"Do you see where the other party came from?"

Before dawn, behind an unnamed snow-capped mountain on the border of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Zhangui led the soldiers on the expedition, staring at the opposite side vigilantly.

Hu Yu quickly reported by his side.

"I didn't see it clearly, and there were also spies sent to explore the way on the other side, and the two spies collided directly."

"Originally, our people wanted to catch each other, but the guy on the other side slipped very much, turned around and ran away."

"It didn't take long for our men to catch up before they spotted the marching legion of the opposing party!"

"The number of people is uncertain, but a conservative estimate is not less than 10,000!"

Zhu Zhangui touched his nose and said with some doubts: "Where did the army come from behind?" ”

Just now, Zhu Zhangui, who had fought several ambushes, felt that there was no opportunity for the Tatars to take advantage of it, so he took people back.

When we are approaching the border.

The spies who were exploring the way in front suddenly came back in a panic to report, saying that there was a team on the opposite side.

"Could it be someone from the camp?"

Hu Yu guessed with some uncertainty.

Zhu Zhangui gave him a blank look.

"Do you think they'll come over without my orders!"

Hu Yu nodded, also thinking that this was not possible.

"Is that the legion that supported the Nu'er Gandu Division, and learned that you brought people over to sneak attack, and they were worried that you were in danger and came to support."

Zhu Zhangui thought about it and shook his head a little uncertainly.

"Probably not, the people we sent to urge have just arrived at the place, even if they don't bring the orphans of Jingnan to march over in a hurry, they will rush day and night, and the distance will be at least until the day after tomorrow."

"Besides, with these guards and soldiers, do you think they are so active?"

Hu Yu scratched his head.

It seems like it really is.

This is not because he looks down on the officers and men of the guard, but compared with the main force of the three battalions, the combat effectiveness and discipline of the officers and men of the guard are really much worse.

It was neither the camp nor the reinforcements from the Nuer Gandu Division, so it was impossible for the imperial court to support it.

If it was the support of the imperial court, the old man would definitely send news in advance.

Now Zhu Zhangui is a little puzzled, where is this person from?

And they are all dressed in white capes outside, and at first glance, they have a lot of experience in snow combat.

Otherwise, you will be like the Tatars, what you are wearing elsewhere, and what you are still wearing in the snow, you can see it clearly from afar.

"Someone's coming!"

Just when Zhu Zhangui was puzzled, the front row sentry suddenly whispered.

The soldiers, who were hidden in an instant, took out their weapons and aimed them at the bottom of the hillside.

"Don't be busy with your hands yet, it seems like it's really our people!"

Zhu Zhangui took the binoculars and looked down, and a man who had removed his white cloak and was wearing a military uniform designed by Zhu Zhangui for the Ming army slowly climbed up the mountain pass.

"Your Highness is a man of the navy!"

Hu Yu on the side suddenly shouted in surprise.

He recognized the identity of the soldier from the armband.

Zhu Zhangui patted Hu Yu.

"Confirm!"

Hu Yu nodded, moved to the side, and shouted at the bottom of his voice.

"Which team of the navy is the brother below, report the name!"

With Hu Yu's shout, the soldier who was vigilant to climb the mountain hurriedly hid.

"Which battalion of the Army are you from?"

The soldier did not answer, but asked Hu Yu for his identity.

If you don't know the identity of the other party, you will expose your own army formation, which is either brainless or stupid.

Hu Yu glanced at Zhu Zhangui, Zhu Zhangui gave him a look, and pointed to the general of the Shenji Battalion who followed him this time.

Seeing this, the corners of the general's mouth twitched, and he didn't say anything.

Hu Yudian shouted at the bottom of his voice.

"We belong to the Second Legion of the Shenji Battalion, and our legion commander is called Lu You!"

The person waiting on the other side had a blank expression.

"Isn't the commander of the second army called Shen An, and the people are still staying in the country of Wugua, why did they come here?"

After a moment's pause, he understood.

The other party also couldn't figure out his identity, so he deliberately made a mistake to confirm his identity.

"Don't fucking nonsense, the commander of the Second Legion is called Shen An, people are overseas, what are you pretending to be, hurry up, which part of you are from, otherwise we will attack."

Hu Yu breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and confirmed that the other party was his own person, and it was also Zhu Zhangui's internal person.

The others don't even know where they are called, not even where they are.

"Your Highness is here."

After confirming that the other party was his own, Hu Yu stood up directly and shouted.

