In early October of the 23rd year of Chongzhen, it was already freezing cold north of the Yellow River, and it was already covered in snow north of the Great Wall, with thick snow covering the entire grassland.
All the tribes on the grassland have taken refuge in wintering camps sheltered from the wind.
However, a group of cavalry marched on the white snow in the wind and snow.
This cavalry is the 5th Cavalry Division and the 6th Cavalry Division of the Ming Dynasty led by Zhu Cijiong.
Zhu Cijiong seemed to be addicted. He always liked to send troops when the ice and snow covered the entire grassland, because at this time, troops could often be dispatched at once.
Zhu Cijiong likes to serve it in one pot.
For the Mongols on the grasslands, this was more hateful than sending troops at the beginning of spring.
Because sending troops to attack Mongolia at the beginning of spring will only cause the death of the lamb in the belly of the ewe, the foal in the belly of the mare, and the fetus in the belly of the woman. But as long as the ewe, mare and woman are still there, in the next spring
, there will still be batches of lambs, foals and babies born.
But taking advantage of the cold winter to attack Mongolia, they can take advantage of the ewes, mares, and women of each tribe. Even if the men of each tribe can escape by chance, there will be no more lambs, foals, or calves in the next spring.
Baby, then in a few years, this tribe will disappear without a trace.
This is what Zhu Cijiong likes to do the most.
It's just that this winter is much colder than the previous two years.
Moreover, the snow was even thicker and did not even reach the horse's belly.
Since Ulan Butong sent out troops, horses have been dying of cold and fatigue, and there are also a lot of cavalry soldiers suffering from frostbite. Even though they prepared enough cold-warming supplies and soju before setting off for the expedition, they still couldn't bear it.
Xia Wanchun took out the thermometer newly provided by Gewu Ke and took a look at it.
Then he said to Zhu Cijiong with a worried look on his face: "King Ding, the temperature has dropped to minus forty degrees. The felts and cotton clothes of the soldiers can't bear it. The grain burning can only be carried for a while. Otherwise, find someone
A place to take shelter for a while?”
In the history of mankind, perhaps only that army can compare to the fact that they continued to march in the freezing cold of -40 degrees Celsius.
That army was even tougher than the Ming cavalry led by Zhu Cijiong, and could even lurk in the ice and snow at minus 40 degrees Celsius for a long time, eventually turning into ice sculptures.
But Xia Wanchun felt that the Ming army soldiers had reached their limit.
Hu Guozhu also believed deeply: "Yes, King Ding, this white-haired wind will not stop for a while. If this continues, more and more soldiers will suffer from frostbite."
The accompanying military doctor also said very solemnly: "King Ding, if we find a place to camp now, the frostbitten soldiers still have a chance to recover, but if they are not treated for more than twelve hours, their frostbite will be difficult to recover, even if they are saved.
I'm afraid my life, hands and feet may not be saved."
However, Zhu Cijiong still refused to give up easily.
After searching hard for half a month in the wind and snow, how can we give up so easily?
Moreover, Zhu Cijiong also learned a truth from his father: the more difficult the moment, the more you must persevere, because when you are about to give up, victory is often already close at hand.
"Bart, come here alone." Zhu Cijiong waved a cavalryman to come forward and asked, "Did you remember it correctly? Why have I been looking for it for almost two days and still can't find it?"
There are two secrets to Zhu Cijiong's repeated victory on the prairie.
One is the well-equipped army, and the other is the all-pervasive leading party.
After "liberating" the slaves from the Horqin tribe and the Chahar tribe, Zhu Cijiong naturally gained the loyalty of these slaves, and among these slaves were the Khalkha tribes captured by the Horqin tribe and the Chahar tribe.
Herdsmen from the tribes of Meute and Oirat.
Bart is a herdsman from the Zasak tribe, one of the three Khalkha Mongolian tribes.
Mongolian aristocrats have a very strong concept of blood. The descendants of every family, such as the Golden Family and the Choros Family, will talk about their bloodline, wishing that the whole world would know about their bloodline.
But ordinary herders in Mongolia do not have too strong tribal concepts.
The reason is also very simple. Ordinary herdsmen only regard themselves as the "livestock" of the nobles.
As livestock, if it is snatched away by other tribes, it will naturally become the property of other nobles.
So Bart's current master is Zhu Cijiong, and when he served as the leader, he didn't feel any shame or guilt at betraying his "comatriots", and he was even proud of it.
"Prince Ding, he must be around here." Bart said firmly.
"Zasaktu's tooth tent, which is the winter camp, must be nearby here. I won't remember it wrong."
"What the hell." Zhu Cijiong said bitterly, "It's nearby, but you can't find it?"
Xu Wuniu suggested: "Prince Ding, otherwise let our scout team search separately. The chance of finding it will be greater."
"No, in such a heavy snowstorm, acting alone is courting death. Even you scouts and cavalry can't handle it." Zhu Cijiong flatly rejected Xu Wuniu's proposal and said in a deep voice, "Let's change the direction and continue looking!"
After a pause, he added: "Look for another two hours. If we can't find it again, we'll set up camp!"
…
Zasak tuya tent.
Zasaktu Khan and Tushetu Khan were drinking kumiss and eating freshly roasted lamb.
