The Ming cavalry, which was chasing the Zhungar cavalry, finally collected their troops and came back.

Those Junggar cavalry belonged to rabbits, and they jumped fast, and the Ming cavalry continued to rush forward, and they really couldn't keep chasing them.

That's it, the first battle of the Ming Dynasty's Western Expedition ended like this.

How to say it, in this battle, first the Junggar Department gave the Ming army a surprise attack, defeated a part of the Ming army, and surrounded most of the Ming army. But it's a pity that in the end, the Junggar Department failed to eat the encircled Ming army, and in the battle, because the elite of the Ming army and the excellent equipment exceeded the imagination of the Junggar Department, causing a lot of casualties.

If it is said that the reinforcements of Hong Chengchou's department did not arrive in time, then this battle was indeed a great victory for the Junggar Department. However, it was precisely because Hong Chengchou's troops arrived in time that they rescued the besieged Ming soldiers.

On the whole, in fact, this raid by the Junggar cavalry did not make any gains. There is also a price to pay for giving up the opportunity to immediately annex and digest other tribes, and instead take the initiative to attack the Ming army in Hami.

The vanguard of the Ming army of about 15,000 broke up the small 5,000, killed two or three thousand, and the remaining 10,000 small Ming army, although the food came up to be full of food and drink, and it would not be able to recover in a few days, but the war horses had already been killed and eaten, and if you wanted to get tens of thousands of war horses, it was not possible to dispatch them in a short time.

Therefore, in general, the Ming army that is now fighting in the Western Regions is about 35,000 cavalry led by Hong Chengchou.

This battle also proved the cunning of the Dzungar Department, which exceeded estimates. So as to remind everyone: Daming's expedition to the Western Regions this time will not be as simple as imagined!

After this Hami battle, Hong Chengchou also received the idea of wanting to make contributions as soon as possible.

On this expedition, he is the commander, and he is responsible for the attack on the forward army, of course, the greater responsibility is the forward commander Lu Daqi.

On the other hand, Hong Chengchou was able to arrive in time this time and save Lu Daqi's department, which can be regarded as a meritorious service.

Anyway, he won't say anything about killing him, he wanted to make meritorious service, didn't want to wait for the emperor to catch up with the convergence, and hurried to save Lu Daqi's department, but said that he had hidden worries and worries, and kept a suitable distance between the two armies for all purposes, so he saved Lu Daqi's department, so that his merit outweighed his fault, and he could more or less cushion his meritorious thoughts.

In this way, Hong Chengchou ordered to rest in Hami and wait for the grain and grass materials that were left behind this day and night, and on the other hand, he wanted to protect Lu Daqi's subordinates and take care of them to recover as soon as possible, and in addition, he waited for the emperor to arrive. Of course, if you don't collect it at night, you will definitely have to let it out.

…………

After Emperor Chongzhen learned about the battle situation ahead through the first-class eavesdropping seed on Hong Chengchou's body, he accelerated his march and rushed to Hami with the hussar battalion on June 22, the 22nd year of Chongzhen.

At this time, the Ming cavalry under Lu Daqi, or now it should be called foot soldiers, has almost recovered. However, Lu Daqi's own body, because of his advanced age, did not recover well.

After Emperor Chongzhen arrived, he first made a characterization of the first war: this was a great victory, smashing the rebellious conspiracy of the Junggar Department, and sticking to no surrender in Hami, which reflects the strong and unyielding military soul of the Ming Dynasty and defending the country.

Gansu governor Lu Daqi has meritorious, but the merit is greater than the fault, promoted to the left of the imperial history, and the prince Shaobao, allowed to return to his hometown and recuperate.

In addition, the soldiers who died in the battle of Hami all entered the Daming Martyrs' Shrine to enjoy the Daming incense, and their families were given preferential treatment according to the law;

However, the part that escaped in the Battle of Hami was the same as when the eastern Liaodong tribe surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, all of them were reduced to slave soldiers, and they were allowed to continue to fight with the army, so that those who made meritorious contributions could be turned into official Ming soldiers again. Of course, for those officers with more than 100 households who fled, Emperor Chongzhen did not relent, and beheaded the public in front of the army!

After the rewards and punishments were made resolutely, Emperor Chongzhen's side was about 40,000 Hong Chengchou's subordinates, as well as more than 10,000 hussar battalion soldiers, and the number of people reached more than 50,000 again.

However, among them, more than 5,000 became pawns. It is inconvenient for these people to continue with the army, because they cannot keep up with the speed of the army. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen ordered them to be stationed in Hami and build Hami to prepare for the Ming Dynasty's control of the Western Regions in the future.

Then, with more than 45,000 horsemen, he marched west again, and set out from Hami in a majestic manner.

This time, the whole army was not dispersed, all the cavalry armies were combined, and at most the divisions were separated into two lines, north and south, and advanced in the direction of Urumqi.

Of course, Emperor Chongzhen did this not without a little purpose.

