Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 256 Mongolia comes to surrender

"Drive! Drive!"

In the early morning of the 19th, after four days of running wildly, Li Jinglong's 100,000 horse infantry officers and soldiers finally arrived in Datong. However, the news was that Zhu Di only stayed in Datong for one day, and then took a detour from the north to the Monan Fortress.

Obviously, Zhu Di feinted a shot, allowing the 100,000 cavalry and infantry officers and soldiers led by Li Jinglong to escape.

"Common people of Yan..."

Sitting in the tent outside Datong City, Li Jinglong was not angry. Instead, he chuckled and shook his head.

He has almost figured out Zhu Di's fighting method, which is to rely on sufficient horses to mobilize his own side, so as to achieve the effect of dividing and striking.

If it does not meet its expectations, Zhu Di should now lead a large group of horse infantry officers and soldiers out of the fortress, leave Pingping and return to Peiping, and then attack Wu Gao, Xu Kai, Yu Tongyuan and other troops who besieged Peiping.

"The whole army will set off tomorrow and attack Juyongguan from Huailai. Let Fang Zhao lead the army to cooperate with our army's advance."

Li Jinglong gave the order, and all the generals in the tent bowed in response.

Just at the same time they responded, the sound of horse hooves sounded outside the tent, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps.

A Qianhu official actually acted as a pond rider and walked into the tent from outside. He knelt down nervously and gasped for breath. He was obviously in a hurry.

"General, Shandong Dusi Babaili is urgent. Our navy was defeated in Dengzhou, and Dengzhou has been occupied by the Bohai pirates."

"What did you say?"

Li Jinglong suddenly stood up. Compared to Zhu Di's false shot, Zhu Gaoxu's landing across the sea surprised him even more.

"Dengzhou fell on the 16th. This eight-hundred-mile urgent letter was issued by the city's special forces before the city fell. It was issued by the Qingzhou Guards Command Yamen."

"It's past time on the 16th..." Listening to Tang Qi's words, Li Jinglong finally understood why Tang Qi was sent as a Qianhu official.

Dengzhou is less than 900 miles away from Cangzhou, which stores 300,000 Ming army rations for the Northern Expedition, and the Bohai Sea is dominated by elite cavalry assaults. If Zhu Gaoxu chooses to attack Cangzhou or any section of the canal, then Peiping's 300,000 troops will not be needed If you talk too much, you know what the outcome will be.

"The whole army was ordered to break camp and return to Baoding via Zijin Pass. Yu Tongyuan, Pingan, Chen Hui, Teng Ju and others were ordered to lead the cavalry south to Cangzhou, while Wu Gao and Xu Kai were stationed in Zhuozhou and Dong'an."

Li Jinglong ordered with a clear mind that he would let Yu Tongyuan and others lead 20,000 cavalry to secure the army's rations in Cangzhou for half a year, while he himself would lead the army to Dezhou and Dongchang to protect the canal.

The northern defense line is enough for Wu Gao and Xu Kai's 100,000 men. As long as they don't act rashly, they can stop Zhu Di.

Suddenly, with Li Jinglong's order, one hundred thousand Ming troops outside Datong City began to move into the pass.

At the same time, Zhu Di, who left the fortress north of Datong and headed for Monan, also led 60,000 horse infantry to the front garrison of Kaiping, preparing to take the front garrison into Peiping.

On the vast grassland, the team of 60,000 horse infantry and cavalry is naturally very spectacular. Although Beiyuan can still provide 100,000 cavalry, they are caught in civil strife and their strength is constantly being consumed. No one knows that they have gone through this. After the battle for the throne, how many troops can be left?

Since Zhu Yuanzhang organized several campaigns to sweep the north, the Mongols were entrenched in the northeastern and Mobei areas. There were basically no Mongols in Monan, so the Yan army did not march very fast.

From time to time, they could stop their horses to rest. Most of them wore simple mandarin duck war jackets on horseback. They did not wear armor, and only a number of 3,000 people were left wearing armor to prepare for the enemy.

