On the morning of December 1, the main force of the Ming army still did not move, only dozens of Ming army scouts and cavalry cautiously paraded near the fort village, looking at the Ming army's moves, Huang Taiji finally ordered the main force of the Jin army to set off from the camp and attack the Ming army in the west.

For the surprise attack of the Houjin cavalry, the detectives of the Ming army sentry seemed to have been prepared, and almost when the forward of the Houjin cavalry appeared in the field of vision of the Ming army's scouts, these Ming scouts had already lit the fireworks warning signal, and they turned their horses' heads and withdrew to the west.

When Huang Taiji appeared to the east of the Ming army's camp with the main force of the Eight Banners, he realized that he seemed to have given the Ming army too much time before. The camp of the Ming army was built in a forest, and if you just watched from the outside, no one could see what kind of situation was in this wood.

However, after they passed through a forest belt about 20 paces deep, a large military camp appeared in front of the Houjin army.

At the back of the woods, the original trees and bushes had been cut down, revealing a blank area more than five miles wide. The large camp built by the Ming army was not a regular square, but an irregular shape that resembled the installation of several spearheads.

Although the camp wall of the Ming army was not built high, about 2 people high, but under the outer wall was a trench with a depth of more than one and a half meters and a width of nearly 10 steps. It seems that the shape of this camp is more similar to the two castles outside Zunhua City.

After seeing the shape and geographical location of this large camp, Mang Gurtai, who was standing on the right side of Huang Taiji, suddenly said loudly: "This big camp is not easy to attack, if our army does not clear the woods in front of it, the army will not be able to find a place to line up." If we want to clear this forest, with our current manpower, I am afraid that we will not be able to achieve anything in 3-5 days. Is it difficult for the Ming army to watch us clean up this forest and do nothing? I see the attack on this big camp, should we discuss it again? ”

Huang Taiji glanced at him, and said unceremoniously: "Since the Heavenly Mandate Khan raised his army, there has been no precedent for my Eight Banners Army to retreat without a fight. No matter how well the Ming army camp was built, the battle was ultimately decided in the hands of people.

The Ming army was just bullying the Mongolian soldiers with the number of troops, and they still didn't have the courage to fight with our Eight Banners soldiers in the field, so these days the Ming army has been building a large camp here, and they don't dare to go east. The Ming army is so timid, is it possible that my Eight Banners soldiers will be frightened away by a mere camp? ”

Huang Taiji then pointed to the middle of the Ming army camp with a horse whip and said: "The Yellow Dragon Banner representing the Ming Emperor is erected there, as long as we capture this Ming army camp, we will get the greatest harvest from entering the customs this time." The fruits of victory are in front of you, don't you even have the courage to stretch out your hand? ”

Yue Tuo immediately stepped forward and said: "What the Great Khan said is that the Ming army is so timid that they don't even dare to occupy the fort that no one defends, even if this big camp is built, it may not be able to do anything.

What's more, the Emperor of the Ming Kingdom has only been on the throne for 2 years, and it is said that he is only a young man who has not dried up. A young man who is better than the hands of a woman in the deep palace can have the courage to fight against my Jurchen army on the battlefield.

If this little emperor was intimidated by the threat of our army during the battle and did something to shake the morale of the army, the Ming army camp would undoubtedly be broken.

Therefore, the Great Khan was also asked for permission to let the ministers be the vanguard of the army and lead the Banner Niulu to attack the camp here. Perhaps, the minister can still capture the little emperor of the Ming Kingdom for the Great Khan. ”

With Yue Tuo taking the lead, more than a dozen little Baylors also stepped forward to ask for battle, all saying that they would take the little emperor of the Ming Kingdom as a gift to congratulate the Great Khan. Dai Shan watched these little Baylor's dulicitous remarks coldly from the sidelines, and he also quietly pulled Mang Gultai to prevent him from continuing to speak out against it.

Huang Taiji was obviously very satisfied with the support of these little Baylors, and immediately ordered the generals behind him: "Pass my order, this army is camped 500 steps away from the woods, and transfer the Ming Kingdom in the rear to come up, and be sure to clear the place with a length of 1,000 steps within two days..."

When Huang Taiji was surrounded by the little Baylors and turned around and walked back to the other side of the woods, he didn't bother to step forward, and simply fell behind the team with Dai Shan, Mang Gurtai, couldn't help but complain to Dai Shan: "Why did the second brother stop me just now? These young people don't know the height of the sky, and they really think that your good son Yue Tuo is telling the truth?

Since the emperor of the Ming Kingdom dared to drive the expedition in person, how could he not bring enough troops around him? As long as there are enough troops, coupled with such a strong stronghold built, wouldn't it be a great loss to our Jurchen soldiers to launch an attack rashly? ”

Dai Shan waved his hand and said, "Haven't you seen it yet?" These young people don't care how many people will be lost by attacking this camp now, they are now making a stand to the old eight.

Have you forgotten? The reason why we changed our goal this time is also thanks to the support of these young people. If all goes well, they don't have to worry about anything. But when the war is now deadlocked, they have to worry about whether we will settle accounts when they go back.

