Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 596

On the southern edge of the Horqin Grassland, in a huge camp surrounded by chariots.

Taichang and the other generals were all frowning and staring at the map, seemingly in a bad mood.

The reason why they did this was not because the soldiers of the Shenwu Battalion on the front line were not advancing smoothly enough.

On the contrary, the various armies of the Shenwu Battalion advanced quite smoothly, and they did not encounter any resistance at all, not even ordinary herdsmen.

It can be said that as long as they let go of their hands and feet and push forward with all their strength, they will have no problem advancing two hundred miles a day.

The problem is, this is so abnormal.

It is impossible for Huang Taiji to just give up the Horqin Grassland, because he needs to support too many people.

Originally, there were 30 million people on the Horqin Grassland, plus the nearly 50 people who migrated from Jiannu and the 90 people who escaped from the Chahar Grassland. This grassland needs to support [-] million people.

In such a grassland, it is very difficult to feed such a large population.

Because grazing alone on the grassland can only obtain some dairy products and beef and mutton, and cannot produce food at all.

In addition, the weather during the Little Ice Age is not very normal at this moment, it is low temperature and severe drought, the grassland on the grassland is not very abundant, and the cattle and sheep cannot reproduce much.

If Huang Taiji gave up the Horqin Grassland and continued to migrate to Hulun Lake, Beier Lake and Hailar, it would not be a problem of freezing to death.

There is less pasture there, and most of the year is frozen, so there is no way to graze. If the 90 million people migrate there, at least half of them will starve to death.

So, what does Huang Taiji mean?

Taichang stared at the map and pondered for a long time before he asked, "What do you think?"

Lu Xiangsheng thought for a while, and then said cautiously: "Your Majesty, judging from the investigation of the Shenwu Camp, there should be a lot of people on the Horqin Grassland. Although they fled to the north, there are traces of the camp and the marks of wheels and horseshoes. It is much denser than the Chahar Grassland. I think that it is impossible for Huang Taiji to give up this grassland and continue to migrate north, because the north cannot support so many people."

Needless to say, everyone can see this.

Sun Chengzong said cautiously again: "Your Majesty, I think that with Huang Taiji's temperament, he will never admit defeat. He should be looking for a fighting opportunity. Once he finds an opportunity, he will definitely go all out to fight it. It is impossible for him to be reconciled."

This is a good thing, I am afraid that Huang Taiji will not dare to fight, as long as he dares to fight, he will definitely hit him all over the place.

The question is, where can he find opportunities?

Taichang couldn't help frowning again and said: "How could he find a chance to fight? It's impossible for us to give him a chance. Otherwise, we deliberately sold a loophole and let the army of the Shenwu Battalion rush forward crazily, heading straight for where they used to be. place?"

Uh, if you do this, there may be accidents.

Sun Chengzong carefully reminded: "Your Majesty, they have artillery, and there are quite a few of them. Infantry chariots are not afraid of artillery, but Shenwu Battalion iron cavalry can't stop artillery. If we take the risk of making an assault, the cavalry of Shenwu Battalion may be killed." The casualties are heavy!"

Hearing this, Taichang couldn't help asking: "Then what should we do, should we keep waiting like this?"

Sun Chengzong nodded without hesitation and said: "Yes, Your Majesty, we can just wait for Huang Taiji to make a move. We can afford to wait. As long as the troops of the Shenwu Battalion march steadily and advance steadily, about a hundred miles a day, It only takes more than a month for the entire Horqin Grassland to be occupied by us, and Huang Taiji certainly cannot afford to wait."

That's right, it's Huang Taiji who should be in a hurry.

The army of the Shenwu Battalion didn't stop there and wait, they were advancing steadily every day, about a hundred miles a day, the advancing speed was very stable, and the formation was very neat.

In this case, if Huang Taiji didn't act quickly, Horqin Grassland would be gone.

Taichang thought for a while, then nodded slightly and said: "Okay then, we'll just wait for Huang Taiji to make a move, but we have to send orders to all the troops in the Shenwu Camp to be careful, and if we find the main force of building slaves, notify the nearby as soon as possible The people in the army go to support, don't fight recklessly with others."

Everyone was discussing in the big tent, when a messenger from the Liaodong Army came in hurriedly, bowed his hands and said, "Your Majesty, Mr. Song ordered you to report. He said that the machine is ready and has arrived in Horqin City." , he immediately took the machine to the place where the railway was laid to try it out."

machine!

What machine?
Everyone in the big tent was stupefied.

Taichang pointed to the map excitedly and asked, "Where does the railway from Horqin City to the north of the Chahar Grassland go?"

Zu Dashou quickly pointed to the map and said, "Your Majesty, according to the schedule, it should be here."

It is only two or three hundred miles away from where they camped, and Horqin City is also two or three hundred miles away.

Taichang thought for a while, and then said decisively: "Zhisheng, Fuyu, you sit here, Zhen and Jiandou take two hundred infantry fighting vehicles to have a look."

Uh, this.

The place where the emperor is going is not very far from here, two or three hundred miles away, and it only takes one day to go back and forth on a fast horse.

The problem is that the emperor took two hundred infantry fighting vehicles and left the army station, which is a bit uneasy.

Sun Chengzong looked at the map, then bowed his hands and said: "Your Majesty, why don't you bring [-] Liaodong cavalry and [-] carriages, so that it is more convenient to form an formation."

All right, there's nothing else going on right now, it's okay for him to bring more troops.

Taichang soon set off with a large group of people.

At this time, on the Gobi Desert on the southern edge of the Horqin Grassland, [-] Liaodong Army infantry and more than [-] Liaodong civilians were laying railroad tracks together.

The engineering department of this railway line chose the Gobi Desert, which has relatively hard geology, because the soil quality of the grassland is mostly soft, and it is necessary to dig deeper foundations and fill in more gravel.

Of course, choosing the Gobi Desert is not without problems.

It is precisely because the Gobi Desert is relatively hard that digging the foundation is more difficult than digging on the grass, and there are more gravel in the Gobi Desert, so it is more difficult to dig.

However, these gravels are not all useless.

After the gravel is dug out, it is sieved casually, and the soil inside can be used to fill the foundation after sifting out.

Generally speaking, it is more convenient to lay railroad tracks on the Gobi Desert. At least, it is more convenient to collect gravel and save the time of transporting gravel back and forth.

Because here is flat land, there are basically no peaks or valleys, the speed of laying the railway tracks by more than [-] people is relatively fast, and it is not a problem to lay fifty or sixty miles a day. It is estimated that it can be repaired in more than [-] days. Near the Gobi Desert on the north side of the Haer Grassland.

However, Taichang still felt that this speed was not fast enough, because the speed of laying the rails could not keep up with the speed of the army's advance.

In fact, he was aware of this problem as early as when the army of the Shenwu Battalion began to advance from the southern part of the Chahar Grassland.

Therefore, he had already put forward some ideas and drew some sketches, asking Song Yingxing to quickly develop a machine for laying railroad tracks.

At this moment, Song Yingxing finally made the machine for laying the railway track and transported it by railway. Of course, he wanted to take a look.

After all, the speed at which the railway is built is also related to the speed at which they advance.

Moreover, once these machines are tested and improved and mass-produced, the speed at which they build railways will be terrifying.

In many cases, the efficiency of machines is simply not comparable to that of manpower.

(End of this chapter)