"kill!!"
"The King of Yan, Zhu Di, is here!"
"Run away!!"
In the night, amid the shouts of killing, panic continued to spread. Many Hu soldiers thought of the last battle in Jilin and immediately began to flee.
Harawu was still leading his troops to chase and shoot Zhu Quan, but he saw nearly 20,000 light troops in the rear beginning to flee.
"what happened!"
Harawu did not dare to pursue Zhu Quan anymore, so he quickly grabbed a Qianhu man next to him and asked him to go to the rear to figure out the situation.
But before Qianhu could take action, thousands of light soldiers rushed from the rear. They spread the news that Zhu Di had attacked the camp from the rear and that the formation had collapsed.
"impossible!"
When he heard the news, Haragu's first reaction was that it was impossible, because according to the intelligence he had, Zhu Di should be leading his troops to the hometown of Qi King City (Hailaer), which is more than a thousand miles away. .
"Khan, it's true, Zhu Di has already come to the rear to kill!"
Qianhu, who had escaped, reported to Harawu again, but Harawu still didn't believe it. He pretended to be calm and said, "Have you seen how many of them there are?"
"At least no less than ten thousand people!" Qianhu explained while begging Haragu: "Withdraw! Great Khan!"
"Withdraw!"
"Yes, if Zhu Di comes, there should be more soldiers and horses rushing here."
"Yes, if we get entangled, we won't be able to leave!"
"Withdraw..."
It was not just Qianhu who was persuading Harawu to retreat, but all the nobles who had experienced the Battle of Jilin and suffered heavy losses were persuading Harawu.
The sound of advice came from all directions, giving Harawu, who was already exhausted, a splitting headache.
"withdraw!!"
In the end, Harawu could not defeat them and chose to retreat directly.
"Beep--"
Suddenly, the Mongolian wooden whistle indicating retreat sounded, and more than 9,000 Tanma Red Army wrapped in thousands of light soldiers began to flee north.
When Zhu Quan saw Harawu running away, he pretended to pursue him, giving Zhu Gaoxu enough time.
"Kill them all, leaving no one behind!"
Among the rebellious troops, Zhu Gaoxu saw the retreating Harawu Formation and immediately ordered the pursuit of the Wuliangha Qingqi.
The powerful Bohai Navy was constantly chasing and killing those Wu Liangha's light cavalry on the grasslands at night.
If you look down from the sky, the firelight on the grassland is rapidly decreasing to a degree visible to the naked eye.
Cries of death, begging for mercy, and the sound of horse hooves became the few sounds on the grassland.
Zhu Gaoxu led his troops to the north, and later joined Zhu Quan to pursue Harawu.
From Zishi to Maoshi, they chased and killed them all the way. During this period, the underpowered Qingqi and Tanma Red Army kept falling behind and were beaten to death on the grassland by the pursuing Ming army.
It wasn't until a hint of fish belly white appeared on the horizon that Harawu could clearly see the situation behind him.
There are no tens of thousands of Zhu Di's troops in the rear, and there are only about the same number of Ming troops as yesterday.
At this time, Harawu still didn't know that he had received false information.
"Zhu Gaoxu!!!"
"Sweat!"
Hala's face turned red with anger, and he almost fainted. Fortunately, the Red Army Tanma around him protected him, otherwise he would have fallen off his horse and might have been trampled to death by thousands of horses.
After waking up, Harawu quickly looked around and saw that there were nearly 30,000 troops yesterday, but now there were less than one-third.
"withdraw……"
Harawu suffered from chest cramps and was unable to reveal the truth, so he could only escape northward with Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Quan chasing him.
When the sun emerged, Zhu Gaoxu took the lead in reining in his horse and raised his hand to stop the army from pursuing.
"Beep——"
A rapid whistle sounded, and the two groups of men and horses who were in pursuit stopped one after another.