When the other side heard that he had found the right person, he hurriedly shouted in surprise.

"We are from the navy, and our chief military officer, General Li Hu, is leading people behind."

"He just thought that you might be his own, so he asked me to come over and confirm, but I didn't expect it to be really his own."

Half an hour later, the two parties converged.

Many soldiers of the Shenji Battalion hugged them excitedly when they saw their old friends from the navy.

And the recruits formed by the labor looked at the navy soldiers in awe.

Having been in the army for half a year, they have also heard veterans talk about the navy.

There has been such a sentence in the Ming army for several years.

The first-class Tianjiao is the navy, the second-class mud monkey three battalions, and the third-class toad is everywhere, and no one cares about the guards.

The meaning of this sentence is to show the status of the Ming army in the emperor's heart.

With the opening of the sea in the past two years, the status of the Ming navy has gradually risen from a private army of Zhu Zhangui at the beginning to a strategic position of the country's expansion of territory and overseas colonization.

Without a navy, let alone a colony that is open, even if the outside world is a mountain of gold and silver, you can't pull it back.

Therefore, the navy's position in the first place in the Ming army is almost ironclad.

Li Hu, the chief military officer, is known as the first person in the Ming Navy to open up, and the second is Zheng He, who is not at home when he goes to sea all the year round.

The saying of the three battalions of mud monkeys is because the three battalions follow the emperor all the year round, and they are like mud monkeys every day, so the army nickname of the main army of the Ming Dynasty is called the mud monkey army.

As for the third-class toad.

That's better to understand.

The officers and men of the guard are all over the world, just like toads, and every time there is a battle, there are three major battalions, and the positions of the officers and men of the guard will be moved back.

And most of the time they do miscellaneous work, and when they can't fight in battle, they can't be remembered at all.

That's why there are third-class toads everywhere, and no one cares about the joke of the guards.

It is precisely because of the reputation of the Ming Navy that these recruits can't help but be in awe in their hearts.

"How many men and guns did you bring with you?"

As soon as he saw Li Hu, Zhu Zhangui didn't ask him how he came to talk nonsense, and directly asked how many people he brought and how many guns he brought.

Li Huli replied.

"I brought everyone else except the ship-raiders, a total of 23,000 people!"

"A mix of old and new rifles, 2,000 new guns, 8,000 old rifles."

"Due to the inconvenience of transportation, my subordinates only brought 50 light artillery pieces and 80 Tiger squat guns!"

Zhu Zhangui pinched his fingers and calculated, and clapped his hands.

"Enough!"

Commanded to Li Hu and Hu Yu: "Gather people, let's go back and kill him again!" ”

In the end, it is a good command under his own subordinates.

The two of them didn't even raise any objections, saluted and turned to gather the soldiers to line up and set off.

"What, it's back, and it's still the Grande Army?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Arutai, who had mobilized the hatred of his subordinates, heard the spies' report and his eyes widened.

When Zhu Zhangui retreated yesterday, Arutai sent secret agents to follow him from a distance in order to prevent the other party from turning back and attacking him again.

Later, when I learned that the other party had returned to the border of Daming, I was secretly relieved.

He was really afraid that his opponent would continue to do this.

There are still hundreds of miles to reach the border of the Ming Dynasty, and if the opponent comes from time to time, it is estimated that when he arrives at the place, his group of people will also reach the extreme mental pressure.

But before he could finish his breath, the spy hurriedly reversed, and told him that the enemy had joined the new troops when they reached the border, and they had returned with no hidden swagger, with the complete posture of intending to go straight to work.

Waving his hand to let the spies continue to investigate, Arutai groaned slightly, making up his mind that he had hesitated in his heart for a long time.

By the time Zhu Zhangui arrived with his people, the camp in Arutai was almost set up.

"A steppe barbarian, the camp is good!"

Looking at the layers of defensive measures, Zhu Zhangui praised him with a smile, and then ordered the soldiers to camp in the chosen place and stand by.

The positions of the two camps are separated from each other.

Each side occupied a nameless hill, and in the middle was a wide rocky clearing, enough for hundreds of thousands of legions to engage in a melee.

The group of recruits under Zhu Zhangui is worthy of being peasants.

It may be almost impossible to let them go into battle to cut people, but let them dig the ground and repair the house, that ability is really not comparable to ordinary people.

In winter, the soil freezes like stones, but it becomes much softer under the scorching flames.

