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 number certainly cannot accommodate tens of thousands of people, not to mention the civilians and baggage. Most of the outer chariot formations and caltrops, including spearmen, musketeers, and grenadiers, are distributed around the mound.
The artillery was all placed on the slope of the earth, and many platforms were dug for placement, so that 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 -
-Among them, 5,000 dragoons followed the main infantry force. The remaining 10,000 dragoons had already disappeared and were 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 the right and win with the unexpected".
What are ten thousand dragoons doing?
Looking for Mongolian logistics troops!
Chahu Dorji conquered many tribes along the way, especially on the Horqin Grassland, and captured a large number of people, livestock and food. During the continuous long-distance march, it was impossible to bring all the livestock with them, as the march would be too slow.
. It is impossible to leave it somewhere. It is most likely to be escorted by a cavalry and hidden somewhere at this moment.
The main force of the Khalkha army 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?"
?With so many livestock and grains, how can anyone in the world be able to endure it?"
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.
Maybe he himself could see through the plan and order his ministries not to pursue. But the tribal leaders under his command may not obey the order. To be precise, there must be someone who disobeys the order and rushes towards the cattle and sheep with red eyes. As long as there are one or two
If one tribe rushes out, the other tribes will follow suit, for fear that if they run too slowly, they will not be able to grab the loot.
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 the enemy's general, what will I do?
So 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 even the main and general's binding force on the troops is also different.
Morgan also rode over and said: "Great Khan, with the Han soldiers in a car formation like this, we have only one way to win. That is to surround them until they run out of water. There is no water source here, and their food may be sufficient, but
If you drink water, you will finish it in a day or two. If you run out of water after two days, you will be thirsty to death for another two or three days at most!"
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 all walking and fighting at the same time, how can there be any reason to surround them all the time? This kind of positional warfare is for the Han people
Strengths are our shortcomings. We cannot use our shortcomings to compete with the Han people."
"Then go further south!" Chahun Dorji agreed.
Li Zheng stood on the mound, observed carefully with a telescope, and basically guessed what the enemy was thinking. This was the last thing he wanted to see!
The enemies were all cavalry, and it was difficult to deal with them on the move. Under constant turning and pulling, the infantry divisions of the Datong Army were very easy to expose their 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 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, moved according to the situation, and continuously compressed the enemy's combat space. Those four divisions were nails, and once they were nailed, they could not move.
On the one hand, Li Zheng was worried that Wang Hui would be eaten, but on the other hand, he had greater ambitions and 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 troop deployment. Chahun Dorji did not attack Wang Hui decisively, but chose to go south to attack Li Zheng's reinforcements. Really unable to attack, he continued south to attack the two divisions further south. Those two divisions were slightly
If you are not careful, you will be eaten halfway. Even if you are not eaten, Li Dingguo's overall plan has been destroyed - three of the four blocked passages have been restored because of Li Zheng's unauthorized maneuvers.
The main force of Kazakhstan 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 that 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. He was disturbed by his fixed thinking and made a very stupid and wrong judgment on the enemy's subsequent reaction. This was similar to Chahu Dorji, who had never fought against the Han people before.
There was also a series of misjudgments from beginning to end.
Li Zheng quickly adjusted his thinking, called a cavalry officer, and ordered: "Take five hundred cavalry and go 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 soldiers in the south.
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 south, he left a group of cavalry behind to try to observe Li Zheng's movements. As soon as Li Zheng showed any flaws, he would immediately fight back overnight.
Thousands of cavalry from both sides ran and entangled repeatedly on the vast grassland between the two armies. They restrained each other 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 party from detecting it.
The movement of one's own main force.
evening.
Chahun Dorji received the news 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 array?" 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 from 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 pasture, there were sporadic sandy areas in this area, but at this time, it was full of grass and crops.
black earth.
One of the division commanders was Wan Sitong, an old man from Jiangxi.
A division commander named Zhang Wenyu, whose real name was Zhang Feng, was born as a slave. When the Datong Army sent troops to Hunan, Zhang Wenyu took the whole city's slaves and captured the city of Hengyang and surrendered it. Now he is finally a division commander.
"Da da da da!"
More than a dozen dragoons rushed back in a panic. Some of them were injured. It was obvious at a glance that something was wrong.
"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. They came too fast. They are rushing 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 refined.
They gradually became familiar with the routines of the dragoons. When they met, they broke up and rushed forward. They endured the damage of bullets and kept chasing the dragoons. As long as they withstood the first two waves of damage, the dragoons could not reload their ammunition.
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 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 it and led the main force quickly southward, finally seeing the two Datong infantry divisions that had formed their 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 they just lay across it.
Before the battle.
"Another car formation, another car formation!"
Chahun Dorji was so angry that his face turned red and his neck thickened. The car formation in front of him was even more interesting. It was close to the Heimulun River and there was no shortage of drinking water. Moreover, there was no need to defend the side near the river, so there were more sufficient troops to defend the car formation.
He believed that a hard attack could be won, but it would cost many casualties and take several days. What he lacked most now was time, for fear that the cavalry division of the Datong Army would come after him. Zhang Tieniu, Li Dingguo, and Wang Tingchen's cavalry division all
It was a man with two horses. One horse was used for riding, and the other horse carried armor. The equipment looked scary from a distance. Chahun Dorji did 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 will never be able to 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 went deep, he was besieged by 80,000 Huns cavalry. Li Ling did not have muskets and artillery, so he relied on baggage vehicles to form an formation and fought with the Huns for eight days with crossbows.
, shot and killed more than 10,000 Huns cavalry, and finally were captured and surrendered because they ran out of ammunition and food.
Let’s talk about history. When the Eight Banners Army fought against Jungar, 4,000 Qing troops were besieged by Jungar cavalry. The Qing army’s chief general Fu Erdan also used chariot formations to resist. He was able to maintain the chariot formation and fired cannons all the way to break through the encirclement.
In the end, the Qing army's chariot formation was defeated because the Jungar cavalry had large shotguns and could chase after them on horseback and shoot with heavy muskets. The Qing army's chariot formation failed. It was not defeated by the Jungar cavalry, but by the Zhungar cavalry.
Gurr's heavy musket.
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, but only if Li Ling's arrows were exhausted and more than 10,000 Xiongnu cavalry used their bodies to catch the arrows.
In front of us is the turtle formation, behind us is Li Zheng who is even more turtle, and further north is the Datong Cavalry Division chasing us.
Chahun Dorji clenched his fists and gritted his teeth: "Go back to Mobei!"