"Wang Yi, is this your first time coming to Monan?"

"This is indeed the first time. We have fought in Bohai and Modong before."

On horseback, Zhu Di took Wang Yi to chat, telling him about the customs and customs of Monan, such as where you can hunt rabbits, where there are yellow sheep, and where wild horses are prone to appear.

Of course, some of them boasted that they drove the Mongols to the Yuerhai area in Mobei, so that they did not dare to go south to herd horses.

Wang Yi had heard of these deeds before, but now that King Yan himself was explaining them, the process became clearer.

Among them, Zhu Di's ability to lead troops is undoubted. Whether he is fighting in mountains, hills or plains on the Mongolian plateau, he can master any fighting method at his fingertips. This is something Wang Yi admires very much.

"Look, Wang Yi, you are at the right age. If you learn more from me, you will definitely learn more than in Bohai."

Zhu Di was still complacent that Wang Yi was stunned by him, but Wang Yi, who admired Zhu Di very much a second ago, immediately straightened his face.

"Your Highness, if you say this, the general will not accept it."

"Why don't you accept it? Let me tell you..."

Zhu Di was also stunned for a moment. Ever since he made an emergency landing in Nai'erbuhua, not many people had dissatisfied with him. Is this Wang Yi so ambitious?

"Although Bohai does not have as comprehensive a person as His Highness, we have also explained how to fight in the places mentioned by Your Highness on the Bohai side, but the methods are different."

"It's different, what's the difference?" Zhu Di asked curiously, and Wang Yi also explained the combat methods taught by Zhu Gaoxu.

"His Highness has said that it is easiest to defeat the Mongols in the plains. You only need to bombard the enemy with artillery when the enemy is in position. The cavalry and horse infantry will hunt in the mountains and forests to attack from both sides to prevent the enemy from advancing. You will also send musketeers and pikemen to form a formation. If you press hard, it only takes one volley of shots to defeat the enemy."

"besides……"

Wang Yi elaborated on Bohai's combat concept, which can be said to revolve around artillery and muskets. Of course, the most important thing is the mobility of infantry and cavalry.

We must be able to win a decisive frontal battle, but we cannot just stop at a decisive frontal battle, but must constantly mobilize the enemy's troops by taking advantage of our army's greater mobility than the enemy's.

Even if our army is not as mobile as the enemy, we must create opportunities, seize intelligence, and give the enemy the illusion that they are inferior to us.

If you are fighting on the grassland, you can defeat the enemy with the sixteen-character sentence "When the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy is stationed, we harass; when the enemy is tired, we attack; when the enemy retreats, we pursue".

Wang Yi kept talking about Bohai's military philosophy, among which new words such as "mobility" were novel to Zhu Di. He was even more incredible that his second-in-command could use the guerrilla tactics of sixteen-character tactics.

"How to solve the problem of grain and grass baggage?" Zhu Di asked the key point, but Wang Yi smiled and said:

"Your Highness said that the barbarians can run, but their herds and grain carts cannot run fast."

"Our army does not need to be faster than the Hu people's cavalry, it only needs to be faster than the Hu people's herds..."

"Of course, to achieve this style of play, the general must have a good understanding of the grassland terrain, and the troops sent out must be mainly cavalry or horse infantry."

"In this way, you only need to bring two buckets of military rations and two buckets of beans, which is enough to sustain a cavalry or horse infantry for a month, and can maintain a combat range of 1,200 miles."

"As long as we can capture a batch of herds, it will be enough for our army to fight again..."

"Radius..." Zhu Di muttered to himself after hearing this.

Along the way, he has seen many incredible things.

The Bohai Navy's smokeless stoves, their telescopes, and their military vocabulary that makes people unable to understand at every turn...

These things sounded the same to Zhu Di as a book from heaven, but after Wang Yi's explanation, Zhu Di now understood it.

Isn't this the tactic he is using now, using cavalry to fight guerrillas against the Mongols, and fighting to support war, but his summary is not as straightforward as his second brother.

