At the end of August of the first year of Chenghua, west of Jiayuguan, the middle army camp of the Tiance Army.

In the big tent of the Chinese army, Liu Juntao slapped the table angrily and shouted at the generals in the tent: "The army of 100,000 Tartars actually ran away under your nose, what are you all eating!" After so many years of fighting, I have never fought such a! ”

Next to him, Liu Zi'an opened his mouth, but he was still silent, he didn't speak, just looked at the generals of Shaanxi not far away, his eyes were full of dissatisfaction, and the others in the big tent also bowed their heads and were silent, only Liu Juntao's roar echoed in the big tent.

Just a few days ago, Liu Juntao led an army of more than 100,000 troops that had been divided into three routes to attack at the same time, preparing to gather and annihilate the 100,000 vanguard army of Jiasilan west of Jiayu Pass, so as to lay a winning momentum for the recovery of Hamiwei.

But when the soldiers of the Longxiang Army, who were the vanguard, rushed into the Tartar camp, they found that the 100,000 Tartar army had disappeared!

Liu Juntao, who received the news, was also stunned, and hurriedly ordered all units of the Tiance Army to launch a pursuit, and at the same time strictly ordered the soldiers and horses of all departments in Shaanxi and the Gyeonggi army to march quickly, blocking the back road of the 100,000 Tartar army in advance, and buying time for the various units of the Tiance Army.

But unfortunately, after the 30,000 Gyeonggi soldiers and horses arrived at the scheduled place on time, they did not see the soldiers and horses of the Shaanxi Province at all, and immediately fell into the encirclement of the 100,000 Tartar army, but the 40,000 Shaanxi soldiers and horses were delayed!

Fortunately, Chen Ziping, the chief officer of Zezhou Town, who followed up, led the soldiers of the Vietnamese cavalry army to kill in time, and the 100,000 Tartar army took the initiative to withdraw when they saw this, otherwise the 30,000 soldiers of the Beijing battalion would have all collapsed here.

An originally planned battle of annihilation was not completed, but instead allowed the Tartars to set up an ambush, and more than 4,000 soldiers and horses of the 30,000 Beijing battalion were lost in a blink of an eye, and the morale of the army was also hit hard, which made Liu Juntao suddenly extremely angry.

At this time, Liu Juntao glared at the generals of various departments in Shaanxi, and asked loudly: "Why are you delayed!" This constitution has issued a strict order, why can't you delay! ”

Shen Cewen, the chief military officer of Shaanxi Town, was afraid in his heart, and said with a sweat on his head: "Qi Qi Bingxian, my soldiers in Shaanxi are too far away, and they are all mountain roads, so I can't support them, it's not that I can't do my best, and I ask the soldiers to calm their anger!" ”

"Too far away for support?"

Liu Juntao sneered and said, "The various units of my Tiance Army are farther away from the soldiers of the Beijing camp, why can the Yue cavalry army arrive in time?" It's all excuses! ”

After speaking, without waiting for Shen Cewen, the chief military officer of Shaanxi Town, to defend himself, Liu Juntao shouted directly: "Someone! Shen Cewen, the chief military officer of Shaanxi Town, delayed the military plane and was beheaded on the spot according to the military law of the Ming Dynasty! Drag it out! ”

When Shen Cewen heard this, he hurriedly shouted: "I am the chief soldier of a town, even if the military constitution wants to kill me, it must be discussed by the imperial court and approved by His Majesty, how can I act like this!" ”

Liu Juntao said coldly: "This constitution is ordered by the emperor to lead the army to fight the thief, and it is military law that is in the battle, how can I not kill you!" Besides, this constitution is the secretary of the military department, and if you kill a chief military officer, will Your Majesty still blame you! ”

Seeing this, Shen Cewen immediately panicked, and hurriedly knelt on the ground to beg for mercy, and all the Shaanxi generals also pleaded for him, but none of the generals of the Tiance Army, the ministers of the shogunate and the generals of the Beijing camp interceded for him, and they all watched coldly.

