bookrandom Chapter 146 The war resumes
Chapter 146 The war resumes
(I feel that real-life pictures are more natural)
The Khalkha tribe occupied a large area in northern Mongolia and was also a very powerful force.
Khalkha is also composed of a number of large and small tribes, among which the five largest tribes jointly rule the entire Khalkha tribe. Zaisai is the leader of the largest tribe among these five tribes.
When Lu Cheng arrived at the Khalkha tribe and explained his purpose to one of the tribal leaders, that tribal leader immediately sent someone to notify the leaders of the five major tribes.
Afterwards, the leaders of the five tribes met Lu Cheng together. Among them, the leader of the Zaisai tribe was temporarily served by Zaisai's younger brother.
After hearing that Lu Cheng might be able to rescue Zaisai, the leaders of the five major tribes immediately reached a consensus and presented Lu Cheng with 100 war horses and 300 cattle and sheep on the spot.
He also said that if Lu Cheng could help the Khalkha tribe rescue Zasai, the Khalkha tribe would be willing to give Lu Cheng another 1,000 war horses, 3,000 cattle and sheep, and would sign a covenant of mutual assistance with Lu Cheng.
Lu Cheng was somewhat surprised at the other party's generosity and unity, and lamented that he had underestimated Zaisai's prestige in the Khalkha tribe.
In fact, what Lu Cheng didn't know was that in the original history, the five Khalkha tribes finally paid tens of thousands of livestock to redeem Zasai from Nurhaci.
Afterwards, Lu Cheng took out the remaining glass, soap and other supplies and gave them to the five major Khalkha tribes as gifts.
At the same time, Lu Cheng also promised that after returning to Liaodong, he would immediately take his most elite men to rescue Zaisai.
Upon hearing this, Zaisai's younger brother immediately expressed his willingness to send out 500 of the most valiant and capable cavalrymen, waiting for Lu Cheng's dispatch, to help them rescue their leader.
Afterwards, other tribes were also willing to send troops to help.
Based on the principle that soldiers should be used as much as possible, Lu Cheng gladly selected a thousand cavalrymen from the Khalkha tribe to accompany him back to Liaodong to carry out the "rescue Zaisai" operation.
Afterwards, Lu Cheng did not bother to form alliances with other grassland tribes, and directly returned to Liaodong with a thousand cavalrymen from the Khalkha tribe.
When Lu Cheng returned to Haizhou Wei, the one thousand horses traded with Ligdan Khan had basically all been transported back, and Ding Xiu, the new captain of the cavalry unit, was busy organizing training.
After working with Lu Cheng for such a long time, Ding Xiu had captured quite a few heads. He was promoted to the rank of Qian Hu due to his merits and had become a full-fledged military officer.
In contrast, Ding Xian, as the captain of the special forces team, was not in the public eye and did not join the Ming Dynasty's military.
After Lu Cheng came back, he temporarily handed over the one thousand Khalkha cavalry to the logistics department, asking them to arrange the cavalry's food, daily life, and fodder for the horses.
Lu Cheng also specifically told the logistics officer, Lao Ma, to treat these foreign cavalrymen well. If possible, it would be best to attract them to stay and join the Haizhou Guard in the future, or to serve as mercenaries for Lu Cheng.
If you want to form a cavalry team, you can train the riding and archery skills in just one or two days.
If these grassland cavalrymen who have lived on horseback since childhood could join in, the strength of Lu Cheng's cavalry would definitely be quickly strengthened.
Anyway, Lu Cheng has money and supplies, so hiring some soldiers to fight together when necessary is also a good idea.
After arranging everything, Lu Cheng immediately summoned Ding Xian and began to formulate an action plan to rescue Zaisai.
Since he had accepted the gift, Lu Cheng would not fail to do his job. Moreover, rescuing Zaisai should not be difficult, and he could get a very generous reward.
The reward was not only the cattle, sheep and horses promised by the Khalkha tribes, but also an ally and a long-term horse supplier.
Just when Lu Cheng had formulated an action plan and was ready to act, Xiong Tingbi sent someone to recruit him again.
As for the purpose of this trip, he naturally asked Lu Cheng how he got so many war horses.
More than 1000 war horses were transported to Haizhou Wei, and Haizhou Wei naturally had to open a horse farm for breeding. Such a big thing could not be hidden from Xiong Tingbi, the top leader of Liaodong.
