The news of the loss of Sarhu Pass and the annihilation of the two blue banners had already reached Nuerhachi's ears, but now he could only curse.
First, they scolded Du Du as an incompetent waste. Five thousand troops guarded a naturally dangerous Saerhu Pass, but the Ming army only spent a few hours to break through it.
He also called Amin and Mang Gurtai stupid pigs and stupid cows, forgetting their whims, and actually dared to disobey his military orders, resulting in the loss of the main forces of the two banners.
At this time, he still didn't understand that the Ming army had been fully prepared this time.
Because from the mouths of the defeated soldiers who escaped, they not only heard that the Ming army numbered 30 to 50,000 people, almost all of whom were wearing armor, but also had hundreds of artillery pieces.
Regardless of other things, just the fact that these 30 to 50,000 people were all wearing armor was already beyond the imagination of all the slaves.
Nuerhachi used to serve as a servant under Li Chengliang. Even with his strength, he had thousands of servants under him at his peak, and his armor rate was only 70-80%.
And he later dared to rebel against the Ming Dynasty because he knew very well that the Ming army was weak on the outside and weak on the inside.
"The Ming army coming this time must be the Zhu family's son who was transferred from the pass, not the Liao army."
"This time, I was too negligent. I really looked down on that young child."
After all, Nuerhachi still had some sense. Although he did not see the Ming army with his own eyes, he quickly determined the origin of this Ming army based on what the defeated soldiers described.
He fought dozens of battles with the Liao army, and he had a clear idea of what the weapons and equipment were like.
The Liao army never used firearms, especially artillery. They usually only saw them when attacking cities.
The previous losses were so heavy that Nuerhachi also completely woke up. They were really at the point of life and death.
Seeing this, Huang Taiji no longer hid his clumsiness. At this moment, his brain was running wildly, thinking hard about how to defeat the enemy.
As for the other high-level officials of Jiannu, headed by Anfei Yanggu, He Heli and other five ministers, they were all clamoring for a fight to the death with Minggou.
Nuerhachi did not respond to their request for a fight, but instead looked at his son Huang Taiji.
He always knew that his son was much smarter than others.
Just when Nuerhachi looked at him, Huang Taiji had already thought of a countermeasure.
"Father, although the pocket formation has been deployed, the Ming army may not come in. Judging from the previous two battles, the leader of the Ming army this time is not a loser. We must change our tactics."
"Now that we, Daikin and Minggou, have the same strength, their equipment is better than ours, and they have high morale to win, we basically have no advantage at all."
"In my opinion, if we want to defeat the Ming army at the minimum cost, we must not confront them head-on."
"Father Khan can send a force to confront the Ming army in the front. They will only defend but not attack. The Ming army will retreat when it advances. They will not fight with it because they think it will involve them."
"Then send another elite force to bypass the main force of the Ming army in the front, attack its rear, cut off its food routes, and just wait for the Ming army to collapse without a fight."
"When the time comes, we only need to attack with all our strength, and we will definitely be able to annihilate the entire Ming army here."
Huang Taiji's idea is very good, but the Jianzhou area is located in the Changbai Mountain area, surrounded by mostly mountains and lush forests. There are only a few roads to get out of the mountain.
The road out of the mountain from the front has been controlled by the Ming army. If you want to bypass the back, the nearest way is to cross the Taizi River and exit the mountain through Qinghe Fort, and then go north.
The time required for this must be at least three days. In the past, Nuerhachi would have agreed without even thinking.
It's a pity that today is different from the past. The Ming army had the help of artillery, and the layer-fortified Sarhu Pass could not withstand for half a day. How long could the walled cities along the way withstand it?
Huang Taiji seemed to have understood what his father was thinking, and then said:
"Father Khan's concern, I have already thought about it. Father Khan only needs to ask his second brother to plant more suspicious soldiers in the walls along the way, but not to fight with them. He does not even need to defend the city. He only needs to create the illusion of defending."
"We have more than ten cities and towns, large and small, and they are all places Minggu must pass through."
"Ming Gou has to attack one city after another. Even if he has artillery, how much supply of gunpowder can he have?"
"Besides, the entire journey here is through rugged mountain roads or river valleys. How many artillery pieces can the Ming army carry?"
"At the same time, you can also send cavalry and horse teams to harass them repeatedly to make them feel uneasy and not dare to advance easily. This is a strategy to tire out the troops."
"Isn't this what Liu Bei did at the beginning, disturbing Xia Houyuan and Cao Cao's peace and thus seizing Hanzhong?"
Regarding the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, from Jiannu to Nuerhachi and down to Baoyi Aha, almost everyone knows about it.
Nuerhachi even regarded it as a military art and spent a lot of time studying it, so he was naturally aware of Huang Taiji's allusions to the Battle of Hanzhong.
Huang Taiji's analysis of the Ming army's artillery was indeed very reasonable. He had never been a lazy person, so he immediately ordered:
"This is the military order of this Khan, Fei Yanggu and Fei Yingdong, you two will hold the yellow flag, protect the women, children and the craftsmen, take them to a safer place, and must not be exposed to the Ming army."
"Huang Taiji, lead all the soldiers in your headquarters and set off immediately to attack Ming Dog's rear in a detour. Once this is done, you defeat the Ming army. I will remember your great achievements."
Several of the slaves who were called by name immediately accepted the order, while the others who were not called by name were with slave Hachi, waiting for military orders at any time.
"Tell Huang Taiji's strategy to Daishan, and tell him to defend the city as much as possible to avoid fighting with the Ming army. He only needs to slow down the Ming dog's advance to buy time."
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After receiving the emperor's order, Li Songping left 5,000 infantrymen to continue to garrison at Sarhu Pass to ensure logistical supplies and at the same time take care of the remaining Jiannu captives, waiting for the handover.
The remaining 30,000-odd Ming army main force was divided into five groups, and marched in batches with Amin and dozens of other Jian slaves as guides.
Although Sarhu Pass is less than two hundred miles away from Hetuala, there is almost no plain open area within these two hundred miles.
Looking around, there were either high mountains or impenetrable virgin forests. They could only march along the valleys of Changbai Mountain and the valleys of the branches of the Hun River.
The most lethal Folan machine gun of the Ming army needed people to carry it during marching when necessary. For the soldiers of the Ming army, it was quite a physical job.
Fortunately, Li Songping and other generals had already known the terrain along the way, so they only carried fifty Folang cannons for use only in attacking fortresses.
Therefore, in the conquest of the hinterland of the Jiannu, the Ming army relied most heavily on the Crouching Tiger Cannon. After all, this was not a flat-firing cannon and could not be blocked by mountains and woods.