Xinghe, originally belonged to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but the terrain here is flat, successive grasslands, Tatar invasions many times, fortifications have been destroyed many times, and it is like nothingness.

Therefore, the defender of the Ming Dynasty here Wang Zhaocai was easily broken and killed, and after capturing Xinghe, Alu Tai made people demolish the fortifications and connect the tents together, with no end in sight.

There are 200,000 troops mobilized by Arutai, known as 800,000, so many soldiers and horses, composed of Chahar, Tumut, Korqin (including Yongxieb), Ordos, Asu (Ossetians) and other tribes, Arutai on the one hand to conquer the Ming Dynasty, on the other hand, to these tribes to promote their power, paving the way for their own ambitions.

After the fall of the Northern Yuan, the Mongols were divided and divided into three major forces, the Tatars in the east, the Warat in the west, and the Turghut tribes.

"Has Tuhuan already set out to attack the Ming Kingdom?" In the huge tent, Arutai leaned over and looked at the map in front of him as he asked the people around him. Among them, they are the leaders and generals of various tribes, they wear leather clothes, straddle scimitars around their waists, have a lot of hair, are very strong, and advocate bravery.

Tuhuan was the leader of Warat, and the two armies were now united, and the east and west were dispatched together to divide the Ming Dynasty equally.

"Father, according to the news from the front, Tuhuan set out from Hulan and lost temperature, and the 100,000 army has been in Gansu, Ningxia and other places in the Ming Dynasty, but it has not moved, and Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty sent two sons to arrive there, and now the situation is not very good." A middle-aged man in his thirties next to him stepped forward to report that this person was Arutai's eldest son, Ye Xian Polo.

Arutai has many heirs, but only four of them are most valued by him, among which the eldest son is mighty and majestic, and he is the most like him. The second son, Abu, was only a hostage in the Ming Dynasty and was not liked by him, and the third son, Ang Ke Polo, and the fourth son, Huo'er, suddenly replied that Sun hated mediocrity, which made him very angry.

"I've long known that Warat is unreliable, and I want to be a bastard." One of the leaders slapped his palms on the table and cursed.

"No, Tuhuan's movements are too slow, and Polo first, and then send someone to pass on my order, so that he must attack the Ming army and take the Ili River area!" At the end of his speech, Arutai also stretched out his hand to point to the location of the Ili River on the map.

For this attack on the Ming Dynasty, Arutai has been fully prepared for many years, for example, he collected all aspects of the Ming Dynasty through various channels, especially the map, which is very finely made, and even the map of the Ming Dynasty Nanjing City is available. He also put in a lot of effort.

In the past two years, the Turkut tribe has been fighting infighting, and Zhu Di is old, so it is time to send troops. And he has descended to the Ming Dynasty, and he must not lose.

Arutai's order, but Polo said: "Father, this person is very cunning, his ambition is not to capture the Ming Dynasty, but us, we have to prevent him from attacking us from behind." ”

Don't look at the young Polo, but he is already a veteran on the battlefield, and he has followed Arutai to make a lot of military exploits before, knows the art of war, and hits the nail on the head with a word.

The people in the tent echoed one after another, saying that we have captured Xinghe, Zhu Di has personally conquered, and we should retreat to the desert.

Arutai slapped his palm on the table and said sharply: "Everyone, why did we send 200,000 troops?" It is to restore our golden family, in order to restore Dayuan, drive the Zhu family out of Dadu, and take revenge. ”

"What's a little fun? Since we sent out the army, how much food, cattle and horses, manpower, and phone bills have been spent, and we have made a peace when we heard that Zhu Di was personally recruiting, and I retreated, didn't it make the world laugh? Are our Mongolian warriors so vulnerable? ”

These words made everyone speechless.

"Zhu Di is old, let's get the news that he is almost seriously ill, he is no longer the Zhu Di of the year, the north is cold and cold, they are used to the warm climate in the south, and the strong men can't stand it, not to mention Zhu Di's old man."

His words were like an empowerment, and many leaders clapped their hands and said: "Taishi is right, as long as we seize the opportunity, we will definitely be able to defeat Zhu Di and recover the capital." ”

"Yes." The sentiment is high.

