While Gao Pangshi led the Imperial Guards to the north, the towns and forces under his jurisdiction had already taken action under his advance orders. The entire battle against the Yuan Dynasty could be seen as four armies from west to east.
On the first route, Datong sent 60,000 troops, together with 40,000 Tumote and 20,000 Ordos, a total of 120,000, to join forces in Guihua. The mission goal of this route army was said to be "the army should go north to the west of Dashawo and cut off the connection between Chahar and Outer Khalkha".
On the second route, Xuanfu will send 60,000 troops and Taiyuan will send 40,000 troops, a total of 100,000. They will join the Longmen Guards and expect to go north out of Dushikou. The theory circulated in the capital's newspapers was that "the army went north to cover the east of the naturalized area, and moved east to suppress the Chahar Mongolian army's activity space."
The third road is the high pragmatic headquarters, also known as the middle road. The army on this road is the strongest. There are about 70,000 Imperial Guards, 80,000 Ji Zhen, 30,000 Changping, and 20,000 Baoding, a total of 200,000, combined in Miyun and Zunhua counties.
Both counties are important military areas. Miyun is one of the main residences of the governor of Jiliao, and Zunhua is one of the main residences of the governor of Shuntian. Originally, both counties were capable of garrisoning large armies, but there were too many 200,000 troops, so they were divided into two places. Gao Pragmatic himself took the Imperial Guard to Zunhua.
This road is not only where the Chinese Army is located, but also the closest to the capital. It is obviously the object of greatest concern to the capital's newspapers. According to "well-informed sources", Zunhua, where Gao Jinglue himself is located, will be the main force. It is expected that the Imperial Guard and Jizhen elite troops will gather here, perhaps as many as 150,000.
The road from Zunhua will "exit Xifengkou to Daning, with Daning City as the core fulcrum of the battle against Yuan Dynasty, and the ministers will personally take charge of the planning." Although Miyun's 50,000-strong army is not weak, it can only be a green leaf at this time. The press believed that "the army will leave Gubeikou and occupy the front lines of Harahetao, Baimachuan and Xiaoxingzhou, forming a barrier for the capital and forming a horn with Daning."
All in all, these views in the press basically believe that although the Chinese army is powerful, it will definitely not do anything rash or make any reckless moves because the capital is behind it.
The highly pragmatic and dignified Mongolian Yuan Dynasty strategy, of course, could not be easily involved in danger, so he led an army of 150,000 to Daning, flanked by 50,000 troops from Changping and Baoding from Miyun, so that he could form a strong attack on Chahanhot in the northeast. Coercion and oppression can also be used to control the capital's gates. It is indeed a foolproof strategy - as a human being, it is as stable as an old dog.
The last route is naturally the Liaodong Army. From a geographical point of view, Liaodong is the closest place to Chahanhot in Guangning, where General Li Rusong of the Liaodong Army is stationed. However, considering that this troop dispatch will gather a large number of servant troops around Liaodong, and the areas where these servant troops are located are all in the northeast, the gathering location Changed to Shenyang - In fact, we originally considered gathering in Fuxin, but the population of Fuxin City mainly comes from immigrants, and the current city size is not enough, so we had to go to Shenyang.
In terms of numbers alone, this route army was almost as strong as the Chinese army under Gao Jinglue's personal command. It has 60,000 troops from Li Rusong in western Liaoning - it should be emphasized here that Li Rusong is indeed a forthright man and will never be censorious in his actions. Half of the 60,000 troops are his own elite servants, and the remaining 30,000 men are There are nearly 20,000 servants of other generals under his command.
In other words, nearly 50,000 of the 60,000 troops are elite servant-level troops. Assuming that all this army is lost, the defense of western Liaoning can be regarded as completely collapsed, and the effect is basically the same as that of Liaodong after the Battle of Saarhu in original history.
In addition to Li Rusong's headquarters in western Liaoning, almost all the main forces of the Xiao Ruxun Group or, to be honest, the high-ranking party members of the school in the east of the Liaohe River have been mobilized. Xiao Ruxun, Ma Chengxun, Ma Dong and other departments have mobilized their elites, with a total of 50,000 troops. At the same time, Jinghua also provided 10,000 support, allowing Liaodong to be evenly matched with Liaoxi in terms of military strength.
In this way, the total strength of the Liaodong and Liaoxi sides is as high as 120,000. You must know that the total strength of the Liaodong Ming Army is only 180,000. This time, 110,000 were directly recruited (not counting Jinghua), which obviously meant that they could fight in the field. All the troops were used.
However, the strength of the Liaodong Army did not stop at the Ming Army headquarters. Under the shock of the "Prisoner's Expedition Ceremony" specially created by Gao Jingshi, all the Jurchen tribes that were capable of fighting received orders from the Mongol and Yuan Dynasties, requiring All ministries inspected the men and horses to accompany the army on the expedition. Gao Pingshi clearly stated in the order: "Anyone who disobeys the order will be punished with disobedience."
