When Qi Tai decided to go to Beijing and persuade Zhu Yunwen to return to Beijing as soon as possible, the war in the Northeast also entered the final stage.

After knowing the inside story of the Mongol army's fierce battle, Wang Zhong was in a hurry, and he knew that the Ming army advancing east along the Guaner River must be the army of Xu Huizu, the Duke of Wei. They went on an expedition to Mobei, without supplies and backups, but faced more than twice as many Mongol troops who were bent on returning home. And Wei Guogong is wrong, not only will he not escape the responsibility, but even Yiguo will be punished by the emperor. So he immediately ordered someone to report to Yiguo Fair, and at the same time led the forward to chase Arutai and others day and night to rescue Xu Huizu.

However, I am afraid that it is too late, looking at the sunset in the west, Wang Zhong is anxious. The Mongol army had just set up camp at dawn to the west, and now it was almost sunset, so it was nearly two days behind in terms of distance.

Looking at Wang Zhong's anxious expression, Ma Hamu hesitated for a moment and said, "General, now that time is pressing, the last general suggests sending five hundred people day and night to bypass Arutai and inform the Duke of Wei to guard against a sneak attack. Arutai and the others are like arrows, if they find that Wei Guogong is prepared, then they will definitely take a detour, then Wei Guogong will be safe. ”

"And," Mahamu suddenly shut up and stopped talking.

"What's wrong?" Wang Zhong was surprised.

"My lord, the last general, the last general has a proposal, please make a decision."

"Say!"

"Only a small part of the last general's subordinates were killed, and most of them were merged into the tribes of Arutai and others, if the last general is allowed to accompany him, then the last general can call on the old troops to turn against him, then Arutai and others will definitely be in chaos, which is very beneficial to our army's victory."

"Huh?" Wang Zhong glanced back at Ma Hamu and found that he bowed his head and bowed his hand, looking respectful. But Wang Zhong didn't answer immediately, he was calculating the pros and cons in his heart, and he couldn't choose, this Mahamu really thought about Da Ming so much?

"General, my subordinates have something to report."

Wang Zhong looked sideways, and it turned out to be Lu Changsheng, the current chief of staff, who was a prisoner of the army, and was talking.

To tell the truth, Wang Zhong doesn't quite understand what this chief of staff does, but the emperor likes to have chiefs of staff at all levels of the army very much, most of them are martial arts students, and a small number of them are prison students, and there are not no people who have started from the position of chief of staff, such as Shao Yun, the commander of Shenyang Zhongwei, and Tan Yuan, the commander of Suiyuanwei, are among the best. But in Wang Zhong's opinion, these people should be the eyes and ears of the emperor sent to the army, and they can't be offended easily.

Thinking of this, Wang Zhong waved his hand and retreated from everyone, and then smiled: "Chief of Staff Lu, what do you think?" ”

"My lord," it may be a little nervous, or it may be that the weather is cold, Lu Changsheng's face is flushed, and he said in a low voice: "There is no other way now, Mahamu's suggestion is also feasible, and his subordinates suggest acting accordingly!" ”

"What if he runs away?"

"It's nothing to run away, it's just the leader of a small Mongolian tribe, and he and Arutai are incompatible, even if they turn against the water, they won't work together, they will only disperse the strength of the Mongolian army, which is still beneficial to our army."

"Now that the emperor is determined to open up the northeast, the next step is to conquer Mobei, if Mahamu can't recognize the situation and kill himself, he will only die a few days late."

"But what if Wei Guogong dies at the hands of Mahamu?"

"This," Lu Changsheng pursed his lips and hesitated: "Isn't there Ma Hamu, wouldn't Wei Guogong be more than lucky?" ”

Wang Zhong was silent for a long time, looked at the army that was marching north, and the sunset on the horizon, and said categorically: "Okay, Chief of Staff Lu!" ”

"In!"

"General Ben ordered you to lead five hundred cavalry, take Mahamu to the Guan'er River to rescue Wei Guogong, let him not fight to the death with the Mongols, and focus on defense, you must wait until General Ben arrives, and tell him that the army of Yiguo Gong will arrive later!"

"Yes!" Lu Changsheng was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect this matter to fall on his head, but the military order was like a mountain, and he could only take the order.

"Hopefully, it's still too late!" Wang Zhong looked at the backs of Lu Changsheng and the others and muttered.

……

But what Xu Huizu did was completely different from what Arutai and Wang Zhong imagined.

Xu Huizu, who entered the upper reaches of the Guan'er River and the hometown of Wuliangha, did not eagerly go south and eastward, but repaired the old land, which was also determined by objective conditions. After more than a month of rapid marching on the grassland, the army was very tired and short of provisions, although some Mongol tribes were plundered, but it was only a drop in the bucket, so Xu Huizu eagerly hoped to find a place to settle down and relieve the tension of the soldiers. However, for the sake of safety, he placed defenders on the mountainous terrain of the Xing'an Mountains to prevent the Mongol army from attacking from the rear. Fortunately, he was relatively familiar with this area, and it was from here that Geng Xuan raided the fishing sea, and dealt a heavy blow to the Mongols who forgot to go south to pursue Fu Youde.

But Xu Huizu knew that anything could happen on the battlefield. In the fifth year of Hongwu, my father led 50,000 cavalry to cross the Krulun River, occupy Holin, and compress the Mongols to the vicinity of the Altai Mountains. This battle also broke the myth of the invincibility of the Ming army, and the psychological advantage of the Ming army over the Mongol army ceased to exist, and it directly changed the national policy of the Ming Dynasty, changing the goal from conquering Mobei to eliminating the Golden Family, which was fatal. Although in later generations, the Ming Dynasty designated Mongolia as a border trouble, which was a kind of contempt, but from another point of view, there was also a psychological fear, that is, no longer seeking to conquer it, as long as you don't come to rob me.

