Chapter 47: The Helplessness of the Chahar Ministry

"My lord," among the three people in the middle, Li Zicheng felt that Zhao Feng was the best to speak, unlike Wu Shaoling's cold and treacherous and Liang Wencheng's too straightforward, their faces were completely disappointed, and the naked contempt for the new army after the disappointment, "The brothers traveled a long way to Xining, and the dry food was exhausted along the way, so I implore my lord to allocate grain and grass as soon as possible, in addition, Ganzhou still owes two months of unpaid salaries, saying that it will be paid together with Xining." After speaking, he took out the IOU written by Ning Dapeng from his arms.

"Money?" Wu Shaoling's gaze was like two sharp swords, stabbing straight up, "You haven't fought a battle, you have food and salary, and you still need weapons, do you treat Xiningwei as a charity hall?" He didn't look at the other officers and slapped the board directly: "Let's go and fight a few battles with the Mongols first, if you can repel the Mongols, the food and salary are easy to say, if you can't repel the Mongols, hum ......."

"Father-in-law, they are a new army, and their training has only been two months, so I'm afraid it's not appropriate to let them go to the battlefield now, right?" Liang Wencheng approached Wu Shaoling's ear and whispered.

"What's wrong?" Wu Shaoling directly amplified his voice, and he was not worried about being heard by Li Zicheng, "Aren't the reinforcements sent by Ganzhou here to fight?" ”

"Father-in-law, two adults, it's okay if you want us to fight, it's just that the brothers have no food in store now, and they have to allocate grain and grass first, no matter what, how can the brothers fight when they are hungry?"

Li Zicheng felt that the matter of the silver could be said later, but the grain and grass could not be delayed, there was no food, the soldiers were hungry, not to mention the war, I am afraid that they would become the same scourge of Xining as the Mongols, and if the new army was abandoned by Xiningwei again, then the only way to be a thief was to do it as soon as possible.

"Grain?" Wu Shaoling frowned, his pale and tender skin trembled slightly due to the lack of sunlight, "Lord Zhao, give them ten stones of grain." ”

"Thank you, father-in-law, thank you, Lord Zhao." According to Liang Wencheng, the external danger of Fuqiang Fort was lighter, so that these recruits could be stationed in Fuqiang Fort and gradually train the recruits, but Wu Shaoling insisted that Li Zicheng go to Zhenhai Fort, where the Mongols went in and out more often, Zhao Feng echoed Wu Shaoling, Liang Wencheng had to be silent, but cast a sympathetic look at Li Zicheng.

"Father-in-law, two adults, because the soldiers have traveled a long distance and have insufficient weapons and armor, can you allocate some for the brothers to use first?"

"What a nuisance!" Wu Shaoling waved his hand and directly took Li Zicheng's request as air, he left his seat and took the lead in leaving the official office, which was the end of this meeting.

Zhao Feng also stood up, but said to Li Zicheng: "Li Baihu, the rest of the supplies, let's wait until the Mongols are repelled, my father-in-law agrees to allocate food, which is already extraordinarily gracious, let your soldiers accept it - to be honest, Xining's grain is not rich." ”

Li Zicheng shook his head and smiled bitterly, it seems that the new army is really not popular anywhere, whether it is Ganzhou or Xining, they all think that these recruits will not fight, but they just put them at the forefront of the duel with the Mongolian cavalry.

Ganzhou has already abandoned them, if they can't beat the Mongols in the next battle, Xining will not hesitate to abandon them, or let them serve as cannon fodder to defend against the Mongols, is there only one way left for these recruits to be thieves?

Dead eunuchs! Li Zicheng scolded again, but he had to obediently follow Zhao Feng to accept the food, although he did not receive military salaries and weapons, with these ten stones of food, the soldiers did not have to starve for the time being.

For more than 100 soldiers, ten stone of grain only lasts for five or six days, and what about after five or six days? Li Zicheng knew that Wu Shaoling controlled the soldiers through grain and grass, but he was helpless.

