Although Li Yuntian won the battle of the ancient city of Dunhuang, the thing that made him happiest was not that the Northern Expeditionary Army arrived in time to the Western Regions, but the Battle of Hetao led by Ning Ming Bo Xue Wu.

Xue Wu led 70,000 Liaodong Army, 50,000 Mongol soldiers and 30,000 Shanbei Army to successfully stop the 200,000 troops of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan Dynasty who attacked the Hetao area north of the Outer Great Wall, so that they could not cross the Outer Great Wall and enter the Datong area, and the two sides formed a stalemate in the Hetao area.

Among them, the 50,000 Mongolian soldiers of the Mongolian political envoy played an important role, and under the call of Nomin, the young Mongolian men of Hetao, Hala and Lin and Uliangha carried military horses to participate in the battle, becoming the backbone of the cavalry of the Ming army, and made great achievements on the battlefield.

In March, when the Ming army, the Timurid Empire, and the Northern Yuan coalition army were fighting fiercely in the Hetao area, at the suggestion of the Taishi Zhang Fu, the Empress Dowager Zhang agreed to the battle plan formulated by the military cabinet, and withdrew 100,000 troops from the defenders of the capital to support the battle in the Hetao.

Zhang Fu knew very well that the battle of Hetao must not be lost, once the enemy army crossed the Outer Great Wall, then the northern Ming Dynasty would have no troops to stop their pace, and it would go straight to Juyong Pass, and then threaten the safety of the capital.

What is particularly important is that Li Yuntian has already informed the imperial court that the enemy army that attacked Hetao is likely to carry explosives captured in Heishui City, and Juyongguan is likely to be blown up by the other party with explosives, and Beizhili will be in danger at that time.

To tell the truth, if the enemy army enters Beizhili, it will be a huge disaster for the Ming Dynasty, which can not only besiege the capital, but also go south to plunder the south of the Yangtze River, and also rush to the northwest to attack the rear of the Ming army in the northwest.

Therefore, in any case, the Ming army had to win the battle of Hetao, and the troops in the capital were urgently recruited from the military households of the Shanbei Military Region, the Liaodong Military Region, and the Gyeonggi Prefecture after Li Yuntian left, and they had been trained for more than half a year, and their military and physical qualities were significantly improved, and their physique alone was one or two grades stronger than before.

This batch of reinforcements in the capital is mainly to cooperate with Xue Wu to fight, the Ming army is most afraid of the cavalry of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan, and now the Mongolian cavalry has blocked the cavalry of the other side, and the combat effectiveness of the Ming infantry is still very strong.

With the addition of these reinforcements to the battlefield, the strength of the Ming army immediately surpassed that of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan, which allowed Xue Wu to free up his hands for a local counterattack, and the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan army gradually fell into passivity.

Compared with the Ming army, which had plenty of grain and grass, the biggest problem for the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan was supply, and they could only rely on plundering the towns and herdsmen in the Hetao area and the herdsmen on the steppe to obtain supplies.

Now the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan army in the Hetao area can be said to be in a dilemma, in a dilemma, they now have no way to break the current stalemate, every day in the Hetao is more dangerous, because the Ming army has taken precautions, it is difficult for them to plunder supplies.

But it is not easy for the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan army to retreat, it is obvious that the Ming army will never let them go, and will definitely chase after them and fight fiercely, if this group of Ming troops is led to Guanxi, then the strength of the Ming army in Guanxi will undoubtedly be greatly enhanced.

Therefore, the armies of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan could only hold on here, and they already knew that Tuhuan and Khordu Khan were ready to launch a major battle in the northwest to defeat the Ming army led by Zhou Zheng, and as long as they could hold back the Ming army in the Hetao area, it would already be a great achievement.

It's just that the war in Guanxi will disappoint the Timurid Empire in Hetao and the generals of the Northern Yuan, and no one would have thought that the reinforcements of the Ming army would fall from the sky, and after appeasing the Mongol tribes in Mobei, they entered Guanxi, helping Li Yuntian win the battle of the ancient city of Dunhuang, and then wiped out the Timurid Empire in Guanxi and the army of the Northern Yuan.

Today, the forces of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan are divided into two places, one is the Hetao region and the other is the northwest region.

Li Yuntian now has no energy to pay attention to the battle in Hetao, he now has to deal with the enemy army in the northwest region, because as the results of the battle of the ancient city of Dunhuang reach Tuhuan and Hordu Khan, they will definitely urgently retreat to Guanxi, and Guanxi will become a place of war again.

In the afternoon of that day, in the living room of the small courtyard where Li Yuntian lived in the southern camp of Qinglong City, Niu Shihao, Bai An, Harbara, and Timur Tuhuan gathered together to discuss how to deal with the retreat of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan.

According to Li Yuntian's inference, as soon as Tuhuan left Jiayu Pass, he would part ways with Hordu Khan, so he would not be stupid enough to help Hordu Khan fight with the Ming army, maybe he wished that Hordu Khan would drag the Ming army so that he could escape back to the grassland.

Hordu Khan can't go to the grassland, although he can take a detour to the Western Regions by taking the grassland, but it takes a lot of time to waste, and there is no way to replenish grain and grass along the way, and under the pursuit of the Ming army, he may have been wiped out before he reached the Western Regions, he doesn't think that the Northern Yuan will be kind enough to escort all the way.

