Speaking of this, Wang Shirong paused, as if he was a little hesitant, he raised his head and glanced at Lin Feng, "...... In addition to these enemy soldiers, there are a lot of scum in Shanxi who are attached to the Junggar Mongols, most of these traitor troops are now distributed in the west and north of Taiyuan, and the large and small cities are now located in the west and north of Taiyuan, for the Mongolian army to appease the place, scavenging grain and grass, in fact, there were more than 6,000 traitor troops in Xinzhou, but since our army broke the enemy's West Road army, the new annexed troops in Daizhou and Baode have changed banners, and the Tartars can't trust them, afraid that they will follow and rebel, and respond to our army, so they will fall behind and escort grain and grass. ”

In fact, most of the generals of the Han army did not pay attention to these traitor puppet troops, although these troops were numerous, but the equipment was very poor, the organization was sloppy, and the will to fight was extremely weak, if they were put on the battlefield, it was definitely a suicide act, not only was it unlikely to cause damage to the enemy, but it would also disrupt their own positions and slack the fighting spirit of the main force. In terms of strength, they were even much worse than the militia units in the Han military system, so their only duty in this war was to act as a security police in the rear, and like grass on the wall, they could fall to the winning side of the war at any time.

"Excellent! The military commander Yamen spy is detailed, and he is very relieved," Lin Feng stood up and said to the ministers, "Ji Yun said very clearly just now, did you hear it?!" None of the generals in the hall responded, he continued to take care of himself, "You must not think that the enemy army is weak because of Geerdan's envoy to sue for peace, in fact, Geerdan's request for peace has other reasons, not because he is afraid of us, but now the enemy is stationed in Xinzhou, with tens of thousands of troops, and the strength is not inferior, it is really our fierce enemy, you must be cautious, not careless!" ”

"General Zhao, here you have dealt with Junggar the most, according to you, now Geerdan is in Xinzhou, what is the idea of fighting?!"

"Lord Qiqi, since we marched, the Jungar Tartars have been desperately digging pits and building walls on the side of Xinzhou, setting up fortresses, equipped with fire guns and cannons, trying to rely on the strong city to frustrate my spirit, trying to wait for the veterans of our division to be tired, and then attack with light cavalry to defeat our army!"

"Oh?" To be honest, Lin Feng did feel very strange about Geldan putting on such a positional battle posture, in his impression, the Mongolian army is of course the Mongolian army's way of fighting, the traditional cavalry guerrilla, and then the iron cavalry battle, now it is really a little confusing to engage in a serious battle of pulling and fighting, he shook his head and said with a wry smile, "Then in this way, they must have a lot of artillery, right?!" ”

Zhao Guangyuan came out and said, "My lord, a few days ago, we had a few feints with Liangdong and touched the bottom of the Tartars, you don't know, these barbarians really have a lot of cannons, maybe fifty or sixty ......"

"It's fifty-seven door......s," Zhao Liangdong corrected, "There are more than a dozen big guys among them, who can fight six miles, but they don't have flowering bullets, they can only fight iron bumps!" ”

Fifty-seven is not a lot, Lin Feng touched his chin and thought, it seems that he really thought wrong this time, originally in the plan of Lin Feng's staff officers, this war was mainly a cavalry duel, so now Lin Feng pulled over tens of thousands of elite cavalry in one go, and did not bring many large-caliber artillery, and now he suddenly has to fight positional warfare, it is really a headache.

