In the grasslands controlled by the Ming Dynasty today, there are more than one settlement like Guihua City. On the eastern Mongolian side, on the Horqin steppe, nomadic settlements have also been established here, which are under the jurisdiction of Lu Xiangsheng in Liaodong.

Here, the model is also the same as that of Guihua City, where the Mongols graze and the Han people farm, and the two are combined to complement each other's advantages.

However, the settlement here in the Horqin steppe has only been under construction for less than a year, and it is not yet fully self-sufficient. Therefore, when the army goes on an expedition, it is necessary to prepare additional money and food. However, Liaodong is in ruins, and there is no surplus grain and grass materials.

In the upcoming battle of Mobei, the main force is not the Liaodong Division. However, Lu Xiangsheng still rushed to the settlement of the Horqin steppe, and in addition to selecting soldiers who were mainly Mongolians, he also came here to inspect the promotion of high-yield crops.

Whether it is the seeds of high-yield crops or the old farmers who grow them, they are all transferred by order from the Naturalization City. The Governor personally came to check, and the old peasant led by him babbled a lot to Lu Xiangsheng. What made him happy was that, according to the old farmer's wishes, although it was not as fertile as the Hetao Plain, the planting prospects were still very large. In addition, he also suggested that Lu Xiangsheng could also promote high-yield crops on the Liaodong Plain, and there was no need to occupy existing farmland, but only to supplement the existing farmland, and there would be great gains.

When the military rations sent from Shanhaiguan arrived, Lu Xiangsheng also inspected the place here, the army was assembled, Lu Xiangsheng looked at the cavalry of about 10,000 people, and glanced at the various generals standing in front of the team.

Now the various ministries in Liaodong have also undergone the initial reorganization and are coming according to the new number. The original Dongjiang Army has been abolished, and the entire Liaodong has been classified as the Liaodong Military Region. Just like the Guannai, it is divided into two parts: local and field. Among them, the field army is dominated by cavalry, all of which are accompanied by supervision troops, and the expeditionary armies are as follows:

Lu Da, deputy general of the first battalion of the cavalry of the Liaodong Army of the Ming Dynasty, led more than 2,500 troops and was the commander of the expedition.

Liu Xingzhi, deputy general of the second battalion of the cavalry of the Liaodong Army of the Ming Dynasty, led 2,000 cavalry.

Mao Chengzuo, general of the third battalion of the cavalry of the Liaodong Army of the Ming Dynasty, led 2,000 cavalry.

Huang Degong, general of the fourth battalion of the cavalry of the Liaodong Army of the Ming Dynasty, led 2,000 cavalry.

Zuo Liangyu, general of the fifth battalion of the cavalry of the Liaodong Army of the Ming Dynasty, led 2,000 cavalry.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at them with a serious expression, and said loudly: "In this battle of Mobei, although you are not the main force, you must not weaken the prestige of my Liaodong Military Region. Whoever dares to avoid battle, not fight, retreat from battle, or delay military aircraft, this official will never spare it! ”

What he said was actually more of a routine remark. The army brought out in the style of Lu Xiangsheng will not be a bad seed. These generals are also optimistic about them, and they are all brave and good at fighting. Each army is also equipped with factory guards and supervisors, even if the commander really has a negative war, he will not do so!

Lu Da is the coach, and after hearing what Lu Xiangsheng said, he drove out of the ranks. The other four generals also followed him, and together with him, they immediately clasped their fists, and Lu Daxian said loudly: "Rest assured, Lord Governor, the last general will never weaken the name of Liaodong!" ”

"Rest assured, Lord Governor, the last general will never weaken the name of Liaodong!" The other four generals followed with a loud roar.

Seeing this, Lu Xiangsheng nodded and said loudly: "Okay, you will go to Wolf Juxu Mountain and Hanhai for this official, and re-raise the prestige of my Ming army!" ”

After the oath was completed, more than 10,000 horsemen drove their horses north and left without dust.

At the same time, here in Naturalization City, Hong Chengchou is the commander-in-chief, and he is also reviewing the 50,000 cavalry under his command. Only a naturalized military district can have so many cavalry troops. Most of these cavalry soldiers were steppe Mongolian soldiers. Of course, there are also some cavalry troops drawn from Shanxi.

