On October 13 of the first year of Chongzhen, Hong Chengchou was ordered to lead an army of 27,000 people to go out of the border wall to punish the Karaqin Department who dared to invade.

The army went out of the border gate to the north, the team traveled for more than ten miles, through Chaotianwa, Chahandhara until the bottom of the mud dam, the road was a rugged valley road, both sides were towering mountain cliffs, and the howl of wild wolves was often heard when marching.

And this road is also the only road from Zhangjiakou to the grassland that can pass through the brigade, that is, the Zhangku Avenue in later generations.

The further north you go, the terrain rises higher and the roads become more rugged. Fortunately, this terrain was not suitable for marching, and it was also not suitable for cavalry galloping, and except for the occasional Mongol cavalry looking far away, they were not attacked along the way.

After walking another twenty miles to the north, the vanguard troops reached Yehuling, and Hong Chengchou ordered the army to be stopped and reorganized. Because after the Wild Fox Ridge, there is a rugged mountainous area, and the north is a flat grassland.

"In the fourth year of Jiading in the former Song Dynasty, Mongolian Genghis Khan led an army of 100,000 to defeat the 700,000 army of the Jin State in this Yehuling, thus laying the momentum of dominating the world."

Standing on the ridge and looking at the grassland in the north, Hong Chengchou sighed. More than 500 years have passed, the Mongols have been driven back to Saiwai, the Jurchens established the Later Jin in Liaodong, and the Ming Dynasty inherited the former Song and Han dynasties. The Han Chinese, the Mongols, the Jurchens, are still fighting in this land.

Hou Shilu, Huang Degong and others, who inspected the terrain with Hong Chengchou, did not know the history of the former Song Dynasty, but instinctively felt that the terrain of Yehuling was very dangerous, because after Yehuling was an endless grassland, Yehuling was a natural barrier connecting Mobei in the north and the Central Plains in the south.

"With such a dangerous terrain, it is really strange that Karaqin Khan did not send troops to garrison it." Huang Degong felt very strange.

Hou Shilu knew the Mongols better, and explained at the moment: "The Mongols have always been bad at defending and don't know how to defend the city, coupled with decades of peace with the Ming Dynasty, and for more than a hundred years, the Ming army has been on the defensive and has never attacked out of the border wall, so the Mongols will naturally not spend their strength on the Yehu Ridge." ”

Huang Degong said with a smile: "The Mongols are negligent in taking precautions, but they have cheapened us, so we can easily attack the grassland and capture the old nest of the Karaqin tribe." ”

Occupying Yehuling, he has a great advantage, and he is basically invincible, which makes Huang Degong and other generals feel very relaxed.

Hong Chengchou shook his head: "Don't be careless." The strength of the Mongols was in mounted archery, not in defending cities. Its abandonment of Wild Fox Ridge did not have the intention of luring us into the grassland. ”

Hong Chengchou immediately ordered to repair for a day in Yehuling.

On this day, from time to time, Mongolian sentinels galloped in, looking at the Ming army's formation from afar. Hong Chengchou did not pay attention to this small group of Mongolian sentinels who came to watch, and the army formed a camp on the mountain ridge, stuck in the pass and the main road, and was not afraid of the attack of the Mongolian cavalry at all.

A day later, the army regained its strength, and Hong Chengchou ordered the dispatch of troops. Xinghe City, the old nest of the Karaqin Department, is less than thirty miles away from Yehuling.

27,000 troops, leaving 2,000 soldiers to guard the Yehuling Pass, the army drove down Yehuling.

Just a few miles after coming down the mountain, the Mongolian cavalry of the brigade really attacked.

The Ming army had already prepared for the attack on the Mongol soldiers, and the front army quickly formed a phalanx to defend, and the firecrackers shot and killed the enemy on both sides of the phalanx.

The Mongolian cavalry roared back and forth, swept in front of the Ming army, and shot arrows into the Ming army's formation, and from time to time the Ming soldiers fell down with arrows.

