"Drive! Drive! ”

In the early morning of the 19th, after four days of wild running, Li Jinglong's 100,000 horse-foot officers and soldiers finally arrived in Datong, but the news was that Zhu Di only stayed in Datong for one day, and then made a detour from the north to Monansaiwai.

Obviously, Zhu Di made a false shot, allowing the 100,000 horse infantry officers and soldiers led by Li Jinglong to run away.

"Yanshu people ......"

Sitting in the tent outside Datong City, Li Jinglong was not angry, but shook his head with a chuckle.

Zhu Di's style of play is almost clear, that is, relying on the abundance of horses to mobilize his own side, so as to achieve the effect of splitting and attacking.

If it is not expected, Zhu Di should now lead a brigade of horse infantry officers and soldiers out of the Saiwai, go away from Pingping and return to Beiping, and then attack Wu Gao, Xu Kai, Yu Tongyuan and other troops who are besieging Beiping.

"The whole army will start tomorrow, go to attack Juyong Pass, and let Fang Zhao lead the army to cooperate with our army to break through."

Li Jinglong opened his mouth to order, and the generals in the tent also responded.

At the same time as they should leave, the sound of horses' hooves sounded outside the tent, followed by hurried footsteps.

An official of a thousand households actually acted as a pond horseman, walked into the tent from outside the tent, nervously kneeling, and kept panting in his mouth, obviously in a hurry.

"The general, Shandong Dusi 800 miles urgent, our army's naval division was defeated in Dengzhou, and Dengzhou has been captured by the Bohai pirate army."

"What did you say?"

Li Jinglong stood up suddenly, compared to Zhu Di's false shot, Zhu Gaoxu's landing across the sea surprised him even more.

"Dengzhou fell on the 16th, and this 800-mile expedited letter was released by the city before the fall of the city, and was issued by the Qingzhou Wei command yamen."

"On the 16th...... "Listening to the words of the Tang Cavalry, Li Jinglong understood why the Tang Cavalry sent was a thousand-household official.

Dengzhou is less than 900 miles away from Cangzhou, which reserves 300,000 Ming army rations for the Northern Expedition, and Bohai is the most elite cavalry assault, if Zhu Gaoxu chooses to assault Cangzhou or any section of the canal, then the 300,000 troops in Beiping know what the fate will be without saying much.

"Order the whole army, pull out the camp and return to Baoding through the Bauhinia Pass, and order Yu Tongyuan, Ping'an, Chen Hui, Teng Ju and others to lead the cavalry south to Cangzhou, and Wu Gao and Xu Kai to garrison Zhuozhou and Dong'an."

Li Jinglong ordered clearly that he wanted Yu Tongyuan and others to lead 20,000 cavalry to keep the military rations in Cangzhou that could be eaten for half a year, while he himself led the army to Dezhou and Dongchang to protect the canal.

The defense line in the north is enough for Wu Gao and Xu Kai's 100,000 people, as long as they don't come out in vain, enough to block Zhu Di.

For a time, with Li Jinglong's order, the 100,000 Ming troops outside Datong City began to pull out the camp and enter the customs.

At the same time, Zhu Di, who was going to Monan from the north of Datong, also hurried to Kaiping Qiantunwei with 60,000 horse infantry, preparing to enter Beiping.

On the vast grassland, the team composed of 60,000 horse infantry and cavalry is naturally very spectacular, although the current Northern Yuan can still come up with 100,000 cavalry, but they are in civil strife, their strength is constantly depleting, no one knows how many troops they can have left after this round of competition for the throne.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang organized the sweep of the north many times, the Mongols were entrenched in the northeast and north of the desert, and the Mongols were basically not seen in the south of the desert, so the march of the Yan army was not fast.

From time to time, they could stop their horses to rest, and most of them also wore simple mandarin duck battle jackets on horseback, without armor, and only retained a large number of 3,000 men in armor to prepare for the enemy.

"Wang Yi, it's your first time in Monan, right?"

"It's really the first time, and they've fought in Bohai and Modong before."

