The fifth day of June is the day when the Marshal's Mansion West Road and the Chinese Army plan to go out.
Several pieces of military information from Wang Wenxiu's troops on the East Road arrived at Yingpan City via Tangqi, which deepened Liu Chengzong's understanding of the enemy and enhanced his understanding of his soldiers and generals.
Liu Shizi's favorite enemy in his early years was the Weisuo Banner Army. This group of people was well equipped, had low combat effectiveness, and lacked training. They were the best enemies for the rebels.
However, in this vanguard operation, they returned to the banner army of Qianhu and recruited Minzhuang to fight Oirat in the mountains. They showed a combat effectiveness that was no less than that of the Ming army's border troops in various towns, which was impressive.
At the cost of 23 killed, 60 wounded, and 3 missing, they killed more than 200 members of the Weilat Junggar tribe and captured 77 heads, creating a brilliant victory in a small-scale battle.
If Wang Wenxiu hadn't accurately reported the battle process, it would be difficult for Liu Chengzong to believe that such an encounter was fought by a group of Guide militiamen led by Bao Hu.
There were only 148 people in the flag army of Guide Qianhu. They all came out in this battle. They also recruited 800 people from 33 villages to form a team of less than 1,000 people.
This team had fought against Chuoktu Taiji last year and fought against the Khalkha cavalry with bronze cannons cast in the 13th year of Hongwu. This year is just a reappearance of last year, but they have received support from the Marshal's Palace.
The Marshal's Mansion captured many Ming army firearms in active service during the Hehuang Battle.
For example, the Ming Army's Hundred Tigers Rocket Car, the single-eyed gun with a spearhead, Qi Jiguang's Five Thunder God Machine, Zhao Shizhen's invention of the Fran Machine-type electric blunderbuss with a blunderbuss blade, the Lumi blunderbuss with a knife on the tail, and the small axe. Make a thunder gun with a stand and a shield, and a fierce fire oil tank that spits fire oil.
Some of these equipment are too simple and backward, so that they are not powerful enough; more equipment is indeed very useful, but has higher requirements for baggage.
In the long process of the war, the Marshal's Mansion has formed a five-layer firepower equipment of light bird blunderbuss, heavy blunderbuss, carrying gun, light artillery and heavy artillery, represented by light, heavy and long range. The lead shot and iron bullets used There are only a few specifications, and there is less reliance on baggage.
Therefore, Liu Chengzong did not incorporate these firearms into the army, but only allocated various cities as defense supplies... In his vision, these weapons and equipment were very good, but large-scale equipment would only increase the combat effectiveness of the Marshal's Mansion only, and would instead increase the baggage. and create pressure.
Because if you want large-scale equipment, you must first consider the baggage issue. These firearms have different calibers from the light and heavy guns currently in service in the commander's office, so they cannot adapt to the soldiers' ammunition cartridges and lead bullet molds.
But making a new batch of equipment seems useless. Making a five-barrelled thunder gun with a shield and axe takes even more man-hours than raising a gun. In battle, firing five guns in a row may not be worth raising a gun.
However, these disadvantages are not a problem for the Guide Banner Army under Bao Hu, who still uses ancestral equipment.
The battle report sent by Wang Wenxiu detailed the Bao Hu tribe's use of firearms to create a huge advantage during the melee in the mountains. They repelled the Junggar troops with almost no casualties.
Even when they formed a formation on the ground, Bao Hu's troops still had the strength to fight. They only retreated leaving more than 20 corpses after trying to cut off their heads and catching fire in the rear.
But Liu Chengzong really had nothing to criticize about beheading... This was the source of the high combat effectiveness of Bao Hu's militia.
In the report sent by Wang Wenxiu, it was mentioned that the banner army of Guide Qianhu and Minzhuang had picked up the martial arts and training they had left behind in the previous year, just because Liu Chengzong rewarded them with one hundred and eighty taels of silver.
Liu Chengzong had forgotten when he rewarded the Guide Banner Army with silver.
But the Guide Banner Army remembered that the reward given by the Marshal's Mansion to an enemy's head was ten taels of silver.
