"The ...... of the second quarter of the moon" Li Zhiye spoke in Nanyin, looked at the half-round crescent moon in the sky, and said softly: "Today is the twenty-third day?" ”

"Exactly." A cuirassier led a horse and stood beside Li Zhiye, answering loudly.

In front of them is the tip of the green grass that has just broken out of the land, under the faint moonlight, the grassland like the Hanhai seems to have spirituality, the grassland that cannot be seen at a glance is boundless, the green can still be seen in the near place, and the far place seems to be a large black area, which makes people shudder.

"I don't know how many wolves are hiding......

Li Zhiye's deputy, Wang Yiji, listened to the wolf howl and sighed with emotion.

"Wolves are nothing." Li Zhiye said: "People are far more dangerous than wolves. ”

"Yes......" Wang Yiji responded, turned his head to Li Gui behind him and said, "Staff officer, how is the report on the enemy situation?" ”

Li Guidao: "We are now dispatched to the Tiancheng Division and the Zhenyu Division, plus a baggage battalion and more than 8,000 people from 5,000 people, 1,400 soldiers from the two divisions, the main force of the Qingcheng Division has withdrawn into Bansheng City, and there are a lot of Taiji's soldiers and horses over there, and then Zhu Dayong's first cavalry division is active in the east of Harashen, and the remnants of the cloth bag are far away, and Halashen's Baihong Dataiji has always been friendly with Tumut, and not only will the first cavalry division be put there, but the people of Duoer and the second division will also rush over as soon as possible. In addition, an infantry division will be placed on the east road, which is close to a state of war, but the trade route on the east road cannot be broken, and the western Mongolia is fighting an overall war, fighting for comprehensive strength, and every penny of silver during this period is good.

Moreover, the East Road must not be intermittent, this is Zhang Han's main purpose of Liaodong trade, and the war against Tumut must not affect the East Road trade, this is an iron principle.

In this way, the western part of the country is almost dominated by infantry, the Tiancheng Division and the Zhenyu Division have been stationed north of the Dahei River, Li Zhiye took the Qingcheng Division on the south bank, the soldiers and the people are also on the south bank, and the Engineer Division is building a few pontoon bridges on the bank of the Dahei River, and after the pontoon bridge is repaired, the brigade will cross the north bank and build a military fort on the north bank.

In addition to the military fort, a number of military platforms and fire piers were to be built on the south bank all the way to the side wall, and on the south bank, dozens of kilns for baking bricks had been built, and enough people were digging earth to make brick embryos, and piling them up to dry.

More utensils are being manufactured, and every day when Li Zhiye passes by the barracks and workshop area, he feels the vastness and magnificence of manpower.

"All troops on alert!"

There was a faint sound of horses' hooves in the distance, Li Zhiye's deputy ordered to be on guard, the battle flag team formed a small array in the outermost part, the fire gun flag team was closely attached to the spear phalanx, the military horn sounded, and everyone woke up from the state of rest.

The sound of horses' hooves was far and near, the waning moon disappeared, and then the morning star also disappeared, and the sky revealed the white belly of the fish, at this time there was the sound of the wheels of the convoy in the south, and the infantry was more closely guarded, and the sound of the horses' hooves seemed to be closer, Li Zhiye looked through binoculars and found that the enemy was about five or six miles away, and the number was about four or five thousand, among which there were many formal cavalrymen wearing cotton armor, and he felt that the pressure was not great in terms of numbers, and the only thing to worry about was that the supply convoy was harassed.

The convoy will come every two or three days, transporting a large amount of food and daily necessities, this time the convoy is very large, more than 100 carts full of various materials to come, the military order department and the staff department jointly ordered, the garrison soldiers and horses along the way are mobilized, day and night guard guard.

Staff Officer Li Gui held a map marked with red and blue arrows, the red arrows representing several major supply routes, almost overlapping with the previous trade routes, and only some of the arrows leading to the work area were newly opened roads.

The blue arrow represents the Mongol cavalry found during this time, although the Tumut tribes have not officially launched a war against Zhang Han, and there are still a large number of Han merchants and Heyusheng's branches and garrisons in Bansheng City, but both sides understand that the war is imminent, and the clouds of the war are shrouded in the grassland, and the arrows marked those cavalry who covet and snoop, and may have been the same people who frequently attacked the convoys and supply stations on the trade routes some time ago.

In addition to the red and blue arrows, there is a large blue area, which represents the area controlled by the Mongols.

To the south of the large enemy-controlled area is the red zone representing the Ming Dynasty, but it is far away from where Li Gui and the others are.

There were merchant garrisons and supply stations, or the sites where the construction of military forts began, was dotted of various sizes.

Judging from the map, the dots are still half red, indicating that the defense facilities have not yet been completed.

Every time Li Gui looked at the map, he felt excited, he saw those honeycomb-like dots, and said sincerely: "It's really spectacular!" ”

"Less nonsense......" Li Zhiye liked this ambitious, quick-witted and smart young man very much, he scolded with a smile: "The convoy has entered the semi-red zone, Officer Li, do you suggest that most of the troops be disbanded, and the small units should be guarded in turn, or should the whole army continue to be guarded?" ”

Li Guidao: "My suggestion is that the whole division attack and flank the enemy forces on the other side of the river. ”

"Very well, tell me why?"

