Chahanhot City, the capital of Lindan Khan, is located at the southern foot of the Abagahan Mountain. The towering mountains block the cold current from the north from going south, making the climate warm in winter and cool in summer, and its environment is very suitable for human habitation.
A naturally formed valley on the east side crosses the Greater Khingan Mountains, forming a natural passage from the Mongolian Plateau to the Songliao Plain. It is a transportation chokepoint and strategic location.
Its territory is crisscrossed by rivers and fertile pastures, and it is also a rare pasture.
Chahanhot means "White City" in Mongolian.
It uses Qipan Mountain as a natural barrier and uses rammed earth to build the city wall in the valley between the two peaks. There is a 10-meter-wide Baicheng South Gate in the center.
The city is square, with four sides. There is a door on each side, an urn city built outside, and corner platforms set up at the four corners.
There are also horse-faced walls built outside the northern and southern cities.
Mao Yuanyi said: "This should be the site of Shangjing Linhuang Mansion in the Liao Dynasty. The location is indeed unique, but the city is a bit petty!"
"There are not enough troops in the city now, and there are not many defenders on the hillsides on both sides. As long as we occupy the Qipan Mountains on both sides, and then bombard the city from above, we can defeat it with a snap of our fingers!"
Li Xianzhong said: "In the future, a group of fortresses will be built on the hillsides on both sides to more effectively protect the city."
Following the order, the 6-pound Folang machine field artillery carried by the Liaodong Army began to shoot at the hillsides on both sides.
At this time, there were only a few hundred defenders on the mountain and some low forts built with rammed earth.
After the sound of artillery, thousands of "Imperial Association Army" wearing blue armor quickly attacked.
There were just a group of old and weak people on the mountain. In less than a stick of incense, Azig ran over and said: "To the Duke of Liao, our Imperial Army has occupied the fortress on the mountain and captured We have captured more than two hundred prisoners, what should we do with these people?"
Li Xianzhong said: "They were all taken outside the south gate and beheaded, and told the guards in the city that I will give them half an hour to think about it. When the hour passes, if they don't open the city and surrender, then the city of Chahanhot will be destroyed by chickens and dogs." Do not stay!"
This is a trick commonly used by the Mongols, and I have to say it is quite useful.
At this time, Lin Danhan was not around, and there were only more than 2,000 horses left in the city, which was unable to withstand the army outside the city.
In the end, Lin Dan Khan's first concubine Na Mo Zhong decided to surrender in Kaicheng.
After all, Lin Dan Khan is a direct descendant of the Jin family and the heir to the Beiyuan Khan throne, although he was blackmailed by Li Xianzhong a few years ago.
However, there are still a lot of treasures in Chahanhot City, including a large amount of gold and jewelry, which according to rough statistics is worth more than 800,000 taels of silver.
A few years ago, this would have been a fortune.
However, Liaodong's annual expenses now exceed 5 million taels, and this money is better than nothing.
Soon Concubine Na Mu Zhong presented the Beiyuan Jade Seal secretly hidden by Lin Danhan.
Looking at the jade seal made of mutton-fat white jade in front of him, Li Xianzhong was very excited, even though he knew it was a fake.
After bathing and burning incense, he formally accepted the Fang Yuxi in front of everyone.
However, when he picked up the jade seal and looked at it carefully, he found that the words engraved on it were not "Ordered by Heaven, Live Long and Prosperous", but "Treasure of Making Imperial Orders".
This time he specially brought Mao Yuanyi with him to avoid this embarrassment. After all, he was just a keyboard warrior in his previous life, and he really couldn't appreciate these things.
Mao Yuanyi is indeed a master who can compile "Wu Bei Zhi". He quickly said: "Based on the material and content of this square seal, it should be the square sheep that Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty gave to the Xiongnu Chanyu when he ordered Zhaojun to go out. A jade seal carved from fat jade.”
Na Muzhong said: "This jade seal was brought to the desert by Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty. It is the jade seal inherited from the Yuan Dynasty."
From Mao Yuanyi's hesitant eyes, Li Xianzhong knew that although this Fang Ancient Seal had a great background, it was probably not a jade seal inherited from the Yuan Dynasty.
But it doesn't matter, as long as these Mongol chiefs think it is.
The fact that he had seized the Great Yuan's Imperial Seal from the Great Khan of the Northern Yuan Dynasty was convincing enough.
No one even recognizes Lin Dan Khan, a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, let alone such a jade seal?
