Chapter Seventy-Eight: Where Is the Enemy?

The farther north you go, the colder it gets, this common sense, people of this era, also know.

In addition, a considerable part of Mobei's territory is actually no longer under the control of the Yuan Court at this moment, but under the control of the tile spur. Although the banks of the Troubled River are still the holy places of the Mongols, the holy places at this moment cannot bless the safety of the Mongols, especially the natural dangers in Mobei, which are against the Han people. For the Wathorns, who also live on the grasslands, it is nothing.

This is also the reason why King Yan wants to bring thirty days of dry food.

These 30 days of dry food are nothing else, they are fried noodles.

It's the kind of fried noodles brought by the volunteers. In fact, the prototype of this kind of fried noodles has appeared in the military rations of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, it is not as complete as the one that has been improved by later generations. King Yan made great efforts for this battle, grinding a lot of dried meat and mixing it into the fried noodles.

It is also heavy salt and heavy oil.

It's really worth a lot.

After all, every soldier brought a reserve horse, and it is not impossible to stuff a little more. But King Yan didn't think it was necessary. After all, every penny of weight on the battlefield counts.

War horses are prepared horses, which are used to attack. And not pack horses.

As for riding three horses, it is still too extravagant for Daming. At least Changchun Dusi can't do it.

It's just that the situation on the battlefield was beyond King Yan's expectations.

Heading north, I checked out several winter campsites.

It was not without harvest, killing about a thousand Tartars and capturing a batch of war horses, cattle and sheep. But they're all skinny to the bone. So, King Yan simply killed and gave the soldiers a meal. And none of the captured Tartars remained.

There are many small tribes swimming in the grassland, and it is difficult to say whose tribes they belong to.

And among these campsites, the tribe is the aggregation of this small tribe. The Tartar royal court did not rule the steppe strictly, and at least these tribes were not controlled. But again, these tribes did not know the whereabouts of the Tartar court.

On the tenth day of the army, there was still no trace of the Tartars, not even the movement of the brigade.

King Yan's mind was a little unstable.

He was a little skeptical that the Tartars were not on Ping'an's side, and whether Ping'an had already encountered the main force of the Tartars. It's okay to win a battle, but if you lose a battle, then it's a big problem.

In the end, King Yan is leading the troops for the first time, and there are some six gods who do not belong at this moment.

On the 11th day, the temperature plummeted and snow fell. There are also strong winds. Layers of snow were rolled up, and between the sky and the earth, it was white, and the direction was not identified. King Yan could only take the army to hide from the wind and snow in the place, and could not move forward.

This incident also brought some gloom to King Yan's heart.

The reason is very simple, this season is already spring in the Central Plains, although it is still winter in Mobei, but it is already a tail, in this case, the weather is warm day by day, which is the normal situation. Instead of this, suddenly the temperature drops, and it snows.

It snowed heavily for three days.

Finally, on the fifteenth day, the snow stopped.

At this time, there was already a bit of a shortage of grain and grass. Fortunately, some livestock were captured on the way and the soldiers were fed. Because it is cold and snowy, these slaughtered livestock are made into meat strips and carried on the body, which is not in the way, after all, this weather is a natural refrigerator.

Although there is still grain and grass, the morale is a little sluggish.

Because in the past three days, dozens of people have frozen to death, and more than 100 people have frostbite, and the frostbite mentioned here is the kind that requires at least one finger to be lost, ordinary chilblains, and it is not worthy of frostbite at all.

The decision is in the hands of King Yan again.

Go on, or go back to the army.

If you continue, the risk will be greater, because the grain and grass have already reached the warning line. If there were another such snowstorm, it would be easy to put the army stranded for a few more days. At that time, there will be no food in the army, but there will be a big problem.

But King Yan stroked his war horse and decided to move on.

At least with peace.

And it really doesn't work, you can still kill horses. He was really unwilling and returned empty-handed.

Fortunately, after a heavy snowstorm, God did not embarrass them anymore. On the 17th day, the two armies met on the banks of the Troubled River.