And those boulders were blasted apart one by one by the demomen of the Shenji Battalion and became part of the fortifications.

With a roaring sound, one by one the men brandished hoes and shovels, and they started working in full swing.

"Your Highness, let me fight, I haven't fought a land war for a long time, and my hands are itchy!"

Above the top of the mountain.

The three silly Hanhan were holding binoculars and drinking the cold wind, looking at the Tatars who were nervously guarding on the other side.

Li Hu put down the binoculars, and asked Zhu Zhangui as if my big knife was already hungry and thirsty.

Zhu Zhangui gave him a blank look.

A naval commander always wants to steal the work of the army, is this guy drinking too much sea breeze and settling his brain?

"Hu Yu told him what our combat mission is!"

Too lazy to bother with this guy, Zhu Zhangui raised his binoculars and continued to observe the opposite side.

Hu Yu said with a cold face that had not changed for thousands of years.

"Chief Officer Li, our combat mission is to hold back the Tatar Army and buy time for the main force to encircle!"

Li Hu sighed regretfully.

As a veteran who has been fighting on the battlefield for half his life, this has turned into a navy, sailing on the sea every day, and the battles are also long-distance battles, which makes him a little nostalgic for the days when he used a knife to cut people.

"Tell me to go down and dig another line of defense at the foot of the mountain."

"There are more Tatars than we are, and Arutai knows that we are stalling for time, and we may have to face each other's storms next."

"Yes!"

Zhu Zhangui was looking at the situation opposite, and Arutai was also drinking the cold wind on the top of the mountain, looking at the Ming army opposite.

Looking from afar, seeing that the opposing Ming army had begun to build a defensive camp, Arutai understood in his heart that the other party was planning to rub time with him.

"Taishi, if I take some people to hold them back, you can lead people to attack from other places."

Mao Lizi, the youngest generation of generals that Arutai values the most, has been frowning when he saw Arutai looking at the other side.

Probably thinking about his thoughts, he made a suggestion that he thought was good.

Arutai looked at him and shook his head.

"It's late."

"If the Western Regions Legion is still there, I will take your advice."

"But now we have less than 200,000 troops on hand, and we no longer pose a threat to Daming!"

"What we do now is just to make it not too ugly for us to lose in the future!"

Mauri looked at Arutai in astonishment.

"You mean we're going to lose?"

Arutai sighed.

"From the moment the Warats left, we had one foot in defeat."

"If I choose to attack after the beginning of spring when we go deep into the grassland, we still have a chance to win."

"But I was in a hurry, thinking that the Ming army couldn't come over so quickly, so I thought about taking the opportunity to be unprepared and take down the slave Gandu Division first."

"But I didn't expect the Ming army to be more ruthless, marching directly in the snow, and rushing over to hold us back."

"If I had chosen to retreat in the first ambush, we would still be on the side of the advantage."

"It's a pity that I'm still too anxious, thinking that the enemy's sneak attack should not be much, and I can break the enemy in one fell swoop by directly crushing the large army!"

"But..."

Speaking of this, Arutai sighed again.

The battalion of the Western Regions Corps directly shattered his last hope of victory.

What he has to do now is to wait for Zhu Di to arrive, have a negotiation with him, return to the original state of the two, and continue to lurk and wait for the opportunity.

As for whether Zhu Di will agree, Arutai is not sure, but he thinks that the other party may agree.

From ancient times to the present, the grassland forces have always been grassland, and the Han people have never stopped here.

The retention of Tatar power also allowed the Ming army to understand its opponents.

Once the Tatars are destroyed, the newly rising power will become the new opponent of the Ming Dynasty, and it will be an unknown and strange opponent.

It's just that all this is Arutai's speculation, and the specific result depends on Zhu Di's choice.

If the other party chooses to fight.

Arutai is not a man who is afraid of things.

It's a big deal.

The Ming army wanted to exterminate the Tatars, and under the desperate resistance of the Tatars, hundreds of thousands of people did not want to succeed.

Hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded, Zhu Di will definitely be distressed and unable to sleep.

This is not an ordinary person, but the elite army of the Ming Dynasty.

has killed and injured so many people, and the Ming Dynasty has not been able to recover for decades.

In addition, Arutai had a deeper idea in his heart.

That is, Zhu Di's age is not young, and he may lose his breath and burp at any time.

He was still in the prime of life, and he decided to learn from Sima Yi and boil Zhu Di, a warlike guy, to death.

