Zhu Youjian's camp is located on the coast of the Bohai Sea, in the shade of two hills sandwiched between the main road, about twenty miles away from the mouth of the Qinghe River.
This camp cleverly borrowed the mountains of two hills named Banshi Mountain and Mingke Mountain. It used the mountain as a wall and the mountain pass between the two as a passage. The camp was extremely open, and there were also two mountains. A mountain stronghold was erected on the top, which could be used to observe the enemy's situation and prevent the Qing army from raiding and occupying the two mountains. Behind the camp is a small stream called Sand River. Although there has been no rain for many days, it has not dried up. It is convenient for drinking and grazing horses and the daily water supply of tens of thousands of troops, and it can also slightly block the enemies who make roundabout attacks.
The defense of this Ming army camp was not tight, the trenches were not deep, and the barriers were not strong. It was not a so-called hard stronghold. The defense of the camp relied entirely on the cover of Banshi Mountain and Mingke Mountain, as well as the warning provided by the more than 10,000 cavalry who followed Zhu Youjian northward. The enemy is coming, and you can spot it from a long way away, just in time to leave the camp for a field battle!
Because the previous cavalry confrontation between the two sides had been divided, the Manchu cavalry on the Qing side did not dare to dispatch, and the Mongolian cavalry lost no less than 2,000 in just a few days!
Under the black guns of the cavalry in front of the Ming army's tent, the Mongolian cavalry of the Eight Banners were no match at all and could only retreat to the north bank of the Qinghe River.
This time, the Ming army following Zhu Youjian from Lushun to the north totaled more than 40,000 people, including eight regiments of cavalry in front of the tent, an artillery regiment of the army in front of the tent, four infantry regiments of the Pingliao army, and a baggage regiment. regiment, as well as the two infantry regiments of the Jizhou Army that had just been shipped over by the Beiyang Navy. In total, there are eight regiments of cavalry, six regiments of infantry, one regiment of artillery, and one regiment of heavy equipment, about 40,000 people.
In terms of quantity, the Ming army on the battlefield south of the mouth of the Qinghe River was only about one-third of the Japanese and Qing allied forces on the north bank of the Qinghe River.
But the military is good, not too many!
Although the Ming army was small in number, it was truly elite. Even the six regiments of Pingliao Army and Jizhou Army have been comprehensively improved due to the reorganization of Sun Chuanting and Shi Kefa, as well as the large number of additional knight officers in front of the tent.
As for the eight regiments of cavalry in front of the tent and one regiment of artillery in front of the tent, it is even more incredible. The officers are all from the guard regiment, and the soldiers are all young soldiers - those soldiers in front of the tent who are in their early twenties. All of them have been in the military for more than ten years. Not only are they proficient in martial arts, but they can also write and calculate!
This is a semi-modern army with a 100% literacy rate, ideals, ambitions, and a reason to fight (is it a good reason to be a knight and rise to the nobility?).
At this time, there was a crowd of people shouting in the camp. The cavalrymen who came down from the forward sentry for duty in front of the tent returned to camp one after another to rest. The three "foreign horse regiments" who had taken the lead were all recuperating and preparing for the decisive battle, so five "grass horse regiments" (not grass mud horses, but grassland horses) were dispatched.
The grass horse regiment is equipped with fine horses bought from Mongolia... There has always been a horse market between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia. The Ming Dynasty traded silk, cloth, salt and iron pots for Mongolian horses. However, before Zhu Youjian firmly controlled the Monan Grassland, neither party made a good deal. The Mongols sold "vegetable horses", while the Ming Dynasty sold rotten pots. After Zhu Youjian conquered the rest of Chahar, this situation completely changed. Concubine Wuliangha herself belongs to Zhu Youjian, so how can she dare to use "vegetable horse" to hide her troubles? Zhu Youjian relaxed the embargo on various Mongolian ministries under his jurisdiction. Let alone a fine iron pot, if you just want to buy a 24-pound black pot cannon, that's just a matter of words!
In addition, Zhu Youjian's seven concubines, Orduo, have now introduced advanced horse-raising technology - it is unbelievable to say that the Mongolians, who are known as the horseback nation, actually do not know how to raise horses! The Mongolian method of raising horses is to "raise them casually". They don't pay much attention to selective breeding. They usually raise them in large groups and let the horses fall in love freely and give birth to whatever they want.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that they have too many horses. Now Zhu Youjian's seven concubines, Orduo, alone have two million horses... With so many horses, if they all engage in feudal arranged marriages, will it be a big hassle?
