Jun Song's words sounded very domineering, and it made sense if he thought about it carefully, but Xiao Ruxun always felt unsure and could not help but hesitate for a moment.
Xiao Ruxun was a general from the three sides of Shaanxi, and he was most familiar with the Ordos tribe, followed by Tumut - whether it was the Tumut headquarters or the Qinghai Tumut, Xiao Ruxun knew them all well, but his understanding of Chahar, to be honest, was A little worse.
He has certainly done a lot of homework since he took office as deputy commander in chief of Liaodong, but "soldiers are the most important thing of the country." As a general who is famous for defending a lonely city alone, he must first ensure that there will be no major mistakes in his first battle in Liaodong. , this is not only human nature, but also his responsibility.
Among the three main military discussions today, relatively speaking, the strategy proposed by You Shigong is the safest. However, if You Shigong's suggestion is followed, not only Horqin may suspect that Ming's position is not firm enough, but even the two reinforcements Ye He and Hada affiliated with the Ming army may underestimate his coach Xiao Ruxun and think that he is afraid of the enemy. Afraid of fighting.
This is definitely not possible. In addition to the strength of a general, his prestige is definitely a factor that cannot be ignored. Just like when Qi Jiguang sent out troops, his soldiers would never suspect that he had made a mistake in using his troops; if it was Gao Situ who sent out troops, it would be even more reassuring, which means that not only do you not have to worry about tactical mistakes, but all kinds of guarantees are foolproof, even if you die in battle On the battlefield, the pension money will definitely not be reduced at all, and even the family members will be properly arranged in the future.
Under this premise, the soldiers subordinate to Commander Qi were not afraid of facing any strong enemy, while the soldiers subordinate to Gao Situ were even more determined to risk their lives.
These prestige are accumulated through winning battles again and again. If you do it once, everyone will praise you, if you do it twice, everyone will start to trust you, and if you can do it many times in a row without exception, then everyone will be willing to trust you with their lives. .
Xiao Ruxun, who was born as a general, certainly understood these principles, so he knew that he must not give such an impression to his subordinates and subordinate forces. Therefore, although You Shigong's suggestion was generally supported by the trilateral generals, Xiao Ruxun could not accept it.
Juniper's suggestion is not unreasonable. Being able to defeat Tumen directly is certainly better than any other strategy. Just like before the Monan War, except for Gao Situ himself, maybe everyone else was playing drums in their hearts.
Even the emperor might be riding a tiger with difficulty. He neither dared to force Gao Situ to give in to avoid damaging his prestige, but also worried that the consequences of Gao Situ's defeat would be worse. As for the emperor's support for Gao Situ in the end, it may be to a large extent. The personal friendship between the two men came into play.
In the end, Gao Situ defeated the Tumen Xinai coalition forces in a battle and firmly controlled Tumut. From then on, all the towns on the nine sides admired Gao Situ. Not only did the generals of the Xuanda Department who were originally under Gao Situ's influence follow him more wholeheartedly, but also the generals of the Three Sides Department who were still aloof from each other also followed suit. All of them came over at once.
In fact, it was precisely because of that great victory that Gao Situ was able to successfully conquer non-Li Chengliang generals after he went to Liaodong. In a short period of time, the seemingly monolithic Liaodong generals were divided into the Li family and the Gao family.
But these premises are all based on a brilliant victory. What if there is no great victory? What if unfortunately we lose the battle? What if the losses are heavy or even the armor is gone?
Qiu Fu was so majestic during the Battle of Jingnan. When Emperor Chengzu granted the title of meritorious official, he was awarded the title of Duke of Qi, ranking first among the meritorious officials. However, during the Northern Expedition against the Tartars in the seventh year of Yongle, Qiu Fu underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, resulting in the annihilation of his entire army and his own defeat and death. Chengzu was furious after hearing the news. Not only did he decide to lead the expedition himself, he also deprived Qiu Fu of his hereditary title and exiled his family to Hainan.
what does that mean? This means that regardless of your past merits, once serious consequences are caused, the court may not necessarily look at your past hard work and be lenient under criticism.
At present, we only have 20,000 riders, Horqin has not yet been able to join our side, and Tumen is accompanied by Burihatu, who even Gao Situ repeatedly asked him to be careful in his letters. At this time, he takes the initiative to go to Tumen for a decisive battle. What do you think? It's not a safe idea either, and it definitely shouldn't be adopted.
In this case, we can only accept Ma Chengxun's suggestion. Ma Chengxun's suggestion is actually not very safe. There is a variable that is not controlled by the Ming-Manchu coalition forces. That is, once the Ming-Manchu coalition forces and the main force of Tumen fight, will Horqin's troops be able to catch up before the outcome of the two sides is decided? Arriving at the battlefield, and achieving a pincer attack, turning defeat into victory - yes, Xiao Ruxun really did not think that the 20,000 coalition cavalry could defeat Chahar's main force.