Arutai motioned for them to be calm, and said in a deep voice with a cold light flashing in his eagle eyes: "There is a saying in the Ming people's art of war, called the speed of soldiers, this time I just sent troops unexpectedly, and the Ming people were not prepared at all, so we can easily capture Xinghe." As for Tuhuan, I didn't plan how much he could contribute, this wall grass, if I hadn't been soft-hearted, the grass on his grave would have been half a foot deep. ”

"Yes, ungrateful fellow."

"Don't worry about him, Tuhuan is ambitious, the Ming people will not let him go, as long as he drags some troops in the west, we can fight Zhu Di." Arutai said loudly.

"Yes, defeat Zhu Di, how many years have we been bullied by Zhu Di." The generals in the tent were gearing up, their eyes shining.

"Zhu Di has arrived at the Tumu River, ordered the whole army to prepare, Zhu Di is coming, let's attack first!" Arutai ordered again.

"No!" One of the leaders was embarrassed, "Taishi, the Horqin Department has not yet arrived, so it is impossible to send troops." ”

Arutai said in a deep voice: "Jacocha, I just said, the soldiers are fast. It is necessary to take advantage of the unstable foothold of the Ming people and occupy their cities. ”

The other leader spread his hands and said: "Taishi, the soldiers are very fast, but when we attacked Xinghe, we all rushed to the front, and you dragged behind." Now that the Ming army is on guard everywhere and the city is strong, where is our speed? ”

Arutai said heavily: "Tomuhua, what do you mean by this?" ”

"I don't mean anything, Jacocha also said, his supplies haven't arrived yet, and mine hasn't arrived yet, it's better to have your supplies arrive, Taishi, give us some points first, and then talk about the issue of entering the army."

also Polo blushed his neck and scolded: "You fart, we dispatched 100,000 people and gave it to you, what do we eat?" ”

"Then we don't want to eat it?"

"Okay, let's stop arguing." An old man with white hair said, "Since the supplies haven't arrived yet, are we in harmony?" What about one? Siege is indeed not what we are good at, secondly, the emperor is not short of hungry soldiers, Taishi, do you say? ”

He was playing a round game, and Arutai was very angry, but if he forced the order now, it would cause turmoil, so angry that he secretly gritted his teeth and looked for an opportunity to clean them up again. Agreed with the old man's claim. Their 200,000-strong army was stationed in Xinghe, waiting for the arrival of the Ming army.

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When the army goes out, there are many problems to worry about, first of all, the route problem, there was no navigation in ancient times, and it all relied on spies to explore the way. Moreover, Zhu Di has physical problems, and the speed of the army is relatively slow.

There are also such things as the supply of food and drinking water, the ranking of troops, and whether the baggage troops can keep up. On this expedition, Zhu Di brought 3,000 battalions, Shenji battalions, and 200 cannons.

In ancient times, when the sanitary conditions were backward, a large number of troops gathered together, eating, drinking, and sleeping together, in this case, epidemics were most likely to breed in the army, and outbreaks were all too common, and the most serious ones even led to the annihilation of the entire army.

Zhu Di's 200,000 army set out together, although it was divided into three parts: the front army, the middle army and the rear army, stretching for dozens of miles, but the personnel were still very dense, and the army had not yet arrived in Xinghe, and malaria suddenly broke out in the army!

"Your Majesty, the plague in the army is serious, and three battalions of soldiers and horses have already discovered the epidemic, if you don't think of a way, I'm afraid it will spread to the whole army!" Anyuan Hou Liusheng reported to Zhu Di in a cold sweat, he didn't dare to come out, and he was defeated and imprisoned after exterminating the White Lotus Sect.

"Isolate them all, let the military doctors go to heal, and strictly prohibit anyone from touching them!" Zhu Di's face was full of iron green orders, he didn't expect that he was not in a good position, he had just sent troops, and he encountered the obstruction of the epidemic. In fact, it is very normal, because in the past, when Zhu Di was the king of Yan, the army mainly lived in the north, sent troops from the north, and everyone adapted to the climate.

