At the turn of spring and summer, it is the best season of the year in the Bashang grassland north of the Great Wall, the grass is fertile, the climate is comfortable, and even the sky is exceptionally bright and far-reaching in this season. On the green steppe, there are scattered some yurts, cattle and sheep, driven by Mongolian herdsmen, flowing on the vast grassland like the sea, and the whole is a quiet and peaceful grassland scenery.

On the road leading to Zhangjiakou Fort of the Great Wall on the northern slope of Yanshan, a convoy of people and horses under the banner of the sun and moon passed by at this time. It seemed to be a convoy of supplies, carts pulled by mules, bundled with goods. Walking in, there are many ironware, cloth, and salt that are loved by herdsmen on the grassland. Each big car has a small red pennant on it, and the flag has the word "Daming" on it. On top of each cart, except for the charioteer, there was a flintlock muskemer, an iron helmet cuirass, holding a Hongxing seven-year-old building, looking around vigilantly. The front and rear and both sides of the convoy were guarded by black-speared mule soldiers, one person, one horse and one mule, a team of forty people, half armed with "black guns", and half of them archers and spearmen. These "black spearmen" may not necessarily win when they meet the Manchurian elite, but against the Mongols on the steppe, it is really a devastating existence!

In the middle of the large convoy there were one hundred and twenty knights, all dressed in black plate armor and carrying spears on their shoulders, riding tall mules and leading horses with folded ears, and surrounded a young man who was also wearing plate armor and wearing a helmet. The boy was not a mule, but a particularly handsome Arabian horse. Behind the boy were two tall knights, both riding Mongolian horses, holding flagpoles with one hand, one on which were a dragon flag and one on which were recognition. On the flag are four big characters: King of Chongqing.

It turned out that the young man riding an Arabian horse was Zhu Cihong's fifth brother, Zhu Cihuan, the king of Chongqing. He was just sixteen years old this year, and he had finished elementary school, but he was not admitted to middle school, so he had to go home and become his county king. should have eaten and waited for death for the rest of his life, but Zhu Cihong appointed him to be the "filial son agent" - Zhu Cihong is filial! Sent troops to the Northern Expedition with Emperor Chongzhen, and was not allowed to serve before and after the saddle? But he has a lot of opportunities every day, how can he have time to be filial. So you have to find someone to represent you.

Although Emperor Zhu has many brothers, most of them are young, and the older Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cizhao are all leading troops outside. Only Zhu Cihuan was the most useless, and the "Little Shengchu" was all off the list, so he had to be unemployed and become a prince at home, so the errand of acting as a filial son fell on his shoulders.

In fact, the filial piety of the emperor is also bad, although Emperor Chongzhen picks the door, but the queen of Zhou is big, seeing Zhu Cihuan bitter, no job, just a poor unemployed county king, will always reward tens of thousands of taels of silver - everyone knows that Queen Zhou is rich, Chongzhen has a lot of wives and children, before those children reach adulthood, they all point to Chongzhen's one million taels of gold and silver to gnaw at the old, so his life is tight. And Queen Zhou has another income, Zhu Cihong took the dividends of the Royal Chamber of Commerce to send her money, and there are 300,000 taels of pocket money a year!

So Zhu Cihuan was quite happy at first, and he followed him on the road, coaxing Queen Zhou to be very happy along the way, and really won a lot of rewards, but he never expected that his emperor brother didn't plan to let him "gnaw" the old man easily, and actually arranged a job for him!

Let him risk his life through the desolate "Beijing grassland", climb over the Yanshan Mountain, exit from Gubeikou, and then go to Zhangjiakou through the Bashang grassland controlled by the Chahar Department, and give the acting king Zhu Cijiong a reward - hundreds of carts of silk, ironware, salt, and Huang Cancan's money!

It's a terrible job!

How many bad guys do you have to meet along the way?

Moreover, the emperor's elder brother didn't give Zhu Cihuan much of an escort, so he gave him a regiment of black spearmen and a company of Xiaoling Guard lancers...... With this amount of troops, he dared to swagger from the territory of Chahar Mongolia, this is to borrow a knife to kill his brother!

