I

Page 608

After careful consideration, Chahun Dorji said: "Tomorrow, we will continue to fill in the trenches, leaving some cavalry behind for a feint attack. The rest of the elite main force, as well as the troops in ambush in the mountains, will all go south to intercept and kill the reinforcements of the Han people. All of us They are cavalry, they cannot fight the camps of the Han people, they should fight the Han people on the open grassland!"

……

The southern reinforcements moved very slowly, because they were scattered everywhere and needed time to gather.

Li Zheng couldn't wait for all the troops to assemble, so he only took three divisions of infantry and several divisions of dragoons, and headed north at a moderate speed.

This battle is still so cautious, infantry and logistics troops, marching carefully in the middle. More than 1 dragoons spread out in all directions, searching for traces of the enemy everywhere.

With Li Zheng as the main general of the reinforcements, he may not be able to rescue in time, but he will definitely not be ambushed.

About 300 miles northwest of Tongliao in later generations, the pathfinding cavalry of the two armies collided.There were not many people, there were several hundred each, and the first reaction was to send someone back to report the news, while the rest began to approach cautiously.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The Datong dragoons fired their guns first, then turned around to distance themselves.

The Khalkha cavalry was shot and fell down more than a dozen people. Surprised and angry, they immediately pursued them.After chasing for three or four miles, the nearby dragoons came to support when they heard the gunfire, and the Khalkha cavalry fled quickly when they saw this.

This is an appetizer and can be ignored.

Both sides found out the approximate location of each other, gathered troops and gradually approached, and finally met in the territory of Zhalut Banner.

The terrain here is not flat, the grassland is undulating.There are many grassy mounds, and occasionally small hills can be seen, but on the whole it is conducive to cavalry charges.

The reinforcements led by Li Zheng were besieged on a mound.

The headquarters is located on the mound, and the artillery is distributed on a slightly outer slope, condescending to fire towards the battlefield.The logistics civilians and civilian staff were all protected in the middle.The outer periphery is the infantry, besides the infantry there are chariot defense arrays, and outside the chariots are refusal horses and barbed wire.

Looking at the formation of turtles in front of him, Chahun Dorji had a headache.

Eighty years ago, Qi Jiguang was ordered to go to Jizhen to be the commander-in-chief. It was to increase the number of firearms troops in the original tortoise formation of the Ming army, and beat the Mongols there completely without temper.Now, the Datong Army has not only learned it, but also continues to increase the proportion of firearms troops.

"Khan, are you still fighting?" Morgan asked.

Chahun Dorji said: "You have to try, call Lama Shixi!"

Lama Shixi galloped to him, got off his horse and knelt down.

Chahun Dorji pointed to the tortoise array in front of him and asked, "Do Han soldiers fight like this?"

"Yes." Lama Shixi replied.

Chahun Dorji asked: "How to break through?"

Lama Shixi said: "The cavalry is invincible. It is necessary to make a chariot. The Jianzhou Jurchen used a chariot to cover the soldiers to advance. When they got close, they shot arrows to disrupt the formation of the Han soldiers. Then they went to pick up the iron chariots. Caltrops, those caltrops are strung together with ropes, and you can pick up a large piece of them. After clearing the caltrops, and pushing the horses and chariots away, you can rush in and fight with the Han soldiers."

"So troublesome?" Chahun Dorji asked.

Lama Shixi also said: "There is another way to gather a large number of artillery and use artillery shells to disperse the formation of the Han soldiers."

Chahun Dorji did not have chariots, nor did it have a large number of artillery.

Lama Shixi continued: "The chariots of the Han army can also transport luggage when marching. Food and armor can be transported away on the chariot. When fighting, unload the luggage and push the cart. With so many chariots now, the Han army probably has sufficient food and grass, and it is impossible to run out of food for ten days and half a month after encircling them."

To fight for aid, you have to be able to fight.

Chahun Dorji's ancestors suffered a great loss from Zhu Di when faced with this kind of routine.

At that time, Zhu Di did not have so many chariots, nor did Zhu Di have so many artillery.But the infantry formed a chariot formation, bombarded the charging Mongolian cavalry, supplemented by shooting with bows and arrows and firecrackers, messed up the formation of the Mongolian cavalry, and the Ming cavalry took the opportunity to rush out again.The Ming army dealt with Mongolia's tortoise array, and it was just like that at first.

However, Karka Mongolia does not compile history books, and there are no relevant detailed records.Two or three hundred years have passed, and Chahun Dorji can only feel the helplessness of his ancestors if he experiences it himself.

