With the suggestion of Zhang Tongchang, the political envoy of Xining Chengxuan, Zhang Chao, the commander-in-chief of the Northwest Theater, began to arrange a method of response. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Soon, the Mongolian cavalry stationed in Suzhou, Liangzhouwei, Xiningwei and other places began to quickly assemble towards Suzhou.

At the same time, Qiu Yuanshan's 13th Division sent a large number of scouts into the sand sea ahead.

A large number of "Mongolian cavalry" gathered here, and the Ming army did not do anything, but it seemed abnormal, so the Qing army took the initiative to contact the Suzhou Wei front post to indicate its "identity", and sent a large number of scouts to drive away those Ming troops who left the country along the way.

They are also unwilling to officially start a war with the Ming Dynasty now, it is unrealistic to hunt and kill Ming scouts, the only thing they can do is to expel the other party and prevent these scouts from approaching the "Mongolian cavalry" camp, so that the small-scale infiltration of the 13th Division is much safer than a large-scale march.

Both sides are trying to maintain the current situation, and the border area of Suzhou is in a delicate balance, and the rest depends on who can find the rout of Batur Huntaiji first...........

Over time, some of the Mongol tribes that had fled from the battlefield of Kobdo reached the edge of the Sand Sea before Batur Huntaiji.

Some of them were exterminated by the Qing army who were waiting for the rabbit, and the other part received a reminder from the Ming army in time and successfully avoided the pursuit of the Manchu cavalry.

From the beginning of the hunt for the first rout, the Qing army knew that it was exposed, so it simply did not hide it, but led most of the troops, all into the sea of sand, and surrounded and suppressed the surrounding Ming scouts.

In the eyes of the Qing army, since there has been a rout, it will not be long before Batur Huntaiji will definitely be able to reach the border area, and even if it is completely exposed at this time, the Ming army will not have time to rescue Batur Huntaiji and his party.

The reason why the Qing army concealed it in the early stage was to fight this time gap.

The Ming army's mobility ability was notoriously poor, and there were 50,000 Qing troops south of the desert, and more than 100,000 Russian-Manchurian troops north of the desert.

What's more, the Qing army also added an insurance in this operation, that is, they were all disguised as Mongolian cavalry, just imagine, even if Batur Huntaiji was unlucky and really broke out of the encirclement of the Qing army, those Ming troops guarding the pass, did they have the courage to let a group of Mongolian cavalry who didn't know the details enter the country?

As long as the Ming army has the slightest hesitation, then the Qing army can take the opportunity to eliminate the rout of Batur Huntaiji, and if there is a chance, it can even coerce this group of rout troops to attack Suzhou Wei in one fell swoop.

In short, the Qing army was ready to use this kind of mixed tactics, first deceiving the Ming army as a Mongol, and then deliberately exposing their identities, so that the Ming army could only retreat and defend itself when it was difficult to distinguish between the enemy and me, and no one dared to let them enter the customs.

This is the real purpose of the Qing army pretending to be Mongolian cavalry.

Of course, all this has to be established under the condition that the Ming army did not know anything before.

In order to completely distinguish between the enemy and us, Zhang Chao even ordered all the Mongolian servants of Suzhou Wei to change into Ming military uniforms, and a good show was about to be staged................

As a squad leader of the reconnaissance company of the 13th Division, Mu Xiaodong led a squad of soldiers two days ago to infiltrate this desert area, which the locals call "Ghost Gate Pass", in search of a Mongolian cavalry unit that was coming south from the north.

The reason why this area is called Ghost Gate Pass is mainly because it is already the center of the entire desert, and the atmosphere is complex and changeable, and there are often desert storms, and it is nearly a day's journey from the nearest water source.

However, this place is a necessary area through the desert, and if you don't break through this "ghost gate", you really can't get out of the desert in front of you.

Originally, the task issued by Qiu Yuanshan did not require the reconnaissance company to enter the "Ghost Gate Pass" area, but Mu Xiaodong was stubborn, he understood that if he wanted to complete this mission better than other comrades, he had to go north until he found the main force of Batur Huntaiji.

And only by passing through the "ghost gate" will we get the first opportunity.

"Squad leader, in the previous chase battle, although we got rid of the scouts of the Tartars, our water reserves have also been consumed too much, and we must replenish fresh water nearby." A soldier said.

The reconnaissance company and the Manchu scouts were equipped with war horses with strong mobility, but the most dangerous high-intensity chase in the desert was not the battle, but the symptoms of dehydration caused by severe physical exertion.

