The advantage of cavalry over infantry is definitely not that individual soldiers have relatively high combat effectiveness, or that they can charge into battle, but in their mobility.

This kind of mobility is also the reason why Altan Khan dared to lead 40,000 cavalry to intercept Deng Xide's army of 60,000 people, and he was not afraid of more than 15,000 cavalry behind him!

Because as long as he wants, he can go at any time, and Deng Xide's infantry troops are absolutely impossible to pursue, and it is unlikely that they will fall into a state of being flanked.

At the same time, this mobility also brought him another strategic advantage, that is, he only needed to stay five kilometers away, and he could create a huge deterrent force for Deng Xide's troops, forcing them to be immobile!

Although Deng Xide was not afraid of them, he also had to let two infantry divisions as the core, plus two reserve divisions, to station and deploy on the periphery, and build a whole prototype defense line to protect the baggage, engineers, and civilians in the inner perimeter.

This stalemate is what Altan Khan wants to see!

The main force pinned them down, and then divided their forces to attack the grain route, and when the grain route was completely cut off, these infantry were extremely delicious, and he could swallow them at any time.

Altan Khan's strategy, Deng Xide had long anticipated, and he took precautions.

This kind of large-scale campaign involving tens of thousands of people, and the Tang Empire has been preparing for this for many years, and all kinds of situations have been taken into account.

Among the many issues considered, how to protect the safety of logistics and transportation has become the top priority.

Based on its own experience, the characteristics of the Altan Khan's cavalry, the flat terrain of the steppe, and many other characteristics, the Tang Army adopted a multi-pronged approach to deal with it:

The first is to build a fortress along the way, every fifteen kilometers or so, with a simple earthen fortress as the mainstay, a large fortress as the core, and then arrange a variety of WeChat along the way, only a few people stationed in the wolf smoke fortress.

In order to ensure the safety of merchant ships and avoid pirate attacks, the navy often adopts a centralized escort system, and they will gather many merchant ships to go to sea to the South Seas region, and form a large-scale merchant fleet, and the navy will directly send a detachment to escort along the way, so that although the operation is troublesome and not free for merchant ships, the security is very high, at least so far, The large merchant fleet of the Tang Dynasty has not yet been attacked.

Because many or even a dozen merchant ships are gathered together, which is an incomparably powerful force in itself, plus there are also professional warships of many navies to escort them, not to mention those pirates, even if the Portuguese navy wants to attack, they have to think carefully.

Later, this trick was learned by the Spaniards, and their global trade also used a large number of merchant ships to go to sea together, escorted by warships and even battleships, and no one dared to provoke them along the way, even the Portuguese could only watch them swagger across the Indian Ocean and return to Europe all the way.

Nowadays, the army also refers to the centralized escort system of the navy, concentrating a large number of transport troops, transporting a large number of materials at one time, and then directly dispatching heavy troops to escort them.

Although the use of a large number of troops for escort will affect the combat effectiveness of the front-line troops to a certain extent, it is nothing compared to the security of the logistics line.

Third, it is the use of a large number of four-wheeled carriages.

The Tang Army began to use four-wheeled carriages during the Northern Expedition, and more during the Liaodong Campaign, and at the same time, some of the technologies of four-wheeled carriages were also widely used in other aspects, such as artillery.

It's just that although the four-wheeled carriage is easy to use, the cost is still relatively high, and it also requires a large number of horses, and Datang lacks horses.

Therefore, during the Unification War, although the Tang Army also used thousands of various four-wheeled carriages as a transportation force, the main force was still various two-wheeled carriages and wheelbarrows.

After the end of the Unification War, the army obtained a large number of Mongolian horses, although the army did not like to use Mongolian horses to equip cavalry troops, but as a service horse, Mongolian horses are still very good, and at the same time, the domestic southwest horses have also been used to the extreme.

Therefore, the army began to install a large number of various types of four-wheeled carriages, and four-wheeled carriages and manpower wheelbarrows together became the main means of transportation of the Tang Army.

As for the two-wheeled carriage, although it is still installed, it is only equipped in some parts of the south, and in the terrain of the northern plains, the military has basically completely replaced the four-wheeled carriage.

In the plain terrain of the north, the advantage of these four-wheeled carriages is too great, and the large cargo capacity is its greatest advantage, and the heavy four-wheeled carriages installed by the army can carry an astonishing 1.2 tons, and even if they are fully loaded with 1.2 tons of goods, their speed is still fast when the roads are good.

This also makes the heavy carriage to the number of horses although the requirements are relatively large, but the volume of transport is also large, combined, the transportation cost is smaller than the two-wheeled carriage, the use of the same number of horses, with the four-wheeled carriage, can be faster than the use of two-wheeled carriage, transport more goods.

