The Ming army under Gao Pangshi's command stayed in Ixibal for four full days, which seemed inconsistent with the planned plan for a quick victory, but in Gao Pragmatic's view, this was a necessary move.
In just four days, Taigalzhungenhatun rushed here from Yijinhuoluo day and night, and announced the announcement under the "recommendation" of Gao pragmatism, Tuotuo and Yilduqi. Temporarily acting as regent of Boshu Ketu Jinong in Ordos.
Of course, theoretically speaking, Gao pragmatism and Totuo are not actually "recommendations." The most formal expression of this process should be that Ilduqi initially recommended Taigalzhungenhatun to the envoy of King Shunyi, Tuotuo, to serve as acting regent. Then Tuotuo recognized Han Naji on behalf of King Shunyi and forwarded it to Gao Jingshi, the left minister of the Ministry of War and seven-town manager, and the commander-in-chief of the northwest military affairs on behalf of the Ming Dynasty. Finally, Gao Jingshi expressed his approval and submitted it to the emperor for final approval.
There is no doubt that the emperor has the final decision-making power, but when Gao Jingshi came, the imperial edict clearly stated that he was given the right to act expediently, so the report to the emperor itself was just a formality. From the moment Gao Jingshi agreed, Taigal Jungen Hatun is the veritable Regent Hatun of the Ordos Department - equivalent to the Queen Mother Regent in the Ming Dynasty.
The Mongolian regent Hatun (or queen) could lead troops in battle, just like Dayan Khan's wife Manduhai, who was twenty-five years older than him. Because Dayan Khan was young, Manduhai even put him in a quiver and carried him on his body for protection when he went on an expedition.
Manduhai’s first expedition against Oirat was recorded in the Genealogy of Mongolian Borzigit as follows: “Manduhai Saiyinhatun’s own cavalry led Alaitong of the Keshiketen tribe to clear the way to Tesibul. In the capital city, he fought with Willet and won a great victory. He subdued 40,000 Willet. He ordered Willet's generals: From now on, the houses will not be called palaces, the crown and tassels will not be longer than four fingers, and kneeling will not be allowed in the permanent residence. Sit down, eat meat but not cut it, change the name of "Usuk" (yoghurt) to "Zage". His tribe knelt down with a knife to ask for meat, agreed, and I have learned so far. Willert still follows this practice to this day. "Willert is Vetra.
This shows that the power of the regent Hatun is no different from that of the Great Khan, and it is completely reasonable to lead troops in battle. The Mongols are accustomed to this and will not reject it in any way. In addition, Taigalzhungenhatun had served as regent for many years before Boshu Ketu took charge, so the matter went smoothly. Gao Pragmatic also negotiated with her the terms of atonement for the Ordos Department. .
Four days later, the army set off.
At this time, the Gao pragmatic army officially exceeded 100,000 people, but the Ming army headquarters was less than half of the total, and more of them were actually Mongolian cavalry. The back road in Sai Shang that Kuai Bai worked so hard to build has turned into a dead end in Sai Shang.
Perhaps it was due to the restoration of the Hetao, perhaps to block Kuaibai, or perhaps there were other reasons. In short, Gao Pragmatic still did not go south to enter the jurisdiction of the Yansui governor. Instead, he moved his troops westward and recovered the crucial Huabai first. In the Machi area, Yanchi is under control again.
At this time, Gao pragmatic received a report from Li Rusong. Li Rusong's headquarters was marching very fast. It had passed Qingyang two days ago and was reinforcing Guyuan as planned. The main purpose of his reporting was to ask Gao Pragmatic for instructions on what the combat mission of his army would be after it arrived in Guyuan.
Li Rusong also reported a rather shocking news: Jinghua Trading Company's subordinates in Ningxia City rescued Liang Wenmeng, the former governor of Ningxia who was imprisoned by Kuaibai! At the same time, Zhou Zhe and his son, who had previously organized resistance against the Kuaibai rebels in their hometown of Ningxia Zhongwei, also fled to Guyuan with the help of Jinghua Trading Company.
Li Rusong asked for instructions: first, how to treat Liang Wenmeng, and second, whether it was necessary to reward Zhou and his son.
Normally speaking, under the current situation, the most suitable strategy for Li Rusong's troops would be to cooperate with Gao Pragmatic Headquarters' westward and northward march, with both sides attacking in separate attacks to surround Ningxia.
However, Gao Pragmatic's appetite was obviously greater. His reply to Li Rusong was to order the latter to show off his power around Guyuan for a day, and then leave the city at night and drive directly to Lanzhou to prepare for the next stage of combat missions.
At the same time, Gao pragmatically generously placed the three thousand cavalrymen of Cao Gan who had been transferred to Guyuan under the command of Li Rusong.
