The fierce battle in Tuhala, as well as the fact that many people rolled down the hillside during the offensive battle, made Xiao Xuan feel that the casualties in this battle were not small at first. But in the end, when cleaning up the battlefield, even if some minor injuries that temporarily affected mobility were counted, the loss of casualties was far less than a thousand. Only about 130 people were killed in the battle, and only more than 500 people, including minor injuries, accounted for about 10% of the attacking team. Correspondingly, the defenders, who had obvious defensive advantages and geographical advantages, were only beheaded in this battle by more than 7,000 regular armed forces, as well as tens of thousands of irregular armed forces such as healthy women and even teenagers who planned to resist to the end. Moreover, the defenders' will to resist and their level of training seemed to be significantly higher than those previously faced in the south. It is just that, with the exception of a small number of wounded and captured, there is almost never a contingent that voluntarily surrenders. Among the captured people, they were also mainly Han Chinese or Mongolians who were organized within the main force of Jianzhou.

The casualties of the defenders were estimated in the survey to exclude backstabs in the rout, and the ratio of losses in head-to-head battles also reached about 1 to 7. If one takes into account the various advantages that the defending side has in such a form of warfare, it is almost certain. Now the elite combat effectiveness selected in the team is dozens of times that of the opponent, and after these months of consolidation training, the average combat effectiveness of the entire team should far exceed the average level of the main force of Jianzhou, and has been upgraded to another level similar to the main force of contemporary European professional elites. This also made Xiao Xuan have some ideas about starting the expedition in advance with the main force of the Volunteer Army and the First Guards Army and the Second Guards Army as the core. At a military meeting, Xiao Xuan also confidently made the decision to launch an expeditionary operation in advance.

Drawing lessons from history, in order to prevent the main forces of Jianzhou in the area of Yarkand Oirat from constantly fleeing westward like the Western Liao and Later Liao in history, the army is ready to first detour to the northern line near the Beihai Sea to launch an expedition, and take advantage of the summer and autumn when the vegetation is still lush from the Altai Mountains to the Tianshan Mountains on the strategic passage between the Altai Mountains and the Tianshan Mountains to first raid the Kazakh Khanate to control the two river basins, block the passage for the main forces of Jianzhou in the Oirat to Yarkand to flee westward, or, in some mountain pass areas or transportation arteries to launch a strategic decisive battle with the main force of Jianzhou. This should be the most advantageous situation.

"It's the beginning of June in the old calendar, and we're at least five months away from the end of autumn. The horsepower of a five-month steppe march is a big problem, and it is likely that it is not much faster than a trek on foot, but even then it should be barely enough in practice. However, the strategic passage north of the Tien Shan Mountains still belongs to the territory of the Northern Khalkha to the Oirats, and it is likely that it will not be able to accommodate the advance of 70,000 troops, especially when such an expedition must carry a lot of livestock for food... A staff officer who had walked the northern trade route and was a naturalized Jin merchant said.

"Without wasting too much time raising provisions, how many centaurs can get from the northern passage to the river relatively smoothly?" Xiao Xuan also asked without hesitation.

"If at least one person is equipped with three or four horses, at least twenty or thirty thousand horses... More than thirty or forty thousand rides... ”

Xiao Xuan pondered for a moment, he was not very sure about the combat effectiveness of the Kazakh Khanate, if he only launched an expeditionary assault with the strength of at least five divisions of the Volunteer Left Army and at least five divisions of about 30,000 people, there was no doubt that he would not be too sure of the strength of the troops.

But Xiao Xuan finally made up his mind to fight, especially after thinking of the combat effectiveness shown by the elites of each department. If the entire volunteer army and the main forces of the First and Second Armies of the Revolutionary Army are concentrated, even if the number of troops participating in the expedition is only about 30,000, it will be enough to have sufficient combat effectiveness.

In this way, at the dawn of midsummer, the cavalry skills selected from the seven divisions of the Volunteer Army, which swept away the remnants of the enemy in Liaodong at the fastest speed, did not have much shortcoming, and the 30,000 officers and men with outstanding training marched to the depths of the grassland, and marched westward along the still lush water and grass under the guidance of many guides. The starting point of the westward expedition was also hurriedly unfolded.

It is not the same as his own imagination of the Western Expedition a few years ago, and such an expedition was not carried out at a time when the appearance of the entire Guannai or even the appearance of the military industry had changed sufficiently, but was carried out when it was not only obviously inferior to the opponent to be faced in terms of troops, but also inferior to the opponent in terms of equipment and even firearms. However, Xiao Xuan was unwilling to miss this opportunity, because no one knew whether the revolutionary army established beyond the times would greatly reduce its combat effectiveness in just a few years for various reasons. As the lyrics say, "Strike while the iron is hot to succeed... ”

The large army left the supply belt based on the agricultural area, and it was impossible to rely entirely on the supplies it carried for several months, and it was not like the steppe departments that had the advantage of local hoarding, or the expeditionary forces of the Ming or Han Dynasty that had a large number of logistical personnel, so the concentrated army could only further disperse its forces soon after its departure, with a division of about 5,000 men as a tactical unit, two or three divisions as one road, and the troops advanced in three ways. Even within divisions on the same road, they often gather dozens of miles or so, barely able to communicate with each other. In this case, even if a division plunders more than a hundred sheep or a few cattle can meet most of the supplies for a whole day, after all, it can effectively start the march at the fastest speed without spending too much time to raise supplies.

Multiple marching columns, a total of 30,000 horses, went deep into the grassland, of course, it was impossible to hide from the Mongols on the grassland, Chahar and the high-level people in the southern Mongolia area were not stupid, of course, from some merchants who came and went, I heard about the various "perverse acts" of the Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty in the thirteen provinces of Guannei, so he never wanted to exchange for the survival of the tribe through compromise, even if he knew the strength of those attacking enemies.

After learning that the Son of Heaven's army, whose strength was far smaller than that of the Ming army in the Northern Expedition that year, dared to divide troops in the hinterland of the grassland in order to reduce the pressure on logistics, the people who had some concerns about the decisive battle also changed their attitudes. It is agreed that a decisive attack will be used to teach the Chongzhen Emperor a stern lesson, at least to make him understand that the grassland is different from the Jianzhou or the Thirteen Provinces. Even if the current Mongolian steppe forces are divided, it is not the enemy outside who can swagger and march like this.

Therefore, this time, the Chahar troops finally decided to make a desperate bet and invest about 20,000 armed forces to concentrate superior forces to eat the strong enemy all the way.

(End of chapter)