Zhu Quan was not far behind Zhu Gaoxu. When he saw him stop, he immediately urged his horse forward. Besides the sweat stains on his face, he also had doubts:
"Why don't we pursue them? We still have enough horsepower and can still pursue them for dozens of miles. Their horsepower is almost exhausted. It's the best time to concentrate on annihilating them!"
"Uncle Seventeen, don't forget that soldiers from Wuliangha and other tribes have not appeared yet. You and I must be careful to avoid going too deep and being surrounded."
Zhu Gaoxu tried to explain, but he was reluctant. In order not to make Zhu Quan suspicious, he said again: "Besides, the horses of the Hu soldiers we killed in front of us haven't had time to gather them. It would be bad if they get lost."
"This..." Hearing what Zhu Gaoxu said, Zhu Quan hesitated a little, and in the end he could only nod his head and agreed to withdraw his troops.
Speaking of age, Zhu Quan is only two years older than Zhu Gaoxu. He is not that deep-minded, but he is not thinking about other places.
After all, Xu Dalan Yu's Northern Expedition was surrounded, and many generals of the Hongwu Dynasty did not dare to go too deep into the situation of insufficient supplies.
Even in the eyes of a veteran like Liu Zhen, Zhu Gaoxu's intention to withdraw his troops was just a prudent approach.
After all, there are thousands of armored soldiers around Harawu. If he comes back to his senses and entangles him, his side will definitely be held back.
Due to the combination of various factors, no one questioned Zhu Gaoxu's decision to rein in his troops and withdraw his troops.
"Put the flag away." Zhu Gaoxu turned back and looked at Zhang Chun with a smile. Zhang Chun also grinned and put away the Yanfu flag left in the last battle of Jilin.
Seeing the flag lowered, Zhu Quan couldn't help but mocked: "This Haragu just ran away when he saw Fourth Brother's flag. He has the courage to compete with you and my uncle and nephew."
"Haha..." Zhu Gaoxu didn't say anything. He just chuckled and turned the horse's head, raising the whip: "Withdraw the troops and go home!"
After Zhu Gaoxu gave the order, the soldiers of the Northern Expedition turned their horses and retreated, and the team was filled with laughter and laughter.
"Great Khan, the southern troops have withdrawn!"
"Ignore them, we withdraw ours!"
For a while, Harawu and the others couldn't figure out why Zhu Gaoxu withdrew his troops, so they just lowered their heads and fled north.
Before long, the distance between the two groups had widened, and Zhu Gaoxu also began to lead his team to retreat southward, recording the number of Hu soldiers killed and capturing their horses along the way.
From Chen hour to noon, there was no pursuit by the Ming army. Halawu and the others relaxed and scattered to gather the previously dispersed tribesmen.
It was not until dusk that Haragu learned of their casualties.
"The ministries gathered their troops, and at least 10,000 people were lost, including more than 600 probing Red Army troops..."
Listening to Tuolu Huchaer's report, Harawu on horseback felt chest cramps, clutching his chest with his hands, and said sadly:
"Another 10,000 people. In just two years, we have lost more than 20,000 men."
"Twenty thousand! How many years will it take for us to recover!"
"Changshengtian! Don't you care about your child at all?!"
Harawu was still feeling sad and angry, but the Ming army in the south was so happy that he couldn't open his mouth from ear to ear.
“Through this journey, including the earlier battle between Ulyanha Mountain and Ulyanha Tucheng, we killed 879 armored soldiers and more than 9,000 barbarian soldiers. Today we captured more than 10,000 horses and 30,000 grains. More than a thousand bags.”
Sitting in front of the bonfire, Zhu Quan, Zhu Gaoxu, Fu Rang, Liu Zhen and others listened quietly to Lin Su's report.
After learning the results of the battle, Liu Zhen took the initiative and said: "If we count the Hulu we killed earlier, the number of Hulu killed in this battle may not exceed 15,000."
Liu Zhen counted all the men and women of Wuliangha who had been killed earlier, but Zhu Gaoxu and others did not.
Therefore, Lin Su glanced at Zhu Gaoxu secretly, wondering why his Highness did not exaggerate like Liu Zhen.
