Rao is Jiangning battalion soldiers have experienced countless battles and many big victories, but after entering the Hetao area, all the soldiers are very careful.

The vast majority of soldiers have never seen such a huge grassland and desert, in such an environment, if there is no guide to lead the way, it is very easy to get lost, surrounded by grasslands and yellow sand, there is not much reference at all, thinking about being able to see people, it is not easy.

The ten guides sent by the Ningxia Rear Guard were very responsible, and they followed the side of the Jiangning Battalion Commander to give a detailed introduction to the situation in the Hetao area, and there were three guides beside Liu Tiehan, the commander of the Scout Battalion, who were Liu Ji and two sergeants of the Ningxia Guard.

The scout battalion has an extraordinary duty, it is necessary to reconnoiter the surrounding environment, and also find the traces of the 5,000 army led by Hong Chengchou, the scouts are very hard, and the guide who follows them is also the best.

On the sixth day of the first lunar month, I have been in the Hetao area for two days.

The scout battalion has never found any trace of the army led by Hong Chengchou, and Su Tiancheng is very anxious.

Time is fatal, the army is still three days away from the place where the Xibe tribe is located, and it is the closest route, with Liu Ji's leadership, the army will not take the wrong road, and where there is fresh water, where to camp, are very clear, you must know that it is the cold winter season, and many places are covered with heavy snow.

Su Tiancheng has been calculating the time, starting from the twenty-sixth day of the lunar month, the five thousand soldiers led by Hong Chengchou, one person and two horses, the speed is very fast, it has been eleven days, Hong Chengchou must have gone deep into the depths of the desert, according to the normal speed, Hong Chengchou should have found the place where the Xibe tribe is located. To put it bluntly. It is possible that the soldiers of the Jiangning battalion will start a fight with the army of the Xibe tribe.

Because with the artillery battalion, the speed of the army could not be very fast, but fortunately, more than 500 Mongolian war horses were captured this time, which greatly supplemented the army, these war horses. The focus is on the artillery battalion, as a means of transportation, although this arrangement is too extravagant, the war horse to transport artillery, if the generals of the other guards know it, they must think that Su Tiancheng's brain is wrong.

In Su Tiancheng's view, there is nothing that can compare the lives of soldiers.

It was getting dark, not far away. A few horses galloped over.

"My lord, Liu Ji has discovered the traces of Lord Hong and his party."

Liu Ji, who had just dismounted, seemed to glance at Liu Tiehan, he probably didn't expect that such a big credit would be directly attributed to him.

Su Tiancheng didn't speak, nodded, and Liu Ji immediately spoke.

"Your Excellency. A lot of horse manure was found underneath, and it was crushed and observed. These horse dung are the dung of war horses, and about five days have passed, and along the dung, the scouts have traveled more than thirty miles and found traces of the garrison of the army. ”

"How can you be sure that it is the dung of a war horse, and how can you be sure that it is the traces of the garrison of the army."

"Prairie horses. The food is mainly grass, and now in winter, the main food is hay, and farmers and herdsmen in better conditions will add a little soybean. The horse's feces are dry and grayish-white, but the feces found this time are dark black, although after a few days, they are still a little wet, which shows that the horse's food is very good, at least soybeans and soybeans, Mongolian tribes, no one has such conditions, can feed horses like this, it must be a war horse. ”

Su Tiancheng nodded, the war horses of the Jiangning camp rarely ate grass.

"Judging that it is a large army, it is found that there is a lot of feces, and it is regularly distributed, almost a line, so I suspect that there is a large army passing by, and I followed the route for more than 30 miles, and sure enough, I found traces of the army stationed."

"Oh, can you tell what size the army is?"

Liu Ji didn't know that the Jiangning battalion had sent another army and had already penetrated deep into the Hetao area.

"In the following rough judgment, this is a huge team, at least more than 10,000 horses, generally speaking, a small team, it is difficult to leave traces on the grassland, not to mention that it has been a few days in the past, but the traces of this troop are still very easy to identify, where the war horses pass, there are obvious horseshoe prints, which indicates that it is a large group of war horses passing by, trampling on the front and back repeatedly, leaving such traces."

"Okay, you go ahead and judge how far this unit can travel after five days."

Liu Ji's face finally showed a look of embarrassment.

"My lord, this question is not easy to answer in the next place, if it is a man and a war horse, in five days, you can travel more than a thousand miles, if it is a person and two horses, you can almost cross the Hetao area and enter the depths of the desert. It also depends on the purpose of the army and where it needs to go......"

Liu Ji suddenly stopped talking, looked up at Su Tiancheng, and his eyes revealed horror, probably guessing something.

"Liu Ji, it seems that you finally understand, yes, there is a team in the Jiangning battalion, which has entered the Hetao area and went directly to the Xibe tribe station, now you can tell me your predictions."

Liu Ji was probably shocked, and only spoke after a while.

"If that's the case, then the two sides should fight."

