In the blink of an eye, it is the seventh day of the first lunar month, and the sled soldiers are marching on the ice field for thousands of miles, but it is not as simple as imagined. Pen~Fun~Ge www.biquge.info This year's snow is particularly heavy, the grassland of Horqin is covered with knee-high snow, and the snow in some places is not even waist-high, and it is okay for the sleigh to walk on it, but the horses pulling the sled walk on such a thick snow, but the pace is difficult, and the speed of the sled army has also decreased a lot.

The sled soldiers arrived at the top of a hill and looked at the foot of the mountain from the top of the snow-capped mountain, only to see that the green grassland of the past had long been covered with snow.

"After here, there is a large tribe of the Horqin people in front, about 5,000 people, of which about 1,000 are young and strong who can fight, and the rest are women, children, old and weak." Chagan Bari, who had come here to reconnoiter the enemy's situation before, pointed to the tribe on the horizon ahead.

Xiao Gongchen nodded: "We haven't found the tribe of the old demon woman of Bumu Butai yet, but it doesn't matter, when we attack this tribe, we will slowly find them!" ”

Halbar asked, "This tribe is a little big, can we destroy them all at once?" ”

Xiao Gongchen sneered: "Only destroying some small tribes is not enough to shock that old demon woman of Bumu Butai!" We're going to wipe out a big tribe tonight! Even if we haven't found the tribe of the old witch, if we destroy a few more big tribes, I'm afraid this old witch will not be able to sit still! ”

In the more than a month since the sled soldiers attacked, the Ming army had destroyed more than a dozen tribes of the Korqin and Zarat people, slaughtering more than 15,000 people before and after, and each sled soldier had at least ten Mongol blood on his hands. But no one felt any guilt about this, and these Mongols, who were the first to take refuge in the Manchus, were enemies! There were also many Mongolian soldiers in the Ming army, and in the eyes of the Mongolian soldiers, the Korqin and Zarat tribes were traitors, and it was a matter of course to eradicate them.

The Ming army went all the way, killing cattle and sheep while also capturing more than 8,000 Mongolian horses. It was impossible to bring all of them with so many war horses, so they could only send dozens of Mongolian soldiers back to Temple Street.

Not long ago, Xiao Gongchen and the others attacked another tribe and obtained more than 500 Mongolian horses. The soldiers who had been sent out to send the horses home had not yet returned, and the Mongolian horses followed.

"The hill is very steep! If you ride a horse down, I'm afraid the sleigh will be difficult to control. Emoga said.

"Separate some people to ride down, others control the sleigh and let the sleigh slide down on its own!" Xiao Gongchen said.

Looking at the wolves that followed the Ming army not far away, Cao Yong asked with some concern: "We are separated from the horses, will these wild wolves attack our horses?" ”

Unaji said, "Don't worry, they already treat us as friends!" Won't attack our horses! ”

Ever since the Ming army began to slaughter those Mongol tribes, the wolves have been following the Ming army. After a long time, the wolves and the Ming army also reached a tacit understanding, they knew that they could survive the cold winter if they had something to eat when they walked with the Ming army, and the wolves did not have to kill each other to survive the cold winter.

The weather is freezing and food is reduced, black bears and brown bears are hibernating, and wolves sometimes take risks to attack black bears and even attack brown bears, only to have the wolves killed and injured before they can get food. Sometimes, due to a lack of food, wolves will kill each other, feeding on the old and weak wolves so that the wolves can survive.

Now there is such an army, as long as you follow them, you will have meat to eat, and wild wolves are also animals that know how to repay their kindness, they will not attack the Ming army, but regard the Ming army as a friend. When the Ming army piled up the supplies on the top of the mountain, leaving only a small number of people to guard the supplies, the wolves did not come to grab something to eat, but watched from afar.

The sledders descended the hillside and set up camp at the foot of the mountain. It was not very far from the large tribes in front of them, but the Mongols did not notice anyone approaching them.

Xiao Gongchen picked up the telescope and observed the tribe in front of him.

After a while, Xiao Gongchen put down the binoculars, turned around and said: "The Horqin Department is the biggest accomplice of the Jurchen Jiannu, when the first emperor was there, the Later Jin Jurchen entered the customs and plundered, and the Tartars of the Horqin Department were the most active!" They intermarried with the Houjin Jurchen, so many years ago, how many Ming people have they harmed! Without the Horqin Tribe, it would have been impossible for the Jurchen Jiannu to conquer Mongolia! If they can't conquer Mongolia, they can't get in! Today is the sky with eyes! There aren't many guards in the Korqin Tartars! Tonight, we're going to teach these Tartars a hard lesson! ”

The tribe in front is really not a small tribe, the tribe is located in the south of Bayinhushuo Mountain, it is the central banner of the right wing of Horqin, and this tribe can have the strength of twenty-three auxiliary leaders. However, because the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, most of the people in this banner followed the Qing army into the customs, and there were not many people left outside the customs.

If it weren't for the fact that most of the people in the Horqin tribe followed the Qing army into the customs to enjoy the blessings, the population of this tribe could reach more than 20,000 people, including more than 4,000 young and strong, which is really not something that Xiao Gongchen could take.

