The battle of Wuhai has almost nothing to write about, and the 20,000 Tartars are completely in a situation of delaying time to send them to death, and in the face of the fierce offensive of the Ming army, the result can be imagined.

The records of the Ming historians on this battle are limited to a few words: when the Duke of Zhenguo waved his army to attack Wuhai in the middle of the night, it was broken at dawn, more than 8,000 thieves were killed, more than 5,000 were captured, and the rest fled. The thief leader was afraid of the battle and fled to Hangjin to defend it.

Who knows how many stories of blood and fire are hidden behind these few words, and how much tragedy and fear are concealed. Those who have personally experienced this battle can clearly recall the battle that night: Borkin, the governor of Wuhai Wanhu, led 20,000 Tartar soldiers to rush forward as if they were going to die against the bombardment of the Ming army's rocket artillery, and after they fought with the vanguard army led by Jiang Bin, 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers and horses stuck together, under the city wall of Wuhai, on the side of the yurt, on the side of the alley, and by the woods, the scene of desperate slashing and slashing, so that the survivors who experienced this battle afterwards still dare not recall.

Even at the beginning of the battle, Song Nan learned the news of withdrawing tens of thousands of cavalry from Wuhai, but in the face of these 20,000 Tartar soldiers as cannon fodder, the victory in this battle was still not easy.

This made Song Nan's battle against the Tatars have completely changed, since he went to the northwest to fight with the bald man, and even cut the more than 100,000 Tartar soldiers and horses inside and outside the Great Wall with more than 20,000 Ming troops at the pass of the Great Wall, Song Nan was very disdainful of the combat power of the Tatar soldiers from the bottom of his heart. But after this battle of Wuhai, Song Nan realized how brave the Tartar soldiers were when there was no way out, and their combat effectiveness was surprising.

But in any case, in the misty early morning, the Yellow Dragon Banner and the Song Character Shuai Banner at the head of Wuhai City were waved in the wind, and although the Tartar soldiers were extremely brave, Wuhai Town still changed hands, becoming the first Tatar town to be captured in the Ming Dynasty for more than 100 years. In a certain way, the symbolic significance of capturing Wuhai is far greater than the actual combat significance.

Song Nan led the crowd to walk on the streets of Wuhai with rubble and ashes all over the ground, looking at the collapsed houses around them, the yurts that were still emitting green smoke and fire, and the sluggish group sat together and looked at the Tartar people who had invaded their towns by the Ming people, and couldn't help but sigh a little. Like the Tartar invasion of the Ming Dynasty, these Tartar people now also experience the pain of being captured by the Ming army and becoming captives to be slaughtered.

However, the sigh of the Duke of Daming Town did not last long, and soon he turned to the generals who followed behind him and ordered: "Immediately carry out a city-wide search, but those who resist or do not obey the decrees of our army will not be merciful, and order someone to collect and summarize the property and materials of the whole city, and Xu Tai is responsible for transporting these materials back and handing them over to Lord Yang Yiqing for delivery." ”

The generals agreed in unison, and Xu Tai pointed to the groups of Tatar people who had gathered together and said, "What about these people?" Are they all old and weak women and children, escorted back to Daming? ”

Song Nan shook his head and said: "Check whether there are any Tartar soldiers who are pretending to be ordinary people among them, find some people who can work to stay as coolies, and disperse the rest of the rations. ”

The generals were silent, and Zhang An said in a low voice: "General, the weather is about to turn cold, if these people are dispersed to the grassland, I am afraid that they will not be able to withstand the harsh winter." ”

Song Nan paced a few steps and sighed: "That's it, I ordered someone to register them and send them all to Yanchi County, where they were slaughtered by the Tartars, and it is okay for them to become the people of my Ming Dynasty from now on, but they are only temporarily settled, and this matter needs to be taken care of by the imperial court." I can't bear to watch them die of hunger and cold, my soldiers and horses are the teachers of benevolence and righteousness, and I must also do righteous things. ”

Zhang Anlian claimed that it was, and ordered his generals to hurry up.

Jiang Bin looked at the beaming and morale-boosting appearance of the soldiers of the Ming Army near Zuo and said with a smile: "Our first battle was victorious, and the morale of the soldiers is also rising, and more than 10,000 captured Tartar soldiers and horses were annihilated in one fell swoop, and we only lost more than 4,000, which can be described as a big victory." When the news reached the capital, the emperor would laugh happily. It's a pity that the old thief ran away, but I didn't expect this old thief to be so decisive, he actually abandoned Wuhai Town, abandoned the lives of 20,000 Tartar soldiers, and let them come to death. ”

Song Nan nodded and said: "It is indeed decisive enough, we used firearms in Bulong Lake, he must know that if he fights with us, he will be defeated, so he simply gave up Wuhai." The retention of 20,000 people is a delay in our time. In his calculations, he must have thought that it would take us at least a day or two to take this place, but he did not expect that it would only take us a few hours. ”

Xu Tai said: "The bald Meng can flee to the east, and the report said that they went to Hangjin, which is three hundred miles away, and we should wave our army to pursue and take Hangjin, once Hangjin is captured by us, the Tartars will have no place on the south bank of the Yellow River." ”

The generals nodded one after another and said: "What Marquis Xu said is that now only Hangjin is a town occupied by the Tartars on the south bank of the Yellow River, and the rest are scattered tribes and towns. Within ten days, Hangjin will be broken. All the south of the Yellow River will be in the hands of my Ming Dynasty. ”

Song Nan stood beside a collapsed low wall, his palm lightly patted on the adobe bricks at the head of the wall, frowned and thought carefully for a while, turned his head to face the many expectant eyes and slowly shook his head: "We won't go to Hangjin." ”

"How?" The generals were stunned.