"What a pity." Zhasak Tuhan said with regret, "Bumbutai, a slut, actually married a coward like Sanggar. I originally thought she was just acting to scare us, but now
The Junggar Tribe and the Tumed Tribe are in alliance, and it will not be easy for us in Khalkha to swallow up the Tumed Tribe again."
Originally, they were pointing to Tumut's cattle and sheep for the winter.
This autumn the Rakshasa people robbed a lot of cattle, sheep and livestock. If the three Khalkha tribes cannot find a way to make up for it, many people will starve to death next spring.
Especially this winter, which is extremely cold, this is even more troublesome.
"Don't worry, the alliance between Junggar and Tumut will not last long." Tushetu Khan bit into a piece of lamb meat and said, "Sanggar is just a puppet of the Junggar tribe. He wants to be the leader of the Junggar tribe. That is
It’s just a dream, so Bumbutai tries to rely on the Junggar tribe to fight against our three Khalkha tribes. That’s just wishful thinking.”
"You are right. Sooner or later, the two families will have to fight, and in the end they will have to take advantage of us, Khalkha."
"However, it won't happen this year. The weather this year is too cold and the snow fell early, so it's not suitable to send troops. In the spring of next year, the ewes will give birth to lambs and the mares will give birth to foals, so it is not suitable to send troops. Wait until next summer.
The three tribes sent out troops together to destroy Tumut, and then seize their cattle, sheep and Tumut River."
Zhasak Tuhan said: "There is no problem between our two families, but Shuolei may not be willing to send troops together with us. This guy has been poisoned by Bumbutai's slutty bitch, even if Bumbutai is married now
Even though I gave it to Sanggar, I still only thought about getting married to Bumbutai, it’s true.”
Shuolei is the great khan of the Chechen Khan tribe, one of the three Khalkha tribes.
The Khalkha Mongols have always regarded themselves as orthodox to the Yuan Dynasty, and have successively produced three great khans, namely Zasaktu Khan, Tushetu Khan and Chechen Khan.
The relationship between these three Khans is also quite interesting.
When there are no foreign enemies, they can play tricks on each other, but when there is an invasion of foreign enemies, or when they face the threat of powerful foreign enemies, they can work together to deal with the outside world.
But now there seems to be a little surprise.
"No wonder." Tuxie Tuhan said with a dark face, "He didn't come to this alliance meeting."
While he was talking, a faint sound of horn horns suddenly came from outside the big tent.
The two of them didn't pay much attention to it at first and thought they were hearing hallucinations after drinking too much kumiss.
But soon, the horn sound became louder and clearer, something was wrong!
"Kang Lang!" Zhasak Tuhan Subadi pulled out the knife from his waist and shouted sternly: "Gunbu, you thief, I invited you to form an alliance with good intentions, but you plotted against me?"
Tushetu Khan Gonbu looked confused: "Subadi, what are you talking about?"
"Still pretending." Subadi sneered, "In addition to our Zasak tribe's herdsmen, the only people in the winter camp are the 10,000 Tuxietu cavalry you brought with you to the alliance. It's impossible for foreign enemies to come to the door in such a heavy snowstorm.
, it must have been your tribe who took advantage of the lack of preparedness of our Zasak herdsmen to suddenly attack us."
"Nonsense, there is no such thing." Gunbu denied.
"It's really not your tribe that did it?" Subadi couldn't help but be doubtful.
Just when the two were arguing, the thick woolen felt curtain was lifted, and tens of thousands and thousands of families from Zhasak Tu tribe strode in with dark faces.
"Khan, something happened!"
"A Ming army has entered the winter camp!"
"It's actually Ming Gou?" Gunbu and Subadi looked at each other.
How is this possible? It's such a cold day and there's such a heavy snowstorm, but Ming Gou actually dares to send troops? Who gave them the courage? Aren't they afraid of freezing to death?
Just as the two were stunned, fierce gunshots suddenly sounded outside.
There was a faint "boom" explosion, and Ming Gou also brought a cannon?
Subadi's face immediately fell: "Hurry up and gather the clansmen to fight!"
After saying that, he said to Tuxie Tuhan Gunbu: "Gunbu, you can't stay out of this matter."
"Don't worry, our warriors from the Tuxie Tube will not stand by and watch." Gunbu said with enthusiasm.
At least at this moment, Gunbu really wanted to join forces with Zasak and fight side by side with Subadi.
But less than a quarter of an hour later, Gunbu changed his mind. When he saw the Ming army's neat infantry queue marching through the thick snow into the wintering camp of Zhasaktu tribe, when he saw Zhasaktu's winter camp,
The Saktu cavalry roared and charged, and after row after row of them fell under the guns of the Ming army, they decisively changed their minds.
The Ming army's firearms were too sharp, and the Zasaktu tribe was doomed.
There is no need for the 10,000 warriors of their Tuxietu tribe to be buried with the Zasaktu tribe.
After seeing this clearly, Gunbu immediately led 10,000 cavalry from the Tushetu tribe and fled the winter camp amidst the curses of the Subadi and Zasaktu herdsmen. However, it was already too late to escape.
Because what Zhu Cijiong likes to do the most is to take over the cooking pot.