In April of the fifth year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji personally led the Houjin Eight Banners and 100,000 troops of the Mongolian tribes to conquer Lin Dan Khan in the west.

Almost all the Mongol tribes that had returned to the Later Jin, such as Karaqin, Eastern Tumut, and Karacherik, participated in this western expedition.

Lin Dan Khan was shocked when he heard the news, and hurriedly drove the rich people of Guihua City to throw away all their baggage, crossed the Yellow River to the west, and fled in a hurry, far away from Qinghai.

Huang Taiji knew that he couldn't catch up, so he divided his troops into two routes, all the way to the outside of the Xuanda Border, and all the way to the area of Guihua City, to clear the remnants of Lin Dan Khan, and to search for the people.

Since then, the Hetao area has been in the hands of the backward Jin.

While Huang Taiji led his army to show off his might outside the Ming border, the Ming court took a wait-and-see attitude, indulging in its indifference to hunt down the fleeing Mongol remnants along the border wall.

Even, when the emperor wrote to the border guards of the Ming army and asked him for the remnants of Chahar who fled into the border wall, the Ming army obediently sent all the Mongols and property out of the border wall and gave them away.

When Huang Taiji collected his troops and returned to Jianzhou, he led his troops to approach the border wall of Xuanfu, and the generals of the Ming army on the border of Xuanfu hurriedly offered the property of rewarding Lin Dan Khan, counting satin cloth and tiger and leopard skins, a total of more than 12,500 pieces.

It's the extreme.

Before Huang Taiji left, he also burned down the city of Guihua, and ordered the white banner Mele Ezhen Ashan to lead four Niulu 700 people, the yellow flag Jia Laezhen Tulushi to lead two Niulu 500 people, and more than 4,000 troops of the two Mongolian battalions on the left and right, to continue to clear and incorporate the rest of Chahar in the area of Guihua City, and to prevent Lin Dan Khan from crossing the river and counterattacking.

In October, the cold winter is coming, the rest of the Chahar in the Hetao area surrendered, died, Lin Dan Khan's troops fled to Qinghai and were busy invading the Ming court border to plunder under the condition of lack of clothing and food, and they were unable to counterattack the Hetao, Ahsan and Turushh also collected troops and naturalized the city, built a low wall on the old site, and prepared to spend the cold winter here.

In the middle of October, Huang Taiji suddenly sent an order to Ah Shan, ordering him to prepare 300 war horses and 300 horses and 5,000 pieces of various skins in Guihua City, and prepare to receive 500 mink skins transported from Taining to Guihua City.

After the preparations were complete, the above-mentioned goods were transported to the Qingshui River, and around November 20, they were traded with the Fan family in Zhangjiakou in exchange for 7,000 stone of grain.

After receiving the order, Ahsan hurriedly ordered the surrounding Mongol tribes to sacrifice horses and skins, prepare mule carts, and send people to the east to receive Taining's mink.

……

On the evening of the fourth day of Qinchuan's expedition, 600 horsemen camped west of Jingping, and soon after burying pots and cooking and lighting a bonfire, they saw that many hungry people suddenly came from all directions, probably attracted by the bonfire and the aroma of smoked flatbread.

When Liu Youzhu was about to send someone out to drive him away, an idea suddenly flashed in Qin Chuan's mind, so he stopped Liu Youzhu and personally led dozens of horsemen to meet those hungry people.

When he got closer, Qin Chuan held a long knife in his right hand, raised a large cake in his left hand, and shouted to those hungry people: "I am Ninghua guarding Qin Chuan, a hundred households of thousands of households, and I am going to go out of the customs to kill Jiannu and Tartars, I have food, who wants to eat, follow me out of the customs, eat as much as you want, but if you don't have the guts...... I advise you to go elsewhere to beg for food as soon as possible. ”

The group of skinny and poor hungry people stopped one after another, and looked at the long knife in his hand from time to time, but no one dared to take a step forward.

Qin Chuan said again: "Don't worry, I don't want to fight hard with Jiannu, I just want to intercept and kill the other party's group, and that group of people has a lot of food." ”

The hungry people still did not dare to come forward, only staring at the bread in his hand, and afraid of the long knife in his hand.

A thin and tall man with rough facial features suddenly came out of the crowd and said something to Qin Chuan.

Qin Chuan frowned, stunned for a while, and couldn't understand what the other party said, so he had to ask: "Tatars?" ”

The man nodded, patted his chest, and said in stiff Korean, "I, the West Tumut Ministry." ”

Qin Chuan nodded and shouted to the back.

Not long after, Zhao Wu led several of his subordinates to come on horseback.

"Zhao Wu, that's a Tartar, give him a translator, ask him where he came from, what he just told me." Qin Chuan beckoned.

Zhao Wu clenched his fists and nodded, and then croaked at the Mongolian.

The other party also chattered.

After the two chattered for a while, Zhao Wu turned his head and said: "The chief steward, he said that they were originally Lin Dan Khan's Xitumut Department, and after Jiannu killed them, they fled into the side wall, and did not go to serve the Ming army, but wandered around, and seven or eight out of ten of these hungry people are Mongolians under Lin Dan Khan, and all tribes have them, among them, their Xitumut Department has the largest number, more than one hundred and ten. ”

"He just asked you, how much grain will you divide after the completion of the war, how much grain will you divide among the Jiannu and that tribe?"

Qin Chuan took a closer look, only to find that the facial features on those people's dark faces were generally thicker, and they should all be Tatars.