"Try it first," Chahun Dorji ordered, Mo'ergen went around to the east, Darhan went around to the west, Gulushixi went around to the south, and I personally led the army to the north.Attack on all sides in turn, shoot a lot of arrows, and see if they can disrupt the formation of the Han soldiers.Don't be afraid of death, if you die a lot, just pretend to be defeated and run away to lure the Han soldiers out of the chariot formation! "

Standing on the hill, Li Zheng watched the mobilization of Mongolian cavalry around him. He said to the messenger: "Tell all the ministries that no pursuit is allowed. Without my order, the enemy's army cannot be chased even if they are scattered. Our task is not to annihilate the enemy, but to It is to rescue the friendly army and hold the enemy. Whoever dares to pursue without authorization, I will cut off his head!"

Mergen and Darhan obviously have the idea of ​​preserving their strength.

Instead, go around to Gulu Shixi in the south, this guy is a bit tougher.He circled the farthest, but launched the attack first, and more than 3000 cavalry formed a loose formation to test the charge.

"Boom boom boom!"

Conventional field guns start firing shells at a distance of 600 meters.The battle was quite large, but the damage caused was limited.

At about 300 meters, the tiger squatting gun also fired shotguns.

Going forward, it was a round of firecrackers shooting three times.

These Mongolian soldiers who were tentatively charging couldn't bear it before they rushed to the range of their bows and arrows.They took the initiative to slow down and swept past the front of the Datong army, leaving more than 300 corpses on the grass.

Gulu Shixi's eyes widened, and he was dazed for a while before he said: "Don't charge any more, go back and report profusely, and say that this kind of car array can't move!"

There is no need for him to report the battle situation, Chahun Dorji has already tried it.

Chahun Dorji said: "It seems that a hard charge can't be done. It can only lure the enemy out. Let all the ministries attack fiercely, kill a few more people, and then the whole army will be defeated. If you throw tens of thousands of cattle and sheep, I will not believe in Han The soldiers can resist not chasing them. As long as the Han soldiers dare to chase, I will wipe them all out!"

The real battle has finally begun.

Small tribes incorporated along the way, even small tribes of Khalkha Mongols, were ordered to launch a suicide charge.

Being defeated again and again, charging again and again.

Gulu Shixi was so angry that he even led his own headquarters to attack.Of course, he was still a little rational, and he rushed to the gap between the firing of the artillery, and rushed to the barbed wire area. After that, there was a chariot formation, and there were pikemen behind the chariot formation.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

"Boom boom boom!"

Not only the firecrackers were firing, but even the grenadiers went into battle, throwing bombs at the charging cavalry.

In just a split second, Gulu Shixi's troops were on their backs.The cargo was lucky, and it was not injured, but it was sobered up by the bombing, and it quickly slowed down and wanted to escape from the battlefield.

"Hiss!"

The horse under Gulu Shixi's crotch screamed suddenly, but the horse's shoe was pierced by a barbed caltrop.

The younger brother of Khalkha Khan was slammed into the air by the war horse and landed hard on two barbed thorns.A barbed thorn pierced his lower back; another barbed thorn pierced the back of his head.

As soon as the main general died, the army fled immediately.

It's not pretending to be defeated, it's really broken.

The Datong army defending in the south obeyed Li Zheng's order and stood still and did not pursue at all.

The Mongolian cavalry on the other sides also paid a heavy price and fled in a panic under the leadership of the general.In order to perform realistically, tens of thousands of cattle and sheep were thrown near the battlefield - this kind of luring tactic was tried and tested against Mongolian tribes. No tribal leader could resist the temptation of tens of thousands of cattle and sheep.

To be honest, if Zhang Tieniu or Huang Yao is replaced as the leader of the Datong army, there is a great possibility that they will take the risk of chasing and killing them.

But they met Li Zheng, a guy who would rather miss the opportunity than lead the army into danger.

Chahun Dorji led the army to "flee" for several miles, looked back, surprised and angrily said: "Did the Han soldiers come after you?"

He stayed in the horse for a long time to observe, and after confirming that the Datong army was not pursuing him, Chahun Dorji gathered the army again and went back to pick up the cattle and sheep he had left behind.

He sent sentry cavalry closer to observe, and the sentry cavalry came back to report: "Khan, the Han army not only did not pursue, but also dug trenches outside the chariot formation."

Hearing this, Chahun Dorji was so depressed that he almost spat out a mouthful of old blood.

