The cold wind was still blowing from the east, and the fields were empty except for the village on the other side of the woods, and the curling smoke indicated that it was time for lunch.

A few miles east of the village lies a small river. But the river is completely sealed!

This is winter in the Kazakh steppe, and it's so cold.

The patrol troops of the Chahar Khanate led by Badma Dorji have recruited as many Khalkha Mongols, Buryat Mongols and hardy people as possible in the country, but there are still soldiers in the army who are frostbitten from time to time. Even though the leather and cotton clothes they wore were quite thick, and they were wrapped like a big stupid bear, but now they were still as cold as ice.

Geographically speaking, the main tribes in their Chahar Khanate are all Mongolian tribes in eastern Inner Mongolia, and their hometown is not further south than the Kazakh steppe, but in winter, they always feel that it is much colder here than the old Chahar.

Especially this year, the border patrol force of Badma Dorji has been transferred to the south of the khanate, and it has already set up a border with the Kokand Khanate, and this thief is still so cold.

Time has passed, and ten years have passed in a blink of an eye.

In the eighteenth year of Chengtian, three Kazakh khanates and four Mongol khanates were formally established in the northwest territory. And now the Spring Festival of the 29th year of Chengtian is coming.

The seven newly-born little khanates have established themselves on their respective turf, and their children have multiplied for a generation.

However, in strict accordance with Nanking's instructions, the conflict with the three khanates of Kokand, Bukhara, and Khiva intensified.

This year your sheep have come to my land to graze, and tomorrow my horses will come to your meadow to roam, first the civil conflict in the border area, then it will evolve into the border area with guns in the air, and finally the 'bandits' will appear, and not in a day or two, but for two whole years.

From a dozen people at the beginning, it has evolved into hundreds of people today, and the soldiers in it have quickly turned into real 'bandits' from the border troops of both sides at the beginning.

The means of 'looting' have also developed from the beginning as long as the wealth does not hurt people, to the current murder and robbery.

Now, the patrol party led by Badma Dorji, a cavalry army in white capes and white lint caps, was lurking in a frozen riverbed somewhere. In order to completely hide the whereabouts of the troops, all the men were prostrate on the ice and on the banks of the river, and even their horses were pressed down by the soldiers, lying on their sides, and their noses were ringing one after another. Many war horses hate this posture and flirt their hooves from time to time.

The teachers of the Chahar cavalry were Chen Han's Wehrmacht cavalry, and their horses were partly Mongol and Kazakh horses owned by him, and partly good horses from China at high prices. Chen Han has continued to improve the war horse breed for twenty or thirty years, and there have been considerable results.

In this place in the northwest, the land is vast and sparsely populated, horses are the main means of transportation here, there are many families with horses, and raising horses and cattle and sheep is the main source of income for the people here.

The Great Northwest is one of the two major ranches in China, and the Seven Little Khanates are the seven small ranchers of the Great Ranch in Northwest China.

As the owners of the ranch, of course, they knew that the quality of the horse breeds they had at hand was not very good, and Chen Ming's improved military horses became the goal pursued by the Seven Khanates. Chen Ming also sold a batch to them, after all, he wanted to strengthen their strength and consolidate their rule.

Over the years, Chen Han's support for the Seven Khanates can be said to have spared no effort, from instructor to officer training, from long and short guns and artillery to war horses, and grasping software and hardware.

Although the cultivated army has only shown its skills on the exercise ground and looks like it, no one can say exactly what its real combat effectiveness is.

At the same time, the national strength of the Kokand Khanate has also increased to a certain extent in recent years, far more fierce than the Khiva Khanate and the Bukhara Khanate in the quagmire. His Khan King Arimu hired a large number of Kirgiz, the main force of the original Dzungar army, as mercenaries and artillery in Kokand to enrich the military force, and with the secret support of the Russians, he successfully unified the Ferghana region.

The few small forces supported by Chen Han can only be said to have stumbled on Kokand's footsteps slightly, and they can't be called a drag. The reason, in addition to the fact that Erimu himself is indeed very talented, is the secret support of the Russians.

