai, Altan Khan, Buyan Chechen Khan, Ligdan Khan, Shuolei Khan, and Qiejin Huang Taiji.

Among them, only Qie Jin was granted such a title as a vassal, and had someone give such a title to Sanang, who was only ten years old.

This was certainly because he was the first person among the 60,000 households to practice Buddhism, but on the other hand, it was also because his achievements were unparalleled.

He led an expedition to Oirats and plundered the Torghut people; he led an expedition to Kazakhstan and, on his way back from the expedition, he captured 8,000 Huite tribes south of the Hangai Mountains and the Batut tribe in the northern mountains of Hami. He sent his two sons to Tannu Uriankhai to capture Choros, rescued Khalkha from the control of Oirats, and made their lord Altan Khan the master of half of Oirats.

It is self-evident what this title means on the grassland.

Those who were assigned to the south of the desert by the three khans from the northern desert and were dispatched by the great khan followed the ten thousand households named cooks or archers to march into Khorchin, a grassland that had never been set foot on.

During the robbery, the soldiers simply dismounted, cut a piece of beef leg, stuffed it into a leather bag and placed it under the saddle. When they looked up, their troops had disappeared.

Fortunately, in the midst of fear and confusion, they saw friendly troops passing by, and were temporarily gathered together. They planned to find an opportunity to find out where the cook had gone, and then return to the team.

Upon inquiry, it was found out that the leader of this friendly army actually had the title of Chechen, and it was Hong Taiji.

Good man, what a smart and wise crown prince!

Obviously, his chances of surviving the war are more than ten thousand times greater than following the cook!

As a result, the cook got a lot of money, and each soldier grabbed two or three horses, with women tied to their backs and lambs in their arms. They were chased back to Xing'an Mountains by the Eight Banners soldiers to report to the Khan and receive their rewards.

However, their clever crown prince went all the way to Huanglong and chased him to the Fearless City, 1,200 miles away, and led a single force deep into the enemy's territory.

The place called Wuwei City is close to Qiqihar. It belonged to the Shiwei Military Governorate in ancient times. The ancestors of the Nine-Surname Tatars lived in this place before they migrated westward.

Going back to my hometown is the case.

Khorchin's Lord Badali was almost gritting his teeth in the Fearless City. He really couldn't beat E'linchen and his gang of lunatics!

At the edge of Liaoze, Badali's troops were the strongest, but E'linchen had more cavalry. After several battles, they were unable to win the field battle and instead suffered heavy casualties.

By the time he took refuge in Fearless City, although his military strength had increased, all the able-bodied men in the city were forest dwellers who had fled here from all directions.

These forest folks who are in excellent physical condition can be armed into ferocious Sauron death soldiers by Huang Taiji, who can fight through enemy lines and be invincible.

The problem was that Badari was unarmed.

This Fearless City is usually just an empty city where food is stored and there is no weapon at all.

So even though E'linchen had only 2,000 soldiers outside the city and 6,000 able-bodied men inside the city, Badali did not dare to go out of the city to fight him.

The armor and weapons of the army outside the city were very sophisticated, and they were definitely not the kind of useless guys using stone arrows.

What they wore and held in their hands were not even the equipment of the Marshal's Office. They were all standard weapons of the Ming Army and the Eight Banners Army.

There was only one person on the grassland who would mix these two armor groups into one unit, and that was Subudi of Harashen.

Because both the Ming and Jin families had sent armor and weapons to the old leader of Harashen, Subudi, and had also been robbed by Subudi's troops.

After Subudi's death, Gulusiqibu succeeded him as leader and was soon plundered by the tribes south of the desert. As the commander of the raid, the Ordos tribe reaped the most spoils, and these weapons naturally became standard equipment for the cavalry south of the desert.

In fact, during this period, the troops of E'linchen and Sanang Taiji were even better than their overlord Liu Chengzong in terms of armor technology.

The Eight Banners used all the modified accessories of the Ming-style cloth-covered armor, such as the external crotch guard and armpit guard.

The only one he could count on right now was Huang Taiji's Eight Banners Army.

Before the arrival of the Eight Banners, Badali hoped to stabilize E'linchen and prevent him from running away.

The fact that Korchin was ambushed by this bunch of lunatics and suffered tens of thousands of casualties was a small matter. The key point was that his cousin Baisigala was captured during the pursuit. If Erlinchen was allowed to escape, Badali would not be able to swallow this humiliation.

At this moment, in the camp outside the city.

E'linchen was planning an escape route with Sanang Taiji. The vanguard cavalry had already been sent out to explore the west. They planned to plunder the area around Wuwei City once more and then lead their troops westward to the Xing'an Mountains.

At this time, a Zaisang from the Wushen tribe came forward with a sheepskin document and reported: "Hong Taiji, this is the confession of the Khorchin captive Nayan."

Sanang Taiji immediately took the document and read it carefully.

According to the confessions of the captured cavalry, Baisigal they captured was an important Noyan of Khorchin, and his identity was the son of Budaci, the Prince of the Right Front Banner of Khorchin.

They all came from the Golden Family. Sanang Taiji originally wanted to use them as captives to exchange for horses from Badali for retreat, but he didn't expect that this guy was full of complaints after being captured, saying that there was discord between the left and right wings of Khorchin.

Sanang Taiji believed that this was important information for the Marshal's Office, so he ordered his subordinate Zaisang to inquire about the reason.

Unexpectedly, after a few questions, Zaisang brought him a thick stack of sheepskin confessions. After reading them, Sanang was amazed: this is longer than the book he wrote!

"Jinong, I'm afraid we can't let Baisigal go back."

Sanang Taiji pointed at the thick sheepskin confession, looked at Elinchen, and explained: "This man is a descendant of the Danayan of the right wing of Khorchin, and he knows everything about Huang Taiji's annexation of Khorchin."

"He believed that Huang Taiji intentionally instigated internal strife between the left and right wings, favored the left wing and despised the right wing; he was unclear about rewards and punishments, and made Wu Keshan, who had no achievements, a king, but only made his father a county king, breaking up the tribes and deviating from tradition... This person was extremely dissatisfied with Huang Taiji and Daiqing State."

E'linchen looked at the pile of sheepskins worriedly, and then looked at Sanang Taiji again: "So, you plan to use him to persuade Badali to surrender? Even if they are dissatisfied, they will not surrender to the Khan at this time."

Liu Chengzong's army came here on an expedition. They could come and go, but Khorchin could not escape.

Without external aid, not to mention that Badali is currently only the leader of one of the three right-wing banners, even if he is the great lord of the entire Khorchin, he cannot resist the Eight Banners of Manchuria.

"Jinong, we are not trying to persuade him to surrender. We have to take him back."

Sanang Taiji sighed, "The Khitan Khan is really good at sowing discord. Jinong, think about what he said to the three Khans of Mobei. It has spread. It is said that the Later Jin's treatment of the Mongols in Mobei is to make them restrain each other and harm each other, to seize your real power and to kill you."

"This man is a living example of how Khorchin was trapped, persecuted, and killed. If he passes through Chechen and is blocked by their troops..."

As he said this, Sanang smiled and said, "As long as we meet him, Shuolei Khan will definitely give us a chance to live because of the Khitan Khan's foresight." (End of this chapter)