With less than half a stick of incense, horse teams ready to go appeared outside the camp.
Ma Yunjiu was wearing a leather jacket and an iron helmet, with two muskets on his waist. Under his crotch was a brown Mongolian horse, with a saber on the right side of the horse's belly and a riding musket on the left.
The horse also carried a breastplate on its back.
Tu La followed on horseback. The armor he carried was almost the same as Ma Yunjiu's, except that he lacked a riding gun and had two more short axes.
"Let's go." Ma Yunjiu shouted and waved his arms at the same time.
More than seven hundred riders, led by their respective captains, galloped on the grassland.
The sound of horse hooves was like thunder on a sunny day, and wherever it passed, the earth seemed to shake.
Walking at the front of the team were Ma Yunjiu and Tu La.
The two of them were flanked by a strong young man who did not belong to the armored cavalry battalion.
After the team galloped on the grassland for an hour, they stopped under Ma Yunjiu's order.
The cavalrymen on horseback jumped off their horses, took out the fine materials they had brought, and began to feed the horses while letting their horses rest and regain their strength.
Ma Yunjiu came to the young and strong man, handed over a water bag, and said, "Here, brother Zhou, drink some water."
"Thank you Ma Yingzheng." Zhou You took the water bag and drank the water in it.
Ma Yunjiu asked: "How long does it take to get to Hatan?"
"The Hatan tribe's pasture is a hundred miles away from the armored cavalry camp. We have walked almost seventy miles and will be there in more than half an hour." Zhou You said.
With that said, he returned the water bag in his hand to Ma Yunjiu.
Taking the water bag, Ma Yunjiu wiped the mouth of the water bag with his palm, brought it to his mouth and took a few sips.
At this time Tu La came over from behind, holding a cloth bag in his hand.
"Eat something, there's still a fierce battle ahead." As he said that, he took out two pancakes from the bag and gave one to each of Ma Yunjiu and Zhou You.
"Thank you, Deputy Tu Yingzheng." Zhou You bowed his hand towards Tu La and then took the cake.
Tu La took out another salted fish, divided it into two halves, and gave them to Ma Yunjiu and Zhou You.
Ma Yunjiu put down the water bag, took the pancakes and salted fish, and said: "It's not a fierce battle, it's just a group of herdsmen, supported to death by twenty or thirty armored cavalry, and they don't pose much of a threat to our armored cavalry."
"Don't underestimate those herdsmen." Tu La said, "The herdsmen of the Hatan tribe are all born warriors. Mongolians have grown up on horses since they were young. They are very good at riding and shooting. When they get on the horse, they are warriors, and when they dismount, they are herdsmen. Unlike In the Ming Dynasty, soldiers are soldiers and people are people."
Ma Yunjiu smiled calmly and said: "It's useless to say more. Only after fighting can we know. I don't think a mere Hatan tribe can pose much of a threat to our armored cavalry battalion."
As the commander of the armored cavalry battalion, if the cavalry under his command cannot defeat a group of untrained herdsmen, then there is no need for his armored cavalry battalion to exist.
And he knew very well that the Mongols were really as strong as Tu La said. The border towns of the Ming Dynasty had long been captured by the Mongols, so how could the border security of the past few decades be maintained.
Tu La saw that his words were not heard by Ma Yunjiu, and he was worried that Ma Yunjiu was too careless and caused serious damage to the armored cavalry battalion.
By chance, when he saw Zhou You who was eating, his eyes lit up and he said to Zhou You: "Brother Zhou, you are from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau and you should know the strength of the Mongols best. What do you think of the strength of the Hatan Department?"
Zhou You wanted to pretend to eat and not get involved in the affairs of the two Yingzhengs around him, but he didn't expect that Tu La would call his name in the end.
He had no choice but to say: "Deputy Tu Yingzheng, if you ask me what I think, I don't think Beilu is that strong. The armored cavalry battalion will definitely win this battle."
Tu La pursed his lips.
Only then did he understand that not only did Ma Yunjiu not take the Mongols seriously, but probably the entire Tiger Flag did not take the Mongols seriously either.
Thinking of this, his heart sank.
If too many cavalrymen in the armored cavalry battalion were lost due to the general's carelessness, this was something he did not want to see. After all, many people in the armored cavalry battalion had been his subordinates for many years.
Ma Yunjiu said: "Although the armored cavalry battalion has only been training for a few months, don't forget that most of our cavalry are horse bandits, and their skills are not much worse than those of the Beibei, and there are soldiers and armor sent by Lingqiu. It is impossible to lose to the Hatan tribe in a battle."
Tu La nodded slightly.
What he was worried about was not that the armored cavalry battalion would be defeated, but that the armored cavalry battalion would suffer too many casualties.
As a horse bandit, he knew very well that his confidence in Tiger Banner was not his position as deputy battalion commander, but the horse bandit subordinates who followed him and joined the armored cavalry battalion.
As long as his subordinates are still in the armored cavalry camp, he can be stable in the Tiger Banner.
He has seen too many cases of donkey killing.
More than half an hour later, Ma Yunjiu shouted to Tan Zaiwang: "Gather the team and get ready to go."
Soon, the team that was resting regrouped and started on the road.
After more than half an hour's rest, the war horses were fed with fine food, regained their strength, and ran on the grassland again.
When winter comes, there are no herds on the grassland. The herdsmen have already driven the cattle and sheep into the pens to start the cat winter.
The cavalrymen of the armored cavalry battalion ran on the grassland without worrying about being discovered, and even if herders discovered them, they were not worried.
No one would believe that there would be a Han cavalry team taking action against the Hatan tribe on the grassland, and no one would believe that the Han team would have the courage to take action against the Mongols on the grassland.
The cavalry of the armored cavalry battalion walked less than twenty miles and stopped again under Ma Yunjiu's order.
"Brother Zhou, could you please take a small team of cavalry as sentries to explore the road ahead and check the situation of the Hatan Department." Ma Yunjiu said to Zhou You.
Zhou You nodded.
Later, Ma Yunjiu said to Tan Zaiwang: "Send a cavalry team as sentries to follow Brother Zhou to the Hatan Department for investigation."
"Yes." Tan Zaiwang agreed, turned to the person next to him and ordered, "Go and notify the first team and ask them to follow Brother Zhou to investigate the situation of the Hatan Department."
The man nodded and rode to the first team to deliver the order.
Not long after, a small cavalry team left the team with Zhou You and galloped away towards the front.
Tu La looked at Ma Yunjiu next to him and said, "Zhou You is from the Foreign Intelligence Agency and a member of the Tiger Flag. You don't worry about your own people, right?"
Ma Yunjiu said in a calm tone: "This has nothing to do with being uneasy. The war is imminent, so sentry cavalry will naturally be sent out to investigate the situation. You have also been in the border army, so you should understand these common sense in using troops."
Tu La choked up.
He naturally knew this, but in his career as a horse bandit over the years, he had led his horse bandits to come and go like the wind, leaving as soon as they robbed, buying and selling at the same time, and never thought of using sentinels.
The cavalrymen who stayed on the spot dismounted one after another, fed their horses with water, and at the same time restored their own physical strength.
None of the cavalrymen in the cataphract battalion were new recruits.
Most of them are horse bandits, and the remaining small number are the earliest cuirassiers of the Tiger Flag. Each cavalry has experienced more than one battle, and they all understand that only with sufficient physical strength can they kill the enemy better and ensure that they can fight on the battlefield. one's own safety.