On horseback, Zhu Di pulled Wang Yi to chat, and talked to him about the customs and customs of Monan, such as where you can hunt rabbits, where there are yellow sheep, and where wild horses are easy to appear.

Of course, there were also some who boasted that they had driven the Mongols to the fishing area of Mobei, so that they did not dare to go south to graze horses.

Wang Yidu had heard of these deeds, but now that King Yan himself explained, the process has become clear.

Among them, Zhu Di's ability to lead troops is undoubted, whether it is fighting in the mountains, hills or plains on the Mongolian Plateau, he can easily use any fighting style, which is what Wang Yi admires very much.

"Look, Wang Yi, Ling's age is just the age that can't be up or down, if you learn more from me, you will definitely learn more than in Bohai."

Zhu Di was still complacent about Wang Yi being dazzled by himself, but he didn't want Wang Yi, who admired Zhu Di very much a second ago, so he immediately straightened his face.

"Your Highness, if you say so, the last general will not accept it."

"Why are you not convinced? Tell me about ......"

Zhu Di was also stunned for a moment, since he forced to land on Nai'er Buhua, there have been few people who have disobeyed him, this Wang Yi's heart is so high?

"Although Bohai is not as comprehensive as His Highness, he has also explained how to fight in these places you mentioned on the Bohai side, but the method is different."

"It's different, what's different?" Zhu Di asked curiously, and Wang Yi also explained the combat methods taught by Zhu Gaoxu.

"Your Highness said that it is easiest to fight the Mongols on the plains, as long as the artillery shells the enemy position when the enemy army is in formation, and the cavalry and horse infantry hunt in the mountains and forests, so that the enemy cannot come out, and send musketeers and pikemen to form a formation and press, and only need a round of guns to break the enemy army."

"And ......"

Wang Yi expounded on the concept of warfare in the Bohai Sea, which can be said to revolve around artillery and muskets, and of course, the mobility of infantry and cavalry.

It is necessary to be able to win a frontal decisive battle, but it is necessary not to stop at a frontal decisive battle, but to take advantage of the superiority of our army's mobility over the enemy's army to constantly mobilize the enemy's troops.

Even if our army is not as mobile as the enemy, we must create opportunities, seize intelligence, and give the enemy the illusion that they are inferior to us.

If it is a battle on the grassland, then it is even more possible to drag down the enemy army with the 16-character sentence "the enemy advances and I retreat, the enemy is stationed and disturbs me, the enemy is tired and I fight, and the enemy retreats and I pursue."

Wang Yi kept talking about the military concept of the Bohai Sea, in which new words such as "mobility" made Zhu Di feel novel, and he felt even more incredible about the guerrilla tactics that his second child could say the sixteen-character formula.

"How to solve the weight of grain and grass?" Zhu Di asked the key, but Wang Yi smiled and said:

"Your Highness said that the Hu people can run, but their herds and grain carts can't run fast."

"Our army does not need to be faster than the cavalry of the Hu people, it only needs to be faster than the herd of the Hu people......"

"Of course, in order to achieve this style of play, the general must have a sufficient understanding of the grassland terrain, and the soldiers and horses must be mainly cavalry or horse infantry."

"In this way, you only need to bring two buckets of military rations and two buckets of bean feed, which is enough to maintain a month's supply for a cavalry or horse infantry, and can maintain a combat range of 1,200 miles within a radius."

"As long as we can grab a batch of herds, it will be enough for our army to fight again......"

"Radius ......," Zhu Di muttered to himself when he heard this.

Along the way, he has seen many incredible things.

The smokeless stoves of the Bohai Navy, as well as their binoculars, and their military words that are incomprehensible at every turn......

These things, Zhu Di sounded the same as the Book of Heaven, but after Wang Yi's explanation, Zhu Di now understands it.

Isn't this the tactic I am using now, using cavalry to fight guerrilla warfare against the Mongols, and nourishing the war with war, but my summary is not as straightforward as the second child.

"Well, the second child really follows me!"

