On August 20, Zhu Cihong led a large army to the Xiliao River.

He rode his horse to the top of a mountain, only to see that in the distance, there was a patch of yellow sand, and sometimes there was a sky full of sand and dust, which seemed depressed and lonely.

He sighed: "Only by experiencing it first-hand can we feel the greatness of Emperor Chengzu's five expeditions to Mobei, and the military might of my Ming Dynasty." ”

Zhu Cihong's intended goal was to go deep into 1,300 miles and completely solve the Zhelimu League and the Horqin Department in southern Mongolia, and now he has only walked less than half the way.

However, even if the goal is so far, it is far less than half of the journey of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di.

On the way back to Mongolia from the fifth northern expedition, Zhu Di died of illness in the Yumu River, which is more than 2,000 miles away from Shenyang, not to mention that Zhu Di fought all the way to the birthplace of the Mongols, the Nan River, and expanded the territory of the Ming Dynasty to Lake Baikal in Siberia.

"Report!"

Several horsemen rushed to the mountain at night, shouting: "Your Majesty, the vanguard regiment of our army has been attacked by the Tartars, and the four hundred men of the left flank forward battalion have been annihilated!" ”

"Your Majesty, the right-wing forward battalion encountered the Tartar brigade, and the whole army was annihilated!"

"What? The two battalions are gone? ”

The Longwu army was so tightly organized, disciplined, and well-equipped that it was destroyed by two battalions of men and horses in a row, and 800 people were lost, and all the generals couldn't believe it.

Zhu Cihong's face trembled slightly, and he asked, "How many Mongolians are here?" What about Li Shaoyou? ”

That night did not retract and said: "There are cavalry all over the mountains, numbering no less than 5,000 people, and General Li has also encountered a siege, and he has just broken the siege and is rushing to the camp." ”

The man did not collect the battlefield terrain he had reconnoitred and mapped, and presented them one by one with the banners of the Mongols.

Zhu Cihong glanced at it, and then handed it to the soldiers around him to praise the painting, and asked them to analyze the enemy and the battle situation.

The army is responsible for analyzing the enemy, staff tactics, and finding ways to break the enemy, and has now become an important part of the Ming army.

When the praisers were huddled together to discuss, Li Shaoyou had already led the vanguard group back to the camp and entered the imperial camp to report the battle situation and ask for guilt.

The Pioneer Regiment lost far more personnel than it was detected at night, except for the two battalions, the other four battalions that were scattered also suffered blows of varying degrees, and the Pioneer Regiment lost as many as 1,000 people.

Li Shaoyou was in a very bad mood, and he fell to the ground and confessed: "The last general is incompetent, and the soldiers are broken, please punish Your Majesty!" ”

Zhu Cihong's face was also not good-looking, and he frowned and said: "Since the establishment of the Longwu Army, the southern and northern wars, birth and death, have made the thieves and Tartars frightened, I didn't expect to lose so many people here, shame!" ”

Li Shaoyou hung his head, and said in a state of confusion: "It's just that the last general's command was wrong, and the prestige of the Long Wu Army was damaged, the face of the Long Wu Army was lost, and the face of my Ming Army was lost. ”

Li Shaoyou, who has always been highly valued, always looks smiling and dissolute, but now he is like a mourner, which shows the deep self-blame in his heart.

This defeat directly led to the battle against Mongolia falling into passivity, and the generals Yang Qili and Qi Guangyang all shrank their heads, did not dare to speak, and prayed for Li Shaoyou in their hearts.

Zhu Cihong was silent for a moment, and said slowly: "Get up, victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, there can be a few undefeated gods of war throughout the ages, if you have to remove yourself and cut off your head every time you make a mistake, then do I still have anyone available?" ”

In the surprised expressions of the generals, Zhu Cihong continued: "Remember a major demerit, wear a crime and make meritorious service, if you fail to make a new merit and lose another battle, then you are ready to be demoted three levels in a row!" ”

The Tianwu Army has the most important military merits, and the promotion of each level needs to be approved at all levels, which is extremely difficult, and it is not easy to demote three levels in a row, which is equivalent to several years of military exploits, which is very serious.