Li Xianzhong's acquisition of it was just an excuse to annex Lin Dan Khan's tribe and occupy Monan.
To put it bluntly, what these Mongols were afraid of was his Liaodong cavalry, not the so-called Jade Seal.
Then, under the leadership of Mao Yuanyi, Buhe, Buyanggu, Jintaiji, Azige and others congratulated Li Xianzhong for receiving the Yuan Dynasty's national jade seal.
But it's not the time to think about this yet, after all, Lin Dan Khan's main force has not been eliminated yet.
According to the scout's report, Lin Dan Khan did not return to aid Chahanhot, but retreated toward Guihua City in the southwest.
Originally, Li Xianzhong asked Man Gui to lead the cavalry to set up an ambush on Lin Dan Khan's only way back to aid, but it seems that this attempt has completely failed.
This Lin Danhan didn't play by the rules. He left his own home base unsaved, but went to seek refuge on the territory of the Tumut Ministry?
Now that his army is pressing down on the territory, even if he can occupy the magpie's nest, it doesn't make any sense.
Mao Yuanyi said in horror: "No, Lin Danhan must be worried that direct reinforcements will be attacked by us and Zaisai, so he retreated to the west to tempt Zaisai to pursue him. His real target is probably Zaisai." !”
Li Xianzhong said: "It seems that Lin Dan Khan wanted to set up an ambush in Zaisai and destroy the Inner Kalkha Mongolia first before fighting us decisively."
Then he looked at his father-in-law and said: "Hurhan, you lead the Horqin tribe's 15,000 cavalry to support Zaisai. You must not let Lin Dan Khan succeed."
Although Bu He was somewhat reluctant, he did not dare to disobey his son-in-law at this time, so he said: "Don't worry, Lord Liao, I, the Horqin warrior, will definitely rescue Zai Sai!"
Then Li Xianzhong ordered Azig and others to go down and reorganize their troops and prepare to go out at any time.
After seeing everyone retreat, Mao Yuanyi said: "Back then, Zai Sai followed the Duke of Liao to massacre the Horqin tribe, and took the opportunity to annex many of Horqin's tribes. The two tribes formed a grudge."
"The Duke of Liao sent Bu He to rescue Zasai at this time, I'm afraid he won't do his best!"
Li Xianzhong said with a smile: "Brother Mao understands my thoughts after all. This time I want to solve the Monan problem in one fell swoop. Just imagine, if we occupy Chahanhot City and annex Lin Danhan's tribe, Zaisai will Aren’t you going to be dissatisfied with us?”
Zaisai and Lin Dan Khan have been fighting for several years, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. Now that you, Li Xianzhong, have come to pick peaches, it would be strange if Zaisai doesn't fall out!
Li Xianzhong was sure that Horqin would not rescue Zasai in time, so he deliberately let Bu He go.
In this way, the purpose of weakening Zaisai is achieved, without losing a bad reputation of not saving allies until death!
No, my father-in-law must have made two preparations.
If Zaisai's troops were only damaged but not his vitality, he would blame Horqin for the failure in the rescue, and then the two families would turn against each other. Zaisai will have no time to take care of us, and we will have enough time to digest Monan.
If Zasai's entire army is annihilated, I am afraid that Li Xianzhong will annex Inner Khalkha together with the Horqin tribe and take the opportunity to expand Monan's territory.
My father-in-law really made a good calculation, but at this time Mao Yuanyi still had a question.
He said: "Liao Guogong is far-sighted and his subordinates admire him. It's just that Zasai has been fighting with Lin Dan Khan for many years, and both parties know the truth. I'm afraid he is not so easily fooled?"
Li Xianzhong said: "If I send someone to tell Zaisai that I have agreed with him that whoever takes off Lin Danhan's head, Chahanhot City will belong to him. Do you think he will be tempted?"
"Also, Commander Mao may have forgotten that the earliest member of the Intelligence Department is still with Zai Sai. I am not afraid that he will not take the bait!"
Master Liu?
How could I forget about him?
I have to say that these undercover aces under my command are really powerful. A single Fan Wencai caused Jianlu to fall into pieces, and his effect was at least greater than tens of thousands of troops.
Nurhaci and Huang Taiji may not know until their death that Mr. Fan, whom they trust most, is actually a spy from the Intelligence Department.
Nowadays, Fan Wencai is still a popular person around Azig, which is why the Duke of Liao is so relieved about Jianzhou Zuowei.
