The tribesmen were all assembled, and on the banks of the Selenga River, where people gathered, drank horses, and laughed, and there was laughter and the neighing of horses. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

It was a good time to fight at this time, but Tu Khan felt comforted in his heart.

It will not delay the herd, the herd is very good at this time, the women and children can do very well, there are no old people, as long as the man who can ride a horse is even if his beard is white, he is also in the riding formation, and he will not delay anything, and it is estimated that it will not take a month to finish this battle, and it is not yet autumn, and it is the beginning of the busy season after autumn, and the battle will have already been fought at that time.

Everyone has absolute confidence, according to the report of many sentry horses, there are only more than 5,000 Han troops coming from the Selenga River along the river valley, and there are large convoys that fall thousands of miles away, sometimes those Han troops have to slow down, let go of the sentry horses, and drive away the sentry horses of the Chotu department, the top brass of the tribe do not take it to heart, this is a normal reaction, and they felt the same when they fought with the three Khalkha Khans five years ago.

That time, the Khan Department lost, but there was nothing, the vitality of the tribe was not injured, and everyone's morale was still very high.

The Khalkha Third Department won by relying on the strength of the people, and it was not glorious, but the Tubu did not admit defeat. In the past few years of migration, the Tuohuite Department was overwhelmed by the Tu Ministry, and there were rumors that the various ministries were going to join forces to fight the Tu Khan, and the upper echelons were considering moving south.

"It's despicable." An old Taiji spat and said: "What do they think about giving up the dignity and pride of the Mongols and asking the Han people to come forward to fight for them?" ”

"I heard that this Han army is still very strong, and the three Khan tribes that fought did not dare to fight back. But there were too few of them, and 5,000 people dared to attack us, and they really didn't take the Mongols seriously. ”

"They beat the Tumuts and really thought they were strong."

"The Tumut tribe was weakened after the death of Altan Khan!"

Taiji, who was leading the troops, suppressed his excitement, gently moved his horse's head to the front of Chotu Khan, and asked: "Great Khan, the distance is only twenty miles, if you want to fight, you have to arrange the formation." ”

More than ten or twenty miles away, just enough to arrange the formation today, because it is all out of action, nearly 50,000 cavalry are a huge challenge and test when moving, it takes a lot of effort to maintain the military formation, the Mongols are not good at this, they still follow the old tradition of the year, shoot sentry arrows to determine the range of camping, because the weather is warm, it is too troublesome to build felt bags, almost everyone sleeps in the open air, fortunately, people are not short of fur, and the pad is under the body when the bunk cover to block the dew can be.

"Let's set up." But Tu Khan took a deep breath, although he was not as optimistic as his subordinates, and felt that fighting 5,000 men against 5,000 men was a sure victory, but at this point, he couldn't help but retreat.

"Father Khan." Chotu Khan's eldest son, Asarran, approached and said, "In the battle of tomorrow, I want to lead my people as the vanguard. ”

Asarlan is only a fourteen-year-old boy, but he has been in the army for many years, the Mongols are like this, the son will just walk and begin to learn to ride a horse, can ride a horse and begin to learn archery, to the age of ten or so can be on the horse without missing arrows, although the strength is not enough before the wolf and eagle, but shooting sheep, rabbits, mink, foxes, hunting beasts are no problem, unlike the Han boys, the age of ten is just just in the farmland as half a laborer, for the Mongols, fourteen years old, and then older is a serious warrior.

This battle is related to the life and death of the Chotu Khan department, so the eldest son of the fourteen-year-old Great Khan must also be in the ranks, but Asarlan's subordinates are the most elite part of the well-deserved tribe, that is, the kind of heavy cavalry on the battlefield of the Southern Route Army, but Tu Khan knows where the key to the war is, in addition to most of his subordinates are herdsmen, a small number of armor soldiers are equipped with multiple armor as much as possible, and even wear real iron armor, although the number is not large, there are only about 2,000 people in total, and nearly half of the troops are divided to the south road, and the remaining more than 1,000 people, plus the personal guards around the Great Khan, a total of more than 2,000 cavalry and armor soldiers, this is the elite of the final word on the battlefield, and it is also the elite of the elite of the Chotu Khan who plans to go south to support Lin Dan Khan in the future.

Of course, this part of the army and horses will not be handed over to those who cannot be trusted, and can only be led by his own son.

Although the young man at this time has not yet made an expedition to Lhasa, nor has he been destroyed by Gushi Khan, he has been quite mature and sophisticated, and has a brave wind from the inside out.

Somehow, Chotu Khan was a little sad, he waved his hand, and the attendants on the left and right were a little farther away, but Tu Khan said to Asarlan: "Tomorrow we will not necessarily win......

"Father Khan?"