Li Shaoyou's body trembled, and he bowed down again: "The last general bowed to thank God, swore to go straight to the court, shame before the snow, and hated the soldiers who died in battle!" ”

Zhu Cihong nodded slightly, rubbed his hands and said, "Tell me about the battle situation." ”

Everyone's eyes are on Li Shaoyou, who has the most right to speak in the past few days fighting against the Mongols.

Li Shaoyou stood up, calmed down a little, and said: "Back to Your Majesty, the tactics of the Mongolian Tatars are different from those of Jiannu, Jiannu fights a tough battle head-on, and the Mongolian Tatars are obscene and evil, and they run away if they can't take advantage of it, constantly attacking back and forth, and the ghosts are not dispersed, attracting our army to pursue and lead us into the ambush they have set up." ”

"Genghis Khan's Raven Soldiers Scattering Star Array?"

The one who spoke was Zhao Shixiang, the chief of praise in the imperial camp, who was nearly forty years old and had a short beard, which looked very neat.

Most of the generals present have heard of this tactic, after all, the Mongol cavalry led by Genghis Khan was too famous, and often used this tactic when sweeping the world, making the enemy embarrassed and gaining huge losses.

The Raven Scattering Star Formation generally takes three-tenths of the force as the vanguard, destroying the strong formation, riding in a group of three or five, never clustering, in case of being surrounded, the enemy is separated, the enemy is united, gathering and scattering, extremely flexible, often able to defeat many enemy troops with fewer cavalry;

If the enemy's formation is strong, the disturbance makes the enemy tired, and the enemy's position moves, that is, it takes advantage of the chaos and drives straight in, and it is rare to be defeated.

or if the number of troops is small, the suspicious soldiers will be deployed to fear the enemy, or the method of setting up an ambush will be used to feign defeat and leave, abandon the heavy gold and silver, and lure the enemy to chase the north into ambush, and often be able to completely annihilate the pursuers.

Listening to Li Shaoyou's account of the battle situation, everyone was more certain that the Mongols were using the same crow soldiers and Rava tactics that their ancestors were best at.

The Mongolian cavalry is best at cavalry archery, and the Manchu Eight Banners Army, which prides itself on riding and shooting the world, actually relies on the Mongolian cavalry mostly in terms of cavalry.

The Manchurian Eight Banners were best at the combination of heavy infantry and shield chariots, and unless they encountered an enemy who thought they were weak, they would use cavalry to carry out a brainless charge, and the strict tactics were dismounted and infancied.

The combined bow of the Mongol cavalry had a long range and great lethality, reaching a range of four hundred meters, an effective killing distance of up to two hundred meters, and if equipped with sharp metal arrows on the arrows, it could penetrate the thickest armor.

Compared with the dirtiest battle of Xincheng fought by Zhu Cihong in the ninth year of Chongzhen, the tactics of the Mongols were really dirty, and when they encountered the enemy's infantry phalanx or queue cavalry, they often did not charge directly, but sent light cavalry to attack from a distance with bows and arrows.

Then retreat, then attack, then retreat, constantly weaken the enemy with wheels, disrupt the enemy's formation, and finally send heavy cavalry to charge and harvest (13th century).

This kind of tactics similar to guerrilla fighting, which is good at using strict arrays and rushing face to face in a majestic posture, is extremely unsuitable for this, and cannot give full play to its advantages at all.

Whether it is a soldier or a war horse, the Longwu army has heavy armor, and the mobility is far inferior to the Mongolian light horse, and the war horse on the grassland has high explosive power, so it is even more difficult to chase, and it is forced to fly a kite, and it is lured all the way to the ambush point and ambushed.

In the thirteenth century, the Mongol army went west to Europe, and Subutai and Jebe led 30,000 Mongol troops to fight against the 80,000 European coalition forces (mostly heavy cavalry) led by Russia.

In the battle of the Calga River, more than 70,000 soldiers of the European coalition army were killed, six dukes were killed, twelve princes and nobles were captured, and more than 70 nobles were killed.