The First Northern Expedition was still going on, and the empire had entered the eighth year of the Apocalypse. Being able to spend the seven years of the Apocalypse safely, Zhu Youxiao felt a sense of relief. Last year, Zhu Youxiao's experience in history was like a sword of Damocles hanging over Zhu Youxiao's head, making him cautious in everything he did. Now that everything has passed, Zhu Youxiao really sees hope. He even wanted to make a Haitian feast to celebrate, but when this idea first appeared, it was snuffed out by Zhang Yan in the cradle.

On the tenth day of the first month, Concubine Fu Yi found Zhu Youxiao and discussed with Zhu Youxiao the marriage of Princess Zhu Huijing of Suiping. Last time the eldest princess of Ningde got married, Zhu Youxiao insisted on changing the ancestral system, which made Concubine Fu Yi very satisfied with the result. Concubine Fu also knew that Zhu Youxiao was under great pressure, and she was very grateful afterwards. This time Zhu Huijing got married, Concubine Fu Yi decided to let Zhu Youxiao call the shots.

Zhu Youxiao abolished the ancestral system, which made Princess Daming a sweet and sweet, and the number of people willing to marry the princess increased rapidly. When Zhu Youxiao selected the horses, in line with the principle of rather demolishing ten temples than destroying one family, he once again chose Qi Zanyuan, the husband in Zhu Huijing's history. Zhu Youxiao knew that if Zhu Huijing married according to his rules again, the ancestral system would be completely abolished, and it would be difficult to restore it in the future.

When Zhu Youxiao was busy with the marriage of Princess Zhu Huijing of Suiping, Zu Dashou's army had already entered the former site of Kaipingwei. Along the way, Wenbu Chushu constantly sent light cavalry to harass Zu Dashou's army, hoping to slow down the advance of Zu Dashou's army. But the effect is not good, Zu Dashou's army carries 100,000 people, and the marching speed is not fast, coupled with the weather, Zu Dashou's army has been marching to the extreme, even if the East Tumut people harass, it is impossible to be slower.

After the 10,000 troops in Xuanfu Town officially entered Xinghesu, the activity space of the Eastern Tumut people was compressed to the extreme, leaving them with only two ways to go, one was to fight to the death, and the other was to take refuge in other tribes.

On 15 February, seeing that the Ming army had not been crushed by the bitter cold, Wen Bu Chuhu decided to fight a decisive battle before Zu Dashou and Chen Si converged, and first crushed Zu Dashou's army of 20,000. With 40,000 against 20,000, Wenbu Chuhuer felt that there was still a chance to win.

The reason why the Ming army was able to survive the winter in the grassland was due to the fact that the soldiers who went out to fight were all northerners, and even most of the people were northerners, and they were not much worse than the Tumuts in adapting to this kind of weather. In addition, Zhu Youxiao's abundant financial guarantee, and the strategy of steady and steady progress at all levels ensured that the logistics of the army were not affected in any way. On the contrary, due to the repeated compression of living space in winter, problems began to arise in logistics and supply.

On 17 February, the Ming scouts discovered that the large army of Eastern Tumut was coming from the northwest. After receiving the news, Zu Dashou immediately mobilized a large army to prepare for a decisive battle, and at the same time sent people to ask Chen Si for help.

On 18 February, scouts from the Eastern Tumert Division appeared in large numbers on the north bank of the Lightning River. And the army of the Eastern Tumut Department was only a day's journey away from Zu Dashou.

On 18 February, the two armies set up positions on the north bank of the Lightning River, and the decisive battle of the First Northern Expedition was officially staged.

Zu Dashou set up three infantry phalanxes on the north bank of the Lightning River, with 5,000 dragoons as a maneuver. On the side of the Eastern Tumuts, Wenbu Chuhuer personally led an army of 26,000 to sit in the middle army, Shanba led 10,000 soldiers and horses of his headquarters on the right flank, and the 4,000 soldiers and horses on the left flank were mainly Mongol Zhenbu.

Knowing that the battle had to be resolved quickly, he considered that Chen Si's army would appear on the battlefield at any time, and his Chinese army was the first to attack.

The Chinese army in Umbu Chushu shouted "Allah ......" and rushed towards Zu Dashou's infantry phalanx. The first use of the Tumuts was the traditional cavalry warfare method.

The Tumuts were wrong from the start to face the all-firearmed Ming army and want to use long-range attacks to gain an advantage. The Ming army used the mode of group combat, not paying attention to precision, but using quantitative coverage to suppress the opponent, using the number in exchange for the enemy's casualties, firing in a row, and the two hundred meters in front were full of flintlock bullets. The artillery of the Ming army also greatly deterred the Eastern Tumuts.

When the Tumuts tried to break away from the battlefield from both sides of the Phalanx, they were again attacked by soldiers from both sides of the Phalanx. Under such circumstances, the casualty ratio of the Ming army and the Tumuts could almost reach one to five.

Shanba, who was on the left flank of the Ming army, suffered a big loss in Xinghe last time, was cautious in the face of the Ming army this time, and only after Wenbu Chuhuer launched an attack, Shanba began the first round of attacks.

On the right flank of the Ming army, the Mongol Zhenbu was the weakest of the Eastern Tumut tribes, and when the Chinese army of Wenbu Chushu began to attack, the right flank was mainly to respond to the Chinese army.

The first round of attacks by the Eastern Tumuts did not have an effect, but they suffered a lot of losses, and when Wenbu Chushu saw this, he decided to storm Zu Dashou's infantry phalanx.

After a short period of repair, Wembuchuxur began the second round of the assault with heavy troops. The thousands of cavalry of the Eastern Tumets ran up and attacked what seemed impressive, but in reality they posed a limited threat to the infantry phalanx.

As soon as the Eastern Tumuts entered the firing range, the long-range artillery of the Ming army took the lead in firing, and the number of long-range artillery of the Ming army was extremely limited, and it did not pose much of a threat to the Eastern Tumertes. The distance of two hundred meters is the range of the flintlock pistol, and this distance has no accuracy to speak of, and it is entirely dependent on numbers. But the distance of fifty meters is hell for East Tumut, this distance, all the artillery of the Ming army can play a role, and the flintlock pistol is extremely accurate and lethal at this distance.

There were very few cavalrymen who were able to rush through this death distance, and the end result was to crash into the bayonets of the infantry phalanx.

The second round of the Wenbu Chushu assault still brought only minor casualties to the Ming army, and it was still the bows and arrows that caused the casualties. Wenbu Chuhu is really anxious this time, this decisive battle, he can't drag it out for a few days, he still has a Ming army of 20,000 behind him, if he can't break through the infantry phalanx of the Ming army, it means that the Eastern Tumut people will definitely lose this war.

Wembu Chushu decided to personally lead a large army to storm Zu Dashou's infantry phalanx.

"My lord, Wenbu Chuhuer has personally gone to battle."

"It seems that Umbuchulu can't wait any longer, and has given the order to get the dragoons ready." Zu Dashou said with a smile.

"No."

……

Two successive attacks by the Eastern Tumuts were ineffective, leaving morale somewhat low. However, under the personal leadership of Umbuchuor, the Eastern Tumut people erupted with an astonishing momentum, and the sound of "Allah ......" resounded in the sky.

(End of chapter)