On the north bank of Weining Sea, the Ming Dynasty's cavalry advanced for more than thirty miles.
There were about five or six thousand troops left behind by the Menggoljin tribe in the fire sieve, but they were powerless against the sudden advance of the Ming Dynasty's troops.
Wang Shouren was very decisive in executing military orders. At the beginning of the attack, he issued an order that all troops must turn back south and enter Datong from the direction of Maoerzhuang, which could shorten the distance to 200 miles.
But it is obviously difficult to implement it.
"General Wang, we have beheaded 2,260 people so far, and captured over 10,000 people, which is hard to count. If hundreds of thousands of livestock go south this way, the journey will be slow."
< p>When General Guan Jing reported the matter to Wang Shouren, his voice trembled.This credit is much greater than Wang Weining's surprise attack on Weininghai.
But the biggest problem now is that it is very likely that so many victories cannot be taken away.
Even if the Mengoljin tribe does not turn around and attack, the surrounding Tumut tribe and Yongxiebu tribe will not sit idly by, and the Ming Dynasty Expeditionary Army only has three thousand soldiers and horses. After the previous battle losses, it would be good to have more than 2,500 people left who can go into battle. He still wants to drive such a large grassland tribe southward
Cao Shun changed his previous attitude towards Wang Shouren. Arrogant and rude, he said in a consultative tone, "Master Wang, why don't we take away the animals and everything else, and escort their children away specifically. The horses will be taken with us, and if there is really nothing we can do for the rest, don't force it."< /p>
Use your greatest ability to take away what you can.
You can’t kill someone’s back garden until nothing is left, and then want to take away everything useful and useless
Aren’t you afraid that the main force will come back and kill us all? No
Wang Shouren's attitude was very firm and said, "All the soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty have left the pass. Sixty or seventy miles south, they will definitely be able to meet up with the soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty. The Hulu will never dare to chase all the soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty." Whatever is taken away will not be left behind."
When Cao Shun heard these words, he felt very uncomfortable.
He really wanted to say, if you want to take me with you, I want to go back as soon as possible. If you go to Datong, I can go to Yinshan, and I can go back to where I came from.
Wang Shouren did not want to leave any population or livestock to be sifted by the fire. Since he chose to steal the house, he should steal it thoroughly.
Easier said than done.
But when it comes to execution, it encounters great difficulties.
The population of the grassland tribe is not bad, and they can be captured as long as they drive this group of people away, but so many animals have to cross an area of nearly 200 miles back to the Ming Dynasty, and they cannot graze in the middle. Just providing fodder and water for these animals is a huge trouble.
In the afternoon, sporadic tribesmen approached here, but they were all killed and retreated by Ma Yi's troops.
At this time, Ma Yi was responsible for leading about 1,200 troops and horses to the rear. These 1,200 troops were already about half of the remaining troops of the Ming Dynasty, and the remaining troops had to be dispersed among In various places, there were about 200 people and horses driving away people from different tribes, including men, women, old and children., and their cattle, horses, sheep, camels and other livestock went south.
By dark, the group had not yet circumnavigated the east coast of Weining Sea.
You can't camp that night either.
The soldiers were exhausted. After several days of marching and a battle of blood and fire, everyone's spirit was on the verge of collapse.
Even Wang Shouren felt that his plan might be a little crazy, and the loot this time was really exaggerated, and the soldiers might not be able to hold on anymore.
"Stay where you are"
Wang Shouren had to change his mind about heading south quickly.
He now had to face a problem, that is, before going south to join the main force of the Ming Dynasty's central army, he would have to have a head-on confrontation with Huo Si or the other right-wing tribes.
Not to mention the rear, there are dangers lurking even in the front.
The night is solemn.
The wind picked up on the grassland that night. It had also experienced a battle. Death happened again in the quiet Weining Sea. The sound of the wind outside the camp was like the sound of human whimpering.
The soldiers had swept away the excitement from the previous battlefield. They had to take turns guarding that night and could only rest in batches.
When Ma Yi appeared in front of Wang Shouren with a gray-black face, Wang Shouren also understood that the expeditionary force he brought now would probably be buried in Weining Sea before bringing the results back to the Ming Dynasty. .
