Chapter 226 Occupy Zhangjiakou and fight back to Chahar
A large group of cavalry galloped on the grassland, their horses' hooves stepping on the sand, raising clouds of smoke and dust.
"Ezhe, how far do we have to go before we can find water?"
Zhang Wansi looked at the water bag in his hand. It was a large water bag made of cowhide. It was empty, not a drop of water in it.
E Zhe wiped the sweat from his head. He did not expect that the oasis in the desert would be submerged by yellow sand in less than a year.
"Commander Zhang, run two thousand meters to the southeast and there will be a creek."
Ezhe stretched out his right hand and pointed in the direction of the stream in his memory.
He looked at the water bag in his hand. The water bag he carried contained less water and had been drained a day ago.
Zhang Wansi nodded and led the cavalry in the direction pointed by E Zhe.
He couldn't blame Ezhe. Other guides in the army also explained that there was a small oasis in this place and that enough water could be found.
Unexpectedly, the desert changed so quickly. In less than a year, the oasis was swallowed up by the desert.
Most people have not had water for a day, and people can still hold on. Horses have also not had water for a day, and many horses can no longer run.
The cavalrymen all got off the ground and led their horses, continuing to move towards the target.
Ezhe found that the three horses he was carrying were snoring constantly and rubbing their heads against his body. Their physical strength was gradually declining.
He led the horse and walked beside Zhang Wansi, pointing to the horse team behind him carrying a large amount of baggage.
Zhang Wansi saw the direction of his finger, shook his head and said: "We must not use the water from the baggage horse team.
These horses carry heavy loads, which are the food, weapons and ammunition that we depend on for our survival.
If their water is used, the horses will not be able to carry the load, and our troops will fail this time.
After crossing the desert, you will see Datong Town ahead, and after walking for a while, you will reach the hometown of Chahar."
In order to march as quickly as possible, Zhang Wansi wanted to take a shortcut and go directly through the desert.
They have not experienced the desert, do not understand the dangers in the desert, and are not well prepared, which leads to the current predicament.
He felt a little regretful, so he walked through the grasslands with the Central Route Army and made a large circle across the desert area.
Even though it takes a little longer, it doesn't have much military merit, but at least it's safe.
E Zhe shook his head and said: "I don't want to disturb the drinking water of the carriage team.
In our luggage, there is an item called canned yellow peaches.
I remember that it contained a lot of water, and there was also a lot of juice in the can.
Can eating canned yellow peaches quench your thirst?"
Before Zhang Wansi could speak, Cavalry Division Zhu Shi Huang Wenyu said: "This is absolutely not possible, there is a lot of sugar added to the canned yellow peach.
It is just like sea water. The more you drink it, the thirstier you become, and people will soon die of dehydration."
Zhang Wansi and other senior cavalry officers headed towards the target, constantly discussing what they should do if the river in front disappeared.
At that time, they had only two choices: to turn around and withdraw from the desert, and the battle failed.
Or they could temporarily abandon the baggage troops, take most of the remaining drinking water, and rush out of the desert directly.
In this way, there is no support of a large number of weapons and ammunition, and they fight with steel knives, using their own shortcomings to attack the enemy's strong points.
The Qin army's cavalry may not be able to defeat the Eight Banners cavalry.
"Listen to the sound of water flowing. This is the sound of water flowing."
When Ezhe heard the sound of water flowing, he shouted loudly, attracting everyone's attention.
The cavalrymen immediately led their horses and ran in the direction of the sound of water.
They soon saw a stream flowing in front of them, and there was a patch of plump water plants around the stream.
In front of the creek, the sparse green makes people feel comfortable. They have walked out of the desert.
When the horses heard the water, they became energetic, dragged their cavalry, and ran quickly to the stream.
They came to the stream and began to compete for water. After some horses drank the water, they began to eat grass by the stream.
When Huang Wenyu saw a soldier trying to squat down to drink water, he immediately stopped him and said: "If you bear with me any longer, all water sources must be boiled before drinking."
He informed the troops one by one that all soldiers were not allowed to drink raw water and must boil the water before drinking it.
This kind of outdoor water, even if it is live water, there are many bacteria and parasites in it.
Drinking it without boiling it is likely to lead to a large number of non-combat casualties.
When Huang Wenyu informed, he immediately sent out a platoon of guards to guard the stream, and took out a portable coal stove to boil water by the stream.
All the soldiers looked at the serious-looking guard platoon, thinking that they would get a drink of water right away, but they did not dare to step forward.
The soldiers drank cold drinks and filled their water bags, and they continued to move forward.
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Ezhe held a flintlock gun and shouted loudly: "Everyone, follow me and don't let go of these tribes who follow the Eight Banners.
I won’t take any of the loot, and will distribute it all to the combat troops.”
Ezhe led the Mongolian cavalry to attack the surrounding tribes.
