In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 146 They all choose to remain neutral
As Namu Zhong reached an agreement with the first tribe, in the next few days, the entire Qiantao group of more than [-] tribes, large and small, also chose to compromise.

As for Hauge, it is true that he cannot save himself. After a month of hunting down, Jiannu's food consumption is also huge, and it is almost reaching the bottom.

At this time, Hauge had to graze his cattle near Guihua City while waiting for reinforcements. He was unable to interfere with the transactions between Tumut's ministries and Namu Zhong.

After all, the cavalry led by Namu Zhong cannot be eliminated. If they continue to intervene forcefully, the Tumut tribe is not allowed to reach a peace agreement with Namu Zhong privately. Instead, it is likely to force the Tumut tribes to completely fall to Namu Zhong.

Therefore, Hauge could only watch the situation in the Loop getting further out of control and was powerless to do anything.

Lin Rui and Na Muzhong didn't have the time or energy to care about the life and death of the slaves. They would go to the Yellow River every day to receive the returned girls transported in sheepskin boats, and then use them to exchange boys and girls with various tribes. They were very busy. .

It was not until mid-April that they exchanged nearly 20 people with more than [-] tribes in Qianluo and expanded the cavalry team to [-]. Only then did the two confidently prepare to deal with Haoge and drive away the Jiannu completely.

Of the 1 people exchanged this time, [-]% were teenagers and only [-]% were girls. In fact, each tribe did not suffer a loss, because for every two adult Hui girls exchanged, an additional eleven or twelve-year-old girl would be given as a gift.

Lin Rui would not be reluctant to part with these girls who had returned from captivity. Not only did they have to raise them every day, but they also had to send people to guard them, which was really too much trouble.

If it weren't for the fact that many Mongolian teenagers didn't have women, he really wanted to exchange all the 3 captives.

Lin Rui immediately assigned the three thousand Mongolian girls who were exchanged to Han teenagers or border troops. Veterans without women were given priority, and then small flag officers.

Of course, they say they are willing to look at each other, but in fact they are almost the same as Lalang. How dare those Mongolian girls refuse when they first join?

Basically, as long as they are chosen by a Han teenager, they will obediently follow them to the bridal chamber. Since the teenagers' Mongolian language is already slipping away, they will become familiar with them after one night.

Basically all the Mongolian veterans have women, so they are not jealous this time, but they all want to make meritorious service, become generals as soon as possible, and then allocate those young ladies and maids.

There is clearly a shift towards quality over quantity.

But they didn't know that this was just a pie drawn by Lin Rui. Lin Rui would never be able to reward them with those young ladies and maids.

However, the [-] young men who had just returned from the exchange had great opinions when they saw the women and even younger sisters in the tribe marrying Han people. After all, most of the Mongolian tribes were like carrots and pitfalls.

"You don't have to be envious or worry. We still have tens of thousands of beautiful returning girls on the other side of the river. As long as you kill the enemy and make meritorious service, after you are promoted to veterans, everyone will get a woman of their own..."

Sure enough, with Lin Rui's explanation, He Namuzhong's support, and the Chahar boys' evidence and bragging, after understanding the Lin family's treatment and rules, the Tumut boys who had just joined were looking forward to it, and their hearts were filled with excitement. The resistance also disappeared without a trace.

After integrating the cavalry, Lin Rui and Namuzhong led [-] cavalry and [-] Han soldiers, and rumbled towards Guihua City.

After receiving the news, Haug immediately became nervous. While gathering the cavalry, he issued a recruitment order to the various Tumut ministries, asking them to bring troops to help.

Unfortunately, both Qiantao and the Tumut tribes in the Wuyuan area of ​​Baotou almost all refused to send troops on the grounds that the tribes wanted to herd and reproduce.

This made Hauge shocked and angry, but there was nothing he could do.

"Your Majesty, those Tumuts are scared out of their wits. I'm afraid they can't count on them. The opponent's cavalry has almost doubled again, and there are many Han soldiers to help. We don't have much food. Otherwise, we still have to fight." Should we withdraw first?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, don't the Han people often say that if you leave green mountains, you won't be afraid of running out of firewood? Let's retreat to Liaodong first, and then lead the army to fight back. By then, we will also deal with these swaying Tumuts!"

Obai and Sony also tried to persuade them with helpless expressions.

The other Eight Banners generals also spoke out in agreement.

"No, we absolutely can't just hand over Guihua City to Yu Namuzhong and the bandit leader. Otherwise, with their strength, it will be a hundred times more difficult to take it back in the future. Once Guihua City is occupied by them for a long time, plus They are backing the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty is likely to completely lose control of the Loop."

Hauge slapped the table hard, his eyes turned red, and he roared.

This group of horse bandits is not the original Lin Dan Khan and Chahar tribe. Once they occupy Guihua City, they will definitely strengthen the city, hoard food, and leave a large number of Han soldiers to garrison. The cavalry will rely on the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty to maneuver in the wild.

In this case, even if they mobilized the whole clan's troops to conquer, they might not be able to conquer Guihua City, and it would also consume a lot of manpower and material resources.

The Qing Dynasty simply couldn't afford it.

"But Your Majesty, with only our remaining nine thousand cavalry, if we want to defeat Na Mu Zhong and the bandit leader named Lin, I'm afraid..."

