Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2726 An army of 100,000 attacks Wuwei; Meng Tian's first battle against Choros.

April 1st, the sixth year of the Qianyuan era.

Under the court's emergency mobilization, Wei Qing led 150,000 central imperial guards and began moving towards Liangzhou.

Granaries were built in both Yongzhou and Liangzhou, especially in Yongzhou, which was prepared as the primary logistical support center for the western front of the Yuan dynasty.

It was precisely because of this that the Central Imperial Guard was able to complete its war mobilization in just half a month and quickly move westward.

After all, they don't need to prepare supplies before the army moves.

The journey is heading west, and ample provisions and various military supplies have been prepared ahead of us.

All that's needed is for them to arrive on the battlefield on time.

Huo Qubing, Yuwen Chengdu, Luo Shixin, Shi Gandang, Huang Feihu, Sun Mei and other generals all joined Wei Qing's camp to serve him.

Temujin died at an inopportune time. At that time, Xing Tian, ​​Li Cunxiao, Jiang Song, and other front-line generals were still in the Li Tang country.

Kong Xuan, though he did not participate in the war against the Tang dynasty, was stationed in Wu Qi's territory to guard the northern defense line of Youzhou and prevent the Manchus from intervening.

The Yuan-Jin War was destined to be a major war that would affect the entire world, directly or indirectly impacting the four surrounding empires.

In fact, before Wei Qing's troops even arrived, Meng Tian, ​​as the commander of the Northwest Camp and the first-line general in the war against the Yuan, had already taken the lead and set his sights on Wuwei County.

This is where the first battle of the Liangzhou War broke out.

Here, the Jin Dynasty lost a large number of elite soldiers and generals, including Li Guang, Wang Xiaojie, and even Yu Jiafu.

In the years that followed, this place became the new border crossing point between the two sides.

The first battle of the Jin-Yuan War is about to unfold here.

Meng Tian led an army of 100,000 men from Anding and headed straight for Guzang, the heart of Wuwei County.

Meng Tian's Northwest Camp was a standard cavalry camp, with 60,000 out of 100,000 troops being cavalry.

The remaining 40,000 infantrymen, in addition to undertaking some combat missions, also served as auxiliary troops for the cavalry, helping them with horse management, logistical support, and a series of other tasks.

However, in this battle, Meng Tian did not take advantage of the swiftness of his cavalry legions, but instead relied mainly on his 40,000 infantry legions, which served as a support unit.

After all, when they were in the Northwest Camp, these 40,000 men were positioned as auxiliary troops to the 60,000 cavalry.

However, when the Jin army was reorganized a few years ago, the troops of the three northern camps were the most elite troops selected from all over the Jin army. Only after they had made their selections could the troops of the Central Plains Army and the southern army make their selections.

Only after all the major field army groups have been screened can they be integrated into the local armies.

The same applies to personnel, warhorses, and weapons.

Therefore, although the 40,000-strong infantry corps was positioned as an auxiliary force to the cavalry, they were all selected from the battle-hardened Jin army from various regions, and their combat effectiveness was absolutely guaranteed.

However, the Liangzhou battlefield was not the same as the grassland battlefield; the Liangzhou battlefield involved siege warfare.

Therefore, Meng Tian focused his attention on these 4 people.

Equipped with powerful crossbows, spears, and heavy armor, they formed a tight infantry line when encountering enemy troops.

Meng Tian did not pursue speed of advancement, but rather aimed to ensure his invincibility, moving step by step towards Guzang.

During this period, Esen, who was stationed in Liangzhou, wanted to take advantage of the swiftness of his steppe cavalry and constantly harassed Meng Tian.

Once Meng Tian's troops are exhausted and his infantry formation begins to falter, his cavalry can charge into the enemy ranks and tear them apart. This tactic is the most common, and also the most effective, tactic for cavalry against infantry.

The infantry formed a tight formation, and the cavalry dared not break through.

But with their high mobility, cavalry had many ways to wear down the infantry until they could no longer maintain such a tight formation.

However, Meng Tian did not give Esen this opportunity at all.

Ultimately, his legion was still a cavalry legion, with large numbers of cavalry guarding its left and right flanks, so Esen was unable to achieve any effective disruption.

Even Esen's forces were far fewer than those under Meng Tian's control.

Like the Jin army, the Yuan Mongols also deployed 100,000 troops in Liangzhou. However, while the Jin army had 60,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry, the Mongols had the opposite: 40,000 cavalry and 60,000 infantry.

The Jin army was determined to invade the grasslands and avenge their previous defeats, so they vigorously developed horse administration, reorganized the three major northern military camps, and increased the proportion of cavalry.

But the Mongolians were obsessed with conquering the Central Plains and its beautiful lands.

Therefore, they made large-scale use of Han Chinese and people from the Western Regions to build up infantry legions.

The Yuan-Mongol infantry legions were mainly deployed in Liangzhou and Xizhou, as well as the northern region of the Kushan Empire.

After all, they couldn't possibly put their cavalry on the grasslands; it would be completely useless!

Unless it was like the previous battle with the Tuoba tribe, where Kublai Khan used it both to train the infantry corps and to promote some of them to accelerate their integration into the Yuan Dynasty.

That's why a portion of the infantry corps was specially transferred to fight on the grasslands alongside those Han Chinese marquises.
It is precisely because both sides have targeted each other as hypothetical enemies that the current situation has come to this.

Meng Tian acted like a thorny hedgehog, giving him no chance whatsoever.

Esen couldn't find an opportunity to launch a surprise attack from the sidelines and could only watch as Meng Tian pushed the battle line towards the direction of Guzang.

The Mongol general guarding Guzang was a Han Chinese named Shi Tian'an, who was assisted by a group of grassland generals including Suheba, Weiguzhen, Yuhechen, and Laichuhui.

Suheba, Weiguzhen, Yuhechen, and Laichuhui were all generals of the Tuoba Wei dynasty. After the fall of the Tuoba Wei, the Tuoba Khanate was established.

However, their civil and military officials were originally dispersed to various places to prevent them from banding together and threatening the rule of the Yuan Dynasty.

Although Shi Tian'an was a Han Chinese, his status among the Yuan Mongols was much higher than that of Suheba, Weiguzhen, Yuhechen, and Laichuhui.

Although both are Han Chinese, as long as they can successfully integrate into the Yuan people after making meritorious contributions, their status among the Mongols will be completely different.

Kublai Khan used this method, taking advantage of the stark difference in treatment before and after, to motivate Han Chinese and people from the Western Regions to actively serve the Yuan Dynasty.

However, this has also created a huge class gap.

They were both Han Chinese, or both from the Western Regions, but some were doing exceptionally well, while others lived at the very bottom of society.

As for Suheba, Weiguzhen, Yuhechen, and Laichuhui, since they had only recently begun to integrate into Mongolia, they would naturally not receive any preferential treatment simply because they all came from the grasslands.

Since Kublai Khan had set the rules, he would not break them himself.

Therefore, their situation is the same as that of the Han Chinese and Western Region people who are assimilating.

Therefore, even though these people were born on the grasslands, they could not compare with someone like Shi Tiankong in terms of status.

Shi Tiankong's family was one of the few families in the Yuan Dynasty with a genuine lineage of noble titles, second only to the Mongol nobles. They were also representatives of the emerging nobility and were regarded by Kublai Khan as a role model among the Han people.