Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 362: The aftermath

The Hulunbuir Prairie at the beginning of the 14th century did not have the green grass that people imagined. On the contrary, due to the eastward shift of the precipitation line and the retreat of the Mongols to the grassland, the pastures in Mobei that had been resting for less than a century once again encountered overgrazing.

Even in this grassland sandwiched between the Yinma River and the Onan River, the green grass is definitely not lush.

Because of this, after the more than a thousand Tatar cavalry who came to watch dismounted, their horses would scatter in search of green grass to eat.

They dispersed little by little, and this behavior was caught by Qiu Fu, who was holding a telescope.

"Ha..." He sneered, seeming to be disdainful of the Tatar cavalry's vigilance:

"Your Majesty is still too cautious. These Tatar cavalry are worse than Wu Liangha. They knew our whereabouts and sent out sentries, but the sentries didn't even wear armor."

After Qiu Fu said this, he turned to look at his armored self.

"Are the big matchlocks ready?"

"Ready, ready to fire and shoot!"

A Baihu official answered. Qiu Fu got on his horse and said, "Okay, let's go!"

Following his order, nearly a thousand Ming army cavalry got on their horses and followed him towards the Tatar cavalry two miles away.

The rallying horn sounded, and the scattered group of Tatar cavalry heard the horn sound and blew their wooden whistles to summon their horses.

"Stone arrow?"

The Ming cavalry was chasing more than a thousand Tatar cavalry. The sound of hooves kept making the entire grassland tremble.

Compared with them, the Tatar cavalry did not wear complete armor and only knew how to run away, trying to escape the pursuit and interception of the Ming army behind them.

"Leave some people to ask them about the situation in Arutai, and we will continue to chase!"

The hills and rivers in the distance were quietly watching the entire battle, as if they were also listening to who would be the winner at this moment.

At this moment, Qiu Fu and the others only felt that they were powerful barbarians.

"kill!!"

"We surrender, we surrender..."

As a nation on horseback, the horses under the crotch of this group of Tatar cavalry ran very slowly. Many of them fell behind on the retreat and were surrounded and captured by the Ming army cavalry.

The wind blows, and white clouds flutter on the grassland...

Qiu Fu pulled out the arrow stuck in his chest. After discovering that the arrow was actually made of stone, the smile on his face became even wider: "Chase me!"

"Uuuuuu——"

There were no more than a thousand Tangqi in their group, and no less than two to three hundred captives were chased, shot, or captured along the way, which translates into five or six thousand guans. Even if they stopped now, each of them could get an equal share of five or six guan.

Between the chase and the escape, the air in Hulunbuir grassland was filled with the atmosphere of fierce fighting.

At the moment, they were blinded by the reward, and they only knew how to chase and shoot all the Hulu they could see in front of them!

Arrows intertwined in the air, cutting through the tranquility on the grassland.

The dull sound of horse hooves resounded on the vast grassland. Such a sound quickly alerted the Tatar cavalry.

"Drive... drive..."

However, only the Tatar cavalry were struck down by arrows, because the heavy Ming armor worn by the Ming army could not really cause them fatal damage regardless of the arrows.

But despite saying that, who among them is willing to stop?

Under pursuit, more than a thousand Tatar cavalry could only escape for more than 20 miles before being intercepted by the Ming army due to lack of horsepower.

"withdraw!"

There were sounds of retreat and shouts of killing, and something unexpected happened.

"Withdraw! Quickly withdraw!"

Five or six guns are certainly tempting, but the reward for annihilating these more than a thousand Hu cavalry is four to five times that of five or six guns.

There is no such thing as even strength, there is only a unilateral massacre of them by the Ming army.

The emperor's words have been passed down, each department fights independently, and the rewards are divided equally among each department.

"Surrender without killing!"

At this moment, all the Ming cavalry on horseback were very excited. Even though they were wearing heavy Ming armor, their arms were sore from drawing their bows and arrows many times, but no one of them was willing to give up the pursuit.

When the horses ran back to them, the Ming cavalry from the north also appeared in their sight.

A surprising thing happened. None of the three to four hundred Tatar cavalry resisted, and they all laid down their weapons.