Seeing Hauge's resolute attitude, Sony could only remind him in a low voice.

How cunning and powerful that group of horse bandits is, I believe that the prince does not need to explain too much. He should know better than anyone else that if they force a decisive battle, they will definitely lose. Not only will they escape in embarrassment in the end, but they will also suffer heavy losses.

"Then we won't fight them. Let's learn from the Han people this time and stay in the city!" Hauge stood up quickly.

"what?"

"Stay in the city?" "This... Your Majesty can't..."

Everyone was shocked. If they all retreated to the city, it would be equivalent to abandoning all their war horses and completely losing their way out. Once they failed to hold on, the entire army would be annihilated.

"There's nothing wrong with it. Even if our warriors from the Qing Dynasty dismount, we can still kill those cowardly Han people crying for their fathers and mothers. This Guihua City is not too big or too small. We have nine thousand warriors. I don’t believe we can’t defend before reinforcements arrive!”

Hauge clenched his fists, glanced around the crowd, and gritted his teeth.

Rather than fleeing back in despair now, letting Dorgon and others laugh at the joke, and never getting ahead, it is better to sink everything and defend Guihua City.

Then he said to Sony with a determined look on his face: "Sony, take a team of people and go to Liaodong immediately to report to Huang Ama, saying that I will live and die with Guihua City. If there are no reinforcements within two months, The Qing Dynasty will completely lose control of the Loop, remember?"

"My lord, my lord, please remember this. Please take care of yourself, my lord. Even if my bones are broken, I will definitely bring the news back to the emperor."

Sony also understood that Hauge had chosen to make a desperate move. He kowtowed three times and quickly turned around and left. He did not dare to delay for a moment. After all, Liaodong was more than two thousand miles away from here.

When Obai and the other generals saw that Hauge planned to live and die with Guihua City, they didn't say much.

Immediately, Hauge led his men to kill all the war horses by the river outside the city. The blood from tens of thousands of war horses dyed the river red.

There is no way, the food in the city is enough for the people to eat for two months, and the war horses cannot be fed, so they can only kill them all.

Seeing their former beloved horse lying in a pool of blood, all the Jiannu slaves were silent. They never thought that one day, their brave Jurchens would be forced to kill their horses and hide in the city to teach the cowardly Han people.

.........

"Report, Marshal, madam, the Jurchens did not escape, but killed all the horses and hid in the city."

Tan Ma's tone was trembling. Obviously, tens of thousands of war horses were slaughtered at the same time. The scene was too bloody.

"what?"

Lin Rui and Na Muzhong stood up at the same time in shock, both looking in disbelief.

Then Na Muzhong became excited and said: "Rui Lang, that Hauge is looking for death. He didn't even run away, but dared to kill the horse and hide in the city. I think he has lost his mind."

"I hope he just runs away!" Lin Rui didn't have any surprise. Instead, he frowned and had a heavy look on his face.

What they need now is to occupy Guihua City as soon as possible, and then use it as a basis to control the entire Hetao, rather than killing many Jiannu. Naturally, they do not want Hauge to guard the city. Once Hauge guards the city, Liaodong Jiannu will definitely An army will be sent to rescue.

If we fail to break through Guihua City in time and attract Huang Taiji's attention, it will be really troublesome.

"Rui Lang, the Jurchens are not good at defending the city, but we Han people are good at attacking the city. Yanghe City is much stronger and taller than the Guihua City. We defeated it in half a day. It's just a Guihua City. Could it be that you are still worried about not being able to defeat it? ?”

Seeing his reaction, Na Muzhong was suddenly surprised.

"No matter how bad Jiannu is at defense, he still has nearly ten thousand elite warriors who dare to fight. But the deal is done. No matter what, we must break through Guihua City. This is related to our future."

At the end, Lin Rui's face showed a trace of determination.

However, the opponent actually chose to kill the horse and hid in the city, so there was no need to rush to kill him.

If you want to attack a city, you must make some preparations. The more prepared you are, the smaller the losses will be and the greater the chance of breaking the city.

As the saying goes, sharpening the sword will not waste time cutting firewood, Lin Rui immediately ordered the army to start building a pontoon bridge, and first pick up all the people and horses on the shore. With the current five thousand Han soldiers, it is absolutely impossible to capture Guihua City.

Fortunately, the Yellow River had thawed for some time, and the water level was not too deep. It only took ten days to use countless sheepskin rafts and planks to build a temporary pontoon bridge on the bank of the Yellow River west of Guihua. It took another five days for all the horses, horses and vehicles to cross the Yellow River.

"Huang Ben, go to Yanghe immediately and tell Governor Lu that in addition to trading grain this time, we also need a large amount of green bricks and glutinous rice. Let him prepare it. I will send a car directly to pull it..."

"It's handsome."

Huang Ben didn't ask any more questions.

Lin Rui explained and warned him carefully, and then Huang Ben set off for Yanghe.

Originally, Lin Rui planned to occupy Guihua City and then send people to discuss the deal with Lu Xiangsheng, but now that Hauge was stuck in the city, in order to save time, he could only let Lu Xiangsheng get the green bricks he needed in advance. Glutinous rice and other things to strengthen the city wall are ready.

(End of this chapter)