I

Looking at the Datong military flag on the mound in the distance, Chahun Dorji could not say a word at this time.

The mound is not big. The entire raised area is less than 30,000 square meters, which is roughly equivalent to four football fields.

Such a small place certainly cannot accommodate tens of thousands of people, not to mention the civilian husbands and baggage. Most of the outer chariot formations and caltrops, including spearmen, gunmen, and grenadiers, were distributed around the mound.

The artillery was all placed on the slope of the earth, and many platforms were dug for placement. The artillery shells could fly over the heads of our own soldiers.

There are several divisions serving as bait in the south, and each division only retains 500 dragoons. The remaining dragoons are all in Li Zheng's hands. Including the dragoons of the two Liaoning divisions, the number of cavalry alone is 15,000 - of which 5,000 dragoons follow the main infantry force. The remaining 10,000 dragoons have long since disappeared and are not near the battlefield at all.

Li Zhengwen returned to stability, but he not only knew stability, he also understood what it means to "comply with justice and win with surprise".

What are the ten thousand dragoons doing?

Looking for Mongolian logistics troops!

Chahun Dorji conquered many tribes along the way, especially on the Horqin Grassland, and captured a large number of people, livestock and grain. In the continuous long-distance transfer, it is impossible to bring all the livestock with you, otherwise the marching speed will be too slow. It is impossible to leave it somewhere, it is very likely to be escorted by a cavalry, and it is hidden somewhere at this moment.

The main force of Khalkha in front of them only brought less than 100,000 cattle and sheep with them. The livestock of each Horqin tribe must not be more than this, otherwise the Horqin tribe would have starved to death.

"Great Khan, the Han general is difficult to deal with." Darhan rode over.

Chahun Dorji seemed to be talking to himself or talking to others: "These are tens of thousands of cattle and sheep. Some of the cattle are pulling carts, and the carts are filled with a lot of grain. Why don't the Han people come after us?" ? How can anyone in the world be able to endure so many livestock and grains?"

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

Putting himself in his shoes, Chahun Dorji can completely imagine what would have happened to his army if he had been seduced just now.

Perhaps he himself could see through the plot and order his ministries not to pursue him. But the tribal leaders under his command may not always 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 they will not be able to grab the loot if they run too slowly.

Chahun Dorji's military talent is extremely high. Every time he fights, he will subconsciously think about it: 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 abandon their positions and pursue him.

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

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

Mergen also rode up and said: "Great Khan, with the Han soldiers arrayed like this, there is only one way for us to win. That is to surround them until they run out of water. There is no water source here. They may have enough food, but If you drink water, you will finish it in a day or two. After two days, there will be no water. If you can hold on for another two or three days at most, they will be thirsty to death!"

Chahun Dorji said angrily: "That would be a trap. The Han people just want to delay time, and they hope that we will not leave. Four or five days will be enough for the main force of the enemy's cavalry to catch up!"

Darhan said: "According to the reports from the sentries sent out a few days ago, there seem to be Han reinforcements in the south, and the number is not as large as before. We continue to go south to intercept the Han reinforcements. After we leave, if here The Han soldiers will follow suit, so we will decide how to attack based on the situation. If there is an opportunity in the south, go and attack in the south. If there is an opportunity here, come back and attack here."

Morgan said: "Yes, we are all cavalry, there is no need to attack the Han people's vehicle formation. We Mongolian warriors are walking and fighting at the same time, how can there be any reason to surround us all the time? Fighting this kind of positional warfare belongs to the Han people Strengths are our shortcomings. We cannot use our shortcomings to compete with the Han people."

"Then go further south!" Chahun Dorji said.

Li Zheng stood on the mound, observed carefully with a telescope, and basically guessed the enemy's thoughts. This is what he least wants to see!

The enemy is all cavalry, and it is difficult to deal with them on the move. Under the constant pull and pull, the infantry division of the Datong Army was very easy to expose its flaws and be caught.

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

Li Dingguo's battle plan was very risky, and Zhang Tieniu, who was in charge of making the decision, was a lunatic. Their intention was to throw the four divisions out and block the enemy's westward escape route. Li Zheng led two divisions to support the four divisions in the center. The remaining three cavalry divisions chased the enemy's main force and moved according to the situation to continuously compress 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, but on the other hand, he had greater ambitions. He wanted to mobilize the rest of the divisions to rescue Wang Hui and see if he could encircle and annihilate the main enemy force.

Now there is a problem with the deployment of troops. Chahun Dorji did not attack Wang Hui desperately, but chose to go south to attack Li Zheng's reinforcements. Unable to defeat them, we continued south to attack the two divisions further south. If those two divisions are not careful, they will be eaten halfway. Even if they are not eaten, Li Dingguo's overall plan has been destroyed - three of the four blocked passages have been restored to normal due to Li Zheng's unauthorized maneuvers. The main force of Khalkha can pass through the southern part of the Greater Khingan Mountains at any time and escape back to the Mobei grassland without any hindrance.

The enemies Li Zheng fought before were basically infantry-based. Even the Manchu and Qing Tatars were mainly infantry-based.

He had never fought a large-scale force with all cavalry, and was disturbed by his mind-set. He made a very stupid and wrong judgment on the enemy's subsequent response. This is similar to Chahun Dorji, who had never fought against the Han people before, and there were a series of miscalculations from beginning to end.