"Well, the second child is indeed following me!"

Zhu Di proudly gave a comment that overshadowed the Bohai military concept that Wang Yi talked about for a quarter of an hour.

But after the evaluation, he spoke again: "The second one said to use artillery to bombard the Hu soldiers, but the Hu soldiers came and went like the wind, and the artillery moved so slowly. By the time we formed our formation, they would have run away."

"Can they run further than the artillery?" Wang Yi couldn't laugh or cry: "Bohai's artillery, even field artillery, can shoot a distance of two miles."

"By the time the Hu soldiers can see clearly that we are coming with artillery, it will be too late for them to run away."

"Two miles?!" Zhu Di was surprised. He had never thought that the Bohai Navy could chase the cavalry on the grassland with artillery that could shoot two miles.

"How much does the artillery weigh?" he asked Wang Yi, who also told Zhu Di the Bohai field artillery data.

Before coming to Peiping, Zhu Gaoxu told him to tell Zhu Di as much as possible about Bohai's military philosophy.

Although Wang Yi felt that doing so was a bit revealing, he still answered Zhu Di's question.

It was just his answer that made Zhu Di gradually become silent.

Together with the cannon and cart, the field artillery weighed no more than a thousand kilograms but could fire a field gun two miles away.

Two soldiers can operate a large matchlock gun that weighs only about ten kilograms but can penetrate armor at 80 paces, and an ordinary matchlock gun that can penetrate armor at 50 paces.

In addition to these, there are also explosive bombs, which are weapons for harvesting cavalry.

As Zhu Di listened, he felt something was wrong.

The second child has so many trump cards, no wonder he dared to drag him into rebellion when Wu Liangha was in Bald City.

If he had nodded at that time, maybe he would have entered the capital now...

For a moment, Zhu Di felt bitter, and at the same time, he also felt a desire for Bohai firearms.

"I will get all these good things one day."

Zhu Di secretly made up his mind, but before he could continue talking to Wang Yi, the sound of horse hooves suddenly came from the north.

The sentry riders from the periphery blew their wooden whistles and rushed in. The 60,000-strong army began to stop in sections. Some soldiers had already begun to wear armor with the help of their colleagues.

"There are still barbarians in Monan?"

Wang Yi was surprised, which made Zhu Di's face turn red, and he quickly asked Zhu Neng and others: "Go and ask what the situation is. When did there be barbarians in Monan."

"Yes!" Zhu Neng and the others had been by Zhu Di's side, listening to him and Wang Yi bragging to each other, so they were blushing.

You must know that a quarter of an hour ago, His Highness said that the Yanfu cavalry drove the Mongols to Mobei. However, only a quarter of an hour later, the so-called Mongols who only existed in Mobei appeared here two thousand miles south.

"Put me in armor."

Zhu Di wore armor to cover up his embarrassment, but Wang Yi did not expose it, but dismounted and put on armor too.

Not long after, Zhu Neng, who went to investigate the news, returned with a heavy smile on his face. When he arrived in front of the formation, he turned over and dismounted, and bowed to Zhu Di from a distance:

"Your Highness, there are thousands of Hu soldiers in the north who heard that you wanted to clear the emperor's side, so they brought their own armor and moved their troops south to join you!"

"Ah?" Zhu Di was stunned for a moment, but quickly touched his beard and looked calm:

"It's not surprising, I have a reputation in the grassland, and there are countless people who want to join me..." When he said this, he looked at Wang Yi from time to time, but Wang Yi refused to answer, and finally Qiu Fu said: "Your Highness, why don't you go see them? Our army is short of cavalry anyway."

"That's okay, that's okay..." Zhu Di used the steps to get on his horse, and took Wang Yi and others to meet the Mongolians waiting in the north.

They were less than ten miles away from the main force of the Yan army, and Zhu Neng asked people to let them in. Therefore, Zhu Di and the others only advanced less than three miles before they saw the smoke and dust in the sky heading south. In the smoke and dust were tens of thousands of Mongolians with their families.

