Although Qian Qianyi's performance disappointed Doergun, after all, he could use this to undermine the morale of the Ming Dynasty. After making him write an article belittling the Ming Dynasty and insulting Zhu Cixiang, he stayed with him and did
A counselor.
But the treatment was completely incomparable to that of Hong Chengchou. It was obvious that a weakling would be looked down upon no matter where he was.
The reason why Qian Qianyi refused to surrender before was mainly because the current situation was very different from that in history. In history, the Ming Dynasty was almost exhausted, but now it is prospering. In addition, Zhu Cixiang's attitude towards traitors was very hateful and vicious.
, so Qian Qianyi did not dare to surrender.
He was afraid of causing harm to his family members, and even more afraid of being erected as a monument by Zhu Cixiang, which would ruin his reputation for thousands of years. It was not until he faced the threat of death that he gave up all these worries.
It can be seen that his essence is a selfish villain who is greedy for life and afraid of death. For the sake of his own life, he will not care about any relatives or clan members.
Looking at the eloquent article of hundreds of words, Duo Ergun was very satisfied. While ordering the detailed article to be widely spread in the Ming Dynasty, he began to set up camp.
300,000 horse infantry plus 100,000 Korean servants, a total of 400,000 people, with countless horses, mules, horses and vehicles, crossed the Liao River and headed west in a mighty manner.
Wherever hundreds of thousands of horses and horses went, the darkness was overwhelming. Throwing whips could cut off rivers, and arrows could cover up the sun and moon.
Such a large scale of horse and infantry was indeed far more powerful than the Turks and Huns back then.
But the strength of the Ming army today is not inferior to that of the Tang army and the Han army back then, and in some aspects it is even worse.
As soon as the Jiannu army moved, three days later, Zhu Cihong, who was far away in Xuan Mansion, received the news. He also immediately ordered the army to leave the customs, first the cavalry, then the infantry, and finally the heavy chariot troops and firearms troops.
Including the young and strong, there were also more than 300,000 people, and they left Zhangjiakou and headed north to kill.
However, in addition to the cavalry battalion, the two towns of Wu Sanfu and Liu Fangliang still remained in Datong, Xuanfu, and the construction of tanks also continued.
Even the 50,000 cavalrymen of Tumut's tribe remained on standby in the north of Datong for the time being, and did not go east to join the Ming army.
Because Zhu Cixiang had no intention of fighting a decisive battle with Jiannu, there was no need for so many troops.
The central army, the left army, the right army plus 20,000 imperial troops, a total of 200,000 troops, are more than enough for defense. There is no need to drag the entire army to the grassland.
The army left the Great Wall and only walked northwest for three days before setting up three camps from north to south relying on the river. Each camp was twenty miles apart, and each of the three armies defended one.
The southernmost camp is only more than 40 miles away from Zhangjiakou.
After the three camps were reinforced, they waited another ten days before the army of Jiannu arrived. Dorgon was also extremely cautious, and the army stopped a hundred miles away and began to camp.
Obviously, Dorgon had learned his lesson after suffering a loss in Tongzhou last time and no longer gave the Ming army a chance to attack the camp.
"Report, your majesty, empress, Jiannu has sent a letter of war!"
Zhu Cixi took the letter of challenge and also smiled. He handed it to the Red Lady, looked at the generals and said, "Three days later, Prime Minister Dorgon invited me and my concubine, and the two armies will fight to the north at the foot of Mengshan Mountain."
"Your Majesty, you are too shameless to establish a slave. You treat our army as a fool. The terrain near Mengshan is undulating but gentle. It is extremely conducive to cavalry charge but not conducive to infantry formation. In my opinion, there is no need to pay attention to it."
"Yes, even if we want to fight decisively, we have to change places."
After Zhu Cihong finished speaking, all the generals yelled angrily.
At this time, the red lady had just finished reading the letter of challenge, handed it to the British Duke, looked at Zhu Cihong and said: "Your Majesty, in my opinion, Dorgon clearly didn't want to have a decisive battle, so he deliberately chose a
The place will be destroyed, but as the saying goes, if you lose the enemy, you will not lose the formation, so we should also give them a letter of defence, and choose the location on the riverside forty miles to the south, where the water is deep and horses cannot cross."
"Well, that's it." Zhu Cixiang nodded, and then ordered someone to draft a letter of war and handed it to the slave envoy.
As a result, Dorgon and a group of Tatars were also angry and cursed after seeing it, because Jiannu was also very familiar with the terrain in this area.
Knowing that the Ming army picked up the place, the river was very deep, almost submerged the thighs of the horses, seriously affecting the cavalry's roundabout, but the opponent could fight with their backs to the river, and even if they killed Dorgon, they would not bring the army there.
Go to the decisive battle.
As a result, the two sides sent envoys to each other, and we argued with each other for more than half a month, but they were unable to decide on the place for the decisive battle. Neither side agreed with the other's choice of the place for the decisive battle.