And this time, most of the central army is used to the south. Therefore, when you go to the north, you are not adapted to the water and soil, and you are most likely to break out.

This is one of the reasons why Zhu Di insisted on moving the capital.

"I've been isolated, but the minister thinks it's useless, when the first plague appeared, I had already ordered the patient to be isolated, so as not to infect others, but it still didn't stop the spread of the epidemic, the minister thought that measures must be taken to kill the infected soldiers, burn and bury." Liu Sheng said, and at the end he also showed a helpless look.

"No, there are many infected people, killing is detrimental to the principles of heaven, before Xinghe arrives, our soldiers have already lost a layer, people are panicking, what to fight." Chen Yuan hurriedly stopped. He knew that in the army in history, being infected with the plague was almost a death sentence, and the rude way to kill the infected plague and bury it, although extremely inhumane, was the most helpless way to save the army.

"What about the doctors in the army, do they have a cure?" Zhu Di asked in a deep voice again.

"The doctor has already seen it, saying that it is malaria, and it is also malaria, if it is just one or two people, it is fine, but there are too many people, and the medicine is scarce, they can't cure it at all!"

Malaria refers to malaria with a very high mortality rate, and the name malaria is almost equivalent to the plague god for the ancients.

"Damn!" Zhu Di also slapped the table heavily when he heard this, 200,000 troops, this is all the elite in his hands, if they all fall ill on the road, I am afraid that not only will the northern expedition be in vain, but it may even shake his rule and shake the Zhu family's country, he is a little skeptical that he is too hasty to go on the expedition.

"Your Majesty, don't panic, the minister has already made arrangements."

"Oh?"

"Don't hide it from Your Majesty, the maiden family of the minister's wife has been doing medicinal materials business in Shuntian in the past few years, and has purchased a large number of herbs such as artemisia, arsenic, and furry.

Zhu Di was overjoyed: "Okay, great, retreat, or you think thoughtfully." Come. ”

"Yes."

"Immediately give the Dong family an order, I will give them to be officials and businessmen, and the medicine will be sent to the front line immediately at market prices."

"Thank you, father-in-law, Your Majesty."

"You deserve to be rewarded for your great accomplishment. Retreating, solving the problem of the marching plague, what do you think of the next move of Arutai's 800,000-strong army? Zhu Di looked at the map on the wall.

Chen Yuan pondered for a moment: "Arutai is known as an army of 800,000, but judging from the consumption of money and food reported by the spies, the minister estimates that there are at most 200,000 troops, and the Tatars are not a piece of ironclad, they are divided into many tribes. However, the supplies are separately supplied, and there will inevitably be contradictions, and we have taken precautions elsewhere, so the issue of advancing will be postponed. It is estimated that he has been staying in the Xinghe area. ”

Zhu Di nodded and said, "You are right, I think so too." Their cavalry is not good at attacking the city, so we have to wait until we get to Xinghe, where there is a plain, and they are good at their cavalry. ”

"Yes, cavalry is their advantage, but our cavalry is not bad."

"Your Majesty, when you arrive in Xinghe, please let the ministers lead the cavalry to charge, and let them quietly make us powerful." Liu Sheng asked for battle.

"No." Chen Yuan interrupted him again.

Liu Sheng glared at Chen Yuan, how could this young man always interrupt himself.

"Oh? What are the thoughts on retreating? Zhu Di asked.

"Your Majesty, let's fight, we fight for money and food, and we fight for human lives. Our cavalry is not weak, but it is not possible to kill a thousand enemies and lose a thousand yourself, this is not how the battle is fought, we have 200 cannons, which can attack from a distance, why not? Our goal is to block the cannon and demoralize them, and the archers to shoot them, to ease their offensive, and then let the cavalry charge, to inflict the greatest blow on the enemy. ”

Zhu Di said: "That's right, Liu Sheng, you have been in the army for so many years, and you have experienced a hundred battles, so you don't know how to use your brain." ”

Liu Sheng's face turned the color of pig liver, and Na Na replied: "Yes." ”