In the past few months, the White Army has completed the basic defense system in the direction of Helan Mountain. The fortress of Zhenyuan Pass has been completed. The fortifications at Da Wai and Chi Mu Kou are also under construction and are almost complete. The Kalong Mountain Fortress is also being planned, and the dangerous position of Suweikou has been garrisoned by a small detachment of the Eagle Cavalry. It can be said with great certainty that now, the large army of the Tartars, from the direction of Helan Mountain, will never be able to pass through Ningxia Town. There are only small and scattered troops, which can be touched from some remote mountain roads.

This means that if the Tartars want to attack Ningxia Town, or go to Ningxia Town to loot, it will definitely not work to follow the old path. It is estimated that this is the basic reason why Mo Yuegen made up his mind to make a big move and occupy Gansu Town. Without the town of Gansu as a bridgehead for the attack, the Tatars would have basically no benefit if they had traveled long distances south as before. I have to say that this Mo Yuegen is still very military-minded.

It is conceivable that in the future, the main force of the Tartars led by Mo Yuegen will definitely continue to attack Ningxia Town. His purpose, most likely, was to snatch food. The Tartars are actually very familiar with the situation in various border towns. When the grain harvest in the border towns is abundant, they will come to greet them. Many times, the Tartars regard each border town as their own land, and they can come whenever they want, and take whatever they want. If you can't get it, you will smash and rob it.

It just happened that there was a bumper grain harvest in Ningxia Town this year, and Mo Yuegen naturally hoped that he could return with a full load. I don't know if the Tatars feel the arrival of the Xiaoice period, anyway, with their sensitivity, they should be aware that the winter may be getting colder and harder. Both the population and livestock need enough food to survive the winter. For better wintering, it is also necessary to have enough cold protection materials. In addition, salt, tea, medicinal herbs, cloth, iron, silk, porcelain and other materials are also on Mo Yuegen's loot list.

"I think! It's not good to clear the wilderness! Let's go straight to the Tartars! Isn't Mo Yuegen 30,000? Let's gather 10,000 people and block their path! Didn't the Tartars arrive from Ningxia Zhongwei? Let's wait for them in Ningxia Zhongwei! I don't believe it, if we concentrate the main force of 10,000 people, we can't handle Mo Yuegen's 30,000 people! Zhang Feng shouted menacingly.

"Not bad!"

"Straight to the bottom!"

"Face-to-face engagement!"

His views can be described as quite radical, and they have the meaning of keeping the enemy out of the country, and they were immediately approved by many members of the Standing Committee. The members of the Standing Committee of the Governing Council all agreed with Zhang Feng's opinion. Even Chen Denglong, who originally proposed the proposal of Jianbi Qingye, felt that if he didn't need Jianbi Qingye, it would be the best. After all, the method of clearing the wilderness is indeed very effective against the enemy, but it is also a great damage to the defenders themselves. In fact, in a sense, it is actually a lose-lose solution.

The strong walls and clear fields mean that everything in the field must be abandoned, that small villages must be abandoned, and that all equipment and facilities in the field must be abandoned. It means that no matter whether the enemy arrives or not, your own losses are a lot of money. Now in Ningxia Town, there are still a lot of good things in the fields.

The rice harvest is complete, but there is still wheat! The wheat won't be harvested until September! If they are all destroyed by the Tartars, the losses will be great. Also, the villages were burned, the wells were filled, the ditches were smashed, and the losses added up to the losses were also very painful. If you can do without strong walls, it is naturally the best.

"It's a bit difficult to concentrate 10,000 main forces." Gao Jie said in a cold tone, "In everyone's eyes, don't just see Mo Yuegen. To the north of us, there's the son of a bastard. To the east of us, there is still Yulin City that has not been taken. To the south of us, there are still tens of thousands of Ming troops in Guyuan Town. If our attention is focused on Mo Yuegen's body, enemies from other directions will pounce like mad dogs. ”

Gao Jie almost fell into captivity by the Mongols last time, but fortunately he was rescued by Xu Xingxia in the end. As the saying goes, if you don't die in a great disaster, you will have a blessing in the future. There is nothing wrong with his own injury, and it will be fine to recuperate for a while. In fact, he only stayed with Dong Langzhong for less than five days, and he couldn't wait to return to the army. Although he is bloodthirsty, cold and cruel, he still treats his subordinates very well. The Mastiff cavalry suffered losses, there was a certain decrease in combat effectiveness, and he was in a hurry to reinvigorate his troops.