It's disgusting enough for you to set up that turtle formation, and you still have to dig ditches on the outside?Do you want to spend the winter in this shitty place?

Chapter 792 [Frustrated Everywhere]

Looking at the Datong military flag on the mound in the distance, Chahun Dorji couldn't say a word at this moment.

The mound is not big, and the area of ​​the entire raised area is less than [-] square meters, roughly equivalent to four football fields.

Such a point certainly cannot accommodate tens of thousands of people, not to mention civilian husbands and supplies.Most of the outer chariot formations and caltrops, including spearmen, musketeers, and grenadiers, are distributed around the mound.

The artillery is all on the soil slope, and many platforms have been dug and placed, and the artillery shells can fly over the heads of one's own soldiers.

There were several divisions serving as bait in the south, and each division had only 5000 dragoons, and the remaining dragoons were all in the hands of Li Zheng.Adding the dragoons of the two divisions in Liaoning, the number of cavalry alone was [-]—among them, [-] dragoons followed the main force of the infantry.The remaining [-] dragoons had long since disappeared, not near the battlefield at all.

Li Zheng is stable, but he not only knows stability, but also understands what it means to "cooperate with integrity and win with odds".

What are the ten thousand dragoons doing?

Looking for Mongol logistics!

Chahundorji conquered many tribes along the way, especially on the Horqin grassland, and captured a large number of people, livestock and food.In the continuous long-distance turn, it is impossible to bring all the animals, so the marching speed will be too slow.It is also impossible to leave it alone somewhere, it is very likely that a cavalry escort will be sent, and it will be hidden somewhere at this moment.

The main force of Khalkha in front of him only brought less than [-] cattle and sheep with the army.The livestock of the various tribes in Horqin must be more than this little, otherwise the Horqin tribe would have starved to death.

"Khan, the general of the Han army is not easy to deal with." Darhan rode over.

Chahun Doerji seemed to be talking to himself, but also seemed to be talking to others: "There are tens of thousands of cattle and sheep, and some cattle are pulling carts with a lot of grain. Why don't the Han people chase after them?" ? With so many livestock and food, how could anyone in the world be able to bear it?"

Darhan said: "This just shows that the military discipline of the Han army in front of us is terrible."

Thinking in another way, Chahun Dorji can fully imagine what would happen to his army if he had been lured just now.

Maybe he himself can see through the trick and order the ministries not to pursue him.But the tribal leaders under his command may not necessarily obey orders.To be precise, someone must have disobeyed the order and rushed towards the cattle and sheep with red eyes.As long as one or two tribes rush out, the rest of the tribes will follow suit, for fear that if they run slowly, they will lose the loot.

Chahun Dorji's military talent is extremely high. Every time he fights, he will subconsciously think differently: I am the enemy's general, what will I do.I am an enemy general, what will I do?

That's why he decided to feign defeat and lure the Datong army to give up their positions and chase after them.

He never imagined that the Han army in front of him was different from his own army!

Not only are the equipment different, the tactics are different, but even the general's binding force on the troops is also different.

Morgan also came on horseback and said, "Khan, there is only one way for us to win if the Han soldiers form a chariot formation like this. It is to surround them until they run out of water. There is no water source here, and their food may be sufficient, but They will run out of drinking water in a day or two. After two days, there will be no water, and they will last for another two or three days at most, and they will die of thirst if they are thirsty!"

Chahun Dorji said aggrievedly: "That would be a trick. The Han people just want to delay the time, and they wish we could surround them. In four or five days, it is enough for the main force of the enemy's cavalry to come after us!"

Darhan said: "According to reports from sentry cavalry sent out a few days ago, it seems that there are Han reinforcements in the south, and the number is not as large as before. Let's continue to the south to intercept and kill the reinforcements of the Han. After we leave, if here The Han soldiers followed suit, so it depends on the situation to decide how to fight. If there is an opportunity in the south, go to the south. If there is an opportunity here, come back and fight here.”

Morgan said: "Yes, we are all cavalry, and there is no need to forcefully attack the Han chariot formation. We Mongolian warriors fight while walking. How can there be any reason to surround them all the time? This kind of positional warfare belongs to the Han people." Our strengths are our weaknesses. We can’t use our weaknesses to compare our strengths with the Han people.”

"Then go further south!" Chahun Dorji said.

Standing on the mound, Li Zheng observed carefully with a telescope, and basically guessed what the enemy was thinking.This is the last thing he wants to see!

