"Whew!" A high-pitched eagle chirp rang out in the air. The very strong Ping An raised his head, and his eyes chased the hovering Hai Dongqing in the air.

The grassland was too monotonous, and suddenly there was a strange movement, and many soldiers around were attracted to attention, and many people looked up at the sky. But it didn't work, and no one in the Ming army could read the language of the eagle.

After a while, the falconer came on horseback, and he said, "Great commander, there seems to be an enemy army in the northwest!" ”

"Distance, number of people." Ping An immediately said.

The surrounding soldiers were noisy, and they all looked elated. He's gone so far and he hasn't seen the shadow of the enemy, and now he can finally fight! Everyone is looking forward to it and ready to do it!

At this time, the falcon trainer looked embarrassed and dazed, obviously he didn't know. Ping An also noticed that the eagle trainer had reported that there was an enemy situation just now, and he used the word "as if".

"Handsome! The big handsome ...... "The generals are staring at peace, and some people have gritted their teeth."

Ping An squinted his eyes, his body swaying undulating on the horse's back, he raised his hand and said, "Command all departments, pay attention to the point, and continue to march." General Chen, you send additional scouts from your headquarters! ”

"Order!" Lu Lianghou Chen Zhen hugged his fist.

Ping An turned his upper body and pointed to the direction of the fishing sea in the northeast, "There are also more people over there to watch." That Hai Dongqing, release it to the fishing sea! ”

Chen Zhen replied with the falcon trainer.

The enemy seemed to be coming from the northwest, but Ping'an released more scouts in the northeast.

For he was also a man of tricks, and there was a large area of fine pastures on the other side of the fishing sea, and it stands to reason that the Tatars would have attacked from the northeast; So, who knows if the Tatars will play tricks like "sound to the east and attack the west"?

The message brought by the eagle stirred the emotions of the soldiers. But soon there was no movement, and people looked around, and there was still only an endless stream of dead grass and a cold wind howling in the air.

Ping An looked at the scene on the horizon for a while, and looked back at the team before and after for a while. The generals all know peace, he reacts quickly to things, he is bold, and he never drags his feet in doing things; At this time, he looked left and right, and he was thinking very seriously, which is rare.

The Forward Army was the smallest of the eight armies of the Northern Expeditionary Army, with just over 20,000 men. But the striker is the most powerful force!

The reason is very simple, the proportion of baggage soldiers in the armies is very large, and there are even people who are strong. Heavy soldiers generally do not fight, and undertake heavy military duties such as escorting baggage, building camps, setting up tents, and lighting fires and cooking; They have very little armor and equipment, and their armaments are simple, and they can only engage in some auxiliary and defensive battles in critical situations.

And the baggage battalions of the Northern Expeditionary Army were more numerous. After the army left Kaipingwei, there was no follow-up grain route; The northern section of the march could only be carried by the army, as well as the captured pasture and livestock. Fortunately, most of the war horses of the Ming army were also Mongolian horses, and they were very suitable for the pasture on the Mongolian plateau.

So it makes no sense for the Ming army to build a grain route on the steppe. Without a strong army escort, on a long front of more than 1,000 miles, the grain team is equivalent to sending sheep into the tiger's mouth!

Ping'an's forward army is different, he is backed by the Chinese army as the rear, and most of the army is soldiers, and more than half of the cavalry number. So he has the least number of people, but it is not such an army to gnaw.

Ping An is still very calm, and still keeps the army marching in a column like a long snake formation!

After a long time, when the northwest was still far away, someone shouted, "Report! ”

Several horses rushed to the vicinity of the handsome flag with "Ping" written on it, found peace, turned over and dismounted, knelt down on one knee and said: "Twenty miles northwest, more than 1,000 enemy horsemen, or 2,000 people, are rushing in formation!" ”

"Hey!" One of the generals raised his fist in the air, and his face turned red. The crowd was noisy again.

Ping An asked, "See clearly?" Don't see anyone else? ”

The scout general bowed and said: "Back to Dashuai, there is a desert over there, and the four fields are unobstructed, and I am not mistaken!" We've lost a few brothers, but we've made a detour to look farther away, and we haven't found anyone else! ”

The horse team raided twenty miles, and it didn't take half an hour!

One of the generals beside him said in a deep voice: "Marshal, did you order the whole army to form a formation and stabilize the formation first?" ”

Ping An still had a sneer on his face, as if he was not in a hurry.

The general's suggestion was obviously not because he was afraid of the one or two thousand enemy cavalry, but because he was worried that there were still undiscovered enemy troops! After listening to Ping'an, he understood, and he turned his head again and glanced in the direction of the fishing sea in the northeast.

On the front right side (northeast), there is no scout intelligence at this time. It is nearly a hundred miles away from the southern part of the fishing sea, where there is no Tatar activity...... But that was two days ago.

After only a short while, Ping'an ordered: "The left battalion of Yanshan rushed forward, and the left rushed to attack the whole team to block the enemy cavalry!" ”

"Order!"

A member of the general hurriedly said: "Handsome! The Tatar cavalry is uncertain, and our more than 1,000 horsemen will chase the enemy, and they will not be able to stop the enemy's cavalry. The rear camp of our army is far away, and it will be harassed! ”

Ping'an smiled: "I think you can be the prince of the country, how about I go back to the saint and say a word for you?" ”

The general seemed to be quite happy for a moment, but immediately the generals around him laughed "hehe", and he touched the back of his head a little embarrassedly, and his face turned red.

