Mobei is a bitter cold land, and this short comment quickly gave Hauge a real feeling during the nearly three-month expedition. Now in his eyes, compared with Mobei, Liaodong can really be regarded as a paradise.

At least when you go out at night in Shenyang, as long as you wear warm clothes, you can still let people go out. But at night in Mobei, leaving the camp is tantamount to giving up your life. The non-stop snow and cold winds day and night can not only confuse people's sense of direction, but can also easily take people's lives.

When they set out from Shenyang, in addition to 3,500 elite cavalry, they also took more than 2,000 servants, but on the march, they lost more than 300 elite cavalry and more than 700 servants. If it weren't for the extreme care of Dolgon, who led the group, constantly collecting grain, grass and manpower from the Mongol tribes along the way, and refusing to deviate from the chosen route of march, it is estimated that their losses would have been even greater.

After seeing the true face of Mobei Winter, Hauge, who originally wanted to atone for his sins in this expedition and perform well in front of his father Khan, also stopped complaining in front of Dolgon all day long and asking for an unreasonable request for a light army to advance.

Although when the expeditionary force arrived near Dalai Lake, news came again from the right flank of Transkhalkha that the troops of Lindan Khan were staying in the wintering camp of the former Tushetu Khan, and seemed to be preparing to winter here. And the Khan led the tribe to retreat to the valley of the lower Orkhon River for the winter.

The wintering camp occupied by Lin Dan Khan was in the middle and upper reaches of the Orkhon River, near a tributary of the Tula River, north of the Khan Mountains, and about 1,500 miles west of Dalai Lake. It should be said that after the division of troops between Lin Dan Khan and Choktu Khan, a surprise attack on Lin Dan Khan's eight or nine thousand men was a battle plan with a great chance of victory, not to mention that a small part of these eight or nine thousand men were Transkhalkha people who had just surrendered to Lin Dan Khan not long ago.

Some young generals, including Haoge, thought that they would raid Lin Dan Khan's department with light troops, end the task assigned by the Great Khan as soon as possible, and return to Shenyang as soon as possible, so that they did not have to stay in the Hulunbuir grassland to blow the wind and freeze. The climate here is already much colder than Shenyang, and although there are forests in the north to block the cold wind from moving south, it is still unbearable for these Jurchen relatives who have been used to it.

Apart from the cold climate and poor public opinion, there is nothing to eat on the diet except boiled lamb or barbecued lamb and sour wine. Less than a month after leaving Shenyang, even Hauge has begun to miss the fine wine and various foods at home in Shenyang City, especially the canned fruits from the south. It's a pity that at such temperatures, canned food is difficult to store and transport.

Naturally, Dolgon unceremoniously rejected the proposal of Hauge and others, and he carefully consulted the local shepherds and the envoys of the right wing of Transkhalkha, and finally decided to march along the Krulun River. The first target was Bayintumen in the lower valley of the Krulun River, 400 miles west of Lake Dalai, where the winter camp of a tribe on the left flank of Transkhalkha was located.

Just such a short-distance sortie made this expeditionary force understand what the Mobei grassland is. Although the Mobei grassland and the Hulunbuir grassland are connected, the climate comparison between the two sides is like the difference between Shenyang and Hulunbuir grassland.

It is no wonder that Mongolian tribes can still be seen in the Hulunbuir grassland from time to time, but in the Mobei grassland, except for a few specific areas, no tribe will overwinter on the unsheltered grassland. Therefore, after successfully defeating Bayintumen, no one in this army was clamoring to raid Lin Dan Khan lightly.

Seeing the loss of troops during this short march, coupled with the arrival of the blizzard, Dorgon also discouraged the idea of continuing the march, and camped at Bayintumen for the winter. After a month and a half in the area, the weather finally began to clear and the weather began to improve.

Only then did Dolgon make up his mind, and at the beginning of February of the fifth year of Chongzhen, he continued westward along the Khulun River, and on the 15th arrived at a grassy beach called Bayandreger, a hundred miles away from Lin Dan Khan's wintering camp. After nearly five days of reconnaissance, Dorgon found that Lindan Khan was unaware of their arrival, and that his troops were still scattered in the valley where the wintering camp was located.

On 22 February, on a mild night, Dolgon ordered Zilharang to stay at the camp with the sick and wounded, and he and Hauge set out in the middle of the night with 2,500 men, following the marks left by the scouts to Lindan Khan's wintering camp. At about 5 a.m., the team arrived at the entrance to the valley 15 miles southeast of the wintering camp.

The team was here for an hour and a half, waiting for the stragglers to come and converge, and waiting for the change of sky. As soon as the sky began to glow, Dorgon ordered Haug to lead six hundred cavalry to trample the entire wintering camp from southeast to northwest, with Turg leading a second wave of 1,200 men, and himself taking the rest of his men and horses to suppress the formation.

The raid had been smooth from the start, and the Lin Dan Khan tribes, who were scattered throughout the river valley, had no idea that such an army would appear outside the wintering camp when the cold winter was about to pass. Although the hard-working habits of the Mongol tribes in southern Mo, especially the left-wing Chahar tribes, are better than those of the Jurchens, who have broken away from the half-fishing, hunting, and half-farming life, they are still slightly inferior to their Mobei compatriots.

It's just that relying on the friendship with the Ming Kingdom in the past two years and obtaining a lot of supplies, the Chahar army was able to survive the unusually cold winter in Mobei in this river valley covered by the northern and southern mountain ranges. The Orkhon River runs through the valley from west to east, and in the middle of the valley, the Tula River, which flows out of the mountains in the north, flows into the Orkhon River from northeast to southwest.