Ten taels of silver is not much, and it is the annual income of an ordinary family; ten taels of silver is quite a lot, enough to make people work hard.
For this reason, Liu Chengzong wrote a special letter to Xincheng, and sent guards to carry his personally written letter of commendation to Guide. According to the rules, the reward will be one hundred taels of silver for a thousand households, fifty taels for a deputy thousand households, ten taels for a hundred households, and ten taels for the head. According to the standards of 10 taels for those killed in battle, 50 taels for war wounds, and 50 taels for missing persons, silver rewards were given to military households and civilians who returned to Germany.
He also ordered Wang Wenxiu to send two military judges to the Guide Office to let them learn the regulations of the commander's office and not emphasize the tradition of defeating, defeating, capturing prisoners, and winning the war.
The news from the front is not all good.
Just before Liu Chengzong led the Third Battalion of the Chinese Army to go south, a shaved Tangqi man fled back to the Chinese Army in embarrassment and reported the news that General Tangqi Qian and Huaiyuan Colonel Dai Daozi were captured after exploring the Oirat Camp.
Liu Chengzong was not surprised at all by this news.
Dai Daozi is an officer of the Laotang Cavalry. He has an extraordinary adventurous spirit. He dares to take risks that others dare not take, and naturally has a much higher chance of being captured than ordinary people.
Fortunately, he was captured and not killed in battle. Liu Chengzong hoped that he could survive until the end of the war so that he could exchange him for enemy prisoners. But before that, he needed to make proper use of the intelligence sent back by Dai Daozi to win the war. victory.
There are 10,800 soldiers in the three battalions of the Marshal's Mansion, carrying 22,000 mules, 7,200 horses, 2,200 donkey carts and chariots, and 36 light and heavy artillery pieces. On the fifth day of June, At that time, the river fell down and troops were sent south.
In the morning of that day, they crossed the Nanshan Mountains, crossed the Qabqia River, and passed the ferry castle at Longyang Gorge. They lost the road along the way and the army was forced to divide into two parts.
The rear escort artillery chariot marched slowly in the Gobi sand dunes, and the front was covered with mail armor. They continued to march along the south bank of the Yellow River. At a marching speed of thirty-five miles an hour, they quickly crossed the Heka Grassland and completed one hundred and forty miles in the evening. March and arrive at Yangqu Ferry on time.
The first troops to arrive in Yangqu were two generals from the Huben camp, one was Ma Ke and the other was Zhang Zhen.
On the evening of the fifth day of June, Liu Chengzong, who was still thirty miles away from Yangqu, received an urgent message from Ma Ke.
The letter stated that the Oirat Tatars had taken the lead in seizing the ancient city on the east and west sides of Yangqu. At present, he and Fengweizhen were stationed in the ravine fifteen miles west of Yangqu City, requesting the Chinese army to transport rafts in preparation for the siege.
Ma Ke is from Xining and knows the structure of Yangqu City.
This is not so much a city as a fortress built at a river crossing. On the east and west banks of the narrow Yellow River, there are low walls built with river pebbles. The triple stone wall is only four feet high and eight feet wide. It is difficult to attack the city. Not big.
However, since the intelligence center guard Lat is good at using cavalry and musket formations, storming Yangqu City will cause them a lot of trouble.
Therefore, Ma Ke's suggestion was to cooperate inside and outside, and use the Bee Tail Needle Department to feign attack from outside the West City to attract attention. Ma Ke led his troops to move to the south of the city, use rafts to bypass the city defenses, attack directly to the heart, seize the West City, and confront the East City.
This isn't a bad plan.
However, Liu Chengzong did not follow his ideas because he had discovered that his purpose conflicted with that of the Oirat coalition, and the final battlefield was likely to be near Yangqu.
Liu Chengzong wanted to limit the battlefield to the small Hetao on the east bank of the Yellow River and block the Oirat coalition's retreat to the west. However, the Oirat leaders wanted to do the opposite. They wanted to limit the war to the Heka grassland in the west of the river in order to maintain the ability to advance, attack, retreat and defend. strategic situation.