Ping An then deployed Chen Zhen and other generals to rectify the horse team and arrange a strategy for advancing and retreating.

The deployment stopped, and Ping An found a civilian official who accompanied the army and asked him to write a report. The fast horse reported to the Chinese army in the rear and explained the military situation.

…… On the withered yellow grassland, the remaining hoarfrost on the leaves of the grass has not yet melted away in the sun. The roaring hooves of horses and the shouts of the crowd have resounded through the heavens and the earth. There were at least 3,000 men and horses on both sides, galloping on the grassland, and the battle was like ten thousand horses galloping together.

The red military flag with the word "Ming" fluttered in the wind, and a high-pitched voice of a general of the Beijing camp shouted: "Brothers, the time has come to pay homage to the marquis!" ”

"Long live the saint!" "Long live the ......" countless canning war horses began to speed up, and the sound of horses' hooves on the field became louder, gradually resounding into a large area.

The wide-brimmed iron helmet and Ming armor of the Ming army glowed with the iron luster of metal in the sun, and the red tassels raised on the helmet were particularly bright on the gray earth.

On the galloping horses, the soldiers all had round eyes and expressions without hesitation. In the midst of the noisy shouts, from time to time a "ho" shouted in unison to strengthen the momentum. The main cavalry that was laid out was like a torrent of steel rushing into the distance, unstoppable!

In the distance, on the Tatar horse army, where the dust had dispersed a little, suddenly it seemed as if birds and beasts were scattered, and a group of horses divided into several groups and began to run in different directions!

The Ming army's horse herd originally charged in the northwest direction and frontally, but at this time, under the general's military order, the two horse soldiers who rushed left and forward were divided into two routes, and continued to attack to the left front and right front.

The ground after the Mongolian cavalry ran over, the dust had not dispersed, and the Ming cavalry immediately rushed in. The sound of the wind "swishing ......" came, and in the misty air, black shadows flashed from time to time, and arrows flew head-on!

In the running Ming army horses, there were "clanging" on all sides, and there were screams and neighing from time to time. When the sergeant falls off his horse, he will roll on the ground.

The cavalry of the Ming army in front of him in the dust was running on horseback, leaning over and drawing his bow, and the sound of strings continued to sound like fried beans for a while.

The nearest Mongol cavalry was very close, and in the dust, the dark shadows of men and horses were already faintly visible. The soldiers of the Ming army shot at those shadows, and there were casualties on both sides, but the Ming army suffered a great loss in cavalry shooting!

This is the "return horse arrow" used by the Mongols, taking advantage of the wind!

(There was not much difference in the speed of the two armies, the Mongols ran in front and the Ming army chased behind, and the "relative speed" of the two armies was approximately stationary; Theoretically, if you shoot arrows back and forth, the range and lethality of hitting the opponent are the same. But there's also the wind resistance factor!

Comparing the still ground and air, the speed of the Ming army's arrows off the string, plus the speed of the war horse's running; The "absolute speed" is very high, and the wind resistance is also very high. The Mongols shot arrows from behind, and the arrows off the string were to counteract the speed of the horses galloping forward; The "absolute speed" is relatively low, so the wind resistance is smaller, and the range and strength are greater!

The Mongols should not know what to do, but they have a lot of experience in archery on horseback. ）

The two sides rode and fired at each other, and the Ming army approached at the speed of the charge, accelerated earlier, and gradually caught up with some of the Mongolian cavalry that was lagging behind!

A Ming cavalryman put away his bow and arrows, inserted them into the cloth bag, pulled out a long-handled knife from his back, held it high, and waited for the war horse to gradually approach.

"Boom!" A Ming sergeant looked at the distance and slashed down with both hands with a knife. There was a loud bang, and the one-handed knife drawn out by the enemy did not block the strength, and there was a miserable scream, and in an instant the horse also neighed, the horse's belly was scratched, and the man and the horse fell to the ground and rolled forward together, but they were soon left behind by the Ming army's horsemen.

Another Ming sergeant stabbed forward with all his might; Unexpectedly, the distance was not well grasped, and the Mongolian man was as nimble as a monkey on horseback, and even his legs were raised, and the man fell down, and his arms were almost touching the ground! Then the Mongol went up, and when he saw that the strength of the Ming sergeant's stabbing was exhausted, he slashed at it.

The Ming sergeant shouted, and the person fell on his back, blood beads were scattered into the air, his feet were entangled in stirrups for a moment, and the whole person was dragged on the ground for a moment before being thrown behind and rolling on the ground......

In the endless barren meadows, dust rolls up, and countless horses run in all directions. There seemed to be a tornado on the ground, and the horses that turned around in a roundabout way took the dust with them and soared into the air one by one.

The Tatar cavalry was reduced to pieces, and the more they were divided, the more scattered they became. Some are fighting with the Ming army, fighting and running, and some have already gotten rid of the pursuit of the Ming army and are rushing everywhere. They were constantly changing directions, and no one could predict how the Tatars would run next, because they did not seem to have a unified command tactically, and whether they could run away or gain an advantage depended on the strain and luck of each department.

On this battlefield, it is simply chaotic.