However, today's Jianzhou Zuowei is actually managed by Fan Wencai, and Fan Wencheng's ability to sit in the high position of Liaodong Chief Envoy is probably due to the Liao Kingdom's compensation for Fan Wencai.
The Fan brothers are very popular people in Liaodong.
This Master Liu is actually one of the earliest founders of the Intelligence Department. He joined the Intelligence Department earlier than himself.
If Duke Liao hadn't mentioned it, I, as the commander of the Intelligence Department, would have almost forgotten about him. It seems that this is the time for him to show off his talents.
After Zaisai killed Chaohua, it took less than half a year to completely annex the five inner Khalkha alliance.
A few years ago, he and Li Xianzhong even attacked Lin Dan Khan's hometown and forced him to call himself "Tel Khan".
Over the years, he and Lin Dan Khan have been competing for the dominance of Monan. The two sides are about the same strength, and neither can do anything to the other.
Although Lin Danhan asked the Tumote Department for help this time, fortunately, Li Xianzhong, the Duke of Liao Dynasty, finally took action.
However, facing Lin Danhan's sudden westward retreat, he was still a little worried, so he only sent a small number of scouts to investigate and did not pursue rashly.
Master Liu on the side said: "I am reporting to the Great Khan that the coalition forces led by Duke Liao have occupied the city of Chahanhot. A large number of Lin Dan Khan's men have been captured by the Ming army. The morale of the army must be unstable. We must not sit still. What a missed opportunity!”
"If our army doesn't gain more in this battle, we won't be able to ask the Duke of Liao for Chahar's territory!"
At this time, Zaisai was also quite afraid of the Ming army. On the one hand, he hoped that Li Xianzhong would take care of Lin Danhan for him. On the other hand, he was afraid that the Ming army would directly occupy Chahar's territory and not leave.
Although there were certain risks in pursuit at this time, he still decided to pursue Lin Dan Khan driven by interests.
Now he also has 20,000 cavalry in his hands. Even if he is entangled by Lin Danhan, there will always be no problem in persisting until the Ming army comes for reinforcements.
Soon he ordered his son Zarut to lead five thousand cavalry to pursue them first.
And he leads the main force behind and can provide support at any time.
The decisive battle between the two sides took place in the Xilin Gol Grassland. There were endless grasslands nearby. In fact, there was no terrain suitable for an ambush.
Lin Danhan's Monan coalition forces continued to retreat to the southwest, while Zalut was in hot pursuit.
After retreating for thousands of miles, Lin Dan Khan's Monan coalition finally arrived near the Tabu River at the junction of Yinshan Mountain and Daqingshan Mountain.
At the same time, the distance between the Zalut tribe, which had been advancing rapidly, and the main force behind them was getting wider and wider. From the initial distance of twenty miles to the current distance of seventy or eighty miles.
Finally he encountered Lin Dan Khan's main force on the right bank near the Tabu River.
At this time, their two sides were covered with Chahar's cavalry. They densely occupied the entire grassland, numbering tens of thousands.
The two sides were only a few hundred meters apart, and the atmosphere was extremely tense. It was as if they could feel each other's breath, and a war was about to break out.
The reason why Zarut dared to pursue continuously was because he had a thousand heavy cavalry wearing armor among his cavalry.
He decided to take the lead in breaking the deadlock, and with an order, these thousand heavy armored cavalry began to move.
Under the sunlight, the iron armor on their bodies and the steel swords and spears in their hands emitted bursts of cold light, and the earth gradually began to tremble.
Soon, rounds of arrows rained down on them. Unfortunately, Chahar's arrows did not cause much substantial damage to these armored soldiers. However, many war horses were hit by the arrows, causing tragic neighing sound.
Lin Dan Khan has played with Zai Sai for four or five years, so he naturally knows his trump card very well.
He came prepared this time.
As the distance between the two sides gets closer, these heavy cavalry have come within fifty steps.
Soon Chahar's arrow rain turned into armor-piercing heavy arrows.
Within a distance of thirty or forty steps, these armor-piercing heavy arrows easily penetrated the enemy's heavy armor. As the cavalry in the front row continued to be hit by arrows and fell off their horses, the power of the iron cavalry's impact was also greatly weakened.
When the actual confrontation came, hundreds of cavalry were unable to tear apart the Chahar Army's defense line.
Seeing that his trump card failed, Zarut also realized the seriousness of the problem.