In order to keep the war horse physically strong at all times, Mu Xiaodong could only take out more than half of the fresh water and feed it to the war horse.

"Now that the vicinity of the Ghost Gate Pass is occupied by the Qing army, almost all the water sources are heavily guarded, how can it be so easy for us to obtain water sources?" Deputy squad leader Fu Qiang said.

In order to prevent the Ming scouts from reporting to Batur Huntaiji, the Qing army almost blocked all the main roads along the way that were rich in water.

If the Ming army chooses to take a detour, it will be easy to lose its way and eventually die in this vast sea of sand.

If the Ming army chooses to break through, then it will inevitably lead to a fierce chase battle, and in this kind of chase battle, the Qing army does not need to completely eliminate the Ming army's reconnaissance troops, only need to wait for a long time, the Ming army consumes the fresh water resources it carries, and then it is not far from extinction.

"If we don't have a water source, we'll rob those Tartar scouts! The number of Tartars who chased them to the vicinity of the Ghost Gate Pass was not much, and in order to keep the water source, they divided their troops again, and the Qing cavalry of a shed (fourteen people), we still have the ability to deal with it! "Mu Xiaodong decided to fight to support the war.

"In the previous few times, in order to get rid of the pursuers, we used up almost all the grenades, and only the cavalry guns and sabers could be used. It's okay to fight with war, but don't provoke the opponent's main force, and fight quickly! Fu Qiang analyzed.

The cavalry skills of the Ming soldiers were indeed inferior to the Manchu cavalry, but the advanced weapons and equipment made up for this shortcoming.

In the case of grenades, because the throwing distance is not ideal, the grenade may be of little use to the cavalry in terms of attack, but it is invincible in retreating and throwing off the pursuers.

Every time he faced the pursuit of a large number of cavalry of the Qing army, the soldiers in Mu Xiaodong's team who were in charge of the rear of the palace only needed to throw a few grenades to easily scare the enemy back.

After all, the speed of the war horse was fast enough, once the Qing cavalry was attacked by grenades, after a few seconds of hesitation, Mu Xiaodong and the others could escape nearly a hundred meters away.

If the grenade is a sharp weapon for escape and retreat, then the cavalry gun is the offensive weapon of the Ming cavalry.

Suzhou Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. is located in the south of the Yangtze River, has been committed to the development of infantry individual firearms, fortunately, the weapons research institute in Beijing, more aware of the importance of cavalry in the north, so the research and development of cavalry guns, has become an important research project of the Beijing Weapons Research Institute.

A riding gun, as the name suggests, is a firearm used while riding a horse.

Generally speaking, these firearms are petite, simple, lightweight, and have little recoil, allowing them to shoot with one hand.

It's just that if you want to meet these conditions, the range and power will not be too large.

After all, the power is high, which means that the recoil will not be small, and if you want to launch with one hand, with the current scientific and technological conditions, you really can't meet it.

After Huang Minggang received the task of developing a riding gun, he led the team to spend half a year to develop this double-barreled "pouting handle".

This mounted gun, somewhat similar to a double-barreled shotgun, is about 60 cm long, 15.7 mm in caliber, packed with shotguns, and two triggers at the front and rear, which control the firing device of the left and right barrels.

After the use of smokeless gunpowder, the effective range of the gun is only 80 meters, but fortunately, the killing range is very wide, the maximum frontal killing area is about one meter, and when the cavalry is hedging, the double-barreled continuous fire can easily chisel the charging formation of the enemy cavalry...........

In fact, once this cavalry gun was developed, it was not the Ming cavalry unit that was first interested in it.

First, the real cavalry of the Ming Dynasty was pitiful, and they had no right to speak.

Second, the effective range of the cavalry spear is basically equivalent to that of the Mongols' horse bow, once the opponent uses the cavalry tactics, the Ming army can only fire two times in a row (it is very troublesome to reload immediately, basically impossible to achieve) of the cavalry lance, and does not occupy any advantage.

The cavalry did not pay much attention to this mounted lance, but the infantry was interested in it.

Just one "two consecutive shots" can make many infantry moved.

As for the effective range of 80 meters, in fact, most soldiers don't care much about this, in their opinion, the distance of 80 meters is just right, today's rifle, although the range is far enough, but its accuracy is not high, except for some sharpshooters, basically only more than 100 meters, most of the soldiers' hit rate is relied on.

And this cavalry gun uses scattered bullets, and even if you don't need to aim, you can hit a large area, so it is naturally more favored by the infantry.