How can you explain it to the soldiers if you don't get your salary? If the soldiers had known the truth, would they still have the morale to fight? Li Zicheng decided to fight the Mongols first, and if it didn't work, he would use the silver on his body to put it on the mat first.

After receiving the food, the soldiers had a full meal outside the city, rested for another night, and began to march towards Zhenhai Fort as soon as it was dawn.

Zhenhai Fort is about forty miles west of Xining, close to the south bank of Huangshui.

From the heralds who went to Zhenhai Fort together, Li Zicheng knew some clues about the Mongol invasion of the east.

There used to be a large number of natives living here, who may be descendants of the Qiang people, and hundreds of years ago many Tibetans came here to preach Buddhism, and they all accepted the jurisdiction of the Han people, and there was no peace with the Han people.

Later, under the exclusion of the Dzungar tribes, the Warat Mongols and the Shuote tribes gradually moved south, but they mainly gathered in Usizang, and the farthest reached the southwest of the Dogandusi, and did not enter the West Sea area.

The Mongols who entered the area of the West Sea were the Chahar tribe of Tatar Mongolia, who originally lived in Monan, that is, north of Shaanxi and the Great Wall of Shaanxi, and the reason why they migrated here was inseparable from the rise of the Jurchens in Liaodong.

Lin Dan Khan of the Chahar Department, is the descendant of the Golden Family, since inheriting the throne of the Great Khan, always thinking about unifying the Mongolian tribes and restoring the glory of the former Mongol Empire, but the rise of the Jurchens in Liaodong shattered his dreams, although the Jurchens repeatedly extended an olive branch to him and asked for an alliance, but Lin Dan Khan has always looked down on the Jurchens who came out of the deep mountains and old forests, not only did not appreciate it, but also united the Mongol tribes to besiege the Jurchens.

But the rising star of the Jurchen cavalry combat effectiveness is stronger, after many years of countless fierce battles, Lin Dan Khan was defeated, the Mongol tribes that originally supported him saw that the wind was not in the right direction, and turned to form an alliance with the Jurchens, after Huang Taiji inherited the Jurchen Khan throne, it was to unite the Mongol tribes in southern Mo to launch a counterattack against Lin Dan Khan.

Lin Dan Khan relied on the identity of the descendants of the golden family, naturally refused to surrender to the Jurchens, and the war was unfavorable, and in desperation, he was forced to move westward, but the Dzungar Department of Warat Mongolia blocked their route to the west, and refused to cede pastures to Lin Dan Khan, and part of the Chahar Department had to turn south, from the west of Jiayuguan and the east of the Hami Basin to the south, into the south of the Qilian Mountains, close to the Ming Dynasty's Duogandusi.

South of the Qilian Mountains, this paradise of natives and Han people, as the Chahar Department moved south, gradually smelled blood.

The pastures here were not abundant, and they were divided into small patches by desert and large mountains and rivers, which could not meet the large demand of the Tumut people for pastures, so they expanded everywhere and could be found almost everywhere they could.

During the Great Ming Apocalypse, the Chahar Department gradually penetrated into the West Sea southeast of Yanze (Qaidam Basin), and had a dispute with the Xining Wei of the Ming Dynasty, at this time Lin Dan Khan was still an important ally of the Ming Dynasty to deal with the Jurchens, so there was no large-scale war between the two sides, in the battle for pastures, the Xining Wei usually rested the people, and was gradually forced to withdraw from the West Sea, and could only barely maintain the line of Zhenhai Fort and Fuqiang Fort.

There are two main routes for the eastward expansion of the Chahar Mongols: the northern route goes south along the Huangshui; The southern route bypasses the Shaliu River, the Buha River, the Nanshan River, etc., and advances eastward from the south of the West Sea.

Backed by Huangshui, Zhenhai Fort was an important military fort that cut off the southern movement of the Tumut Mongols from the northern route and defended Xining, because the northern route was more convenient and more attractive to the Mongols.