As for Liang Wenmeng and Zhou Zhe's father and son, the former was an unexpected joy - of course, it is hard to say whether it is a real "happy" for the time being, because although he did not surrender to the enemy, he maintained his loyalty as a civil servant, which can arouse Ningxia However, it was difficult to clear out the charge of the coup, and even Gao Pragmatic did not dare to characterize it, so he could only ask Li Rusong to temporarily "leave Liang Wenmeng in Guyuan to be raised" on his behalf, which was actually to put him under house arrest first. Gao Pangshi himself immediately went to court to report the matter to the court, and at the same time revealed a little bit about himself.
The matter of Zhou Zhe and his son was relatively simple. Gao Pragmatic went to Shu to ask for rewards for them without saying a word, and also suggested in the memorial that they could be allowed to serve in the army temporarily until Ningxia made a decision before discussing their merits, " Or it can be entrusted to the prefecture and county."
Zhou Zhe himself is just a civil servant, and his son Zhou Bang is just a student. Now he has the opportunity to serve as a prefect after the war, or at least a county magistrate. It is really an unexpected blessing.
Gao Pragmatic's move was supposed to continue Gao Gong's previous reform ideas in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which was to reuse juren. At the same time, more directly, it was to use Ningxia's gentry and celebrities to appease the local area and lay the foundation of "harmony" for eliminating hidden dangers after the war.
After arranging the tasks for Li Rusong's subordinates, Gao Pingshi replied to the governor and the commander-in-chief of Gansu Province who had also sent letters to inquire about their actions, telling them not to rush to counterattack and to just guard the final channel of Zhuang Langwei with peace of mind.
During the day of repairs in Huamachi, the Ming army allocated a batch of grain and grass to be distributed to three groups of Mongolian cavalry, and at the same time replenished military supplies such as gunpowder pellets. The three groups of Mongolian cavalry spent a day feeding their horses in the Huamachi pasture and recovered. A bit of horsepower.
The next day, all armies were ready and no longer gathered in one place. Under Gao Pragmatic's orders, they attacked in separate directions towards Ningxia.
On the North Road, Ningxia Deputy General Xiao Ruxun was appointed as the commander-in-chief, and Datong West Road General Ma Kongying, who was sent by Ma Gui to assist him, was the deputy. Together with 5,000 troops, they returned to Pinglu City. The regent of the Ordos tribe, Taigal Jungen Hatun, led 30,000 troops. As a support force for Xiao Ruxun's tribe, it was planned to be used to trap the Tuwenxiu tribe and prevent them from having the opportunity to flee north to the grassland.
The south road is the Gao pragmatic headquarters, which has returned to its previous state. It is mainly composed of the Gaojiajia Ding Guards, the Jingying First Division and the Magui Division, all the way west from Huamachi, approaching Ningxia. Since Magui's headquarters was divided into 3,000 people, the main force of the Gao pragmatic South Road headquarters was about 35,000 at this time. However, Yansui guerrillas Jiang Xianmo, Yulin guerrillas Yu Shangde and other Yansui town soldiers are already approaching Gao Pragmatic Headquarters. When the armies gather together, Gao Pragmatic Headquarters can still exceed the 40,000-strong army, and may reach 45,000.
The largest force and the most mobile force is the Tumut-Ordos coalition army composed of Totuo and Ilduzi. However, although this army is strong, with 50,000 cavalry, it is not suitable for use. He was used to attack Ningxia, so he was used by Gao Jingyi to attack the troops of brothers Huo Luochi and Jilitu who were attacking Zhuang Langwei.
Huamachi is already south of the Great Wall, so this joint cavalry does not need to take a detour. Under the security provided by Gao Pragmatic, they only need to rush all the way to the southwest. At the same time, Gao Pangshi also sent messengers and ordered the local government offices to provide military ration supplements along the way. However, considering that the current relationship between Ming and Mongolia in the northwest is relatively tense and cannot be compared with Shanxi Xuanda, he also allowed various places not to open city gates and only open city gates. Foreign "laborers".
It has only been half a month since Gao Jingshi dispatched troops from Datong. The Ming court has already passed the chaos when the rebellion first broke out and began to be fully involved in the counterattack.
In addition to Gao Jingshi and Li Rusong's reinforcements, Guyuan's general Li Yu was ordered to guard Guyuan. However, after Gao Jingshi's headquarters approached Lingzhou from the Ningxia rear guard (near Huamachi), he would send troops north to Weizhou. If It would be best if we could seize Weizhou. Even if we couldn't, we should make it impossible for the Weizhou rebels to return to Ningxia or Lingzhou.
In addition, there are General Liu Chengsi in Gansu and General Dong Yikui in northern Sichuan. They are all actively mobilizing their troops, either to guard the key areas in Gansu, or to go north to Tao to block Huo Luochi's brother's return. In short, all directions are now open. let's move.
With Gao Jingshi's current status and prestige as the commander-in-chief of the northwest military affairs, and he also carries Shang Fangjian, none of the generals and generals dare to take their own heads seriously. After all, the gap between the status of the two parties and the Holy Family is too big. To put it bluntly, if Gao Pragmatic wants to kill them at this time, it is really not much different from trampling an ant to death.