It's hard to say whether it was the Ming Dynasty that was too powerful or Gao Pragmatic's own power, or a combination of both. In short, these orders were conveyed to all ministries, and no one dared to openly resist them. Not only the Hada and Ye He tribes, who have always been regarded as the loyal dogs of the Ming Dynasty, immediately expressed their "respectfully receiving the Jinglue Jun Order", but even the far away Ula tribe quickly sent people to Kaiyuan to express that they were gathering their tribesmen. He must "contribute wholeheartedly to the court."
The most representative one is Nurhachi, the left guard of Jianzhou. He also quickly wrote to Liaoyang, expressing his willingness to follow orders. Although this guy mentioned a lot of difficulties in his reply, such as the "wild and remote" area under his jurisdiction after the "Second Division of Jianzhou" and how poor he was; he also said that the Third Division of Changbai Mountain had implemented a blockade against him at that time, forcing him to do nothing but After sending troops, a lot of savings were spent. Now the whole family is tightening their belts and barely making ends meet...
But in the final analysis, although the difficulties are great, he is still willing to send troops. He just hopes that the master of economics can be lenient and allow him to establish the Zuowei Free Horse Market in the state. In fact, Gao Pangshi has already allowed them to trade in Kuandian not long ago. , but Kuandian Horse Market is not open often, it only opens once a month, and only for three days at a time, so now he still wants to go to Crow Falcon Pass.
Of course, because Gao Pragmatic's order this time was extremely strict, Nurhaci did not dare to adopt the attitude of "I won't send troops if you don't agree" when he said these words. Instead, he first expressed that he was willing to send troops no matter what, but he just hoped that Mr. Jin Lu would see it. For the sake of their family's "loyalty throughout the ages", consider his request.
Overall, Nurhachi's attitude was very low, so much so that when Gao Pragmatic received the report, he couldn't help but sigh: People who have achieved great achievements in history are not pure idealists, but can only be A realist with lofty ideals.
Just like Nurhaci now, he must have the ideal of unifying Manchuria in his heart, but since he is under the eaves, he will bow his head honestly. He would never be stupid enough to offend the Ming Dynasty and Gao Pragmatic when there was no chance of winning, so as not to be beaten to death by the Ming Dynasty in the near future with all the tribes in Manchuria and even Eastern Mongolia.
After this operation, the Jurchen tribes began to piece together things. Most tribes such as Yehe, Ula, and Hada each sent more than 10,000 troops, while some small tribes may send out hundreds of people to count as troops - after all, some tribes have a total population of only a thousand people. The Jurchens are as torn as Shinra now, and the disparity between strength and weakness is huge.
The final result was that the various Jurchen tribes gathered nearly 50,000 troops. This result surprised Gao Pragmatic, because although it was almost certain that the Jurchen tribes would not dare to disobey this order, the number of nearly 50,000 people was still beyond his expectation. After all, they could not pull out all their troops. Follow the expedition.
It was actually close to 50,000 troops without drawing out all the troops. This is actually somewhat different from Gao Pragmatic's original impression. You must know that the Eight Banners of Manchuria may have only had about 50,000 troops for a long time in history.
Before the Qing army entered the customs, the total number of Niulu in the Eight Banners of Manchuria was 318. At that time, the standard for one Niulu was 300 people. However, in fact, a large number of Niulu did not satisfy the number of people. In some places, 100 people could also be classified as one Niulu. . Before entering the customs, there were more than 55,330 Ding men in Manchuria under the Eight Banners (referring to Ding men only). So even if the entire army went out without leaving a single man, the total number of Eight Banners troops in Manchuria could only be more than 50,000.
Of course, according to Ming Dynasty records, the strength of the Eight Banners of Manchuria was more than this. For example, before the Battle of Saarhu, Zhou Yongchun, the governor of Liaodong, said in his memorial: Wen Nu soldiers fought bravely, about 50,000 to 60,000, and robbed Chinese militiamen of 20,000 to 30,000, totaling no less than 80,000 to 90,000.
"Records of Shenzong" records that "Huang Jia, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, has a good speech, and Yang Hao said that the slave chieftains have more than 60,000 elite soldiers." A year later, Yang Hao said in his report after the Battle of Sarhu: "There are about 100,000 troops of Chief Genu on the battlefield, and it is better to take them at 120,000 to 30,000. And yesterday's troops There are only more than 70,000 host and guest exporters, how can we compete with each other?"
However, Xiong Tingbi wrote in the "Jingchen Zhanshou Dali Shu" written after he became the manager of Liaodong in the 47th year of Wanli: "Today, the thieves have changed their tyranny to the Yuan Dynasty, and there are already two passes, gray grill, fish skin, bird la, evil guli, Fortunately, in the area of Zhijie and He Yinan, there are many soldiers from the countries in the east of the sea. I also ordered the surrender general Li Yongfang and others to collect three lines of iron and surrender 10,000 troops. The total number of troops is nearly 100,000."
