Good news! Good news...... "Several horsemen rushed into the camp of the Ming army, and they couldn't wait to start shouting loudly. Many soldiers heard the movement and looked in the barracks in the direction from which the sound came.

Zhu Gaoxu and the others in the Chinese army were also alarmed, and they then walked out of the big tent.

At this time, Zhu Gaoxu realized that at some point in the sky, it was snowing again. The countless felt tents in the camp have been covered with a layer of white snow.

On the barren frozen soil, the sky is full of snowflakes, but it seems to add a bit of vitality.

A rider who had just been put into the middle army's line, turned over and dismounted in the snowflakes. He should have also seen Zhu Gaoxu, so he strode forward, took out the lacquer-sealed report, knelt down on one knee and said loudly: "Your Excellency, the forward Duke of Eguo has broken the tent of the Tatar king, and the end of the dispatch will send back the good news!" ”

The civil and military at the door of the big tent spoke and congratulated Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu took the good news and read it first.

Yesterday, in the land of Fengquan and the Heian Department, they were blocked by a Tatar cavalry, killing hundreds of enemies; Then the Ming army pursued to the vicinity of the Tatar king's tent, and then burned his tent, tents, vehicles and countless other materials, destroying all the Tatar camps...... However, Benjari escaped with sweat, and the remaining Tatar tribes, as well as the men and horses of Arutai, never appeared.

Zhu Gaoxu handed the report in his hand to Qi Tai and the others, and looked up at the surrounding snow. In the vast white snowflakes, the vast wasteland became hazy, and nothing could be seen on the land except the military camp of the Ming army.

After everyone talked outside for a while, Zhu Gaoxu turned around and returned to the big tent and sat cross-legged where he had been sitting. He also had a map in front of him.

Not long after Qi Tai came in, he quickly stepped forward and said, "Holy Lord, the minister thinks it's time to retreat." ”

Zhu Gaoxu turned his head to look at him, Qi Tai's face was very serious in the firelight, and he immediately bent down.

Qu Neng, Zhang Fu, Liu Sheng and the others also quickly stopped talking, and the atmosphere in the tent became very strange. Everyone was not unhappy, nor heavy, but there was no surprise.

Not quite as it could be, and that's probably it.

After all, the imperial court dispatched two or three hundred thousand horses, including the elite of the Ming army who had experienced a hundred battles, as well as many fierce generals who had survived previous wars; After several months of expeditions, the military supplies were spent and the gains were not much.

There weren't even any decent battles, and many battles were almost always fought by a small number of enemy troops to harass and chase. The only time the Tatar army made a sortie in a battle that could have tens of thousands of horsemen, and under the fierce firearms counterattack of the Liu Shengjun, the main force of the enemy ran away in one day.

No wonder the generals looked like this. Compared with the life-and-death decisive battle of hundreds of thousands of people in the "Huguang Battle", this northern expedition was on the grassland, and there was really no decent battle......

"Benjari fled by leaving the king's tent behind, and the forces of Arutai have been scattered, and it is difficult for our army to find a clear target at present." Zhu Gaoxu finally spoke, "And our army's military rations are exhausted, and it is indeed time to retreat." ”

All the generals had no objections, and everyone echoed one after another: "The Holy One is wise." ”

Qi Tai said: "In this northern expedition, the official army captured the banner of the Tatar king, which was quite successful, and at the same time burned a large number of Tatar camp tents and pastures. With the strength of Mongolia today, this has been greatly weakened. The Holy Lord's deterrence of the northern parts and the punishment of the Tatars for disturbing the borders are gratifying! ”

After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu followed Qi Tai's words and nodded: "Qi Butang is reasonable. The Northern Expedition won a complete victory, and after returning to the dynasty, I should be rewarded for meritorious deeds. ”

The generals thanked one after another.

The people of the Ming Dynasty, and even the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, may not really understand how much the Ming army's northern expedition weakened the strength of Mongolia. However, breaking through the king's tent and capturing the king's banner must be used as a proof that can be used to praise merit and virtue. Zhu Gaoxu insisted on continuing to advance north for hundreds of miles, and finally let Ping'an catch up with the king of Benyari's lost khan, also out of this consideration.

Only merit that can be written can make all parts of the north afraid of the force of the imperial court.

Zhu Gaoxu pondered for a while, then slapped his hands on his legs, and said decisively: "Send someone to order peace, immediately lead the forward to return, and find the main force of the Chinese army to meet." The battalions of the army will march out tomorrow, and return to the division from the eastern road, and sweep the pastures of the Arutai tribes along the road. ”

"Your Ministers obey!" The civil and military officials clasped their fists together and saluted in unison.

After the discussion, everyone thanked and retired one after another. Zhu Gaoxu remained in the big tent of the Chinese army.

In front of him was a large, rough map, which was obviously inaccurate because of the size of the territory it contained. However, at a general glance, the northern area where the eastern and western Mongolian tribes are active is obviously larger than the territory of the entire Ming Dynasty!

This time, Zhu Gaoxu led a large army to run thousands of miles, but in fact only hit the main forces of Eastern Mongolia. To the west, there were the tribes of the Watts, and further west there were the forces of the various khanates, which were scattered across a vast territory.