Before Hami set out, he released the twelve captives of the Dzungar cavalry, and told them clearly: "I am here, and I will give you the Dzungar tribe one last chance." I will wait for you in Luntai for half a month, and surrender immediately and unconditionally. If it expires, it will be exterminated! ”

These twelve unlucky guys of the Junggar Department are the Junggar Ministry's outposts who failed to escape in time during the rescue of Hong Chengchou's department. They originally thought that they would be killed by the emperor of the Ming Kingdom, but they didn't expect that they would still be alive to go back, whether they were sincere or not, they all promised to bring the words to them.

Naturally, they would not have thought that Emperor Chongzhen had placed a Grade A eavesdropping seed on each of the three small leaders among them. Releasing these men will allow him to find the location where the Dzungar cavalry are hiding. If there is no golden finger, and they don't surrender to the Ming Dynasty, then they will really kill the sacrificial flag.

The so-called Luntai, in fact, is the Urumqi of later generations, which was established by the Tang Dynasty during the Zhenguan period. Cen Shen, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, once left popular poems such as "Suddenly like a night of spring breeze, thousands of trees and pear blossoms bloom".

Here is the Junggar Basin in the north, the Ili region in the south, and the Tacheng area in the west, which is the center of the original activity area of the Junggar Department.

Regarding Emperor Chongzhen's deployment, Hong Chengchou actually couldn't understand it. However, Emperor Chongzhen was arbitrary and did not ask for their opinions, and they did not dare to have an opinion on this, so it was the only way.

If you want to ask Hong Chengchou's opinion, he thinks that it is still necessary to divide the troops. He took all the way, the emperor took the whole way, predetermined the target, and outflanked the joint attack, so that if the Junggar Department was really in the predetermined place, he could encircle and eliminate the possibility of the Junggar Ministry.

But now that the army is moving together, such a huge cavalry army, even if they can know the location of the Dzungar Department, before they arrive, the other party will definitely escape. As for the unconditional surrender of the Junggar Ministry within a time limit, Hong Chengchou believes that it is simply impossible. If they were really afraid of the Ming Dynasty and could surrender unconditionally, they would not have betrayed the Ming Dynasty, and they would have obediently followed the Oziertu Khan to join them.

Of course, there is another advantage of dividing the troops, that is, he Hong Chengchou may be able to make a little achievement, which can be regarded as his selfishness.

However, Hong Chengchou also understands that according to the emperor's previous examples, what he does, even if it seems to be useless on the surface, often proves to be very wise in the end. The most powerful thing about the emperor is that he can deduce the truth of the matter based on the clues. In other words, it is likely that the emperor will deduce the location of the main force of the Junggar Department during the march.

As for the news from the south, it is said that the emperor has a heavenly holy relic to reward the soldiers in the distance, so that the soldiers from far away can get the ability to directly report the news to the emperor. For this, Hong Chengchou, as a Confucian disciple, he does not believe it.

In this case, even if the person who is talking about this is speaking vividly, Hong Chengchou does not believe it. He even believes that similar to this, in fact, before the army sets out, throwing a copper plate to look at the front and back to obtain the heavens' prediction of this war, in fact, this copper plate is the same on both sides, so as to achieve the purpose of boosting morale when going out.

In any case, the emperor's mysterious reputation as a true son of heaven is absolutely beneficial and harmless for the emperor to rule the Ming Dynasty.

Based on this idea, Hong Chengchou led 20,000 cavalry troops, kept a one-day distance from Emperor Chongzhen, and marched towards Luntai in unison.

The Ming cavalry is the most powerful cavalry in the Western Regions. More than 45,000 cavalry troops, all the way west after spreading out, between heaven and earth, it seems that all of them are Ming.

Of course, it was more difficult for the Ming army to not collect at night, and it was scattered far away in front and back of the army, on the one hand, for the eyes and ears of the army, and on the other hand, it was necessary to collect as much military information as possible and detect the enemy's location.

On the way to Luntai, in accordance with the emperor's will, they concentrated and escorted all the herdsmen captured on the road, whether they were herdsmen from the Junggar tribe or not, or who claimed to be from the Heshute tribe and other tribes, and were lucky enough to escape the pursuit of the Junggar tribe, and then escorted them to the emperor's Chinese army, and then escorted them to Luntai together.

In this way, by the time Emperor Chongzhen led the army to Luntai, there were more than 200 such herdsmen. The Ming army detained them in a few places, and did not interrogate, and the most abnormal thing was that the Ming Emperor looked at them surrounded by many generals.

At that time, almost all the herdsmen knelt down to the Ming Emperor and begged, saying that they were from what tribe they belonged to, and they were most loyal and grateful to the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Emperor ignored it at that time. It's just that the generals in the army pointed at them and left.

Of course, no one knew that Emperor Chongzhen actually put C-level eavesdropping seeds into each of their groups when he listened to the introduction of these captives by his generals.

Then, Emperor Chongzhen seemed to forget that he was leading the army to exterminate the rebellion of the Junggar tribe, and every day he either slept in the camp tent, or went out hunting, or inspected the camp, watching the soldiers in the army train or something, and the days seemed to be very leisurely.

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