Zhu Di proudly gave a comment, which overshadowed Wang Yi's Bohai military concept for a quarter of an hour.

However, after the evaluation, he spoke again: "The second brother said that he would use artillery to bombard the Hu soldiers, but the Hu soldiers came and went like the wind, and the artillery went so slowly, and when we lined up, they would have already run away." ”

"Can they outrun artillery?" Wang Yi couldn't laugh or cry: "The artillery of the Bohai Sea, even if it is a field artillery, can hit a distance of two miles. ”

"By the time the Hu soldiers can see that we are coming with artillery, it will be too late for them to run."

"Erli?!" Zhu Di was surprised, he hadn't thought that the Bohai Navy would be able to chase the cavalry on the grassland with artillery that could hit two miles.

"How much does that cannon weigh?" He asked Wang Yi, and Wang Yi also told Zhu Di the data of the field artillery in the Bohai Sea.

Before coming to Beiping, Zhu Gaoxu told him to tell Zhu Di as much as possible about the military concept of Bohai.

Although Wang Yi felt that this was a bit of an exposure of his hole cards, he still gave an answer when Zhu Di asked a question.

It's just that his answer made Zhu Di gradually silent.

With artillery and vehicles, it weighs no more than 1,000 catties but can shoot field artillery two miles away.

Two soldiers can operate a large arquebus that weighs only ten pounds but can penetrate the armor eighty paces away, and an ordinary arquebus that can pierce the armor at fifty paces.

In addition to these, there is also a flowering bullet, a sharp weapon for harvesting cavalry.

Zhu Di listened to it, and felt that something was wrong.

The second child hides so many hole cards, no wonder he dared to pull him to rebel when he was in the Vulture City.

If he had nodded at that time, maybe he would have entered the capital by now......

For a while, Zhu Di felt bitter in his heart, and at the same time, his desire for Bohai firearms also rose in his heart.

"I'm going to get all these good things someday."

Zhu Di secretly made up his mind, but before he could continue to talk to Wang Yi, the sound of horses' hooves suddenly came from the north.

The sentinels on the periphery blew their wooden whistles, and the army of 60,000 began to stop in sections, and some of the soldiers had already begun to pierce their armor with the help of their comrades.

"There are still Hu people in Monan?"

Wang Yi was surprised, which made Zhu Di's old face red, and hurriedly asked Zhu Neng and the others: "Go and ask what the situation is, when did Mo Nan have Hu people." ”

"Yes!" Zhu Neng and the others have also been around Zhu Di, listening to the mutual boasting between him and Wang Yi, so they are also blushing now.

You must know that a quarter of an hour ago, His Royal Highness said that the Yanfu cavalry drove the Mongols to Mobei, and it turned out that it was only a quarter of an hour, and the so-called Mongols who only existed in Mobei appeared here two thousand miles south.

"Armor me."

Zhu Di used armor piercing to hide his embarrassment, but Wang Yi did not expose it, but dismounted and put on armor.

Not long after, Zhu Neng, who went to investigate the news, returned, with a big smile on his face, and when he came to the front of the formation, he turned over and dismounted, and said to Zhu Di from afar:

"Your Highness, there are thousands of Hu soldiers in the north who heard that you want to clear the king's side, so they brought their own armor and moved the people south to join you!"

"Huh?" Zhu Di was stunned, but quickly touched his beard, looking calm:

"It's not surprising that I have a reputation in the grassland, and there are countless people who want to defect to me......"

When he said this, he looked at Wang Yi from time to time, but Wang Yi insisted on not answering, and finally Qiu Fu spoke: "Your Highness, it's better to go and meet them, anyway, our army is short of cavalry right now." ”

"It's okay, it's okay......" Zhu Di turned over his horse by the steps, and took Wang Yi and others to meet the Mongols waiting in the north.

They were only less than ten miles away from the main force of the Yan army, and Zhu Neng let them in, so Zhu Di and they only advanced less than three miles before they saw the smoke and dust in the sky moving south, and in the smoke and dust were tens of thousands of Mongols who dragged their families and mouths.