"His Highness really took it for granted!"

Looking at this group of Mongolians with their families, Wang Yi's heart tightened, and he couldn't help but think of the letter his Royal Highness wrote to him when he went south to Peking.

There were many contents in the letter, one of which was that if any Mongolians wanted to go south to join the Jingnan army, Zhu Di was advised to accept them.

After coming to Peiping for more than half a year, Wang Yi saw a lot of people who came to join the Yan army, but the scale was not very large, but now tens of thousands of people suddenly came.

"Who is your leader?"

Zhu Di came forward with three thousand cavalry to question the tens of thousands of Mongolians, and the generals in the team who were proficient in Mongolian also began to send messages.

When the Mongolians in the front row heard this, they immediately started shouting towards the rear. Not long after, a Mongolian wearing Mongolian Wanhu armor appeared in front of everyone.

"I am Mengmut, a small nobleman from the Tatar tribe. I heard that King Yan is going to fight with the court in the south, so I specially brought my family and four thousand men to join you."

Unlike Haragu, who robs first and then surrenders, the Tatar Mongols such as Mengmut are much more civilized. They will defect when they come, and will not do stupid things like plundering first and then defecting.

"Okay!" Zhu Di heard Mammoth's sincerity and said immediately: "Let's arrange your family to graze in the pasture between Daning and Kaiping, and I will choose 3,000 of you to form a battalion. ?”

Although Zhu Di heard the sincerity, he still had to leave three-quarters of Mengmut's men to confirm whether he sincerely surrendered.

But what he didn't expect was that after hearing this, Mammoth said: "We all want to join your team. If you don't want to, the remaining men will have to starve to death with their families."

Mengmut's words made Zhu Di look at this group of people, and then he realized that the herds they carried were pitifully small. They had obviously suffered a disaster in the north, and then chose to go south to seek refuge with him.

In this way, their trust will be much more credible.

"Let's do this. Three thousand of you will follow me south. How about I set up a guardhouse for you and give you a salary for the remaining one thousand or so people?"

"Thank you, Your Highness, for your kindness!"

"Okay, okay..." Zhu Di was quite happy to buy more than 4,000 armored Mongolian cavalry with tens of thousands of stones of grain.

He smiled honestly and said to Qiu Fu next to him: "Zhu Neng, you will take them in the future and organize a camp for them. It will be called...Three Thousand Xiaodazi Camp."

Zhu Di's name sounded like a curse, but in the words of the translator, these three thousand Xiaodazi Camp were translated into three thousand Mongolian Camps, or simply Three Thousand Camps.

"Your Highness, we have another news for you."

Mengmut said: "The chaos in the north is severe now. Our princes, Zhao Touliegan, Situ Zhao Huilin Timur, and Situ Liu Hala Timur, have brought 30,000 people to go south to join you."

"Okay! Come all, come." Zhu Di was even more happy when he heard that the Tatar Ministry wanted to bring one official and two disciples at once.

Not to mention him, even Wang Yi, who had been calm before, was surprised.

Although Beiyuan can still mobilize an army of 100,000 at present, the number of its tribesmen, even including Wala and Wuliangha, is only 500,000 or 600,000.

Zhao Tuoliegan immediately pulled 30,000 people to go south. Counting the 10,000 men from Mengmut, almost 10% of the Mongolians went south.

Such a large-scale move of the Mongols southward shows the extent of the current struggle between the Mobei Wara nobles and the Tatar nobles.

"Okay, I remember Zhao Tuolieqian. He is not good at leading troops, but he has a good character."

"When he goes south this time, I will also give him the official position of governor and magistrate, and give him glory and wealth."

Faced with Mengmut's words, Zhu Di made his promise. The official position of Governor Tongzhi was already a first-grade official position, which was the highest official position Zhu Di could give at the moment.

In response to his generosity, Mammoth also crossed his arms and saluted, and upon seeing this, Zhu Di also said:

"You choose three thousand men for me, and you take the rest with you. I will take you to a place to garrison herders and build a city, and set up a thousand-household residence for you. You can temporarily serve as a guard commander in the army."