The enemy is all cavalry, and it is difficult to deal with it in motion.Under the constant turning and pulling, the infantry division of the Datong Army is very easy to show its flaws and be caught.

Li Zheng muttered to himself: "I made a mistake. I shouldn't have transferred the two divisions from the south."

Li Dingguo's battle plan is very risky, and Zhang Tieniu, who is in charge of making the decision, is also a lunatic.Their intention was to throw out the four divisions and block the enemy's westward escape.Li Zheng led two divisions to support the four divisions.The remaining three cavalry divisions chased the enemy's main force and moved according to the situation, constantly compressing the enemy's combat space.Those four divisions are like nails, once they are nailed down, they cannot be moved.

On the one hand, Li Zheng was worried that Wang Hui would be eaten, and on the other hand, he had greater ambitions. He wanted to transfer the rest of the divisions to see if he could encircle and wipe out the main force of the enemy while rescuing Wang Hui.

Now there is a problem with the deployment of troops. Chahun Dorji did not attack Wang Hui to death, but chose to go south to fight Li Zheng's reinforcements.Really unable to fight, he continued to go south to fight the two divisions further south.If those two divisions were a little careless, they would be eaten halfway.Even if it wasn't eaten, Li Dingguo's overall plan was ruined—three of the four blocked passages had been unblocked because of Li Zheng's unauthorized mobilization.The main force of Khalkha can pass through the remaining veins in the southern Daxing'an Mountains at any time, and escape back to the Mobei grassland without hindrance.

The enemies that Li Zheng fought in the past were basically infantry, even the Manchu Tartars were mainly infantry.

He had never fought a large-scale unit of the whole cavalry, and was disturbed by his mind-set, and made a very stupid misjudgment of the enemy's follow-up reaction.This is similar to Chahun Dorji. He has never fought against the Han people before, and there has been a series of misjudgments from beginning to end.

Li Zheng quickly adjusted his thinking, called a cavalry officer, and ordered: "You take five hundred cavalry to go north, contact Wang Hui, and let him stick to his camp. Then contact Zhang Dudu (Zhang Tieniu), and say that there are three soldiers in the south. A teacher was sent away by my stupid brain, and all the passages in the mountains to the south are unguarded."

Li Zheng didn't go south to rescue immediately, but asked the soldiers to rest first, and wait until they had enough food and drink before moving tomorrow.

Although Chahun Dorji went south with the main force, he left behind a cavalry, trying to observe Li Zheng's movements.As long as Li Zheng showed his flaws, he would immediately come back overnight.

Thousands of cavalry from both sides ran and entangled repeatedly on the vast grassland between the two armies.They both restrained each other, did not fight life or death, and only occasionally fired guns and arrows. The main purpose was to cover the battlefield and prevent the other party from detecting the movement of their main force.

evening.

When Chahun Doerji received the news, Li Zheng didn't move, and he became even more depressed: "The Han general in the north probably couldn't find a loophole to fight. After the sun comes out tomorrow, the main force will go south at full speed, don't worry about that bastard anymore !"

"Do you want to go back overnight and take advantage of the darkness to raid the car formation?" Darhan asked.

Chahun Dorji said: "If I don't go, it's useless to go. That kind of person doesn't know how to be vigilant at night?"

On the second day, the main force of Khalkha accelerated its march southward.

The two divisions in the south have already reached the Heimulun River and headed northeast along the river bank.Hundreds of years later, due to overcultivation and grazing, sandy land has sporadically appeared in this area, but at this time it is full of black land with grass and crops.

One teacher was Wan Sitong, an old man from Jiangxi.

A teacher named Zhang Wenyu, whose real name was Zhang Feng, was born as a slave.When the Datong Army sent troops to Hunan, Zhang Wenyu took all the slaves in the city and took down the big city of Hengyang in one fell swoop to contribute, and now he has finally become a division commander.

"Da da da da!"

More than a dozen dragoons rushed back in a panic, some of them were still wounded, and it was obvious at a glance that something had happened.

"Is there an enemy in front?" Wan Sitong asked.

The dragoons who ran back first said: "There is the main force of the enemy in the north, and they are coming too fast. They will rush up to surround and kill you desperately!"

Zhang Wenyu asked: "What about the others? Why are there only a dozen of you?"

The dragoon shook his head and said, "I don't know, we suffered heavy casualties anyway!"

Wan Sitong shouted: "The whole army draws near the river and forms a chariot formation!"

About eight miles to the north.