The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 186 Who initiated it, who organized it!
The Tartars are here!

Hundreds of thousands of Tatar cavalry have arrived in the northern desert!

The news spread like wildfire, reaching every nook and cranny of the entire border town in less than half a day.

The most worried are the elderly women who are military dependents.

In the past, Tatar raids on the border only involved hundreds or thousands of troops.

There are casualties every year.

What does an army of hundreds of thousands mean?

All the military households in the entire border town combined didn't have that many!

Even if you take one life to pay for another, you still can't keep up!

She was worried about what might happen to the men in her family on the battlefield, and at the same time, she was inquiring about what the old women could do for the army.

They can't be outdone by the women of Yulinwei.

The highest-level combat readiness preparations in the border region have officially commenced!

The Gan family is now considered military dependents, so they are naturally actively preparing for war.

Lamb restaurants that were under renovation were all ordered to stop operating.

Gan Hongzhen watched as the blacksmith forged his three-piece sheep-slaughtering kit overnight.

The father and son spent their days sharpening knives at home.

The kitchen knife, cleaver, and sheep-slaughtering set we use at home are all being used in rotation on a whetstone.

The continuous sound of sharpening knives echoed in the courtyard.

The sheep, which had just gained a little weight, were so frightened that they no longer dared to steal the dog rice grass under the wall.

The sheep: It's just a few blades of grass, is it really that serious? Shepherds, can't you afford to raise sheep?!
After delivering the message, Gan Minglan didn't even go home; she rode out of the pass through Chimukou on horseback.

What arrangements will be made for the border troops is a matter for Xiong Zhen and others to worry about.

When it comes to defending a city, they are the real experts.

Before leaving, Gan Minglan summoned Atu, who was having a wild time on the grasslands, to her side.

It was given a very important task.

Career Rat King Atu: "Chirp chirp chirp Master, don't worry, I don't keep rats who eat grass for nothing!"

It's good to have work to do!
If you don't file your nails, they'll keep growing!
Gan Minglan: Very good! The mice eat grass seeds, but they do the work of an entire battalion!

Meanwhile, on the vast grasslands...

The twelve young men trailed far behind the Mongol army in the northern desert.

They kept a close eye on their marching route, not daring to relax their vigilance for a moment.

After observing for several days, Gan Mingfu asked the deputy captain with some confusion, "Why does the Tatar army keep circling around the sandy area?"

Even an ordinary person who had never fought in a war knew the importance of speed in warfare.

Someone immediately explained to him:

"The Tatars are different from the Angemenbei army. Their military rations are generally dried meat and dairy products, and they also bring some mares, cattle, and sheep with them. The mares produce milk to drink, the cattle are used to pull carts, and when the dried meat is finished, they slaughter the sheep!"

Cows, horses, and sheep all need to eat grass.

Therefore, they preferred to take a detour to follow the grass southward.

In this way, compared to the Bei army having more than twice as many laborers transporting grain before the battle, their baggage load was much lighter.

It has a significant advantage when it comes to long-distance raids!

Gan Mingfu silently kept these discoveries in his mind.

In the few days since his sister left, the sentries have become much more relaxed and comfortable around him.

He had to admit.

The illiterate sentries possessed far more common sense and military skills than he, a literate man, knew.

Moreover, these are aspects that can never be experienced at Qingshan Academy.

The more he interacted with these people, the more he wanted to do something for them.

It's possible that the descendants of the Golden Family haven't personally supervised battles for many years.

Anyway, Lingdan Khan himself was someone who couldn't endure hardship.

The army marched at a speed of about 120 li per day.

With the wild horses around, the sentries chased them with ease. Privately, however, they did a lot of analysis of the situation:
"Judging from their marching route and speed, it will take them at least half a month to reach Junma Mountain! This will give General Xiong and his men a few more days to prepare! We can't wait for them to move as slowly as possible!"

“Ang hasn’t been idle these past few days either. He’s managed to find out the number of Tatars! Each of their ten-thousand-household commanders leads five thousand soldiers. With forty ten-thousand-household commanders in total, that’s two hundred thousand soldiers!”

"Two hundred thousand troops! They really think highly of Angmen Border City! The Tatars haven't launched such a large-scale southward invasion in recent years!"

"They're probably just like those barbarians from the Western Regions, trying to take advantage of the chaos caused by the refugees!"

"Watching them fight while herding sheep, Ang was so angry he wanted to grind his teeth! He just didn't have Captain Gan's skills. If he had even 30% or 50% of Captain Gan's abilities, Ang would dare to charge into the camp and kill that damned Lingdan Khan!"

"Are you made of bronze or iron? You single-handedly stormed a camp of 200,000 men! A single Tatar could drown you with their urine!"

"Exactly, what's the point of killing him? To put it bluntly, he's just a mascot!"

"How can the mascot be auspicious if it's dead?"

"."

From this perspective, it does indeed contain some fallacies.

On his way to war, Lingdan Khan was assassinated by an unknown force.

For the 200,000-strong Tatar army, it was not very harmful, but extremely humiliating!
Having wishful thinking is one thing.

If our strength doesn't allow it, we can only dream about it.

Captain Gan, whom the young men had been eagerly awaiting, had ridden his horse at full speed for a day and a night, and was still more than two hundred miles away from them.

Their feelings were surprisingly in sync with Captain Gan's.

But the difference is.

Ever since Gan Minglan learned that Lingdan Khan was just a figurehead, she had no intention of sneaking into the camp at night to capture the king.

She advocated cutting flesh with a dull knife and doing bad things in secret.

As for integrity and such, she doesn't have that kind of thing.

On the battlefield, it's a matter of life or death, and no means are too much to ask.

Moreover, she also wanted to pin the blame for the massacre of the entire Yulin garrison on the Mongols of the northern desert.

It is said that every wrong has its perpetrator and every debt its debtor.

One is a direct descendant of the Golden Family, and the other is a guardian who has lived for this family for generations.

The servant repays the debt, just right.
The further south you go in the desert, the warmer the daytime temperatures become.

The livestock that had been taken back by the people of the northern deserts had returned to their familiar pastures.

The cattle and sheep were munching on the tender leaves that had just sprouted on the pasture.

Although spring grass is not as abundant as summer pastures, it is still more delicious than hay.

Seeing even a glimmer of green, these livestock wouldn't leave until they'd grazed the entire ground.

No wonder grazing was banned in later generations; their appetites were simply too great, and their destructive power over grasslands was too strong.

After marching more than 100 li that day, it was time for the ration keeper to get some fresh air.

The pasture the shepherds chose today is quite good.

The grass was denser and taller than the grass we had encountered along the way.

We almost made it to the summer ranch!
The cows, horses, and sheep couldn't wait to start biting and munching.

Gnawing on it, gnawing on it.

Suddenly, they smelled a very special grassy scent wafting from the air.

This taste is both unfamiliar and enigmatic.

It's like a cat smelling catnip.

All the livestock gasped for breath.

"Huff."

"Huff."

"Huff."

Horse: What kind of grass is this? It smells so good, I really want to eat it!
Niu: Well done, Brother Ma! I agree!

Sheep: Add one!

(End of this chapter)