Heilongjiang estuary temple street, icy and snowy, the north wind is cold, the temperature has dropped to more than minus 30 degrees, the whole land is white, and the frozen Heilongjiang River is also covered with a thick layer of snow. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The flags were roaring, and the 600 sleds that were about to set out for the expedition were neatly parked on the school grounds, lined up in neat formations. Originally, 500 sleds were set out to fight, but later an additional 100 sleds were built to serve as logistics and supply tasks, so that the number of 600 sleds and 1,500 sledders was reached.

"What a sled!" Zheng Xi muttered to himself.

Since the introduction of sleds, winter transportation is no longer a hassle. Originally, Zheng Xi relied on water transportation from the Heilongjiang River, but in winter, the ice was frozen for thousands of miles, the Heilongjiang River was frozen, and the ships could not navigate, and even the route to Sakhalin Island was frozen, and people and horses had to pass through the ice, and the speed was slow and the transportation efficiency was low.

Now with sleds, transportation in winter is not a problem.

Whether it is the Qing army or the Rakshasas, they can only nest in their castles for the winter in the ice and snow, but the Ming army with sleds can come and go freely in the ice and snow.

Before the ice, the cavalry that had gone to reconnoiter the Horqin tribe had returned, bringing back a map of the Horqin steppe, as well as a map of the winter garrison of the Horqin tribe.

Although the Horqin tribe is also a nomadic tribe, there is no fixed place on the grassland on weekdays, and they wander around, looking for water and grassland for grazing. But in winter, the ice and snow cover the grassland, and the Horqin tribe can only stay in one place, and no one wants to walk around in the ice and snow.

In winter, the vigilance of the Eight Banners of Heilongjiang has also decreased a lot, and when winter comes, the Rakshasas are also nesting in their castles for the winter, and they will not go out to plunder, and the Eight Banners do not need to tense their nerves all day to deal with the Rakshasas.

In Heilongjiang, which is vast and sparsely populated, the tribes where the Mongols are stationed, the tribes of the fishing and hunting peoples, and the castles of the Eight Banners are very far apart. In the ice and snow, the Eight Banners basically do not come out to patrol, and the Ming army's sled soldiers can pass through the empty space between the castle and the tribe.

The sled soldier snow raid plan, which had been brewing for almost a year, was finally about to be put into action, Zheng Xian's heart was so excited, he walked to the point general platform and looked around.

Nine hundred soldiers dressed in bright cotton armor and holding various weapons stood majestically on the edge of the sleigh, and each sled soldier showed a kind of confidence on his face. Behind the battle formation, six hundred auxiliaries stood neatly, each of them wearing thick cotton armor, carrying a rakshasa musket on his back and an axe at his waist.

In fact, these auxiliaries have strong combat effectiveness, and most of them are veterans of the Zheng family army who came here from the south with Zheng Zheng, and each of them has experienced a hundred battles.

"Brethren!" Zheng Xi stood on the stage and opened his voice and shouted, "Why did the Tartars occupy our great rivers and mountains? How many Jurchen slaves are actually there? Why did they succeed? It's because someone is making them an accomplice! Among these accomplices, there are Han Chinese and Mongolians! And the first accomplice of the Jurchen Jiannu is the Horqin Ministry! It can be said that without the help of the Horqin Ministry, the Jurchen Jiannu would not have been able to conquer Mongolia! If they can't conquer Mongolia, they can't get in! Today, let's take revenge and wipe out the Horqin tribe, the first to take refuge in the Jurchen Jiannu, from the grassland! ”

"Kill slaves!" Several of Zheng Xi's generals shouted in unison.

"Kill slaves! Kill slaves! The morale of the sled soldiers was high, and more than 1,000 sled soldiers and more than 10,000 soldiers of the Zheng raid army roared in unison, shouting that shook the sky and soared into the sky.

Zheng Xi looked around and gave an order: "Sons, let's go!" Cut off the head of the Horqin tribe and give the old witch Bumu Butai a New Year's gift! ”

"Let's go!" The junior officers shouted.

Fifteen hundred sled soldiers boarded the sleds, and the sled soldiers in charge of driving the cars waved their whips, and the horses pulled the sleds loaded with soldiers, forage, and food, and slowly accelerated on the snow.

Although the sleigh is heavy, the friction on the snow is very small, except for the initial start, when the speed of the sleigh is increased, the Don hippopotamus can pull the sleigh and trot slowly on the snow at a speed of six to seven kilometers per hour, which is not at all strenuous for horses.