"Are we going to retire? Even if the Yellow River is difficult to cross and the area north of the Yellow River has not been recovered, it is enough to drive the Tartars across the Yellow River to make the expedition a little successful. Jiang Bin said loudly.

Song Nan smiled and repeated: "Hang Jin, we won't go, let him go if the bald man can escape to Hangjin." The purpose of our expedition this time is to regain the Hetao, not to find the bad luck of the bald man. What you said is not wrong, taking Hangjin can firmly grasp the large territory south of the Yellow River in my hands, and ensure a situation of steady victory and no loss, but what I want is the entire Hetao, and driving the Tartars to the north of Yinshan Wolf Mountain is my goal, not just to let them face us across the river. ”

"But general, after taking Hangjin, we can still cross the Yellow River north and attack the north bank of the Yellow River." Ma Ming asked puzzled.

"Yes, of course, but time waits for no one. This goes east to Hangjin for more than 300 miles, as Xu Houye said just now, it is indeed expected to take Hangjin within ten days, but this does not include the rest time after taking Hangjin, it will take at least half a month to calculate, and this qiē is still built on the basis of a qiē shun lì, if the battle is not smooth, it will even take more time. And our most precious thing is time, today is the first day of October, half a month later is the end of October, you can already feel the cold of the climate in the north, and then half a month, here is full of snow or cold, we don't know. So, we can't be led by the nose. ”

"And where do we plan to march next?" Zhang Andao.

Song Nan picked up a dead branch and drew it in the dust on the ground, explaining: "This is Wuhai, this is Hangjin, if we take Hangjin first and then go north, it is equivalent to turning a big bend and walking hundreds of miles in vain." The bald man wants us to be like this, and the longer he delays, the happier he becomes. So we simply didn't attack Hangjin, but went straight north and attacked here first. ”

The branch in Song Nan's hand drew a big arrow on the soil, extending all the way to the north, drawing a small circle at the end of the arrow.

"This is the town of Dengkou, which is already close to the bank of the Yellow River, and if you take it here, it will be the Yellow River about fifty miles north. If we can suddenly cross the Yellow River, take Linhe County, which is occupied by the Tartars, and then attack the Urad Banner northeast of the Hara River, it will be equivalent to cutting off the passage southeast and southeast of the Wolf Mountain. When we appeared on the back of the bald man's belly, I wonder if the Tatar lord could still stay safe and stay in Hangjin, south of the Yellow River, waiting for us to chase him? ”

The generals' eyes widened, and they looked at the simple map on the ground, and Zhang applauded: "Miaoji, this is to force Bald Meng Ke to give up Hangjin and let him take the initiative to withdraw from the south of the Yellow River, he will not let us cross the Yellow River, so he will take the initiative to shrink his troops on the north bank of the Yellow River." It does not cost a single soldier to achieve the goal of recovering the south bank of the Yellow River, and the general can be said to be strategizing without losing his grandson. ”

Song Nan rolled his eyes, what does it mean not to lose his grandson, it sounds like a curse, but Zhang An understands his intentions profoundly, and the purpose of his north attack on Dengkou is to force the bald Mengke to withdraw his troops to the north bank of the Yellow River, so as to grab the bald Mengke's nose and lead him away. Of course, this qiē is based on a foundation, the Tartars are now overstretched, if before the Northwest War, it is conceivable that the north bank of the Yellow River will soon be able to gather tens of thousands of Tartar soldiers and horses to defend in the river, and now the most lacking is the troops, he can only retreat with the main force, and defend the north bank of the Yellow River, in order to avoid the empty hinterland on the north bank of the Ming army to occupy the doom.

"The strategy is a clever plan, but it is not easy to walk along the Wuhai Sea to the north to attack the mouth of the river, Ulan Bu and the desert are called the Sea of Death, all of them are Gobi deserts, which may not be conducive to the march of the army and logistics supplies." Xu Tai frowned.

Song Nan said with a smile: "Logistics supply is your business, it depends on your ability." As for this desert, it is not a forbidden area, it is narrow from east to west, but it is only dozens of miles from north to south. It's not too hard to get through him either. The order was sent down, the whole army was ready to be deployed, everyone prepared plenty of water and dry food, and wore masks to prevent wind and sand; All wheeled carts were converted into sand sleds, and the horses pulling the carts had to be wrapped in horseshoes and halters. Rest and prepare for the day today, and cross the sand sea tomorrow morning, if nothing else, we will be in the small town of Dengkou in five days. ”