It seems that this Geldan is really a bit unconventional, doesn't he worship Genghis Khan very much? How can the means of fighting a war not look like it at all?! He smiled bitterly, "Heming, how many artillery pieces did we bring?!" ”

"Returning to the lord, this time we will go to Shanxi, we will mainly rely on light cavalry, and there will be few artillery," Mu Tianyan obviously realized this problem, and said helplessly, "Now that the artillery brigades of various armies are gathered, plus the heavy artillery of our guards, there are only 265 artillery pieces in total, and the strength is more than 8,000 troops, of which there are only 28 red-coated cannons. ”

Limited to the technical conditions of this era, most of the artillery of the Han army is not very powerful, in terms of range and lethality, the most powerful is Dai Zi borrowed from European technology, self-developed and manufactured front-loading smoothbore cannon, although this cannon still follows the name of the previous generation, known as the "red cannon", but in fact, both in the range and accuracy have been greatly improved, the longest range can reach twelve miles (Huali, about 5.5 to 6 kilometers), but in addition to this heavy cannon, other kinds of small artillery are much worseSince Lin Feng led the army to defeat the Tuhai and Liaodong coalition forces, the military according to the combat experience summarized after the war, the military guiding ideology of the Han army has been around the "decisive victory in the field" or "shotgun to kill the enemy", the Han army's small court engineering department Cao's technocrats according to the requirements of the military, vigorously develop a battle gun of less than 1,000 catties, and this kind of artillery is very suitable for firing shotguns and grapes, in three or five hundred steps away has a very terrifying lethality, but if it is replaced with a solid bullet or a flowering bullet, the power will be greatly inferior, The longest range is only three or four miles, and the accuracy is very poor.

Now the various branches of the Han army are equipped with this kind of artillery. The so-called "265 cannons" mentioned by Shicai Mu Tianyan sound huge in number and impressive in firepower, but in fact, if you really rely on this kind of artillery to attack the enemy's strong fortress, it will be a bit difficult for a strong man.

Thinking of this, Lin Feng was a little big, and he was silent for a long time, and muttered, "Geldan has tens of thousands of iron horsemen, but he is fighting a positional battle with me—what is he thinking?!" ”

Zhao Liangdong was stunned and said, "I'm afraid the lord has something to do, right?!" How dare he fight with our cavalry?! ”

Lin Feng was taken aback, the Mongol army did not dare to fight cavalry battles??! Is there anything more ridiculous in the world than this? He looked at Zhao Liangdong in a daze, and said suspiciously, "Old Zhao, what are you talking nonsense?" This kind of thing is no joke! ”

"Don't you dare," Zhao Liangdong bowed down and apologized, raised his head and said, "Don't you know, since the first battle of Beining in the past, everyone in the world knows that our Han Iron Cavalry is the strongest soldier today, and within one day and night, destroy the Eight Banners of Liaodong, and force Horqin, such martial arts, can he Geerdan eat the courage of the ambitious leopard and dare to face off with our Han Iron Cavalry?!" ”

Lin Feng's eyes widened and he said in disbelief, "There is still such a thing?" He looked around and said with a smirk, "Why hasn't anyone ever told me?!" ”

"Exactly!" Zhao Guangyuan nodded affirmatively, "I have been in Suiyuan for a long time, and I often deal with the Mongols, it is said that the minister knows that Ma Po led 8,000 iron cavalry to attack, and within only one hour, he defeated more than 15,000 horsemen of the Manchurian and Mongolian coalition army, beheaded dozens of generals and officers, and captured thousands of enemies, this matter spread to Mongolia, Chahar and other tribes were very afraid," he looked at Lin Feng and explained with a smile, "It was not a cat or a dog that hit that time, one was the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry of Megatron Huaxia, and the other was the elite of the Horqin Khan Tent who dominated Eastern Mongolia, One of them was beaten down by us, do you think they are afraid?! ”

Hearing this, Ma Ying couldn't help but laugh when he stood behind Rick, the scar on his face jumped and undulated, hideous and terrifying.

