A map of the march had been spread out on the grass in front of Chen Dexing. Zhang Shijie, who had just been transferred back from Tanggu City and was reappointed as a military adviser, knelt on one knee next to the map and tapped dots on the map with a chopstick.

"It is now certain that the cattle and sheep of the Urus of Hazar, my king, have been slaughtered. This is what many Han people from Liaoxi who traded with the Urus of Hesar said. As for the situation of the other three Ulus in the Mongolian host, it is not known...... Assuming that they also slaughtered cattle and sheep, then without the drag of cattle and sheep, their marching speed can reach 100 miles a day! It is only 2,000 miles from Yuerbo south to Yanjing, and you can walk there in 20 days! ”

Li Cuixian interjected: "There are nearly 800,000 people in the four major Ulus of the host, and even last year they lost some, and there are no less than 700,000 people. The limit of mobilization should be 200,000 people, and although most of them cannot fight in the field, it is not a problem to go to the city and shoot arrows...... When the Mongolian Tartars were young, they used the soft bow as a toy to dabble in hares, and even when they were sixty or seventy years old, they still had to draw the bow every day. ”

She was the daughter of Li Pu, and theoretically the niece of Tachar, and she was very familiar with the situation in the Mongol hosts, and also knew their main kings and generals, which was why Chen Dexing took her on the expedition.

Zhang Shijie said: "If 200,000 Mongolian soldiers enter Yanyun, it will be troublesome to defend the city...... Kublai Khan's Yanyun Dawanhu Mansion still has nearly 60,000 people available. And after our army landed in Tanggu, the cities of Yanyun were fortified. If the garrison is sufficient, I am afraid that it will be difficult to attack for a while. ”

Zhang Shijie has been guarding Tanggu, constantly expanding the city and recruiting displaced people, and he has also made great contributions for more than a year. is also familiar with the situation around Yanjing. Kublai Khan's main force had withdrawn though. However, the general Wuliang Hetai and Zongwang Hebi Chi were also left to garrison, and the original Dongping Road Yan family, Guide Road Di family and Guo Kan, Xue Junsheng and other four Han armies. They were also deployed on Yanjing Road. If you join forces with the four kings of the host again, it will really not be easy to deal with. After all, Chen Dexing led only 55,000 soldiers to the west. Even if the troops on the Tanggu side are counted, the force on land is 60,000.

Therefore, it is not a good strategy to let the 40,000 soldiers and horses of the Mongolian host enter Yanyun, but it is better than letting the tribes of the four Mongolian kings spend the winter in the Jinlianchuan steppe - because after the 700,000 troops of the four kings survive the winter, the entire Eastern Mongolia and Liaobei will be able to let them come and go.

The war between Kublai Khan and Li Pu is also very likely to be won in the spring and summer of next year, if Kublai Khan wins, Chen Dexing may be besieged by Kublai Khan and the four kings of the Mongol host in the autumn and winter of next year. Even the Southern Song Dynasty could join the war!

But now it's the case. It seems unlikely that the worst-case scenario will occur - the four kings of the Mongolian host seem to have given up their plan to spend the winter in the Jinlianchuan grassland, choosing to spend the winter in Yanyun, and giving up Kaiping and Jinlianchuan grasslands to Chen Dexing.

In other words, Chen Dexing's army could take Kaiping as long as he walked, and then he could dominate the wild lands of Eastern Mongolia and Northeast China. However, if the 700,000 Mongolian hosts all entered Yanyun, it would not be easy for Chen Dexing to seize the sixteen states of Yanyun.

Chen Dexing was silent for a long time, and finally waved his hand, "And when the four of them have already slaughtered the cattle and sheep...... Let's not go to Jinlian River. Straight into Yanyun is! Take Yanjing first and block their way south! Even if the other three Ulus spend the winter in the Golden Lotus River grassland, we will have to fight again next spring. The three Ulus had at most 150,000 bow-wielding soldiers, while the Han Chinese on Yanjing Road were no less than 780,000. If it can be rectified, it will not be a problem to have an extra 50,000 soldiers! What kind of tartar will not be even when the time comes! ”

Hearing that Chen Dexing had such confidence, Zhang Shijie smiled and glanced at the end of the line. The mighty division of the Northern Ming Army eating on the side of the road. yes, only fifty-five thousand. The four kings of the Mongolian host, who had been forced to do so, fled far away, and Kublai Khan did not dare to build a capital in Yanjing. If there is an army of 100,000, 150,000. What kind of force in the whole world can withstand their blow?

……

At this time, in the territory of the Jinshan Peninsula in Beimingzhou, a barbarian army also confidently marched along the coastline. The number of this army was "too many", so many that their leaders could not count (who knows what the number above 1,000 is?). ）。 In the eyes of the "Children of the Sea" chieftain (the name of the "Children of the Sea" has been passed down from generation to generation, all the chiefs of this tribe are called this) and Elder Shark, they have gathered the largest army in history, not to mention a few hundred "sea people", even if they go south to conquer the Mayan and Toltec city-states!

And the resourceful Elder Shark also had a very clever battle plan - march along the beach, between the camp of the sea people and their big ships at sea. In this way, those who went ashore could not escape. As long as you capture them all, you can force four large ships at sea to surrender.

