Putting aside these things, this Spring Festival is not idle for Xiao Tianjian, after he met Luo Li and Li Xin, after sending away a large number of rescued people, he once again led the army to start action, first led the troops north into the jurisdiction of Zhending Mansion, and approached the area of Zanhuang, in Zanhuang crushed a Tartar soldiers and horses, once again captured a lot of Tartar gains, turned around and headed east, at the end of the month, entered the area of Xinhe County, and encountered a Tartar soldiers and horses, and won the battle.

But along the way, the Xingtian army also walked more hard, along the way they could only sleep in the wilderness, everywhere the government was very hostile to them, closed the city gate and even fired cannons and arrows to treat the Xingtian army passing through the periphery of the city, the angry Xingtian army all scolded.

And Xiao Tianjian strictly ordered that the soldiers should not loot to fund the army, and their food and drink must be maintained by the things they carry in the army.

Because of the influence of the Xiaoice River period, the temperature is extremely low, and the cold can be said to be dripping into ice, which may not have much impact on people like Jiannu who live outside the pass all year round, but for the generals of the Punishment Heaven Army, who are mostly Henan people or Shanshan people, it is a great test.

Although the Xingtian Army has improved materially over the years, it is not rich in essence, after all, many economies in the jurisdiction have been destroyed by war, and it takes a considerable period of time to recover, and whenever the Xingtian Army occupies a place, the first thing to consider restoring is agricultural production, and the rest are considered in a secondary position, so although the army changes clothes, it is only to ensure that cotton clothes, cotton shoes or sheepskin jackets and other warm things can not be done too finely.

Therefore, the soldiers and generals have to resist the cold wind like knives every day, lying on the ice and stepping on the snow to fight everywhere, and the Tartars are not easy to deal with, in order to prevent the Tartars from sneaking up at night, they must send a lot of soldiers to set up bright and dark posts or mobile posts around the camp, so that as long as they are not careful, people will be frostbitten, and even there are many soldiers on duty at night, because they are asleep, and they are frozen to death.

Even Xiao Tianjian himself, his face was blue and purple from the cold, and many of the bare skin on his hands and face were frozen and cracked, becoming chilblains and dripping with yellow water.

However, with the progress of the northward war, the adaptability of the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Xingtian Army is also increasing, along the way they robbed a lot of Tartars from the Ming people's furs, cotton clothes and other things, these things were quickly fully utilized, and sent to each soldier to keep out the cold, and even at the end of the year, even each soldier put a rough but practical warm leather hat on his head, no longer have to run around with an extremely cold iron helmet, and everyone also wore a pair of thick fur gloves on their hands. Fur shoe covers were also put on their feet to keep them warm, so as to reduce the situation of frostbite and freezing to death of the Xingtian Army.

After all, their boss Xiao Tianjian is now the same as them, and he follows them every day with ice and snow, and travels as long as they do, and even often dismounts, marches on foot with the footmen, and often braves the cold wind at night, patrolling around the camp, and shouting at the soldiers on duty. But the heart is often warm.

For Xiao Tianjian, this northern expedition was also a rare tempering for their Xingtian Army, which made them accumulate a lot of experience in fighting in the north, and laid the foundation for the future to go north again in advance, so although it was hard, he thought it was very worthwhile.

In particular, they fought with the Jiannu army several times, which also made them familiar with the fighting style and combat effectiveness of the Jiannu, and at the same time thoroughly tested the tactics of their Xingtian army, which also accumulated sufficient experience for the future to wave the army to the north again, and for a large number of Jiannu army, at least to avoid the situation like the situation in history after the Dashun army went north, and the Tartars were about to collapse.

After a few victories, these soldiers who accompanied the expedition no longer have any fear of the Jiannu army, the fame of the Jiannu army is to a large extent, it was blown out by the Ming army and the people of the Ming Dynasty, they actually didn't really want to be strong, and the Jiannu army had more concerns about entering the army than they thought, many times the Jiannu were not willing to fight for their lives, after all, the number of their clansmen was very limited, one for one desperate, they would never be able to fight, so when they knew that the Xingtian Army was powerful, The Jiannu army began to be no longer as arrogant as when they began to look at each other, and the Jiannu army with blue flags they encountered along the way, as soon as they saw the Xingtian army, they immediately began to take the initiative to retreat, not daring to fight with the Xingtian army, but just trying to rely on their cavalry, wandering around the Xingtian army, trying to sneak attack the Xingtian army, which also fully shows that the Jiannu is no longer as arrogant as when he first entered the prison.

This situation for Xiao Tianjian, but also greatly enhanced his confidence, later generations of people boasted that what full of people is not more than 10,000, more than 10,000 invincible, now through this period of time and the Jiannu Army, it is simply some people in later generations are farting, at least now it seems that Jiannu is not really powerful, whether it is their tactics, or their discipline, they are not beyond the Xingtian Army, of course, it cannot be denied that the military discipline of the Jiannu Army is at least much stronger than that of the Ming Army, and its generals are indeed more brave and warlike, but this is all relative to the Ming Army, and in front of the Xingtian Army, this is nothing.