"Thank you, Your Highness..."

After Zhu Di simply arranged for the group of Mongolians who came to seek refuge, he sent a message to Zhao Tuoligan in the north, asking him to lead people to temporarily station herders in the Kaiping area. However, the soldiers and horses were gathered together and six thousand cavalry were divided. Go south and help yourself fight the war.

After making all these arrangements, Zhu Di continued to lead his troops eastward.

But when he unexpectedly obtained the 3,000 Xiaodazi Battalion, Zhu Gaoxu had already led the cavalry from Dengzhou and galloped all the way to Qingzhou.

"Drive! Drive!"

A lineup of three thousand cavalry and more than four thousand horses has not appeared in Shandong for many years. The last time it was the Yuan army encircled and suppressed Mao Gui of the Red Turban Army.

From Dengzhou to Qingzhou, you need to pass through Huangxian, Laizhou, Changyi, Weixian, Changle and other prefectures and counties along the way, a distance of 500 miles.

Facing Bohai's 3,000 cavalry, Huang County, which had only a few hundred village warriors, surrendered directly to the city. Zhu Gaoxu did not stop because Meng Zhang was already on his way to Huang County with his horse infantry.

Their mission was to lead the people in the surrendered counties and towns along the way to Liaodong, and at the same time escort enough food.

In just two days, when the time came to the early morning of February 19, Bohai's three thousand cavalry, led by Zhu Gaoxu, had arrived at Laizhou Mansion.

There was a garrison stationed in Laizhou. Although there were only two to three thousand troops stationed in the city, due to the tall city wall and the fact that he did not carry siege weapons, Zhu Gaoxu directly bypassed Laizhou and left the place to Meng Zhang behind him.

He led three thousand cavalry all the way to Qingzhou Prefecture. Only when there was insufficient horse feed and food, he would stop and exchange food in some towns.

If the money is not enough, he will leave a white note and promise to pay it back in the future, and he will ask the local elders to leave the white note.

Although they marched in a hurry, they did not harm the common people along the official road, and they did not camp in the village, but outside the village.

If the horses accidentally gnawed on the crops, the soldiers would also leave a white note to the owner.

For many old people who have experienced the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, this is the first time they have seen an army like the Bohai Navy. It has stricter military discipline than the Ming army in the Northern Expedition. After the camp is over, it will help the local people build some bridges and repair them. Some dirt roads.

Almost on the same day, news of the disastrous defeat of the Southern Navy and the capture of Dengzhou, as well as the capture and siege of Huangxian, Laizhou and other places flew into the Wuying Hall of the capital like snowflakes.

"The Navy suffered a disastrous defeat. They retreated from Dengzhou to Weihai, then from Weihai to Chengshan and Jinghai... and now they have retreated to Dasongwei!"

"The so-called Denglai City lost almost its entire territory within six days of the war. More than 200,000 people under my rule were humiliated by the bandits. I would like to ask you, what is going on?!"

In the Wuying Hall, Zhu Yunwen questioned all six ministers including Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai.

The officials were also confused. Who would have thought that Chen Xuan and Yang Qiu, who were famous at the time, could not even deal with an unknown young general who had no experience in naval battles before.

"Zhu Chenggong...let me find out who he is!"

Zhu Yunwen looked gloomy and asked Qi Tai at the same time: "Qi Shangshu, you said before that the Bohai pirate army could be stopped by the gathering of three naval forces. But now the pirate army has caused the erosion of Shandong, and the Bohai common people's troops are directed at Qingzhou. Do you have What do you want to say?"

"Back to Your Majesty..." Qitai thought through what he wanted to say, and then stood up and bowed:

"The Bohai Navy is so sharp. It is indeed because of my lack of consideration. Now the Bohai soldiers are heading towards Qingzhou. I think they want to go straight to Cangzhou and try to cut off the food and fodder of my 300,000-strong army."

