"Ten thousand households, we have already suffered more than 470 casualties." Jiang Guangtou looked anxious when he spoke.

Before releasing the captives, Jiang Guangtou felt that such a friendly action might be able to get a kind response from the opposing Haidu army, and even Haidu would run to show his submission. Hao Ren Wanhu was ordered to march westward, not to completely eradicate Haidu, but to hope that the Ögedai Khanate and the Chagatai Khanate would be subjugated.

The result of such a friendly gesture was completely different from Jiang Guangtou's imagination, and from the day after the release of the prisoners, Haidu began to send a large number of light cavalry to harass Hao Ren's army. Hao Ren Wanhu did not show weakness and sent cavalry to engage in a-for-tat battle, and in just three days, Hao Ren's troops suffered more than 470 casualties. For Hao Renjun, who had 20,000 men, this was by no means a loss that could be ignored.

Hao Ren just nodded, and then asked to join the army, "Where will you camp tomorrow?" ”

The army took out a map that seemed very inferior to the Song Army's cartography department, and then pointed to a place on it, "Lord Wang, we are camped here." ”

"Why?"

"There's a source of water."

While he was talking, a horse ran in panting, and immediately after saluting, he said, "Report to the prince, I have encountered the enemy brigade." Under the banner there was the Haidu Army, and there was also the army of the Chagatai Khanate. They were stationed thirty miles ahead. ”

Hao Ren's eyes lit up after hearing this, and he looked back at the map. Thirty miles ahead, it is the place where there is a water source that Fang Cai talked about when he joined the army. After determining the location of the other party, Hao Ren asked Tanma: "How many people are there in the other party's brigade?" ”

"Look at the camp, there must be at least 20,000 people."

"Order, let's go to meet it. Get ready for a night march. ”

That night, Hao Ren's brigade approached the vicinity of the Haidu Army. Haidu, who had sent a large number of scouting horses, was woken up from his sleep and woke up when he learned that Hao Ren had come over.

The two sides did not clash the following night. Early the next morning, Haidu talked with the leading general of the Chagatai Khanate about the next battle. The use of a large number of light cavalry against Hao Ren's probe horse was to create pressure on the Torre family, a boy who knew witchcraft. Because the pressure faced by Haidu has also reached the limit, the boys of the Torre family blocked the road for Haidu to go south for the winter, and Haidu did not dare to go south rashly.

The Mongol army was assembled by various tribes, and once Haidu's army moved south, the tribes would probably rush south. The Haidu army will be scattered in an instant. At the moment, only by defeating the kid of the Torre family can he calmly go south. Otherwise, the boys of the Torre family may chase and fight all the way to Haidu.

"Our two armies are flanking the Torre boys." Haidu said to the general of the Chagatai Khanate, Songsicuo. Although the other party is not a prince of the clan who can be equal to Haidu, he represents the Chagatai Khanate. The 8,000 cavalry in the hands of Songsicuo was very important for Haidu.

"Who's positive? Who's back? Songsicuo asked.

In order to create an opportunity for the army on the back to attack, the troops attacking head-on had to pay a huge price, although he wanted to let the Chagatai Khanate gnaw on the bones in his heart, Haidu still responded heartily: "Naturally, our army will fight on the front." We'll send men and horses to attack the back of the Torre boys with you. ”

"But we're lined up like this, will the boys of the Torre family really fight?" Song Sicuo expressed his opinion. For cavalrymen with the ability to maneuver, they are naturally reluctant to fall into a situation where the enemy is flanked in front and rear. Any battle is fought on the battlefield by default on both sides, and for cavalry, it is okay to run if you can't beat it.

"The Torre kid is very arrogant, and he probably will." Haidu replied.

The next day, the armies of the Ögedai Khanate and the Chagatai Khanate put on a posture of attacking Hao Ren's army in front and back, but Hao Ren did not run away, he just ordered to hold the camp. Haidu was in front of the array, looking at the spear phalanx outside Hao Ren's camp, and immediately lost the desire to attack.

Both Haidu and Chagatai Khanate had fought many battles with Hao Ren, and Hao Ren's spear phalanx covered the musket phalanx, and both Haidu and Chagatai Khanate had suffered heavy casualties in front of such a combination. Seeing such a formation again, Haidu no longer had the urge to try with his life.

"Send someone to make an appointment." The sea has a weak life.

When the envoy of Haidu entered Hao Ren's military array, he saw the banner in Hao Ren's array flying in the wind. It was a beautiful silk banner, and it looked very new. It is far more glamorous and decent than the felt banner on the Haidu side.

