The news that Gao Pragmatic had succeeded him as chief assistant was indeed the main reason for Liu Wei's sudden decision to march in danger, but Liu Wei's actions did not mean he was ignoring the overall situation of the war and his own safety and the safety of his headquarters.
In fact, when he learned the news that Burihatu left without fighting, his first reaction was to pursue him, his second reaction was that the opponent must have an ambush, and his third reaction was that I could go over the mountain and take a detour to pursue him.
However, after these three reactions, he remembered Gao Pragmatic's instructions to stabilize the situation in Gansu first, wait for the follow-up troops and supplies to arrive, and then concentrate on launching a thunderous strike to conquer the Western Region in one fell swoop.
Therefore, Liu Wei endured it and decided not to pursue for the time being. Instead, he went to Ganzhou to meet Xu Sanwei to learn about the actual combat strength of the Ganzhou Seven Guards before making plans. After that, there is the paragraph leading to the letter from Xu Sanwei.
In other words, the detour pursuit was originally a "military contingency plan" that came out of Liu Wei's subconscious, and it was the approach he most recognized.
But why? Although Longshou Mountain and Heli Mountain are not as good as the Qilian Mountains at the southern foot, the mountains that are sixty or seventy miles wide are obviously no joke. You, Mr. Liu, have to go around two mountain ranges to catch up with the Mongolian cavalry. Are you too much? Do you underestimate your enemies and underestimate yourself?
It’s really not the case, because Liu Wei recognized two points:
First, his subordinate is the Liu Jiajun! This is the first elite mountain troop group of the Han army that has traversed the dangerous mountains and ridges of the southwest for decades, and its mountain climbing and crossing of water are comparable to the wolf soldiers of the southwest! Even the cavalry under his command had to specially strengthen mountain march training because they had to accompany the Liu Jiajun infantry in battle.
If someone asks which cavalry is the strongest in the world, there will definitely be a lot of controversy, and it will definitely not be the Liu Jiajun cavalry's turn. But if you ask which cavalry can best cross mountains and ridges, there is nothing to argue about. It must be the Liu Jiajun cavalry. undoubtedly.
Although Longshou Mountain and Heli Mountain are really difficult to climb in the eyes of northerners, from the perspective of Liu Wei, who followed his father to pacify the Nine Silk Barbarians at the age of thirteen and personally killed several generals... this is just a small scene. ? It's really not worth mentioning.
As for the second one, it is what he just mentioned: Burihatu must be in the rear, and he will not go too fast!
Now Liu Wei is no longer the reckless general who relied on his own bravery and elite subordinates to only focus on "defeating thousands of armies". Especially when he accepted Gao Pangshi's personal command during the Korean War for half a year, his brother-in-law, who had no plans to spare, gave him too much inspiration and had a great influence on him.
Now Liu Wei has learned to analyze the enemy's situation in a pragmatic way, and starts to design his own combat plan by judging the psychology of the enemy general.
So, why did Liu Wei judge that Burihatu would not leave too fast and would definitely stay in the rear army personally? There are a few points:
First, Burihatu’s eastward invasion did not fully achieve its strategic purpose. He wanted to plunder as much property and various strategic resources as possible, but in fact he only captured one Suzhou, stopping at the gate of Ganzhou. Although some of the Wubao around Suzhou and Ganzhou can be plundered, no matter how rich the Wubao is, how can it compare to the city? Therefore, the 100,000-strong army of Burihatu was not "fed".
Under the premise of "not having enough to eat", now that Liu Wei came, Burihatu actually left without fighting, so obviously there must be a lot of resentment in the Mongolian army. Especially since Liu Wei only brought 30,000 forward troops, there must be many people in the Mongolian army who believed that this battle could be fought. He ran away without fighting, as if he was afraid, which was too cowardly.
When the Mongolian army faced the Ming army, it was true that they often ran away without feeling embarrassed, but that was because the Ming army was a "big army". Moreover, the Mongolian army's combat tradition is to harass them if they can't defeat them head-on, or to avoid their sharp edge first, and then regain their position next time when you are no longer a large army. But now? The conditions are not met.
If you don’t have enough to eat, your face will be damaged. Under the superposition of these two factors, if Burihatu is as difficult to deal with as the Marquis said, he will definitely find a way to give himself a blow, thereby restoring the morale of the army, and then calmly withdraw the army with the attitude of a winner.
The leader of a force will do nothing if he does not take action. If he takes action, he must win, otherwise his prestige will be shaken.
Regarding this point, Liu Wei had no feelings before. After all, for a general, "victory and defeat are common things in military affairs"! However, after the Korean War, he gradually figured out these principles from his high pragmatic principles.
