Shi Kefa said unhurriedly: "Li joined the army, and the imperial court sent thousands of Han people, but among these Han people, there are nearly a thousand people who do not bring their families, they are thousands of miles away from home, and they are fighting for the imperial court, but they are still singles. ”

"What do you mean by ......"

"Li Senjun is familiar with herdsmen, can he introduce some women to these people who are far from home? It doesn't matter if it's a big girl or a small daughter-in-law, as long as it's the same age. ”

Li Lun pondered for a while, "My lord, there are many men and girls among the herdsmen now, and it is not difficult to introduce women to the Han people as wives, but ...... There are too many people, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to complete it for a while. ”

"It's okay to be a little late, but it can't be delayed for too long," Shi Kefa paused for a while, and then threw out a sentence leisurely: "In this way, every Han person who marries, I will give you ten Wen as a reward, if all these Han people marry wives, I will double your military mansion." ”

"My lord, really?" Li Lun calculated that every Han person who got married was ten copper coins, and a thousand people were ten taels, plus a new military mansion...... As the Yiren Inn expands, his income will increase.

"Of course it's true, but you can't be strong, you have to be patient and do the relevant work," Shi Kefa tapped the square table in front of him with his hand, "If this matter is done, it will also promote the connection between the Han and Mongolian races - Ao, now they are all Han Chinese, you can speed up the speed of sinicization, I will definitely give the emperor Ming and ask for credit for you." ”

"Thank you, my lord, I will complete the work assigned by my lord as soon as possible." Li Lun saluted Shi Kefa, "Do you want to ...... adults?"

Shi Kefa waved his hand: "Don't worry about joining the army for the time being, I am a Wenchen, and it is my duty to defend the territory and open up the territory for the Ming Dynasty." ”

"My lord, then go and prepare immediately?" For the sake of silver and the new military palace, Li Lun was impatient.

Shi Kefa handed it over: "Li joined the army and bothered, Lord Ben is waiting for the good news of Li joining the army." ”

Lingbei Province and two counties gradually began to thaw, Shi Kefa took Hong Chengchou to his soldiers, and sent spring wheat, corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes and some vegetable seeds to the herdsmen.

Hong Chengchou ordered troops to be stationed in various places and sent rangers to all sides.

The Ming army stationed in Beiwang County, not only went north to the vast primeval forest, but also along the Shilka River, eastward to Heilongjiang, which is already the territory of Beihai Province, but unfortunately, they did not meet the Ming army stationed in Beihai Province, and finally they planted the Ming Sun and Moon military flag along the way and returned to the Beiwang military camp.

The Ming army of Chita Province, under the personal guidance of Hong Chengchou, marched west out of Yashan and traveled four or five hundred miles along the Shilok River and the Wuda River, and they could occasionally see scattered local natives.

By May, the rangers had finally made their way west to the east of the Fishing Sea, where there were so few Buryats that they were only in charge of interrogation, and did not take any naturalization measures or contact with Buryatia.

In June, the rangers brought back a message of fishing.

Hong Chengchou saw that the herdsmen in one province and two counties in Lingbei Province were already content with agricultural work, so he wanted to take the army to fish in the sea and open up the frontier for the Ming Dynasty, but Shi Kefa disagreed.

He opposes the westward expansion of the fishing sea, mainly the food problem, now the people around the fishing sea, are fishing and hunting, there is no storage of winter materials at all, now planting spring wheat, obviously too late, if the Ming army captures them, the provincial government can not prepare food for them for the winter.

In addition, the spring wheat has not yet been harvested, and this is the first time that crops have been planted in the far north, and if the harvest is not good, or the spring wheat will not be tasseled and matured at all, the herdsmen have worked hard for a year in vain, but there is no harvest at all, and it is inevitable that there will be trouble.

Hong Chengchou had no choice but to give up, but he asked the soldiers to repair the road to Yashankou in preparation for the future westward march of the army.

At the end of June, Hong Chengchou, who was supervising the construction of the roadbed by the soldiers, received a report from the rangers: "To the west of Yashan, there is a group of blue-eyed, red-haired men who look like the legendary devils, and under the guise of buying furs, they rob the property of the local people along the way, and even kill people and set fires, rape women, and sometimes take away the wives and daughters of the people." ”

"Won't the local people resist?" Hong Chengchou frowned, it was the first time he had heard of this kind of red hair that looked like a person and a ghost.

"They have guns, about the same as our flintlock pistols, and the people can't get close to them at all."

"Got a gun?" Hong Chengchou was shocked, could they be the Russians that Zhu Youzhen said? "How far are they?"

"They traveled all the way east, and now it's about two days away from Yashan Pass."

"Two days?" Hong Chengchou calculated, now that it is too late to go west out of Yashan, "How many people are there?" ”

"I don't have people who are too far away, I can't really see it, it is estimated that there are nearly 100 people."

"Nearly a hundred? They also have firearms? Hong Chengchou pondered for a moment, "You go back first, and then investigate and report again to see if they have heavy firearms such as artillery." ”

"Commanders, they don't have heavy firearms, only firearms, or fire#guns."

"It's good if there is no artillery, you go first!" Hong Chengchou was a little relieved.

