The area of the Horqin grassland is more than 40,000 square kilometers! And this is not all the battlefield, it is also necessary to add a thousand miles of pine forest and Yelai Mountain (Daxing'an Mountains), I am afraid that there will be more than 67,000 square kilometers!

When there are airplanes and satellites in the future, it will not be boundless.

But now is the era of relying on scouts and relying on distant horses to reconnoitre. It is basically impossible to cover tens of thousands of square kilometers of battlefield with scouts and horses, and to gather information to their respective headquarters in a timely manner.

Moreover, both sides are armies on horseback, and no one lacks scouts and remote horses - when the northern horseback peoples move on the open battlefield, they do not scatter a small number of scouts and distant horses, but will scatter a third or a quarter of their troops to ensure that they cover a large enough battlefield. This will help you search for the enemy and cover your own.

If you look at it figuratively, this style of play is a bit like the aircraft carrier battle during the Pacific War, where search and concealment are very important tactics.

For a cavalry marching on four legs, the vast prairie is like the Pacific Ocean where American and Japanese aircraft carriers roam.

If you can't find an opponent, you are busy, and you have to be afraid if you let the opponent find it first!

The grasslands are passable everywhere, but they are no more accessible than the Central Plains or the south of the Yangtze River, where mountains, rivers and muddy fields block it. On the steppe, the enemy will pounce on you from all directions!

So the best defense is not to make a tight formation and be ready to fight, but to hide yourself with a shield circle of distant barricades and horses, so that enemy scouts cannot get close.

Only by making it impossible for the enemy to discover it can we be truly foolproof.

In the same way, it is necessary to discover the enemy's position and situation as early as possible in order to avoid fighting uncertain battles.

Therefore, after the Eastern Liao Left Army commanded by Wu Yixin crossed the Huang River and entered the war zone, it did not march towards Linhuang Mansion in a mighty manner.

It is very unprofessional to march and fight on the steppe like this, because the battlefield is too large, and there are no mountains and rivers that can restrict the activities of the army. The water level of the Huang River is not deep, and the current is not fast, so it is not a moat.

If Wu Yixin is not careful to hide himself and does not search for the enemy seriously, it is very likely that people will be caught off guard.

Although Wu Haogu's son was only a young man in his twenties, and his rank in the Zhou army was only a major (or because he was promoted because he became the acting left army of Eastern Liao), he was familiar with the principles of grassland warfare. Moreover, Wu Jue and Xiao Tefu (a cousin of the Empress Dowager Xiao, who also studied at the Cavalry Academy) who assisted him were both officers who had been trained in the Horqin grassland for many years, so of course they would not make any low-level mistakes.

Therefore, on the first day of the seventh month of the eighth year of the Republic, the Eastern Liao Left Army quietly crossed the Huang River under the cover of night. Then the army did not stop for half a minute, and marched more than 100 miles, entering a hexagonal fortress called Baoyi Pavilion built when Xiao Se led the army north last year.

This fortress is only more than 100 miles away from Linhuangfu City, and thirty or forty miles away in front and left and right, there are fortresses of the Jin army - not a fortress, but an ordinary fortress used to monitor the Baoyi Pavilion.

At the same time as crossing the Huang River with the main force, Wu Yixin, Wu Jue, and Xiao Tefu sent 6,000 cavalry to act as remote horses, which were scattered on the grasslands of Baoyi Hall 50 miles north and south and 100 miles east and west. With a squadron of 0 to 50 cavalry, they fought with the scout cavalry of the Golden People.

Later, when the troops entered the Baoyi Pavilion, they also sent a storming force composed of cavalry, dismounted cavalry and artillery to sweep away the nearby Jin strongholds.

In other words, Wu Yixin is ready to turn the surrounding 5,000 square kilometers of grassland into a battlefield that he can fully control.

After taking control of this battlefield, the army of the Empress Dowager Xiao Sisei of Eastern Liao will arrive with enough baggage and artillery. Then plan your next move......

And in the city of Linhuangfu, more than 100 miles north of the Baoyi Pavilion, the Tokyo of the Jin Kingdom was left behind, and the deputy capital marshal Wan Yan Xian also knew at this time that the major shareholder Liao soldiers and horses had arrived at the Baoyi Pavilion.

But he doesn't know how much this "big stock" is? A 35,000 is also a big share, and a 350,000 is also a big share. I don't know how many people there are.

"Stay behind, our sons have lost a lot of money, there are more than five hundred people lost these days, and six fortresses have been broken by them! It's not the way to go on like this! ”

Xianye's deputy is Wanyan Zongwang, the second son of A Guta, who broke the Kaifeng Mansion in history and arrested Zhao Ji and Zhao Huan to see the snow in the Five Kingdoms.

But now, Wanyan Zongwang was stumped by a low hexagonal fortress.

The not-so-fortified hexagonal fortress needed only a dozen guns and 1,000 soldiers to defend it.

Even if the Jurchens were determined to pay 10 times the loss, they would not necessarily be able to overcome it.

Anyway, the tug-of-war on the Horqin grassland has been fought so far, only Xiao Se has broken the large and medium-sized fortresses of the Jin army, and no fortress in Eastern Liao has ever been breached.

And this fortress, which only needs 1,000 people to defend, covers a large area, can store a large amount of supplies, and can also be stuffed with tens of thousands of horses.

This allowed the Eastern Liao to station a large number of troops in the fortress, and it was difficult for the Jurchens to investigate.