"Major General, the soldiers have tried their best, but there are too many Tatars here."
"Basically, the population is nearly 15,000, not counting the The more than two thousand people we killed"
Ma Yi's general idea now is to just take those heads back.
For the soldiers, that was an unparalleled achievement. It was almost impossible to bring back all the prisoners, cattle and sheep.
Wang Shouren asked, "Can we continue setting off before midnight?"
"I'm afraid not." Ma Yi said, "Some soldiers have fallen asleep on horseback. It is not uncommon to fall down. We are too tired today and it will be tomorrow morning at the earliest." Wang Shouren did not force Ma Yi, he nodded and said, "Then we will continue the march tomorrow morning. Gathered together in one place, this time we have brought the mighty gunpowder. If it really comes to the last step, we will kill them."
Wang Shouren also made plans to die together.
Although they are still deep into the hinterland of the grassland, and their whereabouts are no longer any secret, and escorting so many people and livestock south, the journey is difficult not to mention that they may not even be able to cover twenty miles in a day. , but Wang Shouren didn't think this was a dead end.
The tribal population of more than 15,000 is the bargaining chip in his hand. < /p>
When the time comes, I will kill your people directly behind your back, if you dareIf you get within a mile, I will kill dozens of people, send their heads to you, and ask you if you are afraid.
I will slaughter all your cattle and sheep directly for you. It is too slow to kill them with a knife. Use cannons and yellow gunpowder to explode your people and livestock. You don't need to be taught by you prairie people to do this. Someone like me, the king, can definitely do it.
If I dare to travel long distances to fight with you, I will be ready to fight you to the death
When Wang Shouren explained the plan to massacre the hostages to Ma Yi, he could clearly feel it on Ma Yi's face There's a little more blood on it.
Ma Yi felt that Wang Shouren was "unscrupulous" as a general. In other words, Wang Shouren had foresight. It was meaningless to talk about the rule of not killing prisoners when it was life and death. Yes, what he has to do is to bring the loot back to the Ming Dynasty, and according to the agreement, unless there are people who cannot take care of everything and escape along the way, there must be no less than one person or one animal left.
The northeast corner of Weininghai was very quiet that night.
Wang Shouren asked people to use bonfires to light up the camp, and even allowed herders to feed their animals overnight.
At the same time, Wang Shouren also called the elders of the tribe who were left behind and explained his intentions to them.
"If you are defeated, you should surrender to the Ming Dynasty. As long as Fire Sieve surrenders, you will be preserved, and even the livestock will still be yours. But if Fire Sieve is stubborn and continues to fight with us, until That's when the fish will die and the net will fall." Wang Shouren basically told the prisoners of war.
Your fate does not depend on the attitude of the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty towards you. We hope that you will reach the border of the Ming Dynasty alive, and we will even give you a basis for continued survival.
Your lives are actually controlled by Fire Sieve and your family members. If the men of your family, that is, your cavalry from the expedition, come back and fight with us, then you will be killed. raised the sacrificial flag.
The elders left behind in the clan are also very afraid.
Someone asked, "Shouldn't you say these words to our clan leaders and the warriors who are going on the expedition?"
Wang Shouren said, "So, if your army arrives, I will Some of you who are old and weak will be sent out as envoys, and then you will bring my letter and my intentions to them."
Wang Shouren would not let women and children go to report the message, because he would not let them go. We know that for the grassland, women are the most important resource and an important factor related to the development of the ethnic group. So when Huo Si went on the expedition, many women from the tribe actually went with them. In addition to helping the soldiers on the expedition, logistics, while also preserving their most important asset.
Children are also the future of the grassland tribes.
The life span of grassland people is generally thirty or even twenty years old. If one of them loses a generation, it may mean the demise of a tribe just by plundering the women of other tribes. Even if they come to give birth to children for them, they will not be able to survive a generation of people who are living in poverty.
The elders among the Dan tribe, especially those without physicalThose who work hard are not of much value to the tribe. Letting them go to inform the Ming army of their intentions can be regarded as using their remaining energy.
