When Xu Xinsu entered Beijing City with the Spanish captives led by Waldes, as well as the aboriginal leaders of more than a dozen villages such as Tamsui and Chicken Coops, he was somewhat surprised to find that compared with a few months ago, Beijing City seemed to have some new changes.

However, he was elated, and he did not have time to pay attention to these changes, and he only wanted to report his exploits of recovering freshwater and chicken coops to the emperor, and obtain a reward from the court for himself.

To his surprise, the civilians in Beijing didn't seem to be curious about the overseas Yi and Tu people he brought, but kept talking about something.

This made Xu Xinsu feel quite uncomfortable, but he heard that when he sent more than a dozen Yi captives captured by Tamsui last time, there was a big posture in the capital to welcome them.

Could it be that the people of the capital are so fond of the new and disgusted with the old, because they have seen a captive of the Yi people, they no longer ceremoniously welcome the new captive? Xu Xinsu, who was riding on a horse and leading the team forward, was guessing so wildly in his mind.

An officer of the General Staff who came to greet him on the side, seeing his puzzled expression, couldn't help but kindly mention him, "Xu Xunyue doesn't have to think about it, it's not that the people of the capital don't pay attention to you, it's really bigger news from the north, so everyone has no time to take care of the good news in the southeast sea." ”

"North? Could it be that the war with the Mongols has come to an end? Xu Xinsu suddenly turned his head to look at the official and asked with some eagerness.

"Yes, yesterday evening, the news of Lubu's victory has arrived in the capital, and my Ming border army united with the Mongolian Shunyi King and other tribes to repel Lin Dan Khan, who came with 100,000 people, in the northeast of Fengchuan outside Datong Pass.

Now that Lin Dan Khan has retreated to the Jining Haizi area, my Datong border pass is already worry-free. Now just wait for the imperial court to make the news of this victory public, and the people of the capital can prepare to celebrate.

Of course, it is also gratifying and congratulatory for Xu Xun's envoy to recover fresh water and chicken coops and chase the Western Ocean to the sea outside the island of Taiwan. When the time comes, it will be the icing on the cake..."

While this official was babbling with Xu Xinsu to explain, Chongzhen and the cabinet ministers in the Wenhua Hall were listening attentively to the military attache sent by Sun Chengzong to report Jiejie's account of the Ming and Mongolian alliance's battle against the Chahar Department.

To the northeast of the Toyogawa River, along the foot of the Daqingshan Mountain, the Yuma River turns around here and goes to the southeast.

To the north of the Yinma River, to the east of Daqing Mountain, is an irregular quadrangular hilly grassland area. This area is about 80 or 90 miles long from north to south and about 30 to 40 miles from east to west.

The northwest side of the grassland is a steep cliff close to 90 degrees, and the highest part of the west is about 3 or 40 zhang, and then slowly connects with the grassland to the east, and it looks like a natural city wall has been broken by the grassland in the east.

On this steep cliff that runs through the east and west, you can vaguely see some broken city walls made of loess, which should be the remains of the fortifications left here when the Ming army went deep into the grassland at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.

To the east of this grassland is a continuous mountain range, and the dense trees on the mountains are in stark contrast to the empty grassland at the foot of the mountain.

Although there are many low hills in this grassland, they are not too obstructive to the view and the galloping of horses.

The topography of this grassland slopes from northeast to southwest, but in the middle of the grassland near the west, a small hill in the east-west direction suddenly appears, dividing this grassland into two parts, north and south, of different sizes.

The grasslands in the north are slightly larger, occupying two-thirds of the entire grassland, while the grasslands in the south are smaller, accounting for only about one-third of the entire grassland.

The grassland to the south is just sandwiched by the hills and the Yuma River, and the width from north to south is less than 20 miles. On the south bank of the Yuma River is a whole woods, which just shades the road for the group of people to cross the river.

This small hill in the middle stretches for five or six miles from west to east. Its area adjacent to the northern steppe had a gentle slope, only about one or twenty meters high, and if it were not for the dense bushes on the mountain, a cavalry charge would have flooded the hill.

However, the place where it meets the grassland to the south is relatively steep, with a slope of more than 60 degrees, not to mention a height of 8 or 90 meters. The top of the hill is very gentle, and the radius has a radius of 2 or 3 miles.

As for the northern grassland, the width of the north and south reached more than 50 li, and the terrain was inclined from east to west, which was very conducive to cavalry charging from the east.

When Lin Dan Khan led the army to this grassland, he saw the Ming and Mongolian coalition forces camping in the west of the grassland, and he immediately laughed at the combat command ability of the opposing commander.

In his opinion, when the Ming-Mongolian coalition army chose this battlefield, it was equivalent to handing over the hope of victory in this war to himself.

Although the small hill in the middle of the battlefield seemed to be unfavorable to one's side, there were only a few bushes on the unsheltered hill, which obviously could not hinder the charge of his cavalry.

Although Lin Dan Khan claimed to have led an army of 100,000, there were only 40,000 cavalry in Chahar headquarters, of which no more than 4,000 were elite in armor, and the rest were just herdsmen who could ride horses and shoot arrows.

When he set out on the expedition, he also left 10,000 cavalry to guard the city of Naturalization and protect his direct tribes. Only 25,000 cavalrymen from the headquarters, 32,000 herdsmen and vassal tribes from his direct tribes, and 28,000 surrenderers and surrenderers from the right-wing Mongol tribes actually followed him to the battlefield, totaling 85,000 people.