In view of the outstanding performance of the Eagle Cavalry, the Eagle Cavalry and the Mastiff Cavalry in battle, Xu Xingxia announced that these three troops were commended. Wang Xia and Gao Jie themselves were also publicly commended and won a medal designed by Xu Xingxia himself. The establishment of the Eagle Cavalry, Eagle Cavalry and Mastiff Cavalry has also expanded from the original five squadrons to ten squadrons, with a total of 2,500 soldiers. If you add the officers, there are more than 3,000 people. Among so many troops in the White Army, it can be regarded as relatively strong. For this reason, Gao Jie is even more gearing up and eager to try.

Gao Jie's surname is a bit of a taste of retribution, he has suffered such a big loss from the Mongols, so he naturally refuses to give up. The expansion of the mastiff cavalry army gave him hope of revenge. During this time, he has been actively training the mastiff cavalry, in order to have the opportunity to beat Lin Dan Khan. But now it seems that he can't find Lin Dan Khan for the time being. Mo Yuegen poked his head out suddenly, and his attention fell on Mo Yuegen's head.

"Lin Dan Khan is indeed not to be underestimated, this guy has always been unrelenting to the Bayannur grassland, and has always hated adults. Bayannur Grassland is too far away from Ningxia Town, if we don't have enough troops in Bayannur Grassland, it is easy to be exploited by Lin Dan Khan. Even if Lin Dan Khan doesn't take advantage of loopholes, he is afraid that other Tatar tribes will also take advantage of loopholes. Therefore, I think that on the side of the Phoenix Sea, at least about 10,000 troops must be stationed so that Lin Dan Khan or others will not dare to act rashly. Xia Kewu, the commander of the Dragoons, said cautiously.

"10,000 people stationed in the Phoenix Sea? How can we have so many troops? How many of us are there now? There are 10,000 troops stationed in the Phoenix Sea, do you want to station troops elsewhere? Where else did 10,000 people come from to deal with Mo Yuegen? Unless it's an immediate expansion now! Otherwise, our troops will not be enough at all! Liu Heng, the commander of the Tiger Cavalry Army, said bluntly.

Every military meeting is a meeting where people can speak their minds freely, and everyone can say whatever comes to their minds, and there are no scruples. Xia Kewu and Liu Heng opened everyone's chatbox at once, and everyone kept interjecting, discussing, arguing, and expressing their opinions. In the end, everyone reached a consensus, that is, the current strength of the White Army is really insufficient. If we want to meet the needs of multifaceted operations, the expansion of the armed forces is inevitable.

All the current troops of the White Army combined, in fact, are less than 20,000 people. If 10,000 people are stationed in the Bayannur grassland, then the other less than 10,000 people, distributed in all directions, will be seriously insufficient. The current situation facing Ningxia Town is so complicated, if there are not enough troops, it will not be able to cope with it at all! This is also based on the strong mobility of the cavalry. If it is infantry, the number of troops required will be greater.

In fact, Mo Yuegen's large-scale killing of Ningxia Town was not the most terrifying. The most terrifying thing is whether Mo Yuegen will collude with Lin Dan Khan and the imperial court to launch an attack on Ningxia Town at the same time. Perhaps, due to some reasons, Lin Dan Khan and the imperial court will not take the initiative to contact Mo Yuegen and put forward a proposal for a joint attack. However, it is very likely that Mo Yuegen will take the initiative to contact the two of them and suggest attacking Ningxia Town together. In case Lin Dan Khan and the imperial court acquiesced to Mo Yuegen's proposal, the pressure on Ningxia Town would be great.

If the three directions of Ningxia Town are attacked by the enemy, the situation is still a bit dangerous. The strength of the imperial court is relatively weak, and the east can be temporarily relieved, as long as there are three or four thousand white-clothed troops, the Ming army can be dragged down. However, Lin Dan Khan and Mo Yuegen are not so easy to deal with. If the strength of the white-clothed army is insufficient, there will indeed be pressure when facing them. It is safe to say that the strength of three or four thousand people will definitely not be able to stop Lin Dan Khan. And to stop Mo Yuegen, at least about 10,000 troops are needed.