Why are there countless famous generals in the towns in the north and south of the Ming Dynasty, who are all unruly and rebellious on weekdays, but when they serve under the Marquis, they are all as honest as mice meeting cats? Without him, you will be victorious in this public battle!
Don't underestimate the word "prestige", especially don't think that "prestige" is empty, "prestige" is very real!
You ask the generals of the Qin army everywhere after the Battle of Julu, did they feel irregular heartbeats when they heard Xiang Yu's name? Ask the Hun nobles, who were talking and laughing when they suddenly saw the banner of "Hou Huo, Champion of the Han Dynasty" approaching rapidly in the distance, did they feel hot in their crotches?
Prestige has this effect, making people change their color, become frightened, and bow their heads unconsciously. Therefore, a leader of a party must pay attention to his own reputation and must not take it lightly. Gao pragmatism is like this, so why not Burihatu?
Therefore, Burihatu must have designed a plan for him to pursue him. Even without the jealous letter from Xu Sanwei, Liu Wei dared to deduce that as long as he arrived at Ganzhou City, he would definitely find various signs - all of these signs They will all point to one point: Burihatu retreated in an extremely hasty manner, as if something had changed internally.
In short, he will use various methods to "seduce" himself and pursue him until he breaks into the ambush he has set.
Liu Wei was never a person who underestimated himself. He believed that Burihatu was interested in defeating himself, a "famous Ming general". Moreover, since he was transferred to Gansu at this time, Burihatu must understand that he is the Ming Dynasty's main general in Gansu for a period of time, so once he can fight for the first time, he will give himself a start, and he will definitely be more fearful when he faces him again in the future. , which is of great benefit to him.
The matter is so important, and there seems to be no general under Burihatu who can take charge of it on his own, so can't he have to do this important task of controlling the rear army himself?
The above are the reasons why Liu Wei immediately decided to take a detour after learning that Gao Pragmatic had succeeded him as the first assistant. He did not do it on a whim, but with certainty.
After holding a small meeting and discussing the route over Longshou and Heli Mountains, Liu Wei once again sent people to urge the generals and troops responsible for preparations for the war. At the same time, he also ordered the generals and troops who were about to go to war to go to bed early and recuperate before going to war. Good spirit - it is essential to recharge your batteries when traveling for hundreds of miles, whether it is far or close.
According to his plan, after dispatching troops and before arriving in Suzhou, he will not arrange much time to rest, so now it is time to eat and drink. After eating and drinking, he will set off early tomorrow morning!
Although Burihatu would stay behind and wait for Ming army reinforcements to fall into the trap and pursue him, he would definitely become suspicious if he did not wait for a long time. Therefore, the plan to raid Suzhou and intercept the Mongolian army still needs to race against time!
Liu Wei himself was also unambiguous and went to bed immediately after giving all the instructions. He was a veteran general for many years. Although this plan looked extremely dangerous based on the strength of his troops, he didn't care at all. He almost fell asleep and soon began to snore evenly.
Early the next morning, Liu Wei did not wait for his servants to come to invite him, so he got up on time, summoned the generals to inquire about the preparations, and was very satisfied when he saw that all the instructions had been carried out.
He first ordered Liu Tiancheng to command the remaining 20,000 people on his behalf, and slowly marched to Ganzhou, telling Xu Sanwei, the governor of Gansu, that he had obeyed the order to pursue the Mongolian army.
Then he ordered the other ministries to take some measures to pretend that the number of the army had not changed, and it was still 30,000 people - this was easy to handle, and things like flying more flags, not reducing the military strength, widening the queues, etc., have been done for thousands of years. The old tricks of the Han army in the past dynasties can now be copied without any innovation.
When everything was ready, Liu Wei, accompanied by three generals and eight thousand cavalry, prepared to set off. Liu Tiancheng and others wanted to give some final advice, but they knew Liu Wei, and Liu Wei knew them, so they couldn't do it first. If you try again, the generals will have no choice but to give up.
So, Liu Wei's army set off and headed north over Longshou Mountain.
It stands to reason that spring has begun at this time, but the weather has been weird in recent years, with long winters and short summers. The higher Longshou Mountain is still covered in light snow, and the ice and snow have not completely disappeared like the "city belt" in the Hexi Corridor.
This winter-like Longshou Mountain is just like any other mountain in the north. The grass is luxuriant, the branches are thin and cold, the eyes are desolate, and the cold wind is howling.
As Liu Wei saw in front of him, as soon as winter entered, the vegetation in Longshou Mountain turned yellow and withered. Reeds as tall as a person, ice grass and mugwort as tall as half a person, with yellow faces swaying in the wind. The hollyhocks and roses on the roadside have lost all their leaves, and they are shivering in the cold wind.
