After more than a year of political offensive, considerable progress has been made in the situation outside the border.

Thanks to the Manchu policy of weakening the Mongols from Nurhachi, or more precisely from the Huang Taiji period, there was no strong organization formed in the Mongolian steppes to confront the Great Zhou after the Manchu political center moved westward.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty's policy of weakening Mongolia was really much more clever than the Han people's helpless strategy against the steppe peoples for thousands of years, basically just a few.

The first is to adhere to the principle of the feudal system, calling it "Guangjian Zhuhou divides his strength", and divides the large and small tribes in the Mongolian steppe into hundreds of large and small alliance flags.

The twenty-four divisions of Monan are divided into six alliances and forty-nine flags. The Khalkha part of Mobei is the eighty-six banners of the four leagues. 29 banners belonging to the Minister of Affairs in Xining, 13 banners belonging to General Yili, and 19 banners belonging to Minister Kobdo; stationed in Ningxia, the members of the board of directors belong to the banner of Prince Alxa, Huo Shuo, Zasak and Shuo; The Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu belonged to the Ejina Old Turghut Zasakdo Robelle Banner; Heilongjiang General belongs to the Ike Ming'an Banner, Erut Zasak, and the First Class Taiji Banner. The Manchu government set up 49 banners of the Inner Zasak Banner and 150 banners of the Outer Zazak Banner, in addition to the "Eight Mongolian Banners", "Group Flags", "Lama Banner", etc., dividing the entire Mongolian residential area into more than 200 large and small flags.

Tribes that were late in submission and less determined in their submission were divided into more banners to break down and strike at their strength. The Khalkha Mongols were divided into 86 banners, and the Qinghai Mongols were divided into many banners that were not subordinate to each other, and they went their own way and could not form a unified political whole.

The formation of flags was only one basis for the division of Mongolia, and there were a large number of followers after that. For example, in the control of military power, the Manchu Qing distrusted Outer Mongolian princes only had the right to command their own people, but not the right to command the army. The Khalkha part of Mobei is the eighty-six banners of the four alliances, and the banner lord and the prince do not have the right to command the army, and the flag soldiers are dispatched by the ministers and generals stationed in the country. The twenty-four divisions of Monan are divided into six alliances and forty-nine flags. These Mongol princes, who were attached to the earlier ones, had the right to fight, and each alliance flag could command its own soldiers.

After controlling the military power, he also controlled the area where the Mongols roamed. As long as the Mongols could move freely, they could not be controlled, and it was the leaders who led their nomadic herders, not the Manchu garrison generals, who could control them. Therefore, the Manchu Qing Dynasty strictly restricted the nomadism of each banner, stipulating that the Mongols could only be nomadic within the territory of the banner where they lived, and were not allowed to cross the border. At the beginning of the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, Tiancong, Kangxi and Yongzheng repeatedly issued orders prohibiting "nomads who cross their own boundaries", and violators were punished with heavy fines. "The king fined a hundred horses, seventy for Zasakbele, Bezi, and the duke, and fifty for Taiji. Anyone who commits a crime shall be punished with a penalty of one year for himself and his family property, and shall be rewarded to the witnesses" or the prince shall be fined for one year.

These prohibitions left the Mongols in a corner of the country, unable to carry out economic exchanges and interconnections between the various banners, and kept the Mongols tightly bound to the territory of the banners in which they lived. Even if there is a rebellion against a certain alliance flag, it cannot be connected in tandem and can be easily suppressed.

The second major policy is called the principle of harmony, which is not just a simple marriage with the Mongolian nobles, but a whole set of measures to win over and suppress, called "the south does not seal the king, and the north continues to kiss".

Nanbu is the king, it is aimed at the Han people, no matter how many feats the Han people have made, even if the emperor personally promised to "enter the king of Nanjing", and the Zeng Guofan brothers also became kings, but the Mongolian region may be just a small banner master, in charge of thousands of people, it is a prince. Lianmeng's power technique to control the Han is in it.

