Although the cable telegraph had appeared and became an important means of communication for the Ming army, due to the vastness of the Mongol battlefield, the efficiency of the transmission of various news and intelligence was still extremely low. So much so that the commanders of both sides could only make judgments and give orders based on very limited information. In fact, the war is largely commanded by speculation and conjecture.

The General Staff of the Ming Army believes that Russia's troops in Eastern Siberia are limited, and the Eight Banners have suffered repeated setbacks in recent years, and most of them have lost the courage to take the initiative to attack.

The Ming army practiced "step by step for the city, the railway followed", and wanted to use the castle stronghold to control Mongolia and use the railway line to support logistics, so that the Ming army could achieve long-term and protracted combat capabilities in the Baikal battlefield.

At the same time, the Ming army is also working hard to train and equip a steppe mobile corps similar to the ancient Mongolian nomadic cavalry, wanting to rely on this force to control the Western Mongolia and Central Asian steppes, cooperate with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to seize the three khanates of Central Asia, and seek a decisive battle with the main force of the Russian army in the Central Asian steppe!

However, this steppe mobile regiment did not need to be kept secret until the last moment of the raid, because by this time there had not yet been a telegraph communication between Siberia and Petersburg, and by the time the Tsar learned that the Ming army had a powerful long-range mobile force, the war in Europe would have already reached the point of inadequacy.

"Old Han, it looks like there is a battle going on!"

As soon as Han Si got into the carriage, Zhu Jishi handed Han Si the military newspaper sent by the fast horse sent by the General Staff of the Army, which was stationed in the Old Summer Palace.

"Yi Xin's Eight Banners have gone south, and the number may be in the thousands, which is the estimated number of the General Staff. Liu Jiong suggested using the Grassland Army. Old Han. You are now the commander of the Prairie Legion. At every turn, I'll wait for your words. ”

Han Si was stunned, he had just agreed to take over the position of commander of the Grassland Legion, and he had not officially taken office yet, and he didn't even know what this Grassland Legion was like. After thinking for a long time, he muttered: "The minister doesn't know what the Ludao Grassland Legion looks like, the emperor should follow the advice of the General Staff." ”

Zhu Jishi smiled, this Han Si is still the same as in the past. Reckless on the outside and cautious on the inside, he is not willing to fight uncertain battles. In his opinion, when there were no good generals available, it was still safe to hand over an army of 150,000 people to Han Si.

"Well, since you also think that the advice of the General Staff is feasible, then please rush to White City immediately, where the headquarters of the Steppe Legion is! This was the decree of the Steppe Legion. ”

Saying that, Zhu Jishi handed over the edict written by himself in advance to Han Si, and the right to appoint senior commanders in the army is still firmly in the hands of Emperor Zhu, not to mention high-ranking officials like the commander of the corps, and even the appointment and dismissal of middle-level commanders such as regiment commanders is a list of recommendations put forward by the Ministry of War. The appointment was then circled by the emperor himself and issued in the form of an edict.

After taking the edict with both hands and carefully putting it away, Han Si raised his hand and saluted on the carriage. Then he pondered it again and asked, "Your Majesty, do you have any sermons?" ”

Hearing the word "Sermon", Emperor Zhu couldn't help but think of the "Sermon of the Sect Master", originally thought that this was a word invented by Jin Daxia, but he didn't expect that the Ming Dynasty Emperor's sermon was still called Sermon.

"The Sermon can't be talked about, it's just a little advice. Lao Han, the commander-in-chief of the Khalkha Mongol-Baikal direction is Luo Junqi, and you, the commander of the steppe corps, must also be subject to his control. When the legion is transferred to the battlefield in Central Asia-Xinjiang, you will be the leader of the front. Do you know the way? ”

"The last general knows the way."

Zhu Jishi nodded and waved his hand to signal Han Si to retire. His last words were just a reminder for Han Si to know who to focus on in the Mongolian steppe. However, the current communication conditions are like this, there is no wireless telegraph to communicate, and all generals who lead an army alone outside have great arbitrary power, and of course shoulder the corresponding heavy responsibilities.

"Commander, Darkhan City has arrived, let's rest in the city tonight."