This made Yangqu Ferry a battleground. Whoever occupied this place and built a wooden bridge could transport heavy weapons to the other side.
Originally, there was a wooden bridge between the two cities of Yangqu, which could allow chariots and artillery to pass. However, due to internal strife between Xiao Lazun and his elder brother Guru Taiji a few years ago, the two brothers burned the bridge.
Therefore, for him, the west city of Yangqu is a must-attack place, but the east city of Yangqu on the other side of the Yellow River is the key to this battle.
"Tell Ma Ke to let his two troops recharge their batteries for the time being. When the rafts arrive, they will use the bee troops to feign an attack, while the horse troops will seize the east city along the river and wait for reinforcements."
Just as Liu Chengzong was conveying orders to his subordinates and urging the rear artillery team to move forward urgently, the guards suddenly reported: "Commander, the Tang Cavalry on the right wing are retreating."
Upon hearing this, Liu Chengzong pressed the follow-up order, led more than ten cavalrymen out of the military formation, climbed a sand dune and looked to the west. At dusk, the Tangqimen were waving their flags and slowly retreating in sequence.
Needless to say, the Tang soldiers retreated. Naturally, they encountered enemies in the west.
Sure enough, not long after, Tangqi, who had retreated to the central army, reported: "Commander, there are three thousand-man teams with mixed infantry and cavalry joining up in the west. They are still thirty miles away... They are also marching towards Yangqu."
Liu Chengzong was not surprised but smiled, his eyes gleaming when he heard the news.
Oirat seems to be gathering an army. Three thousand infantry and cavalry are a force that can influence the situation of the war no matter where they are.
Especially on the Heka grassland where the Oirat army is sparsely distributed, the gathering of three thousand-man troops in one place is not a bad thing but a good thing for Liu Chengzong.
There were at most less than 15,000 Oirat troops on the Heka grassland. The easy capture of 3,000 people would at least speed up the process of Yang Yao leading his troops to quell Heka by three days.
What a waste of time!
He immediately ordered Tangqi: "Gather Tangqi, cover the enemy's location from all sides, and then explore the surrounding situation; let the bee-tail needle stay in Yangqu and call Ma Ke back."
The Oirat army that appeared on the Heka grassland belonged to the Dulbert tribe, and their leader was called Dalai Taiji.
Dalai Taiji was an outstanding leader of the Dulbert tribe. At this time, Oirat was experiencing the most severe internal and external troubles. However, Dalai Taiji used marriage to win over the tribe and secured a relaxed internal environment for the tribe.
The Dulbert tribe has been nomadic from the Irtysh River to the Salt Lake. This is a dangerous land, always facing the threat of the Khalkha Mongols.
However, under the leadership of Dalai Taiji, they gradually migrated to the Ob River Basin, avoiding disputes with the Khalkha tribe, and used force to expel the Nogai people who were nomadic in the area, and conquered the Kazakh tribes whose nomadic lands overlapped. , to win the living space for Dulbert Department.
This once brought the Dulbert Department into a brief period of prosperity.
But now all this is close to disappearing. The internal conflicts among the four Oirat tribes have intensified unprecedentedly, and the Durbot tribe is not immune. First, they fought with each other over the occupation of land by the Torgut tribe. In the past few years, they joined forces with the Khan and the Junggar tribe to start a war. The power is not as strong as before.
Qinghai was too far away from their pastureland in the Ob River Basin. In comparison, he was more willing to lead his men to kill and set fire to the Tyumen stronghold occupied by the Russians thousands of miles away, rather than let his men risk their lives on the 5th. Qinghai thousands of miles away.
Therefore, Dalai Taiji was not enthusiastic about this war. He only supported the eastward movement of the Heshuo Special Division. After all, he and the National Preceptor Khan were brothers-in-law.
Both of them married the sisters of Orlek, the leader of the Torgut tribe. Although Dalai Taiji has now turned against his uncle Orlek, his relationship with the national advisor Khan is not bad.
Since entering the Heka Grassland, Dalai Taiji has been responsible for monitoring the Nanshan Fort garrison for one month. During this time, the threat level of the Han army in the Marshal's Mansion has been increasing in his mind.