Some cavalry who tried to change directions were also overtaken and intercepted by the Ming army. For a time, these more than a thousand Tatar cavalry were bitten by the Ming army and suffered heavy casualties.

"Uh-huh!!"

These sounds were all mixed together, as if the sounds of all life on the grassland were condensed in this moment.

None of them shouted to put on armor, but nervously and fearfully got on their horses and began to retreat.

The majestic shouts of the Ming army, the terrified gasps of the Tatar cavalry on their way to escape, the neighing of arrows from the war horses...

It's not like they didn't have bows and arrows, but their arrows couldn't cause casualties to the Ming army. Even if they hit the weak points of the Ming army's armor, they would only get stuck and not penetrate the armor.

Qiu Fu gave the order and continued to pursue the horse. He drew his bow and arrows, and led the Ming cavalry to continuously rely on their horse speed and shooting skills to kill this group of Tatar cavalry who were "too late" to wear armor.

Just capturing the remaining three or four hundred Huqi was enough for Qiu Fu to raise his chin to the sky after returning to the formation.

"Beep--"

Facing the three to four hundred Hu cavalry who were surrounded, Qiu Fu shouted these exciting words, because the reward for the Mongolian captives was the same as for the dead, and the merit of the captives was greater than the merit of the kill.

This strange situation made even Qiu Fu feel that something was wrong. He frowned and said, "You don't have the idea of ​​being loyal to your own grand master?"

"No...we haven't had enough to eat for many days." Thousands of Tatars dropped their weapons and knelt on the ground. Qiu Fu's sunken cheeks were like evidence.

Although he already believed it, Qiu Fu still asked: "That's ridiculous. Aren't you Tatars and Oara two major tribes together? How could you end up not being able to afford food?"

"Besides, as I traveled westward, I also saw many herdsmen grazing. They have quite a few herds. Don't even think of lying to me!"

"The general doesn't know..." The Tatar family looked panic-stricken, but they pretended to be calm because of fear:

"Yelu Timur separated from us not long ago and joined forces with Oirat (Wara) to deal with us. We lost many herds and tribesmen. Many tribesmen in our tribe have not eaten millet and milk for several days. , everyone is looking for long-tailed rabbits and wild vegetables and grass stalks to eat.”

"The herds in the east and south are supplied to the nobles. Even I can only receive a few kilograms of goat milk a month."

"If the general doesn't believe it, you can continue to search to the west. There is a small tribe of hundreds of people in the west. They are ordinary herdsmen who are not qualified to herd. They look even more miserable than us..."

Tatar Qianhu's expression matched his appearance, making the words he spoke flawless.

It's just that Qiu Fu was a little suspicious, and the Tatar officials around him did not forget to remind Qiu Fu in Mandarin after the translation: "My lord, the information this person said seems to be different from what we obtained in the southeast."

"Hmm..." Qiu Fu nodded, but he was worried that what Qianhu said was true, so he said, "Ask him how far the small tribe in the west is from here."

"Yes!" The official of the Hundred Households heard the words and translated, and the Thousand Households of Tatar also replied: "It should be less than ten miles away."

"Less than ten miles." Baihuguan translated. Seeing this, Qiu Fu thought for a moment and said, "It's only ten miles. Let's go and have a look."

"Yes!" Baihuguan agreed without much thought. Qiu Fu also ordered: "Leave five hundred people to escort them back to the formation. Let this Tatar lead the way, and the rest will follow me."

Under Qiu Fu's instructions, more than 400 cavalrymen began to head west, led by thousands of Tatar families.

The distance of ten miles was not too far for Qiu Fu, who owned many horses, but within two quarters of an hour, everyone saw a small tribe of several hundred people led by the thousands of Tatar families.

The Mongols of the tribe panicked when they saw the sudden appearance of the Ming army. Qiu Fu immediately asked two soldiers to control the thousands of Tatar families to advance.

Under the supervision of the Ming army, the thousands of Tatar families communicated with the hundreds of small tribes. After confirming that there was no danger, the Ming army who supervised him blew the whistle to the rear.

"Beep--"

"There's no danger, let's go!"

Shaking the reins of his horse, Qiu Fu led the team towards the small tribe.

