Chapter 067 The decisive battle in Sand City (seventeen)
Two cavalry forces, with a combined force of nearly 100,000, actually engaged in mobile warfare. What kind of situation would this be?
This is probably something that many people of later generations would find difficult to imagine, and it may be difficult for them to understand why two cavalrymen from the same race would fight like this.
According to common sense, everyone is a Mongolian cavalry, and no one has to be inferior in equestrian skills. There should be about the same movement speed, and their riding and shooting skills are about the same.
In this case, it is almost meaningless to continue to use the tactics of approaching, shooting and harassing, and the same is true of Mangu's tactics - does the opponent know what you want to do? If you want to retreat, I will hang it leisurely; If you want to cum, I will cum with you.
Therefore, conventional Mongolian cavalry tactics have no effect in the Mongolian cavalry civil war. The only way to win is when both sides give up those tricks and directly charge into battle.
But is it really that simple? Of course not.
Because one of the most critical differences lies in the logistics status of both parties.
The Mongolian cavalry has always been famous for its so-called "expedition without logistics" capability, but this capability was only occasionally mentioned in later literature. Most people's focus is still on the Mongolian Mangujie who dominates the world. Even if it is mentioned Not much is said about its logistics, as if the Mongols only needed to drink mare's milk during their 100,000-mile expedition.
This is a kind of taken for granted without verification.
Even if an ordinary person in future generations is given only mare's milk for a month, he can only maintain his life. How can he maintain high-intensity marching or even fighting?
Mongolians are also human beings, so naturally they cannot make a living by drinking mare's milk alone. Besides... are all horses mare and remain in the lactation stage?
Mares are of course an important source of food, but in fact the Mongolians also have logistics. The traditional diet of the Mongolians is fried rice, milk tofu, and beef jerky. They are all foods that are easy to preserve after being dehydrated and can be stored for up to several months. .
These foods can be eaten after simple processing. For example, fried rice is rice grains obtained by frying millet rice and grinding the outer shell. It can be eaten dry or soaked in hot water;
Milk tofu is a food made from solidified and fermented milk, goat's milk, mare's milk, etc. It is similar in shape to ordinary tofu and can be eaten dry or steamed;
Needless to say, beef jerky can be eaten directly. Along with milk, goat milk, milk tea, etc., they are all foods that are easy to obtain and can be eaten without spending too much cooking time.
However, it was two hundred years ago to travel thousands of miles with only this food. In fact, it is difficult for the Mongols to do this now. Therefore, when Tumen Khan went on an expedition, he also brought a group of cattle and sheep.
Cattle and sheep can be used for both milk and meat. They are the basic guarantee for the Mongols when they go on an expedition. The Chahar tribe will naturally bring a lot of cattle and sheep as a supplement when the main force is sent out this time.
When the 60,000-strong army went out for battle, Tumen Khan brought more than 3,000 cattle and more than 70,000 sheep.
On its own, this number is quite large, but in reality, 60,000 people are not much, and in addition to the more than 10,000 Xin'ai troops who have lost their foundation, this logistics is actually somewhat insufficient.
At that time, Tumen Khan's idea was that this batch of cattle and sheep would be enough to last until he could meet up with Xin Ai, because the rest could be solved by Xin Ai. If Xin Ai could not completely solve the problem, then he could take down Hanna.
Jihe Guihua City can also be properly solved.
But something unexpected happened. Xin Ai lost all his people, and of course all his cattle and sheep. Even his subordinates now can no longer make the double horses that the Mongolian cavalry used to do. Many of them only have one war horse.
Tumen Khan not only failed to leave the logistical burden to Xin Ai, but Xin Ai himself became Tumen's support. At this time, Tumen Khan's task of 3,000 cattle and 70,000 sheep became even heavier.
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Previously, Tumen and Burihatu had discussed that they would launch an offensive in Shacheng for ten days, but the first wave of trials was launched in only six or seven days. One of the reasons was that the logistics were tight, forcing Tumen to advance the offensive.
After a fight, I hope to capture Shacheng as a supplement. Since Shacheng is guarded by the Ming army, according to the Ming army's habits, there must be a large amount of supplies in the city, including stored grain.
