Forty miles away from the Laohukou Fort is the Datong border of the sixteen villages second only to the Yajiao Mountain, not only because it is only five miles away from the right guard of Datong, but also because behind the Laohukou is the flat land of a horse Pingchuan.

It is as easy to defend and difficult to attack as Yajiao Mountain, but the height of the city wall is not as high as that of Yajiao Mountain. It is said that when the general Xu Dadatong built the border city, he had no money, and finally had to repair the tiger's mouth to be one zhang lower than Yajiao Mountain.

Rao is so, and the city wall of the tiger's mouth is also more than three zhang.

If the firearms are powerful enough, these three-zhang city walls are nothing at all, and when they are bombarded, there will be nothing.

But now there are not so many firearms, and science and technology are not very developed, even if they are as strong as the Ming Dynasty, there are not many firearms in the treasury of the military department. The craftsman can't make anything good on the side of the superintendent, and the Shenji Camp can't configure anything good. What's more, these Tatars have always believed only in their scimitars and horses in their hips, so they will not use firearms to attack cities.

The huge bed crossbow was the natural enemy of the cavalry, and a bed crossbow arrow with a thick arm shot at the dense place of the cavalry, and a string of seven or eight cavalrymen and horses turned into sugar gourds.

However, to deal with bed crossbows, the Tatars also had a siege weapon, that is, a very old but very practical trebuchet.

It's just a rope made of a big net pocket and cow tendons, which is launched with a winch, and only needs to have enough strong men to pull and enough stones to project.

Trebuchets have a high attack power, and often a large rock can be killed on the spot after it falls. The broken stone is a sharp weapon that kills people, and the unbroken stone can be rolled out directly by relying on the powerful impact force when rolling. Those who stand in the way have no other way but to die.

After several tentative attacks, the two defenses damaged each other, and at the suggestion of Alib, the Tatars suspended their attacks.

He summoned the other two to discuss countermeasures, along with the commanders who had been in the same position as them at their orders.

"This battle is very difficult to fight." A few days of conscription and preparation for war made Alibu a little exhausted, and in the face of these own people, he expressed the worry in his heart: "The thoughts of the wild wolf, we are all very clear. The Ming army didn't understand, only when we were here to fight the grass valley. Judging from the usual experience, the Ming army seems to be nothing to fear, but I contacted the dead in the city, and I couldn't contact any of them. ”

Blott said quietly: "Wild wolves want to eat people, and people can't sit still. There is a saying among the Ming people that we dare to pull the emperor off the horse, but we are too weak to fight against the little prince who imprisoned Batu Munch. ”

Alibu nodded and said, "This battle must be fought, at least to make an appearance, otherwise the wild wolf will definitely not let us go." He single-handedly contributed to this war, which is nothing more than trying to weaken our strength through the hands of the Ming people, if we don't fight, he will be able to find a handle, and if we fight, we will consume our own strength. Looking at the appearance of the Ming people, it is estimated that they will not die, and if they continue like this, it will not do us any good. ”

Dzhekobe had been circling the tent in a circle, and when he heard Alibu say this, he suddenly stopped: "No matter what the wolf thinks, this battle must be fought." The warriors of the grassland are never intimidated by hardships and dangers, and besides, there are still so many people waiting for us to transport the food and clothes of the Ming Kingdom back, otherwise, they will not be able to survive this winter. ”

Blott's eyes were full of worry: "It is precisely because of this that we have to jump into it knowing that it is a trap that Batumunk can set. ”

A commander couldn't help but ask, "Is there no other way?" ”

Dzekobe asked rhetorically, "What way?" In the past, when we had cattle and sheep, we were not willing to exchange them for food and clothing. Now we don't have so many cattle and sheep, and it's impossible to exchange grain. But in order to live, people need to eat, they have to wear, and these are essential. Whatever the steppe warriors want to use, they will always use the scimitar in their hands to fight for it, not the so-called other methods. ”

Alibu agreed: "Yes, this battle must be fought, there is no other way to think of it." Even if there is a way, we can't think about it. Let's not explain that the Chinese people have a deep hatred for the warriors on the grassland because we have been fighting in the grass valley for many years, even if there is no such hatred, the Ming court that drove the golden family out of the Central Plains will not allow us to think of such a way.

Similarly, as vassals of the Golden Family, we will not let go of the hatred in our hearts and go to collude with the people of the Ming Kingdom. ”

Blott frowned, as if he was thinking something, and he didn't hear the conversation of the others.