In addition, the tall heavy four-wheeled carriage also has a great advantage that the tall body has good defensive capabilities, and when facing enemy attacks, directly connect these carriages end to end, which can instantly transform into a small fortress in the wilderness.

Soldiers hiding inside can easily defend themselves against attacks by several times or even more enemies.

It has to be said that the development and application of the four-wheeled carriage have greatly developed the logistics and transportation of the entire Datang Army.

Fortresses, centralized escorts, and four-wheeled carriages along the way are the three magic weapons that the Tang Army dares to go out of the Great Wall and the Tatars play with their lives, because in this way, they can basically ensure that they can maintain the operation of the supply line without a large number of cavalry.

As long as the logistics line continues, the Datang Army will be fearless!

Just a Tatar, count it as a hair!

Deng Xide was full of confidence in his logistics line, and he didn't even send someone to inform Kang Changning and let his cavalry cover the supply line, because in the strategic planning of the Ninth Army, there was no plan to let the cavalry corps cover the supply line, and the cavalry corps could move on its own to find fighters, and as for the logistics line problem, the infantry would solve it on its own.

Otherwise, the maintenance of the logistics line needs cavalry to do, and this battle will not be fought, and it is impossible to win it with restrictions everywhere.

Deng Xide is full of confidence, and Altan Khan is also full of confidence!

He would not do this unless he had to go directly to the camp of tens of thousands of people, but attacking the grain road was very simple.

He sent a cavalry force of 5,000 men to quickly move south to cut off the supply lines, believing that it would not be long before he received good news, and then sat back and waited for the southern barbarians in front of him to collapse on their own because of the supply cut-off.

At that time, it will be time to reap the results!

Altan Khan was confident and patient, so he was not in a hurry, and just wandered around the periphery.

At this time, Kang Changning's cavalry corps finally rushed back, but he was also not in a hurry to join the main force of the infantry, the main force of the infantry was fifty or sixty thousand people, if you want to defend, it will not be possible to break through with the cavalry of Altan Khan, and there will be no problem with safety for a while.

He has his own mission, which is to find an opportunity to destroy the Tatar cavalry!

As a result, there was a rather embarrassing scene on the grassland, Deng Xide's infantry was strictly defended, covering the sappers and militia to continue to repair the city, and after three days, after the repair of the city was completed, it was also regardless of the Tatars who were eyeing the periphery, but continued to march forward slowly.

The distance between the two sides is several kilometers, and even if the cavalry is fast, it will take time to rush up, not to mention, the more than 10,000 cavalry of their own side are also eyeing the periphery, just waiting for the Tatars to stupidly rush up and attack their own infantry units, and then they can also rush up and stab the Tatars.

The speed of such a march was not fast, and even the Tatars sent small troops to attack, so that their own army would occasionally suffer some losses, but Deng Xide didn't care, only dozens or hundreds of people were killed and wounded, and he didn't even blink an eye in this kind of strategic battle.

Altan Khan looked at the situation in front of him, but he was not in a hurry!

Because he's waiting!

Wait for the day when the division cuts off the grain route, and wait for the cavalry of more tribes to arrive!

Now, the total number of troops under his command is only 40,000, and he has sent 5,000 cavalry to intercept the grain road, and he only has 35,000 cavalry on hand.

The grasslands under his rule were so wide and there were many tribes that when the forces of many tribes arrived one after another, the total number of cavalry at his disposal could exceed 100,000 or more.

At the beginning of the year, he fought a battle with the Warats, and the number of troops dispatched reached 150,000!

Although the time is a little tight now, but if he is given another half a month, he will be able to gather at least 100,000 cavalry, and then he will see what these southern barbarians in front of him can do.

Altan Khan waited patiently, only monitoring Deng Xide's main infantry force and Kang Changning's cavalry corps from a long distance, but he had no intention of launching a large-scale attack.

Deng Xide was naturally happy to see this kind of scene, because a day later, he ran out more than ten kilometers, and then began to build the fourth castle.

If he repaired a few more, he would be able to kill all the way to the old site of Dongsheng City.

As for the safety of the several earthen fortresses behind him, he was not worried, the garrison was only less than a thousand people, and if those Tatars were really ruthless, it would be inevitable to attack them.

But if the Tatars want to fight down, it is impossible not to kill and wound thousands of people!

A thousand people for a few thousand Tatars, a lot of money, and even if they are captured, he Deng Xide can send troops to counterattack and then garrison again, if he comes a few more times, it is estimated that he will not have to go to Dongsheng City, and he will be able to exhaust the Tatars on the way.

Altan Khan really didn't intend to gnaw on those seemingly simple earthen fortresses, he only sent more than 2,000 people to try to attack the third earthen fortress, and after killing and wounding hundreds of people, he gave up decisively.

These earthen fortresses are clearly traps, traps that lure them to attack, and if they really have to fight them one by one, they Tatars will have to die.