"Those Han troops from the Ming State are not the border troops of the Ming Kingdom, they are stronger and more powerful, Lin Dan Khan wants to move west, we have made an appointment last year, I said it is the Great Khan, in fact, it is Taiji, one of the ten thousand households, Lin Dan Khan is the real Khan of our Mongolians. However, the 100,000 troops led by Lin Dan Khan last year were blocked by these Han troops and could not survive at all. We can claim that it was the Han army that desperately blocked it, but as far as I know it is not, they didn't really help...... They have the strength to send a few hundred people to fight the Chechen Khan, and we have always claimed that the Han people are cowardly, but at least the Han people in front of them are not cowardly. ”

But Tu Khan's stiff face showed a confused expression, with his life experience and the concepts he had received since childhood, it was difficult for him to accept these words at the moment.

It was even more difficult for Assallan to accept, and the boy's face turned red.

"The Heshute people have been fighting with us for pastures, but ......" said Tu Khan in a low voice: "Now the Heshute Department has been squeezed by the Dzungar people, they will go west sooner or later, if we lose this battle tomorrow, then you run to the Heshute Department, and follow them all the way to the west, that side is too far, and there are also big forces like the Oirats, they can gather hundreds of thousands of people at will, just like when we had Altan Khan, although the Han people are strong now, the number is small, and the road is too far, You take our good boy over there, you have a world of your own, maybe you will do better than I do now. ”

"Father Khan ......"

"Don't worry." Seeing his son's worried face, he laughed loudly: "We Mongolia are good at long-distance running, riding and shooting flexibly, the Han people want to win against us, but it is difficult to hold us, you go and learn how to camp with the elders now, I'm here to watch." ”

"Yes, Father Khan!"

The mood of the young man is like a dark cloud, a gust of wind blows away, Asarlan led his personal guards, rushed to the front, there are already experienced Taiji in the formation, according to the intelligence of the sentinel cavalry, the Han army is now more than 20 miles apart, the array should be lined up here, after camping, you can go out of the camp tomorrow morning to fight, if it becomes a stalemate, the distance of about ten miles can allow the soldiers to leave the battlefield, and then return to the camp to recover fatigue and treat injuries.

All the shepherds and armoured soldiers marched forward under the command of the banners, each of them like a large dark cloud, obscuring the sky and the sun, and all of them were very well ridden, and they were quickly galloped to the designated camp and stopped.

There were people on the periphery who set up wooden fences, and the Mongols would also set up camp, but they were relatively sparse.

Everyone was busy like worker bees until the sun set in the west.

The shepherds began to light bonfires, sat around in a group, and some sang melodious pastoral songs.

People are warming goat's milk, eating cheese or jerky, and some people fall asleep early amid the singing.

Before dark, the sentinels found a considerable number of merchant army sentinels, of course, they were also composed of chasers, but the people of the Khan Department saw the sentry chase for the first time, unfortunately the sentinels on their side were defeated, hundreds of sentry horses chased back and forth on the vast grassland, people saw the cavalry back and forth in circles, the Mongolian cavalry began to shoot arrows, and then heard the sound of guns, one after another was the cavalry of the Chotu Khan Department fell off their horses, and then they were driven farther and farther away, and the firearms of those red-robed soldiers seemed to be endless one after another, Those who were not beaten at all could not raise their heads, and the sentry could only avoid them from a distance, and they were pushed farther and farther away.

The next thing was even more frustrating, the red-robed soldiers rescued the wounded soldiers who had fallen off their horses, and at the same time began to kill the wounded sentry horses of the Chotu Khan Department with fire guns or sabers, without hesitation, without mercy, the killing did not stop, and soon dozens of wounded people were all resolved, and then these red-robed soldiers calmly retreated, leaving only the corpses in one place.

Seeing this scene was a serious blow to many people in the Chotu Khan Department, they found for the first time that their riding and archery skills that they had been proud of were not so sharp, and the other party's riding skills may be slightly worse, but the cooperation was better, and the firearms in their hands were sharper, and they had the upper hand when attacking each other, most of them were a little frustrated, and the camp was full of the atmosphere of defeat. A red-robed army of a few hundred men would quickly be overwhelmed by tens of thousands, and after such encouragement, the morale would return to these herdsmen.

Everyone gradually fell asleep under the night sky, the bonfire burned out, there was a snoring sound everywhere, Assallan led the people to make a final inspection, he galloped out of the camp, to more than ten miles away galloped up a hill, this is very risky, there may be Han army rangers at night, but the young Taiji insisted on doing so, he looked out under the starry sky, a few miles away is a stretch of military camp, you can see that the military camp is not very large, but in the moonlight and starlight, it can be seen that it is very neat, large and small square camps are connected together, everywhere is burning fire, The tents are arranged in a triangle very neatly, in the middle of the night, there are still groups of soldiers with lanterns patrolling the camp, and from time to time they hear the sound of military order slogans, and only then did Assallan know that he was really Meng Lang, such an army could not have no sentinels on the periphery, he left cautiously with people, and did not dare to stay any longer.