After listening to Cheng Feng's analysis, Chen Kan fell into deep thought.
A 60,000-strong Tatar army was stationed in Saihan Mountain, and forcing a bloody path through the army was a strategy that Chen Kan and a group of generals had already planned.
But Cheng Feng said that the damage in battle might be huge, which made Chen Kan begin to doubt whether this strategy was appropriate.
After all, he brought these soldiers out to perform meritorious service, not to die.
But, apart from that, there seems to be no other choice.
Saihan Mountain is a mountain range that runs from north to south, and its height is not much lower than Kent Mountain. Chen Kan's idea of taking two thousand people and a comatose Benshiyali like crossing the Sambulek River was undoubtedly a fantasy.
It was unlikely that they could cross the Saihan Mountains. If they wanted to cross the southern plain of the Saihan Mountains, which was blocked by an army of 60,000 Tatars, their only option was to attack by force.
After thinking for a moment, Chen Kan's expression became increasingly gloomy.
Finally, he couldn't help but turned to look at Cheng Feng and asked, "When you say heavy battle damage, how much do you mean?"
Cheng Feng was silent for a moment, and then said calmly: "A conservative estimate, 50% of the battle damage should be a more reasonable figure. After all, we only have 2,000 people, and our opponent is 60,000 people, or a fully established 60,000 people. It’s different from the 30,000 troops stationed by the Tatars on Kent Mountain.”
When he heard the figure of 50%, Chen Kan's face suddenly became ugly.
Half of them were lost in the battle, just because they wanted to bring Ben Shiyari back alive. This deal may be a good deal in the eyes of others.
But in Chen Kan's opinion, it was undoubtedly a loss.
No matter how noble he is, in Chen Kan's heart, he is not as good as his brother.
Seeing Chen Kan's face turn cold, Cheng Feng was startled for a moment, and then Weng said: "Master Hou, as the old saying goes, kindness cannot control soldiers, and justice cannot control wealth. Now that we have arrived on the grassland, no one can I thought about going back alive, all the purpose was to consume the national power of the Tatars.
Now we have finally achieved our goal and captured the Mongol Khan. If we fail at this, I am afraid that even if our brothers can go back alive, they will not be happy in the future. "
"Besides this, is there no other way?"
Chen Kan's frown still hadn't relaxed. The price of losing 50% of the battle was too high. He felt that he couldn't bear this responsibility.
Cheng Feng shook his head: "With our little strength alone, there is basically no other way, unless..."
"Unless what?"
Chen Kan suddenly raised his head and looked at Cheng Feng with burning eyes.
Cheng Feng did not show off and said bluntly: "Unless the three Duoyan guards on the opposite side can launch an attack at this time to attract the attention of the Tatar army, but..."
But what, Cheng Feng didn't say it, but Chen Kan knew it.
The three guards of Duoyan are very powerful, but without the support of the Ming Dynasty, they will never take the lead in attacking Mongolia.
So this road is considered blocked.
Chen Kan couldn't help but sigh, but it was a pity that his blank imperial edict had been used up at the beginning.
Otherwise, even if he led the pursuers behind him in circles on the grassland, he would still have to send people over Saihan Mountain to let the three Duoyan guards cooperate with him.
"What if we turn south?"
Chen Kan still refused to give up and wanted to hear a different result from Cheng Feng.
Cheng Feng rolled his eyes at him, shook his head and said: "Abu's army of 100,000 in the south is less than 500 miles away from Saihan Mountain. If we turn south, we are likely to face a situation of being flanked by the two armies. Originally, Saihan Mountain's 60,000-strong army is enough for us to drink from a pot, and if we provoke Abu's 100,000-strong army, we are looking for death."
Chen Kan also understood this truth, but when he heard Cheng Feng say it so decisively, his heart still dropped.
Is there really no other way?
"Report!"
At this moment, a scout quickly caught up with Chen Kan's large army.
Seeing the flustered expression on the scout's face, Chen Kan's heart sank a little again, and he suddenly felt an unpleasant feeling in his heart.
"What's wrong?"
The scout galloped up to Chen Kan, and before he could catch his breath, he shouted loudly: "Master Marquis, the pursuers are coming."
"Pursuing soldiers?"
"How many people are there and who is the leader?"
After taking a few breaths, the scout hurriedly responded: "There are three groups of pursuers that have been found so far. They seem to belong to different generals. The largest group among them is about 20,000 people."
Chen Kan's heart suddenly sank to the bottom. He did not expect that the Tatar pursuers would come so quickly. It didn't matter if they came quickly, there were still so many people.
He continued to ask: "How far away are the pursuers from us?"
The scout said solemnly: "The nearest one has already approached a range of two hundred miles."
"How come it's so fast?"
Chen Kan exclaimed, his eyes full of disbelief.
Cheng Feng thought for a moment and said: "Master Marquis, we must have been caught up by the pursuers when we took a detour to cool down in Shiyali."