Since they had previously supported Lao Ba to change the goal of the expedition, they could only continue to stand with Lao Ba now. If they were to be the grass on the wall between the eighth and our three Baylors, do you think we would be able to accommodate them? ”

Mang Gurtai finally fell silent, obviously he felt that Dai Shan was right, the risk of being a grass in the Houjin Kingdom was greater than the risk of standing on the wrong team, maybe these little Baylors had just started to persuade the two of them to change the goal of the expedition with Yue Tuo, but they were just unwilling to go all the way to attack the Chahar Department, which had no oil and water.

But their actions have undoubtedly offended the principle of the co-governance of the four Baylors. If this expedition can get a good result, there will be no problem. If the gains from this expedition are not big, then they have to hope that Huang Taiji can protect them and not be settled by the three major Baylors when they go back.

As far as Dai Shan is concerned, since things have developed to this extent, it is better to simply let these young people who do not give up continue to touch the camp of the Ming army. Although the Jurchen soldiers will lose some as a result, they can completely dispel the last illusions of Huang Taiji and these young people.

From the moment he saw this camp, Dai Shan realized that if he wanted to capture this camp, he was afraid that it would be impossible to succeed without paying a great price. That being the case, he was reluctant to continue his opposition. Only by letting those Eight Banners soldiers shed their blood will they remember who made this wrong decision.

For Huang Taiji, retiring at this moment is obviously not a good choice. After traveling thousands of miles into the pass, most of the war profits were distributed to the Mongol tribes who followed the expedition. And the gains obtained by the Jurchen Eight Banners, except for the two red flags, the other six banners barely offset the cost of this expedition.

This result is obviously too far from Huang Taiji's expectations before entering the customs, and it cannot bring him any prestige. The important thing is that although some property and people were defeated by the detour this time, it was first attacked by Zunhua, and then there was a defeat in which most of the Mongolian left battalion was annihilated by the Ming army.

As a result, Huang Taiji's plan to use this detour to defeat Ming and tie the Mongolian tribes to Houjin's chariot failed by a small half. Through this battle of the Ming Dynasty, the Mongolian tribes did not see that the Ming Kingdom was already decaying, and they followed the Houjin army and waved their flags and shouted, so that they could get a piece of the war profits of the Ming Dynasty.

This war made the Mongolian tribes feel that the Ming army may not be defeated by the Houjin army in the field, but as long as there are cities to rely on, the Houjin army will have nothing to do. Moreover, the Ming army could not defeat the Houjin army in the field, but it did not mean that it could not defeat the coalition army composed of their Mongolian departments.

All in all, following Houjin to crusade against the Ming Kingdom is not a good thing with small risks and big returns, but a risky adventure. Judging from the current situation, Ming Guo is not without a chance to turn over. They were so deeply involved in the war between the Later Jin and the Ming Kingdom, if the Ming people won the final victory, then how would they deal with themselves?

It was precisely because the Mongol vassal tribes in the Later Jin army seemed to have lost some confidence in the Later Jin that Huang Taiji wanted to win a big victory to dispel the doubts in the hearts of these Mongolian vassal tribes about the combat strength of the Later Jin army.

Under Dai Shan's persuasion, Mang Gurtai finally gave up the idea of continuing to persuade Huang Taiji to withdraw his troops. On the afternoon of this day, he returned to Zunhua with a team of personal guards, and after Huang Taiji transferred half of the Xinxiang Han army under Zunhua City, the Jurchen Ma plus the Mongol and Xinfu Han troops outside Zunhua City were only more than 8,000 people.

It is already quite difficult to suppress the Ming army in Zunhua City to attack with this number, and Zhao Shujiao, the defender of Zunhua City, is not an easy person, and it is naturally more appropriate for Houjin to have a general in charge. In addition, the Jurchen horses under Zunhua City are mainly based on the Zhenglan Banner, and only the Zhenglan Banner Banner Master Mang Gurtai is the most suitable to continue to sit in the Zunhua camp.

Previously, Mang Gurtai abandoned the Zunhua battalion and ran to the western army, mainly to persuade Huang Taiji to withdraw his troops, since the persuasion did not move, and he was reminded by Dai Shan, he did not wait for Huang Taiji to urge, and automatically returned to Zunhua.

Huang Taiji's mobilization of the army to attack the Ming army's Shimenxia East Camp totaled 15,000 Jurchen soldiers and horses, 7,000 Mongol vassals, and 4,700 new Han troops, bringing the total to more than 26,000 people.

On the afternoon of November 2, the last of the new Han troops arrived on the western front, and all the new Han troops were divided into three groups and began to cut down the trees on the passage to the Ming army camp, and transported the suitable wood to the east to build siege equipment and use it for night heating.

At the same time, the Mongols and Jurchens began to reconnoiter and harass the sides and rear of the Ming army's camp, and arranged for an army to protect the new Han army that was logging. However, the Ming army did not obstruct the Houjin logging manpower, except for arranging for manpower to counterattack in the area between Daying and the east exit of Shimenxia and expel the Houjin sentinels.

On the morning of December 4, the woods leading to the Ming army camp finally cut a gap of more than 600 paces, so on the afternoon of that day, the Houjin army made a tentative attack.

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