On the way to the northwest, Song Nan specially asked the accompanying Honglu Temple officials in charge of Tatar affairs, these officials were responsible for collecting various information about the Tatar state, and their military companionship was also a special request made by Song Nan in order to better understand the Tatars.

The officials of the northern room of the Honglu Temple told Song Nan that the Tatar state had endured a long period of internal war, and it was a bitter cold place for survival, and the Tatar population had hardly increased in the past ten years, and the total number was less than two million; With such a population base, it is already very unusual for the size of the army under the Golden Horde of Dayan Khan to be maintained at more than 100,000 people; You must know that these 100,000 people are carefully selected strong Tartars, and for the Tatars, who lack strong labor, the impact on production and grazing is enormous.

Even with the addition of the tribal leaders' own soldiers and horses, the total strength of the Tatar state would not exceed 150,000. And this time, the army led by Bald Meng Ke to attack, and the soldiers and horses he personally led were nearly 120,000, and when they were beaten to less than 20,000, the number of these 100,000 troops that suddenly appeared seemed to be very different from the number studied by the officials of Honglu Temple.

Prior to this, Song Nan thought that this 100,000 army was a claim, in order to increase the momentum in ancient wars, 350,000 could be claimed to be 100,000, and 350,000 could be claimed to be million, which was nothing more than emboldening himself and putting pressure on the opponent. But when he stepped on the wall of the Great Wall and looked at the Tartar camp covered with wildfires and bonfires all over the mountains, covering more than a dozen peaks and valleys within a radius of five or six miles, Song Nan believed that these 100,000 people were not imaginary numbers.

So the question is, where did the Tartars come out of these 100,000 horses? It is already very good that they can take out a maximum of 350,000 horses if they die, and the extra 50,000 or 60,000 people can not be easily had; You need to know that this is an army, and it is to be used for war.

Now, looking at the frightened Tartar herdsmen in front of him, who didn't even have a piece of armor on their bodies, the question in Song Nan's heart was suddenly solved, the so-called 100,000 army, I'm afraid that more than half of them were Tartar herdsmen who were forcibly brought in; It can be seen that the Tatar country has reached the point of exhaustion, and this time the bald man has lost all his family money, which is the last gamble.

"My lord, what should you do with these people?" Wang Yong said in a low voice.

Song Nan was silent, his eyes glanced at the Tartars who were curled up in a pile in fear, and suddenly reached out and pulled Ye Fanggu out of the Tartars' tent; A few steps out of the tent, standing on the dark hillside, you can hear a dull exclamation from the tent behind you, a terrifying sound of swords slashing and slashing into the bones, and soon a qiē calmed down.

Ye Fanggu exclaimed in a low voice: "Husband, you ...... You allowed them to kill these civilians? ”

Song Nan slowly turned his face sideways, frowned, and said, "Do you want them to expose our whereabouts?" ”

"But...... But they are ordinary people, and they have been forced to do so. ”

Song Nan reprimanded: "In the woman's opinion, if you go to this battlefield, how can there be any civilians?" If we don't kill them today, tomorrow they will attack the city, and see if they will let us go. Tartars are the hearts of tigers and wolves, although these people are herdsmen, but since they were children, they were instilled with the idea that my Ming Dynasty stole its former Yuan Jiangshan, and hated me Daming, if you don't believe it, I will take you to see the records of Honglu Temple in this regard. ”

Ye Fanggu was speechless for a long time and shook her head slowly.

Song Nan said lightly: "Don't think that I don't have compassion, but here, compassion is superfluous, if you think my heart is too ruthless, I advise you to go to Yanchi County again, to listen to the painful voices of the people in Yanchi County, which is occupied by the Tartars, and then tell me these truths." ”

Song Nan shook his hand and returned to the tent, and under the flickering lights, dozens of Tartars had been cut down and lay in the tent.

"Drag the bodies outside into a ravine, strip off their clothes and change them."

"What do you mean, do you want to go in as if you were these Tartars?"

