The Tatars are not only strong, but also they have fought with the Tang Army for many years, and their experience in fighting with firearms units is quite rich, don't expect today's Tatar cavalry to be stupid enough to attack the infantry musket phalanx or something, this kind of stupidity They have not done it a second time after they did it once in Shandong.

If it is said that pure cold weapons are fighting, then not to mention, people are more skilled in playing this, pure cold weapons fighting, none of them are afraid, not to mention, if the enemy is not a firearms unit, it does not mean that the Tatars do not use it.

They also have arquebuses, they have traditional shotguns, and when they fight, they also fire guns in unison......

Don't think that people will only be stupid to charge with a saber, if they are really so stupid, they would have been wiped out by the Tang Army, and they can still jump until now!

The Tang Army grew up in the war, and the Tatars also grew up in the war!

Even the Tatars are trying to imitate the guns of the Tang Dynasty, but unfortunately there is not much progress, and the main reason is that they are Tatars who are born warriors.

If you let them pick up a saber and fight, there is no problem at all, but if you let them build guns, this is very reluctant, among the Tatars, there is no complete education system at all, and there are few literate people, let alone imitation of the guns of the Tang Dynasty.

The principle of Datang's guns is actually very simple, and everyone knows it.

The arquebus is just a hollow iron rod with a little bit of bits and pieces, and as for the artillery, it is simpler, just a large hollow iron rod.

But the problem is that the principle is known, and it looks very simple, but how to make it?

For example, those arquebuses exported by Datang are all mechanical manufacturing, and at the same time, in order to control the weight, and more importantly, in order to control the cost, the barrel is made very thin, although it is said that there are more charges, and some will explode permanently in the chamber, but anyway, they are export products, it doesn't matter.

But how can such a thin barrel withstand the high bore pressure after the gunpowder is ignited?

Those alien craftsmen didn't understand it at all, let alone them, even the Portuguese and Spaniards couldn't understand it when they saw the light and thin Tang muskets.

This is related to the steel smelting technology, but also related to the processing problem, Datang's barrel production, and other contemporary countries are often the first iron forged into iron sheets, then rolled into a hollow iron rod, and then continue to finish, and finally into a barrel.

However, the barrels produced by the Tang Empire are directly cast with molten steel to produce rough embryos, and then directly on the machinery, pull out a hollow steel pipe for finishing, which is a one-time molding, simple, efficient, and of good quality.

In addition, they have also tried to drill holes directly in the steel pipe, but the cost of this method is relatively high, and it has not been adopted on a large scale for the time being.

Artillery with long barrels is generally produced by drilling, which is also different from the current production methods of other contemporary countries, which generally use casting methods to produce artillery.

However, all kinds of cannons produced by the Tang Empire were first cast with solid rough blanks and then drilled, but this process was only used on long-barreled barrels because of its high cost.

The shotguns with short barrels are often directly cast into hollow steel pipes, and then finished, which is simpler and more trouble-free.

Datang's gun production, because of the use of a large number of machinery and equipment, and the raw materials are generally the most advanced steel, so the guns produced look thin, but the quality is very good, and the power is also great.

And this method is very difficult to replicate in those craft workshops.

The Tatars have not been idle over the years, and have sent many spies to collect all kinds of materials in the territory of Datang, and even all kinds of textbooks from primary school to middle school and all kinds of popular science books have actually been found.

The difficulty is that even with these simple popular science materials, it is difficult for them to come up with them, because the books that can be purchased in middle school and on the market are generally basic and theoretical, and more advanced knowledge is generally only available in universities.

As for all kinds of advanced technology, it is controlled in the hands of the Royal Institute of Technology and major enterprises, which are their eating guys, not to mention leaking to other races, even other domestic enterprises are also hidden.

The Tatars found some books, but there were no people who could read them, let alone those who really mastered the technology.

So although it was an attempt to imitate, it was unsuccessful, at most it was just a hand-made barrel with a few barrels and a barrel with a short body.

Without technology and equipment, they could not engage in industrial production, and even because they did not have enough craftsmen, it was difficult for them to even produce by hand.

Now, the Tatars have found a group of craftsmen from the Tibetans, and this is the beginning of a real attempt to produce guns by hand.

There is only mechanical mass production, sorry, this mode of production is like alien technology for them, and it cannot be imitated at all.

But it's good to say, it can be produced manually, and the quantity is not much, so it is better to save it than nothing.

With enough Tang weapons in his hands to equip tens of thousands of people, and the small-scale production of arquebuses and short-barreled artillery, Altan Khan felt that he was even more confident.

