***

"Kiertai, what crime should you be guilty of retreating without a fight?"

"Alliance Commander, you always let my Durt's troops and horses attack, more than half of my soldiers were killed and wounded, and this heavy snow has fallen again, how can you let me attack?"

In the big tent outside Chijin City, the sound of fierce quarrels reached the outside of the tent, but no one expected that Batur Khan would suddenly draw his knife at this time and brazenly slash at the ertz of the Keltai, poof! The skulls were rolling, and blood was spurting.

In the midst of the horror of the crowd, Batur Khan shouted with his sword: "The Keltai does not listen to orders, is greedy for life and fears death, fears the enemy and is afraid of war, and this Great Khan is dealt with by military law. ”

Batur Khan held a bloody sword in his hand, like a wounded tiger, staring fiercely at the leaders of the small tribes in the big tent.

There were four major tribes in Mosimon, Dzungar, Durt, Heshute, and Turgot. The latter two moved to Qinghai-Tibet and the upper reaches of the Volga River to the west, and now the leader of the Durt tribe was beheaded by Batur Khan again, and the tribal soldiers were almost consumed.

The rest are small tribes, not to mention the weak forces, and now even the clansmen who stayed in Moxi have been wiped out by the Qin army, and at this moment, in the face of Batur Khan's bloody butcher's knife, where do they dare to say a word.

"The Great Khan is well handled."

"Yes, yes, the Great Khan did the right thing."

"Relying on the many points of his subordinates, the Kiertai repeatedly contradicted the Great Khan, fought passively, and disregarded the overall situation, so he should be beheaded for public display."

"That's it, that's it."

“”

In the big tent, a flattering voice suddenly sounded, Batur Khan retracted his gaze from everyone with satisfaction, and then ordered his henchman general Meng Bego to immediately purge the Durt troops, first in the name of the Keltai, recruit all his henchmen and generals to the big tent, kill them in one fell swoop, and then assign the generals to take over the command of the Durt's troops and horses.

This qiē is neatly done. After doing this, that night Batur ordered Meng Bege to lead 3,000 men and horses to attack Chijin City overnight as a cover, and he himself quickly retreated in the snow at the second watch.

If you don't withdraw, you can't do it, the rain and snow have stopped and stopped in the past few days, which is extremely unfavorable to him, and there have been 7,000 casualties under Chijin City, and the corpses are almost piled up at the head of Chijin City, but you can't take this small city, and there is no food and grass. If you don't retreat, you will wait for death.

Batur used the attack as a cover, and did not even bring a tent, and his movements were extremely fast, although Li Dingguo soon received the report, but he was not sure for a moment whether Batur had really withdrawn or faked.

In addition, it was snowing heavily and the night was vast, and it was extremely dangerous to rush to chase it, and once it was ambushed, the whole army would be annihilated.

In view of this, Li Dingguo did not dare to chase after the whole army. Or let Huang Deng, Fan Shangzhi, and Zhao Qidi each lead 500 men and horses behind Batur, waiting for an opportunity to attack.

Although great caution has been taken, this kind of snowy night is blinding. In the end, Fan Shangzhi was ambushed, losing more than 200 people, and the rest fled back.

In this way, in addition to the scout. Li Dingguo no longer dared to send troops and horses to pursue.

Finally, when it was dawn the next day, the enemy camp outside Chijin City was already empty.

This time. Li Dingguo ordered 15,000 cavalry to attack in an all-round way and kill Guazhou and Shazhou.

Batur Khan is indeed a great figure, he knows that when the various tribes have not been completely digested, the Moxi people have been taken captive, the army is panicked, and even Chijin City cannot be captured, and then fighting hard with Li Dingguo is tantamount to self-destruction.

As a result, Batur Khan not only retreated, but retreated for thousands of miles, and Guazhou, Shazhou, and even Hami gave up.

The north retreated to the area of Luntai (Urumqi) and held the western end of the 800-mile Gobi Desert between Luntai and Gaochang. To the south, it retreated to the Khotan area for fortification.

As a result, the battle line was stretched for thousands of miles, and Li Dingguo was bound to be unable to attack again in this cold winter, which gave him a winter respite.

As Batur Khan expected, after recapturing Shazhou, Guazhou, and Hami, Li Dingguo determined that he had no spare strength to launch a massive winter offensive.

Li Dingguo, who re-entered Guazhou City, his first order was to cleanse.

Therefore, those who have taken the initiative to take refuge in the Dzungar army, regardless of race or origin, will be screened out, and they will not have their families, and both men and women will be sent into slavery.