As for the "stone knife" of the sea people, Elder Shark also came up with a way to deal with it. Do not fight in close combat, but shoot arrows at long distances. The Chumash people are at least ten times more numerous than the sea people! If both sides used bows, the Chumash would be able to shoot ten times as many arrows as the enemy, and naturally there was no possibility of defeat......

"It's coming! Coming along the beach...... These Indians are so stupid that they don't even know how to sneak up on them from the forest! ”

But they were really numerous, about four or five thousand...... It was supposed to concentrate all the warriors of several large tribes in the vicinity. Little Mengge, are you sure? ”

Zhou Xiaoqi, Meng Qi and Wen Tianxiang had already gone up to the watchtower, carefully looking at the enemies marching in chaos through the binoculars, and talking in a whisper.

"What a nice person!" Meng sneered, but what exuded a coldness in his eyes was that an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old boy should not have, "I still want to form an Indian Eight Banners!" ”

"What? Forming the Indian Eight Banners? Wen Tianxiang was stunned for a moment, he had also heard of the prestige of the Eight Banners in Jiangnan. The main force is the wild Jurchen of Liaodong, the most vicious! If you don't consider the artillery of the soldiers, the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners may even exceed that of the soldiers!

"Is this the will of King Ming?" Wen Tianxiang asked.

"No," Meng shook his head, "but I have the power to act cheaply, and I can recruit troops in the New World!" ”

"What? Is there such a thing? Wen Tianxiang was stunned and stunned, a small ensign expedition leader, he was a captain in the Great Song Dynasty, not even an official. It actually has the right to recruit troops!! Isn't Chen Dexing afraid that this kid surnamed Meng will rebel on the Mingzhou Continent?

Zhou Xiaoqi put away the binoculars, looked at Wen Tianxiang with a smile and said, "Champion Gong, don't take our Ming Dynasty as the Great Song Dynasty...... The set of the Great Song Dynasty, what power is taken to the court, what can the people below do? This set is to defend one's own people, and it is not good to use it externally. Otherwise, in the 300 years since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, why is the territory getting smaller and smaller, and all kinds of Tartars becoming more and more arrogant? ”

If there is any biggest difference between Chen Dexing's Northern Ming Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty in terms of politics, it is that the Northern Ming Dynasty is a decentralization of local and central powers, while the Southern Song Dynasty pursues absolute centralization - of course, after Chen Dexing made a fuss in Lin'an, there is no centralization anymore, and can only pursue centralization.

Of course, Chen Dexing did not completely deny the centralization of power, but adopted a combination of centralization and decentralization - complete centralization is like the Song Dynasty, the soldiers do not know whether it is counted, and when the troops are sent to fight, the emperor will also send a "formation map", and the central governor will discuss how to arrange the troops in the court, and then exercise command through the Guò Privy Council.

If the war is going on near the capital, it is not unavoidable. If it's hundreds of miles away, it's a bit of a cheat. If it's across the Pacific Ocean...... Forget it, don't go over and stay in your hometown!

Therefore, absolute centralization will strictly restrict the expansion of the country when the means of communication are backward, and it will be difficult to form a vast territory. Therefore, in the early and middle Tang Dynasty, which focused on expansion, there were military and civilian officials who ruled one side such as Dadu Hu and Jiedu, which were actually the decentralization of power between the central and local governments. In the era of European colonization, there were also very powerful colonial officials such as colonial governors and special colonial ruling institutions such as "chartered trading companies".

The Manchu Dynasty, which was labeled as a "great unified dynasty" by later generations, was actually a "semi-centralized and half-feudal" feudal dynasty, otherwise the territory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty could not have been so large. The centralization of power in the Manchu Qing was only in Han China, and Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet were all dominated by feudal princes. As for the Manchurian self-reserved land, there are no people, so naturally there is no talk of centralization and decentralization.

Chen Dexing, on the other hand, has taken a more flexible approach. There are both strong central and autonomous localities. There were both feudal princes and colonial governors. Although Zhou Xiaoqi and Meng Qi were not governors, they had all the powers of colonial governors—they could recruit troops, collect taxes, issue decrees, and exercise supreme jurisdiction. In Mingzhou, the two of them are the representatives of Ming King Chen Dexing!

And there is no restraint and supervision, as if it is a king!

"They're coming, let's go down." Blindfolded and put away the binoculars, and said to Zhou Xiaoqi, "Seventh brother, is your battleship ready?" ”

"Don't worry, you're ready!" Zhou Xiaoqi pointed to the four expedition ships moored in a row on the sea less than two miles away from the camp, "The cannons on the starboard side can fire at any time!" ”

Meng smiled and nodded, because this battle took place on land, so it was commanded by him, the leader of the land expedition. The battle plan was as simple as their opponents, with 298 men on land, not including Wen Tianxiang and Jiudeng Monk, but including Japanese comfort women) preparing for battle based on the camp, and also unloading 3 bronze cannons and a hot air balloon from the ship. The 12 cannons on the starboard side of the four expedition ships at sea are also ready to fire at any time!

And the hot air balloon has been ignited, and now it is tied with a rope and ready to be lifted into the air to pretend to be a god. The method is still the same old-fashioned, cannon killing and Tongtian Sphere, after all, you can fool some natives. In addition, according to Wen Tianxiang's opinion, Zhou Xiaoqi and Mengqi also prepared Japanese shochu (that is, burned rice wine) for the surrendered Indians...... (To be continued......)