The two of them arrived at the sheepfold first with torches, and saw tens of thousands of sheep huddled together in the Gongtu section, shivering in the wind and snow. The thick cashmere on their bodies was obviously unable to withstand the wind and snow.
Hai Rigu said worriedly: "Headman, this won't work. We have to find a mountain col that is sheltered from the wind."
Bori Tiechi frowned: "What you said is easy. It's so late at night and the snow is so heavy that it's almost up to my thighs. Where can I find a mountain col to take shelter from the wind?"
Hai Rigu thought for a while and then said: "The only way is to light a fire to ward off the cold."
"Okay, let's light a fire to ward off the cold." Boritiechi nodded and said, "Let's get through tonight first."
Fortunately, the Ulanbutong Grassland is close to the mountains. In addition to collecting cattle, sheep and horse dung to make fires, the herdsmen can also go to the mountains to collect firewood, so they prepared a lot of dry firewood.
The two brought dry firewood and horse dung, and soon several bonfires were lit.
Just as he was about to drive the sheep near the bonfire, Hai Rigu suddenly let out a light sigh.
"What?" Boritie China asked with a frown, "Hai Rigu, what are you doing? Come and help."
Hai Rigu, however, stood still and said in a deep voice: "Headman, I seem to have seen a pack of wolves. Look ahead."
After saying that, Hai Rigu pointed at the mouth of the valley.
Bori Tiechina looked in the direction of Hai Rigu's finger, and immediately felt a shiver in his heart.
Because the snow had stopped falling at this time, the snowfield outside the valley was unobstructed and the field of vision was very good. From their position, they could see more than ten miles away at a glance.
Of course, it’s impossible to actually see that far.
Because it is night time and the light is not good.
But with the help of snow reflection, we can still see a large blurry black shadow hundreds of steps away.
After observing intently for a moment, Boritiechina suddenly realized what he was doing and yelled loudly: "It's not a pack of wolves, it's a human being. It must be a bastard from the Khalkha tribe!"
Borhitchina mistook the Ming army for the Mongolian cavalry of the Khalkha tribe.
"Quickly, blow the horn!" Boritiechina shouted sternly again, "Gather the tribesmen and prepare to fight!"
Hai Rigu quickly picked up the horn horn he carried with him and blew it vigorously. In an instant, the low and long horn sound resounded throughout the valley.
However, it's too late.
When they heard the sound of horns, the Ming army who was sneaking in the dark outside the valley immediately gave up their disguise and accelerated forward.
Soon, the Ming army arrived outside the Gongtu tribe's camp. Thousands of Ming soldiers, armed with rifles with bayonets in hand, formed a wall-like line and advanced quickly with neat steps.
"It's not the Khalkha tribe, it's the Minggou!" Boridechina roared angrily.
Immediately, Boritiechina brandished a machete alone and launched a charge towards the Ming army.
Boritichina is undoubtedly a competent tribal leader. For the sake of the tribe and the people, he dares to fight even if he knows he is defeated and even if he knows he will die.
Zhu Cijiong, who led the team, couldn't help but admire him.
"Hit his legs to catch him alive," Zhu Cijiong shouted.
The gunfire rang out, and Boritiechna's legs were shot several times and he fell to the ground immediately.
"Headman!" Hai Rigu threw away his horn and rushed over waving his scimitar.
Another burst of gunfire rang out, and Hai Rigu was shot in both legs and fell in a pool of blood.
However, after Boritiechna and Hairigu fell to the ground, they still waved their scimitars and tried to resist.
However, this was in vain. More than a dozen Ming troops quickly separated from the line formation, and quickly used the bayonets on their rifles to hold Boritichina and Hairigu, and then tied them up.
At this time, the entire herdsmen in the winter camp were alarmed.
Not only the Gongtu tribe, but also dozens of other large and small tribes.
Soon there were scattered herdsmen on horseback charging towards the Ming army.
But this was all in vain. Facing the Ming army's infantry in line, the cavalry's mass charge was useless, let alone the sporadic charge of dozens or hundreds of cavalry.
After being defeated by more than a dozen waves of charges, the herdsmen began to turn.
Because the valley of the winter camp passes through, in addition to the north exit, there is another south exit.
The growing number of Mongolian herdsmen immediately turned around and fled to the south exit.
Unfortunately, this effort is still in vain.
Gunshots also rang out from the southbound exit soon.
However, Hu Guozhu led another cavalry division and had already blocked the south exit.
As a result, 100,000 herdsmen from more than a dozen tribes in Chahar Mongolia, plus one million cattle and sheep, were blocked in the wintering camp by two cavalry divisions of the Ming army, and no one escaped.
By daybreak, the results of the battle will be roughly tallied.
"King Ding!" Hu Guozhu ran over excitedly to report.
"I made a fortune this time. I seized more than 100,000 horses this time!"
"Really?" Zhu Cijiong was also very happy, and he was closer to the goal of 300,000 war horses.
After a pause, he asked with a smile: "What about the others? Where are the cattle, sheep, camels, and herdsmen? How many have been caught?"
"We haven't had time to count the others carefully yet," Hu Guozhu said, "but the approximate figures are already known. There are more than 100,000 herdsmen caught, more than 500,000 cattle and sheep, and not many camels, maybe a hundred."
"That's not bad, haha." Zhu Cijiong laughed and said, "Send the order, the scout cavalry team will go out for a ten-mile patrol, and the other cavalry brigades will seize the time to build a bonfire, slaughter four thousand more sheep, and invite all the soldiers to eat roasted whole sheep!"