Therefore, Zhu Youjian, who "knows how to raise horses best", asked the seven noble concubines Orduo to set up seven Tianma farms in Saihanba Grassland, Jinlianchuan Grassland, Tumotchuan Grassland and other places. From Orduo, 50 male Pegasus horses and 500 female Pegasus horses are selected (of course they will be given generous rewards) and raised in seven Pegasus farms - these Mongolian horses are taller and stronger than other Mongolian horses (free love) The horses that were bred were like this, tall, short, fat or thin). From then on, they lost the freedom to ride on the prairie and could only be used as reproductive tools inside wooden fences.
The ponies born from them will also undergo strict selection. The largest colt can be a stallion, and a larger colt (the requirements for a mare are lower) can also be kept as a mare. Young stallions that are not big enough will be castrated into eunuch horses - the gelded foals can grow larger than horses that have not been gelded or are castrated after adulthood... and the eunuch horses The "Great Eunuch" became the mount of the officers and soldiers of the "Grass Horse Regiment" in front of the tent. The average shoulder height of these "big eunuch" horses can reach more than four feet three inches, and the taller ones can even reach four feet four inches or four feet five inches.
Although it is not as good as the horses of the foreign horse regiment, it is still much stronger than the horses of the Qing army, so it still suppresses the Qing army's cavalry from taking the lead! But this is not a good thing for the officers and soldiers of the five "straw horse regiments".
Seeing some listless straw horse soldiers returning to camp, some straw horse soldiers waiting to attack loudly asked Pao Ze who was passing by them.
"How many more heads did you get this time?"
"Where can I see the head? The slaves and cavalry have all retreated to the north bank. There are only a few small villages on the south bank. There is also a small square formation near the river mouth, which is used to cover the construction of pontoon bridges and bridgehead villages. .....We didn’t bring artillery, so we couldn’t break up the phalanx of slave thieves. We could only watch from a distance, and we were really worried to death!”
Hearing this, the "horse soldiers" who were waiting to attack all frowned, but they still got on their horses at the urging of the officers, ran out of the camp, and swept away the dust in the sky.
In the Chinese imperial tent of the Ming army camp, Zhu Youjian was in a happy mood after receiving the news that the Qing army had built a pontoon bridge and a fortress at the mouth of the river. At this time, he was having military discussions around the map table with Shi Kefa, the governor of Liaodong, Hei Yuntao, the general counselor of the Zhangqian Army, Wu Sangui, the deputy general of the cavalry of the Zhangqian Army, Cao Bianjiao, the deputy general of the Jizhou Army, Wang Dadou, the deputy general of the Pingliao Army, and others.
"It seems that the slave thieves are also preparing to fight us at the mouth of Qinghe River..." Zhu You slapped his hands and said with a smile, "As long as they are willing to send troops, no matter how many they come, we can win in one battle! As long as they are willing to send troops, no matter how many they come, we can win in one battle! If the Qinghe side wins the battle, the slave thieves’ time will be numbered!”
Just as he said this, the voice of the compatriots in the royal guard suddenly came to mind outside the door: "Your Majesty, the slave and puppet queen mother has sent military envoys to declare a war."
Zhu Youjian smiled and nodded, "It seems Taisong can't wait any longer!" He ordered: "Xuan! Xuan, let him come in!"
The military envoy sent by Taisong this time was Zhang Xiaoqi, who brought a letter of challenge written by Taisong himself, and also brought a personal letter.
Zhu Youjian opened the battle letter first and looked at it. There was nothing special in it. He just made an appointment...three days later in the morning, a fight to the death on the plain on the south bank of the Qinghe River mouth!
Then Zhu Youjian opened the letter written by the Queen Mother Taisong. This letter was full of soft words. The Queen Mother Taisong had a very low attitude, expressing her willingness to pay tribute and become a minister, and she was also willing to go to the Hajj in person...even Willing to recall the troops of Dorgon, Duduo and Azig from North Korea.
All in all, he had a good attitude and wanted to be let go.
However, on the key issue of Liaodong territory, there is no intention to relent... The lost land in Liaodong is the land of the ancestors and cannot be claimed by the vassal state. Therefore, the peace conditions proposed by Taisong have no possibility of being realized at all. Maybe it's just a ploy to be arrogant, or maybe it's just a soft word in advance so that you can beg for mercy after defeat, right?
Zhu Youjian collected Taisong's autographed letter, and wrote the five words "confrontation in three days" on the letter of challenge, then handed it back to Zhang Xiaoqi, and finally said to him with a smile: "Go and tell Taisong, I have already built a mansion for Funing in Beijing, and prepared a palace for her in Xiyuan. I can also give her a Ten Thousand Households Office.
But we can’t keep those pseudo-amas! "