The other generals in Liaodong had only two or three hundred cavalrymen under their command. How could Lu Cheng, a commander, not attract attention for having so many war horses?
If Liaodong was not facing internal and external troubles, Lu Cheng's behavior would be very dangerous.
Other division commanders and army commanders only have a cavalry battalion, but you, a brigade commander, have set up a cavalry regiment. What are you trying to do?
Some generals even began to suspect whether the governor had given all the food and wages allocated by the court to Lu Cheng.
"Commander Lu, have you made a lot of money recently? You can now afford to keep so many war horses."
Facing Xiong Tingbi's question, Lu Cheng also smiled and said, "Sir, I can't say I got rich. I just reached an agreement with the Mongolian tribe on the grassland. I helped them rescue the leader Zaisai of the Khalkha tribe, and they sold me some war horses at a low price."
"Oh? Are you sure about this?"
"Of course, I will never fight a battle without confidence."
"Lu Cheng, you may not know that I just received intelligence from the Later Jin. After Nurhaci conquered the Joseon Dynasty, he gained a lot of food supplies. He forced the Joseon Dynasty to pay tribute and provide them with food.
Recently, Nurhaci learned that the Ming Dynasty was in the process of a succession of emperors, and was preparing to take this opportunity to attack again. If my prediction is correct, Nurhaci will march into Shenyang this time. With the current military strength in Shenyang, it may be difficult to defend. At that time, it will be necessary to mobilize troops from other places to rescue Shenyang. Your Haizhou Guards will also need to contribute troops and manpower. "
Lu Cheng was not surprised but delighted when he heard this: "Sir, if this is the case, I will definitely go to Hetuala. If Nurhaci really raises his army to attack, Hetuala City will certainly be left defenseless.
At that time, I will lead the army to cause some damage. Nurhaci will be impatient to retreat. Whether he wants to attack Liaoyang or Shenyang, he will return empty-handed. "
"Besiege Wei to save Zhao? This plan is feasible. However, this must be kept secret and the news cannot be leaked."
Lu Cheng nodded. Without Xiong Tingbi saying more, Lu Cheng would naturally keep the secret.
Afterwards, Lu Cheng returned to Haizhouwei and suspended the operation, allowing the special forces to continue training, and appeased the Khalkha cavalry, allowing them to wait for the opportunity with peace of mind.
More than half a month later, news came from the capital again that Emperor Guangzong Zhu Changluo, who had just ascended the throne for more than a month, had passed away. The prince Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne and changed the reign title to Taichang.
In just two months, the Ming Dynasty experienced two transfers of the throne. This made the Later Jin, which had suffered losses in Liaodong before, very excited. They immediately gathered troops and prepared to attack Liaodong again.
Of course, Nurhaci would not attack Haizhou Wei easily this time. He planned to take Shenyang first, and then Liaoyang, and then march westward to seize Yizhou Wei and Guangning Wei, thereby cutting off the connection between Haizhou Wei and the interior of the Ming Dynasty and turning Haizhou Wei into an isolated city.
By then, the entire southern Liaoning will be isolated and will naturally collapse.
After formulating this marching strategy, Nurhaci once again led an army of 60,000 and marched towards Shenyang from north to south.
Lu Cheng sent out a large number of scouts to keep a close eye on the movements of the Later Jin army. When the Later Jin army marched near Tieling, the troops of Haizhou Guard also began to move.
Among all the infantry, four thousand households stayed in Haizhou to defend the city, and one thousand households took some explosive packs and was sent to support Xiong Tingbi. Among the one thousand cavalry, three hundred veterans and five hundred new recruits were also left behind to ensure that Haizhou was safe.
Of the one hundred special forces members, except for the ten sent into the interior, ten veteran special forces soldiers were left behind to lead forty special forces recruits to guard the city to deal with emergencies.
Lu Cheng himself, along with Ding Xian and forty special forces members, was responsible for carrying out the strategic goal of rescuing Zaisai and destroying Hetuala City.
Ding Xiu led two hundred cavalrymen and one thousand Khalkha cavalrymen, a total of one thousand two hundred light cavalrymen, responsible for going deep into the Later Jin, supporting Lu Cheng, and harassing the Later Jin tribes and creating chaos.
After formulating a complete plan, Lu Cheng immediately led the team to set off and headed straight for Hetuala City...