Although the Tartars are fierce, they are not beasts that they are afraid of, when they see their robes being cut down by the fire of the Heavenly Army, and when the strong bows and crossbows in their hands that they are proud of cannot exert their power at all, they will still be afraid, there will still be people who will retreat, and they will still scatter, which has proved that they are not really afraid of death, but the arrogance raised in front of the Ming army.

Seeing that the end of the year is approaching, it is about to enter the new year of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, but the Jiannu army still has no intention of retreating and withdrawing from the Guanwai, Xiao Tianjian can't help but start to be a little anxious, in his opinion, with his own strength and combat effectiveness, although it will not defeat the Jiannu army that entered the army at once, but you can also choose one, kill him hard, beat the Jiannu to be afraid, and force them to return north, so that it can also reduce some of the scourge of the Jiannu army to the northern provinces. Strive to save some vitality for the people of the Ming Dynasty.

But since the battle of Neiqiu, Dolgon and Yue Tuo seem to have realized Xiao Tianjian's idea, and some people simply join forces with all walks of life, and have a decisive battle with the Xingtian Army in the land of Jingfu, and completely kill this gang of Xingtian thieves, but Dolgon even if he drank back these main battle people, what kind of joke, want to kill more than 10,000 torture thieves, God knows how much they have to pay, even if it is a one-to-one exchange, they are also a loss-making business, and the six flags they came out this time (the two flags of yellow and yellow did not come out, and Huang Taiji sit outside the gate), if the losses are heavy, even if they kill this Xingtian army, they will eventually hurt their vitality, and after they go back, he and Yue Tuo will be held accountable by Huang Taiji, so it is impossible for Dolgon to do this kind of business.

And Yue Tuo also agreed with Dolgon's opinion, their main purpose this time is to enter the Kou and loot, they can't fight with the Xingtian Army here, there are too many Han people, they can afford to lose, they Jianzhou Jurchen can't afford to lose, if they force the Mongolian Eight Banners to be cannon fodder, the Mongols will rebel after they go back, so the decisive battle is not in their interests.

So at the insistence of Dolgon and Yue Tuo, the Tartar soldiers still began to divide their troops and plunder in the area of Funan, but Dolgon and Yue Tuo warned the soldiers and horses under their command, ordering them not to underestimate the Xingtian Army, and absolutely not to go to fight to the death with the Xingtian Army.

Although the generals of the Tartars were a little reluctant to believe that this was true after receiving the orders of Dolgon and Yueto, the people who gave the order were all Dolgon and Yueto's cronies, and they spoke very seriously, and informed these Tartar generals of their battles in the First Battle of Julu and the First Battle of Neiqiu, as well as the fierceness of the Xingtian Army, and sternly warned them that this was a strict order of Prince Rui and should not be disobeyed.

So these Tartar generals began to pay attention to it, but there are still some people who are not convinced, thinking that the southerners are really not terrible, and the officials and troops of the Ming Dynasty can clean up as much as they want, can they still be afraid of this rebellious people's army?

But the unconvinced people immediately suffered a loss, after encountering the Xingtian Army, a face was beaten by the fierce firepower of the Xingtian Army, looking for teeth, in front of the Xingtian Army lost the body of a Tartar soldier, and then was covered up by the Xingtian Army cavalry, was killed and abandoned armor and fled.

After a few small-scale contact battles, the reputation of the Xingtian Army spread rapidly among the Tartar army, so that these Tartars knew the power of the Xingtian Army, and they no longer dared to compete with it easily.

In this way, it is really not easy for the Xingtian Army to catch the main force of the Tartars that are wandering around and plundering, it has been a few days, and they have not been able to catch most of the Tartars, only Situ Liang led the cavalry and Lin Luo's scout brigade together, from time to time they will catch some Tartar rangers who are wandering around the place, knocking and beating, but this is all a small fight, basically unable to hurt the muscles and bones of the Tartars, this situation makes Xiao Tianjian a little depressed, but there is no good way for a while.

He knew something about Jiannu's entry into the Kou this time, at least he knew that the Tartars would run to Jinan and break the city of Jinan, but now because of his appearance, he was no longer sure whether the Tartars would do this, so how to catch the main force of the Tartars for a while and clean them up fiercely, which made Xiao Tianjian quite a headache.

And in this case, even Li Xin, who was a senator with the army, couldn't come up with a good way, so he could only put the scouts under Lin Luo farther away as much as possible to track down the whereabouts of the main forces of the Tartars.

But the situation of the Tartars is different, they only attack the city, but do not defend the city, often after capturing a county, first plunder, and then take the men and women with the goods they have obtained and leave immediately, the goal is very uncertain, if they take the initiative to avoid the battle, the Xingtian army is really not easy to catch them.