"It was really expected by His Highness!"

Looking at this group of Mongolians who dragged their families with their mouths, Wang Yi's heart tightened, and he couldn't help but think of the letter his Royal Highness wrote to him when he went south to Beiping.

There are many contents in the letter, one of which is that if the Mongols want to go south to join the Jingnan army, then Zhu Di is advised to accept it.

After coming to Beiping for more than half a year, although Wang Yi saw many people who came to defect to the Yan army, the scale was not very large, but now tens of thousands of people suddenly came.

"Who's your leader?"

Zhu Di led 3,000 cavalry to inquire about the tens of thousands of Mongols, and the generals in the team who were proficient in Mongolian also began to send messages.

When the Mongols in the front row heard this, they immediately began to shout to the rear, and soon a Mongol wearing the armor of the Mongol Ten Thousand Households appeared in front of everyone.

"I am Mengmut, a small nobleman in the Tatar tribe, I heard that King Yan is going to war with the court in the south, I specially brought my family and four thousand men to you."

Unlike the hard-mouthed Khalagu who grabbed first and then surrendered, the Tatar Mongols such as Mengmut were much more civilized, and they would defect when they came, and they would not do the stupid thing of plundering first and then defecting.

"Okay!" Zhu Di heard Mengmut's sincerity, and immediately said: "In this way, how about arranging your family to graze in the pasture between Daning and Kaiping, and I will choose 3,000 people from you to serve as a battalion?" ”

Although Zhu Di heard the sincerity, he still had to go to three-quarters of the men of Mengmut to confirm whether he really took refuge.

It's just that he didn't expect that when Meng Mut heard this, he said: "We all want to come and join your team, if you don't want it, then the remaining men will only starve to death with their families." ”

Mengmut's words made Zhu Di look at this group of people, and only then did he find that the herd they carried was pitiful, and it was obvious that they had suffered a disaster in the north, and then chose to go south to take refuge in themselves.

In this way, they have much more credibility to take refuge.

"In this way, how about 3,000 of you follow me south, and the remaining 1,000 or so I will set up a guard for you and give you a portion?"

"Thank you, Your Highness Longen!"

"Good good...... bought more than 4,000 armored Mongolian cavalry with tens of thousands of stone grain, Zhu Di was still very happy.

He smiled honestly and said to Qiu Fu beside him: "Zhu Neng, in the future, you will bring them and make a camp for them, and they will be called ...... 3,000 small Dazi battalions. ”

Zhu Di took the name like a curse, but in the mouth of the translator, the 3,000 small Dazi battalion was translated into the 3,000 Mongolian battalion, referred to as the 3,000 battalion.

"Your Highness, we have one more message for you."

Meng Mut opened his mouth and said: "Now the chaos in the north is terrible, and our prince Zhao Tuoliegan, Situ Zhao Gray Neighbor Timur, Situ Liu Hara Timur, they have brought 30,000 people to the south to join you. ”

"Good! Come, come. Hearing that the Tatar Ministry was going to come with one Guogong and two Situ in one go, Zhu Di was even happier in his heart.

Not to mention him, even Wang Yi, who had been unfazed before, was surprised.

Although the Northern Yuan can still pull out an army of 100,000 at the moment, the number of its troops is only 500,000 or 600,000, even if you count Warat and Uliangha.

Zhao Tuolegan pulled out 30,000 people to go south at once, counting the 10,000 people in Mengmut, almost 10% of the Mongols went south.

Such a large-scale move of the Mongols to the south shows how far the current Mobei Warat nobles and Tatar nobles have struggled.

"Okay, Zhao Tuolie remembers him, he can't lead the troops, but he has a good character."

"He went south this time, and I also gave him the official position of governor and governor, and gave them glory and wealth."

In the face of Mengmut's words, Zhu Di gave his own promise, and the official position of the governor is already from a first-class official position, which can be regarded as the highest official position that Zhu Di can give at the moment.