As he entered this small tribe, he saw only hundreds of herders with sallow faces and sunken cheeks.

Their tent was yellow and black, and it looked like it had been used for a long time.

There are only a dozen sheep, five cows, and a dozen horses in the entire tribe.

Although there are cattle, sheep and horses, this number is nothing for a tribe of hundreds of people.

Qiu Fu dismounted, randomly selected a tent and opened it, only to see grass stems and some wild vegetables boiling in the pot.

He didn't taste it to be sure, after all, the presentation made him unable to eat it.

"How far away is Arutai headquarters from here, and how many troops are there?"

When he opened the tent and walked out, Qiu Fu did not forget to ask the Tatar family.

"He is on the north bank of Kuolian Haizi, only a hundred miles away from here. There are more than 100,000 people there, and the total number of men is only 20,000 or 30,000. And many of them don't even have armor like us."

The number mentioned by Qianhu Tatar was the same as that of Urel and others who were captured before. However, what Urel and others said was clearly 20,000 to 30,000 armored men, while he was talking about 20,000 to 30,000 men and women. Some armored men.

This kind of information made Qiu Fu frown, and it was hard to tell who was lying.

"First set up camp here, kill the sheep and reward the brothers, and then send a message to His Majesty so that Your Majesty can come and assess the situation."

Qiu Fu ordered the hundreds of officials beside him. After all, he was not the commander this time, but just one of the vanguard generals. He could not act arbitrarily.

What's more, he only has more than a thousand cavalry in his hands. Even if he wants to surprise Arutai headquarters, it will be difficult to carry out without a few thousand cavalry.

Thinking of this, Qiu Fu couldn't help but feel a little unconvinced.

After all, he is one of the old men in the Yan Mansion. Now even Bohai juniors like Wang Yi and Meng Zhang can lead three armies by themselves, but he can only lead one army by himself, and it only has no more than a thousand riders. This gap is why he is eager to prove himself.

He ordered the camp to be on alert, and the soldiers dismounted one after another, unloaded the food and saddles from their horses, and at the same time began to cook the army rations in iron pots.

After more than a dozen sheep were slaughtered, the furs were left to the herders to process, and the meat was cooked in pots.

The simple cooking of mutton becomes fragrant and fragrant after adding salt crystals and spices, which greatly increases appetite.

Eating the cooked army rations and mutton, Qiu Fu looked at the group of herdsmen who were looking at him eagerly from time to time, and told the people around him: "Give them ten measures of army rations to cook and eat. Don't starve to death. They are all rewarded." ."

"Yes!" After hearing Qiu Fu's instructions, several soldiers carried ten buckets of army rations and threw them to the herdsmen.

Upon seeing this, the herdsmen immediately picked up the rations and started cooking them in their own stone pots.

One dou of military rations is enough to feed sixty soldiers, and ten dou of military rations is enough for these three to four hundred herdsmen to save food for a day.

After eating and drinking, the more than 400 Ming troops were divided into three squads and began to rest. Qiu Fu was too excited to catch up because of today's achievements.

It wasn't until midnight the next day that the dull sound of horse hooves came from the east, and Qiu Fu woke up from his dream.

He got up, put on his armor and walked out of the tent, picked up his binoculars and squinted his eyes to look eastward. After confirming that it was the main force of the army, Qiu Fu washed his face, got on his horse and approached the army with dozens of cavalry.

Thousands of cavalrymen joined Qiu Fu as the front army under the leadership of Wang Yi. When Qiu Fu saw Wang Yi, he bowed and said, "Where is your majesty?"

"It's twenty miles behind. You can catch up soon."

After Wang Yi said that, Qiu Fu also said hurriedly: "Then I will send someone to prepare food immediately."

Qiu Fu had two sheep specially left yesterday just for this moment.

He sent people back to camp to deal with the two sheep, while he followed Wang Yi to camp outside the tribe.

Wang Yi was very cautious. Even with Qiu Fu's guarantee, he still sent out thousands of Tangqi to search.

An hour later, as the sound of a large number of horse hooves came from the east, Wang Yi and Qiu Fu also walked out of the tent to welcome the arrival of the army.

