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"Keltai, you actually retreated without fighting, what crime should you be punished for?"
"Alliance leader, you always let me lead the attack with my Durte troops. More than half of my soldiers have been killed or wounded. Now it's snowing heavily. How can you let me attack again?"
In the big tent outside Chijin City, the sound of fierce quarreling was heard outside the tent, but no one expected that Batur Khan would suddenly draw his sword and slash at Keltai's son. The head rolled and blood spurted out.
As everyone was horrified, Batur Khan held up his knife and shouted, "Keltai disobeyed orders, was afraid of death, and was afraid of the enemy and would not fight. I will punish him according to military law. Do you think my punishment was appropriate?"
Batur Khan held the bloody sword in his hand, like a wounded tiger, staring at the leaders of the small tribes in the big tent.
The Moxi Mongols originally had four major tribes: the Dzungar, the Durt, the Khoshut, and the Torghut. The latter two moved to Qinghai-Tibet and the other to the upper reaches of the Volga River. Now the leader of the Durt was beheaded by Batur Khan, and the tribal soldiers were almost exhausted.
What remained were some small tribes. Not only were they weak, but even those who remained in Moxi had been wiped out by the Qin army. Facing Batur Khan's bloody butcher knife, how could they dare to say a word of resistance
"The Khan handled it well."
"Yes, yes, the Khan handled it correctly."
"Keltai relied on the large number of his troops to repeatedly contradict the Khan, fought passively, and ignored the overall situation. He should be beheaded as a warning to the public."
"That's right. That's right."
“… ... ... ..”
In the big tent, a voice of flattery suddenly rang out. Batur Khan withdrew his gaze from the crowd with satisfaction, and then ordered his trusted general Mengbiege to immediately purge the Durte tribe. First, in the name of Keltai, he summoned all his trusted generals to the big tent and killed them in one fell swoop, and then assigned generals to take over the command of the Durte troops.
All this was done neatly. After it was done, Batur ordered Mengbiege to lead 3,000 troops to attack Chijin City overnight as a cover, while he himself quickly retreated in the snow at the second watch.
He had to retreat. The intermittent rain and snow in the past few days were extremely unfavorable to him. He had already suffered 7,000 casualties under Chijin City, and the bodies were almost piled up on the top of Chijin City. However, he could not capture this small city, and he had no food or grass. If he did not retreat, he would be waiting to die.
Batur used the attack as a cover and moved very quickly without even a tent. Although Li Dingguo received the report quickly, he was not sure whether Batur was really retreating or just pretending.
In addition, it was snowing heavily and it was dark at night. It was extremely dangerous to chase after them rashly. If they were ambushed, their entire army would be wiped out.
In view of this, Li Dingguo did not dare to lead his entire army in pursuit, but instead asked Huang Deng, Fan Shangzhi, and Zhao Qidi to lead 500 men each to follow behind Batur, waiting for an opportunity to attack.
Although he was extremely careful, the snowy night made it difficult to see clearly. In the end, Fan Shangzhi was ambushed and lost more than 200 people. The rest fled back in panic.
As a result, Li Dingguo dared not send any more troops to pursue the enemy except for the scouts.
After waiting for a long time until dawn the next day, the enemy camp outside Chijin City was already deserted.
At this time, Li Dingguo ordered 15,000 cavalry to launch a full-scale attack on Guazhou and Shazhou.
Batur Khan was indeed a remarkable figure. He knew very well that at a time when he had not yet completely digested the various tribes, the Moxi people had been captured, the army was in panic, and even Chijin City could not be captured, fighting Li Dingguo head-on would be tantamount to self-destruction.
As a result, Batur Khan not only retreated, but also retreated thousands of miles, giving up Guazhou, Shazhou, and even Hami.
In the north, they retreated to the area around Luntai (Urumqi) and guarded the western end of the 800-li Gobi Desert between Luntai and Gaochang. In the south, they retreated to the area around Khotan and set up defenses.
As a result, the battle line was extended to thousands of miles, and Li Dingguo would certainly not be able to attack again in this cold winter, which gave him a winter of breathing time.
Just as Batur Khan had expected, after recapturing Shazhou, Guazhou and Hami, Li Dingguo was certain that he had no spare energy to launch a massive winter offensive.
When Li Dingguo re-entered Guazhou City, his first order was to purge.
Therefore, those who had voluntarily surrendered to the Dzungar army were all identified, regardless of their race or background, and their property was confiscated, and both men and women were sent as slaves.