In fact, if the two sides want a decisive battle, they need to choose another place. All they need is to advance thirty miles each. The terrain there is open, with neither hills nor rivers. Millions of people can use it. But
However, both parties made a tacit agreement not to mention it.
Obviously they didn't want to fight, but they didn't want to weaken their momentum, so they made a tacit understanding to make things difficult for each other and give each other a reason not to fight.
After all, if Dorgon formally issued a letter of war to Zhu Cihong, it would affect the dignity of the Ming Dynasty and the morale of the soldiers of the three armies. Even if he no longer wanted to fight, Zhu Cihong would choose to fight Jiannu and lose both sides.
Dorgon knew this, so he did not dare to actually issue a letter of war to the Ming army, because once the Ming army really came to fight, if they did not fight, it would be a small matter of humiliation, but a big loss of morale. After all, there were a large number of
The Mongolian tribes relied on the Qing Dynasty.
But if there really was a battle with the Ming army like the Battle of Tongzhou, no one could predict how it would end and how many people would die. Dorgon was neither willing to fight such a tough battle nor could he afford it.
Because one of the infantry and the Eight Banners soldiers died, once the Mongolian cavalry died too many, they would become even more dissociated, and might even directly switch sides.
Therefore, Dorgon's plan was to attract the Ming army deep into the grassland, preferably to the Horqin grassland.
But Zhu Cixiang was the Shenwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, not the God of War Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so naturally he would not do such stupid things.
Don't say that the number of chariots has not been built yet, even if there were enough, he would not go on an expedition now.
Even if there was a 90% chance of winning and only a 10% chance of failure, Zhu Cihong would not fight because there was absolutely no need to take the risk.
For the time being, all he had to do was confront Jiannu. If Jiannu ran out of food and supplies and retreated voluntarily, he could easily kill the two rebel kings with his backhand, and then it wouldn't be too late to concentrate all his efforts on the expedition.
At that time, it didn't matter even if the hundreds of thousands of troops were wiped out and buried in the grasslands, as long as he, the emperor, escaped back to the Ming Dynasty.
If it doesn't work once, do it twice; if it doesn't work twice, do it three times. There will always be a time when the Jiannu and the Mongols can be wiped out.
Of course, if Dorgon was unwilling to retreat and took the initiative to attack his camp, he would applaud him with both hands and warmly welcome him.
It was already July. During this period, Dorgon moved the camp several times. He made a posture of marching and retreating, but the Ming army never responded at all. No matter Dorgon,
It was still Hong Chengchou, his face was extremely solemn.
"Sir, that little emperor is so shameless. He has hundreds of thousands of strong troops, but he still imitates Sima Yi and can't stand up. What should our army do?"
Dorgon was also filled with hatred and wanted to directly issue a letter of war to Zhu Cihong and have a decisive battle between the two armies, but reason finally defeated Shu Huo.
"Prince Regent, the Ming army's camp is not easy to attack. Why don't we let my slaves lead a cavalry to go directly to Hetao and kill Tumut's troops to a great extent. Let's see if the little emperor can still sit still."
Before Hong Chengchou could answer, Obai stood up and said.
"You idiot, the 50,000 cavalrymen of Tumut's tribe are still staying north of Datong. Do you think they will watch you lead the troops to slaughter their cattle, sheep, old and weak people?"
Dorgon was already angry, but when he saw that he had such an idea, he immediately cursed.
"The Ming army and the Tumote tribe have been on guard for a long time. It is not advisable to take a detour. If there are fewer people, they cannot defeat the Tumote tribe's cavalry. But if there are more cavalry, once the main force of the Ming army presses forward, it may be difficult to resist it. Now we can only
We can wait and see what happens, and hope that the Eight Kings and King Chuang can break into Henan and Shanxi and reverse the situation."
Hong Chengchou shook his head and then said slowly.
In terms of riding and shooting, the Mongolian cavalry is not inferior to the Jurchens of the Eight Banners. If you want to detour and harass the Tumut tribe, you must at least send cavalry of the same size.
As a result, the overall strength of the main army will definitely weaken. Once the Ming army fails to fight forward, not only will the main army suffer heavy losses, but the 50,000 cavalry who took a detour will also be in danger.
Therefore, it is absolutely stupid to divide the troops at this time and disperse the strength. After all, they also have a large number of infantry and food and baggage, and their movements are also greatly restricted. Unlike the full cavalry, which comes and goes like the wind, they can leave as they please.
, chase if you want.
"Oh, that's all we can do. I hope King Chuang can argue with the Eight Kings. I have dragged all the elites of the Ming Army here. If they still can't win, they will only deserve to be destroyed by the little emperor.
."
Dorgon also sighed helplessly.
Facing an emperor like Zhu Cixiang, he was really powerless.