At this time, Li Qiusheng, the commander of the Guards Cavalry Army, was still unaware of the changes that had taken place on the Mongolian battlefield in Ludao. I didn't know that the Eight Banners Horse Team had already moved south from the Trading City, I didn't know that the Luo Daoluo Army Banner had personally led a large army to attack the Trading City, and I didn't know that Zhu Jishi decided to use the snow-hidden grassland army to enter Khalkha Mongolia to find a decisive battle with the Eight Banners going south.

The headquarters of his Guards Cavalry Corps was located in Zhangjiakou, where there was a telegraph office - the Ming army now did not have an independent telegraph communication system, but relied on the telegraph office of the Ming Telegraph Company to transmit messages. Therefore, only when the city with a telegraph office was stationed, the Ming army could obtain intelligence and orders through the high-tech means of telegraphy.

Although the telegram had been transmitted to China for several years, Zhu Jishi also spent a huge amount of money to set up wires and start a telegraph company. But the telegraph equipment and personnel of this era are very expensive. The former are all imported and monopolized by the Marconi company, and the price is so expensive that it makes no sense!

And the latter is now a high-tech talent, and there are not many in the entire Ming Dynasty. Therefore, although the 32 castles south of Tengger City and north of Zhangjiakou all have telegraph lines through, there is no telegraph office.

"Have the horsemen from Tengger City and Zhangjiakou City been here?"

As soon as Li Qiusheng entered the castle, before he dismounted, he asked the battalion commander of a Suizhen soldier who had come to greet him if he had arrived with a horse.

"If you go back to the military gate, Zhangjiakou and Tengger City have been rumored to have horses, and the latest is the one who came from Tengger City three days ago, saying that there are thousands of Eight Banners horse teams that have crossed Kent Mountain and entered the grassland!"

"A team of thousands of horses?" Li Qiusheng and Zhang Hanmin beside him glanced at each other, and they both came to their senses.

"Commander, there's a battle!"

"Zhilu Dao, the Tartar himself is here to send people's heads!"

"But the Mongolian steppe is too big, and there are few of us......"

"You can't miss the opportunity if you don't have a lot of people!" Li Qiusheng turned over and dismounted, and said to Zhang Hanmin beside him, "Immediately send fast horses to give orders to the First Brigade of Cuirassiers and the Second Brigade of Cuirassiers, and let them move west to search for the Eight Banners Horse Team." ”

The three cavalry brigades of the Guards Cavalry were dispersed, the Cavalry Corps and the Guards Lancer Brigade acted together, and the other two cavalry brigades were located about 150 miles away on the north and south sides of the Guards Lancer Brigade, and the three brigades controlled a total of nearly 600 miles of front, and they could only communicate with each other through fast horses.

Zhang Hanmin frowned slightly when he heard this: "Commander, our cavalry is still responsible for covering the back road of Tengger City, in case it is missed with the Eight Banners Horse Team on the grassland, wouldn't it be ......?"

Li Qiusheng snorted: "What if you miss it?" Can those Eight Banners Horse Team still take down a fortress like Darkhan City? ”

……

"That's the Ming Army's Guards Cavalry?"

Li Qiusheng probably would not have imagined that the enemy he wanted to search for would be so close to Darkhan City that he could stand on horseback and use a telescope to watch the 4,000 Guards cavalry march into Darkhan City from a distance.

Of course, it was not the 9,000 Eight Banners and the Cossack cavalry that looked at it together, but the two people, Rosovsky and Fu Fang, who were disguised as Mongolian herdsmen, stood on a high slope twenty miles northwest of Darkhan City, and there were more than a dozen Cossacks around them who couldn't breathe through the tension - there were a full 4,000 heavy cavalry, and they were pulling 36 cannons! If they were to fight on the steppe, I am afraid that the entire Cossack division would not be their opponent!

"It must be the Guards cavalry, look at their horses, what a good horse!"

"There is a lot of Arabian blood, and our Don Hippo also has such blood." Rosovsky's attention was not on the horse, but on the artillery of the Ming army, "their artillery ...... It doesn't look bronze, but it's an iron cannon? ”

"It's supposed to be a steel cannon, right? Doesn't it mean that there are a lot of steel that can be used to pave roads? ”

"If it's a steel cannon, it should be a 12-pounder cannon. It could also be the latest rifled gun! Rossovsky said to himself with some concern, "In that case, it would be a bit of a problem." ”

He put down the binoculars in his hand, sat back in the saddle, and waved at Fu Fangyi: "Let's go back, act tonight, and pass 12 versts north of that castle!" (To be continued......)