The trees in the trees seemed to have suddenly seen through the world after prosperity and converted to Buddhism. All the leaves had fallen away, leaving only a green-gray color and a pure color. However, the leaves of the locust tree fell hesitantly. Many leaves were still clinging to the branches and refused to fall. It was as if they had listened to an order somewhere and had no time to fall off. Just in their prime, they stood on the ground. Became a Buddha.
However, don't think that this Longshou Mountain really has no vitality and vitality. In the Shulang Mountains where the Ming army cavalry traveled, sparrows were particularly conspicuous. Chubby, jumping around, shrinking its little head, pecking lightly here and there, like looking for food, and like playing carelessly. He doesn't seem to be afraid of being so close to people.
One of the cavalrymen saw this interestingly and whistled gently at the flock of birds. One of the sparrows suddenly flew away in surprise, and the others also flew away with a huff, and then stopped collectively on a tree. , whispering, chirping. The surrounding cavalry chuckled, and one of them said: "These guys are quite happy. They are always so lively, right?" Everyone just smiled and said nothing.
After a while, a living creature suddenly jumped out of the grass on the roadside. Several cavalrymen were startled and subconsciously grabbed the handle of the knife at their waist with their right hand. But upon closer inspection, it turned out to be nothing more than an earth-yellow hedgehog, which had already stumbled away.
The cavalry are not interested in hedgehogs. The most surprising thing is to meet pheasants. They usually hide in pairs in the grass and make love to each other. Before people get close or notice them, they will act guilty and flap their wings. The wings flew away in the direction of the cavalry's path.
Their long tail feathers are quite beautiful, but the cavalry are not here to enjoy the wild scenery. A cavalryman with quick hands would immediately hold the bow in his hand without taking aim. He would just raise his hand and shoot an arrow based on the feel of the hand, often getting the meat for the next meal.
The cavalry did not find it difficult to walk. They even felt that the previous Northern Army comrades were exaggerating. Little did they know that the road Liu Wei took them to take was not known to many people.
This road is actually a smuggling route.
In the seventeenth year of Wanli, the cavalryman of Jinghua Trading Company took over the task of guarding Shandan Guards. It turned out that there was a group of horse bandits active in the area at that time. They not only attacked merchants and caravans that lacked escorts along the way, but even dared to rob passing ones. A small group of officers and soldiers.
Since the Shandan Guards did not have many cavalry, they pursued and suppressed them several times without success. Instead, they were attacked several times by horse bandits, killing more than a dozen of their comrades. The guards were so angry that they even laid down 500 taels of silver to clear out these people.
At that time, Jinghua Trading Co., Ltd. was already developing business in the northwest, and there was a need to ensure safety along the way. Now there are still people willing to pay the bill, so why not? However, I won’t go into details about the specific suppression of bandits here. In short, this route was finally discovered.
Their group of people used this road to contact and trade with Huo Luochi and other tribes who were still on the opposite side of the Ming Dynasty at that time. They provided cloth, tea, iron pots and other items to Huo Luochi, Bingtu, Bintu and other tribes in exchange for their The geldings traded with the people of Mingdi - of course, there was no need to trade when they could be robbed.
In short, the route Liu Wei took at this time was provided by Gao Pragmatic's order from Jinghua. Beijing has only recorded this road, and it is possible that no one has walked on it after the horse bandits were destroyed. Liu Wei may have been the first passenger on this road in more than ten years.
However, the easy road ended soon, and everyone discovered that there was a deep canyon ahead of them. Just one glance at this road shows that it is extremely difficult to walk. Broken sand and gravel, a canyon with almost no vegetation, and rugged rocks. It is difficult to distinguish between east, west and north. Even in the sky, only a gap between the canyons on both sides can be seen. The draft blew through the hall, and the slight warmth of early spring turned into the cold winter in seconds, making people feel trembling.
There was no such canyon here, but whenever Longshou Mountain encountered heavy rain, floods would flow out, and a canyon was formed over time. Otherwise, in the depths of the vast Gobi Desert, how could the mountains on both sides be filled with traces of water erosion, and be filled with huge strange rocks and broken sand and gravel? It must have been washed by running water and exposed to the scorching sun of the Gobi Desert, causing the stones to crack, just like flying sand and rocks during a duel between masters.
Since ancient times, the canyon has been easily ambushed. Although Liu Wei did not think that Burihatu would appear on this unknown road, because he could not see the exit of the canyon, he inevitably felt vigilant and ordered the entire army to be on alert and pass quickly.
——
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PS: Today there is always one side of my nose that is blocked, and I alternate between left and right, which is quite uncomfortable. But fortunately it won't affect the update.
(End of chapter)