"Yes, there are steamed buns and mutton porridge in the tent next to it, these people are cooking for the Tartar army, it seems that the thousands of people on these two mountains are the food supply logistics of the Tartars. Let's pretend to be them and bring supper to the Tartars. ”

Wang Yongxi said: "This method is good, but unfortunately there is no sweat medicine, otherwise I will secretly sprinkle a big bag from tent to tent, and my army will easily win tomorrow." ”

Song Nan was speechless, and after everyone cleaned up and dragged the corpse away, they simply cleaned up the blood stains in the tent, although it was inevitable that people would see it, but it was also helpless, dozens of people wore wide-sleeved coats with tartars, and they all looked like tartars. In a few tents next to it, a mountain of steamed buns is smoking on the cage drawer, and the aroma of mutton porridge boiling in seven or eight large pots hits people, bubbling under the boiling of firewood.

Wang Yong licked his lips and scolded: "The food of these dog tartars is not bad, damn it, if it weren't for the urgency of time, I would like to come and drink a few bowls." ”

Everyone took the prepared wooden barrels and baskets, picked up the burdens, and packed up all the food and brought it, Song Nan walked in the head, carrying two baskets of hot steamed buns and slowly walking towards the valley to the east, and everyone silently followed behind, walking to the depths of the Tartar barracks.

The big tent of the second prince Urus was set up on a walled fortress outside the Great Wall of the original Ming army, and after capturing here, he chose this commanding height to lead the overall situation; Originally, Urus planned to launch a full-scale attack before sunset to capture the pass of the Great Wall in one fell swoop, but Hai Dongqing sent an edict from his father Khan, asking him to make a feint attack and cooperate with him in the early morning of the next day, for the simple reason that his father's soldiers and horses needed to rest in the salt pond for a night.

Although Urus was very unhappy with his father Khan's decision, he did not dare to disobey it, even if his father Khan suffered a defeat and fled here, in his mind, his father Khan was still a mountain pressing on his heart. For a moment, Urus even flashed the idea of leading his troops to withdraw and let his father Khan die in the territory of Daming, but he was taken aback by his own idea, and after careful consideration, he dispelled this idea.

He understood a truth, his father Khan was here, and the tribes of the original Washorn tribes under the jurisdiction of the Tatar State, Ordos, Tumut, Yongshebu, Menggoljin, Khalkha, Uliangha, Korqin, and Duoyan Sanwei did not dare to make any changes, they only dared to serve because of the prestige of their father Khan, and it was wishful thinking that they wanted them to admit their khan. And as soon as Father Khan dies, these guys are afraid that they will immediately turn their faces, and whether they can save their lives is a problem. After thinking about it, he pressed this terrible thought into his heart.

On this expedition, he made an agreement with the insatiable envoys of Muscovy, promising to increase the quantity and price of the trade in firearms from Muscovy after rescuing his father Khan, and on this condition he obtained from them forty Condor cannons and thousands of shells; Originally, he only had more than 40,000 regular soldiers and horses in hand, but now with the Condor cannon, his confidence was suddenly a lot fuller.

In the previous test firing, only a few artillery bombardments bombarded the tall Great Wall wall in front of him, and he knew that under the bombardment of forty Condor cannons early tomorrow morning, the Great Wall that the Ming people relied on would no longer be a barrier to block the advance of the army. He even thought about it, after breaking through the pass, he wanted to build a father Khan not to rush back to the army, but to oppose the guest, take advantage of the situation to take Ningxia Town, and firmly occupy this place. He believed that his position in the eyes of his father would replace his brother Tulu, and he would become a strong contender for his father's position in the future.

Urus knew the importance of these forty Condor cannons, so he ordered three thousand elites to protect them. After placing them in place, Urus issued an order that no one should stop near the place where the Condor cannon was fired without cause, and that those who violated it would be immediately killed; Anyone who dares to touch or touch these baby bumps will be dealt with by military law, which can be described as caring for these condor cannons at a glance.

