The upper reaches of Liaohe River.
Li Xianzhong received news from scouts: a large number of Mongols were found 25 miles ahead.
"Sir, this is the grazing ground of the Khorchin tribe. Those Mongols must be from the Khorchin tribe!" said the confidant next to him.
"Yeah," Li Xianzhong nodded and began to think about the next plan.
The Khorchin tribe did not consist of just one tribe.
In fact, the Khorchin tribe was composed of dozens, even hundreds of tribes of varying sizes.
These tribes usually graze their livestock around their grazing grounds and gather together to fight during wartime.
The grazing area is very large, and the old, weak, sick and disabled people in the tribe can all ride horses.
Therefore, it is impossible to wipe out the entire tribe.
Li Xianzhong's mission was to disguise himself as a Khalkha tribe and attack the Khorchin tribe.
There are two benefits to doing this.
It could not only teach the Khorchin tribe a lesson, but also divert the disaster to the Khalkha tribe.
"Did the scouts from the Khorchin tribe find you?" Li Xianzhong asked the scout who brought the news.
"No, I took advantage of the cover of night to conduct reconnaissance."
"Well," Li Xianzhong nodded again and asked his confidant, "How many days of food and grass do we have left?"
"The stored food can last for three days at most!"
"Have a full meal tonight, and march out before dawn tomorrow to catch the Mongols off guard! Also, remember, the primary goal is food and fodder, and killing people is secondary!"
"Yes, sir."
The Ming army set up camp on the spot and began to make fire and boil water.
Rations can be eaten cold, but water must be boiled and cooled before drinking.
Otherwise, you may have diarrhea.
This will lead to damage to combat effectiveness or even complete loss of combat effectiveness.
Li Xianzhong had been in the Beijing camp for several years and had already mastered the use of smokeless stoves.
But the grassland was too open and there were no obstacles at all.
In order to hide his whereabouts as much as possible, Li Xianzhong asked people to take turns boiling water to ensure that not too much smoke rose at the same time.
After a night's rest, the army set out in the dim light before dawn.
Li Xianzhong divided the team into two.
There are two thousand cavalrymen in the front, and the one thousand cavalrymen in the back are responsible for support and early warning.
There is a city called Kaiyuan more than 200 miles south of the upper reaches of the Liaohe River, where the Jiannu were stationed.
More than 200 miles south of Kaiyuan City is Shenyang City.
There are the elite Eight Banners of the Jiannu!
Without knowing the enemy's situation clearly, he had to leave himself a way out.
After the army set out.
People held wood in their mouths and horses wrapped their hooves, and they marched quickly.
But even so, they encountered scouts from the Khorchin tribe after walking five miles.
"Enemy attack!" The Khorchin scout shouted and turned his horse's head and galloped backwards.
"Chase!" Li Xianzhong personally led the elite troops and chased after them.
The scout ran fast and Li Xingzhong followed closely.
The two sides were less than two miles apart, and they ran towards the Khorchin camp one after the other.
The herders in the Horqin camp are boiling water to make breakfast.
When they saw the dust rising in the distance, they immediately realized that something big was about to happen.
So they all shouted: "There are enemies, get up and meet them quickly."
They had just put on their armor and mounted their horses when the scouts from their headquarters returned to the camp.
As they ran, they shouted, "Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
"How many soldiers does the other side have?" someone asked.
"I don't know!" The scout galloped past while speaking, delivering the message to other places in the camp.
In the blink of an eye, Li Xianzhong's elite troops also arrived.
Boom——
Amid the sound of horse hooves.
The Ming cavalry turned into a sharp sword and slashed towards the Khorchin Mongolian camp.
The Khorchin tribe's temporarily organized soldiers rushed forward with swords drawn.
The two sides began to fight fiercely.
The Khorchin tribe had long since surrendered to the Jiannu, and even the main force of the Eight Banners of Mongolia was composed of people from their tribe.
After the Battle of Dalingh River, Wang Yongji led his troops to the west bank of the Liaohe River, eyeing Haizhou.
In order to resist the Ming army, Dorgon had to gather troops to deploy defenses in Haizhou area in the lower reaches of the Liaohe River.
The consequence was that the Khorchin tribe was left with a lack of military strength.
There were not many soldiers, and most of them were old, weak, sick and disabled.
In addition, many soldiers had no armor.
Therefore, faced with the attack of the elite cavalry of the Ming army, they were defeated at the first touch.
"The enemy is at their strongest, retreat quickly and avoid the battle!"
Amid the rumbling sound of horse hooves, the people of the Khorchin tribe fled northward on horseback.
"Kill!" Li Xianzhong led the way and chased forward.
Two thousand elite Ming troops followed closely behind.
Horses' hooves crushed tent after tent, and swords cut the spines of countless Mongols.
The Mongol camp was large and scattered.
Li Xianzhong chased for a while and then stopped his horse: "Whoa--"
"Why didn't you chase him anymore, sir?" asked the confidant beside him.
"We can't catch up," Li Xianzhong shook his head while panting. "The Mongolian horses are stronger than ours. Our horses have consumed a lot of energy after a long journey, but their horses have not."
"Your Excellency is absolutely right."
"Pass the order down, kill them back!" Li Xianzhong turned his horse's head and swung his sword to kill behind him.
Most of the Mongols in the camp had already fled, but there were still some who were unable to move and did not even have time to escape.
Some of them hid in the tents and pretended to be dead, while others ran out of the tents and tried to escape the scene in the chaos.
The Ming army did not give them a chance.
Use a knife to cut the wood and ropes that secure the tent, and then ride your horse to trample on the tent after it is spread out on the ground.
The people hiding in the tents were trampled beyond recognition.
Some Ming soldiers found it troublesome and simply burned the tents.
In order to have breakfast, the Mongols built countless fires in the camp.
The Ming army didn't even need to make a fire to have a source of fire.
Those who escaped from the tent thought they could survive, but reality slapped them hard in the face.
What greeted them was not living hope, but horse hooves and sharp blades.
In an instant.
The Korchin Mongolian camp was engulfed in flames and filled with screams.
The place that was full of laughter and joy just a moment ago instantly turned into a living hell.
"Sir," a general came to Li Xianzhong on horseback, "I have found the granary of the Khorchin tribe."
"Huh!" Li Xianzhong's heart finally settled down.
Why did Li Dingguo say that his trip was extremely dangerous?
Because the distance is too far.
He carried seven days' worth of food and fodder and marched alone into the grasslands for nearly 600 miles.
It took four days to find the Khorchin tribe and launch a surprise attack.
If we can't find supplies, we'll run out of food on the way back.
Extremely dangerous!
Now that he has found the enemy's granary, he has food for the return journey.
"You guys continue, the rest of you follow me to transport the food!"
A group of people came to a group of tents in a mighty manner.
Li Xianzhong dismounted and walked into a tent, and found it was full of food.
There are sorghum rice for people to eat and soybeans for war horses to eat.
Li Xianzhong grabbed a handful of sorghum rice and sniffed it, then said with a grim smile, "Take away what you can, and burn what you can't take away!"
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