On the one hand, men and women who are the children of the Manchu magnates cannot marry independently, but the emperor has arranged them uniformly, called finger marriage, and a large number of marriages with Mongolian nobles.

It also promotes the system of union alliances and annual classes.

The "Mongolian Laws" stipulates: "The leaders of the six leagues of the six leagues and the four tribes of Khalkha shall lead the league to belong once every three years, clean up the criminal names, and compile and review the Ding books." "Prepare for the conscription. The Qing Dynasty supervised the loyalty of each alliance flag to the Qing court and the military and political organization through the alliance, and at the same time monitored the dynamics of the Qing Dynasty in which each alliance flag was separated. The princes and Taiji, who were not in time for the alliance, were severely punished to show warning.

The annual class system stipulates: "For the Mongolian Hajj, the Nezasak is divided into three classes, one class a year, and they come in turn." "The annual classes of the Khan, Wang, Beile, Beizi, Gong, Zasak, Taiji and other tribes of the Khalkha tribes will be assigned by the court according to the topics of the class, and they will be appointed and consulted by name, and they will come to Beijing for Hajj."

The Mongol princes of each banner had to take turns to make a pilgrimage to the emperor in Kyoto of the Qing Dynasty every year, so that the Qing court could clarify and strengthen the suzerainty of the Mongols, and monitor the loyalty of the Mongol princes to the Qing court, and at the same time the Qing court could also get the Mongolian princes' camels and horses.

Both the Huimeng and the Nianban were under the banner of the emperor's concern for the Mongol princes and wanted to reward them. However, it greatly weakened the motivation of the Mongol princes to rebel, because these princes could have a chance to be rewarded by the emperor once a year or two, and they always did not give up, and they did not have time to prepare for rebellion; In particular, the annual class system regularly allows those princes and disciples to take turns to live in Beijing for a period of time, which is called an audience and study.

However, these Mongol princes often learned a desolate and luxurious lifestyle in the capital during their New Year's class, which made them depressed and lose their fighting spirit. In the late Qing Dynasty, some Mongolian princes stayed in the capital and did not return to the deserted banner government, and arbitrarily leased the land of their banner to the Han people for reclamation, and they stayed in the city to enjoy themselves, and they no longer wanted to go to the bitter cold land to suffer.

The third way of weakening is the most famous spiritual opium, which vigorously promotes Lamaism.

The Manchu Dynasty built more than 2,000 lama temples in Mongolia, giving lamas generous treatment, such as tax exemption, and in the Ming Dynasty, they were exempted from a certain amount of taxes to scholars with meritorious names such as Xiucai and Juren, but in the Qing Dynasty, the internal gentry paid grain as a whole, and Xiucai dared to resist grain, which was a killing business. But lamas can be exempt from taxes, so if they want to live a good life, they go to become lamas.

At the same time as the lama was promoted, it was strictly forbidden for Han books to flow into Mongolia, and it was strictly forbidden for Mongolians to read Han books. In fact, the precautions are that the Mongols learned that "the prince and the prince will have a kind of subservience".

The Mongols were very poor, but the lama temple was very rich, and the only ideological culture they could access was lama thought, so a large number of poor children were sent to the temple to become lamas. According to statistics, between one-third and one-half of adult males become lamas. This has resulted in a significant shortage of childbearing populations.

The Manchu ruled Mongolia for more than 200 years, with more than 2.1 million Mongols and 200,000 Manchus at the beginning. By the time the Manchus fell, there were more than 1.7 million Mongols and 4 million Manchus. And the entire Chinese population has increased from 60 million to 400 million. Basically, Mongolia was the only ethnic group in the country that was "preferential" by the Manchus, and its population dropped significantly.

These weakening measures made it difficult for the Great Zhou army to encounter the organized Mongol army, and they had long lost the efficient organizational ability brought about by the grassroots official positions of the hundred households and thousands of households in the era of Genghis Khan. So the Great Zhou army, armed to the teeth, encountered scattered herdsmen, who couldn't resist even if they wanted to.