It is also recorded in "Records of Facts of the Liao Dynasty in Three Dynasties": "At that time, the slave soldiers became more and more prosperous. Every time they climbed the mountain with Bazi, they plotted and made plans. Their hair broke as fast as the wind and rain. Together with Zaiyuan, they numbered nearly one hundred thousand."
After the Battle of Saarhu, North Korea sent Zheng Zhongxin as an envoy to Jianzhou. After returning home, he reported to the King of North Korea: "Later Jin had eight troops, with 25 sentries per unit and 400 people per sentry. ... There are 12,000 soldiers and about 96,000 cavalry in the eight divisions." Although this report may not be accurate, it can be regarded as a family opinion.
If we give a rough overview, we can probably say this: First, the core Eight Banners of Manchuria in Nurhaci's hands has been at "nearly 60,000" for a long time; second, with the increase in war prisoners, the number of non-Jurchens who have taken refuge under his command has been increasing.
Of course, there are not many Han people among the Jurchen tribes currently serving in the army, and the troops that can be drawn out to join the expedition are all Jurchens. In other words, the current population of each Jurchen tribe should be larger than the population in the original history after Nurhaci unified Manchuria. Otherwise, how could they gather nearly 50,000 people to accompany the expedition when each tribe had some troops left to look after the country?
From this, Gao Pragmatic came to a conclusion: Although the process of Nurhachi's unification of Manchuria was quite smooth based on historical records, and the resistance encountered did not seem to be very great, in fact it still lost a lot of virgins. Therefore, From a population perspective, the current Jurchen tribes are better than Manchuria before the Saarhu War in original history.
Well...that means nerfs could be considered.
In addition to the nearly 50,000 servants of the Jurchen tribes, the Horqin tribe also unsurprisingly sided with the Ming Dynasty this time. However, because the losses suffered by the Horqin tribe were not small the previous time, the scale of their troops sent this time was not as good as the last time. It is no longer the whole clan, but only ten thousand, and there will be no more - this is understandable, after all, if there is another heavy loss, the Horqin tribe will be almost finished.
As a result, the total strength of the Jurchen and Mongolian servant armies in Liaodong was as high as 60,000. Adding 60,000 troops in western Liaoning and 60,000 in eastern Liaoning, one town in Liaodong actually sent as many as 180,000 troops, which was the largest number of troops sent by a single town in this battle. , equivalent to the total military strength of the entire town in Liaodong - the number of servants exactly offset the total number of guard troops who could not send troops to the field.
After these situations were learned by the capital's newspapers, the entire capital, both private and official, were optimistic about the prospects of victory in this war and believed that it was impossible to lose. At the same time, the "national self-confidence" with high pragmatic needs has indeed been boosted, and everyone is counting on their fingers the scale of this war against Yuan.
There are four armies, one with 120,000 troops, one with 100,000 troops, three troops with 200,000 troops, and four troops with 180,000 troops. The total army is as high as 600,000 troops! And everyone now knows Gao Jinglue's habits. He doesn't like to be "claimed". He sends as many troops as he wants. Six hundred thousand means six hundred thousand!
The Ming Dynasty worked hard for 20 years and accumulated a rich family fortune. It was able to field an army of 600,000 in one battle. Who in the world can resist?
By this time, everyone finally had a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of the twenty years of reform of the Practical School. Especially compared to the tragic situation in the late Jiajing period, the Ming Dynasty, which had "a million armored men", was beaten by the "Tumote-Ordos right-wing Mongol coalition" with only 100,000 cavalry. It is really sad and angry. .
What now? No one with a right mind would say that the Practical School has not made any achievements in the past twenty years. Isn't this also the reason why Gao Pragmatic put so much pressure on himself and elevated this battle to the point where "no defeat is allowed"?
After summarizing these news, the capital's newspapers "carefully analyzed" the fighting style of this battle, believing that this battle should be the Ming-Mongolian coalition forces cutting off the connection between Chahar and Outer Khalkha along the westernmost route. This route was actually It should be counted as the North Road; the Liaodong Army on the East Road and the Xuanfu Army on the West Road are responsible for the flanking attack, and the Chinese Army, namely the Gao Jinglue Headquarters on the South Road, takes care of both offense and defense, forming a "three barriers" in the overall situation, leaving only the Chahar Army. Escape north for a way out.
However, if Chahar could not escape to Transkalkha in the northwest, he would have to go to Haolli, or even the truly wild and uninhabited places occupied by Beishan Jurchens (in today's Hulunbuir area, Northwest of the Greater Khingan Range and northwest of the Amur Oblast, Russia).
It can be said that if the Chahar tribe really went there, there would probably be... no threat, because it is not a good place to support too many people in this era. Even if the Ming Dynasty does not pursue and suppress them, as long as they can force them not to go south for a year, when winter comes, they will starve to death and freeze to death, leaving only three or two big cats and kittens, which is not enough. For trouble.
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