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Chapter 1028: Receiving Outer Khalkha
At this time, an old friend from the Right Wing of Mongolia drove a camel caravan to the garrison. After the two sides had several contacts, the other party stated his purpose and said that he was sent by Huang Taiji, the commander-in-chief of the Western Regions of the Ming Dynasty, to contact and affiliate himself.

If Duo Luo was willing to lead his troops to submit, Huang Taiji could petition the Ming Emperor to seek a title for him, and he could continue to own his own territory and herdsmen like the three marquises of Inner Mongolia.

After more than two years of careful consideration, Duo Luo decided to surrender. The grievances of his father had nothing to do with him, but the crisis facing the tribe was real. Rather than committing himself to being a small leader in the Junggar tribe, it would be better to surrender to the Ming Dynasty and become a stable marquis. Even if he had to abide by the laws of the Ming Dynasty, he was still a local lord after all.

But it was not easy to lead the whole tribe to rebel. Batur Hun Taiji was always on guard against the Ordos tribe's treachery, so he forced two small tribes to live together, which was actually a surveillance.

Just when they were racking their brains to figure out how to escape to the south, Huang Taiji's special envoy arrived with the camel caravan and brought good news. There was no need to run away, but to rebel right where they were and cooperate with the Ming army to seize Baihejian, kill all the herdsmen fleeing north, and prevent the news from reaching Baturhun's ears. That would be a great achievement!
As the saying goes, it is difficult to guard against a thief within your own family. Batur Hun Taiji defended Baihejian with all his might, and the front line was guarded by his trusted confidants from the Junggar tribe. However, he still fell into the hands of the Ordos tribe.

When the Ming army suddenly launched a fierce attack on Baihejian, the Junggar officer stationed there immediately sent people to notify the rear reinforcements and warn Baturhun. However, none of the people he sent out reached the oasis dozens of miles away, and all were killed by Duoluo on the way, so naturally there would be no reinforcements.

After a day and night of fierce attack, the Baihejian natural moat was lost, and the retreating defenders were swept away by the Ordos cavalry, leaving no one alive. The Ming army rushed to the oasis dozens of miles away without any resistance, and killed the Junggar reserve troops stationed there by surprise.

By the time Batur Hun Taiji learned that Baihejian had fallen and was busy dispatching troops from Beshbaliq to rescue it, the main force of the Ming army had already successfully passed through the Tianshan Mountains, and the vanguard was less than 50 miles away from Weilumu, the largest winter pasture in Junggar.

Beshbalik and Weilumu are 260 li apart, and it would take at least two days for a cavalryman to reach there. It was impossible for one army to take care of both the east and the west, so the most reasonable approach was to choose one of them as the key point for defense.

At this time, Batur made a mistake, he wanted more! He was reluctant to give up either side, so he divided the only 4 cavalry he had, leaving more than to continue blocking the Tianshan Pass to prevent the Ming army from crossing the Tianshan Mountains and reaching Beshbalik, and the other more than marched day and night to urgently support Weilumu.

Not only was Wei Lumu not saved, but she was ambushed by the Ming army and the Inner Mongolian cavalry on the way, and less than half of them escaped back. The Tianshan Pass on the Beshbaliq side was also not defended. Then bad news came from the east that the Khoshut tribe was defeated by the Ming army and the entire tribe evacuated northward.

Batur Hun Taiji made the same choice as many other Mongolian leaders, taking his young men and their families and fleeing overnight, leaving his people behind. Where to flee? They could only go north and seek temporary refuge with the Durbet tribe.

However, he did not know that the situation of the Durbet tribe was even worse. Two Ming armies crossed the desert in winter and suddenly appeared a hundred miles south of Uliastai.

Taiji Subadi of the Zasaktu Khanate immediately contacted the Durbet tribe in the north. The two sides gathered 5 troops and planned to rely on the advantages of terrain and people to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army.

"The students considered that the weather was not conducive to logistics transportation and it was not convenient to protect the transportation line, so they chose to take the initiative to attack. When the enemy was 3 kilometers away, all the army was arranged in a gate shape and moved forward slowly. Half of the Inner Mongolian cavalry was in the middle of the gate shape, ready to attack the two wings at any time.

Field artillery opened the way in front of the front line, and hot air balloons were used as eyes to concentrate bombardment on the area with the highest density of personnel from 1 kilometer away, forcing the enemy to launch a charge in a hurry.

Although they won the battle in the end, the casualties were heavy. Nearly 50 soldiers were wounded by arrows, more than 20 were killed on the spot, and more than 2 wounded died in the following days. The Inner Mongolian cavalry also suffered nearly casualties when attacking the enemy's flank. If it weren't for the timely arrival of the nd Guard led by Tumed Hou Omubu and the reinforcements from the Tushetu Khanate and Chechen Khanate, the casualties would have been even greater.

After the war, the Army General Staff reviewed the battle. Although no obvious command errors were found, they pointed out better tactics that could reduce casualties.

This was the first time that the student commanded a large-scale battle. He was not thoughtful and acted inappropriately, which resulted in relatively large casualties. He has command responsibility and is willing to bear the corresponding punishment! "

Speaking of this battle of 15,000 to 50,000, Yuan Datou, the commander of the Eastern Army, was in a heavy mood. The Ming Army had been established for so many years, and it was almost normal to fight with fewer troops against more, but there had never been so many casualties.

With the bloody, cold corpse and numbers on the table, no matter how hard he tried to perform his duties, he could not escape the suspicion of dereliction of duty. At this point, there was really no excuse for him except to admit his mistake.

"Oh, I would like to hear the opinions of the Army General Staff."

Hong Tao did not sit and listen carefully. He took the military map of the Battle of Uliastai and walked to the wall while flipping through it, comparing it with the large map. After listening to Yuan Datou's story, he did not make any comments, but turned back to look at the Army Chief of Staff Ding Shun with interest.

"Your Majesty, the General Staff conducted a simulation after the battle. If General Yuan had not taken the initiative to attack, but instead adopted a defensive position and actively built trenches and fortifications, delaying the attack for a while until Omubu led his troops to arrive, our army's casualties would have been much lower. This is the report of three simulations, and the results are similar each time."

Ding Shun saw the emperor's expression and his face immediately became less calm. He didn't know why the emperor didn't accept the evaluation of the Army General Staff, so he could only take out the relevant materials to prove that he was not talking nonsense.

"Among the confidential staff officers who participated in the simulation, how many followed the Eastern Army? How many participated in the Battle of Uliastai?" Hong Tao didn't even bother to touch the simulation results of the Army General Staff, but asked a very simple question.

"...Two of them followed the Eastern Army, and five of them participated in the Battle of Uliastai." But Ding Shun's expression became solemn, and he hesitated for a moment before answering.

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"Great! Chief of Staff Ding has actually mastered the ability to see and hear from afar. He can review the battle situation from hundreds of kilometers away without having to refer to the first-hand data from frontline staff and generals. This is cause for celebration.

I remember that more than 20 years ago, the court judged the merits of frontline generals in this way. Li Daxueshi, you seem to be the only one here who has lived through that era. Do you have any experience to share with Chief of Staff Ding?"

Hong Tao laughed instead, and praised Ding Shun and the Army General Staff Headquarters highly. However, it didn't sound like pure praise, but rather had hidden meanings. In the end, Grand Secretary Li Ruzhang was also mentioned.

(End of this chapter)