Dust and smoke billowed, and more than 20,000 cavalrymen came on horseback. The scale almost covered the grassland to the east. The horses' hooves were dull, and the movement could be heard seven or eight miles away.

After waiting for half an hour, they arrived at the camp of the former army. Zhu Di even rode his horse to bring Zhu Neng and others. He dismounted and walked into the tent:

"Call me the thousand Tatar families and the hundred families of this tribe."

Zhu Di walked into the big tent and sat down while giving instructions. Freshly grilled lamb chops and lamb legs were already placed on the table inside the tent.

Zhu Di unceremoniously grabbed a leg of lamb and started to eat it. At the same time, he said to Qiu Fu, "Qiu Fu, this is your first victory in this battle!"

"I'm ashamed..." Qiu Fu got an advantage and behaved, but at the same time, he also told the story that the information here was different from that of Wu Rile and others.

In front of Zhu Di, Zhu Neng and others, he really has no ability to be arrogant.

"I'll find out later when I ask..."

Zhu Di slowed down his movements, obviously sensing something was wrong.

But facing the Tatar headquarters, he was not afraid at all.

"Your Majesty, people have been brought."

"Call in."

Soon, thousands of Tatar families and hundreds of local tribesmen were brought in. When Zhu Di saw them, he asked:

"We captured many hundreds of families in the east before. They all said that your Great Khan had 30,000 to 40,000 armored soldiers and horses. How come there are only less than 10,000 men now?"

Zhu Di spoke, Huo Zhen was responsible for translating, while Zhu Neng, Zhu Quan and others listened carefully.

"Back to the Great Khan, they are just peripheral tribes and have no idea that we broke off with Yuerutemur and fought a war."

"Yuelu Timur and Mahamu teamed up to defeat us in the middle reaches of the Onan River. We lost a lot of armor before we could escape."

"In order to stabilize the ten tribes of Yongxiebu, the Grand Master lied that his tribe had not suffered any casualties. However, many tribes did not receive cattle and sheep, and some switched to Oara, and some switched to Yuelu Timur."

After the thousands of Tatar households said this, Zhu Di looked at the hundreds of households here: "How long have you not eaten meat?"

"More than a year..." Baihu replied tremblingly. After hearing this, Zhu Di stood up and walked towards Baihu, stretched out his hand and grabbed his hand to observe carefully.

Looking at the rough hands, Zhu Di lamented: "My men helped him fight, and their hands were scarred, but he couldn't even bear to eat meat."

"Come, let me see yours too."

After Zhu Di said that, he took the hand of the Tatar family, and after sighing, he had the two of them taken away.

He returned to his seat and sat down, stroking his beard as if thinking.

Upon seeing this, Qiu Fu took the initiative and said: "Your Majesty, if this news is true, then we only need to raid the Arutai headquarters to destroy the Tatar headquarters!"

"It's fake." Zhu Di snorted and explained to Qiu Fu's surprise:

"It's true that Baihu's hands are rough and scarred, but his fingers are not as rough as Qianhu's, which means he doesn't have many opportunities to shoot arrows."

"His hands don't look like fighting hands, but they look like working hands."

"On the other hand, that Qianhu's hand, you can tell from the touch of it that there has been a lot of fighting."

Zhu Di glanced at the situation outside the tent, looked at the group of thin herdsmen not far away, and hummed: "Arutai is preparing to lure me to raid him so that he can set up an ambush to ambush me."

"I've been playing this trick since I was thirty, and he still wants to use it to ambush me?"

He mocked Arutai unscrupulously, and Zhu Neng below heard it and laughed: "He wants to lure the enemy deeper, why don't we use his plan?"

"Yes." Wang Yi also nodded and said: "Let the artillery be centered. When all his ambush troops are out, the cavalry will change the formation according to the direction of the enemy to make room for the artillery."

"Our army has not yet used field artillery in Mobei, so Arutai will definitely take it lightly."

"When they make a sudden charge, the artillery is replaced by shotgun shells. One hundred field guns are enough to kill nearly a thousand Huqi at a distance of a hundred steps."

"When the Hu cavalry formation collapses, our cavalry will take advantage of the chaos to make a surprise attack and win a complete victory!"

