Emperor of the Red Chamber

Chapter 166: Northern King Xiyue, Great Khan Tsering

Yue Zhong has been the General of Ningyuan for two years.

He has worked really hard in the past two years.

The most difficult thing was not the harsh environment on the western front, but the pressure from two generations of Zhou emperors.

Before Emperor Chengtai passed away, he liked to command the army on the front line. However, he was unfamiliar with military affairs and believed in the birth dates of his generals. As a result, his command became blind.

This put a lot of pressure on Yue Zhong, the commander of the western army.

After Yuan Qingbai ascended the throne, he suspended the war and issued strict orders to the two western armies to be on guard against the enemy but not to take the initiative to attack.

This made Yue Zhong feel very stressed.

You know, the Western Army he commanded had a strength of more than 100,000 soldiers. These 100,000 soldiers were stationed on the front line in a harsh environment, suffering physically and mentally. He also had to appease the soldiers' restlessness, and the huge amount of money and food consumed also made him feel distressed.

Another tragic incident happened recently.

One day not long ago, a part of the Western Army stationed in Turpan was unable to endure the scorching heat in the basin. In addition, they were running out of food and grass, and had difficulty getting water, so their morale was shaken and their fighting spirit was low.

Yue Zhong hurriedly sent troops to Turpan to transport food and fodder. However, on the way they were robbed by the Dzungar army, and all the food and fodder, camels and horses were lost, resulting in heavy losses.

Afterwards, Turpan was repeatedly invaded by the Dzungar army. Shouji where Zhu Chengbin was stationed and Wukekeling where Gao Yuanzuo was stationed were both captured by the Dzungar army, and all the camels, horses and food were looted.

Faced with this situation, Yue Zhong was filled with indignation and wanted to mobilize a large army to attack Junggar.

Fortunately, he still held back and reported the situation truthfully to Beijing.

After reading the report, Yuan Qingbai was naturally dissatisfied. He ordered the beheading of Zhu Chengbin and Gao Yuanzuo as a warning to the army. However, he did not blame Yue Zhong. Instead, he appeased Yue Zhong.

……

……

On May 18, when the Jianrui Battalion, the Longqi Battalion, and the Imperial Medical Service Team A arrived at the Northern Army's base, Yue Zhong, who was in charge of the Western Army, received a reply from Yuan Qingbai.

Yuan Qingbai's reply this time was hundreds of words long.

Yue Zhong read these hundreds of words over and over again, and tears filled his eyes. This was because Yuan Qingbai did not blame him but comforted him instead, and also because the battle he had been waiting for for a long time was finally about to begin!

Yue Zhong couldn't help but recall the scene when he first met Yuan Qingbai. It seemed like a lifetime ago!

How many years ago was that?

Yue Zhong calculated carefully and found out that it was thirteen years ago.

Alas, time flies by like a white horse passing by in the blink of an eye.

At that time, Yuan Qingbai was only twelve years old.

At that time, Yue Zhong was still serving as a deputy general in the Beijing camp. Entrusted by the ninth prince at the time, he arranged to take care of the archery and horsemanship training of Yuan Qingsang and Yuan Qingbai.

At that time, he respectfully addressed Yuan Qingbai as "Mr. Bai San", but Yuan Qingbai smiled and said, "Yue Xiezhen, please don't call me 'Mr. Bai San' anymore. I am sorry to bother you during this training in the Beijing Camp. Since you are my coach, you can just call me 'Brother Bai'."

From then on, he called himself "Bo Ge'er".

At that time, he was amazed by Bo Ge'er, amazed by Bo Ge'er's super physical fitness, his spirit of hard work and practice, and his rapidly improving archery and horsemanship skills.

At that time, Jia Daihua had the idea of ​​marrying Yuanchun to Bo Ge'er.

He also wanted to marry one of his daughters to Bo Ge'er.

But later, Yuanchun married Bo Ge'er, but his daughter did not come into being.

Later, Bo Ge'er became the de facto crown prince and ascended the throne to become emperor at a young age.

Whenever he thought about the marriage he had planned in the past, he felt a little regretful that he had not tried his best to make it happen.

Otherwise, even if his daughter is not the queen, she would at least be the imperial consort.

Fortunately, he had formed a bond with Yuan Qingbai early on.

Therefore, as the current emperor, Yuan Qingbai would feel a sense of familiarity with him.

……

……

"General Yue, come to the tent!"

"General Yue, come to the tent!"

"General Yue, come to the tent!"

"..."

On this day, from among the Western Route Army of the Great Zhou, there were military orders from General Yue Zhongsheng of Ningyuan.

Along with these military orders, thousands of soldiers of the Western Army gathered together, looking at Yue Zhong like stars surrounding the moon.

Yue Zhong was tall and strong, with a ruddy complexion, a high nose bridge, and sharp eyes. He was wearing a general's armor, which made him look very majestic and extraordinary. His style of a general was not inferior to Wang Ziteng.

Yue Zhong was indeed a natural born general. He had extraordinary physical fitness and an astonishing appetite. When facing a battle, he liked to hold two large copper hammers in his hands, which together weighed more than 100 kilograms.

At this moment, the great general Ningyuan, facing thousands of his soldiers, loudly read out the decree of the current Emperor Tianlong, Yuan Qingbai.

After reading it, he gave an order: "Come here, behead Zhu Chengbin and Gao Yuanzuo as a warning to the troops!"

"General, please spare my life..."

"General Yue, my crime does not deserve death..."

Zhu Chengbin and Gao Yuanzuo both shouted in dissatisfaction.

But it was of no avail.

In the presence of thousands of soldiers, both were beheaded, with blood splattering everywhere.