However, even if there is such a hidden danger, Xiao Ruxun can no longer worry about it. After all, it is never possible to be truly "completely prepared" for things like war. To be able to be 70% to 80% sure, in Xiao Ruxun's opinion, it was already a blessing - did he really feel that he was infallible when he was guarding the isolated city alone? Obviously not, he just knew that he had no way out. The isolated city was under siege. Since he refused to join the bandits, he naturally had no choice but to fight to the end.
In addition, there are two benefits to adopting Ma Chengxun's opinion. The first benefit is that it can reassure Ye He, Hada and the troops of Jianzhou Youwei - you see, how good I, Ming Dynasty, are to you, there is no need to say that I am treated like a dog by Ming Dynasty!
The second benefit is to win Ma Chengxun's support. Ma Chengxun, or the entire Ma Family Army behind him, has been following Gao Situ the longest among all the generals. Judging from the current momentum, he is also one of the generals that Gao Situ has the most trust in. He is on par with the Ma Family Army. between.
Considering that Ma Fang only has three sons and none of his grandchildren are very accomplished, Ma Jiajun should be the number one general under Gao Situ. Oh, no, there is another Liu family in the south who is highly trusted by Gao Situ, but the situation of the Liu family is a little worse than that of the Ma family, because Liu Xian only has an only son, Liu Xing. Although he is highly trusted by Gao Situ, in terms of the whole family, The strength of the army is a little less interesting.
Of course, I heard that Liu Xian's daughter has been living in Gao Situ's house. This... well, that's a different story. It is impossible for Gao Situ to send her to lead the imperial government's economic and political forces. The Ming Dynasty had its own rules, and she was not a chieftain from the southwest. Even if she married Gao Situ, she could only be a servant of the Gao family who could lead her troops.
Therefore, if we can win the support of Ma Chengxun, the alliance between the generals of the Trilateral Department and the generals of the Xuanda Department in Liaodong will definitely become more stable. In addition, the Ma family and the Ma family have a relationship of marriage alliance, then once the Ma family supports He and the Ma family should also support him. Even if his position as deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong is secured, this must be what Gao Situ would like to see.
War is never just the war itself, and politics is always a hurdle that cannot be bypassed. Xiao Ruxun had made up his mind. After pondering for a while, he expressed his acceptance of Ma Chengxun's opinion, ordered more exploration horses and tried to contact Horqin's main force as early as possible. At the same time, the whole army rushed towards the northwest.
The marching speed of the cavalry is actually not as fast as many people imagine. It is not a common phenomenon to travel hundreds of miles a day. Such high speed is a rushing attack, which is very harmful to the horse. Generally, it can only be done when the enemy is clear and not too far away from you. It may only appear when you are far away.
Generally speaking, the speed that cavalry generals who are famous for their speed can achieve in combat is usually only tens of miles a day. If it is a running attack, few elite cavalry can reach more than a hundred miles. For example, Xia Houyuan, there was a saying circulating among Cao's army at that time, "Xia Houyuan, the commander of the Dianjun army, has five hundred in three days and one thousand in six days."
How much is it converted into kilometers? In the Han Dynasty, one mile was equal to 300 steps, one step was equal to 6 feet, one foot was 23.1 centimeters, and one mile was equal to 0.4158 kilometers. Therefore, Xiahou Yuan's speed was: "207 kilometers in three days, 416 kilometers in six days," which is equivalent to 70 kilometers per day. . Moreover, this was considered a desperate run, and Xia Houyuan's subsequent death actually had a lot to do with a desperate run.
In fact, let alone ancient cavalry, even modern mechanized troops can't march much faster. During the Gulf War, the US 7th Army unexpectedly broke into the hinterland of Iraq from the Iraqi army's flanks to defend weak points, maneuvering about 260 kilometers to achieve the goal of annihilating the Iraqi army.
This combat action was quite similar to the left hook in boxing, and was later called the "powerful left hook action." But in this operation, the American army marched for 89 hours in the battle and maneuvered 260 kilometers. The average daily march was only 70 kilometers.
How about the Eight Banners Cavalry that was later praised to the extreme? In fact, the Eight Banners is not a pure cavalry force, but a mixed force of infantry and cavalry. Even its cavalry itself is mostly of the nature of mounted infantry. Therefore, before the fateful Battle of Shanhaiguan, the entire Eight Banners army traveled day and night for 12 days, covering more than 400 kilometers on the map, with an average speed of about 35 kilometers per day (70 miles in one day in this book).