Therefore, in the spring of the eighteenth year of Xuanping, Altan Khan officially decided to prepare for the westward expedition and occupy the vast grasslands of Central Asia first.

Altan Khan is now attracted by the Central Asian steppes and even the East European Plain in the west, where there is still the mind to fight and kill those annoying Southern Tang barbarians, and even in the northwest region, he has no heart to garrison too many troops, but in order to prevent the Southern Tang barbarians from killing out of Jiayu Pass, he still kept the Tubo people and did not destroy their country.

He was thinking that let the Tubo people be a shield, so that those damned Southern Tang barbarians would not come out of Jiayu Pass and hinder his plan to go west!

Altan Khan, who ran to the Western Regions, has his own plan, and Li Xuan, who is in Jinling City, also has his plan, but his plan has nothing to do with the Tatars.

Since the Tatars have fled to the Western Regions, and from the intelligence point of view, the Tatars plan to continue their westward expedition, then the Tang Dynasty is naturally too lazy to deal with them, anyway, as long as they don't come to the northwest border of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty is too lazy to care who these Tatars will harm them.

Today's Tang Dynasty is also busy, on the one hand, it is to completely incorporate the Hetao area and the Fengzhouchuan region into the rule of the Tang Dynasty, and on the other hand, it is necessary to carry out the Northeast sweeping operation plan.

For this reason, the Tang Empire has officially established the Hetao Mansion and Fengzhou Mansion, and the scope of the Hetao Mansion is the Hetao area south of the Yellow River, which is under the jurisdiction of Shaanxi Province.

The current jurisdiction of Fengzhou Mansion is north of Datong Mansion, south of Yinshan Mountain, and east of Hebei, which is under the jurisdiction of Shanxi Province.

At present, the Tatars in the above areas have run out, and the number of imperial subjects who have emigrated here is too small, less than 100,000 in total, and they are mainly soldiers of the Ninth Army and the cantonment militia that followed the soldiers north, as well as their families.

The population is too small to completely control these two regions.

And to the north of these two provinces, there are still a large number of chaotic nomads, although the Tang Empire has always been ashamed to say that the areas further north are also the territory of the Tang Empire, but this will be after all there is no actual control, so there is no administrative agency yet.

In order to prevent all kinds of chaotic nomads in the north, as well as the remnants left by the Tatars in the north, as well as the Mongolian left-wing tribes in the east, take the opportunity to enter Hetao and Fengzhou, the Tang Empire is also preparing to vigorously develop in the above two provinces.

In addition, the immigrants are preparing to develop animal husbandry in these two places, and are preparing to establish super-large horse farms belonging to the Tang Empire.

Hetao and Fengzhou are safe for now, so the military's focus here is mainly on defense and reclamation, and in the northwest region, it is also mainly on defense and reclamation, and the empire currently has no plans for large-scale expansion in the Western Regions.

Massively expanded areas are currently only in the Northeast!

The military formulated the Northeast Sao Action Warfare Plan, which began to be prepared last year, and the 100,000 troops were already ready to be in place one after another, just waiting for the ice and snow in the Northeast to melt and the roads to no longer be muddy in the summer.

For this northeast operation plan, the army has transferred a large number of elite troops, 50,000 elite cavalry plus 50,000 elite infantry, artillery, engineers, baggage and other arms.

There are three cavalry divisions and nine independent cavalry regiments; There are two main infantry divisions, two reserve divisions, one independent field artillery brigade, and one independent engineer regiment.

The total number of troops reached 100,000.

This does not include those who provide logistical support in the rear, and the nearly 80,000 people who belong to the dozens of transport regiments under the logistics department of the Privy Council, because the people have never been included in the category of combat strength by the Tang Army.

In order to coordinate the above-mentioned 100,000 troops, Li Xuan specially set up the 'Northeast Expeditionary Command', which is an organization higher than the military-level command.

On the one hand, the reason for the establishment of this kind of high command was that it was influenced by the previous Ninth Army, which had a command structure at the army level and once had more than 100,000 troops, and its command structure was simply unable to directly command a large number of divisions, brigades, regiments, and other troops.

On the other hand, it is also because the strength of the troops participating in the battle this time comes from various armies, although the main force is only 100,000, but there are more than 100,000 people who really participate in the overall operation, and those who are more or less involved in the battle, including the Third Army stationed in Hebei, the Tenth Army stationed in the western Liaoning region, the Sixth Army stationed in the northeastern province, and the northeastern Liaoning region, and even the 15th Army stationed in the southwestern part of Liaoning and the Goryeo Peninsula will also be sent and coordinated to participate in the battle.

Just when it comes to military-level troops, there are four armies.