However, it was too late for him to retreat at this time. The leader of the Tumut tribe, Guruge, led tens of thousands of cavalry and appeared behind him.
Although Zalut led his troops to charge several times, trying to break through the blocking of the Tumut cavalry, unfortunately they all failed in the end.
Especially when one thousand of their armored cavalry were wiped out by the Chahar cavalry, their morale dropped to the extreme.
At this time, there were less than 200 cavalry left around him, but just when he was feeling desperate, Zaisai's main cavalry arrived.
Many Tumut cavalrymen were shot off their horses by the rain of arrows behind them.
Zarut was so excited that he almost cried, but his mood of surviving the disaster did not last long.
Soon, cavalrymen kept coming out of the surrounding Populus euphratica forest, re-surrounding Zaisai's main cavalry force.
Originally, the Monan Allied Forces had 25,000 people. Lin Danhan mobilized thousands of troops who were left in the south of Chahar to come here. In addition, Tumut's hometown Guihua City (today's Hohhot) is also here.
Now they have more than 35,000 people, and Zaisai's vanguard of 5,000 people has been basically wiped out, and now only 15,000 riders are left.
In particular, the death of a thousand armored cavalry had a great impact on their overall morale.
There were cavalry fighting everywhere, and the sound of clashing weapons and the neighing of horses echoed throughout the river bank.
Although Zaisai continued to adjust the cavalry team, he attacked the Chahar coalition again and again, trying to open a hole.
However, the coalition forces still relied on their numerical advantage to trap them on the river bank.
Seeing that the breakthrough was not possible, Zaisai could only do the next best thing and retreated into a forest by the river.
As the sky grew dark, Lin Danhan's men also stopped attacking and just trapped them in the woods.
Today he undoubtedly achieved great success. They annihilated more than 10,000 of Zaisai's men, while suffering only 5,000 casualties of their own.
Now their strength ratio has become 3 to 1.
Lin Dan Khan knew that Zaisi would not just sit back and wait for death, and he would definitely try to break through tonight.
But now 30,000 versus 10,000, the advantage is mine. How could Lin Dan Khan let them get what they wanted? Zaisai launched several attacks overnight but were repelled by Lin Dan Khan. Instead, he lost thousands of troops.
With no hope of breaking out at this time, he could only place his hope on Li Xianzhong's reinforcements.
Master Liu also quickly found the Horqin cavalry who came for reinforcements.
When Buhe heard that Zasai was surrounded by the main force of Chahar near the Tabu River, Buhe felt an excitement that could not be concealed.
The three major forces in Monan Mongolia are Lindan Khan, Neikalkha and Horqin.
Now that the two of them are fighting, it is a good opportunity for Horqin to rise.
It seems that revealing the news of Yuxi to Li Xianzhong this time is really the right move.
He said: "We, Horqin, have few troops now. I am afraid it will be difficult to compete with the Chahar coalition. We should wait until the main force of the Liao Kingdom arrives before making plans!"
Originally, Master Liu was just pretending, but now he felt relieved when he saw that Horqin refused to save him.
Li Xianzhong was not as fierce as Lin Danhan. He actually retreated more than a thousand miles in order to lure the enemy.
However, now they have retreated to the base of the Tumut tribe, which is just over a day's journey from Guihua City, which still makes it more difficult for them to raid Guihua City.
This also forced Li Xianzhong to divide his troops.
Finally, he ordered Azig's Imperial Alliance Army and Ye He's cavalry to set up an ambush in Daqing Mountain to block Lin Dan Khan who might return for reinforcements.
And he led the Liaodong Army to attack Guihua City.
In the sixth year of Longqing's reign in the Ming Dynasty (1572), Alatan Khan, the leader of the Mongolian people who was stationed in Tumochuan, summoned skilled craftsmen from all ethnic groups to imitate Yuan Dynasty and broke ground to build eight buildings with glazed gold and silver in the sun of Daqing Mountain and on the bank of the Yellow River. The majestic and beautiful city of the palace.
After the city was completed, the Ming court named it "Guihua City".
This large-scale city shows a lush vitality against the backdrop of the mountainous green mountains. At that time, Guihua City was built with blue bricks, and looked green from a distance. The local Mongolian people gave her a beautiful name, "Kukuhetun", also translated as "Hohhot", which means "blue" in Chinese. city".
Of course, when we say the city is large, it is only relative to the earth city on the grassland.