Zhu Gaoxu deeply felt that this way of fighting would make it difficult to maintain the national strength of the Ming Dynasty.

However, before he set out on the expedition, he never intended to solve the northern border trouble overnight; This northern expedition, in addition to fighting the Tatar forces, also had a plan to solve the problem of the domestic vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, when Zhu Gaoxu thought of this, he didn't have much frustration.

Thinking back to history, Zhu Di's five expeditions to Mongolia lasted for more than 20 years, but he still failed to completely eliminate the Mongol forces. And Zhu Gaoxu's weapons and tactics at this time have not changed much, and it seems that it is just a dream to achieve a decisive victory at one time.

Zhu Gaoxu could only think of another way, thinking hard about the northern border defense strategy since the Hongwu period, and wanted to find an effective method......

In the early morning of the next day, the main force of the Ming army, the Seventh Army, all pulled out their camps one after another and began to set off in the direction of the south and east. The Chinese army did not wait for the Heian Army, because the Heian Army was cavalry, and it would not take a few days to catch up with the army.

When he came, he carried a large number of Wuhan Iron and Steel carts with the army, filled with grain sacks; At this time, most of them were replaced by soldiers who were injured and could not walk. The wounded soldier was covered with a thick blanket of felt, and his head was tightly wrapped, revealing only his face. People are still looking back at the north in the car, as if they are looking at the land where the Ming army is fighting all the way.

The Chinese army has decided on the general route of returning to the division. The northern section walks the "Lake Like the Sea" and the east side of the Fishing Sea, where there are large pastures; The tribes under the rule of Arutai in the Northern Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia may have been active in these places.

On the march, the army will send cavalry to burn the tents and pastures of the Tatar tribes along the way, and destroy their supplies for the winter, in order to further weaken the number of people and animals of the Tatar tribes, and to retaliate for their looting and burning of the Ming border last year.

After the army marched to the southern area of Yuerhai, the Ming army would find the way they had come and return the way they came. There are also some dead Ming army corpses buried on the road, which have to be dug up and transported away.

After that, as long as the armies went to the Kaiping Wei Xilin Gol League, the situation would be improved. A few months earlier, the Ming army had set up warehouses there, and they would be able to get supplies just in time for their return.

…… The fire in the Land of Abundant Springs has not yet been completely extinguished, and the wooden carts and logs on the camp are still burning. Smoke mixed with snowflakes drifted together in the wind, and the air was covered with the sound of whistling wind.

The snowflakes in the sky did not extinguish the embers of the fire star, but only covered countless corpses under the snow.

On the snow, many Ming soldiers were looking down for something, as if they were collecting fruit on the ground. From time to time, there was a "click, click" chopping sound around, and the sound of a firewood knife like a chopping on a hardwood; But the soldiers are not chopping wood, but frozen corpses!

Everyone is only interested in the head, and if the head is cut off, the body will not be cared for, because the Ming army still retains the military law of exchanging the head for reward. Last night, it was also discovered that there were wild dogs in the vicinity, and before the army left, the hungry beasts of winter could not wait to keep an eye on the corpses left by humans.

The heads, with their hair and heads, were hung on the horses of the soldiers, and the snow was covered in blood, and the scene was very terrifying.

At this time, a group of neat cavalry not far away gradually walked over. The red military flag and cloak fluttered in the wind and snow, and it was very conspicuous. The unusually strong man in the middle is the general Ping'an.

The horse team soon encountered a group of ragged and disheveled men, both men and women, mostly wrapped in animal pelts. Those people seemed to have just been released from prison, and they were like beggars; When the crowd met the safe horse caravan, they avoided the side and looked up one by one.

A military general stepped forward and reported: "Dashuai, these people are Han Chinese. When the Tatar army attacked the border, they plundered the Ming population to the steppe and turned them all into slaves of the Tatar nobles. ”

Ping An looked back at the crowd on the side of the road and saw that people were also observing themselves. Their faces were full of dirt, but their eyes were full of gratitude, and it was obvious that they could not bear the slave life on the steppe.

Ping An waved his hand and said, "Distribute food to them and take them away!" Then ask them about their hometowns, register them, and return to the country to hand them over to the magistrates. ”

The military general clasped his fists and bowed: "The last general will be ordered!" ”

Suddenly, the beggar-like crowd knelt on the ground, and someone said, "The grass people are waiting to thank the general for help!" Everyone knelt down in the snow one after another, and there was a commotion.

Ping An waved his hand and shouted, "Get up, all of you, all of your own people." ”

He didn't say a word, and the horse left. After a while, Pingan pointed to the sergeants in the distance who were looking for their heads, and ordered, "Send someone to tell the brothers to return to their respective camps at once." We're about to set out for the holidays! ”

The snow was getting heavier and heavier, and the noise and neighing of the horses in the camp were all hidden in the snow. Other than that, there was nothing in the distance. The fighting had long since stopped, and even the peaceful cavalry could no longer find any trace of the enemy.

The cavalry of the battalions gradually gathered, and then left the place one after another. On the white earth, the shadows of the black horse team moved slowly.

There is a seemingly endless return journey ahead.

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