The sun and the moon pass by, and time flies by. The dense war clouds in the north of the Great Wall could not directly cover the sky of the capital. Beijing in the Ming Dynasty was still enjoying the coolness of autumn as usual.
But this pleasant calm was quickly broken by two pond newspapers, just like throwing a stone on the calm lake - no, it was a huge stone, causing shocking waves.
The first Tangbao came from Liaodong and was submitted by Gu Yangqian, the governor of Liaodong. The report said: "(Our army) went out for a few days and encountered prisoners a hundred miles west of Kaiyuan. Deputy General Xiao Ruxun found out and prepared his equipment and horses in order to meet the enemy. In the wilderness. The Er and Er armies fought for the first time. Guanlu's troops were about 20,000, and they were on par with me. He told the generals: "There is nothing to be afraid of." Then he discussed with the deputy general Ma Chengxun, and Xiao Ruxun personally led the Chinese army to fight fiercely. Ma Chengxun Xunbu went out from the right to surround the enemy's flank.
The prisoners only attacked forcefully along the way. Although the offensive was fierce, they could not break through Ruxun. Due to Ma Chengxun's flank attack, the captives were slightly defeated and retreated. I obtained more than 200 heads and killed hundreds of enemies (note: Mongolia has a habit of retrieving the bodies of those killed in battle). Although Wang's division had a small victory, it suffered more than 400 casualties, so he ordered troops to control it.
Unexpectedly, a defeated army of captives came to surrender the next day. When asked, they were told that they were not captives, but Horqin's defeated army. Ruxun was shocked and asked, only to learn that although the captives had suffered a small setback recently, the main force was still there, so they turned north to ambush Horqin. Horqin Beileming'an heard that the king's division had seen the captives, and brought his brothers Mangusi, Hongguo'er and others to help. Unexpectedly, they met the enemy and were severely defeated. Four thousand people were killed or injured and fled. They were in great embarrassment and fled to Ruxun.
Xiao Ruxun, the deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong, and Ma Chengxun, the commander-in-chief of Kaiyuan, reported to their ministers that the Lu tribe might be Tumen's front army. If they win with this victory, they will definitely expand their power and cannot immediately counterattack to carry out their plan. They should take Horqin with them. Retreat to the west of Kaiyuan and temporarily station outside the border wall for funeral arrangements.
My Majesty, although Horqin is defeated, I will be victorious, and the captives will also be defeated and victorious. It can be said that the power is evenly balanced. However, the reason why I sent troops this time was to rescue Horqin. Since I have rescued Horqin, the general situation is clear. I think this is acceptable. When Horqin regains his strength, when can we not send troops?
Kuang Lu came to attack Horqin. Although he won a victory, he was unable to overthrow the army and was bound to try again. I, together with Ye He, Hada, Jianzhou (Youwei) and Horqin, will be waiting for work, and my chances of winning will increase..."
The main meaning of this newspaper is roughly this: Xiao Ruxun sent troops to meet the enemy, the Chinese army faced the enemy head-on, Ma Chengxun led his headquarters to outflank, and finally won a small victory, the captives retreated, while Xiao Ruxun sent troops to treat the wounded.
However, only one day later, Horqin's defeated army came to surrender. After asking, they found out that they had heard that the Ming-Manchu coalition forces encountered enemies and were coming to attack Chahar with the Ming-Manchu coalition forces. However, they did not expect that the attack here was too fast. Chahar Er also walked too fast, so he was ambushed on the road and suffered a huge defeat, losing four thousand elite troops.
Xiao Ruxun and Ma Chengxun both believed that they should not fight Chahar now, and requested to retreat to the Kaiyuan Great Wall and wait for Chahar to take the initiative to attack, so that they could wait for work and take advantage of their firepower. Gu Yangqian also agreed with this approach. Then ask the emperor to judge.
To be honest, although Liaodong's report is not too satisfactory, it is not too bad either. It can be said that it is still within the expected range. As for retreating outside the Great Wall to the west of Kaiyuan City, it is not that everyone does not understand the motivation for doing so.
In fact, waiting for work in leisure is only an explicit motive. Not to mention the civil servant Gu Yangqian did not mention the more important motive. Even the two generals Xiao Ruxun and Ma Chengxun shrewdly did not mention it, because that reason is not convenient to announce now. In the mouth.
The closer Horqin's main force gets to Kaiyuan and settles down, the more they will be inseparable from the protection of Ming Dynasty in the future, and over time they will become the second Hada and the second Ye He.
If this kind of thing happened ten years ago, it would still be a mixed blessing, because although the effect of restraint may be improved, the risk factor will also be magnified - in case Horqin goes berserk for some unexpected reason, due to his close proximity, the opposite direction Yuan's threat is obviously greater, at least Kaiyuan's reaction time has been greatly shortened.
But for now, at least the officials of the Practical School, both civil and military, no longer worry about this. Gao Situ's restraint methods are so powerful. Looking at the restraint areas created under his leadership in the past ten or twenty years, to put it bluntly, they are really stronger than some border areas themselves, and their obedience level is comparable to that of the border areas. House dog.
For this reason, the imperial court had no objections to approving Gu Yangqian's memorial. However, since the battle was not over yet and the "main force of Tumen" had not even appeared, of course there was no rush to reward him. Therefore, the emperor quickly agreed to the cabinet's proposal, approved Gu Yangqian's proposal, and once again mentioned that the Liaodong battle was to be handled by themselves, giving him the right to act expediently.
But the next day, another report shocked the court. The newspaper from Daning City reported a big change that no one expected: Tumen's reinforcements coming out from the east were intercepted by the main force of Tumen. They were in Qingcheng (not a hundred miles southwest of Daning City). The Qingcheng faction (Qingcheng) was caught off guard outside the city, and more than 30,000 reinforcements lost at least more than 10,000 troops.