Naturally, he didn't know that Zhu Gaoxu wanted to raise the bandits to respect themselves, but Fu Rang on the side seemed to have guessed something and did not help.
"The horses captured this time will be divided according to the number of soldiers and horses between you and me!"
Seemingly worried that Zhu Gaoxu would be in trouble, Zhu Quan took the initiative to propose how to distribute the seizures.
Now that he had spoken, Zhu Gaoxu had no reason to refuse, so he told Fu Rang and Liu Zhen:
"I ask you two to work harder tomorrow and distribute the horses captured this time."
"General, take your orders!" The two of them agreed in unison.
Seeing that the distribution was decided, Zhu Quan took the initiative and said: "How about I write the good news this time?"
"Then I'll bother Uncle Seventeen." Zhu Gaoxu had no intention of competing for credit. He just suggested the withdrawal route: "How about our two troops withdraw south to Wulianghatu City, and then return to Daning and Bohai respectively?"
"Very good" Zhu Quan seemed to be overjoyed by the capture and had no objections to Zhu Gaoxu's arrangement.
Seeing that he had no objection, Zhu Gaoxu made bold arrangements.
Early the next morning, the army set off to continue south. There were too many horses along the way, so all the three thousand bags of corn seized were used as horse feed and fed to the horses.
At noon, Zhu Quan took the written victory report and handed it to Zhu Gaoxu.
Zhu Gaoxu took it and looked at it, and Zhu Quan also asked him:
"In this victory report, I haven't written down the number of cattle, sheep and horses captured by Gao Xu in Wuliangha Mountain and all the way south, as well as the number of Hu soldiers killed. Gao Xu, you have to write it yourself when you set up camp for a while."
"Okay" Zhu Gaoxu agreed with a smile, and then put the letter into his arms.
Seeing this, Zhu Quan chatted with him about Daning and Jilin, and Zhu Gaoxu also responded eagerly. The two looked like uncles and nephews, which actually made the relationship between the two soldiers much closer.
Knowing that many military attachés from the Bohai Navy would come to Daning to serve in Daning in the coming year, Zhu Quan and Liu Zhen also smiled and promised to take good care of them.
Zhu Gaoxu responded with a smile, but probably only Fu Rang behind him could guess what he was thinking.
The army marched south and soon arrived at Wuliangha Tucheng, where they saw the camp left by the Ningfu cavalry and Wuliangha soldiers and horses.
Using local materials, a new fort was quickly erected before dusk.
While building the camp, Zhu Gaoxu took Zhang Chun and others into Wulianghatu City.
To be honest, Wuliangha Tu City was poorly built, and most of the millet fields outside the city were cultivated very lightly. Such cultivated fields would hardly produce a high yield.
Walking on the solid Uliangha Tu City, Zhu Gaoxu looked around and found basically no defensive equipment in the Uliangha Tu City. It can be seen that Harawu and the others have never thought about defending, but this is also in line with the nomadic people. values.
Standing on an arrow tower, Zhu Gaoxu looked around Wulianghatu City, and all he could see were a few small streams that were not very wide.
"If this place is used to garrison troops, I'm afraid it won't be able to support even one guard and horse."
Zhang Chun looked around and was speechless secretly.
After listening to his words, Lin Su retorted: "That's not true. If we are willing to build canals with cement and merge several creeks further away with several creeks outside the city into small rivers, then It can nourish more farmland and feed more people.”
After all, Lin Su had managed the farmland alone in Anton City for several months, so he still had his own opinions in this regard.
Regarding what he said, Zhu Gaoxu also nodded in approval and continued:
"As long as you are willing to spend money, you can dig wells and build weirs and embankments upstream of the streams. Waiting for the winter months to melt, you can accumulate a large amount of water and ensure that this place can maintain harvests despite droughts and floods."
Zhu Gaoxu is the best at farming, and he has always felt that he is not as good at farming as he is at fighting.
Wulianghatu City, this place seemed to be within the scope of Baicheng in the previous life.