At first, he didn't take the Marshal's Mansion seriously. After all, Nanshan Fort, as the earliest fortress built by the Marshal's Mansion, looked very simple and there were not many troops stationed there.
It is similar to the fortress built by Dalai Taiji's old rival the Russians on the Ob River. The only difference is that it is an earth and stone fortification.
Having a fortress and squatting still are almost synonymous with being easy to bully. If any prince or nobleman pulls out two or three thousand troops and two native cannons, he can beat them to the ground.
But as the Marshal's Mansion finished the Hehuang Battle, plundered all the Lanzhou suburbs, and sent more troops to Nanshan Fort, the pressure on Taiji doubled, and the threat from the Marshal's Mansion suddenly increased by several levels.
The Russians could not suddenly pull out seven or eight thousand troops on the Ob River.
Just two days ago, he received a message from the National Advisor Khan and learned that the Han army in Guide City went south to fight with the Junggar tribe.
The worst situation has emerged, and the powerful enemy from the north still joins the war. In order to coordinate the actions of the national adviser Khan, Dalai Taiji gathered friends on the Heka grassland, gathered troops to reinforce Yangqu Ferry, and created a way for the Hedong tribes to withdraw westward. favorable conditions.
The worried Dalai Taiji was leading his army walking on the Gobi sand dunes. The Tanma scattered around the army suddenly reported back, and many cavalry with ill intentions appeared around them.
When Da came to Taiji to take people to check, he was a little confused for a while. He had never experienced such a situation.
Taking the phalanx he made with his camels as a boundary, every three hundred paces vertically and horizontally there was a lone cavalryman, riding a tall and strong Hequ horse, carrying a beggar with a tall helmet and spear on his head, and wearing a red cloth face armor. , there are arm guards with laminated armor plates on the arms, and there are three-barreled short muskets and bows and arrows, and spears holding horn flags hanging from the saddle.
They were everywhere in all directions, neither attacking nor retreating, but staring directly at his military formation from three hundred paces away, forming an overwhelming net.
Dalai Taiji was so frightened by the sight of them that the impending battle made him afraid to stand in front of the formation. He returned to the Tuocheng army formation with his riding whip and ordered: "Expulse them!"
The camels on the four sides of the phalanx were called up by the herdsmen, and they flashed out of the passage. Teams of Dulbert's lancers marched out of the formation.
They formed a team of ten, with two rows in front and back. Most of them wore red tasseled felt hats, invisible leather jackets, and very little armor. They held long spears, bows and arrows and attacked Tangqi. .
They rushed up, and the enemies in front of them retreated one by one without haste, forming a flexible line of defense. For the cavalry, the chase for three miles only took a moment. By the time they reacted, the surrounding Tang soldiers already had a slight numerical advantage.
The skilled cavalry released their reins, held three-eyed muskets under their ribs and held match ropes, and rushed towards them one after another, more than ten steps apart, and rushed towards them with several bangs, announcing the start of the melee.
Watching the groups of lancers chasing the enemy's back, gradually blending into the sand dunes until they disappeared from sight, Dalai Taiji, riding his horse in the formation, breathed a sigh of relief.
He still hasn't figured out what these strange-looking enemies are.
I heard a few soft sounds coming from the empty Gobi Desert.
A moment later, a lancer returned to the formation with bare hands. He was only a few steps away from the formation. It was only when he came to Taiji that he saw a hole in his leather jacket on his chest. Dark red blood spread on the cloth pants under the jacket, and then his body fell backwards, The cavalry fell to the ground, and the frightened horses fled back to the formation dragging their boots stuck in the wooden stirrups, dragging a gully in the sand dunes.
Then strong winds swept through the Gobi, and the yellow sand dazzled people's eyes.
Three hundred steps away in the wind and sand, the figure of the red-armored cavalry horse with raised hooves loomed, holding the spear belonging to the lancer under its ribs, raising its chin slightly, slowly shaking the spear with the horn flag hanging in the palm, watching with eagerness as usual.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Good morning!
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