The Janissaries also used their colors to shoot dozens of Mongol knights in a volley of firearms.

"Boom, boom."

The artillery roared, and one projectile after another shot into the Mongolian cavalry formation, because the formation of the cavalry was very open when the cavalry attacked, and did not cause much damage, but some war horses ran wildly, and the Mongolian cavalry collided with each other.

After a quarter of an hour of fighting, the Mongol cavalry finally retreated, leaving more than a hundred corpses on the battlefield, while the Ming army also suffered a hundred and ten casualties.

The Mongolian cavalry bow and arrow rate of fire is faster than that of the firebolt, and the arrow hit rate is also high, and every soldier of the Ming army has a mandarin duck battle jacket, and the officers above the general flag have armor, and the defense of the bow and arrow is extremely strong, and the two sides of this battle can be said to be evenly matched.

Hong Chengchou didn't care either, and ordered the army to move on. Although the speed of the march was slow, it was steady and steady, not impatient or impatient.

The Karaqin tribe has been stationed in Xinghe City in Zhangbei for more than 60 years, grazing and recruiting Han people to cultivate the nearby land. In addition, it was soon winter, and it was impossible for the Karaqin tribe to leave Xinghe City in a hurry, unless the Karaqin Khan decided to abandon his cattle, sheep and livestock, and abandon the accumulated forage and sneak into the depths of the grassland. But in that case, they will not survive the cold winter!

All the way north, from time to time Mongol cavalry attacked and tried to stop the march of the army.

For the small group of Mongolian cavalry, Hong Chengchou didn't pay attention to it at all, but just ordered Huang De's power Praetorian cavalry to guard on both sides of the army, and the musketeers were also on guard on both sides.

As for the Mongol cavalry, the large army quickly formed a defensive formation, with large carts and horses as a formation, relying on fire guns and artillery to kill the enemy.

In the face of the Ming infantry formation defending on the spot, the Mongol cavalry had no ability to attack the fortifications at all. When the Ming army was marching, they could not find a chance to attack, so they could only retreat helplessly, retreat to the other side of the Angu River, burn the pontoon bridge erected on the river, and try to rely on the not wide river to block the Ming army's attack. After crossing the Angu River, a few miles away is Xinghe City, standing by the river, you can already see many white yurts in the distance.

More than 10,000 Mongolian cavalry and more than 20,000 Ming troops confronted each other across the Angu River, which was less than ten zhang wide.

Hong Chengchou did not rush to cross the river, but ordered the army to set up a position, and then the artillery lined up on the bank of the river and opened fire on the Mongolian cavalry on the other side of the river.

The two battalions of the Praetorian Guard had a total of more than 60 pieces of artillery pieces, and the longest range of the Franc machine was two miles, which was enough to shoot into the Mongolian cavalry array.

In the roar, one after another the cannonballs crossed the river and fell among the Mongol cavalry, the solid cannonballs were not very powerful, but they were dying next to death, causing great psychological panic to the Mongol cavalry.

Moreover, at this time, the distance between the two armies exceeded 100 paces, and the Ming army was completely outside the range of the Mongolian soldiers' bows and arrows, and the Mongolian cavalry was in a situation where they could only be beaten and could not fight back.

When dozens of Mongol soldiers were killed by artillery, the rest of the Mongol cavalry retreated, away from the river.

Hong Chengchou was about to try to send his subordinates to build a pontoon bridge to cross the river, when suddenly a Mongolian cavalry galloped to the river bank and shot arrows.

"The Qalaqin Khan wants to negotiate peace." After Hong Chengchou saw it, he said to the generals with a smile.

"It's all up to this, we're already in the city, what else are we talking about?" Huang Degong said disdainfully.

Hong Chengchou smiled slightly: "Since he wants to negotiate peace, then let's talk about it, reply to them, if Karaqin Khan really wants to negotiate peace, he will personally cross the river to talk to Ben Fu." ”