Abnormalities are definitely abnormal. The Mongolians' practice of closing cities and defending them to death was almost 200 years ago, that is, during the period before and after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the Mongols still had many cities in the Central Plains, and they still needed to The defender of the city.
But even at that time, the Mongols' city defense skills were not very good. In addition, they still preferred field attacks, so most of the city defense battles were fought poorly.
After the Mongols withdrew from the Central Plains, it became even rarer to defend the city. After a while, it would be even better - if there was no city, then naturally there would be no need to defend it.
If you don’t count the big promotion, it was almost until Anda built the Guihua City that the Mongols had such a thing as a "city" again. However, whether it is Dabansheng or Guihuacheng, it is all done by Anda, and it belongs to Tumote and not to Chahar.
As for Chahar Khan’s tent, Chahanhot, it is said to be a city. In fact, the so-called city wall is not even as good as the walls of the east and west cities of Yehe. In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, it is probably just an earthen fence, nothing more than a circle. It's just a bigger scope.
Under such conditions, the ability of the Tumen army to defend the city can be imagined. Not only the Ming army knew it, but they themselves should know it. In this case, how could the Mongols have the confidence to defend the city behind closed doors?
The generals of the Ming army actually had some ideas about this, but they believed that Tumen relied on the weather and Burihatu.
The weather is easy to understand. Winter in eastern Liaoning, especially outside the Great Wall in northern Liaoning, is completely "severely cold" to the Ming people. In the past, the Ming army rarely used large-scale troops during this period. Although the Ming army has arrived this time, the Tumen side is likely to think that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army has declined, or even seriously declined, and they themselves are much more accustomed to this kind of severe cold.
At the same time, Liaobei's winter when dripping water turns into ice is also helpful for defending the city. If you want ants to climb the city, the city wall made of rain, snow and ice will be slippery; if you want to bombard the city, insert a few wooden sticks and stack some bamboo branches in the breach and then pour water on it, the ice city will appear; if you want A long-term siege... No, are you really planning to compete in and outside the city to see who freezes to death first?
Precisely because the generals of the Ming army also guessed that Tumen might have such thoughts, they just discussed how to quickly break the city. For example, Zhang Wanbang believed that artillery should be concentrated to blast directly, while Qi Jin believed that Burihatu's old tricks could be used and so on.
But when everyone thought this way, they actually just thought that Tumen had something to rely on, so he closed the city and defended it, instead of thinking that he had prepared any conspiracy.
Of course, the Mongols themselves are not very good at conspiracy. They have been relatively straightforward for many years, and the Ming generals generally did not think much about it.
Only Gao Yimin had not had any dealings with the Mongols in the past. He still considered the current situation according to ordinary thinking, so he suddenly felt that something was wrong.
"The Mongols like to take the initiative to attack. It is not in line with his habits to shackle 20,000 cavalry in the city and wait for our army to attack."
Gao Yimin felt the eyes of everyone looking at him, and acted calmly: "Especially for Burihatu, the master has repeatedly reminded him that he is by no means a person waiting to be killed. Once he feels that there may be someone, If it is dangerous, they will definitely make arrangements in advance and try to lure our troops into his hub."
Gao Pragmatic was indeed very sure of this point for him. If nothing else, just saying that what Burihatu had done this year, weren't they all based on this habit?
First in the northwest and then in Liaodong, Burihatu felt that the Ming Dynasty was beginning to have a strong desire to destroy the "Great Yuan", so he made plans in advance and caused trouble everywhere in order to hold off the Ming Dynasty and extend the life of the remaining Yuan Dynasty. As for what step he can take, Burihatu himself may not know clearly. Gao Pingshi guessed that he couldn't think that far, and most likely just did his best and listened to fate.
Of course, perhaps Burihatu hoped that his constant troubles would make the Ming Dynasty exhausted and finally give up on the plan to continue to destroy Can Yuan.
After all, many things are easy to provoke, but no one can predict how it will develop in the future. If something good happens that Ming Dynasty is too busy to deal with, wouldn't it be better?
When the Song Dynasty secretly supported Wanyan Aguda, they probably just hoped that Wanyan Aguda would cause chaos in the Liao Dynasty. How could they expect that the Jurchens would overthrow the Khitan people in one breath, and the descendants of Aguda would not be like "Old Lao". "Khan" usually abides by the agreement with the Song Dynasty, but he actually took advantage of the situation and beat the Song Dynasty together?
It's easy to light a fire, but no one can tell how the fire will burn.