Yue Zhong looked at the two bloody heads on the ground, feeling a little sad. Zhu Chengbin and Gao Yuanzuo had fought with him and gone through hardships together. In his heart, they were both his subordinates and his comrades. If he had covered up their mistakes in the military report, perhaps the emperor would not have ordered both of them to be beheaded. Even if Zhu Chengbin was beheaded, Gao Yuanzuo might have been demoted, because although Gao Yuanzuo was also derelict in his duty, his crime was less serious than Zhu Chengbin's.

But he did not do so and wrote the truth in detail in his report.

He always believed that as a military commander, especially a general commanding hundreds of thousands of troops, he should be fair and dignified.

How can you be a great general if you disregard military law and ignore the overall situation for your own selfish reasons?

Thinking of this, Yue Zhong sighed, turned his eyes away from the two bloody heads, and turned to look towards the north...

The northern army commanded by Wang Ziteng was stationed in the north, thousands of miles away from where Yue Zhong was.

Yue Zhong knew that thousands of miles away in the north, the northern army was about to open up the main battlefield of the war.

Although the Western Army has more troops and stronger combat power than the Northern Army, this time it only needs to cooperate with the Northern Army in combat.

Even so, the task is arduous.

Thinking of this, Yue Zhong turned and looked towards the east again...

Thousands of miles away in the east, there is the Shenjing, where Emperor Tianlong Yuan Qingbai is.

"Your Majesty, I, Yue Zhong, will live up to your high expectations and the expectations of the people of Great Zhou. In this battle, I will do my best to cooperate with the northern army, swear to pacify the Dzungar Khanate, and incorporate the vast northwest land into the territory of Great Zhou!"

Yue Zhong made a vow in his heart.

……

……

The western army commanded by Yue Zhong had a strength of more than 100,000 soldiers, almost all of whom came from Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai.

The northern army commanded by Wang Ziteng had a strength of only more than 50,000 troops, and its composition was complex, including troops from the capital, the northeast, Ningxia, Mongolian, and so on.

With the addition of 4,000 soldiers from the Jianrui Battalion and the Dragon Cavalry Battalion, the Northern Army only had nearly 60,000 troops, and the troop composition became more complicated.

It is not easy to command such a large army, let alone to open up the main battlefield.

Fortunately, Wang Ziteng does have considerable military talent and experience.

Like Yue Zhong, Wang Ziteng has been looking forward to the battle for a long time.

Although he was a little arrogant, he was quite steady when it came to the war.

He followed Yuan Qingbai's instructions. Even though the Jianrui Battalion and the Dragon Cavalry Battalion had already arrived, he still waited for another ten days to allow the Jianrui Battalion and the Dragon Cavalry Battalion to adapt to the environment and communicate well with the main army.

Until the last day of May.

"The army is marching out!"

Following Wang Ziteng's order, the northern army set out in a mighty force!

……

……

Yue Zhong worked really hard for two years.

In the past two years, the life of the Dzungar Khan Tseren has not been easy. He has to guard against attacks from the Great Zhou and worry about money and food.

The population and economy of Dzungar were far inferior to those of the Great Zhou. Tseling's father, Tsewang, did not leave a large amount of money and grain to his successor son after his death like Emperor Chengtai did.

Although the soldiers in the western part of the Great Zhou Dynasty have consumed a large amount of money and food in the past year, the Great Zhou Dynasty can afford it, and Yuan Qingbai does not have to worry about not having enough money and food during the war.

Tsering was different. In the past year, the Junggar army under his command had been short of money and food, so they plundered everywhere, plundering the Great Zhou, plundering Mongolia...

He wanted to fight as soon as possible more than Yue Zhong and Wang Ziteng.

However, the Junggar army relied heavily on cavalry, which was good in field battles but weak in attacking strongholds.

If Tsereng led the Dzungar army to attack the Great Zhou army defending the city, it would be tantamount to courting death.

Only outsmart.

When Ce Ling used a trick to lure the Great Zhou army out of the city for a field battle and intended to ambush them, the Great Zhou army did not fall for it and simply defended the city and took strict precautions.

Over the past year, Ce Ling had tried several times to lure out the northern and western armies of the Great Zhou, but all ended in failure.

Ce Ling was really depressed about this, but there was nothing he could do but continue harassing while waiting for the Great Zhou army to take the initiative to attack.

Now, Tsereng is personally leading nearly 60,000 Junggar troops and stationed in the areas of Boktoling and Tonghurhanor, which is the only way for the northern army of the Great Zhou to attack Junggar.

Ce Ling believed that compared with the Western Army of the Great Zhou, the Northern Army of the Great Zhou was easier to defeat, and that by concentrating troops to deal with the Northern Army of the Great Zhou, they could take advantage of the situation to plunder the Khalkha Mongols.

On this day, Ce Ling received urgent intelligence from spies that the Great Zhou’s northern army had already set out.

"finally come!"

Ce Ling couldn't help but sigh. He was not worried so much, but more expectant and excited.

He has been waiting for this day for a year.

He believed that the Dzungar army under his command would be able to defeat the Great Zhou's northern army.

However, a direct confrontation would be unwise and would reduce the possibility of victory.

We still need to use strategies, lure the Great Zhou's northern army, and set up an ambush for them.

Thinking of this, Ce Ling looked in one direction, there was Bokto Ridge!
The mountains there are undulating, and one can attack from high ground.

Ce Ling was going to set up an ambush there and defeat the aggressive northern army of the Great Zhou.

"If you want to destroy my Dzungar, Jing'an can't do it, Chengtai is even less capable of it, and how can that young bastard Tianlong do it! Ha, maybe I can destroy the Great Zhou, maybe I will be the second Genghis Khan!"

At this moment, the thirty-something Tsering was like a lion in his prime, yet as cunning as a hyena...

(End of this chapter)