On 21 February, Chen Mao, Marquis of Ningyang, and Li Bin, Marquis of Fengcheng, led the left and right sentinels, and Wang Tong, Marquis of Chengshan, and Tan Qing, the governor of the capital, led the left and right posts, and set out from Beiping to Zhangbei.

They will pass through Erenhot in later generations and march directly to the royal court of the Warat people, Kulun, and the ancient capital of Helin.

The young army subordinate to Zhu Zhanji and the scout battalion of Yulin Left Guard also set off with them

And the grain and grass, the heavy weight, as well as the special medical soldiers, and the artisan battalion were also dispatched with the army.

The army remaining in Peiping was left with less than 100,000 pure cavalry troops, and they would not set off until the beginning of March.

With the participation of the headquarters, Zhu Zhanji was well aware of every step of the movement of this army. Regardless of his status as the grandson, he humbly asked the reason for every arrangement of the army.

This not only allowed him to gain the basic knowledge of army mobilization in this era, but also made the generals in the army have a particularly good impression of him.

A warlike grandson who is not afraid of war and is willing to come into contact with the "rough people" of the army is very popular with the generals in the army.

This also made Zhu Di extremely satisfied, only one Zhu Gaosui was unhappy.

Just because of one title, he tried every possible way to win over the generals in the army, but Zhu Zhanji just lowered his figure slightly, which made all the generals rush to him.

He originally thought that Zhu Di would leave Zhu Zhanji in Beiping, but he didn't expect that Zhu Di would take Zhu Zhanji to the grassland together.

However, he is much more forbearant than Zhu Gaoxu. The desire for the throne is not as strong as Zhu Gaoxu, because he knows very well that there are countless obstacles between him and the throne.

If there is no too good opportunity, he will definitely not expose his intentions.

What he is most curious about now is why Zhu Zhanji is so close to Jinyiwei, and what is he using Jinyiwei for?

It is not unusual for Zhu Zhanji to have four brocade guards, and even he himself has a team of brocade guards.

However, since Zhu Zhanji came to Beiping, he commanded Tongzhi Saihazhi and commanded Zhuang Jing to go to the other courtyard several times, and a large number of people accompanied him each time.

Walking so close to Jinyiwei, his father didn't care, which made Zhu Gaosui puzzled.

He knows very well that his father, in front of the imperial power, there is no father-son relationship.

The eldest brother, the crown prince, is respected by civil officials, and he has to beat it every three or five times.

The second brother, King Han, was loved by the generals, and for more than ten years after the Jingjing, he had no chance to grasp the military power at all.

Jin Yiwei is a sharp blade in the hands of his father, he has never allowed anyone to reach out to Jin Yiwei, why does this fledgling nephew dare to contact Jin Yiwei without taboo?

Zhu Gaosui absolutely didn't believe it just because his father favored his grandson, and there were definitely reasons he didn't know.

It's a pity that the Jinyi guards beside him belong to the Thousand Households Institute of Beiping, and they don't know any news from Ying Tianfu at all. Only Zhuang Jing and his gang from Ying Tianfu knew about this matter, and even Sai Hazhi didn't seem to know about it.

The more he couldn't find out, the more curious he became, and he felt as if he had discovered a big secret.

Zhu Zhanji didn't have the energy to guess his third uncle's careful thoughts, he had already been occupied by busy military affairs.

Since February 16, when the Ming Dynasty was raised in Beiping, Zhu Zhanji began to contact the military affairs of the Ming Dynasty, which was a difference of 600 years in different war modes, so that he had to readapt a little bit.

However, he is not a blank slate, although the war patterns of the two eras are completely different, but in terms of overall planning and management, in fact, it is just a change of soup and not a change of medicine.

The purpose of war is to strike at the enemy, and all preparations are made to serve this purpose.

On the battlefield of later generations, if an army can exert 50 percent of its combat potential, it will be an invincible elite soldier.

The composition of the war is too complicated, and in this backward era, it is difficult for even 10 percent of the war potential to be brought into play by the 500,000 troops, nearly 500,000 people, and a total of one million people.

This is not an encounter, the brave wins when they meet in a narrow way.

This is a large-scale strategic war, and in order to achieve the goal, what is needed is to reduce one's own mistakes and seize the mistakes of the other side, so that greater potential can explode.

So, the principle of war is the same.

From the first day, Zhu Zhanji showed his macro vision and analytical judgment ability on the battlefield, which made the governor's office and military department of the five armies, including the generals of all armies, have a clearer understanding of his grandson, and also respect this grandson more.

Zhu Di was most satisfied with this situation, and even directly gave Zhu Zhanji the fictitious title of General of the Northern Expedition, allowing him to fully contact the Northern Expedition army.

Since six years ago, the injuries accumulated in his youth have been plaguing Zhu Di, especially the severe rheumatoid in recent years, and the tormented Zhu Di is often worse than death.

Not to mention this era, even after 600 years, rheumatoid is not an easy disease to cure.