Just as China intervened on the west coast of the Caspian Sea and supported the Seven Khanates on the other, the devastated Russians supported the three khanates of Kokand, Khiva and Bukhara for the sake of safety, and they favored Kokand the most favored of the three khanates.

Without the presence of China, after the settlement of the Kazakh Three Tents, the Three Khanates would have been Russia's next coveted target, but now everything has changed. Russia not only has no delusions about the Three Khanates, but also relies on the Three Khanates to hold back the Chinese.

As for why St. Petersburg is not worried about the surrender of the Three Khanates to China, just looking at China's attitude towards the Three Khanates over the years, you can know that these three khanates have already been on the recipe of Emperor Chen.

Of the great help of Russia, the Kokand Khanate benefited the most. At the same time, Erimu also launched a target to contain the Seven Khanates, and even China. The man who was pushed out by Erimu to fight against the Seven Khanates was Samsak, the eldest son of Yamato Chopolonidu. Forty-three years ago, the Manchu Qing put down the rebellion of the brothers Yamato Chopolonidu, Xiao and Zhuo Hojizhan, and Samsak fled to the Kokand Khanate, Bukhara Khanate and other places, and has been committed to the restoration of family rule.

Samsak had three sons, the eldest son, Yusufu, was a hum in Bukhara, the second son was Zhanggel, and the youngest son, Babuding, died young.

In the history of the original time and space, Zhang Ge, with the support of the Kokand Khanate, also ruthlessly added chaos to the Manchu Qing Dynasty. And in this era, Zhang Ge has also made a lot of ghosts for the Seven Khanates. Although he didn't have many troops at his disposal, he didn't fight to the death with the regular army of the Seven Khanates.

As the commander of this cavalry unit, Badma Dorzi himself was prostrate on the earthen embankment by the river, keeping his eyes fixed on the west.

The military intelligence bureau sent a lot of information about Zhang Ge and Samsak's father and son, but there was very little exact information about Samsak's bandits, and this was a rare opportunity.

Although a small village could be seen in the snowy wilderness right now, there were hardly any people to be seen. But Badma Dorji knew that the goal of his party was in this Zhuangzi.

The influence of the Great and Small Hezhuo family in the Great Northwest cannot be underestimated, after all, the vitality of the Sufi sect is very strong—is it the leader of the Baishan faction. Even though Chen Han attacked him many times and wore it down for so long, the influence of the Baishan faction could not be completely eradicated, and Samsak was highly praised in Kokand and Bukhara, enjoying the status of 'saint'.

Therefore, in some places where there are many indigenous people, there are some white-eyed wolves along the route for bandits.

At present, this small village and even the whole village are full of bandits.

After the establishment of the Seven Khanates, although nomadism was the main way of life for the Mongols and Kazakhs, settled villages also existed, and the number increased rapidly during this decade.

Both the Mongols and the Kazakhs had far less control over the interior than Chen Han. After all, these seven little khanates are all very strong mountain forces, aren't they? This inherently limits the Khan's ability to control the place.

But in the last two years, the small settlements on the borders of the Seven Khanates have gradually become connected. The Khan's court also issued guns, gunpowder, and even small cannons to strengthen the defenses of the villages.

But until the chain of defense is fully formed, these measures can only limit the bandits, but not completely isolate them. Even, the existence of these bandits stimulated the birth of settled villages and towns to a certain extent.

And the Seven Khanates' harsh suppression strategy against bandits is also a good opportunity for them to completely clean up the interior! You can also clean up the 'own people' who cheat on weekdays.

When the Seven Khanates were established, some people from the salary frontier also ran over. Although most of them are Mongols, there are a few of them.

The enemy on the opposite side was a mixed force of Kokand soldiers, Kirghiz cavalry, and a part of the natives of the frontier, numbering about 100 men. Everyone has a horse, even more than one.