There was no fighting that night.
The quality shown by the Ming Expeditionary Force in this battle was too terrifying. Even if there were still effective forces from the tribes around, and even some people left behind in the outer circle, they did not dare to come easily at this time. rescue.
Wang Shouren arranged it before dawn.
Every time they pass a section of the road, an old man from the tribe will be left behind to ask them to stop and bring the message.
After taking turns to rest throughout the night, the soldiers of the expeditionary force felt much better. After dawn, they were able to continue their journey south in high spirits.
But it is still difficult for the soldiers to go to Maoerzhuang.
Even if they dismounted and walked, they would be moving faster than the current team, especially with so many cattle and sheep, not obeying orders at all, and it would be of no help if there were herdsmen to help.
Cattle and sheep will look for places with water and grass on their own.
Wang Shouren also calmed down at this time.
You simply can’t return to the Ming border without encountering enemies, so you don’t care whether you go fast or slow, you will encounter them anyway, and the deterrence methods used before have not been effective anyway, so then Working steadily, Wang Yue was able to reach the Weining Sea by sleeping day and night for more than 20 days. Why couldn't he bring these trophies back to the Ming Dynasty in more than 20 days?
"It won't work this way."< /p>
Cao Shun is the person who sings the most naysayers in the army.
At noon that day, there was no stove buried, and the soldiers were not short of food now. From the food stored in the Mengoljin tribe, they found a lot of dried meat and various grain crops, which now belong to Eat whatever you want.
The carriages pulled by many horses were full of Tatars, old and weak women and children. They didn’t complain much along the way. They seemed to have expected that the fate of being prisoners would be to be driven away like cattle and sheep. .
As a result of this march, Wang Shouren could get rumors of Tatars approaching from various places from time to time, but surprisingly, no one on the road dared to approach directly.
Firstly, it is because the number of these people is not large. They know that they cannot compete head-on with the strength of the Ming Expeditionary Army. In addition, they do not belong to the same tribe, and they cannot form alliances in a short time. form an alliance.
For the Tumut and other tribes, even though they are usually allies with the Mengoljin tribe, if the Mengoljin tribe’s rear area is taken over by the Ming Dynasty, then the Mengoljin tribe’s pasture will It will be all for them. Now they might as well be prepared for the fire sieve to rob their cattle, sheep and women. Do they want to go against the Ming Dynasty directly for these people and animals of the Mengoljin tribe?
In addition, Mongolia is now The main tribal forces on the right are preparing for a decisive battle with Dayan Khan in the west. Now the Ming Dynasty's army has only plundered the rear area of the Mengoljin tribe without touching their basic base. It is too late for them to protect their own people. As for the The matter of snatching back the Mengoljin tribe members,Only Fire Sieve can do it himself.
The war has only been going on for one day now, and Huo Si probably hasn't even gotten the news yet, and it will take a few days for his troops to return, so everything still seems so calm.
“Most of the troops approaching us now are from the Mengoljin tribe. In addition to those who escaped from the battlefield yesterday, there are also some troops they gathered from the surrounding areas. At present, it seems that the troops are Before the number of horses was one or two thousand, they did not have the strength to fight with us."
The next night.
The team, which seemed to be on the run, finally walked out of the Weininghai area, but only for twenty miles. This was only achieved by Wang Shouren's various urgings and through killing people to establish authority.
At the military meeting that night, Guan Jing, representing the Ming Dynasty, did not accept the news, which was the news from the scouts.
After Cao Shun heard the news, he said with a look of relief, "That's good, that's good. If everything goes well, it will take about five or six days to get to Mao'erzhuang, and maybe the Tatars will still be there." Didn't react."
"No." Wang Shouren said, "Even if the Hulu can only gather one or two thousand people before we get to Mao'er Village, they will come over."< /p>
Cao Shun was puzzled and said, "They are not afraid that we will wipe out all their people."
Wang Shouren asked, "What's the difference between people being brought into the pass by us and being killed?" "
"This"
Cao Shun couldn't answer.
