The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 212: Don't Let the Hu Horse Cross the Green Mountain

The Ming cavalry went out of the border.

The grasslands outside the Great Wall were suddenly in chaos.

The cavalrymen from the Chahar tribes who were in urgent need of help were running at full speed without caring about their lives. They would run two or three hundred miles and then find another tribe to exchange their horses. Their speed was even faster than the 800-mile express train.

Three days later, Tumen Khan received the news.

This really made him feel very confused.

Because he knew very well that the Ming army consisted of 240,000 Beijing troops, 10,000 elite imperial guards, and 100,000 border troops from Datong Town.

That was the main force of the Ming army, he couldn't defeat it!

At most he could mobilize 160,000 to 170,000 troops, which was less than half of the enemy's number. How could he fight against them?

Besides, he is now plotting against Nurgandusi.

If he could take over Nurgandusi, with such a large territory and so many tribes, he would have the capital to compete for the world.

What is there in Ulanqab?

He brought almost all the elite troops of the Chahar tribe and most of the tribes.

Moreover, in order to avoid the white disaster, they also built many greenhouses in the valley next to the Horqin grassland, and they have already taken root here.

More importantly, such a grassland is nothing compared to the Nurgandusi, let alone the Horqin grassland.

He was different from the current Tumed tribe. He had no shortage of grasslands. Eighty to ninety percent of the grasslands south of the desert were occupied by him.

It turned out that he didn't even care about the vast grassland of the Beijing Xingdusi, so he let the three guards of Doyan occupy it to help him resist the main force of the Ming army in the south.

The grassland in Ulanqab is nothing to him. What he lacks now is manpower.

If it was a place like Hetao where one could avoid the white disaster, he might mobilize his main forces to defend it desperately.

The problem is that the Hetao area has now been taken back by the Ming army, and the cities, fortresses and the Great Wall have been built there, so he can't take it back at all.

In short, the grassland in the west was like a chicken rib to him. His goal was the Nurgandusi, which was larger than the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

After much deliberation, he decided to let the Chahar tribes avoid the Ming army and stay away from it. If that was not possible, he would migrate eastward.

Anyway, he has plenty of grasslands, and compared with the vast territory of Nurgandusi, that place is just a sesame seed. There is really no need for him to fight with the Ming army for such a small piece of grassland.

What's more, the three major families in Puzhou had already received news that the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty's target this time was the Tumed tribe. As long as he gave up the small piece of grassland in the mountain nest and let the main force of the Ming army rush out, the main force of the Ming army would go west to deal with the Tumed tribe.

If he led the main force to fight against the main force of the Ming army, he would be helping the Tumed tribe to avoid disaster, which was completely unnecessary.

The Tumed tribe had always been rebellious against him, and even if they surrendered on the surface now, he would not be able to command their troops. Even if the Tumed tribe was really destroyed by the Ming army, it would not be a big loss to him.

Why should he help the Tumed tribe to avoid disaster?

Wanli had already calculated that Tumen Khan would most likely not dare to fight them.

However, he did not expect that the Chahar tribe would simply abandon the fertile grassland near Jining Lake.

At this moment, the cavalry of the Shenwu Camp was just doing military training. Every morning at about 1 a.m., they would run to Jining Haizi Pasture to dismount their horses, and send out scouts to investigate everywhere. Once they found the nomadic tribes of the Chahar, they would rush over and raid them.

In the first few days they were able to harvest some cattle, sheep, horses, tents and other things, but after five or six days, they couldn't even find a single wool!

At about 5 p.m. that day, as the sun set, the ground trembled slightly again. To the north, the cavalry of the Shenwu Camp formed into several long dragons hundreds of miles long and merged into the camp behind the chariot formation.

The foundations of half-human-high walls were exposed on both sides of the camp. The city wall, which stretched for more than 30 miles, was like a horizontal Chinese character "中". The camp in the middle was the location of the main city of Yunzhongwei.

Once this line of defense is built, they will have established a huge bridgehead outside the Great Wall, making it much easier to march north out of the Great Wall in the future.

Wanli scanned the sunset through the telescope and a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes.

Qi Jiguang and thousands of his personal guards came empty-handed, bringing nothing with them.

Imperial Concubine Qin Lan was waiting for the roasted lamb with great interest. Why didn't these guys bring any sheep?
He was stunned for a moment, then raised his hand and said, "General Shan, send someone to the pasture in the south to get a few sheep."

Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan couldn't help but ask curiously, "Your Majesty, what's wrong? Didn't Duke Peng bring the sheep?"

I don’t know what happened either.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Yes, Yuan Jing doesn't seem to have brought anything."

Not long after, Qi Jiguang arrived at a brisk pace. After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli couldn't help but ask curiously, "What's wrong, Yuan Jing? Didn't you find their nomadic tribe today?"

Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, the grasslands north of Jining Lake are completely empty. The Chahar nomadic tribes seem to have moved away. Our scouts have already explored the south side of Daqing Mountain, but have found nothing."

South of Daqing Mountain?
Upon hearing this, Wanli immediately said in a loud voice: "Map."

Soon, two imperial guards unfolded a huge map of the Nine Frontiers in front of him.

The area surrounding Jining Lake is actually a basin surrounded by the Daqing Mountains and the mountains to the south.

Its width from east to west seems to be nearly two hundred miles, and its length from north to south is estimated to be more than two hundred miles.

In such a large basin, there are probably five or six million acres of grassland, but Tumen Khan actually gave it up like that!

He carefully examined the map and then asked, "Have you explored this area? Have you found any nomadic tribes?"

Qi Jiguang slowly shook his head and said, "No, our scouts have been searching all day. We even found the fortress built by Pianguan Town in the northwest corner of this area, but we still found nothing."

Is this connected to Pianguan Town?

Wanli looked at the map carefully and suddenly understood.

The northwest corner of this basin is the valley leading to the Qiantao Plain. The chariot soldiers of the Shenshu Camp ran from this valley to Guihua City to scare Sanniangzi and Xin Ai Huang Taiji.

Now this valley, which is about 200 miles long, is the northernmost part of the defense zone of Pianguan Town. They have built fortresses on both sides of the valley.

To the north of Langshan, Yinshan and Daqingshan is the grazing area of ​​the Tumed and Kharchin tribes.

He studied the map for a while, then asked, "Yuan Jing, if we go around the northeast corner of this basin, will we reach the grazing area of ​​the Tumed and Kharchin tribes?"

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang slowly shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, we don't need to go around. The north of this basin is already the remnant of the Daqing Mountains. The mountains are not very high, and there are many valleys among the mountains. It should be possible to directly lead to the grazing areas of the Tumed and Kharchin tribes.

If we go out through this valley passage in the northeast corner, which is over ten miles wide, we will probably find ourselves in the Chahar tribe's grazing area. If Tumen Khan sets an ambush outside the valley entrance, we will be in trouble."

Does Tumen Khan dare to confront them head-on?
Wanli frowned and pondered for a while, then said decisively: "Yuan Jing, tomorrow you send the Shenwu Camp scouts with two horses and one man to the north of this basin to conduct a thorough investigation.

Search all the valleys, including this one in the northeast corner, which is over ten miles wide. Send your scouts around there to see what's going on in the north."

The exploration area of ​​this man and two horses can exceed two hundred miles.

In fact, a war horse can run more than one hundred or two hundred miles in an hour, but if it carries a person, it will only need to rest after running more than one hundred or two hundred miles.

If one person rides two horses, they can change horses after running for a hundred miles or so. In this way, they can easily run three or four hundred miles in half a day.

The next day at about 5 p.m., when the sun was setting, Qi Jiguang rushed back.

Wanli had already ordered people to unfold the map and wait on the city gate tower.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli asked anxiously, "How is it? Have you found anything?"

Qi Jiguang pointed to the map and said, "There seem to be four or five valleys running north-south in the north of this basin, but only the middle valley has traces of cattle, sheep, and horses.

Beyond the northeastern valley lies rolling grasslands, but there are no traces of nomadic tribes within a radius of dozens of miles."

It was obvious that Tumen Khan did not dare to fight them.

If Tumen Khan dared to fight them, there would probably be camps stretching for dozens of miles after leaving the northeast valley, instead of dozens of miles without any trace of nomadic tribes.

Upon hearing this, Wanli pointed at the map and said, "Yuan Jing, what do you say about us building a Daqingshan defense line?
We built a beacon tower every ten miles or so on the hilltops on the south side of the Daqing Mountain, and built fortresses at the mouths of the valleys on the east side, and let the people from Pianguan Town guard them.

Datong Town built a defensive city in the northeastern valley, while Yansui Town had already blocked the mountain pass between Yinshan Mountain and Daqingshan Mountain.

In this way, the defense lines of Datong, Pianguan, and Yulin were connected again, and the Hu army could not only not cross the Yinshan Mountains, but even the Daqing Mountains.

Uh, building another line of defense?
With this construction, wouldn’t Datong Town be equivalent to having three lines of defense?
However, once the Yunzhongwei City is built, it will be in the rear, and there should be no problem with security.

During the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties when the Ming Dynasty was at its strongest, the northern barbarians were able to flee in fear and did not dare to fight against the main force of the Ming army.

However, the northern expeditions of the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties were just like a mopping-up operation, and they withdrew after a brief battle.

Therefore, the grasslands outside the Great Wall have always been the world of the Northern Tartars.

It’s different now. If they push their defense lines northward layer by layer, the grasslands outside the Great Wall will sooner or later be in their possession.

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise."

(End of this chapter)