However, Zhu Cihuan did not dare to disobey his brother's will, he was suspected of rebellion, and his heart was very empty......

So I had to bite the bullet and set off!

In the first half of Zhu Cihuan's journey to the north, it was smooth sailing, and he didn't encounter a robbery. But after Yanshan, it is not right to go out of Gubeikou. Small groups of Mongolian cavalry continued to wander around the convoy, and the foreman in charge of directing the guard, Hei Wentao, wanted to send the lancers to expel him several times, but Zhu Cihuan, who was unwilling to cause trouble, stopped them.

But just because he doesn't want to cause trouble doesn't mean that the Chahar Mongols don't want to trouble him!

Just when Zhu Cihuan and his entourage were approaching the ruins of Yuan Shangdu, a group of countless Mongolian cavalry appeared around Zhu Cihuan and others!

These Mongolian cavalry put out an old-school steppe cavalry formation, a group of people was very open, and they were not close to the Ming army convoy, but they blocked all the front, back, left and right passages of the convoy, and at first glance it was put out by experts.

Hei Wentao was born in the Guan Ning Army, he begged for a living on horseback when he was a teenager, and he has been a cavalryman since he followed Zhu Cihong, and he also learned the shock tactics of European cavalry with Prince Condé - in fact, there is nothing remarkable, it is a roundabout charge, no hand-to-hand combat or archery, running after rushing, and bullying people with horsepower. The short and fat horses sent by Wu Sangui and Zhu Cijiong can't be played, and they must be rushed with folded ears and Arabian horses, and they must also have lighter plate armor......

Therefore, when Hai Wentao encountered a small group of Mongolian cavalry, he didn't care much, and even wanted to send his own lancers to earn some military merits.

But now I see countless Mongolian cavalry, and my scalp is a little numb...... He can run away, but he is still holding goods worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and if he loses it, it will be a bad thing!

"Black, black general," Zhu Cihuan's voice trembled, "Tartar, so many Tartars!" What to do? ”

Hei Wentao glanced at this pus-filled prince and laughed: "Prince, don't be afraid, don't be afraid...... These are the Mongols, not very powerful. ”

Zhu Cihuan immediately asked: "Then, can you still run away now?" ”

"Run?" Hei Wentao smiled and shook his head, "If you can't run away, you must be one who can't run away......"

Can't run away? Zhu Cihuan was so frightened that tears came down! They are all the sons of the emperor, why is their lives so bitter? The eldest is the emperor, the third is the prince and the protector of the capital, the fourth is the county king and the envoy of the festival, the sixth has also decided to inherit the throne of King Fu early, and because of Wu Sanmei's words, he will be exempted from demotion and continue to be a prince (not the king of iron M, but only exempted from surrender once), and he is also good at studying, he has been admitted to Laoshan Middle School, and his future is bright...... And how can I be a prisoner endlessly? After so many years in Liukou's place, it is really miserable to see that it is going to fall into the hands of the Mongols again!

"Don't panic," Hei Wentao smiled, "Let's form a car formation first...... We have flintlock pistols, as well as lancers, relying on the chariot formation to resist tens of thousands of Mongol cavalry! ”

"Tens of thousands?" Zhu Cihuan didn't believe it, but he couldn't help it, he couldn't run away now, and he didn't want to be caught, so he could only struggle.

Hei Wentao did not continue to ask for Zhu Cihuan's order, and with a wave of his hand, he gave the order to set up a car formation. His chariot men were all heavy soldiers and well-trained, and soon formed a circle. The musketeers and archers of the black spearmen entered the circle, dismounted their mules, leaned on their vehicles and prepared to shoot. The lancers of the Black Lancers Regiment and the company of lancers on foreign horses lined up outside the chariot formation, ready to charge.

Just when they were ready, the Mongols who surrounded them did not attack, but sent several messengers.

At the head of the group was a Mongolian man in his twenties, dressed in a decent silk robe, riding a horse close to the chariot formation, and shouting in Chinese as he advanced: "Don't shoot!" I am Chahar, the grandson of Lindan Khan. Gu Harun was ordered by the Great Fortune Jin to greet the king! We, the Mongols of Chahar, have been looking forward to the arrival of the king for a long time! ”