"Just because of this, they don't dare to fight a cavalry battle with me?!" Lin Feng always felt that this matter was a bit unbelievable, "Doesn't he have some 'Xue Timid Army'?" This thing is famous, at that time Genghis Khan opened up his territory, but he was invincible all over the world! ”

"Genghis Khan is Genghis Khan, and he Geldan is Geldan," Zhao Liangdong said with a smile, "The minister is from Gansu, and dealing with the Tartars is old, you don't know, Junggar is very different from the original Mongols, they are more and more fond of using firearms in war, and the ability to shoot arrows has really pulled down a lot, as far as the subordinates see, their cavalry is not good compared with us, there are two places that are not very good, one is that the armor is not good, and the Tartars lack iron, so most of them can only wear leather armor, you know, if that thing is really dry, it is still not very useful; The second is that there is less artillery, as soon as his cavalry comes out, let's put the cannon mount on the, isn't this for nothing?! ”

"Oh, if that's the case, then you can fight and retreat?!" Lin Feng said suspiciously, "Didn't Genghis Khan say that the Mongols had to retreat from the war and rush what walnut skin?!" If there is such a guerrilla attack, our artillery will be inconvenient, and it will not be useful?! ”

"The lord is too worried," Wang Shirong smiled dumbly, "How big can Jinbei be, can it accommodate tens of thousands of cavalry interspersed with guerrillas?!" You must know that our main force is also elite cavalry, how much advantage can they take advantage of?! ”

This explanation did not convince Lin Feng, and he was about to speak, but he heard Wang Shirong continue, "But more importantly, he Geerdan can't retreat if he wants to!" ”

"Why?!"

"This matter is not military, but political," Wang Shirong stroked his beard and said eloquently, "Have you forgotten that Geldan was forced to land in Khalkha last year, and invited to subdue the Turkut, Yikezhao and other tribes, and it has only been a year now, so the people's hearts are undecided, and the ministers think that these tribes that are forced to surrender must have many disobedient people. Second, I was attacked head-on by my big Han, with more defeats and fewer victories and many casualties, so how could the Mongolian tribes that were subject to Junggar have no complaints?! ”

"Not bad, not bad!" Lin Feng applauded, feeling a sudden opening in his heart.

"The ministers have no power to restrain the chicken, and they are weak scholars, but they also know that if the Mongolian army uses guerrilla techniques, the army will be broken up and the squad will move, so that it can be mobile and flexible, and advance and retreat suddenly, if the party is in the past, this method of warfare is indeed amazing, but now is different from the past, Geldan is powerless," Wang Shirong turned his face with a smile, and said to his colleagues around him, "If the Mongolian army is dismantled, who can guarantee that the armies of other tribes will not flee back to Mongolia and fight to the death with the elite of our Han army?" ——Nowadays, our Han army is sharp and invincible, if anyone dares to have a peep, the Khalkha people of the Eastern Route Army and the Hui Hui soldiers are their examples! ”

"Yes, a large army, as long as a small group of troops shakes and flees, then I am afraid that the other troops will be shocked, so that this battle will be defeated without fighting!" Lin Feng nodded in agreement.

"That's why Geerdan put up such an iron bucket array," Wang Shirong bowed his hand slightly to Lin Feng, and said solemnly, "He now has a lot of cannons, as well as a lot of guns and guns, the army has a market shelter, a strong city in hand, the official road in the northwest is not endless, and the grain and straw supply in Ordos is endless-the art of war is cloudy, and the two armies are facing each other. And now our Han army occupies He, the Mongolian army has a geographical advantage, and the time of day is together, and the autumn colors are equally divided with each other, so why didn't Geldan have an offensive and defensive duel with our army in Xinzhou?! ”

"Your Majesty," Rick stood at the head of the generals, who had been silent for a long time, and then finally came out of line, "I think Your Excellency the Privy Council is right - we cannot wishfully assume that the Tatars will fight us in the field just because they are nomads, war is a complex science, constantly changing and difficult to predict, I think, we should recognize this!" ”

"Okay, then so be it," Lin Feng waved his hand, motioned for everyone to return to the line, stood up and gave an order, "Pass my order, transfer people from the rear army, build fortifications on the front line of Xinzhou, repair the barracks, and from now on, the heavy troops will advance by land and water, prepare forts in Xinkou, Caozhuang and here, and hoard military rations!" ”

He looked left and right, "You remember, this battle is probably going to be a protracted battle, after you go back, you must carefully organize your defenses, be cautious everywhere, and don't be exploited by the Mongol soldiers." ”