Hong Chengchou looked at this cavalry army, but didn't say much, just gave people an order, if you want to be promoted and make a fortune, you must behave well. After saying that, he swore to go on the expedition.

After several years of planting and promotion, the high-yield crops in the Hetao area have achieved gratifying results, especially potatoes, which are even more surprising, not only with large yields, but also with grassland meat, it seems that the taste can also be good. Therefore, the Naturalized Military Region's expedition basically did not need food support in the Guannai.

The naturalized army was the main force in the battle of Mobei, and therefore, the commander of the entire battle was Hong Chengchou, the governor of naturalization. Even in the Battle of the Western Regions after the Battle of Mobei, the commander will be Hong Chengchou.

However, in the early stage of the Battle of the Western Regions, the commander of the Ming army was Yang Sichang, the governor of Baotou, and the general was the loyal and brave Bo Mangui. Their Baotou army under the naturalized military region, with a total of about 10,000 cavalry troops, did not go to Mobei, and rushed directly to the Western Regions first.

In this war, the Naturalized Military Region almost poured out, and all the troops were exhausted. There were even cavalry troops from Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places. In addition to the cavalry army on the Shanxi side, which was led by Hong Chengchou to the north, the cavalry troops drawn from several border army towns on the Shaanxi and Gansu sides were all under the name of Yang Sichang, otherwise if it was only Baotou, it would not be possible to take out 10,000 cavalry.

And Yang He, the father of Yang Sichang, has been steadily serving as his trilateral governor in this position. When his son goes on the expedition, he naturally has to support it, and the cavalry that is withdrawn is naturally the most elite cavalry under his command.

It can be said that in the upcoming war in the north, the cavalry dispatched by the Guangming Army exceeded 70,000 people, which was far from comparable in scale in the south.

At this time, the main Khalkha force was still on the Western Regions, and was reveling in the territory of the Oirat tribe.

The Khalkha tribe is actually divided into three large clans, and their leaders are Tushetu Khan Gunbu, Zasaktu Khan Norbu and Chechen Khan Shuoli. In the absence of foreign enemies, these three tribes also love and kill each other for the sake of grassland pastures, water sources, etc. But at this time, they were proud of the spring breeze and were toasting together.

I saw Tushetu Khan Gonbu raising his glass and laughing: "Come on, come on, cheers for the complete elimination of the Oirats tribes!" ”

When the other two heard this, they also laughed and raised their glasses in response.

For a long time, the Oirats and the Khalkha tribes have been mortal enemies and have attacked each other.

More than ten years ago, it was the Khalkha Qiang who defeated the Oirats in one fell swoop, and although they did not annex the Oirats, they were enslaved for a long time. But unexpectedly, Gushi Khan rose and led the Oirat tribes to defeat the Khalkha tribes.

Then, although Gushi Khan led his troops westward, he went to Qinghai-Tibet. But the successor Ozirtu Khan was still brave, and led the Oirat tribe to suppress the Khalkha tribe, so that the three tribes had to join forces to resist the enemy. But even so, they still found the Oirat Department difficult to deal with.

At the end of last year, the Oirat Ministry was like a mountain, pressing on the hearts of these three khans.

But in a blink of an eye, as soon as Oirat was defeated, they set foot on the pasture of the original Oirat tribe, drank the mare's milk that originally belonged to the Oirat tribe, watched the women of the Oirat tribe dance for them, and outside, there were countless cattle, horses and sheep of the captured Oirat tribe. In such a situation, how can they not let the three of them drink happily.

After putting down the wine glass, the woman next to them poured them full of wine. Among them, Tushetu Khan Gunbu looked at the other two and laughed: "We have to thank the Tsar for completely destroying the Oirats this time!" ”

"yes, it's a bunch of crazy people." Zasaktu Khan Norbu also said with a smile, "It is proposed to jointly attack the Oirats at such a time. If it were us, we really wouldn't choose to attack just after winter! ”

For these steppe nomads, cattle, horses and sheep are their roots, just after the winter, the earth recovers, it is the time for cattle, horses and sheep to grow fat. Generally speaking, at this time, they don't have time to graze, and they will go to war. That's why Norb speaks like this.

