Bitter Pioneer City.

After a long journey of more than ten days, Zhou Zongsheng finally led the soldiers of the Changshui Army to a valley in the north of the city, at this time it was already August of the second year of Chenghua, this world is still warm as usual in the Central Plains, but it is already cold and windy in the Western Regions, and even some mountains have begun to snow near them.

After Zhou Zongsheng settled the army and did a good job of concealment, he immediately sent out the night to investigate the enemy's situation, and it didn't take long to find out the situation: at this time, there were about 100,000 Tartar iron cavalry stationed in Kuxian City, hundreds of thousands of Tartar tribes inside, and hundreds of thousands of Tartar tribesmen were distributed around Kuxian City.

Seeing this, Zhou Zongsheng hesitated a little, although the Changshui Army could attack it unprepared, and the soldiers of the whole army were also elite and dared to fight, but in the face of ten times the enemy garrisoned city, the pressure was still huge.

Moreover, it was already August at this time, and the cold wind and bitter cold in the Western Regions were also very unfavorable to the officers and men of the Changshui Army.

Zhou Zongsheng groaned for a while, and finally decided to rest in the valley for a few days, waiting for an opportunity to raid Kuxian City.

On the second day, a team of hurried Ye Bushu found the Changshui Army, and after seeing Zhou Zongsheng, they presented Liu Juntao's latest order.

Zhou Zongsheng hurriedly opened the order, only to see that Liu Juntao directly ordered to abandon the raid on Kuxian City, and ordered the Changshui Army to immediately return to Tiemen Pass and join the main army.

Zhou Zongsheng was taken aback, thinking that the Ming army was defeated in the decisive battle of Tiemen Pass, and hurriedly asked the soldiers who came to deliver the letter at night.

"Qiqi General Town, our army has won the battle of Tiemen Pass, destroying 125,000 enemies, but it has escaped the patriarch Bayankra of the Duohuorati tribe; At the same time, the casualties of our army were also very large, with a total of more than 58,000 soldiers in various departments, and Niu Linghe, the chief officer of Shaanxi Town, was killed. ”

"Then why did Bingxian let our army retreat?"

Zhou Zongsheng asked angrily, the huge casualties of the Ming army made Zhou Zongsheng furious, and he couldn't wait to immediately lead the army to rush into Kuxian City.

"Qiqi General Town, now that the Western Regions are about to enter a cold winter, the logistics supply of our army is becoming more and more difficult, plus the military Xian interrogated some prisoners, and learned that the Tartar forces in Kuxian City have at least 100,000 iron cavalry, and the strength is too strong, and I am worried that the Changshui Army will suffer too much damage; Moreover, now that Muslim riots are becoming more and more rampant in various parts of the Western Regions, the military constitution also intends to temporarily change its strategy and sweep all parts of the Western Regions first. ”

"Alas!"

Zhou Zongsheng sighed, this battle can be said to be the most aggrieved battle since the Ming army entered the Western Regions.

"Herald: The whole army immediately retreats north!"

Just after the soldiers of the Changshui Army slowly retreated north, the leader of the Duohuorati tribe, Bayankla, also led more than 90,000 defeated troops to retreat.

After entering Kuxian City, the patriarch of the Duohuorati tribe, Bayanke, began to reorganize his troops and horses, hoard troops, and prepare to use the cold winter time to reorganize the strength of the Duohuorati tribe.

When Zhou Zongsheng led the soldiers of the Changshui Army back to Tiemen Pass, it was already the end of August and the beginning of September, at this time, the cold wind outside Tiemen Pass was fierce, the ground was full of hoarfrost, and the temperature plummeted.

More than 200,000 soldiers of the Ming army were stationed at Tiemen Pass, and it was very hard to accommodate tens of thousands of soldiers in the city, and the rest of the soldiers could only camp in the field.

What's more serious is that because the weather is getting worse and worse, the generals of all departments in the Beijing camp have jointly written to Liu Juntao, and it is becoming more and more difficult to transport the logistics and supplies of the Ming army, and ask Liu Juntao to choose the opportunity to withdraw and station.

After Liu Juntao weighed it, he finally decided that the whole army would withdraw from the north of Tiemen Pass, and the army would return to Turpan City to garrison for the winter, and then continue to fight in the Western Regions after the spring of next year.

When the army returned on the way, Liu Juntao also sorted out his decision and sent 800 miles to the capital urgently.

After Emperor Chenghua received Liu Juntao's recital, he convened the cabinet ministers to discuss, and after the ministers discussed, they basically believed that the Ming army had achieved great victories and results at this time, not only recovering Hamiwei, but also destroying the Turpan country, occupying the city of Turpan, and already being victorious, so it was advocated that the Ming army soldiers should withdraw to Jiayuguan to garrison, and wait for the beginning of spring and then depending on the situation.

However, Emperor Chenghua did not agree with this point of view, Emperor Chenghua believed that the original intention of this battle was to occupy the entire Western Regions, and hundreds of thousands of Ming soldiers also fought for several months, sacrificing tens of thousands of soldiers, and the Ming Dynasty also spent a lot of money and food. This battle has been fought so far, Daming has paid such a huge price, there is no reason to give up halfway, we must overcome difficulties and persevere!

"Now the three major tribes in the Western Regions, the Turpan Department has perished, and the inner part has been greatly injured, and the Duohuo Thorn Department has been newly damaged, even if our army is difficult, but the Tartar side is even more difficult, we must not withdraw the army, give the Tartars a chance to breathe!"