Yan Wang and Ping'an are in a pair of situations, and it is found that neither side has found out where the main force of the Tartars is? At this time, there was not much grain and grass left, and even the two armies adjusted each other, but in about ten days, they could still return to Zhaozhou after a few days of hunger.

At this moment, Ping An was also in a hurry, even the ice and snow could not hide the irritability in his heart.

Up to now, tens of thousands of soldiers have traveled thousands of miles without engaging the Tartars, and hundreds of people have frozen to death and frostbite one after another. And on the way back, more people are destined to freeze to death. That is, the non-combat attrition of at least 1,000 people in this battle.

Plus other wear and tear, I don't know how much. In such a situation, it is useless, and even Ping An feels ashamed of the world.

Ping An said, "Where did the Tartar go?" Nowadays, there are only a handful of Tartars in the area of Eastern Mongolia that can be used as camping places. Can he fly? ”

King Yan has stopped talking, in the past few days and nights, King Yan has not slept well, and there is a big sore in his mouth, and one mouth is painful. In this case, King Yan can not speak without speaking, but no matter whether he speaks or not, King Yan's anxiety cannot be concealed.

"Your Highness," Zhang Yu said as he broke into the tent and said, "Go and have a look." ”

King Yan frowned, but he still trusted Zhang Yu, and knew that Zhang Yu would not be untargeted, so he didn't ask too much, and went straight out.

I saw it from afar, and there were many people around.

King Yan walked over, and the onlookers dispersed. King Yan saw a large ice block, and a hand came out of the ice block, and a person froze to death in it. It's just that when King Yan saw this hand, his face suddenly changed, because he could see that this person's gloves were in the style of the Ming army.

This is a place where the Ming army has never set foot in it, how can there be a corpse of the Ming army.

King Yan immediately said, "Smash it open." ”

Zhang Yu stepped forward and said, "Brother, I'm sorry. He immediately picked up a war hammer and smashed it down, and after smashing the big ice cube open, he gave up the war hammer for fear of injuring the corpses inside, and changed to use.

A moment later, the person inside was revealed.

Immediately someone shouted: "Old drunkard." ”

King Yan also recognized that this was one of the nights he sent to the grassland to track down the Tartar camp, because he loved to drink and was always drunk, but as a night not collected, he was a good hand, but he didn't want him to die here.

At this time, someone brought a pot of hot water and slowly poured it on it.

Zhang Yu stepped forward, carefully searched the corpse of the old drunkard, and finally found a bamboo tube in the innermost layer of the clothes, opened the bamboo tube, but it was a map, Yan Wang opened it, on the slightly abstract map, drew a black point, Yan Wang judged, it is here to the west, about three days away.

After Yan Wang finished reading it, he handed it to Ping An, and after Ping An read it, he handed it to Zhang Yu.

After reading it, several important generals fell silent.

The three-day journey is not far away, and the thousands of miles have come. I was afraid of a three-day journey, but the problem was that the military rations were no longer enough. And the location on this map is already very, very close to Moxi, that is, very close to the territory of the Watts.

Of course, there are no specific borders on the steppe. The border between the two sides is more of a scope than a specific place.

This is actually very unreasonable, could it be that the Great Khan of the Tartars is not afraid that the thorns will control him. Let him become a puppet emperor, and when the time comes, this will be the fate of His Royal Highness King Yi, which may not be better than falling into the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

Once there is a mistake, it is very likely that the army will run out of food in the ice and snow, and it is estimated that there will not be too many people who can go back alive.

The generals actually figured it out. But it's not a matter of figuring things out, it's about making decisions.

The only one who can make this decision is King Yan.

King Yan didn't look at the map again, but came to the corpse of the old drunkard, and gently sorted out the appearance of the old drunkard, the old drunkard's wine gourd was still beside him, but he couldn't pour a drop of wine.

King Yan shook it and said, "Go and get the wine, fill it up for this brother." Immediately, someone brought King Yan's wine jug and poured the wine inside into the old drunkard's wine gourd. King Yan arranged for people to restrain the old drunkard and place it on the spot.

He already had a determination in his heart at this moment.