More than 8,000 troops, more than 2,000 captured herdsmen, and more than 100,000 head of livestock were widely scattered in the east-west valley grassland. Of course, the most elite 3,000 Chahar iron cavalry and the royal tent of Lin Dan Khan were still relatively closely stationed on the north and south banks of the Tula River.

Lin Dan Khan stationed 2,000 people with Tashhai, Zhaisangqitat, Cherbe, etc., on the platform north of the Tula River, while Guiyingcha, who was called the first warrior of Mongolia by Emperor Ming, was stationed on the southern plain with nearly 1,000 subordinates. Obviously, even after the expedition to Mobei, the relationship between Lin Dan Khan and this brother-in-law did not improve.

It should be said that at the beginning of the whole raid, it went very smoothly. Although these Jurchen white-armored guards can no longer bear as much hardship and hard work as when the Jurchens rose, they have never lagged behind those Jurchen soldiers when they rose in terms of combat skills and equipment.

Hauge's example of taking the lead inspired his subordinates to fight. In the blink of an eye, the vanguard had cleared the passage to the Tula camp, and the Chahars had been trampled into mud before they could get out of their warm bedding in the tents that were scattered along the Haug march.

Only on the south bank of the Tula River did the Jurchen army encounter resistance from the Cheng system, and through friendship with the Ming Emperor, Guiyingcha's troops were not only fully equipped with armor and excellent weapons, but also obtained a batch of muskets. It was with these muskets that Gui Yingcha, who heard the sound of the horse's hooves and the screams of his troops, could order his subordinates to rely on the heavy vehicles in front of their tents as shields to form a small phalanx to prevent the Jurchen vanguard from continuing to attack.

While calling on his subordinates who could not find mounts to move closer to his tents, Gui Yingcha sent people to ask for help from Lin Dan Khan on the northern bank. Although he didn't understand how the Jurchens could appear here, Gui Yingcha thought that it was impossible for the Jurchens to mobilize a large number of men and horses across half of the desert to attack here in such a season.

Therefore, as long as Lin Dan Khan can gather the men and horses on the north bank in time, he will be able to repel this sneak attack of the Jurchen army. And the Chahar troops scattered everywhere can also return to help in time, and it is not good to say that they can completely annihilate this Jurchen army.

Encouraged by Gui Yingcha, the subordinates stationed on the south bank of the Tula River, as well as some scattered Chahar tribesmen, began to slowly calm down. Although they were dispersed by the Jurchen cavalry, they did not continue to flee far away, but tried to gather peace with Gui Yingcha's tent. This made Gui Yingcha's subordinates gradually grow from less than 100 people to more than 300 people, and the originally simple phalanx began to become more presentable.

Hauge personally led his troops to charge and kill twice, but he failed to break through the small phalanx set up by the imitation of the illuminated army chariot array, but let his subordinates lose more than a dozen people under the muskets. When Turg arrived here, he immediately realized that this small phalanx on the south bank of the Tula River was difficult to capture for a while, after all, after spending more than half a cold winter in the Mobei grassland, the elite was like a white-armored guard, and the physical strength at this time was also a little difficult to continue. Especially those war horses, most of them have lost their weight and can't afford a few fierce charges.

Turg stopped Haug's brute force and ordered his men to disperse the Mongols who were approaching the Guiyingcha phalanx, while he himself prepared to continue the assault on the Mongol camp on the north bank of the Tula River with half of his men. At this time, Dolgon had already rushed up with his reserves, and he did not hesitate to lead his men across the Tula River to the Mongol camp on the opposite terrace.

Just when Turg and Hauge were a little at a loss to watch the team follow Dolgon to the north, Dolgon's cronies came to the two with his message, and asked the two: "Morgen Daiqing asked, what are you waiting for, leave a small team of men and horses to watch here, everyone will attack, as long as Lin Dan Khan is captured, the war will be over..."

As Dolgon had judged, there was only one core of this army, and that was Lin Dan Khan himself. Although Guiyingcha's bravery could inspire the surrounding Mongols to fight bravely, when the Mongols who were assembling in the valley saw that Lin Dan Khan, who they worshiped as gods, did not raise his banner and fight to the death with the Jurchens to wait for their rescue as they thought, but like a rabbit, after fleeing to the western steppe before the Jurchen team rushed to the platform, everyone immediately scattered.

Lin Dan Khan finally escaped the pursuit of the Jurchens, but he led the army into Mobei, but the whole army was wiped out in this battle. Tashhai, Zhaisangqitat, Cherbei and other Mongol nobles surrendered to the Jurchens, and Guiying saw that there was nothing to do, so he fled to the winter camp of the Choktu Khan in the east with hundreds of his cronies.

The Jurchens captured seven or eight thousand Mongols, as well as eighty or ninety thousand livestock. It's just that in such weather, Dolgon didn't dare to blindly go deep into the steppe to continue to pursue Lin Dan Khan. He could only camp in the river valley with the main force, and sent some capable small teams to pursue the traces of Lin Dan Khan, and sent people to find and invite the Taiji of the right wing of the Transkhalkha to help capture Lin Dan Khan, and to come to join him in alliance.

In late March, Tushetu Khan, Zasaktu Khan, and Chechen Khan finally learned of the Houjin army's raid on Kulen, the defeat of the Chahar army, and the whereabouts of Lin Dan Khan. They were both happy and worried, and the three Khans hurriedly rushed towards Kulen with thousands of cavalry, one wanting to take advantage of this opportunity to completely solve the threat of the left flank Suiktu, and on the other hand, hoping to save Lin Dan Khan's life.

No matter how much they resented Lin Dan Khan in their hearts, only if Lin Dan Khan was still alive could Mongolia maintain formal unity and not fall apart and start a situation of internal strife.