Emperor Chenghua continued to say in a deep voice: "The minister thinks that he can approve the performance of the Marquis of Dingxiang, and the imperial court should do its best to support it!" What do you think? ”

When the ministers heard this, they said yes.

These ministers are all human spirits, and they understand that Emperor Chenghua had already made up his mind before gathering everyone, and this time he summoned everyone to come just to unify the caliber of the court, unite the hearts of the courtiers, and prevent the voice of the court from disrupting the front-line war.

Whoever continues to go against Emperor Chenghua at the moment is deliberately going against Emperor Chenghua, and these courtiers will never do such a stupid thing.

"Since you all have no opinion, let's do it!"

"Minister, Commander!"

Turpan City.

After Liu Juntao led his troops into the city, he successfully joined with the soldiers of the Beijing camp stationed here, preparing to spend the cold winter in the Western Regions in the city, and more than a month later, the holy decree of Emperor Chenghua was also sent to Turpan City, approving Liu Juntao's request, and at the same time, a large number of cotton clothes and charcoal for the soldiers of the army were sent to spend the winter.

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, it is the end of February of the third year of Chenghua.

After a cold winter of recuperation, the officers and men of the Ming army have regained their vitality. At the same time, the recruits of the Tiance Army, which had been newly trained in Shanxi and Shandong, together with tens of thousands of reinforcements drawn by the imperial court, also rushed to Turpan City.

At this time, the troops of the various departments of the Tiance Army have been fully reorganized for a short period of time, and the troops of the various departments of Shaanxi Town have also been replenished, and Liu Juntao appointed Qiu Da, the deputy general of Shaanxi Town, to become the new chief officer of Shaanxi Town, commanding 35,000 soldiers and horses in Shaanxi Town; The strength of the soldiers of the various units of the Beijing camp has also been restored to 40,000.

As for the tens of thousands of captive soldiers and horses, Liu Juntao added all these troops to the servant army, and the strength of the servant army was also restored to about 100,000.

At this point, the strength of the Ming army has also increased to 280,000 horses, although it is far less than the 500,000 army at the beginning of the war, but at this time the 280,000 soldiers have been baptized by a vicious battle, and have been supplemented by new forces, it can be said that the morale has risen greatly, and the combat power is no less than the beginning of the war.

Liu Juntao also summoned the commanders of various ministries to prepare to send troops again.

At this time, Duohuo Thorn and Yili made a comeback, and in the cold winter, these two Hu tribes secretly contacted some Hui people ~ thugs, and continued to absorb Hui people ~ thugs from all over the Western Regions, and replenished these horses into the army.

According to the data provided by the Ministry of Intelligence, at this time, in addition to the 90,000 iron cavalry and 100,000 remaining iron cavalry that had withdrawn to Kuxian City, the troops of the Duohuo Thorn Division had also newly formed 150,000 foot soldiers; Yili put the strength of the inner part is a little worse, but after converging the Hui people~ thugs, its strength has also increased to 100,000, including infantry and cavalry.

In this regard, all the generals of the Ming army are frowning, their faces are solemn, just looking at the data on this paper, most of the results of the Ming army's bloody struggle last year have been lost!

But Liu Juntao was very happy and said: "Although the Tartars' forces have swelled again, it has also done us a great favor: the vast majority of the Hui people~ thugs have gathered together, as long as they are defeated, the turmoil~ chaos in the Western Regions will be completely calmed down!" Moreover, the Duo Huo Thorn Department and the Yi Li Department continue to expand their forces in such a short period of time, and the combat strength of their troops is destined to decline rapidly, and the people's hearts will also be uneven, which is very beneficial to our army! ”

At this time, according to the information provided by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Ministry of War, Duo Huo and Yili killed the inner part of the city of Turpan to the west and the south, and it seemed that they had been contacted and were ready to converge under the city of Turpan and attack the main army of the Ming army.

So Liu Juntao discussed with everyone, and decided to concentrate the main army of the Ming army, fight a decisive battle in Turpan City, and strive to eat the hundreds of thousands of troops in the Duohuo Thorn Department and the hundreds of thousands of troops in the inner part of the army in one battle, and then they can sweep the entire Western Regions!

Eight days later, the 440,000 troops of Duohuo Thorn and Yili arrived in Turpan City, and the two troops and horses camped in the west and south of Turpan City respectively.

Among them, the army of the Duohuo Thorn Division camped 20 miles south of Turpan City, and the company camped for more than 10 miles, and patrolled with iron cavalry to the south and east of Turpan City.

He also set up camp twenty miles west of Turpan City, and on the one hand, he sent people to get in touch with the Duohuo Thorn Division, and on the other hand, he sent suspicious soldiers to inspect the north of Turpan City.

The 440,000 Tartar army surrounded the city of Turpan, and externally it claimed that the main force of the Ming army had been besieged, and the victory of the army was in sight.

Liu Juntao climbed the head of Turpan City and looked into the distance, only to see the Tartar camps in the south and west of the city stretching endlessly, and the Tartar iron cavalry was showing off their might outside the city, so they were not rampant.

The surrounding commanders and generals were all furious, and they all asked to go to war, preparing to kill the arrogance of the Tartars first.

Liu Juntao looked at the sky and said with a smile: "Don't worry, let the soldiers eat and sleep well, the Tartars outside the city have just arrived, and when the soldiers are rested, it is not too late to fight!" ”

On that day, the Ming army in Turpan City did not make the slightest movement, but was said to be strictly guarded; And the Tartar army outside the city did not attack, but only strengthened the guard, and at the same time rushed to make siege equipment day and night.

Both sides were seizing the time to prepare for the big war, and the tense atmosphere before the big war was permeating the city of Turpan.