Chapter 138 Withdrawal
the reason is simple.
Yuan Ting's dilemma was not only a lack of troops, weapons, food and grass, but more importantly, a lack of talents.
If it were not for the shortage of talents, Tuoyin Timur, a defeated general, would not have been allowed to go into battle repeatedly and become Mongolia's only hope. In terms of horizontal comparison, the commander-in-chief Tuoyin Timur was not at a disadvantage compared with the commander-in-chief of the Ming army.
After all, he was a veteran. In front of him, King Yan and Wu Gao could not be called brats.
There is a real gap.
They are middle and lower-level officers.
Mongolia was defeated again and again, and the backbone of the army who dared and could fight was weakened again and again. The Ming army had won many battles, and many new recruits had gained experience after winning several battles.
The gap between these two sides is the biggest.
It would be easy to kill these officers in front of me. But after killing them, who will replace them? This is the problem faced by decaffeinated Timur.
The Ming Dynasty had a population of 60 million. This was a figure just a few years ago. Now, with the addition of new population, it has engulfed the population of Goryeo. It is not an exaggeration to say 70 million. If the population of each chieftain is not included in the imperial accounts, there will be 100 million.
And how many people does Yuan Ting directly control now?
Is there a million?
It's hard to say. After all, the Mongolians have not had the habit of counting populations for a long time. However, the population that Yuan Ting can control is only more than one million at most, which is already high.
Think about it, one is to select talents from a population of nearly 100 million. One is to select talents from a population of millions. One is that the country's national strength is increasing day by day. Zhu Yuanzhang promoted sociology and increased the literate population. Officials at all levels, including some Confucian officials, were building schools no matter what time of year it was.
Cultivate more talents.
As for the Yuan Dynasty, when life and death are at stake, it is estimated that there are only private professors, not even schools.
Under such circumstances, how big can the quality gap between the middle and lower-level officers of the two sides be. One can imagine.
Since Tamerlane's order was urgent and the following could not succeed, it was normal to find ways to fool him.
Tuoyin Timur sneered and said: "You waited for things to go wrong and still wanted to hide it. You should have been punished by a hundred sticks. Now is the time to employ people. The power should be posted in the account. After this battle is over, the accounts will be settled together. Come on. I sent an order to the generals to prepare to cross the river."
Tamerlane knew that his situation was not good, and he thought a lot during his three-day stay. He actually knew that the further toward Liaodong, the harder it would be to retreat. The terrain of Liaodong is naturally difficult to enter, and even more difficult to exit, because there are many enemy strongholds behind it.
But he had no choice.
Because hitting here was far from enough to shock the Ming army.
The only way is to go deeper and deeper, at least to the foot of Shenyang City.
------
With Timur's order, the Battle of Daqinghe began.
As mentioned before, the Daqing River is not very wide. Of course, it is wider than the canal. In the past few days, Tuoin Timur has also explored the enemy's situation. We chose a ford to cross the river.
Said it was a shoal. But in fact, it is half a meter deep and even roofless in some places, and can only be crossed by riding a horse. But Wu Gao had already been prepared. When the Yuan army crossed the river, a fleet came out. The boat is not big, just a little bigger than the awning boat. These vessels are canal transshipment vessels. The width is no more than three meters. After all, the canal is ten meters wide and has to go back and forth in parallel. Naturally, the ship cannot be wider. And the river conditions here make it impossible to use large boats, which can easily run aground. And a boat like this is perfect.
So the ships on both sides, firecrackers, artillery and arrows rained down for a while.
The first wave of Mongolian cavalry to cross the river suffered heavy casualties.
Since Tamerlane had made up his mind to cross the river. Naturally, I have considered such a situation and don't care about casualties at all. Immediately launched his own chips. Just countless sheepskin rafts crossing the river from another river. This is just a bait, a cover.
Daqing River can be called this name because of its clear water. Any river with clear water will either have many stones and little mud in the place it passes through. Or there are many slow currents and few rapids. Otherwise, if the rapids and mud are added, it will become a turbid current.