For his generosity, Meng Mute also hugged his chest and saluted, and Zhu Di also opened his mouth when he saw this:

"You choose 3,000 people for me, and you take the rest, and I will let people take you to a place to garrison a herdsman and build a city, and set up a thousand households for you, and you will temporarily serve as the commander of the guard in the army."

"Your Highness Xie......"

After Zhu Di simply arranged for the group of Mongols who came to take refuge, he sent a message to Zhao Tuoliegan in the north, asking him to bring people to temporarily garrison the herd in the Kaiping area, but the soldiers and horses were all assembled and sent 6,000 cavalry south to help him fight.

After making all these arrangements, Zhu Di began to continue to lead his troops eastward.

It's just that when he unexpectedly obtained the 3,000 small Dazi battalion, Zhu Gaoxu had already led the cavalry from Dengzhou and galloped all the way to Qingzhou.

"Drive! Drive! ”

The lineup of 3,000 cavalry and more than 4,000 military horses has not appeared in Shandong for many years, and the last time was when the Yuan army encircled and suppressed Mao Gui of the Red Turban Army.

From Dengzhou to Qingzhou, you need to pass through Huangxian, Laizhou, Changyi, Weixian, Changle and other prefectures and counties along the way, a distance of 500 miles.

In the face of the 3,000 cavalry in the Bohai Sea, Huangxian, which had only a few hundred townsmen, directly surrendered in Kaicheng, and Zhu Gaoxu did not stop, because Meng Zhang was already on the way to Huangxian with the horse infantry.

Their task was to lead the people of the counties and towns who had surrendered along the way to Liaodong, and at the same time escort enough food.

In just two days, when the time came to the early morning of 19 February, the 3,000 cavalry of Bohai had already arrived at Laizhou Mansion under the leadership of Zhu Gaoxu.

There was a guard station stationed in Laizhou, although there were only two or three thousand troops in the city, but in view of the high city wall and the fact that he did not carry siege firearms, Zhu Gaoxu directly bypassed Laizhou and handed over this place to Meng Zhang behind him to solve.

He led 3,000 cavalry all the way to Qingzhou Mansion, and only when there was a shortage of horse material and food, would he stop and exchange for food in some towns and villages.

If the money is not enough, he will leave a white note, explain that he will repay it in the future, and ask the local villagers to leave a white note.

Although they marched in a hurry, they did not commit any offense with the people along the official road, and they did not camp in the villages, but outside the villages.

If the horses accidentally eat the crop, the soldiers will also leave white strips for the owner's house.

For many old people who experienced the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it was the first time they had seen such an army as the Bohai Navy, which was stricter than the military discipline of the Ming army in the Northern Expedition, and would help the local people build some bridges and repair some dirt roads after camping.

Almost on the same day, the news of the fiasco of the Southern Army's naval division and the capture of Dengzhou, as well as the capture and siege of Huangxian, Laizhou and other places flew into the Wuying Hall of the capital like snowflakes.

"The sailors were defeated, retreating from Dengzhou to Weihai, and from Weihai to Chengshan and Jinghai...... Now he has retreated to Da Songwei! ”

"The so-called Denglai Jiancheng lost almost all of its territory in less than six days after the war, and more than 200,000 people under my rule were humiliated by thieves and soldiers.

In the Wuying Palace, Zhu Yunwen questioned all the six ministers, including Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai.

The ministers were also puzzled, who would have thought that Chen Xuan and Yang Li, who were famous at the beginning, would not be able to deal with a little-known young general who had no experience in naval warfare before.

Zhu Chenggong...... Find out who he is! ”

Zhu Yunwen's face was gloomy, and at the same time he opened his mouth to question Qi Tai: "Qi Shangshu, you said before that the three sailors could stop the Bohai Pirate Army when they gathered together, but now the thief army has caused Shandong to erode, and the Bohai Shu soldiers are pointing directly at Qingzhou, do you have anything to say?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty......" Qi Tai went through what he wanted to say, and then stood up and said:

"The Bohai Sea Division is so sharp, it is indeed a lack of consideration, and now the Bohai Shu soldiers are heading towards Qingzhou, thinking that they want to go straight to Cangzhou and try to cut off the grain and grass of my 300,000 army."

