In June of the fourteenth year of Shenwu, it was already August according to the Gregorian calendar, which was the hot time in the north. Three hundred miles from the Great Wall, a young Mongolian Chaolu was grazing herd.

Chaolu means stone in Mongolian, and his father chose this name for him in the hope that he would live like a stone.

Chaolu is fifteen or sixteen years old this year, and he doesn't know how old he is, even his mother doesn't know. Since the Mongols were driven out of the Central Plains by the Han Chinese, they quickly degenerated into nomadic peoples, and Mongolian youths like Chaolu were simply illiterate. Chaolu rides a brown Mongolian horse and grazes sheep for the tribe's Taiji lord.

The climate of the Xiaoice River has a great influence on the agricultural civilization of the Central Plains, but it has a greater impact on these nomads. These Mongols were extremely unproductive, and a cold snap could freeze large swaths of sheep to death, without which the Mongols would have to starve to death. But it's not that there is no way to live, after the cold snap in previous years, the Mongolian Taiji had to transfer the contradictions within the tribe and recruit young people to start a raid on the Ming Dynasty in the south.

Chaolu's father followed Master Taiji to the south, but Chaolu's father was unfortunate and met the Shenwu Emperor, the lord of Zhongxing in the Ming Dynasty, and Chaolu's father also died in a battle in the south.

After Chaolu's father died, his mother was snatched away by other tribes the following year. Taiji in the tribe saw that Chaolu's hands and feet were quite good, so he asked him to herd sheep for himself, so Chaolu could be regarded as having a bite to eat.

This year, Chaolu has become an adult, and according to the rules of the Mongols, he is already an adult warrior, if in the past, Chaolu would have to pick up a saber to fight for Taiji, either in the hands of the Mongols or in the hands of the Han. However, in recent years, the powerful Manchu Qing Dynasty has been wiped out by the Han people, not to mention the Mongols who are even short of iron tools, so in recent years, the Mongols outside the pass have lived a lot, although the internal struggle of their own people has never stopped, but the all-out war against the Ming Dynasty has not been carried out for many years.

Chaolu herded sheep for Master Taiji with the dream of killing people and stealing things, and today he was sleeping on the grass, and at the same time he had a dream of robbing women and cattle and sheep. Chaolu, who was sleeping, suddenly felt a vibration from the ground below him, this vibration was very familiar, it was the footsteps of the marching army.

Chaolu got up and rushed to the south to take a look, and saw a large cloud of smoke and dust rising on the horizon in the distance. Chaolu grew up on horseback, and was born a warrior, so he was familiar with this kind of smoke and dust, which was the dust that can only be stirred up when a large group of people and horses marched.

Chaolu looked at the size and size of the smoke and dust, as well as the shaking from the ground, and estimated that this army had more than 100,000 people. You must know that Mongolia is vast and sparsely populated, and there are many tribes of all sizes, but there are really few large tribes that can gather such an army.

Chaolu knew that the army would have to send scouts far away, and now that the army was quite far away, maybe the scouts were right in front of him. Xia Chaolu, who was at stake in life and death, did not dare to hesitate, and quickly got up and rode away to drive the sheep away, and at the same time ran back to report to his tribe to prevent a sneak attack by these unknown troops.

The army outside the Great Wall is the Ming army led by Zhu Hongsan, but it does not have more than 100,000 horses estimated by Chaolu, but these new troops carry a large number of artillery pieces and a lot of horses used to pull carts, so they look like more than 100,000 people from a distance.

The front team of the Ming army is 5,000 cavalry as the vanguard, these people were transferred from Datong when Zhu Hongsan was in Zhangjiakou, after all, it is still easy to use cavalry when it comes to the territory of the Mongols, and the commander of these cavalry is Zhu Hongsan's cheap son-in-law Zhao Hu.

Behind the cavalry were the musketeers, in the middle were the most elite Praetorian Guards, and in the middle of the Praetorian Guards was the Emperor's Imperial Guard, protected by 10,000 brocade guards. Zhu Hongsan's imperial chariot is naturally extremely luxurious, even compared to Zhang Juzheng's sedan chair back then.

The whole chariot is divided into three rooms, the outermost is a ten-square-meter observation deck, which has a living room and a rest room, and a mobile toilet for the emperor's convenience.

This royal chariot is so luxurious and naturally huge, and there are forty horses leading the cart outside. Zhu Hongsan is not the same as in Guangdong, when there were no horse breeding places and horses were in short supply, but now that Zhu Hongsan has occupied the Hetao area, there is naturally no shortage of horses.

Zhu Hongsan sat in the dragon chair on the observation deck, looking at the scenery of the prairie was really refreshing. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the soil and water conservation outside Zhangjiakou was not bad, there was no desertification, and small lakes could be seen everywhere. The blue sky and green water, coupled with the endless prairie, make Zhu Hongsan feel very good now.

At this time, a horse came to the front of the imperial chariot and handed a military report to the commander-in-chief Han Sanqiang, Han Sanqiang came to Zhu Hongsan after reading it and said: "Your Majesty, the cavalry scouts have sent news that there is a small group of Mongolian cavalry moving in the east of our army, about a few hundred people, it is estimated that they are Mongolian scouts, General Zhao asks Your Majesty to give an order to destroy them!" ”

The Mongolian cavalry of several hundred people was probably sent by that tribe to inquire about information. Zhu Hongsan closed his eyes and said, "Don't worry about them, wait until there are more gatherings, and let Zhao Hu send more scouts to monitor them!" ”

Han Sanqiang took the order to go down to make arrangements, and Zhu Hongsan said to Li Chengen beside him: "What about Zhu Shengduo and Zhu Yuan?" Where did these two boys go? ”

"Back to the emperor, the second master came to the grassland for the first time, and everything was fresh, and he went out to ride a horse just now!"

