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Chapter 789 Bagua City

"All have been sent out, led by Gao Bao. Your Majesty, the Northern Command has fulfilled its mission and built a new Bagua City on the site of Jiulian City. It is two miles in radius and is built with lime, iron bars, and stone bars. It is difficult for ordinary weapons to destroy it.

There are six granaries and twelve wells inside. The terrain is higher than the river valley, and there is an ancient post road leading to Xuanfu. Now the craftsmen of the Northern Metropolitan Government and the Ministry of Construction's Transportation Department are rushing to repair the steep slopes along the way, and it will be completed in about a month. "

Yuan Keli was now used to carrying a briefcase with him, in which he put some important documents and data, so that he could answer the emperor's questions quickly. This time, he took out several military reports and two maps, all of which talked about the same thing: the construction of Kaiping Wei.

After Hong Tao set sail, the General Staff immediately started negotiations with the Kharchin tribe. At the beginning, Da Taiji Baihong was very resistant to the Ming army's request to build a city in Yuanshangdu, and only wanted the Ming army to send troops north to resist Ligdan Khan's army together with the Kharchin cavalry.

Naturally, the General Staff would not agree and only ordered the garrison in Guihua City to move westwards and approach the headquarters of the Ordos tribe, forcing them to be unable to withdraw troops to stab the Kharchin and Tumed tribes in the back.

Even so, the combined forces of Turks and Kazakhstan were still defeated by Ligdan Khan in the upper reaches of the Luan River, losing more than 3,000 troops in one battle. Only then did they have to send a special envoy to Xuanfu for negotiations, and finally agreed to the request of the General Staff.

Then, Huang Helou, the chief of staff of the Northern Military Commission, led the Eighth Guard out of the border wall from Dushibao and headed for the old site of Yuanshangdu, 200 miles away, to prepare for the construction of the city. At the same time, Lei Laohu, the chief of staff of the Northeast Military Commission, led the Fifth Guard out of the border wall from Panjiakou and stationed in Fuyu City.

The Ming Dynasty sent troops to fight alongside the Turkic and Kazakh coalition forces? That was impossible. Yuan Keli and Li Ruzhang remembered the emperor's instructions and resolutely refused to fight in conjunction with any army.

The two of them designed a strategy of "besieging Wei to save Zhao", which was to attack the pastoral areas of the five Khalkha tribes and the Chahar tribe from the north from Fuyuwei, forcing Ligdan Khan to withdraw troops to provide support.

There are two benefits to doing this: first, it avoids the danger of being isolated and cut off from supplies; second, it allows the army to take the opportunity to plunder some supplies and population.

If the battlefield was placed in the area controlled by the Kharchin tribe, there would be basically no additional gains except for capturing enemy horses and prisoners, which was not in line with the style of the Ming Army.

So, will this trick work? Well, it is not a brilliant one in terms of strategy. Both the Khalkha Five Tribes and Ligdan Khan had already calculated it in advance and made corresponding arrangements.

But from the actual effect, it basically met the design requirements. Because the more than 5,000 cavalry left by Lin Danhan were no match for the army, after three battles, more than half of them were lost and they had to flee northward.

Lei Laohu led the Fifth Guard northward for nearly 200 miles, entered the area controlled by the Chahar tribe and began an indiscriminate attack. No matter whether they were Khalkha or Chahar herdsmen, they destroyed any camps they saw and captured any people they saw.

At this time, Huang Taiji, who had been hovering near Jinzhou, also moved, dragging dozens of cannons westward and launching a large-scale attack on the Shanhaiguan line. Unfortunately, facing the defense of the First Guard of the Northeast Military Command, he could not gain any advantage. After attacking for four or five days, he lost more than a thousand troops and had to retreat.

Seeing that the enemy was getting closer and closer to Baicheng, and that neither the remaining troops nor the Jurchen army were able to provide effective assistance, Lin Danhan had to send Khorchin Oba Taiji's headquarters to return for support.

The two sides fought in a place called Hongshan, and before the winner was decided, it suddenly snowed heavily. Lei Laohu saw that the situation was not good, and led his army to withdraw to Fuyu City at night. Oba Dataiji did not dare to brave the wind and snow to pursue deep into the mountains, and could only guard the mountain pass in the north to prevent the Ming army from going north again. Lei Laohu did not go north again, but he began to move east again.

Anyway, there were sufficient supplies in Fuyu City, and a lot of horses were robbed on this expedition, so they simply divided the team into units of one hundred households, with three horses per person, and dispersed them among the mountains, forming a fan shape. They headed eastward, sweeping across the control areas of the five Khalkha tribes near the border wall, continuing to implement the strategy of building strong defenses and clearing the fields.

Now not only Oba Da Taiji was worried, but even Huang Taiji, who was feinting to attack Shanhaiguan, was worried all day long, fearing that this army would suddenly move south to cut off his retreat and launch another Tashanbao ambush, so he quickly retreated to Jinzhou.

The 60,000-man army was reduced by 20,000, and Lin Danhan's progress was not smooth. Although the Turkish-Khalkha coalition still did not have an advantage in numbers, it was superior to the Chahar and Khalkha armies in terms of weapons and armor.

Especially the hard crossbow with steel arms, which is small in size but very powerful. It can suddenly attack when cavalry are fighting each other. The featherless arrows are very difficult to dodge and are also very vicious.

Obviously, this weapon also came from the Ming Dynasty and was obtained through trade. Although Lin Danhan gritted his teeth, he had no other choice, and the other one who relied on the Ordos tribe had not been seen for a long time.

Nomadic peoples have a characteristic in combat, which is speed, which is often described as going as fast as the wind. Sometimes speed is an advantage, which can achieve unexpected effects, disrupt the enemy's deployment, and seize the initiative on the battlefield. But everything has two sides, and sometimes speed becomes a disadvantage, which means that they lack durability. They come quickly and go quickly.

Why is this so? Because the nomadic people themselves have limited strength. All the people are soldiers, which sounds powerful, but in fact it is a seven-injury fist. If the battle cannot be won quickly, it will hurt the enemy by 1,000 and lose 800 of its own.

The young and strong men all went to fight, so there was no one to do the housework. Even in winter, the herders still had a lot of work to do, otherwise it would affect their normal life in the next year.

The characteristics of agricultural nations are just the opposite, slow, or steady. But once an agricultural nation enters a state of war, its endurance will be relatively long. Longer combat time will not cause harm to production and life. Soldiers are all professionals, and they have to guard the border even if they are not fighting.

The two sides fought back and forth for nearly two months. Da Taiji Baihong deliberately pretended to be defeated and fled, and then led the Chahar cavalry who were pursuing him to Yuanshangdu on the banks of the Lightning River.

Although the Ming Army was extremely disgusted with such behavior, in order to protect the craftsmen building the city, they could not just stand by and watch, so they had to set up a battle formation to block the Chahar cavalry's way.

Lao Chaohua was still very smart. When he heard that the vanguard had encountered a powerful enemy who was good at using muskets and suffered heavy casualties, he immediately realized that it might be the Ming army. He turned around and left without saying a word. He was so fast that he couldn't even catch up with Bai Hong Da Taiji who had returned and tried to attack from the rear.

As Lao Chaohua escaped, the news that the Ming army had built a city in Yuanshangdu soon reached Lin Danhan's ears. At this time, the situation was very clear. The Ming army not only had a Fuyu city, but also built a new city on the banks of the Shandian River.

(End of this chapter)