When he is not sick, Zhu Di still has countless lofty ambitions, but whenever he is sick, Zhu Di also has a kind of heroic melancholy.

After arriving in Beiping, his rheumatism occurred again, which made him interfere much less in military affairs.

Although he did not have his father Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion of generals, he would rather kill all the meritorious ministers than let them pose a threat to the rule of the Zhu family.

But his taboo against army generals will not decrease at all, so seeing that his grandson can be recognized by the generals in the army, and acting reasonably, he gave his grandson a false title and replaced him as a counselor in military affairs.

This position is very suitable for Zhu Zhanji, because in modern times, mercenaries have conducted several military operations, and he himself is not the commander-in-chief.

He may lack experience in dealing with specific matters, but he by no means lacks experience in dealing with the strategic objectives of a war.

In later generations, sending troops from central Africa to Libya required handling of various international diplomatic disputes, as well as consultation and coordination with the European Union, the United States, the African Union, and other countries and institutions.

At that time, Zhu Zhanji handled it properly, and now Daming doesn't need to deal with external affairs at all, so it's easier.

He, the general of the Northern Expeditionary Army, only needs to coordinate the coordination between the internal military guards, handle the supply of grain and grass, and deal with the auxiliary army to build roads and bridges.

Because he has done this in modern times, although the mode is different, but the essence of war is the same.

However, these tedious tasks require a lot of energy and time, resulting in him having almost no free time in recent times.

In this kind of busyness, he has established trust and tacit understanding with the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, the Ministry of War, including some generals, which is his greatest gain.

For example, Wu'an Hou Zheng Heng, a famous general of the Ming Dynasty, and the first winner of Zhu Di's first northern expedition four years ago, admired Zhu Zhanji's strategic talent and overall arrangement.

From the casual entertainment when he first came into contact, he has now completely become a fan of Zhu Zhanji.

Zheng Heng is four years older than Zhu Di, and he is fifty-eight years old this year, but his long military career has given him a strong physique.

In the army, there are generals who are older than him, but there are no generals who are older and more powerful than him.

In the first year of Yongle, he guarded Xuanfu, Yongle for five years, guarded Beiping, and Yongle for seven years, guarded Kaiping.

In the first northern expedition, Zheng Heng supervised the transportation of soldiers' salaries, and led the right post after leaving the fortress, pursued Benjamin, broke Arutai, and was the first in merit.

Later, he was rewarded by Zhu Di and entrusted with an important task to guard the Xuanfu.

In the Northland Nine Border Region, Zheng Heng's exploits are unparalleled, and his great name is powerful in the Northern Yuan.

Zhu Zhanji has now won his recognition and support, which means that he has gathered the largest force within the Northern Expeditionary Army.

On the first day of the first month of March, the last group of Northern Expeditionary Army set out from Beiping and headed for Zhangbei.

Although Zhu Di's health has improved, he still can't ride a horse, so he can only go by car.

However, the road between Beiping and Zhangbei was smooth, and it was all cavalry, and it only took three days to arrive in Zhangbei.

In the Zhangbei grassland, Zhu Di raised a big tent, rewarded the three armies, and set out for the army.

The army of 500,000 was divided into two routes, the eastern front led by Liu Sheng, through the later Xilin Gol League, to the northeast to the Qiaoba Mountain of the Hannan River.

There, Liu Sheng will join up with Arutai, who is now subject to the Ming Dynasty, and march towards Horin.

The middle army marched to Helin through Erenhot in later generations.

On the 5th of March, the rested army opened the way by the forward battalion, and the leader of the group began a great march.

It is indeed vast, with almost 200,000 people in the East Route Army and almost 700,000 in the Middle Route Army, all of whom are shoulder-to-shoulder.

If it weren't for the fact that everyone was wearing military uniforms, it would not be like fighting at all, but like fleeing.

However, this is already the strongest military bloc of this era.

Although the Beiyuan people have stronger personal combat effectiveness, their number is too small, with a total of less than three million people, which is completely incomparable with the Ming Dynasty.

If they don't run, they will fight hard against Daming, and ten for one, they can also consume one of the Beiyuan people.

An army of 700,000 men formed a formation about ten miles wide and headed north. Fortunately, this is a grassland, if it is a mountainous area, I am afraid it will be dozens of miles long.

The grassland in March has just sprouted, but these grasses are far from enough for hundreds of thousands of military horses and horses to eat.

And the Northern Yuan people have already received the news, the Uliangha people have long since disappeared, and the Warat people have also shrunk their battle lines, wanting to rely on the grasslands and deserts to consume the physical strength of the Ming army.

However, in order to cooperate with the army on the east route, the army of the middle route marched at an astonishingly slow speed, only one or twenty kilometers a day, and carried out horizontal pushing.

With the exception of the vanguard army and the scout army, all the large armies marched in cross. Today, if you are in front, you will rest for a day, and then let the rear army become the front army, such a rotational march not only preserves physical strength, but also is as stable as Mount Tai.

The only bad thing is that such a marching speed consumes too much grain and grass.