After Wang Yi said this, everyone nodded, and Zhu Quan also put forward his opinion: "The rear cavalry can be used to coordinate and be ready to intercept the fleeing Hu cavalry at any time."

"Well..." Zhu Di was very satisfied with the speeches of the three of them, but at this time Anping Hou Li Yuan also bowed and said:

"It would be easy to just defeat them, but once the Tatar headquarters disappear, will Nawala take the opportunity to go east, invade the eastern grasslands of Mobei, and annex the Tatar headquarters at the same time?"

Zhu Di did not expect that Li Yuan could think so far. It was not that he had not thought of such a thing, but that he felt that such words coming from Li Yuan's mouth were a bit unexpected.

He had not yet discovered that the resourceful Li Yuan could actually think of politics from the battlefield.

"Worth cultivating..."

Zhu Di nodded and couldn't help but said: "This matter is also something I am worried about."

"If Arutai is defeated, then we only need to pay attention to the situation in Mobei after returning to the army."

"If the main force of Arutai is completely annihilated, we will have to set up additional guard posts in Yuerhai, Onan River, Kuoluanhaizi, and Yinma River."

"If this grassland is invaded by Wala, then our battle will be considered successful and successful."

Before the war started, the generals had already thought of two possibilities after the war. This was their confidence.

"Finish the fight first and then talk about it. Anyway, kill as many Hu Qi as you can. I would rather spend millions of money and food every year to set up a guard here than let Arutai and the Tatar headquarters run away."

"Yes!"

As soon as Zhu Di opened his mouth, all the generals bowed in response.

Soon, the thousands of Tatar families and hundreds of herdsmen were escorted back to Mengzhang's camp by Zhu Di's thousands of cavalry. After a short rest, he led the assembled 30,000 cavalry to march towards the north bank of Kuoluan Haizi.

After only two days' journey, they soon arrived at the north bank of Kuoluanhaizi and saw the deserted Shichengzi.

If it weren't for the cow and horse excrement all over the grassland, I wouldn't believe that anyone had lived here.

After searching, Wang Yi came to the Chinese Army to report:

"Your Majesty, there are traces of Hu cavalry migrating north. There is a lot of excrement from cattle, horses and sheep. They should be migrating north with their tribesmen."

"Hmm..." On horseback, Zhu Di nodded and said: "Although I didn't deal with Lan Yu back then, I did ask Dingyuan Marquis Wang Bi and Li Jiujiang (Li Jinglong) about the situation of fishing in the north of Haizi when the army returned in triumph. "

"Wang Bi told me at the beginning that there are hills and mountains to the north of Haizi, and there are swamps and many lakes going up along the Onan River."

"The Prince of Qi's Mansion that Wang Baobao built back then was located in the mountains. I estimate that Arutai either went to Prince Qi's Mansion or went north along the Onan River."

"Although there are many swamps and lakes on the south side of the Onan River, people can walk on the north side, but the road is not wide, but because it is not wide, it is suitable for setting up ambush."

"I estimate that Arutai will go this way, but how to set up an ambush will not be clear until we go there."

He gave an overview of the situation on the north side of the Onan River. Wang Yi heard this and said, "If he wants to set up an ambush, he has to trap us."

"Yes!" Zhu Neng nodded and said: "Our army has artillery in hand, but with the 20,000 to 30,000 barbarians in Arutai's hands, I am afraid that even short-range soldiers will not be able to fight our army."

"Yes," Zhu Di said with approval: "You are right. No matter how Arutai sets up an ambush, he has never encountered the artillery and matchlock guns in our hands, so we actually have the upper hand."

He stroked his beard, straightened his waist and glanced at Shi Chengzi not far away:

"This place is quite good. If we set up a health center here in the future, we don't have to worry about running out of water to irrigate the farmland."

"Haha..." Zhu Quan said with a smile: "Your Majesty wants to set up a guard station here, but you must first clean up Arutai."

"Haha, it's easy for me to deal with him." Zhu Di smiled heartily, then shook the horse's reins: "Let's see how this Arutai Tatar is going to sing!"

"Yes!" Following Zhu Di's order, the army abandoned the place where the Tatar headquarters operated and marched toward the northeast in search of traces.

(End of this chapter)