prosperous age

The quiet grassland stretches like a green silk ribbon from south to north. A black dot flashes across the high sky, and then everything seems to fall silent again.

However, a small dot suddenly appeared slowly behind a small mound, and then several more small dots gradually emerged.

As they grew larger, those small dots transformed into individual knights on horseback.

Their route was carefully planned, always running between small earthen mounds to use the mounds as cover and avoid being spotted from a distance.

Then, go around the earthen slope, carefully observe the surroundings, and continue forward.

After they disappeared into the horizon, everything returned to calm, as if no one had ever been there.

Half a day later, another small dot appeared to the south, which then gradually expanded.

The ground trembled slightly, a sign that a large group of people was moving forward.

Finally, as they approached, you would see knights clad in red armor, with two lines behind them: one line of two-horse-drawn carts, and the other line of soldiers carrying various weapons and wearing battle robes.

They didn't raise any flags; they simply followed silently behind their comrades.

They were none other than the Xuanda army led by Ma Gui. After leaving the pass, they traveled day and night for several days, avoiding the herdsmen on the grasslands, and quickly advanced towards Bansheng City.

Within the ranks, Ma Gui, accompanied by his personal guards, kept watch and received messages from scouts all around.

When another fast horse returned from ahead, the scout rode to Ma Gui's side, clasped his hands in greeting, and reported: "Reporting to the commander, a Mongol scout has been spotted thirty miles ahead."

"How many are there? Can we bypass them?"

Ma Gui looked up at the sky and pressed for an answer.

“It’s difficult. We’ve also found scouts within a ten-mile radius. According to the schedule, we should be about sixty miles from Bansheng City.”

The scouts reported.

"Bring me the map."

Ma Gui said something, and the guard behind him took out a bamboo tube from behind, took out the map wrapped inside, then rode up to Ma Gui's side and unfolded it with both hands.

Ma Gui stared at the map, his whip lightly brushing across it. He then nodded slightly and said, "Indeed, it's only about fifty li away from Bansheng City."

Order the vanguard to advance to the right. There is a ravine ten miles away. The army will rest again today and will charge towards Bansheng City in one fell swoop tomorrow.

The scouts immediately dispatched several teams to scout the area; they were to proceed swiftly.

As soon as Ma Gui gave the order, several of his personal guards rode off.

Ma Gui turned to the scouts in front of him and instructed, "Tell the men ahead to be careful and avoid contact with the enemy cavalry. I don't want them to know we're here."

"Follow the order."

Upon receiving the order, the scout turned his horse around and galloped forward.

After giving the order, Ma Gui did not stop, but continued to stare at the map in front of him.

The land map is very detailed, depicting various terrains on the grassland, especially slightly higher slopes and hollows, as well as water sources, all of which are convenient places for hiding troops and marching.

This map was naturally also thanks to the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

They initially entered the grasslands with smuggling caravans, primarily to complete the mapping of the grasslands.

Only with this map could the Ming army enter the grasslands without any strategy, like blind men touching an elephant.

At the very least, the water source can be used to delineate a clear marching route, while the earthen slopes and gullies can serve as places for the army to set up camp.

Just as the Ming army began to turn north in search of a low-lying area, scouts galloped toward the central army again.

"Reporting to the commander, it seems that the Tartar scouts at the front are engaged in battle."

The returning scout rushed to Ma Gui's side and immediately reported in a low voice.

"What? The Tartar scouts are engaged in battle?"

Ma Gui could hardly believe his ears and immediately pressed for an answer.

"Initially, we discovered a group of more than ten enemy scouts. Then, less than ten miles to the south, we found another group of scouts. They encountered each other and a battle ensued."

The scout briefly reported what he had just discovered, and Ma Gui frowned slightly as he listened.

"What are their casualties? Have they received any enemy reinforcements?"

After a moment, Ma Gui continued to ask.

"They exchanged more than ten arrows, and some people on both sides were hit. The casualties are unknown. Now the two groups have gone west, and no enemy traces have been found in the vicinity."

The scouts only reported what they saw, saying nothing more, and certainly not recounting their own guesses.

"Understood. Be careful to scout ahead and prevent any Tartars from sneaking in."

After speaking, Ma Gui waved his hand, signaling him to leave and return to the front.

After everyone left, Ma Guicai said to himself, "It seems that the situation in Bansheng City is more tense than expected. Scouting has already begun on the outskirts."

Generally speaking, there is no conflict among the Mongols, especially among their scouts.

If they discover enemy activity, they will immediately leave and return to report.

This time, however, the two teams of scouts were directly attacking each other with arrows, indicating that this was no longer a normal situation, but rather that their teams were fighting fiercely, and the scouts were already in a frenzy of battle.