The Mongolian cavalry is no joke. Its average daily marching speed can reach up to 90 kilometers.
This is not unfounded nonsense. It only took them 2 months and 5 days to conquer Northern Russia with an average speed of 85 to 90 kilometers per day; it only took 2 months and 10 days to conquer Southern Russia. , the daily attack speed reached 55 to 60 kilometers; it only took three months to attack Hungary and Poland, and the daily attack speed reached 58 to 62 kilometers.
The above-mentioned speeds seem to include combat time, which is quite astonishing. It is completely an ancient version of blitzkrieg. Fortunately, that was the record achieved by the Mongols in their most glorious era, and the current Mongolian cavalry can no longer reach that level.
However, even if they are not as powerful as their ancestors, the Mongolian cavalry at this time can still have some speed advantages compared to the Ming army cavalry...or the Manchurian cavalry. Therefore, even if Xiao Ruxun spreads out to explore the horses, when the two sides meet, the two There was only a hundred miles between the main forces of the army, and when each of them ran back to report to the main force, the distance between the two sides was only seventy or eighty miles away.
However, neither side's scouts themselves saw the other side's main force. As a result, the generals on both sides could only roughly judge the location of the other side's main force. But this is enough, especially for the leader of Chahar.
The leader of Chahar was none other than Abadai Saiyin Khan, and the Mongolian troops he led were all elite troops he brought from Outer Khalkha.
The task left to him by Tumen Khan was not complicated: to make the Ming-Manchu coalition and the Horqin tribe think that his troops were the vanguard of the Chahar-Mongolian army. As for whether to defeat the opponent, or which part of the opponent was defeated, Tumen Khan did not make any decisions at all. Require.
Why did the Great Khan of Tumen not set any actual combat goals for Abadai Saiyin Khan, and only asked him to make the other party think that the Mongolian army of the Waikakarka Department was the forward of the Mongolian army of Chahar?
Because the only troops left by Tumen Khan to fight on the eastern front were Abadai Saiyin Khan and the 15,000 Waikakar cavalry he had on hand, and there was no one else.
The main Chahar force of Tumen Khan's headquarters has already marched westward, heading straight towards Daning. Of course, he was not going to attack Daning City, that would be too difficult. The Ming army has been frantically building a city defense system in Daning City in the past few years. If it weren't for the small population in Daning City, they might have built Daning into the second Datong.
But even though Daning City is now much smaller than Datong, the specifications of the city defense system are almost in accordance with the standards of Datong City, that is, there are four main city gates, one each in the southeast and northwest. In order to ensure convenient transportation, Each main gate is divided into two small gates, with a total of twelve city gates; there are towers built on the four gates, including moon tower, arrow tower, watchtower, and turrets standing at intervals. Outside the four gates, there are urn city, moon city, moat.
The entire city is based on huge strips of stone and is reinforced using Jinghua's latest "concrete" technology. The inner core of the city wall is made of three-component rammed earth, and is covered with blue bricks weighing 17 kilograms each. The city wall is as high as four feet (about 12 kilograms). meters, Datong is 14 meters), and stacks of bricks used by musketeers were built on the walls. After conversion of length units, they are 5 meters long, 0.8 meters high, and 0.5 meters thick. The distance between the stacks is 0.5 meters.
This is just the main city wall, there are dozens of watchtowers, and the sloped protrusions of the bastion-like structure. In short, it is just a hedgehog. Unless the invading enemy has an extremely powerful artillery force, a storming attack will almost cost you your life.
Of course, Tumen Khan did not intend to attack by force. The reason why he ran towards Daning was because Burihatu believed that Tumote would definitely send troops, and the troops would definitely use Daning as a support point. Therefore, since our own side wants to use Tumut to sacrifice the flag, as long as it wanders and lurks near Daning City, it can definitely wait and wait until Tumut's Mongolian army comes to fall into the trap.
It stands to reason that one of the main points why the Mongolian cavalry is so powerful is that they can "departure without logistics". In other words, they do not need any support points. But Burihatu believes that even if Tumut cavalry can do this at a certain time, if there is a support point available, Tumut will definitely use it.
The reason is simple. Burihatu believes that the current Tumote must have degenerated. Because they have obtained abundant supplies from Daminggong City, the pressure on the tribe to survive has dropped sharply. They have been pampered for too long, so once there is Daning City, it can be used as a Relying on them, they will never run around in the grassland "stupidly".
At this point, Burihatu's eyes were very vicious, because Tumut's reinforcements for the Eastern Expedition were indeed headed straight for Daning City under the leadership of Erdemutu.
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