On the Mongolian plateau, the ground seems to be closer to the clouds. Under the gloomy sky, Hao Ren Wanhu heard the news of the battle of Haidu's subordinates, and just replied coldly: "If Haidu has the guts, let him fight." I'm just waiting here for them to flank back and forth. ”

"The prince is so heroic, would he be afraid to move forward?" The messenger tries to use the method of agitation.

"I came from afar, and I still have one enemy and two enemies, and you don't dare to attack it. Doesn't Haidu have the guts? Hao Ren smiled and mocked the messenger. The Western Expeditionary Army imitated the Song Army's spear array and musket formation, and the formation of Kublai Khan's corpses that had been killed was also applicable to the Mongol army on the steppe.

The two sides taunted each other back and forth, and the envoy said to the generals behind Hao Ren: "You are also good Mongolian men, so no one dares to be superior on the horse?" ”

The generals around Hao Ren were basically government soldiers, and most of them did not understand Mongolian. Those who knew Mongolian were also very uncomfortable with the local accent of the Ögedai Khanate. Moreover, the soldiers themselves were not Mongols, they came all the way to fight here to win, not to be heroes. The agitation of the envoys of the Ögedai Khanate was useless.

In the end, the messenger left with the advice that 'both sides should fight head-on, and that the victory or defeat should be decided by means of cavalry hedging'. As soon as the envoy left, Hao Ren shouted to the generals in fluent northern Chinese: "Ladies and gentlemen, as we expected, the thief army has all gathered in front of us. They were divided into two routes, more than 30 miles apart from each other. There are more than 10,000 Wokotai troops in front, and they are prepared. The number of Chagatai troops behind it is less than 10,000, and they are waiting for Haidu's order. The time has come to defeat the thieves in one fell swoop. I personally commanded 15,000 men and horses to storm them, and I should have a great victory. The remaining 5,000 soldiers and horses were enough to contain the Ogedai army. Don't miss the opportunity and don't come again, don't hesitate in the slightest, and capture the enemy in one fell swoop. ”

At this time, the Chagatai army was waiting for news from the Wokuotai army, and they were still more than ten miles away from Hao Renjun. Although Hao Renjun's Tanma had already seen the location of the Chagatai army, the Chagatai army was still separated from Hao Renjun by a large dirt slope. This is the case with flanking attacks, you have to leave room for the enemy to have the idea of breaking each one. As long as Hao Renjun and the Wokotai army enter a fierce battle, the Chagatai army can be dispatched.

It's been cloudy and it's still very windy these days. The general of the Chagatai Khanate, Songsicuo, tightened his collar and waited for news of the battle ahead. In the position of the ground, the Chagatai Khanate is located in the Uyghurs, the Ogedai Khanate is north of the Uyghurs, and the first attack after Hao Ren came was the Chagatai Khanate.

At that time, the Chagatai Khanate had not yet experienced the power of firearms. Under the heavy fire of muskets, the soldiers of the Chagatai Khanate, who charged, suffered heavy casualties. The athletes of the Chagatai Khanate, who continued to advance with bullets, were poked down by the pikemen of Hao Renjun's army. Just as the attacking Chagatai Khanate army was preparing to retreat, Hao Ren's army was wide open, and the cavalry swarmed out, using their numbers to completely defeat the Chagatai Khanate.

The field battle could not be won, and the Chagatai Khanate had to hold the city. Hao Ren dragged out the artillery and fired suppressively at the head of the city, and asked the soldiers to take earth and build a hill higher than the city wall. Musketeers shoot at archers on dirt hills. After suppressing the army at the head of the city, Hao Ren's army attacked the city with a long ladder, and the cities of the Chagatai army were easily captured by Hao Ren's army.

Song Sicuo was just an ordinary general before, but now he can become a general in command of the army, because the generals and leaders who are older and more prestigious than him have been lost in battle after battle. That is, Song Sicuo does not understand Han culture, if he does, he will probably laugh at himself with 'Liao Hua, the great general of Shuzhong, as a pioneer'.

Anxiously waiting for news from the frontal battlefield, Song Sicuo felt as if the sky was dawning. When I looked up, I saw that gaps began to appear in the gloomy sky, and the gaps revealed the blue sky. Before Songsicuo came to enjoy such a view, he saw a horse running towards him in the distance.

Could it be that the Wokotai army has already begun to fall into a fierce battle with Hao Renjun? Song Sicuo's heart was overjoyed.

After a while, the sky was getting brighter and brighter. The horsemen who galloped on their horses also rushed in front of him. In the cold wind, Tanma's face was red from the cold, and he didn't even get off the horse, so he stammered: "Qianhu, Hao Ren is coming!" ”

"What?" Matsushima Cuo Chihu didn't understand what was going on. It's hard for Hao Ren to defeat the frontal Haidu army so quickly? It's impossible.