The target of Lin Dan Khan's attack must be the Bayannur grassland. The target of Mo Yuegen's attack must be Ningxia Town. This means that the use of troops by the white-clothed army will be divided into two fronts, the north and the south. If you add the Eastern Front, it is a third-line army. Dispersing troops and fighting on multiple fronts was originally a taboo in the art of war. However, in the face of such a situation, the white army can only respond passively. Now is not the time for the White Army to seize the strategic initiative.

10,000 on the southern front, 10,000 on the northern front, and 3,000 or 4,000 on the eastern front, which means that the white-clothed army needs at least about 25,000 troops to spread out. And in order to ensure that there are no accidents, Xu Xingxia should at least have a general reserve of about 5,000 people in his hands. Xu Xingxia roughly estimated that in order for the white-clothed army to reach this number, it would need to expand the army by at least 12,000 people. There is no problem in terms of military resources and financial resources, but the production of the moon gun is insufficient! It takes about four months to produce 12,000 moonshots.

Fortunately, after several months of precipitation and internal rectification, Ningxia Town's current management structure has been quite complete and substantial, and the organizational ability is very strong. The morale of the people is also very high, and even if they hear the news of Mo Yuegen's arrival, they will not panic. In the eyes of the general public, Mo Yuegen is Xu Xingxia's defeated general, and it is not a big deal. Since Xu Xingxia can defeat him once, he can naturally defeat him a second time, just wait for good news.

The most important thing is that after the White Army conquered Ningxia City, it formulated the idea of vigorously developing industry, protected places such as iron-making blast furnaces, craftsman workshops, and ordnance shops, and organized forces to improve production and improve the treatment of craftsmen. There is enough steel to forge more weapons and equipment. This made the expansion of the White Army even more rapid.

With the current production capacity of the craftsman's workshop, more than 3,000 muskets can be produced in a month. In other words, the White Army was able to increase the number of musketeers by 3,000 a month. This is crucial. Three thousand musketeers, no matter which battlefield they are thrown, can play a big role. As long as the white-clothed army drags on for time, its combat effectiveness will become stronger and stronger. If it drags on until next year, the number of white-clothed troops will be even greater.

"I've decided to expand my army!"

"Zhang Quanfu!"

Xu Xingxia decided to expand the Xiao cavalry led by Zhang Quanfu from the original one brigade to five full brigades, with twenty-five squadrons under his jurisdiction, that is, from 1,250 soldiers to 6,250 soldiers. Including the officers, there are almost 8,000 people. The main task of the Xiao cavalry army is to garrison the Bayannur grassland for a long time.

The cavalry army has 8,000 officers and soldiers, and to a certain extent, it can already fight against Lin Dan Khan's iron lance cavalry alone. The Eagle Cavalry and Eagle Cavalry, which cooperated with them, also had 3,000 officers and men, and even if they were not enough to participate in the battle, all of them added up to about 3,000 officers and soldiers. The sum of the three troops has made the permanent strength of the White Army in the Bayannur grassland reach about 11,000 people.

In addition, there are tank battalions and artillery battalions that cooperate in the operation, each with about 500 people. According to comprehensive calculations, the total strength of the white-clothed army stationed in the Bayannur grassland exceeded 12,000 people. It also has a hundred partial vans and fifty large trebuchets. Coupled with the 4,000 cavalry of the Tuyuhun people themselves, it is estimated that there is no problem in holding the Bayannur grassland.

In fact, when Lin Dan Khan sent troops to fight, there was also a problem of surname price ratio. Bayannur grassland is good, tempting, and exciting, but it is impossible for him to pay too much price for it. If you take your own future for the sake of a Bayannur grassland, it will be worth the loss. In the previous battle in Baihuze, the price paid by Lin Dan Khan was already quite large. If there is another big loss, his position will be a little dangerous.

Do not forget that Lin Dan Khan is currently only the head of the Mongol Tumut tribe, and not really the Great Khan of the entire Mongol people. Golden Khan, Sun Khan, are just other people's compliments to him, in fact, he is still far from Golden Khan, Sun Khan. Within the Mongols, there was at least one Korqin tribe that could not get along with Lin Dan Khan. In addition, the Mongols of the Harasan tribe were not 100% supportive of Lin Dan Khan.

The degree of struggle for power and profit within the Mongols is actually no worse than that of the Central Plains Dynasty, and even more powerful than the Central Plains Dynasty. Lin Dan Khan's strength was based on the fact that countless small tribes were wiped out by him. Most of the Mongol tribes were intimidated by his powerful force. If there was no such deterrence by force, others would not have been able to do him at all.

(To be continued)