I just didn't expect that the Ming army's defensive capabilities were too strong, and the artillery fire was too fierce.
Tumen Khan, who was frustrated in his attack on Shacheng, was faced with the danger of a pincer attack from the east and west. Under Burihatu's suggestion, he chose the strategy of defeating the Eastern Route Army first. In this case, of course, these cattle and sheep had to be taken away to avoid being left behind.
At the foot of Shacheng City, Han Naji, who came from the west, finally got an advantage.
However, the moving speed of cattle and sheep was obviously not as fast as that of war horses, so Tumen Khan had to divide his troops, forming a situation in which the main force of about 55,000 cavalry was in the front, and 5,000 cavalry escorted and protected the cattle and sheep in the rear.
On the other hand, Qiataiji was different. To the south was the Ming Dynasty, and with the highly pragmatic Jinghua as guarantee, he could safely leave his cattle and sheep at the various horse market branches of Jinghua Trading Company at the border - because horses and cattle were to be sold.
Regarding the sheep trade, Jinghua has large horse farms in these places, so herding some cattle and sheep is not a problem at all.
Why did Gao Pragmatic choose the southern front as the battlefield? Better logistical support capabilities are also an important reason.
Under such a situation, with Qataiji's rich combat experience, how could he fail to see Tumen Khan's disadvantages?
Using one's own strengths to attack the other's weaknesses is the unified law of military affairs in the world. Therefore, Qataiji did not choose to engage in a battle with Tumen Khan whose strength was nearly twice his own, but chose to let him
I personally went out and led a small number of elites to hold back the Tumen Khan. At the same time, I sent out the Qingbangdu, the Daer Han Zhuo Bulang and others to lead the 15,000-strong escort of the Great Khan from the flanks to the rear of the Tumen Khan. The target was Tumen Khan.
The cattle and sheep they brought with them.
Tumen is not an idiot. The opponent's troops obviously do not have 30,000 troops, but the Chinese army has displayed the banner of Chatterji. This almost makes it clear that the opponent still has the main force performing other tasks.
There are only two possibilities for other missions. One is to suddenly attack from the flank when he and Chaterji are fighting inextricably, trying to defeat him directly. But he feels that the other party should not be so confident, and half of his troops want to fight with him.
Play this trick. After all, the main reason why he can't defeat Chaterji in front of him right now is because the terrain is inconvenient to expand.
As mentioned before, the terrain here is the intersection line of mountains and grasslands, and Qataiji's attack was launched along the intersection line, which meant that Tumen Khan's front was only half as wide as usual. Although he could choose the left path
It could be extended in a detour, but that might also push Chatterjee into the mountains in the south.
"Don't enter the forest" is one of the cavalry's marching rules, but if Qia Taiji chose to enter the mountain to avoid the sharp edge of the Tumen, there would be no problem at all. On the contrary, after he entered the mountain, the Tumen did not dare to pursue him - he entered
The cavalry in the mountains must be inconvenient, and it will be difficult to take advantage of the large number of troops.
Of course we are not willing to fight this kind of bad war.
Since they are unwilling to outflank from the left, they can only fight with Chaterji under half the width of the frontal battlefield. On such a battlefield that is not conducive to the deployment of troops, although Tumen can take the initiative by relying on their strength advantage,
It seems that he is fighting against Chatterjee, but it makes sense that he won't be able to take it down for a while.
At this time, Tumen had to consider the whereabouts of the other 15,000 cavalry. Since these people were unlikely to attack his main formation from the flanks, they could only attack the cattle and sheep in the rear.
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Although they were not too worried, Tumen had no choice but to divide their troops to rescue the "logistics troops" in the rear.
He thought for a while and simply sent Xin Ai over - Xin Ai had more than 10,000 men and horses, plus there were already 5,000 cavalry to escort cattle and sheep in the rear. This force already exceeded the surrounding troops sent by Qataiji.
They don't think it's a big problem.
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Thanks to the book friend "Gangbar 913" for your monthly ticket support, thank you! The previous chapter should be "The decisive battle in Shacheng (16)", but it was missed when I posted it...