Gunbu listened, nodded and said: "It is indeed a group of crazy people, people who don't know, they still think that they have a lot of hatred with the Oirat department, how much resentment, they will kill people when they see them, the people of the Oirat tribe, when they encounter the Tsarist Russian army, regardless of the old and weak, women and children, they will not let go, they are simply not people!" ”

"Actually, you don't know, as far as I know, there is really a big hatred!" The Chechen Khan Shuo Lei, who had not spoken, played with the cup that had drunk all the mare's milk wine in his hand and said, "It is also deserved, the Ozirtu not only attacked us, but also made enemies of Tsarist Russia, robbed them of everything they plundered from the east, how can we not anger the Tsar!" ”

Hearing this, the other two didn't know the inside story, so they inquired one after another, and after the Chechen Khan's explanation, they suddenly realized.

It turned out that life in Tsarist Russia had actually been difficult. Before that, no one even wanted to be on the throne, because everyone who became a tsar died unexpectedly.

At this time, Tsarist Russia was far less powerful than later generations, and was often invaded by Poland, and even the tsar was supported and appointed by the Polish king. In this way, the great nobles of Tsarist Russia naturally did not agree, so they often called back and forth, and later, Mikhail Fedorovich was elected as tsar.

However, Mikhail was a cowardly and unaccomplished tsar. When his father, Filaret, returned home after years of Polish captivity, Mikhail immediately issued a decree stating that Patriarch Filaret was treated on the same footing as the Tsar, that Filaret's order was equivalent to the Tsar's edict, and that the Patriarch became the de facto Emperor.

After that, Patriarch Filaret gradually seized real power and began to rule Russia with an iron fist. It was also because of this that Tsarist Russia gradually became stronger.

Patriarch Filaret first took a series of measures to stabilize people's livelihood, strengthen the tax system, and enrich the treasury through taxation. One of the most important sources of wealth is the vast expanse of Siberia.

By plundering Siberia, Russian merchants exported expensive furs and timber to European countries, which were popular commodities in Europe, so that Tsarist Russia made huge profits, and the treasury gradually became full.

Filaret was an ambitious man, and while consolidating his material base, he was also reorganizing his army and striving to regain the occupied lands by force.

It was against this background that Ozirtu led the army of the Oirat tribe to intercept the looted goods of the Tsarist Russia from Siberia. In this way, while panicking that this source of finance would be cut off, Tsarist Russia categorically had the matter of uniting the Khalkha tribes and eliminating the Oirat tribes.

Hearing Chechen Khan's explanation, Tushetu Khan Gunbu couldn't help laughing and said: "This is really Ozirtu's damn thing, cutting off people's financial routes is like killing their parents, not to mention, Tsarist Russia is relying on this financial road to revitalize the country's fortunes!" ”

"Haha......" Zasaktu Khan Norbu also laughed, and he pointed to the two sitting opposite him, "In this way, it can be regarded as a great gift from the two of you!" ”

In the past, there was no Tushetu Khan, and there was no Chechen Khan, and it was only after Gunbu and Shuolei became the leaders of their tribe that they began to call Khan. In other words, after Gunbu declared himself Tushetu Khan, and Shuo Lei declared himself Chechen Khan, they eliminated their old enemies, the Wailat tribes, and this was the great achievement of their Khan. That's why Norbu said this.

When Gunbu and Shuolei heard it, they were also proud, which was enough to show that their sweat position was well deserved!

So, the three of them began to drink happily again, and from time to time they pointed at the Oirat women who were dancing in the middle of the big tent, and the atmosphere was very warm.

After a while, Gunbu suddenly looked at Shuo Lei and said, "You are familiar with the Tsarist side, if we show up to buy women and children from the Oirat tribe from them, will they agree?" ”

In the annexation of the steppe tribes, generally speaking, the enemy's women and children who are no taller than the chariot are not killed. Women can have children, and when they grow up, they become warriors of the tribe. Only in this way will the tribe not have much danger of growing after the annexation of other tribes.

Hearing this, Chechen Khan thought for a moment and said: "It may not work." Although there are no Oirat tribes, if our three tribes annex the Oirat tribes and become stronger, this is not what Tsarist Russia wants to see. ”

Speaking of this, he frowned and explained: "Tsarist Russia has regarded those lands in the north as their own inexhaustible treasure house, and they continue to send people to the east to plunder, but they don't want to cut off their financial resources when we become strong in the future!" ”

As soon as he heard this, Gon Bu suddenly said violently: "His grandmother's, if she is really strong enough, she has really robbed them of their wealth, and we will make a fortune ourselves!" ”

When Norbu heard this, he shook his head and said, "Where can we sell those things that Tsarist Russia looted from the Northland?" That is, those countries in the far west need it, and we can't sell it! “

Hearing this, the other two were silent, and it seemed that this path to fortune was not for them.