"It is nothing more than a matter of life and death." Wang Shouren himself added, "By then, if the fire sieve does not fall, then his tribe will be completely gone. And the people left behind will not be Those who are treated well will be the first to be threatened by the main army."
This means that after Huo Si came back, he found that most of the clan members had been taken away by the Ming Dynasty's 3,000-strong expeditionary force. He himself also left four to five thousand soldiers and horses to garrison. Even if these four to five thousand soldiers and horses were just reserves, in order to boost the morale of the army, Huo Si would kill these inactive guys first.
And these people who stayed behind also knew that what they did was neither tolerated by the tribe nor accepted by the fire sieve, so they were waiting for an opportunity to attack.
They are also observing the flaws of the Ming army.
"So it's best to take the initiative to fight." Wang Shouren gave the strategy.
"Fight back"
Cao Shun seemed incomprehensible.
They were escorting so many people and livestock to the south, and the carriages were also carrying so much goods, including dozens of cattle and sheep skins. The other party did not dare to move forward. They must be burning incense. , but this young general of the Wang family seems not to be afraid of trouble at all, and can always do something evil.
"Let the horse commander spot the opportunity and lead the troops to rush out. There is no need to rush to fight and drive the bandits fifty miles away."
Wang Shouren gave a specific strategy .
There was no overnight garrison that night, and the troops continued to march before midnight.
Wang Shouren fully understood Zhang Zhou’s strategic intentions for him.Try not to fight at night, especially night battles, otherwise the Ming soldiers may get lost on the grassland without many markers.
He will not carry out any plan to drive away Di Yi at night, everything will have to wait until dawn.
At dawn, Wang Shouren looked up at the sky. Ma Yi was also rotated and came to report to him.
"Commander Ma, within three days, we must get rid of the troublesome people behind us. Otherwise, our army will be very passive when encountering attacks from both front and rear around Mao'erzhuang."
Wang Shouren was also telling Ma Yi.
It is only a temporary measure to let you drive away Di Yi. It is best to eat the one or two thousand cavalry following behind you at once.
Only in this way can we ensure that we concentrate on dealing with the former banner troops of the Mengoljin tribe stationed in Maoerzhuang and other places.
Ma Yi asked, "Didn't Zhang Zhitai say that he would clear the way for us to go south?"
"At the current speed of our march, Xuanfu's soldiers and horses cannot Those who arrive at Mao'erzhuang and the soldiers and horses from Datong Town may not be ordered to go north. Even if they go north, the speed will not be too fast. It is good to be able to travel one to twenty miles a day. It will take at least five or six days. , there is a chance to meet up with the soldiers and horses in the border town."
"But I expect that the soldiers and horses from the front banner of Manguan'anbu will go north from Mao'erzhuang and other places after hearing the news. We will fight in three days at the latest."
Wang Shouren knew something about the behavior of the Ming Dynasty's border troops.
Zhang Zhou has already ordered Datong Town and Piantou Pass to send troops.
But it is impossible for the men and horses from the Piantou Pass to come to Maoerzhuang to support him, which means that Zhang Zhou’s direct relatives, Wang Qiong and Zhu Feng, cannot come to help. They are counting on the governor of Datong, Hong Han, although they look more powerful. Ma Zhongxi is more reliable, but Hong Han is not too quick when executing military orders.
As for Zhang Zhou himself, Wang Shouren did not dare to repay too much hope, because it was a long way from Xuanfu to Maoerzhuang.
In fact, what’s even more terrible is that Wang Shouren captured too many trophies and was traveling too slowly, which would delay his journey to Maoerzhuang
The previous view was that it was a fire sieve The former banner soldiers and horses will withdraw westward after encountering a war, but now Wang Shouren has uprooted the old nest of the Huoshii tribe. The family members of the Huoshiqian banner soldiers and horses are probably among them. How could they lose their homes and go west on their own? Running
Wang Shouren also realized this deeply.
The credit is too small to be worth mentioning.
The credit was too great, and it would be troublesome to destroy Huo Si's lair all at once. He would probably be buried in the grasslands and not be able to return to the Central Plains. Please remember to bookmark, the latest and fastest website is free to read without anti-theft