The flintlocks opened fire and defeated the bravest tribesmen of the enemy.
They held steel knives and wore armor and attacked the enemy tribe.
The armored cavalry would crush these unarmored cavalry.
The small Mongolian tribes encountered along the way were all dealt with by Mongolian cavalry.
They agreed that the Qin Army's cavalry division would only take action personally if it encountered a large-scale army.
Ezhe was very satisfied that these tribes were hostile and he could lead troops to directly attack these tribes and gain a lot of military merit.
This is not like having your own tribe, and you can make more money by doing it yourself.
For example, women in the tribe cannot be snatched away, and young men cannot be held as slaves. They are all prisoners and need to be arranged by the Qin army.
"Commander Zhang, ahead is Datong Town, which is an extremely important military town for the Ming Army.
It is extremely well-defended and is a border town that has stood beside the Great Wall for hundreds of years.”
"If the Ming army doesn't come out, then we won't care about them.
The Ming army will not prevent us from controlling the grassland, and our cavalry is not suitable for attacking cities."
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"Brother Fan, the yellow-robed thieves have hit the target. Many of our transport teams have been captured by the yellow-robed thieves.
We cannot let the thieves in yellow continue to be rampant and cut off our trade.
They are just a few hundred cavalrymen. They should be the vanguard of the yellow-clad thieves exploring the grassland.
If we directly eliminate this thief in yellow, our people will make great achievements."
Tian Shenglan said anxiously.
Zhangjiakou was the place where the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia traded with each other. It was also the base for Shanxi merchants and Houjin trade.
The eight Shanxi merchant families all lived in Zhangjiakou and were in charge of the trade between Shanxi merchants and Houjin.
Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Fan Yongdou, Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang and Huang Yongfa are the heads of the eight Shanxi merchants.
They all came here to discuss things, but unexpectedly the sudden rise of thieves in yellow interrupted their Shanxi merchants' plan.
Now the small army of yellow-robed thieves has reached outside Zhangjiakou.
Fan Yongdou made up his mind and said: "We can't sit still and wait for death. We Shanxi merchants have always supported Hou Jin. If the thief in yellow really seizes the world, he will never let us go."
The commander-in-chief here is one of ours, let him lead the troops out to attack the yellow-robed thieves.
After destroying the small group of yellow-robed thieves, the yellow-robed thieves will definitely attack Zhangjiakou.
The cavalry attacking the city is giving us military merit. The Ming army from behind will soon be able to support us, and safety is guaranteed.
Just let the yellow-robed thieves and the Ming Dynasty break out into war, and we will take advantage of the chaos to make a fortune.
This will also consume the military strength of the thieves in yellow and the Ming Dynasty, killing two birds with one stone."
Several others also agreed with Fan Yongdou's method.
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"Those chickens and dogs, who gave them the courage to attack us?"
Zhang Wansi saw a round of machine gun fire, and all the Ming troops knelt down and surrendered.
The combat effectiveness of these Ming troops coming from Zhangjiakou was too low.
Machine gun fire killed most of the servants, and the cavalry charged them all and they all surrendered.
"Everyone, follow me to capture Zhangjiakou. Since the Ming army dares to take the initiative to attack, it is just right to attack this town and use it as a logistics supply center."
Zhang Wansi led the First Cavalry Division to attack Zhangjiakou.
The actions of the Ming army in Zhangjiakou were very surprising.
He passed along the Great Wall without any pass and took the initiative to attack them.
The only exception is Zhangjiakou. There must be some inside story that they don't understand.
Huang Wenyu guessed: "I think this matter should be related to the several caravans we captured."
Zhang Wansi nodded and said, "That's true. We pass by so many Great Wall passes and we often see caravans leaving the border.
But they are all small in scale, and most of them transport some tea and ironware.
The caravan here in Zhangjiakou is very large.
What was transported was food, armor and weapons, including a large number of firearms.
They don't look like normal caravans at all."
The defenders of Zhangjiakou have been captured by the cavalry division.
The Qin cavalry was not good at attacking cities, but that was compared to the infantry.
Several rounds of artillery volleys directly destroyed the city wall, and the cavalry rushed into the city.
They immediately took control of the situation in the city.
Huang Wenyu said in surprise: "I didn't expect that Zhangjiakou has a large amount of grain, grass, weapons and equipment stored here.
I will lead a regiment of soldiers to guard here.
You leave me some machine guns and cannons, and at the same time interrogate the officials here to find out what is going on here?"
Zhang Wansi nodded, and he led the cavalry division and Mongolian cavalry from Zhangjiakou to launch an attack to the east.
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Ezhe looked at the land in front of him, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes.
They attacked all the way and wiped out all the Mongolian tribes who dared to resist along the way.
This journey finally led to the homeland of the Chahar tribe.
It is now occupied by the Horqin tribe.
They marched very fast, and no tribe could resist them.
But it will take some time to surrender the prisoners.