So when the army arrived at the old land of Uliangha, Xu Huizu ordered the cavalry to gather the scattered herdsmen in the vicinity to do hard labor. To put it simply, it is to cut down trees, dig pits, and block roads, which is also the emperor's teaching. When the sapper shovels of the special operations battalion began to be equipped, many generals and military officials questioned it, believing that this thing was all stainless steel and expensive to build, and that it was better to make muskets and artillery. In response to this phenomenon, Zhu Yunwen finally came forward to teach them a lesson, so that the generals realized that this sapper shovel can not only be used to shovel soil and cut wood, but can even be used as a saw, and occasionally as a shield. But Zhu Yunwen's main suggestion was to dig pits and restrict the movement of cavalry, there were small pits, inclined pits, trenches and so on, once the Mongol army had no war horses, then in the face of the tide of the Ming army, they could only wait for death.

It's not that these generals aren't smart enough, it's just that their imagination is limited by productivity. The thirteen mining areas in the Hongwu year produce more than 1,847 catties of iron every year, that is, less than 10,000 tons, which are distributed to the more than two million troops in the country, and each person has a quota of less than ten catties, not to mention meeting the daily needs of the people. But with the opening of Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant, steel output has risen year after year, to Jianwen five years, Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant annual output has reached 130,000 tons, accounting for more than half of the country's steel output, and the country's steel quantity has reached more than 10,000 tons, more than the total output of pig iron in Hongwu.

Therefore, Zhu Yunwen can boldly use stainless steel to build things that look flashy such as sapper shovels, but at present, they are only equipped with special operations battalions and some baggage troops, so let's see the effect first.

So when Arutai and the others arrived day and night, they were dumbfounded. Looking at the extreme eye, the boundary of ten miles by the river is full of different depths, large and small soil pits, and what makes them even more mad is that the Ming army also dragged some trees to cover it, not to mention horses and lele carts, even if it is infantry, they must be extremely careful, it is impossible to run quickly, and if they go carefully, it is easy to become the target of the Ming army.

Faced with this situation, Arutai and Tieleba advocated a decisive attack, crossed the Xing'an Mountains, and fought back to their hometown. But Su Mu, who regained his freedom, was resolutely opposed, in his opinion, this was looking for death, this area was originally a hilly area, not suitable for the action of the cavalry, he advocated turning back to the south, and returning to the grassland along the road that was Tongliao.

However, Arutai believed that the Ming army Guo Ying's army had already built a city in Tongliao, where the fortifications were more difficult to pass, and the hilly terrain near it was also unsuitable for the movement of large cavalry brigades.

The three of them argued, and finally decided to attack first, and they cobbled together 5,000 men to dismount and attack, wanting to see how the Ming army reacted.

Todo of the Horqin tribe led the order to attack, and the Mongols behind them were a little cowering, because they had left the familiar horseback, they had an instinctive discomfort, but the military order was like a mountain, and they had to adapt if they were not adapted.

It's a pity that the process of adaptation is a little painful, and it is relatively short, at a distance of fifty paces, the muskets of the Ming army fired, and rows of guns were shot down, and the simple wooden shields carried by the Mongolian army were vulnerable, and they fell to the ground with wails, and the others were defeated with rolling and crawling.

Arutai and the others were pale, but there was nothing they could do, and Todo also told them a disgusting news, those large and small pits seemed to be used as toilets by the Ming army, and they were filthy inside, once they approached or fell into, the feeling was really indescribable, many people just couldn't stand the smell and stood up, but were knocked down by the Ming army in a row.

After listening to Todo's description, looking at the defeated soldiers, and smelling the smell of feces and urine on their bodies, Arutai knew that he couldn't wait, because he had already received the news that Mahamu had been captured by the Ming army, and that the Ming army would arrive at any time.

This time, even Arutai advocated retreating, only Tieleba couldn't accept it, he felt that he was a man who was going to be a great sweater, how could he be blocked by such a small hillside? And rushing through here, as long as you walk more than ten miles, you can get home, why not work harder? Isn't it just some and pee? Are the Mongol warriors still afraid of this?

Arutai looked at the emotional Tieleba, sighed, and said: "Commander, now we must turn around, in fact, our whole army can rush through this dung pit regardless of casualties, but after rushing over, what should we do?" ”

"What should I do?" Tieleba didn't understand what Arutai meant, so he rushed over and went home!

"Hehe," Arutai shook his head, feeling that this Tieleba was really an elm head: "After rushing over, we are all infantry, but what about the Ming army?" They're all cavalry, are we rushing over to find death? ”

"Commander, if you regard this dung pit as a river, you will understand our predicament, if it is a river, do you still suggest that our whole army cross the river and fight a decisive battle with the cavalry on the opposite side?"

"This," said Tierba, but he was still not convinced, and pointed to the woods to the south, "we can go through the woods." ”

Arutai was amused: "That forest, our cavalry still can't get through, what's the difference?" ”

"Oh, but if we don't go here, where will we?"

"Alas!" Arutai let out a sigh, he regretted very much that he had not sent troops in this area, and kept a way to go home, but it was useless to think about it too much.

In the end, the three of them discussed, turned south, and went south along the Xing'an Mountains, looking for a way to escape.