After seeing off Zhang Wudian and his party, Yang Fan immediately threw himself into urgent preparations for the war.
The four gates of Jiuyuan City were also closed, and the entire city was under martial law. The walls were fortified and the fields were cleared, and preparations were made to welcome the enemy's attack.
Yang Fan probably stimulated them enough this time.
Based on Yang Fan's understanding of the Mongolian character in the past few years, they will definitely come to take revenge. Jiuyuan City is not a place like Houtao where there is a network of rivers. Except for the Yellow River at the back, it is surrounded by plains on all sides.
Jiuyuan City is located at the junction of Qiantao and Houtao. Location is extremely important. The terrain here is particularly suitable for cavalry combat. The people of Oirat have natural advantages.
In the center of the North City, a large tent was set up on a twenty-meter-high platform built with steel pipe scaffolding. This is the location of the former enemy headquarters.
Standing on the aisles on all sides of the platform, holding on to the railings, you can clearly see far away outside Jiuyuan City and into the wilderness. It can be said that if the enemy comes to fight, you can have an unobstructed view here. The enemy's deployment can be seen clearly.
There is no way, this is all plains, there are no mountains to hide. And because of the drought, there are no tall trees or any cover on the land.
On the third day after Yang Fan returned, a large number of Oirat's cavalry began to appear on the horizon. The sentries on the city wall immediately blew their trumpets. Suddenly, the bell tower also started ringing. The tense atmosphere spread throughout the city.
At this time, Yang Fan still had 60,000 Beijing camp infantry in his hands. Twenty thousand regiments were trained. There are enough troops to defend the city, but there are not enough troops to go into battle.
The 120,000 Oirat Alliance army surrounded Jiuyuan City from three sides.
With the muffled horns of the Mongols, a large number of cavalry galloped, and the dust they brought was overwhelming. The majestic momentum of the galloping horses brought huge psychological pressure to the 20,000 regiments guarding the city wall for training.
Many soldiers were trembling, and their legs were as soft as noodles.
At this time, screams and confusion also came from the south pier of the city.
The 30,000-strong army of the Yarkand Khanate crossed the western section of the Yellow River and entered Henan. Set up camp across the Yellow River, facing the dock across the river.
Fortunately, Yang Fan arranged a large number of scouts in advance. The scouts were sent out from a distance to conduct repeated investigations. After discovering the arrival of the Yarkand Khanate army in time, they immediately asked the racecourse and local personnel to shrink to Dongsheng. The entire western part of the Ordos Plateau was abandoned.
At this time, Yang Fan and the generals were carefully marking the enemy's situation on the sand table.
"To the east of our army, the Qinghai Haixi Mongolian tribes are dominated. The Tumut headquarters and the remaining troops of Qinghai Tumut Seventh Tribe, Yongxiebu Tribe and other tribes total about 25,000 people, all cavalry."
"In the northern part of our army, the Junggar and Dulbert tribes have a total of 50,000 cavalry."
"In the western part of our army, there are 50,000 cavalrymen from the Hoshut tribe and 20,000 cavalry from the Torgut tribe."
Hearing this, Yang Fan asked: "Didn't the Torgut tribe move westward? Why do they still have so many people?"
"Commander, the main ones who moved westward were the Torgut tribe, and there were people from several other tribes who followed. There are also many people who did not leave."
Yang Fan nodded and looked towards Henan. There were 30,000 new arrivals from the Yarkand Khanate there. The total number of Mongolian cavalry on all sides exceeded 200,000. This does not include the troops placed in the two oases in the Alxa area.
Tremendous stress!
Although troops like Beijing Camp had some early victories, their overall level was there. They are no match for Mongolia in the desert. Going out to fight is asking for death.
Now the morale of the Beijing camp is quite high because of sufficient food and wages.
They have never experienced this kind of money and food on time in their lives, and a copper coin is a lot. In addition to being paid on time by the emperor, Yang Fan also earned huge income from the cattle and sheep he had previously auctioned. There are enough financial resources to win over the morale of the military.
Now, the rewards offered by Yang Fan will be cashed in immediately and will definitely not last overnight.
It aroused the desire of the officers and soldiers to kill the enemy. In fact, it is not that the officers and soldiers are not brave, but that they are deceived and afraid. Fighting desperately, except that he may be disabled, cannot fulfill the promise he made in front of the station.
Once a soldier is disabled and ends up very miserable, the court will not take care of him for the rest of his life.
The imperial court's reward is a true assassin's head, a reward of fifty taels of silver, or an official promotion.
Over time, no one believed it. In particular, the Qi family army came back from North Korea and asked the general to pay for their arrears of military pay and rewards. After being tricked into Wengcheng and massacred.
Now, as long as you take ***'s head to the war merit office, pay immediately after verification. And now there is a mobile point of Xinghe Bank accompanying the army. Officers and soldiers can deposit money and valuables in banks, and they only need to hold deposit certificates and passbooks.
[In view of the general environment,
As long as you have this piece of paper, you can make deposits and withdrawals at more than a dozen Xinghe Bank outlets in Ming Dynasty. Very convenient.
These officers and soldiers no longer have to sleep with one eye open to prevent someone from stealing.
Moreover, Dingyuan Bo's military law is now strict, and officers do not dare to extort soldiers' property.
Even if he died in battle. Xinghe Bank will also allow family members to withdraw money. The credit in this area is very good. There will never be any incidents in the past where banks misappropriated the money of deceased depositors.
There was no need to worry about food and drink in the military camp. After arriving in Mongolia, the beef and mutton were so good that they were spoiled for choice. They couldn't afford meat in the Ming Dynasty.
At this time, the Mongols began to set up camp. Yang Fan took the telescope and looked around. Dulbert's tribe outside the northern city brought a large number of slaves, all of whom were craftsmen captured from West Asia. Used to build siege weapons for the Mongols.
Under the whips of the Mongolian soldiers, these people worked silently with their heads down, for fear of attracting the attention of the Mongols.
Sawdust was flying there. Thousands of people were wielding various tools and building siege weapons.
Yang Fan looked at it for a while and recognized some siege weapons.
The most manufactured ones were siege weapons four or five stories high, with wheels underneath that could be pushed around. This kind of street cart is as high as the city wall. Putting down the springboard allows soldiers to follow this tower directly into the city wall.
Yang Fan looked at it for a while and found that there was nothing new in Mongolia. Still the same old thing.
All they built were ladders, carriages, battering rams and other things.
Yang Fan looked at it for a while. It would take three to five days to build these things. It seems that the Mongols will not attack in the past two days.
"On each section of the city wall, every fifty meters, prepare an iron-making furnace. Go to the dock warehouse to get the iron materials."
Seeing the puzzled looks of many people in the capital, Yang Fan explained: "The siege weapons are all made of wood. We made an iron-making furnace on the city wall, and when it boiled, we used a big spoon to pour out the wood that came to our door. Siege weapons."
"When splashed with high temperature, the red-hot iron juice will burn these broken wood in an instant."