Zhu Hongsan nodded, after all, these two children grew up in the south, and they have never seen the endless prairie outside the Guanwai, and they should be curious, but safety must be guaranteed, after all, this is not a country, and those Mongolians are very wild.

"Lao Li, send them guards, and tell them not to run away, these Mongols around them are not good at stubble." Li Chengen received the emperor's order and hurriedly went out to send two thousand brocade guards to protect Zhu Shengduo and Zhu Yuan.

At this time, Zhu Shengduo and Zhu Yuan were riding horses outside, Zhu Yuan was seventeen years old this year, and Zhu Shengduo was only twelve years old.

Zhu Shengduo learned to ride a horse with those brocade guards in the palace, but it was the first time that he galloped unscrupulously like today. Zhu Yuan is similar, and the two of them naturally have to relax when they get this opportunity.

Zhu Shengduo rode a Shire horse imported from the United Kingdom, which is actually a descendant of Zhao Hu's mount, this kind of big horse is two meters high at the shoulder when it is an adult, and it is very majestic to ride on it. Zhu Shengduo is Zhu Hai's own son, so he is naturally close to Zhao Hu, and it is easy to ask for a Shire horse from Zhao Hu, but this horse is not yet an adult, but it is also much taller than ordinary Mongolian horses.

Zhu Yuan has received the support of Xungui in recent years, and he has a lot of wealth on hand, and the horses he naturally rides cannot be shabby. Zhu Yuan rode a red Arabian horse, a slender horse that was best at short sprints.

Zhu Shengduo was riding on a horse at this time and was angry, he and Zhu Yuan lost the horse race twice just now, and the child's personality was naturally very unhappy. But he can't blame him, the Shire horse he rode was not good at sprinting, and this pony was not yet an adult, so it was naturally not an opponent against Zhu Yuan's Arabian horse.

Zhu Yuan saw that Zhu Shengduo was angry, and said with a smile: "Boy, what's the matter, I told you that you are not an opponent, your uncle's horse was purchased from overseas for a lot of money!" ”

Zhu Shengduo was angry when he saw Zhu Yuan's triumphant appearance: "Uncle said that the price of the horse he gave to the king is more than a thousand gold, why can't he outrun his uncle's pony?" ”

There are knowledgeable people in Zhu Shengduo's guards, and seeing Zhu Shengduo say this, he explained on the side: "Lord Wang, the horse given by the concubine is indeed extremely valuable, but this horse is mainly used on the battlefield, and short sprints are not his forte, not to mention that this horse is not yet an adult, so he can lose to the auxiliary general!" ”

Zhu Shengduo was very curious when he heard the guards say this, and hurriedly asked: "I heard that my uncle broke Wu Sangui's 50,000 Liaodong iron cavalry with 2,000 iron cavalry in Henan back then, is it true?" ”

The guard smiled and said: "These are all rumors, it is true that the big horse led two thousand heavy cavalry to charge, but the frontal battlefield still needs the cooperation of the cavalry led by the second horse, and the big horse can defeat Wu Sangui's flank with very few troops!" ”

Zhu Shengduo was fascinated by what he heard, and hurriedly asked: "I heard that my uncle was wearing heavy armor like an iron tower, and those Qing soldiers were trampled to death by my uncle's horses' hooves, is it true?" ”

"This is true, at that time, the offensive momentum of those Qing troops was blocked by the two horses, and the big horses could rush into the flank of the Qing army. So as the last general said just now, the speed of the war horse is not very important, and only the reasonable use of the equipment in your hands can be invincible! ”

Zhu Yuan listened to the head of the guard, and was very unhappy to be called an auxiliary general by this guy just now, so he couldn't help asking: "You guy knows a lot, why did you come to be a guard for my nephew?" ”

The guard bowed down on his horse and said, "The last general is Zhu Ren, the deputy general of the big horse, who charged beside the big horse back then, so he knows something!" ”

Zhu Yuan heard Zhu Ren say this and never spoke again, this Zhu Ren is Zhao Hu's deputy general, Zhao Hu is now the king of the county, this Zhu Ren's status is not low, I don't know if he still has a knighthood. Zhu Yuan really thought right, this Zhu Ren was one of the more than 20 boys adopted by Zhu Hongsan back then, and he had a good relationship with Zhu Luo, the princess of Changping, and Zhao Hu, the concubine, because today Zhu Shengduo needs to be guarded, so Zhao Hu can send his cronies to Zhu Shengduo as this ordinary guard.

Zhu Shengduo was overjoyed when he heard Zhu Ren say this: "Okay, it turns out that you are the deputy general of this king's uncle, and you have time to talk to this king about the things on the battlefield back then!" ”

At this time, he heard the sound of horses' hooves not far away, and Zhu Shengduo turned his head to see that a group of cavalry had been separated from his own team and came to his side.

The group of cavalry was full of 2,000 people, led by a brocade guard, he rode to Zhu Shengduo and Zhu Yuan, bowed down and said: "Two highnesses, the last general will be ordered by the emperor to protect the safety of the two highnesses!" ”