This thousand-mile surprise attack plan was carefully planned, and in the past few months, not only have the sled soldiers been trained every day, but Zheng Zheng's headquarters has also conducted daily exercises on the sand table. According to the information sent back by the scout cavalry, the sled soldiers who attacked selected the route and decided the destination.

Although there are not many sled soldiers, they have mobility that no army can match in the ice and snow, and they also have very powerful firepower, especially the gun carriage sled, a sled is equivalent to a small warship traveling on land.

This can be said to be the most primitive armored corps of this era! Equipped with artillery and muskets, it also has armor and speed. The Mongol cavalry could not catch up with them, and they could retreat when they encountered many enemies; If you encounter a few enemies, you can annihilate them.

The cold wind was bitter, and Cao Yong drove the fully loaded sleigh and walked on the thousands of miles of snowfield. He was wearing two pieces of cotton armor, and a leather armor on the outside, a warm sweater inside the cotton armor, a cowhide helmet inlaid with iron plates, and a dogskin hat on the outside, and the high-necked cotton armor was originally warm, plus a scarf, and leather gloves on his hands, and he didn't feel cold at all when he drove the sleigh in the ice and snow.

In the back compartment, the canvas cloak was pulled up, and the carriage full of hay was very warm, Cai Zhichao and Zhang Paparazzi leaned comfortably in the haystack, and they would not feel tired for such a long journey.

Although Cao Yong is said to be a driver, but when marching, the work of driving the car is in turns, and after Cao Yong drove for a while, he was replaced by Cai Zhichao to drive the horses pulling the cart, and after a while, he was replaced by Zhang Paparazzi to drive the car.

According to the requirements, the sled soldiers walked for four hours a day, each hour traveled about 25 miles, and could march 100 miles a day, and it took about 20 days to reach a destination more than 2,000 miles away. Such a marching speed is comparable to the speed of the Mongolian iron cavalry sweeping through Eurasia back then!

However, the Mongolian cavalry swept across the Eurasian continent, rode horses for hundreds of miles a day, spent day after day on horseback, and hid in the belly of the horse for the night.

The current long-distance attack of the Ming army is much more comfortable than the long-distance attack of the Mongolian iron cavalry, they can sit on the sleigh running smoothly, there is a canvas to protect them from the wind and snow, and they can sleep in the hay pile eaten by the war horses at night.

The Don hippopotamus that pulls the sled seems to suffer a little, but it is good to calculate, the Don hippopotamus is originally a hybrid breed of European horses and Mongolian horses, and the Cossack cavalry is riding this kind of war horse, from Europe to the east, they rode the Don hippopotamus, across the deserted Siberian wilderness, along the way, only their own dry food, drink cold water. Adapted to the cold climate, the Don hippopotamus is much more cold-tolerant than the Mongolian horse.

What's more, each Don hippopotamus is also covered with cotton armor, which can protect them from the cold. In addition, there are some blankets on the back of the logistics transport sled, which can be draped over the horses after nightfall if the weather is too cold.

The route of the march was also carefully chosen, and along the way, there was almost no possibility of encountering the Qing army.

In fact, even if you encounter a small group of Qing troops, you don't have to worry, there will not be many Qing troops who will come out in this kind of weather, and when you meet one hundred and two hundred and eight banner soldiers, you can easily eat them all, and you can leave quickly after eating.

The Don River pulled a sleigh and slowly walked on the thousands of miles of frozen snowfield, all the way through, the snow was white, and there was no trace of human beings at all.

"The Rakshasas were able to come here from thousands of miles away, and I really admire their perseverance!" Cao Yong said.

The sled soldiers walked for two hours, and Xiao Gongchen, who was leading the way in front, stopped the sled. Xiao Gongchen is Zheng Xi's confidant and favorite general, and he is the chief general who leads the troops on this expedition to the Horqin tribe.

"Let's all take a break, we are not tired, and the war horses should take a breath." Xiao Gongchen asked his soldiers to issue a flag order.

It has been two hours, or four hours, since I came out in the morning, and it is almost noon.

Cao Yong, Cai Zhichao and Zhang paparazzi got sledding.

It was already noon, and the weather was relatively warm today, so the three of them took off the cotton armor on the war horse and put it on the sleigh to let the war horse dissipate heat.

In winter, on the north bank of the Heilongjiang River, the sun is shining, and the sun shines on the Don hippos, which are particularly cold-tolerant, making them feel a little warm.