"Cao Guogong has now led his army to withdraw to Baoding, and it only takes four days to reach Cangzhou."

"In addition, the defense of Texas has also been strengthened, and the most important ones to guard against the thief army should be Qingzhou Mansion and Jinan."

"There are only more than 10,000 soldiers in Qingzhou Mansion, and there are less than 5,000 soldiers in Jinan Mansion.

"If the thief army fails to go north to Cangzhou and Dezhou, and changes its troops to the south, then the land of Jianghuai will be in danger."

"At present, the imperial court should dispatch generals to Xuzhou, gather troops from Dahe, Gaoyou, Changhuai, Pizhou, Chuzhou, Yangzhou and other places, and step up training to prevent the Bohai pirate army from going south."

The soldiers in the Jianghuai area have been completely withdrawn, and the only troops that can be mobilized at present are less than 14 guards, and the number is at most 30,000 or 40,000.

With only this amount of troops, he naturally couldn't give Zhu Yunwen safety, so he asked: "Why don't you transfer Cao Guogong to lead the army south to help." ”

"Back to Your Majesty, if Cao Guogong leads a large army to the south, then the thief army of the Yanshu people will naturally also go south." Zitai continued:

"In the current situation, the minister suggested that Ganliang Song Sheng enter the customs, and at the same time order Xiping Marquis Muchun to lead his troops into the court, and then order Yuzhong Army Governor Sheng Yong to lead Yulin and others to stay in Xuzhou to train the 14 guards in Jiangbei to prepare for the enemy."

"In addition, Chen Xuan and Yang Yu should also be transferred back to garrison the Yangtze River estuary to prevent the Bohai Sea Division from going south into the Yangtze River estuary to disturb the holy driver."

Qi Tai still has that peaceful and stable method, which is nothing more than to rely on Xuzhou and Mount Tai, Mengshan, Laoshan, Lushan, Yishan, canals, and Huaihe to build a defense line, temporarily curb the southward movement of the Bohai Navy, and wait for Muchun in Yunnan and Song Sheng in Ganliang to help.

"It is more than 4,000 miles to transfer troops from Luchuan to here, and when the Marquis of Xiping arrives with his troops, I am afraid it will be half a year later."

In the team, a veteran slowly spoke, attracting everyone's attention.

The person who spoke was Guo Ying, Marquis of Wuding, Zhu Gaoxu's grandfather-in-law.

His meaning is obvious, that is, he wants to lead his troops to help Xuzhou and Huai'an, but everyone knows his relationship with Zhu Gaoxu, so everyone chose to ignore his opening.

"Just do what Mr. Qi says."

Zhu Yunwen glanced at Guo Ying and didn't trust him.

Facing this glance at him, Guo Ying, who had been called 'Guo Si' by Zhu Yuanzhang all his life, could only sigh in his heart and follow the ministers together.

Not long after, a holy decree was distributed from the Forbidden City, and Sheng Yong, who had been promoted to the governor not long ago, also led Yulin and other guards to prepare to gallop north to help Xuzhou.

"Records of Ming Taizong": "In February, Ding Wei, there was a captive running south, and the upper part was compiled as a camp of 3,000 small Dazi. ”

"Yihai, the Tatar Duke Zhao Tuoliegan, Situ Zhao Gray Neighbor Timur, and Situ Liu Hara Timur led their troops from the desert to attach."

"Ming Shizong Record": "Ding Wei, led 3,000 horsemen from Dengzhou to Qingzhou, Jianwen Jun was shocked, urgently transferred Jinglong to help, and feared that Jinglong would be invincible, and polyphonically transferred Xiping Hou, Song Sheng, and Sheng Yong to lead troops to aid Huaisi. ”

"Bohai Chronicle": "Shangqin led 3,000 horsemen to capture Qingzhou, Huangxian surrendered, Laizhou was besieged by Zhang, and Jinglong rushed back to help. ”

(End of chapter)