"According to the order!" Hu Guozhu got the order and turned around happily.
"King Ding has a decree to slaughter four thousand sheep and eat them roasted whole!"
Zhu Cijiong's will was quickly conveyed.
Forty thousand soldiers immediately cheered.
...鏲
Tokugawa Yoshinao also arrived in Osaka.
The location of the negotiations is still on the Zhou Yu.
Horita Masamori has already been here once, so it was not as shocking as before.
However, Tokugawa Yoshihiro had only seen the Daikoku Ship from a distance before, and now that he was able to see it up close, his heart was shocked beyond measure.
The surface of this big black ship is actually covered with thick steel plates?
How thick do these steel plates have to be? How much do they weigh? And they don’t even weigh too much?
Also, what drives such a heavy black ship?
With questions in his mind, Tokugawa Yoshitsune followed the Ming army who led the way, and went up the gangway to the top of the Daikoku Ship, the third deck, and then a huge deck appeared in front of him.
Tokugawa Yoshinao estimated that it was at least thirty feet long.
The width of the deck is also almost five feet, and there are holes in the parapets on both sides.
However, what frightened Tokugawa Yoshinao the most were the more than twenty cannons on both sides.
During the Osaka Winter Battle more than half a month ago, his 100,000-strong army was defeated by the Ming army's artillery. He has still forgotten the terrifying scene when the Daikoku Ship fired its artillery.
Immediately, Ming troops came forward to search Tokugawa Yoshizhin.
After confirming that there were no weapons hidden on their bodies, Tokugawa Yoshinao and Horita Masamori were brought into the official hall of the Zhou Yu.
At a glance, Tokugawa Yoshinao saw a man in his early thirties sitting casually in the official hall. The man was just sitting casually, and there was an indescribable aura about him.
Well, this is actually the sense of oppression caused by the Ming Navy and the Zhou Yu.
Tokugawa Yoshinao couldn't help but knelt down and bowed respectfully: "Lao Zhong, the great general of the Kingdom of the Rising Sun, who is a close relative of Tibet, and whose name is Tokugawa Yoshinao, come before His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty!"
After listening to Zheng Zhilong's translation, Chongzhen nodded and said: "Tokugawa Yoshinao, right? Since your Tokugawa shogunate has sent negotiators to negotiate again, it shows that you are sincere in negotiating."
"That's good. We in Ming Dynasty also have the sincerity to negotiate."
"No matter what, Japan is a country designated by Emperor Taizu Gao not to be conquered."
"If you Japan hadn't gone too far, I wouldn't have wanted to personally lead troops across the sea to conquer."
Speaking of this meal, Chongzhen continued: "In short, I have no intention of annexing Japan, but if I do something wrong, I must accept punishment. Japan must make compensation for its previous mistakes."
After listening to Zheng Zhilong's translation, Tokugawa Yoshinao was overjoyed.
After the opening remarks, the two sides began negotiations.
This time, Chongzhen gave Tokugawa Yoshinao room to bargain.
After some bargaining, Chongzhen gave the final bottom line: "First, cede Osaka to the Ming Dynasty garrison; second, open all coastal port cities on the Japanese islands and allow free trade for merchant ships with permission from the Ming Shipping Division.
; Thirdly, the compensation of five million taels of gold, fifty million taels of silver and one hundred million catties of copper is the bottom line, but Japan is allowed to pay it in installments. The specific number of installments and the amount of interest will be decided by separate ministers sent by both parties.
.”
After a pause, Chongzhen continued: "Article 4: The Japanese emperor needs to remove his title of emperor and is only allowed to call himself king, and he must apologize to the Ming Emperor in writing."
Tokugawa Yoshinao wanted to say more, but was rudely interrupted by Chongzhen.
"You don't have to say anymore, just these four points." Chongzhen said in a deep voice, "If the Tokugawa shogunate can agree, they will send people to Osaka to sign an armistice treaty as soon as possible. If they don't agree, then we will see you on the battlefield."
Seeing the determination on Chongzhen's face, Tokugawa Yoshinao knew that it would be useless to say anything more.
At the moment, Tokugawa Yoshinao could only take Horita Masamori and leave the Zhou Yu in despair.
Watching Tokugawa Yoshinao and Horita Masamori leave, Jiang Tian said eagerly: "Your Majesty, it is impossible for Tokugawa Iemitsu to agree to the four conditions we proposed. Otherwise, how about directly attacking Kyoto?"
"There's no rush." Chongzhen said, "You still have to be cautious when attacking Kyoto."
Although the distance from Kyoto to Osaka is less than a hundred miles, and they are both plains, the political significance of attacking Kyoto is completely incomparable to that of attacking Osaka.
To attack Osaka, to put it bluntly, it is intimidation by force.
I just want Japan to pay some money and then take some people back.
The Japanese were frightened by Ming's force and would most likely endure it silently.
But attacking Kyoto would be a war of national annihilation, and the entire Japanese nation would definitely resist to the death.
After all, the Japanese country is a country, and its national strength is not weak. Once the Ming army penetrates deep into the territory of the Japanese country, it will immediately be attacked by the Japanese soldiers and civilians.
This will inevitably greatly consume Ming's military power.
Before pacifying Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and Mongolia, Chongzhen did not want to start a big war with the Japanese country. To put it bluntly, this time he came to fight against the autumn wind, not to fight.
The principal contradiction and the secondary contradiction must be distinguished.