The last time Guazhou was lost, it was precisely because these dissident people responded to Batur and burned the granaries in the city that the Qin army had to be forced to retreat. Of course, Li Dingguo will not let the old things happen again.

Ci is not in charge of the army, although Li Dingguo is more lenient to his soldiers, it does not mean that he is a woman's benevolence. In the two cities of melon and sand, half of the houses were confiscated, and there was a cry, but Li Dingguo did not have the slightest softness.

The caravans of Daqin are like sharks that smell blood, and now the merchants know that the tighter they follow the footsteps of the army, the faster they come, the more business opportunities they will have.

In the Yali of Guazhou Mansion, Li Congzhi, Li Sheng, Wei Nantian, Fang Yuan and other generals gathered together to discuss the next plan around the map.

Now in front of everyone is an arduous task, that is, how to open up the passage north of the Tianshan Mountains and bring back the lonely Yan Yingyuan's department.

Li Congzhi pointed to the map and said: "To the west of Hami is the 800-mile Gobi Moraine Sea, and the traces of people are rare. After the Gobi is the Mulei City, and then the Mulei goes west to the Qitai City, and there is a road leading to the north of the Tianshan Mountains from Qitai. ”

Guo Ning couldn't help but shake his head and said: "It is already very difficult for the army to pass through the eight hundred miles of the Gobi in this season, and the enemy is holding the wooden fortress and Qitai at the other end of the Gobi. Even if our army can capture it, it will be difficult to hold it, and it will not be easy to open the road to the north of the Tianshan Mountains. ”

Li Sheng said: "What does that mean that it doesn't matter whether Yan Yingyuan's department is dead or alive? ”

"What are you talking about? This official is not saying that he doesn't care, but the fact is that he can't afford to take care of it now. ”

Because Guo Ning had been impeaching Li Dingguo before, the relationship with various generals was a little tense, and now that he had just won a big victory, Li Sheng and others were in high spirits, and they couldn't help but be a little cynical about him.

Guo Ning took the overall situation into account and put up with it for the time being.

Li Dingguo spoke: "No matter how difficult it is, you can't sit idly by, so let's do it, Li Sheng, this governor will give you a thousand men and horses, all equipped with rifles and earth-shaking thunder, and then give you all the rockets, you immediately cross the Gobi Desert, go all out to seize the two cities of Mulei and Qitai, and open up the passage to the north of the Tianshan Mountains." If you can hold on to Qitai City, the Governor will send another man to the North Court to receive Yan Yingyuan's department. ”

Li Sheng did not hesitate at all, and immediately clenched his fists and replied, "The last general will obey the order." The four words came out, and he looked resolute, the arduousness of this task was no less than Yan Yingyuan's battle of attack.

Cen Shen once described the 800-mile Gobi in his poem as follows: Luntai roars in the wind at night in September, and the gravel of a river is as big as a bucket, and it walks with the wind all over the rocks.

This season is to cross the Gobi for 800 miles, and it is already nine deaths, and the enemy has a heavy garrison on the Gobi side to defend it, and after it passes, it will immediately be engaged in a bitter battle.

If you win the war, you have to rely on 1,000 men and horses to defend Qitai, and it is a difficult journey, and I am afraid that there will not be many soldiers who can come back in the end.

Li Sheng spent two days and made full preparations, 1,000 soldiers, one person and two horses, each equipped with seven earth-shattering thunders, 100 rounds of ammunition, a knife, and two pots of arrows. In addition, the whole army is equipped with 30 rockets and 300 rockets.

This is the best equipment that Li Dingguo can give at present, and a thousand men and horses set off in the cold wind, rumbling out of Guazhou, and heading towards Hami.

Hami has been recaptured by the Qin army. After Li Sheng replenished the food and water in Hami, he resolutely entered the vast Gobi.

The freezing snow and the howling north wind swept the sand and gravel all over the ground, and the thousand Qin troops suddenly became incomparably small in the vast Gobi;

The four fields are poor and the yin is condensed, the ice is in the beard, and the wind is as cold as a knife, which is enough to crack the skin and fall the fingers.

This thousand Qin army is undoubtedly tragic, there is a feeling that the wind is sluggish and the water is cold, and the strong man will never return, even so, everyone still resolutely moves forward against the wind and snow.

Yan Yingyuan didn't know whether they were alive or died in Moxi, if it weren't for them, there would be no victory this time, and they couldn't take back melons, sand and other places so lightly, yes, no matter how big the price was, they couldn't give up the comrades of the expedition.

Otherwise, no one will want to go on an expedition in the future.

(To be continued......)