Lin Dan Khan quickly divided his army into three parts, he handed over the left wing of the subjugation to Gonchuk Taiji, the right wing of the vassal tribes to Guiyingcha, and he and his younger brother Gutu Taiji personally led the most elite Chahar headquarters to sit in the Chinese army.

On the side of the Ming and Mongolian coalition forces, the allied army composed of right-wing Mongol tribes such as Bu Shitu, Baiyan Taiji, and Ebuha dropped from 70,000 or 80,000 to 34,000 after the Ming State received the old and weak of their tribes.

Although the number of the Mongol coalition army declined, excluding the old and weak, and some of the weapons and armor supported by the Ming army, the strength of the allied Mongol armies on the right flank did not decline, but increased.

The wartime base camp led by Sun Chengzong, after streamlining and reorganizing the two towns of Xuanfu and Datong, re-expanded the establishment of three divisions and six brigades with a total of 45,000 people with the cavalry battalion of Jizhou Town and the cavalry drawn from the Guanning army as the backbone.

However, only 3 brigades and 6 battalions, 18,000 infantry, and two cavalry divisions were stationed in Toyokawa, totaling 6,000 people. In addition, there was the First Cavalry Wing led by Wu Huai, and an infantry artillery regiment composed of 12 guns.

When Yuan Chonghuan was in charge of establishing the Xuanfu and Datong Field Army, he deliberately skipped the First Cavalry Wing, which the base camp could not interfere with too much. Because this unit was nominally the emperor's own army, although it temporarily accepted the command of the temporary base camp, it would be out of the control of the General Staff after the war.

Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan didn't want to strengthen it too much, this force was not controlled by the General Staff, but Wu Huai obviously didn't think so.

Although the base camp did not give, the plan for the expansion of the 1st Cavalry Wing. But when Wu Huai arrived in Datong with the First Cavalry Wing, he became interested in the skilled knights of the Mongol tribes.

In the process of Lin Dan Khan's westward migration, many Mongolian tribes that blocked the migration route of the Chahar tribe were crushed by this huge team.

Although the Mongols have the so-called 30,000 households on the left and right wings, there are still many small tribes in the vast steppe, and they do not have a very clear concept of the state, but are loyal to their own small tribes.

When the Chahar moved westward and took away the pastures on which they depended, the small tribes that had lost their pastures began to wander around, and according to the experience of the steppes, if these small tribes did not find a place to stay in the winter, or were absorbed by the larger tribes, then most of the tribes would die out in this winter.

The distance between Moxi and Mobei Mongolia is too far for the small tribes that have lost most of their livestock to such a long road.

As a result, most of the small tribes gathered in the border areas of Datong and Xuanfu, hoping to obtain the protection of the right-wing Mongolian tribes or get relief from the Ming Dynasty.

However, it is clear that the leaders of the right-wing Mongols, such as Bu Shitu, Bai Yan Taiji, and Ebuha, simply do not have the extra food to recruit these small tribes, and they are now unable to feed even their own tribal subjects.

These small tribes, who had to mourn and sing mourning songs for their deceased relatives, took the remaining property of the tribe and headed east along the Great Wall, not knowing what awaited them in the east, but they knew very well that if they stayed where they were, they would only wait for death.

These small tribes of dozens of people could only persist on their way eastward by hunting or begging for food from the Ming army at the pass of the Great Wall.

Whether it was hunting or the mercy of the Ming army, it was impossible to save such a migration team of tens of thousands of people. Therefore, during the journey, the elderly and sick people constantly voluntarily left the team and walked towards the mountains and forests or the depths of the grassland.

In this way, they tried to save a little food for their tribe so that their tribe could stay alive until they met hope.

Wu Huai met these tribes outside Zhangjiakou when he was preparing to reconnoiter the terrain outside the pass from Xuanfu to Datong.

Watching these old men and women say goodbye to their relatives and resolutely walk towards the grassland in the distance, wanting to leave them with a little hope of life, somewhere in his heart seemed to be touched.

Ignoring the opposition of the Xuanfu officials, Wu Huai accepted these small Mongolian tribes into Guannei and personally wrote to Chongzhen to request it.

His reasoning was that after a long journey, the remnants of these small tribes were the strongest men. With a little training, these people would be the best cavalrymen.

And these Mongols are so loyal to their tribes, as long as the Ming can accept and appease these tribes, then they will also be loyal to the Ming.

The Mongols from these small tribes will certainly be more reliable than those from the larger tribes. Because in the most critical time, it was the Ming Dynasty that saved them, not the Golden Family.

Wu Huai's request was approved by Chongzhen, and a team was sent from the palace to arrange for the reception of these desperate Mongol tribes. However, Chongzhen also stipulated that assistance could only be provided east of Zhangjiakou.

In other words, if these small tribes could not get to Zhangjiakou, they would not have received relief from the Ming Dynasty.

In Zhangjiakou, a total of more than 10,000 Mongols received relief from the Ming Dynasty, and these more than 10,000 people basically did not have any old and weak, sick and disabled, and Wu Huai selected 3,000 people as his auxiliaries.

With the addition of Wu Huai's men, the strength of the Mingmeng coalition army is 62,000 people.