"Cao Guogong has led his army back to Baoding. It only takes four days to reach Cangzhou."

"In addition, Dezhou's defenses have also been strengthened. The ones who should be most prepared for the bandits should be Qingzhou Prefecture and Jinan."

"Qingzhou Prefecture only has more than 10,000 garrison troops, and Jinan Prefecture has less than 5,000 garrison troops. If the rebels use artillery, the two cities will be destroyed."

"If the rebel army fails to march north to Cangzhou and Dezhou, and instead moves southward, the Jianghuai area will be in danger."

"At the moment, the imperial court should dispatch generals to Xuzhou, summon troops from the garrison stations in Dahe, Gaoyou, Changhuai, Pizhou, Chuzhou, Yangzhou and other places to intensify training to prepare for the Bohai pirate army to move south."

The combat troops in the Jianghuai area have been mobilized. The only troops that can be mobilized at the moment are less than 14 guards, with a maximum number of 30,000 to 40,000 people.

With only this small amount of troops, Zhu Yunwen was naturally unable to be safe, so he asked: "Why don't you send Cao Guogong to lead the army south to help?"

"Your Majesty, if Cao Guogong leads his army to the south, then the traitor army of the common people of Yan will naturally go south as well." Qitai continued:

"In the current situation, I suggest that Song Sheng from Ganliang be transferred to the pass, and at the same time, Xiping Hou Muchun lead his troops into the court, and then the commander of the Yuzhong Army, Qianshi Shengyong, lead Yulin and others to stay in the guard and go north to Xuzhou to train the troops of the Fourteenth Guards in Jiangbei. To prepare for the enemy.”

"In addition, Chen Xuan and Yang Qiu should also be transferred back to station at the Yangtze River estuary to prevent the Bohai Sea Navy from going south into the Yangtze River estuary and disturbing the Holy Commander."

Qi Tai still had the same steady approach. He just wanted to rely on Xuzhou, Taishan, Mengshan, Laoshan, Lushan, Yishan, the canal, and the Huaihe River to build a defense line to temporarily curb the Bohai Navy from going south, and wait for the spring and sweet coolness of Yunnan. Song Sheng rushed to help.

"It's more than four thousand miles to mobilize troops from Luchuan. It will probably be half a year before Xipinghou leads his troops to arrive."

Among the team, a veteran spoke slowly, attracting everyone's attention.

The person who spoke was Wudinghou Guo Ying, Zhu Gaoxu's grandfather-in-law.

His intention was obvious, that is, he wanted to lead troops to help Xuzhou and Huai'an, but everyone knew about his relationship with Zhu Gaoxu, so everyone chose to ignore his words.

"Just do what Mr. Qi said."

Zhu Yunwen glanced at Guo Ying and didn't trust him.

Facing this look from him, Guo Ying, who had been called "Guo Si" by Zhu Yuanzhang all his life, could only sigh in his heart and bowed with the officials.

Not long after, imperial edicts were distributed from the Forbidden City. Sheng Yong, who had recently been promoted to governor Qianshi, also led Yu Lin and other remaining guards to prepare to go north to aid Xuzhou.

　"Records of Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty": "At the end of the second month of the lunar month, some captives ran south. This was compiled into the Three Thousand Xiaodazi Camp."

　　"In Yihai, the Tartar princes Zhao Tuoligan, Situ Zhao Huilin Timur, and Situ Liu Hala Timur led their troops from the desert to surrender."

　　"Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty": "Ding Wei led three thousand riders from Dengzhou to Qingzhou. King Jianwen was frightened and urgently mobilized Jinglong to support him, but fearing that Jinglong would be difficult to defeat, he coordinated with Xipinghou, Song Sheng and Sheng Yong. Lead troops to aid Huaisi."

　　"Bohai Chronicles": "Shangqin led three thousand cavalry to attack Qingzhou, Huangxian surrendered, Laizhou was besieged by Zhang, Jinglong rushed back for reinforcements."

　　

　

(End of this chapter)