So Burihatu lit fires everywhere, and it was a good thing for him to have a big fire anywhere. If it was like the Song Dynasty's support for the Jurchens, and the last fire almost burned him to death, then Burihatu could only say that it was a matter of days, and there was nothing he could do.
If you don't struggle, you will definitely die, so why not struggle, what if a miracle happens?
At this time, Gao Yimin carried his master out. Regardless of whether he believed it or not, the generals did not dare to look questioning. Instead, they all looked deep in thought, thinking about the truth behind these words.
Cao Yan was the fastest thinking, because Gao Jingshi had mentioned in his previous letter that he should be careful of Burihatu's conspiracy. Just now, because of his many years of habit, he didn't think too deeply about the conspiracy. After Gao Yimin reminded him, he immediately woke up and said, "Yes, Burihatu is full of tricks, so we have to guard against him."
Without waiting for anyone to express their opinions, Cao Yu continued: "If we consider that the Mongols are more inclined to take the initiative, I believe that Tumen and Burihatu only have two chances."
He looked around at the crowd and said in a deep voice: "First, move the tiger away from the mountain. They may take advantage of me to send troops to attack Ye He's east city in a detour. The key to this method is that once the east city is lost, Ye He will be completely collapsed. Even if it is rebuilt and restored in the future, at least in the short term The internal threat to Chahar has been lost, and it will no longer serve as our barrier to the north of Ming Dynasty and Liaoning Province, allowing Chahar to free up a hand.
What is even more worrying for our army is that once the East City is lost, our army will become a lone army outside the Great Wall of Northern Liaoning. Not to mention some ordinary supplies, this is a place to stay under the freezing weather. Hard to find. "
He paused for a moment and then said: "But the good news is that we have been prepared for this. Ye He's infantry are all staying in the east city, and there are more than a hundred scout cavalry. Even if Burihatu wants to make a sneak attack, they can hold it temporarily. and alerted us for help.”
All the generals believed that this was true. Although Dongcheng had the possibility of being attacked by a sneak attack, everyone was relatively confident in Dongcheng's safety. It was expected that Burihatu would not place any hope that Ming Dynasty and Ye He would ignore Dongcheng. The possibility of actually launching a sneak attack on Dongcheng is still slim.
Seeing this, Cao Yu stretched out his hand and made a gesture of virtual pressure, and said: "The second one is the golden cicada escaping from its shell. What Brother Gao just said is right. Da Sinong also reminded me that Burihatu is good at setting traps. The commander thought that he might be planning to pretend to defend Xicheng, but in fact he had already led his troops to leave. There may not be any Mongols in Xicheng, but they are probably no longer the main force of Mongolia.
The question at hand is, if the Mongols really pull out the golden cicada, where do they plan to go? Should we take the opportunity to sneak back to Chahanhot, or find a way to ambush us? "
Although the Mongols often claim that their cavalry is invincible, in fact, the Mongolians' tactical thinking is more like that of mainstream cats, that is, they are accustomed to avoiding casualties, and then rely on their speed advantage to catch the opponent off guard. Only when a decisive battle is unavoidable, they will fight head-on. Combat - but Mangu's tactics are not very "frontal" to a certain extent.
In short, the Mongols are very good at ambushes, and unlike the Ming army, which can only predict every move of the opponent and then sit back and wait, the Mongols rely on speed, that is, they can find out the opponent's marching route and make quick detours. Go to the place where the opponent must pass and ambush, waiting for a sneak attack.
The generals of the Ming army knew the Mongols quite well, so when Cao Yun said this, everyone said that it was unlikely that the Mongols would simply escape back to Chahanhot, and that they would most likely find an opportunity to ambush the Mongols along the way.
So Cao Yan asked Ye He and the two Belles if there was any place particularly suitable for an ambush on the way from West City to East City. Nalinbulu and Buzhai looked at each other and said that there was Gutuzi Mountain between the east and west cities, but the Ming army did not plan to climb the mountain in the winter, so they chose to go around the southern foot of Gutuzi Mountain. In this case, the other party If an ambush was to be set up, it would probably be at the southern foot.
When going from the east city of Yehe to the southern foot of the west city, you must first go around Zhuanshan Lake (in later generations, Zhuanshan Lake was an artificial lake, but it was also built on this basis. It also existed at this time, but it was very small. Its name is unknown. It is temporarily unknown in later generations. name), and then head southwest, and the most common way to go along this road is along the Yehe River.
"Yehe" means "the sun by the river" in Jurchen dialect, and this "river" is the Yehe River. According to what the two Baylors said, because this road is the only way to connect the east and west cities, the roads are relatively neat. If the Mongols want to set up an ambush, they will not be able to set up an ambush very close to the main road.