The only ones who were organized were the Manchu Qing Dynasty's own Eight Banner generals, but these Eight Banner soldiers surrendered one after another, laid down their arms under the Huairou policy, and enjoyed the high-ranking officials.

Among the Mongolian Eight Banners that surrendered in Beijing, Zhou Lang selected men and horses who had already made meritorious contributions to fill these Mongolian deputy commanders, commanders, and generals and other positions, and asked them to help recruit Mongolian cavalry, and then Zhou Lang's regular officers were responsible for training and leading, and grassroots officers generally appointed Mongolian and Chinese bilingual Mongolian Eight Banners to fill the positions.

Together with the Manchu and Mongolian cavalry that surrendered and captured, a cavalry corps of 30,000 was formed in one year.

These horses stabilized the rule of the Great Zhou over the Inner Mongols.

Now almost all of Inner Mongolia has fallen under the jurisdiction of the Great Zhou, and the troops have been divided into the empty northeast to guard against the Koreans who are about to move.

As a result, the current situation outside the Guanxi is basically that the east and southeast belong to the Great Zhou, and the north and northwest belong to the Western Qing regime.

Zhou Lang was not too worried about the Manchu counterattack, and if his army could beat the Manchus all the way, there was no reason to support their counterattack.

Weapons and equipment, training level and logistical supplies, all-round superiority, and field combat in the open area, he really can't think of a reason for defeat.

Sure enough, the Battle of Horqin was a great victory, and more than 70,000 Zhou horse infantry defeated 100,000 Qing troops, pursued for hundreds of miles, entered the outer Mongolia, and approached Kulun.

The war in the steppe region was so wide open and closed that it brought serious challenges to logistics and supply, which is why Zhou Lang formed the Mongol cavalry, which had a much lower supply requirement than the regular infantry of the Great Zhou.

This battle also proved the loyalty of the Mongols, under the leadership of the Great Zhou officers, they could hedge with the cavalry of the Manchu Eight Banners, which was a new method of warfare, the other side only liked to harass in a roundabout way, but the two sides were at the same level in horsemanship, and as a result, the harassment was repeatedly stopped and defeated.

The performance of these Mongols made Zhou Lang quite reassured, who said that only Han people like to be traitors, this is good management. The Indians were organized by the British, not yet to die for the British. Didn't the Mongol servant army recruited by the Ming Dynasty also conquer the Northern Yuan and fight their emperor!

Just when Zhou Lang was relieved and waited for Gou Quan to lead these mixed horse and infantry troops, he could bring him good news and seize the garrisons of the Eight Banner generals such as Kulun, Uriya Sutai, and Kobdo, destroy all the Manchu ruling institutions, replace them, and force the Manchu forces into a corner of Xinjiang.

Suddenly, the news of Gou Quan's defeat came.

The defeat was not due to the rebellion, but was defeated by the enemy head-on, Gou Quan's three main armies were defeated head-on, more than half of the losses were lost, and the remnants of the army were defeated more than one out of ten, and Gou Quan himself was captured by life.

This is really a big defeat that has never been seen since the start of the army, Zhou Lang repeatedly confirmed the accuracy of the news, he very much hoped that this was fake news, it was a mistake, and even the army played a joke with him, but it was a pity to confirm again and again that Gou Quan was indeed defeated, and the defeat was very miserable, and he was captured.

After the final battle report came out, everyone understood that it was not the Qing army that defeated Gou Quan's army, the Qing army was just a bait, and it was the Russian army, the Tsar's army, that defeated them head-on!

If the Tsar's army is stronger than Zhou Lang's current army, Zhou Lang can accept it, but if it is so strong, Zhou Lang can't accept it.

Because it is recorded in the war report that the Russian army has only 20,000, it is against Gou Quan's 30,000 main force, and almost annihilates Gou Quan, which is no longer winning more with less, but destroying more with less.

Could it be that the army that was formed in the way of the Western army is so vulnerable in the face of the real Western army?

This made Zhou Lang feel a big blow and decided to get this field back!