In his previous life, Zhu Gaoxu went to Baicheng. Although it was not the agricultural department, the geological department could sometimes see the local agricultural development potential based on some data.
Zhu Gaoxu remembered clearly that there were many rivers in the area under his feet and the groundwater resources were very rich.
These conditions were mixed in ancient times, but if urgently used properly, the Songnen Plain can be developed early.
If Wulianghatu City can be controlled by the Ming army in the future, then the Ming Dynasty can open a post road across the Greater Khingan Mountains, and use Naowen River and Wuliangha Tu City to directly intersect to the former home of King Qi City in the future.
At that time, the army can transport food in small boats through the Onan River, all the way to the southeast of Hulan Huwen.
In this way, the logistical pressure of the Ming Army's Northern Expedition will be much less in the future.
But there is a premise for all this, that is, the Northeast region must be able to supply so much food.
Zhu Gaoxu is not worried about this issue.
As long as Wu Liangha in Modong is solved, and then arrangements are made for Liaodong to dismantle military villages and turn them into civilian villages, and encourage the people to reclaim their own land, Zhu Gaoxu does not believe that Liaodong will be unable to supply grain and grass to the outside world.
The geographical environment with enemies on three sides was the root of the problem that Liaodong was difficult to develop during the Ming Dynasty.
Because wars often break out, no one is willing to come to Liaodong. Without people, it will naturally not be able to develop and solve many problems such as water conservancy and flood control and land reclamation.
It is unrealistic to expect military households to reclaim wasteland on their own while maintaining a large number of soldiers.
To develop the Northeast, we can either take advantage of the strong national power and follow the old path of Jilin City, such as directly distributing food to the people and using food from Jiangnan and Shandong to help Liaodong speed up land reclamation and construction.
As long as this continues for a few years, Liaodong will be able to be self-sufficient and feed back to Guan Nei.
If you don’t take this route, you will have to take the route of “breaking through Guandong” in the late Qing Dynasty.
The reason why the population migration movement into Guandong in the late Qing Dynasty was successful was due to two very prominent factors.
The first is that the three major plains of the three eastern provinces are fully open, and the territory is vast. Immigrants can immigrate to the vast areas where Jilin and Heilongjiang are located, and no longer need to be limited to the Liaodong Border Wall in the Ming Dynasty or the Willow Border in the Qing Dynasty. This was something that the Ming Dynasty could not do, because the Ming Dynasty Pass The population is insufficient and there is no population conflict as big as in the late Qing Dynasty.
But if this factor cannot be used, it does not mean that the second factor cannot be used.
The second factor for the success of the invasion of Guandong was that the Northeast was booming in the development of secondary and tertiary industries at that time.
For example, large-scale industrial construction such as mining and operating coal mines in Northeast China has led to the emergence of typical coal-iron composite industrial cities and industrial and mining resource development cities such as Anshan, Liaoning.
The rise of these cities has subsequently led to the development of industry, commerce, transportation, service industries and other industries.
These labor-intensive secondary and tertiary industries need to recruit a large number of young and middle-aged labor force, so they can only recruit people from other places to the local area at high prices.
Zhu Gaoxu can also imitate such secondary and tertiary industries. After all, the advanced iron smelting technology in the Ming Dynasty made coal expensive, and needless to say, the resources in Northeast China.
Whether it is coal or trees, the fuel resources in Northeast China are more abundant than those in other provinces except Shanxi.
Not to mention anything else, as long as Zhu Gaoxu built an iron yard in the Anshan area in later generations, sourced local materials, and used local low-price coal to make iron, the iron price in Liaodong would definitely be cheaper than that in Guanhai, and the profit margin would be greater.
Zhu Gaoxu can give all of these profits to migrant workers to help them settle in the Northeast.
Over time, the population of Northeast China will gradually increase. Even if the secondary and tertiary industries decline in the future, Zhu Gaoxu does not have to worry, because at that time, Northeast China may have exceeded his expectations.