Originally stationed in Zhenhai Fort were two thousand households Zuo Yong and Sun Zhigang of Xiningwei, Xiningwei had a total of five thousand households, and only Zhenhai Fort was stationed in two, which shows that Xiningwei attached great importance to Zhenhai Fort.

After Li Zicheng arrived at Zhenhai Fort, Zuo Yong and Sun Zhi quickly formed a team, just with their respective soldiers, left Zhenhai Fort one after another, Zuo Yong went to reinforce Fuqiang Fort in the south, and Sun Zhigang returned to Xining to rest, he was surprised to find: Although Zuo Yong and Sun Zhigang are thousands of households, there are only about 300 soldiers under their command, and the total of two thousand households is less than 700 soldiers.

What made Li Zicheng angry was that when Zuo Yong and Sun Zhigang left Zhenhai Fort, they carried all the materials in the fort, including food, weapons, and armor...... He said that Zuo Yongcai left him a map of the march.

The march was crudely made, but you could still see the general mountains and rivers.

Zhenhai Fort is built on the south bank of Huangshui, the confluence of Huangshui and its tributary Yaoshui River, backed by Huangshui, the southwest is densely covered with mountains and rivers, and it is about 30 miles south of it, which is another important place in Xiningwei - Fuqiang Fort.

It can be said that the only thing Zhenhai Fort had to face was the Mongols who came from crossing the mountains and mountains to the west, which was basically consistent with Li Zicheng's original estimate.

Li Zicheng circled around Zhenhai Fort, and finally stopped in the north, Huangshui was under his nose, it was not yet the rainy season, the water level of Huangshui was very low, but because of the large difference in the mountain, the water flow was very fast.

Although Zhenhai Fort is a military fort in the simple sense, there are still 100 families in the fort, except for a few people who make a living from business, most of these people are people who work outside the fort, because they want to escape the war, they will place their homes in the fort, hoping to protect their own safety with the help of thick stone walls and Ming soldiers.

Seeing the thick fort wall, Li Zicheng suddenly had an idea, and he shouted: "He Xiaomi! ”

"Here!" He Xiaomi was taken aback, thinking that there was some urgent military situation.

"Let Wang Anping come to see me immediately!"

"Yes!" He Xiaomi trotted all the way and brought Wang Anping to Li Zicheng.

"Release all of you, the people of the small banner, don't go too far today, only move within a radius of twenty miles, and gradually advance to the periphery in the future, your task is twofold: one is to find the whereabouts of the nearby Mongols, and once you find that there is a Mongol invasion, report immediately; The second is to memorize the nearby mountains and passages, draw a simple topographic map, and hand it over to me when I come back, so that I don't need to go to the north bank of Huangshui for the time being. ”

"Yes, sir."

Li Zicheng is to use this small flag as a ranger, to spy on the enemy, to understand the terrain, because there is no war horse, can only rely on foot, this small flag originally had ten soldiers, but Li Zicheng and Li Guo were promoted, and took away three personal soldiers, including Wang Anping, there are only five soldiers left, but when Li Zicheng was promoted to the general flag and took away Ma Youshui as his own personal soldiers, Wang Quan supplemented him with two soldiers, and now there are seven soldiers, although the number is smaller, but this small flag is brought by him personally, The discipline and courage of the soldiers are stronger than those of the other banners.

However, to be a ranger, there is a big difference from ordinary combat soldiers, Li Zicheng made an explanation to Wang Anping, "...... Let the fire army prepare three days' dry rations for each of you, and in addition, it is safe to be safe, if you encounter Mongol soldiers, do not fight, just send the message back. ”

In addition to this small flag used as a ranger, Li Zicheng also selected a small flag from Liu Yunshui's general flag as a fire army, so that there were only eight small flags left for soldiers who could participate in the battle.

Li Zicheng summarized the topographic maps sent back by Wang Anping, and personally drew a more detailed topographic map from Zhenhai Fort to the south to Fuqiang Fort and west to the West Sea.

The Fuqiang Fort in the south was originally guarded by the Ming army, and now with Zuo Yong's reinforcements, there should be no need to worry, Li Zicheng focused all his attention on the west.