By the time they arrived here, the Horqin tribe was already prepared.
Ezhe looked ahead and saw that at least 60,000 troops were ready.
He recognized the 40,000 Mongolian cavalry at a glance. They were the Mongolian military flags of Hou Jin. It was these people who killed a large number of people from the Chahar tribe.
There are also 20,000 Han people holding swords, which should be the military flags of the Hou Jin Dynasty and Han Dynasty.
When the Horqin tribe encountered their attack, no real Eight Banners soldiers came to help.
E Zhegang wanted to lead his Mongolian cavalry into battle.
Zhang Wansi stopped him and said: "We agreed before the war started that a large-scale army would be handed over to us.
You protect the flanks of our army and be ready to pursue the enemy at any time."
The artillery regiment and machine gun regiment of the cavalry division dismounted and arranged their positions and prepared for combat.
Other soldiers of the cavalry division had loaded their rifles and carried revolvers and grenades on their waists, ready to attack at any time.
Zhang Wansi saw Horqin's cavalry, but they were just forming formation and had no intention of attacking them.
They should have understood the power of the Qin army's firearms and did not dare to initiate an attack.
"You are so naive, you really think that our army has no offensive capability."
Zhang Wansi took out his pistol and fired two shots into the sky.
Bang bang, two shots were fired, a signal flare was launched into the sky, and two green lights pierced the sky.
The soldiers of the cavalry division sat on their horses, holding rifles in their hands and aiming forward. The horses they sat on moved forward slowly.
Soldiers from the machine gun regiment and artillery regiment also pushed the machine gun carriage and artillery carriage forward.
The characteristic of cavalry is to launch attacks on the move.
The machine gunners and artillerymen of the cavalry division have also been exercising and launching attacks on the move.
The large cavalry force is in the same straight line as the machine gun regiment and artillery regiment.
Zhang Wansi's tactics are very simple. If the Eight Banners soldiers here in Horqin do not launch an attack, then they will use machine guns and artillery to destroy these cavalry.
They couldn't bear the casualties and launched an attack. They first used artillery and machine guns to harvest, and then the cavalry launched a charge.
The commander of the artillery regiment saw that the artillery had been pushed to the designated position, and most of the Eight Banners troops were covered by the artillery range.
He immediately shouted loudly: "Fire ten rounds quickly and extend the shot."
The artillerymen pushing the artillery cart stopped immediately. They had already adjusted the direction of the muzzle while pushing the cart.
After receiving the order, immediately stop the gun carriage and pull down the gun rope.
The other artillerymen hid on both sides of the artillery car before firing.
The gun carriage was on the grass and slid back five or six meters due to the recoil.
The artillerymen immediately caught up with the artillery truck, adjusted the direction of the muzzle, and loaded the cannon at the same time.
The dense formation of Horqin's Eight Banners soldiers was immediately bombarded by artillery shells.
The field artillery exploded with one shot, and the shells hit the area more than ten meters away. Everyone lost their ability to fight.
Being bombarded but with no room for resistance, the morale of the Eight Banners soldiers dropped sharply.
The leader of the Mengba Banner could not bear such casualties, so he immediately issued an order.
"Charge and kill the thief in yellow."
The Eight Banners soldiers formed a dense formation, with heavy cavalry leading the charge, and they charged towards the Qin army.
The commander of the machine gun regiment saw that the cavalry on the opposite side was less than 200 meters away from the machine gun.
The bows and arrows in the hands of the cavalry had already wounded several people, so he gave the order to fire.
"Machine gun fire, cross fire."
The machine gunners hiding behind the machine gun truck immediately pulled the trigger when they saw the charging Eight Banners cavalry.
The dense fire snakes were constantly harvesting the lives of the cavalry in front.
The heavy armor on the heavy cavalry could not withstand machine gun fire. Blood splattered on their bodies and they kept falling off their horses.
Machine guns killed a large number of Eight Banners cavalrymen.
When Zhang Wansi saw the Eight Banners cavalry, their morale had collapsed. Many people turned around and tried to escape.
"attack."
He gave the order and the entire First Cavalry Division launched a charge.
The bang, bang, bang of rifles and the sound of revolvers continued.
The Eight Banners' military formation was immediately torn open by the Qin army.
Ezhe saw that the Qin army had won, so he led the Mongolian cavalry to attack the two wings of the Eight Banners soldiers.
The two armies attacked, and the Eight Banners soldiers composed of the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Han Eight Banners immediately collapsed.
After the Qin army and Mongolian cavalry defeated the Eight Banners soldiers, they directly attacked the Horqin tribe.
Ezhe was extremely excited. He had now avenged part of the Chahar tribe's revenge.
This Horqin tribe is not the main Horqin tribe, but also a large tribe that they separated from.
He finally realized his long-cherished wish and never thought that he would be able to return to his hometown of Chahar in his lifetime.