Therefore, there are many places to cross the Daqing River. I just want a place for the army to cross the river, and it is best to be a place that can be fordded.
But Wu Gao is not a weak player.
Wu Gao has also thought about this method.
So Wu Gao personally led the team and sniped on the other side.
It was not enough for the two sides to open three battlefields in succession along the bank of the Daqing River.
Tuoin Timur sent another army and chose another place to cross the river.
When Wu Gao saw this, he thought for a while and finally decided to retreat.
In fact, if he can stand up, Wu Gao can still stand up. After all, Wu Gao still has a reserve team. But Wu Gao can't think about the present, but the future development. After all, retreating is the most difficult thing. If he puts all his chips on it, once the Tatars break through again.
It was difficult for him to bring back other soldiers from the battlefield.
So will the Tatars open another battlefield?
It will definitely happen.
the reason is simple. Tamerlane was taking advantage of his military strength. Although he did not bring all the Mongolian cavalry, he brought at least more than 100,000 cavalry. However, Wu Gao only had four guard stations with more than 20,000 people. Although the Daqing River is a dangerous place, it is by no means a natural danger.
Tamerlane crossed the river in many ways. Sooner or later, Wu Gao will be unstoppable.
Anyway, Wu Gao had no intention of fighting the Tatars here.
Now that the purpose has been achieved.
Naturally, we have to withdraw.
When Wu Gao retreated, he was even more cautious, although a Mongolian cavalry bit Wu Gao's tail. But looking at the 20,000 Ming army, they were ready in front and back, and there were thousands of cavalry pressing down on the formation. Simply impeccable. In addition, Wu Gao is not far from Tieling City.
The only option is to give up.
------
In the Yuan army camp, there was joy and laughter at the moment.
There is no other reason. This was the first victory between the Yuan army and the Ming army in the past few years.
Although there are various reasons, victory is victory. For the Yuan army, which had been losing battles, a victory was too rare.
This greatly boosted the morale of the Yuan army. There were even many generals who wanted to celebrate in a big way.
But it was rejected by Tamerlane. Of course, morale can be boosted but not discouraged. Tuoin Timur even said a lot of words to encourage the soldiers. For a moment, Tuoin Timur had the illusion that he had returned to his youth, when the Yuan Dynasty was still in Dadu.
At that time, the celebration was like this, and the military morale was like this. ,
It was just that when Tamerlane was alone, he looked at the list of those killed in battle. It was simply difficult for Tamerlane to face him, three thousand people. Crossing the Daqing River they suffered 3,000 casualties. About a thousand people died directly. washed away by the river. There were about two to three hundred people. These people don't know whether to live or die. But the chances of survival are slim, and the rest are injured.
But with the current number of Mongolian military doctors, the possibility of survival is not high.
The number of three thousand people is not large, but how many three thousand people are there in Mongolia?
And how many heads of the Ming army were captured? Less than a hundred people.
This is certainly because the Ming army suffered very few casualties in this battle. More importantly, the entire rhythm of the war has been under Wu Gao's control. Even those who died in the battle were taken away and did not stay at all.
Tuoin Timur secretly thought: "Is such a victory a victory?" Naturally, he couldn't talk about it when he was outside, for fear of losing morale, but when he faced himself, he couldn't lie to himself.
For a moment, he had the idea of withdrawing his troops.
Because if this situation continues, it will be very young and there will be no good fruits.
But is it okay not to fight?
Dayuan has no other way out.
I can only give it a try.
He pondered for a moment, looking at a river below and clenching his teeth. He made up his mind to attack Shenyang City at all costs, so that the people of Ming Dynasty could also feel the taste of death and the majesty of Dayuan, and let them know that Dayuan could not be bullied.
He cannot be deceived because of Tamerlane.
As for what to do in the future, that is another matter. Don’t think too much about it.
Everything was pressed up. There was no looking back.
Tuoin Timur sighed, listening to the laughter outside, and fell into a dark silence.