In fact, Guihua City is more than 300 meters long from east to west and 250 meters wide from north to south. There are only two gates in the north and south. Any guard city in Liaodong is larger than this.
It's just that it is wrapped with a layer of blue bricks outside the rammed earth. In addition, the city is 8 meters high, which is still relatively tall.
At this time, the main force of the Tumut Department had been transferred to besiege Zasai, and naturally there were not many people in the city.
The Ming army was on a rapid march with cavalry, and it would take half a day for the artillery to arrive.
However, Li Xianzhong was not prepared to wait any longer, and soon the Ming army, under the cover of Lumi Gun, launched an attack on the planned city with a city-breaking hammer.
To be honest, the Liaodong Army has not conducted such a primitive siege for a long time.
Fortunately, the Mongolian arrows were unable to penetrate the armor of the Liaodong cavalry. At this time, these heavy cavalry were used as heavy infantry.
The Ming army under the city used Lumi guns to completely limit the defenders' counterattack.
As soon as these Mongolians show their heads, they will be shot mercilessly.
Despite some setbacks, the Ming army quickly captured Guihua City.
Lin Dan Khan and others finally annihilated the Zasai tribe after three days of fighting. Kulhan Zasai and his eldest son Zarut were killed. In addition to more than a thousand of the 20,000 inner Khalkha cavalry, they surrendered. The rest were killed.
However, the Monan Allied Forces also paid the price of more than 10,000 deaths.
But before they could finish cleaning the battlefield, news came that the Ming army had captured Guihua City.
Although Lin Danhan had doubts in his heart, he had no choice but to agree to the main force returning to the army. After all, the Tumote Department was responsible for the theft of his lair in order to help him ambush Zasai.
However, he still kept an eye on it and asked Guluge, the leader of the Tumut tribe, to lead 10,000 coalition troops to return first, while he led 10,000 people to the rear.
Sure enough, as soon as they entered the Daqingshan area, they encountered a surprise attack by the Imperial Association Army and Ye He's cavalry.
They had fought bloody battles with Zaisai's army for three days before, and they were already exhausted. In addition, they were marching in a hurry. At this moment, both men and horses were exhausted. How could they be their opponents?
Soon after, the 10,000 men led by Guruge were almost completely wiped out.
Lin Danhan saw that something was wrong and quickly led the remaining troops of more than 10,000 people to retreat.
Horqin's tribe, which was supposed to have cut off the rear, was now busy attacking Zaisai's territory, which led to Lin Danhan's successful escape.
In the end, Li Xianzhong and Horqin divided the territory of the original Zaisai, but ostensibly Li Xianzhong still let Zaisai's 5-year-old son take charge of the original tribe with the assistance of Master Liu.
Afterwards, the Ming army took the opportunity to cross the Yellow River and defeated the Ordos tribe entrenched in the Hetao area.
The Yinshan and Hetao areas were brought under their control.
Later, the Ming army built Jiuyuan City (today's Baotou) between Yinshan Mountain and the Yellow River, using Jiuyuan to guard Yinshan Mountain and overlook the Hetao.
Originally, Li Xianzhong wanted to reward Lin Danhan's eight concubines to Azige and others who sent troops this time.
However, Mao Yuanyi thought it was absolutely impossible, because almost all of these women were married to Lin Dan Khan from various Mongolian tribes.
If they are given to Horqin or the leaders of the Jurchen tribes, it will inadvertently cause them to form alliances with each other.
Moreover, these concubines more or less control some of Lin Dan Khan's tribe.
Therefore, Mao Yuanyi suggested that Li Xianzhong include all eight concubines in his harem.
In fact, Lin Danhan was only a few years older than Li Xianzhong, and these concubines were relatively young and beautiful.
The oldest concubine Na Mu Zhong is only 2 years older than Li Xianzhong this year.
For the long-term stability of Monan Mongolia, Li Xianzhong finally accepted all eight concubines of Lin Dan Khan.
On the tenth day of the first month of the sixth year of Tianqi, Horqin Mongolia, Inner Khalkha Mongolia, Tumote Mongolia, Ordos Mongolia, and Chahar Mongolia jointly supported Li Xianzhong, the Duke of the Liao Kingdom in the Ming Dynasty, as the co-lord of Monan Mongolia in Guihua City.
Because Li Xianzhong obtained the great treasure of the Yuan Dynasty and was destined to do so, the Mongolian tribes privately called him the "Khan of Destiny"!
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(End of chapter)