Song Nan and others, who didn't know this qiē, walked on the mountain road leading to the depths of the Tartar camp with hot steamed buns and mutton porridge, and as far as the eye could see, the tents of the Tartars were getting denser and denser, and in the slopes and valleys, the figures of the Tartars could be seen everywhere, some of them were lying around the bonfire and sleeping, some were sitting around the bonfire chatting and singing, and some were clapping their hands and picking up weird crazy dances, mixed with the tension of the imminent war; Song Nan and the others quickly attracted everyone's attention, the fragrant steamed buns and mutton porridge were easy to provoke the hungry Tartar soldiers in the night wind, and they were surrounded by many Tartar soldiers after only a few hundred steps into the former army camp.

"Hey. Who are you? What's in this barrel? What's in the basket? What do you do in the middle of the night? A Tartar centurion stopped Song Nan's Dao'er and asked.

Song Nan's face was smeared with some mud, he looked very old, and he coughed twice with his back and said: "Master, we are delivering supper, and we are from the Horqin tribe who came with the army to cook." ”

"Delivering supper? When did the army have a midnight snack? ”

Song Nan hurriedly said: "Master, I don't know about this, but I received an order to wait for me to prepare food and send it over to make supper, and we are also acting as ordered." ”

"Oh? To whom? Was it given to us? The centurion's nose wrinkled when he pressed into the porridge bucket, and his mouth drooled.

"Dare to ask if you are the brothers of the Condor Artillery Battalion? If so, these are for you. Song Nan said.

"Condor Artillery Battalion? Feelings this supper is for them? Damn, I know it's nothing wrong with us, these guys will only fight. The turtle grandson of the cannon took advantage of it, and the second prince treated them like baby bumps, and when they were fighting, they hid far away, and our brothers went to bleed and lose their heads desperately, and even eating a supper was their priority, which was really fucking unreasonable. The centurion cursed angrily, and the surrounding Tartar soldiers also cursed.

Song Nan smiled and said: "The old man turned out to be not the old man of the Condor Cannon Battalion, so please let the way come?" If I make a mistake, I can't eat and walk around. ”

The centurion was helpless, scolding and getting out of the way, Song Nan bent down and took the basket to beckon everyone to get up, and suddenly his heart moved, and he put down the basket and beckoned to the centurion.

The centurion glared at him and shouted, "What to do?" ”

Song Nan said in a low voice: "Look at the old man's hard work, we also grieve for the big man, I dare to leave two buckets of mutton porridge and two baskets of steamed buns for the big man to satisfy his hunger, the big man can't say it." ”

The centurion rejoiced: "Really? Will this work? ”

Song Nan said: "What's wrong? Anyway, there are a lot of porridge and steamed buns, and all the old men who sent them to the Condor Cannon Battalion can't eat them, it is said that there are only 400 people, right? ”

The centurion said, ", who said there are four hundred?" It must have been the turtle grandchildren who protected them who also wanted to get something to eat, and there were only less than three hundred of them. It seems that you have made the weight of more than 400 people, so it is better to leave some for us. ”

"You might as well do it" Song Nan put two baskets of steamed buns on the side of the road, and beckoned a guard to pick up two buckets of mutton porridge as well, and the centurion picked his fingers and praised: "Or do you know how to be a man, not bad, you are from the Horqin tribe?" I will not offend any of the people of the Horqin tribe in the future. ”

Song Nan smiled and said: "Thank you, master, then we are going to leave, if it is late, I am afraid that we will have to eat the whip." ”

The centurion's eyes were already staring at the hot mutton porridge and white steamed buns, and he waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "Go, go, go." ”

Song Nan smiled and retreated, ordered everyone to take up the porridge and rice steamed buns on the road, and suddenly turned his head and asked when he was leaving: "Master, I'm asking a little more, we haven't seen the world, and we are a little confused when we see this big scene at first glance, dare to ask the station of the Condor Artillery Battalion from which road is the closest?" lest we go in the wrong way. ”

The centurion had already stuffed a steamed bun in his mouth, and pointed vaguely: "It's easy to recognize, keep going forward, and the mountain two miles away is the ramp that has been built up the mountain, and it is used to pull those hammer guys up the mountain, and it's easy to recognize it." ”

Song Nan stroked his chest and thanked him, waved his hand and hurriedly led everyone away.