According to reconnaissance, this bandit army did not have heavy weapons, and no matter how light the cavalry artillery was, it was impossible to drag it out in this environment. Therefore, these people only have muskets in their hands, and they cannot do it for each person, and many of them also carry knives, guns, bows and arrows. And from the intelligence, it can be known that the morale of these people is not very high, and the intelligence description uses two words to describe the appearance of this army - 'tattered' clothes and 'lazy' temperament. With such a consistent team, it is obvious that the morale is not fighting and the fighting spirit is very low. Badma Dorji is confident that he will fight a beautiful ambush battle here and wipe out this stubborn bandit.

But this requires the enemy to obediently get out of the village. On the other side of the village, to the north, is the mountains and forests. Badma Dorji dared to swear by his ancestors that as soon as he showed up with his troops, those bandits would definitely flee back to the mountains like rats. Even if the mountains and forests are not suitable for horses.

He had to wait for them to get out of the village and into the wilderness before he could take full advantage of the cavalry's tactical superiority and wipe out the enemy.

And the wilderness in front of you is indeed a good battlefield.

- It was originally a pasture, but now of course it does not grow much in winter, and the extremely low temperature freezes the ground very hard, just right for cavalry assaults.

Little by little, time passed. Waiting is the most painful of all. Badma Dorzi glanced at his pocket watch again, feeling very anxious. Of course, while he was on fire in his heart, he was also worried about the army behind the woods. It was the strength of a squadron, not on horseback, and Badma Dorzi didn't know if they were in place now.

Badma Dorzi, the captain of the border patrol force, was worried.

Because the latter's actions are directly related to whether he can completely annihilate the bandits in this battle, they are the bottom line.

The smoke in the village had disappeared for a while, and the sound of people neighing and horses was faintly heard in the wind, and finally there was movement. Bandits don't stay in a place for long, unless it's in the mountains.

"Herald! Everyone moved their hands and feet, checked the condition of the horses, and checked the weapons. The trumpet did not sound, and no one was allowed to jump out of the river, so they were all laid down for me. Wait for this group of recalcitrant bandits to get closer! ”

Badma Dorzi's orders were fully implemented. The cavalry were ready for battle, and before they could rush over on their horses and slash and slash, they had to be infantry again, and give the recalcitrant bandits a fire rush and scatter them.

After all, no one wants to die. No matter how bad the bandits are, there are a hundred and ten people.

The wait was more than half an hour, and the stubborn bandits drove out of the village slowly. It seems that the number of people is more than expected, although it is less than 300, but it is definitely more than 200.

"Watch for secrecy!" Before the enemy approached, Badma Dorji shouted, and the messenger quickly conveyed his order, and all the men lay down at the foot of the embankment, leaving only a few observation posts on top to poke their heads out cautiously.

"A thousand meters!"

"Eight hundred meters!"

"Five hundred meters!"

The observation post measured the distance between the enemy and the riverbed, getting closer and quieter, while the soldiers adjusted their muskets to the reported distance.

Badma Dorji set a distance of two hundred meters of fire, and a flurry of gunfire was fired, and then the cavalry attacked.

Every regular cavalry member of the border guards of the Chahar Khanate was armed with a pistol. There is no need to worry about this victory or defeat at all, just look at how to fight quickly.

"Two hundred meters!"

Badma Dorzi stretched out half of his head and glanced at the oncoming enemy team: "Fight!" ”

"Smack! Syllable! ……“

The crisp sound of musket fire mingled together, turning the calm snowfield into a killing field in just an instant, and the stubborn bandits who came into range of fire suddenly lay down and howled miserably.

The team in front of them was hit hard, and the team behind reacted immediately, but instead of rushing to help their comrades, they turned around and ran wildly in the direction they came. But I can run there again!

This battle was an appetizer for the Chahar cavalry, in the past they couldn't catch the bandits, but it wasn't that they couldn't beat the bandits.

Badma Dorzi got a big bargain because Zhang Ge died. The ambushed bandit turned out to be led by Zhang Ge himself.

And Zhang Ge, a guy who could still leave a mark in the original Chinese history, died in the Kazakh steppe in winter as a horse bandit leader. Until his death, his name did not reach Chen Ming's ears once.