Chen Kan nodded slightly, agreeing with Cheng Feng's statement that they had indeed traveled nearly a hundred miles to cool down Benshi Yari.
But within half a day, the pursuers were approaching two hundred miles away. Chen Kan still found it a bit unbelievable, unless their whereabouts were exposed after coming out of Kent Mountain.
The generals looked at each other, obviously not expecting this result.
Now that we are still three days away from Saihan Mountain, they may be made dumplings.
The current situation no longer allowed Chen Kan to hesitate any longer. He gritted his teeth and then said in a deep voice: "I didn't expect the pursuers to come so quickly. Let's attack!"
After making this decision, Chen Kan's spine suddenly stooped, as if this decision had taken away all the strength from his body.
On the contrary, a group of generals immediately started gearing up, looking at Chen Kan with unabashed admiration in their eyes.
In their view, this military training was more about training generals than military training.
During this trip to the grasslands, most senior generals have found their own positions.
And now, Chen Kan has finally mastered it, but the price is a bit heavy.
Of course, Chen Kan himself believed that the price was heavy. Others, including Zhou Shi, Cheng Feng, Fang Xu, did not think that such a sacrifice was worth regretting.
They thought it was a good deal to exchange a thousand lives for a living Ben Shiyali to come to the Ming Dynasty.
This was a collision between the values of two worlds. Chen Kan lost, completely.
Everyone began to continue on their way, and Cheng Feng began to ride on his horse and wipe his horse's shaft that had not been used for a long time.
The other soldiers were no exception and began to wipe the long knives at their waists.
Although the muskets are useful, they don't have many bullets left, and each person can only get ten bullets.
It is almost impossible to penetrate the enemy formation of 60,000 troops with such a few bullets, so at the critical moment, they have to rely on their old partners who have been with them for many years.
Chen Kan also took off the long knife from his waist and began to wipe it.
This was the third sword he used after coming to the Ming Dynasty. The first sword was issued to him by the Jinyiwei when he was in the Jinyiwei. When he was in Yunnan, he used that sword to end Nan Fozi's life.
It was also at that time that Chen Kan first thought of destroying the island nation.
Later, during the blocking battle at Longshou Pass, the long knife was curled by his use.
After coming back, he found someone to melt the sword and made it into the second sword that came to the Ming Dynasty. When he was attacked and killed at the Oiran Conference, the sword was sharpened again.
This sword is already the third one. So far, this sword has not drank human blood.
After carefully wiping the blade, Chen Kan took out tung oil and began to apply it on the shimmering blade.
Speaking of which, Li Jinglong taught him how to maintain weapons when he was in Jinyi Guard.
A blade coated with tung oil will not easily stain a person's body with blood.
Ever since the short gun came out and Chen Kan used the short gun to kill Liu Futong, he has never used a cold weapon like a long knife again.
I wonder if he can still hack people to death now?
No matter what, it is always right to prepare weapons first.
After wiping the long knife, Chen Kan took out a small pistol from his arms and started cleaning it.
At critical moments, this small gun is what he uses to save his life.
Ever since he provided technical support for flintlock guns, the bowsmiths of the Ming Dynasty have gone astray. They have been studying how to make guns smaller and more sophisticated, but they ignored Chen Kan's request for them to study cannons.
This time when we go back, we must bring order to the chaos.
Pistols, etc., are too slow to kill people. Cannons are so good. They can kill everyone with one shot.
Even if you don't study cannons, you might as well study grenades and the like.
Chen Kan spent three consecutive days on horseback.
Who dares to imagine that the good-for-nothing Marquis, who had no power to restrain a chicken, is now able to master the skills that a cavalry should have.
Eating and sleeping on horseback is just a matter of leisure. Jumping and changing horses while the horse is galloping, and defecating are difficult skills.
Chen Kan has mastered all of these.
On the third day, the majestic Saihan Mountain came into view.
The majestic mountains winding from south to north are like a lonely long dragon, blocking the grassland from Liaodong.
Looking north, you can't see the end. Looking south, you can actually see the dragon's tail, but the tail is located in the densely packed Tatar camp.
The camp of 60,000 people was boundless, like plum blossoms blooming on the grassland, stretching for dozens of miles.
Cen Gu went to the back to pay attention to the movements of the pursuing troops, and Cheng Feng volunteered to take over the important task of clearing out the Tatar scouts.
This time, he finally didn't cause any trouble, and kept working diligently to clean up the Tatar scouts on the outside.
Thanks to Cheng Feng's powerful force, Chen Kan led his Ming army soldiers into a hundred miles of the Saihan Mountain camp without being discovered by the Tatar scouts.
At this moment, the Tatars in Saihan Mountain did not know the news about the fire in Kent Mountain, which created good conditions for Chen Kan and others to attack the camp.
Otherwise, if these Tatars knew that Benshiyari was in Chen Kan's hands, they would attack this small Ming army crazily.