Others can ignore the development of Northeast China, but Zhu Gaoxu cannot.
He started in Jilin City, and in the future he will take over Liaodong.
Only by managing these places well will his position in the future be stable and he will gradually secure his throne.
"Sooner or later, we Han people will live in this Uliangha Bald City."
Zhu Gaoxu looked at the grassland and told Zhang Chun and others his thoughts.
While he was talking, Fu Rang, who was in charge of the camp, also led the team into Wulianghatu City on horseback, and went up the city wall to find Zhu Gaoxu and the others.
As soon as he arrived, he went straight to the point and said: "The camp is set up and the army can rest. We will break camp at Mao tomorrow and we can return to Zhaozhou."
As soon as Fu Rang's words came out, everyone around him smiled. Upon seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also ordered Zhang Chun, Linsu and others: "Go and arrange for the army to rest and bury the pot to make rice."
"Yes!" Everyone agreed, then turned around and left one after another. Only Fu Rang did not move.
Zhu Gaoxu secretly wondered, but he didn't want Fu Rang to step forward and say after Lin Su and others had completely gone away:
"How are you going to write the good news about the seizure?"
Zhu Gaoxu's eyes flickered. He knew that Fu Rang must have guessed something, so he didn't hide it:
"Speak as little as possible. I am not willing to share the cattle, sheep and horses captured by my brothers with others."
"That's good." Fu Rang breathed a sigh of relief, then stepped forward and whispered beside Zhu Gaoxu: "I don't know what you are going to do, but I still want to advise you to think twice before you act."
"Don't worry, I will." Zhu Gaoxu was not worried about Fu Rang snitching. After all, except for the few Fu family brothers in Yunnan, Fu Rang and Fu Zhong almost disappeared after Fu Youde's death.
They don't necessarily hate Lao Zhu, but they definitely hate Zhu Yunwen.
As long as Zhu Yunwen did what he should do, Zhu Gaoxu didn't believe that Fu Rang would not help him.
"After this battle, it is estimated that many brothers will be promoted. You should think about it carefully."
With a final reminder, Fu Rang turned around and walked down the arrow tower, leaving Zhu Gaoxu alone.
Watching him leave, Zhu Gaoxu also stood there and thought for a while.
For me now, every time I go on an expedition and gain military exploits, it is an opportunity for the imperial court to weaken my own strength and add water to the situation.
In the last battle of Jilin, one-third of the military attachés left, and this time, I am afraid there will be many who will be promoted and transferred.
In fact, without Fu Rang's reminder, Zhu Gaoxu also knew that winning the battle would not be beneficial to him now, but he was not worried.
The imperial court could frustrate the Bohai Navy, and he could also frustrate the imperial court by being promoted and transferred.
Even after this battle, the imperial court sends more military attaches to the Bohai Navy, but as long as the attributes of the grassroots soldiers remain unchanged, Zhu Gaoxu is confident that he can continue to control the Bohai Navy.
Historically, Zhu Yunwen mixed water with the three guards of Yan Mansion and transferred them to Kaiping, but what was the result?
When the soldiers of the Third Guard learned that His Highness had launched an army, they resolutely ran back to Peiping from Kaiping Guard. This gave Zhu Di the strength to defeat Geng Bingwen.
The Yanfu soldiers can do this, can't the Bohai soldiers do the same?
What's more, the soldiers in Bohai are not so easy to control.
Zhu Gaoxu looked at the guards under the arrow tower. Many of them were naturalized Jurchens. Although they started learning Mandarin and Chinese characters last year, not many of them could speak Mandarin fluently.
What's more, Zhu Gaoxu didn't show any mercy to these Jurchen soldiers, and treated them all according to the standards of Han soldiers.
If it were another person, would he be able to distribute all the hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland cultivated every year to them without reservation, as he did?
Even if he dared, it would only be possible if the guys in the court were willing.
Except for Lao Zhu and himself, it would be difficult for anyone else to approve the continuation of Bohai's model. After all, Bohai's rapid development was based on the court's continuous support for grain and grass.
