Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 424: Naturalization Battle
Lu Yisheng's proposal caused everyone to talk about it. They said all kinds of things and made many suggestions, but Zhu Shenzhui felt that it was unreliable because it also involved great risks. If he was not careful, he would be completely dragged into this war.

Zhu Shenzhui actually had an idea when he called them over, but he also wanted to listen to everyone's suggestions. After listening to everyone's words, Zhu Shenzhui had already made a decision in his mind.

"It's unlikely that a continued sneak attack will be effective, especially since Lin Dan Khan has already suffered a great loss. His central army and left and right wings are not far away and they cooperate well with each other. If we miss, we won't be able to escape when Lin Dan Khan comes to his senses."

"That's true..."

Zhu Shenzhui's words poured cold water on everyone. After calming down, everyone who was just excited felt that it was true. The key to fighting a war is strength. If you are not strong enough, even if you use strategies to gain an advantage, it will only be temporary.

"Sixth brother, are we just going to keep watching like this? Wait until they decide the winner before making a decision? But once the winner is really decided, don't forget that you will have time to deal with us." Wang Jinwu couldn't help but speak.

The news of the destruction of the southern army of Lin Danhan had spread long ago. After such a long time, Lin Danhan probably knew that it was the Tenger tribe that stabbed him in the back. Even if Lin Danhan didn't know, with the old fox's style, Bu Shitu would secretly find an opportunity to leak the news. Bu Shitu had done this before.

If one has to choose between Lindan Khan and Bushitu, then he would rather choose the latter, because once Lindan Khan kills Bushitu, the threat to the Tenger tribe will be even greater.

"Of course not." Zhu Shenzhui shook his head.

"So you're planning to...?"

"The chances of a sneak attack being successful are slim. Even if we have a chance of winning by directly attacking, our losses will probably be huge. These two methods are naturally not available, but that doesn't mean we will do nothing."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone looked at Zhu Shenzui, and for a moment they didn't understand what Zhu Shenzui was up to.

Zhu Shenzhui smiled, took the stick from Wang Hai, pointed at the sand table and said, "Look, this is the current situation. Bu Shitu retreated back to Guihua, and Lin Danhan took advantage of the situation to pursue him. He will be able to reach Guihua City in two days..."

As he spoke, Zhu Shenzhui once again introduced the current war situation to everyone. The battle of Guihua would determine the ownership of the Tumed grassland. From the perspective of the Tenger tribe, they must not let Ligdan Khan take over Guihua City and destroy Bushitu.

If this is the result, the Tengger tribe will have to face the revenge of Ligdan Khan. Ligdan Khan is not a good man. All the tribes on the grassland are well aware of his ruthless and vicious means of turning against him. What's more, Zhu Shenzui also wiped out his southern army.

Therefore, we must help Bu Shitu resolve the threat posed by Ligdan Khan, even if it means helping Bu Shitu win the war.

But Zhu Shenzui would never sacrifice his own capital for Bu Shitu, because Bu Shitu was not a good person and it was not worth it.

After much thought, Zhu Shenzui decided that the safest way was to bluff by taking advantage of the impending outbreak of the Guihua War to tie down Ligdan Khan's forces and prevent him from concentrating his strength to break through the defenses of Guihua City.

As long as time is delayed, the longer Lin Dan Khan is delayed, the greater the possibility of Bu Shitu defending the naturalization. When the real winter comes and the snow falls, Lin Dan Khan will definitely withdraw his troops, and then the naturalization situation will be broken.

In fact, this is no different from besieging Wei to save Zhao, and it is also the safest way now.

In this way, Zhu Shencui could achieve his goal without having to fight a real battle with Ligdan Khan or sacrifice his precious troops for Bu Shitu.

Lin Danhan is now in a naturalization battle because he knows that God has given him little time. If he can't take down Bu Shitu as soon as possible, it will be difficult for Lin Danhan to survive this winter.

Both sides had the same idea. This gave Zhu Shenzhui an opportunity to take advantage of. It was the safest way to intervene in the war.

When Zhu Shenzhui expressed his idea, everyone looked at each other and then couldn't help but applaud. Sending troops in this way could indeed achieve such an effect, and it could also protect themselves and resolve the war. They all agreed immediately.

Only Wang Jinwu agreed but also felt a little regretful. Being a warlike person, he thought it would be great if he could kill Ligdan Khan in a fair manner. After dealing with Ligdan Khan and then Bu Shitu, there would be no rivals in the entire Tumoed grassland.

But this was just a thought. Wang Jinwu was not stupid. He knew that in such a large-scale war, he could not make a decisive decision with his own strength. Zhu Shenzhui's method was the most appropriate. After reaching a consensus, Zhu Shenzhui began to arrange the tasks for everyone. Soon the tasks were issued and everyone took the orders and left. After everyone left, Zhu Shenzhui returned to the sand table and continued to look at the two sides on the sand table. After a long time, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Lin Danhan finally forced Bu Shitu to retreat to Guihua City.

Seeing Bu Shitu withdraw his troops, Lin Danhan ordered a pursuit, but at the same time he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Since deciding to move westward, Lindan Khan had no way to retreat. The only thing he could do was to enter the Tumed grassland and rebuild his Khan headquarters on the Tumed grassland.

But to achieve this, Bu Shitu was a stumbling block. As the nominal leader of the Tumed, Bu Shitu had never been a subordinate of Ligdan Khan. The two sides even had deep conflicts and hatred.