"The distance of the enemy's snooping on us is getting closer and closer......" Li Gui looked at the arrows on the map, and said loudly: "Three days ago, they were at least ten miles away from us, and ten days ago, they only appeared within twenty or thirty miles nearby, and sent a small number of sentry horses to sentry over, and today their sentry horses are about to engage us, and the main force is only five or six miles away...... Such signs indicate that their lord's patience is running out, and if we take the initiative, it is very likely to cause a battle! ”

"If we will fight, we will have 680 people in a division, only a small number of horses, and no cavalry, can we be sure?"

"Yes."

"Where's the grasp?"

"According to the records and calculations of the General Staff Division, in the battle between us and the Beiyu, one division can easily defeat the main force of the opponent's five thousand people, including the combination of armored cavalry and herdsmen, and now we not only have one division of troops, but also artillery crews accompanying ......."

"This kind of thing, don't rely on records and calculations......" Li Zhiye did not praise Li Gui this time, but said with a straight face: "There are no certain rules for war, and there is no record to calculate whether the enemy can fight, but based on more in-depth intelligence ......"

"Yes......" Li Gui lowered his head, but he still held his head high and looked at Li Zhiye.

"According to the intelligence of the sentry cavalry," Li Zhiye's eyes showed approval, he did not look at Li Gui again, but said to the officers present: "The enemy cavalry is 5,000, and the armor soldiers are less than 1,500, and they are jointly led by eleven Taiji, which shows that this army is not an army dominated by ordinary herdsmen, but elite soldiers mainly composed of armored soldiers and elite herdsmen...... However, we still have to push forward, the Tiancheng Division and the Zhenyu Division will cooperate with us, and they also have two groups of five or six thousand people in front of each of them, but they are mainly herdsmen, and there are not many elites, if they fight, our army has a great chance of winning. ”

Li Zhiye took a breath, pulled out his saber and pointed forward, and ordered: "The whole company forward, cross the river!" ”

……

"The Han dog has crossed the river."

A Mongolian sentry wearing cotton armor and an iron helmet saw the scene of Lingqiu Si crossing the river from afar, and now that the sky was bright, the sentry was on a mound again, and it was easy to see the figure of an ant colony on the river.

This Mongolian sentinel named Tabu Nang is in his early thirties, is an experienced armor elite soldier, his own master is Su Nang, and was later sent by Su Nang to his son Xi Lingse as a guard, after Su Nang's death, Xi Lingse and the people around him were very angry, the guards cut off their beards, vowing to fight to the death with Yu Sheng, and now it feels like the opportunity has come, Tabu Nang feels that the blood in his whole body is boiling.

He rode on a small grey-sand horse, a six-year-old who was not very tall, full of strength, well trained, and waited quietly while Tabu was observing, but his whole body was building up strength.

On the left side of the horse hangs a hammer, on the right side is an axe and a few stalks, and on the right back is a riding bow with a tarb bag and a pocket full of arrows.

While counting the number of troops crossing the river, Tabu kept stroking his bow and arrows and weapons, feeling that his whole body was boiling with murderous intent.

"I'll continue to look here, it is estimated that it is the strength of a division of the Yusheng Business Group, nearly seven hundred people, with artillery." Another sentry said, "Tabu Nang, you go back and report, and I will continue to observe here." ”

"Be careful," Tabu said, "the new firearm of the Han dog is far and accurate. ”

"Don't worry." The sentry grinned, "A hundred paces away. ”

Tabu nodded heavily, the fine eyes on his round face were full of hatred, he didn't know why he hated these Han people so much, in fact, in the past two years, the Han people have been sending grain, cloth, and large barrels of vegetables...... Mongolians lack food the most, they have to drink tea three times a day, otherwise they can't scrape the greasy stomach, if there is a supply of vegetables, everyone will feel much more comfortable. The herders also have a supply of staple foods, so they don't have to kill sheep in late winter and spring.

"Han dog is Han dog ......"

Tabu shook his head vigorously, as if to shake off his inexplicable thoughts.

The distance of the main formation was only more than six miles, and the war horses galloped rapidly, and soon arrived at the location of the main formation.

More than a dozen Taiji Daxu stood upright, fluttering gently in the breeze.

Tabu galloped directly to the center, and the cavalry on the periphery saw that the sentinels sent back, and automatically got out of the way.

Inside, more horsemen and herdsmen sat on the ground to rest, and the horses were tied together in groups of five or six to prevent them from running away.

Tabu Nang seemed to see the nervous and panicked looks on the faces of many people, and he felt a little breathless in his heart, when did the Mongols become so timid and afraid of war?

It has been nearly forty years of peace with the Ming Kingdom, and even Tabu Nang has grown up in a peaceful atmosphere, except for the occasional skirmishes on the grassland, as well as wars with horse thieves, his generation has indeed not experienced large-scale wars.

This kind of discovery and feeling made Tabu Nang feel a little ashamed, and the murderous aura that had just been filled with it had disappeared a lot.