Ma Gui was extremely cautious when he left Xuanfu, fearing that he would be discovered by the Mongols and that no Mongol cavalry would come to intercept him.

After all, they had already ventured nearly 300 miles into the grasslands.

Here they were besieged by Mongol cavalry, and reinforcements from within the Great Wall were unable to arrive in time.

Therefore, the only way is to hide yourself well and not let yourself be discovered.

After arriving at Bansheng City, joining forces with San Niangzi's troops will improve safety and enhance the army's combat effectiveness.

This was Zheng Luo's original idea: to bolster the morale of the Third Sister and avoid getting involved in the war if possible.

Ma Gui was unaware that in the past two days, outside Bansheng City, the troops led by Third Sister had already clashed several times with the troops led by Qiataiji.

Guihua City is close to Bansheng City, less than a hundred miles away. After making up her mind to kill Qiataiji to establish her authority, San Niangzi led her elite troops to Bansheng City.

Naturally, the vanguard cavalry was intercepted by the men sent by Chataiji.

There weren't many people, just over two hundred.

However, after this troop stopped the Third Lady's troops, the Third Lady directly sent several hundred men to besiege the cavalry, killing more than a hundred on the spot and capturing eighty suits of armor.

With nearly 40% of them wearing armor, it was clearly the standard for the royal guard, the elite troops around the Mongol Khan.

San Niangzi's guards, numbering in the Wanhu, were also elite troops in the Mongol army, but only about 20% of them wore armor.

This outcome naturally infuriated Chataiji.

Although he had fewer troops than San Niangzi, Qia Taiji still led a thousand cavalry to retaliate, repeatedly charging and killing San Niangzi's guards.

At this moment, with his forces outnumbered, he was surrounded and attacked from both sides by the guards of the Third Sister.

Chebu had received the news and led his troops to attack Chataiji from the rear, even sending troops to capture Chataiji's poorly defended camp. Now, the two sides had completely broken off relations.

Leading the remaining thousand or so cavalry, Qiataiji engaged in battle with the guards of San Niangzi around Bansheng City.

Upon spotting a small enemy squad, immediately lead your troops to charge.

When the reinforcements from the Third Sister arrived, she decisively led her troops to retreat.

At the same time, he also received orders from the Great Khan Huang Taiji, knowing that surrounding tribes would send troops to support him.

So they decisively continued to stalemate with San Niangzi around Bansheng City, and kept sending out scouts to investigate the surrounding area and gather the troops that came to their aid.

This is also why the scouts from both sides decisively attacked and killed each other upon encountering each other.

With the feud established, our team fought to the death, and the scouts naturally showed no mercy, attacking each other whenever they saw one.

However, those who served as scouts were skilled in horsemanship and archery, and it was also their tradition to fight each other by shooting arrows at each other without making direct contact.

Everyone wanted to become an archer on the grasslands, shooting and killing enemy soldiers from afar—this was the archer's specialty.

With live targets to practice archery, they naturally enjoyed it immensely.

However, Ma Gui was unaware of the battle taking place outside Bansheng City.

The last confirmed information he received about Banshung Castle was that the two armies were facing off outside the city and the conflict had not escalated further.

The lack of intelligence is not a problem. The scouts have already discovered the unusual activity of the Mongol scouts outside Bansheng City, which is enough for Ma Gui to deduce the situation there.

Ma Gui did not change his original decision and still chose to camp and rest in the mountain valley, heading straight for Bansheng City the next day.

As night fell, the army might not reach the outskirts of Bansheng City even if they continued their advance until nightfall.

Meanwhile, in the camp outside Bansheng City, only San Niangzi's troops remained, while Qia Taiji had already been driven to a distance of twenty miles.

Although she held the advantage, Ban Shengcheng had chosen to close the gates for the past few days, not allowing anyone to enter or leave, which greatly angered her.

Third Sister has come for Bansheng City. She not only wants to enter the city, but also to completely seize it.

However, a hasty attack on the city would certainly damage her prestige.

She sent troops here, claiming it was to prevent anyone from coveting Ban Sheng and trying to plunder Ba Han Na Ji's estate.

Attacking the city was a poor strategy; the main course of action was to send envoys to communicate with Da Cheng Bi Ji.

However, the envoys sent out clearly did not achieve the desired effect.

After Dacheng Taiji died, Dacheng Biji gathered his followers and retreated into the city, fearing attacks from surrounding tribes.

What worries Third Sister even more is that the scouts have discovered that Qiataiji's troops seem to be increasing.

The number of soldiers has increased from over a thousand to more than two thousand, indicating that he has received support from the Guihua City.