"According to your understanding of the Xibe tribal army, I estimate what the situation will be in this confrontation, I especially emphasize that you have to tell the truth, according to your own understanding and analysis, I don't want to listen to the words of praise."

Liu Ji's expression slowly returned to calm, but he looked very serious.

"My lord, I have seen the bravery of the soldiers of the Jiangning battalion, it should be said that the two sides are evenly matched, the sergeants of the Xibe Battalion tribe cannot resist the Jiangning battalion, and in the Mongolian tribes, everyone knows that the Jiangning battalion has exterminated a lot of Manchurian Eight Banner soldiers, and all the tribes have privately discussed to avoid contact with the soldiers of the Jiangning battalion, the Mongolian tribes worship the strong, and the Jiangning battalion defeated the Manchurian Eight Banners, in the eyes of the Mongolian tribes, it is a great army."

"But the sergeants of the Jiangning battalion go deep into the grassland and the desert, not necessarily able to gain the upper hand, at least they are not familiar with this place, whether it is the terrain or the environment, the climate of the grassland desert is changeable, it is now a harsh winter, and it often snows heavily, the Mongolian tribes, know how to avoid the cold, how to maintain the vitality of the war horse, how not to get frostbitten, the foreign army is not aware of the road, often suffer in this regard, in addition to provisions, the consumption of the grassland and the desert is very large, lack of supplies, the strongest army, to the grassland and the desert, It will also lose its combat effectiveness. ”

Su Tiancheng's face had no expression.

"Liu Ji, you just tell the truth, what do you mean, is it that Jiangning is more auspicious."

Liu Ji shook his head slightly.

"I haven't finished talking about it yet, the combat effectiveness of the sergeant of the Jiangning battalion has been seen in the next, the two-day march, and I have also paid attention to the observation in the next, the sergeant is able to endure hardships, and the endurance is beyond ordinary people, such an army, thinking about defeating, is not a simple matter, according to the next estimate, but in five days, at most the two armies are still in the process of confrontation, far from annihilating either side, my lord, this is the next estimate."

Su Tiancheng raised his head and looked at the gray-black sky.

It was a long time before he spoke.

"There is another question, the Xibe tribe station, which is only more than 300 miles away from the Daurian tribe's station, if the Xibe tribe station is attacked, is it the Dauria tribe's army that will soon come to the rescue."

Liu Ji looked at Su Tiancheng, and there was brilliance in his eyes, as the commander of the army, he must think of all aspects of the possibility.

"My lord, not necessarily."

Liu Ji said these words, and Su Tiancheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Liu Ji, if you are telling the truth, I don't have to worry, all the tribes of the grassland, are for their own development, all want to be the boss, you said before, the Xibe tribe army is the most powerful, slightly stronger than the army of the Dauria tribe, in this case, I think the leader of the Dauria tribe, may not be convinced, maybe when, the Xibe tribe and the Dauria tribe, there will be a rush, if the Xibe tribe is attacked, watching the tiger fight across the mountain, isn't it the best choice, Wait until both sides are defeated, come forward to clean up the mess, kill more birds with one stone, and end up with more than one stone. ”

"After subduing my lord, all the situation is expected to be accurate, after the new leader of the Xibe tribe took office, he did have ambitions, which has caused the dissatisfaction of the Dauria tribe leader, the two sides are not in agreement, and they are always on guard against each other, at this time, either side is attacked, and the other party will not be rescued immediately."

Su Tiancheng walked to the open space and thought alone, he had to make a big decision.

Liu Tiehan, Luo Chang, Wang Dazhi and others, standing in place, did not disturb, during the war, Su Tiancheng made such a move, indicating that a major decision had to be made.

A quarter of an hour later, Su Tiancheng walked over quickly.

"The soldiers led by Lord Hong, and the army of the Xibe tribe, must have clashed, because of many environmental restrictions, the two sides may still be in the process of stalemate, the grassland desert climate is cold, there are many difficulties on both sides, it is impossible to break the opponent immediately, in this case, we can not be limited to the Xibe tribe station, I decided, the army is divided into two roads, I lead 10,000 troops, including the artillery battalion, to encircle and suppress the Daurian tribal army, Luo Chang, you lead the vanguard battalion soldiers, gallop to the aid of Lord Hong, tell Lord Hong, The army has reached the Hetao area. ”

Everyone was shocked, they couldn't imagine that at such a time, Su Tiancheng dared to divide the troops.

Only Liu Ji looked at Su Tiancheng, his eyes flickered a little.

"Everyone, let's do it according to this, the Xibe tribe and the Dauria tribe are the two strongest tribes on the grassland, as long as these two tribes are defeated, the grassland will definitely fall into infighting, and the other tribes that are eyeing each other will want to come out and occupy the pastures in the Hetao area, at that time, a new round of fighting on the grassland will inevitably appear, this is the scene we need to see, this time, since we are here, we will completely defeat the Xibe tribe and the Daurian tribe." (To be continued......)