However, the Mongols have a speed advantage. They can set up an ambush a little further away and wait until the Ming army appears before suddenly rushing over.
And there is another point that Nalinbulu specifically pointed out: the east city of Yehe is to the east of the Yehe River, but the west city is to the west of the Yehe River, and they did not have the ability to build a bridge across the Yehe River, so in the past, if there was a large-scale To cross the river, you can either take a detour at the northern foot, or walk directly across the Yehe River when it is frozen in winter.
Here comes the problem. Since the detour has been abandoned, we need to cross the river to take the southern route. There is no bridge across the river. Although the freeze has begun, the Ming army has sent people to check. The ice layer is not thick enough. At most, people have to be careful when leaving. Horses don't dare to take it easy now, and cannons don't even think about it.
Therefore, if the Ming army wanted to cross the river, it would be quite troublesome. They would at least need to break through Fu Bing and set up a pontoon bridge. The width of the Yehe River varies, but the two Belles are obviously very familiar with their hometown and pointed out a place with Tingzhou in the center of the river.
Tingzhou is a small island in the middle of the lake. With Tingzhou here, the efficiency of building the floating bridge will be much higher because there is a fulcrum in the center of the river. Both Belles agreed that the spot was the best place to build a pontoon bridge.
Who would have thought that after they finished speaking, Gao Yimin laughed and said, "It seems that if Burihatu wants to ambush, the ambush location will be not far from the rivers on both sides of Tingzhou."
Cao Yu also laughed and said: "Heroes have similar views. Both of them thought that this place was the best place to build a pontoon. Burihatu naturally found out in the past few days when he went to Xicheng. He knew that our army It was probably necessary to build a bridge there, how could he miss such a good opportunity?"
But when he said this, his expression became serious again, and he mused: "But now that our army is going on an expedition in winter, it is inconvenient to stay outside. Since this is the best place to build a pontoon bridge, we have no choice but to use it. In this way, How to deal with Burihatu's sneak attack has become a top priority... I wonder if you guys have any tips for me?"
This question is quite difficult. Since the Yehe River road is the only way between the two cities, it must be a big road, which is convenient for the cavalry to gallop freely. The Ming army also has to build a pontoon bridge, so it is bound to be inconvenient for them to prepare nervously. How to prepare for a sneak attack? It's hard.
Zhang Wanbang, a young general who is famous for fighting tough battles, is indeed very tough. He said without fear: "It doesn't matter. Those who build the bridge just build the bridge. The general's troops can guard the side behind the river. It doesn't matter what the Mongolian cavalry is. As long as they dare to charge The formation of the last general will make it impossible for him to come back!"
Not to be outdone, Qi Jin said: "After all, General Zhang's troops are limited, and I am willing to help him. I guarantee that the Burhatuna Tatars will not be able to take advantage of him."
Cao Yu thought for a while and felt that the combat power of the two of them was quite strong. Judging from the past record, it was quite possible to defend the cavalry from the front and make a sneak attack. Even if it was not good, it would be possible for the main force of the army to shift from building a bridge to preparing for the attack. The military formation stalled for time.
Just when he was about to agree, Leng Buding Gao Yimin laughed and interjected: "The two generals are naturally impregnable, but Tumen and Burihatu are plotting against our heavenly soldiers. If our army cannot take the initiative, we will just let them do it." Isn’t it a loss of face to gallop back and forth?”
Cao Yu knew as soon as he heard that he still had something to say, so he smiled and said: "It seems that Brother Gao has a clever plan to turn our army from defense to offense? You can't hide it, tell me quickly. Wait and listen."
Gao Yimin clasped his fists at everyone, and then said: "Tumen's cavalry is proud of its cavalry, thinking that it can gallop freely and come and go freely, but they don't know that our cavalry also has a large lineup now, and its elite is not inferior to Chahar's. Under such a situation, how can we allow them to be so arrogant!"
He paused for a moment and then said: "I boldly suggest that the general army should command the main force of our army's cavalry with a capable cavalry general. Together with Ye He's cavalry, they will not participate in building bridges but be ready for battle at any time. They can also keep a small distance from the main force of infantry and lure them. The Tatars took advantage of the weakness and attacked the flanks of our infantry. When the Tatars launched their offensive, our cavalry also took action, either flanking the enemy or outflanking them. In short, they did not make the Tatars feel better. As for the specific choice at that time, we can only It will make its own decision."
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