"Feed the horses first, and then we'll eat." Cai Zhichao first took out the hay from the sleigh, took it to the front to feed the horse, and after the horse finished eating the hay, Cai Zhichao returned to the sled, opened a sack, grabbed a handful of black beans from it, walked to the front, stretched out his palm, and put it in the mouth of the war horse.

The docile Donhippo opened his mouth, ate black beans, and stretched out his tongue to lick Cai Zhichao's palm.

Cai Zhichao patted the Don hippopotamus lightly, and the war horse also snorted, turned his head, and looked at his master with its beautiful big eyes.

And Zhang paparazzi is feeding another horse, which has always followed him and was raised by him since he was a child.

"Man, if you want to destroy Jiannu, it's up to you!" Zhang paparazzi stroked the mane of the war horse and said.

Cao Yong took out a piece of cloth, wiped the sweat off the war horse, took out a brush again, and gently brushed the horse's hair.

After waiting for the horses, the three of them sat on the edge of the sleigh, opened the bag of dry food they carried, took out the dried meat and fried noodles, and ate them together with the snow.

The so-called fried noodles are not fried noodles, but a new type of dry food invented by Wang Xinyu himself based on the fried noodles of the later volunteers, which is actually a mixture of sorghum noodles and wheat noodles, stir-fried and dried with a little salt, and turned into a kind of dry food. Eat with water when eating. During the field march, I ate fried noodles in the snow.

Chow mein is light in weight, takes up little space, and has high energy, which can ensure that the soldiers are well fed. But this kind of stuff really doesn't taste good. The skill of eating fried noodles has also been trained before, and you must eat fried noodles with snow or drink with water, otherwise the fried noodles will be too dry and it will be easy to choke.

Other dry food, as well as baked sweet potatoes, baked steamed cakes and steamed buns, those are good things, Cao Yong and they are reluctant to eat at this time, good things should be kept and eaten slowly, and now they are gone.

After resting for an hour, the expeditionary sledders resumed their journey.

In the evening, the team came to a Ming fortress on the edge of the Heilongjiang River.

After walking all day, I just walked a hundred miles, and I was still in the area controlled by the Ming army. In the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, Zheng Xi built many fortresses, the general fortresses can accommodate six or seven hundred people, these castles are like unbreakable passes, guarding the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, blocking the footsteps of the Russian Empire's eastward expansion.

The main purpose of the castle was not to deal with the Qing army outside the Guanwai, and there were very few Qing troops in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, and they were not interested in coming to the cold land. To tell the truth, the Eight Banners were most interested in the great rivers and mountains in Guannai, and they were not much interested in their own birthplace.

It is precisely because of this that the actual scope of control of the Qing Dynasty outside the Guanxi has been shrinking.

When the Treaty of Nebuchu was signed, the Qing court had long lost control of Lake Baikal and Eastern Siberia, and was simply unable to regain the land from Maozi. Don't even think about it!

After the war of Qing Russia, because the Qing government insisted on not allowing the Han people to go out of the pass, the Eight Banners outside the pass squeezed their minds and wanted to enter the pass, but the only tribes such as the Oroqen and the Evenks were left outside the pass, how could they resist the footsteps of Maozi's eastward expansion?

As a result, by the time the Treaty of Beijing was signed and the Trans-Khingan Mountains and Sakhalin Island were ceded, the Qing government had already lost control over those lands, which were already full of Maozi castles!

Even if the Beijing Treaty is not signed, the Qing government will not have the ability to take back the land!

Later, the Nationalist Government did not recognize the Treaty of Beijing, and the October Revolution broke out in Russia, and Lenin said that he would return the Chinese land. Zhang Xueliang naively believed that the Nationalist Government had also stationed troops on Temple Street at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River.

As a result, after Stalin came up, he beat Zhang Xueliang out of Xiang. Later, Japan launched the September 18 Incident, and finally the Soviet Red Army invaded the Northeast, and it was even more impossible to get back those lost lands.

Now Wang Xinyu asked Zheng Xi to build a castle in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, in fact, to curb Maozi's eastward expansion.

As for the Qing army? The combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners outside the Guanxi is good, but compared with Maozi, the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners outside the Guanxi is far inferior to Maozi.

Build a castle in front of Maozi, and it will be difficult for Maozi to conquer the castle without carrying many heavy weapons.

Cai Zhichao: The castle they came to is a small castle, normally speaking, the castle can only accommodate more than 600 people, so many sleds to enter the castle, it is a bit unbearable.

Xiao Gongchen ordered: "Let the horses enter the castle for the night, and the people and sleighs spend the night outside!" (To be continued.) )