The last time Guazhou was lost, it was precisely because these people with ulterior motives helped Batur and burned the granary in the city that the Qin army was forced to retreat. Li Dingguo would certainly not let the past happen again.
A merciful army is not suitable for the generals. Although Li Dingguo was relatively lenient to his soldiers, it did not mean that he was too soft-hearted. In Gua and Sha cities, half of the houses were confiscated and there was crying everywhere, but Li Dingguo did not show any mercy.
The Qin merchant caravans emerged like sharks that smelled blood. The severe cold weather was coming one after another. Now all the merchants knew that the closer they followed the army and the faster they came, the more business opportunities they would get.
In the Guazhou government office, generals including Li Congzhi, Li Sheng, Wei Nantian, and Fang Yuan gathered together and discussed the next plan around the map.
Now facing everyone is a difficult task, that is how to open up the passage north of Tianshan Mountains and bring back Yan Yingyuan's isolated troops.
Li Congzhi pointed at the map and said, "To the west of Hami is a desert of 800 miles, rarely visited by humans. People who have walked through the Gobi Desert say that every trip there is like a life-or-death struggle. Beyond the Gobi Desert is Mulei City, and Mulei is further west to Qitai City. Only from Qitai is there a road leading to the north of the Tianshan Mountains."
Guo Ning couldn't help but shook his head and said, "It is already very difficult for the army to cross the 800-li Gobi Desert at this time of year. The enemy controls Mulei and Qitai at the other end of the Gobi Desert. Even if our army can capture them, it will be difficult to hold them. It will not be easy to open up the road to the north of Tianshan Mountain."
Li Sheng asked, "Does the Duchenshi mean that he doesn't care about the life or death of Yan Yingyuan's troops?"
"What are you talking about? I'm not saying I won't do anything about it, but the fact is I'm powerless to do anything about it right now."
Because Guo Ning had been impeaching Li Dingguo before, the relationship between him and the various generals was somewhat tense. Now that they had just won a great victory, Li Sheng and others were in high spirits and could not help but be sarcastic towards him.
Guo Ning still took the overall situation into consideration and endured it temporarily.
Li Dingguo said, "No matter how difficult it is, we can't just sit back and do nothing. Let's do this, Li Sheng. I will give you a thousand men, all equipped with rifles and thunder bombs, and all rockets. You will immediately cross the Gobi Desert and do your best to capture Mulei and Qitai, and open up a passage to the north of Tianshan. If you can hold Qitai, I will send another force to Beiting to accept Yan Yingyuan's troops."
Li Sheng did not hesitate at all, and immediately clasped his fists and replied: "I will obey your order." As these four words came out of his mouth, his face was full of determination. The difficulty of this mission was no less than Yan Yingyuan's raid.
Cen Shen once described the 800-li Gobi Desert in his poem: The wind howls at night in September in Luntai, and the stones in the river are as big as buckets, and the stones are scattered all over the ground with the wind.
Crossing the 800-mile Gobi Desert in this season is already a life-threatening situation. The enemy has heavy troops stationed on the other side of the Gobi Desert for defense, so we will have to engage in a tough battle as soon as we cross it.
Even if we win the battle, we still need a thousand men to defend Qitai. Needless to say, how difficult this task is. I'm afraid that not many soldiers will be able to return in the end.
Li Sheng spent two days making full preparations. He had 1,000 soldiers, each with two horses, seven thunder bombs, 100 bullets, a knife, and two pots of arrows. The entire army was also equipped with 30 rocket launchers and 300 rocket shells.
This was the best equipment Li Dingguo could provide at the moment. A thousand men and horses set out in the cold wind, rumbling out of Guazhou and heading towards Hami.
Hami had been recaptured by the Qin army. After replenishing food and water in Hami, Li Sheng resolutely charged into the vast Gobi Desert.
The icy snow and the howling north wind blew sand and stones all over the ground. The thousand Qin troops suddenly became insignificant in this vast Gobi Desert.
The fields were dark and dark all around, ice was solid at the bends, and the wind was as cold as a knife, enough to crack the skin and break off the fingers.
The scene of these 1,000 Qin soldiers was undoubtedly tragic and heroic, with a feeling that the wind was whistling and the Yi River was freezing, and the warriors would never return. Even so, everyone still marched forward resolutely against the wind and snow.
It is unknown whether Yan Yingyuan and his men are alive or dead in Moxi. If it were not for them, there would be no victory this time, and we would not have been able to recover Gua, Sha and other places so easily. Therefore, no matter how great the cost, we cannot abandon our comrades in the expedition.
Otherwise, no one will be willing to go on expeditions in the future.
*******************(To be continued...)
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