There is no way to find out the enemy's situation, how to fight this battle? Who knows if it's Xiao Sese or Wu Haogu? The strength of Zhou's support for Eastern Liao is obvious, and he may personally participate in the war!

Wan Yan Xian also knew that his nephew could fight, so he asked him: "If you can't leave, what do you say?" ”

"Either collect the troops into Linhuangfu City and hold on to it." Wanyan Zongwang touched his thick beard, "Either give me 10,000 people, and I'll test it." ”

The reduction of troops was to avoid unnecessary losses, and now half of Wanyan Xianye's soldiers and horses were scattered among dozens of fortresses, and for every fortress he lost, he would lose hundreds of men.

If the Eastern Liao army did not have artillery, he would not be afraid. The names of hundreds of Jurchen sons can be exchanged for at least four or five hundred Khitan thieves' dog lives.

But now people have cannons! The fortress can be easily toppled and the defenders are blown away.

However, it is not easy to give up all the fortresses, and only defend one place in Linhuang Mansion.

Because in this way, the Jin army will not have enough support points to cover the activities of scouts and distant horses, and the scope of reconnaissance and search will be greatly reduced, leaving only the vicinity of Linhuang Mansion.

Moreover, the forts abandoned by the Jin soldiers will be repaired and occupied by the Eastern Liao army. At that time, the Eastern Liao army will be able to use these fortresses to deploy remote blockade horses, block the perimeter of Linhuang Mansion, and finally turn the Jin soldiers in the city of Linhuang Mansion into blind and deaf people.

If the opponent comes with tens of thousands of people, it is not wrong for the Jin soldiers of Linhuang Mansion to shrink. Linhuang Mansion is a fortified city, and if the defenders are sufficient, it will be difficult for the Eastern Liao army to break through it.

It is completely possible to let the enemy stay under the fortified city, wait until the veteran soldiers of the division are tired, and then join forces with the main force led by Aguta to annihilate it.

But if the Eastern Liao army only has a few thousand or ten thousand people, the blind shrinkage of the Jin soldiers in Linhuang Mansion is doing something stupid.

Because the task of the Jin soldiers of Linhuang Mansion, in addition to sticking to the stronghold of Linhuang Mansion, is to search the Horqin grassland. If the task of searching the grassland was abandoned, the Jin soldiers would not even know the approximate number and location of the Eastern Liao army. How do you let Ah Gu fight?

"Give you eight thousand," Wan Yan Xian also thought about it, "but don't touch the Baoyi Pavilion." ”

"I know," Wanyan Zongwang smiled, "You have to walk day and night, and kill chickens with knives!" Let Liao Gou not figure out the situation. As long as you can lure out a large force of their troops, fight a fight, and scratch your tongue a little more, you can find out the situation. ”

Interrogating prisoners was an important way to find out the enemy's situation, but the scouts of the Eastern Liao army did not necessarily set off at the same time as the main army. I don't necessarily know the location and specific situation of the main force, and there is not much information that can be asked after catching them.

Therefore, conducting a battle of thousands or even tens of thousands of people is undoubtedly the best way to find out the enemy's situation.

Xian also nodded, and said: "If it is possible, lead Liaogou to the vicinity of the Qianli Pine Forest." ”

"Okay, got it!"

……

The main body of the Qianli pine forest is called the flat forest, which is located on the flat land between the Yelai Mountain (Daxinganling Mountain Range) and the Yanshan Mountain Range and on the west side. If you count some of the mountain forests on Yelin Mountain and Yanshan Mountain Range, it is a thousand miles of pine forest, which is really a boundless forest sea. To the west of the forest sea is the vast grassland of Bashang. To the east is the Horqin steppe.

If the current advantage of Eastern Liao is in the Horqin grassland, then the Jin State undoubtedly has an advantage in the thousand-mile pine forest.

Because the Jurchens were originally a fishing and hunting people in the mountains and forests, when it comes to the ability to hunt and drill the old forests, how can the Khitans, who are half-farming and half-herding, be opponents?

Therefore, in the years-long tug-of-war in Horqin, the Qianli Pine Forest and Yelai Mountain have always been the home of the Jurchens. That unlucky Eastern Liao king, Yelu Aolu, has been guarding the southern part of the Qianli Pine Forest for several years, preventing the Jin soldiers from raiding Dading Mansion through the pine forest.

However, the central and northern parts of the Qianli Pine Forest are basically the world of the Jin soldiers, and it is difficult for the scouts of the Eastern Liao Army to enter, let alone establish a stronghold in the pine forest.

As early as after the Second Battle of Linhuangfu, the Jin Kingdom began to build a city that could garrison troops on the slopes of the western foot of the Yelai Mountain Mountain in the north of the Qianli pine forest.

It was a huge wooden fort made of the most common pine wood in the thousand-mile pine forest, and it occupied a large hillside, enough to contain all the armies of Akuta. A large amount of grain and supplies were stored in the wooden fort, which was enough for the hundreds of thousands of troops of Aguta to eat for more than half a year.

Moreover, the location of the mountain city has always been a secret, and Dongliao did not know that such a mountain city existed. Even if they knew, they were helpless, and the Khitans did not dare to go deep into the boundless forest sea.

At the end of June, the army of Aguta arrived at Yelai Mountain Fort, and then lurked there quietly, waiting for the Eastern Liao army to appear on the Horqin grassland.