The Qing court also divided the Mongols into hierarchies, and Mongolians like Horqin, who were the first to take refuge in Houjin and had a marriage with the Qing royal family, were naturally treated the best, and they did not need to send their children to the temple to become lamas, leaving only one son. However, most of the people in the Horqin Department entered the customs and became a part of the Eight Banners Army.

In real history, the population of other tribes of the Mongols was decreasing day by day, the lack of labor, and the economy was declining, and the Mongolian people reached the point of extreme poverty and backwardness, but the Horqin tribe still maintained an army of 50,000 people until the end of the Qing Dynasty! That army was stationed near the capital until the Battle of Bali Bridge was destroyed by the Anglo-French forces.

Therefore, for the rest of the Mongols, the Korqin people were also the rulers who rode on their heads and knocked out the bones and sucked the marrow.

The barracks of the Horqin Department in front were about fifteen miles away from the Ming army, and such a distance was not clear to the naked eye, but in Xiao Gongchen's telescope, he could see the movements of the Mongols clearly.

"It's a cloudy day today, and it is estimated that there is no starlight at night, it is really a murderous night with high wind and high moon and dark moon!" Cao Lei handed over the wine.

Xiao Gongchen took the flask and raised his head to take a sip. The strong two-pot head wine is in the stomach, and I feel warm all over. This kind of wine, called Erguotou, is also Wang Xinyu's masterpiece. In the past, due to distillation technology problems, the alcohol content of the liquor was not very high. Later, Wang Xinyu improved the technique of distilling spirits and created such spirits.

In fact, people in ancient times drank wine as a drink, and strong spirits like Erguotou were not popular in the south, and southerners generally drank rice wine. After Wang Xinyu introduced beer from Westerners, beer became more popular. Therefore, the second pot head produced by Wang Xinyu is a kind of medical supplies, and the second pot head is purified again, which is medical alcohol, although the cost is higher, but it can save many people's lives.

However, in the cold and freezing cold area, Erguotou is very popular. In the ice and snow, taking a sip of spirits, the whole body is much warmer.

Because the sled soldiers are running long distances, it is impossible to make a fire to cook hot rice every meal, and most of the time they eat a bite of fried noodles in the snow, and the beef and mutton they carry with them are frozen into hard pieces, and they are cold in their mouths.

Wine and chili peppers are one of the items they use to protect themselves from the cold.

Xiao Gongchen raised his head and glanced at the sky: "It's easy to do things on the cloud!" No matter how cloudy it is, the snow is still reflective, and it doesn't affect our attack! ”

As he spoke, snow fell from the sky again, and the wind began to blow, and it became stronger and stronger.

"It's a snowstorm killing night! Brethren, cheer up in a moment! Xiao Gongchen opened his voice and shouted.

The north wind was bitter, and the cold wind blew on people, and even though they were wearing high-necked clothes, the wind poured straight into people's necks, which was very unpleasant. Each soldier has two layers of cotton armor and one armor, but it still can't stop the cold.

The paparazzi sat in a sleigh with a canvas canopy pulled up, draped in a down blanket to feel warmer. Because it was already very close to the target, the army did not dare to light a fire, and could only rely on clothing to keep warm.

Although the enemy seemed unprepared, this was the strongest enemy the sled had encountered since the attack, and everyone was carefully checking their weapons and not daring to slack off.

In the Horqin grassland in winter, it gets dark early. When it got dark, the Ming army did not attack immediately, but waited. They had to wait until the enemy was asleep before launching a surprise attack.

For dinner, beef and mutton and fried noodles were served, and the soldiers grabbed the snow from the snow, ate the fried noodles in the snow, and then picked up the beef and mutton, which was as hard as a stone, cut off the slices of meat with knives, and put them in their mouths. Eating beef and mutton every day, you will get tired of eating too much, but Xiao Gongchen and they have a solution: everyone has tea leaves, and after eating, grab a few pieces of tea and send them to their mouths, chew them slowly, and let the tea help digest.

"Ready to go!" Xiao Gongchen took out his pocket watch and glanced at the time.

The Ming soldiers boarded the sleigh and drove the war horses to slowly march towards the Horqin tribe in front. The wolves who had been following the Ming army also seemed to have a tacit understanding, and did not follow immediately, but followed far behind, so as not to make too much movement and arouse the vigilance of the Mongols.

The wind and snow were very heavy, and flakes of snow the size of goose feathers fell on people's faces, and the cold wind whirred like knives on the faces of the soldiers.

The team slowly walked out of the five-mile road, and so far they had not encountered the enemy, and it seemed that the Mongols were very vigilant, and they would never have dreamed that someone would attack them on such a cold and snowy night.

Ai Yan, a Horqin man, sat in a yurt, he was an old man in his sixties, when he was young, every time in winter, they Horqin people either followed Huang Taiji into the customs to plunder, or went to Shengjing to worship Tiancong Khan. However, since the Qing army entered the customs, the people who had made great contributions in the tribe followed the customs, leaving only a group of people with little merit.

Recalling the raids and looting back then, what a beautiful thing it was! But now that the Qing Dynasty is sitting in the world, the emperor does not allow them to enter the customs and loot again, because the Han people have become the people of the Qing Dynasty. (To be continued.) )