Liu Juntao sneered, pointed to the generals of various departments in Shaanxi and said, "You still plead for others? Let's think about how you can make meritorious contributions! ”

At this sentence, all the Shaanxi generals were collectively dumbfounded, until Shen Cewen, the chief military officer of Shaanxi Town, struggled and screamed and was dragged out, everyone was still frightened, and no one dared to say a word more.

Then, Liu Juntao glared to the side: "Intelligence Department!" Army! Inspection Department! ”

Liu Zi'an, Xiang Qun, and Huang Wu hurriedly stepped forward to listen to the order when they heard this.

"Why did the army of 100,000 Tartars suddenly withdraw? Did you leak the news? What do you have to say? ”

The three of them looked at each other, and Xiang Qun stepped forward and said, "Qi Xian, I have already discussed this matter with Minister Liu and Minister Huang. The reason why the 100,000 Tartar army suddenly withdrew in this battle was not because the various armies leaked the news, according to the confession of more than a dozen prisoners captured by the soldiers of the Vietnamese cavalry army, the sudden retreat of the 100,000 Tartar army was due to the secret order of the Gazlan; Moreover, the ambush of the 100,000 Tartar army is said to have been instructed by Gathlan! ”

Hearing this, all the generals in the big tent were surprised, so to speak, this Gan Gaslan is really a strong enemy, he can mobilize troops and horses to retreat so carefully, and he can also set up ambushes when retreating!

Liu Juntao also frowned, since his own career, he has never suffered such a big loss, although the loss of troops is not much, but it is really a Tartar captive.

And although it is not the soldiers of the Tiance Army who are damaged, but the combat power of the soldiers and horses in the Beijing camp, Liu Juntao still has confidence in his heart, although it is not as good as the elite soldiers of the Yongle Emperor when he conquered the desert in the north, but it is also a strong army, and it was also calculated by the Tartars!

Thinking of this, Liu Juntao said in a deep voice: "Since this is the case, then our army's battle plan must also be revised accordingly!" This evil breath, this constitution must come out! ”

After a pause, Liu Juntao pointed to the sand table in the big tent and said: "Yan Hu, the chief military officer of Taiyuan Town, still leads the Yingyang Army and the defenders of Jiayu Pass to garrison Jiayu Pass; The army immediately marched west to Suzhou, and then took Suzhou as the transit, garrisoned by the remaining 26,000 Beijing battalion soldiers, and the rest of the army continued to march westward! ”

Speaking of this, Liu Juntao looked at the Shaanxi generals next to him, pointed to Niu Linghe, the highest-ranking Shaanxi deputy general, and said: "This constitution temporarily appoints you as the chief military officer of Shaanxi Town, and temporarily commands the 40,000 troops of Shaanxi Town. ”

Niu Ling and Yan were surprised and delighted when they heard this, and immediately knelt down to receive the order: "I must do my best to serve the country and the country, and contribute to the military constitution!" ”

Then, Liu Juntao said: "After the army arrived in Suzhou, except for the soldiers of the Beijing camp stationed in Suzhou City, the rest of the army was divided into two routes: Niu Linghe, the new chief officer of Shaanxi Town, led 40,000 Shaanxi soldiers and horses to feint to attack Shazhouwei and contain the main army of Jiaslan; Ben Xian led the Tiance Army to raid Andingwei with the four divisions of Longxiang, Huben, Yuecai, and Zhichong, cutting off the way for the Tartar army to go south and eastward! ”

(Eagle Yang Army stationed in Jiayuguan, Changshui Army)

"Order!"

All the generals in the Great Tent received the order together.