For this reason, the only option for Hordu Khan was to break through the Yumen Pass, and only in this way could he return to the Western Regions as soon as possible, and then return to the Timurid Empire.

Li Yuntian didn't want to make senseless sacrifices, so he would definitely concentrate his forces to intercept one of Tohuan and Khordu Khan, so that the other one would have a great chance to escape.

"Lord Wang, can we eat both of them, as long as we can hold the Jade Gate Pass, then neither of them can escape?"

Niu Shihao felt that this was a great opportunity to completely annihilate the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan army, and after learning Li Yuntian's intentions, he groaned for a while, looked up at Li Yuntian, and looked a little regretful in his words, thinking that Li Yuntian should not give up such a good opportunity to annihilate the enemy.

"Marquis Anping, the enemy army is in a hurry to flee for their lives now, they will definitely fight with us, these enemy troops are elite, if we deal with two, I am afraid it will bring huge casualties." Li Yuntian knew what Niu Shihao meant, I am afraid that this is also the meaning of the generals on the scene, everyone wants to achieve greater feats, so he said with a smile.

"Lord Wang, which way do you think we should stop?" Niu Shihao bowed slightly when he heard this, knowing that Li Yuntian didn't want to cause too many casualties to the Ming army, so he didn't insist on his previous opinion, but asked with interest.

In Niu Shihao's opinion, since Li Yuntian has decided to stop one of the ways of Tuhuan and Khorduhan, he must have a plan.

"This king thinks that we should eliminate the Northern Yuan first." Li Yuntian glanced around at the crowd looking at him, smiled slightly, and said, "Now that Mobei has finally been pacified by us, if you let Dehuan go back, it will inevitably be another storm." ”

"The Northern Yuan is the old enemy of my northern Ming Dynasty, the reason why my Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to the north is to prevent the Northern Yuan from invading the south, this is a great opportunity for us to eliminate the Northern Yuan in one fell swoop, as long as we take the grassland in the north of Dehuan, it will settle down."

As he spoke, Li Yuntian turned around and looked at Niu Shihao and the others solemnly, "My lords, once you let Tuhuan and the others wander to Mobei, then it will not be long before they gather forces and become a big scourge in the northern frontier of our Ming Dynasty." ”

Niu Shihao, Bai An and others bowed their heads when they heard this, Li Yuntian was right, because Mobei was too far away from Daming, if Tuhuan and his party were allowed to return to Mobei, it would be difficult for Daming to prevent it from annexing the tribes in Mobei again, you must know that Genghis Khan also rose from a small tribe on the grassland, and Tuhuan's current strength is at least ten times stronger than Genghis Khan, and Daming has to guard against it.

"Lord Wang, then those people in Xichagatai will let them go for nothing?" After pondering for a while, Bai An couldn't help but ask, as the commander of the Western Expeditionary Army, he really couldn't let go of the defeat of Blue Leaf City, and naturally wanted to capture the shame of the high-ranking officials of the Timurid Empire such as Khordu Khan.

"Western Chagatai is different from the Northern Yuan, although Hordu Khan conquered many territories, but did not exercise effective rule, the local power is in the hands of those local nobles who surrendered to him, when Hordu Khan's power is in full swing, those local nobles naturally obey him, but once he fights a big defeat, then the local nobles will definitely not obey his orders."

Li Yuntian knew that Bai An's heart hated the Timurid Empire very much, if it weren't for the Timurid Empire's trickery to conquer the west, the army would not have been defeated in Blackwater City and Blue Leaf City, and comforted him after smiling slightly, "If this king didn't guess wrong, after Khordu Khan returned to China this time, the Timurid Empire would definitely be torn apart, and those local nobles would definitely take the opportunity to get rid of its rule." ”

"Marquis An Yong, if you dare to invade my Ming border this time, the emperor and the empress dowager will definitely not give up, and when he goes west to conquer Western Chagatai, your western expeditionary army will be the vanguard." Then, Li Yuntian groaned for a while, and told Bai An a good news with a smile.

In fact, before Li Yuntian came to Guanxi, he had already received a promise from the Empress Dowager that if the Ming army won this war in the Western Regions, then it must severely punish the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan who launched the war, only in this way can it really make it afraid of the Ming Dynasty.

"Thank you, Lord Wang!" Bai An was overjoyed when he heard this, he knew that this matter must have been secretly promoted by Li Yuntian, otherwise with Daming's consistent foreign strategy, it would definitely be calm, which undoubtedly gave him and the Western Expeditionary Army a chance to be ashamed, so he bowed down to Li Yuntian and thanked him gratefully.

Since Song Hai, the Duke of Wuguo, and Yang Sanyu, the Marquis of Chengning, were missing in the two battles of Blue Leaf City and Heishui City, Bai An has actually become the leader of the Western Expeditionary Army, so he naturally has the responsibility and obligation to maintain the dignity of the Western Expeditionary Army.

Niu Shihao and others showed excited looks on their faces, it seems that the Ming Dynasty is really going to give the Timurid Empire a hard lesson this time, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty in addition to the Northern Yuan has never been a laborer expedition to other countries, if you really want to conquer the Timurid Empire, then it is not only in the history of the Ming Dynasty but also an unprecedented feat of the Central Plains dynasties.

Although the position of the forward army was taken by the generals of the Western Expeditionary Army of Bai An and others, there were many positions in the main force that followed up, which made Niu Shihao and others can't help but look forward to it, and they must all want to join this battle of the Western Expedition that will definitely go down in history.