There were nearly three hundred, half of them were relatively large, they should be young and strong, there were dozens of children, and some had short hair cut or a cloth wrapped around their heads, and their faces should be women.

"Ask them, if they are familiar with the terrain from Biaotou Pass to Naturalization City."

Zhao Wu nodded, and said to the man again.

Soon, Zhao Wu replied: "Chief steward, they originally settled in the area of Chi'er Mountain, half herding and half farming, and they are most familiar with this area. ”

"Okay, tell them that I will intercept and kill a group of Jiannu in the area of Qingshui River, and when I am done, I will bring them back to Loufu, give them food, and give them fields to cultivate."

Hearing this, Zhao Wu turned his head and chattered to the man again.

As soon as he finished speaking, the Tatars began to stir up and talk about each other.

After a long while, a swarthy old man in the group stepped out of the crowd, covered his chest with his hands, bowed to Qin Chuan, and said in fluent Chinese: "My name is Amur, I have met Lord Qin, what Lord Qin just said is true?" How can we trust adults? ”

Qin Chuan couldn't help but curse a few words, obviously someone knew Chinese, but he had to find a translator.

But on the surface, he still smiled faintly: "The food in my hand can prove that my words are true or false, you can give you food first, and fight for me when you have a full stomach, it's as simple as that, if you win, I get what I want, and you will still have food in the future, of course, you will have to fight for me in the future." ”

The old man's face was a little hesitant, and after a while, he asked again, "I don't know what Lord Qin wants?" ”

"You'll find out if you come with me."

The old man hesitated for a moment, then turned to the man behind him.

After a long time, he pulled the tall man out just now, and said: "My lord, his name is Batu, which means as solid as a stone in Chinese, and he is the first warrior of my Chi'er Mountain tribe, and we are willing to fight for you, but there are many old and weak people in the clan, and they can no longer go to the battlefield, so we can only let Batu and the young and strong people in the clan go with you, but the old and weak in the clan must also eat food." ”

"Done."

Qin Chuan smiled: "Qingzhuang will kill the enemy with me, the old and weak women and children will be waiting to carry things in the back, and when the time comes, I will move all the seizures back to Lou Fu, and you will have to go back to Lou Fu with me." ”

"It's a deal."

The old man said, whispering a few words to the man next to him.

The man named Batu looked at Qin Chuan for a moment, suddenly raised his hands, then covered his right hand in front of his chest, bowed to Qin Chuan, and shouted something in his mouth.

Then, dozens of young men behind the man also looked like them, bowing to Qin Chuan in unison, and their mouths were also shouting.

"Steward, they're saying they'll be loyal to you from now on." Zhao Wu translated beside him.

"Okay."

Qin Chuan smiled.

Seeing that the people of the Chi'ershan tribe here pledged their allegiance to Qin Chuan, several other tribes with a smaller number also came over to salute and express their allegiance to Qin Chuan.

A small number of Han hungry people also ran over, shouting that they were willing to fight for Lord Qin, and only begged Lord Qin to give them bread to eat.

Qin Chuan accepted all these people, a total of more than 270 people, of which about half were young and strong, and half were old and weak.

Qin Chuan didn't expect these people to be able to fight for themselves, including those young and strong, because most of them were too thin except for a very few.

But it was still possible to bluff and drive the mules and horses to drive the carts, and if he could win this battle, he would have hundreds of mules and wagons to transport back to Lou Fu, and someone would have to help drive them.

Immediately, Qin Chuan asked his subordinates to take out the flatbread, regardless of men, women, old or weak, one person divided half the flatbread, Qin Chuan picked out eighty young people, and each of them gave half a bowl of dried meat soup without meat.

He brought five hundred people and ten days of dry food this time, and Luo Wentian raised two hundred stones of grain and three hundred beans, as well as dozens of carts of hay, enough for five hundred people and horses to eat for thirty days.

……

On the morning of the second day of the expedition, Qin Chuan distributed eighty war horses used to transport dry food and bedding to eighty carefully selected Tatar men including Batu to ride, and left two days of dry food for the other old, weak and hungry people, and asked them to rush to Mo'er Mountain on foot to find Luo Wentian to receive another three days' rations, and then exit the customs from Sanshandun and join them along the Qingshui River to the west.

After the arrangements were made, Qin Chuan led 680 cavalry to continue north.

At ten o'clock at noon, he suddenly received a message from Luo Wentian, saying that the general of Pingyuwei had recently reorganized the army in Zhuhubao, and it was difficult for most of the men and horses to get out of the pass, so he asked Qin Chuan to go to the Sanshan pier five miles north of Mo'er Mountain, and he had already opened the joints of the pier.

Qin Chuan sent someone to investigate carefully, and after confirming that what Luo Wentian said was indeed true, he bypassed Zhuhu Fort and went straight to Sanshandun.

……

At this moment, the grain transportation team of the Zhang family and other large households has already passed Wuzhai Fort, and it is one hundred and fifty miles away from the Yatou Pass, and it still takes more than three days to arrive.

The spies who rushed back to Lan County from Ningwu Pass to report the news finally returned to Lan County.

But the grain transport team had already gone away, and the Zhang family hurriedly dispatched another group of spies to chase north.

The naturalized city of Ah Shan had already received 500 mink skins from Taining, and was loading the skins, counting the horses, and preparing to go south to the Qingshui River to trade with the Fan family.