Alibu pushed him: "What are you thinking?" ”

Blott's eyes were blank, and his tone was full of helplessness: "However, this will make many grassland warriors die on the border of Datong, and there will be many people who will not be recognized by the Immortal Heaven, and they will not even be able to return home." ”

Dzekobe shouted, "Wake up, Blot, even if we don't fight this battle, will those warriors be able to guarantee that they will survive this winter?" The most important thing is that people live, don't think about how many warriors on the grassland on the battlefield can't return home, think about how many brothers and sisters will really starve to death on the grassland at that time. ”

When the head was drunk, Blott immediately became sober.

His gaze instantly became firm: "Fight, fight to the death, but you don't have to capture the city, you can fight with the Ming army happily, but you can't let too many warriors die." We must not let the wolf's ambitious Batumunk's treacherous plan succeed, once too many of our men die, I am afraid that Batu Munch will have no scruples, and it will be easy for him to kill us at that time. ”

"You're our brainstorm, make up your mind!" Dzekodon looked at Blott and said.

Of the three, Dzeko is a bit reckless, so he is generally the one who confronts Batumunk. Alibu is a calm man, but he lacks resourcefulness, and relatively speaking, Batu Munch trusts him more. The smartest person is Blot, don't look at his usual inconspicuousness, but all the strategies of the three of them against Batumunk are from his head.

This bearded Tatar man has wisdom that ordinary people do not have.

After discussing the strategy, taking advantage of the darkness, the Tatar army launched an attack.

The raiding force of 300 men sneaked under the gate and shot hundreds of feathered arrows into the city, and there was no sound.

This kind of attack, the Ming border army has obviously been accustomed to it, in addition to hiding behind the battlements to temporarily avoid the edge, those Ming border troops, even did not launch a counteroffensive. Of course, this also has something to do with the speed at which these Tatar cavalry retreated too quickly, and after the people at the head of the city reacted, they had disappeared without a trace.

Lin Kedi, who was born in Hu Guangcheng and announced that the political envoy Shafu has been in Datong for 18 years, and the 18 years of frontier life have sharpened a sixteen-year-old half-year-old into today's rugged man.

His body was strong, on the contrary, from the outside, he did not look like he was in a garrison of more than 12,000 people led by the right guard. He has both the duties of Datong's right guard general and the tiger's mouth guard, and he received the order to defend the tiger's mouth. Even if the last man fights, he must not let the Tatar horse's hooves step into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

This task is very heavy, and it is a little difficult for this southern man to bear.

But he still did not hesitate to accept this task, dying on the battlefield, that is what many men want to do the most, of course, it is best not to die in battle.

After taking the task, he chose a path of generosity to death, no matter who came or how many people came, he did not intend to take a step back.

Standing on the fortress, which was not too high but strong enough to stop the Tatar cavalry, Link looked at the Tatar camp in the distance. In the past few days, the other party's reaction really made him scratch his head, besieged but did not attack, and sent hundreds of people out to send them to death from time to time.

"Lin Shoubei, what kind of medicine is sold in this tartar gourd, why did you take tens of thousands of horses to the border line of my Ming Dynasty for sightseeing." I don't know much about military affairs, but Datong Fujia, who has delivered food for the tiger mouth, can provide a large army to consume a month's food, and asked a little puzzled.

This little old man can be said to have scattered all his family wealth for this battle, in his words, he was timid when he was young, and he didn't dare to join the border army, but now that he is older, he wants to open it. His previous timidity made him ashamed of himself, so he wanted to do his best to help the army of the imperial court.

In fact, it was because his son, who had offended the prefect of Datong, was now in prison, and he wanted to ask Yang Zongbing to speak for his unsuccessful son in this way.

Of course, these unknown but well-known little Jiujiu, Lin Kedi is too lazy to debunk them.

He looked at the Tatar army camp that stretched for several miles, covered his head and said with a headache: "I don't know, Ben will wait for them to attack, how many come, how many kill." ”

The old man, a wealthy merchant who was more or less a Shili heirloom, was obviously not used to the way this Nanban spoke straightforwardly, so he turned his back with a smile and walked down the gate.

Lin Kedi didn't look back, a sneer on the corner of his mouth, and his hand involuntarily clenched the embroidered spring knife presented by the brocade-clothed Wei Biaoyun Riding Thousand Households Wang Zhou on his waist.

After a long time, when the handle of the embroidered spring knife on his waist had become warm, he let go of his hand, quietly looked at the dark camp, and couldn't help roaring in his heart: Come on! Tartars! Give full vent to your bestial nature, and let your grandfathers teach you, people, what to do.

Because of the war, there were almost no civilians in the city, and some were just soldiers in armor, and some soldiers and dependents who really didn't have time to go home and had to let their families come over.

Among them, there are four wives and children who Lin Kedi specially rushed from Changsha Mansion.