Li Zheng quickly adjusted his thinking, called a cavalry officer, and ordered: "Take five hundred cavalry north to contact Wang Hui and ask him to stick to his camp. Then contact Governor Zhang (Zhang Tieniu) and tell him that there are three This division was transferred away because of my stupidity, and all the passes in the mountains to the south are unguarded."

Li Zheng did not immediately go south to rescue, but asked the soldiers to rest first and wait until they were full and full before moving tomorrow.

Although Chahun Dorji led the main force southward, he left a cavalry force behind to try to observe Li Zheng's movements. As long as Li Zheng shows a flaw, he will immediately come back overnight.

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

evening.

Chahun Dorji received the news and found that Li Zheng had not moved. He suddenly became even more depressed: "The Han general in the north probably can't find a loophole to attack. After the sun comes out tomorrow, the main force will go south at full speed. Don't worry about that bastard anymore." !”

"Should we return 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 if I 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 south.

The two divisions in the south have arrived at the Black Mulun River and are heading northeast along the river bank. Hundreds of years later, due to excessive farming and grazing, there were scattered sandy lands on this land, but now it was all black land growing with grass and crops.

One of the division commanders was Wan Sitong, an old man from Jiangxi.

One of the teachers was named Zhang Wenyu, whose real name was Zhang Feng. He was born as a slave. When the Datong Army sent troops to Hunan, Zhang Wenyu took the entire city's slaves and captured the city of Hengyang to surrender. Now he has finally become a division commander.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

More than a dozen dragoons rushed back in a panic. Some of them were injured. It was obvious at a glance that something had happened.

"Are there enemies ahead?" Wan Sitong asked.

The dragoon who was the first to rush back said: "There is the main enemy force in the north. It came too fast. They rush up to surround and kill them without risking their lives!"

Zhang Wenyu asked: "Where are the others? Why are there only more than ten of you?"

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

Wan Sitong shouted: "The whole army is leaning against the river and forming a car formation!"

About eight miles north.

Since the dragoons were concentrated at Li Zheng's disposal, the two divisions had only a thousand cavalry left, and they all went out to explore the road. In the morning, they ran into Khalkha's path-exploring cavalry.

After many battles, the Khalkha cavalry also became more sophisticated.

They gradually became familiar with the routines of the dragoons. When they met, they broke up and rushed forward. They endured the damage of the bullets and kept chasing the dragoons. As long as it survives the first two waves of damage, the Dragoon cannot reload.

On the west bank of the Heimulun River, there were hundreds of dragoon corpses along the way. In order to buy time for the main force to form a formation, the dragoons did not escape back the same way, but galloped eastward at full speed.

Chahun Dorji sent a total of 3,000 cavalry to pursue the remaining 800 dragon cavalry.

Then he ignored them and led the main force quickly southward, finally seeing the two Datong Infantry Divisions that had formed a formation near the river. Due to the tight schedule, some of the food in the tanks had not even had time to be moved out, so it was just lying in front of the formation.

"Another car formation, another car formation!"

Chahun Dorji was so angry that his face was red and his neck was thick. The car array in front of him was even more interesting. It was next to the Heimulun River and there was no shortage of drinking water. Moreover, there is no need to defend the side near the river, and there are more sufficient troops to defend the vehicle formation.

He believed that a hard attack could be won, but it would cost many casualties and would take several days. What he lacks most now is time, for fear that the cavalry division of the Datong Army will chase him. Zhang Tieniu, Li Dingguo, and Wang Tingchen's cavalry divisions all consisted of one person and two horses. One horse is used for riding, and the other is used to carry armor. The equipment looks scary from a distance. Chahun Dorji does not want to fight with the cavalry division of the Datong Army.

"The Great Khan, the firecracker of the Han people."

This was left over from the death of the dragoons, a total of 174 flintlock muskets.

Chahun Dorji studied for a while and finally figured out how to shoot. He immediately said with emotion: "This is a good gun. It is much better than the fire gun of the Rakshasa ghost. There is no need to carry a long match rope. If the Han infantry, They all use this kind of firecrackers, and the Mongolian warriors must not charge head-on."

Darhan looked at the chariot formation in front and sighed: "Great Khan, go back to Mobei. The Horqin Grassland cannot be occupied."

At the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Li Ling led 5,000 infantrymen out of Juyan. As the lone army advanced deeply, he was besieged by 80,000 Huns cavalry. Li Ling did not have muskets and artillery, so he relied on baggage vehicles to form a formation and fought with the Huns for eight days with bows and crossbows. He shot and killed more than 10,000 Huns cavalry. In the end, he was captured and surrendered because he ran out of ammunition and food.

Let's talk about history. The Eight Banners Army fought with Jungar, and 4,000 Qing troops were besieged by Jungar cavalry. Fu Erdan, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army, also formed a formation of chariots to resist. He was able to maintain the formation of chariots and fired muskets all the way to break through. In the end, the Qing army's chariot formation was defeated because the Zhungeer cavalry had large shotguns and could chase them on horseback and shoot with heavy muskets. The Qing army's chariot formation failed, not because of the Jungar cavalry, but because of the Jungar's heavy muskets.

From ancient times to the present, as long as there are elite infantry formations, it is difficult to forcibly break through with cavalry alone.

The Xiongnu cavalry succeeded in attacking with force. The premise was that Li Ling's arrows were exhausted and more than 10,000 Xiongnu cavalry used their bodies to catch the arrows.

In front of them was the turtle formation, with Li Zheng, who was even more turtle behind him, and the Datong Cavalry Division chasing them further north.

Chahun Dorji clenched his fists and gritted his teeth: "Go back to Mobei!"