Next, there is no need to explain, a large number of cavalry appeared on the top of the large dirt slope in front. Song Sicuo looked up and couldn't help but squint his eyes. Matsushiso was in the direction of the backlight, and when he looked up, he saw the sun revealing after the dark clouds had dispersed. Even though the winter sun is far less blazing than the summer sun, it is not something that Matsushicuo can look at.

At this time, Hao Renjun at the top of the hillside was backlit. The sun shone down diagonally behind them, and in front of them were the Golden Family's Daxu and Hao Ren's generals' banners. At the front of the array, Hao Ren Wanhu's long knife held high flashed silver in the sunlight, as if it was made of shards of the sun.

With the wave of the kind long knife, the generals took the lead in urging the horses to rush out, and the cavalry then followed the generals and galloped wildly. The tidal cavalry rushed down the hillside, sabers aloft and lances clenched.

Opposite the attacking Hao Ren army, the cavalry of the Chagatai Khanate dismounted at this time and hid behind their horses in order to avoid the invasion of the cold wind. The clever ones scrambled to climb onto their mounts, and the unclever ones didn't know what was going on, just waiting for the chiefs of the tribes to give orders. As for the self-proclaimed clever, they could not help but cry out to the leader of their tribe, hoping for orders.

Although it was far from the level of five hundred ducks for three people, there seemed to be more than 200,000 ducks moving on the position of the Ögedai Khanate at this time. In the midst of this chaos, Hao Ren's cavalry had already rushed in front of the army of the Ögedai Khanate, brandished their swords and spears and began to kill.

Song Jun measured that Mongolian horses can run 60 kilometers in eight hours. For more than 30 miles, it took about an hour for the cavalry to finish. Haidu Khan, who was thinking about how to break through Hao Ren's musket array and long spear formation, learned that Hao Ren's cavalry was launching a surprise attack on the Chagatai army, and he actually felt a joy in his heart.

Now the situation has become that the Chagatai Khanate Army undertakes a frontal battle, and the Ögedai Khanate Army is in a posture of attacking from behind. Haidu Khan immediately ordered his troops to flank Hao Ren's army.

As soon as the Haidu Army made a move, they saw that the infantry array of Hao Renjun on the opposite side had also moved. They moved in the direction of the advance of the Haidu Army, and actually blocked the front of the Haidu Army with a slender array.

Thousands of infantry lined up, each of them with a distance of about fifty to eighty meters, and the four formations formed a two-mile-long array. Although the Mongolian steppes are theoretically relatively flat, they are only mountainous or hilly areas. The terrain on the prairie is also quite complicated, and this military formation is stuck in an easy-to-pass position, and the Haidu army found that if they make a detour, they will have to pass through a location that is not easy to pass.

Licking his lips, Haidu viciously ordered, "Outflank." Kill these people! ”

With more than 10,000 cavalry against three or four thousand infantry, Haidu felt that he had a chance of victory.

The cavalry galloped and surrounded the infantry in less than half an hour. Hao Ren's infantry also quickly adjusted their ranks at this time, from four horizontal formations side by side to one phalanx. The so-called four directions, the eight sides of this phalanx are composed of eight spear arrays, and the eight spear arrays that occupy the eight directions are connected to the four sides of the musket array. Outside the phalanx, in front of the array in each direction were six artillery pieces. In the bright sunlight, the gunners of Hao Renjun did not hesitate to use the Mongolian iron cannons on the Mongolian artillery carriages to fire fiercely at the Mongolian cavalry of the Haidu Army.

The swift wind blew away the smoke from the muzzle, and the gunners quickly cleared the chambers, loaded the gunpowder and projectiles, and resumed firing.

Haidu originally wanted to pinch a soft persimmon, but he didn't expect to pinch a difficult hedgehog. In the blink of an eye, there were 100 casualties, and Hao Renjun was unharmed. Mongolia was a tribal society, and the Great Khan's own soldiers accounted for at most half of an army. The others were all princes under the Great Khan, and the vast majority of the army was composed of tribal leaders and soldiers and horses of 10,000, 1,000, and 100 households.

Although it was more than 10,000 people against 4,000 people, after being hit head-on, the tribal leaders retreated. At such times, it is necessary for the backbone to show its demeanor.

Genghis Khan said, "If I lead the people to flee in battle, you can cut off my legs; If I take the spoils of war into my pocket at the time of victory, you may cut off my fingers. The Great Khan did not turn the whole of Mongolia into a centralized state, but he was able to gain power solely because of his personal ability and charisma, which made the Mongols feel hope and make them think that they would win.

At this time, Genghis Khan's descendants faced the same expectations of his subordinates.