However, Gunbu suddenly thought of something, and immediately said to the other two: "It seems that I heard that the Ming Kingdom sent an army to the Northland to compete with Tsarist Russia for territory!" ”

"What, anything like that?" When Chechen Khan heard this, he confirmed in surprise.

Norbu was also surprised: "The Ming Kingdom actually sent troops to the Northland? Isn't our Mobei ......? ”

Gunbu shook his hand and said: "Of course it didn't pass through our Mobei, it came from Liaodong, and the number of people was very small, otherwise, it would not be possible to fight with the Tsarist army in the north all the time!" ”

Hearing this, Norbu not only did not breathe a sigh of relief, but became worried: "When did this happen? Could it be that the Manchus in Liaodong had been defeated by the Ming State? If the Ming Kingdom is so powerful, we ...... We're afraid it's ......."

Seeing his expression and hearing his worried words, Chechen Khan was also nervous, and hurriedly said: "It seems that the reason why Ozirtu is so powerful is because behind him, there is the support of the Ming Kingdom!" Now that we have destroyed the Oirats tribes, will the Ming Kingdom retaliate against us? ”

Seeing that they were so nervous, Gunbu couldn't help but smile and said, "Could it be that Ming Guo has not been our enemy all along?" Even if it was the heyday of the Ming Kingdom, how many times did their ancestors personally conquer Mobei, and it was not that there was no way to take us, but now, we are afraid that the Ming Kingdom will not succeed? ”

Hearing this, the other two invariably breathed a sigh of relief. Among them, Norbu nodded and said with a smile: "It seems that I am too worried, just Mingguo, if we send troops, we will take them around the desert Gobi to see how long they can last!" ”

"Yes, if the Ming Kingdom dares to send troops, it will definitely let them know that our Mobei three clans are not comparable to those tribes in the south!" Gonbu's voice was loud, his tone was resolute, and he was clearly confident.

The Ming Kingdom captured the Hetao, and they heard about it. But they didn't care, as they just said, Mobei was too far away from the Ming Kingdom, and the Ming Kingdom had sent troops so many times, and they had never really conquered Mobei. For the Central Plains Dynasty, an old opponent who knows the roots, what is there to be afraid of!

So, the three of them raised their glasses again and celebrated. However, after a while, Norbu still seemed to have doubts, put down the cup again, and said: "Now the remnants of the Oirats are still hiding in various places, and we have not completely exterminated them. What if the Ming Kingdom sends troops over? ”

Speaking of this, he saw that the two of them looked a little disapproving, so he hurriedly added: "The Oirat Department has taken refuge in the Ming Kingdom, and now that the Oirat Department has been beaten like this by us, I think the Ming Kingdom will definitely send troops." ”

"Huh!" When Gunbu heard this, he immediately said with a hint of ridicule, "Even Gushi Khan refuses to come to the rescue, and the Ming Kingdom will still send troops?" Even if you send troops, it's probably perfunctory, right? ”

The three tribes of Mobei, in fact, are the most feared is Gushi Khan. If it weren't for Gushi Khan's troops to Qinghai-Tibet, even if Tsarist Russia found them and said that they would unite to fight Oirat, they would probably have to think twice. It is also for this reason that when they attacked Oirath this time, they were very nervous about Gushi Khan's side, and the focus of their reconnaissance and vigilance was also on Gushi Khan's side.

What they didn't expect was that from the Oirats they captured, they heard the news that Gushi Khan would not come to the rescue. This is also the main reason why the three of them have a good drink here.

Hearing Gunbu say this, the other two nodded their heads, indeed, even Gushi Khan refused to come to the rescue, even if the Ming Kingdom sent troops, how strong could it be?

So, the three of them also began to drink. However, before they could disperse, a fast horse suddenly rode up, and then hurriedly entered the camp tent and said to the three of them: "Report, the east has found that the Ming army does not collect at night!" ”