Liu Juntao looked at the Shaanxi generals and said: "This battle is the battle of your guilt and meritorious service!" In this battle, it is necessary to entangle the Tartar army, so that it cannot send troops and horses back to help, and buy time for the officers and soldiers of the Tiance Army. If this battle is still ineffective, and the time comes, the punishment for several crimes will be combined, don't blame Benxian for being ruthless! ”

Niu Ling and other Shaanxi generals immediately said loudly: "The last general is willing to fight to the death to repay the country's kindness!" ”

The chief military officer of a town said that he would kill him, and at this time, the generals of Shaanxi were already afraid in their hearts, where would they be slow.

The next day, Liu Juntao led the army to continue westward, and arrived at Suzhou City three days later.

After the soldiers of the army rested in Suzhou City for a day, Liu Juntao left the soldiers and horses of the Beijing camp to garrison the city according to the plan, and then commanded the soldiers to march at the same time in two ways, striving to take the Andingwei as soon as possible, and together with the Suzhou Guard, the main force of Gasilan stationed in Shazhouwei formed a flanking attack.

Just after Liu Juntao led the troops of the Tiance Army and the troops and horses of the Shaanxi Army, he received a good news from the military headquarters and learned the news that the Dongping Island Navy and the Nanjing Navy would break the Dutch fleet, and his heart suddenly felt a lot more happy.

In particular, Liu Juntao was overjoyed to learn that the Dongping Island Navy had also captured a first-class battleship.

Liu Juntao immediately ordered the military department to order Hu Dexing, the governor of Shandong, and Feng Xiang, the commander of the Dongping Island Navy, to clean up the whole thing, and asked the Ministry of Commerce to mobilize money and grain to increase investment in the Dongping Island Navy.

At the same time, Liu Juntao also wrote a personal letter, instructing Hu Dexing and Feng Xiang to pay attention to the dynamics of the Dutch and keep in touch with him at any time.

Two days later, Liu Juntao led the various units of the Tiance Army to the Dangjin Pass east of Andingwei to ambush him.

Andingwei is the Han Dynasty's Wuqiang, the Tang Dynasty's Tubo land, when the Mengyuan Dynasty colonized China, the Fengzong Clan's Buyan Timur was the town of King Ning, so the name of the place in the Mengyuan Dynasty was Sali Wuer.

Andingwei is vast for thousands of miles, near Handong in the east, Shazhou in the north, and Xifan in the south. There is no city, with the felt tent as the house, it can be said to be a huge pasture, and there is no longer the scale of the city in the Han and Tang dynasties.

In the early years of the dynasty, the original Mengyuan Sali was a vulture, and the king Buyan Timur descended to the Ming Dynasty. In the eighth year of Hongwu, he set up a stable guard in the north of his jurisdiction, and unified it with Buyan Timur, and still retained his title of king of stability, with commands, thousands of households, and hundreds of households.

However, at this time, Andingwei was one of the eight guards of the imperial court, so since the Hongwu period, the imperial court began to build fortifications in Andingwei one after another, but the scale was not large.

Liu Juntao led his troops to ambush at Dangjin Pass for more than three hours, and sent a sharp sentry out to investigate, and basically knew the defensive situation of Andingwei.

At this time, although Andingwei was said to be a city, the city wall was only more than one person high, and the outside of the city was densely packed with Tartar tents, and the fortifications were very simple.

But there were 10,000 or 20,000 Tartars stationed in the city, all of them iron horsemen.

Liu Juntao understood that if this battle was attacked, it would inevitably be a vicious battle, and the casualties of his soldiers and horses would also increase, especially after the soldiers of the Beijing camp had been damaged for a while, Liu Juntao was even more reluctant to take the means of strong attack.

So, Liu Juntao looked at An Dingwei's map and thought about it.

In the evening of the same day, Liu Juntao received an urgent report from various departments in Shaanxi: 40,000 Shaanxi troops had arrived near Shazhouwei, and defeated a Tartar 30 miles south of Shazhouwei, beheading more than 800 people.

Liu Juntao breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked at the location of the Andingwei on the map, and suddenly had a way, and a cold smile appeared on his face.