It's a pity that the manufacturing process of double-barreled cavalry guns is just as complicated, and it is just right to satisfy the cavalry with a small number of people, as for infantry firearms........... In Li Hongfei's view, it should still be based on range.

The individual equipment of later countries has also fully proved this point, and no country's field troops will be equipped with shotguns on a large scale.

Moreover, Li Hongfei knew in his heart that with the current level of science and technology of the Ming Dynasty, as long as the magazine and bullet production line were solved, better rifles and even machine guns could be made soon.

Therefore, at this time, we must not waste a lot of money in order to make the whole army recognise this kind of two-shot shotgun............

Well, to get back to the point, Mu Xiaodong and others are equipped, even the infantry are greedy for cavalry guns, and the combat effectiveness is naturally not to be underestimated, a class of twelve people is more than enough to deal with a shed of the Qing army, it is really urgent, even if you encounter a sentry (44 people), you have the ability to defend it.

"In this way, we will move in the direction of the nearest water source, and if we encounter a Qing army on the way, we will fight quickly." Mu Xiaodong issued a new combat mission.

At this time, finding Batur Huntaiji's rout is no longer the top priority, and the ghost knows if the other party has entered this desert now?

The most important thing is to let the comrades-in-arms live.

Mu Xiaodong and his entourage walked in the direction of the nearest water source for about half a day, but they didn't even find the ghost shadow of the Qing army, the sky gradually darkened, and the temperature gradually dropped.

The desert heat during the day is unstoppable, but the night is extremely cold, this is not the most fatal, the most terrible thing is that the night march, it is easy to get lost in this sea of sand, whether it is the Qing army, the Ming army, or the Mongolian cavalry, do not have the courage to march in the desert at night.

At this moment, the soldiers who were scouting in front came to report that about twenty miles away from them, they had found a large group of Qing troops stationed, and it seemed that they were also preparing to spend the night here.

"It's really damn unlucky, either I didn't encounter any of them, and when I met them, it was a battalion (about 670 people) of the Qing army." Fu Qiang scolded and scolded.

With so many people on the other side, it is definitely unrealistic to intercept and kill the other party, with their current freshwater resources, they really can't afford to escape from a long distance.

And it is obvious that the scout troops in this area of the Qing army are all gathered in the front, and Mu Xiaodong's plan to catch the lone man has also failed.

With the only water source left by everyone, they can barely hold out until noon tomorrow.

Don't say that people without water sources can survive in the desert for two or three days, even if they can survive for so long, it is just a state of death, and what are Mu Xiaodong and the others doing? It was in an area surrounded by enemies, and high-intensity combat could break out at any time, and once there was a dehydration situation, the Qing army would only be slaughtered.

Rather than resist in the end, it is better to take advantage of the good state now and fight with the other party!

"Can you get around?" Mu Xiaodong didn't want to make unnecessary sacrifices.

After many maneuvers with the Qing army, Mu Xiaodong had a clear understanding of the number of Qing troops in this area.

In total, there was a standard (three battalions) of cavalry, two of which were stationed in the water source area (one resting, one preparing for battle), and one battalion was divided into pieces to reconnoiter the entire "Ghost Gate Pass" area.

The battalion in front of me should be the one that patrols during the day, and when it rests here for the night, it will go back to the water source tomorrow to change its guard.

As long as the other party's army is not dispersed, Mu Xiaodong and the others can't do anything about them.

The only thing that can be done is to bypass this army and move on.

Because according to calculations, there is still half a day's journey from the water source, even if the Qing army sends a new scout force early tomorrow morning, and when they arrive in this area, it will not be until noon tomorrow.

Mu Xiaodong and his entourage couldn't afford to wait, so they had to take advantage of the fact that it was about to get dark and walk forward for an hour or two, so that they could be sure that they could successfully intercept the scout troops sent by the Qing army tomorrow before the fresh water ran out.

"No! The area chosen by the other party has a wide view, and if we detour, we will have to take a lot more unjust roads, and it will not be long before it will be dark, and once it is dark, and we deviate from the main road, no one can predict where we will end up. Fu Qiang did not agree to the detour.

Don't think that the desert environment is monolithic and looks like it's the same everywhere, that's for beginners.

In fact, there are also roads in the desert, but they are not roads that people have stepped on for many years, but roads that rely on the surrounding mountains, the direction of plant growth, and partially weathered landmark buildings.

It can be said that once you run around at night and get rid of these familiar signs, if you can't return to the familiar area before the water resources are exhausted, it is basically a dead end.