To make matters worse, coach Erdemutu and deputy coach Butashri had a dispute after the war. Erdemutu advocated going to Daning City to temporarily avoid the enemy and gather the defeated troops before making follow-up plans; Butashri angrily accused Erdemutu of not being courageous enough and demanded that the remaining troops be gathered urgently and immediately launch a counterattack to fight the Tumen to the death. .
Logically speaking, coach Erdemutu should of course make a decisive decision in such a crisis, but this time the forces of both sides are almost equal, which is a bit subtle.
The core troops in Erdemutu's hands were divided into two parts. One part was the approximately 7,000 elite Western Sentinel troops that his father handed over to him from Hannaji, and the other part was the approximately 5,000 headquarters left by Chaterji.
Butashri had 10,000 troops, all of which were controlled by his mother, Sanniang Zi. They were part of the royal army of Anda Khan and were generally regarded as the elite among the elite Tumotes.
In addition to the two of them, of course, each of the ministries affiliated with Tumut also has some, but their right to speak is definitely far less than that of Erdemutu and Butashri, so I won’t say more.
Looking back, Erdemutu had slightly more troops, but although the core elite soldiers of Western Sentinel were also elite soldiers, in the eyes of the Mongols they were still inferior to Anda Khan's royal army. At the same time, the other 5,000 Chiataiji's old army in his hands were divided among the four sons of Chiataiji. Although this army had brilliant results under the leadership of Chiataiji, now that Chiataiji is gone, he How much of his potential can these four sons play?
After such a calculation, Butashri believes that the strength in his hands is at least not inferior to Erdemutu. The second is that in the battle where they were ambushed and attacked by Tumen, for some reason, the elites of the Chahar Khan Court kept their eyes on Erdemutu's Western Post Headquarters and pursued them fiercely. The old Qataiji tribe and the Zhongjin Hatun tribe lacked interest.
Throughout the whole battle, as long as the latter two did not desperately come forward to stop them, the main force of the Chahar Khan Court almost turned a blind eye to them. Let alone chasing them, as long as they broke through the formation in front of them, the Chahar Mongolian army began to attack them. Just ignore it.
Such a huge difference in treatment can be seen even on the extremely tense battlefield. Qataiji's old troops and Zhongjinhatun's troops soon became less determined, and 90% of the pressure was on Er'er. On the shoulders of Demutu's Western Post Headquarters.
To be fair, although Erdemutu has almost no actual combat experience, he may be the best. His calmness, insight and decisiveness, these three qualities are undoubtedly revealed at this moment.
He first asked the elite elite of the Western Post to show up with the courage of the "Prince of Shunyi's Army" and resolutely fight back in the face of the impact of several times the main force of Chahar. However, the Mongols' determination never meant fighting to the death, but retreating while fighting. Adjust the distance between you and the other party at any time.
Since everyone was Mongolian, many tactical restraints did not exist at all. Therefore, Chahar obviously planned to charge into the battle with superior strength after a few waves of arrows, but Erdemutu did not give them this opportunity. He personally led the main force to play the "Sixteen-Character Mantra" taught to him by his teacher: when the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy is stationed, we harass; when the enemy is tired, we attack; when the enemy retreats, we pursue.
Of course, the battlefield situation is slightly different. For example, the word "station" cannot appear now. But even the Mongolian cavalry, after fighting and chasing for a while, always wants to rush into the formation, so it is inevitable to form a team, and the whole team becomes " "Station" - at this time Erdemutu will turn around and harass them for a while.
In any case, he had no intention of counterattacking the formation. He would just shoot a few waves of random arrows to disturb him. With the tactical level of the Mongolian cavalry, there was no need to form a team at all, and there was no pressure in this regard.
However, there is always such a thing as force suppression. According to Erdemutu’s teacher Gao Pragmatically, under the premise of constant shooting speed, the more troops that can be deployed and effectively deployed, often means that ammunition The greater the unit's projection, the greater the firepower density, or the stronger the attack power.
Both sides are elite Mongolian cavalry, and the difference in personal level is basically negligible. It is obvious that the opponent is several times stronger than our own. If our own tactical adjustments are in place, the casualties will definitely be greater.
Soon, Erdemutu discovered that something was not right about continuing the fight like this, because he found that his friendly troops were a bit of a show, at least they did not go all out to fight the enemy.
He quickly observed the battlefield situation, knew the problem, and immediately ordered adjustments, asking the old Qataiji troops and Zhongjinhatun troops to quickly break away from the main force of Chahar, and then attack each other's flank - but he It was not stated what the purpose of the attack was to be achieved.
It was not that the military secretary of Beijing did not want to specify a purpose for them. He just saw Burihatu in the Tumen army formation, and from this he suddenly guessed the reason why Chahar concentrated its efforts on attacking only the western outpost.
Burihatu made it clear that he wanted to weaken the strength of King Shunyi's headquarters!
This truth is not complicated. According to Mongolian traditions and habits, only strength is valued. How can you be a procrastinator if your strength is not enough? How to be our leader? Therefore, as long as King Shunyi's headquarters declines to a certain extent, there will be civil strife in Tumote!
Although this battle was destined to suffer losses, Erdemutu was determined not to lose more, which is why he insisted on going to Daning City for repairs.
However, Butashri jumped out and insisted on fighting back after the war, but there was another reason.
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "KeyNg", "Cao Mianzi", "Southeast Chongwumen" and "Stranded" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: I accidentally fell asleep while coding tonight. Let’s start with 3K. If I owe 1K, I’ll see if I can make up for it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
