Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 681 Transfer
After taking down the Wengniute tribe, Wu Sangui also transferred some young and strong men from the Wengniute tribe according to the previous plan, and directly organized them into cavalry to join his own cavalry. The reason for doing so was that his own cavalry strength was insufficient after all, and on the other hand, this method was used to force the two tribes to board the Ming Dynasty's ships.

Didn't both of you follow Huang Taiji to fight? If so, following the Ming Dynasty to fight Huang Taiji now can be regarded as a token of your loyalty. Moreover, Wu Sangui controlled the nobles and leaders of the two tribes, including the herdsmen. He was not worried that these Mongolians would rebel. Once these Mongolians had second thoughts, Wu Sangui would not be afraid of the knife in his hand. The Eight Banners soldiers could use the butcher knife to force the Mongolians to surrender, and the Ming Dynasty could do the same.

However, these two tribes have a large number of people after all. Together, there are nearly 30,000 herdsmen. In addition, the Kharchin tribe's Taiji Bilash escaped by chance and is now missing, which is also a troublesome matter.

Considering the subsequent battles, Wu Sangui did not lead his troops south immediately, but asked Galma to send people to Baimachuan to recall the tribal cavalry who followed Huang Taiji. At this time, Galma was already a prisoner of Wu Sangui, but he still retained the title of Taiji. Wu Sangui did not treat him harshly, but his life was actually in Wu Sangui's hands, so naturally he did whatever Wu Sangui asked him to do.

Just like that, according to Wu Sangui's intention, Galma sent people to Baimachuan to recall the tribal cavalry. As for the reasons, let Galma make them up himself. Anyway, Bilash had already run away, and he was probably running towards Baimachuan now. The news that the Ming army defeated the two tribes was no longer a secret. When the news reached Baimachuan, no matter which Mongols or Dorgon or even Huang Taiji, they would definitely respond.

Keep it secret? Wu Sangui never had this idea, and he didn't need to keep it secret now. His real purpose was to use the current situation to cause chaos among the enemy.

Moreover, he was not afraid that Dorgon and others would bring the Mongols back to attack. Wu Sangui was unwilling to see Dorgon do so. If the Eight Banners soldiers brought the Mongols to the north, it would just relieve the pressure on the Ming army in the south facing the attack of the Eight Banners. It would be even better if it could force Huang Taiji to withdraw his troops.

In addition, the grassland was not the battlefield of the Ming Dynasty, and Wu Sangui could not just sit there and wait for Dorgon and others to come back for revenge. He had to rely on war horses to conduct mobile warfare and take the opportunity to cause trouble for the enemy. This was what Wu Sangui had in mind.

After doing all this, Wu Sangui did not stay here for long and quickly left with his troops. After Wu Sangui's cavalry left, Galma and his men who had surrendered before looked at each other, not knowing what to do next.

Wu Sangui took away the remaining young and strong people in the tribe. Now the entire tribe is extremely empty. Logically, once the tribal cavalry from Baimachuan came back, Galma should have used this cavalry to chase Wu Sangui and avenge the humiliation of his previous surrender.

But the question is, can they defeat Wu Sangui even if they do this? After seeing the elite cavalry under Wu Sangui's command, Galma had no confidence at all. And did Wu Sangui really leave? Did he just accept their surrender in name and then do this and leave? Who can guarantee that the other side will not come back in a blink of an eye?

To be on the safe side, Galma decided to wait and see what happened. For the Mongols, nothing else mattered, and survival was the first priority. The great Genghis Khan had suffered humiliation before becoming the ruler of Mongolia? What did Galma's surrender count for? Huang Taiji was not easy to mess with, and the Ming Dynasty was not easy to mess with either. It would not be too late to help either side and wait for the other side to decide the outcome before making a decision.

When Wu Sangui led his troops to leave the grassland, his force had reached nearly 4,000 cavalry, of which 2,000 were his original Guanning Army and the cavalry given to him by Wang Jinwu, and the other 2,000 were young and strong Mongolian cavalry drawn from several small tribes and the Kharchin and Ongniud tribes.

Wu Sangui directly handed over the use of these Mongolian cavalry to the Mongolian deputy general assigned to him by Wang Jinwu, who reorganized them into teams and led them by middle and lower-level officers from the original cavalry. Although the combat effectiveness of this unit was far inferior to Wu Sangui's main force and its equipment was also very simple, Wu Sangui did not care about these. He used these Mongolians as vassal troops to supplement his own lack of manpower. After all, they were Mongolians, and no matter how poor the combat effectiveness of Mongolian cavalry was, it was still stronger than the ordinary Ming army.

After setting out with his troops, Wu Sangui did not head directly south as others had thought. Instead, he continued to move eastward, heading straight for the Chahan Hetao area.

Chahanhetao is located west of Kuanhe River. It is also a traditional Chahar pasture where several tribes live and graze.

Arriving at Chahan Hetao, Wu Sangui repeated his old tricks and defeated several small and medium-sized tribes here in no time with a thunderous force. After plundering, he replenished supplies and troops. When Wu Sangui left Chahan Hetao, his vassal Mongolian cavalry had reached more than 3,200 people, and the total number of troops under his control exceeded 5,000. Moreover, because of the war horses looted from various Mongolian tribes, each cavalry unit had at least one man, two horses, or even three horses, and there was no shortage of material supplies, which greatly increased its strength.