The next emperor, Zhu Fatpang, also understands that he is a benevolent and tolerant monarch who always wants to let the people recuperate, and does not want to go to war with the outside world.

He also attaches great importance to civilian officials, and his relationship with military generals is not very good.

An emperor who does not like war, and who attaches great importance to civil officials like the Song Dynasty, such an emperor grassland is the favorite.

As for the belligerent imperial grandson Zhu Zhangui.

Arutai didn't think that a crown prince could influence the emperor's thoughts.

If the crown prince can influence the emperor, then the emperor is too useless.

As the leader of the forces, Arutai also has his own son.

His son is also good, and he has put forward a lot of ideas, but Arutai is only thinking about it and will never believe it easily.

If his son dares to jump and point fingers at him, Arutai will tell the little cub very seriously who is the father.

The two sides stood on each other.

The fighting on the second day did not break out, because a new goose feather snow fell again.

There are many firearms on the side of the Ming army, and this kind of weather is not suitable for combat.

Arutai's side didn't want to increase casualties and reduce the weight of negotiating with Zhu Di in the future, so they didn't attack.

As for logistics, Arutai is not afraid.

He had already sent people back to the grassland to move the base camp not far away.

He is ready to fight to the death, it depends on how Zhu Di chooses when he arrives.

One day, two days, three days in the blink of an eye, and most of the months have passed.

Zhu Zhangui squatted in the fortifications, looking at the other side with a dead look, and muttered in his heart.

"Which tendon is Arutai having a convulsion, and he is not moving here, can't he guess the old man's thoughts?"

He shook his head and rejected the idea.

Arutai is not stupid, and the wisdom of a person who can become a male lord is by no means something that ordinary people can guess.

Zhu Zhangui's thought of delaying time, Arutai can definitely see it, and the old man's general plan, Arutai can probably guess a thing or two.

If it weren't for the fact that the spies determined that except for a few messengers leaving, the main army of Arutai would not move at all, and Zhu Zhangui really suspected that he had been tricked by the other side.

"Your Highness, the Guard Legion of the Nuer Gandu Division has arrived."

Just as Zhu Zhangui was observing the situation on the other side and figuring out Arutai's thoughts, Hu Yu walked out from outside and came in to report the arrival of the Nuer Gandu Guard's Legion.

"Hmph, they're walking so fast!"

Zhu Zhangui snorted coldly and sneered unhappily.

His own orders had been given since the beginning of the year, and as a result, the gang had been delayed until the beginning of March.

This is still the result of Zhu Zhangui's continuous orders and urging.

If there is no order to urge, Zhu Zhangui doubts that these guys will not be able to arrive until the beginning of spring next year.

"Let them..."

"Woooooo

Zhu Zhangui was just about to give the order to let the main generals of the other party come over and have a good exchange with him, when the horn suddenly sounded on the opposite side.

Zhu Zhangui lay on the observation platform and looked at the opposite side.

Groups of Tatar soldiers came out of the camp.

All infantry, no cavalry.

In front of the soldiers were heavy shieldmen carrying one-man tall tower shields, followed by rows of heavy infantry and archers in iron armor.

The pikemen pressed closely behind it, followed by a dense mass of ordinary light infantry.

Zhu Zhangui conservatively estimated that at least 50,000 people came out of the other party in this round.

"Damn, it's finally out!"

Zhu Zhangui scolded secretly and immediately ordered Hu Yu.

"Notify all units to enter the position, and send people to closely observe the situation of the Tatar battalion, and report any abnormalities immediately!"

One soldier after another quickly entered the position.

Artillery positions on the mountainside, where the artillerymen pushed the artillery to the firing position.

In order to prevent the recurrence of the situation at the Heavenly Pass, the artillery entered the fixed artillery positions like pillboxes.

The soldiers on the defensive line were loaded with ammunition and stared warily at the Tatar regiments on the opposite side.

The newly arrived Nuer Gandu Guard Corps drove directly to the rear of the defense line and lined up, ready to support the front at any time.

Zhu Zhangui said.

Later, the battle will be good, and the things that come late will be written off.

If the battle performance is not good, the old account and the new account will be counted together.

There is no pre-battle call and no military duel.

The battle broke out in full swing after the Tatar forward troops stepped on the boundaries marked by the Ming army.

ps: I sorted out the follow-up outline today, pondered the follow-up ideas, and already had a simple idea, try it tomorrow, can you continue to do it.