If he wanted to gain a foothold in Tumed and rebuild his headquarters, he had to take down Bu Shitu first, which Lin Danhan knew very well. So his first target after entering Tumed was Bu Shitu. In his opinion, it was not difficult to defeat Bu Shitu. With his strong military strength, as long as the army arrived, Bu Shitu would either flee or surrender.

But Lin Danhan never expected that the battle would be fought to this extent. Since entering Tumed, everything has gone wrong. First, the southern army was destroyed, which caused Lin Danhan to suffer huge losses and directly made his strategy of attacking from both north and south come to naught.

Afterwards, Lin Danhan adjusted his main force and directly attacked Fengzhou to fight with Bu Shitu. However, Bu Shitu refused to fight with him and always avoided fighting by relying on the terrain. This made Lin Danhan feel helpless. Although Lin Danhan quickly adjusted his tactics and divided his troops on the left and right wings to encircle and suppress Bu Shitu's cavalry, constantly suppressing the opponent's range of movement, it was not easy to do this in such a large grassland. For more than a month, the two sides fought dozens of battles, big and small. Although they made some gains, they still failed to catch Bu Shitu's fox tail.

However, it was not without any effect on Lindan Khan. As time went by, Bu Shitu's range of activities was no longer as large as at the beginning. Moreover, after Lindan Khan suppressed Bu Shitu's counterattack on the left and right wings, his central army had already prepared to march straight into Guihua.

If Bu Shitu continued to fight, Ligdan Khan could completely ignore him. Even if the left and right wings suffered some losses, he could rely on his central army to march straight into Guihua. By then, Bu Shitu's main force would no longer be in Guihua, so Ligdan Khan would be able to take Guihua in one fell swoop. In this way, the form of the war would be completely changed.

In this situation, Bu Shitu also realized that something was wrong. For him, Guihua City was absolutely not to be lost. Once Guihua City was lost, he, the leader of Tumed, would become a rootless duckweed, facing the constant encirclement and suppression by Ligdan Khan, and eventually his clan would be wiped out and he would die.

Bu Shitu was forced to retreat immediately, and took the initiative to withdraw his main force to Guihua City before the attack of Ligdan Khan's central army. In this way, Guihua City became the site of the final battle. If Bu Shitu could defend it, Ligdan Khan would have to endure defeat when winter really came. If he could not defend it, Bu Shitu and Guihua City would fall into Ligdan Khan's hands.

Two days after Bu Shitu withdrew his troops, Lin Danhan's main force also arrived thirty miles east of Guihua. The two armies persisted in Guihua City and ushered in the final war.

Guihua City was built in the third year of Wanli's reign. It was built in imitation of Yuan Dadu. Before the emergence of Guihua City, there had never been a real city on the grassland. The emergence of Guihua City also enabled the Mongols to finally have a big city that could rival the Ming people in the south.

Guihua City is in a good location, on the south side of the Daqing Mountains and on the bank of the Yellow River. The city has two gates, the South Gate and the North Gate. The earliest main city was rectangular, 300 meters from east to west and 250 meters from north to south. There were towers at the gates. The city walls were built with rammed earth and laid with blue bricks on the outside. The walls were eight meters high and looked majestic and spectacular on the grassland. In addition, because of the blue brick walls, it was also called "Qingcheng" in the north.

Compared with the cities of the Ming Dynasty, the original Guihua City was not actually very majestic. Its area and layout were at best that of a small county town.

Later, when Sanniangzi came to power, she expanded Guihua City. After the expansion, Guihua City was more than four times larger than the original one, and the overall layout also changed from the original rectangular shape to a convex shape.

Since there was no urn city, Guihua City was nothing in the Ming Dynasty, and its defense capability was only average. But it was different on the grassland. After the construction of Guihua City, it became the most important stronghold of Tumed. Moreover, although the Mongolians on the grassland were good at fighting, they were not good at siege warfare. With such a city, relying on the protection of tall walls, it was difficult for the Mongolian cavalry to break through without siege equipment.

After Bu Shitu led his army to retreat to Guihua City, he placed the main force inside the city and closed the city gates tightly. His detachment did not enter the city. Bu Shitu was also a veteran of many battles. He knew very well that defending Guihua was not the best option. To defend the city, there must be external aid outside the city. With so many people crowded in Guihua City, the large number of people would be useless. The detachment was outside the city to cooperate in defending the city. This was the best way to defend the city.

Arriving at Guihua City, after checking the terrain, Lin Danhan knew that it would be difficult to break the city, but he still had the confidence to take Guihua City. Without stopping, Lin Danhan launched an attack on Guihua City, and people built siege equipment day and night while attacking the city fiercely.

Facing the crazy attack of Lin Danhan, Bu Shitu led his men to hold on in Guihua City, and repelled Lin Danhan's four attacks on the first day alone. His detachment also took the initiative to attack to relieve the pressure of defense. However, Lin Danhan's troops were much stronger than his. Lin Danhan had anticipated Bu Shitu's preparations, so he allocated part of his troops to drive away Bu Shitu's detachment and concentrate his forces to continue attacking the city.

In just three days, Bu Shitu was beginning to feel the strain. Although Guihua City was still in his hands, Lindan Khan's frenzied attack caused heavy losses to both sides. Bu Shitu, whose military strength was far less than Lindan Khan's, simply could not withstand such consumption. In addition, while attacking the city, Lindan Khan not only drove away his detachment outside the city, but also sent out elite cavalry to encircle and suppress him, which caused Bu Shitu to suffer huge losses.

(End of this chapter)