Moreover, the scouts discovered that this was because two surrounding tribes had arrived. Although each tribe only sent a few hundred people, the combined forces of the two tribes numbered over a thousand.

Two thousand people is nothing, but who knows how many more tribes will provide reinforcements to Chataiji?

The Third Lady is now somewhat on her own, unless she quickly enters the city or captures Bansheng City and makes it a fait accompli.

The longer the battle drags on, the greater the threat to her, especially if Chataiji receives more reinforcements. If she launches another attack, they will inevitably come from the rear, shattering her hopes.

At this moment, inside the tent, Third Sister took out Zheng Luo's letter again.

The messenger departed two days later than Ma Gui, and the letter only arrived yesterday. Naturally, San Niangzi understood the contents of the letter.

He told his son not to be disrespectful and to marry Da Cheng Bi Ji.
To be honest, Third Sister was not really willing.

In fact, she had been looking for a suitable girl for a long time, but compared to the benefits, it seemed that marrying Da Cheng Bi Ji was the best option, as it would give her a tribe of ten thousand households and a city.

There aren't many cities on the grasslands, and the Mongols don't have a tradition of building cities.

Bansheng City was built by rebels from the Ming Dynasty. As for Guihua City, it was built by Anda Khan when he was old and wanted to find a place to retire, and also to make more money from the Ming Dynasty.

To put it bluntly, Altan Khan deserved the title of Prince of Shunyi. The Ming Dynasty was plotting to weaken the Mongols, while the Mongols were also plotting to weaken the Ming Dynasty.

The Mongols' demand for money from the Ming Dynasty was not because they were desperately poor, but rather a deliberate attempt to deplete the Ming Dynasty's treasury.

From the Jiajing reign onwards, it was an open secret that the imperial treasury had been consistently running a deficit.

Mongolia values ​​strength above all else.

In the Ming Dynasty, that meant money. To maintain such a large court, one needed money.

In the end, all dynasties perished due to financial collapse.

"Forget it, if I can really get the city of Itaru without him being impolite, marrying Daisei Hikichi doesn't seem like a bad deal."

Finally, after reading the letters twice, Third Sister made up her mind.

He took out writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones from the box. These were rare items in Mongolia, and even in the Ming Dynasty, they were not something ordinary people could possess.

He laid out the letter paper, ground the ink himself, and then wrote a letter to Zheng Luo, naturally agreeing to let his son marry Da Cheng Bi Ji.

After the letter was written, Third Sister summoned her attendant and informed him that she had impolitely proposed to Da Cheng Bi Ji on his behalf.

"Have you remembered what I said? Tomorrow morning, you will set off into the city and tell Da Cheng Biji what you just said."

The envoy was a trusted confidant of the Third Sister, a kind of clerk who could read and write Mongolian, and was considered an intellectual among the Mongols.

These people were mostly the sons of tribal leaders. They could not inherit the tribe, but they could receive a good education.

When the Mongols originated in the Onon River basin, they originally had no written language.

In 1204, when Genghis Khan was conquering the Naiman, Tatatonga, a Uyghur official in charge of the Naiman seal, was arrested but still guarded the seal of the state.

Genghis Khan greatly appreciated his loyalty to his country, so he ordered him to take charge of the documents and seals of the Mongol Empire and to teach the crown prince to write Mongolian in Chinese characters.

At this time, the Mongols adopted the Uyghur alphabet to write the Mongolian language, which is known in academic circles as Uyghur-style Mongolian script. The Mongols began to use the Uyghur alphabet to spell their language, which is the Mongolian script we know today and the predecessor of the Mongolian script in later generations.

After making the arrangements, Third Sister felt sleepy and prepared to rest.

A woman in her thirties is in the prime of her life, and having long held power in Mongolia, she possesses a unique charm rarely seen in women of this era.

If Wei Guangde were here, he would definitely call her "mature and elegant woman".

Unbeknownst to her, just sixty miles from his main tent, over ten thousand Ming soldiers had already set up camp, preparing to depart early the next morning and head straight for Bansheng City.

By this point, it was neither difficult nor necessary for the Ming army to conceal their movements.

Therefore, even with a forced march of sixty li, they could still reach the walls of Bansheng before nightfall.

It's just twice as fast as normal, and there's no need to discard any military supplies; all you need to do is prepare a hearty breakfast tomorrow.

At this moment, Ma Gui was asking the quartermaster to take out half of the dried meat stored in the army and distribute it to the soldiers the next day, along with two days' worth of dry rations.

Given the uncertainty surrounding the situation outside Bansheng City, all the Ming army could do was prepare for battle.

Distributing a certain amount of dry rations to the soldiers was naturally part of the preparation. (End of Chapter)