Going south from the Chahan Hetao and south along the Kuanhe River for about 200 miles is the Great Wall, which is also the location of Xifengkou where Huang Taiji was leading his troops to attack.

Wu Sangui did not go south directly at this time, nor did he go to Xifengkou to find trouble with Huang Taiji. He first pretended to go south, walked less than a few dozen miles and turned back to the west, then suddenly went north again, turned around and returned to the area near Chengde. At this time, Dorgon in Baimachuan had learned that the Kharchin and Wengniute tribes were defeated by the Ming army. After hearing the news, Dorgon was shocked. He never thought that the Ming army would actually send a cavalry deep into the grassland and have such courage to attack the Kharchin and Wengniute tribes behind them.

As the news came, Dorgon did not know what to do for a moment. Logically, he should obey Huang Taiji's orders and continue to attack the Great Wall defense line, and cooperate with Huang Taiji's main force at Xifengkou to break through the Ming army's defense line as soon as possible and penetrate into the heart of the Ming Dynasty.

But now the situation has changed. As the Kharachin and Ongniud tribes were defeated, the Ming army sent cavalry to his rear. After hearing the news, the Mongolian cavalry of the Kharachin and Ongniud tribes became panicked and directly asked Dorgon to return to their tribes as soon as possible. Dorgon had to consider the troubles that this would bring.

Once these Mongols left, Dorgon's military strength would be reduced by a quarter. Without these Mongols as pioneers, he would have to use his own Han army flags or even the elite Eight Banners to fill the gap in the next battle with the Ming army.

The Han army flag is fine, but the elite Eight Banners are the foundation of the Qing Dynasty, and are the foundation of Eight Banners nobles like Dorgon. The Eight Banners system was established by Nurhaci. This system is completely different from the system of the Ming Dynasty. The status of the Eight Banners nobles is completely determined by the number of Eight Banners in their hands. The more Niulu they control, the more valuable their status and the higher their status. Without Niulu, even a person of Dorgon's status will lose the right to speak within the Eight Banners, and thus fall into a marginal role.

Dorgon knew this very well. He certainly couldn't risk his own foundation. He couldn't afford such losses and costs. So once these Mongols left, what it meant to Dorgon was clear to Dorgon.

However, it was not possible to let these Mongols go. Their old nest was destroyed, and these Mongols were already in a panic. How could they, who were worried about the safety of their families, continue to stay here to help Dorgon fight? In this case, Dorgon could not stop them. So after thinking about it, Dorgon thought it was better to be safe. On the one hand, he reported the situation to Huang Taiji in the east, and on the other hand, he began to withdraw the team and suspended the attack on the Ming Great Wall defense line. At the same time, he kept a close eye on the movements in the north to prevent the Ming cavalry from attacking him directly from the north to the south.

Soon, news came that Wu Sangui's cavalry appeared in the Chahan Hetao area. After receiving this news, Dorgon felt relieved. He judged that Wu Sangui's next move after taking over the Chahan Hetao should be to move south, because Xifengkou was more than 200 miles south of the Chahan Hetao, and Huang Taiji's main force was at Xifengkou.

Since the Ming army sent such a cavalry to the grassland and fought from the Kharchin and Ongniud tribes all the way to the Chahan Hetao, the opponent's purpose was very clear, which was to rescue the Ming army at Xifengkou.

Dorgon was familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and was familiar with this tactic, which was nothing more than the strategy of encircling Wei to save Zhao. Wu Sangui did this to attract the main force of Huang Taiji to return and thus eliminate the threat of Xifengkou.

In this case, Dorgon was relieved. It seemed that the enemy's target was not him, and it would not pose a threat to Baimachuan. Considering the problems of the two cavalry tribes of Kharachin and Ongniud, and the desperate pleas of Taiji Bilash who fled to Baimachuan, Dorgon decided to transfer some troops back to support and appease the Mongols of these two tribes in order to stabilize the morale of the army.

In his opinion, since Wu Sangui went to the east, the Kharchin and Ongniud tribes should be safe now. Letting them go back to see for themselves and pacify their own tribes would also ensure the safety of the retreat in the north, which could be said to kill two birds with one stone.

After finishing all this, the best option is to turn around and concentrate your forces to attack the Great Wall defense line, or lead your troops to the southeast and join forces with Huang Taiji's main force to wipe out this Ming cavalry and completely eliminate future worries.

In this regard, Dorgon asked Nikan to lead 2,000 elite troops of the Eight Banners and take the Kharachin and Ongniud cavalry away, and hurry up. If the Kharachin and Ongniud tribes were not in serious trouble, he would lead the troops to the southeast. If the Ming cavalry could be annihilated, that would be the best. If they could not be annihilated, then expelling them would also be a problem. After doing all this, they would return to Baimachuan to continue attacking the Ming Dynasty.

But Dorgon never expected that at this time Wu Sangui had quietly returned to Chengde area from Chahan Hetao and was waiting for them west of the Hao River not far from the Wengniute tribe.

(End of this chapter)