Therefore, whether it is to stop the supply of grain and grass, or to stop the equal distribution of land, these decisions will make the soldiers and civilians living in the Bohai Sea feel a gap.
As long as he is good enough to the people of the Bohai Sea and provides enough benefits, it will be difficult for them to be instigated to rebel. This is Zhu Gaoxu's confidence.
Of course, he was not absolutely confident, so he asked Meng Zhang to recruit Jurchens in Blackwater City and forge cannons and guns.
"I don't know how he is doing..."
Zhu Gaoxu thought of Meng Zhang, and his desire to return to Bohai began to rise.
But before returning to Bohai, he still had to think about how to write a successful report.
After walking down the archery tower, Zhu Gaoxu led his soldiers out of Wulianghatu City and returned to the camp that had been set up.
When they returned to the camp, Fu Rang and Liu Zhen had already arranged for the entire army to eat, and asked the Bohai Navy officers to leave only three days of rations, and the remaining rations were distributed to the cavalry of Ning Mansion.
There are also baggage ships of the Bohai Navy beside the Naowen River, so they don't have to worry about running out of food.
As for the Ningfu cavalry, they still have hundreds of miles to go back to Quan Ningwei. If something unexpected happens along the way, it will be said that the sky will not work and the earth will not respond.
Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu had no objection to Fu Rang's arrangements. He just satisfied his appetite in his own account and casually took out the victory report written by Zhu Quan.
In the space left in the middle, Zhu Gaoxu wrote down what he had captured before arriving at Ulyanhatu City in the south, but this number was less than a quarter of the actual seizures.
"In this way, even if Lao Zhu asks me to distribute cattle and sheep to other governors, my loss will not be too great."
After drying the ink, Zhu Gaoxu murmured in a low voice. After writing the good news, he took out the letter paper and wrote two letters home.
When he is away from home, after all, he is treated as a grandson or a son. From time to time, he suffers misfortune, and winning sympathy is the most important thing for him to do.
In the past two years, he has done misfortune to Lao Zhu, but he has received many good things and good policies.
Therefore, with his hard work and writing, he wrote a family letter of several thousand words.
After this letter home, he wrote another letter home containing several hundred words.
The one in front of the other is for Lao Zhu and Zhu Di respectively. The former is crying miserably, and the latter is praying for peace.
After finishing all this, Zhu Gaoxu shook off his sore hands and put a smile on his lips:
"Grandpa, you must give your grandson something to encourage you this time..."
"Bohai Chronicles": Geng Xushuo, led 5,000 horse infantry to patrol the ground of Wuliangha, attacked Wuliangha Mountain and killed thousands of enemies, then went south again, led 4,000 horse infantry to attack Yuan general Halawu at night, and killed him. Azashili, the general of the Yuan Dynasty. At dawn, when they entered their camp, Harawu withdrew his troops and fled. He joined his troops with King Ning and drove the enemy troops north for more than 200 miles. He and King Ning each led their troops to attack left and right, and then attacked again at night. The battle became more urgent and the enemy was defeated. Harawu fled north for 700 miles. . This campaign killed more than ten thousand enemies, captured all their horses, and captured tens of thousands of cattle and sheep. Harawu took the rest of the people and walked to Wuliangha Mountain.
——————
"Records of Taizu of the Ming Dynasty": Geng Xushuo sent the three kings of Yanning and Bohai out of the fortress, and the two kings of Ning and Bohai went out of Modong. The king of Bohai attacked Wuliang Hashan and Wuliangha Tu City, and controlled the north of Ning Mansion to chase Yuan Dynasty. General Harawu, the King of Bohai personally shot Yuan general Azashili and killed him. The officers and men fought bravely, defeated the enemy, and achieved a great victory. They captured more than 20,000 cattle, sheep, and donkey heads, and more than 8,000 horses. They captured more than 20,000 enemy ranks, and the rest will be reported later.
(End of chapter)