"Yes, Throne." The ranger saluted Hong Chengchou, stepped on his horse and turned around.

Hong Chengchou immediately stopped building roads and began to dispatch troops.

The artillery regiment directly under the military headquarters stayed in Xilin with the artillery, and Hong Chengchou had only one 12th division by his side, with a total of three brigades and nine regiments, of which two regiments were stationed in Hengjiu County and Beiwang County, and there were only five regiments in Chita, with more than 5,000 soldiers.

Hearing that there were less than 100 enemies, Hong Chengchou had no plan to mobilize the garrisons of Hengjiu and Beiwang for the time being, so he left two regiments and let the division commander Li Li garrison Chita, and personally led three regiments west out of Yashan.

Yashankou has cleared the wide and flat avenue, suitable for the passage of the army, but the traces of artificial cleaning are very obvious, Hong Chengchou was worried that Hongmao would find the traces of the Ming army here, so he hid two regiments in the dense forest on both sides of the pass, and he personally led a regiment to cross Yashan and lurk behind an unknown hillock.

The sporadic rangers of the Ming army have been staring at the movements of the red hair, and constantly report the location of the red hair to Hong Chengchou.

A day later, the red hair finally appeared in Hong Chengchou's field of vision, he quietly poked out half of his head from Xiaoqiu Mountain, and looked carefully, sure enough, it was a team of less than 100 people.

The soldiers were both expectant and nervous, and for the first time they had encountered an opponent carrying firearms.

Hong Chengchou was also very nervous, he didn't know what the other party's firearms were so powerful, when Zhu Youzhen left Chita, he asked him to transport the captured firearms to the Beijing Division, indicating that Zhu Youzhen, who was wise and martial, also didn't know the other party's firearms, in case the opponent's firearms had a long range and great power, the numerical advantage of the Ming army would be canceled out, and besides, he was unwilling to exchange his life for victory.

He squatted down, and in order to hide his nervousness, Hong Chengchou simply leaned on the grass on the slope, closed his eyes slightly, and looked comfortable.

Seeing that the commander was serene, the soldiers were a little relieved, after all, there were only dozens of people on the other side, a regiment of the Ming army, the number of more than a thousand people, and two regiments of reinforcements were not far away, and the Ming army had war horses, no matter how bad it was, the Ming army could also imitate the cavalry tactics of Jiannu and use speed and numbers to impact the opponent's position.

The soldiers secretly made up their minds that no matter what, the red hairs must remain, even if they were corpses.

This was the first war they encountered after staying in Lingbei Province, and it was also the first time that the Ming army outside Guanwai encountered the enemy after Zhu Youzhen left, and they had to make the emperor understand that even if the emperor was not around, they could destroy the enemy, no matter who the enemy was.

The Ming army had been lurking behind the hillock, and when Hongmao was only two miles away from them, Hong Chengchou made a move, and the soldiers of each battalion on each side outflanked Hongmao's left and right flanks like bullets from flintlock pistols.

The two battalions of cavalry converged behind the Red Fur flank, and with the addition of a battalion in front, the Red Fur was already surrounded.

The red-haired people didn't seem to care, they were still talking and laughing, and the Ming army that surrounded them was directly ignored by them.

The Ming army began to close the encirclement, most of the Ming troops dismounted, they held flintlock muskets, and slowly advanced, and the encirclement became smaller and smaller.

Seeing the flintlock pistol held by the Ming army, the red hair in the leader was shocked, and the smile suddenly froze on his face.

The red-haired people chattered a few words, but the Ming army couldn't understand a word.

They reined in their horses, stopped advancing, and then looked at the Ming troops on all sides with frightened eyes.

The Ming army was still advancing, the infantry was in front, the cavalry was in the flanks and rear, and the encirclement was getting smaller and tighter.

Like the mouth of the pocket is tied, the Ming army on all sides has been seamlessly connected.

The red-haired men finally dismounted, and they gathered dozens of horses on the outside, and the red-haired ones stuck out of the barrels of their guns through the cracks in the horses.

"It turns out that the red-haired fire # gun can't be fired from the back of a moving war horse, it seems that their fire # gun is not much stronger than Daming's!"

Hong Chengchou was most worried about the red-haired war horses, in case the red-haired battle was unfavorable, they would run away on horseback, so he prepared some cavalry in the flanks and rear of the infantry, which was ready to chase the red-haired ones.

He didn't know if it was useful, if the red-haired fire # gun could be fired from the horse, then the Ming cavalry chasing the past must have suffered huge casualties, and it may not be able to keep the red hair.

"Whew!" On the battlefield, there was only the sound of the Ming infantry advancing slowly, and before the flintlock pistol was within range, they did not need to aim for the time being.

The red-haired ones who were surrounded in the center were motionless, staring closely at the dense Ming army on all sides, only their war horses, flicking their tails uneasily, twisting their necks, and raising their noses to sniff the strange atmosphere in the air.

Two different powers, two different civilizations, will begin their first collision west of Yashan.

The Ming army had formed an encirclement of the Red Fur, and had a huge advantage in numbers, and the Red Fur had firearms that the Ming army did not understand, and they were quietly waiting for the Ming army to enter their range.