If all these troops are included, the total number of troops participating in the battle in the northwest at this time is estimated to be close to 200,000. The scale is sufficient and the momentum is sufficient, but the difficulties it faces are only known to Gao Pragmatic himself.
In fact, military pay has almost bottomed out. Gao Pragmatic still has only about 50,000 taels of silver left on hand. The remaining part is either used to reissue military pay to the armies, or used to purchase grain and grass to distribute to various ministries, and some of it is similar. In "Kaiba Silver", it was given to the generals to encourage the servants.
And this is not all the expenses. In fact, because of Gao Jingshi's order, many areas still in the hands of the Ming army are mobilizing supplies and silver. These supplies and silver are all local. Gao Jingshi almost purely relies on the majesty of Shangguan. To mobilize them with the face within the Real School, let alone whether there will be disputes in the future, it is hard to say whether these things are enough.
After all, these money and materials are equivalent to local treasury to a certain extent, and the number of small treasury in various places is completely uncertain. Some are more, some are less, and some are even so little that they are almost nothing. . There is also a lot of balancing work that needs to be done by high pragmatism - for example, places that pay a lot of money will definitely be dissatisfied. High pragmatism requires various means to appease, and occasionally even force, of course, more of them use both carrot and stick. .
War is never just as simple as fighting. The work behind the scenes is often more important than how the front line is fought. This is just like Liu Bang has Xiao He behind him, so even if he loses so many times, he can always make a comeback. But without his father Fan Zeng behind Xiang Yu, it is almost impossible to lose at all.
Let’s leave aside the rest and say that the main force of Gao Pragmatic Headquarters sent troops from Huamachi and arrived at the outskirts of Lingzhou three days later, eyeing the “South Gate of Ningxia” with eager eyes.
The troops in Lingzhou City were not sufficient, with only 2,000 men, and the guard was none other than Kuai Chengen.
However, this shortage is only compared to Gaowu Shi's current army of more than 40,000. In fact, before the Ningxia Revolution, the garrison of Lingzhou City was less than 2,000, only about 1,500 or 600. Now it is a manifestation of Kuaibai's strengthening of the city's defense.
Lingzhou has always been a battleground for military strategists throughout the ages, and there have been countless wars. However, by the time of the Ming Dynasty, Lingzhou City itself was not very majestic. It was quite normal for Kuai Chengen to defend Lingzhou with two thousand troops, and it would not appear that the city defense was not repaired.
However, all this was based on the past urban defense situation. What was the past situation? Lingzhou's main task is to defend against the Mongols, and the Mongols are characterized by almost only cavalry and not much powerful siege capabilities.
The situation is very different now. Gao Pangshi's headquarters is almost entirely made up of infantry. Although many of them come on horseback, they are actually "mounted infantry". Whether these people defend or attack the city, they are undoubtedly far from the best. The Mongols can compare.
What frightened Yi Chengen the most was that his scout told him that Gao Pingshi's army not only "stretched for more than ten miles", but also had "more than a hundred generals" - this does not mean more than a hundred generals, but more than a hundred generals. There are more than a hundred large artillery pieces. To be precise, it means that the number of No. 1 and No. 2 cannons exceeds a hundred.
Of course, the words of these rebels were actually exaggerated. Because they wanted to fight quickly, Gao Pragmatic did not carry many heavy artillery. In fact, there were no No. 1 cannons at all, and there were actually only more than thirty No. 2 cannons. On the contrary, there were quite a lot of No. 3 cannons. Up to eighty-four gates.
However, because Gao Pangshi's troops had elite Majia soldiers acting as scouts, the rebel scouts did not dare to pry in depth. They could only take a glance at it from a distance, so they looked away and regarded all the artillery as heavy artillery - - At this time, most people's attitude towards artillery was not very scientific. They all thought that the bigger the thing, the better. The level was similar to that of Yuan Chonghuan in the original history. As for the difficulty of transportation and whether it is suitable for use, they generally do not consider it.
Kuai Chengen, who received the wrong information, was also frightened. He was also a Mongolian, but he just grew up in Ningxia. In his mind, artillery was not easy to use in the field - the opponent was Mongolian. Of course, people usually refused to fight in the field with the Ming army under the bombardment of artillery. They usually harassed them in roundabout ways and attacked slowly, bullying the Ming army's artillery into being unable to turn around.
But Yi Chengen knows how powerful artillery can be in attacking a city. Although these days they are all solid bullets, but except for Ningxia City, most of the city walls in the northwest are not tall and majestic bluestone brick walls, but mostly made of bluestone. Built with rammed earth. Huge solid bullets hit it. As long as a certain place is hit by two consecutive rounds, the nearby wall will be cracked. If the bombardment continues, it is almost certain that the city wall will collapse. It is only a matter of time.
Gao Jingshi has "more than a hundred generals" on hand. According to Yi Chengen's understanding, as long as Gao Jingshi is willing to spare the money, he might be able to knock down the walls of Lingzhou City in one day, and then it will be 40,000 versus 2,000...
How to fight this?
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